Ruffin stared at the pile of rubble in front of him, anticipation swelling within him. The sounds of picks and shovels and jackhammers had grown louder over the past few minutes.
Not long now before we're out of here.
He closed his eyes, silently thanking God for looking out for them. He figured the hurricane-force winds must have knocked over Godzilla, who had clipped the side of the building they were in. Had he fallen right on top of it, that would have been the end of them.
But there was still too much rubble for them to dig through. Luckily, Ruffin had his satellite phone, and managed to call Chief Briggs. Using the signal to home in on their location, Briggs had dispatched a chopper with Shield International and Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force personnel to dig them out.
With the roads throughout Port of Spain either blocked by debris or destroyed, they couldn't get any heavy equipment in. That meant all the work had to be done with hand tools. That meant it would be a while before Ruffin and the others saw daylight again.
Right now they were going on twenty-two hours trapped in this basement. Twenty-two hours in which their meager supply of food and water had already run out. Twenty-two hours of having to calm and reassure almost two dozen scared children. Twenty-two hours of using a couple of wastepaper baskets Best scrounged up as toilets. Twenty-two hours in an enclosed space that reeked of sweat, unwashed bodies, urine and feces.
At least we're all still alive. Besides, he'd lived in worse conditions than this, and for a considerably longer duration, during his time in The Corps and with Shield International.
Still, it would be good to get out of here and –
Some of the debris shifted and cracked. A hole opened. Ruffin blinked against the sudden stream of sunlight. He heard the children jump to their feet and clamor in excitement.
"Major Ruffin? Is that you?"
He recognized the voice instantly. Lincoln Morton, the team's medic.
"Linc! Man, am I glad to see you."
"Likewise, Sir. How's everyone doing down there?"
"Other than some bumps and cuts, we're all fine."
"I'm glad to hear that. If you can give us a few minutes to enlarge the opening, we'll begin bringing you out."
"Do whatever you need to do, Linc," Ruffin answered.
It took about five minutes to shove more debris aside and create a bigger opening. Ruffin, Best, Private Narine, and the bus driver – Angela – helped the children through first. Angela climbed out next, followed by Narine, then Best, and finally Ruffin. He took a deep breath and immediately coughed. The air reeked of smoke and dust and human waste and burnt flesh.
"Glad to see you gentlemen are all right." Briggs made his way through the crushed vehicles and mounds of debris toward them.
Ruffin barely acknowledged his boss. Instead he gazed all around him, feeling tremors build in his legs.
Oh my God.
He recalled all the documentaries he'd watched from World War Two, the ones that showed footage of cities like London and Berlin devastated by bombing raids.
Port of Spain looked far worse.
Rubble stretched as far as he could see. Only a handful of buildings and trees remained standing. Dozens upon dozens of columns of smoke rose into the air. He wondered when someone would get around to putting out those fires.
Then again, he doubted there were any fire service units left in Port of Spain.
"I know."
Briggs' voice snapped Ruffin out of his stupor. He turned to the CEO of Shield International, who said, "I've spent thirty-five years as a soldier and a private military contractor, and I've never seen anything like this. My God, you wonder if they can even rebuild this city."
Ruffin nodded, then looked around what remained of the block. He saw Linc, Akua and Gomez tending to the children. Fetisov, Jaelin and Jellicoe helped carry off some of the digging tools. Best and Narine greedily drank from water bottles.
"Here. I'm sure you need this." Briggs handed him a bottled water and a Cliff Bar.
"Thanks, Chief." Ruffin drank half the bottle in one gulp and wolfed down the Cliff Bar. "Where's JQ and Cheo?"
Briggs' shoulders slumped. His eyes fell to the ground.
Ruffin froze. No.
"I'm sorry, Major. They got caught in the open when Godzilla took that tumble. Poor guys didn't stand a chance."
Ruffin swallowed. Tears stung the corners of his eyes. First White, now JQ and Cheo. JQ had been on his team for two years. Confident, capable, a great XO. More importantly, a great human being. And Ruffin never grew tired of hearing about JQ's days of playing college basketball at U-C Santa Barbara.
Now he'd never hear those stories again.
His thoughts turned to Cheo. He'd met the Singaporean while still in The Corps, when his Recapture Tactics Team crossed-trained with Cheo's Special Operations unit. Cheo lived to push the envelope, an attitude frowned upon in a rules-obsessed society like Singapore. That attitude had forced him out of army, at which time Ruffin recruited him for Shield International.
And look where that got him.
He then caught sight of Jaelin, who dragged a shovel behind him, head down.
"How's Jaelin doing?"
Briggs sighed. "He's doing what needs to be done, but he's hurtin'. Hurtin' bad. Who wouldn't be if their brother was just killed?"
