by Mark Goodwin
Adam replied, “We took out one Cougar at close range. Past performance is no indication of future results.”
Franklin said, “We have to work with what we’ve got.”
Adam added, “Yeah, but we need tools that match the job.”
Franklin asked, “Where’s Justin?”
Adam said, “We may have a lead on Matt’s location. Justin went to check it out. Milton wasn’t able to pinpoint the prison camp, but Justin thinks he can find it if it’s in the vicinity of the area Milton gave us.”
Franklin inquired, “He went by himself?”
Adam dug his notebook out of his assault pack. “His wife went with him.”
Franklin’s tone changed. “You sent a woman on a recon mission?”
Adam became defensive. “I’m a little short-staffed here, boss. My cousin is either killed or captured, my brother is dead and most of my team was taken out at Pikeville.”
Adam was probably the most well-trained soldier in the Eastern Kentucky Liberty Militia. He respected Franklin’s role as a leader, but he wasn’t about to be micromanaged.
Franklin backed down and let the argument die. “Since this is a night-time raid, we can anticipate that they’ll be using thermal. Does anyone have any ideas on how to evade detection?”
Gary joked, “We can drink a ton of ice-tea. That’d cool us down so we give off less heat.”
The silly comment served to lighten the tension in the room that arose from Franklin and Adam’s short spat.
Adam smiled and almost laughed at the suggestion. “When I was in Afghanistan, we checked out some dead insurgents after a firefight. Even though we were scanning the area with thermal, we never saw them prior to being engaged. They were using homemade thermal cloaking devices. It was a blanket with Mylar sewn on each side, then a bed sheet on each side covering the Mylar. The sheets on the outside were earth tones and camouflaged with spray paint. They work by reflecting your body heat back inside the cloak and reflecting the ambient heat back into the atmosphere. The blanket acts as an insulator to keep the heat from escaping through to the other side.”
Franklin asked, “We’ve got around thirty-six hours. Could we get the materials together to replicate those?”
Gary said, “I’ve got several of those shiny emergency blankets. Would that work for the Mylar?”
Adam said, “They sure will.”
Lt. Joe added, “The church brought a ton of blankets and sheets out here when the refugees from Huntington were staying at my place until they could find permanent shelters. I don’t know what colors the sheets are, but we’ll check.”
Adam said, “That’s a start. Everyone can ask around. We can trade out sheets from Joe’s if anyone can find earth tone sheets or even better, those camo print sheets from Cabela’s.”
Gary laughed, “I’ve got a set of those. My wife hates ‘em. She’ll be glad to get rid of ‘em.”
Lt. Joe said, “Any thought on when we should start bringing in the rest of the men?”
Franklin said, “I’m open to suggestions, but my thoughts were to bring in the other two platoons from London Company tomorrow. We could trickle them in a few at a time through a drop off service. Everyone can stay down in the cellar until it’s time to get into position.”
Lt. Joe said, “If everyone is in one place, a single drone strike could take out everyone.”
Adam addressed his concern. “From what Milton told me, DHS wants to gather Intel on us. They’re supposed to try to take as much equipment as possible. They want to know what we know. We’re basing everything on that information being reliable. If he lied about any part of it, he could have lied about all of it.”
Adam could sense Franklin’s stare. He knew what he must be thinking. If they’d kept Milton alive, he could have been interrogated further. But, what’s done is done and there was no time for second guessing. Adam was glad he didn’t have to have that confrontation with Franklin. He wasn’t there and Adam had to make his decision to kill Milton on his own.
Adam continued, “Franklin, that’s a good plan to trickle people in. If we’re observed bringing in troops, only a few will be identified. On the other hand, the multiple runs will increase the odds of detection. If we brought in everyone at once, it would be a one-shot deal. The go-for-broke approach would only have to evade detection once.”
