Arnold ignored the younger man. “Doc, you need to issue the evacuation order, or you’re going to lose everyone. Michael here has never been under artillery fire. I have. I never want to repeat it.”
Elliot nodded. “It doesn’t sound pleasant. But the lab and winter quarters have the protection of the mountains above.”
“After days of shelling, none of that will matter. Trying to stop the guns en route is madness, which leaves us sitting ducks against a force of hardened fighters that outnumber us four to one.” Arnold shook his head. “Doc…” He paused, clearly struggling to put his argument most convincingly. “Elliot, what we should do is mine the way in, launch a few guerrilla attacks to slow them down and buy us time to evacuate someplace safe. We’ll have at least a day’s head start, plus another for them to make it through the canyon, at best. That’s two days. We can be a long ways away in two days.” Arnold swallowed back his frustration. “You have to give the evacuation order. There’s no other way.”
Michael snorted in disgust. “Of course there is. You just don’t agree with it. I think we can stop them on the road and take out the artillery, and that leaves them having to go through the canyon, which is booby-trapped to the teeth.”
Arnold frowned at Michael. “Spoken as a wire-head with exactly zero combat experience.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been skilled enough to avoid being shot at my entire life. That’s called being smart. I don’t expect you’d understand it.”
Temper flaring, Arnold stood. “I’m in charge of security here, and I’m telling you that you can’t defend this place against artillery, and your boy here has come up with a plan that will divide your resources and get everyone killed.”
“No,” Michael retorted. “I’ve just come up with a better plan than yours, and your ego can’t handle it.” Michael paused. “Yours is basically to run away. Mine is to take preemptive action and surgically eliminate the threats before they arrive.”
“Yours is idiocy, which you’ll only learn once you’ve lost your men.” Arnold slammed his fist on the table. “I’m done with this discussion. Elliot, if you’re going to listen to this moron, you’re risking everyone’s lives on someone with zero experience. If that’s how it’s going to be, I’m tendering my resignation, effective immediately, and getting the hell out of here.”
Elliot’s expression hardened. “Arnold, there’s no need for melodrama. I understand you disagree…”
“I don’t ‘disagree.’ I refuse to lead everyone to the slaughter out of some crazy sense of power. Staying and fighting is certain death, with big guns and a thousand men coming at us. I won’t go to my grave on somebody else’s mistaken whim. And that’s what staying is.” Arnold frowned at Michael and then straightened as he faced Elliot. “No disrespect, Doctor, but it’s suicide, and I’ll have no part of it.”
“So you’re going to cut and run when we need you most?” Michael snapped.
“I’m going to survive, you fool. You’ll learn I was right, but you’ll be dying by the time it sinks in. We have exactly zero chance with a clown like you calling the shots. I’ll say a prayer for you, but it’ll be a prayer for the dead, because that’s how you and everyone that stays will wind up. Sorry. That’s how it’ll go down.”
“Arnold, please. We have to work together,” Elliot implored.
“Either I lead everyone to safety, or you can make this your Alamo and die to the last man. Those are your choices.”
“Just get out of here, you coward. We don’t need you. I always thought you were all talk, and this proves it. First sign of trouble and you turn tail. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Michael snapped.
Arnold barely controlled his impulse to lunge across the table at Michael and instead shook his head. “I’m talking to a ghost. Enjoy your remaining hours,” he said. “You too, Doc. You’re making a big mistake, but it’s yours to make. I’ll tell my men my decision, and any of them that want to stay are welcome to. Most probably will, which is sad, but they’re more loyal to the idea of Shangri-La than they are realistic.”
“Great. So now you’re going to cause a mutiny because you didn’t get your way,” Michael said.
Arnold stopped at the door and leveled a flat stare at Michael. “One more word out of you and you’ll be swallowing teeth. Don’t tempt me, because there’s nothing I’d rather do than knock you senseless. You’re going to get everyone butchered with your little power grab.”
Michael held his tongue, and Arnold left. When he was gone, Michael shook his head.
