The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (27 page)

They stopped
overnight in Reno and Rob assigned troops at the airport to guard the choppers
while he and Ann went to a nearby hotel.  Ann insisted on one room with two
beds. 

When Rob
started to protest, Ann said, “It’s wartime, boss.  Humor me.  Besides, I’m too
tired to jump your bones even if I were into old dudes, which I’m not. 

When they got
to the room, she put a chair in front of the door, used the bathroom, and
stripped down to her underwear and crawled into one of the beds and was soon
snoring. 

After all
the criminal things we did today, I’m worried about someone thinking I’m having
an affair,
Rob thought with a chuckle.  He grabbed a shower and followed
Ann’s example.

Rob woke during
the night to feel her crawling into bed with him.  Before he could say anything
she said, “You’re not getting laid tonight you perv, so don’t even think it.  Shut
up and hold me.”  A few minutes later he felt her sobbing.  He was relieved
when she drifted to sleep again.  He was out a few minutes after her.

Rob woke the
next morning to find Ann showered and dressed, reading a book off her tablet. 
“Good morning sleepyhead.  You were really good last night.”

“Don’t make me
spank you, youngster.  No wife anywhere would ever be that understanding.”

“I know,” she
said, kissing him on the forehead, “and you were a perfect gentleman.  I won't
tell if you won't.  Now get your pretty ass out of bed so we can go get
breakfast and get you back to that wife of yours.  By the way, it feels pretty
damn good to be rich.”

“Yeah, it’s not
too bad… I have a feeling we’re going to do a lot better yet when we check out
that airstrip.”

“Maybe next
week.”

“It’s a date.”

They arrived at
Nellis a few hours later.  Rob was happy to get out of the cockpit, but would
miss having such an incredible aircraft to fly.  He sighed as he turned it over
the maintenance crew. 

He also turned
them loose on the Black Hawk.  The crew chief was not happy looking at the
chopper.  “Sir, this aircraft has been seriously neglected.  I’ll need at least
a week on it.”

“Take your time
and get it right.  The President’s flown combat missions aboard this bird.”  He
left the man standing there with his mouth open. 

Rob and Ann
reported in to Jim and General Whitman, but left out unimportant details such
as the airfield and dropping Simmons into the drink.

“Mostly I think
the guy was isolated and didn’t know what to do next.  I’m sure he was debating
whether or not to bug out before we hit him,” said Rob.

Jim asked,
“What happened to him?”

“He didn’t
survive long after I questioned him.  Looked like cardiac arrest to me. 
Probably from guilt over what he had done.”

Whitman said,
“I’m sure you did us proud.  Thank you both for your fine service.”  He turned
off the recorder and said, “And I’d love to hear the truth someday over a
bottle of single malt scotch and a good cigar.” 

Rob said, “That’s
a deal, sir.  Your daughter is amazing, by the way.”

Whitman smiled
and said, “I’m glad you think so too, because I have a feeling we may end up
in-laws before long.” 

Rob sat there
stunned, and said, “Holy crap!  How did I miss that?” 

Jim, Whitman,
and Ann all started laughing.  Ann asked, “Really?  You didn’t know?  That’s
priceless!”

“I, I just
didn’t think about it.”

Jim asked, “Are
you okay with that?”

“Oh, of
course.  Denise and I are crazy about Helen…  Oh my God, Denise had it figured
out and didn’t bother to tell me!”

Whitman grinned
and said, “For a spook, you’re pretty damn dense sometimes.  Now go home and
see Denise before she hunts me down for delaying you.”

BACK
TO FLAGSTAFF

The trip back
from Oregon was long and tedious.  With the LAV leading the way and the tank on
one of the trailers, no one would hassle them.  They dropped off the trailer
load of packaged food in Reno in exchange for an empty trailer.  They drove for
most of two days before arriving back in Flagstaff. 

Everyone was
thrilled to get real showers and a good sleep finally. They parked the trailers
of precious metals back to back so they could not be easily opened and decided
that they would figure out what to do with the loot later. 

