“Do you want me to turn off the sprinklers?” Timmy asked.
“Leave them on for now,” Bart answered. “It gives us a little edge.”
“You’re the boss,” Timmy responded. “Just let me know when you want them off. I have my finger on the button.”
“How do we get up to the second floor?” Bart asked Timmy.
“There’s an elevator at the end of the hallway inside the offices,” Timmy replied. “But they have disabled it.”
“There must be some stairs, then,” Bart said.
“There is a stairway right next to the elevator, but they had installed a blast door on the ground floor and have five men covering it on the second level. They all have machine guns. It would be suicide to attempt an assault that way.”
So far, not one shot had been fired, but everyone looked like they had been through a long war. Bart noticed the woman who had come to the assault in a dress. The dress had turned totally transparent from the raining water. Bart could see she had a nice body. She realized he was staring at her.
“What are you thinking, Bart?” she said suspiciously and attempted to cover herself with her hands.
“Do we have any rope?” Bart asked as he stared.
“What do you need rope for?” she asked anxiously.
“I’ve got an assault ladder in my bag,” Steve said enthusiastically. “I thought we might need one.”
Bart didn’t respond for a couple of seconds. He had turned his head and was busy studying the roof of the warehouse. The two story office area did not quite reach the high ceiling. It was a building inside a building. There appeared to be about six feet of open space between the top of the building and the heavy metaled ceiling. There were lots of girders and support beams crisscrossing the underside of the roof.
Bart addressed the woman. “Do you think you can climb up to the roof and drop down on to the top of the second story?” Bart asked the woman named Carrie. Her special skill at Dewey & Beatem was she could scale almost anything. She was an expert climber.
“I’d have to lose this dress to be able to climb, but yes. What do you have in mind Bart?” She responded without emotion.
“Once you are on the roof, you could take out the people covering the stairs, or at least pin them down long enough for us to make a charge,” Bart said. “What do you think? Can you do it?”
“Bart, I don’t think I could get all five of them,” she replied professionally. “I’m not that good of a shot.”
“I’ll go with her,” Haleigh Taylor spoke up. “I climb rock facings on weekends. It’s kind of my hobby. I’m a pretty good shot too.”
“She has climbed many cliffs,” Chase told his boss. “I think this structure would be easy for her.”
“And if it is only about a six foot drop to the top of the roof, we won’t need any rope,” Carrie explained. “We could just drop down.”
“But won’t they hear you when you drop down to the roof?” Steve asked. “It will make some noise.”
“Not if the sprinklers keep going,” Bart replied as a plan formed in his head. “The noise of them landing on the roof will be hidden by the cascade of the water hitting the roof. They could effectively sneak up behind the defenders.”
“Then, what do you need a rope for?” Steve asked.
“Blowing the door to the stairway will be a diversion. We’ll send two people up the rope in the far corner, right there,” Bart pointed and everyone gave a quick look. “When we blow the door, the rest of the defenders on the walkway will move to protect the stairwell and we can come up behind them.”
“And Carrie and I can drop down from the roof to the walkway. If we come down past the stairwell, we will be ahead of them,” Haleigh said with excitement.
“And we can come up the stairs. As long as there is some cover, we could trap all the shooters with a three pronged assault,” Steve completed the thought.
“There are several heavy metal doors along the walkway,” Timmy added. “I can lock and unlock any of them for you to use as protection. They all open outward for safety reasons, like an exit. They could give you protection unless the defenders have armor piercing bullets.”
“Good,” Bart said. “Very good.” He repeated as he thought out the rest of the assault. Spirits were suddenly very high in the group.
“I’d better get ready,” Carrie said. “Me too,” added Haleigh as they moved away from the group.
Bart looked every person in the eye. “Okay, here is how this will go down. I want you two,” he pointed to the other two women. “You supply suppressing fire when I tell you. Then you stay here and make sure no one tries to escape.”
“But they haven’t fired on us yet,” one woman exclaimed. “We can’t open fire first, can we?”
“They just tied to kill us all with nanobots,” Bart blustered. “I think we are safely on legal grounds to open fire,” the lawyer said.
“You’re the lawyer,” she grimly replied.
“Who wants to go up the rope?” Bart asked.
“Joe and I will,” Steve offered. “We’re the fastest rope climbers. It’s probably because of our superior upper body strength,” he added proudly and flexed his muscles. Joe shook his head, everybody else snickered.
“The rest of us are going to storm the office area and see what is there,” Bart continued. “Are there any questions?”
“Let’s do it,” Steve exclaimed and pumped his fist.
Bart suddenly heard Chase take a sharp intake of breath. He turned to the direction where Chase was staring. Not only was Carrie undressed, but Haleigh was also undressed. The two women stood in the soaking rain from the sprinklers in only brief panties and matching bras. They stood with legs apart and assault rifles belted to their backs.
“Amazons,” Steve muttered with admiration.
“I couldn’t climb the walls in all those bulky wet clothes,” Haleigh said matter-of-factly and shrugged.
