Near Future 1: Awakening (23 page)

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Miranda nervously paced the room where the shooting team had been placed after their arrival in the small country of Kinza. They had traveled along with the school's soccer and track teams to the site of the special tournament, but a mix-up on their arrival did not have them listed with the other students. The whole group traveled to a Coliseum where the track and soccer players were to do their practicing. Their small team, on the other hand, had no facilities set up for them, so they were stuck down in a large room in the basement area instead of with the other students. They had a place to put all their equipment but nowhere to practice. They felt a little isolated away from their teammates, and the whole situation was a little frustrating. To make everything even more frustrating, none of their instructors had arrived other than a couple of the athletic aides that worked with the soccer team. So they were basically all alone in a foreign country with no adult supervision.

Then the situation had gotten a whole lot worse. A few minutes ago, a loud alarm had suddenly started blaring in their area. One of the local security guys came into their room, gathering the group together to speak to them.

"I am Hernando. I need you to listen carefully. A coup has just occurred in the country where we are located. I am a US special forces soldier undercover here and I have a backup escape plan, but I need you to remain calm and wait here. No one knows you are here, but there is too much going on for us to try to get out right now. Plus, I am going to try to find a way to rescue your friends upstairs. Unfortunately, they do know about them being here. I now believe that it was planned for them to be here when this happened." He turned on the local VR broadcast so they could watch.

Miranda and her team watched in horror as they saw the local army surround the Coliseum, and the soccer and track teams were taken hostage. A handful of the army had entered the Coliseum, but most appeared to be stationed outside where they and their vehicles remained at ready to defend against an outside attack, making a rescue attempt much more difficult and unlikely. The officer leading the other soldiers into the building was dressed in an elaborate uniform and he strutted about for a few minutes while the local VR crew filmed him. Then all the athletes in the locker room were brought out and placed in a partitioned area inside the coliseum. He announced on a loudspeaker that everyone was to stay put until they could be moved to a more secure location and then turned and walked back out. Miranda immediately saw that he left only a few soldiers to guard the hostages.

Hernando had explained to some of them that he knew of an underground tunnel that led outside the Coliseum, and some of the other team members had been ready to leave immediately. Hernando was thinking along the same lines. His specialty was undercover work and hand-to-hand fighting. He was sure that there wasn't any way he could pull it off by himself. If he attempted it, he would probably get them all killed or captured, and he would also fail his primary mission.

But Miranda had looked at them all incredulously and said. "I'm not leaving our fellow students upstairs to suffer who knows what horrors at the hands of those men. I especially didn't like the way that officer looked at the girls on the soccer team. We have to find a way to rescue them and then we can all escape down the tunnel. We are supposed to be some of the best shots in the world. Surely we can take care of the tiny handful of guards they left upstairs."

The other team members had looked at one another, and then finally one spoke up for the group. "Miranda, we are all only students. Yes, we can shoot at a target, but none of us would be able to stand in a fight with even the handful they left here in the building. I've never fired a real shot at anyone."

"None of you took advantage of the simulators we had at the school? I have fought through simulations much more difficult than this." Miranda simply could not believe it as each shook his or her head.

The spokesman for the team answered quietly, "Those of us who are to join the armed forces after graduation figured we would be trained then. The others would never need it, or so we thought." He looked at the other team members who all nodded.

That was when Miranda started her pacing. As she paced, she found herself wishing the Sarge was there with them now. He would know what to do. But wishing wasn't going to get it done. Looking at the VR of the coliseum above them, she felt the seeds of an idea growing and gradually turning into a plan that just might work. Her main worry was that she would have to make sure she didn't trigger her headaches, or she would be unable to do what she needed to do. She would just have to make sure she didn't do that.
 

Miranda stopped her pacing and turned back to the others, "If Hernando and I take out the soldiers guarding the students, can the rest of you block the doors at the entrance? It looks like all you have to do is drop the metal bars back into place and wrap the chains around them. Then we would need someone to free our students from their restraints."

Some of them nodded yes at this, although the whole group still looked pretty skeptical and they were all obviously very much afraid.

Hernando quickly jumped on the idea. If he had help, they just might be able to pull it off. "We would also need to disable the army vehicles surrounding the coliseum. Otherwise, when we escape through the tunnel, they would be able to follow us. If we could disable the vehicles, we would have time to get to the airport. It is only a few blocks from where the tunnel exits to the airport, but they probably could still catch us if they had their vehicles. Who is the sniper expert for your team? Can they pull that off?"

Miranda looked at Hernando. "That would be me. I'm pretty good too," she said. "I'm sure I can hit any of their vehicles around the coliseum if you can get me to the roof."

He nodded. "There's an exit at the top of the stairwell that we took when you came in here."

Miranda went on. "Do we have access to security weapons such as police dart guns? I believe with a silent dart gun, I can take out all of the guards before they know what hits them. That has the added benefit of being safer than trying to take them in a shoot-out. Some of the athletes might be hit."
 

Hernando was obviously skeptical, but knew he could never shoot all of them with his pistol before the sound of the shots reached enough of the others for them to overpower him. However, he figured even if she could take out a couple of them it might even the odds enough that maybe he could get the rest of them before they could stop him. "Ok," he said, "We will try this, but I will show you the way to the escape route. I expect you to fall back and try to slip your group out if they overcome me."

He led her down the hall toward the security armory room, entering the code to the door. He grabbed a couple of extra clips of ammo for his pistol and showed her where the dart guns were located. Picking up one, he said to her, "Each clip only holds five shots and takes several seconds to load." He demonstrated by loading one of the clips into the gun and handing her a spare.

