by Robert Boren
“You don’t see eye to eye on much, though, do you?” she asked. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be asking personal questions like that.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s not a problem. We had a falling out about twenty years ago. We weren’t openly hostile, but we lost the close friendship. I think this crisis has helped us to bury the hatchet.”
“Well that’s good,” she said. “Did you want coffee?”
“I already had a cup,” he said. “If the US Attorney General’s office calls again, put them through.”
“Really? They still after you?”
“Yes,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”
She studied his face. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t talk about it here,” Hendrix said. “Sorry.”
“That again?” she asked.
“Can’t do anything about it,” he said. “I’d better get back to work.”
She watched him as he walked back, her nerves on edge. What was going on?
Jerry Sutton walked in. “Good morning, boss,” he said.
“Don’t you look chipper.” Hendrix chuckled.
“So do you, actually,” he said. “What happened?”
“I met with Governor Nelson yesterday.”
“About what?” Sutton asked, closing the door and then sitting in the chair facing the desk.
“About my little problem with the Attorney General’s office,” he said. “I came clean. Told Nelson about everything.”
“You told him you will resign if they come out with the info?” Sutton asked.
“Yes,” Hendrix said. “It was a good meeting. We buried the hatchet.”
“You’re kidding,” Sutton said.
“No, not at all, and I’m happy about it, too.”
“So what now?” Sutton asked.
“This stays in the office,” he said, lowering his voice.
“Uh oh,” Sutton whispered.
“Nelson wants me to play ball with the AGO.”
Sutton looked him in the eyes. “You sure about that?”
“You know what a double agent is?”
“That’s liable to get you killed, you know,” Sutton said.
“Just the opposite, I think it’ll keep me alive and in this office after the crisis is over,” Hendrix said. “I’ll be considered a patriot for this.”
Sutton sat silently for a moment, thinking.
“I know, it’s hard to wrap your head around,” Hendrix said.
“You’re right. This is a gift,” he said. “It will give you street cred with the very people who hate our cause the most.”
Hendrix leaned back in his chair and smiled, putting his hands behind his head.
“What can I do to help?” Sutton asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m sure I’ll need you. I expect Governor Nelson to call a special meeting about this. He told me yesterday that he had to consult with his cabinet and certain members of the Legislature. He left me a message this morning that it’s a go.”
“Wow,” Sutton said. “So you’re going to take the Attorney General’s calls now?”
“Yep,” Hendrix said.
Suddenly there was noise outside. Hendrix stood up and rushed to the windows. Sutton followed him.
“Air raid sirens?” Hendrix asked.
“This just a test, maybe?” Sutton asked. “Nothing’s going on out there. It’s more peaceful than normal.”
Maria knocked on the door and rushed in. “What is that?” she asked, eyes filled with terror.
“That does sound like an air-raid siren,” Hendrix said. “I hope the enemy doesn’t have missiles or planes.” He looked upward out his window, into the skies.
“Oh no, they’re going to bomb us?” Maria cried, running towards Hendrix. He pulled her to himself and held her as she trembled.
“It’s okay,” he said, petting her head. Sutton shot him a worried glance.
“Everybody downstairs to the basement!” yelled an officer out in the hallway. “Now! Hurry!”
“C’mon,” Hendrix said, breaking the embrace and taking Maria by the hand. “Let’s go, Jerry.”
“Yeah,” Jerry said. They followed the officer down the hall to the stairs and hurried down two flights, to the lower basement. People were huddled in a long hallway on both sides, more people arriving by the minute.
Holly saw them and rushed over. “You know what’s going on?” he asked.
“No,” Hendrix said. “Hopefully this is just a drill, but I usually get notified about those.”
“You heard what happened in San Antonio,” Sutton said.
“That’s not happening here,” Hendrix said. “This is something else. Here comes Governor Nelson.”
“Kip, Holly, follow me,” Nelson said as he rushed by. They followed him through the long hall, and down a third flight of stairs, officers standing by the stairwell door after they went through.
