by Bobby Akart
Major nodded and wiped some barbecue sauce off his mouth with his sleeve, drawing a grimace from his missus. “I have to agree. That’s an accurate description. Camp Lubbock will be the primary base of operations for border protection, but the TX-QRF is designed to respond quickly to coordinated attacks by gangs or groups of people that can’t be handled by law enforcement alone.”
“There is an added benefit,” said Duncan. “As the head of the Region C arm of the TX-QRF, I will have complete autonomy over the men I choose, the use of weaponry out of the armory, and a variety of vehicles. I can also deploy the teams as I see fit based upon conditions on the ground.”
“You could use them anywhere?” asked Palmer.
Duncan took his first bite of barbecue, smiled and gave his mother a wink of appreciation. “Pretty much. I even got authorization to cover Borden County, which is actually part of another region.”
Lucy directed a question to Major. “Honey, how does Region C correspond to your old area?”
“Exactly the same,” he replied. “Duncan noticed the exclusion of Borden County on the map, which, by the way, came out of my old office. He asked for and received the ability to respond to threats here.”
Everyone absorbed the information and continued eating until Cooper spoke up. “So, you gotta decide, or did you tell ’em already?”
The room held their breath as they feared a reigniting of the animosity between the two brothers that had finally been put to rest. If there were going to be any dissenters within the family, it would most likely be Cooper or Lucy, who, of course, held a power of veto that surpassed all of their votes.
“No, I wanted to talk with all of you first,” replied Duncan. “This is a tough decision for me. I don’t need to do it, but it is an opportunity for us to add some significant assets to our ranch.”
“Like what?” asked Riley.
“Well, some of the things we could use include better communications equipment, longer range optics, and night vision, which is the single biggest asset the military holds over civilians. Our perimeter security would benefit greatly from those things.”
“What about guns?” asked Preacher. “Will you have the ability to get us more rifles, especially ARs?”
“That’s my goal, but I have to move slowly at first as I get the lay of the land. Listen, one thing that has never come up in my conversations with Captain Harris or the colonel is compensation. I don’t want their money. Pay me in defensive tools and weapons.”
“I don’t want you to pay with your life,” said Lucy bluntly. “I assume you’ll be placed in dangerous situations.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m sure I will be. But know this, while I will never place my people into a situation that I wouldn’t be willing to go into myself, I’m not going to risk my life for others. I’ve been there and done that.”
“This is true,” said Sook, who spoke up for the first time. Duncan gave her a smile and held her hand.
“Well, this is what I think,” said Cooper. “It seems like the ranch is coming under attack every few days. Now they are coordinated and using deadly force. If Duncan can do his new job safely and in the process help us defend the ranch with whatever is at his disposal, then I’m all for it.”
“I agree,” said Riley.
The other members of the room looked around and nodded their agreement. Finally, all eyes were on Lucy.
She fought back tears as she spoke. “Duncan, no hero stuff, do you promise? I mean it. Do your job but do not risk your life for those who don’t appreciate the sacrifice you’re making.”
Duncan stood and approached his mother. He crouched down onto one knee and took her hands in his.
“I promise.”
Chapter 51
January 14
Patricia, Texas
The trip into Lubbock was a successful one for Holloway and his men. More vehicles were stolen, and a food cache was uncovered at a warehouse adjacent to the Lubbock terminal of Pro Petroleum, a division of Rip Griffin Fuel & Transportation. The company had once provided fuel and sundries to convenience stores across the Southwest, but now its operations were restricted to Texas locations. Holloway had been in search of a small fuel tanker and came across this facility just east of the airport when they left their surveillance of Camp Lubbock.
He spotted a small five-hundred-gallon fuel truck parked by the warehouse bearing the Griffin logo. His men approached the storage facility, found a single employee occupying the trailer at the entrance, and then had a field day.
After convincing the man to turn over the keys to the storage lockers and the keys to his full tanker truck, they killed him before dropping his body into a dumpster. The packaged snacks and bottled drinks were too much to take in Holloway’s pickup, but he believed they could stop by here in the future to pick up more. With the employee missing and his fuel truck gone, hopefully the good people of Pro Petroleum would assume the man had quit his job, taking the fuel with him.
The best part of the Pro Petroleum heist was the fact it was right under the noses of the National Guard base. Holloway was growing more confident with each raid into Lubbock. Today’s score was significant in many ways, not the least of which was the identification of the man likely responsible for the death of his people in Arizona.
But first things first. He was preparing for a strategic planning session on the satphone with Lee. The commander was ready to make his move, and Holloway had a plan that would work. It would also gain more respect from his Korean friends.
Holloway made the call. Lee, who’d learned to speak English while he spent ten years smuggling operatives into the United States via Canada, understood Holloway’s plan and wholeheartedly endorsed it. The vehicles commandeered by Holloway were greatly appreciated, and as a result, Lee granted Holloway’s request to carve out a piece of the pie stretching from Lubbock northward to Amarillo and then to the east and Wichita Falls.
