Dominatus (30 page)

“Now, I want to get back to learning more about YOU though. I already know about your program, and I have loved listening to those over the years, but, I want to know you better.  The person, not the personality.  So getting back to my question about why you are doing this – why bother?  Besides you saying your dad started you out on it, or said you were good with words…whatever.   Tell me why you keep doing it?  Why take the risk?  Why do you keep speaking those words against this government?”

Dublin’s question was one I had asked myself often over the last five years, though despite that fact, I found myself unable to clearly communicate a response.

“I…I’m not sure I know Dublin.  It’s something that just…happens.  I observe things around me, study history, and then I sit down and communicate my opinion.  If your grandfather is right, three million people listening, I guess that opinion is something a lot of people want to consider.”

Dublin shook her head.

“Bullshit Reese…c’mon.  You’re giving me, giving me an analytical answer to a question that is about some very deep emotions, memories and experiences.  That is, what is motivating you, not just some guy observing things and sharing an opinion.  How did my grandfather just put it to you?  You’re a voice for the voiceless?  When someone like him says that to you, a man almost a hundred years old, a man who has walked among the most powerful people in the world for much of his adult life…he is looking to you for strength.  For hope.  How does that make you feel, Reese?”

This time my answer came more easily.

“It scares the hell out of me, Dublin.”

“Why?”

“Because…I don’t know if I deserve that kind of expectation.  I say things into a transmitter, that’s it.  Maybe a lot of people hear that message.  Ok, fine.  But look around.  We are sitting inside this massive cave, this structure that the Old Man, your grandfather built.  He spent, I don’t know, a hundred million on? Two hundred million?  More?  And there are these people around us…we’re sitting in here with no idea if we will ever get out.  There’s drones dropping bombs on us, and your grandfather is telling me I’m the voice of the voiceless?  It’s just…it’s surreal.  I just don’t see me living up to that kind of expectation.  His expectation, or yours, or anyone in here.   I’m just one man, Dublin.  I try to live my life right, treat others with respect, honor the memory of my family, my father, and in some small way, try to remind people that the world wasn’t always like this.  That at one time, there was a United States of America that really did exist and things like freedom and responsibility and opportunity were not the exception but the rule.  People demanded those things, fought for those things, protected those things.  And today?  So much of what used to be, it’s gone.  We let them be taken from us, little by little, bit by bit, until finally there was nothing left of what was.  And in its place, we have this New United Nations.  We have this globalist monster that tells us how we are born, how we are to live, and how we are to die, and my heart tells me, my soul tells me…that’s not how it is supposed to be.  America was a gift to the world, and we sent it back.  We refused it.  I don’t know why, but that’s what we did and it makes me sick.  Angry.  I want to scream.  Shout.  Destroy.”

Dublin leaned toward me, her smile returning to the face I had come to appreciate so much, her eyes now burning with an intensity I had not yet seen.

“Now we’re talking Reese.  Use your words to light that fire.  Be angry.  Scream. Shout. Wake those people up.  Push back – destroy.”

“I’d rather unite people together, Dublin…not destroy.”

Dublin nodded back at me.

“Right, but if you unite enough people, together we could push back against this New United Nations, we could destroy it.  Too many people have just given up, allowed themselves to become slaves to government.  Your words can help change that.”

I remained dubious of Dublin’s faith in me.

“Can they?”

“Yes, Reese – they can.  Millions of people are listening…waiting for direction.  Give it to them.”

“I don’t know, Dublin, I never considered myself---“

My words were cut off by the footsteps of someone running past the door of Mac’s room.  Dublin rose to see who it was, and as the door opened the sound of shouting from inside the cavern was heard.  I joined Dublin in the hallway.  She knew the door code allowing access to the cavern and was soon making her way inside, motioning for me to follow as she did so.

Mac was standing next to the escape route door that led to the old mine shaft.  It appeared he was checking to make certain is remained securely shut.  The defense room door then opened and Bear emerged, his large frame running across the space of the cavern with considerable speed to stand next to Mac.

Dublin closed the cavern door behind her, the sound causing both Mac and Bear to look up toward us.

“We got company – four of them making their way up the mine shaft.  Heading this way.  Motion sensors went off about a minute ago.”

“Who?”

Dublin’s question remained unanswered as Mac and Bear walked back toward the defense room.

“Mac – who is in the mine shaft?”

As Mac opened the defense room door he glanced back toward Dublin.

“Hess likely sent them in…New United Nations…Special Ops.”

We followed Mac and Bear into the defense room where Keith sat in front of the monitor looking at a dark image of the mine shaft.  The camera gave no sign of anyone inside the escape route.

Mac pointed to the screen.

“That image is about a half mile from the cavern door that opens up to the shaft…it’s a small staging area, about twice the width of the regular passage.  We had sensors set up at the opening two miles away, and more sensors just inside that opening.  The signatures indicated four people went through the opening and are now heading this way.  I would estimate they reach the staging area there in about twenty or thirty minutes.”

Dublin asked the question I was thinking.

“How did they know about the escape passage - the mine shaft?”

Mac glanced at Dublin and then me.

“Stacy – Stacy Carter.  We left her outside a bit from Freedom Tavern on our way out, per the Old Man’s instructions.  They had to have picked her up and she gave the information to them.  I didn’t think she knew about the mine shaft, but it had to have been her.  Don’t know if she gave that information up willingly or they forced it out of her.  Doesn’t really matter at this point.”

Dublin followed up with another question.

“So what do we do about it?”

