Kyla made an effort to keep her hands in her pockets or holding one of the boat’s grips. Otherwise, Emily would see them shake. “Yes. Well, not really. I’ve been practicing with one of the Marines back on the ship.”
“Ooh, a Marine? I bet they were all over you—a pretty young lady.” Emily flashed a brilliant smile, like she knew something about which she spoke. She piloted them through the narrow inlet at the beach, taking them from the lake into the open sea.
Kyla shook her head. “It’s nothing like that, although I guess a few of them were okay-looking.” Carthager was the big, bronzed, figure of a man she might normally find attractive. “No, a woman Marine took me under her wing. Showed me how to be a badass. I mentioned her earlier; she came with me on the helicopter.”
“In my experience, Marines are cut from a different cloth. I hope she made it. Male or female, we need every one of those Marines fighting for us. I’m glad you got the lessons, too. It takes some of the pressure off me to defend you until Ted gets back.”
“We can defend each other,” Kyla reasoned.
“Bingo. Your uncle and I made a pretty good team these past few days. Once he and you are together and safe, we can focus on warning the rest of the world what’s going on here.”
Kyla looked back. The boat was already hundreds of yards into the open channel. The lighthouse came into view, no longer hidden by the tops of nearby trees. She also saw the beach on that area of the shoreline. A man caught her notice—
“Look! Another sailor.” Kyla pointed him out to Emily, but she had a hard time looking back while also piloting the boat on the choppy water.
“Crap burglar,” Emily responded.
Kyla noticed Emily kept her head low. “Do you think he’s shooting at us?” It would be hard to hear a gunshot from so far away. She figured the only way she would know for sure was if one of them fell over dead. Without waiting for the answer, she hunched over too.
“They’ve been given the green light to kill us. I’m not taking any chances. Heck, so far, I’ve been bombed, shot at multiple times, and almost had a plane shot out from under me with a missile. I wouldn’t put anything past these guys, up to, and including, a nuclear bomb.”
“Wow. My uncle was in that mess, too?”
“In it? He’s the reason I’m still here talking to you. I don’t know what they taught him in flight school, but he sure knows how to survive. I told him I was going to promote him when—” She stopped talking, like she’d said too much, but quietly added, “—when we get back to friendly forces.”
“How far is it to Martha’s Vineyard?”
“I don’t really know. All I’m sure about is it’s a big island below the boot of Massachusetts. As long as we stay within sight of the shore, we should see it.”
Kyla finally sat up. The man on the shore had become a tiny point. She didn’t know the exact range of a rifle, and it was extra difficult to measure distance on the open water, but she figured they were free and clear of that one guy. He was probably running back to his bosses.
Or maybe he was going back inland to find Uncle Ted.
She looked at the radio the sailor had left in the boat. Should she risk giving herself away to warn him?
In the air to Martha’s Vineyard
“So…where are we taking the vice president?” Ted asked Meechum, who sat next to him in the cockpit of the small Beechcraft Skipper—a two-seater probably used as a trainer. The bubble-like cockpit gave them each a wonderful view of the Block Island Sound below.
“Minot, North Dakota,” she replied.
“What the heck is out there? An airbase, I know. And?”
She shot him a wary look. “I can’t say any more than that until I talk to the vice president.”
He held his hands above the wheel. “All right. You drive, then. I’m done.” It came across as immature, but he was mad as hell she would hold out on him. The Marine had no idea what he and Emily had been through.
The plane’s nose dipped, and Meechum grabbed the door handle like it was about to open and fling her out. “Are you nuts?”
Ted still didn’t put his hands on the wheel, though the plane was drifting more to the right than he liked. If she didn’t come around quick…
“Fine. It’s the missile base. We have to go to the damned missile base.”
Ted grabbed the wheel for both of their sakes. Once he had it straightened out, he felt bad about the trick. “Sorry. I’ve been through the wringer and I guess I’m not in the mood for bullshit. It’s dangerous as hell up here.”
