Land of the Blind (Chapter 24)

Land of the Blind



Chapter 24



Peter Donat could not believe what he was hearing.  Standing in the middle of the floating complex’s emergency landing strip, he watched and listened as the holographic link of Paulius ordered him to transfer the plasma weapons from the freighters to the submarines.  Even though it had taken most of a day to get the freighters loaded, he now had less than four hours to do the same for the submarines.

“I’ve turned my convoy around,” Paulius said.  “I’m heading for the harbor.  I should be there before Velasquez.  She’s scheduled to stop at Jacksonville to pick up additional CID agents.  No objections, Peter.  Just get it started.”

The image faded and Donat cursed loudly.  He hadn’t liked the idea of having the plasma weapons put on the ships in the first place.  He had heard that the general wanted to keep them closer to shore to protect his cabal’s assets, but he knew that the general was worried about the Russians discovering his dirty little secret.  The thought made him shudder because he knew that there might soon be a volley of Russian missiles heading his way if someone somewhere panicked.

“You’ve stepped in it this time, Peter, my boy,” he said to himself.  “And it’s your own fault.”

He hurried toward the docks.

#

Nia Mavromichalis had already kept her subordinates waiting for thirty minutes when she’d gotten the comm link from her husband, Steve.  She hadn’t wanted to delay meeting with the base and regional commanders but she’d desperately wanted to maintain control of the situation with Chiang.  She had a lot riding on the writ from the Joint Chiefs.  But, now, she’d just learned that her efforts might have been for naught.

“Do you know how much is at stake here, Steve?” she asked.

“My stake is as big as yours, Nia,” Steve’s holograph gently reminded her.  “I don’t know how Chiang found out about it, but he has.  Anna has bumped up the inspection time by forgoing the stop in Jacksonville.  I need you to secure transport for my CID agents to the floating complex.”

“This has the potential for getting out of hand,” Mavromichalis cautioned.  “We very well could end up pointing guns at each other.  With the Russians looking at us through a microscope, this could literally blow up in our faces.”

“What’s the alternative, honey?” Steve implored.  “We’ve already started it.  Backing down gives us a black eye and makes Chiang virtually untouchable.  I have no doubt that he would move to replace the Joint Chiefs with his own cronies, like he’s been trying to do for the last five years.  This time, though, he’ll have real ammunition to back it up.  Then, we’d be totally under his thumb, a thumb that, I remind you, would openly push the panic button if the Russians make any kind of move that is halfway threatening.  With Chiang, the definition of ‘threatening’ is very thin.”

“Well, I guess we can only play the hand we’ve dealt,” Mavromichalis relented.  “God, Steve, how did it ever get this far?”

“Because we helped eliminate the one force capable of stopping people like Chiang,” Steve replied.  “I’ll let you know what happens.  Love you.”

“I love you, too.  Take care of yourself.”

She cut the link a moment before Captain Michelle Goa, her aide-de-camp, walked in to remind her of the meeting.

“Bad news, ma’am?” Goa inquired.

“I’m not sure yet,” Mavromichalis answered, with a deep frown.  “But, God, if you’re listening, please watch out for all of them.”

#

Paulius didn’t know how he did it.  As he rolled off the brunette, he wondered how he could still be aroused when his entire world was about to fall apart.  He dressed hastily, but the brunette simply lounged back on the seat and closed her eyes. 

He’d turned the entire convoy around and had headed back towards the harbor area where the Praetorians had a private dock and landing strip.  That meant passing through downtown Jacksonville.  He had wanted to just find an open field and be met by a jet copter but he was escorting important members of the cabal’s leadership.  Despite the impending danger to the entire Federation, he was still tasked with guaranteeing the safety of a handful of sycophants and brown-nosers.

“Status of the escort plane,” he called out to his driver via the vehicle’s AI.

Suddenly, the car screeched to a halt, throwing both Paulius and the brunette to the floor.  He scowled and cursed as he pushed himself back into his seat, completely ignoring the woman.  He activated the car’s camera system and blanched at what he saw.

A jet copter lowered itself into the center of a downtown intersection, its back draft scattering trash, pedestrians and tables at sidewalk cafes. 

