Anchor Line

by Dawne Walters

  Conrad

  What luck! This was written only twenty minutes ago going by the time on her computer. So she hit respond and jammed out a note.

  Saturday, 12:39

  To: Pittsburgh_Guy@yahoo.com

  From: Addie.Marshall@yahoo.com

  RE: You still there????

  Conrad,

  I’m doing well, I guess. I can’t complain, it would do no good anyway…and i’m doing better than you are on deployment anyway. NO hot dates, however there is a guy that is moving into your old apartment as we speak, and he drives a BMW. So, I might be in luck! As far as pining away for some bad ass mother fucker, I don’t know any….so, I guess I’m still waiting for him too. Glad to see that you got back safe. Nothing new here either. Miss me, miss you.

  Addie

  She hit send and waited to see if he would write back. After ten minutes of hitting the refresh button, he’d finally written back.

  Saturday, 12:49

  From: Pittsburgh_Guy@yahoo.com

  To: Addie.Marshall@yahoo.com

  RE: Yep…still here!!!!!

  So from the sounds of it, you miss me don’t you?

  Saturday, 12:49

  To: Addie.Marshall@yahoo.com

  From: Pittsburgh_Guy@yahoo.com

  RE: Answers…

  I do miss you. You miss me?

  Again, she hit send, but after another ten minutes she got nothing back. Moving on to other emails and cleaning out her spam because she wasn’t trying to get a bigger penis, or trying her luck in the lottery overseas or even a beneficiary to someone in the United Arab Emirates, she logged into her Facebook and chatted with a few of her friends. A half an hour later, she still hadn’t heard back from him so she closed out her email and went inside to figure something out for dinner. A grilled ham and cheese with baked chips on a plate, she went back outside to her little table and sat down to surf the net and eat.

  Eyeballing the guy that was moving into Conrad’s old apartment while keeping an eye on her computer kept Addie busy until it was almost eleven. With any luck, after she’d put on the t-shirt that Conrad had left her, she’d crawl under the sheets and fall asleep to dreams of Conrad.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The three MRAPs were making their way to the gates of FOB Dagger, loaded with his Platoon members that had just carried out an assault on their latest objective, ‘Stronghold’. Stronghold was a small little house that was walled, atop a part of the mountain that jutted out above the road that the coalition forces patrolled. Below Stronghold was a little village that, weeks after clearing out the last set of bad guys, new ones would resurface. Getting into Stronghold was up a very steep 100 foot path that wound up to the walled structure.

  Conrad sat in his seat as he replayed the events over in his mind in a continuous loop and how he could have changed things or what they could have done differently, now that they were on their way back to the FOB, knowing things could have been different.

  After walking to the village via the only road to it, they approached from the northwest side and were immediately engaged in a quick, but heated exchange with insurgents in the village that Conrad’s Platoon, the ‘Muldoon’ handled with precision accuracy. After an all clear, Conrad took his platoon and went up that steep foot path and were prepared for any eventuality that might happen.

  But the additional surprises that awaited them once they got into the building that the walled structure housed was interesting enough. The walled structure was at least six feet high and the first set of wooden doors that were actually thick and not hanging off their hinges. After breaching the heavy doors to the courtyard, Muldoon spread out tactically and converged on the house that was made of the same material the walls were. Animal shit and mud and straw. Four Soldiers stacked by the door to breach the structure and with little resistance got in with only two rounds that went off. When the all clear was sent out, Conrad went inside.

  There was a table with three chairs and a fireplace that had a few antique looking pans and a rather large tea kettle. A cot lay in another corner with a ratty striped blanket. Nothing was left overturned or moved by Muldoon as they cleared the only room that was the house. The huge hole that they found in the floor was covered by a wooden crate that housed all of the supplies. The cover was just some boards pounded together crudely. It was black as pitch down that fucker. The upside? A crude ladder was leaning up against the side of the tunnel that would make going down a hell of a lot easier. This could hide/house more insurgents in Stronghold though, and that in itself was troubling.

