The platoon formed up together, and made their way toward the targeted building; an unremarkable five story box shape with black tinted windows, though it had an impressively made shallow stone staircase leading all the way up to the front doors. A large and damaged Department of Defense crest hung over the glass front doors, and the flag poles that once held the American and state flags had been torn down, and the flags burned from the looks of the ash piles.
Cholius made an advance motion with his hand, and the three teams fell in and carefully made their way forward, weapons at the ready. Only the sound of the gliding and shifting of body armor across the cloth jackets, and thick boots scrapping across the stonework, an audible tell of their presence. Two Bravo reached the building first, stacked up on either side of the double doors, and then ripped them open and held them for their team mates. The other two teams stormed the interior of the building and immediately began to split up and scan. Upon initial analysis, the interior was like any government building. A large central lobby with a receptionist’s desk, various offices, staircases, and elevators scattered about on the first two floors. It perfectly matched the blue prints they’d gone over at the briefing.
Voices of the point guards began to sound out one by one from the far corners of the room, with the call of relative safety. “Clear!”
Bag and Jon moved over toward the receptionist desk, and huddled with Matt and Cholius; James made his way over a second later. Bag immediately began to type onto his wrist coms holographic display. “So, I have the layout of the building on my heads up display, and we’re supposed to make our way to sub-level 7 using this emergency elevator down that hall on my right…” Bag nodded over in its direction. “After that, I am supposed to feed you guys the information as it becomes available. We’ll leave a team here in the lobby to secure our exit, and the other two teams will make their way down in unison. Who wants to stay back?”
Matt glanced at the other team leaders and shrugged. “I’ll stay back this time. I think James needs the glory more than I do.” He smiled at him humorously.
Jon grunted and didn’t share in the humor of it, at all. “Look, whoever stays up here is going to be by themselves… The tanks are gonna be in a parking garage a few blocks away, and they aren’t going be able to get back too fast. A lot of shit can go down in a minute or two.”
Matt took in a breath and straightened his face, nodding in understanding. “My team has this one, Jon. Don’t worry.”
Bag continued his brief. “Alright…that means James and Cholius, you’re up. I want you guys to stay together no matter what happens… and don’t switch radio frequencies even if Pierce tells you to. In fact just double check with us before you do anything he says…Roger?”
James was completely fine with that plan. It was safe to say he really didn’t like Pierce, but who in Krieger…in the world did? “Yeah, but hold on a sec. Look, it’s not that I’m not up for…whatever this mission is…but I don’t like NOT being in the know… I mean what exactly are we doing here? Especially with this data stub that we aren’t even supposed to breathe on until he ‘Gives us permission’.” James held the military grade data stub out in his hand, clearly suspicious of it.
Matt subtly nodded in agreement and lowered his voice. “Yeah…this whole is way too shady. I mean shit, they sent One Bravo off by themselves to do God knows what… Do YOU even know where they are, Bag?”
Bag let out a long, revealing sigh. Of course he didn’t know… he couldn’t get a straight answer from Brett, and Pierce had made sure he shoved the fact that HE was in charge in Bag’s face at every opportunity. “That makes two of us, man. I don’t trust this Pierce jackass any more than you guys do, but Patriot got on my case about just doing this mission…and maybe getting transferred back to the regular Army afterwards.”
Jon shook his head and rumbled in skepticism. “Yeah…I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Bag subtly gestured his hand to Jon to ‘hold off’. He didn’t want to start a debate with this, not when the Squad Leaders were around anyways. They didn’t need to worry about that. “Look, just bear with me this time, ok? The faster we get this done, the faster we go home.”
The group nodded hesitantly to each other and stood up to rejoin their teams. Jon fidgeted about uncomfortably and cleared his throat. “Hey…yall watch your backs down there, alright?”
The three squad leaders stopped and rotated toward Jon, astonished at the unusual outburst of concern from him. In fact, it almost made the situation more concerning. Cholius could see the stress behind it, and just quickly dismissed it with calm and collected words of his own. “We will, don’t worry.” Then motioned to his team, joined up with James, and moved quickly and silently toward the designated hallway.
Bag stood to walk away, until Jon grabbed his arm and murmured. “Hey Bag…come over here real quick.”
Bag gave him a questioning glance, but followed him over to a secluded corner away from the ear shot of the rest of the team. “…What’s up, Jon?”
Jon sighed loudly and then lowered his voice even more. “Hey, look I don’t want to be that guy that gets a bad feeling…but I have a bad feeling about this.”
Bag spoke in a similarly hushed tone. Jon was really acting odd about this. “What’s going on? What do you mean?”
Jon glanced around to make sure no one was listening in. “This whole thing doesn’t sit right, man… Everything that’s happened in the last two days has been…chaotic, but way too clean cut to be the work of some brain dead terrorists or some shit. Tell me you don’t feel the same way.”
