by Robert Boren
“I’ve gotten to like that guy,” Frank said. “He’s really useful to have around, too. Always thinking ahead, always gently but firmly making his point. I can see him being good in politics.”
“Charlie and Hilda would make the perfect political couple,” Jane said, bringing the bowls of oatmeal to the dinette.
“This is great oatmeal,” Frank said, starting to shovel it down.
“Good, glad you like it,” she said. “We need to watch our health, you know.”
“I know.”
They finished quickly, then cleaned up and left the coach with Lucy, heading for the clubhouse. When they arrived on the veranda, Jeb was already there, having a cup of coffee.
“Morning,” Jeb said. He looked happy.
“Good morning to you,” Frank said. “Have a good time last night?”
He just smiled and nodded. “I’m going to hear that all day, I reckon…but yes, we enjoyed each other. I’m getting pretty attached to the old gal. She has a lot of heart.”
“Good,” Jane said.
Earl and Jackson walked up, nodding to Frank, Jane, and Jeb.
“That coffee come from inside?” Earl asked Jeb.
“Yeah. It’s good, too,” Jeb said.
They walked inside.
“I could use another cup myself,” Frank said. “Talk to you in a few minutes, Jeb.”
They walked inside and over to the kitchen to get coffee. Gabe was sitting down next to Hilda, Mary, and Kurt, by the kitchen door.
“Thanks for the coffee,” Jane said. Frank nodded, taking a sip.
“Hilda made it,” Gabe said. “I hear we’re going to have visitors in a little while.”
“Yep, should be a little over an hour from now. By the way, I think I know what’s wrong with your camera system. Varmints chewed the wires, out where they swing under the eaves.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Gabe said. “I’ve got some extra wire.”
“Good, maybe I can get it fixed today, then. Hopefully that section out by the creek didn’t get chewed up too.”
Charlie walked in with Jeb, the Sheriff, and the Deputy.
“Ready to chat, folks?” Charlie asked.
“Jerry here yet?” Frank asked.
“He’s walking up with Jasmine and Rosie right now.”
“Good, then let’s get started,” Frank said. Jerry came in at that moment, helping Rosie. Jasmine followed.
“Where my man?” Rosie said. She made eye contact with Jeb, and he grinned.
“Want coffee, sweetie?” he asked.
“That nice,” she said. Jeb fetched her some as she was helped into a chair by Jerry.
“Good, looks like we’re all here,” Charlie said in a loud voice. “As you know, the army is going to pay us a visit in less than an hour. We just wanted to chat, to make sure we are all on the same page before they get here.”
“They gonna take the traitor?” Jeb asked.
“Well, that’s part of what I wanted to ask everybody about,” Charlie said. “Is anybody against letting the army take him?”
“I’d feel better if he was executed here,” Earl said, “but I understand that we probably aren’t going to be able to do that.”
“I might be alright with the General taking him along, but I want to know how he’s going to be handled, and where he’s going to be taken,” Jerry said. “I don’t trust the army.”
“Because of the infiltration problems?” Kurt asked.
“Well, that’s only part of it with me,” Jerry said. “Once they have a person who is at this level of rank, they might decide to use him as a bargaining chip. Maybe not right away, but in the future. Say one of our Generals gets captured, and they want to trade Simon for him. They aren’t going to care a lick for us if it came to that, and you know this creep will come after us if he gets free.”
“Jerry’s right,” Jeb said. “We need to remember what happened with Simmons. We lost one of our own due to that mistake.”
“What are you suggesting we do, Jeb?” Jane asked.
“I suggest we let the General and the Lieutenant interrogate him, here, for a day or two at most. After that, we off him.”
“Isn’t that murder?” Mary asked.
“No, this is war, and he’s a traitor,” Jerry said. “He’s an enemy combatant. We have every right to go toss a grenade in that smokehouse right now.”
“Then what separates us from them?” Mary asked, giving voice to at least some of the groups concerns.
