Broken Shield
Page 43
….
“Sir we have a serious problem.” Travis Jackson, the NGP Officer seated next to Lieutenant Fearon stated as he touched a few different places on his laptop’s touchscreen.
Fearon looked over at him. “What is it?”
“The NGP has a Sentinel drone conducting surveillance in the area and it detected a radiological signature coming from this business center.” Jackson pointed to a map location on the screen of his computer. “Sir, there’s a nuclear warhead down there and it’s active.” The conference room immediately fell silent with deathly horror; the constant chatter on the police radios was now the only sound that remained. Had anyone been looking at him they would have seen the blood drain from Chief Stickel’s face.
“Call her…” Fearon said. Jackson picked up the smartphone that he had placed next to his computer and touched a few buttons on its screen before bringing the device up to his ear.
“A nuclear weapon? How sure are you of that?” Major Antoine-Dennison asked.
“Quite sure...” Fearon said curtly as he reached for his radio. “1300 to 1354…” he said into the electronic device. A few moments passed and Fearon did not receive a response. He glanced over at Jackson who shook his head as he put the phone down.
“Her GPS is no longer transmitting.” He added in an ominous tone.
“1300 to 1354…Officer Fields do you copy?” Fearon spoke evenly into his radio, but his tone of voice grew subtly concerned. He again received no response. There was a several second pause as he sat back in his chair and breathed an uneasy sigh rubbing his chin with his left hand. Everyone in the room stared at the two NGP Officer awaiting their next decision.
“Do we have any Avengers in range?” Fearon asked referring to the General Atomics Predator C unmanned combat drones.
Jackson tapped on a few buttons on his laptop. “We currently have two units stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. It shouldn’t take long to get them fueled up, armed, and airborne.”
“Do it…” Fearon stated before adding, “And give them my authorization code to equip the drones with our JADAM’s.” He said. Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits were GPS apparatuses attached to large GBU-31 air-to-ground smart bombs.
“Yes sir…” Jackson replied before continuing, “…but, I should point out that the Sentinel can’t give us an exact building from where the radiological signature is originating. It can only estimate a general location.”
Fearon nodded his head, “We’ll remove all of the buildings then.” His voice was ice cold and emotionless.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Chief Stickel interrupted. “I will not have you bomb an entire portion of my city! Are we even sure your drone’s readings are accurate?!”
“Yes we are…” Jackson said bluntly as he began to dial a number on his phone.
“Chief Stickel, I assure you the blast from a nuclear weapon will do far more damage to your little city than what I am planning to do.” Fearon’s irritation was becoming more obvious by the second. “Now, just sit there and be quiet and let me do my job.”
“I cannot allow this to progress any further Lieutenant.” Stickel said as he stood to his feet. “There has to be another way, send in one of your special teams or have the National Guard deploy in that area. I will not be forced to explain to the city council, the mayor, city manager, and the citizens why the NGP bombed Wilmington.” At this point Fearon had, had enough, his anger flared and he whipped his head around to look at one of the two TALOS officers guarding the door.
“Place Chief Stickel under arrest for impeding a federal investigation and conduct contrary to the interests of the nation.” He said sharply.
“Yes sir…” one of the officers immediately responded. Fearon then looked over at Major Antoine-Dennison.
“You’re in charge of Wilmington’s police department now; do you have a problem with that or any of my orders?”
Antoine-Dennison shook her head; she was somewhat frightened of the man, but at the same time she had trouble concealing her smile over her sudden promotion. Herman Stickel looked as if he were about to vomit as the TALOS officer walked across the room, placed him in handcuffs, and led him toward the door.
“You can’t do this! You don’t have the authority!” he cried out in a shaky and distressed voice as he struggled with his escort.
“I assure you Mr. Stickel, I do.” Fearon remarked.
Stickel suddenly felt the grasp of the TALOS officer’s hand around his arm tighten as he was aggressively pushed forwards; any further act of defiance on his part would be met by the extreme might of the NGP TALOS officer. Fear consumed Stickel and he quietly began to weep as he was led out of the command center. As the former chief was removed the entire room again fell into an ominous silence.
….
Three rounds from a TALOS Officer’s SCAR 17 rang out from behind Master Sergeant Agrippa. While he could easily hear the noise his advanced helmet protected his ears from any type of hearing damage. The rioter who had managed to scale the fuselage of the downed NGP Black Hawk directly in front of the TALOS officers was hit by all three 7.62mm rounds, his upper body jerked backwards and he fell from the top of the helicopter and into the surrounding crowd. Unfortunately, this only fed the mob’s anger and it began to press in even more aggressively on the officers. Had it not been for their electrified riot shields and batons the crowd would have overwhelmed them completely.
After forcing their way completely through the large mass of rioters and reaching the wreckage of the helicopter three quarters of the TALOS squad moved out of their diamond pattern and into a semi-circle formation around the lower portion of the aircraft creating a protective barrier with their electrified riot shields facing outwards. Sergeant Agrippa and several other officers remained in the protected center of the squad with the TALOS Officers in front and the downed Black Hawk behind them.
