It was a really disturbing situation. The world was about to explode and Phil was sitting at ground zero. That wasn’t really what bothered him at the moment though. He figured he could handle a world crippling disaster if he wasn’t stuck in a elevator that was playing music, that sounded like the instrumental, disco version, of old country and western songs, that he hated in the first place. All Phil could think of was to ask the Marine standing next to him, “Captain Twitchily, if you shoot out those speakers I’ll put in a good word for you with the President and see about making you commandant of the Marine Corps. That sound like fair deal?”

The Marine grabbed for the charging handle on his weapon and smiled. Phil realized that he did say that in a very neutral kind of way so he reached up and grabbed the hand guard of the weapon and said in the same flat tone, “never mind Captain. I changed my mind.”

Twitch looked genuinely disappointed and he even said, “last time I got stuck under siege in a State Department facility they wouldn’t give no bullets. I kind of like this better.”

That drew a look from Phil and he asked, “you were at the embassy in Cheau-Gan last year? Now you’re here? Lucky you.”

Phil wouldn’t exactly call their situation a siege but, for the Marines stationed here, at the US Delegation in Coven Hill, it might as well be. They were all decked out and all full alert. Phil was even wearing his field grade uniform for the first time in over six months. It kind of reminded him that working at the White House did have one perk, he never had to put on all that armor and field gear, including now. Phil left it all up in his room. He didn’t think he would need it. If anything went wrong, this place was going to get nuked and what good would body armor do him then?

The door chimed as it opened and Phil walked out in the lobby where one of the State Department receptionists met them and gave them the last minute details. She then went back to the lobby level conference room and Phil waited with his Marine who was looking him over. When Phil asked why he was getting the eye, the Marine tried to sound like he was a diplomat, “I was just wondering sir, is us being dressed to rock an roll really sending a good message here?”

“Captain,” Phil replied, “if the Consul had wanted to send any other message, he wouldn’t have sent me.” Then Phil added, “and besides, I’m not getting undressed for you. I know how you Marines are.”

Twitch broke out in a smile and said, “don’t ask don’t tell sir, unless you ask me real nice like.”

Phil never broke his game face when he clarified, “that was a joke, right?”

The marine quickly agreed, “um yeah, um sir, most definitely, absolutely, without fail.”

The woman from the State Department stuck her head out the door and said, “Colonel Conner, I’m ready sir.” The woman moved aside, to some recording equipment, as Phil entered the room. Twitch followed and closed the door behind him. The Marine had worked plenty of embassies and he knew the protocols. Phil didn’t even bother looking to see if the guy stood in the right place. If he didn’t, right now, Phil figured, so what?

The Russian Colonel, by the name of Yozhikov, exchanged salutes with Phil and then said, “I was told to deliver this message directly to the pro consul, no offence colonel.”

Phil said with a blank look, “he’s not here Colonel. I think he had to take his dog to the vet.”

Yozhikov conferred with his staff officer, quietly, and in Russian. Then he said, “surely you are joking Colonel Conner?”

“No Colonel Yozhikov,” Phil replied in monotone, “a horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, why the long face?” Twitch broke out laughing, but then, caught himself. Phil continued, “that’s a joke sir.” Now the Russian was completely confused so Phil said, “you had a message. I’m here. What is it?”

“Very well colonel,” Yozhikov actually cleared his throat like it would make this official, “it is my duty to inform you, that the Russian Government will not tolerate any military action against this facility, no matter what the circumstances. If your troops leave the barracks under arms, we will take whatever actions we deem necessary to enforce the treaty by which this facility is operated. As of right now, our Ambassador in Washington is informing your Secretary of State, and your Ambassador in Moscow has been called before my President, for the same purpose. Is this message clear?”

The flash from a camera nearly blinded Phil. He tried to ignore the little woman from the State Department who was running around both him and the Russian. That was something they never showed you in the movies but, all of these meetings were always recorded by every medium that existed. It was annoying. It’s also why Phil forced a very fake smile and nodded. He did not bother to respond.

The Russian was confused, “well?”

Conner shrugged, “well what? Was that the message?”

Again the Russian was confused, “um, yes it was.”

“Ok,” Phil replied. “Thanks for your time.”

Back in the elevator Phil remarked, “that’s just the first one. I expect that France or China will be next.”

Twitch rolled his eyes, “oh fucking joy. The glories of guarding diplomats. I thought this is what they got paid to do.”

The door opened again and this time Phil walked into one of the sub levels of the delegation. This one housed the operations center and Phil went directly to the NSA office where they had camera’s on the roof that monitored as much of the facility as was possible. They also had the satellite in orbit that watched the rest. The combined picture he was getting was pretty clear. Phil then grabbed a small green box that had a phone attached. He had one of the NSA guys make sure the settings were correct, and then he invited the Marine to follow him up to the roof.

