"Get him out of my sight." Rion said, she waited until Rowe was hauled away before opening the door and finding Akira there "Good boy." she smiled,
checkmate in two she thought.
The sun in Kusan was reasonably warm and the air humid, the go for Operation Mockingbird had come the previous evening, the twenty four Achkaerinese Special Forces soldiers had made their way quietly across the border. Under cover of darkness they'd made decent ground, leading the way through the hills was
David Winters coming from the scouts regiment he was more than qualified to get the group across the difficult ground as fast as possible, he commanded Topaz troop and was ably backed up in this regard by Sapphire troop commanded by
Craig Moores, as they crested a hill into a copse David held up his hand bringing the group to a halt. At that point the other two troop commanders
Heather Rose and
Charlotte I'Joula joined the two men.
"What have we got?" Heather asked
"Kaesong is about a forty kilometre straight shot from here but you can see the increasing number of small villages and urbanisation." David said pointing from the high ground vantage point they had "We'll stand out like a bit of a sore thumb trying to walk through there in the middle of the day. I'd say wait for night but we're on the clock."
"We need wheels." Charlotte said
"There's a truck in the village at two o'clock." Craig said looking through his binoculars "And there's an APC over towards nine o'clock."
"Charlotte get the APC, Craig get the truck." Heather said "Bring them to the road at the bottom of the hill."
"Disguise?" David asked as two of the troops moved off.
"Yep." Heather said "We need to be in Kaesong tonight and that doesn't happen by skirting around because we'll end up circling the whole city. Can your team hold this vantage point?"
"Yep." David said
About an hour later the two vehicles were sat at the bottom of the hill, the APC had been outright stolen of course, while the truck had been borrowed for a fair amount of cash and a promise of silence.
"Ok so here's the plan." Heather said "Topaz holds the high ground here, this is the RV point when the time comes we get out the way we came in. Craig you've got the truck, that's the getaway vehicle, you drop Charlotte's team at their point and come to the prison, you hold position there. Charlotte you do your job and make your way there. My team we've got a jailbreak to do so we're taking the APC. On the way out we drop the truck back at the village and make our way back here on foot and then we get across the border. On a helicopter by the morning, home for tea and medals at a reasonable time. Heads on swivels and stay alert. Ok let's do it." The drive to Kaesong was uneventful, this far from the border there were far less obstacles to go through, no checkpoints, no patrols, there were obviously fortified positions but nothing that was going to stop traffic into the city itself. The two vehicles parked up in separate areas, though they weren't that far from each other - the APC was about a mile from the prison and the truck was closer to the Chairman's residence.
When night came the plan swung into action, first Charlotte and her team slipped out of the back of the truck and climbed a nearby fire escape making their way to the rooftops. Once there they took up their positions, Charlotte primed the weapon she was using and looked across the street and fair bit of greenery to the Chairman's residence "Ok let's see here." she said as she looked through her scope.
"Third floor window." Sgt Midgely said from next to her "That's his room."
"You got vantage on the second floor?" Charlotte asked
"Yep." Midgely said
"Ok Parkes." Charlotte said addressing one of the other members of the troop "You spot. Bridge you light." now it was a waiting game, it took another hour but eventually Ri Chŏng-jun stepped into Charlotte's crosshairs.
"That's him." Parkes said
"This is Midnight One I have the shot." Charlotte said
"All callsigns this is Shadowblade One." Heather's voice came over the radio "I have control, standby, standby, standby." she was undoubtedly looking at her watch's ticking second hand "Go."
"Midge." Charlotte said, right on cue trooper Bridge lit fire to the bolt that was loaded into the crossbow that Midgely was holding, then Midgely squeezed the trigger, the bolt flew straight and true right through the second floor window, the fire was set. Now Bridge lit the bolt on Charlotte's crossbow.
"Third floor window's ajar." Parkes said "He's probably in bed."
"Ok here we go." Charlotte said, she fired her bolt through the third floor window, it hit the back wall which would spread the fire.
"Reload." Midgely said, him and Charlotte reloaded before repeating the process and firing another bolt each.
"Ok let's rabbit." Charlotte said
Just up the road the APC with Shadowblade troop aboard was charging at full tilt down the road towards the prison, in the driving seat was
Richard Duncan"Right on the gate." Heather said
"Hold on tight." Richard said as he put his foot to the floor and as the guards outside the prison began to open fire realising what was about to happen the APC punched through the gate much like a battering ram.
"Go go go." Heather said as her team disembarked from the now ruined vehicle, leaving Richard and one of her other team members to hold the courtyard the other four proceeded inside, rifles up and ready. The Riley brothers
Tim and
Luke were clearing the administration area of the prison their target was the security control room. With Luke holding position and delivering suppression fire down the corridor, Tim ducked inside and accessed the system, inserting a thumb drive he hit his radio.
"Shadowblade two, drive is inserted." he said, now he had to wait as the virus on the drive did its thing and wiped the entire system.
Heather meanwhile alongside the last member of her team
Luna Knight was fighting her way through the cell blocks. It was a little on the slow going side but it was also clearly a set up, that much was obvious from the number of empty cells, rounding another corner they spotted a guard and Heather downed him with a quick pull of the trigger.
"Boss." Luna said as the lights on their rifles illuminated Sophia.
"That's one." Heather said as she pivoted and illuminated Sang-Hee in the cell across the hall "And that's two, go check the corridor."
"Boss." Luna said, heading down the corridor while Heather took the keys off of the dead guard and opened the cells, as she helped the two out of the cells she tapped her radio "Cottontail and Little Red Riding Hood secure."
"Goldilocks secure." Luna's voice came over the radio as she came back down the corridor with an older woman, just slightly older than Cecelia, this was Mieko Anselmo, Evanthe's mother and the mind behind this whole thing.
"Sapphire I want that exit now." Heather said as they started to make their way back through the prison.
Outside Sapphire troop had arrived with the truck and on foot so had Midnight troop, the firefight was raging on the street against the backdrop of the flames a little way away.
"Let's go, let's go." Tim yelled as one by one the former prisoners were helped into the back of the truck.
"Everyone rabbit." Heather said, that was the cue for an organised withdrawal, everyone got aboard the truck and it accelerated away, once they were away from the city centre and racing out of the outskirts it was at that point that everyone took their breath.
"Craig you made the drop right?" Charlotte asked
"Yep." Craig said "Whole letter from a group claiming responsibility for the nights havoc."
"Good." Heather said
At the Imperial Palace Kayleigh, having ensured Rowe was locked up in a secure facility walked into Asuna's room, with a smile on her face.
"We got them?" Gemma asked
"Yeah Sophia, Sang-Hee and the big bad wolf all on their way here, they'll be here by morning." Kayleigh said
"So what's the earliest Asuna can make a phone call to the Tytorians?" Gemma asked
"The morning." Kayleigh said "The moment they're in the grounds of the Imperial Palace we can lift the blackout because at that point all the pieces are within our control, we've weathered the storm, Rowe and Stanley are in custody, navigating the aftermath is going to be a whole different kettle of fish but don't worry about that yet, when the time comes we'll have that conversation and we don't need to have it for a couple of days or so. Meanwhile you get a good nights sleep, tomorrow's the Youth Diet, tomorrow we take their last piece off the board and by this time tomorrow the threat will have been dealt with."
"But you have to promise us something." Gemma said "When you talk to Thatcher you tell her everything that you are aware of, the last thing we need is to put the Tytorian Prime Minister in a situation where she ends up misleading their MP's."
