by Dirk Patton
“So you just gave up?” Anna asked, a note of disappointment in her voice.
“Don’t use that tone with me, young lady! Your dear mother mastered it, and you don’t hold a candle to her in that department. And, to answer your question, have you ever, in your life, known of me to give up? Where do you think you got that goddamn bullheaded, stubborn drive that put you at the top of your class at West Point?”
Anna nodded, keeping her mouth shut.
“It’s taken almost a year to get to where we are today. I found people within the Agency that I could trust. Really knew I could trust. And there weren’t very damn many of them. You met one the other day. And, there’s a couple more, but that’s it.
“You gotta remember. All these men have families, too. People they love and care about. There wasn’t anything we could do. No one we could go to. There was no evidence. No proof. Just my word, which wouldn’t be enough when push came to shove. So, we started prepping.”
“Prepping. For what?” Anna asked.
“Pumpkin, haven’t you been listening? You don’t sneak eight nukes into New York City unless there’s a plan to use them. And when that day comes, what do you think’s gonna happen to this country? Blow it up and what happens to the rest of us? Wall Street gone. The Federal Reserve. Thousands of major corporations are headquartered there.
“Let me tell you, if New York City were wiped off the map, this country would very quickly devolve into chaos like no one has imagined. So, we all got together and started making plans. If we can’t stop this, and frankly I’m surprised every day when I wake up and it hasn’t already happened, then we have to survive it.
“We’ve been building for close to a year in an abandoned silver mine out in the Nevada desert. Getting ready. Stocking it. And we finally finished a couple of weeks ago.”
“How did you manage to keep all that work hidden from the government?” Sean asked.
“Wasn’t easy. But, as far as we can tell, we succeeded. That whole thing right there is a longer story than you probably want to hear.”
“Dad,” Anna interrupted. “We’ve got to go tell your story. Someone will listen! I’m not going to run and hide in the desert while my country is attacked!”
Bill shook his head sadly after she finished speaking.
“Who we gonna tell, Anna? Who will listen to a man who faked his own death? I’m old. Easy to write off as a crank, especially without any proof. You think I’m happy about this? OK with it? Not by a long shot, missy! But, I’m also realistic. Making waves will only get you and your husband killed. I don’t care about me, but I do care what happens to you.”
“No!” Anna was back on her feet, eyes flashing. “I will NOT sit by and let this happen. There’s got to be a way. I know some Generals that can get to SECDEF. That’s only a step away from the Oval Office. Hell, Dad, I’m a General! Let’s go to the media! We’ll make such a stink that they won’t dare touch us.”
Sean was shaking his head and Anna whirled on him in anger.
“What?” She shouted.
“Your dad’s right,” he said. “Without proof, no one is going to listen. You’ll be characterized as a bitter ex-Army officer who was forced to retire because she couldn’t get along with her peers. Something along those lines. And your dad? Legally, he’s a dead man. The press would have a field day with that one. And me? I’m a PMC. To most people, that’s just another word for mercenary, and if we’re being honest, that’s what it comes down to.”
“Then I’ll call General Olber!”
“No one else will take your calls, what makes you think he will? He sent a personal emissary to deliver a message. He’s not only trying to help you, but he’s also letting you know that he’s done everything he can. You’ll never be able to speak with him.”
Anna stared at the two men for half a minute before spinning on her heel and marching out of the room. Seconds later, the front door slammed hard enough to rattle every dish in the kitchen cabinets. Sean started to get up to follow her, but Bill placed a hand on his arm.
“Let her cool down,” he said. “She’s a good woman, but has her mother’s temper. Just needs to think it through and she’ll be fine.”
Sean sank back into his chair with a sigh.
“What about the gamma sniffer?” He asked. “We carried them all over the place in Iraq, looking for Saddam’s WMDs. The one I used had a built-in GPS and logged everywhere it went. That would be proof.”
“Stolen out of my house when I was in Birmingham,” Bill said. “And, I’m sure there’s no record of those flights having landed in New York.”
“Anyone check?”
Bill shook his head.
“No. We didn’t see much point. I know the way things work. They didn’t have to worry about deleting records. There weren’t any created in the first place. I didn’t file any flight plans and never talked to an air controller. None of my boys did. We were ghosts in the night, and there’s no way to prove a ghost paid a visit.”
“Why did you fake your death?” Anna asked, surprising them. Neither had heard her come back in.
“To get you home,” Bill answered. “And to take the heat off of you. If they think I’m dead, they’ll believe they can control you, and you’re no longer in danger.”
“You were behind her forced retirement, weren’t you?” Sean asked.
“Had to make sure you stayed, once you got here,” Bill said, unable to meet Anna’s glare.
“That was you?” Anna cried. “How could you? Do you know what you’ve done? If you’d just called, I’d have come home! You could have told me all this, and I’d still be in a position to do something. What were you thinking, Dad?”
Bill stared at his hands, unable to meet her accusing gaze.
“General Olber knows,” he mumbled.
“What?” Anna whispered, stunned.
“He knows,” Bill said, looking up. “I told him everything.”
