The Grey Man: -Vignettes-
Page 1
The Grey Man
-Vignettes-
JL Curtis
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Oldnfo@gmail.com
Author’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Available from Amazon.com in Kindle format or soft cover book, BN.com in Nook format. Printed by CreateSpace.
The Grey Man/ JL Curtis. -- 1st ed.
ISBN-13: 978-1495411311
ISBN-10: 1495411311
DEDICATION
Dedicated to the Officers, Men and Women of the United States Military, and those who serve in Law Enforcement, Fire and EMS professions.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends..
―John 15:13 KJV
Contents
Prolog
1 Texas— Thirty Years Later
2 Another Day at the Office
3 Road Trip
4 Quantico
5 WV Six Months Later
6 Night Shoot
7 The Competition
8 The Party
9 The Challenge Coin
10 Guess Who
11 Visitors
12 Fandango
13 Practice
14 Riding the Range
15 On Patrol
16 Shots Fired
17 The Aftermath
18 The Morning After
19 Unexpected Twist
20 Planes and Trucks
21 The Raid
22 Now What
23 Heads Up
24 Lawyer Up
25 JAG
26 No He Didn’t
27 Recovery
28 On The Range
29 Together Again
30 Thailand Here We Come
31 The Hunt Is On
32 The Chase
33 Bingo
34 Homeward Bound
35 The Reception
36 Winding Down
Epilog
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Dawn, Bob, Joe, Tina, Bill, Jean, Ian, Rita, Kelly 1, Kelly 2, Johnny, Tom 1, Tom 2, Earl, Steph, Rick and Brigid for all your alpha and beta reads.
Special thanks to my editor Cara Lockwood.
Cover art by Tina Garceau
Prolog
Vietnam 1968, Central Highlands, LZ Dragon
Sitting on an landing zone carved out of the jungle about ten kilometers from the Ho Chi Min trail, Staff Sergeant Cronin and ten Montegnard[1] irregulars waited patiently for a resupply so they could continue their spying mission on the trail. Suddenly one of the Yards pointed off to the east, and Cronin dimly saw what could be a helicopter flitting over the jungle.
Shortly thereafter, over the sound of a Huey helicopter climbing to their altitude, the AN/GRC-9 broke squelch, “Smoke.”
Cronin pulled a yellow smoke from his web gear, checked it, pulled the pin and threw it into the clearing hacked out of the jungle. He picked up the mike and said, “Yellow.”
“Copy yellow, inbound.”
The helicopter barely cleared the trees as it flared into a hover and descended into the clearing. As soon as it touched down, the crew chief and gunners started throwing ammo cans and supplies out of both doors as a small Green Beret hopped nimbly down from the helo.
Cronin ran in under the blades. “Dammit, Billy, I said to send a medic!”
Staff Sergeant Moore grabbed Cronin and dragged him out from under the blades, “I’m a medic as a secondary and I needed to talk you without anybody listening,” he shouted over the noise of the helicopter.
John leaned in and yelled back, “Did you at least bring another Angry Nine? That POS is on its last legs. And I hope you brought meds. Need ‘em bad.
Harrington’s daughter pulled through, and I don’t want her to relapse...”
The crew finished throwing supplies out and the Huey lifted off immediately. The gunner waved as they rolled to clear the trees and disappeared.
Billy said, “Yeah, two of the damn things. Listen, we’ve got a problem. The new NVA colonel in charge of this section of the trail is actually doing shit, so you need to move. I’ve got forty-eight hours on the deck, and then they are picking me back up either here or at X-ray. So let’s get humping.”
John and Billy ran back into the clearing; John directed the Montagnards to load up. The Yards got the ammo and most of the supplies. John and Billy each picked up a radio , a box of medical supplies, and they hit the trail back to the village. Four hours later they trudged back in, and the village elder welcomed Billy as a shaman. After a couple of hours treating the various ills of the tribe, they finally got a few minutes in the long house in relative privacy.
John said, “The Elder has already decided to move, this place is dead for them and he’s been getting nervous about how close the strikes are hitting. I got blown ass over teakettle day before yesterday at the OP, and if I hadn’t been behind a boulder, I’d be dead.”
Billy asked, “You catch anything? How are you feeling?”
“Yeah, a little shrapnel in the arm. Other than dysentery, malaria, and shitting through a screen door I’m fine.”
