Freedom (TM)

Sebeck sat up straight. “Yes, but my point is that the darknet gives us some resilience. We’re not reliant on those things—they know that—so why are they bothering to cut them off?”

Ross shrugged. “There are still a lot of people in this region who aren’t on the darknet. Those folks have been plunged back into the Stone Age by this—no power, no cell service, no Internet. These guys want to control the message coming out of this region. The general public can’t read darknet news feeds. They won’t hear the truth, so it’ll be like this never happened.”

Price sat down next to Sebeck. “Just the official story. Which will no doubt be of the valiant private security forces containing looting and anarchy in the Midwest.”

They all stared at one another.

Price crossed his arms. “We are fucked, man!”

“We’ll be all right, Laney. We’ve been in tighter spots before.” Price narrowed his eyes at him. “No we haven’t!”

Just then Sebeck sat up straight, and stared in complete astonishment.

Both Ross and Price noticed the look on his face.

Ross asked first. “What’s wrong, Pete?”

“The Thread is back.”

Price concentrated as if he could see it by squinting. “Why now?”

Ross considered the question. “It must be linked to this news event. Maybe that’s what you were here for?”

Price shrugged. “Well, it’s not like we have much of a choice. Where’s it leading us, Sergeant?”

Sebeck pointed at the horizon. “Straight through enemy lines.”

In the predawn of a moonless night, Sebeck, Price, and Ross moved along the edge of a field. A chorus of frogs and crickets filled the stillness. Sebeck wore his suit of ceramic-composite armor and enclosed helmet. He held a multibarreled electronic pistol with a suppressor attached and sca

Sebeck lifted his visor as Price and Ross ran up and knelt next to him. “I still say this is a mistake, Jon. These townspeople are going to need all the help they can get.”

“Pete, the Thread was what brought you here in the first place, and if what Sobol said was true, then recent events have redirected it.”

“But it could wait. I could stay here and help fight first.”

“Do you really think you’re going to make a difference here?”

They exchanged grave looks in the dim light.

“You’re staying.”

Ross nodded. “I don’t have a high quest to complete. It would be wrong for me to go. Besides, the town will badly need my surveillance drones.”

They just looked at one another.

Ross grabbed Sebeck’s armored shoulder. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Price and Sebeck didn’t look convinced.

“Personally, I don’t envy you for having to slip through the blockade. I have your coordinates on my listing now, so I’ll know when you’re clear. Be careful. And good luck.”

They shook hands and slapped backs. And then Sebeck and Price moved along in the darkness again—Sebeck following the Thread as it led down into a tree-shrouded creek bed and into the night.

Chapter 31: // Extermination

Central_news.com

Private Military Contractors to Restore Order in Midwest—Beleaguered local residents in six Midwestern states cheered the arrival of private security forces, Saturday. William Caersky of Patterson, Kansas, felt the cavalry had arrived just in time. “It’s been a nightmare. With sky-high food and gas prices, armed gangs have ruled the streets for days. The government did nothing. Thank god for these guys. . . .”

Henry Fossen looked up from cleaning a rifle barrel as the wail of tornado sirens pierced the night. He stood up and glanced at his watch: 3:42 A.M.

He dropped the barrel onto a cloth on the kitchen table and vaulted up the back stairs, shouting. “Ly

As he ran down the upstairs hall, Je

“Who says?”

“I just read it on the town alert feed. There are soldiers headed this way right now.” She shook her head in incomprehension. “How could this be happening?”

Fossen’s wife, Ly

He brought them down through the kitchen, where he rolled up the cloth containing pieces of the Korean War-era, M1 Garand rifle he’d been cleaning—the one his father had given him. He also grabbed a sealed can of 30.06 ammunition dated from 1958.

“C’mon, out the door!”

As his wife and daughter headed out the mudroom door, he took one last look at the family house, then turned off the lights and joined them out in the drive near the garage. It was still dark out, but as Fossen and his family got into the crew-cab pickup, they could hear the rattling of distant machine-gun fire.

Ly

Je

“Je

Both of them got in and he rapidly had them moving down the long gravel driveway. “Je

She wiped her tears and started clicking on D-Space as Fossen drove at high speed down to the road.

“If we move quickly, we’ll be fine. They’re coming in from the east and south. . . .” She paused. “But there’s also another force reported coming in from north and west.”

“Yes, all right, but we can make it to town?”

“Yes.”

Fossen glanced to them both. “We’re going to be all right. We’ll get to the storm cellars at the elementary school just like we pla

As he looked down the road, he could see the lights of Greeley just a few miles ahead. There was thunder in the distance and the lights suddenly went black.

At the sound of tornado sirens Ross sat up in the motel bed and reached for his HUD glasses on the nightstand. He tried to turn on the lights, but they didn’t work. A glance at the digital alarm clock confirmed that the power was out.

So much for local power generation.

He threw on his black Nomex flight suit and computer belt as the system logged him on. The sirens were winding down now, and he could see hundreds of darknet call-outs beyond the walls and hear the voice of Floyd_2, an ex-army officer that the darknet had automatically selected as civil defense commander, based on his reputation score and skill set. His voice came in over the public comm cha

“—need everybody to those storm shelters. Security drones show helicopters and a light armored force converging on Greeley from all four compass directions. Everyone, please get to the middle school storm cellars. Ex-military folks and hunters, you have your assignments. We’ve only got a few minutes. I’m going to project the location of the choppers onto layer six, and I want all tagged enemy objects placed on that layer, too.”

Four bright red call-outs appeared some ways off to the east, identified as Helo 1, 2, and 3.

Floyd_2 paused. “Everyone move quickly but calmly to the middle school storm shelters. You can see the video surveillance overlays on layer five. It looks like these people are heavily armed. We’ve got summons in for infrastructure defense and equipment, but it looks like there are a lot of darknet towns under attack tonight. So I think we’re on our own for the time being. Let’s look out for one another now.”