Fifty Falling Stars

by Wesley Higginbotham

“No too bad. I’m putting on a new addition next month. Gonna open up a small engine repair area. Let’s go in and I’ll show you.” Will said.

  “There’s a lot of memories in here.” George said as they walked into the garage. “Remember when we used to run around here like heathens and play while grandpa would fix up the cars. Man we used to worry him shitless with all the crap we got into.”

  “Yeah, remember when you broke your arm screwing around with one of the jacks? I thought he was going to whoop your ass before he took you to the doctor…. Man, I miss that old man.”

  “Yeah, me too. You been over to see grandma lately?” George asked.

  “I visited her a couple weeks ago. She’s not doing too good. Her dementia is worse. They moved her into one of those rooms where she has supervision twenty-four/seven. You gonna go by and see her?”

  “I dunno.” George said. “I doubt she would even know that I was there. To be honest, I’m afraid to go see her. It just scares the hell out of me.”

  It saddened Will to hear his cousin avoiding their grandma, but he doubted there was anything he could do about it. Care of his grandma had been the only serious fight they had since they had been adults. Will let it go. Trying to lighten the mood a little, he asked if George wanted to see the ATV he was working on.

  They walked into the garage area. “Looks pretty beat up, but you’ll have it running in no time. So, what’s the hurry on this thing?” George asked.

  “I bought it last week from a guy who wrecked it pretty bad. I’m trying to get it fixed up to take out turkey hunting in a couple of weeks. I talked to your folks and they said I could hunt out on the old place.”

  “Man, I haven’t been out there is years. Hunting was your and grandpa’s thing. I never got into it. I haven’t even thought about that place in a while. Dad set it out in trees didn’t he? After they finished the cabin?”

  “Yeah, Uncle Barry has about a hundred acres set out down there. Should make a good crop when they get cut. That’ll probably go to you or Suzie one day.”

  “Man, what the hell am I going to do with the land? I hardly ever get back down here anymore. I doubt sis and her big shot lawyer husband will want it. Maybe I’ll just sell it to you.”

  “That could work, as long as you don’t try to gouge me on it.” Will said with a smile. “Hey, you want a beer?”

  “Yeah, that would be great.” George said. They walked back into the office area. George turned on the TV as Will went in the back to get the beer. A newscaster began talking about the latest attack. When Will got back, George motioned to the TV. “You been keeping up with this shit? Another terrorist attack on the US. Who would have thought we’d be looking at this many? You think we’ll see any more?”

  “Damn, man. That’s what? The third one since yesterday when they hit the Washington? What happened this time?” Will asked as he handed George a beer.

  “It happened earlier this morning. Apparently some guy ran into a mall in Wisconsin and started shooting up the place. When the cops arrived, he blew himself up.”

  “Holy shit.” Will said. “How many killed?”

  “Oh, it gets better. Apparently this raghead wasn’t working alone. When the cops and firefighters showed up after the explosion, another guy drove a car full of some sort of homemade explosive into a group of emergency vehicles and blew it up. I think they just said the death toll was up to seventy-six.” George said.

  “Good God.” Will said. ”They killed almost two hundred in DC and forty-three in Boston yesterday. What is going on? It seems like they’re attacking all over the country.”

  “Not only that.” George said. “The markets are crashing and Israel and Iran are at war. I was watching the news last night while I had a layover in Chicago. Apparently the Iranians have invaded and taken over part of Iraq. They have been launching more missiles and shit at Israel. They also blew up one of the big refineries in Saudi Arabia. The analysts they interviewed said that could triple the price of oil when the markets open this week. Israel has been fighting back, launching some missiles of their own, but they’re getting blocked by Jordan and Syria from really deploying troops. The whole world seems to be blowing up.”

  “Sounds about like the Biblical end of the world type stuff… Fucking crazy. Anyway, nothing we can do about it. Hey, where you staying tonight?“ Will asked.

