by Wick Welker
“Yes, that he was in the brotherhood of the Sirr.”
Mayberry sighed with frustration. “Oh… and did you think for a moment that this was just another attempt by the Sirr to manipulate us? You trusted this individual’s information so much to the point that you didn’t tell me about it? You thought it was such a slam dunk that you stole me away to fucking Medora to put a gun in my face and just ignore all the terrorists that are storming our nuclear arms cache at this very moment?” Mayberry stood up and started yelling. “Did you consider that you are just a tiny little pawn to them, and you’re doing exactly what they wanted you to do by creating dissent between us!”
Rambert paused and sighed. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Son of a bitch, Larry, let’s get out of here.” Mayberry went to grab his shirt but Rambert stopped him.
“Hang on, I didn’t tell you to get dressed yet.” He maintained the gun on him.
“And why the hell not?”
“Convince me you’re not involved.”
Mayberry squinted his eyes at him. “What are you not telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“No, there is definitely something else you’re not telling me. You’re a pretty shrewd guy, and you wouldn’t be up here playing these games with me and wasting all this time if you didn’t have something else up your sleeve.”
“Convince me you’re not involved and we can go.”
“Larry, I’m not the Sirr.”
“I never said you were the Sirr. I only said you were involved with the brotherhood.”
“Oh fuck off, you know what I mean, don’t play some stupid mind game with me. You’re not going to trap me in my words, because I have nothing to hide.”
Rambert waited.
“I agree that there is someone very close among us that is feeding information to the brotherhood. I still suspect Dr. Stark. It has to be someone very close to us given how much he or she knows about everything that we do, before we even do it. They’re down in Nebraska right now, killing our soldiers at a classified base. They didn’t just stumble on it. Someone obviously told them where it is.”
“Dr. Stark has no idea where we put all the warheads. He doesn’t even know we moved them.”
“That still doesn’t rule him out. They are going to get their hands on one of those bombs soon, and I am… baffled that you are still here pointing that gun at me.”
“You said it yourself, they can’t detonate the bombs without the codes.”
“Well, that’s true. However, some of our warheads can possibly detonate by impact.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“In our arsenal, we still have older warheads that can reach critical mass from a chain reaction caused by sheer impact alone. The newer bombs have an extremely intricate pattern of detonation that requires an exact triggering mechanism. But if they get their hands on an older generation bomb, it theoretically could go off just from being dropped from the sky.”
“Do you think the brotherhood knows that?”
“They seem to know everything else. We’ve got to stop them. We’ve got to move right now.”
“I know,” he said quietly.
Mayberry sighed and looked at Rambert patiently. “There is nothing I can do to prove to you that I’m not the Sirr. You simply have to trust me. I’ve never done anything that would make you think that I wasn’t completely honest with you at all times. I love this country, and I want to preserve what we are. We need to finally make a stand against this… evil that is swallowing us up.”
Rambert finally let out a long breath. “Okay, you’re right.” He dropped the gun. “Put on your clothes, I’m sorry we’ve wasted so much time.” Rambert set the gun on the table. “I just had to bring you all the way up here to make sure it wasn’t you. I feel like I can’t trust anyone at Eau Claire anymore.”
“Thank you, Larry.” He got off the stool and finally picked up his shirt. “All right, I think we need to do two things right now. Send every available military unit we have—Air Force, Navy, National Guard… whatever to our Albion base. We can talk to Novak, but I’m thinking we need to retreat out of El Paso and send them all to Nebraska immediately—” He stopped when he heard his own phone ring from Rambert’s hand and watched as Rambert turned it to read a text message.
Rambert read the message and then lowered the phone, looking intently at Mayberry. “So that you can completely wipe out the rest of our entire military when you detonate a nuclear bomb on Albion?” Rambert asked.
“What?” Mayberry was cinching his belt around his waist. “What’re you talking about?”
