The soldier turned to his side so that he had Mary on his left and Ian on his right. He tapped the pistol into Adam’s head a few times to prove to Ian that he meant what he said.
Ian had his pistol finely trained on the head of the soldier. He was only going to get one shot, and the situation was going down hill fast…and that is when he saw the knife in Adam’s hand come down on the thigh of the soldier.
The soldier screamed and pushed Adam towards Ian and fired in their direction. He reached for the knife, but never had the chance to pull it out as his chest exploded from the inside out and he hit the ground.
Mary smelled the smoke from the bullet she had just fired. She was frozen with panic. The soldier…the man that she had just shot…the man she had just killed, crumpled to the ground in front of her. Ian was running towards her.
“Mary! Mary,” Ian said, covering the ground between them quickly. “I’ve got it,” he said, gently forcing her arms down.
Mary looked at him and her arms relaxed. She dropped the gun into Ian’s hands.
“You did good, Mary,” Ian said.
Mary didn’t hear him; she pulled away from him and moved towards the body on the ground.
“He’s been shot!” she said, looking back at Ian. “Ian, it’s Adam! Adam’s been shot!”
CHAPTER 13
Grace ducked behind the next tree and hugged the trunk as bullets exploded around her. The soldiers at the communications gear had seen her and were firing randomly in her direction. She had only moved ten feet before they started shooting at her. She was pinned down.
“Grace, when I start firing, you get to Joshua. Got it? Over.” Leah commanded.
“Got it! Over,” she yelled into her microphone.
She then looked up at her mother, and watched her unleash a series of shots at the two soldiers. Joshua did the same, but the soldiers had the guardrail and several large stones that provided shelter. As long as the soldiers stayed down, Joshua and Leah would never have the angle on them.
That didn’t matter to Grace; she scrambled up and ran, pumping her legs as hard as she could to get up the hill to Joshua.
“Come on!” Joshua yelled, encouraging Grace to move faster. He then fired two more rounds at the soldiers to keep them down.
Grace ran and clawed with her hands at the ground to help her get to the boulders that protected Joshua. She looked ahead and saw Joshua pause long enough to reload. The pause allowed the soldiers to rise up and start firing at the girl running up the hill.
“Shit!” she said, dodging the bullets and diving beside Joshua.
“You okay?” Joshua asked, and then fired three rounds downhill.
The helicopter passed overhead, spewing bullets randomly into the tree cover. They had lost sight of their targets in the cover of thick oaks.
Grace breathed in deeply. The air was full of the smell of gunfire and dust, and it seemed hard to catch her breath. She coughed a few times trying to calm herself down.
“Yeah,” she finally said, checking her weapon and readying herself to fire downhill. “They called in more troops, we need to get out of here.”
“Adam’s been hit,” Joshua said, ignoring her statement about the inbound support troops. “He’s with your Dad.”
It took Grace a second to register what Joshua was talking about. “Adam? Your brother, Adam?”
“Yeah! Didn’t you hear it on the radio?”
Grace rounded on him. “No! I was kind of busy getting shot at by nerdy hacker Chinese guys and a whack job in the helicopter!”
“Grace!” Leah spoke calmly through the radio. “You two need to get up here. Over.”
Grace and Joshua turned to look up at the woman under the protection of the water tower. Grace gave another thumbs up that she understood.
“Sorry,” Grace said, looking at Joshua. “I wasn’t concentrating on the radio when they were shooting at me.”
“That’s okay. It’s just that the same bastards that are down there, also shot my brother,” Joshua said, he sat back against the rock even though bullets kept striking the ground around them.
“Is he okay?” Grace asked, and then looked back up at her mother.
Leah was waving frantically for them to get up there. The helicopter had disappeared and she wanted them to move, now!
“I don’t know,” Joshua said, and then turned around the rock and fired four or five rounds at the soldiers. “Go, I’ve got you covered!” he yelled.
