Turn 23 - The Hunter’s Strike
You decide that there is very little to be gained by waiting. This is by all evidence a small cell of people with very little to no real evidence that they are part of a larger network. Stanley’s grudge was personal and not very rational at this point, you doubted he’d have cared to recruit outside the most trusted of those who shared his grudge.
Despite your half-hearted attempt to personally command the strike force you were sitting in the command center in the Palace monitoring the operation instead. You had had zero expectation of actually getting away with it, but you really wanted to be the one to look Stanley in the eye and give him the ‘Reasons You Suck’ speech.
Each of his people had a small strike team ready to grab them. The mole he had in the ATC tower was on console, the delivery driver was on a job that you’d arranged for him to get. The janitor was also under close surveillance, as were the others.
The timer ticked down… then…
“Go go go go go.” came the command from Michelle. Jane was leading the team assigned to take down Stanley himself while Michelle had overall command of the entire operation.
On screen you watched as a pair of plain clothes agents entered the ATC tower, dressed as safety inspectors for the ‘scheduled’ safety inspection. So they were able to easily get close to the mole… and hit him with a stun baton and knock him unconscious before he even knew he was in danger.
The delivery driver had arrived at the job site, as soon as he exited the truck to open the rear gate he was smoothly taken down by two tranq darts fired from a sniper. The janitor likewise succumbed to a pair of tranq darts.
The rest were swarmed by tactical teams, none of them were in places where they could be tricked into vulnerability. So each take down favored speed and overwhelming force over subtlety once the go order was given.
Well, most of them, Jane had dressed up as a Girl Scout, made herself look as cute and winsome as she could, and had gotten Stanley to come to the door to hear her pitch for why he should buy some cookies… where he promptly got a tranq dart to the neck and a stun baton jammed into his crotch. Jane could be vicious.
One of the targets, the faux security guard, was killed when he managed to pull a pistol and open fire on the take down squad, causing them to return fire with lethal force, but the rest of the cell were captured.
Your shoulders slump, this was an immense relief to you that this was over. Sarah and Willis were both still in comas, but this was over. Except for the trials, but that was almost a formality at this point.
Well, mostly a formality. There was something you wanted to do that you thought might help defuse any other ‘bombs’ of this nature.
You’d already gotten in contact with Leah Goodwin and had had a long discussion with her. She was surprisingly fine with the situation, her reputation had been cleared up in the aftermath of the Gem Conspiracy, she’d put in her 20, as she put it, and retired a Major, and had a small retirement ‘shack’ as she put it on Capricorn where she was living with ‘Lady’, the Grifftiger who’d claimed her. She didn’t seem to mind being claimed either.
She’d actually self-published a book on the ethics of black and deniable operations, drawing on the ethics degree she’d earned following her retirement. She offers to send you a signed copy, which you accept. Security scans it carefully before letting you have it, of course, but they find nothing and it is a quite interesting read.
You extend to her an offer to serve as ombudsman to the new Special Branch of the Queen’s Own, which she gratefully accepts. Evidently she wasn’t joking about the ‘shack’, but she’d been content there. Her and Lady move to Griffsport and soon she has a second job as a guest lecturer on military ethics at the Aerie.
Mack Hogan had not been directly part of the Gem Conspiracy, just a useful psychopath. He’d been arrested for Murder One almost twenty years ago when he’d bludgeoned a waitress to death over a spilled drink. You’d not noticed in all the chaos of that period, but he’d been put to death for that crime 15 years ago.
None of the other ‘black ops’ sorts that you’d ever interacted or considered were at all interesting, most were fully retired, none of them had done anything that would require your attention or concern.
You do have to decide how to handle the trials, however. Part of you wants a public spectacle to prove that justice is being done and that the threat is handled, part of you wants to handle it quietly out of a sense of remorse for what your father had done to the perpetrators that had inspired this.
[] Public Trial. Let Justice Be Done, Even If The Sky Should Fall
[] Private Trial. They need to be punished for their crimes, but that punishment shouldn’t include public humiliation.
