Jessica nodded her head. “We have three days,” she explained in a hurried voice. “China, according to Jack’s journal, will carry out a nuclear attack against New York and Los Angeles three days after the EMP attack. To draw Russia’s attention away, Iran and North Korea plan to carry out attacks against Russian forces in the Middle East. The attacks will be swift and sudden. Pakistan will launch a nuclear weapon at Russia, forcing Russia into a war, while China invades America from the southern border region.”
Lionel narrowed his eyes. “So, Pakistan wants to play,” he said in a sour voice. “I’ve always known they were playing nice with the Chinese behind America’s back.”
Jessica drew in a deep breath. “Mandy, America has been disabled, but every other world country is still fully operational. China wants to create a World War. They want complete domination. If China can secure America, they’ll steal all of America’s nuclear arsenal—”
“And bring electrical juice back to controlled military areas,” Tom added in a worried voice. “How? Jack Mayes didn’t say. All he wrote was that the Chinese, once America’s nuclear arsenal is secured, will begin launching nuclear missiles at Russia from American soil.”
“While China unleashes their nuclear arsenal,” Mandy finished, “Russia wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Canada, the European Union, Central America, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand would stand by Russia,” Tom explained, “Jack Mayes wrote that every Middle Eastern country, Africa and Asia, would stand by China, Iran and North Korea.”
“South Korea would be invaded,” Jessica continued. “Japan would be given a choice. Join China or be destroyed.” Jessica squeezed Mandy’s hand. “Russia is unaware of this, Mandy, at least according to Jack’s journal. I mean, perhaps it is possible Russia is aware. I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that we have to use Jack’s virus and cripple our enemies—”
“And save America,” Jacob demanded. “We need to move.”
Wendy Cratterson, who had slipped back into the church without a sound, listened to the conversation. She quickly checked a cold hallway lit with weak candles. Spotting only dancing shadows on the walls, she pulled a Glock 17 which she had lifted from Tim’s body. Jacob and Alvin had placed him behind the church in the snow. Finding the gun was a stroke of luck. Courage had re-entered Wendy’s bitter, angry heart when she found it.
Wendy never suspected that Lionel had planted the gun on Tim, knowing she would eventually check the body and attempt to carry out her plan of vengeance against Jessica Mayes. Lionel needed bait because Wendy must be taken out.
“Time to die,” she hissed, and with one swift motion, kicked open the office door. She charged inside, knowing full well she was going to be shot dead, but not before killing Jessica Mayes.
Jessica saw the office door explode open and jumped backward toward Tom. Alvin grabbed Mandy, threw her down onto the floor, and shielded her body with his. Jacob immediately went for his gun, but Wendy managed to put a bullet in his left shoulder before focusing on Jessica.
“Die!” she yelled and fired off three shots.
Lionel was standing only a mere two feet away from Jessica. What felt like a powerful hand grabbed him. He was thrown in front of Jessica. The bullets tore into his heart and ended his life in a matter of seconds.
“Down!” Tom yelled, grabbing Jessica and pushing her down behind his desk. Wendy fired off three more shots which missed Jessica’s head by a mere inch. They struck the office wall. Wendy saw Jessica dive behind the desk and let out a furious cry of rage. She aimed her gun at Tom and fired off a single bullet.
As the bullet raced toward Tom’s heart, Alvin blasted two bullets into the woman’s chest and immediately killing her. Before she entered into an eternal darkness, Wendy Cratterson saw a warm and beautiful glow appear around Tom’s body. As Alvin’s bullets ripped into her, she watched the glow form into a man; seemingly the one man who truly knew her heart. He wrapped his arms around Tom and blocked the bullet.
Tom felt the presence of a mighty angel protecting him as Wendy toppled to the floor. When everything grew quiet, he rushed to Lionel. The man was dead. Tom said a quick prayer before hurrying to Jacob. “You’re hurt!”
Alvin scrambled to his feet and checked Wendy’s body. The woman was no longer part of the land of the living. He dragged her out into the hallway.
“Jessie!” Mandy yelled, watching her husband get rid of an ugly excuse for a human who had help cause the world to fall into chaos, “It’s alright! That woman is dead!”
