The Navigator 2: We the People Page 8

  "Good idea," Hawklings replied. "She might seem meek and mild, but she can kick ass when the need arises."

  "She's not afraid to stand up to someone either!" Joe replied grinning at his lover.

  Trying to imitate an Irish accent, Becka replied, "Aye, if ye be insistin' on bein' an ass, you'll be sure to find my boot in it!"

  The comment made even the Councilors laugh. Hawklings gave Cassie a hug. "Don't be a stranger, okay?"

  "All that's behind me, Uncle. I'm back now, even if the community doesn't agree to join you, I have. I'll be coming back," Cassie replied. "I believe our best chance at having a future is here."

  The Admiral nodded as he released his niece. She stepped over to Joe and took his hand with a wink at Becka, who smiled back at her.

  "Ready?" Joe asked.

  She took a deep breath and nodded. "Let's do this. I just called ahead to let the Elders know we're coming."

  Joe nodded and formed the portal. Then he and Cassie stepped though and were gone.

  "What an extraordinary man," Councilor Young replied.

  Councilor Orelov nodded agreement. "Just before the fall of the iron curtain, the KGB and the GRU had an alert about a new agency that had highly skilled, specially trained snipers to use as assassins. It was rumored that they were all but invisible and could kill from impossible distances. They could never confirm the existence of this agency until after the Berlin Wall came down. Then they scrambled to try to kill as many of those people as possible. To my knowledge, they never found any, but their work was very evident.

  "It is indeed good that we have the goals and agenda he agrees with; if he were our enemy, there would be little we could do to stop him," Orelov said.

  "Councilor, I have spent a lot of time with him over the last few weeks. He truly does admire what we are doing here, and more importantly, how we are going about it. I can honestly say that I believe every action he makes will be for the benefit of this project and our people," Becka replied. "Yes, there is a very powerful and frightening demon inside him capable of horrendous acts of violence. But he has firm control of it, and worries that he could become a worse problem than Jared was. Laura is one of his more important grounding rods. Allowing her recruitment was a wise decision simply because it gives him piece of mind. You know she actually does have something to contribute to us, right?"

  "In what way?" Councilor Young asked, but the sparkle in his eye told her he already knew.

  "She has been going to school to become a Psychologist and has already reached the Masters level. She could be a great help with adjustment issues people may have at the new community," Becka replied. "But, I'm sure you already knew that."

  Young nodded. "We knew of her education and training. The situation of the displaced Navigators and the gifted community is a new thing, and her value in this endeavor was not lost on us."

  Joe and Cassie dropped out in the warm spring morning air of southwestern Colorado. They were in the well-kept back yard of a ranch style home. Near the privacy fence that surrounded the yard, three people were waiting for them. All three of them were older in appearance and looked a little nervous.

  Cassie smiled up at Joe. "Welcome to my home, Joe."

  Joe returned her smile as they stepped forward to meet the waiting people. Cassie spoke. "My friends, this is Colonel Joseph Anderson of the Terran Marines. Colonel, this is Mister Charles Carrol, Misses Hayden Davis, and Mister Michael French. Along with myself, these are the elders of our community."

  The three shook hands and tentatively smiled at Joe during the introductions. Joe felt the need to say something to help them to relax.

  "It' s real pleasure to meet you folks, but please; I'm not here to hurt anyone, and I definitely am not your enemy. I am here to talk with you, and offer you some options that you maybe haven't considered," Joe explained. "You have nothing to fear from me or the people I represent."

  "We don't believe you are the threat here, Colonel, please forgive our seeming anxiousness. Cassie, while you were gone, something happened," Mrs. Davis began. "Carlos and his team went out on a rescue mission last night and captured the Government team; they brought them back here."

  "Oh shit!" Cassie said. "What was he thinking? Where are they?"

  "The prisoners are being held in the community center. Carlos is strutting around like he made a major victory." Mr. Carrol replied. "The rest of the youngsters are all cheering and celebrating."

  Joe shook his head. "I'm sorry, but you might want to tell everyone to get ready to run; although it might be too late for that."

