by Liscom, Sean
“Rumor has it that the cartels have a shitload of RPG’s stored there. Will those do the job?”
“Those should work just fine!”
“Okay, where are you going?” Carmine asked.
“Jill and I will be inside the Kings. We will take out the guards at the service entrance so that your men can get inside. Once they are in, we’re going after Judge and the cartel heads.”
“What about my people?” Paul asked. “Where do you want us?”
“I need you to come in through the loading docks. You will be coming in from the east, my teams will be hitting from the south. I need you to secure the ground floor and do a floor by floor while we bound ahead and find out exactly where Judge is. We'll hold him to whatever floor he's on until you catch up and we can hit him with a larger number of forces,” I paused and looked at Corky. “You still want to back out? Now's your chance.”
“Where do you want us?” he replied.
“After Carmine's men have liberated the tent city, I need you to hook up with them and hit
the northern entrances to the casino. I don't need you to make entry, I just need you to keep them distracted. Stay mobile and be prepared to throw off any would be reinforcements that may try to come help. Do whatever you have to just keep them off of our backs as long as possible.”
“Okay, we can do that.”
“I need all of you to understand exactly what it is that we are about to do. We're out-gunned and we're out-manned. The odds are most certainly in their favor. I don't think this is the first time any of us have been the underdogs though. The plan that we've laid out isn't set in stone. No plan ever survives first contact intact. Stay fluid and stay aware of what's going on around you. At exactly 9pm tomorrow we finish this. One way or another, we finish it,” I made eye contact with every person standing around the table. “Any questions?”
“I have a question, Mr. Sterling,” a female voice said from behind me. Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, nobody had seen her come in. I turned as the woman and a man stepped from the shadows. She was a strikingly beautiful woman. Tall with long black hair. She and her partner were dressed in the same multi-cam fatigues that we used at the ranch. Both were
fully geared up and it looked like they ready to go to war.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Mr. Sterling, my name is Kari and my associate here is Cory. I think we may be able to assist you in your endeavor,” the Spanish accent was barely perceptible.
Monday August 28th, 2017
North of Pioche, Nevada.
“What did Melissa tell you about them?” Braden asked Dan.
“She said that they are friendly but very cautious. She also said that they've been tangling with Judge's people for a while now.”
“And Major Jackson said that it was the Ghost Crew that took out the escorts for the fuel tankers. Basically delivering them to our control.....” Braden’s voice trailed off.
“What do you want to do?”
“Dan, I've got 24 hours to get us into this fray. I've got to assume that Jason is already there, hopefully Jill's with him.
Now this,” he held up the note again. “The location that's on this note is only about a mile from the rally point that we had set up.”
“What about the radio frequency?”
“I've already dialed the radio in but the instructions say to wait for them to contact us. This whole thing sounds fishy as hell. I can't help but think that maybe we are getting set up for an ambush.....”
“Or maybe we really can trust the Ghost Crew. Braden, they've shown that they are more than willing to use force but not against us. Dennis said that they handled themselves like pros when they hit the tankers. He said that even he would have had his hands full if they had come after his team. It could just be that they need to get resources in place and they want us to be a part of that. A coalition of sorts.”
“I know..... This leadership crap is for the birds. This is that part where ya just gotta jump in with both feet, right?”
“It does suck sometimes and yes, this is where you just gotta go for it.”
“Alright. I guess we will go to the location and wait for further instructions. Make damn sure everyone is on high alert and leave the vehicles running. Advice everyone of an alternative comms plan and come up with a couple of rally points if this takes a shit on us,” Braden ordered.
“I'll make sure everyone is on the same page when we make our next fuel stop,” Dan replied. “We should be pulling into Pioche inside of an hour.”
“You realize, Dan, tomorrow at 7pm every asset and resource we could muster will all be in the same place at the same time. The forces from Winnemucca, Elko, Major Jackson and his Team, all three of our Teams..... If this blows up, there
will be nothing left to stop Judge.
“I know, boss. I know.”
Tuesday August 29th, 2017
North of Las Vegas, Nevada.
It was pretty impressive to see all of the forces from the north all in one place. Braden stood on the roof of his bus and turned a full 360 degrees, taking it all in. The 12 MRAP's that belonged to Teams 1 thru 3 were arrayed around the perimeter. Major Jackson's squad of Hummers, six buses, a snowplow, a dozen pickup trucks and passenger cars and two fuel tankers made up the nucleus.
The other impressive thing was the total number of troops they had been able to muster. Braden couldn't believe his ears when Major Jackson had told him that there were 393 men and women who were ready to fight. He was about to climb from the top of the bus when he spotted the dust trail headed toward them from across the lake bed. Looked like a single vehicle. Whoever it was, they were right on time.
