Finally the three SUVs began to slow down. Keene knew only that they had been driving west then north. And though they hadn’t crossed any kind of border station, that meant they were now in Canada. Keene let off the gas and watched up ahead as they turned down another road. He couldn’t see much because the road was blocked by a hillside. He crept slowly to the turnoff. The three SUVs were just ahead, but there were brake lights. They were coming to a stop. Keene pulled the truck over to the side of the road and got out. He checked his watch. The sun would be up shortly. Whatever it was he was going to do, he needed to do it fast.
He checked his ammo and took off walking down the dirt road. After a hundred yards or so, he came around a small bend in the road and saw a house—a cabin, perhaps—nestled up against the hillside in a clearing beyond the tree line. It was probably used for hunting or just a weekend escape, he thought. It was the kind of place you’d bring your family to get away. From everything. Including civilization.
He noted four armed guards outside the house. Two on the porch and two standing fifty feet in front of the house, facing the road he was currently walking down. The tree line was about to give way to the clearing. He decided to hole up there for a few minutes and watch.
After five minutes, another two men came around from the back of the house, both armed. That brought the count to six. And there was no way to tell how many were inside. But a thin, pinkish-orange line began to crease the horizon. He was going to have to move quicker than this if he was going to get in there. He quietly moved down the tree line to the far end of the house. From there, he had a profile view of the property. After assessing the situation for a moment, he decided it would be better to take out the guards in the back first. The others would come around back eventually, looking for them.
He waited until the two guards from the rear went back around to the front. Must be a regular patrol schedule, he thought. This was the third time they’d done it since he had been watching. As soon as they were gone, he shot out from the trees and made his way to the back of the house. He checked his weapon and made sure the sound suppressor was in place. The first guard came around the side of the house. Keene let him get three steps past the edge of the house before he fired. He turned around just in time to see the other one come. Both men were dropped before they knew what hit them. He grabbed the two men’s bodies and dragged them over to the center of the property.
Given the timing of the rotation, the two guards he’d just taken out should’ve gone back around front by now. That meant that the two from the front were probably going to be coming around the back any second now looking for them. He was right. He’d no sooner finished the thought when the first guy came around. Keene took him just as he made the corner. The other one came within moments of the first one.
With all four house guards down, Keene made his way slowly back around to the front. The two men stationed away from the house were still there, unaware their counterparts had run into trouble. Funnily enough, their job was to make sure that people like him never got to the house. Oh well, he thought. That’s what you get for hiring two-bit hacks. He raised his MP5 and sent off four quick shots, two each to the guards fifty feet away, with their backs to him. The men dropped right where they stood. He stood still, holding his position for a good two minutes, just to make sure no one else was going to come running out of the house for him.
When no one came, he made his way silently up and onto the porch. He tried the knob. Unlocked. He turned it slowly and pushed the thing open. Nothing.
Inside, the door opened up into a spacious living area. A hallway led to the back, and a stairway led upstairs. He didn’t see anything so he decided to go upstairs and clear that area first.
At the top of the stairs, there was a small landing area that fed into another hallway with doors lining it. Bedrooms, if Keene had to guess. He checked each one but found nothing. He had the entire upstairs cleared in two minutes.
Back downstairs, he moved down the hallway from the front door. A small kitchen sat off to the right and another room off to the left. Sitting there, at a desk, with his arms folded on top was the man he had come to find. He raised his weapon and stepped into the room.
“Mr. Jon Keene,” the man said. “I wish I could say it is good to see you again.”
“You’re going to need some more guards, Chin,” Keene said.
“That’s General Chin,” the man corrected him.
“Yeah, so I’ve heard. Since we’re playing semantics, it’s General Keene.” He motioned with the barrel of his gun. “C’mon. Let’s go. Get up. Slowly. And keep your hands where I can see them.”
“Once again, you have been a pain in my side,” Chin said.
“Yeah, sorry to rain on your parade.” He pointed again. “C’mon. Let’s go.”
“I assume you have neutralized my nuclear device.”
Keene was starting to get agitated. Was he just going to have to shoot the man right here? “Yes, it’s been neutralized.”
“Pretty smart, you figuring out where we were.”
“It wasn’t that hard, Chin. You guys are pretty predictable. Now, let’s go. Or I’m going to shoot you right here.”
“As opposed to …?”
“As opposed to taking you back to DC and putting you on trial for waging war on my country,” Keene spat.
“Yes, that probably is what your people would like to do. Isn’t it?”
This time, Chin pushed back his chair and stood up.
“But you see, Mr. Keene, this isn’t over. You may have pushed my men back. For now. But do you not understand that we already occupy two-thirds of your nation? And by this time tomorrow, I will have over one million soldiers in your country. It’s only a matter of time before we take the rest.”
One million soldiers? How was that possible?
