Options Are Good

by Jerry D. Young

  Desiree had her desk top fired up and ready in the matter of a few seconds. The satellite internet connection was even better now than it had been earlier.

  “Mr. Hawkins?” Desiree asked when she had her intent homepage open.

  “You sure you don’t want me to do this?” Bandy asked.

  “She’s pretty good on the computer,” Junior rather grudgingly said.

  “Yes, I am.” Desiree just looked at Bandy.

  “Supercomputer network,” Bandy said rather softly.

  June looked askance at Bandy. “You don’t think someone is using a supercomputer to hack into systems, do you, Bandy? I don’t even think they are connected to the internet.”

  Bandy shook his head. Before he could respond verbally, Desiree spoke up. “The Supercomputers, Mom… All the major ones… Have been networked. Through multiple connections on the internet so they could have enough connectivity to talk to one another at the same speed they work internally.”

  “Yes,” said Bandy, impressed even more with the now sixteen year old young woman. “You’ve been following this?” Bandy asked her.

  “Well… Kinda… One of my teachers this year…”

  “Mr. Harrison,” Junior butted in. “She thinks he’s ‘dreamy’.”

  “Junior!”

  “Well, that is what you told me.”

  “Be that as it may,” Desiree replied rather haughtily, “Mr. Harrison teaches my advanced computer class and mentioned it. He seemed impressed so I decided to do a research paper on it. I just got started, but here are my research notes and sources I’ve got so far.”

  Bandy leaned forward, one hand on the desk and the other on the back of Desiree’s chair and began to quickly read the notes, as Desiree slowly scrolled down the page for him.

  “Okay,” Bandy said after a while, standing back up straight. “That jives with what I know. That is very good work, Desiree. Have you drawn any conclusions about it?”

  “Not really,” Desiree said, obviously disappointed that she hadn’t. “I haven’t completely figured out why Mr. Harrison thought it was such a good idea. I mean, working together they can accomplish much, much more analyzing, just like he said. Be a boon to the human race in the future. But still…”

  After a pause she continued. “Unless… Miss Middleton…”

  “You aren’t thinking that Miss Middleton…” Junior started to ask, but his words faded away.

  “She is a little… different,” Desiree explained. “She and Mr. Harrison argue all the time about computers. She doesn’t like them and will only allow the absolute minimum use in the classroom. She thinks they are dangerous.”

  “Dangerous?” June asked. “You never indicated that. Just that she was rather old fashioned, despite her youth, and believed in, as you put it, the old ways. I thought you meant she was kind of into the homesteading scene.”

  “Oh, she is!” Desiree hurried to agree. Miss Middleton was fun, and even though they couldn’t use the computers for much, she still made the classes she taught interesting and fun. And she was pretty, so a bunch of the guys took her classes, even though they didn’t have too. “It is just a quirk of hers.”

  “Unless she is right,” Bandy said.

  Four sets of eyes turned toward Bandy. “How could inanimate objects be danger to us?” June asked.

  “What if they aren’t inanimate anymore?” Junior asked his mother. He looked over at Bandy. “Right? They are connected now. Could they… I don’t know…”

  “Become a sentient being?” Bandy asked. “One now connected to just about everything, everywhere on earth? Including, most likely, the NSA and other agencies that have been mining information on individuals for last several years.”

  “That is not possible!” Ana-Bella protested. More softly, she asked, “Is it?”

  “Surely the authorities would just shut them off, or disconnect them if they thought they were causing the problem, wouldn’t they?” June was looking concerned. And then more hopefully, added, “And what could they do, anyway?”

  “What they’ve already done, Mom,” Junior answered. “Turn off the power. Shut down the internet.”

  “Oh. Okay. I can see that. Yes. But I don’t see how that could affect everyone. Or that badly. We’d just disconnect them and fix the problems.”

  “If we can,” Bandy said. The lights flickered once again, and then a few seconds later came back on. The computer rebooted, but when Desiree tried to get back on the internet there was no connection.

  “Junior?” Bandy asked. “Check the TV?”

  Junior grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Static. On every channel, except the auxiliary inputs.

  June stepped over and turned on the Bose radio. She scanned the FM band. Nothing. The CD would play, but there were no stations transmitting.

  Desiree jumped up and ran out of the room. She was back in just a few minutes, breathing hard. “My car started okay.”

  Junior was scanning the frequencies on the new shortwave receiver. There was the occasional broadcast. The same on the Amateur bands. And the scanner suddenly broke squelch. The various agencies in the area began to question each other on the loss of power and internet access. Some of which was affecting their operations.

  “It isn’t EMP is it?” asked Junior. “It is the Supercomputers.”

  “I think so,” Bandy said. He nodded. “Okay. Assuming we are right, and the Supercomputers have taken over at least the power grid and the internet, we need to decide what to do.”

  The others looked thoughtful. Bandy didn’t wait for any answers. “I think it would be wise to do a lock down. If another country decides to try to take advantage of the situation, we need to be ready.”

