The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (58 page)

  “What do you mean, ‘you  can’t find him’?” Ramirez asked Liebowitz.

  “Sir we have no idea where Sanders is.” Liebowitz said. He mentioned Sanders’ name because it was his way of telling Ellis, Wexler and Moriarty who went missing.

  “Where did you search?” Sanchez asked Liebowitz.

  “Ma’am?”

  “North or south of the crossroad?” Sanchez asked Liebowitz.

  “Ma’am I don’t understand why that is important. We did a thorough search and couldn’t find him.” Liebowitz said.

  “Answer her!” Ramirez ordered Liebowitz.

  “Ma’am we search south of the crossroads.”

  “You do know that we already went down there, didn’t you?”

  “Yes ma’am. But I…”

  “Don’t you think that maybe he might have found that road by now?” Sanchez asked Liebowitz. He finally understood the mistake that he made by searching in the south.

  “I understand now… ma’am, my mistake.” Liebowitz said under his breath.

  “Find him. You find him and bring him back Ensign. Got it.” Ramirez said.

  “Yes sir.” Liebowitz said. He then left, collected his team and search north of the crossroad.

  “When did he went missing?” Wexler asked after Liebowitz left.

  “After he informed us of what happened to Coté.” Ramirez mentioned.

  “What did you guys find over there?” Sanchez asked.

  “Sir, ma’am… it’s best for both of you to look at the video on what we saw.” Ellis said.

  “Why?” Ramirez asked.

  “Because it looks like something must have drove the people insane.” Ellis said under breath.

  Both Ramirez and Sanchez then looked at the video of what Ellis and Moriarty saw. When they were done, Ramirez told them to get something to eat and get some rest because he wanted them to go back and do more recon. Sanchez had two of them turn their nano-suits over to Kaminski and Hoffneisten so that both of them could bring some bicycles over the waterway and place them by the house nearest the pier. When both Kaminski and Hoffneisten got back they returned the nano-suits.

(5)

  “You wanted to see me ma’am?” Lieutenant Hayes asked Vaistll. She was at the boat house.

  “Yes. I need you and the rest of Red Team to go and salvage the weapons and ammo in the Quad-Walker that Venito lost.”

  “Ma’am… since Ellis, Wexler and Moriarty is off on assignment… shouldn’t I have more people to assist me?”

  “You don’t need more people. What you have is more than enough.”

  “Beg your pardon ma’am but…”

  “But nothing. Look Hayes… White Team is looking for Sanders. Green Team is moving our supplies. Do you seriously think that they can spare someone?”

  “No ma’am. But what about Blue Team?”

  “Absolutely not. There in a defensive position protecting our base camp.”

  “Ma’am it doesn’t look like the EOD will attack us and…”

  “Don’t let the k and the w throw you off. No means no not k-n-o-w. You have your orders and you will make do with what you got. Do you read me?”

  “Yes ma’am.” Hayes said under his breath.

  Hayes went outside and thought long and hard. How can he take a fully loaded Quad-Walker, flip it upright on a steep embankment? Not only that, he has to do that with only four people. To say that he was confused would be an understatement. But like she said, he has to ‘make do with what he got.’

  Hayes understood her position about Blue, Green and White Team. But why can’t she wait? At least than he could have more people to throw at the problem. Deeply confused about how he can perform his duty, he left and rounded up Trivelli, Guerrero, Blumenthal and Bernstein.

  When Hayes left, Vaistll got back to analyzing the data from Ellis and Moriarty’s video. She knew that looks can be deceiving, but the more she looked at the video she had to admit that the people were behaving in a unnatural way. Just what is that orange-cinnabar stuff? It’s not like the EOD to kill it’s own people without reason. So what could it be than? Vaistll set back in her chair thinking long and hard about those questions.

  It was a little after 15:00 hours and Hayes and the other four members of Red Team finally found the Quad-Walker that Venito had lost. Hayes had his work cut out for him. The other two Quad-Walkers were in use so he could not drag the Quad-Walker back up the embankment. What’s more, he could only use equipment from town. And it was barely enough to get the job done.

