Minus America Read online

  Minus America

  Minus America

  Book 1

  We the people…are no more.

  E.E. Isherwood

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  Copyright © 2019 by E.E. Isherwood

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN 13: 9781077692466

  Cover Illustration by Covers by Christian

  Editing services provided by Mia at LKJ Books

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  CHAPTER 1

  Air Force Two. Over the North Atlantic, heading west.

  “Isn’t your shift about over, Ted?”

  Ted MacInnis got caught in the middle of a yawn by John Jefferies, the Secret Service guy sitting at the in-flight workstation ahead of him.

  “I’m going to sit here in the bullpen until we reach Andrews. I’ve got too much of this in me.” Ted held up his coffee cup, then pointed to his phone. “I also need to talk to my bratty sister.”

  Ted was the backup pilot for Vice President Williams on Air Force Two. The chance of him being called up to the big seat of the Boeing VC-25 was about zilch, but the Secret Service guys insisted they always have three complete flight crews. He was currently tier two; leaving his post so the third-tier guys could have a shot was not the way to advance.

  John Jeffries laughed quietly. “I’ve got a bratty sister, too. Older or younger?”

  “She’s younger by a few years but acts like she’s a teenager.”

  They were due to arrive in Washington, D.C. at about 10 am, which gave him plenty of time to confirm his sister was going to be in New York when she said she would. Nothing worse than going to the big city to find she’d gone to the country for the weekend. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  The phone rang in his hands. It was his sister. That didn’t surprise him, though, because he often thought they shared the same brain. It was like she knew he was about to call her, so she had to one-up him. He tapped the green button on the screen, ready to share that he’d been thinking about her.

  “Hi, Becca—” he got out before she cut him off.

  “Ted? Thank god! The news says there’s something coming this way. A wave of death!”

  “What?” he said a little too loudly. Some of the others on the intelligence deck glanced over. “Tell me what’s happening.”

  His sister went into hysterics.

  “It’s on cable news! Ohmygod! They’re losing affiliate feeds all across America. People just disappeared! It started in San Francisco and it’s headed this way. What do I do? Where do I go? What about Kyla?”

  “Rebecca, stay calm. I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation—” He was interrupted again, this time by alarms inside the aircraft.

  One of the aviation guys yelled, “POTUS bumped us right to DEFCON 2, people!”

  He put the phone to his ear, accepting this was for real. “Becca, I need to know everything you do. What’s on the television?”

  His sister sobbed into the phone. “Ted, you have to save Kyla. She’s everything to me. Please!”

  “I’ll do my best,” he answered, “but right now, I’m trying to save you. Talk to me. What’s on the TV?”

  There were twenty others on the plane’s intelligence deck, sitting in two rows of computer desks with a walkway between them. They were all doing their part to keep the VP in tune with current events. Some listened to other air traffic in the area. Some studied the weather. A few were proper intel spooks.

  Every workstation on the deck now reported trouble. One woman yelled out that several Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers were off the coast of Alaska. A man reported a pair of Chinese container ships were in trouble under the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of the rest was noise, all bad.

  Rebecca’s response in his ear was a combination of sobs and pleading. He barely understood her.

  “Becca, please calm down.” He had trouble staying calm himself, especially when all the alarms suddenly turned off.

  John Jeffries, the Secret Service agent with whom he’d been joking, had pushed the big red button at his station. The lights on the plane changed as a result. The interior was now warbird red: danger close. The alarms turned off so the crew could work more effectively.

  His sister didn’t give him the hoped-for intelligence, but he wasn’t going to hang up on her. If possible, he’d keep her from panicking further. However, the situation on deck was a hot mess, too.

  John spoke into his handset. “Flight, this is Executive 5. I’m getting a scrambled call from Andrews AFB. They bounced a message from Peterson AFB. NORAD reported unusual electromagnetic activity in very low orbit above the continental United States.”

  NORAD? Ted imagined nuclear-tipped warheads arcing high over the North Pole. It was a traditional scenario of a nuclear missile exchange between the United States and Russia. NORAD would watch them come in and ensure that the retaliatory missiles went out.

  As if on cue, the plane leaned to the left. Standard protocol was to keep the VP away from any potential point of conflict, at least until the risk was assessed by the ghosts in the intel block.

  Ted’s heartbeat went on a moonshot. He fumbled for his seatbelt, which had fallen off the seat hours earlier.

  “Becca, I can’t say where we are, but I’ll get to you, okay?” The jumbo jet tilted as the first-tier pilot executed the emergency maneuver. He was veering the plane away from the eastern seaboard.

  “No!” Rebecca ordered. After a fast sniffle, she continued, “Get to my daughter. You hear me? Make sure she’s safe! Call her right this instant, Theodore.” She paused for a few seconds. “Tell her I loved every moment I had with her.”

  “I…will.”

  “Love you, too, bro. Good-bye.” His sister hung up the phone.

  “Rebecca!” he shouted reflexively, before falling into stunned silence.

  Ten seconds later, the VP herself came scuffling in. She had to hold onto the desks to keep her feet.

