The Amtrak Wars: Blood River

by Patrick Tilley

  Up to the moment of sighting the serial number, the aim had been to maximize the time spent in the air. Since the ski attachments produced a significant amount of drag, the two planes had not yet been saddled with the additional burden of the ‘buddy’ frames – which meant they were unable to pick anybody up.

  Stinson radioed for instructions. Baxter, the Flight Exec told him that the second pair of ‘Skihawks’ aboard The Lady were now being fitted with the emergency stretcher-type attachments. Owens and Marklin were to bring their planes in for the same treatment; he and Vickers were to circle the recovery point until relieved.

  Hidden at a safe distance beneath a dense cluster of pines to the north of the campsite, Steve, Cadillac and Clearwater took turns to watch events unfold with the aid of the ‘scope that had come from the same survival pack as the handset that lay beside them. The set was turned to the standard frequency used by the Skyhawks for air-to-air and air-to-ground transmissions.

  Holding the ‘scope steady on the clump of trees under which Kelso lay, Steve saw Jodi emerge holding the second handset in her left hand and a flare pistol in her right. She looked up at the Skyhawks circling high overhead then fired a green flare almost parallel with the ground. The dazzling ball of light landed near the middle of the huge block of numbers Steve and Cadillac had helped her trample in the snow during the night.

  Steve watched the smoke drift from the burning magnesium and mentally reviewed their preparations to reassure himself they had covered all the angles.

  To add weight to her claim that she had spent the last several days alone with the injured Kelso, they carefully concealed their last moves around the camp by treading the same path through the snow. And when they withdrew northwards to their present hiding place, they again walked in single file. Jodi followed for part of the way then doubled back to create a return track as they entered the trees.

  Before leaving the campsite, Clearwater used some of the pink soap leaves and melted snow to scrub the dye off Kelso’s face, neck and hands then helped Jodi do the same. The clean-up was designed to prevent a knee-jerk reaction by her rescuers. If they suddenly found themselves confronted by what looked like a Mute they might shoot first and feel foolish afterwards. It then occurred to Steve that when her painted body came to light it would inevitably lead to more awkward questions. Jodi agreed and was soon standing naked and shivering by the small fire. They all pitched in and with everybody scrubbing away like crazy, she didn’t stay cold for long.

  Kelso’s injuries meant they couldn’t do the same for him but that, decided Steve, was his problem. The mexican would be hospitalized as soon as he got on board and Karlstrom, alerted by the RX code attached to the mexican’s serial number would ensure he was surrounded by a wall of silence.

  While Steve went over the scenario with Jodi to make sure she was word perfect, Cadillac and Clearwater had given Kelso a last examination, making sure his splints and bandages were still firmly in place to avoid further dislocation of his limbs during his aerial journey. And when that had been done, Cadillac helped Steve check the campsite to make sure all evidence pointed to it being occupied by the two people that would be found there. Clearwater having persuaded Jodi to kneel down, proceeded to massage her neck in an effort to soothe the pain from the whiplash injury she’d suffered in the crash and which had flared up again during the big scrub-down. At one point Jodi appeared to fall briefly asleep but when she opened her eyes she was able to move her head freely without the slightest twinge of discomfort.

  ‘That is amazing!’

  ‘Not to the Plainfolk,’ said Cadillac.

  ‘It’s all in the mind,’ explained Clearwater. And she took hold of Jodi’s hands and looked deep into her eyes. ‘When the time comes to act, heed the voice within you and you will be able to summon up the strength required to achieve that which is asked of you.’

  At the time, this had struck Steve as a slightly odd thing to say but they had then gone out to stamp Jodi’s number across the landscape and he had not given it a second thought.

  Chapter Six

  Now, in the early afternoon of the following day, the plan was coming to fruition. Steve, who had been listening with the others to the chatter of The Lady’s wingmen as they spoke to each other, knew the giant numbers sighted on the ground had been confirmed as being those issued to Jodi and that a recovery operation was now underway.

  He watched Jodi ready the handset as one of the Skyhawks which had been circling high above her spiralled down and made a low pass over the dying flare. Nate Stinson, the pilot, dipped his wings as he sped past Jodi. She waved as it banked away in a climbing turn to her right. Levelling out at five hundred feet, Stinson kept the starboard wing down and let the Skyhawk’s nose travel along the horizon in a gentle 360-degree turn.

