Blue Plague: War (Blue Plague Book 6) (20 page)

Seeing everyone nodding, Bruce opened his laptop and brought up the layout of the compound. Going over the attack for an hour, Bruce told everyone to go and start the preparations. They would continue the next day after the security briefing. Wanting to be alone, Bruce walked out lost in thought, followed by Ted and Carl. Not knowing where he was going until he stopped in front of the shop, Bruce walked in and sat down at the desk. Ted and Carl walked over to a table and sat down.

A few minutes later, Angela and Stephanie came in. Bruce looked up with a smirk. “How did you know where to find me?” he asked.

“Hello, there are cameras everywhere out there, Bruce,” Stephanie said, kissing him, followed by Angela. “Granted, they are looking for attacks or infected getting through, but since they are there, we used them to find you.”

Laughing, Bruce asked, “What do I owe for the pleasure of your company?”

They sat down in his lap. “Bruce, when are you going to deal with the general and his staff?” Angela asked.

“When we get back from Maryland.”

“Can’t Angela and I just take them out and pop a cap in them?” Stephanie asked. Bruce started laughing and couldn’t stop as Stephanie’s face became angry. “What, you don’t think we can?” she demanded.

Grabbing both of them in a hug, Bruce shook his head and looked at Stephanie, smiling. “Oh, I know you could, both of you, but to hear you say it lets me know I’m kind of a bad influence on y’all,” Bruce said with Ted and Carl nodding in agreement.

Angela looked at him with a serious expression, “How do you figure that? You’ve taught us how to fight, survive, and live. Accepted us into this family and made us happy. So if we want to scalp the bitches that hurt our kids, you find it hard to believe?” she asked.

“No, but it lets me know I always have backup,” he said, pulling them close.

“I can’t believe you even doubted that,” Stephanie said.

“How are you two doing?” Bruce asked, changing the subject.

Stephanie sat up. “I felt the baby move,” she said, smiling. Bruce hugged her tighter.

Angela started to laugh and snort. “You should have seen her, Bruce. She thought something was wrong and started freaking out,” she said.

Stephanie lightly slapped Angela’s arm. “Hey, that’s weird.”

“Well, thank God you quit throwing up,” Angela said.

Pulling away from Bruce’s chest and sitting up on Bruce’s lap, Stephanie stated, “I didn’t tell you to throw up with me.”

“Stephanie, you started jumping on the bed when you felt the baby move, yelling you were fixing to die,” Angela said.

With her eyes getting really big, Stephanie said, “It freaked me out.”

“Not as much as the twins,” Angela said, snorting.

Bruce laughed and looked at Stephanie. “Didn’t you read books about pregnancy?”

“Oh, she has read like fifty of them, baby,” Angela told him.

Stephanie shook her head. “Bruce baby, those people that wrote those books are stupid. They talk about heightened ‘sense of smell’ and everything along with it. I smell shit I don’t even know what the hell it is. Yesterday, I smelt something and traced it down, and it was someone painting a plane on the runway half a mile from the house. I’m really trying to be tough, Bruce, but this is taxing,” she said, looking down.

Feeling sorry for her, Bruce lifted her face up. “Hey, if it was me pregnant I would be beyond freaking out. But to be honest, I would’ve had a hysterectomy after my first period,” Bruce admitted.

“Damn, I thought Stephanie could get wimpy,” Angela said.

“Hey, if you think I want to push—”

Angela slapped her hand over his mouth. “No, Bruce, don’t say it. We’re still working on that.” Bruce raised his eyebrows in shock.

Stephanie buried her face in his chest. “You will be there, won’t you?” she asked with her voice cracking.

He rubbed her head and pulled Angela to him. “The only way I would miss it is if you have them early. Then, you would have to wait till I fly in.”

Angela looked up at him. “You damn well better because we aren’t going through this alone.”

“I wouldn’t think of it,” Bruce said.

“We have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. You will come with us, right?” Angela asked.

