The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (47 page)

They built a
hidden vault into one of the shelters and stashed much of the cash and gold
that they had purchased into it. 

Kemp also
insisted on hurricane proof safe-rooms for staff housing.  The staff were
pleased with their accommodations, but the truth of the matter was that he
didn't want the on duty security personnel running to their families instead of
taking care of his. 

Lisa had
recruited workers from the expat community on the theory that they would fit
better and wouldn't be as likely to pass information along to local criminal
rings.  She had even brought in teachers for the children of the staff.  They even
had satellite television, radio, and internet. 

Pam called him
over.  "There's some news you should see." 

Kemp sat on the
sofa with her to see a TV news report on the nuclear assassination attempt on
the president and vice president of the United States.  Again, Kemp was shown
as the primary suspect. 

The next shot
was a sound bite of the Speaker of the House, Nicholas Larson, speaking of how
Kemp would be caught and punished."

Kemp stood and
said, "That son of a bitch!" 

Pam asked,
"What do you mean?"

"He was in
charge of the coup attempt and now he's number three in line for the
presidency.  He'll be sending assassins when he figures out where I am."

"You're
safe here."

"None of
us are safe while he's alive.  I have to go back to the states." 

"We'll come,
too."

"No, this
I have to do on my own.  I need to know you're safe."

"We need
you here, too."

"I'll be
back.  I promise."

HILL AIRFORCE BASE

FEBRUARY 25
^th

Rob had stopped
in to check on the progress of the search. 

"We're
drawing a blank, sir," said Green.  "We've expanded the search, but
I'm thinking their facility may be powered down.  They may have fewer people
than we thought, or my premise may be wrong."

"Or they
got wind of the search," answered Rob.  Keep at it."

NEW YORK CITY

Julie and Helen
had slipped into the Kunoichi building in the early morning hours and had taken
over the office and conference room Richards had appropriated.  Later in the
morning, they walked into a television interview Richards was giving to a Costa
Rican reporter.  The young woman saw them and stood, mouth agape.

Helen said,
"Hola, Alicia!"

Starting to
tear up, the reporter said in Spanish, "You're alive!  They said you were
killed."

"We are
not easy to kill," said Julie in Spanish.  "The assassination attempt
failed, but we grieve for San Francisco.  We lost many of our friends."

"I can't
believe you're alive!  What now?"

"The work
continues," said Julie.  "We will do the best we can to improve as
many lives wherever we can.  Understand that our helping the people angers much
of the traditional power base.  This wasn't the first and won't be the last
assassination attempt, but we hope that there will never again be an attack of
this magnitude."

Helen said,
"For the people of San Francisco, Julie and I will do all that we can to
repair the damage and to help the victims and their families.  And we will find
those who killed our friends and we will bring justice to them at the earliest
opportunity."

"What
about the plebiscites?"

Helen answered,
"The people have to be able to decide for themselves.   Bombings will not
prevent this.  I hope that they will decide to join with us in creating a new
tomorrow, but their freedom to choose must be honored." 

Julie said,
"We believe that the increased diversity in the US political system will
help the entire planet.  It's incredibly important.  We are moving into a world
in which individual freedom will have to be matched by our responsibility to
each other. 

"We ask
that the people of Mexico, Cuba, and Central America take responsibility to help
guide the United States on the right course for all of us."

Helen said,
"The plebiscites are scheduled for this week.  These are incredibly
important.  Please participate in them."

The reporter
asked, "Where are you going next?" 

Julie said,
"We are returning to San Francisco to do what we can there, then we will
be going back to Mexico and Central America."

The reporter
said, "Thank you, and we are grateful that you are alive."

With the
interview over, she hugged Julie and started sobbing.

Julie said,
"It's okay, Alicia.   We're going to make things right.  I promise you
that we will make things right."  Helen hugged her too. 

Richards just
stood there, dumbfounded, wondering if he was the only one who realized the
cameraman was still filming.    

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

FEBRUARY 27
^th

Jim watched the
video of Julie and Helen's interview in New York with amusement.  "No one
falls apart like that after my interviews."

Susan said,
"I don't know, that speech you gave on energy conservation was a
humdinger!  Barely a dry eye in the house." 

He laughed. 
"Those two worry the hell out of me. The only thing worse is Luke and
Jamie driving who knows where every time we turn around."

"Still
waiting for the axe to fall?"

"You know
we can't stay this prominent and not pay a price for it." 

"They're
not going to run and hide.  The family just doesn't work that way," she
said.

"Tell me
about it."

He had moved
the temporary government location to St. Louis after the missile strike on Las
Vegas.  So far the decision had panned out well. 

Immigrants were
flocking to St Louis and many other cities and manufacturing capability was
increasing rapidly.  He was determined to make St Louis into a center for
technological advancement and was pouring in resources to help.  It was
exciting to see.

They were using
a hotel convention center as a temporary White House.   There was no way of fully
protecting it, but anti missile defenses were in place around the facility. 
They enemy wouldn't get another easy shot like in Las Vegas.

All of the new
territories were voting this week.  Today's plebiscites were in Costa Rica and
Panama.  The rest of the plebiscites would be held throughout the week.

Jim was
following the voting very closely.  So far, polls of voters were leaning
heavily toward statehood.

He met briefly
with Speaker Larson and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Senator
Rollins. "The vote looks good so far," said Jim.

Rollins said,
"I'm delighted to hear it, though I have to admit that I still have
reservations."

"It's a
gamble, but it makes us completely self reliant," said Larson.  "It
will be worth it."

