THE IRON SHIELD

Chapter XXIV

XXIV

The team assembled their gear and weapons. They brought anything they might need. Allen brought an RPG-7 with him. The other Knights did not know what he would use it for. He simply believed you should be prepared for the unexpected. The others agreed. The team boarded the stealth plane and took off from the carrier and made their way to Russia to retrieve Eckhart's family.

All of the Knights armed themselves with G36C's except for Crost and Patton. Crost armed himself with an AA-12 again and Patton armed himself with an M249 SAW with a one hundred round box attached to it. Since Crost and Patton were the biggest members of the team they could arm themselves with bigger weapons not that any of the others could use what they were using. It would just be easier for the rest to use a simple assault rifle with an XM320 grenade launcher and red dot sight attached to it.

It would take as long as it took the group to get from Mount Everest to base to the prison in Russia, several hours. At the beginning of the trip the group talked, but later on they rested. Shorrock spoke first.

"So what is this Eckhart like?"

"A lot like you, the best of your group," said Grant.

"Well there must be a reason for that. Why is he the best?"

"His leadership, his skills, and his robotic arm and legs. He is basically a super soldier," said Allen.

"We gave him the nickname the Midnight Crow," said Kruger.

"Why is that?"

"He has a helmet that gives him several abilities. It's a heads up display that gives him normal, x-ray, night, and infrared vision. He can control cameras, lights, and anything really electrical within a decent radius of himself. The controlling of the lights just adds to the fear to whoever he is going after. If the lights flicker and they hear screams from a distance coming towards them then it starts to make them fearful," said Scheider.

"Several months ago we helped him create a face to pop up on the outside of the blank black helmet to add even more fear to it. The image on the helmet would sometimes flicker and would stay or go away whenever he chose it to. We chose a scarecrow face. It shows red eyes with a long stitched mouth that could be stretched open when he let out his screeching scream that sends chills down our spines as well as the guys he is going after. He can screech without the scarecrow face. It just helps with the effect. Since he usually struck at night we gave him the name: Midnight Crow," said Shark.

"Impressive. It would be interesting to see him in action."

"It is quite horrifying," said Crost.

"We've all seen what he can do and what he is capable of," Ackerman.

"He would say he does not wish to do what he does. It is what he must do. We all understand why too. We would say the same thing if we were in his shoes," said Patton.