Options Are Good by Jerry D. Young

doubt.
     
    “What did Colin have to say when you bailed him out?” Bandy asked Angus.
     
    “He didn’t even seem angry to have spent the night in the county lockup. He slapped me on the back, laughed, and one of his guys drove up and picked him up. I don’t know where the other guy went.”
     
    “Okay. That is good,” Bandy said with a sigh of relief. “As soon as you can, let him know you have nearly completed the shelter. And show him what we have discussed, but not the additional features that were added.”
     
    “I hate doing this!” Angus said his anger and disgust evident in his voice. “My family is in jeopardy, and I have to play buddy-buddy with this sleaze bag.”
     
    “I know, Angus. But if we get lucky we could get him out of your hair sooner, rather than later.”
     
    “I hope so. This little episode sure didn’t do it, and I thought it was in the bag.”
     
    “You’ve just increased the trust. That will make things easier. When the time comes.”
     
    “I just hope the time comes soon. So does Bob. This China thing has us both on edge. We might be getting ready just in time for something big to happen. I don’t want that weasel Colin anywhere near my family if we were to have to deal with something from the Chinese.”
     
    “I feel the same way,” Bandy said his words heartfelt.
     
    Angus could tell he meant it and relaxed slightly. Bandy had proven himself right on with everything he’d set up in the plan. So far. Angus just hoped the rest of the plan would work. Because Bandy had not said exactly how Colin would be taken out of the picture. Just that he would sometime before a crisis, or just afterwards.
     
    It was another several weeks before anything else happened. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran were all accused of cyber warfare by many of the western aligned countries. They were even accusing each other. It seemed everyone was beginning to have trouble with the internet, as well as satellite and other communications systems.
     
    To top it off, the electrical grids all over the world were having problems. The only thing that seemed to be working well was the new Super Computer Network. The developers were asked to see if the powerful system could analyze the problems and come up with a solution. It had already solved a couple of tricky mathematical and scientific dilemmas and seeming conundrums. And the human genome was almost fully documented. Even aircraft scheduling and routing had been improved by the Super Computers’ amazing powers.
     
    Bandy got his first introduction to the Super Computer Network while reading one of the Science and Technology magazines he read from time to time. “It certainly sounds good,” he found himself muttering. But there was just a little tingle of doubt in his mind. It would be some time before he realized just how prophetic that tingle would turn out to be.
     
    But for the moment, with things slowing in the economy, mostly due to China’s efforts to manipulate the US stock and bond markets, Bandy asked for and received, again reluctantly, time off to go to Oklahoma. He would be taking the entire weekend before Memorial Day holiday, all the way through the following weekend.
     
    There were a few last little details of the plan that he wanted to pass on to the two families, and incorporate into the two shelter systems and their backups. And Ana-Bella was going to be home that week, too. The oil drilling business was very slow, just like the rest of the economy, though more so through the efforts of radical environmentalists getting court ordered shut downs of several drilling operations than the economy.
     
    Ana-Bella came down the Wednesday before the Holiday weekend and stayed in Bandy’s spare bedroom. Bandy familiarized her with his place, including all the disaster preps he’d made. And then, on Friday after Bandy got off from working yet another fill in shift, she helped him lock down and secure the place.
     
    It was