"Yeah." He continued to stare at Jaelin, vowing to keep an extra eye on the ex-LAPD SWAT sniper. It was hard enough for any warrior to put aside the deaths of their brothers-in-arms and keep doing their job. How much harder was it when it was your actual brother?
Worry and fear clawed at Ruffin. He scanned the wasteland that was Port of Spain.
Miranda.
A shiver ran through his body. He couldn't imagine the US Embassy was still standing. Had she been in it when . . .
No. She'd have found a way to get out. She's tough, resourceful.
So were JQ, White and Cheo, not that it helped them.
"Major . . . John." Briggs put a hand on his shoulder. "You know this as well as I do. Mourning will have to wait. We've got a lot of shit to deal with right know, and the emphasis is on the word 'shit.'"
"Did Titanosaurus attack somewhere else?" Since he'd turned off his satellite phone after help arrived to save the battery, he had no idea what had happened in the world since being trapped in the basement.
"I wish it was something that simple."
Ruffin furrowed his brow. What the hell did The Chief mean by that?"
A crest-fallen look came over Briggs' face. "The US surrendered to the Venezuelans and the Simbaaku."
Ruffin staggered back. His head spun. He couldn't have heard that right. The US surrendered?
He shook his head. "Wha . . . Chief . . . How?"
Briggs' crest-fallen look turned into one of outrage. "Our fucking worthless, chickenshit President. Atherton came on TV, called this thing a 'negotiated settlement for a new era of peace.' I wanted to puke when I heard that. The bastard surrendered. Without a fight!"
Ruffin stared at him, mouth agape. He had no idea what to say.
Briggs spat, glaring at the debris around them. "You know the unconditional surrender terms The Allies gave the Japanese at the end of World War Two? This one's a thousand times worse. The armed forces and all our intelligence agencies have been disbanded, all US businesses overseas were ordered to close up shop, all American citizens living abroad have to return home, and we're all confined within our own borders."
"That's insane!" Anger blasted through Ruffin's shock.
"It's treasonous is what it is."
"So what do we do now?"
"We'll we're not gonna surrender, that's for sure. I'm setting up a pow wow at the airport. Luckily, it was far enough outside the city Titanosaurus didn't touch it. We'll talk about our options there."
Briggs led everyone through several blocks of rubble before they came to an expansive lawn near the remains of a brick building that Ruffin thought might have been a school. A Shield International CH-46 Sea Knight twin-rotor helicopter sat on the grass. Angela and the children were put on board first, thanking and hugging Ruffin and the others for their help. The Sea Knight took off, dropped off the civilians at Piarco International Airport, then came back to retrieve the Shield International personnel and the Trinidadian soldiers. The helicopter flew low, under the clouds of smoke that stretched all the way to the airport and beyond.
When they landed, Briggs ushered them to a nearby hangar already occupied by dozens of people. Ruffin immediately noticed Tombstone and a handful of Shield International pilots and backseaters. His chest tightened when he didn't see Skrag, Underwood, Zelaya or Bob Doyle. Behind them were the groundcrew and other SI support personnel. All present and accounted for.
Ruffin also saw members from SI's three other ground teams. Sixteen in all. Sixteen out of thirty. A lump formed in his throat. Grief threatened to consume him. He tried to fight it off. Part of him didn't want to. Part of him wanted to collapse and cry like a newborn. His country had surrendered. So many friends and comrades had died. How much could one man take?
"John!"
The voice snatched him away from the abyss. At first he thought he imagined it. Then he saw her striding toward him, her pants and blouse filthy and tattered, her face covered with dirt, her hair matted with sweat.
She never looked more beautiful to him.
"Miranda!"
Eyes glistening, she jumped into his arms. Ruffin forgot all about professionalism and kissed her hard on the lips.
"My God, I was . . ." He smiled, cupping her cheeks. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you. Are you all right? How did you get here?"
"We were evacuating the embassy, but my station chief was loading everyone into cars. I told him we wouldn't make it that way, with the roads jammed or blocked by rubble. But he started quoting procedure and all that crap. So I left on foot. I made it about a mile before . . . before Titanosaurus smashed the embassy. I don't think any of my people made it out."
"I'm sorry." He gently rubbed her shoulders.
"I just wandered around for hours, helping people were I could, shooting a couple maggots who wanted to rape me. I lucked out when a Trinidadian Defense Force helicopter flew overhead. I flagged it down and they brought me here."
"And you decided to invite yourself to this little get together?" Briggs folded his arms and stared at her.
