The Fate Of Nations: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha: Book One (31 page)

              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.”

              “But you know the gaps I coverage, right?” Carter asked.

              “I’m a secretary for Benard DeVos, the city engineer responsible for maintaining the surveillance systems.” Dagmar explained. “He is a drunken pig who sleeps soundly after sex. He also thinks that I am stupid,” she added, holding up a palm-sized data pad. “I took his data-pad from his briefcase before he woke up. It has all of the surveillance positions and patrol routes marked. ”

              “Also, be aware that there are cameras and microphones even before we get to Waterloo; not as many, but some. Most are attached to street lights; so say as far away from them as you can.”

              “What about civilians in the city?” Sains asked. “We passed some gated housing areas on the way in. Is there anyone living along our path to the target?”

              “Some of the unskilled workers live in the buildings along the way,” Dagmar said. “Most should be asleep. Even if they are not, it’s the law that they be indoors with their windows covered during the curfew.”

              “That would make it easier to take people away in the dead of night,” McNamara observed.

              “Yes,” Dagmar said, coldly. “It does.”

              “Right,” Carter said. “Brains, I want you up front with Dagmar. Help her with spotting any patrols. Keep your forty-fives ready, but don’t engage unless the enemy unless you’re sure that we’ve been spotted.”

              Dagmar began to move.”Let us go,” she said. “We have God’s work to do.”

              They moved through the city and the concentration of buildings increased. They evaded two roving patrols before crossing Waterloo Boulevard into the City’s center; which was almost entirely composed of government buildings. The buildings were uniformly gray in color and shared the same basic design. Drab conformity had replaced the Nuevo art architecture that had once given Brussels its distinctive character.

              Further towards the center the buildings grew larger and more monolithic. They still shared the dull, gray motif, but were intended to intimidate by their sheer size. Carter decided that they were intended to make people seem small, even tiny. The indistinctive, flat and uninspired architectural style deliberately avoided distinctiveness. It reminded everyone that individualism was not tolerated by the buildings’ owners. They stood as grim examples that conformity would be rewarded and dissention would be punished.

              Progress through the streets was made in increments. The team would pause to allow a camera to rotate its lens away from them, and then run to another blind spot that Dagmar would guide them to. They would pause again to allow one of the numerous patrols or sensor drones to pass, and then move again. This process was repeated for nearly four hours as the team measured their advance in terms feet and yards, not miles.

              Finally, Dagmar led them into an apartment building that was less than a mile away from the Central Command’s officer’s quarters. “There are People’s Guard officers assigned to the building,” Dagmar said. “They will have to be killed.”

              “We’ve planned for that,” Carter said. “Brains, can you give me a location on the guards.”

              Sains concentrated for moment. “One at the main doors and the other is moving on the third floor near the north east corner.”

              “He would be doing his rounds,” Dagmar said.

              “We need to hit them in a surveillance blind spot,” McNamara observed.