AL:ICE-9 (11 page)

Chris outlined their plans to even the playing field, explaining the joining of the patrol and on how they hijacked the arms shipment in a bloodless coup. The stuff Jake was supplying the patrol far exceeded what the group at the stadium wielded. Jake praised the effort and specifically the finesse with which it Chris had pulled it off. That subtlety had led Jake to conclude there was more to the story than a rogue patrolman.

After a lengthy conversation about the future, Jake touched on the option of relocating the entire group to a more secure location. He also implied that inclusion into an ALICE facility was not out of the question. Chris politely declined both options. His home was here, his family liked it here, and this was where they needed to be.

In the end, to make things right, Jake agreed to subsidize the group here with more than just weapons. Supplies of food, medical assistance and technology upgrades in exchange for an observation post and sanctuary for those caught up in the struggles of change here. Jake was positive stability in LA would not come cheap or easy, but this was actually a better start than Jake had hoped.

Jake had also accepted Chris’ offer of hospitality in letting B Troop land and allow him to use the compound as HQ for his rescue attempt. With Joe’s troop on the ground in the courtyard and Abby securely dug in, Jake asked ALICE to review what she had found with him. They covered what they had on record for the stadium construction as well as video from various angles. He asked her to do some speculative imagery on what the insides might look like as well.

When Lisa finally agreed to see Jake, he pulled the display screen they had been using off the door of his box on the hover cycle and had only one of Joe’s troopers follow him inside the building. Jake could see the confusion on Joe’s face regarding his selection, but made no comment on it.

Chris led the two through what looked to be the main gathering area inside the ground floor. The well-lit room had plenty of daylight with oil lamps in the darker corners. There were several women busy at various tasks, but all stopped to watch as the group passed. Evidently, they weren’t considered a threat, as the children continued to run free throughout the area.

As they passed one room in particular, Chris commented as he pointed, “That’s the guy we shot earlier today. He’s just a kid, can’t be more than seventeen. We just couldn’t leave him there to die.”

“What happens to him?” Jake asked.

“He can stay if he wants, or we’ll turn him loose when he’s better. Several of the people here started off just like him, trying to steal from us in some fashion.”

Jake looked in to see the boy bandaged in a bed, an armed guard sitting in a chair on the far side of the room.

“This is our room,” Chris stated as he opened a door leading into what had to have been a small office at some point in the past. There was a table with several chairs, and a couch against one wall. Oil lamps on the table and in wall sconces provided ample light for the windowless space. Sitting in a chair at the table was a small woman, who couldn’t have been 100 pounds soaking wet, and was plainly, very nervous.

After Chris, Jake and his selected trooper entered the room, one of Chris’ people stepped outside closing the door behind him.

Indicating everyone should sit, Chris opened with, “Lisa, this is the man that needs to talk to you. They’ve grabbed another woman and he needs your help.”

Jake could see Lisa’s eyes go wide at the statement, as she slowly began shaking her head no. Jake gave her a moment and then reached up to remove his helmet.

“Lisa,” he began, once his helmet was free of his head, “please listen to me for a moment. They have taken one of my family, just like what happened to you. I only need you to tell me where they took her so I can get her back. If I can’t find her fast, I’m afraid they will kill her before I can get to her.”

Jake watched as she looked at his face for a moment as if to speak and then clamped shut again. Giving her a few more seconds to think about his words, he began again.

“I know those men did horrible things, things you never want to even think about, but I am trying to stop that from happening to another woman just like her,” Jake finished pointing at the trooper he had selected to accompany him. With a hand gesture, he indicated for the trooper to remove her helmet.

Pausing for a moment and with Lisa watching her every move, the trooper slowly removed her helmet to reveal the face of a child. Sanchez was the smallest of all the troopers, at 4 foot 10 inches, the joke had been she couldn’t reach the running boards to fly. Her jet-black hair framed a pixie face that contradicted her 22 years of age.

Why they called her by her last name, even Jake didn’t know, but she was a ball of energy that didn’t stop. One of the fiercest members of the 10
th
cavalry, she tested the limits of the entire group with the tenacity and determination she possessed. She was what Jake loved about Special Forces, the sleeper. You would never suspect she was a threat until it was too late.

He knew, however, that is not what Lisa was seeing. She saw a child, potentially exposed to the horrors she had endured and survived. As he quietly watched, he saw her eyes close and then the words started to fall out.

“We were in the field, removing weeds when they grabbed us. I wasn’t even sure what had happened at first as they had pulled a sack over my head and then hit me hard with something. Once my head cleared I realized I was draped over a saddle, tied hand and foot.”