Mac walked over to the right wall of the small defense room and pushed in a small panel I had not noticed before. The panel revealed a small grip which allowed a portion of the wall to be rolled back like a sliding door.  Inside was a hidden compartment where a row of weapons were hung, and below each weapon, boxes of ammunition. 

Mac grabbed one of the two Mossberg shotguns hanging on the wall as well as two small fist-sized metallic boxes, while Bear took an assault rifle.

“We go into the mine shaft and deal with those four officers.  My guess is they are equipped with explosives…they intend to blast their way in.  Sneak in through the back door.”

As Bear loaded the clip into his rife he growled his own intentions for the four special operations officers making their way up the escape route.

“We kill them, or they kill us.  Simple.”

Keith now stood next the wall panel, reaching for his own weapon.  Mac held his hand up in front of Keith’s face, shaking his head.

“No Keith, you remain here.  If we don’t stop them, it’s your job to prepare the defenses from inside.  Don’t let them get past that door.  Blow the escape route if you have to…fill it with rock.  We will contact them at the staging area – you will have a good visual of how it goes.  Hopefully we are in and out and making our way back here within the hour.”

Keith appeared ready to protest, but then nodded his head in agreement and returned to his seat in front of the monitor.  The picture of the mine shaft still showed no signs of movement from any intruders.

Mac and Bear left the defense room and headed across the cavern to the escape route entrance.  Bear grabbed the bars at the center of the hatch door and turned it counter clockwise, revealing the entrance to the mine shaft Mac had revealed to me the previous day.  Mac paused in front of Dublin.

“If I don’t get back, tell your grandfather thank you for me. And secure this door behind us.”

Dublin nodded and then closed the door as Mac and Bear disappeared into the darkness of the mine shaft.

We returned to the defense room and watched the screen…awaiting the inevitable conflict that was about to unfold.

XXII.

It was no more than fifteen minutes from Mac and Bear’s departure before the image of the mine shaft began to light up and soon after we were able to clearly see one of the four special operations officers holding a small lantern device that illuminated the mine shaft as they approached the staging area Mac had earlier pointed to on the monitor screen. The other three N.U.N. officers held their electric charge guns out in front of them.  All four wore helmets and what appeared to be some kind of protective vest – likely bullet proof.

As the three of us strained to see every detail on the screen, there was no sign of either Mac or Bear.

“Is there audio?”

Keith responded to Dublin’s question with a shake of his head.

“No – just visual.”

As Keith gave his answer a flurry of movement was seen from the four operations officers who suddenly dropped to the floor of the mine shaft.  Brief flashes of light could be seen coming from just outside the camera’s visual from the direction of where Mac and Bear would have been coming from.

Dublin inhaled sharply.

“Gunfire.”

The visual suddenly darkened again, and it was difficult to make out the movement of the N.U.N. officers.  This darkness was then replaced by an explosion of bright white light and a faint humming vibration was felt inside the walls of the defense room.

“What the fuck was that?”

Keith’s question remained unanswered as the camera’s image again faded to near darkness.

Suddenly I spotted movement coming from the right side of the screen, moving quickly toward the four special operations officers.  Bear was charging.  Only one of the officers was able to fire off an electrical charge that missed to Bear’s right before the massive figure of the former NFL defensive lineman smashed into the first two of the New United Nations officers, sending both men sprawling backward.  Bear grabbed a third officer and swung the much smaller man across the passageway and crashing against the mine shaft’s walls where he crumpled to the ground unmoving. 

The fourth operations officer kicked behind Bear’s knee, buckling his leg and nearly toppling him.  This was followed by a chop to the side of Bear’s head which did manage to put the large man onto the ground. Bear was still moving – but slowly.  One of the other officers who had recovered from Bear’s initial charge kicked the side of Bear’s stomach as Bear attempted to get back onto his feet.

Again I spotted another flash of movement just now coming into view.  Dublin saw it too, and pointed to the screen.

“Mac!”

There was a flash of metallic light held in Mac’s right hand that arced across the screen – a knife.  Mac plunged the weapon into the exposed throat of one of the two New United Nations officers that remained standing as the other officer fired his charge gun in Mac’s direction.  The weapon found its target and Mac quickly dropped to the ground, his body convulsing as the electric current ripped through him.

The special operations officer stood over Mac’s motionless body, removing his helmet from his head and then pointing his charge gun at Mac for a second shot that would surely kill him if the first had not already done so. 

The officer did not sense Bear’s approach from behind.

Bear wrapped his arms around the waist of the operations officer and swiftly lifted him upward, causing the officer’s head to smash violently into the low hanging stone ceiling of the mine shaft.  Bear repeated the move three more times before dropping the operation officer’s body onto the floor, the camera’s image revealing the top of the man’s head having been reduced to a fractured mass of disfigured mush. 

Mac was now making his way, albeit unsteadily, to his feet as Bear appeared to be inspecting the other three unmoving operations officers – likely ensuring they would not be getting back up.  A moment later and both men were making their way back toward the mine shaft entrance inside the cavern.

Twenty minutes later Mac and Bear emerged from the mine shaft door, securing it behind them.  Mac was limping slightly, while Bear, though dirty, appeared unharmed.

“I left both charges inside the shaft.  If they try to enter from that way again, we’ll collapse it on top of them.  Otherwise, I want to keep it available to us in case we need it.  Has there been any drones?  Movement from forces outside?”

Keith, who had left his post inside the defense room, shook his head.

“Nothing, Mac, besides the attempt from the mine shaft.  It’s quiet out there.”