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Darwin Station was as hard to find as he expected it would be. Off Highway 193 it was two and a half miles of gravel with a hard right at about a mile and a descent into a quarter mile of an old riverbed before arriving and even then not much was visible. Above ground anyway. Sam was driving one of his pair of 2003 Dodge Dakota 4x4s. Reconditioned to mechanically new condition with not much attention to appearance they could have been driven by any of a few million insignificant people and that was the idea. He stopped in the driveway of an old house and checked his Commpad. It showed a map of the area around him for a couple hundred yards and that was about the size of the hilltop he was on. His vehicle was the only active point on the display, he took out a phone and called a number. "Bottom Line Club," a female voice answered. One could rarely guess the age of a woman on the phone but he recocognized thirty-three year old Sabrina. She was Leon's administrative assistant, driver, bodyguard, fitness consultant and probably a couple of other things. "I'm here," Sam said, "if you hadn't noticed." "I noticed," said Sabrina. "You know where the front door is." "Unless it's been moved," Sam said. "Still in the same place,"Sabrina said. "Come on in. Someone will be out to take care of your vehicle." "Sure it's gonna be alright?. I'm kinda particular." "Minutes after you leave Alexis she will be lovingly attended and escorted to a nice place. Good enough?" "Good enough," Sam said. "If you know it's her I'm good." Alexis was his most often used of the pair but which one would be recognizable? Pretty observant. Sam dismounted and retrieved the pair of .40 AMC pistols in the shoulder figs. He put them on and fastened down the belt retainers. The Bill Jakobs kobun was in a sheath around back. He walked towards the mound that appeared to be an old storm shelter. In fact it was but now served as an entrance to Darwin Station which was mostly underground. The door opened as he approached and he entered, nodding to the young sentry. Someone new but that wasn't unusual with all the growth. Ten steps down he was on a concrete floor in a wide corridor. He waited as a man emerged from a side door and approached. Blake Vandenberg, one of Leon's lieutenants. Seems a good guy. "This way," Vandenberg said. "We're just about to begin." The conference room was the third door on the right - Sam had been here a couple of times and the rooms never seemed to be the same Sam had been here a couple of times and the rooms never seemed to be the same. This one didn't seem much different though. Leon was at the head of the table - a massive high-dollar affair that might have once been in a high-dollar corporate boardroom - with a half dozen people of whom Sam recognized only three. Sam took the next available seat. "Now that we're all here," Leon said, "let's get started." Like it's my fault you're late. Whatever." "Eleven days ago," Leon said, "A raid on a Muslim enclave turned up something that didn't look good. Canisters of nerve gas." OK, and what? No one else reacted. "The nerve gas has been moved, and destroyed," Leon continued. "It was ready to be deployed, and with a suitable target - enough people in one place - the Tokyo attacks would have been... we could have been looking at hundreds and a thousand or more. We don't know yet what the targets were, if any had been selected. We don't know of any plans at this point." "Presumably we want to," Sam said. "You presume correctly," Leon said. "There were about two thousand people give or take, half were killed. The remainder were evacuated over the next two days. Whether any were involved or had knowledge - and we know that generally few in such an operation do - we have no idea. We ID'd the dead and are running them through to see if anything turns up. It's probably that none of the survivors knew, otherwise the cleanup crew would have been told. So probably whoever was running the operation perished." "Has there been any attention to the site other than the evacuation?" an older guy asked. He turned slightly and Sam saw a Mike Charlie lapel pin. "Immediately after the evacuation," Leon said, "we had a team go over the place. It isn't the first time we've found interesting things so we always check. Two days later a crew showed up. From Asadollah Naini." "Not the big guy?" Aaron Hunter asked. Sam knew him from a previous operation, a young clean-cut guy who did infiltration work. "Nothing from Mohaddesnia the whole time," Leon replied. "We're watching close, like we weren't already but... could be he doesn't know, they're not as tight as you'd think, so it could be that or he does know and is avoiding any connection, especially since they know it's gone and we most likely got it." "They'll write it off," Hunter said. "The mosques are expendable, along with whatever is in them. They'll be pissed about losing that project but they no doubt have plenty more." "Exactly," said Leon. "And it we missed this one we've missed others. We need to find them and prevent others. Fortunately mosque growth has stalled and with eliminations may be in reverse. We're hoping that the friction between other groups will further reduce that but they're like roaches and stepping on one here and there isn't progress. We have to get ahead of it - Operation Vauxhall is the way." "Operation Vauxhall?" Another guy Sam didn't know, about his age. Khaki BDUs and a beret under the left epaulette. "You're aware of... most of you should be... of Operations Green Devil, Silver Scorpion, Purple Paladin and Brown Phatom..." almost all nodded. "Those represent the other ethnic and racial groups organized against the Muslims and the government, which is the same thing since the government imported them and used them to gain control. Each has a reasonably coherent structure - the Asian and White especially and the Hispanics have a decent one. The black contingent is smaller but is growing. Through liaisons with them we funnel money, supplies and intelligence to make their attacks more effective. That is going to increase - only a handful of mosques have been taken out by them, we've done most of the work. And... What's he looking for? Seeing who all is here? Everybody got clearance? "Atlantis is involved. Involved as in putting in personnel and some special equipment we've been wanting. That's Top Secret, as is everything else I've said." Fucking Atlantis. About time. They've been working with the Coppertree outfit for a while. Seems they have some nice toys."
Leonard Parrish -- |
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