by Mark Graham
“Okay boys and girls,” the Director said with a smile after sitting down. Is everybody here aware of the agent killings that happened last week. The entire group nodded their heads in unison.
“Well, there’s more and I think it would be necessary that y’all know about it. What the other directors do they can do. I’m responsible for just those of you in this department.” They could tell the Director became real serious.
“The two next days after our United States government agents were killed there were a number of other murders involving foreign government agents. We aren’t alone on this thing. There were agents killed from Russia, China, North Korea, several African countries, South American countries, and several in between. That also includes Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and some others. All shot with the same type of long range sniper rifle. I need not say every body is very anxious. At first they thought it was just against us, but then the next two days proved otherwise. None of us has any ideas and every country has some kind of very high level security person talking to everybody else”.
“So, as far as we know it could be an international cabal of some kind, or somebody that wants complete chaos around the world. We do have a reason to be worried. We figure there has to be at lease ten, fifteen, maybe twenty well trained snipers. A pair on our side were hit from over a mile away and they found evidence of it on top of one of the high rise buildings. No brass, just evidence of a possible laying body and two holes in the roof showing possibly a two-stand support for the rifle. They are good.
“Have we learned anything about our two guys?” a woman asked down the table from Ice. He recognized her, then remembered she had been around almost as long as he had.
The Director responded, “No Pamela, neither have we on any of the others. It’s a real mess and CIA and as far as I’m concerned, the rest of us are really paranoid. However, we still have our assignments,” he said as he sent a small pile of single sheets of paper on both sides of the table.
“Bob and Karen already have their assignments and they are number three and number seven on your assignment sheet. As you can see we don’t have more than one or two that could present a problem and a challenge. On them you might want to team up with another of your peers before volunteering.”
“I’ll take number one Director,” a small black man stated, who was on the same side of the table as Ice. It was an assassination of a minor politician who’d molested too many children in Oregon, and basically cut all funding of law enforcement to limit their ability to catch him.
“I’ll take number four Director,” Karen replied. Her assignment didn’t need to be started for another two weeks, so she had time. Number four was for a white militia group in northern Michigan that were getting way out of hand. So far several black families had been killed and hung in a rest area, along with some whites who had “nigger lovers” carved into their chests.
“Okay Karen, you should take one other with you because although there isn’t a lot of them, there’s enough to get you three ways from Sunday. Hank, you and Yankee go with her.”
There were only five more on the list and they were all volunteered for, a couple by two or three agents. The Director always liked it when he had volunteers because the volunteers worked on cases they most liked. Sometimes when assigning, or ordering a mission it didn’t go as well. “Okay, you have your assignments, so be very careful, and watch your back.” With that the Director got up and left.
“Looks like you have some time off Ice,” Hank said as he stepped behind Ice’s chair. “Hope you enjoy yourself.”
“Don’t worry my friend,” Ice responded, “I have plenty to do if you know what I mean. You be careful and so will I.”
It wasn’t anything new to not have some agents assigned missions. All of them had been around enough that they knew there were some missions just not talked about in the group, and the Director did sometimes assign an agent to back up another, as he was with Ice on the two missions. The one with Bob, and the other with Karen. Ice knew he’d have time to secretly back up Bob, and with luck would be available to Karen on her assignment in upper Michigan. He knew the militia’s were usually good and were exceptionally tough because most of them had veteran soldiers, Marines, and such.
He had a couple days off before he had to go to Kansas to back up Bob. It shouldn’t be too hard and there wasn’t an outright “kill” authorized. Bob was supposed to go to a location which was a ranch of some kind and find out what warehouse, barn, or building might be the one where tons of marijuana and cocaine was being stored. His mission was to burn the building down to the ground or blow it up. It might not take much but then again, there might be a lot of armed people in the area there protecting the drugs which went up into the tens of millions of dollars.
As Ice flew a way he thought it over and thought that it would be a lot cheaper to steal a stealth heliocopter, or a bomber and just wipe the entire ranch off the face of the earth. But he knew he wouldn’t be allowed to do that on American soil. A few years before he let it be known that if they would give him a bomber he’d have Iran pretty much annihilated. He had laughed but the Director came right out with an order to the opposite to Ice because they knew if he could, he would. They also knew that with Ice if he wanted to blame it on the Chinese, he could do that too.
Chapter Seven
Ice was called two days later by the Director. The Director told him that the Kansas thing had been taken care of by the DEA. They didn’t destroy the place but said they confiscated everything. Ice thought to himself, “yeah, right!” and was suspicious that half or most of the stuff would be out being sold throughout the country any way.
“I’ll go up to Michigan then and do what I can with the militia bunch,” Ice told the Director.
“Good idea,” the Director responded. “It seems to be a lot bigger than we first thought, and she will need all the help she can get. Fly up to Escanaba and I’ll give you a ring within two days. By then we’ll have a little more intel about the situation. If you should be part of the active party I’ll let you know. If not I’ll tell you where you need to be to cause the most damage.”
