by Robert Boren
“He wants me to do some recruiting, so we can show a good presence with the patrol boats.”
“Who does he want you to recruit?”
“Our fellow travelers,” Richardson said.
“Why? Are you going to be right back in the thick of it again?”
“Kinda sounds like it, honey,” Richardson said. “How we doing on gas?”
“We could use a stop,” she said. “I need to use the ladies room anyway.”
“Me too,” Richardson said. He looked at his phone and laughed.
“What?”
“Next town is Riviera,” he said.
“No way,” Lita said. “We almost died last time we were in Riviera Beach.”
“Not Riviera Beach, just plain Riviera,” Richardson said. “It’s right on Highway 77. Should be okay. It’s miles away from Riviera Beach, and besides, the US Navy has locked down most of the gulf.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m kinda hungry. Think we have enough time to grab a bite?”
“Should be fine. We’re making good time. I’ll send a text to the others.” He typed on his phone and then put it back in his pocket.
They pulled into Riviera and stopped at the gas station, all the vehicles fueling up.
“You want to talk to us, eh?” Gerald asked.
“Yeah, man,” Richardson said.
“What’s going on, boss?” Brendan asked.
“Tell you what,” Richardson said. “Let’s go grab a bite to eat at that Burger King over there, and we’ll chat.”
“Sounds good to me,” Gerald said.
“Me too,” Hector said. “I could eat a horse.”
“Seriously, dude,” Juan Carlos said as he finished filling the truck.
“It takes two hands to handle my whopper,” Brendan sang.
Madison and Hannah laughed, walking up behind them. Lita was behind them a few steps.
“What’s so funny?” Lita asked as she joined them.
“Brendan was singing about his whopper,” Juan Carlos said.
“Oh, brother,” Lita said. “We must be going to the Burger King.”
“There’s not much else here, other than a Mexican Restaurant, and we don’t have enough time for that,” Richardson said.
“Burger King is fine,” Lita said. She shot a smirk to Madison and Hannah.
The group drove across the street and parked, getting their food and finding several tables next to each other in the back section of the dining room.
“Smells good,” Richardson said.
“It does,” Kris said. “I was hungrier than I thought.”
“I’m always hungry,” Hector said, patting his round belly. Roberto snickered.
“What did you want to talk to us about?” Gerald asked.
“I’ve got a temporary job offer for you guys,” Richardson said.
“Really?” Gerald asked. “Need somebody to wash patrol boats or something?”
“We need some people to help us man the patrol boats,” Richardson said.
“Dude, you sure?” Juan Carlos asked. “Isn’t that a little dangerous?”
“We can check them out pretty fast,” Richardson said. “All of you have been in the service before, right?”
“Been years, but yep,” Gerald said. “Hector and Roberto have too. It’s a shame Jay is gone. He was in the coast guard.”
“It’s a shame he’s gone regardless,” Roberto said with a grim look on his face.
“Do I get to wear my railroad cap, or do I have to wear a uniform?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Richardson said. “Like I said, this is temporary. I’ve been authorized to offer you a hundred bucks per day.”
“You’ll have to consult the boss,” Roberto said, nodding over at Kris.
“How many people per boat?” Kris asked.
“Three,” Richardson said. “A pilot and two gunners.”
“So these guys will get one more boat on the water,” Kris said. “Seems like it’s barely worth it. What’s going on down there?”
“We got tipped off,” Richardson said. “There’s an enemy troop buildup in Matamoros, Mexico.”
“Seeing them with the apps, I suspect,” Hector said.
“Yep,” Richardson said.
“Have you looked yourself?” Brendan asked. “How big of a problem do we have?”
“Shit, I haven’t gotten around to that,” Richardson said. He wiped hamburger mess off his hands and pulled the phone out of his pocket, eyes getting wide as he looked.
“I don’t like that look,” Lita said.
“There’s hundreds,” Richardson said.
“Are we still going to be off South Padre Island?” Juan Carlos asked.
