“We just wanted our money,” Raul said in grief as he turned to not show the tears in his eyes. That was when the pilot clubbed him over the head with the gun. Raul slumped in the seat, out cold.
***
It took the pilot five minutes to tie Raul up with wire which was in a tool box in the cockpit. He grabbed the gun and charged through the cabin door.
“Get away from my daughter,” he roared as he aimed the gun at Aldo. “I know how to shoot,” he added for emphasis.
The pilot’s daughter was still tied to the chair. Her panties were around her ankles and her blouse was open. She showed no fear, but displayed disgust on her pretty face, with what Aldo was trying to do to her. Aldo quickly turned and stood with his legs apart.
“Where’s Raul?” Aldo screamed.
“He’s sleeping,” the pilot replied with a grin. “And you will be too if you don’t untie my daughter right now.”
Aldo said nothing, but he turned back to the girl and started to unknot her bindings. The pilot made a mistake and stepped closer, just as Aldo expected.
Aldo suddenly kicked out with his back leg and knocked the gun from the pilot’s hand. He whirled on his other leg and caught the pilot under his chin. The pilot tumbled to the floor and Aldo quickly kicked him in the head. The pilot was now out cold.
“I have superior skills,” he smiled evilly at the young woman. She was still tied up. “Now, where were we?”
“Who’s going to land the plane you stupid asshole,” the girl screamed at him. “We’re all going to die now.”
“He’ll wake up in time,” Aldo coolly replied.
“No he won’t and it won’t matter anyway,” the girl continued. “Hear that warning?” The automatic pilot was repeating the word ‘warning, warning’.
“We have to take it off automatic pilot or we will run into a mountain very soon,” she said hysterically.
Aldo suddenly realized he had made a mistake. He had no clue on how to fly a plane. “Uh-oh,” he muttered.
“I can land it,” she said hopefully.
“Then you must land the plane,” he said as he frantically began to untie her.
“But I won’t,” she said stubbornly.
Aldo was in complete panic now. He had never faced a situation where he didn’t have a way out or the upper hand. “Land the plane,” he ordered ferociously. The automatic pilot was now repeating the warning faster and faster. He went to slap her but held back.
“Why?” the girl asked sarcastically. “As soon as we land, you’re going to kill us anyway. This way you die too.”
“I’ll shoot your father where he lies,” Aldo screamed and picked up the gun.
“Well, idiot, that’s a sure way to kill us all. The bullet will punch a hole in the plane and the cabin will depressurize. You’ll be sucked through the hole,” she informed him. “It’s not a pleasant way to die.”
Despite being completely desperate, Aldo realized she was negotiating. “What do you want?”
“I want you to pay us for the trip. We agreed on ten thousand dollars,” she said.
“I’ll pay you,” he exclaimed and produced the wad of money.
“I also want you tied in this chair so you won’t go back on your word,” she demanded.
“Clever,” he responded. “Then you can turn us over to the police when we land. I can’t allow that.”
“Don’t be a moron,” she replied as she stood up, pulled up her panties and began buttoning her blouse. “If we do that, we won’t get our money, the police would confiscate it as evidence.”
“I see,” Aldo quickly realized there was a way out.
“Once we land, I’ll give you your guns back and you can leave,” the girl said. “I just want you out of our hair.”
“My life is in your hands then,” Aldo responded and sat down in the chair.
***
The girl was in the cockpit minutes later. She had both guns and Aldo was securely tied to the chair in the back. She turned off the automatic pilot and began her descent into Laughlin-Bullhead International Airport.
“What an idiot,” she said to Raul, who was now awake and terrified.
All he could do was nod his head. “What?” He croaked out.
“My dad had better be okay, or I’m going to take it out on you fatso,” she added and brandished the gun. She then laughed to herself.
“That idiot back there didn’t know the warning system was set to tell us the airport was coming up,” she yelled at the restrained Raul. “We were flying at twenty thousand feet. The plane would have just kept flying.”
The young woman had been flying with her father for several years. She knew how to fly and land a plane. In a few minutes they were on the ground and taxiing to the executive terminal. Her father was suddenly inside the cockpit but looking very woozy.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
“I’ve got the money dad,” she told him. “We just need to let these guys off someplace where there won’t be a crowd.”
“Give me a gun. I’ll get them ready,” her father replied without asking additional questions.
He rousted Raul and Aldo and had them stand near the exit door. This was going to be a quick stop. In the distance, they could see several cars with lights flashing. The authorities were on the scene.
“Stopping now,” his daughter yelled.
“Pull that latch,” the pilot ordered Aldo. The door opened and stairs dropped down. “Out you go,” the pilot ordered with a wave of the gun.
The girl appeared from the cockpit. “Dad you need to taxi the plane the rest of the way in. I don’t have a license yet.” He handed her the guns and went to the cockpit. She could hear the engines spool back up.
“Our guns?” Aldo asked.