“Then why isn’t he doing something?” She shouted.
“He’s trying, Pumpkin. He’s trying. But this is happening way above his pay grade, and he doesn’t have any proof. He has to be very careful what he does with the information.”
“You keep saying you have no proof,” Sean interrupted before Anna could continue. “How did you get him to believe you? Why would he trust you?”
“Back when I was a Chief Warrant Officer in the Army, there was a young, wet behind the ears, second lieutenant that wanted to be a helicopter pilot worse than anyone I’ve ever seen. Smart as a whip and determined as hell. Kind of like your wife, there. Well, I was working a rotation as an instructor when Lieutenant Olber was accepted into the training program.
“He was a rising star, that much was obvious. But, the man’s got no sense of up and down, right or left. No depth perception. At least not the kind you need to fly. He aced the classroom work. First person to ever do that, and probably still the only one. But, he flew like a pregnant albatross. No matter how hard he worked, you can’t overcome that kind of innate deficit.
“But, he was doing just good enough to not wash out of the program. Don’t get me wrong, he’d never fly in combat or even combat support, but he might have been able to ferry birds from point A to B, or maybe perform maintenance test flights. Unfortunately, it never got that far.
“He and I were up on a training flight. Simple stuff. Take off, ascend to five hundred feet, hover, then land. Easy. Only it wasn’t for him. He did fine getting us in the air and holding a hover, but came down way too fast. By the time I could take control, it was too late. We hit the tarmac in a belly flop that bent the airframe.
“My fault, really. I wasn’t paying close enough attention, even though I knew he wasn’t up to snuff. So, I told him to keep his mouth shut and resign from the program. Then, I lied and took the blame for the crash. You see, I was within a year of retirement and knew the black mark wouldn’t hurt me. But, if it had gone into his record, well, he wouldn’t be where he is today. Probabl
y wouldn’t even still be in the Army.
“So, you ask why he trusts me? I’ve never asked him for a thing in return until now. I could have paved the way for Anna, and he knows it, but I didn’t. Everything she got, she earned on her own. He understands this. That’s why.”
7
“Aren’t you worried about them coming after you, now that you’ve surfaced?” Sean asked.
Bill shook his head, stood up and walked over to a liquor cabinet. He bent to peer at the selection, finally picking a squat bottle of whiskey. Grabbing three glasses, he tilted his head at an exterior door.
“Let’s continue this on the porch,” he said.
“Sure that’s a good idea?” Sean asked, pointing at the ceiling as he raised his eyebrows questioningly. “Easy to listen in from a UAV these days.”
Bill chuckled and worked the knob with his elbow.
“Think I don’t know all about drones, sonny? Got a microwave emitter on the roof. They don't hear shit I don’t want them to hear.”
With a nod, Sean stood to follow him outside, but Anna grabbed his hand and pulled him close.
“Sean, we’ve got to do something! Unless Dad’s gone completely around the bend, there are eight nuclear warheads somewhere in New York City. We’ve got to tell someone who can mobilize the Nuclear Emergency Search Team.”
“Honey, who do we tell? There’s a three-star General, the commander of the entire First Army, that knows. You think he can’t pick up the phone and talk to either SECDEF or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs whenever he feels like it? Either of those two can get in to see the President with one phone call.”
“Then the media. I agree with Dad that they’re in the politicians’ pockets, but there’s got to be a reporter we can find that will listen!”
“Listen to what? A second-hand story without a shred of evidence to back it up? There’s not a reporter that would be listened to that would take us seriously. Besides, you know as well as I do that since 9/11, New York is blanketed with radiation detectors. Why do you think they aren’t screaming an alarm?”
Anna stared at him, obviously not having considered that little nugget.
“There are only two possible answers,” Sean continued when she didn’t say anything. “One; your dad is off his rocker, and this entire story is just that. A story. But, he seems perfectly lucid to me. I believe what he’s saying, for what it’s worth.”
“What’s the second possibility?” Anna asked, nodding in agreement with Sean’s assessment of her father.
“There’s someone out there with enough juice to have had the detectors shut down or ignored when they went into alarm. You think about that kind of power for a minute. Come up with a viable plan of action that has a reasonable chance of success, and I’m with you one hundred percent. But, until then, we can’t tip our hand. If we do, we won’t live long enough to try and stop this.”
Sean held her eyes with his for several seconds before leaning close and gently kissing her.
“I want to do something, too, but it has to be the right thing at the right time. We’ll get one shot at this. That’s it. We can’t go charging in without thinking this through. Now, let’s go see what else your dad has to say, then we can start working on some ideas to stop these fuckers.”
He gave her one of his lopsided smiles, and after a minute she took a deep breath and returned it, allowing him to lead her out onto a broad patio. Bill was waiting for them, reclined in a plush lounge chair with a glass of whiskey in his hand. He looked up as they walked out the door.
“You two decide I’m not some tin foil hat wearing, conspiracy theorist?”
“Something like that,” Sean smiled.
He poured a finger of whiskey for himself and Anna, passed her one of the glasses and sat down facing Bill.
