“We almost snuck up to their caravan. I backed off on our speed. I’m guessing they’re just reaching the Augusta area now.”
Arnie interrupted, “We’re live guys. I see their convoy. It’s still on Interstate 20 and they’ve passed through the city and now they’re just west of Augusta. I’m guessing they’re heading for Fort Gordon. The Fourth Infantry is located there. I’ll know in another two minutes. If they turn south on Route 383, then I’ll know where they’re headed.”
I asked, “What are the implications of their being at Fort Gordon?” “Not good Jim. I’m sure they gained access to the armory, and they’ll have some major weapons systems. The key question is how many knowledgeable soldiers they have in their group. They’ll probably have access to Bradley M2 Fighting Vehicles and the usual array of small arms weapons like grenades, and handheld missiles.”
“That’s bad news Arnie.” Arnie interrupted, “They just turned south on Route 383. They’re definitely headed for Fort Gordon. I’ve got about five more minutes of viewing time on this satellite. The next one will be overhead in forty-seven minutes. I’ve looked ahead at the Fort Gordon complex and the bad news is I can see dozens of people just milling around.
Here’s what I want you guys to do. I’m going to route you to a back entrance to the military post. Take Interstate 520 south. It’s the ring road around Augusta. Then take Route 1 southwest to Mirror Lake Road. Take a right turn, and the road leads directly into Range Road. You’ll probably come to a wire fence and an abandoned gate where the road ends at Fort Gordon.”
“Elizabeth is loading it into our navigation system right now. We’ll contact you when we get there.”
“Okay Jim; don’t do anything stupid. We’ll be gathering equipment and loading stuff into the helicopter.”
Armed thugs were going to be an ongoing problem, but now my mind was focused on freeing Jessie. It would be at least four hours before Arnie’s rescue team could arrive on the scene, and it wasn’t like they were going to just land at the military complex and free her. I was certain they would land to the south, far enough away to be certain the chopper wasn’t heard at the military base. They probably wouldn’t arrive on the scene for at least five hours, and they would need to be picked up at their landing point.
What could Elizabeth and I accomplish in the next few hours? The answer was pretty simple; reconnaissance would be our major short-term goal.
Chapter 46
We followed Arnie Connors’ directions, and it took us almost an hour to find Range Road. The road was nothing more than a gravel path cut through a dense pine forest just south of Fort Gordon. About a half mile up the road we arrived at a rusted chain-link fence with a gate that looked like it hadn’t been opened since one of the world wars.
I drove the U-Haul in reverse and parked off the road in a heavily wooded area not visible from inside the fort. Private Duncan was back from a brief rest and called me on my satellite phone. “Hey guys, I guess I’ve missed a lot of the action. Sorry, but I had to get a few hours of shut-eye.”
“No problem Adrian, we need you wide awake for the next few hours.” “I’ve got you spotted on a satellite flying overhead now. I’ve located the caravan. They’ve all pulled into the main entrance to the fort. I can’t see Jessie, but I think she might be in one of the barracks near the parking lot. All the people seem to be located in this part of the facility.
“I want you to reposition your U-Haul to a new area closer to where all the action is taking place. Part of the forest stops real close to there and you might be able to monitor things better from this new position.”
Elizabeth plotted our new course on the navigations system, and it took us another ten minutes to move our U-Haul along a narrow gully. I could see tank track impressions along the dirt pathway, and assumed the path through the forest was used for training purposes. We hid the truck in a cropping of trees and began walking north through the forest.
It took us another ten minutes to reach the edge of the woods and climb over an old rusty fence. We positioned ourselves behind a large boulder and observed the parking lot about a half mile away. We could see people walking around but couldn’t make out any more details. It was too far away. I had to get closer.
Just as I was debating whether to move closer to the parking lot, Arnie Connors called in. “Jim we’re about ten minutes from taking off from our base. We’re loaded with arms and other supplies. We’re going to land in a parking lot on the corner of Route 1 and Route 221 in a town called Wrens. We’re estimating we’ll land about 1845 hours. Meet us there.”
“Arnie, Elizabeth will meet you. I’m going to stay here and monitor what’s going on.” “Don’t try anything stupid Jim. Wait until we get there. We’ve got Private Duncan manning the satellite images, and he has a better chance of figuring out where she’s being held than you do.”
It was good advice, but whether I would heed it was another matter. Elizabeth and I looked at our watches. They would be landing in just under four hours. Elizabeth needed to allow sixty minutes to get back to the car and find the meeting point. I would keep the satellite phone and stay in touch with Adrian while Elizabeth met the rescue team.
Elizabeth and I kept watch from the protection behind the boulder for another half hour. During that time we had not seen another person between our position and the parking lot. Adrian, keeping close watch with his spy satellites, confirmed all of the action was taking place on the north side of the parking lot. “Jim, I think I’ve figured out where Jessie might be held prisoner. There’s a building one block west of the parking lot and two guards are stationed outside.”
“Adrian, is there any chance of our getting closer without being spotted?” “Not yet, I’d wait till sundown. I’ve got infrared imaging on these birds, and I can guide you more safely then.”
