The Great Crime Spike: A Dystopian Thriller Novel (Liberty Down Book 1)

by Eric M Hill

“Yeah.”

  “Who put you up to this?”

  “I don’t know.” Wrong answer! he thought, cursing inside. “I mean, I don’t know their names, but it had to be somebody in the government. They knew everything about us. Every conviction. Every place we did time and for how long. Some of the guys were released from jail to do this. They took me to this place. Gave me a shot. I don’t know what it was, but they said it would kill me in twenty-four hours unless they give me the antidote.”

  “You believe them?”

  “Yeah, I believe ‘em. They gave some guy a shot and made us watch him for a whole day. That’s how they started this thing.”

  “So he died in twenty-four hours?”

  “It was more like twenty-two hours.”

  Ana rebuffed the thought that these predators had no choice but to do this. Maybe someone was blackmailing them. But they had been selected because they were predators. And this one sure as heck hadn’t passed on an opportunity to attack a woman. “You were going to rape me, weren’t you?”

  The predator had never imagined fear this intense. He didn’t want to say yeah, but the coldness of her eyes said that lying may get him killed quicker than admitting to the obvious. “I can’t lie, lady. Right? Yeah, that’s what I was going to do.”

  “And you were going to kill me.”

  The man didn’t want to admit it.

  “Predator, you have two seconds.” She began to count. “One.”

  “Yeah,” he blurted. “I was going to kill you.”

  She glared at him from her sitting position on his belly. The flat side of her knife’s blade bounced up and down against his chest as she thought of the many ways predators had ruined society…how they had ruined her family. How… She stopped. It was too painful to recall.

  “Predator, it’s because of you that I’ve never had the joy of being a real mother. Because of you my little girls have never been little girls. They’ve never had the privilege of innocence. Do you know what they do for fun? They shoot guns and rifles. They throw knives. They set booby traps. They run drills. They practice escape and evasion. They train their minds for hardship and deprivation. They prepare to kill.”

  “Lady—”

  “Shut up,” Ana ordered quietly, more for herself than him.

  Each moment she looked at this predator, she felt more justified in killing him. He deserved it. If she didn’t kill him, wouldn’t he go back to his raping, killing ways? The blood trail of his future victims would lead right back to her doorstep.

  She grabbed her utility bag. She had to leave before she rationalized killing a bound enemy combatant. She pulled out two cloths. One to stuff in the predator’s mouth, and one to tie around his face and mouth.

  “Open your mouth.”

  He did.

  She stuffed the cloth in, and started tying the other cloth around his head. She stopped. Don’t ask him, Ana, she thought. You know what will happen if you hear him say it. That’s not who you are. You don’t want to cross that line. Ana pulled the cloth out of the predator’s mouth. “The people who told you to kill the people in 2282, they would’ve given you details. What did they tell you?”

  The predator craved that cloth back in his mouth. She wouldn’t gag him if she was going to kill him, right? But now the cloth was in her hand and she had a scary look on her face. “Just that five people lived there. A man, a woman, and three kids.”

  “And you were going to kill the kids?”

  “It was them or us.”

  Ana felt something shift downward in her soul and lock irrevocably into place. She reached up to her head and pulled off the wig. “Those are my kids you came to kill.”

  She thoroughly crossed the line.

  Chapter 66

  The girls were trained. Little marines. They’d fight until… They’d fight…until the death.

  The thought horrified Ana. Her girls were little marines, yeah. But combat training and survival skills aside, they were still little girls. Her little girls. Ages six, eight, and ten. Little girls weren’t supposed to be in shootouts. They weren’t supposed to have to kill people. And God forbid, they weren’t supposed to…

  Ana thought angrily of the dead predator. Was it murder? Did the restraints on his hands and ankles make her a murderer? What should she have done? Leave him so he could rape and kill someone else? All so she could have a clear conscience? And how clear would it have been knowing this animal was out there hunting someone else’s wife and children? That predator had put her into a no-win situation. Just as all of them had done to the entire nation. Just as they had done to her and her family.