“Okay,” Ice answered and hung up. He would run over to Maumee where his house was and pickup the necessary weapons he thought he might use, then head up to Escanaba. He kind of looked forward to taking his rocket launcher with him, or several of the throw away kind. Hell, if he could he’d love to take a tank up there. The only bad thing about a tank Ice remembered was that it was too easy to get trapped inside of one.
~~~~~
The morning after he arrived in Escanaba Ice was called by the Director. “Okay, this is the word,” the Director said.
“Meet Karen and the other two at Sam’s Bar & Grill on the south side of down. Guess you can’t miss the place. It has a really big sign out front. Meet them at 10AM for a late breakfast. You’ll be included in their plan they already have. Karen was thankful you can join her because she can definitely use you on a high point looking over the scene. Got it?” the Director said in one fast sentence.
“Got it!” Ice answered and the Director hung up as soon as the “it” was out. He thought someone is in a hurry and something must be going on. Ice wouldn’t waste the time to even worry about it because he had bigger things to focus on.
The phone call had come in early, so Ice had a little time to get to the bar and grill. He went over to the lobby of the motel and grabbed a cup of coffee and a piece of toast to get his system going. He didn’t have to eat that much but he had to eat ever so often or his system would short wire and he couldn’t focus.
As soon as Ice walked into Sam’s he saw Karen, Hank, and Yankee seated at the booth in the corner. He figured as much when he saw Karen could watch out the front window and the two guys could see out the side windows. He knew they were well trained and had worked with each of them, at one time or another.
“Hey Ice!” Hank said smiling when he came up. Karen was on one
side of the booth so he slid in next to her. All of them had a cup of coffee in front of them and the waitress came over with a fresh cup for Ice and filled the rest. Everybody, including Ice, knew what they wanted so they ordered. The waitress was kind of surprised when one of them ordered two eggs, two pieces of bacon, and some hash browns. The others said, “me too,” almost immediately.
While eating, the group talked about a little bit of everything. They were alway aware of anybody in the area that might over hear them. By the time they finished, the breakfast crowd had left for the most part and left them in the corner by themselves for a little while.
“Here’s what we got Ice,” Karen started. She was the person assigned so she was the one who was responsible and tell the others what she had planned. Evidently the other two men didn’t say anything while she talked so Ice figured the three of them had already put something together. “We came up with a three way attack plan with one weakness. The weakness was that we had no one to cover the high ground, who could see what was going on and be able to take care of business. When we heard you were coming we agreed you would be the perfect man for the job. Especially if you brought the hardware you usually bring.” They all smiled at that.
They still had time to go over it so Karen went on to explain where she and Hank would go through the front gate and head to the one and only permanent building about a hundred yards from the entrance. They had checked out the grounds by airplane and saw there was a small side entrance not too far from the building. Behind the building only a little ways there was quite a big hill with jagged rock going all the way up. She explained to Ice that from the back side of the hill was a county clearing, running the distance of the section where the big electrical poles were. She wanted Ice to park along the road some place, hidden if possible, and walk in and up to the to the top of the hill.
“Once you are there find a good spot where you can see everything. You’ll actually be able to look down and see the top of the building and the front gate. Basically, other than us, if it moves it dies!” she said.
“You all will have a fluorescent orange square on the top of your hats?” Ice asked so he wouldn’t hit them with friendly fire.
“Actually no, Ice,” Karen said smiling. “Since I’m calling the shots, both Hank and Yankee, and myself of course will have hot pink florescent tape on the top of our hats.
“Sounds good to me,” Ice said smiling, being glad of where he was assigned. It would be his job to insure everybody was either dead or dieing.
Karen continued, “If you would Ice, get yourself up to the top of that hill about 3AM. If for some reason you can’t lug everything up there you will have time to go back and get the rest. These guys usually turn in about eleven, or a little after. Sometimes there might be a pair staying up and playing cards. We have a guy inside but he left this morning to make an ammunition run and won’t be back until we get done. If we’re not successful for some reason then he will mop up. However, he is not one of us. We borrowed him from another department.”
“I’m in,” Ice said with smile. “I’m glad you’re getting me in early so if need be, as it probably will happen, I need two trips.”
Yankee smiled and said, “Good, that means you have grenades, grenade launchers, guns, and plenty of ammunition.”
“Yepper,” Ice smiled agreeing. “And more than that. If need be you’ll see some fine fireworks. In fact, if all the people get trapped in the building, y’all get back at least 40 or 50 yards and duck when I start.”
“Yeah, I feel better about this whole thing knowing you’ll be up there,” Yankee said. “And 3AM is about perfect. Most will be asleep if not all of them. No body has messed with them ever. They think they are a private entity that nobody knows about. But, they’re stupid enough to not realize a bunch of dead folks wouldn’t get somebody’s attention. Hell, we got our inside guy installed about a year ago after they burnt a restaurant down. I think they think they are untouchable.”
“Also Ice,” Karen went on, “there are two or three small trailers to the east of the building. We think at least one is for storage but think one or two might have people in them.”