  “I was probably going to stay over with mom and dad. Why?”

  “I was just gonna invite you over. We could get some steaks, have a BBQ, play video games, and drink too much beer like we used to before you left.” Will said.

  “Yeah, sounds pretty good. I gotta run back to the house and get some of my stuff. I’ll go do that and head over to your place?”

  “All right, I’m going to run by the grocery store and pick up some stuff. See you there in an hour?” Will said.

  Will was shocked at how little food the grocery store had left. They were running low on everything. The meat isle had been decimated, only a couple packs of hamburger remained. He went back to the office area where he found Ted. They had been on the baseball team together in high school, and Ted was one of the few guys that had stayed around and worked his way up from bagger to manager. He knocked on the door. “Yeah! Who is it?” Ted asked.

  Will opened the door and walked in. “Wow, you look a little worse for the wear there, buddy.”

  “No shit.” Ted said. “Have a seat. Man, things are getting a little nuts.”

  “I noticed. What’s goin on?”

  “The news, bro. The news. It has everyone scared. People are buying up stuff like they do before we get a bad winter storm, or tornado, or something. To add to it, we had a truck that was supposed to come in today and they won’t be here until tomorrow. I just got off the phone with the guy from the distribution center. He’s telling me there is some sort of problem with the shipping companies. He’s talking crazy, saying stuff about how companies can’t afford to ship the food and stuff because the companies will lose money. Guess the gas prices are killing them. He said something about the credit market shutting down and that the trucking companies not being able to make payments. He’s sending me the truck for twice our normal price. I’m not supposed to tell you this, but he said he got a call from one of his buddies up at corporate. They’re saying that the money isn’t going to be good anymore and inflation is going to eat it all up. He said all of their international shippers have cancelled shipments. I think he’s a little crazy, but who knows.” Ted shook his head. “I’m sure it’s all just hype, but I’m just trying to deal with all of that.”

  “Sounds like quite the job. I just stopped in to get some stuff to BBQ tonight. George got a chance to come visit, and I was going to grill something. You’re welcome to come if you want.”

  “Oh, sorry, dude, I can’t. I’m gonna be here pretty late as it is. Leslie wouldn’t like me bailing on her and the girls on such short notice, either. I’ll make the next one. Tell George I said hello.”

  “Will do.” Will said as he walked out of the office. He continued his shopping but didn’t find what he needed. He ended up with some hamburger and a loaf of high-fiber hotdog buns. He wasn’t sure what he would make out of it. He figured it didn’t matter that much anyway. He had a couple cases of beer at home. They may have to just drink their dinner. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  Will had been home for twenty minutes when George pulled up. Will apologized about the poor dinner and explained about the grocery store. George seemed a little worried about all of the panic but didn’t let it bother him too much. They opened a few beers and grilled the burgers. They played the latest football game that had come out for theXBox. Will was down three games to one and losing the fifth when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and answered. “And how is my favorite naughty nurse tonight?”

  “I’m ok, except that I’m engaged to this dirty mechanic.” Jenny joked. “But seriously, I can’t talk long. Things are pretty busy down in the emergency room
, and I might get pulled to go down and help out.”

  “I’ve got some good news.” Will said. “George flew in for the week. He fly’s back to Miami on Friday and he wanted to see if we could do dinner Wednesday night. That ok with you?”

  “He might not be going to Miami on Friday.” Jenny said.

  “Well, he has his ticket all booked and ready.”

  “Oh my God. You haven’t heard have you?”

  “Heard what?” Will asked.

  “There was an attack on the Miami airport a few hours ago. Two guys went into the airport. One went into the entrance and got all the way to the security line where he blew himself up. The other guy went to the arrivals terminal where everyone gets off the plane and blew himself up. When they blew up, a white powder flew everywhere… Will, they’re saying it might be anthrax. Because of where they attacked, hundreds of people are stuck in the airport and may have been exposed”

  “Sweet Jesus, Jenny. That’s just crazy.”

