Laura 02 The God Code

by Anton Swanepoel

  “Roger that Sir.”

  Just then the Secretary of Defense walks into the room and to his horror sees Abraham talking on his cell, he quickly searches his pockets and a wave of panic goes over him as he realizes that he indeed left his cell on the table.

  “Ah Jerry, good that you’re back, I was just in touch with the Commander of the team you sent to rescue the women.”

  A cold child runs down Jerry’s back and he starts to perspire. He glances at the two armed guards at the door. What has the team found and why call on his phone? Fear chokes Jerry. Have all the plans been uncovered? What does the President know?

  “It was a smart idea to give them a Sat phone. They have the women and information on a terrorist attack.” Abraham walks over to Jerry and hands him his phone. Jerry is speechless and automatically takes the phone, almost dropping it due to his hands shaking so badly.

  “Jerry, are you okay?” Abraham looks Jerry up and down before continuing. “You’re as white as a ghost; maybe you should go see a doctor.”

  “I…I’m fine sir, just lack of sleep. I’ll be okay. Is the team bringing the women out Sir?”

  “They are currently surrounded in the hotel. We cannot help them there. The streets are too narrow to land a helicopter, and the roof is too cluttered with vents and antennas to make a safe pickup from there for the amount of people we need to get out, too much risk of a bird down scenario. If they can make it to this open field, then we can pick them up with a few helicopters and gunships as support.”

  “Excellent idea Sir.”

  Jerry walks to his chair and takes his seat, all the while texting a message to his secretary. “Urgent, full dossier on Commander of Seal team, operation ‘Irene’.”

  He only partly listens as the President and the rest of the team prepare a speech to explain the missile launch and detonation, including the rescue of the women. Minutes after sending his request, his phone vibrates once in his hand, held on his lap. Glancing down he notices a return message from his secretary. It contains a full dossier on Ernest. Jerry quickly scrolls through the information until he finds what he is looking for. Ernest has a wife and two kids, with a current address listed as off base. Jerry smiles as he texts the information to George, his contact to Carlos, the leader of the armed group currently surrounding Ernest. A final instruction follows, “Use the Commander’s family as needed to flush them out, then kill them all, leave no one alive or any evidence behind. Mission compromised.”

  ***

  “Commander, how are we going to get the women to the clearing, and what about our fallen comrades?” Sam is eating an energy bar as he speaks. He and the rest of the team trust Ernest with their lives, and will follow him anywhere he leads them, all they need is orders.

  “We fight. We help carry,” says a female voice in broken English.

  Both Ernest and Sam spin around to face the voice.

  Penelope stands right behind them with her hands on her hips and a serious expression on her face.

  “Have you handled a weapon before?” Sam asks before Ernest can reply.

  “No, is easy, you show us. More guns, more enemy scared.”

  Ernest smiles as he replies, “Well Sam, you cannot argue with that reasoning. What do you think, if we create a big distraction, and have teams of one of us and one of them carry our wounded and dead, can we make it out?”

  “It will have to be one big distraction Commander, what do you have in mind?”

  The rest of the team stands closer to the two men to hear the plan.

  “Well, I’m thinking that it’s a shame these people went to all the trouble of assembling those 20 bombs and not see them in action. Maybe we should give them an opportunity?” There is a sly smile on Ernest’s face as he continues. “The women can rally at the basement exit, while some of us drop the vests down onto the men below from the roof. The explosions should clear the streets. If they stand near the corners of the basement side, we can cover three streets. As soon as the bombs explode, we will use the confusion and make our way to the field, engaging only if necessary. Those on the roof can then rappel down the wall and form our rear guard.”

  Sam nods then replies, “Excellent plan Commander, Nelson and Lester, you two speak fluent Spanish, gather all the weapons and ammunition from the dead terrorists, then take Virgil and some of the women with you. Show them quickly how to reload, aim and fire.”

  “Yes Sir,” the response comes in unison, and the men leave to follow their orders, speaking to some of the women who then relay the message to the others. All the women agree and the party splits into two, Lester leading one half the women and Nelson leading the other half.

