Chapter 21

The Miwuk Reservation Casino in Jackson, California

Armis, Lt. Melchior and SOMC Dubois beamed into room 416 of the Miwuk Reservation Casino. Room 416 was empty. The two SEALs looked around and saw nobody. They relaxed from their ‘ready to shoot’ mode and looked at Armis.

Armis explained, pointing at the ceiling, “Room 516 is where they are. There are 4 people in the room and I can’t tell which of them is a hostage and which isn’t. The room is registered to the hotel management, but Senator MacDowell has been charging room service to her personal account. That’s probably how they tracked her down.”

Melchior: “If I was running op.for. I’d split them up. Husband in one room, wife in another.”

Dubois: “We’ll take out one room at a time. You have pictures of the hostages?”

Armis: “Sure. And I can get you a picture of the room and which way the people are facing.”

D: [laugh] “Oh. Well that’ll make it easy. There’s 4 of ‘em in 516? That leaves 3 in op.for. Don’t suppose you can tell us which is which?”

A: “No guarantee on that. But this one is a woman.”

D: “Doesn’t mean anything.”

Armis showed the SEALs pictures of Senator MacDowell and her husband, Jeff. Then she switched to a wireframe drawing with four dots in the room. Each of the dots had a little arrow indicating which way he/she was facing.

M: “Is this realtime?”

A: “Yup.”

D: “Loaded with non-lethal.”

They looked at the display.

M: [pointing at the diagram] “Put us here. Facing the room. You’re behind us, or you beam out right away. Getting you out of there is the best option.”

A: “But the hostage won’t know who you are. I’ve met both of them before.”

M: “You come back in when your display shows that all the bad guys are down.”

So ... that’s what they did. The SEALs were armed with bean bag sawed off shotguns. They each had two loads, and then a silenced pistol with normal, lethal bullets.

Within half a second of them beaming in to room 516, there were two semi-loud PHUT sounds and two men were down. A quarter of a second later, the other was knocked down with two bean bags hitting him in the chest as he turned and started to say, “Jeezz...”

The SEALs pulled their pistols and Dubois said, “Armis?”

And a second after she beamed in originally, Armis beamed back in to the room, on the other side. She made sure to keep out of the line of fire. Total elapsed time, 1.23 seconds.

Armis: “Senator, do you know where they’re keeping Jeff?”

MacDowell: “Another room on this floor ... I think.”

Melchior: “Do the other guards come in here?”

Dubois was securing the op.for. agents with plastic ties and gagging them with towels from the hotel room. One was still unconscious. The first two were groaning and coming around slowly. They opened their eyes to a .45 silenced pistol in their faces.

“Be nice and quiet, right?” said Melchior.

MacD: “My daughter is safe?”

Armis spoke through her comm and spoke to the Senator. “She’s safe, uninjured, and with the SEALs in Canada. We’ll be joining her soon.”

Senator MacDowell replied through the comm link: “I’m not leaving without my husband.” And then she said aloud, “They said they were government agents, but wouldn’t tell me which agency. I think they were expecting to leave soon. They kept talking about ‘exfil’ soon.”

Melchior: “Armis? Any idea where they’re keeping Mr. MacDowell?”

Armis: “I’m having the hotel searched now.” She read from the buffer that Io kept filled with data. “Room 622 has gotten food delivered for 4 just this evening. The room is registered to Mr. Fred Flintstone.”

Dubois: “Can you get us a picture of the room?”

Armis broke out her comm unit and an image of four dots and a wireframe drawing of the room appeared.

Melchior handed his pistol to the Senator. “Know how to use this?”

The Senator clicked the slide back on the .45, popped out the magazine and slapped it back into place. “Yeah. I was in ROTC and the National Guard for 8 years. I can handle it.”

Melchior: “Don’t be afraid to shoot if you need to, but try not to kill them.”

MacDowell: “They kidnapped my daughter and took my husband and me hostages. Do you think if I shot off their nuts that would do it?”

Melchior: “It would indeed.” [smile]

Dubois finished loading the non-lethal loads in the shotguns. “I think we’ll want to come in here.” She gestured at the comm display.

Melchior: “Same deal as last time. You’re out of the room immediately.”

Armis: “Sure.”

So ... like last time, the trio did it again. Beam in. Armis out. PHUT – PHUT of the non-lethal bean bag shot. Another double PHUT on the third man. Then Armis was back in. She went to Jeff MacDowell. “Come with me. We’re going back to your wife’s room.” And she beamed out with the husband of the Senator.

When Armis and Jeff appeared, they found that the Senator had pointed the .45 at them. She said, “Oh. Okay.” And turned the gun on the op.for. agents again. Without looking at the new arrivals she said, “Everything okay?”

Jeff said “Yeah. Armis I recognize, but who are the other guys?”

Armis: “My security guys. They’re SEALs. Your daughter is with the rest of the team.”

Jeff: “U.S. Government SEALs? Are you sure she’s okay? These assholes said they’re government agents.”

Armis: “They’re SEALs. I vouch for them ... Hold on here. I’m going to the other room to figure out what we’re gonna do next ... Getting you reunited with her is top of my priority list.”

She popped back to room 622. The SEALs had everything under control. Dubois was handling her noise-suppressed .45 casually.

Armis: “What’s next? How do we do this?”

Melchior: “How are you holding up, Armis? Not long ago you were drugged pretty heavily.”

Armis: “I’m holding on. I can do this beaming around all day.” [to Io] ‘I hope. I’m getting tired and I’ve got a monster headache.’

Melchior: “Well, then I’d say get all the op.for. in one room. Leave them with us when you take the MacDowells back to Owyhee. Then come back for one of us and one op.for. Then we ferry them all back to Owyhee one or two at a time. I want all 6 of them back at HQ eventually.”

Armis shut her eyes at the thought of all that teleporting around. “The end will be all of the op.for. back at your HQ. The three MacDowells together at Owyhee. And me collapsing in your boss’s bed at the end.”

Dubois: “I know you didn’t mean that the way it sounded. He’s a little old for you.” She laughed.

SEAL Team 9 HQ, Big Beaver, Sask.

It was 2325 hours before all that teleporting was accomplished. The only injury was a pair of cracked ribs on the man in the first room who’d got the double shot of bean bags. The SEAL team was accumulating an increasing number of ‘government agents.’ They were kept isolated from each other and were being questioned by the SEALs, sometimes with the presence of a pair of Cree psychologists who were called in by Chief Redstone.

They weren’t quite using ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ but they were mentioning the possibility of using them. And it was clear that the agents on the other side of the fence knew that they’d say anything if that protocol started.

Both the team leader at the missile silo and the agents taken from the hotel/casino were happy to give up their contact in Washington. Well ... not exactly happy. But over the next few days, they provided a name at the other end of the secure phones they carried: ‘Blackjack.’