Bug Out! Part 9: RV Ambush (12 page)

“Hmmm, how did hubby die?”

“Accident,” Howard said. “Wait, you don’t think…”

“She didn’t want to stop the game, remember? That guy knocked her up.”

“Oh, yeah, the kid,” Howard said. “She doesn’t have a kid with her anymore.”

“Well,
that is interesting
,” Scotty said. “Maybe we can rekindle.”

“Don’t you think she’d be back at it if she wanted to? Now that her mom’s gone, she has no supervision. She could have at it. That old house has a huge basement, remember?”

“She got friends?”

“Not that I’ve heard,” Howard said. “I ran into her at the grocery store a while back. She looks good for her age.”

“You didn’t try to move in?”

“C’mon, Scotty, I’m a lot older than her, you know. She’s closer to your age.”

“Didn’t seem to matter before.”

“That was about twelve years ago, in the heat of the game. We didn’t have a thing, anyway. She was always interested in you.”

“Nah, she was always interested in herself,” Scotty said. “I’ll have to poke around about her hubby. I’ll bet she took him out.”

Something fell in the bedroom. Scotty and Howard grinned at each other.

“Our plaything is awake,” Scotty said. “Know how you’re going to do her?”

“I’ll drag her outside and strangle her,” Howard said, getting up. “I like that look they get in their eyes.”

He walked back into the bedroom.

“We get close,” Rosie said, looking out the windshield from the passenger seat.

“Yeah, the road is coming up,” Jeb said. “It’s a little hard to see, but that’s good. Kurt, probably time to call our friends and let them know.”

Kurt nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Malcolm?”

“Yeah, Kurt, we getting close?”

“Yep, just a mile or two away from the small road. We’ll be making a left turn, then we’ve got another five miles or so. The road’s thin and a little bumpy, so we’ll have to slow down a tad.”

“Roger that. Thanks, Kurt. I’ll call George.”

“Thanks, Malcolm.”

Kurt stuck his phone back in his pocket. “I’m anxious to ask Frank about that outage we had a little while ago.”

“Seriously,” Earl said. “That was scary.”

“Remember what he said,” Jeb said. “If the enemy changed the frequency or the code, the apps will figure it out and adjust.”

“I don’t remember him saying that,” Jackson said.

“Maybe he told me about it when we were walking around back at Gabe’s place,” Jeb said.

Jeb made the turn. Malcolm and George followed.

It took another ten minutes to get to the front gate. Jeb drove in, and went directly to his space. George and Malcolm pulled up into the staging area next to the office and the clubhouse. Mary saw the coaches drive in, and hurried out to Jeb’s coach. Kurt got out and she rushed into his arms.

“Oh, honey, I’m so glad you’re back,” she said, resting her head against his chest.

“You and me both, sweetie,” He said. Jackson and Earl came out with their weapons in hand, smiling. They went to their coaches to drop them off. Then Jeb helped Rosie out the door.

“Good to be back,” she said, smiling. “Where daughter?”

“I’m here, mom,” Jasmine said, running out to meet her. Jerry came out of his coach and trotted over. Charlie, Hilda, and the Sheriff walked over too, beaming.

“Hell of a nice job, guys,” Charlie said.

“Thanks,” Jeb said. “Missed you guys. No problems here, I hope.”

“Nah, it’s been quiet,” the Sheriff said. “We’d better go greet our guests.”

“Yeah,” Hilda said. “I’ll go make sure we’ve got plenty of coffee. Will you guys round up the others?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. He started off towards the trailers to round up Gabe, Dobie, Jake, Trish, and Terry. The Sheriff joined him.

Jake saw them walking up. “Time to meet our guests?” he asked.

“Yep,” Charlie said. The others heard and came out of their trailers.

“Nobody got hurt?” Trish asked.

“Not a scratch,” Charlie said, smiling.

“Great,” Terry said.

“Let’s go,” the Sheriff said. They walked towards the clubhouse.

It only took a few minutes for everybody to gather in the clubhouse. Hilda had the big coffee pot brewing a fresh batch. Malcolm, George, and Heidi walked in together, chatting with Jeb and Rosie. They got up to the front of the room, and the group gave them a round of applause. Then Charlie stood up and addressed the group.

“Thanks for coming,” he said. “As you see, we’ve got some guests.”

“Hi folks,” Malcolm said. “Thanks. I hope we can turn out to be good friends and allies.”

