by Leo Nix
Major Sam Samuels smiled, he knew what she was getting at, another old joke between them.
“Ah, yeah, I prayed to the 'Lord on High' and he said I could eat meat to stay alive. It was the damnedest thing though - we had no food for three days, a cup of water every few hours and we all hallucinated at one time or other from the heat, thirst and starvation.” He stopped talking, lowered his head and he became emotional. “I saw my wife, my kids and grandkids, it cut me up, Sue-Ellen, it damn near sent me crazy. I was at our last Thanksgiving with my family, everyone was there. They each came over to me and wished me well then disappeared. Last was my wife, Janelle, remember how she used to laugh, that funny, light giggly laugh, and we'd all crack up over it? She took me in her arms and held me, she said that I would be seeing her again soon enough. She smiled, handed me a plate of lamb chops, she giggled again as she left. I can still hear that beautiful sound. I have a feeling that they were all killed on the day of the apocalypse. I miss them all so much.” He put his head in his hands and quietly sighed, a deep, soulful sigh.
Sue-Ellen got up and put her hand to his face, she stroked it affectionately then went to put the coffee pot on. There was still some vacuum sealed ground coffee left on the base.
“Come on Sam, I'll make us some real coffee. I'm proud of you my dear friend. But don't think of leaving me just yet, you've still got some flying to do before you can retire your wings.”
The two prisoners captured by Murphy and Pipeline were filled with a mixture of fear and arrogance, but they soon talked. Sue-Ellen listened while Obi-Wan and Fortune reported on their interrogation. It verified what Tanner had said: the three Revelationist leaders were in a tug-of-war with each other for power in the north. Neither of them knew much more, they weren't that high up the food chain to know the intimate details.
Sue-Ellen now thought of ways to, perhaps, nurture that unrest and foment some sort of rebellion or outright confrontation between the three groups. Right now was not the time but it would come.
It had been a week since the stealth Black Hawk had returned and things were starting to normalise for the special ops team. Emily found Danielle and they decided to share a room. Emily wasn't quite ready to move in with Murphy, that would come, she wanted a proper courtship first.
The special ops four invited Hooky to hang with them when he had time, but his security work meant that his hours sometimes conflicted with theirs. They all spent time in the gym when they could and he was happy to compete with them on the rifle and pistol range.
But Hooky's love interest with Danielle was still very new, he was love struck and awkward. He knew that if he joined the special ops team he'd be putting his opportunity to woo Danielle at risk, again. Now he was in conflict with himself, his duty to his friends and his new community - he needed time to sort himself out.
It was a chance lunch with Murphy, Emily, Danielle and Fortune that convinced him to join them. Danielle sat at his side and he couldn't help but want to touch her every chance he got. He noticed how Murphy and Emily got along so well and wished that he could be as relaxed about love as those two.
“Hooky, when that shoulder of yours is fully healed I want you to join us. There's only the four of us originals left and Sue-Ellen wants anyone with experience to apply. I'd say your background in the SAS and how well you performed on our way back here is experience enough. What do you reckon?” asked Fortune, now returning to his old self.
“Now that Skip is no longer with us we need an Aussie on our team to balance it. You know, one Aussie is equal to four yanks.” He grinned, then his face lit up in a smile, it was an old joke of Skip's.
Hooky looked at Danielle, she nodded her assent. “OK, I'd like that.” The boys were back in town!
Over the next few weeks Hooky trained with his US mates. He still had to get back into condition after his injury though. His shoulder was problematic, it didn't seem to want to heal properly.
Over the following weeks he spent more time with Danielle, in fact, Danielle insisted he spend time with her. In some ways he was in heaven with Danielle, but it was still hell with his shoulder.
Chapter 17 – Prisoner Rescue
Commander Sue-Ellen Cullen decided that her special operatives should set up a training program for their new recruits. She now had twelve servicemen she considered suitable to go on hit-and-run patrols, either by four-wheel drive or to be dropped in by helicopter.
