Crimson: The Second in the Trinity Series Novels

by Blade, CG

  “Yes Ray that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “I’m afraid we just don’t have the time to install more machinery and a navigational system to drop them. We did install warning countermeasures but that will be the extent of it.”

  “It’s okay Ray as long as she gets me there I’ll be fine.” Petra told him smiling as something behind the pilot’s seat caught her eye. “What are those Ray?” she asked him curiously staring at the two four-foot high two-foot wide black boxes pointed at the nose of the plane sitting directly behind the pilot’s seat.

  “Something the team installed for you. They are Klipsch Dolby Leviton RP-333 2,000-watt speakers. Oh the 1,000-watt subwoofer is under your new instrument panel.”

  Petra grinned.

  “Here take this,” Ray handed her a crystal microchip, “there’s a port built into the display panel.”

  She picked the chip up from his palm with her two right forefingers and studied it. “Comset?” she asked him.

  “Nope, a mixchip the crew made for you. I think it has around 10,000 songs on it.”

  If her grin could get larger, it would have reached her ears. She carefully cradled the chip in her palm as if it were gold.

  “That’s great I hope it has thrash metal on it.” Ter told her with a high concentration of sarcasm attached to her comment.

  Friday October 26th 6:45 AM MST

  Desert winds were growing increasingly stronger as several workers pushed the two massive black sliding hanger doors open. The sun was barely peeking up over the eastern horizon as the massive shiny nose of the B-29 started to show herself to the world. It was all hands on deck as all ninety-eight people in attendance heaved and pushed the 72,000 pound plane through the opening in the hanger and out onto a sandy plowed runway. The four cowlings attached to the wings were void of the usual Wright-R3350 Duplex-Cyclone turbosupercharged radial engines. The eight Browning guns and two BMG Cannons also removed. Not needed, the weapons were just deadweight and no one would be onboard to man them anyway. The Avenging Angel was a shell and nothing more than a source of pride, a purpose, and a statement. The crew turned the plane, rolling on its three main thick black rubber wheels and rear tailwheel towards the northeast. Satisfied that the craft had reached its destination Petra, who was pushing on the tail of the plane, put her right two forefingers to her lips and let out that famous whistle. Eight famous patriotic striped drones appeared in front of the Superfortress and hovered in front of the shiny silver wings. Patrick, Benjamin, Thomas, and John Paul propelled in reverse and backed into the open cavities in the wings where powerful engines once sat. Without hesitation, their exhausts roared brilliant blue flames as they went through their own pre-flight check. John, George, Ethan, and James all waited patiently for a signal hovering above the four drones who were now part of the famous airframe. Petra received ninety-seven heartfelt goodbyes as the crew gave her a giant sendoff. Sitting in the padded black cockpit seat in her cobalt flight suit, Ray entered the cabin squatting next to her.

  “Petra, 2,000 feet, remember you have to be under 2,000 feet to deliver the payloads.”

  “I got it Ray, thanks.” She said confidently as she fired up the touchscreen display. The sparkling blue hued crystal display running numbers and indicators across it softly hummed.

  “I never thought it would ever come to this Petra and I never in my wildest dreams thought we would be repeating history but on occasion it does happen,” he told her biting his lip slightly, “here you need to look at this when you get in the air.” He held his hand open frowning slightly.

  “What is it Ray another mixchip?” She stared at the tiny crystal microchip in his palm.

  “No. Something Jackie wanted you to see. I know you cannot feel Petra but Jackie and I truly do love you. Godspeed, come back to us Petra. There is something for you under the seat also.” Ray patted her on the shoulder kissing the top of her head. He closed the door behind him exiting the aircraft. Once again, she stared at a crystal chip in her palm with curiosity.

