CHAPTER ELEVEN
Holly River Base, WV
It looked like the classic version of the old school game Stratego. Little flags set up on a map. But instead of a generic landscape it was a topography map of the United States. It was spread out on a table, with Gus center of it all, Steve to his right and a few military men joined.
“Right now, we know of nineteen camps,” Gus said. “There are probably more but this is all we can confirm.”
“Here’s the problem,” Troy said. “Once you hit any of them, the others are going to go on high alert.”
“That’s why we are going to have to hit as many as we can at the same time,” Gus replied.
“Can we coordinate that?” Steve asked.
Gus nodded. “I believe we can. We don’t need the manpower, it can be done quietly if done correctly.”
“Infiltrate?” Troy asked. “Two, three people on the inside.”
Gus moved his finger down to the map. “Exactly. Two or three on the inside, get us intel, get us in. If we do this at the right time, we only need a few good snipers to take out the guards, and the detainees can walk right out the door. That many people, they don’t have enough soldiers to hold them back.”
“Which begs an answer to the next question,” Steve said. “What are we going to do with all these people. Here… Caldwell.” He touched the map. “Thousands of people. Most of them displaced as it is, lost their homes, we open the fence, they walk out, then what? What are they going to do? To be honest, they’re being fed and cared for in that prison. Freedom is a good incentive but so is living.”
“The United States is huge,” Gus said. “There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of small towns not even on the radar of the Procs. We get them there. Spread the word.”
“We’d have to get the towns on board first,” Steve said. “Find them. Secure them, before we even liberate the camps and lead the detainees there.”
“Then what?” Troy asked. “We get them there. Then what? Convince them to fight with us?”
“I don’t think that will be a worry,” said Gus. “This country was under attack, their homes were destroyed, family members lost, dead. After all that and then being taken prisoner, I don’t think they’ll say, ‘thank you’ and walk away. I think they’re gonna say to us, ‘what do you need us to do?’ They’ll fight,” Gus stated assuredly. “Once we get enough people that are over the shell shock and standing up for themselves, we’re gonna see a whole different war unfold.”
Dallas, Texas
It was the seventh hospital General Liu had visited in just a few days. Dragging his aide around with him. He was grateful for the aide, Sergeant Huang. While Liu was quiet around him at first, Huang had not betrayed Liu or turned him in for veering from mission.
His mission went from restructuring effort on paper, to a humanitarian one that wasn’t acknowledged or allowed.
He, in a sense, had become a rebel
It wasn’t that he didn’t love his country or didn’t want it to be victorious, he just wanted to play fair. Granted, war wasn’t fair, but part of the thrill of victory was like in the game of chess, to champion your opponent through skill and strategy. If the current war was truly likened to the game of chess, then the United States entered the game missing several pieces including their queen. They were at a severe disadvantage. One China basked in.
It wasn’t as if the general never thought of war with the United States, he had. In his ideal scenario, China had won the war over fear of might and disaster through financial ruin. Not fear of disease and disaster through stolen opportunities brought on by cowards who wished to overthrow their own government. When he thought back to that, to those men and women who planned to do their own liberation of their country, he wondered if they thought it through.
Sure, it was easy to bring a big man to his knees, but what if he did not stay down.
Liu believed the United States would not stay down, until he saw the sickness. It had spread faster than he imagined and it wasn’t only Americans affected. He had received reports that Chinese soldiers and health care workers were lying in cots next to Americans.
And Fen Shu… she had avoided him. She had not taken his calls nor was she ever at the meeting place. But he lucked out. While visiting Dallas, he had heard she was at a detention camp, and without announcing his arrival, General Liu sought out Fen.
“We are sure she is here?” Liu asked Huang.
“Yes, sir. My contact with her camp has said as much,” Huang replied.
“You’re a good man.”
Liu meant those words. It was obvious to him that Huang was a seasoned veteran who had as much love for China as Liu did. Huang refrained from saying anything that could be considered treason, such as negative statements about the war. But Liu gauged how he felt. Huang was an ally and fast becoming the only friend he had in the foreign land.
“There,” Huang said with appoint.
Liu rode front seat passenger in the jeep and Huang pointed to her just inside the fenced area speaking to soldiers. She wore a uniform and a gasmask over her face. He could still see her eyes and when he pulled up, they widened.
“Stay here. I wish you not to be part of this confrontation. For your own good.”
Once the jeep had stopped, Liu stepped out and walked straight to Fen.
There was no avoiding him.
“Agent Shu, may I have a word?”
She nodded and followed him away from the earshot of others.
“I would request you remove that mask,” he said.
“I prefer for my safety, that I leave it on.”
“Then you know about the illness.”
“I do.”
“Remove the mask. You are at a detainment camp.”
“There is illness here. Our experts say it is airborne, highly contagious, remains alive for thirty-six hours in the air and on surfaces, and its current fatality rate without treatment is ninety-percent.”
“What experts give you this information?” he asked. “I have been searching for it. I need to know what it is.”
“It is a variation of EV-71. A manmade synthetic form of it.”
“A biological weapon?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Would this be the same one tested in 1994 that killed over three hundred children in less than ten days?”
“It would be, yes,” she said.
“Then this is ours. We did this.”
Smug, she replied, “We did. I told you that we needed them helpless. This is the way to do so.”
“Our own men and woman are infected.”
“They are casualties of war,” she said.
“Where?” he asked. “Where was it released?”
“We took a page from American history and tainted blankets. Those blankets were passed out at relief stations and camps close to every area hit by the bombs.”
General Liu closed his eyes and lowered his head. “It was not needed.”
“More than you realize, it was.”
“Then for my sake and information, I want everything you have on it. It is now an enemy and one cannot defeat an enemy without knowing it.” He turned to walk away.
“It is not an enemy that needs defeated. We can defeat it,” she said.
General Liu stopped walking and turned back around to face her. “There is a cure.”
“A treatment but it must be given within a few days.”
“Why have we not given it out?”
“In time. It’s our price. They want to save lives, they must pay the price. That price tag is surrender.”
He felt as if he wanted to scold her like a child. It took everything he had to hold back his hand from waving a finger at her.