Bitter Waters

Part Four

Kermit pulled out the slip of paper that contained the address of the man he was meeting. The address was to a run down house east of the town. The appearance of the house looked like no one had lived there for years. Kermit moved up the walk and heard the sound of several hammers being pulled back.

"Do not come any further. Who are you and what do you want?" The person spoke in broken English, as if it wasn't their first language.

"I'm here to see a Mr. Dao. He requested a demolition specialist."

Kermit was shown into the main room and was surprised to see several men in black checking and polishing several automatic weapons. Apparently this was the assault team. Kermit also recognized two of the men. They were the ones who sat in front of him in the bar and spoke in Chinese.

'Looks like their conversation did have something to do with this operation after all,' he thought.

With his sunglasses in place it was easy for Kermit not to give away that he recognized to the two men. He was learning more each time he wore them just how much he could keep hidden from his enemies, and even from his allies, even if the relationship was temporary. Looking around he did wonder how no one in the town noticed such an operation. Then again, the house was far enough from the town center and off of a smaller highway that didn't see much traffic. It would have been easy for the assault team to gather without too much notice, especially under the cover of darkness. All they had to do was come in one at a time.

Kermit followed the man to the kitchen where Dao was laying out his plans.

"We'll hit them here and here. Your men will come down through the roof. You know what to do, but leave Caine to me. He humiliated me once, he shall not do so again."

'Caine? Did he hear the man right? Humiliation? I thought this was some kind of terrorist operation,' thought Kermit. Maybe it still was and Caine was some mastermind. It didn't preclude a terrorist having a family and sons following in their father's footsteps. Still, it didn't set right from what he heard about the name of Caine. 'Maybe it's not the same man or a different Caine all together.' Kermit suddenly realized that Dao was speaking to him.

"So, you are the demolition specialist. A little young aren't you?"

"Age doesn't mean a thing,' Kermit replied. "It's the skill."

"Good answer. Let me show you where I want you to apply your craft."

Kermit observed the crude map. It looked like it had been drawn by memory. It wasn't as nice as the one Steadman had. He wished he had gotten a copy.

"This is the outer wall. Plant enough in these areas and the whole structure will come down on all their heads."

Kermit could not help notice the bitterness in Dao's voice. Though he was curious, Kermit did not pursue it. He learned long ago, not to follow up on such questioning. He was here to do a job, nothing more, but it would seem Dao was changing the parameters. "I thought I was going after the weapon's cache?" Kermit observed that his valid question was ignored.

"Check the explosives, see if they will be enough."

"What about their weapons? What kind of weapons do they have?"

"Their weapons are not important. They won't stop us in any case."

Kermit walked over to the crates marked in both Chinese and English script. The Chinese learned how to make explosives long before the Europeans did. And they continued to produce some of the finest in the world. There was enough C-4 to blow up the World Trade Center, not that anyone wanted to, though some felt that it spoiled the New York skyline and should not have been built in the first place. Kermit took two bricks of C-4 and stuck it into his utility vest. One would have been sufficient for what he was about to do, but having two would guarantee there was enough and no mistakes in judgement. Next he moved on to the detonators and timers. He packed about eight in his vest. He might not use all of them but this way he would not be caught short. Kermit was still packing his utility vest when Dao spoke.

"They will be finishing their evening meal, then meditation. It is when they will be most vulnerable. Remember, I will take Caine, the rest you can do as you wish."

Again, Dao said something out of context that did not make sense to Kermit. Why would terrorists need to meditate? Kermit also noted that Dao had neglected to mention rescuing the children. Perhaps that was already in the works and he had not been there for that briefing. Kermit went through his head about what he knew of the place, something that Steadman had briefed him on. A monastery of this type could hold up to 100 monks and around 20 children, but from what was in the report, this was no monastery but a cover for terrorist activity, and it was up to them to stop it. Kermit recalled his first mission with Paul Blaisdell. Like a naïve kid he didn't expect the unexpected. They thought they were rescuing children from a terrorist group, but it turned out that it was the children who were the terrorists. Every last one of them turned their own guns on themselves. He hoped this would not be the case here.

The men moved out, going in separate vehicles and in separate directions to end up at the monastery. Kermit observed one other fact that puzzled him earlier. He should have seen it then, but only now did it occur to him. If this were a terrorist net that was planning an attack of some sort, where were the sentries? Something about this didn't feel right, and yet if he tried to back out of the situation, something about Dao told Kermit he would not be allowed to see the light of day. Besides, he had no proof that this wasn't just what was reported. He would just have to do his job until something else proved him wrong.

They reached the monastery just as night fell, leaving their vehicles just at the base of the hill and in the trees. The darker it would be the better. What Kermit was required to do wouldn't take that long. He threw up a grappling hook and secured it on a roof support. Climbing to the top of the wall took only five minutes. Once over the wall he landed on an upper balcony of a colonnade and planted the first set of charges. He set the timers to give him enough time to get to the weapons cache and hopefully to give him time to escape.

Kermit moved silently though the monastery doing his best not to be seen or heard. A soft noise caught his attention, and Kermit quickly found a spot to hide. Kermit waited in the shadows, prepared just in case the man came too close. If it was necessary to take him out, he would. A man in robes did pass his hiding place carrying a scroll, but gave no indication that he knew Kermit was even there.

'They're taking their cover pretty seriously,' Kermit mused silently. 'I'd swear that man was a real monk.'

Having memorized the location where the weapons were being stashed, Kermit made his way there without incident. He moved into the room and was brought up short at what he didn't find. There wasn't a single assault or automatic weapon anywhere, not even boxes of ammunition. Strange looking spears and swords graced the walls. Kermit recognized a few from his martial arts training, but some he didn't. It looked like something out of a Shaw Brothers martial arts movie. There were kuan-dos, a six-foot long spear-like weapon with a lobster claw-shaped blade. There were also butterfly knives, and a three sectional staff. Kermit picked up one of the kuan-dos and felt its weight. He brushed his hand along the blade to discover that it was sharp to the touch.

'They want me to blow up this?' he thought. 'What kind of place is this?'

Before Kermit could set any more charges, all hell broke loose. Dao's men had started their attack and Kermit would be caught in the middle of it.

Continues with Part 5