  "That's what we're afraid of. Come, we'll take you there," Mr. French replied and opened the gate out of the yard.

  The group hadn't walked very far before they could hear the cheering and clapping of the crowd.

  When the armed people saw Joe with their Elders they surrounded him and pointed their guns at him. "Stop right fucking there, pendajo!" a young Latino man yelled at him and pointed a pistol at his face sideways, like a gang-banger.

  Joe activated his internal shield and looked at the young man. "Let me guess, you're Carlos, right?"

  "What you care? We got the boss himself here Amigo's! El numaro uno came to get his men back!" Carlos crowed.

  Joe just shook his head. "And you call me an idiot! Don't tell me; your ex-gang… probably the Latin Kings, southern California, right?"

  "So what? You can read me, everyone here can. But no one can read you; and that's not gonna fly here, homes!" Carlos replied.

  "So shoot me. But I would recommend shooting those prisoners first, because as we fuck around out here, there is a serious strike team on their way here right now being lead in by those men. I can pretty much promise that none of you are going to get out of that!" Joe said and stepped forward to enter the community center.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Carlos shot at Joe three times. The bullets dropped to the dirt in front of him. Joe reached out and took the weapon out of Carlos' hand, dropped the magazine and removed the slide before dropping the whole thing to the ground in front of the gang-banger. "You got balls, I'll give you that, kid, but you're not very bright. Come on, let me show you."

  Joe led the group into the community center. There, in the center of the big room, were four men and two women bound hand and foot. They were not blindfolded and had not been gagged. Joe walked up to one of the men, drew his forty-five, and shot him in the head.

  The move shocked everyone that had followed him into the room. They were even more shocked when the bullet was deflected by a metal plate. Carlos was beside Joe. "What the fuck?"

  "They’re cyborgs. They let you capture them," Joe replied. He ejected a round from his weapon and handed it to Carlos. "Recognize this?"

  "Yeah, armor piercing, this'll go right through an engine block!" Carlos replied. "You tellin' me this is some kind of robot?"

  "No, half robot, half human. Hard as hell to kill, and impossible to capture," Joe replied and shot the man twice in the stomach. The man fell over, and the rest of the 'captured' prisoners broke the hand cuffs holding them, broke the ties on their ankles, and tried to stand.

  Joe quickly backed up and shot two more of the inhuman machines in the stomach. One of the prisoners walked up to one of the firing people and spun her head around on her shoulders, killing her instantly.

  Screaming people tried to get out of the community center as quickly as they could, while the armed fighters of the community tried, in vain, to stop the killing machines in their midst.

  Joe and the rest of the fighters had been retreating while trying to kill the prisoners, finally, Joe got a good angle on the last one and shot it in the stomach, dropping it to the floor.

  "Fuck! Those are hard to kill!" Carlos said.

  Joe shook his head. "They aren't dead, only deactivated. "I'll tell you all about it later, but for now we got bigger problems."

  "Bigger'n that?" Carlos asked, pointing back into the community center.

  Joe nodded. "Yeah, I g
ive it about ten minutes before at least a hundred more of them are all over us. We need to get the hell out of here, fast."

  "We need to get our guns…" Carlos began and started back toward the community center; Joe stopped him.

  "Leave them, I can get you better ones anyway. We need to get the people to safety!" Joe was aware that Cassie was trying to get people safely away as quickly as she could without scattering them. She had taken as many as she could find back to her place and was organizing the escape. "Carlos send your people out and tell as many as they can find to drop what they're doing and get to Cassie's place as fast as they can! They do not have time to pack!"

  Carlos nodded once and started issuing the orders. Joe pulled his communicator out of his pocket and put it in her ear.

  "Darkwater, this is Anderson, I need to speak to the Admiral, ASAP!"

  "Hawklings here, what's up, Colonel?"

  "We ran into a problem down here, that Agency that's hunting the people set them up. We're evacuating right now, but the assholes are going to be here any minute. I would like permission to assist by protecting the evacuation," Joe asked.

  "Granted. What do you need?" Hawklings asked.

