A New World: Reckoning

by John O'Brien

  “How about the size? Won’t something that large be seen?” Robert asks.

  “Most of the equipment is small and not bulky. It will look like part of the camera system to an untrained eye,” Harold answers.

  “Okay, I want you in the aircraft with us in case we need your expertise. Now, once there, I’ll gain entrance and proceed to the security room. As shown, there is a stairwell down connecting with a longish hallway to another door, which is the actual entrance into the facility. The security room is past the door and down another long hallway, the exit tunnel. This door will be a secure one, most likely having some sort of keypad or keycard entryway with another camera. Getting there will be more difficult but, as you can see on the maintenance diagrams, there are large conduits along the hall which can hopefully be utilized. The camera, if there is one, I’ll bypass in the same manner as the first,” I say.

  “If you’re talking about a secure entrance like that, how are you going to bypass the encryption? I mean, aren’t those kind of doors magnetically locked?” Frank asks.

  “More than likely. However, high heat will break down magnets. I won’t go into the how but I’ve found that magnesium strips work quite well for this. We can find those in just about any school science lab. Just wedge a small strip in the door and light it. The only drawback is that it creates an intense light but, with an inward opening door, that won’t be seen on the other side,” I respond.

  I continue, “Once past that, the worry will be any roving patrols that they might have. Luckily, it’s only a short distance. The security room looks small so I’m guessing there are only a couple, three at the most, in there. I’ll gain entrance, take them out, set the fence cameras on playback, and signal for the teams. Robert will be parked in an orbit away from the complex with Lynn and the teams. Once I give the signal, he’ll land nearby and the teams will disembark, heading through the fence and inside, eventually meeting me at the security room. Then we’re onto the next phase.”

  “Jack, what about if they have a duplicate security room or a duplicate monitoring location?” Frank asks.

  “This has to be the main security room, assuming the diagrams are accurate, and I’ll have control of the cameras. All of the entrances we’ll be using will be running a loop and therefore show nothing. And I’ll figure out the playback system once I’m there. It won’t be that difficult as I’m sure they made the system easy to use along those lines. After all, they’ll need some way to quickly play back something that catches their notice,” I reply. “If, at any point we run against a snag that we can’t circumvent, we’ll pull back. At this point, that won’t be too difficult. That will change though once we get the teams inside. Those will be led by Lynn.”

  “Okay, although I’m a little leery of this, I’m with you so far. What do we do next, assuming we get the teams inside?” Lynn asks.

  “Here’s the kind of ‘play it by ear’ part,” I say.

  “I knew it. I knew there had to be some part of the plan that involved that. You aren’t capable of planning something without it,” Lynn states.

  “Well, there has to be a quick response force located somewhere. I’m guessing it has to be either in one of the rooms close to the security room, or near the control center, perhaps even within it. If they’re by the security room, we need to take them out quietly if possible. One of the good things about secure bunkers is their thick walls which will keep any sound from traveling far. If they have interior cameras set up, once we take over the security shop, we’ll be able to identify where they are. So, the next step will be locating this force and eliminating them. We’ll then move en masse to the large vehicle storage bay. You can see, according to the diagram, that everything is centered around that bay. From there we’ll fan out. There are exits on all four sides. There are three halls leading to the south which looks like they are the quarters for the security forces. Lynn, you’ll lead four teams to cover those exits, setting a series of claymores inside the hallways if possible. We’ll be going in at night so most of them will likely be there. There is another hallway which leads to what appears to be maintenance areas, the generators and such. We’ll need this covered as well. Horace, you’ll take your Blue Team and take over the control room which is off the bay on the western side. Watkins, you’ll cover the entrance tunnel we emerge from and provide a reserve force. I’ll take Red Team and cover the wide northern corridor leading from the bay. We’ll neutralize the security forces, or at least hold them in place, take over the control room, and sweep the rest of the facility,” I brief.

  “And you thought of this while we were sitting here?” Lynn asks.

  “Well, it needs some fine tuning but, yes,” I reply.

  “Seems kind of risky to me. I mean, the teams will all be trapped inside if something goes wrong,” Frank states. “This plan makes a few assumptions which may or may not be true. What if they run into any patrols?”

  “Once we’re on the move, anyone we see goes down. We move quickly and flow into positions before they can react. The hallway providing the entrance to the security forces will provide for a narrow enfilade in which we can hold them. They won’t be able to come out due to our overwhelming fire into those exits,” I state. “Anyone in the bay itself we take down before they know we’re there.”

  “What about the eastern exit?” Watkins asks.

  “That looks to be a large one for the vehicles to exit so I doubt we’ll see anyone coming from there. I don’t see any other exits from the bay other than a lift and possibly the main entrance elevator and stairwell on the western side. Watkins will cover those as well seeing they are adjacent to the escape tunnel entrance.”

  “I honestly don’t know, Jack. Like I said, it seems awful risky. If the teams get trapped in that bay, it will be the end of them,” Frank says.

