by Nathan Combs
Chris caught the tail end of the conversation while reentering the hide. Squatting in front of Horst, he said, “You know what info we need, Nagel. Give it to me and you get a bullet in the head. Quick. Painless. End of story.”
“And if I refuse?”
“One way or the other, you are gonna tell me what I want to know. The degree of effort I have to exert and the amount of suffering you have to endure before you talk is up to you.”
Horst hated pain. He could tolerate it, but damned sure didn’t enjoy it. He thought again about Nina. Did he really owe her his loyalty? After all, she used him all this time to further her own goals, and he knew deep down she loathed him.
“Not good enough. Look, I don’t owe Nina anything. I never killed anyone, and I didn’t eat human meat, either. I give you the information and you let me go. That’s the deal. I give you my word, I’ll disappear and you’ll never hear from me again.”
Tyler said, “You’ll give your word? Your word is worthless. You’ve always been a liar, you fat fuck. You killed plenty of our guys. And you provided Nina with sophisticated bombs and weaponry, and trained her little clan of psychos. And I seriously doubt you’ve been eating rice for the past year. You were probably first in line for seconds, so fuck you. Your deal is a quick and painless death. Or we can drag the interrogation out for days and enjoy inflicting the worst pain imaginable on your pitiful ass. Take it or leave it.”
Horst shook his head. Ignoring Chris, he focused on Tyler. “Tyler, I’m a bit player in this little play. Nina’s the star. You know that. And you know me. I’m a liar and an asshole, that’s true, but I also want to live. Do you really think I give a rat’s ass about revenge? Do you really think I’d hang around here and make life difficult for the people at Fort Hope? I don’t give a shit. Got it? The only allegiance I have is to myself. So cut me a deal and I’ll give her up right now.”
Tyler and Chris exchanged glances, then Tyler shrugged his shoulders, motioned Chris to the side, and in a low voice said, “What he says is probably true. It’s likely we’d never hear from him again. But it’s your call.”
Chris thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. “All right. Let’s give him a test.” Chris knelt in front of Horst. “Okay, Nagel, here’s your deal. You give us some intel. If it checks out, we’ll talk about Nina’s location. After we take her out, you’ll be released. You have my word.”
“Can you make that decision without consulting Daddy?”
“I can, asshole. But on second thought, fuck you. It’ll be more fun to just beat the intel out of you.”
Horst knew he should quit mouthing off, but couldn’t help himself. It’s who he was. He was a mouthy smart ass, true, but he wasn’t stupid, and he knew there were no guarantees either way. So he made the logical decision. He decided to tell them everything about the pending assault and where Nina was. He started to speak, but stopped. He sat for a second looking stupid, mouth opened wide. During that second, he considered giving them Nina’s Kingston position instead of the Vonore location, but decided if he lied she’d still be alive and would come to the conclusion that he ratted her out. And he damn sure didn’t want her looking for revenge in his direction. He figured he’d live longer if she were dead. He closed his mouth and hung his head. He looked up, nodded, and said, “I assume you’re a man of your word. I’ll take the deal.”
Chris said, “All right. You have one shot. Go.”
Horst took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Well, the plan was to assault Fort Hope with mortars, but you killed my guys so obviously that’s not happening.”
He stopped and stared at Chris and Tyler.
Tyler said, “You’re stalling, Horst. Fuck you.” He took out his knife and moved it toward Horst’s throat.
“No, Ty, I’m not stalling, I just paused to gather my thoughts. Put the damn knife away.”
Tyler stared at him and opened his mouth to speak.
Horst realized Tyler was serious and spoke quickly. “There are four sniper teams covering the mortar positions. A guy named Cougar leads them. He’s Nina’s head scout and advisor; second in command, if you will. He left an hour before I did. There’s a map with his team’s positions in my left inside jacket pocket. And, Tyler—this guy is good. Very good.”
