Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5

by Isherwood, E. E.

  Her tummy balled up, not wanting to believe the horrible man.

  He went on before she could reply. “I caught up with your broadcast hours after you left St. Louis. I was crushed when you disappeared from our intelligence assets, but I knew it was you when we had trouble in Chicago. I—”

  “Your drones killed our friend!” she blurted out.

  David acted like he didn’t hear her. “I sent my fleet of airborne units to sweep the area, but you escaped again, on bikes no less.” He clapped his hands in excitement. “But I knew where you would go. All I had to do was keep tabs on the cleared highways until an unregistered vehicle showed up. You went right to that nice warehouse and made it easy, though I almost didn’t catch the drones before they did their automated thing and rebooted you.” He laughed, like threatening the three of them with the giant tank had been a harmless prank.

  “You should have killed me, like you did my two dogs. I don’t know why you chose to bring me here, but I’ll never cooperate.”

  He laughed grimly. “We both know that isn’t true, after your meeting with Charity. You’ll do exactly as I say, when I say it, or things will get ugly for members of your party. And, besides, if you’re talking about the two dogs in that same warehouse, I can tell you with authority they aren’t dead.”

  A breath caught in her throat. “Say what?”

  CHAPTER 27

  Minot Air Force Base, ND

  It took Ted nearly thirty seconds to catch his breath. He remained on the floor, next to the still body of Ramirez, while the two girls talked in hushed tones over by the terminal. He heard Kyla say she cracked in, and a short time later, Emily reported success in taking the nuclear briefcase offline. He was content that his role as human punching bag made it all possible.

  Meechum crawled up next to him. “Major? You gonna make it?”

  Her uniform top had blood splattered all over her left shoulder, and he realized she’d been shot. She saw how his eyes were drawn to the wound and waved him off. “I’m fine. It went right through. I was still able to use my good arm to crack the skull of this asshole.” She pointed to ER’s bloody head, where a large divot had been created above his ear.

  “I bet,” he replied, further impressed by her instincts.

  Kyla appeared at his side. “We did it, Uncle Ted! We’re safe.” Then, exactly as he had done with Meechum, she looked at him as if he was broken. “Ohmygod! Are you okay?”

  He sat up with her help, feeling better as the oxygen got to his brain. His muscles were sore from holding off Ramirez’s arms, but the big man never got the solid hold necessary to choke him out. “What the heck happened?” he asked.

  Emily appeared on his other side, crouched next to him. “You and Lance Corporal Meechum held him off long enough for us to finish this. You kept him occupied, and she used a spare hard drive to bash in his head.” She gestured to the body next to him.

  Ted regained his sense of leadership. “We have to get out of here. The alarm—”

  At some point in his dance with Ramirez, he’d fired his revolver. That action had been heard by others and it triggered an alarm inside the building. However, it was silent out in the hallway, as best he could tell. The only ringing came from his ear drums.

  “I turned it off,” Kyla bragged. “With this.” She held up a tablet. “I hacked into the password database and got us the credentials of some guy who had the most access. But we do have to leave before they notice I took control for a few seconds.”

  Ted’s vision blurred when he got up on his feet, but he held onto the corner of a computer terminal while it cleared. He ordered his body to recover so he’d be able to lead them back to the motorcycles. His promise to his sister was in jeopardy if he couldn’t get Kyla away from danger as fast as possible.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said, picking up the Ruger. With it in his hands, he tipped his head toward Emily. “Mind if I use your gun again?”

  “Be my guest.” She smiled.

  On a hunch, he checked ER’s pockets for extra ammo. He found one extra speed loader for the revolver, supporting his reasoning that not only would Ramirez sneak in the pistol, he’d also make sure he had more than the five rounds it came with.

  Emily opened the door while he picked pockets, and soon they were back in the hallway. He and the others followed her, but they were immediately accosted by a seemingly-terrified young woman.

  “Do you know what’s going on? They said there’s a shooter in the building. What do we do?”

  Ted almost chuckled. The IT people in the complex apparently hadn’t even considered they were going into a warzone. They also didn’t realize how easy it was to sneak in under their noses and score a military victory for the American people. He couldn’t express any of his private thoughts, so he kept his voice robotic. “We were told to go to the main entrance and be prepared for evacuation. Why don’t you tell everyone you see to do the same? We’ll be safe once we’re outside.”

  “Yeah,” the girl in the black and red jumpsuit replied. “That’s what we need to do. Thanks!”

  “No problem.”

  They walked up the steps to the main floor before Emily spoke up. “Won’t it cause a mass panic for the doors?”

  He looked behind him before getting all the way up. As expected, technicians ran out of the rooms all along the hallway. They ran in every direction, which further highlighted how ill-prepared they were, but most of them headed for him on the stairs.

  “Keep going!” he huffed.

  The main floor was comparatively quiet, but the screams and cursing from the people below caught the attention of those walking the main floor. Ted kept his eyes firmly on the front door, where the bikes were right outside.

  “Meechum, get our weapons,” he advised quietly. The older woman was no longer at the gun-check table. It looked like any weapons she’d collected had been tossed in a big green plastic container and left for whoever happened by.

