Operation (21 page)

“I suppose,” Reese agreed hesitantly.

“Last chance,” Ritter said, “speak now or forever hold your peace. What’s it going to be Reese? Go or no go?”

For what seemed like a long time, Reese held his breath and said nothing. He could think this scenario to death but he knew it would not change anything. As much as he didn’t agree with capturing the girls and placing them back into the hands of Samantha and the Agency, he didn’t have much of a choice. All he could do was hope for some kind of lucky break. He looked at Barkley who raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner and shrug of shoulders.

Finally he turned to Ritter and said, “Go.”

Ritter keyed his headset and said, “All teams, this is C & C, standby to execute on my mark.”

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“Mark,” said Ritter.

All eyes turned toward the monitors. The team that was in the van covering the rear of the house on the adjoining street moved first. They exited their van quickly wearing urban camouflage, designed for missions inside of city areas. They were armed with M16 rifles and 9MM pistols. Their mission was twofold: They were to locate the air vent for the shelter and then to remain on the rear of the property in the event there was another means of escape to which they would respond if needed.

One man on the team used a metal detector to sweep the ground in order to locate the air vent. Within minutes he had found and uncovered it. Quietly he was assisted by the other men in removing the top exposing a pipe that was approximately six inches in diameter. When it was removed, the platoon commander keyed his headset.

“Team One, ready for phase two.”

“Copy Team One,” Ritter said. “Team Two, go.”

Men exited from the second van that had been parked in the front area of the house. They took up positions around the house forming a perimeter. Their mission was to back up the main team that would enter the house, as well as cover in the event that the suspects tried to escape.

“Team Two in position,” the voice sounded from one of the speakers inside the control van.

“Copy Team Two,” Ritter acknowledged. “Team One, drop the gas.”

“Team One copy. Dropping gas.”

The men poised over the air pipe began pulling pins on tear gas grenades and dropping them down the pipe. When they had dropped the sixth one, they capped the pipe with a non-venting cover which would prevent any further air exchange.

“Gas dropped,” the platoon commander transmitted.

“Copy Team One,” Ritter said. He looked toward the six man group in his truck. They had donned their gas masks and were ready to go. Ritter’s eyes made contact with the platoon commander. “Team Three, go!”

The back of the truck opened and the last team of six men exited and sprinted toward the front door of the home. Seeing the launch of Team Three, two men from Team Two emerged from their positions with a battering ram and approached the door. As Team Three was about to reach them, they used the battering ram to smash the door in. By the time the point man of Team Three reached the door, it was a gaping hole.

“Going in,” the point man said.

“Copy,” Ritter said as he flipped to another screen in the truck that showed the floor plan of the house. “The entrance to the shelter is off of the main bedroom. Go straight down the corridor in front of you.”

“Copy,” the point man responded.

On another monitor, the view from the point man’s transmitter showed the interior of the house as he proceeded through. He passed rooms that joined into the main corridor but saw no one in them. He reached the main bedroom without encountering anyone.

“Access to the shelter is through the closet,” Ritter said.

“Copy.”

The view on the monitor showed the point man approach the closet. He opened the door and was greeted by a wall of smoke that was escaping around the trap door that led to the shelter.

“Confirm gas.”

“Roger. Hold position.”

“Holding position.”

The rest of Team Three joined the point man. They had checked out all of the other rooms on the main floor just in case.

“Team Three ready.”

“Pull the door.”

The trap door was raised by one man as the rest of the team covered the opening. Bilious smoke emerged from the opening and drifted into the house.

“This is where it gets tricky,” Ritter said to Reese and Barkley. He keyed his headset, “Proceed down.”

The point man of Team Three started down the stairs. The view from his camera was like looking at a blank piece of paper due to all the smoke which made it impossible to make out any detail.

“No see,” the point man said, indicating his blindness.

“Copy. Hold position,” said Ritter.

The effectiveness of tear gas in a small and enclosed area such as this would only take a minute or less to have the desired effect on the inhabitants. After three minutes, Team Three set up an exhaust fan at the top of the steps and turned it on. The fan created a huge pull on the air in the shelter and within fifteen seconds the point man, as well as Ritter back in the truck, had a clear view. Neither one was prepared for what he saw.

The room contained nothing more then a sleeping and eating space. In the center of the room was a table. Around the table sat four people. One couldn’t tell their gender because each person wore similar jumpsuits or coveralls, as well as a gas mask. They calmly sat around the table with their hands in an upraised position indicating their surrender.

“C & C,” said the point man, “do you see this shit? Advise.”

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“Oh…fuck me!” Ritter said covering his headset. “How the hell…” his voice drifted off.

“Son of a bitch,” Reese began.

Ritter cut him off. “Well, do you see anything that might indicate they are or ever were here?” he asked Reese.

Reese scanned the monitors again looking for any outward signs that the girls were here, he didn’t see any. There would not be any need for them to be wearing a gas mask because it would not harm them.

“No, I don’t think so. But…what the hell is going on?” Reese said. “They look as if they were expecting us? They have gas masks? No resistance? It’s weird.”

“It sure does, but we aren’t going to get any answers until we talk to whoever these people are,” Ritter said. He then spoke into his headset. “Secure the area and bring them out of there. Let’s find out what the hell is going on.”

The rest of Team Three entered the space and prepared to secure the four people at the table by tying their hands together.

“Hold on,” Reese said, “let’s not take any chances, just in case they might be hiding the vampires by dressing them up. Have the sprayer hit them anyway. We have to be sure.”

“Team Three,” Ritter said, “hit them with a blast from the sprayer.”

“Copy.”

One of the men in the team moved forward with the backpack sprayer which every team possessed in the event they made contact with the vampires. Each sprayer contained the deadly vampire elixir. The man with the backpack unit moved forward and sprayed a stream of solution on each person.

