The Called: Chosen (The Called Series Book 2) (15 page)

Meanwhile, John was finished up his workout and headed toward the cafeteria. Rollands went out and met him in the hallway and put his arm around him. John jumped and gave him a look that could kill.

“Sorry Kyle”, said Rollands.

“I’m just a little jumpy after all I have been through”, said John. “Between war and then coming back here to be taken hostage and tortured by the same type of people I was hired to get rid of overseas, I don’t know if I will ever get back to normal. I don’t even really know what normal feels like anymore.”

“I know what you mean Kyle. I had some of the same experiences when I served in the war. Of course, I didn’t see quite as much hand to hand combat as you did and I didn’t get captured, but seeing people die around you and having to kill children can put scars on you that never heal.”

“That’s very true”, said John. “Hey, do you know how long they are talking about waiting until they send us out again? It’s really all I know and I am getting restless here.”

“Zeke said less than a week. We want to give them all time to get to where they are going and our informant will let us know where to find them. They will be all together out in the open where we can make easy work of them. We just have to be patient.”

“Who is this informant that you are talking about? Were they there when I was detained?”

“No. I don’t think they were. They just have inside information that they share with us. They wouldn’t have been involved with your situation”, said Rollands.

The truth was that Rollands had no clue, but that’s all he could say. He was a bit caught off guard by the question. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have even mentioned the informant’, he thought. ‘It’s so top secret that I don’t even know who it is right now.’

“Good…I was going to say, that would have been pretty nasty of them to watch while I was getting the crap kicked out of me every day.”

Yea, that’s for sure”, said Rollands. He quickly changed the subject. “So, how are you feeling?”

“Considering everything that happened to me, I am feeling pretty good right now. I am very grateful that I was rescued and brought here. It saved my life. I was getting very close to just hanging myself with a bed sheet while I was there. Commander Murray was especially terrible. They say they stand for peace and love, but the way they treat people is a completely different story.”

“Oh yea. They are hypocrites. Plain and simple”, said Rollands. “They have been like that for ages. Always something to say about others issues, but they were even worse. I think that was one of the worst things about them. I’m just glad that our world has decided to do something about it. They are an endangered species and it is only a matter of time before they are completely extinct.”

“When that day comes, the drinks are on me!” said John.

“I’ll take you up on that”, said Rollands.

The car was coming up behind them rapidly. Noah and Joanna tried to remain calm for the sake of their young son, Ryan, but they were terrified on the inside. So many things flashed through their minds in the seconds before the car caught up to them. ‘What if they split us up? What will they do with Ryan?’

Javier pulled over to the side of the road just as the police car got on their tail to read their license plate. The cop pulled in behind them and got out of the car, straightening his hat. He walked up the side of the vehicle, peering in at the woman and child in the back seat before he reached the driver side window.

“License and proof of insurance please”, said the officer.

Javier leaned over and pulled his wallet from his back pocket and handed the officer his information.

“Where are you headed to today?” asked the officer.

“We are heading east to visit some family”, said Javier, which was really the truth in a way.

“I see”, said the officer. “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

“I have no idea”, said Javier. “I don’t think I was speeding.”

“You’ve got a break light out”, said the officer. “It is illegal not to have both lights functioning in the state of California.”

“Oh, I didn’t even realize officer. I will be sure to get that fixed as soon as I can”, said Javier.

“Alright. Well let me run your information here real quick”, said the officer.

Javier sat there nervously waiting; each second ticking away seeming like an eternity. He hoped that the World Council had not made the connection that he was with the believers because if they had updated the system, then he and his friends were done for.

He sat there tapping his steering wheel, just praying that everything would be alright. He could stomach the thought of being thrown in prison more than the thought of the family that he felt responsible for being locked up.

After a minute, the officer stuck his head back in and handed Javier his license and insurance card. “Thank you sir”, said Javier.

“So, who are your friends here Javier?” asked the officer.

“Oh, these are my friends from Mexico. They just recently became citizens.”

“Congratulations”, said the officer.

“Thank you”, said Noah.

The man nodded his head and tipped his cap. Be careful guys. He walked back to his car, got in, and pulled away.

They all breathed a collective sigh of relief as the car turned around and went back the other direction.

“That one was close”, said Noah.

