{"id":5178,"date":"2019-02-21T15:43:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T15:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benjamincheah.com\/?p=5178"},"modified":"2019-02-21T15:43:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T15:43:03","slug":"red-river-part-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/?p=5178","title":{"rendered":"Red River Part 9"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SafeKeep<\/h1>\n

The House of Shadows looked nothing like a church. It was a simple brick building, five stories tall, painted in cheerful blues and reds. The signboard said \u2018SAFEKEEP SELF-STORAGE SOLUTIONS\u2019. There were no altars to the Lord and Lady of Shadows in a three-block radius. No iconography, no goons hanging around. A perfectly innocent business.<\/p>\n

And yet\u2026<\/p>\n

A wall surrounded the building, concrete to waist height, steel bars to eye level. Security cameras watched the entrances and exits. A guardhouse controlled vehicular access, and the guard on duty wore a pistol on his hips.<\/p>\n

And one more thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place is warded,\u201d Mustafa reported. \u201cBut it\u2019s\u2026 odd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow so?\u201d Yamamoto asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe office on the first floor, and the storage areas on the upper floor, are transparent. I can pass in and out through them. But the floor of the office is warded. I think there\u2019s a hidden basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of ward is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA complex one. It keeps out intruders on the Aether. If I touch it, I\u2019ll bounce off. In meatspace, if someone enters the warded space, it\u2019ll set off an alarm. And, I think, if the ward goes down, it\u2019ll trigger an alarm too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you penetrate the ward?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could try, but it might set off an alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you do, search for a way to physically access the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six operators of the Black Watch had surrounded the building. Fox and Tan had taken positions in an apartment block opposite SafeKeep. Wood and Mustafa were in an unmarked car in a nearby parking garage. Yamamoto and Connor, ensconced in a black van with tinted windows, were parked three blocks down the road.<\/p>\n

During the conversation, Connor was busying studying the target. Seated in the back, he trained a pair of binoculars out the window, staring at the entrance, noting all traffic. Next to him, a suite of phone interceptors and trackers waited for someone to call SafeKeep.<\/p>\n

Stakeouts were boring. But Connor understood why he needed to do this, and what he needed to do. His nerves wanted to be in motion, but that would defeat the mission, so he willed himself to remain still. As Yamamoto would say, it was merely the chattering of the monkey mind, and the mind could be mastered. Sometimes, what Yamamoto said was too esoteric for Connor. But he grasped the concept of discipline and self-mastery immediately.<\/p>\n

When this was all over, he really should ask Yamamoto the title of the book he recommended.<\/p>\n

With that note filed away, Connor resumed his task. He dutifully logged every vehicle coming and going from the facility, confirming details with Tan and Fox. When someone called the office, Yamamoto slipped on his headphones, listened intently and took notes. There had been three phone calls so far, all of which were routine enquiries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamurai, Lycan,\u201d Mustafa radioed. \u201cI\u00a0think<\/em>\u00a0I\u2019ve found an access point to the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTell us more,\u201d Yamamoto replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elevator shaft. The control panel shows buttons for floors one to five, but the shaft itself runs deep underground. I followed the shaft down, and I found a hidden door. A\u00a0warded<\/em>\u00a0door, at that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elevator control panel uses a thumbprint identification system. My guess is that if an Elect presses his thumb against the reader, the lift will automatically descend to the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds plausible,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cBut look around for hidden stairs. I want to see if there\u2019s another access point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time crawled past. Connor swapped out with Yamamoto, drank some water, and listened to the police and PSB radio chatter.<\/p>\n

