“Hello Dad,” David said, “I have Tim and all I am asking for is President Carter. That’s it. Just her, if we don’t receive her within eight hours, we will execute him over this helmet cam. Also, either way we are coming through this territory whether you like it or not. Might as well have Tim, right? I am being fair here, I am tired of dealing with you liberal propagandists, it will be easier for me when I wipe all of you from the face of the Earth. Like your team here.”
David ripped the helmet off of the camera, throwing the helmet down into the pit. Showing them his work.
Four hours later
“Any instructions on the turnover?” Givens asked.
Mal shook his head.
“That’s the thing, this was never going to be something he would do, he gave us no instructions. We can’t follow through.”
Givens sat back in her chair as Carter sat back in her chair and sighed.
“You should tell them you will turn me over,” Carter said.
“No,” Mal and Givens said in unison.
Mal looked over to her and gave her an open gesture to go ahead.
“We can’t do that,” Givens said, “They will kill everyone on this side of the wall if they get control of the AEGIS.”
Mal was in bad position: he wanted to save his friend, he really did but, he wanted to save the people in Mount Vernon more.
“We have to be patient, they expected me to reply to this emotionally, instead I think we should wait to see who will blink first. I think it is much more likely for them to try and use him for access to data or information more than swap him for something they know we will never give up for him. None of it makes sense,” Carter said.
Astute observation. No average human can make that calculation, Mal thought.
Mal got up from the seat of the most secure building in the state, the BANS headquarters in Mount Vernon.
“I am going to take the perch for the night,” Mal said, “I know what to look for from both of them if they are going to get in here.”
“That Jace lady is already up there,” Givens said, “she said to tell you that she expected them to use force after creating a diversion.”
Mal shook his head.
“I don’t buy it,” Mal said, “I think more than likely they try a diversion but use it to slip inside. They won’t send in their camera boys, neither David or Carl. Two others will enter here and try grabbing Carter. No matter what we do, they are going to kill Tim. We might as well square that down right away and get over it.”
“It’s your friend, Boss,” Givens stated, “are you okay with letting him die?”
“No, if given a chance to save him, we will but…David won’t give us that opportunity. Maybe a fake one, but not a real chance.”
Mal turned to put a bottle of scotch on the table.
“Commander Givens, you are dismissed, I will be President Carter’s personal guard. I don’t think they are going to make their way inside this place, do you?”
She shook her head and walked out of the room.
“Would you like a glass?” Mal asked Carter.
She nodded back to him. Mal turned around and picked the two crystal glasses off of the cabinet.
“Ya know what I like about Scotch? It only gets better with age. I am sure in some ways one could say the same about wine but after a while, it comes to a point that it just sours. Not whiskey though, this bottle is almost 145 years old.”
“Where did you get a 145 year old bottle of scotch?”
“Queen of England saving.”
“Did the King send you this?”
Mal nodded to her.
In the attack in 2027, the attack on Parliament took out all of the Royal Family and Parliament, the only members that weren’t present were the two who left. Making Harry King of England, they gave more broad powers to the king at Large ever since.
“You aren’t going to let me go, are you?” She asked.
“No, if I let you go, Tim would come back and murder me himself.”
Mal pulled his pistol out of his leg holster, not to intimidate here, he was going to put on a show. To the average person his pistol wouldn’t be very useful but for Mal the pistol was his most deadly weapon. Spinning the pistol in his hands and into his reverse grip and then spinning it back into a more traditional grip.
“To the old man and his gun,” Carter raised her glass. Mal returned the gesture but didn’t drink from his glass.
He hadn’t taken a sip at all once as he put his pistol back in his leg holster and then took a long sip from his scotch.
“That is most definitely strong,” Mal said, “that shit could peel the paint off a wall.”
“That it could,” Carter stated between coughs.
Mal was a specialist in a form of fighting that is called Systema, also known as “The System”. Systema isn’t exactly as useful with a rifle or what not but as he aged, his gun-fighting wasn’t something he could do on the regular. Systema only comes out if it’s really important, if it’s life or death.
“So you use the System?” Carter asked.
“Yeah, I learned it back in the Navy,” Mal said, “back when there was a Navy.”
“I have seen you fight,” Carter said, “and I know the System. I have never seen you use it.”
Mal stretched his shoulders.
“How many people do you know who use it into their late-40s?”
“Fair,” She said while sipping back a scotch.
“It’s not like I am walking around and purposely not using this amazing skill to stop us from winning or something,” Mal said, “I just can’t use it in long bursts and I have needed bigger fire power recently.”
Carter smiles and then starts to respond, then stops. Mal recognized that same blank stare in her eyes, like she was working out a problem.
She’s doing my thing, that doesn’t compute to me, I thought I just did that because it’s how I think.
“Sorry,” Carter said as her eyes came back to life, “I do that when I solve a problem. I don’t think your son has any intentions of returning Commander Carpenter.”
“Why?”
