Bug Out! Atlantic Book 4: Defiance, page 2
Dan Dannon and Kay had followed Captain Sturm to UN Headquarters, and set up surveillance in a vacant office suite across the street. They saw commotion around the entrance, and called Tracy, who patched in Chief Harvey and Mayor Fine. They told him about the drone, which Cary had just blown up. Dannon said he and Kay were watching for Sturm to leave the facility, so they could try to kill him.
Salvatore talked to John and Linda, telling them he was worried about Craig, after seeing some enemy chatter about him. He also expressed concern that the slow-roll of control over the citizens was working. John told him there was a lot about that tactic in his new book, which he was editing, expecting to have it done in several days.
Islamist fighters attacked civilians and police in Central Park, near Strawberry Fields. More of them arrived quickly, and they set up a command structure, placing powerful machine guns behind their temporary walls. Mayor Fine’s team reacted, using social media to alert citizens, and getting ready to attack with the hybrids. Laleh suggested putting falcon drones on the roof of her apartment, less than a block away from the enemy position. Cary and Hector agreed, and they all took off for the area. Chief Harvey sent SWAT to that location as well.
Daan Mertins called a meeting with the UN high command and the funders. They spent most of the time arguing but agreed in the end on what was needed to lock down New York City.
Citizens and the resistance team converged on Strawberry Fields, seeing the larger weapons at the Islamist temporary base. Three Blockbusters arrived on the scene, ready to pepper the enemy with grenades from their M79s. The falcon drones targeted and destroyed all the heavy machineguns the Islamists had set up, as a flood of citizens rushed in, taking on the large group of Islamists, the battle raging for almost a half hour before the Islamists surrendered.
In Boston, angry citizens converged on City Hall to protest the lack of police protection for the Trinity Life Church’s fundraiser, and the tacit support for the black-suited thugs by Mayor O’Reilly. The SWAT team was called out to protect the administration against the citizens. As the tension rose several buses arrived, the first one letting out a bunch of radicals with signs showing beaten trans people. They rushed over to a small group of parishioners from Trinity Life Church, who were trying to hold a vigil for their fallen members, taunting them, then pulling out plastic bags of urine and pouring it on their heads, police watching silently. More buses arrived, a total of six now parked next to City Hall. The Mayor came out on the front steps of the building, flanked by bodyguards, to make comments. He gave an appalling speech, saying part of the blame for the Trinity Life Church attack was their stand on Trans outreach to Elementary Schools. He said the church would have its tax-exempt status stripped, and that they would be shut down if their social score continued to go in the wrong direction. The citizens were very upset now, shouting insults at the Mayor as SWAT members held them back. More citizens rushed into the area, most of them armed. SWAT pulled their weapons, pointing them at the arriving citizens, and then the other buses opened their doors, black suited thugs running out with bicycle chains and clubs, heading for the church members first, citizens rushing to stop them, SWAT firing into the crowd of citizens, other citizens seeing that as a direct challenge and opening fire on SWAT. Truckloads of armed citizens arrived as SWAT fled the scene. It looked as if the citizens had won the battle, but then two semi-trucks arrived, opening their trailer doors, Islamists with AK-47s rushing in, killing everybody they could, citizens fighting back but outnumbered and out-gunned. Jared called the new base, telling Jaak and his team not to engage, and to use social media to get the surviving citizens to flee. He was sending military drones to the area to kill the Islamists. The team watched phone video coverage of the battle, Islamists rounding up the remaining citizens and lining them up against the wall, executing them in cold blood. Then the drones arrived, unloading missiles, blowing the entire area sky high, the streets littered with the splattered bodies of dead Islamists. Citizens rushed into the aftermath, picking up machine guns not destroyed by the blasts.
The Manhattan team was watching the action in Boston, Cary and his team flying the drones. Then Albena’s PC alarm went off, showing that there was a huge number of Islamists heading for New City Hall from Harlem, walking down the street, shooting any citizens who got in their way. The social media team sounded the alarm. The number of Islamists on the move was over eight thousand and growing fast.
