Episode II – Scene I

A Dangerous Proposal

 

 

 

“So, what do you want to talk about Jedi?” asked Icedrake, currently serving as an assistant to General Knight, the Director of the Operations of The Outfit.  Jedi and Ice were sitting at a dimly lit back table at the back of a bar called Charles’ Tavern, but affectionately known as CT’s to the operatives from The Outfit.

 

“Well, Ice, I need your help and giving it to me could jeopardize your current position in The Outfit.”

 

“How do you mean?”

 

“There have been certain indicators that we have a mole in our organization and I have reason to believe that that person is responsible for the deaths of my teammates and may be planning something else.”

 

Ice’s mind whirled with the import of Jedi’s statements.  Could it be true?  He had been involved with the investigation of the Pawns deaths and had thought some of the coincidences were questionable.  But, he was new and inexperienced in some of The Outfit’s procedures, so he had only noted them in his report as items of interest.

 

“You’re talking about the Interpol air cover and the Sped brainwashing, aren’t you?”

 

“That’s part of it.  There’s more dating back to the inception of The Outfit.  Blazer’s replacement by Element, Element’s secondary protocol orders, the members of The Cause that were there…”

 

“What about them?”

 

“Several members of that group have been associated with the Pawns to varying degrees and, along with the Sped/Smith fiasco, these things point to a Pawns specific agenda on their part.  Think about it, Ice!  An attempt to kill me, Blazer’s known obsession with Raven, Wicked’s participation, the air cover pull-out with no evidence of who made the call, and the fact that the Pawns were sent in out of duty rotation and with more filler personnel than we have ever used.  I would rather draw to an inside straight than bet those events would all happen when they did.  Someone is working against The Outfit or at the very least, trying to get rid of the Pawns.”

 

“It would have to be someone with connections or maybe a group of people.  This is big, Jedi.  But why are you telling me all of this?  Do you want me to get the General in on this?  You don’t need me for that.  This is significant enough to warrant his attention.”

 

Here goes nothing, thought Jedi.  “No, Ice, I do not want you to take this to General Knight.  He either knows about it and is ignoring it or he’s involved in some direct way, or he is being used by the one’s doing this.  Going to him will tip someone off or will put the General in grave danger.  I am only discussing this with people that I trust.  I trust you, Ice.  I need you to help me and you are in a position to do so.”

 

Jedi watched as Ice struggled to keep his composure.  Surely, this statement raised others in Ice’s mind.  Jedi could only guess at what he was thinking.

 

Ice fought to remain calm at the request made of him by Jedi.  General Knight a mole!  Or maybe even more!  It was even more ludicrous to believe that he would simply be ignoring such happenings within an organization he had almost built by himself.  Ice did not buy Jedi’s allusions to the information being dangerous to General.

 

“Jedi, you do know what you are asking me to do?  Spy on the General and use my position as his assistant to either uncover him as a mole or as incompetent.  Not exactly a career move, is it?”

 

“Maybe he isn’t involved and doesn’t know anything.  Still, you will be in a position to rid The Outfit of a mole.  To flush out a person or persons who have agendas that are in direct opposition to the edicts of The Outfit.  Let me ask you something, Ice.  Why did you accept a post with The Outfit?”

 

“To be with the best and to become the best myself.  To protect and serve on a global scale.”

 

“All of those are quite noble.  But, if one man or a small group of men have their own ideas about what is the best way to protect and serve and those ideas are in direct opposition to the values that you hold, what will you do?  Will you keep doing your job until something personally happens to change your mind?  Or will you take the initiative and find a way to bring those people to justice?  Just keep an open eye at first.  I believe that you will see something that will convince you to help me.  Give it two weeks.  If you don’t find out anything by then, I will back off.  I give you my word.”

 

Ice looked at the older man, searching for something that would help him make up his mind.  Two weeks was a short time.  Jedi must think something was about to happen.  Ice made his decision.

 

“Okay.  I will do it.  Two weeks with me looking for evidence of a mole or a conspiracy and when I don’t find anything you will drop this like it never happened.  Agreed?”  Ice held out his hand for Jedi.

 

“It’s a deal,” said Jedi, shaking Ice’s hand.  “We meet here in one week unless you find something sooner.  If you do, get a message to me.  You’ll find a way.”

 

“Sure, Jedi, I’ll see you in a week,’ responded Ice as he arose to leave the table.

 

“Wait, there’s one more thing.  I need all the information we have on Element.  I need to check his background for hiccups.”

 

“He was cleared on the hostage deaths.”

 

“I know.  But, I have a right to know if I can depend on him and you know we have a history.  I cannot let him undermine the Pawns, no matter how well he takes orders.”

