Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  They headed for the office and had Lucy pull up a holograph of Beirut and the Hezbollah Political Headquarters. Paul began, by telling them, “Being one of the largest political parties in Lebanon gave them enough legitimacy to be able to be a public entity in Beirut. According to Lucy and her drone surveillance, during a peak business day there are over 300 people in the seven story building. If you want to make a statement, let’s take it out right in the middle of the day.” He then had Lucy pull up an image of a nearby school, and continued, “This is where they hide their scuds and other missiles destined for Israel, right under this school.” Chase looked at the situation; two buildings in broad daylight and about a mile apart, and in the daytime both would be occupied. He looked at Paul and said, “I’m not going to kill a bunch of kids, even if they probably will grow-up to be terrorists.” Paul informed them, “We won’t need to. If we throw some smoke-bombs into the school and set off the fire-alarms, then they will vacate it for us. If we use Containment Bombs on both locations, there will be no collateral damage, just the Hezbollah staff in one building and their missiles in the other.” Daniel looked over the map and said, “We need one more person, at least two per location and stealth suites so no one sees us and sets off warnings.” Paul told them, “I’ll borrow Hunter for the day. He’s done this before with me. I’ll take Daniel and do the HQ and Hunter can take Chase and do the school.”

  Paul looked at his watch to determine what time it was in Beirut, telling them, “We need to wait about eight more hours for it to be 11:00 AM in Beirut. Both the school and the office will be full. Chase, go see Kary and get some nice big smoke bombs. We want lots of smoke and maybe some Flash-bangs to add a little noise and flashing lights. Daniel, get the Containment Bombs ready. I want to leave very deep holes under both buildings in case they’re several stories down. I’ll contact Hunter.”

  After they left, Paul had Lucy contact Hunter. He was just getting back to his room after helping one of the other students practice his Russian. He knew when he heard the voices in his head this time that it was not a dream. After he was told to get back to Verron and that he would be gone no more than 12 hours, he left his room and found Captain Bentley, saying, “I’m going to disappear for about 12 hours. It’s sort of like last time, but not as big of a deal. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.” He headed for his room to change out of street clothes and into this commando grays. No one ever saw him leave, but found his bed empty and made when they later checked his room. Hunter arrived in the briefing room a few minutes before Chase, Daniel and Paul arrived. They did one more review of the two locations and asked if Hunter had anything to add, He answered, “Yea, how come we don’t just take out all of Beirut? These people are getting on my nerves.” Paul quickly reminded him that there are still a lot of good people in Beirut. Hunter knew he was right, but refused to admit it. He was still mad about what happened to his Mother and now they tried to kill his cousins. The four men headed downstairs to the armory and suited-up. Hunter and Paul made the gateways. When they exited, Paul was on top of the seven story Headquarters Building and Hunter was across the street on top of a building looking down at the school below.

  They had activated their cloaking device before they stepped through the gateway, and it was a good thing. There were two armed sentinels on top of the building only a few yards from Paul and Daniel. The two of them quickly and quietly eliminated the threat and proceeded to place the corner control units in position. Daniel then removed the 100 mm whitematter bomb from his equipment belt. Paul grinned inside his suite, when he asked for a big hole, this boy intended to comply. There would be a hole a mile deep with a charge that size. They quickly did a jump to the other side of the street and waited for Hunter and Chase to give the ready signal.

  Hunter tossed the four smoke bombs simultaneously with Chase tossing the Flash-bangs. Sensing the smoke, the alarms automatically went off. Hunter was glad to see the orderly exit of the teachers and children as they left the building and headed across the street to the park nearby. They quickly place their Containment Bomb and moved away to a good vantage point so they could watch the show. Chase also brought a 100 mm whitematter bomb. Hunter let Paul know that on the count of three, they would both detonate their bombs. In two brilliant flashes of light, a little over a mile apart, the city of Beirut almost went blind, when the light died down there were two large holes in the ground. Both holes were nearly a mile deep and were beginning to fill with water from underground springs that fed into the nearby Mediterranean. If anything was buried under those buildings, it was gone now. Hunter and Paul looked around and saw that there was no one else injured anywhere close to the explosion, just a lot of terrified people standing with a few who had soiled themselves. Hunter hoped the kids had no problem finding a new school.

