Capt. Jacobson called the number on his display from a secure phone located in his study. The number was a direct line to Colonel Burman. Henry dialed the number and the Colonel answered the phone.
“Hello, Henry, I have another mission for you. This one is a bit sensitive. Assemble your team tonight at the normal launching point; plan on meeting at 8:00PM sharp.”
“Yes sir, see you at eight.”
When Henry got off the phone, he immediately typed into his messaging app “pool party at 2000, usual location.” He sent the message to his team.
At 8PM, the team assembled in their Ft. Brag briefing room. The Colonel was already there and waiting. Once everyone sat down, the Colonel outlined their mission; at least as much of the mission that he felt, they needed to know. “Our objective is to extract a single man from a small town jail in West Virginia. The target is vital to multiple interests inside the Pentagon and the POTUS. As usual for many of your missions, if you are caught, the Government will disavow itself of any knowledge of our operation.” The Colonel continued discussing the details of the mission.
Henry was surprised that the pentagon ordered his team to extract someone inside of United States. DOD frequently called his team for sensitive missions, but rarely inside the United States. In particular, Henry did not like the idea of breaking into a U.S. jail. He knew that if the police caught any member of his team, it was the end of this career, his marriage, and almost everything important to him. Moreover, the public would see this as a public disgrace to the very organization that he was so strongly committed to.
Henry’s Delta squad examined schematics of the jail and the Colonel’s extraction plan. Given the time constraints required to develop the plan, Henry believed the mission to be a passable operation. It included several layers of diversions, surprise, and achieving a relative superiority over the police officers guarding the station. The team would escape by reaching the Cheat River and swimming downstream approximately 20 miles. At that point, the Army would have a helicopter pick them up and take them back to their camp.
Jacobson and his men got their gear together and stowed it on the Hummer acquired for the mission. The car had all identifying serial numbers removed, bogus license plates and all traces of anything that could point back to the military, removed. The team examined each piece of equipment stowed in the Hummer to insure that no one could trace it back to the Army. They attached identifying insignia to the equipment that linked the mission to a militia unit located in West Virginia. The men dressed up in civilian clothes and wore swimming gear under their outer garments.
The car got underway about 8:30PM. It took over three hours for the team to get close to their target in West Virginia. It was 11:45 when they reached their escape point on the Cheat River. The men retrieved the equipment required for the escape, attached an anchor to it, and hid the
gear towards the middle of the river. When they finished hiding the equipment, there was no trace of it visible from the shore.
The driver started dropping the team members off by twos at various points within blocks of the police station. Once each team member was in place, the driver parked the car on the far end of the town near an abandoned warehouse. They packed the car with explosives common to local West Virginia militias. The
y timed the car bomb to go off at a quarter past midnight. The driver then used a bicycle stored on the car to cycle back towards the police station. His assignment was to stay several blocks from the station and keep an eye out for any hostile activity.
The jail was a short extension on a small one-story building that served as the police station. The police had only a light guard at their station and the attached jail. There were several access points around the back of the jail including a loading dock that was located directly next to the extension wing containing the jail. The outside of the building was brick, with bars covering each of the windows.
Jacobson divided his team into three units. The first unit was comprised of two men dressed as bums with the primary function of creating a diversion directly in front of the police station. The second unit’s mission was to enter the police station through the loading dock and neutralize any guards in that area. The final unit, which included Jacobson, was responsible for gaining access to the jail through one of the bar covered windows.
Sgt. Blaylock was sitting at the watch desk when two drunken bums dressed in overcoats entered the police station. They did not appear to be any of the local homeless people. He was about to ask them their business when they started fighting. The other three officers in the large watch room quickly moved to the front of the police station. The four police officers converged on the two fighting drunks.
At about the time that Jacobson’s drunks started their diversionary fight; his second unit broke through the loading dock door. Normally the watch commander monitored this door. However, at this instant the watch commander focused his attention on the two drunks. Once through the loading dock door, the 2-man unit quickly walked over to the door leading into the watch room. They opened the door and tossed several percussion grenades into the room. The police officers immediately shifted their attention to the explosion in the back of their station. The two drunks then threw more percussion grenades towards the two sides of the police station.
The Delta team quickly neutralized the four police officers during the confusion created by the percussion grenades. They tied up the officers and two men stayed behind to guard the front of the station. Jacobson and his partner scaled the jailhouse wall during the confusion and were ready to breach the bars blocking their access to the building.
Jacobson had several special strands of acid yarn specially designed for cutting through steel bars. It has a tube containing fast acting acid that can silently cut through steel in seconds. Jacobson took several strands of this yarn and wrapped it around each of the bars blocking the window. He set the yarn off and it quickly cut through the steel bars. Several of them dropped to the ground with a clang. Jacobson and his partner quickly gained entry into the jail.
Officer Mason, the only guard watching the jailhouse, heard commotion up front and expected someone to attempt a frontal assault through the jail room door. Mason crouched down behind one of the desks with his rifle in his hands, ready for action. Mason did not expect an attack from the rear. Jacobson and his partner, having gained entry into the jail, quickly moved towards the front of the jail. They dropped a single percussion grenade right about 10 ft. behind Mason. Mason quickly dove for cover and turned his attention away from the door. At that instant, two Delta team members rushed through the front door with guns drawn and aimed right at Mason. Mason turned to face this charge Jacobson tackled him and pinned him to the floor. The Delta team tied Officer Mason up.