Paulius was stunned.  The jet copter was holding up the entire convoy and he could not fathom why.  He knew the pilot was supposed to be waiting for him at the private landing strip.  He wondered if the general had changed the plan.  Then, he realized that even if such a move had been made, it would have been disastrous to have a copter touch down in the middle of a busy intersection filled with motorists and pedestrians where winds channeled by skyscrapers could push it into a building.

Just then, something took over the car’s surveillance system.  The system shut down and then, just as quickly, came back to life.  It projected a holograph that made Paulius go white.

“Oh, my God,” the brunette gasped as Paulius had suddenly lost the ability to speak.

That was the same feeling for everyone.  The holograph cut into communications all over the southeast.  But, it was aimed at a specific few -- on a jet transport carrying Anna Velasquez; during a meeting of subordinates with Nia Mavromichalis, and in the middle of a luncheon in a hardened bunker with an astonished Kober Chiang and his cabal.

“Yes, it’s me,” Devereaux Marshall Fox greeted.

#

Devereaux Marshall Fox looked around the intersection, watching an interesting phenomenon.  While some people had fled the scene when he brought the jet copter down to street level, many more had now gathered on the streets to gawk.  He couldn’t help but remember similar situations in the previous millennium.  Very few had turned out to be as interesting as the onlookers thought.

He saw police vehicles hastily erecting barriers to keep the people back.  He also saw a few heavy armored vans arriving and knew that they belonged to the city’s SWAT teams.  Of course, he wasn’t worried because his jet copter was armored and shielded.  No one else that he knew of could scramble the electronics enough to get through to him.  Well, no one except the original crew who were trapped inside a bunker at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He looked back down at his communications console.  His microcomputer showed several blinking lights, indicating numerous comm links that he couldn’t see.  He was broadcasting to multiple addresses so it only mattered that they could see him.  He already figured that he would have a captive audience, especially after 10 years.

“Did you guys miss me?” he asked, with a smug smile.  “Ten years is a long time.  A long time to screw up the world.  You got me out of the way to make the world a better place and it turns out the joke was on you, Lieutenant General Mavromichalis.  And you, Deputy CID Director Nguyen.  And, especially, you, Brigadier General Anna Velasquez.  This was all just a power play by Kober Chiang. 

“Two thousand innocent people in Panama.  Thousands of innocent villagers in Brazil’s Para Province.  Virtually the entire planet at Area 51.  What? You didn’t figure out that combining Boron-352 with highly unstable and experimental plasma would cause the hydrogen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere to ignite?  You thought that Elise Chiang’s ingeniously-designed safety locks would hold, didn’t you?  They would have if the materials they were made of actually worked in someplace other than the theoretical plane.  Of course, that’s not the kind of thing you can test under actual conditions.  Oh, excuse me a second.”

Bullets whined off the jet copter’s shield.  Fox looked up to see that the convoy’s security detail had exited their vehicles and were now shooting at him.  He sighed and touched the firing stick.

The copter’s 30-millimeter depleted slantium Gatling guns rattled, turning armored cars into tin cans to be ripped apart.  Fusion cores exploded.  The bullets turned the security detail into brief sprays of red.  When the Gatling guns began to overheat, Fox switched to rocket launchers, transforming the convoy’s limousines into fireballs.  Shock waves shattered the windows of nearby businesses and office buildings, causing those bystanders who hadn’t taken the earlier hint to scurry, screaming, for safety.  When Fox stopped his attack, only one vehicle – the most important – remained intact, save for a single bullet hole in the windshield on the driver’s side.

“As I was saying,” Fox blurted out, as he leaned back in his seat.  “All of that work just so Chiang could usurp the Constitution and make himself dictator.  Why?  Because he was determined to put the Federation back on top, no matter what he had to do to achieve it.  Things like mentally raping his niece.  You might want to check out that implant she always seem to be wearing, Doctor Singh.  Surely you’ve figured out what it really is?  If not, I’m sure General Velasquez can tell you.”

“Madre Dios,” he heard Anna’s voice come back over one of the links. 

