Author's Note: Whew! another plume of ash and steam from that mountain! The ash is heading my direction, but it doesn't look like it's going to be too bad, so hopefully it won't affect my posting (although it's definitely a distraction) I'll try to keep posting, since I hate making you all wait - especially on cliffhangers)

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It was almost easy for the Rangers to infiltrate the Academy. Of course, it wasn't necessarily because the defenses of the school weren't great – they had a couple of dogs, which weren't usually on duty at night, and guards at the gates, but they were mostly for show. The rangers were good. They were well trained and professionals, and they had worked together so long they were like one man. Besides, people just didn't invade schools, and who'd want to infiltrate the Air Force Academy?

5 Army rangers with a mission from the Vice President-elect, that's who.

They went in three days after they'd been given the mission. That was all the planning they needed for this one – and even that was more than they'd really thought they needed. They struck on a Monday night, knowing that Wednesday afternoon classes would be out for the Thanksgiving liberty, so they'd either have to do it before then, or wait another week – and they knew Kinsey didn't want them to wait that long.

Over the West wall at midnight. First one dark shadow, then another, and another, until there were five. They moved silently, and effortlessly, no guns in their hands – although they all itched to have them even though they quailed at the thought of a gunfight in the middle of a school. Especially a Service academy. These young men and women were the future of the Military – yeah, it was the Air Force, and not the Army, but they weren't going to open fire on a bunch of future fellow officers. It just wasn't going to happen. They carried low impact pistols that were armed with drugged darts, just in case they decided they needed to take out the roommate – and anyone who might become a problem.

The dorms were silent and dark, which was exactly what they'd expected. That was the good thing about the Service academies; they sent the students to bed and the students went because they knew they were expected to obey. None of that acting up and rebelling crap here. You rebelled; you were expelled, or given extra duties.

Clay led his group through the side door of the Cadet's dorm – there were different wings for different years, and the freshmen were in the closest wing. The boy they were looking for was in a room a few floors up, and they found the stairs exactly where their maps and papers had said they'd be. Even with their boots, they barely made a sound as they ascended the staircase, moving quickly but silently.

They stopped at the landing of the proper floor, and Clay waited just a moment to give them a chance to all catch up and group themselves. Two would stay at the door to make sure that no one came up on the other three unexpected. They knew there was a floor guard – an older cadet whose job was to make sure the younger cadets didn't do anything stupid, like try to sneak off into town in the middle of the night, or worse, sneak into one of the other dorm rooms – but they weren't worried about him. If he got in their way, he'd take a nap. No harm done.

"Go," Clay ordered, gesturing for Moore and Payne to head out into the hall. He followed as soon as they were gone, leaving the other two to guard the stairs.

The room they wanted was about halfway down the hallway on the right, and after pressing his ear to the door for a moment, Moore gave a nod, indicating that he didn't hear anyone talking inside. That would have been the only thing that could have tripped them up; if the cadets had for some reason woken up in the middle of the night and were chatting. But everything was quiet, and at Payne's signal, Moore opened the door silently, just as Clay caught up to them. All three rangers slipped into the room, and immediately realized they had a problem.

"There's three beds..." Moore whispered.

Clay could count. He flashed Moore a look, and pulled out his flashlight. They were going to have to improvise. Nothing new there, right? The one they wanted was younger than the others, which would make him easy to spot. The Major sidled up to the single bed, and covered the end of his flashlight with one gloved hand before turning it on. This muffled the light quite a bit, casting shadows on the walls and ceiling, but avoiding a direct light shining directly in the sleeping Cadet's face to keep from waking him.

This one was at least 18, and not the one they were looking for.

Moore was doing the same thing for the sleeper in the bottom bunk of the bunk beds.

"This one," Moore whispered, easily noticing the smaller size of the occupant of the bed he was looking at. He pulled the pistol out – they'd have to dart this one, because there was no way they'd be able to carry him out without waking him otherwise.

OOOOOOOOO

Ian Brooks was not a heavy sleeper. He never had been, but since the attack on him and his roommates only a couple of months before, he'd been even more restless when it came to sleeping. He'd had more than his share of nightmares and that, too, kept him from being able to sleep soundly. His ears were always listening for something out of place and his subconscious mind was always aware of what was going on around him. The sound of the door opening had woken him, and he'd lain still, trying to figure out what was going on. When he saw the shadows on the ceiling above him, he'd known something was up – a senior prank, maybe – but he hadn't been able to figure out what it was just by listening. He'd quietly looked over the edge of his bed, and had seen someone looking at Shawn, and pulling a gun.

"What the fuck are-"

The man looked up at him, just as Ian rolled off his bunk to land on him, reaching for the gun. The noise woke River and Shawn, and there was instant chaos in the room as the three Rangers suddenly found themselves wrestling with three cadets.

"Get off me!" Moore was struggling under Ian, who had come down swinging. The cadet was a powerful young man, and he was punching as hard as he could. He didn't know what exactly was going on, but if it was a prank it wasn't a funny one, and if it was something else, well... they'd learn their lesson, wouldn't they? The flashlight clattered to the floor, rolling under the bunk, and then turning when it hit the leg, the light illuminating the wrestling matches eerily.

"Ian!"

Shawn had woken immediately and was already throwing himself into the fray, even as Payne and Clay both tried to get the situation in hand. The Major grabbed the cadet in the single bed, holding him down even as he tried to surge out of his bed to help his roommates, and he pulled out his own pistol and fired it point blank at the blonde cadet. The dart hit River directly in the chest, but the effect wasn't immediate and the Major and the cadet made eye contact, which was the absolute last thing Clay had wanted to happen.

"Knock them all out," Clay ordered, still keeping his voice down to try and avoid alerting the rest of the school. "We'll take them all."

They had to; the blonde cadet had seen him, and even in the dim light he couldn't be sure that the young man wouldn't be able to recognize him. Easier said than done, though. Even as River started to feel the affects of the knockout drug and stopped struggling against Major Clay's hold, Ian and Shawn were still very much alert and active, and both of them were making things difficult – especially for Moore, who was taking the brunt of the assault.

Payne jumped into the wrestling match as well, grabbing Shawn, who surprised the Captain by slamming a hand into his stomach with a surprising amount of force for someone that young. Payne grunted, and swung his pistol over, slamming the barrel against the younger cadet's head. It wasn't exactly what he'd planned on doing – and it wasn't what he'd been told to do – it was almost an accident that he'd actually landed the blow. But landed it he did, and Shawn stilled instantly, knocked out by the nasty blow. A moment later, Clay' pistol went off with another silent poof and Ian hissed when the dart struck him. He went down far quicker than River did – because of the way his heart was pounding, his blood was circulating far more quickly than River's had been, and the drug was circulated faster. The dark-haired cadet fell in a heap, and Moore struggled out from under him.

"Shit."

"What do we do, Major?" Payne asked, breathing hard as he knelt next to Shawn's inert form, checking for a pulse. There was a fair amount of blood streaking the boy's face.

"You hit him?"

"I didn't have a choice."

Clay scowled, but this wasn't the time or the place to reprimand him. He went over and swung Shawn up and over his shoulder. "Take those two. We'll sort it all out when we get back to the house."

He waited just long enough to watch as Moore picked up Ian in a fireman's carry, and Payne grabbed up River, and then he turned and headed for the hall, certain that the two rangers they'd left in the stairwell would cover their retreat.