Forty
Colonel Seth Clymer looked like a character from a
B-grade science-fiction movie seated behind the wheel of the old, military
surplus, three-quarter ton truck. The morning sun glared from reflective
sunglasses and highlighted the contours of a skull stretched tight with
pale skin. Only the beat of a pulse along his temple identified him as
something alive and animate.
Seated against the passenger door with Sarah situated
between them, Richard Welk watched the sun rise over the Appalachians and
illuminate the misty expanse of the Silver Ridge Valley. The Colonel
ignored the scenery, keeping his eyes fixed on the road as he had since
the drive began. “No more than eight miles ahead,” Richard warned.
“Don’t discount Billy’s warning.”
The Colonel said nothing, Moments later, the radio
squawked. “Air patrol reports a semi tractor and trailer approaching, six
miles and closing at seventy miles per.”
The Colonel glanced at his odometer. “Jenkins,
Williams,” he called over the radio, “pull on ahead of us. Rush the
truck. I want to see how he reacts.”
“Roger,” came the laconic rely. From either side of
their truck, smaller jeeps roared on ahead, each manned by a driver and an
armed passenger.
The Colonel gestured with a nod at the semi topped by
a dark plume of diesel smoke rounding a curve in the road. He let his
speed drop to fifty. “Here he comes.”
“Do you suppose it’s possible?” Richard said. It was
a question he had been meaning to ask before reaching their destination.
“Do I suppose it’s possible for one man to be
hijacking unlimited quantities of weapon’s grade plutonium from one the
most secure breeder reactors in the country?” the Colonel said. “Hell,
no. It would take an organization the size of a small nation to organize
an undercover operation of that magnitude, and I don’t know how in hell
they’d keep in secret. I would have gone to the feds had I thought it
possible, Mr. Welk.”
One of the jeeps braked and broad-slid, blocking the
highway a half mile ahead. The other roared on past the stopped vehicle
to challenge the trapped semi.
“Whoa!” came a cry of astonishment over the radio.
“Motor quit! What the hell. . .”
At high speed, the jeep jerked sharply to one side,
rose onto two wheels and then spun through midair like a toy tossed
carelessly aside. It struck ground with an explosion of debris, throwing
at least one human body high into the air, and parts of another. Then the
wreckage rolled into the trees and was gone.
Cries of outrage and astonishment sounded over the
radio from the second jeep. The noise was cut off suddenly. The Colonel
tapped the dash mounted radio.
It was far too silent all of a sudden. Even their
own engine had quit. The convoy behind them rolled to the side of the
road.
“Dismount and take cover!” the Colonel called out to
the silence. “Team one, reconnoiter!”
The Colonel pulled the truck off the road and braked
furiously. Richard glanced at the rear view mirror in time to see armed
men vanishing into the trees behind them. The Colonel climbed out of the
truck and unslung his rifle.
Richard helped Sarah to the
ground. He tugged at her sleeve as she stepped into the open for a
better look down the highway. “The idea is to stay out of sight,” he
said. “The idea, you see, is to avoid getting shot and killed.”
“What in hell is happening, do you think?” she asked,
confused and irritated. “Why did all the engines stop?”
Richard pushed her after the Colonel, keeping to a
narrow deer trail in the cover of the trees. The Colonel’s men were
moving parallel to the highway further on down the slope, already well on
their way toward the scene of the accident.
The Colonel stopped at a fallen oak. “This is as far
as the three of us go.”
“Richard was right all along, “ Sarah announced to
the silence. “ I never intended that anyone get hurt. You’re welcome to
pull back and bring in the authorities, Colonel.”
“It’s a bit late for that now. We’ll see what
happens.”
The Colonel portable radio still worked. “Point
one. Movement ahead, civilians carrying water pistols and wearing ear
muffs, looks like to me. Can’t figure it out. One of them. . .”
Richard heard the sound of something soft impacting
with the ground over the radio.
“Point two here! Point one is down! Backup, move in
and clean up! We got incoming rifle fire, silenced!”
