Bug Out! Part 9: RV Ambush

by Robert Boren

  “You can tell where the leadership is?” George asked.

  “We can see the numeric codes that are in the message payloads,” Frank said. “Rank number 1 is leadership. The ranks range all the way down to 16, from what we’ve seen.”

  “How do you know this?” Malcolm asked.

  “I broke the encryption for the chips, but I don’t have everything we need yet. I’m trying to attach names. That data is not in the chip payload, but I’m hoping that I can tie the serial number to a name by hacking into their system.”

  “Where are the leadership now?” George asked.

  “The head of the Islamist forces is in Capitol Reef, Utah. One of the heads of the Militia forces is at an air force base south of Colorado Springs.”

  “You know what the names are?” Malcolm asked.

  “The militia guy is named Phillip.”

  “Really?” George said. “That’s who the enemy was talking to on the phone.”

  Frank looked at the others, and smiled. “Well, that is interesting.”

  “What’s the name of the Islamist leader?”

  “I can’t pronounce his real name, but he goes by a nickname. Saladin.”

  “George, what’s wrong?” Malcolm asked. “You look white as a sheet.”

  “Later,” he said, trying to calm himself down.

  “You guys alright?” Frank asked.

  “Yeah,” Malcolm said. “Are you guys interested in joining our operation?”

  “What do you think, guys?” Frank asked.

  “Let’s go get ‘em,” Jeb said.

  “I’m in,” Kurt said.

  Jackson, and Earl both nodded.

  “Looks like we got four,” Frank said.

  “That would be great,” Malcolm said. “That leaves you enough to protect yourselves, right?”

  “Yes, we’ll be good, plus we can see them coming from a ways away, thanks to these apps.”

  “We’ll be bringing along some toys,” Jeb said. “A couple mortars, with some conventional rounds, and some Willie Pete.”

  “You guys have mortars?” Malcolm said, chuckling. “And Willie Pete?”

  “Yeah, most of it captured, although General Walker gave us some of it.”

  “General Walker,” George said. “Now there’s a blast from the past. He was one of my friends, back in the day. How’s he doing?”

  “You haven’t’ heard, have you?” Frank said.

  “Oh no,” George said. “He bought it?”

  “Yeah, at an RV Park in Utah. We barely got out of that one alive ourselves.”

  “I’m really sorry to hear that,” George said, choking up.

  “You don’t know General Hogan, by any chance, do you?” Jerry asked.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact,” George said. “Another friend. Please don’t tell me he’s gone too.”

  “We think he’s still alive, but he’s being held prisoner by the enemy. We were going to ask you guys to help us spring him.”

  “I’m in,” George said, without hesitation.

  “If he’s in, I’m in,” Malcolm said.

  “You guys are in that big RV Park just east of Sidney, correct?” Jeb asked, looking at his phone.

  “Yep, space 411,” Malcolm said.

  Good,” Jeb said. “See you soon. By the way, I’m Jeb, and the others coming with us are Kurt, Jackson, and Earl. Should we bring our bows? A couple of us are experts.”

  “Yeah,” Malcolm said. “See you soon.”

  Frank shut off the call. “Okay, folks, we’ve just committed to a new partnership.”

  “All for one and one for all,” Jackson said, laughing. “Let’s go get ready.”

  The men left the room. Jane followed Frank back over to the PC. “You really think this is going to work out?”

  “Yeah,” Frank said. He opened his programming screen again.

  “You making any progress?” she asked.

  Frank looked up at her and grinned.

  “I’ll leave you alone, then,” she said. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  Outside, the men had a quick huddle.

  “Think we ought to take a coach there?” Kurt asked.

  “Yeah,” Jeb said. “I was going to offer to take mine, with the jeep behind it.”

  “What about Rosie?” Jackson asked.

  “She can stay with Jerry and Jasmine, or she can come along if she wants to. It might not be a bad idea to have somebody watching the home front while we’re busy.”

  “Okay, let’s get the mortars loaded, then,” Earl said.

