Ed started to speak, but Cory cut him off. “Don is right. We need to stay here and defend the ranch. Please show some support for him now. Every second that ticks by, the danger increases and we don’t have time to argue.” Ed looked angry, but Don ignored it and organized his thoughts for a moment.
“Cory,” Don finally said. “I want full battle readiness until I get back. Kids in the basement, everyone wears a vest and two people on the ops center. Nobody goes outside unless it’s an emergency. I am taking one of the radios from here. If anything happens, call me immediately.”
“Got it.”
“Does everyone remember our battle plan?” Heads nodded in the affirmative. “Okay, you are probably going to hear a lot of gunfire soon. When you do, get behind the shooting stations and do not go to any part of the house that is not reinforced with the plywood. If you’re attacked, stay behind cover and only get up to return fire. Everybody got that?” Again, heads nodded. “Lastly, if they get by us, I will radio you, and you need to go directly to the cave. Don’t try to save anything here but yourselves. Just go. That will be our rally point if all else fails.”
“Got it,” Cory said.
“Okay, I have to gear up. Bud, can you get that case of preloaded .223 mags and load the drones and mags in the Jeep?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
Don went to the weapons locker and pulled out a tactical vest with Kevlar inserts. He donned the vest and grabbed the sheriff’s radio, and placed it on the opposite hip from the ranch radio. He then inserted earbuds in each and placed the buds in a vest pocket. He was already wearing his Glock and his AR was on the desk. He briefly considered the night vision googles, but decided that whatever happened was going to be during the day.
Walking to the bedroom, Don raised a hand to knock on the door. He desperately wanted Kate’s approval, but knew, in her state of mind, the only outcome of any discussion would be a further delay in his departure. Lowering his hand, he sighed once, turned the front door knob and left the house.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Don’s eyes darted around the room as he entered the Prescott Police conference center. He could make out distinct groups of men. The National Guard members stood in one corner of the room filling a pile of magazines with ammo for the M16s. In another corner, the Prescott police officers stood in a circle, speaking to one another. Prescott FD and EMTs were in the middle of the room, in a semicircle, with the fire chief addressing them. Clustered around the entrance stood the Sheriff’s Department members.
He quickly decided that, to the extent possible, he would try to maintain each group’s unit cohesion by not splitting any of the groups. Every man was armed, and magazines for various caliber weapons were stuffed into their tactical vest pockets, back pockets, and side pockets. The militia members all carried scoped hunting rifles slung over their shoulders. The only thing they had in common was they all looked worried and some downright scared. That was going to have to change fast, Don thought.
Passing through the room, he entered the chief’s office, where he found the chief and Bear standing in front of a line of battery chargers with spare batteries sticking up from each slot. On his desk a neat line or radios stood in a row. Don shook hands with each man and then asked, “how are we doing with the IEDS?”
“We have six and David has enough to make two more. He should be done in fifteen minutes or so.”
“I’ll need to look at those before we go.”
The chief, anticipating the next questions, said, “we have a running school bus, six ATVs, and four full-size pickups. And, yes, the map is on the conference room wall.”
“How are we fixed for ammo?”
“We have eleven full mags for each of the M16s, lots of mags for the AR—maybe eight per. The hunting rifles the militia has is a mixed bag. I don’t really know. Everyone except the militia also has side arms with spare mags.”
“Okay, before we start I want to get chain of command issues clear. Bear, are you good with putting your men under the chief?”
“No problem.”
“Chief, are you okay with me running this show?”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘running.’”
“It means that once we start shooting, everyone does what I tell them to do. We don’t have time for debate once the firing starts. Between now and then, if we don’t agree on the plan, we discuss it privately.”
“I guess I can live with that. Do you have a plan?”
“It’s all I’ve thought about since I left here. I can give you the big picture, but we need to do a complete brief for the others and that could take some time. What do you want to do?”
“We don’t have time to go over it twice. Let’s just do the brief.”
“Fair enough.” The men all left the office and went back to the conference center.
“Okay,” said the chief, “everyone take a seat.” The men all shuffled to a chair and the room fell quiet. Pointing to Don, he continued, “this is Don, and he is going to be directing this show. I’m sure many of you know him, but you may not know that Don is a decorated combat vet, with multiple overseas tours, and is going to present our plan for the defense of the city.” The men remained silent as Don stepped forward.
“I want to thank you men for agreeing to help with this mission,” Don said. “But, because we may be short of time, I want to lay out the plan in case we have to leave quickly. Is everyone geared up?” Everyone nodded in the affirmative.
Don walked to the Prescott city map and again spoke. “There are only two ways into Prescott once you exit the freeway on Highway 69. That first one is here, where Fain Road meets Highway 69.” Don stabbed the map at the intersection. “The gang will either come straight into town, remaining on the 69, or take Fain Road to here, and turn on Highway 89, coming into town by the mall.” He again pointed on the map. “The last possibility is that for some reason, they might split into two groups coming in from two directions. The most likely thing is that they will come straight into town on the 69. I don’t know why they would want to split their firepower, but we have to be prepared for every eventuality.”
