by Finian Blake
“So you have made more trips,” Layla laughed.
“Somehow I can follow the impulse from computer to computer and I can see the passwords.” Zenoviya shrugged.
“What else have you done out of body,” Edward asked.
“Not much, I have been afraid to reveal myself.”
“A good decision,” Edward said to no one in particular. “May I call you Zen?”
“Yes, but I prefer Zenovia.”
“Zenovia would you care for an exchange of knowledge,” Edward offered. “We could show you what we have learned and you could show us your discoveries.” Zenovia closed her eyes trying to recall her sense of Edward and Layla.
“They tried to kill you,” Zenovia said being somewhat shocked. “Your people are as bad as the Russians.”
“Yes, their paranoid ways made them think the worst and they sent several people to kill us, so we must hide too. Nadia is my sister. She protects us with the others.”
“I can see that Nadia did the right thing having us meet out of body,” Zenovia said reflectively. “Yes, I believe that I will trust you.”
“We have learned a lot. There is only a short amount of time, so I will just show you what you need to know.” Layla pulled Zenoviya into the bedroom easing her on to the bed. “Just relax and let it come. Things go much faster when we are out of body.” Layla showed her how to direct her travel giving a quick lesson on how to control the environment. When they awoke, only ten minutes had elapsed even though it seemed like several hours.
“What would you like me to do,” Zenovia asked Layla.
“I will work the front gate and you can work with Edward. We will all work from the control center.”
“But that is so far from the top gate,” Zenovia protested.
“You could work it from Moscow in real time if you wanted to,” Layla insisted.
“I have rarely used my skills,” Zenovia said meekly.
“We need to have our bodies somewhere safe when we travel that’s why we will use the control center.” Layla added.
“I never had any idea of what would happen to my body whenever I left,” Zen said uncomfortably.
“That is probably why you have not developed your gifts,” Layla said in a reassuring voice. “Here, only the people traveling stay in the room and we have a guard just outside the door. Come Nadia is holding her briefing in the control center.”
“You two are late,” Nadia said coldly as Layla and Zenoviya walked in the control room. “Edward has the assignments and the three of you will be working together.”
“You know Nadia well enough to know that she is not mad.” Edward said as he walked through the door into a room with several comfortable beds in it. There was also an extremely large refrigerator in the room. Zen looked wonderingly at Edward.
“That seems like an unusual piece of equipment for out of body work.” Zenoviya said opening the door to find that it was fully stocked. “Are you planning a party?”
“No, this is just for us. We find that out of body work requires huge amounts of energy and we need to recharge. You will not find diet anything in there.”
“I switched departments, so they would not find out about me. I was never exposed to the requirements,” Zenoviya said remembering that she was always hungry when she was out of body. “Layla gave me some of the rules but not all of them.”
“If you work with us we will teach you about the possibilities. It seems that you have much to teach us.” Edward said thinking of Zen’s ability to directly link with computers. “We never even considered trying the things that you have done.
“Oh, the computer thing,” she said modestly. “That was the next logical step for me. I had no one to work with. They kill a lot of the out of body people. That’s why I jumped at Nikki’s offer.”
“I know what you mean,” Layla said in a barely audible voice. “They lost twenty-five agents trying to kill Edward and me plus five of our good friends.”
“They lost twenty-five professional killers,” Zenovia exclaimed. “He must be some kind of a real bad ass.”
“It wasn’t Edward,” Layla protested. “It was his father and mother plus fifteen of them were killed by their own people.”
“We need to get down to business,” Edward said wanting desperately to change the subject.
8.
REVENGE
Crasher was in the first pickup truck studying the upper gate through a pair of low light binoculars. The gate and the card reader were about thirty yards off of the road just past two large boulders. A fifteen foot six by six, pole supporting a triple spotlight illuminated at both the card reader and gate. The gate was a simple wooden arm that rose and fell with the card readers command.
“You needed thirty men to knock this place over,” the driver said in disgust. “My thirteen-year-old nephew could do the job on his own.”
“Sixteen good men have disappeared here without a trace, and four of them were mine,” Crasher said harshly. “You have been paid handsomely. We are going to go in hard and kill everyone that we see. As soon as we hear that the helicopter is in sight of the landing pad we crash the gate and the party begins. Easy or difficult the money is still the same. Shut up and follow the instructions.”
“You got it,” the driver sulked. Crasher wanted to send in a recon team but did not want to bring personnel to the gate. He reviewed his notes reminding himself that it would be another ten minutes before the chopper was due to call in.
Edward awoke with a shudder he left Layla and Zen to continue the watch. He picked up the closed line to the control center which was just down the hall.
“Rene the helicopter is ten minutes out and when they get within range there will be three pickups crashing the upper gate. Keep the ‘asparagus’ down until they have a visual and then follow the plan. I am going to help Mary Lee at the pad, Layla and Zen will follow up with the updates as things progress.” Edward ran through the underground passage to the hanger joining Mary Lee. She handed him a brief case containing a VSS Russian sniper rifle which he assembled immediately. The VSS is a silenced nine millimeter subsonic which is deadly accurate within 400 meters and can penetrate most body armor. Mary Lee was equipped with a twelve millimeter silenced VSK sniper rifle which was capable of piercing light armor plate. She had never worked with Edward before but they had both been trained by Ted and Nadia. Two against six seemed like a stretch but they were depending on the ‘Asparagus’ defense system.