“Life is dangerous these days,” she deadpanned, settling back into her seat. “I take it you mean we are in more danger being up here.” The woman was strapped in and snug in her seat, but he noticed her fidgeting with her fingers, like she wasn’t entirely comfortable in the air.
“When we flew in across the Atlantic, I’m talking about when the attack happened, Air Force Two came under attack from missile boats. We were pretty far out at the time, but there’s no telling what range they have, or if they’ve moved since then. I like to play it safe.”
“Is that why we’re flying the wrong way?” she asked matter-of-factly.
He was impressed she noticed. Ted flew them almost due west out over the water, even though the destination was to the east. If they were followed, he planned to cancel the flight completely. They’d ditch somewhere on the mainland, if possible, then get to Martha’s another way. If no one pursued them as they headed east and north to the coast, he planned to get lost in the ground clutter of the eastern seaboard as he turned back east, then make a final cut to the island of Martha’s Vineyard. It would add time to his route, but he figured they were going two or three times faster than the yacht so they’d get there at about the same time. Rather than explain everything to her, he kept it simple. “We’re taking the long way.”
That seemed to satisfy her. They shared some silence for a while, before she pulled out a handheld radio. “I need to call my people, let them know the captain was in on it.”
The plane bobbed on the wind as he took it over the coastline. In seconds, he was over the houses and forests of Connecticut, as he’d planned. “Sure. Better to call them now, before we get to where we’re going. You know, in case we’re tracked.”
She held up the black box. “It’s encrypted. We plan for this stuff, you know?”
He nodded. “I know. I’m just giving you grief, Marine.”
“Meh. I’m used to it. Before we came here, I basically had twelve asshole brothers in my squad.”
They laughed for a moment, before she got on the radio.
A male voice picked up. “This is Crackerjack, go ahead.”
“This is Kit Kat. The otter was a snake. I repeat, the otter was a snake. Plan accordingly.”
“Affirmative, Kit Kat. Be safe. Out.”
Ted looked over. “That’s it? I take it the otter was Van Nuys, but aren’t you going to take over the ship? Call in reinforcements?” There were a lot of actions he figured the Marines could take, but he soon realized he’d been thinking like it was the time before the attack. “Do you even have reinforcements?”
She stayed silent for a few moments. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but you’ve protected the vice president, and it seems we’re sharing state secrets, so I figure there’s no reason not to… Other than a depleted platoon of Marines on the John F. Kennedy, there isn’t a certified allied unit anywhere in this hemisphere that I know about. Everyone is suspect now. Anyone who left the country right before the attack. Anyone who put themselves in a position to be outside the country, even months before. Entire units who transferred before the attack. If you think about the scope of the destruction, lots of people had to know it was coming. You can’t scare up a nation-killing attack without someone, somewhere, knowing something.”
The cockpit fell into silence again, and he had the time to appreciate the lush, green landscape along the coast. He glanced over to Meechum from time to time, wonde
ring if she would ever settle in, but she always seemed uncomfortable. He’d been with Emily for so long that he actually missed having her with him. She would have kept the airplane stocked with humor and snark. He found himself missing her.
Miles later, Meechum came out of her silence. “You know, you didn’t need to scare me into telling you. Any relative of Kyla is a friend of mine. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I trust you with my life. I’m up here in this rickety milk crate, you know?”
He saw an opportunity for a follow-up. “So, I don’t need to forget how to fly if I ask you what’s so important about the North Dakota missile base?”
“Happy to tell you,” she answered with her ‘get-some’ attitude. “We need to protect the entire United States arsenal of nuclear bombs.”
Amarillo, TX
In all his years in Vietnam, Brent couldn’t remember a juicier target than the one in front of him now. The international airport was a bustling hub of military and civilian transport planes, which were the main targets. The enemy had also amassed a small fleet of Humvees, hundreds of motorcycles with strange attachments added, and an equal number of little metal machines had been lined up in even rows and columns. Using the binoculars from their hiding spot inside a nearby building, he had the perfect observation point overlooking the whole thing, though they weren’t quite strong enough to make out what those lines of machines were for. His bigger problem was that there were so few of them, and so many of the enemy.