“My God, too, Anna,” Fox retorted.  “So, can you see why just serving him a writ to inspect some cargo ships won’t work?  Bet you didn’t know about the submarines he has escorting them?  The same ones that will be carrying the plasma weapons while you come up empty-handed.  Trust me, I always do my homework.”

“Fox, this is General Mavromichalis.”

“Glad to hear from you,” Fox replied. 

“Fox, I don’t know how you survived, but…”

“Did you people learn nothing from Area 51?” Fox blurted, clearly exasperated.  “You’ve had ten years to figure out if my multiverse explanation had merit, which it does.  That’s where I took the effects of the Boraton blasts.  I destroyed another realm of existence to keep Chiang from murdering tens of billions of innocent people.  I violated the laws I’ve been living by to do it and I’ve been doing penance for it ever since.  I only just finished my sentence in literal purgatory.  So, don’t give me some weak warning about the consequences of what I’m doing or about to do.”

“Marshall, this is Anna.  You’re in a densely populated area.  Chiang has tens of thousands of troops at his complex, not to mention overwhelming military hardware.  He would have every right to defend himself.  Please, don’t endanger innocent lives just to wage another battle with him.”

“I appreciate the warning, Anna,” Fox said.  “But, you’ve got the Russians on your doorsteps waiting for the chance to take out the plasma weapons.  That act would give the Occidentals an opening to go after the Federation’s overseas assets.  This would surely lead to a world war that will kill tens of billions.  Oh, and by the way, Anna, this isn’t another battle between me and Chiang.  It’s going to be the final battle.”

He suddenly fired a single rocket that streaked through the fiery wreckage before him and intersected a lone figure fleeing the carnage.  Fox had once wanted to get the chance to talk to Paulius and try to figure out what made him tick or what had made him so sadistic.  After ten years of brooding and rebuilding his netherworld, he’d decided that it would only be a waste of time.  Thus, he killed Paulius just as quickly and horrifically as he done to Erich Rickholts.

“Hey, Kober, looks like you’re going to need another right-hand man,” Fox said, snidely.  “Unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll have enough time.  If I don’t get the chance, let me say goodbye to you now.  I’d like to say it was fun, but we both know it wasn’t.”

#

Anna started to say something but stopped when the comm link died.  Her mind still reeling from the revelation that Fox had not only survived the Boraton attack, but had actually saved the human race, she tried to organize her thoughts.  She got little help from Maria, Cobra and Nguyen.  None of them could find the words.

Fortunately, a comm link opened up to save her.

“Anna, this is General Mavromichalis.”

She looked up at Nia Mavromichalis’ holograph.

“Anna, I’ve put the entire region on full alert,” Mavromichalis said.  “I’ll be getting airborne as soon as I have sufficient forces on the move.  You’re in charge until I get there.  Concentrate on evacuation and casualty assistance.”

“Ma’am, a regional alert will activate for more forces than we had at Area 51,” Anna countered.  “Despite his seemingly impossible rebirth, Fox is still only one man.  Chiang’s forces should be more than enough.”

“I wish it were that simple,” Mavromichalis shot back.  “It’s just the way that Fox said that this will be the final battle.”

“But, Fox has never shown an ability to deal with a large military force,” Nguyen chimed in.  “What’s different now than it was the last time?”

“Anna and Panama were, my dear,” his wife replied, coolly.  “Fox was buying time for Anna and her people to evacuate at Area 51.  He also stayed aboard the cruise ship in the Panama Canal to try to protect the passengers.  Meaning…”

“Meaning that it’s highly likely that the only reason we won,” Anna finished, “was because Fox held back.  Holy mother of God.”

“And now that there’s nothing to stop him?” Nguyen queried.

There was no answer because the entire horizon suddenly filled with a blinding light.

#

The first phase of Fox’s plan was deceptively simply – he was going to cut off the heads of Chiang’s cabal.  The first step in that phase was noticed rather abruptly by the citizens of Keystone, the original space city in orbit around the planet.  Where once they started to send the day’s allotment of microwave energy down to receiving points on the planet’s surface from their solar cell apparatus, they suddenly lost control of it.