Staff Sergeant Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kennedy and Corporal Gary 'Soldier of Fortune' Fortune, ran the program. She relied on the two of them to collect data, develop plans and tactics, run the training scenarios and to then carry them out. Logistics she left with Danielle and Obi-Wan.
They continued to run with the data Bluey collected from the satellites he controlled. At this stage Sue-Ellen didn't contest Bluey's dominion over the communications satellites, to do so would put her plans for Major Will Binks in jeopardy.
Bluey was well aware of the enormous power he wielded by having sole control of the satellites and therefore control of the flow of information. Sue-Ellen had to trust him. Fortunately she'd known him for many years and although he was temperamental, some would say 'crazy', he was fundamentally a trustworthy and honourable man. His occasional episode of moodiness was expected and Sue-Ellen managed him through each one - as much as he allowed her.
Obi-Wan's first operation was the prisoner rescue at the prison farm where Skip was killed. It wasn't just revenge it was also a matter of humanity.
Sue-Ellen and Major Binks acknowledged that the rescue would be a good training operation for their new special ops team. He didn't know it but every message Binks now sent was funnelled by Bluey through Sue-Ellen and Obi-Wan's desk. Together they 'managed' his communications with Major Daniels of the Revelationist Church, Alpha army, in Adelaide.
The rescue plan was for the stealth Black Hawk to drop the teams off at midnight. They would walk in hitting the warehouse and farm dormitories right on dawn. Fortune would lead a team to reconnoitre earlier and guide the rest into their positions.
Bluey provided extensive data, photographs and video footage of the farm and the warlord's movements. Commander Cullen made sure that only the team leaders knew of the satellite data. Major Binks, the Revelationist spy in their midst, was kept completely out of the loop. As much as she wanted Sue-Ellen wasn't quite ready to move in on him just yet.
Bluey was keen to use the ultra-secret space laser. It required six satellites to synchronise, building enough power to create and fire an extremely high-intensity laser beam with a destructive radius of ten metres. A circle of intense heat that would turn a house into an inferno; incinerate a squad of terrorists and anything else it touched. Sue-Ellen ruled it out. Using the laser would signal to the terrorists that she had control of the satellites. People talk, even the special ops might let something this spectacular slip. It was certainly that any survivors would talk. It wasn't worth the risk.
Jake, the prison-farm escapee, spent time briefing the teams on enemy personnel, their habits, where they slept and the guard rosters. He readily agreed to be their guide and was given a run through in basic training, but he wasn't much for warfare. Instead he agreed to carry a handgun and would assist in identifying prisoners and in recognising the scum who kept them there.
“I want revenge. They killed the folk I was responsible for. I saw them kill all the old people - those who couldn't work, they're cruel, evil,” he told Fortune when he was interviewed for the role. “They've been selling their drugs and weapons to the biker gangs and church members for years. It was apparently a big business. They intend to continue supplying the church and gangs with drugs. Khan once said that they plan to relocate to the capital cities over the next twelve months.”
Danielle was kept busy organising the team's weapons, ammunition, webbing and a variety of equpiment needed for an operation of this nature. Her skill was communications and managing people. It was her ability to smooth and calm the waters when members were c
onfused, angry or upset. She made it easier for Obi-Wan to get on with it - especially as his own moods swung according to how much pain his cracked ribs caused him.
Over the next few weeks Sue-Ellen and Obi-Wan set about managing Major Will Binks. In short, they slowly strangled him with an overwhelming workload.
“I just can't get on top of this, Sue-Ellen,” he complained to his commander at one of their evening debriefs over drinks in her office. “I've got over a thousand security clearance files to examine and you want a report on each one? I've got staff who can do that.”
“Will, I know, but I don't trust anyone but you these days. I'm terrified of giving this information to the wrong person. Just imagine handing these files to the spy? That information would give them the leverage to manipulate and blackmail everyone on this base. No, I need your eyes on it, and only your eyes.” Where once she thought Will was a friend she could trust Sue-Ellen now felt nothing but loathing.
