WAR (8 page)

              Fifteen minutes later the two helicopters land on the south lawn. The military staff is escorted to the Situation Room where they find Presidents Rand, Brownstone and Vice President Lee, waiting for them. President Brownstone gives the military leaders an overview of his thoughts. The Chairman listens and asks permission to call the surveillance room at the Pentagon. Tapes from the previous three days are uploaded to the White House secure network.  The fourteen people sit around the conference table eating a light dinner watching the recorded tapes. When the videos from Blue flight start, the CNO leans forward saying, “Son of a bitch.”

Everyone looks at him, he continues, “Look at the video, those aren’t normal cruise passengers. Those are soldiers. There're too many men, notice the lack of women. The ship is overloaded, also notice none is in bathing suits. Whoever released the F35 from this flight should be fired.” The CNO picks up the phone to the Pentagon, “I want to know when ship on track LA 112 docked and if we have any images of the people leaving the ship.” He turns his attention back to the videos, “Look at the second cruise ship. Somehow the Russians took the passengers off the cruise ship while loading them with troops.”

President Brownstone says, “Admiral, those ships won’t hold their heavy weapons and vehicles, where are those?”

“Mr. President, my guess would be they’re on an RO/RO ship.”

President Brownstone nods his head in agreement, “I agree; I bet we don’t watch those very closely because they only carry cars and trucks, right? I also bet since the original agreement that we could use the ports of Long Beach and Seattle to ship cars from Asia is still in place so they knew we wouldn’t be paying any attention to the car carrying ships.” 

The CNO responds, “Sir, you’re correct. We perform fly byes and do a quick check if nothing looks out of the ordinary and if the ship is carrying cars for us we usually leave it alone.”

“They know that. I bet at least one of those ships is loaded with tanks and APCs. Admiral, when did the cruise ship, arrive at port?”

“Three days ago.”

“Then they could already be at or across the border.”

“Yes sir. Sir, we easily outnumber them. At Pendleton alone we have 42,000 people, including the I Marine Expeditionary Force composed of the 1st Marine Division, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 11th, 13th and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Units.  There’s also the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade. There are also two armored battalions at the new National Training Center. We have a fighter wing at Topanga and one at Nellis. We should have no problems kicking the Russians off our soil.”

President Rand replies, “Admiral that’s all fine, however, if as President Brownstone said, the Russians are already in position, they could hit us while we’re in transit. Plus they know we’re not going to bomb the city. If they get into the center of the city, we’re going to have a problem digging them out with all of the civilians in the city. I don’t want our or other civilians harmed.”

The Commandant of the US Marine Corps replies, “Sir, I’d like to send a Marine Force Recon team into Vegas to check it out.”

President Rand says, “Approved. I also suggest we fly an Aurora over the city to see if their sensors spot anything out of the ordinary.”

General Wilson, the commanding general of the US Air Force, replies, “Sir, we’ll have an Aurora up and over the city within fifteen minutes. It doesn’t have far to fly from its base, Area 51. It’ll send the video live to us here.”

@@@@@

Russian Commanding General Chekov orders his people to move as quickly as possible to Las Vegas. They bribed their way across the border. Chekov unloads his people in the desert 20 kilometers outside of the city. He plans to capture the city as the sun rises. He knows most of the city will be sleeping and captured unaware of the invasion. He orders a cold camp for the evening. He doesn’t want any American sensor to spot a thermal image from their camp fires. Unknown to the Russian general, a high-flying surveillance airplane, the Aurora, has overflown their position three times. Flying at 100,000 feet and at Mach 5 the spy plane makes five circular passes over Las Vegas. The images are sent live to the Pentagon and the White House. The pilot continues to circle while her images are reviewed in Washington DC.

“Blackbird one, hold for the NCA actual.”

The pilot thought to herself,
oh shit, the President himself. I didn’t expect to get orders directly from the White House
.

“Major do you copy?”

“Sir, I copy 5 by 5.”

“Major, good job getting up so quickly. Frankly it’s amazing. How did you manage that?”

“Sir, we were prepping the bird for a flight over the Pacific tonight, all I had to do, was change the coordinates of the target.”

“Major, the images you captured are excellent quality. We’d like you to take another pass 12 miles west of the city. Can you manage that?”

“Sir, already handling it, you should have the images within a minute, I just overflew the location.”

“Major, we have them, you can RTB, when you do, refuel and be ready to take her up again if we need more pictures.”

Chekov’s handheld radio pings, “Da?”

“Sir, we’ve been overflown by a high flying aircraft.”

“How high? Commercial?”

“Sir, unless American commercial planes fly at Mach 5, it’s their new blackbird.”

“OK, we have to assume they somehow found us. Sound the alarm, we’ll attack tonight.”

Chekov climbs aboard his T90 main battle tank leading his 288 vehicles towards Las Vegas, which has no idea an invader is twelve miles away and closing every minute.

While the Russian tanks are advancing on Las Vegas, Ron, Bev, Brad and Kathy are enjoying cocktails at a formal dinner in the ballroom of the Wynn hotel. Ron introduced his friends to the Mayor, Chief of Police, and the Wynn’s owner. Brad taps Ron on his shoulder saying, “Hey buddy, it looks like you’ve made some high-brow friends out here. By the way, who is the surprise guest?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Come with me.”

The two walk towards the left corner of the room, they see a middle-aged man in a black tuxedo with a black shirt and black bow tie. “Brad, I’d like to introduce you to Commander Jack Lewis of the LSA DepLIES. Jack, this is my oldest and best friend, Brad.”