George and Heidi nodded in approval.

“Okay, let’s do introductions, for those that you haven’t met yet,” Charlie said. “Frank is over there at the PC. He’s responsible for those apps you guys have been using.”

“Kudos on that,” George said. “I think it’s going to turn the tide of the war.”

Frank nodded, smiling, looking a little embarrassed.

“Next to him is his wife Jane.”

“Oh,
we know who she is
,” Malcolm said. “And Jasmine too. You two were our eyes and ears on these operations. Nicely done.”

“Thanks,” said Jane, smiling. Jasmine looked over, grinning.

“They’re good in a fight, too,” Jeb said.

“Yes, they are,” Charlie said. “This is my wife Hilda next to me.”

“Glad to meet you,” Malcolm said. “That coffee smells good. Thanks.”

“It’ll be ready in a few minutes,” she said, smiling.

“Over there is the Sheriff,” Charlie continued. “Excellent tracker and marksman.”

“Sheriff?” Malcolm asked. “Active?”

“Afraid not,” the Sheriff said. “Got my town shot out from under me.”

“That was a town back in Utah, near Hilda’s RV Park,” Charlie said. “It got overrun by the enemy, same attack that killed General Walker.”

“I’d love to see any info you have on that,” George said. “General Walker was one of my best friends, back when I was in Special Forces.”

“We have a bunch of video you can review,” Jerry said, “from the security camera system we set up at Hilda’s park. It shows the leadership. Some of it’s hard to watch, though.”

George nodded.

“Oh, that’s Jerry, by the way. Jasmine’s husband,” Charlie said.

“Good to meet you,” George said.

“Over there we have Jake, Gabe, Dobie, Terry, and Trish,” Charlie said.

“We’ll need to get you introduced to the guard dogs,” Dobie said. “After this, perhaps.”

“Sure,” Malcolm said. “Thanks.”

“The lovely lady next to Kurt over there is his wife Mary,” Charlie said.

“Ah, the doctor,” Malcolm said. “I was impressed with your husband.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I’m proud of him, but I’m glad he’s back.”

“I think that’s everybody,” Charlie said.

“Good, because the coffee’s ready,” Hilda said.

People started to get up and head for the kitchen. George made a beeline for Jerry and Frank.

“Tell me about this video,” George said.

“It’s grizzly stuff,” Frank said. “The end of the video shows General Walker, Major Hobbs, and the doc with their heads on spikes.”

“Animals,” George said. “Any idea who the leadership is?”

“There’s a guy named Philip who’s the militia leader, a tech guy named Daan Mertens, and the Islamist leader who goes by the nickname Saladin.”

“Wonder if it’s the same Saladin I know,” George said. “I’ll probably be able to tell from the video.”

“You knew him?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, he was my opponent in the last engagement I participated in,” George said. “He’s the only one that got away. General Walker went up against him a couple of times, too.”

“We know where he is,” Jerry said.

“Well, we’re pretty sure anyway,” Frank said. “We know where the number one ranking Islamist is.”

“How can you tell, when you don’t have names?” George asked.

“The chips have a couple of codes that are useful,” Frank said. “Rank, from one to about sixteen, and country. USA is number one. We know what the Islamist country codes are, but we can’t tell exactly which country.”

“So I take it you see a number one from an Islamic country somewhere?”

“Yeah, Capitol Reef National Park,” Jerry said.

“How did you figure out these codes?” George asked.

“We captured a bunch of chips and kept track of who they came out of,” Frank said. “We had a rank 3 militia guy’s chip, for example. A man named Simon Orr. We also captured a medium rank Islamist, and a bunch of grunts, both Militia and Islamist. We have a pretty good idea what we’re looking at.”

“How many number 1 ranked folks can you see?” George asked.

“Two – the one in Capitol Reef, and one at the base that we think General Hogan is being held at,” Jerry said.

“You’re ex-military, aren’t you, Jerry?” George asked.

“Yep,” he said. “It’s come in handy.”

“I’ll bet,” George said. “I’d say General Hogan is our highest priority.”

“Agreed,” Jerry said. “I hope he’s still alive. We don’t think that whole base is under enemy control, just a building. That PC app that Frank developed is telling us that.”

“Which base?” George asked.

“Schiever,” Jerry said. “Colorado.”

“Shit, that’s Satellite Ops,” George said. “Bad place to have enemy operatives.”

