3:38 AM, the confines of the CCW arena, first floor. The Ripper issued with night vision goggles and laser deflecting gear remains perched above the concession stand. His comrades remain positioned through out the arena awaiting a simple signal. The horseman scans his segment of the arena letting an inept security guard about one hour from the end of his shift shamble past him. For the indiscretions and insults given to the people of Eden by the CCW the Ripper wanted to just slit a throat or two and be done with it. But something told him that spilling blood here tonight would be a serious mistake.
" You owe me your little life prat." Ripper whispered under his breath.
A place like CCW arena which held essentially all the functions of the entire CCW including the president's offices was made to appear like a common arena. Yet, this place was built during war time, at a time in which humanity could not afford to be housed without some kind of fortress protection. Ripper determined there must be an underground here of sorts based on that logic. Kade had it built under secrecy funded by his own and a few other sources. It was precaution to keep certain parties in the dark about the arena's function and location. After all there was a war going on, and many parties at the time would have loved to bury CCW for good. That evidence and speculation led to Ripper's latest plan. In order to retrieve the body of Kveldulf, he would have to infultrate the underground located beneath CCW arena. Problem was, locating the entrance.
He waited until the teams reported in. Charlie, Bravo, Omega, Scion, and Alpha all reported the guard passing them. Ripper then moved to the doorway marked " DANGER, armed detail positioned beyond this door, authorized CCW personel must submit security badge upon entering."
Armed with a simple key pad and attached skeleton swipe card, the Ripper tested the system and sent an EMP wave through the locked doorway. The small light went black. Now to open the door. Rather, let someone else open it for him. As expected a large man dressed in CCW security uniform pointed his MP5 through the doorway just moments after the electronic system went dead. Ripper was there waiting for him, and forced the butt of the weapon into the guards chest, then taking hold of the barrel forced the man to the floor with an uppercut. Securing the submachine weapon Ripper soon found a door which seemed to have no way of entering. It was solid black, and from the looks of it quite secure.
The rest of Ripper's team secured the office area, and moved undetected securing the door behind them. Now the Ripper had under an hour to crack the massive door and retrieve the body. Two team experts studied the door.
" It's a blast door, secured from this side although there might be a remote device that opens it. Also from the sound I hear there's a lift. Without the means to trigger the door we can't open it without blowing the entire Arena."
Ripper pointed toward Kade's office. "Find the trigger, it's got to be in there somewhere."
Three squad members shifted into the President's office and began to search for a device that might open the blast door. They picked inconspicuous hiding places careful not to upturn any thing essential, they were trained to find such objects and soon they had discovered a hidden panel located inside of Kade's front left drawer of his massive desk.
There were four unmarked buttons, one surely would open the door. But what would the others do? What if it was a coded sequence? The Squad reported the findings to the Ripper.
"What kind of man is Kade? Would he bother with a sequence or does each button trigger a different thing?" Ripper thought his finger lingering over the buttons. Then he hit them all using the spread of his out stretched fingers. The four buttons locked down, and everything was silent. His team took defensive positions around the office, yet nothing happened. The EMP to the security system had shorted the connection. Further discovery revealed that the security guard had pressed the manual lock from his station seat within the office activating the security blast door before coming out to investigate. Ripper also noted the slight seams around the desk, namely four large squares. One for Kade's computer, one for his intercom, one for a lock box, and the last for a mini bar. This was wasting time.
Ripper hated panic rooms. That was what his objective was, cracking a panic room. That meant only a few knew the way to open that door, and with this fiasco tonight Kade would be changing everything to prevent a second attempt. He would have to finish this now. There would be no returning to this scene, not without blood getting spilled. There was no point in staying clean anymore.
" Ransack this place. I want a way into that panic room."
With Ripper's order his elite team pulled out knives and started searching for secret panels. They hacked at the art on the walls, tore up carpet, dug into drawers, and toppled book cases. As they worked nefariously, Ripper was listening for the outside guard. He heard him running toward the door and waited. A few seconds passed and the Ripper easily duped the guard into coming inside where he was knocked unconscious with a series of sharp fists to the jaw. Ripper dragged the man to the other where they were blindfolded, gagged, and tied together. With no other visible threats the team continued the search for a device, or another panel with would allow them into the panic room.
The office now was in shambles. Devices and papers scattered all over the floor, visible combat knife grooves in the walls, and priceless art left as rags. Ripper was growing impatient and picked up a Cathy coffee mug studied it, and then hammered it into the wall with a violent throw. All this cloak and dagger shit was getting them nowhere.
"Get me the first guard."
The team dragged the semi awake man to the Ripper's feet and held him to his knees. Ripper pulled his Liston blade from it's sheath and spun it around his fingers a few times.
" Alright, you hit the button and so your going to tell me how to open the door. Now we've been very polite up until now haven't we? So your going to tell me how to open that door otherwise I'll start getting a bit, well how shall we say rude. "
Ripper motioned for his team to hold his hand down on the desk. The Guard let out a small hiss of distress shaking trying to get free. Ripper then touched the cold steel to the man's index finger letting the tingle and slight sharpness of the blade do the work.
" One more time. The door. Or..."
Ripper stabbed his blade deep into the desk right by the Guards thumb, causing the man to jump. His voice rose as he began to spit out what was needed making the blind hood puff with desperate hot air.
"ALRIGHT! It's voice activated, there are devices within the door that read how you sound. Aghuhh, you just state your name and the door will open I swear!"
Ripper removed his blade and dangled it sideways above the hostage like he was going to cut his throat.
"Good boy, now open the door for us so we don't have to stay and cut you up. You have thirty seconds and then the pain is going deep."
The Guard with the aid of two of Ripper's force was dragged on his knees and pressed into the door. The Guard did what he was told and the massive door slid downward revealing a waiting lift. After assigning one member to guard the hostages, Ripper took the rest of the squad down the lift. As the elevation dropped the air chilled and soon everyone was seeing their own breath. After a few uneasy moments the lift and doors to the bottom level stopped and opened.
A low light forced the night vision gear to be removed from the team as they adjusted to what was there. It was an all purpose store room nearly a mile in length, solid metal doors latched every ten feet. Supplies and provisions could be visible through the square wired windows. Kade was planning to have a shelter in case things got too bad above the arena. Basic comforts were provided and available, but it seemed that most of the luxuries had not been moved down here yet. The fact that this place could be used as a second resistance base had Kade joined them soured any thoughts of humans surviving there for the Ripper. A team member signaled ahead indicating that the objective had been found. There lying with the frozen patties, mixed vegetables,ice cream and french fries, was a large crated box. "Do Not Remove" was stamped on it's side.
"Kade knew that this was important, he just didn't know what to do with the body. Poor bastard hid it away in hopes that Enigma or the House didn't come looking after. Check the lid, I want to make sure it's him."
Opening the contents of the frozen crate revealed the severed body of a large man. Another box was found at the body, which happened to be the head of the Reaver. After securing the contents and preparing the coffin for movement, Ripper gave the order for extraction. As the team moved the body back to the lift and arrived at the first floor offices again, an unmarked truck raced to the South entrance.
The squad member watching the guards shot them with a tranq dart that had the effect of a memory erasing penathol. The trauma they experienced would give way to them waking up in a heap of scattered office debris, with no memory of the last two weeks of their lives.
With every member accounted for, the Ripper sped away with the frozen body of the Reaver just before dawn in Toronto...
