by Robert Boren
“Look, guys, we have a huge advantage,” Curt said. “We can see the enemy. We know exactly where they are.”
“That’s true,” Junior said, “but there is a tactical problem here. As soon as they’ve seen us, our advantage from the apps is gone. Then it’s numbers and firepower that will win the day. We might have the firepower but we don’t have the numbers, and that’s risky as hell for us.”
“Junior’s right,” Jason said. “We need to think outside the box.”
“Should we bring in the leadership team?” Cindy asked.
“Yes, but I want to brainstorm amongst ourselves first,” Jason said. “We need to hash it out as best as we can.”
“Okay, then let’s go systematically,” Junior said. “What are our advantages?”
“We have the apps,” Cindy said.
“That’s one,” Junior said. “What else?”
“We have very nimble, heavily armed off-roaders,” Curt said.
“That’s two,” Junior said. “What else?”
“We’ve got access to drone images,” Jason said.
“That’s three,” Junior said.
“We’ve got the cover of darkness,” Kelly said.
“That’s not an advantage,” Kyle said. “They’ve got that too.”
“Crap, sorry,” Kelly said. “You’re right.”
“No, wait a minute,” Junior said. “We’re forgetting about something.”
“What’s that?” Kelly asked.
“Those three M-1 tanks have night vision.”
Everybody was silent for a moment.
“Shit, he’s right,” Kyle said. “How much noise do those tanks make?”
“Depends on how fast they’re going,” Moe said. “They squeak a little. That might carry for a considerable distance.”
“Wait, don’t get off on that yet,” Junior said. “What are our other advantages?”
“The enemy is spread really thin as they get further away from the bridges,” Rachel said, looking at her phone. “If we pick a route and can be quick about doing our job, we can probably be in and out of there before the larger group can get to us.”
“I’d call that an advantage for us,” Cindy said. “It’s harder to defend a huge area like they have than to pierce a small part of it.”
“We need to get the latest drone pictures to see how many and what type of vehicles they have,” Curt said.
“Yep,” Junior said. “Any other advantages?”
“We have mortars and crews who are good with them,” Moe said. “We could do part of the destruction of those bridges and also flood the area with willie pete.”
“I’d call that an advantage,” Curt said, “even if the enemy also has mortars.”
“Yep,” Jason said. “What about disadvantages on our side?”
“Numbers,” Eric said.
“Yes,” Junior said. “Also lack of good intelligence beyond physical location and numbers. We don’t know what the enemy’s capabilities are. How do they keep finding us, for instance? Are they using satellite imagery? Is it real time or near-real time? Do they have bugs on some of our vehicles, or do we have moles in our ranks?”
“Those are two disadvantages, for sure,” Jason said. “Anything else?”
“I have one more possible advantage,” Don said. “There’s over six thousand people in Truth or Consequences, and almost a thousand in Carrizozo. We could use social media to rally citizens into the fight. It’s worked before. If we even get a couple hundred people from that, it’ll tip the balance.”
“Yes, that’s another advantage all right,” Curt said, “but how do we get the message to the right people without tipping off the enemy?”
“We use Comanche,” Sydney said, “like they did at the Austin capitol.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Don said. “The folks who run these message boards watch stuff like that, and the activities in Austin did go viral. Our people will know what to do. We have the translation program, so we can translate our messages into Comanche, and hopefully there’s enough people to translate.”
“Okay, let me get on the line with Ramsey and run this stuff past him,” Jason said. “Don’t do anything yet, though, okay?”
“Hurry, because we’ll be in Truth Or Consequences within the hour,” Cindy said.
“Roger that,” Jason said. “Talk to you soon.” The call ended.
“That was a good call,” Rachel said, “and good job at focusing the discussion, Junior. You’re one of the smartest people here, you know.”
“That was just common sense,” Junior said, “but thanks.”
“I’m proud to be your woman,” she said.
Chapter 29 – Maria’s Memories
Maria and Hendrix were sitting on the living room couch, cuddled up, nearly dozing.
“Maybe we should sneak into the bedroom for a little while,” Maria whispered. “I need some us time.”
“Can you be quiet enough?” Hendrix asked, a twinkle in his eyes.
“Maybe if you don’t drive me too crazy,” she said. “How long are the Governor and Ramsey going to be tied up?”
“From what I remember of those finance meetings, quite a while. They just started. He’ll get reports from all the big counties in Texas, and some of the smaller ones.”
“Why aren’t you in that meeting?” she asked, getting up.
He got up next to her, pulling her in for a hug. “It’s an executive branch thing. I’ll argue with him about it later.”
Maria chuckled. “Some things never change. C’mon.” She led him into the bedroom. Hendrix opened the door, then shut it behind them and set the night lock. Maria’s dress was off by the time he turned around, and she was reaching behind her back to undo her bra. He moaned when her breasts bounced free.
“I’ll never get tired of looking at you,” he said, taking her in.
“I certainly hope not,” she said. “Get those clothes off now.”
“My my, so demanding.”