  “Ok, Tipper, guard the door, the rest, on me. We are taking the bombs to the top floor and activating them.”

  Tipper shifts his grip on his gun and smiles as he replies. “Door covered Commander.” He dials the fire rate controller all the way up, allowing the electronic controlled motor to spin the six barrels at maximum rate. The two 500-round magazines inserted into the Microgun will be spent in 15 seconds, obliterating anyone trying to enter the door.

  ***

  Jose stares at the phone ringing on his desk. “Unknown Number” is displayed on the screen. Victor had replaced the SIM card in Jose’s phone before he left. Hesitantly Jose slowly picks up the phone. Who can it be? Is Victor in trouble?

  “Ola?” Jose answers.

  “Who is this?”

  “Who are you?”

  “This is the President of the United States. I want to speak to Victor.”

  “Oh hey dude, how is it hanging? Sorry but Victor is out.” Jose holds the phone a short distance away from his ear and makes as if he is going to throw up.

  He dislikes the President and has no respect for him.

  When his father took control of the country a month earlier, he contacted the President to ask him for arms and help in taking over the country, the President declined.

  President Abraham is taken aback slightly by the response, then recovers and replies, “Who are you?”

  “I am Jose, son of General Conzales, commander of the Columbian army. How can I help?”

  “I need to get a message to Victor.”

  “Sure, give it to me, and I will pass it on.”

  There is a short silence on the other end, and then Abraham replies. “Inform Victor that we have secured the women, but our men have encountered heavy resistance and are currently pinned down. We cannot extract the women at this time.”

  “Are you calling for help? I can send some of my men over to help your boys out.”

  “Thank you, but that will not be needed. We will bring our own back. Just get the message to Victor that we will get the women out, just do not launch any more missiles.”

  “Sure dude, no worries man.” Jose stares at the phone as the call ends. “Inconsiderate, he did not even say goodbye, typical politician,” Jose mumbles to himself. Jose then dials the number of the jet and waits for the call to connect.

  “Victor?” Jose takes a chance that Victor will answer.

  “Hi Jose, it’s Laura, how are you?”

  “Hi Laura, doing good. Please tell Victor that his grumpy friend the President says that they have the women, but that they are a bit tired of fighting and are taking a break until they can get some more men to help them get the women out. I told him I would send him some real soldiers, but he said no.”

  “I will do Jose. Do you want to speak to Victor?”

  “Nope, got to go, my father just arrived.”

  “Okay Jose, take care.”

  “You too Laura.”

  Jose ends the call and looks at his father walking towards him as he puts the phone down on the table. With a smile, he gets up and walks to his father. The two men greet each other with a handshake and then suddenly General Conzales pulls Jose into a hug.

  “I am glad to see you. It is finally over. Where are Victor and Laura?”

  “Oh, they went to have a chat w
ith the Pope.”

  “Why? There are plenty of priests here that will marry them, they did not need to go all the way to the Vatican.”

  “I think they are going to have a different talk papa. He apparently gave the contract to have them killed.”

  “Phew, for a moment I thought I was going to miss the wedding. Pity about the Pope though, kind of liked him, will miss him. Hope the new Pope is better.”

  “Papa, there is no wedding. And they are just going to ask the Pope if he would kindly cancel the order.”

  General Conzales looks at his son for a moment before he replies. “No wedding, pity, they are a nice couple. Let’s go celebrate our victory.”

  The two men walk side by side, each relaying the experiences of the last few hours to each other as they make their way to General Conzales’s car, a black 500 SL Mercedes.

  ***

  George walks over to Carlos while holding his cell phone in front of him as he reads the contents of a message.

  “Boss I received a message from our contact in the White House. It contains details on the leader of the Seal team inside.”

  “Anything we can use?”

  “Yes, he has a wife and two children,” George says emotionless, knowing full well that once the men are done with the wife, they will sell her and the kids as sex slaves.

  “Where are they?”

