Major Roald Hampton sat in the office of the Butchers, looking over the paperwork that was strewn over the desk. He was getting very bored and wanted to get this over with and get back to his apartment. He knew that the Rebels would fall hook line and sinker for the trap he had set, now he just wanted to get this over with. The Butcher sat in the chair across from the Major and was pale as the paper on the desk. He knew that this was the end, the Major was not known for his mercy or his understanding. He had no idea that his nephew was giving information to the Rebels. The boys heart was in the right place, he himself would have supported the Rebels if he could without risking his family. But they were sitting in the apartment upstairs crying and fearing for their future.
His nephew was slumped in the corner, blood dried on his cheeks, his eyes blackened and closed from the beating he received earlier. The Butcher was heart broken, as he watched the young lad take a massive beating he wanted to scream at the soldiers hitting him time after time after time. But, had he spoken up, he would have been on the floor also, and probably in a worse condition than his nephew. He still felt like a heel for not saying anything.
"Bravo 1-0, Bravo Lead." Hampton spoke into the communicator.
"1-0, Go Lead."
"Any sign yet?"
"Negative Lead, all quiet." the man answered.
Hampton cursed and spat on the floor, this was taking to long, and he was sick of the smell that permeated the whole building. It was sickly and horrid, and Hampton wanted out of there as soon as possible. But the Rebels weren't playing the game the way he needed the game to be played. He was starting to lose his temper, this was not the way he wanted to spend his Thursday evening.
"You have certainly made my night very unhappy, and I think you need to understand that I will not be very forgiving about this tedious evening." He snarled at the Butcher and his nephew.
"I am sorry..."
Shut up, I don't want to hear another word out of your grubby, toothless mouth." he shouted at the man.
The Butcher clamped his mouth shut so quickly there was an audible click.
*****
"Whiskey 5-5, Whiskey 1-0."
"5-5, go."
"Initiate." Jemimah ordered.
"Roger, Initiate." The answer came.
Atsuoko stepped silently across roof toward the Guardsman laying prone scanning the alley with his rifle. He would kick off the action plan, he volunteered to take out the first sniper. The Guardsman was so intent on watching his area that he was completely oblivious to the approaching from behind.
Atsuoko crouched slowly, his knife poised, he stopped for a moment waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
"Bravo 14, sitrep?"
"Situation normal." The Guardsman replied. Hideo Atsuoko breathed a silent sigh of relief, had he acted sooner, it could have burned the entire operation. He leaned over, and what looked like a casual movement, ran the blade quickly between the 3rd and 4th ribs of the guardsman. Death was instantaneous and no sound was made, he reached over and placed the body as though it were in place and scanning the alley. He slipped the communicator off the dead man and placed the ear piece in his left ear. If something was about to cause a problem, he wanted to know about it before hand.
"1-0, 5-5. Alley over watch clear." He announced in a whisper.
"Roger 5-5. All Whiskey's go, go, go." She called. She stood in a doorway watching the front of the Butchers shop, there was a drunk sitting against the wall. It was obvious the man was a guardsman, he was constantly scanning the street in every direction. Jemimah slipped the silenced pistol from under her coat and slipped the slide back, the cocking action made a slight click causing her to freeze. Fortunately there was no one close to her to hear it, she stepped out of the doorway and strode purposefully down the street toward the Butchers shop. She strolled up to the drunk, he was looking the wrong way as she approached, lifted her weapon and with a soft snap from the silencer, she decorated the wall with the man's brain.
"1-0, Entry clear."
"2-0, front secure."
"4-5, rear access secure."
"3-0, over watch clear."
"5-5, 1-0, meet me at the loading area in the alley." She ordered.
"5-5, understood." Atsuoko replied quickly.
Both soldiers arrived at the rear door to the butchers together, both nodded and came close together.
"We are clear around the building Ma'am."
"Good, any movement seen in the upper levels of the building?" She asked.
"We have at least two on the second floor, Mackey and Simpson are on the roof awaiting the order to enter." Jemimah nodded and looked up, she knew she wouldn't see the soldiers on the roof, but it was an automatic response.
"Good, we will move on my mark," she looked up again and triggered her comms. "2-4, 3-4, breach on my mark, copy?" There was no voice response, but they each clicked their comms twice to acknowledge the order. She looked at her watch, and waited for the second hand to reach the 12. "Three, two, one and Mark!"
