“Come on, kitty,” he said in a low voice, “Amadeus. Come see daddy.”
Soft kissing noises prompted Amadeus into motion. He slinked to Winston, purring saliently, and rubbed his blue-gray fur against Winston’s folded legs. He patted the cat cautiously, the cat feeling considerable and healthy to Winston’s touch.
“Looks like livin’ outside been good to you. We goin’ back inside soon.”
Amadeus climbed onto his lap. It took a moment or two for him to find the perfect position, but when situated, he let his master gently caress and stroke him, Winston collecting and discarding the overgrowth of shedding fur until 6:45 p.m., when it was time to get ready to go. As Winston prepared himself for his journey back to May, Amadeus was suddenly spooked and ran off, and a familiar clicking sound behind Winston alerted him that he was not alone. He stopped what he was doing and slowly raised his arms.
“I’m unarmed,” Winston said.
“I’m armed with an M-24 sniper rifle, Specialist Sparrow,” the voice from behind said, “you can lower your arms and turn around.”
Winston turned to see a U.S. Army sniper in blacked-out fatigues, his blue eyes staring back from a blackened face. A pair of night vision goggles rested on a patrol cap, and he held his big gun in front of him with both hands.
“Sorry for the dramatic uncocking, but I didn’t want to startle you.”
“Well, ya did. How you know my name, soldier?”
Winston tottered a few paces closer to the sniper.
“Your impressive military service record as an EOD Specialist in Vietnam. We’ve been watching you for some time now.”
“Oh? How is that?”
The sniper pointed up.
Without looking up, Winston knew exactly what he was talking about. “Drones?”
“Them Predators ain’t never been more useful. PLA thought they disabled our satellite links when they infected our ground control stations with a virus… and they did… but we got ‘em back up and runnin’. They three of ‘em up there now watching us.”
“What the hell took ya so long ta get your asses here ta Georgia?”
“I can’t rightfully answer that, but let’s just say the PLA is very clever. They have dozens of these identical camps spread throughout Georgia. It took us a while to figure out that this was the camp with the real generals and nukes… you do know they have nukes?”
Winston nodded his head.
“Well, we’re here now, and we need your help.”
“My wife needs my help right now. You got the guns. They probably ain’t more an twenny or thirty PLA soldiers in there now. Go on — take ‘em out, but I gotta get while my getting’s good. S’cuse me, Sergeant.”
Winston turned and walked away.
“Specialist Sparrow, the United States Army has enacted the President’s Reserve Call-Up Authority. I’m sorry to say, but you’re back in the Army again as an EOD Specialist.”
Winston stopped and turned back to the sniper.
“What’s your name, Sergeant?”
“Duffy.”
“Sergeant Duffy, I don’ know if my wife is alive or dead inside that barn we been hidin’ out in, but my first priority is to tend to her well-being if she’s alive. The U.S. Army, the president, whoever that is now, and this war all come after that. You dig?”
“Sir, we are not unreasonable men. This is for you.”
Sergeant Duffy handed Winston a large black backpack with the words U.S. Army IFAK printed on it.
“From my corpsman. Individual First Aid Kit. Got morphine, needles, thread, tweezers, scalpel, headlamp, antiseptic wipes, blood-clotting gauze, and more. Tend to May, Specialist Sparrow. You have until twenty-two hundred hours. Then I need you to deliver those nukes right up there on that ledge. You know, where Jimmy Mabry’s stuff is. You do remember Jimmy Mabry and what you done to him?”
“That was self-defense.”
Sergeant Duffy shrugged and said, “maybe. But the Predator sees what the Predator wants, know what I mean?”
“How do you I propose I get them nukes up there?”
“Easy. One-by-one. Over the fence, like you been doin’ all along, and place ‘em along that ledge.”
“That don’ make sense ta me. Why don’ you jes’ storm the place and take ‘em all at once?”
“It’s too risky. The nukes are armed…”
“They weren’t armed yesterday,” Winston remarked, frustrated and growing upset.
“You don’t realize just how lucky you been when you leave that barn. They’ve stepped up their patrols tonight. Every seven minutes, two PLA pukes pass right by that window, stop at the corner of the barn, turn around, and go back, ‘round the water to the other side of your house, and repeat. You haven’t seen ‘em yet since you’ve been out all day.”
“What’s that got to do with the United States military preventin’ this from happenin’ in the first place?”
“Like I said, it took some time… we had to monitor dozens of replica encampments… look, if we spook just one of them PLA soldiers, they won’t think twice to lettin’ ‘em blow. And then the lights truly will go out in Georgia, and hundreds of thousands of American lives will be lost.”
“Why don’ you jes’ come on up to tha fence line and I’ll hand ‘em to ya, ‘stead a me cartin’ my ass up an’ over it twenny times?”
“Because there’s only a few of us taking up covert positions nearby.”
“So what’s tha plan?”
“At zero three hundred hours, a Russian Tigr is gonna ‘break down,’” he said using air quotes, “at the spot where you usually cross the road to get to Calef’s. They’ll wear Russian uniforms and speak Russian, but it’s us. When you have nineteen nukes, we’ll load them into the truck and go. We gotta get ‘em twenty miles away — that’s their range.”
“I counted twenny a them nukes.”
“The one-eyed gook standing watch outside the barn door is wearing a nuke that’s rigged to blow if his right finger comes out the damned firing pin hole. At zero four hundred hours, be at the ready at the door because his head’s coming off and you’ll have to keep that finger inserted in the nuke.”
“Is that really even plausible?”
“We’ll know two minutes later if it blows. Do you have a way of removing the finger?”
Winston displayed the knife he kept in his pocket.
“That’ll do.”
“So now I got a loaded nuke in my hands. What then?”
“Get outside the camp and run one mile, if you can — to Speer Road — the blast radius is three-quarters of a mile.”
“You expect that last one ta blow, don’t you?”
“Unless we can disarm it.”
“Do you have intel?”
“No.”
“I see. We’re dispensable.”
“Better Johnsonville than all of Georgia. Also, you should know that no quarter will be given.”
“That’s a crime against humanity.”
“Our enemy is not humane. We’re just returning the favor, but like I said, we will take no prisoners alive, whether friendly or foe. You’ve got your orders. Do you intend to follow them, Specialist Sparrow?”