by Sean Liscom
“Well, no, but I need to re-establish contact with Austin!”
“Then may I suggest you get on the HAM radio and start making your calls. My laptop is going to be tied up for a little longer.”
“Fine,” she huffed indignantly. “And for your information, we still have a Navy. I’m sure they could kick the crap out of some defenseless cargo ships!” I motioned for Tyler to step out into the medical bay.
“Did she say what type of weapons platform they are using?” he asked
“She said there were 24 Russian cruise missiles armed with the biological agent and 24 more armed with High explosives. She said they were stored on the upper deck of the cargo ships. That’s all I know.”
“That’s gotta be the Club-K missile system.... You said they had HE rounds too?”
“That’s what she said. Why?”
“Son-of-a…. Jason, those missiles, depending on which version they have, can have a range of about 1,000 miles and can reach nearly Mach 3 in their terminal descent. Those are ship killers! Those cargo ships are hardly defenseless!” he pushed past me and back into the security office. “Jane!”
“What?” she said over her shoulder.
“Those cargo ships, you need to warn whoever goes after them that they are probably carrying the Kalibr missile systems. Those damn things were designed to KILL other ships!”
“Are you kidding me?” she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him.
“No, I’m not! Twenty-four of those cruise missiles could possibly overwhelm and defeat their defenses. You need to get the warning out!”
“I’m on it,” she went back to talking into the mic. Tyler came back into medical.
“Did she give you any information on the Bioweapons? How fast it acts? How is it spread? Symptoms? Anything?”
“No, nothing like that. She did say that she would be bringing some of the vaccine back here. The rest of it was sent out by truck by someone she called Captain Boone. I don’t know who that is,” I said.
“Nate Boone. He and I go back a day or two. Did she say where the trucks were headed? How long ago did they leave?”
“She didn’t say how long ago they left but three were headed to Vegas and the other three were heading north on I-5.”
“We need to find those rigs. They won’t last long out there on their own.”
“I don’t have the assets to go on a wild goose chase. They could be anywhere by now....” I began but he suddenly stuck his hand up.
“You’re right, but I bet I know someone who could find them! I need your radio!” he started back into the security office but was stopped short by a look from Bill. “C’mon, we can use the one in the main office,” he started jogging out of the room, headed back above ground.
He continued to jog up the stairs and out of my house, leaving a confused Jill and Megan in the dining room. I waved at Jill to follow. By the time she’d caught up to us, Tyler was leading the way through the door of the shack. He entered so fast; I saw the look of surprise on Kari’s face. She was sitting at the desk and he motioned her out of the chair. I grabbed her by the arm as she passed me.
“Kari, she’s alive and well, that’s the best news we’ve had.” I said to her while Tyler was adjusting the radio.
“I know. Thank you again for letting me speak to her. You didn’t have to do that.”
“No, I did have to do that. You needed that as much as she did and what’s good for morale is good for the ranch,” I released her arm and moved in behind Tyler.
“Tom, Tony, got your ears on?” he spoke into the mic. After repeating the call twice more, he finally got an answer.
“Of course. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?” the very familiar voice came from the speaker.
“Tom! Tyler here. I need a favor and I need it fast.”
“Tyler.... Hmmm. I know several Tyler’s. Some of them are rather unsavory characters. Could you be more specific?”
“Cut the shit, Tom! You know who this is. I’m callin’ in that marker you owe me and I’m callin’ it in right now.”
“Oh! Of course. Now I know who I’m speaking to. How are things up your way?” he asked pleasantly.
“Go coded and I tell you,” Tyler didn’t wait for a reply, he just began to change frequencies. It finally struck me where I’d heard that voice before.
“Tom and Tony? That wouldn’t happen to be two guys who call themselves businessmen and they really go by Thomas and Anthony?” I asked.
“You know ‘em?”
“I know ‘em. Did a little business with them down in Vegas....”
CHAPTER 26
Tuesday, September 6th, 2017
The ARK.
T-Minus 6 hours until launch.
Jack hadn’t said a single word since his return to the control center an hour earlier. He hadn’t even acknowledged Melissa’s presence. Something in his mood had shifted to a darker place. He sat at the desk closest to the door and commenced to writing in his little red, spiral-wound notebook again. Whatever it was he was working on had his complete attention. Tired of the silent treatment, she decided to interrupt him.
“Shouldn’t Nate have some of his people back here by now?” she asked way louder than she needed to.
“Might’ve run into trouble,” he replied without as much as a glance in her direction. “It happens.”
“Maybe we should call him on the radio. You know, maybe see if he needs help or something.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why bother. If he’s in trouble, there’s nothing we can do about it. So, why bother?”
“Are you for real right now? What the hell? I thought he was your friend!”
“He was an employee, nothing more. Besides, if we call him, others will know we’re here. That could muck up your escape when the time comes,” he still hadn’t looked up.
“Jesus, Jack! There are innocent people out there!” she came out of her chair. “You can’t turn your back on them!” he finally looked up and locked eyes with her.
