After the Fall (Book 3): Catherine's Tale (Part 2)

by David E. Nees

  Frank shouted out, “No!”

  “And if he doesn’t quiet down, you have my permission to gag him…or knock him unconscious so he doesn’t jeopardize the mission.” The man shut his mouth.

  Charlie left him there. He walked back to the road with Cameron. Most of the soldiers had disappeared. “Your reception committee met us,” Cameron said. “Complete with long coats for us. Good idea.”

  “We’ll get you where you need to be.”

  “So do you think you can trust the other one? How’s this going to work?”

  “We won’t rely on trust. I’ll have Les assign one of the men to stay with Steve. Steve’s rifle will be empty. My man will have a loaded weapon. When the change of shift comes, they explain that Frank got sick so my officer filled in. Then the two can head back to join us. I think we’ll keep Steve locked up but treated better than Frank. That gives him cover if we lose, and it keeps him out of our hair in the meantime.”

  “Pretty elaborate. Did that take you long to think up?”

  “It came to me on the fly. It isn’t pretty, but it’s better than killing them. And Steve may actually be a convert. It’s just that I don’t want to put that to the test right now.”

  Charlie felt energized like he hadn’t felt in years. All this may not work, but it’s good to be on the right side of the fight.

  Chapter 21

  Leo finally saw the rubble wall ahead of him by midmorning.

  He had taken more than twice the time he had estimated to get back to Hillsboro. Coming down from the ridge on the outside, he had had a flat tire which had taken some time to change. Once he was on the paved road his larger problem had emerged—the damage to the truck included a leak in the radiator. The pickup had started overheating. The first time he had lost two and a half hours until he had found a plastic detergent jug in an abandoned house, and then, after he had made his way back to the truck, he had had to walk a quarter mile to a pond to fill the jug. After three trips to the pond he had been on the move again, this time with the filled jug beside him. The temperature needle had climbed steadily, and two hours later he had been looking for another water source. By the third stop, he had pulled the truck off the road to hide it for the rest of the night.

  He had gotten very little sleep.

  After Leo had pulled through the stunned cluster of guards at the outer gate, he drove the bullet-riddled truck straight to headquarters without thought of food or a change of clothes. He jogged up the stairs and into Joe’s office.

  Joe stared at him while he related what had happened in the valley. Leo knew he wasn’t looking very good; he was dirty, disheveled, sweaty, and not very calm. When he finished his explanation of events, Joe exploded into a fury.

  “You got a bunch of idiots,” Joe shouted. “They couldn’t defeat those farmers? With all the weapons you had?”

  Leo had remained standing. He had noted that Joe hadn’t told him to sit down. He didn’t think Joe was going to take his anger out on him, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that he had been the leader and he had failed in his mission. The best he could do was to explain how things had gone wrong. “Wasn’t their fault, boss,” he said. “They’re solid guys. I picked the most experienced. The thing was, we got hit before we could surprise them. And they had those hillbillies. We didn’t expect that. There were a lot more men than we anticipated. They’re damn good fighters. Good shots.”

  He grimaced. “They guessed we would come over the west ridge. Hell, they had some snipers slowing us up as we came down the west ridge. And they figured out the attack at the bridge was a diversion, so reinforcements came before I could get off the dirt road and into the valley.”

  Joe slammed his hand down hard on the desk, glaring at Leo. “Shit. It’s all excuses. I don’t need excuses, I need results. And you better deliver. I waited until the army left, but what the hell did I gain by waiting?”

  Leo said carefully, “Joe, we got to consider another possibility now. Those people might hit the town.”

  Joe stopped moving. Very slowly, he cocked his head. “What did you say?”

  “I think they’re going to be looking to attack us. The whole town.”

  “Hillsboro? You got to be kidding.” Joe said.

  “You know I’m not. We tried to annihilate them. They understand that. They won’t let that stand. They’d just be setting themselves up for getting slowly picked off by us later, over time.”

