“Somebody let him out a long time ago, or he would have starved to death in the cage. Probably a zookeeper who knew what was going to happen and did what he could to give him a chance to keep living.” Stryker stared at the animal with open admiration.
“What do you want to do? We can’t sit here and wait for him to leave.”
“No, we can’t.” Stryker thought it over for a bit and then said, “Start moving toward him at a slow pace. If he doesn’t move by the time we’re fifty meters out, I’m going to have to take him out, I really don’t want to, but we don’t have a choice.”
“Why fifty meters?” Erin asked.
“Those things can over a football is field in six seconds, and one slug is not going to take him down, so I’m giving myself a little cushion.”
“Good thinking.”
“Thanks.”
Erin gently pressed the accelerator down and they rolled toward the big cat slowly. The animal watched them approach with no show of concern, but when they were around a hundred meters out, the big cat roared at an ear-splitting volume and Stryker brought his M-4 up as Erin rolled to a stop.
“My God,” Erin whispered, her face looking pale, “This is turning into one seriously weird day.”
“Come on kitty, get off the road,” Stryker muttered as Erin again started forward,
“We’re getting close,” Erin said nervously.
“I know. I’m going to fire to his side and see if that will move him. If it doesn’t, that is going to be a very large speed bump.”
He aimed carefully, three rounds left the weapon, puffing up dust a meter to the north of the big animal. He emitted another roar, again at a deafening volume, turned and ran up a small rise and disappeared from view.
“Man, that thing can run.” Erin said, sighing softly.
“No shit.”
“I’m glad you didn’t have to kill him.”
“I thought I was going to,” Stryker replied with a relieved tone.
“Why?”
“Those things are at the top of the food chain with no natural predators and I’m guessing they don’t scare easily.”
“Okay, let’s get this done,” Erin said, shaking her head in disbelief, and again accelerating.
“There,” Stryker said, pointing to a low slung four story commercial building that sat on a ridge to the north. “That’s the building.”
She exited the freeway, traversed the overpass and pulled into an empty parking lot.
“Let’s get up to the roof,” Stryker said, after he scanned the landscape in all directions. “You follow me in.” He moved away with Erin trailing a meter behind, walked through the front entrance of what had been a professional building, past the directory, and started up the service stairs.
Four floors later, Stryker found the exit door to the rooftop and they both passed through it and headed for the east parapet of the structure.
“Comms center?”
“Go.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re two klicks east of you and have stopped.”
“Spacing?” Stryker asked.
“Same as before, but they are in one echelon only, not two, concaved shaped with the forward elements in the middle.”
“Distance from the front of the echelon, in the middle, to the flankers on the ends?”
“Close to a thousand meters.”
“Roger that. Let me know when they move again. I will identify the landmark confirmations and get back to you as soon as we have them.”
“Copy.”
Stryker glassed the town below them from west to east go get a general idea of its layout, and then moved to the center of town. He adjusted the focus and saw a large graveyard to the north of the freeway and slightly east of the downtown area.
“What are you doing?” Erin asked.
“I’m identifying the landmarks. We’ll call them in, the drone records the GPS coordinates, and then the comms center will feed the data to the pilots. They will use the GPS data to get to here, and then use the landmarks as the targets for the bomb drop.”
“They can’t just use the GPS coordinates to drop the bombs.”
“Not with dumb bombs, but it will guide them here and we can take it from there.”
“Well, Okay.”
Stryker identified the first terrain feature from which would be the baseline from which to calculate the rest of the landmarks, noted its location, and glassed to the east. He found two more there, one on each side of the freeway, and then used his compass to get the headings of each from his position.
After doing a blistering series of geometric calculations in his head, based upon his estimates of distance of each landmark from his position, and the compass heading, he scribbled notes on a notepad from his messenger bag, reviewed them quickly, grunted his satisfaction, and then reviewed them again.
He handed the binoculars to Erin, saying, “Keep an eye on things while I check this one last time before we call it in.”
Stryker challenged his distance assumptions as he chewed on the pencils erasers, looked again over the parapet, again gauged the distances to each landmark, then sat back and closed his eyes.
He saw it would be one bombing run by two aircraft. One would hit the north and south targets, and the other would fly west to east. Both would fly on almost straight lines over the targets and then again head west. They would release their weapons twice as they traveled over their course. The north/south run would present no danger to him and Erin, but the west to east run could be fatal if the pilot released early.
“We’re going to have to move west of here before they drop, so check out the area around the frontage road and see if you can find any one story concrete buildings within a couple of klicks.
“Got it.” Erin lowered the binoculars, saw the look of fierce concentration on his face, and looked to the west.
“I have what looks to be a small concrete building on the frontage road about a mile away.”
“You sure it’s not stucco?”
“How can I tell the difference?”
