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.