The World's End Series Book One: Dymond's World (17 page)

The daily status meeting started, as usual, with Regina in Hampton Roads and her father in Washington.  As the life sized figure of General Martin appeared on her display, Regina saw a question on his face.  He asked, "Where's Jason?"

She replied, "I got the password."

There was a moment of silence and then he continued, "Okay.  Anything else before we bring in the rest?"

"No, that's it."  Regina touched buttons on a keyboard in front of her and six more displays lit up as people joined the meeting.

Today was a very critical day.  Everyone knew it, so the tone was all business.  Regina started, "Master at Arms, is the base secure?"

Even though he was an enlisted man, Chief Younger was a key person on their team.  Like most of the others, he'd been identified and recruited years ago by either Regina or her father.  "Yes ma'am.  We have four entrances open now.  Security is tight. There are approximately 11,000 personnel on base right now, a bit more than half normal."

General Martin was wearing his uniform jacket today, its three stars glinting in the lights.  "You're ready to require the vaccinations?  And is everything else ready?"

"All ready for your command, sir."

"Fine, Chief."  He turned and looked at a young officer in combat fatigues.  "Colonel Edgemont, are the Spartans ready?"  The three hundred trained fighters that made up Expeditionary Force Three had been nicknamed the Spartans by Regina.  They were housed in two multi-story apartment complexes on base.  Their charter said they would be ready to be the first ones in when command determined that some spot needed to be invaded with a lot of violence.  The only time they'd been used had been when they raided a village in Somalia that sheltered pirates.  It was an exercise to make sure they were truly capable and would follow orders without question.  Regina had gone along on the mission as their commander and was impressed at how quickly they tracked down and herded all the pirates into a group.

On the ride over in a ship, she ate and slept and trained with them every day, telling them they were her Spartans, her 300.  She also told them that they would have a large role to play in shaping the future. Regina thought they would obey any order, but she had to be sure.

In one village, her Spartans had gathered seven pirates.  As they cowered in the dusty square that defined the center of the town, Regina slowly walked around them.  She wore the same uniform as the others, but unlike them, she didn't carry a rifle, only a sidearm.  She was the only one to wear no rank.  The pirates, all males, looked at her forlornly, some reaching out their hands in supplication.  None dared touch her, though they were only inches away.

***

"Three volunteers!" she called.  Three hundred hands instantly went up.

"Sergeant Major, bring me three," she said.

"Ay, Commander!"

The three lined up to attention at her side, anticipating her orders.  Regina was pleased to see that the Sergeant Major had chosen the lone female member of EF3.  Her name was Private Ashley Hamn and Regina had talked to her on the trip over.  Her story was just like all the men - it's why they were chosen.  She had been a star distance runner and a natural athlete, but she got in trouble with the law fairly often.  Nothing big - underage drinking, truancy, shoplifting - the kind of things rebellious teenagers do.  It was surprisingly easy to find people like her; the schools churned them out like a machine spitting out identical rolls of toilet paper.  These kids had no appreciation for life, no knowledge of what they could be, no motivation to push themselves to achieve something.  EF3 gave them that chance and that motivation.

"Are the guys treating you well?"  Regina had asked her as they sat together.

"Yes, ma'am.  At first they were skeptical because I can't do as many pullups or lift as much as them.  But a lot of our training was running.  After five miles or so, I was always put in the lead to help the others not drop out.  I'd run backwards and tell them that if a girl could do it, they could.  A few times, I grabbed one of my fellow Spartans and pulled him along, until he caught his breath.  After that, things were fine."

Regina smiled and looked around her at the men who were lounging in small groups, playing cards or reading.  They were all in t-shirts, all in their early twenties, and all in great physical shape.  "How many of them are you screwing?"

Ashley's face betrayed her surprise at this question, but she answered truthfully and fully - it was what her training required.  "I'm not really into men, Commander."

That night, Regina had her assigned as the guard outside her stateroom door.

***

The pirates saw them lift their weapons and looks of horror appeared on their faces.  As they prepared to stampede in panic, Regina called out, "Fire."  Her voice was calm.

Three weapons instantly spit out death as bullets tore into the men.  Almost like a single organism, seven pairs of legs crumpled.  The women of the village, arrayed around the outside edge of the clearing, wailed in agony.

Regina inspected the carnage - there were no signs of life.

She turned and strode over to the women.  Their crying stopped raggedly as she approached. Several put their hands over the mouths of children to keep them quiet.  Regina had memorized what to say, "Hadda ka tag oo waxaad u tagtaan tuulo kale. U sheeg waxa halkan dhacay. U sheeg burcad mar dambena."

It meant, "Leave now and go to another village.  Tell them what happened here.  Tell them no more pirates."

They stood without moving until several of the Spartans herded them on their way.  "Go on now.  She said to leave."  Their words were firm, but not threatening.  The group of women and children started to move and the wailing began again as they passed the pile of bodies that had been their husbands, fathers, or brothers.

"Sergeant Major, bring those three to me."  She pointed to three women and walked back over to her place beside the three Spartans who had volunteered.

The three chosen women started to wail and cry even louder as the larger group of women paused at the edge of the village, looking back.  They were placed in front of Regina.

"Private Hamn, shoot them," she said.  Her voice could be heard above the cries of the women, but it was calm.

Hamn raised her weapon and pointed it at the women.  One fell to her knees, pointing to her stomach, obviously signing that she was pregnant.  "But ma'am, they're women," said Ashley.

299 Spartans instantly became alert.  The change in their posture was evident to the women, who fell silent.  The air was still, the only sound a baby crying in the distance.

