Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 23: Rescue
“Lieutenant Douglas reports prisoners in FBI custody.” The petty officer with the SEAL support team reported.
“FBI SWAT reporting firing from one gunman. They have three others who surrendered.” Alice Bender, the FBI agent working with the SWAT team, gave the latest status.
“Police are reporting gunfire from across the street from the building which SWAT entered. Two officers down.” The chief petty officer who was handling communication with the police reported. “They are requesting support.”
“I can have my drone there in four minutes.” The display of the camera of the drone which Bee Knight was flying showed she had already started the turn to head back toward where the fighting was.
“Continue with your plan for supporting the police.” Captain Sheila McRae looked over at the other two drone operators. She could tell they wouldn’t be capable of using their drones in combat. More importantly, she wanted to find out what the one drone was carrying in the tank, which had been hung from it. They needed to take it away from people. “Continue with taking the other two drones out over the bay.” She turned back and watched the screen showing the view from Bee Knight’s drone. “Inform the police we have one armed drone coming to provide air support. We need them to provide information about the location of the shooters.”
“Captain, I may not be able to provide armed support, but I can fly my drone and provide additional aerial reconnaissance.”
Sheila thought about the unknown cargo of the third drone. She suspected it was some type of poison. “Thank you, Mr. Rico. Your help may prove helpful if we cannot quickly end this. Mr. Singleton, continue to take your drone out over the bay as we were planning. Remember, we don’t know what they strapped under your drone or how they planned to release it.”
“Third officer down. They’re unable to get to the first two officers who were shot. The officers were shot through their vests. They report three shooters. One at the door on the first floor. Two at windows on the second floor.” The chief petty officer reported.
Mark’s phone rang where it was sitting on the console in front of him. It was Sarah. He saw she had hung up and a text message was displayed. “Satellite!” He read out loud. “We forgot the satellite connections Sarah suggested.”
“Tech-neat, grab control of the satellite and run a thermal scan of the building with the shooters.” Sheila turned to Mark. “Call NRO and tell them we borrowed their satellite.”
“NRO?” “National Reconnaissance Office. They are in Chantilly, Virginia.”
“I will let them know.” A voice from the ceiling speaker informed them.
Sheila blushed. She had forgotten about the group in Washington who was monitoring their operation. “Thank you, Mr. President. I should have asked you first.”
“You didn’t have a problem with Bee Knight taking the initiative to help the police. Sarah had asked for the satellite to be available today. We didn’t tell NRO why or how it would be used. She said she would have a software fix sent out in a couple of days. She was going to have a competition on who could come up with the best solution.” The President sounded amused. “Mark, would you and the two girls have Thanksgiving dinner with my family?”
“We were planning on bringing a bunch of people with us. This includes the Pierces. Could Sally and Jim be included for dinner? I expect you may have some questions about Sarah and Ashley, which they may be able to answer better than I can. The difference between theirs, mine, and the girls’ views on them may be enlightening.”
“Yes, they would be welcome. I have seen the reports on some of the people who you have recruited. We can have a meeting set up with all your people and people who they should meet. It will be a sharing of what we know or suspect on a number of topics. Captain McRae, I want you and Senior Special Agent Poe there also. Let’s also include Commander Whitner and Bee Knight.”
Sergeant Beatrice McKnight, Bee Knight, looked at Captain McRae and softly asked, “Me?”
Sheila smiled as she nodded.
Bee Knight shrugged and returned to positioning the drone for the attack.
“Yes, sir. Bee Knight has the drone ready for the attack. We also have live thermal images of the building. It looks like there are a total of eight people in the building. I think three of them might be prisoners.”
“Continue, Captain. One moment. The Attorney General is reminding us we cannot have the military shooting at civilians, even in support of the police and FBI.”
“We have that covered. Special Agent Alice Bender will have control of the firing mechanism. Bee Knight will just fly the drone.” Sheila knew the special agent would have very little to do. In fact, she wouldn’t be able to fire unless Bee Knight aimed and enabled the weapons.
“Lieutenant Douglas and Mr. Overton are on their way with the EMP van.” The SEAL liaison petty officer announced. “Estimate arrival in twelve minutes. The rest of the squad is a couple of minutes behind.”
“Tell the Lieutenant the police need to handle this.” Sheila wondered what the young officer was thinking.
“Sheila, they aren’t coming to fight. They are bringing their armor. The SWAT team should be able to put some of their people into armor that the terrorist cannot shoot through.” Mark explained.
“Why are they bringing the EMP device?” President DeSantis was worried about losing control of the device.