It was a war zone out there. STS and ESWAT were still running hard, hitting target after target. Gunfights were springing up all over the city, and the police were scrambling to keep up. Elect were sighted in multiple districts. The New Gods were getting their kill on. Through the window glass, he heard the muffled pops of faraway shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll call signs, Lycan. I\u2019ve found a secondary access.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo ahead,\u201d Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the white side of the building, there\u2019s a mechanical room. Inside the room, on the white side, there\u2019s a storage room. The white side of the storage room conceals a false wall. Behind the wall, there\u2019s a staircase heading down. And the stairs are warded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny way to access the false wall?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChecking now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLycan, Boomer. How thick is the wall?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout half an inch thick. I can\u2019t tell for sure, but I think it\u2019s drywall. I\u2019m seeing some kind of sliding mechanism behind the wall. The wall slides to the left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood thing I brought my MOE kit,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamurai, should I penetrate the wards?\u201d Mustafa asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you able to ghost in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m almost tapped out. I\u2019m losing my connection on the Aether.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake a break. Once you\u2019re fresh, you can try again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGot it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZT, how\u2019s progress?\u201d Yamamoto asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve hacked into SafeKeep\u2019s systems, but I\u2019m not seeing anything of use,\u201d Tan continued. \u201cInvoices, inventory, payroll, but nothing damning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about control systems for the elevator or the false wall?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing. I could keep looking, but if you ask me, the control systems are air-gapped. I\u2019ll have to physically access the elevator control panel before I can work my magic. Likewise, I think there\u2019s some kind of lever or catch inside the storage room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep looking. We have time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger that. I\u2019ll poke around their security system some more and see if there\u2019s anything I can work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor grabbed his bags and checked his kit. This was a low-profile op; there was simply no room for mechanical breaching tools, and he had to leave his heavier explosives behind.<\/p>\n

Which wasn\u2019t to say he had nothing to work with. He had a pair of door knocker charges in his pouches. The small shaped charges were just powerful enough to blow in a lock. For more extensive cutting work, he carried breacher strips in his backpack. Where explosives were contraindicated, or if they needed to go fast, he had mounted an underbarrel shotgun to his carbine. And finally, every operator carried a breach pen, a small but powerful thermal cutting tool.<\/p>\n

More than enough to break into a House of Shadows and say hello.<\/p>\n

\u201cConvoy entering SafeKeep. Three vans,\u201d Yamamoto reported.<\/p>\n

Connor sat up.\u00a0That<\/em>\u00a0was unusual.<\/p>\n

\u201cCopy, I see three vans,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLycan, are you ready to go?\u201d Yamamoto asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m\u2026 Yeah, I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox rattled off the vans\u2019 license plate numbers. Tan ran them against the local and national databases. Routine, so far, but one question nagged at Yamamoto.<\/p>\n

Why three vans?<\/p>\n

\u201cSubjects are exiting the vans,\u201d Fox said. \u201cTwo subjects per van. Six subjects total. They are all wearing ball caps, shades, jackets, cargo pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you get a read on their faces?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready on it,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve captured vid and photos. Uploading to the database now. Stand by, stand by. The subjects are opening the rear of their vehicles. Can\u2019t see what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her rifle\u2019s telescopic sight had an integrated camera for occasions like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger. Break. Farmer, do you have visual?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNegative,\u201d Wood replied. \u201cWait. One guy is running over to grab a trolley.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see Trolley Man,\u201d Fox said. \u201cHe\u2019s pushing the trolley to the vans. Stand by. He\u2019s parked the trolley by the vans. The other subjects are unloading crates from the vans and placing them on the trolley. Wooden crates, green storage containers, footlockers\u2026 Hey, some of this stuff looks military.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLycan, look inside the boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger. Wait one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll six subjects are going to the elevator,\u201d Fox said. \u201cHurry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the Aether,\u201d Mustafa said. \u201cPeeking in. Stand by\u2026 I\u2019m seeing guns. Rifles and shotguns. Boxes of ammo. And\u2026\u00a0people<\/em>. Two individuals, one male and one female, stuffed inside a wooden crate. Another two inside a second crate, both males. And\u2026 well, they\u2019ve entered the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does not sound good,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgreed,\u201d Yamamoto replied.<\/p>\n

The Court of Shadows used blood for many rituals. None of them good.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamurai, Deadeye. We have a hit. One of the subjects is Jose Luis Gutierrez, one of the sicarios on our list.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGotcha. I\u2019m going to update the TOC. Stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto pulled out his phone and dialed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSir, this is Yamamoto. We have a positive sighting on one Jose Luis Gutierrez, a sicario on our target deck, at the suspected House of Shadows. Gutierrez has five others with him. They were carrying weapons, ammo and four hostages into the House. We need authorization to breach the facility and rescue the hostages. \u2026A what? The hostages\u2014 Right. Understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto sighed and switched to the radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamurai here. I\u2019ve updated the boss. He said he\u2019s going to apply for a warrant. We need to send him our reports so he can submit them to the judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA warrant?\u201d Connor asked. \u201cWhat the hell for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to keep our ops nice and legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Court of Shadows we\u2019re talking about. They only have one use for those hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have \u2018no proof of imminent danger\u2019,\u201d Yamamoto groused. \u201cLook, we already have a judge on call. The sooner we send in the reports, the sooner we\u2019ll get the warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor grumbled.<\/p>\n

