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“Mark, Sarah; how’s it looking out there?”
“Nothing out to the side, mom; I think they pulled back. It looked like they were running out toward the front.”
“Back’s still quiet,” called Sarah.
“Good.” Dianne nodded firmly. “Now we make our message loud and clear. Jason, can you see where they are on the cameras?”
“There’s a decent-sized group near the road. They’re about to be passing right by another cluster of traps.”
“Good. Trigger it when they’re right next to them. I want as many dead or maimed as possible.” In the other room, Mark looked down at his radio with wide eyes. Hearing his mother talking about killing and injuring people wasn’t something he was used to, and hearing it described in such coarse, matter-of-fact terms was yet another reminder of how much the world had changed.
Several seconds of silence followed Dianne’s command, and she stood still next to the door with her ear pressed up against the wood with her eyes closed, waiting for the sound of more staccato explosions. In the basement, Jason watched the tablet closely, sweat beading down his forehead, onto his face and down his neck despite the cold temperature. Though the images from the outside cameras weren’t the best quality, he knew from Dianne’s detailed descriptions where the traps were, and he could see the vague movements of the men who were moving down the driveway, helping their injured comrades as they tried to maneuver around the nail boards.
The explosions and screams came quickly and with no warning. Dianne jumped at the sound, startled despite expecting it, and pressed her ear harder against the door. Though she couldn’t see anything and could only hear vague outlines of what was being said, the counterattack had been an unparalleled success based on what she could make out. Near-simultaneous calls from Tina upstairs and Jason watching the monitor in the basement confirmed her assumption.
“They’re running wild, Dianne!”
“Yes they are!” Tina pumped her fist in excitement. “You got at least three more with the traps!”
Dianne closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping with relief and exhaustion. “Does anyone see any sign of them anymore? Mark? Sarah?”
“Nothing here, mom. Everything looks quiet in the woods and side yard.”
“Nothing here either, Dianne. They never went out back, at least as far as I could see.”
“Good. I want everyone to stay where you are and keep an eye out. It’ll be dawn in a few hours and we can head out then to take stock of the damage to the house and to their numbers.” Dianne took a deep breath. She was fighting against sleep deprivation and the quickly-depleting adrenaline in her system and wanted nothing more than to lie down on the floor and close her eyes. There was still much to be done, though, and she suspected that in spite of the losses suffered by the gang, they wouldn’t give up quite so easily.
Chapter 10
Washington, D.C.
Half an hour later, after moving outside and standing near the car in the middle of the compound, the group of seven were talking like they were old friends. The two Spetsnaz officers gravitated toward Rick, eagerly absorbing details from him about how Damocles had progressed in the United States while providing similar information on its progression in Russia. Jane stood near Rick, Ostap and Carl, watching them talk while Dr. Evans found himself pummeled with questions from Oles and Jacob. The two technicians acted as though they had just met their childhood hero and Dr. Evans wondered if the pair might not end up wetting themselves out of excitement.
“So you all are looking to just… shut this thing down?” Jane directed her inquiry at Ostap during a lull in the conversation between him, Jacob and Rick.
“Indeed,” he replied, nodding at her. “We and so many others have suffered greatly from this, as has your country. I will admit that we all thought this to be somewhat of a suicide mission, but providence has decided to smile upon us.”
“Rick? Jane?” Dr. Evans and the two technicians strode up to the others. “We need to work with them. They’ve already checked the northern-most site and it didn’t have any signs of the servers we’d need to access. With four more people we can scour the last two sites and find the location quite easily.”
“We should start by checking this site out, right?” Jane asked.
“Absolutely,” Oles replied, “the buildings here are intact and it won’t take long to break through whatever physical security has been erected, if this is actually the location. Did you all have a plan for how to access the servers with this lack of power?”
“What was your plan?” Jane replied before Rick or Dr. Evans could jump in.
Oles craned his arm to tap the top of his backpack. “Solar-powered forensic machines. Hardened against EMPs and completely devoid of integrated networking. The only way they can communicate with the outside world is if we explicitly make a physical connection.”
Dr. Evans nodded in surprise and approval. “Excellent! Our vehicle’s outfitted with an inverter that’ll give enough juice to power a server or three. It sounds like, together, we’ll be able to access whatever systems we encounter!” The smile rapidly vanished from his face and he sighed. “Assuming that there’s a way to bypass the local encryption that’s no doubt been applied to the systems.”
Rick patted Dr. Evans’ back and smiled at him. “Cheer up; where there’s a will, there’s a way. Besides, if three Americans and four Russians can’t beat this, who can?”
Dr. Evans nodded and Rick turned to Ostap. “So, with this being one of the locations, we should check it out. Do you have any equipment you need to gather before we take off?”
“No. Everything we have, we carry on our backs.”
“Well,” Rick chuckled, “what are we waiting for? We’ll grab our gear from upstairs and then we can get started searching this compound. Hopefully it’s here, but if not, we’ll just head to the last location.”
“Excellent.” Ostap nodded, then looked at Carl and the two technicians. “Carl and I will secure the gate and perform a perimeter sweep. Oles and Jacob, you two stay here.”