Safety protocols died as the microwave energy was focused into a narrow beam and launched toward new coordinates.  Theoretically, it should not have been possible for the microwaves to be concentrated enough to become lethal, not with four layers of safety protocols.  But, the man in control now was Devereaux Marshall Fox and, to him, anything was possible.

Thus, the microwave burst shot down through a protesting atmosphere and struck near the floating complex, cutting two freighters clean in half.  The beam, being intensified light particles, sliced through the water and easily penetrated the armored hold of the last submarine out of the floating complex.  When the super plasma cargo blew, it completely disintegrated the vessel.

The blast stretched outward and hungrily grabbed at the three remaining submarines, overtaking them despite their captains feverishly overtaxing their fusion reactors for the last iota of speed.  Soon, though, they joined their comrades in adding to the massive blast that turned 50 billion tons of water into scalding steam.  It forced its way to the surface and burst outward like a nuclear bomb, its murderous shock wave rippling outward even as the explosion ignited the atmosphere above.  This reaction sent a spectacular fireball, nearly four miles in diameter, shooting 14,000 feet into the heavens even as it annihilated most of the freighters and their escort ships. 

For those in the space cities, it was like the birth of a miniature sun, but one that faded all too quickly, even as the solar field that created it short-circuited and died, its numerous faux-glass panels shattering and connections burning out so that Fox's feat could never be repeated.  The fireball on the surface was visible for 250 miles and the flash of the beam could be seen on both the Federation's eastern seaboard and in Western Europe.  The blast’s concussive force shoved three empty fuel tankers up onto the floating complex 20 miles away, where they crushed hapless people and smashed into buildings.  Even worse, for the survivors, like Peter Donat who rushed for one of the safety shelters, the steam cloud engulfed the complex, turning it into Dante’s Inferno.

Those in the shelters survived agonizing death by steam, but had to endure an immense build-up of the outside temperature.  While a mushroom cloud of steam and debris rose 45,000 feet into the sky, Donat and less than a hundred Praetorians, withstood the heat in their command bunkers.  But the locking systems failed and they were sealed in. 

It might not have seemed like a major problem until the machines controlling the ballast elements of the complex stopped working after being heavily pummeled by the shock waves.  What remained of the artificial island sank to the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, settling into a blast crater 6500 feet wide and almost 300 feet deep.  A week later when help finally arrived at the crater caused by Fox's machinations, only Donat and a female lieutenant would be alive to face the music of their leader’s actions.

Fox, if anything, was a believer in making things work in more ways than one.  The floating complex was gone and the threat of the super plasma had been eliminated, all without any real danger to the planet since it did not involve Boraton warheads.  It had also, however, sent the Russia air and naval forces scrambling in the opposite direction to avoid the steam clouds that expanded two miles per minute.  The clouds would ultimately cool enough to give them – and much of the eastern American seaboard, along with all of the Azores, Puerto Rico and Bermuda – only a very warm shower, but the right outcome had been achieved.  There would be no threat of war, at least for the moment.

#

Next, Fox enacted the second part of his plan against the Cabal.  Just as he surprised the space city workers at the solar field, he did the same to the missile operators of Chiang’s complex.  Truth be known, he had a little help from the alien computers that ran his secret netherworld – actually, he had a lot of help because they were the reason why he’d always been able to penetrate the technology of this world.

Chiang’s main base was protected by several layers of security, beginning with long-range surface-to-air (SAM) launchers that could take out targets up to fifty miles away.  To the surprise of their operators, they suddenly launched, filling the skies above Jacksonville with dozens of high-explosive warheads.  Each had a separate target and none responded to frantic self-destruct signals.  The operators could only wonder where those missiles were headed and just who would be on the receiving end of their deadly payloads.

#

One missile arced up and over toward Jacksonville's harbor, piercing the roof of one of two seemingly innocuous warehouses.  When the missile’s warhead detonated, though, it transformed hidden barrels of deadly CSX gas into sheets of flame that consumed the surrounding structures.  With a fantastic whoosh that deafened workers on the docks across the way, the entire warehouse complex erupted in a massive explosion.  The chain reaction spread to the other three warehouses in the Praetorian-controlled complex and they all went up like the Fourth of July.  Every window for ten miles around that was not made of the newest lexan glazing shattered and rained shards down on the streets below.

