Lobo Malo

Chapter 18 - Cleansing The Temple

West Potomac Park Sector
0935 EST

Gregory looked over the radio equipment as the civilian militia team patrolled the perimeter. "This is sloppy. I mean, it works, but it's just so slap dash."

"Can it be cleaned up, made to work for us?" asked Ryckmen.

"Could, but there's not much point to it." Gregory sighed as he turned to the team. "Don't get me wrong, taking this site away from the Outcasts was definitely worthwhile. But there's literally nothing here which we don't already have better equipment in place for. If we had somebody down around the Pentagon or Dulles International, I suppose it would be a useful secondary repeater, but ViewPoint's already giving us plenty of local communications coverage. Even out that far."

Ryckmen shrugged. "Like you say, getting it out of Outcast hands is a win, and not merely a symbolic one."

"True enough," said Tarvey as he looked around. "And not to be too bloodthirsty, but there's enough in the way of structures here to make a decent little outpost for the Campus. Could serve as a forward base for this part of town, give us a place to rest and rearm if the Outcasts decide to get frisky."

"Frisky how, Ricky?" Bundmeister asked.

"Since we've pretty much ruined the Events Center as a beach head, and since we captured Lloyd, we don't know what they might be thinking as far as their next strategic move. But if I were suddenly promoted to planning strategy for the Outcasts, I'd want to make sure I had at least one other avenue to get into the city besides the Roosevelt Bridge. If they still have small craft available to them, Tidal Basin would be a good landing point to insert strike teams." Tarvey shrugged and smiled. "It's where I'd go if I wanted to hit the city from the river."

"Peacemaker, this is Casablanca, come back."

Ryckmen tapped his watch. "Casablanca, this is Peacemaker. Lobo here. What's going on, Manny?"

"We've been picking up some True Sons chatter. Apparently, we didn't move on Jefferson Plaza quite as fast as we thought." The team looked at each other, expressions hardening. "True Sons seem to have built a stockpile underneath the Lincoln Memorial, and the chatter is indicating they may be preparing to relocate some of those shells back to the Capitol."

"Which means they have more 120mm mortars, and they're likely emplaced at the Capitol," growled Ryckmen. "I suppose it was a pipe dream to think we'd gotten them all."

"Easy, Lobo," said Gregory. "Yeah, they have a stockpile, but that's all the shells they have. We take out the stockpile, we keep them from ever using those things."

Nodding, Ryckmen took a deep breath. "We're not too far from the Memorial right now. Do you have any indication of how far along they are?"

"Preparatory orders from Ridgeway, so probably not very far at all. They've got a Major Ashford there to supervise transportation. He's one of Ridgeway's inner circle, so a worthwhile target just on his own. There's another major there, guy named Keates, he's responsible for holding the Memorial itself. Also a worthwhile target."

"How worthwhile are we talking, Manny?" asked Bundmeister.

"Both of them were directly involved in busting Ridgeway out after his arrest. Keates got a promotion out of it. But I don't think Ridgeway cares for him as much as he does Ashford. It's Ashford who got the job of moving the shells. That tells me Ridgeway trusts him to use his head for something other than a helmet rack."

"While Keates gets a job commensurate with his talents without realizing Ridgeway doesn't trust him that far," concluded Ryckmen. "If we had more time, I'd try to play the two off each other. But we can't afford to screw around. Particularly if the idiot major has more immediate access to the shells. We're rolling in ten, Manny. Peacemaker, out."