Righteous02 - Mighty and Strong (27 page)

And then the sound came into focus. It wasn’t the wind, and there was a double thump that had confused him at first.

“What is that?” Fernie asked. “A helicopter?”

“
Two
helicopters,” Miriam said.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“Shhh, listen.”

One in front, the other behind. And then the thumping sound lifted up and away, retreated to the south.

“FBI,” Miriam said. “They’re raiding Zarahemla.”

“Are you sure?” Jacob asked.

“Hostage rescue team. The helicopters dropped them into the compound. They’ll have agents around the perimeter. Nobody will get in or out.”

It should have been a good thing. Krantz and Fayer must be behind this and all they had to do was hole up and wait to be rescued.

Sure, if they’d stayed in their rooms, instead of running around in the dark where there were armed agents with fingers on triggers. They’d already cut halfway through Zarahemla, and from the sound of that helicopter to their rear, there would be FBI Agents between here and there. Agents expecting a violent response to their penetration into the compound. Stumbling into them in the dark would be extremely dangerous.

“We’ve got to stay still,” Jacob said. “Let them find us.”

“Yes,” Miriam said, “And when they find us, don’t everyone start shouting at once. Stay still and let me do the talking.”

The silence lasted maybe five seconds longer and a shout came from the direction they’d come. A woman screamed.

And then a man rushed through the arcade. He nearly collided with the group. He started flailing, crying out. Jacob let go of Daniel with one hand and grabbed the man’s shoulder and spun him around. “Shut up. You’re okay, calm down.”

“It’s the army. Wake everyone! They’re going to kill us all! Get the guns, we’ve got to protect the women and children. Spread the word.”

“Don’t be an idiot, we can’t fight them. I don’t know what they want, but—”

Jacob tried to hold the man, but he only had one free hand. The man pulled free with a violent jerk. “The army! Defend yourselves!” He ran off into the night, still shouting.

“Oh, no,” Jacob said.

Nephi picked that moment to wake up. First, movement in Fernie’s arms, then an aborted fuss, more movements. The baby let out a loud wail.

And then came a gunshot.

#

The operation went perfectly at first.

Krantz let his legs buckle under him as he hit, then emerged in a crouch. He unclipped himself, moved to his AOR, and dropped to a knee with the M-5 at his shoulder.

Night vision lit the courtyard in pale green. Still hard to see into the deeper shadows beneath the archways, but he saw no movement, except above and to his rear. This came from the other members of his team, dropping in hard and fast. A moment later and they were around him, fanning through the courtyard to take defensive positions.

The helicopter pulled away. Its thump receded. The choppers would circle the compound at a distance, ready to make a landing in one of the courtyards to make a rescue.

Krantz lift his hand and gestured for the others.

They formed behind him in snake position. One high, one low, then high again. Alternating at 10:00 and 2:00 with their guns. It gave maximum coverage while presenting a minimum profile for enemies. At the rear, the last guy faced backwards and swung from right to left, turret-style.

He had studied the map again and again until it was seared into memory. Start at the outside, sweep through the rooms, looking for Fayer. Meanwhile, Chambers would take the prophet prisoner, following their modified plan. The perimeter team would secure the compound from anyone trying to escape.

They reached the first rooms in the empty, half-built addition. No people, just shovels, stacks of adobe bricks, bags of mortar, and other construction debris. One room after another proved empty. They team moved silently.

Thirty seconds passed, then a minute. No sound but the wind.

With every silent second, the chance of success grew. A moment for the assault team to divide the compound, to secure passageways, the weapons cache, isolate the church leaders.

Chambers’s voice came through his ear bud. “We’re in. Main courtyard. Empty.” He sounded calm. Then silence again.

The knot of anticipation rose. They reached the first occupied room, entered silently, swept flashlights across the bed and the open closet. Two young boys, sleeping. They didn’t wake. Krantz retreated and passed to the next room.

And then a single shot. Not here, further into the compound. It wasn’t one of the team’s guns, but like a whip-crack, probably a deer rifle.

Immediately, the others stopped, fanned into cones of control again, with guns bristling in all directions. Raised vegetable gardens filled this courtyard between the arcades and the team took position behind stacked railroad ties.