As she paused, no one dared to speak for fear of stopping the flow of words.

“I think about half way there, we stopped, and I was dropped to the ground and the sack removed from my head. It was then that I saw they had taken Maria as well. She was laying on the ground nearby, crying. I don’t think they had hit her, like me. Anyway they said they wanted to see if we were keepers or not, then agreed we were. With that, we were draped back across the horses but I was able to see the rest of the trip.”

After a sigh, she continued, “We got to that place, and they pulled us down off the horses. Someone grabbed the rope on my feet and started to drag me inside. I looked over to see several men pass me as they were carrying Maria inside. I think I would be the dead one now if they had taken me first,” she added with a sob.

Everyone waited while Lisa composed herself, then she said, “Soon enough others came out and I was lifted and carried inside as well. We went down several hallways and down some stairs. As we past one room,” Lisa stopped with a gasp, and then blurted, “Maria was hanging by her wrists, she’d been stripped and they were, were doing things to her while she hung there crying.”

Lisa dropped her head into her hands and continued to cry for a moment, and then Sanchez took her hands and held them. Once Lisa had composed herself, while still holding hands, she continued, “they dropped me on the floor in a room next door and I had to listen to Maria. They cut my clothes off, untied my feet, kicked, and hit me a few times, saying I would die if I tried to run. Someone came in after that and said they didn’t have time for me right now, I was to be dropped in the hole for later.”

“Two men came in and took me farther down the hall, lifted a grate on the floor and dropped me in a hole with water at the bottom. After a long while, I was able to untie my wrists and climb the ladder. They never latched the grate, I think they were all drunk, and I slipped out. I think it must have been very late because I came across men passed out drunk in several places. Once I slipped out of the building, I ran as fast as I could. I fell several times, but eventually, I dropped at the stream where Chris found me,” she finished still holding on to Sanchez.

Jake could see the woman suffered from survivor’s guilt besides the trauma of the experience itself. He would get with Chris later to see if they could do something that would help her overcome her experience. With the display laid out on the table in front of them Jake asked, “If I show you a floor plan, can you trace the route you took?”

Jake could see the confusion on the woman’s face, so he activated the display he had brought along, the stadium floor plan now visible to all. Jake continued to walk her through the sequence she described, being careful not to use any words that might trigger a withdrawal on Lisa’s part.

He pointed out each point along the way and even provided the earlier video from ALICE to display what she might have seen going in. For the interior, they viewed the ALICE provided artificial imagery based on the floor plan and Lisa’s descriptions. ALICE had been looped into the entire conversation via both helmet transceivers.

Finally, Jake was able to locate the sump wells in the basement as Lisa described. With the entire event diagramed, Jake had formulated a plan to get Sara back. All he needed now was a delivery from ALICE to complete the equation.

Chapter 11

Sara sat at the bottom of the hole, for the most part happy to be left on her own, but wondering what the hell, Jake was doing to get her out of there. She had climbed the ladder a few times, testing the grating above, however each trip yielded the same answer. Locked tight and securely fixed to the frame, it was going nowhere.

Early in her incarceration, she heard frequent movement from above, even some singing at one point. However, as the evening led into night, she hadn’t heard a peep in hours. Resigned to spending the night, she finally settled into a corner of the well, with the water chest high on her. After about 20 minutes, she fell into a fitful sleep.

----*----

Jake stood in the deep shadows, at the tree line just off the parking lot to the north of the stadium. While not a moonless night, it was the typical Southern California evening, mixed cloud cover with a partial moon on the sky. He had hoped for more clouds providing for the darkest night, as there were no longer city lights to contend with reflections off the clouds. Classic quotes notwithstanding, Jake had waited until 1am for the deepest part of the night. He wanted it as dark as possible before beginning his mission for cover and other reasons.

The delivery he had requested from ALICE hadn’t arrived until after sunset, the small helicopter providing more than enough space for his pick list. Any additional materials delivered were part of the first of Chris’ supplies, but only added in this run because some of Jake’s needs were in route from various locations and thus delayed the entire delivery.

Once the kit he required arrived, with two additional two-person combat sniper teams, he swapped out his gear. ALICE had provided Jake with a new combat suit, lovingly called a chameleon suit. Unlike the traditional combat BDU’s they all usually wore, which matched the color of camouflage pattern to the existing terrain, this suit matched whatever it was adjacent to. If you stood by a brick wall, the suit took on both the color and pattern. By placing yourself on the ground, you were rocks, dirt, and gravel.