“You got a text, Chuck,” Rambert replied dryly.
“Who… what does it say?” Mayberry stood with one hand holding up his loose pants.
“It simply says, ‘Are you sure this is correct: eight-seven-T-C-pound sign-pound sign-zero-o-zero-six-one-Q-nine-nine-eight.’ ” Rambert looked up from the phone and saw that Mayberry already had a gun pointed at him.
“Larry,” Mayberry said with one arm holding the gun and the other cinching his belt tight. “Look at me.”
“You…” Rambert backed away, dropping the phone. “You really are…”
Mayberry’s face had transformed with hardened lines around his mouth and eyes. He clenched his jaw tight and breathed deep through his nostrils. The attitude of sarcasm and doubt that he attempted to fill the room with only moments before had vanished, leaving behind only a man with a stone face, peering from behind a gun. Focusing his stare into Rambert’s eyes made Mayberry himself appear as a wild animal behind jungle brush, waiting patiently for his prey to stop and nibble on a leaf. It was for only a fleeting moment, but Rambert thought he felt an imperceptible wave of exhaustion and fury flowing from behind Mayberry, with blackened disgust.
Mayberry moved his lips. “You,” he said with venom in his voice. “You didn’t tell me the correct code, did you?”
“No…” Rambert’s mouth was drained of moisture, only permitting a dry cough to follow. The gears of his mind moved, recalling information, and finally matching into the correct context. His face flickered with understanding. “It’s been you—”
“You gave me a fake code, didn’t you Larry?” Mayberry stepped forward with the gun concentrated on Rambert’s chest.
“This whole time, it’s you,” Rambert whispered. “I didn’t really believe it…”
“You thought you would pipe down some false information to me and see if it came back the other end. I’m guessing I’m the only person who got that particular fake code?”
“You really tried to get them to detonate the bombs? Is that what this text is? That they just now punched it in, and it didn’t work?”
“Mr. President…”
“What are you?”
“I was trying to get rid of our crutch.” Mayberry nodded his head.
“Our crutch?”
“It was the final step. Nothing could turn back if we still had the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. We have to be stripped of this.”
Rambert’s eyes wandered off to the ceiling. “You’re insane.”
“An insane person would never have been able to accomplish what I did.”
“Accomplish…”
“Eradicating the world’s most destructive dictatorships? Netanyahu is dropping nuclear weapons on Tehran within the hour. Despite being allies, China is invading North Korea because of their attempt of expanding their territory into the South. All of Europe…” Mayberry began to smile and breathe heavy. “England, Germany… France. They’re all finally putting reigns on Russia as Putin tries to squeak into Berlin after the outbreak there.”
“Oh my god.”
“Everyone sees the virus as a scourge but… it’s not, it’s just not. The virus is our incentive. It’s made the worthy countries of the world finally step out from under the shadows of tyranny. Just a few, pinpoint outbreaks across the globe and all the scum comes out to try to grab some power
. Our hands are forced to react. It’s finally happening. All I have to do next is drop a few of my ‘brothers’ in China and all the wheels will be set in motion to destroy the world’s dictatorships.”
“I don’t even know what to call you.”
“I don’t matter, here. It’s only what we do now. Our country is different now, yes. We will no longer be encumbered by the undue expectations that the world has of our once great country. With our military wiped out, and our nuclear arms gone, they won’t be able to hold us against the double standard of protecting the world from crimes against humanity, but insisting that we isolate ourselves. We’re finally free to become the country that we are supposed to be. Can you even begin to see what I’ve done?”
“If you want us to become so free, why did you destroy our Navy in Venezuela?”
“So we wouldn’t be tempted to save the world again from its problems. We must be disarmed. In that one moment, not only did I rid us of our burden, but also I wiped out the Chinese Navy and infected the dictator country of Venezuela. I really wish you could appreciate the orchestration that made all of this possible. It was really quite elegant,” Mayberry said pleasantly.
