Bug Out! Atlantic Book 7, page 15
“Mateo has been using the RFID system to monitor the actions of Saladin’s forces around the New York City area.”
“Saladin is a moron. He’s likely to sink our whole operation.”
“We are in agreement,” Sturm said. “He’s the most overrated leader I’ve ever seen.”
Lance snickered. “I think we’re gonna get along well. Let me guess what you want me to do.”
“Go ahead.”
“You want me to figure out where the rest of the Ammonium Nitrate is.”
“Right again,” Sturm said. “Mateo knows the source of the material, but he couldn’t track it to its final destination.”
“Mateo figured that out?” Lance said. “Never had much confidence in him.”
“He’s smarter than he acts,” Sturm said. “The source of material is a warehouse in Nyack. He noticed a stream of RFID hits going through that town, and he didn’t see a reason, so he sent some of his people to investigate.”
Lance was quiet for a moment. “He couldn’t see the final destinations, because of all the RFID traffic coming west via I-80 to I-84 and then south into Manhattan. They’re using White Plains as a hub, but due to their large numbers they’re having to flow through all the big roads in that area.”
“You see, I don’t have to give you all the background… in fact you’ve increased my knowledge on this subject.”
“Well, I might be able to find a lot of Saladin’s bases by analyzing the RFID history,” Lance said. “I won’t be able to tell normal safe houses from Ammonium Nitrate storehouses.”
“Not to worry, I have operatives who can look into that on the ground, if you can point me to some possibilities.”
“You think the enemy can see the RFID data,” Lance said.
“It’s a good possibility,” Sturm said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to catch them in the act of trying to attack another location?”
“Nice isn’t a strong enough word,” Lance said. “I’ll get on it tonight. Keep in touch.”
“I will,” Sturm said. “I’ve enjoyed our chat.”
“Likewise.”
***
Blumenthal used his key to unlock the door to Terry’s gun shop, not seeing him behind the counter. He pulled out his phone and sent a text, getting a reply in seconds, Terry telling him to come to the roof. He locked the door, then went to the spiral staircase in the back, climbing to the top, walking to Terry, who was sitting in an old sand chair on the roof next to his Barrett.
“Saw the last of the trucks take off,” Terry said. “You get everything out? There’s a chair over there.” He nodded over his shoulder, Blumenthal grabbing the chair, sitting.
“All the weapons are gone, taken to several locations.”
“What’d Derrick’s folks take?”
“Most of the ammonium nitrate and the detonators, plus all the Claymore mines, some mortars, all the willie peter rounds, and a handful of machine guns. Most of it is going to the army base, to build a better perimeter.”
“Where’d the rest of the fertilizer go?”
“We took it,” Blumenthal said. “We were lucky this happened tonight. There was enough material in that building to destroy the whole block. If you were here when it went off, you wouldn’t even know what killed you.”
“Do you trust those guys? I do, in case you were wondering.”
Blumenthal sat silently a moment. “Yes I trust them, but with any new partner, we have to watch. I think you need to leave this location.”
“No way,” Terry said. “I’m not leaving my store.”
“The UN is gonna come here, because the survivors in those vans saw the muzzle flash of your Barrett. I don’t know why they haven’t already been back. I expected to fight our way out.”
“Whoever wanted to blow up that fertilizer didn’t have permission,” Terry said. “That’s the only thing I can come up with.”
“It’s very strange that they showed up on the same night Derrick’s team decided to show up.”
“Not really. I think Derrick is right, we’ve got an enemy plant at the army base. Somebody close to Whitaker, which is gonna be tough.”
“Timing was wrong.”
Terry shook his head. “Pat helped with that. I chatted with Derrick before his team left. They worked all day at the army base, came home, planned this operation, and launched it right away. Pat pushed that. The others wanted to wait till morning. She’s a driver, that one. Valuable person to have.”
“Wonder why she isn’t with him?”
Terry eyed him a moment. “Craig?”
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t you read that story? He was arrested on some BS charge and thrown into prison. She was put under house arrest, and raped by her guard.”
“Oh geez,” Blumenthal said, shaking his head.
“She killed her rapist and escaped. Eventually joined up with Derrick’s squad. Most of the story is up on the Sons of Liberty web page.”
“Are they still together?”
Terry shook his head. “Yes she is attractive, and yes, they are still together. Sorry, nephew.”
Blumenthal chuckled. “Can’t fault a guy for wondering. The weapons and supplies are gonna help. Wonder how fast the UN will come back here?”
“I don’t think they will.”
Blumenthal eyed him a moment. “Because they didn’t have permission for the Ammonium Nitrate? You saw that huge explosion in Manhattan, right?”
“There’s been a lot of rumor traffic about that,” Terry said. “The enemy leadership wasn’t happy about that explosion. There’s strife in their ranks.”
“So the UN placed material that the UN didn’t want placed?”
Terry chuckled. “No, the story goes that the Islamist leader had it placed there.”
“You’re still thinking it’s Saladin?”
“Can’t be anyone else,” Terry said. “You notice he’s dropped out of the propaganda circuit completely.”
