Henry looked up at them, his shoulders drooping. “I’ve got some bad news.”
“There’s a shocker,” Moss spat.
“We’ve just got some intel that the team you sent to plant IEDs along I-40 have been killed.”
John felt the blood drain from his cheeks. “Any word how it happened?” he asked, his fingers curling into tight fists.
“We’ve only got one army translator, but from the bits of chatter we’re picking up, it sounds like they were taken out by Chinese special forces.”
John tapped an index finger on the map table. “Okay, Henry. Thank you.” His radio operator turned to leave when John called him back. “Keep this between us for now, will you? I wouldn’t want this sort of news getting out.”
A hint of reluctance showed on Henry’s face before he acknowledged the order and closed the door behind him.
“It was only a question of time,” John told his number two, “before they brought in counter-insurgency teams.”
“Those are the risks,” Moss replied. “But do you really think keeping it a secret is the best play? We’ve already got a handful of top people thinking the cavalry’s on its way from Halifax harbor to help turn things in our favor. Have we become a nation of folks who lie for the greater good? I mean, the EMP was a horrible thing to happen, but it’s given us another shot at starting over. At doing it right this time.”
“America didn’t invent state secrets, Moss. As much as the world likes to blame us for everything that goes wrong around the globe, this game’s been going on for thousands of years. Revolutions have been fought over the centuries to overthrow elements of human nature we can’t change. The Russians tried in vain to end inequality by ushering in a system that failed to take into account the realities of what makes us tick. Whether we like it or not, each of us is controlled by our emotions. Before the EMP a huge chunk of the population voted for new presidents based on how they looked and a few choice soundbites. If he’d been born decades later, a wheelchair-bound president like Franklin D. Roosevelt would have faced a resounding defeat. So you’re right. We do have a chance to change things, but we can’t change the wiring deep down. People need hope and sometimes you need to keep that flame from going out by withholding the bad news and exaggerating the good.” John grew quiet for a moment before he said, “I wish I could say more, but you’ll understand soon enough.”
Chapter 47
When Diane awoke the next morning, John had already left. Another mission and another roll of the dice, she thought philosophically. He’d come home late the night before, carrying a sleeping Gregory in his arms, as well as a look of remorse. That normally meant some bad news had arrived, something connected to an order he’d given in the past. Diane could read it in her husband’s body language, the way his spine seemed slightly bent under a tremendous weight.
After a quick breakfast with the kids, she headed to the greenhouse. If all went well, it would finally be back in operation. Already, with the recent influx of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division, the strain on their resources had grown significantly. The power from Ray Gruber’s two windmills was going to be a huge help, running the lights, power tools and the hydroponic greenhouse. And that was one of the reasons why the sight that greeted her at the greenhouse was so disturbing.
The blades on one of the windmills had stopped turning. Two men on Diane’s team were doing their best to figure out how to fix it, but she knew this was no place to be poking around. They needed Ray.
She asked around and no one had seen him yet this morning. The vice mayor wasn’t normally one to oversleep and so Diane set off to find him, doing her best to ignore the nagging concern wiggling its way through her belly.
She weaved her golf cart through Oneida’s zigzagging back streets. In several places the rubble and burned-out hulks of Chinese military vehicles had been left in place to tie up any armored assault launched by the enemy. In others, small paths had been opened about the width of a golf cart to allow thin lines of traffic to pass. But the inconvenience did more than threaten to tie up a fresh batch of Chinese invaders. The mornings and evenings saw long lines of congestion Diane had thought they’d left behind them.
Rodriguez was on his way to the radio room when she drove past him. She pulled to a stop and asked if he’d seen Ray, explaining why it was important. She didn’t go so far as to say she was worried something had happened to him. Ray’s knowledge of wind power and AC/DC power conversion made him a prime target for any Chinese agent they might have missed. Not that she needed to spell things out to someone as intelligent as Rodriguez.
With that, Rodriguez hopped on board and they sped toward the house Ray was staying in, a bungalow a short ways off Alberta Street. They arrived and knocked several times only to find the house empty.
“I’m sure he’s somewhere around town,” Rodriguez said, perhaps trying to placate Diane’s overactive imagination. “He’s probably at the mayor’s office, giving General Brooks an earful of bad jokes.”
“I came from there on my way to the greenhouses and I didn’t see him anywhere around.”
Rodriguez sighed as the two made their way around the house into the backyard. Like many of the homes in town, the grass had been left to grow to nearly two feet high. Diane went to the sliding glass door and squished her face up to the cold surface, cutting the glare with a cupped hand. She scanned around inside without finding anything out of place.
“You hear that?” Rodriguez asked.
She did and it sounded like static and mumbled voices. It took a few seconds to figure out that it was coming from the brown shed in the corner of Ray’s backyard.
They approached and slowed as they drew closer. The voices coming from inside got louder, clearer.
“Please confirm you received my last transmission, over.”
It was Ray all right and Diane couldn’t help wondering who he was talking to. Most of the communication from Oneida was being performed by Henry or Rodriguez from the radio room in the mayor’s office.
But the next thing she heard from inside the shed took Diane’s breath away.
“Red Dragon, this is Phoenix, please come in.”
Chapter 48
It was nearly 1800 hours by the time John and the five men who had joined him on this mission reached the outskirts of Lenoir City on horseback. Accompanying him were Moss, Devon, Reese, Heller and Gardner, Bravo’s squad leader. They’d been in the saddle since the early dawn hours, skirting enemy checkpoints and troops concentrations. Heller and Gardner would prep and plant the IEDs on the train tracks while John, Devon and Moss provided security. Reese was their insurance policy. A water tower on the edge of town would provide him with a clear field of fire over the entire area of operation.
After the sniper split off from them, John made one final radio check to ensure their communications were still operational.
“You’re our eyes out here, Reese. Call out any approaching threats. This may be our only shot at stopping that supply train and any others coming up behind it.”
“I’m on it, Colonel,” the sniper said, huffing as he used a Dumpster to climb onto the roof of a nearby store. The thirty-pound Barrett .50 caliber rifle he’d brought for the job could cut a man in two, although this was the kind of mission where having to use it meant you’d already failed.
Before long, John and the others came to the sharp turn in the track. He pointed to an area five meters before the curve. “This is where I want you to plant those IEDs,” he told Heller and Gardner. They led the horses into the forest nearby and tied them securely to several trees. With care, they removed the improvised explosive mortar rounds, the pressure plates, two spades and a sledgehammer. The latter was what the two men would use to pop the spikes and position the bombs; the work would be loud for a moment or two, but hopefully not enough to draw any unwanted attention.