Читать книгу The Crusaders of the Saltire - William Speir - Страница 15

“Echo-Leader, this is Echo-Four. How are you reading me?”

“Echo-Four, this is Echo-Leader. Five by five. Anything yet?”

Emily Frances McCafferty looked through her monocular at the large bronze statue standing in the center of the park. She checked the handheld video viewer that was receiving the live feeds from the four surveillance cameras she had placed in the park the day before. “Echo-Leader, just the same two who have been there for the past ten minutes.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw three other figures moving toward the statue. “Hold, Echo-Leader. We may have activity.”

“Echo-Leader, standing by,” Ralph whispered into the microphone on his headset.

Emily looked through the monocular again and saw the three new men walk up to the two who were waiting by the statue. She looked at her video viewer and turned up the volume on the bug that she had planted near where they were standing.

After a crackle of static, she heard one of the men say, “What’s the plan, boss?”

Another voice replied, “This house over on Euclid Avenue. A mom and dad, and a real cute daughter.”

“The full treatment?” the first voice asked.

“Yes, the full treatment. Let’s go.”

As the five men walked off, Emily quickly reported back to the team. “Echo-Leader, Echo-Team, this is Echo-Four. This is it. Euclid Avenue. I don’t have the street number. A mother, father, and daughter. They said something about ‘full treatment’ but didn’t specify.”

“Roger, Echo-Four. Echo-Two, you and Echo-Four follow the targets. Everyone else, converge on Euclid Avenue and stand by. We don’t have an exact location yet.”

Emily acknowledged the instructions and put her monocular and video viewer in the pouch at her waist. She climbed down from the tree across the park from the statue where she had been hiding. She saw Echo-Two come out from behind the public restroom near the road and run toward her. They both took off to follow the five men.

The gang members were moving quickly. Emily and her partner stayed in the shadows in case someone looked back and saw them. There was no way she could get close enough to hear them without being seen, so she focused on making sure that she didn’t lose sight of them. When Emily and her partner reached the spot where Emily had parked her car, they decided to continue the pursuit in her vehicle.

About 20 minutes later, she saw the gang members turn onto Euclid Avenue, a residential street in an older neighborhood that was becoming popular with families again. The street was lined with large shade trees, and well-established shrubs lined the front of each house.

“Echo-Leader, this is Echo-Four. Targets have arrived on Euclid. Heading for the 1400 block,” Emily said into her headset microphone.

“Roger, Echo-Four. Echo-Team, be advised, targets moving north on Euclid.”

Emily and her partner continued following the gang members cautiously, trying to remain unnoticed.

“Echo-Team, this is Echo-Seven,” Emily heard a voice say through her earpiece. “Targets moving toward 1487 Euclid.”

“Roger, Echo-Seven. Echo-Team, converge at 1487 Euclid.

Emily and her partner pulled over and parked the car, crept into the back yard of the house that they were next to, and continued toward the convergence point on foot. When she arrived at 1487 Euclid, she heard the gang members already inside the house. She quickly took out several small surveillance cameras from the pouch at her waist, gave half of them to her partner, and started mounting them on the windows of the house so she could see and hear what was going on inside.

Within moments, her video viewer was showing her images from each of the cameras. The gang members had burst open the front door and now had the three family members in a back room. Two gang members were guarding them, and the other three gang members were ransacking the house. Emily heard tables being overturned, lamps breaking, and cabinets being ripped open.

A moment later, Ralph crept up and knelt next to Emily to watch the video with her. He noticed her light red ponytail sticking out of the back of her black cap, and he caught a glimpse of her green eyes as she acknowledged his arrival. The rest of the team took up positions across the street or in the woods behind the house so they could follow the gang members when they left. Only Ralph and Emily were anywhere near the house itself. As Ralph leaned over to watch the video feeds, he and Emily witnessed something that they would never forget.

One of the gang members, who had been ransacking the house, came back into the room where the family was being guarded. Emily and Ralph saw the two guards grinning about something. Then the gang member walked up to the daughter. She appeared to be in her late teens and was sitting on the floor between her parents. The gang member grabbed her by the wrist. Ralph saw her struggle, but she was no match for the target. The girl’s father stood up to defend his daughter, but one of the guards hit him hard, and he went down – dazed. The gang member turned and forcefully took the daughter out of the room.

Ralph heard the girl scream as Emily scrolled the viewer to see if one of the other cameras could pick up what was happening. A moment later, they saw the gang member force the girl onto the floor and pull down her shorts. He moved on top of her, holding his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams.

