Chapter 9

The next couple of weeks goes by. Paul does some night reconnaissance on the warehouse. He observes several meetings of the rat infestation. He laid out his plan to Lane. Lane looked it over and thought it was too complicated.

"With the resources we have, we can't do it. I suggest we position my friends out around the buildings. We can put two of the best shooters in the trees here and here. Amy use to be a sniper for her father."

"What did he do?"

"Don't ask and I won't tell. She can cover us from this large oak tree. Then Lilly and I will come in from the east side and you come in from the north with Joe. You keep the little soldier ants busy and we will take care of everyone in the warehouse. My friends will make sure no one gets out. I have arranged to have some special weapons brought in by some friends. We will pick them up Thursday night."

"We will do it your way. I hope your friends are willing to kill."

"They aren't, but they will keep them from escaping and they will protect themselves."

"Ok, let's tell Lilly what's going on."

They make their final arrangements and prepare to rid the ship of the sinking rats. Paul makes contact with the director. He informs them of the plans. Thursday night Lane gets the weapons and brings them to the house. Paul is quite impressed. Most of the weapons are Israeli made. The only ones that aren't are the sniper rifles. It looks like he special ordered them from Germany. There were no registration numbers or anyway of knowing what kind they were.

The next night they move in on their target. Paul gets a little antsy. He does not know if these people will protect his back or not. Lane told him to wait for his signal. He just never told Paul what his signal was. He does his best to wait patiently for an hour. He swears to himself about hoping Lane would hurry up. He hear sounds coming through the woods. It sounds like a tank. Paul pops up from his position and is immediately pulled back down by Joe.

"Shush, just wait. You are going to see something you never expected."

He does not like it. He hears some screaming and shouting off in the distance. He hears the pop of Amy's silenced rifle above him. He starts to move again. Joe again grabs him and pulls him down.

"Would you be patient old man? Damn, you fidget worse than a fourth grader." A flare shoots off in the night. Joe raps Paul on the head with his fist, "Let's go."

They move towards the warehouse rapidly. Joe opens up with an automatic shotgun. He does not really aim he just shoots. Leaving the back unguarded, the guards rush to the front to see what all the commotion is. Lilly and Lane slip in to the back of the warehouse. Lilly motions Lane to go around the right side. She moves around the left. She slips out a two-foot thin sword and a Glock forty- caliber pistol with a silencer. She slips through between some of the crates. One of the guards runs right in front of her. She does not hesitate. She takes her sword and stabs the man through the throat. She hears the pop of Lane's silenced weapon. She moves on around the crates. A rope makes it around her head. She is pulled up hard on the side of the crates. She drops her pistol and gets her hand underneath the rope. The man pulls her up to the top of the crates. He leans over to hit her with a hammer. She stabs him with her sword through his sternum piercing his heart. He drops her immediately as he keels over and dies. She hits the floor gasping for air. She gets up swearing under her breath.

She thinks to herself, I am woman, a princess, and I have just been washed in blood. I am going to use my pistol from now on. She stands up and puts her sword away. Picking up her pistol, she moves towards the offices of the warehouse. Three men are standing in front of the doors. Already angry, she jumps around the corner screaming, yelling and shooting the three of them in the head. She grabs a hold of the doorknob. Lane hits her as they start shooting the door from the inside. She starts to say something. Lane motions for her to be quiet. He pulls two masks out of his jacket and hands her one. He puts the other one on and pulls out a canister grenade. He shows her the canister and she quickly puts on the mask. He pulls the pin. He opens the door and quickly throws the canister in the room. He jumps back on top of her.

He starts whispering to her, "You will not believe what I am going to do to you when we get home."

She looks at him shocked, "What? You're coming on to me. I am bathed in blood here. We still have to get in that room and finish this."

"There is never a better time than the present. Besides, you're gorgeous no matter what you're wearing or not wearing."

"Listen you lunatic, we have to get in that room."

"We have some time. We could do it right here on the floor."

"You're nuts."

"I know that is what you like about me."

"No, I like you for you're warm heart and caring ways."

"Tell the truth, you love me because I am wacky," he smiles and pokes her in the ribs.

"Get off of me, before I shoot you."

"You wouldn't do that."

"I wouldn't kill you but I might shoot you in the ass." He feels the barrel of her pistol go up his ass crack. He gets off her quickly.

