The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning (25 page)

Randy asks, “What does he want from us? I have only so much blood to give, Obama’s already taking most of mine. Does Tony want the rest or something else?”

Every head in the room is nodding in agreement with Randy. I slowly respond, “He wants to join us.”

That was the last answer they were expecting. Rich asks, “Jay, let me see if I understand what you just said because frankly, you just threw me for a loop. Tony the Snake is willing to help us double the size of our shelter in exchange for an entry ticket? What else does he want?”

“Rich, he wants to bring his extended family, his wife, children, brothers, and sisters and their children, plus a couple people he said we would find useful.”

“That’s all he wants? No other strings?”

“None, in fact, he asked if he can come by in two days with his wife, Nancy, to talk to all of us about it. He thought it would be good for everyone to get to know each other.”

Fred stands up, surprising me by saying, “I know Tony, hell, I’ve borrowed money from him when the rotten banks turned me down. I’ve found him a man of his word, just never break yours. He’s not the New York type of mobster. He runs Nashville, but he also draws the line at certain acts. He’s going to surprise you when you meet him. If Tony thinks the shit is going to hit the fan and he wants to join us, I for one say we should listen to him. He controls the construction unions, he could have one hundred people here in ten minutes. Our shelter could be completed months ahead of our current plan. I for one say we should listen to him with an open mind. Anything that completes the shelter quicker is fine with me. I thank Jay for going the extra mile to try to ensure all of our security.”

Randy stands asking, “Do we need his people? Didn’t Franco say he could finish the shelter in a month?”

Jay smiles, “Randy, he did. However, I didn’t believe him, look at the slow progress he’s making. Can we afford to risk our lives on him or should we ensure the shelter gets built as quickly as possible?”

Everyone starts talking at the same time. After five minutes, I banged my hand on the table to get everyone’s attention. “Please, let’s settle down. Let’s vote, all in favor of listening to Tony and Nancy raise your hand.” Every hand goes up. “Good, now that that’s settled, new business. I didn’t want to mention this until we already agreed to listen to Tony. He has enough Army weapons, uniforms, and body armor to allow us to fight off an invasion.”

Fred asks, “Do we want to know where he got an armory full of Army weapons and uniforms?”

I smile saying, “They fell off a truck in front of one of his warehouses.” Everyone laughed. “Franco, how is the current shelter going?”

“Jay, everyone, you know my sons and I have been working in shifts 24 hours a day. The construction is going very slowly, we are only three people, at times Matt helps out. We have the preformed walls and panels for the roof, we need more bodies and more equipment. At the current rate, I project it’s going to take us six to nine months to finish, it also depends on the weather. We have a large open hole. When it rains, we have to pump out the hole before we can do any new construction. The tarp we rigged over the hole only keeps some of the water out of the hole.”

The room grows very quiet. Randy whispers, “Six to nine months? I don’t know if we have six let alone nine months. The noise coming from China is scary, Russia dumped all of their dollars, inflation is out of control, gasoline is approaching $20.00 a gallon. We have the oil in the ground. However, Obama won’t allow us to frack for it. Hell, we were offered contracts to frack on our land before Obama signed the damn executive order outlawing fracking. If he defaults on the next welfare payments, all hell is going to break out. We need help. I’d be willing to cut a deal with the devil himself to finish the shelter. I share the concern about the construction people knowing about our shelter. I don’t want to have to fight the very people who helped build the damn thing.”

I stand to reply, “Randy, I agree with you. Every person who knows about our shelter is one more who might and most likely will attack us. We can prepare some tricks for those that know where we are, however, it remains a risk, one we have to think about. I for one am leaning towards getting the shelter built quicker and taking the risk. We can make it very difficult for invaders to reach us. Once we know the world’s burning, we can rig a lot of nasty surprises to hurt any attacker. Of course, we might surface to find others living in our homes and eating our food. Or we could surface to find our homes burnt to the ground. We’re facing a risk either way we go. I for one think, we need more help in defending what we have. I think we should turn our border into a type of castle like in the old world. You know, like a moat around our farms, or guard towers.”

Randy asks, “Jay, are you suggesting we build a wall around 900 acres? Do you have an idea what kind of resource that’s going to take? We’ll never get our crops in or out of the ground. There aren’t enough trees close to us for us to use to build a wall with. Making it out of cement will require many thousands of trucks that aren’t available. Where would we get so much in such a short time? I also think building a wall will cause everyone to wonder what we’re hiding.”

The discussion goes around the room three times before we find ourselves in agreement to listen to Tony while also trying to figure out how to improve our defensive positions. We agreed to meet in two days time with Tony and Nancy. Franco and his sons go back to work on the foundation of the shelter while our neighbors go home for the evening.

