She lost lock on it, but by then it was trailing smoke and debris. When she lifted the pistol far enough to track it again and it resumed firing it was going almost straight up. It was programmed to pop up and acquire the target, roll over and then drop almost vertically on it. Instead of a smooth climb and roll over however, it was spinning slowly and trailing a plume of burning fuel. It lost a fluttering flat piece of wing or tail and veered off to the north, making April lose her aim again.
The smooth turn changed into a tumbling motion and when April acquired it again the laser fire chopped visible chucks off the airframe. It was falling slowly enough she kept a lock on it, until it disappeared behind the garage and the pistol stopped firing as soon as it went out of sight. It shut off so fast the laser didn't even burn the roof ridge. She immediately holstered her weapon.
A ball of orange flame climbed into the air, from three or four hundred meters to their north. It quickly turned red and then sooty black. The deep thud of its impact was followed by a long series of crackling sounds like a string of cheap firecrackers.
"I know that sound, it was loaded with cluster munitions," Gunny told her. "With a little luck maybe it fell on the aircars," he said hopefully.
April was staring off into the sky, eyes flicking about inside her spex. A couple times she spoke so softly Gunny couldn't understand her, except a sudden angry – "NO!"
"What's going on?" he asked after a couple minutes. She dropped her gaze but was still engrossed in something and held her palm up asking his patience. Finally she looked up abruptly. "OK, I'm done. Let's get out of here."
"What were you doing?" Gunny asked, as they jogged to cut through the house, to the parking apron on the opposite side of the house. Li was waiting for them at the door.
"Your bags are loaded in Papa-san's vehicle. We are almost done loading and ready to roll. I will follow with another of our men. All the other workers are gone. Good shooting Missy," he added.
"Thank you Li." There were two large SUVs waiting. All the other vehicles, including April's Mercedes, were gone. Li's helper was putting the last of a pile of small wooden boxes in the back. They were small, but so heavy he was visibly struggling to move them. Li held the door for her, to get in the rear seat of the long sea green vehicle. It was a strange time for such chivalry, when they were running for their lives.
The rear hatch slammed and Papa-san immediately pulled away. Looking over her shoulder, Li and another of the man servants were in a blue version of the same vehicle behind.
There was a huge plume of black smoke, still rolling into the air from the woods. As they eased down the crooked driveway, a series of manmade meteors snaked overhead from west to east. Bright balls of yellow hot fire, surprisingly visible even in full sunlight. They were so low it rumbled like a freight train. At one point the first of them had dropped from sight behind the house to the east and yet there was still a continuous line of a half dozen still descending from the west, drawing a line across the sky.
"What in the hell is that?" Gunny demanded.
"The death of a submarine," April answered. "The fools didn't dive and run after shooting at us. Maybe they were told to stand by for a second shot if needed. I asked the militia watch officer to kill it for me. I think he wasted some rods. Three or four would have been plenty, when it was loitering right near the surface. Looks to me like he dropped a dozen on them, but he sounded pretty pissed when I was talking to him."
"You are that well regarded on Home, that he'd kill a multi-billion dollar missile boat and maybe a hundred men for shooting at you?" Gunny asked.
"I'm in the militia and I'd do the same for anybody from Home."
"What can anybody do against something the size of China though?"
"What could anybody do against North America?" April retorted.
Gunny just nodded. It was beyond his ability to process. It was insane.
Chapter 41
"Is Adzusa going to meet us somewhere?" April inquired.
"It is my intent to leave the island," Papa-san told her. "Adzusa wishes to stay active in her job, which is incompatible with joining us. She also intends to make sure your home is secure and will put some more security in place there as a base for herself as well, before she leaves. Remaining in our home without staff was not viable, even if the present aggressors were dealt with. If you agree to come with us, we may be out of touch for a number of days, so if either of you want to leave word with anyone do it now. On the road now is less risky. Once we leave the island, I insist on radio silence, until we are well over the horizon."
"I'll tell my people I'll be out of contact," April agreed, opening her pad.
Gunny tried to call Captain Yoder direct. The number simply didn't ring. He tried Carol from the State Department and got her on the first ring. She sounded like she was in a car too.
"Carol I seem to be cut off electronically. I can't reach my commanding officer and I can't reach my assets I was given for operations. We were attacked at the Santos' residence. Do you know what is going on?"
"Master Sergeant, I'm receiving multiple, conflicting orders myself. I am headed for a safe place and suggest you do the same. All I can suggest is, follow your oath and use your own discretion. I have contacted your service and advised them there may be renewed attempts on our President. I can only hope it found the right ear. I'm turning this phone off and removing the battery. I suggest you do the same. Goodbye Master Sergeant." The line went dead. He removed his battery and zipped it in a pocket.
"You don't look tremendously happy," April observed.
"I'm isolated and abandoned to my own devices. The government seems to be in chaos. I'm not sure if I am sent orders, if it will be by a valid authority and I'm somewhat afraid I may be asked to do things at variance with both my oath and my conscience. I'm not sure it is safe to use the expense card I was issued, or access my own bank accounts and I left my home and most of my personal gear halfway around the world, while I'm headed I have no idea where, with a notorious spy and a rebel with a big target drawn on her back. So yeah, I'm not likely to be a font of joy today."