Half the team maintained surveillance. The other half prepared their reports. Connor dictated his into his phone, edited the transcript, then bundled it with the other reports and sent them on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHope he\u2019s happy now,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re accountable to the taxpayers,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cWe need to satisfy them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor just sighed. If he were younger, he would have demanded the team to jump out and hunt down the Elect. But he was older and hopefully wiser now. He knew that if they didn\u2019t comply with the legal process, it\u2019ll come around to bite them in the ass.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeads up,\u201d Fox said. \u201cA four-car convey is approaching SafeKeep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see them,\u201d Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vics are driving in\u2026 They\u2019re not parking. They\u2019re pulling up in front of the office. Subjects are jumping out. I count sixteen, one-six, subjects. They all have carbines, body armor, full-face helmets. Eight of them are entering the office. The rest are fanning out and pulling security positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor\u2019s eyes widened.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeadeye, Boomer. Is it a raid?\u201d<\/p>\n

A pair of gunshots cracked in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just shot the security guard in the face!\u201d Deadeye reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you get images of their faces?\u201d Yamamoto asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cStand by\u2026 Negative. They have full-face helmets with tinted goggles and ballistic plates. Break. Two guys have broken away from the security team and are going around the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helmets with ballistic plates? Shit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoomer here. We have to load up for bear. Swap your ammo for SLAP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saboted Light Armor Penetrators were probably overkill for helmet-mounted plates. But in cases like this, it was better to penetrate too much than to not penetrate at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cLycan, Samurai. Can you look inside the office?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll\u2026 Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo it. We need eyes inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCopy\u2026\u00a0Ah!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeadache. Exhaustion. I\u2019ll be fine. Looking\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor swapped out his loaded magazine for one filled with SLAP. As he replaced the mags on his plate carrier, Mustafa spoke again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are eight suspects in the office, and six hostages. They\u2019ve gathered the hostages in the corner. One of the suspects is yelling at the hostages. The others are pulling security and tearing up the file cabinets. One guy is plugging his laptop into the manager\u2019s computer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a robbery, that\u2019s for damn sure,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe front man grabbed the manager and is shouting into his face. The manager seems scared. The hostages are panicking and\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

Mustafa groaned.<\/p>\n

\u201cLycan, what\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s woozy,\u201d Farmer muttered. \u201cLooks like exhaustion to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto muttered darkly. \u201cRoger. All call signs, monitor the situation. I\u2019m calling this in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor scooted into the back, picking up the binoculars. Out the window, he saw all of nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTOC, this is team Black Watch,\u201d Yamamoto radioed over the guard net. \u201cWe\u2019re mounting a stakeout at SafeKeep Self-Storage Solutions. A group of sixteen, one six, gunmen have invaded the site and have taken hostages. Suspects have carbines, body armor, and full-face helmets. Immediate response required. We need backup. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack Watch, TOC. Roger on the hostage situation. Everyone\u2019s tasked out, but we will reroute the moment we have available teams. ETA three-zero mikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCopy that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six on sixteen were poor odds, even for STS. They\u2019d need backup. The more the merrier. Other STS teams, ESWAT, regular SWAT, hell, even ordinary beat cops would do in a pinch. As Connor framed that thought, Yamamoto got on the police net and\u2014<\/p>\n

A sharp crack filled the air.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"Cheah<\/p>\n

If a brutal-yet-realistic dungeon crawler is right up your alley, check out the Kickstarter of Dungeon Samurai\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To stay updated on writing news and promotions, sign up for my newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SafeKeep The House of Shadows looked nothing like a church. It was a simple brick building, five stories tall, painted in cheerful blues and reds. The signboard said \u2018SAFEKEEP SELF-STORAGE SOLUTIONS\u2019. There were no altars to the Lord and Lady of Shadows in a three-block radius. No iconography, no goons hanging around. A perfectly innocent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[106,168,216,253,260,277,278,306],"class_list":["post-5178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-cyberpunk","tag-horror","tag-military-science-fiction","tag-pulprev","tag-red-river","tag-science-fantasy","tag-science-fiction","tag-steempulp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}