Days of Future Past - Part 2: Present Tense

by John Van Stry

  "Why?"

  I leaned over and kissed her, "Spells first, secrets later."

  Sarah nodded and Heather and I watched as she went through a series of gestures and words that took about thirty seconds.

  "Okay, no one can hear us."

  "Alright, tomorrow, before sunrise we are leaving on a mission to blow up the fortress that the local ruler, some wizard named Khasan, is living in, with two dragons and his elite guard."

  Sarah and Heather both looked at me.

  "And you agreed to this?" Sarah asked.

  "The bomb is a fake," I said softly, "the whole thing is a ruse."

  "Then why are we doing it?" Heather asked looking at me curiously.

  "A real bomb would wipe out Reno, but only Riggs and I know that."

  "And now us."

  "Yeah, and now you. But Riggs needs a way to get the guards inside to come out of the tower, where he can cut them off from their defenses and engage them. Maybe even kill the dragons as well."

  "He thinks they'll abandon the towers so they don't get blown up?"

  I shook my head, "He thinks they'll not only come out to try and stop us, but that they'll try to capture the warhead for their own use."

  "And, that helps us how? I can't say I like the idea of being taken prisoner, I have a pretty good idea of what they do to the women they capture."

  "Once they come out to stop us, we retreat, drawing them after us. The further we draw them out of position, the better. If we can lure them out far enough, Riggs will be able to cut them off and isolate them from the tower so he can destroy them."

  "So, we're bait?"

  I nodded.

  "It makes sense," Sarah said slowly, obviously thinking about it. "The bomb is so powerful, that Khasan would be a fool to not try and get his hands on one. Not after seeing what it did to his army yesterday.

  "But all of this depends on his finding out that you are coming," Sarah said looking up at me.

  "Only the three of us, plus Riggs know about this part of the plan. Everyone else believes we are going to actually plant the bomb. Riggs has identified the enemy spies in his camp, and he made sure that one of them was in a position to hear the plan."

  "Impressive," Sarah said with a nod.

  "Yeah, Riggs isn't stupid and he knows how to play this game to win."

  "So, we're going with you on this one?" Heather asked.

  "Coyote told me that we're not coming back here after we do this."

  "How many are coming with us?" Sarah wanted to know.

  "I'm bringing two of the elven marksmen. I got railguns for them. I figure if they sic the dragons on us, we'll need all the help we can get in stopping them. I'm not sure how many dwarves to take."

  "Four," Heather said, "take four."

  "Why four?"

  "Because it has to look like enough to be a serious attempt. You're not going to want to bring the elves along once you get into the city; they're snipers, not fighters. So put them in good sniping positions to cover us, and then lead the infiltration team forward."

  I thought about that, it made sense.

  Sarah spoke up next, "When are you going to tell them?"

  "Tell who?"

  "The team members, when are you going to tell them that this is all just a ruse?"

  "I'm not sure I'm going to."

  "I would suggest you do, but wait until we make our move on the tower."

  "Why?"

  "Because they will kill themselves trying to get us in there, and might even succeed, and that is not the plan, is it?"

  I almost laughed as I thought about it. Yeah, I could see the dwarves succeeding when we were supposed to fail.

  "Yeah, you're right. I'll tell them. Maybe they can all help me figure out how to keep the bad guys chasing us farther than they might normally."

  "Sure can't hurt," Heather agreed.

  "Okay, so now that we have talked, what next?"

  I smiled at Sarah and started to undo her top.

  "Paul!" Sarah said looking at me surprised.

  "Oh be quiet," Heather laughed and was pulling off her own top, "everyone is going to hear the rumor we got a suicide mission soon enough. Anything else would be out of character."

  "Exactly," I agree with a smile.

  "You two are incorrigible," Sarah sighed, but at least she was smiling.

  "But you love us anyway," Heather laughed.

  The guns showed up first, a couple of hours before sunset. While we didn't exactly appreciate the interruption, it was getting late and almost time for dinner.

