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  The director grabbed one of them by arm before he could go completely inside.

  "Go through what you’ve got," he said between the breaths of smoke escaping his lips. "Piece as much of it together as you can and show it around. I think we’re close.

  “But, I want it all kept here. Until we’ve confirmed we’ve found anything at all.”

  "Yes, sir," the man answered pulling slightly from the director's grasp.

  The director released his arm and turned back into the darkness feeling the radiating warmth of the lit cigarette brushing against his cheek and nose. Taking a few more thought-filled steps through the hall, he started preparing himself for another batch of prisoners.

  His original guards waited for him just before the giant closed doors leading out of the compound to the outside. When he reached them, they wordlessly handed him additional ammunition rounds to reload his weapon.

  When his sidearm was again holstered and ready, the director pushed open the giant doors and felt the outside air surge its heated fury across the weathered skin of his face. He walked to the staircase leading towards the courtyard and began to make his way down.

  Another bus filled with prisoners had cleared the gates. Followed by his personal guards, the director stepped briskly through the burning blow of air and sand to meet it.

  Chapter 20

  Overhead the sky was dark and a warm soft rain fell around them. The polluted raindrops sizzled softly when they collided with the tiny flames of the campfire.

  Kirken and his son sat with their backs pressed against each other. The tiny screen of the holovid shined brightly against the night.

  Brandon unclipped his load of the bulky gear they both carried and set aside the dirtied tire iron he still wore on the side of his belt. He placed it on the ground near the fire. Its steel faintly reflected its dancing light.

  Brandon reached around his father's shoulder and offered him food from their pack. Kirken took it from his outstretched hand trying not to look at his son or the tire iron next to him. Drops of dried blood glistened faintly along its tip from the men that had fallen beneath its blows.

  Kirken focused his gaze on the images of the two men flickering faintly from the small screen. He channeled his anger there. And focused his rage. While at the same time trying desperately to conceal from both his son and the men in front of him his intense almost desperate fear.

  It had been five hours since they had escaped the chaos of the stadium.

  "We are going the fuck back!" Kirken screamed at the screen. His voice carried only slightly and was soon lost in the vast expanse of the outside. “I will not leave her alone out here any longer!”

  Kirken stared over the screen toward the faint lights of Beuford. Even from where they sat five miles away on a high rocky plateau, he could still faintly see the licking flames marking the destruction they had just wrought.

  "Commander, no you will not,” War Minister Faulken spoke gravely from the tiny speakers of the screen.

  “The fuck I’m not.”

  “Elimination of the next target is of utmost priority.”

  Faulken’s large frame and thin gaunt face leaned over the shoulder of General Tuttle and took up most of the small charred screen.

  "The stadium blasts have split their forces. For the most part, they’ve abandoned their extensive search of the surrounding area. At least for now. They’ve given us time. Time to move in before they discover Science Dome 15."

  "I don't give a shit about that!" Kirken spat out.

  "Well, Commander you should," Faulken said again.

  Next to him, Tuttle remained silent. He stared straight into the holovid screen. A look of empathy was etched across his face.

  “What you have done so far has disrupted their tight hold on that city. And you've instilled a panic, one that we hope will spread outside the city to other branches of their forces. We need to build on that, right now, or they're going to regroup and seal Beuford up even tighter than they did before."

  "So why don't you just nuke the whole goddamn thing? That would accomplish just as much what is necessary for your plan."

  "Even smart-flight nukes precisely on target would be too close to SD15. With the only prototypes of the beam cannons being kept there, we can't risk any damage. So what I'm saying to you now, Kirken, is this. If you don't head to that next target now, we will be forced to bomb the entire city from the air. It will be a dead blind drop. A great many aircraft and personnel will be lost. Some before getting anywhere close.

  “But this loss will be necessary to safeguard what is being kept at Science Dome 15. We will continue to dispatch these bombing runs until the entire city is gone. What we are dealing with right here is the one site, if lost, that will determine the final outcome of this war. If the J.G.U. come to acquire the Beam Cannon Hardware, then they have won. They will have the power to protect whomever they wish. If they do not destroy us outright, they will use the technology to entice allies. They will create a world war that we will have no chance or hope to win. That is how important this mission and your contribution to it is. This is about much more than simply saving your daughter."

  Kirken looked away from the holovid and stared into the warm drizzle of the night sky. He swallowed hard and felt the hot droplets mix with the cool moisture of his coming tears. He could also feel the rage of pain searing through his body collecting into a single strangling ball in the center of his throat.

  "By doing what we ask now, you should be able to loosen things up further so that we can get a Vulture ground team in. If you don’t, your inaction will cause the loss of a great many men. And you, your daughter and your son, will also find yourselves out among the dead."

  "What if we don’t even survive our way in?" Kirken asked trying to harness the anger in his voice and keep his tone somewhat steady. "What happens then?"

  "The minute we believe that you were unable to survive, the air team will be launched. It is being assembled right now as we speak. Like I said, we will firebomb Beuford until nothing of that city is left standing except piles of smoking ash. We will do this, like I said, regardless of any and all losses to equipment, aircraft, and men.”

