by Robert Boren
“Need some help with those bottles?” Dobie asked, coming down the steps, all four dogs following him.
“I’ve got it. Look over there.”
“She’s here!” Dobie said, watching them roll through the gate into the tent area. He trotted back there, walking over to where they stopped. Vicki got out of the car and sprinted to him, jumping into his arms, hugging him tight.
“I’m so glad to see you,” she said, her head resting on his shoulder.
“I tried to call you,” he said. “You gave me quite a scare.”
“Jamie ran my battery down playing games,” she said. “Sorry.”
Clara got out of the truck and opened the doors for Derek and Jamie.
“Princess!” Derek shouted. Princess saw him and trotted over, nuzzling him, tail wagging, licking his face.
“Where’s Ned?” Clara asked.
“He’s over there,” Dick said, walking up to get a tent.
Clara ran over, making eye contact about twenty yards before she got there. He dropped the tent he was messing with and ran to her, the two of them embracing and kissing.
***
Frank, Jane, Jerry, and Jasmine walked towards the clubhouse with their laptops.
“Hope we have decent connectivity here,” Jerry said. “I tried in the tent area. Thought it was supposed to be okay.”
“Hank said it was good last time he was here, but that was a couple years ago,” Frank said.
“Maybe something’s busted,” Jasmine said. “We might be able to fix it. Jake has a lot of stuff in that bob-tail.”
Cheryl saw them walking towards the clubhouse and ran over from the office.
“Oh no, is the Wi-Fi acting up back there?”
“Yeah, can’t connect,” Frank said.
“I’ll call it in,” she said.
“It’s been causing you trouble before?” Jerry asked.
“Not lately, but I’ve got two access points that cause problems every once in a while.”
“We might be able to fix it in a hurry,” Jasmine said.
“Really? Go ahead,” Cheryl said as she opened the clubhouse door for them. It was a low cinderblock building, with the usual rows of long tables, a stage and kitchen door on one side, and a fireplace on the other. She flipped on the lights. “Make yourselves at home.”
Frank got his laptop plugged in and turned on, watching nervously as it booted up.
“I’ll call Jake and see if he can check out the access point,” Jerry said, pulling his cellphone out.
“Jake?” Jerry asked.
“Yeah.”
“See the access point by the tent area?”
“Yeah, it’s on the light pole,” he said. “On the last street of the RV area. Not working. I was just about to take a look.”
“Good,” Jerry said. “I just got permission from Cheryl.”
“I’m on it,” Jake said. “Talk to you later.”
Jerry put his phone back in his pocket and opened his laptop. “Okay, Jake’s on it.”
“I’m connected,” Frank said, watching the screen as he navigated. He pulled up the snapshot app and looked at the history.
“They there yet?”
“No, not yet,” Frank said. “I see a few hits. They’re farther along than I thought. Must be making pretty good time. They’ll be there within the hour.”
“How about the other group?” Jerry asked.
“I see traces down the road to that area, and some noise around their base. I think they got there quite a few hours ago. They were only coming from northwestern New Mexico. Not that far.”
“So we have a little bit of time,” Jane said.
“We’ve got less than an hour before they hit the park. It’ll take them nine hours to get here, but they can call Carlsbad Caverns within minutes of arriving.”
“We should hit them tonight,” Jerry said.
“We need to chat with the general, and find out where the militia is.”
Chapter 22 – Scouting Parties
General Hogan walked into the clubhouse with his boys, all of them carrying laptops.
“Frank, ready to meet?”
“Yeah,” Frank said. “The other’s coming?”
“I told Clint, and he’s bringing some people. Malcolm is rounding up George, Ned, and Dick. Why don’t you call your core group and get them over here too? Then we’ll fire up a conference call with the militia.”
“On it,” Frank said.
“I’ll help,” Jerry said.
“Me too,” Jane said.
People showed up to the clubhouse over the next ten minutes. Cheryl came in and got the big coffee pot going. “Mind if I join the meeting?”
“Please do,” General Hogan said.
“Thanks. Coffee will be ready in about ten minutes. There’s a microphone on the podium up there,” she said, pointing. “I’ll switch on the PA system.”
“Thanks,” General Hogan said.
People arrived and were milling around the clubhouse, chatting and laughing, but with eyes darting around nervously.
Charlie and General Hogan went up on the stage and looked over the crowd. People moved towards the front, the conversation coming down to a soft murmur.
“Can everybody hear me okay?” General Hogan said into the microphone.
“We hear ya,” Jeb said.
“Yeah,” Wedgie said from the center of the room.
“Okay, let’s get started then,” General Hogan said. “We all made it here safely. As many of you know, there was an incident at a Walmart that Frank’s group stopped at. Islamists in shielded vans again. It was north of here about sixty miles, so the enemy is patrolling.”
“That where those two white vans came from?” Kurt asked.
“Yeah,” Frank said, standing up. “And by the way, nobody open the back of those vehicles here. Not even for a second.”
“Why?” Terry asked.
“I cut chips out of six men and put them back there,” Jane said.
“Why?” John Harper asked.