“Most people I know of wish he’d come back and talk some sense into the Islamist army.”
“Except he’s running it,” Terry said.
Blumenthal was silent a moment. “Do I need to worry about you?”
“In what way?”
“No matter what you do to Saladin, it won’t bring Sammy back… and we don’t even know if that ambush was run by Saladin.”
“George said it was, that’s good enough for me.”
Blumenthal rolled his eyes. “That guy is a maniac, and now he hangs with a crooked ex-cop.”
“My sources say he’s on his way to Kansas to join General Hogan.”
“Bullshit.”
“No, I believe it,” Terry said.
“I suppose he’s got Supercop with him.”
“That’s the story,” Terry said. “To be honest, I don’t know if it’s true, but I hope it is.”
“Why?”
“Because like those guys or hate them, they’re the best I can think of to keep Frank Johnson from getting captured.”
***
Albena sat at her PC, brow furrowed, typing furiously for a moment, stopping to stare at the screen.
“What?” Penko asked.
“That hacker is back.”
Penko got up, getting behind her to look at her monitor. “You sure?”
“Pretty sure. Noticed somebody accessing the MVS near some spots that we highlighted with the RFID analysis. I kicked him off the system and deleted his account. He was back in a flash. Same style. Even left me a nasty message on a temp file.”
“Maybe you should create a bot to handle him.”
“Thought about it,” Albena said, staring at her screen. “I might be able to use what he finds out.”
“He might use that to lay a trap,” Penko said. “You’d better talk to Mayor Fine about this… or at least Jace and Cary. We don’t want him to know we have access to the RFID data.”
“Knowing this guy, he’s a few steps ahead of that already,” Albena said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”
“Find any more likely locations for ammonium nitrate?”
“Several, already passed the info to Jace and Cary.”
“Good,” Penko said, moving back to his PC. “I heard from Sydney. We need a better cover story for our absence from the coffee shop.”
“What did she want?”
“Two of our people quit. She wanted permission to hire replacements.”
“You agreed, of course.”
Penko nodded. “Yep, told her to use her best judgment.”
“Good,” Albena said. “We should reward her for this, if we survive past the end of the war.”
Penko smiled. “We’ll survive. I gave her a raise last week. She was thrilled.”
“Then why the need for a better cover story?”
“She’s worried about us, and that makes her worried about her situation too. We need a new story that convinces her we are in an insulated place. Living with our ailing mother in Bulgaria is outliving it’s believability.”
“Tell her we’re opening a shop there,” Albena said. “It’s far enough away that there won’t be a need for communications with the Manhattan store. Tell her we’ll run that until Manhattan settles back down.”
“That’s the angle I was thinking about. I hope we can tell her everything eventually.”
“You’re still sweet on her.”
Penko smiled. “She’s too young for me, and I don’t like tats and piercings.”
“Uh huh. You never dated her? Never kissed her?”
“We kissed once. After that store party. Neither of us were comfortable with it, so it didn’t go past that.”
Albena eyed him a moment. “She’s good people… but there has to be the attraction.”
“Like you and Stefan.”
“I can’t talk about him,” Albena said.
“You should get yourself out there again.”
“No, and even if I wanted to, the risk is too great.”
“Cary likes you. Can’t you tell?”
“No he doesn’t,” Albena said, “and he isn’t attractive to me, like Sydney isn’t attractive to you. Can we stop this conversation?”
Penko shrugged. “Sure.”
Albena went back to her screen, thoughts of Stefan flooding her mind, rolling over her with hurt and longing and anger. It took her half an hour to kill it.
***
“This place is out here a ways,” Devin said from the passenger seat of Elliot’s Class C motor home.
“That’s good,” Chuck said, sitting on the couch in the back, Cristy next to him, Max sprawled over her lap.
“Oh, I’m glad it’s way out here,” Elliot said. “The three hybrids are in our caravan now. Saw them join a little while ago.”
“Not in two-wheel mode?” Chuck asked.
“Nope,” Elliot said. “It’s a pretty long caravan. Hope we’re not attracting the wrong kind of attention.”
“Traffic is almost zero, and this is too far out for the surveillance cameras,” Devin said.
Chuck shook his head. “We hope. We’re getting close.”
“More than close,” Elliot said. “It’s the next off-ramp.”
“Lack of traffic helps,” Christy said. “I can’t take this anymore.” She shoved Max off her lap. He eyed her a moment, then went to the front, sitting between the seats, watching out the windshield.
Elliot took the off ramp, heading onto the surface street, pointing out the windshield. “There it is, just like the picture Art sent.”
“He knows we’re here,” Chuck said. “The gate is opening already.”
Devin’s phone buzzed. He looked at it. “Art, he said everybody should drive in.”
“We’re taking a motorhome into underground parking?” Chuck asked.
“It’s huge, made for semi-truck shipping and receiving,” Elliot said. He drove onto the driveway, and down a steep ramp, under the gate, into the cavernous interior.
“There, loading docks,” Devin said.
“I see it,” Elliot said. “Should I back in?”
“We’re not unloading anything,” Christy said.
