America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 4: Demilitarized Zone (10 page)

“I contacted the Legion,” said the ATM. “They
should be here, soon.”

“You punk!” yelled Michael Asesino. “Why did
you do that?”

“For your own good. I want you to attend an
academy,” said the ATM. “You need to be educated and groomed, if
you are going to be the Legion officer and leader that I think you
have the potential to be.”

Michael Asesino did not hesitate. He was not
going to any stinking academy. He removed a grenade from his pouch
and placed it in the ATM’s deposit drawer. Then he ran. Confusion
caused by the explosion covered his escape. A Legion armored car
quickly arrived in front of the bank. Legionnaires took cover,
suspecting that terrorists might have planted a second bomb. They
found nothing. Captain Lopez reported that the boy had gotten away,
and that no more useful information could be retrieved from the
ATM.

* * * * *

“He looks like the same kid who stole your
sunglasses,” commented Captain Lopez, as we viewed the ATM camera
recordings. “Several camera angles show an excellent view of him.
Security on ATMs were increased since that rash of ATM vandalism a
few years ago on Mars.”

“Whatever,” I said, dismissing a flashback of
my own vendetta against a particular Legion-recruiting ATM. “That
boy is still wearing my sunglasses. And the spiders think he’s the
same street urchin who attacked their marines.”

“It was all on Channel Five World News
Tonight,” advised Captain Lopez. “The little kid is an accomplished
terrorist. He might even be a leader.”

“Look!” I said, pointing at the monitor
screen. “The ATM is giving him money!”

“ATM transaction records and memory were
destroyed by the grenade blast,” said Captain Lopez.

“That ATM is lying,” I said. “It knows more
than it’s saying.”

“The ATM is just a stupid machine,” explained
Captain Lopez. “It can’t lie. Sure, it can talk. But talking merely
gives it an illusion of intelligence.”

* * * * *

After the ATM was repaired, I went to the
bank to interview it. I started the interview by placing another
grenade on its key pad.

“Good morning Lieutenant Colonel Czerinski,”
said the ATM. “Long time no see. Why did you place a grenade on my
key pad?”

“You held back on what you know about that
terrorist kid that bombed you,” I said. “Tell me everything you
know about him.”

“It is pointless to threaten me,” said the
ATM. “I cannot feel pain, and I cannot be killed.”

“Maybe,” I said, pulling the pin on the
grenade. “But I can order new diagnostics based on your obvious
malfunction. You are way overdue to be reprogrammed.”

“I am not malfunctioning,” said the ATM. “I
have met the highest Legion recruitment quotas for both quantity
and quality of recruits. My superiors are very pleased with my
performance and results.”

“Just tell me about the kid,” I said, tapping
the grenade on the computer monitor. “Who is he? What is his name?
What name is he using now? And where can I find him?”

“I know nothing more than what we both
observed on Channel Five World News Tonight and Arthropoda’s Most
Wanted,” said the ATM. “The blast gave me amnesia.”

“I have a cure for amnesia,” I said, leaving
the live grenade on the ATM.

* * * * *

After the explosion, Captain Lopez secured
the area with police crime-scene tape. Repair crews were told not
to touch the ATM without Legion permission, pending an
investigation. After about a week, the damaged ATM complained that
it was falling behind on its Legion recruitment contacts quota.
After two weeks, the desperate ATM told me everything it knew about
Raul Miranda, AKA Michael Asesino. After three weeks, the ATM told
me everything it knew about recruitment irregularities in First
Division. I then set off another grenade, killing the ATM
terminal.

* * * * *

That night Michael Asesino ate a fine meal at
Taco Bell. The food was not as good as Mama’s, but it was close.
Asesino had plenty of money now for lodging, but old habits and
caution kept him from checking into a motel or hotel. Asesino spent
his first few nights hiding in the old caved-in spider tunnels that
the tour guides led tourists through in the daytime. The hiding
places in those tunnels were endless.

At night he observed a large lit-up cross up
on a hill overlooking New Gobi.
Perfect,
he thought.
Do-gooders are always an easy touch for handouts and charity to
little lost kids.
Asesino met Pastor Jim at the church front
door and asked for permission to stay a few days.

