Sacrifice:The Shenkar War Read online

  “However, while the ships are being created, we will need to train your people,” added the second Grayling.

  “Yes, our studies of your people have found that you have the incredible ability to absorb and process information. However, even under normal circumstances, to build the fleet and train the personnel necessary to outfit it will take nine months,” spoke the first Grayling.

  “But you just said the Shenkar will be here in six months--where does that leave us?” asked Japan’s Prime Minister.

  “It will be necessary to slow them down. To do this, you will need to send a ship. We currently have a carrier-class battle cruiser with a full complement of prototype light and heavy fighters. These fighters are not your typical fighter craft. These ships require special pilots--pilots who can only be described as superhuman,” explained the second Grayling.

  “Through our nanotechnology, we can enhance some of your people. With this nanotech, your pilots can withstand g-forces that would kill a normal man. Their reaction times will be greater than twenty men, all senses enhanced twenty times over. Unfortunately, it can’t be just any human; it can only be humans who have a certain state of mind,” spoke the first Grayling.

  “I have a question,” said the Prime Minister of Japan. “Should we be wasting a battlecruiser in an attempt to slow them down? I mean, if they are so powerful, shouldn’t we hold onto it?”

  “The battlecruiser we send will not be engaging directly in combat; only the fighters will be engaging the Shenkar. Once all the pilots have died or done everything they can to slow the Shenkar down, then the battlecruiser will return to Earth to augment the defenses,” said the Meshtrell.

  “Okay, that’s settled. I would like to know what you mean by ‘a certain state of mind’?” queried the Russian President.

  June 4, 2012, 7:33 a.m. ESTManchester, New Hampshire

  The barrel of the .357 Magnum felt cool to Liam as he pressed it against the skin up under his chin. With his finger on the trigger and the hammer locked back, all it would take was the slightest of pressure to end it all. The bullet would rip up through his jaw and into his brain. With his other hand, he held the picture of his dead wife, dead from the bird flu almost two years now. His hand trembled; only slight pressure would end this pain that tormented him every day.

  Why couldn’t he do it? It should be so easy, just a slight squeeze and bang. All he wanted to do was die. But even for how much Liam wanted it all to end, feeling there was nothing to live for, he couldn’t do it. Not because he was afraid of death--not at all, actually. It was his warped sense of letting down what friends and family he had left. Liam thought wryly, It shouldn’t matter, really. I mean what does it matter what people think of you when you won’t be around to hear it? Well, Liam would know that he had let people down, and knowing that was too much for some odd and unknown reason.

  Setting the picture back onto the end table, he became aware that his eyes were brimming with tears. Sighing, he slowly eased the hammer back, clicked the safety in place, and scrubbed the tears away with the back of his hand before he stood up from his couch.

  Walking down the hall to his bedroom, he thought back to when he first met his wife, Sarah. He could say he met her by accident, actually. He was twenty-eight years old and driving his new Jeep down the road when he came upon a stop sign and slowed to stop. Suddenly, he heard a screech and felt a not overly hard impact of something hitting him from behind. Seething with anger, Liam climbed from his Jeep, ready to rip this jerk in half. Immediately, his anger vanished as he looked into the face of what he could only describe as an angel. Sarah was beautiful, with long blond hair and blue eyes. She was petite at five foot three inches, with an incredible body, the kind that made men just stop and stare.

  “Oh, my god, are you all right?” Sarah had asked, her face full of concern. “I am so sorry. I have insurance, and I will pay for all the damages.”

  Liam just stared, mouth half open, not knowing what to say. Sarah’s concern showed even more.

  “Are you okay? Are you in shock? Maybe you should sit down or something. I am not sure what to do with people who are suffering from shock.”

  She was starting to look like she was going to cry. Maybe that was the reason Liam suddenly found his tongue, although what came out wasn’t what he had meant to say.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” he said quietly, then sucked in his breath. His eyes went wide and he could feel his face warm from his embarrassment over what he just said.

