The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (33 page)

Before cutting
him loose, Rob had told him, "The people who set you up will kill you if
they discover you're still alive.  You will be much better off to maintain the
fiction of your death.  And you know that the anti-
jihad
is well
underway.  There is no future in Islam anywhere.  I don't care what you do
behind closed doors, but your life will be a lot easier if you at least look
and sound like an atheist."  The airman thanked him, and Rob hoped that
the kid would, at the very least, keep his head down.                                                                   

Rob had put
together the case against Walker as part of the conspiracy to take over the
government, and detailed how that group had used their wealth and power to
prevent the preparations that could have been made to curtail the flu they knew
was on its way.  Finally he implicated Walker in the death of the previous vice
president and in the assassination attempt on Jim.  All of this was released to
the media.

The next step
Rob made was offering a two hundred million dollar reward for Walker, dead or
alive.  He had it announced widely on television, radio, and the internet.    

Rob even offered
blanket immunity to anyone who would come forward with information about the
conspiracy, and a reward for useful information.  Within days, low level
members were coming out of the woodwork.  For military, he kept their
involvement out of their service records, though he did move some from
sensitive positions. 

The real payoff
was when Walker slipped up a couple of days after the assassination attempt and
made an encrypted call on a satellite phone.   They were able to track the call
to an area in Montana near Lewistown.  The NSA decrypted the call and the
numbers were available.

Rob was at Hill
Air Force Base that evening briefing Jim, General Whitman, and several
military, NSA, and FBI officials on the progress so far.  "The Kemp in the
phone call is Keith Kemp.  He was formerly Mossad before going to work for
Walker in the late 90's.  The guy is extremely competent and Walker was fanatic
on Israel, so it was a good match for him. 

"Kemp knew
that we would be listening and had to be furious with Walker over the call. 
I'm thinking we should give him a call and try to reel him in and find out what
he knows.  He'll understand that he's as good as dead now that we know about
him, so he'll be more likely to cut a deal. 

"I'd like
for us to call Kemp now and talk to him.  On his end it will show the call
coming from Walker's phone.  We have units in place to pick him up if he's
willing to cooperate and we have bombers in the area to blow him to hell if he
won't play ball.

"Okay, now
let's argue about this."

It took two
hours, but Jim finally signed off on it. 

Rob made the
call.  Kemp answered, "Don't use the damn cell phone, you idiot."

Rob answered. 
"You have two minutes to save your life.  Are you listening?"

Kemp said,
"I'm listening."

"Good.  I
understand you know the game.  That saves some time.  You can make a deal with
me right now and have a comfortable life, or you can die about two seconds
before your boss."

"I want
fifty million dollars, immunity, and freedom to leave the country."

"I'll
offer you one million, immunity, and your freedom for everything you know and
nothing less than everything."

"For what
I have, twenty million is a fair price."

"If it's
not, I'll shoot you myself. You have a deal.  Now you need to get out of your
current location.  Go get in a vehicle now, drive out of the facility, and we
will pick you up once you are clear of the area.  Bring all the data you can. 
Is there anything I need to know right now?"

Kemp said,
"I'll be bringing out my wife and kids."

"Then go
now.  We'll be watching."

On the large
computer screen at the front of the building was displayed a satellite map of
Kemp's location in Montana.

Rob said,
"Okay, Jim.  You want to make the call."

Jim answered,
"I'd be delighted to."

Walker answered
the phone.   "Is it done?"

Rob silently
mouthed,
Got him
, and signaled for the B2 to launch its missiles.

Jim smiled and
said, "Hello mother fucker."

"What? 
You!"

Jim smiled and
said, "Goodbye."

The phone went silent
as Walker died.

Jim said,
"Now
that
was satisfying!"

"Something's
happening, sirs" said one of the airman as he switched the main screen
over to the feed from a drone over Kemp's location.  Vehicles were fleeing the
facility as hidden doors were opening in the ground all around the facility.

Whitman said, "It's
a missile field!"

Jim yelled,
"Hit it with everything we've got!" 

The four B2
bombers that had been circling the area fired missiles at the same time.  All
of them were seconds too late.

Rob said,
"Where are those missiles headed?"

It took a few
more seconds and one of the Air Force officers said, "They're targeting
Russia, sir.  All but one that's heading toward the Southwest United
States." 

General Whitman
said, "We can't stop these new missiles sir.  Those are hyperkinetic
missiles.  They'll do the damage of a small nuke without the radiation."

Jim asked,
"Recommendations?"

"Take out
the Russian missile sites, ships, and subs before they can launch at us,
otherwise they will hit back with their nukes."

"Shit!"

"Orders,
sir?"

"DefCon
one.  Take out their subs now!  Get me the football!" 

They ran
through the procedure in less than a moment and launched enough missiles to
permanently put an end to Russia. The missiles from the US missile subs in the
arctic hit just after the hyperkinetic missiles, soon followed by those
launched from American missile bases in Alaska.

In the end,
hardened US satellites were able to destroy the five obsolete Russian missiles
that were successfully launched.  The entire process had taken less than an
hour.

Jim said,
"Now that I'm one of the biggest mass murderers in history, where did that
other missile go?"

An Air Force
officer said, "It hit Flagstaff sir."

Jim grabbed a
nearby rail to keep from collapsing. 

MONTANA

Kemp and three
former Mossad agents who were loyal to him alone were driving down the main
mine tunnel in an electric vehicle.  He had killed Larson's man, Foster, but
otherwise the break from the facility was clean. 

The main reason
he had selected this site for the facility was the large mine that led up into
the mountain.  He had crews of Brazilian workers busy digging an exit and
dumping the tailings in the side tunnels for the best part of a year until they
broke through, then he had an emergency hatch installed and sent the workers
home with a big bonus.

