Lieutenant Hodges had been the Colonel’s liaison during the mission against Ft. Campbell a week ago. He was also one of the few people that Sanford had discussed his misgivings about the Colonel with.
“Here, or,” Sanford let the question hang.
“If you would come with me,” Hodges said. “It’s something that was recovered during the raid.”
That piqued Sanford’s interest as he thought he’d already seen or heard about everything that they had found. Sanford locked his laptop in his desk and started following Hodges to the warehouse they were currently using to store everything they’d deemed of value that couldn’t, or shouldn’t, be left at Campbell. He was surprised when Hodges instead took him to one of the vehicle-maintenance depots, and even more surprised when it was the one furthest away from the Administration buildings.
“Dare I ask,” Sanford said.
“I’m not sure you would believe me if I told you, Sir,” Hodges said and led Sanford through the building and out the back.
In the lot was a HMMWV, or Hummer, with an Expanded Capacity Command and Control system. It looked like it was being repaired but it had several antennae fully extended, which was decidedly non-standard practice for a vehicle undergoing maintenance.
“Ok, talk to me, Hodges,” Sanford said.
Hodges held up one finger and opened one of the doors to the Hummer.
…
Ben walked into the interrogation room for the second time, and this time he wasn’t alone. Neither man said anything, but the person accompanying Ben was carrying what looked like a large, metal toolbox.
Ben stood across the table from Mathis and placed both hands on the table in front of him. “We’re going to talk,” he said. “We, you and I, two people. I’m going to ask questions and you are going to provide answers.”
“No,” Mathis said, but was cut off when Ben slapped the table. Mathis smiled ever so slightly.
Ben took out a second set of handcuffs with only one cuff attached to three links. His assistant reached into the toolbox and handed Ben a cordless drill and a screw, which Ben used to fasten the handcuff to the wooden table.
Ben then went around behind Mathis, uncuffed his left hand from his manacles and brought it to the table. Mathis was watching Ben the entire time over his shoulder and missed what Ben’s assistant had been doing. Ben cuffed Mathis’ left hand to the table and walked around to the other side of the table.
Mathis finally took notice of what was now laid out on the table to his left side. A dozen tongue depressors, a stack of gauze, and several strips of tape.
Mathis quirked another smile. “That’s supposed to make me talk,” he asked.
Ben leaned towards Mathis and for the first time, Mathis wondered if he might not be as hard as his former boss. “No,” Ben said. “You’re going to make you talk. I’m just going to help. Those are splints.”
The smile disappeared from Mathis’s face.
“I’m going to ask a question,” Ben said, “and if you choose not to answer, or I don’t like the answer you choose to give, I’m going to break a joint in one of your fingers.”
“You wouldn’t,” Mathis almost gasped.
“I will,” Ben said. “Whether or not I do is entirely up to you. I am perfectly capable, and at this point more than willing, to break every joint in your hand. You cost the lives of seventeen of my men, and I had to leave behind eighty-one more. I’ll start with an easy one, one I know you know the answer to. How long have you been in contact with Olsen behind my back?”
…
“What am I looking at,” Sanford asked.
“We found this,” Hodges indicated the laptop and what appeared to be a homebrew radio, “powered on and running when we did a sweep of the base.”
Hodges bent down to retrieve something from under the seat. “This was duct-taped on top of the laptop,” Hodges said, “on the palm-rest. Right over where the hard drive sits.”
“What is that,” Sanford asked.
“It’s a magnetic tape eraser,” the Sergeant running the radio gear in the Hummer said and glared at Hodges. “And I really wish it was about fifty feet from the inside of this vehicle, Sirs.”
Hodges covered his smile well, but Sanford completely understood the Sergeant’s unease. One push of the button and the hard drive would have been toast beyond their ability to restore. Pre-event, maybe they could have put it back together…maybe. Now, there would have been no way.
“Duly noted, Sergeant,” Hodges said. “I don’t think we’ll be needing it anymore. I did discharge it a number of times before bringing it anywhere near the truck.”
The Sergeant wasn’t mollified but didn’t really have a choice in the matter and just kept silent.
“That doesn’t answer the first question,” Sanford said. “I see a laptop and what I can only assume is a radio of some kind. Homemade, I would assume.”
Hodges turned to the Sergeant, Tuttle the nametape said, and nodded.
“It’s a HAM radio, Sir,” Tuttle said, “and don’t let the fact that it’s a homebrew fool you. Whoever designed and built it knew what they were doing. It’s limited to a couple of bands but I’m impressed. The laptop though, that’s the key…”
…
“So you’re telling me that there is a whole separate, what,” Sanford waved his hands in the air, “secret communications network going on out there? It’s happening on frequencies that we can monitor right now, but all we’d hear is static unless we ran the transmission through the laptop to decode it?”
“Pretty much,” Hodges said.
“And why am I just now hearing about this,” Sanford asked.
“Because we weren’t absolutely positive about it until we picked up a transmission,” Hodges said, “and were able to decode it in real time on this rig,” Hodges pointed to the laptop and HAM combination, “while getting nothing but static on Uncle Sugar’s multi-million dollar state-of-the-art receivers.”