“Do you see grout lines between the bricks?”
“Yes.”
Stryker again closed his eyes and saw the numbers he calculated on paper fly by his vision. He stopped them every so often, mentally marked the ones that he doubted, and then doubled back and watched the equations move past again and opened his eyes with a smile.
“We’re good?” Erin asked.
“As gold.”
“What do we do now?”
“We wait,” Stryker replied, digging through his messenger bag and then handing Erin a bottle of water.
“How long?”
“As long as it takes for them to get moving again.”
“Well that kind of sucks.”
“It does, but we’re still alive, it’s a nice day, we saw a lion without paying a zoo entrance fee, so hey, it so does not suck being us.”
Erin rolled her eyes and answered, “The day isn’t over yet.”
“Let’s just hope it gets more interesting.”
CHAPER EIGHTEEN
“The baseline for the strikes is the cemetery just north of the interstate, slightly to the east of the downtown area,” Stryker said to the comms center.
“Marked,” came the reply.
“Secondary is the basketball courts on the same side of the freeway, about nine hundred meters to the east and north.
“Two outdoor courts?” the voice asked.
“Yes, the one to the north has three cars parked in a lot.”
“Got it, and marked.”
“Third is south of the freeway at a commuter parking lot directly south of the basketball courts. It’s around a thousand meters from the second target.”
“Got that too.” The voice replied.
“Last drop has no landmark, but is two thousand meters directly east of the cemetery, which is the baseline.”
“Marked.”
“Repeat targets to
me.” Stryker said.
“Baseline is the cemetery with all other targets calculated from there.”
“Which side of the freeway?”
“North.”
“Confirmed.”
“Second target is the basketball courts to the northeast of baseline and is two basketball courts.”
“Confirmed.”
“Third is a commuter parking lot south of the freeway, around a thousand meters from the secondary target, and the fourth is two thousand meters from the baseline, directly to the east.”
“Confirmed,” Stryker said, finally satisfied. “Any movement yet?”
“We would have told you that.” The voice was mildly sarcastic and Stryker sighed, shaking his head.
“They look to be breaking camp and getting ready to move, but nothing coming at you yet.”
“Let me know.”
“You already said that. Out.”
“Jesus, that guy is kind of an asshole.” Stryker muttered under his breath but wondered if his condescension was warranted. Who knew, maybe he was that good.
Stryker glanced at Erin, who continued to look through the binoculars to the east. Then he stared at her openly.
“Why are you staring at me?” She asked.
“Just wondering if you still want to make babies?”
“Here?”
“Well, they all get made somewhere.”
“Not by me?”
“You don’t like the feel of crushed asphalt on your butt.”
She just stared back at him with a look that conveyed annoyance. A long pause followed, and Stryker looked at here again. A year ago he considered her a giddy girl who was fortunate enough to have a grandfather who enlisted him in the fight to get her and her sister away from sex traders. Now, they were married and she had turned into a magnificent warrior. Stryker wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Everything comes at a cost. She was a warrior by nature, but not by inclination. It bothered him that she was paying the price of moving from the idea of fighting for your life to the reality of it. He wondered how hard that must be.
“Okay, you’re now making me nervous with the silence,” Erin said.
“I was just thinking about how much you’ve changed, and wondering if it’s a good thing or not.”
“Final verdict?”
“It’s a good thing. I wish you never had to deal with any of this and that I could somehow insulate you from it, but that’s sort of a stupid thought and I’m glad you became the bad ass that you are.”
“That was me long before we met.”
Stryker continued to examine her with a frank stare and she was increasingly uncomfortable with it as she glanced away from her binoculars every few seconds.
“Okay, spit it out,” Erin said, rolling to her side and facing him. He continued to stare at her, his expression growing thoughtful and then a grin split his face.
“What is it,” Erin asked in an exasperated tone.
“You.”
“And?”
“I was just thinking how much I love you and noticing that you get this little furrow of skin on your forehead when you are thinking about something or focusing on something. It really is very endearing.”
“Thanks,” she sighed.
“You want to tell me what’s on your mind?” Stryker asked gently.
“So many things, I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“Start with what is bothering you right now.”
She sat upright and stared up at him. He was so large that his shadow surrounded her and blocked the sunlight.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Why don’t these guys give up? They keep coming at us and it doesn’t seem to matter to them how many of them we kill, they just keep coming.”
“Edwards and I talked about that and concluded that we must have something they want.” Stryker looked to the east and then back and Erin.
“Do you have any idea what it is?”
“No, we can’t figure it out.”
“Well, dial it in and let’s just give it to them.” Erin replied.
“It wouldn’t matter.” Stryker again glanced to the east.
“Why not?”
