Thunder Squad: Baptism

[DocQuantum]

This story is by Dave Barnowski, and follows up on the reintroduction of the Thunder Squad in "Reactivation."

[DocQuantum]

Thunder Squad

Baptism

by Dave Barnowski

Chapter 1

The Thunder Squad left Bermuda at 04:00 for a mission in the former island headquarters of the spy known as Demo. The island was devoid of humans but was an internationally protected island because of its inhabitants. Not much was known about them save that they were a primitive species of furless humanoid. Demo called them Sub-Men, and they were known to live in a cave on the island where Demo had made his headquarters in the 1960s. They were extremely violent toward humans, and two teams of researchers studying them had met with disaster and lost lives, the lives of both the scientists and their subjects. The island and its inhabitants had been left alone since 1979.

The Thunder Squad was riding in a specially modified Italian-made Agusta A129 Mangusta attack helicopter. THUNDER had a small fleet of six such rotary aircraft. A twenty-millimeter cannon was in its nose, and it could fire a wide variety of missiles. Today it was armed with some designed for today's mission. The four missiles were armed with a specially developed knockout gas that was heavier than air. This gas would be fired into the mouth of the cave that the troglodytes made their home.

This Agusta A129 Mangusta attack helicopter was a gift of the Italian government. The other five were gifts of other NATO countries that used the vehicle. The Thunder Squad's tactical leader, Antonio "Granite" Gallero, had been instrumental in procuring the fleet. After the last mission of his old paramilitary unit, the Fightin' Five, Granite went back to the country of his birth and in 1974 joined Italy's counter-terrorist division, NOCS (Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza, or the Central Security Operations Service). He had been a leader in bringing down the famed Red Brigade as well as several Mafioso gangs. But Granite was first and foremost a soldier, and when Hank Hennessy, his former leader from the Fightin' Five, asked him to lead the new Thunder Squad, he readily accepted.

His troops in the Thunder Squad knew him by reputation but were wary of his age until he proved that he was every much their equal, even in his mid-forties. Only the team's East German marksman, Wolfe Von Marks, could bench press more than Granite, and that was only a mere ten pounds more. Granite's main worry was endurance, as he did tire quicker than the others, but that couldn't be helped as time eventually caught up to everyone. Granite figured he had about five more years at most before he would have to retire from the field and become an advisor like Hennessy.

Granite was sitting in the back of the Agusta, which the squad's transportation specialist -- the naturalized Canadian, Wilbur "Shades" Tomas -- had named Ingonyama, which means lion in his native Zulu language. Shades was a tall muscular man who could fly or drive anything in Thunder's arsenal at an expert level. He was also an ace mechanic. His uniform was like that of all the other members of the Squad, except that he always wore an African bush hat as well as sunglasses with mirror lenses.

To his right sat the Squad's clean-shaven, brown-haired, brown-eyed heavy weapons specialist, Marcel Montoya of Argentina. Like all the Squad members, he was qualified to fly the Agusta, and his normal position on drops would be in the right seat, from which he would operate Ingonyama's weaponry.

The rest of the team sat in the back of the helicopter and made the last minute preparations and rituals they did whenever they went on a mission. The team had been in intensive training for over six months, but had never been in combat together before, and Granite wondered how his team would hold up. Teamwork was key in a mission like this, and Granite fretted about his people.

"We're approaching the island, bwana," said Shades. "Estimate that we'll be firing our missiles in two minutes."

Granite rose from his seat, saying to his second-in-command, Indira Katragada of India, "Get everyone in position. I'm going to watch the missile strike."

The Agusta attack 'copter hovered over the mouth of the cave and then fired an array of missiles into it. All four missiles hit their target. Satisfied, Granite put on his own gas mask and headed to the back of the Agusta.

The Ingonyama continued to hover as the Squad sent down Rae Dou Lai from Red China. She was the team's martial arts expert. After her came the transplanted Cambodian, Chanthou Kim. He was a ninja raised in Japan and had a somewhat unsavory background, but he was just what the team needed. The team's thief, the Israeli Mary Levine, came down next. After she surveyed the cave for traps and other devices, the rest of the team followed her.