  “What’s crazy?” George asked.

  “I’ll tell you in a minute.” Will said. “Are you ok, Jen?”

  “Yeah.” She replied, her voice shaky. “I’m just scared. They’re saying that there might be more attacks. They might shut down the airports. Will, they’re putting cops to guard the hospital.”

  “Do you need me to come get you? I’ll be there in a few minutes if you do.” Will said.

  “No. I need to finish my shift. I’m going to head out to my mom’s house when I get off. Joey has gotten her all riled up.” She said.

  “Yeah, you know your brother. He’s always been one of those survivalist types. I always thought he was a little weird, but now I’m starting to think he may have been on to something. What’s he got to say about all of this?” Will asked.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him. Mom just called earlier and said he had come by and was trying to get her to get out of town with him. I just need to get over there and see what is going on.”

  “I understand, darling. I’m here if you need me. Just give me a call. Be careful, and I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Jenny said. “I’ll give you a call when I get up tomorrow.”

  Will walked back over to the couch as he hung up. “What was all that about?” George asked.

  Will picked up the remote and turned on the news. The attack on the Miami airport was plastered all over the screen. Will looked back over to George. “Looks like we may need to make plans for keeping you here a little longer.”

  Chapter 5

  Ned hadn’t slept in over thirty hours. As Coordinating Director for the Department of Homeland Security operations center, he managed all of the agency’s communications. Business had surged since Saturday. Terrorists had carried out four attacks in the last two days. He looked up from the report he was reading and saw the clock. It read 0547 on Monday. Rush hour all across the country would start in a couple of hours. He said a silent prayer that the worst had passed, but he doubted it. If the terrorists coordinated their attacks, he expected rush hour to be worse than anything they had seen. An attack at rush hour could kill several hundred people and cause enough fear to grind the country to a halt. Most of DC had already been shut down from Saturday’s attacks. While the low-level radioactivity proved relatively harmless, the heightened security and panic stifled day to day activities. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair to gather his thoughts. A knock on his door disturbed him.

  “Hey, boss.” Bob Gilford, one of his division points of contact, said. “I brought some coffee and figured we might discuss what you are planning for this morning’s brief to the secretary.”

  “Thanks, Bob.” Ned said, taking the cup of coffee Bob offered. “Have any good news for me to brief the secretary?”

  “Not really. Our guys are working on trying to find out who the attackers are, but we’re not having any luck. Passport checkpoints, immigration paperwork, and student visas are all coming up negative. We did get a hit on one of the guys that bombed DC. One of our CIA brothers was able to get with one of his Israeli buds and determine that one of them was a low-level Hezbollah grunt. We’ve got nothing on any of the others.”

  “How the hell did they get in? Someone like that should have set off a shitstorm of warning bells.”

  “Well, sir, they would have only set off alarms if they came by the channels that had alarms in place.”

  “What are you getting at, Bob?”

  “If these assholes came through Mexico or Canada illegally, they wouldn’t have hit any of the alarms.” Bob replied.

  “Are you suggesting that’s what we brief? Shit, do we even know how many or if there even are any more in the country?” Ned asked.

  “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting we put in the brief.” Bob said.

  Ned’s brow fell as he thought about how that would go. “No, Bob. I’m not ready to throw that turd into the punch bowl just yet. You know how sensitive the immigration and border bullshit is. Do you even have any proof that this is where they came from?”

  “There have been a couple of reports that came out of our Border Patrol guys back in 2008 and 2009 that talked about finding prayer rugs and other Muslim stuff on some of the Mexican border smuggler’s trails. I didn’t hear what happened to those reports.

  “As far as how many there are… our CIA, FBI, and even NSA liaisons aren’t coming up with anything concrete. Their best estimates say there are probably another ten or so sleeper agents out there. They are confident, especially with the possible ID on the guy in DC, that these sleepers are tied in to Iran and the war. So far, we haven’t been able to track down any electronic communications, emails, text, or any other damn thing that pinpoints, or even gives a reliable estimate of the number of sleepers or targets.