  Four faces paled. They knew exactly what Bandy meant. It had been on all their minds. Nuclear war with China.

  “Will you be alright?” Bandy asked the three Longhammer’s.

  All three were looking scared, but all three nodded. June said, “Just like the drills we’ve had.”

  “We’ll get going and let you do your lockdown,” Bandy said. “Come on, Ana-Bella. I want to get you home.”

  Ana-Bella did not protest until they were climbing into Bandy’s truck again. “Do not think you are just dropping me off and running off to do something else.” She didn’t specify what the something else was, but Bandy knew she was referring to Colin, despite what he’d told her.

  Bandy didn’t reply, as he started the truck the scanner was breaking squelch constantly. Both Bandy and Ana-Bella looked up when they heard sirens in the distance, at least one of which was getting closer.

  By the time they were back on the county road, the Longhammer Ranch gate closing behind them, there were two law enforcement vehicles and an ambulance coming up behind them, lights and sirens going. Bandy pulled well off the road before they got close and watched them nearly fly by.

  The lead car was the unit the Sheriff used, according to Ana-Bella. Bandy, careful to watch behind almost as much as ahead, made what Ana-Bella thought was his very slow way back to the Sheridan Ranch.

  Ana-Bella never knew if what she’d said kept Bandy at the Ranch or not, but Bandy parked, and went into the house with Ana-Bella. Magdalene, looking more than a little frightened, hugged Ana-Bella fiercely, but turned to continue the lockdown procedure for the house, just as the Longhammer’s had.

  Ana-Bella gave Bandy a long look when he said he was headed out to give her father a hand, but turned back to help her mother, confident that was exactly what Bandy would do.

  It was a very confusing hour and a half. No one, including Bandy, was sure about what they were doing. Was it all just a big mistake? Or was there something to it? The weather was beautiful, the birds were flying and the horses were prancing in the paddocks until the last one was brought into the highly modified barns.

  It seemed only the Airedales picked up on how tense the humans were. They all, including the pups emulating their dams and sires, stayed as close to someone as they c
ould, until they too were safely in their protected indoor kennel.

  Bandy waited until after Bob talked to the Farm and Ranch hands that had not headed for home, which were now gathered in the open area of the disaster shelter, reassuring them, and letting them know that as soon as there was reliable information they would be advised of the situation. Being in the shelter was just a precaution for the moment.

  Then Bob and Bandy joined Magdalene and Ana-Bella in the family shelter at the house. Magdalene and Bob kept themselves busy with mundane things, allowing Ana-Bella and Bandy to monitor what was going on with the new equipment in the new shelter.

  It wasn’t very long before the distraught voice of June Longhammer broke the squelch of the low VHF band business band radio that was now the primary emergency communications link between the Longhammer’s’ places and the Sheridan ranch.

  “Bandy! Bandy! Are you there?” came the anguished cry.

  Ana-Bella handed him the microphone for the radio. “I am here, June. What has happened?” He kept his voice calm, for June, but his stomach was knotted up.

  “Colin has Angus, Bandy! He says he will kill Angus if they don’t let him into the shelter at the dealership! And Angus gave orders when he left not to let anyone in, unless they knew the code word. And he won’t use it.

  “Junior is frantic. It is all I can do to keep him from going after Colin himself.”

  “You tell Junior I said his job is to protect you and Desiree in his father’s absence. It is what Angus would want and Junior will realize it as soon as you tell him. And don’t worry about Angus. He’s tough and smart, and will get out of the situation. I’m heading that way as soon as I put down the microphone.”

  “I’m going wi…”

  “No, you aren’t,” Bob said before Bandy could. “Bandy only needs to have two things on his mind. And that is staying alive and getting Angus freed. He cannot afford to be worrying about you at the same time. It could get him killed.”

  “But…” Ana-Bella almost yelled.

  “Your father is right,” Magdalene said. “There are times to be right alongside your man. This isn’t one of them. He needs the freedom to act without restriction.”

  Bandy didn’t say anything, just looked on with eyes hopeful that Ana-Bella would understand. Apparently she did, for she threw herself against him, wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and whispered, “You’d better come back to me, all in one piece or you are in serious trouble.”

  She stepped away and Bandy hurried out, grabbing his things on the way. He wasted no time getting to the edge of town, to the dealership. Bandy had the radios on the entire time, but the only thing he heard was one law enforcement officer frantically saying, “Officer down! Officer down!” And the scanner went quiet.

  Bandy slid to a stop well before he got to the first gate into the dealership. Both of them were still open. Pulling the rifle from the toolbox in the back of the truck, Bandy did a quick check, grabbed a musette bag with magazines and flipped the strap over his head, making sure the bag hung down his side properly. Then he approached the corner of one of the gateway intermodal containers.