“I wonder where the rest of our ex-con friends ended up?” he asked, somewhat rhetorically. Other than those who’d gone to Trish’s place, he hadn’t seen any of the prisoners he’d let go, nor did he see the other guards who’d slipped away from their duty. If all the ex-prisoners came back, he’d have a more useful fighting force of about fifty. Even if they weren’t the most disciplined lot, he could have used the numbers.
“Probably in the strip clubs,” Cliff replied, twisting his mustache. He couldn’t remember the man’s real name, but the inmates had assigned him a nickname because he’d worked for the post office as a letter carrier. The man appeared to be in his late twenties, but his mustache made him look a bit like Cliff Clavin from Cheers, a show he was surprised the younger ones even knew about.
“Pfft.” Kevin slapped Cliff on the shoulder. “All the strippers are in pole-dancer heaven.”
Cliff seemed shocked at first, then laughed cautiously. “That’s just wrong, man.”
“Well, it’s true. There won’t be any strippers for a long time, unless you want to find a pole and dance on it yourself.”
A few of the men laughed, though Trish acted disinterested in the banter.
“Guys,” he said, trying to get their minds out of the gutter. “I need options for how to deal with the problem in front of us. This airport is being used by our enemies to invade the hallowed soil of Texas. Are we going to just let that happen, or are we going to do something about it?” Invoking the name of Texas was a calculated risk. Amarillo’s penal system brought in bad guys from as far away as Oklahoma City and Roswell, New Mexico. Not everyone would bleed Texas red, white, and blue.
The men mumbled among themselves for a bit as he kept watch. He assumed he was going to have to think up a plan on his own, but postman Cliff spoke up. “Why don’t we drive one of the bigger mail trucks into the middle of that place and shoot the hell out of anyone we see?”
“Screw that,” someone replied. “I’m not going in there for any reason. I’ll stay right here and launch rockets, or take potshots with a rifle, but if we go in there, I don’t think we’d ever come back out.”
It was a good point. Each plane brought more bad guys into the airport. How many had come in since they visited earlier in the morning?
“Can anyone fly?” Brent asked, knowing it was a long shot. Most petty criminals wouldn’t have the cash or time to get a pilot’s license.
As expected, no one raised their hand.
“Can anyone drive a big rig?” he pressed.
A few hands went up.
“Does anyone know how to set up a remote-controlled vehicle?” he asked, knowing it was an even longer shot than flying. If they could organize a fleet of big trucks, then program them to all drive into the airfield, they could tear up the planes, or at least severely damage them.
No one raised their hand, at first, but finally Ross raised his. “I never did no remote control, but I had an old Chevy I wanted to disappear, so I put a brick on the gas pedal and tied a rope to the steering wheel. It went right where I wanted, and fast.”
“Where did you want it to go?” Brent asked, afraid to know the answer.
“It was the old lady’s truck. She took a tone I didn’t appreciate. Said I was a no-good bum and wanted me out of the house. The crazy bitch said I didn’t respect her, or her house. I went ahead and jimmied her truck and sent it straight into the Red River.” Ross burst into laughter.
Brent ignored how he’d essentially proven his wife’s point; criminals seldom thought through the crimes pulling them into the prison system. Those that did often used their time to plan how to do it better when they got out. Still, it planted the idea in his head. If he could find a heavy truck, maybe they could send it toward the airport and do a little damage.
“Gentlemen, we have the start of a plan.”
CHAPTER 13
Martha’s Vineyard, MA
“Protect the whole arsenal?” he said with disbelief. “How?”
Meechum chuckled. “I know how it sounds. I’ll tell you everything I know, I promise, but please let me do it when the vice president is with us. What I’m going to tell her is classified as top secret, so I want to be sure she gives me approval. I don’t want to lose my pension.” She finished with heavy sarcasm in her voice, probably because nobody was around to pay her retirement plan anymore.
