The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Chapter 47: Last Stand

"And just who the hell are these guys?" Ham muttered harshly as Kent swung around to take in the crowd of dark coated men and women that had appeared out of the darkness to the south of the convention center with his camera. Even as he brought his camera into focus, they brushed aside the attempts of gathering special forces outside of the grounds and what remaining security forces inside to slow them down.

Not missing a beat in her smooth delivery, Katherine turned to face the crowd of strangers that had appeared out of nowhere.

"And it would seem that we've been joined by yet another group of individuals," she husked into the microphone in her hand, her eyes darting from one black trench coated person to the next.

"Who they're affiliated with or what they represent is a mystery to us. Hopefully they'll make their desires known shortly. In the meantime, we'll be keeping an eye both on them and on the continuing situation inside the convention grounds. The appearance of this third group could represent an inherently destabilizing factor that may impact the tenuous situation in the convention center grounds where fighting has finally subsided somewhat. Hopefully they don't represent Brotherhood reinforcements, the Brotherhood being the terrorist organization believed responsible for this unprovoked attack against the leaders of many of the world's strongest economic powers, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain and Germany."

"Sir, the switchboard is completely blocked with calls from not only all over Calgary, but the entire country!" the harried switchboard operator, a plain-looking sergeant with a perpetual frown on her face, reported as McLaughlin paced tightly inside his office, the small television set in the far corner showing the scene unfolding down at the convention center.

"Including the RCMP, the Department of Defense, the office of the Prime Minister and, the Mayor's Office!"

"As if we can do something about it!" McLaughlin rumbled tightly, not bothering to look up at the sergeant who had poked her head into his office door. "Shouldn't they be talking to Downtown? And what the hell is the Mayor's office doing calling us anyway? As I recall, our precinct washed their hands of this whole affair! At the behest of the Mayor I might add, that fat, sweaty bastard."

Halting, the big police lieutenant let a long sigh whistle out between his clenched teeth as he stared down at the small television, which now showed a large group of black coated people approaching the convention center.

"What we need is the military in here, not just us cops. Whoever these Brotherhood clowns are, they're taking our guys apart down there as if we were throwing rocks and nasty words and they have Abrams M-1 tanks! So take that one from the DoD."

McLaughlin's eyes narrowed as something then occurred to him.

"But before you do that, sergeant, can you get me a cell phone? If I can get a hold of the station that's broadcasting this shit, maybe we can get them to turn it off. If the feed's already going national, there's a good chance that it may inspire some panic in the streets, something we definitely do not want!"

"Damn!" Ham snarled as he slipped his cell phone back into his coat pocket. "The guys at the station want to pull the plug on us! Apparently some flatfoot in a local precinct thinks that our feed will instill panic in the hearts of the populace, or some other such bullshit, along with jeopardizing any military action the gathering special forces are about to engage in. And since they don't want to be responsible for something untoward happening, they're threatening to cut us off!"

"They can't do that!" Katherine hissed back, covering the live mike in her hand with the other to muffle the sound. "The people have a right to know what's going on here. Especially since it concerns the leaders of the ..."