The Admiral puffed away heavily on the pipe, making the embers illuminate his face in an orange glow, and his tone a little bleaker. “Our governments are suffering the same type of sickness. It is not a physical one, but one of the soul. Our leaders are selfish and corrupt, they care nothing for the people they pretend to serve, only for themselves. They are too lost in their old hatreds and ambitious to see how fragile our future is.”
Why was he offering all this information? Nothing about this mission made sense anymore… Then again it didn’t really make sense to begin with; sending a soldier to be a spy. Something else was going on…and she had a feeling this guy knew something about. Sarah readjusted her pistol and aimed it back at his head. “Why should I believe anything you say?”
The Admiral held out the data stub toward Sarah. “This has all the answers my Navy can provide to you, and I took quiet a risk to get it this far. Your President was not killed by anyone other than those who were meant to defend him in the first place. I have tried and failed to bring this forward, but neither my government nor yours will listen… They have written me off as washed up and senile… My only remaining option is to hand this off to the right kind of person…which I am sincerely hoping you are.”
The last words were spoken slow and deliberate, and Sarah actually believed them… But she had to be sure. Sarah narrowed her eyes and adjusted her pistol. “You’re the head of a school, how could I ever believe you had access to information like this?”
The Admiral smiled and puffed away on his pipe. “Just because I was forcibly removed from my position at headquarters doesn’t mean I don’t have a few connections remaining. I won’t try to convince you either way with just my words alone. I hope you review this and make up your own mind…and perhaps realize things are not always what they seem.”
Sarah carefully moved forward, grabbed the data stub out of his hands, and then immediately backed up with her weapon at the ready. “If what you say is true…then I’d run into the same problems you did. Who would listen to me?”
The Admiral nodded in agreement. “Find a way to make them listen.”
Sarah looked over the small military grade data stub with curiosity, just as the doors swung open and the bar tender, Jose, rushed in with an automatic weapon. Jose turned the weapon immediately toward Sarah, who dove behind the wooden desk just in time to dodge the barrage of bullets.
She remained crouched behind the desk as Jose emptied the entire clip of his weapon, and then rushed down the staircase, and out the back door. Sarah cautiously leaned around the desk and swept the room with her pistol. The Admiral had been severely shot to death, pipe still in his lifeless hand. She sighed loudly in frustration as alarms began to sound all throughout the Academy.
Reagan called over the radio as she sprinted straight down the stairs, out the back door, and toward the small side gate on the far end of the school. “Sarah, what the hell is going on? We heard gun shots and the Academy is going on lockdown!”
“I need evac now!” She whispered harshly.
Reagan acknowledged, a ping of concern in his voice. “Roger that! We are Oscar Mike! Be at the extraction in less than five!”
The sound of multiple guards screaming, and angry dogs barking, began to sound at every corner of the courtyard. The entire facility was now lit up like a stadium, and the walls were being manned by multiple guards and automated cameras. Sarah silently ran the length of the stone wall and stayed in the shadows as much as she could, hopeful to reach the side gate and then the street before anyone caught up to her.
A massive crowd of guests and graduates began to file out of the ballroom and toward the second gate; this was her chance. She moved out from the shadow of the wall and followed a small hedgerows and various decorative plants, over to the busy pathway. She jumped through a small clearing in the bushes, catching the bottom of her dress on a branch of the plant and ripping it. The crowd was too excited and alarmed to have even noticed her…so hopefully the guards would be the same way.
Sarah slipped silently through the massive amount of people now occupying the streets, and toward a small alleyway on the opposite side, just as a large number of guards with dogs rushed through the gate and began searching and questioning random people.
She rushed down the alley and hid behind a large dumpster, just long enough to reattach her wrist coms to her left forearm, and bring up the waypoint to the extraction site. “Reagan, I’m on the street and moving toward the park. I’m about three blocks away.”
Reagan acknowledged. “Roger that! We’re landing now, so you better hurry before people get too curious!”
