Hell in the Homeland (11 page)

John replied, “We did plan for it and have been trying to find out who was talking to the DHS. I planted false info with each of you. Only one false bit of info got back to the DHS. Now before I tell who I gave the info to, I have to make sure y’all know that person isn’t the mole, but they passed the info on to the mole.”

Everyone looked at the other guy and started talking until John asked them to quiet down.

John said, “George, I gave you a tidbit about a planned attack on the DHS frigate in Mobile harbor planned for last Wednesday. The DHS moved in thirty men armed with stinger missiles the night before.”

George replied, “John, I didn’t give the info to the DHS!”

John replied, “Remember, I told each of you to share some info with only the leader of certain groups. George, you only did what you were asked to do. All of the rest of you were asked to do the same and there were no changes in the DHS behavior.”

John said, “No George, we believe you gave the info to the Pastor who gave it to the DHS. What y’all don’t know is that the military still has access to all pre-EMP records from Government and civilian sources. They performed background checks on everyone with any access to confidential information and as many others as possible. They also have their moles in all of the large groups. We narrowed our concerns down to the Pastor and just wanted to confirm the culprit.”

George was still trying to apologize to John when John said, “George, you did exactly what we told you to do; so did everyone in the room, including me.”

George said, "Now, what do we do to the bastard, he could have gotten us all killed.”

Scott said, “Let me kill the fucker now. I’ll sneak into this camp and make it look like an accident."

Bob replied, “No, we’ll kill the son of a bitch at the right time. We need the rat telling them everything that he knows and we will keep feeding him false info.”

              There were two major preparations going on in the camp; the preparation for the attack on the DHS and John’s wedding. Since this was to be a surprise for John, there was almost as much secrecy about the wedding as there was for the major battle looming over them. John and Bob kept everyone focused on the attack on the DHS attack and conducted numerous planning sessions with the key people.

Gus helped the women stay focused on their part of the attack while Shirley took the ladies' free time and prepared for the wedding. They kept most of the plans from Beth and everything from John by giving false information about a party before the attack. Gus couldn’t help think that the wedding’s information security was better than the DHS attack.

The wedding was planned for September 20.  The ladies had been able to put some decorations together and Shirley baked a cake. The plan was to get John out of the compound by taking advantage of a short trip that Bob and John had already planned. They would set up the decorations and food and drink for the reception afterwards while John was out with Bob. The Pastor was already scheduled to come to the bunker after lunch with the service planned for two o’clock. Shirley had warned Bob that he had better have John back in the compound by one o’clock.

Ann went to Beth’s room and said, “Beth, I know that you did not get to bring any formal clothes down from Tennessee so I want to offer you some of mine. I know you normally wouldn’t want to use the groom’s ex-wife’s clothes, but the girls and I have scoured the bunker and the surrounding area and have not found much that would be nice enough for a wedding.”

Beth replied, “Ann, I am glad that you offered and will gladly take you up on the offer.”

They hugged and went to Ann’s room to look at her clothes. Ann showed Beth all of her dresses and Beth even tried some on, but nothing struck her fancy. Ann went back to the closet and brought out a very nice black satin jump suit. Beth tried it on and Ann placed a string of pearls around her neck. She was beautiful.

Ann said, “You look fabulous. John will have an orgasm when he sees you. Hell, all of the guys will. Just stay away from Bob. I have plans for him and we have been sneaking around. He is afraid that John might object.”

Beth turned red and said, “Ann, I’m so glad that I was able to keep my jealousy in control. I need a friend and I would like to be a friend to you. John really likes Bob and I am sure he will be happy for both of you. I’ll mention it to him if it’s okay with you.”

***

Pablo Cortez was very pleased with the results from his coalition with the US president, Iran and Columbia. Europe was on its knees, the Middle East was a sea of glass and Russia and China were in major land battles that neutralized them. Only the remaining US Military could possible derail his plans. The president had promised over eighty percent of the US Military would stay loyal to him and support the cause, but it appeared to be exactly the opposite. The president was a fool and Pablo thought that he had been a fool to count on him that much. The only good luck was that most of the Army and Marines had been killed or were busy fighting overseas. The rogue military would not nuke his forces on US soil.