“Everything,” Frank said. “We didn’t want this war. These guys did, and they made it happen. Look at the millions of people who have died as a result of this guy’s twisted vision.”
“I know, but don’t you think it would be murder to just kill him with no tribunal or anything?” Mary asked.
“No, I don’t,” Frank said, “but I’d rather have the military take care of it. The question, as far as I’m concerned, is not if this cretin deserves to die or not. All of us know he does. The question to me is all about our own safety. Can we trust the army, in its present state, to protect us from this guy if they take him away?”
“Here here,” Charlie said. “You hit the nail right on the head.”
“So how are we going to tell if it’s safe to let them take him or not?” Jeb asked. “We just going to believe them?”
“Here’s what I think,” Earl said. “If this guy starts making like it’s really the responsibility of people higher in his chain of command what happens to the traitor, I say we demand that he be executed here, either by them or by us.”
“What makes you think a General is going to listen to that?” Jeb asked.
“Well, bottom line, we probably can’t force them,” Jackson said, “so what are we going to do if they push back on us?”
“They’re sending a Chinook here,” Charlie said. “That means they’ll be bringing troops along. Probably more troops than we’ll be able to intimidate.”
“We can’t intimidate them, guys,” Kurt said. “Think about it. Like it or not, they’re going to be able to do what they see fit with this guy. If they do something with him that worries us too much, we’ll need to fly the coop.”
“You mean leave? Get back on the road again?” Earl asked.
“Maybe,” Kurt replied. “There aren’t a lot of options here. If we decide we just flat out don’t trust the army, then we have three choices. Stick around here and hope for the best, take them on, or split and get as far away as we can.”
“You know I’d be the first to let my dander go and burn this traitor,” Jeb said, “but Kurt has a point. Those are the choices we have, if we don’t trust the army. Since we know we can’t take them on, its stay here and do the best we can, or split and do the best we can. Which is the more dangerous of those two?”
“Yep, that’s the real question,” Charlie said. “Assuming the army doesn’t decide to off the traitor in front of us.”
“You know, even if this guy does end up dead, there’s still likely some bad folks out there who know where we are,” Jeb said. “As we discussed last night, our prisoner and his little team knew exactly how to get here. If the pilot of that chopper we took down managed to get his message passed to a command center, it’s possible that the entire enemy force knows exactly where we are. We might not be the most important target they have, but they’ll probably get to us eventually.”
“Our guests are going to be here any minute, so we need to wrap this up,” Frank reminded them. “I’ve got a proposal. We trust the army for now, regardless of what they say they are going to do with Simon Orr.”
“Why?” Earl asked.
“Because I think Jeb is right,” he replied. “The supreme command of the enemy forces probably knows exactly where we are. If we stay on the good side of the army, at least we should be able to count on their drones to see anyone approaching. Hell, they warned us about the situation last night. Now we have redundancy with all of the radios spread out. We probably aren’t g
oing to do much better than that. We can reinforce this place some more, and keep in mind that it has some excellent topography. We could defend against a much bigger force than we could at Hilda’s place. It’s probably our best bet.”
“Alright, we have a proposal,” Charlie said. “All in favor?”
Nobody moved in the room at first. Finally, Jerry raised his hand, then Charlie, Jackson, and Mary. When Jeb raised his hand, the rest of the hands went up.
“Alright, we’ll go with that, then,” Charlie said. “Thanks, everybody.”
“I hear the chopper approaching…listen,” Kurt said.
Everybody could hear it after a few more seconds. Louder and louder. Then it was in the meadow, kicking up dust and rocks. It set down, the twin rotors still spinning, slower and slower, as the noise and the dust started to die down.
“Should we go out and meet them?” Mary asked.
“Let’s just send a couple of people,” Charlie said. “Frank and Jerry, perhaps? And of course their lovely wives.”
Jerry nodded as well as the women.
They walked to the door and out on the veranda.