Luke was
thrilled to be back home with Jamie. 
It feels so good to get a chance to
chill out for a while at home,
he thought
.  That was one hell of a job!

Rita was
delighted to have Frank home, too.  She recognized how tired he was and sent
him straight to bed.  She could tell that, whatever the mission was, it was a
tough one. 

She knew that
most of them would sleep for the best part of a day so she didn’t bother to
prep a large dinner.  She would make sure that tomorrow’s breakfast in the
Village
Pub
would be the meal they would remember.

AUGUST 15
^th

It had taken
longer than he had expected, but Rob put a mission together to check out the
Simmons' airstrip.  They flew in with three Black Hawks and his entire crew. 
Julio and Stewart hoofed it in from five miles out and reported back that the
place was completely empty.  Rob flew one of the choppers over at 04:00 with
infrared and also saw no signs of life.  He landed and he started searching the
area with Frank and Dave.  At daylight Ann and Helen brought in the other two
choppers. 

They found the
rotting corpses of six men in woodland camouflage.  Julio said, “Rob, it looks
like you nailed all of them quick.  My guess is that no one else has been here
since you shot the place up.”

When they
opened the hangars, Rob was completely shocked.  There were ten of the new
hypersonic kinetic weapons in mobile launchers.  The second hangar had a C130
and stacks of supplies, but the rest of the buildings were warehouses, filled
with everything you would need for a small army for a year.  It was downright
creepy.  Rob called Jim directly and filled him in on their find. 

“Keep that site
from falling into enemy hands no matter what, Rob.  I’m sending you everything
I can right now.”

They cleared
the choppers off of the runway and waited for reinforcements to arrive.  Within
a half hour there were fighter jets overhead.  Two hours later an F22 Raptor
landed and taxied over to the hangars.  General Whitman climbed out and walked
over to the group.

“Rob, you have
the best dumb luck I’ve ever seen.  I wish you would have told us about this
sooner.”

“Sorry, General,
we weren’t expecting this.”

“These missiles
don’t exist.  Understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now get them
out of the hangar and ready to launch.”

“Sir?” 

“You heard me
right.  There are places these can do more good than sitting here.”

 Rob gathered
everyone together and put them to work on moving the missiles into position. 

Julie quietly asked
Helen, “Is this okay?”

“You can trust dad,”
Helen said. 

“I’m still
queasy about this.”

“Me, too.” 

Whitman worked
quickly to program coordinates into the missiles and set them to launch every two
minutes till all of them were airborne. 

General Whitman
called them all together.  “There’s not much for us here now.  We’ll figure out
what to do with this place later.  This missile launch is a national secret
with the highest penalties for disclosure.  Do you understand?” 

Each person
agreed. 

“I’m not going
to tell you where the targets were, but several problems are going to be going
away in the next few minutes, including a couple of conspirator bases overseas
that we only discovered thanks to Simmons’ computers.  Thank you to all of you
for your good work.  Whatever arrangements Rob has made with you, I will
support fully, though I would prefer to never know anything about them.  I need
all of you out of here in the next half hour.  Now get moving!”  

He took a
second to hug Julie and Helen and said, “Dinner back in Vegas when you two get
the chance, okay?”  They watched him walk to the Raptor.   A few minutes later
he was airborne and out of sight.” 

Rob said,
“Everyone on the choppers now!  We’ll meet up back at the rendezvous point,
refuel, and move onto the next target from there.” 

Once clear of
the site, Rob called Jim on the satellite phone.  “We’re clear.” 

Jim said,
“That’s good.  I’ll see you back in Vegas one of these days.  Good hunting!”

 By the time
Rob got to the rendezvous site, the hangars and missile launchers were crawling
with troops.

They flew into
Portland and refueled at Pearson Field Airport.  After a quick break, they flew
southeast for a half hour to a deserted area a few miles off the Central Oregon
Highway, where Rob had stashed supplies and more fuel.