“So, you didn’t answer me earlier,” he began. “Aren’t you worried about them coming after you?”
“They aren’t looking for me, and as long as I don’t do anything stupid, they won’t know I’m still kicking.”
“Would something stupid be like following me all over town this morning?” Sean asked. “I recognized the car in the courtyard.”
Bill grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“Didn’t know you spotted me until you went into that Home Depot. Thought I was better than that.”
“You’re good, but my training’s probably a little more current,” Sean said, letting the old man off easy. “But, that still doesn’t make me feel better. How are you confident there’s not a CIA hit team on the way here right now?”
“Anything’s possible, but I’ve got people in the right places to give me a heads up, and I haven’t heard anything from them.”
“Yet,” Anna said.
“Yet,” Bill echoed her comment.
“So, where do we go from here, Bill?” Sean asked.
“Nevada, of course. I already told you, the facility is ready. It’s stocked and manned. Just waiting’ for its General.”
“You’re not coming?” Anna asked, the whiskey glass in her hand still untouched.
Bill shook his head.
“Soon as I know you’re safe, I’ve got my own plans. That’s where you come in, young man.”
“Me?” Sean asked in surprise. “What do you need from me?”
Bill drained his glass and made a production of pouring another two fingers of whiskey before answering.
“Despite my daughter’s poor opinion of me,” he began. “There is actually something I’m going to do that just might upset their apple cart.”
“Dad, I didn’t…”
Bill smiled and held up his hand to stop her.
“I know, Pumpkin. I was just poking you a little bit. So, as I was saying, I’ve got an idea. There’s one person I know of who probably has all the details about where those warheads wound up and what the plan for them is. But, he presents some problems. It isn’t going to be easy to get to him, and it’s going to be even more difficult to get him to talk.”
“Who are you talking about?” Sean asked, starting to get an idea of what Bill had in mind.
“That Agency prick, Delker. The one that threatened Anna’s life. What I’m thinking is we scoop him up and squeeze him until we get the info. Once we’ve got some actionable intelligence, General Olber is on board with doing whatever needs to be done.”
“What do you mean by that?” Anna asked in surprise.
“Doing what’s necessary to stop this before New York starts glowing in the dark. He’s got the men and resources. Sure, it’s going to be dangerous as hell, but when the time comes, he’s ready to do what needs doing.”
“You’re talking about the United States Army operating within our borders without Presidential or Congressional authorization! That can’t happen!” Anna exclaimed.
“Can and will,” Bill said, nodding.
“Why hasn’t he gone to SECDEF and POTUS with this?” Sean asked, forestalling Anna’s horror at the thought of what amounted to an armed insurrection by the military.
“You know they can be trusted?” Bill asked pointedly.
“You can’t believe that!” Anna said.
“Pumpkin,” Bill answered patiently. “As we’ve already discussed, there’s someone with one hell of a lot of juice behind this. They’ve managed to co-opt the CIA and the FBI. They’re pulling strings like a puppet master. I’m not saying that the White House is involved, but at the moment they can’t be ruled out. What we’ve got to worry about is getting the info we need for General Olber to take action. The rest will sort itself out, as long as we can get those nukes off the playing field.”
“What do you need from me?” Sean asked before Anna could continue to protest.
“Muscle,” Bill chuckled. “That’s the one thing my friends and I don’t have. “Trained, military muscle. Got pilots coming out of my ears, but no one that can go toe to toe when the time comes. Figure you know some guys that would be happy to help out. If they need to be paid, I’ve go
t plenty of money, so that’s not a problem.”
“You’ve thought this through pretty well, haven’t you?” Sean asked, a note of admiration in his voice. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had something to do with Anna and I meeting and falling in love.”
Bill threw his head back and laughed.
“I’m good, young man, but I’m not that good! That was just a fortunate circumstance.”
“So, we snatch this Delker character and get him to tell us what we need to know. That pretty much it?” Sean asked.
“In a nutshell, yes. One of my associates is keeping tabs on him, so we’ll know right where to find him when the time comes.”
“Sean,” Anna said, drawing her husband’s attention. “This is crazy. Kidnap a CIA officer? Then what? Torture him until he talks? There has to be another way!”
Sean didn’t answer. Didn’t know what to say to his wife. He didn’t like the idea, even if there wasn’t another one. But, she was right. Forcing someone to reveal information wasn’t like it was in the movies. You didn’t just hit them in the face a couple of times and cause all their secrets to come spilling out. It could take weeks, or even months if the subject was a true believer in their cause, and then you couldn’t trust what they told you until it was independently verified.
“Bill, do you have any idea how much time we have?” Sean asked.
“None. We could have minutes, or it could be months. But, those warheads were delivered a year ago. Don’t know what they’re waiting for. That’s one of the first things we need to find out.”
Sean was nodding his head before Bill finished speaking.
“I’m in,” he said firmly.
“Sean! We need to discuss this!” Anna cried.
“I think that’s my cue to step inside,” Bill said, getting to his feet.
Sean met Anna’s eyes, his heart breaking when he saw her tears.