Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (6 page)

Chapter 3

Ricky whispers to Sammi, “There he goes again, he’s driving me crazy. All he does is walk the halls all day and night. Doesn’t he have something to do, you know, like figuring out how to get us out of this bargain basement?”

“Honey, leave him alone. He has a lot on his mind. He’s most likely just checking everything to make sure everything is running correctly. He has a lot of responsibilities. He’s trying to take care of forty people.”

“Sammi, I understand he’s your father and you unconditionally love him. I’m telling you, I’m going nuts in here. He’d better figure out how to get us back into the house. I want to feel the sun on my face. I want to be able to take a dump without worrying about who’s sitting in the stall next to me. This is worse than the dorms in school, I moved out of them due to their lack of privacy. We have no privacy down here. What about Linda, God knows what she’s picking up in here. Some of these people don’t bath every day. Look at how some of the parents allow their kids to run wild. And a mobster? We have a mobster who’s second in command, I didn’t get a vote on him and his friends living with us. What is he teaching Linda? I’ve tried to tell Linda not to spend time with Tony’s kids, but your father put all the kids together in a large playroom. There’s no way to keep Linda away from the bad influences like him.”

“Ricky, it’s going to be OK, I promise you. We’ve only been here for a few weeks. I know my dad, he’s working on a way to return us home.”

“If he doesn’t do it soon, I’m going to propose he be replaced as the leader of the community.”

“Ricky, don’t. I’ll be really upset with you. He’s my father! Look at all he’s done for us. He saved all these people. He saved ours and Linda’s life.”

“How do we know that? If he hadn’t pushed us to come here, we’d be back home safe and sound. When he brought us here, he placed all of our lives in danger. He’s the cause of our problems. I wish we’d never come to visit him. We didn’t need his blood money as much as we needed him to leave us alone.”

“His gift wasn’t blood money. It was a gift based on his love.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was blood money. He bribed us to come down here. He built a fortress, if he’d only shared his food with those who were hungry we wouldn’t be hiding here underground like a mole. I hate it here. I don’t know why your father couldn’t have arranged a sit down with the people who attacked us. Why couldn’t he have just found a way to negotiate a truce of some sort? He had enough food stashed away to feed them and us. It was his greed that caused all of those people their lives. You saw the piles of bodies up there. You saw how he killed those people in cold blood. He’s nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer. Look who he hangs out with, the local mafia boss. No wonder your father’s a killer. I want us out of here ASAP. This is no place for our daughter. If he doesn’t get us out of here soon, I’m going to take us home.”

Sammi gets up the courage to smack Ricky across his right cheek. “Ricky, my father did NOT kill those people in cold blood. He fought only because they attacked us. We didn’t cross the street to attack them, they came to kill us and take what’s ours.”

Rubbing the bruise on his cheek, “They attacked us because he didn’t offer to share what he had with them. He had more than his fair share. Sharing was the right thing to do and he refused. He might as well have condemned those poor people to death by not feeding them. Look what happened, they have the food anyway and we’re stuck down here in this cesspool. It smells down here. I want us out of here, I want to go home. If your crazy father can’t figure out how to take his home back, I think we should sneak out in the middle of the night and go home.”

“Ricky, how do you expect us to get home?”

“We locked our car in his garage, I bet it’s still there.”

Todd walks by their room saying, “Hey guys, what’s going on?”

Ricky looks at Todd with hate in his eyes, Ricky says, “Nothing, why aren’t you following the old man. Your nose is usually stuck up his ass.”

Todd stares at Ricky trying to decide if he should punch him or not. “Ricky, normally I’d take you down, however, you’re too dumb to know why you got a beating. Why don’t you do something useful or stay in your room?”

“Have you seen the size of our room?”

“Yea, they’re all the same size. Mine, yours, Mom and Dad’s.”

“I don’t think so. I think he’s got another room he keeps hidden. He and Lacy sleep in the hidden room, they show off the small one so everyone feels good knowing that we’re all the same. We know we’re not. Everyone knows that Jay and his mafia friend must have better accommodations someplace the rest of us don’t know about.”

Todd shakes his head in disgust, “Ricky, I really feel sorry for you. You have a serious problem. I suggest you not go around spreading that rumor, certain people hearing it might pay you a visit. You won’t like the result if they link you as the source of the rumor.”

“It’s no rumor. It must be true.”

“Why must it be true?”

“There’s no way the high and mighty Jay or the mobster Tony would stay in the same type of small room as the rest of us.”

Todd walks away shaking his head muttering under his breath, “Man is certifiable, he’s nuts. I don’t know what she sees in him. I better warn Jay or Tony, he could be a real problem. I bet he tries to open the door and leave. If he did, it would put the rest of us in danger. I better ask John to keep a sharp eye on his comings and goings.”

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Lacy finds her granddaughters in the children’s playroom. She asks Nancy, who watches the kids if she can ‘borrow’ her granddaughters. Nancy says, “Lacy, of course. Is something wrong?”

“No, Fred had an idea how to snap Jay out of his depression.”

“I get it, use the kids to tug at his heart. I bet it works. Do you think they’ll be back today?”

Smiling and hugging Nancy, “I hope they're not. If they don’t return today, it means Fred’s idea worked.”

“I hope so, Tony and I miss the old Jay.”

“So do I, Nancy, so do I.”

Lacy takes the two girls to her and Jay’s room, she says, “Do you want to play a special game?”

They jump up and down saying, “Yes!”

“We’re going to play, tag. Do know how to play tag?”

