Tanya walked into the bedroom, and returned with her jump harness in one hand, and her shoulder holster in the other. “Which would you like me to take?”
Ryce chuckled. “Take both of the Glocks, all of your clips, and three or four boxes of ammo.”
He paused for a moment and then chuckled. “I hope the Great Falls office gassed up the Suburban after we used it last week. The fuel gauge doesn’t work.”
Tanya asked why he wanted it. He smiled and told her it would be a good base for the project, similar to what he had used the Suburban for when they rescued Brenda. The Suburban and the trailer could be parked near the cabin, in one of two excellent camping spots. Both were within sight of where he had caught his two biggest fish. Would she like to camp in the improved campground or out where she might need to hide behind a tree?
If the cabin team ran into trouble, Ryce wanted as much support in the area as close as possible. He wanted someone who could charge over the hill in three minutes, not someone coming in the morning. Both the Suburban and the camping trailer had armor-plated panels that could deflect small arms fire. He just hoped that he wasn’t going against RPGs.
Ryce had a call to make. He dialed Doug’s cell number. Doug answered before the first ring had completed.
“Ryce, this is Doug. John just sent me an email. What would you like me to do?”
Ryce smiled. “Well, if you don’t mind, I would like you to take over the Monroe branch of the JBTF for a few days. Tanya and I are heading back to Idaho in the morning. You have a good idea of what is going on. I would feel better if you were keeping an eye on things while I am gone.”
Doug assured Ryce that he would not disband the JBTF in Ryce’s absence. Ryce flipped his cell phone closed, clicked a couple buttons, and watched his laptop shut down. He took Tanya’s hand, and led her to the bedroom. Tomorrow was going to be a tightly scheduled day.
The alarm clock shattered Ryce’s dreams with a sick chicken. Tanya had discovered an alarm clock that allowed MP-3 files to be up-loaded. A sick chicken MP-3 file had been loaded onto the alarm clock in retaliation for the angry chickens on Ryce’s cell phone in Idaho. He smiled. He wouldn’t have that thing to complain about for a few days. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and checked his cell phone. Phil had not yet called to announce he was nearing Paine Field.
After a quick shower, Ryce started packing his duffle bag for the trip. He had almost completed his packing when his cell phone alerted him that he had a call. Phil was 45 minutes from the outer marker and would be touching down in about an hour. Ryce grabbed his duffle bag, Tanya grabbed her flight bag, and both walked down to the main entrance of the house. Jeb was driving them to the airport so that they would not have to leave a car in long-term parking.
Jeb arrived at the loading ramp less than five minutes before the G650 pulled up. A hatch opened, and a stairway descended to the tarmac. Two black-suited men silently walked to the vehicle, picked up the duffle and flight bags, and returned to the aircraft. Ryce and Tanya thanked Jeb for the ride and then walked up the stairs. As Jeb drove away, Phil was obtaining take-off clearance.
After they arrived at transit altitude, Phil walked back to where Ryce and Tanya were sitting. He spun one of the chairs around, sat down, and chuckled.
“I almost lost my voice trying to talk John and O2 into letting me go on this excursion. I am your new air support officer. After your success rescuing Brenda, John found a Chinook helicopter, and Pen outfitted it as a trauma center. And I get to fly it for the first time. John found it in Great Falls, so it is waiting for us. I hope he did not steal it from under your friend Mitch.
“Speaking of Brenda, Pen said the surgeons were forced to amputate two toes on her left foot. The headman at the Blackfeet Community Hospital in Browning is someone Pen knew when she was on the staff of the University of Chicago Medical Center. That theory about six degrees of separation sure works with the Pendergasts, especially O2.
“We have made a slight change of plans. We are not flying directly to Great Falls. We are stopping at the Ranch to switch to the Boeing Business Jet. We need a lot more capacity than we can get from this airplane. John and O2 have decided we will pick up a few more people and some personal toys. We stop in Great Falls to unload you two, and then I jump into the Chinook to continue to Babb. The Babb Airport can’t handle the G650 or the BBJ.
