Red Hammer: Voodoo Plague Book 4 (26 page)

Roach was back in an Air Force uniform.  He was dressed as a
Captain again, clothes perfectly pressed and creases razor sharp when he walked
into the offices of the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the Security Forces on
Tinker Air Force Base.  He didn’t know what was in store for him, but the best
thing about the attacks on America was that none of what he’d done the past
couple of weeks had been documented or could even be attributed to him.  Here
at Tinker, he and Synthia would get a fresh start.

He had a lot to teach her about patience and covering her
tracks.  She had tried to convince him the previous evening to go out and find
a woman for them to play with.  Descriptions of what she wanted to do to the
woman with her knife had sent Roach into a sexual frenzy, and he had nearly
agreed to her request.  He could feel the flesh of the woman as he beat her,
taste her blood when he bit her, hear her screams when he savagely penetrated
her.

Then he had reached orgasm and looked down to see that it
had been Synthia’s flesh he was beating, her blood he was tasting and her
screams he was hearing.  Bruised and bleeding, she had smiled up at him and
told him she loved him.  Having never heard those words before, even from his
own mother, Roach ignored them and immediately began worrying about the noise
they had made.

Dressing quickly, he stepped out on the front porch of the
small house that had been assigned to them.  His neighbor, also a Captain and a
cargo pilot, was standing in his driveway looking at Roach’s house.  Roach
apologized for the disturbance and told the man it was his wife having night
terrors about the infected that had trapped them in Nashville.  The man nodded
his head in sympathy and wished Roach a good night before going back into his
house.

They would have to be more careful than that.  Perhaps a gag
for Synthia.  Yes, that would work.  He’d used gags before and found them quite
effective.

“Captain, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis will see you now.”  Roach
looked up when the young Senior Airman sitting at the reception desk spoke. 
She was pointing at a door behind and to her left.  Roach stepped up to the
door, knocked sharply, and entered when a voice called out “come”.

The Lieutenant Colonel was older than Roach expected, a
slight paunch around the middle and thinning hair on top.  He looked like he
hadn’t had a shower, shave or change of clothes in a couple of days.  Not
bothering to stand, he waved Roach into a chair in front of his desk and picked
through a pile of folders until he found the one he wanted.  Opening the folder
he leaned back in the chair and looked at it through a pair of gold rimmed
reading glasses.

“Welcome to Tinker, Captain.  You and the missus all settled
in?”  He didn’t bother to look up from the file he was reading.

“Yes, sir.  Thank you, sir.  We’re quite happy with the
accommodations.”  The man flapped a hand in the air, dismissing Roach’s thanks.

“So here’s the deal, Captain.”  He said, closing the folder
and placing it back on the desk.  He leaned forward and rested his forearms on
his desk.  “We’re stretched about as thin as we can be at the moment.  Thinner,
even.  I lost a third of my personnel to the outbreak, and another ten percent
just lost it.  In the rubber room.  They’re useless to me right now.”

He paused, looking around his desk.  Shoving some papers
aside he found a crumpled pack of cigarettes and pulled one out.

“Do you mind?”  He asked, holding one up for Roach to see.

“Not at all, sir.  Please feel free.”

“Thanks.  Now where was I?”  He leaned back and lit the
cigarette with a gold Zippo lighter.

“Stretched thin, sir.  I’ll do whatever needs to be done.” 
Roach offered.

“Right.  Thin.  Anyway, we’ve got the normal problems of any
large Air Force base.  Thefts, assaults, rapes, even murders.  All of those are
on the rise, by the way.  But we’ve also got the goddamn Russians on our
doorstep.  It’s up to us to keep this installation secure from spies and saboteurs.” 
He paused and drew deeply on the cigarette.  It was only through a well honed
strength of will that Roach managed not to make a face at the stink of the
burning tobacco.

“I’m ready to jump in, sir.  I ran base security at Kadena
for 18 months.  Learned a lot about defending against espionage and sabotage.” 
Roach forced himself to keep his hands in his lap and not start fanning the
smoke away from his face.

“Good, but I’ve got a man on that.  The other issue that’s
stretching us is refugees.  We’re getting a steady stream of people from all
over the country that have made it to Oklahoma.  General Simonds has graciously
opened our gates to them and we’re falling behind in processing them and
getting even the basic necessities issued.  That’s what I need you to take
charge of.”

