Black Flag Rising: A James Jackson Thriller

by Jesse Russell

  One down.

  “Hold on!” Jackson shouted.

  Jackson ran back to the truck and grabbed a grenade and came back, setting it on the lock. “Get back!” They shouted at people walking by. As it blew, the gate came off its hinges, barely missing the people walking past, and they ran inside, swinging their Uzis from side to side, looking for anyone else on guard.

  The crowd on the street and inside started screaming and running, but despite all the commotion, the vast majority of fans were left unaware of what was happening.

  Up in the chopper, they approached the stadium. In the late-day sun, they saw the roof wide open and people everywhere. Brad radioed the airport and told them to keep all other aircraft away from the stadium. They did a pass over the top and reported. "The ambulance is on the field now. We see it. There is a crew of young guys walking alongside it, waving to the crowd!" Tom shouted into the mic.

  "We are in. Heading out to the field," Adam radioed back.

  The stadium PA announcer spoke over the loud music and said, “Please welcome the Northern Arizona Youth Rangers! The pride of all of Arizona! Reminding everyone to be careful when hiking and active out in our beautiful state. The Young Rangers were founded in 1929, by then Governor John Calhoun Phillips to help with the safety of our citizens and all the fine guests to our state!”

  Just then, several of them took off at a dead run for the stands.

  In the chopper, they could see three young men running over by the aisles. Jackson took off after two and pulled his Uzi up and took them out before they got close to the spectators. Tom was hanging out of the chopper with a .308 sighted in. Not wanting to hit any civilians, they stayed off the mini-guns. He picked off number three and sighted in on three more just as they were making their way across the field and up into the other side. Adam went after two more and took aim. The crowd began panicking and people were jumping over chairs and aisles to get up and away.

  Just as the chopper got over the top, Brad hit the microphone on the onboard PA system. “Attention, Everyone! You are under attack, please leave the stadium! Repeat! Everyone leave the stadium immediately!”

  There were screams and cries as a stampede erupted to head up to the center food court area and down front to the escalators to the street.

  More shots rang out and three more went down. The driver had snuck out of the ambulance and started running out into the center of the diamond. He hit his detonator shouting, “Allahu Akbar!” and he disintegrated instantaneously into a gooey pink mist.

  “All suicide bombers down,” Jackson clicked in.

  The crowd was in a total panic now. People were getting trampled, and kids and the elderly were being left behind. Everyone was laying down on the concrete to avoid the flying shrapnel and bullets coming in from the roof.

  Back in the ambulance, Ahmed had loosened one of his legs from the bomb, but the other one was still held tight. It would not give.

  He was pounding on the back doors shouting, “Bomb! Help me! Bomb!”

  Up above, Brad circled around. He was trying to avoid the news and police choppers. Tom reached back and grabbed a stinger missile.

  “Take it directly over the top! We’re out of time!” he shouted.

  Brad steered a direct flight line at the open roof.

  George clicked and warned the guys out of the way. "Get back! We’re taking the ambulance out!"

  Adam shouted at Jackson, "Move out! Incoming ordnance on the ambulance!"

  "Wait! I can see someone inside pounding on the door!" Jackson shouted back.

  Adam radioed quickly. “Hold! Jackson is still there! He's thinks there might be a hostage inside.” The delay would give the fans a few more seconds to get back.

  Jackson ran headlong up to the ambulance and pulled on the back doors. They wouldn't budge. The kid was inside screaming and banging on the doors, “I’m innocent! I wasn’t with them!! There’s a bomb in here! Get me out!”

  Jackson shouted, “Hang on! I'm getting you out!”

  Jackson took out the Desert Eagle and aimed sideways at the handles. He shot three rounds but it was locked firm.

  “Get down! I'm blasting the door!” he shouted.

  He swung up his Uzi and aimed at the rear windows, trying to miss the kid and any spectators off in the distance.