 

“Sure, I can help with that officially.  Come on down to my office tomorrow afternoon and I will have it ready for you or at least the beginnings of it.  I still have a lot of it out from the investigation.  Well, I’d better rescue Raszkal from your team.  I think Skooter is getting ready to turn him into his next sucker.”

 

“Alright, see you tomorrow.”  Jedi watched the young man join the Pawns near the pool table.  Sure enough, Skooter was handing the Delta Force commando a cue and unfolding a large sheaf of bills.  Jedi laughed.  Skooter’s current truck was paid for through sharking the newbies at that same table.  Element had been able to break even the one time they had played and then had told the whole tavern he would rather jump in a pit of rattlesnakes with a pocket knife than do that again.  Jedi looked over his team.  Skooter and Firedrake, the southern boys with the dead aim of hunters.  Sped, the Navy man with quick humor and a quick gun.  The Brutuses were an anomaly, a married team of Counter-Terrorists.  Their teamwork and level thinking had served as a steadying influence on the young hotshots on the team.  TK was there, the young/old man with wisdom and leadership skills that Jedi had leaned on more than once.  Blazer was in town reporting on his tracking of the terrorist Raven.  He was the hothead of the group.  A man with no fear.  His speed was always an asset.  And there was Plo, the linguist and tactician with a huge hole in his memory and his past.  No wonder he and Element got along so well.  Jedi’s thoughts dwelled on Element for a moment.  Calling him an enigma would be an understatement.  Very military, but with a seldom seen soft side.  He could be counted on to do the job.  Coldly and as efficiently as possible.  He had just started to warm up to the rest of the Pawns.  Jedi noticed the newest member to the team, Karbon.  He had a past with Raven also.  Jedi had read the reports from the psych boys.  No real explanation as usual.  He had been added as a medic after the bloodbath in the canyon.  Jedi noticed some of the “fillers” as he called them.  There was Trunks watching the banter around the pool table.  He had once been a member of the team and had left to do his own thing.  He was on the short list of mercenaries trusted by The Outfit and was called in on missions where his hand-to-hand combat skills would be useful.  Bum was there too.  He had been trained by Plo and had been helpful on other missions.  Then there was Ace.  Jedi shook his head.  This young man was something else entirely.  Fast and fit with a lot of street experience.  He had been added to The Outfit through the Humanitarian Urban Recruitment and Training System (HURTS).  This program took the kind of young men who usually became terrorists and mercenaries and groomed them to be good counter-terrorism operatives.  Only time would tell if this one actually survived.

 

“Jedi,” said a voice right beside Jedi.  It was Element, sneaking up on him again.

 

“What is it, Ele?”

 

“The balloon just went up.  Looks like action somewhere in the Pacific.  Briefing in 15 minutes.”

 

Jedi watched as Element informed TK and Plo and then left out the back.  The Pawns would all be informed in a minute and would disperse in two’s and three’s to avoid a scene.  Jedi watched them for one more moment.  There were a good team and he certainly hoped that whatever was about to happen was not another fiasco like the last one.  He and Element had to find out who the mole was and Jedi knew Icedrake was the key to unlock that information.  He only hoped it would happen in time.

 

A match flared in the darkness of the office of General Dark Knight.  He knew the Pawns would be assembling for a briefing on the latest hot spot of terrorism, the Pacific.  The players had moved swiftly this time, but all would still work.  By tomorrow morning, the Pawns would be thousands of miles away from here and out of his hair.  This was too good an opportunity to waste.  Knight reached for his phone and after obtaining a secure line that he knew would not be monitored (there would be no logs of the call either, thanks to having one of his own men in the communications department).

 

“Yes,” answered the familiar voice on the other end of the call.

 

“The coop is unguarded.  Make it tomorrow night, my time,” said Knight.

 

“This had better be on the up-and-up.  Losing those scientists was not part of the bargain.  If I find out you had something to do with that…” The voice let the threat hang between them.

 

“You listen to me, my furry friend.  I call the shots in this relationship.  I have more power than you can possibly imagine and you do not want me as an enemy.  You have seen that my information to you has been good and I made it possible for you to get away from that canyon.  If it were not for me, you would be at the mercy of The Outfit’s interrogators right now.  If you will do this just as we have planned, you will have what you want and I will have what I want.  And as an added bonus, we will both have a personal benefit.  The Pawns will be discredited, disbanded, and destroyed.  NOW, DO WHAT YOU DO!!!!”

