Paul excused himself, and the three of us sat down at a nearby table. I started, “It’s about our upcoming wedding Paul. When Hunter and Jasmine moved in, I reinforced how important it was for them to never forget their Indian heritage. They’re very excited about our wedding and convinced us to do an Indian ceremony. Today we visited their reservation and picked up some sacred objects to use as part of the service.”
Paul smiled, “That’s a wonderful idea. What can I do to help?”
Jessie continued. “Talk to the kids, and they’ll explain the ceremony.”
Paul asked, “What else do you want in the service? Will there be a religious theme?” Jessie looked at me and I deferred to her. “Not too long Paul; just enough to make it official and give the community an enjoyable experience.”
“Good, leave it to me; I’ll keep it simple and short, but I will add a few words to send the married couple on their new path.”
Jessie gave him a peck on the cheek. “You’re the perfect person for this job Paul, absolutely perfect.”
We all laughed together, and I knew Paul would indeed do a great job. It was much too early for dinner, but Beth appeared in the dining area, and seeing us at a table, she sat down next to Jessie. “I know we said we’d meet after dinner, but I’ve got you here now, and I have a few minutes. Let’s talk about the wedding. What do you want served?”
Jessie and I were feeling uncomfortable, but I left it to Jessie to speak for the two of us. “Beth, how can you possibly serve dinner to so many people?”
Beth smiled and answered, “We’ll have to do a buffet. I’ve already talked to the people at the farm and in Immokalee. We’ve got plenty of vegetables to choose from, and for the main course we can do a whole variety of things.”
Jessie thought for a moment and said, “Beth, surprise us; do what you think works best for you and your staff. Do what you want to do.”
Beth said, “I recommend a group of carving stations. That would be pretty easy and all the guests would have their choice of a variety of things. That way, even the kids could find something they like. When is this going to happen?”
I said, “You tell us Beth; the sooner the better.”
“Monday works for us. How about dinner at six o’clock?”
Paul added, “Let’s do the service on the beach at four o’clock.”
“Good,” I said, “It’s all settled.” Paul and Beth left and Manny immediately took their place. He had a very serious look on his face. “Jessie, I have a very special favor to ask of you.”
He stopped and looked at Jessie, waiting for a response. She smiled and said, “What can I do for you Manny?”
“I don’t think I ever told you, but I had a twenty-three year old daughter who died in the pandemic. She was going to be married in a few months and then she was gone. You remind me so much of her. You would do me a great honor if you would allow me to walk you down the aisle. I would like to give up the bride.”
We all were crying now. Jessie, with tears flowing down her cheeks hugged Manny and said, “Oh Manny, It would mean more to me than you know if you would walk me down the aisle. I would be honored if you would give me to Jim.”
Manny thanked us both and then left. It was just Jessie and me alone at the table. I looked into her eyes. She looked beautiful today. “You know, none of us talk much about the loved ones we lost. A psychiatrist I’m sure could explain why, but all of us have kept those feelings for lost ones private. Jessie, we need to remember the people who were lost. Maybe we should have a remembrance service for everyone who died. I’ll talk to Paul. He’s the perfect person to organize it.”
As I looked around the dining area, I realized most everyone seemed to be staring at us. I guess we had become the local curiosity. What were these people thinking? Were they surprised about our announcement? Were they thinking of loved ones who had died and wishing they could find a new partner?
Jessie squeezed my hand. “We have three hours before dinner. What do you want to do?”
“Let’s go to the beach.” It was a Saturday and the kids were running all along the beach and swimming in the lake. We set up our lounge chairs a few feet outside of my apartment with a pitcher of ice water. Fifty yards away Major Connors and Captain Sanchez were relaxing in the sun. I called out their names and motioned for them to join us. They moved their chairs close to ours. “Where did you get the swimming suits?” I asked.
Arnie answered, “They have dozens of them just sitting out in a tiki hut near the kitchen. I just got a call from Lieutenant Monroe. They raided the terrorist camp out there, and all but a few stragglers were killed. The rest ran off, and he’s guessing they headed north to more secure areas. Private Duncan confirmed a group of about a dozen cars was headed north toward San Francisco. Their team will be flying back here tomorrow.”