“How’s it going to go down?” Ice asked.
“Well,” Karen responded, “we aren’t the FBI so we’re not going to make this out to be another Waco or Montana thing. When you hear a shot, as soon as the sun is up get yourself ready.”
“Cool,” Ice said, “basically an attack, kill, and destroy. One of those times that others have to state “freeze you under-arrest? Yep, as usual this will go down, another crew will come in and as far as we’re concerned no other person will even know what happened. Well, unless a wife or kid wonders where daddy went. By the time they ask that, the dead will be either mulch or on the bottom of a cement column.”
All of them were a little on the mentally sick side so all have them kind of giggled, and smiled at one another. At least it was what most normal people would think. Actually they were very mental, more so than most. If they weren’t, they’d be dead.
Ice took a couple hours nap, and was on his way to his assigned area by 1:30AM. The encampment was at least an hour away from Escanaba and he wanted plenty of time to find the place. Getting to where he had to go might be a little touchy since in was pitch black out. When he got to where he was going he found a narrow path he could back into. The sky was clear and the stars lit up the ground he had to cover.
On his second trip to where he was going he was glad he made the extra time. He’d made one trip up and had returned for all his ammunition and a couple other little toys. The first time up wasn’t bad but the second trip he had more weight and there was a gradual slope all the way. He was kind of paranoid because for about a half mile he had to cover ground with no trees. Once he got to the trees he had quite a walk to where he was going.
Being above the encampment and downwind from it he felt safe to pour himself a cup of coffee from his thermos. It was almost pre-dawn so he was able to take his night scope out and check everything out. Karen and the guys had described everything perfectly. The building was about twenty yards from the bottom of the steep hill, He found the little trailers they told him about, but was able to see two small buildings on the other side of the larger building. They all looked like little campsites. He kind of hoped it wasn’t one of those family gatherings. It didn’t matter what he could and would do but killing little kids still bothered him, especially in the homeland.
As the sun rose from the horizon and things could be seen with binoculars, Ice found where the two at the front were and the one on the side was. The ones at the front were quite a distance from him, but the one from the side was probably about half the distance. He was glad it was level down there because he could already see the pink X’s on all three of his partners. He sat back with another cup of coffee and waited for the operation to get under way. He had all his weapons in order around him, with enough clips for each weapon to do whatever it was it had to do. He also had the grenade launcher with shells next to it. In another direction, in arms reach was hand grenades he had brought with him. His back was up to a large tree, but he could keep an eye on the area behind him well with the slight downward slope in that direction. He also found a safe path that could be used off to one side, and took note that if he could safely get down there, the enemy could get up it.
The thing didn’t start until almost full daylight. Shadows could be the enemy, so they planned for that. It was also one of the reasons the group was glad to have Ice up on the hill. They figured the two attacking from the front would be the militia’s target and once they got fire from the side, that would be their secondary focus. Hopefully, within a minute or two from that point, Ice would be lobbing all kinds of stuff at them which would also cause a panic. He could only imagine the hell those people were about to experience. He counted six pickups, three SUV;s, and two cars so knew there was from eleven to sixty people or so down there.
When it started, Ice had h
is AK-47 in his hands. After the first couple of shots he saw a man run out the back door and he capped him before the door slammed shut behind him. The people in the trailers and small buildings started breaking out windows and at least a dozen rifles went off several times.
To his left and down he could see Yankee coming up behind the trees, trying to use them for cover. As soon as he saw someone through the window he started to fire. Shortly there were several of the militia firing back. He figured that was enough bullshit from the militia. He put his AK-47 to his shoulder and clicked it over to automatic. He peppered the roof of the main building and was able to put a few rounds through the trailers and small building too. He could assume the bullets might find a target, but would at least cause a lot of confusion.
The next thing he did was to pick up his grenade launcher and hit the roofs of all the trailers and small buildings. Then he did the same thing with the larger building putting the grenades through the roof. The middle one didn’t penetrate, bounced down the roof and blew out an 8 foot section of the back door and wall.
He stopped a minute just to see what was happening as the smoke cleared. He clearly saw that Karen had retreated and were peppering the area with bullets. It took a minute but finally found Yankee who was almost at the side entrance to the grounds. Suddenly he heard and felt a sting on his left ear, realizing someone was shooting at him. He looked in that direction and couldn’t see anybody on the ground or around the buildings so he looked up. There was a man up the tree on a platform aiming a rifle at him. Immediately he knew that if the man was any kind of a warrior he’d be on the bottom of the hill dead, with a bullet in his head. Not thinking, Ice swung his weapon over and sighted in on the guy and pulled the trigger. Almost immediately Ice said under his breath, “oops” and realized he still had the grenade launcher in his hands. He waited a few seconds for the smoke to clear and realized he had hit the guy with a grenade. The out come was the trees and ground were full of blood and guts. Being a smart ass, Ice said to himself, “bet if he had the guts he’d do it again!” Nobody was there to laugh at his comment, but he did anyway.