Trojan Horse

by George West

  “We need to secure this area. That means destroy all the computers and hard drives," announced Katherine.

  “My pleasure." Ramos picked up a computer screen and threw it against the ground.

  “Great start, but computer screens don’t hold any information. Smash the hard drives.”

  “Oh yeah, right…”

  The shooter made his way up to the second floor of the bunker just below street level. He spotted the doors to the heart of the outpost. He smiled and checked his magazine to make sure he had enough bullets to finish his mission.

  The shooter made his way into the Ops Center. It was dark except for the emergency lights that had kicked on. He scanned the room for any remaining guards. Then he spotted someone bent over a hard drive attempting to destroy it. He raised his pistol toward Katherine’s chest and fired. Katherine fell to the ground as the bullet pierced the hard drive.

  Ramos glanced at Katherine and didn't see her moving. He immediately raised his pistol; fired several shots toward the unknown shooter, and then took cover. Ramos hid behind shelves of hard drives, still attempting to destroy as much intel as possible, praying that bullets wouldn’t hit him.

  The room was filled with gunfire. Both sides continued to fire back at each other, but then the shooter took something out of his pocket. He pulled the pin from the frag and waited for Ramos to reload. He finally lobbed the grenade towards his enemies. The grenade landed between Kat's lifeless body and Ramos. The grenade rolled along the floor before stopping next to Katherine's body. Ramos then witnessed Katherine's eyes open, struggling to get up. He locked eyes with Katherine, who was still on the floor. He nodded at her and she immediately realized what was about to happen.

  “Don’t!” screamed Katherine but no words could stop him.

  Ramos instinctively dove on top of the explosive.

  After thirty seconds of silence, the shooter decided to advance on his adversaries. The entire room looked like ground zero. All the computers were destroyed and with it, the intel. The shooter walked over a lifeless body that was faced down. He couldn’t take any chances, so he raised his weapon. Suddenly, two shots rang throughout the room:

  Bang, Bang.

  The shooter lay bleeding on the bottom of the pool floor. Katherine struggled to push the impostor's body off of her. The man tried to shake his head as Katherine aimed the pistol at him. She looked in the eyes of the dying man and then pulled the trigger. She continued to fire her pistol until it was empty. She kept firing her weapon. The sound of clicking followed as she pulled the trigger. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Then, she felt a hand on her shoulder and swung the weapon around, ready to fire.

  “Whoa, whoa, Kat. It’s me, Carly. He’s dead. He’s dead.”

  Chapter 16

  “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound... that saved a wretch... like me! I once was lost, but…”

  Several members of Reaper team lowered the coffin into the ground. The funeral overlooked the city from the hills of Arlington National Cemetery. The sacred burial ground had been pummeled from enemy mortar fire during the initial invasion. Craters covered the once-beautiful rolling hills where heroes laid in their final resting place. Crumbles of marble from demolished tombstones covered the frozen ground. The sun was setting, and everything stood still around them.

  “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun…”

  Adam Dawkins wore a black suit and thick dark shades to cover the tears. Every man and woman on the base had made the long journey out to this hallowed ground for a final good-bye. Ten graves had been dug and ten caskets had been built. Adam stood in front of the rest of his fellow soldiers with a front row view of all the men and women who lay before him. Everyone surrounding him considered them their leader, but he felt far from that. He blamed himself for Ramos’s death and felt responsible for every other soldier on that base who had lost their lives. He looked at all the faces to his left and right. Men and women wept while others held their friends up from collapsing in grief. He didn’t have that luxury; he had to remain strong. That was his cross to bear.

  John and Hunter stood behind him with Katherine next to his side. She wore a black dress along with a sling around her arm and cuts on her face. Her face showed guilt and sadness, and she couldn’t stop staring at Ramos’s casket. Each coffin had an American flag draped over the top. Adam looked out into the distance at the rest of the graves that filled the cemetery grounds. Soldiers from the Civil War all the way up to the wars in the Middle East filled the frozen ground.

