by David Capps
The first real sign of recovery was the announcement that three steam locomotives had been saved and restored. Transportation of goods and people was the next rising priority. The second announcement came from Alexis DeVille and her steel mill in Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie. She had iron ore and other materials, but the coal reserves had burned during the meteor storm. All that was left was a huge pile of cinders. She needed coal and was willing to pay top dollar for it. People started to bring her coal in wagons and wheelbarrows. Alexis stated that the first product of her steel mill would be railroad track.
The train route from the coal mines in Kentucky to the steel mill in Ohio was the next priority. Men recovered train track from badly damaged sections of railroad and carried them by hand for days to get the track to the new section. Mile after mile, the first steam locomotive inched its way closer to the steel mill in Ohio. Coal cars, recently repaired, were added each day as the hope of the New America was being built one day at a time. In mid-February, the track was complete to the steel mill and the furnaces were fired up for the first time since the meteor storm. The steam locomotive was turned around and the cars were loaded with new train track from the mill. The remaining section of track to the coal mines was completed by mid-March.
In Duluth, Minnesota an ore freighter had survived the meteor storm and took its first short voyage into Lake Superior. The fuel oil burners had been converted to operate with firewood. Deemed sea-worthy, the loading of iron ore began for its journey to the steel mill in Ohio. Without automated equipment the loading of iron ore by hand continued through the rest of the winter months. As soon as the ice on the Great Lakes broke up, the freighter embarked on its first delivery to Ohio. The freighter full of iron ore and the train full of coal arrived at the steel mill on the same day: April third. People treated it as a new National Holiday with celebrations and cooking festivals. America was coming back.
* * *
John gathered me, Tia, Ed and Major Samuels into the communications room.
“I have received word that the President has come out of his underground city in Virginia,” John said. “Needless to say, he did not receive a warm welcome from the people.”
“No surprise there,” Ed replied.
“What is a surprise is that he wants to meet with us, me in particular,” John said. “We have a place and time set.”
“It could be a trap,” Major Samuels said.
“I’ve considered that possibility,” John replied. “We will have enough of our own people there with weapons that I think we should be all right. That’s also one of the reasons I want Carl to come along with us. He’s our early warning system, and with his recent skills, he can give us an insight into what the President is thinking. If anyone doesn’t want to go, now is the time to say so.”
John looked around at us. We were enthusiastically in. “Okay,” John said, “We leave tomorrow morning at sunup.”
As the sun broke over the eastern horizon, we rode our bikes over to John’s private hangar for his Lear Jet 45. John had two 10,000 gallon tanks of jet fuel in his hangar. After the plane was fueled, we boarded and took off for the east coast. We landed at a private air strip in Virginia, controlled by our people, and we continued by car from there. The meeting took place on the top of a gentle hill in what used to be a National Park. Our people were gathered on the western side of the hill and the President’s people were on the eastern side. As we drove up to the meeting place, two cars left the president’s group and we arrived on top at the same time. We got out of our car as the President and his entourage got out of their cars. The President was surrounded by six large Secret Service Agents who clustered around him, forming a human shield. To my shock, General Strom was there with him.
“You must be John,” the President said as he offered his hand.
“I am,” John replied without offering his own hand in return.
The President smiled and let his hand fall to his side.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” the President said. “You have done a great job of pulling people together and getting them working again. I admire that kind of skill and dedication.”
John stood there waiting. I looked at General Strom, wondering if he would recognize me. He didn’t. Then I began to realize why the General was there. He and the President were first cousins. They grew up together. They were working together; they always had.
“We can accomplish a great deal of good by working together,” the President said. “I want you and your people to be a part of my new cabinet. Together we can lead this world into a renaissance and prosperity that will benefit everybody.”
“The whole world?” John asked.
“Of course,” the President replied. “We have the banking expertise, the heads of all the major corporations with all of their resources and the military to back it all up. We are going to be the ruling council of the world. There isn’t anyone who can effectively oppose us, and you are going to be a crucial part of the global power structure. So what do you think?” The President smiled at us, glancing from one person to the next, trying to get a read on us.
“I think,” John replied, “that there isn’t a person alive in this country who doesn’t know that you betrayed them, that you lied to them, if not directly, then through your agencies. Every person alive knows you hid in your underground city and left them all out here to die, alone and without any real warning.”
“There’s a way to explain all of that,” the President said. “We have the best PR people on the planet. You need the wealth and experience of our heads of corporations and our bankers. You need our resources.”
“Actually, we don’t,” John replied. “We’ve implemented some new laws. Corporations are no longer a valid form of business. The only form we allow is cooperative, where all of the profits are returned to the people the business serves. Banks are no longer allowed to charge interest or any other fees. Property is no longer taxed, neither is any type of income. There is a simple tax only on non-essential purchases. Food, medicine, shelter and energy are all tax free.”
