The others just stared. After a moment, Will said, “Damn, Manny, you’re a fucking Filipino genius.”
Manny just smiled and said, “And don’t you forget it.”
LOUISIANA
JULY 24th
Jim and Susan toured the refinery in Lake Charles with Louisiana Senator Bill Rollins and met with the remaining workers there. Jim told them, “The country has taken the biggest hit we’ve ever experienced. Even the Civil War wasn’t this horrific. You are absolutely essential to getting the country up and running again.
“I know what you’ve been through. I know your losses. I will support you in any way I can.
“I’ve brought several hundred volunteers to help. Please teach them and help them to learn how to do what needs to be done. Most of them are new to your work, but they will be successful because they have to be. We will do our part and do everything we can to support you.”
He and Susan spent an hour meeting the refinery workers and their families. He quickly won them over, but they wanted to be won over. They needed to be. It was the same everywhere Jim had been on this tour.
That afternoon, they travelled to New Orleans where they met the engineers who had managed to keep the pumps functioning. Jim felt encouraged by seeing what they had overcome with few resources.
Later in the day he would be meeting with Governor Jackson, then fisherman from around the area. He said to Susan, “This dog and pony show existence is going to get old.”
She answered, “But it’s incredibly important.”
“I know. I’ll just be glad to get through this year.”
By the end of the day he had another state’s delegation on its way to Las Vegas.
NEAR PORTLAND, OREGON
JULY 28th
In the end, the EMP bomb idea was dropped because it wasn’t necessary. Rob managed to acquire an Apache helicopter, an M1 Abrams tank, and a Light Armored Vehicle from the Marines as well.
They had been in place for five days at an abandoned ranch about 18 miles away from the target. Jamie and Luke had delivered a tank and LAV to the staging area on semi tractor trailers and would join the team as crew in the LAV. Ricky took a dirt bike up to a house overlooking the target from 2 miles away and called in reports over a scrambled satellite phone.
They were able to use a satellite for ground penetrating radar and found that there was a metal tunnel just where Manny predicted. There was also a mine field and hidden machine guns. Stewart was confident that he had found the cameras and electronic defenses, and that they knew where every metal item on the property was, but knew there was always the possibility of a surprise.
Rob reviewed the plan. “We don’t worry about the electronic security. We send in the tank and the LAV and knock on their front door. When the rabbit runs out the rabbit hole, we capture him and his family unharmed if possible, otherwise harmed works for me. Then we interrogate them later for whatever useful intel we might find. Frank, just try not to drive into any holes.”
“No, but I may install a new door for them.”
“Just remember that we don’t want to demolish the place till after we recover the goods.”
“We go at 03:20 tomorrow morning. Is everyone good with that?” Everyone agreed. “Alright let’s go over the plan and look for problems.”
Before dark, Will, Julio, Manny, Matt, and Stewart took a small van and met Ricky three miles beyond the ravine with the hidden exit. They hid the car, donned ghillie suits and hiked in stealthily.
The rest prepared their gear and tried to catch some rest before the mission. Julie and Helen manned the Black Hawk and would provide backup for Rob and Ann in the Apache.
They launched the mission with the LAV and Abrams tank entering just after the Apache took out all the sentries and automated defenses. The tank rolled in first and fired into a hardened pill box hidden in a hill, completely obliterating it and those inside.
They made short work of the security team members who tried to fight. Frank used the PA system they had placed on the tank. “Federal agents! You are under arrest. Drop your weapons and come out with your hands up now. We will use lethal force if necessary. Drop your weapons and come out now.”
Some of the staff started exiting the front of the mansion, looking terrified. “You will not be harmed. Kneel down on the ground with your legs crossed and your hands on your heads.”
Matt called in, “The Rabbit hole is open. Here come our targets. Get ready to take out the security. Ready, fire.” The guards’ heads exploded. Manny stood and yelled at the civilians, “On the ground now.” Simmons’ son reached for a weapon and died instantly from two rounds through the brainstem. The rest followed Manny’s instructions and were soon cuffed with at the hands and ankles behind them and tied together. Manny, and Matt, quickly stripped them naked by cutting off their clothes while Ricky applied duct tape around the mouths and eyes.
Manny reported, “We have all of the targets and are securing the entrance.”
Matt and Ricky stayed with the prisoners and Manny, Julio, and Stewart moved forward. Stewart turned loose the remote control robot and watched the video feed on his control tablet as it went up the hall. “Door is clear!” The three of them ran into the cave and Matt propped the door open.
Rob was flying around in circles looking for heat signatures. Ann noticed three moving toward the ravine. “We have enemy on the ground.”
Rob said, “I see them.” Twenty seconds later the 30 mm machine gun shredded the enemy.
Ann said, “Enemy down.”
Rob ordered over the radio, “The target is ready for pick up.”
Helen flew the Black Hawk to the ravine pad and landed using the spotlight at the last minute, turning it off upon landing. Matt and Ricky quickly loaded the bound prisoners onto the black hawk. Julie tied them all together and drew her knife. Any escape attempts would be dealt with using a blade.
