seymoure

Six

“What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more...”

-Shakespeare

(Henry V, Act 6, Scene 3)

Outfitting our teams was as much spiritual as physical. We were girding our loins. I felt like doing the St. Crispin’s day speech.

We were indeed a band of brothers.

We were going up against the kind of odds they saw in Agincourt.

We put all our plans on the table and inspected them. The easiest of the lab buildings was so because it was a former school building. Since it had been a public structure it was not hard to get the blue prints. Then we had to take some soundings (wonderful things sonar and heat readings) to read first where the guards were. This was done in two hours, giving them time to make any rounds they normally walked. They had only (so far) brought in a dozen men, whom we would have to expect would have copious armaments, and possibly body armor (which had done so well for them so far. I think they had found a discount armorer and he had taken advantage of them.)

They split up into sets of three, and it took an average of an hour to do a circuit. One set of three was stationed in the center room of the ground floor, to rush to the aid of any group that was set upon. Pretty well thought out. One must assume there were some former military members among the “True Believers.”

The patrols allowed a window of about 15 minutes, if they stayed punctually true to their schedule.

We also were able to detect a pair of ground floor rooms that had been altered. The wall between them had been knocked down and a lot of equipment had been brought in. This made them of supreme interest. This had been where they had done their most important work. You don’t bash down a wall for the place you aren’t going to work in.

We had spent the daylight hours outfitting our burglars. We had a wonderful broadcast system for the computer system, so we could see what was going on, without worrying about them noticing.

It was now 3 am and we were ready to go in.

Len and Hugo both carried spy-cams and mini-computers, as well as tasers, knives, and hand guns. They also knew that we had lost good people to these fanatics, so we shouldn’t have any hesitation to do in anyone who might cause trouble.

I looked into the eyes of the men I might be sending to their deaths; certainly I was sending them into deadly danger.

Hugo smiled at me and said, “We’ll be back as quick as possible, Boss.”

We had figured the whole thing, barring complications, shouldn’t take more than 20 to 25 minutes in and out.

Len was checking his Lugar (a prize his father took in the war and his own personal favorite pistol) and checking its full load of bullets.

Hugo cracked his knuckles. He knew this annoyed me, and it put him in a good frame of mind. He was in control of the moment. I was glad that he could lighten his mood, and wished I could do the same with mine.

Chester was the most nervous of us all. He had never been in anything resembling war before.

Harry checked his watch and gave them the high-sign.

They were off.

Seconds later we heard four rounds of gunfire.

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Continue on to Chapter 40