It's Like An Underground College Or Hotel.

Northern New Hampshire

Most of the electrical work is already installed in the underground facility, so we can view each room as we walk the hallways.  Eve is marking our progress on a little notebook so we can backtrack. Tango is leading and at this point he stops at each door because he knows we need to have a look.

This place is amazing, with all the comforts of a hotel.  

What is more amazing is it is empty right now.

Each barracks room is designed to hold four individuals in almost a dormitory fashion. In my opinion, the only thing different than a dorm is that as you enter each room, you first encounter a rack to hold each person's rifle, sidearm, and other assorted stingers.  Each room had beds, desks, and places to hang clothes.

I've seen worse ways to house combatants.

In other rooms, we find a locker room-type bathroom with multiple stalls, urinals, and showers.  Eve noticed no separation between males and females. 

That brings up why this place exists.  It's made to house a small army needing a hiding place.

Eve raised a few good questions while inspecting a ​state-of-the-art laundry facility.

"Allston, who the hell is supposed to live here?"

"The only theory I can offer based on the nationalities of all our dead friends is, at some point, this place is here to house an insurgent army."

"Run by either Russians or the Chinese or both?"

"A group that would be creating trouble here in the northeast."

I added, "Maybe they would be here to sabotage railroad lines and disrupt infrastructure like power substations, cellular towers, and church bingo games." 

Eve listened, scrunched up her face a bit, and said, "If a group were to disrupt cellular communications, I wouldn't get any of your text messages asking me to stop at the market on my way home to get tortilla chips and avocados?"

She added, "Cell tower go boom, Eve gets home to watch Netflix sooner." "Hmmmmm"

I added, "Except the Internet will also be disrupted."

"I'd just arrive home sooner to kick your ass in Scrabble." 

"By candlelight" 

"Hey, do you remember when we played Strip Scrabble, and you had to watch Tango do his business from the deck naked?"

"It was cold that night," I said.

Eve said, "I don't recall, Oh that's right I had all my clothes on."

By the way, that's the truth. Nobody beats Eve in Scrabble and every attempt I make to contend for her title ends up with me going down in FLAMES, which is an 11 point word.

"I wasn't naked. I still had socks on."

We came to the end of a hall, and it turned right.  The next room we entered was a galley-type kitchen with a ​dining hall. The hall had TVs everywhere, four pool tables, and a side room for video games. There was also a bar and unstocked glass coolers.

"This is incredible," Eve said.

"Very homey," I added.

We started going down the hall, heading for what I believed had to be the Command and Control Center.

Beijing Capital International Airport - Beijing

The passengers on the flight from New York were told to stay in their seats.

Bao was briefed about the situation in North America and is seated in the terminal in front of a computer.

The overhead music with sporadic announcements in English still played even though this airport wing was cleared of everyone.

Bao's former Ministry Of State Security Boss and a handful of party officials were here. At least one would be a direct mouth to the chairman's ear. 

They were all concerned for themselves. 

The next twenty minutes were critical for Bao and his immediate future.

"How do we respond to this situation, Yeung Bao?" his former boss asked.

Bao did not sense anger or animosity in his tone. 

"Please allow me to review and understand what is happening, sir," Bao said loud enough for all to hear.

 Bao nodded his head, an indication of subservience. It was important to be seen as a loyal servant to the state.

"Two individuals are inside site number six, the one in Northern New England," his boss said. 

"We think you had recent encounters with them."

His boss pressed a control key, and the images of Thomas Allston and Evelyn Crowder appeared. 

Bao flinched just a bit when he saw the photos and for a second or two he had to do some quick assuming, and he had to be correct.

"We had a team attempt to eliminate these two last week." "The team failed."

"According to the American news two of the three sent to retrieve the computer were killed and one survived." 

"All three men were in service to China for many years."

"The American government must have figured that out by now."

"The two individuals in Site Six are civilians."

"The woman owns a coffee shop." 

"The man is a disgraced former policeman with six years of military service."

"Somehow, they figured out where Site Six Is and went to see it." 

"This is not an American military response." Bao added,"

"Site Six has to be given up to the Americans if we want to separate China from its origin."

"The Russians may look bad, though."

"Bao stared at his boss. and said, "I have never been disloyal to the party or China ever." 

"I can fix this." 

"It's a defeat for us, but the Americans will not tell the world what is happening."

"The climate in America right now has them blaming Russia for everything."

His boss went over to the group of party officials and his boss, and there was a bit of a rumble as they had a quick discussion.

At one point Bao heard someone say "It is his fault we are in this situation."

Another rumble discussion took place.

Bao's boss said, "The Party trusts you can fix this to put the Chairman in the least light."

"They would be grateful."

Bao typed into the computer and called the remaining two Spetnaz team members in Boston, waiting for things to cool down before they went home.

He told them they needed to return to Site Six and kill two intruders. Each would receive another three million Euros.

Bao's boss shifted on his feet and got nervous about the six million Euros. 

Bao told his boss, "They won't live to collect the money."

Bao called another contact in New York.

FBI New England Regional Headquarters - Chelsea, MA

Pat V. OShea-Milton, FBI, had the desk today.  

Her job was to take incoming tips and direct anything important to the correct people. She had to make a decision about the last call that came in.  

The caller was a woman who reported she saw Soldiers with automatic weapons on the highway speeding north. She said they drove past her at a high speed and "gave her the finger" when they drove by. She hung up.

P.V. logged the call into the computer and was mulling over whether this was a crackpot caller or something worth sending up the food chain when a second call came in. 

This caller, a male, said he saw armed men with automatic weapons heading north on the highway.  This caller placed the armed men further north than the woman who called. 

"Those fuckers flew by me and gave me the finger." 

"They had machine guns, so I didn't confront them."

He hung up.

P.V. logged the call and decided to interrupt her boss's day off.

Wallace Q Hughes was already on his way to Chelsea to watch the two tactical teams in Manchester and to follow their progress. He took the call from P.V. and listened to what she said about the two calls. 

"You made the correct call by calling me PV." "This is good stuff. I'll see you in a few."

Hughes called an FBI liaison officer working with the Manchester, New Hampshire, airport administration about two sudden Tactical Teams and Equipment on their way. This would disrupt civilian traffic in and out of the airport. He was there as a calming influencer.

"Chuck this is Hughes, we got two reports about heavily armed men heading north." "Pass on to TAC1 and TAC2 so they know what they might be confronting." 

"It's already in the log, so don't forget to follow through."

"Have the team landed yet?"

"T2 is wheels down and T1 is about fifteen minutes out"

Thank's Chuck.