Cortez had planned all along to double cross the US part of the coalition. The president had given him the southwest part of the USA from San Diego to Houston in reparation for the US stealing the land from Mexico in the 1840’s. Cortez wanted the whole bottom half of the USA. He wanted the manufacturing and farming base to supply his South American operations. He planned to use the Americans as slaves to work the farms and manufacture goods. He had planned for the EMP attacks and had the technicians and electrical parts to get the grid back up to power his newly conquered land.

Iran had supplied Cortez’s forces with all of the latest military hardware and training. They had ground to air missiles, shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles and light armored vehicles. His ace in the hole was the two Iranian submarines that were stationed off the coast of Texas. They were not state of the art, but could take out the two USN aircraft carriers and their attending ships before being destroyed. They each had two nuclear mines aboard, which were intended to be set off in the middle of the USN Fleet.

***

Major Johnson had to demand a meeting with Deke Jones to inform him of the recent increase in chatter on the short wave and handheld radios. Johnson knew that this usually meant that something bad was about to happen and he wanted the compound prepared. He had already told Deke about the Pastor’s info gained from Harris’ group, but Deke did not appear to take the information as a real threat. Deke had been in the waiting room for over an hour and was beginning to wonder if he should take his men and get the hell out of Mobile.

A couple of his closest officers were urging him to head out west with the men who were loyal to them. They could find a nice area and start their own country.

Deke was busy sampling the newly interned crop of ladies and didn’t want to deal with military crap. He truly felt that the old USA was invincible and no one could mount a credible attack on his army. There were only a few rag tag biker gangs and rednecks out there to deal with and they were poorly armed. Major Davis had told him that they had lost two patrols in the past two months and that did not worry him in the least. His fellow field marshals were losing five times that many to the west and east of him.

Deke let Major Johnson enter his office and greeted him rather coolly.

Deke said, “What are you complaining about now? Have you heard about some grand plan to overthrow our government?

Major Johnson replied, “Mr. Jones, I assure you that I am not here about trivial rumors or bullshit. We are hearing a major increase in chatter on the radio and that suggests a concerted effort instead of random attacks.”

Deke replied, “That’s Field Marshal to you and don’t forget it. Come back when you know something and stop the guesswork. Dismissed!”

Johnson never told him about the latest information about an impending attack. He went straight to his officers and began developing an exit strategy.

***

John asked all of the leaders of the groups that had joined them in the fight against the DHS to a final planning session before the attack. They gathered in the barn, which had the only room large enough to hold all of the team members. He proceeded to lay out the attack plan to the group of over twenty men and women. The plan was simple, but should achieve total surprise and totally decimate the DHS before they have a clue what just happened.

Bob said, “We will have three main groups plus the group that will stay behind and guard the bunker. John will lead the first Team and the goal is to free the detainees at the relocation camp. Gus will lead the second Team and that goal is to kill all of the DHS and take the compound. Our planned attack date is September 30, and we will update you if we change our plans before then. We have identified several large warehouses where we can pre-stage our forces starting five days before the actual attack. This will allow us to move smaller groups and not draw as much attention. We also will stage some small attacks on patrols in south Mississippi and Florida just across the Alabama border to keep the DHS attention away from our staging areas. The map at the front of the room has the location of the warehouses and the diversionary attacks.”

There were several astounded team members in the group and some chatter about “How the hell can three hundred defeat several thousand?”

Bob said, “Hold your horses and have a little faith. I will explain in due time. Now back to the plan. George will have a smaller Team with a goal to set up a shit load of distractions around the Mobile area just before the main attacks. Finally, Steve will stay back at the bunker, lead the Team guarding the bunker and keep the hospital ready for the wounded. We will also fly as many wounded as possible out to one of our ships in the Gulf for medical assistance.”