  “Alright, let’s get this shit done. Kemp, you are coming. Time to get your feet wet kid.” Conrad looked over a quiet private that was standing near the window looking like he was ready to piss his pants. Terry Kemp was new to the Army, having gotten to Italy just a month before the unit was to deploy. This was the young private’s first mission to volunteer anything besides using his own weapon. He was a below average infantryman, and knew he had to step up his game, or they were gonna push him out of the infantry and he certainly didn’t want to be a truck driver or a cook.

  “Sergeant…are you sure?” One of the Squad leaders asked.

  “Fuck yeah, that pussy mother fucker hasn’t done shit. Besides…I’m going.” Schultz said with his trademark smile as he thumped his own chest. “Let’s go Kid Kemp. Time’s awastin’.”

  “Alright princess, let’s get a move on.” Conrad said as he had another of the squad leaders tie a rope to his LBV. “You don’t feel me tug on this rope when I get down there you pull up, got it?” He looked at the guy who’d tied the knot.

  “Roger, Sergeant.” He replied

  Taking one more last look around at the Squad he was leaving on the inside, he took stock of the structure. Other than the one window, the only way in, was the door. A couple of Soldiers had moved the bodies that were dead outside and covered them with the ratty blankets from the bed.

  He grabbed his flashlight and flashed it down in the hole. Nothing but dirt. He didn’t hear anything either. Contemplating shooting a couple of rounds down the hole, he decided against it and put the small but ultra-bright flashlight in his mouth, slung his M-4 on his back, pulled out his M9, pushed off the safety and started descending down the ladder. It was a tight squeeze for Conrad not only due to his muscular physique, but he was made bigger by his LBV load. After about forty feet, He came to a flat area, a little six by six space, about five feet high that was carved out and housing crates of AK-47s. He pulled his flashlight out of his mouth, tugged on the rope to tell the guys above that he was ok, then took a good look around. The weapons were just thrown into the crates with no care what-so-ever. Ammunition was stacked on the ground in piles on top of some blankets. Along the crude hand carved wall were about 40 rounds for RPG’s, stacked and spaced with pieces of wood. There were small rusted nine millimeter hand guns as well, and knives and other long blades in yet another pile.

  In the opposite corner from where he was standing by the ladder was another hole with a ladder. He looked up and saw Schultz. Putting one finger to his lips, he motioned for Schultz and Kemp to come down quietly and tugged on the rope so that Schultz could hold it as they went down again. Once the other two Soldiers were with him, he did the same maneuver, flash the light. No noise. Put flashlight in mouth. Hold M9. Go down hole.

  Continuing down on the next ladder at the opposite end of the room, it seemed to bottom out after about six feet and level off standing only again, five feet high, until they came to the end where it looked like several medium sized rocks had caved in the opening. Hunched over, he flashed the light around the same space and motioned for the other two to come down and turn off their flashlights as he turned his off as well. It was then that he saw sunlight coming in. Just thin streams from the top of the rock wall. Carefully, he moved a few of the rocks that blocked the way out and when he had enough of a view, he peeked outside to see what he could which wasn’t much. It was the back side of the mountain, he was sure.
There was a makeshift little shelter about fifty yards away. Just four sticks holding up a striped blanket with a couple of chairs underneath in the shade but nobody sitting there. He put the rocks back. He tried his radio which, not surprisingly had no signal.

  “Fuck.” He murmured turning around and spoke in a hushed tone. “Schultz, high tail your ass up those damn ladders and tell the LT to send someone to meet us around the back side of this mountain. I think that’s where we’re going to end up. There’s a shelter out there with two chairs under it. Tell them we’ll be coming out to the east side of it.”

  “Roger, Sergeant.” Schultz said, starting to climb the ladder.

  Conrad grabbed the guy’s LBV. “Schultz…tell them to not fucking shoot us.”

  “Roger, Sergeant.” Schultz said chuckling as he climbed the ladder. “Don’t shoot us.” He laughed again.

  Then Conrad grabbed Schultz’s boot as he started back up the ladder. “And don’t come down until they are in position. We have no coms, so you coming down will tell us there isn’t anything going on outside.”

  “Roger Sergeant.” Schultz said as he quickly climbed up the ladder.