              Jack extends his hand, “Hello Brad, any friend of Ron’s is one of mine. Welcome to Las Vegas the only sin city still open.”

              Brad’s eyes widen in surprise. Jack laughs saying, “You’re thinking what’s a commander in the DepLIES doing in Las Vegas, aren’t you?”

              “Yes I am.”

              “We have many of our citizens visit Las Vegas every year. We’ve reached an agreement with your State Department to allow us to have a small group of agents in the city to help resolve any issues that might come up between our citizens.”

              Before Ron can say anything else, two very attractive blonds grab Jack’s arms, saying, “You’ve got to try these new drinks the bartender made for us.”

              Ron laughs saying, “He’s very popular in some circles. The Casino owners and Chief have an agreement with him to help keep order in the city. He does a lot of favors for the city.”

              “I can’t believe there’s a nest of DepLIES snakes right here in the city and you’re friends with them.”

              “Brad, things are not always what they appear to be.”

              Before Brad can respond, someone yells, “Hey there’s something going on to the west, there're flashes of light.” Before anyone can respond, the shopping mall across the street from the hotel explodes. Ron stares out of the window from the 44th-floor ballroom. He turns to Brad, “Get Kathy and Bev out of here. Take them to the basement. There’s a VIP parking garage under the hotel take them there.”

              “Ron?”

              “Brad, someone just fired artillery or a rocket at the mall, or a terrorist struck the mall. We could be the next target. I don’t know what’s going on, so take our women to safety until we figure out what’s going on. The forty-four floor isn’t going to be safe. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

              “Bev, Kath, come with me right now! We’ve got to go before everyone panics.”

              While most of the other guests are staring out of the window, Bev and Kathy join Brad who starts leading them towards the service elevator; Bev asks, “What’s going on?”

              “We have to get out of here as quickly and quietly as we can.”

              “Why? They haven’t served dinner yet.”

              “The mall across the street just exploded, Ron wants us out of here ASAP.”

              Bev responds, “Oh, in that case, what’s taking you so long? Let’s go.”

              The three of them ride the elevator down 44 floors, on the ground floor they see hundreds of people staring across the street, thousands more are on the street watching the mall burn. Brad says, “Ron said there’s a garage under the hotel.”

              Bev replies while pulling at Kathy’s arm, “This way; there’s a VIP parking elevator around the corner. It’s hidden in a hallway marked no entrance. One needs a passcard to enter.”

              Kathy asks, “How are we going to get in?”

                Bev reaches into her handbag showing them a small gold colored VIP parking pass card. “Ron helps the casinos, they all give us special perks. This is one of them. We’re parked in the VIP underground garage.”

              “Bev, how many entrances and exits are there?”

              “Brad, one each at opposite ends of the garage. Did Ron say we should go anywhere?”

              “No, he said we should go to the underground garage and wait for him.”

              “Our car is on the second level. He’ll most likely expect us to meet him there.”

              They take the elevator to the second level of the VIP garage. Bev points out, “The VIP garage is also a shelter. The entrance and exits can be sealed. The hotel is separated from the garage by reinforced barriers. This entire structure is a stand-alone bunker.”  Their car is parked two rows from the elevator door. Bev says, “Brad, there’s some items in our trunk I think we may need.” Opening the trunk she pulls out a 12 gauge pump shotgun and an M4. Bev points to a gym bag with 100 shotgun shells and ten 30 round M4 magazines. There’s also two Glock semi-auto handguns and 20 filled magazines. Bev takes the M4 handing Brad the shotgun saying, “I know you know how to use this.”

              “Yea, I do. What else is in here?”

              “An armored vest.”

              Pulling on the vest over his Tuxedo, Brad notices it’s a plate carrier with front, back, and side armor plates. The front has pockets for six magazines that he fills with shotgun shells. “I guess now we wait.” Before anything else can be said the floor of the garage shakes, there’s a loud BOOM outside. Brad’s thinking,
Not good. Sounds like a war out there. All those people standing in the street are going to die if they don’t get under cover
. Even in the underground garage/bunker they hear people screaming.

Chapter 5

              A stealth drone, which can fly for 24 hours, circling over Las Vegas sends live video feeds of two columns of Russian main battle tank to the White House Situation Room wall monitors. President Rand says, “Shit, it’s started.” Those in the Situation Room are able to watch the muzzle flashes from the tanks firing on the city. “How far away are the Marines?”

              The Commandant replies, “Sir, they are least four hours away.”

              President Brownstone says, “General, this is going to be over in four hours. Any way you can get some of your people to the city quicker?”

              “Mr. President, the quickest my Marines can reach the city will be three hours. The vehicles can only travel as fast as the slowest one in the convoy can move. We can get some Air Police and Air Security staff from Nellis in a few minutes. They have a very limited staff. I think Nellis can also get a couple F35As or F16s over the city in twenty minutes.”

              President Rand asks, “Can we hit the Russians with cruise missiles? Air Force, what about a bombing run from Nellis? Marines, get your planes into the air and headed to Vegas right now, Army, get your tanks to Vegas. Damn it, they surprised us. We should have seen this coming. President Brownstone just suggested to us this was going to be their target. How did we miss seeing their plans?”

              The four service chiefs pick up phones in front of each of them to talk to their staffs, the head of the Air Force picks his head up saying, “Mr. President, we have a B2 at Topanga that is being armed, it can be over the Russian force in 25 minutes. Sir, we have a prototype B3 there too, we can have it over Vegas in an hour. We have four F15Es that were on a training mission, they are only armed with guns, they will be over the city within a couple of minutes. Nellis is surging F35s and F16s, they can have armed planes over the city within 30 minutes.”