Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2) (31 page)

Before Kaspar could
rise up to face the Agents, he could hear the sound of gunfire coming from his
left. The two rebels caught the Agents off guard. They quickly turned their
attention to the back entrance to the lab. Kaspar took this moment to move up
and take his shots at a few Agents while they were focused on the new
combatants. With the sight of his gun aimed on the center mass of an Agent, he
fired the semi-automatic four times, taking that Agent out of the fight. Agents
returned fire and he moved back down.

Harvey and his partner
took out four of the Agents with their element of surprise. They then ran in
different directions searching for cover. The five remaining Agents regrouped
and started to scatter about as well. Kaspar was able to catch one off guard
and took him out. Once again, he was forced to duck back down as the enemy
returned fire.

There was a newfound
resolve deep within Harvey. He simply wasn’t going to die after raising that
flag. With a swift motion, he moved up from cover, found an Agent who moved up
at the same time, then took him out with a quick four round burst from his
Kriss. His partner moved up and tried to find a target. He couldn’t get a shot
off, however, as a flurry of rounds were shot his way. He ducked back down and
took several, quick breaths.

“Just stay down,”
Kaspar said with a calm voice to Clarke.

“Okay,” Clarke
replied.

Kaspar stayed as low
as he could and moved left. He was out in the open for a moment as he moved
forward. Right before he reached the desk to his left, an Agent moved up and
fired at him. The rounds ate away at the tile floor underneath as he moved to
the safety of cover.

Harvey heard the shots
and moved up. He saw the Agent who was firing at Kaspar and took him out. Out
of the corner of his eye, he saw another Agent come out of his cover spot. He
took him out as well. Rapid flashes like a strobe light could be seen to his
right. Harvey tried to get down in time but a bullet grazed his cheek and ate
away at the skin. Through the torn black cloth of his Balaclava, a long, thin
streak of blood flowed down. He could hear the cries from his partner beside
him.

“NO!” the partner
cried. He moved up from his cover and saw the Agent who was taking shots at
Harvey.

Both the silent one
and Kaspar fired their guns into that Agent. After the Agent took about fifteen
rounds to the chest and a couple to the head, he dropped to the ground dead.
There were no more Agents left in the room. Kaspar felt a huge sigh of relief
hit him as his breathing started to move back to a normal rate.

The silent one dropped
his gun and ran through the smoke filled room towards Harvey. Harvey held his
hand on the wound of his cheek and was breathing quickly. At the same time,
Kaspar moved over to check on Clarke. Kaspar started to think about when his
luck would run out. There was simply no way in his mind that he could have
survived so many close calls. It looked like his two ladies would have to wait
just a little longer. He reached down to help Clarke off the ground.

“You need any more
time on the computer?” Kaspar asked.

“No,” Clarke said as
he walked towards the computers. He unhooked his hard drive from the USR’s
computer.  “What I’ve got is damning, and something needs to be done about it.
I’ll tell you all about it on the way back.”

On the other side of
the room, Harvey’s partner bent down in front of him. He tried to get a closer
look at the wound. He moved the leftover’s hand away from it.

“Looks like a graze,”
the partner said. “You’ll be fine.”

“Who are you?” Harvey
asked with pain in his voice.

The silent one took
off his Balaclava.

“We’ve got to get out
of here, Father.” Buck said.

“Buck, I thought it
was you. How did you…”

“I bribed one of your
guys to let me take his place. Six packs of smokes.”

“You don’t smoke,
son.”

Buck smirked as he
pulled his mask back on. “They were yours.”

Harvey smiled
underneath the mask. “Help your old man up, would you?”

Buck reached his hand
down and gripped his father’s. With a thrust backward, he helped Harvey to his
feet. The leftover tapped his son on the shoulder.

“You fought well,
son.” Harvey said. He still had a smile that beamed underneath the mask,
ignoring the pain that came with it.

“You, too.” Buck
replied.

“Wait a minute,”
Harvey said as they moved their way towards the stairs. “You told me ‘fuck
you’.”