“I’ll be keeping watch from a good spot,” Jeb said.
“Me too,” Charlie said. The Sheriff nodded, and the three of them went out the door with their hunting rifles.
“Look, they’re getting a Humvee out of the back,” Frank said, watching the soldiers back it out. There were about six privates down on the grass, weapons at the ready, scanning the perimeter. Then Lieutenant Bailey came out of the back of the chopper, followed by a large black man in a General’s uniform. The Lieutenant saw Frank and smiled. He walked over.
“Hi, Frank, how are you?” he asked.
“I’m good, Lieutenant. This is my wife, Jane. You already know Jerry, and Jasmine.”
“Yes, of course. Very good,” the Lieutenant said as the General walked over behind him. “This is General Hogan.”
“Nice to meet you,” Frank said, extending his hand. The General smiled and shook his hand. They finished their introductions and started walking towards the clubhouse.
“Those look like fresh graves over there,” the General said, pointing.
“Enemy combatants,” Frank said. “And one friend - Private Jenkins.”
“Oh, I heard about that,” General Hogan said. “So sorry that happened.”
“What command are you from, General?” asked Jerry.
“Denver,” he said.
The Privates fired up the Humvee behind them.
“What do you need the vehicle for?” Frank asked.
“We brought it just in case we needed to make a getaway on land,” the General said. “My CO insisted.”
“It’s still hot around here, isn’t it?” Frank asked.
“We’ll talk about it when we get inside,” the General said. They were almost to the veranda.
Chapter 10 – Implants
The group walked towards the Clubhouse, as the Humvee drove past them, parking on the access road, pointing towards the gate.
“Looks like you want to make a quick getaway,” Jerry said to General Hogan. “Also looks like a civilian Humvee.”
Frank and Jane looked at each other.
“Let’s just say we don’t want to look like military if we have to leave. We’re covered, aren’t we?” the General said. “I can feel it.”
“Let’s just say we’ve learned to be cautious,” Jerry said.
“Yeah, I heard that Lieutenant James burned you guys pretty good. Go ahead and be cautious, just don’t shoot me for no reason.”
Suddenly Simon Orr tried to yell again, wheezing and croaking painfully. He sounded delirious. The General looked over towards the noise.
“That our friend?” he asked.
“Yeah, Simon Orr, and some young Islamist, maybe,” Frank said.
“What do you mean ‘maybe’?”
“He yelled that he killed the kid,” Jerry said. “Could just be a way to get a drop on whoever tries to open the door.”
“So he’s in that shed over there, eh. You have him tied up?” the General asked.
“We had zip ties on both of them,” Frank said. “Obviously if he really killed the Islamist, he’s gotten that off, but he’s not getting out of there. It’s cinder block with rebar, metal liner on the door, metal roof.”
“Lieutenant, go grab me a grenade,” he said. The Lieutenant trotted over to the Humvee and was back in a second. He handed it to the General.
“There a hole in that building that this will fit through?” he asked.
“Yeah, down at the bottom, where the hose is coming out,” Jerry said.
“Good,” he said, walking in that direction.
“You don’t want to question this guy?” Jane asked.
“No, I don’t,” the General said, “and I won’t take him back to base, either.”
They got close to the building. The General put his finger to his lips, telling everybody to be quiet. Then he got close to the Lieutenant and whispered.
“You go wiggle the lock on the door, as if we’re going to open it. Then I’ll toss the grenade in there. When I say go, get away fast.”
The Lieutenant nodded. He slipped over and started wiggling the lock. The General pulled the pin on the grenade, counted, and tossed it in.
“Go!” he yelled. They both dived away and the grenade went off. A puff of dust flew out of the vents under the eaves, and the door popped out against the hasp and hinges, but it held.
The two came walking back over to the group. “Damn fine building, there,” the General said, chuckling. “I expected it to shatter.”
“The usual, General?” the Lieutenant asked.
“Yes,” he said. He turned to the group. “Who has keys for that building?”
