The Devil's Claw

by Nick Pignatelli

  “Jesus, Sean, an assault? You gotta be kidding,” Serrafino said. “Who the hell are these guys? Do they really have the juice to come after us, and these civilians?”

  “I’m afraid they do, and we really pissed them off by kicking their asses,” Foster replied. “They’re coming back with fire in their eyes.”

  “How do you want to play this?” Serrafino asked.

  “Get the team together in the dining room. “We’ll put a plan together.”

  “What about Cummings? He’s still watching the bridge.”

  “Leave him there for now. We’ll get our plan set, then Sal can go fill him in. I think we need someone at the bridge in case we have to hit them from the rear.”

  Serrafino went out on the front porch. Vincenzo and Robinson were hunkered down behind Jack’s SUV. “Sal! Bernie! Inside, now!”

  Foster went into the owner’s suite to get Mitchell. Sara sat on the bed holding Jennifer’s small hand, the young medic in a bedside chair speaking quietly. Jack stood in front of a window, holding the curtain back.

  “I wouldn’t stand there in plain sight, Jack,” Foster advised. “It might not be safe.”

  “Why?” Jack asked. “What could I possibly have to fear in my own home?”

  If their lives are in danger, they ought to know why. Foster made his decision.

  “Okay, Jack. You want the whole story? You got it. In fact, you deserve it.”

  Foster motioned to Sara and Jack to follow him into the dining room. Serrafino was already there, seated at a table with Vincenzo and Robinson.

  “Trouble is heading our way,” Foster began. “Black is probably resupplying his team with ammunition and getting ready to come back to take the civilians by force.” Sara and Jack sat in stunned silence.

  “Our team net has been jammed,” Foster continued, then looked at the MacGregors. “Along with your cell service, Internet access, everything. Given that we have been cut off from all contact with BoDex and our commander, it would appear that we have been hung out to dry. Our mission has changed. We need to get ready to defend ourselves.”

  “Are you telling me those guys in black that you kicked out of here are coming back to...kill us?” Jack asked.

  “There’s a good chance,” Foster said.

  “But why?” Sara asked. “All we did was help that poor girl.”

  “You’re loose ends in what has turned out to be a government cover-up. And I’m afraid that by defending you, we’ve put ourselves in the same spot.”

  Over the next few minutes, Sean Foster, for the first time in his military career, broke protocol and shared information with unauthorized parties. He tried his best to be vague as he told the MacGregors that Jennifer’s parents may have been accidentally killed when they trespassed onto BoDex property and found themselves right in the middle of a classified operation gone bad. He purposely left out information about the Centurions and their attack on the BoDex trainers. Foster voiced his belief that Black’s purpose was to make sure the accident got swept under the rug.

  “This is all on the level?” Jack asked.

  “I wish it wasn’t, Jack, but every word is true,” Foster said. “I believe we may all be in serious danger.”

  “Well, why don’t we all just leave before they get here? We have two cars right out front. We can go to Eagle’s Notch, or Plattsburgh, or just take the Northway. Somewhere big, with lots of people,” Sara said. “They can’t hurt us if there are lots of other people around, right?”

  “I wouldn’t count on a crowd deterring the actions of these guys, ma’am.” Serrafino said.

  “It’s too late to leave,” Foster declared. “Along with cutting off communications, they’ve probably already blocked the few roads leading out of the area.”

  “Then, what do we do?” Jack asked.

  “We put a plan together to stay alive. Sara, we need you to gather medical supplies, just in case. Jack, we need you to provide assistance on your layout here.” Sara left the room. “We’re going to be okay, Jack. We just need to come up with a plan, then execute it correctly.”

  “This whole thing is insane,” Jack muttered.

  “Yeah, that’s one word for it,” Robinson said.

  “Let’s get to work,” Foster said. He spread out his overhead map on the table.

  “I have a good, detailed map of the surrounding area and a blueprint of the entire resort,” said Jack. “Would they help?”

