Having gotten Mancuso to safety, the second back-clad man tore the truck’s door, one handed, from its hinges and hurled forty or more feet with seemingly no effort. He then dragged the driver’s lifeless body for the cab and threw it casually to the tarmac. The two men walked away from the crash and calmly returned to Mancuso’s side.
“Paranormals,” Carter said.
Renner agreed with a nod. “It has to be,” he said. “No normal humans could have done all of that.”
“We’ve know they’ve were going to figure out how to activate the paragene eventually,” Carter said. “This doesn’t change anything. We just have a few more people to kill.”
[][][]
It seemed as though the sun had deliberately delayed its descent in order to frustrate Carter. He waited for night to fall and give him its protection. Other than standing two hour watches in the observation post, and occasionally patrolling the camp’s perimeter, there was little to keep his team busy. It was always better to keep soldiers busy, Carter knew, but too much activity might bring unwanted attention. Idleness was never good for soldiers; it left the mind open to doubt: the soldier’s worst enemy.
Sitting beside him on the garage floor Williams maintained his usual, almost irritating, calmness. He didn’t seem anxious or bored. Carter had never known anyone else that had the same degree of emotional discipline. “It will be dark soon, my friend,” Williams said.
“I hate waiting,” Carter said. “Even after all of these years; waiting is the hardest part of any operation. There’s too much time to think.”
Williams shifted slightly to face Carter more fully. “Too much time to question yourself, you mean,” he said.
“Killing that girl will haunt me for the rest of my life,” Carter replied. “But that wasn’t what I was thinking about.”
“What does have you so deep in thought, then?” Williams asked.
“Something General Hicks and I talked about before we left,” Carter replied. “He reminded me that, unless I manage to get myself killed, I could live to more three-hundred years old. That’s a long time to be a soldier. I’ve never thought about being anything else, though.”
“And now you are thinking about another vocation,” said.
Carter nodded. “I’m tired, brother; tired right down to my soul. What will I be like in a hundred years; in two-hundred?”
“I do not know, precisely,” Williams answered. “But you will be a leader. You cannot be anything else.”
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “After the war maybe Monica and I could go to an exclusion zone and live the good life as security consultants for the ultra-corporations.”
Williams smiled. “No,” Williams retorted. “That is not for you; or for Monica.”
“Why not?” Carter asked.
“Because you are a patriot and a soldier,” Williams answered. “No matter how much time passes you will always be both of those things. You will always find a way to serve your country.”
“I will tell you this, my brother,” Williams said. “Rather you continue in military service or not, you will still be serving your country and its people. And there will be people following you in that service.”
“You sound like the General,” Carter said.
Williams smiled again. “He is a wise man,” he said. “You have an uncommon ability for leadership; an intuitive feel for command.”
“I don’t know about that,” Carter said. “I just do as I’ve been trained to do.”
“That is not true,” Williams countered. “When I have commanded units in the past, people followed me out of necessity, or out of respect for the chain of command. My performance as a leader was adequate but not exceptional. You, however, command loyalty, not simple obedience. People follow you because they wish to. You can accomplish a great deal with such a gift in three hundred years.”
“I think you sell yourself short,” Carter said. “And even if what you said about me is true, what can I do with this knack for leadership? I’m not trained for anything but soldiering.”
“You have said it yourself, many times,” Williams said. “After this war is over the United States will have to be rebuilt. That rebuilding will require leadership of outstanding strength and character.”
“Shit,” Carter said. “It sounds like your turning me into a politician.”
“I believe that you would be more of a statesman,” Williams said. “Should you choose to enter politics, that is.”
“The thought of being either scares the hell out of me,” Carter said, shaking his head.
“What scares you, Boss?” McNamara asked as he sat down in front of his two friends.
“The thought of me becoming a politician” Carter said.
McNamara laughed out loud. “That would be hilarious!” he said. “I can see it now,” he continued; still laughing. “There you are, in congress, debating over rather or not to spend a gazillion dollars to protect the Red Crested What-The-Fuck. You put up with the bullshit for about an hour before one of the bean-counting, backstabbing politicians pisses you off. Then you pull out your gun and blow his head off. After that everyone else will be motivated to vote the way you want them too. They next day, you’re debating another issue, someone pisses you off, and you kill them too. This happens every day until you’re the only one left. Then you’re a dictator and everyone’s happy.”
Carter laughed too. “Grumble, you almost make that sound appealing.”
“Joking aside,” Williams said. “I did not necessarily mean that you should enter the political arena. I simply meant that, with your leadership abilities, and your reputation as a warrior, you will almost certainly influence the course that the United States takes as it recovers from the war. You very nature will compel you to be such an influence.”
“He’s right about that, Boss,” McNamara said. “You have a pesky habit of doing the right thing; even when it annoys the shit out of the brass and bureaucrats. It’s one of things I like most about you. Besides, you will be even more of a conquering war hero after we pull off this mission. They’ll probably parade you through Washington like fucking Caesar Augustus himself.”