Refugees.  Roach tried not to smile as he thought about the
possibilities.  Women and girls that no one knew who they were or where they
were.  And they’d be vulnerable and eager to accept any kindness, not
recognizing the danger they were in until it was too late.

“Yes, sir.  I’m happy to take that off your plate.”  This
time Roach did smile.

The Lieutenant Colonel wrapped up the meeting in a hurry at
that point, sending Roach to see the Senior Airman at the front desk.  She told
him where to go and who to find when he got there.  Next she handed him a
two-way radio, charger and directed him to the rear parking lot where extra
Hummers were parked.

“Just take any one that doesn’t have a red sticker on the
windshield.”  She said.

Roach thanked her, found a vehicle and drove across the base
to a massive hangar where five Airmen and a Staff Sergeant were trying to deal
with a large group of women and children.  Roach walked up to the Sergeant and
introduced himself. 

“Damn glad to see you, sir.”  The Sergeant said, tossing a
clipboard onto a table covered with file folders and lose papers.  “I’m sure Lieutenant
Colonel Lewis told you how understaffed we are.  And we just had another group
roll in a couple of hours ago.”

Roach looked around the hangar.  A dozen women were trying
to control what must have been close to fifty school aged children.  The kids
were running around, chasing each other, yelling, screaming, some sitting by
themselves crying.  First thing they had to do was get the children calmed
down.

“Who’s leading them?”  Roach asked.

“I don’t know her name, but that’s her over there.”  Roach
looked at the woman the Sergeant pointed out and felt a familiar thrill start
at the base of his spine. 

The woman wasn’t as young as Roach liked, under 20, but she
was beautiful.  On the shorter side, he estimated no more than five foot three
or four, she was obviously in very good condition.  She wore a pair of khaki
shorts with tan desert boots on her feet and a once white but now filthy
T-shirt.  A large frame pistol was holstered on her right hip, two spare
magazines in pouches on her left.  Long, wavy red hair spilled down her back. 
Every time she moved, grabbing a running child or turning to yell at another
that was misbehaving, the muscles in her arms and legs rippled.

Nodding to the Sergeant, Roach walked over and stood looking
at her, waiting for her to finish scolding a little girl that had just punched
her brother.  Finished with the girl, she straightened with a sigh and
stretched her back, the fabric of the shirt pulling tight across her breasts. 
No bra.  Roach felt himself growing hard.  Noticing him standing there she
turned and looked him up and down.

“Hi.”  She said.

“Hi.  I’m Captain Lee Roach.  Welcome to Tinker Air Force
Base.  I’m going to help you.”  He held his hand out.

“Thank you, Captain.  It’s been a while since anyone offered
to help.”  She took his hand and shook it.  “I’m Katie Chase.”

As always, first and foremost, my heartfelt thanks to
Katie.  For everything you do.  And how do I repay you?  I leave you in Roach’s
clutches.  Just remember… squeeze the trigger, honey.  Squeeze.

For the first time I enlisted the assistance of a beta
reader to give me feedback.  Red Hammer was a bit of a departure from the
formula of the first three books in the series and I was a little nervous with
the change.  I’m happy with the end product, but I’m sure you the reader will
let me know if I missed the mark or not.  Thank you to SH for taking the time
to read and provide constructive and insightful feedback. 

No book is ever complete without thanking Dog.  For waking
me up in the middle of the night so I’m writing in a daze (makes it easier to
think like a zombie) and for distracting me when I’ve been sitting in front of
the computer for too long. 

Finally, if you’re still reading this crap, thank you for
spending your money to read my work.  That is an honor that I didn’t fully
appreciate until I became an author.  It also puts a lot of pressure on me to
make sure I’m holding up my end of the deal and producing a quality product
that meets or exceeds your expectations.  If I’ve done that, I would greatly
appreciate a good review on Amazon.  Yes, I know they’re a pain to do, but
reviews from readers like you are the best marketing in the world!

Also, you can always correspond with me via email at
[email protected]
and if you’re
on Facebook, please like my page at
www.facebook.com/FearThePlague
 
I enjoy interacting with my fans on Facebook and I answer all of my email…
eventually.

Thanks again for reading!

Dirk Patton

August, 2014