The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (26 page)

She answered,
“But it’s incredibly important.” 

“I know.  I’ll
just be glad to get through this year.”

By the end of
the day he had another state’s delegation on its way to Las Vegas.

NEAR
PORTLAND, OREGON

In the end, the
EMP bomb idea was dropped because it wasn’t necessary.  Rob managed to acquire
an Apache helicopter, an M1 Abrams tank, and a Light Armored Vehicle from the
Marines as well.

They had been
in place for five days at an abandoned ranch about 18 miles away from the
target.   Jamie and Luke had delivered a tank and LAV to the staging area on
semi tractor trailers and would join the team as crew in the LAV.  Ricky took a
dirt bike up to a house overlooking the target from 2 miles away and called in
reports over a scrambled satellite phone.  

They were able
to use a satellite for ground penetrating radar and found that there was a
metal tunnel just where Manny predicted.  There was also a mine field and
hidden machine guns.  Stewart was confident that he had found the cameras and
electronic defenses, and that they knew where every metal item on the property
was, but knew there was always the possibility of a surprise. 

Rob reviewed
the plan.  “We don’t worry about the electronic security.  We send in the tank
and the LAV and knock on their front door.  When the rabbit runs out the rabbit
hole, we capture him and his family unharmed if possible, otherwise harmed
works for me.  Then we interrogate them later for whatever useful intel we
might find.  Frank, just try not to drive into any holes.” 

“No, but I may
install a new door for them.”

“Just remember
that we don’t want to demolish the place till after we recover the goods.”

“We go at 03:20
tomorrow morning.  Is everyone good with that?”  Everyone agreed.  “Alright
let’s go over the plan and look for problems.”

Before dark, Will,
Julio, Manny, Matt, and Stewart took a small van and met Ricky three miles
beyond the ravine with the hidden exit.  They hid the car, donned ghillie suits
and hiked in stealthily.    

The rest
prepared their gear and tried to catch some rest before the mission.  Julie and
Helen manned the Black Hawk and would provide backup for Rob and Ann in the
Apache. 

They launched
the mission with the LAV and Abrams tank entering just after the Apache took
out all the sentries and automated defenses.  The tank rolled in first and
fired into a hardened pill box hidden in a hill, completely obliterating it and
those inside. 

They made short
work of the security team members who tried to fight.  Frank used the PA system
they had placed on the tank. “Federal agents!  You are under arrest.  Drop your
weapons and come out with your hands up
now
.  We will use lethal force
if necessary. Drop your weapons and come out now.”

Some of the
staff started exiting the front of the mansion, looking terrified.  “You will
not be harmed.  Kneel down on the ground with your legs crossed and your hands
on your heads.”

Matt called in,
“The Rabbit hole is open.  Here come our targets.  Get ready to take out the
security.  Ready, fire.”  The guards’ heads exploded.  Manny stood and yelled
at the civilians, “On the ground now.” Simmons’ son reached for a weapon and
died instantly from two rounds through the brainstem.  The rest followed
Manny’s instructions and were soon cuffed with at the hands and ankles behind
them and tied together.  Manny, and Matt, quickly stripped them naked by
cutting off their clothes while Ricky applied duct tape around the mouths and
eyes.

Manny reported,
“We have all of the targets and are securing the entrance.”

Matt and Ricky
stayed with the prisoners and Manny, Julio, and Stewart moved forward.  Stewart
turned loose the remote control robot and watched the video feed on his control
tablet as it went up the hall.  “Door is clear!”  The three of them ran into
the cave and Matt propped the door open.

Rob was flying
around in circles looking for heat signatures.  Ann noticed three moving toward
the ravine.  “We have enemy on the ground.”

Rob said, “I
see them.”  Twenty seconds later the 30 mm machine gun shredded the enemy.

Ann said,
“Enemy down.”

Rob ordered
over the radio, “The target is ready for pick up.”

Helen flew the
Black Hawk to the ravine pad and landed using the spotlight at the last minute,
turning it off upon landing.  Matt and Ricky quickly loaded the bound prisoners
onto the black hawk.  Julie tied them all together and drew her knife.  Any
escape attempts would be dealt with using a blade. 

