Monsters

by Daniel Greenwell

  The parking structure across the street is about 2.5 stories taller than the Ford Center. If there was a guy that I wanted to keep an eye out for possible counter-attacks, that’s where I would put him because-

  “I got it.” Mal said.

  “Everyone shut up,” Trevor said as the room that was just loud with conversations was so quiet you could hear someone’s stomach who hadn’t eaten recently, “Go on.”

  Mal walked over to the the smart-board. It worked just like a white-board but could also overlay a picture or a slide of some sort. Mal put the glove for the Smart Board on his hand and grabbed the computer model of the surrounding area of the buildings.

  Wait, before we do this, I need to control the information, Mal thought.

  Mal gave Trevor a finger wag to come over to him.

  “Do you guys need radios?” Mal asked.

  “Uh, I would think so, why?” Trevor asked.

  Mal looked around and saw Tye sitting with the men.

  “I am concerned of information getting to the Sons,” Mal said, “We should control what gets out.”

  “Sons?” asked Trevor confused. “What are these Sons?”

  The two explained that this wasn’t the Reds, it was a cult like organization filled with White Supremacy. No valid reasons for their beliefs.

  “Son’s are just Reds though?” Trevor asked, didn’t state.

  “It’s important to know your enemy, when you know your enemy: you can manipulate them. You can disorient them. We can’t fight these terrorists like you fought the Reds, we can’t negotiate with these guys. Hell, one of my oldest friends and life-long battle buddies is Commandant Kevin Higdon, the Commander of all the Reds.”

  This caused Trevor to pause, wondering if he could even trust this man.

  “It’s important to remember: Kevin fought for me, a gay woman, against people who tried to execute me and my wife. He’s the type of man to be respected, he’s a man of high integrity and is the only reason there’s a wall.” Jace said sternly to the large man.

  Jace respected Kevin, for the time she was kidnapped.

  Denver, Colorado

  Eight Years ago

  “Where’s Jace and…” Kevin asked Mal and Tim as they both looked, a smile spread across their faces as both of their eyebrows shot up, “Ohhhh, god I am so stupid.”

  “You kind of are when it comes to that stuff.” Mal said.

  Kevin was Asexual largely, he just didn’t have that drive for it which made his understanding of people having sex. This made his life complicated as he was a genuinely attractive man, usually when a woman hit on him, Tim or Mal came to his awkward rescue. In many ways, Mal and Tim’s kids just had a cool uncle Kevin. David Daniels ran up behind Mal and Tim.

  “Hey, have you three seen Jace?” David asked the three more experienced warriors.

  All three shook their heads and chuckled.

  “When two adults love each other very much-” Mal began to say squeezing his son’s shoulder as he pushed him.

  “They told me they were on the way back twenty minutes ago, Jackass. They were a block away.” David said.

  The four turned and ran in the direction of the pharmacy where the two were at, Mal spun around the corner and slipped back putting a hand out, then flipping his eye piece down over his right eye, slipping his snake came around the corner.

  “How many?” Kevin asked, his longer pure blond hair in contrast to Mal’s dark black hair.

  Turning on the sonar ping, Mal quickly knew there were over ten of them…with them being unable to see inside the pharmacy. The vests on the men had a patch.

  “More Oathkeepers…” Mal said looking at Kevin who nodded back at him.

  “Let me do it.” Kevin said. “I owe her for the way I have…acted before.”

  Kevin had a hard time telling why Jace wanted to be with Selina. It wasn’t what he would call Homophobic because, Kevin wasn’t malicious he was just wondering. Jace took that as an assault, an assault she had been on the end of many times.

  “What are you two talking about?” Tim asked as Mal sighed.

  “You two,” Mal said in reference to David, Tim, “are with me, we are going to hit them hard and fast, drawing away their guard. There will likely be a few left and Kev, those are all you brother. Go in through the rear, hit hard and fast.”

