The Siege (11 page)

     To that regard, the plan worked perfectly. They were able to get away unnoticed when they evacuated. It was only the sharp eye of Alvarez and their muddy footprints
in the feed barn that gave them away several days later.

     The other purpose of the ladders was to serve as a real evacuation method if the tunnel was ever inaccessible or compromised for any reason.

     The ladders on the inside walls were never expected to allow them to reenter the compound after the evacuation. But they would serve that purpose as well.

     On the third attempt,
Bryan was able to line up the two ladders, so that the men could climb up one ladder and down the other.

     They waited to go until the latest update from Joe:

     “No change. First man is in the kitchen. He appears to be cooking something in the microwave to go with his sandwich. Second man hasn’t moved either, except that he’s leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.”

     John said, “Let’s roll.”

     Bryan was already at the top of the exterior ladder. As soon as he stepped over the top of the fence and onto the interior ladder, Mark scrambled up behind him. It took  no more than a minute for all four men to clear the wall.

     Once inside the compound, they took refuge beneath a 53 foot trailer, emblazoned with the Walmart Logo.

     They couldn’t see the big house from their new position. But that was a good thing. That meant that no one in the big house could see them either.

     They waited until the next update.

     “Okay, sandwich guy took his food out of the microwave and stuck his finger in it. Apparently it’s still cold. He stuck it back in and punched the keypad. Three times, but Hannah couldn’t make out the numbers. The second guy is still sprawled back in his easy chair. He may have fallen asleep.”

     John gave the go signal aga
in, and the four ran to the east entrance of the big house and flattened themselves against the wall just adjacent to the doorway. Bryan grabbed the shirt of the dead man blocking the doorway and dragged him out of the way.

     Again, they waited for the next update.

     “Okay, sandwich guy is on the move. He’s leaving the kitchen. Again, he’s leaving the kitchen. He’s going to the far end of the lounge area and into the men’s room. The rifle still hasn’t moved.”

     John smiled. O’Neal’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

     “Okay, guys, let’s sit tight. He’ll either be right back out, or he’ll be there for a few minutes. Let’s hope for the latter.”

     They continued to monitor the updates, and after a full minute, sandwich man still hadn’t returned from the restroom. It was time to go.

     Mark moved quickly to the door and used a master key on a chain around his neck to unlock it. Then he eased it open as the other three quickly entered the hallway. Mark followed them in, closing the door quietly, and grabbing the AK-47 in the corner. He had no intention of taking it with him. It would hinder his ability to fire his primary weapon if he was carrying a second one.

     Instead, he removed the magazine from the AK-47 and slipped it into his pocket, quietly ejected the round in the chamber,
and placed it back in the corner.

     The next update came over the radio.

     “No change. Sandwich guy is still in the bathroom. Other guy is still sprawled across the chair.”

     John said, “Mark, you and Brad take the bathroom guy. Bryan and I will get the sleeper.”

     Then he took off like a shot, down the hallway and into the common area of the building. The others were mere steps behind him.

     In the mine, the rest of the group cheered when they saw their team rush into the lounge,
getting the drop on Bennett, who had indeed dozed off in the easy chair.

     O’Neal had finally finished his business and was walking out of the bathroom when Mark and Brad swooped down upon him, weapons leveled at his chest. He had no option but to surrender.

     Hannah swelled with pride as she saw Mark force the man to the floor and frisk him as Brad held him at gunpoint. Then Mark reached into his pocket and removed a heavy duty electrical zip tie to bind his bands.

     The siege appeared to be over. And, just as John had predicted, they were able to capture the last two without firing a shot.

Chapter 23

     Bryan and Brad took the prisoners to one of the utility rooms in the basement. They took two metal folding chairs and duct-taped them together, back to back.

     Then they sat the men into the chairs and bound them tightly with rope.
Since their hands were zip tied in front, and were resting on each of the men’s laps, Bryan made sure the rope’s knots were behind and beneath them, far out of reach.

     Brad commented, “It’s a good thing you just
went to the bathroom. You’re gonna be here awhile.”

     Bennett, ever the whiner, immediately complained. “What about me? I need to go.”

     “Hold it, you son of a bitch.”

     “Hey, you got it wrong, mister. I didn’t shoot anybody. I just came along because they made me.”

     “Shut up. Nobody made you do anything you didn’t want to do.”

     Brad had no sympathy. He had fire in his eyes and wanted revenge. Revenge for
them shooting the woman he loved. Revenge for leaving her scarred and self conscious. Revenge for the misery his friends and family had suffered at the hands of these fools.

     And whether these two killed anybody or not, it didn’t matter. They were part of the same bunch of scum.

     John walked in.

     “Mark’s up there in the security center now reconnecting the cables for the base radio and the surveillance cameras. He says he has some wireless cameras in his storage closet. He’s going to set one up in here and program the signal into one of the security monitors. Until then we’ll have to guard them.”

     Bryan was afraid to leave Brad alone with them.

     “I’ll take the first shift.”