Helen and Julie
flew Ricky, Matt, and the prisoners back to the staging area where they loaded
them into the back of a semi trailer which they locked from the outside.  Ricky
and Matt remained to provide security while Helen and Julie drove two of the
tractor trailers to the site. 

Will, Manny,
Julio, and Stewart put on gas masks and took their time working their way
through the mansion, running the robot ahead of them.  The infrared camera on
the robot spotted two armed men hiding behind furniture in one room.  Stewart
ran the robot into a hall beyond the room and had Julio throw concussion
grenades into the room once it was out of range.  They ran in and double tapped
the men without checking to see if they were still alive or not. 

The process was
repeated several times until the entire house had been cleared.  The staff were
searched, cuffed, blind folded, and taken into the house individually for
questioning.  Rob and Ann watched for another hour then flew back to the
staging area to refuel and interrogate the other prisoners. They sent Helen and
Julie to the mansion with two of the big rigs and went to work on the prisoners
just after they left. 

Within an hour,
Manny and Stewart had located the vaults and all the likely hiding places in
the house.  They cut the vaults open to find tons of precious metals in one and
the expected art and relics in the other.  

Frank ripped
open an outside wall with the tank then tore down the non-load bearing walls
that had been put up to conceal the pathway to the vault.

Once the
tractor trailers arrived and fork lift arrived, they began to move the palates
of metals onto the trailers.  It only took a couple of hours to empty the treasure
into the two trailers.  Matt and Jamie drove the semis back to the staging area
to drop off the trailers and Julie, and Helen pulled drove in two more empty
trailers after leaving a guard watching the prisoners.

While the
others loaded the trailers, Julie and Helen borrowed Manny to look for booby
traps in the ravine's hidden hangar.  They soon had it opened.  As expected,
the hangar was a full Faraday cage.  Inside was a Bell 412, essentially a
civilian model of the Huey, except with four blades.  There were four
retractable wheels in place on the inside of the skids.  They rolled the
chopper out. 

Julie asked,
“Can you fly this thing?”

Helen looked
over the cockpit controls.  “It’s pretty simple.  I don’t see any reason why
not. The keys are here, too.” 

Julie jumped
into the copilot seat looked around and pulled a map out from between the
seats.  “What’s this?”  On the map was a circled spot in a rural area.

Helen said,
“That’s about an hour’s flight from here.  Very interesting.”

Manny took the
tunnel back inside closing and locking the hidden door behind him.  Julie
jumped into the chopper and Helen started it up.  They took off for the staging
area once the rotors were up to speed. 

"Hey,
Julie."

"What?"

"Your dad
said we could keep what we found.  I'm keeping this bird."

"Seriously?" 

Helen smiled. 
"Oh, yeah!"

The artwork and
historical items fit easily into one of the trailers leaving enough space to
load the other three trailers with computers and other possible intelligence,
and whatever any of the team wanted from the house.  There was a small arsenal
that Stewart loaded.  They cleaned out the kitchen and entertainment rooms. 
There was a pantry that could have doubled as a warehouse. 

A final trailer
was packed with as much of the food as would fit, with the rest being left
outside, then Frank took great pleasure in blowing the house to pieces with the
tank.  

Julio asked
Frank, “What about the staff?” 

Frank asked,
“You mean the ones in the vault?”

“You didn’t?”

“Seemed like
the thing to do at the time,” said Frank.

Julio shrugged.
“Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”

“Amen, brother.” 

JULY 30
^th

Rob had
softened the billionaire up most of the day before with questions about the
mansion for which he already knew the answers and didn’t really care.  This
morning he started in asking about the map that Julie had found.  When Simmons
froze up, Rob said, “I guess it’s time to start on your daughter.”

“NO!”

“Then tell me
what I want to know.  What’s at the spot on the map?”

“Nothing, it
was just a plan B location in case everything went to hell.”

“So what’s
there?”

“Food,
supplies, that sort of thing.”

“What else?”

“Nothing!”

Rob picked up
his radio and said, “Bring in his old lady.”

