Chapter 37: The Station

As the following day arrived, Zeller found herself seated at a table in a dimly lit room, surrounded by closed blinds. A rifle lay before her on the counter, its barrel gleaming in the low light. With a practised hand, she loaded the weapon's magazine with a special type of ammunition, carefully pushing each bullet into place, putting more and more pressure onto the spring.

At the table with her were Baker and another man, both of whom were also loading magazines with the same special ammunition. The three of them were all following orders and they understood the gravity of their mission. The radio station was of critical importance and its protection was paramount.

"So Lieutenant... you known Mclaw for long?" Zeller asked.

The lieutenant nodded, "Since '82," he said bluntly, looking to the left he noticed James standing in the doorway, "That's Delta Priority?"

Baker nodded, "The one and only," he holstered a pistol.

James looked at the Lieutenant. He looked a lot like Leo, just quite a bit older. He had broad shoulders and even in his old age he was still physically fit.

The man stood up, towering over James by several inches. James gulped as the Lieutenant spoke, "I'm Mr Stewards, you know my son, Leo," he paused, "What you've done is the right thing, it's just sad my son had to be too adventurous for his own good."

Mr Stewards nodded in approval, sitting back down.

James turned his head to Zeller, "Should I take anything?"

Zeller nodded, "There's a bag in the hallway, that has a radio, a method to disarm the mines, rope and other survival gear as a just in case," James swung around picking the bag up, as she continued, "Get going."

Heading to the meeting point, James checked his watch, he was still quite early. Still breaking into a sprint he ran through the settlement.

Running between two houses, he exited onto a large hilly field of grass. He noticed Leo sitting there, sharpening a knife.

Leo waved at him, "You good?"

James walked over, "Perfect, got them?"

Leo nodded kicking an oddly shaped black case, "In there, three mags of each."

James knelt, "I'll carry them till we get out of visual range of Stanley."

Leo raised an eyebrow, "Visual range?" he chuckled as James looked away, as a dark look grew, "What? You in the army or something?"

James looked back smiling, "Thought it made me sound cool."

Klay and Charle walked over the brow of the hill, "You two ready?" Charle asked.

James nodded slinging the weapon bag over his shoulder, "More ready than I'll ever be."

They traversed through the open field, all walking in a rabble.

Leo nodded, "I've heard something through the grapevine recently..."

Klay chuckled, "Oh here we go again, probably gonna be a tangent about the Russian military again."

Charle laughed as Leo turned himself walking backwards, "No... but they are pretty incompetent from what I've seen... anyway, apparently the Highway Hero might be alive."

James's eyes widened, still looking down, as Leo continued, "Like seriously, apparently he was in Japan."

James's face froze, tapped on his microphone, in his pocket, "Japan was attacked recently though, right? Also, why would the UK send him there, it's literally right next to the war."

Leo nodded, "Well I've seen two theories online, one no one believes and the one that seems likely," he paused, "The British government were expecting an attack on Japan and sent him there to get experience in real combat when the attacks came. Or the more likely one, they didn't think the NZA would open another front, which we all didn't expect until an hour before the burning of Tokyo."

James remembered Tokyo, he had left just before the bombs fell. He remembered the fire, the collapsing bridge... the screams of those who couldn't escape.

Shaking himself back to the current day, he trudged through the muddy field before speaking, "Well the body was never shown."

Leo nodded, "Exactly!"

Charle stroked his chin, "If he is alive, I pray he is safe. The kid's our age and he's seen an unbelievable amount of war, he doesn't deserve to see anymore."

Klay and Leo both agreed, "I'd love to meet him."

James cracked a smile as they fed his ego, still knowing that their hopes wouldn't be granted by any power.

Leo stopped before a hill, "We're here."

Stanley nor any other civilisation was in sight. They were alone.

James carried the bag containing their weapons and quickly unfolded it, revealing an old Browning Hi-Power, a British FAL, and a sawed-off shotgun.

James immediately reached for the Hi-Power, deftly loading one of its magazines. After grabbing a holster, he slipped it onto his trousers and placed the spare magazine wrapped in a band beside it.

Leo raised the rifle to his shoulder and checked the chamber. Meanwhile, Charle handed Klay the sawed-off shotgun, "I'll keep overwatch, keep an eye on them," he said.

Klay nodded taking the shotgun, Leo looked at him, "You know how to use that?"

Klay shook his head, "Wouldn't mind some tips."

Leo walked up, slinging the rifle over his shoulder.

James looked over the brow, he pulled a small mirror using the sun to reflect light as the rest weren't looking. One flash came back, Zeller.

She sat on the hill as she loaded a magazine into her rifle.

