“Stop!” Cindy shouted. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I swear to God, this wasn’t my fault.”
She locked eyes with Colton. There was something in her gaze besides anger, but it wasn’t regret. It was fear. He guessed Cindy would say anything right now to save her own skin.
Don cleared his throat and then announced, “Cindy and Milo Todd, you have been found guilty by a jury of your peers in the murder of Officer Rick Nelson, the kidnapping of Detective Lindsey Plymouth, and the attempted murder of several police officers. Estes Park, Colorado, and the United States of America is under martial law, and the punishment for your crimes is death.”
“We never even had a trial!” Milo shouted.
Cindy lowered her head, sobbing uncontrollably, snot flowing freely from her nose.
“The Estes Park administration reviewed the case and found you guilty of the crimes I just stated,” Don said. “That’s the law now.”
“Do it!” someone shouted. Colton turned to see Kyle, the thirteen-year-old son of their neighbors, punching the air with his fist. “Hang them!”
Don raised a hand, and the crowd quieted.
“We all know the country is at war,” he said, his voice booming over the park. “A war that we will only survive if we deal swiftly and violently with our enemies. There will be many tough decisions from here on out. Some of them won’t be popular. Others will be questioned. But Cindy and Milo made their decision, and they will receive their justice.”
“Please,” Cindy begged.
“Father Nolte will now say a prayer,” Don said.
Colton saw Frank’s lips moving, but he only heard bits and pieces of the prayer. The crowd continued to watch in silence. A mother in the front covered her son’s eyes, and several people walked away.
Cindy continued to beg for her life, but Milo just stared ahead, his gaze vacant and withdrawn. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and a wet spot had blossomed around his crotch.
In Afghanistan, Colton had once towered over a Taliban soldier that was on his back, leg busted and torso full of bullet holes. The man was going to die, and he had known it. The body did some awful things when that happened.
Frank finished his prayer and looked to Don.
“Do you have any final words?” Don asked.
“I’m sorry,” Cindy cried. “I’m sorry.”
Milo sneered, suddenly snapping out of his stupor. “You’re all going to burn in hell for this.”
Don looked at Gail, and she nodded. “Proceed, Officer Hines,” he said.
Colton couldn’t believe it—Don didn’t even have the guts to do this himself. He had asked the younger officer to do it instead.
Officer Hines climbed the ladder behind the makeshift gallows and slipped bags over their heads. Frank made the sign of a cross again, held up his Bible, and recited the Lord’s Prayer in a trembling voice.
Hines looked back at Don, who nodded. After a moment of hesitation, Hines kicked the stools away one at a time. Cindy and Milo dropped, the ropes tightening around their necks. Legs still shackled, they squirmed and jerked like frogs.
Somewhere in the crowd, a baby starting crying. Colton turned to see Rick Nelson’s wife in the front row. She was holding her crying daughter in her arms, staring at the two hanging bodies with complete hatred.
Colton forced his gaze away and left before the Todds stopped kicking.
***
Charlize and Albert approached the double doors to U.S. Northern Command side by side. It was just after nine o’clock at night, but she felt wide-awake.
According to the doctors, she had been taken down by a combination of things: an infection, low blood sugar, and fatigue. She’d needed a few days of rest—and her body had made the call to shut down. The new antibiotics were helping, and despite the constant headache, she was starting to feel better already. Once he’d been convinced that Charlize was going to be okay, Albert had given her another frank chat about not listening to him when he’d tried to take her to the medical ward.
Two Marines came to attention as Charlize approached the double doors. The man on the left pushed them open to the two-level room beyond, which was currently buzzing with activity. It was the same basic setup she had seen in the PEOC and on the USS John Stennis. Monitors fed images of hotspots around the United States. On the right wall was the feed from a video camera inside a Humvee rolling down a highway.
Two more monitors displayed aerial footage from helicopters, and a third showed checkered farmland somewhere in the Midwest, all of it burning. There were a dozen other monitors showing views of highways clogged with vehicles, refugees, and destruction.