"Master Sergeant, I suggest you stay close to your basic assignment. Protect Miss Lewis. I will see that you both get away to a safe place," Papa-san promised. "I am not without resources and you will have your needs addressed. If you wish, I can ask some of my professional contacts to see if it is possible to transfer your private funds, where they can't be used to hold you hostage. Would that make you feel better?"
"Indeed it would. I appreciate your kindness. You have known me so briefly."
"Not at all. We are headed to what you would call a safe house. It would be better if you do not discuss our situation, with any of the personnel who work there. As much for their protection as yours. Later, we will be going to a marina and board a vessel that will be our ride off the island. Is that agreeable to both of you?"
"What if we would opt to bail out?" Gunny asked, but didn't seem upset.
"I'm not into kidnapping," Papa-san assured him. "We can drop you right here, or when we get further into town. But well before we are near the safe house. You understand the necessity of that I hope."
"I do indeed. I just wanted to hear what you'd say. I'm still on board," Gunny agreed.
"I'm not without resources either, as Papa-san said. One of the reasons I am down here, was to rescue two lieutenants from your service, who got entrapped in political intrigues just for doing their job and wish to come to Home." April explained. "You may end up in a similar bind," she predicted.
"This puts a little wrinkle in those plans, doesn't it?"
"Indeed. And President Wiggen invited me to dinner. I don't know if she will be hosting state dinners for very long. I have her direct number, but I'm afraid to use it right now."
"I suppose I should tell you, I have a special forces team watching your house, April. I don't know if anybody would bother it, since they knew you were at the Santos, but I thought it was a good idea at t
he time. If Adzusa is headed there, you may find it a comfort to know they are there."
"I'm having a number of security upgrades added there, but they are not all in place. The digging for a really deep safe room will take awhile. Papa-san has a man in place and if he says Adzusa has it in hand I can only imagine it will be very safe. I also loaned her one of my light moon suits and another laser weapon I had. But thanks for adding another layer."
"But who knows what is happening with them?" Gunny admitted. "Somebody may have yanked them for all I know. I hope I didn't put them in harm's way."
* * *
"BO, heads up," his buddy warned him softly and kicked the bottom of his boot to make sure he had his attention. He was sitting on a massive tree limb, with his back to the trunk, without any sort of line, net or safety harness protecting him from a sixteen meter drop to the ground. He was also taking a nap, it being mid-afternoon and a typical warm pleasant day in Hawaii.
Bill Olsen always wanted a tree house as a boy. The fact there were no trees in his trailer park and the over protective nature of his mother conspired to deny him that pleasure. He might have gone off with the other boys to the trees along the railroad track, to built some sort of crazy rickety platform from shipping skids and scrap lumber. However he was not allowed past the boundary of the trailer park. Mrs. Olsen made sure there was no cheating too, fitting her son with the sort of tracking bracelet, she wanted so badly to clamp on her henpecked husband. Bill's mother was the sort who loudly counseled him not to go too high on the swing, to not run because he might fall, and leave his gloves on all day at school, because there is disease everywhere.
Any fool could have predicted that the day after he turned eighteen, he would move away from home and leave his goulashes, glove packs and most of all the damned electronic leash in his neat sterile room. Now four years later he was a SEAL. When he received an e-mail from home he would fire off a reply saying, "Hello, thinking of you, everything is fine," and delete the mail unread. Eventually that would lead to hard feeling, when he failed to read about his father's funeral. However, right now he was working through eighteen years of repression and didn't need to bank any more in that account. All the risk taking he had been denied he was trying to balance out as soon as possible, to the point he even unnerved some of his instructors, who unlike mother didn't quickly counsel caution to him. Caution had a definite place in a SEALS thinking, but it wasn't first, second or even third on the list.
"The neighbor is coming down to her fence, headed straight for us." His buddy warned him.
Bill finally opened his eyes. "Well duh, surprise. You already saw her looking at us through that big assed telescope from her lanai. We'll be lucky if she doesn't post pix of you pissing off the branch on the net, for the Old Man to see." They had a camo net hanging in an arch around their station and the vegetation was heavy, but not heavy enough apparently to hide them from this eagle eyed woman.
"I've been going around to the back side of the tree since she did that."
"What is that old expression, about after the horse has got out of the barn?"
"Come on take a look at this. She's carrying something down here."
"If it's a chain saw we're screwed. We're not authorized to risk any collateral damage even in self defense."
"It looks like an insulated jug and a bag of something."
"Maybe she's bringing us supper and a cold drink," BO said sarcastically.
"Make all the fun you want, but I'll be damned if that isn't exactly what it looks like."
Now Harold did have his attention. He was sick of piss warm water that tasted of plastic and MREs.
Diana walked unhurried, wearing a scarlet sarong and cut off t-shirt without any shoes. She left the jug and bag on the stone wall that marked the downhill extreme of her property and strolled back up to the house without looking back. There was a huge black shape by the door, sitting patiently waiting for her, that stood up and went back inside with her.
