"Stand by, please" Joop replied into his microphone and leaned back, sighted deep and closed his eyes for a second.

He bit on his lower lip. How was this possible. He had send in his best men, but two of them got captured. He looked around, and saw Visions worried face expression. He had the headset still on, but it seemed he wasn't listening to it. His thoughts were dwelling somewhere else. Probably at the reports he had to send to Mavrick, Spoofer, Tatooed or even Darkstar. What would they have to say about the handling of the general. He had to say that they lost 1 man in combat, 1 got pulled away in front of the door of heaven, 1 has a severe combat trauma, 2 men got captured and used as hostages, and they still didn't had their Commanding Officer out of the Weapons Cache.

He looked back and saw Joop looking to him, questioning what to do. He swallowed for a second and wanted to press the button to speak, but Method put his hand over the button.

"Permission to speak, sir?"

Vision nodded. He was out of ideas, and it seemed Joop didn't had one either.

"Now, we just have send in Sharpe with Backstabber. Sharpe is a superior officer. His radio has more frequencies, the Sparks, right?"

Joop nodded.

"Can't we not just get everybody out of there, except for Sharpe and Backstabber, and let them do the job?" continued Method, looking to Vision, "The possibility exists, that they don't know that Sharpe and Backstabber are inside!"

Vision hesitated. "We cant afford to lose more men right now!"

"But if we don't do anything now, they will get killed, " jumped Joop in, convinced by the reasoning from Method, "They haven't reported sight to sight, only that there is somebody in the basement, because they found footprints!"

Vision nodded, sighted deep and confirmed.

"Let's do it!"

It didn't sounded too convincing, but he had no choice. He had no leg to stand on. He could choose for a dead CO and 2 soldiers, or for maybe all of them alive. Besides he knew Black Sun was well trained, and he knew they would kill them, no matter what. These guys were not people to mess around with and make deals with, they would stab you in the back, the moment you would turn around.

Joop pressed in the button and spoke to the man again

"Alright, we will give the command to abort the mission!"

Joop swallowed as he could hear the man replying. The man sounded relaxed, as he knew what Joop had chosen.

"Excellent, you made the right choice, my friend!" Joop could hear a slight sarcasm in the words, "We will make sure your friends in here will get out nice and easy, while I keep 3rd and EvilSpark in here, they will be, aswell as your Commanding Officer, in safe hands, unless you don't do what we tell you to do!"

He obviously swapped to an other channel and waited for the order, because the could hear the static pop.

Joop nodded to Vision and gave him a go.

"This is General Vision," Vision spoke into his microphone, and everybody seemed to hear him, "Joop and I have decided we are all going to abort the mission, please everybody note that we work on an Alpha Zeta Protocol, so please make your ways to your exits!"

Joop nodded, and switched to the 369 channel on his radio, and waited till he heard the static pop that would confirm that Sharpe was on this channel

"Clever done, Vision!" sounded the voice from Sharpe through the headsets of Joop and Vision. "But still we need to get the power cut off!"

Method stuck up his thumb, saying that Poacher and Dude had aborted their mission and would leave the building. Vision looked satisfied back to Method and gestured to Joop, who grabbed the plans again.

"What we can do, Colonel," started Joop, " is pretty simple. We can cut the power from the transistor and spread out point, but that's in the lower valley. I can send somebody down to that for you…."

"….Or I could phone ahead and make sure someone from another division do that job, who is closer!" added Vision

"Anyway…" continued the stand-in Commanding Officer, "when ever they done that, the whole building will be without of power, so in darkness, you are depending on the night and heat vision, and off course, your ears!"

"and nose…" said RC-Rally, "…. they are smelly!" he added when Joop frowned.

A smile slide over Visions face, realizing these men wouldn't even lay down a fight and would continue till the fat lady would have sang. He wondered immediately when this nightmare, cause that was quite the expression for this situation, would be over.

"10-4.. " sounded Sharpes voice through the earpieces of Joop and Vision. "We will wait till the power gets shutdown, in the mean time, I want to have a radio silence, in case they can hear us. You know that there might be still one in the basement!"

Joop confirmed Sharpe's request and initiated the radio silence on this channel. Vision grabbed his cell-phone and selected from the speed dial a number, that seemed to be noted with the name 'WitwenMarcher'

"D.O.D. Source, Witwen speaking!" was a voice a few seconds later that sounded through the area. Vision figured out that this might be a way so Joop, Method and RC-Rally could listen as well.

"Witwen, this is Vision!" replied the General of the Army through his phone and didn't wait till Witwen would respond, "We are kinda in the middle of a major issue, and we need your help, well more your divisions help!"

It was no question, it was a demand.

"You see," continued Vision, without hesitation, "AA is in a tight position. Silantia has been taken hostage and as well two of the men that were send in. We have a special need from you!"

For the first time, WitwenMarcher could respond to Vision, "What do you need, General?"

His german accent overruled his English a bit, but Vision seemed to be used to it, where RC-Rally and Method had problems understanding it. Joop had from origin German blood, so he could understand it pretty easy.

