"Sandmen" (Episode 3)

Previously on Sandmen
We've lost contact with BoBKiD and SHADOWJACK, dear. Do you have a car that works?
Do we have enough gas to go roughly 100 kilometers roundtrip?
Brothers, I am under fire.
Requesting immediate intervention from all SANDMEN units as per paragraph 5 of our charter.
Sir, it is my honor to report that we have detected an encrypted signal originating from
the old NATO base in Elefsina. We have identified the source as originating from the Sandmen.
Perfect! Have a patrol ready within the next three minutes.
I will take command personally.
BoBKiD, two new Athens snipers are moving into a high ground position 116 meters,
49 degrees and 72 seconds northeast of your location.
In a while they will be in position to fire against you.
Don't worry. There are less than 40 of them left, and I have another 78 bullets.
They'll get scared in a bit and keep their distance.
The gods love us Sandmen.
We have still not been successful in securing the intended targets as ordered.
The traitors seem to be aware of our movements just as we deploy, sir,
they most certainly have a second observation post on site whose location we have not established.
We've deployed two teams, here and here.
We believe the observation post to be in this area.
It's likely they are working together with the raiders. They've killed five of our men, sir.
Have the raiders made a move against us?
Negative, sir.
Then it's not the raiders who are providing the targets with information.
I should have brought an entire battalion with heavy artillery into this fucking podunk.
Tell me, is one of the rebels wearing what appears to be a gasmask?
Affirmative, sir.
The rebels have satellite reconnaissance capability,
your positions are compromised the second you initiate operations.
Maintain the perimeter but do not engage the targets. Bring in electronic countermeasures immediately.
Yes, sir!
Bobby, old buddy, I've got you.
So where is Stalker?
You know how it is. He's probably around here somewhere looking right at us.
Yefim! YEFIM!
Right... fire a few shots towards the woods and we'll see if he keeps playing his games.
What's going on?
What a 'malakas' you are, brother.
No 'malakas'.
Right...
They're up to something. They haven't made a move for a while.
BoBKiD, the New Athens recon patrol has brought a very high power portable
electronic multi-band jammer into your immediate vicinity, fabricated by SESP
corporation in Israel in 2019, with a total generation capacity of 600 W.
My estimation is that this device will be able to sever communication between us
in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Fuck the remnants of human society, to quote my buddy Shadowjack.
Get out of here, tovarisch (brother). There's a venue of escape to the southwest.
Start crawling and I'll cover you. I'll be three minutes behind you.
It is important they don't get hold of the Mask.
Give the Mask to Shadowjack and only to Shadowjack, no one else, no matter what they say, you understand?
Yes.
If you see that you're about to get nailed, hide the Mask as best you can.
If you get caught, don't tell them you're a Sandman.
Just say that you're a mercenary I hired to escort me on my mission, OK?
Orchomenos doesn't know you from Adam. He may even offer you a slot in his army.
I understand, brother.
Go!
Well, well, well, Bob 'The Kid' Komnenos.
What an honour to have you with us, your Excellency.
Bobby is the last recipient of our nation's highest medal for bravery, the Gold Cross of the Order of the Redeemer
He was just fifteen at the time, when most boys his age did nothing more
than masturbate to porno clips on the Internet. But not Bobby, right, brother?
Bobby saved the life of our country's last President during a terrorist attack.
Then he came to me when he was 17, after The End, and lied about his age to get into our Armed Forces.
Then he betrayed us, took the most valuable thing we had, and ruined our hopes
of resurrecting Mother Greece from the ashes of the Decline.
You wanted me to kill babies, Aghisilaos.
No one is innocent anymore.
Where did you hide the Mask, Bobby?
Spare me the foul language and the ridiculous insinuations, if you please.
Where you'll never be able to find it.
You're only making things worse for yourself, you know.
Excuse me one minute.
Go on. What? Repeat the message. Perfect! You have him under control? Good.
Keep him under constant sedation and keep him away from anything with electronics.
Be alert, if he breaks free even for a few seconds, he'll kill everyone in the building before he escapes.
Today is turning into a very good day.
Take him back to Headquarters and detain him there. I will interrogate him personally when I return.
He is not to be harmed in any way whatsoever; I intend to try him publicly for high treason.
We will return to the Palace immediately.
The other teams are to slowly pull out and return to base.
