Allen couldn’t see what he was looking at but he assumed it was pretty much the story of his life, at least the latter part.
When the general was finished, he closed the folder and placed it on the table.
“So, Mr. Allen Tate Coldstine, do you know why you are here?’
“I don’t know. The men just showed up and brought me here. They told me nothing.”
“And of course you have no idea why. Is that correct?”
“Sir?”
“You know Coldstine, I don’t even have to talk to you. I could just take out my gun and shoot you like a dog. No one would know about it and no one would care. So why don’t we cut the crap and you start telling me all about your role in the relay of information to the ARM.”
“Sir, I don’t know much. I just pick up an envelope from the back of the bench and hand it over to another man. That’s all I do.”
“What other man?”
“I don’t know who he is. He calls himself ‘Rex’ but I doubt that is really his name.”
“You are correct. His real name is Theodore Jones. Ole Ted Jones. Talk about having parents that hate you. Anyway, we know all about Mr. Jones. In fact he is in one of the other rooms. He has been here a little longer so he isn’t looking too good right at the moment. I’m sure most of his bones will heal in time. You, on the other hand, have just arrived. We have a long way to go before you leave. If you leave,” Lamb told him.
“Please. I’ll tell you everything I know. I swear.”
“The famous ‘I swear’. Have you ever noticed that when people start with ‘I swear’ or ‘this is really the truth’, it is always a lie?”
“No. Please. You have to believe me.”
“Who do you get the messages from?” Lamb asked, slamming his hand on the folder.
Allen jumped as if he had been shot.
“I don’t know his name. He has never spoken to me.”
“Never spoken to you? So you have seen him, is that what you’re saying.”
“Just once. It was an accident. I got there too early and saw him putting the envelope on the bench back.”
“Just the one time? Did you follow him?”
“Heavens no. I just waited until he left and went and got the envelope.”
“Mr. Coldstine, this is going to get real ugly. I want to know who that person was,” General Lamb insisted.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Then I am sorry for you. I’m afraid you are going to look like Mr. Jones in a few hours. I’ll come back and we can talk then. If you can still talk,” the general said and got up to leave.
“Wait. Please. I can tell you what he looks like and where he works.”
The general froze. Where he works. This he hadn’t expected.
“Describe him.”
“Six foot one, black hair with some grey starting to show. Cut short on the sides. No facial hair. He walks kind of stiff. Obliviously he works out a good deal. He probably weighs around one seventy-five or so. He is very cautious. His eyes never stopped moving while he was putting the envelope on the back of the bench.”
“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
“I’m sure I would.”
“You said you knew where he worked. How?”
“I lied about following him. I wanted to see who he was getting the information from originally.”
“Why? Don’t you know how stupid that was? There is dumb and then there is stupid. You are in the latter category. The whole idea behind an intelligence network is ‘need to know’. Now look at where you are?”
“I know I shouldn’t have.”
“So where did he go?”
“To the Pentagon.”
“Do you know what he does there? It’s a big building with a lot of employees.”
“I don’t know, I swear.”
“There you go again. I think it would be better if you didn’t say that. Now tell me about Carrie Ingram.”
A shocked look came over his face just for a moment then he tried to look normal.
“Who?”
“Let me guess. You swear you don’t know her, right?”
“I don’t think so. I mean I may have heard the name,” Allen said.
“That’s interesting. Let me refresh your memory,” he said starting to lay out pictures of her entering the building and them in his front room, an array of them making love in his bedroom. Allen’s face turned red as he went through the pictures.
“She likes to take control I see,” Lamb said.
Allen just sat there with his hands in his lap and his head down.
“I take it you now remember her.”
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“Poor Allen. You are such a fool. Didn’t you know what you were getting into when you decided to be a courier for the militia?”
“I…I guess not. It seemed harmless. I mean it was kind of like playing spy.”
“No Allen. You were a spy. You were a spy for the militia. There are no games when it comes to being a spy. It is life and death. To stay alive you have to trust no one and be able to keep your mouth shut and do only your part of the job. Anything else gets others killed.”
Allen put his face in his hands and pressed on his eyes. How could he have been so stupid? They told him when he took on the job that it was for real. Now ‘Rex’ was being tortured and he was likely to end up the same way.
The general sat back down and looked at him for several minutes.
“The question is; what do I do with you? The easiest thing is to just shoot you, right here and now. I could send you off to an internment camp in Alaska. It’s pretty harsh from what I hear. I could have you tortured just in case you are holding something back. Are you holding anything back?”
“I swe…no. I’m not holding anything back. I’ve told you everything I know.”
“How many of the letters did you open and look at?”
“One. Just one. It was just a bunch of numbers. I didn’t have any idea what I was looking at. I never did it again.”
“You just can’t leave well enough alone can you Mr. Coldstine? You don’t really make a very good spy do you?” General Lamb asked.
