Lobo Malo

Chapter 20 - Puff

The White House
1539 EST

Team Peacemaker stood in the operations center, watching the live take from a reconnaissance drone as it flew over Roosevelt Island. Endurance had been improved at least somewhat since the start of summer, but they still lacked the ability for long term station keeping. Even so, what they had was a vast improvement.

"Least we're not going in blind," Bundmeister remarked as she watched the video feed.

"Which doesn't make me feel a whole lot better," snorted Ryckmen. "Forget who it was that said horror was the uncertainty of how awful something could be while terror was knowing exactly how awful it can be. But I'm feeling a little terrified right at the moment."

The drone passed over a clearing, a large number of Outcasts gathered around a crude St. Andrew's cross. Chained to the cross, a civilian screamed silently as one of the Outcasts dropped a jerry can a short distance away, then lit a road flare and tossed it on a trail of diesel oil leading to a pile of wood and tires underneath the cross. The drone's camera recorded the murder unflinchingly, and Team Peacemaker would not look away.

* * *

Roosevelt Island
2032 EST

Descending the broken chunk of highway into the disrupted bank of the Potomac, Team Peacemaker moved carefully in the growing gloom, letting the toes of their boots slowly drag through the ankle high water to find any bits of debris. Gregory looked up at the mangled overpass above their heads. "How'd they bring this thing down?"

"Thermite, from what I understand," Tarvey replied quietly. "And they weren't subtle about it. They apparently bound some prisoners against the beams to help tamp down the reaction. Thermite's cheap, really, once you get right down to it. Rust and granulated aluminum with a magnesium trigger. Only hard part I can think of would be how they ground up the aluminum.

"I'm sure they figured out something, Ricky," murmured Ryckmen, bringing up the rear. "Desperate people can do all sorts of incredible and horrific things once their backs are to the wall."

The team crossed over to the beach, seeing an airplane wing perched on the tops of several trees, a couple of piles of rubble built up underneath it to give some stability. "Coming up on the back door, Lobo," Tarvey subvocalized. Despite being the entrance point for the team and the Outcasts, the powered gate was actually the rear entrance to the CERA quarantine camp. "Peace, walkway on the left side."

"Got it, Ricky."

Carefully slipping into position, Team Peacemaker waited, letting Ryckmen survey the scene. "I think we've got a sniper up on a scaffold near the gate," he subvocalized, a faint hesitation coming across. "Guy's carrying a compound bow. I'm not even kidding."

"Well, that's new and oddly confusing," murmured Bundmeister.

"No, it does make sense, sort of," Ryckmen corrected. "Mind you, for distance work, I'd probably go with a recurve or even an English longbow. The question is the quality of the archer."

"Why would you screw around with a bow, Lobo?"

"Because, Bunny, for all the power behind a good marksman rifle, it's still pretty loud even suppressed. But a bow, you'd have to be right on top of the archer to hear anything if they've got a silencer on the string. Get your specs on, guys. Ricky, roll the pod."

The team put on their AR shooting glasses, then Ricky tossed the sensor pod. Instantly, targets were lit up in the glasses. Ryckmen took a bead on the archer. "Start the music," he murmured as he squeezed the trigger gently. The trigger broke over just as the archer turned, sending the bullet through the Outcast's lungs, hydrostatic shock causing the heart to stop as the aorta was perforated. By then, the dying gurgles of the archer were lost in a cacophony of gunfire as the Outcasts came under attack. Gregory kept the Outcasts from trying the walkway across the shallow pool with judicious bursts from his M249. Tarvey put a round from his M1A through an Outcast's suicide vest, killing four others in close proximity. With no other enemies detected, the team moved forward, collecting the pod, and moved deeper into the island.