“True, but it might be good to park so we can leave in a hurry,” Elliot said, making a wide turn, backing into the first spot in the row. The caravan was flooding into the structure now, parking in the spaces nearby, Elliot and Devin getting out of the cab doors, a tall lanky man walking towards them.
“Elliot and Devin?” he asked, extending his hand.
“Yep,” Devin said. “You must be Art.”
“Glad to meet you,” Art said. “We’ve got lunch waiting.”
Tamera, Jax, and Todd got out of their hybrids, walking over.
“How’s it going, Art?” Jax asked.
“Great,” Art said, shaking hands with them. “How are you liking the hybrids?”
“Love riding them in two-wheel mode,” Jax said.
“Seriously,” Todd said. “Makes you feel like you’re part of the machine.”
Tamera nodded in agreement. “We getting any upgrades?”
“No, there haven’t been changes to the hybrid yet,” Art said. “We will train the new recruits on Roach Drones and missiles as well as the hybrids. Jaak thought it’d be a good idea.”
“Great,” Jax said. “We’ve got lots of targets designated already.”
Art went to the sidewalk as people gathered around. “Everybody, I’m Art. Follow me, we’ll take the elevators down a few levels and have lunch. I’ll give you a brief presentation, and then we’ll start training. Oh, and I’ll show you to your quarters for the next few days. You can retrieve your personal items after lunch.”
He turned, going through an open loading dock door, the group following.
“Did he say a few levels?” Christy whispered as they loaded into one of four elevators.
“I did,” Art said.
“Wow, good ears,” Chuck quipped, Christy’s face turning red.
“This facility is large,” Art said. “We’ve been training a lot of resistance groups here. There are some who live here full time.”
“Why?” Devin asked.
“Convenience and base protection,” Art replied. “The location gives us certain flexibility, so we can leave metropolitan Boston to groups like yours.”
“Oh, you send people out on longer runs, then?” Elliot asked.
“We have, but so far your group’s control over Boston has kept the enemy from expanding their operations much,” Art said, as the elevator came to a stop, doors opening. He went into the hallway, waiting for the other elevators to unload. “Take a right out of the elevator, and go into the open double doors on your left. Grab some food and sit. I’ll be there shortly, I have something to check on.”
Art disappeared through a door opposite the elevators, the rest of the group going to the large conference room, its double doors spilling light into the dim corridor.
“Has this changed since you guys got trained?” Devin asked Tamera.
“Doesn’t look like it,” she said.
“Hasn’t changed since I’ve been here, and that’s been a while,” Todd said.
“Oh, you were part of the first group?” Devin asked.
“First from Boston, that we know of,” Todd said.
Devin turned towards him. “You don’t know about the other groups?”
“It’s best that we don’t know about each other,” Todd said. “Safer that way.”
“I could see that,” Chuck said. “Let’s get into the food line.”
Christy laughed. “That’s my Chuckie.”
“Where’s the dog?” Jax asked.
“We left him in the RV,” Devin said. “He’ll bunk with me tonight, though.”
Everybody got food and sat, Art breezing into the room after ten minutes, going to the head of the table, picking up a remote and clicking it, starting a screen against the wall in the back of the room. “We’ll go over the hybrids first, and then touch on the Roach drones. Then we’ll go upstairs and do hands-on training with the hybrids.”
“We’re going outside?” somebody asked.
“No, we’ve got a three-level parking structure,” Art said. “Perfect training facility.”
“Eat up,” Tamera whispered to Devin. “He’s gonna work us hard, for a long time. We’ll be wiped out.”
Devin smiled at her, noticing her beauty for the first time, her flashing dark eyes and shy smile.
***
Jaak came into the intel room at the downtown Boston base. “Just heard from Art, our people got there safe and sound.”
“Good,” Henry said. “I was worried.”
“Me too, although I don’t know why,” Ross said.
“We sent a group of new people,” Henry said. “That’s why I was worried.”
“There were background checks,” Ross said. “Shoot, never mind, we know those have backfired.”
“Where are we on the targeting?” Jaak asked.
“Jamie, Dave, Ava, Gavin, Adrian, and Justin will present their plans in about an hour,” Henry said. “They’d like to make the initial Roach Drone deliveries tonight.”
“Initial?” Jaak asked. “How many targets are they planning on hitting?”
“With Roach drones?” Henry asked. “All of them, including sites where we’ve seen RFID hits. It’s a multi-day job.”
Ross nodded. “They plan to pick the targets using the roach data. Some targets won’t get hit, at least right away.”
Jaak sat silently a moment, thinking. “Okay, I agree, it’ll give us a good working knowledge of what the enemy is doing, assuming they don’t figure out what the roaches are and neutralize them.”
“That’s always a danger, but I think it’s low-risk,” Henry said. “We don’t have to worry about checkpoints anymore. Every time one gets put up, a group of citizens knocks it out. They haven’t attempted any new ones for more than three days.”
“Three days isn’t very long,” Jaak said.
“You sound worried,” Ross said. “What’s going on?”
“Sunshine has been hearing rumors about the EU Navy, headed to our coast to bombard our cities.”
“The EU barely has a navy,” Henry said. “They’re no match for the US Navy.”