“Yea, well we at least know that they haven’t entered me in the system as a fugitive. Maybe I am still a free man for the time being. I won’t be for long though. Once they start requiring us to report to a temple to worship the image of Assad and take the mark, then those days will be over for me. For all of us.”

“It’s a shame that we couldn’t enjoy that a little longer”, said Joanna. “We became instant fugitives even before we officially became believers. They were onto us immediately.”

“I don’t think that you guys are ranking high on the list of the World Council most wanted yet, but you could definitely be recognized in the state of California. It’s probably a miracle that the cop didn’t recognize you.”

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, the officer showed up again. He was speeding towards them with his lights on.

“Oh no”, said Javier. “He is onto us.”

They had only seconds to decide what they were going to do. Javier rolled it around in his mind a few times and came to one conclusion. Their only chance to make it out of California was to try to get away. It was risky, but if they didn’t get away then they would all spend the rest of their lives in jail.

The authorities would try to indoctrinate Ryan with Assad’s belief system of the one world government and one world religion. If it didn’t work, then they would kill him.

“We have no choice”, said Javier. “We’ve got to go now.”

“Are you sure?” asked Noah.

“It’s our only chance”, said Javier.

Javier floored the pedal and the car took off like a shot out of a cannon. The police car lost ground quickly before the officer stepped on the gas, immediately calling the situation in to central dispatch.

The officer caught up to them and tried to move up beside them, but Javier whipped the car back and forth in front of him to try to keep him back. Finally, the state trooper pulled up next to him and tried to run him off the road.

Javier rammed him back the other way and said, “Noah, reach in the glove compartment there and hand me the gun.”

“What? Are you going to shoot him?” asked Noah.

“Of course not. I’m going to shoot out his magnetic field and then take out his back up tire. Now hurry.”

Noah quickly handed him the gun and Javier aimed quickly and shot with one swift motion, taking out the electric box on the side that stopped the vehicle’s hover capability. One more shot flattened the tire that would have given the officer normal old fashioned driving capabilities.

The officer was stranded, but Javier and his passengers just kept driving as fast as they could go towards the Arizona state line.

―――――

Adnan Bahar was frantic. He unstrapped himself and walked up to the cockpit.

“You do realize that we have a U.S. Air Force fighter jet on our tail right?” he asked.

“We saw them coming from a couple of miles away”, said the pilot. “We don’t have the capabilities to outrun them. What do you think they want?”

“Are you serious Ray?” asked Bahar. “They are starting a war with the World Council. They would love nothing more than to take down the second in command. Get your force field shields up now! Launch the drones and give them something else to focus on until we can get help out here.”

“The shields are up”, said the co-pilot. “Now releasing drones.”

“Ground control”, said the pilot. “Do we have people in place on the ground to fly these drones? Eight of them?”

“Affirmative”, said ground control.

Adnan left the cockpit and looked out the windows as the eight drones came up next to the fighter jet. The jet quickly dropped out of sight and began evasive maneuvers. The drones sent small missiles flying towards it.

The plane barrel rolled and then looped back around and pulled up right in front of the drones. He turned the plane up just in time to allow the missiles to strike its own drones. Three of them blew apart and spiraled back down to earth.

The jet pulled back up and caught up with the large Learjet again. This time, they wasted no time in firing at the plane. The force field around it was hit and the plane shook as if it had experienced severe turbulence.

“Shields took a major hit”, said the co-pilot. “We can take maybe two more like that before they fail.”

The shaking had knocked Adnan to the ground. Assad was calling him as he got up off the aisle floor. He answered and said, “Hello?”

“Adnan, I have reinforcements headed your way”, said Assad. “They are five minutes away. Just hang in there.”

“We are trying to”, said Adnan. “We took a hit and three of our drones went down. We won’t be able to take much more before the shields go down.”

“Alright. Just focus on doing what you can. I am monitoring the drones as well as the fighter jets coming in. We will make them pay.”

“Yes sir”, said Adnan.

The plane shook again; violently throwing Adnan to the floor and knocking the phone out of his hand. He grabbed it and got back up.

“Hello? Hello Adnan?” said Assad.

“I am here”, he said. “We’ve been hit again. One more and we won’t have enough power to keep this up. What do we need to do?”

Assad looked at the monitors where the three World Council fighter jets were coming in to help. They fired their missiles from seven miles away and locked onto the U.S. fighter jet.

