Chapter 7

Washington D.C.
 
“Are you shitting me?” Wolf roared laughing. “She is held up in a school?”

McCarthy continued his debrief. “Yes sir. The Macon County Junior High School is part of this exceptionally large building complex,” he said pointing to the target building circled on the city map spread across a large dust covered walnut conference table.

“My God, that is just poetic. The Secretary of Education is using a public school as a tactical base.” Wolf continued to laugh, holding his chest as he chuckled.

Tactical intelligence has a multiphase cycle of: Planning. Collection. Processing. Dissemination. And utilization. McCarthy understood that he was only part of the collection phase, therefor he kept his report limited to accurate unbiased data. Processing and exploitation of his collected data was up to the mission planners.

McCarthy cleared his throat and continued. “I logged a couple hundred roaming infected each day. Typically traveling in group sizes between three to seven, and with no time or directional patterns.”

“Manageable.” Wolf said, nodding his head in approval.

He continued by handing Wolf a torn sheet of paper, “Per my field sketch, there are seven sets of doors on the north side of the building, and several ground level windows located here, here, and here,” he paused while pointing to the map again.

“Additionally, two-man security foot patrols and what appeared to be four-person scavenger teams routinely departed and reentered through this door here at the times listed on my report.” McCarthy, concluded his brief by stating, “Lastly, Mrs. DeVod routinely jogs six laps round the target building every day, starting at 1600 hours.”

Wolf furrowed his brows and stared angerly at McCarthy to a point it made him shift his weight uncomfortably.

“Alone?” Wolf asked flatly. “Or does she go on her daily feel-good-run with security?”

“Solo, sir.” McCarthy reported.

Wolf slapped the table with both hands producing a thunderous boom. “Saddle up gentlemen, we end this nonsense today. Get me a snatch-and-grab team spun up ASAP.” He said with a triumphant grin.
 
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For a seventeen-thousand-pound armored vehicle, the Lenco BearCat had some impressive speed and maneuverability. The black tactical vehicle with F.B.I. H.R.T. painted on the side swayed left and right as the driver steered around a constant serpentine of lifeless vehicles.

“Turn south up here on 14th Street.” Wolf commanded his driver, then turned in his seat to face his tactical team in the rear of the vehicle. “Our surveillance teams are reporting our target is on the move. We will snatch her at the corner of 14th and Independence Avenue. We take her alive if possible, but deadly force is fully authorized if fired upon, do you understand?”

The men in the back of the vehicle all shook their head in the affirmative in unison. With a mix of shoulder shrugs, neck popping, extended finger flexes, weapon checks and donning of face covering balaclavas and bump helmets, the team was ready for action.

Wolf could barely contain his excitement. He couldn’t wait to end this skirmish and boast his victory in the Secretary of Education’s face. The BearCat rumbled past the overgrown National Mall park on the left and the Washington Monument on the right, with the clocktower of the U.S. Forestry Department dead ahead.

“Ten seconds out!” Wolf yelled.

The timing was perfect. DeVod had just rounded the corner as the black BearCat skidded diagonally into the intersection. They vehicle hadn’t yet come to a complete stop before heavy armor-plated doors were being swung open as the tactical team hit the ground running fanning out across the intersection. Wolf was in the center of the team making his way to the wide eyed DeVod. He glanced quickly down the vacant streets to his left and right for non-existent threats and gave a slight grin.

DeVod sprinted out of the street, onto the sidewalk and dove behind a pair of dilapidated hotdog stands with wind torn and sun faded umbrellas. In his peripheral he watched the man to his right clumsily stumble and fall, then the second man to his right went stiff legged then tipped over. To Wolf’s left, the rest of his team collapsed to the ground in a heap, bleeding profusely from bullet wounds to the head.

Being the only member of his tactical team still standing, he realized that his snatch and grab plan had suddenly turned for the worse. He cursed his intel briefing for not reporting that DeVod had snipers and determined the safety of the armored BearCat was his best option. Wolf spun around in time to see silhouetted man on top of the Holocaust Memorial Museum launch an AT-4 rocket at him. He dove towards the sidewalk, hitting his head on the curb as he felt the heat and concussion of the BearCat exploding into a fireball behind him.

His body ached. His ears were ringing. His legs felt like they were on fire. Hands were on him roughly rolling him over onto his back. Looking up through spot filled blurry vision into the face of DeVod. She stripped him of his rifle, pistol, and pyro grenades.

She forcibly sat him upright on the pavement. The concussion fogging his vision and hearing began to clear. DeVod snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention then pointed to the clock tower as a dead Secret Service agent was tossed out a window. His deceased agent fell four stories and bent in half, when it landed on the street with a thud and a crunch. DeVod cranked his helmet forcing him to look down Independence Avenue to the USDA building as another of his surveillance agents was tossed out a window, bouncing off a third story ledge and cartwheeling through the air until the body flattened on the sidewalk below.

“Well shit.” Wolf said in defeat, spitting out a mouthful of blood that dribbled down his beard. He sat hunched over on the pavement, mentally processing his massive failure and underestimation of DeVod’s strategic abilities.

“I told my staff that they were insane when they pitched this idea.” DeVod said looking down at him. “I told them that there was no way in Hell, that the Secretary of Homeland Security would fall for such obvious bait.”

DeVod laughed hysterically mocking him. “You really are gullible Wolf. Did you think I was dumb enough to attack a fortified position with only a dozen men, and then make a beeline right back here, to a school none the less?” She laughed some more. “I only wish that you would have come a little sooner. Did you have to wait for my sixth lap, now my legs are too tired to deal with you.”

She leaned over him breathing a little heavy. Wolf slid a knife from his belt and thrust it at DeVod. She elegantly dodged the attack, pulled a pistol from her back and shot Wolf in the foot.

He cursed in pain, dropped the knife in surprise and reached down to grab his wounded leg that began pooling bright red blood on the cracked asphalt pavement. DeVod kicked the knife that went skipping across the road, walked behind him, and bent down to rummage through his tactical waist belt. She stood up and then tossed Wolf his own tourniquet.

“Wrap it. Unless you prefer to bleed out, right here. You have lost a pint already, another three and you’re a goner. But I could care less either way.” DeVod said flatly. She knelt in front of him, with her pistol casually in hand, as he cursed through clenched teeth fighting to tighten the tourniquet on his wounded leg.

Members of her own team jogged up the street pulling a handcuffed Secret Service agent. She could see her own people flowing out of the surrounding buildings forming a defensive perimeter. The handcuffed agent paraded in front of her had been stripped of all his weapons and gear.

“Your life has been spared to deliver this letter to your second in command, do you understand?” She looked up at the agent while still kneeling in front of Wolf.

“Yes ma’am.” He said respectfully.

“Take this letter to him, and him only. It contains specific instructions for a truce to end this nonsense. Mr. Wolf is not eligible to be President since he never had a Secretary of Homeland Security confirmation hearing. And even if he did, he is at the bottom of the Presidential succession list.”
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She waived the agent away while staring at Wolf like a disappointed mother. “I still can’t believe that you fell for this absurd trap. What an idiot.”