With nothing better to do than wait for the others to arrive, Elizabeth left me and returned to the U-Haul. She might as well wait for the others at the meeting point, and if she left, I might be able to sneak a little closer to where Jessie might be held.
Elizabeth wished me good luck and ordered me to stay put until the others arrived. Why was everyone telling me what to do? I guess I already knew the answer.
Chapter 47
A light rain began falling as I hid behind the large boulder. The people waiting in the parking lot scattered into some of the nearby army barracks surrounding the three sides of the parking lot. I stepped back into the woods and waited under a tree as the drizzle turned into a downpour. With everyone waiting inside for the rain to stop, I wondered if now was the time to move closer to the place where Jessie might be held prisoner.
I needed details on her suspected location. “Adrian, where’s Jessie being held?” “I think they’ve got her in a building west of the parking lot, one block away. There’s a tall tenstory building one street over. It’s built with red brick. Do you see it?”
“I see it.” “Okay, the building of interest is located one block to the east and exactly in front of the tall building.”
“If I move to the tall building, will I have a good view of the place where she’s being held?” “Sure, but why risk it now; wait until the others get there.”
“Adrian, it’s pouring rain right now. Everybody’s inside. Now’s the perfect time.” “Well if you’re going to risk it, then wait for six more minutes. That’s when the next bird is overhead. I can make sure people aren’t in the area of the building with the infrared imagery.”
I agreed, and the next six minutes took forever. Finally Adrian was back on the phone, and I left the protection of the woods and sprinted across an open field and headed for a group of buildings just south of the tall building I was trying to reach. Adrian was watching me on his computer screen, and he was providing real-time directions on where to go.
A nearby lightning strike and booming crack of thunder broke the silence. I was soaking wet, but I kept following Adrian’s directions and eventually reached the tall
red brick building. Empty liquor bottles were scattered all around the entrance. On close inspection, the place looked like some type of administrative facility.
The building looked deserted. Out of breath, I rested in the lobby. After a minute, I found the stairs and walked up to the top floor. The large office area took up the entire floor. The temperature was almost ninety degrees, and the place was already showing mold growth on the walls. I walked over to the east side of the floor and looked out the large floor to ceiling window.
My new perch provided a perfect view of the building Adrian had been monitoring. Adrian had observed two guards in front of the building. I was looking at the back, and there appeared to be nobody guarding the rear.
I was soaking wet. I took off my clothes and squeezed out the water from my shirt and pants. I let them dry out on the back of two chairs. I sat down in my wet underwear at a desk facing the window and tried calling Adrian. I waited for a signal, and then I remembered I needed to be outside to use the phone. As soon as the rain stopped, I would move onto the building’s roof and contact Adrian and Arnie Connors. I was going to be the team’s advance scout.
As I waited for the rain to stop and my clothes to dry, I began thinking about how our team would be able to infiltrate the base and free Jessie from her prison. The bad guys all seemed to be congregated to the east of where I was situated. At night our team could probably enter the fort a little west of where Elizabeth and I were watching and then easily make it to my building.
The rain suddenly stopped, and the sun broke through the dark grey clouds. A rainbow appeared, and I decided to move onto the roof. I put on my damp clothes and found a staircase leading up to the building’s roof. The door to the roof was unlocked, and I stepped out onto a flat metal roof. No expensive roof tiles here at the army base. This was the military version of the lowest cost supplier.
I walked all around the roof. It had a perfect view of the entire fort. After the rain stopped, dozens of people began leaving various buildings and congregating once again out in the parking lot.
I called Adrian. “It’s stopped raining and I’m standing on the roof of the building. I’ll be staying up here to monitor things.”
“I just talked to Major Connors. They’re about ninety minutes away from the meeting point.”
“Have him give me a call as soon as they land.”
“Will do Jim and good luck.” I carried a chair from the office area onto the roof and placed the chair so I was partially hidden behind a non-functional air-conditioning system. The team probably wouldn’t arrive for another two hours. It would be dark by then, and they should be able to reach my building without being seen. I had plenty of time to observe what was going on.
I thought about the dynamics of this group of no-goods. How did they survive from day to day? Where did they get their food? They had none of the conveniences of our community: no electricity, no running water, no working toilets, nothing to create even a marginal lifestyle. Jessie had it right from the beginning; this subset of humanity would always exist. For whatever the reason, they didn’t want to work to make things better. They just wanted to live from day to day off the hard work of others. The bigger question was how these people always managed to find each other. It was just like Brad Davis and his friends. They found each other and bonded in a matter of hours. I wondered whether Brad and his friends were with this group. They hadn’t been part of the Tampa thugs who attacked the campus. We had definitely seen his picture from the satellite in his red shirt. Maybe he suspected we would defend our community with all our effort and decided not to participate. I made it a point to keep a lookout for a guy in a red shirt.
I was looking for patterns. Who was the leader of this group of several hundred misfits? Was it the guy in the army Hummer? The people gathered in the parking lot seemed organized into cliques, small groups of mostly men and some women. A building just north of the parking lot must have held the group’s food supply, because from time to time people would enter and then leave eating some type of food.