  Tugging Mal’s last flashbang out, he handed it to Kevin.

  “I swear.” Kevin said as the two touch helmets.

  Peeking around the corner, Mal saw that he could hit two of them easily but he didn’t want to do that. No, he wanted to draw all of them away. Mal motioned to David and Tim to wait, follow the men after they chase him. Peeking around the corner he bolted across the street towards another run, firing directly around the men and accidentally hitting one in the neck because Mal literally couldn’t see him.

  Bullets peppered the wall.

  “It’s another Faggot, after him. He will take us back to their supplies, we can use the women for the only thing they are good for,” Said the hillbilly as ten soldiers bolted after Mal.

  Mal wasn’t worried, they were running into a pretty quick death, he was worried about Kevin. Kevin was a kind man largely, unlike Mal: he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. Deep down, Kevin Higdon was a good man, unlike Mal.

  “Good luck, Unc!” Dave said as he pounded fists with Kevin.

  He was kind of his kid too as Mal, Lisa and Him were always one of the people who picked up younger David from school.

  “Stay safe.” Kevin said as he turned the corner down the back entrance of the pharmacy, where he saw another Oathkeeper, pants unzipped.

  A quick shot to the man’s head from his pistol caused those inside of the pharmacy to jump. There were six Oathkeepers still inside as Kevin put his back to the wall to the side, Kevin could feel the men’s eyes on the doors as Kevin pulled two grenades out, a flash-bang and a tear gas grenade. Pulling the pin on both, Kevin threw the two in there: even though he was maskless. That was because, Kevin didn’t need a mask for Tear Gas, he was immune to it. Tossing both grenades inside and waiting for a cough after the bang of the flashbang Kevin turned and like his teacher, Malcolm Daniels, he read the room. Shooting left to right like he was in the middle of the room as he counted five dead men as the blood splattered against the rows. Following down the row, to wear he had heard a commotion, behind the door to where the medications were held, the two were tied up.

  “I got you guys.” Kevin said as he felt a barrel touch his temple.

  “Why don’t you just put your hands up, Faggot?” Said the last Oathkeeper.

  Kevin was a bit of an amateur magician, something Jace always made fun of. She was staring at his hands as the small kunai knife on his bracelet ripped off, wrapping the circular ring around his ring finger and hiding it on the other side of his hand as he turned, facing the man with a pistol in his hand. The man stepped forward so his pistol would be in Kevin’s face.

  Big mistake, Kevin told himself as he spun the Kunai in his hand, dipping underneath the pistol and driving his left palm into the elbow of the Oathkeeper, forcing him to drop the pistol as his right hand drove the sharp knife through the man’s skull.

  The knife was so sharp it cut through bone like butter and then exited just as easily as the man fell to the ground: dead.

  “Let’s get you two out of here.” Kevin said as he cut off Selina’s ropes and then Jace’s.

  Jace wrapped her arms around him, not romantically but as a friend that she desperately wanted to see again.

  “Thank you.” She said.

  “Jace, you would have probably gotten this done without walking in here and I know, you would do the same.”

  Present Day

  “They aren’t ALL awful but these Sons of Nathan Bedford Forrest? Awful. I can’t imagine they can be this good at predicting our moves without inside information,” Mal said, “We have to control what gets out.”

  “Okay? How do you want to do that?”
r />   Mal looked around to the people in the room, the amount of people in the room were so close to each other

  “Pick one person in here you can trust,” Mal said, “with your life.”

  Trevor turned around and looked through the Soldiers like he was searching through all of their Personnel files himself.

  “Carney,” Trevor said, “He hates the Reds more than anyone.”

  “My team, you and Carney are the only ones who from this point who will be allowed out of this room or to have a radio until the attack is over,” Mal said.

  “Why? We could just go over there now.”

  “The Sons have predicted almost every move we have made to this point,” Mal said, “I went on a mission earlier today on the north side for someone that only four people in Regional command’s office could have been present for. There are wandering ears everywhere and they are passing along what they hear.”

