I can get us back to the entrance if that is what you are asking.
“Good, because I’m completely lost.”
The humming became louder the deeper they traveled through the shaft; they must be near the generator. The point man held up a fist and illuminated with his flashlight a metal grate in front of them. The rest of the squad stopped and knelt down.
“Is that the drop-off point?” Roen whispered to Morgan.
Morgan took out the GPS and checked the coordinates. He nodded. Immediately, the men began to shed any excess gear they were wearing. From this point on, it was guns and ammunition only.
Roen stared at the grate. This was the point of no return. During the meeting, Intelligence had estimated that there most likely could be up to two hundred personnel. That was twice their number, but hopefully with their element of surprise, it would be enough.
Two men picked up the heavy grate and moved it to the side. Another agent took out a small probe and scanned the room below. When he finished, he moved to Roen and Morgan to report his findings. “It’s the back storeroom, all right; no heat signatures, just boxes and crates. No motion detectors or cameras either. We’re looking at a six-meter drop to the floor.”
“Shouldn’t the other squads have started by now?” Roen asked. “We should have heard shots.”
“There might have been some delays getting into position. We all move when Stephen’s team is ready,” Morgan said. “But this is our go-no-go point. Get the rope ready to drop down but we won’t move unt…”
A loud bang punctured the air, followed by a series of other rapid bangs. In the distance, the muffled sound of an explosion shook the walls around them. Thick dust sprinkled down, covering them.
“Get the rope lowered,” Roen snapped. “I want us down there in thirty seconds.”
Easy there, General Patton. Remember, a leader always stays in control. Do not let your emotions get the best of you here.
One of the men lowered a long rope, and the team shimmied down one at a time. Roen watched as twenty men dropped down with catlike quickness and formed a defensive perimeter. Roen went down almost as fast, though he almost lost his grip midway down. His heart was pounding as he dropped to the floor and took up position behind a crate.
Somewhere in the distance, a muffled explosion rocked the base and a siren began to blare. Shouting and footsteps added to the cacophony. Roen ran through his pre-fight mental checklist, checking his clip and making sure the safety was off. His mind raced and he worked at keeping his breathing steady. The squad waited with professional patience for the signal to move. Morgan looked at him, waiting for his go.
Give it another sixty seconds.
Those sixty seconds felt like an hour as Roen counted the time out. Another explosion shook the base again. And then another. “Fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six…”
Now!
Without any hesitation, Roen stood up from his hiding spot and waved his arms forward. “Move, move! Weapons hot, we’re going in!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: THE ASSAULT
After the turn of the twenty-first century, man has evolved to such a point where the Quasing can no longer treat man as errant children. The recent development of the Penetra scanner has raised new concerns for our safety. Now, for the first time, we can be detected by humans. It is a powerful weapon for either side in the war, but even more importantly, if it falls into the wrong hands, it has the risk of exposing us to those not involved with the Quasing. Now is the beginning of the end. Human and Quasing fates are converging. With the Penetra scanner, humans will soon learn that they are not alone. How will they react to us?
The door opened a sliver, just large enough for the scope to scan the outside room. The agent held his hand in the air in a closed fist pointing forward and waved it from side to side. Immediately, the door swung open and the others poured into the next room.
Morgan put a hand on Roen’s sleeve as he rushed forward and shook his head. “Commanders go last.”
There are different sets of rules for leading and following. As a leader, your safety comes first.
“I don’t want them to think I’m a coward.”
This is your first command. Your men will value your judgment more than your bravery.
Roen and Morgan were the last to walk out of the storeroom. They entered a deserted industrial-sized kitchen with food still cooking over the stove top. Two Prophus agents were stationed at the double door at the far end, and the rest were scattered throughout the room. Morgan walked up to one of the boiling pots and turned the fire off. “They’ll set fire to this place if they’re not careful,” he muttered.
Roen looked at the row of ovens cooking different varieties of meat and frowned. “That’s an awful lot of food to cook for a midnight snack.”
“Probably operating on American time,” Morgan said. “That’s where most of the major action is these days, and if you’re holed up in a cave, it doesn’t matter what time zone you’re in.”
Roen did a fast inventory of everything being cooked and looked back at Morgan. “There must be several hundred men here. That or they’re feeding a professional football team.”
Morgan nodded and turned to one of the agents. “Daniels, stay in the rear and establish communication with the other teams. We should be out of radio silence now. All right, gentlemen, our primary objectives are the control room and the security cells. Once we gain control of those facilities and free the delegates and the princesses, we’ll work our way forward and jump these bastards from the rear.”
Roen ordered the two men at the door to scope outside and signaled for the others to gather around. Morgan stood by and watched as he gave the proper signals. “You sure you never led a team before, sir?” he asked with a wry smile as Roen walked by.
“Just cover for me when I screw up,” Roen replied, lifting his gun and following the last of them out the door.
They filtered out to the main corridor with half the squad on one wall and half on the other. Roen took the right flank and stayed low as they moved in a double line down the hall. The walls were made of cement blocks, painted dull white. It reminded him of the hallways in his high school. There were even lockers lined up at the wall. The florescent lights added a touch of the surreal as the group of hunched-over men, dressed in black, skittered forward like oversized centipedes.
One of the agents pointed at a camera in the corner and another pulled out a pistol with a silencer. He took aim and destroyed it with one shot. In the back of his mind, Roen ran through all the things that could go wrong. Were they going to be late? What if his team was out of position? Those fears overrode his usual strong sense of self-preservation.
“We need to step it up!” he growled. “We have men depending on us.”
Easy there. We are on schedule.
“Are you sure? The noise of fighting has been going on for a long time now.”
You really have no internal clock, do you? It has only been three minutes. We will engage when ready.
Daniels, standing next to Morgan, spoke up. “Sir, group communication has been established; all except Delta team are in place. They are reporting heavy resistance at their entry point. They are unable to advance.”
Delta is Dylan’s team.
“Tao, Delta’s objectives are the main hallway and securing the scanner, right?”
I see you were not completely asleep during the briefing.
“I take my breaking and entering very seriously. Are we close to them?”
We are not too far away. It is on the west side one level down. His team’s objective is crucial.