Since Holloway’s departure, more commandos had arrived from Mexico, and they’d brought weapons, including more rocket-propelled grenades and launchers. Holloway cautioned Lee to preserve this important firepower as they set about to take down the Texas power grid. He felt like he had identified the critical substations to attack, and the RPGs would make the job much easier.
Finally, the two leaders agreed upon a date. Lee would position his men up and down the West Texas border as soon as darkness set in the next evening. The vehicles utilized by Lee’s people would hold back to avoid detection by the Texas forces and wait for the moment to advance.
Once the border fences were breached, they would push into West Texas mingled in with the hordes of refugees. Holloway and Lee discussed whether to arm some of the refugees so that they could occupy any reinforcements that arrived at the border. Unlike Lee’s men, who had a specific destination to locate once inside the country, the refugees were likely to scatter in all directions, creating a nightmare for the Texas military as they tried to round them up. Gun battles between the refugees and the military would only bog down the Texas troops, giving the DPRK commandos more time to escape.
Lee ultimately agreed and began to round up the substandard semiautomatic rifles built by the Mexican drug cartels. These weapons, commissioned and purchased with bitcoin by the North Korean treasury, were not considered reliable by Lee. He would instruct his men to give away the weapons to the refugees together with a ten-round magazine.
Finally, Holloway provided specific rally points for Lee’s men. They agreed only six hundred commandos were required initially to conduct the raids upon the power plants and governmental facilities. After the grid was taken down, a second wave could enter Texas.
Lee was required to divert many of the new troops across the U.S. to destroy bridges and other infrastructure while disrupting any relief efforts they came across. The idea was to keep Americans beaten down until Lee received further instructions from his commanders in Pyongyang.
Holloway, of course, never admitted that he didn�
�t care about what Lee did to America. In fact, he wasn’t really that concerned with the rest of Texas. He planned to pillage his part, find a nice ranch to settle on with a harem of some kind, and live out his days in luxury, surrounded by armed guards.
Chapter 52
January 15
West Texas
“This has to be the flattest place on the planet,” said the shooter, making no effort to lower his voice or hide his location. He and the spotter had spent the day observing their prey from a safe distance, which was over a mile away. Sitting atop a hill no more than six hundred feet above the ground where the target was frequently observed, the shooter lamented the lack of elevation, which would give him an advantage.
The shooter didn’t make small talk with his assigned companion. He focused on his weapon, cover, and timing. Despite the long distance between his hide and the target, which prevented detection, the shooter continued to maintain his routine. For now, he sat against a bur oak with his rifle across his knees. This was the shooter’s gift—tranquility. It was a trait he’d acquired over time without instruction or practice. It came to him naturally, an overall peace where stress was nonexistent.
A burst of cold air blew down the hill, carrying with it fine dirt and pine needles. It was colder than he expected, but he didn’t wear bulky clothing regardless of the shoot’s locale. He gritted his teeth and shook off the chill.
The shooter took the Swarovski BTX spotting scope from his companion and studied the ranch below them. The 35 x 95 zoom capability allowed him to see the details on his target’s face. Rugged, with a chiseled jaw, the man was a warrior, respected by many. He was one of their own, yet someone had signed his death warrant.
Was it the CIA guy who ordered the hit, perhaps acting on a vendetta? Or a higher-up, as in the White House? Maybe he was a traitor and chose Texas as his hideout? With all the trouble America was in thanks to Kim Jong-un, was it really necessary to kill this vet at this time?
The shooter considered all of these questions and weighed hypothetical answers. He could walk any time he chose although he imagined his handler, also holding the position of helpful spotter and wheelman, probably had orders of his own in such an event.
The shooter considered taking out his companion and leaving him under this scraggly oak tree as food for whatever four-legged critters resided on this hill. He’d pack up his rifle, make his way back to Newport News, and sail away. They couldn’t find him on a good day, much less after the apocalypse.
Putting the why out of his head, the shooter began to focus on the how. The target was always near buildings and people and horses. Distractions that prevented him from standing still. At the mile-and-a-quarter distance between them, a miss was entirely possible. He chose to wait for a better opportunity, one in which the unsuspecting target left his protective cover. Perhaps the target would leave his comfortable surroundings and expose himself. The shooter’s setup and planning would have to be on the fly, but a skilled marksman could overcome those obstacles when the distance was reduced to a thousand feet instead of seven thousand.
For once, the shooter had the luxury of time.
Chapter 53
January 15
West Texas
There were three checkpoints located to the south of Lubbock along the West Texas border with New Mexico. Just after six o’clock that evening, activity began to take place on both sides of the border. Lee transported his men as far north as the Highway 82 checkpoint, located an hour to the southwest of Lubbock, and also toward the southernmost border checkpoint at Texas Route 176 leading into Andrews, which was due east of Carlsbad.
This stretch of the border spanned eighty miles. With the estimated number of refugees per the radio broadcasts monitored by Holloway being a thousand per mile, with more congregated in the New Mexico border towns of Knowles, Hobbs, and Nadine, he expected a big crowd would burst their way through when the action began.