  Hakk met us after dinner with a number of volunteers from his ranks.

  "The biggest problem, Paul, was cutting the group down to size," he chuckled, "you can understand that I had a lot of volunteers."

  I nodded and looked at the dozen dwarves he had brought along.

  "I only need four," I told him. "Too many and we'll be spotted."

  Hakk thought a moment, "They're all good, can you give me anything to help narrow the group down further?"

  "Give me the ones who are the craftiest and most deceitful?"

  Hakk eyed me then, "Why would you want deceitful?"

  "Because we're probably going to have to do a lot of deceiving if we get spotted," I said grinning at him. "Sheer brawn isn't going to get us through this time. Stealth, subterfuge and downright trickery is what I'm looking for."

  Hakk nodded, "I see your point."

  Hakk turned back to the gathered dwarves, "Bili, Goma, Simri, and Gimgin. You're up. The rest of you, thanks for volunteering."

  I watched as four dwarves detached themselves from the group and came up to me, while the rest grumbled and walked off. I was a bit surprised; they really did want to do this.

  Hakk introduced them each in turn. Bili was an older looking dwarf, but he was in good shape and a bit thinner than normal. Not to say he didn't look like he couldn't pick me up and throw me a hundred yards. Same for Goma, who was a female dwarf, though she looked a little younger than Bili.

  Simri and Gimgin were both fairly young looking, while I'm sure they were both probably older than me, they still were obviously both a lot younger than Bili and Goma.

  "The four of you are now under Paul's command until he says you're not. Do me proud," Hakk said and then turned to me.

  "Good luck, Paul. I'll see you again, I'm sure."

  "Thanks, Hakk," I said and we clasped arms and he walked off. I turned back to the four dwarves looking at me.

  "Go over to the supply wagons in the Navajo camp. If anyone asks, I sent you under the chosen one's orders. Grab a few of those anti-tank rockets; just don't go overboard, you're going to be the one carrying them."

  I pulled out my watch and looked at it. "Meet back here ready to go in six hours."

  They all nodded and left.

  "Now what do we do?" Heather asked.

  "Sleep," I said.

  "Sleep? Who wants to sleep?" she asked leering at me. I looked at Sarah.

  "She has a point," Sarah snickered.

  "This from the woman we often have to drag off to bed," I sighed.

  "Revenge is sweet, is it not?"

  I just rolled my eyes and let them drag me back into the tent. It wasn't like I wasn't willing after all.

  We got up early, had breakfast, and packed everything up. By the time were ready to go the two elves showed up. Meira was the name of the woman, and I already knew the name of the man, Lylor. They were both very pleased looking when I handed them their railguns and the ammunition and battery packs to go with them.

  When the four dwarves showed up I noticed that Bili, Goma, and Simri had two anti-tank rockets each. Gimgin had six. I almost asked what was up with that, when I noticed all four of them had gauss assault rifles.

  "How did you get those?" I asked rather surprised.

  Goma grinned at me, "You did say we were to ask for our supplies in the name of their chosen one, did you not?" and then she gave me an outrageous wink, and the rest of
them all snickered.

  "Guess Hakk picked the right people," I said with a shrug. "Let's go."

  I consulted the rather rough map I had of the area; I'd drawn out our route yesterday during dinner. We would head west into the mountains, then swing around and go north until we found a good place to camp. The next day we'd head east until we made it to a ridgeline I had marked that had a good view of the city. I'd figure out our route to the tower at that point and we'd head in.

  "As long as you won't be riding the horses, mind if we pack some of our gear on them?" Bili asked.

  "Just as long as you understand we won't be taking the horses all the way in," I told him.

  "Then why are you bringing them?"

  "Because I'm lazy and I don't want to carry my own gear," I told him.

  Ten minutes later both the dwarves and the elves had both lightened their loads and we left.

