The Fall of America | Book 10 | No Winners

by Benton, W. R.

"What happened here, and who are you?" a middle aged cop asked, his midwestern drawl thick.

  "We're partisans and those two people tried to kill us. We are on a Russian hit list." John said.

  "I'm Captain John D. Mellows and I'm with the Saint Louis Police Department."

  "The two dead people, a man and a woman, tried to kill us. My soon to be wife was injured in the shoot out. I have political immunity, I'm a partisan sent to get the peace treaty from the Russians." He handed his passport to the officer.

  "Uh, is she the same as you? I mean passport wise, General?"

  "Yes, but she never fired a shot. I did the killing. See, as I said earlier, there is a million dollar hit out on me and half a million on her. This is not the first time folks have tried to kill us."

  "Whoa, that's a lot of money. I think we just found a motive for the attack. Smith!"

  "Yo!"

  "Call a meat wagon and get the dead out of here. Lujan!"

  "Sir!"

  "Check the area for other wounded or dead."

  "Will do." Lujan replied as Smith talked on his radio, calling for an ambulance.

  "General, you and the lady are cleared to go. I took a photo of your passport information page, but I can see what happened here easily enough.“

  John thanked the Captain just as the loud speaker blarred, "Those of flight 299 to Dallas-Fort Worth are now boarding at gate 3. I repeat..."

  "Go, before you miss your flight." Mellows said, and then motioned toward the gate.

  Grabbing their carry on bags, John and Joy ran for the gate.

  The flight to Dallas-Fort Worth only took an hour and 22 minutes and as they approached the airport to land, the Captain came on the intercom and announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we'll be landing at our distination in a few minutes. The local time in Dallas is 13:07 and the weather is a nice 58 degrees fahrenheit or 14 Celsius. The winds are light and out of the west. The extended forcast for the rest of the day is 0% chance for rain. Please place all trays in the upright position and fasten your seat belts. I would like to thank you for flying with us today, and we hope you'll keep Omega Airlines in mind for all your future business and personal trips. Stewards, prepare for landing."

  A series of bells chimed and the aircraft began to descend.

  The landing was uneventful and they were soon in the baggage claim area, waiting for their bags.

  "General, is that you, sir?" a familiar voice asked.

  When he turned, he met the eyes of Good Foot as the man was called. His real name was Jimmy Jones, but he picked up the nickname from his habit of singing old 60's soul songs as he fired the M-60 machine gun in combat.

  "Well, now, Mister Good Foot, sure glad to see you again. I have to warn you, I have a hit out on me, and they've not been shy trying to earn the money either."

  "The General ordered me to pick you two up and bring ya back to camp, sir. I know about the hit out on ya and I'm not surprised the attempts were unsuccessful, but I do know God has blessed you."

  "What are you driving outside?"

  "An old 2001 Japanese vehicle. I'm not sure of the make or model because all the chrome was ripped off years ago when they painted it a flat olive drab. It runs though and will get you home, sir. I'm damned glad you were able to establish peace."

  "John, there is a middleaged man watching us."

  "I see 'em. Good Foot, let's get out of here."

  Good Foot smiled and said, "Let me help you with your baggage, Captain, I mean General. I still think of you as the leader of the Aces, sir. Come with me. I have a General at the base that is real proud of you, General."

  Chapter 16

  The aircraft flew at 6,705 meters and the prop engines were loud, but all five of the men in the cargo area of a Antonov An-70 were too busy to notice. It was just a little after midnight, and the weather was nice and projected to remain that way the rest of the week. Two of the men were part of the plane’s crew, load masters, and the other three were a Special Operations Team lead by Colonel Filippovna. They flew on oxygen, with the hose connected to the aircraft. Before they left the aircraft, they'd disconnect and pull the lanyard to activate their individual oxygen bottles packed in their Parachute harnesses. Each man had communications in the helmet they wore. They were looking each other over, just to make sure all was ready to jump when the time came.

