We need to get a good look at him when he shoots so we confirm his shot location, Mal thought.
Crawling along the ground he slipped out under the car and under the one next to it.
There really wasn’t anything in this parking garage a couple of years ago, have to assume that the Sons have rigged all of these cars, Mal thought.
There was a wire running just off the ground next to the cars, with C4 attached to the wheel well of each car. Mal looked at the detonator and blasting caps. It was a newer version of an older detonator but there was a tension switch in it. The average person would have cut this and it would have blown sky high and with all of the explosives pointed away from the sniper, they would remain alive.
Almost impressed with this level of planning for someone who is most likely not a professional, Mal thought as he grabbed the wire and pulled the detonator out at the same time.
The tension switch would have detonated the explosive if Mal had cut the wire so instead he held the wire tight and removed it from the C4 block. So even if the detonator got the signal to explode, nothing would happen because of a lack of fuel. Mal rolled out underneath the truck and pressed the button in his left hand three times.
Wallis was activating a drone in the North building when she got the signal, an old Roomba attached to an old statue on a dark floor of the hotel. Mal knew that if they were staring at the hotel’s top floors right now, that would draw their attention. No shots were fired.
I guess our High-burst comms are fine, Mal thought as he clicked his radio again, we have a mole problem.
A similar drone activated on the south side of the Ford Center.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The sniper’s rifle jammed as he grumbled at it. Mal got up and approached the back side of the truck bed, raising his rifle at the sniper as the sniper rolled over. Face aghast the sniper as he realized that he had been had.
“Don’t fuckin’ move.” Mal said.
“Okay,” The Sniper said as Jace approached from behind.
Mal saw the sniper had a detonator attached to a wire in his left hand and suddenly pushed the button as he then assumed a protective position.
“I am guessing the bomb not going off would probably be surprising.” Jace said as she walked up on the other side of the truck bed.
“Let’s see those hands,” Mal said, “If you look at me the wrong way, I am going to kill you. I am not joking, I will murder you.”
Mal kicked the sniper rifle onto the ground and grabbed the scrawny Sniper by his collar and ripped him out of the truck bed and onto the pavement. Slamming his knee into the Sniper’s back, the Sniper let out a groan as the breath his body was shot out. Reaching behind him, Mal grabbed a set of Zip ties and slipped them around his hands behind his back. Jace patted down the snipers body on the outside until he found the radio.
“Who told you that we were coming?” Mal asked.
“No one told me anything,” The Sniper said, “I got a message from our informant from the inside.
“What else do you know?”
“Nothing, I sit up here all fuckin’ day and they just told me to fire at whatever they tell me to fire at. I just am here to do my j-” The sniper said as his head exploded into viscera as Jace pumped a pistol round into his head.
“He’s just a gun,” Jace said, “There is no amount of interrogation that’s getting blood from that stone.”
“Let’s try to not execute people mid-sentence,” Mal said.
This whole situation is hard on Jace, these people legitimately hate her for existing. This isn’t a partisan squabble over what theory should be used in government, this is about whether Jace should be allowed to exist, that’s not politics: that’s genocide.
“Wait until they finish next time,” Mal said as the snipers body twitched on the ground underneath the two, forcing Jace and him to reactionarily fire two more rounds into the sniper.
He reached down and picked up his vest with carrier system and wrapped it around his body.
“We ziplining from here?” Jace asked.
“Yes,”Mal said as Jace pulled the line gun from her vest.
Jace eyeballed calculus and found a good spot, she then lifted the pistol and fired. The anchor was designed to magnetically attach to steel reinforced buildings or drill into Concrete buildings. The anchor caught the steel beam on the top of the Ford Center and tightened.
“Hell of a shot, Jace,” He said as she slammed the anchor into the concrete ceiling of the garage.
She attached her vest to the rope and glided down towards the Ford Center. Mal waited for her to land at the top of the large stadium as she detached her carabiner and rolled through onto the ground like the gymnast she used to be. Looking side-to-side she looked the area up and down before the most subtle of head pulls and Mal attached his vest and shot down through the air. Mal didn’t like being thrown the air like a cannonball he just did it when he had absolutely had to.
Here it comes, Mal said as his feet cleared the lip of the building, unlike Jace: I was never a gymnast.
Mal detached his carabiner and slid, butt first until he came to an abrupt stop at the Air conditioner.
“I give it a 4.5,” Jace joked as Mal rolled over from his side to push himself to his feet. He rolled his eyes back at her as he raised to his feet.
“I am close to being finished here Mal,” Wallis said over the high burst transmitter, “where should I look after I am done?”
Mal didn’t have a true answer for that other than something he had assumed from the beginning.
“Close shot in BANS local control station from the same location that the warning came from presumably,” Mal said.
“You guys took out the Sniper-” Wallis started to say.
“They don’t know that,” Mal interrupted.
Wallis sighed through the radio.
“You didn’t tell them that, did you?”
“Absolutely not,” Mal said, “It was pretty obvious to me from the beginning that something wasn’t right here.”
“How could you have possibly figured that out?”