  After the burial, everyone headed back to the base. People started to open bottles of bourbon. Somehow, one of the guys had found a bar that was still intact after the bombings and brought back all the booze he could find. People were already drunk and singing old war songs and telling stories about their fallen comrades.

  Adam was absent from the celebrations. He was on the rooftop of the demolished building in which the compound sat. He held a bottle of 15-year-old bourbon and a pack of cigarettes. He intended to drink until he could feel no more. He looked out toward the old capitol, which used to symbolize the strongest nation in the world, and he wondered what it was all for. He just buried ten men under his watch, and all he could think about was putting a bullet in the man responsible.

  Katherine walked out onto the rooftop. “Hey, chief, it looks like you could use another drink.”

  Adam continued to gaze in silence at the demolished city that was veiled in darkness.

  “Adam, please come back inside. Everyone is looking for you.”

  “You remember that girl?” said Adam, still gazing into the distance.

  “What? The one that the G.A. killed?”

  “Her name was Sarah. Ramos urged us to scrap the mission and take her to safety, but I ordered him to keep moving because we had to stay on mission. In that moment, I could have taken the girl and ordered everyone back to the compound. We would have never allowed that impostor to breach this place.”

  “Adam, it’s not your fault he’s dead,” comforted Katherine.

  “You know that’s bullshit! I killed him and every other soldier on that base!”

  “You’re selfish. You think the whole world is on your shoulders. I killed a man today. And I can barely keep it together!” said Katherine.

  Tears started to flow down her cheeks. Adam saw the tears and grabbed her and held her tight.

  “You did what you had to do. He was going to kill you," assured Dawkins.

  Adam and Katherine's heads turned around as John threw open the door to the rooftop. “Brother, the guys are ready.”

  “What’s going on?” asked Katherine.

  The members of Reaper team were preparing for their next op. Every team member was silent this time while prepping their gear. No one felt like cracking a joke or a smile; they wanted blood. Adam went through his normal routine, checking his gear and loading his M4. He looked over at the empty locker next to him. Ramos’s gear sat still, but memories of his best friend flooded Adam’s mind. He could hear the ridiculous things Ramos would say as they prepared for a mission and he was sure he could smell the excessive amount of baby powder Ramos always used. Adam’s mind snapped back into focus as Katherine marched into the room.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

  Adam continued to push rounds into his ammo magazines. “Payback.”

  “No, this is suicide. You are going to get your whole team killed.”

  Adam suddenly flipped over a table. Ammo and weapons hit the ground and every guy in the room stopped what they were doing.

  Adam then looked up at Katherine. “Every guy in this room knows what he is getting himself into. We are going to finish this, tonight!”

  “You think more bloodshed is going to bring him back? It’s not! Ramos wouldn’t want this.”

  Adam threw on his body armor and grabbed his rifle.

  “Adam, I know you. You’re a good man. You fight to save lives,” pleaded
Katherine.

  “I’m not the man you think I am. I am a Reaper, and this is what I do!” he said as he headed towards the door with the rest of his team.

  “Please, don’t do this,” Katherine said, stepping in front of him.

  Adam stared into Katherine's eyes. He stood in silence with a cold stare until she gave up and moved out of his way.

  Chapter 17

  “Cheers to our victory and to the soldiers who lay in the ground for our cause. To the Global Alliance,” said Admiral al Jabbar. All the soldiers and sailors raised their glasses and cheered for their latest victory against the worn-down Americans. They had tricked the U.S. military and struck a blow to their weapons program. Their undercover operative had neutralized Dr. Oppenheim, the only person able to access Icarus. Now, the Americans were no closer to capturing Icarus than they were.

  All the drunken soldiers and sailors responded with a cheer. “To the Global Alliance, to the Global Alliance!”

  Captain Resnik stood in the background of the cheering crowd. His back leaned against the ship’s hull, smoking a new cigar from his collection. He looked at his men. He gazed at the young soldiers and their faces. The excitment he witnessed didn’t satisfy him. All he saw was the blind minds of young men who hadn’t seen what war really was. Most of the soldiers and sailors hadn’t even set foot off the ship yet. They hadn’t seen the death and chaos that he had experienced; they were merely pawns for this new regime.

