The Krakow Klub (54 page)

“By the way, your White House computer system
is painfully antiquated and can be hacked by any high school nerd
with a little talent. I’m going to provide you with technology that
will be secure
it,
but it will take a while,
so be patient. You’re going to have to develop some new skills.

“Mr. President, you’ve done an outstanding
job during the last few days. You’ve cheated death, put the past
behind you, and become a strong leader. For that, I
sal
ute you. Good show, old chap!”

With that, Jim Slater and John Scott
left the Oval Office and were escorted out of the White House to
their waiting ship. It was, of course, in stealth mode until they
were ready to enter.

President Henry Wilkinson took a deep breath,
gave a big smile to his Secret Service agents, and left the Oval
Office to walk directly to the residential quarters.

He would spend a little time comforting his
wife and then he would return to the Oval Office and the
considerable amount of work to be done. But he was ready for it.
For the first time in years, Henry Wilkinson was in command of
himself and it felt good. He felt up to the job ahead.

If nothing else, he owed it to John Scott to
perform well. That was the least he could do for someone who had
saved his life, indeed, probably his very soul.

For some reason, the Secret
Service Agents accompanying the president both noticed that he
seemed taller than before, and his stride was certainly
brisker.

****

Soon, John and Jim were in the shuttle again,
flying at near maximum speed, headed to Scott Key. After the
briefest of travel times, they arrived at the landing area near the
villa.
John had informed General T as to their
arrival time. Julia and Sylvia awaited them in the warm sunshine.
John was sure that being back on the island would have a healing
effect on them all.

John could see his beloved home with all the
beautiful landscaping and golf course. Bougainvillea and hibiscus
seemed to whisper a soft welcome as they were moved gently in the
soft ocean breeze. He felt a sudden wave of thankfulness and relief
flooding over him.
Finally,
he would be
able to
relax in his new home. Already, he was
feeling the added peace of his island paradise.

He yearned for the calm silence that would
only be punctuated by the cries of curious
seabirds
as they swooped here and there over the water
ever on the alert for their next meal. For the first time, in more
years than he could remember, he said a silent prayer of thanks for
the success of the last few days. Then, he mouthed
other
thanks to his two greatest assets,
Maxxine
and
Maxx.

Far out in space, there were two very
satisfied electronic sighs of relief.

As they exited the craft, Mitch and Akiro ran
up to greet them. Their excitement was
boundless,
and it seemed that they had become fast
friends already. Well, Mitch was in
charge,
and Akiro was more than happy to show her all the respect that she
deserved as the alpha dog.

John and Julia hugged each other
tightly,
and Jim could see tears coursing down her
cheeks. John, noticing them, reached up and gently wiped them away.
He whispered softly into her ear, “I’m
here,
and I’m never going to leave you again. Whatever happens, we’ll be
together from now on.”

Jim smiled at the new and softer side of his
friend’s character. He even looked younger. It was a special and
magical moment that he would never forget.

Then, he stepped off the pathway and picked a
red hibiscus from the nearest bush. He approached Sylvia and
carefully placed the blossom into her hair. She looked up at
him,
and he suddenly knew that the past
was forgotten,
for both of them. All those
years of doubt and regret were gone. Her eyes
sparkled,
and she reached up and touched his cheek. He
took her hand in both of his and held it to his heart.

No words were spoken. Not now. No words were
needed. That keen sense that what had been forgotten
had been resurrected
. It was as if they could read each
other’s hearts and minds again. For a fleeting instant, they were
back on their first date in St. James Park in London. Visions
flashed before
them,
and they
were emotionally transported
back to that day when they
were both overcome with feelings that they had never expected.
Feelings that they could not
share
with any
other person.
Feelings that had blossomed into
love
. It was a moment of tenderness and fulfillment that
would last forever. And they were lucky enough to have found it
again.

Just then, they were interrupted by General
T,
who spoke in an urgent voice, “Boss,
Maxxine needs to talk to you ASAP.”

John motioned
for the
others
to go into the villa and wait for him. “Okay,
Maxxine, what’s going on?”

The usually imperturbable Maxxine was in a
panic. “Sir, we have a problem. It’s the Greenbrier.”

John’s shoulders
slumped,
and he suddenly felt exhausted again. “What’s
going on at the Greenbrier?”

“It’s that psychopath Collins. He should
already
be in
custody,
but I seemed to have dropped the ball on that one. He tried to
detonate the plastic explosives that
he had
planted
around the
hotel,
but they
didn’t work.

“That’s why I wasn’t concerned about picking
him up immediately. Maxx had fixed all the explosives so that they
wouldn’t blow, so I didn’t think that he would present any imminent
danger. Unfortunately, I didn’t predict what he would do. I should
have been more careful with that one. He’s the worst of the
lot.

“Apparently, he’s decided
on
his own
to kill everyone there. He and his men are
surrounding the
building,
and
they are heavily armed
. There are almost three hundred of
them. Congress won’t have a chance. They’ll be mowed down without
mercy. The worst part of all is that these lunatics will be
enjoying it.”

“Maxxine, what about the remotes? Can’t they
protect them? Isn’t there anything that you can do? Have you talked
to Maxx? We need some answers quickly!”

