by David Wilson
Slowly Talon scanned the ranks of refugees. He did have much hope of spotting Diane, as he could not believe she would be compliant enough to stand around in chow line while she thought her son was by himself back at their condo. Plus, the use of force during her takedown did not indicate these guys were putting up with much crap. Diane was more than likely in whatever they were using as a jail. So far, he had not been able to identify any type of holding facility. Just as Talon thought that he chastised himself, quit thinking like this is American anymore, treat this as if you are in a third world country.
Shifting his body, Talon began to scan the sports complex again, this time looking for the tennis courts. US forces have long used tennis courts as a temporary holding area for people that are suspected of wrongdoing. Finally spotting the courts located on the southeast of the sports complex, Talon silently cursed to himself. Oh well, he thought, might as well get on with it. Talon wasn’t all that worried about being spotted. Whoever had set up the security for this camp had done a decent job of laying out the camp and making use of the existing facilities. But they had made an error, which is common at detention centers. The guards just can’t help themselves, they are drawn to watch inward, worried about the detainees, not the actual security of the compound. Detention centers are made to keep people in and under control, not to keep people out. While this was a FEMA camp, it had many of the components of a full-blown detention center.
Checking that he didn’t leave any sign or equipment behind to indicate someone had been conducting surveillance of the compound. Talon slid backward until he was sure no one would be able to spot him standing and moving through the woods flanking the center. Taking his time, Talon moved slowly and carefully around the compound to the northeast. Upon reaching the northeast corner of the compound, Talon had to use his small crowbar to remove some privacy fence boards to cross over into the residential area bordering the sports complex. This was due to there was not enough tree cover on the east side of the sports complex to cover his movement. However, he was able to pick up his pace once he was on the blacktop street that ran parallel to the eastern edge of the complex.
After about five minutes of dog trotting down the street, Talon cut across the yard of a two-story house with a red spray-painted X on the door. Opening the door, Talon stood and listened for a few seconds before crossing the living room and climbed the stairs to the second story of the house. Stopping at the first bedroom facing west, Talon walked over to the side of the window and pulled out his binoculars. His view was not excellent, as most of the view was blocked by a couple of large oak trees. Realizing the view would be better from a couple house further south, he exited the house and moved two houses down the block. Repeating his actions at the first house, he finally found the view he wanted in the third house he entered.
Pulling a small table and chair over to the open window, Talon sat behind the table about 5 feet from the window. Bracing his elbows on the table, he slowly searched the tennis courts. Talon had a straight shot distance of about 120 yards to the nearest tennis court. Two general-purpose (GP) military tents had been set up within each of the high fenced tennis courts. Guards were roaming around the four enclosures. The court nearest Talon was all guys from what he could see. Counting the guards, he could see four at any one time. As before, their main concentration was on the detainees, not on the outside world.
Talon sat back and sipped some water. He had several questions he needed answers before he could mount any type of rescue operation. One, he needed to determine if these guys were acting like bad guys, or were they really attempting to help the people. He really didn’t want to kill any US soldiers that were just doing what they had been ordered to do. Second, he had to verify that Diane was being held in the tennis courts. Three, could he pull this off by himself, or did he need to go back and get Ben to help him out? Shaking off the doubts, Talon raised his binoculars to his eyes again and began searching for Diane.
It was almost 0900 before a small detail of four soldiers showed up with two cases of meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) and two five-gallon water cans. Their arrival definitely caused a commotion among the detainees held within the tennis courts. The detainee’s filed out of the tents and lined up along the fence. The detainees were a pitiful lot, almost all of them stood with their heads down and staring at the ground. The man who seemed in charge of the work detail broke away from the work detail and approached the second tennis court. Talon could hear one of the guards yelling at the detainees to step it up and get lined up, or they would not be fed. There was some shouting back and forth before the same guy, as Talon had identified as the man in charge, pulled out his mace and began spraying the mace through the chain link. There was some much louder screaming and yelling before two guards moved forward and entered the tennis court that had been giving them problems.
As Talon watched, he shook his head as he thought he should have known. The detainee, the two guard’s drug out of the tennis court, was beyond a doubt, Diane. She was struggling in the grip of the two soldiers and cursing them at the top of her lungs. The senior soldier walked over to the struggling women and said something to her that immediately cut off her screaming. The two guards walked her over to an oak tree, about 16 inches in diameter. Using two sets of handcuffs, they linked them together and cuffed her to the tree. They were not the gentlest, and they had not turned her around, so she was cuffed facing the tree.
Surely not, Talon thought but was still shocked when the senior guard walked over to her with what appeared to be a five-foot piece of fiberglass rod in his hands. Without saying a word, he drew his arm back and proceed to give her ten lashes across her upper back, butt, and thighs. The smack of the rod could be heard from Talon’s position, the thin cloth of the coverall doing little to soften the force of the blows. Diane didn’t make a sound that Talon could hear until the third strike. The shrieks of the beaten woman cut Talon to the core. By the ninth strike, Diane was hanging limp and sagging against the tree. The actions of the soldier screamed at Talon for revenge, demanded it, but Talon fought down the urge to shoot the soldier wielding the rod. While it would be very satisfying, it would get him no closer to getting Diane out of the camp. Talon vowed to make the guy wielding the rod suffer badly, very badly, if it was possible. That girl has some girt thought Talon. But at the same time, she was making his job that much harder. Even if he could get her out, right now, she was in no shape for a run, let alone a hike back to the condo.