“Hurry.” She pulled the covers back on the queen bed and got on, watching him undress. He joined her on the bed, and they kissed tenderly for several moments, their hands roaming over each other as their passion rose.
“Seems like forever since we did this,” she whispered.
“It wasn’t,” Hendrix said between kisses. “Just a few days. You know what seems like a long time ago to me?”
“What?”
“Our lunch date, and then the date the next night,” he said.
She laughed. “The second one almost killed us.”
“If we wouldn’t have been together, you might not have survived.”
“I know,” she said, moving over him, starting another kiss.
“Yes,” he said as they broke it, pulling her all the way on top of him, reveling in the flesh against flesh feeling.
“You’re ready now, aren’t you?”
“Let’s take our time,” he said.
She giggled. “I was so embarrassed after that lunch date.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because I got a little tipsy, and I teased you,” she said, “but that wasn’t all.”
“You were fine,” he said, looking into her eyes. “What else, though? I only remember you letting me look at your cleavage.”
“I asked you into my apartment afterwards, remember?”
“Yes, and I turned you down.”
“You did,” she said. “You were a perfect gentleman.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
She took his hand and put it lower, pressing it against her. “I was like this.”
His eyes opened wide. “No, really?”
“Really,” she said. “That’s why I almost didn’t go on the next date. I felt so guilty the next morning.”
“This is interesting,” he said, smiling at her. “What would’ve happened if I would have gone to your apartment?”
“Probably this,” she whispered, moving up, then settling down onto hi
m. He groaned.
“You would have let me?” he asked, hands going to her butt as she moved over him.
She looked into his eyes as she moved, her eyes dilated, then bit her lower lip and squealed, going out of control on him.
“I probably would’ve done that too,” she said, catching her breath. “I did, by myself.”
The vision of that hit Hendrix like a freight train, and he flipped her onto her back, taking her with abandon until they broke into a roaring climax together.
“Oh, God,” she said as they came down.
“Talking about that got us pretty worked up,” Hendrix said, staying on top of her, brushing the hair away from her eyes. They kissed deeply.
“I love you so,” she said.
“I love you too, sweetheart.” He chuckled. “I really had no idea.”
“The second date was even worse,” she said. “I was such a tart.”
“No you weren’t,” Hendrix said. “That’s when I knew we would be together, though.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “You’re thinking about it now, aren’t you? I can feel it.”
“Looking at you that night,” he said. “When you let me. That’s a powerful memory.” He was starting to get short of breath.
“This is getting to you again,” she said, smiling, eyes dancing with his. He started to move in her. “Oh, yes.”
“Was it like this when you were looking?”
“I was afraid you were going to notice,” he said.
She smiled. “I did notice, silly. I almost touched it.”
“You’re a naughty girl,” he said.
“When I decide, I become aggressive,” she said. “Remember what happened in the bunker later that night. I started that, remember?”
“That pops into my mind pretty often,” he said, feeling the passion hitting him. They started again, making love with abandon, going until both of them were panting and exhausted.
“This was a good time for a double,” Maria said as they settled down next to each other. “A really good time.”
Hendrix’s eyes lit up. “Good. Assuming you still want that with me.”
“I still want that,” she said. “More than ever, and more than once. I want our children surrounding us.”
The console in the room beeped.
“Oh, crap,” Hendrix said.
Maria got out of bed and answered it.
“Hey, you two, sorry to wake you,” Nelson said, “but we have an important call coming up. We need Kip’s brain.”
“Be there in a few seconds,” Maria said. She looked sheepishly at Hendrix. “Get dressed. Maybe we can play more later. I’m still worked up.”
“Good,” he said. They were dressed and in the console room in a couple minutes.
“What’s going on?” Hendrix asked.
“Jason needs to chat,” Ramsey said. “They have some challenges with the bridge demo. They’ve been brainstorming, but they want to run their ideas past us before they commit.”
“Okay,” Hendrix said, sitting down. Maria went to the console. The call came through after a moment, and she accepted it. They could hear the sound of a vehicle moving, things rattling.
“Jason?” Ramsey asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Sorry, no picture this time. We’re driving. Are Gallagher and Wallis coming?”
“Yep, they should be on any moment,” Nelson said. The console beeped again. “Speak of the devil.”
Wallis and Gallagher’s faces came up on the monitor.
“Good afternoon,” Wallis said. “What’s up?”
“Jason’s team has been doing some brainstorming, and he wanted to chat with us about it,” Ramsey said.
“Okay,” Wallis said.
“Problems?” Gallagher asked.
“The enemy moved a few hundred troops to the bridges over the Rio Grande south of Truth or Consequences,” Jason said. “A little while ago they started moving people north of the bridges. We think they’re trying to prevent us from getting a good sight-line to hit them.”
“They figured out you’re on the way,” Ramsey said.
“Or they’ve realized how vulnerable they are in that particular spot,” Hendrix said. “There’s no way around the Rio Grande if Jason’s team takes out the bridges in that area. It cuts their supply lines rather well.”
“That’s what we think,” Jason said, “although they’ve figured out our moves ahead of time more than once. They might have real-time satellite imagery, or even a plant inside our ranks.”
