Chapter 4

“You think I’m stupid?” snarled Alan. “There’s no marine on earth that would be allowed near a flag officer with a shit haircut like that. If I let you live, I will tell you where to get a good haircut.”

“They’re going to kill you the moment you land,” said the man in the corporal’s uniform as Alan’s blade pressed into his throat.

“Hold that pistol up where I can see it,” said Alan, and the assassin slowly raised the gun. It was a model KRG-31, a piece of crap gun made by the Eastern Bloc. With lightning speed, the gun was snatched from his hand and used to club him into unconsciousness. “Thank you dear,” said Alan as he reached over and unbuckle the guy’s seat belts.

“Where did this jerk come from?” asked Pandora, as she stuffed the pistol into her uniform jacket. Then she yanked the assassin out of the seat and dragged his body back.

“Wow!” said Anna. “I wanna be a marine!” as she watched her grandfather tie the unconscious bandit with zip ties and watched her mother climb into the pilot’s seat.

“Navy is better,” said Little Wally with all the knowledge of a world wise three-year-old.

“Where to?” asked Pandora. Alan had used the gunner’s flight controls to get the ALS out over the lake.

“Head up north a bit then go inland, we’ll approach from Cheektowaga.”

“Gotcha,” Pandora said and took over the controls. She flew the ALS like she would fly one of her heavy bombers, straight, fast, and big sweeping turns. Alan flies everything like a high performance fighter, which explains why his whole family has neck aches.

Inland the towns were rebuilt, and the men and women of the area were doing a good job getting on with life in the wake of the Great Wave, but what was once the City of Buffalo was left as a huge memorial to the lost men and women. Pandora made a wide, sweeping turn to the right and aligned with a heavily trafficked road and settled the ALS down on Walden Ave. She eased into traffic and followed the traffic into the city center, where thousands were gathered in an enormous circle that was once called Niagara Square.

They were surrounded by security as they neared the crowd, and ‘Big Wally’ opened the side door of the ALS and stepped out. A shocked Army MP sputtered and finally saluted, “A-a-admiral!”

“Don’t sweat it soldier. The fellow on the floor tried to kill us. Take care of him please.”

Big Wally was followed by his wife, daughter, and son-in-law, each holding a child. They were escorted through the crowd and led up to the platform where the Secretary General of the Western Alliance waited. Like many other cities surrounding Lake Erie, the city of Buffalo was a vast ruin. The only things left standing from a century ago were the ancient concrete grain elevators and the granite obelisk standing in what used to be the middle of the city. Some cities were being rebuilt, Lackawanna to the south of Buffalo and Erie, Ashtabula, and Toledo were being rebuilt, but places like Buffalo and Cleveland were now memorials to the millions of innocent lives lost.

Alan stepped up on the large dais and took his place next to his fellow Martian Envoy Nadia Volochenko- Clark, his step-aunt. As Ferdinand Jean-Pierre LeBeau, Secretary General of the Alliance of Western Democracies, addressed the crowd, Alan guessed he could get a nap. He was wrong. Ferdinand Jean-Pierre LeBeau was a people person, and he introduced everyone on the dais to the crowd, and was especially excited to meet Alan. When he introduced Alan to the crowd, the audience went wild. They were well aware of the exploits of ‘Berserker One’ and Alan blushed bright red as they cheered. “Why are you not a general?” asked Secretary General LeBeau.