Franklin was quiet for a moment as he thought. “Okay. Then let’s do it all early tomorrow morning. There will likely be fog again, like we had this morning. It will provide a little bit of a visual shield. I’ll have Manchester Company standing by. I’ll position them down by the lake. We’ll spread them out like campers on a fishing trip. When we break radio silence, they’ll know to come running. It’ll take them about fifteen minutes to get up to the house. That will bring them in as either cleanup or backup depending on how hard we get hit.”
Gary asked, “Is there any sensitive information we should get out of here in case we’re overrun?”
Franklin said, “Good question. Let’s get everything scanned on to two separate flash drives and shred most of the originals.”
Gary added, “We can encrypt the drives with TrueCrypt. It’s not as secure as the TrueCrypt program on the computer, but it will password protect the drives. And it’s free. I have it on all of my computers and flash drives. Super easy to learn also.”
Franklin nodded. “Sounds like a good idea. I’ll hide one flash drive. Gary, can you stash the other one along with a few important originals in a sealed PVC pipe and bury it somewhere? Not your property or Adam’s property, though.”
Adam said, “We’ll take it to Eli Miller’s. He won’t mind. He’s too old to be involved in combat. It’ll give him a way to feel like he’s helping out. He’s wanted to take these criminals out of Washington since before I knew they were criminals. I just thought he was crazy back then. Turns out, I was the idiot.”
Everyone dispersed and began their respective tasks. Adam and Gary had a full day ahead of them. They took a few of the brightly colored sheets to see if anyone in their network would be willing to trade them for earth tones, blacks or possibly even camo sheets. Their first stop was Karen’s house.
Adam and Gary jumped out of the truck and Karen came to the door to meet them. “Hello,” she said.
“Hey Karen.” Adam shut the door of the truck.
“Any news about Matt?” Karen asked.
“Not yet,” he replied. “Did Justin and Rene get back yet?”
Karen replied, “No, they said they’d be gone a couple days, but weren’t very specific. I try to give them their space, but I must be crowding them.”
“Or they could just be looking for mushrooms, like they said,” Adam replied. He saw the look Karen gave him when he said that. She was a very perceptive woman. He had probably just tried too hard to cover up the covert mission. He changed the subject quickly. “That canned venison came out really good. Gary, what did you think about it?”
Gary jumped in. “Oh, it was fine! I especially liked the spicy batch.”
Karen said, “Yeah, Matt would like that one, too.”
Adam said, “I wanted to stop by and make sure you’re alright, but we also have a favor to ask.”
Karen said, “Tell me, I’ll do what I can.”
Adam proceeded to tell her what he could about the attack and the need for the sheets. He explained the primitive thermal cloaking devices and the timeline of the operation.
Karen said, “We have a set of navy-blue sheets. Will that help?”
Adam nodded. “Much better than red, pink and orange.”
Karen added, “Matt bought a sewing machine at the flea market. I could help put some of the cloaking blankets together. I need something to keep me busy. Especially without Rene around, I need to keep my mind occupied. Otherwise, my imagination starts working overtime wondering where Matt is and how he’s being treated.”
Adam avoided the conversation points about Matt. “That would be a huge help. I’ll dro
p off the other materials in a couple of hours.”
They said their good-byes and the two men drove away.
Adam and Gary made their rounds, dropped off the materials to Karen, and headed home. Adam scheduled the carpools to get the other two platoons of London Company to Lt. Joe’s the next morning. The total number of men at Joe’s would be near sixty. They would be placed in various positions around the property, out buildings and outposts along the road leading to the house.
Adam tried to lay out the positions to separate fields of fire as much as possible, but if DHS troops rappelled behind the line from helicopters, the battle lines would be blurred.
Adam fashioned roadside bombs to take out the small bridge which went over the creek. That would eliminate the road as a path for the invading force. He also used the Claymore mines he was given by Bluegrass Army Depot to set up along the road leading to Joe’s. DHS troops who abandoned their vehicles to approach the house on foot would be exposed to the lethal shot from the Claymores.
Saturday morning came early and Adam didn’t get much sleep. He picked up Gary and three other men from London Company. Everyone rendezvoused at Joe’s, in line with the battle plan. After dropping off their assigned militia team members, the drivers drove their cars to several different near-by rally points and returned to Joe’s in two trucks that would stay in the barn.