“Look,” the President said. “I understand what you’re trying to accomplish. These are very noble ideas and I want you to succeed with them. But in the very near future, you’re going to discover that the world just can’t work that way. I am offering you a very important position in a world that does work, where you will have everything you desire: money, power and control. I can’t hold this position open for very long. I am going to need an answer from you, if not now, then soon.”
“No,” John said emphatically. “You are a pariah. You have forfeited your right to lead. Now go and crawl back under your rock. We have nothing to discuss.”
“I understand your anger and your frustration,” the President said. “You need time to think this over, discuss it with your people. Get back to me within forty-eight hours by radio and let me know we have a deal.”
The President was smiling again and offering his hand. John turned and walked away with the rest of us behind him. After we got back in the car John said, “Carl, what do you think?”
“I think he’s a very dangerous man,” I said. “You can’t trust him.”
“I agree,” Ed said.
“Well,” Major Samuels said, “we should be good for the next forty-eight hours, anyway. After that, who knows?”
“He doesn’t really care about anyone but himself, does he?” Tia asked.
“He cares about what he offered us,” John replied, “money, power and control. The sad part is that he believes those are the only things anybody cares about. Nothing else registers in his mind as having any importance whatsoever.”
I explained who General Strom was and why he was with the President. We rode in silence back to John’s Learjet 45 and boarded for our return flight to Denver. We had climbed to our thirty-four thousand foot cruising altitude when the co-pilot came back into the passenger cabin.
“I’ve got a migraine,” he said. “Anyone wan
t to sit in the cockpit with the captain?”
“Sure,” Tia said as she started to get up.
I felt that anxiety return that warned me something was coming.
“I better go,” I said. “Tia, you need to stay back here.”
“Look,” Tia replied, “just because we have a relationship doesn’t mean you get to order me around.”
“It’s not that,” I said. “You wanted me to share; I’m sharing.”
“What do you mean, you’re sharing?” Tia asked.
I glanced over at Ed. He had a puzzled look on his face.
“I mean like the night the meteor storm started,” I said. “That kind of sharing.”
“The Frankenwolves?” Tia asked. “What’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, “I just know I need to be up there with the pilot.”
Both Tia and Ed had alarmed expressions on their faces. John looked puzzled. I walked toward the cockpit. I stopped at the door and turned around.
“You need to keep your seatbelts on,” I said.
Tia cinched her seatbelt tight and clamped her hands onto the armrests. She looked terrified.
“We’re swinging to the south to avoid a line of thunderstorms,” the pilot said as I climbed into the copilot seat. “It should add only about twenty minutes to our flight time. You ever fly a plane?”
“No,” I replied, “but I’ve done some time with flight simulators, so a lot of the instruments on the panel look familiar.”
“A simulator’s not really like the real thing,” he said. “You don’t get the physical feeling like when the plane moves.”
“I can see how that would make a difference,” I replied. We continued with small talk as I kept watching the ground below us. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I suspected I would know it when I saw it. A half hour later, I knew what it was.
“We have a smoke trail coming up at us from the ground,” I yelled.
“A what?” the pilot yelled back.
“A smoke trail rising rapidly to the right and front of the plane.”
“Shit!” he said. He grabbed the intercom mike and pressed the button. “Seat belts on tight. Everybody grab on to something.”
He jammed the yoke forward and banked the jet to the right. The source of the smoke trail looked like a small dot, now in the center of the front windshield.
“Near the center of the instrument panel,” he said, “navigational radar, flip the switch to long range.”
I found the control and flipped the switch.
“It’s a Surface to Air Missile,” he yelled, “radar guided. The long range nav radar is the strongest we’ve got. I’m hoping it confuses the missile guidance system, at least a little.”
We were flying down on a direct collision course with the missile. I couldn’t believe he was doing this.
“Shouldn’t we be going in the other direction?” I asked.
“Nope,” he said. “That missile travels at four to six times our speed. We can’t outrun it. It’s designed to follow and hit us. This is the only way.”
At the last split second he jerked the plane to the left. The missile flew right past us.
“That was close,” I said.
“We’re just getting started,” he replied. “Look back and see which way the missile turned.”
I looked back through my side window and didn’t see anything of the missile. “I don’t see anything,” I yelled.
He glanced out his side window.
“It’s swinging around to the left,” he said. “I’ve got it.”
We were still flying almost straight down. I looked at the altimeter. It was spinning counterclockwise. I looked at the ground slowly approaching us. That’s when I saw the second smoke trail.
“Second missile, dead ahead,” I shouted.
The pilot looked at the second missile and glanced back at the first one.
“Okay,” he said, “this is where it gets a little dicey.”
“A little dicey?” I shouted as I gripped the armrests as hard as I could.
“That’s right,” he said quietly, “come to daddy.”
This guy had to be nuts. Again he jerked the plane to the left at the last fraction of a second before we collided with the missile. He glanced back at the first missile again and then at the ground.