Helen and Julie flew Ricky, Matt, and the prisoners back to the staging area where they loaded them into the back of a semi trailer which they locked from the outside. Ricky and Matt remained to provide security while Helen and Julie drove two of the tractor trailers to the site.
Will, Manny, Julio, and Stewart put on gas masks and took their time working their way through the mansion, running the robot ahead of them. The infrared camera on the robot spotted two armed men hiding behind furniture in one room. Stewart ran the robot into a hall beyond the room and had Julio throw concussion grenades into the room once it was out of range. They ran in and double tapped the men without checking to see if they were still alive or not.
The process was repeated several times until the entire house had been cleared. The staff were searched, cuffed, blind folded, and taken into the house individually for questioning. Rob and Ann watched for another hour then flew back to the staging area to refuel and interrogate the other prisoners. They sent Helen and Julie to the mansion with two of the big rigs and went to work on the prisoners just after they left.
Within an hour, Manny and Stewart had located the vaults and all the likely hiding places in the house. They cut the vaults open to find tons of precious metals in one and the expected art and relics in the other.
Frank ripped open an outside wall with the tank then tore down the non-load bearing walls that had been put up to conceal the pathway to the vault.
Once the tractor trailers arrived and fork lift arrived, they began to move the palates of metals onto the trailers. It only took a couple of hours to empty the treasure into the two trailers. Matt and Jamie drove the semis back to the staging area to drop off the trailers and Julie, and Helen pulled drove in two more empty trailers after leaving a guard watching the prisoners.
While the others loaded the trailers, Julie and Helen borrowed Manny to look for booby traps in the ravine's hidden hangar. They soon had it opened. As expected, the hangar was a full Faraday cage. Inside was a Bell 412, essentially a civilian model of the Huey, except with four blades. There were four retractable w
heels in place on the inside of the skids. They rolled the chopper out.
Julie asked, “Can you fly this thing?”
Helen looked over the cockpit controls. “It’s pretty simple. I don’t see any reason why not. The keys are here, too.”
Julie jumped into the copilot seat looked around and pulled a map out from between the seats. “What’s this?” On the map was a circled spot in a rural area.
Helen said, “That’s about an hour’s flight from here. Very interesting.”
Manny took the tunnel back inside closing and locking the hidden door behind him. Julie jumped into the chopper and Helen started it up. They took off for the staging area once the rotors were up to speed.
"Hey, Julie."
"What?"
"Your dad said we could keep what we found. I'm keeping this bird."
"Seriously?"
Helen smiled. "Oh, yeah!"
The artwork and historical items fit easily into one of the trailers leaving enough space to load the other three trailers with computers and other possible intelligence, and whatever any of the team wanted from the house. There was a small arsenal that Stewart loaded. They cleaned out the kitchen and entertainment rooms. There was a pantry that could have doubled as a warehouse.
A final trailer was packed with as much of the food as would fit, with the rest being left outside, then Frank took great pleasure in blowing the house to pieces with the tank.
Julio asked Frank, “What about the staff?”
Frank asked, “You mean the ones in the vault?”
“You didn’t?”
“Seemed like the thing to do at the time,” said Frank.
Julio shrugged. “Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”
“Amen, brother.”
JULY 30th
Rob had softened the billionaire up most of the day before with questions about the mansion for which he already knew the answers and didn’t really care. This morning he started in asking about the map that Julie had found. When Simmons froze up, Rob said, “I guess it’s time to start on your daughter.”
“NO!”
“Then tell me what I want to know. What’s at the spot on the map?”
“Nothing, it was just a plan B location in case everything went to hell.”
“So what’s there?”
“Food, supplies, that sort of thing.”
“What else?”
“Nothing!”
Rob picked up his radio and said, “Bring in his old lady.”
Ann brought Mrs. Simmons in, still naked and covered in her own urine and fecal matter.
Rob said, “Shoot her.”
Simmons yelled, “No! Please! I’ll tell you anything.”
“Okay now we’re getting somewhere. If you’re good, I’ll turn you over to the FBI and maybe you can try your luck with them. I hear they don’t torture people like I do.”
“Okay, okay. What do you want?”
Simmons was soon spilling his guts about the take-over plan, how he opposed the assassination of the VP, and more. He started offering money and Rob dug the locations of two more caches of precious metals out of him.
The trucks and all of the other vehicles except the Apache and the Black Hawk had left for Flagstaff that morning. He and Ann loaded the bound prisoners into the Black Hawk and flew them over the Ocean. He told Simmons, “Relax, we’re taking you to the FBI offices in Portland. You’ll go to jail and they’ll probably let your wife and daughter go.”
He had Ann take the controls once they were several miles over the ocean. He attached each prisoner’s ankle cuffs to metal ammo boxes filled with rocks and had Ann fly low over the ocean. He removed each of their blind folds then grabbed Simmons by the ear. “Listen to me you piece of shit. I tortured you for fun. I actually didn’t give a shit about anything you had to say. I had your daughter and your wife raped repeatedly by guys with pricks so big I didn’t know they came in that size. You ordered a hit on me. You had one of my men killed, Justin Wang. Remember that name? He was like a son to me. Here’s your reward, asshole!”