“Yes, I did. Sorry
about that. Heat of the moment.”

“We’ll talk about it
later.”

***

The assault vehicle
was in sight. It would only take a few more steps and they would be there.
Bullets whizzed all around them as the USR troops tried to take out the
retreating attackers. All around the circle, the various vehicles were peeling
out. The one in front of Sullivan and his buddies had a driver who waved his
arms forward, urging for them to hurry on. Bullets bounced off of the bullet
proof glass which prompted the driver to get more animated with his pleas.

“Almost there…”
Sullivan said.

One of the rebels went
down. X couldn’t help himself but to look back when he heard the man scream at
the pain. The body was that of a tall man. X cursed aloud to the loss of
Statue, but he still pressed forward. They finally reached the vehicle.
Sullivan helped X get into the back of it when the doors opened up. He then
turned and provided cover fire for Pinkie and Dopey to get in. As he fired, he
took out three more troops and then moved into the back of the vehicle. When
the doors closed he ripped the Balaclava off of his head so he could breathe.

“Shit!” Sullivan
cried. “I can’t believe we survived that.”

“We all didn’t make
it,” X said. He ripped off his mask and threw it to the ground. His breathing
was heavy. “We lost too many people on this shit.”

“Hopefully that flag
will do its job and inspire people, though.” Dopey said.

“Yeah,” Pinkie chimed
in. “It wasn’t all in vain.”

“No, it wasn’t, I
suppose. As long as we continue the fight.” X looked over to Sullivan. “What’s
next for you, Puerco?”

Sullivan looked to the
ground. The vehicle’s quick, forward momentum took his stomach away for a
moment. Rounds from the outside pinged their way off of the bullet proof armor
on the outside. All he could see was Davie’s face.

“I’ve got to save my
son. But, I can’t do it alone.” Sullivan replied.

“You fought like hell
out there for me.” X replied. “You might have saved my worthless life. We’ll
help you find your kid.”

“You would?” Sullivan
asked with confusion in his eyes. “But, I was your enemy…”

“
Was,
that’s
right. But, you’re one of us now and we look out for each other.”

Sullivan couldn’t
fight the smile back any longer. He reached out and embraced handshakes with X.

***

Kaspar kicked the door
open at the exit. Their escape vehicle was still intact. There was a fear
inside that the enemy would have dismantled the damn thing while they were in
the fight inside. He reached for the door handle and forced the double doors
open. He helped Clarke get inside before he entered himself. Harvey moved for
the passenger seat while Buck moved to the driver’s seat. Buck slammed the key
into the ignition and brought the vehicle’s engine to life with a roar.

As the vehicle pulled
out, Clarke reached for his black laptop and tore off his mask. He had a wealth
of information inside of his hard drive and he had to make sure that the
information was ripped intact. It seemed like an eternity before his computer
came back to life. When it did, he adjusted his glasses, and then started to
pound away at the keys. He quickly started uploading programs, getting all the
information on his computer for mass distribution.

Kaspar left his mask
on and leaned back against the side of the vehicle. The adrenaline from the
fight was starting to wear off and his hands started to shake. He moved his
eyes down to his flak jacket. All that remained of the yellow piece from
Mother’s blanket were a few strands. The once tight construction of the fabric,
which was knitted together with expert hands, started to loosen. Kaspar finally
took his mask off and looked with a curious eye towards Clarke.

“So,” Kaspar started
to say. “What the hell did you find in there?”

Kaspar’s eyes went
wide with both anger and shock when he got the answer.

This war was far from
over.

Caine couldn’t believe
what his eyes saw on the screen in front of him. The American flag was waving
free and proud on top of the Capitol. His Agents had already torn the flag down
and burned it by now, but he kept replaying the file that was sent out across
the USR networks from an anonymous source.

There was a buzz from
his desk. He pushed the red button, “Yes?”

“It’s Blackman, sir.”

“Come in.”

Caine unlocked the
double doors from under his desk. The leftover General moved in with a slow
pace. Caine could tell that Blackman knew an ass kicking was coming his way.
Blackman walked with a calmness that the head of the USR could respect, but
felt that it was disrespectful to him, given what had just happened.

