Erik hugged Brin, the argument on the tip of his tongue fading as he sighed in her embrace. "I still don't like it," he muttered into her hair. He didn't have much choice in the matter—it's not like he could forbid her from going. He stepped back and looked at her. With her martial arts training, even unarmed she would be a formidable opponent—one a bunch of convicts wouldn't likely suspect. They'd probably be too busy ogling her.
Erik frowned. That is exactly the kind of attention he did not want her gathering. On the other hand if someone were to focus on her it might give the others just enough of an opening to dispatch them. Erik chided himself for thinking of his wife as bait, but it beat thinking of her as vulnerable and helpless.
Ted cleared his throat and brought order back to the table. "All right, Dillon, Norm, and Ben—you're going to be my sharpshooters. Your rifles zeroed in?"
The three men across the table nodded, all of them sporting bolt action hunting rifles that appeared in a range of conditions from pristine to absolutely filthy and covered and scratches.
"Okay, review your mission for me," said Ted, arms folded across his chest.
Norm, the man in the middle, cleared his throat and spoke up. "We fire when you fire, but pick our targets and start from the outside, working our way in, taking out the guards with long guns first."
Ted nodded and pointed at the map. "You three comfortable with the positions I set up for you?" He moved his finger from position to position along the fort's western flank, where the surrounding land rose into the hills that surrounded the lake.
"You'll be under cover with good shooting lanes, though it's not as close as I would like. How are you all with the range?"
"I'm okay," said the Dillon.
"Me too," said Ben amiably, "but Norman might have a hard time finding his target—”
"Hogwash," grumbled Norm. "That buck I took last year was further away than this."
"That buck gets bigger and farther way every time you tell the story," replied Dillon.
"And these bucks'll be shooting back," added Maggie in a somber tone.
Norm's face flushed, but he nodded. "Don't worry about me. I'll hit my target." He cleared his throat. "They burned down my grandson's house—my daughter-in-law was inside." His eyes narrowed. "I've been waiting for this."
Ted held the man's gaze for a few moments before turning to the rest of the group. "You four will slip into position tonight in the Shanty Town. Here," he said pointing at the eastern edge of the ramshackle cluster of hastily built huts south of the main entrance the fort.
Ted moved his finger to strategic points around the perimeter. Clumps of trees and bushes would hide a shooter just 20 yards from the shore. "Here, here, and here."
"That's pretty spread out," muttered Dan.
"It is," replied Ted. "From each one of these positions you'll be able to cover Erik and pick off any guards that try to come up to the main entrance. Our guest—"
"Is that what you Marines call a prisoner?" asked Ben. "In my day we called 'em targets."
Ted nodded. "It's the kindler, gentler Marines." After the chuckles subsided, he continued. "Our prisoner—"
"Jeffrey," Erik added with a smile.
Ted glared at him. "Jeffery informed us that on occasion the guards like to spend the night visiting women who live in Shanty Town." He frowned.
"Disgusting pigs," mumbled Brin.
Ted continued. "There's no way to know if anyone will be there at all, so keep your eyes open and be ready for any guards that pop up and try to take Erik from behind."
Erik stepped forward. "The guard or guards stationed directly over the main gate—they're going to be hard to see from any angle. The little guard shacks that they have up there for the tourists are going to block your view from every direction except straight on."
"I've been thinking about that," Ted added. "Anyone that tries to take out the guards on top of the gate from inside Shanty Town won't be able to do so because the angle will be too steep. All the guards have to do is duck behind the wall and disappear."
Erik folded his arms. "Well, without a canon or something there's no way we’re going to breach those walls—no one ever took Ticonderoga through direct assault with siege weapons."
Ted nodded. "That means every time it was captured it was done by treaty or trickery. I vote trickery. I'll cover your approach from the water—”
"What?" asked Brin. "The water's got to be barely above freezing."
Ted shook his head. "It's fine—I won't be in it very long," Ted said gesturing at one of the older men. "When I went out to set up the positions for the shooters I scoped out the shore. It looks like there's enough new brush along the banks of the lake that's grown in since the collapse—I should be able to slip down and wade through." He put his hands on his hips.
"The water probably won't get above my knees and I can handle it for a few hours. That will give me enough distance to make the angle so I can take out the guards on top of the gate."
Erik looked down at the Colonel's map. "The Colonel has a pistol which he's going to use at my back, pretending I'm a prisoner." Erik looked up at the others. "His shot will be your signal to start the attack."
"Hope that means he shoots someone else, not you?" asked Ben. The others chuckled nervously.
Erik smiled but didn't respond.
"What if they don’t take you inside the fort?" asked Brin, her hand squeezing his.
Erik shook his head. "It won't happen. Once I reach the gate, the Colonel's going to start a ruckus."
"I don't like how exposed you're going to be," Brin said, slipping an arm around Erik's. "Everyone's going to be shooting toward that gate and you're going to be standing right in the middle."
"I'm not going to be standing still for long," he said with a smile. "Soon as the Colonel starts firing, I'm heading inside. He's going to be blasting away as long as he can to clear a path to the officer’s barracks," Erik said pointing at the Colonel’s most detailed map.
