Worst Case Scenario - Book 5: Militia Read Online Free

scolded.  “Take us down, and you two need to be prepared to fight,” Xu cautioned, pointing two fingers at the pilots. He then un-holstered his personal side arm, chambered a round, and slammed it back in his holster.
    “I feel safer already,” Payne sneered.  “Honestly, Colonel, I wonder how your men made it this far?”
    “We have fought America’s Army!” Xu protested.  “And we have won!”
    Payne shook his head and watched out the window as the helo descended.  “You fought a neutered ghost of our military. Without the chaos of the EMP and the nuked cities, you would not have stood a chance!”  Payne did not give him a chance to respond.  “And tell me, Colonel, how can a modern fighting force with an edge in technology get lost trying to protect their commander?”
    Xu bit his tongue and debated whether to resound but declined, thinking it would just be wasted words.  He made a mental note that the man had slipped in his phraseology, and said, ‘You fought a neutered ghost of our military,’ instead of their military.  People had been sentenced to death for lesser slips of the tongue.
    The helicopter touched down, and the co-pilot hopped out and opened the side door for the VIPs.  He then pulled his seldom-used side arm and followed behind the two men as they walked towards the burned structure of the house.
    “What are you looking for, sir?” Xu asked, his eyes scanning the area continuously.  He couldn’t believe that this politician was allowing them to be exposed in such a way.  But then, he had been around long enough to know that most politicians thought about the needs of themselves first, regardless of which country they represented.
    Payne walked to the edge of the smoldering structure.  “Evidence,” Payne simply responded.  He had been a district attorney earlier in his career and knew that being able to visit a crime scene was golden to his understanding of what really happened.
    “What kind of evidence, sir?  It looks like everyone died in the fire.”
    Payne smiled. He was about to school his military friend in looking at the details and the assumptions that lead to fact.  “So, Colonel, if everyone died in the fire, why is there three burning helicopters in that field? Where are the horses?  The gate is closed. Why are we standing in mud?  Why are two hose pipes still running water on the ground?”
    Xu looked down at his combat boots. A pool of moving water glimmered around the rubber of his sole.
      Payne continued, “Why is there an American flag sticking out of the ground on a mound of fresh dirt under that oak tree over there?”  Payne lazily waved his arm towards the shade tree before turning to face the officer.  “And why, Colonel, are there no vehicles here?”
    Xu opened his mouth to say something when a nearby explosion rocked the peacefulness of the farm.  The co-pilot moved in front of the men, his weapon out and ready to protect his passengers.
    “Put that away!” Payne ordered. “They’re long gone, but not before finding and destroying your lost platoon!”  The Governor turned his back on the scene and headed back to the helicopter.
    A plume of black smoke floated up above the trees from a forested area about a mile away.

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 5
     
     
     
    One hour after receiving the transmission from his daughter, Ian approached the rally point, an abandoned farmhouse on the other side of the hill from Talladega Super Speedway.
    He pulled the Jeep off the road and through an open gate to a field.  Mary followed in the El Camino.
    “You don’t want to go down to the track?” Leah asked, but she knew that it was not a good idea too.
    “It’s not that I don’t want to go down to the track, its just I want to scope out what’s at the track first,” Ian responded in a casual Rangers lead the way protocol.
    “Roger that.”
    Mary pulled up beside the parked Jeep.  “Is this the pit-stop?” she asked.
    “Looks that way,” Leah