“There you go Mister Sprinkles,” said Sheila as she backed away from the cat dish. The animal did not appear to appreciate the treat. Sheila returned the attitude and told the fur ball, “see if I spend that on a can of smelly wet paste again, you ungrateful little beast.” Then she broke into a smile, “but mommy still loves you.” The cat ran off on that note.

Sheila stood up and wondered, “why is it, every man in my life does that?” Sheila did not spend too much time worrying about it. She never did. She heard another helicopter fly over her little second story flat and looked out the window in an attempt to see it. They had been coming over pretty regularly but, past that, about the only thing that Shelia had seen was more police cars on the road than usual. Even now, there were distant sirens but, did that really matter? She doubted it.

She went back to fixing her sandwich, licking her fingers as she went, and singing along with the music coming out of her phone. Sheila had already given up on the radio. All they were running was news and the television was even worse. Then the most disturbing sound in the world happened. Her music stopped and was replaced by a certain ring tone that she hated to hear.

She answered and listened to her mother rattle on for a few minutes before she made it clear, “no Mum! I’m not going into the city today! I know I usually do but, not today. Charlie Ringwood already rang me. They closed down the A One Two, how am I supposed to get there?” Her mother rattled on even more and Sheila had to interrupt her, “we only took the M eleven cause granny was in hospice, remember? Sides, it’s closed too.”

As far as Sheila knew, every road into London was closed and, for now, that was just fine by her. If everybody down there wanted to act like a twat, it was their right as far as she was concerned. As long as they didn’t come up here to Chelmsford, she was content to let London burn to the ground, or, at least as long as they left her supplier alone. With out Charlie, she wouldn’t bring half the money home, every night, that she did from the pub. The good news there was that by Sheila’s count, she could ration what she had and still keep her customers happy.

There had also been a lot more customers over the past few nights as well. A lot of people that normally commuted to work, no longer could. Most of them, particularly the guys with the smaller flats, were hanging out at the pub and trading stories on the things they had seen or heard. Sheila had understood none of it and cared even less. About the only time that anyone of them had interested her was when that plumber guy had come in looking for Jacob Snow. The plumber seemed a bit flustered and, for the life of Sheila, she could not figure out why.

Sheila didn’t tell him anything of course. If Jake wanted the old bastard to know that he was moving across the ocean to America, then Jake would have told him. In fact, Jake had said very little about the details and, even made Sheila promise not too tell anyone the little that she knew. Like Sheila cared? Besides that, she was in the confidential business. That’s the only reason Jake brought it up in the first place. He wanted to know how to get Dust in this place called Montana. Of course, what could Sheila say about that? How the hell would she know? She didn’t even know where Montana was!

“Mum, I’ve got to go,” Sheila said as she looked at the buzzing screen again, “it’s work calling.” Sheila was a little confused by her mother’s next rant, “of course I’m working.” She hung up and heard Wally Stone, the owner of the pub, on the other line. Sheila was a bit confused by what he said and she answered right away, “course I’m coming in? Why wouldn’t I?”

When Sheila hung up and tossed the phone back on her kitchen counter, she was thoroughly confused, “has everybody gone daft?” She went to her wardrobe in the next room and began picking out something to wear. For whatever reason, Wally wanted her in early and it was really no big deal. Sheila did not have any plans and, Wally might have her stuck there a little longer but, he had another thing coming if he thought he would be getting any more work out of her. After dressing, Sheila said goodbye to her cat, “seeya when I get home love,” and then began her walk to work.

Despite of what Sheila had thought of as a terrible racket, from inside her kitchen window, the streets of Chelmsford seemed unusually calm. There was far less traffic than what she would normally see and it was very obvious, almost from the start. It was almost serene and Sheila actually mumbled, “maybe we should have riots more often.” She didn’t even have to worry about crossing at the light! It was almost heaven!

It was only a few blocks away from the pub that something did not seem quite right and, at first, Sheila did not even really think it was wrong. Some man ran up behind her, almost knocked her over, and then kept right on running. Sheila thought he was some kind of health nut until she realized the guy was wearing a suit. “People jogging, dressed like that now, are they?” The man looked back over his shoulder a few times and that was when Sheila noticed the look on his face. There was no other way to describe that face but, panic.

