Chapter 19

Things were settling down. Greg and Steve once again had their house to themselves with the exception of Mrs. Graso, Jessica, and Rachael and Tracy. The bunk house and cabin were sufficient for the amount of men that were on the property as guards.

Steve was sitting on the porch, taking in the evening air when Mrs. Graso came out and informed him that his brother wanted him in the study. Steve got up and went in to see what his brother wanted.

"So you see, now that we have completed the body removal from Ft. Hood, we are sending a decontamination team in. Something killed those men. It had to be a biological agent of some sort. Tests are being done on some of the bodies, but we won't have any results for a while yet.

"Ah, Steve. Glad to see you." General Avery said as Steve came into range of the video pickup.

"We have a situation developing. We need you back here at Cheyenne Mountain for briefing and deployment. I was just telling your brother some other interesting news. He can fill you in. A chopper will be sent for you tomorrow. Avery out."

"What was that all about?" Steve asked his brother.

"Well, things have been happening. You remember me telling you that the people we sent down to Texas to fight off the French were diverted to Ft. Hood? Well, it seems that some quick acting deadly... something was released down there at about the time the meteors hit.

"Whatever it was, it was deadly, as near as Cheyenne could tell from satellite photos. Colonel Ellis and his men have been doing body removal for the past several weeks. It's been a slow business. Whatever killed them is active in the bodies. Plus the bodies are decomposing now and that makes the job even worse. Steve, everyone on that base is dead. People who came into contact with people from that base are dead.

"The higher ups think we were hit with a bio agent of some sort, and whoever did it got away with it. This was nothing short of mass murder." Greg ended heavily.

"Man. I can't believe it. With disaster raining down, literally, someone had to do something like this too?" Steve shook his head.

"The president has decided that when Ft. Hood is decontaminated, and it's safe, he is going to move his government there. Ft. Hood has state of the art everything, and what it doesn't have, will be installed for him very quickly. It has weathered the storm fairly well. It has of course received damage, and repairs will have to be made, but all in all it has come through fairly well." Greg ended.

Gary was stymied. He had tried to approach the lodge and was almost caught, not once but twice. Security was tight there. So he tried again at the ranch. Again security stopped him. He was pondering how to get to Greg Baron, murderer of his brother. He wanted this man to know why he was dying. He also wanted him to hurt, like he was hurting.

For the past two weeks, he thought of and rejected plans. Finally he decided on killing those around the general. He knew he probably would not live through what he was planning, but that was beside the point. He wanted this man to HURT.

So he let things settle down. He played the good citizen, pitched in where he could and generally made himself scarce but useful when he interacted with the 'officials'.

He also carefully located all guard positions and movement routes.

He lived a quiet life while still planning his revenge. He hunted, skinned his game, and took the extra to the ranch for distribution to the people. He had no beef with people in general. He realized that not everyone had the mentality needed to hunt for their own food, and made himself a welcome sight at the ranch when he showed up with his game. He traded all his extra game for staples he couldn't get for himself any other way.

Steve sat stunned as he watched the reconnaissance video. Six ships, one of which was a helicopter carrier was steaming from China in the direction of Hawaii.

Not only were the six ships all military, but they were accompanied by three freighters which were riding high. Riding high meant they were empty.

"As you can see, the Chinese are on their way to what's left of our Pacific command. They have sent a communications in advance. They require a supply of the following materials to be supplied by us."

The screen now showed a list of supplies that the China communiqué had listed.

"This group of ships were known to have raided what is left of Japan. Apparently the Chinese are taking what they want. They have stated that any interference in their request will be considered an act of war, and that they are prepared to launch nuclear missiles in response to any act of aggression on their convoy. They also want us to load all materials for them."

Here the briefer paused again. Steve and the others listening to this briefing were totally stunned.

"What is going to happen is this. The Guided Missile Frigate Sharlene has already sailed with a destroyer escort. This represents a little less than one fourth of the military sea might of the US.

"When the Sharlene is in position, it will launch in continuing fire, half its load of cruise missiles. A specially equipped helicopter is already on board the Sharlene and will provide jamming so the Chinese cannot yell for help or inform their superiors what is going on. We are going to blow that little group of ships, freighters included into so much scrap metal.

"Steve, your job is simple. You will launch and attain an orbit which will be beneficial to the US if the Chinese launch any missiles. You will be in position to intercept them and destroy the missiles before they can reach apogee or deploy any war heads. "