“I’ll throw them out as soon as we begin taxiing. We don’t want the police to find them either,” she easily said. “Oh, there is one more thing,” she added as she pointed a gun at Aldo’s head.
Aldo stared at her for a second. “What’s that?” he replied as he stood on the first step, grateful he was still alive.
“Give me the rest of your money,” she ordered him. “You owe me that for the cabin service.”
Aldo reached into his pocket with disgust on his face and threw the money on the floor of the cabin. He scampered down the stairs and he and Raul disappeared into the dark.
“Hope you had a nice trip,” the girl called after them, threw out the guns, and then closed the door.
Chapter Sixty-Four
C
olton Banyon was on the encrypted cell phone given to him by the President. He was talking to America’s leader. The call was on speaker phone so everyone in the room could hear, the President understood. The conversation started out with several hysterical demands from his boss, but Banyon now had him calmed down as he explained that they had made significant headway on the crisis. He then started to fill him in.
“The Effort is definitely involved,” Banyon told the President.
“Why am I not surprised,” he replied with disgust.
“We know who is heading up the disaster. His name is Bernard Schultz, a Chicago horse breeder. We know how they intend to release the nanobots. We also have discovered a weakness in the delivery system and have put together our own plans to stop them,” Banyon said.
“Will people die tomorrow?”
“Sir, I don’t think that we will be able to stop all the killings,” Banyon said with a slight hesitation.
“How many will die, Banyon?” The President screamed.
“It looks like they are going after about three million people,” Banyon replied. “So, maybe ten percent will die.”
“Jesus Christ,” the President yelled into the phone. “That’s over three hundred thousand people. That will surely be enough deaths to force me to declare martial law.”
“Don’t forget that they have threatened another wave of killings,” Banyon told him.
“Have you found out the second
target that was in the letter?”
“We haven’t even found Barnard Schultz yet, but when we do we will stop him completely,” Banyon responded. “It’s only a matter of hours, sir.”
“I can’t believe that a horse breeder put this together,” the President exclaimed.
“Sir, he is much more than a horse breeder and has been working on this for more than twenty years.”
“Have you at least found the Effort’s man at the Pentagon?”
“We believe that we have, sir.”
“Well, who is it?”
“It’s Vice Admiral Michael Meyers,” Banyon replied.
“That can’t be,” The President responded with disbelief.
“It’s him, sir. We have the proof,” Banyon countered. “He is also responsible for all the deaths at the Pentagon. We have it all on video. There is no mistake. Vice Admiral Michael Meyers is part of the plot.”
“But you don’t understand, Colt,” The President stammered. “Just an hour ago, I put him in charge of stopping the riots in Washington. I also sent a communique to all the military leaders under his command in the area — it was his suggestion.”
“What did the communique say?”
“The communique said that he is completely in charge of the situation in Washington and they were to take orders from him and not anyone else. I’ll need to stop him and rescind the order,” he said regretfully.
“Can we see the actual communique?” Banyon asked worriedly.
“That’s a problem. I don’t even have a copy.” the President replied. “I had to have an aide send it from outside the bunker. The aide isn’t answering my calls now. I think maybe he is dead.”
“Why did you have an aide outside the bunker send it?” Banyon cautiously asked the President.
“I emailed it to the aide to send out because there seems to be a virus in the machine that had all the email addresses in it down here.” Everyone in the room at Dewey & Beatem suddenly became rigid.
“Uh-oh,” Banyon uttered. “Or the malfunction is part of this plot,” Banyon said reluctantly.
“This is very bad, Colt,” the President said.
Suddenly Marlene spoke. “I have a copy, sir. It was sent to us just a few minutes ago,” she announced as she looked at the time stamp.
“But I had it sent an hour ago,” the President confirmed.
“This just came in, sir,” she reaffirmed.
“What does it say?” Banyon quickly asked knowing that someone could have tampered with an email.
“It says that all military personnel are now under the direct command of Vice Admiral Meyers, with no exception. It further states that you, the President, have uncovered conspiracies in the legislative branch of the government and you only trust the military to uncover and stop the crisis. Therefore this will be the last order from the Commander and Chief and Vice Admirals orders should be followed until the crisis is averted.”
“This is very, very, bad,” Loni exclaimed.
“There is more,” Marlene coolly said. “It orders all military installations to lockdown and eject all civilian personal from the bases immediately. Then they are to go to red alert.”
“That’s to prevent anyone from talking to the troops,” Bart figured.
“And, sir. This didn’t go out to the Washington D.C. bases. It went to all military based in the USNORTHCOM network.”
“Oh, my God! What have I done?” The President screamed.
“It sounds like you have already enacted martial law,” Banyon said.
