The Bleeding Sun (8 page)

Castillo De La Real
Fuerza

The ‘Castle of The Royal Force’ as
it is commonly known, was a perfect platform for Rosmus and his
associates to work from the shadows. The castle provided a
defensive framework on its own apart from whatever Rosmus had set
up. However, the environment and the weather was in Lucas’s favor.
There was a storm brewing up and it had started to rain. The moon
less sky was dark like a cup of black coffee. As the outpour
increased, the guards vanished into the castle. Only the ones on
the watch towers and the hangar were still standing firm. Lucas
started climbing up one of the watch towers. He needed to get a
good view of the surroundings and in the process, eliminate as many
agents as possible to ensure a smooth escape later.

The search lights on the watch
towers probing the entire section around the keep made it look like
a high security prison. Lucas needed to shut off those lights if he
was to have any chance of getting into the keep. The constantly
lashing rain and wind was making it difficult for him to climb the
walls of the tower, but he hung on to it. On reaching the top and
peeking over, Lucas could hear the two guards joking about some
incident that had occurred in the city. They were facing towards
the keep while continuing their discussion. Their assault rifles
were dangling from the straps around their shoulders while they
moved the search light around the castle and continued with their
discussion. Only a lunatic would think about storming the castle
that night. Well, Lucas was exactly that kind of a
person.

He took out his Swiss knife and
slowly moved forward. He needed to eliminate the guards without
allowing them to raise an alarm. As a flash of lightning blazed
across the city line of Havana, Lucas stabbed the first guard on
the back of his neck. The second guard shouted and tried to grab
his rifle. His scream was masked by the roar of the thunder. Lucas
made perfect use of the opportunity and stabbed the victim on his
throat. The guards were successfully eliminated with minimal fuss.
Lucas looked around the watchtower and located a binocular. He also
found a few hand grenades and a walkie-talkie. He had to take down
two more watch towers before he could enter the keep. However, he
had a better plan.

He removed the clothes of one of
the guards and wore them. He would disguise himself as a Viper
agent and try to enter the keep. He took the assault rifle and
spare ammo and put the rest of the stuff in his backpack. With the
binoculars he could clearly see two guards in the next tower and
one in the tower closest to the keep. Apart from these on the
western side, four guards were closely watching the hangar. Lucas
pointed the search light in the away from the keep and placed the
body of the dead uniformed guard beside it so as to raise minimal
suspicion. He swiftly climbed down the tower and headed to the next
one.

On the second tower the guards
were alert and constantly scanning the area. Lucas could not take
them down using his knife without raising an alarm. He had to use
his silenced M9. He used his goggles to locate the position of the
guards by switching on the infrared vision. A slight peek from the
edge and two quick shots is what it took to eliminate the guards.
He placed the guards and the search light in the same way as he had
done in the first tower. He climbed down and moved on to the last
tower. He would try a different approach this time.

Since there was only one guard, he
could walk straight into the tower giving the other guard an
impression that he had come up to help him out. The darkness
coupled with the heavy rain and the fact that Lucas was soaking wet
in the Viper’s dress would make it look even more convincing. He
could exploit the guard for a little bit of time before taking him
out. He used the stairs this time to reach the top of the tower. As
he entered the top and closed the door, the Viper agent looked
behind.

‘
Oni ishchutdlya vas vnutri. YA
budutvoimzamena’ he said in Russian which roughly meant that the
guard had been asked to report inside the keep while Lucas would
take care of the surveillance from the watch tower temporarily. As
the guard headed down, Lucas changed the direction of the search
light and quickly headed down the stairs. He set up a C4 stick on
the tower to ensure it could assist in his escape in the
future.

He would also need the security
access codes to get through the main door of the keep. So, he used
his grappling hook to slide down the wet outer walls of the tower.
As the Viper agent slowly went towards the main entrance, Lucas
followed him like a shadow. The agent went through the outer wooden
door to the entrance which had a two-step security setup to get
through it. The agent put up the security codes first and then got
his palm scanned to open the main door. At this point Lucas sneaked
up from behind and eliminated his target. He lifted the body and
walked along the corridor. The corridor was surprisingly empty and
the Viper agents seem to be missing. Lucas located a store room
nearby and dumped the body there. He also set up a C4 stick there.
Next, he needed to find out the surveillance room to cut off all
form of surveillance and also locate Annie. He had his head down
while he walked along the corridor moving by the security cameras.
The Viper agents would not be able to see his face as he had
switched on the infrared beam on his goggles.

As he reached the end of the
corridor and sneaked past a room, he noticed five Viper agents
enjoying their drink and watching soccer on television. The Euro
qualifiers were in progress and Russia was playing in the qualifier
against Belgium. Lucas quickly went ahead and progressed to the
next corridor. To his left he could see signs pointing to an exit
possibly towards the hangar. From the other side two agents were
heading towards him. Lucas headed towards the agents with his head
down.

‘
Have you seen Blanco?’ One of the
agents asked him.

Lucas quickly directed them
towards the room suggesting that he was probably watching soccer
with others. The agents walked by heading towards the room while
Lucas briskly walked away from them.

On the next corridor Lucas could
finally locate the surveillance room. Three agents were busy with
the radar and radio when he entered the room. No one seemed to
bother looking at the CCTV footage.

‘
Can I help you?’ asked one of the
agents.

Lucas calmly replied, ‘Well Blanco
headed out some time ago towards the hangar and he is not back yet.
Can you please check if he is still waiting there or has he come
back’?