As she tightened the suppressor, she aimed with the rifle. It wasn't her standard .50 BMG Hecate II, but rather a smaller 7.62 NATO Enhanced Battle Rifle.

Seated next to her was Baker, who had a set of goggles on a stand connected to a large battery pack in front of him. These goggles were a replica of Mclaw's, but still too heavy for most people to wear comfortably. Despite the weight, Baker used them with ease, his eyes scanning the terrain through the lenses.

Baker sighed looking through the goggles, "Why didn't we just jump 'em before they arrived?"

Zeller nodded looking through the sight, "Too dangerous, if we were spotted we could cause extreme amounts of problems, also Mclaw wanted to talk to them."

Baker nodded, not convinced, "Huh."

A group of four figures walked over the ridge as Zeller checked their identities with Baker, Baker nodded, "It's them, sending info for the first explosive."

She watched through the scope as a target lit up in her sight, using the thermal it flashed.

She fired once.

It exploded about twenty metres from the group.

They all jumped to the ground as minimal shrapnel flew into the air, Leo called out, "They're fucking explosives! Not mines!"

Klay looked up, "Explosives are in mine's numb skull."

Leo looked around, "No, I mean someone is activating them."

Hearing a small whistle-like sound he plunged himself straight into the ground, as an explosion rocked the ground, "Fucking sniper!" he pulled out a civilian radio, "Charle find me that sniper!"

Charle pulled out his radio and listened intently. He gulped and pulled a pair of binoculars up to his eyes, scanning the ridge ahead of them. His sharp eyes quickly picked up two unnatural shapes, one of them holding what appeared to be a long pipe on their shoulder.

He adjusted the binoculars and focused in on the sniper, taking out a range finder to get an accurate measurement, "793 meters," he muttered to Leo, "bearing of roughly 48 degrees, about fifty meters left of the large rock."

Leo pulled his rifle around and watched carefully, climbing to his knee for a better view of the ridgeline. Suddenly, he saw a small muzzle flash coming from the exact location Charle had just called out. He felt the wind of the bullet fly above his head before it slammed into another explosive, erupting about 30 meters behind them.

Leo knew he had to act fast if they wanted to survive this mission.

He fired twice as the bullets slammed right below Baker, "FUCK!" he quickly grabbed the stand and battery pack, swinging it over his shoulder.

They both darted behind the ridge as a burst of suppressive fire forced them down, he checked the equipment while running, "1-1, the HUD is destroyed."

Mclaw spoke, "Roger 1-3, get moving."

Over the ridge, Leo watched carefully. He waited for them to pop up as James watched calmly.

James heard a voice, it was Mclaw, over his concealed earpiece hidden within his ear, "1-3 and 2-1 are heading to exfil, you're clear."

James stood up, "They're gone."

Leo looked once more, "I think you're right," he paused, "We should get moving before they come back."

James nodded turning around, Klay was shaking, "That was terrifying."

Leo gulped, "Correct, James take him back."

James nodded, lifting him by placing his arm over his shoulder, "Don't do anything stupid."

Leo nodded, determined, as he ran through the minefield. Approaching the radio station, he quickly retrieved a pack of explosives from his bag. He had to be careful with these - they were dangerous and he couldn't afford to mishandle them. He placed two of the explosives outside the station and locked them into a makeshift detonator. Then, he ran inside and quietly made his way to the office.

Unbeknownst to him, a shadow moved in the corridor behind him, but Leo didn't notice. He rifled through the office desk, finding papers detailing the Argentine Armed Forces' conditions since the Falklands conflict, as well as several maps of the islands, with military bunkers marked out.

Leo checked the positions and recognised one of them overlooking Stanley - the same one that had been found a few years ago. But then there were more bunkers, he realised with growing alarm. As he went to switch on his phone to take pictures of the documents, he clicked the power button a few times, but it wouldn't turn on. Quickly, he shoved it into his jacket and pulled out a disposable camera.

Clicking away, Leo took pictures of each of the papers before throwing them to the side. He then noticed a folder with the markings:

TOP SECRET

His heart pounding, he gulped and opened it. The folder contained designs for a space weapon - Project Thor. Flipping through the pages, he found several more pieces of technology, ranging from space weapons to orbital cameras and concepts for listening devices. He pulled out his camera to take pictures of the folder, but suddenly an arm grabbed it from him and tossed it against the wall.

"I honestly forgot I left that in here," a voice said.

Leo was shaken to his core by the large figure behind him. He was frozen in place, he couldn't turn any further. Just seeing him in the corner of his vision he noticed the smashed camera.

