by Eric Walters
“What if he can’t return?”
“You’d better hope he does,” Lieutenant Wilson replied.
“There’s one more thing,” Jimmie said. “They’re listening in on your walkie-talkies. They know the frequencies you’re using.”
“Something else you told them?” Chris asked.
“No, honestly, we didn’t,” Jimmie protested. “They just know. They’re like you, they’re military too.”
“How many of them are there?” Chris asked.
“Two or maybe three hundred,” Jimmie said.
“That’s a big difference. How many are there?” Wilson demanded.
“We don’t know. We just know there are lots of them—probably too many of them.”
There was a knock on the door, and the colonel’s assistant barged into the room. “There’s a call coming in from the control tower. There’s somebody on the radio who wants to talk to whoever is in charge.”
“Tell them we’re coming and we’ll speak to them,” Lieutenant Wilson said.
40
We moved quickly to the control tower. Johnny and Jimmie had been led away at gunpoint and put into lockup.
“What are we going to do?” Chris asked.
“First things first,” Lieutenant Wilson said. “We need to talk to them and—”
“No, we don’t,” I said, cutting him off. He looked shocked. “Sorry, sir, but let me explain. We already know what they’re going to say. We need to act first and use these few extra minutes to start to get ready.”
“What do you have in mind?” he asked.
“We need to send a message to the off-duty guards, and do it in person, tell them to get ready and get out.”
“And tell them not to use the radios,” Chris added.
“But if there’s no radio chatter then they’ll be suspicious,” Wilson noted.
“We’ll use the radios, but only to our advantage. We’ll let our people know that the enemy is listening in so we can feed them false information. We’ll figure out a signal to let our people know if what they hear is real or pretend.”
“That’s brilliant,” Lieutenant Wilson said.
“I also think we should take precautions,” Chris said. “Those who are not able to help defend should be moved to safety.”
“I’m not sure there will be any safe place on the compound.”
“I’m not talking about the compound. I’m talking about sending them to the boats,” she said.
“That can’t be done without possibly alerting our enemy that we’re on to their plan,” Lieutenant Wilson said.
“He’s right,” I said. “You’re both right, and it might buy us more time. Let’s get to the control tower and I’ll explain.”
—
“Is this the commanding officer?” the voice asked over the radio.
“This is Lieutenant Wilson, and I am in charge.”
“And can you make decisions?” the voice asked. “Life-and-death decisions?”
“That sounds like a threat,” he radioed back. “Can I at least know the name of the person who is threatening us?”
“My name isn’t important, but the threat is real. We are just outside your compound and are prepared to launch an attack.”
“You know we are more than capable of defending ourselves.”
“Not as capable as usual. You are short on defenders, and your planes are gone and will not be back for hours,” he radioed.
Wilson took his finger off the button and spoke to us. “They do seem to know things. I’m going to wait a few more seconds before responding. He’ll expect us to be surprised that he has that information.”
“You are wrong,” the lieutenant finally replied.
“I am right. Two planeloads with fifty guards per plane left yesterday. Your two Mustangs have just left—”
“And have been called back. Leave immediately or face the consequences!” He sounded convincing.
“If you persist in your bluff we will simply attack now. No further discussion.”
Before responding, Lieutenant Wilson took his finger back off the button, as if thinking through the threat.
“Obviously you’re calling because you want to talk to us. What is it that you want to say?”
“You have food and supplies that we want. We can either break through your defenses and kill people, or you can simply let us take what we want,” he said.
“And why are you making this generous offer to spare our lives?”
“We’re not savages. We don’t want to kill unless we have to, and we really don’t want to have some of our people killed in the attack. We know we can overwhelm you, but there will be a cost to us.”
“How do I know that you have the overwhelming forces you claim to have?” Wilson asked.
“We are prepared to move our forces into a position where your guards at the gate can see us. This is a sign of good faith. If there is a single shot fired, then all negotiations are over, and in retaliation we will simply attack and kill every man, woman, and child in the compound. Do I make myself clear?”
“Clear. Give me a minute to have the guards stand down.”
He let go of the button so we could talk. “Okay, I’m assuming that our people have passed on the word to the guards by now, so let me radio them.”
We had sent Willow and Ethan, along with four off-duty guards, to talk to the different guard stations. All the other off-duty guards had been scrambled and were waiting, ready to head for the fences and stations. They had all been briefed about the situation, about the plan, and knew to be aware that they were being monitored on the radio but to act as if they weren’t. There were fifty-five guards plus the twenty teen guards for a total of seventy-five people to protect the perimeter. It wasn’t enough.
The guards were also made aware of a message within a message, a secret code that we knew and our enemy didn’t. Any communication that either started or ended with the lieutenant identifying himself was an actual order. When he didn’t do that, he was speaking for the enemy to hear and they were to disregard what he was saying as false.
