Occupied Seattle (Occupied Seattle Book 2) Read online

  OCCUPIED SEATTLE

  Occupied Seattle Duology

  Book Two

  By

  Chris Kennedy

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY: Chris Kennedy

  Copyright 2013 Chris Kennedy.

  * * * * *

  Discover other titles by Chris Kennedy at:

  http://chriskennedypublishing.com/

  or

  https://www.facebook.com/chriskennedypublishing.biz

  * * * * *

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  * * * * *

  I would like to thank Linda, Jennie, Doug and Jimmy, who took the time to critically read the work and make it better. I would also like to thank my mother, without whose steadfast belief in me, I would not be where I am today. Thank you. This book is dedicated to my wife and children, who sacrificed their time with me so that I could write it.

  * * * * *

  Cover art by Genesis Graphic Design

  * * * * *

  Note: All times in Occupied Seattle are given in military time, using the 24-hour clock. To find a time that occurs after noon (12:00 p.m.), simply subtract 12 from the first two digits of the number. For example, 1400 becomes 2:00 p.m. Of note, most countries use this as their standard method for keeping time, with the notable exceptions of the United States and Canada.

  * * * * *

  Occupied Seattle

  * * * * *

  Table of Contents

  Seattle Area Map

  Chapter One: Morning, August 20, 2018

  Chapter Two: Afternoon, August 20, 2018

  Chapter Three: Evening, August 20, 2018

  Chapter Four: Morning, August 21, 2018

  Chapter Five: Afternoon/Evening, August 21, 2018

  Epilogue

  * * * * *

  Seattle Area

  Chapter One: Morning, August 20, 2018

  Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington State, 0630 PDT

  Ryan attached the note to his door and stepped back, wondering if he would ever see his house again. This wasn’t the first time he had left home; Ryan, formerly ‘Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan O’Leary,’ had gone away more times than he could count during his 24 years as an elite Navy SEAL. In fact, there had been a time in his life when he had been called away from home on a nearly continuous basis to take care of situations that his country needed fixing. That period of his life had ended several years previously when he was forcibly retired, a victim of navy budget cutting due to the sequestration process.

  Sighing, he straightened his six feet, two inch frame and turned to leave. “All right,” he said. “Let’s go.” Dark-haired, Ryan had a lean, well-muscled look acquired through years of strenuous physical activity as a SEAL and then through living in a cabin he built by hand in the mountains.

  “OK,” said his companion, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Shawn ‘Calvin’ Hobbs. “You’re the boss.” Calvin was a couple of inches shorter than Ryan and blond. He was also a lot softer around the edges from a lifestyle that included less physical training and more time at the bars.

  Calvin was still amazed at the twist of fate that had brought the two of them together. The day before, the Chinese had finally made the long-predicted attack to retake the island of Taiwan and reunify their country. Part of China’s plan had involved an invasion of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, and the capture of nearly four million American hostages living in the Seattle metropolitan area. The Chinese believed that taking the hostages would keep the United States out of the war in Taiwan, allowing them to bring it back into the fold. Their plan also involved the capture of American nuclear weapons from a base in the area and the threat of one of those weapons exploding ‘accidentally’ if the American military tried to recapture the area. With the threat of nuclear blackmail paralyzing the U.S. government into inaction, it appeared that the Chinese bid to take over Taiwan would succeed. The only question was whether the Chinese would leave Washington peacefully at some point, or if they intended to stay long term.

  Letting them make that decision was unacceptable to the two men.

  While the invasion of Washington was underway, word had reached the Naval Air Station at Fallon, Nevada, where Carrier Air Wing Two was training prior to going on cruise. Hearing that something strange was going on at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, the air wing commander had sent a flight of aircraft to try to determine the nature of the events. All of the aircraft had been shot down, with Calvin as the flight’s sole survivor. As luck would have it, he parachuted into the wilderness of the Snoqualmie National Forest, 35 miles to the east of Seattle, coming to land in the vicinity of Ryan’s cabin. Ryan had found him and taken him in for the night.

  While Calvin had been airborne, Ryan had been involved in an attack on the Chinese forces nearby that had resulted in the destruction of a Chinese anti-aircraft gun, as well as Ryan’s Jeep, so the men were both well aware of the fact that there were Chinese soldiers with hostile intent in the area. They did not, however, know what the long-term intentions of the Chinese were. By going into the city of Seattle, they hoped to get some additional information they could pass back up through Calvin’s chain of command.

  “Who is the note for?” asked Calvin.

  “Well, if things are as bad as we think they are in Seattle and Tacoma,” Ryan explained, “then the bases there have probably been overrun. There’s no way the Chinese could ever hope to hold the cities without securing the bases. And if that’s the case, I imagine that some of my Ranger and SOAR friends will come by the house. If nothing else, this is a good place to plan and organize for whatever we end up deciding to do.”