“He’s attempting to make you emotional. Get in your head…tell me, are the stories about The Wolf true?”
Great.
“What do you mean?”
Putting the glass of Scotch down, she looked at Malcolm Daniels and stared at him, pulling the pill box out of his pocket, Mal threw the four pills he had to take at this time of day now that he had restarted taking his medications.
“I hear when you see something awful, you lose it. You lose control and all sense of self. You attack and kill people the most brutal way any of us could imagine.”
“Maybe.” Mal said. “I don’t want to be a war criminal.”
“You are already a war criminal, you just haven’t been taken in, Commander Daniels.” The President retorted.
“Well, arrest me then.” Mal retorted.
“No, I would never allow that. The world needs people like you, you’re a garbage man. You take out the trash and scare the other trash. Send them back to their hidey-holes. Inspiring fear is a trait I don’t like but, it’s still needed.”
Mal turned his head and looked out the window of the room as an intelligence worker ran by followed by another, then a person slipping on their Vest.
“What’s going on outside, Jace?” Mal asked his hand on his Ear bud.
“Your son is here,” Jace said, “I have a firing solution.”
Mal rubbed his hands around his face. Conflicting feelings were spread across his face like mustard on a hamburger.
“Keep him scoped up,” Mal said, “everyone stay away from him.”
Mal turned to Carter as she got up to follow him.
“He’s here isn’t he?” Dianna Carter asked.
“Yep,” Mal said as he grabbed her hand, “everything is going to be fine though. I promise.”
Mal attached the other end of the handcuff to her hand,
the other already attached to the table’s metal frame. Since the table was built into the ground he was sure she wouldn’t be going out on some adventure. Mal turned to the security system and armed it.
“Cute, Commander,” She said, “but the next time you bring handcuffs, make sure you don’t leave a girl waiting.”
Is she really hitting on me right now?
Mal chuckled and left as the steel slats fell back down, making the room impenetrable. Just in case his son was using himself as a distraction to pull her out of the building.
“This is really dumb by the way!” She screamed as he walked to the outside corridor following it until he was greeted by the outside air blowing into the front door of the courthouse.
“Sir, we have him lined up but he has no weapon and hasn’t been aggressive, he says he wants to talk to you.” Said a soldier.
Mal walked up the steps, up into the foyer.
“Jace, keep an eye on the other side of the building,” Mal said into his ear-piece before turning to the soldier, “split your team and keep an eye on the other side of the courthouse.”
“Why?” Jace asked.
“Just a gut instinct.” Mal retorted.
Mal walked to the front door of the courthouse and unhooking his back-up sidearm from his ankle. Unwrapping the small Walther handgun from his ankle, he put the gun on safe and placed it in his pocket, keeping his left hand on it.
I could wing him, maybe?, Mal asked himself.
Mal opened the door, with his thumbs perched on the lips of his pockets of his tactical pants. Dave was standing thirty feet away on the street with no weapon and a brown leather jacket. His hands inside the jacket.
Got to assume he has his hands on something in there, Mal thought, It’s about sixty-five degrees out tonight. There’s no reason for him to have a jacket on.
“Why hello, Dad,” David said, “Came by for a second to pick up something you have that belongs to me.”
“You know I can’t do that David,” Mal said as Dave chuckled.
David smiled back at his father.
“It appears we are at an impasse father,” David said.
“No, you don’t have to do this, you don’t have to kill Tim, you don't have to hurt anyone else. You can come home, David. Where there are still people who care about you, I care about you!”
The thought flickered in front of David’s mind. Almost like a person who has a migraine but Mal knew what it was.
It’s not working. The Hero said to Mal.
You don’t know that, Mal and The Wolf said in unison.
The signs of mental conditioning or brainwashing actual breaking aren’t like they seem in the movies, that flash in his eyes wasn’t a sign of what Mal wanted to see. They were signs of the conditioning that Quinn had put him under, overriding what David would normally do.
“You have three minutes to bring out president Carter and I can execute her or I will kill Commander Carpenter.”
The shuffling of the other BANS members wasn’t lost on Mal. Tim was beloved among his troops and the community, Mal knew he could have a problem on his hands if people allowed their emotions to take over.
“Under no circumstances can we allow her to be taken,” Mal said, “you know that. I can’t let you gain access to the weapons that your political friend wants to use to level this town.”
Mal was managing the anger of his subordinates, explaining his decision-making before someone gets up in their ass about this.
“Mal,” Jace said as Mal’s earpiece came to life, “we have a problem. There’s an assault team on the other side of the building, hanging out across the street in that old banks substructure.”
Knew this was a distraction, Mal thought.
Mal turned to the five men on his left.
“Go around back, set up defensive positions,” Mal said before turning back to David.
“David, I am very impressed but there’s one thing you didn’t think about when this all started, what are you going to do if I just pull my gun on you?”
David paced around maddeningly, a movement that seemed very familiar to Malcolm.
“I don’t think I will have that problem,” David said, “How will you take me when you are going to be so busy?”