  The glass and metal shattered into a million pieces. He reached through and unlocked the door from the inside, and grabbed hold of Ahmed, but he was strapped tight, and he could not pull him free.

  “Cover your face!” He took the Uzi and shredded the nylon. They scrambled out the back and took off in a tear.

  Tom had homed in on the top of the ambulance, his finger resting on the trigger of the shoulder launcher. He zoomed the sight in and all the x's went green.

  "Hold until they get out of there!" They watched as they both ran back out of the gate entry area with Adam running behind. Most of the fans and players had gotten up and away from the field, but it was sheer chaos up in the beer and food area.

  Tom bowed his head. "Lord, this is in your hands now. Guide this missile and limit the damage to these people."

  Just as he pulled the trigger, the chopper lurched from turbulence coming up from the open stadium. He watched the missile hurtling down as if it were in slow motion as it screamed through the roof.

  Kaboom!!!

  It missed, hitting just in front of the truck and blowing a smoking thirty-by-thirty-foot hole in the ground. The ambulance lurched forward and sagged halfway down into the gaping hole. He prepped missile two, pulled it up to his eye, got all green x's on the ambulance roof, and let it go. It went screaming straight at the center of the ambulance roof, and hit it dead center.

  There was a giant cloud of blue, orange, and red flame that exploded out and up from the target. The blast cloud swelled out and covered the entire ball field. From that altitude, it was like watching an M-80 firework blow up a toy in slow motion. The impact sent a jolting shockwave up through the roof and rocked the Sikorsky hard from side to side. Brad was hitting the throttle and trying to bank away from the particle cloud.

  Shards of metal, glass, and burning rubber were sent up all the way up through the roof of the stadium and over a near full block radius.

  "Pull up! Pull up!!" He shuddered to think about the people in the stadium.

  Brad pulled the chopper nearly straight up as a large piece of shrapnel came whizzing by the door. More pieces came hurtling past as they climbed higher. Over to the left, a TV chopper took a hit and started smoking. It was winding down to the ground slowly, in a reverse spin. They watched it hit the ground hard, and the blades broke off on impact, but the fuselage remained intact. Both the pilot and cameraman jumped out and ran.

  Jackson and Adam were running out the back gate with Ahmed just as the impact of the explosion hit. The heat and concussion come barreling through the exit and knocked them down. They laid on the pavement, coughing and choking. After the cloud had passed over, they all got up, checking their appendages and looking each other over.

  “Direct hit. Huge hole in the ground. Get out of there!" Brad shouted into the comms mic.

  “Radio the cops and tell them to get everyone the hell out of here! Tell them about radiation. Who knows what that will do to everyone!" Jackson said.

  They ran and threw the Ahmed into the back of the UAV. Jackson pulled out a set of zip-ties and cuffed him. “I have to do this for now. What else is in the semi?”

  “There were some large barrels. Many of them,” he said weakly.

  “Where are they headed?”

  “I don't know!”

  72

  The Imam was watching the coverage on a TV in Sedona at the Red Rocks Islamic Retreat. Sedona was well known as the hippie center of the west. Anything went in Sedona.

  He was fixated on the Fox Sports Channel. “There are my warriors! They are on the field now!” He was clapping and shouting.

  “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Now we will plant the fl
ag of the caliphate on the site of our great victory over this infidel sports arena! The whole world will see Allah's handiwork! We will build a great mosque on that land as a tribute!”

  Then he noticed them running for the stands and getting mowed down. “Wait! What is this? What is happening?!”

  He sat and watched as, one by one, they went down.

  “No!!! Who is doing this thing!!” he screamed out in horror.

  The camera panned up and showed the Sikorsky chopper flying over the open roof.

  The announcers were momentarily confused. There was shouting and chaos throughout the stands.

  He noticed the outline of a shoulder-fired launcher up in the chopper and shrieked.

  “Noooooo!!! You will not stop this great thing!!!”

  Just then, the missile came in and hit in front of the ambulance, leaving a hole in the ground.