  “Everything helps right now, Jack,” Foster said.

  “How about some coffee, too?” Jack asked.

  “Sounds good, thanks,” Serrafino said.

  “And I never did get a piece of that pie,” Robinson added sheepishly.

  “Bernie...” Foster shook his head.

  “Not a problem,” Jack said. “I’ll bring it in with the coffee.”

  “Whaddya think, Sean?” Vincenzo asked. “We got a shot at this?”

  “Hell, yes,” Foster said. “We already kicked their asses once today, and we were just winging it. Imagine what we can do with a full blown plan.”

  “And what happens when we do?” Serrafino asked. “We’ve been cut off from everybody. Do we just waltz back into BoDex as if nothing has happened? Will Attwood welcome us back for saving these people or lock us up for disobeying orders?”

  “We’ll worry about that if we get that far,” Foster said.

  “If?” Vincenzo asked.

  “What?” Foster said, looking up from the map.

  “You said if we get that far,” Vincenzo said.

  “Sorry, I meant when. I just don’t want to underestimate these guys. We don’t know anything about their background or abilities.” He smiled. “But I know ours, and that’s good enough to make me a believer.”

  Fifteen minutes later, surrounded by the remnants of Sara’s apple pie, Foster and his team had what they believed was the best plan they could come up with. Foster added one last warning. “We take these people down gently. The use of lethal force is not authorized unless your life is in jeopardy and you have no alternative. Everybody clear?” They all nodded.

  Foster folded his overhead map and stuffed it into a pocket. “That’s it, then. We stay off the radios. If they can jam them, then they can also listen to us trying to transmit. We use them just to listen in, nothing else. Maybe we’ll get lucky and one of our frequencies will open up. Sal, go ahead and tie up with Kurt at the bridge. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not to send him back here. I know our ranks are thin, but I don’t want to leave you stranded all by yourself. Remember, without our radios, you will be on your own out there.”

  “Got it.” Vincenzo grabbed his assault rifle. The others stood too. They shook hands and offered words of encouragement.

  It all seemed unreal to Jack. These men acted as if they were going off to war and unsure of their safe return. “What about me?” he asked.

  “What about you?” Foster replied.

  “I thought I could do something to, you know, help.”

  “You any good with a gun?” Serrafino asked.

  “Nothing beyond shooting at squirrels with a BB gun as a kid,” Jack confessed. “I’m probably not much good to you with a gun.”

  “You’d be surprised what you can do when your back is against the wall,” Foster said, “and right now, all our backs are against the wall.”

  The Black Hawk had just enough space to land in the clearing. As soon as the rotor blades stopped, Black’s team huddled around the open cargo door on the UH-60’s port side while Ruiz handed out full replacement magazines for their MP5Ns and SIG P226s. Black squatted on the ground with Schmidt and Perry, a map of the area spread out before them.

  “Thanks to Attwood’s damn Centurions, I’m down two men, two good men,” Black lamented. “Think you can spare Ruiz?”

  Schmidt stretched his back. “Can I? Yeah, if I have to,” the pilot said. “Do I want to? No, but it’s your call.”

  “You still got Perry with you.”

>   “I know, and he’s a damn fine copilot, but we’re crawling across the tops of trees here and I need him up front. Without Ruiz, we lose our side-to-side observation and equipment man.”

  “Okay, keep Ruiz. But if I call for help, you got to come running.”

  “Understood,” Schmidt said. “So, how are we going in? Guns blazing or stealthy?”

  “Still trying to decide,” Black replied. “Foster’s people were not the pushovers I thought they’d be.”

  Black’s ground team and flight crew gathered around him. The sound of magazines snapping into submachine guns and handguns, and rounds being chambered, permeated the air. When the noise died down, Black laid out his plan of attack.

  “Let’s move out!” Black yelled. Popavich slipped behind the wheel of the Humvee. Black sat in front, while Collins and Graham climbed into the rear. Schmidt and his crew clambered aboard the UH-60 along with Rossi and Williams. Black had decided to put two of his men on the helicopter and have Schmidt drop them in by rope once the action started.