“Well yeah,” Bruce said.

Clapping her hands, Angela said, “We have our first ultrasound tomorrow, and guess what? One of the doctors from Colorado is an OB/GYN.”

“Cool,” Bruce said as Stephanie looked at him.

“Bruce, there was a study put out several years ago about ultrasounds—” Stephanie started, and Bruce held up his hand.

“Stephanie, it wasn’t a real study. It was only based on lab experiments. Ultrasounds don’t cook a baby’s brains,” Bruce said.

With a look of uncertainty, she asked, “Bruce, the science is sound; how can you be so sure?”

“Little Red, there have been hundreds of millions of ultrasounds of babies, and none have been reported to have been born with a cooked brain.”

“Well, I don’t want to have the long odds one,” she said, and Angela was snorting.

Bruce smiled then asked, “Guys, what did Debbie write to Gene?”

Both looked at Bruce in disbelief. “We don’t know, Bruce. We didn’t read the other letters,” Stephanie told him.

“What do you think she told him?” Bruce asked.

“Have no idea?” Angela said then added, “Bruce, I want you to know there were letters to give to many people here, but we had one addressed to Gene. Debbie told us he would come later and you would know him. That is why when Adam told us Gene was in Colorado, we kinda freaked.”

“Kinda freaked is a little mild,” Stephanie said. “When we were alone, we screamed for an hour,” she admitted with a pale face.

“Yeah, I could see that,” Bruce admitted. “What do you guys think is going to happen?”

Angela smiled. “You are going to lead this war and win it. Then, we will live happily ever after.”

Stephanie and Bruce just stared at her. “What did you do to her?” Stephanie asked Bruce.

“Ah nothing,” Bruce replied. Angela laughed as Bruce hugged them. “Go get the kids, and let’s ride around the base,” Bruce said, kissing them. They jumped off his lap, running for the door. Bruce looked at Ted and Carl, who were grinning. “One word, and you eat your testicles,” Bruce warned, and shock hit their faces.

“Dude, that was private talk. We would never talk about that,” Ted snapped. Then he smiled. “But I have to say I’m using some of that with my woman tonight,” he informed Bruce.

Carl grinned. “Bruce, I used to think you were lucky to have two women, but now, I think you’re cursed. You never win an argument, they have you outnumbered, you can’t argue with just one of them, their hormones are always insane, and they have you in the palm of their hands.”

Grunting in agreement, Bruce said, “It took you that long to figure it out? I thought you were the smart one.”

Carl shrugged his shoulders, “I would’ve ran away,” he said.

Bruce smiled. “I made a promise; then, I realized I loved them, and for some reason, they love me. Now, I’m fixing to be a dad—again—times two,” Bruce said, dropping the smile.

Ted jumped up. “Come on, boss; let’s gather your crew,” he said, walking to the door.

“What do you want to take, boss?” Carl asked.

“I’ll take the family in Debbie’s SUV, and y’all follow in a Hummer,” Bruce said, heading to the garage.

“Hey, boss, just wait here; it will be brought here,” Ted said.

Getting ready to explode, Bruce turned around to see Carl talking into the radio. “There is no way you two could’ve put together your team. You’ve been stuck up my ass all day!” Bruce shouted.

“Well, we put together a fifty-man team yesterday, we were going to ask you if we could expand it,” Ted told him as Carl looked up smiling.

“I don’t need fifty men guarding me here at the base,” Bruce snapped.

“Boss, please just let us do this. We have too many people here now,” Ted said.

“Exactly. I don’t want others getting hurt protecting me,” Bruce snapped.

“Well, boss, sorry, but we are going to follow you, so just let us, okay,” Carl more stated than asked as a Hummer and Debbie’s SUV pulled up.

Watching the vehicles stop, Bruce asked, “What about the rest of the command group? They are just as important.”

“Oh, they all have bodyguards, just not as many. They agreed you were the most important, and we volunteered,” Carl told him.

Turning to look at them, Bruce shouted, “But you two are on the command group!”