"I'm
counting on you two to deliver the votes to make this happen.  So far it looks
like most of Central America, Mexico and Cuba will all go.  The only holdouts
are too small to matter.  This is going to work."

Larson said,
"We'll make it work, Mr. President."

Jim said,
"On other matters, we don't have Kemp yet, but we're going to get the son
of a bitch.  Until we do, watch yourselves, okay?"

The men agreed
and left for their offices, leaving Jim to ponder which of them was trying to
kill him.

SAN FRANCISCO

Julie and Helen
had changed tactics for security reasons and would not stay in any one business
location for more than a few hours.  Their security had insisted that their
schedules now be tightly guarded secrets.  If anything, it seemed to heighten
the public's fascination with them.

Kunoichi
Import/Export had purchased all of the damaged buildings in San Francisco at a
reasonable pre-damage price and Julie and Helen had authorized the removal of
the buildings once the FBI cleared it.  Construction crews were flooding into
San Francisco for the work that would come between removing the buildings and
rebuilding them.

They insisted
on giving stock in Kunoichi Corporation to surviving dependents of those killed
in the bombing.  The reaction was generally positive, if not universally so. 

Jordan Cook,
the manager Richards had put in charge of the San Francisco operation was a
powerhouse of hyperactive energy.  He had established the new temporary head
quarters in South San Francisco in an industrial area where they met there in a
grungy back office.

"The
buildings need to be worthy of The City, and respectful of the price that the
locals have paid," said Helen.  "But it's important that the
commercial space be viable so that we can actually pay off the loan for it."

Cook said,
"I'll announce that we're accepting proposals for the buildings and we'll
get the opinion of the locals as well.  We'll come up with a broad consensus
and then do something else entirely that everyone will like a lot better anyway."

Helen laughed
and Julie said, "I'd be open to an entire community being built on the
property and maybe even a theater if we could pull it off."

Helen said,
"Just so we don't go into bankruptcy doing it."

Cook laughed
and said, "I understand completely.  We'll get it done as quickly and
safely as possible.  I'll have some basic ideas for you in a few weeks."

"Thank
you, Jordan," said Helen. 

They later met
with Will in another office.  They both hugged him and Julie poured coffee for
them.

"Okay, so
I'm sure you're ready for the news," said Will.  "At this point we're
ninety percent positive that Speaker Larson was behind the attacks."

"What?!"
Both Julie and Helen had spoken at the same time. 

"We're
sure enough that we now have teams on him at all times.  When he slips up, we
will nail him.  Unfortunately, we don't have enough direct evidence to pull him
in now."

"This is
crazy," said Julie.  "He was at our wedding!"

"Which is
probably why you weren't hit with several missiles."

Helen said,
"Jesus, Will!  This is like having a family member trying to kill you. 
He's one of ours."

"It looks
like he's been at it for some time," said Will.  "You've only seen
what he chose to show you."  He pulled out a couple of folders. 
"Here's the core of what we have on him.  Read it over now and give it
back to me when you're done. 

"All of
this is extremely secret and is being left outside of government reports, so be
careful about lose lips, even between yourselves, because you never know when
someone has bugged the place."  He pulled out a small mike and threw it on
the desk.  "I found this in here earlier."

"Oh,
shit," said Helen. 

"Exactly."

By the time
they finished reading, both of them were convinced. 

Helen asked,
"So when do we take him out?"

"We're
waiting on the completion of accepting the new states into the US," Will
said.  "Once that's done, it will just be a matter of snatching him when
the opportunity presents itself."

Julie asked,
"You're not just going to take him out and blame it on that Kemp
guy?" 

"Only as a
last resort.  We would like to ask him a few questions first.  We need to know
who else is out there."

Helen asked,
"But will he talk?"

With a big smile,
Will said, "Not too soon, I hope."

Helen gave the
folders back to him.  He said, "I'm off to try to catch up to Luke and
Jamie." 

"Good luck
with that," said Julie.  "Those two never stop."

"Don't you
worry, I'll find them," he said as he left quietly out a side door.

That night they
had dinner with the mayor and apologized for the mess that had followed them to
his city.  His comment was, "Don't give up on us.  We still want you
here."

They spent the
rest of the dinner going over ideas for the new buildings downtown.

MIAMI, FLORIDA

MARCH 2
^nd

Kemp bought a
small plane and worked his way to Havana where he traded it for a Florida
titled fast boat that he took into Miami.  Customs looked at his US passport in
the name of Matt Flint and gave it back to him.  They looked over the boat but
didn't find anything because he wasn't so much as carrying a pistol.  The
hundred thousand he had in cash he had hidden inside of a pressurized scuba
tank was easily missed.  In Miami he collected his things and quickly gave away
the boat just to get rid of it. 

He recovered
his cash from the tank, purchased a small motor home, and was soon on his way
across the country.   

BRAZIL ISLAND

MARCH 4
^th

Sandy had asked
the rest of the women to meet with her for dinner.  "Now that the Skipper
is gone, we have some unfinished business to talk about.  I've been thinking
about Officer Chapman."

The faces
around the table hardened.  Pam said, "Whatever you're thinking I'm
in."

All of the
women around the table agreed just as fast, without even knowing yet what the
Sandy's suggestion was. 

"To get
him taken out will cost two hundred thousand dollars.  To have him brutally
tortured with whatever methods we would like and then killed will be one
million dollars.  I'm told we can be as creative as we want."

Maria said,
"I want him fucked with a jack hammer until he dies." 

"Can we
have his fingers cut off?" asked Sonya.

"What
about his family?" said Lisa.