Chapter Sixty-Five
V
ice Admiral Meyers just finished writing an announcement that would be sent to all the media outlets in The United States. It would be sent out after the killings started in the morning. It outlined the state of the legislative branch of the government. It said the legislative branch couldn’t function any longer. It was mired in conspiracy and could not meet quorum. He noted that the legislative branch of the government could not be trusted. It announced that Vice Admiral Meyers was now in charge of stopping the crisis. There would also inevitably be some sacrifices by the American people. The sacrifices would be communicated at a later date, but for now, everyone should protect themselves from the plague and should follow any military orders issued. The country was now under martial law.
He put the announcement into a folder along with other announcements that he had written. One of them accused the President of obstruction. Meyers didn’t want to wait too long before he disposed of the President.
His next order of business was to take control of all the many secret alphabet agencies of the government. He knew that they could be a threat to the Effort’s plan, and had to be controlled. The agencies included; the FBI, the CIA, NSA, and the largest and most deadly one, Homeland Security. It had once been a stronghold for the Effort, but there were preciously few Effort members left on the payroll — thanks to Marlene Moore.
He wrote an announcement that said all activities of the agencies had to cease. The activities were under review and the main offices would remain closed and under military guard until further notice. No one would be allowed to enter the buildings. He ordered all branch offices to be closed as well. He hinted that he had uncovered evidence that the plague may have been an experiment of one of the agencies that had gone bad. He ordered his commanders to act immediately. He handed it to the communications officer to send out.
He was suddenly interrupted. “Sir, the President is on the line,” the young major said as an explanation for his intrusion.
Vice Admiral Meyers expected the call. “Is this line secure?” he immediately demanded as he moved to a sound proof conference room.
“Yes,” the President hissed. He didn’t tell the Vice Admiral that the people from Dewey & Beatem were also on the line.
“What can I do for you, I’m kind of busy right now,” Vice Admiral Meyers responded like it was a social call. He saw no reason to address the President as ‘sir’ any longer.
“I’m rescinding the communique that went out. It has some errors in it,” the President said sarcastically.
“Hah,” Vice Admiral Meyers laughed. “It’s way too late for that, buddy.”
“Now listen here, you bastard,” the President screamed into the phone. “I know what you are up to and I intend to stop you. Do you hear me?” He roared.
“I’m only protecting the country, just as you ordered,” Vice Admiral Meyers replied innocently as he studied his fingernails.
“I know that you are part of an Effort plan, asshole. I know that you are using nanobots to spread a bogus plague and I know that you want to take over the country. We also know that you personally murdered several hundred people at the Pentagon just a few hours ago. You need to be stopped.”
“That’s just a rumor,” Meyers replied. Vice Admiral Meyers was surprised that the President had already discovered that he had murdered the people at the Pentagon. I may have made a mistake there, he quickly thought.
“We have the evidence. You’re going down,” the President said emphatically.
“You won’t have evidence for long,” Vice Admiral Meyers shot back.
“What?”
“All your little play toys are in the process of being shut down. Any evidence will cease to exist in a few minutes,” Vice Admiral Meyers arrogantly responded. It was another mistake fueled by his ego.
The President pressed on. “You know, I still have eight other Commandants under my control worldwide. I can have troops on the shores in a couple of hours. They will outnumber you by six to one. We can blow up your bunker,” the President threatened.
“Let them come. You’ll look like a lunatic, killing your own people. Besides, I have an entire arsenal at my disposal,” Vice Admiral Meyers fired back.
“You’re a mad man. You wouldn’t dare,” the President screamed.
“I may be mad, but I’m the one who is going to run this country,” Vice Admiral Meyers responded
“Over my dead body,” the President yelled.
“Well, that could be arranged, if needed,” Vice Admiral Myers said calmly.
“I’ll go to the media,” the President yelled. “You won’t be able to prevent your troops from finding out the truth.”
“Do they have enough guns to stop me? Oh, wait, they just talk. It would be a shame if their signals were jammed.”
“I’ll get you Meyers.”
“Listen, I’m a little tired of this conversation. I’m hanging up now.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
N
o one in the room said a word. There was complete silence as each person considered the ramifications of the President’s phone call. All their work was for nothing, Vice Admiral Michael Meyers had initiated martial law. The Effort had achieved their ultimate goal — to install a dictator to run the country.
Marlene had left the screen and she could be heard issuing orders in the background. Other than that, no one knew what else to do and sat there with their heads down in defeat. She suddenly was back.
“I have to go now,” she said breathlessly. “I’ve also had someone call the other agencies and give them a heads up.”
“Where are you going?” Loni cried out.
“I have to get out of the building before the army gets here,” she told them.
“Where will you go?” Loni asked.
“Don’t worry; all the agencies have a protocol in place for this kind of emergency. We are going underground. I’m taking this computer so they can’t get the IP addresses of the people that I was talking to today, that includes all of you. They won’t find you.”
“But what can you do from there?” Loni quickly asked.
“We still have three million people to save,” she replied. “The civilian governments will remain accessible and we’ll use them. Meyers doesn’t have enough troops to control them yet.”
A Dubious Device: The Nanobot Terror (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 10) Page 22