  “Look, it is risky. But if we don’t do something, it will be the end of us anyway. Like I mentioned, come spring, without the Spooky, we’ll be done for. And that’s not counting what else may happen between now and then. We may not last that long. We’ll effectively be trapped in this compound and reacting to whatever they may try,” I counter.

  “You know, for once, I’m with Jack on this. Even though his ‘plans’ give me a gut ache, this one at least seems feasible. There are a lot of ‘ifs’ and we can pull out before committing the teams if something goes wrong.” Turning to me, Lynn asks, “Jack, is it possible that you can truly circumvent the security like you say?”

  I look at Lynn and shrug. “It’s not impossible.”

  “Okay, so how do we get the teams on the ground?” Lynn asks.

  “Well, there’s the tricky part and one I don’t have an answer for as yet,” I reply. “Frank, how many have had the vaccine?”

  “Counting Julie, there are twelve that have had it,” he answers.

  “Are there any of them on the teams?”

  “No, I’ve double-checked that.”

  “Okay, good, then let’s see how we can get us on the ground unobserved,” I say.

  After some discussion, we decide to use one of the 130s stationed at the Portland guard base. We know our compound is being monitored, and if we stage the 130 from Cabela’s, it will raise flags with the other group. We’ll use semis to transport the teams down and make it look like a supply run, loading the teams into the trailers in our vehicle hangar and disembark into one of the aircraft hangars at the guard base. Extra crews will go along in order to gather supplies and load them into the trailers, furthering the impression that it’s merely a scavenging run. Supplies will also be removed from one of the 130s stationed in Portland and the rear ramp left open. After they are finished, the crews, leaving the teams behind, will return to the compound. With any luck, the other group won’t know that anyone has been left behind and therefore, they won’t be monitoring the site and know that we’re on the way. The plan is for the teams to remain in the Portland hangar for two days, providing it’s secure enough to hold the night runners out. I
f it isn’t, then the teams will leave that evening. If all goes well, the teams will then leave the hangar two days later at dusk and make their way to the 130.

  The best situation would be if we have a cloud cover, with the ideal being if it’s raining. We talk about creeping slowly to the aircraft under opaque shower doors to defeat IR, but, seeing it will be hard to disguise the 130 starting or taking off anyway, we discard that idea. We will just hastily make our way to the aircraft and hope that any interest the other group may have taken in us will be lost after a day thinking it was just a run.

  Our whole plan relies on us getting to the bunker facility undetected. With that in mind, we’ll stay low and use the mountainous terrain to conceal us. I’m hoping the guard 130 will have FLIR capability and I am reasonably sure that they do. Providing we get off undetected, the terrain will keep us hidden until we break out onto the Colorado Plains. At that point, we’ll drop down to a hundred feet and proceed in.

  Much discussion is had regarding inserting the teams. Initially, we talk about doing a HALO drop like Greg and I did into the prison at Lubbock. However, given that the experience level of the teams with that, or any time under silk is zero, that idea is quickly thrown to the side of the road.

  I’ll go in via a LALO (Low Altitude-Low Open) drop. That will require us popping up for a quick drop allowing radar, if they have it, a better chance at painting us; but it will only be for a moment and it may be taken for a ghost blip. Robert will then proceed north to Greeley and circle until called for. Once I have taken out the security room, he’ll bring the aircraft in and land in a nearby field. The teams will disembark and make their way to me.

  “Jack, that will leave you exposed for a long time,” Lynn states.

  “That can’t be helped. I can’t see any other way that this will work,” I reply.

  “Will they discover our communications?” Robert asks.

  “We’ll use distinct clicks to communicate,” I answer.

  We then set the communication system up. Two clicks will signal a message to follow. A corresponding two clicks will signal that the one receiving has understood and is ready to receive. We cover the signals for when the teams arrive at various checkpoints. If something goes wrong and I have to exfil before the teams set foot on the ground, we cover different scenarios. Some involve landing and picking me up, others to fly and land at either Greeley or Denver International, and I’ll make my way to them. If it goes very wrong, Robert and the teams are to abort and fly back to Cabela’s.

  “Under no circumstances are you to enact a rescue if I’m found and taken,” I state, finishing.

  I’ll be flying the en route portion and hand it over to Robert when it’s time for me to get ready for the drop. There is a lot that Robert and Craig will require regarding flying low level, and the drop itself, so we’ll spend the next several days training. This training will be conducted during the day to start off with to get them accustomed to low-level flying and then transition to night. I’m sure the other group is monitoring us so we’ll make these flights look like normal ones so we don’t give them a clue that something is up.

  In total, the flight will take three hours. With us leaving near sunset, once we arrive near the underground bunker, we’ll have nine hours of darkness remaining with which to work. Dropping me approximately three miles from the facility should give us enough time to get inside and enact our plan.

  “Jack, even though I understand our need to do something, I still have reservations about this plan. However, throughout this discussion, I haven’t heard one mention of night runners. This whole thing is going to be conducted at night, with long periods being spent outside during darkness. How do we do this and take them into account?” Frank asks.