“The key to this plan is to fight this battle where we want to fight it. We want them in the open, preferably on the move when we get them. And, we want to fight from behind cover, or at the very least good concealment. The second principle of this fight is that we use our automatic weapons to suppress their fire. If we fail to do that, we’re going to be fighting a fair fight, and if there’s one thing I hate, it’s a fair fight.” A few of the men chuckled softly. “Questions?”
“Won’t they be harder to hit if they’re moving?” a firefighter asked.
“Yes,” Don admitted. “But, the key is to get and keep fire superiority. Men taking that kind of fire tend to hit the ground, or try to find cover, rather than regain fire superiority. We can’t let that happen.”
“So, where do we fight from?” the chief asked.
Don again pointed on the map. “There is a ridge on the north side of Highway 69, just below the Home Depot. That’s where we’ll deploy the Guard. We’ll have good cover, and the Guard will be the main attacking force.” He paused a moment, and then continued. “The Sheriff’s force will be here, on the ridge by the mall. They will act as the rear blocking force, and are responsible for cleaning up any squirters that try to turn around and go back on the 69 away from the city. They will stay out of sight until the gang passes, then deploy on the ridge.”
“Squirters?” the chief asked.
“Any person or smaller force that leaves the main force to avoid a battle is called a squirter. I’ll try to ease up on military lingo, but if I lapse, somebody call me on it.” That brought another quiet chuckle.
Don gathered his thoughts and again pointed at the map. “Bud and two militia will be here, behind the Maverick gas station outside of town. Once the gang passes, they will follow, out of eyesight, operating the drone.”
&
nbsp; “Drone? Who has a drone?” the chief asked.
“We do—two of them, in fact. They’re outside in the Jeep. Bud is going to train the militia members going with him how to fly them.”
“Drones?” he repeated.
“Well, yes.” Don again paused, momentarily thrown off track, and then resumed. “The drone will let us know which way they’re going with around thirty minutes’ notice. That’s enough time for us to move forces if they either split, or they all go down Fain Road and come in on Highway 89.” Don paused, looked around the room, and noted that people were sitting a little straighter and looking less worried. He continued, “if they split, the second drone will follow them until it either runs out of juice or gets out of range. Bud will follow the larger group with the first drone.”
“Looks like we got Captain America on our side,” someone whispered, but it carried throughout the room, and genuine laughter ensued.
“I’m no Captain America. But, I told you I don’t like a fair fight, and that is not what these assholes are going to get here. What they will get is dead in large numbers,” Don said. The room filled with cheers. After it quieted down, he continued, “the chief and his men will be here, augmented by the militia. This needs to be about one hundred yards from the ridge by the Home Depot where the Guard will be. We are going to put a line of stalled cars across the entire highway, including the ditches. They will engage the enemy from behind those cars when the Guard opens fire. However, please remember the only real cover from a car is behind the engine blocks. So, group yourselves there. You will have the remaining M16s,” Don said, momentarily addressing only the PD.
“Since there’s a curve by the Home Depot, the gang won’t spot the PD until they start to leave the curve toward town. They will stop, and when they do, the Guard will drop the IEDs on the gang. They should be right under the Guard’s position, and we’ll hit them with three IEDs, spaced out over the length of the column of bikes.”
“IEDs?” somebody asked. “Christ, is the Air Force showing up too?” Another round of laughter filled the room.
“Once the IEDs do their work, everybody opens up. Any gang member who try to go back gets taken out by the rear blocking force.” Don paused again, asking, “questions?”
“What’s the plan if they take Fain Road?” Bear asked.
“Does everyone know where the boulders are in the Dells?” Don asked.
“Sure,” Bear replied, “prettiest rock formation in the State.”
“We move our forces there and essentially do the same thing, with a few twists. The ridges along Highway 69 are about three hundred feet. The high ground on the boulders is only about one hundred. So, we’d be bunched up there in a way I would rather not be. But, we still have cover and we follow the same plan, with front and rear blocking force and the Guard on the high ground. We use the ATVs to move the Guard cross-country to the boulders. The law enforcement groups move in the pickups, also cross-country.”
Don stopped to trace the route on the map with a finger. “The militia will follow using Highway 89. Again, we will have around thirty minutes to get there, get set up, and conduct the ambush. That should be plenty of time. However, I want the cars blocking Highway 69 to be done as soon as this meeting is over. That is still the most likely battle site, and we’ll deploy there and move if we have to.” Don paused a moment, then asked, “questions?”
“How many IEDs do we have now?” Bear asked.
“Seven,” a voice from the rear of the room answered. A small man, dressed in coveralls, stood up, then continued, “you need to pick the best throwers and have them meet with me so we can go over some safety issues.”
“Okay,” Don said. “Three go to the Guard, two to the sheriff’s men, and two to the PD. Please select your throwers and have them meet with the bomb-maker after we finish here.”
“David’s the name,” the small man said.