“I can wait,” he said, understanding where she was coming from. He also had a high-level security clearance; he’d been through a new check every year of his life since becoming a senior pilot with the Air Force. They always told him it was to ensure he was qualified and above suspicion for leveraged attacks, such as blackmail. However, he always suspected they also wanted him cleared in case an emergency happened to the president. If the VP suddenly found herself promoted to the head office, she wouldn’t get far along if her crew lacked the clearance to talk to her.
“For now,” he added with a chuckle.
The flight in was uneventful, for which Ted was grateful, but he didn’t see Emily’s boat as he came in, nor were she and Kyla waiting for them when they arrived. At first, he paced around the terminal, which was about the size of a high school gymnasium, but after about fifteen minutes, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“I’ve got to do something,” he lamented. “Do you want to help me find an airplane big enough to take us all to North Dakota? That way, when Emily and Kyla get here, we can jump on and be gone. They might be hiding from pursuit.” He thought they were fairly lucky to avoid any drone activity. The captain most likely called his bosses to report he’d found the most important woman in America. Every resource they had should have been sent right to the lighthouse, and the skies and seas around it. However, it wasn’t his place to correct the mistakes of his enemies.
“Sure, this place gives me the creeps, anyway.” Meechum pointed to the floor of the terminal, which was layered with gray tiles, but also peppered with the clothes of the fallen. It made him appreciate that he no longer saw the clothing the same way he did back at the terminal building at Andrews Air Force Base. It was still haunting, but it didn’t give him the creeps, as Meechum described it. If anything, seeing those clothes made him more determined than ever to strike back at the sickos who’d done this.
Martha’s Vineyard Airport was essentially a miniature version of any big city airport. It had two runways, a proper taxiway, several enclosed hangars for storage of planes, as well as the terminal building itself. It also had the true measure of any named airport: c
ar rentals. The larger scale also meant there were larger planes parked on the tarmac. If he could find a twin-engine jet, it would get them where they needed to go a lot faster than the single-engine Beechcraft, or any of the other small airplanes parked nearby. It wasn’t that the small craft couldn’t get them there, but it would fly slower and require more fuel stops. Since he didn’t know what to expect out there, he wanted to cut out as many stops as possible.
He went right toward four modern aircraft parked a hundred yards from the terminal. “Any of those would do.” He had his eye on a Cessna CitationJet CJ2, which could be piloted by a single person, such as himself, though the distinctive Avanti P-180 was also attractive.
“Won’t we need to find keys?” she asked. “Are they in the pockets of one of those people back in the terminal, do you think? Like you found it in the other airport?” They’d discussed his escape from the lighthouse, as well as how he got a plane working at the Montauk airfield.
Ted shook his head. “Smaller planes have keys, a lot like automobiles, because they get left at small airports around the world. No one is there around the clock to watch them, so the keys make people feel safe. Bigger planes, like these here at Martha’s, would normally have full-time security watching them, so they don’t require keys. Of course, now that no one is here…”
“We can take what we want,” she finished with a smile.
“I just have to pick the best one,” he added with dry wit.
He strode around to get a look at his options, but as they walked, he wondered how much she knew about the big picture stuff. Despite spending time with the vice president, a woman who should normally be the center of an intelligence operation unmatched in history, he’d barely heard any news since the attack. “Do the Marines know how the hell they did it?”
“The attack?” she said, tracking his thoughts.
“Yeah.”
She shrugged. “They didn’t tell us what to expect when we went wheels up from Yorktown. We ended up in the lower part of the boat because Lieutenant Keller wanted his platoon off the main decks, so we could observe. He got caught doing recon on an upper deck when the big zap happened, but his positioning of the rest of us saved our lives. Kyla was saved by being in a lower compartment, too. Whatever it was that did it, the metal of the decking must have blocked it.”
Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5 Page 53