Houston nodded.
“Show of hands,” Dani said, raising her own. “Who wants to stay on course for Portland and boot the Wardens out of Maine?”
Miles, Gavin, Houston, and another CNA officer Dani didn’t recognize raised their hands.
Dani looked at the four remaining people at the table who were keeping their hands either in their laps or on the table. “Okay, if you didn’t raise your hand, you’re either undecided or want to quit. If you want to quit, the door is back there,” she said with a wave of her hand in the general direction of the rear of the room. “If you’re undecided, you’re not anymore, unless you make a last-second sprint for the door.”
No one moved.
“Good. Everyone is for attacking Portland. Now, it’s time to stop pissing yourselves and get on with it. We have an invasion to plan.”
“It’s not that simple,” Houston said.
“It is.” Dani looked at Gavin. “Did you already explain the plan to them?”
“We didn’t get that far yet. We were trying to come to a consensus about the attack when you came in.”
“Consensus?” Dani said with a laugh. “Arguing and not getting anywhere is what it sounded like to me.”
Gavin shrugged.
“No one ran for the door. Consensus reached. The only piece left to figure out is when. Lieutenant Colonel Houston, would you please use your panel to search long-range forecasts for major storms due to hit Portland this winter?”
Houston paused. “This winter?”
“Yes.”
Houston lifted the device in front of her from the table, and Dani slumped a little in her chair while waiting.
“You’re really pale,” Miles whispered.
Gavin nodded. “You look terrible, Dani.” He looked at Miles.
“Take her back to Hattie’s.”
Dani lifted her chin. “I’m staying.”
“Okay, in a few weeks, early November, four inches of snow projected, followed by a six-inch storm a week later,” Houston said.
“Nothing less than a foot,” Dani said.
“A ten- to twelve-inch one is forecast for early December, and an eighteen-inch one mid-December.”
“Temps?”
“Upper twenties, Fahrenheit, for the first one, and upper teens for the second one.”
“January?”
“January sucks. Single-digit highs most of the month. Zero and lower on several nights. Well into sub-zero for wind chills, and a projected two to three feet of snow, with strong winds on the twelfth going into the thirteenth.”
“When is low tide on those dates?”
Houston tapped a few times on her screen. “Uh, right around midnight on the twelfth.”
“Perfect!” Dani sat up straighter. She instantly regretted the quick movement but tried to hide the wave of nausea that accompanied the shock of pain in her shoulder.
“You want to attack before the storm or after?” Houston asked.
“During.”
“During?”
Scattered murmurs came from others seated at the table.
“Saltwater freezes at seventeen degrees Fahrenheit. Even if the Wardens are able to break up the ice in the bays and harbors, they won’t be able to keep their bigger boats close to the port without risking them getting stuck in the ice. We attack before midnight, so the tide will be low and still going out. If they have broken the ice, they still won’t be able to get anything near Fore River at that time, and then for several hours after that, until the tide comes back in. You have pilots for helos and fixed-wings, yes?”
Houston nodded.
“If we can’t commandeer the aircraft onsite for your pilots, we can at least ground them so they can’t be used against us during the attack. Planes don’t like ice, so again, we can use the colder temps to our advantage.”
“The Warden crews in the observatories on the Promenades will be too concerned with freezing their balls off to stay out in that weather,” Gavin said.
“What about our own troops freezing their balls off?” Houston asked.
“Please,” Dani said. “If our Mainers can’t handle the cold after growing up in this shit, they shouldn’t be volunteers.”
“How well do you think we’ll be able to move in that much snow?” Houston asked.
“Visibility will suck, but we’ll be fine using the sewers—no snow down there.”
“What about the snow covering the drains and manholes?”
“We’ll only need a few of them cleared—enough for us to surface when setting charges prior to the full assault. Once the initial charges go off, there will be no more hiding.”
Houston tapped more commands on her screen and placed the panel in the center of the table. A 3-D, topographic map of the Portland area that spanned most of the length of the table sprang up. “Show me.”
“This is all you,” Dani said to Gavin. “I can’t stand for that long.”
He nodded and left her side to approach the table. “We’ll maintain radio silence beginning now, and only the people in this room will know the details of the attack,” he said. “Understood?”
The group nodded.
“If we have an info leak,” he said, “I’ll find the source and kill you myself. It won’t be quick or painless.”
“I will need to report our plans to my superiors,” Houston said.
“Lie,” Gavin said. “Tell them whatever you want except what we’re actually doing.”
“I’m using CNA resources for this, Gavin. I can’t lie.”
He rapped his fist on the table. “Not everyone in the CNA is loyal to the Commonwealth. Lie. Tell them we’re going anywhere but Portland.”
Houston looked uncomfortable, but she nodded slowly.
“Okay,” Gavin said. “The first parts of the attack will have to be done according to time, since we will keep long-range communications quiet until the larger attack begins. We won’t have audio and visual signaling initially. We have maps of most of the sewer system beneath Portland, including the airport and Warden base. We have three hundred sixty volunteers that we’ll split into two companies. The volunteers will leave for Portland, six weeks prior to January twelfth.”