“All right, David it is,” Don paused, and then continued, “a few odds and ends, and then we deploy. First, everybody who has an M16, please have half your shooters on full auto, and half on burst, when we start firing. We can’t afford to all be changing mags at the same time. That pause in fire could give them the chance to gain superiority on us. Everybody goes to full auto after the first mag change. Second, each group needs to select a person who is in charge of logistics. That person needs to make sure each group member has enough ammo, that the vehicles are fully gassed, and review all the details around food and water for their group. We may be out there for a day or two so let’s make sure we have what we need. We need one EMT to act as medic in each group, and the fire chief can select them. That person needs to have a first responder kit with them, and a lot of whatever they need to treat gunshot wounds. Each group will designate a driver to take casualties to the hospital, and the doctors there need to be put on alert. I will leave that to the fire chief as well. Lastly, I need to meet with the ranking soldier in the Guard after this meeting. I would suggest that the chief, the fire chief, and Bear do the same. We need to establish a line of succession in the event we go down in the fight. That person, and the commander of each group, should also have a radio. I want to limit the number as we need to maintain radio discipline. Once the fight starts, we need to use the radios to provide information to the commanders, or to ask for help. No chatter please. Questions?”
“What if they want to surrender?” A man wearing a firefighter’s T-shirt asked.
“Chief?” Don queried.
“I don’t have anywhere to put them. We only have twelve cells,” he paused. “I guess there is no surrender. It goes against everything I believe in, but I don’t see an option.” The room fell silent, and Don saw the mood was swinging the wrong way.
“Look,” Don said. “We didn’t ask for this fight, but we all know what happened in Phoenix and Black Canyon City. We are up against a gang of killers who will take over our town, rape and kill, and leave a ghost town behind them. We’re not fighting for gain or glory. We are fighting for our loved ones, our community, and the man next to us in the battle. If we fail, we lose everything. Harden your hearts, and do what we have to do to protect everything we hold dear. They will show us no mercy, and we will offer none. This is our Alamo, except this time the good guys are going to win. You will be afraid out there, and you should be. But, remember that we are all dead men anyway if we lose, so let’s make sure we don’t lose. Now let’s get organized. We leave in an hour.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Cory sat in the ops center, reviewing the security systems monitors. His wife and children were in the basement, playing with coloring books. Ed had explained to the group what happened between Don and Kate, and the mood in the house was somber. Kate was still in her bedroom and Ann, who had tried to console her, could hear the sobbing from behind the door. She knocked softly. After a second, Kate opened the door and walked back to her bed, where she continued to sob into a hand towel.
“You want to talk about it?” Ann asked.
“I just can’t believe I lost control like that,” Kate replied. “I’ve never issued an ultimatum to Don in our entire marriage. I am just so afraid for him. I don’t know what I would do without him.”
“Honey, we’re talking about Don here. Nothing is going to happen. You have to trust him. He got us all this far, and a bunch of thugs are not going to hurt him.”
Kate’s sobbing abated, and she looked at Ann with the saddest expression imaginable. “He’s pushed his luck his entire life. Sooner or later, he’s going to pay for it. I got a bad feeling about this one. I really do.”
“He’s got the Guard, the PD and the sheriff’s office with him. They’re going up against a group of druggies. I’d worry more about the gang than Don. That’s a fight he’ll win every time.”
“Nobody wins every time.”
“Don does.”
“I got a bad feeling,” Kate repeated. Ann hugged her and pulled Kate’s head into the hollow of her shoulder.
&nbs
p; “Get cleaned up. I’ll go make some coffee, and we can get some food ready for dinner. You just need to take your mind off things for a while. Besides, we’re on full alert, and we’re supposed to be in the ops center.” Kate nodded her agreement and Ann left the room.
After getting their coffee, Kate and Ann went to the ops center, where Kate took over for Cory, who moved to a firing portal and stared through the opening. Kate desperately wanted to call Don, but reasoned that any distraction for him, at that moment, was not a good idea. After ten minutes, one of the motion sensor lights from one side of the house blinked. Kate stared again at the monitor, hoping it was an animal, when a light from the other side began blinking.
“I have motion on both sides of the house.” Cory walked to her, looked over her shoulder, and peered at the monitor.
“There’s nothing from the cameras.”
“They’re closer to the house. The sensors pick up movement further out.”
“Ann, please tell Ed and Ben to be sharp. We’re being flanked on both sides of the house.” The two men were at their shooting portals in the back bedrooms, armed with the .308s, and covering the back of the house. Ann left the room, returning shortly, and taking a seat next to Kate.
“I’m getting a look out front,” Cory said. He walked to his shooting portal and rested a pair of binoculars in the opening. Scanning left to right, he returned to the desk and said, “can you zoom the camera that covers the front of the house on that bush about two hundred yards out and slightly to the left?” When Kate zoomed it, the nose of what appeared to be an ATV became visible. Bullet holes were also observable on the ATV’s front. “It must be the convicts,” Cory concluded.
“We better call Don,” Ann said.
Cory thought it over and finally replied, “we have to handle this ourselves. Don has bigger fish to fry, and if we call him, he’ll have to choose to come back here or stay and defend the town. We need him there more than here. If we get attacked, we’ll call. But, for now, we stand pat.” Ann looked worried, but nodded her agreement.
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