Redemption (13 page)

Max was shocked.  “Christ, Richard, that’s over twenty miles straight up.  Is that even possible?”

“It’s been done a few times.  The record is almost a hundred and thirty-six thousand feet.  As I was saying, once they jump, they’ll be in free fall for over four minutes.  When they are a thousand feet above the Canal Zone, they pop their chute and hit the ground.”

“Who’s looking after the Hal robots on the way down?” asked Max.

“The robots will have self-deploying chutes rigged to altimeters.  As soon as the robot drops from the cabin, a drogue parachute will deploy to slow its descent.  The paratroopers will hit the ground about thirty seconds before the Hal robots.  When they land, they’ll basically just look straight up and follow their Hal robot to the ground and collect it.  The robots will have reflective patches only seen on infrared.  We originally wanted to get Hal on the ground using a tandem jump but the robots weigh too much.  The odds of a paratrooper directly attached to a robot actually making it to the ground alive was slim.”

The president was optimistic but guarded.  “So, you get a hundred and fifty troopers and seventy-five Hal robots on the ground, what comes next?”

The disembodied British accent interrupted, “Mr. President, sir, if I may?”

“What is it, Hal?”

“Even if all the variables are favorable, I estimate that only eighty-six percent of the force will survive the jump.”

“Thank you, Hal, noted.  Please continue, General.”

“Once we are on the ground, our primary objective is to disable communication and radar.  Once that is done, the Hal robots can be activated and we secure the three locks.”

“Locks?” asked the president.

“Think of them as elevators that raise and lower ships so they can navigate through the canal,” said Richard. 

“I see, General.  Continue.”

“While the locks are being secured, the
Howard Beck
will launch an airstrike on the blockade.  The airstrike will serve as the perfect distraction while our force on the ground seizes control of the entire canal.  Once the canal is secured, the Hal robots join the fight against the blockade and take out any remaining resistance.  By the time the
Howard Beck
arrives, she’ll be able to navigate the canal from south to north with the rest of our navy bringing up the rear.  We finally be able to come over the Rockies while we hit the Chinese from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.  Without reinforcements or supplies and being hit from three sides, we defeat the Chinese inside of six months.”

“Fortune favors the bold, General, I’m impressed.  What are the risks?”

“Hal?” said Richard.

“Yes, sir, Mr. President.  As I’ve already mentioned, even in optimal conditions, I estimate that only eighty-six percent of the force will survive the jump.  Jumping from extreme altitudes in such thin air decreases the amount of friction needed to slow descent.  After the first thirty seconds, the paratrooper will reach speeds that will break the sound barrier.  While falling at such high speeds, the paratrooper will be in an uncontrolled spin and if he is unable to properly orientate himself, he will lose consciousness.  If the weather is not favorable, the balloons could drift during ascent and be unable to maintain course.  Also, one of…”

“I get the point, Hal.  I’m sure you’ll keep us in good hands.”

“I most certainly will, Mr. President.”

Marshall turned to Richard.  “What’s your timeframe?”

“We’re ready to begin training in the Nevada desert.  We’ll be ready in two weeks.  After that, we’re onboard the
Howard Beck
and at the mercy of the weather.”

Marshall loved to hear his father’s name.  The christening of the vessel that bore his father’s namesake was one of the proudest moments of his life.  He thought of what his father would say and smiled.  “Make it so, General.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Four days later Richard Dupree was in the Nevada desert looking straight up.  “Where is he?  I don’t see him.”

“Seventy-five by three thirty, General.”
“Thank you, Captain.”  Richard made the adjustment on the infrared telescope.  “Okay, there he is.”

“Approaching ninety thousand, General.”

“Copy that.”

For the purposes of training, the paratrooper was outfitted with an emergency parachute.  If the jumper’s vital signs indicated he was unconscious, the emergency chute would deploy and bring him safely to the ground.  On the actual combat jump, there wouldn’t be an emergency chute.  Operational security couldn’t allow the skies to be filled with visible, open parachutes.  Losing consciousness would mean certain death.