Adam’s last task was to collect the cloaking blankets which Karen, Janice, Shelly and a few other women had volunteered to put together. After he finished gathering them, Adam had a total of thirty blankets. In some instances, two militia men would huddle under one cloak. Hopefully, it would be enough for the men stationed outside of the house to be less detectable by thermal scopes and drone-mounted cameras.
The Cougar would be manned by a team from Manchester Company. The team consisted of three US Army vets who served in various theaters. The captain of Manchester Company, Sam Hart, served in Desert Storm. He would be the driver. Jeff Hillier served in Iraq and would be manning the .50 cal turret on top. Jeremy Pence served in Afghanistan and would be feeding ammo to Jeff and also manning communications.
Adam encouraged all of the men to hydrate well before sundown and then avoid liquids in the final hours before the anticipated raid. This would saturate their cells with fluids now and keep them from needing to relieve themselves every hour or so right before the raid.
The men began to get into their fox holes and sniper nests around the property shortly after sundown. Adam said, “Franklin, you and Joe should head on down to my house and hang out there until after the operation. There are still three other companies in the Kentucky Liberty Militia that depend on your leadership. Joe, you’re one of the few communications experts we have. It’s imperative to the overall mission that you stay safe.”
Joe was the first to object. “Think I’m too old to shoot a rifle? I might be feeble, but I’ve got six pounds of pull left in my finger. This is my home, and I ain’t bein’ run off by no commie dictator.”
Franklin added, “I appreciate your concern, but I’m staying, too. I wouldn’t miss this fight for the world.”
Adam threw his hands in the air. “I can’t argue with you. Gary, let’s get into position.”
Adam and Gary walked out the door and headed down the road to the area where Adam had the roadside bombs buried. Their position was a foxhole dug out about a hundred feet back, on the east side of the road. All of the militia positions formed an angle facing either south or west. This placed approaching forces in a crossfire from the two sides of the angle and reduced the odds of a friendly-fire incident among the militia men. The claymores were also mounted on trees facing west from the east side of the approaching road.
The hours ticked by in slow motion. Gary said, “Didn’t someone say that war was ninety-nine percent boredom and one percent sheer terror?”
Adam responded, “I think it was a Civil War soldier, but I couldn’t tell you his name. I’ve seen enough of it. I think I prefer the boredom.”
Gary said, “Yeah, me too. I just hate waiting for it when I know it’s coming. I’d rather get it over with.”
Adam looked at his watch. “4:30 AM. You won’t have to wait long now.”
Gary said, “And if they don’t show by sunup, what do we do?”
Adam said, “Hold our positions till at least noon.”
Gary joked, “So I guess I’ll miss church.”
Adam shot back with a witty comment. “You mean they’d start without you?”
Gary said, “Think I heard something.”
Adam listened carefully. “I think I feel the vibrations in the ground. Must be MRAPs.”
The two men sat quietly in their foxhole as they watched the headlights appear through the woods.
Gary whispered, “I see at least three sets of headlights.”
Adam watched closely as the first vehicle approached. “It looks like four. The front one is a Cougar. The next one is a MaxxPro XL. The rest are probably MaxxPros, too. I’d rather pop the bridge under a MaxxPro, because they’re chock full of agents, but that means I have to let the Cougar cross.”
Gary said, “We’ve got our own Cougar to fight it out with theirs.”
Adam waited until he saw the Cougar on the bridge to hit the ignition switch for the bomb.
BOOM! The earth rumbled beneath them and the Cougar flipped over. The second vehicle was moving too fast to stop and rolled right over the bank and into the creek. The men inside the MaxxPro weren’t hurt by the accident, but the vehicle was stuck and out of commission for now. The men from the three MaxxPros rolled out and crossed the creek by foot.
Adam whispered, “Let’s let them pass and hit the Claymores as they run by. We’ll meet up with Manchester Company as they approach from the lake.”
