by Dennis Elder
William’s response captured all the newbie’s attention. Mark realized he should not have offered that last bit of information. Several muffled conversations erupted. So, Mark stood dead still while the talking burned itself out. Then he resumed speaking.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed that none of the seasoned veterans have questioned anything I’ve stated this morning,” started Mark again.
That got most of the kid’s heads to drop a bit.
“As a courtesy I’m trying to keep everyone informed of what’s ahead,” said the Major. “I had hoped this would help you prepare mentally as each day progressed.”
Then he looked over at Tyrone Johnson their resident big guy. He didn’t look down.
“Tyrone?” asked Mark.
“Yes Major,” answered Tyrone.
“When you went out on patrol, did you normally get daily briefings on what was planned for the day?” added Mark.
The big black man slowly cracked a toothy grin.
“Daily briefing!” barked Tyrone. “We’d be lucky to get a daily how-dee-do,” added the big guy.
Tyrone irreverent comment got the group to loosen up a bit. A few people laughed softly.
“My hope,” began Mark. “Is Las Vegas will be a wide open and peaceful city and we’ll just drive through it unmolested. However, bad people may control the city. If so, we’ll want to go around them, undetected, and un-noticed.”
“I’m for that,” added Sam.
“Absolutely,” said Frank.
Mark let the men’s secondary comments sink in before he continued.
“So,” Mark continued. “You noticed last night that the temperature dropped. It will be pretty cold for the next two hours. Once the sun comes up it won’t as bad. I suggest wearing gloves for a while.”
Those not already wearing gloves began searching their bike packs.
“Today’s next stop is Jean, Nevada – like I said, about 20 miles out. Jake and Jacob will wait for us there. We’ll all stay together for the next two days,” finished Mark. “Any questions before we hit the road.”
A hand went up. It was Mary. Mark pointed to her.
“We still get pee breaks though, right Major?” asked Mary as sarcastically as possible.
Mark took a deep breath but didn’t respond.
“OK, then if there aren’t any other constructive objections…” said Mark.
No one said anything more. So, the Major turned his bike away from the hotel’s front door and the main body filed out into the cold December morning.
Chapter 103: Almost back
Ralphy and Squeaky had traveled about 16 miles when they came to the St. Rose Parkway turn off. As they approached the overpass they saw four men posted on the bridge looking South down I-15. Ralphy recognized the men. They seemed to recognize him. Squeaky waved to the men as they drew close. No one waived back at him.
“Not very friendly,” remarked Squeaky.
Ralphy noticed the men’s lack of response too.
“Maybe things have soured some since we’ve been away,” said Ralphy.
“Sour?” questioned Squeaky.
“Yea,” replied Ralphy.
The two men kept riding. It would take them another hour and a half to get to the Bellagio hotel and report to Ivan.
Chapter 104: Third largest
It had only taken the main group two hours to get to where Jake and Jacob were positioned, just South of Jean. The convicts they were following had left their rooms at 0800 hours and were long gone by the time Mark the group pulled up to Jake and Jacob.
“Howdy,” greeted Jake as the large group of now seasoned bike riders hit their brakes and rolled to a stop.
“Hey,” responded several of the team.
It was good to have everyone together again.
“What’s our situation,” asked Mark.
Jake stood up to talk to Mark and handed the big binoculars to the Major. Mark put them to his eyes and began scanning the town and surrounding landscape. Everyone got off their bikes and pressed close to hear what was being said.
“Our boys left early this morning,” began Jake, as he gestured to the town. “They dropped over the first hill about 2 hours ago. We’ve been watching for signs of movement since daylight but haven’t see a thing.”
Mark continued to scan the town.
“Doesn’t mean there aren’t any HBs lurking behind closed doors though,” said Mark, referencing Jake’s near-death experience with the two HBs in the Primm convenience store.
“Roger that,” said Jacob, with a scowl on his face.
“Make sure Doc looks at your bite once we get settled,” said Mark.
“Will do,” replied Jake.
Mark dropped the binoculars and turned back to the group.
“Alright now, listen up,” began Mark. “Like I said we’ll be holing up in Jean until tomorrow night. Then we’ll head out again.”
“Sounds like a nice break,” offered Silvia.
Most of the group nodded and moaned in agreement.
“It will,” said Mark. “However.”
Boon leaned over toward Randy and whispered, “Here it comes.”
“Between this point on the ride, and until we are on the North side of Las Vegas and heading double time out of town, we all operate in stealth mode,” continued Mark.
A couple of the kids didn’t seem to understand what Mark meant, so the Major began a more detailed explanation.