Bag narrowed his eyes and glanced about the room. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit actually…”
Jon grunted, not too sure Bag actually had. Bag had a tendency to put ‘minor details’ like a bad feeling on the shelf when planning for a mission. If it wasn’t logical, he could be dismissive about it. Though he’d better listen now, he should know to trust Jon’s feelings at this point. “Yeah…You know what else bothers me? This city’s got better defense than most fucking battleships… How the hell did a city like this get overrun by a bunch of militia? When you left for Earth, I left the Army and took a job as an electrician. One of the jobs I did was some high clearance shit, installing some new hardware into the defense mainframe for New Austin and that kind of stuff. I saw the system first hand; they’re isolated on purpose and you can’t hack them or even access them from the outside. Bag, you would have to physically be in there with one to shut it down. In a city like this, it would’ve had to been sabotaged from someone who knew the system.”
Bag remained silent and watched the ARVs throttle up and drive down the road. It was all pretty suspicious now that Jon said it, but he didn’t want to let himself get caught up in just possibilities and risk missing something. “So…you think this whole thing’s an inside job?”
Jon sighed loudly and shrugged. “Maybe… I’m just saying we do whatever the fuck it is we’re here to do, and leave before anything has chance to bite us in the ass.”
Bag nodded subtly. He couldn’t hide the fact that it didn’t feel right and it didn’t make sense. He knew to trust Jon on this. “I agree completely…”
James called over the radio a moment later. “We’re on the elevator, heading down to sub-level 7.”
***
One Alpha and One Bravo had split by necessity after the elevator had proven much too small for both teams to ride down together. One Alpha was to ride down first and secure the floor, then wait for Two Alpha to catch up. The elevator doors opened up into another lobby, though it was pitch black since the entire building had gone into lockdown. The room was fairly small, scarcely furnished, but had a door or passageway in every corner. The entire lobby was carpeted, and this time had a huge US Air Force Space Command crest in the center. Everything about this place screamed high clearance, like the team wasn’t even supposed to know it was there. The lights within the entire facility, emergency lights inc
luded, were extinguished and the entire place was pitch black and silent. There was a distant sound of dripping water, but otherwise it was strangely quiet. It was the kind of atmosphere that bred paranoia, but James’ training had the upper hand on that.
James stared at the patch through the comfortable green tint of his night vision. “Air Force Space Command. Those were the days…before the greedy Navy took all the spaceships…”
Joe moved over next to him and snorted. “So, it’s an Air Force building, huh? You must feel right at home.”
“Not really.” James smirked back, just as Wallace and Kabir began scanning and checking around the room for possible threats, and he hadn’t even told them to do it. Yeah, they were trained right, that’s for sure. They would do well in Krieger.
Joe had been doing a hell of a job too, especially with that old foldable guitar he brought with him everywhere he went. That boy could make that thing sing like nothing else. Well, that and making the new guys feel welcome, and acting like a non-commissioned officer should… Oh wait he’s not an NCO yet. How the hell is that possible? He better tell Bag to expedite a promotion and get this man some chevrons!
The elevator dinged behind the team, and all turned reflexively with weapons aimed and ready; though the team lowered them just as quickly as Cholius team exited out. Lee and Wallace almost immediately gave each other a fist bump and some sort of secret hand shake. Cholius grinned at the sight, then did a quick check of his wrist coms, activating his radio. “This is Two Bravo, both teams are in position and awaiting orders.”
Bag let out a long sigh, and then replied to an unknown question from someone in the distance before speaking clearly over the radio. “Roger that, guys. Ok, your next path is going to be on your right hand-”
A burst of static came over the radio, followed by Agent Pierce’s obnoxious voice. “This is Agent Pierce, you will be speaking to me directly from now on. You are to take the door in the far left corner.”
James and Cholius exchanged expressions of aggravation. They should have known he’d try something like this. “Agent Pierce, this is One Bravo Lead, where’s Krieger Actual?” James shot back at him.
“Krieger Actual is no longer necessary for this portion of our mission. You will now take your orders directly from me.”
Fat fucking chance! James had to refrain himself from laughing. “Negative, we won’t continue unless we speak to Krieger Actual. Period.”
The elevator doors closed and locked with that. Ramirez and Willits quickly moved over and attempted to access the controls and physically pry the doors open, but they wouldn’t budge. “Damnit, it’s no good…”
Cholius crinkled his brow in suspicion. He was willing to bet actual money that wasn’t a coincidence… He quickly scanned through every available radio channel Bag might be on…but they were all unresponsive, except the one Pierce was on. He keyed his radio at last. “Pierce, the elevator just shut and locked itself. Care to explain?”
Pierce sighed loudly in annoyance, making sure Cholius could hear him do it. “This facility is on lockdown, and has certain security precautions to prevent unauthorized access. The credentials on the data stub you have will only work once per system before it detects it as fraud and locks it out completely, so don’t use it on the same system twice, ok? That also means, you need to lift the lock down to get out. The choice is yours.”
Pierce was so obviously playing them, and James couldn’t stand the thought of some weak CIA goon getting the upper hand on his team. “I demand to speak to Krieger Actual this instant!”