  Soldiers continued to holler and chant about their allegiance to the Global Alliance. Men started to take their shirts off and wrestle like children. The young sailors were talking about the future battles they would win against the Americans and the young American women who would be waiting for them when they would be liberated from the oppressive U.S. government.

  The captain had enough of watching his men cheer over nothing. He walked backed to his cabin. Resnik sat down at his desk and picked up a thick book. The cover was worn, the words faded. As he opened it, pictures fell out onto the floor. The captain picked up the pictures and began to gaze at the images: two little girls and an older woman were in the center of the picture. The girls in the picture wore white dresses and smiles on their faces. In the background was a tiny cabin with trees. The captain put the pictures back into the page where he found them and then turned it. He started to read the first chapter of the book: Genesis 12:1, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

  The captain continued to read his book until the walls of his room shook uncontrollably. Resnik fell over in his chair and hit the ground as the photos of his family slid across the floor.

  Chapter 18

  “Reaper 4, start the fireworks.”

  Hunter rode along the hilltop a quarter-mile from the destroyer. He searched for the perfect spot and slammed on the brakes. From a distance, he could spot the ship idling along the Potomac. He jumped out of the truck and prepared the fireworks. He grabbed a hatchet and swung the sharp object at the piece of metal. After several minutes of hacking, gasoline began to spill from the gaping hole he had just made. Hunter then climbed into the bed of the truck where his dirt bike was fastened down. He grabbed his M240 belt-fed machine gun and hopped on his bike. Seconds later, he rode off the back of the truck with his weapon. Once he was a hundred yards away from the pickup, he fired several bursts at the vehicle's leaking gas tank. The sparks from the bullets ignited the tank and an eruption of fire lit the night sky above the hillside. Hunter sped off on his dirt bike as far away from the area because he knew what was coming.

  Almost sixty second later, ordinance from the 130mm cannon on the destroyer bombarded the hillside near the truck explosion. As the shelling continued, Adam and the rest of Reaper team approached the bow of the destroyer on a Zodiac. Once the team pulled up to the starboard bow of the ship, they raised two ladders. The boarding ladders had hooks at the end that the team wrapped on top of the ship's rails. Adam and John Dawkins began to climb the ladders. Adam ascended until he reached the rails of the ship and then pulled out a pistol attached with a suppressor. Adam silently watched a young soldier smoke a cigarette while jamming out to music through his headphones. He then fired two rounds at the soldier's chest. Adam and John moved towards the stern with their M4s raised. They took out several other guards patrolling the deck. They soon found a hatch that lead below deck while the rest of Reaper team began sticking plastic explosives around the hull of the vessel.

  Adam and John were below deck now. The team leader felt his body tense up as he moved further into the lion’s den. He was now among hundreds of enemy sailors and soldiers. He knew that the only way to accomplish the mission was to blend in. Adam and John spotted three drunken sailors from the celebrations returning to their sleeping quarters.

  “I’ll take the one on the right,” whispered Adam. They hid behind a threshold and waited for the sailors to pass by. Adam’s heart continued to beat faster as the enemy approached his position. Adam and John slowly pulled out their knives. Adam inhaled and exhaled with deep breaths. The drunken sailors were laughing and falling over each other as they strolled down the corridor. Adam and John looked at each other and nodded several times to countdown. Then, the brothers simultaneously jumped out from behind the threshold and stabbed two of the guards. Adam grabbed the back of a sailor’s head and pulled it towards his blade, penetrating his throat. Before the third sailor could shout, Adam threw the guard against a wall and covered his mouth while John stabbed him in the stomach several times.

  The brothers quickly dragged the bodies into an empty bunk room. They began to strip down two of the bodies and dressed themselves in the dead sailors’ uniforms.