One of the agents now turned
towards the screens to locate Blanco while the rest of them
continued working with the radar. Lucas stood behind the agent and
made sure no one was looking towards him. He quickly grabbed hold
of head and with a turn of the head eliminated his target. He
turned around towards the other two who were still busy with the
radar. Lucas took out his silenced M9 and killed them both. He
quickly moved the bodies to a corner of the room to hide them from
the agents who would pass by. He made the dead surveillance
operator sit in front of the CCTV screens to create an illusion to
the agents passing by that he was busy with
surveillance.

Next Lucas went through the
security cameras looking for Annie. The first floor housed the
dormitory for the agents and the dining room. Apart from that the
electrical systems room and backup generators were also located on
the first floor. On the second floor, he could see a large number
of Viper agents standing in guard in front of Romanovich’s room.
The big Russian was restlessly moving around his room and talking
to someone on his cell phone. Rest of the rooms on the floor seemed
to be empty. Lucas checked the footage from the third floor. There
were multiple cells on the floor which had been built so that
captured pirates could be held temporarily. Most of the cells were
empty except one where a couple of guards were standing guard. He
could see Rosmus moving up to the third floor. Lucas was pretty
certain that he had located Annie’s cell.

Outside the keep, the footage from
the hangar was quite interesting. A number of briefcases were
stacked in the hangar. It also contained an armored truck where
multiple armed agents were checking and loading the briefcases.
Lucas could not waste any more time. He would need to get on with
his plan. He set up the security footage in an endless loop so that
his exploits would no longer be recorded. He also shut down all
security systems to ensure an easy passage during his escape. He
used the radio to send a SOS transmission on all frequencies. Next
he would need to disrupt the electrical transmission and bring
darkness over the land.

Lucas headed towards the
electrical systems. First up was the backup generator. He attached
a C4 stick below the generator encasement and turned off the
voltage regulator. He punctured the container holding the generator
fuel. His exit would now literarily lead to a big blast. Next he
went to the electrical transmission room. Two agents were sitting
in the room talking to each other. Lucas entered the room in a
flash and shot both of them with his M9. He attached the last stick
of C4 to the main control panel and turned the power off. The
backup generators did not start and hence darkness prevailed across
the castle leading to utter panic among the agents. Lucas had to
use this opportunity to quickly get hold of Annie and get out of
there.

He turned on the night mode on his
goggles and quickly headed towards the stairs. He could hear the
guards coming over from the hallway. Also the ones from the
dormitory would head in direction of the electrical transmission
room. He reached the stairs and quickly headed for the third floor.
He could see flashlights on the second floor on his way through. He
got a glance of Rosmus who was heading to Romanovich’s room. The
Russian tycoon had started to panic and was looking for safety.
Lucas did not have time to visit them immediately. He would take
care of them soon. But first, he needed to rescue Annie.

On reaching the third floor, he
could see that the guards were missing. They had entered Annie’s
cell. Lucas decided to cause more panic among the guards. He took
the couple of grenades that he had collected from the watchtower
and threw them in front of the gate of the cell. Around five
seconds later with a huge explosion, the door gave through. He
stormed into the room taking down the first guard with his M9. The
second one hit back making him drop his gun. However, Lucas managed
to overpower him and quickly kill him off with his Swiss
knife.

Annie was in really bad shape. She
was dangling in thin air. Her arms and legs were tied with ropes
and they were attached to hooks attached from the ceiling and the
ground. The bastards had wanted to stretch her and rip her open.
She also had a thin rope around her neck which the guards were
fastening to suffocate her. She didn’t look good, but she was still
alive. Lucas cutoff the ropes as Annie’s body fell on the ground.
He slowly lifted her up and patted her cheek as she slowly gained
consciousness.

‘
It’s about time you woke up and
helped me’, he smiled. Annie gave Lucas a very faint smile. She was
too weak owing to the harsh treatment she had been subjected
to.

Lucas picked up the pistol of the
fallen guard and some ammo and handed them over to Annie. He also
picked up the army knife which the guard had been using. He had
spent enough time with the Swiss knife; it was about time that he
used something bigger. They could not take the stairs and go
through all the viper agents. So Lucas used the chain to pull
himself up to the ceiling and opened up the vent on top of the
cell. He assisted Annie up first before following in the same
direction. They used the vent and slowly moved towards the top of
the building. When Lucas came out of the outlet of the vent on top
of the roof, he could see five Viper agents running around
frantically looking around the edges to figure out if someone was
trying to evade the watchtowers and get into the keep. Little did
they know that Lucas had already entered their stronghold and
messed up their security arrangements.

He asked Annie to wait near the
vent outlet with the pistol and to ensure complete silence. Lucas
meanwhile lifted his assault rifle and headed towards the guards.
The guards were alarmed by the presence of a new person. However
Lucas was still dressed as a Viper agent which made identification
really difficult in the dark. Before they could decipher his
identity, he eliminated all of them using the rifle. The shots that
had been fired had drawn attention of the guards who were either on
the ground or guarding the hangar to the roof of the
keep.

To create panic, Lucas turned the
dial of his watch and detonated the C4 sticks that he had planted
in the store room, the generator and the electrical control panel.
The explosion rocked the building as smoke filled up the area. The
generator fuel had ignited resulting in a big fire on the first
floor as multiple Viper agents had caught fire. He had to take the
opportunity to escape the keep. He dropped his rifle and bag pack
to the ground. After that he attached the grappling hook to the
side of the terrace, grabbed the other end and lowered his body to
the side of the terrace. He would need to swing himself onto the
watchtower where he had put up the last C4 stick. He asked Annie to
come up and latch onto him firmly. He would get only one shot at
this since the grappling hook might not be able to hold on to the
weight of both of them. When Annie held him firmly, Lucas took two
big swings before jumping off the grappling hook towards the watch
tower.