“Sir, I sincerely hope you’re not that naive. I’m confident that all will be forgiven if you can deliver the artificial intelligence. Our employer is having difficulty breaching the PSA.”
“You’re serious? That crazy old retard is giving them problems? I had no difficulty throwing his ass out of his own house, and the mighty Chinese army can’t match wits with him?”
“Sir, I’m afraid you exaggerate. He put up a formidable fight for his home, and he’s far from retarded. Many call him our generation’s Einstein.”
“Whatever. Let’s get on with it. How long till they get here?”
“Any minute.”
“Well, I better get in place.”
“Sir, I look forward to our next meeting.”
Jackson hurried from the vehicle and stood in the middle of the road. Right on schedule, the security escort rounded the corner. The four SUVs stopped a hundred yards from Jackson. After what seemed like an eternity, the passenger-side door of the lead vehicle opened and a sharp looking agent stepped out.
“State your business! Keep your hands up where I can see them!”
“Sir, I am Regional Governor Jackson Butler. The president’s life is in danger. The people in this compound are holding him hostage. Do you recognize me? Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, I do, Governor Butler. We need to wait for reinforcements; I hear this place is heavily armed. I can radio back. I have a secure phone.”
“No! Stop! We need to act now. I have a platoon-sized force with me. I didn’t want them visible to you for fear you might jump to the wrong conclusion and start a fight. My men will join you. We have to act now before they try to move him!”
Charles watched the charade continue as he picked up his phone. “Ready?”
“Yes. When do you want us to move in?”
“The governor is going to stay behind with me. During the battle, your team will swoop in and stop the security escort. Jackson will arrive pretending to be the hero who saved the day.”
“Wait. We’re doing this so he can get caught?”
“You need not concern yourselves with the details.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
General Richard Dupree was aboard his stealth jet with fifteen uninjured soldiers. The craft was designed to carry twelve, but they managed to squeeze in an extra four. Nine other jets were in formation behind him. As soon as they landed and unloaded the passengers, the jets would take off to repeat the process. It would take eight round-trips to collect what was left of the bulk of the California invasion force.
Once inside the Castle, Richard high-tailed it to the command center to find Howard.
“What the hell happened? The Chinese, Howard? What the hell are they doing?”
Howard was fond of directness, preferring to dispense with the customary pleasantries. “It would seem that Jackson Butler tried to broker some idiotic deal with the Chinese. I’m guessing he invited them to come over and protect us from Iran as our allies.”
“Sinking three cruise ships before they hit our shores doesn’t exactly qualify them as our allies.”
“They probably mistook us for the UAE and thought Jackson double crossed them.”
“Makes sense. How bad is it?”
“Very bad. They’ve crippled every military asset this side of the Rockies. They’ve got boots on the ground in L.A., San Diego, and San Francisco, with thousands more coming in by the hour.”
“Seattle?”
“Hal gave them a bit of a surprise when they tried to cross our borders. The EMP shield went online without a hitch.”
“Didn’t even get a chance to test it, did you?”
“Nope. The sonic repulsors are swatting down anything they throw at us, but we can’t stop them from swimming to shore or walking across our border with California.”
“For the time being, they won’t. Without bombing runs and artillery fire, they don’t have the advantage. There’s just too much resistance.”
Clarence Whipp was raised by a man known to many as a “gun nut.” His father worshipped the second amendment as scripture and was a founding member of the Central California Patriots Militia. Clarence spent his childhood learning everything there was to know about firearms, and he quickly became a prize-winning sharpshooter. The CCPM had swelled to over five hundred members prior to the Collapse of 2027, and it continued to grow under the leadership of the senior Whipp and his son.
When the Unified American Empire came to power and pissed all over the Bill of Rights, the CCPM headed underground. Members of the militia had to bury their weapons and ammo in caches spread out across central California. Almost a third of their numbers were executed by the UAE for either protesting or carrying firearms despite the ban.
Like many Americans, Clarence had no idea that the UAE had been decapitated in Florida or that President Sterling had been taken prisoner. That fact didn’t matter when Chinese paratroopers dropped out of the sky like confetti on New Year’s Day. Clarence and his men had been preparing for the day when the UAE was vulnerable and weak enough to suffer an all-out guerrilla war. The UAE was no longer the issue at hand; a much more powerful and lethal army was spilling onto the shores of the former United States, hell-bent on conquering their homeland. Clarence and his men would fight to the death to stop them.
All across the nation, true patriots had perished under the wicked thumb of the UAE. They died for their steadfast belief in the right to bear arms in order to protect all they held most dear. Those brothers and sisters fortunate enough to outlive them would pry the rifles from their cold, dead hands and carry on the fight. The living vowed tostand up to the domination of those who tried to rob them of the very tools needed to prevent such tyranny in the first place.
The Unified American Empire was a short-lived experiment. Simon Sterling was a failure. He appointed himself ruler of a government he was certain would be both efficient and minimal. He aimed to consolidate his power by robbing the people of their basic freedoms, oblivious to the fact that an unarmed populace would be no match for a fierce invading force.
Mutee Azimi had a new mission. His old one was going to be the biggest environmental disaster in recent history. Mutee had acquired a large quantity of sodium cyanide, enough to poison the water supply of Sacramento and the surrounding cities. During his training as a Silent Warrior, Mutee was indoctrinated to do two things: destroy the American culture and prepare for the invasion of America by The Great Empire of Iran. The former was going spectacularly; the latter was being infringed upon by the opportunistic Chinese. The Chinese problem was one that would definitely have to be addressed; the real estate was far too valuable to hand over to them without a fight. Allah had expanded the Muslim world further than he had in all of history. The former United States would be used to further his glory.
Mutee decided not to waste his lethal chemical. He and his men divided up the deadly substance and headed out across California to find the Chinese encampments. Mutee was shocked at the lack of security the invading forces placed on their own water supply. Weapon and ammo depots were heavily guarded, for obvious reasons, but five- and ten-thousand-gallon tanks of water sat virtually unattended. Under the cloak of darkness and camouflaged in stolen Chinese uniforms, Mutee and his cell systematically poisoned the water supply. To guarantee their own escape, they dosed the water with small enough quantities of the chemical to ensure that it would take forty-eight to seventy-two hours for the infected to succumb. The Silent Warriors were richly rewarded for their efforts as the Chinese began to die by the thousands.