“I’m just saying you might want to give some consideration to having personal protection.”
“I’m not afraid of some nut with a gun,” Douglas responded.
“Not just some nut. A very good shot who can take people out at 600 yards,” Lamb reminded him.
“I’m telling you, you are both making more out of this than it is worth.”
“I certainly hope you’re right,” the President said.
***
General Altamont was the person responsible for the oversight of Martial Law west of the Mississippi. His headquarters were located in Killeen, Texas at Fort Hood. The base is huge, one of the largest military bases in the world.
General Altamont was an avid fisherman and nearby Belton Lake was a dream come true for him. Whenever he could find the time he would kiss his wife goodbye and head along Taylor Valley Road, taking a small dirt road that would lead to one of his favorite spots.
The additional burden of overseeing Martial Law from the west side of the Mississippi to California and from the southern to the northern border was a huge responsibility. The first week had been spent just putting out fires. No one knew exactly what they were supposed to do or had any solid guidelines.
Most of the early decisions were made by the SOP or seat of his pants. He spent from the time he arrived each morning until late at night just answering the phone and trying to sort out problems and answer questions. Little had come from General Douglas so he was forced to do what he thought best.
“Honey, I’m going fishing. I just have to get out of that office for a few hours.”
“You certainly deserve it. You have been going non-stop for days on end. Make sure your phone is charged and have them forward any important calls,” she reminded him.
“I just took it off the charger. Betty knows to call if anything earthshaking crops up.
“Alright dear. Any idea when you will be home?”
“I won’t be gone long, just a couple of hours. I’ll be back before dark,” he told her as he kissed her on the cheek.
He threw his tackle in the back of the Envoy and headed toward the lake. He really did need the down time.
***
“He just left the house with his fishing gear.”
“Copy,” Gerhardt said and immediately hung up, taking the battery out of his phone.
He didn’t know if the general would come to this particular spot but it didn’t matter much. They had a Predator up watching the area below. If he didn’t come down Taylor Valley Road, they would have enough warning to move to intercept him.
Kim and Gerhardt were on a high ridge that had a straight on view of Taylor Valley Road. He would have to slow down to make a right turn and that is when they would take him out.
“I’ll take the shot,” Kim said.
Gerhardt looked at her for several seconds before asking, “Are you absolutely sure?”
“I’m sure. Look, I’ve thought about everything you said since our last mission. I need to do this. Watching you isn’t going to work. I need to do this for myself.”
“Look Kim, you don’t have to prove anything to me. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone actually. Being a spotter is every bit as important as being the shooter. My world is just a few millimeters in diameter. The spotter can see everything else going on. I can’t take the shot until you are sure it is going to connect. Don’t think you aren’t just as important as the guy doing the shooting.”
“I understand all of that but there is going to come a time when I need to stand on my own. It is only going to get worse before it gets better. We are going to have more targets and at some point I will have to be the one taking the shot. This is as good a time as any. The distance is only five hundred yards. Hell, you can probably throw a bullet that far and hit him. Please Gerhardt, I want to do this,” Kim told him.
“Alright. I’ll be the spotter. We have about three or four minutes before he gets here if this is where is headed,” he said as he placed the battery back in his phone and called up the command center.
“On your way. We have him making the turn onto Taylor Valley Road,” the observer watching the Predator monitor reported.
“Copy,” Gerhardt said and removed the battery again.
“He is on the way. It is no different than shooting a target. Do everything exactly the same. Regular breathing, blank out your mind, and think about nothing but the shot.”
“Got it,” she said and took a deep breath and settled in behind the rifle. There was no need for the Barrett this time. Kim was using a .338 Lapua Accuracy International AXMC. It would be more than enough rifle.
“I see dust,” Gerhardt said.
A few minutes later, “Okay. He is fifteen hundred from the green zone. I’ll call them off,” he said.
“Ready,” Kim replied.
“1000…800…600…500…400, start tracking.”
“Got the target,” she replied.
The Envoy started to slow to make the right hand turn and Kim squeezed the trigger. The rifle slammed back into her shoulder. She didn’t even wait. She folded the tripod and started breaking the gun down. Gerhardt noticed her hands shaking but didn’t say anything. He just grabbed the case and headed down the hill. Kim followed along not saying a thing.
***
They took the dirt road north and then headed east. They didn’t have to hurry. No one would discover the body for some time.
Finally Kim spoke, “You know what is funny?”
“What?”
“I don’t know what happened after the shot. I know I hit exactly where I needed to but after that, nothing. I’m not even sure I heard the shot. I felt it more than heard it. Very strange.”
“Well you sure hit the target. The car went over an embankment and rolled over several times.”
“I didn’t see any of that. Totally freaky.”
“The question is, how do you feel?”
“I don’t know. I shot the target. That was my job. I guess I’m pleased that I was able to do it efficiently but I don’t know how I will feel later,” Kim told him.