  Paul told Hunter to hold up a moment while he and Daniel joined them on their building across from the school. He then told them that he wanted to make one quick stop before they headed back to Verron. Paul made a gateway and the four men stepped out into the office of Israeli Minister of Defense Mosha Barak. He gave the four intruders a questioning look, but recognized the body armor from his visit to Verron and from Israeli satellite surveillance of their invasion of Iraq and Syria. Paul retracted his headgear, indicating it was OK for the others to do the same. Mosha smiled at his new friends, and immediately told them how sorry he was for allowing something like what happened to Chase and Daniel to take place on his watch. Paul was about to tell him what he had just done when the door flew open and Agent Priscilla Barak entered Mosha’s office. She immediately smiled at Hunter and almost stammered before she spoke, saying “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, I didn’t know anyone was here. We just received word from our people in Beirut that there were two large explosions. One was at Hezbollah Headquarters and another at the Shri Kalinh School. Both buildings are completely destroyed.”

  Mosha turned to his four unannounced visitors and said, “I believe you were about to tell me something.” They all four acted surprised. Mosha turned to Agent Barak and told her, “I’d like for you to meet the men who did it.” She looked closely at the four men who had just blown-up two primary Israeli targets and once again could not turn her gaze from the tall handsome blond with the big smile and the ponytail. Barak continued, “Gentlemen I’d like for you to meet my niece. Priscilla, this is King Paul Verron, Prince Hunter Hall-Verron, Prince Chase Verron and Prince Daniel Verron. I believe they just made retribution for the terrorist attack in Eilat.”

  Chase quickly told Minister Barak, “If you know of a few more you’d like to take out just let me know. I feel like hitting a few more while we’re here. Please let your people know we are on the same side so they won’t try to shoot us again” While Chase was speaking to Mosha Barak, Hunter began to make small talk with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She stood about five-foot eight-inches, had dark auburn hair, a perfect olive complexion, the whitest smile in the world accented by full lips, but what really made him stare was her eyes. They were so blue, or where they gray, they actually looked completely silver. He had never seen anything like them before. He stammered when he asked, “Have you worked for your Uncle long?” She spoke softly in a deep sort of raspy voice, and answered, “I just completed Mossad Training. My Uncle won’t let me go to the field just yet, so I make coffee and answer telephones, like an obedient niece.” Hunter immediately liked her spunk and her outspoken manner. He decided to impress her by saying, “I’m about to finish CIA training at The Farm next month. Maybe you’d like to come see Verron sometime after I get back. The two suddenly realized there were others in the room and pretended that there was no chemistry taking place here. Mosha broke the ice by saying, “Priscilla, I will personally sign-off on a trip to Verron, you can learn more things there in a few days than you could in the field over an entire lifetime. Maybe you can even figure out how these four can travel from Verron to Beirut and then to my office and never use a plane. I’d rea
lly like to know the answer to that one.”

  Priscilla smiled at Hunter and informed him, “I just may take you up on that offer, but I will not get you coffee and I will not type. And I’d like to travel there the same way you traveled here, so I can see how you do it.” Paul laughed, and said, “Mosha in a few years she will be running your organization just like Hunter will be running Verron. We need to go. Hunter has to get back to Camp Peary and we need to get back to Verron.” With that they made a gateway right in the office and disappeared. Priscilla smiled at her Uncle and said, “You’re as bad about trying to find me a husband as your brother would be. If Daddy and Mother were still alive they would never leave me alone if they thought they could fix me up with a Prince, and a handsome Prince at that.” She then placed Mosha’s cold coffee on his desk and left the room. For the rest of the day, all Priscilla could think about was that handsome face, blue eyes and dimpled smile.