  He was stomping and kicking things. “No! No! No!”

  He saw someone shooting open the back doors, and grabbing Ahmed.

  “You devil! You will rot in hell's fire!” he screamed at the TV.

  It circled around and he saw the second missile come flying out of the chopper and go straight into the ambulance. All the cameras went black, and the TV switched back to the studio.

  “We’re sorry. It appears there is something happening at the World Series at the moment. We will keep you posted when news comes in. It looks like it may be a terrorist attack.” They switched to the local Fox News feed.

  The Imam ran over to the TV and kicked it hard. The screen broke, and it went flying off the stand.

  “Allah will get his revenge on the devils who did this!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “Thankfully, we still have the poison! Get your things. We must get out now,” he ordered his remaining crew. There were six Moon Gods, four Arab nationals, a cop and Border Patrol agent.

  73

  In front of the stadium, Aaron was being mobbed by people fleeing, and he was helping people up who were stumbling and falling. An older woman ran into his arms screaming, “I'm hurt! I don't want to die! Help me!!”

  Injured people were pouring out of the building, screaming and wailing.

  Some people were missing limbs, or worse.

  There was blood everywhere.

  “Help me! Please!” Those who could were running. Others were falling down. The medics were overwhelmed.

  He looked down and saw a pool of blood flowing on the ground below the woman he held. “Here, sit down, let me find you a medic!” He looked around in a panic and saw two off to the right.

  “Medic! I need a medic here!” he shouted.

  They came struggling through the masses. Everyone was grabbing at them.

  His radio crackled. “Aaron! I have those two suspects. Move straight ahead toward the street. They just disappeared into the crowd. One is right in front, and the other went down the vendor row.”

  He looked around in a frenzy. There were hundreds of people, all panicked and moving. They would stand out if they were still on the bikes.

  He heard shouting coming from the center of a running crowd about one hundred feet to the right. “Allahu Akbar! You will all now die! You are not safe anywhere! Just because you left does not mean you are safe! Die, infidels!”

  He jumped up and saw one of them sitting on a mountain bike, holding a wire and button up in his hand.

  He ran into the crowd, shouting. “EVERYONE, GET DOWN NOW!!!” He pulled out his Glock and shot the bastard right in the head, just as he hit the switch.

  Instead of hitting the deck, most people panicked and ran. The crowd parted like a river and the jihadi lay on the ground, detonator in hand, frozen in a death grip. It had not gone off, thank God.

  “Get back! Get back! NOW! I need security here now!!” The crowds remained parted, screaming and running in all directions.

  His radio crackled. “The other one is in the vendor tent aisle! Go! Go!” He ran, and saw him standing on a picnic table in the middle of the panicked crowd.

  “Allahu Akbar! This country is now ours! You cannot escape the wrath of Allah! You are all infidel and will be in hell forever!”

  “Everyone, get down NOW!!!” Aaron shouted over the screams.

  The crowd stopped and reversed course, leaving the terrorist standing with about thirty open feet around him. But it was too late. Adam hit the ground and tried to bury his face into the concrete.

  The bastard hit the detonator. Shrapnel, blood, and body parts went flying everywhere. Screws and nails came screaming overhead like millions of tiny missiles. Many were hit, and screams and moans were all one could hear, once the concussion of the explosion wore off.

  Aaron checked himself over and stood up slowly. He had all his limbs, thank God. Several nails protruded from his clothing and he was numbed by the concussive force of the bomb. He reached down and started pulling them out, one by one. It hurt like hell, but he was still in one piece.

  He took off limping towards the stadium and slipped, falling down in a slick pool of fresh blood. The entire area was a red river. He looked around and saw limbs, hands, and feet strewn everywhere. Anyone that had been standing had been cut to pieces. Those that had miraculously survived were seriously injured.

  He was oblivious to the fact that he had just run past Baldwin’s mutilated dead body on the sidewalk.