“What’s got him all buggered?” Then Sheila heard the high pitched whining that kept getting louder by the second. She looked back to where the man was running from. Everything looked normal enough but, that noise! It echoed off of everything and she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Then something poked out between a row of flats. It just kept coming and coming. Sheila was impressed and, it still kept coming and coming. She would have said it looked like a big metal pipe but, at this distance, it was more like a long black needle.

The pipe/needle turned into one of the ugliest things that Sheila had ever seen. It was rather boxy and looked just plain awkward as it rode on six enormous tires, had a teeny tiny little body, topped by this huge hat looking thing and that was where the big black pipe was. Most of all, it looked sort of metal like and that was when Sheila started to wonder, “is that a bleeding tank? What the hell is it doing here in the middle of town?”

The rapid succession of pops were followed by the sight of fire coming out of it’s long black gun. Sheila had seen a few war movies, even when she never paid them as much attention as the guy who made her watch them. She had heard all of the wiz and bang stuff before and they were most certainly not as loud as what had just made her ears ring. That cannon had made such a vibration in the air that Sheila felt like she had been ripped in half by it! She squealed and decided it was time to start walking a bit more rapidly to work.

Sheila had not made it three paces when she saw the street in front of her get brighter, a moment later she heard the roar, and not a second after that a hot wind slapped her across the back and almost knocked her to the ground. Sheila screamed and then gave up with the speed walking. She ran as hard as she could for the pub and, when she came barreling in the front door she was still screaming the same words, “somebody lit a match! Somebody lit a match! Somebody lit a match!”

Why was the place all dark? It took Sheila a minute to start wondering about that. What was even worse was, she was alone, “Wally? Are you here? Somebody lit a match, ‘round the corner!”

Sheila discovered she was not alone after all. Some man said, “hello” in a friendly enough voice. He sounded like he was from up north. When he walked into the light of the window she could finally see that he was a lanky man, with a shaved head and big ears. Sheila was defensive but, she was not about to run, “who are you? Where’s Wally?”

The man acted quite friendly, in an almost car salesman kind of way. He also seemed rather amused, “I just have to ask you Sheila, do you even know what time it is?”

“I got to look at my phone,” Sheila then whimpered, “where’s Wally?” Sheila now noticed that the man was dressed in a suit. She also noticed that he was not alone. At first they were shadows, then they looked like ghosts, and after that they looked like soldiers. Sheila gripped her handbag and squeezed as she nervously said, “you all pop in for a pint?”

This man in the suit stopped in front of her and asked as if he were astounded, “Sheila, do you even watch the telly?”

“I don’t got one,” now she cowered, “how do you know my name?”

The man rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead, then he nodded to one of his soldier buddies before he pointed to a chair that was right behind Sheila. The soldier ripped the bag out of her hand and shoved her down in the chair. Sheila got angry about the bag. She tried to get up and they pushed her back down, hard this time, and capped that off by using plastic ties to secure her wrists and ankles to the chair. Sheila barely noticed being tied up because she was still angry about her bag.

That amused the man in the suit who seemed curious about the bag. That made Sheila very nervous and she protested when he opened it up and began sifting through all of her junk. Then he started pulling out little plastic sandwich bags full of Sheila’s merchandise. She gasped and protested, “those aren’t mine!” Then she got angry and said, “I seen me a tv show once, this Hawaii Five Oh, and you can’t look in my bag without papers or something.”

The man slapped his forehead, “Sheila, we’re not in Hawaii. That’s an American TV show.”

Sheila wanted to cry, “am I being arrested?”

“No,” again the man slapped his forehead, “we’re not the fucking police or haven’t you… oh fuck it! I should know better than to argue with a…” He recovered quickly enough and went back to smiling as he sat down in front of her, “I’ll be nice to you Sheila, now my name is David Cross, and I’m only here to ask you a few simple questions.”

The woman was obviously nervous and eyeing the activity going on around her. Then she came out with a question of her own, “if I answer, can I get my dope back please?”

Now the man in the suit seemed frustrated, “yes you can have your fucking dope, all right? We happy now?”

Another solider came running in the door and he called out, “it’s confirmed, he’s definitely coming this way, Major. Do we pull them now?”