  Kirken dropped his head away from the screen.

  "If you refuse us now, Commander Kirken, the first of the air teams will be launched. You and your daughter will not survive.”

  When Kirken looked up again, he saw through teary eyes that Tuttle had lowered his head and no longer looked into the holovid screen.

  "Kirken," Faulken still spoke over Tuttle's shoulder. "If you are successful, we should be able to send in the ground demolition team. And when we do, you can retrieve your daughter. Then we will get you out. If you do survive, we will take measures to ensure that. Your only concern now is to complete the next phase of the mission and successfully destroy that next target."

  "From what we can tell, troops shift positions around the city at nightfall," Tuttle finally looked up and started speaking again.

  Faulken backed away from where he hovered over Tuttle’s shoulder and walked to a chair further back in the room. "When they do shift, that will be the best time for you to slip into the building and begin wiring the explosives.”

  "How many floors?"

  "There’s about thirty. Try and set something on each floor if you can. You’re going to need all the blast power you can get to bring that facility down. It’s a crucial target and needs to be completely destroyed. Its loss should more than cripple their occupying forces. We’ll establish Vulture land assault teams as close as we can to the city’s perimeter to ambush outside reinforcements they may try and bring in. But, we hope by that time our bombing runners will already be inside."

  "And what exactly is this target?”

  "This target is the biggest J.G.U. armory on the West Coast," Faulken said. "It’s an operations base camp for the entire coastal area. Numerous high-ranking officers are headquartered there. All reconnaissance mission efforts are coordi
nated at this facility. Once it’s been attacked, dome search missions through the outer regions will be suspended. They will retreat back inward to secure whatever is left. Once they’ve pulled their perimeters back, we’ll be able to send Vulture teams immediately in. Do you understand all this, Commander?"

  "I understand," Kirken said and again lowered his head. He could feel Brandon shifting around behind him to face the holovid.

  Faulken disappeared from the screen. When Kirken looked back up, only Tuttle’s blank expressionless stare remained. A door slammed just outside the holovid’s field of view.

  "He's gone," Tuttle said quietly.

  "Yes, sir," Kirken replied.

  Behind him, Brandon stood and leaned over his shoulder to stare into the screen. Faint splatters of blood from the men they had killed still stained the side of his cheek. Kirken had already noticed it when they first sat down. Brandon hadn’t bothered to wipe it off. Not even when they had started to eat.

  "We understand, sir," Brandon said to the holovid and then turned back around to the fire and his food.

  Tuttle looked at Kirken trying not to react to the face he had just seen.

  "How are you holding up to the radiation?" Tuttle spoke when Brandon had moved away. "I figure you've been off the medication for more than thirty-six hours. You've got to be feeling some of the effects."

  "Doing as well as can be expected," Kirken said.

  "How advanced is his condition?" Tuttle asked.

  "Radiation is the least of his concerns right now,” Kirken said looking resignedly at Brandon then back to Tuttle on the screen. "For any of us out here."

  "Commander, keep focused on what needs to be accomplished. Right here. You do that, and we will come in and get your daughter."

  Tuttle took another thoughtful pause.

  "When the time is right, and we can get our people in…and regardless of your personal outcome."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "When we have you out, we will get all of you the best medical help available. Numerous possibilities exist with the medicines and treatments we’ve advanced. There’s still a chance their systems can be partially or fully healed."

  Kirken didn't respond.

  "Complete this mission and get them out," Tuttle said. "A grateful nation will then take care of the rest. Good luck, Commander."

  Kirken remained motionless in front of the holovid screen while Tuttle's face slowly faded out. When the transmission had completely terminated, the holovid switched quietly off.

  "Thank you, sir," he repeated again when the image was finally gone, and he was alone in the dark.

  Kirken didn’t get up. Continuing to face in the opposite direction of his son, his body remained still.

  Kirken held the holovid silently for a moment. He then turned around on the rock he had been sitting and stared at his son.

  Brandon did not look up.

  Slight twinges of guilt and fear slowly crept up the back of Kirken’s neck. He felt it wrap itself tightly and constrict even more viciously around his throat. He closed his eyes and tried to will the pain and angst away.

  Ahead of him, Brandon sat in the dark and continued to quietly eat.

  * * *

  When Kirken's haunted face finally disappeared from view, Tuttle turned away from the holovid to see Faulken reenter the room.

  "We should be able to launch a full-scale air strike on Beuford tomorrow," Faulken said glancing towards the darkened monitor to make sure they weren't still carrying the transmission. "Next day at the latest."

  "Depending on what Kirken is able to do," Tuttle answered him.

  "No, regardless."

  "What?"

  "C'mon Tuttle. We've both been charting troop movement in Beuford for the last twelve hours and monitoring levels of arriving reinforcements."

  "And what did we find, War Minister?"

  "We've found that things in Beuford are completely disorganized. Security is not nearly as tight as we thought. His efforts have been a success."

