Part 10: Preparation and Assault
Targets acquired.
Their opposition will fall.
Duke’s team is ready.
“Overlord-A, this is Royalty-one.”
“Go ahead Royalty-one, we have electronic superiority over your location. You are green across the board. Bird one shows nothing unexpected within a hundred-meter diameter, bird two has cleared the single click diameter and bird three shows nothing unusual within an 8Km diameter. Again, you are green to go on your command.”
“Thanks Overlord-A. Royalty-two, acquire and lock onto all targets to your right of the flagpole. I have everything to the left, acknowledge.”
“Royalty-one, this is Royalty-two we are ready to knock down some bowling pins. I count five, repeat five bowling pins to the right of the flagpole.”
“Royalty-two, I count four, repeat four to the left of the flagpole. Royalty-three, four and seven, that leaves three inside for you. Good hunting. Ready countdown, commence. Royalty-one and one-A ready.”
“Royalty-two and two-A, ready.”
“Royalty-three, ready.”
“Royalty-four, ready.”
“Royalty-five, ready.”
“Royalty-six, ready.”
“Royalty-seven, ready.”
“Support teams in place?
“Support teams in place and ready.”
“We are green to go, I say again we are green to go, good luck team.”
Duke’s .338 Lapua cracked and the first outside guard went down as the second bullet was leaving the barrel. Number three went down still standing but the fourth man saw one of his friends go down and he hit the ground firing his suppressed machine-gun wildly. Duke put two rounds into him to be sure and then moved his line of sight to the right of the flagpole. He caught the muzzle flash of another cowboy by the back door and his sixth round went through the man’s chest, dropping him. One more popped his head up and both Royalty-one and Royalty-two hit him at the same time.
“I count no more visible targets outside of the building Royalty-two.”
“Ditto Royalty-one. We’ll start down with the buggies on your Mark.”
“Mark, say again, Mark. I’ll cover any strays. Switching to wide-angle.”
(pause)
“Royalty-one, this is Overlord-A. Bird one shows two combatants coming out of the far tree line and moving towards the house.”
“Got-‘em Overlord-A, --- adjusting, --- hummingbird-one downrange, hummingbird-two downrange, --- both targets confirmed down.”
“Bird one confirms no further targets.”
“Royalty-three confirms frontal ingress with Royalty-five.”
“Royalty-four confirms rear ingress with Royalty-six.”
“Royalty-seven under crossfire at the side entrance. Returning fire.”
(pause)
“Royalty-four to Royalty-seven, you are clear. Your targets have been neutralized. Royalty-one, two house staff down as combatants, with two guards down in the kitchen.”
“Royalty-one, this is Royalty-three, primary-one, secondary-one and secondary-two darted and down.”
(pause)
“Royalty-one, this is Royalty-five. I’m down, repeat, --- I’m down. --- Primary-two and primary --- three darted --- but their guard cracked --- my chest plate with --- heavy machine-gun. --- Applying dressings --- but, --- sorry D --- ”
“This is Overlord-A. I show Royalty-five in the hallway outside of the panic-room. I also show two noncombatants down just before the panic-room and one combatant still up and moving, although possibly hit. Do not use grenades on the combatant. Flash-bangs should do the job.”
(pause)
Royalty-one, this is Royalty-four. Combatant no longer has a head. Primaries two and three retrieved and going down for egress. I’m bringing down Royalty-five myself. He’s a mess Royalty-one.”
“Bring as much back with you as you can carry. Royalty-three secure the primaries, Royalty-four, six, and seven start to secure the entire building. Royalty-one-A, royalty-two and two-A start hauling everyone alive in the residence out to a safe distance, especially secondary targets, and then set thermite incendiaries. Start where Royalty-five went down. I want nothing left to find. Understood?”
“Clear as glass Royalty-one.”
“Royalty-one to Overlord-A, are the birds still showing a clear field?”
“That is affirmative Royalty-one. Birds one, two and three show all clear.”
“Royalty-one, secondary-one and two at 75 meters and zip-tied. All kitchen staff at 50 meters and zip-tied.”
“Royalty-one, house is secure.”
