Chapter 52
Any sign of the Chinese destroyer?" Lt Commander Burk asked Wright as they stood in CIC undamaged by the missiles as they had hit the Henan. Their plan so far had worked. They were now monitoring the signal of the sinking ship and for any signs of further attacks.
Henan's gone, sir." He confirmed. Lt Commander looked Tom and Meylan, before skating a look over at Granderson and Mike who stood at navigator's station.
They bought it." Lt Commander Burk said looking to Tom, the small victory was that it wasn't them sinking to the bottom of the bay but it didn't change the grim state of affairs before them.
You were right, Sir. They wanted you dead so bad, they tried to kill us all." Meylan said Tom, the sinking of the Henan proved everything they knew to be true. So any lingering doubts anyone had about the information about the camps and America being disbanded into sovereignty territories were gone.
"As long as we stay more than 40 miles off the coast, we'll stay dead. In the meantime, Captain Slattery and I will lead a land team, identify Castillo's CoG." Tom told them, reiterating the plan they had set out.
"TAO, show us the results of your microwave scanning." Mike ordered, the man gave a nod and moved to his station and brought up a map of San Diego coastline.
"Yes, sir. These are the areas with the most activity. That one's not far from the Navy base. Could be a command center." Lt Commander Burk said as he moved to the nav's station and circled an area on the map for them." Lt Commander Burk said, they all looked at the screen.
"Lot of chatter... Anyway we can listen in on those comms?" Mike asked as he was looking over at Granderson as Comms was her strength.
I'm on it, sir." Lt Granderson said.
"What is this place?" Ravit asked looking confused by the location. It looked like an industrial area yet the configuration of personnel and what was being moved around was perplexing. It was more like the defences were facing inward than outward, like they were trying to keep whatever was inside the complex than worrying about an attack.
"That guy who owned the shop in one of the ghost towns said they loaded his food into shipping containers. Maybe that's what it is; a warehouse, a distribution center." Oscar said as he peered past her shoulder.
"By the looks of all of those "Peacekeepers," I'd say you're right. Castillo's hoarding his stash and doling it out to his people as calories for their hard-earned labour. " Jed said but he frowned as he could see exactly what Ravit was.
"Why don't we steal it back?" Oscar suggested.
"That would be a good plan but it's strange that their outer perimeter isn't well guarded." Ravit said with a frown.
"Well, they are just too relaxed in their victory. It will make it easier for us." Oscar said.
"Army, Navy, Marines, there's even some Coast Guard down there. Versus the three of us. Not the best odds, but we can handle it. Ravit, you and I are gonna scout the place, see what we can find. Oscar; you watch the front... shift changes, patrol patterns, anything like that." Jed said.
"On it, don't do anything stupid like get caught." Oscar told him.
Ravit and Jed moved through the shipping containers on the outskirts of the compound, they slowly split up to cover more ground and Ravit continued on north while Jed went south. She was surprised at how lively the compound was given the hour. It looked like the work never stopped as trucks drove by and personnel walked like they had a fire under their ass. Something was going on, what it was? Ravit had no clue.
She slowly stopped at the final shipping container and peered out to see where she could next take cover. She moved back into the shadows as a truck drove past. Just as she was about to make her move a hand covered her mouth. Instinct kicked in, she used her weight and pulled down and punch back before throwing her attacker to the ground. She kept a hold on his arm pulling it hard as she pressed her knee onto his head.
"Ah It's me. Hey. Hey. Hey. It's me." Burk said in a pained tone, tapping the ground. Ravit pulled her knee off his head, dropped his arm and stepped back. Her hand hovered on the side arm strapped to her thigh.
"I almost broke your arm." Ravit hissed angrily at him, she was relieved he was alive. She wanted to kiss him but at the same wanted to kick him in the kidney for sneaking up on her. She pulled her side arm as she heard movement to her left but relaxed as it was Miller. The big goofball was sniggering.
"Stop laughing Miller." Burk grouched as Ravit helped him to his feet before she holstered her side arm and picked up her other weapon.