There was a lot of drinking going on. I thought about the endless supply of liquor available for the taking. The supply of hard drugs was no longer available; but liquor would be plentiful, at least for a couple of years. Suddenly, a woman emerged from a building near the food place and rang a bell. Like pavlovian dogs, people began moving to the building. Within an hour more than two hundred people had passed through the entrance and emerged a few minutes later with their food and drinks.
They all ate in small groups and then threw away their disposable plates near several overflowing trash cans.
Just as the sun was dipping below the horizon, the lady with the bell rang it again, and all the misfits gathered in front of the door to the food pantry. A man wearing army fatigues and a black cowboy hat emerged from the building and addressed the crowd.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying; he was just too far away, but his people seemed to be listening intently and periodically shouting their approval.
My phone suddenly rang. It was Arnie. They had just landed at the meeting point and were heading over to Fort Gordon in our U-Haul. I explained the situation and suggested Elizabeth park along Range Road in the woods near the facility’s fence. When I explained I had moved to the roof of a tall building near the parking lot, there was silence for a moment, and then Arnie asked if the team should meet at the building. “That’s what I’m suggesting Arnie. Private Duncan can guide you to the place where I’m located.”
“Private Duncan gave me satellite maps of the whole complex before we left. I think I know where you’re hiding, but we’ll talk more when we get there. And Jim, whatever you do, stay put and just keep observing what the hell’s going on.”
Why was everyone trying to get me to do nothing? By moving to this building I had learned much more about what was going on instead of staying on the edge of the woods spinning my wheels. I know they just wanted me to stay safe, but I kept thinking of Jessie, and I wondered what evil things she was being exposed to.
Chapter 48
I kept looking at my watch waiting for a call from Arnie. It was dark now, and a gentle breeze out of the west had blown away the high humidity following the rain. My clothes had all dried out, and most of the social misfits had moved into the barracks surrounding the parking lot for the night.
The call from Arnie finally came in. The team was at the fence about a mile southwest of the parking lot. The flyover of the next satellite was scheduled to begin in three minutes, and Private Duncan was going to provide real-time eyes for the team as they made their approach to my building.
I moved to the west side of the roof and tried to observe their approach, but it was really too dark to see anything, so I decided to walk down to the ground floor and meet them at the lobby door.
I figured a normal walk would take about twenty minutes, but this was not a normal walk, and even with Private Duncan guiding them, it would still probably take them almost forty minutes to arrive.
I finally saw the group of five plus Elizabeth moving cautiously between two buildings across the street to the west. They were walking slowly in single file and then crossed the street one at a time. I gave Arnie the bear hug thing. I high-fived Sammy Lafayette, and then Arnie introduced me to the rest of the rescue team: Brenda, Billy Joe, and Eddie. Arnie handed me an armor vest and an M16 rifle.
I led the group up to the roof, and the seven of us looked east at the building where I thought Jessie was being held. Arnie said, “We’ve been studying pictures of the building, and Private Duncan says there’re always two guards in the front and they’re always sitting in chairs. They seem to check inside the building every hour or so, and the guards are changed every four hours. The guards each have a single rifle. I’m thinking Eddie and I will position ourselves on both their flanks and try to take them out simultaneously with our silenced sniper rifles.”
Elizabeth interrupted, “That may make too much noise. I’ve got a better idea.
I saw an empty bottle of whiskey in front of the building. I’m going to walk up the street in plain sight with the bottle in my hand. I’ll pretend I just arrived and I’m drunk. I’ll ask one of them if they want to have sex, and I’ll lead them to the back of the building. You can take him out with a knife when his back is turned.”
I was shocked to hear Elizabeth explain her plan, but I wasn’t the only one. Arnie said, “It’s too dangerous.”
Elizabeth was pissed. “It’s less dangerous than your plan. You just don’t want me to do it because I’m a woman. But here’s the thing; Rich was a good friend of mine, and these guys killed him for no good reason. This is personal for me now, very personal.”
Arnie considered things carefully. “Okay, we’ll go with Elizabeth’s plan. I’m the best with a knife, so I’ll hide behind the air-conditioning compressor on the side of the building. Elizabeth, you bring the guy to the side of the building, and stop just before the compressor. Get him to face the wall, and then I’ll take him out.”
I asked, “Where do you want the rest of us?” “Eddie, you position yourself in front of the building and to the right. If things go bad, then take them out as we had planned. The rest of the team will wait behind the barrack to the right. Any questions?”
There weren’t any, so Arnie said “Okay, let’s move out.” Elizabeth took off her body armor and picked up an empty bottle of scotch in front of our building. She had plenty to choose from. We moved east across the street, and then Eddie and Elizabeth left us as they walked slowly off to the right staying close to buildings and other ground cover.
The rest of us split up as we reached the rear of Jessie’s prison. Arnie hid behind the large air-conditioning unit on the right side of the building. I moved behind the barracks to the right. I crept to the corner and knelt down on one knee with my gun ready.
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