Chapter 53
Sasha watched through her scope as the train came into view, she could see Ravit and Tom heading for the driver's compartment of the train with Wolf and Danny behind them. Ravit was half way down the ladder of the shipping container when Wolf and Danny stopped in their tracks and hunkered down with their weapons raised. She searched out what the cause was and spotted two men with guns firing at them.
She checked on Tom and Ravit and found they were close to the driver's compartment and that was when she spotted a man climbing up between freight containers behind Danny and Green. She adjusted her sight and slowly exhaled as she took the shot. She hit her target as saw the bullet go through his head before he fell back to wherever he came from.
Ravit was just at the driver's cab whe the door opened and a man came out holding a gun. She parried the gun to the side as it went off and punched the man in the nose before she wrenched the gun from his hand. She used his weight against him and moved past him as she threw him to the ground. She didn't bother worrying about him as she moved into the cab with the gun she took from the soldier.
She had no clue how much time she had, so when she went into the cab she shot the man in the head without hesitation and moved to the panel marked 'Emergency Brake Valve ' and pulled the red lever. The train lurched and a terribly metal squealing sounded as the train painfully and slowly pulled to a stop. She looked out the front window and gave an exhale of relief as they were barely a foot away from where the charges had been set.
She moved out of the cab to see Tom subdue the soldier to the ground. He looked up at her. "You ok?" he asked.
"All good." She assured him.
"Ok, that's it." Kara said as she finished tapping out the morse code message. The women all shared a look wondering if it had gone through, wondering if whoever was out there had heard them. Would they believe them. She'd sent out an SOS with her initials and service number and Nathan James's hull number of DDG 151. Hopefully they would understand and if they knew she was with the Nathan James they'd be able to verify her identity. Fingers crossed.
"The signal's gone quiet, nobody is saying anything." Maddy told them as she was still listening on the phone.
"Give it time, we'll repeat the message in an hour until we get a response." Kara said.
"But what if the people on this base hear the message?" Lena asked her.
"I don't think the enemy is thinking of monitoring low tech frequencies. If anything they probably think they've won. So they won't be bothered checking for us." Kara told them.
"I need to see hands... everybody's hands." Wolf said to the military personnel that they'd pulled off the train. Tom walked by them noting their expressions of disbelief and for some actual relief. He moved to General Bradley who was standing with Ravit. The man was looking stubborn and yet torn with was conflicting for Tom as he couldn't relate to the man at all.
"Open it." Tom ordered.
"Open it yourself." General Bradley told him. Tom looked to Mike and they moved to the container and undid the bolts and opened the door what he saw in that moment would stay with Tom forever. Inside were small children and adults of all ages but they were filthy, their clothes well worn and their features gaunt like they hadn't eaten in months. They all shied away from the sunlight, wincing at the brightness and looking utterly confused. The children looked terrified.
"You can come out." Tom told them, he could feel the shock of his team members as they couldn't believe the sight before them either. It felt like they'd awoken in some kind of nightmare as this kind of treatment went against every principle they served for.
The people inside looked at him with suspicious and he could hear them murmuring words like 'why?' and 'is this a test?'. He wondered what hell these people had come from and was he really in America.
"It's safe now. You're free." He said as he moved to the open door to help them out.
"W-What do you mean?" one of the people in the compartment asked.
"You're not slaves. You don't have to go where these people tell you to. You don't have to work where they tell you to." Tom told them, he wondered how plainer he had to make it to them.
"You mean we won't get fed?" one of them asked, he watched as the children disappeared into the back; out of sight.
"We are the lucky ones." One of them said, it was a woman in her 40s "There's food at the other end of this line. They said they'd feed us. We were promised food." She told him, tears streaked down her face as if he was a monster to take that away from them. "Please, my kids haven't eaten in three days. I can't remember—" she stopped and shook her head as she looked a little woozy."Please, just let us go on our way." She begged him.
"Yeah, just close the door! Let us go, please. Just close the door." A man begged and similar pleas followed from the others as they begged for Tom to shut the door.
"Welcome to the new America, Captain." General Bradley said snidely, Tom ignored him as Mike took the words out of his mouth.
"New America, my ass." Mike said in disgust.
"Look, I know these times are rough, believe me, but there's another way. None of you are going to starve. We can get things back to the way there were if you just come with us. There's enough food on this very train to keep us all fed for at least a few days even longer if we ration it. Let us help you." Tom implored.
