Monsters

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Monsters Page 4

by Daniel Greenwell


  Mal looked at the gear and armor that the men were wearing. It was wrong for what Tim was saying they were, almost a hodge podge of different versions of body armor. Mal nodded to Tim for him to clear the room, the Commander told the men and women to leave the video room, Tye following the directions here until Jace stopped him from leaving.

  “Tim, these guys aren’t Reds. Look at the gear? This looks almost like Reds Cosplay. What did Kevin say?” Mal asked.

  “HOW CAN I TRUST HIM RIGHT NOW?” Tim asked loudly. “I love the guy but…we both know his weaknesses. He’s naive. Kevin Higdon thinks when someone tells him something, they are always telling him the truth, when they aren’t. The world isn’t that easy.”

  Mal straightened up from the desk to approach his long time friend but, Jace was already at Tim’s throat.

  “You better keep Kevin’s name out of your mouth like that or next time? My safety won’t be on.” Jace said.

  Squeezing Jace’s shoulder Mal gave her a smile, she had always struggled with the duality of her teacher. Mal was more of a father to Jace than any man had ever been before him.

  “It’s okay. Kevin wouldn’t take being naive as an insult.” Mal said. “I also don’t think he’s the type to do a plan like this. Kevin is an overt strategist, he would starve you out. We would have farms suffering from all sorts of blight. It’s his leadership that stopped this war…since he’s much more like me than you.”

  “Except…” Tim started to say.

  “Yeah except he isn’t a killer. Not like me at least.” Mal said.

  “So, you aren’t concerned with your men going missing?” Jace asked from the corner of the room.

  “I am but the reality is, I am more concerned with the Reds special forces having forty men inside my city and what they are planning.”

  Mal took a seat in the corner.

  “Tye? Thoughts? What are the soft targets locally here for you?”

  Tye walked over to the map of the city and all surrounding areas.

  “They aren’t that many except the school and the hospital but who tries to kill kids and a bunch of sick people?”

  Jace looked over at Mal with anger in her eyes.

  “These troglodytes tried to murder me because I like to have sex with women. I don’t put it past them.”

  Mal looked at Jace with a respect filled look.

  “Troglodyte, how many points is that one?” Asked Mal.

  The two both had degrees in English and had been playing an ongoing game of some freakish, one word at a time version of Scrabble for oven ten years.

  “Eighty.”

  “Damn…” Mal said as they

  Mal rubbed his head, trying to search his memories.

  “Okay, this is how this is going to go down,” Mal started, “I am going to meet Wilke alone.”

  “You can’t do that! That’s crazy,” Tye said.

  “I won’t really be alone,” Mal motions to Jace.

  “What? Is she a ghost?”

  “No, she’s a sniper and I am sure we could rassle up an IFF?” Mal asked Tim.

  An IFF is an international Friend or Foe system. When attached to a Sonar repeater, it mapped the area, any person with an IFF tag on would be seen as a friendly on the sniper’s scoping platform and the sonar would show any humans not wearing a tag as a foe.

  “What am I doing?” Tye asked.

  “You’re planting the bomb and then leaving,” Mal said nonchalantly.

  Tye nodded and then came to his senses.

  “Excuse me, bomb?”

  Mal and Jace nod at each other.

  “Yep.”

  “You sure it’s down there?” Tim asked.

  “I am positive,” Mal said.

  “Why the hell am I planting a bomb underneath an apartment complex?” Tye asked

  “To eventually collapse the tunnel down there that allowed these fuckers to get in here,” Mal said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Let's Get Evil

  “We going to sit here all day or what?” Jace said through the earbud radio that Mal had in his ear.

  “We are letting the drone use some Facial recognition to see if any of these tenants happen to be our divers,” Mal said from the seat of an undercover car.

  Mal’s humvee was a bit obvious according to Tim so he gave them this car.

  “Tye, you go first. The keycard I gave you should open every door in that security system that you need to look at, use the pistol only if you have to,” Mal said, “I will even take a cave in of the hallway to the opening.”