“I guess not. Honestly, I was never given any training. I didn’t know I could be watched like that. How did you even find out?”
“Why Mr. Coldstine, I thought you had figured that out by now. From one of our agents.”
“I don’t know any agents of ISS.”
“Of course you do,” Lamb said, tapping the photograph of Carrie.
His mouth fell open and his eyes got wide.
“One of our best.”
“But…”
“Yes, I know, you loved her. You see, to her, you were just a job. She is a professional spy while you, on the other hand, are an amateur.”
Allen was still shaking his head when Lamb placed him in a holding cell and closed the door.
“I’ll be back to talk to you later,” he told Allen.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Alright,” Gerhardt whispered to Ben and Alex, “Don’t shoot until I say so. We only get one chance. Make sure the arrow hits just below the shoulder blade. Have another dart in your hand in case you have to reload quickly. Take a breath and hold it then squeeze the trigger. We have to take out all three or the game may be over right here.”
They nodded that they understood and got ready to unleash their crossbows.
“Ready? Three…Two…One…Now.”
The three darts hardly made a sound as they sliced through the air. Each found its mark, entering through the back and out through the heart. None of the three even had time to let out a sound as they crumpled to the ground.
“Good. Let’s go. We only have thirty seconds to get to the air vent and get the gas in,” Gerhardt said dashing across the road and around the side to the fence.
He snipped through the wires and the three dashed inside. They ducked down beside the intake vent and Gerhardt put
on his gas mask and opened the canister. The gas was colorless so all they could do was wait until the can emptied.
Gerhardt looked at his watch. It was supposed to work in three minutes or less but he waited for a full five minutes before they made their way around to the front door. He quickly peeked inside and saw the front desk guard slumped face down on the desk. The man next to him was on the floor.
He nodded to his team and they slid inside. They knew exactly how the building was laid out and within minutes located the Predator and Raptor control chips. They carefully placed them in a container and then in Gerhardt’s backpack.
They made their way to the back of the building and Gerhardt looked out of the window. He could see two guards talking.
“We have to move fast and take them down. One is right by an alarm button. I’ll take him down. Alex you take the other guy. Use your stun gun. Ben, watch our backs in case we missed anyone. I don’t want any surprises. Ready?” he said to Alex.
“Ready.”
“Now,” Gerhardt said and they slid the door open. Just as one of the guards started to turn Gerhardt shot him in the chest with the Taser and pulled the trigger. The man went down while still reaching for the alarm button. Alex fired and took down the other man.
“Get Ben. I’ll take care of these two,” Gerhardt told Alex.
He used plasticuffs on the two men and put tape across their mouths. He gave them a quick injection that would put them out for an hour or more. They would have one hell of a headache when they woke up.
“We need to get to the storage facility. There will be four more guards there. We have to use the crossbows. I’ll take the first two; you each take out one of the others. Let’s go,” he said dashing across the opening to the storage facility.
Gerhardt quickly peeked around the side and saw two guards talking. If they had been doing their job, it would have been much harder. As it was, they made themselves easy targets. He loaded a dart and placed another one in his hand. He stepped out and let the first one fly, before it had even reached its target he had the crossbow cocked and a second dart in place. He saw the first dart hit the man in the back and the other guard look up in surprise. The second dart caught him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Gerhardt sprinted to the two downed men and checked them. One was dead the other soon would be.
“Sorry,” he said and stood up.
Ben and Alex joined him at the door to the facility.
“Ben, you watch out here. As soon as we take out the other two guards run and open the gates and call in the transportation.
“Got it,’ Ben replied.
“Alex, you’re with me. Stun guns or Tasers. I don’t want to kill them unless we have too.”
“Got it,” Alex replied.
Gerhardt slowly opened the door and looked in. He didn’t see either guard. He slipped in and Alex followed him. They crept along the wall staying in the shadows as much as possible. They came to a door and heard a television playing. Gerhardt used a mirror to check out the room.
The two guards were watching a football game. Their backs were to the door. Gerhardt leaned over and whispered instructions into Alex’s ear. He nodded that he understood. He held up three fingers and dropped them one at a time. When he held up just his fist, both men slid into the room and shot the two guards in the lower back with Tasers. They danced for a few seconds then fell to the floor.
Alex finished cuffing them while Gerhardt went to tell Ben to get the transportation.
Eighteen beautiful Raptors and eleven Predators sat in a row. The wings weren’t even attached and neither were the propellers. It was going to be even faster than they had hoped.
Precisely one hour and fifty-two minutes later the last truck pulled out of the facility and slipped off into the night.
***
Kim’s team was not having such an easy time. They had arrived at the base with a delivery truck. All the paperwork was in order and the fake IDs were perfect. The problem was that another group had come to load other armament and there were more men and guards than normal.
“Should we just abandon the target?” Kirk asked.
