“Meet the local man at the end of the property that faces the road,” Omar ordered. “He’ll be wearing a red scarf. He knows the layout of the target buildings. He’ll help you set up and issue the attack order. Am I clear?”
“Yes, of course,” the man replied.
“Good,” Omar said and nodded his head. “Once you kill everyone there, I want you to make sure you have the prize. There are somewhere between ten and twelve ball shaped spheres in the building. You need to hold them for me.”
“Yes, Omar,” the underling replied.
“One other thing,” Omar stated. “I’m going to reach my target by eleven o’clock tonight. You need to attack at exactly five minutes after eleven. I don’t want my target to be aware of the attack until I’m finished with him.”
“We’ll start our attack at exactly five minutes after eleven,” the man repeated.
“Send in the bombers first to get their attention,” Omar reminder his jihadist.
“They won’t know what hit them,” the man chuckled. “We have thought of everything.”
“You know what the penalty is for failure, don’t you?” Omar pressed as he hung up.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Captain Kane’s TACP team member was waiting at the gate of the private airport when the MAD team landed. He was easy to spot because he was in full combat uniform. He waved the team over and they shook hands. He introduced himself as Corporal Watts while they walked over to a SUV. He said he was the driver.
The team piled in.
“I’ve been ordered to drive you and accompany you on your mission,” he said cheerfully. “I’m at your complete disposal for anything you need.”
“Aren’t you needed at the other location?” the general quickly asked.
“We’ve got more than enough men there to cover fifty Effort men,” the soldier responded with a chuckle. “Most of them are just ordinary guys who have rifles.”
“Did you bring weapons?” Kaley asked. “We had to leave ours in Atlanta.”
“In the duffle bag in the back,” the man replied as he effortlessly pulled into traffic. “I’ve brought you two hand-held machine guns a pistol for each of you and attack knives. Is that enough?”
“We’ll make due,” Lisa joked sarcastically.
“The location I was given to take you initially is a private home. Is that correct?” the TACP man asked.
“Yes, the home of Hans Keidel,” the general responded. “He is the head of the Effort.”
“We’ll be there by twenty-three hundred hours,” he offered. “That’ eleven o’clock.”
“Good we’ll be right on schedule,” the satisfied general stated. He liked efficiency.
Kaley grabbed the duffle bag and passed out the weapons. She had just dropped the empty bag back in its place when Malcolm suddenly screamed.
“Oh My God,” he shrieked. “I can’t believe that this is true,” he wailed.
“What is it?” Kaley asked nervously. “Did I hurt you when I reached over the seat?”
“It’s Colonel Jacobs,” Malcolm spit out.
“What are you talking about?” Lisa asked with concern. They had all been focusing on their current mission and had completely forgotten about their other loose ends.
“He’s the other mole in the Pit,” Malcolm cried out.
“How in the world did he become a mole for the jihadists?” Kaley asked as she tightened her small fists. “He seemed like an all American type of guy.”
“According to my source,” Malcolm said to not make the driver suspicious. “He is a reluctant participate. Wes Robertson is blackmailing him. It’s a classic case of a ‘honey trap’. Colonel Jacobs is a homosexual and so is Wes.”
“I’d better call Dr. Darby immediately,” General Stone shouted. He opened his phone and dialed her number as he tried to understand.
“General, so nice to hear from you,” Dr. Darby said sweetly into the phone. The general’s senses were immediately on alert. This wasn’t the way she talked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I thought that I’d give you an update on this part of our mission.”
“Oh, please do,” she replied. “I’m just sitting here in the control room with Wes and Colonel Jacobs.”
“You can put them on speaker phone if you want,” the highly suspicious old man said.
“Not necessary,” she responded after a hesitation.
“All right, then I’ll be brief,” the general replied. “We’re heading to Chicago to take on some terrorists. We’ll get there in about four hours.”
“Oh?” she quickly inquired with a touch of alarm.
The general’s antenna was fully extended now. Dr. Darby knew about the other Switches and didn’t ask the right questions. “Just as we discussed,” the old man responded.
“Thanks for the information,” Dr. Darby explained. “I’ve got to run. I’m doing some important experiments on the Switch right now.”
“Goodbye then,” the general said cordially and hung up the phone.
“What the hell?” Kaley managed.
“Malcolm,” The general said coldly. “What can you find out?”
“I wonder what is going on in the Pit with Dr. Darby?” Malcolm asked out loud. A few seconds later a look of shock filled his face.
“What?” Kaley yelled.
“She just texted me,” Malcolm lied to fool the driver. “She apparently figured out who the other mole at the Pit was, but Wes Robertson got suspicious and called them into the control room. He pulled a gun. He had the colonel lock down the Pit. No one can get inside.”
“Why would he do that?” Lisa wondered. “Why didn’t he just walk out and escape with the Switch?”
“It doesn’t make sense,” the general agreed. “He must know that the base commander of Area 51 will find a way inside eventually.”