  Emily and Meechum went through the first set of doors and went right for the table. He was going to follow, but Kyla stopped him. She had the tablet in her arms, swiping and tapping at keys. “Uncle Ted, they haven’t locked me out of the main NORAD system yet. Those teams downstairs have been trying everything to break into the missile control systems. In doing so, they’ve weakened all the firewalls and counter-intrusion code for the rest of the defense network. They may not even realize how exposed they’ve made themselves. I can see it right here.” She pointed to the screen.

  “It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to go.”

  “Wait!” she replied, not moving. “If I can get in there, I might be able to steal control of the entire nuclear arsenal from them. I could certainly lock them out. This coding is about a decade out of date. It’s stuff I cleaned up a lot when I modified the nuclear containment programs on the carrier. They have all sorts of entry points I can use.”

  He turned to the hallway on the main floor. The people from down below had made their way up and had their eyes on the front doors. They wouldn’t be able to stand there much longer.

  “What are you saying?” he pressed.

  She looked at him with a serious expression. “I need to go back down to the mainframe terminal. I only need a couple of minutes to get this done.”

  The people got closer. The confusion might give them an easy excuse for returning inside but going back to the scene of the crime was never a good idea. If anyone in authority found ER’s body, they might already be looking for them.

  I made a promise.

  “We can’t, Kyla. I’m sorry. We did what we came to do; let’s go while we’re ahead.” He pushed open the inner door. Emily handed over all three of his pistols as he pushed through the outer doors.

  “But—” Kyla replied, before trailing off.

  Two robots had arrived outside, stopping not far from the bikes. They stood at attention as if guarding the computer building. As if watching for him, or the President of the United States.

&
nbsp; Emily faced the robots as she stood with Meechum at the edge of the parking lot.

  “We’re screwed,” he deadpanned.

  NORAD Black Site Sierra 7, CO

  “I saw the dogs disappear. They’re gone.” Tabby shifted uncomfortably in the blue outfit. She kept her arms crossed over her chest as a defense mechanism. This David guy was older than her, maybe in his 30s or 40s, and not the worst looking man in the world. However, his eyes were emotionless—what Mom once said were dead eyes. A trait she warned about when dating boys Tabby didn’t know. Seeing it in the flesh made her instinctively want to avoid him.

  David brightened. “So, you do want to talk to me?” He motioned for her to walk alongside him. He positioned himself to go into a larger room next door.

  “I just want to know why I’m here. Where are my friends? Why—”

  He shushed her. “We’ll get to all that in a minute. I’ll explain why you’re here, I promise. But first, I want to show you my toys.”

  Tabby almost guffawed at how ridiculous the man sounded. She had no more interest in seeing his toys than she had in having her wisdom teeth pulled a second time. However, always mindful of the leverage he held over her, she walked next to him, keeping as much distance as possible.

  “Thank you,” he chimed. “I built this underground facility inside the original NORAD footprint because I needed a base central to the mainland of North America—” He seemed surprised, then talked to himself in monotone. “I need to rebrand the whole continent. The name America must be stricken from everything, including the landmasses.”

  David looked up at her. “But never mind all that. Once my agency had this base, I knew it would be an excellent place to start over. It’s hardened against missiles. It’s got water and a food supply. Those Air Force people really thought this through.”

  “And?” She was terminally impatient with him. It was the only way she knew to fight back.

  “And…here we are at day three of the invasion. We’ve had total success on all fronts. I’m already planning for phase two, which will happen once we have some of the new territories cleaned up. I’ve announced my intentions to the world, I’ve motivated my foot soldiers, and now it’s time to unveil all the wonderful new products we’ve been holding back for when this became our reality.”

  They walked through a large chamber with metal walls. A row of pedestals ran along the back—about ten had been spread along the forty-foot-long wall. While the rest of the room looked like a military bunker, the well-lit lineup seemed like it could have come from a museum. David skipped the first one, which was a small box-like machine about the size of a toaster.

  The second display case contained a paddle-shaped piece of equipment decked out in white. He pointed inside. “This is a device we’ve been working on for years. It’s designed to scan the human body in real time, parse out the cancer cells based on the unique speed of their subatomic particles and use a tiny burst of energy to erase them.”

  She cackled. “You can cure cancer, but you can’t get your silly little trucks to avoid the mud? You’re joking, right?” The surreal nature of where she was, how she was dressed, and who she was talking to caught up with her.

  “I’m not joking, I—”

  Tabby hated how she’d lost her cool. “Can this thing also cure diabetes? My friend, um, Audrey is here with me. She could really use a hand.”

  David looked upset. “If you’ll let me finish, I want to show you what else we have. All your friends could benefit from these.” He stepped a few pedestals down the row and held out his hand to an object that looked like a ray gun. The silvery metal pistol had a cup at the end, facing away from the handle.

  “A gun?” she said with thick sarcasm.