“Excellent, he came out of his spin.”

“General, with your permission, I’d like to start jumping with the Hal robots.”

“Permission granted, Captain.  Keep me informed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Richard patted the young captain on the back and started walking to his truck when he saw Hal jogging toward him.  The robot had a rectangular torso with arms and legs but no head.  At the center of the robot’s torso a red, glowing fish eye lens reminiscent of his science fiction namesake gave a person something to focus on when communicating with it.

“What is it Hal?”

“Sir, I’m speaking to you over your headset.”  Hal did this when he was within earshot of a person with inadequate security clearance.  “I have just received priority communication with one of our deep cover operatives.”

“Who?”

“Colonel Theodore Forrest.  I’m routing the message to your tablet.”

Richard retrieved his tablet from his jacket pocket, pressed his thumb to the pad and typed in a six-digit code.  He read the message three times and still couldn’t believe it.  “Hal, can you confirm this?”

“I cannot, sir.”

“Do you believe it?”

“Sir, I have inadequate data to formulate a working hypothesis.  All that we have is the reliability of Colonel Forrest.  None of his prior reports have proven to be inaccurate or embellished.  Since I have no contradicting data, I recommend that we proceed under the assumption that the report is valid until I can make confirmation.”

“This changes everything.”

“Yes, sir, I concur.  I also recommend that we suspend Operation Miraflores until we receive additional intelligence from Colonel Forrest.”

“Absolutely not, Hal.”

“Sir, the seventy-five robots assigned to this operation are currently being retrofitted to reduce their overall weight by forty percent.  If we receive actionable intelligence from Colonel Forrest, we will not have time to return the robots to full long-range combat readiness.”

“The answer is no, Hal, am I clear?”

“Of course you are, sir.”

***

Colonel Theodore Forrest was deep behind enemy lines sixty-five miles north of Richmond, Virginia.  The journey from the PSA had taken four months.  He had slowly made his way across Texas and headed northeast through the Appalachians.  He had no identification of any kind and didn’t carry a weapon.  Once he made it to Virginia, he snuck his way into a labor camp just outside of Quantico.  With the basic infrastructure of the region in ruins, the Chinese rounded up Americans by the thousands and forced them into cramped detention centers.  The reason for their captivity was twofold; the first being to maintain law and order, the second to carry out the manual labor necessary to keep the Chinese military bases up and running.

Theo had managed to manipulate his way into working inside what he determined to be the headquarters for a major division of the Chinese army.  The task actually didn’t require much manipulation, no one wanted to work inside the base because they were horribly mistreated and many of them disappeared without a trace.  Theo couldn’t just outright volunteer for the detail without arousing suspicion.  He also had to be careful who he could trust.  It was common for his fellow captives to report wrongdoing to the Chinese in exchange for small rewards.  All Theo had to do was find a man roughly his age and size that had an intense, deep hatred for the Chinese.  Once he had found his man, he traded work details with him and gained access to the base.

Theo spent his days cleaning the latrines in the main headquarters.  The enlisted men did not enjoy the luxury of indoor plumbing but instead used portable toilets several hundred yards away from the cluster of buildings.  The officers, on the other hand, were far too important and couldn’t waste time walking back and forth to the portable toilets.  Every floor of the headquarters building had a restroom.  Each restroom had three laborers working around the clock keeping it clean and transporting waste away from the building.

Richard Dupree handpicked Theo for this mission because he was fluent in Chinese.  None of the Chinese officers had a clue that Theo understood every word they said.  Theo was shocked at the amount of intelligence he gathered just from listening.  Every day during his twelve-hour shift, a low ranking Chinese officer would fetch Theo and make him clean up the lunch meal and take out the trash.  Theo gathered valuable intelligence listening to a dozen officers argue about the war with the PSA.