Phil stood in plain site with the secure phone in his hand. He wanted to be seen and from the looks of the news cameras that were setting up on the roof tops, over in the housing area, he was sure he was being seen by more than just those guys out there on the slopes of the high ground that was just to their west. Phil then placed his call as he and the Marine watched the movement of a host of black uniforms, along with their armored cars, off in the distance.

When someone answered the call, Phil was somewhat surprised to hear a very disturbed sounding woman who told him, “hold for the President.” Phil had not expected to hear that.

Phil also wondered, as he listened to the silence on the phone, “it’s the White House, you’d think they could afford some music when they put you on hold.”

Twitch was surprised too, “really? You’d think they could afford first class shit.”

When the next person picked up on the line, it really was the President and he even said, “Phil, I’m watching you on television right now. That’s a really good shot of you and that other guy. I see a time magazine cover in this somewhere. So what have you got to tell me?”

“Mister President,” Phil responded quickly, “it looks like they waited for the first warning to get here before they deployed. I just had a chat with a Russian colonel.”
Bill Devon replied in his usual thoughtful tone, “yeah, their ambassador is over in the foyer right now, talking to Secretary King. I’m not going to see him. I think you should know, colonel, that’s not the only one we’ve had arrive but, you don’t worry about that.”

That was easy for him to say! Phil was standing up here watching the bad guys dig in. The guys in black were also moving armored vehicles towards Building 13 and there was no way to know what they had inside. The spooks all had their estimates, that were based on watching multiple videos of the building but, given how wide those estimates varied, Phil didn’t trust any of them. The reality of it was, they didn’t know what sized force they were dealing with here, and, there was one other problem.

“Mister President,” Phil told him, “there’s also a British mech unit here, the Black Rats. We don’t know what side they’re on. If they move to support the internal security force, we’re going to be heavily out gunned.”

Devon sounded sympathetic when he replied, “that’s a fair point colonel. I’m talking with the Prime Minister in about ten more minutes. I will bring this issue up with him. It’ll be at the top of my list. What I really need to know from you is, what about our Trojan Horse?”

“That’s the wild card sir,” Phil told him. “If they open the Dell up, on schedule, and that’s in about two hours, we have to move. We won’t have a choice then. Our troops are coming through and we have no way to call them off.”

“I know, I know,” the President replied. “There are a lot of things I don’t like about this plan and that’s the biggest. Just remember, this was your bosses idea.”

What could Phil say to that? This sounded like one Bob’s plans. All he could really do here was ask, “sir, may I inquire as to the location of the good General?”

The President sounded chipper when he replied, “right where he’s supposed to be.” Devon then paused and listened to Phil for a moment before continuing, “two hours you say. Good luck Colonel and, hopefully, I’ll talk to you again in three.”

When Bill hung up the phone, he looked across the table that sat in the main conference center of the Situation Room. Jim Garret was there watching the video screens. they were currently displaying the feeds from the same video that were being watched at Coven Hill. The President asked his senior military man, “well General?”

“No question about it sir,” Jim told the boss, “it looks like King Arthur has called in the whole round table for this one. To be honest with you sir, what I’m seeing here, they have a lot more fire power than our estimates thought possible.”

The President slumped down in his chair and before he mumbled to himself, “so this is what Frank felt like. I should shoot the bastard myself.” Then Bill straighted up in his chair, “can we handle them? Even with their reinforcements that,” Bill pointed to the screen, “that we’re looking at here.” Jim was about to reply and then Bill added, “and remember General, we can’t just beat them. We have to take them down quickly or this is going to get out of hand.”

Garret thought about it for a moment and the pause did not make Bill feel any better. He then said, “if they don’t pull any more rabbits out of their hole, we can handle what we’re seeing now.”

Admiral Jessup had been sitting quietly for most of the meeting. The senior naval officer now spoke up and he was not happy, “damn it Jim, you don’t really know, do you? You sure as hell didn’t know they had this.” Jessup looked to the President, “let me tell you what I do know sir. We’re picking up increased chatter coming from inside China. Our last satellite pass picked up heat blooms in nearly every capital ship they have.”

Bill thoughtfully nodded and replied, “they’re getting ready to move on Taiwan.”

Jessup nodded back, “it would appear so, sir.”

Alicia was sitting in the chair next to the head of the table, and her father. She had been biting on her nails for nearly an hour and, she realized, that it was ruining what amounted to a six hundred dollar pedicure. She didn’t care. She was also quite jumpy and when the console phone beeped in front of her she squealed. Then she looked around the table and meekly apologized, “sorry.”