  "Uh, Cobra One, this is Busy 19 and we are about five minutes from your jump zone. Please form into a file and prepare to leave out the left door of the aircraft. One, I suspect you will be a jump master, correct?"

  “Roger that, Busy, and I will be the last man out the door.”

  “In about four minutes and 30 seconds the jump light will turn green. Once the red light comes on again, stop all jumping. I figure you will have about one minute to exit the aircraft.”

  "Busy 19, this is Python and I do not know if you see them, but there are a couple of enemy aircraft on your six."

  "I just picked them up, Python. I will drop my load and then get low level and pray they do not see us."

  "Copy, let us know after you drop your load, over and out."

  "Okay, men, let us line up and move for the door the load master just opened for us." The Colonel stood and moved to the rear of the other two men.

  "You have about 15 seconds, sir. When the light turns green, get these two out the door quickly and then you follow."

  "I hear you, Sergeant."

  All eyes were on the red light, but it suddenly turned green and Colonel Filippovna yelled, "Go!"

  His spotter was the first man out and he was gone in an instant. They'd taken to calling the man “Eyes”, because of his task in the mission, just like the medic was called “Doc”.

  The Full Colonel slapped his medic on the ass and out the man went, with his body position perfect and by the book. The Colonel went out the door just a second later than Doc. As he left the door, he pulled a green ball on his parachute harness to activate his oxygen. At 6,705 meters if he didn't have oxygen, he'd pass out in a very short time as he fell.

  The wind was cold and all three men were spread eagle, the only known way to keep from spinning or tumbling as they free fell for thousands of feet. The parachutes had been adjusted to open at 500 feet, but no one trusted them. Every few seconds the Colonel would glance at his altimeter to see how far he'd fallen. Since it was night, he made out no images on the ground or any color. He reached for the parachute rip cord, but felt the canopy coming out of the nylon pack on his back, he twisted slightly to allow air to flow over his shoulder and pull the pilot chute out enough that the canopy suddenly inflated.

  He felt a jolt and heard himself give a loud grunt as he experienced opening shock. Quickly glancing up, he saw he had a good chute and gave a quick prayer of thanks to God.

  The fall had been quiet and he'd not heard a sound from the other two. Now he whispered, "Doc, Eyes, do you know where you landed?"

  "Doc here. I saw you land just before me, and I am about 100 feet north of you."

  "Copy. Eyes?"

  "I am in a tree to your west. I saw where you landed and as soon as I can get down I will be there."

  "Copy." the Colonel replied.

  "Uh, Busy 19, Cobra Actual here and we are on the ground. All is well, do you copy?"

  "Copy Cobra. We have fighters on our tail and I cannot talk right now, over."

  There was a bright light on the horizon, followed by the sound of an explosion.

  "Busy 19, Understand."

  "Cobra One, this is Python, over."

  "We just lost Busy 19 on radar."

  "Roger that, uh, we just saw a light and heard an explosion. Tell the cooks at the mess hall an aircraft crew will not be eating there any longer."

  "Understand. Your mission is still a go, over."

  "Copy and Cobra One Out, over."

  It was then that Eyes neared and said, "I hate landing in trees."

  "I love any landing I can walk away from." Doc said, and then continued, "Injured
at all?"

  "Left forearm is scraped, but nothing serious. I doctored it up while still in the tree and bandaged it well."

  "Doc, I want you on point and come to a compass heading of 120 and remember the magnetic deviation here is -6.69°."

  "Got it. How far out?"

  "Thirty feet or so. Keep your NVGs on and your head out of your ass. This is no place to relax because we are on a mission to murder a man."

  "I understand, sir." Doc said, and then moved to the front and pulled out his compass and began walking.

  The Colonel knew with the face paint and camouflage uniforms they'd be difficult to spot, unless someone saw their movements. Most hunters, and that's what they were, but hunting a man, were spotted by movements or they were heard. He noticed Doc was a quiet point.

  Near noon they stopped for a meal and an hour break. All were tired, but the Colonel said they'd stop for the day in about 4 hours. They were less than five miles from where Russian Intelligence said the General lived.