Angry voices and heavy footsteps began to sound down the alleyway as four guards made their way in, flashlights leading the way. Sarah ducked further behind the dumpster and began searching desperately for a place to hide or run too, but there is no way she could run without being seen. The guards advanced, careful to scan every nook and cranny with their lights, as their radios echoed loudly with dozens of reports of suspects and other such information spewing constantly. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying though… The guards stopped and scanned another dumpster a few feet away from Sarah, as one of the guards responded to another radio call.
No time like the present… She took three deep breaths, kicked off her heels, and then she jumped out and side kicked the first guard in the temple. She then slammed her forearm into the second guards exposed neck, stunning him before he could even react. The other two guards drew their batons and rushed her; Sarah narrowly dodged the first baton swing, then kicked the guard devastatingly hard between his legs. The forth guard swung his baton and clipped the side of the dumpster, just as the second guard was trying to shrug off the stun.
Sarah rushed the second guard and elbowed him heavily on the back of the neck; grabbed the baton from his belt, and blocked the fourth guard’s baton strike. Sarah dropped the baton from the painful reverberating impact of the block, but grabbed ahold of the guards arm just as he was preparing for another swing. She elbowed the man in the ribs several times, slammed the ball of her foot into his knee, and then threw him forward onto the ground. The third guard attempted to draw his pistol, but Sarah rushed him and kicked him straight in the face with the ball of her foot.
She stood there in absolute astonishment of what she had just accomplished. Panting and heart racing from the sudden surge of adrenaline. Damn…I’m pretty good.
Voices of additional guards and police began to yell out around the back of the alley; she quickly grabbed her heels and sprinted as softly as she could across two streets that were now being locked down by police. She crossed through another alley and into the large public park with the manmade lake where the waypoint lead her. Hopefully no one had seen her…
Sarah keyed her radio, still catching her breath. “Reagan? Where the hell are you?”
Across the lake and behind a thick patch of trees, a bright red light began to blink; Reagan responded. “You see the light? We’re on the south side of the water.”
Sarah sighed in relief. “Yes…I see you. Be there in a moment.”
She jogged across the park and approached the state of the art Navy drop ship, just as the ramp was being lowered into the large open, and red glowing troop bay. Reagan, Stevens, and Harrison rushed immediately out and took up defensive positions as Sarah walked up the ramp and sat down on the first row of seats, exhausted.
Reagan walked over and sat next to her. “Glad that’s over with…”
That was an understatement. Sarah sighed profusely. “Tell me about it…”
Harrison and Stevens rushed back onto the drop ship as the ramp closed. Reagan cleared his throat and had an annoyed expression, but it wasn’t aimed at Sarah. “Pierce wants me to take ahold of the data stub for some reason. You got it still?”
She reached into her concealed pocket and felt both the larger data stub Pierce had given her, and the small one the Admiral had. She paused for a second, then decide
d to grab only the larger one. “Yeah, here you go, I don’t want to carry that thing anymore.” She didn’t want to lie to him, but she couldn’t risk anyone knowing about the other just yet.
Reagan took it from her hand and sighed. “I suddenly remember why I didn’t join the CIA…”
Sarah shook her head at that thought. “Yeah, it’s not what they make it out to be in the movies…”
Stevens walked over, handed Sarah a duffle bag full of her combat gear, and then smiled shyly at her and struggled over his words. “Here. I thought you might want to put this on…not saying that you don’t look good in that…I mean…uh here.”
Sarah smirked back at him and began walking with the duffle to the on-board bathroom to change. “Thank you, Private Stevens. That will be all.” She made sure to be friendly about the order, but it WAS an order.
Stevens nodded and moved back to his seat, now very embarrassed. A few moments later the drop ship lifted off the ground. As soon as it had, two crew chiefs and the copilot, all holding sub-machine guns and wearing Navy blue colored flight suits and flight helmets, exited the cabin. The copilot scream out at Reagan and the team. “NO ONE MOVE OR YOU WILL BE SHOT!”