"And after that? then what?" one of the woman asked incredulously.
"After that?" Tom repeated, he didn't know how to answer instead he stepped away and turned to the General. He stalked up to the man and glared at him. "General, or whatever the hell you're called, tell the men and women under your command to stand down." Tom ordered.
He ignored everything else but this man, as he knew Ravit and Mike would somehow coax the people off the train. He could hear Ravit's soft tones as she spoke to the people on the open container.
"If you think you can get them back, why don't you go ahead and try?" General Bradley told him bitterly. He truly didn't believe Tom or anyone could save the people and America. He like the people in that container were disillusioned.
"What the hell were you thinking? You took an oath!" Tom told him angrily as he ripped off the General's stars and the patch showing his allegiance to Castillo.
"To what? To what?!" Colonel Bradley exclaimed.
"To the service! The country!" Tom shouted at him.
"Captain, the thing I swore an oath to, it's gone! It was torn up two weeks ago. I might as well swear an oath to the tooth fairy." He sneered at Tom, he gave an indignant sniff as he was not intimidated at all by Tom. "You have your family taken to Los Alamos because you don't play ball and you listen to their screams then you can stand in judgement of me."
"My family is in one of those camps. I'm here fighting my country, something you should be doing!" Tom told him.
"You should fucking wake up. The war was lost. " General Bradley told him in a defeated tone.
"The war has barely begun." Tom told him in a low voice.
"Hey, read this." Will told Val as he handed her a piece of paper. She took the paper and frowned as the writing was illegible.
"What does this say?" Val asked.
"It's a message." Will told her.
"It's practically in a second language." Val told him as all she could make out were the numbers and even then they were suspect.
"SOS, KFG 5630022992 DDG151. DDG 151 is a hull number of a ship." Will told her.
"Of the Nathan James." Jacob pointed out.
"What is a KFG?" Val asked Jacob as he seemed to be knowledgeable on the subject and grating on her nerves.
"Well, that serial number. KFG might be the initials of your friend unless she spells Kara with a C." Will told her, Val looked at him for a moment and thought over it before it truly dawned on her.
"Kara? Oh my god, yes, it's got to be her. But it could be a trick. We need a question only Kara would know the answer to." Val told them.
"Why? it's got to be a hoax." Jacob pointed out.
"Or Kara has been taken to where the families are. This is her getting out a signal." Val argued.
"They wouldn't let her go." Jacob told her.
"Duh, she's in a prison camp." Val said mockingly as she opened up a file she kept on the Nathan James crew. She looked to Will. "Tell me that number again." she said, she wanted to verify the serial number but also give her brain time to think of question to reply with.
"Here, it's a little big but it'll keep the sun out." Mike pulled his cap off and placed it on the little boy's head, he couldn't have been older than Zoe. He was near skeletal and looked at Mike like he was an ogre. "It's ok," he said, the boy was reticent but stepped forward and Mike reached into the container and lifted him out. He felt the fragility of boy and was disgusted that anyone in power would let children be starved. He placed the boy on the ground and he looked around lost.
"Come on, food and water over this way. Go on, it's ok; everyone's getting a meal." He assured the people, the boy looked up at him and Mike gestured for him to go with the others. "It's ok." He assured the boy, the kid looked to where the others were walking and started to follow.
Mike watched him walk over to a bunch of other kids and pulled on his radio. "Nathan James, be advised... We have dozens of malnourished citizens who need medical attention and a full complement of unaffiliated military... Have Doc prep helo bay 1 for triage." Mike said over the radio to Nathan James, he turned to Ravit who was helping the remaining people out of container and moved to help her.
"Captain, we're monitoring a microwave signal that's being received by a device at your location." Granderson said over comms. Tom looked down at the SAT phone in his hand that was ringing.
Who's calling?" Tom asked Granderson, it wasn't like it had caller ID to help him out as he glared at General Bradley and the soldiers under his command. He knew they had their reasons but still felt disillusioned by their betrayal to their oath.
Signal emanates from an area of high microwave origination north of Los Angles." Granderson said, Tom held the phone out to General Bradley.
"It's your boss. Tell Castillo you want to see him. You thought you had no choice. Well, you have a choice now. Let's take him down together." Tom told him.
"You have no idea of the ramifications of your actions."
"We have a plan that involves getting everyone's families back, and restoring a balance where there is none. You have a choice, now make it." Tom said, General Bradley snatched the phone out of his hand and punched the keypad to answer.
