You don’t just go and make a few phone calls to tell everyone what you are up to, that never works. Even your friends will have loyalties to the old boss and someone if not everyone will talk. You can count on your friends to support you, if they have no risk to themselves. Once the boss was out of the way, no one would give Robert any hassle, but very few people could be trusted beforehand.
So we were going to walk into a situation with at least 2 gunmen that were completely loyal to the old boss, 2 that were going to be completely loyal to the new boss, and 2 brothers unarmed and wearing the proverbial targets on their foreheads. Nice unless you are me or my brother. We needed to keep this simple and stack the deck a little. We can handle ourselves in a firefight, but no one is going to have a chance unarmed with trained killers. Even with a couple of guys on our side, we had a good chance of being dead before Robert would take over. I already had plenty of weapons from the Logistics business; many were very concealable, if you did not look too hard. We have the best Kevlar with ceramic plating. Of course that doesn’t do any good with head shots. So risky!
It was not that hard to find out who was going to be on security detail and doing the weapons check at the door. He was a good guy, big family, and very good at his job. It would be best if he could live through this, but not at the expense of my life. One way of the other we would get by him, armed for the fight.
I had done quite a bit of studying on how to eliminate a rogue Zombie without making noise. I was never one for hand to hand combat so the idea of a low signature gun really struck my fancy. If you can keep the bullet from breaking the speed of sound and creating a sonic boom, it makes the job of being quite, much easier. That left a few possibilities without getting too fancy. Always keep your killing simple, if you can, less to go wrong. Anyway, ammo for the 9mm and 45acp pistols can be purchased that is sub-sonic from the factory. I am a fan of bigger is better so the 45acp is what I chose for silent Zombie head removal from a safe distance. The 45acp is big, heavy and slow. But you can ask anyone shot with the Tommy Gun or the colt 1911, it works. Many battles have been won with the 45, and this one would be too.
Once you have a subsonic bullet, you just need to quite the gasses coming out of the barrel. Many companies make good suppressors that can be purchased legally in most of the country. New York is not one of the places you can legally purchase suppressors, but it is not far to Philly, and a man with cash can get anything is wants on the south side, especially now. There were several reasons one of the first trucking runs was to clear a lane down I95. DC was a ghost town, but Philly was still a real city and a few states west of Maryland were almost livable. You got to love rednecks. They have been ready for the Zombie apocalypse for decades. The roads and cities in west Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky were almost completely clear of rogue Zombies. The locals needed a little high caliber persuasion to let you pass, but that was easy to accomplish.
When we tested the legal suppressors on our Glock 21s with Loan Wolf threaded barrels, the sound was still a bit too loud, even with subsonic ammunition. We had to disassemble them and redesign the internals for better gas dispersion and noise cancellation, but we got them down to less than the sound of a bb gun with just a little testing. The problem with our current predicament is that the suppressors are big. No way to get them past security secretly. Either the guard was going to let us pass, or be gone in some way, maybe permanently. If it comes to that I would make sure his family is taken care of.
Robert was not one for wet work, but he knew what his uncle would do to him if he let us live or we ran for it. In the end it was easy for him to rationalize. With Robert taking over the business, people would not be hurt anymore, unless they really deserved it.
We were all suited up about an hour before the meeting time. We planned on showing up early to screw up schedules the old man had put in place. About 45 minutes would be good enough. If it was not, then it was not going to help anyway. Luckily it was a little cold out, and we could wear our usual long coats. They already had the weapons pockets and additional armor for going through the outlands between cities. Robert was less comfortable with weapons, so we only gave him a compact 9mm Glock. No need to get fancy, just point and shoot. Joe and myself were decked out in our usual. Glock 21 with suppressor and extra hicap mags. We both had a Serbu Super Shorty 12 gauge shotgun. It is a little 2 shot pump 12 gauge the size of the pistol. You can put one round in the chamber and 2 on the magazine to give you 3 rounds of 3 inch 12 gauge 00 buck devastation. We kept plenty of extra rounds bandoliered in the coat linings, just in case. We both had a backup pistol as well. No fancy surpressor but it used the same magazines as the Glock 21. A Glock 30. Smallish and very loud, but if it comes down to getting loud, the shotgun was the way I was going. Also, I always kept a Ken Onion Leek knife easily available from each hand. I like apples and that is a great knife to cut one up. I am sure my brother had a few knives on him as well.