  "Just my toybox; and maybe some special ammo for the Gun. We're facing enhanced agents," Joe replied.

  "What do you need and where?" Hawklings asked.

  "Just have Gunny Grimes set a box each of unbelted AF and DPU on his counter and I'll lift them from there. We're going to need something for smaller arms to penetrate that armor eventually. I had no idea these fuckers had finished the cyborgs." Joe replied.

  "I’ll see what we can come up with. Anything else?" Hawklings asked as Joe opened a portal and reached in to drag his weapon box through.

  "Yeah, a Snickers bar would be good too. Look, this isn't gonna be pretty; I just need to buy them time," Joe replied, as he took the big sniper rifle out of the box and quickly assembled it. He grabbed a canvas satchel, tossed in a pair of enhanced binocs, all the extra magazines he had for the rifle, a couple of other gadgets that might be handy, then closed the box and pushed it back through the portal before it closed. Carlos was standing there with his mouth open watching him.

  "Your ammo is ready, the Snickers is sitting on top," Hawklings replied.

  "Great, thank you Sir. I'll keep the comm active if you need me," Joe replied and opened a new portal, reached in, and grabbed the two ammo cans. He put the candy bar in his pocket, slipped the carry strap of the rifle over a shoulder, and picked up the ammo can of napalm, or 'air-fuel', ammo. He looked at Carlos. "I need one person to load for me and I need the highest point in town I can get to in the shortest amount of time."

  Carlos was too stunned to argue. He waved to a woman that was running past and pointed to the roof of the community center. When the woman stopped, Joe smiled at her. "Please grab that ammo can and follow me. Carlos," he said to the former gang member. "Head over to Cassie's and make sure everyone gets to safety. We'll follow along after."

  Carlos nodded and trotted off toward Cassie’s house. Joe looked at the girl now carrying the other ammo can. "Can you get us up to the roof?" he indicated the Community Center.

  She grinned and Joe felt himself being lifted off the ground.

  "My name's Joe. When we get our asses out of this mess, you are going to have to teach me that trick!" he grinned at the girl. "Now, here's what's going to happen; we have no idea where they are going to come from, but I'm guessing their going to come straight up the road," he said as he set the rifle down and opened the bag. He took out small sand colored package and opened it while he spoke. "I'm going to need you to keep a look out in the other directions I can't see. I'll also need you to load magazines for me."

  He touched the top of one of the ammo cans. "This is air-fuel and the other is depleted uranium. Don't get them mixed up, and be very careful not to drop the air-fuel bullets; they tend to explode easily. I'll ask you for the type I'll need at the time, and you'll hand me the one I ask for. Try to keep the mags loaded all the time." He pulled a small folded tarp out of the package he'd opened and pressed the adhesive on the corner of the tarp to the raised edge of the building facade and the other corner to an air-conditioning unit. He set the other two corners creating a blind over the position he intended to shoot from.

  "When you're not loading the mags, or handing one of them to me, I need you to be looking around to make sure no one is sneaking up on us, or the people over at Cassie's. Can you do that?"

  "Sure can, Colonel. My name's Abby, my Daddy was in the Rangers and talked about being a sniper. I used to go hunting with him all the time. I think I know what you'll need," the girl replied grinning.

  "Well, let's just hope we can jump out of here before we get too dehydrated; I had no idea it would be so fuckin' hot up here," Joe replied.

  She smiled and winked as two ice-cold sodas popped into her hands. She handed him one and cracked the top on the other. Joe took a long drink and sighed.

  "Perfect, thanks. Uh, with those air-fuel rounds, try not to touch the bullet itself with wet fingers… it might be bad," Joe replied he turned and looked down the heat distorted road. "Damn, we're running out of time." He handed her a headset to protect her ears from the gun. And started loading magazines. She put the headset on and began helping him. When they had five magazines loaded with depleted uranium, Joe grabbed the rifle and got into position. Abby opened the air-fuel box and loaded two magazines before going back to the depleted uranium. She jumped a little when he fired, but quickly settled down

  "Darkwater control, I count one sedan, six SUVs and four busses," Joe said.

