Laura 02 The God Code

by Anton Swanepoel

  “No idea Commander,” Sam responds as he scans the walkways, covering the two teams.

  Ernest looks on as the two teams methodically clear each room on each floor. The two teams are on the third floor when Edmund’s voice suddenly comes over the radio. “Shit, Commander, you need to come and have a look at this. Third floor, room 320.”

  “Be right up,” replies Ernest as he signals to Virgil to cover Sam and Tipper’s backs, who are still covering the walkways and front door respectively.

  Ernest makes his way to the stairs at the back of the lobby and up to the first floor. Taking the next set of stairs he makes his way to the second floor. As soon as he gets to the second floor, he notices two men lying on the floor, right on the stairs he has to take to reach the third floor.

  There are two sets of stairs linking each floor, and the two teams had used both to reach the next floor, thus they would have needed to step over the men. Carefully, Ernest steps over the first body, placing his left foot between the two bodies. No movement. Cautiously he continues, bringing his right foot next to his left and then steps over the second body.

  Suddenly the man below him grabs him by the legs and pulls him backwards, causing Ernest to fall and lose control of his rifle. The man is instantly on top of Ernest, trying to stab him with a knife. With his left hand, Ernest blocks the blow, while pulling his sidearm with his right and pressing it against the man’s stomach. He tries to pull the trigger, nothing. Giving a quick glance at the gun, he notices that the trigger system is damaged by shrapnel. Ernest tries to hit the man against the head with the pistol, but the man throws all his weight against Ernest’s left arm that is blocking the killing blow. Ernest drops the gun and is just in time to use both hands to block the blow, the knife touching the mike on his throat. Slowly, the knife presses harder against the mike, Ernest is losing. The mike is only temporarily blocking the knife, and is bound to break, then the knife to will slice into his throat. How much more can the mike take before the knife breaks through and cuts into his neck?

  Ernest is lying at an angle down the stairs. Looking down the man’s side. Blood drips from a bullet wound in the man’s left side, just above the hip. With all his power, Ernest brings his right knee up into the man’s side. There is a grunt sound from the man, and the pressure on the knife lessens.

  Ernest brings his knee up two more times, weakening the man enough to allow him to bring both knees up to his chest under the man. Suddenly Ernest pushes up with his legs, flipping the man up and over him, causing him to come to land on his back on the walkway’s wall. The man’s legs and lower body are dangling down, and he starts to slide over the wall. Quickly Ernest reaches behind him, while still lying down, and grabs the man by his jacket at the shoulders.

  “Tell me where the women are, or I let you fall.”

  “You will not leave this building alive.”

  “Where are the women?” Ernest allows the man to slide down an inch.

  “It does not matter, they are waiting for you. You will all die here.”

  “Where are they?” Ernest allows the man to slide another inch.

  “Allah is great!” The distinct sound of a pin being pulled from a hand grenade fills the air. Ernest quickly pushes the man over the edge. As the man tumbles down, he loses his grip on the hand grenade and it falls onto the floor just below him. The man’s body drops hard on its head, and there is a cracking sound as his neck breaks. The body falls right on top of the hand grenade, and moments later there is a muffled explosion. The body lifts a foot into the air from the shock of the explosion.

  Slowly Ernest gets up and makes his way to the third floor. Edmund and Glen are waiting for him outside the room.

  “What did you find?” Ernest asks as he approaches the men.

  “Something that should not be here. You need to see it for yourself,” Edmund replies.

  Ernest walks past the men and partly enters the room. What he sees stops him dead in his tracks. Looking over his shoulder, he speaks to Edmund. “This cannot be, how did these get here?”

  Edmund just shrugs his shoulders.

  “Sam, get up here.” Ernest commands over the radio.