The Bradley was ten minutes down the road when Chris called Wade and gave him the intel. Acknowledging, Wade relayed the sniper team locations to Cole and told him to organize an assault. He called Chris back with his ETA of ten minutes.
Using a combination of thermal imaging and night vision, the Bradley howled through the night at forty-five miles an hour. A geyser of deteriorated blacktop ripped up by the steel treads over the hard rubber tires spewed behind. Inside the Bradley, the whine of the treads combined with the howl of the powerful 600 HP engine was excessive, requiring the use of the special CVC helmet. Outside, the noise was absorbed by the fog, and in seconds, was reduced to a directionless, muted hum. As a precaution, when they were a mile from the hide, Bill throttled back, they removed their helmets, and the Bradley purred through the fog like a mythical, metal beast.
Arriving at the Highway 58 bridge just prior to the assault on the sniper teams, Wade entered the hide, squatted in front of Horst and, in a matter of fact voice, said, “If your intel is faulty, Mr. Nagel, I’ll put a bullet in your head. No questions asked.”
“The intel is accurate, Captain. I hope you intend to honor your son’s deal.”
“Whatever deal you made with Chris will be kept. Providing you don’t do something stupid in the interim period.”
Ensconced in the high grass on a low ridge, Cougar waited. His well-trained shooters were in hides roughly one thousand yards apart with overlapping views. They covered 4,000 yards in all directions.
Horst should have been here by now, he thought. He was getting nervous and cursed the ever-present fog that limited his visibility to less than twenty-five feet. Because he was unable to use his night vision optics, he was blissfully unaware that four teams of Fort Hope’s finest were advancing silently on all four positions.
Using GPS coordinates, the assault teams scanned the terrain ahead with thermal imaging optics. The fog provided cover as they crawled slowly and silently over the frost-encrusted ground. When the four sniper teams were located, they stopped and used their throat mics to coordinate the assault. From fifty yards distant, they attacked simultaneously, launching two M203 grenades on each hide, then assaulted each position. Cougar’s men were dead before they even knew what hit them.
Cole radioed Wade confirmation of Horst’s intel.
“Okay, Horst, the sniper teams have been eliminated. Where’s Nina?”
“What’s the body count?”
Wade gave him a hard look.
“Trust me. Get a body count.”
Wade told Cole to count the bodies.
Minutes later, Wade told Horst, “There are eight bodies.”
“There should be nine. Three should have filed teeth and face tats.”
Wade gave Horst a cold stare, then hit the recall button and told Cole to recount and check for teeth and tats.
Cole called back. “Confirming eight bodies, Wade. Two with tats and teeth.”
Horst heard the response and lurched upright. Bill shoved him back down and said, “You move like that again, asshole, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do. I’ll slit your worthless throat.”
Horst ignored Bill and said, “You don’t understand, Captain. You didn’t get Cougar.”
“Who’s Cougar?”
“He’s Nina’s head scout and executive officer. And trust me, this guy is good. He’s going to warn her the attack failed, and she’ll move to a different location. If you’re going to get her, you have to move quickly. You have to hunt him down or beat him there.”
“Whe
re’s there?”
“They were in Kingston, but she left just after I did. She’s moving to the elementary school in Vonore.”
Chapter Four
End of the Line
Vonore was a small village about fifty miles off the beaten path south of Fort Hope. Nina selected it because she knew Coltrane didn’t have the resources to effectively search that many square miles of territory.
Packing for the trip, Heather said, “Nina, I’m not questioning you. I just want to know why you do things so I can learn. Why are we going to Vonore? Why not stay here?”
“Remember when I told Cougar and Horst that Coltrane’s number one priority was to find us?”
“Yes.”
