by Tom Jones
“Good. Get that crate on the helicopter, and we’ll be on our way. However, I want to speak with the informant first,” the man spoke. The armored man then said, “Sure. I’ll lead you to him. If he’s not otherwise occupied, he’ll speak with you.” The two men walked past Arcades, and they opened the door that would lead them down into the hotel itself. Arcades then was able to hear the crate being lifted up, and he listened as the other men were carrying the crate to the helicopter. The fox peeked over the cover, and he could see that the men were now securing the crate to the helicopter’s interior. A few moments went by, and the crew finally finished their task. Within moments, the radio of one of the operatives sounded, “Attention! We have a situation. The informant has been injured. Provide assistance and secure the area. Over.” Arcades ducked his head down, and he could hear several men scurry past him. After the noise subsided, Arcades peeked back over the cover. There was nobody watching the crate now. Arcades decided that this would be a perfect time to plant the tracking device on the helicopter.
The fox stood up, and he removed the tracking device from one of his equipment pouches. He toggled the device, and he ran up to the crate in order to stick the tracker on the crate. He placed it in a corner on the top of the crate. It did not protrude from the crate, and the tracker did not look too out of place. Arcades then moved back away from the helicopter before returning to his hiding spot. Arcades needed a way to leave, but he knew that he would not make it out by going back down the floors as he tried going up. He would surely be caught trying to escape by the anthros if the humans did not catch him first. They had to have been looking for him now. Arcades got up on his knees, and he looked at the helicopter. He wondered if the crew kept any emergency parachutes in the helicopter. He figured that he would use one of them to jump off the building and parachute down before calling Bocchino for exfil.
The fox stood up, and he moved to the helicopter. He climbed aboard, and he looked to see if the pilot was still in the pilot’s seat. To his surprise, the pilot was gone. He figured the pilot must have gone into the building to investigate with the rest of the humans. Though Arcades was not one hundred percent sure of the situation, he had a good feeling that the ‘informant’ was the leopard that he had left unconscious, given how far the human must have traveled into the hotel before contacting the rest of the squad via radio. He also was almost completely sure that ‘the Foundation’ the humans were referring to was indeed the Omega Foundation. Arcades decided he probably should not try and tamper with the cargo some more. He did not know when the crew would return topside, and he did not want to make the cargo look like it had been tampered with. Being a tall fox, Arcades was able to look on the top of the crate, and he noticed that the tracker that he planted was blinking a green light. This indicated that the tracker was sending information back to its intended destination. Arcades remembered what he came inside of the helicopter to do, so he went searching for a parachute.
After quietly searching through the helicopter for a moment, Arcades found a few noteworthy items. He found the parachute he was looking for, but he also found a few Omega Foundation hook and loop patches. Arcades reasoned that the operatives removed the patches before exiting the helicopter to make sure that the least amount of evidence would be able to trace back to the Omega Foundation. Arcades was unsure if he wanted to take the patches, but he ended up deciding to take them. He placed the patches in his thigh pocket, and he worked on strapping the parachute to his person.
Once the fox finished, he exited the helicopter for the last time, and he walked towards the edge of the building. He was planning on jumping off and deploying the chute once he was far enough from the building so that it would not snag on anything potentially protruding from the building. Arcades decided that he would wait to contact Bocchino until after he landed in order to prevent his communications from being potentially intercepted by the Omega operatives. He still didn’t know where the humans currently were. Arcades also decided that he would use callsigns as well in order to mask his identity as much as possible. He did not know what Omega was capable of, but he considered the Foundation had to have been significant enough to build at least five different facilities.
The fox stood at the edge of the building, and he looked down at his feet before looking out at the night sky. Arcades was trusting that the parachute was ready to deploy, as he did not take too much time to check it over. The fox prayed silently to God before he leaped off of the building. Arcades jumped in a way that enabled him to almost launch himself forwards. He was able to generate forward momentum on his way down, and this would allow him to clear the building. Once Arcades felt he was far enough away from the building, he pulled the ripcord on his parachute. The chute deployed successfully, and the fox took a sigh of relief. As he floated towards the ground, he felt a gust of wind that carried him towards some trees. Arcades was now approaching the ground faster than he wanted to, so he braced himself for impact with the trees.