  “Are you kidding me? Of course you grabbed the higher-ranking sailor’s uniform,” said John.

  “Come on Petty Officer, we don’t have much time. That's an order,” replied Adam.

  Adam and John descended down another stairwell to the next floor. They knew exactly who they were looking for. Adam passed several other sailors with ease thanks to the new uniforms. The brothers soon stopped in the officer’s section of the living quarters. They looked closely at each name printed on the doors. Adam stopped in his tracks after seeing a particular name printed on a door. The team leader shot a glance at his brother. Before they could open the hatch, an officer spotted Adam and John.

  “Hey! Enlisted sailors are not allowed. I’m going to write you guys up.”

  Before the sailor could finish his sentence, John punched the man in his throat. The officer started to collapse and struggled to breathe. Adam opened the door and John shoved the injured officer inside.

  “What the hell is going on here?” said the man sitting at his desk.

  “Hello, admiral. Just the man we have been looking for.”

  Adam waved his pistol in Admiral al Jabbar’s face. “Move!”

  John lead the group down the hallway while the admiral and Adam followed. The team leader pressed his pistol against al Jabbar’s back as he forced him down the hallway. Suddenly, an alarm sounded throughout the entire ship.

  “Shit. They found the bodies,” said John.

  “We need to get topside, now!” ordered Adam. He pulled out his radio. “This is Reaper 1. Blow the charges!”

  Sailors who had been sleeping off their hangovers somehow found the energy to jump out of their bunks and man their battle stations. Men ran to the armory to gather weapons before searching the ship for the intruders. Several sailors ran down the hall towards the two brothers and the Admiral.

  “You say one word and I’ll put a bullet in your spine,” threatened Adam.

  John and Adam didn’t say a word as the sailors approached. They waited in anticipation for the admiral to call out for help. However, the sailors only saluted the admiral as they ran past Adam and John. Seconds later, several explosions erupted near the stern of the ship. The vibrations shook the hull of the destroyer and cut out the electrical system. A
dam fell on the floor while John caught the admiral. Within a mere sixty seconds, the backup generator switched on the emergency lights.

  Water from the Potomac poured into the hull of the destroyer. Sailors rushed to stop the leaks, but the holes were too great. Captain Resnik ordered men to begin locking the hatches to the bottom floors of the ship.

  “Sir, there are still men on those floors,” replied one of the Petty Officers.

  “I don’t care! If we don’t stop the flooding, we will lose this ship!”

  The ship’s engines were flooded now, and the destroyer was immobile. The freezing water continued to pour in through the gaping holes that the plastic explosives created. The hatches began to shut in an attempt to mitigate the damage; however, many sailors were trapped. Men tried to keep their heads above water while others used all their strength to pry open the locked doors. Sailors began to scream for help to their fellow sailors, but their pleading came on deaf ears.

  “Sir, we can’t find Admiral al Jabbar. It seems there was a struggle in his cabin,” announced one of the sailors.

  Resnik was angered after hearing the most recent news, but he knew who had taken him. “Send a team to intercept the intruders topside,” ordered Resnik. The captain pulled out his pistol and headed above deck.

  Adam and John finally climbed the last flight of stairs and made it topside. Several other members of Reaper team waited near the bow of the boat for the team’s extraction. Armed sailors spotted the intruders and began firing their AK-47s at Adam and John. They dove and took cover with the admiral.

  The admiral started moaning. John looked down and saw blood dripping onto the deck. “Shit. He’s hit. GSW to the abdomen!” screamed John over the loud gunfire.

  John picked up the wounded admiral and threw him over his shoulder. Adam covered his brother as he carried the HVT to the rest of their team. John didn’t have time to treat the gunshot wound, so he jumped into the water holding onto the Admiral while Adam continued to provide cover fire. John felt a rush of adrenaline as he jumped over the side of the sinking destroyer into a 50 foot free-fall. After hitting the water, John swam back up to the surface and waited for his brother. He saw Adam grab onto the rail of the ship, but the team leader froze after turning his head around towards the shooting.