  Chapter 29

  DELIVERABLE

  Friday October 26th 9:08 AM PST

  The flight was bumpy hitting a low thunder cell after a very long goodbye from the waving crowd around the hanger during a low thunderous flyover Petra gave them. She watched them disappear from sight crossing over desert into Arizona and the newly formed state of California. This 6,500-mile flight normally flown towards the top pole of the earth over Canada, Alaska, and Russia making it quicker was ignored due to the increased speed of the B-29 and the reinforced airframe. The original Superfortress’ maximum speed of 337 knots and cruising speed at 220 knots was upgraded to the fullest extent that the laws of physics would allow. This newly designed bomber was capable of a top speed of 765 knots and cruising speed of 550 knots. Petra put the pedal to the metal riding the edge of the aircraft’s envelope. The four drones that were not part of the airframe kept a watchful eye out as their upgraded technology played wingman separated on either side of the port and starboard wingtips. Ray had preprogrammed the GPS coordinates into the aircraft making it easier on Petra. Two hours into her flight cruising at an altitude of 1,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean the music blared rattling the loose rivets in the plane previously overlooked or missed by the crew. The song selection pumping out of the powerful speakers and sub-woofer consisted of ‘Iron Maiden-Where Eagles Dare’, ‘Drowning Pool-Bodies’, Ted Nugent-Stranglehold’, ‘Van Halen-Runnin with the Devil’, and ‘Rev Theory-Hell Yeah’. Petra had one special song she was saving when she arrived at the North Korean capital. She opened her palm staring at the crystal microchip she had been gently protecting. Switching off the music, she inserted the chip Ray gave her into a slot in the display panel.

  “Thank you Petra I’m not sure I can listen to another minute of that. I thought the selection of music was a little over the top. Didn’t they upload any Bangles or Go-Go’s?”

  “Gag me with a spoon Ter.” Petra reached under her seat pulling out a black bag. Unzipping it she pulled out a single Twinkie, unwrapped it, and put the sticky sponge cake in her mouth savoring its sweetness. Swiping an icon on the display, Jackie’s head appeared as a hologram above the crystal screen in view of the cockpit windshield. Petra smiled at Jackie’s six-inch miniature image. Beautifully made up with glistening cobalt eye shadow and black eyeliner her long blonde hair was perched on the top of her head wrapped in a loose bun. Jackie began speaking aloud:

  “Petra, I want to first tell you something you might be aware of already. You helped to save several of the people viciously attacked and presumed dead at the Med Lab. Some of them are resting comfortably at Rayson Industries and they send their love and support your way. Amanda pulled through with your quick thinking and bravery. She might be half the woman she used to be but she is alive and well because of you. I told Ray in confidence what you have probably already heard from him before you left. I love you Petra. As a mother now, a daughter, and a sister I love you. I am sometimes sorry that in order for you to exist you cannot feel and it drives me crazy. Maybe it is the baby talking right now. I do not know. I am proud of you and all you’ve accomplished.” Petra watched raindrops hitting the cockpit windows taper off turning into soft blue sky and calm rippling waves across the horizon. “Jim didn’t make it Petra. I am so sorry and it kills me to tell you this. I know how much he meant to you, to all of us,” Jackie’s holographic image was wiping tears off of her cheeks with a tissue, “there is something else you should know before you do what you’re about to do. When Ray’s team recovered all of the bodies from the Med Lab, they also retrieved all of the hardware from the Blade Drives. As you know all of our files are self-contained and do not exist outside of our network for security purposes. Ray was able to put security measures in place to crosscheck the victims DNA and notify their families. When he did this, he made a startling discovery. Petra, Dreama was your sister, your half-sister.” Petra stared straight ahead looking through Jackie’s image. Not one single stra
nd of muscle fiber moved on her as she ran computations on the ramifications of this revelation. “I know this would be a lot to take in for a normal person but I hope you understand. We think when Carnise separated from Ray she spent some time with your father. This would explain why we never knew who your real mother was and why your father never spoke of her. I am sorry Petra, sorry that you’re alone and taking all of this in right now but I thought it best that you knew. Good luck Petra and come back to us, I love you.” The hologram disappeared as Jackie wiped tears from her eyes.

  “Dreama is—my, I—shot—my—sister.” Petra said slowly and calmly as if she were in a trance.

  “You did not know Dreama was your sister Petra. You cannot be responsible for an outcome consisting of knowledge you did not have at the time.”

  “I could have saved her in Nevada Ter.”