“Just in case we want to use those vans to sneak into one of their installations,” Frank said.
“We’ll discuss how we use those later,” General Hogan said. “Let’s get a conference call going with the militia.”
“You can plug your phone into the PA system if you want to,” Cheryl said. “But why are you talking to the militia? They were the bad guys, weren’t they?”
“They split from the Islamists and the UN,” General Hogan said. “We made an alliance with them.”
“Oh,” she said, her brow furrowed. “They coming here?”
“We don’t know yet,” General Hogan said. “Don’t worry, we’ve already shared intelligence and fought a battle with them.”
“A phony battle,” Kurt said.
“Well, yes and no,” General Hogan said. “We knocked out aircraft together during that charade, remember?”
“Yeah,” George said. “If there’s anybody who still has a problem with this alliance, we’d better hash it out now, before we get them on the phone. Anybody want to comment?”
There was silence. Cheryl finally raised her hand. “What changed their mind, and why do we think we can trust them?”
“They were always an uneasy partner with the Islamists,” General Hogan said. “They were against the government when this started, but they knew they couldn’t overthrow them on their own. One of the minor militia leaders made a deal with a small group of Islamists.”
“Philip,” Earl said. “And don’t call him Phil.”
“Yes, that’s correct,” General Hogan said. “Phil wasn’t that important, but the idea caught hold and snowballed from there. Islamist behavior and the UN deal ran that alliance off the rails. The militia looks at the UN as more oppressive and more corrupt than the US Government was at its worst. They were hitting the UN before we talked to them.”
“Okay,” Cheryl said. “Will they turn on us as soon as the Islamists are defeated?”
>
“No,” General Hogan said.
“Why are you so sure?” Cheryl asked.
“Because their goals and our goals are the same, and they’re likely to stay the same,” General Hogan said.
“Okay, go ahead then,” Cheryl said. “Sorry, this is new to me.”
“Took us a while to get used to the idea too,” the Sheriff said. “It’s the right move. I was convinced after our actions together, and after some long talks with them the night after the fake battle.”
“Anybody else?” General Hogan asked.
The crowd was silent.
“Okay,” Charlie said, leaning in to the mike. “General, let’s proceed.”
Cheryl came over and helped the General hook his phone into the PA system, then walked to a console on the wall just inside the stage area and flipped a couple of switches.
“You’re good to go,” she said.
“Nice setup,” Jerry said. “Why do you have all of this?”
“We were doing conventions here,” she said. “That’s how I knew Hank.”
“Here we go, folks,” General Hogan said. The sound of ringing came over the PA system.
“Hopper,” the voice said.
“Field Marshall Hopper, how are you? Ready for our conference call?”
“Yeah, my team is in the room,” he said. “You guys all made it to your base safely?”
“Yes, we all did, although there was a skirmish on the way.”
“Uh oh, what happened?”
Frank jumped on stage and went to the podium.
“Hi, this is Frank. We stopped at Walmart to get more camping gear, about sixty miles north of here. We got buzzed by the apps, and saw two vans in the parking lot.”
“They had chips?” Hopper asked.
“The men in the driver and passenger seats had their chips removed. There were three in the back of each van that still had chips. When they opened the door, we got the hits,” Frank said.
“What did you do?”
“Killed all of them, removed the chips, and took their two vans with us,” Frank said. “They’re sitting at our new base now.”
“Shit, what about the chips?” Hopper asked. “The enemy will see them.”
“They’re in the back of one of the vans. Shielded. No leakage. We checked, but we can’t open the back of that van while it’s here.”
There was some chuckling over the line, then a woman’s voice. “You guys know how valuable this is?”
“Shirley?” General Hogan asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “That was a genius play. Who’s idea?”
“Frank’s” Malcolm said, walking up to the podium.
“What’s the status of the park in Kansas?” Hopper asked.
“Just about to ask that too,” Chuck Goodnight said.
“Last I looked, the enemy was less than an hour away,” Frank said. “I’ll check again in a few minutes.”
“Well, at least we know they didn’t turn back,” Hopper said.
“We’re pretty worried about what they’ll do when they find the place empty,” Jerry said. “We can expect them to call Carlsbad Caverns and alert their leadership.”
“Yeah, damn straight,” Shirley said. “No way can we hit them before that happens.”
“I concur,” General Hogan said. “But we can hit them before their away force can make it back there.”
“I think I know where you’re going,” Charles Goodnight said. “We can attack while they’re on the road home. We’re pretty sure that most of their best fighters were on the away team, so they’ll be weaker at the base. How many hours will we have?”
“Roughly nine from when they decide to leave Kansas,” Frank said.
“And they’ve already driven through the night to get there,” Jerry said. “They’re gonna be tired. They might even overnight there before they attack.”
“How soon could you guys get an attack going?” General Hogan asked.
“We could leave in about an hour, and we’re forty five minutes away from the site,” Hopper said. “Still think you can get the air support?”
“Yes,” General Hogan said. “I just confirmed. Both for the Carlsbad Caverns battle and for the Kansas park if needed.”
“You going to hit them at the Kansas park?”
“No, while they’re on the road from there,” General Hogan said.
