Ch 21 - Schemes

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Jessica turned around just in time to see her attempted attacker’s head disintegrate courtesy of the high caliber sniper round fired by Allison. As blood splattered across her face and the enemy fell to the ground, she fell to her knees as the remaining five members of the team reached her. Michelle glanced down the street, giving a moment’s thought to the fate of the assailant, then turned and gave orders. “Aaron, Mark, and Emi, search and rescue with Jessica. Javon, we’ll help get the bystanders out of here for now”.

They split up, keeping an eye out for any more attackers, all the while clearing debris and looking for David. It didn’t take them long to find him, fortunately in one piece. Michelle radioed to the team to help dig him out of a pile of bricks. It seemed the blast took out a wall and sent him flying into another already damaged wall. The unconscious David was carefully pulled from the rubble, fortunately only suffering minor injuries. He was sent back to base via helicopter, under the watchful gazes of Jessica and Javon.

Michelle, Emilia, Mark, and Aaron quickly took to the shadows, preparing to discuss their next moves. Michelle spoke first. “Well, I can’t say this wasn’t expected, but the targets aren’t who I figured. Guess we got a bit negligent”.

Mark followed “Keeping tabs on our location probably wasn’t the best idea. I checked the systems on the way here. Looks like there were two other parties checking the GPS data aside from ourselves. I can fancy a guess as to one of the parties, but not the other”.

“Yeah, I’m gonna guess Jesse knows what’s going on. Hopefully he and Allison are safe. Oh… gimme a sec”. Emilia paused and reached into her pocket, pulling out her cell phone. “It’s Jesse, I’m gonna take this. ‘I hope you have good news, or at least the ‘you aren’t hurt’ type of news’”.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Allison too. Anyways, we saw what happened with the second explosion and attack. We got a lot of it through the lens camera of the sniper rifle. We figured it’d be best to maintain radio silence, which is why you guys can’t see us. Also, go ahead and tell Mark we looked into the GPS network. Looks like there was another party there. He’ll know what to do with that information”.

“He went back to the car a few minutes ago. I guess he’s already looking into it. Looks like Aaron went with him, so we should have some answers soon enough”.

“Good. We’ll meet up at the intersection two blocks south of where we all split up this afternoon, over and out”.

“That bastard didn’t leave any room for me to say bye” Emilia pouted.

“You know the situation. Couldn’t be helped. Let’s meet up with Mark and Aaron. We’ll discuss other stuff once we meet up with everyone else”. Michelle gave her orders and made her way to their car, followed by Emilia.

~~~
[Back at base: Michelle’s room]

Javon returned from the infirmary a short while after everyone else. Jessica stayed at David’s bedside. She would move at nothing less than gunpoint, and even then she wouldn’t let her gaze fall away from David.

Michelle glanced around the room at the other six members of the team. “Well fuckers, I’m pretty sure we all get the gist of what happened, so I’ll keep this short. Emilia, you know what to do”. Michelle paused, allowing Emilia the time to activate the audio interceptor. Emilia nodded and Michelle continued.

“So, the squad game finals was tomorrow. It is being postponed for 2 days, pending the investigation of the attack, but either way, there’s no way David will get medical clearance to compete even if he woke up right now. I wouldn’t let him either way. Also, as long as he is unconscious, Jessica will not leave his side, so for all intents and purposes, we’ll be down two people. What’s worse is that they are our close range combat and infiltrations specialists. It’ll make things much more difficult, but we’ll have to manage”.

“So, what’s the plan”? Aaron said with a groan.

“Fuck if I know. I’ll have something in a day or so. Until then, make sure you don’t die. You already know the general plan since we had that discussion. I know we don’t all like each other, but at least for now, we’re all buddies, got it”?

Michelle was met with nods from around the room. The men got up and left. Emilia and Allison got up to leave as well, but they were each grabbed by a small hand. They turned around in unison to see Michelle holding on to the tails of their shirts. She stared up at them “since we have an odd number of people in the team, there has to be a team of three, right”?

The pair of girls looked down at Michelle, who was speaking with authority, yet had the expression of a pleading puppy. Completely helpless against Michelle’s expression, the pair agreed to keep Michelle company. Michelle even requested another bed for the two, thought only Emilia slept in it. Michelle clung to Allison as if she were a giant teddy bear.

The following morning, Michelle awoke with a shout. “I got it”!

Emilia and Allison each sat up sleepily, half out of fright and half out of concern. “Huh? Who got what”? Emilia glanced around in confusion, finally gaining her senses. “What’s up Michelle”?

“Simple, Emilia, start it up…”

Emilia started the interceptor and Michelle started talking. “OK, so for the squad games… all we need to do is…”

~~~

[Two days later: Training ground 4 entrance – 2nd entryway]

Team Lambda, minus Jessica and David, stood at an entrance of the training ground which was modified for the event.

“So, everyone is clear on the plan”? Michelle questioned.

“It’s a stupid ass plan” Javon complained.

“Well, I don’t think its so difficult…” Mark muttered.

“Not at all. It’s probably the easiest thing ever, the hard part is not…” Jesse muttered.

“So, we basically have to try not to kill each other, how is that different?”? Emilia questioned.

“It isn’t…” Michelle replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“Seriously, what the hell kinda plan is this”!? Allison whined.

“I thought you’d have learned by now…” Jesse grinned.

“Yeah yeah, the Team Lambda kind…” Allison muttered as the entry gate opened for the squad game finals.

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