  She heard the instructor’s voice from the past commanding attention of her mind. Destroy the enemy and waste no time moralizing about it. Every moment you waste wondering whether you did the right thing or not is a moment you are not in control. A marine who is not in control is a liability. A weak link. Weak links get people killed.

  Ana’s mind calibrated itself, fixing her firmly into the deep groove of her rigorous training. She slit the throat of her emotions from ear to ear and took off with her rifle behind the homes and over the fences of her neighbors and away from her own house.

  ***

  Autumn looked warily out of the upstairs window at the approaching firemen. They looked like firemen, but there was something about them that made her feel funny. Mommy had said, “Always ask yourself questions when something makes you feel funny.” Why were they all coming to their house? Then she saw why she felt funny. They had guns!

  Autumn pressed the side of the device around her wrist. It gave off a soft green light. She pressed an image on its face. “Lauren, ten or more enemy approaching from the front,” she said. “They’re dressed like firemen and they have guns.”

  Lauren heard the question mark in her little sister’s voice. “You can handle this, Autumn. Is the regular window up and the emergency window down?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You have your vest on?” Lauren knew Autumn was wearing her protective vest. It would help to remind her.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then you’ll be okay. Remember your training. Fire through the slot and take those targets out just like you do at the range.”

  “Lauren?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Where’s Mommy?”

  “I don’t know, Autumn. Focus and do your job. Mom is doing hers wherever she is. Out.”

  Autumn put the rifle’s barrel through the long, horizontal slot in the hardened glass and put her finger on the trigger. (Her parents didn’t like to use the word bulletproof because it gave a false sense of security.) She looked at the approaching men. She looked at their uniforms. At the firetrucks. She hesitated. They can’t be firemen, she tried to convince herself. But the uniforms and firetrucks wouldn’t release her finger. She started to cry.

  The wrist device vibrated. She looked at it.

  Bravo on enemy flank. Not firemen. Engage when u hear boom.

  Autumn smiled. Mommy! She positioned her weapon on the tripod. Her smile disappeared.

  ***

  Ana was across the street, behind the predators. She hurled two concussion grenades.

  BOOM! BOOM!

  Autumn let loose on the stunned targets. They were still just long enough for her to get clean shots at three of them. They went down. Just like at the range. A fourth fired at Autumn. The bullet ricocheted off the window. The little marine didn’t flinch. She squeezed the trigger. Target down.

  Ana focused her scope on the predators on the fringe. Shot one. Predator down. Shot two. Predator down. Shot three. Predator down. Shot—wait. Predator on the move. Shot fired just after he tossed something onto the porch. Predator down.

  BOOM!

  The force of the blast demolished the entire porch and tore a huge, raggedy opening in the home. The door and part of the living room wall was gone. Ana froze. Her maternal instinct momentarily shutting down her military training. But only momentarily. Love couldn’t save
her children, but training would. She sprinted across the street to stop the two predators who had just scurried into her home.

  Two predators had been too close to the porch when the bomb went off. They were laid out, clearly not dead, dazed and moving. She increased both of their bodies’ weight with lead as she passed them.

  Pow! Pow!

  Pow! Pow!

  Pow! Pow!

  Then quietness.

  Ana crouched. She recognized the pattern. Oh, God, how she hoped that’s what she heard! She peeked inside and quickly pulled her head back. Her heart raced at what she saw. She gulped hard, her eyes involuntarily squeezing shut as tears came out of her eyes. She let out a gasp and wiped the tears away. She turned and quickly scanned the lawn and street for any movement.

  “Echo, it’s Bravo. I’m coming in.”

  Daddy was Alpha. Mommy was Bravo. Lauren was Charlie. Autumn was Delta. Tracy was Echo.

  Echo had been prepositioned beneath the floor, under the cover of a large chest that was fashionably designed as a coffee table. It sat in front of one of the living room sofas and over an opening to a tunnel that joined to the tunnel that led to the firing point in the back yard. The firing point she had used to shoot the predator in the butt.