Gary nodded and the two men sat motionless as the DHS agents scanned the woods with a spotlight. They waited as the first two teams passed the first set of Claymores. Adam let his finger lay on the toggle switch for his detonation device until the last team reached the first set of Claymores. Adam hit the four toggle switches in rapid succession. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Adam and Gary could hear the screams of the injured men. They ran out of their foxhole and headed toward the disoriented agents. Gary dropped near a tree and began firing. Adam dropped down nearby and did likewise. They soon had the men from Manchester Company behind them, aiding with the cleanup. Adam’s radio screeched. “Adam, we’ve got several stealth Blackhawks overhead and men streaming down on rappelling ropes like rain.”
“Roger,” Adam answered. “Let’s move toward the house. They need backup,” he called out to Manchester Company.
When they made it to the house, it was overrun with agents. The firefight continued and it was very hard to see who was who in the dark. The yard and the surrounding woods were illuminated by muzzle flashes and the deafening sounds of rapid fire. Adam yelled out, “Gary, stay close to me, brother. This is a real mess.”
Adam felt a sharp pain to his stomach and his chest as the force knocked him backwards.
Gary slid down beside him. “Are you hit?”
Adam fought to talk. The impact knocked the breath out of him and he could barely breathe, much less speak. Adam rubbed the area where he felt the two hits. There was no blood. He was finally able to say, “Just hit my armor.”
Gary rolled over and kept shooting. The Cougar was out of the barn and the turret was spinning around trying to spot choppers and DHS agents with the spotlight. When Jeff locked a target, he quickly eliminated it with the .50 caliber gun.
Adam called out over the radio. “Does anyone have eyes on those Blackhawks?”
Someone called out, “Negative. I can’t see them or even hear them. I’ll hear something like wind in the tree tops and by the time I get a light up there, it’s gone. They’re like ghosts.”
Gary said, “Adam, they’re in the house.”
Adam said, “Roger that.” He called out over the radio. “I need Alpha platoon from Manchester
on my six. We have to enter the house. DHS has taken it. Joe, Franklin and several other men from London Company are in there. Confirm your target before you take a shot.”
The men from Manchester’s Alpha Platoon were soon rallied behind Adam and Gary near the house. They made a stacked entry and then split into teams for a room-to-room search. They soon eliminated the hostiles inside the house. The shooting outside died down. Adam began checking for pulses among the fallen militia men inside the house. He radioed to the men outside. “What’s happening? Are there still choppers overhead?”
Someone called back, “Negative, we’re cleaning up out here. We have beaucoup wounded and beaucoup dead.”
Adam returned, “Roger. Medics, do what you can.”
Adam walked into the communications room and saw Lt. Joe slumped over near his rifle. “Joe!” Adam checked his pulse. It was faint. Blood was still spurting out of Lt. Joe’s arm. Adam quickly pulled off the Combat Application Tourniquet that he wore on his sleeve and slid it over Joe’s bleeding arm. He pushed it above the gunshot wound and pulled the tab to tighten it. He then spun the rod to completely cut the circulation off from Joe’s arm and locked it into place in the attached clip. By the time he finished securing the tourniquet on Joe’s arm, Gary had his Israeli Battle Dressing out of the packaging and was wrapping it on the wound on Joe’s arm. Gary tightened the IBD and secured the cleats.
Adam called back on the radio, “I’m in the radio room inside the house. I need a medic to do a blood transfusion stat!”
A medic from Manchester Company called back, “On the way!”
The medic arrived and quickly assessed the situation. “He is going into shock! Grab some pillows to get his feet up and a blanket to cover him.”
Adam ran to the bedroom as the medic started an IV for Joe. When Adam arrived, he saw Franklin sitting calmly in the armchair with his rifle laid across his lap. Adam said, “Joe’s in bad shape.”
Adam grabbed the pillows and the comforter from the bed but Franklin didn’t respond. Adam looked over, but Franklin was still staring out the door Adam had entered through.