“Why are we using all the Russian gear,” Edward said almost sure of her answer.
“Nadia suggested it. Crasher is picking up heavy side money from the Russians. They want to kill Boris and Nikki. She wants to drop it back on their doorstep.”
“I can hear a chopper coming in. We had better get ready.” Edward slipped a ten shot clip in the receiver as he switched on his tactical radio. “Eden I am wired.”
“Layla and Zenoviya said that there was another pickup truck just down the road from the lower gate, so they are moving to assist Tom and Tamar,” Eden sounded nervous since this was her first heavy action since she hired on with Four Diamonds.
Crasher slipped the night vision glasses into position as did his driver. The driver fired up the engine not bothering to turn on the head lamps electing to depend on the low light technology. Crasher made a call on the TAC radio to begin the attack.
“All units put your night vision on and hang on,” Crasher called out over the radio. “We are going to break through the gate at full speed and head down the road to the left straight to the loading dock.” The driver slipped the clutch out gently, flooring the engine. They started to move achieving sixty miles an hour before he hit the gate. The other two trucks were just a few seconds behind them. As the second pickup reached the gate Eden pushed a button to activate the dragon teeth and the gates defenses. A bright light flared with the intensity of the sun accompanied by an ear splitting siren blaring at 150 decibels. Blinded the driver of the second truck slamme
d on his brakes while the driver of the third truck not being able to see accelerated ramming the back of the second truck. The force of the collision ejected the occupants from both trucks as Cherry and Rhonda opened fire from the left side of the second truck while Adam and Colleen took out the occupants of the third truck from the right side. The heavy slugs from their nine millimeter VKS sniper rifles ripped through the occupant’s body armor at a range of 50 feet as if it were just cloth killing the eighteen assailants before they could figure out where to shoot. Nadia worked from an elevated position on one of the boulders from the rear. In less than two minutes all 18 occupants were dead. Without an unsilenced shot being fired.
“Ted, I have eighteen targets and two trucks down, and one truck with eight occupants moving on the dock.” Cherry spoke quietly into her mic as she grabbed Rhonda’s arm. “Nadia, let Rhonda, Adam and Colleen finish up here. We need to hold the elevator in case Crasher gets through.”
The driver of the first truck started to brake when the lights flared behind him, but Crasher slammed his hand into the dash.
“Keep going damn it if there were a real problem we would have heard gun fire. We need to secure the dock. The chopper is coming in now.”
Just as the truck started to round the corner the engine made a loud cough and seized. A light as bright as the sun flared, and the loudest noise that Crasher ever heard blared. The distraction was so great that he did not see his drivers head explode. Crasher tore off the night vision ducking his head as he did so causing the bullet meant for him to tear through the back window hitting the man sitting in the pickup’s bed in the hip. Three of the occupants in the bed of the pickup were dead from Ted, Colleen, Noah’s efficient fire before they could tear off their night vision. The truck began a side slide flipping the occupants in the air Noah and Ted managed to shoot one more apiece before they hit the ground and Colleen bagged one with her twelve millimeter VKS before he stopped rolling leaving Crasher and another man hiding behind the wreckage of the pickup. Noah took careful aim at the door that one man was hiding behind and fired. The bullet tore through the door, the chest plate of the body armor, and exiting through the back plate of his bullet proof vest. Crasher realizing that nothing would stop this kind of fire power surrendered by throwing his weapons over the truck and extending his hands in the air.
“Don’t shoot,” Crasher covered in blood stood slowly. Ted noticed that he was holding something in his right hand and fired a round hitting Crasher in the wrist severing his hand from his arm with a heavy round. Ted fired a second round into his chest.
“Just as I thought,” Ted smiled speaking softly. “He had a detonator in his hand.”
“We have eight targets and one truck down,” Ted spoke softly.
“Confirm that you have a total of twenty-four targets and three trucks down,” Rene said quietly.
“Count confirmed,” Ted affirmed. “The explosives are under our control and we are awaiting your report.”
“Standby,” Eden said softly as she sent the command for the asparagus to rise. Eden watched the chopper move over the rise just as the defensive lights flared on the loading dock.
The pilot watched what seemed to be trees rise out of the helicopter pad blocking any normal landing.
“No problem,” the pilot said to his co-pilot. “Take off your night vision just in case they try to blind us. You boys in back will need to repel down.” They had included rapid decent lines in case there was a problem. The six men threw the heavy lines out of the helicopter and stood on the landing rails ready for action. The pilot moved the bird into a hovering position over the unexpected obstruction.