“Good call,” Jacob Orr said. “If any of them go down into the basement, they’ll survive an attack on that park.”
“True,” George said. “Let’s talk strategy.”
“Yes,” Hopper said.
“All right,” General Hogan said. “We have two scenarios to deal with. There’s a large group of fighters inside Carlsbad Caverns, and there’s a group of nearby buildings that are shielded. We know from Frank’s app and from satellite photos where the shielded buildings are. At least most of them.”
“We need to hit them both at the same time,” Hopper said.
“Yes,” General Hogan said.
“Maybe we can use the approach we developed for Capitol Reef at the Carlsbad Caverns installation,” George said. “Laser target designators coupled with incendiary missiles from our air support.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” General Hogan said.
“We can put a force in place to kill those who manage to escape,” Hopper said.
“Yes,” George said. “Once the survivors of the initial missile attacks get out in the open, we’ll see them with the apps. It’ll be a turkey shoot.”
“What if they deep six the cell tower?” Shirley asked. “I know we’ve got the peer to peer app, but does it have enough range?”
“Under perfect conditions, we’re talking about half a mile,” Frank said. “Less around canyons and such, though. We found that out the hard way.”
“There’s a lot of rock structure around Carlsbad Canyons, isn’t there?” Hopper asked.
“Yeah,” Frank said. “Plus we’ll want to use our web meeting again. We need decent cell coverage for that.”
Jake stood up. “I can set up an antenna. We can mount it on my bob-tail, and park it nearby.”
“No, dad,” Trish said. “They’ll blow you up.”
“Got to do my part, honey,” Jake said.
“They won’t get him,” Frankie said. “Don’t worry.”
“How you gonna do that?” Shirley asked.
“I’ve got a satellite dish,” Jake said, “and an idea.”
“It’s doable,” Frank said. Jasmine shook her head yes in agreement.
“How long will it take to set that up?” General Hogan asked.
“I had the idea a while back, and puttered around with it, so it’s already partially built. We could have it up and running in an hour or so. I can be working in the back of the truck while somebody else drives, too.”
“Well there you go,” Frank said.
“How about those out buildings?” Hector asked.
“There’s two very large buildings and a few smaller ones,” Jerry said. “Remember that we have two of their vans.”
“You thinking we load them with explosives and blow them up next to the buildings?” Hopper asked.
“Yeah,” Jerry said. “Not sure if we have enough explosives, though.”
“We’ve got enough C4 to blow a damn big hole,” Ned said.
“Anybody bring all that dynamite I had?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah, we’ve got it,” Terry said. “We got to be careful with that stuff, though. It’s old and unstable as hell. Weeping like crazy.”
“We still have a big problem. Can’t open the back of one of those vans while it’s here,” Charlie said.
“We can drive somewhere else and do the setup, can’t we?” Ned asked.
“Hey, I’ve still got that lead box I made for you guys,” Gabe said. “Let’s drive the van away, jump in the back, and put the chips in the box. Then we can drive it back here and load the explosives. No muss, no fuss.”
“That’ll work,” Frank said.
“Yeah,” Jerry said. “We should do that sooner rather than later. Are all of those other chips in the box? From before?”
“No, I stashed them in the other box, down in the dungeon,” Gabe said. “The enemy might find them there, but that ain’t gonna hurt us.”
“Okay, we’d better get that part started,” Jerry said. “You want to do that Gabe?”
“Sure,” he said.
“I’ll go with him,” Dobie said.
“All right, you two,” General Hogan said. “Who’s got the key to the van?”
“I do,” Agent Williams said. He tossed them over to Gabe. “You better stop in town and gas up. It was down to about a quarter of a tank.”
“Maybe I ought to follow with the other one,” Ted said. “It’s down on gas too.”
“Later,” General Hogan said. “We can do that on the way. A bunch of us are going to need gas.”
Ted nodded and sat back down. Dobie and Gabe left the room in a hurry.
“Okay, what else?” General Hogan asked.
“How sure are you that you’ll be able to get missiles into the Caverns?” Hopper asked. “I remember how Capitol Reef was. The underground part wasn’t very deep, and there were lots of openings. It wasn’t even deep enough to hide the chip signals. This may be a whole different kettle of fish.”
“That’s a good point,” Hank said. “I’ve been there before. They have a lot of structure around the big openings for tourists. Probably even have doors to shut it down. The caverns are huge, too. How do you know what part the enemy is in?”
“We can see which entrances they used with the snapshot app,” Frank said. “But other than that, Hank has a good point.”
“You were thinking that place might be a decoy, Frank,” Jane said. “Remember? It might not be tight enough to hold back the chip’s signals. That’s been bothering me for a while.”
“How big are these buildings you’re talking about?” George asked. “Big enough to hide the number of fighters we’re expecting to find?”
“The two big ones are warehouse sized,” Jerry said. “Very large. You could cram a hell of a lot of people in them.”
“How long has it been since you’ve taken a detailed look at the area with your snapshot app?” General Hogan asked.
“It’s been a few days,” Frank said. “I’ve been concentrating more on the group in northwestern New Mexico.”