by Liscom, Sean
“What about all of the weapons you brought back today?” Braden asked.
“We'll move as much as we can into the underground and leave the rest loaded on the trucks. Not much else we can do with it at this point.”
“Okay,” was his simple answer.
We spent the next half hour hammering out the details of the plan. While not everyone was happy about what we were going to do, it was agreed that it was the best possible solution. It was pointed out by Dan that the only people left at the ranch would be the four members of squad 3-2, Jill and myself. If any
shooting started, we wouldn't last long.
After the meeting broke up and people left to carry out their assignments, Jill and Braden hung back. I could tell that both of them wanted to talk to me in private but neither was willing to ask for the privacy to do so. I asked Braden if he could man the radios for a couple of minutes and asked Jill to follow me out the front door. Once we were outside and the door was closed, I had to ask Melissa to give us some space.
“You got something else you want to say to me?” I asked after Melissa had moved around the corner of the building.
“I didn't even think when I said what I said in there, I'm sorry, Jason,” she said quietly.
“Babe, you don't owe me an apology. You said what you thought, just as I did. If anything, I should be the one to apologize. What I said came out a lot harder than I meant it to,” I replied.
“I know that you love this place, I know that you love me and would do anything to protect me..... I don't want you to die to do it though.”
“I told you that I would do everything that I could to come home to you every day and I meant it. As much as I love this ranch, in the end, it's just a piece of ground. I might let the bad guys through the gate but I won't let them win. I won't let them take what you and I have. We've had a rough go of it from the very beginning. It's been nearly all business since day one. We just can't seem to catch a break, kiddo.”
“God, that's the truth,” she smiled a little. “I'm
sorry, Jason. I just wanted you to know that I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that.”
“It's okay. We're good.” I told her. She stepped closer and locked me into a tight embrace.
“As long as I have you, that's all that matters,” she whispered into my ear. I pulled her even closer to me. We stayed that way for a couple of minutes before she stepped back. “We got a lot to do, don't we?”
“Yes, we do.”
“Okay, I'll get moving. Go talk to your brother but go easy on him. He's still trying to find his footing around here.”
“I'll be nice,” I replied. She nodded, kissed me on the cheek and then headed for the warehouse. I watched her walk away until she was out of sight. I then went back into the shack to talk to Braden.
“Jason, I'm.....” he started but I held up my hand to stop him.
“Don't apologize, Braden,” I said as I sat in the chair across from him. “You were right to question the plan. I don't agree with the way you did it, but you were right to do it.”
“I'll be honest, I'm scared shitless!” he blurted out.
“You want honest? So am I! I've been through this once and I don't want to do it again. The only thing that we can do is put plans in place and pray that we don't need to enact them. I'm praying that highway 50 is as far as they advance.....”
“You're scared too?” he asked.
“Terrified,” I answered.
CHAPTER 12
Monday, August 14th, 2017
Braden’s group was the last to leave the ranch at nearly 11 that night. The four members of squad 3-2 drove them up to the caves and helped off load their supplies. Then drove the vehicles back to the ranch. We'd made a last minute decision to send a dozen of the LAW rockets to the cave with them. We figured that since there were people up there that could fight, they should have some of the heavier weapons. Everything else had been crammed into the underground for safe keeping.
Jill and I were the only two people above ground at the ranch until almost one in the morning. We sat on the front porch of the shack and enjoyed the stillness of the warm night. It was broken only occasionally by the neighing of a horse or the mooing of a cow. We had the door open so that we could hear the radio, but it had been deathly quiet. Neither of us spoke, we just sat close and held hands. There really was nothing left to say and I don't think either of us wanted to disturb the quiet.
When 3-2 returned, Melissa ordered her people to man the towers, she took the main tower in the center of the compound. Once they had settled in, all was quiet again. It stayed that way until just after the sun came up a little after 6am.
“MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! This is the Carlin
security patrol. We are under heavy attack from the ground and ai.....” the transmission was cut short. Jill and I looked at each other and then sprinted for the radio.
“Carlin patrol, do you copy?” I asked into the microphone. I was greeted by silence. After repeating the call three more times, I pulled the log book from the desk drawer and scanned for the frequency of the Winnemucca communications center. Once I found it I spun the dial and put the mic to my mouth again.
“Winnemucca comm’s center, do you copy?”
“WCC, go ahead.” came the immediate response.
“WCC, did you copy the distress call from Carlin patrol?”
“Negative, we didn't hear a thing. Who am I speaking with?” the voice asked.
“About a minute ago, there was a distress call from the Carlin patrol. They said that they were under heavy attack. You didn't hear that?”
“Negative, it's been all quiet here. May I ask, who is this?”
“I'm not too far from you and I heard it loud and clear,” I lied.
“I'll tell ya what, why don't you come on in to Winnemucca and we'll give your comm’s equipment the once over,” the voice politely said. I looked at Jill.
“Somethings wrong. Carlin talks to both Elko and Winnemucca all the time on that frequency,” I said.