“Since we are going to relax for a day and a half you may be thinking it’s a time for you to let your hair down a bit,” said Mark, with a smile on this face. “You relax a bit, think nobody’s watching. You let your guard down.”
Then Mark dropped the smile.
“That’s a negative,” said Mark. “We cannot afford for anyone to see us, and that means hear us as well. That means no shouting out if you find an edible twinkie.”
That got a few laughs.
“I’m serious,” said Mark.
That erased the smiles.
“Say you find a battery powered boom box and you just can wait to show your buddy how cool it is to play that favorite song of yours,” started Mark. “You do that around me and I’ll put a meat cleaver through that boom box faster than you can say, But Major!”
There was silence in the group.
“We must be ninjas until we pass through and out of Vegas,” continued Mark. “When we mount up tomorrow night everyone must make sure their bikes are quiet. That means nothing is swinging around, no metal to metal clinks, all reflectors are to be removed from your bikes, keep all flashlight hidden, and everyone wears dark clothing. When we move I want it to sound like ants running on cotton. No peeps, no accidental coughs, sneezes or wheezes. If we can do that, keep super quiet, then maybe they won’t even know we were here.
“What about HBs, Major?” asked Frank. “What if we run into HBs and we can’t get around um?”
Major Mark shook his head up and down a bit.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that,” began Mark. “When confronted by an HB and you can’t get past it… then I want you to club the thing to death.”
That got the group’s attention. Most everyone reacted to some degree. Mark put up his hands to quiet the crowd.
“If we unfortunately run into some bad guys, then everyone has clearance to shoot them as needed,” responded Mark.
That promoted some relief in the group.
“But if we run into any more HBs,” said Mark. “Then we bring them down quietly, with a baseball bat or a metal rod of some kind.”
“Where we gonna find baseball bats in the middle of the desert?” questioned Mary.
Mark just smiled, turned back to Jean and looked through the binoculars again.
“Well it seems Jean is the home of Nevada’s third largest Baseball hall of fame,” said Mark with smile. “I’m sure we will find enough blunt instruments in there to go around.”
Mary came forward and motioned to use the binocula
rs. Mark handed them over and Mary focused in on the convenience store six miles away. The building next to the Convenience store looked out of place. But above the entrance door hung an old weathered sign that said, “Burt’s Baseball Hall of Fame.”
Mary dropped the binoculars and passed them back to Mark. Then she smiled.
Chapter 105: A little rest
Ivan sat in his office with Claudio. Both men were talking about last night’s fight when somebody knocked on the door.
Ivan motioned to Claudio to see who it was. Claudio walked over to the entry, unlocked a make shift bar lock across the entry frame and swung open the large mahogany doors. And there stood Ralphy and Squeaky.
“Bout time you two showed up,” said Claudio, as he did a quick look-see into the hallway before motioning the two men to come into the office. After the two crossed the office threshold, Claudio checked the hallway one more time and then closed and locked the doors.
Neither Ralphy or Squeaky attempted to sit. Sitting was for talking and neither of them had every been invited to sit down in Ivan’s office before.
The Russian mob boss and Claudio looked the two over for a moment. Both men were dirty and covered with road sweat and grime.
“You remember what I told you when I sent you out there?” asked Ivan, as he took a drink of scotch whiskey from a cut glass goblet.
“I remember,” offered Ralphy.
“You do huh?” said Ivan.
“Yes,” said Ralphy.
Squeaky didn’t say a thing. He was crazy anxious to talk about the women, but he promised Ralphy he’d keep his mouth shut. Ralphy warned him if they didn’t say the right things in the right order then they both might be sent out again to capture the women. As much as Squeaky wanted to shout out what they’d found, he didn’t want to spend any more time on a bicycle.
“Then where is the woman?” asked Ivan. The Russian’s eyes were bloodshot and anxious. Ralphy sensed he needed to be very careful how he answered the boss. Didn’t want to get himself all killed before he had a chance to give the good word.
“She’s traveling North with about eight men,” offered Ralphy.
“You let her get away?” accused Ivan, as he reached across his waist and slowing pulled a 10-inch hunting knife out of its sheath. He found the knife in a jeweler store. It had a lot of diamonds encrusted into the handle. He didn’t buy it for the diamonds. He bought it because the diamonds provided a better grip when blood got on the handle. Ever since that guy tried to knife him in the hall way he’d been kinda paranoid. Started carrying a small 40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun in his back waistband too. Slept with it at night.
“Guys that were with her had us seriously outgunned,” said Ralphy, as comely as he could. He saw the knife and understood the implied message.
“I was very clear, Ralphy. I told you not to come back without that honey,” said Ivan as he began to peel the apple that suddenly appeared in his left hand. The big knife sliced easily through the apple’s skin.