Dan Dannon and Kay saw Captain Sturm get into a UN Van with Major Krieg and some commandos, driving out of UN Headquarters, onto the gridlocked street. They picked up the FN assault rifles they’d captured and went down to the street to follow the van. Citizens on the street recognized Dannon, some offering to help, including a black gang leader named Dempsey, who called his crew over. Sturms’s van crept down the clogged street, getting into a good position for Dannon to attack, so he got down on one knee and fired his FN, taking out both tires on the driver’s side of their UN Van. Commandos flooded out, Sturm and Krieg showing themselves as Dempsey and his men opened fire. Dannon hit Sturm in the side, knocking him to the pavement as Krieg returned fire, killing Kay with a headshot and hitting Dannon in the gut. Krieg was approaching Dannon to finish him off when Dempsey fired, hitting Krieg in the neck. Dannon crawled over to the spot where Sturm was, seeing blood but no body. Dempsey and his crew picked up Dannon and rushed him away as he passed out…
{ 1 }
Blockade
D an Dannon woke up, looking at the blue sky above him, feeling nothing but a harsh pain in his gut.
“Hold on, man,” Dempsey said above him, Dannon’s eyes moving, seeing the arms of several black men carrying him to safety, gunfire continuing behind them. “We got a doctor. He’ll check you out.”
“No hospital,” Dannon croaked. “They’ll find me.”
“Don’t I know it,” Dempsey said. “It’s gonna get deep at New City Hall. They got enough people?”
Dannon started to reply, but felt light-headed, passing out, dreams of Kay filling his head.
“He’ll be lucky to make it, man,” said one of the men helping to carry Dannon, smaller than Dempsey but built like a wrestler.
“I know, Freeze,” Dempsey said. “We got to try. This is serious now. I don’t even like this guy’s policies, but he was elected, dammit, and that means something. It has to.”
“Almost there,” said a smaller man with a Tupac shirt on. “He’s bleeding too much. That’s why he passed out.”
“Duh,” Freeze said.
“Don’t worry, Jones, he’ll make it,” Dempsey said. “This honky is a crazy ass mofo. Dudes like him ain’t easy to kill. Trust me. He’ll live by sheer frigging will.”
“There’s Moth, holding the door,” Freeze said.
“Hurry up,” said Moth. “Doc’s here, but there are UN Peacekeepers all over the damn place again. The citizens are chasing them this way.”
The men struggled through the too-thin doorway, Moth shutting it and turning the deadbolt, Dannon set carefully down on a big table in the middle of the room. The men backed away.
Doctor Saperstein rushed over, pulling up Dannon’s shirt. “He had a vest on, but the bullet went a little too low. He might not make it, not a good place to get shot.”
“Do your best, he’s important,” Dempsey said.
“He’s a reactionary with a bad past, from what I’ve read,” Saperstein said. “Why do you care about him?”
“He’s fighting the UN, and he’s like me. We know our own.”
Saperstein eyed him a minute. “Your thigh is bleeding.”
“I just got clipped. It’s fine.”
Saperstein turned back to Dannon. “I’ll get this guy stabilized and check you out. Anybody else get hit?”
“Nope,” Dempsey said.
“Getting pretty busy at New City Hall,” Freeze said, scrolling on his phone. “Damn. Maybe we should go down there.”
“I plan on it,” Dempsey said.
“You’re wounded,” Saperstein said. “Relax. I’ll get to you in a minute. Dannon really needs to be in a hospital.”
“There are enemy operatives searching for him,” Jones said. “C’mon, man, we can’t take him there.”
“He stands a pretty good chance of dying either way, because I’ve got to operate on him in a frigging storage room.”
“Operate?” Dempsey asked.
“He’s gut shot. I must find the bullet, and see if I can repair the damage. Call Shell. I’ll need help, and she knows what she’s doing.”
“We had a falling out,” Dempsey said.
“You want to save this guy or not?”
