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The Company
Time: Saturday, January 29, 2011 (twilight).
Place: Outside Irricana, Alberta.
Last Event: Recovering from the raid on the farmstead.
For those in the ruined barn – which was peppered by several hundred rounds spewed from a Minigun – the first order of business is to get people on their feet. Jili, while comatose, is reasonably stable thanks to Ben. Klas and Lev aren't nearly as messed up, although they're down for the count owing to multiple injuries, small and large. Ben and Paul are both injured, too, but they're the picture of health next to the others. Only Chaturvedi is truly doing well . . . physically, that is. Mentally, his sense of responsibility for Alfred and JB's deaths makes him a sympathetic boss but not a usefully decisive one.
Chaturvedi busies himself by helping with the first aid. Ben can't step away from Jili for even a minute, so he asks Chaturvedi to try to keep Paul from losing too much blood to drive. Chaturvedi gets to work and soon has Paul feeling a little better. Then the two of them see what they can do for Klas and Lev, which isn't much beyond pouring in clotting agent, wrapping the wounds, and hoping that Ben can take a look later. Ben himself is bleeding slightly from glass cuts, but that doesn't seem to be a serious concern – he has bled more from his nose and ears after a rough rugby match.
By dawn, everybody is stable enough that Paul can venture into the farmhouse to clean up some. His first order of business is to recover the bodies of Alfred and JB, so that they won't be found by the authorities. He drags them back to the remains of the barn and zips them into the bags that Alfred thought to stockpile. The irony of this isn't lost on him. Then he loads his dead friends aboard the bus, which he notes is largely unscathed thanks to having been screened by the armored monster during the battle.
Paul then returns to the farmhouse and starts dragging out shot-up assassins and their weapons so that they will be found. He doesn't need his police instincts to know that once this mess is discovered by the local cops, it will become a circus involving the RCMP, CSIS, and likely the Canadian Forces, not to mention every kind of news media. What his inner detective does tell him is that if the Canadians find dead American killers, U.S.-made weapons, and a misplaced U.S. Army helicopter in Alberta, it will give the CIA a serious black eye. And that is an injury he most dearly wants to inflict!
While Paul labors, Chaturvedi sees what he can do to get Klas and Lev conscious. He makes liberal use of smelling salts and oxygen. The net effect is to wake up Lev enough that he can stagger onto the bus, sit down, and look pale and miserable, and to send Klas hobbling down to Alfred's cellar armory looking for useful kit. Then Chaturvedi heads out to help Paul for a while.
After an hour's work, the situation is as sorted out as it can be: Ben has Jili stable enough to move; Klas, bent on torching the place, has gathered accelerants and a dozen AN/M14 incendiary grenades; and Paul has moved the bodies out into plain view, put the team's belongings (clothing, computers, etc.) on the bus, and cleaned the farmhouse sufficiently that Klas' fire should do the rest. Then Chaturvedi, Klas, and Paul load food, fuel cans, medicine, and weapons aboard the bus alongside the personal possessions and two body bags. Klas also grabs Alfred's homemade mortar, while Paul procures Jili's stash of party drugs – nobody wants to give the Americans a chance to weasel out of this by claiming to have been hunting terrorists or drug dealers. Finally, Klas helps Ben get Jili aboard the vehicle on an improvised stretcher.
As the sun moves higher, everybody appreciates that while the farm is too far from the neighbors for the shooting to have been heard, somebody on the highway will eventually spot the helicopter, if not the bodies. It's time to leave! Paul drives Alfred's armored truck back over to the chopper, so that it's unambiguous what happened there, and then heads back and warms up the bus. Meanwhile, Klas laces the farmhouse, barn rubble, and cellar armory with gasoline and highly flammable engine cleaner, and tosses incendiary grenades into the mess. Recalling the makeshift land mine in the driveway, Klas rigs the snowmobile to run over it, setting it off with a loud explosion.
With the place on fire and a big dust cloud hanging over the blast site, it's definitely time to bug out. Paul drives across the frozen field, picks up Klas, and hits the highway. As he does, Chaturvedi whips out his cell phone and calls the same CBC reporter that the Agents tipped off in B.C. regarding the ship full of slaves from Asia. He identifies himself unequivocally as the same tipster, and proceeds to explain how a CIA hit squad attacked people on Canadian soil. He omits little, explicitly mentioning the helicopter, armed men, and ensuing violence and fire, and warning of the presence of possible booby traps.
Aided by the excellent maps that Vinnie picked up in B.C., Paul drives for about an hour, doing his best to avoid police attention. By the time the situation at the farm has been discovered to be more than just a fire, the bus is outside the area contained by the inevitable roadblocks. Paul then cruises through a town and asks his associates to be on the lookout for a medical facility where Ben can treat Jili, Klas, and Lev. A small-town hospital, a local clinic, or even a largish doctor's office will do – the only requirement is that it isn't occupied at 07:30 on a Saturday.
As luck would have it, the Agents do in fact spot what looks to be a small professional center that serves a number of nearby villages. The posted hours show it to be closed on Saturdays, while signs out front proclaim "Day Surgery" and "Dental Surgery," and list the names of several physicians. Ben feels that this will do. Paul circles once, and then pulls around behind the place, stopping in the empty parking lot out back.
