The Streets of Arlington

Source

Jason Howard moved cautiously down the hallway, the guy on the floor was dead, or soon would be. Howard thought for a moment, then moved up and shot the man in the head.

The shot made Secretary of State Jedidiah Proctor jump back, but not before the spatter of blood, bone, and tissue soiled his trousers. Something the Secretary didn't need, he'd soiled himself already.

"What the hell, Holmes?" he barked at his security chief.

The man turned on Proctor, "My name is Howard, you f**king asshole. Now get back in that room and stay away from the window. You might want to think about changing your pants too."

Proctor sputtered but the security man was already moving down the stairs.

As Howard moved into the downstairs entryway, he paused in the shadows, Proctor's house, a rental, was the only one in the neighborhood without power. Though this late at night, who could tell? But the nearby streetlights were on, and he could see nothing ... No, there was someone outside. He heard a voice speak in a low tone.

"Whiskey."

Howard breathed a soft sigh of relief, then answered, "Sour."

"Everything okay, boss?"

"Yeah, dead guy inside, the Secretary is okay. You and Bertram?"

"Yeah, we're good, we nailed a fellow in gray hightailing it down the street like the devil himself was after him."

"Nailed?"

In the low light Howard noticed the wolf-like grin on Hector Driscoll's face, "Two in the chest, one in the head."

"That's it? Two guys?" Howard muttered.

"One guy might not be enough, three would be noisy, but I would be surprised if there weren't another pair nearby, waiting for their buddies to return. Which ain't gonna happen."

Howard saw something down the street, a vehicle, moving with no lights. He hissed at Driscoll, "Cover."

The van stopped, both men saw a shadow step out onto the street from the sidewalk. The night lit up briefly, two flashes lit up the two men sitting in the front seat of the vehicle. Two soft pops echoed down the street.

"That's gotta be, Chuck, the dude pays attention." Driscoll chuckled.

Howard shook his head, "Stay here, the Secretary's upstairs, I'll go see what Bertram has landed."

"Who's there?" Proctor asked in a trembling voice.

"The cavalry, Mr. Secretary. They sent four guys after you, I guess you are important." Driscoll smiled as he knelt next to the dead man. He patted the body down, but as he expected, no papers, no ID of any kind. Then, he leaned over as he pulled out a small Maglite and pointed it at the corpse.

Wasn't much left of the guy's head, but Driscoll could see teeth, he leaned in closer. "Yup, f**king Russian."

Proctor gasped, "Russian, how do you know?"

"No place else on the planet with that kind of dentistry. Guy's got steel teeth."

Proctor looked, then turned away and vomited.

Driscoll chuckled, "Asshole."

"Back up is on the way, boss." Chuck Bertram looked around. No one seemed to be even slightly interested in what was going on out in the street.

Bertram pushed the corpse in the driver's seat off onto the dead man on the passenger side. The driver had stalled the car when Bertram's 10 mm slug had gone through his left temple, then deflected down into his neck. The silenced weapon he was using had low power rounds, effective up close but wouldn't go in one side then out the other.

He started the car and moved slowly backward until he saw his own vehicle, a large delivery van. He parked behind it. He noted that Howard had followed him down the street, checking his surroundings as if his life depended on it, which it might.

Howard heard a step behind him, he dropped to one knee and brought his weapon up.

"Hey boss, don't shoot, it's Driscoll."

Howard saw that it was his number two man and the Secretary was with him, looking very cowed and very small. "And this asshole wants to take over the government?" Howard mused to himself.

He turned back toward the company's van, Bertram and his number two, Avram Stein, were already putting the men Bertram had killed into the back of the big van.

Stein stepped out onto the street, "We're ready to go, chief. Clean up crew is ten mikes out."

"Alright, Mr. Secretary, get in the front with Mr. Driscoll here. We've got to get you someplace safe." Howard then held up his hand as his phone buzzed.

"Howard."

"This is Nakagawa, do you have Proctor?"

"Yes Sir. We also have four bags of dirty laundry."

"I see. Take Proctor and the laundry up to Site B. We should be there within the hour."

"Roger that, Sir. See you then."

Bill Aspinall looked over at Secretary Nakagawa and began to wonder what the man's game was. Whose side was he really on?

"Sir?" Aspinall was uncomfortable with the question he was about to ask, but he asked it anyway.

"You expected the Russians to fail, right?"

Secretary Nakagawa looked out his window for a moment, then turned to Aspinall, "Yeah Bill, I did. SecDef hired the best men he thought he could get, the dumb bastard had the best men on the planet already working for him."

"Sir?"

"While SecDef was playing footsie with the Russians, we had SEALs in place to keep Proctor in our control. I had hoped the Russians would try to take him, I didn't expect them to try and kill him. Which showed me that the SecDef is out for power, not to support and defend the Constitution of the United States."

"Navy SEALS? What you couldn't find enough PJs?" Aspinall scoffed.

Nakagawa chuckled, "You guys handle yourselves well, but you're angels of rescue, the SEALs? Man, they're the angels of death."

"What's the game, Sir?"

"It's no game, Bill. There are at least five factions, that I know of, trying to overthrow the government and institute martial law. The fools in Congress think they've accomplished that in Maryland and Virginia."

"But they have done that."

"No Bill, all they've done is federalize the Guard units in those two states. Both governors are defying any and all orders out of Washington, in fact any orders originating from a Federal authority."

"So, the SecDef?"

"Yup, the dumb bastard is sitting up there at Raven Rock thinking he's got the active duty military and the Guard units at his disposal."

"You said five factions, Sir. Congress? The SecDef?"

"Not all of the Congress, there are about forty-seven Senators and Representatives who think they can force the country to disarm completely with these ambushes and murders we've been hearing about."

Aspinall chuckled.

Nakagawa looked at him, then chuckled himself, "Heh, the forty-seven ronin, you know your Japanese history."

"More like the forty-seven traitors, Sir."

"Indeed."

"The other factions?"

"A cabal of politician flag officers in the Pentagon is another, there's also a pretty serious militia unit in Virginia who are fomenting trouble for their own ends."

Aspinall thought for a moment, "Secessionists?"

"Exactly. The fifth faction is in the FBI and the CIA, traitors who want power at any cost."

Aspinall nodded, "Where do you fit, Sir. Which faction?"

"I don't consider those loyal to the Constitution and the duly elected government of the United States to be a faction. We're the good guys, Bill."

"Ah, I see." though in truth Bill Aspinall didn't really see it at all. Duly elected? Who believed that fantasy any more?