Joe Read online

  “It’s real, Hal.” Frank barked. “Men are seeing things. Dad’s floating head. George Bush in a tutu. Does that sound normal to you?”

  “Yes,” Hal said. “For Beginnings. Everyone in this town is insane.”

  “Hal, it’s real. There’s only one other reason for someone seeing Dad’s floating head.”

  “And, afraid to ask,” Hal placed his index finger on his eye to stop the twitch. “What reason would that be?”

  Robbie looked at Danny.

  Frank replied. “Robbie brought back Dad’s spirit when he dug up his grave and had a séance.”

  Robbie breathed out. “That makes sense. Maybe we should have another séance to send him back.”

  Frank pointed. “Good idea.”

  “Ok. Ok. Enough,” Hal stated. “Let’s get this brain flu subject over and move on.”

  “Ok.” Frank said. “What do you suggest? Anyone?”

  Danny lifted his hand. “Let’s end this all at once. Have a town meeting, have Dean plan one big inoculation day and end this.”

  “Sounds good,” Frank nodded. “I’ll prepare a speech.”

  Hal exhaled. “Will it be your standard Frank crisis speech where you just change the subject?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good God.”

  Danny looked at Hal. “It works, so why fix something that’s broke.”

  “Fine. Let me know the town meeting date and I’ll have one too.”

  “Good. Let’s move on. Wow.” Frank sat back.

  “What?” Hal asked.

  “We’re just moving along. Unlike when Dad had his meetings, huh?” Frank looked at Robbie. “Hey! You wanna call me names say them don’t think them.”

  “Well, quit reading my mind.”

  “Quit calling me a moron in your mind.”

  “Quit reading my mind and you won’t have to hear them.”

  “Quit thinking so loud or I wouldn’t have to hear them.”

  Elliott interjected. “Gentlemen, please. Can we proceed? What is the next order of business Frank?’

  “The invisible suits.”

  Hal questioned, “What about them?”

  “I know this is difficult, and you may not see it, cause you know, it’s invisible, but keep your eye out for one, we’re missing one.”

  Danny quickly said, “No we’re not.”

  Frank jolted a view his way. “Yes we are.”

  “No,” Danny shook his head. “We aren’t.”

  “But you said we are.”

  “That was before?”

  “Before what?”

  “Before this morning when I knew better.” Danny said.

  “But it wasn’t before I knew better.”

  Hal lifted his hand. “Are we missing a suit or aren’t we?”

  “Yes.” Frank said.

  “No.” Danny retorted.

  “Danny, you said we were missing a suit.”

  “I know, but I was wrong.”

  “No, you weren’t.” Frank shook his head. “I went to the lock box. I counted just to double check. You said there were twenty three suits to start with. There were twenty-one in the box. Now, taking into account the Darrell suit. One plus twenty-one is twenty-two. Twenty-two minus twenty-one is one. One missing suit. See. Basic math.” Frank pointed to his temple. “Live it learn it, use it.”

  Hal looked at Elliott and whispered. “And he didn’t use his fingers. How proud I am.”

  “Hal!” Frank snapped. “Bite me.”

  “Grow up.”

  “We have a crisis here,” Frank said. “We’re missing an invisible suit.”

  “No,” Danny said annoyed. “We aren’t. I was wrong.”

  “No, you weren’t. I counted.”

  “And you did well.” Danny continued. “But, Frank I was wrong about how many we originally had. We had one less than I thought we had.”

  “So if we had one less then you thought we had, we now have one more than we thought we had.”

  Danny shook his head. “What ... What are you talking about?”

  “By one less, you mean, you counted wrong?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you mean we have one less than you originally thought we had?”

  “Yes.”

  “So we have one more.”

  “How do you figure?” Danny asked.

  Hal shot a glare to Robbie who snickered.