  Over the meal, Filippovna said, "Our mission is to kill an American General who has terrorized us since day one of this war. I know what he looks like and I have sworn to take him out, and we will do the job."

  "When I heard you had three tours in this war, I wanted to come and work with you." Eyes said.

  "And, you?" he asked the Doc.

  "I go where I am told but I was looking for adventure when I joined the army."

  Giving a weak smile, the Colonel said, "This time last week I was a Senior Sergeant and now I am a Colonel for just taking this job. By the way, Eyes, I have a grand total of 6 kills documented, as a sniper, but I only count 4 really. In one situation I struck a POL tank with a Grenade Launcher and killed two Colonels, but that was here four years back."

  "A fast promotion like yours means this mission is exceptionally dangerous. Mother Russia does not give out big promotions for anything easy."

  "We are fairly safe, well, until I fire the first shot. If I kill him all is good, if I miss the kill, then the woods will fill with men wanting us dead."

  "I suspect you will only get one shot."

  "So do I, Doc, but that is usually all I need."

  Pulling out a flask, the Colonel took a quick drink and then offered it to the two men. Both of them shook their heads and Eyes said, "After the mission, sir."

  He nodded, as he put the flask back into the left shirt pocket on his battle dress uniform.

  The next time they stopped it was 1620 hours and they were in a thick forest of oak and walnut trees.

  "We will rest over night here. Wipe down all guns and then eat. Once we eat, we sleep, but we will take turns on guard all night. Darkness is about 12 hours so four hours of guard for each of us. I will take the first shift, then Eyes and Finally Doc. I want us woken at 0500. We will be up and moving before sun up. Questions?"

  Silence.

  "Get your guns wiped down with an oily rag, but do not take anything apart as you clean. We are not alone out here."

  During his shift, the Colonel watched both of the younger men fall asleep quickly and he knew they were exhausted. He could remember being that young and sleep came quickly. The older he got the more he tended to lay thinking instead of sleeping.

  His mind began to wander and he began thinking of his youth . . .

  "You and your brother need to go outside and play so I can get supper on to cook." his mother said.

  "Come on Igor, let us go play in the barn."

  "Sure!"

  Both of the boys were in their pre-teens, with Igor being 11 and Danya 12. They were both thin and wiry, and it was easy to see they were brothers, because they both favored their mother.

  Once at the barn, Danya said, "Let us ride the horse around in the big field next to the house."

  "Papa said for us not to try to ride гром (Thunder). She is not all the way broken."

  "If Papa does not find out, then we cannot get into trouble, right?"

  "True, but most of the things we do that get us in trouble start out innocently enough."

  Danya laughed and said, "Sure, but what kind of trouble can riding a horse get us into?"

  His brother was quiet, thinking, then he added, "Just ride for a bit."

  "Okay, but you put the tack on her, because I swear she hates me." Danya said.

  His brother laughed and moved for the tack room.

  They led the horse, once saddled, out into the corral, and then Danya mounted her. While he expected a rough ride, she seemed to be too tired to kick up her heels this morning.

  "I think you can ride her, Danya. Try, and then I will ride her." Igor said.

  Danya rode her around the pasture a good twenty minutes and then asked his brother, "Your turn, ready?"

  "Yes, I am ready, and she seems easy to ride this morning.”

  "No trouble out of her yet. Come here and you can ride."

  "Okay, but I hope she lets me ride her."

  "She is fine this morning, so have fun."

  The young boy jumped from the horse and then helped Igor into the saddle. Wanting to run the horse, the boy kicked her in the ribs, and she reared up, dislodging her rider. Igor landed flat on his back in the dirt and his head caught the edge of the barn. He started to scream, but when he landed, he was knocked unconscious.

  Danya grew scared when Igor began to twitch and jerk.

  He took off for the house, running full speed.

  "Mamma, Igor fell off Thunder and it knocked him out! He's laying in the dirt inside the corral!"

