by Robert Boren
“Maybe we shouldn’t bother,” Eric said, his face turning red right after he said it.
“What?”
“Sorry,” he said. “I guess that was a stupid comment.”
Kim sat silently for a few minutes, leaning back in her seat. She put her bare feet on the dash and looked over at him. “You were serious, weren’t you?”
“It just popped out of my mouth,” he said. “As crazy as things are right now, you don’t want to be pregnant.”
“Don’t tell me what I don’t want,” she said. “You’d be surprised if you could read my mind right now.”
“Shit, you want me to knock you up,” Eric said. He shot her a sidelong glance.
She giggled. “Knock me up? Really? No way.”
“Your mouth sounds appalled, but the look on your face says something different,” Eric said.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she said. “Men.”
“You brought it up,” he said, adjusting himself in his seat.
“Ha ha, I caught you,” she said. “If we pulled over right now, you’d be all over me.”
“Probably,” he said. “If I didn’t knock you up this morning or last night, why would it happen now?”
She laughed. “Hell, I could be preggers already.”
“No you couldn’t,” Eric said.
“I’m probably not, but sperm lives for a while, and like I said, I’m getting close to the danger period.”
“So what do you want to do?” Eric asked.
“Don’t put that on me,” she said. “It’s not just my decision.”
“I didn’t ask you to decide, I asked you what you wanted.” He watched her face turn red. “You know what you want. You’re just afraid to tell me.”
“I am not,” she said, looking straight ahead.
“Look at me,” Eric said.
“Keep your eyes on the road,” she said, still looking straight ahead.
“I’m driving just fine,” he said, “and I still say you’re scared.”
She put her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them. “This isn’t fair.”
“Going for the sympathy play, huh?” Eric said. “Like I said, you brought this up.”
She sighed. “Okay, okay. I don’t want to go back on the pill. I want your baby in me. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, but it’s what I want. There, satisfied?” She looked at him, her eyes wide, pupils dilated.
Eric drove along silently for a couple of minutes.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she asked, sounding exasperated.
He looked at her, eyes glassy. “I was hoping you were going to say that, but we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“Oh, my God, you’re really head over heels for me, aren’t you?” she asked softly.
“I told you I was in love with you already,” he said.
“I know, but it didn’t hit me like that look just did,” she said. “I don’t think we need to talk more about this. I’m not going back on the pill, and I’m gonna wear you out every chance I get.”
They rode silently down the road, not stopping until they got to Taylor, and then only to gas up and take Paco out. Then it was back on the road, going south on Highway 95, then getting on the westbound 290. In less than an hour they were nearing the 183 Loop.
“Look,” Kim said, pointing out the windshield. “That’s a huge roadblock. Goes across all the lanes. Dammit.”
“They’re probably just screening people going into Austin,” Eric said. “We’re going to the loop, then south to 71. We aren’t going into town.”
“So why are they stopping people before the southbound loop?”
“Probably the easiest place,” Eric said. “Crap, look at that big moving truck.”
“What’s that guy doing?” Kim asked, voice tremoring.
“He just pushed a couple of cars in front of him past the road block.”
“The cops are pulling their weapons,” Kim said. “No!”
The big truck stopped after it cleared the roadblock, and then the back door rolled open. There was a tripod-mounted machine gun in the back. It began spewing lead, cutting down most of the cops along the road block and hitting the windshields of the front cars in each lane.
Eric stopped and turned off the engine. “Get out of your seat and crawl to the back of the coach. Hurry!”
She got out and scrambled to the back, Eric and Paco right behind her. Several bullets smashed through the front cab-over window. Kim screamed.
“Stay down! I’ve got to get to the AKs!”
“No! They’ll kill you!” Kim shouted.
“They’ll kill us both if we don’t do something.” Eric crawled to the dinette and lifted the padded seat, grabbing both Ak-47s and the box of ammo. He slapped full clips into both guns. “Stay here.”
“Like hell,” she said, turning, grabbing the other gun. “I know how to shoot, remember?”
