Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  As if she hadn’t just been teleported across Paris, Priscilla slipped her Abaya over her head to uncover a pair of jeans and a Grateful Dead T-shirt, commenting, “I hate these things – now what are you doing here in Paris vaporizing people? I thought you were operating in Africa and the middle-east.” Hunter smiled and joked, “If I had known you were here, I would have branched out long ago.” He then proceeded to tell his new friends in Paris about what had happened in the past few hours.

  Priscilla, Jacob Solomon and Hezekiah Kohn had been operating undercover in Paris for about a year; Jacob, as the husband to Priscilla and Hezekiah as Jacob’s brother. With their looks and ability to speak Arabic perfectly, they had been working the streets, cafes and even the Mosques of Paris seeking any information they could on terrorist groups operating in the area, especially the ones that were planning future attacks on Israeli soil. The three had been watching the cell group Hunter had just eliminated and Jacob had even made friends with one of them. They had knowledge of another cell group operating nearby, but knew very little about it. When Paul showed them the locations of five more cell groups and gave them the names of many of their members, stating he intended to eliminate them all, the three Mossad were just a bit intimidated by what this man had done in such a short time. Priscilla asked, “The café that got bombed. That was you everyone saw leaving?” Hunter smiled and told them, “I hope to slow down their activities in and around Paris. It wouldn’t hurt to have a little assistance. But with or without you, I plan to leave in a minute and keep up the momentum I have already started.”

  Priscilla was first to speak, saying, “We weren’t sent to Paris as a hit squad, our assignment is to observe and report.” Hunter smiled and told her, “Good, then you can observe and report me taking-out a few more cells and their weapons storage location. Lucy has already passed on information to me she has decrypted from the computers in the last location. Before this day is done, I intend to know where every cell group is in Paris and who is supporting them.” He got up from the chair he was sitting in and told them, “Well, are you in or out?” Priscilla tossed her Abaya to the side and removed a silenced Israeli made Jericho 941. Her companions already had theirs under their light jackets. Hunter reached into his pocket and gave the three enough 9mm Rapture rounds to fill their magazine, telling them, “Make every shot count. With these we leave no bodies around for the French to clean-up.”

  The three Mossad followed Hunter as he made a gateway to Rue Ballanger across town and a few blocks from the Le Palais de Congress Paris. The large structure was next on the terrorist agenda. The place was constantly filled with concert goers and shoppers visiting the mall shops. It was a perfect location to kill innocent bystanders. A bit dazed from the gateway travel, it was difficult to make a jump with four people, the agents looked about to realize they were in the courtyard of an apartment building. Hunter pointed toward the elevators down a hallway off the courtyard and the four went directly to the sixth floor. Once again Hunter wasted no time knocking. He kicked open the door and began firing. This group was heavily armed and obviously preparing to leave on their assigned mission. With four agents firing Rapture rounds into the room, it was soon empty. There was no one to interrogate, they had left them no other options but to shoot. Hunter closed the door and once again accessed the two laptops in the room. While he waited for Lucy to get back with him, they searched the apartment for anything else they could use. Hezekiah opened a map with the floor-plan of the La Palais. It showed access points to the complex and the entry points the terrorist had intended to use. The place was simply too large for four people to cover the numerous locations indicated on the map. It was obvious that the attack was about to happen by the level of preparation being done by the men they had just shot. Hunter got a neuro-feed from Lucy telling him that three other cells were on their way to the location as they spoke. They intended to enter through three different garage entrances and park their explosive filled van under the complex. They would then go on their shooting spree through the mall until the vans exploded, killing themselves and thousands of others.