For weapons, she delivered the latest in subsonic armament. All the munitions contained a heaver projectile with internal slow burn solid rocket motor, providing the same range as a traditional round, but not the supersonic snap. The silencers for both pistol and submachine gun, both 10mm, contained integrated barrels that incorporated both sound absorbing and sound canceling technology. The unit actually generated a sound wave of equal but opposite force to cancel that sound which was not absorbed. Jake test fired a round from his pistol into the ground, and all he heard was the round hitting the loose dirt. The intention of both these weapons was for close in work, perfect for Jake’s plans.

The rest of the equipment’s capabilities were standard for all combat suits, with the night vision and infrared abilities. Sound enhancement, tactical display, and communications were also standard. ALICE had also provided a separate small satchel filled with explosive charges.

ALICE outfitted both two-man teams identical to Jake with the exception of the additional sniper rifle, fitted in 7.62mm with the same technology for silent sniping and a 7.62mm assault rifle with fully automatic functionality for the spotter.

Should things go sideways, these acted as a one-man crew serve machinegun. Similar to the 5.56mm assault rifle they all usually carried, the longer barrel accommodated a 300 round stick magazine, and it had an integrated bi-pod. They reminded Jake of the M-60 he was familiar with without the belt or expended brass to deal with. There was also a third sniper rifle, intended for Abby’s sharp shooter on the overlook.

Just before midnight, Jake had all four members of B Troop reform their rides for the additional passengers and had them transport the two teams to their drop zones. They each had 20 minutes to get to their hides and settle in before Jake was ready to go himself. The drop zones were 120 degrees either side of Abby’s position, all surrounding the stadium. From there they had interlocking fields of fire forming a triangle around the target.

While changing, Jake had also hit himself with a local anesthetic, numbing his ribs to remove any possible distractions. He was sure the Doc’s would be mad as hell later, but he was taking no chances with this mission.

At 10 after midnight, Jake grabbed the third sniper rifle and jumped on his hover cycle, Abby’s observation post as his goal. Chris and a few others were there to see him off and wished him luck. Lisa made no comment, but Jake could see she wanted to see him successful.

He raised the hover cycle straight up into the night air, but only high enough to clear the walls and then, using his night vision, he made his way between the taller buildings. In short order he had landed his ride on her hill top hide, instructed Abby’s shooter on the role she played with Abby as spotter, and made his way to his current position, all in time for his 1am jump off.

After receiving confirmations from all positions and giving the go signal, Jake checked both his overhead and infrared for heat blooms indicating guards. For this mission, the riskiest part was at the very beginning. He needed to cover the open area from the wood line to the edge of the fencing without drawing attention to himself. As it was the remnants of an old asphalt parking area, there wasn’t a spot of cover.

The good part was, these guys were so poorly led and organized that the guards were far apart and few in number. They likely had never been challenged here on their home turf, so they didn’t put a lot of efforts in their guard duties. The bad part was they were so poorly trained and led there wasn’t any set schedule for the guard rotation or routine.

Jake figured his main goal was to keep the ones up high from seeing any movement below and the one's below wouldn’t survive an encounter if they got too close to him anyway. By the time anyone missed a change of guards, he would either be finished with his mission or in a major firefight. The satchel he carried along contained parting gifts for the occupants in either event.

Finished with the infrared sweep, he tagged the closet threats in the display everyone was sharing and asked for a go from his spotters. He at least wanted those guards closet to be looking in some other direction when he moved. His route had him clearing this major open area first, then he would move from cluster to cluster of growth, all plant life broken through the asphalt over the many years since anyone actually parked a car here.

With the all clear given, he did a silent sprint to the outgrowth at the far side of the open parking lot. He then hunkered down to wait and see if he’d been spotted. Normally done in a low and slow fashion, he was now relying on the newly acquired speed and agility the radiation bath provided. He completed that sprint in half the time he previously would have needed to cover the same distance.

Again, the all clear came from his spotters, so Jake began the process of moving from cover to cover until he was at the fence line near the opening in the stadium he targeted as his entry point. Pulling the wire cutters out of a pocket, he clipped just enough of the fence to get through, and then began checking the infrared for heat at his next waypoint. Sure enough, just inside the stadium opening, where he planned to enter the interior, there were two hot spots, indicating bodies.

Due to the position and heat concentration, either they were really short, fat guys, or they were sitting on something. Moving from infrared to night vision with magnification, he could see sure enough, they were both sitting on chairs on either side of the opening.

The one on the right had his feet up on a second folding chair, with his head back and was sound asleep. The other guy on the left was propped up in a corner where the two walls intersected, was leaning back, and smoking a cigarette. Unfortunately, he was also facing directly in Jake’s direction.

