by Zack Finley
Once we removed the blockages, we could isolate the jail in seconds. The noise of the doors closing would alert anyone in the area, so we only had one chance to catch them by surprise.
It was a relief when the control center computer booted up. The system wasn’t happy, displaying an endless list of errors. With the power shut off to all of its peripherals, I wasn’t surprised. Neither of our deputies was an expert on the system, but they were satisfied we could now turn on the cameras.
I gave Steve the okay to power up all the cameras inside the jail.
One-by-one the control center connected to the cameras. Many areas remained black due to lack of light, but camping lanterns provided some light inside the two main jail pods. Even those pods had plenty of dark shadows as my team tried to make sense of what they saw.
We spotted the deputy’s bullet-riddled body. This was no big surprise. I could understand why he did it, distraught over his missing daughter and the death of his wife and son. It was just a waste.
Going up against men with assault rifles when you only had a pistol was foolhardy. He hadn’t made it far into the jail pods before they gunned him down. Someone dragged the body into the sally port, based on the blood smears we could see.
Our intel said most of the shooters lived in pod one, the high-security part of the jail. Each shooter had a cell. Families lived in the barracks-like pod two.
Allen allowed men with families some visitation rights there, but any contact was carefully controlled and monitored. Visitation was considered a privilege. One which could be revoked or curtailed based on performance or Allen’s whim.
After the kitchen was abandoned, the women and older kids cooked meals in pod one under the watchful eye of Allen’s men,
Jake told me during the day women and children without any job assignments were allowed to go to the courtroom.
“Why didn’t Allen just make all the civilians stay in pod two,” I asked Jake.
“Control,” said Jake. “It was a privilege that could be taken away. Before Allen really took over, the wives preferred spending their days in the courtroom with the children. The chairs were comfortable, and it wasn’t as dirty as the jail. Once Allen brought in the drug dealers and took over, he allowed them to continue but only if they toed the line. He usually had one of his dealers lock them in the courtroom. Allen liked reminding us our dependents could be beaten or killed any time we got out of line. He mixed it up, making sure we never knew for sure where all of our family was.”
I now understood how the deputies got mousetrapped. I might not think much of them for allowing Allen to take over, but once he had… I tried to imagine what I’d do to keep Jennifer and Melissa safe.
Brian explained to my men what we could see. It took about 15 minutes to get most of the cameras up and transmitting. Some cameras were black, but that appeared more a function of available light than connectivity.
In pod two, we saw a woman and two older kids sitting on one of the bottom bunk beds on the second floor. The woman had her arms around both kids, clearly providing some comfort to them. The other cameras in pod two gave very grainy and indistinct pictures. There were vast areas in complete darkness, but it seemed we were missing a woman hostage.
Deep shadows also limited visibility in pod one. Each of the cells had a bunk bed and an automatic sliding steel door. Three men sat at a stainless-steel picnic table in the center of pod one. They had automatic rifles and were having a heated discussion. Two corrections officers and a moonshiner. Allen, his partner, and three drug dealers were missing.
We couldn’t spot the missing hostage, Allen, or the rest of the shooters. Each of the pods could only be accessed through sally ports at either end. If we could make sure at least one door closed in each set of sally ports, we could jail the shooters in pod one.
Two teams set out to clear the pod one doors. Our deputies remembered crates, boxes, and furniture being used to foil automatic doors throughout the jail. The sheriff blocked key doors once the grid went down, not wanting the doors to shut them in when the power came back on. No one wanted to risk being trapped inside the jail should that happen. Allen required everyone to move into the jail pods for security reasons, although he staked out the jail commander’s offices for himself.
We watched the three tangos in pod one for any sign they heard my teams creeping through the darkened hallways. They were too busy arguing.
Once key doors were unblocked, I ordered a full lock-down. The loud noise caused by doors throughout the jail sliding or slamming shut startled all of us. Electronic locks clanked into position. The doors leading to the kitchen and laundry swung closed and locked.
The hostages clung even tighter together as the sounds of doors closing reached them. We removed the crates blocking the outer sally port doors to pod two after securing pod one. Keeping Allen and his men from reaching them was one of our objectives. The woman held the two children tighter before letting them go. The kids hurried out of the lighted area and into one of the dark shadows. The woman began checking on the now closed doors to the pod, fading in and out of the darkness as she made her rounds.
Two of the shooters must have been inside cells in pod one when the doors closed. The three well-armed men loose in pod one ran to two closed cell doors. They appeared to be talking to people in them. After a few moments, two of the men split off and disappeared into the shadows.
Brian showed us the schematic of the jail showing door status. Several doors were blinking red, indicating the door was not secure. The three hostages were now securely locked into pod two None of Allen’s men appeared to be inside with them. That meant they were safe, for now.