  None of Black’s elite team had any idea they were being observed.

  Six pairs of eyes looked on in curious silence from the cover of the woods across the road from the helicopter. The Centurions had once again stumbled across Black’s team. These were the ones who had killed one of their own. They did not have the sign of a friend.

  A low growl formed deep in Alpha’s throat. He turned toward the others, and through a series of subdued snarls and growls, communicated commands. The Centurions were forming their own language.

  They watched as the rotor blades became a shimmering disc, the huge helicopter rising into the air amid a blast of wind and noise. The creatures were frightened, but their curiosity kept them in place, watching, learning, as the machine moved over the trees and out of sight.

  The Centurions stared intently as the Humvee U-turned in the clearing, then roared off toward the resort. Alpha rose, and through his strange new language, ordered the other Centurions to follow. They obediently complied, shuffling off through the woods in the same direction as the Humvee.

  Sal Vincenzo sprinted along the road that connected the resort to the small wood bridge where Kurt Cummings stood watch. Vincenzo stayed on the shoulder in case he had to duck into the trees. As he approached the bridge, he slowed. Cummings was nowhere to be seen.

  Vincenzo heard three short whistles and dropped to a knee, the muzzle of his M4A1 swinging up. Anyone else would have thought the noise was just another of the countless birds in the woods, but he recognized it as one of the team’s sign-countersign challenges.

  Vincenzo replied with two short whistles signifying he had heard and accepted the challenge. He was relieved to see Cummings step out from the foliage and drop down next to him.

  “What took so long?”

  “You won’t believe it,” Vincenzo said. “It looks like we’re about to go to war.” Cummings stared as if he’d just grown a second head. “Yeah,” Vincenzo continued, “that was my reaction too.” Vincenzo explained the plan, and how he and Cummings fit into the operation.

  “I still say this whole thing is absolutely insane,” Jack said.

  “And I agree with you, but there’s not much else we can do,” Foster said. “I’ll do everything possible to see this does not turn into a firefight. I mean that, Jack. I’m a soldier, but it’s smarter to use my mouth and brain to get out of a tough situation instead of using my weapon.”

  “How’s it going?” Mitchell entered the room.

  “All quiet, so far,” Foster said. “How’s the girl?”

  Mitchell sat down. “She seems to have accepted what happened to her parents this morning, but she doesn’t really know the details.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Foster said.

  “What?”

  “During our little run-in, you got in the face of one of those maniacs, and said, Try me. I’ve done worse for less reason. Is there something I should know about you?”

  The young medic blushed. “It’s kind of embarrassing, really.”

  “Go ahead, Eric, we could use some amusement about now,” Foster prodded.

  Mitchell began hesitantly. “It was something I heard in an old Western when I was a kid and I guess I never forgot it. When that guy got in my face, it just kind of came out.” Jack and Foster looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

  The blue Humvee emblazoned with the BoDex logo rumbled across the bridge, stopping almost twenty feet on the other side. They couldn’t be seen from the resort.

  “Okay, time to go. Collins, you take the left flank. Graham, take the right. Get into position and wait for my signal,” Black ordered. The two men climbed out and moved toward their assigned routes.

  “Collins!” Black called. “No grandstanding, you got me?”

  Collins dismissed Black with a wave of his hand, then disappeared into the forest.

  Popavich stomped on the gas pedal, sending the Humvee rocketing down the road.

  “Strange,” Black thought aloud.

  “What’s that?” Popavich asked.

  “No sentries out here.”

  “It’s not like they have an entire army to work with.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Black answered. “I guess with only six men, they have to pull their defensive line in close.”

  The Humvee carrying Black and Popavich ground to a halt in front of the resort. Popavich turned the engine off. The resort looked deserted, immersed in silence.

  “You think they bugged out?” Popavich asked.