#

Dainmon Chiagas owned one of the largest satellite dishes in North America.  Purportedly built to help him maintain communications with his interests around the world, its main purpose was to beam propaganda at the space cities.  A SAM took out the dish’s foundation.  With a groan, it toppled over and then totally collapsed in a spectacular shower of steel girders and glass before smashing into a courtyard full of Chiagas’ handpicked security personnel below.

#

Kavi Singh had taken an awfully risky gamble to show Chiang what his scientists had just created to deal with the Occidentals.  A three-truck convoy escorted by four armored vans full of Singh’s best security people crossed the St.  Matthew’s Bridge.  At least they put up a fight.  However, their bullets were much too slow to catch up with the two missiles streaking at them at more than the speed of sound.

The sonic boom made when the missiles broke the sound barrier blended in with the twin explosions that reacted badly with the chemicals stored aboard the trucks. Half the bridge disappeared into the St. John’s River below.  The only good thing was that Singh’s security force, despite not being Federation citizens, had sealed off the bridge to civilian traffic to allow for unfettered movement of the convoy.  The bad news was that the entire mouth of Jacksonville’s natural harbor would be blocked for a week.

#

Next up was the artificial harbor north of the bridge.  Chiang had created it for just such a scenario, not wanting his naval forces blocked in and also needing a secure place to move things he wanted no one else to see.  In this harbor, a squadron of Praetorian patrol boats began powering up for routine exercises. 

By the time they received word of Fox’s attack, they were too busy launching their own SAM’s at the barrage of incoming missiles.  Alas, being patrol boats, their SAM’s were short-range units incapable of taking out advanced weapons.  On the plus side, though, they were all destroyed in the first strike.  None of the sailors lived to see the entire harbor get blasted to pieces, with not a single structure surviving intact.  What the warheads failed to obliterate, the resulting firestorm did.

#

The remaining missiles from Chiang’s base found more than enough targets.  Each Cabal member had built complexes on the outskirts of Jacksonville, to be nearer to Chiang’s base.  These suffered devastating strikes that destroyed vital research labs, stocked warehouses of things that were all illegal, and valuable data and technology.  Casualties were minimal, except among the core staff who never really had a chance to escape.  Fox’s attack had been too swift and too complete for anyone to think about running.

#

Anna was still trying to get the spots out of her eyes when she was interrupted by Mavromichalis’ holographic link.  She ignored her superior officer for a moment to get her bearings.  To her left, she saw Maria getting up off the floor where she’d fallen when the transport pitched, its pilots also blinded by the explosion that took out the floating complex hundreds of miles away.  Ahead of her, Nguyen had crawled into a seat.

She blinked again and finally saw things correctly.  Then, she took a look out her window and wished she was blind again.  There were huge fireballs, explosions and fires all over the city.  She caught twin blasts in her peripheral vision and determined that the St. Matthew’s bridge had just been taken out.  A moment later, the artificial harbor north of the bridge went up and she shuddered upon thinking of the body count.

“Anna, can you hear me?”

Anna realized Mavromichalis was still waiting for her to respond.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Anna, are you getting all of this?” Mavromichalis’ hologram asked. 

“He’s destroying everything,” Anna stammered, clearly shocked by the severity of the attack.  “My God, all those people.”

“Calm down, Anna,” Mavromichalis countered.  “Satellites indicate that the damage is limited to Chiang’s bases or complexes belonging to his Cabal.  There’s no telling exactly what he and his cronies have been hiding or developing but, suffice it to say, it can’t have been either legal or safe.”

“Glad to hear your voice, Love,” Nguyen called out.  “Can you tell us what that flash was?  It overwhelmed the onboard shading system.”

“Don’t ask me how, but Fox turned Keystone City’s solar field into a laser beam,” Mavromichalis explained.  “He hit the submarines carrying the super plasma weapons we told the Russians we don’t have.  From what I can see, what survived from the floating complex is at the bottom of the Atlantic.  Good news, though.  It made the Russians beat a hasty retreat.  We’ll be feeling it soon.”