Jed's heart hammered in his chest, a good sign that he was too old to be a soldier and too many days had passed since he was one. He'd finish what he came to do but once he sought revenge for his son's death and saved his grandkids and Rachel- Well he was retiring for good. He paused at the edge of a container and closed his eyes; taking a moment. He turned around the edge with gun ready incase he encountered a soldier from the base but instead he came face to face with his son.
"Tommy?" Jed whispered in disbelief and relief. Tom looked at him just as confused and relieved, he was flanked by three men and a woman, their faces obscured by the shadow of the shipping container.
"Dad?" Tom asked with a surprised smile, they closed the space between them and hugged briefly before pulling apart. Both understanding they weren't in the right place or time to discuss this.
"I thought you were dead, Son." Jed said with a smile of relief. Tom's companions took up more defensive positions as they could talk.
"What are you doing here?" Tom asked him.
"Making noise, stealing food-" Jed stopped mid sentence as he looked past Tom to look at the woman who moved into the light. "Sasha?" he breathed in disbelief, tears welled in his eyes as he couldn't believe his daughter was here- alive and well, she looked just like Peggy but fiercer. He had been afraid he'd never see her again since it had been years but here she was.
"Hey Dad," Sasha said with her own closed lip smile. Jed moved past Tom to his youngest daughter and without thought pulled her into his arms. It had been too long since he held his daughter. Even with the awkwardness of Kevlar and weapons it was the best hug he'd had all day.
"I missed you so much." He breathed in her ear before he pulled back to get a closer look at her. He smiled fondly. "Just beautiful and deadly as your mother." He teased.
"Doing my best." Sasha replied as she tried to keep her emotions in check. This was not how she wanted to reunite with her father but was so glad he was here.
"So someone want to tell me what you're all doing here?" Jed asked turning back to the others and looking to Sasha for answers.
Samantha laid in her cot staring at the ceiling of her isolation room. She had no idea what was in the green mist she kept inhaling but so far she seemed fine. 'Fine' being a relative term given she was a prisoner and the green mist made her pass out and wake up with a fierce head ache. She knew she should sleep but found herself restless.
So she rose from her bed, and moved around the room. She already knew the room, she'd studied it well enough to know she couldn't escape it. The air vents were too small, there was a window but the glass was heavily glazed as it hadn't broken when she'd tried to smash it with the lid off the toilet's system. There was only one door to the room, there was no handle on the door, no electronics on the inside of the room for her to hotwire. Nothing, the only way out was to get someone to come in, that didn't work so great given the guards came equipped with tazers and came in teams of four.
She'd yet to discover a weakness she could exploit. Well, there was one; when they took her to the room to test the green mist on her. Obviously when she was unconscious was when they got lazy. So somehow she needed to learn not to pass out which she hadn't mastered just yet.
"So, this Chinese ship you, what, put it on cruise control?" Jed asked Jeter as they were back outside the complex a safe distance that they could talk freely. Oscar had met up with Mike's team and was brought to the same location. They'd been swapping information and Jed was getting them up to speed on how he, Ravit and others had escaped the round up and managed to kidnap the President. But now, Jed was listening to how the James had fooled Castillo into thinking the Nathan James was sunk. It was rather ingenious.
"Something like that, sir." Jeter said in a self effacing manner.
"Master Chief's being modest. This was his plan." Mike told Jed.
"Good work, we have the President safely tucked away. He's on our side, so if you got a plan; I'd like to hear it." Jed told them, Tom was about to fill him in when he saw Ravit come out of the shadows with Miller and Burk.
"Looks like we all had the same idea." Ravit commented as she, Miller and Burk rejoined the others.
"That we did." Tom said with a wry smile as Burk was covered in dirt and looking a little disgruntled while Miller looked amused. She moved to stand beside Jed obviously not pleased with Burk but there wasn't time to get into it. Ravit's no nonsense manner said she wasn't ready for group therapy over it either.
"So, this is Castillo's center of gravity. " Mike said not wanting to waste time.
"Yes, we think it's food but there's something a little off by the looks of guards schedules and formation." Jed told them. Tom nodded as they'd surmised the same thing. The concentration of guards were inside the facility while the outside had a skeleton crew. It made their lives easier as they could move in close and check out the exterior without any real problems. But it did seem off for protecting food.
"We were hoping to find a resistance force." Tom said.