  “Not a chance,” Black replied. “I can assure you, these guys are not the kind to run from anything.”

  Black opened his door and stepped out. Hand resting on the butt of his holstered sidearm, he shouted, “Foster! C’mon out!”

  No reaction from inside. The stillness was almost intoxicating, punctuated only by the sound of birds chirping. Black thought it would probably be a nice, relaxing place to vacation. Too bad it’s all got to be burned to the ground.

  “Last chance, Foster, then we do this my way!” Black shouted.

  The front door opened slowly. Foster walked out and stood on the porch overlooking the parking lot. Black’s hand pressed against the butt of his SIG, Popavich’s fingers dug into the steering wheel of the Humvee. Black and Foster stared at each other.

  Black broke the stalemate. “What’s it gonna be?”

  Foster took another step forward, stopping at the wood railing that ran around the edge of the porch. He rested both hands on it, letting Black see he wasn’t holding a weapon. “All you have to do is turn around and leave. We’ll take the three civilians back to BoDex and deliver them to General Attwood.”

  “Can’t do it,” Black said. “Tell you what, though. You turn the civilians over to me and I let you and your team walk out of here. I’d say that was a hell of deal.”

  “Sounds like we don’t have anything else to talk about.”

  “Well, that’s really up to you now, isn’t it?”

  “I’m taking these people out with us. If you get in our way...” Foster stood silent for a moment. “Well, it’d be best if you didn’t.” He walked back inside, closing the door behind him.

  “You had your chance, Foster,” Black yelled. He opened the door of the Humvee and threw himself inside.

  “Now what?” Popavich asked, starting the Humvee.

  “What the hell?” Black said.

  Jack MacGregor stepped out the front door, a bundle in his arms.

  To the side of the stairs stood a gleaming white flagpole almost thirty feet high. Jack walked down the stairs and stood at its base. He connected the bundle to a pair of brass clips attached to the rope, then began hoisting. The wind caught the bundle just as it reached the top of the flagpole. A large United States flag unfurled with a snap against the brilliant blue sky. He tied the rope off, then looked at Black and Popavich. Jack MacGregor flipped them off, then strode back into the resort.

  “Who the hell do
these people think they’re screwing with?” Black yelled. “Back this thing up now and block the entrance. I may have to kill every one of these bastards before this day is over!”

  Foster slammed the front door. “Are you insane? Why would you walk out there in front of them like that? They could have cut you down!”

  “I needed to let them know I’m not scared of them!” Jack yelled. “That was the flag they put on my grandfather’s casket, the flag he fought for, believed in! Let’s see if they have any respect for it!” The men stood face-to-face, chests heaving.

  “It was kind of a ballsy move,” Mitchell interjected.

  Foster turned to Mitchell. “You were supposed to be watching him.”

  “Sorry, Sean. I just stuck my head in to check on the girls.”

  “I probably would have done the same thing,” Foster said. “But no more John Wayne moves, okay? We have to work together if we’re going to get out of this alive.”

  Jack nodded.

  “Okay, let’s get to work,” Foster said. “Mitchell, you watch the rear of the building. Serrafino is on the second floor of the left annex. Robinson is on the second floor of the right annex. Jack, you’re my runner. If I need to get a message to one of my men, I’ll give it to you.”

  “I can handle that,” Jack said. “What about Sara and Jennifer?”

  “We’re all going to be watching out for them,” Foster said. “First thing to remember, Jack, is to stay away from the windows, okay? If you have to move across a room, you do it on your belly. It’s important that you follow my instructions, even if you don’t understand the reason.”

  “Got it.”

  “I mean it, Jack,” Foster said. “You listen, you live. We all live, if we’re lucky.”

  Popavich had used the Humvee to block the road from the parking area. None of the resort vehicles could get around it. He slipped the key into his pocket. Phase one was complete. Their targets could not leave by motorized vehicle. Now, phase two.

  “Collins, Graham, what’s your status?” Black requested.