  Paul, Chase and Daniel stepped directly into the armory on Verron; Hunter decided to go directly back to Camp Peary. It had been just shy of eleven hours since he left and almost 0900 presently at The Farm. He exited the gateway into his room, commanded the deactivation of his suit and stood still while the entire suit folded itself up into a case about the size of a small carry-on suitcase. He stashed it in the corner of his closet, got dressed for the day’s activities and made a jump to the Academic building just as everyone was settling down for their 0900 class on computer hacking. The CIA didn’t expect everyone to be a professional hacker, they had plenty of those already on staff, but they did need people who could get into someone’s computer and past their passcodes and firewalls when they encountered a computer in the field. It wasn’t always possible to bring a hacker to the scene of the activity, especially when it could be in the middle of the night in a hostile environment. When Hunter stepped into the back of the room, all eyes turned from the instructor to the late arriver. Hunter was glad that he was late for this class, since Professor Ferguson was a CIA contractor that actually was self-employed and didn’t play the petty games played oft times by CIA employees. He smiled when Hunter offered his apology for being late and relinquished his classroom control for a moment in an effort to get everyone’s attention back on their assignment, saying, “Mr. Hall, if you would be so kind as to tell everyone in the class where you have been and do it in a timely manner; maybe I can then continue my class with everyone thinking about their computer and not about you.”

  Hunter did a brief 10 minute summary of the events with Chase and Daniel in Eilat and their retaliation by destroying two Hezbollah locations. His classmates applauded while his computer wizard professor acted like he was in the presence of James Bond himself. That evening, Hunter and his classmates were finished eating and several were hounding Hunter for more details about his trip, when Agent Oswald entered the dorm. He exchanged no pleasantries, he knew he would not have his way and had accepted it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. All he said was, “Hall, DIC Sullivan wants you in his office 0800 tomorrow. He said he was not sending any transportation because you already knew how to get there.” He then turned to leave, but turned back as he exited the door, saying, “All your friends may be impressed with you, but as far as I’m concerned you’re a disgrace to the CIA.” Hunter smiled and said to his friends, “It’s a good thing I don’t work for the CIA then isn’t it.”

  Later that evening Hunter showed Bentley, Martinez, Jill and Randall his body armor. It was too small for the two soldiers and too big for Jill, but Randall managed to try it on. When Hunter activated the exoskeleton and the night-vision, then sent him outside to run a few laps, he was like a kid with a new toy. When he finally came back in to the dorm, Jill said, “Hunter, I believe my husband will have one of these on his Christmas list. How much does one cost?” Hunter smiled, informing them, “We made a special bulk deal with General Dorsey for $1 million each and it doesn’t come with two pair of pants.” Jill looked at her husband and said, “Take that thing off before you break it and forget about me buying you one. I may love you, but I don’t love you that much.” Next morning Hunter stepped into Director Sullivan’s office at precisely 0800. He was greeted by Admiral Sullivan, National Director of Intelligence James Grasper, U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Brice, Director of Homeland Security Charles Jackson, Director of the FBI James Comey, General Martin Dorsey and two people he didn’t recognize, but appeared to be from the Middle East. Director Sullivan introduced the two men as CIA operatives from Lebanon attached to the U.S. Embassy there. Both men seemed very friendly to Hunter as he shook their hand. Sullivan then asked for a complete briefing. Once again he told them about the incident in Eilat. There was no film footage since Chase and Daniel were only wearing shorts and sneakers during the entire incident. He then laid his communicator on the table and had Lucy pull-up the holographic image of the entire operation she had filmed from the satellite above Beirut. When the show was over and they were viewing the two holes swiftly filling with water, Agent Hussein asked, “Did you do a surgical missile strike, I see no one on the ground?”

