David Golemon - Ripper

Smith closed the cell phone and then pulled Sarah from the backseat of the car as his Black Team moved into place. From the far side of the large Tahoe he watched as a four-man team went into the alleys on both sides of the square building. Once there they quickly set up a transmitter that would send a burst of electronic jamming noise straight into the video surveillance cameras on each corner of the building. His eyes then moved to the large step van as it pulled up in front of the pawn shop. His fifteen-man assault element was now in place and waiting for him to enter the building. He reached into his pants pocket and brought out a small roll of tape. Sarah watched as he tore a strip off and placed it in his hand.

“This is your big moment. You can do as I say or die with the men inside of that building if they resist. It’s up to you. Either way I’ll still be the happy soul I am right at this moment.”

“What’s happening with Jack and Alice?” Sarah asked, her blackened eyes looking upward into the dark at the black shape before her.

Smith looked at his watch, raised his small radio, and then placed a small headphone in his right ear. He hooked the small microphone close to the corner of his mouth and smiled at the diminutive McIntire.

“Do as I say and in less than an hour you’ll be back with them again. Do not act accordingly and my man has orders to kill both of them. Now, if you please?” he gestured toward the street.

Sarah was taken by the arm, and as he started across the busy road Smith contacted his men.

“Team One, fifteen seconds after we enter the shop you will initiate the blinding of their optic security systems. Team Two, at that time you will enter the area through the front and back doors.”

Sarah knew the drill well and understood that Smith was receiving responding clicks through his earpiece telling him their individual teams were ready. She knew she had to do something to warn Jack’s men inside the shop.

The two stepped up to the door. “Smile miss, you’re about to see the best assault team in the world go to work — something very few people have ever seen and lived to talk about.” Smith gestured for Sarah to open the front door. “And be sure to place your thumb properly on the pressure plate located in the center of the door handle please. We do need them to read your thumb print accurately.”

Sarah cursed deep inside as she realized the man had figured out the first line of defense for the pawn shop. The scan would be read and the security men in the back of the shop would not be alerted to any trouble, especially from one of their own. She pressed down on the thumbplate, knowing that Europa was sending a precise rendering of the swirls and valleys of her thumbprint through her security system. She pulled the door open and as she entered saw the first of the Event Group security men turn away from the customer he was assisting. He gave her a half smile, nodded, and then turned back to his customer, not aware of the danger posed by the man accompanying her inside.

As soon as they were inside, they heard a slight buzzing sound as the electronic burst of energy from outside struck the security cameras on the building’s sides and back. Smith quickly pushed Sarah to the floor and pulled the silenced nine millimeter from where he had it hidden behind his back. As he placed his foot onto Sarah’s back, the security man reacted far faster than Smith would have thought possible. He had his own weapon out almost as quickly. Smith fired only once, catching the marine security man in the head, knocking him into the stunned and shocked customer. Then he moved the large silencer a few inches and placed another bullet into the young boy who had been inquiring about the guitar.

“You bastard,” Sarah said as loud as she could, eliciting a sharp kick delivered by Smith to her kidneys.

Smith took a quick step to the left and saw the clerk behind the glass counter look up at the sound of the muffled weapon’s discharge and Sarah’s shout of anger. The two bullets flew down the crowded aisle of CDs and other possessions given up. The rounds struck the man in the chest and neck, dropping the air force sergeant in an instant.

At that moment his assault element entered through the front door and quickly started up the four aisles toward the rear of the shop. That was when a sharp tone sounded. Smith knew the alarm had been tripped.

“Damn it,” he said, knowing that the security element had been far faster than he realized they could be. He gestured for his men to move forward.

As the black-clad men jumped the counter, one was taken down by a security marine coming from the back. A spray of red-colored mist filled the air as the shotgun blast removed his hooded head in a microsecond. Before the marine could turn the shotgun on the next man, three Black Team members cut him down. They moved quickly through the curtain. Sarah heard several discharges of automatic weapons that could only have come from security personnel in the back. As she flinched on the tile floor, she saw another of the Black Team thrown back through the curtain separating the front of the shop from the back. She head Smith curse at the fast response of Jack’s men. Then she heard the muffled reports of several weapons as they finished the task at hand. Sarah shook her head as she was harshly pulled from the floor.

“Your assistance is needed in the back,” Smith said as he pushed her forward, angrier than ever over the loss of three of his men.

As he and Sarah pushed through the curtain, Smith looked around and saw a small storage area and then the two security personnel that had opened up on the assault team. One of the men moaned on the floor as he lay in a pool of his own blood. Sarah closed her swollen eyes when she recognized the man. No , she corrected herself, not a man, just a boy. He was Albert Petrakis, a U.S. Army sergeant that had only been on the security team for a year. As he moved his head, Smith stepped over the boy. Sarah turned the sergeant over and cradled his head as Smith took in the back office. He made a cursory inspection for more traps.

McIntire was beside herself. She had never seen such ruthless behavior from anyone, much less Americans as these men obviously were. She was pulled up from the floor by one of the black-clad men, but she angrily shook him off, still holding the sergeant’s head. The shoulder wound was serious and she knew if she didn’t stop the bleeding the massacre of the security element at gate two would be complete. She looked up and saw Smith looking down at her with a bemused look.

“You had better shoot me too, because I go no farther.”

Smith kept the strange look on his face and nodded, making Sarah think he was about to grant her request. Instead he nodded toward the wounded soldier. “Bring him along. I think he’ll be the key to what’s behind door number one.” He looked back at Sarah as he reached down and pulled her to her feet and actually tossed her farther into the office area. Two of his men yanked the sergeant up with a ruthlessness she had never witnessed before. Smith passed by Sarah as she leaned against one of the desks.

The large man placed his silenced weapon into a shoulder holster and walked past the spilled blood of the sergeant but came to a stop when he saw that another one of his team was down in the back-office portion of the pawn shop. He angrily grabbed Sarah by the arm and shook her. “Before I leave here I’m going to find out just exactly who you people are. To have a security element that is capable of killing my men with such abandon, well, let’s just say that I’m impressed.”

As McIntire looked down, she saw the darts protruding from the men lying on the floor. The anesthetic projectiles had been exploded outward from a false-fronted computer and the facing of the large desk it sat upon. She could still see the smoke rising from the wood and plastic as the security man, who was now lying dead on the floor next to the desk, had triggered the booby trap that had sent three hundred darts into the Black Team’s faces and necks. As they stepped over them, she could see the men were out cold and would be for hours.