“He did what?” She was shocked.
Danny let it sink in for a second, then continued. “Somehow he found out they had you. You were right about that. And somehow he found out where. He came to find you both last night and managed to get away with your sister. He took her to the Stanley Hotel and then led the troops as far away from her as he could. They caught him and brought him back. Best as I could tell, they haven’t tortured him at all yet, other than the gunshots he received last night.”
“Why didn’t you—” she started to ask.
“Reagan, I couldn’t bring him here. I couldn’t move him at all. In fact, he ordered me not to. Normally, in this kind of situation I would be sent in to help him die, so no one could get information from him, but I did not kill him. That too would have drawn a lot of attention to how it happened and even more attention to this particular area. Your dad told me to go get your sister and to take care of the two of you.”
“So you left him there?” she asked in disbelief. She clearly hadn’t listened to any of what Danny had said. “How could you?” she screamed. Tara jumped to cover her mouth, to muffle the sound, but Reagan had already lunged beyond her reach to Danny and was pounding on him with her clenched fists. He stood there and took the blows, protecting only his face as Tara grabbed her and pulled her away. By now everyone was awake and had come out to the main room. Jenna and Mom were helping lead Reagan away, and Danny just stood there. It was easy to see he understood and didn’t like it any more than she did. The kid is twenty! What twenty-year old could take all of this? But he insisted he was okay.
As we listened to Reagan’s sobs subside in the adjacent room, Danny turned to Kate and asked if she’d go switch places with Hayley, and stay with Emily. Dad volunteered to watch the monitor by the door. Danny asked Isaac to position himself by the ledge entry, to watch and listen for anything on that end. Sam, Cameron, Blake, Danny and I gathered in a corner of the main room where we’d set up a giant whiteboard, with a hand drawn map of everything we knew about the area: trails, camps, roads, lakes, waterfalls, etc. Danny put an “X” where we knew the Stanley Hotel was and, as Hayley joined us, we began to plot the move to get to Abbey.
Tara came and sat by me about an hour later. Reagan had fallen asleep, finally. Kate was playing games with Emily, and Mom was reading one of the dozen half-burnt books she’d “borrowed” from a store on our initial supply run. The rest of us continued to discuss our possible options for several hours. The snow lasted throughout the morning, and then around 1 p.m. Isaac came down and told us a helicopter was coming down to the valley, not from the visitor center, but from the other direction. We knew it was here for the vice president. We watched on the big screen as it landed on the road down by the camp. It was a different kind of helicopter, all black and heavily armed. Because of the technology the other choppers had already proved they had—and this one looked much more hi-tech—we couldn’t afford to go out on the ledge for a better view without taking the risk our movement would be detected. Even if they thought we were mountain goats, that wasn’t acceptable. For that matter, Danny decided we should remain basically motionless until the helicopter left. Beyond the cave walls, mattresses, glass, and insulation, we added an additional layer, wrapping ourselves in the low radiating “space” blankets.
Several men exited the helicopter and walked towards the camp, fourteen of them by our count. We lost sight of them, but about forty minutes later they were back, escorting a man we assumed was the VP back to the helicopter.
The vice president and the fourteen men climbed back into the helicopter, and it lifted off. Instead of heading towards Denver, though, the helicopter climbed to the top of the mountain, presumably to the alpine base. We could see massive cloud formations south of us, and we assumed they didn’t deem it safe to head back that way yet. They might even have to spend the night up at the visitor center if the storm was as big as it appeared. Danny didn’t like the idea of having that helicopter anywhere near us, not knowing what it was capable of, but we didn’t exactly have a say in the matter.
FIFTY-THREE: (Eddie) “Caught in the Storm”
Major Eddie arrived in Colorado Springs and was directed to Captain Kubar’s office. As he was reaching for the handle the door opened and the captain nearly plowed right into him.
“Captain,” Eddie said, holding out his hand. “Major Eddie.”
“Major,” the captain replied. “Sorry, I’m off to NORAD. We think we finally may have found a way in.”
“NORAD?” Eddie asked. “What’s NORAD?”
“It’s the North American defense command center,” Kubar explained. “We’ve actually taken control of NORAD itself, but there’s an associated bunker with additional missile controls that we haven’t yet breached.”
Eddie hurried after him. “A bunker?”
“Yes,” the captain replied. “A giant cave. The Americans call it Cheyenne Mountain.”
“And there are Americans in this Cheyenne Mountain cave even still?” Eddie’s tone revealed his surprise.
“We think.” Kubar nodded. “But we’re not certain. They would have control of thousands of missiles across the country from inside that bunker, if Americans are in there. We know many of them were fired already, but probably not all. They haven’t fired any more since the initial attack, but we’re afraid they still could. We’ve been trying to get into the bunker all along without success. Our mechanics finally think they’ve found a way. If this fails then our only hope is to get the entry codes from the vice president. I understand you’ll be going to pick him up?”
Eddie was very interested in learning more about Cheyenne Mountain. Qi Jia had been trying for over a month to get in and hadn’t yet. That was an impressive fortress. But he had to get back to Denver. He nodded and handed Captain Kubar the special request papers for this assignment. He told Kubar he needed four of his men, and given the official documents, the captain didn’t object. “I hear you had three men from Wyoming with you. Supposedly they fought in the battle with me there?” Eddie asked.
“No. They didn’t fight with you,” Captain Kubar replied. “They arrived as the fighting was ending. They found an American in the parking lot and another of our soldiers who was barely alive. They took them to Casper, but the American died before they got there.”
It was all Eddie could do not to breathe a huge sigh of relief. That could change everything. “Ah,” he said as calmly as possible. “We could have really used them. And you said they found an American there?”
“Yes.” The captain looked at his watch. “Major, I really need to go.”
“Oh. Okay. So, command suggested I take them with me,” Eddie said. “That okay?”
The captain nodded, while quickly stressing that the men were exhausted. “One is sick. You take the other two and two of my other men.”
As relieved as he was that these men from Casper likely wouldn’t know who he was, Eddie still didn’t like the idea of potential loose ends. Accordingly, he wasn’t happy with leaving one of the Wyoming men here, but an objection would raise eyebrows now, and the captain clearly didn’t care what he did with them at this point. “Good,” he said, shaking the captain’s hand and telling him to have the men at the hangar in the morning at 0900.
Eddie and the captain split in opposite directions and Eddie began to process all he’d just learned. He climbed into his jeep and drove back to Denver, his thoughts scattering along the way. His instincts seemed to have been proven even more correct by the American the soldiers had found in the parking lot. A faint smile crossed Eddie’s lips. And then his mind drifted off to the bunker.