  His mother gave him a puzzled look and then said, "Your father told you two to not bother that half wild horse."

  "Come with me, mama, and we can talk later. Igor has me scared. His head hit the corner of the barn."

  "Is he bleeding?" his mother asked as she removed her apron.

  "I . . . I do not know, but he is unconscious and jerking."

  "Lead me to him right now. Sweet Jesus, let my boy be okay."

  When they reached the barn, Igor was sitting up and talking to himself. He now had blood on his face and hands. Head injuries always bleed twice as much as the same cut on another part of the human body. He looked more injured than he was because of all the blood flowing down his face.

  Their mother took one look at her bleeding son and almost screamed. Instead she said, "In the tack room you will find a first aid kit on the wall, to the right, as you enter. Bring the whole kit to me, and hurry."

  Danya's mother had been raised on the farm, so she'd seen her fair share of serious injuries and everything from nasty and deep cuts to men kicked in the head by horses. When the first aid kit arrived, she pulled out a gauze pad and a roll of sticky cloth tape. She used the scissors in the kit to cut Igor's hair around the injury

  "How do your feel right now?"

  "Headache, mother, but I will be okay."

  "You scared me, badly too. You were jerking and twitching like a witch had you under an evil spell." Danya said.

  Igor shrugged and said, "I felt myself hit and then darkness until a minute or two before the two of you walked in here. My head feels better now wrapped up."

  "I want both of you to see what happens when you do not listen to father. He had a reason for telling you two to leave Thunder alone."

  Igor lowered his head and said in a voice just a little over a whisper, "Father was right, she is not ready to be ridden yet."

  "Can you stand, Igor?"

  "I think I will need help standing, but I should be able to walk once on my feet."

  Danya had his brother grab his hands and he pulled the young man to his feet.

  "Wait a minute or two before you try to walk. Feeling dizzy?"

  "A little dizzy. Yes, let us wait a while."

  "Fine with me. When you are ready let me know."

  "When you can, walk to the house and then get in bed, Igor. You will spend the next couple of days there, in bed resting. Head injuries are dangerous and some can kill." his mother said.

  Two
mornings later, Danya went to get his brother from bed for breakfast and he found him cold and dead. His head injury was obviously more serious than they'd thought.

  He returned to the kitchen and his mother asked, "You went all the way to the bedroom and then returned without your brother? Why?"

  "Mother, he is . . . uh . . . something is uh, wrong with him."

  "No, God, please no!" the mother screamed and then ran for the bedroom.

  Three days later, Igor Filippovna was buried in the family cemetery and just the headstone alone made his mother cry at the time. The small piece of granite read, "Igor Filippovna, born 2040, died 2051. Killed by a horse. Rest in peace, son and brother."

  After everyone left, Danya stood by the grave, even after the rains came, talking with his dead brother. He apologized to his brother for causing his death and for all the times he'd mistreated him. He carried a heavy load for such a young boy. Over the years he was able to forget about Igor's death, but he still to this day carried pain in his heart. Oh, he was old enough to know they both shared an equal responsibility of the death, so he no longer felt solely to blame.

  It was then he heard an American voice, "When are we stopping for the night? I don't think you really saw any Russians, Gator."

  "I saw 'em, but where did they go is a better question."

  The Colonel then spotted their movements in the darkness, so he quickly donned his NVGs. At first glance, he counted a squad of men. They were dressed in Chinese uniforms and wore American rank.

  Why did I not see their point man when he passed? Danya wondered.

  "I still say we need a person on point as we move." another American voice said.

  "We're at peace with the Russians, so why all the precautions, Sergeant?"

  "You know and I know we're at peace, but you can be damned sure some partisans and Russian units don't know about the treaty, sir. It's better to be prepared and not have to worry about an ambush, than it is to get ambushed and killed. Dying is final and there is no changing your condition once dead, sir." Both times the sir had been a tad late and sounded out of place.

  "When we move in the morning, post a point man." The voice of the officer was heard once more.