Bruce was staring at them, and Gene was staring at the envelope like it was a snake. Finally, Bruce spoke. “How many more do you have to hand out?” he asked.
Straightening out a stack of papers in front of her, Stephanie said, “That was the last one.”
“You could’ve at least hinted about it,” Bruce barked at them.
“No, Debbie wasn’t sure we would get them here and told us not to,” she said.
Before Bruce could speak, Angela leaned over the table. “Bruce, I used to be a skeptic, but I can say I’m totally convinced. I won’t disappoint Debbie, so don’t try to make me.”
Not sure what he wanted to ask or if he wanted to ask anything at all, Bruce shook his head, clearing the cobwebs, and looked at her. “I wouldn’t do that, Little Foot, but can we at least talk about what she wrote y’all?” he asked.
“We told you that you could read the letters she wrote us after you read the notebook,” Stephanie said. “If you had, you would have read about that letter.”
“We will talk later,” Bruce said, trying to clear his mind. He stood up looking at Jake. “Jake, fill us in on what is going on at the lab in Maryland.”
“Well, the blue did pull the trigger, but it shot itself and won’t touch the gun. They killed it and are starting over.”
Bruce glared at Jake. “Son, I told you I wanted to be notified when it pulled the trigger,” he growled.
“Dad, it shot itself and wouldn’t touch the gun again,” Jake said.
“When?” Bruce asked.
“Yesterday.”
“Son.”
“Dad, come on; they killed it and are starting over,” Jake said.
Bruce threw his hands up in the air. “Okay, but the morning intelligence reports start again tomorrow. If I’m not here, someone get word to me please,” Bruce said, looking around the table. “What is the weather like up there?”
“Cold and lots of snow,” Matt said.
“What’s the population there?” Bruce asked.
Jake looked down at his computer. “One hundred and seventy-three scientists, five medical doctors, nine nurses, a dentist, several dozen assistants, one hundred and six Homeland officers, two hundred and fifty-four military personnel, just over a hundred personnel that run the base. Then you have the families. In total, just over eight hundred,” Jake said then looked up.
“Jake, I want you to fly a UAV from here to there, finding all the open roads. I don’t care about snow; we will plow our way through. We will launch a ground assault in. We will attempt to take them prisoners, but if not, we will just kill them,” Bruce said.
Not in the mood for another coup, Willie said, “Bruce, if that’s the case, let’s just bomb their asses.”
“No, Willie. If we can get those that want to leave, we will. We will take out the guards and rush them fast.” Willie shrugged his shoulders and nodded.
Ted stood up, “Boss, Carl and I are taking over first platoon to cover your ass.”
“I really need you on your platoons and not babysitting me,” Bruce answered.
Stephanie stood up, “I like that idea. At least when you go off on a rampage, you will have a wall of troops around you,” she announced, and Angela grinned in agreement.
Feeling outmaneuvered, Bruce leaned back in his chair, covering his face with his hands. “Ted, Carl, build a fifty-man team to be the headquarters troop. Gene, get a hundred troops to put in Omega for the attack; you are now over Omega.” Everyone jumped up and started yelling at Bruce, who still had his hands over his face.
Lowering his hands, Bruce jerked a finger across his throat. When everyone shut up, he spoke. “I’m over the war, but since everyone here keeps pushing me back behind the line, I have to have a commander on the ground with Omega.” Hearing Bruce say he would stay behind the line, everyone was satisfied and sat down. “Willie, when this attack is over, I want you to build another strike team and command it. It will be beta. Each strike team has until February to get to five thousand strong. We start the war this spring. We will move up the eastern seaboard first. When I’m not leading in the field, Mike is. Steve and Mack, I want the air wing broken down to three units to rotate them out. One here ready to fight, one in the field giving support, and the other in down time,” Bruce announced, and everyone just looked at him.
Seeing the looks, Bruce said, “Guys, it’s time to kick this war into high gear.”
“Bruce, that leaves a lot of leeway in our battle plan,” Gene said.