"You're looking at 'em." Jed told him, Tom gave nod; he could easily bench his father and friend but he needed them and while they might be retired. They knew the lay of land and had more field experience than Tom and many of the others in the group.
"Well, let's get to work. Burk, Dad, Miller ... I want you to set a perimeter, motion sensors, bells on a string, whatever we got. Green, Master Chief... Establish a comms hub up on that rooftop. Nathan James is in EMCON, but she'll be listening in. Wolf, Bivas find me a nice, empty building we can drop loudly. That'll draw the bulk of their forces away when we make our move. Mike, Sasha... You're on recon. All right, let's move." He told them.
"Ok, here we go." Kara said as she turned the radio on while simultaneously keeping Frankie's hands out of radio gear work. Last thing she needed was Frankie pulling it apart or worse eating a battery. Well, maybe it was unrealistic of her to think her near 4 month old daughter would have the dexterity to do so but Kara wasn't taking any chances.
She could've waited for Frankie to go down for a nap but she was too anxious. This was the second time she'd pieced the machine together as the first attempt failed. But in her defence she was going off something she read over 5 years ago. She adjusted Frankie in her lap and wrapped an arm around her middle. Once Frankie was secure, she took a deep breath and exhaled as this was the moment of truth.
She picked up the phone receiver and listened, a grin forming on her face as she heard the static and garbled voices. It seemed like the radio couldn't pick up one signal but underneath all the garbage noises was a distinct sound which was patterned and sounded like morse code.
"Is it working?" Lena asked her, Kara nodded.
"Yes, do we have pen and paper?" Kara asked her.
"Sure do." Lena said rushing to get it.
"I was out when they rounded everyone up. Been on the run since, lost Kara in trying to get the message to you, don't know where they took her." Jed said to Tom and Danny, they were waiting for Mike and Sasha to come back. Jed looked guilt ridden over the loss of the families and Kara. Tom had already reassured him that everything was ok, that he did his best but Tom knew Jed still carried the guilt of losing Darien.
"What about Frankie?" Danny asked Jed.
"She's at the camps, I assume Frankie was rounded up with the Slatterys and the others. I wish I'd been there." Jed said, he truly did as they had no real clue as to what was happening to the families or what condition they were being kept in. Only that they were being held and well guarded and fed.
"It's ok, you're here now and the intel your friends are gathering will be invaluable." Tom told him, Jed nodded as it was true. They hadn't managed to tap into the signal Will's people used but then it was so low tech and inland for Nathan James to tap in. Tom knew whatever Will's people learned would help them. But he like many of the crew had a bad gnawing feeling in their gut. They all desperately wanted their families.
"Hey, think I found that General Bradley we were supposed to report to. He's the one that we need to lure Castillo out." Mike said as he came up to them. Tom was about to ask about it when Sasha returned.
"Fellas, we might have read this situation wrong. Food's not being stored, it's being shipped. I found train tracks running directly into a warehouse, and they've been used in the last 24 hours." Sasha told them.
"All right, next time a train loads up here, get out in front of it... hit them hard in the middle of nowhere, not surrounded by 100 soldiers." Tom told them.
"If we can get our hands on that food then we can feed an army." Mike pointed out.
"We'll need more than food to sway them but it's a start." Tom said in agreement.
"It's about us." Kara said as she read the notes she'd been transcribing, she handed the phone over to Maddy to let her take over in case the messages started up again. She looked to Lena and Rachel who were sitting waiting for answers.
"Us?" Rachel asked confused.
"They detailed the guard movements, times and from this whoever in is our area said we're in Texarkana which would make a lot of sense given the weather and how long you said it took to get here on the bus." Kara said to Lena, the messages were in an old military short hand but it was clear whoever was sending the signal was tracking the camp's movements as it matched what they knew.
"This is good right?" Lena asked Kara, she gave a nod as it meant someone out there was looking to help them. She felt herself buoy with hope and relief as there was a way out.
"Yes, we just need to think of what we want to say." Kara told her.
A few hours later,
Jed sat hunkered down on the roof of a building a few blocks away from the warehouse with Jeter, Miller and Oscar. Down at the warehouse, a long freight train was slowing pulling into the site. It rang a loud bell announcing it's arrival as it pulled to a stop inside a large building. The interior of the building was too dark to make out what was being loaded onto the train but they all assumed it to be food as what else would be stored at the warehouse?