  But all Sarah did was flash a sexy smile that made him weak in the knees before she spoke.

  “Thanks, you are not so bad yourself. So it is safe to say that you are not hurt?”

  “Uh . . . oh yes, I am fine. Are you okay?” he stammered out.

  “Yes, although with this accident, I am going to lose my license once the police get here and give me a ticket.”

  Liam couldn’t help but laugh, and he laughed even harder at the look of shock mixed with the beginnings of indignation on Sarah’s face.

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to laugh, but I hate to break it to you: I am a police officer.”

  If he had thought Sarah couldn’t look any worse, he was wrong. She looked like she had just heard that her dog had died. Well, he couldn’t have such a beautiful face looking so downtrodden.

  “How about we don’t involve the police in this?” Liam said.

  Sarah looked up with a slight smile, and then her face fell again slightly.

  “I couldn’t ask you to do that; it wouldn’t be right, as it was all my fault”

  Although she didn’t look much like she wanted to do what was right. She stood there, staring at her feet (he noticed she had very cute feet). He turned and walked to the back of his Jeep and looked at the bumper. There was barely a scratch. He turned back to her and smiled.

  “Look, there’s barely a scratch, so I really don’t see any need to call the police. If anything, you would just cause me more harm from all my fellow officers harassing me about the beautiful girl who hit my new Jeep.”

  Sarah’s face showed a slight smile as she looked at Liam. “Well, okay, but can I at least buy you dinner to make up for it?”

  And the rest was history. They were married in less than a year, and she was soon pregnant with his son. He had a wonderful life. Then the bird flu had taken it all away. Now they were both dead, along with his father, two sisters, and three brothers. He had tried to immerse himself in his work, but his fellow officers weren’t fooled. After failing a mandatory psych evaluation, he was told to take a leave of absence until such time as he could perform his duties.

  That had been a year and three months ago. Now his life consisted of waking every morning angry that he had not managed to drink himself to death the night before. Every night was the same: come home, get something to eat, then drink until he passed out. Then in the morning he would wake up, place his gun to his head, and try as he might to end his life.

  He had a part-time job at a local electronics store to pass the time. He didn’t need the money--far from it, in fact, as he had received a check for one million dollars from a life insurance policy on his wife. Every day he was going through the motions of life, not really seeing a future. Well, that was what he told himself, at least. He knew all too well that there were always possibilities in life. His plan was to not allow anything into his life that he would care for that could hurt him in the end. His mother was always telling him he should never let go of the memory of his lost wife, yet he should allow love back into his life--and she always knew the perfect girl.

  After showering and getting dressed, Liam grabbed an energy drink. He hated coffee, never could stand it, so his morning ritual included an energy drink along with a breakfast Hot Pocket. After finishing his breakfast, he grabbed his motorcycle keys and left to go to the electronics store. He loved the freedom of riding a motorcycle--nothing around you except the fresh air. Revving the engine, Liam sped off to work.

  June 4, 2012, 7
:44 a.m. ESTElliot Hospital, ER

  Evan sat up in his hospital bed, rubbing his throat. Oh, how it was sore. Induced vomiting was not what Evan had planned for the previous evening, but his nosy neighbor had changed that. Evan had finally had enough of his life and had downed a bottle of sleeping pills to solve the problem. Life just wasn’t worth the aggravation and heartache ever since he had lost his love, Christine, and his entire family to the bird flu--so many people lost to that horror, and Evan felt that he really wasn’t contributing anything worthwhile to society anyway.

  Finally making the gruesome decision had been rather easy, and even though he would be letting his best friend Liam down, he figured that Liam would understand--he hoped, anyway. However, Evan hadn’t realized the damn old woman who lived in the next apartment building over had a perfect view of his living room through his doors to his balcony. She had witnessed him downing the pills, then promptly had called 911. The last thing he remembered was drifting off to sleep, thinking, Finally I am free. And then he was waking up in the emergency room as he vomited into a bucket.

