New America 02 - Resistance (17 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Howard Beck was terrified.  The fact that a Chinese submarine had sunk the three cruise ships on their way to California had
farther reaching implications than the deaths of so many brave men and women ready to fight for the liberation of America.  Howard knew this submarine was not a lone wolf preying in the waters off the coast of the former United States.  Something much more nefarious was going on, and he was determined to figure it out.

Why did the
y attack our cruise ships?

Are the Chinese so vicious they would sink what appeared to be pleasure ships filled with innocent civilians?

No, they must have figured out they were transport ships with troops and military equipment onboard.

Why sink the ships?  Their course clearly dictated they were headed to our own shores and not westward.

Then it hit Howard. 
They thought we were the UAE!

Why attack the UAE?  It doesn’t make sense to go to war with a nuclear power.

Howard was struck by another frightening realization:
Sterling struck a deal with the Chinese to protect us from Iran, and they thought the cruise ships were evidence of a double-cross.

“Old Man, this is a nightmare.”

“What is a nightmare, sir?”

“The Chinese.  You realize what happened, don’t you?”

“Other than the attack?  No, sir, I do not.”

Howard explained his line of thinking to Hal.

“An intuitive analysis, sir.”

“Analyze all the data your sister A.I. brought
back from the White House.  Anything that mentions the Chinese or allies?”

“Neither word was ever uttered by Sterling or anyone in your residence.”

“Expand your search out to the regional governors.”

“Jackson Butler sent encrypted messages to China.”

“That son of a bitch!  Any chance of reading them?”

“I’m afraid not, sir.  The Chi
nese have become quite adept at software encryption.  It would take me weeks to decipher the messages.”

“Damn.  It has to be Butler.  If Sterling actually believed in a two-part
y system, he’d campaign on the isolationist platform.  His world only exists inside our borders.  He’d nuke the living shit out of China before he’d strike a deal with them and wouldn’t give a damn if they nuked us in return.”

“
I agree, sir.”

“I think we know who bombed the church.  Jackson Butler is still alive
, and we have to find him.”

***

Jackson Butler and the man he knew as Charles were sitting in another vacant restaurant outside of what was left of Orlando.

“Charles, are you sure?”

“I am. They had to stop at the amusement park, or whatever you call it.  The journey to Fort McClellan is too perilous, with much of the surrounding area in chaos.  The only tactical decision that makes sense would be to stop at the most secure UAE haven between Miami and Alabama.  Why didn’t they just go back to the airport and fly out?”

“They
had no way of knowing whether the culprits had targeted the airport as well as the church, so they had no choice but to flee Miami by car.”

“I often forget your
prior military service, sir.”

“So do I.”

“Now that you know Sterling’s location, how do you want to proceed?”

“It’s simple, really.
I show up frazzled and afraid, having suffered a long, arduous journey across Florida to find him.  He’ll welcome me with open arms.  I might even cry.”

“I’m touched.”

“Where do we stand on Beck Castle?”

“
The Chinese are ready to take control of the artificial intelligence in the Castle.”  Charles’ phone rang.  “Terribly sorry for the interruption. May I?”

“Of course
.”

Charles tapped his heads
et and listened in silence.   Thirty seconds later, he ended the call.  “A rather fortuitous turn of events has put us ahead of schedule.  It seems President Sterling has been captured by some…what is it you call them? Hillbillies?  Anyway, it seems your president is in the hands of a man named Benjamin Black.  They have him inside ... you Americans, I don’t know how you keep it all straight ... Walt Disney Place.”

“Walt Disney World.”

“Yes, they have him inside Walt Disney World, and within the next hour they’re going to attempt to move him to a military installation in Louisiana.”

“Fort Polk?  It’s controlled by the UAE.  Why capture him and then take him back to the UAE?”

“Apparently, a colonel there by the name of Sanderson is a PSA sympathizer and has agreed to transport the president to Beck Castle and hand him over to the PSA.”

“Why is this a good thing for us?  Sounds like
a nightmare.  Sterling will order troops out of McClellan to pick him up; they’ll all be slaughtered.”

