Executive Orders

Chapter 6 Revalation

REVELATION

SIX

“And Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 32

He woke to the sound of muffled crying and grunts of pain. Caleb rolled his head to the left, noticing that his left cheek bone was fractured and he could taste blood. He spat, sending a tooth , blood and saliva on to the mahogany conference table. The tooth landed on the seal of the Titan that had been carved into it.

Three men stood with their backs to him at the other end of the table. Two were white and one was black. The black man, who seemed to be in charge, was rolling up the sleeves of his white dress shirt.

Caleb rolled his head to the right, three women and one man sat with their hands bound. Blood streamed from the man’s left ear and both nostrils. It took a moment for Caleb to recognize the bloodied man as his friend Jim Waverly.

Jim began kicking one of the women’s feet motioning to Caleb using his chin as his mouth was taped. Danielle looked over her shoulder just in time to see her husband’s  eyes come alive with relief and then seething hatred.

A hand grasped Caleb’s face, making sure to squeeze the broken cheek bone, and turned his face back to the main part of the room.  He struggled against the tape that bound his hands behind him.

“You, motherfucker.”

Joseph Campbell sighed and slowly looked up from his hands where he held Caleb’s pocket knife and a pencil he had been whittling on. He stuck the knife into the mahogany table, worn from years of daily meetings. Joseph strode around the long table pausing momentarily to examine two swords that had been used as a wall decoration.

“You think I’m a traitor.” He rested upon the edge of the table. “But you’re wrong Caleb. I’m doing this for the good of the world. The U.S. government is beyond saving. All governments are beyond salvation, and I’m going to rectify that.”

“Why are you doing this? This isn’t the man I’ve known for thirty years, a man I called my friend.”

“Times have changed old friend.” He looked at the carpet beneath his shiny dress shoes.

“So what’s the plan? Huh?” Caleb sat straight up with realization as the blood drained from his face. “You want the bombs. That’s why you chose us. You wanted our nukes.”

“Yup.” A wolfish, malicious smirk spread across his face. “took you long enough to figure it out. Combined with the twenty-six tactical nuclear warheads aboard U.S.S. Titan. I now control all of the warheads in the U.S. 53rd Fleet.”

“And all of this. The party, the decommissioning ceremony. All a ploy to get us out here so  you could take them. You clever son of a bitch.”

Joseph simply nodded, looking pensively at Caleb’s scuffed and bloody boots.

“But….my family…why?” Caleb struggled against the tape and then sat back in the chair, his eyes wide with clarity. “I’m the scapegoat. It’s me you wanted isn’t it? Joseph please, let them go. Take me and let them go. They haven’t done anything wrong. Please.”