An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4)

by Darrell Maloney

  “He’ll get the next one. Hopefully we can get another one running tomorrow. That’s what he gets for letting you beat him into town.”

  Paul drove home at a crawl, the car window down and his arm out the window, slowly leading his horse.

  “Come on inside. There’s a pretty young filly I want you to meet.”

  Inside the office, Tom’s jaw dropped.

  “Holy cow! Is this the same joint I was in this morning? The one where I couldn’t see the floor because of all the paper and clutter all over it?”

  Dawn said, “It sure is, sheriff. I told you I could swing a broom.”

  “You certainly did, young lady. And you did a fine job. Dawn, this young feller is a good friend of mine and working on being the best mechanic in Texas. His name is Zach. Zachary, I told you she was pretty, didn’t I?”

  Zach turned red. So did Dawn.

  “But don’t get any ideas, little buddy. She’s way too old for you. I’ll bet she’s all of eighteen years old.”

  “I’ll have you know I’m nineteen, sheriff. And soon to be twenty.”

  “And she’s feisty too. Always stay away from feisty older women, Zach. That’s been a policy of mine, and I think it’s the only reason I’ve been able to survive all this time.”

  Dawn shook Zachary’s hand.

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Zachary.”

  “Same here.”

  Tom turned to Zach and asked, “Are you ready to go home?”

  “Yep.”

  Tom tipped his hat to Dawn and said, “See you tomorrow, young lady.”

  “Good night, sheriff.”

  On the way home, Zachary said, “Tom, can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure, son. What is it?”

  “How come you gave the nice car to your deputy? Shouldn’t you drive the best car, since you’re the sheriff?”

  “Well, I could. But a car is a lot like a woman. Once you fall in love with a car, you like to have it around. It almost becomes a part of you. And just because it gets older, or there’s prettier and newer cars around, that doesn’t mean you should give it up for something more shiny.”

  That led to another question.

  “You and my mom… you two are pretty close, aren’t you?”

  “Yes indeed. Your mother is a truly wonderful woman. One of the best women I’ve ever met. But then, you already know that. You’ve known her a lot longer than I have.”

  “Yes. Jordan and I have talked a couple of times about what’s gonna happen in the future. I mean, I know Mom loves you a lot because she’s told me so. And I’ve heard you tell her you love her too. And it’s apparent in all the things you do for her.

  “But I’ve never heard either of you discuss marriage. Jordan told me he hasn’t either.

  “Do you plan to ask Mom to marry you someday?”

  If Zachary was expecting Tom to give a long drawn out answer, or to be evasive, he’d have been disappointed. The usually verbose Tom Haskins answered in a single word:

  “Yep.”

  -51-

  “Charlie Two Five, Charlie Four Six, meet the chief on tac three.”

  Scott and John, miles apart in different patrol cars, switched their radios to channel three.

  “Charlie Two Five here. Hello, chief.”

  “Charlie Four Six. Good morning, chief.”

  “Good morning gentlemen. Where are y’all at?”

  “Military Drive and 1604.”

  “Culebra Avenue and Loop 410.”

  “Okay, let’s split the difference. Meet me at Loop 410 and Bandera Road in ten minutes. I’ll be in the parking lot at the Shell station.”

  Even though they were miles apart, and had no idea what the other was doing, John and Scott both turned their heads and asked their partners, “What in hell did you do this time, rookie?”

  They found the chief, his unit parked, sitting under a tree smoking a stale cigarette.

  John walked up first.

  “You know those things will kill you, chief.”

  “Ah, well, we’re all gonna die of something. Might as well be this as something else.”

  “Is this meeting for the rookies, too?”

  “Yeah, they can listen in. It’ll involve them too, in a round about way.”

  Scott pulled up and got out of his car.

  “You know, chief…”

  “Oh, shut up about my smoking. You two are worse than my wife.”

  “Geez, grumpy much?”

  “Hey, I got some bad news today that I need to share with you both.”

  “Uh, oh.”

  Both men saw the solemn look on the chief’s face and braced themselves.

  “I just came from city hall, where I sat in on the crisis team’s weekly meeting. It’s the one where FEMA and the CDC come to the meeting once a month to give status on the plague.

  “To be honest, for a very long time it’s been all gloom and doom. Last month when they came we were expecting it to ease up a bit, but they said there were a lot of pockets around the city where new cases were still being reported. And then today… well, today…”

  Scott couldn’t tell if he was genuinely hesitating because the news was so dreadful he didn’t want to share it. Or if he was intentionally dragging it for dramatic effect, as authors sometimes do.

  “Today… they finally had the good news we’ve been waiting for. There hasn’t been a single reported new case of the plague in the county in three weeks. That meets the CDC’s twenty day threshold for downgrading us from condition red to condition orange.

  “It also means that the clock is now ticking. Yesterday was day one of condition orange. If we go thirty days without another new case, they’ll declare an all clear and call the plague over with.”

  John and Scott looked at each other, both a little bit stunned.

  Chief Martinez still bore a sad face.

  He went on.