Eden sent a command that fired a hundred metal barbs connected to thin copper wires attached to them, as the barbs struck the helicopter along with the attackers preparing to descend Eden discharged four capacitors which stored a few million volts each. The charge coupled with the static from the rotors generated an artificial lightning bolt stunning the six attackers causing them to fall in an uncontrolled decent also shorting out the helicopter’s electrical system. The men fell off of the skids as the helicopter lost power causing it to pitch suddenly. Eden hit the emergency retract button causing the asparagus to drop suddenly allowing the helicopter to crash land with minimal damage. The helicopter landed hard crushing two of the fallen attackers under its skids. One attacker had suffered a heart attack from the shock of three barbs that allowed a million volts to course through his body and the other three lay on the ground having made a one-point landing on their backs. Both pilots were stunned by the force of the landing, but were otherwise unharmed. The pilot climbed out of the chopper smiling at his co-pilot.
“Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing,” his look turned to one of stupefied horror as his co-pilots head seemed to explode inside of his flight helmet with a red mist and before he could scream his head exploded with a cloud of grey matter and blood. Mary Lee strode up to the three fallen attackers delivering a ‘coup de gras’ to each of the fallen attackers in quick succession before Edward could protest her action.
“Why…” Edward mumbled in shock.
“They were not soldiers. They were assassins that came to my home with the purpose of killing me and my friends. There are no freebees,” Mary Lee said without remorse.
“I hate to throw a damper on the party,” Eden’s voice came over the TAC radio. “We have a pickup truck with six men moving on the lower gate at a high rate of speed.” She activated the defense system for the lower gate.
Perry stood on the gas pedal of the F-100 pickup truck watching the speedometer pass sixty miles an hour as it approached the gate. The head lights were out since he was depending on his lowlight equipment. The other men were wearing their night vision goggles trying to sight in any defenders. When the truck was only twenty feet from the gate a light with the intensity of the sun flooded his vision along with the loudest sound that he had ever heard. Eighteen inch in diameter hydraulically driven posts erupted from the ground in a fraction of a second catching the rear axle hitting them while he was still accelerating. The truck went from 67 miles per hour to zero instantly, causing the four men in the back of the truck to be ejected over the cab forward of the truck and his passenger not wearing a seat belt was ejected through the wind shield. Tom and Tamar shot one man each while they were still airborne and another man each before they had stopped rolling. Tamar walked forward with her silenced nine millimeter VSS at the ready while Tom moved to the driver’s side of the truck.
“Perry, what in the hell are you doing?” Perry was both shocked and relieved that he was recognized. His relief was misplaced because Tom fired before he could answer. The man that was ejected through the windshield started to groan, but was silenced by Tamar with a single shot to the head as Zenovia and Layla ran up behind her.
“All six targets and one pickup truck down,” Tom spoke calmly into his TAC radio. “Begin the cleanup.” Thirty-eight targets had been eliminated in less than fifteen minutes.
Four men went to the construction site on the new section commandeering two dump tractor trailers and a large six-yard earth mover driving both to the upper gate. The driver pulled the first truck up in the courtyard while the earth mover dropped its bucket near the bodies. Adam and Colleen had been inspecting the bodies to make sure that there were no survivors. When the bucket dropped they started to move the bodies to the bucket. They worked methodically and within twenty minutes all of the bodies were loaded in the bucket. The earth mover lifted the load transferring it to the dump trailer returning to pick up the first pickup truck moving it to the dump trailer repeating the move for the second truck.
The Earth mover moved down to the helicopter pad picking up the bodies returning to the loading dock area to meet the second dump trailer. The bodies were collected and loaded into the bucket for transfer to the truck. The bodies of the eight men were loaded in the bucket and the bucket was emptied into the dump bed. The end loader then picked up
the third pickup truck dropping it on top of the bodies. Nadia signaled the truck to move down to the lower gate along with the end loader. As she was preparing to leave the dock scrub crew arrived from the upper gate.
“Everything is one hundred percent up top. We accounted for every slug, picked up the brass and scrubbed the pavement.”
“Good,” Nadia said quietly. “We kept the carnage to this 300 square foot area. You are on sealed concrete so it shouldn’t take you long. Get the helipad next and the lower gate after that. The helicopter should be ready to fly soon since the electrical damage is mainly breakers, the mechanical damage seems to be the supports on both skids. The bird can make one more landing without repair.”
When the end loader arrived at the lower gate Tom’s crew had just finished loading the bodies back in the pickup truck. The end loader scooped up the truck loading it into the dump bed after which Tom started to hose down the pavement. He watched as Nadia skidded up to him on the cart.
“Forty minutes after action and we are three quarters cleaned up. I want two 55 gallon barrels of Jet A loaded upright without their fill caps in each dump, Edward reports that the helicopter is flyable, so we are ready for phase two. I want four barrels of jet A loaded in the chopper.”
Nadia’s comments carried over the TAC radio to the control center. Winnie placed her hand on Eden’s shoulder.
“Phase Two,” Winnie questioned Eden.
“They have tried on three separate occasions to kill us and missed.” The answer came over Winnie’s shoulder from Mary Lee. “They will keep trying until they succeed. We will take them out tonight. Nadia knows the layout so she and Ted will go to the helipad on the roof working their way down. Cherry, Rhonda, and I will take the two dump trucks delivering the remains of the raid to their loading dock. We are going to return their C-4 plus some of our own.”
“What do you plan on doing,” Winnie asked nervously.
