Chapter Twenty Eight
Scotland
A select group of watchers, The Special OPS unit, trained for combat. They were ready and waiting for the signal to engage enemy immortals.
On the first evening the group traveled by train towards their destination, "Turn in men," Major instructed them. "By early light we will be ready to hunt strike down and behead every immortal we encounter on the list."
All the soldiers took a bunk in several compartments and through special OPS conditioning they went to sleep on a moving train.
Within hours, the fury of a demon descended upon them as a red mist it crept among the sleeping men. The ghosts appeared between bunks appearing to attack. It was as if a bomb exploded!
Major awoke to the sound of screams and when opened the door he saw deadly fighting.
Every sleeping compartment became a killing frenzy as soldiers imagined they were fighting an enemy.
"Stop!" Major yelled until he saw the futility. He grabbed the man nearest him who turned towards him and cut him in the chest with his knife. The look on his face was pure horror.
Instead of fighting the enemy, their fists, knives and guns fought each other until every man died from injury and blood loss.
Blood covered the floor, the beds and walls. Fifty of his best men killed and by what?
Major felt his stomach retch at the sight. Holding his wound, he left the compartment and pulled the door shut.
A feeling of failure began to overwhelm him. Dripping blood and in pain, Major went back to his bunk. Taking out his phone, he called in his last report.
When he heard the call answered he said, "Sir there will be no assault on the enemy immortals."
Joshua alerted Riggo to an incoming message on Egan's personal phone but he never expected this call. Both men listened to the incoherent sounds. Joshua heard and sensed something was wrong. Questioning Majors he asked, "Tell me what happened?"
Mystified, Major tried to explain, "All the men are dead from some sort of influence. They…killed each other."
Sadly, Riggo asked, "Is there no one left?"
With defeat in his tone Majors replied, "No sir. I knew this was a mistake."
On the other end of the phone line Joshua heard one sob and then a gun shot. Yelling into the receiver, "Majors!" but his shout went unanswered.
Riggo now had to contend with an impending assault and a mad leader that sent good watchers into a deadly confrontation. He would have to answer to the council about these deaths and the failure of Major and his troops.
An hour later, Joshua called a meeting for a restricted group. When all the trusted watchers hastily assembled, he instructed them, "I have the list of those we cannot depend on. Before the morning I want all of them locked up."
He passed out the paper with a name assigned to each one and a detention area. Steven said, "If we are ambushed in the morning we cannot surrender."
Riggo replied, "Help is coming so we must not give up. All we have to do is hold them off and fight back as hard as possible."
He dismissed everyone to round up those who could not be trusted. Joe found his name next to Amy and went to find her.
Steven tricked Davis into going to Egan's room to check on him. As they opened the door, he shoved Davis inside and locked it again. Davis yelled out, "It won't work! They'll still break us out!"
Preparations for the Château went on through the night with Riggo shouting orders, "Board up all the doors and windows." Soon they locked the building up tight until no one could enter or leave.
By dawn, it started…
A van drove up the driveway and stopped in front. Two "policemen" got out and went to the door with a warrant in hand. Knocking on the door it went unanswered. After ten minutes commander Liam said, "Let's break it down."
Blake called out to the van, "Bring the dynamite."
Commander Liam asked, "How much did you get?"
"Two sticks," he answered. "That's all I could find on short notice."
"Damn it!" Liam swore, "That won't be enough. You're going to have to use both on the front door."
Placing the charges at the hinges, he stuck them in place. Stepping back, he reeled out the line going back farther to the wall.
"Fire in the hold!" he shouted touching the two wires to the detonator.
From inside they felt the small explosion. While the door weakened, the reinforcements still held.
The commander began yelling, "Fire at the windows! You there, bring the battering ram!"
The courtyard around the building was ablaze with bullets and shouts of threats to those inside.
Everyone stayed away from the windows and waited with weapons in hand near the front entrance.
Upstairs, the halls were secure with Joe holding an assault rifle checking the action below from the windows and guarding his old room. Amy was yelling through the door, "Let me out! I need to go with Egan!"
Her father gently replied, "Not in my life time."
She cried out again, "Dad! Please don't do this!"
With resolve in his heart but anguish on his face, he firmly told her, "Be quiet Amy or you'll hurt yourself."
Downstairs at the back door, the assault was having an effect. The wood was splintered in many places, but the men hired by Egan did not expect this much resistance.
Finally, Blake yelled out, "Stop firing, we're running out of bullets. Wait until we're inside or you have someone in your sites."
The men switched to physical attacks with axes and the one battering ram at the front door was making some progress.
Steven held off the onslaught on the front entry with two other watchers. The previous evening they dragged out the old heavy furniture and pushed it up around the entryway.
Six watchers guarded the back door with guns. They took turns firing outside through the holes made by the axes. So far, three men were injured needing medical care.
Spotting an opportunity from the third floor window, Joe shot out two tires on the van keeping the guilty from escaping.
Before noon, reinforcements of ten Watchers arrived and the pack of hired thugs gave up. Hugh Richman personally made the trip from London to put an end to the threats made by an individual he once trusted.
Workers cleared the doorway of all the debris and the criminals brought in for questioning. Riggo asked Blake, "How much were you and your men going to collect from Egan if you succeeded?"
Blake replied, "I can't tell you that."
"Alright then if you don't cooperate then you'll stand alongside him and take the same punishment." Riggo signaled for the guards now working for him take out the men and lock them up.
Questioning them separately he made a deal with the commander. With his back against the wall, Liam relented asking, "How much do you need, because I'm not going to jail for him."
With his tape recorder out, Riggo answered, "As much as you know."
After an hour of questioning the prisoners, Riggo had enough information to put things right again with Joshua and Steven's help.
With all the confessions recorded, the prisoners were ready for transport. Riggo announced to the group, "I forgot to tell you, I'm not recommending the firing squad, but all of you are going to prison."
Hugh asked Riggo, "What about Egan and his men?"
He replied, "When this bunch is secure, come back for the rest because I can't keep them secure through the duration of the gathering."
Signaling to Steven to bring the arrest warrants that he wrote out the previous evening, Riggo said, "This should help with the transfer."
Handing Hugh a list of names and warrants, Steven instructed, "I've notified Mr. Jameson and the council by faxes sent today, everyone here is going before trial except her." He crossed Amy's name off the paper.
"Why?" Hugh asked, "Is she innocent?"
"Stockholm syndrome," he explained. "Also she is carrying Egan Lasco's child."
.