“Or they might be eavesdropping on conversations,” Gallagher said. “Remember what they’re trying to do at our new base on the gulf.”
“Uh oh,” Jason said. “What happened?”
“We lost most of our people and boats at the new base in Brownsville,” Wallis said. “Turned out to be enemy plants in a group of technical contractors we hired. They’re also at the base further south, where the survivors of the Brownsville attack are now. The contractors who are setting up the communications have RFID chips.”
“Crap,” Jason said.
“We’re using it to our advantage,” Wallis said. “We’re pretending we don’t know and feeding them faulty intel.”
Jason chuckled. “Good. Working?”
“Yeah, we just kept a large force of enemy fighters from coming across the river. We were able to see where they went, and hit them with some AC-130 gunships.”
“Whoa, you’ve got access to AC-130s?”
“Yeah, and they’re under our direct control,” Wallis said. “The Air Force gave us five.”
“Maybe we could use them here,” Jason said.
“One of the conditions was that we have to use them either in Texas or Mexico,” Nelson said. “No other states. We’re still worried about the UN and the EU sending forces to Texas.”
“Bummer,” Jason said.
“So you guys brainstormed on this?” Wallis asked.
“Yep,” Jason said. “Identified our strengths and weaknesses, mainly.”
“I assume your strengths are the apps and your mobile fire-power,” Gallagher said.
“Those, and our mortar teams, our social media team, and the night vision systems on those M-1 tanks.”
Gallagher chuckled. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Those tanks have very good FLIR systems.”
“That only makes a difference if you do the attack at night,” Wallis said.
“Yep,” Jason said. “We aren’t sure if they are quiet enough to really sneak into place, and we aren’t positive that the 120 mm cannon will do the job, either.”
“Oh, they’ll do the job, but it will take more than one shot, I’m sure,” Wallis said.
“You could use willie pete to get the troops away from the bridges and then set charges,” Gallagher said.
“That sounds too much like a suicide mission to me,” Hendrix said.
“I was thinking the same,” Nelson said.
“There is one other possible trick we can pull,” Hendrix said.
“What’s that?” Wallis asked.
“Remember that we have the ability to pass false info at the moment,” Hendrix said. “Via that communications setup at South Padre Island. What if we get on there with Richardson and discuss the pending attack on the freeway infrastructure at El Paso and Las Cruces?”
Wallis snickered. “You know, Kip, that’s not a bad idea.”
“Might work,” Gallagher said. “We did burn them with that in Brownsville, though. They might not be as stupid as we think they are.”
“What did you do there?” Jason asked.
“That was how we set them up for the AC-130 attack we just mentioned,” Gallagher said.
Jason chuckled. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.”
“You know, we can’t send those AC-130s into Las Cruces, but we could go pound the hell out of the roads leaving El Paso,” Hendrix said. “They’re using those to get to I-25. Look.” He showed his phone to Nelson and Ramsey.
“I’ll put the m
ap on the console,” Maria said. “So we can all see it.”
“Yes, do that, please,” Nelson said. Maria clicked a few times and typed on the keyboard, and a detailed map came up.
“Nice thinking, Kip,” Wallis said. “We could destroy I-10, Highway 20, and Highway 178. That will force the enemy onto much smaller roads. It’ll be a big pain in the ass for them.”
“It gets even better,” Gallagher said. “We’ll say that our team is going to destroy I-25 and Highway 185 right around Radium Springs, just north of Las Cruces.”
“That’s not as good of a place as the bridges over the Rio Grande,” Ramsey said.
“True, but only because they’d be easier to rebuild or go around,” Wallis said. “It’s still going to stop them dead for a period of time. Could be weeks, maybe even a month. They won’t want to risk that. They’ll move troops there if they believe our conversation. The most likely place they’d pull from would be Truth or Consequences.”
“I like it,” Jason said.
“Good, then we’ll do that now,” Nelson said. “Wallis, how soon could we have the AC-130s to El Paso?”
“In a couple of hours. We’d better warn our people there. Perhaps put up roadblocks to keep civilians away.”
“We’ve lost men every time we’ve put up roadblocks down there,” Gallagher said. “The enemy comes out of the woodwork and attacks.”
“From where?” Ramsey asked.
“We’ll watch the apps and find out if they decide to send them,” Jason said. “If they were coming from that base in White Sands, they might not show up. The tribe whacked them good. They could be too low on people now.”
“Things are starting to fall into place,” Nelson said.
“Don’t get overconfident,” Gallagher said. “This might not work. The enemy isn’t stupid.”
“I know, but it’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Nelson asked.
“Yes, it is,” Gallagher said. “Let’s get things rolling.”
“Okay,” Ramsey said. “Jason, talk to you later. Hopefully we’ll have bombs dropping north of El Paso in a couple hours. Sit tight.”
“Will do,” Jason said. He dropped off the call.
“Maria, dial up Captain Richardson, okay?”
“Will do,” she said. “It’ll just take a minute.”
“We play this straight with Richardson,” Wallis said. “All the way. What’s the reason we’re calling?”