“Look Kim, you did exactly the right thing. You completed the mission and didn’t stay to see the results. That is the key for me. I never wait to see the results. I don’t want to know immediately. It is what keeps me from making mistakes. I don’t think about the human element. They are targets, nothing more,” he told her.
“I’ll guess I’ll see how I feel in a few days,” she said.
“No. You won’t really know until the next mission. If you can complete it, then you will know you have it under control,” Gerhardt told her.
***
“What?” General Douglas yelled into the phone.
“Sorry sir. We found his car upside down near a dirt road where he goes fishing.”
“It wasn’t an accident?”
“Sir, he was shot right through the heart. We have been scouring the area but have come up with nothing so far. The base coroner said he had been dead for about five hours before anyone found him. His wife alerted us to the fact that he hadn’t come home and it was way after dark.”
“This is unbelievable. Who is in command at the moment?”
“Sir, it was supposed to be Colonel Houston but he is dead as well.”
“Dead? What in the hell does that mean? Murdered?”
“Sir we went to his home. The place was totally locked up but when we finally broke the door down we found him with his throat slit.”
“I want every MP on that base investigating what the hell went on,” Douglas said, his voice starting to rise.
“Sir, it is a civilian matter. It happened off base.”
“I don’t give a damn. We are the military. We tell those little shits what to do and they had damn well better do it. I want ISS, IIB and every MP on this immediately. I want these people caught and strung up,” he said.
“Yes sir. I’ll convey the message. Colonel Peltry has assumed control of the base at the moment.”
&n
bsp; “Good, where is he now?”
“Getting everything organized. He was at Colonel Huston’s house overseeing the crime scene,”
“Good. Have him call me immediately.”
“Yes sir general.”
Three dead in less than forty-eight hours, maybe the President was right. Perhaps it was time to get protection for the top men in his command.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
East of the Mississippi, in Hinesville, Georgia is Fort Stewart. Like his counterpart in the west, Lieutenant General Ed Collins was responsible for overseeing Martial Law everywhere east of the Mississippi River.
In many ways his job was much more difficult because of the dense population packed into the area. New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia alone accounted for twelve and a half million people. Using every available military person and the ISS, they were still spread extremely thin. Violations of curfew were so frequent that he estimated they were catching maybe one in twenty.
Not helping matters was the fact that General Douglas had been calling every day wanting to know when Martial Law would be fully enforced. It was an impossible task with the number of people he had.
The last conversation had ended with General Douglas telling him that if he couldn’t handle it, he would get someone else to. He didn’t care if they had to shoot half of the population, he wanted it under control.
His second in command, Major General Luther was just as stressed. He knew that unless they had more people they would never be able to get a handle on the situation. New York and Chicago were the worst of all. No matter what the President was telling the people, the gangs were stronger than ever, especially at night. They would come out of the woodwork like cockroaches. It was a simple fact that the stricter the gun control laws, the more there were on the streets. It created a huge black market for weapons. For some reason politicians couldn’t get it through their heads that the most dangerous people didn’t give one damn about their rules and laws.
The two men were in General Collins’ office talking about options.
“We had another forty men go AWOL last night. That’s just here. It is increasing daily and spreading us thinner,” Collins said.
“We lost eleven to snipers, six in New York alone. We are going to have to do like in other wars. They are picking off our officers and NCO. We are going to have to have them stop wearing their rank insignias,” Luther said.
“Where are we on the total AWOL count?” Collins asked.
“Since Martial Law, sixteen thousand, two hundred men and women east of the Mississippi.”
“This is crazy. The General wants total control and we are losing men hand over fist. Something is going to have to give,” Collins said, rubbing his eyes.
“I don’t know what else we can do. We have the Hummers out in force from dusk to dawn and the gangs still scurry around like rats,” Luther said.
“What Douglas is saying in a nut shell is to shoot them without warning. He wants it stopped and he doesn’t care how.”
“Just mow them down?” Luther asked.
“That’s what he said.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Yes it is. What do you suggest?” Collins asked.
“Do we have a choice?”
“None that I can see. I don’t like it but those are our orders,” Collins answered.
“Well they suck,” Luther said.
***
“What do you think?” Lincoln asked after listening to the recording.
“First I think it is almost unbelievable that Gerhardt could get into the General’s office and bug it.”
“Yeah, yeah. I meant, what about General Collins and Luther? Should we approach them first or just let Gerhardt handle it?”
“Damn tough call,” Thomas replied.
“Now don’t be a wiener. What do you really think?”
“Who is in charge of the west now?” Thomas asked.
“They just named Lieutenant General Brennon as the replacement.”
“What do we know about him?”
“Totally loyal to Douglas. He’s attached himself to the General’s coattails. He sees Douglas as his ride to the top,” Ivan told them.