“Gabe, the owner of the park,” Frank said. “He’s in the clubhouse.”
The General looked at the Lieutenant and nodded. Then he turned back to Frank.
“How deep are the enemy soldiers buried over there by the chopper?”
“Oh, about six feet,” Frank said. “We have a backhoe.”
“Alright. If you guys decide to stay here, you’ll need to dig those bodies up, pour gasoline all over them, and burn them.”
“Why?” Jane asked.
“We’ll talk about it in the clubhouse,” he replied evenly. They approached the veranda. Out of the corner of his eye, Frank saw Jeb up on the roof.
“Is there a hierarchy in this group?” the General asked.
“Well, not exactly,” Frank said. “We do have a core group of folks who have been getting things done and protecting everybody.”
“Well, I’d bring at least all of that group in here so we can chat.”
“I’ll call them,” Frank said as they walked into the clubhouse.
“Want some coffee, General?” asked Jerry.
“That would be great, thanks,” he replied as he sat down. The Lieutenant sat down next to him.
Hilda brought out a couple of cups of coffee and put them in front of the two men. “Cream, sugar?” she asked.
“Not for me, thanks,” the General said. The Lieutenant nodded no.
“I’m Hilda, by the way. I was the owner of the park in Utah where General Walker got killed.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking her hand. “I’ve read about you and the rest of this group in the reports. Everybody says you’ve been luckier than most, but I don’t call it luck.”
“Why not?” Jane asked.
“Winning once is luck. Winning over and over again is something else,” he said. “It snowballs, too. You’ve become battle hardened. Most people have no idea how valuable that is. Your odds of survival are getting better, not getting worse.”
“Don’t we have more people gunning for us?” Jasmine asked.
“You might,” he said. “That’s the only downside.”
Frank got off the phone. “The rest of the group will be in here shortly.”
Jeb came
walking in, carrying his rifle, followed by Charlie and Kurt. The Sheriff and Deputy came in as well. Then Gabe walked in.
“What was that big bang a few minutes ago?” Gabe asked.
“It was Simon Orr being pulverized,” Jerry said.
“You guys killed him?”
“I did,” the General said, standing up. “I’m General Hogan.”
Gabe walked over and shook hands. “I’m Gabe, owner of this park.”
“You built a pretty strong building back there, Gabe. I don’t think it got damaged when we tossed a grenade in there.”
“Oh, you did what I wanted to do last night, eh,” Gabe said, laughing. “I knew that cretin wasn’t going to talk anyway. He’d just figure out some way to hurt us.”
“You the man with the keys to that padlock?” the General asked.
“Yup, need them?”
“Yes, could you give them to Lieutenant Bailey, please? We need to pull what’s left of those guys out of there and burn the bodies.”
“Really? Why do you want to burn them?”
“The enemy has implanted RFID location chips in all of their soldiers,” the General said. “The only sure way to deactivate them is to burn the bodies.”
“You’re joking,” Charlie said, walking up.
“Wish I was. I’ll bet you’re Charlie,” the General said.
“Sure am,” he replied.
“I’m General Hogan. Good to meet you. Who are the rest of you?”
“Well, you know Frank and Jane, and Jerry and Jasmine already.”
“And Hilda,” the General said.
“Yes, she’s my wife. The mountain-man looking character here is Jeb.”
“Heard of him,” the General said, smiling. “Bow hunter?”
“Yeah,” Jeb said. “Good to meet you General.”
“Likewise,” he said.
“This one is Kurt, our other bow expert,” Charlie said, “and next to him is his wife Mary, who happens to be our doctor.”
“Valuable commodity,” he replied, smiling in her direction.
“The Sheriff and Terry, the Deputy, from back in Utah,” Charlie said, pointing to them. “And Jackson and Earl. And Rosie, Jasmine’s mother.”
“Gonna ask if he’s married, Rosie?” asked Jackson. A few people chuckled.