“What?”

“Initial reports estimate that billions of tons of ocean water were turned into steam when the plasma went up,” the lieutenant general explained.  “It left a massive crater in the ocean floor.  The ocean then filled in the void.  My science officers have already told me that, when the oceans fill the void in, it will cause the surf to recede greatly, not enough to unveil Atlantis but low enough to leave our big ships stuck in dock. 

"The steam cloud will douse most of the Atlantic islands with warm, but salty rain and what it will do to the environment is anyone’s guess.  Believe it or not, but my science adviser likened the event to the 1954 Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll.  It was equal to 15 megatons of TNT.”

"Good God," Nguyen groaned.

“We’ve got to stop him, General,” Anna said.  “I need to take whatever forces are on the scene and stop this.”

“No, you can’t, Anna,” Mavromichalis shot back.  “And that’s an order.”

Anna gasped.  Had she heard right?  Had her commanding officer just ordered her not to interfere with Fox’s brutal assault on a heavily-populated Federation city?

“I’m not being cold or callous, Anna,” Anna’s CO explained.  “Our first priority must be saving lives.  Fox has only gone after Chiang and his cabal.  We need to assist local emergency services and the Florida National Guard.  Do not – I repeat – DO NOT engage Fox unless you have absolutely no choice.”

“With all due respect, General, that goes against the very oath we all took to protect the Federation against all enemies, foreign, domestic or otherwise,” Anna retorted.

“With all due respect, Anna, you don’t have the big picture,” Mavromichalis shot back, angrily.  “The National Guard will be assisting the emergency services, as will the Coast Guard, after they determine if anyone survived at the artificial harbor or at the warehouse complex.  No naval surface forces of any significance can get to Jacksonville because Fox took out the St. Matthew’s Bridge.  And, even if they could, with the tide being artificially receded by Fox’s attack on the floating complex, only shallow draft vessels can even get out of Mayport.

“To make matters worse, the surrounding bases are putting their defensive systems up to search for more missiles from Chiang’s base.  Since he seems incapable of regaining control of them, any jets available to attack Fox will be looking out for those missiles, most of which can launch decoys.  Of course, that’s if we have the jets available.  Most of the air assets have been loaded with fuel-air explosives to take care of that steam cloud.  Calculations show an excellent chance that very little of it will hit arable land, but there’s just enough doubt for us not to trust to luck.  Fox knew that.”

“I doubt a full-scale Russian or Occidental invasion could have so completely neutralized our military, Anna,” Mavromichalis continued.  “Even our jet copters and regular heliborne assets are being pressed into service to put out fires and evacuate civilians.  Fox has made it so he can attack Chiang directly, without any interference from us.  That’s why I ordered you not to engage. You don’t have the forces necessary to do so and, after what we saw in Panama and at Area 51, I don’t think any available force would be enough.”

Anna bit her lip and swallowed hard.  It was almost too much to bear, knowing that she was just as helpless against Fox now as she had been in Mexico, Fort Worth and Area 51.  She wondered if she deluded herself into thinking reality had really changed just because her manipulative implants had been removed or because she had married Maria.  Maybe she just had to accept her limitations.

“Understood, ma’am,” she finally said.  “And I apologize for my insubordination.”

“Don’t apologize, Anna,” Mavromichalis said, curtly.  “Just try to bring some order to this chaos.  My husband should be able to help you and I’m sure Maria and Warrant will give you their best efforts.  I’m heading there will all possible speed.  Good luck.”

The hologram disappeared just as Warrant Officer Cobra stepped into the cabin.

“Warrant, we’ve been ordered to take control of any military forces not belonging directly to the general,” Anna said, with some hesitation and more than a bit of frustration.  “First priority is to assist in the evacuation and rescue of civilians.”

“We’re not going after Fox,” Maria said.

“If it's not out of line, I think that’s a good decision, ma’am,” Cobra said.  “Fox has commandeered the defense systems of Chiang’s base.  He’s using the long-range Mark Twelve missiles against Cabal and Praetorian targets.  Right now, I have no idea how those missile systems would treat us, not to mention the others.”