Grace didn’t hesitate; she took off running straight up the hill. She could hear Joshua firing continuously as she ran into the arms of her mother.
Leah wrapped her arms around her only child and fell backwards behind the safety of the steel leg of the water tank. “Oh baby, my baby,” she said, over and over.
“Mom, I’m okay! It’s okay! I’m fine,” Grace said, letting her mother hug her.
“I thought I lost you,” Leah said, the tears falling freely.
Daisy was excited and wanted to be part of the action. She tried to jump up and lick Grace’s face.
“Mom, I’m right here. You didn’t lose me. You trained me well, I’m right here.” She absorbed the hug for a few more seconds and put her hand on Daisy’s head before snapping back to the situation at hand. “Mom, Mom! We have to get Joshua up here, they’ve called in more troops!”
Leah let go of her daughter, holding her at arms length and blessing her with a wide motherly smile. “Okay. Okay, we did train you well…I’m so glad you’re all right,” she said in only the way that a mother can talk to her child.
“Okay, Mom,” Grace said, feeling the pressure of her own tears press against her eyes. “Let’s end this!”
Leah nodded, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. “Let’s end it,” she said, agreeing.
Grace looked around and down from the tank leg to see Joshua still in his defensive position. The soldiers had stopped firing; if anything, they looked like they were getting ready to bug out.
“Mom, they’re stuffing things in a bag, it looks like they’re retreating,” Grace observed.
“No, they’re hiding. That gear is in a strategic position for a reason. Those two aren’t soldiers, their technicians or engineers or something,” Leah supposed.
“So, what does that mean?”
“Let’s get Joshua up here first, and then we’ll figure it out.” Leah keyed her microphone. “Joshua, we’re going to give you some cover, run up here when we start. Understood? Over.”
Joshua gave thumbs up and bounced a few times on the balls of his feet, ready to sprint.
“Now!” Leah ordered.
Both women took shots at the two soldiers, sending them diving to their place of cover. Joshua took off, never looking back. He closed the distance quickly and didn’t let up until after he rounded the leg of the water tank.
“Thanks,” he said, catching his breath. His hands pressed into his knees as he gulped large amounts of air.
“I’m Leah,” she said, extending her hand.
He took the hand. “Joshua Tiller, nice to meet you, ma’am. Glad you’re safe, and thanks for the cover,” he added. She nodded curtly.
“Okay, now that we know each other, what about those guys, the communications equipment, the incoming troops and…” they all ducked under the main part of the water tower as the helicopter buzzed them, unleashing bullets. Most of the bullets hit the ground behind them or bounced off the top of the tank. “About that!” Grace finished. She pointed up with her finger.
“Are you sure they called in more troops?” Leah asked.
“Yes, that’s what it sounded like. But,” she shrugged, “I’ve only been speaking the language for a year.”
Leah nodded while talking. “Sure, but you’re really good. If you heard they had reinforcements coming in, then, they’re probably on the way.
The helicopter fired a few more rounds and then peeled off, but there was another noise taking its place.
“What’s that?�
� Grace asked.
“That’s a car,” Leah said.
“No ma’am,” Joshua disagreed. “I think that’s a heavy truck.” Joshua ran around to second of the three-legged tank, where he could get a better view of the road coming up the ridge. He then ran back to the others.
“What is it?” Leah asked.
“It’s a military troop transport, but I don’t think it’s one of ours,” he said.
“Mom, what should we do?” Grace asked her mother.
CHAPTER 14
Bob ran as fast as he could, crossing the field and past the oil pipe terminal without looking. Bob had seen more gunshot wounds than he ever wanted to remember as a Marine, but nothing quite prepared him to see his own son with one of those wounds.
“Adam! Adam!” he said, sliding down next to his son.
“It looks like it went right through the right shoulder,” Ian said, holding two strips of cloth to the boy’s wounds. “I think he’ll be okay if we can stop the bleeding.”