“Jackson, we’ll just have to
figure out a way to stop them. You’ll endear yourself to the president even more by attempting to rescue him from the tan-necks.”

“The what?”

Charles was becoming increasingly frustrated by his lack of understanding of American colloquialisms.  “Rednecks?”

“Y
es, Charles, you’re getting the hang of it.  I have some loyal men in the area who can help us with our little charade and ensure I’m along for the ride to Beck Castle.”

“Well, as you know, I have a man inside Beck
Castle.  Contacting him is rather difficult, and getting something to him is next to impossible.”  Charles pulled out a small piece of plastic no larger than a fingernail.  “We make a small incision in your left pectoral and plant this just under your skin.  The device gives off the electrical signature of a pacemaker and will fool any scans they might perform on you.”

“They?  Where am I going?  What is that thing really?”

“Sir, you are going to show up at Walt Disney World looking for your beloved president. They will be more than happy to take you, as a prisoner, to Beck Castle.  Once you’re there, my man on the inside will find you and remove the device.  It is simply a ten terabyte storage device.  Contained on it are the programs necessary to gain control of the artificial intelligence.  Our Chinese friends wish to neutralize the PSA.”

***

Colonel William Sanderson, commanding officer of the 519th Military Police Battalion and the provost marshal for Fort Polk, awoke early.  He looked upon the beautiful face of his wife, Lindsay, knowing she’d sleep for at least another two hours.  He walked down the hall to check on his children, Brent and Heather.  Like his wife, they were also sound asleep.  William’s mind wandered back to the days when his family was homeless and living in the Central Park Obama Camp.  If anyone could write a best-selling rags-to-riches novel, it was William.  He knew it would be many years before his children would begin to realize how destitute and downtrodden their family had been.  He and his wife never once complained around their children. He had convinced his innocent children that they were simply on an extended camping trip rather than homeless.

William was grateful for his job and his home, but was not proud of the path his career had taken.  One of the primary jobs of the 519th was to detain potential terrorists so they could be transported to “interrogation
camps.”  William was no fool. He knew the people passing through his detention center were on their way to be tortured and, in all likelihood, executed.  After his protests fell on deaf or fearful ears, he decided he could no longer look at himself in the mirror unless he was fighting to restore democracy and freedom.  William was a spy for the Pacific States of America.  At first, he’d tried to defect to the PSA with his family, but a man named Maxwell Harris had persuaded him to remain where he was in order to supply vital information about the atrocities being committed by the UAE.  William decided the arrangement was an honorable one.

After receiving an
urgent communication from one of his fellow operatives in Florida, William slept fitfully, if at all.  Benjamin Black had contacted him using one of the most ancient of communication devices—Morse code.  With cell phone towers slow to make a comeback after The Pulse, Morse code was widely used as a secure means of communication.  Two parties simply needed to come up with a means of coding messages.  William and Benjamin had been using a cipher that utilized an asymmetric key algorithm.  When William got the message and decrypted it, he stared at it in disbelief.  His immediate response to Benjamin was “Message unclear. Send again.”  Benjamin replied, “High value prisoner in my custody soon. Make preparations for our arrival.  Once we have the package, contact the PSA in same fashion as before. Will message again in two hours.  Confirm.”  William did so.

William spent mo
st of the evening and early morning planning the prisoner extraction.  Without his family’s knowledge, he packed four suitcases containing essential and sentimental belongings.  It was time to get the hell out of Dodge and make a new home in the Pacific States of America.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

General Richard Dupree was nursing a broken foot.  His SEAL instructor would have been ashamed of him.  Richard had jumped into water from dizzying heights when he was an operator, but he could honestly say he had never been thrown into the water after an explosion.  This time, he’d been unable to complete the landing prep which involved tucking his chin to his chest, crossing his arms across his torso, and putting one foot on top of the other.  He had accomplished the first two steps but failed to complete the last.  As he smashed into the water, Richard felt his big toe and the attached metacarpal snap.  He endured an agonizing ten minutes of treading water before a lifeboat picked him up.  A few minutes later, one of Hal’s robots attached itself to the back of the lifeboat and propelled the craft to shore. 