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Spetsnaz Captain Second Rank Sarnoff receives new orders to report to the Russian Embassy in New York City for a secret mission. Sarnoff is instructed to pick five people from his team that speak perfect English and who have experience operating in America. Upon arriving in New York City, Sarnoff reports to the FSB head of mission, Demetri Darkenov, who instructs the captain on his mission. “Captain, in the basement of the Embassy, are eighteen crates of weapons, all of the weapons are from China. Your orders are to spread these weapons in the minority neighborhoods in America’s major cities. You are to encourage them to attack the wealthy. We want you to start a race and class war. Such a war will divert the American’s attention away from their other issues. Minorities across the country will take up arms in support of their brothers. When the arms are captured, they’ll point to China’s involvement in America’s internal issues. This will increase the tension between the two countries. The drain on America’s resources will force their President to enact even greater draconian tax and security measures quickly pushing the collapse of their economy and the possibly of a civil uprising. Here are your team’s new ID documents and money to support your efforts. Do you have any questions?”

“None, sir. I assume once we leave the embassy we’re on our own and we can’t return here.”

“Correct, you will work your way to Los Angeles, stirring up trouble across the country. Once you reach LA, you will call 619-555-5555, the code word is ‘Bluebird’. Arrangements will be made for your return to the Motherland.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Captain, the highest office in the Motherland has their eye on you and this mission. Do well and you’ll be promoted upon your return.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m sure we’ll have an enjoyable time sightseeing our way across America.”

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At 11:15 PM, I’m woken by my cell. I wonder who’s calling at this hour, usually a call after I go to bed means bad news. “Hello, this is Jay.”

“Jay, do you recognize my voice?”

“Yes.”

“Good. You seem to have a problem. Our good friend the Sheriff of Nottingham has informed the feds that you didn’t win the lottery. He’s claiming you sold drugs to make the money. The feds are going to seize your accounts in the morning. First thing tomorrow the Sheriff is going to show up on your doorstep with an arrest warrant for you.”

“I see, have the funds we discussed been handled?”

“Yes. I’d like you to call your bank to inform them someone stole your identity and they cleaned out your accounts. Claim you’ve been stolen from. Each of your accounts is insured for $250,000.”

“I think I understand. I’m really pissed someone hacked my laptop and stole my passwords. I’ll have to report this crime to the good Sheriff of Nottingham first thing in the morning.”

“Excellent idea.”

“So I assume everything else is in process.”

“Of course. Sorry to have woken you.”

“No problem.”

Turning over, Lacy asks, “Who was that?”

“Tony, the Sheriff, has told the feds we didn’t win the lottery, did you know we’re drug, dealers? The feds are going to seize our accounts in the morning, except tonight a hacker raided our accounts and emptied our accounts.”

“What? Why aren’t you calling the bank’s security department? If you know, this happened why don’t you do something about it?”

“Honey, because Tony’s people are the hackers. They will empty our accounts while also converting them into gold which Tony said is untraceable. By the way, expect breakfast to be interrupted by the Sheriff with an arrest warrant for me.”

“He wouldn’t dare.”

“Yes, he will. As soon as he arrives to arrest me call Brad. He’ll be at the court before the Sheriff is able to book me. He shouldn’t have any problems getting me released. He has a copy of the certified letter from the lottery. Any judge that issued the warrant without checking the facts is about to be very embarrassed. Tell Brad that I want to file charges against the Sheriff that should keep him out of our hair for a while. Tell him about the when the Sheriff stopped me and punched me, Todd saw it.”

“Honey, do you think it’s wise to just wait and let all of this happen?”

“Yes, we really have no other choice. I didn’t get a call tonight. In fact, I’m going to report the phone lost or stolen. I’ll switch to my backup number, please make sure everyone has it.”

“OK. Are you going to be able to get any sleep?”

“Yup, nothing I can do about it, plus it may be fun. Honey, Tony wouldn’t have called unless he had everything already in hand.”

“Are you sure he’s not creating a problem, so he can solve it on the eve of the meeting?”

“The thought crossed my mind, but this does sound like our local Sheriff, who wants to find a way to take what’s ours. Maybe I should have just paid him off when I had the chance to.”

“That’s not the answer and you know it. Brad is going to have to find a way to get the feds to investigate him.”

“I like that idea, mention it to him when you call him in the morning. Goodnight hun.”

“Night babe, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Chapter 13

As usual, Tony was correct, our front door was kicked in at 7:30 AM by the Sheriff and fifteen heavily armed deputies. They ran through our house yelling for everyone to get on their knees with their hands held up. The deputies marched my family downstairs. “Officers, thank you for bringing everyone down for breakfast. How would you like your eggs, or do you want pancakes? Coffee? We have regular and decaf.”

The Sheriff stood staring at Lacy and I in shock, “Jay, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Hell Sheriff, I figured even you could see we’re having breakfast, would you like to join us?”

“I have a search warrant and a warrant for your arrest.”

“Isn’t that nice, you plan to arrest me before you search for whatever it is you think we’re hiding. By the way, what is it you’re looking for?”

“We know you’re hiding gold and drugs in the house.”

“And just how do you know that?” I ask while sipping my coffee. “I admit, I do have drugs here, would you like two aspirin? I have prescriptions for all of the other drugs. You’ll find most of the pill bottles in the fridge, top shelf. Just don’t mix them up. They’re very expensive.”