  “The probability of saving her and yourself at the time was zero point zero. I am sensing an unusual chemical imbalance in your system Petra.”

  Petra stared out of the cockpit windows as a land mass appeared over the horizon directly in front of her. A small electrical charge in her head formed an ionized atom compounded from an explosion of a nucleus and an electron resulting in a molecule. Multiple supercharged colliding molecules formed a lacrimation. Petra put the tip of her right forefinger up to her lacrimal gland pulling it away slowly. She held it up in front of her eyes tilting her head wondering why she was leaking cobalt fluid.

  ***

  Twenty-minutes before flying over the eastern coast of the island of Japan, Petra checked her cargo to make sure it was ready to go and contacted Ray one final time. They chatted for a couple of minutes discussing the holographic video note Jackie had sent. Ray and his crew were on the road heading back home and the President had contacted Ray to wish them luck and find out the details of the mission. Petra set the altitude to descend over Tokyo much to the dismay of the Japanese government and the people who witnessed this flyover. Hiding in plain sight Petra tried desperately to avoid any type of radar contact flying the huge shiny silver aircraft within the normal drone frequency window at 500-feet. Cruising over the Sea of Japan towards Korea the warning system in the aircraft lit up the display panel like a Christmas tree flashing the words:

  WARNING—WARNING—WARNING—HIGH HEAT SIGNATURES DETECTED—WARNING

  A computerized female voice from the display panel alerted Petra: “Incoming high heat signatures detected Captain Dace…”

  “Ter what is it?”

  “Satellite imagery shows a buildup of Surface-to-Air missiles around the cities of Kimchaek, Tanchon, and Hamhung North Korea. It seems as though we have lost our cover Petra.”

  “Or, someone alerted them.” Morphing into her cobalt armor Petra took control of the aircraft manually.

  “That is a possibility Petra.”

  “Plot the GPS course for Pyongyang and then north to Shenyang. It needs to stay in my HUD as well.”

  “Yes Petra.”

  “What is the radius of the coverage area of the bombs Ter?” Petra turned the virtual yoke of the B-29 west while increasing altitude slightly. All eight of the drones matched her efforts following the flight path.

  “Dropping Fat Man from an altitude of 2,000-feet would result in a concentric radius of 400 KM or 248.5 Miles wide. Dropping Little Boy from an altitude of 2,000-feet would result in a concentric radius of 300 KM or 186.4 Miles wide.”

  Petra hit the east coast of North Korea at the city of Wonsan, not greeted with dinner and a movie but a barrage of fast moving SAMs. The first one became visible as she shut the warning system off and banked the aircraft tightly to the left turning it over, port wingtip facing the Earth. The cone shaped twenty-foot long missile barely scraped the underside of the Avenging Angel as Petra turned the aircraft back over and up righted it. Her four wingmen went after the missile chasing it down and striking it with chrome heat seeking projectiles. Petra’s HUD was recalculating the course constantly updating her as she deviated several times from her destination course to avoid the many attempts to strike the large aircraft. Explosions occurred all around her as John, George, Ethan, and James all performed their duties to the best of their abilities. The SAMs were quicker but did not have the capability to outrun the heat seekers. Approaching Pyongyang, Petra swiped an icon on the display panel labeled ‘Bomb Bay Doors’ and put her mixchip back into its slot on the panel. An explosion took out eight of the cockpit windows in front of her sending glass shards flying straight through to the back of the plane. Pieces of the plane’s square windshield panels and metal bounced off her as the wind came straight at her making attempts to function a little more difficult.

  “We are two minutes from the drop zone Petra.”

  “It’s time to knock on the door Ter.” Petra told her as she pushed ‘play’ on her massive speaker system. Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ began to reverberate loudly throughout the aircraft and sky around the plane. She made her way to the back of the plane as the drones whined passed the aircraft several times chasing down ongoing SAM attacks.