"We need you to shutdown the power for Weapons Cache number 4!"

"Roger that, General," WitwenMarcher replied, "It will be done within 5 minutes!"

With a small smile on his face he confirmed and pressed the end-call button. Let the waiting game begin.

--

Sharpe looked down to the floor while he kept listening for any suspicious sound. The only sound he heard were the water drops that fell from the cold pipes on the floor, while the other sound he heard was Backstabber, checking his riffle for any possible dirt that could have come into the trigger mechanism. An other thing they heard was the squeaking of a mouse, running over the floor between the empty crates in the basement. Since the basement wasn't used everything from the basement was transferred to another place in the compound.

Sharpe studied the footprint and decided to make a photo of it with his digital camera. A smile fell over his face if he heard Silantia saying 'that it wasn't a fieldtrip like they had in class' and there was never time to make pictures of the battlefront. Sharpe was more of evidence and every trace could lead them more to the terrorists hide-out.

His cam bleeped as it went on and Backstabber shifted his attention from his riffle and looked to Sharpe who aimed the lens of the camera on the foot imprint and shot the picture. A small flare lighten up the basement for a sec and then the sight returned back to normal. Sharpe checked the picture and found himself happy about the shot. He thought back for a second to old times with people he knew from long ago how they did training sessions through this area.

He shifted his sight to a ventilation shaft, not big enough to put a human in it, but still, it was there. It was on the wall, about the same height as his eyes. All the time it was out of sight so Sharpe, still suspicious as he was, walked to the wall and approached the ventilation shaft out of sight of any possible danger. He pulled the plug and realized how it easy it went. Normally it could have been hard since nobody used the area. Besides of that, the area was realative cold and wet so at least there should have been rust. But again, there was non on the pen.

Sharpe pulled open the vent and looked inside, trials of little wheels were shown in the dust that was normally in the vent. Like a little car would have been in it. Sharpe recalled the ventilations cleaning devices, but none had wheels, they were like tubes, like it was used on a vacuum cleaner.

Sharpe gestured for Backstabber, who came immediately.

"Look at this," he whispered as he pointed to the trails.

"How do these trials come here? They don't look to old!" said Backstabber with a low voice, as he went with his finger in the vent, looking how much dust there was in it. Since there hadn't been cleaned for a while in the basement; everything was dusty, even the ventilation areas in the basement, although ventilation areas should be dusty. That was Backstabbers conclusion about dust and basements.

Sharpe shrugged and kept looking. He grabbed his little flashlight and looked into the shaft that went to the left. He stuck his head through it and looked, but nothing was there. He pulled himself out of it and then rotated his view to the right, but again, he saw nothing but an empty shaft, with some spider web.

"That's a issue we have to deal with later," as he pulled himself out of the ventilation shaft and closed it off again by placing the vent roster in front of the ventilation shaft.

Backstabber walked back to his position and laid his ear on the door, listening for any sounds that could come from the boiler room. The ever humming sound from the boilers were the only noises that came from the boiler room and Backstabber stepped back again, letting Sharpe listen to the humming, but his superior couldn't detect any other sounds.

"This is Joop," sounded it through the ears of the 2 soldiers, "WitwenMarchers men are standby to cut power. They will be doing it on your command!"

Sharpe moved to a corner and talked softly in the microphone, that hang in front of his mouth now.

"Roger that, we will take positions right now!"

Sharpe stood up and checked his riffle once again, not to make sure he had a jam or any other problem with his riffle. Then he looked to Backstabber, to see if he was ready. Backstabber did all his routine before entering a new room as he grabbed a flash bang from his belt, after he checked up his riffle.

Sharpe positioned himself next to the door of the boiler room and waited for a few seconds, in order to make sure he was ready. Adrenaline was running through his body. Obviously more then normal. He lowered his night vision goggles and waited till Backstabber did the same.

After the thumbs-up from Backstabber, he pressed in the button of his radio

"Colonel Sharpe reporting in, ready to clear the basement!"

"On your mark, Colonel!" said Joop, "Vision will send through your command to Witwen!"

Sharpe nodded, but to who, he actually didn't know. Sharpe looked again to Backstabber, and tapped again in the radio-button

"Power off in …."

"10…"

" 9…"

" 8…"

" 7…"

" 6…"

" 5…"

" 4…"

" 3…"

" 2…"

" 1…"

Backstabber cooked his flash bang and Sharpe pushed open the door

"Now…." Sharpe commanded into the microphone and let the button go from his radio.

Backstabber threw in the flash bang and it felt on the floor. A bang was heard as Sharpe closed quickly the door and at that moment the lights went off.

Sharpe pushed the door with power open, and moved inside. Due to the steam, his visibility was poor, but he was certain he saw something moving in the back. Sharpe aimed … and fired …….

--

Sharpe pulled the trigger and a blow of heat struck his face as the bullet left the barrel from the m40. The bullet shot away into the darkness of the boiler room. A scream was heard for a moment and then a body hitting the ground was heard.

