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  “Unfortunately, we have discovered there is a conspiracy that threatens not only this administration but also the country, and we fear the rest of the world. We have traitors in our midst,” Natalia continued. “Michael and I have spoken about that possibility before, but it was just supposition.”

  Darkwater frowned. “I take it you now have proof?” At a wave of Natalia’s hand, Secret Service Agent Matt Songren, her protection detail leader, stepped forward with an envelope and handed it to the Acting President. Darkwater pried open the metal clasps, inverted the envelope, and pulled several 8x10 photographs out. They were obviously surveillance photos. They showed Phillip Greene exiting a vehicle and approaching the front of an office building.

  The others showed several other “well-placed” politicians doing the same, but it was the last two pictures that startled the Acting President. The first showed Captain Dodd exiting the same office building. The date stamps showed the pictures to be in sequence, covering a period of two hours. The last showed Brigadier James Jones standing in a parking lot with Captain Dodd and Phillip Greene.

  “Holy shit!” Darkwater exclaimed; then remembered his position and clearing his throat, he said, “You have total faith in the validity of these photos?”

  Natalia nodded, “Holy shit is correct, and yes, I do, Mr. Acting President. I shot them myself as witnessed by Secret Service Agent Matt Songren. Agent Songren, are you able to verify my statement?” Songren simply nodded to Darkwater. Darkwater stood and began pacing.

  “What unholy alliance have these people constructed?”

  “We don’t know for sure, but we have our suspicions,” Natalia said. “Let me play this out for you. First, we know without exception that the real Captain Dodd died a long time ago. This is now the third time we have seen his face the past months. Second, we know those Captain Dodds are in fact clones of the original working with an alien force identified by The Keeper as the ones responsible for the devastation of the planet and the human race some 40,000 years ago. We have incontrovertible proof that force has returned, although we still don’t know what their agenda is. Lastly, we have the former presidential candidate from the Progressive Party, several high ranking members of that party, and the number two man in the Hawaiian Provincial Guard consorting. What is your opinion, Jason?”

  “This is worse than even Michael and I imagined,” Darkwater said. “What can I do?”

  “First of all, ensure there are no leaks on Michael’s status,” Natalia said. “It is public knowledge that he was located and recovered, but don’t release any more information than that; you could, however, let it leak out that Michael’s not ready to resume the office of President. We need the public and the Progressives to believe you have assumed his duties.”

  “Are you sure Michael is on board with this?” Darkwater asked. “I’ll do it, but I need to hear it from him.”

  The man standing behind the Acting President left his post by the window. Facing the Acting President for the first time and looking up, “You’re hearing it from me right now Jason.” Darkwater turned and looked into the face of Michael Rourke, President of the United States.

  “We need surveillance on all of these people, and I don’t want to go to the normal organizations; I’m thinking you probably still have some contacts with Naval Intelligence,” Rourke said. “Can we do this totally off the board through them?”

  Darkwater stood up immediately and crossed to Rourke, extending his hand, “Mr. President, damn Michael it is good to see you. How do you feel?”

  “I’m fine Jason; now, can we do this totally off the board with your intel folks or not?”

  Darkwater recovered from his initial shock, sat back down, and wiped his face. “Yes Mr. President, I can make this happen.”

  Rourke smiled, “Then, make it so Admiral. Make it so.”

  “So, what exactly is your plan?” Darkwater asked.

  Michael Rourke sat down next to Natalia. “I need to have ‘complications’ that keep me out of the public eye until we have these people identified and ready to be rounded up. First of all, when we do move, I need to have absolutely incontrovertible proof of the allegations. Secondly, we need to identify how Dodd, this Dodd, came to be here and what ties exist with his alien masters. Thirdly, we have got to know what the alien plan actually is and how they plan to implement it. That could be an international concern.”

  Darkwater frowned, “What do you mean international?”