“There haven’t been any innocent people in this world in a long time, a very long time. Why don’t you sit your ass back in that chair before you piss me off?”
“No! I’m not your dog!” she stood her ground.
“Let me explain something to you and let me be very, very clear on this point, Melissa. You are here to take the vaccine back to the ranch. You are here to help me destroy the missiles once they are in the air. Both of those jobs could be done by some asshole I can drag off the street. Don’t think you’re irreplaceable! You’re just as expendable as everyone else invol….”
“I’m expendable? Then why bother even dragging me along? Why not just leave me at the ranch and get someone else to do it? For hell’s sake Jack, why’d you drag me into this? If you had told Jason what you were up to instead of lying about everything, he probably would have helped you!”
“Jason? No, he’s too idealistic and too soft.”
“Did you just call Jason soft?”
“Yes, I did! He’s so busy trying to live the dream at the ranch and he has NO idea, NO clue that those days are gone! He brought home two kids that he has no idea how to raise, he stepped down as the Operations Manager and he spends as much time in the kitchen as the women do! He should be out here leading the charge to eliminate any threat! He’s soft!” he barked.
“Then you have no idea who your own son really is!”
“I know enough! And, for your information, I did ask him to come along on this deal. He turned me down flat.”
“I bet you didn’t tell him what you were going to do here. In fact, I bet you lied about the whole damn mess!”
“Doesn’t matter! He should have jumped at the opportunity to put an end to this and he didn’t! He’s soft!”
“You lied to him, you lied to all of us! If you’d been upfront and honest about all of it, you’d have had the help you wanted. You were the one playing games, not Jason! By t
he way, I gotta ask; if you knew how you were going to get in here, why would Jason even need to come with? You knew all along that there were only a handful of soldiers guarding this place and on top of that, you were friends with them! Why make such a big deal about anyone from the ranch coming here?” she questioned hotly. He let out a long sigh and closed his notebook.
“I’m not really sure you can handle the truth, but here it goes; this plan of mine is on its third or fourth incantation now. Jason, Braden and anyone else that mattered was supposed to come here with me. We were going to move in, set up shop and I was going to burn the world down. They could have lived here for decades in total anonymity and security.”
“Once the virus had run its course, they could have come out and been the big dogs on the block. But no, he was tired of fighting. He used it as an excuse to just sit on his hands. He has zero ambition when it comes to being a leader and that’s not what would be needed here. So, I changed the plan.”
“He wants to live a hard life, so be it! It’s only a matter of time before someone comes along and takes that ranch out from under him. It’s only a matter of time before you’re all dead, or worse. If that’s what he wants, who the hell am I to deny him his wish? They can have the damn vaccine and then live with the consequences of their actions. Well, inactions in this case. Screw ‘em all!” he finished his rant.
“You were going to bring everyone here and launch the missiles?”
“Yeah, I was. You got a problem with that? You’d have been safe and well fed. You wouldn’t have to spend every waking hour looking over your shoulder. Life would have been so much simpler, and you’d probably live longer here than out there.”
“Are you nuts? What kind of life is that being corralled on these ten floors, never feeling the sun on your face? You’ve lost your mind, Jack!”
“Actually, my dear, I’m fully in control here and you’d do well to not forget that.”
“Wait a minute.... Are you really planning on destroying the missiles or is this another one of your games?” she asked. A smile crept across his face.
“I had to think about it for a while, to be perfectly honest. I mean, if you take the vaccine back to the ranch, I could just fire off the missiles....” his voice trailed off.
“Jack, you can’t do that!”
“Oh? Why not? Be careful how you answer because I haven’t fully made up my mind, one way or the other yet.”
“Because, if you do, you’re no better than the people who put all of this together. Isn’t it enough that you’ve already beat them and killed everyone in charge?”
“I haven’t killed everyone in charge around here. There’s still one.”
“Huh?”
“There were five people that knew the entire plan. Ashton, Blair, Jerrod, Nigel and myself. We were the ones in charge.”
“But you’re not like them. You can put a different ending on this whole story if you want! You’ve already started to do that by letting Captain Boone and his people move in here!”
“Have I? Where is ole Nate and his faithful followers? Didn’t you just ask me that a few minutes ago?”
“What did you do?” she suddenly felt her guts go cold.
“I didn’t do anything, Mel. You did. You altered the plan. If Nate had just stuck to his end of the bargain, things might have ended differently for him,” Jack said as he stood and stretched a little. “It would seem that you like to meddle in others affairs, isn’t that true?” she stared blankly at him.
“No answer? It’s not like you to not have some smartass comeback or question!” he began to walk to the communications center. She began to follow but froze as she walked past the security station. She was fixated on the monitor that showed the cafeteria. There was Jack, sitting at the table writing on his notepad and sipping coffee.
“What the....” she stopped mid-sentence.
The smirk on his face told her everything. She thought she had been so clever in everything she’d done. The stark realization that he’d been on to her the whole time hit her in the gut like a sledgehammer. The looped video feed seemed to mock her.