“It was you who…”
“What?”
“Two years ago, it was you, wasn’t it?”
“Try to be more specific, I did a lot of things two years ago.”
Rambert gasped. “You tipped off the Chinese about the outbreak. That’s how they invaded us so quickly. You knew it was going to happen because you… made it happen?”
“I’ve been working at this for a number of years, yes. It turns out that being the CIA director, not the President, is the world's’ most powerful position. Information is power, and I have more information than anyone could imagine.”
“You’re trying to talk to me like a sane person. You are so far gone…” Rambert started gasping for air. “What about your… God and this… your religion?”
“Larry, the brotherhood was only the vehicle. The Sirr… only the idea of a person. These were invented concepts to create loyal soldiers.”
“You just used them.”
“Not exactly. Call it whatever you like, but I’m sure it’s real enough to all those followers out there right now. It doesn’t matter if the Sirr or his religion is real or not. I may not be what they think I am, but I was at least going to die with them. I was on my way down to Albion before you brought me up here. I may have different beliefs as the brotherhood that I started but together our actions achieve the exact same thing.”
“What about your agent? Why would you even keep him alive?”
“He didn’t know it, but he was just my mole for Atash Yekta. I had to make sure the same info I was feeding down the line made it right back to me. If Atash was going to turn on me, I had a way to find out.”
“And you just… fabricated suspicion about Stark because—”
“He’s really the only one who could stop the virus but he has surprisingly failed quite nicely.” Mayberry smiled.
“The recording of the Sirr originating from Maryland?”
“Faked.”
Rambert slumped against the counter and dropped to the floor. “You’ve destroyed the world.”
“I’ve saved the world. It’s men like me that change history.”
Rambert looked up at the towering man, whose gun had never wavered from him. He stared in disbelief for a moment, but then chuckled through his slackened jaw. “Don’t you see what you’ve done?” Rambert asked.
“Yes, I’ve been seeing it for the last twenty years or so, when I knew I would have to change the way we do things and the way we think.”
“No, no you idiot.”
“You would call the man who single handedly changed human civilization an idiot?”
“Oh, you’ve changed it. Yes, you’ve created a new world order, but not into any miserable utopia that you’ve conjured in your brain. Did you forget about the tens of millions of reanimated dead people that are swarming around your perfect, little pinpoint outbreaks? We won’t be able wipe them out if you don’t get your henchmen out of our nuclear barracks so we can drop one in El Paso.”
“Whoever said I wanted to wipe them out? The infected will forever be our incentive.”
“You don’t know what the infected even are any more. They change, they mutate… they’re figuring us out.”
“I welcome whatever the horde will become.”
“Our masters,” Rambert added.
“We won’t kill each other anymore if we’re always trying to defend against the virus. We’re finally united, and evil men are being swept from the Earth.”
“Then why are you still here?”
Mayberry smiled gently. “Mr. President, I would love to finish this conversation with you, I really would. I’ve never once been able to be so candid about my life’s work with any one person. But now that we’ve disposed of our pretense, I’ve really got to get to this exact business in Albion. You’ve really detained me, and I’m afraid my men aren’t going to know what to do.”
“Please, Chuck, at least stop the horde from rolling in on us. I know you’re going to kill me, and there’s nothing I can do about it. But you’ve got to stop the horde right now. Tell them to take one of the bombs to El Paso. We can rebuild from here if we can stop that horde.”
“I can’t stop this now.” Mayberry walked toward Rambert and pointed his gun toward the dusty tile. He rummaged briefly in his front coat pocket and pulled out a small, plastic bag with a single white pill. “I wouldn’t wish upon you a violent death, Mr. President. You are a valiant man, but you’re from a different era now. We’re moving forward without you.” He handed the bag to Rambert.
