Righteous02 - Mighty and Strong

by Michael Wallace

  Three shapes burst through the doorway on this side of the compound. A flash of light at their back, the bang of a concussion grenade.

  The agent at the front, a young, wiry kid named Garcia barked at the approaching people, “Get down! Now!”

  The three shapes didn’t obey, but ducked from column to column in the arcade, toward the team.

  “Engage?” Garcia asked in a voice that sounded a full beat slower than the events unfolding around them.

  “No,” Krantz said in a sharp voice. “Hold.”

  Chambers’s voice came through, shouting, “Man down. You there? I’ve got a situation. Repeat, man down.”

  A man was screaming from the next courtyard over. “The army!” His voice broke off. “…everyone awake!” Meanwhile, the three figures kept running toward them.

  Krantz had only seconds. Screw this up and someone would die. A woman and her children? Armed cult members? The three closed the gap.

  “Krantz?” Garcia asked. Urgency crept into his voice. “Engage?”

  Chapter Twenty-seven:

  After the man ran through the compound, screaming about invading troops, Jacob, Fernie, Sister Miriam and the kids stayed frozen in place. Their plan was to wait for rescue, but events were unfolding in a different direction.

  Gunshots ahead and behind. Jacob heard shouts, saw shapes moving in the courtyard in front of them. A flash of light from the roof, followed by bursts of return fire from the ground, the louder blast of a shotgun. Church members swarmed behind them, running from room to room. Two men with guns ordered a cluster of women and children to return to their quarters, then scrambled up a stairway that led to the roof.

  “Jacob, get us out of here,” Fernie said. The baby cried in her arms.

  “Back to your rooms,” Sister Miriam said. “We’ll barricade the door.”

  “No,” he said. More gunfire. “Go forward. Listen, there was another team dropped in, remember? The other helicopter. They’ve got to be straight ahead, but they’re not shooting. It will be safer.”

  “Safer, are you crazy?” Miriam said. “We’ll be shot.”

  He made a quick decision. “Wait here. Do not move.”

  Daniel was awake in his arms, and he set the boy down, pushed him toward his mother. And then he entered the wide-open space in front of them. He raced around the edge of the courtyard, ducked behind columns of the arcade.

  A bundle of rags soaked in oil burned in the courtyard. It gave the air an acrid tang. Firelight flashed from the roof. Gunfire returned in a chatter from the courtyard.

  Someone above had thrown the burning rags into the courtyard to light it and take away the advantage of the SWAT team below. Jacob could see the federal agents now. They crouched behind planters or pillars at the arcade edge. Three church members lay on their bellies on the ground, while someone cuffed their hands.

  “10 o’clock!” one of the agents shouted as he came through. Guns swung in his direction.

  “I’m unarmed!”

  “You!” someone snapped. “Hands up!”

  “It’s me, Jacob Christianson.”

  “Now walk forward. Do not lower your arms. We will shoot.”

  He made it most of the way across when a rifle shot cracked off the wall. The agents lifted their weapons and returned fire. Jacob ducked his head and ran. He expected the hot stab of a bullet and was amazed when he reached the members of the SWAT team without getting shot.

  Rough hands grabbed him. “On your belly. Hands behind your head.”

  “Get him back here,” said a low, gravely voice. “No, let him go, he’s good.”

  Jacob regained his hands and knees in the shelter of the corner, behind the planter. Something wet was on his hands and for a moment he thought he’d been shot after all, but it was just tomatoes. Bits of ripe tomato lay pulped around him.

  The man with the low voice was Agent Krantz. “Are you alone?”

  “I left the others back there. Agent Kite, together with my wife and kids. Can you get them out?”

  A curt nod. Krantz gave orders to the others. Three agents moved forward at a crouch, while others sprayed gunfire at the roof. The three soon disappeared beneath the entrance from which Jacob had arrived.

  Krantz turned to Jacob. “What about Fayer? You seen her?”

  “Is she with the other team?”

