Behind General Swain was his wife Shanna, who had both hands raised high in the air.
Their three children marched in single-file step behind her, their hands raised as well.
Colonel Medley felt a tinge of sadness for the children. He couldn’t imagine the humiliation they were feeling. And after all, they were innocents.
The line kept coming.
Like docile sheep they filed out into the bone-chilling cold one by one.
Finally the line ended.
Wilcox called over the PA system, “You! In the black coat! Are you the last one?”
The man in the black coat looked toward the colonel and nodded his head yes.
Captain Edwards, in charge of the Security Forces team, dispatched two men to stand just inside the bunker’s door to secure it until a search team could clear the facility.
Hundreds of people… the crowd, the prisoners, the policemen, were witnessing the taking of the bunker.
And not one of them had a clue what twists and turns were coming next.
-12-
MSgt Selleck picked up his radio and said simply, “Roll the buses.”
At Joint Base Lackland, next door and linked to Kelly, fourteen drivers from the 37th Transportation Squadron boarded fourteen school buses and cranked their engines.
They turned the heaters on full blast and headed, in convoy, the four miles from their location to the bunker.
It took them a full fifteen minutes to cover the four miles, due mostly because of the road conditions. For it was a night fit for neither man nor beast.
While they waited, the bunker’s occupants shivered and cursed under their breath.
The base populace, still taunting and jeering General Swain and his people, were toasty warm.
Part of it was due to the rage they felt.
And part of it because they’d been outside in the cold for hours or days. They were used to it by now.
Colonel Wilcox, perhaps for dramatic effect, refused to approach Swain and his group until the buses arrived and were lined up between the group and the jeering spectators.
He then went to Captain Edwards.
“I want a four man security detail to come with us. One man on each of the buses. Use the rest to provide crowd control. Do you have that many men?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Take care of that and bring the security detail. Meet me down there with General Swain.”
Colonels Wilcox and Medley walked to where General Swain was standing. The flag of surrender was now on the ground at his feet.
And he looked none too happy.
“Are you two in charge of this operation?” he demanded of Wilcox when they arrived.
Wilcox felt a bit cocky. He said, “We are. And you are relieved of your command pending your trial by military tribunal.”
Instead of being cowed, Swain said, “My God, Tim. Do you realize what you’ve done?”
Colonel Wilcox looked confused. Colonel Medley felt a knot form in the pit of his stomach.
Neither man knew what Swain was talking about.
But both men gave pause.
Captain Edwards arrived with his four man security team, M-16 rifles at the ready.
Wilcox said, “Captain Edwards, please inform the general of his rights.”
Captain Edwards was an administrator. He’d never made an arrest before. His men typically took care of that.
But he did have an Air Force Miranda card in his wallet, and he paused long enough to take it out.
This was the biggest incident in his career. He didn’t want to screw it up.
He read directly from the card:
“You have the right to remain silent; that is, to provide no statement at all. You have the right to military counsel through the Area Defense Counsel, or civilian counsel if you so choose. If you cannot afford civilian counsel an ADC representative will be appointed to you at no charge. Do you understand each of your rights as I have explained them to you?”
As he spoke one of the security detail placed the general’s hands in cuffs behind his back.
Both Swain and Wilcox noticed the young Captain’s hands and voice were both trembling as he read the card.
Swain said rather defiantly, “Yes. I do.”
“Do you wish to make a statement, sir?”
“No. I do not. But I know of someone else who does. General Mannix, if you would?”
A very distinguished gentleman stepped out of the line and walked to where the others stood.
He wore no uniform. Rather he was clad in blue jeans and a leather flyer’s jacket. He looked vaguely familiar to Captain Edwards, but both colonels recognized him immediately.
“Captain Edwards, do you recognize my face?”
The captain stammered, “You look familiar, sir.” He swallowed hard. He seemed to sense, as did everyone else, that he was on the verge of losing control of the situation.
The man said, “I am going to retrieve my ID from my wallet. Do you think you can convince your men to refrain from shooting me while I do that?”
“Y…y…yes sir.”
Edwards looked toward the security detail and said, “Hold your fire.”
The man pulled his wallet from a back pocket and took two things out of it.
The first was his Air Force identification card, which showed his rank: General.
But it didn’t reflect his current assignment.
For that he also pulled his Pentagon identification card.
He held it up for Edwards to see.
It read:
General Lester G. Mannix
Air Force Chief of Staff
Beneath the words were four stars.
The general adopted a kinder tone, as though he were a father counseling a wayward son.
“Now then, Captain. You seem like a bright young man. Let me test your knowledge of the Air Force rank structure.
“Exactly how many people in the United States Air Force outrank the Air Force Chief of Staff?”