  Natalia spoke up, “Jason, long before the Night of the War, my former country was heavily engaged in UFO research. It was because of Russian intervention that my father-in-law did not recover a UFO that had crashed in Canada. A Russian scientist named Doctor Vassily Batrudinov interrupted John at the site, and the craft and its pilot were destroyed in the explosion.”

  “Batrudinov survived that encounter and went on to continue publishing scientific articles in which he stated emphatically that his belief in extraterrestrial visitation was unshakeable. He claimed, however, that to his knowledge no physical evidence had ever been found, at least not by the Soviet Union. I know that was a lie,” she continued. “During my activities with the KGB, I repeatedly saw evidence that had been recovered from sites in Siberia and several states belonging to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”

  Darkwater stood and began pacing again, “You believe that Russia may be aligned with the aliens?”

  “I don’t know Jason,” Michael said. “Maybe they aren’t, in which case we have one issue; but if they are, that’s a whole other ball game, and we need to find that out. By my estimates, we need to find that out, right now.”

  Darkwater nodded, “So, back to your plan; what is it?”

  “Primarily two phases,” Michael said. “Phase One, we need a cover story that says I’m being moved to the Presidential Retreat for some kind of medical rehabilitation and I’m currently unable to continue actively in the presidency but expect to be fully recovered in a couple of months. As far as Phase Two goes, I want you to stay on in the role of Acting President, and I need you to hand pick personnel from your days at the Office of Naval Intelligence. I’ll leave the choice of personnel up to you. They need the resources of the ONI, but I have no problem if your people are retired agents as long as you personally can vouch for them. I want the traitor identified, and I don’t want them to even smell somebody is on to them; any ideas?”

  Nodding, Darkwater said, “Yes sir, I do.”

  “Good Jason,” Rourke said. “We’ll be leaving now. You’re points of contact with me will be limited to Natalia and my father. There are to be no reports over the phone or other electronic methods. Face-to-face and only at a specified location that you will be advised of. Jason, we don’t have a lot of time. We’re sitting on a couple of potential powder kegs and a national scandal.”

  Darkwater stood and shook hands with the President, “I understand Michael; thank you for your trust in me. Now, get out of here, and let me get started.”

  Darkwater returned to the desk as the entourage exited and picked up the phone, “I need the Press Secretary in my office as soon as possible.” Then, he dialed another number. When the connection was made, the only response was several short beeps followed by a long tone. When that ended, there was silence. Darkwater said one word, “Lockout” and broke the connection.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Contact with the enemy came as it always does: sudden, explosive, and deadly. The teams coming from the north end of the tunnels had negotiated several twists and turns. Rourke estimated they had cleared approximately two-thirds of the overall length of the tunnel. As the point team rotated, the fresh team made a turn to the right and rounded a final obstacle of mounded debris. That was when three of them, Sheriff Crawford’s men, were cut down by green blasts of energy.

  The lone survivor threw himself backwards, rolled back behind the debris, and began firing his energy rifle down the tunnel toward the threat. Chunks of rock and dirt exploded from the pi
le, and one energy blast after another sizzled into it; the survivor was forced to retreat back the way he came.

  “Okay, we have contact,” he said into his helmet speaker. “I think I’m hit and I’m falling back.” As the bulk of the teams moved forward to engage, Shaw pulled six men out of the rush and told them to provide rear security. Visibility was dropping quickly, the vibrations were causing small cascades from the ceiling and walls of the tunnel, and the energy blasts were literally melting dirt and rock; the resulting smoke was acrid and irritating. Luckily, their helmet filters kept most of it out of their lungs, but the smell still penetrated.

  Using the wall, a barrage of energy blasts were directed by Shaw’s men toward the enemy to keep them engaged while the rest of the teams got into position. Shaw waved for one of his men and shouted, “Get into position on the left, and fire at will.”