"Vulture team, Elvis has arrived." Jeter said over his radio.
"I hear you. We are in position. Wolf?" Tom asked, as he looked at the railroad, they'd been waiting hours for the train to come, it'd obviously come down a different track to the one they were on. It worked in their favour as they had needed the time to set up and thanks to the sheer luck of Oscar being able to tap into same comms as the soldiers they were able to discern where the train was going and from that they knew which rail tracks they'd use.
"We're on schedule. Setting charges at the far end of a won't even see it coming, Sir." Wolf reported from further up the tracks with Ravit and Mike as support.
"Overwatch, how's the view?" Tom asked, he was still in slight disbelief that they were actively going to be harming people in their own military and civilians when they derailed the train but luckily there were no towns or large populations nearby.
"Best seat in the house." Sasha reported from her perch on a hill even further way than Mike and his team.
"Fire only in the event that we are fired upon as we approach." Tom ordered.
"Check that." Sasha replied.
"Mother, get a bearing on my transmission. We may need medivac for casualties once we take out the train. Vulture out." Tom said, he was met with static as the ship remained on EMCON for the mission.
"I hate that silence." Danny remarked as Tom had to agree it was disconcerting even when he knew the truth.
"James will be there if we need her." Tom assured him.
"Mother, our Charlie team leader is broadcasting. Prepare to intercept and decode." Miller said to the ship as he had General Bradley in his sight line and saw the man pull out a SAT phone to make a call. If there was anything good about fighting their own people; it was that they ran to a finely tuned schedule. The train was already blaring it's horn and slowly pulling out of the building.
"Elvis is leaving the building." Jeter announced, it was now down to the rest of Vulture team.
Twenty minutes later,
"She's singing our song, guys." Sasha said over comms. She couldn't see the train yet but she could hear it as its horn sounding out to scare local wildlife from the tracks. She noticed the slight shift in the wind and adjusted her scope and weapon to the subtle changes in the environment.
Tom and the others hunkered down in bushed by the tracks and watched as the train passed them on the tracks it wouldn't be long until the train hit the charge and derailed.
"Captain, the resource on that train is not food. It's people. They're transporting carloads of people." Granderson said over comms. Tom looked at the train racing passed them with wide eyes.
"Shit. How long till the train hits those charges?!" He asked as he leaped off the ground and raced for the truck. The others followed him as they heard the same message. Mike jumped into driver's side and revved the engine.
"We've got five minutes if we're lucky!" Wolf shouted over the noise as they all piled into the tray of the truck. As soon as Ravit was in, Wolf tapped the side of the tray letting Mike know to drive.
Mike tore gravel as he pulled a U-turn and pushed pedal to the metal. He pulled the truck along side the train, it was going too fast for the truck to keep up but Mike did his best. Pushing the engine to it's limit, he manged to get them to two shipping containers away from the train engine where there was luckily a flat tray.
"I'll get you as close as I can!" Mike said grimacing as he knew if he didn't do this right he could end up spinning the truck out or worse any of the team could fall from the truck and miss the train. He moved the truck in closer and winced as the engine lost oomph as the ground along the tracks was too soft to give him real traction. The side mirror clipped the train. The force of the car slowing the train's speed ripped it off the door and the damn thing flew. Mike heard Tom curse and hoped the damage was too bad as he moved in closer again.
"Closer!" Tom said, Mike was ready to shout at the man he could drive the bloody truck next time but did as he was ordered. The steering wheel fought him but as the tires wanted to spin out. He braved a look over his shoulder and saw Tom and Ravit were already on the train. Wolf jump on next but just as Danny went; the powersteering died on the vehicle kicked it and the steering wheel was deadweight in his hands. The shock of it and Mike corrections had him understeering and swerving all over the place, and Danny was hanging precariously on the side of the train.
Mike pulled away from the train and pulled to a stop and watched the train pass him by. His heart pounding as he had nearly hit the train but they were lucky; Danny was safely on the train. He took a moment to catch his breath before started driving after the train to catch up.