  “Do you really think the bad guys will come through there sergeant?” Kemp asked.

  Conrad knew he had to calm the young man down. He motioned for him to untie the rope on his LBV, so he did so.

  “We’ll be fine Kemp. We’re just gonna sit here until some of Muldoon and Raven Platoon gets back there. I may be fearless, but I’m not stupid. I’m not gonna endanger anyone here, okay. Sit down and relax.” He answered as he re-bundled the rope.

  Conrad pushed the button for his flashlight, pushing the safety on his M9, holstered it, then reached in one of the pockets on his LBV and pulled out a little baggie of beef jerky that his future brother in law, Roger, made and sent him in droves. He motioned for Kemp to sit down on the dirt floor. It was an offer to soothe the young private, and to reassure him that they were gonna cool their heels until Schultz got back down.

  Looking around, there wasn’t anything but rocks and dirt and more rocks and dirt. Not seeing anything of interest, he sat down across from Kemp and chewed the jerky and thought of home. Not much longer now and he was on his way for his mid tour leave. This was the last big mission they had before he left for two weeks in the States, and he couldn’t wait. So far, except for some scrapes, bruises and some dead bad guys, the mission was a success. They had opened up the wall to the fortressed Stronghold, took out the two bad guys, found a cache of weapons and the entrance and what appeared to be an exit to it.

  He made small talk with Kemp the forty minutes that they waited. Conrad could hear Schultz’s boots crunching in the dirt and then his body scrape along the dirt as he came down the ladder through the tight opening and finally he was standing in from of Conrad with a smile on his face like always. Conrad just shook his head, that mother fucker was always smiling.

  “Why the hell are you smiling Schultz?” Conrad asked finally.

  “We are fucking lucky. That’s why I’m smiling. So everyone’s in place, they are waiting for us to push through. They got two sheep herders…”

  “Shepherds, you mean?” Conrad corrected.

  “Yeah. They were walking around out there without the benefit of sheep. So Sergeant Cale, from Ravens Platoon took them into custody and wouldn’t you know, one has a cell phone.”

  “Fuck! We’re gonna die. Holy shit!” Kemp stood up starting to panic.

  “Relax Kemp.” Conrad said putting out a hand to Kemp, then looked back at Schultz. “Are you fucking serious?”

  “Apparently, we dodged a huge fucking bullet. Like fucking huge!” Schultz said. “Whatever they were dialing didn’t blow up. Three calls to whatever and no one picked up. No kaboom. Nothing.” Schultz took a deep breath. “So, we push through, they are waiting for us. The LT said that he’s gonna have you place some C4 as only you know how and tear this mother fucker apart.”

  “You tell him we have weapons?”

  “Yeah, they said to blow them up with the tunnel.” Shultz replied. “I took a few pictures and showed him.” Schultz put his small flashlight in his pocket and walked over to the large pile of rocks. “Sergeant Cale said to start digging out of this shit hole, the area is secure.”

  “Alright then. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Conrad said as he started pushing the rocks aside to get outside.

  As the hole got bigger, he saw parts of his and Raven Platoon looking around.

  “Hey fucker. Over here.” Conrad yelled.

  At the sound of his voice, a few came over to help dig him out. Dust and dirt covering his uniform and face as he crawled his way through the rocks when he saw the thin piece of wire that was running along the lower rocks out to the open space that was uncovered by the boots from the Soldiers that were helping them. He let the other soldiers help Kemp and Schultz out of the tunnel as Conrad followed the wire to the shaded area. The wire disappeared underneath one of the chairs where he found a cell phone buried in the sand under one of the chairs. Following the wire running back to the cave, he saw that it ran through the rocks along the top part.

  “Where’s Sergeant Cale?” Holy shit, Conrad’s heart sank a little. That was one hell of a close call.

  There was a detonating devise set to the C4 that was remote controlled. This was supposed to blow. The wire led inside the tunnel. There was probably more in there as well. A last ditch safety measure to insure that the Coalition Forces didn’t find it the tunnel more than likely.