It was okay for Robert to be nervous in front of the old man, but if we were going to get through security with killing anyone, he needed to be in charge.
Entering the building and going up to the front security desk.
Robert puts his best smile on his face as he approaches the desk and says, “Hey Gus, how is the family? The Old Man wants to see me and the Brothers for a meeting. He just called and said to get down here right away.”
“I see the meeting on the schedule in about 45 minutes, go on up.” said Gus.
“Sure thing, he sounded in a good mood, it must be the holiday season.”
We took the elevator up to the second floor to get Robert’s “security” guys for the meeting.
We all knew each other pretty well and we did not say anything. Everyone knew the plan and any words would just be a liability. Best to keep our mouths shut, so we would not say anything to give ourselves away. My brother and me were always busy and never had much of a chance to talk to anyone where we were in the building anyway so no one was looking to start a conversation anyway.
When we got off the elevator on the top floor the security guard looked at his watch and at us in a funny way. He knew something was wrong, but because the meeting was scheduled he was not exactly sure what.
Robert was in charge and took the lead without missing a beat. He was born for this.
“Time to take a break.” Robert said with a firm and menacing tone in his voice. He took a step to the guard.
The guard placed his hand on his side for just a second and Robert slightly shook his head without losing eye contact or saying a word.
“Time to take a break, your family will be missing you. You do not want to be around for this meeting. Do not say anything, just go home. One way of the other you are not part of this.”
As the guard looked puzzled, Robert reached down slowly and took the gun from th guard’s holster.
“You will not need this today. It will be in the desk drawer, right here, if I live through this. If I do not, you need to take your family and go see this guy.” Robert handed the guard a card.”
I pulled my Glock 21 and so did my brother. The other guys had integrally suppressed P90s already in close quarters combat position.
The guard took the card.
Robert said to the guard in a whisper, “This could have gone badly for you, but the meaningless killing is over in this Family. Instead of your family going to your funeral, you will live to see them grow strong and healthy in a new world. You look sick, go with that. If anyone sees you leaving, grab your gut and bent over slightly. Just say sick and do not stop for anything.”
The guard left at a good speed holding his stomach. Not too fast, but he looked deathly ill. No one would doubt he was sick.
The plan for entering the room was simple and straight forward Close Quarters Combat (CWB). We were going to open the door and the P90s were going to slice the pie. This was a left hand opening door. That means that the hinge was on the left and the door opened in to the room with the knob on the right. The door lock was controlled with a buzzer behind the desk. It would give some warning that we were coming, so we needed to be fast and deadly.
The first P90 was standing behind the knob and back arms length. When the door unlocked he was to fling the door open quickly and get on the trigger to slice the pie on the left hand side of the room. The idea with CQB is to divide the area into sections or pie slices. The right hand guy stands back from cover and takes out anything to the left of the door. It was perfect, because he was right handed and could get the best angle from that position. The P90 on the left was left handed and standing back from the door as well. He was going to put his foot just at the corner of the door to keep it from swinging closed and slice the right hand side of the room making sure to kill anything that would be a threat to his partner when well before he entered the room. The guy on the left had to stay back enough as to not get in the path of the other shooter, while clearing his part of the room.
Robert pushed the buzzer.
The door flung open and the P90s lit up. We did not have ear protection since our primary weapons were suppressed. We should have. Even with the suppressors the P90s were loud in that little confined space.