Walking into eyeshot, Leo looked at the man, his hair was dark black with strands of brown. His eyes were a light brown and he was covered in black tactical gear. Leo looked at his leg noticing a holster housing an old M1911 with a white mark on it. As he looked closer he noticed it was a symbol of two crossed scythes with a hooded figure's upper torso and head in front.

He muttered one word, "Reaper."

Mclaw smiled, "So you know me, good, that'll make things easy," he paused as a dark look grew over his face, "You are going to tell me everything you know, then you are going to forget it along with everything that happened today, understood?"

He nodded, "Y-yes sir."

A grin grew on Mclaw's face as he started to listen.

Outside of the minefield, James watched the station with Klay and Charle, Klay's hands had stopped shaking.

Charle pulled his phone out to check the time, switching it on he paced back and forth, then he stopped clicking the phone's power button, "My phone not working?"

James looked at him, "Bring it here."

Charle tossed it at James, and he switched it on immediately as the screen lit up, "It's working fine."

He showed it to him before tossing it back, Charle looked at it clicking the power button, "Eh... no it's not."

He pulled the case back as he clicked the power button again and again. Nothing.

James swore standing up and taking a few steps before grabbing it from him, "Here, I'll show --"

He pressed the power button twice. Nothing.

He looked around. Something was off, closing his eyes and concentrating he heard a buzzing sound.

He took a few paces back with the phone as the buzzing disappeared, he opened his eyes looking at the phone, it was working perfectly.

He muttered to himself, "Some type of Electro Magnetic field?" he moved the phone closer as it switched itself off, "Neat."

He looked at Charle, "It's some type of tech interfering, if you stand behind me your phone will work."

Charle looked at him surprised, James turned around as he received a text. It was from Leo, 'Go back to Stanley, I'll see you at work tomorrow.'

James read it out loud as the others looked at him, Charle spoke, "Somethings wrong," he paused, both of them knew his phone shouldn't be working inside the field, "It's a trap."

James gulped, they'd realised, "I'll go get him then, take Klay back to Stanley."

He broke into a sprint as Klay and Charle nodded.

James drew his pistol as he approached the base, noticing the explosive charge on the side of the wall he approached it. He noticed the wire connecting a device to a pack of old C4, finding a set of wires connecting the C4 to the device he carefully removed them from the device before tossing it into the minefield. He did the same with the other charge.

Entering the building he heard voices, "What you did was dangerous, to humanity as a whole. If this had been exposed all the coalition's efforts to keep this a secret will go to waste."

It was Mclaw.

Leo argued back, "But how are we supposed to know this was a coalition base? How did we know this wasn't an NZA base?"

Mclaw glared at him, "You took pictures of government designs, marked Ministry of Defence, yet you still were going to share them."

Leo had nothing to say, "Space weapons are banned under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, yet I'm pretty sure I saw designs similar to the proposed project Thor... and that one," he pointed at the table, "Says it was completed."

Mclaw took a few steps closer, grabbing him by the neck before slamming him against the wall, "Oh yeah, and who are you going to tell? The UN?" he laughed, "The UN doesn't even know I exist," his grin grew menacing, Leo gulped as Mclaw continued, "If you are to tell them about me, you may just disappear without a trace."

James gulped hoping it was just an empty threat.

Looking to his left he noticed a figure appear from the shadows, Mr Stewards. The two exchanged a glance not saying anything.

Stewards nodded walking passed him into the room, he disappeared into the room as James heard a slapping sound as Leo stood up holding his face, "Dad?"

Stewards looked at him, "You go through my office, steal my files and then try to expose everything I've been trying to keep secret?"

Leo looked shocked, "I-I'm sorry."

Mclaw stepped back leaving the room, looking at James he muttered something, "Play along."

Immediately he grabbed James by the collar before tossing him into the room. James went to pull the pistol as Mclaw darted at him, pushing it to the side as he fired twice into the ceiling. Mclaw hit him, lightly, as James let out a fake cry.

Dropping the pistol Mclaw stepped back, as James watched his hands shaking, "Fuck!"

Grabbing it, he stopped it from shaking. Then Leo spoke, "James, get out of here."

James looked at him, eyes wide, "What?"

Leo nodded standing up straight, "I'm sorry I dragged you into this, you just arrived and I've already dragged you into nearly ruining a coalition plan."

James acted surprised, "A coalition plan?"

Leo nodded, reiterating what James already knew. But James still pretended to look shocked. He looked at Mclaw then to Mr Stewards, "Who are these people?"

Leo gulped, "The Reaper and my father."

James looked at Mclaw, "I see."

Mclaw looked back, "Get going then, kid."

James exchanged a final glance before leaving, as he exited into the hallway, Leo saw him mutter, "I'm sorry."