Jessica crawled out from under Tom’s desk and spotted Lionel laying on his back, not moving. Tom was helping Jacob apply pressure to his wound.
“Someone go find Fiona!” Tom yelled.
Alvin heard a door open at the end of the hallway and spotted a bunch of shadows charging toward the office. He waited until the shadows became people, and was relieved when Fiona materialize.
“Here she comes now!” he yelled back into the office.
With Tom’s help, Jacob sat against the wall of the office. “We have to get to President Green...my dad,” he urged Tom, feeling as if his left shoulder were on fire. Struggling to deal with the pain, he gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll...be okay.”
“Try and relax,” Tom urged Jacob, still feeling the presence of an angel in the office. “You’re hurt.”
Jessica ran over to Jacob and bent down. “Where are you hurt?”
“My...shoulder,” Jacob winced when he grabbed Jessica’s arm and pleaded, “We have three days, Jessica. We have to move. We have the virus. We have to move.”
Fiona rushed into the office and saw Lionel lying dead on the floor. She didn’t have to be told that Lionel was dead. She knew his death was only physical. The man had surrendered his heart to Jesus. Now, he rested forever in the light of Jesus. She carefully bent over Lionel’s body to check for a pulse, just in case. Lionel’s lips held a tender, warm smile of peace.
“You did well, son,” she whispered, as she patted Lionel’s hand and then moved toward Jacob. “Where are you hurt?”
“His shoulder,” Tom explained, feeling a powerful energy rush into his body. He no longer felt weak, dazed and disoriented. Tom Braston suddenly felt as if he were sixteen years old again.
“Jessica,” he said, pulling the woman out into the hallway, and moving past a group of armed men who were asking questions. “Please, we need room.” He was forced to stop and answer a worried man. “I know, Mr. Walker. It’ll be okay.” And then briefly explain to another, “Yes, Mr. Kendrick, two people are dead.” He pulled Jessica through the crowd. They finally stepped into an empty, dark room used as a Sunday School class and closed the door. “You and I have to get the virus to President Green. Jacob will be in no condition to travel. Can you—”
“We have to leave tonight,” Jessica said to Tom, standing in complete darkness, yet somehow seeing Tom as if it were broad daylight. “We have to leave tonight, Pastor Braston. I know we’re both tired. Time is not on our side, but we must get to President Green.”
“I agree,” Tom nodded his head, also seeing Jessica as if the room were lit by a bright, powerful light. “There are three or four bikes in the basement.”
“Forget the bikes,” a voice said, scaring Tom and Jessica so badly they nearly fled the room. “It’s me, Pastor, Ned Granson.”
“Ned?” Tom asked. A sixty-four-year-old man lit a match and showed his face. “Ned, what are you—”
Ned Granson grabbed a single emergency candle and lit it. “I’ve been praying,” he confessed from a green chair in the far corner of the room. He looked like a rough cowboy. “I know, praying isn’t like me, is it, Pastor?” he asked. “You’ve been working on me to attend church services for years. I guess it took more than you had to get me here, huh?” he laughed half-heartedly, as his hands slowly removed a worn-down cowboy hat, revealing a nearly bald head. “Pastor, I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know you w
on’t get far on a couple of bikes.” Ned stood up. “I have my horses. You’re welcome to take them. You’ll make better time.”
Completely shocked, Tom stared at Ned. New Granson was one of the meanest men he had ever met. He was a man who had threatened to kill Tom if the preacher ever stepped foot onto his property. Now, the man was offering Tom and a complete stranger the use of his horses? Ned Granson was known to be more protective over his horses than his own life.
“Ned, that’s very kind—”
“Don’t thank me, Pastor,” Ned cut Tom off. “I’ve been sitting in this dark room thinking and praying. I heard all the shooting. Let me tell you, I’m mighty scared. Why? Because tonight a voice came out of nowhere and told me, unless I repent, it’s all over for me. That scared me more than the shooting.” Ned put his cowboy hat back on and walked over to Tom. “I’ve lived my life hating people. Forgive me.”