  Jodi switched on the handset as the blue and white machine flew over the snow-covered pines beneath which Steve lay hidden. ‘2-0-9-6-5-3-4-1 calling Skyhawk. How do you read, over?’

  ‘Blue One to 5-3-4-1. We have you in the frame and read you five by five. Your call-sign is Snow Bird, repeat Snow Bird. Need your sit-rep to facilitate recovery. Stand by while we patch you through to Sun-Ray Lady, over.’

  ‘Roger, Blue One. Snow Bird standing by …’

  Switching channels, Stinson called up The Lady and received confirmation that his black box was relaying Jodi’s transmission. The exchanges were being taped and a digital voice transducer was simultaneously translating it into text onto one of the many video screens. Sun-Ray Lady was Hartmann’s call-sign.

  ‘Blue One to Snow Bird. Sun-Ray Lady now on line. Proceed with sit-rep. Blue One listening out.’

  Steve, Cadillac and Clearwater listened intently as Jodi gave Hartmann a succinct run-down on the state of health of her travelling companion and told him that she and Kelso were all that was now left out of the original five-strong party.

  Hartmann thanked her then asked for Kelso’s serial number.

  Jodi reeled it off, adding: ‘I was told to mention there’s an RX-suffix – whatever that means, over.’

  ‘Roger, Snow Bird. Stand by.’ Hartmann turned to Dexter, the Duty RadCommTech. ‘Is our video-link with Houston up and running?’

  ‘It is now, sir.’

  ‘Key that latest name and number through to Central Records Control with a ten-ten rating. I want immediate verification and procedural guidance!’

  ‘Yessir!’ Dexter’s fingers moved nimbly over his keyboard.

  RX was shorthand for ‘Refer to Executive’. It meant that no administrative action could be taken in regard to an individual without reference to AMEX, the Executive Branch of the Amtrak Federation housed in what was known as the Black Tower. Old hands like Hartmann knew that AMEX was an extension of the First Family. That meant Mr Kelso was working for the White House. Could Jodi Kazan – as Buck McDonnell had hinted – be working for them too?

  Steve, Cadillac and Clearwater caught intermittent glimpses of Stinson’s Skyhawk as it continued to circle over the campsite. Jodi had gone back under cover and was now standing beneath the tips of the outermost branches with the handset close to her ear. Its twin lay between Steve and Cadillac, quietly dribbling static.

  Hartmann came back on the air. ‘Sun-Ray Lady to Snow Bird plus one. Recovery now underway. Two, repeat two pick-up vehicles air-borne at fourteen-fifty hours. ETA your position sixteen-twenty hours Central Standard Time. Do you have time-check, over?’

  ‘Snow Bird to Sun-Ray Lady. Affirmative. I make it fifteen-fifty-five, over.’

  ‘You’re running an hour fast, Snow Bird. It is now fourteen-fifty-five. We have to withdraw your top cover but don’t worry. The cavalry is on the way. Do you have any coloured flares?’

  ‘Affirmative, Sun-Ray. Three red, two green.’

  ‘Okay, Snow Bird. Put up a green if recovery can proceed. If there are hostiles on the ground fire a red in their direction. Escort will lay down covering fire on your range and bearing.’

  Steve
and Cadillac exchanged glances.

  ‘So hang in there, Kazan,’ continued Hartmann. Despite the distance you could hear the smile on his face. ‘If everything goes according to plan we should have you back on board in plenty of time to muster for the red-eye shift.’

  ‘Can’t wait, sir. Snow Bird listening out.’

  It was the turn of Clearwater and Cadillac to look at each other. Steve, who lay on the far side of Cadillac, was unable to see the glint of triumph in his eyes.

  Jodi, three-quarters of a mile to the south, watched the low-flying Skyhawk dip its wings as it turned westwards and climbed to catch up with its high-flying companion. As the sky emptied she was seized by a sudden anxiety. So near and yet so far … Never mind. She looked at her watch. Their replacements would arrive soon. By eighteen hundred hours, all being well, she’d be back on board and whooping it up with some of the good ole boys.

