“I understand. Your people will find the information on the computer to be very valuable. The location of some satchel type nuclear weapons will be enough to buy my life. I no longer understand any of this war, or the goal we ever thought to attain. At the rate our trade deficit grew in the 90’s, we would have owned your country by 2050.”
The two brothers laughed in spite of the situation, as the soldier professed the way he saw Red China’s position in the 90’s. Jack brought the barrel of his AK-47 up to the head of the soldier, and clicked the safety off. Paul leaned down to fix and retie the bandage around the man’s calf. When he finished, Paul took out some aspirin and handed them to the soldier, along with his canteen. The soldier threw down the aspirin without hesitation, and chased them with the water. Paul helped him to his feet, with the man’s arm around his shoulder. Paul pulled out his sidearm, and flipped off the safety. He aimed it at the soldier’s head, and then nodded at Jack. Jack picked up the rest of their gear. He then resumed his position to the rear right of the soldier, with his rifle again covering the man. Paul put away his sidearm, and began walking towards the helicopter, as the soldier hobbled along with teeth clenched tightly against the pain.
“Why didn’t you buy us,” Paul asked as they walked. “Why did your country choose to infiltrate and attack? What you said about our stupidity in one-sided trade was probably true.”
“We found ourselves in a very poor position after the year 2000. Our engineers proved incapable of solving the Y2K problem as fast as we had hoped, and our entire infrastructure began to break down. We had no choice. We would have lost ground over the couple of years it took for our IT specialists to rewrite code to solve our problems.”
“Hell,” Jack countered, “we’d been giving you everything we had anyway. Why the hell would we have stopped? All you had to do was say help, and transfer another bag of money into some other politician’s account. You owned Chairman Clintong, so we would have probably agreed to rebuild your country.”
“Why should we have trusted a racist country like yours for anything? All you wished from us was slave labor, and…”
Paul whipped around as he heard the safety click off the AK-47. "Don’t you dare shoot him, Jack! Remember our ride out of here.”
Paul saw the murderous look in his brother’s eyes, as the soldier tried to regain his balance from the quick turn, gasping in pain. “Come on, don’t let this prick get to you. We got us a sure ticket to the kids if you can keep your cool.”
The deadly fire in Jack’s features retreated slowly, and Paul turned to resume the trek to the helicopter. Paul whispered sideways to the soldier, “do not open your mouth again, amigo, or I may not kill you, but I will surely dance on that leg of yours.”
“I broke a promise to myself,” Jack said. “I vowed I would execute the next son of a bitch who gave me any more of that third world plight crapolla. The people who owned the little store up on the corner from my shop were named Wong. They worked six and seven days a week to get by, and send their kids to college. They were good customers, and good Americans. They died in the first week after the bio-attack. Your whole fucking country was not worth either of their lives. If hacking you into little pieces would bring them back, I would carve you up like a roast turkey on Christmas Day.”
“Do you think my people did not suffer? We…”
“Shut the fuck up! I don’t give a crap what your people suffered. If it were up to me, I would make your country into a parking lot. I’m beginning to dislike you. You better have some real good stuff, or you won’t ever make it to our base. Paul and I will interrogate you ourselves, taking into account the plight of your poor country, of course, while we do it. If I had Wolf here, I’d have him eat your balls, while I took notes.”
Paul laughed in spite of the seriousness of the situation. The soldier looked up at him in disgust; but kept his thoughts to himself, and remained silent. Jack, for his part, remained silent also, and continued walking with quiet care. As they neared the helicopter, Paul had to almost carry the soldier. Knowing the soldier was in no shape to attack either one of them, Jack helped Paul carry the soldier the rest of the way.
“They will kill me when I give them what they want, won’t they,” the soldier asked as they neared the damaged helicopter.
Jack hesitated making promises he couldn’t or wouldn’t keep. He thought of his kids and made a decision. “If you cooperate fully, I give you my word they will not harm you. We have taken prisoners to them before. If they cooperated, they were treated as prisoners of war.”
“What does your word to me mean?”
“It means a whole hell of a lot more than one of your Red Commie buddies, pal. You make this easy, and give them all you can, and you will be on your way soon. If you fuck them around, you will be one hurting son of a bitch. Just remember what I told you, we ain’t the same fuck us up the ass and ask for more American morons we once were. Keep talking until they tell you to stop, and you’ll be fine.”
“You will be gone. How will you know what they do?”
Paul laughed. “They know Jack. If he tells them to cut you some slack for cooperating, they’ll do it. Besides, we’ll be hanging around to get a meal, and spend some easy time with our kids for a while anyway, right Jack?”
“You better believe it. We may even get a taste of old Bushmills while we’re at it.”
“Oh my God, don’t start talking about that again. Anyway, we’ll look in on you, and see if they’re treating you right. How’s that sound? Just give them everything you know. Jack and I will make things right, even though we’d rather put you on a raft with a rabid skunk.”
“I have no choice anyway, but I believe you. Will they send me back to China when this ends?”