I said, “So it looks like they’ll make it back here before our little group of misfits decides to attack.”
Arnie continued, “And speaking of the pending attack, Private Duncan spotted two cars heading our way during the night. I’m guessing they’ve sent out some scouts to provide up to the minute recon intelligence.”
Jessie asked, “What should we do about that?” Arnie answered, “Nothing Jessie. Let them scout our area. I want them to think we’re unprepared. I’m sure they don’t know we’re watching them with our birds up in the sky.”
“So what do you think they’ll do when they attack us?” I asked. Arnie answered, “Since they’re at Fort Gordon, I’m assuming they have some people who’ve had formal military training. The head of their group may even be a soldier. Ed and I have been talking about it. We think they’ll do what all good commanders do, they’ll concentrate their forces at the point of attack.”
Jessie asked, “And where might that be?” Arnie answered, “They’ll undoubtedly have a couple dozen Bradley M2 Fighting Vehicles. They’ll lead the advance with those. Private Duncan has spotted activity at the fort. They’re attaching machine guns on the back of trucks. They probably have all the night vison equipment they need, so I’m guessing they’ll attack at night. I think they’ll use the M2s to attack from the east. The terrain isn’t ideal for the converted trucks, so they’ll use those to attack from the main entrance to clean up after the M2s have created havoc. They’ll think the night vision equipment will give them the advantage, but they’ll be wrong.”
I asked, “So how will we defend ourselves?” Captain Sanchez answered, “We’re working on it. Arnie’s going to show me his armory tomorrow, and as soon as Lieutenant Monroe returns, we’ll have a war council. Want to join us?”
Jessie and I answered instantly, “We wouldn’t miss it for the world.” The four of us sat there enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon. Captain Sanchez finally said, “You know, all of us may still come down with the disease. We’ll know in about two months. I’d like your permission to stay here until we know one way or the other. If we’re all going to die, I’d rather it was among all of you who can give us a decent burial.”
Jessie said, “Well on that pleasant thought, can I get you guys a cold beer?”
Sanchez asked, “Where did you get the brew?”
I answered, “Our people located a major distributor for all of southwest Florida.” We spent another hour listening to Captain Sanchez explain in detail the odyssey of the good ship USS Jimmy Carter. It was much as we surmised; a few groups of survivors living outside of major cities trying to eke out a living by rummaging through vacant stores and homes, fishing in the sea, and growing produce on the land. The country had regressed to a rural agrarian society.
The kids, who had been swimming and playing beach volleyball with a half-dozen others, finally arrived at our side, and their arrival forced a change in topics. Hunter said, “Chaplin Paul talked to us about the special ceremony. We’re going to practice tomorrow.”
Jessie asked, “Do we need to be there?” Hunter answered, “No, we’ll have everything set up for the ceremony on Monday. We a
lready explained it all to both of you. You’ll do just fine.”
The kids ran off to start another game and Jessie and I had to explain things to Major Connor and Captain Sanchez. Arnie asked, “Have you picked out a dress yet?”
Jessie suddenly realized she had nothing to wear. “Jim, come on, let’s have an early dinner, and then we can drive into downtown Naples. I know where the store is with all the bridal gowns.”
Arnie laughed, “That sounds like a command not a request my good friend.” Jessie stuck out her tongue and led me away from the evil comments of our friends. At dinner Beth insisted the best seamstress, Sally Logan, join us for the last minute alterations that always need to be made.
So here we were, Jessie, Sally and yours truly driving down to Fifth Avenue to the bridal shop just off Third Street. I was told by both ladies a tuxedo was also on the agenda, and I was beginning to feel totally out of control, which of course was the situation, but I was committed to being a good sport and doing whatever Jessie wanted done.
The store had been without air-conditioning for many months and the girls were afraid mold might have set in and ruined the selection, but we were lucky. All of the gowns were sealed in special garment bags.
