(The Raid)
(West Texas)
K-Mart shaded her eyes and watched until the pair of helos was out of sight.
"Remember," she whispered to herself, "you promised." She shook herself and turned to her waiting team.
"We're burning daylight. Let's go."
A small figure came running towards the young woman. She smiled and knelt on one knee with her arms open. Becky flew into her arms. The little girl combined words and signs.
"Are Mommy and Daddy going to be alright?"
"Of course sweetie. They promised they would."
"You're leaving?"
"Uh-huh. And you are too Becky. The plane is leaving shortly and Eliza is going with you. Her mom is helping watch your brothers and sisters and soon you will be with them too."
"Be careful. I love you." Becky signed.
K-Mart signed back. "I love you too." She stood after another long hug. Eliza was standing there to take Becky's hand.
"You DO be careful," the Latina girl half-seriously, half-teasingly told her friend. "I don't want to break in a new team leader."
"Count on it."
(Over the Greenbrier Resort)
"Ah, roger that Control. Coming around to heading 130. On final approach now."
Alice gave a grim smile. She looked back over her shoulder at the passenger compartment of the Umbrella helo and nodded. Carlos nodded back and winked at his wife. Then he and the rest of the group carefully stretched as much as possible and gave their weapons a final check over.
They had decided that unlike the attack on Umbrella Headquarters in Tokyo years back that this time the only subterfuge they would use was to pretend to be one of the helos returning from Texas. The information they had gathered from the crashed choppers that had made the mistake of tangling with Sam, coupled with the intelligence Mikey and Stan had put together through electronic sources and prisoner interrogation had given them a pretty complete picture of what they were facing.
And what they were facing was no where near the level of security and expected resistance they had experienced in Tokyo. The self-titled US Government in residence at their target had survived the apocalypse by simply running and hiding out. There may have been a few lower echelon Secret Service personnel and Capitol Police but practically no one who had been identified had been important enough to have a personal protection detail. It had also been confirmed that the Umbrella personnel on site were comprised solely of the London office's higher-ups, all of whom were used to being protected by someone else. Of course they had left those some ones behind at the mercy of the undead that still reportedly infested the vast London underground.
"That's something we may have to think of a way to deal with sooner or later," Jill had commented. "Most major cities have untold miles and miles of tunnels and underground chambers, both used before the collapse and abandoned. The older the city the more places there are. Heck, just the storm drains and utility conduits under New York total hundreds of miles. We know that the infected break down in the sunlight, recent studies by the University confirm it. So they're hiding."
"Well, sufficient under the day is the evil thereof and all that," commented Jennie. "One thing at a time."
"True," agreed the former STARS officer as she inspected her MP5, chambering a round and flicking the safety off.
Sam steadied the chopper as a large roll-up door concealed in what appeared to be a blank rock wall appeared and began to open. A man ran out and used hand signals to guide the pilot the last few feet and gave a cut sign as soon as the helo touched down. The man pointed at the cabin and then indicated that the passengers were to get off and then help push the helo inside the opening.
Plans had been made to simulate wounded on board and carry some of the raiding party on stretchers. Sam had reported, to his surprised, that the people giving landing clearance had not asked about casualties or any need for medical assistance.
Chris had snorted. "Better than almost anyone Sam you should know that Umbrella doesn't give two hoots and a Highland fling about its personnel. Mission accomplishment is all that counts." Sam nodded.
The ground guide waved his arms again.
"Seems excited doesn't he?" remarked Emily.
"Probably close to quitting time or something," her partner Jennie supplied.
"Shall we?" asked Alice.
Helmets were pulled down and adjusted. Weapons were slung but trigger housings were only inches away from hands ready to grab them. Jill pulled the side door open and except for Sam and Claire the party hopped down.
"About time," grumbled the man waiting. "Get moving. Push. I don't like being outside. No telling dangers are lurking out here."
"It was on the tip of Carlos's tongue to inform the man that he was much closer to imminent danger than he could have imagined but he bit his tongue. That would unfold soon enough. They pushed the helo into the opening and the gate rumbled down behind them. Lights sprang on.
Slapping a pair of leather gloves against his thigh in impatience a man in the uniform of a senior Umbrella military officer. Not bothering to greet the supposed returned raiders he jerked his head towards a door.
"Come on. The Chairman is waiting for you and he does not like to be kept waiting. Oh and that blithering idiot who thinks he's President of the US and in charge is there too. It's about time we disposed of those poseurs and took complete and open control."
"Just like Umbrella," thought Alice. For a moment she wished that Angie was along to telepathically pass information. Or K-Mart. Her daughter's mental abilities had increased with training although of course they would never match Angie's astounding capacities. But at short range K-Mart could "speak" to both her and her father. Still, much safer where they both were and it didn't take a telepath to know the entire party was on the same page.
The team passed through several doors and down stairs and traversed a couple of long corridors. They didn't see any other armed personnel until they reached a pair of ornate doors that must be their destination. A pair, no three, men in worn suits, scuffed shoes and frayed ties stood guard there. As a former Treasury agent Alice decided they were Secret Service. They didn't look happy. Not that there really WAS anything to be particularly pleased about in this situation but generally protection detail agents kept their emotions under control better than that. Alice was willing to bet that there were most likely no more than a dozen agents all told in the entire complex.
Behind her one way face shield she gave a grim smile. She was indeed bettering on that; betting the lives of her husband and closest friends that the guard force here was extremely small and that their team could over match it in one unexpected assault from inside the complex.
