Icafia

Chapter by Johnny Walker.
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Bebe leaned out of the way of another bullet. \"Think she\'ll win?\"
Leo asked, somewhat concerned. \"Maybe, That leg will slow her down.\"
Akane commented. \"Hey Bebe, you okay?\" Mercedes asked loudly. \"We
ask as we sit here and watch..\" Sean observed reaching for a
cigarette.
\"I\'m just fine!\" The bomber called, making her way toward her
gun. \"Well there you have it.\" Akane said, leaning against the door
frame. \"She\'s fine.\" Everyone nodded in agreement.
Bebe straightened out her bleeding leg. \'Godamnit, this thing has
got to heal eventually!\' She thought. The wounded guard dropped his
empty gun and slowly advanced on the bomber, his wounded arm limp
and bleeding.
The guard made the first move, swinging for Bebe\'s head. The bomber
leaned forward, her leg keeping her from ducking. She stood up and
punched the guard in the wound. He clutched this shoulder and
snarled angrily. Bebe took the opportunity to take a couple steps
toward her gun.
The guard recovered and lunged at the bomber. Not being able to
step aside on her bad leg, Bebe dived away, farther away from her
gun.
The guard tried to change directions, but was too close to the pool
and fell on his bad arm. The spectators snickered. \"Hey, asshole! No
running in the pool!\" Sean yelled.
Bebe tried to right her self on her bad leg, as the guard rolled in
agony. The bomber dragged her self to a net hanging on the wall.
Grabbing the pole, she pulled her self up.
The guard was on his feet again. Bebe jammed the flat end of the
pole into his shoulder, knocking him over into the pool. The bomber
smiled and flipped the net over, fishing for her gun with it.
The guard pulled himself out. Bebe secured the 629 in the net and
yanked it back. The bomber fell to the floor and jammed her hand in
the net as the guard rushed her. Bebe\'s hand closed around the wood
of the grip.
Everyone just kinda stared at the gimp fight for a few moments,
before the spectators heard the sound of foot steps charging down
the hall way. The two plain clothes Icafia soldier from the bar were
coming toward them, guns drawn.
\"Ah shit. These guys again..\" Sean mumbled. \"You know \'them?\" Leo
asked. \"Yeah, kinda.\" Sean said, pulling his revolver and firing a
round from the hip. The soldier on the right went down. The
remaining gunman brought his gun up. They were so densely packed he
didn\'t have to aim. The thief was a split second faster. The
soldier fell over as he ran. \"Shit, we gotta get outta this place..\"
Akane said.
Inside the pool, a a gun shot exploded through room and the guard
stumbled backward, falling into the poll with a splash.
Mercedes ran into the room and helped the bomber to her feet. As
they exited the pool, Bebe caught a glimpse of the two bodies and
the smoking gun is Sean\'s hand. \"What did you do now?\" She asked
angrily. \"I did nothing! They started it!\" The thief replied
defensively. \"And you probably made it five times worse!\" \"That\'s
not the point! And what the hell are you doing getting in a fire
fight in a fucking pool!? Did someone piss in the water and you took
offense?\" \"AHEM! I believe we we\'re about to leave?\" Leo interjected.
But the manager was already coming down the hall. \"Shit..\" Someone
swore. \"What the hell\'s going on!?\" He demanded. Akane\'s hand
strayed to her sword.
Sean stepped forward. He pulled an ID from his back
pocket. \"Captain \'Solo\' Farrell, Special Ops. They\'re with me. These
men were traitors to the cause and were disposed of thusly. Get
someone to clean things up. And I assume you charged your normal
outrageous fee for them. Get them there money back.\"
The manager sputtered. \"Yes, yes sir! Right away..\" The old man
walked off, hollering. \"Juan! Clean up! It\'s a messy one!\"
Everyone stared at Sean. \"Wha?\" \"How the fuck!?\" \"Why don\'t we
discuss this in the privacy of the room, eh?\"
Later, after Sean had relayed the tale of the bar fight, he
remembered the slip of paper he had lifted from Solo. He passed it
around.
\"Dunno what the hell it means, but we gotta check it out.\" Everyone
nodded. \"Now then, what the hell was that all about Blondie?\"
After all the stories had been told, the group retired to there
rooms for the night. Sean used the fake ID to get another room away
from Icafia for the girls. The thief left with a bump on his head
from trying to help Bebe with her leg.

The next morning, Leo was up early, looking for spare parts to fix
his gauntlet. He was looking through the empty room next to Icafia,
when he heard Solo bellow angrily.