As it turned out, Jessie was a perfect size for a gown, or to be more precise, a size 4. She soon began trying on an assortment of dresses, all with price tags of over $10,000. An hour later she had narrowed the choice down to three. My inputs ended at this point, and Sally’s opinion dominated the selection process.
And then it was over. The dress she chose, which was absolutely stunning, only required the adjustment of a hem and a little tuck under the arms. Next we stopped at Jared’s Jewelry Store and an hour later we had picked out wedding bands and a beautiful three carat diamond engagement ring. The tag on the ring read $39,995, but Jessie deserved the best.
The final stop was at a men’s formalwear store in a strip mall on Route 41. Jessie and Sally thought basic black would work well with Jessie’s dress, and thirty minutes later I was measured up by Sally, and we headed back home. Sally said, “I’m going to come back down here next week and move all of the dresses and tuxedos to an airconditioned apartment in our community. That should allow us to keep them in good condition for the next wedding.”
I dropped Sally off at her apartment with sincere thanks from Jessie and me, and she promised to deliver the alterations by the end of the day tomorrow. Jessie was in a great mood as we arrived home just in time to tuck the kids in for the night. It had been a very long day.
Chapter 56
Sammy Lafayette flew the four of us over to MacDill Air Force Base just after breakfast. Arnie and Ed were not about to miss out on blueberry pancakes. Our first stop was to drop in on Private Adrian Duncan. He had a helper now, an older civilian guy about seventy who clearly knew how to operate most of the equipment in the Threat Assessment Center.
Adrian had stored a number of key images on his computer, and he made a one-hour presentation about a variety of activities taking place at Fort Gordon. He was certain a buildup of men and equipment was taking place. Several close-up pictures showed a dozen Bradley M2 Fighting Vehicles being prepped in the base’s main parking lot, and there were about forty trucks being modified to accommodate machine guns on the back. Adrian had been doing a headcount at the base, and he estimated there were over 400 people milling around; and he had observed other groups of cars driving along highways leading to the base.
Arnie said, “It looks like they’ll have more than 500 in the attack. I’ve got some ideas on our best defense, but let’s wait until Lieutenant Monroe and his men get here.”
Private Duncan said, “I talked to Captain Stewart about an hour ago. They should be landing in about ninety minutes.”
Arnie said, “Let’s check out the armory, and I’ll show you guys our weapon systems.” We borrowed a jeep sitting on the tarmac and drove across the base to a remote section. A soldier in full combat gear was standing guard in front of a huge warehouse-looking building. Arnie introduced Private Jordan who helped the Major unlock a small door near the front. There were two separate combination locks. Two people needed to enter numbers simultaneously for the door to unlock.
The guard remained outside the armory, and Arnie led us into the darkened building with a flashlight. He walked to a control panel near the entrance and the heavy duty main door to the armory slowly rose upward. The bright sunlight filtering into the expansive armory revealed row upon row of weapons placed on pallets for easy transport and stacked in the most sophisticated storage system I had ever seen.
Arnie gave us a quick walkthrough tour of the place. “You have to understand, we’re a rapid deployment Air Force Base, and so our armaments are based on those requirements. You can see all of the smart bombs, thousands of them, but we don’t have any aircraft here capable of delivering them. They’re all redeployed at those desert bases in Arizona.
“What we do have is one pilot who knows how to fly an Apache Attack Helicopter, another pilot who can fly big transport planes, and Blaine who can fly smaller multi-engine business aircraft. That’s our entire air force right now, but it’s more than enough to get the job done.”
The sound of Ami Stewart’s KDC-10 aircraft approaching the airbase stopped Arnie in midsentence. We left the armory in our jeep and met the aircraft as it taxied up to the Threat Assessment Center. Captain Stewart, Blaine, Lieutenant Monroe and his men squeezed out of the small entrance hatch. Ami, Vince and all his men saluted Major Connors, who returned the salute and congratulated his troops on a job well done.
Arnie introduced Captain Sanchez to everyone, and we all moved into the air-conditioned comfort of the War Room. Lieutenant Monroe had been receiving reports on the buildup of troops at Fort Gordon, but he hadn’t seen any pictures. Private Duncan showed the pictures to the newly arrived group, and then we adjourned to a conference room with a large map of southwest Florida on the wall.