Paul chuckled. “Oh… I see. You got a taste of the high life in old LA, and thought you’d be here a long time after you wiped all of us out. If you can convince them you will be killed when they send you back, maybe they’ll like what you give them enough to keep you on as a translator or something. You think they’ll take him in, Jack?”
“Not for anything sensitive, but they might keep him to decipher some of the mountains of stuff they have around. We have plenty of real Americans of Chinese descent on our side, who will make his life miserable though. They will have to keep you under lock and key for a while, or you’ll get your throat slit. Like I said, we ain’t the same old forgiving nitwits we once were.”
They reached the side of the crashed helicopter, and Jack went over the outside area bordering the helicopter carefully. He then checked the helicopter for any obvious traps, before returning to where Paul had settled the soldier down on a flat rock outcropping.
“Do you have a decent medical kit on board the helicopter we can keep you alive with,” Jack asked. “Secondly, will I get blown up trying to find it?”
“We didn’t set up any traps in the helicopter; because we thought we would have to return shortly, before anyone could reach this site anyway. The medical kit still rests beside one of the men who died in the back of the helicopter.”
“What’s your name anyway,” Paul asked.
“John Liang.”
“I had a family of customers who lived across the street from my shop named Liang. They may have been relatives of yours. They died in the bio-attack too,” Jack stated. “Good people.”
“Ease up, Jack. Why don’t we take him on board, and patch him up there. At least we won’t have to do it in the snow.”
“You’re right. I just don’t want to get us blown up now of all times.”
“I guess not everyone booby traps their stuff like you cold blooded bastards,” Paul prodded.
Jack glared at his brother for a second, and then smiled. “No, I guess not. Maybe you’d like to blunder inside first, my brother, since you’re such a trusting soul.”
“I think I’ll let ol’ John here lead the way.”
The brothers hoisted the wounded man up, and over to the helicopter, where h
e climbed aboard with help. Jack began cleaning the wound from the sealed disinfectant patches in the medical kit, as Paul searched and removed the dead from the helicopter.
“So, do you need to check the power supply or anything before you fire up the computer,” Paul asked.
“I think your people would rather I left it alone until they got here, and figured out how they want to take it out. I know the codes, and the language, but I am not a computer engineer. They did not entrust all the codes to every soldier on board a helicopter. They will want to look at it cold, before I touch it, I think.”
“Bullshit, John, either…”
“He’s right Paul,” Jack interrupted. “Besides, it leaves us with a ticket out of here, without our being responsible for anything.”
“You’re right. Screw the computer. Get this radio working, John. Jack and I will call for the Limo.”
Jack continued cleaning the wound until fresh blood foamed to the top. He then added generous portions of antibiotic cream, before starting to bandage the wound. The resulting bandage fit tightly enough to staunch the flow of blood, but not enough to cut off circulation. Jack injected the soldier with a morphine syringe from the medical kit, and watched the pain fade from the man’s eyes. His head dropped back, and he breathed heavily for a few moments in relief. It made Jack remember his own injuries, and he almost envied the soldier his relief from the pain. He looked up at Paul, who was grinning broadly at his brother.
“Man, you look like you want to slurp down any residue from that syringe with your tongue big boy,” Paul remarked.
Jack looked away sheepishly, and then began laughing. The soldier looked at the two brothers, and started laughing too. Soon the three men were trying to calm down fits of laughter, at what might have appeared to an onlooker to be ridiculous. After a few minutes, the three regained their composure, and remained quiet for a few seconds.
Paul pushed the soldier on the side of his head. “What the fuck are you laughing at John, you commie turd?”
Jack grinned at his brother’s upbraiding of the drugged soldier. The three remained quiet, with the two brothers obviously at a loss as to what should come next. Without warning, the soldier began snoring; having went to sleep from the exhaustion of his day, and the relief from the pain of his wound. The snoring proved too much for the brothers who enjoyed the very strange scene with much amusement.
Chapter 11
The Scientist
“God… that was good Paul.”
“Yes indeed, nothing quite like having a good laugh, while all of reality goes to hell in a hand basket. Sort of like looking around at reality, and saying fuck you, and the horse you rode in on.”
“Yep.” Jack leaned against the hull of the helicopter. “We did do that.” Jack watched the soldier’s open mouthed snoring for a moment more smiling. “You know… crazy as it sounds, I’m beginning to like this guy.”
“You got the crazy part right. Shall we wake sleeping beauty up, and get the radio going?”
“I’ll get some snow, and we’ll bring him out of it slowly. Hand me one of those gauze pads.”
Jack went out of the helicopter, and scooped up some snow. He made a folded pad out of the gauze, which he rubbed the snow on. He reentered the helicopter, and placed the bandage on the soldier’s head. The soldier’s mouth tightened with the touch of the cold compress, and he tried to turn away from it. Jack gently shook him as he held it in place.
“John Boy… hey John Boy, wake up now. We have to get your radio working, or you might die before we get you fixed up.”
John slowly came around, as Jack kept refreshing the cold compress. His eyes opened finally, and blinked, as he tried to remember where he was through the morphine haze. He looked at each one of the brothers uncomprehendingly for a time. They watched the slow realization creep into his eyes. He smiled finally, as he remembered the last moment before he drifted off.