“We don’t need him. The mines are laid. All we need to do is blow the bridge and assemble some volunteers to run guerilla raids between here and Albuquerque. Maybe Lucas can help.”
Elliot stared at his hands as though he didn’t recognize them. “Maybe he’s right.”
“He’s not. He’s just not willing to consider anyone’s perspective but his own. That’s why he was a soldier instead of a general.”
Elliot exhaled and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he nodded. “Let’s get a sniper detail formed and assign a crew to blow the bridge. The charges are in place, right?”
“Correct. Arnold’s men set them yesterday. Hopefully correctly.”
Elliot regarded Michael dispassionately. “Michael, Arnold is many things, but incompetent isn’t one of them; nor is he a coward. We have to respect his decision, whether we agree with it or not. Don’t dismiss him so lightly – he’s done a fine job for years here, and we’ll be the poorer for his loss.”
“At the worst possible moment. Don’t forget he’s choosing to abandon us, not the other way around,” Michael spat, his tone bitter.
“We don’t have time to dwell on it. Come. Let’s break the news to the assembly and hand out assignments. We don’t have a moment to lose.”
Chapter 43
Lucas stood beside Sierra near the back of the gathering. On her other side Eve held her hand tightly, Ellie the piglet nuzzling the little girl’s ankle as Ruby looked on with concern. Michael had called an emergency assembly twenty minutes earlier, attendance mandatory. Terry waited next to Ruby, his long face furrowed with doubt but his gaze determined as Elliot emerged from the main building and faced the crowd, Michael behind him.
“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Elliot began. “We’ve just received word that the Crew is on its way and will probably be here at some point tomorrow.”
A collective gasp went up from the group. Elliot held up a hand for silence before continuing. “Our man in Albuquerque says it’s a big force. He estimates around a thousand strong, in a motorized convoy towing horse trailers…and four howitzers.”
Another gasp was quickly followed by alarmed murmurs. Elliot allowed the unrest to continue for a half minute before signaling again for silence.
A voice called out from near the front, “How are we supposed to defend against howitzers, much less a thousand fighters?”
Elliot nodded. “A fair question. We’ve anticipated a large force, and as many of you know, we’ve already mined the highway approach and set charges on the bridge across the Rio Grande to stop the vehicles well away from here. But now that we have a definitive on the number of men, we’ve decided that it makes the most sense to conduct guerilla raids en route as well and to mine further away. They won’t be expecting it, and it should have a profound psychological effect on their fighters.”
“But you said they’ll be here tomorrow,” another man argued from the front of the throng.
“I said probably. But if the mines do their job, we can slow them considerably, which is where the guerilla raids will come in. Our strategy will be to send out a group of skilled snipers with night vision equipment, high-powered rifles, and AT4s, and hit them while they’re stopped at the minefields.”
Lucas frowned. “If they’re that well equipped, they’ll have NV gear too.”
Michael nodded, as though expecting the statement. “Yes, but we’re hoping that having some of their vehicles de
stroyed will throw them into disarray. At the very least, it will slow their progress to a crawl as they check every yard of road. We didn’t only mine the highway – we also mined the surrounding areas they’d have to take, and deliberately chose sections where there weren’t any options other than the road. That lends itself perfectly to snipers lying in wait. If we can hit a few of their buses, we could eliminate hundreds of them before they get anywhere near us. By repeating this process again and again, we hope to be able to whittle them down by a significant number.”
“What about the big guns?”
Michael fielded that question, too. “Shouldn’t be an issue if they can’t get across the river. Their max range is about fifteen miles. That’s over twenty.”
Richard, one of Arnold’s security force, stepped forward. “That was for conventional units. If they’ve got special munitions, they could hit us from up to twenty-plus miles away.”
Michael looked like a deer in the headlights for a moment and then recovered. “We have no information on what they’re using for ammo.”