     O’Neal looked at the older man, John, and assumed he was in charge.

     He pleaded, “Please don’t hurt us, mister. It won’t do you any good to kill us. Please, just let us go. We’ll walk away and never come back, I promise. And we’ll never tell anybody about this place. You have my solemn word.”

     John just looked at him and said, “Shut up, or I’ll run some duct tape around your head a couple of times to shut you up. You have no say here, not anymore. And none of us want to listen to your crap.”

     John was Sami’s father, and Brad’s future father in law. He, like Brad, had little sympathy for the plight of their prisoners.

     Bryan looked to John and asked, “What, exactly,
are
we going to do with them, John?”

     “Right now they’re going to sit here in their own piss. We’ll get the key players together tomorrow and discuss their future…”

     He looked at O’Neal directly when he finished the sentence.

     “… and if I were them, I’d worry.”

     Their radios suddenly came to life.

     “John, this is Mark. The base station is working again. So are the
monitors. We’ve reestablished contact with the others. They’re awaiting instructions.”

     “10-4, Mark. I’m headed back your way.”

     John double checked the knots on the ropes, and the zip ties on the prisoners’ hands. Satisfied they were secure, he gave Bryan a few terse instructions.

     “I don’t want them out of the chairs for any reason. Not even to go to the bathroom. They can sit in their own crap. They deserve no less, and we can clean up the mess later. Stay far away from them. Keep your weapon charged and trained on them, s
afety off. If either of them tries to work their way free, don’t hesitate. Do what you have to do.”

     John and Brad made their way back upstairs to the security console. John sat in the controller’s chair for the first time in two weeks and keyed the heavy microphone in front of him.

     “Hannah… Sarah… Sami…”

     Hannah answered.

     “Go ahead, John.”

     “We’ve
got too much to do to reconcile anytime soon. We have a room to room search to do, and bodies to bury before we bring the kids back over here. It’s too much to do today.

     “The four of us are going to get started, and we’ll stay here tonight. Tell the others they’ll have to spend one more night over there, but that it’ll be the last one. Tell them to pack up in the morning and we’ll try to have them back home by lunchtime
tomorrow.

     “In the meantime, continue to man the security station and to watch the monitors. Notify us immediately if you see anything suspicious.
”

     He could hear the disappointment in Hannah’s v
oice. She wanted to come back to the compound. But she understood.

     “10-4, John. I’ll make sure everyone gets the word.”

     “Mark, we’ll only need two men on security each shift. One here watching the monitors, and the other guarding the prisoners. After you hang the wireless cam in the utility room, I want you and Brad to get some rest. The two of you can relieve us at midnight.”

     “Then what?”

     “Once you relieve us, Bryan and I will start the room by room search. I want every pillow turned over, every bed looked under. I know there aren’t any more men here hiding, but God only knows what they might have left behind. I don’t want any of the little kids coming across a loaded hand gun or a hand grenade and start playing with it.

     “At daybreak tomorrow, whoever is fresh enough can take the Bobcat out by the trash pit and dig a grave. I want to
get all the bodies away from the building and hose everything down real good.

     “We can bury them all in one grave. They’re past the point of caring, and even if they found a way to object, I’m not in the mood to listen.

     “One last thing I want to do is to get the welding rig out of the barn and over to the drive through gate. I want to weld that sucker shut until we can figure out how we’re going to repair it. I don’t want anybody else trying to drive through it while it’s weakened.”

     “Once those things are done and our search is finished, I’ll feel comfortable about letting everyone else come home.”

Chapter 24

     By daybreak, the four of them were exhausted. John relented and let Sami and David come over to pull security duty, while he and Bryan napped for a couple of hours. The room by room search was completed, and they were exhausted. Bryan had gotten two hours sleep in the previous thirty six hours. John had none.

     While Bryan and John slept, Mark and Brad went into the compound as soon as the sun came over the horizon. Brad jumped on the Bobcat and used its bucket attachment to dig a grave for the body on the roof and the other
s on the east side of the building. Their prisoners were left locked in the utility room, unattended but watched closely on the monitors.

     The bad guys had thrown their own dead into the trash pit after
they took over the compound, and burned them with the garbage.

     It was ironic that these
men would get a more dignified burial from Mark’s group than they would have received from their own comrades.

     The Bobcat’s bucket was narrow, at sixteen inches. But it would suffice.

     While Brad was digging, Mark fed the livestock and apologized to poor Bessie, their milk cow. She hadn’t been milked in almost two weeks, and she was in misery. Her body had mercifully stopped producing milk, simply because her udder had no more capacity to accept any. Now the udder was swollen and sore, the teats dripping milk. She was beside herself.

     Mark took a milking stool and spent a few minutes with her. He doubted the milk would be any good, so he poured it out immediately.
He stood next to her after he’d drained two gallons from her udder and stroked her neck. She looked at him with her big brown cow eyes, but he couldn’t tell if she was angry with him for abandoning her for so long. Or grateful for the relief to her pain.