Page 1 of Chinook Winds

Chapter One

Five days. Five long days they’d waited. Anticipated the next level of attack from Legion to be the deadliest of all. Yet through every endless hour of each day, silence had met their fears.

His people needed direction. And he was sick to death of hiding.

Victor Douglas descended the stairs of the bunker where the war room was set up. The men and women of Strike Force had been working around the clock to locate the missing nuclear weapons. So far, they’d come up empty-handed, and he couldn’t help but believe the clock was ticking on the world’s future. He had no doubt Legion would use those weapons if their backs were up against a wall.

Five days earlier, Victor and Kinsley Allison, his secret service agent, had been rescued by Strike Force members, Brookes Zachary and Abby Temple, from the abandoned apartment building where they’d been taken hostage by Legion’s men. After a harrowing cross-country trip, they landed at Strike Force’s Pincher Creek headquarters in the southwest region of Alberta, Canada, where Tegan Fletcher’s uncle owned a hundred-acre spread.

It was a blessing in disguise to discover Tegan’s uncle was a bit of a conspiracy theorist. Turns out, he’d been expecting a nuclear winter since the Cold War.

“Is there news?” Victor addressed the question to the team’s computer intelligence lead, James Cooper.

The widescreen monitor above the console reflected drone video coverage of the warehouse that had once stored nuclear weapons. The drone was set up to detect any nuclear material, but only traces were being picked up. Legion’s troops guarding the warehouse were gone. The weapons had vanished, and Victor’s team had no idea when or where they’d gone.

James clicked a key on his computer. Another image appeared. “The ones that were stored on David Kincaid’s ranch have disappeared as well.” James looked Victor in the eye. “I don’t know what they’ve done with them, but they’re all gone.”

Victor’s gut knotted at hearing the worst possible news confirmed. All the should-haves ran through his mind. He should have made sure he had people stationed at the warehouse and at Kincaid’s ranch near Amarillo, Texas. But he and the rest of Strike Force had been fighting for their lives, and in his defense, he’d never suspected the man whom he considered a close friend and his natural choice for his vice-president was actually working for the deadly terrorist organization known as Legion.

David Kincaid, along with a man by the name of Martin Collins—the true leader of Legion—had convinced the American people that Victor was working against the country and was responsible for detonating dozens of bombs around the country and the world.

Victor recalled the shock both he and Kinsley had felt when a half-dozen secret service agents had stormed into the room and forced them both out of the White House at gunpoint. Secret Service agents and members of Legion had driven them to an abandoned apartment building in the Washington Highlands residential neighborhood of Southeast Washington, D.C. where Victor had come face-to-face with the notorious Martin Collins.

Collins had raged at him. Demanded to know where the other members of Strike Force were hiding. When Victor refused to give the location away, he’d been beaten. According to Collins, he’d talk soon enough.

Victor was convinced if they hadn’t been rescued, he and Kinsley were hours away from being murdered and left for dead in that decaying building. They both owed their lives to Brookes and Abby.

“With everything going on—all the chaos the country’s been experiencing, and with our focus on Washington—it was probably easy for Legion’s people to fly the weapons out of Texas,” James surmised.

Victor struggled to contain the anger growing inside him at what these dangerous men were trying to accomplish. Frustration followed at its heels. He was the elected president of the United States, and yet Legion had lied and maneuvered their way into getting their person—David Kincaid—sworn in as president. Other countries were suffering from the same fate.

Since the attacks, Strike Force had been in defense mode. It was time to change all that. Time to fight back.

James brought up the latest newsfeed on the screen. “So far, there’s no mention of nuclear weapons being used. My guess is Collins ordered the weapons flown out of the US. Ahmad Hassanzai is probably involved. They’re getting nervous. More and more Americans are realizing they’ve been lied to.” James turned again to Victor. “This is a dangerous time. Legion is getting desperate. And desperate people do—”

“Desperate things,” Victor finished for him and shook his head. They couldn’t sit around and wait for Legion’s next attack.

“I’ve got something here,” Garrett Craig, one of James’s computer intelligence members, motioned everyone over.

“What is it?” Victor hurried over to where Garrett stared at his computer screen. The rest of the team gathered round. In some way or another, each member of Strike Force had been hurt by Legion long before they were forced into hiding. Sidney Bennett had almost died a little more than two years ago when her entire Special Ops team had been set up. As the only survivor, suspicion quickly fell on her, all instigated by Legion.

Sidney had been forced into hiding. She and her husband, Kaid, almost died in an attack at Anana Harbor, Alaska. It was there that Sidney and Kaid, along with James, had joined up with Strike Force because they saw the damage Legion was capable of doing and knew they had to be stopped.

“It’s on the message board James and I created to go along with the videos we’ve been streaming to inform the public what Legion is really up to.” Garrett opened one of the messages. “This one is from someone with the initials H.D. No name.”

Victor stared at the message as Garrett read it aloud.

“This is for President Douglas. I have information that will help you in your cause, but I want immunity, and I will only speak to you in person.”

Immunity. The word played through Victor’s mind. That seemed to indicate this person, whoever they were, had valuable knowledge concerning Legion’s plans.

“Find out what you can about this person.”

Garrett immediately began trying to untangle an identity.

“There’s a real chance this is another of Legion’s ploys.” Cole Hernandez, the former CIA Director and a close friend of Victor’s, voiced everyone’s concerns aloud.

“I’d say that’s a distinct possibility,” Victor said. “We escaped and they have no idea where we are other than Canada. That’s dangerous for Legion. Especially with the growing support for Strike Force because of the videos.” He watched Garrett struggle through the encryption H.D. had put in place to keep anyone from discovering his identity.

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