“Did you accept Jesus into your heart, Ned?” Tom asked, completely pushing aside the urgent matter at hand to focus entirely on his duty as a pastor. Ned slowly nodded his head. “Ned, millions of people are going to die. They are dying right now, as I speak. Tomorrow is not promised. Please, do not let go of Jesus. If you do, and you die…you’ll—”
“The Lake of fire...yeah, I know,” Ned stated in a shaky voice. “You know, I once thought that God sent people to that place, but that’s not so. Men send themselves to the fire by removing God from their hearts. I...tonight, my heart was given to God. I’m not going to lose the mercy granted me.”
Tom reached out and patted Ned’s shoulder. “Amen,” he said, as a tear rolled from his eye. “As the angels rejoice when a sinner repents, so do I, for I was once dead in my sins as well, brother.”
Ned felt a wave of emotion overcome him. He grabbed Tom and hugged him while tears flowed from his eyes. Tom held Ned until the man cleansed his heart.
“The horses,” Ned said, wiping at his tears, “we better get walking. My land is a good hour’s walk from here.” Ned looked at Jessica. “Can you ride a horse.” Jessica shook her head. “You better learn,” he ordered in a stern but warm voice, “because, while I was praying, all I kept seeing was you on a horse. Now, come on.”
“I need to go tell Mandy,” Jessica stated in a shaky voice. “And I need to get the virus, Pastor Braston.”
“Ned, meet us out front in twenty minutes,” Tom told Ned. He patted the man’s arm and walked Jessica back to his office. He found Fiona checking Jacob’s shoulder. “How is he?”
“Bullet went straight through,” Fiona stated in a relieved voice. “He’ll live, but we do have infection to worry about.”
Tom glanced from Jessica to Mandy and Alvin who asked, “What is it, Pastor?”
“I know what it is,” Mandy said, as she started to cry. She leaned against her husband, using him as a crutch and a home. “They want you to go with them.”
“Is that so?” Alvin asked him.
“Yes,” Tom answered honestly. “A man is going to give us the use of his horses.”
“I’m going,” Jacob demanded, struggling to stand up.
“If you go out into that cold, you’re sure to catch your death,” Fiona warned, pushing him back down.
“I don’t care,” Jacob argued, his tone letting everyone know that his choice was made. “I’m an expert horse rider. I have to get to President Green. America depends on it. Now, help me stand up.”
“Okay, son.” Tom nodded at Fiona. It was clear that Jacob Green was a fighter who wasn’t going to spend the rest of the war sitting on the sidelines. A warm light appeared around Jacob as Tom said, “You’ll continue fighting.”
Jessica saw the warm light appear around Jacob as well but didn’t say a word. She knew angels were present.
Chapter 4
Rough Ride
Jacob found it extremely difficult to ride a horse using only one hand. His left arm was trapped in a shoulder sling. To make matters worse, the horse Ned had chosen for him seemed to sense Jacob was hurt. It was showing resistance to his commands. Alvin, a wise trail rider, took hold of the reign attached to Jacob’s horse and made the animal ride beside his own horse. They traveled down a snowy county road that was darker than tar.
“You let me handle the reign, and you focus on staying in your saddle,” he told Jacob over an icy wind. Heavily falling snow, growing deeper and deeper, blanketed the air around them.
Gratitude washed over Jacob. Morning was still a solid two hours away, and even though he had only been riding for an hour or so, Jacob felt as if he had been riding for weeks, maybe even years. His wounded shoulder, doused with rubbing alcohol and cayenne pepper, ached and throbbed. His weary mind cried out for a hot meal and sleep, and his heart begged for peace.
“We still have a long way to go,” he told Alvin in a weary voice, and then glanced behind him into the darkness. Jessica and Tom were riding side by side, like two lonely cowboys; at least, that’s how it seemed to Jacob. Although focused on and hopeful the AI virus would bring victory, Jacob felt a sour taste of pessimistic anger. He was supposed to be the hero of the story, the warrior who never got hurt!
