Chapter 3
Three black limousines halted simultaneously outside. Their curved side doors moved up over the roof as six men in camouflaged uniforms got out of each limousine armed with compacted assault rifles and submachine guns. It was the NSF leader, Juan Ivanovich Lebedev's personal escort and close bodyguards. Behind the convoy of limousines a small square transit van pulled up from around the corner. It smoothly stopped beside one of the limousines. Four of the bodyguards from the limousine wearing long black mole skin coats went around the back of the van and opened the two heavy doors. Four more men got out the back of the tan coloured van followed by two men wearing long dark brown leather coats and khaki coloured NSF uniforms. It was Juan Ivanovich Lebedev and his body double.
The men surrounded Lebedev and his double, watching the surrounding buildings, communicating between each other using small earpieces and microphones built into the coats fabric. Lebedev walked stern faced to the entrance of the NSF Headquarters behind his double. The other fourteen men from the limousines saluted Lebedev, both Lebedevs saluted back and quickly disappeared into the building.
There was a contagious buzz of excitement spreading around the Headquarters only Commander Frase was nervous. He was in the men's toilets breathing deeply in and out through his mouth staring into the square mirror, nervously burping silently as his anxiety grew into a nauseous feeling. Frase was starting to think about vomiting, which caused his mouth to salivate in preparation, his stomach churned heavily and he started to heave. He felt stupid getting nervous over not being prepared, but this was Lebedev. Frase had met him before; he had even been to his conferences and spoke to him. He seemed friendly enough but Frase's team was just not ready, the Headquarters was in a diabolical state, security was being set up at this very moment. The stress was eating away at his mind, confusing his usual logical thoughts. His mind was being overloaded with orders and opinions and in the back of his head was the niggling feeling of responsibility.
The commander took a swing from his hip flask feeling a warm sensation as the liquor flowed down his throat; he coughed loosening some phlegm and wiped his wet bottom lip with the sleeve of his uniform. His abdominal muscles contracted as the warm alcohol hit his empty stomach.
Decker walked out of the cubicle and saw Frase standing staring deeply into the sink.
"I was just taking my break." Decker explained but Frase never took any notice, he just stood stooped over the sink, eyes questioning his thoughts. The commander's body lurched, his chest heaved rigidly and he spat into the sink then ran the water tap.
Decker slowly walked up behind him and the commander looked up at Decker's reflection through the mirror. The commander smiled weakly, and blinked his bloodshot eyes rapidly. Decker saw a stress driven alcoholic in front of him. He had watched over the days as the commander had changed. He had become snappy and sour as the day of the shipment hijack approached. This was a man who was responsible for whole squadrons of men. Lives. As he tried to organise the formations of troop positions, information was flooding in about the strength of the UNATCO counter-attacks and advances causing Frase to reconfigure the positions to cope with the brute force of UNATCO.
The smell of alcohol was strong on Frase's breath, the whites of his eyes were a smudgy pink colour with thin red capillaries weaving and intertwining at the sides of his eyeballs. He was not in any condition to see Lebedev. The commander sank to his wobbly knees and squat by the sink. He started to break down and sobbed miserably in his drunken state. The veins at the sides of his temples protruded out of his reddened face as the stress and tension was released with his tears. Decker comforted the younger commander patting and rubbing his back.
"Come on sir, Lebedev is waiting. Clean yourself up and give yourself a few minutes. I'll wait outside." Decker whispered. The commander nodded and sniffed, he suddenly stood up straight and looked at himself in the mirror. He laughed at himself with embarrassment as Decker left the toilet and stood outside.
"Commander Frase! COMMANDER FRASE!" came a voice from down the corridor as a NSF rookie ran down passed Decker.
"He is just in the toilet; he'll be a few minutes." Decker said as the young man of about twenty ran past.
"Lebedev is waiting for him, sir." The young man said and went to open the toilet door. Decker blocked him with his arm and the man looked up with surprise.
"Give him a few minutes," Decker said softly.
"But…" the man was cut of by the vertical frown marks between Decker's aging eyebrows.
