Emily noticed a large truck backing up to a loading dock on the far side of the main building. Several HSF guards surrounded the truck. Emily took out her monocular and saw people all wearing the same type of jumpsuit being led from the building into the back of the truck. As she watched, she recognized the daughter who had been raped step out on to the loading dock dressed like the others. A moment later, Emily saw the parents, and they were all put in the back of the truck.
Emily went back to her car and waited for the truck to leave the installation. When it finally did, she followed.
Emily heard her phone ring and looked at the clock on the dashboard. She was late for the rendezvous. She answered the phone and heard Ralph’s voice.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Not at the hospital – they were never taken there. I’m still following them. I’ll report in when I find out where they’re going.”
“Be careful,” Ralph said. “We’re meeting at my office in 90 minutes to fill in Tom. If you’re not here by then, I’ll call you so you can be part of the debrief.”
“Be there as quick as I can,” Emily said before she hung up.
Emily followed the truck for another 30 minutes before she saw it pull into what looked like a military airfield. Emily slowed down and saw the truck pull up next to a cargo plane at one end of the runway. She took out her video camera and zoomed in on the truck. She watched the guards unload the people and march them up the rear ramp of the cargo plane. She recognized the family she had been watching as they got off the truck. The daughter was clearly in a state of shock over what had happened to her that night, and the parents looked afraid and confused, as did many of the other people being loaded onto the plane. A few minutes later, the ramp in the back of the plane closed. The engines started, and the plane started rolling forward. It was in the air as the truck drove out of the gate to return to “Sector 2.”
Emily turned off the camera, more confused than ever. Why was the family taken to an airfield and put on a cargo plane with other people when they were supposed to be taken to the hospital? She looked at her watch and then started the car and drove to Ralph’s office.
8
Ralph’s entire team was sitting in the large conference room when Tom arrived. Ralph and Emily were uploading the video and audio from the cameras and video viewers so they could show Tom what had happened that night.
“I think you should see the video first, Tom,” Ralph said as Tom sat down at the end of the table. “We can handle introductions later.”
“Very well, Ralph.”
Ralph gave Tom a quick overview of what happened at the park. He forwarded the video to the point where the three men arrived at the statue and announced where they were going. He then forwarded the video to the house on Euclid Avenue.
Tom felt dismay, rage, confusion, and several other emotions as he watched the targets search the house, the daughter get violated, the HSF officers arrive, and the revelation of who the targets really were. For a moment, he was completely speechless. Nothing could have ever prepared him for what he had just seen. Government agents acting like common criminals, raping an innocent young girl, and doing it with complete immunity from prosecution!
“What happened to the family?” he asked finally.
Ralph pulled up the video that Emily shot while following the family. “They were taken to an HSF installation, where they were dressed in these jumpsuits and put on this truck. The truck then went to this military airfield. The family was put on this plane. The HSF officer referenced an ‘internment facility.’ I can only assume they were being taken there with these other people by plane. We have no idea where the plane went.”
“And the targets?”
“They were taken away by the HSF officers. Supposedly, they’re being sent to Dallas for another assignment.”
Tom was getting angry. “We have reports of this ‘gang’ assaulting dozens of people around the city for weeks. Now they’re just going to another town to terrorize more innocent people?”
“Apparently so,” Ralph responded.
“Do we know if any of their other victims have disappeared like this family did?”
“I knew you were going to ask that,” Ralph said. “We don’t know for sure, but we’re looking into it. The problem is: if anyone has disappeared, it means that HSF found seditious or what it considers to be subversive materials there, and we probably wouldn’t know anything about it because no crime would have been reported. Otherwise, if nothing was found, the victims would have reported the break-in, and we’d know about it from the police reports. Also, from what we heard tonight, this ‘gang’ attacks people based on tips called into the HSF hotline. What happened tonight could have been triggered by one of this family’s neighbors trying to get a reward.”
Tom hated the thought of this – pitting neighbor against neighbor, making everyone suspicious of everyone. What is the purpose? Why does the HSF want to turn people against each other? Who benefits from this?
“Did you listen to what the senior officer said about guns?” Ralph asked.
Tom nodded. “It’s amazing that the President can do all of this through executive orders, bypassing Congress altogether. I’m surprised someone hasn’t challenged it in the Supreme Court yet.”
“Who would dare?” Ralph asked. “If HSF can do this, then anyone challenging the President’s actions could face the same fate.”
Tom reflected on this for a while. If Ralph were correct, this was nothing short of tyranny, and the Order had pledged itself to fight tyranny wherever it existed. The implications were staggering.
“We need to present this to the Order. I’ll set up a special meeting with the Grand Magistry for all of you to present what happened tonight. In the meantime,” Tom said, rising from his seat and walking around the conference table to stand next to Ralph, “I want to thank each of you for your actions tonight in getting this information to me. Clearly, this intervention is over, but I think it’s going to launch another one – one that will end up involving the entire Order before long.”
Turning to Ralph, he said, “Can you introduce me to your team?”
“Certainly,” Ralph replied. Ralph had each of the members of the team step forward. Tom shook each team member’s hand as Ralph introduced them and gave a little information about their background. Tom recognized several members of the team from previous interventions, but some of the faces were new.
While Ralph handled the introductions, Emily finished compiling all of the audio and video recorded that night and downloaded it onto several portable storage devices. She kept one of the devices – the other two were for Ralph and Tom. She disconnected the equipment and packed it up. When she was done, she looked up and realized that she was alone in the conference room with Ralph and Tom.
Emily stood and brushed aside a strand of her light red hair that had come loose from her ponytail. This was the first time she had been so close to Tom, and she had to admit to herself that she liked what she saw. She knew his reputation as a leader, both in the Order and in business, and as a strategist who had a talent for making plans that worked well, but she didn’t know that he was so handsome.
Ralph had told her a little about Tom, including details about what had happened two years earlier with Antonio Mancuso and how Tom had come up with a way to save the Order while taking down a huge crime organization. She had worked on one of the surveillance teams during that initiative – following the men who bombed the Columbus Commandery – but she still didn’t know everything that had happened, and of Jenny she