The lieutenant picked up the walkie-talkie. “This is Lieutenant Wilson speaking to all guard stations. I need all guards along the island fence to stand down, there is to be no use of weapons, I repeat, no use of weapons at this time. Do you all copy?”
One by one all the stations, including the three stations by the fence, reported that they understood.
“There will be people appearing on the land bridge from Main Island. I need to know from the gate guards how many of them there are and how they are armed. But you are not to fire upon them unless you are fired upon. Understood? Lieutenant Wilson out.”
“Understood,” came the various responses.
I looked at my watch. It was now three hours and fifteen minutes until the Mustangs were scheduled to return. They might be back a little early, or up to an hour late, but they’d be no later than that because they needed to refuel…unless they landed at Eden Mills to refuel and decided to stay longer. I couldn’t think of that because I had no control over it. I just had to think that when they returned they’d make short work of anybody attacking us—unless they’d already reached the buildings.
The walkie-talkie sprang to life. “There are lots of them!” I recognized Willow’s voice. He sounded panicked. “I can’t count that many but there have to be close to two hundred, maybe more, and they have semi-automatic weapons…we could never stop them!”
“So far,” Chris said quietly, “everything that Jimmie and Johnny have told us has been correct. It’s time to put the rest of the plan into effect.”
The lieutenant walked to the radio and pressed the call button. “Do you read me?”
There was static and then a response. “So you saw our forces?”
If he’d been listening in to our walkie-talkie conversations as we thought, he already had the answer to that question, but he was pretending not to know.
“Our guards report
ed to us. We are aware that you have a large, well-armed force. If you have your forces retreat we are prepared to bring a quantity of food and leave it outside our fence and—”
“That is unacceptable,” he said. “We want you to open the gate and withdraw your guards. We will decide what food and supplies we will take.”
“If you tell us what you require then we will bring those supplies and—”
“And poison the food?” he asked. “We will take what we want.”
That actually made sense from their point of view. Most of all, though, it was an excuse to get inside.
“We want all of your people to withdraw to the terminal. If they remain inside that building and don’t fire on us we will not attack.”
If they still had more RPGs then putting us in the one building meant they could cause mass death with a few well-placed grenades. This was putting all of us in one basket, making us one target.
“We will take what we need from your stock and then withdraw,” he continued.
“That is completely unacceptable!” Wilson snapped. “We need to talk about—”
“There will be no talk,” he radioed. “You withdraw your guards and go into the terminal or we will simply attack and kill anybody and everybody. You will force us to kill not only the guards but everybody.”
The lieutenant had removed his finger from the button. “So far it’s exactly how we were told it was going to go.”
“So far,” Chris said. “Tell them what we want to do.”
He nodded and pushed down the button. It was now up to him to put into place our counter-plan. “How do we know that you won’t harm our people if we open the gate and withdraw?”
“I give you my word.”
“Excuse me, but we need more than your word. We have a condition.”
“You’re in no position to make conditions.”
“Hear me out or we’ll have no choice but to try to stop you. We may lose but there will be a cost to you as well.”
There were a few seconds of silence. “Let’s hear it.”
“I want to have time for our people to be evacuated onto our boats and anchor in the lake where they will be safe.”
“Do you think you can delay us enough to allow your planes to return?” he asked.
“We only need thirty minutes,” Wilson said. “We will then wait off shore until you have taken what you want and have left.”
There was silence from the other end.
“They’re thinking it over,” Chris said quietly. “That’s a good sign.”
The radio came back to life. “You have thirty minutes. Not a minute more. If the gate isn’t opened at that point we will launch our attack.”
“That’s all we need. Thank you,” Wilson said. He released the button. “Chris, you have to get the evacuation started.”
People had already been alerted and were preparing to head down to the docks while we were negotiating.
“I’ll get everybody down to the pier area so if they’re watching they’ll believe we’re evacuating like they think.”
“I want it to be more than a pretense. I want people loaded on the boats and I want the boats to leave,” Lieutenant Wilson said.
“But we have a plan to stop them.”
“And if that plan doesn’t work I need to know they’re safe,” Lieutenant Wilson said.
“But crowding that many people into so few boats, there’s a real danger that—”
“There’s a greater danger staying here.”
“But what then?” she asked.
“Either we repel the attack and you return, or the boats sail to Port Credit and you make your way north to Eden Mills.”
“I don’t think that we should—”
“Chris, we don’t have time for this. You need to get the people evacuated while we’re still able to do so.”
From the control tower we had a view past our boats and out onto the lake. Our six boats were the only ones in sight. There was a way to escape, but for how long? The invaders had to come over to the island by boat, and we knew they had boats the last time. Would they move to block any chance of our people escaping by water?
