“Very slowly you two, reach for your pistols and put them on the ground in front of you,” Jace said.
After Jamie had passed, Jace had become a bit paranoid and her already strong hate for Tim, who had once tried to conscript her into the military, got so much more powerful. Mal very slowly with two fingers took his pistol out of it’s holster and put it on the ground in front of him.
“Raise your pant legs!” Jace said from the top of the barn, her eyes squarely on the actual dangerous one-of-the-two: Malcolm Daniels.
They both reached down and pulled up their pant legs.
“Jace, we are just here to talk: you have my word and I don’t lie to you,” Mal said.
A sigh came over the loud speaker.
“Tim stays with the car, non-negotiable.”
Mal started walking towards the farmhouse.
“Stay here, Tim,” Mal said as he walked towards the farmhouse.
“That’s it Mal,” Jace said over the loud speaker, “Slow, no sudden movements.”
Mal walked up to the door to the barn and opened it.
“Alright, Mal. I am going to keep an eye on your friend, tell me what you want,” Jace said
Jace laid on the top floor with stomach flat on the floor with .50 caliber sniper rifle poking out of the top floor of the barn.
“I need your help,” Mal asked, “We got to put the band back together.”
“I was in the Air Force remember? The SEALs hadn’t admitted a woman yet, I am not part of any band.”
“Without you, none of us would have made it here, that trip from Coronado to here was hell on earth and you were the MVP.”
Jace groaned at the idea of him trying to guilt her into getting out of her comfort zone. Jace was part of Joint Special Operations Command just like Mal, she was only Thirty-three though, she had her prime stolen from her by this war.
“Why is he here though?”
Jace was motioning at Tim, the man who had tried to draft her into their standing army.
“Tim made a mistake, I won’t disagree on that but he stopped, Jace.”
“And?”
“Sometimes, you have to know when you are wrong, he knew.”
Jace turned around and looked at Mal for the first time since he entered the Barn. Jace seemed to be deciding whether she would tell him to fuck off or ask him the details.
“What’s the mission?”
“Tim wants to investigate the disappearances of the BANs troops on the border.”
“The real mission Mal, that’s what Tim wants, what do you want?”
“Some men tried to kill me today, they were sent by Ares.”
Jace tilted her head.
“And you believe them?”
Mal nodded.
The kid had zero reason to lie to me.
“Well, that sounds like a good death, I am in.”
Jace grabbed her rifle and began breaking it down into pieces that went into her bag.
“Can I help?” Mal asked.
“MP-5 by the door,” she said.
Mal smiled.
Jace wasn’t your average person back when women were being added to the Special Forces communities, there was much talk about how women “didn’t belong” in those situations. Those people hadn’t met Jace. She’s the best sniper Mal had ever seen and he knew all the greats. She was better than all of them, him included. Once when Mal’s son was too young to join the military, he would visit Jace and see just how crazy good of a shot she was. She hit a baseball thrown from the outfield into the infield, center mass in between the stitches. Mal grabbed the MP-5 as Jace walked up to him.
“When do I get the cool ones that you guys have?”
“When I find a Sniper version, I will let you know,” Mal said while they chuckled.
“Are we ever going to go up to Crane? Kind of interested in what we will find,” Jace said.
Crane Naval Station in Crane, Indiana was a place where the military had stored all sorts of experimental weapons and tech. The Government stored all of their bio-weapons that could become a danger to people in a more populated area.
“While I would love to open that place up and plunder it’s riches, I am kind of scared we won’t be able to lock it up properly. If some of the stuff in that bunker ever gets out, who knows how many innocent lives would be lost?”
Jace nodded with him there.
Plus god knows what the base AI has turned into, hopefully it’s not a terminator.
“Holy shit! I could meet Martha, Mal!” Jace said with a smile returning to her face for the first time in a while.
Martha is the on-board Artificial Intelligence at Crane Naval Station, Mal and Martha had met each other on the regular when he was on rotation there testing the newest gear to make sure it met the Navy’s exacting standards.
“Do you think she has made any Terminators yet?” Jace said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Mal said jokingly.
“Let’s go,” She said as she grabbed the bag full of the parts from her two long rifles and with an MP-5.
“Plus how many people realistically have access to that thing? Tim, the two other guys and you? Is that it?”
Tim shook his head.
“Any member of the US special forces could get in there if their Biometrics are in the system and they could get past the first set of security prompts,” Mal said, “But the problem is when this started a lot of those guys were overseas and just didn’t come back. A good portion of the US Special Forces communities were killed off while defending their bases, Coronado had a special distinction because the POGs all went nuts at once, there was no base to protect and we had to GTFO.”
“Now there’s just us,” Jace said.
Just them. SEALs and PJs like Jace was, were regularly the people who kept the enemies from the door but any sane one didn’t want to be involved in this war.
We all chose to live on this side of the wall because while we may not agree with every thing that people believed here, at least they were reasonable enough to agree to disagree.