“No, we’ll be on the river between Brownsville and Matamoros,” Richardson said.
“This won’t be a problem,” Brendan said. “It’ll be just like we were doing on Falcon Lake. We’ll be stopping small boats and barges from getting across the river.”
“Probably be strafing for swimmers, too,” Juan Carlos said. “How many boats will we have in the area?”
“We’ve got twenty boats, but only enough crew members for five, not counting these guys,” Richardson said.
“That still only makes six boats,” Madison said. “Wouldn’t seven boats be better?”
“What are you getting at, honey?” Juan Carlos asked.
Hannah chuckled. “I know where this is going. You’ve trained all of us on the boat guns. We should go aboard too.”
“No frigging way,” Juan Carlos said.
“Why not?” Madison asked. “We can shoot those guns. Maybe we’ll even get paid. We have rings to buy, remember?”
Juan Carlos shrugged, sheepish grin on his face. “Well, there is that, I guess.”
“Here’s what I suggest,” Hannah said. “Put the four of us on one boat. I’ll man the SMAW.”
“Hold on a minute,” Richardson said.
“What’s wrong with that idea?” Madison asked.
“Well, for one thing, shouldn’t we spread the experienced crews amongst the boats?”
Lita glanced at Richardson, then back at the girls. “I’m willing to do this, but only if I’m on the same boat with my man. Period.”
“Yeah, me too,” Madison said. Hannah nodded in agreement.
“Looks like you’re being overruled there, Captain,” Gerald said. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Hector, Roberto, and I can man one of these babies, if Hector doesn’t swamp us.”
“I’m going too,” Kris said. “You think I’m going to sit on the shore and watch? I can shoot.”
Richardson sat there thinking, brow furrowed.
“Well?” Lita asked.
“We can’t have any less than three people per boat,” Richardson said. “We learned that lesson a long time ago. If you and I are gonna be on a boat, we’ll need either Hector or Gerald with us.”
“I’ll go with you guys,” Gerald said. “I’ve got a lot of experience on boats. I can pilot that sucker for you.”
“This idea is growing on me, boss,” Brendan said.
“Me too,” Juan Carlos said.
“We’ll have a mission to do out there,” Richardson said. “You can’t spend the whole time looking out for your women.”
“We’ll pull our weight,” Lita said.
“Damn straight,” Madison said.
“Okay, I’ll run it past Jefferson when we get back on the road,” Richardson said. “You okay with driving a little longer, honey?”
“I’d much rather have you on the apps while we’re traveling.”
“Good,” Richardson said.
“Any of our friends nearby?” Hector asked.
“Nope, checked while we were at the gas station. Nobody around.”
“We’d better get moving,” Juan Carlos said. “It’d be nice to be in Brownsville before dark.”
“Yeah,” Lita said.
The group finished eating and hit the road.
Chapter 10 –
Ruidoso Club House
The clubhouse in Ruidoso Downs RV Park was dusty, with some of the windows broken out. The crowd filtered in slowly, as Moe and Clancy set up their audio-visual equipment at the front of the room.
“How’s it going?” Dirk asked, walking up with Cindy, and taking her hand. Dirk looked embarrassed when Clancy noticed.
“We’re almost ready to go,” Clancy said. “Looks like you two are almost ready to go, too.”
“Stop,” Cindy said, face turning red. Dirk just smiled silently.
Junior and Kelly joined them with Rachel and Brenda.
“Where’s Jason and Kyle?” Kelly asked.
“They ought to be here any minute,” Moe said.
“Wonder if they heard back from those Injuns?” Junior asked. Rachel elbowed him in the side.
“Junior, you don’t want to slip with that kind of talk,” she whispered.
“Oh, I won’t,” Junior said. “Trust me.”
Kelly chuckled. “Yeah, Junior here is a very sensitive, politically correct gentleman, as you’ve seen in the past.”
