United States Invaded (41 page)

“What happened to the United Nations’ force we were sent to stop?”

“After you set off the fuel tanker, they stopped; your brothers in arms attacked the stopped line of tanks, APCs and trucks with Molotov Cocktails, and heavy rifle fire. They lost six tanks in this last ambush, plus over 500 men. They turned around and returned to Maryland.”

“We stopped them?”

A new voice answered, “Yes soldier, you stopped them.”

I shift my eyes up to see a colonel bending down to talk to me. “Colonel?”

“Soldier, you bled for the victory. However you stopped them. You turned them around. We thought the militias might slow them down, we never thought you’d fight like you did. Your militia put up a defense any regular Army unit would be proud of. In fact, I’m pinning a purple heart and a bronze star to your pillow. I understand the idea to set the interstate on fire and blow the fuel tanker was yours.”  

“Yes it was.”

“Damn fine soldiering. You may be a little old for being a soldier, but I’d be proud to have you fight next to me any day.”

“Thank you sir. Sir, my wife?”

“She’s outside; I asked her to allow me to see you first. She’s been here since they brought you in. It’s been a long five days for her.”

“Five days?! I’ve been out for five days?”

“Yes you have; the infection was very bad, I understand you were touch and go for a while. We can’t have our militia hero die on us, now can we?”

“I’m no hero, what about the others?”

“You lost 50% of your group, and your group fought on. The survivors are back on the line with some guardsmen. They’re setting up a stronger defense of the border. Brad, I’m going to go now, but before I do, I want you to know the President is going to stop by tomorrow to thank all of you.”

“The President, here?”

“Yes, you guys stopped a large force from moving through Virginia into Washington, you might have saved the capital. The last time the capital was invaded was the war of 1812. I’m going to send in your wife now. I’ll see you again; I’d like to hear the details of your defense plan.”

“Thank you sir.”

“You don’t have to call me sir.”

“If I’m a soldier, then yes I do.”

“Get some rest. Here comes your wife.”

The Colonel leaves the room, Kathy runs over to my bed, “Honey, you’re awake?”

“Yea, guess I didn’t get home before you did. I seem to have gotten lost along the way.”

“No shit, didn’t we discuss you not playing solider?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t playing, we had a real mission, we had to stop them from hitting DC.”

“Brad, you’ve been out for five days, when they found you, you’d lost a lot of blood, you had been shot, you had a serious infection, your pacemaker was going crazy, your heart was stopping and starting, they tell me you died a couple of times before your pacemaker kicked back on. They didn’t know if you were going to be able to keep your leg or not. The doctor told me this morning you should be waking sometime today. Ron’s been here twice a day. He told me it was your idea that stopped the United Nations’ troops. Brad, I was so worried. You almost got killed. Promise me, no more playing soldier.”

“Sure honey, I don’t think they want a cripple anyways.”

“Brad, for Christ sakes, you’re almost 65, war is a young man’s game.”

“Honey, it’s everyone’s game. We have to win, or freedom will die, it’ll die and most likely never be reborn again.”

Chapter 28

“Propaganda Minister Booken, how’s New Jersey doing? I have an assignment for you. I’d like you to spread a story about how the USA is planning on using nuclear weapons against the United Nations.”

“Any particular country?”

“All of them that joined the attack on them.”

“Mr. President, is this real or rumor?”

“Yes, it could be real. Don’t let the truth bother you.”

“When do you want the story out?”

“ASAP, start it in the inner cities, make them afraid, we can use them against Brownstone. Stir the cities up, we’ll send them to the border; we’ll overwhelm their border patrol again.”

“President Brownie, won’t Brownstone kill them?”

“Maybe, do you care? If he kills them or keeps them, it lowers our costs that is something we need right now. We’re out of money, no matter how much we increase taxes our revenue decreases. A new-underground economy has sprung up. People are paying for goods and services under the table. The more they do, the less we take in.”

“What about increasing the sin taxes?”

“We’ve already done that; we’ve placed 125% tax on cigarettes and liquor, we’ve legalized marijuana and taxed it. We’ve legalized prostitution and taxed it, hey, we’ve legalized drugs and taxed them. We’ve taxed everything. And still our tax revenues are decreasing. We can’t continue to spend as we are unless we find a new source of revenue, or we cut the number of hands held out, or mouths to feed.”

“Got it, I’ll make some calls and get the story out.”

“We’re going to organize a new march across the border of Maryland and Virginia, we’re going to march to Washington, DC, to make them ‘Ban The Bomb’.”

“Mr. President, does it really matter if the USA bans the bomb or not?”

“Yes it does, if they attack anyone with a nuke and that country counterattacks, the fallout may drift over us. If there’s a nuclear war, we’re going to find us in the middle of any exchange. The LSA is going to lose. I want to stir up the United Nations as much as possible so they stop fooling around with the United States. I want them to put all of their resources into the war. I worry that Puten is going to lose patience and start dropping nukes on America. If he does, we’re going to catch the short end of the pole. The pole will be shoved up our rear ends. Puten will force us to get involved, or he’ll say he missed a target or two, and he’s sorry if we lost a city or three. We have to get the USA cut down to size before time runs out.”

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Twelve Special Forces teams slip over the border into the LSA. They move at night and hide during the day. Their targets are the fresh water reservoirs that supply Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle with drinking water. They reach their destinations unseen on their fifth day inside the LSA. The remove a handful of plastic test tubes from their backpack. Pouring the clear liquid into the water one asks their lead, “How much of this is supposed to be enough or too much?’