Arnie fixed some coffee while the rest of us were debriefed by Lieutenant Monroe on their successful mission. With plenty of fresh coffee for everyone, the meeting began.
Major Connors started, “As you’ve seen from the pictures, we have good reason to believe an assault on the campus is imminent. You can see from the pictures, they will be equipped with Bradley M2 Fighting Vehicles and a large number of trucks modified to carry fifty caliber machine guns. We can expect as many as 500 troops to be taking part in the attack. They will certainly have access to night vision equipment, and most importantly, we believe a person familiar with the campus will be taking part in the attack. We have also observed two cars traveling at night from Fort Gordon to the vicinity of the campus. They left the campus area last night, and it’s presumed they carried out reconnaissance as a prelude to the attack. We intentionally did not interfere with this group, because we believe it would have tipped our hand. The message we want them to bring back to their commander is the campus is unprepared for their attack.”
Lieutenant Monroe asked, “What kind of satellite coverage do we have?” Private Duncan answered, “We’ve got a total of fourteen birds providing sporadic coverage of the Fort Gordon area. All of our birds are flying a north to south orbit. There are a couple of ninety minute windows without coverage, but other than those time periods, we usually have about twenty-three minutes between fly overs.”
Arnie continued, “I’m assuming they will attack just before dawn; your thoughts Lieutenant?” Lieutenant Monroe stood up and used the wall map “I agree with your assessment Major. If the force is close to 500, then they’d be wise to attack from multiple points. Their modified trucks will be restricted to roads, but the Bradley Fighting Vehicles are a different matter.”
Jessie asked, “Why is that Vince?” “They have tracks, not wheels, so they can operate in most any terrain. So, if it was me, I’d execute a coordinated attack on three fronts. I’d have the M2s attack from the east, and come in across those open fields. At the same time I’d have the modified tr
ucks attack from the two main entrances off Ben Hill Griffin Blvd. Then I’d mop up with ground troops following the trucks.”
I said, “That doesn’t sound too nice for the good guys. How do we stop them?” Arnie said, “We’ve got two major advantages. First we know they’re coming, and we’ll have eyes in the sky to provide recon. Second, we’ve got airpower. I’ve had Private Duncan scan the various air force bases in the area to look for Apache helicopters and A10 Wart Hogs. He’s found some over at Tyndall Air Force Base over by Panama City.
Sammy Lafayette can handle the Apache. Captain Stewart, can you fly the Wart Hogs?”
“Major, if it’s got a fixed wing, I can fly it.” Blaine added, “I can probably fly the A10 with a couple hours practice.”
Arnie gave him the look; the one seeming to say who are you kidding? Blaine noted the Major’s expression. “Arnie, I’m assuming you’ve got flight simulators on the base. Ami can check me out. If she says I’m good to go, then you’ve got a second A10 at your disposal.”
Blaine’s response seemed to satisfy Major Connors. He continued, “They’ll probably lead with their M2s. We can strike just before the M2s are on the bridge crossing the Caloosahatchee River on Interstate 75. We’ll probably be able to destroy everything of importance in a few minutes.”
Jessie interrupted, “Arnie, what’s our goal?” Arnie looked kind of funny at Jessie and answered, “We want to defeat these guys and prevent them from attacking the campus.”
Jessie was in debate mode. “I have a different goal in mind. I want to wipe them out with no survivors, no prisoners, and no more bad guys.”
There was silence around the table, and then Captain Sanchez spoke. “Jessie, that sounds like a little bit of revenge on your part.”
Jessie stared at Captain Sanchez and then spoke calmly. “It’s not revenge. Let me explain my thinking. If we don’t kill them all, then they’ll be back later. They’ll lick their wounds and then reconstitute themselves into a new fighting force, and the next time they’ll be better prepared. We can’t let this go on for ever and ever. The problem with Arnie’s proposed plan is that there are likely to be plenty of survivors, and they’ll scatter into the countryside and eventually make their way back to Fort Gordon.”
Survivors Page 25