by Warren Ray
Mordulfah handed the phone to Wali. “Are all Americans arrogant or do I just have the misfortune of having to deal with the ones who are?”
“I think they are all arrogant,” responded Wali.
“This Vatter is as incompetent as they come.”
“Perhaps Mr. Vatter needs to be replaced,” said Wali.
“I may just have to do that. We’ll give him one more chance. If he screws it up I’ll have someone slit his throat.”
“And the men who disappeared?” asked Wali
“I am puzzled by that one. Winters may have had something to do with that, but I am doubtful. How do you take out two hundred men without a trace? It is odd though, that they would all leave.”
“If they were local men from the same area, perhaps they’re not as dedicated as the rest and conspired to leave the first chance they got.”
“You might be right, but if that is the case, there could be others.”
“Might have to ensure they know what happens to those who wither from their duty to Allah,” said Wali.
Mordulfah looked at Wali and smiled. “Yes, making an example by sacrificing one of them would do the trick. If any more men disappear, then we shall make a spectacle of what will happen.”
“If you’re to surround Jackson, then Winters will be kept quite busy, will he not?”
Mordulfah didn’t answer and expected Wali to finish his thought.
“Is there not another town just north of Jackson?”
Mordulfah’s dark eyes lit up knowing what Wali was suggesting. They had plenty of men to spare. He leaned toward the laptop and pulled up the map program he used to keep track of the territory they had conquered. The small town of Leslie was just to the north of Jackson and was still intact.
Chapter 77
Jackson Michigan
Winters awoke and was surprised to see the clock read ten-thirty. He must have been more tired than he realized. After returning from their nighttime raid, he headed to the hospital to check in on Meeks and Reese. He saw they had both found empty rooms and had gone to sleep after getting checked out by a doctor. Winters found Scar and got an update on what happened to them. Satisfied they were okay, he had found himself an empty bed and fell asleep. He couldn’t believe with everything that had happened yesterday, he managed to get seven hours of sleep. Usually, he would toss and turn thinking about everything he needed to do. He threw off the sheet and stretched his legs before swinging them off the bed. He looked around the hospital room and saw he had his own bathroom with a shower. He didn’t know when he would have another opportunity, so he decided to take a quick shower.
The hospital had solar panels and a generator, but they must be conserving energy because the water was cold. The water cascaded over his body as he soaped up and rinsed off in quick fashion.
He looked out the window to see the sun shining bright and wished this day could be just as bright, but he knew they were going to have a tough time ahead. He needed to get with his lieutenants and make tentative plans for what they were going to do. They would have to find a way to outwit the cops and the Jijis. Not being able to meet either of their enemy’s overwhelming forces head on, they would have to be creative.
Winters thought about how he had known this day would eventually come. He didn’t think they would be able to utilize guerrilla tactics forever. It would take too long and he wanted to get this over with before winter set in. It was difficult enough to be effective with such small numbers but in the snow, it would be impossible. There wouldn’t be any plows to remove the snow, so their movement would be at the mercy of the weather. Thinking about it made him understand why in past times battles were always fought in the summer. He then realized the brilliance of Washington crossing the Delaware. It worked because a winter campaign was simply unimaginable. In some ways, he felt what they were doing was similar to Washington and the Continental Army. They had to fight superior numbers and a tyrannical government. Both the Revolutionaries and the Shadow Patriots fought for the love of their country. The colonists finally received help from the French, just as they were getting help from the Canadians and the Brits. The major difference here was most Americans were unaware this second war was going on in the Midwest. They were alone in this fight. He just hoped Major Green would be able to discredit Gerald Perozzi and Lawrence Reed. If he wasn’t successful, then regardless of the outcome here, nothing would change. He and his men would be outlaws forever.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He opened the door to find Scar standing there with Meeks.
“Hey Meeks, how the hell are ya?” he asked, holding out his hand.
Meeks grabbed his hand. “Doing good, Captain. A little sore in the legs but got enough sleep last night and found some new clothes this morning. It’s a good thing I did too because what I was wearing last night was way beyond saving.”
“He looked like a drowned rat, Captain,” said Scar.
Winters stepped out into the hallway and noticed a few scratches on Meeks’ face.
“Yeah, we got tangled up in some thorns, which was right before we fell into a pond.”
“A pond?”
“Yes, a pond, in the middle of nowhere, and we had to fall into it.”
Winters let out a laugh. “Both of you?”
“Of course, hell, I’m the one who pulled her in. She was stuck on some thorns and I was yanking on her when boom, she broke free and we fell backward right into a pond.”
Winters shook his head trying not to laugh too hard. “With what you went through last night, I won’t razz you about the old man.”
Meeks let out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s ah, a little embarrassing.”
“Don’t worry, Captain,” said Scar. “I’ve given him enough grief about it already.”
“I’d expect nothing less, Scar,” said Winters. “How’s Reese?”
“Still sleeping and deserves it. She did good, Captain. Even cold-cocked that old man. Kinda funny to see this buck fifteen girl try and take down a three hundred pounder. He gave her a good wallop though, so she’ll have a shiner for sure.”