  Looking forward again, Ernest steps towards the first of five tables placed in the living room. On each table is hunting jackets, twenty in total. Each with 16 pockets sewn into it, eight on the front and eight on the back. Each pocket contains a brick of C4 plastic explosives, the lettering US Army clearly visible on the top of each. Each pocket contains a separate small pocket in front of the explosives. Opening it up, Ernest is shocked to find it stuffed with balls, between three and ten milliliters in diameter. Some of the balls are made of marble, and others out of Kevlar, making them undetectable to a metal detector.

  “This is big, and I do not think they thought we would make it up here, Commander. They knew we were coming.” Edmund is standing behind Ernest as he speaks.

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Check the master bedroom down the hall.”

  Carefully Ernest walks down the hall, past the kitchen on his right and a bathroom on his left. Edmund follows him.

  “Oh shit.” Ernest looks at the bedroom wall as he speaks.

  There are only a small desk and chair in the room, but the wall opposite the door is covered with maps and pictures of different places. There are 16 different places circled on the map, and below each circle names are written. One place has five names under it.

  “I think these are the locations they intended to bomb.” Ernest turns his attention to the table as he speaks, noting a stack of passports, bundled together in two’s with a letter and some money attached to each. Ernest counts 20 bundles, and picks one up and opens the top passport.

  “This guy looks familiar; I think I passed his body in the hallway. Bob Smith according to his passport.”

  “Doesn’t look like a Bob to me,” Edmund replies, looking over Ernest’s shoulder.

  Ernest opens the second passport and frowns.

  “Interesting, Sue Smith is supposed to be her name.” He holds up the passport for Edmund to see.

  “Yeah right. What does the letter say?”

  Ernest puts the passports down on the table and opens the envelope, removing a single sheet of paper. “Your place in heaven is guaranteed if you do His will. Take the woman with you to New York. Go to the subway and stand in a busy crowd. At exactly 12:00 AM, detonate your bomb, and take your place in heaven.”

  “Wow, I bet you the girl doesn’t know it will be her last trip.”

  “I think it might be the girls we came for.”

  “In that case Commander, they might still be inside the building.”

  “Edmund, Glen check if you can find any hidden rooms or passages,” Ernest orders, turning his attention back to the wall. Both men reply with a nod only, then clear the room. Ernest waits until the men leave the room before walking over to the desk and pulls out the top drawer. What he sees makes him freeze, shock fills his face.

  “What’s wrong Commander?” Sam steps forward as he speaks, having just entered the room. He stops dead in his tracks as he looks inside the drawer. Slowly, Ernest picks up the device.

  “Is that what I think it is Commander?” Sam asks, stepping closer.

  “Yes, a dedicated Satellite phone, encrypted and linked directly to the White House. These are only to be given out to special operations when they need a secure line to the White House.”

  “So what is it doing here?”

  “I think we might have a leak in the White House, this explains how they knew we were coming. It was a setup. We were not supposed to survive. I think whoever sent us to rescue the women did not know about the bombs, but someone in the White House does and warned the men here.”

  “You know these phones need to be signed out and there are only a handful of phones in the White House that can call this phone. They’ll be able to trace the call and the person who used it when we give them the phone’s id Commander.”r />
  Ernest slowly turns the phone over. A sticker is attached to the back of the phone, stating that the phone is the property of the US Government, with an id number engraved below it.

  “We will keep this safe Sam, but now we need to find the women.”

  Just then Edmund’s voice comes over their earpieces. “Commander, we have secured all the floors and located a basement entrance.”

  “Stand by, I am on my way.” Turning to Sam he continues, “Follow me.” As he exits the room, he looks at Lester and nods with his head towards the direction of the room while speaking. “Gather all the intel in the room, we may learn when and where they are planning to attack from the information.”

  Lester enters the room as Ernest speaks and immediately stops when he sees the wall, and then replies, “The attack will be tomorrow.”

  “How do you know that?” Ernest turns around and reenters the room, looking at the wall, following Lester’s finger as he points to an area on the map circled in red, with a picture of a school below the circle.

