Indivisible (Overlooked by Liberty) (27 page)

      
Packs also need places to wait undetected, so they can drop back to their sanctuary if they begin to get flanked.  Concealment is critical.  We have to build vented bunkers below ground that can't be detected by heat scopes from a satellite or plane.  Our biggest advantage is communication.  When the radio jammers go on, their patrols are isolated.  We can signal with laser from mountaintop to mountaintop and with line-of-sight from pack to pack.  The Feds should experience utter confusion within their ranks.  Their casualties will be very high following their initial attack."

      
Harvey Madison raised his hand.  "Can I ask a question?"

      
"Sure."

      
"Are you counting on the Vermont side to come into this big battle, because unless things have changed drastically, I don't think we're ready to take on the most powerful nation in the world in a civil war?"  Harvey had worded his comment carefully.

      
Chaos looked at the group.  Other than Wolfenstein and Max, they didn't look like much.  Helen and Mrs. Larson looked up with interest as though they would be the ones in the bunkers.  It was hard for Chaos to envision anyone other than Mountain Boys running about the woods executing attack pack maneuvers.  "We could use the help but I expect the other two parts of the Triad to come in on this, at least my brother Snake from the Vermont side.  Snake must have been the one responsible for knocking out the phone service in New England by severing the optical trunks.  And I suspect he arranged the attack on the White House, too.  Snake can be reasonable, as well as resourceful."

      
"Reasonable?" Helen wondered allowed.

      
Mrs. Larson spoke up, "You're missing something here: The Wizard.  He helped start this whole Covenant thing in Vermont.  We would be crazy to do anything without bringing him in on this."  Other people from Colebrook's Covenant commented in support of Vanessa's suggestion.

      
"The Wizard is in the process of organizing their own covenant in Boston.  I don't know if he's in any position to help us," Max commented.

      
Harvey was determined to defuse the crisis, "I just want us to agree that we will not initiate any more attacks on Washington until Reverend Thoreau has had a chance to work out a deal."

      
"I'll contact my brothers and let them know our intentions," Chaos answered.  "I warn you though: I can't control what my brothers do."

      
General Paz had heard enough of Serrac's plan.  "May I add something to this discussion?"  He seethed with the notion that the President would bring in a military specialist without his knowledge to undermine him.  "Is Commander Serrac here to replace me as your adviser?"

      
"Oh, no.  Of course not, General," the President assured.  "Colonel Greely mentioned using the troops in the Amur region so I called him in.  Greely set it up before he was murdered."

      
Tension thickened in the room.  The small alcove suffered from 20th century ventilation and the body heat from the people present added more dankness to an already muggy chamber.  Serrac cut in, "Sir, I'm sorry.  I didn't know."

      
General Paz turned to Commander Serrac, "At ease, Commander.  It isn't you.  It's them."  Luc's mouth trembled out to a sneer at Kyle's comment.

      
"Kyle, you're taking this personally," said the President.  "Don't let the imaging of the Dixville Massacre that Spectator News published get to you.  The public will understand that Captain Thomas was to blame."

      
"Negotiations are fine," Chaos continued, "but we have to prepare in the interim.  Wolf, anything to add?"

      
"Well, I think they're going to bomb us at the Notch.  I think they may even use the Israeli satellites to pick off individuals they recognize.  You know, those satellites in orbit with Masadas.  If everyone stays under the trees as much as possible, they won't see us.  And we could use decoys to let their heat sensors focus in on the Notch as a target."

      
"There could be more to it than that," said Chaos.  "They've come out with a new type of automated weapon that is mobile, kinda like a roving AutoMan.  Captain Thomas could verify this I'm sure; the Army Regulars are training with these Armdroids.  They're like little tanks with heat, motion, and metal sensors to detect any booby traps and ambushes.  They are sent remotely, ahead of the troops.  They look like a fifty-five gallon drum on tank tracks.  Arms help it climb stairs and such; it can climb most anything.  You should see them."

      
"Would a radio jammer stymie them?" asked Max.

      
"Nope.  They work off a fiber-optic line, or on auto.  If the line is severed, they just sit there and shoot anything that moves until the proper infrared signal is shot at it to shut it down.  I don't think a Masada can even shoot through it.  A hand-held rocket might damage one.  We have some of those."

      
"It is personal, Mr. President," said Kyle.  Commander Serrac didn't understand the meaning in Kyle's statement, or how the General's contingent set up the Dixville Massacre.  "No disrespect to Commander Serrac, but Colonel Greely was your best shot at taking down this bunch with little bloodshed; and they got him first.  Your second best option was Captain Thomas."  He turned to Lucas Bennett, "I think you remember him," he said sarcastically in reference to the chewing out Thomas got from Bennett in the Oval Office.  Turning back to the others, he went on, "He's familiar with all the top weaponry, and the region.  He was with Greely in the Carolinas.  This is no longer just Colebrook and the Tobacco Boys: we have some intelligence that Boston has their own Covenant with a force made up of both whites and African-Americans."  He stopped and stated resolutely, "They call themselves 'Ghost Pack 220,' and they pledge their allegiance to someone called the Akela.  How do you fight ghosts, gentlemen?"  General Paz turned to Commander Serrac, "Pack 220 was the group of boys slaughtered out at the Dixville Massacre."

      
General Paz picked up his hat and overcoat as he rose to leave.  On screen behind him, Wolfenstein and Chaos came out of the Philbin house to meet Captain Thomas, Steve Morrison, and Reverend Thoreau under the flora of the cherry tree.  "I'm resigning, Mr. President," General Paz declared.  "I've had enough of this charade."

      
"Kyle," Winifred stopped him.  "What will you say to the press?"