  Hunter wanted to get there before they had a chance to get into the mall. The four quickly stepped through a gateway into the underground parking garage. Hunter reached into his pocket and handed the others a handful of 9mm whitematter rounds and said, “For the vans only. They make very big holes.” The four spread out toward the entrances marked on the map they had found. Hezekiah was first to confront the approaching van. Not fully knowing what to expect he took aim at the man driving the van filled with six terrorist and 2 tons of explosives and was hoping to take out the driver. He pulled the trigger and the entire front half of the large panel van disappeared in a flash of light. The second round fired on reflex took care of the other half. Stunned for a moment in disbelief, he then raced to help his friends. The second van was already in the garage and the six heavily armed terrorist were spreading out. Hunter took one good shot at the middle of the van and all but the engine compartment and rear bumpers disappeared. The well-trained terrorists began to return fire from behind cars and concrete support pillars. Confident of their superior numbers, they pressed the attack on a one man assault. They didn’t realize just who that man was. Hunter stepped out into the open drawing their fire as they exposed themselves to finish off the blond-haired man. In rapid order, he vaporized them one-by-one, leaving only the metal objects they carried behind. Hunter could hear the fire-fight from across the garage as his side of the garage fell silent. He headed for the sound of automatic weapons fire a few hundred yards away.

  The Van that Priscilla and Jacob encountered was already unloaded and the men approaching the elevators to go upstairs. The two Mossad agents destroyed the Van as soon as they saw it. They knew they could never allow it to explode inside that garage. Alarmed by the muffled sound of suppressed gunfire and the sudden flash of light, the six al Qaeda members turned and opened fired on full automatic with their Chinese made QBZ-95 Bull-pup Assault rifles. With an 80-round drum feed, the garage was soon filled with flying lead. Jacob was hit six times in the chest and fell to the ground choking on his own blood. Priscilla took one round in her upper thigh and another to the right side of her chest. As she fell behind a parked car she passed-out as she attempted to stem the flow of her own blood. She managed to get off three more shots and vaporize two of the terrorists. Hunter came racing across the garage with his weapons blazing away; four shots and four dead men.

  Shortly after Hezekiah arrived and hurried to his fallen comrades. It appeared obvious that there was nothing to be done for Jacob, but Priscilla still had a faint pulse. Hunter lifted Priscilla off the ground and commanded Hezekiah to do the same with Jacob. He made a gateway directly into the medical center on Verron covered in Priscilla’s blood with Hezekiah right behind. The staff on shift dropped everything they were doing and responded immediately. Both victims were stripped and placed in an emergency regeneration chamber designed to prioritize treatment by selecting the most urgent need first. As soon as the man and woman were in the chamber, they turned to the blood covered Prince and his companion, asking if they were alright. Hunter was so angry and upset he only replied, “Take good care of them.” He grabbed Hezekiah and stepped into the arsenal under Mountain City.

  While he was selecting weapons and resupplying himself and Hezekiah for a return to Paris, King Verron entered the arsenal with Chase and Daniel. He looked at the blood covered men and told them, “You can’t hit the streets of Paris looking like that. You two get a shower and change of clothes and meet us in my office in 30 minutes.” When Hunter and Hezekiah arrived in Paul’s office, they were greeted by Paul, Chase, Daniel, Ibrihim and Lydia. Paul informed them, “I got a complete briefing from Lucy and the last downloads you gave her. There are still four more cells in Paris and they have selected targets in four locations to be hit simultaneously in the next hour. After their failed attempt at the mall, they will no doubt be highly motivated to eliminate the oth
er targets at any cost. Hunter your good, but you can’t be in four places at once.” Hunter shook his head in agreement.

  Paul had Lucy make a hologram map above the conference table. Hezekiah looked on in wonder. He then pointed out the other four targets, a professional football game at a stadium on the north side of Paris, a river-boat restaurant filled with members of the French Parliament with their special guest for the evening President Hollanda’s wife Michelle, a concert hall close to the capital featuring a U.S. Broadway musical of “Lion King,” and a very busy mall in the heart of the wealthiest section of Paris. They split up into four teams. Hunter and Hezekiah headed for the soccer game, Paul took the dinner cruise by himself, Chase and Lydia headed for the theater and Daniel and Ibrihim took-off for the mall.

  Director Calvair had been joined by DGSI Bernard Bajolet in the garage of the Le Palais de Congress Paris. It was 7:00 PM and in just 12 hours the French police had been on the scene of a Café bombing, the rescue of the Total S.A. executives, two suspected terrorist cell locations emptied and now the gunfight in the parking garage that had left three large holes in the concrete floor, dozens of Chinese made assault rifles and two large pools of blood, but no bodies; thus far there had only been the four men in the Total boardroom. It was obvious that someone had been hit by gunfire, but since there was no body, they assumed those shot were still alive. Looking at the large pools of blood on the garage floor, he found that hard to believe. It had been a long day and as he headed for his security driven Peugeot, he hoped that it was finally over. He was taking a drag off his Gauloises and about to call his mistress and tell her he was coming by, when he heard the report of gunfire at Stadium de France, where the FIFA match between the U.S. and France was being played.