Cross snapped at his man, “no you moron! If this area goes dark they’ll change the route. Just wait for my signal already! Get back to your post!”

The guy went from fury to smiles when he looked back at Sheila, “now I’m here to talk about one of your loyal customers, Jacob Snow. I don’t have a lot of time so, Sheila, if you don’t want to make me angry, you’ll tell me what you know about him.”

Sheila’s eyes were wide open, her bottom lip quivered, and she found that being strapped down was not what was keeping her in place. Not a single muscle in her body would work.

Cross felt like slapping her but, instead he played at being sympathetic, “Sheila, love, you going to tell the nice man or not?”

Sheila gulped and then said, “I bought him some pants for his birthday, he wears…”

“I don’t give a fuck what size pants he wears,” Cross screamed in fury and frustration, “look you moron, just tell me where he is already. I know he called you so how about it?”

Sheila shrunk in her chair and nervously replied, “Montana?”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where in Montana, by any chance,” Cross replied.

Still nervous and slightly turned to the side Sheila replied, “I think it’s in America?”

David popped up out of his chair and told the woman, “thank you Sheila, you’ve been a great help love.” He then drew circles in the air above his head as he told his men, “burn the place down.”

Now Sheila suddenly realized she was tied to a chair. She started hopping in it and said, “you can’t do that. I work here.” When the man ignored her she said, “you’re not going to burn me with it, are you?”

David looked like that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. He looked back at the woman and rolled his eyes at her, “course not.” He then pulled the pistol out of his waste band and shot her between the eyes. David couldn’t help but notice that the stupid woman had that same bewildered look when her chair fell over backwards and her body hit the floor.

Another man tossed David a duffle bag and he began peeling out of his coat and tie. Then he began pulling out the British army uniform and combat gear that was in the bag. He questioned his men as he changed clothes, “has everybody changed yet?”

“Almost,” was the answer.

“Is the convoy on time,” was David’s next question.

“Close enough,” was the answer.

“Well then,” David said with a smile, “I’d say we should be home for tea and crumpets if our luck holds out.” David knocked on the wooden bar after that.

One of his men approached as he tossed the empty fuel can aside. The Sergeant asked, “Major, this was all just a tier three objective. Why we burning down the pub? Don’t seem right.”

“What’s not right,” David replied, “is shutting down a retail outlet.” Cross nodded to the body in the chair, “but, sometimes, can’t be helped, you know? Now the pub, that’s a message Sergeant Owens. Live and learn, live and learn.” Cross began applying the camouflage grease paint to his face.

Owens wasn’t sure what the man meant and he showed it. Cross calmly painted his face and said, “she didn’t tell me enough Sergeant. She was my last lead so, now, I have to get the people who know where my quarry is, to take me to them. We burn this place down, someone is going to know who burned it.” He smiled after saying that. It was clear Owens did not get it. That led David to go from smiles to frowns as he mumbled, “I suppose Guy Fawkes had the same kind of help. It would explain a great deal.”

The radio on David’s shoulder crackled to life, “target in sight. Check point X-Ray.”

Effortlessly, David replied, without thinking, “take out the cameras. All units, move to primary positions.” A distant explosion echoed through the open door of the pub before David had even finished giving the orders. He then put his helmet on, removed some flares from the bag, and finally tossed that bag to another man. As David casually strolled out of the pub, he waited for his men to move out and then, he struck a flare before tossing it in the door. David then said into the air, “John, consider this a wake up call.” Flames began lighting up the inside of the pub.

As David walked across the street his radio crackled again and he casually replied to it, “light ‘em up.” The echo of small arms fire began to rumble not far away. David checked his wrist watch and noted that he was actually a little ahead of schedule, despite Sheila’s incompetent attempt at living. When David heard the first big explosion he keyed is radio and said, “secondary’s now.” Explosions sounded in the distance, from all around Chelmsford. David smiled, “hello England, we’re back.”

David then switched the scanner on his radio and listened to the frantic calls for reinforcements. He actually answered them, “mike force in position, on your five o’clock, advise, check your fire, check your fire, friendly’s coming in.” David then signaled the men with him to follow and he led them down the street. As he jogged in the open he switched his radio frequency again and said, “extraction team on the move. Shift fire to secondary targets.”