“You’re playing a game and you don’t even know the rules, do you? Let me ask you this; do you have the first clue as to why the cargo ships would be armed with High explosive cruise missiles? Why wouldn’t all of them be biological weapons?”
“Um, I don’t know,” she admitted.
“That’s right. You don’t know,” he opened the communications laptop and looked at the frequency settings. “You should also realize, by giving the coordinates of the ships away, you’ve done a few things. First, the Navy may very well sink a couple of the cargo ships. Probably the ones on the west coast but those ships are far from being easy targets. Their destruction will come at a cost. The high explosive equipped missiles are designed to kill other ships or land targets. The Navy will more than likely lose a couple of their own in the process.”
“If the Navy has the intestinal fortitude to press the matter and put those ships on the bottom of the ocean, it will only be a matter of time before the canisters begin to leak. What you’ve done will only prolong the damage. Instead of destroying all the bioweapons, some will remain intact on the ocean floor, and they could leak their contents for a very long time.”
“The second thing you’ve got to realize, and it’s probably already started, you’ve sent a shockwave of fear and panic around the world. I imagine Jason has already passed along all of the information to the President and she’s calling on world leaders to go after the ships. Now, the Brits have got a few ships, so do the Russians and Chinese. If you think for a moment they can sink all 20 ships in the next six hours, you’re a fool,” he paused as he powered off the laptop and closed it. He then unplugged it from its cords.
“There’s no other way, Melissa. To believe so is not only stupid, it’s dangerous. Even if a few of the missiles escape destruction, the resulting death toll will be far less than what your plan is. Sending in the navy won’t stop anything. The losses would be acceptable.”
“I’m sure those who are exposed to it would have a much different understanding of acceptable!” she fumed.
“It’s nothing more than a numbers game now,” he tucked the laptop under his arm.
“What? A numbers game?”
“Mel, you should know that the architects of his whole project, myself included, had intentions of killing a lot more people. At the time of the planned attack, there were about 7 ½ billion people on this rock. If we'd had our way that number would be about 10 million today. Thanks to me for throwing a wrench in the master plan, there are still around five billion people.”
“Yes, two and a half billion dead a year after the EMP is an acceptable loss when compared to the alternative! Let’s say half of these weapons get loose, it’s a good bet that the number of survivors will be halved again. Still, two and a half billion survivors versus 10 million.... Acceptable losses.”
“Hell, I could let all of the missiles fly and we’d still be better off! The plan hinged on unleashing the bioweapons and having a rapid spread because of all the modes of transportation available. One sick guy gets on a plane. When the plane lands, you’ve got 100 sick people. By the time they get done travelling, you’ve infected 100,000 people in less than a 24-hour period.”
“With the lack of transportation available now, the risk of transmittal decreases exponentially. Theoretically, we could fire all the missiles and just walk away. We’d still come out ahead,” he started to turn away but stopped. “Yes, I’m evil but I have no interest in removing the human race from the planet. There will be enough left to repopulate, in time. For the immediate future, the survivors will be free of the chains that have bound them. Free men and women will rebuild and hopefully they will remember what it was like before the pulse and do everything they can to avoid going down that road again. This is the reset mankind needed to get its shit together.”
“Evil will always exist,” she said quietly to
his back as he walked away. He stopped but didn’t bother to turn around.
“What was that?”
“I said; evil will always exist. You seem to be under the impression the good guys are the only ones who will survive.”
“Trust me, I have no such illusions,” he started walking again.
“So, what the hell are you going to do? Are you launching them or destroying them?”
“Haven’t made up my mind just yet,” he looked over his shoulder at her. “Just a word of advice, if I may?”
“What?”
“Don’t get the pendants in your pocket confused with the ones around your neck,” he walked away this time. Once the doors to the control room were closed, she sagged into the nearest chair. Indeed, there was an agony that came with defeat.
Tuesday, September 6th, 2017
The Ranch.
T-Minus 4 hours until launch.
After getting the message from Melissa, we more or less had a working breakfast. Jane had spent another hour using the Trinity network to try and gain some semblance of control over her government. She’d been met with more than one reply inquiring about her death and if it was really her. I think she spent more time trying to convince her people she was still alive and kicking than she did anything else.
Braden hadn’t joined us when Melissa interrupted our breakfast. Instead, he’d spent his time in the kitchen telling Megan about their impending move to North Dakota. He made some last-minute changes to the rosters of both his teams. It was no surprise when the entire Specter team of Kari’s volunteered for the new duty station. The one that did surprise me was the young Alex Perez stepping up to take command of Jeff Owens Badger team.
Jeff had no desire to head north and neither did a full half of his team. The empty slots were quickly and easily filled by Alex and his Wolf team members. Once that had all been settled, Braden set about packing his gear to fly out with Tyler. Colonel Tyler Banks was all business when it came to flying. Once the little Cessna was fueled, he did his pre-flight and they were in the air promptly at 10am.