Chris looked as though she was going to argue, but then didn’t. She nodded in agreement and turned and left the control tower.
“I’m going to lead the guards to the fallback position,” Lieutenant Wilson said. “You get the teen guards down to the pier to provide assistance in getting people onto the boats, and then evacuate along with them.”
“You want us to leave?”
“I can’t risk your life and the lives of the others.”
“You need us. With us here we have a much bigger chance.”
“I can’t risk the lives of children in a direct attack.”
“We’re not children. We’re soldiers. We’ve been trained. We’re not running. Let us be part of it. Besides, leaving is no guarantee of anything better. Out there, with no home and no food, a lot of us would die anyway,” I said. “This is our home. We need to defend it.”
He didn’t answer, but his intimidating Marine glare faded.
“Okay, we’re in this together. Let me send out a radio message.” He picked up the walkie-talkie. “Can I have the attention of all guards, at all stations.” He paused. “We are in the process of evacuating the compound. Guards on the perimeter are to hold their stations until that is clear. At that time I will give the order for the guards to withdraw and come to the pier to join the evacuation. Roger and out.”
He hadn’t used his name at the start or end of the message. Everybody on our side knew this message was just for the attackers.
He turned to me. “Let’s get going.”
41
Lieutenant Wilson and I hurried to the guard station at the gate. We ran to the last open space, aware that we were easily within the range of a sniper scope, but also that our time was almost up. As we ran I looked beyond the fence and the gate out onto Main Island. There, among the trees, I caught glimpses of them. They had withdrawn but they hadn’t gone far.
We took cover behind the shelter. There were four guards already present, including Willow. Ethan—under the threat that I’d kill him myself if he didn’t—had left and gone to the pier.
“We’re glad to see you two,” Willow said.
“I’d like to say we’re glad we’re here, but we’re not. How much time do we have?” I asked.
“Two or three minutes. It’s time for the signal,” Lieutenant Wilson said.
He took the walkie-talkie.
“This is Lieutenant Wilson,” he began.
That introduction meant that this order was not only for outside ears but was to be followed as well.
“All guards, I repeat, all guards are to leave their perimeter defenses and retreat. I repeat, all guards are to retreat to the assigned site. This is an order.”
The invaders would think this meant going to the pier to evacuate. The guards had all been briefed in person and knew where they were really going to go.
Lieutenant Wilson let out a big sigh and now spoke directly to us. “You four guards need to retreat to the backup position as well.”
Three ran away immediately. They didn’t need to be told a second time.
“You too,” Lieutenant Wilson said to Willow.
“I’m not going until Emma goes,” he said.
“Are you disobeying an order?” Wilson said.
“Um, yes, sir…if that’s all right, sir.”
He nodded his head ever so slightly.
“Thank you, sir.”
Willow reached out, took my hand, and gave it a little squeeze. I didn’t know how or why but it made me feel safer.
“They would have heard and now seen people retreating. That probably buys us a little more time,” Wilson said.
More, but not enough. The planes were still almost three hours away from their return.
“I’m going to go and open the gates and then we’ll fall back,” Lieutenant Wilson sai
d.
“No, it should be me,” I said.
“Negative, it has to be me. I can’t put you in rifle range like that.”
“They’re not going to shoot somebody going out to unlock the gate,” I said.
“But they might shoot you after it’s been opened up.”
“Which is why it can’t be you,” I said. “If you’re killed, who will lead the defense?”
He looked as though he was thinking through my words.
“You know I’m right. Besides, I’m a smaller target, and I move a lot faster than you. As well, seeing a kid doing this will make them even more confident, and that confidence will work against them. So, do I go?”
“You’ve thought this through.”
“I have.”
“You really are a Marine at heart.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large metal key. “I’ll wait here.”
I leaned my rifle against the wall of the shelter and turned just in time to see Willow snatch the key from his hand and start running for the gate!
I started after him, and Lieutenant Wilson grabbed me by the arm and stopped me.
“There’s no point in two lives being risked.”
I wanted to argue, but he was right. Besides, by that time Willow was almost halfway there. He was running across the open ground directly toward a mob of people with guns who wanted to kill him and everybody else here.
“Why did he do that?” I demanded.
“He wanted you to be safe,” Wilson said.
That was more insane than anything else that had happened over the past six months.
Willow reached the gate and I felt a sense of relief as he slumped down behind the wooden barrier, a series of wooden beams that had been laid down to stop anybody attempting to ram through it. I watched as one by one he moved them. With the fifth one pivoted to the side he was now free to undo the lock. He was fumbling around.
“What’s taking him so long?” I asked.
“It’s not long. Be patient.”
He took off the lock and started to pull a thick length of chain free from the fence. Next he took the gate and slid it over to the side, all the way, until the space was wide enough to allow a vehicle to pass through—or hundreds of heavily armed men.