“BANS only showed up after we escaped with Raynor, we saw that there had been a few shots fired during their initial showdown there, so you are telling me that in the hours they were hiding in there it took them about 20 minutes to make it across town and set up a perimeter? Why didn’t they show up before this? Who made that call? Why did it take them this long? How did they not notice that there were Sons right across the street? There’s just too many questions for me to trust them.”
“You think they are all on the other side?”
“I doubt it,” Mal retorted, “there’s one really smart person in a building full of dumb people in my opinion. I don’t think anyone could keep that amount of people under control with a secret. If all of these people knew they were working for the Sons: it would be out as a rumor at least. No, we are talking about a singular person pulling people’s strings.”
“Oooookay, Commander Carpenter is not going to be happy,” Wallis responded, “Everyone is tagged and the surprise is implanted exactly as you asked.”
Mal pushed down the night-vision goggle as the Friend or Foe system came alive, lighting up Foes in red as they are tagged and allies in Blue as they stack up near the West door. Mal looked at the hole in the glass and slipped down into the stadium. Jace waited at the top as Mal looked around, checking for any missed hostiles. A large red number was highlighted in the left part of Mal’s Friend or foe eye piece.
“47 hostiles detected.”
More than I thought, Mal thought as he slipped into the building riding a rope down to the second floor of the Ford Center, Like I said with Tim, they have way more than eighty people here. They have been hiding in plain sight.
The concourse only had two floors, it used to have sports events like Basketball and hockey or musicians there every week who would be visited by thousands of people but now it housed
forty-seven terrorists.
“I have three hostiles monitoring the perimeter,” Wallis said, “I have no heat indicators in the bathrooms so that should be all you have to deal with.”
Mal clicked his radio twice to acknowledge and then screwed on the suppressor on his pistol. The pistol was a last resort, even with a suppressor on, it would be loud enough to draw attention. Mal put the pistol back in his leg holster, making it available if actually necessary. Mal looked at the floor below him and saw two of the hostiles with one on their floor at the other end.
Using hand signals, Mal communicated to Jace to get out of sight. Mal pulled his punch knife out of his belt holster and took cover behind a stand. The man walked as if he had no idea he was about to die, Mal grabbed him and covered his mouth as he walked by with his right hand and then stabbed him four times in the jugular and eye. Mal turned his eye to the end of the walkway as he saw Jace slipped down the stairs, waiting for the one on the end to get close enough for her to pull over and kill. She grabbed him by the hanging tab on his Tactical vest ripping him over the railing and stabbed him through the heart repetitively until the man stopped moving. The blood of the two victims spread down the two sides of the stairs like a crimson growth.
“That is one deadly woman,” Wallis said over the radio.
Mal clicked his radio twice to acknowledge. He slipped down the stairs to meet the last guard as he was walking past, the guard saw him before he could be prepared and drew his firearm. Mal kicked his rifle back and stabbed him in the throat and pushed the punch knife straight through his spine.
“We are clear,” Mal said over the radio, “Everyone still needs to keep conversation to a minimum.”
Tye passed Mal as he entered the building.
“I will give you a signal to open fire,” Mal said.
Tye nodded as Mal passed. Mal ran up on Trevor.
“Trevor, Split your team here in 1/3 and set them up over here, to push them out onto the street,” Mal said.
Trevor nodded.
“I will take my squad and set up shop there,” Trevor said while pointing to the concourse where some would run out from the stands..
“Don’t stop firing until they hit the street, you don’t have to be overly effective just overwhelm them with fire power,” Mal said while pointing at the Mini-gun, “You have that in spades.”
Mal stacked up with the men on the right tunnel entrance that heads to the floor of the ford center.
“Wallis, status?”
“Everyone is tagged,” She said.
“Tye, Jace you ready?”
“Check-rog,” Tye responded.
“Snipers, throw flash-bangs in 30 seconds.”
Mal got out a smoke grenade and took a look into the stadium floor. About forty-ish men laid asleep, not exactly an even firefight if all skills were the same. Unfortunately for them, their skills weren’t the same and BANS had the element of surprise Mal pulled the pin and tossed it down the Tunnel to the floor, creating a smoke cloud.
“SMOKE!!!” one man screamed.
“Toss ‘em,” Mal said.
Mal thought the smoke would wake them enough to be hit with the flash-bang,
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
“Focus fire!” Mal said into the cloud of smoke.
They emptied magazine after Magazine into the cloud of smoke, Mal could hear the returned fire through the smoke but all he could see where the tagged enemies either falling or running to the exit on the east side up the stairs into the concourse.
“Enemies incoming, Trevor!”
“Already got ‘em spinning,” Trevor said as he mentioned the spinning barrels on the mini-gun he carried.
Mal turned to the Squad leaders behind him.
“Press cover-to-cover and run them out onto the street,” They nodded and ran forward.