George said, “I have contacted all of our friends around Mobile and they are ready to join in the battle. Sally and the Pastor's groups are the largest so Sally’s Team will join Gus and the Pastor’s Team will join John’s Team. All but fifty of the other teams will join in as needed.”

He went on for a few minutes on the division of the team members and how he had already prepositioned arms and ammo with them.

More questions followed George’s briefing on the friendly groups that he and his team had brought into the family. Sally and the Pastor were a huge help in calming the fears of the leaders of the smaller groups.

George said, “My Team will have about fifty fighters and will divide up into ten smaller units that will attack as many DHS targets as possible about four hours before the main offensive. We won’t stick around for a major fight, but will make them think that a much larger force is invading their turf. Assuming this works, we should draw some of the DHS form the compound. This will set them up for an attack from the air by our Apaches and we should be able to take all of them out and distract the DHS leadership.”

There were several suggestions about targets for them to attack and George made copious notes.

John took his turn in front of the group to give a brief overview of the attack on the DHS Compound. He said, “As we have mentioned, we have the element of surprise on our side and along with several hundred pairs of night vision glasses, we will attack the DHS Compound at midnight after the successful attack on the Relocation Camp."

The Pastor asked, “What about the two thousand troops in the barracks? They worry me. How are we going to deal with them? They will be out of those barracks in a minute and slaughter our men.”

John said, “Our intelligence says that most are actually in the underground bunkers and we plan to set satchel charges at the three known entrances and bury them alive.”

The Pastor replied, “I like that, and the plan makes me feel a little better about my men. Bob, can’t the military give us any air cover? You have supplied a lot of arms, but no real air power or army tanks.”

Bob glanced at John and said, “Pastor, I’m sorry, but we only have a couple of helicopters and a handful of fighters stationed at Charleston. We will have about fifty men fighting beside you, but that is all we have. I know that is not what you want to hear, however our main forces are fighting in several foreign countries or dead.”

The Pastor said, “Sorry for being such a pain, but my men are my family and I just have to make sure that we have a successful plan.”

John finally went on to say snipers would take out the guards while several Teams infiltrate the compound and blow up the entrances to the bunker. Other teams would attack the main office to get control of the communications room. The rest of the group would take out any other DHS that came out to fight.

The Pastor stopped asking questions and the meeting proceeded at a much faster pace.

Gus said, “My Team will conduct the attack on the Relocation Camp and our objective is to neutralize the guards with as few killed captives as possible. We will not release the captives right away. We will use the military resources to check out their health before we allow them to mix with our people. We have heard rumors that there might be several bugs among the poor captives.”

Gus took everyone to the drawing of the compound to go into the details of the attack. Again, the Pastor asked several questions that had nothing to do with his responsibilities.

***

              John and Bob left at dawn after a light breakfast. They were traveling towards Pensacola to scout out a warehouse that was supposed to contain several armored cars that had been used by banks. They took six men with them for security.

              “John, this Pastor is my best guess to be our spy. He just asks too many good tactical questions for a pastor who has no military training.”

              “Until we catch him, we have to move on with our plans. I don’t like giving the team bad info, but it won’t hurt our plans and might help us catch the DHS off guard.”

Beth had pretended to sleep in, but quickly got up after John left and started doing her nails and getting pretty. She took a long hot bath and then worked on her hair.

Shirley, Janet and Ann directed the ladies and several men to decorate the barn and set up the tables and chairs. Many of the other women were busy in the kitchen preparing the food for the reception after the wedding. George had found several case of wine in a basement wine cellar that was very good and would be a treat for the guests.

***

              The Pastor convinced his team that he would travel to the wedding by himself. This worried his leaders and his bodyguards, however the Pastor frequently went off by himself to walk and talk with the Lord one on one. They were not happy because several of them were attending the wedding and it made sense to all travel together, but gave into their leader. What they didn’t know was that the Pastor had been meeting with the DHS all along. He was feeding them information since the last major attack on their town.