  Tracy heard Mommy use the safe words, but remained in her firing position. Ana stepped over rubble and came into full view. Tracy’s little face turned into a huge smile. “Mommy!” she squealed in delight.

  Ana rushed to her daughter and dropped to her knees. She pulled Tracy out of the hole and hugged her tightly to her chest. “Oh, I love you.” The tears came again.

  “I did it, Mommy. This time I did it just like we trained. One-two, one-two, one-two. Left-right, left-right, left-right.”

  “I’m proud of you, baby,” said Ana, rubbing her wet face against Tracy’s face.

  “But I can’t take all of the credit. Lance Corporal Teddy was watching my six as I watched for ground level breaches.”

  Ana looked into the opening in the floor. “I’m proud of you, too, Lance Corporal Teddy. I’m going to recommend both of you for medals.”

  Teddy didn’t answer.

  But Lauren and Autumn did as they slid into their mother, wrapping their arounds around her and Tracy. “What about us?”

  “I’m recommending all of you for medals.”

  They all heard the sound outside.

  Ana put Tracy down. She scurried back into her hole under the table and pushed the top closed. Lauren ran toward the back of the house to watch the flank. Autumn ran right to the dining room and positioned herself out of sight, but her rifle’s barrel pointed at the opening made by the bomb. Ana was on the left, crouching low and aiming at the hole.

  Silence.

  “Ana.”

  “Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo safe,” she answered.

  “Alpha safe,” said Chief King and came from behind the demolished living room wall. Dr. Anderson followed.

  “Daddy!” screamed Autumn, running to him and leaping into his arms before anyone else could get to him. “You’re here!”

  “Of course, I am,” he said, hugging his little one while smiling at his incredible and ultra-lethal wife. “Me and Dr. Anderson are here to save you girls.”

  “Just in the nick of time,” said Ana.

  That light moment was all they’d get.

  “We have to go,” said Dr. Anderson.

  “Where?” asked Ana.

  “D.C.” he said. “We don’t stop Cuning now, it’ll be impossible to stop him later. We have to take him down.”

  Chapter 67

  The precautionary roundabout three-hour flight to the small, clandestine air strip in the woods was supposedly unknown to President Cuning’s intelligence agencies. The advanced stealth technology was ninety-nine percent effective, Anderson had assured.

  Yet it was that remaining one percent that had everyone but the girls on edge. Even the pilot wore a tight face. Riding passenger in a multi-billionaire’s plush private jet was supposed to be exhilarating. But it was impossible to enjoy the thought of being blown out of the sky by a missile—even if there was only a one percent chance of it happening.

  “Well, we made it in one piece,” said Chief King.

  “Told you we would,” said Anderson.

  Ana and the girls came down the stairs of the jet. “Lauren, take your sisters to the car.” The car was actually a black SUV Titan. Ana waited until her daughters were near the car. Her mind was racing. “Dr. Anderson, if all you’ve said is true, President Cuning will be waiting on us.”

  “Yeah, Ana’s right,” said the chief. “How are we going to sneak Director Kellerman into Congress? That place will be crawling with President Cuning’s people.”

  “We don’t,” said Anderson.

  “We don’t what?” asked King.

  “We don’t sneak him in.”

  Ana’s eyes tightened in thought. She saw it in a flash of insight. Strength nullification, she thought. She began thinking through possibilities.

  “I know Cuning,” said Anderson. “If we try to sneak Kellerman into Congress, he’s dead. He’ll catch us away from the public’s eye and kill us all. We don’t sneak him in. We tell the world what we’re doing. We tell every news organization out there exactly what we’re doing and when we’re doing it. We tell them what route we’re taking. We tell them everything.”

  Chief King rolled his lips and slowly nodded. It made sense, but that didn’t make him feel good about it.