Ted grinned. “Yeah, that’s why you and your family have so many,” he said.

“My family!” Bruce shouted, and Carl hit Ted on the arm and turned to Bruce.

“Yeah, they each have at least two on them at all times,” Carl said.

“So everyone on the command group has bodyguards?” Bruce asked.

Visibly scared, Carl looked down. “Ah no, Marcus and Carroll don’t,” he said and looked up. “I don’t know what ‘rend my fat to lye soap is,’ but I’ll be damned if I want to find out.”

Nodding that he had to agree with that, “What about Gene?”

“Yeah, Martin has a four-man team with him at all times,” Ted said.

Making a few quick calculations, Bruce shook his head. “With what you have told me, we have over a hundred people assigned to bodyguards,” he said.

“One hundred and twenty plus our fifty-man platoon,” Ted corrected.

Stepping back, Bruce shook his head, looked around, and for the first time noticed men and women spread around the area holding weapons, looking around. Angela and Stephanie were leading the twins, PJ, and Cade over as he turned back to Ted and Carl. “Know this, men; without my family, I’m nothing.”

“We know, Bruce. That’s why they are being guarded,” Ted said as the group walked up, and Angela and Stephanie were talking on the phone.

“If you two are talking to each other, I’m going to bed,” Bruce said as they walked up.

Pulling her phone away from her ear, Stephanie looked at him with hard eyes. “Of course not. We were calling the other kids, asking them if they wanted to join us.”

“Well, are they coming?” Bruce asked.

“Yep, they will be here in a minute,” Angela said, hanging up her cellphone.

Carl whispered in his radio, and another SUV pulled up behind Debbie’s. Then, Bruce noticed several Hummers and a Stryker sitting off to the side. “Please tell me they’re not all following us,” Bruce said, pointing at the vehicles.

“Yep, and we have another three out on the road,” Ted told him. Bruce started mumbling, going over to the kids, and Ted decided not to tell him about the micro UAV overhead.

The kids came out and piled in vehicles. They went to the dam to look at the spillway then drove around the pe
rimeter, stopping at the towers. Bruce carried Buffy up the flights of stairs to the top. Then, they drove to Hope and ate in one of the mess halls then headed to the airport. Bruce just wanted to see the base and the new people but enjoyed the time out with the family.

That evening, Bruce was sitting in the main Center at the farm, waiting on supper, and looked around. It was packed to capacity as was Hope now. Every barrack was full, and they still had two thousand troops sleeping in tents. The base’s population was now over seventy thousand, and the supply of clothes and toiletries had taken a huge hit.

Everywhere Bruce went, the new refugees ran over to thank him. Bruce could see many had hope again. He was very pleased and knew in his heart that Debbie was too.

Chapter 16

The next morning, Bruce woke early and snuck out of the room at five. Walking downstairs, he was startled to see a guard at the foot of the stairs. The guard smiled as Bruce walked by and talked into a radio as he reached the back door. Behind him, he heard movement and turned around to see five armed people following him.

“Can I help you?” he asked, opening the door.

They all came to a stop. “Just following, sir,” one of them replied. Bruce grumbled and headed to the gym with the five guards following.

As Bruce started his workout, Ted and Carl came in, motioning the five guards outside. They joined Bruce in his workout, and halfway through, Bruce stopped, wiping sweat off his face. “Guys, the guards are starting to get old,” he said.

Ted racked the dumbbells they were using and turned to Bruce, smiling. “They have only been following you for a day.”

“Yeah, and it’s getting old already,” Bruce said, continuing his workout.

When Bruce was finished with his set, Carl climbed onto the bench. “Well, boss, sorry you’re so popular and important. Surely, you understand why everyone wants you protected,” he said, lifting the bar off the rack.

Draining his water bottle, Bruce watched Carl slowly lower the bar to his chest and push it up in a slow, controlled movement. “We’ve been running for over a year, guys, and I’ve been fine. I do appreciate guarding the family, but I can handle myself,” he said as Carl racked the bar.