“That is not our battle plan, just a rough overview. Since everyone here wants to bitch when I say something, I had to tell y’all so you would shut up. Now, can I go back to the laying out the attack on the lab?” Bruce asked.
Seeing everyone nodding, Bruce opened his laptop and brought up the layout of the compound. Going over the attack for an hour, Bruce told everyone to go and start the preparations. They would continue the next day after the security briefing. Wanting to be alone, Bruce walked out lost in thought, followed by Ted and Carl. Not knowing where he was going until he stopped in front of the shop, Bruce walked in and sat down at the desk. Ted and Carl walked over to a table and sat down.
A few minutes later, Angela and Stephanie came in. Bruce looked up with a smirk. “How did you know where to find me?” he asked.
“Hello, there are cameras everywhere out there, Bruce,” Stephanie said, kissing him, followed by Angela. “Granted, they are looking for attacks or infected getting through, but since they are there, we used them to find you.”
Laughing, Bruce asked, “What do I owe for the pleasure of your company?”
They sat down in his lap. “Bruce, when are you going to deal with the general and his staff?” Angela asked.
“When we get back from Maryland.”
“Can’t Angela and I just take them out and pop a cap in them?” Stephanie asked. Bruce started laughing and couldn’t stop as Stephanie’s face became angry. “What, you don’t think we can?” she demanded.
Grabbing both of them in a hug, Bruce shook his head and looked at Stephanie, smiling. “Oh, I know you could, both of you, but to hear you say it lets me know I’m kind of a bad influence on y’all,” Bruce said with Ted and Carl nodding in agreement.
Angela looked at him with a serious expression, “How do you figure that? You’ve taught us how to fight, survive, and live. Accepted us into this family and made us happy. So if we want to scalp the bitches that hurt our kids, you find it hard to believe?” she asked.
“No, but it lets me know I always have backup,” he said, pulling them close.
“I can’t believe you even doubted that,” Stephanie said.
“How are you two doing?” Bruce asked, changing the subject.
Stephanie sat up. “I felt the baby move,” she said, smiling. Bruce hugged her tighter.
Angela started to laugh and snort. “You should have seen her, Bruce. She thought something was wrong and started freaking out,” she said.
Stephanie lightly slapped Angela’s arm. “Hey, that’s weird.”
“Well, thank God you quit throwing up,” Angela said.
Pulling away from Bruce’s chest and sitting up on Bruce’s lap, Stephanie stated, “I didn’t tell you to throw up with me.”
“Stephanie, you started jumping on the bed when you felt the baby move, yelling you were fixing to die,” Angela said.
With her eyes getting really big, Stephanie said, “It freaked me out.”
“Not as much as the twins,” Angela said, snorting.
Bruce laughed and looked at Stephanie. “Didn’t you read books about pregnancy?”
“Oh, she has read like fifty of them, baby,” Angela told him.
Stephanie shook her head. “Bruce baby, those people that wrote those books are stupid. They talk about heightened ‘sense of smell’ and everything along with i
t. I smell shit I don’t even know what the hell it is. Yesterday, I smelt something and traced it down, and it was someone painting a plane on the runway half a mile from the house. I’m really trying to be tough, Bruce, but this is taxing,” she said, looking down.
Feeling sorry for her, Bruce lifted her face up. “Hey, if it was me pregnant I would be beyond freaking out. But to be honest, I would’ve had a hysterectomy after my first period,” Bruce admitted.
“Damn, I thought Stephanie could get wimpy,” Angela said.
“Hey, if you think I want to push—”
Angela slapped her hand over his mouth. “No, Bruce, don’t say it. We’re still working on that.” Bruce raised his eyebrows in shock.
Stephanie buried her face in his chest. “You will be there, won’t you?” she asked with her voice cracking.
He rubbed her head and pulled Angela to him. “The only way I would miss it is if you have them early. Then, you would have to wait till I fly in.”
Angela looked up at him. “You damn well better because we aren’t going through this alone.”
“I wouldn’t think of it,” Bruce said.
“We have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. You will come with us, right?” Angela asked.