Emily looked at Ralph in horror. Neither had ever witnessed a rape before. “We have to do something,” Emily whispered to Ralph.

“We can’t,” Ralph replied, feeling the same frustration as Emily. “We’re not armed, and they might be. The police won’t get here in time, and it’s too late to stop this from happening. The best thing we can do is keep gathering enough evidence to convict the son of a bitch and give her some justice once this is all over.”

Thankfully, it was over soon. When he was done, the gang member stood up and told the sobbing girl to put her clothes back on. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her back to the room where her parents were.

Ralph looked over at Emily and saw something moving in the front of the house. “Echo-Leader, this is Echo-Three. There are two large HSF vehicles pulling up to the house.”

Ralph didn’t know if the HSF officers were there to help the victims in the house or if they were coming after his team, and he wasn’t going to take any chances. “Echo-Team, this is Echo-Leader. Scatter. Meet at the rendezvous in two hours.”

Ralph tapped Emily on the shoulder and they carefully crept back into the woods behind the house. Echo-Two joined them there, and they crouched down to continue watching the video viewer.

The HSF officers slowly climbed up the front steps of the house and entered the broken front door with their guns drawn. Emily saw them take down two of the gang members who were still in the front of the house. She watched the HSF officers appear in the room where the remaining three gang members were standing over the terrified family. The gang members were quickly overpowered and forced face-down on the floor.

The senior HSF officer knelt down to look at the bruising on the father’s face from where he had been hit. Emily heard the mother tell the officer that her daughter had been raped. The officer stood and helped each of the family members to their feet. He ordered one of the other officers to escort them to one of the waiting vehicles for transportation to the local hospital.

“Follow them and make sure the girl is okay,” Ralph whispered to Emily.

Emily nodded and handed Ralph the video viewer. She took off through the woods toward the house where she had left her car.

Ralph continued watching the video viewer and listening to the conversation. Once the family was taken out of the house, the senior HSF officer said, “All clear.” The HSF officers lowered their weapons and the gang members all stood up, laughing.

Ralph was shocked by what he had just seen on the video viewer. The gang members and the HSF officers were shaking hands like old friends.

“Are you all right, Agent Mims?” the senior officer asked the gang member who had raped the daughter.

“Feeling great, Sergeant. Thanks for holding back for a while. I’d have hated for you to walk in before I was finished.”

Everyone in the room laughed at this.

Another HSF officer entered the room and informed the senior officer that the family had been taken away.

“Thank you, Corporal,” the senior officer replied to his subordinate. Looking back to Agent Mims, he asked, “Did you find anything?”

“Yes we did Sergeant,” he answered, holding up several pamphlets. “Here’s some literature put out by the American Civil Liberties Union about defending the rights to free speech and freedom of assembly. Here’s a membership packet from the National Rifle Association. They also had a copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that had notations where the Administration was violating the spirit of both documents.”

“The tip we received was right then. They’re in possession of seditious materials and are a threat to the greater good.” He picked up his radio and told the vehicle transporting the family to the hospital to reroute to “Sector 2” instead. “This time tomorrow they’ll all be in an internment facility,” he said to Agent Mims, who nodded in agreement.

“When will you give the reward to the person who called in the tip?” Agent Mims asked.

“Oh, sometime later this week. We need time to fix the front door and relocate a loyalist family into this house before we announce anything.”

The senior officer took the evidence from Agent Mims and looked through it. When he held up the NRA packet, he said, “We won’t have to worry about this group much longer. I’ve just been informed that the President is calling for all citizens to be disarmed for the greater good. The executive order is supposed to be signed sometime before the end of the year. We’ll then be authorized to enter every house and office, confiscate any guns we find, and search for any subversive or seditious materials that may be there. It’s the next step toward the final solution.”

“Outstanding,” Agent Mims said, looking very pleased at this news. “The last thing we need is for citizens to be able to participate in armed resistance against the government.”

The senior officer nodded in agreement.

“So, what happens now?” Agent Mims asked.

“We need to make this look real, so we’ll handcuff each of you and put you in the back of the truck. The neighbors will see that we’re keeping them safe and secure. Your next assignment is in Dallas, and we have transportation waiting for you at the station.”

Agent Mims nodded and motioned for his men to stand next to him with their hands behind their backs. The HSF officers put handcuffs on the gang members and led them out the front door into the waiting vehicle. A few minutes later, the rest of the HSF officers got into the vehicle and it drove off into the night. The neighborhood grew quiet again.