  "Then why are we sending him, sir?" Tuttle spoke slowly and harshly annunciated the syllables of each word. "We need to call him off and let him retrieve his daughter. That is what we now need to do. That is the right thing to do. It won't jeopardize anything that is happening out there. When he gets to her, we send in an air or ground evac unit to bring them out. If anything, we owe him that."

  "We owe nothing, General. You know as well as I that we cannot allow this to happen. The risk would be too great."

  "I don't see the risk, sir," Tuttle's voice took an even harsher edge. "Ground forces can be launched. Right now. The stadium attack was a good diversion. It loosened their lock on the city and caused them to abandon most if not all of their outer searches. For the moment, the security of SD15 has been secured. We owe that man for this. We can sneak in a land demolition team. When the explosions start, the rest of their forces can be neutralized by air assaults. Everything will then be over."

  "Tuttle, that ground team has already been launched."

  "What?" Tuttle's eyes were wide. His breath shot out in an angry violent gasp.

  "They entered the city almost three hours ago. Most have been dispatched to prepare the demolition."

  "Most?"

  "Teams have also been sent into the tunnels…to take care of the rest.”

  "His daughter is down there. In those bunkers. In those goddamn tunnels, you son of a bitch!"

  "Necessity is upon us, General. You know that."

  "No I fucking don’t! God damn you."

  "Word of what we are doing here is about to break. Knowledge of this plan to any outsider puts us at grave immediate risk. Revolutionary factions will form almost immediately if this becomes commonly known. This would endanger the country and greatly jeopardize our chances of securing victory in this war. These voices must be kept silent. And you do know this!"

  "Keeping the citizens out of the domes, while protecting the elite, that is one thing," Tuttle said his voice dropping slightly. "But the necessity of unleashing a massacre on our own flesh and blood…I can't think of anyone, in any military or government across the globe, including our own, that would agree with you that this is the right thing to do."

  "We don’t have the resources to fight a war while at the same time contain an uprising within our own borders. It is not a massacre, Tuttle. It is a component. A component necessary to ensure the safety and security of Plan Zero. It is the only way the new United States can be achieved. If word spreads about what has been put into motion, then everything will be over. Our country will crumble within. In the end, Japan's Great Union will achieve their victory.”

  Tuttle didn’t respond. He walked closer to Faulken until their bodies touched at the tips of their feet. He leaned in close until his face was directly in front of Faulken's wide eyes and flaring nose.

  “Is that clear, Tuttle?" Faulken snarled not moving or backing down.

  "No it is not!" Tuttle screamed with spit flying from his lips. "It’s not at all clear! If demolition teams are already inside the city, then Kirken should be pulled out! He's only got a high school kid with him for god’s sake. And he's going in thinking that if he doesn't do this for you, his other child is going to die.

  “I realize we are at war, and what responsibilities we are required to do, but this is not necessary. This is unnecessary and unconscionable! You are a monster for allowing this to be carried out!"

  "General Tuttle," Faulken's voice was even. "Kirken and his family are already dead. We both know that. Kirken would be considered by every review board to be a sympathizer to the outside cause. His children know too much now to be left alone on the outside, and they are probably too far along in the sickness to be allowed access to the domes. They will never be allowed in, not now, not ever. And you know that.

  “Dome quarantine laws were created with the one thought that one day life on this planet would start anew. That's why they were drafted. To keep those further along out. By accep
ting your citizenship within the domes, you have accepted these laws and are not allowed to question. Your silence through all your elevations in military rank further takes away from any say you may wish to voice now. You no longer have the right to argue or question. And if you continue to act on this kind of thinking, you could find yourself with them. Out there. That will happen."

  Tuttle set his teeth in a tight jagged line. His cheek muscles twitched from the fury coursing through his skin. His eyes closed, and his tongue fell silent. But he did not step away. Their noses continued to almost touch while Faulken continued to speak.

  "The United States has suffered too many losses. The J.G.U. onslaught was by far more powerful than we had ever planned. And Plan Zero is not having the effects that we had hoped. Most of the Vulture troops inserted in do not survive longer than their first op. It would be a reckless waste of specialized military personnel, men we just don’t have to spare, to send even just one on a mission such as this when we already have what we do on the inside. We're going to stay the course and allow Kirken to accomplish what he can."

  "You’re going to keep dispatching him to new missions until he dies…," Tuttle softly accused.

  "We'll send in a small group to finish up if the damage he creates is too light. And if he does enough where we can get the planes through, we'll just finish the city off from the air with a firebombing run. All in all, we will have preserved the safety of Science Dome 15. And that is the primary objective of what we are trying to do here.”

  "And what happens to Kirken and his son if they do survive?" Tuttle questioned. "What if they are able to do enough and by some miracle get out of that town alive?"

  Faulken looked away from Tuttle and backed away.

  "General, you know that is not possible,” he said serenely. “Never in ten lifetimes. You knew that when you first sent him out. He will not live to see it through. Not alone. We hope he is just able to accomplish enough before his time is due."

  Tuttle lowered his eyes and hung his head towards the floor.