Danger Close by James Sumner (classic novels for teens txt) 📕

doesn’t matter anymore. He seems to think that’s what happened, which means every single one of our guys will be executed on sight if they do anything other than stand down and allow themselves to be arrested.”

Julie sighed. “This is… I don’t know… this is insane. How much time do we have?”

“He’s outside the palace right now in a goddamn tank, surrounded by enough men to outnumber the combined GlobaTech and military forces inside the palace grounds almost two-to-one. We have one hour, then he’s coming in. He can say whatever he wants to sound diplomatic, but if he breaches those gates, it’ll be to kill us. No doubt.”

“Oh my God…”

“He also said, once he’s done that, he’ll be coming after the U.S. You have to get a message to Buchanan. If he’s on the Hill, call around and get someone to interrupt the hearing and put a phone in his hand. He has to do something, or we’re screwed.”

“Okay, let me try. I might be able to… wait a second…”

“What? What is it?”

“Jericho, when did all this happen?”

“What do you mean? It’s happening right now. I’m assuming it’s been happening since the general first deployed his men after Herrera’s assassination three days ago. The palace would be the last stop on his world tour, so he’s had three days to secure the country and lock down all the cities and major towns.”

“There’s… there’s nothing.”

“Are you serious?”

“Jericho, there is no mention of any of this on any news channel.”

“That’s impossible. The media are grounded here just like we are. They’ve got nowhere to go and nothing else to do except report what’s going on.”

“Do you think they’ve…”

Her voice trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Jericho sighed, understanding what she didn’t want to ask.

“Do I think the general’s kidnapped or killed everyone?” he said. “Honestly, I hope not, but nothing would surprise me anymore. He’s being fed bogus intel from somewhere. Who knows what he’s going to do next? But even if that were the case, it’s still unlikely that no word of this has gotten out. The internet, social media… surely, someone here would say something?”

“So, how else do you explain it?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Jericho stopped pacing and leaned back against a nearby wall. “All I know is we have about fifty minutes before a full-blown civil war breaks out, and the presidential palace is the battlefield.”

“What do you have?”

“I’ve got twenty-five of our guys. Colonel Ramirez has maybe sixty soldiers. I’m guessing they’re all that’s left of those who remained loyal to Herrera. If Guerrero has the country like he claims, then he will be holding any soldier who doesn’t support him at one of their military bases.”

“Do you really think he has total control?”

“I think he has enough control, yes. There was no sign of him or his men the other day. Over half of the entire Palugan army were sitting quietly inside their military bases, scattered across the country.”

“Like they were waiting for something to happen…”

“Exactly. I don’t know if the shooter is working for the general or not, but Guerrero was perfectly positioned to take over this entire country in a matter of hours on almost no notice. Combine that with these random claims about GlobaTech and the U.S, and something doesn’t add up.”

“I agree. Give me ten minutes.”

“Okay. Oh, there’s one more thing.”

“What?”

“The general’s men… they’re armed with weapons I’ve never seen before. State-of-the-art tech. We’re talking shit that rivals anything we have.”

“Are you kidding me?” Julie sighed and went quiet for a moment. “How? No offense to Paluga, but the country isn’t exactly at the forefront of technological advancement.”

“Here’s the kicker. I got a look at one of the rifles. It was made by Tristar.”

“Tristar, as in the security contractor that just got shot to shit a couple of weeks ago?”

“Same logo and everything.”

“But… they’re not a weapons manufacturer. Christ, they were barely a security contractor.”

“That’s what I thought. Something’s going on here, Julie. Something big. Something we’re not seeing. Too much of this doesn’t make any goddamn sense. But if he has access to this kind of tech, there’s no reason to think he doesn’t have access to more. We should treat his threat of retaliation against the United States seriously.”

“I agree. Hang in there, Jericho.”

“We got forty-five minutes.”

“I know…”

She ended the call. Jericho stared at the phone in his hand for almost a minute, lost inside his own head. He could count on one hand the number of times in his life when he had felt completely overwhelmed and out of his depth. This was definitely one of those times. He felt powerless. He felt like everyone was having a conversation, and he was the only one who didn’t understand the topic.

“Well?”

The voice startled him, snapping him from his trance. He looked up to see Colonel Ramirez standing in front of him, his hands on his hips.

Jericho held the phone up. “Just waiting to hear back.”

“Is your higher power going to come through?”

He smiled, trying to mask his own concern in the hope that it would inspire confidence in the colonel. “Let’s hope so.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

Jericho held his gaze for a moment.

“We should get all our men inside and into position,” he said finally. “We need to coordinate our efforts and come up with a strategy. If they come in, they’ll come in hard and fast and try to overwhelm us. We need to be smarter than them.”

He set off walking, heading for the door. Ramirez held out a hand and grabbed his arm as he drew level. Jericho stopped and looked at him.

Ramirez let out a tired breath. “My men are good. I trust them. I have no doubts about the capabilities of you and yours, either. But I’ve been in the military my whole life, Mr. Stone. I’ve seen many conflicts, as I’m sure you have. You know as well as I do, there comes a point where numbers simply mean more than skill.”

Jericho shrugged his arm