To his surprise, the fox landed in a wooded area that only caught him by the parachute. There were no lights nearby, so visibility was extremely limited. Arcades was hanging from the trees by the parachute, and he looked down at the ground. He discerned that the ground was around ten feet from where he was hanging. The fox decided that he would take his chances and doff the parachute in order to drop to the ground. Arcades unbuckled the parachute from his body, and he fell to the ground. Arcades landed on his feet, and he used his knees to absorb some of the shock. Though he fell over on his back after the fall, the fox stood up, and he looked up at the parachute. He figured that it would be best for him to start moving in order to evade the Omega operatives that were searching for him. Arcades spoke over the radio.
“Ghost 1-2 this is Ghost 1-Actual, objective has been accomplished. Requesting immediate exfiltration from the AO and ETA on arrival. Over.” The fox heard Bocchino’s voice over the radio momentarily, “Roger, Ghost 1-Actual. This is Ghost 1-2. Exfil is ETA ten minutes out from the AO. Proceeding to rendezvous point. Out.” Arcades knew that Bocchino would attempt to pick him up in front of the building, so he decided to alert the cat of his new location. The fox spoke over the radio again, “Ghost 1-2, be advised that I have moved away from the RV point, and I am OTM on the road. Over.” The cat then replied, “Copy. Standby for exfil. Out.”
After a few minutes of walking down the road, Arcades saw a familiar vehicle pull up. He immediately recognized that Bocchino was driving the car, and this gave him another sigh of relief. The fox was not sure if he was ever so happy to see the cat. Bocchino did a quick U-turn, and the cat stopped the car in front of the fox. Arcades opened the door, and he climbed inside of the car. Bocchino then left off the brake, and he began driving. Arcades removed the headset that he was wearing, and he unplugged it from his radio before turning his radio off. Bocchio began to speak to Arcades, “So, you were able to plant the tracker without them seeing you?” Arcades nodded before saying, “Yeah… I did it. We can go back home and check to see where the cargo is going.” The cat became curious, “What is the cargo?” Arcades replied, “I didn’t get to see what was inside. I planted the tracker, though.” Bocchino watched the road as he continued talking. He asked, “How did you get out so fast? You called me a little after two hours during the mission timeline.” Arcades answered the question, “I jumped off the building with a parachute I got from the helicopter. While I was in there, I found these.”
Arcades pulled out the Omega Foundation patches from his pocket, and he showed the cat. Bocchino raised his eyebrows, “Oh shit. Well I’d be damned. I guess you got something right, Kurt. The Omega Foundation is up to something.” Arcades slipped the patches back into his pants. When he did so, Bocchino got a good view of the dust that was on the fox’s pants. The cat asked, “What’s up with your pants? How’d they get so dirty?” The fox replied, “I had to crawl through a vent in order to get inside of the building.” Bocchino’s thought process was moving in another direction, �
�Oh, what did you see inside of there?” Arcades breathed out heavily as the last two hours flashed before his eyes. Arcades did not want to think about what he saw. The fox replied after a moment of silence, “Can we talk about that later? It was not pretty…” Bocchino shook his head slowly, “Pfft. I guess I could say that I’m glad I wasn’t the one to go in there.” The fox removed his gloves, and he dropped them on the headset that was lying on the floor. Arcades swallowed his saliva before saying, “Let’s just go home, Bobby.”