After picking up the phone, Alicia listened and quickly interrupted her father, “DAD! It’s… I’m sorry I mean Mister Pres…”

“Honey,” her father said in a very parental way, “we’re about to blow up civilization, I think you calling me ‘dad’ is just fine under the circumstances.”

“It’s Mary,” Alicia huffed out.

Bill didn’t wait to get the patch to his phone. He waived for Alicia’s hand set and then took it and said, “are you there yet?”

At least Mary was still herself as she replied, “not quite yet sir. We’re making our final approach to Buffalo right now. I was told the National Guard has a helicopter waiting for me. That’ll put me at the Federal Building not five minutes after we land.”

Bill asked the important question, “have we confirmed, is it her?”

“Yes sir Mister President,” Mary sounded confident, “this is definitely Carol Somerset. They got her at the border.”

“What about the other one,” Bill asked, “the rock star scientist guy? What’s his name?”

“Dominique,” Mary replied. “No sir, all I know for sure is that we have her and that’s it.”

“Mary,” Bill looked up at the clock, “if something doesn’t break we’re at war, with half the world, in less than two hours. You got exactly one before you call me back.” Devon handed the phone back to his daughter and then told one of the soldiers up at the communications center, “get me General Isaacs.”

When Devon looked back to his gathered advisors he said, “well genetleman. Between us and the British, we tried to catch over twenty of these Knights of the Round Table, and as of now, we officially have four in custody. The only good news here, is that this one is at least a Tier Two, maybe even a One.”

Jim Garret sighed and asked, “do you really think she’ll tell us anything useful?”

“I don’t know Jim,” Bill Devon replied. “I hope to god she does.” Bill’s phone beeped and he answered it by saying, “General Isaacs, are you where you’re supposed to be?”

Even in the sound proofed upper decks of the C-141 transport, which was set up just like a standard passenger liner, it was a little hard to hear the phone. It was also kind of scratchy sounding to Bob. He figured that was due to the scrambler and maybe even the satellite patch. Who really knew or, at least, who did that wouldn’t bore you to death while trying to explain it.

Bob answered the question, “thank you for asking Mister President and, the truth be told, we’re not in Kansas any more, sir.”

“Good to hear,” Devon replied in his calm tone, “I’d like to pass on some more updated intel, General. It looks like our Knight buddies have called in the heavy cavalry. They’ve reinforced their positions around the target.”

That was the kind of information that Bob always wanted to hear but, it was incomplete, “do we know how many?”

Now Bill Devon shrugged, “since it’s your ass on the line here Bobby, I’ll shoot you straight. We don’t have a clue. We also don’t have a choice as you very well know. You tell your boys good luck. You have good luck. Talk to you in two hours.”

When Bob hung the phone up he groaned, grabbed the side of his head, and then went looking for some more pain killers. He didn’t expect that flying would cause his tooth to throb like this but it damn sure did. The thing had not bothered him in weeks and, now, it was pay back which was, by definition, hell! It was also, noticed.

Snake was standing next to the com station and he watched his General fumble with a bottle of over the counter pain killers. He also mention, “don’t tell me, General Sir, your tooth is bothering you again.”

“Again?” Bob looked at Snake very carefully and then in a grumpy manner he said, “where did the ‘again’ part come from Snake? Oh wait, you took that call earlier, didn’t you? You were the one who came and got me. I know, the First Daughter is answering the calls and she told you, didn’t she?”

“Actually Bob,” Snake said lowering his voice, “it was your ex-wife that spilled the beans. She called while you was asleep and I agreed with her, you need to go see a dentist.”

“Tell you what Snake,” Bob grumbled after he swallowed the pills. “When you get promoted to Sergeant Major, then you can act like my mother. Till then, you’re just my NCOIC.”

Snake snapped to attention and drew a big grin, “yes sir, General sir.” When Bob got up and walked past the man, Snake uttered, “Dentist.”

Bob replied, “fuck you First Sergeant.”

Bob climbed down the stairs to the part of the plane that looked like what you might expect a military tranport would. The C-141 was not the biggest transport plane in the US aresnal but, it was big compared to a man. Currently Bob had a lot of those piled up in the cargo bay along with their gear, and their parachutes. Bob had gone back to the ITTC, his last command before the White House, and picked up every guy that had ever made a parachute jump.

