Elise pulled in the gate to the office area of the Fairchild Group docks. The guard looked up from watching his TV program and looked at them suspiciously, El Zin not fitting the typical kind of vehicle entering here. Pauline pulled a Fairchild Group identification badge from her purse. “We have business here tonight.”
The guard paused for a moment until DeMario leaned forward and gave him the evil eye. The guard then just pushed a button to raise the arm of the gate and waved them through.
Joe was still sweating profusely making his shirt stick to his body. He was now looking at the threads of events forwards and backwards and suddenly discovered something astounding. The past strings, ropes, and cords of events had changed colors. The one leading to the here and now of his current reality was yellow in color. He could backtrack some and peer at past events. He suddenly jolted himself; there would be more time for exploration of this ability later. Joe again focused on the nearby strings. “Over there, in the yellow building. See that glass door? That is where the Japanese guy took Ed.”
Elise, hit the gas again and drove El Zin over to the door. DeMario moved to the door of El Zin. “Stay put for a moment, let me check this out.” Next, he keyed his radio mike. “Pete where are you? I am at the Fairchild Group Dock Office area. I think I need your help.”
DeMario heard Pete’s voice in his earpiece. “Sorry DM, I am on the north side of the docks with the only FBI sniper team that we got before they pulled the plug. Suddenly everyone seems to be on the move. You had better get out of there now. Charlie contacted me a few minutes ago. I told him to get his Coast Guard Teams in here ASAP! I think there will be a firefight starting up any minute now.”
DeMario answered, “No can do right now, I think I might be in a hostage rescue situation.”
“DM, no!” You will get yourself killed trying that without any help. Don’t be a hero!”
DeMario ignored Pete and approached the doorway from the side, his semiautomatic pistol out and ready in one hand, and a fighting knife in the other. He knocked on the door and then quickly retreated into the shadow of a concrete support pillar. A heavily tattooed man stepped up to the door, opened it, and stepped outside. DeMario could see that he was carrying an AK47. About that moment, a helicopter flew by very low and fast, causing the tattooed man to look up. Recognizing the tattooed man as being one of Shindo’s men, DeMario stepped out and called out, “Good evening, I am looking for Shindo.”
The guy dropped the barrel of the AK47 towards DeMario and fired a single burst, widely missing him. DeMario answered with a single shot to the adams apple of the man, who died before he hit the ground. DeMario then noticed a face looking out the glass door, and then saw the face quickly disappear.
DeMario reached down and grabbed the AK47 and then with the other hand pulled the door open. All of a sudden, the sounds of gunfire erupted all around the dock area. Then he heard another unmistakable sound; that of mortar rounds being fired with the accompanying explosions of mortars detonating. DeMario looked back at El Zin and yelled. “Come on, we have to take cover!”
DeMario swung the door open, poked the AK in, and let off a couple of random shots, looking only to make sure that he was not shooting in at his friend Ed. The others followed behind him, Joe stumbling quite a bit. Joe looked hard at DeMario. “Ed was in here. There were two guards. You just killed one of them. The other one and Ed went down that hall.” Joe pointed down a hallway visible just past a reception desk. DeMario threw caution to the wind and started walking sideways down one side of the hallway, the barrel of the AK guiding the way. The others just followed several feet behind DeMario, the sounds of gunfire and explosions reaching inside the building
Shindo’s boat passed into the port area just about the time that everything cut loose at the dock. Glancing out into the darkening twilight, he could make out the shape of a container ship heading into port. On the south side of the ship he could see a burning oil slick slowly spreading out on the water. The light from the burning fuel slick illuminated a boat on one side of the ship. As he watched, he saw the unmistakable flames from an RPG leave the boat and hit the water to the side of the ship, the explosion spraying a plume of water into the air.
He suddenly heard the sound of a helicopter flying low and fast. Looking up he saw the Bell 430 carrying Jorge.
Sandra and Derek watched the monitors with amazement. Derek asked Sandra, “Is this getting
patched through to Washington?”
Sandra answered, “As we watch. The Director can see what our situation is. I think they
are patching this through to other departments as well.”
Agent Young also watched the monitors. “I guess this means that we’re not going to Las
Vegas anytime soon. I imagine that all of the Oakland Swat Teams are moving in.”
Sandra added, “And some additional teams from all over the Bay Area. According to O’Malley,
these other teams will take some time to get to the dock area.” Then Sandra remembered something.
“Get a team ready to support Alex.” She picked up the phone, dialed a number. She was troubled when
the phone just rang and rang, eventually going to voice mail. After the voice mail beep, she said a
single word, “Einstein”. Sandra was concerned. Why hadn’t Alex answered his phone?
Continued..