“She and Amber will be a matched set then,” chuckled Winters.
“Oh, yeah, forgot about Amber, how’s she doing?” asked Meeks.
“I think she’s good, little shaken up over her kill,” said Winters.
“Yeah, that one was pretty messed up. She almost bit it,” said Meeks.
Winters turned to Scar. “Have you heard from anyone?”
“I checked in with Nate a little while ago, nothing going on at Jackson Crossing. Taylor says the Jijis on the interstate looked to be moving around a bit. Bassett and Burns headed out there a little while ago.”
The three of them walked to the hospital cafeteria to get something to eat and found Elliott and Amber sitting at a table. Amber rose and gave Meeks a hug asking him how he was.
“I’m good, glad to be back,” said Meeks eyeing her bruise. “I think Nate was right, it looks sexy on you.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel sexy,” said Amber.
“Reese is gonna have one, too.”
“Oh?”
Meeks brought Elliott and Amber up to speed about what happened. As always, he added some theatrics to the story and had everyone laughing when he got to the part where Reese was slugging it out with the three hundred pound, “Jason.” All five were enjoying the levity as they ate breakfast until Nate came flying through the door.
“The Jijis are coming,” he said between heavy breaths.
Chapter 78
Nate reported that several carloads of Jijis arrived at Jackson Crossing and parked on the overpass, while others kept going west and quite a number headed north. They were positioning themselves at all the exits along the interstate.
They all bolted out of the hospital and headed towards Jackson Crossing to get a better look. As usual, Scar and Meeks sat in the back, while Elliott drove the SUV. Nate and Amber followed behind them. Winters sat in the passenger seat an
d thought about the movements of the Jijis. It meant only one thing; Mordulfah was surrounding the city. It was an obvious move, a move that Winters had expected. They would have to seal off the city before they moved in to attack. The only question now was how much time did they have? He looked at his watch and saw it was eleven-thirty. It would take some time to coordinate all those men and move them into every possible position. Winters figured it would take several hours, which would make it late afternoon. He had learned from Bassett they didn’t necessarily like to fight at night, which meant, they would probably attack early in the morning. This gave them all day and throughout the night to prepare.
He grabbed the radio as they got closer to the interstate. “Bassett, come in.”
“I’m here, Captain.”
“Where are you?”
“Burns and I are up north.”
“Have you seen any movement yet?”
“Affirmative, I’m seeing about twenty vehicles headed north. We figure there’s about eighty bad guys.”
Winters put the radio down and thought about why the Jijis headed so far north. “Meeks, you got a map?”
Meeks reached in his jacket, pulled one out and handed it to Winters.
He opened the map and followed the route right into the town of Leslie. “Damn it.”
Scar leaned forward. “What’s up?”
“Look here,” said Winters pointing to route 127. “They’re going to go take out a little town north of here.”
“Makes sense,” said Scar.
“It’s actually a brilliant move,” said Winters. “Mordulfah plans to keep us busy while he gets to do what he wants.”
“What do you want to do, Captain?” asked Scar.
“We can’t let that bastard have his way,” said Meeks. “We can still find a way up there.”
“No, we’ve got to warn everyone in Jackson and get ready. We need to be here,” said an aggravated Winters.
“What about letting Bassett and Burns loose?” suggested Scar.
Winters gave it some thought and grew impatient when he realized it wasn’t the best thing to be doing. However, he couldn’t in good conscience, allow Mordulfah to have free reign when the Shadow Patriots were nearby.
He picked the mic back up. “Taylor, come in.”
“Captain.”
“Can you get north of the interstate?”
“Not a problem.”
“I need you to hook up with Bassett and Burns.”
“Will do.”
“Corporal, those Jijis are going to attack the town of Leslie. Take those men you’ve got and get up there.”
“You got it, Captain. I’ll have Hadley and his guys join us.”
“Where’s he at?”
“I’m here, Captain. I came west early this morning to relieve the guys you stationed here last night.”
Winters was starting to feel a little better about his only option. With all of Hadley, Bassett and Taylor’s men, he was still looking at a smaller number than the Jijis, but they would have the element of surprise.
Elliott stopped the SUV when they arrived at Jackson Crossing and saw the parked Jijis up ahead.
“Take a right, here,” said Winters.
Elliott turned onto Andrew Street.
Winters looked down at the map and saw they were coming to Lansing, which went over the interstate. He instructed Elliott to take that left.
A couple of minutes later, they stopped right before the overpass and everyone got out carrying their weapons. They could see vehicles of different assortments parked up and down the interstate.
“Well, at least now we know where they all are,” said Meeks.
Scar looked at him. “Doing the lemonade thing again?”
“Gots to, my man,” smiled Meeks.
“It does take the mystery out of it,” said Winters. “There’s no hiding his men now.”
“C’mon let’s shoot some of the bastards, right now,” said Nate.
Winters thought about it. They did have quite a few just below them, but he decided to wait. He didn’t want anyone chasing them back through the streets where there might still be people living in the surrounding homes.