“Yeah, and he keeps asking for your name,” she replied.
“WCC, I'm gonna have to decline the offer this time. Next time I'm in your neck of the woods, I'll stop in. Can I get your name so I know who to ask for?” I said into the mic.
“Your call. Next time you're out this way, swing in and ask for Roger. I didn't catch your name,” he said. My suspicion had been confirmed. There were six radio operators for WCC and Roger wasn't one of them. I hung the mic back up and sat in the chair.
“They're coming, aren't they?” Jill asked.
“Yep. It sounds like we've lost Winnemucca and Carlin. It's probably safe to say that everything between the two is also in their hands.”
“Carlin is only 20 minutes from Elko.....” her voice trailed off.
“Go get everyone from 3-2. Bring them in here for one last briefing. It's not going to be long before we are in their sights,” I said. Jill nodded and left the shack at a sprint. Once I was sure that she was gone, I pulled myself closer to the desk and wiggled the mouse so that the laptop would wake up. I opened the intercom file and opened the channel to the underground security office.
“Bill, you there?” I said into the little computers microphone.
“I'm here,” he answered immediately.
“I assume you heard the distress call from Carlin?”
“Yeah, we heard it and we heard your conversation with WCC. It would seem that your plan is
going to be put to action, sooner rather than later,” he said.
“That's what my gut is telling me. Listen, I don't know how this is going to go down but I need you to make me a promise.”
“What's on your mind?”
“If this goes in the shitter, if they come in here hell bent on killing us, you let as many of them in here as possible and then you blow everything. Take as many of them out as you can. Can you do that?” I asked. There was a short pause before he answered.
; “Jason, if it comes to that, they will be able to see the explosion and feel the shock wave for at least a 100 miles in every direction,” he said flatly. It was that same steely tone that I'd heard the first time I met the man.
“Thank you, Bill. One more thing. I'm going to send Jill down with this laptop and the communications log. We don't need those falling into enemy hands. I'm also going to have the troops remove all of the firing pins from the guns in the towers and send those down too.”
“Jason, if the shooting starts, you won’t be able to use them. Do you think that's a smart move?”
“If the shooting starts, we won't last long enough TO use them.”
“I see your point,” he paused for a second. “Don't worry, however this ends, we will have the last word.”
“Thanks, Bill,” I said and switched the intercom off. I unplugged the laptop and removed all of the cables that went to it. I also grabbed the
communications log and put the two of the together. The next thing I set about doing was removing all of the pins from the wall maps. They marked all of the friendly towns and cities, good refueling spots, emergency caches, and a lot of other vital information. Once the pins had been removed, I pulled the maps down and put them with the laptop and log book. It was about then Jill led the four members of 3-2 through the door.
“It's probably not going to be long before we have the enemy at our gate. My guess is that Elko will be first and we probably won't even know that it has happened. When they show up here, do not, under any circumstances, fire on them. We are going to let them waltz right through the gate. Don't get combative. I know it goes against the grain of everything you believe, but it's the only way were going to get through this,” I said as I made eye contact with everyone.
“Next, I want all the firing pins removed from the tower weapons. We won't be able to use them but neither will they. Give the pins to Jill so that she can take them to the underground. I also want all of your patches and name tapes. Peel them off and hand them over right now,” there was some confusion but they did as I asked. After I had removed mine, I had to ask Jill for hers. I could see her jaw muscles flexing as she removed the Velcro backed patches. What she didn't
see was that I put hers and mine in my pocket, all the rest went with the pile of stuff to go to the underground.
“Melissa, I want you to stay here for a minute, I've got a special assignment for you. The rest of you, go with Jill and collect the firing pins. Once that is done, would you deliver all that stuff to Bill,” I asked Jill. She nodded and grabbed the pile of stuff from the desk and headed out the door. Once Melissa and I were alone and the door had been closed, I reached into my pocket and pulled out Jill’s patches.
“When they show up here, put these on and impersonate Jill,” I said, handing them over.
“But, sir.....”
“Melissa, one of the first things they will want to do is to single out the leadership of the ranch. I can't let them do that. If they get me, fine, but I can't let them have both of us.”
“Is Jill in on this?”
“No, she has no clue. She's a quick thinker and she'll figure it out fast enough though.”
“Okay.”
“This could put you in a bad spot, Melissa. I don't know what happens to the leaders that are taken prisoner. Be ready for anything, okay,” I said.
“I won't let you down,” she replied. “You asked me to have your back and I got it.”
“Thank you. Now, I want you posted up at the front gate. That way, you won't have far to go when it's show time.”
“I'm on it. Is there anything else?” she asked.
“That's it, go take your place.”
“Yes, sir,” she said and left the room. I glanced at
my watch, it was almost 7am. I went back to the desk and started going through the drawers. I was looking for the shift rosters and finally found the file that contained them. I grabbed it and headed out the door for medical. I knew that Doc kept all of his medical files in the big filing cabinet behind his desk.