Every time Will sat at his computer Obi-Wan, Bluey and Sue-Ellen knew about it. They also redirected, rewrote and manipulated every piece of data he sent. It was Bluey who discovered his call sign 'beeprep'. He knew it was the Boy Scout motto but he wanted Sue-Ellen to work it out for herself. It was she who found his Boy Scout membership data in his secret personnel files.
Major Binks' contact was with Major Daniels in the Revelationist Church Alpha Army, Adelaide. His messages now centred on getting a delivery of porn from Daniels. He had little interest in anything else, although he did complain that his workload was too heavy and that he was resentful of Sue-Ellen for making him work at something a minion should be doing. He had no suspicions that he was found out.
Sue-Ellen and her team slowly choked him, focusing his energies on his greatest desire - access to a type of porn that Daniels specialised in. As the three read every communique between the two they discovered other valuable information about Daniels - and about his spy network around Australia and the outside world.
Obi-Wan was finally able to convince Bluey that they could work together. As rude and ill-mannered as Bluey was he enjoyed sharing his time with someone who really appreciated his skills. What they eventually uncovered about Major Binks was mind-blowing. What was disturbing was that he had managed to go undetected for so long. His own secret communication went through the base satellite system which he personally managed. Without their satellite connection, thanks to Bluey, they would never have caught him.
“Sue-Ellen, Bluey and I need to show you some things that we've found,” said Obi-Wan as he dropped into Sue-Ellen's office one day. “Bluey has managed to download the past six months of communication between Daniels and Binks. A lot of it has disappeared with the apocalypse knocking out older computer networks but what we have is enough to hang him.”
Bluey had isolated Sue-Ellen's computer from the rest of the base computers. She was able to disconnect from the base network and reconnect to Bluey's seamlessly. Even Major Binks and his team didn't notice her absences. She sat down and began to examine the material her two specialists had uncovered but she soon stopped and put her face in her hands.
“That stinking, slimy filth!” she said under her breath. “If I had known of this going on under my nose I'd have…” she stopped and looked at her friend. “Ben, this is proof that Binks and Daniels have been running a paedophile ring for years. It shows that they've had help to stay under cover: ministers of religion, and not just the Revelationist church. There's police, politicians… as well as Australian I can see American, European, Asian… this is awful.”
The commander was tough, the eldest child of a mid-western farming family. When she was 14 years old her father died. She'd gone out and found a job to provide for her mother and siblings. One could never say that Sue-Ellen had it easy. She had seen some horrific things in her intelligence role but what she saw in those files would break any mother's heart.
“I'm sorry, Sue-Ellen, I had to show you the evidence. There's more, a lot more. He even has a video diary but I won't let you see that, this is enough. We've swamped Will with tasks impossible to complete, he's exhausted and feeling low and unloved. His porn hasn't made it through from Daniels since we began intercepting it. He's now making mistakes and accessing his old files, that's how Bluey could trace these. Will is desperate, he's now demanding an immediate delivery of pornographic photographs and DVDs. Daniels has promised to leave it at a drop-off point on the Northern Territory border. I say we take him there and arrest him. We don't need him anymore, we've got Daniels.”
Sue-Ellen's hand was shaking as she pulled a cigarette out of its packet, she lit it and stood up.
“Ben, do it, and do it soon.” She walked to the door to her office. As she let her friend out she said, “and Ben… I don't want him back, you know what I mean.”
Two days later Major Binks received a message from his contact in the Adelaide Revelationist Church, a Major Daniels. Neither knew that their communication was managed by the Pine Gap commander and her chief crypto-analyst.
Major Binks hurriedly requisitioned one of the facility's off-road vehicles and drove south to the Northern Territory / South Australian border. As he retrieved his parcel from beside a large and conspicuous tree near the border sign two AFP officers rose from behind a screen of bushes. One held a shovel the other held a pistol, it was aimed at the major's chest.