“Both the mortar and sniper teams know where we are. If any of them are captured and give up this location, we won’t be here when Coltrane shows up. Cougar and Horst know where we’re going because they have to know where to go after the assault, but it’s unlikely either one of them will be captured. They know better than to take chances. The mortar attack is going to decimate Fort Hope. If Coltrane survives, he is not going to be a happy camper. In fact, I think it’s safe to say he’ll be pissed off. And trust me, he’ll pull out all the stops to find us. Vonore’s distance gives us a buffer zone of sorts, and if by some miracle he does stumble upon us, the school’s location will make it difficult for him to launch a surprise attack. Plus, when the teams return, we’ll relocate immediately.”
An hour after Horst departed, The Light was packed and ready to roll. Nina held a brief meeting, and fifteen minutes later, eighty-four cannibals were on the road. The trip to Vonore was slow but uneventful, and they arrived at the elementary school at 0430 hours, three hours and fifteen minutes before the attack on Fort Hope was scheduled to begin. After posting watches on either side of the school, Nina set the security detail and told the door guard she and Heather were going to nap, and to wake them at 0630.
The grenade attack was over before Cougar comprehended what happened. He tried to see through the fog, but it was impossible. The muffled voices of the attackers seemed to be everywhere, and for a moment, he thought about Horst’s mortar teams. They would be walking into a trap.
Then it dawned on him. Oh shit. Horst isn’t coming. Not now. Not ever!
He crawled backwards, stood, and in a stooped run, headed for the copse of trees twenty yards distant. He mounted his horse and cautiously entered the field on the other side. His mind was spinning. The answer to the question that kept playing over and over like an old phonograph record stuck in a groove hit him like a sledgehammer. Horst gave us up. The only way Coltrane’s men could have pulled off the attack on his teams is if they knew exactly where they were. And the only people who knew where they were, besides he and Nina, was Horst. A bolt of red-hot pain shot through his head as the realization dawned on him that Horst gave up Nina’s Vonore location too. Horrified, he threw caution to the wind and took off at a full gallop.
I have to warn Nina.
Wade called Cole and explained who Cougar was and why they had to find him or get to Vonore before he did.
“Check your maps. Send the Hummers to within three miles of the school. They can get there before the horse patrols. Nagel said this guy is beyond good. We have a map that says he’ll be taking the shortest route—a straight line across country—so send the riders on that vector. Maybe they’ll get lucky. We’re going to enter the town from the south side. You’ll come in from the north. This mission will be in a constant state of flux, but we’ll come up with a plan en route.”
“Roger.”
When the call ended, Wade took Chris and Tyler aside and told them to take Horst back to Fort Hope. “Lock him in the infirmary storage room. If he so much as opens his mouth, shut it. Permanently!”
Randal had the Vonore area map spread out on the front of the Bradley and located the elementary school. It was on the east side of the main drag and would be difficult to approach unseen.
Wade said, “Grab the map and let’s go. Bill, you drive.”
The Bradley wasn’t a Caddy, and the lack of highway maintenance had taken its toll on the roadway. Between the bumps and jolts, Wade looked at the map over Randal’s shoulder.
Randal said, “If Cole’s guys take out Cougar before he warns her, we can do a stealth assault. Either way, we need to bracket the school. Let’s put Cole’s Bradley on Highway 411 to the northeast. He can station here.” He pointed to the area on the map. “We’ll come in from the southwest and set up at this building. Looks like a residence. We can keep one Hummer just north of the bridge and position the other two at the rear of the school. We’ll place the horse patrols at locations we can’t cover with the armor. If we catch them flat-footed, we’ll shoot up the entire complex, assault it, and mop up. We can firm up the positioning after we eyeball it. She picked a bad location this time, Dad. The river’s at her back and there’s not a lot of cover. She’ll have nowhere to go. We’re going to box her ass in.”
The sun was just peeking over the horizon when the Bradley pulled into the decaying McDonald’s parking lot at the intersection of Highway 411 and Highway 72. Wade called Cole and received the latest update. They did not find Cougar, but the horse patrols were in place and the three Hummers and Cole’s Bradley were positioned for the assault.