One-Bravo all glanced at each other in confusion and sudden anger, then slowly stood with their hands up. This had better be some lame joke these Navy guys were playing… “What the fuck is this?”
The copilot screamed again, but with a total lack of authority. “No sudden movements! Where’s your fourth team member?”
Reagan shrugged dismissively, but couldn’t help but be a smartass. “She decided to stay behind, she really likes the night life in New Madrid.”
The copilot nodded over to the one of the crew chiefs. “Find her.” The crew chief moved off and began searching behind the crates, cargo nets, and within the storage lockers. The copilot waved his weapon menacingly toward Reagan, as if that was supposed to scare him. “The data stub! Hand it over!”
Harrison spit toward the copilot and glared at him with disgust as it became obvious they weren’t joking. “You damn traitor!”
The copilot grunted anxiously. The guy was freaking out, like he was all jacked up on drugs… “YOUR type are the traitors! You’re too damn soft to do the job the way it has to be done! Now hand over the data stub!”
Reagan tossed the data stub at the copilot’s feet, just as the back ramp lowered into the crisp night sky. The drop ship was moving pretty fast now as evident by the howling wind…and from the look of the city below they were several hundred feet up and climbing. The copilot picked up the data stub and snapped it in half. “No one will be needing this, its old news anyways, but of course you didn’t know that. All that’s left is to leave your bodies behind, so the EU thinks YOU assassinated the Admiral. Well, they do have video proof after all.”
Stevens tilted his head in confusion. What the hell was he talking about? Old news? Isn’t that why they came to New Madrid to begin with? “First off, that plan has quite a bit of holes in it. Second, why the fuck are you telling us all this?”
Reagan crinkled his brow and glared at the Navy crew. This was just insane. Plain and simple. “The EU will take this as an act of war! Their fleet alone is three times bigger than ours, at least! You’re fucking stupid!”
The copilot anxiously fingered his weapon. “In a few days, WE will be the only fleet worth mentioning.” Then turned and sneered at the crew chief that was still searching under piles of blankets and behind crates. “What the fuck is taking you so long?”
The crew chief shrugged innocently. “I can’t find her anywhere, maybe she did really stay behind?”
The copilot rolled his eyes. “Check the fucking bathroom!”
The crew chief froze in place and looked genuinely surprised. “Uh, there’s a bathroom? Sorry…I’m not use to this airframe.” They didn’t seem too smart, that was lucky for Sarah though. She had stayed hidden that whole time… maybe she’d escape somehow? Got the word out to the rest of the platoon of what was going on or something…anything.
Stevens turned his head over to Harrison. “Why are swabbies such dicks?”
Harrison smirked back and spoke loud enough for the copilot to hear him. “Because we keep their wives happy when they’re deployed for a year at a time!”
The copilot aimed his weapon straight at Harrison’s face. “Shut your fucking mouth!” The team couldn’t help but smirk about that. The joke had struck home.
The crew chief carefully began to open the bathroom door with his weapon leading the way, and almost instantly was pulled in headlong, and a single gunshot rang out as his body went limp. The other crew chief turned and fired his weapon into the bathroom, as One Bravo took the advantage and rushed them.
The copilot began to fire wildly at the closest one, Stevens, and maimed his arm and large portion of his neck. Harrison jumped the copilot a moment later, and began wrestling the weapon from his grasp. The crew chief turned and was about to fire at Harrison, but dropped dead as Reagan grabbed his own assault rifle from the seat, and fired it straight through the hostile’s abdomen.
The other pilot rushed out of the cockpit and blasted Reagan with a shotgun, sending him falling back down dangerously close to the open ramp, incapacitated. The pilot pulled Harrison off his copilot, tossed him to the ground, and was about to shoot him point blank when a round burst through the pilots head from behind.
The copilot recovered, pulled Harrison up as a human shield between himself and the bathroom, and pressed his weapon against his hostage’s back. Sarah exited the bathroom a moment later, assault rifle in hand, and wearing only her pants and jacket.