In the dimly lit long house, Billy cleaned and bandaged the wound as best he could, and slipped John a packet of meds and iodine tabs for the water. They racked out for a few hours and the next morning more people showed up. Billy treated them while John and the Elder met with the males in the tribe.
The decision was made to move about two hours east and north, which put them two ridges further away from the trail, and on fresh land. Billy finished an intel dump to John, got information in return, and took the film John handed him. Billy grabbed a camera from his pack and documented the ville. He got John, the Elder, the men and a few of the children in another picture standing in front of the long house.
Packing his Alice pack, he and John shook hands and with a few quiet words, Billy and a security team humped it for the LZ.
1 Texas— Thirty Years Later
Cronin Ranch
John got up from the rocking chair and stood on the front steps of the ranch house, swirled the dregs of coffee in his cup and threw it off the porch. Rex trotted back up the steps and sat at the door waiting to be let in, but John just stood there bouncing the coffee cup in his hand. Thirty five years. That’s how long I’ve been doing this, John thought, thirty five years of ups and downs running this ranch. And I’ve lost a step, hell three or four steps.
Jack, this should’ve been yours, he thought, looking out over the land. You were born forty-three years ago today, and would’ve taken over for me by now. His son should’ve been here, but he’d been taken, along with his wife, many years ago. Amy, John’s wife, had died not too long after, of cancer and what John thought was a broken heart.
He thought as he always did that his family sure had seen more than its fair share of death.
Pulling the door open, John walked back into the house with Rex at his side. In the kitchen, John pulled the coffee pot out and refilled his cup as Juanita came in the back door; he glanced at her and was rewarded with a smile.
“Good morning, Senor John,” she said.
“Morning, Juanita. Is your other half awake this morning or is he sleeping in again?”
Juanita laughed. “You know he was up with the sun, and checking on the horses. Of course Toby was up too, so they have been prowling around the horses, the barn and the corrals since all hours. I know he was worried about that fence on the backside of the corral after that last rain, so they are probably down there now.”
The old man nodded. “Plotting ways to spend more of my money I’m sure.” But he defused his words with a grin.
“Well, you aren’t as young as you used to be, Senor, and there are things that need to be done that require plain old manual labor,” Juanita chided.
He replied, “I’ll have you know I’m only sixty-three, I can work just as hard as they can! Hell, I grew up doing ranch work.”
Jesse, his granddaughter, tousled and yawning, came through the kitchen door.
Can’t believe she’s a grown woman, John thought. He remembered when she was just five, chasing fireflies through the backyard at dusk. Had it been so many years since then?
Jack, you would’ve been proud of your girl. Strong and smart as a whip, that one. His son and his daughter-in-law had been killed when Jesse was so little. She hardly had memories of them. John had raised Jesse as his own, but even he didn’t know how he’d managed it. John had no business raising a girl all by himself. Amy, I wish you were here to see her.
“What’s got you so grumpy this morning, Papa?” She picked up a cup and poured herself a cup of coffee.
Making a show of looking at his watch, the old man said, “Well, look who finally decided to grace us with her presence!”
Jesse stuck out her tongue at the old man. “You know damn well I pulled a reserve shift last night. We ended up with a van with the two smugglers with two keys of grass and a pistol in the bag down on I-ten. Before it was over, that ended up involving DPS, the Rangers and who the hell else I don’t know. I didn’t clear the station until sometime after two AM, and I didn’t get home until almost three.”
The old man just nodded, refilled his coffee cup and headed out the back door. Juanita and Jesse both went to the kitchen window and watched him walking toward the back corral. At right at six feet tall, and around one hundred-eighty pounds, other than the grey hair and moustache, the old man didn’t look sixty-three. The women presented quite a contrast too. Juanita at forty-plus was a short plump Hispanic woman, always smiling and seeing the humor in life; Jesse at twenty-three was tall and girl-next-door-pretty, with shoulder length brown hair that she was always flipping out of her face. As a deputy in Pecos County, she was quiet and reserved most of the time, especially around people she didn’t know.
Watching the old man walk away, Jesse reached over and hugged Juanita. “What’s got Papa so upset this morning?”
“I don’t know. Francisco said he saw him just sitting on the porch this morning, lost in thought. That is not like him at all, I wonder if he’s worried about you pulling those reserve sheriff patrols in the middle of the night by yourself.”
“I dunno, since he’s the one that helped me get into the Sheriff’s Department to start with,” Jesse replied. “I’m more worried about getting secretarial spread from those hours in the seat than anything else!” She smiled ruefully and patted her hips.