  As trips went, it wasn't a very difficult one, I let Meira and Lylor lead the way, and every story I'd ever heard about elves and forests was quickly proven true by the route they guided us on. The only surreal part about the trip was we could hear the constant sounds of gunfire and explosions all through the day, and then into the night when we camped.

  No one really wanted to talk much, and even when we did, it was in muted whispers, as if we were afraid of being overheard. Not that it was likely with all of the racket going on in the distance however.

  We broke camp well before sunrise and quickly headed off for the rise I'd marked on the map, arriving there just as the sun started to peak over the mountains to the east of us.

  Getting out my binoculars, I spent an hour surveying the route below as the shadows slowly cleared. I made a series of notations on my map, and then I crawled back down the hillside and waited for the others to join me, as they'd all been scouting out the city as well.

  "The time has come," I looked around at the others, "To talk of many things, of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings."

  "What the hell does that mean?" Goma said looking at me.

  "It means," I said and taking the pack off my back and dumping it out on the ground and making them all jump back in surprised, "that, that is not a nuclear bomb, and we are not going to blow up anything today."

  "What?!"

  "Then why are we here?" Bili asked, equally surprised.

  "Yes, why?" Meira asked, sitting down and looking at the thing on the ground. It did look a lot like the bomb I had used. It even had the same display and programming panel. Only it was blue with a red band and said 'simulator' on the red band. There was also a seam around it, about a quarter of the way down from the tip, just below the red band.

  "If we put a bomb under those towers, it would wipe out everything within several miles, which obviously we do not want to do."

  "So then why send us?" Bili asked.

  "Plain and simple, we're bait. They know we're coming and of course they know we have a nuclear bomb. And Riggs and I are very sure that they would do anything to get their hands on it.

  "You see, we need the forces in those towers to come out of them, where they can be more easily isolated, engaged, and dealt with. But they're not going to leave them just because we ask them to."

  I could see they all figured it out almost immediately.

  "So, they come out of the tower to get the bomb."

  I nodded, "Exactly that. And we run away. Not too fast that they stop chasing us, and not slow enough that they catch us, either."

  "Why don't they just wait until we're inside?" Lylor asked.

  "Because if we're too close when they catch us, I could set it off before I died, and still destroy the towers, or at least do enough damage to make them un-defendable. No, they have to get us before we get too close."

  "Okay, so what's the plan?" Goma asked.

  I laid the map out on the ground before them. "We're going to make our way through the outskirts of the city, towards the old railroad tracks. I see that they've covered the parts that go through town, and they come rather close to the towers. It makes a logical place for us to go to plant the bomb."

  "So where do you think they'll try to intercept us?"

  "Somewhere between here," I pointed to west Reno, "and here," I pointed to a park.

  "Any closer than that, and we could still do damage to them, especially if we manage to fight our way closer."

  "That's over a mile away," Goma said.

  I nodded, "Yes, but if we get too much closer than that, we would be able to damage the towers, and we would definitely destroy a lot of the surrounding area."

  "So what's the plan?"

  "We leave the horses and the camp gear here," I said. "We come down off the ridge and into the Truckee River, then follow it until we get to this bridge. This is the point we want to pull them past. We set our snipers and spell caster here to make it look like we're covering our advance, but really to cover our retreat. Then us five," I motion towards the dwarves, "continue down the river end come up at this bend, and sneak over to the train tracks, and make for the tunnel a mile east of there."

  "Wouldn't it be easier to get inside if we came off the river here," he said and pointed to a spot where the river went through the park.

  "The river bank is too high to easily climb up there, plus it's in clear view of the towers. Also," I shrugged, "I think that's the most likely place for the ambush. If we come down this way, we have a lot more cover from all the ruins and the buildings still standing."

  "Okay, that's all well and good, but what about our planned retreat?"

  I looked up at Bili, "What?"

  Bili rolled his eyes and gave me a long-suffering look, "Amateurs! Let me guess, you figured we'd just run and plan tag with them, keeping them close and drawing them on?"