  In the chopper, they saw the suicide explosion and turned over in that direction. It looked like total pandemonium on the street out front.

  “They had plants outside the stadium! Damn it, we missed them! Where are you guys?” Tom radioed.

  “We are on the north side, trying to get out. Go find that semi. We'll handle things here.” Dozens of patrol cars and ambulances came screaming in from every direction.

  74

  They banked off and headed northwest on Highway 93, flying low. The entire thing was a parking lot. Panicked people were desperate to get out of the downtown area, but nothing was moving.

  They hovered in the chopper for another ten minutes. They saw hundreds of police, fire, EMT, and ambulances descend on the area. Realizing there was nothing else for them to do at the stadium, they banked off and headed west.

  They flipped on the infrareds. It was a never-ending parking lot heading west, with thousands trying to head out and away from the city. To where? Most were probably not sure, just anywhere out of the center of town. It looked like the 9/11 aftermath in New York City, with mile after mile of cars and trucks all sitting nearly stationary on the long ribbon heading away.

  “I'm getting down as low as possible to see if we see anything," Brad shouted.

  They were whizzing overhead at 150 mph, with Tom and George hanging out the sides, looking down and scanning all the cars and trucks.

  “If they were smart, they would have headed out immediately after dropping off the ambulance to avoid the traffic. We should be coming up on it soon, if they took this route.”

  They flew for nearly thirty minutes and saw nothing.

  75

  In the UAV, the kid had passed out in back. He was breathing hard.

  “This kid must have some kind of radiation poisoning. We've got to get him some help," Adam said.

  Ryan had directed them out and up the two-lane highway towards Wickenburg. “Traffic is hell out there. Let me look for smaller roads, so you can bypass most of it.” They were about an hour out of downtown.

  The chopper got almost all the way to the Arizona and Nevada border with no luck. They circled back, heading east against traffic. People were starting to pull through the median and drive down the wrong side to get away. They were desperate. They all had eyes peeled and devices on, looking for anything.

  Jackson called Barry Yant to get a heads-up. He had been in the stadium, in the press box. He said it was mass chaos down there and everyone was discussing the mystery chopper and the guys who’d come in, taken out the suicide bombers, and blown up the ambulance. Thankfully, no one in the press boxes had been hurt. But i
t was a near riot in downtown and Barry was staying put for now.

  Jackson told him about the kid and possible radiation poisoning, and Yant remembered about Andrei's brother coming from Moldova.

  “Let me make a call, Jackson. I'll get right back to you.”

  Jackson reached back and told the kid to hang on, they were going to get him help. Adam said his sister was an PA in Sedona, and he called her and told her to meet them at the hospital, but not to tell anyone who he was. She was going to have to put him somewhere very secure and away from all other patients.

  Ryan clicked in. “I decided to check all side highways up north from Phoenix, in case they took a different route. I have something here. A semi and two other vehicles on highway 89. Looks like a cop car and Border Patrol SUV pulled over just north of Sedona on the side of the road. Several guys got out, looking at something. There are too many trees for me to see much. I'll send you the images.”

  The chopper was almost back down to Phoenix, so they would need at least twenty to thirty minutes to get there.

  The UAV was closer, but Ryan would have to route them there.

  “Keep eyes on and tell us if it moves,” Jackson said.

  “Roger.” Ryan clicked off.

  Jackson's phone rang. “It's Barry. Hey, it happens that Andrei's brother just got here. He was poisoned in Moldova. He said to use radiation drips and red and brown kelp immediately on the kid, and to put him in isolation. You guys are gonna need it, too. What are the odds he would be here already?”

  “We can't worry about us now. We’ve got another errand to run. Thanks, Barry, I'll let them know.”

  Adam said, “Let me call my sis and give her a heads-up. We'll drop him off on the way.”

  They screamed up the road in and out of traffic, using the shoulders when they couldn’t get by. They finally made it to the Verde Valley Medical Facility.