The copilot screamed out, high pitched and pathetically. “PUT THE GUN DOWN OR HES GONNA DIE!”
Sarah took cover behind a stack of green army crates, keeping her weapon trained on the copilots head. “No, YOU put YOUR weapon down!” She countered calmly, but with a clear promise of death behind it.
The Copilot pulled a grenade off of Harrison’s belt with his other hand, slid the pin free, and carefully kept the grenades safety level held down. “DO IT OR WE ALL DIE!”
Reagan began to slowly stand up and fired his weapon into the copilots’ back, and causing the hostile to cringe up in pain and allow Harrison to escape. Harrison turned and tried to grab ahold of the grenade as Sarah fired and hit the copilot in the head. Harrison lost hold of the grenade for a moment, frantically tried to pick it back up as it rolled on the deck, and chucked it out of the ramp just as it exploded. The explosion pushed Harrison straight into a nearby bulkhead, and sent Reagan free falling out the back of the drop ship.
Sarah felt herself dazed from the turn events, but forced herself to do a quick check the cabin for any more hostiles, and then rushed over to Harrison who was bleeding heavily from his multiple shrapnel wounds. Oh no…oh no! She quickly checked Harrison’s pockets for bio-seal, but the can he carried had been damaged heavily. She rushed over to Stevens, checked to see if he was still alive, then sadly forced his eyes shut and took his can of bio-seal. She couldn’t do anything for him. She had to help Harrison.
Harrison tried to speak, but began to cough up blood instead. Sarah shushed him and frantically started to seal up the hundreds of small shrapnel wounds on his chest, but was stopped when Harrison grabbed her hand and shook his head no. She tried to argue with him, but his breathing became shallow and prolonged. A few moments later his head dropped forward lifelessly as the last bit of his breath escaped him. Sarah remained kneeling by him in absolute shock and horror; she stared out the back of the ramp toward the brightly lit city, closed her eyes tightly, and couldn’t stop herself from breaking into tears.
A loud beeping alarm began to sound from the cockpit a moment later, pulling Sarah from her sorrow. She gave one final look toward Harrison and Stevens, then rushed into the cockpit, only to notice the MASTER CAUTION: RADAR LOCK alarm was going off and a Spanish speaking female voice was demanding the ship land immediately. She sat down in the pilot’s seat, s
trapped in, and frantically tried to figure out what to do. The control panel was a cluster of random and confusing digital buttons and touch screens. Nothing made sense! Darn, maybe she should have taken those flying lessons!
The beeping became a single tone, and the ship automatically banked hard to the right and deployed flares just as a missile went spinning off out of control and into a nearby building. Sarah growled out with frustration. “Stealth drop ship? Yeah right! Oh…wait.” She pressed a touch screen panel that showed the back of the ship, and it slowly brought the back ramp to a close. Nevertheless the beeping continued. She quickly scrolled over the onboard computer menu…GPS…Network…Course! There! Sarah accessed the course menu, and scrolled until she found coordinates for what looked like Fort Greg, but that was purely a guess. She adjusted craft speed up to 100%, and hit engage.
The drop ship spun up its small quantum engines with its signature high pitched whistling noise, and pitched straight up toward the night sky in an almost unbearable amount of G force. Sarah was pushed up hard against the back of her seat, and she began to gasp for air over the unbearable acceleration. Oh…my…God! Several excruciating long seconds later, the beeping ceased and the radio went silent as the ship suddenly began to level out into a low orbit around the planet. The engines abruptly disengaged and the craft lay silently floating above the upper atmosphere... Sarah huffed heavily. Never again at 100%... More like never again is she going to pilot a drop ship…
The course corrections came up on the screen, along with an ETA of 01 hour and 37 minutes before reentry to wherever the heck she had designated. She released her seat belt and began to free float up around the cabin. Oh yeah, this is what space felt like… She only had a brief moment of conscious weightlessness on her original trip from Earth…but nothing like this.
Krieger Platoon Page 25