Dick Stivers - Deathbites

July 14, 1600 hours, Smyrna, Georgia

This time Jishin did not risk tipping anyone off to the raid by hijacking transportation from the airport. She hired two buses to move both the experienced foreign terrorists and the American terrorists-in-training from the airport to Elwood Electronic Industries Inc.

The buses pulled up to the plant. Two of the least certain of the trainees were left with the drivers. Their orders were to keep the drivers on the spot and out of the way. The other sixty-one terrorists divided into three groups to enter by the plant's three doors.

Jishin went with the group that used the front entrance. There was no one in the reception area. Two lights glowed on the switchboard, showing lines in use. The receptionist's typewriter was on and humming.

Beyond the reception area was the main office bull pen. The coffee was hot. Typewriters and copiers were on. A cigarette burned itself out in an ashtray.

"Creepy," said one of the recruits.

The others looked around and under desks, trying to ignore the remark.

"You three start on those files," Jishin ordered. "You four go back and cover the entry. You two see that the other teams have left their entries guarded as well. The rest of you find out where everyone's gone."

The terrorists scattered to obey orders.

Each of the three detailed to sort through files pulled open the top drawer of one of the upright cabinets. Each began scanning for anything pertaining to original research. The one in the middle found nothing but invoices in the top drawer. She slammed it shut and yanked open the second drawer. The three filing cabinets blew up, filling the room with sharp pieces of flying metal. Three terrorists died, four others experienced the pain of being severely wounded.

Jishin was not hit. She was already on her way to the computer room to see how things were going there. She heard the explosion and the screams but kept going. Someone would catch up with the details all too soon.

She found the terrorists wandering around the computer room. They looked lost.

"What's going on here?" Jishin demanded.

"Jobs are running. The computers are being worked but no one's here," someone reported in a puzzled voice.

"So what!" Jishin screamed. "Just get on with it."

They hastily moved in on the computer keyboards and started deciphering entry codes and working at a way to acquire the classified data.

Jishin stomped out in disgust, through the security and noise barriers, to the back of the building to discover what happened to the third part of the invading force. There was a sharp crack somewhere in a remote part of the building.

Jishin found the final third of her army frantically trying to dig their fellow workers out from under a heavy load of transformer cores and shelving.

"What do you think you're doing?" she barked.

The terrorists stopped and looked up.

"Tanna and Brian hit a trip wire and the shelves fell in on them."

Jishin stopped and picked up a discarded M-16. She jacked a shell into the chamber and fired two short bursts, killing the two imprisoned terrorists.

"That's what happens to careless types. Now, move it, before I lose patience. Find out what happened to the people who were working here."

Two messengers finally caught up with their leader.

"What do you two want?" she snapped at them.

"The file cabinets in the general office exploded," the first reported. "We have three dead and four wounded."

"The tape drive in the computer room also blew up," the other reported. "We have two more seriously wounded."

Before Jishin could react, someone yelled. "Gas!"

Jishin recognized the harsh, burning sensation of strong ammonia in her nostrils.

"Clear the area," she barked.

In their haste to make it to the front of the building, the terrorists began to push and shove. That was when the lights went out.

There was still plenty of light streaming in the windows, but the power failure was the last straw for the already terrified killers. Their anger turned on each other. Soon fists were flying, the terrorists urgently wanting to quit the ammonia-filled stockrooms.

Jishin was still holding the M-16. She fired it into the air.

When she had sufficient attention, she spoke. "The next person I see shoving, gets shot."

The evacuation was immediately more orderly, but Jishin was forced to tie up her time standing in the ammonia-filled room, eyes streaming water, fighting not to cough, while her troops scrambled out the single door into the other parts of the building.

The terrorists in the general office area quickly patched up their wounded, leaving the dead where they lay. There was a brief argument about which eight would carry the wounded to a bus and which four would stay behind. It was settled that all would head for the buses, three carrying each wounded.

The buses were not there.

The two terrorists left to keep an eye on the bus drivers had remained behind. Each was carefully stretched out on the parking lot, his neck broken and his weapon missing.

It was too much for three of the terrorists-in-training. They dropped their wounded comrade and sprinted away from the menacing, silent building that seemed to be functioning, but in which no one could be found. They did not make it. One of the confiscated M-16s opened up, cutting them down with three short bursts.

None of the terrorists tried to return fire. They were tasting terror instead of dispensing it. They dropped their wounded and retreated back inside the building. The last one in slammed the door and then looked in horror at the string tied to the door handle. On the end of the string was a grenade pin. In the hush, all nine survivors heard the spoon fall with a clatter. Three were killed by the blast, two more were severely injured.

When Jishin found her first contingent of terrorists, the ones she had entered the building with, they were grouped in the reception area, ignoring the wounded at their feet. They were all crouched and waving weapons around, terrified, unable to find anything to shoot at.

After much bullying and commanding, Aya Jishin got the nine quaking terrorists to move and join the group in the computer room. They arrived at the double glass windows and looked into the soundproofed area just in time to see two grenades go off. The defensive grenades threw wire throughout the room, killing six and injuring several more, but the blast did not destroy the tempered glass of the viewing windows.

A close-up view of their companions being lacerated with thousands of pieces of wire was too much for the already cowering terrorists. They dropped their weapons and ran for the nearest door.

The group that had encountered the high concentrations of ammonia gas had cleared their eyes. It had taken much sponging and washing, but they were ready to continue their conquest of Elwood Electronics.

Then suddenly an M-16 started to chatter, spraying bullets into their ranks. The terrorists dived for whatever cover they could find and brought their own weapons up. They were all set when their fleeing companions charged through the room on their way to the door. All nine were cut down before the terrorists realized they were shooting their own people.

When the terrified goons began to stampede, Jishin went after them. She saw the M-16 that provoked the firing. It had poked out above one of the sound-suppressing ceiling tiles.

"The enemy is above you!" Jishin yelled. "Watch the ceiling."

They responded immediately, chopping the tiles over their heads with .223 tumblers. Then they leaped on anything available, ready to establish a beachhead in the new war zone.

The sound of a low-flying jet boomed overhead. Jishin's battle instincts flared. A quick count told her that eighteen able-bodied troops were after the sniper or snipers in the crawl space. That was more than enough. Aya Jishin took off to find the other terrorists and move them outside to meet a new threat.