“Sir, there are almost nine hundred people in
there. A single remote can only protect about a hundred of them
from the power of one
M16
rifle, and there are
so
many M16s.
I only have four remote crafts
stationed at the site. I’ve ordered ten others to relocate there
immediately,
but there may not be enough time
to save everyone.

“In the meantime I have tried to put a shield
around the West Virginia Wing to protect them, but there are two
problems with that. First the shield is so large that it is very
weak at any one point and might be
breached
by
a surge of attackers. Secondly, and perhaps worse there are about
ten soldiers, probably guards, within that shield, inside the
building. They are, unfortunately, just as protected by the shield
as the congressmen.”

“Maxxine, how are the guards armed?”

“Each is armed with
an
M16
and a loaded clip of sixty rounds.
Also,
each carries two extra clips. That is a total of
180 rounds per soldier. What do you want me to do?”

Before John could say a word, Maxxine
shouted, “Oh John, they have started shooting!”

“Lethal force, Maxxine, NOW!”

Far
better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor
spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the
gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
-
Theodore Roosevelt

Atrocities always seem to be a part of
all wars
. Human beings are complex creatures,
part rational and part emotional. Humans are further complicated by
the fact that each of those parts is shaped and molded over the
years of their existence by various external forces, some good,
some bad and some just plain evil.

One of the most influential forces a human
being ever faces is war. Being subjected to battlefield conditions
has a profound effect on virtually every participant.
The experience forever scars many
. Others are
affected
in ways that change them forever. Battle brings
out the best in some, the worst in others. It leaves almost no one
unaffected.

The stories of heroism and patriotism that
are used to inspire young men to go to war
are
quickly forgotten
when the shooting starts. Few, if any, are
truly prepared for the horror of a
battlefield. There
is just no way to practice for
the sounds and smells of
death all around. Such conditions often create heroes, as young
soldiers rise to the challenge and do things
that
even they did not know they were capable of
doing.

But from the chaotic horror of war sometimes
comes another creation. A human being
becomes
something
truly horrific
—a beast that is
capable of performing atrocities beyond the imagination of most
normal human beings
.

The war in Afghanistan produced many heroes
and a few beasts. One of those beasts was Captain Steven Collins.
He was a Special Forces officer who spent three tours of duty in
the hell that was
Iraq.
H
e then
served
another three in Afghanistan. He saw things and
experienced things that changed him forever.
He
may
not have been a good
person at
the
beginning of it all, but in the end he was a
beast
who thrived on inflicting death on others.

Whether the beast that Collins would become
was buried
inside him from the
beginning or created
by those wars can never be known for
sure. What is known is that a young American soldier arrived there
with a desire to serve his country by killing its enemies. What
returned, after all
those tours of combat, was
a monster who simply wanted to kill!

Number Eleven had many operatives in
Afghanistan. They were not necessarily officers or even military
personnel. Eleven, knowing human nature, understood that there were
many “invisible” people who could be counted on to gather
information and she used them extensively. Her agents were all
multilingual and were sometimes bartenders, sometimes prostitutes,
sometimes waiters and waitresses in restaurants.

She was forever amazed at how talkative
people could be when they assumed that the low-paid local person
serving them couldn’t understand a word of their language. After a
couple of drinks, many tongues
loosened
and
many secrets were revealed.

Captain Collins was referred to her after one
of her agents observed his actions in a remote mountain village.
His company was looking for Taliban fighters and found an AK47
rifle in a dingy hut occupied by a family of five. The family
pleaded that it did not belong to
them,
and it
had been hidden there by someone else. Collins, who had lost
several men
in
an ambush the previous day, was
unmoved. He had the father, mother, and three children kneel before
him and personally shot each in the back of the head with his
service pistol.

It was
his first time to
commit
cold-blooded
murder. But it would not
be the last time. Collins had become a casualty of the atrocities
of war. Now the world would have to pay the price. He had killed in
cold blood, and he had enjoyed it. It would happen again and again.
Soon, it was a necessary act; he
lived for the thrill
of his next kill
.

Captain Steven Collins
was
recruited
into the folds of the Krakow Klub with the promise
that he would be allowed to pursue his
newfound
thirst for blood in the future. He was carefully
groomed for his role and eventually promoted to the rank of Lt.
Colonel over the next few years. He would eventually
be given
the command of the Scorpion Battalion.

The Scorpion Battalion was not an official
unit of the US Military. On
paper,
all of the
members were assigned to other units. Only General Lew McGowan knew
of the Scorpion Battalion.
As the commander of
ARRCOM, McGowan, had been able to create a special situation fund.
He used it to organize, train and prepare the Scorpion Battalion
for their very special future task.
Collins was given the
authority
to select personally
each of the
nearly three hundred members. He was the
iron-fisted
leader of the
group,
and
his authority was absolute.

Finally, the day came for Collins and the
Scorpion Battalion to prove their worth. They
were
assigned
to the Greenbrier for
Operation
Omega. Omega was a code word for what was
planned to be a mass murder on a scale that would shock the nation.
Of course
that was its purpose
—
to shock the nation.

****

The Greenbrier situation was about to turn
lethal. Lt Colonel Collins had heard of the fighting around the
White House. He sensed
the order
to begin
operation Omega would come
soon,
so he began
his preparations. Calling his company and platoon leaders
together,
he outlined his plan.