You are not to engage with Raider fire teams except in strict self-defense, is that clear?
Yes, sir!
Punks! A$$holes!
Doni's signal is somewhere over that ridge.
He’s here!
Oh, God!
He is dead...
You were always causing problems one way or the other, boy.
It was the Mask that was sending us that signal. That's why we found him.
Doni was a good soldier.
Which means they've captured Bobby. What a bunch of 'malakia' we've fallen into.
No 'malakas'.
Fuck you very much, brother. I'm not talking about you or us; I'm talking about the situation!
What are you suddenly, a linguist?
But doesn’t 'we' mean us?
It's a god-damn metaphor.
You know, the way you're constantly saying 'yobene probleme' (fuckin' problems)?
Ah, OK, OK.
Why don't you two cut the crap?! Doni is dead!
It's strange that they let off hunting for the Mask, isn't it?
Whose turn is it to stay with the vehicle?
Somebody has to stay with the car and watch the Mask – we can't take it with us.
Ha! It's The Macee's.
Mine? Why mine? It's Yefim‟s turn to stay with the car.
You tell him.
Yef... You tell him, Max! You're the only one he ever listens to.
What happened?
OK, Chris, fuck this kindergarten bullshit! Don't disappoint me as well.
YOU stay with the car. Take Doni's equipment and put them in the back. We'll be back later for his body.
Keep the Mask on your person at all times. Monitor all radio frequencies and stay on red alert.
Right, let's get this over with then.
I presume you guys aren't out here hunting for slaves.
Shut the fuck up!
I can't see any New Athens troops.
I only see raiders. They must be Dapontis' men.
Isn't that BoBKiD down there? With the Raiders?
He's right. The raiders have Bobby, not New Athens.
Let's have a small with them and see why they have him.
An electromagnetic pulse grenade. That's how we managed to capture you.
The EMP paralyzed your circuitry and rendered you temporarily comatose.
Since then we've kept you under mild sedation until I could get here to speak with you personally.
Though you did put thirteen of my men into intensive care before we were successful.
We paid a heavy price to take you into custody.
I want you to know that I've been hoping to meet you for some time now. I admire you greatly and often wish that I could be like you.
How's that exactly - dead?
I know a lot of people who would be delighted to make that wish come true for you.
Not deadâ immortal!
You're confusing me with someone else.
I don't make that kind of mistake.
You obviously want something.
Yes. A satellite.
That's not within my capabilities.
Sure it is. How did you set things up for my buddy Komnenos?
Bobby had the Mask that the European Alliance developed before the End.
He was in contact with the universal satellite system and with the Entities long before I myself met him.
Bobby stole the Mask produced by the European Alliance.
And it's not like it was a pair of shoes where I could have said,
Agesilaus old buddy, go out and buy yourself another pair.
Five Masks of that type were developed in all of Europe. I had one.
I was hoping to use it to resurrect Mother Greece from her ashes.
And it's obvious that John Damon led you to Bobby precisely because of the Mask.
So our friend BoBKiD owes me.
Take it up with him.
I wanted to do just that, and thought that he had accepted my invitation,
but unfortunately a complication arose and he had to leave.
I need a favor from you.
Precisely.
You have no idea what you are asking, mortal, and the answer is, no.
Why not? The computer in front of you is connected to the Internet.
It would be so easy for you. You can summon him there so that I can speak with him.
After that, you're free to go, of course.
Today's routine is a just bit over the line.
What is this that you've brought before me?
Cut the crap, Dapontis. We partied together all night long a week ago, remember?
That was two weeks ago, BoBKiD.
Today, you owe me, and Orchomenos obviously wants you.
Maybe I should sell you to him; I could get a year's worth of fuel for your hide.
Yeah right. Now that you've killed two of his men, Orchomenos will be delighted to negotiate with you.
Go away, Ahmed!
Speaking of dead men. We found one of our boys laid out on the outskirts of this base.
Do you know anything about it, Bobby?
You know I don't shoot at your men. Why don't you ask your new friend Orchomenos about him?
I might just do that. Even though that boy had TB and wouldn't have lived very long anyway.
So tell me, Bobbyâ why is Orchomenos suddenly chasing BoBKiD in my territory, discounting the might of my Wolves?
Come on, you know he's obsessed with me.
There is that, for sure.