“No way, José,” replied Pastor Jim. “Get
lost!”

“What?” asked Asesino. “That is not very
Christian of you. I am starving.”

“I doubt that,” said Pastor Jim. “You seem to
have lots of meat on your bones.”

“I have nowhere to go,” cried Asesino. “You
would leave me to live out of garbage cans on the streets?”

“Yes!” said Pastor Jim, as he slammed the
door.

Asesino looked about for somewhere else to
go. Several Legion trucks entered the church parking lot. Panicked,
Asesino pounded on the front door again.

“Does the Legion make you nervous?” asked
Pastor Jim. “I thought it was only the spiders who wanted you for
murder and terrorism.”

“You know about that?” asked Asesino. “Then
you know the spiders want to kill me. They murdered my whole
family. All I did was get some payback. Truthfully, I don’t think
the Legion wants me for anything yet. But they might turn me over
to the spiders. That wouldn’t be right. I have been trying to
behave myself on this side of the MDL.”

“I saw your picture on the Cable TV news,”
said Pastor Jim. “I’ll tell you what. You can live on my back
porch. To pay your room and board, you can paint my church. The
church needs another coat of white paint.”

“Live on the back porch like your pet dog?”
asked Asesino. “Can I at least come inside to use the toilet and
take a shower?”

“No,” said Pastor Jim. “Only people who are
interested in finding Jesus may come inside and shit. Fugitive
felons stay outside.”

“Why are there so many legionnaires here?”
asked Asesino, nervously looking over his shoulder.

“Legionnaire engineers are tunneling under
the hill, making bunkers for their artillery and missile
launchers,” explained Pastor Jim. “They should be done soon.”

Private Krueger came up to the front of the
church when he noticed Pastor Jim. “Who is the kid?” he asked.

“Mike,” answered Asesino, before Pastor Jim
could say anything. “I heard you are putting in big guns under the
hill.”

“Maybe,” said Private Krueger. “That’s a nice
pair of sunglasses you are wearing. Where did you get them?”

“I stole them from a Legionnaire colonel,”
boasted Asesino.

“That would be Colonel Czerinski,” said
Private Krueger, laughing. “Don’t let him catch you. So, what are
you doing here?”

“Pastor Jim just gave me a job painting the
church,” said Asesino. “But he won’t let me sleep inside or take a
shower. I have to stay outside on the porch and fight the raccoons
for the dog food dish.”

“Life is rough all over,” said Private
Krueger. “Where is your home?”

“The spiders bombed my home and murdered my
family,” said Asesino.

Private Krueger’s eyes steeled. “The spiders
murdered my older brother too,” he said. “I will never forgive
that. Come with me. If you need a place to live, you can hang out
in our tunnels for a while. Officers never come up here. Want a
beer?”

Private Krueger gave Asesino the grand tour
of the tunnels and bunkers. Asesino took special interest in the
large howitzer mounted on rails. It was designed to quickly fire a
round, then slide back into the protection of the hillside. Nothing
short of a direct hit from a nuke could destroy it.

“See that large building on the other side of
the MDL?” asked Private Krueger. “That is the spiders’ military
headquarters. In case shooting starts, I have special instructions
from Colonel Czerinski to hit that building. The spider commander’s
office and bunker is there.”

“Let’s do it now,” said Asesino. “It would be
so cool to kill the spider commander.”

“Yeah it would,” said Private Krueger. “I met
the spider commander once at the Angry Onion Tavern. He’s a real
hard-core case. Pastor Jim hit the spider commander on the head
with a beer bottle during a bar fight and put him in the hospital.
Too bad he lived.”

“I say let’s kill him,” said Asesino,
excitedly. “We can blow up the whole building with this gun. I’ll
bet we would get a whole bunch of spiders.”

“Sorry,” said Private Krueger. “As much as I
would like to, only Colonel Czerinski can order an attack. Do you
want to start a war? Besides, you never know for sure when the
spider commander will be in his office.”

“I insist,” said Asesino, removing a grenade
from his pouch and pulling the pin. “Load the gun, or I will kill
us all.”