"Soon as I take out the guards on the gate house, I'll advance and meet you inside,” said Ted. He turned to the four people assigned to cover the main gate.
"It's going to be up to you all to clear Shanty Town and make sure there's no counterattack coming from behind us,” Ted said to Maggie’s group. “We know there's 20 to 30 guards. At any given time, there's usually six or seven up on the walls. If we do this right, we'll even the odds with the first volley."
“We’ll do our part,” Maggie replied, her face emotionless.
"The quicker we all get inside the buildings the better," added Erik.
Ted nodded. "That's right, the prisoner said—”
"Jeffrey," interrupted Erik.
"Right, Jeffrey said they're running low on ammo—the raids across the lake into Vermont have been meeting stiffer resistance as they approach winter. They had to use more of their ammunition to gather supplies and workers. When we caught those two on the road, only one of them had any ammunition, and Jeffrey," Ted said with a look at Erik, "only had two shells for his scatter gun."
"Hell, we don't have much more than that," muttered one of the elderly snipers.
"It'll be enough," said Ted. "We'll have the element of surprise and your rifles will punch a lot harder than their shotguns. If we pick our targets, take our time, and make each shot count the element of surprise is going to be a major force multiplier here. These guys are convicts, not Marines—"
"Well, we're not Marines either—” said Dan.
"Not everyone is good enough for the army," muttered Ben.
"Agreed," said Ted with a smile. "But they're going to panic when the shit hits the fan and I guarantee more than one is going to blow through their ammo before they actually find a target. It's the classic spray and pray response."
"There's going to be a lot of innocent people in the way," observed Brin, staring down at the map. "There's kids in Shanty Town, remember?"
"That's right, most of the people in there are probab
ly going to panic and make a break for freedom. Doing that," Ted said drawing his finger from the camp west toward Ticonderoga itself, "is going to put them in the line of fire between all the guards shooting out and all of us shooting in." He moved his finger to a new position on the map.
"I found a nice secluded spot just over this rise here," he said circling a small knoll next to the tourist parking lot. "Lucy's going to be set up with all of her supplies and plenty of helpers from town right here. When all this goes down, once we clear the fort, she and her squad are going to move in and set up a triage station."
"I don't see any way for this to play out without innocent people getting killed," Brin said sadly. "This is going to be horrible."
Ted grunted. "This Spike character's pretty smart. Nobody ever sees him leave the fort. He's not going to be drawn out. If they close that main gate we're not going to be able to launch a frontal assault."
Erik nodded. "Jeffrey said they leave the gates open during the day and close them at night to block off the people in the Shanty Town. I bet there's more than one who would love to slip inside and shank these bastards in the middle the night. Even the guards have to sleep at some point."
Ted frowned again. "Well, unfortunately, we don't have the numbers or the skill to tackle this place in a night op—which is ideally what we should do. It's just too risky."
"This is our only option," agreed Dan.
"That's leaves the sailboat," said Erik, tapping the dock on the map. "They don't have a regular schedule according to Jeffrey. If it's here, it will be tied up at the dock on the edge of Shanty Town. From what he says, at least one guard is always on board to make sure no one tries to steal it. We know they use this thing to sail across the lake on raids so we have to assume he's probably armed—”
"I'll take care of the boat," said Brin.
Erik stared at her for a moment. "I'm not comfortable with that at all," he said. "What if there's more than one, what if they're all armed, what if—”
"I'm not comfortable with you strolling straight into the heart of this place with gun at your back. You're going to be completely surrounded. I might have to deal with one or two." She shrugged. "Maybe none."
"She's got a point," said Ted.
Erik frowned at his wife and then turned his angry stare on Ted. "You're not helping."
"All of us are going to be at risk," added Maggie.
Erik glanced over at Maggie. She looked older than she had just a few days ago. She'd always looked old to him—Erik remembered that silver hair from when he was a kid—but he'd never seen the strength in her before today. She was the walking picture of determination.
"I've seen too much death, too much destruction, too much evil brought to my town at the hands of these animals. It needs to end. Now."
"Any questions?" asked Ted. He stared down at the map. "This thing is pretty accurate, so take a good look at the positions and memorize the layout of the interior. You snipers, when you've expended your ammunition work your way down toward the fort and either help with the wounded, or pick up any discarded weapons you find and come in after us. We're going to need all the help we can get."
Erik looked at Ted again as the others poured over the maps quietly discussing strategy.
"You sure this will work?"
Ted stared down at the map. "It has to."
Chapter 75
The Walk
ERIK FORCED HIMSELF TO ignore the torn, filthy tents and the emaciated people occupying Shanty Town. His eyes wandered over the tops of expedient shelters to the massive stone fortress that dominated the landscape. The Colonel muttered along behind Erik with his pistol loosely bumping his spine, most of the people who inhabited Shanty Town were off doing work for Spike.
During the day, they'd either rummage through whatever houses they found nearby or prepared rations and packs for the raiding parties sent out to neighboring communities. The Colonel explained the most lucrative prizes were across the lake—Spike was obsessed with the nouveau riche mansions. For the most part, explained the Colonel as they trudged through the filthy, cramped streets—if you could call them that—the people on the Vermont side had vanished.