“Sorry, miss, you have to wait outside,” an officer said to Maria.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be okay,” Hendrix said, letting go of her hand. He looked at Sutton. “Make sure she’s safe.”
“Yes sir,” he said, taking Maria by the arm and leading her to a room off to the left. Others were flooding into that room after them.
Governor Nelson called out. “Everybody come into the situation room, please.”
The room filled up with the leadership of the Texas Government in less than a minute. Nelson’s secretary switched on the TV behind the massive meeting table. The picture came on. Wreckage of a huge city, smoke rising into the air, fires burning everywhere.
“That’s New York Harbor!” Hendrix said.
“Yes, Kip,” Nelson said, on the verge of tears. “Somebody floated a nuclear device into the harbor and lit it off. The lower end of Manhattan and a big part of New Jersey are gone.”
“My God,” Hendrix said, sitting down, his heart pounding. “Are we in danger of an attack here?”
“We don’t know,” Nelson said. “This is a precaution, just in case. We don’t know who did this or why.”
“I’ve got a pretty good idea,” Chief Ramsey said.
Chapter 26 – Clubhouse
Kelly woke with a start, as car horns sounded towards the front of the Fort Stockton RV Park. He sat up quickly, heart pounding.
“Oh no, are we under attack?” Brenda asked. She sat up and looked around in a panic.
“I don’t hear any gunshots,” Kelly said, leaping out of bed. He pulled on his clothes and grabbed his pistol and rifle. “C’mon.”
Brenda was pulling on her jeans and blouse. She picked up her pistol and stuck it in her waist band.
The honking stopped as they ran outside. Curt, Jason, and Carrie were there, looking towards the front of the park. Kyle and Kate rushed over. Nate came out of his rig with Fritz.
“What’s going on?” Kelly asked, looking around.
People were heading towards the clubhouse, many of them openly weeping.
“Something bad happened,” Brenda said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Carrie said. She looked at Jason. “I’ll get Chelsea.”
“You do that,” Jason said. “I’m going to grab the mini-14.”
“What are we doing?” Nate asked.
“Let’s go down to the clubhouse,” Curt said. “That’s where everybody’s heading.”
“Yeah, let’s go there,” Junior said. He took Rachel’s hand. She gave him a look, but stayed with him as he started towards the clubhouse.
“C’mon,” Kelly said. The rest of the group started towards the clubhouse, Carrie and Jason caught up, Chelsea in Carrie’s arms.
“Everybody’s coming,” Kelly said. “Look at all the people. Probably won’t all fit inside.”
Gray and Brushy saw Curt and rushed over. “You know what’s going on?” Brushy asked.
“No,” Curt said. “These are those friends I talked about. Kelly and Brenda, Nate, and Fritz. Junior and Rachel. Guys, these are the
folks we were with back in Sonora. We fought the Islamists together.”
“Mighty nice to meet you,” Kelly said. The others nodded as they made their way to the clubhouse. It was packed with people. There was a huge flat-screen TV up on the wall, showing CNN video of devastation.
“Is that New York?” Brenda asked, eyes tearing up.
“Sure looks like it,” Kelly said.
“Son of a bitch,” Curt said, looking at the fires, smoke and broken buildings.
The announcer came on, but the sound was too low to hear. Moe got up front on a bench and held up his hands. He was a big, overweight man, balding, with a long beard, dark brown with streaks of gray. “Hey, folks, keep it down. I’ll turn the sound up.”
“News coming out of New York City is sketchy at best,” said the announcer. “The incident happened just over an hour ago. All cities are now locking down their ports to incoming vessels, and searching all boats already in their harbors.”
“Shit, somebody floated a nuke into the harbor,” Jason said, face red with anger.
“What happened, daddy?” Chelsea asked, fear in her eyes.
“An explosion, but it was far, far away, honey,” Carrie said. “It can’t hurt you here.”