  “She is only 10 minutes away from Horst. We can have him at her house with two men within half an hour.”

  “Send them, I want that bitch. We will use her to flush out those bastards, think they can come in here and screw with us.”

  George nods and starts dialing a number.

  “Yes?” The voice is harsh from too much smoking.

  “Horst, get Estevan and Chas immediately, and go to the address I am sending you. There are a woman and two children in the house. Put them to sleep, tie them up, and take them to your house. Do not hurt them, yet. Give me a call when you are done.”

  “What do you want them for?”

  “We have a Navy Seal team snooping around here. The woman is the leader’s wife. We will use her to persuade her husband to give up. Go as fast as possible.”

  “And afterwards, whose is she?”

  “Yours to do as you please.”

  “Understood. Consider it done.”

  “Good”. George has a sadistic grin on his face as he replies, then cuts the call and forwards the details he received on Ernest to Horst. He knows that Horst always finishes his jobs and will not let him down.

  ***

  Shayna rolls over in her bed and grabs Ernest’s pillow, bringing it close to her body. She takes in his scent left on the pillow, and slowly falls asleep, unaware of the Ford XLT Premium Transit Connect Wagon coming to a stop in front of her house. Three men dressed in gray overalls and black balaclavas quickly get out and make their way to her front door. A smile breaks on Shayna’s face as she dreams of Ernest, just as the men reach her front door.

  “Chas, they have a security system, can you disable it?”

  “Let me see.”

  Chas moves past Horst and looks at the keypad next to the front door, then replies, “Piece of cake. I install many of these in a month. Give me five minutes.”

  Chas unshoulders a bag from his back and takes out electronic gear he uses in his day job to install and test alarm systems.

  Carefully, he opens up the keypad and connects four wires from an electronic diagnostic’s device to the keypad. After entering his employee code into the device, the device displays a message on the screen “Diagnosing system“. A minute later the message changes to “Diagnostic complete, system secure“, with a smaller message below asking if he wants to disable the system or not. He taps on the touch screen, disabling the alarm system. As soon as a message appears on the device informing him that the system is disabled, he removes the wires and reassembles the keypad.

  “It’s done. We can open the door now.” Chas proceeds to remove a small electric drill from his bag after replacing the electronic device and drills out the door lock. As soon as he breaks the lock, he steps back and lets Horst and Estevan enter the house first.

  Horst and Estevan have a long criminal record, and have been friends from kindergarten. For them, the job is nothing new, but for Chas it is his first job. He only agreed because he has financial problems and borrowed money from a loan shark, who happens to be George. Chas is unable to pay George back, and was told by George that he is now in the service of George until his debt is paid. For Chas, it is either ending up in hospital with broken bones, or helping with the kidnapping. Lending money to people who have no hope of paying it back is one of George’s recruitment methods. Horst moves to the left of the door while Estevan moves to the right. They are in the living room, with the kitchen to the left. A small hallway leads to a bathroom and the back door. The stairs to the bedrooms on the second floor are directly in the middle of the room.

  Chas enters the house and closes the door behind him.

  Each of them has a pistol with a silencer fitted, courtesy of contacts in the US Army. Horst nods for Estevan and Chas to search upstairs while he covers the living room. Suddenly a light from outside enters through the living room windows and lights up the place. Quickly the men drop to the floor and remain motionless.

  Outside the house, a police cruiser slowly moves forward, Sergeant Walker controls the spotlight on the roof of his cruiser, letting it slowly go over the house. All seems fine, yet he cannot shake the nagging feeling that something is amiss. As an ex Texas Ranger, he has come to rely heavily on his gut instinct.

  The vehicle parked outside the house checks out as it is not reported stolen. Shrugging his shoulders he switches off the spotlight and slowly drives off. It is 20 minutes to the end of his shift. He must be tired, probably imagining things.

  Inside the house, the men slowly get up, shaking their heads at the close call.

  “You two go upstairs. I will secure the area down here.” Horst moves to the small hallway and downstairs bathroom as he speaks. Estevan and Chas make their way up the stairs, towards the bedrooms.

