Computer Capers

by Dan Kelly

  As much as Hollingsworth disagreed with him, he had to begrudgingly respect him for his dedication to the cause and intestinal fortitude. There was more to the man than tough talk. “You do what you want to do and we’ll do what we want to do.”

  This put Feldman into another emotional dither and he came at Hollingsworth swinging. Of course Hollingsworth’s temper flared even higher than it was already and they got into it hot and heavy.

  Hollingsworth got in a couple of real good punches, putting Feldman up against a wall with a bloody nose and a gash over his left eye. For a minute everyone thought it was all over as Feldman made no attempt to strike back, but suddenly Feldman reached down to his right ankle and came up with the gun everyone had forgotten he always carries in an ankle holster. In one smooth motion, the gun was in his hand, aimed at Hollingsworth’s chest and fired twice. Hollingsworth fell to the floor dead.

  Before Feldman can point the gun at anyone else, Zadikoff grabs a heavy lead crystal glass vase setting on a nearby table and swings it at Feldman’s gun hand, sending the gun flying. Baltzinger picks it up and uses it to hold off Halkias and Feldman as he and Zadikoff follow the instructions and surrender.

  When they are apprehended and cuffed, the Lieutenant asks about the shots that were fired. When he hears what had happened, he calls the President immediately for instructions. He relays the information that Baltzinger and Zadikoff gave him and says, “Sir, it sounds like this guy is primed to blow up a city. What do you want me to do?”

  “Giving into these cretins is out of the question. Is there anything you can do to prevent this Feldman from tapping that key?”

  “We can’t see inside the villa very well so a sniper can’t get a clear shot. We don’t know where they’ve positioned themselves. The only thing I can think of that might work is we break some windows, toss in some tear gas and flash grenades and storm the place through those same windows as soon as we toss in the grenades. The villa has no second story so there’s no place for them to run to avoid the tear gas. We’d have to enter through the windows because the doors are too thick and we don’t have a battering ram. The tear gas will make it difficult for them to breathe, the flash grenades will blind them and the police and soldiers clambering in through the windows shouting at them to get down on their bellies and put their hands on their heads will scare the daylights out of them. They should be overwhelmed, disoriented and distracted long enough for us to grab them or shoot them before this guy remembers to tap the key or can even find his keyboard.”

  The President response was silence. The lieutenant said, “Sir, did you hear what I said?”

  “I heard you, Lieutenant. I’m just kissing my ass goodbye in case I make the wrong decision.” There was another silent pause and then the President bit the bullet and said, “Do it.”

  The lieutenant couldn’t help laughing and said, “Your country is lucky to have you as their leader, sir. A lot of men would fold under these circumstances. I don’t think I’d like to play poker with you. You’d always play the cards you’re dealt and call everyone’s bluff.”

  Unfortunately, the pot in this game was enormous and the President felt like he was holding two pair, aces and eights, the dead man’s hand. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to have a lot of blood on my hands.”

  Five minutes later, the assault begins. Seven minutes later a whimpering and quivering Basil Halkias is subdued, but disaster strikes when Feldman refuses to surrender. Feldman picks up the vase Zadikoff hit him with and starts to toss it at a soldier coming through a window and the soldier shoots him twice in the chest. As he is falling to the floor, he slaps one hand to his chest in agony and he reaches out with the other and slaps the keyboard, hitting the key that begins the launch sequence for six LGM-30G Minuteman-III nuclear missiles in silos at Minot AFB, North Dakota. He’ll never know the outcome of his last ditch effort. He’s dead seconds after his hand slides off the keyboard and follows his collapsing body to the floor.

  The President is notified by the commanding officer at Minot AFB of the launch and the President asks, “Can’t they be intercepted?”

  “This is being done as we speak. Our Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system has launched anti-ballistic missiles to intercept those launched from here. However, there’s no guarantee that we will be able to intercept all of them.”

  “Where are they headed?”