“Good question, I have no idea, use all we have to make sure. After all, it’s not going to kill them, just make them wish they were dead. And don’t get any in your mouth

The groups make their way back to the border. They have valid ID from both the LSA and USA. They have no problems leaving the LSA by showing their ID cards with a USA gold $100.00 bill folded behind the ID, when they get to the customs booth of the USA, they simply show their citizen USA cards and walk right through the booth. A mile past the customs booth, they walk into a diner, order coffee and apple pie. A man exits the kitchen to sit with them, “Ready for your ride home?”

“Right after the coffee and pie.”

“Bird is about a mile away, think you’ll be able to make it after the pie?”

“Look, pie is hard to find in the LSA, as is really good coffee, it’s getting harder and harder to get anything that the government deems isn’t good for you. And let me tell you, everything I like isn’t deemed good for me by the LSA government.”

“Did you have a successful mission?”

“Have no idea what you’re talking about”

Three hours later the teams are back on base reporting to their colonel. “Sir, mission successful.”

“How much of the liquid did you use?”

“Sir, we didn’t remember the dosage, so each reservoir got a full does of four tubes.”

The colonel leans back in his chair laughing. “Did anyone ever tell you what you were putting in their water supply?”

“No sir, we learned a long time ago not to ask questions.”

“Watch the LSA news programs this time tomorrow, now go get some rest, we have another mission for you in 48 hours.”

In 48 hours, the news from the LSA is filled with reports of a strange stomach virus that causes almost continuous stomach cramps and diarrhea. Hundreds of thousands can’t get off their toilets. There’s quickly a shortage of toilet paper in the LSA. Trucks with additional supplies have had their fuel tanks contaminated causing their engines to seize forcing the trucks to stop where they are. City after city is hit by the mysterious stomach flu, doctors have no clue where it came from or how to treat it. The GDP of the LSA drops as more than 50% of the population stay home from work. On the third day of the flu, more than 75% of the workers in the LSA call in sick shutting down almost every service and company that operates in the LSA.

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“President Brownie, Doctor Ruth Grayson is here for her 10:00 appointment.”

              “Very good, please show her in.”

A very pretty mid forty-year-old with shiny dark brown hair and bright blue eyes enters the LSA Oval Office. “Mr. President”

“Doctor.”

“How may I be of assistance?”

“Doctor, we need to know who or what is behind this stomach flu which has incapacitated our people.”

“Yes Mr. President, do I have a team?”

“Select your own doctor. Just get to the bottom of this disease and find a cure for it.”

“Yes sir, I’ll get right on it,”

Twenty-four hours later, a very tired sounding doctor Grayson calls the Gray House, “Mr. President, I have the answer.”

“In one day? My God, you’re fast.”

“It wasn’t too hard; it was bioengineered. It’s not a normal stomach flu. I’ve seen something very close to this when I spent a year at Fort Detrick.”

“Fort Detrick, if I remember right, that’s a biological weapons lab isn’t it?”

“Yes it is and I’ll deny every working there.”

“Get back to you’ve seen this disease before.”

“Sir, it’s a bioengineered bug. It’s not the flu; it’s a living parasite. It causes very painful stomach cramps and horrible diarrhea. It can last ten days.”

“Doctor, is there a cure?”

“Mr. President, that’s the bad news, there’s no cure that I’m aware of. There was a vaccine but not a cure in the classic sense of the word.”

“Let me see if I understand, there is a way to stop someone from getting the bug, but once they have it, it has to run its course?”

“Mr. President, that’s correct.”

“How long does it take to run its course?”

“Ten days to two weeks.”

“Where the hell did this come from? I never saw any bug like this.”

“That’s because it’s not native; it’s a bioengineered bug.”

“Who the hell made this?”

“US military.”

“WHAT? Are you telling me the US used a bioweapon against us?”

“Mr. President, it’s not a WMD, it doesn’t kill, and it just makes you want to die.”

“We have to counter attack them with something. What do we have we can use on them?”

“Nothing. Really there isn’t a lab or inventory in the LSA.”

“What about at the research hospital?”

“Mr. President the only bugs they have are Ebola and smallpox. You don’t want to use either of them. If you did use one, it would be classified as a weapon of Mass Destruction. President Brownstone could respond in kind. He WILL respond in kind. Are you sure you want to risk nuclear weapons falling on LA or San Francisco?”

“With the world lined up against him, he wouldn’t dare use nuclear weapons.”

“President Brownie, he has an entire inventory of other bio-agents, some are very nasty.”

“I’ll think it over, see me in the morning.”

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Rash calls the President, “Mr. President, there’s two rumors running around the net, one is we attacked the LSA with a bio agent. The story is we gave 60% of the LSA the craps. The other story is we plan to nuke the countries that's attacked us. Mr. President, is there something I should know?”

“Rash, the first story is true, second is totally false.”

“Sir, we gave the LSA a case of Montezuma’s revenge? How the hell did we do that?”

“We developed a bug. Originally it was going to be used in the sandbox to stop Al-Qaeda. Once the bug was released, they wouldn’t be able to fight us when we entered an area they controlled. The bug is nonlethal; it’s not classified as a WMD. I asked John to send a few teams into the LSA to teach them not to side with the United Nations.”

“I don’t think it worked as proposed. It seems like President Brownie has an expert on his staff that used to work for us in Fort Detrick. She knew what the bug was.” 

“You should make sure the vaccine is put in the country’s water supply as quickly as possible. I would hate to have Brownie pull the same stunt on us, and us not be ready for it. Can you arrange for C130s or C17s to dump it into all of our reservoirs?”