“Right. My point is that they very well could have big guns that could reach us even from across the river. That’s a very real possibility, especially if they aren’t all that concerned with accuracy. All they need to do is get a spotter into one of the hills around us and they could call in the fire and adjust as necessary. Presuming they don’t have a map, which they will.”
Michael’s tone hardened. “Which is why we need to eliminate the artillery before they get to the river.”
Another voice called out, “What’s this I heard about Arnold leaving?”
Elliot nodded. “Sadly, we had a parting of the ways over the best way to guarantee that our work here doesn’t go to waste. Arnold felt that the best option would be to abandon the valley to the Crew. I’m unwilling to vacate a place that’s the only bit of civilization I know of left in the world. If that isn’t worth fighting for, then I’m not sure there’s anything worth living for in the badlands. Everyone knows what it’s like out there. Nothing in life is free or easy, and sometimes you have to be prepared to fight to defend what’s yours. I made the call to stay; Arnold didn’t.”
“I heard he took a bunch of his men with him.”
“Fourteen, to be exact,” Elliot said. “Look, if anyone wants to turn tail, that’s their prerogative. Nobody is being forced to stay, of course. There’s every likelihood some of us won’t make it through this ordeal, so I wouldn’t blame anyone if they decide to leave. But I’d also remind you that you’ve lived in safety and comfort for years because of collective effort – you and your neighbors pulling together and overcoming obstacles as a team. I believe that we can defeat this threat, acting as one. Between all the mines and booby traps, our natural defenses, and our determination, we can preserve our way of life. I’m of the opinion it’s worth going to the mat for.”
Another voice from the back, female, spoke out. “No guarantee we’d live very long if we left, either. It’s hell out there. We’ve all heard the reports. At least here we know the terrain and we can trust each other. I’m going to stay. This is our home, and I’m willing to defend it.”
A chorus of voices rose with affirmations and it quickly became evident that the possibility of an exodus had been avoided.
Elliot allowed the crowd to digest the news and then called out, his voice strong, “We’re going to need to assemble sniper crews to hit the trail. Figure eighteen men and women – three groups of six. We’ll also need people to assign to blowing the bridge. The rest will be deployed in the canyons and strategic locations in the valley.”
Richard spoke up again. “They can get across north of the bridge. There are three other crossings up by Espanola.”
“That’s why we’ll equip the bridge crew with sufficient explosives to destroy those as well. First order of business will be to blow the Rio Grande bridge, then ride hard to the north and blow the others. They’ll have to backtrack, and the highway runs far out of their way – with a few mines strategically located to buy us more time.”
When the assembly broke up, Sierra stopped Lucas with a hand on his arm. “Lucas, I know you’re still angry, but we need to talk.”
Lucas shrugged off her touch. “Not a lot to talk about, is there?”
Sierra’s voice quieted, and Ruby, sensing the tension, led Eve and her piglet a discreet distance away. “That’s where you’re wrong,” Sierra said.
Lucas’s jaw clenched. “So talk.”
Sierra sighed. “Lucas, our night together was…it was everything I could want.”
“But not enough to keep you from running off first chance you got. What’s that old saying about actions speaking louder than words?”
“I know, but you have to put yourself in my position. Imagine you had a son. And you found out he was alive. You fulfilled your obligation to get Eve to safety, you met someone…special…but your son is still out there, and you’re his parent. What do you do?”
“I’m smart enough to know he’s not really out there.”
“That’s what you keep saying. But you don’t know. That’s just a guess. I’m telling you that if there’s even a remote chance he’s alive, you’ll find him. That’s what being a mother is all about. You don’t give up on your child. You never –” Sierra choked up momentarily, and wiped away a tear. “You never give up,” she said, staring defiantly into his eyes. “Otherwise, what kind of human being are you?”
“Word that comes to mind is ‘alive.’”
“It’s not worth living if you allowed your child to die when you could have saved him.”
Lucas looked away. “Sierra, that was just something Garret said to get to you. And it worked. But you have to recognize it wasn’t real. It’s just technique, nothing more.”