Sitting up, Carl looked at him with a grave face. “Bruce, we know you like your space, but we have added too many people for us to know them all. It would be too easy for a gang to get someone inside. Not to mention what’s left of the government; you did just wipe out the ruling class and take their military,” he reminded Bruce.

Not responding, Bruce studied Carl’s face as Ted spoke up. “Bruce, we still have more government out there, and I’m sure they don’t like you or us. Since you’re in charge, you are the target, not us.”

Not able to argue his way out of it, Bruce threw down his empty bottle. “Fine, but when I say leave me alone for a small amount of time, I mean it.”

Relieved, Carl walked over, slapping Bruce’s back. “Hey, no problem, but we will stay close.” The door to the gym opened up as Bruce was thinking about his reply. Carl noticed the look on Bruce’s face and knew he was fixing to unload. Turning away, Carl looked to the front of the gym and saw Gene walking over. Thankful for the distraction, Carl nodded at him. “How you doin’, Gene?”

Walking over with a scowl, he replied, “Pretty good, but can I ask why Millie won’t let me get my own food?” He noticed the look on Bruce’s face.

Ted chuckled. “Dude, don’t even go there. You’re on the command group, and she wants to serve us. I trust you found out about the spoon?” he asked.

Never taking his eyes off of Bruce, who was staring a hole through Carl, he said, “She popped the shit out of me till I got out of line. She left bruises.”

“Chalk it up to lesson learned,” Carl said, ignoring Bruce’s stare.

Not able to take it anymore, Gene stepped in front of Bruce, breaking the glare at Carl. “Bruce, what’s your problem?”

Slowly turning away from Carl, Bruce locked eyes with Gene. “I don’t need babysitters,” Bruce growled.

Relieved, Gene laughed and slapped his leg, “I beg to differ, sir,” he chuckled. “You forget; I’ve fought with you before. You can piss off a saint.”

Glad he had someone to argue with, he replied, “Gene, we could use these troops on the line going down range, not guarding me.”

The laughter left Gene’s face as he became serious. “Bruce, their job is just as important. You are a symbol now. If something happens to you, people will lose focus and hope. Everything you and this clan have fought and died for will be for nothing.”

Letting out a snort, Bruce took a step back, smiling. “Yeah right,” he snickered.

“Bruce, what your people are not telling you is you’re just as important as this war we are fighting. I knew in our first firefight you had the knack. When you slipped away, sneaking up behind those skinny’s, taking out their entire left flank like you were out for a Sunday stroll, I knew you were a born warrior. Your only problem is you get sidetracked, losing the big picture. I’ve watched you the last few months, and you are much better, but you still take a battle to personal, getting sidetracked,” Gene told him as he sat down on the bench.

Letting out a long sigh and sitting down across from Gene, “So even you think this is necessary?”

Nodding as he spoke, Gene answered, “Yes Bruce; everyone on the command group needs protection but you most of all.”

“Gene, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t want all this. I just want to get this war over with before I’m driven insane. I don’t like putting others in harm’s way while I’m stuck back in the rear.”

“That is the job of the commander.”

As the wheels in his head turned, Bruce just looked at Gene for a few minutes then smiled. “Well, if I’m the commander, I can do what I want,” Bruce declared.

Knowing that was coming, Gene closed his eyes. “I have never known you
not
to do what you wanted even when ordered not to,” Gene said, shaking his head.

Laughing, Bruce reached over and patted Gene’s leg. “I take it you didn’t come over here for this talk, so what’s on your mind?”

“Well, you’re right on that,” Gene said. “I want to talk to you about this assault in Maryland.”

Bruce got up. “What about it?”

“You really want to launch a ground offensive, punching a hole through enemy territory, advancing over a thousand miles, then turn back around and come home?” Gene asked.

Not liking his plan so much but unable to come up with alternatives, he said, “It’s the most viable option to rescue those there.”