Only Shades and the weapons officer, Montoya, stayed on board the helicopter while the Squad's ten other members prepared to enter the cave. Granite gave the all-clear, and Shades piloted the aircraft to the rendezvous point on the island's north beach. Once there, Montoya would re-arm the Ingonyama with more missiles, only they would be standard missiles this time.

Granite looked at his watch and saw that it was 04:52. Everything was going like clockwork so far, but he had a nervous feeling in his guts that told him it wouldn't stay that way.

[DocQuantum]

Chapter 2

The Thunder Squad was moving slowly with its thief, the Israeli Mary Levine, out in front. She had already found several primitive traps. Next to her was the Cambodian ninja, Chanthou Kim. He was also her backup and another set of eyes looking for traps, but Levine missed nothing. Chanthou was amazed at how good the thief was. They had played various war games to test THUNDER security while training, and much to Chanthou's chagrin he had been caught once, but Mary had yet to be.

THUNDER's security chief, William "Weed" Wiley -- who was a former thief himself -- had asked the pair to penetrate his defenses. They did and had told him how they did it each time they did so. Weed had fixed the problem and asked them to break into the complex using another way. During the last attempt they made, Chanthou had been caught, while Mary still got through. That rankled the ninja. Still, he reflected, that is why she is the designated thief, while I am the designated assassin.

Guarding the team's two experts at breaking and entering was the team's martial arts expert, Communist China's Ling Cho. She was a finalist in a contest to choose the replacement of who would replace China's first so-called action-hero, the Red Star. The replacement was to be called the Red Dragon to prevent confusion with the Soviet action-hero who had usurped the name Redstar when he went public in 1980. Despite the fact that she was an expert at almost every form of martial arts, she lost in the final competition.

Some spread rumors that said she lost because she was female, while others said it was because she was not skilled enough. Still others said she was only in the competition because she was Red Star's niece. She was not, nor was her skill any less; gender may have been an issue with the political leaders, but it wasn't with her mentor Red Star, who made the actual choice. His reasoning had to do with the fact that Ling barely weighed over a hundred pounds, while Red Star's successor weighed closer to 200 pounds and was thus more powerful.

Ling Cho understood the logic of the decision, and now that she was a member of the Thunder Squad she relished the opportunity to prove her mentor wrong. She watched over her two charges like a hawk.

Next came four figures. Leading the group came the Thunder Squad's tactical leader, "Granite" Gallero. Granite kept looking at his watch, as he was worried that the gas was going to wear off and he would have a fight with the troglodytes on his hands, a fight he was told to avoid.

Next to him stood the team's doctor, the thin New Zealander named Niles Thompson. He was the only member of the team who was unarmed, and all he carried was an array of medical bags that everyone hoped he wouldn't have to use.

Beside him was the team's engineer and physical science expert. Ali Mohamed Musharaf was from Iran and was a devout Muslim educated in the West. He was also a genius whose physique was such that he resembled a heavyweight boxer. He carried an array of heavy scientific equipment as well as several firearms.

The last man in the group was the team's actor, Sir Roland Smyth-Davies. On most missions he would be inserted in early, taking the place of someone else. Unfortunately, no matter how hard the Research and Development team tried, they just weren't able to create usable prosthetics to imitate the limbs of the troglodytes so that the Englishman could ply his trade and enter the troglodytes' cave before the team. Hennessy did, however, come up with a useful contingency plan for the actor and his skills if they needed them later, but only if something went wrong.

Three members brought up the rear. Indira Katragada, the assistant squad leader and communications expert, was off to the right placing small radio transmitters that resembled stones on to the walls and ceilings of the cave every fifty feet. This way the Squad would be able to communicate with outside world. And later scientists would be able to monitor the troglodytes and perhaps eventually decipher their speech. She was a former major in the Indian Army.

The Guatemalan, Hector Jimenez, stood near her but not next to her. No one really wanted the Squad's demolitions expert standing next to them, because he carried so many explosives with him. He casually estimated that he had enough explosives on him to bring down the entire mountain if he wanted to. All he had to do was set it off. All the team members knew that the explosives were inert until Jimenez set them, but they still unconsciously avoided him when he was carrying his explosives.