“What others?” Anna queried as she typed furiously on her wrist tabulator.

“The naval station in Mayport is gearing up for a huge missile strike to take out the SAM launchers,” the warrant officer answered.  "They just ordered us to clear the air space or get down to ground level."

“I was hoping My wife wasn’t right,” Nguyen concluded.  “I thought maybe the reports coming into her were exaggerated by panicky subordinates, but I should have known better.  She’s too good at separating the chaff from the wheat.  Fox is systematically dismantling Chiang’s operations and there’s nothing we can do about it.” 

“No disrespect, sir,” Cobra started.  “But, isn’t that to our benefit?  After all, we were on our way to search his ships for illegal weapons.  Fox may just solve our entire problem, though I do agree that I wish there weren’t the collateral damage.”

“Whatever we want is irrelevant, Warrant,” Maria answered for Nguyen.  “This is Fox’s world and we just have to live in it.”

“Then God help the General and anyone else on that base,” Anna remarked, coldly.  “Chiang had the supposedly noble intention of restoring the Federation to the top of the world order, but just made things worse with his methods.  He thought he was creating his own little piece of Heaven on Earth, but Fox is reminding him that there’s going to be hell to pay.”

#

“Obsolete,” Fox sneered.  “Isn’t that what they called my technology?”

“No need to gloat, Devereaux,” his microcomputer said through the jet copter’s interface.  “It’s unbecoming.”

Fox eased back on the control stick and felt the copter ascend.  At the controls, sparks seemed to jump from his hands to the controls.  Fox was able to maintain control of the copter, easily compensating for the heavy wind drafts coming off the St. John’s River. 

He had been able to avoid most of the shock wave from the explosions at the artificial harbor.  He just couldn’t avoid seeing all the destruction his actions had wrought. A little regret passed through him at the thought of the all the collateral damage he was causing within the city, but it didn’t last long.  He knew he had a mission and his attacks were necessary to correct the horrific geopolitical situation created in his long absence.

“Status of targets,” he called out.

“All targets within the immediate area have been heavily damaged, if not totally destroyed,” the microcomputer responded.  “There have been some civilian casualties, but authorities won’t say if they’re innocents or part of the companies of the Cabal.  Still calculating the fallout from the destruction of the super plasma weapons and the floating complex, though rain will begin falling on the Azores within the next six hours if their air forces don’t launch fuel-air explosives to burn it off early.”

"Any idea when they'll find their efforts for naught?" Fox asked.

"Are you asking me to predict human intelligence?" the microcomputer remarked, sounded incredulous.  "I think we both know that's a bottomless pit."

“What about Federation military response to my actions then?”

“We are still flying too low for localized SAM’s to find us," the microcomputer replied.  "However, the naval station is preparing to fire a massive missile strike against Chiang’s main base.  Air response is directed at remaining missiles and their decoys.  Naval forces are limited to patrol boats, some amphibious vessels and water craft, and only to those inside the harbor before the bridge went.  The artificial low tide caused by the plasma destruction is alreading being felt.  The largest assets anchored on the St. John’s haven't been able to move.

“As you predicted, the Federation military is dealing with the damage or with Chiang’s missiles.  Nothing is looking for us.  Your plan – and my calculations – have systematically isolated Chiang and his Cabal, and have deprived him of his right-hand men Paulius and Donat.  However…” 

“However what?” Fox queried with a deep frown.

“The general has surely switched his remaining missile systems to local control.  And he has more than 10,000 soldiers and security personnel at the base.  Do you plan to fight them all?”

“No,” Fox answered, with a mischievous smile.  “I plan to make them fight the general.  Patch me in to this comm link signal.”

Fox flew his jet copter on toward Chiang’s base, keeping close to the ground to avoid detection.  If his plan kept working, however, he knew he’d soon have no worries about detection.  Privately, though, he wondered if he was up for the next phase of his plan.  It was true that he had never gone up against a large military force, especially not one so well-defended or entrenched.  Still, he knew he’d started something that he had to finish and finish it he meant to do – no matter the cost.

"Anna, this is Fox," he said once the link was established.  "Believe it or not, but I need a favor."