  “So they’ll come after us? Me? Everyone?”

  “They won’t be looking to knock off a patrol or give us a spanking. They’ll be looking to take us down, you and me.”

  “We’d wipe them out!”

  “We didn’t do that yesterday. They’re good. They won. They’re full of themselves now and they got those hillbillies with them. And that’s gotta make a time factor too. Jason has to act before those guys go back to their hills.” Leo leaned forward to press his point. “We just tried to kill them. Would you give somebody a second chance to come back and do it right?”

  Joe’s eyes had turned to ice. After a moment he said, “No, I would not.”

  “Me either. The farmers might, but the hillbillies wouldn’t. And they’ll come at us while their blood’s up.”

  Joe walked around the desk and came up to Leo. Joe’s face was still flushed with rage. Leo held his place. He had seen Joe enraged before and knew it was best to stand still.

  “If you’re right, we have to get ready. But they’ll be on our turf now.” Joe’s voice was strangely calm.

  “What I’m thinking.”

  There was a new light in Joe’s eyes. It wasn’t pleasure, but it glinted with excitement. Leo knew Joe had always been a fighter. Now that fierce, manic energy was shining in his eyes.

  “Go get our defenses ready,” Joe said, his voice still calm. “Whatever you need. Whatever you think.” He stepped up close to Leo and put his finger on his chest, not a jab, but a statement of authority. “And you better not let me down this time.”

  His voice left no doubt as to what Joe meant. Leo quickly turned and left the room.

  He went straight across to the militia block and collected his top people. He told them what had happened and what to expect.

  He ordered the men to begin barricading the downtown area to wall off the center blocks. A square, made up of the militia block, the block diagonally across from it that was the base for Joe’s organization, and then the blocks that made the other two corners. They would create a secure fortress there and not try to defend the whole town.

  “Do we need to do that?” one of the captains said. “Can’t we deal with them outside the gate?”

  Leo gave the captain a baleful look. “I do the thinking,” he said. “You get it done, just like I told you.”

  He sent them out and settled himself at a table to study a giant hand-drawn map of the new Hillsboro. His mind churned, turning over and over the events of yesterday. He was trying to get a better sense of what he was up against. He didn’t want to underestimate them again.

  The curving line of the wall around the new Hillsboro was a good defense. A nice protective wall, a flat killing field outside, a defensive pinch at the two gates. A buffer to hold back an assault while he pummeled the attackers from inside the barricade or gathered a large force to go out and crush them. But the attackers wouldn’t waste their forces trying to smash through the gates. They’d want to find another way.

  Would they infiltrate slowly, over time? Leo knew people could get inside in small numbers; the wall was porous. His militia dealt with that every week as desperate people outside tried to slip into town. But could a larger group do it?

  The wall wasn’t perfect all the way around. No wall that had been built that way could be. There was even the river on one side. There were too many possibilities.

  And his militia was not as big as the wall was. There was no question of having men along its whole length. If he tried, they’d be spread so thin that the attackers could punch through
at the place of their choosing.

  The wall was useful, to keep out refugees, but it wasn’t defensible against a focused force.

  Got to assume they’ll beat the wall.

  He could go outside, ambush them on their way. But they had many choices of back roads to use besides the highway. And it would be too big a gamble to split his forces up. He wouldn’t send a small force out. It would have to be twice the size he had used yesterday. And if they got past, the numbers still in town would be too diminished to stop them. If there was time, he could get clever and work out a more complicated plan that might deal with those problems, but his instinct told him he wouldn’t have much time.

  And as Leo thought about it, he realized stopping them from getting into Hillsboro was not the way to go. Having them inside could give him an advantage.

  The idea was to smash their smaller force with his larger one, wasn’t it? He knew just where they’d be going. They wanted to get at Joe and him, and they had to concentrate their forces to do it. They didn’t have enough people to be stupid. They wouldn’t bother with an unimportant target. They’d go right for downtown.