The machine gun was still firing, trying to hit fleeing motorists. Eric slipped out through the front driver’s side door and rested his gun on the hood of the car, taking aim and firing, spraying the inside of the truck with lead, killing everybody in there. Then he heard more gunfire. Dirk and Chance ran up on the other side, firing at the Islamists who were searching for cover by the big truck. Don appeared behind them.
“Cover me,” he said, rushing forward between the cars, then stopping and throwing a grenade. It rolled under the truck and blew, lifting the back as the Islamists screamed and ran.
“Dammit, I forgot about those,” Eric said. Kim got up next to him with her AK and fired several rounds at two Islamists who were trying to get off of the road on the left side.
“Nice shot, honey,” Eric said. “I’m gonna go get some grenades.”
“Don’t bother,” Don said. “They’re mostly dead. I’ll lob a couple more, and then we’ll be able to go in.” He threw another one, which went into the back of the truck and blew up, shrapnel blowing out the thin sheet metal sides. He ran up further and threw one more, under the front of the truck. It went off, the cab bursting into flame. Three men came out on fire, trying to run away. Kim, Chance, and Dirk shot them before they got very far.
“I think that’s it,” Don said. “I’m gonna sneak up there. Stay put.”
“Be careful, dammit,” Chance said.
“I’ll call my brother,” Eric said. “He’s with Austin PD. They’ll get somebody out here to take care of this mess in a hurry.”
“It’s clear,” Don shouted as he ran back. “Lot of dead motorists up there.”
“I’m calling 911 for ambulances,” Kim said.
People were starting to get out of their cars and look around, dazed.
Chapter 5 – The Bookmark
Jason, Carrie, and Chelsea were standing next to the tank, looking up at it in the afternoon sun.
“Do you know how to drive that, daddy?” Chelsea asked. “Can you give me a ride?”
“I haven’t learned how yet, sweetie,” Jason said.
“Don’t these things put a big target on this place?” Carrie asked.
“I was worried about that too,” Jason said. “They will take out anything coming towards the park, though.”
“How’d the owner feel about it?”
“Moe didn’t look that happy, but Clancy was excited, since Tyler and Logan are teaching us how to operate them.”
“Well, enough of this,” Carrie said. “Time to go back. We never had lunch.”
“What are we having?” Chelsea asked.
“I don’t know, honey,” Carrie said. “You can help me pick, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. The three of them walked down the bluff, heading to their coach. Kate and Kyle waved at them as they went inside.
“Go have a beer with Kyle if you want to,” Carrie said. “It’s okay.”
“I want to check my e-mail,” Jason said. He sat at the dinette and opened his laptop, watching as Carrie and Chelsea puttered around. His phon
e rang. Carrie looked over at him, startled and scared.
“It’s Eric,” Jason said, putting the phone to his ear.
“Hey, Eric.”
“Jason, how you doing?”
“It’s been a busy day. You?”
“I thought we’d be all the way to Fredericksburg today,” he said. “Things went a little crazy.”
“You okay?”
“We just got into a big battle, on 290 right before the 183 loop.”
“On the freeway?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, the enemy pulled a truck up to a roadblock and opened fire with a machine gun.”
“Crap,” Jason said. “Guess I’ll have to watch the news.”
“It’s not on there yet. I need you to call your boss at Austin PD,” Eric said. “And by the way, about fifteen of your brother officers got killed in this thing.”
“Oh no,” Jason said. “Sure, I’ll call Chief Ramsey right now.”
“Thanks,” he said. “One other thing. Let him know that we’ve seen several un-guarded convoys on the road. Flatbed trucks with tanks on top, covered with tarps. Those should have security details following them.”
Jason was silent for a moment, his head throbbing.
“You still there, Jason.”
“We just stopped an attack on a convoy of M-1 tanks, on flatbeds like you’re talking about. We just got done bringing the tanks over to the RV Park.”
“No, really? Anybody get hurt?”
“Nope, but we were lucky.”