“Come on people, stop gawking, we have a war to win here,” Bart chided his attackers to regain their attention. “We’ll go on my mark.”
The assault started like a well-oiled machine. First, the two women stood up and supplied suppressing fire as they raked the upper walkway. Then the two warehouse climbers went left, the two rope climbers went right and the six remaining assault members went straight towards the office area. Steve had left the two women behind the wooden pallets with extra ammo clips and they kept firing until the assault team was out of sight. Then they sat down behind the pallets and changed clips as the people on the walkway began to return fire.
Suddenly, one of the women started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” the other woman asked.
“I’m glad they didn’t ask me to climb today,” she said happily.
“Why do you say that?”
“I only have thong panties on today.”
***
Bart and the main body of the assault team were now in the main office area. They quickly cleared each room as they continued down the long hall but stopped at the manufacturing room. Chase wanted to toss a grenade into the room and blow everything up, but Bart stopped him.
“God only knows how many nanobots are in there and maybe the liquid solution is protecting them. I say leave this alone for now,” Bart reasoned. “We’ll let someone who knows what to do handle this.”
They were almost to the elevator and stairway blast door when they heard a noise. It sounded like someone pounding on glass. Bart turned his head to the windowed room and saw a naked woman. She was hysterically slamming her fists on the glass window and crying. She had the look of a wild animal. He could also see two dead bodies on the floor behind her. He noticed additional movement in a corner of the room.
“Blow the door,” he ordered. Chase put a quick shot into the lock and then pushed the door open. As soon as they entered the room, the woman rushed at Chase and held on to him like her life depended on it.
“Who are you?” Bart asked.
“Why are you in here naked?” Chase continued.
“They are doing some kind of weird experiments here. They let loose something that I couldn’t see and those people on the floor died as I watched them. I was so scared,” she wailed. “But I was not affected — just terrified.
“How long ago did they release something,” Chase quickly asked. He was suddenly concerned that he could have become affected.
“About two hours ago,” she replied. Relief showed on Chase’s face.
“What kind of experiments were they conducting? Why didn’t you die?” Bart said as he tried to calm her down.
“I don’t know,” she said while sobbing. “Why don’t you ask him?” The woman pointed to a man in a lab coat standing calmly in the corner.
Bart immediately recognized the man. “Hands up Catfish,” he roared and pointed his gun at the scientist.
Carl Catfish remained cool and did as was ordered. “Can I come and work for the government now? I have a lot to offer.”
“I can’t deal with this right now. Chase, you stay with them,” Bart ordered and left the room.
***
On the roof, Haleigh and Carrie dropped silently onto the tarpapered structure. They immediately ran to the edge and took up positions. Haleigh pressed her ear piece.
“We’re in position, you can blow the door.”
A few seconds later there was a loud boom and smoked climbed the stairwell. The five shooters fired their machine guns into the smoke. Haleigh put a precision shot into the shoulder of one of the shooters and he went down.
“They’re coming up the stairwell,” a defender man screamed. “Need some help here.” Carrie shot another shooter in the leg. He collapsed screaming. The two women then backed off as other people came running. They moved down the walkway. Three doors down, at the very end of the hallway, Haleigh hung over the side and dropped to the walkway. Carrie arrived seconds later. They began to move forward with their machine guns aimed at the crowd of shooters who were busy firing down the stairway and didn’t notice them.
“Open the door where we are,” Haleigh asked Timmy over her ear piece.
He immediately replied. “It’s open.” She pulled the door wide enough to cover them and took up a shooting position.
“We’re up on the walkway,” Steve announced almost at the same time. “As soon as we round the corner, we’ll be ready.”
“There is a crate just past the corner. You can use it for cover,” Timmy supplied. Steve and Joe quickly got into position.
“Ready,” Steve said into his ear piece.
Bart now screamed up the stairwell. “Shooters, you don’t have to die. We have you out flanked to your left and right. I’m coming up the middle. You have no place to hide and no cover. Throw your guns down the stairs now, before it is too late.”
“You’re not taking me alive,” replied one of the shooters. He then began to spray bullets towards Haleigh and Carrie who he noticed off to his right.
“Fire,” Bart screamed.
The sound of machine gun fire filled the air. All of Bernard’s security people were huddled at the top of the stair case. They made a big target and were hard to miss. Within seconds, half the defenders were on the ground. Two men suddenly roared and flew down the stairs with their machine guns blazing.
“Two coming, Bart,” Steve said into his ear piece.
As soon as they hit the first landing, they were mowed down by fire from five equally blazing machine guns. There were only four men left at the top of the stairs.
“Cease firing,” Bart yelled into his ear piece. All of his people stopped firing. The four security men kept firing for a few seconds and then stopped as well.
“Throw down your weapons and put your hands on your heads, or face annihilation,” Bart yelled up the stairs.
After hesitating for just a few seconds, the men looked at each other and dropped their guns, then put their hands on their heads.