  And that’s where he’d be waiting; with his superior force.

  Leo forced himself to get up and go back outside to check on how well his defense instructions were being carried out. Fatigue was catching up to him; except for a couple of hours of rest on the road, during which sleep never came, he hadn’t slept in two days. He walked the compound perimeter, thinking about the fight to come, looking at the defenses.

  He had instructed his men to move dead trucks and trailers into the main roads leading into the two square blocks comprising the headquarters area. There was the bank building which held offices, the militia living quarters, and the building that doubled as a militia prison. Mixed in were two empty lots, one filled with tanker trailers holding precious reserves of gas and diesel fuel. Another building was used as a storage facility for all the supplies they doled out to the civilian population. Leo had ordered that the armament warehouse be emptied and all supplies of arms and ammunition be brought into this central compound.

  Men were pushing cars and trucks into the intersections. Leo was encouraged to see that his captains had found some jersey walls and hauled them to the makeshift walls. They would provide strength to the barricades. The mix of vehicles and material created ugly but effective deterrents to any attackers and gave his men ample shooting positions.

  As he saw the progress on the defenses, Leo’s mind turned to the hotel, a block and a half beyond the barricades. His living quarters were going to be too close to the battle zone. There was no telling what damage might occur in the fight to come. He had been busy working on how he would win the next encounter, but now his mind went down a different path.

  What if things didn’t go so well?

  Leo liked having options. When you ran out of options you ran out of life. He wasn’t one to cut and run, and he felt confident in the fight to come. It would be on his turf; it would concentrate the attackers against his superior numbers. All indications made Leo feel he could deal a lethal blow to the valley—but Leo wanted options. He decided it was time to move Donna and himself to a new location.

  One that no one would know about.

  Leo found one of his captains. “Get me a pickup and a man. I’ll need them for the rest of the day.”

  The man nodded and ran off. Five minutes later a militia soldier returned behind the wheel of a 1960 Ford pickup.

  Leo jumped in and had him drive to the hotel. He jumped out and grabbed the door guard. “You’re going to help this man move my things. And you’re not going to remember where you move ‘em to, you understand? Anybody wants to know where I’m staying, you don’t know. They gotta ask me.”

  The door guard looked alarmed and said, “Yes sir.”

  Leo turned to the militia soldier as the man came around the truck. “Did you hear me?”

  “I heard you. No talking.”

  “All right, the place you’ll be going is on the south side.” Leo had picked out an empty condo building in an empty part of town a long time ago. It was part of his always having options. Leo gave them the address, and the sergeant repeated it.

  He fished out his key ring and worked the apartment key off. “You take my stuff and move it. There’s a woman in my apartment, she’s part of my stuff. You unchain her, you don’t lose her, you don’t mess with her, and you chain her up in the new place.” He took the new, smaller key ring out of his pocket and handed it to the sergeant. Two keys, one for the shackle, one for the padlock on the other end. He locked eyes with the man. “You understand me?” The man nodded. “These are for the chain. When you’re done, you bring ‘em right back to me.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I’m going to assign you to guard the building door. You’ll be there till I tell you different. Do a good job and you’ll get promoted when this is all over.”

  “Yes sir!”

  Leo turned on his heel and left them with the truck. His fatigue began to rise again. He tried to shrug it off. There was still much to do. The central defense area was a bustle of activity. Leo smiled to see that his captains had even thought to find some sandbags to fill in the gaps. The attackers were going to be in for a big surprise.

  Chapter 22

  The combined forces of the valley were quickly escorted along the less-used roads of Hillsboro toward their destination. The long coats that their guides had brought for them were a little odd for the season, but they effectively hid the military uniforms, and the odd dress of the hill people, and they helped to conceal the long guns. The boxes and packs they had to carry could not be concealed, but Cameron knew that transporting heavy things on foot had become commonplace, and Charlie’s officers kept them spread out, and did not take them all along the same streets, so that they did not look like an actual procession. Cameron and Jason walked with Charlie, who had accepted a tan trench coat for himself to cover his uniform for the return trip. Little enough time had passed that the exact status of Charlie’s absconded officers was still undetermined, but it was quite possible that someone was now looking for Charlie himself.