One particular day the low-ranking Chinese officer burst into the restroom and grabbed Theo by the arm.  Theo didn’t need to be fluent in Chinese to understand that the junior officer was being chastised by his commanding officer for bringing the wrong bottle of wine.  Theo ducked as the wrong bottle smashed on the wall behind him.  The junior officer grabbed Theo by the neck and pulled him into the break room.  The nervous officer tore through the cabinets and filled Theo’s arms with wine glasses.  Once the correct bottle was found, the officer kicked Theo in the ass to motivate his journey to the conference room.

The junior officer pantomimed for Theo to collect the dirty wine glasses and replace them with fresh ones.  Once Theo nodded his understanding, the junior officer gave Theo the bottle and sat down.  Theo pretended to be terrified and allowed his hands to shake as he set about his task so he could take his time and squeeze out a few more seconds in the room.  The commanding officer resumed speaking.

“Gentlemen, our primary concern in the next fourteen days will be to begin liberating this territory of its inhabitants so our colonization plans can move forward without issue.”

A confused officer raised his hand.  “General, do we have the resources for such a task?”

The general did not like being interrupted.  “Do our guns not have bullets?”  The confused officer looked down at the table and pretended to shuffle some papers.  “I asked you a question, Major!  Do our guns have bullets?”

“Yes, sir, they do.”

“Then use those guns, put bullets in the heads of the American trash still occupying our territory and let their corpses rot where they fall.  Or is that too difficult a task for anyone at this table to accomplish?”

No one dared speak.

The general continued, “We have hundreds of millions of our people waiting for their new home to be ready.  We cannot afford the luxury of sharing it with the worthless people that were too stupid to evacuate to the PSA.  A fitting end to a people that conquered this land and slaughtered the people already living here.  Why should we not do the same?”

Theo quietly faded into the background and slipped out of the conference room unnoticed.  At the end of his shift, instead of returning to the detention center, he quickly made his escape.  The Chinese didn’t bother securing the detention center or monitoring the population.  If an American prisoner was found unsupervised away from designated work areas, they were executed on the spot.  The corpse was then taken to the detention center and another prisoner was chosen at random to be executed in front of the population.  While brutal, the policy was an effective deterrent against prisoners leaving the detention center.

Theo was not worried about getting caught.  The Chinese did have random patrols around Quantico but they didn’t actively seek out escapees because the Americans really had nowhere to go if they escaped.  If an escapee somehow made it off the grounds, they would have to make it across eight hundred miles of Chinese territory to the well-fortified Mississippi River.  If by some huge stroke of luck they made it across the river they would then have to travel another eight hundred miles across the barren Great Plains to rejoin their American brethren at the Rocky Mountains.  Theo did not have time to make the journey back the Pacific States of America.  He had no equipment to broadcast a signal.  Even if he did manage to transmit a message, the enemy would zero in on his location and a drone would take him out before he finished.

Theo had to get word to General Dupree immediately.  The Chinese would start exterminating every human being that was not of Chinese descent.  Time was of the essence and Theo had to think fast.

***

President Marshall Beck was eating breakfast when Hal informed him of General Dupree’s arrival and the urgent need to speak with him as fast as humanly possible.  Marshall knew something was horribly wrong.  The general had a strict timetable to prepare for Operation Miraflores and his sudden arrival from the Nevada desert had him concerned.  He stepped off the elevator at the command level to find Richard waiting for him.

“Richard!  What the hell is going on?”

“Mr. President, please,” Richard raised his arm in the direction of the command center.  Marshall nodded his head and the two walked toward the outer door of the command center.  Hal opened the door and once inside, Richard waited for the door to secure before speaking.

“Mr. President, I’ve just received a deeply disturbing message from Colonel Forrest and we have little time to react.  Here it is.”  Richard called up the message on his tablet and gave it to the president.  The message was short but powerful.

MASS EXTERMINATION TO BEGIN. COLONIZATION IMMINENT.

“Have you confirmed this, General?”

“No, Mr. President.  We are not in contact with Colonel Forrest.”

“How did you get this message?”