Lastly came the East German marksman, Wolfe Von Marks. He was carrying a wide variety of firearms that were all lethal in his hands. He could kill with one shot from any position. He was silent and had his back to the others as he kept watch behind them. Jimenez would tap him on the shoulder when it was time to move. Until then, he watched where they had been.

Mary Levine continued on her way, occasionally throwing sand in the air. Then she found what she was looking for, a photo-electric cell with invisible light beams streaming across the cave tunnel. She reached into her pack and casually took out two mirrors connected to a thin pipe, then lined up the mirrors to the beams and placed the mirrors in front. She continued on, only to find more beams of greater numbers and more complicated patterns.

Levine was probably the best thief in the world. She had never been caught because she was an excellent thief. She had only been arrested in Iran because she was a Jew. And while she was held in the Iranian prison, the authorities found some of the antiquities she had recently pilfered from the museum. They'd had no clue that she had stolen them before she had arrested her. It still irked her that she had been caught, though.

The super-agent known as NoMan had personally gone to Tehran and asked for her pardon. She had taken an instant liking to Tony Dunn, and he seemed to like her as well. She also owed him. She volunteered to teach him all she knew about the art of stealth. She remembered him laughing at the idea and saying, "My dear, I have a cloak that makes me invisible. What more do I need to know?"

It was Mary's turn to laugh then, as she said, "I'll tell you what. If you can sneak up on me sometime tomorrow, I'll let the matter drop. If not, I'll train you in the ancient art of cat burglary and stealth, and we'll keep on training until you can sneak up on me."

The results were predictable, and they had been in training for several months now. Mary brought Chanthou in on NoMan's training, but he still wasn't quite there yet. She estimated that the super-agent had another few months before he stopped over-relying on his cloak and android body and instead on the skills that she and Chanthou were trying to teach him.

As she continued looking for more beams, she had no problems, noting that they were all of fifteen to twenty years of age -- that is, until the last set. She stopped cold as she studied one. Inside the beam she saw a camera lens. That was recent technology not even a year old. One word echoed in her brain -- trap.

Her orders were to maintain silence, so she did. Instead, she took a sharp intake of breath that made a slight hissing sound, and with her hand she signaled the others behind her to turn around. The Thunder Squad all heard her hiss and started an arduous exit uphill and out of the cave.

Meanwhile, on the beach, the last two members of the Thunder Squad were busy getting the Ingonyama, the Thunder Squad's Italian-made Agusta A129 Mangusta attack helicopter, ready for its pick-up mission. The Squad's heavy weapons expert, Marcel Montoya of Argentina, was re-arming the 'copter, which he had personally nicknamed Gus. He was loading two regular explosive rockets in addition to two gas rockets. It wasn't a full complement, but it was all they could hold, because besides the full armament load they had carried, they had the full team.

The Agusta's engines were enhanced by the team's mechanic and pilot, Wilbur "Shades' Tomas. He was able to get enough extra lift out of the engines to carry an extra set of four rockets besides the entire twelve-man Squad and entire arsenal of weapons. The man was a genius when it came to engines. Amazingly, he was even better at steering the things.

Montoya was cursing a blue streak at Shades, however, because the little man in the bush hat refused to help him, saying, "Listen, eh -- I've got to keep an eye on the radar as per standard operating procedure."

"There's nothing out there in that jungle, man," complained Marcel as he climbed back in the 'copter to get the last rocket.

Marcel had been unsecuring the last rocket when Shades said, "Marcel, stop what you're doing. We're getting out of here now. I've got a movement headed our way at three o'clock. It looks to be holding enough troops to be a platoon. I'm powering up the engines, and we're getting out of here. Guard our port side."

Montoya didn't hear or sense anything was coming from the starboard side that faced the beach until he felt a cold, wet, overly large hand around his throat. The Agusta's radar didn't show anything, either, and Shades was too preoccupied with his preflight checks that he hadn't even strapped himself in his seat. He had forgotten that he wasn't strapped in until a set of large hands ripped him out of his seat and knocked him unconscious.