Houston checked her tablet. “That would be December first.”
“Good. Three weeks later, ma’am, your battalion will head south. Put two hundred troops in Yarmouth with our Brigand contacts already there. That group will be four hundred strong with the Brigands added, and you’ll take the power plant on Cousins Island at the appointed time. The rest of your battalion will continue inland to circle around Portland and approach from the south. You’ll pick up more Brigands along the way who will help guide you through the terrain.”
Miles leaned close to Dani’s ear. “You planned all this with him?”
She nodded and smiled. “It gets better.”
“Send two hundred troops with another two hundred Brigands to take Portland Head Light and Fort Williams area at your scheduled time. Secure the bunkers, here, here, and here.” Gavin pointed to specific areas along the coast by the lighthouse. “Once secure, you’ll leave those posts manned and move on to take the petrol port in South Portland on the other side of the river from Portland. It won’t be as iced in as the shallower parts of the river, but you shouldn’t have any boats. The Brigands report that tankers rarely make port in the winter.”
“What about the other forts on the islands in the bay?” Houston asked.
“Bomb the shit out of them later, when the storm moves out. The ice will prevent the Wardens there from being able to send reinforcements to the city.”
“Where is the rest of my battalion, since you’re only leaving me with six hundred ground troops?” Houston asked.
“Your numbers will be closer to a thousand with the Brigands added. You’ll place those troops at the Warden base along the airstrips. All these areas are accessible through the sewers, so you’ll be moving underground most of the time. The airport has two runways: th
is one, which runs east-west, and this one, which runs northwest-southeast.” Gavin indicated the areas on the map.
“You’re having me put a thousand people in the sewers?”
“Yes. We will use the weeks before you arrive to clear any hazards underground and set up markers that will allow you to navigate without getting lost. There are deep drainage ditches on the far sides of those strips with sewer lines just below the surface. We’ll rig the pipes to create a fake top. You’ll be underground, out of sight, and able to come out of the ground when it’s time to attack.”
Houston nodded. “L-shaped ambush.”
“Exactly, but that doesn’t happen until we, the volunteers, signal. When I split the volunteers, Alpha Company will be further broken down into smaller platoons. They will move in waves, concealed by the snow, and come in from the north over the Back Cove bridge to the Eastern Promenade. They’ll take out the Wardens in the observatory and move across the peninsula to other strategic points such as City Hall, the Custom House, and the old armory, all of which have high vantage points that overlook the city. This first wave will continue on to their next targets without stopping. The second, larger wave will move in a few minutes behind them to kill the Wardens as they regen and place people in the towers. Visibility will be low for them too, but when the weather clears we’ll have those areas secured.”
Dani looked around the table. So far, everyone seemed to be on board with the plan.
“Bravo Company will be responsible for getting their assigned saboteurs and pilots to designated locations around and within the base,” Gavin continued. “Bravo will also be responsible for taking out the real comm tower. These attack points in Yarmouth, South Portland, and the Portland peninsula will be done with as much stealth as possible. Noise-suppressed weapons, knives, choke wires, and the like will be used. We won’t blow anything unless it’s too well defended for us to take. These attacks will occur simultaneously, and we’ll have people inside the base, accessible via the sewers, to blow secondary power sources once the comm and air traffic towers are down.”
Dani was part of Bravo Company, which Gavin would lead. Javi was her platoon leader, and Miles was still part of the fireteam she was assigned to. The other members needed to be shuffled a little, since they’d suffered losses with the training accident. At this thought, Dani’s vision blurred, and she pinched her eyes closed for a moment.
Miles’s voice was in her ear again. “You okay?”
“A little dizzy is all. I’m fine.” She felt terrible; she’d started sweating again. She fidgeted with the strap of her sling where it lay across her neck.
Gavin paused to take a breath. “Ma’am, you’ll send a team of fifty to a hundred troops through the sewers beneath the airstrips to the base. They will wait there until the tower explosions, which will be your audio and visual signal to begin the ambush. Once that starts you can open radio comms to whomever you want, because the Wardens will know we’re on their doorstep. As your ambushing troops close in from two sides, signal your final sewer troops to come up. They should emerge from behind or within the defending Wardens. Your ambush troops will switch to take out periphery targets so they don’t shoot their own people, while your close combat troops wreak havoc from within the Warden defensive lines.”
“What about the artillery mounts on top of the base?” Houston asked.
“Best-case scenario, we remotely detonate the towers and take the cannons before the Wardens can fully man them. Since that part of the plan has a lot of unknowns, you’ll still prep for an airstrike follow-up with birds from Bangor.”
Houston shook her head. “I don’t have the resources for that kind of aerial assault.”
“We just need to use them for the cannons. Once we start the major assault on the city, I expect the CNA will happily send in more troops and aircraft to finish cleaning up. They’ll be dying to capture the island forts and greater Portland region once we have the base back.”
Houston nodded. “The CNA needs a win. We all do.”
“Agreed.”
“You planned all this by yourself?” Houston asked, looking impressed.