The fox reached behind the seat, and he retrieved the Bible that he had left in the same place. Bocchino saw Arcades grab the Bible, “I figured you’d go and grab that book of yours.” Arcades did not reply to the cat, but he did flip open to the Gospel of Matthew. He figured that he should re-read what Jesus said during His ministry. He could not thank God enough for allowing him to escape the hotel with his virginity. Arcades clutched the Bible tightly, and he did not want to let go of it. However, the empty plate carrier that he was still wearing was causing some discomfort. Arcades placed the Bible down on his lap, and he removed the plate carrier as well as his MOLLE belt before placing them where he had his other gear. Arcades picked up the Bible again, but he closed his eyes. The fox silently prayed to God, and he mainly thanked God that he was able to make it out of the hotel in one piece. He also prayed that God would comfort him since he saw some very troubling sights in the hotel. Once the fox finished praying, he began to read from the Book of Matthew. He could not thank God enough.
Chapter 9
Put Me on a Train
“So, that’s what you saw there?” Bocchino asked to see if the fox was finished telling him about what he saw the previous night. Arcades nodded in affirmation, “Yes, that’s what happened there. I’m lucky I made it out there myself and not in Omega’s captivity.” Bocchino raised his eyebrows, “Holy shit, son. You almost got fucked up out there. Literally.” Arcades did not reply to what the cat said. Though the fox let Bocchino say whatever he wanted, he did not particularly like it when the cat used vulgar language.
“Do we have a fix on the location of the crate?” Arcades changed the subject. Bocchino maximized a program on his computer, and he zoomed into a small dot that was pinging on a map of the United States. As Bocchino continued to scroll in, he was able to point the marker on railroad tracks. Arcades took a good look at the screen, “They put it on a train?” Bocchino replied after looking at the screen for himself, “Looks that way. Hey, you said that those guys said they were gonna take the crate to a place called Facility Five. Any idea where that is?” The fox replied, “I do not. They didn’t even mention what the cargo was when they were going to transfer it. All I could infer was that it is very valuable to Omega. The operators who were on the helicopter had night vision equipment, as they did not have any other lights on out there. Their gear looked pretty advanced too. They had the latest Crye equipment, and their NVGS looked like the EOTech PSQ-36 or something like that. Those go for over $30,000 each. They ain’t cheap.”
Bocchino turned back around to the fox, “So, you’re telling me that they’re not fucking around here. They get shit done.” Arcades decided to ignore Bocchino’s choice of words again, “They’re not playing around, and that is for sure. I really wish I brought a way to gather evidence with me on that mission. If we were to tell someone about that place, then I doubt it would be able to stay open for too much longer. However, at the same time, being an all anthro establishment, it would not help human-anthro relations.” Bocchino shook his head, “You told me the humans came in to gather the cargo. Right?” Arcades nodded, “Yes, but the guests inside were all anthros. That leopard that I had to incapacitate was referred to as an informant by the Omega guys. My guess is he’s part of Omega, but I dunno how involved he was.” Bocchino remembered the helicopter that Arcades described to him, “Say, you told me that chopper was a modified Black Hawk like the one we use?” Arcades replied, “It is. The body has been modified with angular geometry. It looks a lot like the mock-ups of the helicopter that was supposedly sent during the mission when the SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden. It looks a lot like the model that was used for the movie Zero Dark Thirty. Kinda makes me wonder if Omega was able to get the original plans from the US Military, or they did it themselves. The Stealth Hawk was never officially confirmed. All we ever had was an image from when the helicopter’s tail broke off. I took a look at the tail while I was there to see it in person, and it looked a lot like the one that was found after the raid.”
“I dunno about that one, Kurt. Kinda seems a bit far fetched to me,” Bocchino was not convinced. Arcades took a deep breath in, “That was the same helicopter model that I saw at Hong Kong. I don’t know any other groups that would operate with it. All I know is that I got the Omega emblems from the helicopter. I couldn’t stay too long. Remember?” Bocchino scratched his nose, “We need to go and get that cargo before it ends up at the destination.” The fox propped his bare foot up against the wall, “Yeah. I’m not sure what would be the best way to do that, though. How far away is it by helicopter?” The cat read the screen, and he did some rough calculations in his head, “I’d give it about two hours. If we leave in an hour, we’ll be able to have a straight course to it from here.”
