Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 10: Perilous Games

As I press the brake, jolting the car to a stop, I feel strangely like a character in a heist movie. We're stashing the car in an alley a few blocks from our target; not too far as to make our maneuvering harder, but not too close as to add risk. It's a little scary how good we are at this, we'd make great criminals if we weren't on the site of freedom and justice.

"How's security look Justin?" I ask quietly as the car shuts off. We're in the middle of a very populated, downtown area. Which is typical for the area around a county courthouse.

Originally, we were going to target several important and high traffic buildings around the Colorado Springs area. But given that we might have a couple Shulkerbahns on our tail any minute, we're only going to get a chance to make one statement. Let's hope it's enough.

"It's mostly regulated to inside. As long as we aren't seen and no one raises an alarm, we should be all right." Justin replies, dimming his eye-piece monitor all the way down. I nod to Katrina through the rearview mirror, and hear the rustle of her opening her bag. Silently, she hands me a bundle of cloth and Megan a spray can, keeping an identical can for herself.

Equally as silently, we all climb out of the car, leaving Justin behind. It made the most sense for him to stay, he can watch the cameras and guards from his monitor and get the car ready if we need to make a swift exit. X and Felma are our secondary lookouts, plus the majority of our immediate fire-power. I get the honor of taking down and replacing the U.N.A flag, while Megan and Kat create a little surprise on the front-facing wall. The key here is speed.

"We've got CCTV at the corner on your left." Justin warns over the radio system. "Stay right, then cross back over the street.

Carefully, he guides us the few tense blocks to the front of the courthouse. I start to peek around the blank wall at the entrance, when Justin snaps a warning.

"Cameras! Hold on Warren!"

"That's one heck of a light, it comes all the way out here to the flag poles." I retort, more to the rest of my team than Justin. "No way I'm getting that flag down without being seen."

"I'm working on it, but since the guard's right there, he'll notice if something goes amiss."

"We're too exposed here." Megan adds, gesturing at the open road in front of us. "We need to work fast."

"Wait..." Justin says. Suddenly the light goes out, flooding the space with darkness. "Ok go! It's on a timer, it'll come back on in a couple minutes."

"You heard him, get to work everyone." I whisper, crouching down and ducking out past the wall. Slowly, I make my way across the open area to the flagpole. Behind me I hear a scrape and clank as X hooks something up that helps Megan climb the wall. Followed by the sharp hiss of spray-paint.

Fingers flying, I unwind the rope from its holder, releasing it so that the flag can be lowered. As I start to pull it downward, I wince at the clank of metal against metal. Hopefully, that sounds a lot louder to my ears than the guard's. Once the flag is in my hands, I toss it to the ground and stuff most of it under my boot. The bold red and pale blue design would be more easily spotted in the dark than my military green uniform. And, of course, it feels great to crush the symbol of tyranny under my feet.

Now, I grab the green and red bundle out from under my arm and work on getting it secured to the rope. After I'm satisfied it's on tight, I grab the other side of the rope and pull, one hand over the other, again and again until the name R.I.O.T is high in the air. With a smile, I salute the flag, giving it the reverence I can just barely remember people giving the American flag. I'm sure there are people somewhere who feel patriotism for the U.N.A, but I just don't think it could ever be the same.