  Although he lived out in the wilderness, Ryan had a well-stocked arsenal in his basement. Along the lines of the military truism, ‘If it’s dumb but it works, then it isn’t dumb,’ Ryan had fortified his house along the lines of ‘If it’s paranoid but it’s needed, it’s not paranoid.’ As it turned out, he was not paranoid. All of the weapons he had in his basement might well be needed in the coming days.

  A member of the close-knit Special Forces community, Ryan had many friends in both the Rangers and the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). Although both units had higher headquarters based in the eastern United States, there were detachments of both organizations at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington. The 2nd Battalion of the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment was there, as well as the 4th Battalion of the 160th SOAR. While Ryan had a few friends that he had made in the Ranger community, including a Rifle Company’s first sergeant, he had a lot of friends in the 160th SOAR. The 160th was the helicopter squadron that provided support for not only the Army’s special operations forces, but also for the special operations troops of the other services when needed. The pilots of the unit had taken him into and out of enemy territory on more occasions than he could remember…or wanted to remember. He owed his life to many of them.

  As the two men walked away from the cabin into the woods, Ryan’s phone vibrated, interrupting the conversation. He took it out and answered it. “Hello?”

 
He listened for a while and said, “I don’t think so.” He hung up. Within a couple of seconds, the phone rang again. Ryan answered the phone, listened for a few seconds and then said, “I already told you ‘no,’ and that’s what I meant.” He hung up again.

  Again, within a few seconds, the phone rang a third time. Ryan answered it, said “I’ve given you my answer, now stop bothering me!” and hung up again. This time, he turned his phone off.

  “There!” he said with exasperation.

  “That sounds like a wife or ex-wife,” Calvin said. “Are you married?”

  “No,” answered Ryan, shaking his head. “I tried it a couple of times, but it didn’t stick. I have a thing about authority and being told what to do.”

  Calvin was confused. “You have a thing with authority? But you’re a SEAL. You took orders all the time, didn’t you? How could you be a SEAL and not take orders?”

  “You’ve got it wrong,” said Ryan, “I was a SEAL, and when I was a SEAL, I took orders all the time. It was part of the job and part of being in the military. Doesn’t mean that I liked it, though; it just was something that I had to do. As you may have noticed, I’m not in the military anymore, and I don’t have to take orders, despite what these idiots seem to think.” He indicated his phone.

  Calvin had a bad feeling, “What idiots are those?” he asked.

  “Those idiots would be the folks in Washington, D.C. I have a good friend that is serving as the Command Master Chief for the Chief of Naval Operations. He apparently told his boss that I was in the area, had some skills, and might be useful in helping them determine what is going on out here.” Ryan paused. “He’s going to owe me big time for volunteering me.”

  Calvin asked, “So, the Chief of Naval Operations, the most senior four-star officer in the navy just called you? What did he want?”

  “Nothing,” said Ryan. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t need tasking from an organization that screwed me over when it was convenient for them to do so.”

  Calvin looked confused. “He’s the most senior person in the navy, an organization that you gave a large part of your life to. Your country needs you. You aren’t going to do what he asked?”

  Suddenly angry, Ryan stopped and looked at him. “I have a problem with authority, OK?”

  Calvin stopped, too, and waited patiently. Saying nothing seemed like the prudent thing to do, rather than further antagonizing a man that could kill him in more ways than he could count. After a couple of seconds, Ryan sighed and said, “Apparently, the Chinese have taken possession of some of our nukes and are using them to hold Seattle hostage. If we attack anywhere in the Seattle area, one of the nukes might ‘accidentally’ go off, killing tens of thousands of Americans and irradiating thousands more.”

  He paused and then said, “As much as I hate the navy brass, I hate allowing the Chinese to hold my country hostage with nuclear weapons even more, so yes, I’m going to go try to do something about it. I’m just not doing it so much to help the navy as I am to fix things for my own purposes. Both missions are just kind of aligned at the moment.”

  Calvin shuddered. “Nukes, huh? That sucks. I’m going to be happy to be very far away from here, then.”

  Ryan laughed at his response. “Hah! It sucks worse for you than you know. I can’t do this alone; I’m going to need your help. Your trip to Fallon is going to have to wait. This supersedes anything else going on.”

  “Wha…what?” Calvin stuttered. “I’m no ground soldier. What the hell do you think I can do to help?”

  Ryan replied, “I don’t know yet. One thing I do know is that any mission I’ve ever been on has required a team; you can’t do everything by yourself. There are going to be times where I need support and right now, you’re it. As you so eloquently mentioned, your country needs you. Are you going to step up to the plate?”

