San Diego Slaughter

by Robert Boren

  “Let’s not talk about this anymore,” Sam said. “Let’s go be with Mia.”

  “She’s out back with Anna,” Garrett said. “You guys are staying for dinner, I hope. Got some prime rib to cook up.”

  “Sounds heavenly,” Erica said.

  They walked through the kitchen, towards the back door. Mia saw them and came running.

  “You aren’t leaving, are you?”

  “No, honey, we’re not leaving,” Erica said, glancing at Sam with misty eyes.

  ***

  “Last timber set,” Tyler said, watching several of his warriors carry the massive beams in and set them down on the earthen floor. There was a gap just below the ceiling now, and they could hear people talking on the other side of the dirt mound.

  “Why not just punch through that?” one of the warriors asked.

  “Not stable enough,” Elmer said, walking up with Clem. “Get that last timber set as close to the mound as you can. Might have to dig into the sides of that mound a little bit.”

  “This isn’t the last of the timber sets,” Tyler said. “I’m putting one in past the cave-in, and another one further in. Then we’ll have to take a look for other weak spots that could trap us.”

  Clem thought about it for a moment. “You know, the kid as a point. I don’t trust the old timbers after looking at how much termite damage they had.”

  Elmer nodded. “Good thinking. We were really lucky in this cave-in. If our people had been cut off from that access hole, this would be a whole different situation. We’d probably be taking bodies out by now.”

  “Exactly,” Tyler said. “Safety first. We should’ve thought about it before.”

  “Susanne was working down here for months,” Elmer said. “Makes me shudder to think about it, now that you’ve brought this up.”

  “Ready, Tyler?” one of the warriors asked, short of breath, holding up an end of a good-sized beam.

  “Set it down and let’s use the hand shovels to dig out a little bit from this mound. I want them right here.” He walked to the earthen wall and scratched a line, then went to the opposite side of the shaft and did the same.”

  “You want all the fans on?” Clem asked.

  “Not until we need to use the bulldozer,” Tyler said. “Too loud when we’re trying to line up and fasten these timbers. That takes communication.”

  ***

  Ivan came into the intel room, handing a slip of paper to Kaitlyn. “We’ve got a drone over the Baja coast. Here’s the IP address.”

  “Great, thanks,” Kaitlyn said, taking the paper. She studied it for a moment, then opened a new browser window on her laptop and put it in. The picture came up right away. “Wow, this has better resolution than the one over the convoy.”

  “Yes, this is a very advanced drone,” Ivan said. “Nice when the military sees the value of what we’re doing. We’ve become their intel team too, almost.”

  Seth laughed. “We were on our own with this stuff for a long time. Wonder if there’ll be job opportunities due to this after the war.”

  “There will be if you want it, I’m sure,” Ivan said.

  “I could live with that,” Kaitlyn said, “as long as we don’t have to enlist.”

  “Yeah, that would make it too hard to keep you barefoot and pregnant,” Seth quipped. Robbie laughed.

  “Why do you think that’s funny?” Morgan asked. “I thought you had similar plans.”

  “I did,” he said, then hushed up, Morgan shooting him a worried glance.

  Ivan nodded at Robbie, then turned to leave. “Let me know if anything happens with those semis, and let me know when the armada lands, please. You’re still running the history program over that area, right?”

  “Of course,” Seth said. “We’ll let you know.” Ivan gave a thumb up and left the room.

  “You almost blew that,” Morgan whispered.

  “I know. Sorry.”

  “Everything okay?” Kaitlyn asked, eyeing them.

  “Yeah, it’s fine,” Robbie said.

  The sound of hammering startled them.

  “What’s that?” Kaitlyn asked.

  “They’re putting in another timber set,” Robbie said. “They’ll probably have the mineshaft opened up by the end of the day. Was talking to Tyler about it this morning.”

  “Thank God for that,” Kaitlyn said.

  “I’ll feel better when we have those other reserve generators inside here,” Robbie said.

  “You think there’s enough enemy left to attack us here again?” Seth asked. “Seems like the actual fighting part of our operation is gonna taper down now.”