Ann brought
Mrs. Simmons in, still naked and covered in her own urine and fecal matter. 

Rob said,
“Shoot her.”

Simmons yelled,
“No!  Please!  I’ll tell you anything.”

“Okay now we’re
getting somewhere.  If you’re good, I’ll turn you over to the FBI and maybe you
can try your luck with them.  I hear they don’t torture people like I do.”

“Okay, okay. 
What do you want?”

Simmons was
soon spilling his guts about the take-over plan, how he opposed the
assassination of the VP, and more.  He started offering money and Rob dug the
locations of two more caches of precious metals out of him. 

The trucks and
all of the other vehicles except the Apache and the Black Hawk had left for
Flagstaff that morning.  He and Ann loaded the bound prisoners into the Black
Hawk and flew them over the Ocean.  He told Simmons, “Relax, we’re taking you
to the FBI offices in Portland.  You’ll go to jail and they’ll probably let
your wife and daughter go.”

He had Ann take
the controls once they were several miles over the ocean.  He attached each
prisoner’s ankle cuffs to metal ammo boxes filled with rocks and had Ann fly
low over the ocean.  He removed each of their blind folds then grabbed Simmons
by the ear.  “Listen to me you piece of shit.  I tortured you for fun.  I
actually didn’t give a shit about anything you had to say.  I had your daughter
and your wife raped repeatedly by guys with pricks so big I didn’t know they
came in that size.  You ordered a hit on me.  You had one of my men killed, Justin
Wang.  Remember that name?  He was like a son to me.  Here’s your reward,
asshole!”

Rob dragged
Simmons to the side of the cabin so he could see straight down.  He then shoved
Simmons’ wife out the side of the helicopter.  Simmons screamed as she went
under.  Rob then grabbed Simmons’ adult daughter and repeated the performance. 
Simmons just kept screaming. 

Rob pulled him
back in and tied him to the bench.  “You’re not getting off that easy you
worm.”

Ann said over
the headset, “You didn’t tell me he had Justin killed.” 

“Sorry, Ann.  I
wanted my shot at him first.  You guys would have killed him too quickly.”

“You’ve got
that right, sir.” 

“Can I trust
you to fly him back to Flagstaff?”

“No sir.  I’m
killing the mother fucker first chance I get.”

Rob sat at the
controls and took the chopper back out over the ocean at five thousand feet and
said, “Screw it.  You can throw him out as long as you shoot some non vital part
first. I want him conscious and in pain for the fall.”

Ann kissed him
on the cheek and said, “That’s why we all love you, sir!” 

She
disconnected Simmons from the bench and rolled him sideways toward the door. 
She said, "Justin and I were going to end up married someday, you fucking
shit."  She drew her firearm and shot Simmons through one knee, then again
through the other; careful to make sure the bullets would exit his legs outside
the aircraft.  Then she rolled him out the door.  She smiled as she watched his
scream accented fall to the water below.

“Damn, I hope
that hurt!”

Ann said, “I
don’t think you have to worry about that, boss.” 

“Let’s go pick
up the Apache, grab some lunch, and head for home.” 

Once they were
at the staging area, Ann took the Blackhawk and Rob flew the Apache.  Rob said,
"We need to hurry if we're going to catch up with the trucks at the next
fuel stop."  They took off quickly and were on their way. 

Once they
caught up with the trucks, they refueled and flew on to check out the site
marked on Simmons map.  There was a small airfield with a full 10,000 foot
runway and a small crew for security.  Rob fired hellfire missiles at the
occupied buildings from over two miles away, and then flew in fast to wrap
things up with the machine guns.  It looked like there was enough room in the camouflaged
hangars to store a tremendous amount of supplies.  He decided not to fire on
the hangars.  Satisfied that he had killed off all the security, Rob made a
mental note to come back and check the field out with the full crew at a later
date. 

They caught up
with the trucks again and were soon refueled.  Helen and Julie stayed with the
convoy, and he and Ann flew the two choppers back toward Nellis, stopping every
couple of hours to refuel the Apache. 
It’s a gas hog, but I sure do like
it,
he thought, smiling
.