  “No, they took her hostage.”

  “Hostage?” He blinked in confusion. “What? No, I don’t know anything about that.” Another rifle shot, more distant this time.

  “See anything, anyone moving a prisoner, anything like that?”

  Jacob shook his head. He still wasn’t sure what Krantz was saying. Who had taken Fayer? Had it happened before the SWAT teams arrived, or was that what precipitated the assault?

  “Lot of confusion back there. I don’t know what’s going on. What happened? Who took her?”

  “Never mind, we’ll talk later,” Krantz said. “Here they come.”

  A tight knot of agents came running across the courtyard at a crouch, with weapons at the ready. Pen lights illuminated the group as they reached the back corner. Jacob felt a surge of relief when he saw his children.

  “Fernie?” He couldn’t see his wife or the baby.

  Someone handed him a flashlight and he searched in vain. Sister Miriam gave him a shake of the head as Daniel and Leah grabbed him, sobbing. Krantz moved away, shouting orders and speaking into his headset.

  “Where the hell are my wife and baby?”

  “We got separated,” Miriam said. “Bunch of people tried to force their way through the archway. I sent them back, told them they’d be shot if they came through. When I turned around, your wife and the baby were gone. I think someone grabbed her.”

  Jacob groaned. “I told her to stay put.”

  “It was total chaos.” She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head. “Trust me, I almost got dragged back myself.”

  Krantz finished an urgent-sounding conversation with the other men of the SWAT team and came back in a crouched run. “Agent Kite,” he said in a cold voice.

  “Hello, Krantz. Thanks for coming.”

  “What in god’s name is going on here? What have you been playing at?”

  “You wouldn’t understand if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  Jacob didn’t hear the rest. He took Leah and Daniel to the corner, sat them down.

  Also in the corner was a downed FBI agent. He was groaning, guarded by two men, one of whom said, “Hold on, Garcia. We’ll get you out of here.”

  “Let me up,” the man said.

  Jacob put his hands on the children’s shoulders. Leah was shaking, Daniel clapped his hands over his ears at a fresh burst of gunfire. “You’re okay,” he told them. “You’re both perfectly safe and as long as you stay down, you’ll be okay. Do you understand me?”

  “I want Mommy,” Leah cried.

  “She’s okay. Those people will keep her safe, you can be sure. These are the good guys. You’ve got to be big kids. Do you understand me?”

  “Wh-what should we do?” Daniel asked.

  “You can’t cry, you have to be brave. And keep down, no matter what else. I have to help that hurt man and so you have to be super-duper brave while I’m gone. Can you do that?” They nodded, eyes wide.

  “Move out of the way, I’m a doctor” he told the men kneeling around the downed FBI agent, who groaned and tried to sit. They moved back. “Agent, lie down, don’t get up.” The man they’d called Garcia stopped struggling.

  Jacob unfastened and peeled back the man’s body armor. Someone handed him a larger flashlight. A nasty bruise spread across his chest and as Jacob prodded, he winced and groaned again.

  “Is it bad?” Garcia asked between short breaths. “What do you think?”

  “What do I think? I think you owe a fan letter to the factory worker who made this body armor. Your sternum is either cracked or deeply bruised, maybe some minor damage to the costal car
tilage. But without that armor, you’d be dead.”

  “Then can I get up?”

  “Situation’s covered, bro,” one of the other agents said. “Just stay down.”

  The man nodded. Someone propped a hip pack beneath his neck.

  Jacob checked in on his children, tucked them into the corner with their backs against the wall. “I’m going to be right over there. Stay here and everything will be okay.” To the agents he said, “Do not leave my children alone under any circumstances.”

  “You got it.”

  Jacob found Krantz and Sister Miriam. “It’s all fun and games in these little cults until the world comes to an end,” Krantz said.

  “It’s only coming to an end because you came in with guns blazing.”

  “In the first place,” Krantz said, “We didn’t shoot first. Chambers received fire, then Garcia took a bullet. We then returned fire. Got it?”