Jace was almost murdered on their way across the border for being who she is, which is a lesbian. The blue side of the wall while being fairly annoying with their lack of use of force to stop the attacks from whatever militias attacked from the other side of the wall, probably wouldn’t want to kill you for being different.
“Yep, let’s roll.”
The express lane at Mount Vernon was a time saver but they were still getting searched anyways.
“What is this?” The guard asked pointing at the XM-24 that was tucked away in it’s carrier system on the back of Mal’s Tactical vest.
“It’s a rifle but don’t,” Mal started to say as the man touched it as a small electric shock startled the guard and he drew his weapon onto Mal while pulling his hand into his chest, “touch it.”
“What the fuck old man?”
“Do you think he is deaf or dumb?” Jace asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you guys a comedic duo I haven’t heard of, or what?”
“I mean, I think pain comedy is quite popular with those that are a little slow on the uptake,” Jace retorted.
The man had his and waved them to continue on as another man approached. He was in his early 30s and had dusty blond hair.
“Sorry about that guys, you have a nice day.” The man rummaged through his pockets for something and pulled out a card, “Here’s my card, beautiful.”
Jace grabbed the card, looked at Mal and they both started laughing.
“Is your sister’s phone number on that card?” Mal asked as they pulled away from the checkpoint.
Mal and Jace sat in silence as they drove away from the checkpoint for a while.
“What’s step one?” Jace asked.
It was a good question that Mal had lingered on for a while.
“For starters, lets try tracking down the local contacts to Ares. If Tim is right: these two issues are connected.”
/> “I don’t know about this Mal,” Jace said, “I find it hard to believe your son would do something so terrible.”
“I would take me out if I was in his situation,” Mal said, “he’s picking off the strong of the herd here. Why not take out one of the people who could create a coherent defense?”
“Oh, there’s that male over-confidence.” Jace said as they stopped at the Headquarters for BANS in Mount Vernon.
Jace was right in a way, Mal wasn’t normally the Quarterback anymore. He had trained Jace to call the shots, to be their eye in the sky,.They both get out of the Humvee and walk towards the building, it was the old courthouse in Mount Vernon, Tim was waiting for them at the steps.
“Well, what’s your thoughts on this…” Tim said before Mal raised his hand.
“Tim, I love you Brother but just be quiet and take us to your Intelligence division,” Mal said.
Tim opened the door for the two and parted the sea of workers inside the building as they ventured inside to a set of stairs at the end of the hallway. They circle their way down the stairs to a door with a sign above it that says, “Intel Division”.
Tim opens the door and mouse-ish young man’s eyes went so wide that you could eat cheese and crackers on it.
“ATTENTION ON DECK!” The young man exclaimed as every other person in the room jumped to their feet.
“Stop doing that guys, this isn’t necessary here,” Tim said, “In this building, especially down here in operations and intel, the smartest person is listened to: Rank doesn’t make those decisions.”
Unless the rank is lower than mine.
Mal surveyed the landscape of the office and found one desk that said, “Domestic Intelligence”
“One person on Domestic Intel, Tim?”
Tim shrugged, he was clearly outside of his expertise when it came to the minutia of military operations. Mal walked over with Jace and Tim in tow to see a 20 something female redhead with thick glasses and a pair of sweatpants and a shirt on. She was a very pretty girl but, Mal wasn’t interested.
Ever since that day I have never looked at another woman like that. I don’t know why and it’s stupid. It’s a stupid trope, when I was in collegiate creative writing they would call this “The girl in the refrigerator” trope. I wish I could say my feelings were written and not based in how I feel.
“Hello, guy I have never seen before, exactly what can I give you?”
“Mal, I got this,” Jace said as she walked forward with a strut like she was the Quarterback and about to ask his girl to prom, “Hi, we need all information on local operatives connected to the three men killed at Mal’s house. We could also use any information on local operatives for the REDs you have. If you don’t mind.”
“Sure, that’s not a problem,” She said.
Her name tape reads as a Wallis.
“I have two people for you to check out, one is James Wilke, he’s an operative for the REDS but we can’t prove that yet, as you know Mount Vernon and Evansville’s sewer systems are connected to the Ohio River, which makes them incredibly easy to get into. We guard the entrances into the city but there’s nothing stopped a single diver from getting in and based on Census, he lived in Kentucky until about 3 years ago,” Wallis said.
“Wouldn’t you guys have stopped him?”
“We don’t stop them, we allow people to seek asylum but he has never filed the paperwork,” Wallis said.
Mal looked at Tim and scrunched his face.
“I get the immigration, I really do, people from there are going to run here when things get bad but when you know this guy is doing this why are you letting him stay?” Mal asked.
“I can’t prove it yet, I have placed guards at every gate to the sewers, there’s nothing there thus far,” Tim said.
Mal had a hamster turning the wheel in his head.
“Where’s his house?”
“He owns an apartment building on water street,” Wallis said.
“Show me the maps of the sewers with the apartment building on top of it.”
Wallis goes over to the computer screen and pulled it up.