  The commanding officer hesitated and the President said, “Spit it out man. Where the hell are those damn things headed?”

  “Towards our East Coast, sir. That’s all I can tell you right now. I’ll know for sure in about five minutes.”

  “Shit! Those missiles travel so damn fast when we do know what their targets are there won’t be enough time left for a warning to do any good.”

  A few minutes later the President has his answer. Two of the missiles are headed for the White House, two for the Pentagon and two for the Capitol Building. The ABMs take out five of the missiles, but one gets through to its target, the Capitol Building. Unfortunately, the Congress is in joint session with no absentees. In the aftermath, nothing can be found to indicate what was there. The city has been decimated. Structural damage throughout the city is wide spread and the civilian death toll is horrendous. Those that survived the original blast will have serious radiation exposure problems to deal with. Many more will die in the coming days. The fallout will spread to neighboring states, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia for sure, adding to the calamity.

  The President and his family, his cabinet and other advisors were able to flee to a bunker beneath the White House that is designed to withstand a nuclear attack. They are uninjured, but the nation’s capital and the country as a whole is in serious need of healing. The road to recovery is going to be long and hard. An entire new legislative branch of the government has to be established and new political alliances have to be formed and battles fought. The President’s thinking, “Maybe this time we’ll get it right.”

  Chapter 76

  -Chicago-

  Several days later, the Sentry crew is sitting around their conference room table dissecting everything they have done since getting involved with The Last Resort, looking for things they could have and should have done differently.

  Joel asks Hank, “Why do you think the President didn’t order the disabling of our nuclear arsenal until we put The Last Resort out of business?”

  Before Hank could answer his cell rang. Looking at his caller ID he says, “I don’t know, let’s ask him. Hi, Ira, you’re on the speaker with my staff. Where are you calling from?”

  “Air Force One. I’m heading for an underground command post in Colorado where I’ll be working for a while until another White House can be built somewhere free of nuclear contamination.

  “I’m calling because I wanted to thank you and your people for everything you did to defeat The Last Resort. Once again, General, you served your country extremely well. When some kind of normalcy is restored, I intend to award each and every one of you the Presidential Medal of Freedom for your contributions to the downfall of that menace.”

  “You don’t need to do that, Ira. We didn’t do what we did for medals. We did it because we love our country with all its faults.”

  “I know that, Hank, but it’s the least I can do. The American people will never know what you have done for them because of your requirements to keep a low profile, but I know so don’t you give me any static you hear?”

  Quite humbly Hank mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Now I’ve got to get a move on. You take care, all of you.”

  “Before you go, sir, I’ve got a question. Why wasn’t any attempt made to disable our missiles before these screwballs could carry out their threat?”

  “The short answer is ineptness, including mine. In typical D. C. fashion, the powers that be couldn’t agree on whether they should do it or not do it, how to do it and what sites to do it at. That failure is something I’ll take to the grave with me.”
I’m this country’s leader. I didn’t lead. I followed the crowd and did nothing.”

  There was a pause as if the President was thinking of saying something else then he hung up.

  Barbara said, “He shouldn’t blame himself for what happened. That was a tough call to make, deciding who was the more imminent threat, our enemies who have been poised to make a nuclear strike if the opportunity presented itself or a bunch of fanatics determined to make a point with a nuclear weapon so they could overthrow our government. Hind sight is always twenty-twenty.”

  Joel said, “When The Last Resort first came on the scene, I didn’t think much of our President. I thought he was just another politician looking out for his own interests, everybody else be damned. I was wrong. He’s proved himself to me that he’s the perfect man for the job. As for his Vice President, I sure hope nothing happens to Weinstein.”

  * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  It only took a month for Halkias, Baltzinger and Zadikoff to be indicted, arraigned, tried and convicted of entering Italy illegally. Jail time was waived because the Italian authorities knew what was waiting for the trio when they were extradited to the U. S., but they were slapped with enormous fines, enough to keep the city of Rome in wine and spaghetti for years. Unfortunately for the people of Rome, the money would be used to cover the cost of the joint sweep searches and the amount paid for punitive damages would wind up in government coffers.