  Finally Charlie took Cameron and Jason into an apartment building, with an appalling smell inside the door, and led them straight up the stairs and had them put down their loads in Charlie’s own apartment, where Mary greeted him nervously. Then they headed over to the headquarters office that Charlie had set up across the street.

  “Have the men bed down where they can in the other rooms. The carpets are not too uncomfortable,” Charlie said.

  When they entered the headquarters room, it was already crowded. Gibbs and Catherine were there to greet them. Catherine gave Jason a big hug, while Cameron shook hands with Gibbs. Cameron looked over at Catherine and took a tentative step towards her. She let him grab her by the shoulders.

  “I’m glad you found everyone,” he said.

  “Are you in touch with the insurgents?” Jason asked Charlie. “We should get together with them and work out our next steps. We’re vulnerable just sitting here, now that we’re inside.”

  Clayton nodded. “Don’t like waiting around. Bet they be getting ready.”

  Charlie looked at the mountain man.

  “Charlie,” Jason said, “this is Clayton, he’s the leader of the clansmen who helped us defend the valley. You may remember him from the trading day. They’re joining our attack. Got fifteen sharp-shooting men.”

  “Glad to meet you. Your men will be a big help. I’m Charlie Cook, once the chief of police here in town. Not sure what I am now. I’ve got fifteen good cops to help with the fight and we’ve got some citizens who will fight with us.” They shook hands. Charlie turned to Les Hammond. “Les,” he said, “You go visit our friends and get one or two of them to come join us. Steve Warner, if he’s available. The insurgency’s been waiting for a plan from us. Well, now we need them in on working it out.”

  “Sure will, Chief,” Les said.
>
  As Les left the room, Tommy Wilkes came walking in. Wilkes was grinning. “Hi Lieutenant,” he called out in a jaunty voice. Alongside him was Specialist Jackson.

  “Wilkes!” Cameron called out. “Jackson! I assume from the big-ass grins on your faces, you were successful.”

  “We got the goods,” Wilkes said. Lots of rifles, lots of ammunition.” His smile faded a bit. “We didn’t find any mortar tubes or MK153s, but we grabbed some 60 mil mortar rounds.”

  Cameron turned back to Charlie. “Have you distributed the weapons yet?”

  Charlie shook his head. “I distributed the rifles, but no ammunition. I didn’t want anyone jumping the gun and start shooting. They’ve been practicing with empty weapons. We had to stay hidden until you guys got here.”

  Lori Sue looked up as Billy came into the apartment, and she saw that he had a pair of bolt cutters in his hand. He did not immediately move to give them to her. He looked at her unhappily. “I don’t like you going over there. It’s dangerous enough anytime, but if you get caught with bolt cutters, Leo’s gonna have you shot…or worse.”

  “Billy. I’ll be careful. You know that. Now give me the cutters so’s I can get over there and free Donna. Leo’s gonna be back anytime. This is my best chance.”

  “I should go with you.”

  “No. You got to be with the others when they plan the attack. You got a lot of inside info on the militia. We decided to help in this fight. That’s how you help. And getting Donna free is how I help.” She reached out her hand again. “Now gimme the damn cutters so I can do this. You ain’t making it any easier.”

  She saw his resolve sag. He held them out and Lori Sue grabbed them. “Don’t look so glum. I’ll be careful. By tonight I’ll have Donna back here with me and we’ll all be ready for whatever tomorrow holds.” She smiled and reached up to kiss him long and hard. Billy responded. She knew he could not resist her kisses. What she had not told him was that she couldn’t resist his either. Better to not let him know all that. The thought was a habitual one, she was unused to opening herself up to anyone, but it bothered her. One day I’ll tell him.