  Nice, very nice Petra thought as she read the markings on the bombs the crew had painted and scribbled before they loaded them onboard. Game Over, Goodnight, Say Hello to the Devil for Me and Have a Nice Day! were just some of the phrases scrawled over the bomb’s red, white, and blue exterior. A very large yellow smiley face covered the nose of the ten-foot long twenty-eight inch diameter bomb. She unstrapped the now inscribed Little Girl replacing Little Boy from its container sitting on four rubber wheels.

  “Ten seconds until drop Petra.”

  Petra looked out over the landscape of buildings and farmland occupying Pyongyang as they went by quickly. She rolled Little Girl up to the opening and pushed her out of the bay door. Quickly losing sight of it, she returned to her seat, which had received even more shrapnel and glass while she was in the back of the plane. Brushing off the debris, she pulled up on the yoke climbing to 4,000-feet. It took twelve seconds for the 170-pound Little Girl to free fall at 120 MPH finally reaching its destination. Petra tilted the B-29 slightly as she watched the substance spread, covering everything as it traveled quickly. It crept, snaked, and grew larger fanning out like a beautiful flower pedal opening in fast forward over the earth. The brilliant cobalt colored substance shone in the dusky light as the sun started to settle over the horizon in the west.

  Chapter 30

  CONNECTABLE

  Saturday October 27th 8:34 PM UTC

  One-hundred miles outside of Shenyang Petra received another warm greeting from the Peoples Republic of China’s welcome wagon. SAM attacks mixed with crimson colored drones were pelting the already worn and failing historic airframe. Her four wingmen were doing a good job of keeping up with the incoming drone sorties and attacks but the fuselage and leading edges of the wings were taking a hard beating. Holes were getting larger in the silver airframe as her four drone engines were desperately compensating for the loss of structure. Their blue exhaust flames shooting in all directions, the rear exhausts working overtime.

  “Petra the satellites are picking up numerous incoming heat signatures coming from the west. The signatures are small and very fast.”

  “What are they Ter?”

  “I am not sure Petra but we will make contact with them in approximately thirty-seconds.”

  “I only need another five minutes Ter.” Petra looked out of the cockpit staring at the city lights below getting brighter as she headed northwest towards Shenyang. An explosion occurred to her left 500-feet in front of the aircraft. Another on the right side of the plane, chirping, that is chirping she thought hearing drone-like sounds.

  “Ter what is that noise. Are those drones?”

  “Yes Petra. It seems the cavalry is here.”

  Hundreds of drones suddenly appeared outside of the aircraft enveloping it, protecting it. Petra could barely make out their markings but their intentions were clear. Drones similar to Petra’s eight patriotic hovering friends were
filling up the night sky. Their blue exhaust flames were shining brightly as rain slowly started to pelt Petra’s armor from the open cockpit windows. Hundreds of Union Jack painted drones, Greek blue and white striped drones, drones from Israel, Germany, France and Australia surrounded the Avenging Angel on her historic flight. Petra nodded to them as they all did a little shimmy in her honor and took off towards more incoming SAM attacks.

  “It looks like they got President Harrison’s message Ter.”

  “It would most certainly look that way Petra.”

  Petra headed for the back of the aircraft for the final solution. This was the supreme blow to the murderers and despicable evil men and women of the Yinbi Yinying. The ultimate blow for so many innocent American lives lost for nothing. Petra unstrapped the ten-foot long sixty-inch diameter egg-shaped Fat Man, now labeled Fat Lady, from her restraints, and pushed her towards the bomb bay door. Petra suddenly fell backwards losing her balance as a concussion hit the tail of the plane knocking a huge hole in the right side of the weakened fuselage. She bounced hard against the inside of the aircraft’s interior like a pinball hitting a flipper. Wind and rain whipped through the hull of the plane as the creaking metal and rivets started to part from the airframe. The 300-pound Fat Lady rolled onto Petra, smiley face first, and she and the bomb crashed into the speakers sending them and the pilot’s seat flying through the cockpit windshield. The nose of the aircraft was now drifting towards the earth and she could see Shenyang’s city lights coming at her fast. Petra crawled over the top of the bomb as Avenging Angel pointed straight down at the earth.

  WARNING—STALL WARNING—STEEP DESCENT—WARNING—WARNING—WARNING