  “I’ll go talk to her,” Jeb said, walking back to the clubhouse. Rosie was sitting next to Mary, Jasmine, and Hilda, talking.

  “Hey, honey,” Jeb said, walking up.

  “You go now?” Rosie asked.

  “Yeah, in a few minutes,” Jeb said. “You want to stay with Jerry and Jasmine, or you want to go with us?”

  “You take your rig?” she asked.

  “Yeah, and the Jeep.”

  “I go,” she said. “If don’t mind. I watch while you guys gone.”

  “Mom, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jasmine asked.

  “Yes,” Rosie said. “I go with my man, just like you go with your man. I can’t walk good, but I can dial phone. If trouble at RV Park, I call. If trouble happen at ambush, I call.”

  “Okay, honey, then let’s go,” Jeb said. He helped her up, and the two walked out the door.

  “I don’t blame her,” Mary said. “I’d like to go with Kurt, but I think it’d be better for me to stay.”

  Jasmine sighed. “I know. We can’t lose our doctor.”

  Jane walked over. “Jasmine, you tried that new PC app on your laptop yet?”

  “No, but I know Jerry put it on.”

  “Let’s go get used to it. We might be useful as the eyes for the away team.”

  “Okay, Jane, that’s a good idea.” The two walked back out to the barn and got on their laptops.

  Back in town, Howard was at his truck stop, helping customers, with one eye on the TV that was behind the counter. He was worried about Denver, and so were his neighbors. He was selling fuel hand over fist. At the rate it was going, he’d have to arrange for an extra delivery of gasoline, and diesel was selling at a fast clip too. His phone rang.

  “Hi, Howie,” said the muffled voice on the phone. Howard’s heart started to pound.

  “Who is this?” Howard asked.

  “You know who it is, Howie,” the voice said. Howard heard a snicker, and his blood ran cold.

  “No way,” Howard said. “Your house was too near the blast. They found your body, and your family.”

  “That was convenient, Howie. It was time for a fresh start. It was a gift.”

  “Where are you?”

  “A couple of states over, but I’m getting ready for a road trip. Sounds like I got to put some things right around there.”

  “You’ll get caught if you come back here,” Howard said. “There’s people living at the RV Park now.”

  “Yeah, that was very clever of you, Howie. Didn’t want that place hanging over your head, but what could you do? If you stumbled on it yourself, there’d be a lot of explaining to do.”

  “They probably haven’t found anything, and they’ll be leaving soon, anyway,” Howard said, sweat breaking out on his forehead.

  “Why do you think they haven’t found anything?”

  “They haven’t said anything.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Howie. They don’t know who to trust. I’ve been following these guys. Got just enough info on them to figure out who they were.”

  “How’d you do that?”

  “I was on their PC, until somebody saw me. There’s somebody clever there. All the useful stuff was encrypted beyond what I could deal with. Now I’m locked out completely.”

  “Everybody here thinks you’re dead,” Howard said. “You can’t just show up. Why don’t you take advantage and start over? How many people get a chance
like that?”

  “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? You must have been popping the champagne when you heard what happened in Jersey. I was the only person left who knew you were a participant. I’ll bet you thought you were home free.”

  Howard hung up the phone, trembling, heart racing. The phone started to ring again. He unplugged it.

  Chapter 4 - Stowaway

  “We almost there?” Rosie asked, sitting in the passenger seat of Jeb’s rig.

  “Yeah, about ten minutes, I’d say,” Jeb said.

  “Good,” she said. “You afraid?”

  “No,” Jeb said. “I’m anxious.”

  “Okay, then I be afraid enough for both,” she said. Jeb looked at her and chuckled.

  “It’ll be okay,” Jeb said.

  “Hey, Jeb, the bigger group of cretins is only about two hours from Sidney now,” Jackson said, “but they aren’t moving very fast. Probably traffic getting out of the Denver area.” He was sitting at the dinette with the other men.

  “Not surprised,” Jeb said. “Everybody’s trying to high tail it.”

  “We’ll have to arrange a nice welcoming party,” Earl said.