  Trevor was looking around mulling it over.

  There’s definitely risk here. Without proper comms: units will have to follow their fire-team leaders around and their direct instructions but without the ability to reach anyone outside this room, Mal thought.

  “Look, you are in charge here: We will roll your way but with how they have worked, I wouldn’t be surprised if they set up ambushes along our path. If we don’t do this the right way, this could be rough.”

  “Okay,” He said, “I am trusting you here.”

  Mal turned around as the men and women became quiet again.

  “First things first, I need all radios and ear-pieces to be brought up here right now,” Mal said as Trevor took out his Comms unit and placed it onto the table.

  A tall man named Carney walked up directly after that with his ear-pieces after that.

  “You heard him assholes,” Carney said as he placed his radio onto the flat.

  “I don’t know about this Carney,” Said a rotund-ish man with a thick southern draw and a mustache, “if we can’t talk out there what are we going to do when we have to regroup?”

  “Team leaders will have radios but for now we have to play this smart Johns,” Trevor said.

  Keep a close eye on Johns,Mal chewed over as he walked forward.

  Trevor turned to Mal and nodded.

  At least the kid learns, that’s more than many people these days, Mal thought.

  “I don’t fuckin’ like this, not trusting us shit,” Johns said as he threw down his radio and the rest of the soldiers put theirs in the box.

  “Okay, here’s the plan: Jace and I will be going into the Ford Center above it by cutting in the windows above the Ford Center. After we do that, we will take out all guards on the East side of the building and remove any Daisy-Chains from the South Side entrances, three teams will break up upon entry. One team of seven Designated Marksmen will go with Technical Sergeant Jace Garcia and Tye, up into the top deck and set up for the attack, they will hit the troops first. The second team will go with myself and Trevor to the access to the main basketball court area where we expect they are based. When smoke is popped the team upstairs will open fire then the team on the floor will push the Sons to the North. The third team will push through the rest of the of the troops on the outside hallway that goes towards the North side street to lock up their escape route.”

  “How are you guys going to get in?” Carney asked.

  The room fell silent and quiet.

  “The north side building has the best opportunity for egress because of the Hotel having an operating elevator and an actual roof,” Mal said.

  Trevor nodded.

  “Perfect,” Mal said, “We need to move them into this hallway here. That’s our kill-zone.”

  “Why?”

  Mal starts marking on what’s around in the hallway.

  “On the two ends that the teams are approaching from are very good sets of cover but for the Sons coming out of the tunnel, there’s nothing to get behind,” Mal said.

  “That’s good stuff,” Trevor said.

  Trevor took out a notepad and jotted something down.

  “When do we move?”

  “Two hours,” Mal said, “Always hit people early in the morning, at 2 AM: no one wants to fight.”

  Mal started directing traffic, as people split up into sections of people

  ONE HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES LATER.

  “Mal, why are we leaving so early?” Jace asked.

  Mal tapped on his radio and switched to his team members only channel, so that Tye and Jace were the only people who would hear the transmission.

  “Tye, we are just going to go do an equipment check, if you don’t see us before the operation. No worries, we have to get everything ready to zip-line across from the building on the South side.”

  “Rog, should we go silent, wait you sure about that?” Tye asked.

  “Yes, just watch a movie maybe, maybe they have one of the James Bond movies or something,” Mal retorted.

  “I am picking up what you are putting down.”

  The two of them walked out of the East side of the building and got into a car, driving out of the parking lot and onto the street as Mal turned right.

  “Okay, you want to tell me exactly what we are doing?”

  Putting a finger to his mouth, he told her to turn her radio off. The high burst transmitter signal he used to create the network, is very hard to crack but it wouldn’t be as hard for them to just copy transmissions over the cell-phone tower.

  They would get them late but a late comms transmission is still a transmission.

  “They have been ahead of us, this whole time, we have to figure out exactly how they are doing this. This mission has a dual purpose, Jace.”