Atsuoko, dabbed a few drops of oil on the hinges, then turned the door knob and opened the door quickly. He moved silently down the hall, he froze as he heard voices coming from the small office space on the left. His hand flew up in a fist, making Jemimah freeze a step behind her Sergeant. Both listened to the voices to try and assess the situation in the office, the point was to retrieve their informant alive, not three quarters dead.
*****
Hampton sat across from the Butcher, snearing as he watched the older man crying his eyes out.
"Will you shut the hell up. You are making me lose my temper, and I hate losing my temper."
"Yes Sir." The older man simpered.
"If these Rebels dogs don't arrive soon, I am going to have to find my enjoyment....." The last word died on his lips as he felt the razor sharp lade press against his throat.
"Oh, I think your chances of pleasure tonight have really taken a dive." Atsuoko whispered in his ear. Hampton realised that he was in a very bad situation, in fact he almost panicked, but the blade against his throat brought his emotions under some level of control.
"Hello Major, I am Lt. Colonel Jemimah Shillington-Smythe. In fact you probably know my father, I believe he is your commander." She explained. Hampton's eyes went very wide as the information sunk in.
"Bullshit, the General would never allow his daughter to fight against the King." Hampton snapped. But Jemimah just laughed and walked over the the young man lying in the corner. He wasn't too badly injured, but he had taken a pretty heavy beating and was showing the bruises of it. "Ok, young man, time to go. Sergeant, the butcher and his family need evacuation as well. Tie up the good Major and get moving."
"Yes Ma'am." Jemimah helped the boy up and handed him off to Atsuoko.
"Now, what to do about you, Major Hampton." She sat on the edge of the small desk and looked the Guardsman over. He was clearly a blue blood, his uniform was custom made and was spotless. "You must have been furious to have to sit in this grubby office?"
"What do you want Rebel?" He snapped.
"Nothing really, just thought I would let you know that you that you got smashed in by your bosses Daughter." She smiled sweetly and smashed in the head with the hilt of her combat knife. Hampton never saw it coming and was stunned into unconsciousness by the heavy knife hilt.
Jemimah looked about the office and shook her head sadly, the last thing she wanted to do was destroy a family business. But, in this case, the weight of their lives out weighed the business. She took a quick look out to the front of the shop, seeing nothing outside she turned and disappeared out the back door and into the night.
*****
Jemimah walked through the small entrance to the Platoon CP, as usual it was almost silent, her people were amazing at maintaining noise discipline. She walked over to the Comms. Operator and looked over the recent communications, but before she could start reading the Comm Tech handed her a message. She read the message three times before she could digest the content. 'Shit', she whispered to herself.
"Alright people, pack it up. We are headed back to Northampton. The Boss has ordered us back." She ordered.
Twelve hours later, Jemimah stood in the outer office of General Turner, the commander of her regiment. She was in a foul mood after having to pack up her hide and head back to the base, but she was ordered to and she followed the orders. She did her best to calm herself down and keep her mind open, there had to be a reason why they had been ordered back. She just hoped that it was a new mission. She and her Platoon had been highly effective at causing grief behind the Royalist lines, she had in fact enjoyed it a great deal. There was a picture on the wall that had a number of people standing around a massive buck in the woods somewhere. But there was no one she recognised in the photo, but it was a great picture anyway. She smiled as she remembered her family hunting trips into the Cotswolds', it was one of the few memories that she held onto. It was the last time that she remembered enjoying a time where her entire family was together.
She jumped as the door opened and a head was stuck out.
"Jem, come on in." General Turner called out. She was immediately worried, why was the General opening his own door and calling her in. Where was Major Watson? She placed her cap on her head and walked in with her head held high. She was proud of what her team had achieved and no one would be allowed to be critical of them. She all but stormed into the office ready to demand a reason for calling her and her team back from the front. The office was a well appointed study that was, no doubt, the sanctuary of a nobleman before the war. The walls were surrounded with books, the cases were all made of expensive oak, stained so dark that it looked almost black. There was a massive partners desk with a beautiful leather writing pad, a double sided bankers lamp and wooden file cabinets lining the wall behind. She was a little in awe of the room, it was so much more than anything she had ever seen before, her own fathers study was nice, but this was fit for a king.
"Col. Shillington-Smythe, thank you for coming so quickly", a voice said from the desk. Jemimah looked up quickly, and her breath caught in her throat. The one man she never expected to see, especially sitting at a desk so close to the front looked back with a small grin on his face.
"My Liege!" She said dropping to her knee. Arthur smiled and waved his hand.
"No need for that Colonel. I have been getting some very interesting reports from General Turner here about your exploits around Hampstead." He explained. "So I thought I would come up here and take a good look around for myself." Arthur stood from the chair and walked around the desk, leaning against the desk and kicking his left foot over the right. "How about a first hand report about the last little sojourn into the Town?"