“Well yeah,” Bruce said.
Clapping her hands, Angela said, “We have our first ultrasound tomorrow, and guess what? One of the doctors from Colorado is an OB/GYN.”
“Cool,” Bruce said as Stephanie looked at him.
“Bruce, there was a study put out several years ago about ultrasounds—” Stephanie started, and Bruce held up his hand.
“Stephanie, it wasn’t a real study. It was only based on lab experiments. Ultrasounds don’t cook a baby’s brains,” Bruce said.
With a look of uncertainty, she asked, “Bruce, the science is sound; how can you be so sure?”
“Little Red, there have been hundreds of millions of ultrasounds of babies, and none have been reported to have been born with a cooked brain.”
“Well, I don’t want to have the long odds one,” she said, and Angela was snorting.
Bruce smiled then asked, “Guys, what did Debbie write to Gene?”
Both looked at Bruce in disbelief. “We don’t know, Bruce. We didn’t read the other letters,” Stephanie told him.
“What do you think she told him?” Bruce asked.
“Have no idea?” Angela said then added, “Bruce, I want you to know there were letters to give to many people here, but we had one addressed to Gene. Debbie told us he would come later and you would know him. That is why when Adam told us Gene was in Colorado, we kinda freaked.”
“Kinda freaked is a little mild,” Stephanie said. “When we were alone, we screamed for an hour,” she admitted with a pale face.
“Yeah, I could see that,” Bruce admitted. “What do you guys think is going to happen?”
Angela smiled. “You are going to lead this war and win it. Then, we will live happily ever after.”
Stephanie and Bruce just stared at her. “What did you do to her?” Stephanie asked Bruce.
“Ah nothing,” Bruce replied. Angela laughed as Bruce hugged them. “Go get the kids, and let’s ride around the base,” Bruce said, kissing them. They jumped off his lap, running for the door. Bruce looked at Ted and Carl, who were grinning. “One word, and you eat your testicles,” Bruce warned, and shock hit their faces.
“Dude, that was private talk. We would never talk about that,” Ted snapped. Then he smiled. “But I have to say I’m using some of that with my woman tonight,” he informed Bruce.
Carl grinned. “Bruce, I used to think you were lucky to have two women, but now, I think you’re cursed. You never win an argument, they have you outnumbered, you can’t argue with just one of them, their hormones are always insane, and they have you in the palm of their hands.”
Grunting in agreement, Bruce said, “It took you that long to figure it out? I thought you were the smart one.”
Carl shrugged his shoulders, “I would’ve ran away,” he said.
Bruce smiled. “I made a promise; then, I realized I loved them, and for some reason, they love me. Now, I’m fixing to be a dad—again—times two,” Bruce said, dropping the smile.
Ted jumped up. “Come on, boss; let’s gather your crew,” he said, walking to the door.
“What do you want to take, boss?” Carl asked.
“I’ll take the family in Debbie’s SUV, and y’all follow in a Hummer,” Bruce said, heading to the garage.
“Hey, boss, just wait here; it will be brought here,” Ted said.
Getting ready to explode, Bruce turned around to see Carl talking into the radio. “There is no way you two could’ve put together your team. You’ve been stuck up my ass all day!” Bruce shouted.
“Well, we put together a fifty-man team yesterday, we were going to ask you if we could expand it,” Ted told him as Carl looked up smiling.
“I don’t need fifty men guarding me here at the base,” Bruce snapped.
“Boss, please just let us do this. We have too many people here now,” Ted said.
“Exactly. I don’t want others getting hurt protecting me,” Bruce snapped.
“Well, boss, sorry, but we are going to follow you, so just let us, okay,” Carl more stated than asked as a Hummer and Debbie’s SUV pulled up.
Watching the vehicles stop, Bruce asked, “What about the rest of the command group? They are just as important.”
“Oh, they all have bodyguards, just not as many. They agreed you were the most important, and we volunteered,” Carl told him.
Turning to look at them, Bruce shouted, “But you two are on the command group!”