  Frank explained. “You thought we had Twenty three, but you meant to think we had twenty-two, when you counted, you counted twenty-one, but you were wrong and there was one less, so actually there were twenty suits, meaning we had twenty one to begin with, I counted in the Darrell suit and that made twenty-two. So we have one more than we thought. Or would it be two? Fuck. Where are the extra suits coming from?”

  Hal’s hand smoothed against his mouth as he spoke into his fingers in a muffled manner. “There goes that basic math, live it, learn it, and use it, tool he was boasting.”

  Elliot decided to explain. “Frank, you’re confused.”

  “I am.”

  Hal said. “I’m sure.”

  Elliott ignored him. “Frank, when Danny originally counted, he thought he counted twenty-three when in fact he only counted twenty-two.”

  Frank stared.

  After a moment of silence, figuring Frank wasn’t catching on, Elliott continued. “He erred Frank. There were only originally twenty-two suits. Not twenty-three.”

  “So where did the numbers twenty and twenty-one come from?”

  “I … uh ….you …” Elliott fluttered his lips. “I don’t know. Gees. But, there are no missing suits, because you counted twenty-one and with Darrell’s, that makes twenty-two so we’re good.”

  “Oh. Ok. That’s good.” Frank sighed. “I don’t want a missing suit. They’d be hard to find. Unless of course, we’re only missing the hood, then they’d be easy to find because we’d have someone walking around looking like a floating head.” He chuckled “All right. Next …”

  Fuck. Did anyone else catch it? Robbie wondered. Robbie hurriedly looked about the room in the second after Frank’s joke. Danny gazed up, and with a shift of his eyes he saw Hal look in question, briefly. Elliott turned a page and Jimmy prepared papers. No. Hal’s look was Robbie’s imagination. He couldn’t believe Frank said that.

  Stop. Robbie not only worried about what he was wondering, and even though he wasn't wondering too clearly, he now worried and wondered if Frank was reading his mind about what he was wondering.

  Fuck. He thought.

  “Yes,” Frank said and looked at him.

  “Fuck.” Robbie said back.

  “What am I missing?” Hal asked.

  “Robbie is having rambling thoughts about whether or not I am reading his thoughts about my joke. I told him yes. I could hear his thoughts. And to what you were wondering, I don’t think so. I don’t; think anyone thought it was funny. Shame. I thought it was fuckin funny.”

  “Me too, Frank. I just couldn’t believe no one else laughed.”

  “I’m confused,” Hal tossed up his hands.

  Frank waved. “It happens. Must run in the family. Anyhow …” Frank sighed. “We’ll move on when George …”

  At that second George walked in. “Sorry I’m late.”

  Frank held out his hand. “He’s here. No need to wait. Come in. We’re just about to get started on the big stuff.”

  George pulled up a chair. “What did I miss?”

  “Don’t ask,” Hal said. “Please, don’t ask.”

  “Hal. Not cool,” Frank interjected. “We don’t want George to feel left out. I’ll recap…” Frank pulled a paper forward.

  “I’ll take a cigarette break.” Hal stood up and excused himself.

  He could hear the recap when he walked out into the front office. Even the recap was going to drive him nuts. Needing to get further way, he walked outside for some sanity and air.

  ****

  What was it about Beginnings meetin
gs? Hal inhaled the last hit of his cigarette. The meetings took so long and a recap? What in the world could take so long for a recap? As he turned to go back in, the door to Frank’s office opened.

  George stepped out. When George had arrived, his hair was night and combed. Now it was tossed, pulled some, as if he ran his fingers through it a million times.

  “We’re done with the recap. If you want to come back in,” George said.

  “Awfully long recap.”

  “I think we may have drifted off subject.”

  “I see you have encountered a Frank moment.”

  “Frank?” George asked. “No. Frank was fine. Danny Hoi.”

  “Danny?”

  “We started about the virus, when we moved on to the invisible suit, Danny switched gears and started going back to the virus and the potential it could cause for harming the spring presentation of Guys and dolls. Which wouldn’t have been too bad, and then he went into a critique of the actors. Christ. We never got to the invisible suit. I couldn’t take it, Frank couldn’t take it. He moved it along and said to come and get you.”