Everybody laughed for a moment. The room was filling up fast. Jason came in carrying Chelsea, talking with Eric and Kyle. Kate, Carrie, and Kim followed, chatting softly, looking worried.
“We just about ready?” Jason asked Moe.
“Let’s see,” Moe said, plugging the microphone into the amplifier jack. “Testing testing one two three.” His voice boomed through the clubhouse.
“Sounds good,” Kyle said.
Curt and Amanda came in with Don, Sydney, Chloe, and Alyssa.
Jason got up in front of the crowd with the microphone.
“Thanks for coming. Everybody hear me okay?”
“We hear ya,” Daisy shouted from the back of the room, standing next to Jake. Brushy, Pat, and Jax came in the room. Chance, Francis, Sherry, and a few others rushed in, looking worried about being late.
Jason looked out over the crowd once more, and put the microphone to his lips.
“Everybody got hook-ups that are working?”
“Everybody who needs power has it,” Curt shouted.
“Good,” Jason said.
“How long are we gonna be here?” Jake asked.
“Not long,” Jason said. “We’re planning a scouting party tonight. We need volunteers. No more than six men.”
“To scout what?” Jax asked.
“The Holoman Air Force Base,” Jason said. “We want to find out if we can mount an assault, or if we need to go around that area.”
“Count me in,” Curt said. “With my barracuda.”
Amanda looked at him, scared but proud.
“I’m in,” Eric said. “I’ll bring the Bronco.”
“And me,” Clancy said.
“Count me in too,” Junior said. “In that two-seat off-roader.”
“I’m going with him,” Rachel said.
“You sure, honey?” Junior asked.
“Hell yes I’m sure,” she said.
“Chance, you want to do it?” Dirk asked.
“Sure, we can use the truck,” Chance said.
“That’s probably enough,” Jason said.
“You don’t want to go?” Curt asked.
“My wife has asked that I not, since she’s having issues with the pregnancy,” Jason said. “Anybody object?”
“No,” Brenda shouted. “She’s the only pregnant woman here.”
“Well, not the only one,” Rachel said. You could hear a pin drop in the room. She covered her mouth. “Oops.”
“Knocked her up, did you, Junior?” Dirk asked. “Nice job.”
“Sure you should be going?” Kate asked. “Remember what happened to me.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Rachel said. “If something happens to Junior, I don’t want to be around, and besides, I’m really early.”
Curt came over and took the microphone from Jason, who nodded back at him in agreement. “Okay, we leave a couple hours after dark. Quietly, through the back of the park. No lights. There’s a moon tonight, which will help, but will also make us more visible. We’ll be doing a fair amount of walking. Let’s huddle and go over our GPS together after this meeting. Everybody agree?”
“Yep,” Eric said. He looked over at Kim. She locked eyes with him.
“You know I’m going too, right?” she asked.
“I figured,” Eric said. “There’s room in the Bronco, and you’ve saved my sorry ass more than once.”
“Good,” she said, her arm going around his waist.
“Any news about the Injuns?” Junior asked.
“Junior,” Curt said, shaking his head.
“Hey, it’s important,” Junior said. “We need to know who’s side they’re on.”
“He’s right,” Jason said. “Ramsey is doing a little detective work for us.”
“Think that’s really gonna help?” Rachel asked.
“It’s the best we can do at the moment,” Jason said.
The crowd murmured back at him, but nobody seemed upset.
“Okay, next steps,” Jason said. “If the base looks like something we can assault and win, we’ll mount an attack, probably within the next few days. If they’ve got too many people, we’ll go around them.”
“How?” Kelly asked.
“There’s actually a couple of ways,” Eric said. “We can take Highway 48 north to Highway 37, then use Highway 380 to skirt the White Sands Missile Range. I checked. No enemy fighters anywhere near that area.”
“Isn’t that kinda far out of the way?” Junior asked.
“Not really,” Eric said. “Might alter our strategy a little bit. Highway 380 hits I-25 by San Antonio.”
Jake laughed. “There’s a San Antonio in New Mexico too?”