“Maybe. But if you’re wrong, my son’s alive, and he’s out there, and I need to do everything I can to find him. I have no choice.” She paused. “That’s why I left. You would have done the same.”
Lucas didn’t say anything. Like arguing angels on the head of a pin, there was no way of responding to a hypothetical built on a probable lie. He took a calming breath, and when he spoke again, his voice was low. “You didn’t just leave, Sierra. You snuck away without telling me.”
“Because you would have stopped me.”
“Damn right I would have,” he agreed.
“So I did the only thing I could.” She cleared her throat. “Lucas, I don’t want you to hate me. I want to stay here with you. But I also need to do what’s right.”
“What’s right is to stay alive.”
Sierra nodded silently, but Lucas could see the wheels turning behind her eyes. He stiffened when she moved close to him and tiptoed to kiss him, and turned away as her lips rose to his.
She surprised him by grabbing his jaw, forcing his mouth back to hers, and kissing him hungrily. When she finally pulled away, she was panting slightly.
“That’s real, Lucas. Out of everything, that’s the most real. If I could undo leaving when I did, believe me, I would. Please…don’t let one bad decision ruin it for us. That’s all I ask.”
Before he could answer, she was walking away. Ruby’s eyebrows rose as he watched Sierra depart, hips swinging with a rhythmic stride that commanded his attention.
Chapter 44
The Crew army was able to roll out of Albuquerque before sunrise, the repair crews having again worked through the night on vehicles that were proving increasingly unreliable with every mile. Duke and Aaron had scoured the city for parts and had spent most of the past eighteen hours negotiating or outright seizing whatever was on the list the repairmen required. The local militia had given the Crew a wide berth after advising them to keep their convoy outside the town limits, and Magnus had made a strategic decision not to take the city just to prove that he could – they’d seen hundreds of armed militia waiting as they’d rolled toward the main entrance, and Albuquerque wasn’t worth losing men over.
Tires were provi
ng the hardest items, which Magnus had anticipated from the warnings of the repair crew chief. Duke had sourced any that appeared in reasonable shape, but even the best of the rubber was questionable from age, and nobody had much confidence in their new acquisitions.
Luis had materialized in Albuquerque and, after introducing himself as the head of the Locos, had reported on Cano’s death – another blow to Magnus’s plan, albeit a minor one.
“You don’t know who did it?” Magnus had snapped when Luis finished.
“No. I assume it was a raiding party from one of the bandit gangs in the area. I asked around town, and apparently there are more than a few of them.”
To Luis’s relief, the Crew boss hadn’t asked about the man who’d radioed in the location of Shangri-La, being obviously preoccupied with weightier matters. He’d ordered Luis to report to Jude with the same dismissive disdain that Cano had shown, eliminating any hope Luis had fostered of better treatment.
Magnus had debated running at night when the pavement was cooler, to save wear on the remaining tires, but circumstances prevented him from doing so, there being too many vehicles that required patching up to make the final distance to Los Alamos. As it was, even with a predawn departure, he had slim hope of making it by nightfall. The highway north was littered with abandoned cars and trucks, forcing the tow trucks into duty every few hundred yards.
When one of them stalled with a screech like a wounded animal, he stepped from the Humvee and marched to where it had been attempting to heave a panel van off the road.
The driver opened the hood and recoiled at the smoke rising from the engine and the strong odor of burning oil. He looked over the motor and shook his head before turning to Magnus with a scowl.
“Must have thrown a rod or something,” he reported.
Magnus signaled for another tow truck to push the ruined one from the highway, wincing as the first rays of the rising sun blinded him. Only a few miles out of town, and they were already stalled. A part of him realized that his vision of racing across the wasteland to eradicate his enemy had been overly optimistic; but he was committed now, and he had never been closer to his objective. Just one final hundred-and-something-mile stretch and the battle would be joined. Then he would be vindicated, the upstart enclave that dared compete with him leveled and its inhabitants slaughtered as a cautionary tale to others.
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