“Royalty-one, charges are set and armed. Overlord-A, the sequence is the Tao of the beast, repeat Tango Alpha Omega of 999. You have control of the signal sequence Overlord-A.”
“Overlord-A to Royalty-one, just say when your team and primaries are clear. A lot of very expensive art, collectibles and jewelry will become an insurance nightmare once I press the ‘go’ signal.”
“Overlord-A, this is Royalty-one, the price is not equivocal.”
“Royalty-one, loading and securing the primaries in the carts. We’ll rendezvous with you in three.”
“This is Royalty-one. One round going downrange into secondary-one’s toe.”
Duke took a laser reading and checked his weather station. He loaded one 225gr boat-tail and released the slide into its locked position. He waited for his heartbeat to register and then he counted. Breath in, half of it out, heartbeat, rest, heartbeat CRACK! And Francis O’Connor’s left big toe was cleanly separated from his foot. Royalty-seven, the team’s unofficial medic pulled his shoe off, added a clotting agent and bandaged it with a field dressing so he wouldn’t bleed to death and then kicked him in the ankle. Francis reacted when he got shot and then passed out again from the pain. When he got kicked, he just laid there. Francis O’Connor would never forget this day.
As the three ATV’s crested the tallest part of the hill, Duke signaled Timothy.
Royalty-one to Overlord-A. We are clear of the area. Light it up, I say again, light it up.”
A couple of minutes later a return message sounded off in his earpiece.
“Overlord-A to Royalty-one. Satellite recon confirms heat flares from inside the house. One insurance nightmare has commenced. Overlord-A-2 looked it up by hacking into his insurance records. We have the figures if you’re interested.”
“I just want to know if my support team is safely out of the area.”
“They just collected their last bird Royalty-one and are rolling away from the direction of the soon to be incoming fire trucks. I timed the Fire Department’s ETA so that all they’ll be able to do is hose down the embers of what once was O’Connor Mansion. I also rolled paramedics for the old man.”
“Alright Overlord-A, patch me in to the other Overlords, one at a time, starting with Bravo.”
“Overlord-Bravo to Royalty-one.”
“Royalty-one to Overlord Bravo, give me a sit-rep. Are all my men Okay?”
“Negative Royalty-one, Spartan-two fell and broke his ankle but he’s in the ambulance with the full team. Other than him, everyone is healthy and making their egress with all three primaries strapped to their gurneys. You’d have been proud of him Royalty-one, Spartan-two just strapped his ankle in an inflatable splint and continued on with the mission like it was just a sprain.”
“Well, make sure he gets that properly taken care of before he gets back here. Tell him we’ll put the hospital bill on my account, and I’ll pay cash directly to whatever hospital he ends up at. I do not want him to take a chance of getting any complications. The mission is now all but done, so tell him to go to a hospital and get that ankle taken care of.”
“I’ll make sure that no account of his stay shows up on any records. Save your money Royalty-one,” said Overlord-B. “I’ll have one of the TTI slush-funds foot the bill for a Mr. Don Duck or should it be J. Tiberius Kirk?”
“Just make sure he gets taken care of.”
“Got it Royalty-one”
“Okay Overlord-A, please connect me with Overlord-Charlie.”
“Royalty-one, this is the Grand Overlord and I’ll give you a sit-rep on team Ferrous-wheel. First off, I am aware of your major concern and all of team Ferrous wheel is alive and well, but they are all very frustrated. Their primary jumped out of her car at 35mph, four feet off the ground and started limping away when they decided to give chase. She is in custody, but she probably won’t wake up for a while. They darted her three times. They also had to dart four good Samaritans for stopping to give aid to this poor limping woman. We’re not sure of the extent of her injuries but nothing looks serious. We are going to rush her to our infirmary first and then to the detention center. They’ve already given her a dose of epinephrine to counter the heavy narcotic’s effects of three darts and we’ll give her the once over, but you were right about her being the most treacherous of the lot. Hell, I don’t even think I could do a bail-out like she did and not break major bones.”
“Okay, I don’t care about her, but I do care about my men.”
