Novels2Search
Rising of the Red Tide
Chapter 18 (Part 3)

Chapter 18 (Part 3)

John was again switching rapidly through the video stream of various Code Blue soldiers. He and his staff were quite excited at what they were seeing. After the numerous explosions that had happened on Valcour island, his soldiers had begun the work of clearing away the rest of the Red Tide terrorists who were residing there.

It seemed like after each kill they saw on the screen his staff yelled in excitement. John could feel his stress level going down. Finally they were winning! John then realized that he had neglected to tell congress what was happening. Mostly he was worried about representative Turner, who probably would like to see John's head on a golden platter right about now. So John stepped away from the action to give representative Turner a video call from his watch.

"Hello rep. Turner, it is John." John said, starting the conversation.

"Hello John, I am sorry about my appearance, it has been a really rough day. Please do update me on the situation though." Rep. Turner explained. He had a disheveled look about him, his tie was thrown over his shoulder and it looked like he had been trying to pull out his hair all day.

"I completely understand how you feel Matt, but I finally am calling to give you a bit of good news. We have found a large group of the terrorists holed up on Valcour island in Plattsburgh. The Code Blue soldiers are in the process of clearing the island now. It appears we will be victorious! And we believe the leader of the terrorists is on the island as well. With a bit of good luck this thing should be over soon." John exclaimed.

"John that is truly the best news I have heard in quite a while. Please keep me updated as things move forward. I think that tomorrow is going to be another bad day with the press after all of this activity in Plattsburgh." Matt Turner replied.

"Will do Matt. I will update you soon. And get some rest man, you look terrible." John said before shutting off the communicator.

John knew that him saying Matt looked terrible was very much akin to the pot calling the kettle black. John hadn't been keeping up his own appearance these last couple of days. Nor had John gotten much rest, he could see the bags under his eyes from his reflection in his watch screen. Thankfully this would all be over soon and John could just be with his family.

John went back to looking at the large screen in the room excitedly. The Code Blue team had cleared most of the island at this point. They were trying to hunt down the ones that were trying to swim away from the island. This was much better than all of the previous battles. There wouldn't be any escaped terrorists this time.

"Have they found the leader yet?" John asked general Howard.

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"Hold on one moment sir, I will check." General Howard responded.

John could hear general Howard speaking into his radio. But he wasn't listening to what the general was saying. He was just watching the screen mindlessly at this point. So many things had been running through his mind these past couple of days, it was time for it to take a break.

John felt a poke in his back.

"Uh sir. Do you hear me?" General Howard asked.

"Oh sorry general, I guess I was zoning out a bit." John replied.

"No problem sir, but we have not found the Red Tide leader yet. I ordered the Code Blue soldiers to start searching the dead to see." General Howard explained.

"Thank you general. Now my next question is do we have an idea of how many of our Code Blue soldiers died in this attack?" John wondered.

"No sir, no concrete numbers yet. But the Red Tide terrorist losses are definitely higher. Qi Lian's plan worked quite well." General Howard replied.

"OK final two questions now. First how much longer until our large force arrives in Plattsburgh, and second have we had any contact with Qi Lian? I haven't seen her save for that one impressive incident where she saved a soldier of ours." John asked.

"Our remaining forces are about a half an hour away from Plattsburgh at the moment. And we have not had any contact with Qi Lian yet sir. But I can try to contact her if you like." General Howard explained.

"This is great news. I hope we are able to find all of the remaining stragglers entering Plattsburgh so we can truly end the Red Tide. And no need to ping Qi Lian, I am sure she will call us when she is ready." John said.

The two men went back to watching the screen. They watched as the technician toggled through the cameras of the Code Blue soldiers, until they landed on one driving in a car.

"Wait, stay with this camera." John instructed to the technician.

"What is this soldier doing?" John asked.

"I have no idea sir." General Howard replied.

"Open up his mic." General Howard ordered.

"Soldier what are you doing, why are you not in the battle?" John asked of the soldier.

"Hello Mr. President. I am currently chasing down a group of terrorists who left the scene of the battle in a car, just before the battle began sir." Jeffrey responded.

"So some of them left the scene? Does this vehicle contain the leader?" John queried Jeffrey.

"Yes some left the scene but that is a negative on the leader sir. These are just regular Red Tide soldiers from what I can tell sir." Jeffrey answered.

"OK general, it is time to give Qi Lian a call." John said.

General Howard shook his head in the affirmative and switched the communicator to Qi Lian.

"Hello general, I am a bit busy at the moment, but let me just say that you should..." Qi Lian started. There was a very loud sound that was drowning out Qi Lian's voice making it difficult to hear her.

"Qi Lian, we are having a hard time hearing you." John told Qi Lian.

"You need to send your troops to Fort Tilden NOW!" Qi Lian screamed into the communicator. This time they were able to hear what she said.

Qi Lian then turned her communicator off leaving silence.

"What in the world do we need to send troops to Fort Tilden for?" John asked.

"I don't know sir, but do you want me to reroute them?" General Howard asked.

"Yes general, but split off about 200 or so to stay on course for Plattsburgh. TSA will need their help to capture or kill the Red Tide soldiers who are still filtering in." John ordered.

"Consider it done sir." General Howard replied.

John was now wondering why Qi Lian would need soldiers at Fort Tilden.