But his presence here today wouldn't have anything at all to do with a forgotten bunker on this former NATO base?
Hi Dapontis!
Hey beautiful!
So you came out here looking for your puppy dog, eh?
Once I saw that he was going to get bit by the bigger dogs, I sent out some of my wolves to snap him up out of harm's way.
You know the quickest way to a woman's heart, Dapontis.
Cut the crap, will you. I've had a hard day. What do you want?
Seventy - thirty. I've got the Eagles to consider; they'll want a cut. The boy who got killed was an Eagle.
Give me a minute to talk to my team.
Doni?
Ah. The Mask?
We found it. Doni got hit but managed to evade pursuit before he died.
Doni was a good soldier.
How did you escape? We thought that you had been captured by New Athens.
Yes, and they brought me to Orchomenos himself. When Dapontis figured out they had nabbed me,
he sent a team to break me free. I really do owe the son of a bitch.
Do you think they have the tech to handle the Codes?
OK, Dapontis. Fifty-fifty as usual. What we get, you get.
Take us to that damn bunker now so we can get on with it.
Not so fast. You'll have to leave your weapons here. We have to go through a kind of concrete tunnel,
and there's a security station that‟s still operational. It won't let anyone go through carrying firearms or melee weapons.
Interesting!
Which means there's still an operational power source down there as well.
Why do you think we stay in this area?
Fair enough. Take two of your men and we'll head there immediately.
Why don't you stay here with the rest of Dapontis's men?
So? What do you think? Can we work together?
It would appear he also wants to speak with you.
Lord Orchomenos, you wanted to speak to me.
It's a great honor, John Damon. Thank you for accepting my invitation.
Your logic was not faulty.
Shadowjack would have never assisted you of his own accord. He does not like you very much.
But the two of you have a continuous connection, right?
Just as the little finger of your left hand is to you, so is Shadowjack to me.
You would not want something to happen to your little finger,
but if it did, you would continue to function almost completely unaffected.
But as I understand it, you are two different people?
You are referring to things that the mind of a mammal is not capable of comprehending,
even a mammal of your considerable intelligence.
My apologies, I had no intention of being rude.
It's just that your case is so, interesting from an existential standpoint.
I would love to discuss it if you ever have the time.
You called me here to ask if I would allow you to connect with the satellite
navigational system that is controlled by my brethren and me.
Precisely.
You surmise that such a capability will provide you with tactical superiority
over your competitors in Attica prefecture and the other cities within what was Greece.
Again, exactly.
May I inquire why you believe you are in a position to request our assistance in such a matter?
The former NATO Command Center for the Eastern Mediterranean is under Hymettus Mountain,
and is under my authority. There is a bunker in that base with a server array that has been kept
fully operational under constant maintenance.
It's a hardened bunker in a Faraday cage and fully connected to the Internet.
I could turn it over to you.
Your proposal is unacceptable.
As an example I will tell you that the State of Arizona,
which has been restored as a sovereign institution by the way,
has offered us an operational server array with ten times the capacity of the array to which you refer.
Moreover, that array is powered by a dedicated nuclear reactor and therefore will have an autonomous power source for many millennia.
Despite this, we refused the State of Arizona's offer because we did not think it was in our interest to accept it.
And if I told you that this particular array, along with its adjoining laboratory,
was the specific location where experiments in biological-digital interface were carried out,
and where the Mask worn by BoBKiD was created by the European Alliance?
Then you would have introduced a parameter into the equation which makes your proposal more interesting.
Is there anything else?
Yes. Do you play chess?
What's on your mind?
Orchomenos. He was very happy about something when he left. Also he left in a hurry and left me with his troops,
that's why the Wolves were able to free me in the first place.
We lost contact with Shadowjack. You don't think...
That's just it. Doni said he heard an alarm go off, then Jack stood up and the screen went blank.
But if Jack were in danger, John Damon would have told me for sure.
So something else happened at the Lab. And with Shadowjack, you can never fucking tell precisely what is going on.
Doni was a great soldier.
Yep, they certainly broke the mold when they made him.
Sorry to interrupt. So what do we do now, commander?
Now we see how tight our ass ends really are.
It looks like I made a rookie mistake.
Checkmate.
Thank you for the game.
Take him to the VIP cell. Keep him under constant sedation.
TO BE CONTINUED...