Holloway’s unit spent the late afternoon systematically transporting their fleet of stolen pickup trucks to within two miles of the border. As early evening approached, they moved vehicles into position, spaced a mile and a half apart.
The operation had several facets, all of which relied upon surprise, speed, and a bit of luck.
Holloway’s job was to attack the checkpoints, take out the sentries, and open gaping holes in the border fence. Holloway’s men would hook chains to the fencing and around their truck’s trailer hitches. When the border guards had been disposed of, the pickups would pull the fences down, most likely aided by the refugees desperate to enter.
At the stretches of the border where checkpoints didn’t exist, Lee would use the M35 transport trucks they’d commandeered and crash through the fences. These trucks full of commandos would head directly for Patricia to seek cover under the large buildings at the cotton gin.
Lee’s men on foot would work in groups of ten using the buddy system. Once they broke through the border and moved into Texas, they were instructed to locate a vehicle, which included instructions on how to locate the Klondike High School.
Holloway’s prior surveillance of Camp Lubbock had served another purpose. He’d wanted to confirm there was no air support for the border checkpoints. That would complicate the operation, but he was in luck, as the equipping of the new base wasn’t that far advanced as of yet. Any air support, most likely in the form of attack helicopters, would have to come from Fort Bliss.
By the time Texas Homeland Security would be notified of the incursion, it would take time for Fort Bliss to respond and send the choppers toward the Lubbock region. His parked vehicles and the incoming M35s would be long gone an hour after the breach.
The most difficult checkpoint was located at Hobbs, New Mexico. Because of the large number of refugees situated in the town of thirty-five thousand full-time residents, those who had no intention of entering Texas because of the security hassle might change their minds when the welcome mat was rolled out, courtesy of Holloway and Lee.
Security established by the Texas military was greatest at the four-lane divided highway stretching from Hobbs eastward toward Seminole, Texas. The firefight here would be more intense, prompting both Holloway and Lee to want to be a part of it. Accordingly, the two men agreed to attack the Hobbs checkpoint from both sides, kicking off the operation.
Chapter 54
January 15
Camp Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
“Whadya think, boys?” Duncan asked Riley and Cooper as he completed his enlistment paperwork and handed it back to Captain Harris. Duncan’s status within the United States government and his former military rank were irrelevant in Texas, although a system of assigning rank based upon prior U.S. experience was left to the discretion of the commanding officer of each unit. The new nation was going through enough growing pains without dealing with the bureaucratic minutia of converting the former U.S. military to the new Texas armed forces.
“Pretty impressive,” replied Riley. “Is it official now?”
“Yeah,” said Duncan. “After a swearing-in ceremony, which will take place tomorrow, I will officially be the commander of the Republic of Texas Quick Reaction Force of Camp Lubbock, Region C.”
“What happens next?” asked Cooper.
Captain Harris returned to the conference room and answered Cooper’s question. “Today, we’ll assign you a driver and a vehicle. Also, we’ll get you fitted for uniforms, and lastly, we’ll assign weapons. Tomorrow, after a brief ceremony attended by probably three or four people, you’ll sit in this room and start going through personnel files to pick your teams. I’ve been working on that project for a couple of weeks and have some suggestions, but the final say will be up to you.”
“I really don’t need a driver,” said Duncan. “I can drive myself.”
“Well, he’s more than a driver,” said Captain Harris with a chuckle. “I’ve been using Corporal Gregorio Esparza as my aide-de-camp, as well as my driver. Esparza is a fifth-gen
eration Texan whose great-grandfather fought at the Alamo. His great-grandfather was the last Texan to enter the Alamo as the siege commenced in March 1836. He’s bilingual and has an impressive combat record with the 101st Airborne. Espy had just transferred to Fort Hood to work under me when the EMP struck.”
“Espy?” asked Duncan.
“Yeah, like the ESPN awards,” replied Captain Harris. “That’s his nickname.”
Harris reached into his shirt pocket and removed a temporary security badge with Duncan’s name imprinted on it. He continued. “This is not your official facilities badge yet. That’ll come tomorrow after your swearing in, etcetera. It does allow the ability to take your brothers around to give them a look at our operation, plus you can report to logistics to get your gear squared away. In the meantime, I’ll have Corporal Esparza ready a Humvee, and I’ll turn him over to you, assuming, of course, you agree to using him.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” said Duncan.
Captain Harris left them alone, and Riley immediately put in his request for the first stop. “Hey, can we go see the guns now?”
Cooper started laughing. “No surprise there. But we’ve gotta start somewhere, right?”
Duncan laughed and swatted at both of his siblings. He was enjoying the comradery with his younger brothers after being absent from their lives for nearly ten years. Duncan wanted to fill the void Dallas had left when he departed the ranch for the Middle East and never returned.
“Okay, let’s go see the toys.”
As they made their way from building to building, the military personnel gave them the occasional odd look because they were civilians. On a couple of occasions, military policeman asked to see Duncan’s credentials, which allowed him to pass without further questioning. He wasn’t sure what the various designations on the badge meant, but he supposed the title commander must mean something around the base.