  “Hey, I just thought of something,” Kurt said. “We’re going to have to be careful at that RV Park. Remember that our pictures made their wall of shame. Some of them might recognize us.”

  “Shit, you’ve got a point,” Jackson said. “Maybe we should call Malcolm and let him know about that.”

  “Yeah, one of you do that,” Jeb said.

  Kurt pulled out his phone and dialed the number.

  “Malcolm Davis.”

  “Malcolm, its Kurt. I’m one of the team coming to help you guys. We’re about ten minutes out.”

  “Ah, very good,” Malcolm said.

  “We just remembered something. Thought we’d better tie in with you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Our pictures got put up on one of the Islamist’s web sites. Good pictures, which a traitor Lieutenant took of us while we were at my RV Park. We’ll need to make sure we stay out of sight when we get there.”

  “Okay, thanks for letting me know. You know what space we’re in, right?”

  “Yeah, 411, correct?”

  “That’s it. Both 412 and 409 are open. Might want to pick 409. That way our coaches will shield you from the enemy site at least partially.”

  “Okay, we’ll try for that one. Is it pull through?”

  “Yeah. George and I’ll help you with the outside tasks. What are you coming in?”

  “Big Newmar diesel pusher, towing a silver Jeep.”

  “Okay, we’ll be watching for you, Kurt. Talk to you later.”

  “See you soon,” Kurt said. He put his phone down. “Okay, Jeb, we’re good. He said to get space 409 if we can, but 411 would be the second choice.”

  “Got it,” Jeb said.

  They rode silently for the next few minutes. Then Jeb saw the sign for the junction with I-80. He moved into the right lane, and took the ramp. Sidney was only a few miles away, to the west.

  “You nervous now?” Rosie asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Jeb said. “Maybe a little bit. I’m always a little nervous before action.”

  “You never look nervous,” she said.

  He looked over at her and smiled, then put his eyes back on the road. He could just make out a big red water tower. “Hey, I think that’s it,” Jeb said. “Saw that tower on the park’s website.”

  Jackson came up to the front and looked. “Yep, that’s the park alright. It’s huge.”

  The other men came up to look too.

  “Here comes the off ramp,” Jeb said. “Better grab onto something.”

  The men sat down again as Jeb drove down onto the surface streets. He followed the signs to the front gate of the park, then entered and pulled up in the staging area.

  “I’ll go in,” Kurt said. He left the coach, walking to the office.

  “Hopefully there aren’t any cretins in there,” Jackson said.

  Kurt was back in a few minutes with the tag. He came back in the coach.

  “Bought three nights, just in case,” Kurt said.

  “You get 409?” Jeb asked.

  “Yeah,” Kurt said, handing the map to him. It was marked with black felt tip pin. “Follow the line.” He tossed the tag onto the dashboard.

  Jeb looked at the map and nodded. They drove down the road.

  “There it is,” Jeb said, rolling up slowly and making a wide right turn into the site.

  “That must be Malcolm,” Kurt said, seeing a lanky black man of about sixty walk out of a big pusher and wave to them. He smiled. He was joined by a white man in early fifties and an attractive blonde in her late thirties. When they stopped, Malcolm walked to the door and knocked. Jackson opened the door, and Malcolm came up the steps.

  “Hi, everybody,” he said. “I’m Malcolm Davis.”

  Everybody looked over at him and smiled. Jeb got out of his chair and walked over to shake hands.

  “I’m Jeb, and that there’s Rosie,” he said, pointing to her in the passenger seat. “Jackson opened the door for you. That’s Earl and Kurt over by the dinette.”

  “Pleased to meet all of you,” he said. “Thanks so much for coming. Oh, and this is George and Heidi.” The two walked up into the coach and joined them.

  “Hi, folks,” George said. “Read a lot about you guys. Impressive.”

  “Would you all like some coffee, or a snack?” Heidi asked.

  “I think we’re good. Wish we didn’t have those damn pictures out there. Love to stretch my legs,” Kurt said.

  “So how the hell did you guys come up with those apps?” George asked. “That’s a game changer, you know.”