  “This is a photon reconnaissance device. It’s a practical application we’ve incorporated into some of our aerial drone programs. Basically, it uses invisible photons of energy to splash light over a room and around corners. The photons bounce on things around the corner, then come back to the source and create a picture.”

  “Like a bat,” she said, seeing the potential.

  “Yes, if a bat could see around multiple corners,” he replied happily. “All these things manipulate energy down to the quantum level, where things get really weird. Some of these are, in fact, weapons, but my best work is this one on the end.”

  Tabby followed him, not wanting to admit he was far more advanced than she’d given him credit for. Despite her lame attempts to belittle him and show disinterest, if he had the cure for cancer sitting in some random room in a bunker, he had more power than anyone in history. She was bothered by the fact she suddenly didn’t want to decapitate the man who had destroyed the United States. If this was all his work, he needed to be captured and then forced to make things right, as much as was possible. The only thing that would impress her more was—

  “If you’re trying to impress me, it’s failing,” she fibbed.

  David strode up to the box without rising to her prodding. “You saw one of these in the East St. Louis warehouse. I only have a few in each zone, so consider yourself one of the lucky ones.”

  A small model of the tank machine that had almost zapped her sat upon the pedestal.

  “It’s not full scale, of course, but I put it here because it represents the milestone before we finally went big time with our knowledge. I call them butterflies, because the projector array looks like it has wings.”

  She didn’t need to see it; Tabby and her friends had gotten a close look at a real one. “Why are you showing this to me? I’d rather learn about the one that’s going to cure my friend. This is just a bug zapper on steroids. It killed two sweet dogs who traveled a long way to find us.”

  He chuckled softly. “I told you, the dogs aren’t dead. This machine requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep, as do all my toys. I would never use it to kill when it would be a lot cheaper to use a lead bullet.”

  She been running at high alert since she’d come out of the decontamination system, but her heart rose in her chest as she thought up the question. “Does it mean you can bring the dogs back?”

  He shrugged. “This mobile design is the smaller version of the one under your feet. This entire NORAD facility was designed like my little butterfly. When its wings unfurled, it wiped away the most dangerous people on the planet: the Americans. You’re standing on my greatest museum piece, a triumph of science that will launch man into the next thousand years.”

  “But can you bring my dogs back?” she said impatiently. The answer to that question had implications she wasn’t yet ready to voice. If he thought she was too smart for her own good, or caught on to what he was doing, he might get rid of her.

  David strode to another of the steel doors and waited for her to catch up. She reluctantly followed, angry that he was being obtuse about his intentions.

  “Tabitha Breeze, old American, I brought you here for a reason. I showed you these marvels of technology as a peace offering. They’ll all be part of your life going forward. These and many more, including what’s through this doorway.”

  She shook her head while holding her hands on her hips. It was her mean-girl pose showing how she wasn’t pleased at the turn of events. Why wouldn’t he simply answer the question?

  The door opened slowly.

  She expected the superweapon to be revealed. He’d said it was in the NORAD base. She figured there’d be rows of the giraffes, dogs, or hovering drones. Anything that a maniacal leader would install as a way to impress the prisoners. But when the door swung open, she was faced with a far more serious problem having to do with her alone.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she lamented.

  Inside the hangar-like enclosure, a formation of people stood in rows and columns, like they were part of a military parade. There were about a hundred of them, she figured, with her quick glance. However, they weren’t soldiers. They were all women dressed in the same blue suits as her.

  David stepped up t
o the entry and spoke loudly. “First, we took out America. Next, we take out the world. We’re going to need young women like you to repopulate God’s newest paradise.” David put his arm around her shoulders, which poured cold water all the way down her backside.

  “Crackers,” she murmured.

  Folsom, CA

  “What an amazing day,” Bernard said with reverence. “David really is going to take care of us, like he said.”

  Dwight had been in a state of panic since the dam fell apart. He’d never been one for superstition or religion, but being in that crowd made him feel like the only saint inside a convention in Hell itself. The cheering for the destruction of the city of Folsom was unnatural to his ears, and he wasn’t even a patriotic person anymore. It wasn’t right to do, and it wasn’t right to watch it. He hated cheering with the others.

  He glanced up; Poppy sat on top of his head. She sometimes came down when she really needed his attention, but he didn’t want to deal with her at the moment.

  “No, I’m not going to do that,” he replied. “Stop talking.”

  Bernard looked over his shoulder. “What?”

  Dwight smiled, sure one of these days he would be caught talking to the bird. “Nothing.”

  Bernard was the last one to fill up his tank of flamethrower fuel. The rest of his seven-man team had already topped off from the mid-sized fuel truck that had come to meet them at a new point in the city. The floodwaters hadn’t taken the whole town away, but it had cut a huge swath out of the middle. Bernard said their job was to chip away at what was left.

  “What should we burn next?” Bernard asked his team. “Should we get rid of what’s left of the prison?”

  His team whooped with enthusiasm.

  Poppy continued to cry out to him. She knew how he felt about the destruction he’d been witness to, and she wanted to help. He remained still, however, as the bird repeatedly flapped her wings to rise, then bonk his head when she dropped back down.