"Still, it won't hurt for someone to take a look at Dundalk. Maybe they can give us some kind of an idea what kind of preparation these guys were doing."
"Aye, that could be useful. We need information on the town of Victoria. There has to be some reason they've chosen that as their target."
"The Wikipedia entry for it basically indicates that it's a pretty impoverished town," Nazari said, as he turned back to the laptop computer. "Not much in the way of employment and I found several news articles about some serious drug issues in the area."
"That explains a lot," Declan said.
"The school itself, W.N. Page Junior High, is the oldest of three schools in the area. Here's a picture." Nazari turned the computer around so that Declan and Osman could see it.
"That explains even more," Declan said, as he looked at the picture of the single story, industrial-era building, with its rectangular architecture and narrow, metal rimmed windows. "They're using the same basic plan they did at Beslan in 2004. That school was the oldest in the area as well. Can you bring up an aerial view from Google Maps?"
Nazari turned the computer around and went to work. "Here," he said, turning it back around.
"Just like I thought. Look at the way the building is spread out in all of those weird angles," Declan said, pointing at several locations on the image. "Just like Beslan, the building's a tactical nightmare. Only two driveway entrances, both easily covered from the building. It's on a large open lot surrounded by trees, all of which is easily covered from multiple points in the building. Even the places across the street are mostly forest and wouldn't provide any kind of a decent operations point. The police would have to set up somewhere a good distance from the school and wouldn't have any line of sight."
"Looks like some residences there," Osman said, pointing to a few small buildings across the street that had some open ground around them. "There's some tree cover, too, the police could set up SWAT teams there in case of an emergency raid."
"I don't think so," Declan said. "Get me a street view."
Nazari reached over and punched a few buttons.
"See there?" Declan continued, as the screen changed to the street view. "With the building on that kind of an incline and all of those windows facing the road anyone crossing that street would be doing so under heavy fire. It'd be a massacre."
"So he's planned this well in advance," Nazari said.
"Aye, this isn't just about killing innocent people. It's about making a statement while killing innocent people. Baktayev learned some lessons from Beslan. The poverty and drug problems in the area likely mean low parental involvement. There'll be a lot of children arriving on the buses and few being dropped off by a parent who might notice something out of the ordinary. That, coupled with the likelihood that there's very little police presence in such a small, out of the way town, means Baktayev won't have any trouble gaining control of the building and its occupants. Once he's inside and he has his hostages he doesn't have any intention of anyone leaving alive. He'll take as many emergency responders with him as possible, too."
"So how do we stop this guy?" Osman asked. "'There's just the three of us. The other men who have helped us this far are spies, not warriors. They won't be much good to us in a fight. We have Kemiss's confession. That's what we came here for. Why do we need to go any further?"
Declan glanced between Osman and Nazari. He could see doubt on both men's faces and he understood it. What they were about to do could get them all killed.
"Look, Os," he said, "I know how you feel. Taking on a team of heavily armed terrorists isn't my idea of fun, either, but there's no one else to do it. What would Abe want us to do? He wouldn't stand by and let this happen. He'd do everything in his power to stop it, and you know that."
Osman ceded the point with a nod. "No argument there, but why does this have to involve us marching up to these guys and calling them sissies? Call in a bomb threat. Get school cancelled for the day and it's finished."
"I wish it was that simple. Although in the end it may be. We're not planning on any lengthy assaults here," Declan said. "Baktayev's entire plan rests on the element of surprise. Without it he's got nothing. He can't afford a long, protracted gunfight to take control of the school. Once attention is brought to his presence, he'll be forced to run. But we can't risk him having a backup target either, another school within driving distance or even a church daycare center or something, so we've got one chance at stopping him and it's got to count."
Osman nodded slowly. "Alright, alright, I'm in."
"Grand. Let's look at the big picture. We've got to try and figure out where they're going to be coming from."
Nazari moved around to the other side of the kitchen island and used the wireless mouse to zoom the satellite image out. "The main highway leading through the town goes right past the school."
"Aye, but I don't think they'll use that. The presence of any vehicles on the property overnight could attract a police patrol and in the morning the administration would know something wasn't right. Baktayev will be looking for a way to enter the property without anyone knowing."
"There," Osman said, pointing at a dead end road northwest of the school. "Zoom in on that."
Nazari clicked the mouse several times and the screen zoomed in on a road that ended in a parking lot and a cluster of buildings.
"Looks like some kind of apartments or townhouses," Declan said, shaking his head. "Too risky."
Nazari moved the view out again.
"What's that there?" Declan said, as he noticed a thin gray line that ran through the forest behind the school's property.
"Tobacco Heritage Trail," Nazari said, as he read the label that became visible as he zoomed in on the location.
"Is it a road?"
"I don't think so," Nazari said. "It looks too narrow to me." He clicked over to a different tab on the internet browser and typed the name into Wikipedia. "Nothing here." He clicked over to another tab and typed the name into the Google search engine. An official website came up at the top of the search results. "The Tobacco Heritage Trail is a system of long distance, multi-use, non-motorized trails following abandoned rail corridors throughout Southside Virginia," he read.
Declan looked over the pictures on the website as Nazari scrolled through it. The so-called trail was nearly as wide as a road and covered with gravel. "That's it," he said. "It's gotta be. And that road there, just east of the school, that's how they'll enter the trail. Look at it, no nearby houses and completely wooded. They'll pull their vehicles far enough down the trail to keep them hidden and they'll enter the school from the back. No one will even know they're there until it's too late. They could go back and forth from the vehicles all night carrying in whatever they want and no one would notice. By morning they'll have the entire place wired and booby trapped. They'll take control one person at a time as they enter."
"Twin Cemetery Road," Osman said, as he leaned in for a closer look at the road Declan was pointing at. "Let's go get 'em."
Chapter Seventy-Two
"They're out of there and aren't planning on coming back from the looks of it," Osman said, as he ended a call on his cell phone. "Looks like they've been living there, according to the guys I asked to have a look. They found sleeping arrangements in the building for at least twenty, and evidence of homemade explosives."
The black Ford Explorer bounced over a set of dormant railroad tracks as Nazari guided it over the antiquated pavement of a two lane country road, passing tall trees and flat, empty fields on either side. The view was occasionally broken up by the sudden appearance of dilapidated residences that looked as though they had been there longer than the road itself. Even in the darkness of night, the poverty of the area they were heading into was evident.