 

Knight slammed down the phone, his anger immediately gone.  If he read the players for this latest play correctly, and he usually did, in less than a week the last obstacle to his plan would be gone and he would be hailed as a hero and a great American and world citizen.  And those nuisances, the Pawns, would be no more.  Just a small blip on the radar of world politics, easily ignored and barely missed as the next sweep showed only clear space where it had once been.

 

Ace looked around and realized that only the Pawns were present in the briefing room.  Usually, Jedi, TK, and Plo would brief the team after receiving the information themselves and then formulating some plan.  Since those three were in seats at the front and not at the podium, Ace surmised that this was a rush job of some kind.  Just then, the door at the front of the room opened and General Knight, his assistant Icedrake, and another man that Ace did not know.  He watched them take their seats and also noticed a strange look on Jedi’s face.  Was he nervous about the departure from the norm?  Or was there something else bothering him?  Ace’s instincts were from the street and he trusted them more than most of the psychological training he had received.  He glanced over at Element to catch his reactions.  As usual, this was a waste of time.  The same cold look and emotionless face as always was all that he saw.  Just then, Icedrake strode to the podium and Ace settled in to his information-gathering mode.  He had also learned that saying nothing allowed others to relinquish the information they had and let him study their body language to gather even more.

 

Jedi had expected a core briefing first and then the usual planning session before having Plo brief the team.  This was unusual to say the least.  All the Pawns being briefed at once and the General himself was in attendance.  Jedi prepared himself for a very hazardous mission.

 

“Good evening, Pawns,” began Icedrake, “I am Icedrake, assistant to General Knight.  We are meeting in this different manner due to time constraints imposed upon us by the circumstances of your next mission.”  The giant screen above and behind the platform came to life and a map of California was displayed.  “A group of unidentified terrorists have taken some bikini models hostage at their sponsor’s mansion in Malibu, California.  They were doing a photo shoot and the caterers had been replaced at the last minute with another company.  That company was a front for some terrorist organization.  The specifics of the attack are mostly unknown, but we have people interrogating the people who made it out and others trying to ascertain what group it is.  The FBI has negotiators there already and they are hopeful that they can come to a resolution soon.  But as each of us knows, there has to be an alternative solution and the Pawns are it.”  The map was replaced with a layout of the mansion and the grounds.  Then the screen split and actual photographs of the locations appeared on the right side.  “We are lucky that this mansion is one of the most photographed buildings in the world.  You will setup outside the gates to the grounds and send personnel through sewers and rock fissures to a location near the wine cellar of the mansion and to the beach.  We will not have time for a wet entry from the ocean and the view from the mansion would preclude that anyway.  As you can see in these photos, the gate and hills block easy access to the front of the mansion.  The yard has several hedgerows and a frontal assault would be extremely difficult.  There is access to the side of mansion from the beach and up to the tennis court.  We do have some long- range reconnaissance from a helicopter and a Coast Guard cutter.”  At this point, the screen went blank and Ice continued.  “That is all we have so far.  The rest of the planning and team assignments will be done in route to the site.  So, all of the Pawns will be flown from here in one hour and will arrive in California in 6 hours.  Some of you may end up in a strictly supportive role, but we don’t have time for the usual “skills matching” decisions.  You are all well trained and capable individuals.  Do the jobs you are trained to do and get those hostages out.  And now, General Knight has something to add before you depart.”  Icedrake stepped away from the podium as General Knight made his way forward.

 

General Knight scanned the group quickly.  “Pawns, this is a high profile mission that will not have a lot of cover story to hide our part in it.  You will go in as a FBI-CIA joint team.  All of your identification and gear will be marked as such.  We have some help on the communications and eavesdropping side.  I know we have our own people, but this help is local and already there and working.  I must tell you that a lot of important eyes are on this one.  The hands that hold the purse strings are still not comfortable with what happened with our last tangle with The Cause.  The two-bit terrorists behind this mission had better not bloody the nose of this organization!  We are the dogs at the door.  We are last tumblers on the lock of safety between those who believe our ideals are theirs to toy with.  WE WILL NOT BE BYPASSED!  WE WILL NOT FAIL!”  The room erupted in cheers as General Knight, Icedrake, and the still unnamed visitor exited the same way they had entered.  Jedi stepped up onto the platform and stood behind the podium signaling for silence.  The Pawns settled down.

 

“Well, now that the cheering is over, it’s time to get to work.  Plo will lead strategy as usual, TK will lead the beach team and I will take the house team.  Recon will be Element’s responsibility and Skooter will lead the sniper team.  We will go with overloaded teams until we can flesh our strategies.  Team leads will pick personnel in-flight and TK or I will decide any conflicts.  Sorry, but there is no time for questions.  Veterans, help the rookies.  We now have 50 minutes until wheels-up.  Let’s go.”