As dawn broke over the 80-foot pyramid radar building, she blinked her eyes open into the cold light of day. It seemed like there were hundreds of soldiers, federal agents and FEMA officials on hand. News crews too, although they had been fenced off beyond the base.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You,” said a familiar voice. “You’ll be just fine. But we’ll need to airlift you for surgery to get that bullet out of you. I got lucky. Mine passed clean through.”
She looked over to see Koz, his shoulder in a bandage. “Koz.” She paused. “Captain Li?”
Koz shook his head, clearly broken up. “Last official casualty of the D.C. attack. But it’s over, thanks to you.”
There was a shout, and a soldier ran up with a phone for Koz. “General Block, sir.”
Koz took the phone and said, “Captain Li is dead, sir. So is Marshall.”
Sachs could hear Block’s shocked voice on the other end. “You killed Marshall?”
“No, sir,” Koz said, looking at her. “She did.”
“Sachs?” Block repeated, even louder.
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
There were more shouts and the snow kicked up. Sachs looked around, bewildered. Suddenly a Black Hawk chopper landed on the missile field. Her body instantly seized up in terror. Then the chopper’s big door slid open and out jumped a tall, thin African-American officer. And right behind her was Jennifer, running toward her.
“Mom!” Jennifer called. “Mom!”
Jennifer ran up to her and embraced her. Sachs cried her eyes out, kissing Jennifer all over, squeezing her until her baby could barely breathe. “Oh, baby.”
Koz had to gingerly pry them apart.
Jennifer straightened and looked over Koz once, then twice, and without disappointment. She must have seen something, because she smiled and saluted him.
Koz returned the salute, and Jennifer gave her mom a big thumbs-up, as if to say that, despite everything that had happened, America was going to be OK.
60
0900 Hours
Three Weeks Later
Looking Glass
Koz sat in the conference room of the Looking Glass plane watching the ceremonies on TV. They were raising the U.S. Constitution from the bowels of the earth where the National Archives once stood, and he noted how regal President Sachs looked as a large crane lifted the indestructible container with the indestructible document into the air. But to Koz it was indestructible only because it lived in the hearts of Americans like Deborah Sachs.
He was so mesmerized by the scene that he didn’t notice his new communications officer walk in. “General Kozlowski
Koz glanced over at Captain Lyndon Han, who was holding his digital tablet and pen out for a signature. Han was no Captain Li, but it wasn’t Han’s fault. Koz signed off the checklist on the tablet and handed it back.
Han nodded at the TV. “Dinner at the president’s again tonight, sir?”
“No,” Koz said, brightening. “I’m cooking.”
As he spoke his BlackBerry buzzed with a text message. Only a few people besides the president were ever allowed to get through to him up here.
“Excuse me, Captain,” he said, looking at the text.
It was from Jennifer Sachs: R u really grilling 2nite? Count me in!:)
He stared at the text for a long minute. He could barely comprehend the tragic, terrible twist of fate that begat a new nuclear family from the ashes of a nuclear attack. He lost himself for a moment, remembering Sherry and so many others who perished in Washington. He should have been one of them, if not for Captain Li. Hell, they all would have perished were it not for Deborah Sachs.
Then his comm beeped with an FYI about a glitch in the VLF extension that he really needn’t worry about and his trance was broken.
“I better have a look at that myself,” he said, taking no glitch for granted since encountering the War Cloud.
As he rose from his chair and stood up, he looked out the compartment window and smiled. The Looking Glass plane was moving up and away above the clouds, its starboard wing reflecting the glint of a new day’s sun against clear blue skies.
THE END
FB2 document info
Document ID: 8e4502ab-d1c6-4f9d-b679-7128f60b18cd
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Document creation date: 19.2.2013
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The War Cloud Page 14