"I believe there are five guards," Miranda laughed quietly. "You can bring the spare if you want, but I will only need one clip. How fast can the gun shoot? Does it take a long time to get the next dart to fire?"

Hernando just shook his head, but he answered the questions. "Faster than you can aim and shoot. Something like half a second, maybe?"

"I can shoot pretty fast!" she exclaimed. Miranda could tell that he was really skeptical, but she knew her abilities.

"We have one more stop before we go back to the others," Hernando told her. He led her to another room where he knocked on the door three times. When the door opened, he led Miranda into the room where a woman was waiting. She was somewhat older than Miranda, but very pretty and had bright red hair she was hiding under a scarf.

"Miranda Summerlin, this is Carla Davis," he told the two of them. "She is the reason I am here. Originally, the plan was to dress her as an instructor, slipping her into the group of students when you left. Obviously that plan won't work now, but she needs to go with us when we leave."

Carla nodded. "I have critical information that I need to get out and take to my superiors. The coup is a lot more than just a simple coup, and our country will need to take measures as a result." She turned to Hernando. "Are we ready to leave?" she asked.

Hernando nodded at Miranda. "This young lady thinks she can help me rescue the others upstairs. They only left five guards, and between the two of us we think we can take them all out. If that works, we should be able to get everyone out. I've already sent her a VR with the information on the escape tunnel, and told her to get you out that way if I am overcome."

"As long as you're not risking our overall mission," said Carla. "Not that it's not already pretty well shot."

Hernando couldn't argue with that. He led them back down the hallway, returning with them to the room with the other members of the team. Miranda grabbed her sniper rifle from her equipment, slinging it from her shoulder in its harness and then she stuck her shooting pistol into its holster. Picking up extra ammo, she quipped, "Luckily I have all my equipment here. Especially this baby," she said, pointing to her sniper rifle.
 

"Everyone ready?" Hernando asked the group. "The four of you still are important. We need the entrance blocked long enough for us to free the other students, get down to the tunnel area, and make our way out of here before they find where we have gone."

Carla spoke up then. "I will lead the group in case we run into anyone. I have had a little training before. Air Force," she said proudly, "Unlike this ground pounder here," pointing to Hernando.
 

That got a big smile from Hernando. "Proud of it, too. At least I don't have my head stuck up in the clouds." He led them toward the door. Miranda slipped in behind him, smiling at the byplay between the two of them.

The other team members rose and followed, but it was obvious none of them were really convinced the plan would work. Miranda noticed that they did all grab their pistols and ammo.

With the VR crew continuing to transmit up above, the signal was displayed on monitors stationed throughout the complex. Because of that, they knew exactly where the guards were. They had essentially not moved from where they were originally stationed. Hernando nodded when they passed the monitor in front of the stairwell. This just might still work out.

Hernando led them quietly up the stairs to a back entrance. He stopped them just outside the door. "Everyone needs to be very quiet from here on out. When we go through the door, we will be on the first level of seating just above the area where the guards and students are. After Miranda and I take out the guards, the rest of you need to go down the steps to the immediate left and the doors will be right in front of you. Come back to the area below us and untie everyone while Miranda and I go up the stairway behind us to get to the roof. We will then all go back down to the second level of the basement to enter the tunnel." Turning to Miranda he said, "You go to the left and I will go to the right. Wait until I get into position and then take out as many as you can with the darts. I will only open fire when they start to react."

He carefully slipped the door open, he and Miranda quietly moving to take their positions. The others crouched down beside the steps and in seconds everyone was ready.
 

Miranda had determined exactly where each of the guards was standing as she slipped into place. Standing, she fired five rapid shots, and each of the guards collapsed. Only one had time to react at all, but he didn't even get his weapon up before he was hit.

Staring with disbelief at Miranda, Hernando lowered his pistol, turning to the others who were all more or less frozen in place. "Quickly now. Do your part and be ready to leave as soon as we get back."

Hernando led Miranda back to the stairway, and they rushed to the top of the building. Setting up her sniper position, Miranda quickly had the range and the first of her targets lined up. She rapidly put a couple of shots in each of the radiators of the army vehicles, reloading in reflex as she was lining up the next shot. She was shooting as fast as she could, knowing that if the trucks started moving, it would be much more difficult to hit them. Luckily, only a couple of them were able to react at all, but due to their size, they really didn't start moving enough to affect her. She did not miss a shot.

Hernando no longer stared at Miranda in disbelief, but he really couldn't believe that someone her age was so accomplished. He simply led her to the other side of the building, where she did the same to the remaining vehicles. By this time, the army personnel were all rushing around in fright as they could not figure out where the shots were coming from.

Finally, the last vehicle was disabled. Miranda breathed a sigh of relief, breaking her rifle down and slinging it from her shoulder. By the time the two of them returned to her teammates, the doors were blocked and the other students were all free from their restraints. As soon as he knew everyone was alright, Hernando led them down to the sub-basement, without hesitation going to a locked door. Everyone waited anxiously while he tried several keys, none of them opening the door. Were they all going to be trapped?

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Hernando was beginning to get worried. He had been told he had a key to the tunnel, but he was running out of keys. It was a steel door, so he knew it would be almost impossible to break through. Just as he was really getting worried, only a couple of keys left to try, a key fit into the lock. Breathing a sigh of relief, he opened it, flipping the switch on the wall to reveal a dimly lit tunnel with block walls and a concrete floor. It seemed to stretch out into nowhere, the light too dim to reveal the end. It didn't look like much, but to Miranda and the other students that gathered around to stare though the door, it looked great. Much better than staying where they were.