Rob briefed
them on the site that they would be checking the next day.  “This time, I
expect that we will find treasure and supplies.  So far we have not seen
anything on the satellites to indicate people, but we’ll need to be careful.” 

They slept
under the stars that night, but no one slept well after the missile launches.

OREGON
SITE

AUGUST 16
^th

Rob flew over
the site a couple of hours before daylight and used infrared to look for
people.  Seeing no such signs, he landed on the unpaved airstrip.   Julio,
Stewart, and Matt jumped out and ran to the buildings while Rob shut down the
helicopter.  A few minutes later, the other two Black Hawks set down to either
side of him. 

Over the radio
Julio said, “We have bodies here.  If I had to guess, I’d say it looks like the
flu victims we’ve seen.  They were armed for bear.  No one moved any of the
bodies.”

Rob said, “Keep
looking.”

The facility
looked like it had been an abandoned ranch and Simmons had added several
buildings here and there.  There were entire buildings of food and everything
you could ask for to rebuild.  Another building was filled with vehicles,
including four tractor trailer rigs, construction equipment, and fuel trucks.

Manny examined
the satellite photos, looked around the property and found the buried vault in
minutes.  They were able to start a bulldozer and used it to uncover the cement
ramp to the vault. Dave placed charges and blew the vault door off its frame. 
This time the vault was filled with gold coins.

Will said,
“You’ve got to be kidding me!  Rob, I am
so
loving that brother in law
of yours!” 

"I second
that motion," said Ann.

Rob smiled. 
"You know how much he values your adoration. Now get me some working
trucks."

After a couple
hours working on the trucks, Frank and Ann were able to start three of the four. 
They moved them near the vault for easy loading and sent everyone looking for a
forklift.   Jamie found it in one of the smaller buildings and called everyone
over.

Dave looked at
it and said, “It’s designed for rough terrain, so we should be in good shape.”

Will looked
around and said, “This Simmons character was really a dipshit.”

Ann laughed. “I
couldn’t agree with you more!” They loaded two of the trucks with crates of
coins and loaded the other two with food and whatever looked useful. 

Matt used the
bulldozer to rebury the vault.  Soon they were ready to leave.

Rob pulled
everyone together.  “The plan is to take the gold back to Flagstaff and divide
it up there.  As per the agreement with Jim, we're keeping all of it.  It may be
a while before we can spend any of it, so I want you thinking of places to
stash it.  Once we’re back there, you will have trucks to use and time to burn."

Ann said,
"I'm definitely in love with your brother in law."

Rob pulled a
handful of British Sovereign coins out of a crate and slowly dropped them back
into it.  "I know the feeling!"

Will let out a
booming laugh and said, "Yeah, baby!"

LAS
VEGAS, NEVADA

AUGUST 17
^th

Jim started the
meeting off by asking, “So where are we in terms of the big picture?”

Al jumped in
with a rapid staccato briefing on progress with the interstate system and
railroads, and then moved on to cover food production and distribution.

Whitman said, “We
are now in complete control of all of our cities and we have Governors in all fifty
states.  The Senate and House are filled with appointments and will start
meeting at Caesar’s next week.”

Jim asked, “Caesar’s
Palace?  Who the hell made that decision?”

“I guess they
liked the statues, sir,” said Al.  Jim groaned.

Whitman
continued, “We are completely in control of Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, and Central
America.  There has been no further opposition since the destruction of Mexico
City.  Essentially, we own them from now on.”

Jim asked,
“What about our conspirators?”

Al answered,
“At this point we believe that they are extinct or buried so deep in bunker
they may never find their way out.” 

“Glad to hear
it.”

Whitman said,
“The other eight missiles were effective in taking out what is little was left
of Pakistan, the elements of the Chinese army that were reforming, and what was
left of the Saudi regime.  The rest of the world is justifiably nervous about
what you will do next.”

Jim said,
“Good.  That’s where I want them.”

Al said,
“Everyone is asking for the vaccine.”