  “No problems, I am a large black man near the birthplace of the Klan,” Tye said, “I am sure I will blend right in.”

  Mal laughed at Tye before touching his earpiece.

  “Keep a tight eye on Tye,” Mal said, “I don’t want one of Tim’s prized guys being dropped in less than an hour of working with us.”

  “Don’t worry boss,” Jace responded, “Momma is looking over her kittens.”

  Tye walked up in his repair man outfit and waived the key card at the door’s security system and disappeared into the building. Mal touched his watch and started the Stopwatch. He wanted to give Tye one minute before going in so that no one would really associate the two.

  “I have eight matches on the men in the building and on the outside,” Said Wallis from the inside of his radio.

  “How many scans did you get?”

  “31.”

  23 Reds could possibly be local, we have to play this smart though: These people who aren’t in the system could just be migrants, Mal thought.

  “Cool,” Mal said getting out of the car, wearing a trench coat covering the MP-5 at his back and pistol in his small of his back, “It’s a target rich environment. Overlay the information into Jace’s scope so she can get solutions for these, Gentlemen? Gentle people? Guys? No not guys, definitely not guys…”

  “What are you talking about?” Jace asked.

  “I mean, I don’t want to be sexist, I know a woman who can drop some bodies,” Mal said.

  “There are two females in this group,” Wallis said.

  “So, does that mean you are going to kill a woman?” Jace asked.

  “Boobs haven’t stopped me ever in the past,” Mal joked.

  Mal began to walk towards the door of the apartment complex attempting to stay out of view with a baseball cap and sticking next to the building as he goes in.

  “The block’s exits are secured with the security forces in undercover positions,” Wallis said into his ear.

  “What floor is he on?’

  “He’s right inside the front door,” Wallis said.

  Mal smirked and gripped at the curved carbon fiber blade in his sleeve. Mal had met Wilke a few months ago at a bar where they had drinks together. The two had went to high school together, they weren’t friends but, many people from here had heard about Mal being the man who grew up to be and Mal wasn’t going to say no to free alcohol He opened the door into the building and held the door for a good looking young couple who had a small child.

  “You kids stay safe out there!” Mal said as he walked by, making a mental note to be careful when they detonated the tunnel.

  “Malcolm Daniels, Ex-Navy SEAL, what brings you to my establishment?” Wilke asked as he walked up on Mal. Wilke is a large man for a civilian but he’s manageable in Mal’s mind. He has a beard and wears a white t-shirt.

  He has an incredibly punchable face like a lawyer who sues children for raising money for a dying kid level of punchable face. Look at him! He looks like a stock photo of a guy who would write about Obama being born in Kenya on Facebook, Mal thought.

  “Hey Chris, good to see you! Can we talk privately for a few minutes? It’s important and kind of embarrassing.” Mal said in a disarming tone, with that smile that had charmed many people to their deaths. Mal was regularly the guy that would draw a target into a kill zone.

  Chris waved for him to follow down the corridor to his office, an of
fice that Jace had a perfect view of. Mal doesn’t have intentions of killing him or anyone else for that matter but, it’s always best to play it safe. Chris opened the door to his office and moved some papers out of the way so Mal could take a seat.

  “You wouldn’t happen to be looking for work would you? I could really use someone with your specific set of skills in here,” Wilke said.

  “Unfortunately no,” Mal said with a changing tone, “I am here to talk about you and the hole in your basement.”

  Wilke’s eyebrow shot to life, surprised by the comment that anyone could know about it.

  “What hole in my basement?”

  Mal smirked as the radio in his ear came to life.

  “I got it boss, planted directly in the hole in the sewer, I am going to take some photos and exfil,” Tye said, “It’s on the south side, closer to the wall.”

  Mal relaxed in his seat and put the MP-5 on the desk, letting Wilke know that he means business.

  “The one on the south side of the building, that is currently open to the sewers that my son used to get over here,” Mal said, “With the forty or so operatives he let into this side of the wall.”