Now, he was reduced to a wounded soldier, who needed a friend to help him. What would President Green, his father, think? Sure, he had the sought-after virus. Well, Tom had the virus and an extra disc that contained the stolen files on President Green; files that showed President Green had been communicating with Russia, but not in the way America would want to believe. No, the stolen files showed communication between an American President and a Russian President who were bonded together in a fight against Roger Alden and his allies.
Would America understand? Of course not. Only the crooks and criminals could break laws and still be applauded. But when an honest man was forced to stand by a Russian President in order to take down one of the most dangerous men in the world… Well, that man was a traitor who deserved to be impeached and then hanged. That’s the way the collective mind and heart had become. It was hungry for sin but rebellious against truth and justice. These thoughts made Jacob begin to think about Jesus.
“Where are you?” he whispered, staring up into a cold, black sky. “I...you have my attention.”
Tom didn’t hear Jacob praying. His thoughts were focused on Jessica. “What will you do, Mrs. Mayes?” he asked, speaking over the crying, icy winds, as his horse walked down a county road.
In any other circumstance, that same road would be littered with early morning work traffic either hurrying to or leaving the local milk plant which let out and started shifts at five o’clock sharp. Now, the road was dark, deserted and covered with snow; impassable to traffic and unfriendly toward man.
“Rebuild. I’m going to carry on my life for Jack,” Jessica answered Tom, nervously riding the horse which Ned promised was as docile as a rose. Even though the icy winds were tearing at her face, she refused to let go of the reign to lift the collar of her coat over her frozen ears. The dark, snow-scarred woods on both sides of the road felt like two cruel eyes waiting to devour the few last grains of hope that remained in her broken heart. “I’m certain President Green will clear my name.”
Tom studied the darkness surrounding the county road. America was now lost in a similar darkness. Only that darkness wasn’t physical. It was a spiritual darkness. America had become a country that was hungry for innocent blood, sin, immorality and corruption.
Tom’s began thinking about the millions of unborn babies that had been murdered in America. Those murders were protected by soulless creatures acting as politicians. A soulless society demanded the right to live immoral lives without any self-accountability or consequences attached.
The America in which Tom had grown up had once been a country that honored God. That country would have never allowed abortion to become accepted and even protected. America had been overrun by soulless people who worked for the enemy. They had no conscience. Those people were promised for the lake of fire, Tom knew.
>
“Yes, we are in a darkness. Perhaps when the darkness is lifted, a light will return. We will rebuild our once-great nation,” he whispered.
“What?” Jessica asked, hearing Tom whispering to himself, as heavy snow blanketed her frozen face.
“This darkness,” Tom said and motioned with his left hand. “It has consumed the very heart of America. Abortions, immoral marriages, demonic activity in the form of television shows, movies, games, music, comic books, pornography, murder, theft, crime and corruption.” Tom shook his head, ignoring the cold winds. “The family unit has collapsed. Children have become social experiments. Adults have fallen into a state of immoral decay. Sin has taken control of the heart of America,” he continued. “In time, this darkness will lift, and we’ll see what the light shows.”
“We will win this battle,” Jacob called back to Tom. “Pastor, we have to.”
Alvin searched the dark woods with his eyes. His mind went back to the run-down, mold-infested thrift shop he had owned in Memphis. The thrift shop was nothing more than an open coffin.
“I lived in an old morgue, waiting to die,” he whispered, watching the heavy snow falling. “Now, I’m married and fighting to stay alive; to win the chance to live. I want to live.” Alvin kept his eyes on the darkness, as his heart grabbed on to his love for Mandy. “For the first time in so many years, I want to live for us. Now,” he told that same love. His wife had been forced to stay behind at the church. “I intend for us to live,” he promised it. “I intend for us to have a family, a home, a life. But first, I got work to do.” Alvin turned his head and looked at Jacob. “You better be right about President Green’s location.”
Jacob took his right hand and touched his left shoulder, as Alvin walked his horse down the county road. “I’m right, Alvin. All we have to do is get to the bunker and insert the AI virus.”
“Getting to the bunker may prove very difficult,” Alvin pointed out. “You saw how folks began turning on each other back there in town. You saw those two men shoot each other down, man.” Alvin shook his head. “We’re going to be sitting ducks with these horses.”
Green File Crime Thrillers Box Set Page 43