Tyranny in the Homeland (14 page)

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              “John, I am hearing rumors that the Cabras are destroying Corpus Christie. There are stories about hundreds of people being executed and women and children being abused.”

              "George, I just heard the same story from Sally. She had a small group of refugees from a small town east of Corpus Christie join her group. They are telling horrific stories about torture and murder. This really just started. The Mexicans had been killing only those who fought back against them. It appears a new leader took over a couple of days ago and he wants to use fear and terror to stop the resistance. Rape, torture and mass executions are occurring every day. Some of the reasons for the retaliation don’t make any sense to the locals. Now they have placed hundreds of people in a building and threaten to burn them alive if I don’t surrender to them.”

              “Well, that will never happen.”

              “George, am I worth a thousand lives? I would give myself up if the killing would stop, but they would just demand more. Never negotiate with terrorists.”

***

              “Admiral, our drones and the asset on the ground confirm the atrocities. Do you think they are trying to draw us away from Mobile to attack us? They could think that if we move the Ford towards Corpus Christie that they can have free range in Mobile.”

              "Commander, I don’t think the Cabras have any significant air power or armor to hold Mobile, but I think you are onto something. Do you remember our briefing about the USA planning another attack on John’s team? Perhaps the Cabras and USA are in this together. We know that the President has given the Cabras the green light to take and hold the southwest. It’s not a leap of faith that they are joining to eliminate the ISA and share North America. Prepare the fleet to head towards Texas and alert Admiral Simmons to get his group ready to move half way between Tampa and Mobile to provide immediate response air cover in case of a surprise attack.”

              “I will move on that ASAP. Sir, the San Diego base just received 20 Apaches from Korea that were to be deployed to the northwest. I would like to base them in Mobile to give them more air to ground attack ability. I also want to double their anti-missile defense. I want to do all of this secretly since John thinks we either have a mole or enemy spies around Mobile and Port Arthur.”

“Great idea! Get it done.”

“Bob, get John’s team out here ASAP. We need to brief them and gear them up for a major thrust into Corpus Christie while still keeping lower Alabama guarded against an attack from the north.”

***

              John always got a rush every time he landed on a carrier. Even though the pilot performed a perfect landing as usual, just the thought of landing tons of metal on a moving target in the middle of an ocean made John’s skin crawl. This was even worse since the landing was at 1:00 a.m. and the sky was pitch black. They did not want anyone to know that John had travelled to the USS Ford and planned to have him and his team back to the Bunker before daylight.

              John’s team was ushered to the meeting room and since everyone knew each other, they skipped the pleasantries and got right to work.

              Commander Cox gave the group a briefing on the situation in Corpus Christie including a video of the Cabras beheading some children and killing 50 men and woman for not reporting a resistance fighter.

              “Admiral, we always knew that the Cabras were fierce fighters and were ruthless with adults, but I never heard tales of them harming children.”

              “Gus, I agree with that and am convinced that we have two potential scenarios. First, there is a new person in charge of the unit responsible for Corpus Christie. We think that he is trying to meet some kind of deadline for the pacification of that area, or is just one nasty SOB. The second is that perhaps, this is just part of a plan to draw us into the fight in that area.”

              Sally spoke up and said, “They had to know that we would eventually try to push them back to Mexico. They invaded our country.”

              “You are correct, so there is some urgent reason that they want to draw us into a fight that they can’t win according to our intelligence. We need to know what we don’t know. What has changed so much that they want to confront the Navy? They aren’t afraid of your team John. I know that y’all are good at fighting, but these guys have you outnumbered and as far as they know outgunned.”

              John said, “I know that you have intel on their numbers and type of units. Are you certain that you have knowledge of all of their weapons? Perhaps they have a sub or drones capable of sinking a carrier or at least doing significant damage. I just had a thought... would you know if they had any nukes?”

              The Admiral stood up and addressed the team, “We don’t think they have any nukes, however, with the fall of Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan’s governments, we don’t know where a fourth of the world’s nukes are. After the recovery started, several terrorist groups and third world countries attempted to buy nukes. We have stopped the transfer of them as much as possible. We do know that approximately ten Russian suitcase nukes were smuggled out of Russia and were captured by Egypt. We do not know what Egypt did with them. The military wanted to seize them, but the President vetoed the operation before we split with the USA. I think that we must always assume the worst when dealing with the Cabras, the USA and other world powers. Men, sorry Sally and Meg; team, I want contingency plans for a nuclear and non-nuclear attack on the fleet. I want the strategy teams to plan an attack on the Ford with any potential weapon that the Cabras could possess. Commander, also keep a close eye on these flights and the ships heading towards Mexico. Search the ships and have our spies tell us what comes in on the planes.”

              John approached the Admiral and said, “Could I have a minute of your time to discuss the recent attacks on Port Arthur, Houston and Mobile?”

              “Yes, follow me.”

              “Sir, we need to retaliate quickly or the USA will feel that it can attack whenever it wants.”