  "Understood, be advised, there is at least one drone in your area, we've been unable to locate it." Hawklings replied. "They are trying to get a satellite on you, but haven't had any luck so far; it seems something up here keeps jamming their signals."

  Joe glanced at Abby, who had overheard the conversation. She grabbed the binocs and immediately started scanning the sky.

  "Thanks Darkwater, we're on the drone issue. Admiral, please say hello to my assistant Abby," Joe replied as he lined up another shot on the vehicles.

  "I would say 'good morning' but I doubt this morning is anywhere close to being good. Thank you for your assistance in this, Abby," Hawklings replied.

  "Well, it is morning, Sir," Abby replied. "Got it! One FD-47, position relative one niner-two degrees at fifteen thousand feet, distance four miles."

  "It's out of my range. I can't do anything to it that far away," Joe said.

  "It seems to be flying past us, it's heading west-southwest," Abby replied.

  "Ex-military, Abby?" Hawklings asked.

  "Army brat Sir." Abby replied. "Dad was a Ranger."

  "Road's blocked, agents are coming in on foot. I hope heat build-up is still an issue with them," Joe replied. "Get the air-fuel rounds ready, Abby."

  She set four mags next to him. Then cocked her head to one side. "Helo's. I can't tell direction yet, but I can hear them."

  "This just keeps getting better and better," Joe mumbled and dropped the current magazine to load one of the air-fuel ones. Abby pulled her AK-47 closer to her as she looked around. "You worry about the agents you can see; I'll make sure the helo's have a warm welcome."

  Joe nodded and reloaded the armor rounds. He aimed and fired, dropping four agents to the ground. Quickly loading another magazine of depleted uranium he dropped six more before the original four began to get up. Through his scope he could see the massive abdominal trauma his weapon had caused. Noting the range, he reloaded the air-fuel rounds and chose his first target.

  "Helo's coming in from the north and on the deck! Firing!" Abby said and opened fire.

  Joe hit his first target and it exploded into a fireball that blasted several nearby agents off their feet. The target was blown in half. "Yeah, just as I thought, hydrogen power cells. This should be interesting."

  "If your done having fun over there, these Helo's are getting ballsy," Abby replie
d. She turned and lifted the Binocs. "Fuck, that fighter is inbound."

  Grabbing another mag of air-fuel rounds, Joe moved out the rear of the blind and took quick aim at the first helo and fired. He didn't wait to see the results but targeted the second and fired again.

  "Jesus, don't you ever miss?" Abby said as the first helo crashed into a house on the far side of town. The second Helo was trying to control the bird while backing off.

  "I miss, we die," Joe said as he got back into his original position. "Keep an eye on the fighter, tell me when it's three clicks out."

  Joe began firing again causing four more agents to explode. The rest had dropped to the ground or moved into cover. Joe guessed they were waiting for the drone to take him out.

  "They’re waiting for the fighter to kill us, Abby. Where is it?" Joe asked.

  "It should be popping up over the ridge behind the vehicles any minute,"

  Joe snorted. "Fucking amateurs! They should have had it come in high, I'd be less likely to hit the damn thing then."

  "The 47's are autonomous, remember? No pilot," Abby said.

  The stealthy craft indeed popped over the ridge and Joe was just about to fire when the small fighter craft began dropping its ordinance on the agents in hiding. "What the…" Joe said.

  Hawklings chuckled in his ear. "If it’s got a computer, we can hack it!"

  The drone raised up slightly and fired two missiles into the remaining helo, destroying it.

  Joe began firing again as the agents again tried running for the small community. "I need more mags, Abby, all of them air-fuel please."

  "You got it Colonel," the girl replied and began loading the empty magazines.

  "Cassie? How's the evacuation going?" Joe sent.

  "Almost there, Joe; five more minutes!" Cassie replied, she sounded desperate.

  "What's wrong?" Joe asked.

  "We have three of those cyborgs over here, Carlos and his teams have stopped two of them, but we've lost five more people," Cassie said. "Four fighters and one civilian."