“But the commander won’t know anything is wrong for a while,” Lisa reasoned. “Wait!” she suddenly yelled. “Unless he is buying time,” she burst out. “I’ll bet the jihadists have a mission of their own and he is stalling for time until they complete it,” Lisa exclaimed.
“What could it be?” Kaley shouted and flapped her arms.
“Maybe they are after the same thing we’re after,” Malcolm shouted out and then asked. “Is that true?”
“The Switches?” Kaley asked.
“Yes,” Malcolm responded after a few seconds. “And the news is extremely bad.
“Spit it out,” Kaley demanded.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Back in Area 51, an announcement came over the loudspeaker. “There has been a breach in security,” Colonel Jacob’s voice resonated throughout the Pit. “We are currently in a total lockdown hold. No one can leave and you are prohibited from using your cellphones or any of the outside phone lines including your computers. Step away from your desks. We are working on the problem and should have it corrected shortly. You are to stay in the open area in the Pit until my next announcement.”
“Now Dr. Darby, go collect the Switch and the meteorite. I want them here in the control room with me,” Wes Robertson ordered and waved the gun towards the door. “I don’t want to tell you twice.
“But you can’t escape the Pit,” she spat back. Rather than fear, there was only hatred in her eyes.
“Actually, I can,” he replied with a laugh. “Colonel Jacobs was kind enough to show me the escape tunnel out of here weren’t you, Bobbie?”
“Gillian,” the colonel said shamefully. “I had no choice, he is blackmailing me.”
Dr. Darby nodded her head in understanding. “Well for your information, I’ve had men following you everywhere,” Dr. Darby replied knowingly. “They’ll stop you,” she threatened.
“Oh, do you mean the two thugs that I locked in the cleaning closet about a half an hour ago,” Wes said in sarcasm. “Now get going and bring me the Switch. Leave your cellphone here.” he ordered with a further threat. “Or I’ll shoot the lovely colonel here again.” He
aimed his gun and shot Colonel Jacobs in the leg. Dr. Darby stood up in shock and covered her mouth.
“I’ll do it,” Dr. Darby quickly agreed and fled the room. She ran to the laboratory trying to think of a way to stop him. She realized that Wes wanted to wait until something happened before he left the Pit. It suddenly became clear to her. The jihadists planned to set off at least one Switch and create a disaster and didn’t want the authorities to be notified by someone from the Pit, or they could react and attempt to stop it. The alarms usually started ringing minutes before the Switch actually fired.
She grabbed the Switch and went to collect the meteorite, but suddenly hesitated. The meteorite that she had treated with aluminum-26 was in a metal box next to the regular meteorite. She wondered if the colonel had told Wes about the dangerous effects of the infected rock. She decided that she didn’t care. She grabbed the box, opened it and extracted the meteorite. She headed back to the control room knowing she had only minutes before the poison would start to affect her again.
When she raced into the room, she put the Switch down on a table and then tossed the rock to Wes “Here you go, you bastard,” she screamed as she plopped down in a chair.
Wes caught the meteorite, turned it over in his hand and looked at it suspiciously. He then shrugged and put it in his pocket. Dr. Darby looked at Colonel Jacobs to see if he realized what she had done. He didn’t react in any way. He was too busy suffering in silence from the bullet wound in his leg.
“I need to stop his bleeding,” she said with rage and pointed to the colonel.
“It’s only a flesh wound,” Wes Robertson countered dismissively. “He’ll survive as long as you follow my complete instructions.”
“Why do you hate America?” Dr. Darby quickly asked. “You were born and raised here for God sakes!”
“This is more about love than anything else,” the wisecracking traitor replied.
“Then if it is about love, why don’t you let me help Jacobs, your lover,” she reasoned.
“Oh, I don’t really care about him. My real lover is coming for me from the Middle-East.”
“Have you lost all compassion?” she screamed at him.”
“Alright if you insist, go and attend to him. Then stay on that side of the room where I can see you and away from me.”
“With pleasure,” she responded with sarcasm.
Chapter Sixty-Four
“What bad news?” the usually calm General Stone shouted. He had turned around in the front seat and stared at Malcolm.
“My…friend,” Malcolm said as he held up his cellphone. He had noticed that Corporal Watts was looking at him through the rear view mirror. “Just found out that Wes Robertson is after the Switch in the Pit.”
“Why?” Kaley asked in her impatient voice.
“He has locked down the Pit until something happens,” Malcolm continued. “Then he intends to escape.”
“That can only mean that another Switch is going to be activated,” Lisa said logically. “But the jihadists don’t have a Switch. Unless…”
“That’s the bad news,” Malcolm cut in. “They intend to steal one. They are going to steal the one at Hans Keidel’s house.”
“Corporal, step on it,” the general ordered. “We need to get there first.”
“Eleven minutes,” he responded and floored the gas pedal.
“There are four jihadists parked in a car outside the estate. They are about to go inside and kill everyone there,” Malcolm offered. “They’ll take the Switch inside.”
“We have to stop them,” Kaley wailed in disbelief.
“That’s not even the extremely bad news,” Malcolm said urgently. “There is a truckload of jihadists heading to the warehouse. There are over thirty men and six suicide bombers inside. They will attack at five minutes after the hour.”