With Paul staying alert at the wheel, Ben monitoring Jili, and Lev in no shape to do much more than complain, it's up to Chaturvedi and Klas to deal with the door. While neither is a break-and-enter expert, both have some knowledge of electronics and are willing to try to disable the alarm. Fortunately for them, the security is terrible. Klas manages to bypass the alarm switch with simple tools, while Chaturvedi simply jiggles the lock open.
With the door open, everybody moves as quickly as his wounds allow. Klas again helps Ben with Jili, while Chaturvedi and Paul assist Lev. Once Ben and his patients are safely inside and out of sight, Paul and Chaturvedi head off to dispose of Alfred and JB's bodies. Klas locks the door behind them and hides where he can watch it, Lev passes out on an examining table, and Ben gets ready to treat Jili.
Ben finds that the small surgery has fairly up-to-date hardware but rather limited medications. After making sure that Lev isn't bleeding out and that Klas is up to standing guard, he gets to work on Jili. He administers what fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers he can find, and manages to get the two bullets out and sew her up. Owing to the wounds' proximity to the heart, this takes several hours. When Ben is done, Jili is stitched, taped, plugged full of hoses, breathing from a tube, and thoroughly unconscious, but no longer at death's door.
After that, Ben attends to Lev. Lev is peppered with bullets and spall, but it's all in muscle – not in vital organs. The main problem seems to be blood loss, so Ben starts an IV, digs out the slugs, and sews up the holes. Then he turns to Klas, who proves to be in far less severe shape and remains awake for the whole procedure. Both men get a hefty dose of antibiotics, just in case.
Meanwhile, out on the highway, Paul drives for almost two hours – taking care to stick to speed limits and avoid police – until Chaturvedi spots an obviously abandoned farmstead down a side road. On searching the place, they find a capped-off well. They lug the body bags over to it and toss them in, along with Alfred's makeshift mortar. Chaturvedi says a few words remembered from a Hindu funeral rite, and pours a bottle of Rīgas Melnais balzams down the well in Alfred's memory. Then Paul cleans up the site and the two of them start the long drive back.
It is early afternoon when Chaturvedi and Paul rejoin the others at the professional center. Ben informs them that Jili will live – although he estimates it will be a month before she's ambulatory and not a sickly gray color – and that Lev should be up and about shortly. Klas is able to report on his condition in person. Ben disinfects Paul's wounds and his own, and adds a shot of antibiotics for good measure. Then those who are upright clean the place as well as they're able, discussing what to do next as they work.
The conclusion is that it would be best to head north to Edmonton, which is a major centre for the oil and gas industry, and thus a better place for foreigners to hide. Once the clinic is tidied up, everybody changes into clean clothing and boards the bus. Paul tops up the fuel tank and starts the haul to Edmonton. Once again, he drives cautiously and avoids trouble. Toward dark, Jili wakes up enough to cough, complain about horrible pain, and pass out again.
On reaching Edmonton, Chaturvedi asks to be left at an Internet café with Jili's (very high-tech, secure) laptop so that he can try to reach the group in Darmstadt and get help. Paul goes with him, toting a concealed pistol just in case – nobody feels like taking chances. Ben takes the wheel of the bus and drives around the city. Klas rides shotgun, while Jili and Lev rest, low and out of sight.
At the Internet café, Chaturvedi e-mails one of the many Gmail accounts that the Agents use for dropping off messages. He manages to reach Anabel, who is up late, and communicate subtly that the group in Canada needs extraction. Anabel gets Schreiber on the secure phone at her bedside and explains the situation. Schreiber tells Anabel that he'll look into what Staedert is willing to authorize, and asks her to learn the location of the Canadian team and get him the names of those who will need new false identities.
Chaturvedi and Anabel correspond some more by e-mail. They change addresses and choose their words carefully, as neither wants to name actual people or places. As a result, it takes a fair amount of time to communicate what needs saying. Eventually, however, Anabel manages to deduce that Chaturvedi has Ben, Jili, Klas, Lev, and Paul with him; that the six are in Edmonton; and that they have wounded.
Anabel calls Schreiber and shares what she has learned. Schreiber confirms that he has photos and descriptions of everyone in question, so he can work up false identities by pulling some strings. He asks Anabel to inform her associates that their extraction from Edmonton will be under the guise of flying them out for "experimental treatment" at Darmatech's biomedical facilities in Darmstadt, and that they should be ready to move. Anabel passes along Schreiber's instructions in as circumspect a way as possible, which again takes a lot of back-and-forth. Eventually, though, Chaturvedi indicates that he gets the message.
In Edmonton, Ben picks up Chaturvedi and Paul, who fill in everyone on the news from Germany. The short-term plan is to stay at a cheap motel not far from the Edmonton International Airport. Chaturvedi has some cash, so this isn't a problem. Helping the wounded inside without being seen requires some stealth, but the Agents manage it. After that, it's time to rest and wait.
While Chaturvedi keeps an eye on the laptop, the others watch TV. Already, there are news reports of "a terrible U.S. Army helicopter crash resulting in deaths, fire" . . . and already, the media are all over it, saying that from what they saw, the official "training accident" story doesn't hold water – not 400 km inside Canadian airspace.