“Bruce, I don’t doubt you, but that is a long way to go, and we will be fighting battles to get there. Then fight an assault on a closed complex and turn back around, fighting our way out. Omega has never been that far away from resupply. I think this can go bad in a hurry.”

“Hey, this is my best option; otherwise, I just plant a mushroom,” Bruce said and started pacing.

“How about going in by air?” Gene asked.

Stopping his pacing, Bruce shook his head. “No, those choppers will ring the dinner bell for miles, letting everything know we are there.”

Pointing at the ceiling, Gene said, “I’m talking about parachuting in.”

“Gene, besides my kids, who are out of action for a while, Omega only has four with jump time,” Bruce said as he started pacing again.

Laughing, Gene stood. “Well, you haven’t looked at Omega recently then. I have forty-six HALO Rangers in Omega now.”

Startled, Bruce stopped pacing again. “Hell, I don’t even have HALO training,” he replied.

“Bruce, we don’t need to drop from thirty thousand feet. We only need to drop at fifteen thousand. You skydived, so you can use a ram-foil chute,” Gene said.

Ted coughed, “Why would he have to go?” he inquired.

Gene looked over at Ted. “I guess you didn’t listen closely at yesterday’s briefing. Over half a dozen times, Bruce said he was leading this charge into Maryland.”

“He never said that,” Ted replied.

“Oh, yes he did. It was very subtle and elusive, but he informed everyone he was leading it,” Gene said.

Ted looked at Bruce, “Did you?” he asked.

“Hell yes!” Bruce barked. “My troops will not be in the field without me!”

Ted looked at Carl, and Carl held up his hands. “Hey, I never caught it either,” Carl admitted.

Gene laughed at the two and looked at Bruce. “Well, what do you think about that?” Gene asked.

Bruce thought about it. “We could do it. We would need a sixty-man team, so we would have to train a few more really fast. After the assault, we could have the Chinooks come and pull us out. I just don’t like being that far away without some form of support.”

“We can have the A-10s on standby, but this will be a lighting strike. If we are not in control of the complex in an hour and not out of it in three hours, we are screwed. The blues would swarm us by then no matter how cold it is,” Gene said.

Bruce looked at Ted and Carl. “It’s got possibilities. What do you two think?” he asked.

“You were going to lead the battle?” Ted asked, still replaying the briefing yesterday in his head.

Bruce narrowed his eyes. “Ted, if you don’t pull your head out of your third point of contact, I’m going to take it off your shoulders. I said ‘we’ yesterday, and that means me.”

Carl slapped Ted to make him shut up. “Bruce, it’s got a lot of pluses, that’s for sure, but it’s very risky leaving a lot of our best with their dicks hanging out in the wind,” Carl said.

“Let’s head to the shop,” Bruce said, gathering his stuff. “Call Willie to join us.”

At 1000 hours, the command group was gathering as Bruce walked with them into the Command Center. “Change of plans on the attack,” Bruce said, walking to the head of the table.

Dropping his head to the table, Paul mumbled, “Oh shit.”

“We’re going to do an airborne assault on the complex,” Bruce said, sitting down.

Marcus started chuckling. “Damn, didn’t see that one coming,” he said.

Mike leaned over. “When did you train Omega to jump?” he asked.

“I didn’t. Gene has a platoon of Rangers that are HALO trained,” Bruce said.

“HALO?” Paul asked.

Stephanie leaned over the table. “High Altitude Low Opening,” she told Paul then turned to Bruce. “They might be, but you aren’t,” she reminded Bruce with a frown.

“Don’t need to be; we are jumping at fifteen thousand feet. We just need people that can jump with a ram chute,” Bruce explained.

Standing up and putting her hands on her hips, Angela glared at Bruce. “You better explain in great detail how you are going to do this, or I’ll go out to the runway and break every damn plane there,” she warned him.

Leaning over the table toward her, Ted asked, “How did you know he was going?”