\"He\'s still here! I want him found! I want checkpoints on every
road out of town and patrols on the streets! Everyone caught helping
him will be hung with him! No one does this to 3rd S.T.F.! He\'s
making fools of us all! Find him! Dead or alive! Now fall out and
get to work!\"
Footsteps charged out of the room and down the stairs. \"But sir,
what about the codes? We haven\'t seen Higgens or Gonella since last
night.\" \"Two idiots probably got high and wandered off. No matter,
we have the back ups.
Leo silently slipped out of the room to gather everyone up.

Everyone had gathered in the room farthest from Icafia. After Leo
explained what he heard, the room was silent except for a curse from
Sean. \"Well, what now?\" Bebe asked. \"We figure out a plan.\" Akane
said, sitting down.
The rest of the day was spent planning. As the sun went down,
Mercedes and Leo made a trip to the truck, gathering the necessary
supplies. On the way back, they noticed two guards posted out side
the door to the Icafia room, and the adjacent room was now occupied
by the extra guards needed for the lock down.
As the sun went down, those that could stretched out for a few
hours rest before everything went down. At 2100, Leo and Mercedes
left the room, they parked the truck behind the hotel and waited. As
the clock struck midnight, the room consisted of Akane, who was
sharping her Kantana, Bebe, who was messing around with a pair of
the night vision goggles, and Sean, who was smoking. At 0200, Bebe
grabbed one of the MP5-SD5 silenced sub-guns that had been brought
in from the truck, and gingerly lowered her self out the second
story window with help of some rope.
The bomber hit the ground and pressed her back against the wall. A
look around confirmed no one had seen her. She could hear the guards
chatting as they walked on the other side of the building. Her six
gun was strapped to her hip, her trench coat being too noisy and
already in the truck. Her explosives were in a pack on her back.
Her leg had healed enough in the last 24 hours to allow her to walk
silently enough. First stop was the motor pool. She made her way to
the edge of the building in a crouch and stuck her head over the
edge.
The motor pool was across a well lit street in a parking lot. With
her leg, she couldn\'t just dash across it. The nearest patrol was
walking down the road away from her.
Bebe flipped the MP5 to single shot and took aim. Ahead of the
guards, a street light was busted out. The guards leveled their
rifles at the dark patch and slowly advanced forward.
Bebe dashed for the end of the road. She slid to a stop against the
side of a building, sucking in the crisp night air as her leg
throbbed.
She made her way to the back of the building. Only a chain link
fence separated her from the side of the motor pool. The bomber
pulled a pair of wire cutters from her pocket and got to work.
Within five minutes she was inside the fence. Careful to avoid the
lights, Bebe crawled under a nearby car and began planting C4. The
timers were set to go at 0300.
Foot steps approached. Bebe froze. She watched a pair of boots
approach lazily. They stopped in front of the car she was under. She
silently aimed the MP5 at the solider\'s legs. She heard a zipper
open. \'Oh HELL no!\'
Bebe jammed the sub machine gun out from under the car and fired a
burst into the soldiers chin. He never made a sound as he dropped to
the deck.
\"Just my Godamn luck..\" Bebe muttered, returning to the C4.
\'Now for the hard part..\' Bebe thought crawling out of the motor
pool half an hour later at 0230. She slowly began moving toward the
road block on the escape route.
Akane dropped out of the second story window gracefully, katana in
hand. She landed almost silently, and quickly made her way to a
window on the first floor.
She easily slipped inside a window of an empty room. She made her
way to the closed door and placed her ear to it. There was the
mutter of guards off in the distance.
Akane dropped to the floor and peeked through the crack under the
door. No one. She silently opened the door to the hallway. The hall
was clear, but she could hear voices approaching.
Akane dashed silently into a open cubby hole with ice and a pop
machine in it. She pressed against the corner as the guards drew
near.
\"Hold on, let me get a coke.\" One of them said. Akane slid the
blade out of it\'s sheath. The first guard stepped in. Akane brought
the blade down on his neck, using her momentum to spin and and slash
his buddy across the chest.
The guards finished, Akane wiped her sword clean, sheathed it, and
walked calmly into the utility room. She easily picked the padlock
on the fuse box, and the lights went out seconds later.
Sean had been sitting in the dark for the last half hour, letting
his night vision develop. He tapped his finger on his leg nervously.
It had been along time since he done something like this. And he had
never had anyone depending on him or depended on them. He checked
his watch. At 0250 the thief headed for the window, and climbed onto
the sill. He reached up and grabbed hold of the roof, pulling him
self up.
He leisurely strolled along the roof, hands in his pockets. He
looked down to make sure the truck was in place in time to see Akane
hop in the back. When he was above the window of Solo\'s room, he
pulled his knife from his boot and stuck it in his teeth. \"let\'s see
if I still got it.\" The thief turned his back to the edge, and
stepped off.