“How’d you get the tanks over to the RV Park. You drive the trucks over?”
“There are two guys with us who used to do training on M-1s in the service. They drove them over.”
“You call anybody?”
“Yeah, I talked to Chief Ramsey earlier,” Jason said. “He was gonna contact the National Guard, and arrange for somebody to pick them up.”
“Was there any guards with that convoy?”
“Not that I saw,” Jason said, his head pounding harder. “Dammit.”
“That’s a bad word,” Chelsea said. Carrie shushed her.
“What?” Eric asked.
“I’m so stupid,” Jason said. “There weren’t any drivers there either. No bodies. Only Islamists. None of us thought anything about it.”
“This is an inside job,” Eric said. “Tell Ramsey. You guys might want to check out the truck cabs a little more thoroughly. I wouldn’t be giving those tanks to just anybody who claims to be in the Army, either.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Jason said. “I’ll call the chief. Talk to you later.” He ended the call.
“What was that all about?” Carrie asked.
“Eric was just in a battle at the junction of 290 and 183,” Jason said. “A bunch of Austin officers got killed. He wanted me to call it in to Chief Ramsey.”
“It just happened?” she asked.
“Yeah. There was something else. We’ve been stupid.”
“What?”
“Eric has been seeing convoys of tanks on flatbeds like the one we saved earlier. None of them have had a security detail with them.”
“There wasn’t one with the convoy here, either, was there?”
“No, and we didn’t spend any time trying to figure out what happened to the drivers. The cabs were empty but nobody thought anything of it. We were all focused on getting the tanks over here.”
“This was an inside job, wasn’t it?” Carrie asked.
“May have been. I need to call the chief, and then I think Kyle and I better go back over there and check out the cabs of those flatbed rigs.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Ne neither,” Jason said. He hit the Austin PD land line contact on his phone and put it to his ear. It rang twice.
“Austin Police Department,” the operator said.
“I need to talk to Chief Ramsey. It’s Jason Finley.”
“One moment, please.”
There was a click a few moments later. “Officer Finley. Something wrong?”
“Two things. First, there’s just been a battle at the junction of 290 and 183. My brother was involved. He said there’s officers down at a roadblock. Islamic terrorists again.”
“Son of a bitch. Just a sec.”
Jason heard the receiver being covered by a hand, and the muffled sound of orders being given.
“Okay,” Chief Ramsey said. “What else?”
“These tank convoys. My brother brought something up. He’s seen several of them on the road. None of them had a security detail. Either did the one that we were involved with earlier.”
There was silence on the line for a moment. “We still have infiltrators operating in the Army,” Ramsey said quietly. “You get those tanks away from the highway?”
“Yeah. We had to take them off the flatbeds and drive them over here. And by the way, they were full of fuel and ammo.”
“This is bad,” Ramsey said.
“You make the call about those yet?” Jason asked.
“I tried. Couldn’t reach anybody. I’m glad. We need figure this out. Are they in a safe place?”
“They’re guarding the RV Park we’re in right now. Luckily there are a couple of guys here who know how to operate them. They’re gonna teach the rest of us.”
“Okay, good. I’ll try to get Major General Gallagher on the phone again, but I won’t suggest that he send the Army to pick up those tanks. I’ll tell him about our concerns.”
“Thanks, Chief,” Eric said.
“I’d better go deal with this mess at the roadblock. What’s your brother’s name?”
“Eric Finley,” Jason said.
“Good, I’ll see if I can chat with him too. He’ll probably end up at the station due to this mess.”
“Talk to you later, Chief,” Jason said. He ended the call. “I need to go talk to Kyle.”
“Okay,” Carrie said. “You think the DPS is clearing the road yet?”
“Moe called it in, so probably.”
“Will DPS want to pick up the tanks?” Carrie asked.
“No, Moe told him we were working with the Army on that.”
“Good,” Carrie said. “Be careful.”
“Don’t worry,” he said as he left, heading towards Kyle and Kate. Kelly, Brenda, and Junior were just walking up.
