by A J Newman
“We can’t take a chance on them discovering the bombs. Be prepared to detonate them at a moment’s notice. In two hours, he will give his last order. I will take charge of the operation now. Get the Secretary General of the UN on the phone and send my aide in so I can order breakfast.”
Pablo thought about the use of antiquated radio triangulation to track the fleet. This led him to decide that his team had to become the government of Mexico so that radar domes and heavy military equipment would not bring immediate attacks. He smiled to himself when he thought of owning F-18s and cruise missiles.
“Secretary Amaii, thanks for taking my call. I am in a hurry. Order the ISA to not attack our humanitarian flights. They will be flying close to their Carrier Strike group and will run out of fuel if diverted. Of course, they only have food and water on them. Thanks.”
***
“Admiral, the Secretary General of the UN is on the phone.”
The Admiral took the phone and said, “Good morning, Mr. Secretary. What can I do for you this morning?
“Good morning, Admiral. First, you can stop ordering my planes to divert since they are over international waters. They will observe the usual military comfort zone, but 50 miles will be unnecessary. My Minister of Relief and his cabinet are on one of the planes and I don’t want them hurt.”
“Secretary, 50 miles should not even be noticed by the Minister and I won’t change my orders to shoot down any plane or ship within 50 miles of my ships. You have no earthly reason to want to come that close to my main group. We will send crews out to your relief ships to search them for contraband. You won’t have to divert from the most efficient course. They will only have to stop long enough to be searched.”
“I am sorry, but the UN has authority on the International Waters. You will comply.”
“Sorry, Secretary, but we are prepared to deal with you if you cross the 50 mile safety zone. Don’t misunderstand me; I will destroy your ships and planes. File a damned complaint if you don’t like my answer.”
The Admiral hung up and called for the Captain.
“Do not allow any ship or plane within the 50 mile exclusion zone. Shoot to kill. This UN mission is a cover for something; I just don’t know what. If the ships don’t allow you to search them, blow them out of the water.”
***
“Admiral, the Ohio has sunk two Iranian submarines. It caught and sunk the first one and another was hiding and tried to ambush the Ohio. An alert sonar operator caught faint sounds and it was immediately torpedoed.”
“Thanks for the update. Put Sheila on the phone.”
“Captain, I want to thank for your quick and heroic action. Sheila, you are authorized to sink any vessel that you think is a threat to your sub or the ISA. You do not need to contact me for further advice. Also, fall behind the fleet and stay separate from the Norfolk. I can’t afford to lose both of them if attacked. If we are attacked and you lose contact with command, continue the fight where and when you deem necessary. By this, I mean that you have eleven missiles left that can take out some very bad people. Make the Cabras high on your list. You have the co-ordinates. The rest you know by heart. I will tell the Captain of the Norfolk the same except that he reports to you if we are lost. That is all. May God speed.”
“Yes sir. I will do my best.”
***
The inspection teams were sent to the UN ships by helicopter just after dawn. Two were being boarded when radar showed that the approaching UN aircraft had turned slightly to a heading directly for the lead ship of the fleet.
“This is the USS Ford. Break away from your current heading or we will shoot you down.”
“USS Ford, this is a humanitarian mission sanctioned by the UN and we do not recognize your authority. Do not fire on these planes or suffer the consequences.”
“UN Flight 223, comply or we will be forced to launce missiles. You are 70 miles out; at 50, we launch.
The planes kept speeding towards the fleet and actually speeded up. They passed the 50-mile mark and bore down on their target.
“UN Flight 223, we are launching missiles. Turn around.”
There was no reply.
“Inspection teams, abort! I say again abort!"
The inspection teams immediately came under fire from several locations on the ships. Hidden anti-aircraft guns shot the three helicopters down. All of the UN ships got under way and headed towards the Ford group at full speed even with a pitched battle on three of their decks. One ship was captured by the search team, but the other teams were killed to a man. Just when the surviving team thought they had the ship captured, a tremendous explosion obliterated the ship and the team. They had captured a suicide ship laden with high explosives meant to sink Navy ships.
“Missiles tracking true and the first should impact in ten seconds. The plane has exploded. Another has been shot down. Wait, there are more planes inbound.”
“Shoot them all down.”
“Order the F-18s to kill any planes that get through the missiles and have Stingers and Phalanx stations read for close in support.
Plane after plane exploded, but just when they appeared to have shot them all down, five more were detected skimming the water at just above the waves. They were still 20 miles out and were easy targets. The missiles were on target when a blinding flash came from the direction of the inbound planes then a shock wave hit the ships. It did no damage, but rather rocked the ships a bit. The crew saw the easily recognized fireball growing in the distance.
