RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (71 page)

He looked at the ground expecting the worst and hoping for mercy.  Cyrus was impressed with his fortitude and his lack of stupid excuses and groveling that most men did in these situations.  He appreciated that this man had the stones to admit he failed and that he didn’t blame any of his men as prior
Captains had done.  He paced back and forth two more passes and then stopped in front of 751 again.
         “Granted,” he said, “you will have that opportunity to get him but on one condition and one condition only.  All seven of these men standing here with you must pledge that they too will die if you don’t get him next time.”  Cyrus looked down the line of men.
         “Those willing to die with their Captain will step forward and if even one man does not agree to this then your Captain will die now today, right here, right now, before your eyes.  Well! what’s it gonna be?” 

Four of the men stepped forward almost immediately then the fifth and sixth just a second behind also stepped forward.          “Well, okay then, looks like
Captain 751 and his men are a unit that has solidarity if nothing else.  You’re all dismissed, be ready for action at a moment’s notice!” 

They all turned in unison and walked away in utter relief.  Cyrus paced a few more times and then walked off toward his office.  He had enough killing lately, and besides he couldn’t kill all of them or he would have to do all the work himself.  He needed to think, he needed to brew some new strategy.  He had to figure out his next move and this time it had to be perfect.  First Dodge had slipped through his fingers and now he was dead and he was of no use dead.  Now the boy had slipped through his fingers as well, but at least he was still alive, or so it seemed.  He had planned to use Bobby as leverage with the Mother.  Any decent Mother would gladly give up any and all secrets she might hold to save her only Son from certain torture and death.  But now he didn’t have Bobby either.  He must have fled to some distant relative’s home for refuge.  As he walked to his office, he decided that this must surely be the case.  He would assign Glitch the task of finding all of Bobby’s friends and relatives.  Surely this way they could find the boy and reinstate their plan.  He went to his office to detonate the cranial charges of the six missing men.  He couldn’t risk any of them talking if they had been taken alive.

As Cyrus disappeared into the darkness of the long corridor toward his office, Toby and Todd stepped out of the shadows.  They had witnessed the entire ordeal with Cyrus and his men.  They were surprised at the zero body count.  It wasn’t like Slade to leave everyone standing.  They heard the whole thing and were relieved to know that Bobby and Matt had escaped Cyrus’s clutches.  They expected to hear word from the outside very soon.  Surely this attempt on Bobby and Matt would result in Dodge and John accelerating the agenda.  Operation Black Ice was surely coming sooner now and no doubt with a vengeance.

At the Calhoun residence, John was packing a bag in preparation for going to the farm.  He had received word from the team of the need to accelerate Black Ice.  The time had finally come.  John was heading out to the farm where he could be
totally committed to the management of the attack along with the rest of the team.  They were planning to move on the compound in the next twenty-four hours, and there was a great deal of work to be done.  He had already shipped his primary computer equipment out to the farm.  He had to be stealthy about it because it was a large number of items that required a large container. 

He contacted his cousin at the pawn shop again as usual by making one of his special deposits but this time the box only contained instructions.  It was a very simple plan; get some new appliances including a rather large deep freezer.  All of his equipment was packed into the old appliances.  His cousin arranged a truck and had decals applied just like one of the local high end appliance store trucks.  John made a list of the exact models he wanted and provided it to them with the instructions. 

They rolled in and swapped out the new for the old and carried out all of John’s key equipment needed for the job hidden inside the old appliances right under the watchful eye of Slade’s men and they never suspected a thing.  The team members posing as delivery men returned to their own warehouse where they removed all the decals from the truck.  They changed their clothes and the license plates, then drove the now unmarked truck out to the farm. 

John was now headed there himself under the disguise of a business trip to Vegas.  The watchers assigned to him had been doubled now that Dodge was thought to be dead, no doubt Cyrus was targeting both John and Tim Stance as the next best information sources to abduct.  Now that they were watching him like a hawk he had to be extra stealthy.

He contacted an old trusted friend out in Vegas that owed him a big favor.  He made him promise that he would do exactly as he asked and to not ask any questions.  He assured his friend that he would explain everything in about a week.  His friend suspected there might be some trouble and agreed without any questions. 

At the airport, another man with a very similar build and look to that of John’s, boarded the airplane on first call.  He was wearing cheap sunglasses, a cowboy hat, a black western shirt, cowboy boots, and blue jeans.  He had a
carryon bag with him that contained the usual things you need when you travel but it also contained a Nike golf hat, designer sunglasses, a business suite, dress shoes, a solid red tie, and blue dress shirt.  John boarded that same plane moments later under the watchful eye of a man reading a newspaper in the boarding area; one of Cyrus’s quiet but ever present watchers.  The man had a tiny camera inside of his eyeglasses; he took a picture of John as he walked past which he promptly forwarded to a watcher in Nevada.  John was wearing designer sunglasses, a business suite, dress shoes, a blue dress shirt, and a solid red tie.  He had been alerted to the watcher’s location by team members and was careful to turn his head away as he passed by the man to prevent him from getting a good picture of his face.

He also had a
carryon bag containing the usual things he would need plus a cowboy hat, boots, blue jeans, a black western shirt, and some cheap sunglasses, in fact the items were an exact match to those worn by the man already on board.  During the flight the two men both excused themselves for a few minutes to the restroom on board the plane taking their carryon bags.  They both changed clothes while in the restrooms and then swapped seats when they returned.  A clever switch had been made. 

Several hours later at the airport in Nevada a watcher was waiting.  He observed what appeared to be John Calhoun getting off the plane and meeting a driver that was holding a sign up that said Calhoun on it; the driver was sent by John’s friend of course.  He didn’t snap a picture, there was no need,
it was very obvious that this was the same man from the photo his counterpart sent to him earlier.  The suit and Nike hat were unmistakable; his work done, he got up and left the terminal to follow the man he believed to be John Calhoun.   Fifteen minutes later a stewardess woke up the last remaining passenger on the plane.     