“We don’t have an EMP device? We made that up to divert the main attack from the girls and ensure the terrorists were fully committed. We didn’t even tell Ashley and Sarah the truth.” Mark remembered the way the two girls looked at each other when the EMP device was announced at the meeting last night. Ashley had then turned to him and raised her right eyebrow, something he first remembered from her third Christmas when she stopped believing in Santa Claus. He had just looked her in the eye and continued to tell them about how the non-existent EMP device could be used against the terrorist attack.
“I’ve had people working on how to make use of an EMP device.” Defense Secretary Simpson wasn’t sure whether he was angry or happy about the device not existing.
“We looked into it last year. We need to talk about this later. The important thing is the van, which it was supposed to be in, is armored. We will need it to rescue one of the downed police officers.” Mark had been looking at the thermal image from the satellite and the visual images from the two drones on opposite sides of the building with the hostages. “I need to make a phone call. I have an idea about how to rescue the hostages.” He started dialing a number from memory. “I need information about the warheads on the drone rockets.” Mark moved over to one of the FBI hackers as he motioned the Northrop Grumman engineer to join them.
“Sergeant McKnight, set up to suppress fire from the terrorists. Agent Bender now has command of the guns only.” Sheila watched as Bee Knight brought the drone closer to the front of the building but still kept it out of sight of the terrorists.
“Captain, may I suggest the drone guns be set to three-shot mode? Which will allow me to track back and forth between the three terrorists without spraying shots all over the building.” Bee Knight was waving Alice Bender to take a seat beside her.
“Sergeant, you have better knowledge about the drone than I do. Agent Bender, do you have any problem with the three-shot mode?”
“No, Captain McRae. If there’s a single-shot mode available, I may need to use it. I’m not too familiar with plane-mounted automatic weapons and have no experience with drones.” The agent looked a little nervous.
“Tech-neat, tell the cameraman on the news feed you got on the monitor to keep it on the front of the building. Watch the front of the building and let me know when one of the terrorist sticks their head out. I have the three locations programmed in and can switch the drone from one to another with a push of a button. Alice, you see the three spots I have marked on the screen. Those are the locations of the shooters according to the thermal image. Only fire when the drone is aimed at one of those locations.” She saw Agent Bender nod. “Inform the police we are ready to give them cover and they are welcome to help. Are there people ready to move in and pull the two farthest back to safety? The other guy is too close for me to protect anyone who would try to get to him.”
“The police captain in charge is in agreement. They have people ready to pull the two to cover.” The chief petty officer looked excited but only slightly nervous.
“Agent Bender, I will bring the gun to bear on each of the three locations once to start off with. Fire whether or not you see someone. After that, it will be random or based on information from Tech-neat. It will be fast so fire when you see a terrorist in the crosshairs. I will switch locations as soon as you fire at a location so only fire once because the gun will be moving.” Bee Knight took a drink of water and wiped her hands on her pants. “On three. One. Two. Three.”
The drone’s gun moved, and Alice fired. Again and again, it was repeated.
“Top right shooter is down.” Tech-neat reported.
Bee Knight moved the drone’s gun between the other two locations, and Alice continued to fire when she had a target.
“Both officers are clear.” The chief petty officer had had a hard time ignoring the screen showing where the drone was aimed but had watched the news image, which was focused on the front of the building but also showed the downed officers.
“Gun safety on.” Bee Knight flew the drone towards the building and then abruptly pulled away. “Gun magazine still has eighty-seven percent.” She looked over at Alice and held her hand up for a high five.
Alice had never shot someone before and was thinking about the man her shots had knocked flat and probably killed. She was watching the news feed, which had moved to view the medics working on the fallen officers. She turned towards the woman flying the drone. Alice had been very surprised at how fast the gun had shifted between the terrorists. She saw Bee Knight had her hand raised beside her head. It was a couple of seconds before she understood. “We just killed someone.” She shook her head, then looked down.
“We just rescued two police officers, who now have a chance of living.” Bea reached out with the hand she had raised and put it on Agent Bender’s shoulder. “Rescuing someone may be something the FBI is used to doing, but a drone driver normally only shoots at people.”
Alice realized the rescues were the important thing. “Thank you.” She put her hand to Bea’s.
“Lieutenant Douglas is talking with the rescue people.” The petty officer handling communication with the SEALs reported. “He wants to know when fire support will be ready?”
Bea and Alice looked at each other. Alice nodded. “Bee Knight and I are ready. What does he require?”