  “John, for you this is good news. It means Hannah and the girls will be coming home soon. Scott, I know it’s good for you too. But you’ve become a fine officer over the last few months. I’ve grown quite attached to you and have come to consider you in the same way as all my officers. Almost like a son.

  “In case you haven’t noticed it, Scott, the boys who go into this line of work are more than just co-workers or friends. They really do become family. There’s a lot of meaning behind the words ‘brotherhood in blue.’ I’m not sure I want to let you go yet.

  “I know you lost Joyce, and that was a terrible thing. We all know. We’ve all been there. But consider something for me, Scott. Maybe with things starting to normalize down here, you might be better off bringing your boys back here. I mean, you’re just a couple of months away from being awarded clear deed on your first property. You can start working on your second one. Hell, in a few years you can own your own block and become a slum lord when the world has money to spend on rent again.”

  The old man had a softness in his voice, which surprised Scott. He’d always thought the chief as being the toughest guy in the city.

  “I’ll give it some thought, Chief. But I don’t see it happening. I don’t have any regrets about helping out here, and I’ve made some great friends. But up north is where home is now. We’ve put a lot of work into it. Even a piece of our souls. And now we’ve shed some blood up there too. I can’t just abandon it like it never happened.

  “As much as I’ll miss all of you, I want to go home again.”

  Thank you for reading

  AN UNDECLARED WAR

  Please enjoy this preview of the next installment in the series,

  Countdown To Armageddon, Book 5

  THE HOMECOMING

  Tom snuck away before daylight, careful not to wake anyone in the house. He waved at Zachary, taking his turn at the security desk, then put on his gun belt and headed out the door.

  Zachary thought nothing of it, of course. He figured Tom was just going into work a little early. He’d done it a dozen times before
.

  He had confided to Zachary a few days before that he’d never known there was so much paperwork involved to being sheriff.

  “I thought it would be like it was in the old western movies,” Tom had told him. “I figured I’d ride up and tell the bad guys to give themselves up, and if they didn’t we’d just have a shootout on main street.

  “And, of course, I’d always win. Just like in the movies. The sheriff always won the gunfights.

  “But this job, this job has so many forms to fill out. I have to fill out a form every time one of my deputies pulls his gun, whether he shoots it or not. I have to fill out a form every time somebody reports a theft. And every time we arrest somebody, even if it’s just for getting drunk and stupid. And then when I let somebody out of jail, another form. Some days it seems like that’s all I do.”

  The last time Zach had seen him leave so early, he’d asked why, and Tom had grumbled, “Heading to the office, to fill out more damned forms.”

  So it was understandable that Zach wasn’t curious at all to see old Tom arming up and heading out so early in the morning. Didn’t challenge him, didn’t even ask why. Merely wished him a good day.

  On this particular morning, though, Tom Haskins had no intention of going into the office. On this particular morning, Tom Haskins had a mission to go on. And he wouldn’t take a posse with him. This was something he needed to do alone.

  He was careful not to tell anyone in the compound about his intentions. They’d almost surely hear about it after the fact, of course. And Linda would be upset. Actually, she’d probably be furious with him, for going to such a dangerous place alone.

  But at least she wouldn’t have to worry about him making it back at that point. She’d rant and rave and probably call him a couple of choice names. But it wouldn’t matter much then.

  His mission would be done at that point, and he’d be back safely.

  At least, if everything went according to plan.

  “I just didn’t want to worry you,” he’d say.

  And she’d eventually calm down.

  It was the first time he’d gotten the old Ford Galaxy over fifty miles an hour in ten years, but he didn’t worry about her. She purred like a kitten and seemed to appreciate getting the chance to run.

  The Galaxy never had air conditioning. Back in the days when it was new, air conditioning was a very expensive option on new cars. It was considered a luxury. Most buyers opted out of it.

  He cranked the driver’s side window down, then reached across the bench seat and did the same with the passenger window.

  After the air was flowing through and keeping him cool, he chuckled to himself, remembering an old joke from his youth.

  One man asked another, “What kind of air conditioning do you have on your car?”

  “I have two fifty five air conditioning.”

  “Two fifty five air conditioning? I’ve never heard of that. How does it work?”

  “I roll two windows down and drive fifty five miles an hour, and I’m as cool as a cucumber.”

  As he put more and more miles between himself and Kerrville, he grew serious again.

  And wondered what lay ahead of him.

  Countdown to Armageddon, Book 5:

  THE HOMECOMING

  will be available on Amazon.com and through Barnes and Noble Booksellers in November 2014.

  If you enjoyed

  AN UNDECLARED WAR,

  you might also enjoy

  ALONE Book 1:

  Facing Armageddon

  Dave and Sarah Anna Speer had been preparing for Armageddon for years. They thought they’d covered all the bases, and had planned for everything.

  It never occurred to them that the single thing they had no control over was the timing.

  Sarah was on an airplane with her young daughters when solar storms bombarded the earth with electromagnetic pulses. Everything powered by electricity or batteries was instantly shorted out and would never work again.

  Dave was suddenly alone.

  He was also unsure whether his family was dead or alive. He assumed that the airplane stopped working and plunged from the sky. But it was scheduled to land in Kansas City at almost the exact time everything stopped working.