Arcades considered what the cat was saying. He then suggested, “How about we have our helicopter drop us off right on top of the train. We make our way into the car with the cargo, we get the cargo out, and then we take it back to base via helicopter extraction. Sounds like a plan?” Bocchino shrugged, “It could work, but you’re the boss, Kurt. Remember?” Arcades thought it all over. He knew that time was not on his side. He would have to make a decision and make it promptly. He really did not want Omega to get away with their cargo, for the fox knew that he would likely not have another chance like this again.
Arcades decided to go ahead with the mission, “Alright. Let’s get ready, and we’ll go.” Bocchino raised his eyebrows, “Well, shit. Alright. From one mission into another.” Arcades left Bocchino’s room after the cat’s last comment. The fox himself did not want to go straight into another mission, especially after the previous night. He only had a few hours of sleep when he got back to Fox Security. After the experience he had during the night, it was hard for him to go to sleep. While Bocchino did sleep on the plane, Arcades couldn’t. He was still reviewing what he saw in the hotel over again in his head. Arcades decided that the cargo would have to come first.
The fox grabbed his Crye Precision G4 uniform when he stopped by his room. Arcades changed out of his polo shirt and tactical shorts into his Multicam combat attire. Once the fox finished, he decided that he would go and ask Jason if he would want to go on the mission to retrieve the cargo. Arcades made his way down the hall, and he navigated to the wolf’s room. The fox knocked on the door, and he heard the wolf reply, “Who’s there?” The fox spoke, “It’s Kurt.” Jason opened the door for the fox. The wolf was happy to see Arcades again, “You’re back, mate. How did it go out there?” Arcades closed his eyes, and he raised his eyebrows at the same time. He knew that Jason did not see what happened at the hotel.
“Yeah, I made it out. Look, we’ve got a situation. The Omega Foundation was carrying cargo out of that place that I went to last night, and now they have it on a train. I’m about to go with Bobby and the crew that went with us to Syria if they’re willing to go and help to get the cargo out. Are you with me?” Jason accepted the offer, “Yeah, sure mate. I can see why you’d want to get that cargo.” The fox nodded in response, “Alright, good. So go get your stuff and meet me outside in an hour. We’ll be going in by helicopter. We’re going to fast-rope down onto the train and find the cargo.” The wolf patted Arcades on the shoulder, “Sounds good to me, mate. Let’s get going.”
The helicopter gained altitude, and it was beginning to fly towards the waypoint that Bocchino had already plotted on the aircraft’s navigation system. The cat pointed towards the marker on the GPS to the pilot, “It’s right there. We
’re gonna get there at around the same time as the train most likely.” The pilot nodded, and he began pushing the stick forwards while giving the helicopter more throttle. The small squad of five sat in the helicopter as the pilot was flying. The fox looked at his small squad that was coming with him. It was him, Jason, Bocchino, Jacob, and Noah. The rest of the team was not at the base during the time. All of the men were wearing Multicam, and they were geared for a combat scenario. Arcades decided to wear his JPC 2.0 and his FAST helmet. He also brought his Salient GRY with him, a rifle that he had not taken with him since Alaska.
The fox looked at the weapons his men were armed with. Jason was armed with the HK433 that Arcades had used in Syria. Bocchino was using an ARX-160, Noah was using an ACR, and Jacob had a SCAR-L. Arcades assumed that Jason wanted to try out the HK433 since he saw Arcades using it when they went to Berlin and Syria. Arcades made sure that his EOTech on his GRY was currently off, as he would turn it on when he would arrive at the landing zone to save battery. The fox collapsed the stock to allow himself more room to work with as he checked over all of his other equipment. Arcades pushed his M2 Frames closer to his face with a gloved hand. He was still not wearing shoes. He looked around at the others in the helicopter. He was still the only one not wearing shoes, and the fox wondered what the others thought of this habit of Arcades’.
