CHAPTER 24

“We’re in position,” yelled the senior tactical officer.

Hal Summers took one more good look at the warehouse. He had a hard time not developing a grin. He had the building surrounded with six of his tactical teams and thirty two of his patrol units which, amounted to over one hundred officers. They were all heavily armed too. Hal was prepared to fight a battle if need be. He knew Norman Scoggins all too well and that man had a fetish for arsenals of large and destructive weapons. It was enough, at least in Hal’s mind, to justify a shoot first policy in this situation. He could easily justify his actions by that alone.

Then Hal had the reports from his observers and snipers. There were over thirty people in that warehouse. Where Barbara Reilly managed to scare up that many people, and all the military grade hardware, was anyone’s guess but, it made Hal want to giggle like a kid on Christmas morning. They were just making it easier for him. Once he tossed out all the pictures, of the soon to be dead bodies with big guns, he would then just blame it on their new American treaty guy. He could easily spin this as some kind of insurrection and, as Hal reasoned, the Governor would probably even like that. It was a win/win situation all the way around!

Then came the bad news. The tactical officer got a report on his head set and quickly yelled over to Hal, “we have a white flag! They’re coming out sir!” He then began issuing orders on the police radio net, “all units, hold fire!”

Hal raised up from behind his cover and started growling, “no! No! No! You do not get to do this!” Hal stepped away from the barricades and pulled out his phone. He speed dialed one of his “special” snipers that was positioned on the roof of a nearby tall building. Hal looked at the building as the man answered. He then told the guy, “Hinson, when you get Scoggins in your crosshairs, I don’t care what….”

“He’s not there sir,” Hinson replied.

“What do you mean he’s not there,” Hal growled in the phone. He then hung up and ran back to his perimeter where he took another good look at the men who were walking out of the building with their hands in the air. This time, Hal even pulled out his binoculars and took a very good look at the faces. When he lowered them his eyes were still big, “who the hell are these clowns?!”

Hal grabbed his senior tactical and patrol officers, along with ten assorted SWAT team members, and approached the prisoners with their weapons at the ready. Even more heavily armed officers came at these mystery men from behind as they lined up in front of the warehouse, with their hands up. As Hal got closer he recognized one face in the crowd and new he would get his answers from that man.

Hal stomped up to Cannon Trucks and demanded, “where are the terrorists?! Where are the Rangers?! Hand them over Trucks or you’re in a lot of trouble.”

Cannon might have had his hands in the air but, he had his phone in hand. He looked up at the timer he had going and then told the head policeman, in a calm and steady voice, “Chief, I don’t think that’s what you need to be worried about right now.”

Hal stepped up and looked at the phone and saw the timer. Still as angry as ever he demanded, “what the hell is that for? What are you counting down?”

“Estimated response time,” Cannon told him. It was obvious the Chief was not only furious but, confused as well. Cannon enlightened him, “begging the Chief’s pardon but, I don’t think it’s us you have to worry about right now. You see, there’s nobody in there. Guess what is though.”

Hal raised a brow to that, “what?”

Cannon shrugged as best he could with his hands in the air, “that place is packed, wall to wall, with high grade synthetic drugs.”

Hals jaw dropped to the ground. Then his tactical officer got a report on the radio and called it out, “Chief! The Wehrmacht! They’re coming up the road in force!”

German helicopters popped up from over the rooftops, seemingly out of nowhere, and buzzed right over Hal. He could see that their weapon pods were fully loaded with missiles. The transport choppers were packed with troops and after their pass he could then hear the sounds of approaching armored vehicles.

Hal screamed into the air, “they can’t do this! Not today they can‘t!”

Cannon Trucks gulped and then he asked out loud for all to hear, “excuse me, uh chief. If you mean what I think you mean is it all right if me and my guys lay on the ground?”

Hal ignored the request and snatched the headset away from his tactical officer. He switched the frequency over to the international distress band and then transmitted, “attention, Three Twenty-First Panzer Grenadiers. This is Chief Halliburton Summers of the city of police. I have my entire tactical force at this location and we are heavily armed. We are prepared too….”

The sudden ear splitting burst sounded almost like a chain saw or some giant monster spitting. It came out of nowhere and lasted less than a second. Hal never even had any idea where it came from. All he really knew was that the SWAT van, parked in the direction he was looking in, suddenly vanished in a cloud of dust, debris, and fire. Then, half of the van fell from the sky and crashed on one street while the back half landed on another.

Hal transmitted once more, “say again, we are prepared to surrender. We are laying down our arms.”

Horst was on the ground not five minutes after that. His men were roping down from choppers on the roof of the warehouse as his armored vehicles were taking command of the surrounding streets. Horst lead a small number of his staff up to Summers, who had yet to move. He might have been defenseless but, Hal still had his pride. His giant chin was held high even if his face was completely red. Horst stopped in front of the man and then told him, “Chief, your men are trespassing on ground that is under the protection of the United Nations and the Wehrmacht. You have my permission to leave your weapons and walk away or face the consequences. What will it be?”

Hal had only one thing to say to the German, “good bye.”

Horst then looked at the men who the police had obviously taken prisoner. He pointed to them and said, “and what are you all doing here?”

Cannon Trucks replied, “leaving.”

Horst nodded for them to proceed and they wasted no time joining the police in a headlong retreat. With that out of the way, Horst ordered a status report from his staff. He wanted to know about the things that were important here, of which, the most critical report came first, “the building is secured and safe.”

Horst nodded to his Captain and then asked, “and the Rangers?”

The Captain pointed up the street and replied, “we allowed them to proceed as per your instructions Herr Oberst. They should be turning that corner any second.”

Just as reported, Horst watched two vehicles slowly turn a nearby corner. The front vehicle was a ratty looking piece of junk but, the second vehicle definitely belonged to the Colonial Government. It was white, had a bumper number, and Horst had very little doubt that there was a government seal on it’s side as well. When his staff asked for instructions, Horst simply told them, “when your enemy comes to you, why bother expending the effort to stop him? Let them come.”

The cars rolled right up to where Horst was standing and came to a stop. The men inside the vehicles piled out. Horst was confused by what he was seeing. He rhetorically asked, “firemen? Who are you people?”

The older looking man in the fire coat stepped up and said, “Chief Blake Tippet, City Fire and Rescue. We got a call that said there was a fire down here Colonel. Mind telling us where?”

Horst demanded, “I see no fire trucks!”

Blake just shrugged and replied, “budget cuts.”

The young captain on Horst’s staff suddenly became excited and his eyes grew large as he listened to his radio. There was a serious alarm in his voice when he called out, “Colonel! The warehouse! The entry team reports…”

His voice was drowned out by a series of loud of “crumps” that echoed down the streets and off the nearby tall buildings. Horst did not even bother to look. He simply looked to the ground and shook his head in resignation as huge balls of flames exploded out the windows of the building behind him. It did not take long for the highly flammable substances inside to become a raging inferno.

Chief Blake then said, “never mind Colonel. I see it now.” He then motioned to his men, “come on boys.”

Horst did not even bother to stop them. He just took a deep breath and then, when the firemen were gone he began to issue orders to his staff, “pull back to base and….” Horst looked his men in the eye and after a pause to consider his options, he finally told them, “shoot the first group of detainees.”