“Yep,” Junior said. “The Spanish loved Saint Tony, I guess.”
Snickers erupted in the room. Kelly looked at Junior and shook his head.
“What do you mean by altering the strategy?” Curt asked.
“I mean we start blowing up parts of I-25 up there and work our way south,” Eric said.
“Any reason why we shouldn’t do that?” Dirk asked.
“Not that I can see,” Jason said. “We could run it past Ramsey.”
“Maybe we should do that anyway and avoid the problem at the Air Force base,” Brenda said.
“Hard to turn down a fat enemy target like that,” Clancy said.
“True,” Brenda said, “but that’s not the main mission, and if we get defeated, who’s going to shut down I-25?”
Jason thought for a moment. “She makes a good point. I still think we should do our recon tonight, but if hitting that base is the least bit chancy, maybe we ought to go this other direction.”
“I can agree with that,” Curt said.
“Yeah, me too,” Jax said.
“The Injuns could be the wild card here,” Junior said. “We need to figure out what their plans are before we decide what we do.”
“Why?” Kelly asked.
“Because with four thousand warriors, we could clean the enemy out of the White Sands area completely. That’ll give us a free hand to screw up I-25. If we go with the alternate plan, they’ll use White Sands as a base to attack us from. Look at the map.”
“We’ve got a lot to think about,” Curt said. “We done? I want to plan the scouting operation to the Nth degree.”
“Yeah, I’m done,” Jason said.
“Good, then let’s break,” Eric said.
The room started to empty out, the small team huddling at a table in the front of the room.
“Do you need to be involved with this, Jason?” Carrie asked.
“You’re not feeling well?”
“I’m really tired. Can you come back with me, and take care of Chelsea?”
“Of course,” he said. They turned and left the clubhouse.
“I’m so glad you aren’t going tonight,” Carrie said. “Does it bother you too much?”
“No, I’m fine with
it,” Jason said. “I won’t be able to get out of everything, but there’s plenty of great people on this team.”
“I wish Rachel wasn’t going.”
“Nobody can tell her that,” Jason said. “In some ways I agree with her.”
“Oh, I know,” Carrie said.
“Daddy, can you pick me up?” Chelsea asked. “I’m tired.”
“Of course, sweet pea,” Jason said, lifting her. “It’ll be bed time soon.”
“I don’t want to go to bed, daddy, I’m just too tired to walk.”
“I’m glad she cleared that up,” Carrie said, a smirk washing over her face, un-furrowing her brow for a moment.
Jason smiled as they made their way back to the motor home.
Chapter 11 - Awake
Maria was sitting next to Hendrix on the couch, watching TV news. Ramsey and Dr. Schultz sat in recliners. The news was about the mid-Atlantic states, and a huge uprising of citizens against martial law. The citizens were winning the largest battle, just outside of Baltimore.
“Wow, that’s something,” Dr. Schultz said. “This is why Nelson took us out of the union, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much,” Ramsey said.
“You know, I was against this when he did it,” the doctor said. “Can’t say that I’m against it anymore.”
“I know the feeling,” Hendrix said, smiling.
“Actually, the fact that you went along with it helped me to think it through a little more,” Schultz said.
“There’s still a lot of people on my side who don’t like it,” Hendrix said. “I’m persona non grata amongst a lot of my old friends, I’m afraid.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that, honey,” Maria said, cuddling up against him. “We’ll have plenty of time to mend fences when this is over, assuming that we win the war.”
“How much chance is there that we won’t win the war?” Schultz asked.
“Probably not much,” Ramsey said, “but this is far from over.”
The console beeped in the other room.
“Uh oh,” Maria said, getting up.
“What now?” Ramsey asked. “It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, it’s almost dark,” Schultz said, “but I’ll bet you folks are on duty all the time, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Hendrix said, following Maria and Ramsey into the console room.
“I’ll go check on the Governor,” Schultz said, getting out of his recliner.