“When O2 explained that the team would be totally out of touch with civilization, Ramona had a few well chosen words for him. Then he got your email about a support group at the campground and near the cabin. He relented and told Ramona that she could tag along. I think he decided that Ramona might hang him from his fingernails. He had to tell me I could go.”
Phil chuckled. “O2 sent out a general request for ex-Rangers and ex-SEALs. He got forty-eight names. Then he had a bigger problem. Who would he piss off the most if they didn’t get chosen?”
Phil laughed. “Ramona wants to go because Tanya gets to go. Marge wants to go if Ramona gets to go. John says that if Marge goes, he gets to go. It looks like we will have more firepower than a medium-sized middle-eastern country.”
Phil laughed again, stood, and returned to the flight deck.
Ryce looked over at Tanya. “See what you started?”
The turn around at Pendergast Field took much longer than the one at Paine Field. Many hard cases were loaded into the storage bins. When they ran out of storage bins, more hard cases were brought into the aircraft cabin. Ryce recognized ammo cases, weapon cases, and even some shoulder launched rocket cases. Phil was right. They were looking for trouble.
Eventually, the aircraft also had five additional passengers. Ryce had seen some of them in the district cafeteria or the Ranch chow hall. However, he had no names to attach to the faces. And this group didn’t wear any name tags.
Chapter 31
Phil taxied directly into a hanger and the doors were rolled shut before anyone was allowed to depart the BBJ. Ryce noticed two Hummers were parked along one wall. As he and Tanya descended the stairs, a uniformed solder from the Army National Guard walked up, handed Ryce two sets of keys, and then pointed at the Hummers.
“Our CO, Captain Halmers, said he got a call from the Billings’ guard unit that you might need these vehicles. Welcome to Great Falls.”
The drivers walked to an olive-drab sedan and got in. Ryce overheard an onlooker remark that he would like to be picked up by a Hummer. He was riding the bus home.
Ryce looked over at Tanya and began laughing. “Have you ever driven a Hummer?”
Tanya replied that she had not. Ryce waved one of his fellow passengers over, pointed at one of the Hummers, and tossed him the keys.
“Load up that vehicle and drive it to the Hampton Inn.”
Ryce was not actually positive how many agents were still available at the Great Falls office, but he could count ten people scurrying around the hanger. He did a quick calculation. He had arrived with five, so the extra five must be from the Great Falls office. Ryce chuckled. How many people was O2 bringing to the party?
The contents of the BBJ were laid out on the hanger floor long before the convoy from the Ranch arrived at the airport. The two Hummers that had been turned over to Ryce did not have the capacity to carry the equipment and men that had been unloaded. As Ryce wondered how everything would be transported, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. It was O2.
“I have a five Hummer group on the way over to the airport. You and Tanya can head over to the hotel. Ramona reserved about twenty rooms.”
After a brief stop at the JBTF offices, Ryce and Tanya drove one of the Hummers to the Hampton Inn. Although Ramona had reserved rooms for everyone, Tanya had made a special reservation on the drive to Paine Field.
As they walked into Room 316, Tanya was softly chuckling. “I didn’t get my way with you the last time we were in this room.”
Ryce was careful to say nothing. He simply wrapped Tanya in his arms and gave her a long kiss.
Ryce was walking out of the shower when the room phone began ringing. He picked it up, answered it, and mouthed “O2” to Tanya, who had followed him out of the shower.
Ryce listened for a few more minutes and then said, “Give us twenty minutes.”
Ryce was chuckling when he turned to Tanya. “O2 has more irons in the fire than anyone I know. One of his hundreds of old SEAL friends is in the Montana Army National Guard. O2 has gotten two combat-ready close-support Chinook helicopters with full crews. They need flight time, and Homeland Security is willing to pay. I think bullets are the biggest cost on those things, and they spit out a lot of bullets.
“They are set up as small versions of Puff, The Magic Dragon. They have a mini gun that can spit out 3,000 rounds a minute, rocket launchers and a 40 mm cannon. They are going to follow Phil around like a pair of lost puppies. I had the privilege of watching two of them work in Afghanistan. They absolutely tore up the bunker they were asked to eliminate.”