“I was giving him a running commentary of what you did for the first rescue. He wants the same. Mr. Overton will drive the van slowly towards them past the downed officer. He will have to back up to block the shooters from getting a good shot on the rescuers and the downed officer. You need to ensure they don’t have time to get off a good shot because the van won’t be able to completely cover them. The two rescuers with a stretcher will walk beside the van. They will stabilize the officer, then put him on the stretcher. The van will slowly move out with them walking beside it. There will be a short time when they have to turn to get through the vehicles abandoned in the way. You will need to provide heavy suppression fire then.”
Alice and Bea had listened closely to what the petty officer had said. Bea turned to Tech-neat.
“I think we wounded the guy downstairs. Do you agree?”
“I played the videos back. It looks like his rifle was hit, and he was injured when it was knocked out of his hands. It was visible on the floor until you moved back. I couldn’t tell if it was because it was damaged or if he didn’t have a safe way to get it.” Tech-neat glanced up, then returned to enhancing the images.
“We’ll know when we move in. The drone will approach from the right since both shooters are on the left. This will keep them from seeing it longer. Can the police make more noise so the van won’t be heard?” Bee Knight knew the drone was very quiet, so the same noise would cover its noise.
Within a minute, an eighteen-wheeler had pulled up on the street to the right of the standoff. Next, a tow truck pulled up, and two men moved carefully to hook onto one of the police cars blocking the street.
Bea looked at the news feed showing the two trucks. “Change of plan. Alice, I am going to bring the drone in now and cover the two trucks causing the distraction. Then I will switch to covering for the van when it is noticed. Are you ready?”
“Yes, let’s do it.”
Bee Knight kept the drone so the terrorist attention was focused away from the trucks and then the van. Both terrorists were firing, but the one on the first floor was using a pistol with his left hand. His right hand was hanging at his side, wrapped in a bandage. She was continually switching the drone’s gun aim between the shooters. Alice was only shooting when a target was visible. The terrorists switched their aim to the drone but were having a difficult time shooting with the drone repeatedly targeting them.
“Top shooter has seen the van.” Tech-neat reported.
When Alice next shot at the top shooter, Bee didn’t change the aim of the drone’s gun. The top shooter assumed the drone would continue to switch between them as it had been doing. He popped right back out after pulling back and started to aim at the truck.
All three of Alice’s shots hit the center of body mass, though the last one just barely did. The first two shots pushed the shooter’s body back and out of the line of fire when the body hit a desk.
Bee started to move the drone in for a better shot at the wounded shooter.
The wounded shooter jumped through the window from which he had been shooting. He was yelling and firing wildly. Before the drone could align on him, he was hit by multiple shots.
Bee again put the drone’s gun on safe and moved the drone back.
“Tell the police and FBI we confirm all three shooters in the front of the building are dead.” Tech-neat looked over at Bee Knight and Agent Bender.
“Captain McRae, you and your people did a good job. I realize many of you have done little more than meet each other. That they were able to successfully accomplish what you just did leads me to look forward to what you will accomplish in the future. Attorney General Alter has a clarification to what he told you previously. Bob.”
“We had a discussion about when the military may be used in the States, and then I checked on it with people from my office. The Insurrection Act was revised in 2006 and again in 2008. The last change allows the President to authorize the military to respond to terrorist acts under certain conditions. The President and I agree the repeated attacks against the United States, starting with the North Korean attack, meet the criteria to allow the President to authorize you to use military forces against the terrorists. Captain McRae, you are allowed to use any of your personnel to support the FBI and the police. You may also react to terrorist attacks without first contacting local police or federal officers if you find it necessary. I will have someone contact you and Agent Poe tomorrow to go over this with you, but I think you have what you need now.”
“Captain McRae, I do hereby authorize you to make use of military forces under your command and others working with you to respond to and eliminate these attacks and the source of these attacks. If you find another government is behind these attacks, you need to report that so we can work out how we will handle the situation. This isn’t to preclude you from acting if you find the immediate safety of American citizens is at risk.” The President paused. “Sheila, I’m dumping a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, but I believe you can handle it. We will need to go over this more when you are in Washington over Thanksgiving. Until then, a more defensive posture is probably prudent. You need to get things organized and people trained. I’ll be discussing this with congressional leaders of both parties. I expect they will want to talk to you when you are here. What this means right now is that you have a green light on using all of your resources to support a rescue.”
“Mr. President, I understand the delicate nature of what you have authorized us to do. I will meet with our people here and develop a plan. This changes what we were considering. What about our work in the mountains?” Sheila purposely didn’t identify what the work was.
“Until we find someone better suited to handle it, I would like things to continue like they were. This just gives you more leeway in your actions.”