Pierce was silent for a moment. “Use the door in the far left corner of the room. I put a Way-Point for you on your heads up display in case you forgot which side your left is on.”
James turned around the room until he spotted the small orange triangle through his goggles, hovering virtually in front of the reinforced metal door. He turned to Cholius to and let out an obviously frustrated sigh, to which Cholius glanced toward the way point, then reluctantly nodded yes back to him. James shook his head with further frustration, but then made an advance signal with his hand. “This is such bull shit…” He whispered to himself.
The door opened up into a hallway with wooden office doors running the length of it, and came to a T junction at the far end. One Alpha stacked up on the right side of the hallway, and One Bravo did the opposite. Both teams very slowly made their way down the hallway, listening for any sounds, and scanning every doorway they came across.
Pierce radioed in. “At the T junction, go down the right hallway until you reach a security door. Go through the door and continue straight until you come to the security station. I will direct you forward once you are there.”
James turned and whispered to Joe. “You take the lead, let’s show them how it’s done!” Joe smiled and nodded, raised his rifle, and began to move forward at the head of the teams. A soft metallic pinging noise echoed down the opposite hallway; both teams instantly spun about, weapons ready and aimed. The sound had disappeared, and had been replaced with silence broken only by the mostly steady breathing and a slight shifting of armor from the team. They remained absolutely motionless, staring down into the dark abyss of the distant hallway beyond, until Pierce grew impatient and called back over the radio. “Are you going to be moving within the next century?”
Cholius keyed his radio and whispered. “We heard a noise.”
Pierce sighed loudly again, and spoke in an even more condescending way. “The building has been evacuated, there is NO ONE there. Now, move out so we can be finished with this already!”
Cholius motioned the teams forward, but they were careful to keep one eye toward the opposite hallway as they moved. Willits took up the rear, and was just rounding the corner when she saw elusive movement out of the corner of her eye. She spun to her left and held her weapon at the ready, carefully scanning the vacant hallway through the green tint of her night vision. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and she began to take slightly shallower and more frequent breaths…but there was nothing there. She swore she had saw something!
Ramirez slowly walked up next to her, weapon also at the ready; he whispered as low as he could. “Hey Willits…what is it?”
Willits lowered her rifle just enough to see over the attached scope. “I…I thought I saw something…”
Ramirez did a quick scan of the hallway, then gently tapped Willits shoulder. “Come on…the teams waiting for us.”
The two slowly back peddled, weapons still at ready, until they reached the now open security door. Willits took one more glance back as she shut the door behind her, now very much alert and suspicious. Had she just imagined it? Maybe. It was probably just her mind playing tricks on her. She wasn’t a fan of dark places, especially when her older sister would jump out of her closet right when she about to fall asleep. She had gotten over that by the time she was 12, and got back at her sister a few satisfying times over, but she still she didn’t like the dark.
The teams rounded a slight corner, and came upon double metal doors with Security Station 2 written boldly across the center. The doors were also clearly electronically locked, due to the two miniature computer work stations flanking either side of the door.
Pierce coughed loudly. “This next part is incredibly simple, so much so that it would take a miracle for any of you to screw it up. Place the data stub into the access port on the LEFT work station, LEFT ONE FIRST. Then hold the Power button until it acknowledges.”
James handed Joe the data stub, and gave him the thumbs up gesture. Joe slowly took it, but gave him an ‘are you serious’ kind of look. Electronics were his thing but damn, volun-told much? Joe carefully slid the data stub into the access port, and held his finger gently over the power button. The work station burst to life, causing a temporarily blinding flash of light that made the team all yelp in pain and shield their eyes.
Pierce breathed a very subtle sigh of relief. “Now do the exact same thing on the other work st
ation.”
Joe slowly went through the same steps, then carefully shielded his eyes from the monitor as he held the power button. The work stationed flashed to life, and the double grey doors unlocked in a sudden sliding noise, and slowly swung open. The security station appeared as any would assume; a large number of work stations ran the length of the room, and one entire wall was dedicated to a large television monitor, but all of the equipment was turned off. There was a table off to the side with a coffee bar and mini-fridge, and a small couch further behind that. All the essentials a security guard would need.
Pierce yawned over the radio. “Ok…now at the very back corner of the room should be a small service door that leads to a maintenance lift. That lift will take you down into the core, and from there the steps are pretty straight forward.”
The teams slowly made their way through the small door and onto the lift, just large enough to hold both teams. Willits noticed a coffee mug overturned in one corner of the room; she adjusted her night vision accordingly and noticed the nearby table, from which the mug had most likely come originated, also had a small amount of dried blood on the corner edge. How odd.
Ramirez walked over next to her, nosily. “Willits really, it’s just a coffee mug.”
Willits carefully studied the area around the coffee mug and the desk it had come from. “It looks like someone fell into this desk… Or maybe they were shoved into it?”
Ramirez shrugged. What was she getting on about? “So?”
Willits passed him an annoyed glare. “So…it looked unusual and I wanted to check it out, got a problem with that?”
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