The Pine Gap police officers stood quietly, like two demon sentinels waiting to assist in their victim's departure. The only words they spoke was to instruct the major to 'start digging'. The Eagle Scout sweated profusely as he dug all the while trying to convince his captors that they really didn't want to execute him. He offered them every conceivable reward his warped mind could think of but he was quite unsuccessful.
“Major, give it a rest, we have our orders and you have the evidence,” said Constable Neil Conner when he had decided the hole was deep enough he said, “now say your prayers.”
The single shot that rang out disturbed a flock of grey and red gallahs. They were the only creatures upset by the major's departure.
One hot, mid-summer evening a stealth Black Hawk took off from Pine Gap loaded with the special operatives and their guide, Jake, the bus driver. Some, like Hooky, Obi-Wan, Murphy, Pipeline and Fortune, were looking forward to avenging the loss of their friend, Skip.
Danielle was sitting beside Sue-Ellen in the main room with the big board displaying live-streaming video and other data. They were in communication with Bluey as well as the special ops teams and the stealth helicopter crew.
This evening the two girls plus one, Emily, were keeping vigil on the release of the prisoners at the warlord's prison farm. All night authorised staff dropped in to view the action on the big board. The military satellites streamed video footage onto the enormous screen the size of a house, keeping the base up to date on the operation.
Maverick had just dropped the boys off, they were now walking into the zone ready for their assault. Charles, the big board operator, zoomed in and picked them out with his infra-red filter. Their glowing shapes made them appear ghoulish as they slowly made their way towards the farm.
Soldier of Fortune, the only Delta specialist on the base, had gone in with Murphy and Pipeline earlier to reconnoitre. They were now waiting for the teams to arrive to guide them to their positions. There was time for the girls to grab a cup of coffee before they would need to be at their desks.
With Major Binks eliminated, Bluey had begun to relinquish access of the military satellites to Sue-Ellen. He set up networks for Tanner and his team in Darwin and invited Obi-Wan to contact Joey in Meekatharra and Dr Tantoni in the International Space Station.
There were still many things that needed to be done on the space unmanned-shuttle to make it safe for human occupation before they tried to return to earth. That would take months of work. Obi-Wan was now part of the team to help make that possible.
All through their long vigil the girls and the big board team chatted with Bluey who was i
n touch with an old friend of the CB community, Sydney Charlie. Charlie was currently hiding in a sky-scraper somewhere in Sydney's North Shore district. The Sydney Revelationists proved to be worse than any others they had heard about. These terrorists practised zero tolerance and executed all non-church members. Sydney was going through a very difficult time, a population of five million decimated by disease and murder, it was genocide at it's worst.
Sydney was beginning to break into minor regions controlled by a mixture of drug warlords and Revelationist church battalions. They existed side-by-side frequently bursting into violence. Reports from around the world showed a similar pattern in most major cities.
One such outbreak of violence between factions that Sue-Ellen heard about occurred in Adelaide recently. Two Revelationist battalions had a violent confrontation at a crossroads in the city. It was a bloodbath which required the execution of the culprits to settle things between the two army battalions.
Obi-Wan and Neil formed Charlie team to take out Spiro; Murphy led Delta team to take out the main dormitory; Pipeline led Bravo team responsible for the secondary dormitory; Fortune led Alpha team, with Hooky, to take on the warehouse where the prisoners were kept.
“Shhh, it's started, team Alpha is in position at the warehouse. They've got a tough job, they're responsible for the safety of the prisoners,” announced Danielle, closely monitoring the operations audio communications. Emily was with the video monitor, they were waiting for the individual helmet cam live-streaming video to come up on the big board.
They heard noises and commands. It sounded eerie, the voices and noises coming through the speakers didn't sound real.
“Alpha in position, ten combatants inside, four are awake, playing cards… flash-bangs at the ready. Non-combatants are not in the line of fire - this is a go,” came the whispered voice of Fortune.