“Um… none, sir.”
“Very good. Now, who has the higher rank… a four star general or a colonel?”
“The general, sir.”
“Very good. Now then, son. You have a very critical decision to make. And unfortunately it’s a decision that will follow you the rest of your life. I suggest you choose wisely.
“I am giving you a direct order to release General Swain. Then you are to take these two colonels into custody. They will be tried for treason.
“And before you make your decision, Captain, I will tell you the Secretary of Defense and the new President of the United States are also in this line and will back me up if necessary.”
Captain Edwards felt as though he were going to pass out.
He looked at Wilcox almost apologetically.
Then he made his decision.
He nodded to the security detail, who removed the handcuffs from Brigadier General Swain.
And applied them instead to Colonel Wilcox and Colonel Medley.
-13-
As Marty Hankins and his group drove through a heavy snowfall to the mine it occurred to him he was going to catch the mine’s residents totally by surprise.
He hadn’t coordinated the visit, or the delivery of seven bodies.
If he’d thought of it, he’d have notified Mark and Hannah of his plans when he’d delivered young Charlotte Hennessey and left her there under their care.
But it had slipped his mind.
It wasn’t like he didn’t have a world of problems and issues filling his thoughts already.
He could have called ahead and told them of his plans by radio.
But there was no guarantee Charlotte wouldn’t be close enough to Debbie’s radio to hear the conversation. And he wasn’t sure it would be a good thing to hear her closest friends were loaded unceremoniously into the back of a truck for transport.
So yes, showing up unannounced in such a manner was a definite violation of protocol.
He’d spent several hours with Charlotte as they slowly drove through the winter muck to the mine.
He’d gotten to know her pretty well during those few short hours, and she struck him as a strong and dynamic woman.
But despite her strength she was also frail and damaged.
And not just physically.
Marty suspected the emotional damage done to her by the whole affair would far outweigh the frostbite she’d suffered to her feet.
She’d spend the rest of her life blaming and second-guessing herself. She’d wonder whether her friends would still be alive if she’d done things differently.
If she’d driven more carefully.
If she’d stayed with the van instead of setting off in the snow.
Something Charlotte had said to Marty on that long drive kept popping back into his head and was bugging the hell out of him.
She’d said, “If I never set out last night, if I’d just stayed with the van, I could have prevented their deaths. We’d have seen you coming down the highway this morning and flagged you down. And we all would have survived.”
He tried to convince her that wasn’t the case. That if she had stayed behind she almost certainly would have nodded off to sleep just as the others had. And then there would be eight bodies instead of seven.
But she didn’t want to hear it.
She had a bad case of survivor’s guilt.
Marty knew her friends meant a lot to her, and wanted to find a way to give them a dignified burial.
That was impossible, of course, in a world where the ground was now frozen and topped with several inches of ice and snow.
But there was another way.
Hannah once told him that Mark and Bryan’s mother Phyllis died while the group was in the mine after the Saris 7 collision.
Like now, it was impossible to bury her, and the family’s religious beliefs prevented her from being cremated.
At first they were at a loss. Then someone… Hannah never said who, suggested that a body covered with salt would not decay, but would instead mummify.
They wrapped Phyllis Snyder in a simple white sheet and placed her upon the floor of the mine, in the back of an unused bay.
Then they covered her with powdered salt, which was easily obtained from one of the mine’s walls.
For months, until they broke out, the salt mound was a convenient place for loved ones and friends to visit and commiserate and to pay their respects to Phyllis.
After breakout, the ground thawed and Phyllis Snyder was the very first person buried in a small cemetery in the back of the compound.
They started a new tradition by planting a tree in her honor, to serve as a grave marker and to carry on her life in another way.
In her case, it was her favorite tree: an apple tree.
Others buried there since were given their own trees and Sarah had taken it upon herself to survey all the compound’s residents to find out what tree they wanted to be remembered with.
It was a rather macabre question, but nobody minded.
The new world was much harsher than the old one and everyone knew they were lucky to be counted among the survivors.
They also knew that nothing was guaranteed in the new world, and there were no assurances they’d still be around next week or next year.
Marty wanted to honor Charlotte’s friends in a similar manner.
But he dare not voice the idea over the radio.
He knew that Charlotte was under Debbie’s care.
Probably not constantly, but certainly as her needs and condition required it.
That being the case, there was a good chance the two of them – Debbie and Charlotte – were together as Marty and his group approached the mine.
She’d have to be told. Marty was well aware of that.
But hearing about it over the radio wasn’t the way. And Debbie, the camp medic, was always on call and always wore her radio on her hip.
As he approached the mine Marty called in to request entry, just as he’d done a hundred times before.
But this time was different.
