DRAUMRS - Dreamweavers - Book Two

15 - Stage Left

The Brown Clan team at the Red Clan dacha on the coast of the Black Sea had been in surveillance mode for several days and was anxious to get going. Team members had positioned themselves in nearby homes, with the ready agreement of local owners, who, having suddenly become inclined to take an extended trip in Europe, were more than pleased to let a trusted local firm provide property maintenance services for them in their absence. That both ideas originated in dreams was long forgotten, as the residents happily packed up and left on their simultaneous excursions.

A small contingent of non-descript and rusty trucks belonging to the maintenance crews had shown up to dispatch lawn mowers or tree trimmers, all with little fuss and no obvious appearance of any other purpose. The absent owners were actually getting a lot of services for a very economical fee.

Unseen from the roadway or any other property, the various trucks had each dispatched one or two covert agents and their equipment, who, after dark, had moved into well-planned forward positions at properties on three sides of Cherry's estate. The trucks themselves stayed nearby, ready for a rapid evacuation to a helicopter extraction point when needed.

The individual team members included Brown Clan cousins and hired specialists, who were chosen for their local knowledge and perhaps, if needed, local influence with authorities who might accidentally become involved. The plan was to infiltrate and neutralize Cherry's estate defenses with no obvious outside commotion. For all visible intents, it was life as normal, if a little vacated, in the seaside micto.

Directed by Jake Brun, from a temporary control center set up in a nearby dacha, the team members had memorized layouts, practiced and timed required movement and determined how defense positions would be eliminated. Lethal assault weapons, if needed, would be limited to silenced small arms and close quarters knives or garrotes. The hope was that each security person might be surprised and neutralized quickly with non-lethal means, then secured and silenced, while the team moved inward. The operatives all agreed with the plan, but understood that the odds were high that at least one and probably more of the guards would not be all that surprised and might well need to be dispatched with extremely lethal force.

With pressure for intervention building in Shenzhen, the 'Baltics' assault team now found their timetable had been set for them, whether they were ready or not. Jake Brun had moved preparations forward and provided a final briefing to each team member on the mission goal: neutralize and secure Cherry and on the mission's prohibition: absolutely no harm must come to Gloria Black.

At 6:00 a.m. local time on the day that they must act, Jake joined a conference call with the Shenzhen-based young fighter's team. Armand Grau and his senior Grey Clan advisors were connected in from Europe, most likely London.

After somewhat subdued greetings and various light, but clearly nervous comments on the local weather and accommodations, Jake opened the actual briefing. "We are just past dawn here and ready to initiate the plan this morning. Several days of surveillance indicate that activity at the dacha doesn't pick up for a couple hours, when various house staff repeat more or less the same activity each day; they can be seen opening the place and moving about with refuse or other materials. Today has an expected supplies delivery quite early—that will be us."

He continued, "If we are going in today, it should be within the hour. Not to catch everyone in bed, but to take advantage of overnight security coming off-shift and perhaps relaxing with daylight. We expect to drive right up to the door in one of our trucks, which was 'borrowed' from Cherry's grocer. It should have no problem getting through the front gate; that's all the advantage we'll need to let us take out the inside-the-house defenses, whatever they may be."

Jack wanted to be sure of the timing. He leaned forward and spoke to the teleconference unit on the table in the Shenzhen mansion. "So, you'll go within the hour and be wrapped up in only a few minutes?"