There was one more thing. The single survivor of the Umbrella helo attack on the Texas facility had confirmed what Stan and Mikey had already pretty well deduced; that the Umbrella occupiers of Greenbrier had basically no reserve forces at their control. If they could handle what was behind the doors now being opened for them than it was likely that they could finish this in one rapid blow at the center. Much easier than fighting their way to Chairman Weskler's sanctum had been in Tokyo. She took a deep breath.
Immediately behind the Umbrella officer Alice led the way in, followed closely by Carlos and then Jill and Chris. One of the probable Secret Service agents held up his hand to stop the rest. His face was worried, as were the visages of his two compatriots. The very slightest nod from Alice indicated that the others were to remain outside. The doors closed.
Behind her face shield Alice quickly examined the room. Just as she thought. The semi-circular table had at its center a lounging figure that she recognized from a recorded Umbrella facility chiefs' video conference she had found in the White Queen's archives. He called himself the chairman now but he was not even the European head of the corporation but merely the head of the London office. Well, modesty had never been a particular virtue for any Umbrella executive, all of whom still seemed full of their own importance even though their stupidity and greed were responsible for the near-extinction of the human race. And apparently they had learned nothing from it.
Sitting off to the side she recognized the self-appointed President Carl Anheuser. He didn't look happy and she could guess why. Obviously he had been shunted off to the side and his power, which really had only been in the complex alone, was now non-existent.
The officer who had greeted them swaggered up to the so-called chairman and saluted.
"My people have returned sir."
So that was how he was going to play it Carlos thought. Pretty standard Umbrella. This poser never left the safety of the complex but was going to claim the responsibility for any success achieved by "his" people. He wondered if the guy was going to accept the blame because from the almost imperceptible tightness he saw in his wife the dance was about to start. And then the officer opened it himself by turning and scowling.
"Take off your helmets. Who do you think you are? Remember who this is!"
Perfect. Alice tossed her helmet to one side, as did her three companions.
"My name," the woman in front declared proudly, "is Alice. And I remember everything."
For a moment stunned silence held the room in check. Then the Umbrella officer cursed and tried to draw his sidearm. His pistol made it no more than half-way out of its holster when shots from Jill and Chris sent him flying backwards. Other Umbrella personnel rose from their chairs and attempted to shoot. None of them made it.
At the first shots the Secret Service agents outside reached for their weapons. They were covered instantly by the rest of the party. Emily tossed off her own helmet.
"Don't be rash guys. We're after Umbrella, not your so-called president or his advisors. Don't take a bullet for no reason."
The eyes of the oldest agents widened. "Emily Prentiss? You are, were, FBI."
"I was until I was kidnapped by Umbrella and held by them after a raid on a human trafficking ring they operated went wrong. I was freed when Umbrella Headquarters in Tokyo was stormed and destroyed. Now I'm a citizen of the Free State of Alaska."
"Umbrella HQ is destroyed?" blurted out one of the other agents. "Those guys in there," he motioned towards the conference room, "said that Umbrella would be bringing massive aid to help the government restore the United States."
"Well duh," Jennie said scornfully. "They lied."
One last very loud shot resounded from the main room. Chris stuck his head out. "All clear. Come on in." Looking at the agents he continued. "You guys should come in too. It's all over."
Everyone filed in. Immediately it became obvious that Umbrella was out of business. The "Chairman" slumped in his chair, looking very surprised at the four bullet holes in his chest.
"Idiot would try to sneak a pocket pistol out after all of his cohorts went down and he thought we weren't looking," Jill nodded towards him.
"Okay folks," Alice said briskly. "Let s talk. Stan, she turned to the Alaskan National Guard officer," would you do the honors?"
"Ladies and gentlemen," Stan started, "welcome to the brave new world."
Knowing that this would take a while the group left Stan along with Alice and Carlos for support and wandered down to the mess hall along with the Secret Service agents, who were shortly joined by their off-duty colleagues.
"So just what is going on up there?"
"Your president is having the facts of like explained to him," Jill said. "Without being mean spirited let's face it; there is no United States of America anymore. It and as far as we know all the rest of the world's national governments are gone."
"I'm afraid we don't know much at all about the world as it stands," admitted the senior agent whose name was Tobias. "Just that the new arrivals from Umbrella told us grim tales and promised unlimited support."
"The first is true no matter how horrific the stories are. The second is BS. Umbrella has pretty much collapsed. Their corporate HQ was taken out a few years back. The ones that showed up here ran from the London facility. There's no help to be had from them."
"Thank God for that," Tobias sighed in relief.
"Would you care to explain that?"
"Things weren't great here but until Umbrella showed up they weren't too bad. It was under their urging that the rump Congress started passing all those laws and regulation. Anheuser had been in charge but it was then he started calling himself 'President'. And it quickly became obvious to us, and I think to him as well, that they were actually taking over but we didn't have the numbers or firepower to stop them."
"Well stopped they have been."
"Good."
Chris was still wearing his headset and of course Tobias had his earpiece in. Both answered a transmission at almost the same instant. They looked at each other and then at the rest of the gathering.
"Well," Chris said, "hopefully they have things hashed out up there. We're all summoned to the main room."
"Uh-huh," the FBI agent grunted and stood up. "For the first time in a very long time I feel hopeful."
"Well, let's go find out."
(To be concluded)