  Conrad grabbed the radio guy and let the LT know what he’d found and that he was going back in to see what happened as to why it didn’t detonate. But he was going to lay his own C4 and it was guaranteed to blow half that mountain off the map so that the cartographers were going to one, have to re-map that bitch and two, name it Renner Ridge after him when he was done with it. Clearly the two ‘shepherds’ couldn’t do the job they were supposed to. So he was going to make sure it was done right.

  Pissed off at almost being blown up on a mission in a stupid mountain tunnel where a small arsenal was kept, or just pissed off in general, Conrad moved with a more determined purpose collecting what he needed. He saw the break in the flimsy cord that was broken by the sharp rocks that were placed to cover the wires, he continued to follow it up to where the weapons were.

  “Renner. Where you at man?” Cale called coming in the crude room.

  “Up here where the weapons are, looking for the explosive.” Conrad answered.

  “Alright, I’ll get set up down here. While you are up there you want to wire that shit up?”

  “Roger.” He answered.

  Finding the wire actually had practically pulled apart where it was wrapped together, he just shook his head. The actual explosive was buried underneath the ammunition pile. As Cale wired the bottom of the tunnel and set the charge, Conrad set the explosives in the piles of weapons and ran his cord down for all the cords to be connected into Cale’s setup. He waited for the two soldiers to finish setting charges in the structure on top and dropped their cord down to Conrad who did his magic and told them to clear out. The Soldiers on the East side of the mountain were cleared by Sergeant Cale. Conrad radioed to clear everyone off the top of the jutting precipice and waited for the all clear from the LT.

  “Try and blow me up. You mother fuckers.” After getting the all clear about a half hour later, Conrad hit the button and the C4 ignited with a flash and the resulting explosion and secondary’s from the inside and on top in the house, were sending rocks and sand all over the mountainside. The explosion was enough to rival the greatest of sandstorms. Small pieces of rocks and earth were sent flying in the air, only to land in a big pile in the ravine where the larger mountain range and the jutting precipice met.

  Although blowing up a part of the mountainside wasn’t in the original plan, the strategy was one that Conrad and LT Jacobs put together the week before; Blow up the structure and surrounding walls so that ‘Stronghold�
� was no longer a problem. The whole platoon stayed out at the objective for the week to see who, if anyone, would come back to inspect the damage. When the bad guys only returned once, and not enough of them to even meet Muldoon and Raven Platoons with a challenge, another coalition unit moved in to watch the village. With the original objective complete and the choke point in the road that Stronghold presented was cleared, the Commander called Muldoon and Raven in. They packed their gear and were preparing to hump it back the two and a half mile long hike to the FOB, when three MRAPs rolled up to drop off some more guys that were replacing them and in turn they all crammed in and went back.

  Now forty-five minutes later, none worse for the wear, but in need of a shower, Conrad and his Soldiers rolled in and stopped in front of the TOC, where CPT Stratorski was standing to welcome the platoon. Shaking their hands when they came out of the vehicles like he always did when his Soldiers came in from missions. No matter how great or small, he was out there to meet them.

  “Stand fast guys.” CPT Stratorski called out as the men were handing gear out of the back of the vehicles. “Pull in a horseshoe formation around me.” The Soldiers stood around waiting to hear what the Commander had to say.

  “We’re all here sir.” LT Jacobs said.

  “Okay guys, our time line has shifted to the left about two weeks. So, get ready to pull out in a week, give or take a day or two. So, let’s adjust to let the new guys that are coming in daily. Most of the Hundred and First Division has been oriented to the area, so it’s time for us to go to another FOB and do what we do best. The Commander with one-oh-one said that we have been rode hard and put away wet. So, they are fully prepared to take this and run with it. That lets us out of here early.” He paused, looking around at the soldiers around him. “Great job guys. Go get showered up and start getting ready to pack it in for the next move. Those of you that are going on R and R, we’ll stage you at Bagram Air Base right after we move into the new FOB. You’ll sit tight there until you catch your flight back. Which should only be a day or two. I wanted to tell you guys first. Kind of a welcome home present of sorts. Only five more months. The new FOB isn’t in a hotbed but we still need to keep vigilant. So spread the word!”