The Shepherd's Crook Pt. 04

Montrose spoke with General Davis and informed him of the communications which hinted at an attack in the coming week.

She really wanted to take the Colonel down, but he'd just built the weapon someone else had taken from him.

Sitting at her desk, brooding over a steaming cup of cocoa, she glanced at her email, which suddenly popped up with a new message directed to the inbox of a cell member they'd hacked.

As she read the message, her eyes widened in alarm. She picked up her desk phone and tried dialing out but got a recording stating all lines were busy. She tried her personal cell phone, and it wasn't working either.

Montrose rushed from her office, ran down the hall to where their tech heads worked, and saw the activity before entering the room.

One of her people turned to look at her. "Massive cyberattack targeting the eastern seaboard telecom circuits."

"Does anyone have an open line?" she asked, but heads shook to indicate they didn't. She turned and rushed away and out of the building. She needed to get to the Pentagon.

Normally, this was a drive of five to ten minutes, but it seemed the telecom circuits weren't the only system being tampered with. Traffic control was a mess, but she drove like a woman possessed and managed to get to the Pentagon in just under half an hour. Another fifteen minutes to get through security before she was led to a room where the General was arguing with some techs. He looked over at her flushed expression and held up a hand to stop the others from talking. "Yes?"

"I'm Agent Montrose of the FBI. I just received a message that a domestic terrorist cell will launch a second attack on the Shepherd residence tonight!"

"Fuck! Come with me!" Davis snapped and rushed out of the room. She quickly caught up, and he glanced over at her as they hustled down the hall. "This cyberattack could be part of it."

Montrose nodded. "I don't understand why they are going after a civilian this way. The most recent note claimed he was working on some kind of super body armor he would give to the Kremlin. Is that credible?"

Davis looked at her with a delighted grin. "Everything except the part about the Russians."

They entered a communications center, and heads turned to face him. "I need a direct line to the Spa."

"Satellite link is still viable, sir. Connecting you now," one of the techs responded.

"The Spa?" Montrose asked, and Davis smirked. The tech pointed to the headset in front of the General, and he quickly put it on. "This is General Davis. I've received notice of an imminent attack on the Shepherd homestead." He looked to Montrose. "How many?"

"Upwards of thirty combatants," Montrose said, recalling the note.

General Davis' eyes widened. "Thirty terrorists coming your way. What resources are there this week?" he asked into the mic. He nodded. "We'll send you reinforcements."

He suddenly yanked the headset from himself as Montrose picked up the sound of a loud squeal. The General looked to the tech. "What happened?"

"We've lost satellite connection with them. Sounded like a power surge at their end, sir."

"Get me the base commander of Fort Kortridge Air Base!"

Montrose stepped back and watched the General scramble whatever forces he had near this Spa to protect the Shepherd homestead.

She wondered at the expense they were going through to protect this particular civilian and why there was a contingent already in place. Perhaps she shouldn't have dismissed the briefing she'd been offered about the man.

She watched the General's expression, and he wasn't a happy man. She found herself praying for the inhabitants of the Shepherd residence.

-=-

Ben got everyone into the basement and his office when they heard the explosion at the other end of the court. Tina and Lucy gripped his arms tightly as he prepared to go outside to help. He looked back at them in surprise, and they shook their heads firmly.

"This time, you must listen to us. The army is here to protect us. You will not help them by becoming a target," Tina insisted gently.

He sighed, nodded, and closed the safe room's door, locking them all inside. He called Gabriella, and she picked up immediately. "Ben! What's happening?" she cried.

"Get to your basement. It sounds like some kind of attack. They'll target me, but we're safe. You need to get to a safe place in the basement. After this, remind me to build you a safe room!"

"We're in the basement!" she said nervously. "I'm going to call Catherine to ensure she keeps Chanel from doing something stupid."

"I'll call Trish," Ben said. "I love you!"

"I love you, too! And thank Tina and Lucy for me," Gabriella said before hanging up. He wondered what she meant by that.

Ben looked at Tina, who was on her cell. "Lisa, Lori, and Daphne are safe," she said and glanced back to her cell.

"Karen, Jayden, Penny, and Rain are in their basement," Lucy reported as she flicked a look at Ben, then she called another number. Tina was calling another neighbor too.