Braden went ahead and climbed from the bus and walked to the outer circle to greet the lone Hummer that was approaching. Major Jackson was on his right side, Dan was on his left. The Hummer came to a stop and after a few
seconds, the lone occupant got out. It was the same young woman who had given Braden the note in Ely the day before. This time she was wearing a uniform just like the one he was wearing. She was also wearing body armor and had a hand gun strapped to her left thigh. The loop for a single point sling was still around her neck but she did not take her rifle from the vehicle.
“Mr. Sterling, nice to see you again,” she extended her hand.
“Isabella, right?” he asked as he shook her hand.
Tuesday August 29th, 2017
North of Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Do you trust them?” Jill asked. We had spent the night and most of the day in the underground tunnels and fine-tuned our attack strategy. With the addition of Kari and her small force, we had to rethink some of our plans.
“No, not really,” I shrugged my shoulders. “What else are we gonna do though?”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Kari? Yes, she is. It's weird, I feel like I know her from somewhere. I can't put my finger on it though,” I replied as I started to reassemble my Glock. Thing was filthy. Jill looked at me, her head cocked a little to one side.
“You get that feeling too?” I thought it was just
me but something about her seems familiar. Elusive but familiar.....”
“When this is all over, maybe we can invite her crew out to the ranch. We'll have a big barbecue and maybe we can figure it out,” I chuckled. Cycling the Glock by hand a dozen times, I was satisfied that it was clean and I reloaded it. Three full 13 round magazines and one in the chamber. “You ready to do this?”
“As ready as I'll ever be,” she stood and walked toward me. I met her in the middle of the concrete corridor and we shared a long embrace and passionate kiss.
“Right place.....” I said before we broke the embrace.
“Right time,” she stole one more quick kiss then stepped back.
Jill and I left the underground at 7:30pm and that gave us plenty of time to get to the service entrance of the Kings Casino. At 8:05 we approached the doors and were stopped by two guar
ds. They asked to see our ID's and we handed them over.
“We're supposed to report to Sonny,” I offered.
“You're not on tonight's roster, what's your business here?” one of them asked.
“You tell me, man. We were just told to come over here and report to Sonny. You know how it is, they don't tell us shit.”
“Hang on a minute,” the guard said pulling
an FRS radio from his belt. He turned his back and took a few steps away to speak into the microphone. When he was done, he put the radio away and walked back to where we were standing. “Sonny will be out in a few minutes. Stand over there,” he pointed and handed our ID's back.
Jill and I took a few steps away from the door and waited. Once we had stepped away, both guards lost immediate interest in us and went back to the conversation we had interrupted. It took about five minutes before a man that was built like a fire hydrant stepped out of the Kings. He couldn’t have been more that 5’2” tall. His bulging biceps looked as if they would split the fabric of the black t-shirt he was wearing and the light above the door glistened off of his cleanly shaven head. He spoke with the guards for a moment and then waived us through the door.
“I didn’t call for any supply people,” he started once we were inside.
“I’m supposed to tell you that Billy and Steve are getting the band back together,” I said. The look on his face could best be described as a cross between fear and elation.
“Is that so?” he started walking again and we followed.
“Yeah, that’s what they said.”
“Good, one less thing I’ve got on my
shoulders,” I heard him mutter. He led us across the open floor and up a stalled escalator. At the top, he made a left and kept walking. He may have been short but he kept a pace that was hard to keep up with.
“Where are we going?” Jill asked. He looked over his shoulder at her but didn’t say anything, just kept walking. He went past a bank of elevators and stopped at an unmarked door. He stole a quick glance around to make sure that we were alone.
“This is the service stairwell. It will take you all the way to the roof. From here, you’re on your own. There is one working elevator but it is reserved for enforcers and Judge himself. The enforcers have taken over the fourth and fifth floors and they do have sentries posted in the stairwell. Judge has the entire 68th floor to himself. That’s where you will find the conference room for tonight's meeting. You’ll find the cartel
members on the 67th floor.” he looked around nervously again. “Both are heavily guarded by both enforcers and cartel security.”
“Where will you be?” Jill asked.
“Me? I’ve done my part and I’m getting the hell out of dodge before the shooting starts.”
“We could always use another hand.”
“What y’all are going to need is someone with shovels to bury you. I’ve seen some crazy in my life but y’all are outta your minds,” he started
to walk away.
“Wait! I’ve got a question,” I said. He stopped and looked at me. “Where’s Adolpha?”
“Why?”
“I need to find her, to talk to her.”
“Good luck with that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Man, she’s got at least a half dozen enforcers around her at all times. You’ll never get anywhere near her.”
“Let me worry about that. Where is she?” I asked again.
“She’s being held on the 67th floor,” he closed the couple of steps between us. Whatever happens from here, that's on you,” he started walking away again. I let him go this time. A quick glance of my watch, 8:14pm.
Both of us stepped into the stairwell and took a quick peek to make sure that we were alone. I put my foot on the hand railing and rolled my pant leg up. Taped to my right calf were eight small C-4 charges with remote blasting caps. I carefully removed them and then repeated the process with my left leg. All told, I had 14 small charges and 1 detonator. I'd have to trigger all 14 at the same time.