  “That school is CamPhil School of Curative Education and Social Therapy in Pennsylvania. It is a school that caters for children with disabilities. My wife is a teacher there. They are holding a special event tomorrow, and the President is scheduled to attend. I presume the five men whose names are under the school’s picture will act as parents and enter the school undetected, then detonate their bombs when the President arrives.”

  “Not anymore.” Nelson kicks one of the dead men outside the door as he speaks. He was standing guard at the door while listening to the conversation inside.

  “Good work Lester, continue gathering the intel.”

  Ernest and Sam make their way to Edmund where he is waiting at an open door, leading into the building’s basement.

  “Lester, how is that intel gathering coming?”

  “All done Commander.”

  “Good, you and Nelson take over watch position on the third floor. Tipper, you guard the front door, Sam go check out the roof. The rest of you, on me.” Ernest waits for each team member to respond over their local communications devices, confirming their orders, before giving Edmund a nod to enter, taking point. The basement is dimly lit with a single fluorescent light in the center of the room, flickering on and off. Edmund switches on his flashlight attached to his M16 machine gun. Going into a crouching position at the bottom of the stairs, he scans the room. The room is 40 by 50 feet, and has some broken dining room chairs and tables standing around. He notices two doors on each side of the room from him, both closed, but he can see some light coming from under both doors. Lifting his left hand, he signals for Ernest to come up to him, while keeping his right hand on his weapon, ready to shoot as it hangs from its sling over his shoulder. Moments later there is a soft touch on his right shoulder as Ernest signals his arrival. Edmund points to the two doors, Ernest turns and signals the information to the men behind him. Instinctively they form two rows and make ready to slowly enter the basement.

  Ernest gives the signal to enter, and as one, two rows of men enter the room, each line going towards a door, taking position on either side of both doors. At each door, a man drops down and takes out a remote camera that will allow him to push a thin optical cable under the door and scan the room. Ernest puts the barrel of his H&K MP5N submachine gun against the door as Edmund puts the camera under the door.

  Inside the room, Osama intently stares at the door. The shooting stopped a long time ago, but no one has come down to inform him of the situation, or responded when called over his handheld radio. He suspects they are all dead and that he is the only one remaining. It is simply a matter of time before the basement is searched and he is found. Sweat drips from his forehead as fear grips him, choking him. Slowly, he looks back at the woman in the room behind him. There are 10 of them in the room, all tied up and sitting on chairs with Duct tape over their mouths. He changes the grip on the detonator in his right hand and strokes his vest, packed with explosives. Unintentionally, he locks eyes with one of the girls. Osama sees the fear in her eyes, pleading for him to release her. They were all told that they would be given American citizenship if they attended one function with a fake husband, but now they will all die with him.

  Slowly, he turns his gaze back to the door, trying to avoid the woman’s pleading eyes. Fear chokes his throat as he sees the tiny camera sticking out from under the door, looking directly at him. He wants to scream “Alla is great”, but he cannot get a word out, his lips trembling from fear.

  Instinctively, he brings his right hand up and presses the detonator. The bullet catches him dead center in the forehead, just as he has the detonator half pressed. Ernest fires again, using the monitor to aim. The second bullet catches Osama in the heart. Osama drops to his knees at the same time as Ernest kicks the door in. Quickly Ernest rushes forward and catches the terrorist as he sinks to the ground, then gently lays him down before disarming the bomb. Ten frightened young women stare at him.

  “Room secure,” Ernest speaks into the communication device and waits for the reply from the other team.

  “No hostiles detected, entering the room…..room secured…..10 women located, all bound up.”

  “Commander, we have a problem. We have hostiles moving in on our position. They are currently surrounding the building, all heavily armed.” Sam’s Voice is calm as he speaks, looking over a two foot high brick wall that runs around the edge of the building’s flat roof.

  “Roger that, we are bringing the women to the main lobby, keep me informed.”

