The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 57

The militia compound was a cluster of buildings two hundred metres back from the road. It was surrounded by two fences, a high metal inner fence, tight against the buildings, and a second outer wire-mesh fence around the whole property, running along the roadside boundary and back along the sides. That was the fence Ellie had been looking at behind the compound.

Both fences were substantial, and had heavy gates, and coils of razor wire along their tops as well. The outer fence had faded warning signs hanging from it at chest-height, probably just signs saying no trespassing, but perhaps saying it had once been electrified. Or perhaps it still was. Ellie wasn’t sure. She hadn’t been able to read the faded lettering as they drove past.

The ground between the two fences was cleared of scrub, and level, and the grass had been cut short enough it wouldn’t be easy to infiltrate across it, either in person or with sensor drones. Ellie assumed there was some kind of defensive sensor net in that grass, even if it was only a basic motion sensor and camera system. She assumed there were sensors at the front gate, as well, and they were going to be seen as soon they arrived.

Ellie assumed so, because it was safest to assume the worst.

She was assuming those things, a lot more besides, deliberately and very cautiously, because in a situation like this assuming the worst was always best.

She was assuming, for instance, that both gates were reinforced, and were strong enough that ramming them with anything less than a bulldozer or fully-loaded truck wouldn’t push them over. She was assuming the gates had remote locks, and could be opened from inside the compound, so there was no hope of taking hostages and interrogating someone who came out to open a gate. She was assuming the militia was armed, probably fairly heavily armed, and fortified, too, and that there were firing positions on the buildings’ roofs with clear fields of fire over the inner metal fence to the front gate. She was assuming there were very likely to be buried landmines or explosive charges out in the grass between the two fences, making it extremely dangerous to wander off the actual driveway between the two gates, or to try and climb fences at the back of the compound.

She was assuming a lot, because those were just the basic, common-sense precautions anyone with a compound like this ought to take. If her assumptions were wrong, this whole exercise would be a lot easier. But she really didn’t have much hope that they would be.

Instead, she was planning around those assumptions, thinking carefully, and had decided her assumptions meant two main things. First, they needed to go in through the gates, where they knew there were no traps, or that the traps which were there could be disarmed easily, so the militia themselves could come and go. And second, that she and Sameh had to talk their way through the first gate, even if they fought their way through the second.

They had to talk. That was the trickiest part of all of this, and there was no easy way around it.

The area around outer gate was flat and open, and with absolutely no cover at all. It was a death trap, an obvious killing zone, and worse, the people inside the compound would expect trouble to begin there, to come at them through that gate, and so would be very well prepared to stop it. It was almost certainly too dangerous to fight their way in from the outside gate, and if they tried, they would just be pinned down and killed, eventually.

Instead, they needed to get inside the outer fence, to get in past the outer perimeter, beyond the open area with only cut grass and wire fencing to hide behind, before they started shooting.

If they could talk their way in through the first gate, and get up to the second, then they had a chance. Then they would have cover when trouble started, up against the solid metal wall of the compound, out of sight and able to shoot back at anyone who looked over. There they would be hidden, and could deploy drones from cover, and hopefully they would be able to force the gate open if they had to.

That was Ellie’s plan, but it depended on them reaching the inside gate before they began shooting, not fighting their way across the militia’s front lawn. If they could get inside, she thought, then they had a chance. If they couldn’t, then it would be too dangerous to do anything, and they would have to leave, just drive away, and call in an assault team after all.

Which she desperately didn’t want to do.