  Had they landed in time? Was it possible they survived?

  This is the story of a man facing Armageddon alone. It chronicles the things he does to survive in a newly vicious world.

  It also includes Dave’s desperate and poignant diary entries to his wife. Just in case she did survive, and somehow makes it back to him to find he didn’t make it himself.

  From the author of last year’s best sellers “Final Dawn” and “Countdown to Armageddon” comes a new tale of one man’s journey through hell… alone.

  Chapter 1:

  Dave couldn’t get the tune out of his head. He’d heard it all morning long, off and on, playing quietly in the back of his skull. And it was driving him crazy.

  Oh, it wasn’t unpleasant. It was a happy little ditty. At least it sounded that way. It sounded more like sunshine and smiles, rather than rainclouds and foreboding.

  Finally, he’d had enough.

  “Okay, let’s play a game,” he announced while looking in the rearview mirror at Lindsey and Beth.

  “I’ll hum you a tune, and the first one to guess the tune gets a candy bar when we get to the airport.”

  Sarah looked at him from the passenger seat. With that look.

  “Excuse me, mister? You’re going to get the girls all hyped up on sugar just before I take them on a four hour plane ride?”

  “Not both of them, honey. Just the one who guesses the name of the song.”

  “Uh… no. If that song is still bugging you, just hum it. If any one of us guesses it, you can buy each of us a cinnabon.”

  The girls laughed. Beth gave Lindsey a high five. Lindsey said, “All right! Go, Mom!”

  Dave coughed. At first he had no words.

  Then he found some, and stated the obvious.

  “Why is it okay to get all three of you hyped up on sugar but not okay to do it to just one of you?”

  “Because you know I have a thing for cinnabons. And I’m the mom. So that makes me the boss.”

  Lindsey broke out in uncontrollable laughter from the back seat, and Beth said, “Ooooohhh, Dad, you just got owned.”

  “I don’t know if it’s worth it. I mean, those things aren’t cheap, you know.”

  “Oh, we know, don’t we girls?”

  Two heads nodded up and down behind her.

  “But, Dave, they are soooo worth the price. And I’ll give you a bite. And think how sweet I’ll taste when you kiss me goodbye.”

  Beth made a gagging sound.

  “Besides, if you want us to help you with that song, you have to pay the piper. It’s only fair. And if you don’t, it’ll continue to drive you crazy for days. Maybe even the whole week we’re gone. And we’d feel so bad for you if that happened.”

  “Yeah, you’re just oozing with sympathy for my plight.”

  Sarah smiled and blew him a kiss. She was even more gorgeous now than the day they’d met thirteen years before. It suddenly dawned on him that he was an incredibly lucky man, to have such a beautiful wife and family. And that the price of three cinnabons wasn’t that great, in the grand scheme of things.

  In other words, he played right into Sarah’s hands. She knew he would, as soon as she let the kiss fly.

  “Okay, here goes.”

  Dave started humming the tune that had played in his mind a thousand times since the previous evening.

  It took the three of them no more than ten notes. They’d have been “Name That Tune” champions in another era.

  All three of them blurted out, almost simultaneously, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

  Then Dave felt incredibly stupid.

  “Of course. How could I have not known that? The old Mr. Rogers theme song. Sheesh! Now I really feel dumb.”


  Sarah said, “Did you know that Fred Rogers was a Green Beret in Vietnam, and wore his red sweater to hide all of his tattoos?”

  Dave scoffed.

  “Where did you hear that?”

  “On the internet. Why?”

  “That story’s been going around for years. It was debunked a long time ago. Mr. Rogers was a fine man, but he was never a Green Beret.”

  “Oh, yeah? Where did you hear that?”

  “On the internet.”

  It was too much for Lindsey.

  “Gee whiz, would you two stop believing what you read on the internet? Nearly all of it is garbage.”

  She turned to her little sister.

  “Do we have to teach these old people everything?”

  Beth said nothing but nodded her head decisively. She was in firm agreement.

  Dave was a man of his word, and after the family checked in at the ticket kiosk and Sarah and the girls got their boarding passes, they made a beeline to Cinnabon.

  “Daddy, are you going to walk us to the gate?”

  “No, honey, I can’t go through security without a boarding pass, so I’ll walk you as far as I can and then you can give me a great big hug and a kiss.”

  “I wish you could come with us.”

  “I know, sugar. I wish I could too. But with two of the guys being sick at work, they just can’t let me take vacation right now. Uncle Tommy will understand, and we can go fishing another time. And you’ll be so busy helping Aunt Susan get everything ready for the wedding, you won’t even have time to miss me.”

  “Bet I will!”

  Sarah looked at him longingly. They were going to be apart for their twelfth anniversary. It would be the first one they’d missed.

  It was as if he could read her mind.

  “We’ll do something special when you get back, I promise. We’ll get a sitter and go spend the weekend at the lake. Just the two of us.”

  “I’d like that.”

  He walked the three special ladies in his life to the TSA checkpoint and got his hugs and kisses.

  He held Sarah close and told her he loved her.

  Little Beth rolled her eyes and said, “No mush, you two.”