  “It all depends on what happens with that armada,” Robbie said. “When they land, the enemy might try to muster another attack here to take heat off their operation. They know what our capabilities are, and they know our location.”

  “There’s a confidence-building comment,” Kaitlyn said.

  “He’s right, though,” Seth said. “We aren’t out of the woods yet. The enemy will get more and more desperate. This is a dangerous time.”

  Ben rushed in. “Hey, guys, I’m seeing some interesting things on social media.”

  “Really,” Robbie said. “About what?”

  “There’s a group of private boats heading south from several of the marinas on our coast. The largest group is coming down from Dana Point Harbor, but there’s boats coming from several other places too. They’re gonna take on the enemy armada.”

  Seth grinned. “This happened in the gulf coast, and it made a huge difference. How many boats are we talking?”

  “The threads I’m on made it sound like there are hundreds,” Ben said. “They’ve only got sporting weapons, though, for the most part. We ought to help.”

  Morgan smiled. “We had a drone over Dana Point Harbor. Haven’t been on it for a while. Wonder if it’s still up there?”

  “You check that,” Robbie said. “Ben, have you mentioned this to Ivan or Jules yet?”

  “Nope, not yet. I’ll text them.” He typed on his phone, Ivan and Jules showing up in a couple minutes.

  “Is this only on social media, or do we see?” Jules asked, rushing to the computer stations.

  “I’m logged onto the drone that was over Dana Point Harbor,” Morgan said. “It’s still in the air, but it’s not over the water. Probably returning to base. It’s over some mountains.”

  Ivan pulled out his phone, putting it to his ear and having a hushed conversation. He put it back into his pocket. “That drone still has half it’s fuel left. They’re getting it back to the coast. It’ll hit the coast around Oceanside–it was going to Pendleton to refuel. Where are the boats supposed to be now?”

  “I think we should look south of Dana Point Harbor,” Ben said. “Haven’t seen reports of any coming from further north.”

  “Further north too far to meet armada in time,” Jules said. “What about Mission Bay and San Diego Harbor?”

  “I’ll call my contacts in the Navy and ask if they’re seeing any activity.”

  “Hey,” Robbie said. “Those special forces guys and the Teamsters are still hanging out at National City. That’s really close to San Diego Bay. The boats ought to come pick up a mess of them with their weapons.”

  Jules grinned. “I like. What you think, boss?”

  “I’ll bring it up. Be back in a few minutes.”

  “Wow, that drone was pretty close to the water, because it’s already back over it. That’s probably Oceanside Harbor it’s over right now.”

  “Holy shit,” Ben said, looking over Kaitlyn’s shoulder. “That what I think it is?”

  The screen showed several huge groups of private boats, some just north of Oceanside Harbor, some leaving Oceanside Harbor, and some already south.

  “Gunfire is gonna sink those boats in a hurry, you know,” Robbie said, looking at the screen.

  “True, but the boats they’re going up against aren’t that much better,” Seth said, “and I haven’t seen th
e UN with larger weapons like M60s and M240s. It’ll take a lot of fire from an AK to sink a good-sized fiberglass boat.”

  Ivan came back in. “The Navy is seeing activity. They were about to call me, believe it or not.”

  “Why don’t we send Navy ships out there?” Morgan asked. “They don’t have smaller boats anymore?”

  “They don’t have a lot of small craft in San Diego, and we’re using the coast guard boats further up the coast. There’s been attempts to sneak enemy boats in up there.”

  “From where?” Robbie asked.

  “Asia.”

  “Shit,” Kaitlyn said.

  “Don’t worry about it, we’re more than ready for them up there.”

  “Robbie had good idea,” Jules said. “Move Jesse’s special forces team and the Teamsters to San Diego bay. Then we load them on the small craft with their M60s and M240s. That team is still in National City.”

  Ivan grinned. “That’s what they did down around Houston. Let’s get a conference call going. Sax and Jesse, right?”

  “Yep,” Robbie said. “Just sent them both a text with the number. Waiting for them to respond.”