“Move, quickly…” Agrippa ordered as he and the other NGP Officers rapidly climbed up the side of the helicopter towards the aircraft’s open side door which faced skywards. With the assistance of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit’s microservers and gears the men were barely delayed by the heavy weight of their equipment and armor as they scaled the helicopter.
Upon reaching the top of the Black Hawk three of the TALOS units spread out on the perimeter of the fuselage creating a secondary barrier utilizing their shields and SCAR 17’s for cover. Along with the rain that was still pouring down on them, debris and other materials were also being hurled at the NGP Officers as they carried out their rescue.
Just as Sergeant Agrippa climbed on top of the helicopter yet another rioter managed to make his way to the top of the mangled aircraft frame. Before any of his fellow National Governing Police officers had the chance to fire their weapons Agrippa snapped out his electrified baton and swung it in an upward motion striking the rioter under the chin. The power of the blow was strong enough to break the man’s jaw and it snapped his head back as if it were a rag doll. The man was immediately knocked off the helicopter and back into the surrounding mass of people. Turning and moving towards the aircraft’s open door Agrippa looked inside.
“Come with us.” he said through the speaker in his helmet to Aaron Saunders and Jeffrey Tucker, the surviving crewmembers of the Black Hawk.
“Where are the other officers?” Agrippa asked as he helped the two men out of the wreckage protecting them from the falling debris with his riot shield.
“Rivera is dead; we don’t know what happened to Rodney. He must have been thrown out of the chopper when we crashed.” Saunders answered as he climbed out of the open doorway. Agrippa could see the limp body of the copilot still lying inside the passenger compartment. He glanced around the surrounding area of the helicopter, but could see no signs of the other waist gunner; his body could have been thrown anywhere and finding him in this mass of people would be impossible to do right now.
“Cortez, retrieve the body.” Agrippa gave the orde
r to the TALOS Officer closest to him; dead or alive he wasn’t about to leave any of his fellow NGP Officers behind.
Officer Cortez dropped down into the hull of the aircraft impacting the metal frame with a heavy thud, his TALOS suit absorbing most of the impact when he landed. Moving over to the copilot’s lifeless body he carefully recovered the dead NGP Officer. As he did so he heard another few rounds from a SCAR 17 ring out, followed almost immediately by another three round burst. He would have to move quickly, the crowd around them was obviously becoming even more violent and emboldened. Raising the body up he passed it off to another NGP Officer who lifted it out of the helicopter’s open doorway; Cortez followed quickly after.
“Let’s go.” Agrippa said ordering the group down the side of the helicopter and back into the semicircular formation of waiting NGP Officers. Once back on the ground the TALOS officers quickly reformed their diamond pattern around Sergeant Agrippa and the others. Having successfully completed their rescue mission the entire group moved off from the wreckage, forcing their way back out through the unruly crowd.
….
“How are you going to do all this? How do you plan to escape and effectively manage your revolution? How will you even make it to Richmond without my organization’s help?” Jennifer demanded. “Surely, you don’t think that what is going on in this insignificant city is going to prevent them from finding you.”
Darren gave Jennifer a knowing smile as he stepped closer to the captives kneeling on the floor; he still carried John’s stainless steel Smith and Wesson .45 in his hand.
“Of course not my dear Officer Fields…” Darren responded. “…however I do believe the government will become quite preoccupied with the collapse of the Eastern Interconnection Grid.” Chris and John both reacted with confused looks. Darren shook his head.
“The Eastern Interconnection Grid…it is the massive power grid that provides electricity to most of the east coast.” He laughed. “And thanks to the bureaucrats and their constant bickering in Washington they have ensured that its SCADA system remains notably vulnerable to attack.”
“SCADA?” Chris asked.
“Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition…” Jennifer spoke bluntly before Darren could respond and then added, “It’s the system that controls the entire electrical grid.”
“Correct…” Darren responded.
“But, it’s an independent network, you can’t hack into it. You have to be directly connected to the grid itself in order to access it.” Jennifer stated.
“Good to see you have learned some things since we last talked.” Darren replied smugly. “Fortunately, we can always count on American greed and selfishness to bring about disaster.” There was a moment of tense silence before he continued, “Shearon Harris really should pay its security forces more.”
“You’ve got someone on the inside of Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant?” John asked.
“Yes…yes I do. And once he inputs Mr. Crawford’s SCADA virus things will begin to go quite awry; starting with the shutdown of the plant’s cooling systems.”
“That will cause a meltdown!” Chris said to which Darren nodded his head and responded with a wide smile.
“Can you imagine it? A nuclear meltdown in the midst of a cascading grid failure; there will be total chaos.”
Karina’s mouth dropped open in horror. “You’re mad.” she said.