  Anderson saw a father’s worry in his friend’s eyes. He thought of how he had failed his own daughter. He smiled grimly. “Chief, none of my Nobel prizes are for strategy or knowing the future.” He looked earnestly into his eyes. “But I know Cuning. Come on. Let’s get going. I’ll explain the rest on the way.”

  “Honey, Dr. Anderson’s right,” said Ana. She looked at Anderson, her military mind at work. “But we need to talk countermeasures.”

  Chapter 68

  DIGO Agent Mitch Alvarez and Director Jacob Kellerman watched the television screen in rapt attention, but for different reasons. Agent Alvarez couldn’t believe that President Cuning was on the verge of getting STOP passed. Director Kellerman couldn’t believe that President Cuning had murdered his wife.

  “There appears to be a very real chance of Congress giving President Cuning a dubious victory with passage of STOP,” said a reporter. “Obviously, its passage would throw us into a constitutional crisis the likes of which we have never seen.”

  “Does your sermon include a question?” answered the press secretary.

  “Yes, it does. Reports are that the vote could go either way. What happens if Congress votes to honor the Constitution and to deny the president the unprecedented power he seeks?”

  “What surprising objectivity?” said the press secretary. “How could I have ever questioned your motives? Madeilline, Congress will do the right thing and give the president the power to save our nation.”

  “And if Congress stops the president?”

  The press secretary didn’t try to hide his distaste for this question. “If Congress loves the Constitution of the United States of America more than it loves the country of the United States of America, then the president will use whatever powers are available to him to keep the country safe. Any wobbly senator or representative must understand that the president’s resolve in this matter is unshakable.”

  A woman nearly tripped over herself rushing to the side of the press secretary. She whispered into his ear and stood there staring at the side of his face. A face that was slowly forming into a smug, contemptuous smile.

  “The House of Representatives has just courageously voted to pass the Scientific Termination of Predators Act. We anticipate that the Senate will also vote for America’s safety.”

  Commotion erupted in the White House press room.

  “By how many votes?” someone shouted.

  The press secretary didn’t even bother to look in the direction of the dummy a
s he turned to leave. “Who cares?” he yelled, as he walked away. “America is now one vote away from taking our nation back from the predators.”

  “We’re running out of time,” Agent Alvarez said anxiously.

  “They’re coming,” said one of the three trusted men Anderson had assigned to help Agent Alvarez guard Director Kellerman.

  Agent Alvarez looked hard at the director. Despite this criminal’s abridged and self-serving testimony, there was no doubt in his mind that this man had been a willing participant in empowering this rogue president. And here he was watching the television and seething with hypocritical rage, determined to take him down. But why? It wasn’t because of his love of country. It was because he believed the president had killed his wife. That wasn’t patriotism. It was revenge.

  “Director, Dr. Anderson’s coming. Are you ready, sir?”

  “Yeah, I’m ready,” he answered, as he stared at the floor, his tone determined and dark.

  “Okay, let’s get him to the Senate before they vote.”

  Kellerman looked at him critically. “Getting there before the vote, young man, is not the problem. Getting there is the problem. There’s nothing the president won’t do, and he’s got plenty of people to do it for him. The police. FBI. NSA. CIA. Homeland.”

  One cheek raised in contempt. “Your beloved DIGO.” Kellerman pushed air out in disgust at the naïve agent’s expression. “What? You think because Integrity is part of your department’s official name that we don’t have people there? A lot of people think the Constitution’s a stuck rudder, steering us right into the rocks. Don’t look so surprised.”

  We. This criminal had slipped and said we, not he. Alvarez was outraged. It was corruption like this that had compelled him to join DIGO. And the fact that a man like Kellerman could be granted immunity in exchange for his testimony made his blood boil, but he held his tongue. He agreed with Anderson that the number one priority was stopping President Cuning from becoming America’s first dictator.

  “We’ll get you there,” said Alvarez. “No one outside of us knows what we’re planning except the FBI director, the Attorney General, and Senator Pinkney. I seriously doubt that any of them are helping the president.”