Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [118]
The name was only partially humorous, he reflected, as the four SEALS, still disguised in the maintenance coveralls they had been wearing all around the Bazaar, made their way to the service center where they had spotted the technician’s garage and laundry service on their first reconnaissance. As usual, the outer door was open, with workers in laundry whites and denim coveralls continually moving in and out. One of the laundry trains was just returning, the small tractor cart pulling a series of five trailers heaped with dirty linens.
Jackson and his SEALS boldly followed that train as it turned into the steamy corridor of the laundry installation. A dozen workers were tending large machines. They were folding a variety of cleaned products, including sheets, blankets, and many maintenance and service personnel uniforms, and maneuvering a second train out of the way while the newly arriving vehicles moved up to a large table. There several women, female Eluoi, to judge by the coarse hair and greenish eyes, waited to unload them.
The LT was holding a small gauge in his hand and made a prominent display of watching the dial.
“Hold it!” he barked in a tone that invited no argument. “We have a potential radiation hazard here!” He gestured to the pile of laundry that had just come in. “Don’t panic, but clear out of here until we give the all-clear. Let’s see if there’s any real danger.”
The workers didn’t need to be asked twice; every one of them ran toward the exit at the front or back of the laundry section. Within thirty seconds, the four SEALS were alone.
Moving quickly, the Teammates put the plan into action. Ruiz disconnected all but one of the cars being hauled by the tractor pulling the empty carts. Then he hopped into the driver’s seat, and started over toward the disbursement table while Teal and Baxter went behind the barrier to the stacks of clean laundry. In a few seconds they located piles of white coveralls, the same garments worn by the laundry and other service personnel throughout this level of the Bazaar, and started to throw them into the carts behind Ruiz’s tractor.
Jackson, in the meantime, ostentatiously studied his meter but also kept an eye on the entrance as he stalked back and forth beside the stacks of dirty laundry. His men kept count, collecting some 150 of the coveralls to be on the safe side, and then signaled to him when they were done.
Ruiz started the tractor forward with Teal riding beside him. Jackson jogged along next to the train, and Baxter came behind. The master chief drove his stolen vehicle right out the front of the service center, where they came upon several of the workers who had evacuated upon Jackson’s alarm.
“It’s all clear now,” the LT explained breezily. He gestured at the cart being towed behind the tractor. “There was some contamination, but we got it all cleaned up. You can go back to work.”
In part because he was towing only one car, Ruiz was able to make his way easily through the traffic bustling both ways along the thoroughfare. In five minutes they pulled up to a door that was just across the way from the entry to the prisoners’ quarters. Teal hopped off the passenger’s seat and manipulated the door by punching a couple of buttons. The portal slid smoothly open, and the four SEALS and their stolen stacks of laundry drove inside and closed the door.
“Nice work, men,” the LT said. They had enough uniforms for all the human prisoners on the Bazaar. Even so, that was only a first step, and a lot of other things needed to go right. For a moment, he considered his next move and quickly decided what to do.
“Fritz, Harry, I want you two to wait here. Rafe, show me where this commercial radio center is. I guess it’s time I made a phone call.”
Sanders and his men wasted no time locating and freeing the large number of humans imprisoned in their cabins and berths