“There’s an old Indonesian folk tale about a water buffalo and a scorpion that meet at the edge of a river. The scorpion asked the buffalo for a ride across the water. But, the buffalo said no because he knew the scorpion would sting him. The scorpion questions the buffalo about his assumption, saying that it was stupid because the scorpion would die too.”
“And the point is?” Erin asked.
“Wait for it,” Stryker replied, holding up one hand.
“For how much longer?”
Stryker ignored her and continued, “So the scorpion gets on the buffalo’s back, and they are midstream when he stings the buffalo.
“‘Why did you sting me?’” the buffalo asked.
“‘Because it’s my nature,’” the scorpion replied.
“I repeat, what is the point.”
“You’ve never seen evil in its purest form. I have. And, I know if we give them what they want, they’ll try to kill us anyway. The hard thing to understand is that they like killing and inflicting pain on others; they love to destroy things and they won’t stop until we kill all of them. It has nothing to do with rational human behavior. It is as much a part of who they are as their eye color or height. In short, it’s their nature and they can no sooner change the way they are than the scorpion can in the parable.”
“Are you saying that they would rather die than give up on attacking us even if we give them what they want?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“That is pretty frightening.”
“We already know it’s hard to win a war with an opponent who thinks dying is a good thing. Think back to the suicide bombers that blew up all sorts of shit. Think of the mentality that would allow you to think its fine to kill yourself if you take some other human beings with you in the process. That’s what we’re fighting here, and there is no compromise or appeasement with these guys. It’s kill or be killed, and the faster you accept that, the better off we all are.”
“Jesus,” she muttered, the furrow returning to her forehead.
“It took me a year to understand that,” Stryker said. “It’s almost beyond understanding, and I don’t comprehend it, but I know that is the way it is, and the best thing to do is not get gummed up with trying to get it. If you do, you are just wrapping yourself in a giant brain fart that will paralyze you.
“So, they will never give up no matter how badly we hurt them?”
“No. The only thing to do is kill them all and not get distracted. If you do, they will take you down before you see it coming.”
Erin wore a grim expression and Stryker again glanced to the east.
“You mentioned your daughter today,” Erin finally said. “You’ve only talked about her once.”
“I did.”
“Does it still hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Explain it to me.”
“When my wife and daughter were murdered, I just wanted to die for the longest time. I guess, in a way, I tried to commit suicide when I went to get them from the hospital.”
“Murdered,” Erin murmured, and then paused. “I guess it was murder, but never really thought of it that way.”
“Of course it was. Nobody who died in the plague chose their fate. It was no different than somebody breaking into your house and killing you in your bed. Nobody had a chance to fight back or had any blame for their death. It was a mass murder that made Hitler look like a boy scout.”
“I guess the magnitude of the die off was so huge that it was difficult to put into any existing category because they seemed inadequate to describe it.”
“I think you’re right about that.” Stryker said it with a flat tone.
“What about your wife and kid.”
“You’re my wife now.”
&n
bsp; “Your first wife.”
“What do you want to know?”
Erin hesitated, unsure of her own feelings, and then said, “I guess I’m a little jealous that you had a love like that before you met me. I guess I want to know what that was like and if you still feel a sense of loss.”
“Of course I do,” Stryker replied without hesitation. “I think about them every day. I mourn them every day, and I will never forget them.”
Erin nodded her understanding, but looked saddened by his statement. “But, you love me, right?”
“Of course. What you have to understand is that my brain isn’t a blackboard. I can’t erase everything that happened to me before you came into my life. My first wife and daughter were the most important things in the world to me for a long time. That doesn’t just disappear when another great thing comes into my life.”
“Why don’t you call them by their names?”
“It’s easier that way.”
They both fell silent again, and Stryker studied her expression. She still looked saddened by what he said, and he struggled to find a way to explain himself better.
“Do you still love your gramps?”
“Of course,” Erin replied, looking indignant.
“And he’s dead. It’s no different with me. It takes nothing away from my love for you, and I am so grateful I found you that I have to pinch myself every so often. But, nothing is ever going to replace that. Maybe you have displaced the pain for me.” Stryker thought it over for a while, and then added, “I’m not really sure what happened, I just know that I am happy to be happy again, and I’m grateful you’re in my life.”
“This is going to sound desperately passé’ on my part, but I still feel a bit jealous. I really don’t want to be compared to a woman I can’t even envision.”
“Look, it’s not like that. I don’t compare you. You are two different and unique people who are both really important to me and I’ll always have something of both of you in my head.”
“But, your daughter made a huge difference?”
“Of course she did. I love her in a way that I’ll never love anybody else.”
Erin saw the expression of anger come to his face after he said it, and watched him stew in it for a long moment before she spoke again. “Is that why you need to kill all these terrorists?”
STRYKER - OMNIBUS: BOOKS 3-5: A Post Apocalyptic Tale Page 29