Mal turned and went back down the outside hallway of the stadium to Trevor’s position. Mal sprinted towards their position as the “BRRRT” of Trevor’s Mini-gun can be heard as enemies run down the stairs to get out to the streets. Mal took cover to the left of him and reloaded his rifle with a different magazine. He turned and fired as blind shots came in as some of the Sons returned fired. Mal took cover right before a bullet buzzed right through where his head was. Trevor wasn’t as lucky as a bullet went right through his armor and into his chest. Mal turned to see if there were any enemies still there.
“Rest of you guys advance except the Medic,” Mal told them pointing to the man with a Red Cross on his pack.
Mal crawled over to Trevor, and ripped off his armor to ascertain where he was hit.
“Medic, he’s hit in the chest and needs a needle T to depressurize his lung,” Mal put his hand out and realized no one was there.
Mal talked into his radio.
“I need a medic in the Hallway on the side of the stadium, immediately,” Mal said.
He hadn’t carried a first aid kit for this assault because he didn’t think it would be necessary with the medics actually there. Trevor began stirring as he realized his lungs were filling up with blood. The plural space would eventually fill around his lungs, literally making him drown to death in his own blood. Mal grabbed his hand.
“Stay with me, kid,” Mal said, “help is on the way.”
Trevor gasped to breathe, blood filling his lung but got out a few words.
“How bad is it?”
Mal didn’t like to lie but he needed to give this kid some semblance of hope.
“Probably feels worse than it is, just hang on.”
Mal could feel Trevor’s hand strength weakening,
“I need a medic here, right now,” Mal screamed, “Break away from the assault force and get here right NOW!”
Trevor smirked.
“Did we win?” Trevor asked
“We won,” Mal said, “now you hang on so we can celebr-…”
Trevor’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as his hands went limp. Mal punched the floor, a futile effort as all it did was hurt his hand. SEALs aren’t trained to be successful adults, they may be very successful in many things because of their abilities to always discipline themselves and understanding how the world works on a literal level. They aren’t trained to deal with their emotions well though, they are trained to lock it down and forget it. Pushing everything down until they have an outburst.
“I have a nine-line casualty in the concourse,” Mal said over the radio.
A young man with a Red Cross patch on his chest ran up, his radio outside of his ear.
“We got them!”
Mal grabbed him by the chest and threw him against a wall.
“Too bad you didn’t do your job and got your squad leader killed,” Mal furiously spat at the man.
Mal threw the kid to the ground as Tye walked up and saw Trevor on the ground, looked at Mal who stared back at Tye, not with the eyes of the man that Tye first met. These were the eyes of a cold-blooded killer.
“Enough!” Tye said as he pushed back on Mal with his arms, wrapping them around him in a hug.
“That’s what’s fucking wrong with all of you morons!” Mal exclaimed as a crowd had started to form, “You are more concerned with being heroes than doing your fucking jobs.This isn’t a video game, if you fuck up, you may not be the one who pays for it. That’s not fair, but it’s the reality. You have to realize, you are part of a team. One team, One fight. You all don’t have to get the kill, everyone has a job to do,” Mal started to realize he was ranting and repeating himself and he walked over to Trevor and threw his gigantic frame over his shoulders.
“Let me help you,” Tye said as Mal pushed his hand out. Practically a stiff arm that hit Tye in the chest. The message was clear: just don’t.
It was like carrying a whale on his shoulders but, he starts taking step-after-step. Mal slips down to knee as Tye grabbed Trevor’s feet, to lighten the load. They walked out into the night time air as a stretcher appeared from outside, th
ey slid his body onto it. Mal stood there for a long moment, Mal hadn’t known Trevor but for a couple of hours. He could see himself in him when he was younger, when he would jump into fights with no plans.
“He was a good kid,” Mal heard over his shoulder from a familiar voice.
“Yeah, he was Tim,” Mal said, “I just met him but I had taken a liking to him.”
“When I talked with him, he would take extensive notes like he was hearing straight from the voice of god. If he only knew that he was just answering for our mistakes currently,” Tim said as he walked next to Mal.
Tim wasn’t wrong, there was a bevy of opportunities for Mal’s generation to clear away the issues that caused these problems.
“It feels like in this country that you carry the sins of your father, the sins of his father and the sins of his father more than ever. We had the opportunity to fix these problems but we kicked it down the road one generation after another. I am not a person with the solution but I think we need to find one.”
Tim wrapped his arm around Mal’s shoulder and moved him away from Trevor as they placed a sheet over the only casualty of the operation.
“Wallis, what is the situation here?” Tim asked.
“Our mole is gone,” Wallis said, “They took off in a car thirty seconds after the assault into the Ford Center.”
Mal sighed.
After all this it still didn’t give me anything of value other than a trip straight into the belly of the beast, Mal thought as a lightbulb went off.
He turned to Tim and looked for the young officer who had challenged them when extracting Raynor, he found her face with blood across her cheek as she took a seat on the concrete wall next to the sidewalk.
“You! What is your name?” Mal asked as Tim approached behind him.
She looked annoyed as Malcolm just ran up on her, the look of a junior officer about to tell a Senior NCO what they were supposed to call them. The young woman was the woman from the convoy. That look dissipated like a mist into the wind as she saw Tim walk behind him in stride.
Monsters Page 12