  “Believe me, I’ve thought about them. My thinking is that they won’t be a factor seeing the bunker is so far away from any build-up. The facility is almost twenty miles out from the outskirts of Denver, and that’s the closest town. I know that’s a risk but it’s one we’ll have to take if we’re to do this. There’s no way we can do anything against them during the day. We’ll just have to take the risk that there is the odd one or two out there. I’ll open up just prior to the drop. If there’s any around, we’ll abort and come up with some other game plan. I just don’t see any way around it,” I answer.

  “I will admit the odds of any out that far, at least in any numbers, are remote given that there isn’t much cover for them during the day. However, we are seeing these branching out from Seattle, so it could be the same there,” Frank says.

  “True, but it’s different there than here. Here, they appear to be following a path of urban areas. If they are branching out from Denver, they would most likely be heading north and south where there are places for them to take refuge during the day,” I respond.

  ”I guess I’m just not liking the fact that we’re going to put our most experienced teams into basically a do-or-die situation. If we roll the dice and lose, we’ll lose the entire compound,” Frank states.

  “I agree it’s risky, but if we don’t roll the dice at all, we’ll also lose. Honestly, this plan carries a lot of risk and needs fine-tuning, and I’ll entertain another if anyone has one,” I counter.

  No one responds.

  “Okay…so, for now, let’s run with this one and continue our discussions. Lynn, bring the teams in training up to speed and start training with the teams going in. I’ll work with Robert and Craig. Bannerman, we’ll need a dry suit, the switches, small video capture systems with playback and loop capabilities, several thin magnets, a small spray bottle, and a roll of magnesium strips.”

  With the plates of food that were brought now long empty, and the day heading into late afternoon, the meeting breaks up. I show Bannerman where I know several large electronic warehouses are located and meet with Frank to begin planning for tonight’s flight. It’s been a few days since we’ve been north during the night and we are both anxious to see what our neighbors have been up to. If Frank’s estimation of what the night runners are doing is correct, we should see increased numbers emerging at night in the areas just north of us.

  The mostly clear day should continue into the night so we’ll have a good chance to cover a lot of area. This is going to be mostly a recon of the urban areas up to Seattle but, if the weather holds, we’ll have time to deal some damage to those that we find. If the numbers coming out of Seattle are correct, there’s no way we’ll be able to take them all out, but any we can whittle down will be fewer that can come into our area.

  The compound is covered in shadow from the lowering sun as we pull up the gear and fly over the outer wall. Even though our original Spooky checked out okay after we rode out the propane farm explosion, we take the one we recently obtained from Cannon AFB. Banking to the north, with the huge propellers taking large bites out of the air and the engines droning at full power, the Spooky claws for altitude.

  We are soon traversing the Nisqually Valley through which flows the narrow but deep Nisqually River. There is still time before the sun fully sets behind the mountains and plunges the landscape below into darkness. The time of the night runners is drawing nigh but we have a few moments of twilight left.

  “Robert, I’m going to make a run along the river. Have the low-light video running. I want to capture the bridges as we pass over,” I call.

  “Copy. Give me a sec,” he replies.

  Once he gives me the call that he’s ready, I descend and turn the aircraft south, offsetting the Nisqually River. Flying down the river, I note four bridges spanning its narrow width. Two are the side-by-side interstate bridges, each with three lanes of freeway crossing with a metallic superstructure arching over them. Another is a two-lane bridge of the Old Pacific Highway a little over a mile to the south. Approximately a half mile south of that one, a twin-track, wooden railway trestle bridge crosses. Other than those four bridges, there isn’t another one for about twenty miles.

  Finishing with our run down the r
iver, I call Frank and inform him.

  “Funny, I was just thinking of something along those lines,” he states. “If we managed to take down those bridges, I was thinking it might force the night runners to circumvent us or halt them altogether.”

  “That will also mean that we are cut off from the north. We’ll lose our supply runs to the distribution center and the bases,” I comment.

  “That’s true. We’ll have to pull everything we think we’re going to need onto our side before we do anything. I’ll talk it over with Bannerman,” he says. “Do you think we can take them out with the Spooky, or will we have to bring them down with planted explosives?”

  “I think we can drop them with the 105,” I answer.

  “Are there any shallow places?” Frank asks.

  “There wasn’t a lot of light to see by, but it looked like there were a couple south of the railroad bridge. In any case, we’ve taken video of the entire river which you can look over,” I say.

  With our little detour complete, we climb back and proceed with our primary mission for the night; to see what the night runner population and area of spread is. Across the valley, beginning at the southern fringes of Fort Lewis, the urban sprawl spreads out from the edge of the Puget Sound to about fifteen miles inland. This continues all of the way up to the Seattle area and beyond, providing more than enough locations to shelter the number of night runners pouring out of Seattle.

  The land below is bathed in darkness as we begin our run. As if on cue, against a gray background, our screens light up with white figures emerging from buildings. I can only imagine the noise below with thousands of night runners screaming as they pour out into the night. Looking at the multitude of small to mid-size packs on the screen, it immediately becomes obvious that Frank was right, the night runners are flowing south in great numbers. As before, the number of packs increases as we fly north, but they have definitely come farther south since the last time we flew over.