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Episode
177
“On the road again,
“Okay.” Morgan said, sitting in the back of the black van as it
lumbered through the winding desert roads. “Let me get this straight.”
He said, looking up at Ledger and Sydney, who sat quietly in the only two
seats in the vehicle. He sat forward, leaving Vincent and Jason quietly in
the back, the two ignoring the conversation between the three friends.
“Our
part of ‘Operation Sword Hilt’, which I have to admit is kind of a
cool name, is that we’re going to drive half a mile to this fortress,”
He started. “We’re going to ditch the van and hoof it the rest of the
way.”
“Right.”
Sydney nodded, focusing on the road Ledger maneuvered like a master video
gamer.
“We’re
not to the main part I have issue with yet.” Morgan said politely,
weathering the sharp turns without notice. “So, we ditch the van, walk
half a mileish, and then we get to the clearing before the fortress.”
“Now,
rather than do this is camouflage, which would be somewhere close to being
friends with sensible, we’re going to do this dressed in black and red.
Now, black might seem like a good idea, it really might, except that black
doesn’t actually exist in nature and so it actually, amazingly enough,
stands out more than most other colors. But then of course, we’re also
going to be wearing the international symbol of ‘shoot me’ on our
chests which would be the color red.”
“Hey,
that’s your problem pale face.” Ledger said, focusing on speeding the
van on through.
“I
was getting somewhere.” Morgan continued. “So, we’re then going to
cross this long field, with no real cover, dressed in black and red, and
just kind of hope that we don’t get spotted. Is that the plan so far?”
“Pretty
close.” Sydney said, turning back to Morgan. “It’s not really, but
it could be easily mistaken for the plan.”
“Great.”
Morgan said, bumping as the van hit a deep hole.
“Sorry.”
Ledger muttered to himself, taking a stronger hold on the steering wheel.
Morgan glanced back at the other two knights, but they barely seemed to
even notice the bump. They just went on muttering, ignoring the
conversation going on at the front of the van.
“So,
anyway.” Morgan went on, stepping up to come in right between the
van’s seats. “We’re then going to try and break into this
fortress’ . . . parking deck?”
“That’s
right.” Sydney said. “You’re doing fine so far.”
“We
sneak in,” Morgan repeated. “Then we make our way, using some pretty
sketchily drawn directions,” Morgan went on, holding up three pieces of
paper, considering the quality of their directions. “To several key
locations where we can disable the Hand’s security systems, then we just
kind of wait for the other knights?” He looked at Ledger and Sydney.
“Have I got?”
“You’ve
got it.” Sydney smiled.
“Well
that’s crazy!” He yelled. “Do you know understand that we are about
to die?”
“If
the cause be just,” Sydney half-quoted.
“Oh,
don’t give me that stoic, knightly crap.” Morgan nearly yelled. “I
mean for real. We’re going to get shot in the head or something, by a
bunch of guys who, frankly, probably have military training, most likely
have better equipment than us, and, I assure you, know we’re coming.”
The
van skidded to a halt.
Ledger
turned around very slowly. He looked right at Morgan, staring into the
knight’s eyes. “Talk.” He said clearly.
“Talk
what?” Morgan asked.
“What
do you mean, they know we’re coming?” The black knight asked.
“Ledger,
come on.” Morgan exclaimed with an appalled stare. “You know what
Everett said. He said he fought Jericho. The same Jericho that you and I
knew.” He said, looking at Sydney. He looked between both of them now.
“Do you guys honestly think that the perfect knight doesn’t know that
we’re coming?”
“He’s
not the perfect knight, Morgan.” Sydney said, turning away.
“No?”
He asked in retort. “Trust me, guys. I know Jericho. And I can assure
you, he knows we’re coming.”
“So we’re sending the infiltration team ahead, in the van,”
Lilah said, as she walked along with Roland and Everett. “We walk the
whole way towards the fortress and, by the time we get there, they should
have taken care of everything.”
“That’s
the plan.” Everett nodded. “It’s only about two miles to where the
fortress is supposed to be, so we allotted more time to get there, but
still, I think this should all be over before sunrise.”
“Good,
cause Edgar and me are gonna go drinking after this is all over.”
“You
guys technically already went drinking before this all started.” Everett
pointed out.
“And
that’s the beauty of our plan.” Roland said, trudging through the
thick, spiny underbrush and sandy surface of the desert park. “We’re
going to go drink, eat a little, drink some more, eat some more, drink
some more, then probably pass out, sleep some, drink a bit, eat some more,
throw up at least once each, then go back to drinking.”
“You
guys are crazy.” Everett said, shaking his head.
“Can
I come?” Lilah asked, laughing at Roland.
“Only
if you do bring your own bottle and don’t bring your own shirt.” He
said.
“Deal.”
The girl said, laughing. “Maybe. We’ll have to see where you go to
drink.”
“If
we, and be we, I mean me, can talk you out of your shirt, then we’ll
drink wherever you want.” Roland offered with a grin.
“I
hate both of you.” Everett grumbled to himself.
“So this invasion force is on the way?” Jericho asked, as he
led the way with Eli and Mint coming up behind him. “Aaron essentially
invited them. Does Ken know about them?”
“I
don’t know why he would.” Mint explained. “Aaron’s the only one
who’s had any contact with them. And all he knows is that they’ll be
here in three days.”
Jericho
glanced back at Eli, then to Mint. “Three days, huh? Fair enough.” The
knight said, speeding up his walk.
The back of the van popped open as Jason and Vincent jumped out of
the back. Morgan joined them on the ground, his sword already in place,
just like their katanas. The three turned as Sydney and Ledger came around
the opposite sides of the van. The five knights looked at each other,
solemn eyes saying everything.
“Okay.”
Morgan sighed after a reserved moment. “Here’s the plan. I will take
point.”
“Are
you saying you’re not good enough to shoot around four people in front
of you?” Morgan asked. Ledger bit his tongue. “Ledger, you take flank,
with Sydney.”
“Now
wait a damn minute.” She yelled.
“Sydney,
don’t argue with me right now.” Morgan said, holding up his hand to
calm her down. “Someone’s got to walk Ledger through this.” He
turned to Vincent and Jason. “You two are going to bring up the middle.
Now, we’re going to cut around the side of the field in front of the
forest.”
“Fortress.”
Jason corrected.
“Shut
up.” Morgan bit. “It’s past my bed time and I’m cranky. Two
excellent reasons why you should leave me alone.”
“Sorry.”
Jason said, holding up his hands.
“We
cut around the east side of this field, cut in along the side of the
mountain and come up from the side of the parking deck.”
“Has
anyone figured out yet how we’re going to get inside?” Vincent asked.
“While
that’s not going to be a trivial problem,” Morgan started.
“We’ve
got this handled.” Jason said. The other four knights looked at him.
“What?”
Ledger asked rhetorically. “You brought a crow bar or something? Cause I
don’t think it’s gonna be that easy.”
“No.”
Jason said. “It’s just, we’ve already made arrangements for this
problem.”
“Huh?”
Vincent said, looking at Jason. “What arrangements? And who’s we?”
“We.”
Jason said. “Some of the knights.”
“Which
knights?” Sydney asked. “Who are you talking about?”
“Guys,
this can’t be that big of a surprise to you.” Jason exclaimed. “This
fortress has like three thousand people in it.” He said, gesturing
towards it. “Did you really think that so many underground military
types could get together without us knowing? And even more importantly,
without us having an insider?” |