There was the sound of a door opening on its hinges. Both men turned to see Commander Frase standing tall in the doorway. He coughed and Decker removed his obstructing arm. Frase walked squarely down and out of the small canteen area. Decker followed, pursued by the young NSF recruit.
"Ah finally commander, please do not keep me waiting again, I have important matters to attend to after this one." The well-spoken Lebedev said turning around to face the commander. Many NSF troops were stood around listening to there leader speak.
"My apologises, sir." Frase replied, "Shall we continue somewhere more private?"
"Yes that would be best." Lebedev answered.
The two men, surrounded by the thuggish guards walked upstairs into one of the upstairs offices. There was a great sound of excited chatter as the door was shut. Decker spotted Killian who he had met a few days earlier. He was drinking, this time, a nutritious milk-like drink. He walked over grinning.
"Hey, Decker! How ya holding up ol' timer?" Killian laughed.
"Fine, yourself?" Decker asked.
"I am good, got myself a place on the UNATCO HQ assault team," he said cheerfully. "Can't wait to go kick some UNATCO ass!"
Decker nodded and smiled, he snapped the lid of his heart medication and shook it, looking inside. "Only a few left, shit!" Decker said to himself. Killian's smile dropped "What are they for?" he asked puzzled.
"Oh these, just medication I have to take." Decker answered revealing nothing. "I err… got to go see you later and erm… good luck for the assault."
It was mid-evening, the sky was coated in a blanket of dark grey rain clouds; the temperature had dropped to just above freezing. Decker stood anxiously behind Lebedev, JoJo, and Frase plus some other key NSF members.
"Yes. Password?" came a crackled voice over the small intercom.
"Bloodshot." Lebedev said into the speaker. There was a sharp buzz and the lock of the single metal door opened. Lebedev walked in first, followed by two bodyguards, JoJo and his colleagues (pimps and drug dealers), Frase and then Decker. They all stood closely on the small elevator and rode it down to the basement.
The basement was enormous, numerous boxes and crates were piled up to the ceiling in the one corner of the floor space. Twenty small commercial grade security robots lay deactivated in a group on the other side. It was Smuggler's Lair. Smuggler was, by name, an arms dealer; he stood at the face of the lift entrance covered head-to-toe in body armour, assault shotgun in hand.
"Quite a party we have here, oh… and you've brought presents. Drop the pieces boys otherwise you won't have hands to carry them." Smuggler said to the bodyguards. Lebedev nodded and the guards threw their weapons to the ground. "…And you pretty boy…" Smuggler directed his focus on JoJo and the other pimps. JoJo sucked his teeth and cursed under his breath. JoJo un-holstered his customised, plated silenced pistol.
"Good, now let us do business."
The group followed Smuggler into the back area, a small private room. The most important NSF members Lebedev, JoJo, and Frase sat down around a table and Smuggler started speaking. Decker eavesdropped on the conversation as he stood with others.
"Right, twenty commercial security bots, fifteen crates of 7.62mm X 51mm UNATCO standard issue assault rifles with 20mm High Explosive round launchers, seventeen cases of Light Attack Munitions…"
"Excuse me please." came a nervy voice behind Decker cutting off his eavesdropping. Decker turned around and saw a man around his age, with a mousy brown beard and thinning hair, standing behind him. The man was wearing a pair of baggy faded denim jeans and a white creased T-shirt. Decker apologised and sidestepped out of the way. The man walked past and sat at the personal computer terminal. Lebedev's bodyguards stared at the man angrily causing Smuggler to stop his deal.
"That's my colleague Ford Schick. He is perfectly safe, he's harmless. Mr Lebedev tells your goons to calm down." Smuggler said.
"Gentlemen, compose yourselves please," Lebedev said. The deal commenced and a few hours later the armaments were being loaded, via the small maintenance ladder that led to the surface and the elevator. Into a white transit van and unmarked cars the armaments went for delivery to the 20th Street Warehouse NSF HQ. Decker helped with guiding the small security bots onto the ramps at the back of the transit vans. The vans came every fifteen minutes in groups of three. NSF stood out openly in the streets armed with their newfound weapons. Smuggler escorted Lebedev off the premises and shook his hand. JoJo had long gone, bored with the loading and waiting; he had gone to sort out his own affairs. Frase was overseeing the loading and unloading of the armoury; linked with the Headquarters he was timing the deliveries. Lebedev tapped Decker's shoulder.
