Chapter 20
Ryan completed his radio report to the Admiral, repeating word for word Juan’s story and admonitions, even adding in the information about the Three Sisters and Moringa trees. “If the Three Sisters and Moringa tree check out it, would be a good thing to broadcast so other people can try it,” he said
The Admiral replied. “Excellent report men, we’re starting to get a much clearer picture now. The spies you sent in are also sending in reports, and they all tally with yours. Del Rio keeps coming up, and soon. I’m afraid they are more advanced in their movements than we had originally thought. The question now is what we do about it. Over.”
Adrian picked up the microphone. “I’ve been thinking about that, Admiral. We’re going to need a lot of men, and I have an idea about that. I think it’s time to broadcast over clear radio, on the ham-net, what’s going on and to ask for volunteers to rally in Cotulla, near Laredo. If you’d get your radio men to send out a distress signal to all of Texas that we need fighters down here as fast as possible, and ask each ham operator to repeat the call to arms, I’m hoping that we’ll get enough volunteers to put up a fight. Over.”
“Laredo? They’re coming at us at Del Rio, Adrian. What’s your thinking? Over.”
“A couple of things, Admiral. One, there’s no doubt the cartel coalition will hear the broadcast. We can’t help that, so we might as well misdirect them as much as we can. Let them think that we think the battle will be at Laredo so they keep heading for Del Rio. Secondly, it will give us time to organize the volunteers and get in some rudimentary training as we move to Del Rio. By the time we get there, our fighters will be at least somewhat organized and disciplined. Over.”
“Roger that. Good thinking. We have twelve of your riverboat trucks ready to go. I’m going to send every soldier we can spare down to you with them. They’ll be coming in transport trucks, loaded with as many arms and as much ammunition as I can find. They’ll be communicating their progress on this frequency so you’ll know when and where to expect them. My head count for this expeditionary force is three-hundred men. They’ll be under your command upon arrival. Make the best use of them you can. Over.”
“Three-hundred?” said Adrian, shaking his head. “I hope we get a good turnout of volunteers, then, Admiral. This isn’t Thermopylae; we need a lot more than that, but I’m not complaining. Every fighter we get, we’ll be lucky to have, and the arms and ammo too. I look forward to seeing the river boat trucks and how we can use them. Looks like we have maybe six weeks to get our army together, train them, and be in Del Rio to welcome our unfriendly neighbors; lots to do and not nearly enough time. Please start those broadcasts for volunteers tonight if you would. Over. Oh wait, I have another request. Would it be possible to send one of your planes over Fort Brazos to drop off an encrypted radio? I need to talk to our militia there. Over. ”
“Will do. I’ll have a jet over Fort Brazos in two hours drop a chute with the radio and instructions. We’ll start the volunteer request broadcast tonight and repeat every four hours until further notice. Over.”
“Thank you Admiral. How are the girls doing? Any more bridge invasions? Over.” Adrian grinned as he asked the question.
“You may think that was funny. It wasn’t. There have been some developments with them. They came back from their latest training excursion this week and they seemed different. They were much more self-contained, and of all things, were quiet for a change. No idle chatter, no goofing around. It worried me, so I had the ship’s psychologist have another talk with them. He said that it was almost like trying to talk to POW’s. They answered his questions, but didn’t elaborate on anything. He said that he believed they experienced some kind of difficulty, but wasn’t at all clear what it was. Other than that he gave them a clean bill.”
The Admiral paused, very briefly, before continuing, but long enough for Adrian to notice.
“There’s something else you should know,” the Admiral said. “One of the sailors caught Rylie alone and tried to force himself on her. Over.”
“Is she alright? Did he hurt her? I’ll kill the son-of-a-bitch when I get back!” Adrian was so angry that he forgot radio protocol.
“No she’s fine, not a scratch or bruise on her. We’ll court martial the sailor when he gets out of the hospital. Over.”
“Some of the men roughed him up did they? Good, very good. Over.”
“No Adrian, it wasn’t the men. It was Rylie. She cut him up pretty badly...well, very badly actually. Let’s just say that he’ll have trouble fathering children in the future. Those girls are changing Adrian, they’re more…feral…yes, feral is the best word I can use to describe them. They look at you and it’s like a predator looking at you. It’s a creepy feeling Adrian, almost as though they are looking for a weakness just before an attack. That sailor didn’t stand a chance Adrian, not a chance. Doc said that the girls are also talking about you differently, as though you had become more of an abstraction now than a reality. Over.”
“An abstraction? I don’t understand. Over.”
“He said that they almost worshipped you when you were with them, but it was the kind of admiration where they saw all of your warts but still admired you anyway. Now he says that with your being out of sight they have forgotten you have warts. It’s a form of hero worship based not on reality, but more on idealization. Kind of makes sense I guess. Over.”
“Good Lord. All I wanted to do was to see them safe and healthy and settled down someplace decent. I’ll have to deal with that when this war is over and I can get back. Tell them I’m thinking of them…hell, go ahead and tell them I love them and miss them. Damned if it isn’t the truth anyway. But tell them I also said to mind themselves until I can get back. And tell them to stick together in groups, don’t be getting caught alone like that. Might not work out so well next time. Over.”