              “John, we aren’t sure that the USA attacked us. We recently found that the Iranians have a secret base in Mexico and have a small army and several subs based there. We have our spies and special operations people working double time on this. Please keep your people calm until we can pin the tail on the right donkey.”

              “Thanks Admiral, I knew there had to be a reason that there was no response.”

              “John, I didn’t say we weren’t responding; we are. They won’t know who hit them or what happened for a month. Our teams are taking out key people every day. Car accidents, heart attacks and drownings are the tools of the trade.”

              They were back on the way to the Bunker by 3:00 a.m. No one would even know that they had been gone.

              “John, with all of this talk about major attacks on Mobile and the Bunker, I believe that we have to move our families to the Compound. Our soldiers and our families have to be safe for us to be able to concentrate on winning this war.”

              “Ann, you are correct. George, start the process of moving everyone that wants to move on their way to the Compound. We also need to put all of our spies and guards on notice to watch for anything that might appear to be an advanced team scouting our area. Ann get with Steve on transferring power today. George, make the announcements on our staff chances.”

              Scott added, “Dad, I agree, but we can’t chase our tails and go in all directions. The Admiral has us planning defensive measures in case the carriers are attacked, but we must make plans to survive and win this war without them if necessary.”

              “Scott, you are wise beyond your years. We can’t keep counting on the Navy to pull our fat out of the fire time after time. We must start planning to go this alone. I think that means take a covert war to our enemies. Infiltrate them and conduct a counter insurgency war against them. Gus and Scott, I want you two to begin planning a two- front guerilla war against the USA and the Cabras in their capitals or headquarters. Let’s take it to them without spending a lot of resources and material. Get a hundred volunteers to go deep into the USA and Mexico to knock our enemy off its feet. I’ll try to get some troops from Bob to join or at least train our new guerilla team."

              This casual conversation was the beginning of the ISA Special Forces, which Scott would grow and develop into the most feared fighting force in the world.

***

The Ford Carrier Strike group got underway towards Corpus Christie just after John’s helicopter took off. The Admiral sent two submarines out ahead of the Ford and put in place all of the countermeasures that had been approved. The Bush Carrier Strike group left for its new station halfway between Mobile and Tampa at the same time. It also had a submarine out ahead of it looking for issues and anyone trying to deliver a sneak attack.

***

              “Charlie, you actually are looking a whole lot better today. How do you feel?”

              Laughing, Charlie replied, “With my fingers and toes. I need a mirror to see how good I look to people. I’ve been getting so many good looking comments that I was starting to be afraid that y’all know something that I don’t about my health that I need to know.”

              They both laughed and began the general chitchat that goes along with boredom in a hospital. Then Charlie got serious.

              “Have you caught the SOB who is spying on us? The attacks were too precise to be just good military work.”

              Joe showed Charlie a stack of photos and said, “We caught this little bastard spying on us yesterday. The Navy says that it is one of the latest miniaturized spy drones.”

              “Are these pictures to scale?”

“No, but in the last one, it is compared to a silver dollar.”

The pictures had a thing that would pass for a small bird at 10 feet. It was brown and gray and upon close examination had a lens poking out from below.

“This looks pretty sophisticated. Do we have anything like this on our side? Damn, we have the FBI, CIA and what’s left of the NSA on our side.”

“Bob’s guys only reply was that we probably do, but everything is classified.”

“This thing can’t have much range on the transmitter, so its handler must be living right among us. Find the bastard and cut his balls off. We need to kill everyone that executed the attacks on Port Arthur and us in Houston.”

“Your daughter thinks the same way. She wants to go to their new Whitehouse and strangle the bastard with her own hands.”

              “Joe, get your most trusted men together and put a plan together that flushes out our spies and deal with them after you find out what they know.”

              “Charlie, I have an idea that will flush the bastards out, but may cause some alarm. I’m going to start a rumor that will peak their interest and they will trip over themselves trying to get the intelligence.”

              “What will you spread around?”

              “Need to know and you don’t.”

              “Good boy. You might want to tip Bob off just in case you start a riot.”

              “Already planned on that. I’ve learned a little bit hanging around you.”

***

Later that morning John called all of the leaders at the bunker together to break the news about moving to the Compound. This was not well received at all. The team got very vocal about being made to leave their homes.

John had to raise his voice to get their attention, “Listen up! You don’t have to leave, however we know that the USA will eventually try to blow this place off the map.”

This got their attention and a more rational discussion began.

“Team, the USA desperately wants to destroy the ISA and all free thinking people. I believe that with God’s help, we will prevail in the long run, but many of us will not live to see the new country grow and prosper. There are many battles to be fought and we won’t win them all. Good friends and family will give their lives for this new country and our way of life. So, the bottom line now is who’s staying and who is moving to Mobile?

Sally’s group and a few people from the bunker were the only ones who would not move to the Compound in Mobile.

“Sally, I would like you to check with Bob’s team and determine how to improve your defenses and prepare for an attack. I think the USA will hit the Navy and the ISA as hard as they can, but I also feel that they will cherry pick some softer targets.”