Reese, Ritter, and Barkley stared intently at the monitor waiting to see if there was any reaction to the solution. Nothing happened.

“So they aren’t hiding them,” Reese said. “Let’s get them out of there and see what the hell is going on.” He turned away from the monitor and toward Ritter and Barkley and said, “I don’t know about you, but I am getting a feeling we walked right into something that we were supposed to.”

“Yeah…” Ritter agreed. “It’s as if someone expected us to come looking.
”

“Yeah…someone,” Reese murmured, “someone.” He wasn’t sure if he should be happy about this or not. He was glad that they weren’t there but the detail to which someone had gone to fake this was highly suspicious and very astute.

“Bring them all out,” Ritter said into the headset, “search the entire area for anything that looks suspicious. Anything. And get their damn masks off.”

“Shall we go meet our guests?” Ritter said to Reese.

“Sure, why not,” agreed Reese. “After you,” Reese said to Ritter indicating with his hands the direction to go. Turning to Barkley he said, “Joining us?”

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Barkley said.

They left the van and entered the living room of the house. There four men sat with their legs crossed on the hardwood floor alongside one wall. Their masks had been removed revealing that two of the men were African American and the other two were Caucasian. They sat placidly on the floor staring at their armed captors with a look that surprised Reese. They appeared neither scared nor surprised at what had just happened. Reese studied the look on their faces and came to the conclusion that they looked as if they had been waiting for something and were glad that it was finally over.

He continued his examination. The first thought that Reese had was that they were just average looking regular guys that you would meet on the street. But as he learned very well lately, looks could be deceiving.Barkley tapped Reese on the shoulder and said, “I’ll be over here if you need anything.” He smiled and gave Reese a look that Reese interpreted as all yours—have fun.

“Thanks,” Reese said.

“Good afternoon, Gentlemen,” Ritter began, “It’s so nice to meet you all but if you wouldn’t mind, my associates and I would love to know what the hell you are doing here.”

“Nothing,” one of the Caucasian men said as if he had been anticipating the question. His voice was very calm and level. “We aren’t breaking any laws whatsoever.”

“So do you always do your partying in a bomb shelter?” Reese asked in a sarcastic tone.

“It’s not illegal,” the man responded and then added, “do you always bash into somebody’s house, drop tear gas on them and then tie them up like animals?”

Reese smiled at the response although inside he didn’t like this guy’s rehearsed ambivalence about the situation. This is beginning to smell more and more like a set-up, he thought.

“Look,” Ritter began, “If you ever want to have a social life again, let’s start from the beginning and see if we can get this thing cleared up.”

“Question number one,” Reese began, “who are you and what are you doing here?”

“I’m Sam,” the same man answered. “This is Carl, Leon, and Lester,” he said going down the row in the order in which they were sitting. “We’re watching the place for someone.”

“You have any proof of that?” Ritter asked.

“Yes sir we do,” said Sam confidently. “There’s a folder down in the shelter with all the paperwork in it including a letter that appoints us to be here.”

Ritter indicated for one of his men to go and retrieve the folder.

“Why are you watching the place?” Reese asked.

“Because that’s what we’re getting paid to do,” he said as if the answer had been obvious.

“Paid? What do you mean?”

“It’s our job, or was, until you all busted in. We’re homeless. Normally we hang out at the mission down off of Granby Street while we wait to get any day work. So one night we were just hanging out in the park across from Macarthur Mall, and this guy approached us and asked if we wanted some work. We thought he was joking, you know being easy money and all and having a safe and clean place to live and any of the food in the house that we wanted, but he cleared it with the mission supervisor so we of course we said yes.”

“And your instructions included to have gas masks and to sit in the shelter?” Reese asked.

“Well not exactly,” said Sam. “The gas masks were just sitting on a shelf right there in the open. He didn’t even mention them. We figured he just like to collect weird stuff like that or something. So when we saw the gas coming in, well it was just a natural reaction to grab them and put them on.”

“You didn’t think it was odd?”

“What?”

“The fact that there were gas masks sitting on the shelf?”

“Odd? No man, we didn’t think it was odd,” Sam said and laughed. Most of his compatriots joined in.

“What’s so funny?” asked Ritter.

“We’ve all been through some shit in our lives and we aren’t exactly all model citizens ourselves,” he said for which he received another round of small laughs from each man. “So we didn’t really think about the masks until the gas started coming in and it seemed the logical thing to do.”

“So tell me, what did your mysterious benefactor look like?” asked Ritter.

“He was a white guy. Large build, maybe six feet in height and two hundred pounds. He had dark hair, deep set eyes and his skin was tan.”

“Was there anything odd about him?” asked Reese.

“Well, he had an accent of some kind, sounded like a foreigner who’s been here for a while. You know, he spoke English fine, but he said many words with a different emphasis. I’m not a world traveler or anything, but my guess is European.”

Reese remembered the way Dimitri used to talk. That description could have fit him as well as thousands of other people. Yeah it was a long shot, but it was still a possibility.

“Could you recognize him? Or if you worked with an artist could you describe him well enough?” asked Ritter.

“I guess. I don’t remember real well anymore, but maybe between all of us we could come up with something.”

It didn’t sound promising to Reese.

“What was the reason for you to watch the house?” Reese asked. “What did he tell you?”

“He said he had just bought the place and didn’t know the neighborhood very well and didn’t feel comfortable leaving it empty for a couple of weeks. And then you guys bust into the place so I guess he was right about the people in this neighborhood.”

“Why didn’t you answer the door when we knocked and rang the bell?”

“We’re just watching the place, we don’t have time for the Avon lady,” Sam said again getting laughter from his friends. “And he was quite specific in that we were not to answer it.”

“Why were you staying in the shelter?” asked Reese.