After Adrian shut off the radio he shook his head over the news of the girls. He mulled over what the Admiral told him, but realized there wasn’t a thing in the world he could do about it right now. Time enough for that later. Assuming there is a later.
That evening Adrian heard the first of the call-to-arms broadcasts. The Admiral had crafted a good solid message, one that would stir the hearts of the men who heard it, a rousing message that played on a Texan’s love of his state. He all but called Texans back to the Alamo for one last good fight. But he could have left my name out of it.
His best guess was that any nearby volunteers would start trickling in within a few days. Others would come in for over a month, with six weeks probably being the sweet spot, and by then it would be fighting time. Organizing them would be difficult.
Adrian looked at Ryan and Jose. They were sitting around their campfire after dinner. It was getting late and they would soon be going to sleep. “Gentlemen, I’d say that our mission is complete. I’ll be going back to Cotulla to start up the war engine. Once there you two can go on back to the ship. It’s been a damned interesting time, and I’ll hate to see you go. But we’ve accomplished our mission and it’s time to move on.”
Ryan quickly replied, “Are you trying to order us back? Because if you are then you’ll have to court martial me for refusing orders. I’m staying. Hell, Adrian, this is a historian’s dream. Wars have caused more changes to history than any other type of event. This one…this one has the potential to change the future of our world for centuries to come. It has all the components of a major watershed moment in history. You’ll have to shoot me to keep me away, damnit. Even then I’ll haunt you.”
Adrian opened his mouth to reply, but before he could utter a word Jose jumped into the conversation. “Me too, Adrian, I’m not going back either. A large component of your volunteers will be Mexican Americans, many of whom will not be fluent in English. You’ll need me on your staff to translate. Besides, the Admiral didn’t order us back—he did orde
r us to accompany you. Sorry, but we’re following orders passed down through the chain of command. Fact is we can’t go back, we’d be disobeying orders if we did.”
“Alright you stay,” said Adrian, holding up his hands in surrender. Then he grew more serious. “But as ordered by the Admiral, once we rendezvous with the troops he’s sending, I’ll be your commanding officer per military regulation. I appreciate the fact you want to stay; frankly, I really wanted you to stay, but I had to give you the option of not fighting a Texan’s war if you didn’t want to.”
Adrian gave them a big smile and added, almost jokingly, “Just remember that when I’m your commanding officer, I will absolutely not brook any further attempted mutinies of this sort. Now, I think it’s time to break out that bottle of tequila that Reynaldo gave us and toast to the upcoming victory of Texas over the Mexican Cartels.”
Sheila Johnson was on duty in the ship’s radio room. She and the duty officer, Matt Reynolds, had broadcast the call to arms earlier that evening and listened as it had been repeated over and over. It was soon apparent that the entire globe was tuned in to what was happening in Texas as the word spread rapidly from continent to continent. Sheila had been following Adrian’s exploits by radio for over two years, just like nearly everyone in the United States. It didn’t surprise her that his story was avidly followed around the world. She had often gossiped with her female co-workers about the romance between Adrian and Linda, and they all eagerly awaited any new tidbit of information.
Shelia and Matt sat in front of the radio panel in their usual silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Sheila’s console indicated radio traffic on one of the encrypted frequencies and she turned up the sound to listen. She heard Adrian talking, and quickly punched Matt in the shoulder. He took off his earphones to listen.
“…if you heard the radio broadcast calling for volunteers to fight, then you pretty much know what all I’ve been up to, Linda. Over.”
Sheila turned up the volume a little, she didn’t want to miss a single word between these two. She would be the gossip Queen for a month!
“We heard it, Adrian. It came as a total surprise, thinking you were down there just looking around before coming home and all of a sudden you’re leading Texas in a war with Mexico. I should have known you wouldn’t just look around and come back, not you.” She laughed nervously before saying “Over.”
“Yeah, well…I didn’t exactly go looking for this. Kind of still surprises me, too. This is going to be a big war, but the consequences of not fighting it are dire. We have to stop this before it gets going or everyone is going to suffer, and badly. Over.”
“I know, I know. You just can’t help yourself. It’s one of the million things I love about you. We’re already gearing up to come down and fight; the entire Fort Brazos Militia will be there, including me. Give us three weeks or so and we’ll be together again. Over.”
“Speaking of love, Linda, I have a lot to say on that subject, but only one question to ask…”
Sheila was shocked when Matt reached over and turned the sound off. “What the...?” she started to ask.
Matt looked at her with a calm and level gaze, “Some conversations should be private, Sheila. Some things we don’t need to listen in on. He requested an encrypted radio sent to her for a reason. He could have talked to her over the open air, but he had something private to talk about. Let them have their privacy; lord knows they deserve it.”
Sheila fumed. She knew Matt was right, but she still wanted to listen. “Damn him all to hell and gone, that was going to be juicy.”