"Mr. Castillo. Yes. Sir, there's been an... an incident with the train." General Bradley said carefully as he looked up at Tom. "No, sir, the cargo is intact, but..." he paused as Castilllo shouted down the phone at the man loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Yeah, I just think you better come down to the depot. Yes, sir. I'll meet you there. " He said, he hung up phone and passed it back to Tom. "You're gonna have to kill him, you know." He said.
We don't work that way. We'll give him his chance to surrender." Tom told him, he sensed the change in the man and his subordinates as they clearly feared Castillo's reach in regards to their families. Tom wanted to reassure them that they had a plan but at the moment couldn't bring himself to trust them.
No, no, no. Listen to me." General Bradley implored "You have to kill this guy. If you don't, he's gonna kill every one of us. Starting with our families." General Bradley told him.
A few hours later,
Tom and Mike exchanged looks as phase one wasn't going exactly to plan. They had all returned to the warehouse district after they'd had the Helo airlift majority of the children and adults that needed medical assistance to the ship. The rest were driven back to the warehouse and were currently being care for by the military on the base.
Once Rios cleared the civilians on the ship, they'd be brought back to land and then Tom would move onto Phase Two. But for now they needed Castillo in custody and to somehow re-enlist the unaffiliated military personnel on the base back to America. They needed them back to their side, as they needed them to help with the next phase.
So here they stood waiting for Castillo to arrive. "Incoming." Sasha said over comms, as she was perched on a rooftop overseeing the entrance to the warehouse district. Tom heard the sounds of the cars coming in and pulling to a stop. The sounds of doors opening followed and Tom peered through the windows of the humvee to see an impatient Castillo move towards General Bradley.
"Well, what happened? Where's my train, General?" Castillo demanded as he looked General Bradley who remained silent. It annoyed Castillo to no end as the man tugged on his shirt sleeves as if preening his sophisticated ensemble suit. "Today is not the day to screw with me." he told him darkly, he gave General Bradley a chance to answer and after a couple seconds gave up and walked back to car. "Shoot him!" he ordered.
"He doesn't work for you anymore." Tom said as he and Mike moved out from behind the Humvee.
"I changed my mind. Shoot him instead." Castillo ordered pointing at Tom, the men moved for their weapons but stopped as bullets ricocheted off the ground close at their feet. A courtesy warning from Sasha; one that Castillo's personal security headed.
"I suggest you put down your weapons." Mike told the men, they slowly placed their weapons on the ground.
"Lieutenant Burk, please arrest Mr. Castillo and prepare him for transport to back to the James." Tom ordered.
"With pleasure, Sir." Burk said as he moved to Castillo with plasti-cuffs. Castillo didn't bother to physically fight Burk or his arrest but instead used his words.
"I made you a goddamn General! Have you forgotten who feeds you, your families?! This man will take the food from their mouth to give it to the..." Castillo grunted in pain as Burk pulled the cuffs on tight and fast enough to catch the man's skin in the process.
"Sorry. This too tight?" Burk asked rhetorically, Castillo glared at him, "Good." He added before he placed a hand on Castillo's back and pushed him to move forward. Once Castillo was out of sight and the soldiers detained Castillo's personal security Tom looked General Bradley.
"So, I take it I answer to you now, CNO?" General Bradley asked sarcastically, Tom knew the man's insolence came from a place of pain. All the people on this base that wore the uniform had been hostages to Regional Leaders- to Castillo and it had grated on them all.
"No. You answer to President Howard Oliver, just like I do." Tom told him as he dialled the number his father had given him for the SAT phone in Val's possession. He knew once General Bradley heard Oliver's voice, heard the man's words and how up to speed he was on what was happening that they could swing every person in this territory wearing a uniform to their side.
"He's gone." General Bradley scoffed.
"He's alive and in a safe place on this end of this phone. He wants to speak with you. But you should know we have a plan, it's a solid one but we can't do it alone; we need every brother and sister in arms that we can get into this fight at our side." Tom told him as he held out the phone to General man took the phone out of his hand.
"General Bradley speaking." He said, his features froze as he recognised the voice on the end of the phone. Tom knew in that moment they had won the man over, he looked at the faces of men and women in uniform who held their breath in that moment. They were all probably wondering what their fate would be, what would happen to their families but Tom knew that just like the crew of the Nathan James; they had trust in General Bradley. Whatever General Bradley decided would sway them all.