  He was just sticking his head around the corner of the container when he lunged back. Colin’s big four by four came barreling through the opening at high speed, squalling the tall tires as he bounced and skidded onto the highway. Shots rang out and Bandy saw the back glass of the pickup truck shatter. There were two people in the cab of the truck.

  One was Colin, driving, and the other wasn’t Angus. But there were at least two men in the bed of the truck, for two popped up and began to fire back into the dealership lot. Bandy raised his rifle and took care of the two immediate threats before trying a shot at Colin. But he lowered the rifle. He simply could bring himself to shoot Colin in the back, even if he could have successfully made the long shot at the weaving truck.

  Again Bandy stuck his head around the corner of the gate container. What he saw had him running inside, rifle held out and up, yelling, “It’s Hawkins! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

  Angus spun around and Bandy saw the blood on his face and hands. But Bandy quickly dropped his eyes to Sheriff Julie-Anne Broadhearst. She sat with her back against the front tire of the cruiser, being tended to by Terri and another of the employees.

  There was a pistol held tightly in her right hand. It took some effort and persuasion by Angus to get her to release it when he knelt back down as Bandy came running up.

  “Angus! Are you okay?”

  “Colin pistol whipped me in the face. But I’ll be okay. I’m worried about Julie-Anne. Colin killed Officer Belknap. He was here when Colin came up. Colin just shot him. He wasn’t dead, and got off a couple of words on the radio before Colin shot him again. I…”

  “Get on the radio and let your family know you are all right, and the Sheridan’s that I am all right.” Both men glanced around and saw the ambulance turn into the parking lot, lights flashing, but siren off.

  “Help is here for the Sheriff. Your family comes first right now. They are totally frantic.”

  Angus gave Julie-Anne a long look, but then spun around and ran toward the dealership building. There were three armed men standing watch at the two sets of doors and Angus ran right past them without a word.

  The paramedics were still working on Julie-Anne, shot down low in her hip, below her vest. The femur was obviously broken, and from the way the paramedics were working, Bandy had a feeling the femoral artery was nicked and/or the hip joint damaged.

  Angus came hurrying back up, a strange look on his face. “Junior quizzed me a dozen times, asking if I was really all right. I think he was going to come up here if he thought I wasn’t. I told him to stay right where he was, to protect his mother and sister. That seemed to calm him down.”

  Bandy didn’t say anything about his same admonishment to the young man. Both men turned around and watched the ambulance drive off, Julie-Anne inside, along with the paramedics and Terri.

  “Can you tell me what happened, while you get cleaned up?” Bandy asked.

  “Oh. Yeah. Sure.” Rather dejectedly, Angus went into the dealership showroom and then to his office. It had a private bath and as he began to clean the blood off himself he slowly told Bandy the story.

  “I blame myself, Hawkins. It is all my fault. When Magdalene called and said they were locking down, at your suggestion, I decided to do the same thing. But I couldn’t decide whether to stay here or go home. I finally decided to head for home, and told the crews to lock down behind me and not let anyone in that didn’t give one of the pre-arranged code words like you set up. But I’d waited too long.

  “Well, I was almost at my truck when the City Officer, Belknap, pulled into the lot before I could get either gate shut. He was here, just as a courtesy. He told me that there was something going on, but not to worry about it. Things would be fine in a day or two.

  “That’s when Colin and his goons came charging in, firing as they came. Colin shot Belknap when he went for his gun. But Belknap fell back into the car and grabbed the mike. Colin just stepped up to the car and shot him in the forehead. Cold as you please.

  “Then Colin said, ‘Okay. Let’s get in the shelter. We have things to discuss’. When I said no, he went berserk. Whipped his pistol across my face…”

  Angus was looking at the long gash on his cheekbone. From the looks of it, the cut looked like it should be stitched. But Angus just continued to scrub it out, with a wince and a groan.

  “The other guys stood guard as Colin marched me at gunpoint to the above ground shelter. When I refused to open it, he worked me over some more.” Angus groaned some more as he stripped off his bloody shirt and moved his arms and back around. Bandy could see the bruises forming already.

  “That’s when Julie-Anne came flying in, siren on and lights flashing apparently. Anyway, that is what one of Colin’s goons said. That Boots that Junior knows, I think it was. Colin had me in front of him, and moved toward the car. Julie-A
nne had turned off the siren and lights, and gone out the passenger side door. She was behind the engine block of the cruiser, the way they do, just like you taught us how to do.

  “But when Colin put the gun to my head she stood up, held her gun out and moved in front of the car. I thought she was crazy, but when Colin moved the gun, obviously to shoot her, after he shoved me out of the way, she was already going for her backup gun. I didn’t know she carried one.

  “She took the hit and went down. That’s when my guys came storming out… Against orders… But they’d been watching on the surveillance system, and knew what was happening. I’d lain in a few more weapons and those that knew how to use them came up and started exchanging fire with Colin’s men. That’s when Colin ran for his truck, along with his guys, and disappeared. That’s when you showed up.