“Alright, listen carefully”, said Assad. “Our planes have fired their cruise missiles. They are still seven miles out, but the missiles will be there in less than a minute at the rate of speed that they are traveling. Tell the pilot to try to give enough space between you and the other plane or else you could be hit.”

Adnan ran up and told him what Assad had said to him. The pilot said, “You need to buckle in sir. We are going to do things that will toss us around a bit.”

He ran over to his seat and buckled his seat belt and said, “Samyaza, your majesty. I need to go. We are going to try to get out of the way and I think it is going to get intense.”

Just as he hung up his cell phone, the plane began to climb higher. The oxygen mask dropped down in front of him and he fumbled to put it on his face. Finally, he was able to strap it on to his face. He sat back in his seat and gripped the sides of the arm rests and closed his eyes.

At this point, most people would be praying for God to save them. All Adnan could do was think about everything that Assad had promised would come to pass. ‘I know that what he says is true’, thought Adnan. ‘I just have to trust that the universe will see to it that I am alright’.

The plane leveled out for just a moment and then took a straight nose dive; racing towards the ground as it cut through the thick clouds. The fighter jet was right behind them, facing straight down as it descended; firing machine gun rounds at its tail.

The altimeter fell quickly. Fifty-thousand feet….forty-thousand….thirty-thousand….twenty-thousand. Just as they got to the point of no return, the jet behind them disintegrated into a ball of flames.

Shards of flaming metal rained down past the windows as the plane pulled back up about one-thousand feet above the Atlantic Ocean.

“Oh, thank Assad”, said Adnan.

As they ascended back up to normal flying range, three World Council jets accompanied them on each side and behind them. Adnan and the pilots in the plane could rest easy now, but the rest of the United States would be in for a rude awakening.

Bahar called up Assad and told him that they were all okay and that the jet had been destroyed.

“Who in the world would have ordered that?” asked Adnan.

“I have an idea”, said Assad. “We know it couldn’t have been the president unless it was ordered before the assassination attempt. Vice President Donnelly is on our side, so it wasn’t him. I think that Speaker William Bernhart had a lot to do with it.”

“Whatever the case is, we need to report this to the world and show them what type of people they are”, said Adnan.

“I could care less about public relations right now”, said Assad. “I just want to make sure that they pay for this dearly and I don’t care if we have to make the United States into a desolate wasteland.”

―――――

After three days in a coma, President Liam Cain opened his eyes for the first time. Speaker Bernhart had rarely left his side after his surgery and he was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room asleep.

Cain looked over at him and tried to speak, but his voice was nearly gone. He rustled around and tried to make enough noise to wake him. Finally, he found the button to call a nurse in. The nurse came through the door within seconds, waking up Bernhart in the process.

He had a shocked look on his face to see his friend awake and alert. The nurse looked at Cain’s eyes and tested his motor skills and cognitive ability briefly. Everything looked much better than expected.

“This is nothing short of a miracle”, the nurse said. “The chances of him being this far along immediately after waking up were pretty slim.”

“Thank God”, said William.

“I guess you could say that”, said the nurse with a wink.

“I’m going to go get the doctor”, said the nurse as she walked out of the room.

William walked up to the side of the bed to speak to Liam. “Do you remember what happened?” he asked.

Liam nodded his head in affirmation.

“I did what we had discussed before the speech. We carried out an attack on Adnan Bahar’s plane as he left the United States.”

“Was it…” Liam cleared his throat. “Water”, he said.

William handed him a glass of water and he took a drink.

“Was it successful?” asked Liam.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring the plane down. They had advanced defense systems and they also had backup. Our plane was shot down.”

Liam looked distraught that he couldn’t get up and carry out orders himself yet. He felt so helpless.

“Has there been a counterattack?” asked the President.

“We expect one at any time. Assad has remained silent in the media about this but we know that he won’t let this rest. We think he is planning something really big.”

“We need to take the fight to them. We need to do it now”, said Cain. “Is our military still intact?”

“It experienced some shake ups”, said William. “Our announcement was just three days ago, so we have several who are unsure. The bottom line is that regardless of what each general and everyone under them thinks, you are still the Commander in Chief of the military. They have to obey your orders or be charged for treason.”

“What percentage of the military do you think is still loyal to the United States as its own sovereign country?”