  “Glad I missed it.”

  “Well, I’m jealous of that. Let’s go.” George reopened the door. “Oh, wait.”

  “Yes?”

  “Need a little medicine before we go back in. Keep my blood pressure down.”

  “You’re ill?” Hal asked.

  “Not at all. I’m just prepared. I know how meetings run in Beginnings.” Reaching into his back pocket, George pulled out a flask. He took a swig and extended it to Hal. “Want some.”

  “Don’t mind if I have a little medicine myself.” Hal took a drink, gasped at the pure feel of it, readied to return it, then thinking once more about Frank’s meeting, took another drink before giving back the flask and heading into the building.

  Jimmy had placed maps on the board, along with diagrams and satellite photos. He held the information in his hand for the meeting.

  Frank gave him the floor. “As all of you know by the information packet I have given you, we have approximately 2400 troops positioned 324 miles northeast of the Montana border. Their garrison includes heavy artillery, tanks, trucks you name it. From what I can see, there are no more bigger movements coming, and they have established camp.”

  Hal lifted his hand. “Our scout spotted eight men weeks ago, so they have been there that long.”

  Jimmy added. “My observation, and my experience tell me they aren’t moving in. Rather positioning.”

  George furthered. “To move out eventually. Our way.” He dropped his pencil and rubbed his eyes. “Frank?”

  “They are there for a reason. Obvious. Waiting for something. Hanging back.”

  “So why? Why are they hanging back?” Danny asked.

  “Like I said,” Frank continued. “Waiting.”

  “For?”

  “The big hit. Back up, I suppose, Plan B.”

  Everyone looked at him with questions.

  Robbie raised his hand. “What are you going do? What should we do? Make contact?”

  “No.”

  “Attack them?” Danny suggested.

  “That’s what I would do,” George said. “Just take them out.”

  “No.” Frank shook his head.

  Hal spoke, “They have one of our men. They took him prisoner.”

  “And I’m correct,” Frank said. “He’ll be set free. Set free with a little message saying they mean no harm, they are just setting up a civilization.”

  George questioned. “You don’t want to launch an attack. Contact first, get a feel and attack.”

  “No. Absolutely not. I’ll tell you why. We don’t want to prematurely launch into anything before we are ready. Fuck, I just moved Doyle camp out east to train men. I need to bring back at least 1,000 troops to set up a perimeter and circumference in case they move. I still have to do the trickledown effect and train Society men. No one is ready for an all-out ground war. Not yet.”

  “But it’s only 2400 men,” George said.

  “Exactly, and 2400 men does not a Great War make,” Frank explained. “Here’s my theory.” Frank positioned by the map. “They came by boat across the Alaskan Straights. Meaning they have been planning this a while. The first wave of arrivals. The others, I suspect will arrive in bigger waves coming in our East Coast and up the Gulf. The west is a waste for the same reason they are coming here.”

  Elliott spoke out. “The Frederickson.”

  “Exactly. They knew it was coming, they knew they couldn’t survive; the only way to live is move the entire civilization here. But how?”

  “So we are to assume they aren’t friendly?” Danny asked.

  “They aren’t. Not with that man power and arsenal. If they had the technology to move here like that, they have radios, they could have tried to make contact. Right now, they aren’t real sure what we have but I guaran fuckin tee that they know there’s something, why else are they so positioned by Beginnings.”

  George answered that. “Because Beginnings was unknowingly tapped into the satellites, the east wasn’t.”

  Frank nodded. “Exactly. They aren’t sure about the east.”

  “You know.” George partially shrugged. “I hate to be a I told you so person, but. I told you so. I have been saying that we were going to get invaded from across the ocean for so long. Hence why I never used any means of communication that tapped into satellites.”