  His phone dinged a moment later. Then his phone rang. Robbie put it on speaker.

  “Who we got?” Robbie asked.

  “This is Jesse. Sax is with me. What’s up?”

  “This is Ivan.”

  “No way,” Sax said. “That’s so cool.”

  “It’s an honor, sir,” Jesse said. “What can we do for you?”

  “There’s a huge group of private boats heading south, getting ready to attack that armada.”

  “No shit, really?” Sax asked.

  “Yep. We were wondering if some of you would like to hop aboard with M60s and the other larger guns.”

  Jesse laughed. “Now we’re talking. Yeah, I’m sure I could round up a good number of men who’d volunteer for that. Which dock?”

  “Don’t know yet,” Ivan said. “I’m in talks with the Navy about it now. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  “Okay, we’ll talk to our folks,” Jesse said.

  “Thanks,” Ivan said. The call ended.

  “Why didn’t we think of this?” Robbie asked. “We’ve done enough of this kind of stuff before.”

  “You figured out we can do it, and that enough,” Jules said.

  “Yes,” Ivan said. “I’ll be back. Gotta make some calls. I’ll try to get a second drone in the air, too. I think we’re gonna need it.”

  “We forget something,” Jules said.

  “What?” Ivan asked.

  “We need contact with citizen armada,” he said.

  “I’m on that now,” Ben said, turning from his laptop. “I got contacts from the social media streams. Chatting with several in a thread right now. They’re very interested. They just have hunting rifles and shotguns.”

  “Excellent,” Ivan said. “This team is amazing. Talk with you soon. Jules, come help me please.”

  “You got it, boss,” Jules said. They rushed out of the room.

  ***

  Quincy Sparks rubbed his large beard, sitting at the flybridge station of his sixty-foot sport fisher. He was a middle-aged man, large and overweight, but with a game face. A dozen of his friends were onboard with him. They’d just left Dana Point harbor. Somebody climbed the ladder up to the flybridge and sat on the passenger seat.

  “Hey, Dusty, what’s up?” Quincy asked, shooting a glance at the much younger man with a mop of messy blonde hair and a sly grin.

  “Just got off the message boards.”

  “How’s the recruitment going?”

  “We’ve got over three hundred boats committed now,” he said, “but that’s not why I’m here. Just had a chat with one of Ivan’s intel team members.”

  Quincy turned towards him. “They finally noticed, huh?”

  “Yep, I got a call from Ben Dover a few minutes ago. They’ve got a suggestion.”

  “What is it?”

  “You know those special forces guys and the Teamsters who helped cream the enemy in Lemon Grove and National City?”

  “Read about them. So?”

  “They’ve got M60s and M240s, plus some RPGs, grenades, and other nice toys. They’d like us to pick a bunch of them up in San Diego Bay, near the mouth of the Sweetwater River, on the Navy wharfs.”

  Quincy chuckled. “Well, that’d be better than a bunch of amateurs firing sporting weapons. Might just change this from a suicide mission to something we can win.”

  “You thought this would be a suicide mission?”

  Quincy nodded. “I’m exaggerating a little, but there is a chance of that. I hoped to slow them down enough so they couldn’t get into San Diego. Never thought we could out-gun them. They’re military.”

  “Nice of you to let us know,” Dusty said, shaking his head.

  “Come on, you knew how dangerous this was gonna be when you signed up. Let’s not bullshit each other. We’re going against a bunch of metal fishing boats, for the most part. It’ll take a lot of small arms fire to stop them. Ours are mostly fiberglass, so it won’t take much for the enemy to sink us. This boat is pretty fast, which gives us an edge, but it’s still dangerous as hell.”

  “Okay, okay, you’re right. You up for this deal or what?”

  “Hell yes I’m up for it. Spread the word around, and find out which wharfs. That harbor is massive. We don’t want to waste a lot of time looking around for them. We might have to let some of our guys off, too, to make room for experienced folks with military weapons.”

  “I’ll get right on it, Quincy. Thanks.”