“Stabilize and retreat,” the Colonel called into his
radio. “Watch the back door on the way out.” He glanced at Richard and
Sarah. “They’ll take care of whatever business they got going and leave a
sniper or two to guard against a counterattack.” He put the radio to his
lips again. “Doc, come on down. Bring your equipment to my position.”
Doc was a third-year medical student courtesy of
Trevor Industries, a qualified paramedic who launched himself into action
as soon as the stretcher arrived with the wounded. The casualty may as
well have been the medic’s brother, roughly the same age, build, and
color. The body of the young man lay unmoving, not breathing, its eyes
open and darkly dilated. Even the two litter bearers looked hardly out of
adolescence, waiting impatiently for some word on the fate of their fallen
comrade.
Doc took the man’s vitals and looked up, puzzled. “I
see no evidence of injury, but this man is dead.”
The Colonel pocketed his radio and rushed over to
help. The two worked smoothly to apply CPR. The medic checked for a
pulse and respiration again. “I don’t have the equipment to cope! I
don’t know what happened to this man!”
A sudden flash of light flickered through the trees
with the intensity of a multimillion candle power stroboscope, then a
second one from a further distance, both followed by the crack of a rifle
shot. Cries sounded from the Colonel’s radio. “They blew up! My God,
they’re booby-trapped or something! Two other enemy wounded and down, but
still intact! The rest have retreated! Sir, the semi’s getting away!”
The Colonel raised his head, listening to the distant
sound of a diesel revving. “Let it go,” he called back. “Pin your enemy
down, but keep your distance. Anything with the jeep yet?”
“Two dead,” came another voice. “Rickie and Walt.
Can’t much tell what might have happened to them.”
“Back out,” the Colonel ordered. “Maximum
housekeeping. No unnecessary risk.”
Within fifteen minutes, the Colonel’s force of
roughly fifteen surviving men had gathered about the body of one of their
own. They stared
down at it without visible reaction, calmly debriefing the Colonel.
The Colonel gave them fresh orders and sent them back
out, but he followed after them this time and gestured for Sarah and
Richard to keep close. “We’ll take a look at one of our injured
antagonists and see if we can figure out what kind of weapons they’re
using.”
The Colonel had no difficulty negotiating the wooded
terrain despite his age. He quickly moved out of sight through the
trees. Two of his men armed with carbines hung back to cover the slower
civilians. When Richard and Sarah caught up with the Colonel, he was
stopped a respectful distance from a body stirring on the ground in the
trees ahead.
The man from Silver Ridge was alive, dazed by a graze
wound across the skull. He was about fifty, pot-bellied, wearing a white,
short-sleeve shirt, dress pants and shoes. He wore ear muffs, and the
weapon in his right hand could have been a plastic water gun for all that
Richard could see. From elsewhere close by, Richard could smell the
unmistakable odor of burnt flesh. He saw a tendril of smoke drifting
among the trees and followed it with his eyes to a smoldering carcass
several hundred yards off to one side.
The Colonel signaled caution. “That man is dying.
Better back away and take cover. I don’t know about this twenty-third
century bullshit, but I think I understand what this is all about.”
They turned and hurried away, putting the curve of a
hill between them and the wounded man before another livid flash of light
flickered among the trees.
“The poor bastards are rigged to self-destruct,” the
Colonel muttered in disbelief. “This is bullshit!”
Sarah clutched at his arm. “We can go back now,
Seth. Let the authorities deal with this.”
The radio squalled. “Ultrasonics!” someone called
out. “Can’t hear nothing, but it hurts like hell! They got the town cut
off!”
“That explains the ear muffs they’re wearing,” the
Colonel said, thinking aloud. He brought the radio to his lips. “Do we
still have that second enemy down intact?”
“Affirmative!”
“Salvage the earmuffs.”
“Roger!”
The Colonel eyed Sarah Trevor. “Do we go for broke?”
“Not quite broke,” Sarah said.
“We need some answers,” Richard said gently. “We’ve
gone this far.”
Sarah nodded agreement. “Please help me get Billy
out.”