Jill had taped a small canvas bag to each of her calves. After she removed them, we split the charges into separate bags. She took one and I took the other. We shared a quick look, one that
both of us understood and then she slipped back out of the stairwell. After a silent thirty count, I also stepped out. The explosive charges that we carried were not enough to do any real damage. They were about creating confusion and a lot of it.
My first stop was the bank of elevators. Only one of the call buttons was lit up, that had to be the working elevator. I stood by the door and could see the small gap in the frame where the doors slid back. I shoved my fingers into the gap and was happy to find that there was enough room to slip a charge in there. Just to be safe, I placed two of them. They were totally hidden from sight. For the next 35 minutes, I roamed the ground floor and placed the explosives where I thought they would have the most effect.
At 8:55pm, Jill and I met back up at the service entrance that we had come in. A quick nod from her and I knew that all of her charges had been placed. It was officially ShowTime. I led the way through the door, Jill about three steps behind me. Both security guards looked at me as I stepped out. The one with the radio was my first target. I closed the distance between us faster than he could react. I struck him in the throat with the knife edge of my hand and he stumbled backwards.
I looked back at the second guard just in
time to see Jill step out of the doorway and
deliver a savage blow to the side of his head with her pistol. He was unconscious before he ever hit the ground. I turned my attention back to my guard and he was now on the ground. He was gagging and clutching at his crushed windpipe. At the same time, 12 men raced across the street toward us.
“Get everything of use off of them and let's go!” I ordered. They quickly relieved the guards of weapons, ammo. The radios were given to me. The man that gave them to me also handed me two zip ties. I was the last one through the door and I heard all hell beginning to break loose. As soon as the radios started making noise, I keyed them up and zip tied them in the transmit position.
I knew it wouldn't last. Either the batteries would die or the others would switch frequencies. That was expected. In the meantime, it would be seriously hampering their communications efforts. That made me smile a little on the inside. We sprinted up the escalator and ran for the stairwell. When I saw the elevator doors open, I triggered all of the charges that had been set. When the smoke cleared from the elevator bank, there were two dead enforcers on the floor and three more inside the car that had been stunned into submission.
The elevator was now useless, exactly what I wanted. Stopping at the first dead enforcer, I
snatched his red security badge and threw mine on the floor. Jill had already exchanged hers. The stop at the elevator had also been fruitful because all five of the men had been carrying rifles. Our little force was rapidly gaining firepower. As soon as we entered the stairwell, we could hear the gunfire coming from the floors above us. They were firing wildly at this point. The gunfire was interrupted by heavy thudding sounds, screams and explosions.
The five man team that had infiltrated the weapons warehouse was fighting a decidedly pitched battle. Two men were trying to hold off the attacking enforcers while the other three were loading and firing RPG's at the Kings just as fast as they could. The rocket propelled grenades
were at their maximum range but they were having an effect. Some would explode just short of the target but they would still shatter windows and send shrapnel flying in all directions. It didn't take the RPG team long to figure out where the return fire was coming from so they zeroed in their attack on those two floors.
At the same time, the other five man squad had stolen a Hummer and smashed through the front gate of tent city. While it didn't have a turret mounted weapon, its crew was engaging targets from the open windows as they raced toward the back gate. Many of the inhabit
ants of the city were scrambling for their lives, escaping
through the gaping hole where the gate used to be. Many more were picking up anything that could be used as a weapon and running for the casino.
Kari was driving the lead MRAP and as soon as she had the roadblock under I-15 in sight, she pushed the throttle pedal to the firewall. The fifty caliber turret on top of the rig began to bark in answer to the two lighter machine guns defending the post. She blasted through the roadblock, sending defenders fleeing. The MRAP that was right behind her peppered the emplacement with more fifty caliber rounds as
they barreled through. Once inside the perimeter, they took the direct route to the Kings casino. The pair of MRAP’s made one strafing run past the front of the building and then vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Anyone that tried to stand in their way was mowed down without exception.
Braden saw the first impacts on the exterior of the casino tower. The rockets had been fired from the weapons warehouse. He and the entirety of Team 3 had just emerged from the abandoned clothing store after coming up through the elevator shaft from the underground tunnels. The other Teams and the Ghost Crew were all going after different objectives. His was
to secure the weapons warehouse that was a half mile to the west of his current position.
Melissa Lange had taken over as the Team leader. He still wasn't sure how much he could trust her but she was all he had right now.
CHAPTER 39
Tuesday August 29th, 2017
Las Vegas, Nevada.
I'd just rounded the corner of the stairs onto the fourth floor landing when an enforcer burst through the door from the hallway. He was bloodied and confused. His glazed over eyes locked on my red ID card.
“Get back in there and fight!” I yelled at him. He slowly turned and started back through the door from which he had just come. The door opened inward toward the hall and away from the stairs. The last man in our group used a small section of chain to secure the handle of the door the handrail of the stairs. Nobody else was going to be coming out of that door any time soon.