Admiral Jones realized that all ships and planes were a potential nuclear threat. He immediately barked out new orders, “Kill any plane or ship that is not in our fleet now. Use all means possible. They just detonated a small nuke at 20 miles; it may be a cover for something else."
The Admiral was looking towards the west when a large blast occurred miles away and grew to enormous size.
“Prepare for the shock wave. Turn the ship…”
He never got the words out of his mouth before the shock wave hit the Ford blowing aircraft and men into the sea. The radar domes and antennae were sheared off at their bases and the ship was tossed around like a cork in the surf. Admiral Jones saw Commander Cox thrown up against the window, which shattered with glass and blood was flying everywhere. The ship was tossed around like a toy in a bathtub. Several crewmen were tossed around like leaves in a hurricane. Suddenly the noise stopped and all was calm.
Admiral Jones and one of the crew rushed to assist Cox who lay unconscious on the floor.
“Get a medic on the bridge for Commander Cox.”
“Sir, we must get the ship heading towards the blast. There will be a huge wave coming like a freight train in a few minutes.”
“Thanks, Ensign, you may have just saved our lives. Captain, steer to the blast. Now, what is the status of the ship? Can you see the wave on radar?”
“Sir, all communications and radar units are dead. We are blind. I have lookouts posted and communicating to our remaining F-18s from one of the damaged aircraft on the flight deck. Wait. One of the aircraft reports an extremely large wave just a mile from our position. We have a minute or so. Good luck to us all and may God bless everyone on board. Sir, I have also warned all other ships and Mobile Command."
***
John and Beth were sound asleep when the earth shook them awake. A glass fell off the kitchen counter and the baby started crying.
“John, was that an earthquake? Mobile doesn’t get many of them down here do they?"
John started to answer, when there was another jar that shook the room. This time it knocked books and glasses onto the floor. John was still half-awake when it dawned on him that this earthquake was much closer or much more powerful than the first.
“I need to check in with Bob. That could have been two nukes going off in the distance. I can’t tell the direction since we are underground in the bowels of the Compound, but I can assure you that whatever it is, it is far away.”
Just then
, two more tremors jarred the compound. John’s phone rang and Bob asked him to come to the command center. Lindsey and Billy ran into the bedroom and jumped in bed with Beth.
“Baby, I’ll be back as soon as I can. Bob told me that the fleet is under attack and that at least four nuclear weapons were used against the fleet. They have lost contact with most of the ships. I will call you when I know something.”
***
“What do you mean; you can’t tell me if we were successful?”
“Senor, all of our assets was either destroyed per plan or has no communications due to the EMP from the air blast. It will be days before we know the outcome of the attack. We don’t have hardened equipment that can withstand an EMP blast like the Americans.”
“So, the damned ISA knows what happened, but we don’t."
***
“George, there was an attack on the fleet this morning. Several nukes were used against us.”
“We felt the blasts and first thought that they were earthquakes. Was it the USA? Those bastards were going to use them sooner or later.”
“My hunch is that it wasn’t them. I think it was someone in coalition with the UN, perhaps the Chupacabras.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“We don’t know yet. The fleet took a beating and we are only getting disorganized info from walkie talkies and a couple of vessels searching for the Ford.”
“Thanks for the update. You called, what can I do for you?”
“First, make sure that all of our team is ready for an attack. Second, reach out to all of our sources and try to find out who was behind this. Third, pray for us.”
✺ ✺ ✺ ✺ ✺ ✺
Chapter 24
The Plot Thickens
Smyrna, Tennessee
December, 2048
“Gabe, either tell me the whole story now or sleep on the couch for the next ten years. We have been married for over thirty two years and I did not know about the property down here or that you are friends with the President of the ISA who is an enemy of our country.”
“Do you want to go back?
“No, but we will miss our friends. Thanks to Josh getting involved in their politics, our lives are in danger back home.”
“Let’s have supper and fix a couple of stiff drinks and I will tell you about Gabe Logan-Super Spy and ISA Sleeper Cell Master. If you behave yourself, I’ll introduce you to my handler. You know all of my team in the USA; they are our closest friends. Several worked with me at the dealership.”
“Gabe, do I know you at all? Is everything I know about you a lie?
“What you know is the truth. I fell in love with a wonderful woman; we married, had children and had a good life. All of that is true. I did not want you to know anything about my work for the ISA to protect you. You know you and the kids would have been tortured or killed to get me to talk if captured. The less you knew, the safer I thought you would be.”
“Gabe, did you think I’d leave you if I found out about you being a spy?”