  “Garcia’s okay,” Jacob said. “Cracked bone at worst.”

  “You, shut up,” Miriam said. She turned back to Krantz. “And I told you, I didn’t want out. I made it clear I was finished with the FBI.”

  “What do you expect us to believe, that you joined this cult? Wake up, Kite, if you didn’t want us coming after you, you should have found a way to make contact.”

  “I did, I told Jacob and he told you.”

  “This is an argument for later,” Jacob said. “Right now, the only thing I care about is getting my wife and baby back.”

  “What the hell do you think we’re doing here?” Krantz said.

  “Can we deescalate?” Jacob said. “Call a truce?”

  A rifle cracked and a bullet slammed into the wall at their back. Two agents answered with a rattle of submachine gun fire.

  “Here’s an idea,” Miriam said. “Stop shooting. Just stop.”

  Krantz looked ready to explode. “They’re shooting at us, you idiot. We’re only returning fire.”

  “If you’d stayed outside, this never would have happened.”

  “I didn’t come for you. I came for Agent Fayer.”

  “What exactly happened to Fayer?” Jacob said.

  “Kidnapped by your cult. Right outside Temple Square.”

  “What?” Miriam asked. “They wouldn’t kidnap an FBI agent. What possible motive would make them do that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask the prophet. Or should I say, your husband?”

  “He’d never do that.”

  “I don’t have time for this. Stay with Jacob. Don’t get in trouble.” He turned to Jacob. “We’re looking for a man who calls himself ‘Fear-Not.’ Does that mean anything to you?”

  “No, sorry. What does he look like?”

  “Middle-aged. Light brown hair, thinning. About your height.”

  “That describes half the men in the compound.”

  “He’s the one who kidnapped our agent.”

  “I’m sorry, I’ve never heard that name.”

  “Never mind, it was worth a try.” Krantz started to walk away.

  Jacob took his elbow. “Wait. What’s the plan? My wife and baby are in there.”

  “Let me worry about that. Stay here with your kids and you’ll be safe. I’ve got two agents to guard you.” He turned away, spoke into his headset.

  Frustrated, Jacob took Miriam by the shoulder as they returned to the corner of the square. He couldn’t see his children where they squatted behind the planter, but he could hear Leah sobbing.

  “What are they going to do?” he asked.

  “How should I know? They don’t trust me, they’re not going to tell me anything. What are they thinking, that I told them to kidnap Fayer? That I wanted any of this? We just want to be left in peace.”

  “Maybe you do, but the others? You want to be left in peace, you don’t kidnap FBI agents. You don’t murder young girls.”

  “I don’t know who did that, but it’s not Timothy. He’d never—”

  “Do you just want to continue the fight with Agent Krantz?” Jacob interrupted. “Because you can do that later, if you want. Now isn’t the time.” He lowered his voice. “Miriam, I’ve got to find my wife and baby, that’s the only thing that matters.”

  One of the men helped Garcia to his feet and gave him a weapon. They crouched in front of the planters. A third FBI agent led back a woman, a teenage boy, and two girls who looked about eight or ten, with sharp orders to stay in the back. An elderly woman joined them seconds later. She whispered a prayer.

  “Come on, Miriam,” Jacob pressed as soon as the FBI agents moved out of hearing. “What’s Krantz going to do?”

  She chewed her lip. “He’s talking to Chambers. They must have two teams. There was fighting behind us when we were in the archway, people fleeing from that direction.” She looked thoughtful. “I’d say Krantz is going to move east and north, to sweep the apartments near the east well, take up position there. He’ll keep near an exterior wall at all times. If he gets trapped, the guys on the outside can break through the wall and let him out. Problem is, he’s got to secure this area until he feels safe enough to move the civilians. That means he’ll leave someone behind.” She nodded over her shoulder. “Probably Garcia and that other guy.”

  Flashlights blinked back and forth above them, but there was no more firing from the roof, just the gunfight escalating to the west.