"Mister Briggs, I know we've been on opposite sides of the fence for the past couple of years, but you heard the President. I'm out of a job, same with everyone else at The Agency. And after he just handed our country over to General Moscoso and those alien SOBs, I don't owe that spineless bastard shit. I'll give you whatever help I can."
Briggs took a slow breath, then smiled. "I'm glad you've seen the light, Miss Quintero. Welcome aboard."
The two shook hands. Briggs then guided Ruffin over to a group of men in green-gray-brown Army Combat Uniform, or ACUs.
"Major, this is Lieutenant McGlothen, Eighty-Second Airborne."
"Sir." McGlothen nodded to Ruffin.
"Lieutenant." He scanned the men around McGlothen, who number just over thirty. Platoon strength. "I heard you guys deployed with an entire battalion. How did they come through?"
The veins in McGlothen's neck stuck out. "Not well, Sir. They set up a defensive line in the mountains east of here when Titanosaurus showed up. Most . . ." He trembled slightly. "Most of them are dead, wounded or MIA. That includes the battalion CO and XO. My platoon was tasked with guarding the airport. That's why . . . That's why we're still alive."
The breath stuck in Ruffin's throat. It found the news hard to digest. An entire battalion of America's best troops, practically wiped out, with this group led by a second lieutenant who looked like he was barely out of high school all that remained.
After offering his condolences to McGlothen, Briggs introduced him to a tall, pot-bellied black man in combat fatigues. Colonel Faris Cudjoe, the Deputy Chief of the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Staff.
"How are your forces doing, Sir?" Ruffin asked.
"Not very well. We have nearly a thousand members of the Defense Force dead, wounded or unaccounted for."
Ruffin clenched his jaw. That counted as a significant loss. The Defense Force only had 4,000 active duty personnel before Titanosaurus attacked.
"We also lost many of our coast guard vessels based at Port of Spain," Cudjoe continued. "Our Air Guard is intact, but because of the smoke and dust in the air, our fixed-wing aircraft are grounded for the time being. We can operate our helicopters, but we don't have anywhere near the number needed for a disaster like this."
"What about international help?"
"Some of our neighboring countries are organizing relief missions, but others are afraid to send ships or planes here because they think Titanosaurus might attack again. At any other time, we would expect your country to send humanitarian aid, but after the announcement your President made yesterday . . ."
Ruffin scowled. "Yeah. Don't count on America for help any more."
"And that's why we're all here." Briggs waved them all over to the center of the hangar. "Let's gather around gentlemen . . . and lady." He nodded to Miranda.
Once everyone had settled into a spot around Briggs, he spoke. "Well, we all know the story with President Atherton. That coward surrendered to Venezuela and the Simbaaku."
"Can he actually do that, Sir?" asked McGlothen. "I mean, wouldn't he have to get approval from Congress for something like that?"
"To be honest, Lieutenant, I don't know. I can't think of anything in US law that spells out the proper procedure to surrender. But from everything I've heard from news networks inside and outside the US, and from my contacts, military units across the country are standing down, and all intelligence personnel have been sent home. Legal or not, this is happening."
"Can't Congress put the brakes on this?" asked Gomez. "Or maybe the Supreme Court?"
Briggs sighed. "There are some representatives and senators who are trying to fight this, but I doubt they'll succeed. Some members of Congress are going along with the surrender, because they're scared of what Titanosaurus could do to US cities, or they're sycophants of Atherton. At least, the ones who are still at The Capitol. More than a hundred representatives and senators have resigned out of protest. So have a few members of Atherton's administration, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Garber."
Ripples of anxiety went through Ruffin. The US Government was coming apart at the seams, setting the stage for Atherton to become a dictator.
Or rather a puppet dictator for the Venezuelans and the Simbaaku.
"What about the rest of the country?" Linc raised his hand. "Are the people going along with this crap?"
"Some are. They're scared after seeing what Titanosaurus did to Port of Spain. Others are flocking to gun stores, saying they'll fight even if Atherton won't. Then . . ." Briggs bit his lower lip and looked away for a few second. "Then, we've had some states already secede."
Gasps of shock rose from many in the room.
"No way."
"Are you serious?"
"Which ones?"
"Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Montana and South Dakota," Briggs answered the last question. "I've also heard Hawaii, Oklahoma, South Carolina and few other states will follow suit soon."
"My God." Jaelin's jaw dropped. "Is The President gonna do something about it? Like send in troops to stop them?"
"According to the surrender terms," said Miranda, "The President doesn't have a military any more. Even if he did, he'd probably be hesitant to use it."
"More likely the bad guys will just send Titanosaurus to those states." Anger lines etched into Ruffin's forehead. "After he stomps a few cities into the ground, they'll all probably surrender."