Bebe stared at the road block through the NVGs. Two guards in a
shack reinforced by sand bags, and metal obstacles on the road. The
obstacles were what needed to be blown up, but she briefly
considered rolling a grenade into the shack. She decided against
both that and wasting the guards. The last thing she needed was
someone calling them on the radio to report in. She finished arming
the C4 and slipped it in a pocket.
Silently she crawled up to the road in front of the shack. Cradling
the submachine gun, she made her way to right in front of the window
of the shack. She paused to collect her breath and listen to the
guards chatter. \"Godamn Solo, making us sit up all night looking for
one guy.\" One muttered.
Bebe shook her head and slowly began to inch toward the obstacles.
She placed the armed C4 as close to the middle as possible, and
crawled back underneath the shack window. They hadn\'t heard
anything. The bomber escaped to the cover of the wood on the side of
the road and readied the detonator.
Sean caught the window sill and pressed his boots against the wall.
He searched the window and found a thin wire on the side of the
frame. He reached for his knife and cut the alarm system. He pulled
him self up to stand on the sill, and slid the window open.
The thief slipped inside. Everyone was sleeping. He caught sight of
the codes on a desk. He reached up and slowly pulled the shade down,
the room went pitch black. Sean silently felt his way toward the
desk. His hand felt wood. He slowly felt his way to the paper. The
thief folded it silently and slipped it into his pocket.
He turned to leave. Something shifted in the dark. Sean drew his
six-gun and pointed it in the direction of the sound. He didn\'t need
sights at this range.
He heard someone stand up. His finger tightened on the trigger.
Sean narrowed his eyes. It was Farrell. He could feel it. Sean
stiffen, trying not to breathe, not to make a sound.
A car\'s head lights shot through the sides of the curtain. The
thief scowled and bit back a curse as the light glistened off the
barrel of his revolver. His thumb reached up and cocked the hammer
at the same time a similar sound came from the far end of the room.
Sean didn\'t move. If he fired first and missed, he\'d be dead. Even
if he didn\'t, he\'d have a hell of a fire fight on his hands. He had
already lost the origin of the sound in the darkness. His memory
told him it came from several places.
The thief slowly lifted his right foot. Ever so slowly he moved it
over. Using the toe of his boot, he felt for anything left on the
floor he would step on. An inch at a time, he lowered his foot.
Solo was moving too. Sean could feel him in the darkness ahead.
Outside, the wind blew. On the other side of the door, a guard
whistled. Sean shifted his weight and lifted his left foot. He
brought down the toe of his boot and halted.
He stared straight into the darkness, trying to locate his
opponent. Someone rolled over in his sleep, but failed to draw the
thief\'s attention. A full minute later, he slowly lowered the rest
of his foot.
A red flag went up in Sean\'s mind. Solo had thought of something.
Again, he just knew. His searched through the shadow, face serious.
This was serious. Sean knew damn well he could die at any second.
But this time was alot more serious.
Something clicked ahead of him. Sean\'s revolver flew to the sound
and he smiled. Solo had tried to turn on the lights. Farrell didn\'t
move. He stayed perfectly still and silent. \'Damn this guy is good.\'
Sean debating firing. He had Farrell at his mercy. He knew where
Solo was, but not vice versa. If he fired, the stand off would be
over. And every guard in the place would rush in. And if he only
wounded Farrell, the muzzle flash would give him away.
Sean\'s finger tightened on the trigger.
The first brick of C4 exploded. Several trucks flew into the air.
The hotel rocked. Several more explosions followed, each right on
top of the other. As the room rocked, the shade flew open, and the
thief was gone.
Something landed on the hood of the truck and immediately rolled
off. Leo heard footsteps running toward the back. He turned the key
and started moving the truck toward the escape route.
Bebe saw the headlight of the truck. That was her signal. She blew
the C4 on the obstacle, blowing them apart and collapsing the guard
house. Several sand bags and a few large pieces of metal roofing
blocked the road. Bebe swore and dashed out to the side of the road.
Leo saw the obstruction ahead. \"Mercedes, take the wheel!\" He
yelled, leaning out of the window. The teen took leaned over and
steered as Leo messed with some buttons on the gauntlet. \"C\'mon
baby, work.\" He muttered before turning the shield on.
The green light formed a kind of cow catcher in front of the truck.
As the truck passed her, an arm reached out from the back and
grabbed Bebe\'s, pulling her up and into the back. The debris was
flown to one side as the truck sailed safely past and into the
night, it\'s occupants cheering wildly.