Richard climbed from
the boat onto the shore, lifejacket and oar in hand. He snapped the oar in two and tore pieces of fabric from the lifejacket to fashion a makeshift cast for his foot. It would do for the time being.  His primary concern was getting his people to safety.  Richard pulled a whistle from his tactical vest and blew three rapid tweets. 

“Rally point here!  I want everyone to gather at this location.  All incoming lifeboats will be brought to this point.”  Richard
turned to the nearest
Hal drone.  “Hal!  Make it happen!”

“Yes, sir, all lifeboats will be brought to this landing zone.

Dozens of frightened soldiers headed in Richard’s direction as he scanned the crowd for officers.  “You!  Captain ...”

“Sir, Captain Page, sir!”

“Captain, tend to the wounded and assist Hal in triage. We have to get these people to a hospital.”

“Sir, yes, sir!  Medic!  Medic!  I need a medic
!”

Richard looked up
so see an astonishing sight in the shadowy night sky – a fleet of Hal drones carrying the wounded to the nearest hospital.  Richard didn’t know it, but Maxwell Harris had been the very first to be whisked away for treatment.

***

Andrea Wilson had been an emergency room nurse at the UCSF Medical Center for thirteen years.  It was one of the few h
ospitals that had survived the Collapse of 2027.  With the American economy in shambles, she wasn’t really getting much of a paycheck once inflation was factored in.  With the spending power of the almighty dollar at an all-time low, it didn’t really matter anyway.  Her dedication to her job was the only reason she was still there.

Andrea was checking a chart near the front entrance to the ER when the most shocking event
of her life unfolded before her.  She had seen some pretty amazing things in her career, which made it all the more surreal.  As she looked outside, Andrea saw people gazing at the sky as they ran for their lives.  What happened next was like something straight out of a science fiction movie.  A robot-like contraption landed right in front of the door, an unconscious man cradled in its arms.

“Ma’am, this man requires immediate medical attention.  His L2 vertebra is crushed
, and he is bleeding internally.”

Andrea stood in silence
, dazed momentarily by the bizarre scene evolving around her.

“Ma’am?  Do you understand me? 
Este hombre necesita atención médica inmediata.  Cet homme nécessite une attention médicale immédiate.  Ma’am?  Do you understand me?”

“Uh, yes.  Follow me.”  Andrea
found an empty gurney in an open bay nearby. “Set him down there.”

“Thank you, ma’am.  Fourteen more men and women will be arriving in the next minute.  I suggest you alert your staff so preparations can be ma
de,” the Hal robot said as it walked towards the entrance bay.

“Fourteen?  What the hell are you?  What’s going on?”  Andrea
watched as the sophisticated robot fired off boosters from its legs and rocketed away into the night sky.  “Hey, come back here!  What’s going on?”  Andrea said, frustrated, as she peered into the darkness. Still struggling to process what had just taken place, Andrea turned away, only to find a legion of robots walking toward her. Her frustration quickly abated as, one by one, more robots landed in the parking lot and started walking towards her.

“Shit.”

***

While the
Freedom of the Seas
and her sister ships descended to the ocean floor, the Chinese invasion force was quickly closing in on the western shores of the former United States. Fighter jets and bombers launched from aircraft carriers, ready to destroy key military targets within the Unified American Empire. 

Edwards AFB was struck first.  Pilots scrambling to get jets in the air never had a chance. 
The same thing happened at Vandenberg AFB.  Camp Pendleton and Fort Irwin were decimated; thousands of troops gave their lives, most for a government they despised.  Once the surgical strikes were completed, the fighter jets and bombers returned to their aircraft carriers for the second wave of the attack, which would push the airstrikes further east towards the Rockies.  The third wave was soon to follow with Chinese soldiers making landfall on the shores of California, ready to occupy the streets of the UAE.

The Chinese were in for a surprise when they attempted to enter the Pacific States of America. 
Thanks to his powerful insight, Howard Beck had foreseen the possibility of an invasion coming from the western side of North America.  Howard was ready for anything.