The scene before David looked pretty much like every war zone he had ever been in, on two worlds. The lead and rear vehicles of the convoy, both armored vehicles, were now burning bright and secondary explosions from the ammunition and fuel were now cooking off sporadically. The Royal Air Force security police were defending the vehicles that had been trapped in the middle, mostly cars of various types. They were well silhouetted against the fires or, at least they were for David and his men. They were shooting in the other direction and, when they saw David approaching, they did nothing more than wave him in.

David found the officer in charge, along with a plain clothes security man, who pointed out who they were shooting at. David nodded and told them, “looks like you have this under control. My orders are to extract the primary to an emergency landing zone. We have choppers coming in.”

The air force officer was confused and even concerned, “is that wise right now?”

“No,” David replied, “You ask me it’s just desperate. I didn’t ask though, sir, I’m just following orders.”

David actually got very nervous as they escorted their target, and a few others, away from the shooting. It was not really because of what he was doing. He was more nervous about how easy it was. Of course, David knew full well that this was really the easy part of operations like this. The real danger was in the preliminary stages. It was when you collected your intelligence, formulated your plans, when you risked contact with your target for various reasons. There was always the chance that something out of the blue could come along and cause everything to go tits up but, odds were, if you were going to get caught it was in the beginning, before the first soldier ever moved on the target. If that happened, you were walking into ambush as opposed to springing one.

That didn’t happen this time. David was actually quite proud of himself too. He had just pulled the commanding General of the Royal Air Force, some of his staff, personal security, and the man’s family away from their heavily armed security convoy, and his extraction team had never even fired a shot. That was how operations were supposed to work. Now, he was entering the critical phase but, as David very well knew, it was only critical because he was superstitious. He knocked on a tree as they ran past a wooded area and into the open section of a park.

David’s team lined up the General and his people along the edge and his men kept them surrounded. Some of his other men rolled out tarps and set off flares. David even dropped his on the ground before signaling his men who were covering their prisoners.

The soldiers turned on the security guards and easily, almost simultaneously, put them each down with a point blank shot to the head. The General was stunned but, as David noted, the man was more concerned for his family. He gathered them close to him as he watched David casually walk up to them. Then he demanded, “who are you people?”

It was strange. David actually had a measure of respect for this man now. David had never met him before but, there was no one in the military that didn’t know who he was. Up till this point, David had always thought the man an ass kissing career hound. The way he shielded his wife and children proved otherwise. That made David tell the man, “you know General, I thought I’d have something to say at this point, sir. Now though? Not really.”

David turned his weapon on the primary target and with a few short bursts, he took them all down. The last words he heard were the screams of a child calling out for, “DADDY!”

David walked away from the bodies and rallied his men. He called for a status and Owens told him, “they have the choppers in bound. I thought we were going to move the bodies?”

“No Sergeant,” Cross told him. “We want them found, the quicker the better.” Cross then got on his radio and gave the mission successful code word before telling Owens, “you know what Owens, that air force colonel back there. He was right. It’s really stupid to be flying around right now. You‘re just asking to get your tail shot off. I don‘t care what IFF you have.”

“If you say so Major,” the sergeant replied.

David’s various teams began to reform as they closed in on the extraction point. They came together with no interference from David and all began to fall into step, forming nice neat military ranks, and just peacefully marching down the road. The other troops they met, rapidly driving by in their vehicles, headed in the opposite direction, waved at them if they did that much.

David waved back on occasion and then told Owens, “when the fox hunters horns do sound, why look like the bloody fox when it’s safer to be dressed as the hound?”

“I hear that sir,” Owens replied. Then he became inquisitive, “begging the Major’s pardon. What’s this all about? I mean I get some of it but…”

“Little trick we picked up from the elves, Sergeant,” Cross told him. “You were with me on that op last year, or maybe the year before, I forget. You know the one in Cheau-Gan?”

“You mean that little American girl?” Owens raised a brow. “What about it?”

“Remember all the crap going on with the elves?” David asked. He then answered his own question, “same thing we’re doing here. I don’t know their word for it but it translates as a purge. They were clearing out the dead wood in order to make way for the new era.” David grew quite chipper and said, “same thing here, you know?”