  Hunter was about to reveal a Verron secret but figured they would find out soon enough when the Terrorist Elimination Unit became active. Turning to Sullivan and Dorsey, he informed them, “Remember the cloaking mechanism we have in our ships? Well, the suites worn by many of the Verron Marines now have cloaking devices build into the body armor. We were there right on top of the buildings setting the bombs in place, you just couldn’t see us. I’m afraid your armor General Dorsey will not have that option built into them, it more than triples the price.” Dorsey smiled and looked at George Sullivan about to ask if a couple of suites could be purchased with black ops money. George beat him to the punch, saying, “I know what you’re thinking; forget it.”

  Agent Hussein and Agent Abib told Hunter that there were several more key targets that needed to be eliminated the same way, since they were also in critical areas. The one of greatest concern was under a large hospital. They couldn’t evacuate it and they couldn’t very well destroy the entire building. Hunter assured them that when the new unit was ready to deploy that they could infiltrate the underground facility and use their weapons to eliminated the missiles stored underneath with little or no structural damage, but it would have to be done up close and personal. He finished with, “I’ll lead the raid myself. Would you like to join me?” Sullivan asked General Dorsey; “Is it too late to add two more to your training program?” General Dorsey, who had been running behind in putting together the list of people for training on Verron, since they were scheduled for training beginning the following week, asked Hunter, “Is it alright for me to add two more?” Hunter suddenly had a sly smile on his face and turning to CIA Director Sullivan, responded, “If I can break CIA tradition, I’d like to make that four additional. Major Jack Bentley and Lieutenant Antonio Martinez are classmates of mine at the Farm. Both finish in June with me. I’d like to request them be assigned to my unit. Sullivan smiled, “For some reason I knew you would do this. Will they need to skip the final weeks?” Hunter thought a moment and answered, “The first week or two is all physical and weapons training while the suits are made. I can take them and have the suits measured and return to camp. They may need to miss the last two weeks, I’m sure Agent Oswald will be more than pleased to arrange the final testing so Bentley, Martinez and I can all finish early.”

  Sullivan already knew about the tension between Oswald and Hunter and knew he was going to really upset the Director of his Camp. He replied, “I’ll handle it, but make sure the three of you are prepared for a rough test.” Hunter knew the meeting was almost over and decided to push his luck a bit further, asking, “Sir, I know I’m probably overstepping my bounds, but would you be willing to reassign Elizabeth Hudson to be in charge of the Langley computer support team for the Terrorist Elimination Unit?” Sullivan smiled, and replied, “Young Man I don’t think you or King Verron even know what bounds are, but yes, I’ll take care of that
also.” Hunter thanked them and everyone told Hunter how much they appreciated him, and he was off to the Farm.

  Paul Verron returned to the Mansion and sent Daniel and Chase home for a few days. They were glad to be home. Both were greeted with plenty of Motherly hugs and kisses while MJ and MJ2 both wanted to play with their returning big brothers. Before they even had time to settle in, the two boys were riding the MJs around the lake on Jet Skis. Daniel liked the fact that the two MJs were real chick magnets. Everywhere they went with the boys, girls would flock to see them, Chase and Daniel were glad to receive the residual attention. Today they were especially glad they had decided to take the four-year-olds for a ride, Fay and Kay Morgensson were out riding around together and stopped the boys to invite them to come over for a cookout and swim party the next night. Daniel and Chase were extremely handsome and well-built seventeen year-old boys, but hadn’t quite come to realize it yet. They quickly accepted the invitation from the two prettiest girls on the planet. The twin girls had relocated to Verron a year earlier with their parents. Their father worked for Marcus Verron as an aircraft designer, their mother had a PhD in Zoology, Geology and Biological Engineering; needless to say she was a very bright lady and it looked as if both girls inherited the same smart and good looks genes as their mom and dad. If you described one, you described them both, since they were identical twins. Both stood about 5 foot 8 inches tall, had slim athletic bodies, with long waist length blond hair and green eyes. The boys felt like either of them could work for a modeling agency. Since neither boy went to school and were often gone from Verron, they didn’t even realize the girls knew who they were. They graciously accepted the invitation and allowed the two MJs to ride with the girls for a while as they raced around the lake together.