  That stung. Calvin didn’t like the way his words had been used against him. Still, he was a military officer who had sworn an oath to protect his country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even though it was outside of his element and training, he knew that there was only one answer to this challenge. Ryan was confident in his own abilities and apparently believed that Calvin could do it. He squared his shoulders and said, “Yeah, I’m with you. I might not have your training, but I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  “Good,” Ryan replied. “We’ve wasted too much fucking time already. The nukes could be anywhere…we’ve got to go find them. If we can locate them and somehow take them out of play, then the rest of the military can come in and do their part. Our task is easy—we don’t have to beat the entire Chinese army, just take care of one little task and then step back and let the combined military might of this great nation do the rest.”

  Calvin wasn’t sure how two people securing an unknown number of nuclear weapons was supposed to be considered ‘easy,’ but didn’t see the need to argue the point at that particular moment. It must be part of the whole SEAL ‘can-do’ thing, he guessed. Before he could say anything else, a female’s voice in the near distance began calling Ryan’s name, violating the early morning stillness of the forest.

  “Umm…” began Calvin. “Is that your mother calling?”

  “Not unless she’s calling from beyond the grave,” Ryan said, “which would be awfully creepy. More likely, it’s just some woman looking for a person named Ryan.” He thought a moment. “Probably me,” he guessed, “as there aren’t too many other people out here.” He paused, judging the distance to the voice and the amount of additional time that would be lost. He sighed again. “Let’s go find out what she wants.”

  “OK,” said Calvin, in no big hurry to go look for nuclear weapons. “Lead on.”

  The woman was moving slowly through the forest, and they caught up with her in no time. She continued calling periodically and did not hear the men stalking her, nor see them coming up behind her. Seeing that the woman appeared to be alone, Ryan asked, “Can I help you?”

  The girl jumped in surprise as she heard Ryan’s voice. The former SEAL noted to himself that Calvin had some decent outdoor skills, as they had been able to move quietly enough through the forest to sneak up on the woman. Calvin might not be too big of a drag, after all, he thought. Seeing the woman’s face, he said, “Wait, you look familiar. I know you from…”

  “I met you last spring while my friend and I were hiking near here,” the woman confirmed. “My name is Sara Sommers.”

  Ryan thought for a second. “I remember. I spoke to you up at the ‘Infinite Bliss’ outcropping. She was a little shorter than you and blond, right?” Ryan’s SEAL training had enhanced his recognition skills, as well as his ability to remember and report things later.

  “That’s right,” Sara agreed. “Her name is Erika.” She realized that Ryan wasn’t alone as another man stepped around from behind him. While a little older than she, the second man was much closer to her age of 20 than Ryan’s 45, and was tall, blond and very good looking. He was wearing a green flight suit, which seemed out of place as there weren’t any airports in the vicinity. She was surprised to also see that both of the men appeared to be heavily armed, with rifles slung over their shoulders, pistols in holsters and bulging packs on their backs.

  Looking back at Ryan, Sara continued, “I was looking for you because I need your help.”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s not going to be possible at this time,” Ryan replied, looking at Calvin. “We already have some pretty high-level tasking that we are working on.”

  That was not what Sara had hoped to hear, and she looked to Calvin, hoping to enlist his support in the discussion. Their eyes met, and they both experienced a psychic shock as they connected at some level neither of them had experienced before. Calvin didn’t know what sort of help she needed, but he knew that if it was within his ability to give it to her, he would.

  Ryan saw the looks passing between them and knew that he was close to losing Calvin. “Why don’t you tell us about it as we walk
out?” he asked. “By the way, this is Calvin. Calvin, this is Sara.”

  “Calvin?” inquired Sara. “That isn’t a name that you hear very often. Is it a family name?”

  “No,” Calvin replied, “it’s a name my friends gave me. My real name is Shawn Hobbs; my call sign is Calvin.”

  “I see,” said Sara, not sounding like she did. “Did you come up to see Ryan, too?”

  “No,” Calvin answered, “he found me after I got shot down by the Chinese.”

  “They’re Chinese?” Sara asked. “I didn’t know what they were. They just parachuted into the University of Washington, shot some people, and took a bunch of students hostage.” She looked at Ryan. “My friend Erika was one of those that were taken. I came up here today to try to get your help in setting her free.”

  Ryan smiled. “I’m honored that you think that highly of me, having met me only once, but we’re on a mission from the president.”

  “The PRESIDENT?” asked Calvin, shocked. “That was who you hung up on? The president? Of the United States?”

  “Yeah, well, what can I say?” replied Ryan. “I’ve got a problem with authority.” He paused, looking annoyed. “I’m going to do what he wanted. He’s just got to learn that he’s not my Commander in Chief anymore, and he can’t boss me around. Besides, I didn’t vote for him, and he was being a pain in the ass with his whole, ‘Do this, do that’ spiel. I was done talking with him.”