“How the hell are you
so calm?” Caine demanded.

“Leaders usually are,
no matter the circumstances.” Blackman replied. He saluted the leader but was
not given a salute back.

“Sit the fuck down.”
Caine demanded. Once the leftover was sat down, Caine pointed his finger
towards Blackman. “How the hell could you let this happen?”

“Me?” Blackman shot
back. He wasn’t used to people pointing fingers his way. The disrespect given
from Caine had gotten old long ago.

“Yes, you, I’ve put
you in charge of all military operations. This falls on you.”

“All due respect, sir,
but you have hamstrung our forces on some top secret bullshit that involved
kidnapping citizens and moving them to concentration camps. This came as a
complete surprise. Who could have guessed that the resistance had a force of
this size?” Blackman replied.

“You let me worry
about that top secret mission, soldier. Just do your job and make sure this
type of thing never happens again. It’ll be your life if you fail me again.”

“Yes, sir. What do we
do now?”

Caine rubbed at the
short stubble of his chin. “We’ll need to respond in some way. Those fuckers
out there might think that they’ve gotten some type of victory, but we all know
better than that. Don’t you worry, the citizens of the USR will pay for this,
not the resistance. They are so small that we can deal with them later. No,
it’s those that they are trying to ‘save’ who will suffer. They will know the
wickedness of the United States of America in a way that they’ve never seen
before. Trust me on that.”

Blackman didn’t like
the sounds of that and liked the look in Caine’s eyes even less. “What are you
thinking?”

“You’re dismissed,
General. Get out of my sight.”

The General stood from
his chair and gave an empty salute back to Caine. This just wasn’t right.
America had its problems, but Blackman had been a soldier his whole life.
Taking out a loss in battle on innocents wasn’t becoming of a soldier. He had
to play his cards right and, when the time came, he had to make a decision that
could cost him his life.

Once the General was
out of the room, the doors slammed shut behind him. Caine waited a moment, took
a shot of whiskey, and then picked up the red phone on his desk. It rang three
times before there was an answer.

“Masters,” the voice
said.

“Guy, this is Caine,
how are you, my lad?” Caine replied.

“I’ve been a lot
better to be honest, sir. I just saw what happened to the Capitol. While my men
and I were dicking around the resistance gave us a swift kick in the ass.”

“Don’t you worry about
that, son. What you’ve done was a great service to your society.”

“Cut the shit,”
Masters said. “What’s next for us?”

Caine was taken aback
for a moment but let the remark from his top man slide. After all, the USR
needed men like Guy Masters who weren’t afraid, not even of the man who was one
order away from making sure he was six feet under.

“I’ve got special
plans for you and your men…”

Patriots
& Tyrants

It’s hard to believe
that I am here, once more, less than twelve months later with yet another
chapter in the
Rebels & Lies
series under my belt. I’ve learned a
lot about self-publishing, or indie publishing, during my first nine months
into the process.

One of the things that
I have learned was not to fall for the trap of having high expectations. And,
that goes beyond just sales or five star reviews. You can tell who really has
your back when it comes to doing something crazy like try to make it as a
self-published author.

No, I didn’t become
the next Hugh Howey with the first novel of my career. Far from it, to tell the
truth, but I haven’t given up, yet. I say all this as a thank you to my friend,
Billy. He’s always been there as one of the few who have supported me in this
journey of trying to make it as an independent author. He’s reminded me, time
and again, that this is not about the money, the fame, the movie deals, or
anything that could come from this endeavor. No, this journey that I’ve taken
came about because I love to tell stories. I love to write. The art of creating
something with Microsoft Word, a notebook, or anything else I can write with is
my passion in this life.

I also must thank my
wife, Chrissy, who is always behind me. Sure, there has been some tension
between us as I spend the long hours it takes to chase my dream, but you are
always there with an encouraging word. You have put up with me through two
novels. Could you put up with me for a third?
J
I love you.