When Bob recruited Snake for the mission, who had not only jumped but was a former Ranger, Snake had pointed out that he wasn’t even qualified any more since he had not done the recertificaitons. Unfotunately, Bob realized, that also included over half the men he recruited but, he had to figure they could do this. Snake was, personally, not very happy about jumping and not getting the pay that went with it.

It could not be helped because the real skills, that these men all had and Bob needed, was not the jump certified thing. They’d only have to do that once and gravity, along with a static line, would take care of most of that for them. The real reason they were all here was because every last one of these men were not only certified but, experts at, handing the Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicle. Bob was leading the first mechanized airborne offensive in history.

He tried to cheer up Snake by not only pointing that out but, “look at it this way First Sergeant, you’ll actually get a star over jump wings now.”

“It is the First Sergeants duty to inform the General, sir,” Snake replied, “that I don’t even have a goddamn pair of jump wings anymore.”

“It’s an order Sergeant,” Bob replied, “when we get home, go buy a new pair of jump wings.” Bob reached the halfway point down the stairs and yelled for everyone to give him the floor. Snake yelled the same thing after Bob and the soldiers quieted down. Bob then told them, “guys, I just got some updated S-2. We’re facing a reinforced, and unknown, number of bad guys. The plan is still the same.” Bob checked his watch, “we go in just over an hour and a half. I know you guys have all been mech for most of your careers. Some of you haven’t jumped in years.” Bob then patted his ass, “just remember this is no longer your first ponit of contact, ooh-uuh?”

One of the air crew yelled down from the top deck. Bob and Snake quickly made their way back up and then to the communications station. The airman handed Bob the headset which, he put on and listened with. He was hearing frantic radio chatter going on between the navy fighters that were escorting his transport. They were being challenged by RAF fighters just past the line that marked international waters.

The chatter turned into high pitched squeals that went on for a very tense thrity seconds. It felt to Bob like it was two hours but, when it ended, Bob heard two naval aviators clamoring, “splash two! Say again, splash two bandits.” Then Bob heard one of them say, “feet dry.”

Bob let out the breath he had held in and then he had the air force guy connect him back to the scrambler. When his call went through, he heard Alicia hyperventilating on the other end. Bob decided pay back was hell, “Alicia, tell your Dad, I think we just started World War Three.” Bob then gave a very serious look at his top enlisted man and said, “go tell our kids, suit up. Check their static lines personally.”

Snake was confused, “General? I thought we were still…”

“We can’t wait now,” Bob replied. “We’re going as soon as we reach the target.” Bob looked back at his watch, “I give us about twenty minutes. I guess it won’t be like the last time we were there, will it? Maybe they got that bar open now, huh?”

Snake was mumbling to himself as he turned around, “not fucking likely.” He then climbed back down the stairs and began issuing orders. As the soldiers started scrambling to prepare, Snake walked amongst the troops and saw the fear in their eyes. He couldn’t blame them since he was scared too. Of course, Snake wasn’t sure which he was more scared of, getting shot at or stepping off that back ramp. Snake had been attacked by Orcs and, all things being equal, he did not figure the Brits could top them. So, his fear had to be from the idea of falling out the sky like bird shit on a tether. It’s one reason he had always preferred being in the mechanized infantry.

There was one face that appeared in the crowd and Snake could not help but notice the blank look on it. Now Snake actually laughed because, as he saw it, pay back was a bitch. He said to the boy, “well if it ain’t Staff Sergeant Gordo Lewis. Tell me sergeant, is it everything you hoped for?”

“Top,” Gordo replied with a slight quiver in his voice, “I’ll let you know when I’m safe in a gunner seat.”

“Fair enough boy,” Snake replied, before adding, “and yes, in case you were wondering, the boy part was an insult.” Snake slapped the kid in the arm, “you’ll be ok. Your old man would kill me if I let something happen to you.”

Gordo gulped, summoned a little courage, even if it wasn’t the First Sergeant that was bothering him. He then said, “well he did everything he could to keep me from getting here. I never understood it, Top. He had his chance. Why doesn’t he want me to have mine?”

Snake put his thumbs in his vest, rocked on his heels, and then replied, “well, I might say it had something to do with the fact that he’s rolling around in a wheel chair right now. Only I’m not, cause, your old man didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Gordo became confused. Snake laughed at him, “your old man would never ask me to do some shit like that. No matter how much he might want to. I’m the one that kept your ass at Reilly.” When Gordo looked like he was getting angry, Snake simply remained arrogant, “and do you know what pisses me off about that Staff Sergeant? I failed, and you had to drag me along with you. So get your shit wired tight boy cause you better not get me killed. You cause some shit to go wrong and I’m going to throw your ass on a grenade and tell yo mama you died like a hero, ooh-uh?”

Snake went back to work.