Talon froze as he heard a sound he had heard in years but immediately knew what it was. The jingle was unmistakable. Talon watched as the senior soldier walked over to the picnic table near the middle of the tennis courts and pulled a field phone handset from its cradle. Well, that answers one of my questions, thought Talon. No working radios on the compound or at least not enough to go around. That’s actually good as the tennis courts are back here out of sight of most of the compound. The soldier hung up the handset after about 30 seconds. Afterward, he gathered all of the soldiers together and talked with them for several minutes before turning and stalking away towards the gym. The other soldiers resumed their guard duties, with the extra soldiers completed handing out the MRE to the remaining detainees. No one paid any attention to Diane, still handcuffed to the tree. She had not moved since the beating, and Talon wondered if she had passed out from the pain.
Pulling his sketchpad out, Talon began to draw out a detailed diagram of the tennis court area and any area that had a straight line of sight on the tennis court area. Checking on Diane about every five minutes, he was almost finished with his sketch when he detected movement from Diane. She was struggling to stand up to release some of the pressure off her wrists and shoulders. Talon knew she had to be in a great deal of pain, not only from the beating, but it was a wonder that she hadn’t broken her wrists when she passed out. At least he hoped she hadn’t.
Finishing his sketch, Talon sat back and examined the sketch. Four guards around the tennis courts and two
sentry points, each of those with two guards. He would need a diversion to pull this off. It would have to be fast and hard, Talon had no doubt that the troop and DHS had at least a few night vision devices, and more than likely had at least one trained sniper team providing overwatch on the compound. After thinking about that for a minute, Talon picked up his binoculars and began scoping out all the high points of the sports complex. It only took him a couple of minutes to locate the sniper location. They were set up in the sportscaster booth on top of the football stadium. It was a good position, rather obvious, but still, it gave them the high ground. They would have to work together and take both of the sniper team members out at the same time. Ben could take one from the northwest side of the compound, while he could take the other from the edge of the woods just south of his current position. He would then take the guards out on this side of the compound while Ben raised hell with the main gate and the headquarters building. Ben would retreat to the condo, and Talon and Diane would go straight to the horses. They would gather the horses and ride to the condo and pick up Ben and Billy. After that, they would all head west to the safe house Talon knew of and restock on ammo and food, then get back on the road and get the hell out of this area. Talon sat and pondered the plan. Other than a couple of details, he had what he needed and began to collect his gear to get back to the condo and brief Ben.
Arriving back at Diane’s condo complex, Talon watched the area for several minutes before using the keys to unlock and enter the compound. Making his way to Diane’s building, Talon entered the condo and did a quick check of the condo before knocking on the hallway wall to signal Ben that it was all clear and to open the safe room.
As soon as he gave the all-clear signal, the door opened immediately, allowing Talon to enter. Billy started firing off questions about his mother before Talon could even cross the small room and drop his equipment. Talon turned to the young man and stated, “Slow down, let me get this equipment off and grab a cup of coffee, and I’ll tell you all about it. But, I can say I saw your mother, and hopefully, I have a plan to get her out. So just slow down.”
Billy looked at Talon and immediately forced his body to stand silently by as Talon took off his gear and removed his boots. Pulling the sketch of the sports complex from his vest Talon turned and took a seat next to the table. Ben handed Talon a cup of coffee. Keeping his eyes on Ben and Billy as he took a sip, Talon could see both of them were literally about to explode. Talon nodded his thanks to Ben for the cup of coffee as he began to unfold the field sketch on the table. “We have several problems that we are going to have to overcome to get your mom out of that place. The biggest problem being if we want to do this without having to kill a bunch of soldiers. If we do kill a bunch of them, then they are going to try really hard to track us down and either bring us in or just kill us. I mean, hell, I don’t know, they might do the same even if we don’t kill anyone. From what I saw them doing, I’m not inclined to go easy on these guys, but not all of those guys still wearing the uniform are bad people. Anyway, Diane is being held over at the tennis courts. That is where they are keeping the trouble makers,” stated Talon as he began pointing out things on the sketch, “there are sentry points about every 50 to 75 meters, with each sentry post using burn barrels to light up the perimeter. The back part of the complex is made up of triple stand concertina wire. From the concertina wire, it is about 50 yards to the tennis courts, which are enclosed with 14 to 16 feet high chain link fence. That is locked shut with a short piece of chain and a padlock. There are a total of about ten troops in the immediate area. That does not include the sniper team that occupies the broadcaster’s booth on top of the football stadium.”
Billy raised his hand, “Sir, may I ask a question.”
Talon nodded and sat back to listen.