As if reading his mind, Chin continued. “Your neighbor to the south, Mexico, has been generous in helping us bring our men across. While you and your friends in Washington have been busy trying to keep us out of Albany and the south, I’ve been bringing in troops nonstop for two days.”
The clock in Keene’s head was ticking. And the alarm was about to sound. This was taking too long. He needed to get Chin out of there now.
“You see, Mr. Keene, you have suggested two options here. One, you kill me. Two, I come with you to Washington, and they eventually kill me. I think I’d rather go with option three. You see, I don’t get killed in option three,” he said smiling.
And there it was. The alarm was raging full force inside his head. He felt the man’s presence first. He hadn’t heard him coming up behind him. And he should’ve known better.
He turned, just in time to see the club come at him. It hit him square in the collarbone. Right where the Russian had shot him. White-hot pain shot through his arm and up into the back of his neck as he dropped the MP5 and went to his knees. He tried to catch himself, but it was no use. The second blow was to the back of his head.
He fell face forward and slammed on the hard wooden floor. He heard Chin laughing as his eyes rolled back into his head and the blackness took him.
CHAPTER 80
Nine Weeks Later
Taylor and Boz sat with Director Jennings watching the video again for the fourth time in the last hour. She had used every bit of her knowledge and technology available to determine where it had been shot. But there was just no way to know. Nothing had turned up.
She wiped her eyes and said, “I’m sorry, guys. I’ve been at it nonstop for two days now. There’s just nothing there. I can’t tell you where it was filmed. And even if I could, the deadline is in four hours.”
Boz placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Megan. We know you’ve done all you can do. At least we know he’s alive. We’ll find him. I promise.”
Jennings stood up. “I’m going to go get some coffee. Anyone want some?”
“I’ll come with you,” Boz said. “Need to stretch my legs anyway. Megan, you want
anything?”
She shook her head and wiped away another tear. She wasn’t willing to let it go. She just couldn’t. As the two men left the room, she hit PLAY and watched again, hoping to see something, anything, that would help them.
The camera came into focus on an open field slightly smaller than a football field. The entire perimeter had been wrapped in electric razor wire, and there were armed guards surrounding it. A makeshift prison. Inside the wired perimeter were close to five hundred men, all lined up, all sitting with their hands on top of their heads, fingers interlocked. And sitting at the front of the group was Jon Keene. He looked beaten nearly half to death and had been stripped down to nothing but his boxer shorts—no doubt to show the severity of his wounds.
The scene abruptly changed to an office where General Chin sat, his hands folded across a desk. He cleared his throat and began to speak.
“President Walker, it has been a little over two months now since our engagement. You and your leaders in Washington have shown great resolve these past days. However, we, the People’s Republic of China, have decided that we have successfully completed our mission. We have what we came here for. Our industrial sector has already begun setting up drilling and extraction factories.
“Therefore, we have decided not to continue our advancement against the rest of what’s left of your country. However, there are pockets of individuals, such as the ones you have witnessed. We cannot and will not tolerate this. The People’s Republic of China has conquered this land west of your Appalachian Mountains. We will not stand for insubordination. It is now sovereign Chinese soil and should be treated as such. But we are not monsters either. And because of that we have decided to open our communications and allow you to speak to those of your country who either chose not to seek sanctuary in the east or just weren’t able to. You will tell them to lay down their arms. You will tell them this territory is now occupied by the People’s Republic of China. And you will tell them they will stop this rebellion if they wish to live. Otherwise we will be forced to gather the insurgents and demonstrate our sincerity, as we will now demonstrate for you.”
The camera changed feeds again back to the field. A small gate opened up and four guards entered the field. They grabbed four men sitting next to Keene and brought them forward, so that they were standing right in front of the camera. One of the guards spoke something in Chinese, and then all four fired, shooting the four men in the backs of their heads. Screams from the other men rose up. Several even stood to rush the gate but to no avail. Keene tried to put his hands up in an effort to stop the men, but he appeared to be so weak from his injuries, he couldn’t stop them. Another command was given from one of the guards, and the men who had stood up were also shot. The camera feed changed back to General Chin.
“So you see, Mr. President, we are very serious in our resolve. We will not tolerate any resistance.
“You will speak to your people instructing them to follow our orders. If you do not, we will immediately begin hunting down and eliminating these threats. The first and foremost of these will be Agent—or should I say General—Jon Keene, whom you saw in the compound. We will not hesitate to level entire cities if we need to, in order to spread our message. You have forty-eight hours to decide whether you will comply. Instructions on delivering this message will be made available to you at this time.”
The feed changed once again, and another man appeared. He introduced himself as Yuan Li, the minister of communications for the People’s Republic of China. The video lasted another three minutes as Li gave instructions as to how President Walker was to make his announcement to the American people.
Boz and Jennings returned as the video was coming to a close. Both men sat down and stared at the screen.
“Anything?” Boz asked.