  Two men crawled to a firing position; one carried a long barrel heavy weapon that reminded Rourke of the old Barrett .50 caliber semi. However, instead of the 12.7x99mm NATO or .50 BMG ammunition originally developed for and used in M2 Browning machine guns, nicknamed the Ma Deuce, this weapon carried a box magazine filled with a caseless exploding rocket round similar to a small RPG or Rocket Propelled Grenade.

  The round was almost the same size as the .50 BMG round just slightly larger, and it did not have the range of the Ma Deuce. However, the nearly 1,000 grain projectile not only had the massive destructive power of the original round, but it had the advantage of being able to be set for impact or proximity detonation. A twist of the nose of the round determined which was to be used. The first five rounds were sent down range within 3.5 seconds, and as the shooter dropped the empty magazine, his assistant gunner handed him another.

  The first five rounds had been suppressive fire set for proximity detonation, as were the next five. Then, the gunner switched to impact rounds and began laying down slow and deadly fire. Return fire from the enemy slowed but did not stop; from this point forward, it would be pretty much a stalemate.

  Anders and the Sheriff’s second team could hear the battle sounds coming from the mouth of the tunnel. Anders took his three squads forward into the tunnel leaving the Sheriff’s deputies as security. Once inside, he rigged a series of anti-personnel mines to catch escaping bad guys, if they got past his team. They could be triggered remotely to fire simultaneously or individually by breaking a beam.

  The squads would drop off as they came to each of the side tunnels, carefully clearing each one and returning to form up together before proceeding. Anders reasoned that whatever enemy forces were positioned in front of him now would be trapped between the teams moving in from the north and his group moving from the south; they were effectively blocking inside the tunnel. The question was could the good guys keep the bad guys bottled up and that would only be answered by firepower, training, and luck.

  *****

  John Thomas Rourke, the agents and deputies were slugging it out inch by inch down the tunnel. Fortunately, it seemed to him they were making headway, and so far, their casualties had been relatively light. The energy suits his people were wearing could not totally protect them from direct hits, but they were able to dissipate a significant amount of energy from anything other than those direct, square-on energy impacts.

  They had already moved past the point of the initial contact and had discovered their own ammunition had effectively penetrated the suits of the enemy. So far, the body count totaled 28 enemy dead and 16 wounded. His own losses were eight dead and a handful of pretty significant burns. If the percentages held, Rourke felt pretty positive about the outcome. Suddenly, all return fire from the enemy ceased.

  Sheriff Crawford and Shaw ordered a cease-fire. The tunnel was suddenly extremely quiet, except for the whimpers of the wounded. “May I request a temporary truce?” a voice from the other side shouted. Rourke looked at Crawford and Shaw, “What do you think guys?” Sheriff Crawford hollered back, “Okay, let’s all take a breather!” He whispered, “Be ready for anything folks; this can all go to hell again in a heartbeat.” Five minutes went by with no further contact.

  The same voice shouted from the darkness, “I would like to speak with whoever is in charge; is that possible?”

  Crawford shouted back, “Exactly how do you want to do that?”

  “I will lay down my weapon; I have ordered my people to stand ready but not to fire unless I order it. Can we meet in the middle between our two forces?”

  Crawford turned to Shaw and Rourke, “What do you think guys?”

  Rourke said, “I’ll do it if you want me to. I think you two need to stay here with your people should that heartbeat come.” Shaw and Crawford looked at each other; it made sense. “Okay, John,” Shaw said, “but be careful.”

  “I’m coming out,” Rourke shouted. “When I see you, we both start walking, but understand if you try anything, I promise my people will cut you down in your tracks.”

  “That is acceptable.”

  Rourke peered deeply into the darkness until he saw movement. He handed his CAR-15 to Shaw and said, “Hold this for me a minute.” Then, he stepped out and moved forward as his opponent started walking toward him. Rourke silently counted 48 paces; about 20 still separated him from his enemy. “That’s about far enough,” Rourke said. The man stopped and began to unbuckle his helmet. Rourke saw the face of Captain Dodd emerge. I’m really getting tire of this guy, Rourke thought and removed his own helmet. “What do you want to talk about Captain Dodd?”