"There really isn't a lot to tell, Sire. We needed to retrieve an important informant before the Royalists got to him. It turned out that the Bad guys didn't count on us bringing a full platoon to the party and we were able to take out the two squads waiting for us. There was a foppish Major leading them. And sadly for him, the arrogance of the Royalists simply didn't think we were anything to be concerned by. We were able to retrieve the asset and wipe out the enemy, I left the Major to return and report on his massive failure to the General in charge."
"Ahhhh yes, the General in charge, your father if I remember my Intel." Arthur quipped. "Oh, yes Colonel, we are fully aware of your family ties. But, please don't worry, if the Intel boffins had any concerns, you would not be in the position of authority that you enjoy." The Young King in waiting explained. "You have distinguished yourself in every task asked of you."
"I have simply tried to do my duty for the cause and you, Sire." She replied nervously.
"Oh, I think you have done a lot more than that, Jem." General Turner replied. Both men smiling as they took her nervous demeanour. "I think we may need to put her at a bit more ease, Arthur." Turner said.
"Oh, Sid, you are such a spoil sport, I was so enjoying her ill ease. But, you are correct, Leiutenant Colonel Jemimah Shillington-Smythe, for your exceptional service to the Loyalist cause and to your King, I promote you to Colonel of the Guard and task you with the protection of the crown and all that entails." Arthur spoke with the distinct formality that only a King could achieve.
"My King, I am honoured beyond words." She said, tears rising in her eyes.
"Well Jem, you always did expect far too much of yourself. Now, before you get too excited, I think you better hear what we are going to task you with." Turner said seriously. The smile dropped from Jemimah's face in a heartbeat.
"Colonel, you are being given full command of the 55th Commando Regiment along with other elements for a very important operation." Arthur explained. Jemimah nodded seriously. "The front has slowed to a point where we are becoming badly delayed in our time frame for taking London. Therefore, we want you to break the dead lock and force a break in the line. To do that we have decided to hit a particular point on the line and we want your Regiment to smash through and open the way into London." He explained.
"Yes Sir, I am ready to make it happen." She answered.
"You may find the task very difficult once you have all the details." Turner chimed in.
"The point we have chosen, we have done so because the point is heavily defended, but has a number of weak points that can be exploited."
Jemimah started to think she was not going to find this an enjoyable mission, everything would come down to her ability as a leader. She had worked very hard to achieve the levels she had, and this was the culmination of seven years of toil, blood, sweat and tears. She had no illusions that she was more special than any other soldier that fought for either side, but she was driven by the rejection from her father. His amusement at her desire to be a soldier made her feel so small and unimportant, that she ran away from home and made her way north to join the Loyalist army. Now she was being tasked with the most important mission of her short career, by King Arthur himself, no less.
"Colonel, you are to assault the Regimental headquarters at the Kenwood Estate, you are to deliver the estate into Loyalist hands. The General is to be taken alive, if possible, but I am not going to put any of your troops in danger just to capture a mid level Commander." Arthur explained, he stopped and looked Jemimah in the eye and asked a question. "Colonel, do you have any concerns with this mission?" He was watching her reaction closely.
"I won't say that I have no reservations about taking on my fathers regiment, but, I also know that I will never, under any circumstances, put my soldiers at any higher risk than battle already brings. My father made his opinion of me very clear before I left. I will prosecute this mission in the manner that I have prosecuted every mission for my entire career." She explained. Deep in her heart, she felt terror at facing her father, but she was determined not to allow that to influence her leadership. "I will not allow any hurdles to affect the mission." Both Arthur and Turner were nodding as she explained her stand.
"We have no doubt that you will lead this mission in the manner we expect from any of our Staff Officers. You will have complete authority to assemble your command team. Be thoughtful and only promote those you have complete faith in. Just a bit of advice from a friend." Turner said confidently. "I will have staff forward the details to you by eighteen hundred today. So, unless you have any questions, I will let you get moving." Turner smiled at her, it wasn't a happy smile, but then again, when you are sending men and women off to battle, happy was something that was unaffordable.
"Thank you Sir, I will not let you down." She replied. She stood, saluted both men and turned to leave, her heart was beating at a thousand times a minute. The sudden promotion and command of an extremely experienced Regiment of Special Operations troops made her feel very humble indeed. She closed the door behind her and rushed back to the Officers Quarters so she could sit down and make plans for her command structure for the mission.