Regina looked deeply into the eyes of Ashley and then slowly turned to face her troops.  When she spoke, her voice was softer.  There was a tone of resignation in it.  "Being a Spartan - a member of this team - means that we will often not know the reason why we are doing something.  Today was a hard day, but there will be others in the future.  Days where we will be ordered to do things we will not understand.

"But to us, that will make no difference because we all know, deep down inside, that whatever we are asked to do is for a reason - a good reason.  We will trust that our actions will result in a better world.  We will not hesitate, we will not question, we will only act because there is no other way.  None."

With that, Regina unholstered her handgun and pointed it at Ashley Hamn's face.  Ashley stood up straight and looked Regina right in the eyes.  "Ma'am, I'm . . ."

Regina shot her and then shot the three women.

That night, all alone in her stateroom, she cried.

***

Colonel Edgemont, the present commander of the Spartans answered, "Yes, General.  We're ready"

Regina brushed away those memories and took over.  She was anxious to get the next part over with.  "Tomorrow we start the vaccinations everywhere.  It'll be a few days before we see the full effect."  She closed a notebook in front of her and opened another.

"Our latest intelligence shows the Russians and Chinese are being relatively quiet - their forces are on alert, but with most of the world dark, there are not many places to send your press releases." She paused to let them appreciate her joke.  "What is the opinion of the CIA, Director Brown - are their early warning systems coming back online?"

Brown was the Director of Intelligence for the CIA.  He basically knew everything there was to know.  "Our latest estimate is that they are 60% functional.  As you know, both Russia and China were spared the worst of the EMP blast but the radars on their borders were affected.  They can't see perfectly, but they are looking at hard as they can.  Since we got hit harder than anyone, they believe we didn't cause the EMP attack.  That leaves one of them, but each knows they didn't do it, so each thinks they know the other did.  My guess is the one who comes back online first, will be tempted to strike the other."

"And their delivery systems?"

"We have assets inside the Russian government who claim they have as many as one hundred launch-capable nuclear ICBMs.  I personally believe the real number is no more than half that.  They have been affected by the EMP blast and they had large numbers of personnel on leave over Christmas.

"As to China, they are one of the few countries where the lights are on in most of their larger cities.  Satellite evidence suggests that they are hard at work, fueling and arming missiles since they don't keep them ready to launch.  Our EMP blast was successful in blinding all their satellites.  They, of course, did not have large numbers of people off for the holiday, so we believe they are able to launch perhaps thirty missiles now and perhaps double that in twenty four hours."

General Martin broke in, "Any evidence as to who they are targeting?"

"Yes, General.  We have strong evidence that they are targeting Moscow and Saint Petersburg, along with Novosibirsk.  We think that with as many as sixty launchers, they'll target one or two missiles on each of Russia’s major cities."

"But none are aimed at us?"

"That's the way it appears, General.  They believe we were the target for an attack by someone else - the Russians."

General Martin looked at Regina on his screen.  She was two hundred miles away, but it was like she was in the room with him.  He smiled at his daughter and said, "I'm sorry to be monopolizing the questions.  As I should have expected, it looks like things are on track.  I'll turn it back to our Commander.  Go ahead, Regina."

***

She didn't mind her father calling her by her first name.  The people in this meeting had been part of their group for a minimum of six years.  Most of them attained their present positions based on the efforts of the others and they knew each other very well.

And even though their positions and rank outside the group were often well above hers as an owner of a medium sized company, Regina was the Commander.  She was also the one that kept the plan on track.  The Secretary of the Army, a four star Navy Admiral, the Director of Homeland Security, all looked to her to lead the way to their new world, their second chance.  It had been that way since they were recruited and elevated, step by step, to where they were today.  It was all her doing and they knew it.

"Mr. Speaker, can you tell us how our illustrious President and Vice President are doing?"

The political realm had always been one of the most challenging parts of her plan.  While they could get most of their members in place fairly easily, trying to do the same thing with politicians was worse than herding cats.  Regina had long planned on having the President as part of this team but, so far, that had not been possible.

This was one reason she needed the money from Jason.  John Washington White was a congressional leader and rising star.  He had charisma by the bucket, perfect teeth and an expensive toupee; but he was realistic enough to report that he only had about half the required votes to be elected Speaker of the House.  Regina used almost all that very first check given her by Jason to buy him the position.  A super PAC was set up and donations poured into it from hundreds of people; all with money supplied by Regina and Jason.

Congressman White then held meetings with each of his reluctant members.  He told them he would be the next Speaker and they had two choices.  First, they could fail to vote for him and he would make sure they were relegated to back bencher status in the new Congress.  Or, they could pledge their support and he would make a one million dollar donation to any of their campaign committees, super PACs - whatever they wanted.

Lying and downright treachery are like air in the Congress - everyone breathes the same stuff.  But this type of offer, plainly stated with no room for misunderstandings, was sacrosanct.  All offered and accepted bribes from other members had to be kept completely confidential and had to be paid as agreed - no exceptions were allowed.  Everyone knew the rules and everyone followed them.  He was elected speaker unanimously by the members of his party.

His election and Jason's money had started the countdown clock to the where they were now.

"Ah . . . His Highness is all snug inside Cheyenne Mountain.  They're still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't - it's a typical government cluster fuck.  I talked to him this morning - he's frustrated that no one can tell him who or even what did this, and that our missiles and planes have been badly compromised.  He used that whiny, ‘Woe is me.  It's so hard,’ voice of his.  Makes me want to puke every time I hear it.