So this is what’s been happening while I was asleep.
President Diego stood at the central table next to General Thor. He drank coffee from a mug with the presidential seal on it while Thor briefed him.
Colonel Raymond, Thor’s second in command, jogged up the steps while Charlize observed the room. He stopped at the top of the stairs. “Please follow me, Secretary Montgomery.”
“Colonel, have you gotten any closer to finding out where Fenix is holding Ty?” she asked.
“No, ma’am, but it’s a large area and we only have one bird in the area right now. Most everything that was at Buckley AFB was killed in the EMP blast, but we’re moving some working aircraft there.” He paused on the step below her and looked up. “From one parent to another, we will find your son. I’ve got my best team working on this.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” she said.
The reassurance was exactly what she needed to prepare for her first briefing since leaving the USS John Stennis. President Diego held up a hand when he saw her, but he didn’t smile. He stepped away from the table and met her at the bottom of the ramp.
“Good to see you back on your feet, Charlize. A lot has happened since you were out,” Diego said. “Follow me.”
“I’ll be right here, ma’am,” Albert said. He smiled. “Always.”
Charlize smiled back at him. He had done so much for her over the past week, especially after losing Clint. She owed him her life. When the time was right, she was going to get him to open up—and maybe even get him to start calling her by her first name—but not until he was ready.
Thor walked with them to a conference room tucked back in a corner of the room. Inside, a long table furnished the narrow room. A dozen military officers and civilians glanced up from the folders in front of them. Charlize only recognized a few of the faces.
“I’d like to introduce you all to the Secretary of Defense, Charlize Montgomery,” Diego said.
“Hello,” Charlize said, raising a burned hand. She took a seat next to Diego and he passed her a folder marked Confidential. She cracked the seal as Thor began speaking.
“Good evening, everyone. We have a lot of ground to cover. I’ll start with an update on the North Korean threat. As you all know, the USS John Stennis was attacked and destroyed. We lost some good men and women, but the enemy sub was also destroyed. The bad news is we think there is another one out there. Colonel Raymond will explain what we’re dealing with in a few minutes but first, let’s talk about the recovery efforts here in the United States.”
Thor turned to a wall-mounted monitor and waited for it to come on. A map of North America appeared on screen.
“This is the EMP blast umbrella. As you can see, it extends to the borders with Canada and Mexico, in locations marked in red.”
Charlize had seen a similar map four or five days ago, but she was shocked to see that the red EMP umbrella extended well into both neighboring countries.
Thor switched to another map, this time of just the United States. “This is the radiation zone,” he continued. “We predicted twenty-five percent of the population would perish in the first two weeks. Those numbers were low. Reports coming from the Midwest are higher than originally projected. Add to that the chaos in our major cities, and we’re looking at thirty percent. We’ve also had difficulty setting up the Surviv
or Centers for logistical reasons.”
“Recovery is my main focus,” Diego cut in. “We’re receiving lots of support from our allies across the pond, but we can’t count on much assistance from Mexico or Canada, due to their own situations. I’ve readjusted our military assets to protect the convoys moving the generators to the radiation-free zones in the States. Our goal is to protect those populations and get the power back on in places we can still save.” He glanced at Charlize. “Now that you’re back on your feet, I’d like you to help with this effort.”
“Sir, all due respect, but our main focus should be destroying the North Korean submarines and any forces they may still have lurking out there,” Charlize said. “That’s why I gave the order to deploy HSM squadrons before I left the USS John Stennis. Can someone tell me what we have deployed right now as counter measures on top of my request?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Raymond said.
Several people shot what might have been judgmental glares at her. She didn’t exactly blame them. An entire team of Marines and a valuable helicopter had been sent to find her son, and here she was talking about re-prioritizing the main focus of the government.
“My point is that we can’t afford to be attacked again,” Charlize clarified. “The recovery efforts depend on our ability to prevent another attack.”