“I had help,” Gavin said with a glance back toward Dani. “We’ll use the areas around the Bangor barracks to lay everything out as close to scale as we can to start drills tomorrow. We’ll rehearse until we can navigate the Portland base with our eyes closed. Any other questions?”
“Nice work planning the assault, Dani. How about I give you a ride back to Hattie’s?” Houston asked as they left the meeting.
“Thank you,” Dani said.
Gavin and Miles helped her into the truck and sat with her for the short ride to Harlow Street. Dani’s knees wobbled when she stepped out of the vehicle.
“When was the last time you ate?” Gavin asked.
She couldn’t remember and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was sitting in her room on the mattress with her back against the wall, and Gavin was kneeling on the floor in front of her with a bowl in his hand.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You passed out,” he said.
“I did?”
“Here,” he said, and held the bowl of cold stew up to her mouth.
She took a sip of the broth and winced.
“Drink it.”
“It’s cold,” she said.
“Drink it anyway.”
She took a few more sips. “I don’t want any more.”
“Too bad.” Gavin put the edge of the bowl back to her mouth and tipped the bottom upward.
She swallowed several gulps of the liquid to keep it from spilling down her face and shirt as Gavin tilted the bowl. When it was half gone, she pushed the bowl away and wiped her mouth with her hand. “Christ, you trying to drown me with it?”
Gavin smiled. “Welcome back. Feel better?”
She nodded.
“Still dizzy?”
“Not anymore.”
“Have you eaten anything since leaving the hospital?”
Dani shrugged with her uninjured shoulder.
“That’s a ‘no,’ then.” He placed an orange pill in her hand. “Take that and drink more of the broth.”
She put the pill in her mouth and took the bowl from him. She drank the cold broth and swallowed it and the pill.
“Want me to bring more stew?” a boy’s voice asked.
Dani looked over Gavin’s shoulder and realized Oliver and Miles were also in the room. Brody sat next to Oliver. The dog had a droplet of drool at the corner of his mouth and was staring at her bowl. The injury to his foot clearly hadn’t impacted his appetite.
“Sure,” Gavin said to Oliver.
Miles squatted near Dani. “Your color is better.”
Oliver darted out and returned with another bowl in record time. As he moved to give it to his father, Gavin extended his hand for it. “I’ve got this if you want to head home,” he said to Miles.
“Dani, is there anything else you need?” Miles asked.
“No,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Thank you for your help today.” She ignored Gavin’s subsequent frown.
Miles nodded and stood.
“Bye, Dani,” Oliver said with a small wave before leaving with his father.
“Bye,” she said, waving with her good hand. When they were gone, she looked at Gavin. “I’m sorry I passed out.”
He traded bowls with her. “You pushed yourself too hard today.”
“I didn’t mean to; it all hit me at once when I got to the courthouse.” She drank the broth—warm this time. She enjoyed it much more than the cold version. She picked a few pieces of the vegetables from the stew with her fingers and ate those before placing the bowl on the floor.
Gavin moved the bowls to the table to keep them out of Brody’s reach. He returned and sat next to her on the mattress.
Dani slipped her right arm between his arm and body. She laced her fingers through his and squeezed his hand. “You were amazing tonight explaining the
plans for Portland.”
“I had a lot of help working out the details.” He leaned toward her and kissed her forehead. “You really need to rest.”
He shifted to rise, and she kept a grip on his hand. “Stay here tonight.”
“Are you sure? Seems like you’ve been avoiding me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Mentally and emotionally, I haven’t been in the best places lately. I’ve had these little snippets of memories coming back. I never know when they will return, and they freak me out.”
“Memories of what?”
Fatigue clouded Dani’s mind, and she leaned her head against Gavin’s shoulder. “Uh, Boston, I think. Buildings collapsed and Jace carried me away from them. I, uh, also remembered the dog I had when I lived in Portland, and I saw Miles.”
“What else?”
“The one of Miles … he and I talked a little. I don’t know if it was a memory or a dream. It’s almost like that one was a mix of the two; I’m not sure what was real and what was my imagination.”
“You had a life with him before.”
“One I don’t remember,” she said. Her eyes closed, and Gavin repositioned her to lie on the mattress. He draped a blanket over her, and she stirred. “Will you stay?”
“Yeah.” He settled next to her, and Dani shifted closer to him as he put his arm around her.
CHAPTER
40
Dani lost track of the next few days. She was out of the sling, but her shoulder remained stiff and sore. The Commonwealth doctor she had a follow-up appointment with assured her it was normal and would improve with more time. She spent her days training with her new fireteam. Jace had been replaced by a woman named Rosen, a CNA troop member and transfer from another fireteam. What the woman lacked in friendliness, she compensated for with lethality. She was an assassin—one with skills that made Dani both respect and fear her. Even Brody didn’t bother to try to make friends with her.
In the evenings, Dani spent the bulk of her time with Mary in Hattie’s cellar, catching up on how to use the CNA’s newer explosive devices. She crossed paths with Gavin a few times, but since he spent his days and evenings finalizing plans with Houston, Dani wasn’t seeing him much.
Echoes of War Page 24