“We have to tell Captain Kane,” Lisa stated the obvious.
“I’d better call him right now,” A worried General Stone said.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Captain Kane took the news characteristically and with only one comment. “We’ll take care of it,” he told the general.
He called over the other captains from the three other TACP teams and had a meeting. He realized that they needed a new strategy.
“So let me get this straight,” one of the other captains uttered. “There are fifty armed Effort men with unknown defensive capabilities defending the warehouse and thirty jihadists about to attack it with suicide bombers and machine guns.”
“That’s about it,” Captain Kane agreed and shook his head.
“And we’re supposed to stop all of them and protect some strange devices until some other people arrive,” the other captain continued.
“We’ve got about ten minutes to put together a plan to implement,” Captain Kane explained.
“It can’t be done,” another captain declared and threw up his arms in despair.
“It would be a disaster for us to also attack. There are too many bad guys,” another offered.
“If I may, Sergeant Pepper suddenly spoke. “I’ve got a suggestion,”
“Spit it out, son,” a captain ordered. “It can’t be worse than the plan we have already.”
“Why don’t we let the two groups shoot it out and then we sweep in and finish off any of them that are left. We still would get the devices,” the sergeant verbalized.
“Hmm,” Captain Kane muttered as he thought about it and rubbed his chin. “They’re both known terrorist groups. There are no civilians to protect from harm and we’ll safeguard our own men. It sounds awful good to me.”
“We’ll need to disable their escape vehicles and take out any sentries so they can’t get away,” another captain said.
“If we set up a proper perimeter, no one will be able to leave the target area,” the first captain articulated.
“We can set up ambush points here, here, and here,” Captain Kane said as he pointed to a map of the compound taken by a drone he had sent out earlier.”
“After the shooting dies down,” a captain noted. “We can send in four man teams to sweep the area and knock down any stragglers. No one will get away.”
“I think we have found a workable strategy” Captain Kane declared cheerfully.
“Let’s assign the people and get set up,” the last captain suggested.
“We’ve got five minutes to get in place.” Captain Kane announced. “We’ll have to put together some of the plan when we get into position.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
General Stone and his MAD team pulled up to the outside of Hans Keidel’s estate at exactly eleven o’clock at night. Near the entrance was a sedan with all the doors open. The gate to the compound was also open. They realized the jihadists had beaten them to the mansion and were already inside.
Corporal Watts didn’t hesitate and drove right through the open gateway. He screeched to a stop by the open front door. As soon as they left their vehicle, they heard screaming and shooting inside the building.
“Teams of two,” the general ordered in a growl. “Corporal, you stay here and stop anyone from leaving the building. Can you do that?”
“Roger,” he replied and drew his gun.
“We’ll go left,” Kaley blurted out as she looked at Malcolm to make sure he understood.
“You are cleared to shoot to kill anyone you encounter,” the general added hastily.
“I want to capture one of the jihadists,” Lisa suddenly croaked.
“Why,” Kaley asked.
“Someone back in the Middle-East is pulling the strings on this whole operation,” she replied. “We need to find out who he is and stop him,” she reasoned.
“Or we’ll never stop the jihadists from trying to find and use a Switch. Think of the disasters. We need to cut off the snake’s head,” Malcolm agreed as he completed her thought.
“Do you think that you can get the information from one of the jihadists?” the general asked Lisa.
“I might mess up his mind a bit, but I’m sure I can pull it from him if he has it in there.”
“Corporal, then perhaps you should come with Lisa and me,” the general said as he adjusted his plan on the fly.
“I don’t know how you can always be so accurate in your assumptions, but I’m all for stopping these nut jobs,” the corporal replied.
“Good, then let’s go,” General Stone ordered.
***
As they entered the mansion, they saw a dead man by the doorway. He was a servant. A little way up the hallway entrance they saw two more gunned down Effort men. They had not even gotten off a shot from their machine guns.
Malcolm and Kaley split off and headed down a side hallway while the other three attackers silently moved up the corridor towards the gun fire. As they rounded a corner, they saw two jihadists shooting machine guns into the living room of the mansion. They attacked from the protection of the doorway. The three men inside had barricaded themselves behind a turned-over large wooden desk near a roaring fire in the fireplace. They were directly in front of the doorway. General Stone signaled and the team backed up back around the corner. They huddled for a meeting.
“I’ll shoot the man on the left,” General Stone announced. “Corporal, can you subdue the man on the right?”
“Just don’t shoot the one on the left until I’m about to engage the other clown,” Corporal Watts suggested.
“Agreed,” the old man said. He pressed his earpiece and told Kaley and Malcolm that there were two more jihadists running loose somewhere around the building.
“We’ve already found one,” Malcolm came back. “I also know where the other one is. He is attempting to enter the living room from the kitchen. Watch out for him.”
Before they could implement their plan, Kaley broke in on their earpieces. “No need to capture one of those guys, I’ve got one cornered in a closet up here. I’ll have the bastard in a minute.”
The Oracle Philon Page 23