  Jace chuckled.

  “You paranoid mother-fucker,” she said, “I thought it was odd that you were so cagey about details and they were always changing. Who were you clicking morse code to earlier?”

  She slipped in that last question like he wouldn’t notice. Mal pulled up behind the parking garaged on the West side of the Stadium.

  “We went to the one place we said we wouldn’t go to,” Jace responded.

  “Let me guess, the message was to Wallis and Tim,” Jace said, “to the average person today Morse Code was last used before their parents were alive but even a person who knows Morse code was more busy paying attention to what you were doing with your other hand. Doing the world’s best A Beautiful Mind impersonation.”

  “It is,” Mal said, “I will let you be surprised though at first.”

  Mal and Jace hopped out of the car on the third level.

  “I have a feeling they have someone up here on Overwatch, I would bet they are setting up someone to pin us down before we get there or shoot us before we do.”

  “Wait, I thought they needed us?” Jace asked.

  “Ah, yes but they don’t all know that. This Karl guy who was here? He’s a higher-up, I bet they don’t communicate between cells very well or much at all. I bet we have a mole and that mole is just talking to our friend up in the garage.”

  Mal began to open the door but Jace turned him around.

  “Get to it.” Jace said.

  “Where would you post up here?” Mal asked.

  Jace stopped walking and stared over at Mal.

  “Do I look like an Amateur?” Jace asked.

  “No, but you were an Amateur once,” Mal said, “I don’t think we are exactly up here with Chris Kyle.”

  “Well, for starters, how do you know he isn’t in one of the other buildings?”

  Mal stopped as they reached the stairs.

  “When you mention the North and the South buildings surrounding the Ford Center, if you had to place an overwatch position somewhere to watch this entire area: do you think that they would pick either side and have both an unobstructed view of the entrance and the front of BANS Headquarters?”

  Jace started getting what he was putting down.

  “That makes a lot of sense actually, now whenever they fire at t
he building when I am guessing the drone that Wallis ran over here pops up,” Jace said, “We will know what type of leak we are working with and where it is coming from.”

  “Yep!” he exclaimed.

  “Now, tell me where the difference is in this strategy inside the Ford Center,” She asked, “there’s a blatant exit towards the street. There’s no way the outside team can move fast enough through the hallway to hit the stairs before they get to the stairs.”

  “Do you trust me?” Mal asked.

  Mal had said this entirely too much the past few days, they were just above lip of the Ford Center so they could see the top of the building which was of course, completely unguarded.

  “I do, just don’t screw this up.” Jace said.

  “They know that we have an Osprey so why no one on top of the building,” Mal pointed out.

  “Oh, my sweet summer child,” Jace said, “What’s he going to do if he sees the Osprey? Shoot at a moving object in the sky that he can’t hit? Snipers don’t hang out on the tops of buildings usually. I bet we find our guy on the third to the top floor or the second to the top floor.”

  Mal started to walk up the stairs towards the next floor before Jace stopped him before he could open the door.

  “Yeah, I don’t think you should do that either, I know you don’t sniper hunt but we like to rig everything around us. If you want to hunt a sniper,” Jace said pointing to the ramp that cars take to the next level, “you always take the long way.”

  Mal didn’t have a lot of experience with Snipers because usually, snipers hunt their own. Counter-sniping was actually a trait that people in Jace’s old job specialized in, that’s why she was also a great close-quarters fighter.

  Mal looked over the trunk of the car next to the top of the ramp, blocking any further egress up the ramps. Mal peeks over the car and sees the sniper laid down the bed of a truck that doesn’t have a cab or engine. Pointing to his eyes then to Jace directly behind him, she nodded to him. Mal sat down and did something Mal was sure that the sniper wouldn’t expect, he took off his vest and carrier system and laid it on the ground. The SUV was high enough off the ground that he could fit underneath of it as long as he didn’t have it on.