Chapter 389

Saturday morning there was a nervous tension in the air. If the Intel was accurate, the terrorists were going to make their play during the parade, but we still did not know which day of the two days there were parades scheduled.

Howie and the drone operators were out checking everything out early. Howie had assembled all 18 of the devices and they were behind the new wall that had been built. The only thing left was to install the battery and turn the key to arm them.

The two gun drones had been checked and rechecked; there were at least a dozen 500 round belts assembled.

All the drone batteries were fully charged as were the controllers and batteries for the laptop and cameras. The drone defense was ready.

On top of the embassy building were the stinger and javelin rockets to stop the truck, sitting in boxes ready to be used on a moments notice. The two 50 cal guns with full belts of armor piercing bullets were in place and covered with canvas. The two M60 machine guns were in place as well and covered.

The chopper was still sitting on the pad with the pilots ready to take off. As soon as the parade was started I was going send the chopper away.

Andy and I went to the front office to discuss assignments with Alice, Linda, and Ellen. We had talked with them and they understood they had a part in the embassy defense if our worst fears came to pass.

“What you need to do at the first sign of trouble is to lock down the front office by turning the electric locks off so the doors stay locked. Do not stand in front of the doors but take positions off to the side so that you can put them in a cross fire. Anyone that tries force their way in, you will have to stop them.”

“The counters you are behind are reinforced with steel plate. It was one of the things that was done after Morocco; stay behind them,” I said

“You cannot let anyone get by you; it will be the difference between life and death for all of us,” I said.

Andy and I went through different defensive firing positions behind the counters explaining the how and why and the advantages each had. Then I gave them a pep talk.

“You know you can hit the target, I know you can get the job done; now we are depending on you to do that. I know it will be hard but you have to stand your ground and do it,” I said.

“We understand; we can and will do it, you can count on us,” Linda replied with both Alice and Ellen nodding.

I went to the communications room to check on the latest alert updates and call the Washington emergency security desk for any items that were not considered valid enough to make the list.

There was nothing new in any of the reports or alerts. I went to find Andy to see if there was anything else he thought we needed to do.

Ambassador Morrison called to see if I wanted to come to the Canadian Embassy to watch the parade, but I politely told him I was under the weather and was not venturing out.

The parade started at noon and that was when I sent the chopper to make a high altitude sweeps over the city. The truth of the matter was I did not want the chopper on the ground to be destroyed by the blast, if it came to be.

The one last check was to walk the grounds and move everything that could become flying debris in the blast at the rear of the grounds. Then there was nothing to do to wait.

It was 2 PM before the first floats of the parade made their way through the city and negotiated the turn two blocks from our embassy. The route plan called for them to turn and continue on for 6 blocks, a left turn through another part of town and then back to the staging area.

About half of the parade column had made the turn when Bambi the copilot radioed that a very large space had opened up in the parade column after an unusual looking heavy truck. That gap was being filled with cars, pickups and pedestrians that did not look to be part of the parade and was about a mile away.

The chopper made a swing away from the parade route to do a 360 around the embassy location. Three miles from the embassy there was a truck headed towards the embassy and city from the east.

The truck was currently parked at an intersection on the road with several dozen pickups loaded with people. That route into the city and past the US embassy from the East at that intersection had been closed early this morning.

Bambi radioed again; the truck in the parade route was stopped while the parade participants ahead of it continued on. I knew then that it was going to wait until the road ahead of it was clear to make as much speed as it could to hit the west security fence and burst through.

I was on the roof with Andy looking through binoculars at the parade route; he and I both know knew that one truck was going to hit from the west first and then a few minutes later one from the east. Then all the fighters would come in to finish things off and pick up people for hostages.