[DocQuantum]

Chapter 3

The Thunder Squad backtracked their way out of the long cave tunnel that the troglodytes had called home. The security technology in the tunnel was much more modern than it should have been, according to the team's resident thief, the Israeli Mary Levine. The troglodytes were once the henchmen of Demo, the international terrorist, spy, and known agent of the Subterranean Warlords. Demo had gone independent when the last of the Warlords were killed, but he hadn't been heard from since the late 1960s.

The newly reconstituted Thunder Squad had been sent to the island because, as Demo's former headquarters, it had also been a base for the Warlords. The problem was that the troglodytes were a protected species, according to several international treaties. The Thunder Squad was officially only armed with non-lethal weaponry. "Granite" Gallero, the new ground team's tactical leader, and Hank Hennessy had decided before the team even came to the island that the mission was to be aborted if they ran across any technology less than five years old.

Hennessy and Gallero were both former members of the old commando team known as the Fightin' Five. Hennessy was missing both an eye and an arm from one disastrous mission and was no longer capable of actual combat missions. Both men were very dubious of the way the team had had to be armed and therefore ordered a very low threshold for withdrawal.

The team exited at a cautious, deliberate pace. Granite's nerves had already become more and more on edge with every step, when the Squad's second-in-command and communications expert told him that she could not raise the helicopter. Indira Katragada told Granite that she should have been able to contact the two Squad members in the Squad's attack chopper, but they weren't responding, and her signal was not being jammed and should have gone through.

All had been going well until they exited the mouth of the cave. Then the troglodytes commenced an attack on the Thunder Squad in a coordinated fashion. The Squad was attacked from three sides, with more troglodytes jumping down from the top of the cave entrance. Still others came out from the cave itself. That should not have happened, because the Thunder Squad had gassed the cave before entering, and the troglodytes inside should have been unconscious.

Granite knew that his team was about to be completely massacred, except for the ace in the hole that they had. This team had an expert in disguise and could perform almost any role the team wanted. Sir Roland Smyth-Davies was an Englishman whose acting abilities had worldwide acclaim. Granite did not know what motivated the man to join the team, but he was extremely glad when Smyth-Davies tore off his gas mask and revealed his disguised face -- none other than the face of Demo.

"Stop!" the Englishman commanded in a voice that sounded exactly like the tapes of the voice of Demo, which Roland had listened to and had learned to mimic in the weeks prior to the mission. "You will stop your attack and take me and my friends down to your -- my lair."

The troglodytes stood in confusion for several seconds before they finally came forward and passively led the team down into the cave. Smyth-Davies put his gas mask back on before entering as the team followed the troglodytes.

They had been walking for at least five miles when the team's scientist, Ali Mohammad Musharaf, told them that the gas was no longer a threat to them. They walked another two miles before they came to the stone throne room from which Demo had once ruled the troglodytes, whom he called the Sub-Men.

The throne was not empty. A middle-aged blond woman wearing a weathered, slinky red evening gown sat there. Lying prone and unmoving on the ground in front of the throne were Montoya and Shades, the two Thunder Squad members who were supposed to be with the team helicopter.

[DocQuantum]

Chapter 4

Roland Smyth-Davies and the rest of the Thunder Squad all knew that the middle-aged woman in the well-worn red evening gown had to be Demo's mistress Satana. She was either his former mistress or Demo was now dead. They all figured that out the moment they saw her. It was up to Smyth-Davies to play the role of Demo correctly, or the Squad itself was as good as dead.

This was exactly why the team had an actor, and Sir Roland Smyth-Davies was one of the world's greatest. He had been acclaimed by the world's press as just that by his twenty-fifth birthday. He was a world-wide star of stage and screen for whom tragedy struck five years later when his family was kidnapped by a violent splinter group of the Irish Republican Army. They killed his wife and children even after he paid the ransom. Smyth-Davies then joined MI-12 and used his skills as an actor and make-up artist to join and destroy the IRA from within.