Rob dragged Simmons to the side of the cabin so he could see straight down. He then shoved Simmons’ wife out the side of the helicopter. Simmons screamed as she went under. Rob then grabbed Simmons’ adult daughter and repeated the performance. Simmons just kept screaming.
Rob pulled him back in and tied him to the bench. “You’re not getting off that easy you worm.”
Ann said over the headset, “You didn’t tell me he had Justin killed.”
“Sorry, Ann. I wanted my shot at him first. You guys would have killed him too quickly.”
“You’ve got that right, sir.”
“Can I trust you to fly him back to Flagstaff?”
“No sir. I’m killing the mother fucker first chance I get.”
Rob sat at the controls and took the chopper back out over the ocean at five thousand feet and said, “Screw it. You can throw him out as long as you shoot some non vital part first. I want him conscious and in pain for the fall.”
Ann kissed him on the cheek and said, “That’s why we all love you, sir!”
She disconnected Simmons from the bench and rolled him sideways toward the door. She said, "Justin and I were going to end up married someday, you fucking shit." She drew her firearm and shot Simmons through one knee, then again through the other; careful to make sure the bullets would exit his legs outside the aircraft. Then she rolled him out the door. She smiled as she watched his scream accented fall to the water below.
“Damn, I hope that hurt!”
Ann said, “I don’t think you have to worry about that, boss.”
“Let’s go pick up the Apache, grab some lunch, and head for home.”
Once they were at the staging area, Ann took the Blackhawk and Rob flew the Apache. Rob said, "We need to hurry if we're going to catch up with the trucks at the next fuel stop." They took off quickly and were on their way.
Once they caught up with the trucks, they refueled and flew on to check out the site marked on Simmons map. There was a small airfield with a full 10,000 foot runway and a small crew for security. Rob fired hellfire missiles at the occupied buildings from over two miles away, and then flew in fast to wrap things up with the machine guns. It looked like there was enough room in the camouflaged hangars to store a tremendous amount of supplies. He decided not to fire on the hangars. Satisfied that he had killed off all the security, Rob made a mental note to come back and check the field out with the full crew at a later date.
They caught up with the trucks again and were soon refueled. Helen and Julie stayed with the convoy, and he and Ann flew the two choppers back toward Nellis, stopping every couple of hours to refuel the Apache. It’s a gas hog, but I sure do like it, he thought, smiling.
They stopped overnight in Reno and Rob assigned troops at the airport to guard the choppers while he and Ann went to a nearby hotel. Ann insisted on one room with two beds.
When Rob started to protest, Ann said, “It’s wartime, boss. Humor me. Besides, I’m too tired to jump your bones even if I were into old dudes, which I’m not.
When they got to the room, she put a chair in front of the door, used the bathroom, and stripped down to her underwear and crawled into one of the beds and was soon snoring.
After all the criminal things we did today, I’m worried about someone thinking I’m having an affair, Rob thought with a chuckle. He grabbed a shower and followed Ann’s example.
Rob woke during the night to feel her crawling into bed with him. Before he could say anything she said, “You’re not getting laid tonight you perv, so don’t even think it. Shut up and hold me.” A few minutes later he felt her sobbing. He was relieved when she drifted to sleep again. He was out a few minutes after her.
Rob woke the next morning to find Ann showered and dressed, reading a book off her tablet. “Good morning sleepyhead. You were really good last night.”
“Don’t make me spank you, youngster. No wife anywhere wo
uld ever be that understanding.”
“I know,” she said, kissing him on the forehead, “and you were a perfect gentleman. I won't tell if you won't. Now get your pretty ass out of bed so we can go get breakfast and get you back to that wife of yours. By the way, it feels pretty damn good to be rich.”
“Yeah, it’s not too bad… I have a feeling we’re going to do a lot better yet when we check out that airstrip.”
“Maybe next week.”
“It’s a date.”
They arrived at Nellis a few hours later. Rob was happy to get out of the cockpit, but would miss having such an incredible aircraft to fly. He sighed as he turned it over the maintenance crew.
He also turned them loose on the Black Hawk. The crew chief was not happy looking at the chopper. “Sir, this aircraft has been seriously neglected. I’ll need at least a week on it.”
“Take your time and get it right. The President’s flown combat missions aboard this bird.” He left the man standing there with his mouth open.
Rob and Ann reported in to Jim and General Whitman, but left out unimportant details such as the airfield and dropping Simmons into the drink.
“Mostly I think the guy was isolated and didn’t know what to do next. I’m sure he was debating whether or not to bug out before we hit him,” said Rob.
Jim asked, “What happened to him?”
“He didn’t survive long after I questioned him. Looked like cardiac arrest to me. Probably from guilt over what he had done.”
Whitman said, “I’m sure you did us proud. Thank you both for your fine service.” He turned off the recorder and said, “And I’d love to hear the truth someday over a bottle of single malt scotch and a good cigar.”
The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken Page 19