Carter looked at the ground. “What I’d like to do is take Monica somewhere way off of the beaten path; the high mountains of Alaska maybe, raise a houseful of kids, and never give another order or harm another human being as long as I live.”
“Sadly, that’s not going to happen,” William’s said. “When duty calls, you will answer it. You are too honorable to do anything else.”
“Everything, even duty, has to end sometime,” Carter replied.
“Not for people like you, my friend,” Williams said; a hint of pity in his voice. “You have been cursed with greatness; even if you do not see it in yourself.”
“He’s right, Boss,” McNamara agreed. “You’re one of the good guys; God help you.”
“What about you two?” Carter asked. “What are you going to do with a three-hundred year life span?”
Williams looked straight ahead as though he could visualize the future. “If fortune favors me, I’ll be at the side of you or someone like yourself; someone worthy of my service.”
“I don’t think that far ahead,” McNamara said. “Ask me again if we’re all still alive tomorrow.”
Chapter 10
Night had finally come; and it was comfortably dark and moonless. Just being able to move toward the mission’s objective had brought the team’s tension level down. In just hours they would finally be ready to assault the
WCA’s Central Command Complex. Finally, they would come to grips with the enemy. With combat now imminent Carter could focus on what would occur in the next few hours. The hundreds of thousands of allied lives that depended on the mission’s success became a less immediate concern. Carter’s world would soon be focus on tactics; on keeping his team alive.
They had just entered what were once the suburbs of Brussels. Abandoned homes lined the streets. Like that of t
he countryside, the population of the suburban parts of the city had been forcibly moved into the city proper. In the ‘equal’ world of the WCA, single family homes had long ago been outlawed in favor of standardized apartments arranged in complexes where everyone was constantly under surveillance. The group had evaded two police patrols, but its progress had not been appreciably slowed.
Moving into city itself, they passed near several enclosed housing compounds that were occupied by minor functionaries of the WCA’s ruling political party. Such officials were allowed more privileges and autonomy than average citizens, but were still constantly watched and locked into their gated communities through the night.
Members of the so-called People’s Guard guarded these communities. The People’s Guard was a domestic police force comprised of violent criminals and disaffected youth who had been released from prison and set loose to legally terrorize and intimidate the public. They were poorly trained and almost totally lacking in discipline. They were a threat only to the helpless. They wore the brown and black uniforms and police badges so they could avoid actual military service and engage in their criminality. In the People’s Guard the WCA had an inexpensive, loyal force of useful idiots that would inflict any amount of violence on their fellow citizens without hesitation. None of them noticed the teams passing, but there would be many more People’s Guard patrols as they proceeded deeper into the city.
They were approaching what had once been Leopold Park. Like nearly everything else that was not directly of use to the WCA, the twenty-five acre park had been allowed to decay. The grass was uncut, hedge rows had grown into nearly impenetrable walls, and weeds were overrunning what had once been well tended flower beds. Wildlife ran freely; their calls coming from all directions.
Renner led them to a collection of ruined buildings that had once belonged to the Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Science. Its once grand nouveau-art architecture had been defaced with graffiti and hammers by rampaging WCA loyalist and simple vandals as Belgium was forced into the Globalist fold. Like the high school they had hidden in previously, it had been looted and ransacked. Wind swept through long–broken windows and vines covered its walls to height of twenty feet or more. Birds of all types nested along its walls and defected in finely crafted stonework. It seemed that nothing of beauty could be tolerated in the Globalist utopia.
“Another destroyed school,” Carter observed peering up at the old, almost ancient structure. “The WCA is consistent, at least,” he said.
“Knowledge is a dangerous thing to tyrants,” Williams observed. “It frees the mind.”
“We’re close to the old European Parliament complex, too,” Renner said. “They demolished it with high explosives. It was one of the last symbols of European democracy. The funny thing was that that’s where they voted to dissolve all the nations of Europe and form the WCA.”
“Democracy cut its own throat,” McNamara said.
“The Solvay Library was in this park as well,” Lisa Mertens said, stepping up beside Carter. “They burned it to the ground and pushed the rubble into Maalbeek Pond. There were thousands of books; some centuries old, destroyed.” She seemed to have forgotten, at least temporarily, her animosity toward Carter. “My father use to take to the park. We would go to the library in the morning select a book, and we would read to each other for the rest of the day,”
“It was the same when they occupied parts of my country,” Carter told her. “They seemed more interested in destroying schools and libraries than they were in attacking military targets.”
“Destroy the culture and you destroy the nation,” Williams said.
“But you drove them from your land,” Mertens said bitterly. “And so will we.”
“Yes, you will,” Carter agreed. “Where’s our guide?”
“She’ll be here,” Renner said. “Remember, we moved the time table up so you would have time to deal with the extra security Mancuso brought with him.”