The men in pod one weren’t getting loose, either
Darkness kept us from seeing anything but the ground floor of pod one.
The two men in pod one returned from their foray and rejoined their buddy still standing in front of one of the locked cells.
The three men loose in pod two were gesturing and appeared to be disagreeing on what to do next. The last view of pod one was them raising their pistols and firing at the cameras. It took several shots, but we lost our view from inside pod one.
There were one missing hostage and at least three missing murderers.
Brian and Jake thought the remaining shooters were probably in the jail commander’s office area. There were a break room and locker area for correction’s officers and several other offices. Allen furnished the commander’s office, turning it into a hotel suite with furniture taken from homes in the area. He allowed his lieutenants similar leeway but required the rest of the group to stay in the jails.
Both Brian and Jake believed the missing woman was assigned to service Allen or his top brass.
Their looks of shame made it clear what they meant by that.
Hiding my disgust was hard. I knew without asking that their own women were assigned similar duties.
It took so little time for societal norms to collapse. And this group wasn’t even starving.
Freed hostages and male captives were spread all over the area. I wanted all of the males except Brian and Jake handcuffed and locked in holding cells in the booking area. Roger agreed to coordinate the shuffling of our captives.
After what I just learned, I thought it would be better to confine the women and children in the courtroom, separated from the men. Roger agreed for two women from Force Gamma to search the former hostages for weapons.
The little girl we’d rescued was already sedated and in the hospital in Breckinridge valley. Without any living relatives, it seemed fair to keep her with us.
We sent Brian and Jake into pod two to bring out that woman and the two kids. The hostages were taken to the courtroom to be with the rest of the civilians. Brian and Jake stayed with my team watching in the control center.
Dr. Jerrod wanted to examine the women and children. I knew it would take a stronger man than I to stop her, but I was worried about her safety. Over her objections, I assigned one
man from Force Beta and two women from Gamma to protect Dr. Jerrod and her nurse. Dr. Jerrod reminded me she was marksman qualified and trained extensively for self-defense.
Dr. Jerrod backed down after I reminded her how many lives in Breckinridge valley depended on her. She promised to be watchful and agreed to schedule her nurse for firearm and self-defense training over the next few weeks. I told her what I learned about the women’s special assignments, and we already knew at least one of the men had a thing for children. We agreed our female soldiers would remain with her at all times, and my Ranger would only step in if things went hinky.
I was probably overly cautious, but we couldn’t search the courtroom well enough to ensure it was free of weapons. From the hostages’ point of view, we might be worse than Allen. Desperate people might do desperate things.
Roger arranged for hot vegetable pork soup, tortillas, and milk to be brought to the courtroom. Everyone noticed how skinny the women and kids were. None of us felt the need to feed the captured men as they appeared well fed in comparison.
Everyone taking part in the operation got some downtime including hot coffee and soup. We pulled everyone inside except the team on the roof, which we reinforced. We sent our best infiltrators through the jail corridors to confirm Allen’s group was not loose in the jail. They removed the chair keeping the door into the correction’s offices from closing. Once it clanged shut, Allen’s crew was isolated inside the correction’s office area. We left the five shooters in pod one to worry, but they weren’t an immediate threat. Steve retrieved a set of blueprints for the building from the maintenance office. My team was in the control center discussing various options with Jake and Brian.
We parked a truck against the only exterior door to the correction’s area. From the pile of cigarette butts tossed around it, this was the unofficial smoker’s exit. On the blueprints, it was the emergency fire exit. All the other doors into the correction’s area accessed either the jail area or a corridor leading to the sheriff’s offices. Now the jail access was blocked we shifted our sandbags to the main hallway. While I hoped they’d try to escape that way, I didn’t think they’d be that foolish.
We needed a way in they wouldn’t expect.
◆◆◆
Chapter 18
While the walls bordering the secure areas of the jail were concrete, the internal walls for the administrative offices were no better than any other office building. We didn’t need to go in through a door.
While we could cut through the drywall quietly, in the post-event world any sounds we made would be magnified. We needed a distraction.
Steve said he could connect the intercom system. The generator was idling now that we weren’t activating a lot of doors all at once.
I told him to do it, planning to have Jake and Brian take turns demanding Allen surrender. We cut a hole in the wall while they were making noise. Once the inside team was in place, I planned to make the noisy “main” assault using the sally port on the main jail corridor. We’d open both electronic doors, making enough noise to attract attention, while our inside team would identify targets. They’d have suppressed pistols and M4s.
A third group would reinforce those holding the correction’s corridor to the sheriff’s offices. I wanted them to blast the door locks on those doors just as the “main” assault group made their move.
