William Johnstone - Phoenix Rising

PHOENIX RISING

William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

PINNACLE BOOKS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

www.kensingtonbooks.com

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

I may be changed by war,

but I will not be defeated by it.

—AUDIE MURPHY

CHAPTER ONE

Fort Rucker, Alabama—Tuesday, January 10

Major Jake Lantz was thirty-two years old. A helicopter pilot and flight instructor in the Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker, Alabama, he was in the peak of physical condition, recently scoring a perfect three hundred on his latest PT test, maxing out on the three required events: push-ups, sit-ups, and the two-mile run. A not-too-prominent scar on his right cheek, the result of shrapnel wound in Afghanistan, ran like a bolt of lightning from just below his eye to the corner of his mouth. He had blue eyes, and he wore his light brown hair closely cropped, in the way of a soldier.

Jake, who was a bachelor, lived alone in a three-bedroom ranch-style house on Baldwin Court in Ozark, Alabama, the town that proudly bills itself as the “Home of Fort Rucker.” He had kept the heat down during the day to save on his gas bill. Now he shivered as he turned it up.

Stripping out of his flight suit, Jake pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a red sweatshirt, emblazoned with the word ALABAMA across the front. He had not gone to school at Alabama, but had become a big fan of University of Alabama football.

Checking the digital clock on his dresser, he saw that he had but one minute left until the program he wanted to watch came on, so he hurried into the living room, settled down on the couch, picked up the remote, and clicked it toward the TV.

The initials GG appeared on the screen, then the voice-over introduced the show.

From New York! It’s the George Gregoire show!

And now, here is your host, George Gregoire!

The GG monogram moved into the background, and George Gregoire, with his signature crew-cut blond hair, slightly chubby face, and toothy smile, greeted his television audience.

Hello, America!

You are not going to want to miss the show today. I have information that, if I had been able to verify it before the election last November, might have saved our country the anguish, turmoil, and trouble we are going to go through over the next four years under President-elect Mehdi Ohmshidi.

In fact, I will say it here and now, this could be grounds for impeachment. Can a president be impeached even before he assumes office? I don’t know, but if the men and women in the House and Senate would put our country ahead of party, they might just want to think about this.

Here is a video, recently surfaced, of President-elect Mehdi Ohmshidi giving an address to the OWG. The OWG stands for One World Government. Ohmshidi is—well, let’s just let the video speak for itself.

The video was somewhat grainy, obviously taken not by a camera for broadcast, but by a small, personal camera. Nevertheless, it was quite clearly President-elect Mehdi Ohmshidi standing at a podium addressing a rather sizeable crowd. Many in the crowd were holding signs, saying such things as:

U.S. Is An Obsolete Concept

One People, One World, One Government

No More Flags, No More Wars

Patriotism Is Jingoistic

Ohmshidi began to speak and because the sound wasn’t of the best quality, his words were superimposed in bright yellow, over the picture.

I see a world united! A world at peace! A world where there are no rich and there are no poor, a world of universal equality and brotherhood.

Such a world will surely come, my friends, but it will never be as long as we are divided by such things as religion, patriotism, the greed of capitalism, and the evil of so-called honorable military service. There is nothing honorable about fighting a war to advance one nation’s principles over another. One world, one people, one government!

Ohmshidi’s closing shout was met by thunderous applause and cheers from the audience.

The picture returned to George Gregoire on his New York set.

The question of Ohmshidi’s membership in the OWG was raised during the election, but spokesmen for Ohmshidi said that it was merely a flirtation he had entered into when he was in college.

Really ?

Ohmshidi graduated from UC Berkeley twenty-one years ago. I’m going to bring the video up again, in freeze-frame. I want you to look at the sign on the curtain behind him.

In freeze-frame, on the curtain behind the speaker’s stand were the words:

WELCOME TO THE ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT CONVENTION

Notice, that beneath the sign are the dates of the convention, June 6 to June 10—TWO YEARS AGO!

“Jake, are you in here?” a woman’s voice called from the front door.

Jake picked up the remote and muted the TV. “In here, Karin,” he called back.

Karin Dawes was a captain, an Army nurse, who was still wearing her uniform. She had short black hair, brown eyes, an olive complexion, and the same body she had when she was a college cheerleader. She was also a world-class marathoner who had just missed qualifying to represent the U.S. in the last Olympics. Seeing George Gregoire on the silent TV screen, Karin chuckled.

“You’re watching Gregoire. Of course, it’s six o’clock. What else would you be watching?”

“You should watch him,” Jake said. “Maybe you would learn something.”

“I do watch him,” Karin said. “As much time as I spend over here with you, how can I help but watch him?”

“Ha! Now I know why you spend so much time over here. Here, I thought it was my charm. Now I find out it’s just so you can watch George Gregoire.”

“I confess, you are right,” she said. She leaned over to kiss him, the kiss quickly deepening.

“Damn,” Jake said, when they separated. “That’s what I call a greeting. Do I sense a possibility that this could go further?”

“How can it go any further?” Karin said. “It’s at least half an hour before Gregoire is over, isn’t it?”

Jake picked up the remote again, and turned the TV off.

“You’re sure I’m not taking you away from George Gregoire?” Karin teased. “I certainly would not want to be accused of alienation of affection.”

“Woman, you talk too damn much,” Jake said, kissing her again. “Besides,” he said, “I’ve got a TV in the bedroom, I can always watch him while . . .”

“You try that, Major, and you’ll have George Gregoire in bed with you before I split the sheets with you again,” Karin said, hitting him playfully on the shoulder. Jake laughed out loud, then put his arm around her as they went into the bedroom.

There was an ease in their coupling, the assurance of being comfortable lovers who knew each other well, and yet their relationship was not so stale that it couldn’t still be fresh with new discovery. Outside, the wind was blowing hard, and Jake could hear the dry rattle of the leafless limbs of an ancient oak.

Afterward they lay together under the covers, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her, his hand resting on her naked thigh. It was, as always, a feeling of total contentment.

“Jake?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Will we always have this? I don’t mean are we going to get married, or anything like that. I just mean, will we always have this sense of joie de vivre?”