Carter nodded. “OK, set security and then we can take break, but don’t get too comfortable,” he ordered. “Brains, Gambler find a good OP.” The two operators moved quickly toward into the Science Institute and installed themselves in a small third floor office with window that overlooked the main group as they dispersed in the overgrown courtyard below. Roth found a moisture-warped wooden chair and positioned it at the window. Sains sat on an upended metal trash bin that he had place on the opposite side of the window.
“More waiting,” Sains said. “They should have a class on waiting in Ranger School.”
“You’ve been to sniper school,” Roth said, panning the scope on her SVD sniper’s rifle across the expanse of the weed-ridden park in search of possible threats. “If that didn’t get you used to waiting, nothing will. I would like to be on the move as well. But we would not be able to get through the rest of the city without a guide.”
Sains let out a long breath. “Yeah, I guess there is a shitload of cameras, patrols, and microphones on all of the streets once we cross Waterloo Boulevard and get into the guts of the city. Our guide is supposed to know where all of those surveillance gismos are, and how to get around them.”
“So we wait,” Roth concluded.
Sains brought binoculars to his eyes and peered in the opposite direction of what Roth was surveying. “It’s hard to believe,” he said. “In a couple of hours the liberation of Europe will begin. By the time it’s all over millions of troops will be involved and it all depends on us.”
“Yes,” Roth said stiffly. “It is hard to believe.”
“Is something wrong?” Sains asked. “You sound like I hit a nerve.”
“No,” Roth said. “You talked about the liberation of Europe. And Ms. Mertens talked about driving the WCA out of Belgium. It made me wonder how long it will be before we liberate Israel.”
“It’s hard to say,” Sains said. “They’ll probably be fighting in Europe for at least a year or so. But we’ll have to retake the Middle East and North Africa to secure the shipping lanes through the Med.”
“We?” Roth asked. “The Jews didn’t get a great deal of help when we took back our land in 1948.”
“Maybe not,” Sains retorted. “But the U.S. supported Israel in the United Nations when no one else would. When we go back to the Middle East, it won’t only be to take Israel back. We’ll be there to take back the Muslim countries as well.”
“It will be ironic,” Roth said. “Israelis will probably be fighting alongside Muslim troops who were trained to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth. I’ve became rather friendly with Afzal from Team Charlie. A few years ago we would have killed each other on sight.”
“It’s funny,” Sains observed. “The WCA wreck pretty much the whole world trying to unify it by abolishing nations and, because of that, the FNF is formed. There are troops from countries that had been at each other’s throats for decades fighting beside each other and sharing canteens.”
“Yes,” Roth said. “Afzal is from Afghanistan, and now we have Sahni from Team Bravo: a Hindu from India. The enemy tried to outlaw all religions and, instead, made people of opposing religions come together.”
Sains nodded. “Yeah, it was stupid to fight about which church people went to when you had a bunch of heavily armed assholes telling you that you can’t go to church at all.”
“I wonder, though,” Roth thought out loud. “Once the WCA is defeated and the nations are restored, will we all that bad blood come to a boil again? Will go back to fighting the old feuds?”
“I hope not,” Sains said, looking at Roth briefly. “I hope all the blood that we all spilled together really did make us brothers and sisters in arms.” He took a long breath. “History is against us on that, though.”
“What about the FIRE teams?” Roth asked. “I can’t imagine raising a weapon to anyone on the teams.”
“Then maybe it can start with us,” Sains said. “Maybe we can show people that they don’t have to back to slaughtering each other.”
>
“Do you really believe that?” Roth asked.
”No,” Sains admitted. “But we have to try. The warriors have to be the ones who stop the wars. God knows the politicians and diplomats haven’t been able too.”
“Think about that,” Roth said, turning to face Sains. “What would happen if the soldiers just refused to fight the next war? What would happen if the soldiers refused to obey the politicians; refused to do their killing for them? What would happen?”
Sains smiled at her. “Peace,” he said.
[][][]
Their new guide had arrived at the appointed time. She was young and attractive. Her hair was long, auburn, and seemed well cared for. She wore a well used leather jacket, well fitting jeans, and hiking boots. She greeted Mertens first, then Renner. It was Renner that introduced her to Carter.
“This is Dagmar,” Renner said as Carter approached them. “She’ll be taking you through the city.”
Carter shook the woman’s hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said. Dagmar nodded her recognition.
“My people and I will be leaving to link up with the rest of our blocking force,” Renner said. “But you’re in good hands with Dagmar.”
Carter offered Renner his hand. “Good luck to you and your team, Captain.”
“The same to you and yours,” Renner said. “Give ‘em hell.” Renner, his A-Team, and the resistance fighters then departed in silence.
Dagmar turned toward Carter. “Once we are across Waterloo Boulevard the surveillance and patrols increase greatly,” She said, in German accented French. “There are cameras and microphones on the streets every few hundred meters. Do exactly as I tell you, and do nothing that I do not tell you to do; even speak. The microphones automatically record any conversations. If they detect any voice patterns that are not in their data base it will alert the security office and they will dispatch a patrol.”
The Fate Of Nations: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha: Book One Page 22