"Well what do you think?" Harold asked.
"I'm in the Navy; I'm not paid to think. Besides it's your shift. I was sleeping until someone rudely interrupted it."
"Will you watch the Lewis place if I go down to retrieve it?"
"Any activity?"
"Birds, couple of lizards now and then and one humongous centipede came in the branch toward us that scared the crap out of me and I knocked it off."
BO pulled his spex down and studied the feed for a minute. "Do an eyeball scan – glass all around down slope and then go ahead," he agreed.
Harold pulled his compact binoculars up and did a real thorough exam away from the houses, all downhill where it was nature preserve. He didn't skimp. BO was happy to see, then he pulled his own spex down and checked all the sensors and alarms they had set in the forest around them, before he clipped on, stepped off the limb and dropped away. He could have switched spots with BO and rappelled down the trunk, but the free drop was faster. About ten meters down he started braking and Bill felt the branch spring very slightly as the line pulled down on it. He waited a good full minute, then looked away from the house they were guarding for a few seconds and checked on his buddy. He had the apparent offering off the fence and nobody seemed to be molesting him as he returned. Bill swept all the readings quickly because he had been looking away. Everything was normal.
There was a faint whine as Harold used his power winch to climb the line quickly.
He left the winch hanging clamped on the line and did not offer to take the watch back. The sound of a zip seal popping and water flowing, indicated he was examining his bounty.
"It's strictly against doctrine to accept supply from local population you know."
"Um-huh," Harold said around a mouth full of something. "We have two egg salad and two tuna salad sandwiches for each of us and carrot sticks and olives. It's all in a metalized Mylar bag with a cool pack, so no rush to eat it."
"Good, I'll wait at least an hour and if you suddenly go into convulsions and plummet to your death I'll probably skip the egg salad."
"Oh my God, the jug is almost full of ice and it's not just water with it – it's lemonade. We can add water as we drink it down and it will get weaker but still be pretty good. There's a note with it."
BO kept his watch, refusing to split the screen, or take his attention away to see what Harold was doing. "Would you at least read the thing before the poison hits?"
"OK, Here's a little snack, as I imagine you have the usual yucky military food. Just put the freezer puck inside the cooler jug when you are done and sit it on the fence. Please don't come in the yard to set it closer to the house. My dog would very much object. Will drop something off tomorrow if I see another team. – Diana Hunt."
"You think that's really her name or is she pulling our leg?"
"What? Why would that be false? It's a common name."
"Diana – goddess of the hunt?" BO suggested. Finally he figured out Harold had no idea what he was talking about, so he dropped it.
"All it shows on our data sheet is she's a divorced woman, fifty-two, damn she looks real good for fifty-two," he commented. "She has met Ms. Lewis the owner of our stake-out target and visited the house. She doesn't work, drives into town every third day on the average. Never leaves the dog out when she goes into town. Has no registered firearms and has never placed an assistance request to the local police. Had the fire department out once several years ago for a fire beyond her fence."
"Chinese or Korean long term intelligence asset - with skills in counter operations – neurotoxins a specialty," BO added.
"Damn, you can sure rain on a parade," Harold said.
"I had extra training," BO admitted. About eighteen years of it, he thought to himself, suddenly realizing he sounded like his mother. Next he would be telling Harold not to fall off and break his neck. Got to lose that, he decided privately.
"At least that about the dog explains it," he observed out loud.
"Explains, what?" Haro
ld asked around sandwich.
"Why her ugly pony is never saddled up."
"Yeah, he is a big sucker, isn't he? And I've never heard him bark."
* * *
The safe house wasn't a house. Indeed, it appeared to be a commercial grocery. Three overhead doors provided easy entry and the middle one rose on their approach. The bays on either side had semis parked, but the center had plenty of room for two big trucky vehicles. They went in to a bare bones freight elevator big enough to lift a car and rode down instead of up. It was several degrees cooler when they stepped off in a wide corridor, with a number of doors visible. They went to the closest and Papa-san gave a single sharp rap. The Oriental fellow who answered was dressed western, but bowed with grace to Papa-san and if anything deeper to his wife.
"Jung, we shall be here until late, but leave before sunrise. Likely before the tide changes. This is Miss Lewis and Mr. Tindal her body guard. We shall require a late meal and I need secure communications. They are not prisoners, they are under my personal protection."
The man gave a sharp little nod, that seemed more absolute than making a great fuss and Papa-san went back out in the hall, presumably to find the secure communications.
Jung walked them across the hall and opened a suite for them. "Why don't you make yourselves comfortable in the common room?" he invited. "These are four identical bedrooms with baths. I will have your things set outside them and you can shift which you use if it suites you. There are refreshments in the cooler there."
"If we're going to be busy tonight I'm taking a nap," Gunny declared. "I'll be in this first room here with the door cracked open," he told April. "If we are attacked and you can't hold back the advancing horde feel free to awaken me, since your weapon makes so little noise."
Jung glanced at April's weapon without humor, holding back a question from anything but his eyes. "It is always wisdom to rest when you can," he agreed with Gunny. He bowed to Mama-san and left.
* * *
April 2: Down to Earth Page 37