Gently, Rambert took the bag, wondering about the lonely man who had called him. He remembered how quiet his voice was, and that he spoke deliberately and with intelligence. He had chosen his words carefully, unsure if they were accurate, but hoping that they were. Rambert looked up at Mayberry who towered above him, holding the gun away from him.
“Go ahead, Larry. Don’t make me shoot you,” Mayberry said.
“It turns out, Sirr,” Rambert said smiling, looking up over Mayberry’s shoulder, “that our new Secretary of Defense isn’t as useless as we thought. You thought that I wouldn’t be transmitting this conversation?”
Mayberry turned toward the door as a shot rang out in the lab. He dropped his gun and fell to the tile grabbing his thigh, which now gushed with blood. “No…” he said, reaching for his gun.
“If you pick up that gun, I’ll shoot you in the head,” Novak said, walking into the lab.
Chapter Twenty Nine: Albion, Nebraska
Atash stared at the cell phone taped to his forearm. He had sat quietly for the last several minutes as the sounds of intermittent gunfire echoed beyond the walls of the maintenance garage. It wasn’t just that he was waiting for a response that wasn’t coming, but for the first time in several years, he was stalling because he didn’t know what to do next. A flicker of despair built inside of him as he typed the same code into the keyboard of the warhead, over and over again. The mental strain of wondering if they would be destroyed by total annihilation any second or if Atash was going to type in the wrong code again was beginning to break down the remaining of brothers that sat with him. The others had run out to the adjacent warehouse to return fire as their location had now been discovered. The remaining hostages lined up on the ground, lying on their bellies, with Elise curled last in line.
“I think they can see where we are!” Malik yelled over to Atash in the small garage, as he shot his gun out through a side door into the vast warehouse that began to flood with soldiers. “We shouldn’t have fired our weapons so quickly, they’re moving down here!” Malik backed away from the door, closed it, and commanded two men to stack boxes of twisted metal fragments in front of the door. “We need to block the sliding garage door, too!” he yelled as bullets ricocheted off the shaking garage door from the outside. “Ata
sh!” he yelled as the rest of the men pushed pallets and machinery parts toward the doors. “Atash! The code doesn’t work!”
“Keep them back!” Atash yelled as he began shooting the hostages that were lined up on the ground, with Elise slowly wriggling away from the group. “Brothers, keep them from storming us!” He tore the cell phone from his arm and punched in numbers as another burst of bullets rained on the metal slats of the garage door. Atash brought the phone to his ear, waited for a moment, and then spoke in a rushed panic as the line picked up. “Sir, sir, the code is not correct! You must give me the correct code right this second, we are about to be killed, and lose the weapon!”
“Who is this?” the muffled voice replied.
“Brother Atash! The code you gave me did not work, sir!” Atash’s voice shrieked with a pitch that none of his brothers had heard before.
“Your master is now in custody,” the man on the other line said.
Atash looked over at Malik, who was helping the rest of the men barricade the doors. “What?” Atash said, putting his palm down on the keypad of the bomb. “Sir, no more tests. You must give me the correct code or the Americans will take over this weapon in less than five minutes.”
“His name is Charles Mayberry, have you heard of him?” the man taunted. “He is no God, only your puppeteer. There is no reward for you if you detonate that bomb. He made it all up.”
Atash cleared his throat. “Who is this?” he said calmly.
“The man who caught the Sirr.” The line went dead.
“Carter!” Atash yelled out as he threw the phone to the ground. “Where are you?” He looked around and saw that Elise was crawling away from the group of hostages. He briskly walked over to her and lifted her up from her handcuffs. She cried in pain as the thin metal dug into her wrists. Dropping her back to the ground, he saw that Malik had backed away from the side door from where he was looking out. “Malik, where is Carter?”
Malik swiveled his head around the room. “I… I don’t know. I thought he was right there with you.”
“What is it looking like out there?” Atash asked as his eyes looked wildly past Malik to the door. “I haven’t heard a shot in a while…” he said with hope as several more brothers ran out to join the firefight.