Ralph’s mind was numb from what he had just witnessed. The gang members that they had been following for weeks were government agents with the HSF. They were using the excuse of breaking into people’s homes to perform illegal searches to see if their victims had any subversive or seditious materials in their possession. If the victims did, they were arrested by the HSF, and if not they were left alone for the police to try to help.

Ralph and Echo-Two crept back to the house and recovered all of the surveillance equipment. Then, making sure that the video viewer had recorded the images from all of the cameras and microphones, he packed up all of the equipment and nodded for Echo-Two to follow him back to the rendezvous point.

Both men were deeply disturbed about what had happened that night. Once clear of the neighborhood, Ralph pulled out his cell phone and called Tom.

“Hello?” he heard Tom’s voice say when he answered.

“Tom, this is Ralph. We need to meet.”

“Is something wrong?” Tom asked with concern in his voice.

“Yes. Can you be at the office in two hours?”

“I’ll meet you there.”

Ralph hung up the phone and put it away. He was sure that Tom knew the problem must be serious if they needed to discuss it in person that night. They were both too experienced to say any more over the phone. Whatever questions Tom may have wanted to ask, they’d have to wait until later.

It took about thirty minutes of walking to reach the pre-arranged rendezvous point. All of the members of the team were there already except for Emily, who was following the family to wherever “Sector 2” was. Ralph quickly debriefed the team. They were all shocked and horrified at what had happened that night. Ralph told them to pack up their equipment and meet at Tom’s office in 90 minutes.

Emily was following the HSF vehicle carrying the three family members to Mercy General Hospital when it suddenly turned. Emily saw the hospital a few blocks ahead and was curious about why the vehicle had changed direction. After slowing down for a moment, she turned to follow the HSF vehicle toward its new destination.

Emily had made some modifications to her car. The front of the car had been refitted with a sliding panel that retracted to reveal a dozen different headlights. Every time she made a turn, she turned a dial installed on her dashboard that changed which of the headlights were lit. When following someone at night, the change in headlight configuration would prevent anyone in the vehicle being followed from thinking that the same car was following it. Some of the lights were bluish in tint, some were white or yellowish, some were square, and some were round. There was even a single light in the center, which could be used to make the driver of the vehicle being followed think that Emily’s car was actually a motorcycle.

Emily had to change the headlight configuration several times as the HSF vehicle sped towards its destination. After a while, she saw it turn into a large installation surrounded by chain link and razor wire fencing. The sign at the gate read “Homeland Security Force, Sector 2, Processing and Transfer.” She drove past the installation and parked the car a couple of blocks away. She crept back carefully to see why the family had been brought there, rather than to the hospital.

She got back to the installation in time to record video of the family being ushered into the main building behind the parking lot. The vehicle that brought them there drove off, but other similar vehicles arrived, and more civilians were ushered inside.

Emily noticed a large truck backing up to a loading dock on the far side of the main building. Several HSF guards surrounded the truck. Emily took out her monocular and saw people all wearing the same type of jumpsuit being led from the building into the back of the truck. As she watched, she recognized the daughter who had been raped step out on to the loading dock dressed like the others. A moment later, Emily saw the parents, and they were all put in the back of the truck.

Emily went back to her car and waited for the truck to leave the installation. When it finally did, she followed.

Emily heard her phone ring and looked at the clock on the dashboard. She was late for the rendezvous. She answered the phone and heard Ralph’s voice.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“Not at the hospital – they were never taken there. I’m still following them. I’ll report in when I find out where they’re going.”

“Be careful,” Ralph said. “We’re meeting at my office in 90 minutes to fill in Tom. If you’re not here by then, I’ll call you so you can be part of the debrief.”

“Be there as quick as I can,” Emily said before she hung up.

Emily followed the truck for another 30 minutes before she saw it pull into what looked like a military airfield. Emily slowed down and saw the truck pull up next to a cargo plane at one end of the runway. She took out her video camera and zoomed in on the truck. She watched the guards unload the people and march them up the rear ramp of the cargo plane. She recognized the family she had been watching as they got off the truck. The daughter was clearly in a state of shock over what had happened to her that night, and the parents looked afraid and confused, as did many of the other people being loaded onto the plane. A few minutes later, the ramp in the back of the plane closed. The engines started, and the plane started rolling forward. It was in the air as the truck drove out of the gate to return to “Sector 2.”

Emily turned off the camera, more confused than ever. Why was the family taken to an airfield and put on a cargo plane with other people when they were supposed to be taken to the hospital? She looked at her watch and then started the car and drove to Ralph’s office.