Ben smiled as he called Trish.

"Ben! Are you okay?" the redhead immediately exclaimed.

"Yes, Tina and Lucy have me in the safe room—" And suddenly, it came to him what Gabriella meant.

"Ah! That's a relief. Staying safe for once! Thank them for me," Trish sighed. "We're okay here. I assume someone is after you again?"

Ben smiled at the relief he heard in her voice. "Probably. Evelyn was up on the tower with the commandos, so I hope they're okay."

"You stay put. I'm sure they have everything in hand!" Trish insisted. "If you don't promise me, I'll come over there to make you!"

"Fine! I'm staying put!" Ben asserted and got smiles from Tina and Lucy.

He called Liliya.

"Ben! Are you in your safe room?" she immediately asked.

"Yes. Are you and Rose safe?" he asked.

"We just arrived at Trish's and are in her basement."

"How did you get there?" he asked in surprise.

Liliya snorted softly. "I should give away all my secrets? Stay in your safe room!" She hung up.

Ben huffed. Bossy ladies.

-=-

Evelyn hung up her cell. "I can't get through to the General, so we can assume communications are down. The comm center at the Spa was knocked out, so we can assume we'll be getting reinforcement from the nearby air base in about twenty minutes." Fisher and Evelyn moved to the front of the deck and looked at One Ashburn Court. Smoke was drifting up from the top level, but a punishing rain of bullets was firing down from the tall building into the field on the other side of the road pinning down their attackers.

Fisher nodded in the direction of the other end of the court. "That's just a distraction. The real attack will be coming through the woods." He frowned. "Fucking amateurs. They're late or their distraction jumped the gun."

"Agreed."

"You still have those body armor plates?" Fisher asked.

The Sergeant looked at the CO closely. "Yes, why?"

"I'll take every advantage I can get for my people. They can wear it atop their existing armor," he said.

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Give me two minutes and switch to thermal optics."

Fisher grinned. "Girly. This isn't our first rodeo."

Evelyn's face heated up as she nodded and raced away. It took her twenty-three seconds to descend the interior staircase, fifteen to get to the garage, and another fifteen to collect all the available Configuration Three and Four plates into a large duffle. She ran to the dumb waiter and sent the bag up as she ran up the stairs. She was breathing hard as she reached the top. She waved to Fisher to meet her by the elevator.

When it arrived, she dragged the bag onto the deck.

"How many four-layer plates do you have?" Fisher asked.

"Twelve—no fifteen. And twenty-four of the configuration three plates," she said.

Fisher made some hand gestures, and his team came by one at a time to collect the armor, one four-layer and two three-layer plates.

"What the fuck are these?" one of the commandos asked his CO holding up the arrangement of metal straws.

"It stopped five armor-piercing rounds," Fisher said, and the man moved aside with a surprised look on his bearded face. Then he stuffed the plates inside his winter camouflage suit, strapping them in place with Velcro strips.

Stim made a sharp hand gesture by the railing facing the woods.

"Here they come. We're up," Fisher said.

The commandos planned a surprise for the attackers. One after another, they slid under the railing, clipped onto the zip-line, and almost silently disappeared into the darkness.

Evelyn slipped on her night goggles and switched to thermal. The woods lit up with gently glowing spots from the incoming fighters who weren't doing a good job of masking their heat signatures. She began to hear brief noises as the Commandos dropped one after another into the middle of the invading force.

Then Evelyn was alone on the deck. She stuffed one of the remaining four-layer plates inside her cold weather gear over her chest plate and pulled a strap over it. It felt a little bulky, but it didn't inhibit her motion.

She connected herself to the zip line and noted no vibration coming through the line, so the commandos must have disengaged. As she rode the wire down, her trolley wasn't silent like theirs had been, so she was attracting attention. A few wild shots screamed past where she'd been, answered by a soft cough from a silenced gun from below.

With the attackers looking up, the commandos could pop out of the snow to take them out. If they had the opportunity to take them out silently without killing, they did. Otherwise, it was a silenced round to the forehead or a knife in the throat.

Evelyn released her harness before she reached the tree, and the moment her feet touched the ground, she rushed forward to catch the stragglers at the back of the group. The invaders weren't giving up without a fight, and they knew they weren't alone in the woods now. She could hear single shots and the buzz of an automatic firing off a burst as the attackers fought back.