The Colonel had heard rumors from others that he'd provided shelter and food to during escape attempts that Spike had lost more than a couple raiders to people defending their property.
Erik knew the Colonel was living proof of that—when Spike and his raiders had come and destroyed his own house and killed his parents, he left at least four men behind. The mere thought of what his parents had gone through and the destruction of their house and belongings erased any fear he had about the bold plan to stroll into the fort. He would cut the heart out of Spike's operation.
Erik walked calmly, his shoulders squared, his eyes moving as Ted had warned him, always on the lookout for anything suspicious enough to abort the mission. Dirty, sweat-smeared faces stared at him with empty, uninterested eyes. People—walking skeletons, really—dressed in rags of what could've been clothes at one point stared out from inside the darkened interiors of ramshackle huts or ragged tents, snapping in the stiff breeze off the lake.
Every step Erik took deeper into Shanty Town made him angrier. He clenched and released his fists over and over again. He'd have given anything to have his sword with him when he met Spike.
The closer they came to the gate, the more Erik was shocked no one had yet to raise an alarm. That could be good or bad—if the guards were that sloppy, then the entire attack might go exactly as Ted planned. On the other hand, if the guards were distracted by something going on inside the fort, they might be more difficult to bring to the walls and harder to pick off at long range. Or they might just be used to having prisoners arrive—either possibility was bad. Erik needed to make a grand entrance for their plan to work.
The Colonel received a few weak nods and halfhearted greetings as he walked Erik to the gate. Most of the surrounding people looked bored and a few downright hostile. Erik had lost a lot of weight since the collapse—no one had eaten regularly or as well as they had when the power was on—but compared to the poor souls that inhabited Shanty Town, Erik looked like he'd been eating like a king.
Thin tendrils of foul-smelling smoke drifted up through the hole in the top of a wooden shack that looked like it belonged in a civil war documentary. The whole thing had been cobbled together with random boards and planks stolen from God knew where. It would never survive an Upstate winter.
Standing at 6'4" with his red hair, Erik was used to sticking out in a crowd. As he looked around him though, this was different. He almost felt like a different species. The filth-covered, emaciated husks that once were called people stared at him or even looked down, refusing to meet his eyes.
They're afraid. They've lost hope.
He looked around, desperate to spot the sailboat. It wasn't anywhere to be seen. Part of him relaxed. After all, Brin would have nothing to deal with. The sailboat wasn't there. Spike must have sent one of his raiding parties off across the lake again. He knew Brin would fall back to Lucy's position now and provide security for improvised medical Corps. He closed his eyes in relief.
Another thought occurred to him: if the sailboat wasn't here, then at least one or two of Spike's men were out and about. If the attack went as planned, they'd still have some mopping up to do or they'd never be safe.
The Colonel had already walked him across the parking lot and through the outer edges of Shanty Town, passing underneath one of the five points of the star-shaped fortress before a sentry finally called out.
"Fresh meat comin' in!"
As Erik walked, he kept his eyes forward, surreptitiously glancing up at the fort's walls. Just as he suspected, two guards stood above the main gate. Another guard lounged on the southwest corner and watched with a shotgun as he passed. A fourth appeared between the two guarding the gate and the corner guard.
Four guards, all armed. Why the hell did I volunteer for this job?
Erik was
shocked to find people he'd last seen in his youth wasted away to the point of walking skeletons. He tried to stop more than once to say something as someone recognized him. Every time he did, he felt the barrel of the Colonel's pistol digging into his back. Perhaps even a little more insistent than Erik would've liked, the Colonel urged him forward without pause.
Muttered warnings of "don't stop," and "keep moving," followed the prodding. Erik stumbled more than once on the assorted junk and debris people had left on the ground, including the bones of small animals, rags, and chunks of wood.
Down a little side alley just before the gate, Erik was shocked to see two bodies face down in the dirt. A cloud of black flies hovered over them, their buzzing loud from more than twenty feet away.
One was the body of an old man with stringy white hair, the other was a small child. Erik stared in disbelief that the people moved about with so little regard for the two corpses in their midst. He had stopped to stare and only moved forward when the Colonel dug his pistol in Erik's back.
Erik’s blood ran cold at the sight of the child laying in the dirt, discarded and left to rot. He turned and looked up at the guards above the gate hooting down at him in derision. All the doubt and fear that swirled through his mind during the long walk vanished. He knew then why he'd volunteered.
These men need to die.
Chapter 76
Endgame
CAPTAIN DAVIS WATCHED THE back of Admiral Nella's head as the newly promoted Vice Admiral stared at the digital world map inside the Pentagon's war room. The promotion had come as a surprise to everyone—Congress had thought over Nella and Stapleton's plan and evidently approved.
Davis took his eyes off the three silver stars on Nella's epaulets and focused on the floor-to-ceiling screen again. The Pacific theater had been highlighted and enlarged so China nearly filled the entire screen. Several possible targets along the eastern shore of the world's next superpower had been highlighted with slowly rotating red triangles.
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