“Sir,” she said, as she gently shook the man in the cowboy hat.

“We’ve landed Sir, it’s time to disembark.”
         “Sorry Ma’am,” he said, as he got up slowly, “I guess I dozed off.”

He tipped his hat in southern style to the nice lady as he stepped past her toward the exit. 

John Calhoun exited the plane dressed as a cowboy.  He burned the next two hours at one of the airport pubs where he was handily hit on by two stewardesses that like cowboys and one female pilot that claimed she loved horses.  He had no idea that the cowboy look drew so much female attention.  One big juicy burger and three beers later he boarded his return flight to Indianapolis under the fake identity of Bill Schneider.  He settled into his seat and went right sleep with his hat down over his eyes.  One nice long nap later the plane landed back in good ole Indiana. 

He left the airport in an old pickup truck that his cousin dropped off earlier that day in the pay to park lot.  Meanwhile back in Nevada John’s friend was showing a complete stranger a real good time while pretending he was his good friend John Calhoun.  He took him out on the town to several bars and two Casinos just as John had requested.  He couldn’t wait to hear the explanation for this one in a week or so.

One hour later John arrived at the farm; it was nearly midnight but everyone was still up working on the details of exactly how they would attack the compound.  John walked in with his cowboy disguise on and everyone started laughing at him and calling him various names ranging from Tex to Partner, and finally, Cowboy Bob which Alan had to explain to everyone else who had never heard of Cowboy Bob because it was a hundred year old reference.  John laughed along with them but couldn’t wait to get the boots off, he said they were a little small and beginning to really hurt his feet. 

After John changed they all gathered around two large tables that JC and DC had set up in part of the extra garage area.  This was fast becoming their make shift command center because it was a large area where everyone could gather and it had plenty of electrical outlets for John’s computer equipment.  He had to move a few items around to his liking, but for the most part, they had it hooked up right. 

Within the next twelve hours Linsey and Sarah would also be arriving at the Farm and would be staying there during the attack on the compound.  They would be leaving the house separately to go shopping and that was when the team would be extracting them from their situation.  Once out of the house the Black Ops team would be assisting both Linsey and Sarah in losing their watchers in unsuspecting ways so that they could be whisked out to the farm without being followed. 

Even though the watchers would be reporting that they had lost track of the two women, it would quickly become irrelevant.  Operation Black Ice would be well under way before anyone figured out why they were missing or how they had given Cyrus’s
men the slip.  They continued working until about 1:00 a.m. when they decided it was time to get some sleep, after all, tomorrow was shaping up to be a very big day that would require everyone being well rested and sharp witted.

At the compound Toby and Todd were plotting out precisely how they would round people up once the attack began.  They would be given as ten minute warning, but they felt that was only sufficient for them to get the people that were already in on the plan into the oven safely.  As for the rest of the people, they would have to catch them at the right time in order to make them realize that they really needed to get in that oven if they wanted to live.  The people that still
didn’t know what was coming really had only two options, stand with Cyrus and die alongside him during the fire fight, or die later when Cyrus transmitted his death signal, even if they managed to escape it during the onslaught, the head bombs would get them in the end. 

The logic was
simple, Cyrus would not allow a deserter to live.  He also wouldn’t let any0ne go on living if he managed to escape after the battle.  He simply couldn’t allow any lose ends.  Anyone of these underlings could develop a very active conscience later and decide to testify against him.  There was no way Cyrus would allow that to happen.  If they alerted people in the compound too soon one of them might sound the alarm and ruin their crucial element of surprise.  If they waited too long, there wouldn’t be enough time to get people into the oven and many innocent people that hated Cyrus would perish for no good reason. 

This was a very delicate situation that would require very precise handling.  Cheyenne had been informed by Todd that this was all about to happen but she was stuck on the outside at the house.  She wanted to come to the compound but was not allowed to show up unannounced.  They were trying to think of a reason to get her to the compound but hadn’t come up with anything,
then Toby had an idea that might work. 

The Caddy had a wheel out of balance and the rear view mirror had still not been fixed.  Todd went down to the maintenance area where some of the vans and watcher cars got serviced.  He spoke with the head mechanic and requested that the Caddy get looked at.  The mechanic knew about the camera being broken but didn
’t let on to Todd that it was about to be called in for repair.  Nobody really cared about the mirror, instead it was the non functioning camera and audio that Glitch wanted fixed.  The mechanic put it in the lineup and sure enough Cheyenne got a message on her skyphone to bring the Caddy in the next day at 7:00 a.m. for standard service and to repair the mirror. 

Cheyenne was really excited about being in the compound with the rest of them when it all went down.  Not only would she be there but she intended to help in any way she could.  She felt it was the least she could do to repay Toby and the entire team for taking a chance on her.  She hoped to meet Dodge and John when this was all over with so that she could personally thank them for saving her life. 

It was very late now and every team member was down for the night.  Some had fallen asleep quickly due to sheer exhaustion from the busy day they had put in preparing for the assault on the compound.  Still others lay awake staring at the ceiling or their clock hoping to fall asleep soon but still too worked up to sleep. 

Dodge and Linsey were reunited at the farm earlier that evening.  They held each other for a long time and cried, and then they laughed, they were so glad to be together in a safe place.  Linsey was emotionally exhausted and needed to be with her husband, she had been so strong now for so long but when he put his arms around her she broke down.  She was so afraid for Bobby and Matt after witnessing their heroine escape from Cyrus’s men at the house.  Having to kill a
man  just about destroyed her emotionally, but her Motherly instinct and her training kicked in when she needed them the most.