Sharpe looked to Backstabber, who grabbed from his belt a flare, pulled the string and lit the area up. He moved inside, while Sharpe covered him, and threw the flare all the way to the back. The iron kettles reflected the light and the area was filled with a dim green light that got a bit dimmed from it's original brightness by the steam of the boilers.

Sharpe moved inside, with his night vision goggles down, and aimed quickly to his right, not expecting anything, but still securing the position. Backstabber followed his example and walked in too. Sharpe pointed to his right and Backstabber moved to the right, while Sharpe took the left side of the boilers.

The secured the area according the way Poacher had learned them. In a quick swift move the front area was cleared, as the flare gave away some extra light. Backstabber moved to the back and leaned in behind the last boiler, detecting a body on the floor, but obvius not dead, since he, or rather she, was moving her hand over the floor, while the other covered the wound Sharpes bullet had made in her body, just above her right breast. Backstabber grinned and crouched, moving the AK-47 away from her body. Then pointing his own riffle to her and looked to her as she crawled terrified to the corner.

"One scream, and you are dead!" he hissed to her and pointed his riffle straight at her head.

"Please don't kill me" she almost cried out

Typical the first question of a civilian. Meaning this girl was actually not a trained to be a spreading-death terrorist.

"Sharpe, one alive here!" he said and Sharpe came around the corner, looking down on the girl.

"She is hardly 19!" Sharpe said as he looked to the face of the girl. He could see the childlike eyes, the fine lines in her face, the make up she was wearing under the dark lines of mud. Sharpe stepped around Backstabber and picked her up, putting her against the wall and checked her for weapons.

Instead of that, he found something else. He found a small plastic device with an antenna on it: a detonator!

"Seems the lady here aint that innocent!" Backstabber mumbled and shrugged at Sharpe.

"Where are the explosives?" Sharpe knew the answer from that question actually at the moment he was asking that. He looked around the room with his night vision on and detected under the 4 boilers that were in the room a small package. He guessed it was C4 and the detonator was the key that had to initiate the entire chain of explosives.

No words came out of her mouth, just a soft cry as tears felt on the ground. She sniffled and Sharpe saw no reason to interrogate her further. He wouldn't get any senseless word out from her, but he wasn't sure right now if she was any threat to him. She had placed down the explosives alright, but he had the feeling she was forced to do it.

Sharpe kneeled down next to the first explosive and cut open with his knife the duct tape around the explosives. It was indeed wired with a remote. No timer. It had a frequency receiver, and Sharpe believed that there was not one, but more then one detonator. This was a simple conclusion, because you wouldn't send a delivery girl down with the only detonator.

Sharpe looked to the wires. He actually smiled. This was made by amateurs. The didn't build in a booby-trap or what so ever to make it explode when you actually cut the wires. He took his little scissor and cut the blue wire, making sure it couldn't explode anymore.

He moved on to the next package and followed the same procedure, while Backstabber, now feeling more relieved because Sharpe didn't made any mistakes, kept his gun aimed at the girl. He listened to her as she was still sniffing. Backstabber almost felt sorry for her, but he was off course aware that she was the enemy.

"Who are you?" she finally said, still sniffing and trying to cover her tears that still rolled in big drops over her face

"The boogie-man, sneaking in the dark and making lives of terrorists miserable!" Backstabber answered, sounding cold as ice.

She made herself as small as possible in the corner and looked terrified to Backstabber.

Sharpe had reached in the mean time the last package and cut the last blue wire, so that there was no threat for now in the basement. He stepped up and walked back.

"What are we doing with her?" Backstabber asked as he looked to Sharpe when his partner stepped back into the view range of Backstabber.

Sharpe thought for a second and looked at her. She was easy to crack during interrogations, but he wondered if they would get anything senseless from her. Sharpe was well known for his interrogations. Together with Dorvalla he could crack any bad guy. That was well known on the base. With Sharpe being edgy and Dorvalla being pushy and still kind, and off course with his knowledge of the human instinct and personalities, they could even crack probably the most worst case scenario villains who never talked.

"Tape her up, tie her and make sure she cant say a word or move. We will come down later when we got what we need and take her in custody. We cant send somebody down now since of the rules they set, and since she isn't high in the food chain in this organisation, she isn't much of a trade!"

Sharpe hoped his reasoning was right about high in the food chain and about her being the delivery girl.

Backstabber took 2 cuffs out of his backpack and placed one set of cuffs on her arms and the other set on her legs, so moving was hard to do, then he took a piece of rope he found in the room and bound the legs and arms together, so even rolling wasn't possible. He already had put a piece of paper in her mouth and used a bit of duct tape to cover her mouth, so she couldn't spit it out.

"Sorry, " Backstabber said as he pushed her in the corner. She struggled for a second, but realized then there was no hope for now to come free.

Backstabber stepped out of the room, so did Sharpe and closed the door.

"Let's get the bastards now!" Sharpe said and walked back to the elevator.