I went through the door just as Jill was coming out of the backroom where the underground entrance was. I opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet and found it empty. All of the drawers were empty. Doc had apparently taken all of the files with him to the caves.
“What are you looking for?” Jill asked from behind me.
“Doc's medical records. He has files with pictures of everyone at the ranch, the Teams included. Did he take them with him?”
“Yeah, he insisted on it.”
“Good, we don't want that information falling into the wrong hands.
I know that everyone has spare uniforms, we need to go door to door and take all the patches off of anything still hanging in their closets or in their lockers. I want to make it as hard as I can for them to identify anyone from the ranch,” I said.
“Good idea!” she replied. Both of us spent the next hour finding anything and everything that we could with a name on it. Once we had done that, all of
it was taken downstairs to Bill. It was nearly 10am when that task was completed and there was nothing left to do but wait. We'd heard nothing from Elko but
we really didn't expect to.
Jill and I were back in the shack going over our plans for what had to be the fifteenth time. Neither of us could come up with anything that we might have missed. The entrances to the underground had been sealed from the inside. All three Teams had gone dark the second they left the ranch. Neither of us had any idea where they were headed. We knew that they would stay within comm’s range, but that didn't really mean anything. Dan and Braden had moved everyone deep into the caves up at the meadow and they were well hidden.
Anything that could identify anyone at the ranch had been removed, even any pictures that showed faces. The journals had been sent down to Bill along with anything of intelligence value. Jill protested loudly when I asked her to give her father our wedding rings. Once I had explained that they were valuable and would probably be taken from us, she relented.
I was sitting at the desk, my elbows on top of it and my face in my hands. I'd been nursing a headache all morning and it was beginning to pound behind my eyes. All I wanted to do was go lay in a dark room and let it subside, that wasn't going to happen.
“Shack, tower one,” Mike Butler called from the tower in the center of the ranch. It didn't come
through the main radio, it came through my FRS radio clipped to my body armor.
“Go ahead, tower one,” I said, glancing at my watch. Two in the afternoon.
“There's a van approaching from the north, looks like an old UPS truck,” Jill’s nephew replied.
“Distance?”
“Call it two miles, wait, its stopping.”
“Anything else around it?”
“Negative. He's just sitting off the side of the road. Nothing else visible in any direction,” he reported. I was about to reply when the main radio set went nuts with feedback. The high pitched squeal did nothing for my pounding head. I reached over and turned the volume down and tried switching channels. The feedback was across all bands. I stood up and grabbed my rifle that had been leaning against the wall.
“Stay here,” I said to Jill as I headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I'm going to the gate, I want to get eyes on this guy.”
“Don't do anything stupid,” she said as she came toward me. She planted a kiss squarely on my lips. When she pulled back, she stared at me for a second. There was genuine fear in those ice blue eyes.
“We're gonna be okay, babe. Have a little faith,” I reassured her.
“I'm trying, I'm just.....” she stopped speaking because both of us heard the same sound at the same time. It was the unmistakable sound of helicopters.
“Shack, a convoy of vehicles just came into view. A lot of them, and they have air support!” Mike reported. His voice was shaky.
“Copy that, I'm on
my way to the gate,” I said into my radio. I looked back at Jill. “It's okay to be scared. I'm scared. Stay here, I've got guests to greet at the gate,” I told her as I stole one more kiss. I spun and headed out the door.
In the time that it took me to walk to the front gate, the column of vehicles had made it all the way up to the turnoff for the ranch. They fanned out and most of them came cross country. Only one Hummer came straight up the road. I counted 6 Abrams tanks, 6 Stryker’s, 6 Bradley fighting vehicles and about a dozen Hummers. Hovering over them as they approached were 4 Blackhawk Helicopters. It was easy to see how they could take out a town. It wasn't so much the manpower as the firepower. Depending on the variant, the Abrams were either 105mm or 120mm main guns, the Stryker’s had the 40mm grenade launchers up top. The Bradley’s were equipped with 25mm chain guns that could chew through just about anything.
I guess I had learned a thing or two in the military vehicle identification class Dan had put on, I thought to myself. As I approached the gate, Melissa stepped from the guardhouse. She had Jill’s name tape and patches
on. I had put mine back on as soon as I left the shack. Both of us had our rifles held at the low ready, neither of us made a move to lift them any higher than that. One Hummer pulled ahead and stopped about 20 feet from the gate. It had the six barreled mini-gun on top. Looking down one barrel was daunting enough. Looking down six of them was enough to make your
ass clench.
I made eye contact with the passenger of the Hummer and he just stared back at me. All of the armor that he had brought with him lined up on the far-side of the wash in front of the ranch. I'm sure that if they had been given the order to fire, the ranch would cease to exist in about 30 seconds. The four Blackhawks started making a slow orbit of the ranch. The man in the passenger seat of the Hummer finally opened the door and stepped out. He was wearing a tiger stripe military uniform and he was sporting a nickel plated, pearl handled 1911 on each hip. He walked slowly and deliberately toward the gate. He wasn't very tall, not much taller than Melissa at 5'2”.