Raymond finished thumbing through a folder and pulled out a sheet of paper. “We’ve added four P-8 Poseidons and three squadrons of F-18 Super Hornets to the hunt. We’re casting a wide net and will find the remaining sub eventually.”
“Eventually?” President Diego said, frustration rising in his voice. “Charlize is right. We can’t afford to be attacked again. I don’t understand how some archaic old junker submarines are slipping through our net of detection.”
“It makes me wonder if they are having help,” Charlize added. “The sub will have to surface to refuel and charge their batteries.”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s true, but it’s possible they refueled without detection, or that they refueled before getting close to U.S. waters. Our best chance will be catching it with radar on the surface, or seeing its snorkel,” Thor replied.
Charlize felt like a hypocrite for her next order, but it was the only way to protect the United States. “Mr. President, I would highly encourage you to consider reallocating some of our remaining aircraft, specifically F-18s, just like you are readjusting military assets to protect the convoys. We need as many aircraft involved in the hunt for this final sub as possible. There’s no telling what the North Koreans still plan to do after the kamikaze stunt they pulled with the USS John Stennis.”
Diego thought for a moment. She half-expected him to ask her if ending the air search for her son was part of that order, but he simply nodded and said, “Make it happen, Charlize. If there is anything else you need, just say the word.”
“Thank you, sir,” she replied.
“What’s next?” Diego asked.
Thor gestured toward a thin man in a white lab coat with a red goatee and short-cropped hair to match. “This is Doctor Peter Lundy. He’s our leading scientist, with a PhD in electrical engineering and a second PhD in physics. Secretary Montgomery, you will be working with him closely.”
“Hi, everyone, and welcome, Secretary Montgomery,” Lundy said. “As many of you know, I’m the manager of this facility. Constellation was designed to protect the United States from a catastrophic event. Using new technologies, we’re laying out an ambitious plan to get the grid back up in the following locations over the next twelve months.”
The radiation zones on the main screen vanished, and circular areas marked with SCs bloomed across the screen.
“We’re focusing on two Survival Centers in each state while we work on getting the grid up nationwide,” Lundy continued. “Each SC will be designed to support populations of one hundred thousand people. That’s—”
“Two hundred thousand people per state?” Charlize interrupted. “What about everyone else?”
“You’ve missed a lot while you’ve been out,” Diego said again. “The situation out there is dire. This should put it in perspective for you. Go ahead, General.”
Thor typed at the laptop in front of him and then pivoted his chair to face the main screen. On the screen, a team of soldiers was running down a highway clogged with vehicles under a bright sun.
“This is a team of Navy SEALs at a checkpoint on Highway 75 outside of Miami,” Thor said.
The feed wobbled and then leveled out as the SEAL with the mounted cam stopped and climbed onto the hood of a sedan. Standing there, he roved his helmet from left to right, providing a wide view of the road. Humvees with soldiers in turrets were pointing their guns at the thousands of refugees slogging toward the barricade.
A gunshot rang out, and the SEAL jumped back to the pavement, sending the feed swooping toward the sky and then back to the Humvees. When he was back on his feet, he flashed a hand signal to his team, and Charlize caught a glimpse of their fatigued faces. She recognized them as the same team that had escorted her to Constellation.
Charlize tilted her head. “I thought these men were holding the line south of Orlando?”
“They were, ma’am. That line has fallen. They’re trying to keep refugees from overwhelming Miami now. This video was taken a few hours ago by Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernandez’s helmet cam.”
He fast-forwarded the feed. Fernandez ran along the shoulder of the road with his team. He shot a glance over his shoulder at the convoy of Humvees blocking off the highway. The soldiers in the turrets had fired into the crowd, knocking men and women down like bowling pins. A group of civilians poured around the vehicles anyway, and the Humvees reversed, the gunners still firing.