“With your assault team across the street at the bank?”
David smirked back at Mal.
“That and the fire,” David said as he gripped something inside his jacket and a barrel exploded next to Mal and picked him off the ground.
He flew to the right and through a window into the courthouse.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Crisis begins
Mal rolled over to his side and back up to his feet and then saw exactly what David was doing, the outside of the building had caught fire from what looked like…
“Napalm?” Mal said as he looked at the gobs of Napalm against the wall.
“Mal! They are moving in, what are your orders?”
“Open fire!” Mal said as he heard the clap of the sniper rifle as Jace fired on the assault group as they headed towards the courthouse.
Mal walked towards the open door of what used to be the county assessor’s office and saw members leaving the building. Wallis ran up to him as the others left, the fire hadn’t actually entered the main corridor and was only in the one side. He was extraordinarily lucky that the intial force threw him across the hall from the fire.
“You have one minute to exit the building, Halon 1301 systems will be activated in one minute and 15 seconds.”
“We gotta go boss,” Wallis said grabbing Mal’s hand.
He knows she’s downstairs, Mal thought as he pushed her away and towards the door.
“Go,” Mal said, “don’t worry about me.”
Mal ran down the stairs towards the steel protected room, knowing he wouldn’t have time to get out. He put his finger print on the door and then turned around to the supply closet behind him.
It’s in the back, near the guns.
Mal ran to the back where he met a lock over the locker door, drawing his pistol from his holster and covering his face he fired into the lock as it fell off the door and onto the ground.
“45 Seconds until Halon 1301 dispersal.”
Mal ran to the back of the armory and grabbed the two handheld oxygen tanks. Mal turned around and grabbed a reflective blanket that is used for surviving in the wilderness.
Now that’s a good idea, Mal thought as he picked up the blanket and started running back to the hallway.
As he came back to the hallway the steel slats had drawn up from the protected room.
“Quick, breath through this!” Mal said as he handed her the personal oxygen tank, throwing the blanket over the two of them.
“Halon Dispersal beginning,” the robotic voice said as he heard the oxygen depressing gas was let loose in the building.
Mal had just barely saved their lives. During dispersal that gas come down with a foam that would smother all oxygen in the room and put out any fire. The sprinklers fire for a minute until the foam covered the blanket that the two were using to cover them. Mal pulled out the handcuff key and unlocked Carter’s wrist.
Just a waiting game now.
Outside the Courthouse
Ten Minutes Later
“We have to go back in there, they could still be alive,” Wallis said as she walked towards the door and Jace pushed against her.
“If they’re alive now, they will be alive in a minute,” Jace said, “Don’t do something stupid to help Mal. He wouldn’t want you to do that.”
Wallis stopped as the foam stopped falling from the ceiling. It would take at least half an hour for the gas to dissipate, Wallis sat down on the ground and waited as Jace sat next to her.
“You think he survived?” Wallis asked.
“If there’s anyone who could, it’s him,” Jace said.
“How did you two meet?” Wallis asked her.
It wasn’t a fun story.
2035
>
Coronado Beach, California
“OOOOO!” Exclaimed the crowd, as the tall giant of a Sailor fell down to his knees, Jace drove her knee across his face.
“Don’t mess with the Air Force squids, anyone else want to take a crack at the female?” She tauntingly asked.
The large ones moved out of the way, making a hole in the crowd as a just barely above average man came through.
“I think I’ll take a crack at it.” Malcolm Daniels said.
“Okay, shrimp. You just saw me take down Goliath, the Squids sends me another David?” Jace taunted.
“Something like that…” The crowd that was once rambunctious began to move away, looking at her not in anger but…fear, for her. “come on, let’s see what you got.”
Mal stayed back with his hands down, confusing Jace. He didn’t move forward or move his feet at all. She danced in and out, feinting an attack like she was going to throw her hands. A perfect set-up as she faked a right straight, spinning to her left leg and dropping a leg kick she learned from Muay Thai class that had dropped one of the larger men earlier. It landed hard, into Mal’s shin. His leg lifted and arms still down by his side, as the smack of the two legs colliding was met by Ooo’s and Aww’s by the crowd.
“Damn…” she limped back.
“I was actually excited for a second. Thought you may be able to, push me just a little.” Mal said. “You though…not yet.”
Present day
“Picked me apart for ten minutes,” Jace said, “That is exactly the reason why, I know he’s not dead. That guy…he adapts.”
She stared at the foam as it started to disappear, the foam was also used as a way to tell outside people if it was safe to return.Wallis stared into the hallway of the corridor until she saw a glimmer enter up the staircase. A reflection that was thrown away as the two shadows exited the Building.
“Mal!” Wallis screamed.
Carter and Mal had two personal oxygen tanks in their hands. Mal pulled away his oxygen tank as he saw them come up.
“Did you get them?” Mal asked Jace.
“We repelled them,” Jace said, “David got out of here after he tried to burn down the courthouse.”
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