Whipping her head around, Angela looked at Ted like he was a special needs child. “He said ‘we,’ not ‘the team.’ I think if Bruce were forced to stay behind, he would whine like a bitch and have a nervous breakdown.”

Smiling at Angela, Gene said to Ted, “You need to pay better attention, troop.”

Tapping her foot, Angela said, “Well, I’m waiting.”

Taking a deep breath, Bruce started laying out his notes, going over the plan. When he finished, he looked up at Angela. “Any questions?” he asked.

Angela looked at Stephanie, who shrugged her shoulders, “Not right now,” Angela finally said.

As Angela sat down, Danny slapped the table. “This sucks; I can’t go!” she yelled.

Knowing this was coming, Bruce closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Danny, even if you weren’t injured, you wouldn’t be going. You haven’t trained to jump with equipment into combat.”

“You just said you were going to train more people!” She slapped the table again then grabbed her hurt arm.

Letting out a long breath, he explained, “Danny, we are going to train some that are airborne to jump with a ram chute.”

Thinking it over, Stephanie leaned over to Angela. “I want Bruce to have my baby; he’s already had Danny, so he should be used to it,” she whispered.

Patting Stephanie’s leg, Angela whispered back, “It’s already in you.”

As Stephanie let out a groan, Bruce looked at them out of the corner of his eye. “Danny, I know you want to go but not this time. Everyone in Omega is going to be trained to jump this year; we need this capability,” Brue tried to reason with her.

Willie reached over the table and held out his hand to Gene. “Pay up, sucker,” he said, grinning. Gene reached in his pocket and pulled out his Swiss Army knife, handing it over to Willie. Taking the knife, Willie sat back and noticed everyone was looking at him. “What? He didn’t believe Danny would be pissed and Bruce wouldn’t promise her she could train to jump,” he said, sitting back.

Really pissed, Gene shook his head, looking at Bruce with a scowl on his face. “Don’t look at me in that tone of voice, Gene,” Bruce warned.

“What about me, damnit!” Buffy snapped. “I’ve busted my butt learning how to fight, and Mama Stephanie has made me do like a thousand push-ups just learning! Now, you are going to be doing cool shit!”

Willie leaned back across the table. “Hand it over,” he said, holding out his hand. Grumbling, Gene reached to his belt and handed over his Leatherman.

“I hope that is all you bet, Gene,” Bruce said, watching the exchange.

Shaking his head, mumbling, Gene didn’t respond. Willie didn’t hesitate. “No, we have several others.”

“Buffy, you will train as well but only after the doctor clears you, and that goes for all of you,” Bruce said, looking at his kids.

Clearing his throat, Jake smiled and said, “I only have stiches, Dad; I can go.”

Wanting to resign his position, Bruce shook his head. “No, son, you have sixty-two stitches and had a dislocated elbow. You’re on light duty until cleared, so don’t even start,” Bruce replied.

“Fuck!” Gene shouted as he jumped up and threw a pocket pistol, sheath knife, and a compass on the table and pushed them over to Willie. “You can come and get the rest of the shit tonight. I believe you,” he popped off.

“Hey, I told you, but oh no, you just didn’t believe me. Now you see what we have had fighting beside us. The kids are almost as bad as he is,” Willie said, grabbing the stuff.

Wanting to yell at someone, Gene looked at Mack. “Get us a pilot for a C-130 today. We need him all day and all tomorrow!” Gene snapped, heading for the door. “I’ll be outside.”

Smiling, Willie sat back in his chair, looking at all the loot he won. “Touchy, isn’t he?”

“Willie, I’m not even going to start,” Bruce said, gathering up his papers.

Carl jumped up. “Bruce, I tried to tell Gene not to take the bets, but he wouldn’t listen,” he explained.

“Jake, you and Matt get with your geeks to find out the easiest breach point. Steve, you and Mack work out the air operations,” Bruce said and pushed a stack of papers to Danny. “I want that gathered and packaged to jump with us,” Bruce said.