“How long have I been out?”
“About thirty minutes. Sorry to disturb your slumber, but we need to get someone here to pick us up, and fix you before anything serious happens. Can you move enough to get the radio working,” Paul asked.
“If you can get me into the pilot’s seat, I will get the radio working, and set the channel you want.”
Within twenty minutes, Paul connected with their base. He went over what had happened, and where they were now. The combination of a willing prisoner, and a possible computer breakthrough brought excitement to the man’s voice on the other end. Peter and the kids had made it through safely, without any further trouble. Peter had filled in the blank spots for them as to what had been happening. They now had information on the new viral agent, and the enemy attempts to distribute the antidote.
Meanwhile, Jack helped their prisoner to the rear compartment, and let him fall back into a drugged slumber. Jack added more wrapping to the man’s calf, as the blood had begun to seep through the original bandage.
Paul reached Steve and Mitch on the radio. He filled them in on the recent happenings. Jack sat down in the pilot’s seat, and took Paul’s hand-held radio.
“Can you guys get down here within the next hour or so? You get a free ride out if you do.”
“Sorry, El Lamo,” Steve said. “Paul worked out a pickup, before they get down to you.”
Mitch leaned over to interject, “besides, we heard you were too overcome with morphine envy to move.”
Jack listened to the background laughter over the radio as he both glared and smiled at Paul. “Just had to tell them, huh Paul?”
“We can’t have all the fun,” Paul replied innocently. “With Peter and the kids safe, and sound with old Wolf, we can kick back and celebrate. Good thing Peter knew enough to move towards the base without us. I told Base to stop and pick up Steve, and Mitch, on their way down.”
“I want them to get everything they can get out of this helicopter without damaging anything. Did they mention sending a specialist to pull this stuff out of here?”
Paul nodded. “They’re not just sending one. They have a three man engineering team they’re sending in. They will be staying here, and taking everything they need, before we fly back.”
“What about a guard, just in case of trouble?”
“They have a special forces squad flying in with them, to provide cover, and scout the area. Besides, the only base they had in this area no longer exists. They landed a decontamination unit there to see if they can turn up anything of use, but they don’t expect to get much.”
“I’m glad they didn’t try anything stupid like taking the base with troops,” Jack said. “No telling how rigged the place was, and if the viral agent got out, all of this would have been for nothing.
“Wolverine One,” the radio crackled.
Jack looked at Paul and then picked up the radio. “Go ahead.”
“Wolverine One, you have bogeys on the ground from previous direction, coming in like a homing signal on you. They are three miles distant, and on the move. You copy?”
“We copy, Wolverine Three. I will alert the base to hold off until we can welcome them. We will greet as before, same signal as before, copy?”
“Same as before. We copy that. Test right direction.”
Jack looked up and saw a light make a vertical up and down. “That’s it, Wolverine Three, thanks. Anything else?”
“Yeah Outlander says to take care of our plane ticket.”
Jack grinned, as he thought of Steve, in spite of the situation. “Copy that, out.”
Paul gathered their weapons together, as Jack radioed the Base to hold up. Paul loaded as many grenades and clips as he thought they could carry.
“They couldn’t tell how many or Mitch would have said. Man, I am sooooo… tired of this. What do we do with sleeping beauty?” Paul gestured at the snoring soldier.
“We’ll have to handcuff him, Paul, and hog tie him in place. He may have a bad moment if he comes too, but he’ll be okay for a while. I’ll do it.” Jack put th
e soldier’s hands over his head, and handcuffed him with plastic ties to the metal frame behind him. He thought about binding his feet together, and to the frame, but decided he might kill him if he did. He grabbed his weapon, and the extra ammunition. Paul led the way out.
Paul laughed as he started out, and Jack looked at him curiously. “Hell of a time to get company, from a base we thought was a smoking crater in the ground. What do you think they’re doing, and how do they know which way to go?”
“I guess old John in there forgot to mention putting on a rescue beacon, because he figured the base had gotten vaporized too. As to why they’re on foot, and heading here, I do not have a clue - other than this copter having some vital stuff on it, or maybe they have no place else to go after the attack. I wonder how the hell they escaped the blast.”
“They must have been alerted on radar in time for some of them to bug out,” Paul mused as he continued on. “Do you think they may have some surprises for us, like some of their homemade bug bomb?”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
“In that case, how the hell can we take them safely? Maybe we should let the Special Forces guys go after them.” Paul clapped his head. “Dohhhh… they might release it if they see anyone on to them. Do you want to just blow the fuck out of them?”
“I think we should see who first, and then decide on what. We have binoculars, so we will see them, before they know about us. I wanted to ask John why we are only seeing Chinese now, and why in the hell hasn’t Red China put some nukes into action, since they’re getting the short end of the stick lately. Too many loose ends… and while I’m thinking of it, where the hell are our South of the Border friends?”
“Where the hell were all these questions when John was awake Dobi Wan?”
American Survival (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 5) Page 12