Her silenced gun made quick work of anyone who pointed a weapon in her direction. Otherwise, she used her short club to knock them out and quickly zip-tied them for later collection.

She was finishing up on her fourth when there was a loud rip sound, and something kicked her in the stomach, knocking her back into the snow. Her return shot from her position sprawled on her back punched its way free from the snow and took her attacker in the throat. He spun gracefully and dropped to the ground, choking out his last breath.

A commando suddenly appeared next to Evelyn, and she saw it was Stim. While he had a splash of blood on his upper arm, he gave her a thumbs up, and she returned it even though her stomach ached from the kick. She picked herself up and followed him back toward the fence. They checked the men they hadn't killed and confirmed they were secure. They stripped them of weapons and moved on.

They met Fisher, and the man flashed some hand signals to Stim, who responded.

When all the commandos gathered, Fisher spoke. "Twenty-four terrorists. Ten dead. Fourteen captured." He looked at the man who'd questioned him about Ben's body armor. He was a bear of a man with a black beard and a large hole in the center of his camo jacket. "How'd that new armor work out for you, Killjoy?"

"Felt like a mule kicked me in the chest, but I'm still breathing," the man said.

Evelyn frowned as that sounded like how she'd felt on her stomach. She ran her fingers over her abdomen and discovered her coat was shredded. She gingerly opened her jacket and found her new four-layer plate had slipped down to cover her gut. She carefully pulled it out and saw three closely spaced impacts.

"Why were you wearing it over your stomach?" Fisher asked in surprise.

"I wasn't. It must have slipped down when I dropped off the zip-line and hit the ground. It wasn't fastened down properly," she explained.

"Lucky for you," Stim said with a grin. He gestured to his shoulder and looked at Fisher. "If I'd had that curved plate I was talking about earlier...." The CO snorted.

They heard a helicopter approaching, then a second joined it, and they flew by overhead.

"Here come our reinforcements," Evelyn said. She turned on her radio and spoke quietly into her mic.

She listened, then looked at Fisher. "Troops are still twenty minutes out, but we have a dozen reinforcements for now. The Spa reports the group that attacked them only had five men. All are dead."

"Wasn't there supposed to be thirty? Does that mean one is still unaccounted for?" Fisher asked.

"Possibly. Let's collect the live ones and bring them into the court where they can be placed under guard by our reinforcements. The dead will remain here until they can be carried out on the other side of the park. I don't want the neighbors to see the corpses. I made that mistake once before," she admitted, and Fisher chuckled with a nod.

They moved off into the forest once more, and soon the woods were filled with the sound of cursing and cries of pain.

They pulled the prisoners through the path between Ben's and Gabriella's homes into the court, where they could see the two helos resting in the center of the circular park with troops coming toward their position. Evelyn stopped on the road and released the man she was dragging. She saluted the captain who stopped before her.

The commandos dropped their prisoners and went back for the others.

"We have fourteen prisoners and ten dead terrorists. According to the squad in One Ashburn Court, there are five dead terrorists in the field across the road. We were told thirty terrorists were sent here, but only twenty-nine are accounted for. Either one didn't arrive, or they're still out there. We'll keep looking." The captain nodded.

Evelyn continued her report. "General Davis will want these men taken in for questioning. We haven't been able to reach him since he gave us a warning shortly before the attack."

The captain nodded. "There was a major telecommunication failure on the eastern coast. Potentially a cyberattack. We expect to get the channels back shortly. We'll guard the prisoners until transport arrives to take them back to the base."

Evelyn nodded and turned back to the path into the forest, where the commandos continued dragging out the surviving attackers.

"Hey! One got past you!"

Heads turned to see a redhead with a bruised cheek and a bloody nose dragging a man's body through the snow by his collar.

"Fucker had a sniper rifle!" she snapped as she strained to tug the big man forward. "It's still back behind my house."

Several soldiers ran forward to take the unconscious man from Trish. She pointed to her house, and a third soldier went to collect the weapon.

"Are you okay, Trish?" Evelyn said as she joined the woman.

Trish smiled wearily. "This fucker knew how to fight. He got more than a few hits in. I need to soak in a hot tub. Maybe with Ben," she said with a smirk.