Before leaving the Highway 58 Bridge, Bill loaded Horst’s mortars into the Bradley. While they stretched their legs in the McDonald’s parking lot, Bill chomped at the bit. “Let’s use the mortars to vaporize her cannibal ass. Poetic justice. But before we start blowing shit up, we gotta make sure she’s there.”
Wade said, “Yeah, we do. I don’t know if we can confirm Nina’s there, but we have to make sure the clan’s in the school. We need eyes on.”
Randal spread the Vonore area topo map on a cement table. “She’ll have watchers posted away from the school. Hard to say exactly where they’ll be because there’re lots of places to pick from. We can’t chance them making us, so let’s do this: We’ll take Old Slag Road”—using his finger, he traced the route—“to here, by the Methodist Church. We’ll cut across yards to this grove of trees. That’ll put us about a hundred yards from the school. We’ll have a good view and be in position for the assault.”
Looking over his shoulder, Wade said, “Good.” He studied the map for a few seconds. “Let’s have Cole move his Bradley to this grove of trees at the end of College Street. Right now we have one Hummer here, just north of the bridge entrance”—he touched the map with his forefinger. “Send one to cover the northeast school quadrant and put the other between the bridge and the school, here and here.” He marked the map with Xs. “Station half of the horse patrols on this side of the highway between the bridge and us, and keep the rest in reserve. Call the new positions in to Cole.”
Cole acknowledged the new positioning, and Randal said, “They’ll be in place in fifteen. Once we confirm they’re in the school, we’ll drop a dozen mortar rounds on their asses and cut loose with the guns at the same time. We’ll sit back, watch it burn, and take out any who try to escape. We give no quarter. This is an extermination.”
“Damn right,” said Bill. “And I’m the fuckin’ Orkin Man.”
Nine minutes later, Cole radioed that the assault team was ready to go, and they waited for confirmation The Light was in the school. While the assault teams were repositioning, Bill and Randal took the mortars out of the Bradley and set them up while Wade glassed the school. When the mortars were zeroed, Bill squatted by the stack of rounds and, tongue poking out of the right side of his mouth, studiously wrote on each warhead with a magic marker he found in the Bradley.
Randal smirked and asked, “What are you doin’, Bill?”
“I’m naming the rounds.” Holding one up, he said, “This is: here’s lookin’ at you, bitch.” Picking up another, he smirked, “This is cannibals’ lament
. I thought I’d call the other ones somethin’ cool and unique, like: try stickin’ this up your ass, bitch.”
Randal grinned and said, “I think there’s a law against using the word bitch on more than one round.”
“Sue me.”
Randal laughed. “I do like that one.”
“Which one?”
“Try stickin’ this up your ass.”
Bill smirked and continued writing.
The fog was beginning to dissipate and Cougar pushed his horse as hard as he dared. In thirty minutes he’d cleared Lenoir City and was headed down Tellico Parkway. If his horse held up, he estimated he could make Vonore in less than an hour. There was no doubt in his mind Coltrane was converging on Nina. And they had Bradleys and Hummers. No contest. He knew he had get to her before they did.
Cougar beat the Hummers to Vonore by less than five minutes and entered the school at a full gallop. He jumped off his overworked horse before it came to a halt and yelled at the astonished door guard. “Take me to Nina. Now!”
Nina heard Cougar yelling before he was near her room and went into the hallway.
Running down the corridor, breathing hard, he yelled, “They captured Horst and he gave us up. Both the mortar and sniper teams are dead. They’re right behind me.”
“All right, Cougar. Take it easy. How much time do we have?”
He stood gasping for breath. “Min… minutes.”
In a calm, confident voice, she said, “Okay. Chill out. Get the family over the Highway 360 bridge. Take them to The Lodge at Tellico, in Tellico Plains. I’ll be right behind you.”
Cougar and the guard turned, hustled out the door, and entered the next building. They beat on doors and yelled as they ran down the corridor, alerting the other cannibals to evacuate.