Billy knew what he wanted to say and immediately got on with the statement, “Sir, my mom made me memorize what I was to tell anyone friendly if she was ever taken against her will. She knows there are three months of food and water inside the safe room for two people. She told me to stay put and not go outside for two weeks. That is, if anything happened to her, I was to stay locked up and wait until Grandpa came for me. She got really upset with me when I said I would come to get her if she was in trouble. She was crying, and she made me promise to not come after her.”
Talon tried not to smile and somehow managed to maintain a straight face, “Billy, she won’t be mad at you, as I outrank you, and I’m ordering this rescue operation, and you are going to have a very important part to play in it. You will have to be brave and be able to follow orders. Can you do that for Ben and I, while we go save your Mother?”
Billy jumped to his feet, “Sir, yes, I can do that, yes sir, whatever it is I can do it.”
Talon smiled at the young man, reaching out his hand, the young man shook his hand, before Talon indicated for him to sit again. Talon explained, “Billy, we are going to need you to take care of the getaway horses. We will have them all loaded up and ready to go as we might have bad guys chasing us, and they have to be ready at a moment’s notice. Can you do this important job or do I need to leave Ben with you because you are awfully young to be handling an important mission like this, now that I think about it, yes I’ll leave Ben with you because it is such a scary job.” As Talon finished speaking, he glanced over at Ben and winked. Ben smiled back and then almost laughed out loud at Billy’s reaction.
Billy exploded out of his seat, the anger obvious on his young face. Billy finally found his voice, “I do not need Ben’s help. I can handle the horses, you just tell me what to do, and I’m old enough to help on my own.”
Talon put on a look of thinking, “I don’t know, it will be dark, and that can be really scary, and without those horses, we won’t be able to get away from all the bad people, I still think I should leave Ben with you to help out.”
Billy’s face was beet red as he began to argue, but Talon looked him straight in the eyes and held up his hand in a stop motion, “Are you sure you can handle this on your own, it is really important that you be honest,” said Talon.
Billy took a deep breath before responding, “Sir, I can following directions, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it, I mean I can do this, I know how important it is for all of us to escape. I can do it.”
“Ok, I believe you, Billy. So let’s all go over the plan. We should leave here around 0200 and go over to where the horses are. We will give ourselves an hour to pack up and get on the road to the staging site. We should only be about 30 minutes from the house to the staging area, but we will build in an hour. So if we arrive at the staging area at 0400, Ben and I will have to leave very quickly to get into position by 0500. I originally was going to have Ben take up a position on the northern side to handle the snipers and to draw off forces, but I might need your help to get Diane out, depending on what shape she is in. It will be difficult for the sniper team to relocate so they can get a clear shot off to the south without leaving their cover of the press box. We will have to keep an eye on them. So we stick together and take out the guards and grab Diane and get the fuck out as fast as we can. Get back to the horses and ride like hell for the safe house. I’ve already gone over where that is over by Burke Lake. Get there and lay low for as much time as we have too. Any questions?” asked Talon.
Each of the guys had several questions. Talon took his time and explained each issue until everyone was satisfied with the plan and knew their roles and responsibilities by heart. Talon made sure they had everything packed that they needed and could carry. Talon hated to leave anything behind, but Diane had carefully planned this setup. Checking everything one more time, Talon was satisfied and ordered Ben and Billy to bed to get some much-needed rest. As soon as Talon saw they were both down and asleep, Talon lay down and closed his eyes and was asleep within seconds.
Chapter
Sitting bolt upright as the fog horn alarm assaulted Talon’s senses. Knowing nothing of where he was, he did recognize
the alarm sound as coming from his watch. By the time he had it shut off, and his feet hit the floor, he knew want was going on and where he was. Grabbing his pillow, he tossed it at Ben’s unprotected head. Ben shot upright, striking his head on the rack above him. Talon laughed as Ben cussed a blue streak. “Situational awareness is extremely important,” cited Talon. This elicitated some hand language from the younger man. Talon just smiled at the younger man, which turned to a grimace as he stood slowly and stretched to try and get his muscles to cooperate with him. Damn, he was sore, stiff and sore and too damn old for this shit, he thought.
Sliding his feet into his boots, Talon shuffled over to his rucksack and pulled the bottle of ranger tabs out of the top flap. Shaking the bottle gently, he reminded himself that he was going to demand that Jake refilled his supply of the pain meds when he got to Winchester. Shaking out three of the pills, he re-capped the bottle and returned it to his rucksack. Shuffling back over to the chair that had his vest draped over the back, he popped the pills into his mouth and chased them down with a drink from his drinking tube. His back protested when he bent over to tie his boots, but after a couple of tries, he managed to get the job completed. Talon turned back to say something to Ben when he realized Ben was behind the curtain using the restroom. Instead, Talon crossed the small room and hit the switch on the water pot. Glancing at the clock, Talon saw it was almost 0100, plenty of time he thought, I’ll wait until breakfast is ready to wake Billy. About that time, Ben came out from behind the curtain that served as a privacy screen.
“Morning sunshine,” Talon tossed out, “another beautiful day in the Corp, where every day is a holiday, and every meal is a banquet.”