  Ted couldn’t believe his sister had hung up, but he was going to make good on his promise, so he punched the button for his niece. She was a programmer working for the Navy, so they had a lot in common. While it rang, he tried to listen to the VP.

  “Will someone please tell me what the peacock on a pogo stick is going on?” she pressed.

  Ted wasn’t a fan of her politics, but her down-home manner of speaking was refreshing after spending so much time among the upper brass of the armed forces. The politically-driven generals were the worst. They seemed to script their every sentence when on these flights.

  His line kept ringing.

  Jeffries replied, “Ma’am, a few minutes ago, NORAD reported a problem in the atmosphere. Possibly an EM event, like an airburst nuke or a solar ejection. I’ve been trying to raise them, but they aren’t responding.”

  Vice President Emily Williams struggled to get closer to John down the row of workstations. The petite woman wore a prim black pencil skirt and fitting white blouse that made her appear thin and delicate. However, her code name was ‘firecracker’ because she was a ball of hate if you ever crossed her.

  “Pick up,” he commanded the phone as he continued to keep one eye on the VP.

  Two of John’s Secret Service partners maintained a respectable distance behind the vice president now that the red lights were on. Those men were tier-two as well. Working diligently for the chance to go to the big leagues on Air Force One.
<
br />   “Is NORAD still on the air?” she asked.

  “Ma’am, this is what I’m getting.” John pulled out his headphones, so the hissing sound could be heard by everyone in the compartment.

  Ted’s phone stole his attention from the broadcast.

  “Hello? Uncle Ted? What’s up?” Kyla’s voice was so calm and quiet he had to jam the phone in his ear to blot out the other noises.

  “Kyla, thank god. Listen. There isn’t much time. Where are you?”

  “Time for what?” she said with a laugh.

  “Kyla! Listen to me! There’s been a disaster. Your mom called and said I had to come get you. Where the fucking hell are you?” He’d never cursed in front of his niece. It was part of the refined Air Force persona he tried to nurture in front of most family members.

  “For real? I’m doing a job on the USS John F. Kennedy. Why?”

  Shit. America was under attack and she was on one of the biggest targets in the United States Navy.

  “Stay there, Kyla, you hear me? Wait—There’s news here.” It was hard to juggle both emergencies.

  An airman leaned into the aisle from a few workstations down. “Andrews just went offline. They were trying to get Peterson Air Base, in Colorado, but they’ve been dark for a few minutes.”

  “This is Andrews, in Washington D.C.” John Jeffries tuned into a different frequency, but no one was speaking. “And this is Dulles tower. There is no way they aren’t broadcasting right now. It’s one of the busiest airports on the East Coast.”

  Williams stood on her own because the plane had leveled out. Her voice was tense and direct. “Are these nuclear strikes? Are the cities gone?”

  “No, ma’am,” the Air Force liaison reported. “I have no intel suggesting there were ground strikes on these locations.”

  “What about air bursts?” she asked impatiently.

  The guy seemed flustered. “I don’t have any actionable intelli—”

  “Get it for me,” she cut him off deliberately before adding, “Please.”

  She looked at the computer operators in the room, including Ted.

  “Hold on a second, Kyla,” he said quietly into his smartphone.

  “I know Andrews isn’t broadcasting, but maybe they’re listening. Tell them to get us some cover up here,” the VP ordered. “If POTUS sent us to DEFCON 2, everything should scramble into the air, anyway.”

  Ted had a few seconds to observe Ms. Williams. At first, he recognized her job description made her a tier-two player as well, but he also noticed a hard edge to her earth-tone eyes, like she knew what would happen if she got promoted one more time.

  Williams went on. “People, I don’t care what you have to do. Get me someone on the ground. I have to know what’s happening down there.”

  Ted immediately wondered if his battlefield promotion was coming, too. He could be useful to the VP in the moment with a valuable asset on the ground. His niece was on the line at exactly the right time.

  “Kyla, this is very important. Tell me what’s going on around you.”

  He listened for a few seconds.

  “Kyla?”

  Ted had said it loud enough to get the attention of the VP, but all his focus was on the silence in his phone.

  “Kyla!” he screamed.

  Bonne Terre, Missouri

  Tabby Breeze was about to lose her shit. Mom and Dad wanted her to participate in the family business, which was operating a tour company inside an abandoned lead mine, but today’s clients made her rethink all her life choices.

  “I bet you get hit on a lot, don’t you?”

  Tabby slowly turned to find the boy she’d been avoiding for the past forty-five minutes. The first tour of the day was usually reserved for school field trips, and today was no different. The stocky sophomore kid had found her the instant he walked in and hadn’t let her out of his sight since.

  “No,” she deadpanned. “It literally never happens.”

  High school boys were yesterday’s news. In two months, she was heading off to Missouri University of Science and Technology. Freaking college.

  “That’s an incorrect use of literally, because it is literally, actually, happening now.” The kid rubbed his hands together like it was chilly, which it was, because they were deep inside the mine. “I like your braids, by the way.”