Fernandez suddenly dropped to the ground, and one of his teammates reached down and grabbed him under the arm. The chief was gripping his chest with one hand, blood already seeping between his fingers.
The Humvees reversed, and one of them stopped next to Fernandez and his men. The team helped their leader into the truck, and the feed shut off.
“All across the country, similar scenes of chaos and violence are erupting,” Thor said. “Gangs and hate groups are terrorizing cities and roadways. Even ordinary citizens like those you just saw have done terrible things in their panic and desperation.”
“Simply put,” Diego said, looking at each member of his Cabinet in turn, “I’m afraid the America we knew is a thing of the past. When I said my main focus is on recovery, I meant we should focus on salvaging what we can from the ashes and preventing the total destruction of our country.”
***
Ty grabbed onto a stone ledge inside the observation tower. They were somewhere in the mountains, but he didn’t recognize any landmarks. He breathed in the fresh air, which carried a pine scent like the candles his mom would burn in the winter. After being cooped up inside the Castle, he wasn’t complaining about being brought up here, even though it was General Fenix who had accompanied him up the dark elevator shaft.
The wooden box they had ridden to the top of the tower creaked and groaned behind them. Carson stood at the open metal gate and manually lowered the elevator back down using a rope and pulley system.
“Send that back up with our friend!” he shouted.
Fenix placed his elbows on the ledge next to Ty and folded his hands together. He took in a long breath, exhaled, and said, “It’s nice up here, isn’t it, kid?”
Ty didn’t say anything, and kept his eyes on the view. Rays of ghostly moonlight spilled from the guts of clouds drifting across the sky. The light cast a carpet of white over the sea of trees. A waterfall slid down the rocks to the right of the tower, dumping into a stream that wound through the valley below.
“You don’t talk much, do you?” Fenix said. “I don’t blame you. I’m sure you’re scared and probably want to go home, but I’m going to tell you a secret. The world as you knew it is over. That means no more Happy Meals or trips to the toy store.”
“I don’t eat fast food,” Ty said. He kept his gaze on the rocky ledge under the waterfall. Something was out there, moving around in the shadows.
“Whatever, kid. Point is, you’re not going home even if your mom pays up. There’s nothing left out there. You’re going to have to toughen up,” Fenix said. “I’m here to help you with that.”
Carson walked over and raised an archaic looking hand-held video camera. “Don’t mind me,” he said. “I just like home movies.”
Fenix snapped his fingers to get Ty’s attention. “You do know what happened the other night, right, kiddo?”
“My name is Ty, not kiddo, and my mom is going to make you wish you were dead.”
Fenix laughed, but it wasn’t a nice laugh. “You’re a snippy little bastard, aren’t you? Well, let me tell you something, Ty. Your mom is late, so I think we’re going to have to send her another video.”
The cart in the shaft creaked, and Fenix walked over to the gate. Tommy, his arm in a sling, stepped out. He smiled when he saw Ty.
“Hi, General, the doc said you wanted me to come up here,” Tommy said.
“Yup, I have a mission for you, young man,” Fenix said. “It has to do with our friend here, Ty.”
Tommy hesitated before walking out onto the platform. Carson set the video camera down on the ledge.
“Little Mr. Montgomery doesn’t like to talk, and I thought someone younger might have better luck,” Fenix said.
Tommy’s gaze flitted to Ty and then back to the General. “Sure, sir,” Tommy said. “Whatever you say.”
Fenix turned toward Ty. “Would you be willing to talk to Tommy?”
“Um, okay,” Ty said uncertainly.
“What do you want me to talk to him about?” Tommy asked.
“Well, I thought you might explain to Ty about your plan to escape,” Fenix said.
Tommy tried to raise his injured arm to protect himself, but Carson was too fast. He shoved Tommy over the ledge with ease. Tommy let out a cry that echoed through the valley. Three beats later, he hit the rocks below, his scream silenced by the shattering of bones.
Trackers Omnibus [Books 1-4] Page 47