We needed the inside group to locate and take down the targets. The other two groups would provide distractions and backup. I reminded the teams the targets were wearing body armor and that there could be more than three shooters, so to keep looking even after three were down.
Once everyone confirmed they were in position, Jake started the distraction over the intercom.
I participated in this type of operation many times, rescuing hostages or captured personnel. Our hand-tools were silent and well suited for the job. We’d look, verify all was clear and then expand the hole. First on this side of the drywall and then the other. The noisiest part was removing a section of one stud. While steel studs could be bent most times wooden ones had to be cut.
It took longer than I liked, but I was relieved to hear the clicks indicating the inside team was in position. I gave the signal to the breaching teams to act.
Jake kept talking over the intercom as he opened the closed and partially closed doors leading into the corrections offices. Even before the doors slid open, the inside team tossed a flashbang into the area we suspected Allen was in. Before it went off the team in the sheriff’s side of the corridor shot up the door locks leading into the corrections area.
My guys knew the flashbang was coming and everyone was braced for the sharp explosion of sound and light. From the control center, we could see the sudden illumination that put the brightness of the sun to shame. The sound was shocking in contrast to the previous silence.
The flashbang knocked over the battery-powered lantern Allen’s men used for general lighting. This left the office complex pitch black, with only a small amount of light coming from Allen’s rooms. Someone secured that light source nearly immediately.
Our inside crew apprised the other teams that someone was in Allen’s rooms not badly affected by the flashbang.
Teammates on the sheriff’s side of the offices began firing through the walls, into the room we knew was Allen’s. Their weapons were not suppressed. Because of the hostage, the shots were high and aimed toward the concrete walls of the jail. We wanted them distracted as the inside team slipped through the offices using thermal imaging and NVGs to locate the missing men.
We’d have been more careful if the lantern was gas powered, not wanting to start a fire. While the jails were mostly concrete and steel, the offices were fabric and wood. I suspected that was also why Allen didn’t have a gas lantern or a lot of candles in this area.
It took less than 15 minutes to confirm the locker rooms and rest of the offices were empty. The bad apples and the hostage were hunkered down in the corner office. No one had seen even a thermal image of those we sought. Allen’s crew used steel desks to barricade the office doorway. The desks formed a barrio several deep and stacked at least two high.
Allen had his own flashbangs plus an unknown number of fragmentation grenades and other weapons.
We planned to toss in another flashbang then add two pepper spray grenades. In an enclosed room that should distract them enough to let us target and kill them, without incurring our own casualties.
One pair of Rangers would shove the top desks into the room on the heels of the flashbang and the second team would cover them, locate and drop the targets. Without a potential hostage, we would have tossed in a few fragmentation grenades and called it a day.
In the end, it was overkill, two men screamed in agony as the pepper spray made their eyes burn. But there were only two. It took some time for the pepper spray to dissipate sufficiently to haul their bodies out. That was when we found the body of the hostage. Her throat was cut. Tom estimated she’d been dead only an hour or so.
Brian confirmed that Allen was not amongst the dead.
Without hostages to concern us we made short work of those in pod one, Mike was wounded in the leg by a ricochet. Tom stopped the bleeding and Buzzer took him to Dr. Jerrod to remove the bullet fragment. Mike didn’t want to leave, but Buzzer dragged him into a Humvee and drove him back to the valley, anyway.
I wanted to question at least one man in pod one, but they refused to surrender. They were too well armed and wore body armor, so we took no chances. Two were killed by grenades in the initial rush. The rest died from gunshot wounds to the head.
Allen wasn’t there either.
Force Gamma dragged the bodies outside, stripping them of all useful items. We planned to burn the remains in the morning.
While the trainees were cleaning up, Force Beta swept the building, looking for Allen. We opened every door, every closet, and every locker searching for the missing man.
In the end, we found an office in the court's area wi
th a recently broken window. We learned from Dr. Jerrod that Allen was the pedophile. Our best guess was was he was assaulting the little girl when her father made the one-man assault on pod one.
When Brian and Jake freed the hostages, Allen used the confusion to duck into an empty office, locking the door and waiting. To us it was just another locked door we glued shut and passed by. Allen must have used the distraction of explosions and gunfire to break the window and escape.
I so wanted to provide justice for the little boy Allen murdered in cold blood. To learn he was also the one abusing the little girl filled me with rage and a cloying sense of guilt. I chose the tactics and failed to get the man in charge.
The world didn’t stop because I was pissed. I had a wounded man, a building full of supplies and a group of people I didn’t know what to do with.
We captured eight men and a large group of women and children. They were too large a group to just release, having shown a willingness to prey on others. The last thing we needed was to have them to join up with Oneida. They knew too much about us, now.