“The men,” continued Ralphy, this time with more tension in his voice. “The men were definitely ex-military types. They were loaded for bear man.”
“Ah huh,” said Ivan, just before he rose up from his chair.
Ralphy backed up slightly when Ivan stood up. Squeaky tensed up too. Ivan began moving around the back of his seat toward the two men. Ralphy backed up a bit toward a wall in the office. Squeaky tried to move away from Ralphy but Claudio shifted his position to keep the two men close together.
“We couldn’t do a thing, man,” said Ralphy. “They walked up on us while we were hunting the girl.”
“Couldn’t do thing,” said Ivan, as he tossed the knife from his right hand to his left.
Squeaky couldn’t keep his mouth shut anymore.
“We found more than one woman,” shouted Squeaky.
Ivan suddenly stopped moving toward Ralphy and turned his attention to Squeaky. After a few seconds he spoke.
“How many,” asked Ivan.
Before Squeaky could say Ralphy cut in again.
“At least eight women,” said Ralphy.
“Eight,” said Ivan, as he turned to look at Claudio. Both men remained impassive. But both understood the importance of the information.
“At least eight,” continued Ralphy.
“And they got two kids with um too,” said Squeaky.
Ralphy turned his eyes to Squeaky to remind him to keep his mouth shut. Squeaky got the message and dropped his eyes to the floor.
“Kids,” asked Ivan. “How’d they have kids with um?
“Don’t know,” replied Ralphy. “But they got ‘um and about eight women heading North.”
Ivan thought for a second.
“So, they’re coming North through Vegas then?” asked Ivan.
“No,” said Ralphy.
‘Which way they commin then?” asked Ivan, as he began moving toward Ralphy again.
“Another road,” offered Ralphy.
Before Ralphy could even put up his hands to protect himself, Ivan’s knife lashed out and was pressed firmly against Ralphy’s throat. Squeaky didn’t even see the blade move. He decided to stand very still, not wanting to attract any attention.
“OK, another road,” said Ivan. “Which road?”
“I’ll tell you, but I need a guarantee first,” said Ralphy with his head back against the wall. He had nowhere to go. No room to maneuver.
“You want guarantee?” said Ivan, a mocking grin spreading across his face.
Ivan looked over at Claudio.
“You believe this moron,” said Ivan, then quickly turning his attention back to Ralphy.
“What you want?” asked Ivan.
“I’ll show where they went and about where they’d be by now,” offered Ralphy. “But I need to rest, no more bike time.”
“OK. So, you show me where they are and I let you rest,” confirmed Ivan.
“Right,” said Ivan. “I just can’t go any farther on the bike.”
Ivan didn’t move immediately. He kept the knife pressed hard against Ralphy’s throat. A trickle of blood seeped along the knife’s blade and ran slowly back toward the handle.
“Then show me,” said Ivan, as he smiled and leaned back and stepped away from Ivan to give the man some breathing room.
Ralphy raised his right hand to rub his throat and felt where the knife had cut his skin. He looked at the light smear of blood on the palm of his hand. Ralphy pulled out the road map he’d been carrying on their bike ride. He bent down over Ivan’s large office table and spread the map out a bit. It was worn and dirty, the edges were blackened and curled. He tried to smooth out the map some but kept one suspicious eye on the big Russian.
“We ran into the women here,” pointed Ralphy. “In Baker.” Ralphy put his finger on the town of Baker. “They went North here, up highway 127. They plan to use the road to get around Vegas.”
Ivan and Claudio came forward and looked down at the map. Both men looked at each other.
“How come they didn’t want to come through Vegas,” asked Ivan.
“The man and woman we were trackin told ‘um about our Army,” said Ralphy. “They were hiding in Baker too.”
“Yea, they knew,” offered Squeaky.
Ivan turned his attention to Squeaky.
“How did man and woman know about us?” asked Ivan.
“Not sure, but they told the other guys we had men and weapons,” said Ralphy. “Said Vegas was a hell hole and they were lucky to get out alive.”
Ivan turned his attention back to the map and put his finger on the little town of Baker.
“You say they are traveling up this road here,” stated Ivan. “Up highway 127, going North?
“Yea,” responded Ralphy. “We hung back to make sure we saw which way they went. They didn’t see us but we saw the whole group turn North on that road, three days ago.
“Three days,” said Ivan, as he ran his finger North along highway 127. “And they
travel on bikes?”
“With nine women and two little kids,” said Ralphy, with a grin on his face.
Ivan motioned to Claudio and both men moved close to the map, shoving Ralphy to the side.