  Hunter and Hezekiah got lucky, the four men with long dark coats and a bulge around the middle stood out in the crowd when they arrived. Hunter hoped there were no others. He had assured Hezekiah that the little box he attached to his belt would keep him safe from flying bullets. But he was not going to take any chances. He approached the first suspected terrorist and shot him in the back as he entered a crowd of people. Pandemonium broke-out when the man suddenly vaporized before them and a bunch of wires and clips from the vest bomb and a 9mm Sig Saur clanked to the ground. Hezekiah turned to pursue the second suspected bomber only to face two armed French police pointing their Mousqueton Mini-14s at him. He had alerted them when he drew his weapon and shot the terrorist. There was no time or interest in stopping to explain. He turned to run after where he had spotted his second target and heard but never felt the rifle fire from the Mini-14. He smiled, thinking, “I’ve got to get me one of these little Verron boxes.” While he ran after the other terrorist, the two French Security Police ran after him blowing their whistle. The panicked bomber was not in position for the most effective use of his bomb and drew his weapon to fire at the pursuing Hezekiah. His perfectly aimed chest shot did not even slow the big man running after him. He quickly reached for the detonator and vanished from the single Rapture round through the chest. The two police had seen the man firing a pistol and then expose a vest bomb as he went to detonate. They had never expected the man to disappear. Their pause to analyze what they had just seen was just enough time for Hezekiah to disappear into crowd so he could work his way toward the rendezvous point with Hunter.

  Hunter had it easy. His two targets had stopped to have one last cigarette before ending their lives and the lives of everyone around them. He pulled his silenced pistol amid screams of the people crowding into the stadium. Two shots and two dead terrorist later he made a jump from the crowd to the meeting place he and Hezekiah had selected. In minutes he heard, then saw, dozens of police cars headed for the stadium. He hoped Hezekiah would make it out alright through the panicked crowd of soccer fans. He waited for a few minutes beyond their agreed upon time and saw the big man calmly walking through the crowd as if it was just any other day. He respected the man’s ability to remain calm. When he arrived, he gave Hunter a smile and asked, “What now boss?”

  Hunter had already intended to do more than stop the attack on the stadium. Now that he was confident that the other terrorist targets were going to be handled by members of the Dragon Guard, he decided to eliminate one other target he had selected. He grabbed the big Mossad agents arm and made a jump to an all Islamic section of town on the far south end of Paris. Standing in an alley across from one of Paris’ larger mosques, he informed Hezekiah, “The weapons used by the local cells are stored under that building and all those vests were made by demolitions experts from Uzbekistan that have been making them ever since they arrived two weeks ago. I want you to take off your silencer and start firing your gun to chase off as many people from around the mosque as possible. I will go inside the mosque and set a charge to take care of whatever they may have in there.” Hunter held up a golf-ball size plasma grenade and smiled. Hezekiah shook his head and said, “You’ve got to be joking. That little thing will do no more than char the paint.” As Hunter rose from beside his friend, he said, “Make sure you’re nowhere near the building, and drive as many away as possible. I’d rather not have too much collateral damage.

  Hunter took off toward the mosque, while Hezekiah ran into the street firing his gun into the air and shouting in Arabic, “There’s a bomb, there’s a bomb in the Mosque run, run!!!” With all the bombings that had taken place in mosques around the world, no one thought to question the obviously concerned Muslim warning them of danger. He took off toward the alley where he came from, when even with his back turned, there was a blinding light and intense heat from behind him. Hunter had somehow already beaten him to the alley. Hezekiah turned to see the Mosque and half of two buildings on either side completely incinerated. Cries were coming from people in the street over the loss of their beautiful place of worship. It was time to leave.