“No,” Taylor said, still trying to control her emotions. “I’ve watched it over and over again. And every time those men get shot—” Her breath hitched. “I … I just don’t know. I can’t find anything.”
“It’s okay, Taylor. No one expects you to,” Jennings said.
Taylor grabbed a tissue from the small box sitting on the desk. “So President Walker is going to go through with it?”
“He doesn’t have a choice,” Jennings said.
“What about the rest of the country?” Boz asked.
“We find a way to move forward,” Jennings said. He looked at his watch and said, “C’mon. Walker wants us upstairs for a meeting before his speech.”
“Us? What for?” Taylor asked.
“Don’t know,” Jennings said. “He didn’t say. Just that he wanted you two there.”
Taylor grabbed her stuff and stood to leave. She thought about Jon again. She hoped that he was okay. She prayed that he would just survive. That somehow, he would get through this, until they could find him and bring him home. She followed Boz and Jennings to the elevator.
CHAPTER 81
The secure bunker had four levels underground. The first two were for general operations, the third was for the command center and a medical wing. The fourth was for housing with one hundred rooms to be used as living quarters and one room reserved for the president.
Taylor stood behind Jennings as he nodded to the Secret Service agent before entering the room. The agent waved them on, and Jennings opened the door. President Walker stood and greeted them.
“Thank you all for coming,” he said. He motioned for them to have a seat.
“What can we do for you, Mr. President?” Megan asked.
President Walker pursed his lips and rubbed his jaw. “You know, not a lot of people think I’m qualified to do this job.”
Taylor looked to see Boz and Jennings giving him the same look she was. The one that said, Yeah, no kidding.
“Doesn’t matter what they think,” Jennings said. “You’re the guy.”
“I may not be as qualified as Calvin, but I’m not an idiot,” Walker said.
Jennings started to say something, but Walker cut him off.
“I’m also not so arrogant to ignore the fact that you all tried to warn me that something like this could happen. But there’s no sense in us dwelling on the past. We have to worry about the future.”
“Yes, sir,” all three of them said.
“So I want you to tell me about this man who calls himself the Prophet. Is all of this connected to him?”
Taylor looked to Jennings, who looked over at Boz.
“We believe so, sir,” Taylor said.
“How?”
Megan and Boz recounted the entire event. From the initial contact that had been made with President Grant, all the way to where they currently sat in his bunker residence.
Walker looked on steadily as they finished. Finally he said, “So what now?”
“No one knows,” Boz said. “The Prophet said he’d find us when the time was right.”
“What does that mean?” Walker asked.
“We don’t know,” Jennings said, echoing Boz’s thoughts.
“But in the meantime,” Megan said, “it would be wise of you to tell the people.”
Walker sat back and folded his arms. “You want me to tell the people of this country that God did this to us?”
“The Chinese did this to us, Mr. President,” Boz said sternly. “God allowed it. Big difference.”
“Listen,” Taylor interrupted. “We’re not exactly on easy street here, President Walker. I don’t know what God’s plan is for us, going forward. But I can promise you, it would go a long way to help us if you told everyone that we need to humble ourselves before Him and ask Him for His guidance in moving forward.”
“In the meantime,” Jennings said, “Boz and Megan are continuing to look for this Prophet.”
President Walker stood up, signaling that the meeting was over. “I have a speech to give in a little while. I better get ready. Thank you all for coming up here.”
Taylor followed Jennings and Boz to the elevators.
President Wa
lker closed the door behind his guests and went back to the sitting area. He reached behind the pillow on the couch and pulled out the book again. The last few days had been extremely hard for him. He had been struggling between resigning and allowing the Speaker of the House to assume the presidency or just toughing it out. He hadn’t made his decision until five minutes ago, listening to Jennings and his two agents.
Just yesterday he had gone downstairs to sit by Calvin’s bed. He and Calvin had been longtime friends. But their relationship had been strained the last few years. They seemed to be as different as oil and water. But Walker still, and always had, respected the man. Calvin was a great leader and a man of his word. He was respected among the American people and foreign dignitaries. Well, except for the Chinese, obviously.
He had been sitting by the bed, just thinking, when Tess, President Grant’s wife, had come into the room. She had been brought here along with President Grant when they first moved everyone. Her residency in the bunker was just a few doors down from his. She came over to him and sat down beside him. They had talked for a little while. She had asked about his family and how he was coping with everything going on. She had been so sweet. Here she was, battling cancer; her husband lay unconscious from a gunshot wound; and she was asking him how he was doing? He had been completely taken aback. And then she reached into the drawer beside Grant’s bed and pulled out his Bible and gave it to him.
“Calvin has a lot of highlighted passages in there,” she said. “Perhaps you may want to look at some of them. I know whenever he has gone through something that has weighed on him, this has brought him through it. Maybe you’ll find it useful.”
The 13: Fall Page 32