“No way. We need those Hellfires. We are just going to have to improvise.”
“Geez Kim. Look how many people are here. We will never get away with it.”
“Boys, just cool it. We act like we belong. We go about our business. I’ll flirt a little with a couple of the guys and maybe we can even get them to help.”
“Are you nuts? The last thing we need is someone sticking their nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“You let me worry about that. You just get ready to start loading.”
Jason drove the truck around to the loading bay and backed it up. Kim jumped out and went around and opened the door while Jason and Kirk tried to look natural.
“Hey little lady, what can I do for you?” a big burly sergeant asked.
“Well good looking, I was stuck with two numbnuts that aren’t much good for anything. I need to load some Hellfires for Atomic. I guess they are doing a big demo.”
“You got paperwork?”
“Come on Serge, you know I do,” she said handing over a clipboard.
He looked it over and then looked back at her.
“Good grief, that’s just about our entire stock.”
“Hey, I just do what I’m told. You know how it is Serge. They never tell us crap. On top of that, I got these two,” she said jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
“That’s a hell of a lot of missiles little lady.”
“Well it ain’t like I have a choice is it? Look, you want to call my CO, be my guest. His name and number is on the bottom of the requisition form someplace.”
“Maybe I should,” he said rubbing his chin.
“Fine but could you hurry up? I need to get back to the C-13O headed to San Diego. It’s wheels up at 1640 hours and I need to get there in time for them to unload them.”
The sergeant scratched his ear with the clipboard.
“I think I should call this in.”
“Have at it, but hurry.”
“Just hang on.”
“Mind if I go with you in case the CO has anything else for me?”
“Nah, come on. My office is right over here,” he said leading her across the bay.
Kim nodded to her two men and went off with the sergeant. Just as he started to pick up the phone she smashed him on the back of the neck with both hands interlocked. It caught him off guard and when he went to turn around she shot him in the chest with the Taser. His eyes went wide and he fell to the ground. She let go of the trigger and reached down to check on him. He grabbed her wrist and tried to get the gun out of her hand but she managed to pull the trigger again and he finally fell back.
She quickly closed the door and cuffed him and put tape over his mouth. She wanted to pull him behind the desk but it would have been impossible. She opened her medical kit and gave him a shot to keep him out. It was all she could do for now.
She went back out of the office, closed the door, and ran across the bay.
“Start loading, we don’t have much time. We need to get as many as we can. Kirk, get that forklift over there,” she said pointing, “Jason, get that one,” she said.
They immediately started loading the crates into the back of the truck. She was anxiously watching the sergeant’s door in case someone came looking for him.
“Sixty,” Jason said.
“Good enough. Let’s get out of here before the sergeant is discovered.
They jumped in the truck and headed for the front gate. They were behind one other truck and the guard was checking the paperwork. Jason was sweating and Kirk looked like he was going to be sick at any moment.
“Come on,” Kirk kept muttering under his breath.
The truck in front finally pulled out and they moved forward.
“Papers,” The guard stated.
Kim handed them to him. He looked them ove
r for several minutes.
“I don’t see Sergeant Low’s signature,” he said finally.
“Oh crap,” Kim said, “I told him we were in a hurry. We have to meet a C-130 in time for these to get transported to California. I guess he forgot.”
“I need his signature.”
“Come on, we’re late already. I am going to get my butt chewed out big time if we don’t get there in time.”
“Hey, I’m sorry, I can’t help it. Those are the rules.”
“Well darn,” she said and shot him in the chest with the Taser.
“Go,” she yelled to Jason and he floored the truck.
She looked back in the mirror and nothing was really happening for a few seconds and then the guard started to try to get up. He was still on his knees when they hit the highway and headed north.
“Take the first exit and let’s get to the back roads as quickly as possible.”
They drove along for several miles before Kim spotted a self-service car wash.
“Over there. I want to park in one of the bays. The one on the end. Let’s just stay there until morning. They will think we are long gone by then. I’ll call Colonel Gentry and explain our problem. Maybe he can help.
She had been right. Gentry sent a different truck and twenty of his people to help unload and load. They wiped the truck down and left it in the car wash bay and headed out in the new truck.
The operation had not gone as planned but they had gotten it done despite the difficulties. Gentry and his men now had charge of the missiles and would get them to Kansas.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Mark Walker had become a celebrity. His radio show had the highest amount of listeners and every time he was on the television the ratings took a huge jump. Every station was clamoring to get their hands on him.
President Clemons was not amused. It seemed like every time she turned on the television, Mark Walker’s face was looking back at her.
“Damn it, I want something done about that man,” she yelled at no one in particular.
Everyone just remained calm and quiet. They had seen these outbursts many times before.
PROJECT BlueBolt - AMERICAN UPRISING: BOOK III - AMERICAN UPRISING Page 10