“You look worried,” Kyle said.
“He does, don’t he?” Junior said.
“I just heard from Eric,” Jason said. “We need to go back to those trucks and check out the cabs.”
“Hey, we never found any drivers, did we?” Kelly asked. “Dammit, how could we be so stupid?”
“Yeah, there was no security detail, and I didn’t see shot-up drivers, either,” Jason said. “This was a hand off to the Islamists. We got a bad element in the Army.”
“Oh no,” Kate said, looking at Kyle.
“Did Ramsey notify the Army about those tanks yet?”
“No,” Jason said. “He tried, though. Now he’s gonna hold off until he can have a private conversation with the head of the Texas Army National Guard.”
“Good,” Kelly said. “You want to go back to those trucks now, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “We need to look for evidence about the drivers.”
“I’m with you, bro,” Kyle said.
“We’ll go along and cover you guys,” Kelly said.
Brenda and Kate looked at each other, scared. “I thought we were done for the day,” Brenda said.
“We’re gonna have to get used to this,” Kate said. “Mind if I sit this one out?”
“No problem,” Kyle said. “Let’s take your Jeep, Jason.”
“I’ll follow you in my pickup,” Kelly said. “We better tell the others we’re going over there.”
“I’ll pass the word,” Junior said. “Most of the guys are in the clubhouse.”
Kelly nodded. “I’ll pick you up at the gate. Which guns do you want?”
“Surprise me,” he said
.
“See you guys over there,” Jason said. “Let’s grab the BARs just in case.”
“Way ahead of you,” Kyle said. They grabbed their weapons, loaded them, and drove off in the Jeep.
“We’ll have to get on I-10. Can’t just go across now. DPS has a lane open already.”
“Why is Curt still there again?” Kyle asked as they got onto the road.
“He wanted to take some equipment out of the broken tank,” Jason said. “He was muttering something about the FLIR system when we left.”
“That’s night vision, right?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. He slowed as they approached the battle site, and parked next to the Barracuda.
“Hey, Curt, it’s us,” Kyle yelled.
Curt’s head came out of the hatch. “What are you guys up to?”
“We got to wondering about the security detail and the drivers,” Jason said. “Wanted to investigate further.”
“I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed that,” Curt said. “This was an inside job. Somebody in the Army is making these available to the enemy.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jason asked as he walked over.
“I wanted to have enough time to take everything I need out of this tank, that’s why,” Curt said. “There’s two FLIR systems and a laser range finder in this sucker. Also two remote control machine guns. I’ll have to go get a pickup truck pretty soon.”
“Kelly’s on the way over in his,” Kyle said. “Here he comes now.”
“Any DPS guys come over here snooping around?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, one guy asked me what I was doing here. Luckily Moe told him we already contacted the Army earlier. I made up a story about waiting for them to arrive.”
“Good,” Jason said. “We’ll go check out the cabs.”
“Go for it,” Curt said. “I’ve got to get back to work. We’re burning daylight.”
Kelly parked next to the Barracuda and the Jeep. He got out with Junior. “What’s going on?”
“Curt’s going to need some help from you guys,” Jason said. “He’s taking equipment out of that tank. Needs a pickup truck.”
“No problem,” Kelly said. “I’m sure he’s got some good ideas.”
Junior laughed. “Gonna mount that cannon on his toy hauler?”
“Don’t give him any ideas,” Kyle said, chuckling as he walked towards the first cab. Jason climbed into the second one and got out his little LED flashlight. The cab was clean. Nothing obvious, but he looked everywhere closely. The glove box had only the usual stuff in it. Nothing interesting on the dashboard. He got onto the floor and something caught his eye under the passenger side of the bench seat. An ornate piece of brass sheet metal attached to a reddish-orange braided piece of string. He pulled it out. The sheet metal had a definite middle-eastern look to it. Then it struck him. This was a bookmark. He smiled and slipped it into his pocket. He got out just as Kyle was approaching, on the way to the third truck.