"It's not just the United States having problems," Briggs said. "The fallout from Atherton's surrender is being felt all over the world. North Korea's rushing troops and tanks to the border with South Korea. China, Taiwan, The Philippines and Vietnam are all sending warships to secure the oil deposits in the Spratly Islands. Militants have launched attacks in Pakistan's capital. Terrorist bombings have occurred all over Iraq. Iran, Syria and Israel have all put their armed forces on the highest state of alert."
Sergeant-Major Best snorted. "So much for Atherton's new era of peace rubbish."
"What of Venezuela?" Colonel Cudjoe asked. "With our capital in ruin, this would be the perfect time for General Moscoso to invade."
"I've checked with some of my friends at Langley," Miranda told him. "They've been able to hack into some spy satellites over Venezuela. Their forces are on heightened alert, but there are no indications they are gearing up for an imminent invasion of Trinidad."
"Why should they?" Sergeant Jellicoe shrugged. "With the United States having surrendered, the Venezuelans can take their time preparing to invade us."
"Possibly." Miranda nodded. "There's also something else to consider. We don't actually know the ultimate goal of the Simbaaku."
"I think that's obvious," said Tombstone. "To take over the world, like they tried to do last time."
"Yes. But is it just this handful of surviving Simbaaku? Did they salvage enough of their technology to make contact with the rest of their race? For all we know, there could be a whole fleet of Simbaaku saucers headed for Earth right this minute."
No one spoke. Ruffin could feel the tension and fear permeating the hangar. It took an effort not to succumb to it. Titanosaurus by himself was bad enough. Titanosaurus backed up by thousands, maybe millions of Simbaaku warriors?
What chance would the world have?
"Right now we have no idea if that's true or not," said Briggs. "For the moment, we have to deal with what we know, and what we know is the Simbaaku are controlling Titanosaurus. They've already forced the United States to surrender. I imagine some other countries are going to follow soon, and some others will take the opportunity to settle scores with their neighbors. When the dust settles, that's when we'll find out if the Simbaaku are going to make us slaves, or make us extinct."
"It would probably make more sense to enslave us," noted Cudjoe. "Why would a handful of aliens wish to rule a dead planet?"
"They may not want to rule us. They may want to use Titanosaurus to exterminate us and make room for their buddies from space. Even if they don't have the means to talk instantly with the rest of their race, they can probably use one of our radio telescopes to send a message. It might take decades, even a century or two for a message to reach the other Simbaaku, but when they arrive, they'll find an Earth cleansed of human beings and all ready for colonization."
Gomez emitted a sardonic laugh. "Slavery or extinction. You ask me, Chief, both those options suck."
"I won't argue with you there, and that's why we're going to stop that from happening."
"How, Sir?" asked McGlothen.
"The Simbaaku and the Venezuelans are controlling Titanosaurus from a facility at the Puerto Caballo naval base. We're going to go there and take it out."
McGlothen's eyes widened. "Do we have enough assets to do that? I mean, look at all the losses we've suffered. My battalion's gone, we hardly have any heavy weapons, and we don't have much in the way of air or naval support."
"I'm afraid the Lieutenant is right," said Cudjoe. "Most of our surviving Defense Force members are committed to relief operations in Port of Spain. Our Air Guard has no combat aircraft, and our Coast Guard is equipped more for search-and-rescue and drug interdiction missions, not direct naval combat. They would have no chance against the Venezuelan navy."
Briggs put his hands on his hips and surveyed the people around him. "I know we don't have a lot in the cupboard, folks, but we don't have much choice. I hate to sound melodramatic, but our little ragtag group is the last hope the world has. There's no on else out there who's gonna give us any help."
"Perhaps Godzilla will," Akua said. "Even though Titanosaurus hurt him much, I cannot believe he is dead."
"We can't count on that, Akua. We have to be of the mindset that we are it. The way I see it, we have three options. We can fight, live as slaves, or just wait for Titanosaurus to squash us like cockroaches."
"Slavery and extinction doesn't appeal to me much, Sir," McGlothen responded. "My men and I are with you."
The paratroopers around him nodded.
"Count me in," Miranda announced.
Colonel Cudjoe stepped forward. "I will spare as many Defense Force personnel as possible for your mission, Mister Briggs."
Sergeant Jellicoe and Private Narine both snapped to attention and volunteered for the assault on Puerto Caballo. That was followed by Ruffin and the rest of the Shield International members voicing their support.
"Thank you, all of you. You're all a credit to your countries and your organizations." Briggs clapped his hands together. "Now, time to get down to business and come up with a plan to stop these bastards, and pray to God it works."
"We'll make it work or die trying," said Ruffin. "Because quite frankly, if we fail, there won't be a world worth going back to."
TO BE CONTINUED