  She ducked in under the branches and went over to check if Kelso was still awake. Maybe the news that in three hours time he would be in the capable hands of the medics aboard The Lady would bring a smile to his face. Finding him asleep, she decided not to wake him.

  For the next forty-five minutes, the sky above the campsite remained empty. Jodi had never thought of herself as a patient person but since meeting up with Kelso she had discovered a hidden reserve of that precious commodity. She needed to draw upon it now but with her expectations raised by the friendly exchange with Hartmann she became increasingly anxious as she began imagining all the things that could go wrong. Brickman might have offered her a reassuring word but they had agreed to maintain radio silence in case one of the incoming planes picked up the transmission.

  The minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness, each one underscored every ten seconds by Kelso’s rhythmic snores. It sounded as if his nose was full of gravel. Finally, she sighted three Skyhawks flying towards her, strung out in line abreast. She checked her watch then focussed the ‘scope on each of the planes. These early birds all had clean sets of wheels and, sure enough, they stayed high. As their leader began to circle overhead like a buzzard looking for breakfast, the outer pair turned away north and south and kept on going. These guys certainly weren’t taking any chances.

  The handset crackled as it came alive: ‘Blue Four to Snow Bird plus one. Update your sit-rep, over.’

  Jodi thumbed the Transmit button. ‘Snow Bird to Blue Four. We are still up and running and have you in the frame, over.’

  ‘Roger Snow Bird. Pick-up team report their ETA still stands at sixteen-twenty hours on your green. Blue Four listening out.’

  At ten minutes past four, Jodi sighted three more dots heading towards her at a lower altitude. The ‘scope revealed that the lead and starboard aircraft in the formation had short skis attached to the three-wheeled undercarriage. When they drew near enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye, the port ‘wheeler’ broke away to meet Blue Four who had begun to descend in a gentle spiral. His two companions whose return had been timed to coincide with the ‘Skihawks’ arrival converged to follow the same flight path. The ‘wheeler’ tacked himself onto the end of the line as the trio levelled out some eight hundred feet above Jodi’s head, then all four began to orbit the pick-up zone, chasing the tail of the man in front.

  As the two ‘Skihawks’ approached in a shallow dive, Jodi sent a green flare soaring high into the air. Passing under the arching trail of smoke from the flare, the two planes skimmed past the campsite in rapid succession, dipping their wingtips to within inches of the snow as she bounced up and down, waving her arms excitedly. Jodi watched them make a second, higher pass to select a suitable landing site then dodged back under cover and knelt beside Kelso.

  ‘Dave! Dave! Wake up! They’ll be with us any minute!’ She patted his cheek then shook his good shoulder excitedly as his eyes fluttered open. ‘We’re on our way!’

  Seizing the rope leads of the make-shift sledge, she dragged Kelso out into the open. Apart from the flare pistol, the ‘scope and the handset there was nothing else to carry. Steve and the two Mutes had carried away the trail bags containing the rest of their plunder.

  The first of the two pick-up planes turned off its crosswind leg and began its final approach from the northeast – to Jodi’s right. The second, now flying downwind, was temporarily obscured by the trees behind her.

  Brickman and his friends would be able to see them both. Jodi wondered if he was having second thoughts. She felt a sudden pang of regret at leaving him behind at the mercy of those lump-heads, but what the hell – he had made his choice and she had made hers. She had found herself again. And the inner certainty about the Tightness of her decision had given her the courage to face whatever lay ahead.

  Only one more hurdle remained to be cleared. Having convinced Kelso that Steve had been killed, she was now saddled with the task of selling the story to everyone else. All the way up the line. And unlike good ol’ Dave, their brains weren’t befuddled with pain-killing drugs. She’d just have to do her best. It was too late to back out now. But it would be the last lie. The very last …

  The second ‘Skihawk’ was still on its final approach as the first slid to a stop about fifty yards from where Jodi stood. She pulled the shapeless fur hood clear of her face and waved to the pilot as he pushed open the canopy and climbed out, then she started to haul Kelso’s sledge towards it. The pilot raised his tinted visor and jogged towards her. Behind him, the second aircraft touched down smoothly on the undulating carpet of snow.

  Jodi greeted the first wingman with a broad smile. ‘Nice of you to drop in.’ She thrust out her hand. ‘Good to see you, Gus.’