"Erin will be working at the airbase on the security team. I was told you and Young preferred if she was in a secure area. We shall meet again soon… when we succeed." Lebedev got a van and drove off with the other two vans. Smuggler walked up behind Decker.
"I heard that you've got an interest in this type of hardware. If you need anything I can get it. Old or new." Smuggler said. "You know where to come. Just keep it between you and me though."
"Ok," Decker agreed.
"I'm Smuggler, I can smuggle anything." Smuggler said introducing himself.
"Decker Parkes." Decker replied.
"Look forward to doing business with you." Smuggler smiled and stared at Decker through his sunglasses.
"Decker! Take this!" Killian cried as Decker headed out across the grass of Battery Park. He threw a small holster bag through the air it landed at Decker's feet. "Take it with you to the airbase." He called then ran back inside to the depths of the old fortress. Decker picked up the bag and opened it. There was a small canister the bag, it contain a blue glimmering jelly that illuminated the inside of the bag. Decker was puzzled but there was not time to question it. He followed the mass of NSF troops down into the Battery Park Subway Station. The crackling rattle of machine gun fire echoed in the distance. The NSF were holding back the local police forces, but it would only be a few hours before UNATCO got re-organised and headed the counter-attack of the Liberty Island assault.
Decker scurried down the stairs and waited outside with the other NSF members, some were clearly concerned others were simply pumped up with adrenaline. They watched the Ambrosia shipments disappear down the secret lift behind the telephone booth. The shipments were going to be taken to through secret passages that lead to the Brooklyn Bridge. With help from the homeless civilians that lived there known as the Mole People. The shipment would be transferred to Commander Grimaldi's team who would take it to LaGuardia Airbase. Half the team would go underground now, the other half, the one Decker was going with, would go back to the NSF Headquarters on 20th Street and prepare for a UNATCO assault.
The train squealed to a halt as the brakes slowed the train to a halt on the platform. The NSF members Decker was travelling with put on large concealing mackintosh coats to hide their side arms and sawn offs. Decker stepped onto the train and sat down next to the unaware civilians. The train restarted and chattered down the tunnel.
The woman and her child opposite Decker stared at him as if they knew who he was, who he really was. Decker looked around the train. The lieutenants were on the far side and five more NSF members were further down. Decker jiggled his legs and fidgeted with his hands. He rested his head against the vibrating window. A man who was reading a newspaper coughed next to Decker. Everyone looked at him with paranoid fearful eyes as if he was a potential Grey Death plague victim. The person sitting next to him stood up and moved further down the train, the woman put her child on her lap and cuddled it. The man who had coughed went red with embarrassment and apologised, even Decker could not help but stare with prejudice.
The tunnel lights streaked past in long bright lines. Stations passed, people got off, and more people got on all unaware that there were, as the authorities had labelled them, "terrorists" sitting in between them. Decker opened his compact laptop computer and started to type a message. As he finished the train stopped at 18th Street Subway Station. Their stop. Decker gathered his possessions and rose from his seat he walked off the train and followed the twenty plus men. They walked in groups of five across the platform. As they reached the brink of the stairs JoJo appeared in a sleeveless waistcoat, arms covered in tattoos. He nodded and they followed him.
As Decker sat in the back of the smoky pimp's car he wondered about how Young and Erin were doing. The cars stopped outside the NSF Headquarters the doors opened with a slow click…
A slow click. The sound that awoke Decker from his dream was a slow click. A click similar to the sound of the hammer being pulled back on a gun. Decker's eyes opened wide and frantic. He raised his head from the keyboard but felt a cold metallic barrel press against the base of his neck. Decker sat there frozen in fear. He could hear his heart beating furiously, pounding against the wall of his ribcage. Sweat slowly crawled down the sides of Decker's head tingling the hairs causing and itching sensation.
A glance to the side, to the side table. The gun next to the bed was gone. Decker cursed silently. He knew it, the person holding his gun knew it. Decker was fucked.