He also
installed blast doors at the start of the smaller new tunnel.  The men grabbed
their weapons and gear and entered the smaller tunnel.  Kemp hit the switch to
close the blast door behind him.  Above the switch was a panel that he quickly
unlocked and opened, revealing a keyboard and a screen.  He typed in his access
codes and set the timer on the charges at the main mine entrance to collapse
the entrance tunnel just after the missiles launched.

They took the
electric cart up the half mile tunnel and got out just before the next blast
door.   All four men changed into cold weather gear forest camouflage with infrared
protection and helmets, and readied their binocular night vision gear. 

Kemp said,
"They should be evacuating the building now.  Get ready now."

All of them
covered their ears and sat down on the ground.   A moment later, the explosion
was painfully loud, even through the blast door.  More explosions followed
seconds later, although these felt farther away.   

As soon as the
explosions stopped, Kemp hit the switch to open the blast door.  They moved
into the outer chamber and quickly opened the outer hatch to leave the mine.  A
quick jog took them to the electric car that was hidden below. 

Kemp took the
passenger seat and watched as his driver took the car down the road at
breakneck speed without lights.  With so many fleeing vehicles, he wasn't
worried about them being caught.  If they could keep going for ten more
minutes, they would be past the initial search area and could lay low in one of
the camps that he had prepositioned.  They could last for weeks at any of
those.  Hopefully they could make it to the river and transfer to his boat.

Those
missiles will keep them busy enough for us to get away. Time to get the hell out
of this game
.  He could already imagine the taste of a Caipirinha cocktail
on a Brazilian beach.  Life would be very good.

Kemp said to
the others, "The missiles are all aimed at Iran and will take out
whatever's left of the bastards who killed Israel."

His driver grunted
his approval and kept flying like a demon into the dark night.

ARIZONA HOUSE

SEPTEMBER 12
^th

Julie and Helen
had arrived home from their trip that afternoon and were grateful for the
chance to kick their feet up.  That night they woke just before midnight to the
ground shaking and a loud sonic boom. 

Helen asked,
"What the hell was that?!"

Julie looked at
the sky toward Flagstaff and said, "God, I hope that wasn't a nuke!"

They turned on the
small TV and satellite TV receiver in the bedroom.  The news was talking about
a missile hitting Flagstaff, but there wasn't much information yet. 

Helen's phone
rang.  "Hi, dad.  What's going on?  Oh, no!  Okay."

Helen looked at
Julie and said, "It was one of our kinetic jobs fired by the guys that tried
to hit Uncle Jim.  There won't be radiation, but there won't be much left of
Flagstaff, either."  Tears started flowing.  "It doesn't look good
for the village, but dad wants us to sit tight and wait.  He said to stay off
the satellite phone, too."

"Do we
know who was there?" 

"I just
don't know.  It's frightening."

"This is
going to be a long night."

They watched
the news in the bedroom for the rest of the night, hoping against hope that
their friends survived.  Finally, they fell asleep in the early hour of the
morning. 

Julie woke
after 10AM and went out to start the main generator.  The TV had drained much
of their battery power and it would have to be recharged. 

She started the
main generator and went down to the basement and turned on the TV there.  Helen
came down in a few moments as well.   The city of Flagstaff was wiped out
completely but the outlying areas had mostly survived. 

Helen had
opened her laptop and was searching the news on the web.  She read for a few
minutes and said, "They're spinning this as a first strike trying to take
out Uncle Jim and our response against the Russians as they tried to launch. 
Holy crap!  We set off and EMP over Russia and took out most of Northern
Europe's electronics.  This is bad!"

Julie asked, "Any
estimates on radiation?"

"Nothing
yet.  Hopefully most of ours were kinetic and not nuclear."

"I want to
go look."

"Me, too,
but Dad was pretty serious about us staying put and not using the phone.  I'm
thinking that there may be hit teams out there looking for us."

"This is
going to get old."

In the end,
they stayed down in the basement TV room watching the news for most of the
day. 

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, IDAHO

"Look,
Kemp had an escape plan and he is somewhere in the vicinity still," Rob
said.  "We may have captured or killed everyone we saw leaving.  I'm
saying that he planned far ahead in order not to be seen."

General Whitman
thought for a moment and said, "Let's put the youngsters on it going over
the footage from last night.  If there's one thing the video game generation is
good at it's finding anomalies in video data.  First one to find it gets their
choice of duty stations and one hell of a bonus."

Before long,
every computer was in use with Air Force troops looking for the one that got
away.  Two hours later, an 18 year old E2, Michael Green, found it.  Rob
brought the kid in to show it to Jim. 

"I can see
how we missed it," said Jim.  "You did good, kid. You're on the team
to find this asshole." 

The airman
almost glowed.  He said, "Thank you, sir."

Jim continued,
"I'd bet my bottom teeth that's Kemp.  How far did we track him?" 

Whitman
answered, "We had Predators all over the place but only about 30 miles
out.  This one took the 91 north and we lost him on the videos after 32 miles."

Jim said,
"Find him and kill him, whatever it takes.  Let me know when you get him. 
I'm heading back to Nellis to deal with the aftermath."

After he left,
Rob said, "I want to get more heads in on this one.  I'm putting twenty
grand in to start a pool on where this guy went.  Put out the information to
all our analysts and helpers and let's see what they come up with." 

Before long,
the bets were being placed. 

Rob asked Green
where he was betting and the kid said, "Somewhere around the James Kipp
Recreational area, here," pointing to the map.  "That's where I would
go because I could then just hop on a boat and go with the current.  If the
boat has a cover, you wouldn't even have to worry about IR all that much.  Just
add a survival blanket to the top of it and drift."

"Would you
have hit the river already?"