“Yeah, we were thinking the same thing,” Jerry said.

“That’s going to be a hard place to assault,” Frank said. “We need to figure out who we can trust at that base.”

“I still have some connections,” George said. “I’m going to go get a cup of coffee, if you don’t mind. Be back in a few minutes.”

Jerry and Frank watched him walk off.

“Well?” Jerry asked.

“I’m glad they’re here,” Frank said. “It’ll be interesting to see if they change their focus after they see that dungeon.”

“Wonder if anybody spilled the beans yet?”

“Maybe,” Frank said. “We didn’t talk about it beforehand.”

“I’m actually kind of anxious to see what they think about it,” Jerry said. “I’ve been researching the killings for the last day or so. I don’t think the guy stopped after he left here. I’m not so sure he got blown up in Jersey, either.”

“It would be good if they kept focus on the enemy for a brief period,” Frank said.

“There’s a ‘but’ in there,” Jerry said. “Out with it.”

“The person who broke into the PC,” Frank said. “It had to be the former owner. It’s the only theory that makes sense. He knows we’re here. We might get a visit.”

“If the killer shows up here, he’ll get a nasty surprise.”

“Hopefully,” Frank said. “Things don’t always work out as you’d expect, though.”

“Here they come,” Jerry said. “You know how you want to handle it?”

“Yeah,” Frank said.

Dobie caught them as they were on the way, and escorted them outside.

“Introduction time,” Jerry said.

“Just as well,” Frank said. “I’m about ready to run a test. Want to watch?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Keep the security bots busy with a low level attack, and see if I can download a file.”

“The names file?”

“No, not yet,” Frank said. “I want to make sure this works before I tip our hand.”

“Makes sense, although they do know we can see them now,” Jerry said. “Hope they aren’t smart enough to delete the files we need.”

“You and me both,” Frank said. “Here goes.” He typed some commands and waited.

“Wow, they attack fast,” Jerry said.

“Yep,” Frank said. “Let’s grab that file.”

“What’s in it?”

“Who cares?” Frank said. He clicked on it, and the download started. He watched as the progress bar moved along.

“Got it!” Jerry said.

Frank shut off his attack right away.

“How’d you solve it?”

“I programmed a bot just like theirs to do the download. It got ignored by the security bots.”

“Oh,” Jerry said. “So you get a conventional attack going to keep the bots busy, and then you launch the phony bot?”

“Exactly,” Frank said. “Let’s see what this file has in it.”

Frank opened it as Jerry watched.

“It’s encrypted,” Jerry said.

“Of course. It’s okay, I know their algorithm now.” He brought up another program and typed in some commands. A new file appeared and opened up, with the un-encrypted contents.

“Holy crap,” Jerry said. “That’s the contacts and routes for the enemy fighters coming down from Canada.”

“Yep,” Frank said, chuckling. “This might be as important as the names file. Wonder if George has a good contact for this info.”

“Well, here he comes,” Jerry said, nodding over to the door. George saw them looking, and walked over with Heidi, as Malcolm walked over to the kitchen to get more coffee.

“You guys need me?” George asked.

“I just figured out how to download files from the enemy system,” Frank said.

“You get the names file?” Heidi asked.

“Ah, you know about that?” Frank asked, smiling.

“Jane, Jasmine, and I had some conversation,” he said.

“Good,” Frank said. “Yes, I’m working on getting the names file, and I’ve got a method to do that now, but I wanted to try it out on another file first, so the enemy wouldn’t figure out what we were after. You won’t believe what we’ve got here.” He turned the screen towards George and Heidi. George’s mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit,” George said.

“Yeah,” Jerry said, chuckling.

“You have a trustworthy contact who could use this info?” Frank asked.

“Yeah,” George said. He pulled out his phone and hit a contact.

“Sam?”

“George? How the hell are you?”

“Good, Sam. How are you?”

“Been better. We’ve got real problems. I don’t suppose you’d like to come back?”

“Nah, but I think I have some info that you might be able to use.”

“What kind of info?”

“My drop box is still active. I’ll send it to you through there.”

“Okay, George. You don’t want to tell me what it is?”

“Not over this line. How much of your team do you trust?”

“My immediate team? All of them. A few layers down? It gets spotty.”

“Keep this one close to the vest.”

“Okay George. I’ll look for the file.”

“Good. Talk to you soon.”