  Every single decision that Lieutenant Hayes made, may have seemed logical, but is extremely stupid from an engineer’s point of view. Because of his naiveté in engineering, Hayes made a tragic mistake. But the only correct decision that he made was in securing the Quad-Walker to stop it from further sliding down the embankment.

  Hayes used an industrial strength wire called Ultra-X to secure, and lift, the Quad-Walker. Ultra-X could easily lift a fully loaded Quad-Walker so long as continual stress is not placed upon it. Hayes made the mistake of attaching Ultra-X to the legs of the Quad-Walker. Although it may have seemed logical to hook the wires to the front legs (the front part of the Quad-Walker was facing uphill), the legs were not structurally sound enough to support any sudden shift of the massive weight that they were bearing, and neither was Ultra-X.

  A Quad-Walker is rectangle in shape with it’s cargo in the backend. On each side of it’s body are handles. (People use the handles to assist them in climbing on top of a Quad-Walker.) The handles are designed to carry a Quad-Walker. Hayes attached a Ultra-X wire to the rear handle.

  Since the trees stop any attempt to slide the Quad-Walker to the left or to the right, Hayes made the decision to flip the Quad-Walker over it’s “head.” Once it is back on it’s feet, as Hayes reasoned, then it could be assisted in walking back up the embankment. If it couldn’t walk back up the embankment than the weapons and ammo could be salvage.

  When the Quad-Walker was at a 35 degree angle in relation to that of the angle of the embankment, the ground under the Quad-Walker started to give way. At about 22 degrees, with the ground under it giving way and the backend being pulled over it’s head, the joints on the legs broke. The Quad-Walker than landed on it’s belly very hard, snapped the Ultra-X wire and slide down the embankment. At one point it bounced and landed hard on it’s belly again. After the Quad-Walker disappeared through some trees, they heard it explode.

  When the Ultra-X wire snapped, it went through a tree like a hot knife through butter. Guerrero saw it coming at him through the corner of his eye and ducked in the nick of time. If Guerrero had ducked one second later he would have been killed instantly. Before he had time to react the severed tree came and hit him hard. It then dragged him twenty yards down the embankment.

  When Guerrero was found, he was in excruciating pain. His right leg was broken in two places, his right hip was broken and his right elbow was badly bruised. He was given nanoprobes to help with his injuries, but the nanoprobes can go only so far. His bones was re-healed but he was still in a lot of pain. Guerrero also had difficulty in walking (he needed a cane) and he couldn’t use his right arm until the swelling went down.

  Hayes left to take full responsibility for what had happened. When he got back to the boat house he found Ramirez and Sanchez standing outside. Vaistll was using the bathroom and Taylor was directing the rebuilding of the new base camp.

  “Sir I um…” Hayes was saying to Ramirez.

  “What is it Lieutenant?” Ramirez asked Hayes.

  “I lost the Quad-Walker sir.” Hayes said under his breath.

  “What about the weapons and ammo?”

  “That too sir. And Guerrero is seriously hurt.”

  “Wait a minute! How in the hell could you have lost our weapons and ammo!?” Sanchez yelled at Hayes.

  “Well I did and I take full…” Hayes was saying under his breath.

  “No! How did you lose our weapons and ammo!?” Sanchez demanded.

  “Well I did and I’m sorry.” Hayes responded.

  “Answer her Lieutenant!” Ramirez ordered him.

  “Well sir I used the Ultra-X wires and attached them to the legs and…”

  “You mean you attached them to the legs!?” Ramirez asked, shocked by the stupidity.

  “You fucking dumbass!” Sanchez yelled at Hayes.

  “I hate to ask… but what happened next?” Ramirez asked Hayes.

  “We tried to flip the Quad-Walker over it’s head…” Hayes was saying.

  “You goddamn fucking idiot!” Sanchez screamed at Hayes.

  “I was trying to recover the weapons and ammo!” Hayes yelled at Sanchez.