  ”Jeff’s group is coordinating every possible law enforcement body under the sun to secure possible targets. They have cops and FBI agents on alert guarding hospitals, government buildings, and mass transit points. After the Miami attack, airlines and airports have extra personnel assigned from local police departments and augmentees from the FBI, not to mention anyone even remotely connected to the TSA, to beef up security. I gotta say, though, boss, if we try to keep this up for very long, we may need to tighten the priority of potential targets or call in National Guard resources to help high-risk assets.” Bob said.

  “So,” Ned said, rubbing his temples. “You want me to tell the secretary and other agency heads that we don’t know who they are, we don’t know how many there are, we don’t know what their targets are, we have no fucking idea how they got here, and you want to call in the National Guard? Goddammit, NO!”

  Ned regretted his harsh tone when he saw how offended Bob looked. He took a deep breath, stared at the ceiling, and let out a slow sigh. He looked back at Bob. “Listen, Bob. I’m sorry. I’m just running a little ragged after these last few days. We’re not going to put all of that in the brief, but I would like you to write up some talking points just in case they ask questions that head down that path. We’ll answer as best we can, but we can’t just go putting out unsupported theories out there to this audience.

  “Stop right there.” Ned said as Bob started to speak. “I agree with you, but I’m not ready to fall on that sword just yet. We’re going to stick to the facts and field the questions as best we can. More than likely, everything you said will come out in the meeting; but I need the brief full of facts. How bad is the Miami situation?”

  “Pretty bad.” Bob said. “There were over a hundred immediate casualties in the blasts. We have confirmed that the powder was a cutaneous strain of Anthrax, similar to what was put in the mail on 9/11. We got kind of lucky there since it’s not nearly as deadly as the respiratory strain, but it got everywhere. Some people are definitely infected. The whole place is still under quarantine to reduce further contamination. We have some twenty-five hundred people stuck in the facility. Our hazmat teams have been going inside to deliver supplies, treat those affected,
and separate out those that were infected. They should have everything sorted out by Wednesday.”

  “I guess that’s something of better news.” Ned said. “All right, we have what, four hours until the brief? Get with the other division leads and we’ll go over the final brief at nine.”

  “Will do, boss.” Bob said as he left.

  Ned watched Bob leave. This was going to be bad and they had little to go on. He hoped they would get something solid to give the secretary before the brief.

  At ten till ten, Ned walked onto the main floor of the operations center. The final brief preparations had gone well. He thought he had a decent brief to give the secretary and would avoid too many uncomfortable questions. As he passed by the operations floor on his way to gather the final products for the brief and head over to the secretary’s office, the phones in the center began to light up. He stopped and looked around as Suzanne, his media relations liaison, ran up to him. “Ned, you have to see this, now!”

  “I’m on my way to brief the secretary, Suz. I don’t really have time…” He said as she cut him off.

  “No! You have to see this before you go. We’ve had another attack!”

  “Shit! What do we have?”

  Suzanne barked orders at one of her subordinates controlling the overhead projectors. A live feed from Headline News came on the screen. Hundreds of people poured out of the subway stations in New York City. Suzanne started briefing him. “They’re reporting that there have been several simultaneous attacks on the New York subway system.”

  Ned turned to the person manning the station responsible for police coordination efforts. The man on station was on the phone. Everyone was on the phone now. “What details do we have?” Ned asked the man on station.

  The man asked the person on the other end to hold. “Sir, we have initial reports coming in now. There appears to have been at least four attackers. Bombs have gone off at Lexington Avenue, East Broadway, and 110th Street. We have reports of officers shot at East Broadway. They tried to stop a suspicious suspect when the guy pulled a gun, shot two officers, and ran into the station.