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 most 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 hospitals 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 made,” 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.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Christina Dupree was having the time of her life. Walt Disney World was fun, but it wasn’t actually an amusement park anymore - she couldn’t enjoy the rides or have her picture taken with Mickey Mouse. Then a group of soldiers moved her from Walt Disney World to Fort Polk, Louisiana. At first the soldiers frightened her, but she soon learned they’d moved her for a good reason. Colonel Rutherford told her she had been selected by President Sterling as the spokesperson for orphans of the collapse. When she tried to explain that her mother was still alive, the president said she was probably lost somewhere and they would do everything to find her. Until then, the colonel said her story of survival was an inspiration to families across the nation. Christina was frightened by large crowds; the thought of having to speak in front of lots of people made her stomach hurt. Colonel Rutherford had told her not to worry. All she had to do was smile and wave to the crowd; someone else would do all the talking. Christina reluctantly agreed. After all, she was being treated like a celebrity and given three square meals a day and a warm bed to sleep in. Why protest?