“Captain, they’re right there,” Nate insisted.
“I know, Nate, but let them get comfortable and we’ll catch them off guard tonight.”
Nate let out a growl.
“I promise, Nate, tonight we’ll come out and play.”
Chapter 79
While waiting for Taylor and Hadley to get to the Van Horn overpass, Bassett thought about the approach they were going to take. He had experience fighting urban warfare in the Middle East and knew it was a grueling, dangerous business. He hadn’t been involved with the Shadow Patriots until after they had intervened in the invasions of other towns. However, he did help them escape from Detroit, so he asked Burns to fill him in on what to expect.
“They always park in the downtown area,” said Burns as he pointed to the map. “They normally bring all their prisoners to the one location and load them up on the transports.”
“Should we wait for them or go after them?”
“Depends, I think this is going to be a quite a bit different. Usually, they have cops making contact with the townspeople, pretending to help the folks, but these guys will be openly aggressive carrying weapons and stampeding up and down the streets. They’ll have to go house-to-house looking for people, so I would imagine they’d stay on the streets with the most houses. They won’t bother with the outlying homes.”
“They’re just going to shoot any undesirables,” said Bassett.
“Yep. They’re here for one reason and that’s for females.”
“Okay, so we’ll locate their base of operation, take them out and set up a team to wait for more to show up,” said Bassett.
“We can set some sharpshooters up on the downtown rooftops.”
“They’ll kill too many locals if we don’t send out some teams,” said Bassett.
“Agreed. I think you and I can lead two eight-man teams.”
“Okay, but I want the teams to maintain fairly close contact. The Jijis will be spread out, but we’re still going up against a larger force.”
“Unless something else comes up, we’ll go up parallel streets,” said Burns. “Four men to each side of the street.”
“Just what I was thinking. Taylor can take care of downtown once we take them out,” said Bassett as he folded up the map.
Without any fanfare, both Taylor and Hadley arrived at the same time and Bassett filled them in on their plan. They then loaded up and took off up US 127 toward Leslie, Michigan.
Bassett wasn’t quite sure how they were going to enter the town until he noted 127 bordered a stretch of South Main Street. He slowed down before swinging the SUV onto the grass and crashed through the wire fence. He drove slowly up the road. There was a house here and there but mostly the road went through grassy fields with trees growing in sporadic clumps. The further they traveled into town, the closer the houses were to each other.
Bassett lowered the window and could hear gunfire off in the distance. That sound got his blood pumping as no other sound could. He’d been in many battles and knew what to expect. The thought of battle heightened his senses and he was now thinking a mile a minute. He zeroed his mind in on the map of Leslie, which he had memorized. He counted down the streets as they approached downtown and knew that Olds Street was the last one he wanted to cross. He saw a church to the right and decided this was close enough. He jumped the curb and drove across the grass into the back parking lot.
The men leaped out of their vehicles and ran to a tree line that bordered a creek. They crossed Mill Street, keeping to the trees growing behind the houses that faced Main Street. The gunfire became louder the closer they got to downtown. Bassett turned to make sure no one was falling behind. Satisfied, he ran across a parking lot to the back of the buildings on Main. Trying the handle of a back door, he found it locked, and using the
butt of his M4 knocked out a window. He cautiously entered the building and crept toward the front. Sure enough, the Jijis had four transports and it appeared they had already gathered a number of girls.
Bassett turned to Taylor. “Honey Badger, you bring your Savage?” Bassett was referring to the Savage 110 BA sniper rifle he’d used at the interstate. With a range of eleven hundred yards, it was a handy piece to have.
Taylor gave him a “you kidding me” glance.
“Need you up top.”
“C’mon, Harris,” said Taylor pushing his friend from Minnesota toward the staircase.
Bassett directed additional men to buildings further up the street.
“Twinkle, come in,” said Taylor on the radio.
Bassett grabbed the radio. “Here.”
“You’ve got four Jijis tending shop. They’re to the right, not paying much attention. Careful of the dead, they got them scattered.”
Bassett turned to Burns. “Shall we?”
Burns switched the safety off his M4. He looked at Hadley and pointed to the left. “Cross the street and come down on our left.”
They exited the building one at a time. Bassett came to the first transport, his M4 leading the way. He turned the corner with Burns following closely to cover him. Looking in the back, he saw nothing. Bassett knelt down and saw the Jijis just ahead. He also noticed the dead Taylor had mentioned. The Jijis simply left them where they fell scattered all around. He signaled Burns and they hustled past the next transport and ran to the last one. Bassett came around the corner, fell to his knees and in this prone position, began firing his weapon. Burns stood behind him firing. The four Jijis fell to the ground.
Bassett rose and movement inside a store caught his eye. A couple of Jijis started firing on their position. Several came toward their exposed right flank.
Chapter 80
Washington D.C.
Green left his office to go meet his friend, Sam White, from the State Department. Sam was his go to guy for background information on just about anyone. He had accompanied him to see Mrs. O’Connor and he had done background checks on the names they found in O’Connor’s journal. They were to meet in their favorite coffee shop.