Mason dryly chuckled, “Army of one—funny.”
Raina wasn’t laughing however, as she complained, “Why are you going out by yourself? Didn’t you learn your lesson last time?”
Mason pointed to the comm link, “Raina please, I’ll be in constant communication the whole time. And besides we’re still in the same building. I won’t be far. If I have any trouble, I’ll let you know. I promise.”
Mason then looked at Benton and added, “And if you don’t hear from me again—make sure you burn this place to the ground!”
‘Okay—real comforting Mason. Just what I wanted to hear.’’ Raina thought to herself, as she watched Mason spring across the warehouse. He knew that Raina didn’t like him taking any solo missions anymore, but he just couldn’t help himself. It was in his blood.
These adrenaline-charged moments took him right back to his days in the SEALS when he would singlehandedly infiltrate compounds, free hostages, and kick the asses of several combatants all at the same time. This is what he lived for.
Mason was careful not be seen, but as he delved deeper into the warehouse, he realized that it would be just a matter of time before his cover was blown. This was a bigger operation than any of them had realized. The two men they saw earlier had now multiplied to about 20 as Mason saw guys in coveralls running back and forth bringing in different packages, parts, and components.
What were they doing? What was it all for? Mason somehow knew that these weren’t shipments from UPS—something really nefarious was going on. These guys were all true-blue terrorists. Mason continued to watch and listen. He then witnessed the man they had seen earlier—the guy dressed in the expensive suit—walk up to a couple of guys hauling some crates and shout at them, “Is it ready yet gambinos?”
‘Gambinos? That’s Italian slang.’ Mason thought to himself. He couldn’t quite hear what the other men were saying, their voices were muffled. But the man who appeared to be directing them was loud and clear as his voice boomed, “I don’t care what kind of excuses you may have—we have to get it ready for the Little Italy Festival on the 19th! So, get your sorry asses moving!”
‘Little Italy Festival?’ Mason thought to himself.
That’s a big shindig in Brooklyn every year on May 19th! Just a few days from now! Mason then realized that this must be the date of the planned attack as well. Figuring that he had enough intel, he waited for the group to disperse before darting like a cat between boxes and back to the rest of the group.
Before even reaching their position, Mason hissed into his comm link, “Got what I need. Let’s roll.”
The phrase, “Let’s roll” brought back instant memories for Benton, who had heard the two words several times before on countless other missions in the past. From Kosovo to Mogadishu, Benton knew that when Mason said “Let’s roll” he meant it, and it was time to evacuate.
Benton led Raina to the door, and out into the alley, keeping a lookout lest anyone followed them, as Mason barreled through shortly thereafter. Benton spoke into his phone to summon his car, “Come pick us up.”
After doing so, the hummer dutifully arrived on the scene, parking right outside the alley waiting for them. After letting Raina into the car, Mason hopped into the passenger seat next to Benton.
Wasting no time, he got on the comm link with Kyle and instructed him, “Hey Kyle get a hold of Luke Simon for me, I’ve got some intel I’m sure he would be interested in hearing—we’ve just uncovered a plot to attack NYC.
ABOUT 30 MINUTES LATER AT OYNX’s NYC COMMAND CENTER. Luke Simon’s face was ashen. Mason had rarely seen Luke so shaken, but this one was bothering him. As Luke made clear when he moaned, “Unbelievable—thousands of people attend that festival every single year.”
He then added, “I have relatives that go to it. The annual Little Italy Festival is how they kick off the start of summer. And these terrorists want to unleash hell on Earth in the middle of this happiness?”
It was General Thomson, in for a surprise visit that answered for him, “I don’t know why you would be surprised Luke; we’ve dealt with this type of humanity before.”
Raina asked, “Type of humanity?”
Thomson nodded, “Yes, the type that has no conscious whatsoever—these are cold blooded killers. All they are worried about is whatever kind of twisted agenda they are promoting. Anything else for them is just collateral damage”
Thomson paused before adding, “If even that…”
Mason agreed, “These guys could care less how many people they kill—their motto is ‘by blood we cleanse’.”
Mason gave it some thought, “You know most terrorists decide to kill a certain number of people in order to terrorize their targets—that’s the whole point. But these guys are different. They seem that they not only want to terrorize but they want to literally kill as many as possible in order to ‘cleanse the Earth’—or whatever the hell else twisted dogma they believe.”
Luke then cut in, “At any rate, we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Marshal Oliver who had been quietly sitting in the corner remarked, “You got that right.”
It was then Kyle’s turn to awkwardly ask, “Are you sure of the date and time Mason?”
Mason replied, “Sure of it, I heard it with my own ears—they said May 19th.”
Kyle puffed up his chest and in an awkward attempt to be ‘one of the boys’, declared, “Then we’ve got to—I guess—we’ve got to stop them!”
Mason couldn’t help but mock Kyle’s indecisive choice of words as he shot back with a smirk, “Right Kyle… I guess so.”
Benton then asked more seriously, “Okay so what’s the game plan. What is the easiest way to stop these clowns and prevent this attack from happening? They said the 19th? That’s tomorrow, so what can we do today to stop them?”
Mason declared, “I don’t know about today, but I know
