Louise had her head propped on her hand and tilted to the side.
“I’m sorry.” He lowered his voice then grabbed for the blanket that had fallen a little from her. The moment he lifted it… he froze.
Louise wasn’t sleeping.
She had passed away some time while he was gone, in that short span of time.
Cal’s heart sank to the pit of his stomach as he dropped to his knees at her chair side. How did it happen? She had been such a big part of his life, through such a huge ordeal, yet, she slipped quietly away after her body had taken such a beating from the radiation poisoning. He felt horrible he wasn’t there. Not there to hold her, say goodbye or even his feelings. He placed his hand over her wrist, lowered his head to her arm, and stayed there. He just couldn’t move.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Holly River Base, WV
“Glad you made it back before sundown,” Gus said to Troy. He was seated on the front porch of Bear’s house, sipping a cup of coffee relaxing, when he saw Troy pull up in the pick-up truck and step up.
“I still have a few hours before dark.”
“Any trouble?” Gus asked.
“Nothing. No Procs. I took the back ways. What are you doing here?” Troy asked
“Thought I would take a long shift here to monitor the radio, and any other coded transmissions that come in. Plus, I want to double check all the Morse code that has come in so far,” Gus said. “That was kind of my specialty for a while.”
“You know we have the decoder, right?”
“Yep. But, I’m old-school. Don’t trust those things. I’d rather give it a once over myself.”
“Makes sense.”
“So, any word?” Gus asked.
“You mean about the Englishman?” Troy shook his head. “No. I got the feeling from him that it wasn’t his fight.”
“But it is his flight. Did you tell him that?”
“I did. But it is up to him. When I left them, Helen was riding him back. She was going to get him all the details. Hopefully we’ll find out soon what he does. He knows where to find the means of communication and how to locate our inside guy. That’s all we could do, the rest is up to him.”
Gus nodded. “Thank you for trying. I just know that we have to do something and we have got to get done soon. We have the diversions in place that we want to execute before we start camp liberation.”
“When will the diversion hits begin?”
“Few days. I’m worried. There’s another whole line of fleet coming over across the Pacific. It’s not gonna be long before they hit us with another invasion. If that happens, I don’t know where we will stand on this,” Gus said.
“I wonder why they haven’t hit us again yet.”
“My guess, they’re waiting for the official surrender. Since they have the president.”
“Surrender?”
“Yeah, you spent a little time with her. What do you think? Do you think she will surrender? If she does, then it’s done.”
“I don’t know.” Troy shrugged and shook his head. “She’s hard to read. She really is. She wants to do well, but she’s in over her head.”
“Hopefully, she’ll hold off enough for us to get this rolling.”
“Gus, really, I understand what we are doing. And I am a part one hundred percent. But…” Troy said. “How are we going to do this? There’s not that many of us. How are we going to pull this off when we’re on our own?”
“My friend,” Gus said, “how do you think I got the information? We are far from being on our own.”
USNORTHCOM, Colorado Springs, CO
General Welch was at the right place at the right time. He wasn’t supposed to be in Colorado, but when another member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took ill, he filled in for the war games exercise at the Cheyenne Mountain Military base. He was there when everything went down
When word arrived that there was a domestic terror attack taking place, the first thing he did was seal the base. It was NORAD and the USNORTHCOM, the end-all-be-all, top-dog military installation. Then as he dismissed it as something they could handle, things turned and he received intel that perhaps a foreign entity was also involved. When that occurred, whether it was true or not, the first order of business, after the base, was to move ships and subs. The biggest line of defense for the United States was stationed outside of Bangor, Washington, and General Welch made sure they were a position to defend their country.
He’d listened and was impressed as Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert in Alaska successfully intercepted as many incoming missiles as they could, then Welch ordered Gilbert to seal his base as well.
Typically, the base would have emptied out roughly a hundred people, but the domestic hit came just before the end of the work day and Cheyenne Mountain had over three hundred people inside.
It was command central for missile control with blast doors that were made to withstand a nuclear explosion. That never came, but the invasion did.
Outside of Cheyenne was a war zone.
Soldiers took up arms and the battle was continuous. The Chinese invaders wanted in. There was a report that as many as seven thousand Chinese soldiers were trying to break the doors. They blasted them constantly.
The mountain was the flag and Welch’s job was to protect that flag at all cost.
Ammunition was running low, and while confidence was high they couldn’t get in, Welch still worried. However, from inside he did what any good military leader would do, he prepared for the war and charted a plan. He was in constant contact with many resistance outlets.
Eventually, he believed they would flip the switch, and that wasn’t far off. A long-time soldier, Welch knew there were mistakes made by the Chinese in their quest to take over America. Mistakes he would use to his advantage.
Their invasion against America was badly planned.
Paul Regal was a journalist assigned to cover the war games military exercise. He wasn’t seasoned so when everything occurred, Paul panicked and stayed close to the general. He asked a million questions, not for a story, but to be informed.
Within days, however, he was becoming an expert.
The general kept him informed and Paul helped the general, almost as an assistant.
“Where are they now?” the general asked a specialist who manned the control panel.
“In position, sir.”
“Tell them to keep moving, we don’t need them picked up. We want them ready though.” Welch turned and faced Paul. “I got them where I want them, I can’t do anything yet. Diversion, liberation has to occur first.”
“What about what’s happening with the enemy outside?” Paul asked.
“That’s annoying. We need them out of the way to get our men and planes out there.” The general huffed. “Almost like a stand still. Wish to God, I could just utilize the nine. But all in due time.”
“The nine?” Paul asked.
“My esteem fleet. Do you know what the great thing about Ohio-class subs is?”
Instead of Paul, the specialist answered. “Anyone that read a Tom Clancy novel knows what is special about them.”
“True.” The general chuckled.
“I don’t,” Paul said. “What’s so special?”
“They are the most destructive force created by humankind. Each of those subs carries twenty-four Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles that can be fired under water and reach a target seven thousand miles away. When a missile enters the atmosphere, it’s firing in at Mach 24 and splits into eight different missiles. Son, we’re talking a hundred and ninety missiles per sub, can wipe out a couple dozen Chinese cities in an instant. We got nine of them subs out there, waiting and ready to go.”