Sanford sat back in the increasingly uncomfortable seat and folded his arms.
“There’s one other thing,” Tuttle said.
Both Hodges and Sanford looked at Tuttle, since nothing else had come up during any of the conversations Hodges had had with Tuttle.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about it and,” Tuttle paused for a second, “there are only a couple of options that make sense. I say that because we found the laptop with the user logged in and the decoder running. The first possibility is that the person who was using this pushed the button when they left, or thought they did, and expected to wipe the drive, or they truly thought they were going to be coming back.”
Tuttle looked at the Lieutenant and the Major and then continued. “The second possibility is that we were meant to find it.”
Sanford didn’t say anything but looked at Hodges.
“You can speak freely in front of Sergeant Tuttle, Major,” Hodges said, knowing what Sanford was thinking. “We all share the same concerns.”
Sanford nodded. “In that case,” he said, “I don’t think it matters. We have it now and we need to make sure we use it wisely, if at all. Who else knows about this so far?”
“A total of five people now,” Hodges said, “including the three of us.
“There were three of us clearing the building,” Tuttle said. “I told them I’d take care of the radio while they handled the rest of the building, since it was electronic. They wouldn’t know the difference between a HAM radio and a toaster oven.”
“Good,” Sanford said, “for now we’re going to keep it that way.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kyle greeted Amanda with a hug the second time they met in the middle of the night, and got a kiss on the cheek in return.
“How are things going in camp,” Kyle asked.
“About the same,” Amanda said, “for everyone except me. Clint is really trying to turn up the heat. He was busy today—working. I mean really working for once, with one of the ranchers we’ve been try
ing to work out an agreement with. That’s the only reason I was able to make it tonight. He was exhausted.”
“I’m glad you were able to,” Kyle said and paused. “I really missed you.”
Amanda reached out and took his hand. “I missed you too,” she said. “I know we agreed you wouldn’t show up at the field anymore, but I kept checking as I got near the end of the row, hoping you might be there.”
“You don’t know how close I came to showing up,” Kyle said with a smile. “Eric and I think we’ve come up with a way to get you out of there, though, with anyone else who wants to leave. You need to meet him, too, although he isn’t going to stay for long because someone needs to be on patrol.”
Amanda nodded and looked around.
Kyle keyed his microphone twice and a minute later Eric materialized out of the dark.
“Ma’am,” Eric said. “My name is Eric Tripp. Technically, I’m a Captain in the US Army and this guy’s superior Officer, but right now we’re kind of AWOL–that’s Absent Without Leave–so we’ll see how long either of us keeps our rank.”
Amanda really hadn’t had any experience with the military before the power went out, so she just nodded again.
“How bad is it getting,” Eric asked. “Or, maybe I should just cut to the chase. What’s the likelihood of someone else stepping in to fill a leadership void if Clint were…no longer in charge?”
Amanda thought for a few seconds before she answered. “It would have to be more than Clint,” she said. “Cooper and Tony would both have to go, too.
She made a face and then continued. “You know, six or eight months ago I would have said the same thing about Earl too,” she said, “but not anymore. Earl’s…changed. He isn’t the creepy, aggressive guy he used to be. Clint still tries to lean on him a lot but he just isn’t like he used to be.”
Eric looked at Kyle and nodded.
“In that case,” Kyle said, “here’s what we were thinking…”
…
“Who’s got first watch,” Kyle asked the next night, knowing they were going to need all the sleep they could get for the next several nights.
“You sleep,” Eric said. “I don’t seem to need as much as I used to anyway.”
Kyle nodded and chose not to get into it with Eric. Now that they were out of the base and on their own, Eric had picked up the grieving and he just needed to let it run its course.
…
Two days later, Amanda finally had a chance to bring things to Clint’s attention.
Clint had been trying to spend more time with Amanda recently, although he was all but ignoring William. He’d made dinner for the two of them and they were eating in the kitchen of his trailer. Clint was running the small generator that powered the air conditioner, so they were eating inside for once.
She was struck, again, by the double standard he lived by. He ran the generator whenever he thought it necessary, like now. He had someone come in and clean the trailer once a week, but would have thrown a fit if anyone else took someone from their job to perform such menial labor. As much as she hated to admit it, he ate better than everyone else, too.
Once dinner was over she figured it was her best shot at telling Clint their story without him reacting…badly.
“Uhm,” she started.
“Uhm what,” Clint said.
“I did something I really wasn’t supposed to do,” Amanda said. “But I think it’s a good thing that I did.”
Clint gave her a sidelong glance.
Amanda blushed and looked down for a second and then looked back at Clint. “I thought I saw something,” she said, “or someone, in the tall grass outside of the field I work in a couple of days ago. After lights-out I went back to the field and found where someone had been laying in the grass. I followed their trail back to their campsite.”
Amanda looked away again. “I know,” she said. “I’m not supposed to leave our camp, but it kind of had me freaked out.”