Dempsey eyed him a moment, then reached into his front pocket for the phone, walking away with it to his ear.
***
Tracy’s brow furrowed as she watched the various big screens, showing the progress of the Islamist forces, still moving south, getting some citizen resistance but quickly killing anybody who showed themselves.
“We should go to the main bunker while we still can,” Kate said. “If they overrun all our ground forces, they’ll get to the vault door. They’ll probably get through it.”
“I agree with that,” Mayor Fine said. “Let’s get into the moles and take off.”
“What about Chief Harvey?” Julio asked. “He’s still at NYPD headquarters.”
“I just talked to him,” Mayor Fine said. “He says his place is with his men, but he is in their bunker, at least.”
“Get down here,” Jace said over the speakers. “Seriously. They don’t know about the main bunker, and that might save your lives.”
“Yes, what are you waiting for?” Albena asked.
“Let’s go,” Tracy said.
“Check the tunnels between here and there,” Julio said.
“I’ve got a monitor on that right now,” Albena said. “Nobody’s down there. Are Cary and Hector finished with that last crop of falcon drones?”
“They’re still working on top of NYPD headquarters,” Mayor Fine said.
“Heard that,” Cary said. “We came over in hybrids. We’ll go straight back to the main bunker and control everything from there. We’ve got a nice setup with a whole bank of monitors down in the lab.”
“Good,” Mayor Fine said. “C’mon, folks, let’s get the hell out of here.”
The leadership team took the elevators down to the mole room, some of the team opting to take hybrids, most going in three moles, making it to the main bunker in less than a half hour.
***
Kenny banged on the door of the garage, looking both ways on the deserted street. He was flanked by Duce and Clifford. Rico opened up, letting them in, then closing and bolting the door.
“About time you guys got here,” Rico said. “Been watching the news?”
“Yeah, this one is gonna get big, but we’ve got more citizens showing up, and not just from Manhattan this time.”
“Do tell,” Duffy said, walking towards them, wiping his dirty hands on a shop rag. “We’re gonna kill us some heathens.”
“That sounded a little Islamophobic,” Clifford quipped.
Rico snickered. “We’ve got three more almost ready to go. Best we’ve made yet, ain’t that right, Duffy?”
“Three?” asked Duce. “Where’d you get the other two cars from?”
“Same place we were getting them from before,” Duffy said. “I’ll just leave it at that. Got something new on these, as my technical lead alluded to. Come take a look.”
They walked into the back of the garage, where the three blockbusters were lined up.
“What the hell?” Kenny asked, looking at guns sitting above the driver’s section of the vehicles. “Is that a turret on top?”
“Them there are M19 grenade launchers,” Duffy said. “Specifically designed to fill up enemy depends.” Rico snickered.
“Where the hell did you get those?” Duce asked.
“Somebody with big bucks delivered them here,” Rico said. “They just showed up at the back door yesterday. Complete with instructions, remote control sights, and gobs of ammo.”
Kenny walked over, looking at them. “I remember these things. They were either on tripods or mounted to Humvees. You know what we can do with these things?”
“They brought us twenty sets,” Duffy said.
Duce shook his head. “No way. Who would do that?”
“Maybe the guy who provided those falcon drones,” Rico said. “Or those crazy two-wheelers.”
“These aren’t up to those technical levels,” Duffy said. “Did some research. These are Viet Nam era, but a good solid work horse, still being used today. The rate of fire is something else, and we could make the front slits much smaller. Less chance of lead getting through.”
“Those remote control sets look pretty high-tech, and totally plug and play,” Rico said. “They even step up the voltage to 24 volt. Don’t know how they pulled that off.”
“They gave us BARs and a bunch of 30-06 rounds too,” Duffy said. “They must be mind readers. M60s are great, but the belts are a pain inside the cars.”
“Browning Automatic Rifles,” Duce said. “Nice.”
Duffy nodded. “The enemy will try to hit the turrets. Everybody inside is gonna have to be on BARs except the M19 gunner, just to keep the enemy down. These aren’t indestructible, and the ammo box could blow if it gets hit just right.”