“This just in,” the announcer said. “Another device has gone off in Puget Sound, near Seattle, Washington. It appears to be a larger device than the one detonated in New York harbor.”
There was a collective groan in the room, some people openly weeping.
“We’re in it now,” Nate said.
“Yep,” Curt said. “You know damn well who did this.”
“Seattle police are working out a way to evacuate as many people as possible. Prevailing winds will probably blow the fallout east, which is going to make evacuations more difficult.”
“Those poor people,” Kate said, tears running down her cheeks. Kyle pulled her close, a stoic look on his face.
“This won’t stand,” Nate said, determination in his voice.
“No, it won’t,” Gray said. His people were gathering around him now.
“What are we gonna do?” Brenda asked, clinging to Kelly.
“Kick some ass,” Kelly said.
“Yeah,” Nate said. “There’s half a million of these slugs in Texas. It’s a target-rich environment.”
“The blast in New York harbor has caused tremendous damage in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. There are no estimates of casualties there, but the numbers will be horrendous, as will the economic impact.”
“The blast in Seattle might have been bigger, but I’ll bet a lot more people got killed in New York,” Nate said, shaking his head. He was trembling with anger.
“If there were two attacks like this, there’s probably more coming,” Kyle said. “Glad we’re not in a coastal city.”
“Anything along Big Muddy might be vulnerable too,” Junior said.
“Yeah, and the Great Lakes that butt up against Canada,” Brushy said. “They’re even more lax about who they let in than we are.”
“You’re right about that,” Kelly said.
“The White House has just released a statement,” the announcer said. “We know who made these attacks possible, and they will pay a heavy price.”
“The way I see it, this was at least partially their fault,” Curt said.
“Be careful,” Kelly said. “I don’t like the Prez, but he didn’t do this.”
“He’s not our president anymore anyway,” Jason said. “We’re a Republic again, remember?”
“Wonder if that’s going to stand after this?” Kyle asked.
“Probably,” Nate said.
A huge explosion went off, some distance away. Everybody jerked their heads toward it.
“What the hell was that?” Curt asked.
The popping of gunfire floated through the air towards them.
“Holy shit,” Gray said. “How close is that?”
“Clancy,” Moe shouted. “Get up on the roof with the binoculars and see what that is.”
A scraggly rail of a man nodded, grabbed the binoculars out of a cabinet by the door, and rushed out, scrambling up the lattice to the roof. Kelly, Nate, and Junior ran outside, followed by Gray and his men, Brushy, Jason, Curt, and Kyle.
“Attack on a military convoy,” Clancy shouted. “On eastbound I-10, maybe half a mile away. They blew up one of the tanks. Looks like they’re trying to steal the others. They aren’t getting much resistance.”
“Yet,” Curt said, running towards his rig.
“I know what he’s gonna do,” Kyle said. “Jason, let’s go get the BARs.”
“Way ahead of you,” Jason said.
“We’re going too,” Gray’s men said. Kelly, Nate, and Junior nodded, rushing behind them.
Kate, Carrie, Brenda, and Rachel stood watching their men run away.
“Dammit,” Kate said. “Should we go after them?”
“No, let them do this,” Brenda said. “But let’s go get our rigs ready to roll. I have a feeling we won’t be staying here long.”
“Curt is gonna ruin their whole day in a few minutes,” Carrie said.
“Yeah, he is,” Brushy said, hobbling over.
“Why?” Clancy asked as he came off the roof.
“He’s got a dune buggy with an automatic grenade launcher mounted on top. Saw that damn thing in action at my park in Sonora.”
“My husband and his buddy have BARs too,” Carrie said. “You think we ought to go get the Thompsons out?”
“Yeah, let’s get them loaded before we get the rigs ready.”
The sound of engines starting spread through the RV Park as the gunfire on I-10 slowed.
Brushy snickered. “The Islamists think they’re home free. I’m gonna go saddle up.” He hobbled towards his space.
Kate and Carrie looked at each other, then at Brenda and Rachel. They hurried back to their rigs.