  Dodd looked puzzled, “You know my name?”

  “Let’s just say I am acquainted with you,” Rourke said as he ripped the wrapper from a cigar and palmed his lighter. “Although you are probably not aware of it,” Rourke said, “your family and I have some degree of history.”

  Dodd studied Rourke’s face for a full 30 seconds, “Ah, yes. I believe you are Dr. John Thomas Rourke; are you not?”

  Rourke blew a smoke ring and replied, “Guilty as charged.” Then, he shifted his weight in case he had to grab the .357 Python from the small of his back. “What’s on your mind, Captain Dodd?”

  “It appears sir that we are at a stalemate, Dr. Rourke. The sensors we have throughout this tunnel indicate there is a secondary force approaching from the other end. That makes the current situation... untenable shall we say. What are your terms for surrender?”

  Rourke’s face never changed as he took another drag on the cigar before exhaling forcibly. “Terms of surrender? There are no terms Captain. If you wish to end this, surrender will be immediate and unconditional. If you want to continue this little get together, likewise your deaths will be immediate and unconditional. It’s your choice.”

  “May I have a moment to discuss this with my people?”

  Rourke shook his head, “No sir, you may not. Surrender now, order your people to drop their weapons, put both hands over their heads, and file toward us in single file. Otherwise...” Rourke left the message open.

  “You drive a hard bargain, Dr. Rourke.”

  “Understand Captain Dodd, we are not bargaining. You asked a couple of simple questions, and I have given you a couple of very simple answers,” Rourke took another puff and slowly let it out. He pulled off one of his gloves and slid the cuff of his energy suit up a couple of inches. Looking at the Rolex on his left wrist, Rourke simply said, “You have 30 seconds to give me your answer starting... now.”

  Dodd stared at him for a full 20 seconds without an answer. Rourke started counting, “10, 9, 8, 7...”

  “I accept your terms, Dr. Rourke.”

  Rourke nodded, took another puff, and said simply, “Wise decision Captain. Now, order your men to do what I said to do. When you have done that, you are to raise your own hands and start walking toward my men.”

  Dodd turned and gave the orders and instructions. The sound of scrapes from weapon butts being grounded and movement began to fill the tunnel. Sheriff Crawford ordered a team of deputies forward, “Frisk them and cuff them.” Sha
w ordered his agents to assist.

  A total of 30 men walked forward, were searched and cuffed, then were ordered to sit along the wall of the tunnel. Six more wounded were found unarmed as Crawford’s people moved forward. They were searched and secured; then, three deputies began administering first aid. Shaw personally had control of Captain Dodd.

  Sheriff Crawford walked up to Rourke, “Hey, do you have another one of those cigars?”

  “I didn’t know you smoked Sheriff,” Rourke said as he handed a cigar, pulled his lighter, and spun the wheel.

  The flames illumination lit both of their faces, “Used to, I think I just started again. Thanks John. You’re a pretty cool character under fire. If you ever consider law enforcement as a career, call me.”

  Rourke laughed, “Sheriff, do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to retire? Thanks for the offer anyway.”

  Agent Billings, lead element of Ander’s force, shouted out, “Hello, what is your status?”

  Crawford shouted back, “Come on in; everything is over with, and we are secure!”

  Billings shouted back, “The sign is ‘Earth!’”

  Crawford shouted, “The counter-sign is ‘Shine,’ come on in!”

  Anders came out of the dark and scanned the scene, “It looks like you boys have the situation in hand.”

  Rourke nodded, “How did you guys do?”

  Anders removed his helmet and said, “We took some fire but looks like the main battle line was here with you.”

  Rourke nodded, “Can you get word out your end of the tunnel? We probably need to send a runner; the helmet radios are only functional for short distances and line of vision in here.”