“Important safety tip,” Duce quipped.
“How quick is this battle gonna start?” Duffy asked.
“The Islamists are making progress,” Kenny said. “We’ve got Blockbuster II and III fueled up and ready to attack. They’re already heading towards the scene.”
“I think we can finish these babies in less than half an hour,” Duffy said.
Rico shook his head. “You’re crazy.”
“We’ve got three more people to help right here,” Duffy said. “C’mon, guys, let’s get to work. There are some coveralls hanging inside the office if you want your clothes to stay clean.”
Kenny grinned. “All right, men, let’s pitch in.”
***
Captain Sturm woke up in the dim light of a storage room off an alley, the pain incredible. He fumbled for his phone, pulling it to his face, blood dripping off of it, feeling lightheaded. Hurry. He hit Sanchez’s contact, struggling to get the phone to his ear, fighting the urge to sleep. It rang twice and clicked.
“You’re alive,” Sanchez said.
“Barely,” Sturm croaked. “I’m only a few blocks from the headquarters. Come get me.”
“We can’t send any vehicles out,” Sanchez said. “I’ve got operatives outside, though. They’ll get you picked up. Exact location?”
Sturm moved the phone in front of his face, light-headedness coming in waves as he navigated to the GPS coordinates. He read it off to Sanchez.
“Got it,” Sanchez said.
“Why can’t you get vehicles out?”
“NYPD SWAT is controlling the gates. Set up a blockade. They’ve killed anybody who tries to get in or out. We’re appealing to the World Court right now.”
“Oh God,” Sturm said, a wave of light-headedness taking him, the phone falling out of his hand.
“Sturm!” Sanchez’s tinny voice yelled over the speaker.
***
Chief Harvey watched video on his bank of monitors in the NYPD bunker, his brow furrowed. Tim rushed over. “I think we need to pull the SWAT team members from the UN Headquarters blockade. We’re gonna need everybody we’ve got up here.”
“How far away are the K-Rail trucks?”
“Close,” Tim said.
“All right, bring the SWAT guys to the battle after the K-rails are placed. Shouldn’t take long. We contracted with a lot of men to put them down.”
“Yes sir,” Tim said. “I’ll go check on progress. Anything else on Sturm or Dannon?”
“Not a word.”
Tim left, the chief turning back to his bank of monitors, dwelling for a moment on the roof view, as Hector and Cary set up the next bank of falcon drones, the total in the New City Hall and NYPD headquarters area now nearing two hundred. His thin phone rang. He answered it.
“Tracy, what’s on your mind?”
“You really should come over here,” she said.
“I’m fine. Hear anything about Dannon?”
“Not yet, and I’m worried sick. We looked at the video earlier, new material from a different angle. Both him and Sturm looked wounded to me, and that poor woman who was with Dan was dead from a shot to the head.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Chief Harvey said. “That’s not why you called me.”
“The World Court just ruled it unlawful for us to restrict free travel in and out of UN Headquarters.”
“So we have to stand down?”
“Not yet, President Simpson’s spokesperson said they were formulating a response. He might take our side.”
“I doubt it, I think he was in on the bombings.”
“I hope you’re wrong, but I must admit I tend to believe that as well. Keep doing what you’re doing, and speed it up if possible. Are the K-rails in place yet?”
“No, but soon. Then we’re gonna pull our SWAT team from that location. We’re gonna need them, given the number of Islamists on the way.”
“I agree. Albena just said she’s seeing a rapid uptick in UN Peacekeepers, coming from the north.”
“With the Islamists?”
“No, way behind them, and more to the east. She says they’re on I-95.”
“How many?”
“Unknown. We’re relying on eyewitness reports, but we’ve gotten enough phone video to believe it.”
The speakers in the ceiling scratched to life. “Chief Harvey, the K-rail tenders just arrived in front of UN Headquarters. They’ve already put some down, blocking the driveways. Sorry, didn’t see that they were already working before.”