  Mom had been a hairdresser in her younger days, and she still enjoyed working with Tabby’s long, brown locks. The back of her head was currently styled with three braids, instead of the usual two.

  “Thanks.” Tabby rolled her eyes.

  Her dad’s voice crackled from the small communications speaker next to the elevator. “Tabitha, are you there?”

  That gave her the exit she needed from the relentless ladies’ man.

  “I’m here, Dad. What’s up?”

  “How many are left down there?”

  She took a rough count, intentionally skipping over the back part of the crowd where her annoying charge waited.

  “About twenty, Dad. I can get most of them on the next elevator up. Then we’ll be done with this group.” She couldn’t wait for that to become a literal reality.

  “I’m sending the elevator down, now.” Dad chuckled on the open line. “I bet you are going to miss this place, kiddo.”

  “No, I won’t,” she replied. After a suitable pause, she added, “Maybe a little. I’ll miss you and Mom, though.”

  “It’s coming down right meow.” Dad loved feline jokes, especially since her nickname was also a type of cat.

  The boys snickered behind her, but she pretended not to hear them.

  The machinery and wires sprang into action. It was only about fifty feet to the surface, but the equipment was about fifty years old, so it didn’t move with modern efficiency and speed.

  While it came down, she made as if she was inspecting the speaker on the wall. Anything to keep from talking to that boy again.

  “Annoying, aren’t they?” a girl quietly.

  Tabby glanced over and saw a girl she recognized by all the good questions she’d asked on the tour. “Hey there. What do you mean?”

  “I heard Peter hounding you for the past hour. I know what it’s like.”

  The two girls stepped closer to each other so Tabby could reply without being overheard. “I know, right? He is certainly persistent.”

  “Tell me about it. We dated for about ten minutes back in sixth grade and he won’t let me forget it.” The girl wrangled her long black hair over her ear.

  Tabby didn’t want to tell the girl her tastes were bad, but she thought it.

  The girl went on. “You’re lucky; you won’t see him after today. But the key is, if you ignore him, he eventually gives up.”

  She gave the girl a secretive salute. “I’ll take that under advisement.”

  The elevator finally arrived, and the security gate slid open with the screeches of oil-hungry hinges and wheels. Dad called it the jailhouse door because the wide-spaced bars looked a lot like they’d come from a police station holding cell.

  “All aboard!” she called out.

  The kids pushed and shoved their way into the car, but she didn’t tell them to settle down like she normally did. All she wanted was to get them inside and out of her mine.

  Someday, it would be hers. Getting a degree in geology was step one to making it happen. Babysitting students was her misfortune while she waited for the next chapter in her life.

  The annoying heavyset boy was one of the last ones on. To his credit, he pushed his peers into the car to make enough room for the stragglers. Besides Tabby, there were five or six others unable to fit.

  “Damn,” she said under her breath.

  “We can do it,” the big boy declared.

  A couple more kids wedged into the packed car, but it wasn’t enough. She slid the jail door shut, sealing the people inside and cutting off the few still outside. It was her duty to make sure everyone was accounted for, so she had to wait for the next one with the
leftovers.

  “Double damn,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

  Three students remained with her.

  “We meet again,” the portly kid said immediately. “My name is Peter, by the way.” He held out his hand to shake hers, but she sidestepped him so she could use the speaker system.

  “Dad, a few of us didn’t fit. I’ll bring them up next.” It was another delay she didn’t need.

  “Roger, Tabitha. It will only be a couple more minutes.” She wondered if he sensed the anxiety in her voice. He’d led tours, too, and certainly knew the stresses generated by high school kids.

  The room became silent as the lift reached the top. She counted the seconds until the elevator was unloaded and sent back down. It would start with clanging from the gate up there… She couldn’t wait to hear it.

  “I, uh. I’m not sure you heard me over the noise,” the boy said impatiently. “I’m Peter.”

  The dark-haired girl scoffed, then whispered angrily, “Peter, dial it back, okay? I’m sure Tabby has an older boyfriend.” The rock walls inside the mine had a way of carrying whispers, so Tabby heard the words.

  “I’d like to have an older girlfriend,” he replied, in a not-so-quiet voice.

  Tabby pressed the button, desperate to hurry things along. “Dad? Send it down, okay?”

  She waited to hear the whine of the motors up top.

  “Come on, move,” she willed the machinery.

  She was about to press the button again, but a loud crack came from inside the mine’s elevator shaft. A second, louder, boom rattled the metal gate. A burst of hot air shot out of the vertical tunnel.

  “Holy hell!” she shouted. “Get back!”

  She used her arms to push the students away.

  Metal roared from inside the elevator shaft, as if the lift was grinding the rocky sides on its descent.

  “Back!” she screamed.

  The elevator car smashed into the ground with a deafening slam. A large boulder came down next, followed by a dump-truck-sized flow of dirt and other rocks that fell on top of it.

  Smoky dust came out of the shaft, covering her and the kids with a layer of gray debris, as if they’d been crawling in it.