  “Look,” she said. “Krantz took the roof. That’s good for the FBI. And there he goes, east, like I said.”

  Just as she’d predicted, only two men stayed behind to guard the civilians, one of them the injured man.

  “So the SWAT team on the west must be holding their own, or they’d be trying to meet up,” Jacob said.

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “And if you were coming out of your room tonight, half asleep and confused, with gunshots, what would you do?”

  “The brethren are going for their weapons. After that, I don’t know. The prophet must have a plan.”

  “Women and children?” he asked. “What do they do? Let’s say some of them get instructions, but the rest are scared and looking for help.”

  “The main courtyard, unless told otherwise. It’s where we meet for everything. You’re half-asleep, scared, that’s where you’d go.”

  Jacob thought about the layout of the compound. “It’s a dangerous position.”

  She nodded. “Sandwiched between here and the second HRT. And probably men from the compound on the roof, taking sniper positions. Or shooting back and forth between the roof and the ground.” She looked troubled. “Someone needs to help those people. What if we—”

  “You don’t think the FBI will secure the main courtyard first?”

  “They might not have the manpower. And they’ll be searching for Fayer,” she added. “If someone’s holding her, it might be in one of the newer areas along the fringes of the compound, or in the living quarters near the west or east sides.”

  “Then I’ve got to find Fernie myself,” Jacob said.

  Together they moved behind the planter and sat down next his children. They clung to him and he whispered soothing words, promised he’d find their mother. Jacob and Miriam continued their conversation in a low voice.

  “We’ll go together,” Miriam said.

  “No, I want you here with my kids.”

  “Jacob—”

  “I need you to do that for me.”

  “You can stay with your own kids, let me go. I know how to negotiate with the FBI and I care more about these people than you do.”

  “Miriam, that’s not fair. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. What those people need is a priesthood leader, and that means a man.”

  It was true and she would know it. Miriam could go and give all the commands she wanted, but unless the prophet was by her side any man, no matter how old or young, or his position within the church, could override her.

  “And I have to find my wife and baby. So please, I need you here with Daniel and Leah.”

  “Fine, but
you can’t go back through that archway. Krantz will have a sniper on the roof. They’ll stop you. And good chance the other side has gunmen, too. Someone might take a shot.”

  “Then what?” Jacob asked. “Is there any way to loop around and avoid the fighting?”

  “Maybe.” She was quiet for a second. More gunfire. “It’s mostly storage. Food, other supplies. No, it’s not safe. I’ve seen boxes of rifle cartridges in one of the supply rooms. Someone might go after the ammo. Wait, I’ve got it. Remember Sister Devorah?”

  “My so-called fiance.”

  “She lives alone with her grandmother. Devorah’s room is on the other side of those planters. There’s a door right up against that far wall. It’s the only housing off these vegetable gardens.”

  “I don’t follow. How is that going to help?”

  “It wasn’t originally an apartment. Most housing is for big families, or small, growing ones with room to expand along the outer walls. Very little for two women living by themselves. That was a storage room. There’s a doorway on this side and another on the opposite wall that opens into the next courtyard. I noticed it when I was doing reconnaissance, before I…you know…”

  “Gained a testimony.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So I go through the room and come out the other side,” Jacob said. “Won’t that put me just beneath the opposite archway? How does that save me anything?” “No, it comes out at an angle. You’ll be underneath the arcade on the north side of the square. Follow it fifteen, twenty feet east and you’ll find another archway that will take you north again. From there, you can cut through and be in the main courtyard.” Miriam gave a cautious look to either side, then reached into her dress and pulled out a gun.

  “Where did you get that?”

  “I swiped it from my husband’s stash.” She gave a wry smile. “Guess I’ve still got a bit of FBI agent in me. You know how to fire a gun?”

  He took it. The gun was warm from her body heat. “I grew up on farm. Hunting and target shooting since I was a kid. Yeah, I can handle it.”