  Gus’s eyes rested on her briefly then flickered away as he checked their surroundings, easing his handgun in its holster as he did so. When he’d gone full circle, he looked at her again – as if he couldn’t make up his mind as to whether she was worth rescuing or not.

  Jodi thought that maybe he didn’t recognize her. ‘Kazan. Jodi Kazan. A year last April I was your –’

  ‘Yeah, I know …’ Gus gave the hand that was still on offer a perfunctory shake. ‘What happened to your face?’

  ‘If you’re that interested, ask me again when we get back on board.’

  Gus pointed to Kelso who lay strapped to the cargo hatch. Beneath the hatch, was a crude frame made of saplings which acted as runners. ‘Can he be moved off that contraption?’

  ‘We can cut away the saplings but he has to stay strapped to the hatch. That’s what’s holding him together.’

  Gus swore under his breath and took one of the rope leads from Jodi. ‘Okay, c’mon. Let’s get him stowed away and get the hell out of here. You can ride with Ruddock.’

  ‘Sure. No sweat …’

  ‘He’s one of the new boys. Graduated this year. I’m Deputy Section-Leader now. How about that?’

  ‘Congratulations,’ said Jodi. ‘You’ve come a long way …’

  And you’ve got a long way to go. Dickhead …

  They dragged Kelso towards Gus’s plane. Ruddock, the second pick-up man, throttled back and drew up on the far side. He left the motor on tickover and ran over to help. ‘How’re we doin’?’

  ‘Fine,’ grunted Gus. ‘Just get that frame ready while I cut this shit off.’ He drew his combat knife and started to saw through the raw animal sinews that Cadillac had used to lash the sapling underframe to the hatch.

  Jodi did the same on the other side.

  Ruddock folded down the buddy frame that was attached to the port side of the Skyhawk’s fuselage pod, clipped the upper and lower support stays into position and deployed the clear plastic zip-up bodybag in which the passenger would ride – protected from the gagging rush of air and the freezing cold.

  When the three of them offered up Kelso’s aluminium stretcher, it was clear that it wouldn’t fit inside the body-bag.

  ‘Awwwhh, SHIT!’ cried Gus. ‘I don’t fucking believe this!’

  ‘It’s okay!’ cried Jodi. ‘He’s got two foil blankets wr
apped around him plus these furs. Just cut the bag and use the front section to cover his head!’

  ‘But the hatch is too fuckin’ wide! The straps won’t go round it.’

  ‘Then DO somethin’, you asshole!’ boomed Kelso. ‘Just get me the fuck outta here!’

  ‘Shut your face, soldier!’ snarled Gus. ‘You’re lucky we’re here to pull you out of this mess!’

  ‘Go piss up your nose!’

  Jodi banged her fist down on the hatch. ‘Dave! For crissakes! Stop making waves!’ She turned to Gus. ‘We can lengthen them by using the ones off Ruddock’s plane! I got two good hands to hang on with – and believe me, after getting this far I ain’t gonna let go!’

  Ruddock was already on the move. ‘I’ll get ’em …’

  Jodi watched Gus take another anxious look around. And she suddenly remembered what Steve had said. This was the guy who had left him trapped in the wreckage of his Skyhawk in the middle of a burning cropfield. Underneath the bombast, the guy was scared shitless at the prospect of coming face to face with a bunch of screaming Mutes.

  ‘This is one helluva job you’re doing here,’ she said soothingly. ‘And I know what’s on your mind. Relax. I ain’t seen nor smelt any lumpshit for days.’

  ‘Yeah …?’

  From their hidden vantage point to the north of the pick-up zone, Steve, Cadillac and Clearwater watched the proceedings. Steve had his eye glued to the ‘scope. Clearwater lay alongside him.

  Cadillac who was kneeling a couple of yards behind them asked: ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Steve. He had been trying to interpret the gestures that accompanied the heated exchange between Jodi and the pilots. ‘They seem to have run into some kind of problem.’

  ‘Hope it’s not serious.’ Cadillac swung round and caught the eye of one of the Kojak braves who was positioned deeper in the woods, some fifty yards to his left. Cadillac raised his left hand and brought it down with a swift chopping motion.