William Dietz - Resistance - The Gathering Storm

The briefing center was located on the second floor, and after clearing a security check, Hale arrived five minutes late. As he entered the rather austere conference room Hale saw that Major Blake, Chief of Staff Dentweiler, and a man he didn’t know were waiting for him.

“Sorry I’m late, sir,” Hale said. “I had to hike in from the other side of the center.”

“No problem,” Blake replied. “We just sat down. Have a chair. You know Mr. Dentweiler… And this is Mr. Burl. He was a prisoner in what was almost certainly a Chimeran Conversion Center until just days ago.”

Hale shook Dentweiler’s hand, noticed that it was still cold, and turned to the other civilian. “Mr. Burl… It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. And congratulations on your escape. If you don’t mind my asking, how did you pull it off?”

Burl had a firm grip and a direct gaze. “I was lucky,” he answered simply. “The stinks were holding us in a big pit. We dug escape tunnels, and one of them paid off. A few of us got away.”

“Mr. Burl was the last person out,” Blake added. “The alarm had been given by then, so rather than run into the Chimera’s arms, he found a place to hide not fifty feet from the tunnel. So close the stinks didn’t bother to search it carefully enough.”

“I damned near froze my ass off,” Burl put in ruefully. “But I was wearing four layers of clothing, and that helped. The real break came six hours later when a snowstorm passed through. I made use of the low visibility to escape the area.”

“He stumbled across a road, followed it to a house, and hot-wired a pickup,” Blake said admiringly. “And there he was, racing south, when a VTOL crew spotted him.”

“Nice work,” Hale said sincerely. “Did anyone else make it out?”

“A few did,” Burl answered soberly, as he looked down at his hands. “But there’s no way to know if any of them are still alive. Hundreds of people are still in the pit.”

“Yes,” Dentweiler said, as he spoke for the first time, “and one of them is ex-Secretary of War Walker.”

Hale’s eyebrows rose.

“Really? The man we’ve been looking for?”

“Exactly,” Dentweiler replied grimly. “It seems the stinks grabbed the bastard while he and his wife were on their way to Chicago. All we have to do is pick him up.”

Burl felt a sense of forboding. He’d been too trusting. That was apparent now. But his intentions had been good.

Almost from the moment the VTOL picked him up, Burl had been telling anyone who would listen that Walker was being held prisoner, in hopes that authorities would want to rescue the Secretary of War—and therefore all of the poor souls in the stink hole.

He hadn’t mentioned the tapes, however, and wasn’t going to—not until he had to. He cleared his throat. “Yes, well, you might want to remember that the stinks take people away every few days. So Walker could be dead by now.”

“We need to know,” Dentweiler put in vehemently, his eyes hard. “The man’s a traitor!” He turned to the Sentinel. “I want you to go in and get him. More importantly, the President wants you to go in and get him.”

“And the other prisoners?” Hale wanted to know.

“We’ll bring them out, too,” Blake responded hurriedly, as if fearful that Dentweiler would give some other instruction. “But it’s got to be fast… So the Chimera won’t have time to counterattack. Otherwise we could wind up having to rescue the rescuers.”

Hale nodded. “Understood. How large a force can I have?”

The question was directed to Major Blake, but Dentweiler chose to answer for him.

“You can have anything you want,” the Chief of Staff said flatly.

Major Blake frowned but remained silent.

“And one more thing,” Dentweiler added, his eyes on Hale. “The thing with your sister… Good work. We kept your name out of the press—we had to, given the fact that you’re officially dead—but the President is grateful. He’d like to thank you personally once this mission is over. And with Major Blake’s permission, we’re going to add a contingent of Sentinels to the President’s security team, and put you in command of them.”

There had been a time, only days earlier, when Hale would have been proud to play such a role. Now, after seeing how much Susan had been willing to sacrifice in order to remove Grace from office, he wasn’t so sure.

But Hale was a soldier—and gave the only reply he could. “Yes, sir. I’ll do my best.”

The sun had just risen, and was a dimly seen presence off to the east, as the six VTOLs came in from the west. Though not especially fast under even the best conditions, these aircraft were especially slow because of the vehicle that dangled beneath each ship. And, as the wintry landscape seemed to creep past below, the officer in command of the mission was busy questioning his own logic.

Hale was in the lead VTOL, crouched between his old friend Purvis and the Party Girl’s copilot, the three of them eyeing the terrain ahead. It was flat farm country for the most part, much of which had been ravaged by the war, but some of the farmhouses, barns, and silos appeared to be intact under layers of gauzy snow.

Strike Force Zebra had been spotted by that time, Hale felt certain of that, so it was safe to assume that the stinks were organizing a response. And that was where the speed versus throw weight calculation came into play. By choosing to bring two M-12 tanks, plus four LU-P Lynx All-Purpose Vehicles along with his troops, Hale was betting that no matter how quickly they arrived the team might have to cope with a major counterattack. If so both he and the rest of the Sentinels would be glad to have some heavy weapons on their side.

Of course the flip side was that Blake fully expected Hale to bring the vehicles out, which would entail time spent rigging lift harnesses, and a slower exit from Chimera-held territory. It was important matériel, and Hale was extremely conscious of his responsibilities. Purvis spoke over the intercom, breaking into his thoughts.

“We’re five out. Prepare to deploy all vehicles—and get ready to hit the dirt. Welcome to Wisconsin, gentlemen.”

As Hale rose, Purvis turned his way. He flipped the intercom off so only Hale and the copilot could hear him. “Watch your six, Hale,” Purvis said, “so we can come in and save it again.”

Hale grinned, shot the other officer a one-finger salute, and went back into the cargo area.

In addition to carrying a vehicle, each VTOL was loaded with twelve men, for a total of seventy-two soldiers counting Hale himself. It was an unusually large command for a second lieutenant, especially since more than half the troops were Sentinels, each of whom was judged to be worth three Rangers due to their quickness and ability to recover from wounds.

But given Hale’s combat record, and his familiarity with the Henry Walker mission, Blake had been willing to put him in charge, with Kawecki acting as platoon sergeant. Now, as Hale took his seat, he knew all the men were watching him closely. “Remember,” he said as he looked around, “I hate paperwork… So don’t get killed.”

That produced some guffaws, and served to take the edge off as the Party Girl’s door gunners began to clear the landing zone of stinks. Then, as all forward motion stopped, the crew chief pulled a lever and Hale felt the ship rise suddenly as the tank dangling under the VTOL’s belly hit the ground.

Having released the extra load, Purvis put the Party Girl down about fifty feet away from the M-12, ordered the crew chief to deploy the ramp, and cut power. A lot of fuel had been consumed on the trip out, and he wanted to conserve as much of it as he could. The engines were still spooling down as Hale led his men out onto the flat area that surrounded the mine.