  As soon as they reach the first door, Estevan takes out a cloth and a small bottle of chloroform. After putting some chloroform on the cloth, he gives the go ahead to Chas to open the door. Chas very gently turns the round doorknob, being careful not to make a sound. As the door opens, the men enter stealthily. There are two beds in the room, one for each of the girls. Estevan hands the cloth to Chas and indicates to the first bed.

  Reluctantly, Chas moves over to the first bed and Gillian, who is only 2 years old. With care, he reaches forward, bringing the cloth to the little girl’s face.

  Gillian squirms a little as the cloth touches her face, but Chas holds his left hand behind her head while holding the cloth against her face with his right. Within 10 seconds, Gillian’s body goes limp and Chas knows that she will be out for hours. This is easy, just the little sister and the mom, then they are out of here, and no one got hurt. He is unaware of Horst’s intention with the family, and was told the family will be well cared for until her rich banker husband pays up. Chas thinks about clearing his debt with George, and being free. A sound in front of him pulls him from his thoughts. Looking up, he locks eyes with a set of brown eyes.

  “Fu-” the rest of his words are cut off as a powerful jaw closes on his throat, teeth crushing his windpipe. Chas tries to get his gun, but Lionheart gives one fast jerk with his head and rips Chas’s throat out, severing his carotid arteries in his neck. Blood spurts all over the bed and Chas stumbles backwards, falling against Estevan who takes aim at Lionheart, now jumping over the bed from his sleeping mat between the two beds.

  Instinctively Estevan puts his left arm out to protect his face, and Lionheart bites into it. As the two fall backwards, crashing into a wall unit, sending items flying, Estevan fires into the dog’s chest, three rounds.

  Yet Lionheart does not let go, but shakes his head from side to side, ripping flesh
out of Estevan’s arm.

  Estevan fires another four rounds into Lionheart, and slowly the dog lets go of Estevan’s arm and slides to the ground, breathing heavily. Estevan’s arm hurts and blood drips from the open wound. As he looks at his mangled arm, anger fills him. Estevan looks down at Chas lying on the floor, his throat ripped out; his life leaving him fast with every spurt of blood pumping from his neck arteries. With difficulty Estevan reloads his pistol and turns his attention back to Lionheart. With care he takes aim at Lionheart’s head.

  Slowly Estevan pulls the trigger as he speaks. “Die you piece of-” The sound of a shotgun drowns out his words and the impact of the pellets throws him forward over the bed. The shotgun pellets take Estevan low on the right side, partly in his bum and thigh. Shayna is standing in the doorway, having been awoken by the noise when Chas and Lionheart crashed into the wall unit. With hatred in her eyes, she slides the bottom of the pump action shotgun backwards and forwards, reloading the gun. Carefully she takes aim again, targeting Estevan’s legs. Suddenly an arm circles her neck and starts to choke her. Horst heard the shot downstairs and quickly came up. Even though Shayna fights with all her might, she cannot move, and darkness starts to pull her in. Within seconds, she passes out.

  “Estevan, you okay?”

  “Chas is dead. The bitch shot me in the ass and leg, man. Can you believe that shit man, being shot in the ass!”

  “Can you walk?”

  “Yes.” The two men look on as a baby starts to cry on the second bed.

  Celestia is only six months old, and woke up with the noise of the gunshot.

  “Okay Estevan, I will get the woman. You take the baby, and then I will come back for the second child.”

  “Police. Hands in the air, let the woman go!”

  Sergeant Walker stands on the last step of the stairs to the second floor, pointing his service pistol at Horst. He just could not let the nagging feeling go that something was wrong, and turned around and came back. After sitting outside the house for a few moments he almost drove off, but then decided to take a walk around the yard. As soon as he got to the front door, he noticed the damaged door lock and immediately decided to call it in. Just as he was about to call it in, he heard the gunshot in the house. Walker quickly requested backup and then entered the house, where he heard the men talking upstairs.