Chapter 27 – Venezuela
It was late afternoon, Juan Carlos and Brendan getting ready to board their boat. The other crews were getting ready too. Lieutenant Richardson ran to the dock.
“Change of plans, men,” he yelled. “Get your butts to headquarters for a briefing right now.”
“What now, dude?” Juan Carlos asked.
“Don’t know, but it’s something big,” Brendan said. They rushed to the headquarters building and were ushered into the conference room. The TV screen was on, showing CNN.
“What the hell is going on?” Juan Carlos asked, looking at the screen.
“Somebody floated nukes into New York Harbor and Puget Sound,” Captain Jefferson said.
“No,” Juan Carlos said. “My uncle lives in Jersey.”
“Dammit,” Brendan said. “Who did it?”
“They ain’t saying yet,” Jefferson said. “But three guesses.”
“Something else just happened,” Richardson said. “Turn that up.”
Jefferson nodded and grabbed the remote.
“This just in,” the announcer said. “The Port of Vladivostok in Russia has just been hit. The device was larger than the New York bomb. It appears to have been the size of the device detonated earlier today in Puget Sound.”
“Well, it’s not just us,” Brendan said.
“Shit, hope this doesn’t touch off a nuke exchange between us and Russia,” Richardson said.
“Oh, hell, dude,” Juan Carlos said, looking up at the ceiling.
“Settle down, Juan Carlos,” Jefferson said. “I wouldn’t expect any ICBMs to be flying into Falcon Lake.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have yet another report of an attack, this time in Charleston Harbor,” the announcer said.
“Son of a bitch,” Jefferson said.
“Why are we hanging around here?” Brendan asked, face turning red. “Why aren’t we out pounding the bad guys extra frigging hard?”
“Yeah, dude, let’s go get us some,” Juan Carlos said.
“Gallagher asked us to stand down for a little whi
le,” he said. “They’re still patrolling the area with attack helicopters. Don’t want to risk hitting any of us.”
“Did he know about this?” Juan Carlos asked.
“Yeah, he’s the one who told me to turn on the TV and round you guys up. Sit tight. We’ll get some food brought in. Relax.”
“Relax with this going on?” Brendan asked, eyes tearing up now.
“Seriously, dude,” Juan Carlos said.
“Russia has warned China to move its forces away from North Korean border within twenty-four hours, or risk losing them,” the announcer said. “China responded by asking for the UN to take up the matter tonight. The US government has said it will strike quickly, and has told China that it agrees with Russia and will not be deterred by China or the UN in this matter.”
“About frigging time,” Richardson said. “Let’s go get ‘em.”
“North Korea is involved with this?” Juan Carlos asked.
“They probably supplied the nukes,” Jefferson said. “We can tell the source pretty easily after a blast.”
“The FBI is continuing to look at suspicious freighters in US harbors at this hour,” the announcer said. “No official word yet on the identity of the people apprehended at the site of the Baltimore device. The president and key government officials have been moved to safe locations due to that incident.”
“They tried in Baltimore too?” Brendan asked. “That would have nailed DC too.”
“Yep,” Richardson said.
“This is crazy,” Juan Carlos said. “You don’t think they’d float anything like that on Falcon Lake, do you?”
“Nah,” Jefferson said. “Not enough people to kill around here, and they need the entry point.”
“This just in. A small device was just detonated in Ventura, California. This is a harbor that was not considered a threat, so now all of the municipalities with small harbors are on alert, and are searching all boats.”
“You were saying?” Juan Carlos said.
“That’s different,” Jefferson said. “You ever been to Ventura?”
“No,” Juan Carlos said.
“It’s really two cities, Ventura and Oxnard. Huge population.”
“Define huge,” Juan Carlos said.
“It’s about the size of Corpus Christi,” Richardson said, eyes still glued to the TV screen. “Pretty similar in most ways, actually. If I were in Corpus Christi, I’d be getting the hell out.”