He joined THUNDER shortly after his work was done because the British wouldn't offer him similar assignments, and he was now bored with both the stage and screen. He was wealthy beyond need, and he felt empty and alone. The Thunder Squad gave him a sense of belonging again and direction as well. He took stock of the situation -- the lives of every member of the team depended on what he now said and did. Smyth-Davies reveled in the responsibility. He loved it.

"Satana," he said with a smile that former field agents had said would melt Satana's heart. "I've missed you."

The woman's heart did skip a beat at the sound of Demo's voice. Her face softened for a second, but it was only a second. Smyth-Davies noted it as he said his next words. "My dear, I have come to ask your forgiveness."

"For what? Leaving me here all these years with your Sub-Men fawning over me?" said Satana in an angry voice. "Or for taking up with that redheaded child of the Iron Maiden?"

"I only became involved with that child because she had something I wanted," said Smyth-Davies, improvising. He was on guard now. THUNDER did not know if Demo was alive or dead. They didn't know what had happened to either him or Satana. They also didn't know that the Iron Maiden had ever had a daughter.

"Yes, your damned Warlord technology. She gave it to you, and you've started attacking the world's cities with it. The world thinks that the Warlords are back. But you and I know better. Don't we Demo?" She smiled a cruel smile. "But why are you back here? You've been gone for fifteen years. What do you need here?"

"Only one thing, my dear -- you," said Smyth-Davies. "I have everything set up and have eliminated the Iron Maiden's child."

Whatever anger that was in Satana's eyes disappeared then as she began to weep. "I thought... I thought I was trapped here forever after your technicians came and installed that new technology last year."

Alarms bells sounded in Smyth-Davies mind at her words. They had to get out of here fast -- before Demo had an opportunity to counter-attack. "Let's leave now, darling," he said with a smile.

"But, Demo, don't you want to see your old quarters?" said Satana. "I've left everything as it was."

"I'll come back another time, my dear. Right now, we have to leave. I want you to come with me, Satana."

"I want to, Demo. Just let me gather a few things."

Smyth-Davies gently but firmly took Satana's hand and said, "We'll come back for them, my dear, but I need to be going."

Satana frowned. She was mixture of emotions. She was glad to see that the only love of her life had come back to her, but she was angry at how he expected her to just get up and go on his say-so. She had been queen of the Sub-Men for over ten years. No one had ordered her about during that time or questioned her orders. "No, Demo. I insist that you stay here."

"Love, that is not an option," said Smyth-Davies. "THUNDER is coming."

Satana gave Demo a hard look with that news. She was a wanted criminal. The fear of being in chains was what had kept her there all these years. She quickly agreed to go.

[DocQuantum]

Chapter 5

A small, thin man with jet black hair was monitoring the very conversation his former lover was having with a man who looked remarkably like him. Unlike the man in the image, this Demo had not aged a day. He retained the two pointed hair tufts that could be said to resemble horns as well as his sharp pointed canine teeth that resembled fangs. The fact that THUNDER had breached his old base didn't surprise him. He had been expecting it.

That was why he updated the base's equipment five years ago. Seeing Satana taken in by the disguised man amused him, as he had lost whatever feelings he had for the blond woman years ago. Those feelings were never deep, as he considered Satana more of a tool than a person. Demo had always felt that way with any human he had ever come into contact with. They were merely the means by which he could achieve his ends.

His desire was simple -- complete control of the world. He didn't have to be the emperor of the world with all the ornate trappings. He would be content to live in a hovel just so long as he had complete control. He was sitting in a large chair with his advisors sitting just to the right and left of him around the rectangle table. The chairs were not very comfortable, as Demo did not want anyone becoming enthralled with the lure of luxury as they conquered the Earth.

They had been aware of the Thunder Squad's presence on the island of the Sub-Men for two hours now and were discussing what to do about it. His people had a wide variety of thoughts on the subject. The lovely young redhead with whom he had struck a sexual relationship was all for destroying the island outright. The woman's mother had been a sometime partner of Demo, but she was too soft as far as he was concerned. The daughter, on the other hand, was a very bloodthirsty woman. Demo liked that about her, but her lust for blood was not tempered. Violence for violence's sake did not make sense to Demo.