"Thanks for having our back," Evelyn said.

"You're a civilian?" the captain asked in surprise.

Evelyn grinned. "Trish is one hundred percent badass suburban mom!"

Trish laughed and bumped Evelyn's shoulder with hers.

"We should inform the neighbors they can come up now," Evelyn said.

"Dibs on Ben!" Trish said with a grin, pulling her cell out of her pocket. Her smile was quickly replaced by a look of shock and rage as the screen was destroyed.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Her head whipped up to see the awakening sniper look in her direction groggily. She ran over to him as his eyes widened and kicked him solidly in the face, snapping his head back. Evelyn grabbed her arms and pulled her back.

"That's gonna leave a mark," Evelyn said as she stared at the unconscious, bleeding man.

She dialed Ben on her cell, put it on speaker, and handed it to Trish, whose anger eased as she saw the name on the screen.

"Evelyn? Is everything all right?" Ben asked quickly.

"Hi Ben, this is Trish. You can come out now. Everything is good. Well, I need a new cell phone as a fucking sniper broke mine as I fought with him," Trish grumbled.

Evelyn grinned as she heard Ben's exclamation of surprise and worry. "She's okay, Ben. Just bruises and a bloody nose. The prisoners are being collected in the court to be taken away for questioning. The dead will be collected from the other side of the park and the field across the road."

"Thanks, Evelyn. We're coming out." Ben hung up.

-=-

By the time everyone had been called and assured everything was under control and safe once more, only a few came out to see the conclusion of the excitement. The cold, the snow, and the late hour kept most inside. They'd get an update in the morning.

Ben was one of the hardy souls who braved the weather to join Evelyn, Trish, Liliya (Rose was in the care of Lily), Fisher with his team, and Captain Vanier with his.

Four trucks from the air force base finally arrived, and the two teams loaded the survivors into the back. Most of them were silent, but others had some interesting things to say. According to them, Ben was a traitor to the United States for inventing superior weapons and armor for the Ruskies. They also had choice words for Liliya.

Fishers and a few members of his team with minor injuries rejoined Evelyn once the prisoners were on their way to the air base. The rest of the commandos assisted the remaining soldiers with collecting the dead for the remaining trucks.

"Do those men know they were working for the FSB?" Liliya asked.

Ben looked at her curiously.

"Does it not seem a strange coincidence that this group suddenly targeted you after Sergey Zhdankov sent team after team at you?"

"The cyberattack on the Washington telecom systems?" Evelyn asked.

Liliya nodded. "Support for the attack. They hire hacker teams to knock out the critical communication channels for a period of time to isolate the target from their support systems." She pointed to the smoking hole in the Spa's top floor. "Someone with inside information told them where to hit the comm center. That was from an RPG. I'm surprised it didn't take the top level off."

"I added armor plating under the stone siding. Two layers," Ben said as he looked toward the damage. Maybe a third layer would have been a good idea.

"I don't know how they activated the terrorist cell, but I have no doubt it was them," Liliya said. She looked over at Ben. "I'm glad you listened to Tina and Lucy and stayed inside." She pointed to Evelyn's torn-up coat. "That might have been you, and you've had far too many injuries in your life. Good night."

She turned and headed back to Trish's place to collect her daughter.

Trish stretched up, got a kiss from Ben, and followed Liliya back to her house.

Ben watched them go, looked at Evelyn, and finally saw the shredded fabric over her stomach. He immediately moved closer to look into her eyes. "I'm sorry for not noticing earlier. What happened? Are you hurt?"

Her face heated up as his concern overwhelmed her. "I-I was shot in the stomach—but it's okay!" she quickly finished at his look of alarm. "I was wearing one of your four-layer plates, and it slid down while I was running around. It caught all three rounds. I had a vest underneath, but it might not have stopped them at that range. Yours did."

"You were wearing untested armor plating?" Ben asked sharply, his worry spiking.

Fisher stepped forward to catch Ben's attention. "All of my men wore the prototype plates over their regular armor. They got one hell of a live fire test. Killjoy took a point-blank shotgun blast to the chest. Your plate stopped it."

"I want curved plates!" Stim said, gesturing to his injured shoulder.

Ben blinked at them and saw the commandos smiling at him.

"Aside from Stim, was anyone hurt?" Ben asked.