  Looking up at the sound of the curtain to his bed being pulled back, he saw a nurse enter.

  “Feeling better, Mr. Maxis?” she said flatly yet not rudely.

  “Not really, but what should I expect for what I did?” Evan said in a croaky voice.

  The nurse checked Evan’s pulse and then wrote upon a clipboard she had.

  “Are the police still out there?” Evan asked.

  “No, Mr. Maxis. They have been ordered to leave.”

  “Ordered to leave? By whom?” Evan asked incredulously.

  “I didn’t ask, but as soon as I am done in here, you will find out.”

  Once the nurse finished up, she pulled back the curtain, exited, and two men in suits entered. The man on the left held up an identification wallet, showing him to be FBI.

  “Hello, Mr. Maxis . . . I am agent Mark Tennas. Please get your clothes and come with us.”

  “Where to?” Evan asked suspiciously. “Am I under arrest?”

  “No, Mr. Maxis, you are not under arrest. I am not at liberty to say what this is about, but I am under orders to deliver you, so please get dressed.”

  Evan shrugged, grabbed his clothes, and dressed. Well, at least he wasn’t going to jail, so it didn’t seem that it could get any worse. Evan followed the two agents out of the emergency room to a waiting car and got in.

  June 4, 2012, 7:55 a.m. ESTCarl’s Electronics

  Parking the motorcycle besides the building, Liam dismounted and walked to the front door to unlock it. But before he could unlock the door, he turned at the sound of a car pulling up. Liam’s stomach twisted at the sight of the driver.

  While he might have sworn off caring for anyone after Sarah’s death, he had recently realized that he had failed. The cause of the failure was a twenty-one-year-old girl named Leah, a college student who was stunningly beautiful in every way possible. She was five foot zero inches, 98 pounds of pure beauty, from her straight shoulder-length brown hair, her green eyes with those long eyelashes, and full lips that you just wanted to kiss for hours on end. With a perfect tanned body, on a one-to-ten scale, she was an eleven. He had watched guys come into the electronics store and trip over each other just to get a look at her. It was hilarious. When the store was busy, anyone working with Leah had their line usually full of mostly female customers, while about 90 percent of the males would wait in Leah’s line, even if the other line didn’t have anyone in it.

  He figured he wasn’t in love with her; she didn’t even think of him that way. Why would she? For starters, he was thirty-seven years old--sixteen years difference. He was way too old for her. Secondly, he just wasn’t her type--he imagined a different sort of guy she would go for. He didn’t think himself unattractive; he simply saw himself as average, that was all. He was six foot one, 188 pounds, with black hair and blue eyes, and he was in good shape, considering he didn’t do much in the way of exercise except for playing ice hockey a couple of times during the week and beach volleyball on weekends with friends.

  He just didn’t see himself as a guy she would go for, which he actually thought was good since he already felt guilty for caring for someone when his wife was dead. He felt he was somehow betraying her, yet he knew that was stupid for him to feel, knew Sarah would have wanted him to be happy. As for Leah, he thought it odd that they got along so well; he didn’t understand why she liked to hang out with him. They went to dinner occasionally, saw movies, or even hung out at his apartment where he made her dinner.

  They had struck up a friendship when she had discovered Liam had lost loved ones to the bird flu. Leah was writing a paper of the effects of close losses from the flu and how people were dealing with it. So they started meeting up to discuss what he went through and how he was dealing with it. He would tell her about his wife, son, and those family members he lost, and when not speaking of those things, they talked of stuff they liked, guys she dated, and so on.

  Something he couldn’t understand was how she didn’t have a boyfriend. She claimed that she just couldn’t find the right guy, that they just were not nice like Liam. She often joked that she should just date Liam but then would always add in how her family would kill her and how she would be throwing away her college education by getting involved with someone almost old enough to be her dad. They already felt that her hanging out with Liam was inappropriate. In any case, Leah wasn’t a blind girl, so she had to know Liam was attracted to her. Yet while she was flirtatious with him, she also made it plain that she wasn’t attracted to him in that way--or that’s the way he interpreted it.