As they dressed, Ryce was constantly checking his laptop and then typing furiously. Tanya knew better than to interrupt his focus. Ryce used his computer as if it were a legal pad. One evening, she walked out of the bedroom completely naked, and announced she was going for a walk. She got no response. He didn’t even tell her there was two feet of snow on the ground, and it was very cold outside.
At exactly twenty minutes after the call, O2 arrived, followed by Phil and two men in camo fatigues. O2 introduced the two men as former Rangers from the Sanctuary Precinct of the Idaho State Police. They had completed Ranger School a few months after Ryce had opted out and had heard about the jump that had shortened Ryce’s career. They had also heard O2 describe the incident in Afghanistan.
The next four hours were focused on planning the insertion at the cabin, and who would provide support at the campground and at the stream. O2 had arrived in a convoy of six vehicles. Five Hummers had been sent to the airport and had been loaded with the men and material flown in on the BBJ. They would be driven to the Army National Guard secure compound where they could be placed under guard for the night. Four of the Hummers would be stationed at the Babb airport with Phil to be used as support and emergency vehicles.
Ryce was concerned about immediate response if something happened while he was at the cabin. Anyone parked at the stream could provide a five-minute or less response time. A high-speed drive from the campground down dirt roads would take twenty minutes or more. Phil could be in the air in less than three minutes, and at the cabin eight to ten minutes later. However, if the team got into a firefight while they were on the trail, all bets were off. Coaxing a Chinook into the mountains to retrieve wounded personnel would be slow and tedious.
Ryce pulled a legal pad from the coffee table and began running down a checklist. When he got to the support group at the stream, Tanya raised her hand.
“I think Ramona and I can appear to be fishing at the stream as well as anyone.”
Ryce sat for a few moments and considered the request. With a smile, he shook his head “yes.”
About half way through the meeting, someone knocked on the door. Tanya answered it and discovered John, Marge, and Ramona standing in the doorway. John explained that he had a meeting he had needed to attend and had left the Ranch later than O2’s group. Ramona had stayed to sign-off on a delivery of commercial kitchen equipment and ensure that things were stored properly until she returned.
The subsequent plans included twice as many people as Ryce had envisioned, but was considerably simpler than O2 thought it should be.
Ryce, with five SEALs/Rangers would be the main cabin assault group, while O2 and the remaining five SEALs/Rangers would be the trail observation group. Gary Temple, the Great Falls FBI agent-in-charge, owned a 41 passenger retired school bus he had modified for camping. He would drop the cabin assault team off at the stream at least a mile away from the cabin. The bus was already parked at the campground that Ryce was planning to use as a support base. It would not be out of place on the roads leading to the cabin. The primary problem would be to load the bus with twelve heavily armed men without alerting everyone in the campground.
John had the solution for loading the bus. He had driven to Great Falls in what he called his “Party Hummer,” an H1 with a highly modified camper installed in the very short cargo box. The camper length was doubled with a slide-out, and it had a tent structure that extended twenty feet beyond the camper shell. He and Marge would be setting up the Hummer in the same campground as the bus. If the assault team prepositioned their equipment, the bus could be backed up to the tent and loaded without prying eyes.
O2 had only one objection to the plan. He wanted more than Ramona and Tanya providing support from the stream. He added the two ex-Rangers who had accompanied him to the group camping in the Suburban. Both Tanya and Ramona were excited about their intended location. Ryce had caught several trout in that stream. Tanya knew how many, and she wanted fishing points.
When one of the Rangers asked if the women would be safe with them, O2 started laughing so hard he was forced to walk to the bathroom to get a glass of water.
Marge looked over at the Ranger and said, “I would worry more about you two being safe with the ladies. Ramona can outshoot O2 on his best day and her worst day, and Tanya is married to the guy who has actually outshot both of them.”
Marge turned to O2. “What are you taking with you?”
O2 smiled. “A third will be heavy, the rest will be close support.”
O2 grinned at the confused look on Tanya’s face. When Tanya wanted to know what a heavy was, O2 looked at Ryce, and told him to explain.