  “Frank,” Jeb said. “The guy’s a genius.”

  “Obviously,” Malcolm said. “I’m glad we found each other. I think we’ll have an amazing partnership.”

  “Where are the cretins?” Jeb asked.

  “See that big diesel pusher over there?” Malcolm asked, pointing out the front windshield.

  “Yeah,” Jeb said.

  “That’s them. From what George overheard, that coach is full to the gills with explosives. They’re planning on blowing a bridge.”

  “There more than the four hits I see on the app over there?” Kurt asked.

  “Nope, we’ve only seen the four,” George said. “There are seven guys at the canyon. Looks like two of them drove into town to pick something up.”

  “You know how it is,” Jeb said, chuckling. “You always forget something on a camping trip.”

  Everybody laughed.

  “We might want to put a hold on the social hour for a while, guys,” Kurt said. “The bigger group is still on its way, and they’ll be there by nightfall.”

  “Yes,” Malcolm said. “We’ll need to set up after dark.”

  “Expecting that rig to join them out there?” Jeb asked.

  “That’s a good question,” George said. “The terrain isn’t something I’d like to drive a rig like that into. It might head out directly to the bridge and meet the rest of the men there.”

  “This is going to take some coordination,” Kurt said. “If we take the coach too early, they’ll tip off the group in the camp.”

  “Yeah, and you know as soon as we take out the camp, that coach is going to high-tail it,” Jeb said. “Not going to be a problem, though.”

  “Because we can see them with the app,” George said. “In fact, we might want to take out the camp, and then follow them. It would be good to know what they wanted to blow up.”

  “Yep,” Jeb said.

  “Okay,” Malcolm said. “So at night fall, we should take off for the canyon, but separately, so we don’t draw any attention from our friends there. I’ve got GPS coordinates.”

  “It might even be a good idea to leave this place before it gets dark,” Jeb said. “Why startle them with headlights? There’s not exactly a lot of night life around
here. They’re gonna wonder who’s leaving.”

  “You know, that’s a damn good point,” George said. “How much stuff do you guys need to load into the jeep?”

  “Well, the mortars and rounds are already in there, along with a few grenades,” Jeb said. “So it’s just the rifles and the bows.”

  “Good,” George said. “I’ve already got the M107 loaded in our jeep.”

  “You guys have an M107?” Kurt asked, chuckling. “Holy shit.”

  “Yes, nice little gun,” George said. “I’ll take the OICW too.”

  “Now where the hell did you get one of those?” Jeb asked.

  “No comment,” George said, grinning.

  “What’s an OICW?” Jackson asked.

  “The gun that can shoot around corners,” Malcolm said, laughing.

  “It’s a weapon that fires programmable bullets,” George said. “It has a laser rangefinder and computer. If somebody is hiding behind something, you take range off the structure they’re behind, and then fire a bullet to the side. It blows up at the distance that the range finder detects.”

  “Oh,” Kurt said. “I remember reading about that thing. Didn’t the army deep six that program?”

  “Yeah, too expensive and too fragile,” George said. “Pity. I’ve only got about fifty rounds left, and when they’re gone, that’s it.”

  “Wonder if Jerry, Frank, and Gabe can figure out how to make more,” Kurt said. “Wouldn’t put it past them.”

  George laughed. “Well, I must say, I’m pretty damn impressed with these apps. Why is Frank so worried about getting the names?”

  “We’re seeing a lot of hits in Washington DC,” Kurt said. “Pentagon, Congressional Offices, and even the White House. If we could get to the names, then even after the cats out of the bag with the apps, they won’t be able to hide themselves.”

  “We have enemy operatives in our government?” Malcolm said. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “I still have some connections that I trust in the agency,” George said. “I could pass the apps along to them.”

  “The Guardian Angel?” Heidi asked.

  “Yeah,” George said.

  “Do you think he could keep his mouth shut?” Jeb asked.

  “Yeah,” George said, “but one thing at a time. I’ll put an e-mail together. If something happens and it looks like we’re not going to come out of this alive, I’ll send it.