Five Suns Saga [Part III] by Jim Heskett

Author:Jim Heskett [Heskett, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Royal Arch Books
Published: 2017-08-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Alma - Colorado Springs

She stood at the ruins of the Air Force Academy Cathedral in Colorado Springs, pride welling up inside her. When Hector had detonated the bombs to bring this building down, Alma had been stuck in Oklahoma, trying to escape before anyone found out who her father was. If they had, she would have become the government’s hostage, for sure. Nothing but bloodthirsty crooks were running the country back then. Even at that age, Alma knew it to be true.

To her left, Hector stood, hands on his hips, a rare smile on his face.

“We did a bold thing here, on this campus,” Hector rasped. “We poked the sleeping giant.”

While her father barely spoke anymore due to the knife slash across his throat, when he did speak, she listened intently. Decades of experience thrived inside that brain of his. She hugged him, feeling the love in his arms as he gripped her.

George and Jarvis, the other members of the privileged group allowed to enter the ruins of the cathedral, picked through bits of steel beams and drywall that still littered the ground. Two decades had passed since that day, and the building seemed largely untouched. Compared to other structures, rubble maintained a timeless quality to it.

“Too bad your bold thing didn’t work out,” George said as he dug through a collection of half-burned pamphlets scattered across the floor.

“It’s not over yet,” Alma said. “We should always remember what this cathedral represents.”

George stood and opened his palms. “What’s that?”

“The future. The ability to take big actions and small actions to send fear into the hearts of the powerful. Every revolution began with a single gunshot. Every coup began with an idea.”

George nodded and pushed out his lower lip, chewing on her words. He could be a surly man, but a rational one. She didn’t yet know what place she would give him in the new government. Something worthy of a skeptic, for sure. If his black box promise came true, that was. If he couldn’t deliver on the missile codes, she might not find a place for him at all.

“If there are any old bodies here,” Jarvis said, “I don’t smell them. You’d think something rotting this long would have a nasty stink to it.”

Alma sneered at Jarvis’ comment. In many ways, he reminded her of the beer-swilling redneck teenagers she knew back in Oklahoma. Lacking in class, but overflowing with bravado.

From the other side of a pile of rubble came the sound of shifting metal. Alma and Jarvis both spun to face it. Through the fading sunlight, she couldn’t make out anything in the pile, but those sounds were definitely real.

Her first thought was to call for a group to investigate, but the Eighteener army was back in town, at least a half mile from here. None of them had been allowed to travel with the leaders to view the wreckage.

Who was in the pile? Was it Red Streets, some other gang, or maybe even skunks and raccoons?

No, this was scavengers.

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