  After freeing the 10 women in his room, Ernest leads them into the basement where they join the women from the other room. As they lead the women to the main lobby, one touches Ernest on the shoulder and speaks. “Gracias senor por liberandonos. Por favor, ?tiene agua?”

  “Si si,” Ernest replies, as he takes a canteen of water from his belt and hands it to the woman. The moment the other women see that there is water, all plead to have a sip.

  “Canteens out,” Ernest orders his men, while he takes a snack bar from his hip pocket. The woman’s eyes fill with tears when he hands her the bar. Suddenly she steps forward and hugs Ernest, tears flowing freely. Ernest tries to tell his men to give the girls some of their food, but there is a lump in his throat from the woman’s reaction. However, the order is not necessary as his men follow his lead and are already starting to open their backpacks and hand out some of their rations.

  “How are we going to get out of here Commander?” Edmund is standing next to Ernest, looking at the women as he speaks, then turns to Ernest before continuing. “It will be too dangerous to try to run for it with the women.”

  “We will call for help.”

  “The radio is fried Commander. We did not locate any land lines, and unless you did not hand in your cell, we have no communication.”

  “Nope, they took my cell as well, you know the procedures.”

  “Okay, I’m waiting.”

  “The Sat phone.”

  “You’re going to call the White House to ask for support?”

  “The order did come directly from the President, right?”

  “Supposed to.”

  “Well then, let’s see who answers the phone.”

  The phone has only a power switch that also controls the volume, and two buttons, one to make a call and one to end the call.

  The phone has a dedicated line with the White House, with the number preprogrammed in, preventing anyone from obtaining the number should the phone fall into the wrong hands. Ernest presses the green button labeled “Call” and waits as he listens to the phone ringing on the other end.

  ***

  President Abraham stares intently at Secretary of Defense Jerry Reed’s cell phone. He had left it carelessly on the table with his notes, as he quickly went outside the room to deal with another matter. The phone is ringing for the fourth time now, and Abraham decides to answer it.

  “Hello, this is the Secretary of Defense Jerry Reed
’s phone.” The other people in the room make no comment as he answers, but he can see their disapproval of him invading Reed’s privacy by answering his cell phone.

  “Is this Secretary of Defense Jerry Reed?” There is hesitation in the person’s voice.

  “No, this is President Abraham. The Secretary of Defense is currently unavailable. Who are you and how did you get this number? Do not lie, this call is already being traced.” Abraham snaps his fingers as he says the words and a technician immediately starts entering information on his terminal to trace the call.

  “This is Seal Commander Ernest, Sir. We are currently deployed and executing mission Irene. We were ambushed, and need immediate Evac.” Ernest decides not to mention yet how he obtained the Sat phone.

  “You are the Seal team who went to rescue those women in Sector X?”

  “That is affirmative Sir. Package located. Also found a terrorist cell and plans for an attack on US targets, including you Sir.”

  “My GOD son, when are the attacks planned for?”

  “Tomorrow Sir. Hostile force eliminated, located 20 suicide bombs Sir.”

  President Abraham stares at the technician’s screen as he listens to Ernest talking. Tracing the call is fast and easy as it is a dedicated Sat phone. The screen shows an abandoned hotel, exactly where the team was sent.

  “What is your status Commander?”

  “Sir, I have three men KIA, three wounded. Package secure and unharmed. Perimeter set, but we are surrounded by around 200 armed forces. We need extraction Sir.”

  Abraham looks again at the monitor, showing a thermal image of the building. He taps on the screen, and the view zooms out. Abraham gasps. Multiple red dots are moving all around the building, indicating heat signatures. It looks like an ants’ nest that was kicked and is now coming alive.

  “Commander, it is a negative on extraction on your current location.” President Abraham taps on the monitor again, causing the view to zoom out more.

  “Commander, there is an open field two blocks from you, find a way there and we will be able to pick you up. We will monitor your progress from here and send support as soon as we see you are on the move. Give us two hours to scramble some choppers before you move.”