  Wilke searched for a word to prove his innocence, unfortunately that word wasn’t possible.

  “I think I would like you to leave,” Wilke said.

  “Don’t be too scared Chris, I am only here for one reason and one reason only,” Mal said, “I want to talk to my son.”

  “Good luck with that,” Chris said, “You will be lucky to leave here alive.”

  Mall furrowed his brow at that comment. Wilke obviously knew that the two of them in a small room would not end well for him in a physical confrontation.

  “What are you going to do Chris?” Mal asked.

  “Me? Nothing Mal. The reality of this situation isn’t what you think it is though because, I am not in charge. I am the one being threatened.”

  Mal heard a scratch in his ear.

  “We have some interference on the channel,” Wallis said, “I will try to clean it up a bit. It’s likely another recording device.”

  Standing up right away, Mal slipped off the trench coat and turned his hat backwards.

  “I have thirteen foot mobiles approaching from the trees next to the wall,” Wallis said from the earpiece while swinging the drone to the opposite side of the building.

  “Sixteen registered civilians on the second floor and three on the first floor, you are going to have to call it from the inside since I am mostly blind. What’s the call?” Jace asked.

  Mal starts running through the scenarios in his brain but there was no way for them to get out without engaging the enemies.

  “Tye, you get in here and help with the evacuation,” Mal said, “Jace, swing around and fire to hold them down. Chris, if you really care about the people who live here, you are going to use your PA system and get them out on the street, behind the security team line one block away.”

  “Rog,” they said in unison.

  “Mal the security team is going to set a perimeter with a Quick reaction force on it’s way, What are you going to do, Mal?” Wallis asked.

  “Let’s get evil.”

  Mal turned and ran to the back door door and grabbing a Flash-bang from his back of his belt, pulling the pin and counting to three before grasping the grenade again, threading the wire around and jamming it in the edge of the door frame. Retreating down the hallway, tossing the metal desk at the end of the hallway over. Mal grabbed a fragmentation grenade and waited for the eventual boot in the door, pulling another pin. He reached behind his back to grab the MP-5 and felt nothing.

  Fuck, I left it in Wilke’s office. I have two and a half clips of Berretta ammunition, I need to place my shots well, Mal thought.

  BOOM! The shotgun sounded as it shot the hinges off of the door before it came crashing down and four men came into the building as the Flash bang ding onto the ground.

  Their breaching capabilities are similar to Army Infantry, they really should have brought more guys, Mal thought.

  BANG! The flash-bang reverberated through the hallway as Mal turned around the corner and pulled his M-12 Berretta, with the four men stumbling around blinded and unable to hear. Mal fired at the four men as he dragged his pistol across the hallway like a painter drawing a straight line, stopping individually as he painted the hallway’s back wall red with blood. Mal discharged eight rounds as they tore through their flesh and dropped the men to the ground. Mal eyed the door and heard men grabbing cover on the outside of the building around the doorway. He stepped backward with his feet together and tossed a grenade outside the door like he was playing corn hole. Mal slunk down behind the metal desk and waited for the impending-

  BOOM!

  Ya know, it would be nice if people realized that grenades fragment, they don’t actually explode like TNT. Note to self: come up for a word for that in the meantime, Mal thought.

  Mal crawled out from behind the desk and knowing that almost all of the men outside would have been affected by that. He walked down the hallway and into the outside world quickly and saw a few men on on the ground, two already dead and two that were headed that way on a non-stop ticket bleeding from their major arteries. Mal stopped and leveled his pistol at the first man’s head, squeezed the trigger as his head jolted backwards, then walked forward to the last one who realized what was going on.

  “No, please-,” The Reds soldier said as he gurgled blood.

  Oh, please man I was sent here to kill, show mercy on me…I am just a victim here, The voice said.

  Mal placed a boot on the man’s chest and fired a bullet straight into his head.

  “Seven down, Jace,” Mal said.

  “I have six,” Jace said, “I have a guy running back to the tree line past the woods.”

  “That’s to your left,” Wallis said, “They’re running down the wall to your right, Malcolm.”