“Holy shit, how did I not think of that?” Wallis said.
Mal and Tim looked at each other, the two seemingly coming up with the exact same answer.
“Columbia…” The two said jointly.
The apartment building sits square on top of the Sewer system.
“He probably cut a whole in it with a welding torch or one of those hole drones we used to operate back in the day,” Jace said.
The drones in question are welding drones that cut a hole through almost anything to avoid using explosion and since it is super hot, it’s impossible to hear or see. Tim turned to one of his men, appropriately to tell him to check the building for a hole in the sewer but Mal grabs him by the shoulder.
“Could we just not? Best thing you and your idiot savants can do? Stay out of my way.”
“We going to use him to talk to the Reds?” Jace asked.
“I guess? More importantly, I am going to update the defense system in the water to maybe be able to tell if someone is coming across the water. I know the wall starts on this side of the water, but you need to treat that water like it’s part of the wall. It’s a natural barrier,” Mal stated and realized Wallis wasn’t done talking, “sorry carry on with the second person.”
“Clay Ricketts is the leader of the gang who sent the Assassins after Malcolm Daniels,” Wallis said, “His organization is currently in flux because he was shot and killed at the grocery store in a self defense situation. His brother James, whose house most of the business was done at, is still alive.”
Mal groaned.
“My bad,” he said, “I killed that guys brother, he didn’t give me much of a choice but I killed him.”
Jace walked over to Mal.
“Who do we start with?”
“Let’s go to Wilke first but, let’s not take him down. Not yet.”
“Pull the tigers tail?” Jace asked.
Mal nodded.
“See where the teeth come out. Send us every, single piece of intelligence you have on these guys please?”
Mal realized he would need at least one more person to make any of this work.
“I need one of those people you recommended,” Mal muttered under his breath to Tim.
Tim waved Mal to follow him down the hallway to a room with a sign that says, “Operations.” Tim opened the door to see seven interesting men all sitting at a table.
“I introduce you to the best of the best here,” Tim says while starting to attempt to introduce them all. Mal interjected, waving Tim off to stop.
“I don’t want a bunch of idiots and I don’t care what any of your names are thus far,” Mal stated, “I am going to ask you some questions and individually you are going to tell me what you would do.”
Mal sat down on top of the desk at the end of the conference table before standing up and turning around to view the chalkboard.
“Tim, I need one thing from you: Turkey Sandwich with Mustard, lettuce and Co-Jack cheese,” Mal stated and Tim took off to the Cafeteria.
Staring at him with surprise as Mal watched Tim scurry off out of the room.
“Here’s your scenario people: You are in a defensive battle with an enemy force that has armor, your goal is to slow the enemy so reinforcements can arrive,” Mal said while drawing on the chalkboard.
“As you can see, there is a Dam here to the left: a muddy field but most Armor is going to have to cross in these three sections because there are roads here. What is the most effective defense with the least amount of civilian casualties? Write it down on a piece of paper with your name on it.”
The men wrote down the answers on their paper and passed them to the end of the line and Mal gathered them before sitting down at the edge of the desk. Mal had used this system on multiple different continents before because it took all pre-conceived bias out of the equation, the only answer he was looking f
or wasn’t the right answer but it was his answer.
For any unit there has to be a level of cohesion so the pieces gel, if you can’t do that and you are arguing about tactics, you operate at a lower rate than just using the wrong tactics.
“Okay,” Mal said as he sat down on the desk and started to read the first piece of paper.
“Whatever you tell me to,” and other versions of basically the same thing were on three of them, Mal threw those away.
“Blow the dam,” was on another three of them, Mal also threw those away.
“Crater the roads with an explosive charge so enemy armor aren’t able to create a good arrowhead for enemy assault groups, making them cross open ground,” Mal checked the name on the back, Tye Jordan.
Mal smiled.
“We have a winner, Tye Jordan.”
A large black man with a bald head and a beard stood at the end of the table.
“That’s me,” Tye said as he stood up and the rest of the men stood and left the room.
Tim came in and tossed Mal a sandwich as the four of them stood around. Mal began unwrapping the sandwich while looking up at Tim and took a big bite. As Mal chewed he looked straight into Tim’s eyes and swallowed.
“Tim, I have known you for over twenty-five years,” Mal said, “You must be really fucking desperate if you will run to grab me a sandwich with no back talk.”
Tim groaned at the way Mal had played him.
“Come with me,” Tim said as he walked back into the hallway.
Mal following behind him with Tye and Jace in tow as they come to another operations center that had TV’s showing CCTV feeds from all around the city and the outside of the wall.
“Two days ago, drone footage of the riverbank,” Tim ordered to the operator at the computer.
Footage began to play over a civilian style drone flying over the riverbank, as you can see about forty men in diving gear as the drone flies in close a face begins to materialize. The young man is the spitting image of his father with his brown hair and his mothers tan skin.
“David,” Mal says.
“Your son brought in Forty Reds aligned militia soldiers into our city two days ago,” Tim said.
Monsters Page 3