“I just didn’t know and I loved you so much. I also did not want to place you in any more danger than necessary to get the mission accomplished. Our lives were secondary to the overall security of the ISA. ”
Gabe took her back in time to the first contact he had with John and Gus. He had met them by accident during one of the early battles in lower Indiana. He wandered into the middle of a firefight and was wounded. Gus saved his life and convinced him to spy for the ISA. He hated the Presidents socialism and DHS making people disappear that disagreed with the administration.
“So, we were married for a couple of years before you became a spy?”
“Yes, remember my trip west and the car wreck? Well, it wasn’t a car wreck that put those scars on my back. It was a shotgun blast and a .223 round. Gus and John made sure that I was taken care of and then helped me get back home safe with a cover story.”
“What about the property, this house and are we rich?"
“I made good money at my job up north, but a spy gets paid very well. Most of my pay was not in cash. The ISA paid me with farmland and just enough cash to get the farms up and running. I hired a manager to run it for us. We own over ten thousand acres in Tennessee and Alabama and I have a small army tending the farms, processing the products and operating our stores.”
“Now, don’t tell me that you own Logan’s Organic Foods!”
“Yes, dear, we own them. Don’t be surprised after all I am a good businessman.”
“Gabe, this is so much to take in all at once. Why did you do this so long? Don’t spies eventually get caught and killed?”
“Luck and good work are the short answer. We were very slow and methodical. We never did anything that could be traced back to Columbus. Remember that sleeper cell that blew itself up about six years ago? They were planted there to take the blame for our work and take the heat off our cell. We did that several times over the years. We always had a plan ready that would misdirect the DHS.”
“What were some of your successes?”
“I can’t go into that. We did very good work and our several cells kept the ISA ahead of the USA over the years.”
Gabe enjoyed the drive from his house south of Smyrna to the Capital. There were no signs of the devastation that the area had suffered over the last twenty-eight years of constant war and cold war. The USA did not try to remove bombed out buildings and signs of war. The President thought that constantly seeing the damage would make the people hate the ISA. This did not work and just made the people hate their masters even more. The USA was much like the USSR back in the 1950s. They mainly lived in communes and camps while the local leaders lived in mansions and lived the high life. Most citizens barely got by day to day. Gabe made a good living selling cars to the elite and was considered one of them.
The capital of the USA was now in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the “White House” is a remodeled mansion from the early 1900s. All surrounding buildings had been razed for over half a mile around the capitol grounds. There were fountains, reflecting ponds and statues of the last three Presidents all over the grounds. There were anti-aircraft missile batteries in numerous locations a few miles out in all directions and several underground bunkers with thousands of the best soldiers in USA. All of this was to guard the President and her cronies from the ISA and the people of the USA.
Gabe had recently learned some critical information that had to be hand delivered to the ISA military. Gabe had scheduled a visit to lower Ohio to make the drop of info to his contact, but the rescue of him and his family were a week before that. He was not proud of what he had to do to get the information from the Chief of Staff’s administrative assistant, but the info was crucial to the survival of the USA. He did not want Betty to know of his dual identities in the USA. A courtship and marriage to the young lady were all in the name of service to the ISA. Drugs, sex, bribes and murder were the tools of a spy and he was a good spy. He got what he needed and his bride had an unfortunate accident.
***
“Good morning, Mr. Logan, I will let the Secretary of Defense know of your arrival. Please have a seat.”
Gabe only had to wait a few minutes before a staff member came to usher him to a conference room. He recognized most of the people in the room from their wanted posters that were plastered all over the USA. These people were the enemies of the USA and all had a bounty on their heads.
“Gabe, I welcome you to the ISA and want you to meet our Joint Chiefs.”
“Gus, I am pleased to finally come out of the cold and get my family safe. I am pleased to meet all of you.”
Gus quickly introduced him to the team and they got down to business.
“Gabe, we have a set list of questions to ask you to make sure that we are up to date on the USA’s military, then we will give you time to give your report.”
Gabe interrupted and said, “Pardon me, but I have urgent info of a major attack on the ISA.”
“Go ahead.”
“The President of the USA wants to inflict major damage on the ISA and make you pay to stop the attacks.”
“Gabe, short of a nuclear attack, the USA doesn’t have the ability to defeat us and I doubt that they could inflict enough damage to bring us to our knees and beg for help.”
“The UN and the Chupracabras have joined the USA in a joint attack on the ISA and PSA. They have been smuggling supplies and soldiers into the country for several weeks. The attack is scheduled for early January. No specific date had been set as of a couple of weeks ago.”
“Gabe, how reliable is this info?”
“I personally got the info from the Assistant to the Chief of Staff. We also have agents watching the ports and training compounds. They have seen foreign soldiers wearing the blue hats training with the soldiers of the USA. They plan to attack three locations--Port Arthur, Mobile, Louisville and several targets in the PSA.”