  Paul arrived at the dinner party uninvited, but since he arrived inside, it was a more difficult task to make him leave. Everyone there was nicely dressed for a State dinner, and former supermodel, Mrs. Hollanda, was looking radiant. Paul didn’t want to make a mess or accidently shoot someone with a Rapture round. He spotted his first target and before the man had a chance to react, he fell to the floor with a massive heart-attack. As people gathered around the man who had just fallen to the floor it only helped to accentuate the other bomb wearer across the room looking at his now dead partner. His hands were already headed for the detonator when he had an agonizing brain seizure that paralyzed him, then immediately drew his hands to grab for the overwhelming pain in his head. He died immediately, holding to his aching head. Paul waited a few minutes to see if there were others and that’s when he spotted the man almost right next to him begin to dial a cell phone. Paul melted the phone right in the man’s hand and as he screamed in agony, he grabbed him and made a jump to the warehouse district along the Seine. He decided then to take him back to Verron for a dose of Kahlan. There weren’t many living terrorists left to interrogate, so he’d take what he could.

  Chase and Lydia entered the lobby of the American Music Theatre Live at 24 rue Louis Blanc. Lydia punched Chase and informed him, “Next time we enter through the ladies room.” Chase smiled and she hit him again, saying, “Men!” The two fanned-out looking for their bombers. Chase spotted one coming through the front doors and handing his ticket to the usher. He quickly noticed his eyes divert for just a fraction of a second to a man standing by the concession stand buying a box of popcorn and a Pepsi. Through their earpiece, he told Lydia to follow the one with the popcorn. Chase’s target strolled casually toward the ground floor and soon reached the entry for the lower level orchestra seats. Before he could disappear in the crowd, ole Bull’s-eye himself tilted the silenced gun in his pocket and fired. If the man had not vaporized it would have been a perfect shot right in the middle of his forehead. Chase continued on through the startled crowd and into the theatre to scout the crowd for any others.

  Lydia followed her target upstairs
to the center of the 1st level balcony. He was headed toward the entry and showing his ticket to the attendant when Lydia shouted in Arabic, “Mosha, is that you?” and hurried to the man who had turned at the familiar sound of his own language. He didn’t seem alarmed, when a tiny little girl of 13 or so approached who she assumed was an acquaintance. She smiled up at the man with a young girls charm and touched him on the arm. His heart exploded instantly and with her holding his arm, there was no way to reach for the detonator before he died. Lydia did a perfectly acted out scream and then walked away. The crowd began to stir and the house-lights came on as soon as the usher radioed what had happened. That was when Chase spotted the third man sitting in the very middle of the theater looking around with a panicked look on his face. He was reaching for his detonator when Chase fired from all the way across the theater. Even with hundreds of people between him and the bomber, Chase was not rattled. The man vanished from the middle of the audience and his gun dropped into the seat next to a little girl of eight who was terrified of guns. Her scream actually hurt Chase’s ears. When the handler saw that all three of the bombers were gone, he immediately headed for the nearest exit. Lydia spotted him rushing through the crowd so fast that he had knocked a small older lady with her grandchildren to the ground. Just as he stepped through the theaters emergency exit side door, he exploded, most of the mess managed to stay in the alley.

  As soon as Daniel and Ibrihim entered the small exclusive mall it was apparent why this place had been chosen. Over 90 percent of the shop owners were Jewish. Daniel didn’t like to stereotype people, but with some of them wearing Yamaka and others sporting Payot, long sideburns, it didn’t take a scholar to know that these were Jewish merchants dealing with a very wealthy class of people, many of which were also Jewish. Even the restaurants and delis in the mall sort of gave the ethnicity of the place away. It was a small mall, but it was also very crowded. While the two Dragon Guard members were searching the crowd for suspects, the two bombers decided to make it easier for them to get spotted. In fact, when they had positioned themselves at either end of the mall in the middle of the largest crowds possible, they opened their coats to expose the vest-bombs and began to shout every anti-Semitic remark they could think of to the group of terrified shoppers. Neither boy had a visual on the bombers. Daniel made a jump toward one end of the mall while Ibrihim made a jump to the other. The bombers must have set their watches to coordinate their time of explosion. Just as the boys got a glimpse of their bombers, there was an explosion that sent the crowd screaming; blood and body parts were everywhere.