Adam was unconscious and bleeding profusely from the gunshot wound. The next two oldest Boy Scouts were in the process of tearing more strips of cloth. Mary held the boy’s head in her lap, stroking his hair gently.
“Adam,” Bob said, leaning close to his son.
Adam opened his eyes at the sound of his father’s voice.
“Dad,” his voice came out soft and raspy.
“I’m right here, son,” Bob said, holding his son’s left hand.
“Is everybody okay?”
Bob looked up at the people around him. He recognized the Scouts as Troop mates of Adams’, but he had never actually seen Ian or Mary. Mary nodded to him that everyone else was okay.
“Yes, they are, son.”
“You save my life,” Mary said gently, as she stroked his hair.
He rolled his eyes back to see her.
“I did?”
She nodded.
“Bob,” Ian put a hand on his shoulder, and Bob stood up. “Thank you,” he said, extending his hand.
Bob shook it and nodded. “We need to get him home now,” he said, referring to Adam. “We’ll need to build a stretcher, it’s a couple of miles up and over the pass.”
“I might have a better idea,” Ian said, and then turned to run back across the road towards the terminal.
Two minutes later, he returned with a full medical kit that he had taken from the helo. He gave it to the Scouts to use.
“Your farm is over that ridge, right?” Ian asked.
“Right, why?”
“I can fly that thing,” he said to Bob, and pointed to the helicopter.
“You can?” Bob asked, not believing the turn of events.
“Three months at Rucker between tours,” Ian answered in reference to the Army base where helicopter pilots are trained.
“Let’s do it then,” Bob agreed.
Ten minutes later, Adam was strapped into the back, with Mary next to him, holding the compressions on his wounds.
“As soon as you get to the other side of the ridge, you will see the red stable,” Bob said, as Ian looked over the controls of the aircraft. “I’m going to radio Violet and tell them it’s you and that you have Adam, and to be ready for a gunshot wound. Set down in the field between the stable and the house, she will meet you there.”
“Roger that,” Ian said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Bob nodded more than he should, trying to keep the emotions down. “Yeah, Adam’s a strong boy, he’ll be fine. We’re going to open these valves, collect their weapons and get rid of the bodies.”
“I’ll get back here as soon as I can, just let me help get Adam stable first.”
“Yes sir,” Bob said and closed Ian’s door.
Ian flipped a few switches and nothing happened.
“I know you can do a lot of things, are you sure about this one?” Mary asked from the back.
Ian flipped two more and then held one up for a few seconds. He was rewarded with the turbine igniting and the blades turning. “Yeah, I think I got this one, too.”
“Smart ass!” she said with a smile and a smack of his shoulder.
Ian smiled as the rotor blades spun up to full speed. He also put the two-way radio earpiece back in his ear. He heard the voice of Bob making the call to Violet, and her shocked response. “Hold on!” he said to his passengers.
The helicopter lifted off smoothly and Ian applied forward movement to gain speed. Bob and the rest of the boys watched from the relative safety of the other side of the street.
Ian could only speak Chinese, he couldn’t read it; all of the gauges were in Chinese. He really didn’t think it mattered, the day was clear and he was flying so low to the ground that he didn’t think he could get into any trouble. The helicopter slowly popped over the ridge and Ian could instantly see the red stables about two miles away. He nosed the bird down, skimming the trees. That was a lot more convenient!
“Ian, what’s that?” Mary yelled from the back. She pointed out the left side towards a ridge with a water tower on it.
Ian slowed his decent briefly to look at what she was pointing at. He could see another black helicopter, like the one he was flying, circling around the water tower. There was also a truck…that was moving…trucks didn’t move anymore.
“I don’t know,” Ian yelled back, “but they have a working truck. Something’s pretty important up there I guess. We’ll stay out of their sight to be safe,” he said, and then nosed the helicopter down rapidly. Since he had not had his earpiece in for a while, he was unaware that what he was looking at was an assault on his family.