  “Why didn’t you just pop the Emergency Cargo Hatch!?” Sanchez asked him.

  “What Emergency Cargo Hatch?” Hayes asked. Ramirez turned around and mouthed the words, “You got to be shittin’ me.”

  “What do you mean, ‘What Emergency Cargo Hatch’? In case a Quad-Walker lands on it’s back and cannot be recover there is, not only an Emergency Escape Hatch, but there also is an Emergency Cargo Hatch!” Sanchez said. She couldn’t believe that Hayes could be that stupid as not to have known that.

  “I didn’t know!” Hayes yelled.

  “What do you mean you ‘didn’t know’!? It’s in the field manual! You’re an officer, you’re supposed to know!” Ramirez yelled at Hayes.

  “Look here you idiot…” Sanchez was saying. “…beside the Emergency Escape Hatch is a hatch for the emergency supplies. In there you would find an all-weather emergency flare and a welding torch. On the belly there is a rectangle piece of metal with diagonal yellow and black markings on each side of the rectangle. If you use the welding torch on those diagonal yellow and black markings you can then remove the rectangle piece of metal and extract the cargo. It’s in the field manual. Here have a look.” Sanchez then threw her field manual at Hayes.

  “I didn’t know.” Hayes said. He was on the verge of crying.

  Ramirez said nothing. He only turned around and walked off shaking his head. He was then followed by Sanchez. Caparzo bent down and picked up Sanchez’s field manual and looked through it. When he found what Sanchez was talking about he showed it to everyone who was there. When he showed it to Hayes, he dropped the field manual in front of Hayes and then walked away.

  Hayes stood there a beaten demoralized man. He realized what all of them realized: he just got them all killed. He dropped to his knees crying in despair. But nobody cared. They said nothing and walked off. After that moment, Hayes will never be the same ever again.

(6)

  Ellis, Wexler and Moriarty arrived at the spot where the bicycles were placed across the waterway. They rode to where Wexler stop at on the road that head north. When the road turned to the west, it continued for 4.5 miles before it came to a harbor. On the eastern side of the harbor was the mouth of a river. It was the same river that Moriarty saw when he was on the bridge that is west of the pier. West of the harbor is a bridge that heads north.

  The three of them searched the harbor and found nothing of value in the form of intelligence. They did found a cargo ship that could ferry all of their equipment and supplies across the waterway. The cargo ship also has cranes that can assist them in loading and off-loading their equipment and supplies. The only drawback is that they couldn’t load the Quad-Walkers since they were too big to load unto the cargo ship.

  After they finished searching the harbor they got back on their bicycles and headed across the bridge. On the other side of the bridge, on the eastern side, is a marina. To the west of the marina they noticed a parking garage. When they checked it out they found some cars and trucks. Ellis made the decision that they should continue on by car.

  To the northwest of their position is the suburbs. To the northeast and east of their position is a park. On the eastern side of the park is the coast. The park is thirteen miles from the marina. The road that they came from is the only road in or out of the region.

  Moriarty had to do the driving as they were traveling around the suburbs. At one point Moriarty stop the car, backed up, said ‘Holy shit!,’ and jumped out of the car. He then went into a yard looking at some graffiti on a wall of a house.

  “Moriarty… what in the hell are you doing?” Ellis asked him.

  “Sir… it looks like none of the Special Forces who came here before us, is a former member of the EOD.” Moriarty mentioned.

  “So what does that have to do with anything?” Wexler asked.

  “Project 21 keeps a secret from all their agents who were ever part of the EOD. The EOD knows that Project 21 knows about the secret but does nothing about it. The EOD uses graffiti symbols. That a symbol that you see is a word or a meaning. Sometimes it would be an order.” Moriarty said.

  “So what does that graffiti says?” Ellis asked.

  “The first symbol stands for information. The second symbol stands for outbreak and/or infection.” Moriarty said.

  “Alright. Let’s go in and take a look.” Ellis said. Both Ellis and Wexler started to go into the house but Moriarty didn’t.