Not only because of the precious cargo he carried, but because he was unexpected.
And he wasn’t alone.
During the daytime, when the search parties were out, the overhead door was manned with an operator and a security guard.
Now, because all the searchers had finished for the day and because it was dark outside, the door was unmanned.
Marty’s call came into the control center.
“Control, this is Marty. Can you have someone open the door for me?”
There was a hesitation, and then Bryan responded from the security console.
“Um… stand by, Marty.”
Marty understood the delay, and wasn’t offended.
From all areas of the mine several others came running. Mark and Hannah, Karen and Sami.
Mark asked Bryan, “What in heck’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Marty’s outside wanting to get in.”
Hannah said, “Look at monitor 7. He’s got people with him.”
Mark said, “Holy crap. Did he use the duress signal?”
“No.”
The duress signal was to be used in the event a driver was held at gunpoint in an effort to gain access to the mine.
If the people in the truck with Marty had taken him hostage, for example, he wouldn’t have asked for entry in the normal way.
He’d have said, “Can somebody let me in? I’ve got a load of water and beer.”
Mentioning water and beer would be an indication he was under duress. The door would be opened, but not until the people inside the mine got weapons and took up firing positions.
They didn’t have a clue why Marty was there or who the men were, but they trusted him. If he didn’t use the signal, then he wasn’t under duress.
Bryan said to Rusty, “Go let him in.”
-14-
At the same time, though, Mark and Bryan didn’t appreciate Marty just showing up at the mine unannounced with strangers in tow.
Yes, Marty was a good friend who’d risked his life more than once for them.
Yes, he was a trusted ally.
But this breach of protocol… well, it was uncalled for, unless Marty had a damn good reason.
Mark said, “Bryan, stay on your toes. We’re gonna find out what in hell is going on.”
With that he followed Brad briskly through the mine’s main corridor toward the overhead door.
They arrived just as Rusty pushed the button and the massive door began to rise.
When Marty’s face came into view Hannah could sense immediately that something was wrong.
Marty was usually jovial. She was always greeted with a smile.
But this time he looked like he lost his best friend.
He pulled into the entry bay and turned off his tractor, then applied his brakes.
He stepped from the cab onto the mine’s floor and his passengers followed suit.
He introduced everybody.
“Hannah, Mark, this is Al Shanks, the mayor of Eden. Richard Sears, our chief of security, and Bill Brady, one of our militia members.”
Mark said, “Marty, it’s not cool to just show up here without us knowing you’re coming. Especially when you bring guests.”
“I know, Mark, and I hope you guys will forgive me. Hear me out and let me explain myself.”
Mark said nothing and Marty took that as a cue to continue.
“We conducted an investigation to find out how in the world Charlotte and her friends got turned away and sent off to die.
“When I got back to Eden I was determined to find out who was responsible. I was so angry I wanted to strangle somebody with my bare hands.”
He choked up. This was hard for him. Much harder than he imagined it would be.
“It turns out it was all of us. I was just as complicit. And now I feel lower
than dirt. I am just as guilty as anyone for their deaths.”
Hannah reached out to him and said, “I don’t understand, Marty. You aren’t making any sense at all.”
“When the sky went dark and the air got cold again we hurried everyone into the prison.
“We told everyone we thought we had enough provisions for all of them for the duration of the freeze. But that since we didn’t know how long the freeze was going to last we couldn’t be completely sure.
“We put restrictions on what people ate and how much so we could stretch our supplies as long as possible.
“At the same time we expected a lot of people to come knocking at our door wanting shelter.
“We set forth a blanket policy to turn away anyone who came to the prison wanting in.
“We were afraid of two things. We were afraid of what we called Trojan horsemen: men who came in pretending to be friendly, for the purpose of rising up against us when we let our guard down so they could take over the place.
“We were also afraid of bringing in so many other people we wouldn’t have enough stores and we’d run out of food or water before the thaw came.
“So we set up a policy and demanded it be strictly enforced.
“No one was to be granted shelter. They were all to be turned away.
“We shouldn’t have been so hard core. We should have understood that there might be extenuating circumstances.
“We’ve had a lot of time to think about it. How we could have placed some flexibility into the process. How we could have considered each situation case by case.
“Hannah, it should have been obvious those young women were frightened and vulnerable and of no threat to us.
“If we had the chance to do it over again, we’d have invited them in. Given them a warm place to sleep and hot food to eat. Then we’d have decided as a group what to do with them.
“We might have decided as a group to invite them to stay.
“If we didn’t we certainly would have helped them in another way. Hell, I’d have piled them all in my tractor and given them all a ride to a shelter in San Angelo before I let them go out on their own.
Final Dawn: Book 12: Where Could He Be? Page 5