She laughs at him, "Can we get back to business?"

"Of course, but when we get home we are going to discuss this."

She runs her hand up his leg to his groin, "You weren't kidding."

"I told you we could do it here. It wouldn't have taken that long."

"Can we go in now?"

"Nope, give it a few more minutes."

He starts running his hand up her legs and grabs her ass. Two men come running around the corner. He rolls over giving her room to take them out. After shooting the first one, he trips over Lane and falls through the office door. The other one falls where he is shot. Lilly jumps up and enters the office. Lane stands up slowly and follows her. Twenty men are in the room lying in their own vomit and excrement. Some of them died in convulsions. The rest of them are still barely breathing. Lane checks to make sure they have the whole lot. One of them is missing.

Lilly gets his attention, "Lane look at the wall."

He sees some disgusting watery liquid flowing under the right wall. He walks over to the wall and sees where someone pushed on it. He pushes and the wall revolves out to reveal an interior office. Brian Harlin is lying there staring at him.

Lane smiles, "Hi Brian. I warned you a long time ago. I guess it just never sank in. I would put you out of your misery, but alas, I won't. The canister I threw in here is a new kind of nerve agent. Soon your heart is just going to explode. Just to let you know, I tried to save Danny. I called him today and told him to stay away from you. He didn't listen. I won't torture you anymore. This town will always survive. Sorry, you and yours turned out like this."

He starts to walk out of the room. Lilly sees something on the desk that catches her eye. She walks over to the desk to see what it is.

"Lilly what is it?"

"My families crest is on these books."

"Well grab them and let's go."

"Be kind of impossible, there are about sixty or seventy of them here."

He walks around the desk and sees what she is talking about. There are several stacks of them. He reaches down and grabs as many as he can. He heads toward the door. She grabs some and follows him. When they get to the front door, Paul bounds in and points his weapon at them.

"Shit, I almost shot you two."

"Quit yapping and take these to the truck," Lane says throwing the books in his arms.

He stares at Lane for a second before escorting Lilly to the truck. They throw the books in the back.

"Can you explain why we are taking all of these with us?"

"Dad look at the emblem on them."

He looks closely at the books, "I see now. How many are there?"

"Quite a few, but no one can go in there with out a mask. Lane set off a new nerve agent in there. We will bring them out to the door."

They hurriedly remove the books from the office. Lane has everyone drag the bodies in to the interior of the warehouse. After they finish, he drags the bodies out of the offices. He has Joe bring up a water truck. At first glance, it looks like water is in it. However, when he starts spraying it on the bodies the bodies start melting. Paul watches this and wonders what is next. A couple of the men disappear. A few minutes later, he hears what sounds like a tank coming down the road. A large D-Ten bulldozer comes in to view. Just as soon as the truck leaves the warehouse, the man in the bulldozer pushes the warehouse over. He makes a large hole behind where the building once stood. He pushes all the debris in the hole and covers it up. Within a couple of hours, no evidence showed that a building once stood there. Paul watched all of this in astonishment. He never noticed the people disappearing. The only people left was Lilly, Lane, the bulldozer operator and him.

Lane walks up to him, "What do you think Paul?"

"Smart, what about their families?"

"I wouldn't worry about that. The elderly have already taken care of that."

"I have a feeling you're talking about your friend Barbara."

"No comment lets get out of here. Hop in."

When they get back to the house, they take all of the books in. Paul starts going through all of the books. He is still working even after Lane and Lilly go to bed. In the early morning, he comes rushing in to Lane's room.

"Lane wake up you won't believe what I have found."

Lilly answers him, "Dad what's the matter?"

He did not think she would be in the room with him.

"Paul are you still going through those books?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Paul you didn't interrupt anything. I can probably tell you what you found. Brian was laundering money for some really bad guys through his bank. What we found at the warehouse was his logs."

"How did you know that?"

"Brian was crooked'er than a dog's hind leg. He would have done anything for a buck. I saw him one time take a kids last dollar out of his hand to pay his lunch tab."

"Ok but do you know where the money is."

"Nope don't really care. Now go away and let me sleep." Lane rolls back over.

"Dad don't listen to him. Come on, I'll make us some coffee and you can show me what you found."

A few days of going through the books, Paul packs them up and mails them to the director.