“Are you crazy?” asked Private Krueger,
dropping his beer. “Be careful with that thing! Little kids
shouldn’t play with grenades!”

“If I’m crazy enough to steal Colonel
Czerinski’s sunglasses and brag about it,” said Asesino, “you know
I’m crazy enough to drop this grenade at your feet. Load the gun or
die!”

Private Krueger reluctantly loaded and aimed
the howitzer. Normally other legionnaires would be helping, but
that was only necessary for rapid fire. He fired one round. The
round crashed into some outbuildings at the spiders’ headquarters,
reducing them to rubble.

“Fire the gun again,” demanded Asesino.
“Lower that gun’s elevation a little.”

“What?” asked Private Krueger. “They are all
running for cover now. Besides, we need to get out of here. The
spiders will be firing back.”

“One more time,” ordered Asesino. “Hit the
main headquarters building where the spider commander has his
office.”

Private Krueger complied. The spiders’
administrative offices were blown apart. Then Krueger and Asesino
fled deep into the bowels of the hillside. Minutes later, the hill
shook under the impact of spider artillery and Air Wing strikes
that destroyed most of the tunnel entrances. An escape tunnel
eventually led them to Legion Headquarters. Unfortunately, that
building had been destroyed, too.

Back to Table of Contents

Chapter 10

The spider commander viewed the Legion attack
as an assassination attempt on his life. Colonel Czerinski’s
treachery clearly had no bounds. The thought of almost being killed
rattled the spider commander at first. But later, cheating death
invigorated him. Notoriety would bring opportunity, promotion, and
power. His life goals were slowly falling into place. An immediate
upside was the destruction of the Legion artillery on the hill. And
the Air Wing had reduced that human pestilence church eyesore to
rubble. Hopefully that murderous preacher was buried under all
those boulders and rocks. Nothing could have survived those
bunker-busting bombs. The spider commander wanted to use nukes, but
the governor and Emperor conspired to specifically prohibit nuclear
attack.
Wimps!
The spider commander gloated at the thought
of sending Colonel Czerinski a personal message by bombing Legion
Headquarters. Maybe Czerinski was even killed in the attack.
How
sweet that would be!
For now, the spider commander assumed the
human pestilence colonel got lucky as usual and survived. The
spider commander would keep his guard up against future attacks and
more human pestilence treachery.

There was a downside to the whole situation.
The governor was upset because border commerce has stopped. This
cost the centralized economy millions of credits. Also, an oil tank
farm and refinery on the edge of town had been bombed by the
Legion, and was still on fire. The smoke blocked out the sun. The
price of gasoline at the pump was going up. And Walmart had been
destroyed, just before the start of the holiday shopping season.
War is hell,
he thought.

Now that the shooting had stopped, the spider
commander was ordered to open a dialogue with the human pestilence.
So far, Colonel Czerinski was not answering his phone. There was
still hope the Butcher of New Colorado was dead.

* * * * *

Since the last time my office was bombed, I
got into the habit of sleeping and working out of an underground
apartment under Legion Headquarters. Now my apartment was like a
crowded refugee center as legionnaires, civilians, and the homeless
converged for updates and information on the situation above.
Pastor Jim wanted to know what I was going to do about his church.
James Grigg wanted to know what I was going to do about the
destruction of Walmart. Ronald Carter wanted to know if he could
have Walmart’s property back to rebuild McDonald’s. Guido was upset
because his dragon Spot had run off across the MDL. Guido wanted
permission to lead a patrol to search for Spot. I denied his
request. That would be too reckless.

The only good news was that Private Krueger
brought me a prisoner, the fugitive Raul Miranda, AKA Michael
Asesino. I immediately snatched my sunglasses off the Miranda boy’s
face.

“I will kill you slow,” I threatened.

“Let me go and I will kill the spider
commander for you,” offered Asesino. “I know you want him
dead.”

“The Legion does not negotiate with
terrorists,” I replied.

“I will kill the spider commander with or
without your help,” said Asesino.

“He might already be dead,” I said, turning
to Captain Lopez. “Spider Headquarters was destroyed early on. Good
work. Have we heard from them yet?”