“Well, the shoot-out at the Harrelman Corral went in our favor. That new dragon armor you insisted that everyone have saved them some wear and tear. Small arms fire into that stuff slowed them down a little but not enough so that they couldn’t put Teflon-coated penetrators through the guard’s Kevlar. Harrelman has a very sore right foot and Doll-face primary is ours for the training.”
“And the Barrister crew? How did the fire drill go?”
“That one surprisingly went according to plan. We have one building burning nicely, a mass confusion on the East-North East side of the building, and several vehicles exiting the neighborhood from the South side. One of those vehicles has two sleeping women in it on their way to see me and the guys. All of our people are safe and accounted for according to my reports.”
“Good. Now about the one you were worried about. How did operation microchip go?”
“Royalty-one, it’s still too soon to tell. The quick-scan equipment I gave them isn’t showing anything, but I suspect a micro-burst transmitter hidden subcutaneously, that their equipment can’t pick-up. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I would rather stash her at a vanilla safe-house until I can bring my mojo directly to bear on her and be sure. Team microchip is taking her to location spook-hole two for tonight, and spook-hole four tomorrow. They have her in a portable Faraday cage and a more secure one at each of the hideaways will keep her secure. I’ll meet them there with my fun-wagon and make a determination. Microchip-one is following protocol to the letter and I am certain from having Overlord-F quiz him on the spot that he is. We’re waiting for confirmation on the destruction of the server-racks and towers. We’re not leaving him anything that will send a signal anywhere. So, we’re waiting on their report. Their support team assures me that the external signal producers are defunct and that the birds overhead show the area to be clear and non-threatening.”
“Okay, report to me when you do get a final determination on them. Now what about my last team in the field, team Supertramp?”
“They report mission accomplished, with the hellcat Supertramp-primary now a sleeping kitten. They’re on their way back as we speak.”
“Grand Overlord, do you think we have to worry about Ferrous-wheel-prime? I wouldn’t want to bring a viper into my home.”
“No, I have the feeling that if she was bugged, she would have stayed put and let them find her later, not tried the superwoman thing like jumping from a moving car. I’ll check her out as soon as she gets here to be sure, but no alarm flags are coming up in my mind.”
“Is Spartan-two heading to the hospital?”
“Wait one Royalty-one, I’m getting a report on team microchip.”
Several minutes of dead airtime added to Duke’s anxiety.
“Royalty-one, this is the Grand Overlord. We have some unexpected news. Microchip-secondary is dead. When he saw that microchip-prime was to be taken and when we destroyed his electron-pushers, he had a heart attack. Microchip-one wants to know if we still want to take microchip-prime? Personally, I say leave her. What do you say?”
“I believe you’re right. She’s not worth the headaches now. Have microchip-one employ the TL-option, repeat the TL-option on her by injection. She’s already been darted, hasn’t she?”
“That is affirmative Royalty-one.”
“So, the TL-option will be even more effective.”
“Should be. It will certainly shake her up when she wakes up and finds microchip-secondary.”
“Isn’t that the idea, to shake up their infra-structure?”
“I’ll send word down the pipeline, as per your instructions.”
“Now, back to my original question, is Spartan-two at the hospital yet?”
“Yes, Spartan-three forced the issue and half of the support group is there with them. They will make sure that Spartan two and three get back here as quickly as possible.”
“Okay Grand Overlord, let’s recap the results. I lost one man. Team spartan is coming back with one injured but Okay otherwise. We have one primary bruised and banged up, and we left one primary because she became an unnecessary liability. Two secondaries are injured, and one secondary is dead. And two buildings are demolished. Does that about sum it up?”
“Yes, I’d say that’s an accurate summation. I would add that everyone is headed home with no obvious signs of pursuit, in fact because of the multi-state jurisdiction it will take the feds a while to piece together that these were all related acts, and then their trails will be frosty and chilled further by innumerable false leads set up by my team, inaccurate accounts from witness tampering, and a total lack of reliable witnesses. My team will be busy for weeks to come covering the various trails back to us.”
“Just as my teams will be training these new recruits to serve with pride and distinction. Initial assessment begins when we all get to the center. Thank you and your superbly trained team Grand Overlord. This is Royalty-one, signing off and out.
As they all return
one of the team gave their all
to assure success.