The Plague Years (Book 1): Hell is Empty and All the Devils Are Here by Mark Rounds Read Free Book Online Page B

how you and DHS are bending over backwards to work this situation. We are extremely shorthanded right now but don’t think that I can’t recall you. Hell, a trained monkey could do better that this.”
    Before Macklin could object, the phone went dead.
     
    May 5 th , Friday, 8:45 pm PDT
    Dave Tippet was just cleaning up after dinner when he heard someone playing the blues on an acoustic guitar outside. It could only be his neighbor. Chad was a pretty good amateur guitarist. He played for all the kid’s birthdays until they got too old and too cool. He still played to woo his wife and last year, when they took a week long guys-only road trip to Jackson Hot Springs in Montana to drink beer and cross country ski, he had played every night in the bar at the resort and got them both of them free drinks all night long. He could play oldies, country, and folk but he saved the blues for when he was really feeling low.
    Dave grabbed a couple of beers out of his fridge and headed out to the patio. The sun had already gone down but it was still light enough to see Chad and his old 1937 Gibson L-50. His eyes were closed and he was doing some finger work on a blues tune he had been writing unsuccessfully for the last ten years.
    “How about a beer,” said Dave far enough out so he didn't startle Chad.
    The music stopped as Chad put the old guitar lovingly in its case and closed the lid.
    “I heard a wise man say once that you should never turn down hot coffee or a cold beer”, said Chad.
    “You should listen to him more,” said Dave. “OK, the last time I heard the blues at night, Connor had an accident with that hot rod 68 Camaro you hide in the garage. Did you give Fi a driving lesson in it?”
    They both laughed. Fiona had told her Dad that she was going to take her driving test in the Camaro. She had made the statement when she was eight.
    “No, Fi is much more focused on soccer and dogs right now than driving. No, it was just a hell of a day. I can’t tell you any details but that subject we discussed yesterday is big news in some quarters. My NDA got thrown out the window and I am now subject to the Espionage Act and the Patriot Act provisions if I fart wrong. Say what does, ORCON and NOFORN mean in English?”
    “That went with Top Secret didn’t it?” said Dave as he cracked open his beer.
    “Yeah.”
    “You just farted wrong, you are not even supposed to say that. ORCON means that only the originating command can authorize dissemination of the data. NOFORN means that no foreign nationals can be made aware of whatever it is you talked about. This is serious shit. We probably better change the subject.”
    “OK, you remember me telling you stories about Captain Antonopoulos who headed up the intel section I worked for at Hurlburt?”
    “Yeah, he was a tanker toad wasn’t he?”
    “Close, trash haulers, he was doing a staff rotation in intel. He was a straight shooter and could drink Ouzo like it was water. I met up with him today.”
    “Why do I think it wasn’t a social call?”
    “He has the 62 nd Airlift Wing at McChord. We had a drink after the briefing I can’t tell you about.”
    “So you talked about your kids and the stock market?”
    “Ha! Well some of that, his oldest is Connor’s age, but the five minutes that mattered were on the way in. He said the military has, for the last two weeks been canceling leaves, restricting people to bases for various exercises, and generally has been upping security. They have also been using discretionary funds to pick up food, ammo, gasoline, and other things they might need. He said prices are going up soon so I better get while the getting is good.”
    “They think it is real then and have for a while,” said Dave.
    “Yeah, this is just speculation mind you, but we do this kind of work all the time and our group is at least a month late getting into the game. I am not supposed to tell you that we were late getting real stuff and the first data set from