It took three days for Adrian to get to the rally point outside Cotulla, sixty-eight miles north of Laredo. They drove straight through, stopping only to switch drivers every four hours.
Adrian was driving and the other two were awake as they crossed over a little river and neared the rallying point. Looking over the guard rails, Adrian saw a camp with what appeared to be at least two hundred tents.
“That was fast.” Adrian exclaimed. “Very fast. I didn’t expect to find anyone here yet. Damn good sign, I hope.”
As they approached the camp, Adrian was amazed to see what he guessed to be four hundred people. As they stopped the truck and dismounted, someone shouted out, “General Bear is here!” They were quickly surrounded by some of the toughest men and women Adrian had ever seen gathered in one place. He wasn’t sure he was going to survive the back-slapping and hand pumping that quickly ensued.
Adrian, Ryan, and Jose exchanged a meaningful glance over the heads of the volunteers. They had their work cut out for them, but they just might have a chance.
Chapter 21
The next three days were a frenzy of activity, with more men arriving daily. They came on foot, on horseback and by a multitude of trucks converted to wood gas and home-made liquid fuels from alcohol to diesel fuel. Adrian was continually amazed at how many were answering the call and their ingenuity in transporting themselves. He was also surprised at the number of women. They hadn’t come as camp followers either, they had come to fight
To defend Texas, as he heard over and over. Texas, not the United States of America, but Texas. It was a common refrain. “What did the federal government ever do for us? They knew a solar storm could wipe us out and all they did was keep taking that special interest money. The bastards.” Adrian heard it often.
His first action on arrival was to assemble all the volunteers, which was no problem since they had come running when the word spread he had arrived. They eventually settled down under the highway overpass, which Allowed Adrian to climb the embankment high enough to see all their faces. The overpass reflected his voice, making an impromptu amphitheater. It was standing room only with everyone squeezing in tightly. At this point he had a rough head count of four hundred and fifty men and women.
“First I want to thank each and every one of you for showing up. We have a bloody battle ahead of us and I don’t expect it to be anything other than extremely difficult. But this is our land and by God no one is going to take it from us!” He shouted the last sentence and was immediately the recipient of loud shouting back from the crowd. He allowed them to settle down a little, then continued; as he did they quickly fell silent to catch every word.
“We’ll win by being organized and moving with discipline. We’ll be outnumbered. Badly outnumbered. They have more soldiers and more weapons than we do. But we have your courage and we’ll be organized into groups that can move swiftly and strike like a rattler.”
More cheering erupted, and Adrian again waited a few moments before continuing. He knew they needed this emotional release, and it was an excellent method of bonding them together.
“Other than the fact that they will out-number and out-gun us, we’ve got ’em licked.” Adrian said quietly and with a smile. “Fact is I feel kind of sorry for them, but not so sorry that I don’t want to kill every last one of the sons-of-bitches!” His voice rose to a loud roar at the end.
More cheering, and this time laughter mixed in with it.
Adrian waited a beat then continued. “We’ll set up several groups to organize this campaign. First we’ll create an incoming group. They’ll greet new arrivals, interview them and assign them where they’ll do the most good. This group will begin by interviewing each of you to find out how you can best help. When they come around give them your full cooperation. Part of what they’ll be doing is asking for an inventory of food and arms. We’ll have to distribute any extra food and arms as evenly as possible. We’ll all need to go on food rationing immediately. Food is going to be one of our biggest problems, it takes a lot of food to feed an army and we don’t have supply lines behind us to help. But…neither do they”
Adrian stopped to let that sink in before continuing. “I’ll choose unit commanders based on the results of the interviews by an incoming staff and then by personal int
erviews and any recommendations that anyone might have. From the interview results each person will be assigned to a combat company. Companies will be designated by alphabet such as Alpha, Bravo and hopefully all the way to Zulu.”
“Once assigned to a company you’ll move to your company area in the camp and begin training as a unit. Your Company Commander will choose his lieutenants and platoon squad leaders, basing his or her decision the same way I base mine. I’ll review each Company roster with its Commander and confirm those assignments. Training will cover the basics of ground warfare. We won’t bother with the niceties of parade ground drilling, but we will cover the basics of formations and movement and communication. I have a good idea of the tactics we’ll use, and we’ll train on those extensively.”
There was a murmur of approval from the crowd. Adrian continued.
“I’ll also create an intelligence branch. Their job will be to monitor the enemy location and disposition and report to me for overall planning. Troops will be assigned to the signal corps for carrying messages, dispatches, and troop movement and engagement orders. We’ll also need to establish a medical corps for battlefield treatment of wounds—if you have particular skills in that area, be sure to let your commander know.”
“Within a very few days each of you will have your assignment, will know what’s expected of you, and you’ll know where you’re supposed to be and what you’re expected to be doing. When the time comes—and it will come very soon—we will progress in an orderly fashion to the battlefield, deploy with discipline and strength and then deliver a very serious and deep ass-kicking.”
Once again cheers rang out. It took several minutes for them to simmer down enough for Adrian to ask, “Okay, now let’s get the questions and answers rolling. Who wants to go first?”
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