“He’s pretty much right. His next step will be to replace someone in the inner circle. He is going to come down really hard on those west of the Mississippi,” Lincoln said.
“Here is what I want us to do. We will talk to Collins and Luther and see if we can get them to join us. If not, then we will send one of Gerhardt’s team to handle the situation. I see no choice in the west. At the same time, we need to get the militias of each state to stage raids and engage the military in running gun battles. We need to let them know we are not going to back down. The secondary mission is to rally civilians to stage uprisings all across the west,” Thomas told them.
“Running gun battles are fine and dandy but we will need to knock out their command centers,” Ivan said.
“That’s why we have the Raptors. We can take them out with our Javelin anti-tank missiles. They already have Abrams in most large cities. We take those out and it will demoralize the troops.”
“We only have a few according to the inventory,” Lincoln said flipping through the pages, “It says twenty-seven Javelins.”
“We can use some of the Hellfire missiles as well,” Ivan added.
“We will have to get more,” was all Thomas added.
***
“I have the list,” Thomas told them.
“Do we want to know?” Lincoln asked.
“Probably not but what the heck, my source risked his life to get it so maybe we should take a quick peek,” he said.
“Oh, sure, if you put it like that,” Lincoln kidded back.
“They bring two M1A2 Abrams to close off the Holland Tunnel, the Williamsburg Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Tiborough Bridge, and the Washington Bridge. Everywhere else they have barricades that are manned at dusk. No one is supposed to get in or out of Manhattan. They use patrol boats on the river,” Thomas said.
“But people still do,” Lance added.
“Of course. People that have lived there all their lives know the ins and outs better than the troops. On top of that, a lot of the troops aren’t working very hard at enforcing the curfew.”
“Are they still losing people going AWOL?” Lincoln asked.
“They are. A few hundred every day,” Thomas reported.
“So what are you thinking, a coordinated attack on the outpost and using the drones on the Abrams?” Lance asked.
“It has to be more than that. We need to attack in several major cities both east and west to let them know we are only warming up and it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” Thomas said.
“Our very own Tet Offensive,” Ivan said.”
“Exactly, but with better results. I don’t want to sacrifice our men the way they did.” Thomas replied.
***
***
The ARM had decided on something less ambitious than the Tet Offensive from Vietnam in 1968. They had chosen six cities in the west and seven in the east. In the west they would hit Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, and San Francisco.
While there were larger cities on the west coast they had decided that seeing the tanks that closed off the Golden Gate Bridge destroyed would send shock waves through the administration. It wasn’t just the tanks that were important, it was getting the people to realize that they were not alone and something could be done, even on an individual level. It was a PR stunt more than a tactical advantage.
In the east they had, of course, selected New York to hit. They also added Chicago, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Columbus, Baltimore and Boston. It would be the largest operation they had undertaken yet. They went over the plans again and again with each state’s militia and moved people around as much as they could. Road blocks set up by the military made the risk of transporting the Raptors even more hazardous.
They were all holding th
eir breath, waiting for one of the groups to get stopped and then all hell would break loose.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Crap. Road block,” the driver said as they came around a corner.
“Just be cool. We have the paperwork. If we don’t panic it should be okay,” the other man said looking over at the driver.
He did not like what he saw. Sweat was starting to run down his face and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Maybe we should just back up and make a run for it,” the driver suggested.
“Oh sure. Just back over the cars behind us, turn this big thing around and out run the Hummers and ISS cars. Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”
“Just saying.”
“Don’t. Relax, it will be okay,” the passenger said.
They sat not talking until they were motioned forward.
“Afternoon. What’s going on?” the driver asked.
“What’s in the truck?”
“We are moving a family to LA. Just household goods. The usual stuff.”
“The usual stuff? Hand me your papers.”
The driver handed to him, his hand shaking so hard it was impossible for the ISS officer not to notice. He looked the paper work over.
“Sir, we are really behind. It’s just household items,” the passenger said trying to sound sincere.
“Open the back,” the ISS man said.
That’s when everything went wrong. They had heavy boxes stacked in front of the Raptor and may have been able to have bluffed their way through but the driver reached down and pulled a revolver and shot the ISS officer in the face. He floored the truck aiming for the middle of the two Hummers across the road. They smashed into them and managed to get through but it didn’t disable the vehicles.
“Are you crazy?” the passenger yelled, looking in the mirror.
He could see men getting up and racing to the Hummers. It would just be a matter of time before they caught up with them. There is no way they would win. The ISS and military would call it in and have additional roadblocks set up within minutes.
They raced along as fast as the truck could go but a left hand turn was sharper than expected and the truck went up on the right side wheels for several yards before it finally tipped over and crashed into the ditch alongside of the road. It hit the embankment and was thrown back across the road and into a line of trees scattering parts of the truck all across the road.
PROJECT BlueBolt - AMERICAN UPRISING: BOOK III - AMERICAN UPRISING Page 15