  When the trio arrived back in the States, they were indicted on a myriad of charges and the legal process was going to take months to run its course, but it was a foregone conclusion that these men would never again eat at a fancy restaurant or stay at a five star hotel. Their accommodations for the rest of their lives were going to be something considerably more austere, an 8’x10’ cell with a metal bunk covered with a thin mattress and a metal toilet and sink to take care of their daily ablutions. When Feldman launched those missiles, their hopes for leniency by cooperating blew up with the nation’s capital.

  Lorraine Caldwell is turning out to be Hank’s major link to the President as getting in touch with him directly is nigh unto impossible these days. His plate is overflowing with demands for his time from every quarter. He’s had to declare martial law in many parts of the country because when word of the missile attack on the capital hit the streets there was bedlam everywhere. Local community police department resources were already stretched to their limits before that disaster, but when the devastation of the country’s capital spread throughout the land the local police departments everywhere became ineffectual.

  When martial law was first declared, it only added fuel to the fire of civil unrest. The people viewed it as an attack on their basic freedoms to assemble, to voice their opinions and publicly express their discontent.

  The clouds of doom and gloom are now beginning to dissipate however. The rioting and looting has lessened considerably over the past few days as news of the defeat of The Last Resort filters through to the masses, alleviating a lot of the panic, but law and order is still very tenuous in many communities. If conditions continue to improve over the next couple of weeks, the President is planning to begin turning law enforcement back to the communities. He desperately needs to spend more time on the process of rebuilding the government and restoring America’s confidence in its government and in achieving its dreams.

  Lorraine told Hank that soon after Halkias, Baltzinger and Zadikoff arrived back in the U. S. a big brouhaha broke out in the United States Attorney General’s office over whether or not these yahoos should be charged with treason as the death penalty would be an option if they were. The noes reasoned that since none of the accused personally killed anyone, their crème de la crème mouthpieces would probably have the death penalty taken off the table. They also referred to Section 110 of Article III of the Constitution of the United States which states, “It is declared that:

  “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open Court. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason."

  The yeses countered with, “If a nuclear attack isn’t an act of war, what the hell is?”

  The yeses and noes were on the brink of a brawl when the yeses finally relented.

  Upon hearing all this Hank remarked, “Their trial is going to make the O.J. Simpson fiasco look like a coffee klatch spat.”

  Several months later Hank’s prophecy has become a reality. As law and order throughout the country is being restored and daily life is returning to normal, the nation’s TVs are tuned into all of the channels covering the trial. The trial is the main topic of conversation whenever people get together closely followed by what’s going on in the political arena with the special elections for 535 new political hopefuls to the United States Congress, 100 senators and 435 representatives.

  Hopefully, these neophytes will have learned something from what motivated the seven men of The Last Resort to take such drastic action to correct what they thought had gone wrong with America.

  Chapter 77

  -Maui-

  Once again, Joel and Barbara have taken some time off to enjoy the ambience of Hawaii’s beautiful islands. In fact, at this very moment they are relaxing in the exact same spot on West Maui’s Kaanapali Beach they were in when The Last Resort started their cockamamie quest to save America from itself.

  As they are lying there soaking up some rays, Barbara suddenly grabs Joel’s cell phone and, clutching hers in her other hand, runs into the water, dives under a breaking wave and resurfaces sans cell phones. Trotting back to her beach chair she plops down and says, “I’m not taking any chances with this vacation. If some other nut wants to start something, I don’t want to know anything about it.”

  As if he understands everything she just said, Midnight gives a loud woof and then settles back down to resume his snooze. Their exuberant laughter releases the last pockets of tension that have built up over the preceding months and, looking at each other the way two people who are crazy about each other do, they start thinking about other ways to make this a vacation to remember.