Ryce chuckled.
“I don’t know if it is different in the SEALs, but in the Rangers, weapon categories are divided into the caliber of the bullet they use. A close support weapon is usually chambered for something less than 10 mm, so there is not as much recoil. This includes the 5.56 and 7.62 NATO rounds. Of course, the AK-47, using a 7.62 x 39 cartridge, is definitely a close support weapon. It is the most manufactured assault rifle in the universe.
“A heavy weapon is anything above 10 mm. That covers the .50 caliber or larger sniper bullet. I know O2 is planning to take four Barrett M82A1 sniper rifles, although I am not sure that something in a pink gun case is considered a heavy weapon.”
Everyone looked at the gun case Ramona had carried into the room. It was an intricately tooled leather gun case in vivid pink. O2 started laughing. Ramona looked around the room.
“O2 had that case made for me in celebration of my final qualifications when I was still a Ranger. I think it was very sweet of him to do it, although I cringe every time I walk out of the gun safe with it. I hope I never find the gun shop that made it.”
When the laughter died down, Ramona smiled at the group.
“In case you didn’t know, Pen has two of her best trauma surgeons flying into the Great Falls airport this evening. They were in surgery when John left Pendergast City. When Vince heard about our party, he was almost packed before John told him he needed to stay at home and support the troops. O2 and I were in John’s office when Pen called. We could hear her through the phone. She told John that if he was sending her boys into battle, she was sending someone who could patch them up.”
O2 looked over at John. “Aren’t your ears still burning?”
Ryce laughed. Phil had mentioned on the airplane that O2 had sent out a general request for SEALs or Rangers for this project. The Marine Corps was not the only military group with intense devotion to comrades. The SEALs and Rangers also generate extreme loyalty. O2 had likely sent out one email that had been forwarded to hundreds, if not thousands.
When the meeting eventually wound down, John looked over at Ryce.
“You know this area better than most of us. Where do we eat tonight? And where is breakfast?”
Ryce set his alarm clock for 5:30 AM. The support vehicles had been outfitted while the tactical plans were being drawn up. All of those who were participat
ing in the project would meet at the Hampton Inn at 6:00 AM. Ryce hoped to have rubber on the asphalt at 6:30 AM, or 7:30 AM if anyone was hungry.
Tanya crawled into bed. “I am going to worry like crazy, and you are only going to be a mile away. Is there any way I can persuade you to sneak down to the Suburban? I can kick Ramona and the two guys out of the camp trailer.”
Ryce chuckled as he pulled her close.
The Pendergast Rolling Thunder and Magical Elixir Show, as christened by Marge, departed the Hampton Inn at 7:25 AM. As Ryce led the convoy onto I-15 North, he checked his rear-view mirror. He was leading five Hummers, a Suburban hitched to a camping trailer, and a utility van. Ryce chuckled. It looked like the weekend warriors were out on maneuvers.
The calculated driving time from Great Falls to the campground was two and a half hours. The convoy pulled into the campground at 9:56 AM. The bus backed up to John’s Hummer and the assault group and their ninety-pound packs were loaded into the bus. After Tanya and Ramona kissed their husbands goodbye, the bus pulled out of the campground.
The first three laterals were occupied with campers. Obviously, Ryce did not want anyone watching as twelve heavily armed men in camo exited the bus. An empty forest road was eventually discovered, the team departed the bus, and Gary started his return drive to the campground.
Ryce split the group scientifically. He pointed at every alternate man, and said, “You’re on my team.”
The plan was for Ryce and his group to re-establish the original observation post above the cabin. O2 and his group would swing to the right of Ryce, in the direction of the lake, and find a spot to keep an eye on the road going north to the lake.
Ryce calculated the distance from the cabin to the border as twenty-three miles as a crow flies, if a crow flies in a straight line. He had hiked the distance in a little under twelve hours, but the trail was slow and definitely not in a straight line. The trail might be difficult for a novice to follow. It would, however, be almost like walking down Broadway in New York City to a SEAL or a Ranger. Ryce was confident that O2 would find a very nice place to watch the trail.
The Alberta Connection Page 18