moving across it. It was like one of those roadside signs that print up bargains in stores as you go by them. This one was saying, “Follow me. Leave your lights off. Maintain radio silence. We’ll have you under cover shortly.” The sign continued to repeat the message.
The vehicle was leading them through aprons and hardstands.
Suddenly the sign changed to, “Continue ahead slowly. You are entering a hangar. There will be a slight decline.” Within a minute, Emory could feel the plane descending an incline, and he could hear the engines pitches grow louder. He knew he was inside the hangar. After moving slowly, he heard a rumbling behind him. The vehicle ahead of him flashed stop on the board. He stopped the plane, and the rumbling noise stopped. The whole area then flooded with light.
They were safely in the underground hangar, and the doors were closed to stop any light leaking out to the outside world. They had arrived.
Emory went back into the cabin. The senator was getting ready to deplane. “Nice flight, Emory. Thanks.”
Michael piped in with, “Yeah, thanks. Nice and smooth.”
“You’re welcome, Senator. You too, Mike.”
Michael started to say something to Emory and then changed his mind. Probably planned to dress him down again and had second thoughts with the senator there.
Emory went over to Special Operations to set up for departure and have the plane refueled and serviced. He would need the plane’s refrigerator filled and in-flight rations put on board for the return trip.
Michael left everything to Emory knowing Emory would set everything up right.
Emory entered the operations room as a security personnel covered him. “ID please,” said the one in command.
Emory pulled out his card and gave it to him. “Thank you, sir,” Emory approached the counter. “I need all tanks full, rations replaced, and the fridges filled as soon as possible. We may be leaving soon.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied. “We have already started refueling. In-flight will be over when your tanks are full, and you’ll be ready for a turnaround within thirty minutes if you need it.”
Emory looked out into the hangar. He figured they were about sixty feet underground.
He could see the gradual slope of the ramp coming in and several other aircraft sharing the same hangar. It was amazing they had brought him in and parked him in the dark with the other aircraft so close. Two other birds were sharing the hangar, one other Falcon and a helicopter painted in commercial colors, both marked with the Freedom Earned logos, blue and white stripes, strictly company colors. There were sixteen of these hangars underground, with most of them housing gunships, fighters, and light bombers. In addition, a large number of Special Forces and special ops personnel were quartered in the barracks.
The company was getting closer to Freedom Earned with just a few loose ends to tie up before it began. One loose end had brought the senator out here. It must have been important to take him out of Washington this close to zero hour. Well, all I can do, he thought, is to get ready for the ride back. His thoughts were interrupted when the special ops officer called to him. “Your bird’s ready to go whenever you are.”
“Thanks, appreciate the effort,” he replied.
*****
They took the senator directly to Colonel Duncan’s office. Time was critical, and he wasted no time on him.
“Well, Duncan, have you found our missing intruder and his friend?”
The senator was very troubled; they were on the eve of Operation Freedom Earned, and this had to happen. Before they could go on, all the loose ends had to be tied up. It was of the essence they completed everything by the 30th or they could lose the initiative. It would be some time before they would have another window of opportunity.
“No, Senator. We have two crews out now looking for them, and our forces are on alert. They seem to have dropped out of sight, but we do have the girl. They picked her up this afternoon in Lafayette and should be arriving soon. A chopper is shuttling them down now. Maybe we can get something out of them when they arrive.”
“I don’t have to tell you how important this is,” the senator said. “Everything at this moment hinges on stopping them from reporting any of this to the police. If any of this gets out, it could set us back years. We must protect it at any cost, Colonel. When they arrive, call me. I’ll be in my quarters. One other thing, has the stealth data come in yet?”
“No, sir. We are still waiting for touchdown. When it’s on the ground, I’ll call you.”
“Have you reported this to Alpha One yet?”
“No, sir. We haven’t.”
“Sir, don’t you—”
The senator held up his hand, stopping him midsentence. “Colonel, I’ll decide when it’s time to bring the council and Alpha One in on what’s happened. It’s my responsibility, not yours.”
“Yes, sir.” Duncan knew when it was time to hold back. He would give the senator a little more time. Then he would alert both Alpha One and the council about the problem. Right now though he needed a little more time for his crew to find Calvin Varner and Marion Albertson. Hopefully the girl would help.
The colonel leaned back, lit his cigar, and started going over his emergency notification list, ticking off the numbers of the alert crews and support base commanders. If anything went wrong, the abort phase would need to be started immediately. He reached over and pulled his computer keyboard to him. He opened his alert channel and keyed in his security codes. Once inside, he brought up the preprogrammed dialing list and started entering the numbers. Within seconds of being activated, they would notify the support bases and they would begin the abort phase.
The colonel thought for a moment. If we wanted the country back so decent people could walk the streets again at any hour, be it man, woman, or child of any race or creed, if we expected to receive good health, food, and decent jobs, well then, we have to succeed.
A knock on the door brought the colonel out of his thoughts. “Yes?”
“Colonel, we have installed all the proximity sensors in the areas you requested. I set up a couple of TV cameras on the southeast and southwest perimeters as requested. Although we didn’t think we would ever need them there, but with an imminent threat looking at us, well, I thought that being safe sir might be prudent.”
“Thank you and especially for your attention to details,” replied Colonel Duncan. “Call me when the senator arrives. I’ll be in my quarters.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 6
The Decision
Revolutionary Council, Command Center
Washington DC
“Gentlemen, Colonel Duncan has notified us of a serious problem. Infiltrators may have compromised the integrity of our California base. I have had Senator Forthright on the hotline from there, and he has advised us to put our initial implementation date on hold until they can clear up this problem.”
“General, what exactly do you mean by ‘serious’ problem, and if it is serious, don’t you think it would be prudent to move our dates up and not back? We have come too far to turn back now. The country is in a state of near anarchy. We must be ready to fight if we expect to win. Those liberals in all parties on the hill are giving us away faster than we can count to ten.”
Perry Newcomb, senior member of the House of Representatives and one of several conservative Democrats serving in the House, was an old FDR and Harry Truman fan.
“Perry, we have the situation under control and are working on the problem. We don’t want to move before all our forces are in place. What we are doing is as close to treason as we can get. At this time, we must take control immediately,