A burst of gunfire came from the same direction. It was high, staccato, the unmistakable sound of an MP-5 submachine gun. One of the weapons carried by the assault team. The roar of a shotgun; that could have been either side.

Krantz got on the radio. “Chambers, dammit, what the hell is going on?”

His voice came through, confused among the shouts and breaking off. “Can’t see—get down! That one! Watch him!” Then more garbled shouts, a woman screaming.

Krantz felt a sick twisting in his gut.

He had a vision of his agents, surrounded by frightened, angry cult members, shooting. An agent down. The other agents angry, screaming for the cult members to stand down. More shooting. Cult members in their armory, handing weapons to anyone old enough to carry one. The assault team was trained, armed, and not given to panic. But they didn’t know the compound and they’d lost the initiative. One small step from that to full-blown massacre.

Three shapes burst through the doorway on this side of the compound. A flash of light at their back, the bang of a concussion grenade.

The agent at the front, a young, wiry kid named Garcia barked at the approaching people, “Get down! Now!”

The three shapes didn’t obey, but ducked from column to column in the arcade, toward the team.

“Engage?” Garcia asked in a voice that sounded a full beat slower than the events unfolding around them.

“No,” Krantz said in a sharp voice. “Hold.”

Chambers’s voice came through, shouting, “Man down. You there? I’ve got a situation. Repeat, man down.”

A man was screaming from the next courtyard over. “The army!” His voice broke off. “…everyone awake!” Meanwhile, the three figures kept running toward them.

Krantz had only seconds. Screw this up and someone would die. A woman and her children? Armed cult members? The three closed the gap.

“Krantz?” Garcia asked. Urgency crept into his voice. “Engage?”

Chapter Twenty-seven:

After the man ran through the compound, screaming about invading troops, Jacob, Fernie, Sister Miriam and the kids stayed frozen in place. Their plan was to wait for rescue, but events were unfolding in a different direction.

Gunshots ahead and behind. Jacob heard shouts, saw shapes moving in the courtyard in front of them. A flash of light from the roof, followed by bursts of return fire from the ground, the louder blast of a shotgun. Church members swarmed behind them, running from room to room. Two men with guns ordered a cluster of women and children to return to their quarters, then scrambled up a stairway that led to the roof.

“Jacob, get us out of here,” Fernie said. The baby cried in her arms.

“Back to your rooms,” Sister Miriam said. “We’ll barricade the door.”

“No,” he said. More gunfire. “Go forward. Listen, there was another team dropped in, remember? The other helicopter. They’ve got to be straight ahead, but they’re not shooting. It will be safer.”

“Safer, are you crazy?” Miriam said. “We’ll be shot.”

He made a quick decision. “Wait here. Do not move.”

Daniel was awake in his arms, and he set the boy down, pushed him toward his mother. And then he entered the wide-open space in front of them. He raced around the edge of the courtyard, ducked behind columns of the arcade.

A bundle of rags soaked in oil burned in the courtyard. It gave the air an acrid tang. Firelight flashed from the roof. Gunfire returned in a chatter from the courtyard.

Someone above had thrown the burning rags into the courtyard to light it and take away the advantage of the SWAT team below. Jacob could see the federal agents now. They crouched behind planters or pillars at the arcade edge. Three church members lay on their bellies on the ground, while someone cuffed their hands.

“10 o’clock!” one of the agents shouted as he came through. Guns swung in his direction.

“I’m unarmed!”

“You!” someone snapped. “Hands up!”

“It’s me, Jacob Christianson.”

“Now walk forward. Do not lower your arms. We
will
shoot.”

He made it most of the way across when a rifle shot cracked off the wall. The agents lifted their weapons and returned fire. Jacob ducked his head and ran. He expected the hot stab of a bullet and was amazed when he reached the members of the SWAT team without getting shot.

Rough hands grabbed him. “On your belly. Hands behind your head.”

“Get him back here,” said a low, gravely voice. “No, let him go, he’s good.”

Jacob regained his hands and knees in the shelter of the corner, behind the planter. Something wet was on his hands and for a moment he thought he’d been shot after all, but it was just tomatoes. Bits of ripe tomato lay pulped around him.