      
"Don't worry, Mr. President.  Captain Thomas has gone AWOL.  You have your scapegoat.  Besides, there's nothing I've done that I would care to repeat."  Before exiting the door, he paused and turned sideways, "A word of caution, Commander: This is nothing like the Amur River Region.  Not one bit."

      
Chaos was the first out of the covenant meeting to join the Captain and Steve Morrison under the blooming cherry tree.  "Captain Thomas, we could use your expertise," Chaos said.  "What do you know about the vulnerability of Armdroids?"  Morrison listened in.

      
"An HHR will knock it over but it won't necessarily down the machine unless it hits a port and tears it open.  It can get back on its tracks with its arms."  Other Covenant members came out the Philbin's front door.  When the Captain looked up, Helen turned away.  Mrs. Larson glared at Thomas with contempt. 

      
Thomas returned to his conversation, "I've seen the Armdroids tested.  They're tough-skinned with three centimeters of hardened alloy.  A Masada won't touch it unless you can hit a port, and that's difficult."

      
Chaos narrowed his eyes, thinking.  "How about satellites?  They got any sitting above us by now?  Any Israeli types?"

      
"You mean for shooting people from the sky?" the reporter chimed in.  "I thought they couldn't do that."

      
"They're not supposed to," Captain Thomas replied to Steve.  In his response to Chaos, "I don't know about an Israeli version but if it wasn't for the tree we're under they would be counting the buttons on your shirt as we speak," 

      
Chaos stepped out from under the tree and turned his head up to look under the bill of his hat.  He lifted his hand and raised his middle finger to the sky.

      
"Must be a local," said Lucas in reference to the man on screen flipping them the finger.  All the others had left the Map Room; Lucas Bennett and the President Winifred were the only ones remaining.  "What happens here is critical in this fall's election, sir."

      
"I realize that.  I think I'm going to make a trip to Colebrook and actually take part in the negotiations.  It will look Presidential.  Turning over Kyle as the culprit behind the Dixville Massacre should also help defuse things a little.  You see, Lucas, a President needs to show leadership in a crisis like this.  I might even take William fishing while I'm up there.  Makes for good press."  Winifred had frozen the scene of the scruffy dark-haired man with the baseball cap.  He walked up to the big screen beside Chief of Staff Bennett and stared at the figure.  An eyebrow raised as the President said, "We'll see who screws who."

Max's deer camp near Colebrook, New Hampshire (May 10)

DEER WIZARD,

THIS IS THAD-

      
"No, stupid," his older brother corrected.  "Write:
THIS IS BUTCH AND ME.
  He won't know who it is that's written it."  Thad nodded and back-spaced to the beginning. 

WE NEED YOUR HELP.  WE HEAR THE FEDS HAVE AN AUTOMAN THAT MOVES AND THEY MIGHT USE IT ON US.  CHAOS SAYS WE NEED A TECHY LIKE YOU BUT THEY THINK YOUR TO BISSY IN THE CITY TO HELP US OUT.  

      
"You spelled TECHY with a Y," Butch noted.  It should be with an IE.  This E-note won't go through unless everything's spelled right."  Thad went back and changed it.  "There.  That's better.  Now send that son-of-a-bitch."  Butch whispered his order as though they had entered forbidden territory.  In truth, the boys huddled around the glow of Max's laptop in the black, desolate deer camp on Van Dyck mountain.

      
Thad moved the track-point to the drop-down menu of addresses and found The Wizard's E-mail address.  He clicked and sent it.

      
"There."  Butch felt satisfied that a message had been crafted and sent out under his direction.  Both boys waited for the mystical machine to respond.

      
Got your message, boys.  Where's Max?
The Wizard replied within the minute.

      
Wide-eyed and anxious, Butch and Thad read the message as it came on screen.  Butch nudged his brother, "Say somethin'."  Thad pecked out:
NOT HERE NOW.
  They sent it and waited at a blank screen for a response.

      
How did your dog do?
The Wizard wrote.

      
The Rousell's responded:
TATER DYED.

      
The Wizard replied,
I'm sorry to hear about that boys.  But I need to talk to Helen or Max.  Are they there?

      
Thad looked up at his brother before pecking out the reply,
JUST BUTCH AND ME.  NO ONE ELSE.  GHOST PACK 220 NEEDS HELP.…

      
Butch had told The Wizard the Dixville story in Boston.  He wore the scar.  The man from Boston had taken an oath to recruit more pack members, and Butch would hold him to it.  "That's good Thad.  And tell him he made a promise to the Ghost Pack." 

      
Thad punched the period key hard and sent it.       

      
The Wizard replied
, We'll send help.  By the way, your Ghost Pack has taken off in Boston.  Congratulations.

      
The mute boy at the computer keyboard turned to face his older brother and beamed a look of satisfaction.

Chapter 15

Dixville Notch, New Hampshire (May 13)

      
Eastern sunshine captured her, and wrapped her, exposing every curve that made up Helen Conrad.  The woman looking down at Balsams Resort from Table Rock had transformed into a butterfly, but only in body.  Trauma had hardened her soul.  A life she created, a spirit she had loved more than anything, had been snuffed out.  And the worst of it was watching President Winifred's brown-haired son standing on the same rock where Barry once stood.

      
Chaos understood her tragedy; he had lost loved ones in the struggle for freedom.  But watching Helen at the bluff, he didn't see the pain, just the woman.  He approached her from behind and tried to see what she was looking at through her binoculars.  Chaos stood beside her with two coffees, peering down at the resort.  He noticed something dripping from the eye-piece of Helen's binoculars.  "Something's leaking."