  "Well, more or less, I thought we'd just retreat back the way we came."

  "And that'll look like a trap, especially if we have our snipers up there," he said shaking his head.

  "We come down here," He said pointing to a spot a little past the one I'd selected and where the river moved away from the tracks, "and we come out heading east down this road here."

  "But that's heading away from the tunnel," I said.

  "Exactly! They see that, and they're gonna think we saw something and got spooked! If they got eyes on us by then, they'll immediately spring into action."

  "And if they don't?"

  "We'll find a way to attract their attention, don't you worry none," Bili laughed. "Now, this is the way we retreat," and he drew a line heading to the southeast, then curving back towards the towers, then away and back a second time, before turning to the southwest.

  "If we just turn and run, again, they'll get nervous. So we have to make a couple of attempts to get around them. Make it look like we're serious. It also draws them further away. Once we get here," He pointed to a spot on the map, "Or when I yell to 'run for it' we all just run as fast as we can for a few minutes, like we're in a panic. Then we find a spot to stop and shoot back at them, and make it look like a more orderly retreat.

  "We do that for a while, and when the time is right, I'll yell 'Run for your lives,' and you and Goma keep going that way," He drew a line almost due west, "While I take Simri and Gimgin and head this way."

  "So they'll think I'm easy pickings and keep following me," I said nodded.

  "Exactly. They probably won't care much about us, and we'll find a good spot to set up and take pot shots at them if they get too close, or see if we can't pick off one of them dragons with Gimgin's rockets."

  Bili turned to look at the elves and the girls, "You all pull back to this high spot, you'll be able to see what's going on and warn us on the radios if we're getting in trouble, also you can help us get clear once we cross this point, if they're still following us by then."

  I looked over the routes he'd marked, and then looked up at the girls, Heather was chewing her lip and Sarah had a thoughtful look. Heather opened her mouth to say something and Sarah kicked h
er. She exchanged glances with Sarah, and shut up.

  "Looks good to me," Sarah said.

  "Meira, Lylor?" I asked.

  They both nodded, looking thoughtful.

  Meira spoke up, "We can leapfrog between a couple of vantage points on the way back to that peak, to keep you under surveillance, if not covering fire."

  "Okay," Bili said and looked at me, "When do you want to start this?"

  "I don't want to show up too soon, I'd rather make them wait and get a little worried about us. Plus fewer shadows will make us easier to spot."

  Just about then the dummy warhead beeped and the timer started to count down. I looked at it; it was counting down from three hours. I realized that Riggs had the remote, and was letting me know that he needed me to get started.

  "Or we could go now," I sighed.

  "What was that?" Meira asked.

  "Riggs has the remote. It may be a training device, but it has all of the features of the real thing. So he's letting me know he when he needs this done by."

  I picked up the pack that the dummy was in and slung it. "Let's go."

  - 20 -

  Almost an hour later and we were at the bridge I had marked out as our first point. We spent some time making sure we weren't being observed, and then Sarah put up her covering illusion on the bridge. After that Meira and Lylor snuck out on it and set up their rifles.

  "You be careful," Sarah whispered in my ear. "Remember, you have the thing they want, don't be afraid to just dump it and run. I'd rather Riggs' plan failed and you lived than the other way around."

  "It's important, Sarah," I whispered back.

  "Yes, and so am I and Heather, and you. In fact, we're more important. I'm sure Riggs has another plan if this one doesn't succeed. So don't take any extra risks."

  I nodded and kissed her, then kissed Heather.

  "Don't do anything stupider than this," she growled at me, and then smacked me on the ass as she went and set up by the two elves.

  The five of us started back down the river, with Bili going first, and me second, followed by Goma, Simri, and Gimgin.

  The water was cold, and we'd been in it for a while now, so I was starting to get cramps in my legs. I was happy when we reached our exit point not too much later and climbed up out of the river and ducked through the backyard of a ruined house and hid out under a couple of trees for a minute.