Ted grinned. “Yeah, that’s why you and your family have so many,” he said.
“My family!” Bruce shouted, and Carl hit Ted on the arm and turned to Bruce.
“Yeah, they each have at least two on them at all times,” Carl said.
“So everyone on the command group has bodyguards?” Bruce asked.
Visibly scared, Carl looked down. “Ah no, Marcus and Carroll don’t,” he said and looked up. “I don’t know what ‘rend my fat to lye soap is,’ but I’ll be damned if I want to find out.”
Nodding that he had to agree with that, “What about Gene?”
“Yeah, Martin has a four-man team with him at all times,” Ted said.
Making a few quick calculations, Bruce shook his head. “With what you have told me, we have over a hundred people assigned to bodyguards,” he said.
“One hundred and twenty plus our fifty-man platoon,” Ted corrected.
Stepping back, Bruce shook his head, looked around, and for the first time noticed men and women spread around the area holding weapons, looking around. Angela and Stephanie were leading the twins, PJ, and Cade over as he turned back to Ted and Carl. “Know this, men; without my family, I’m nothing.”
“We know, Bruce. That’s why they are being guarded,” Ted said as the group walked up, and Angela and Stephanie were talking on the phone.
“If you two are talking to each other, I’m going to bed,” Bruce said as they walked up.
Pulling her phone away from her ear, Stephanie looked at him with hard eyes. “Of course not. We were calling the other kids, asking them if they wanted to join us.”
“Well, are they coming?” Bruce asked.
“Yep, they will be here in a minute,” Angela said, hanging up her cellphone.
Carl whispered in his radio, and another SUV pulled up behind Debbie’s. Then, Bruce noticed several Hummers and a Stryker sitting off to the side. “Please tell me they’re not all following us,” Bruce said, pointing at the vehicles.
“Yep, and we have another three out on the road,” Ted told him. Bruce started mumbling, going over to the kids, and Ted decided not to tell him about the micr
o UAV overhead.
The kids came out and piled in vehicles. They went to the dam to look at the spillway then drove around the perimeter, stopping at the towers. Bruce carried Buffy up the flights of stairs to the top. Then, they drove to Hope and ate in one of the mess halls then headed to the airport. Bruce just wanted to see the base and the new people but enjoyed the time out with the family.
That evening, Bruce was sitting in the main Center at the farm, waiting on supper, and looked around. It was packed to capacity as was Hope now. Every barrack was full, and they still had two thousand troops sleeping in tents. The base’s population was now over seventy thousand, and the supply of clothes and toiletries had taken a huge hit.
Everywhere Bruce went, the new refugees ran over to thank him. Bruce could see many had hope again. He was very pleased and knew in his heart that Debbie was too.
Chapter 16
The next morning, Bruce woke early and snuck out of the room at five. Walking downstairs, he was startled to see a guard at the foot of the stairs. The guard smiled as Bruce walked by and talked into a radio as he reached the back door. Behind him, he heard movement and turned around to see five armed people following him.
“Can I help you?” he asked, opening the door.
They all came to a stop. “Just following, sir,” one of them replied. Bruce grumbled and headed to the gym with the five guards following.
As Bruce started his workout, Ted and Carl came in, motioning the five guards outside. They joined Bruce in his workout, and halfway through, Bruce stopped, wiping sweat off his face. “Guys, the guards are starting to get old,” he said.
Ted racked the dumbbells they were using and turned to Bruce, smiling. “They have only been following you for a day.”
“Yeah, and it’s getting old already,” Bruce said, continuing his workout.
When Bruce was finished with his set, Carl climbed onto the bench. “Well, boss, sorry you’re so popular and important. Surely, you understand why everyone wants you protected,” he said, lifting the bar off the rack.
Draining his water bottle, Bruce watched Carl slowly lower the bar to his chest and push it up in a slow, controlled movement. “We’ve been running for over a year, guys, and I’ve been fine. I do appreciate guarding the family, but I can handle myself,” he said as Carl racked the bar.
Blue Plague: War (Blue Plague Book 6) Page 22