“Second missile turned to the left?” he asked.
I looked out my side window again. “Nothing there, just like before,” I yelled.
“Okay,” he said as he swung the plane further to the left, “did you see where the missile was launched from?”
“Yes,” I said, “the roads form a grid with one diagonal road, where the diagonal road crosses the river, upper side. That’s where it came from.”
“Got it,” he said. “I’m going to swing back to the right. The missile should appear in your right rear window. Let me know as soon as the smoke stops.”
“Smoke stops?” I asked.
“These missiles are propelled by solid fuel. When the smoke stops they’re out of fuel. They can maneuver some, but they can’t fly up.” He banked the jet to the right and I watched as the missile came into view.
“Okay!” I shouted, “No smoke.”
“Perfect,” he said.
The ground looked like it was coming up rapidly now. He started pulling back on the yoke as the plane struggled to pull up. I looked back at the first missile.
“Getting closer! Almost here!”
The plane leveled with the ground and started to climb. I looked back at the first missile and it disappeared from view behind the plane. A few seconds later the plane was jarred by the shock wave from the explosion.
“Return to sender, boys,” he said. “Where’s the second missile?”
“High and behind us,” I said. “What did you mean, return to sender?”
“Timing was good,” he said, “it hit the launch vehicle. They won’t be shooting anything else at us.”
“Okay,” I replied, “but what about the second missile?”
“Like I said, this is where it gets a little dicey,” he replied. “Turn the nav radar off.”
I found the switch and flipped it to OFF.
He dove the plane toward the ground and leveled out with less than a hundred feet between the plane and the ground. He began swinging the plane around trees trying to lose the missile. It wasn’t working. The missile was closing in fast.
“Come on, dammit, where are you when I need you?” he shouted.
I looked over at him, wondering what he was looking for.
“There,” he said as he swung the plane to the right. Ahead was a line of high voltage transmission towers. The wires had all been knocked down by the meteorites, but the towers were still standing. He glanced out his rear window again.
“Yes,” he said as he banked the plane hard to the left. He flew just above the ground swinging the plane around the power transmission tower. The missile’s radar locked on to the steel frame of the tower instead of the jet, exploding as it hit dead center on the tower.
The pilot gently started climbing back up to cruising altitude.
“Okay,” I said, “just where in the hell did you learn to fly like that?”
He smiled. “John picks his people carefully,” he said, “I flew A10 Worthogs in the military. We were trained to take out tanks and SAM launchers. Most of the time you didn’t get to fire your missiles at the launchers until you dodged one of theirs first.”
The spinning in my head finally reached my stomach. “I gotta go,” I said.
I climbed out of the copilot’s seat and ran for the lavatory. I opened the door and threw up into the toilet. As I knelt there heaving my guts out, Tia came up behind me.
“Move,” she said. I held on as best I could and moved out of her way.
She puked as well. We sat there taking turns heaving into the toilet. I looked over at Ed, John and Major Samuels. They seemed fine. Finally Tia and I stopped and wiped ou
r faces.
“So,” she said quietly, “when we get to go somewhere for a first date, no rollercoasters.”
“Deal,” I replied.
John motioned me over. “Do you think the President wanted to shoot us down?”
“It’s General Strom,” I replied. “The DIA has a lot of assets including its own weapons. My understanding is that the DIA budget is substantially larger than the CIA’s. Or at least it was.”
“Would the General act without the consent of the President?”
“Look,” I said, “they’re two peas in a pod; they work together like a right and left hand. I told you these were horrible people. This is what they do.”
“This isn’t the end of it, is it?” John asked.
“Unfortunately, no, it isn’t,” I replied.
John’s face looked troubled as he turned and looked out the window.
CHAPTER 27
As soon as we landed in Denver Tia stopped in the communications room to see what was up.
“Guys,” she called out, “you need to see this.”
We gathered around the robot’s head and looked at the computer screen. The robot in Tibet was reporting radio transmissions in the Extreme Low Frequency range.
“Content of the radio transmissions?” I asked.
Immediately a long series of numbers appeared, all the same length, in a block pattern.
“Can you interpret this?” I asked.
No guardian appeared on the screen. The message is heavily encrypted and appears to be intended for numerous underwater craft.
Major Samuels looked at the numbers and the length of the message. “Oh no,” he said, “it was bad enough he tried to kill us on the way back here, now he wants all of us dead.”
“Who’s ‘he’?” Tia asked.
“The President,” Major Samuels replied. “Since the missile attack on us didn’t succeed he is ordering the nuclear submarine fleet to complete the job.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“He’s right,” Ed said. “I’ve seen messages to the submarine fleet before when I was a Navy SEAL, and the only reason for a message this long is multiple nuclear missile targets. My guess is that every place that John has a group of people building a new city has just become the target for a nuclear missile strike.”