“They’re done,” Steve said over his ear piece. He and Joe raced from their positions to cover them. Bart and the rest of the assault team sprinted up the stairs. The men were quickly cuffed. There were three more men still alive that lay wounded on the floor. They were cuffed too.
“Where are Haleigh and Carrie?” Bart asked with concern as he looked around.
“We’re right here,” Carrie spoke as she and Haleigh emerged from behind the metal door. They both wore white lab coats now. “Lucky for us, the door led to a storage closet,” Haleigh announced happily.
“You can turn off the sprinklers now,” Bart told Timmy. The warehouse quickly became peacefully quiet.
“There are still eight people in a room two doors down to your left,” Timmy chimed in. “It looks like a bedroom, office and I see lab equipment. There’s an old man in a wheel chair near the desk. He appears to be the only one with a gun. The rest of the people are huddled on the bed.”
“Well, let’s go bag us Bernard Schultz,” Steve said cheerfully.
***
They had taken two steps towards the door when Bart’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He hoped it was Banyon with good news — but it wasn’t.
“I’m back on line now,” Marlene informed him. “Is anything new?”
“Oh, just a few things,” Bart responded. “How many agents can you get to Laughlin, Nevada as soon as possible?”
“Why?” She wondered out loud.
“Because we just raided the nanobot factory here and are about to nab Bernard Schultz himself,” Bart replied.
“Oh my!” she exclaimed. That’s sounds good. I can have five people there in maybe twenty minutes. We’ve got a really fast chopper in Los Angeles. I can arrange to get more people there shortly after that.”
“We did it Marlene,” Bart said happily. “We’ve found Bernard Schultz and stopped him from sending out any more nanobots.”
“That’s great news, but we are not out of the woods yet,” she reminded him. Marlene told him that they needed to keep the takedown quiet for now. She didn’t want Meyers to find out. She then instructed Bart and his people to get some rest. She told them they would need it, as tomorrow could be the end of the world as they knew it.
“Hopefully, we have put enough road-blocks in motion to stop the plague tomorrow,” Bart said.
“Yeah I hope so too,” Marlene remarked uncharacteristically. She showed a measure of sarcasm in her usually logical voice.
“We’ll stop the Effort tomorrow,” be boasted.
“Then all we have to do is stop a dictator from taking over the country,” she spat back at him.
Bart hung up the phone less happy then he was before the call. With grim determination he walked to the door that led to Bernard Schultz’s bedroom and the heart of all that was evil in his world.
Chapter Eighty-One
B
ernard Schultz sat in his wheelchair. He had a gun in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He tried to call his biker security team again but when they still didn’t answer he realized it was already too late for them to help him anyway. He also placed a call to his son, but the call just went to voicemail on his private phone. He didn’t leave a message. His third call was to Brenda and he wasn’t surprised when she didn’t answer either. He decided to leave her a message — he knew it was time.
The machine gun fire had suddenly stopped outside and the sprinkler system had also ceased pouring water on him. He knew he didn’t have much time. His part of the takeover of America was coming to an end. But he could still help his son.
“Brenda,” he spoke sadly into the phone when it beeped and allowed him to leave a voicemail. “When you get this message I will be gone. It’s now up to you to take the talisman to Washington and get in contact with my son, Admiral Michael Meyers. Use the code word ‘Orion’ when you talk to him. This will tell him you have the talisman. He
will see you then. Good Luck, I will miss you,” the old man said and hung up the phone.
Bernard thought about his victories and losses. He decided it was all worth it. True, he had lost his beloved horse farm, his experimental lab, his manufacturing facility, a huge amount of money, and probably his entire inventory of nanobots. But Brenda had the talisman and a lot of money. His son was in the process of taking over the country, in the name of the Effort. Several million Hispanics were going to die tomorrow, starting in the morning. Soon America would be the haven for White people it was intended to be. He looked at the people huddled in fear on the bed and decided not to kill them. He noticed the dress of one of the women had ridden up revealing a creamy smooth thigh. This made him think about Brenda and all the women he fantasized about. I had some really good times, he mused.
He then put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, just as Bart blew the door.
Chapter Eighty-Two
M
eanwhile, out in the desert, Banyon and the three Patel sisters watched as Brenda measured off the exact distance to the buried treasure with a tape measure. They all had night vision goggles and could clearly see the woman was frustrated with her lack of distance judgment and her inability to keep the tape measure stationary on the ground in the windy, dark, desert. The three huge helpers stood around, leaned on shovels and pointed the flashlights for her. They didn’t know what she was after, they were simply told to do as she requested. Otherwise they would have been more helpful.
“We’re in position,” Banyon heard Loni whisper into his ear piece. “What’s happening there?”
“She is still trying to find the vault,” Banyon mumbled back.
He heard a laugh come from Loni. “Well, I hope she doesn’t take too long, it’s lonely and cold out here.”
“How do you want to approach them?” Previne asked as she attempted to snuggle closer against him. Pramilla was on his other side and Maya stood directly in front and leaned against his body. It was for warmth — they had told him.
A Dubious Device: The Nanobot Terror (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 10) Page 28