The majority of his advisors agreed with the red-haired woman until their chief scientist spoke. The old German was a wanted war criminal from the days of the Third Reich, as he had been a prominent Nazi scientist. He told Demo's assembled advisors that destroying the island like the cities they had been devastating would create a tsunami in the Caribbean Sea. He went on to explain that this would be a problem because the wave would hit America's east coast. Miami would be certain to feel the full effects.

Demo looked around the table. His lover was actually smiling at the thought of the destruction. Most of the others were reflecting on the full implications. They had not yet attacked either the Soviet Union nor the United States. While it might be argued that the tsunami would only be collateral damage, it went against their long-range plans.

Demo then spoke. "We have to stick to our plan. We let Satana leave with the new Thunder Squad."

"No!" cried out the red-haired woman dressed in a suit of form-fitting, gray-colored armor as she stood up. "We have to show those THUNDER pigs that they cannot come and go where they please. I say destroy the island and the United Nations building as well."

"Not yet," said Demo. "We will eventually, but not now."

"If they take Satana..." the woman in armor began.

"They will learn nothing, because Satana knows nothing," said Demo with a self-satisfied smile. "The Thunder Squad wants to leave. After they leave, we will send in a team to extract all the equipment there and kill all of the Sub-Men. Our mole will kill Satana the day after tomorrow. They gain nothing and come up looking like idiots."

The new Iron Maiden stared angrily at Demo. She knew that the thin man's mind was made up and that the others would agree with his decision. She didn't like it. She wanted THUNDER to suffer. She wanted Leonard Brown, the former THUNDER agent known as Dynamo, to suffer. The loss of THUNDER's premiere commando squad would have hurt him. It might even cause the United Nations to remove him as the head of THUNDER. That would have to wait for now, though, because as of today Demo was in charge. She planned on changing that soon. She bowed her head and sat back down.

Demo smiled back at her. He knew that sooner or later the Iron Maiden was going to try a coup. He enjoyed the game because, so long as she remained useful to him, she would live.

***

Back on the island, the Thunder Squad gathered up their two unconscious team members and quickly left the troglodyte's cave. From there, they went down to the beach to their helicopter and left the island. As soon as the helicopter was out of visual contact with the island, the team's actor, Roland Smyth-Davies, stopped his pretense of being Demo and put the handcuffs on a very surprised Satana.

***

A week later, the Thunder Squad's tactical leader, Granite Gallero, was in the office of his immediate supervisor, Hank Hennessy. He and Hennessy were talking with THUNDER's deputy director, Dmitri Antropov. Neither former member of the Fightin' Five particularly liked the idea of having a former Soviet KGB agent as their supervisor, but THUNDER was a United Nations organization. Antropov was supposedly upset with the whole operation to the Troglodyte Island. After the Thunder Squad had dropped off Satana, they returned to the Sub-Men's island and found all of the troglodytes dead save for a few teenage boys and girls who were evidently fishing when the others were killed. Everything inside the cave that was technologically superior to the stone age was gone, as were any signs or traces of Demo. Worse, Satana was found in her cell dead from an apparent heart attack a day later.

"This mission was a complete failure," Antropov said in a voice loud enough to be heard throughout the whole corridor where Hennessy had his office.

"I disagree, Deputy Director," said Hennessy in an equally loud voice. He dropped his voice down to a normal volume as he continued. "Given the level of violence committed against the Sub-Men, I'd say we hit a nerve. Same with Satana's death, because I don't believe it was a heart attack."

"Neither do I, but the autopsy shows that it was," said Antropov quietly.

"Right," said Granite. "I'll bet Director Brown agrees with us, too. I'll even wager he sent you down here."

Antropov shook his head in silent agreement before saying, "That means this nerve you hit caused them to overplay their hand."

Hennessy and Granite looked at one another before Hennessy said, "Yep. We've got a spy right here in THUNDER."

"Your job now, Comrade Hennessy, is to find him or her."

The End