The left hand shooter was the leader. Once he had cleared his part of the room, he raised the muzzle of his weapon. This was the sign that the other shooter was to enter the room and to keep the muzzle clear of his path. We do not want to kill each other. The right hand shooter entered the room and progressed to cross the path of the left hand shooter and stand a few feet off the door as his partner crossed from the left to the right behind him and bringing the weapon back into firing position. The men cleared the room by turning slowly toward each other until they were both facing forward. All of this took about 4 seconds and there were 4 bodies on the floor. The Old Man was not one of them. Apparently he had brought extra backup beyond what he had told Robert about.
There were two doors off from the main room. We were not lucky enough to finish this in the first few seconds of battle. That was bad. It is always best to get these things over before there was a chance to return fire. My brother was ready to enter the room as Robert’s security guy was heading for the door on the left. He gave it a switch kick and it popped open with a boom, followed by an explosion. The door was booby trapped with a claymore type of device. The guard was shredded from head to toe and collapsed. My brother rushed in and grabbed the P90. The other guard stopped in his tracks and proceeded to back up a step. Joe took charge.
“You go and clear the other room, I have this one.” Joe told the remaining live P90 gunman.
That was the direction he needed. He took his P90 and stood back from the destroyed door and sliced the pie on the room to make sure it was clear. No one was in there.
While this was going on, my brother opened up on the closed door with the remaining rounds in the P90. He stood back a safe distance and blew away the hinges and lock areas of the door until it was a screen door.
“If that room is clear, get over here and cover this door.”
The security guy came running over.
My brother got out his Serbu and emptied it at the middle of the door, stepping from side to side a little to get angles into the room. I entered the room and swapped my loaded Serbu with his and he put 3 more rounds into the door and room beyond as I was reloading. This time I put in slugs instead of the 00 buck. We swapped Serbus again and I loaded mine with slugs as well.
“Reload your P90 and get ready to go in, I’ll kick open what remains of the door.”
I didn’t have to talk to my brother to know what was coming next. We both took a step back from the door. I was on the left and facing the wall beside the door. My brother was on the right in a corresponding position. We looked at each other and put 3 slugs through each wall into the room, making sure to rotate slightly to cover as much area as possible. My brother kicked in the door and we stepped back.
The P90 moved from right to left slicing the pie and entered the room as we transitioned to the Glock21s, but no shots were fired.
The 2 security guards were dead on the floor, full of P90 holes. The Old Man was behind them with a pair of half inch holes through his body armor. Nothing like a 3 inch slug for going through Kevlar.
Robert was in the room behind us with his gun in his hand, hanging to his side.
“The room is clear” I said.
“Turn around and cover the way we came in. There might still be a cowboy on the way after hearing the blasts.” ordered my brother.
Robert and his remaining security turned to cover the entrance, back from the door, but with clear sight of the elevator.
I took Robert and got him back into the far room that still had a working phone on the desk. My brother and the guard covered the door.
“Call security and tell them everything is under control.”
Robert looked at me.
“You are in charge now, call them and tell them everything is under control and get in here. Make sure they know to keep their weapons down and in a safe position. We do not want any accidents.”
Robert’s eyes cleared and he picked up the phone.
Robert on the phone, “Everything is cool, I have the situation in hand….Your fucking new Boss is who, get your ass up here, we have cleanup work to do. And leave your fucking gun at your desk, because anyone with a weapon is going to get blown away. The killing is over, unless someone has a death wish. ALL of the killing is over.”
Security did show up and unarmed. Robert was clearly the man and in charge. My brother and I cut out as soon as security arrived. All guns out of site, like we were just walking by and wondered what the noise was. La La, not us, no we are just leaving…
We did not see much of Robert in the next few days. He had a lot of organizing to do. Some of the Family seemed a little ticked off, but no one said anything. That is just how these things are. New leader with a little blood splatter, but not too much. Just enough for everyone with an opinion to keep their mouth shut.