Violet and Anna stood at the door of the house. They each had surgical exam gloves on and aprons.
Ian set the helicopter down roughly between the house and the red stable as Bob had instructed; his landing causing Adam to grimace in pain.
“It’s okay, were down,” Mary said, undoing his buckles.
Ian cut the switch to the engines and got out to help with Adam.
“Hey Mr. Burrows,” Anna said, squeezing past him to help with Adam.
“Anna, is that you?”
“I came with Grace, excuse me,” she said, putting her shoulder under Adam’s good shoulder and helping him to walk to the door.
Violet was already accessing the dressing around her son’s wound. She had over twenty years experience as an ER nurse, and things like emotions could wait.
Ian and Mary followed them into the house. Violet and Anna moved Adam quickly to a front room that had a high table, a bright articulating light and several medical supplies neatly arranged in bins on the wall.
“If you two can wait out there,” Violet directed nicely. “Help yourself to whatever you want.”
Ian and Mary looked at each other.
“I’m going to find a real toilet,” Mary said, moving down the hall.
“I’m going to call Leah, I’ll be outside.”
Ian walked to the helicopter. He would need a place to hide the bird, but first he wanted to see what he could hear with the radios. He hopped back in, put on the dead pilot’s headset and turned up the volume on the radio. Ian heard several different people speaking…correction…ordering other people in Chinese. Ian traveled to China several times a year for ‘work,’ he spoke the language well, and could hold conversations, so it didn’t take him long to figure out what all of the fuss was about up on the ridge.
Ian keyed his microphone on the two-way; he had not heard Grace, Joshua or Leah since the earpiece fell out of his ear during his own firefight at the pipeline terminal.
“Momma B, this is Bulls-eye, over.”
“Oh thank God,” Leah said, she fired two more rounds at the helicopter. “Bulls-eyes, this is Momma B, we’re in a jam and need help. Over,” she called back into her microphone.
The sentence was like an electric bolt to Ian.
“Momma B, what’s your location? Over.”
“Water Tower Ridge. We’re under the water tower. There are two
hostiles below on the road, one bird with a gunner and a personnel carrier coming up the road. Over.”
Ian flipped the sequencing switches of the helicopter and was rewarded with the whining sound of the turbine coming to life. “Roger that, I’m on the way. Over.”
“Dad, the truck’s here, it looks like they have a lot of soldiers. Over,” Grace said, further filling her father in on the situation. She then looked over at her mother. “How’s he on the way?” she asked.
“I don’t know…you know your father,” she chided nervously. Leah looked down the hill, and saw the troops spilling out of the back of the truck. Damn! “Daisy, back,” she said to the dog; who circled around her feet.
“You don’t have any dynamite do you?” Joshua asked Leah, as he reloaded one of his clips.
Leah shook her head. “No, why? I don’t think that would work from here…that’s sixty plus yards away,” she said in reference to the road.
“I wasn’t thinking about throwing it,” he said and then pointed at the rusty third leg of the water tower. “I was thinking about blowing something up with it!”
Ian impatiently watched the blades spin faster and faster, and then there was a pounding on his door. It was Mary; he opened the door.
“Where are you going?” she yelled over the noise of the engine.
“Leah and Grace need me!” he yelled back.
“Then I’m coming with you,” she said, opening the rear door and climbing in. “Haven’t you learned that yet?” She closed the door. “If you go somewhere, I go somewhere, too,” she said in jest.
“Well, this time, you’ve got to earn it,” Ian said, turning around to talk to her. “See that gun on the post?” He pointed to the opposite door in the back.
Mary looked over to the other side of the helicopter. Outside of the door was a large machine gun mounted to a post. “Yeah.”
“Buckle in, put on the headset and then slide open that door. Unhitch the gun and pull the lever back that’s on the side. You’re now my gunner!”
“Bulls-eye, this is Bob. Over,” Bob broke in on the two-way.
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