The man with the low voice was Agent Krantz. “Are you alone?”

“I left the others back there. Agent Kite, together with my wife and kids. Can you get them out?”

A curt nod. Krantz gave orders to the others. Three agents moved forward at a crouch, while others sprayed gunfire at the roof. The three soon disappeared beneath the entrance from which Jacob had arrived.

Krantz turned to Jacob. “What about Fayer? You seen her?”

“Is she with the other team?”

“No, they took her hostage.”

“Hostage?” He blinked in confusion. “What? No, I don’t know anything about that.” Another rifle shot, more distant this time.

“See anything, anyone moving a prisoner, anything like that?”

Jacob shook his head. He still wasn’t sure what Krantz was saying. Who had taken Fayer? Had it happened before the SWAT teams arrived, or was that what precipitated the assault?

“Lot of confusion back there. I don’t know what’s going on. What happened? Who took her?”

“Never mind, we’ll talk later,” Krantz said. “Here they come.”

A tight knot of agents came running across the courtyard at a crouch, with weapons at the ready. Pen lights illuminated the group as they reached the back corner. Jacob felt a surge of relief when he saw his children.

“Fernie?” He couldn’t see his wife or the baby.

Someone handed him a flashlight and he searched in vain. Sister Miriam gave him a shake of the head as Daniel and Leah grabbed him, sobbing. Krantz moved away, shouting orders and speaking into his headset.

“Where the hell are my wife and baby?”

“We got separated,” Miriam said. “Bunch of people tried to force their way through the archway. I sent them back, told them they’d be shot if they came through. When I turned around, your wife and the baby were gone. I think someone grabbed her.”

Jacob groaned. “I told her to stay put.”

“It was total chaos.” She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head. “Trust me, I almost got dragged back myself.”

Krantz finished an urgent-sounding conversation with the other men of the SWAT team and came back in a crouched run. “Agent Kite,” he said in a cold voice.

“Hello, Krantz. Thanks for coming.”

“What in god’s name is going on here? What have you been playing at?”

“You wouldn’t understand if I told you.”

“Try me.”

Jacob didn’t hear the rest. He took Leah and Daniel to the corner, sat them down.

Also in the corner was a downed FBI agent. He was groaning, guarded by two men, one of whom said, “Hold on, Garcia. We’ll get you out of here.”

“Let me up,” the man said.

Jacob put his hands on the children’s shoulders. Leah was shaking, Daniel clapped his hands over his ears at a fresh burst of gunfire. “You’re okay,” he told them. “You’re both perfectly safe and as long as you stay down, you’ll be okay. Do you understand me?”

“I want Mommy,” Leah cried.

“She’s okay. Those people will keep her safe, you can be sure. These are the good guys. You’ve got to be big kids. Do you understand me?”

“Wh-what should we do?” Daniel asked.

“You can’t cry, you have to be brave. And keep down, no matter what else. I have to help that hurt man and so you have to be super-duper brave while I’m gone. Can you do that?” They nodded, eyes wide.

“Move out of the way, I’m a doctor” he told the men kneeling around the downed FBI agent, who groaned and tried to sit. They moved back. “Agent, lie down, don’t get up.” The man they’d called Garcia stopped struggling.

Jacob unfastened and peeled back the man’s body armor. Someone handed him a larger flashlight. A nasty bruise spread across his chest and as Jacob prodded, he winced and groaned again.

“Is it bad?” Garcia asked between short breaths. “What do you think?”

“What do I think? I think you owe a fan letter to the factory worker who made this body armor. Your sternum is either cracked or deeply bruised, maybe some minor damage to the costal cartilage. But without that armor, you’d be dead.”

“Then can I get up?”

“Situation’s covered, bro,” one of the other agents said. “Just stay down.”

The man nodded. Someone propped a hip pack beneath his neck.

Jacob checked in on his children, tucked them into the corner with their backs against the wall. “I’m going to be right over there. Stay here and everything will be okay.” To the agents he said, “Do not leave my children alone under any circumstances.”

“You got it.”

Jacob found Krantz and Sister Miriam. “It’s all fun and games in these little cults until the world comes to an end,” Krantz said.