  “I know. And like I said, Beginnings did tap into satellites.” Frank nodded. “In fact … they may think Beginnings is the only pocket of life. Come in the east, up the gulf, no response, these guys come down and battle us. Right now, they probably don’t think they have a fight on their hands. They probably think we’re a dead country. They can just walk on the land. Take it. And honestly, if we didn’t see this coming or have knowledge of the Great War, they probably wouldn’t. It was a country divided, now we’re training or this. We’re preparing for this.”

  “Aside from the satellite signals of Beginnings, what would make them assume we were a dead country?” Hal asked.

  “Because they hit us before.” Frank said.

  All the men in the room, at the same time, called out ‘what?’

  “Last year,” Frank explained. ‘That little wayward nuke that hit off target in Virginia. We thought it was the Savages; remember because it just went off. I’m telling you it was them. They sent it. By their guesses, they send a nuke, if we are technologically up and running, we’d trace it see where it came from and try to retaliate. We did retaliate, but not against them. So … they received no response. They think we’re dead.”

  George and Hal both sat back with a heavy sigh.

  “So here’s my game plan,” Frank said. “2400 men are nothing. I can fuckin bet any money they don’t have our weapons technology. We can take out 2400 men the second they become mobile with one plan and two hits of Dean Ami. I don’t worry about them. I still want to set up a perimeter, a couple hundred miles back with our men. I don’t want them to know. Mark my word; they’ll release Hal’s man within a few days. They’re set up. In the meantime, I want to train on the fast track, get our men ready. Mobilize 20,000 troops down south. Get out the Air Force in gear and position them. Just in case.”

  Hal lifted a hand. “Just in case. Just in case what?”

  “Just in case we can’t get to the south.”

  “I’m confused,” Hal said. “Twenty thousand troops down south in the gulf.”

  “Maybe more. Maybe even thirty.”

  “Good God Frank, if they are going to hit us, the bigger hit is gonna come from the East along the eastern seaboard.”

  “I know.”

  “We’ll need more men to protect our East Coast.”

  Frank shook his head. “We have the ALS3. How will a huge movement get to us?”

  “Ships,” Hal replied.

  “We’ll see them coming thousands of miles ahead of time. We’ll see something that big coming from the east.”


  “And?’

  “And we take them out before they even hit our shore.” Frank turned to Jimmy. “I want you on the East Coast and I want you there stat, this is what you did in the old world.”

  “You want…” Jimmy’s words trailed.

  Frank nodded. “Our nuclear subs are still equipped. How many nukes George, right now, off hand.”

  George thought. “Four or five hundred. Nowhere near ready …”

  “I know.” Frank cut him off. “That’s where Jimmy comes in, he’ll get our SLBM systems on track and ready to go. Gentlemen, we’ll see them coming, that big of a movement calls for ships, and let me tell you, they may cross the ocean…” Frank turned toward the room. “But they’ll never set foot on our fucking land.”

  *****

  Bertha Callahan finished her phone call with Frank; it wasn’t long, but informative enough for her to relay information.

  Mike looked exhausted, the time spent in prison had worn him out and the freedom was taking its toll.

  “Doyle should be here by tomorrow,” Callahan said. “We need to come up with a training strategy. He’s en route right now with the first portion of the convoy.”

  “When will the rest arrive?”

  “They won’t.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Our trickle down training will have to move rapidly. Once we train me then the others will come. Seems they got the ALS3 up and running and the satellite showed 2400 men positioned 300 plus miles north of Beginnings.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “Beginning of the Great War.”

  “Frank gonna take them out?”

  Bertha shook his head. “No, he doesn’t want to inadvertently start a war that we aren’t ready for.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “Jimmy Slagel will be arriving in a few days. In the pre plague world he was a nuclear technician on subs and he’s coming down to get our SLBM’s back in working condition.”

  “Holy shit.” Mike said. “Another Slagel?”

  “Yeah, but you will like James. He’s not like the others. We have our work cut out and I suggest you start now on a game plan. You will be in charge of training on tactical maneuvers. We’ll be moving 70% of our main force south.”

  “South?” Mike asked. “What about our East Coast?”