“No!” Darren barked. “I am a dedicated servant of the people who has graciously accepted this duty on their behalf. In the midst of the ensuing confusion I will take our weapon not to Richmond, but instead to the naval base at Norfolk where we will show the world what we are capable of and in the process I will expose the capitalist pigs and governmental overlords for the true frauds that they are.” No one spoke; they were far too appalled to respond.
“But it does not end there my dear friends. What good is a magnificent example if no one knows about it?” John crinkled his brow, unsure what Darren was suggesting.
“Even in the midst of a large scale power outage many cell phone towers are able to run in a very limited capacity for a short period of time off of back up batteries. The intended purpose of this is to ensure that emergency communications are not immediately shut down if power is temporarily lost. Such emergency communications would include the distribution of Presidential Alerts; a program that has been installed into every single cell phone that has been constructed in the last ten years.” Darren paused again as he took a few more steps closer to the group.
“Imagine how the people of this land will react, many of whom will be scared, hungry, and huddled in the dark, when they receive the documents Mr. Crawford will send out to every single cell phone linked to the Presidential Alert system shortly after the failure of the power grid and subsequent nuclear detonation. Imagine how they will react when they discover that big businesses and the wealthy have conspired together with the US government, the National Governing Police, the President, and terrorist extremists in order to bring about the largest attack on US soil in history. And it was all so that they could get their beloved National Preservation Act passed. Think of what they will do when they find out that corporate fat cats and politicians will now have the unmetered ability to continue to feast off the hard work of oppressed minorities and the poor who are unable to pull themselves free of their downtrodden state. They will discover that the only reason for any of these horrific events was so that the wealthy can get richer while the poor can only become more impoverished.”
“The country will go mad.” John said.
“Exactly…it will force an unbelievable transformation of society the likes of which this world has never before seen; a revolution that will finally rid us of all forms of government. Anarchy will reign supreme and this country will be taken back by the people.”
Kamil stood quietly behind Darren tightly gripping the strap of the duffle bag slung over his shoulder. Soon…soon this would all be over. He and Dudayev would kill this arrogant infidel and his sniveling accomplice Nathan Crawford and move on with their own mission. The grid failure portion of Darren Siegal’s strategy would add even more terror to their plan, but the bomb, the bomb was the key to everything. Kamil had always planned to forgo Richmond and take his weapon straight to the heart of this vile and blasphemous land; Washington DC. Once there he would finally decapitate The Great Satan in the glorious fires of holy jihad and show the globe the true power of Allah. All would bear witness to the horrific cost of opposing Islam and once America fell, so too would the rest of the world. Darren Siegal was right. A revolution was coming, but it was a revolution that would usher in Islam as the sole religion of the planet. The time was growing close, he had shaken his enemy’s hand for long enough…soon he would cut it off.
John watched as Darren approached the spot where he was kneeling on the floor; his hands still cuffed behind his back. Chris was beside him, and next in line was Jennifer. He knew what was coming next; now that Darren had finished his tirade he would execute all of them. There was no reason not to kill them. Darren had only allowed them to stay alive long enough for him to gloat; keeping them around any longer would be foolish. John glanced over at Karina, taking a moment to stare into her eyes one last time. He did not regret what he had done, far from it. If ever there was any reason for him to sacrifice his life, she was it. He saw Darren raise the weapon and point it at his head.
“I love you.” John said in a solemn voice. A brief silence filled the room, the only sound that could be heard was the thunder and torrential rain coming down from outside the building. Karina felt her body go weak and all the life drained from her face. For a brief moment she thought she might pass out. This was impossible, inconceivable. Why would he love her after all she had put him through? It was all she could do to keep from falling to the floor and weeping. How could she have done this to him?! She had made so many mistakes in her life and now John was going to pay the ultimate price for her. It couldn’t end like this!?
“Darren no, please!!” Karina begged. “Do whatever you want with me, just please let him go.” The earsplitting sound of a gunshot filled the room and Karina screamed.
….
“The Avenger has almost reached the target area sir.” Officer Jackson said to Lieutenant Fearon.
“Good…” he responded, “…deploy the JDAMS as soon as they are in range. Colonel Bell, are your men in position yet?” Fearon looked at the National Guard Commanding Officer.
“Almost, should take just a few more minutes before we are ready to outflank the crowd.” Fearon nodded his head as he looked up at the monitors at the front of the conference room. With the aggressive action taken by the National Governing Police helicopters the crowd’s advance had been halted, but the rioters were far from giving up. More initiative would be needed to discourage these people.
“Captain Davis, I’m going to have your mounted units deploy first. The horses should help break up the crowd, before our soldiers finish things. I believe my Black Hawks have neutralized most of the extreme threats, but should any more arise they will act swiftly against them.”
“My officers are ready for your command.” Davis responded. After seeing what the lieutenant had done to his now former chief, he was not inclined to second guess him.
“Avenger is coming into range in five, four, three, two, one…” Jackson stated. The room immediately fell into complete silence as everyone turned to look at the young NGP Officer. He made a few keystrokes on his laptop’s keyboard.