“Of course we do.” Bianca touches Lacy’s arm saying, “Tag, you’re it.”

“Honey, that’s very good. But, I’m not playing in this special game. I want you to find Papa Jay and tag him. Make him chase you until he catches one of you and tags you. When you tag him, make sure you hug and kiss him.”

Linda and Bianca cheer, Bianca asks, “You’re going to let us chase Papa Jay here? We can really play tag with him?”

“Yes, go find him and tag him. Make sure he knows how much you love and miss playing with him.”

“Oh boy. We’re going to find Papa.”

The kids take off running to find their Papa. Lacy smiles thinking,
Fred, if this works, I will owe you a big one. You might have saved all of us.
Lacy smiles when she hears the kids screaming and running down the halls. She thinks, if anyone can snap Jay out of his depression it’s the kids. He loves them and they love him. No matter what he would be doing, he always stopped when they wanted something. He would give up his life for them. Lacy hears screaming and laughing, she hears the youngest, Bianca saying, “Papa, we found you. Lacy said you were lost, but we found you. Come on, tag you’re it. You have to catch and hug us.” There’s silence then, she hears Jay say, “On the count of three you run, the first one I grab and hug is going to be it. One, two, three, run.” Lacy’s heart breaks with joy, tears of happiness flow down her cheeks, he sounds like his old self, she hears them running after each other.
By God, Fred was right, the kids snapped him back to reality, the kids brought him back from whatever dark place he was in. Bianca
runs past Lacy singing and laughing, “Watch out, a Papa monster is coming this way.” Lacy hears Jay running and puffing, out of breath. When Jay turns the corner, he runs into Lacy, “Bianca, honey, wait, I want to hug and kiss Lacy.” Lacy melts into Jay’s arms. Her eyes overflow with tears, “Honey, by the way, you’re it.” I want to find John and see what’s going on above us. I think it’s been a little while since I last checked in with him.”

Lacy nods with tears rolling down her cheeks, “I’ll be it and chase the kids, tell John I said hi.” Lacy turned to chase Bianca thinking,
He sounds like nothing ever happened. I wonder if to him it was a dream. I don’t care, I’m not going to ask him. I’m just happy he’s back. Maybe he can figure out how to get rid of the assholes in my house. I’m going to have to fumigate it after they’ve been living in it. If they broke my good china, I’m going to skin them alive. I swear I’ll make them regret ever coming here. I’m sure Tony will be able to think of some suitable, painful punishment for them. Something to make them wish they’d never set foot on our land. I wonder if they still give people cement shoes and toss them in rivers, come to think of it, that may be too good for them.

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Chinese Fleet Admiral Zin checks the master clock in the Chinese military subterranean command center, when the second-hand strikes twelve, he picks up a handset, “GO, attack code, mongoose blue, repeat, mongoose blue.” He smiles as he lights a cigarette. He inhales deeply wondering if his plan will work or if the Americans found and countered his secret. He asks one of the junior officers who is sitting in front of three monitors, “How soon will we know?”

“Sir, we should know very quickly. The boats should have been able to silently maneuver into their positions without the Americans discovering them. The wake homing torpedoes should damage or destroy their vaulted carriers. Without them, they won’t be able to launch or recover aircraft, they won’t be able to stop us. Most of their surface ships are armed for carrier defense, not with long-range offensive weapons. They removed their anti-ship Tomahawks from their ships in the late 90s. All they have left are their short range Harpoons which should be easy for us to bring down.”

“Captain, I hope you’re right. If not, this is going to be the shortest naval battle in history with us on the losing end. If the boats succeed, we should win and also cripple the American Navy forever. They can’t afford to replace their 100,000-ton carriers.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll let you know as soon as the signals come in.”

“I’ll be right here, I want to watch the battle unfold in real time.”

Admiral Zin kept his eyes on the clock and the large monitor that displayed icons representing each of the hundreds of ships about to do combat in the Pacific. The Chinese secret plan was to send their almost silent diesel-electric submarines to shadow the American Nimitz class carriers. The carriers don’t have their own sonar. Even if they did, their propellers make so much noise that they are deaf to any sounds in their wakes. The Chinese submarines hide in the turbulent water behind the massive American carriers waiting for their “GO” code. The American carriers also receive their “GO” code at the same time the Chinese submarines received theirs, they start to turn into the wind and accelerate to 30 knots. The additional wind flowing over the decks of the 1,000-foot long nuclear-powered carriers provides additional lift for the launching airplanes which are being catapulted fully loaded with bombs and missiles. Unknown to each American carrier, each had a Chinese submarine following it. The Chinese fired as soon as they received their “GO” code, they couldn’t afford for the carriers to speed up to their maximum speed, which is in excess of 40 knots. The Chinese torpedoes only have a 5 knot advantage over the carriers so there is a risk they could be overrun. The American carriers have almost unlimited nuclear fuel, the wake homing torpedoes have very limited fuel. The heavy anti-shipping torpedoes have a sensor that directs them to attack the stern of their target ship by following the ship’s wake. None of the American carriers have a defense against the Chinese torpedoes. The American anti-torpedo system, called the NIXIE, is towed behind warships. It emits a signal to fool a sonar based incoming torpedo. Incoming torpedoes strike the NIXIE versus the ship. Wake homing torpedoes don’t use sonar, they can’t be tricked into attacking the NIXIE, they follow the ship’s wake to its source, the stern of the target ship where they detonate, usually destroying the ship’s propellers, rudder and cracking her hull plates.