  Mal turned to his right and saw the man as he turned around, spraying gunfire behind him.

  “You want me to wing him?” Jace asked.

  “No, jostle him, scare him, ” Mal said, “I will wing him.”

  Mal heard the powerful sound of a Sniper rifle kicks off in the distance, not the fifty caliber rifle that Jace liked to use, it was a MK14 Enhanced Battle rifle that Mal had helped Jace make that could slip between being a sniper or a Semi-auto assault rifle so she could shoot accurately and quickly. It was also so that when she hit someone: it wouldn’t immediately kill them. The rocks kicked up in front of the soldier as they shot up and smacked his face as he stumbled to the ground.

  “MOTHER FUCKER!” The man said as he tried to regain his balance as bullets flew, he took a look at Mal about five feet back and froze.

  “Should I not look?” Jace asked.

  “I would recommend it,” Mal said.

  “Wallis, do me a solid and check on Tye and the civilians? He’s outside of our range currently so, that would be great if you could,” Mal lied.

  My communications network isn’t like what BANS uses, it’s a high burst transmitter network that piggy-backs off of Cell-phone towers, Mal thought.

  “You got it,” Wallis said as the drone flew away.

  Mal noticed as he walked forward that two men had actually survived this encounter, one had some shrapnel in his back and was trying to crawl away. Mal pointed his gun down range and aimed for a small part of the right shoulder where there’s a spot with no vital areas and since Mal scooped his own 9mm ammunition, he knew the bullet would go through and through, not fragment and bounce around his body. The problem for most shooters, even really experienced ones, was that this shot was incredibly difficult. According to statistics provided by the the DOD, about only 1.3 percent of Service-members post 9/11 saw combat, about .1 percent of that 1.3 percent can hit this shot with any type of regularity. Mal breathed out and squeezed, shot. The man grunted as his shoulder blade exploded as a bullet shot through, directly in the right spot.

  �
�So, why are you here?” Mal asked the man underneath his boot.

  “I got nothing to say to you, bitch,” The soldier said while spitting out the mud that infiltrated his mouth every time he opened it, “why don’t you do yourself a favor and eat a bullet?”

  That is not a very nice thing to say to someone, you should really clean up your mouth, Mal thought.

  Turning his head side-to-side, Mal considered his proposal.

  “Let me counter you here,” Mal said, “how about I take my knife here and cut you into a hundred pieces.”

  Mal placed his boot into the middle of the closer man’s back, pressing on the shrapnel, causing him to scream out loud.

  “You know what’s really frustrating about this situation,” Mal said, “I was really hoping to get a good fight out of this. Fourteen of you guys against two of us, then I left my SMG in the office. I was almost concerned that I would really have to be on my game, I thought maybe one of you assholes could get this shit done for me. I am not suicidal but I kind of thought, ‘Maybe one of these assholes gets lucky and hit’s me in the head with something, quick and painless’ but no, not a single one of you even activated my pucker factor. I am disappointed and for that, you’re all going to die.”

  The man who was shot through the shoulder, was struggling back up to his feet and looked back to Mal like he was looking at the Angel of Death himself.

  “RUN!!!!!!” Said the Soldier underneath Mal’s knee.

  Mal smiled and looked back at the man on the ground.

  “You are fine, kiddo. Just a flesh wound, I needed to give him an incentive to run back to your boss,” Mal said as the man struggled against his knee

  “Wallis, I need you to follow a man running directly west from my location along the wall,” Mal said, “Also I need EMS here, I have a survivor and he’s going to talk.”

  Mal patted the young man on the head before pushing his face into the ground, applying pressure so it would be harder to breathe.

  “Aren’t you tough guy? You are going to sing like a canary.”

  Jace ran up behind Mal and dropped to a knee, bringing her MK 14 Enhanced Battle rifle up and looking down the scope as she lined up the young soldier stumbled down the alleyway between the building next to the apartment and the wall. Mal put his hand on the rifle and pushed it down.

 

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