Going back to infrared, he verified there were no other bodies nearby, and then returning to night vision, he checked the distance at 78 feet. Close enough. He lifted the submachine gun and set it to semi auto. Then he lined up the first target for a headshot and gently squeezed off a single round.

Jake felt the slight recoil, but heard no sound but the impact with the targets forehead. He could see the blood splatter on the wall behind and saw his head come to rest, tilted back, as if he had fallen asleep. From there, Jake slipped through the fence and darted to the right of the opening, drawing his knife from his belt as he closed.

Turning the corner to the right and into the opening, he clamped one hand over the sleeping man’s mouth while driving the knife into his heart and held him there until he died. Sheathing his knife, he continued into the structure. With another right, he took one of the charges from the satchel and placed it high on the wall.

He then swung the submachine gun, on its strap, around from behind until he held it comfortably in front. While switching between thermal and night vision, he made his way down the corridor, placing charges in select locations along the path he had worked out from Lisa’s descriptions.

Lighting was sporadic inside, mostly consisting of the infrequent burning oil lamp. His night vision compensated accordingly. In several rooms along his route, he passed sleeping men. While tempted to shoot them where they lay, they weren’t as big a risk in comparison to possible discovery, so he just passed them by.

When he reached a room that looked to be the armory, Jake took careful note of all the military weaponry. Evidently, they had breached a military weapons store somewhere along the way and had raided the place. No wonder they had little fear of attack, anything short of a fully functioning army would be no threat. That is, anyone but Jake’s team. These were probably from a National Guard Armory. Good, current for the time of the NeHaw attack, but not ALICE grade weapons.

He placed two charges in here. Then, slipping back into the hallway, he moved farther down the hall and down more stairs, until he passed the room Lisa described seeing Maria abused in. The hook shaped rod coming down from the ceiling was a unique, telling feature. He placed a charge in here. Although it was a complete waste, he felt it was a good idea nonetheless.

Moving on, he knew he was getting close to the Sump Well location in the plans. Ahead he noticed the flickering shadows from an open flame on the wall, so he slowly approached a turn in the hallway. Peering around the corner, he spotted two men standing over one of the grates in the floor, with one of them holding a lamp. The other held a bottle similar to the one he saw stolen in front of Chris’s compound. The man with the lamp was talking to him.

“Cal, we should wait until morning. It’s really late and if she is one of them flying assholes from the farm raids last year, we should take our time.”

The one called Cal replied, “I ain’t tired. I know this bitch is one of them and I want to see her burn tonight. We lost a lot of good men last year and today. They deserve revenge. We haven’t had a good haul since then.”

“Maybe we should try to trade her then? You know, from the others at the compound.”

“No, this one we burn, the others will get theirs later,” Cal said.

Jake had heard enough to confirm this was the group that they were looking for. The group that had raided the farms of Sara, Sandy and the others, killed their families, and had forever altered their lives. He was sure that Sara was in the hole they were standing over and he had enough of the entire thing.

Moving out from the shadows, with the machinegun leveled at the two, he stepped forward as they both turned to look in his direction. Unmistakably drunk, it took them both a few second to realize Jake was real and as both started to move. He placed two clean shots into both of them, dropping them on either side of the grate. The oil lamp broke as it hit the ground, engulfing the man in flames. As he was dead before he hit the ground, it only added to the ambient light.

Slipping the submachine gun along his side and out of the way, he squatted down and unlatched the grating, quietly lifting it and flipping it on its back without a sound. Although unnecessary he grabbed a light from his belt and, pointing it down the hole, he lit it up.

He then quietly asked, “Are you ready to come home?”

He watched as Sara looked up, confused at first, and then she quickly scrambled up the ladder and grabbed Jake in a hug that made him glad he had taken the anesthetic earlier. She started to talk, but he silenced her. Once she let him go, he gave her the once over, turning her completely around, looking for the charge they had planted on her earlier.

Once he was sure she was free of it, he had ALICE reinstate her transmit and receive capabilities.

“OK, you are back online, no one can hear us. Are you alright?” Jake asked.

“Oh my god, it’s so good to hear you again, what happened, why did my radio go out?” Sara asked.

“The charge they had taped to your helmet had a wireless detonate function though I doubt they knew that. ALICE shut you down to prevent an accidental detonation until we could rescue you. Look, we can catch up later. Here.” Jake said as he handed her his pistol.

“It's silenced, but we are still in the vipers nest. Follow my lead.” With that, Jake turned to leave, but not before dropping a charge in the hole Sara had just vacated.

He knew she had questions, but she was disciplined enough not to ask. He could also tell she recognized both Cal and the burning man, dead at the opening of the grate. He was sure that had been way too good a way to die for the both of them.