She looked back at Clint who did not look happy. “Nobody saw me,” she said quickly. “I doubled back on my own trail on the way back to make sure I wasn’t followed, too.”
Clint shook his head. “And this is the first I’m hearing about it?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I knew you needed to know but I was afraid you’d be really upset.”
Clint took a deep breath. As upset as he was, and it seemed like he was always angry these days, it wasn’t really at Amanda. “You should have told me as soon as you thought you saw someone outside of your field,” he said. “I can understand not mentioning it to Tony, but you should have told me right away.”
He reached out and grabbed her chin to make sure she was looking at him. “And don’t do anything like that again,” he said. “Ever.”
Amanda realized that if things didn’t go exactly as planned, she might never see Kyle again.
…
“I could find it again,” Amanda said, “but I don’t think I could pinpoint it on a map.”
“Going out and looking for them without knowing where they are is just asking for trouble,” Coop said.
“Going out and looking for them is what we do if we don’t know where they are, Coop,” Clint thought. “You have had it too easy with me for too long.”
“From the looks of the campsite,” Amanda said, “there were only two people. If you, Coop, and Tony go, and you take me, that’d make it two to one. Plus, we’d have the element of surprise.”
“Why do you want to go so bad,” Tony asked.
“Because they were watching my field,” Amanda said with a little heat in her voice. “I want to be there when they get…whatever!”
Clint nodded. “I can see that,” he said. “We, the three of us, haven’t been on a raid in a while. It’ll look good if we throw something together and execute it on our own.”
“Bad juju, Boss,” Coop said, “but it’s your call.”
“Yes, it is.”
…
“When are they going to show up,” Kyle thought to himself. It had only been three days, but now that they had a plan it was driving him nuts that it wasn’t moving forward.
He couldn’t sleep and had his radio next to his head, volume down low when “–. –-” came through in Morse code.
“Go. Finally,” Kyle thought and relaxed for the first time since he’d sent Amanda back, hopefully for the last time.
Sure, if something went wrong some time in the next half hour or so he, Eric, or Amanda could end up dead, but at least things were moving at last.
Kyle stopped breathing.
Amanda could end up dead.
That was the first time the thought that something horrible could happen to her as a result of their plan had crossed his mind. Up until now he had only been worrying about himself and Eric–not because he was self-centered, but because he really didn’t think anything would happen to Amanda. The story they had concocted seemed pretty airtight, and he was confident in both his and Eric’s abilities.
For Kyle, the next fifteen minutes made the last four days seem to fly by.
…
“We’re getting close,” Amanda said quietly, but not in a whisper. After the failed raid on the base, Clint had taught his people just how far a whisper carried and how to communicate in a low voice.
His people had gotten better at moving quietly in the woods, too. On this trip, Cooper was by far the best, since he’d been hunting all of his life, and Tony was a close second. They’d both honed some skills while on the police force before the power went out.
After a couple of minutes she saw the orange glow of the banked coals and held up her hand.
None of the would-be raiders saw or heard anything less than fifteen feet to their right, in the woods.
…
Kyle’s radio was in his bag with the volume turned off. When the single “.” came through, it lit up a red light that only he could see, and only because he knew to look for it. His bag was unzipped and he’d pra
cticed getting out of it at least a hundred times just in the last couple of days. He took the safety off of his .45, which was already cocked with one in the chamber, and got ready to…surprise…the raiders.
…
Eric was inching closer to the group and would come into the clearing behind them. Kyle was notified, and Eric was both relieved and worried to see Amanda in the group. Theoretically, it evened the odds; potentially, it put Kyle’s head in a bad place and gave Clint a hostage. Eric was ready to kill all three of the men himself if necessary, though. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, but he and Kyle had decided that the threat to the base, Redemption, and the surrounding area came to an end tonight.
…
Kyle was trying to keep his heart-rate down and his breathing even, but it was a constant battle. It had been a while since he’d seen combat and the adrenaline was starting to flow. He could hear the frogs croaking in a pond that had to be at least a quarter-of-a-mile away, the ever-present crickets, and a couple of birds that didn’t realize it was after midnight. Then, like someone had thrown a switch, the woods were silent. Kyle heard the footfalls of the people in his campsite and he had to remind himself that it was all part of the plan. He knew where Eric would be coming in from and was just waiting for his cue.
…
Eric could see the entire clearing and the raiding party was just beginning to spread out when he stepped into the clearing.
…
The couple of people in this camp looked to both be in their sleeping bags and asleep. The fire was going out and, if nothing else, they could simply grab a rifle and their backpacks. Clint was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when several things happened almost simultaneously.
First, someone turned on a flashlight too early and Clint’s night vision was completely ruined. That registered, and Clint was about to hiss something when the second thing happened.
A voice from behind them, vaguely familiar, said “Nobody move.”
As soon as the voice behind him started talking–shouting, actually–one of the people on the ground jumped out of their sleeping bag and Clint’s heart stopped. He was wearing Army fatigues. Then Clint was blinded almost completely as a second flashlight was shined in his eyes and then swept over the others in the group.
Dark Grid (Book 3): Dark Coup Page 10