  He smiled, watching Dusty get back on the ladder. He looked down at his hands. They weren’t trembling anymore.

  ***

  Sax and Jesse sat next to each other, both texting their teams.

  “This was a good idea,” Sax said.

  “Yep, but it’s gonna be dangerous.”

  “Everything we’ve done has been dangerous,” Sax said. “Worth it for our country.”

  Jesse stopped for a moment and looked at him. “You’re a damn fine patriot, Sax. I’m impressed with how you’ve risen to the call. Damn good fighter too.”

  “Ah, shucks,” he said. “We all gotta do our part, man. You know that.”

  “There, my message is broadcast,” Jesse said.

  “Mine’s going out to the Teamsters right now.”

  They sat for a moment, and then both their phones started dinging with replies.

  “That didn’t take long,” Sax said.

  “Our teams still have their blood up. They’re ready for more action. Not all of us are gonna fit on those boats, but all of us can have a part in moving assets to the Navy base.”

  The special forces team and the Teamsters assembled in the parking lot on Sweetwater Road where yesterday’s battle had unfolded.

  “When are we leaving?” Kevin asked as he strolled up.

  “Yeah,” Erik said. “We’re ready, aren’t we guys?”

  Everybody within earshot was saying yes.

  “We’re still waiting for the exact wharf to go to.”

  “Hey, man, I was in the Navy,” one of the Teamsters yelled. “We can get going. I know which gate to go through, and by the time we get there, we’ll know what wharfs to use. It’ll be more than one, judging by the threads I’ve been reading on social media. There’s like three hundred boats on the way, not counting the ones already in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay.”

  “How do we get there?” Jesse asked.

  “Easy,” the man said. “We need to go north and get on East 24th Street, then go west. It’ll take you under I-5 and onto the harbor property. There are wharfs in that area.”

  “Better use several of the roads up to 24th Street,” Sax said. “We’ll clog the roads pretty good even if we do that.”

  “I say we get going right now,” Jesse shouted. “You all with us?”

  “Let’s go, brother,” Kevin said. Others yelled out in agree
ment, and the group headed back to their semis, pickup trucks and other vehicles.

  “Want to ride with me?” Jesse asked. “Your rig got busted, didn’t it?”

  “It’s a little messed up. Yeah, I’ll ride with you. My M60 is already in your truck bed.”

  “Can we join you?” Kevin asked.

  “Hell yes,” Jesse said.

  “Me too,” Erik said.

  “Hey, got room for one more?”

  They turned, seeing Officer Sanchez approaching. “Hey, there you are,” Jesse said. “Yeah, load your gun in the bed. The back seat of my cab will hold three.”

  They got into the pickup and joined the lineup.

  { 16 }

  IEDs and White Caps

  C lem and Elmer got into the mine just as Tyler and his warriors finished the last timber set before the blockage. They looked it over.

  “I think that’s good enough,” Clem said. “Stronger than it was.”

  “Agreed,” Elmer said. “Nice job, men.”

  “I think we’re ready to clear the blockage,” Tyler said. He turned to his warriors. “Hey, guys, get those fans set up again while I go get the bulldozer.”

  “You got it, man,” one of them said.

  “You two should get out of here,” Tyler said. “Fumes get worse the further in we get.”

  “Yeah, no problem,” Elmer said. He and Clem followed Tyler out.

  “Are those new generators ready to move inside?” Tyler asked as they got outside.

  “Yeah, we got the wire pig-tails all set up, and the piping for the exhaust as well. If we’re gonna continue to use that access hole for emergency traffic, we’ll have to dig it out a little more, though. Probably should rig a heat shield too, so nobody gets burned if they have to climb out that way.”

  “Think we’re really gonna need that back door?” Tyler asked as he climbed onto the bulldozer.

  “Yeah,” Elmer said. “Should’ve had that open long ago, actually. Imagine if we didn’t have the original hole already dug before we got bombed.”

  “Good point,” Tyler said. “See you guys soon.” He started the engine and drove the bulldozer back into the mine.