Jacobson sent several of his men back into the jail to find Oria. It only took them only a few minutes to return. One of them said, “Colonel, we can’t find the TIQ.” (Tango in Question) The team called Jacobson Colonel during the mission to help steer perceptions that a local militia group was responsible for the attempted jailbreak.
Jacobson replied, “What do you mean you can’t find him, he’s supposed to be here!” Jacobson turned to the tied up jail guard and roared at him. “You had a prisoner here named Oria! Where is he?”
The officer in a shaky and frightened voice replied, “I don’t know, he was here earlier today and just vanished!”
Jacobson was furious; he shook the officer and again shouted at him, “You don’t know! Cut the crap, he was here, now he’s not, where is he before I get rough?”
The officer was almost in tears. He replied, “Please don’t hurt me, Oria was here in the third cell on the left with no window. The guard on duty before me said he had checked Oria’s cell, he was there, and 10 minutes later when he came back, Oria was gone with no trace, no sign of forcible entry, nothing. I don’t know where he is. We didn’t do anything with him.”
Jacobson was running out of time and he thought the guard was telling the truth. He had to get his team out before reinforcements showed up. Jacobson gave his team orders to vacate the jail. The men quickly left and headed towards the river.
It was only a 10-block run to the river. Jacobson’s men covered the distance in less than 5 minutes. The spotter joined the team at the river
Jacobson and his team silently jumped into the water and swam out to where their gear was stowed, just under the surface. Fortunately, it was still intact. The most important pieces of equipment were the submersible flotation units that would assist them on their 20-mile swim down river through rapids and other obstacles.
The police put out an APB (All Points Bulletin) on a small militia unit that had broken into the jail and tried to extract Oria. The Sheriff was furious when he heard of the failed attempt and extra mad when he found out that Oria had actually disappeared even earlier that day. When he got to the jail and saw his men, he lit into them. There was no excuse for letting a group of bungling local militia taking out his well-trained officers. He was particularly mad since, in just the past year, he had obtained Federal funding for his men to get training on counter terrorist measures aimed at stopping hate crimes of local militia units.
Jacobson and his men began their long swim down the Cheat River. The river was high and fast moving. His team was going to have a rough swim. When the Delta team had gotten several miles from town, they broke out rubber rafts. The rafts would be vital if they were to make it down some of the rapids alive. The river was unusually rough for this time of year.
At the agreed upon rendezvous point, the Delta team was picked up by an old military helicopter. The chopper briefly paused and Jacobson’s entire team jumped aboard the aircraft. The police scanners on board the chopper were picking up the police activity generated by their raid. It seemed that the only part of the mission that was successful was that the police actually believed a local militia carried out the attack.
10:00 PM: Oria Intercepts Karen’s Ship
Oria was sitting quietly in his study when Captain Borella’s voice boomed over the intercom rousing Oria from deep thought.
“Admiral, it appears that your friend Major Brown is commanding a small shuttle with 5 other crewmembers. It looks like they are headed towards the Earth space station.”
“That’s interesting. We could use a group like them to complement Ratface’s crew. Have Ratface and yourself meet me in my briefing room in about 15 minutes.”
Oria considered intercepting Karen and her crew. He hoped to persuade them to help him further the mission. It was clear to Oria from
the past week’s events that he needed more input from people on Earth.
Oria strode to his briefing room where Captain Borella and Ratface were waiting for him. Oria looked at Ratface and said, “Hello Ratface, I take it that you and your team are starting to settle in?”
“Yes Admiral, everyone is doing fine. Of course, the free beer didn’t hurt.”
“Then it sounds like Lt. Halepo is treating you and your team well.”
Ratface grinned, “Yes sir. We were just getting ready to break into the vintage space brew.”
Oria replied with a slight laugh “I see it won’t take your team long to fit into their new accommodations. Enough of the small talk; I need your input on another issue. It appears that Karen has entered orbit in one of your shuttles. I was considering intercepting them and trying to recruit them into assisting us reach the appropriate people in the Pentagon. What are your thoughts on that idea?”
Ratface paused for a moment and then said, “Hmm, I guess you could do that. Karen certainly has a few connections in the Pentagon. Also her recent encounters with you have left her better known than is good for her career.”
Oria interrupted and said, “I think I know where you’re going with that. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time. As I mentioned to you on our first meeting, we have only about a year to build a defense against the Creytes.”
“Yes I know. It’s not an easy shift to make from being nice and considerate to being constantly focused on survival.”
“That is precisely the point. If I can’t help someone like Karen make the shift, who can I help see the problem? There won’t be much of a United States once the Creytes take over.”
“I think you will need me on hand when you zap her aboard.”
Oria smiled, “Thanks, in this case we probably won’t zap them aboard. We will intercept their ship and pull it into one of our docking bays. I agree that it would be much better for you to be on hand when she comes aboard.”
It was about 10:30PM and Karen was still deep in thought reflecting on the past couple days events. She knew there was more to Oria than what he had let her in on. She was planning to give him a piece of her mind. She was upset that he allowed her to fall for him without being straight with her. The more she thought about him, the madder she got. As her anger mounted, the shuttle’s sensors went blank. Nothing appeared on the radar, the radio was dead, and there was nothing but darkness outside of her window.
Captain John Foster yelled up to Karen, “What’s going on? Everything’s gone dark!”