  After parking her car, Leah got out and started walking toward Liam, smiling as she went.

  “Liam! I didn’t know you were opening today.”

  “Yeah, Mike asked me if I could yesterday; apparently, he has his kid’s parent–teacher conference this morning. What are you doing here? Don’t you have class this morning?”

  “I did have class, but it was canceled. No idea why . . . in fact, all classes have been canceled until further notice. It’s really weird. Soldiers from the National Guard are all over the city . . . didn’t you notice?”

  “National Guard? Never even noticed, but you know me, I tend to get lost in thought. So what brings you here, then? It’s a nice day out--figured you would head to the beach.”

  “I forgot my cell phone here last night when I worked, so I figured I would stop by and pick it up.”

  Liam unlocked the door and held it open for Leah to walk through. Following in behind her, he couldn’t help look at her from behind. Today, she was wearing a tight blue tank top with a short skirt that hugged her bottom so very nicely. After entering, he walked over to the alarm keypad, punched in the deactivation code, then went about getting everything ready for opening. After several minutes, he became aware of someone watching him and turned to see Leah looking at him.

  “What?” Liam asked suspiciously.

  Leah smiled, but then her face became more serious, a slight look of concern on it.

  “Are you all right? You looked tired.”

  Sighing, Liam continued to go about opening the store. But after a few minutes, he turned to Leah.

  “I’m as fine as I will ever be,” he said solemnly.

  “That’s a load of crap. Lately you won’t talk to me about what you are feeling when it’s so obvious you are depressed again . . . why?” she demanded testily.

  “What does it matter? I mean, it isn’t like you could do anything to help me.” He was a little harsher than he meant to be.

  Leah scowled, and he could see the beginning of anger on her face. When she spoke, it was in a voice only slightly above normal. “What does it matter?!? How can you say that? You know damn well I care about you . . .”

  “Yeah, like a brother,” muttered Liam before he could stop himself.

  He suddenly hoped she hadn’t heard him. Looking up, he saw that he hadn’t been as quiet as he hoped. He
felt the heat rush into his face at the embarrassment he was feeling. He knew what he said was childish and extremely stupid, but before he could tell her as much, she spoke up first. The anger in her voice was evident.

  “Is that what this is about? The fact that I only care for you as a friend? I know you have feelings for me; I’m not stupid, you know. I know when a guy is attracted to me, and by the way you look at me when you think I’m not paying attention, it’s plain that you are attracted to me. I thought you were better than that, but you are just like every other guy I have known. Just because I don’t show interest more than friendship, then it’s a problem . . .” Leah’s voice trailed off, making a dismayed sound in her throat.

  Feeling completely disgusted with himself, Liam looked at Leah with a lump in his throat that felt like the size of a baseball.

  “Leah . . . I . . . I am sorry . . . what I said, I didn’t mean. Yes, I am attracted to you, but I never thought for a minute you would feel the same about me. I don’t know why that came out . . . I guess I was just feeling sorry for myself. I am sixteen years older than you, for Christ’s sake. What twenty-one-year-old girl would want to saddle herself with that, even if you were attracted to me?”

  Liam thought, as he looked at Leah, that he had really made a mess of this one. It seemed as if she was angrier now than before he had apologized. Looking beyond Leah, out the door, he saw a black Chevy Caprice pull up. Two men in suits got out. Just wonderful--figures customers would show up before he could fix this.

  Entering, the two men walked up to the counter where Liam stood. Both looked like detectives. After a quick scan, he silently confirmed they were some sort of government type when he noticed the bulge under their coats that could only be handguns. Before he could even greet them, the one on the left flipped open his wallet to show a badge and ID card that identified him as FBI.