Juanita looked at Jesse. “That is not what causes the spread, it’s babies. And you’re getting to be an old maid; all the old biddies are talking about how you don’t do anything but work at the test track, and patrols and work here on the ranch. All the boys you’ve dated never lasted more than six months, and they wonder why.”
“They’re boring that’s why! All they want is to get me in bed, and make a lot of promises, and all that crap. And the ones around here all know about the ranch, so I think they’re looking at getting a piece of that action when Papa dies,” Jesse said.
“What about all those engineers you work with?” Juanita asked.
Jesse laughed ruefully. “All they know is their damn computers and spreadsheets, and the young ones are all too busy sucking up to the program managers. The drivers all see me as arm candy, or a quick piece of ass, since most of them are flown in just to do the tire testing.”
“All you work with are spreadsheets too, so what is wrong with that? You need a nice long girl’s vacation Jesse, what about the girls you went to school with? Can’t y’all get together and go somewhere nice?”
“Most of them are married with kids now, so that’s not an option. Besides, I like the quiet life of an accountant and when Papa dies, I’ll have to take over the ranch. I know that, and I want to make sure I do that with the right person. And I damn well better know accounting to keep track of everything on this ranch!”
Juanita shook her head and turned away. “I need to get breakfast started. You want anything special this morning?”
“Can we have pancakes? I haven’t had pancakes in forever and I love the ones you make!” Jesse said.
Juanita smiled. “Pancakes it is. Now go get presentable.”
Jesse disappeared with a smile as Juanita prepared breakfast for everyone. After everything was ready, Juanita stepped out back she rang the triangle calling the men in, as Jesse now freshly out of the shower and ready for the day came back into the kitchen. She took the place settings out of the cabinets and set the table for everyone, poured juice and was setting coffee cups at each place as the old man, Francisco and Toby trooped into the kitchen.
Francisco gave Juanita a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, and smiled at Jesse as he sat down. Toby sat quickly and smiled shyly at Jesse, “Morning, Miss Jesse.”
“Morning Toby, morning Francisco. Has the old grouch put y’all to work already?” Jesse asked.
Francisco laughed. “Everyday, all day; such a slave driver he is.”
The old man sat at the head of the table saying, “Dammit, you trying to stir up trouble with the hired help again?” But he couldn’t keep a straight face, and everyone laughed.
After breakfast, Jesse and the old man went into the office to do the weekend updates on the ranch books and Jesse asked, “Papa, what’s got you in such a snit this morning?”
“Nothing, just life in general.”
Jesse opened up the spreadsheet and started making entries from the receipts stacked in the inbox on the desk, not saying anything.
Finally, the old man looked over at Jesse, “Why do you still call me Papa?”
Taken by surprise, Jesse stopped typing and thought for a moment, “What else would I call you? I know you’re not my daddy, but you’ve raised me, and been my Papa since I was a little girl. I’m not going to call you grandpa, or even worse, Mr. Cronin, so what am I supposed to call you?”
The old man shrugged, “Well, I hear kids calling their dads Pops, or their names. I do have a first name you know. Calling me Papa makes you sound like you’re twelve years old.”
Turning around Jesse looked at the old man, “I can’t call you John, that’s just not right. I’m not going to insult you by calling you Pops either! I could always call you captain, I guess. Would that be better?”
Frustrated the old man shook his head. “Jesse we’re all that’s left of the family. Maybe it’s just old age, but I can’t help but wonder what is going to happen when I’m gone. Hell, I never should have lived through half the shit I did, and I worry about you patrolling by yourself. I’m almost sorry I ever got you involved with the department.”
“Papa, don’t even start that! I did that because I wanted to, not because you pushed me into it! I saw enough shit in college to ensure I want to be able to protect myself, and by default other women if it comes to that. You’re going to be here a long time yet, and I’m not planning on going anywhere anyway.” Getting up Jesse went over and put her arms around the old man, “Besides I love harassing you and causing hate and discontent, you know that.”
Returning her hug he said, “Let’s just say this is not o
ne of my better days and let it go at that.”
“Deal.” Sitting back down Jesse asked, “Any other receipts or things I need to get in the book?”
Two hours later, books caught up and both of them in a better mood, they went out and watched Toby working with a new colt. For someone who had never been around horses until he came to Texas three years ago, Toby was amazing with them. He was a Montagnard and given his upbringing, would have been more likely to eat the horse than train it. At just over five feet tall, he looked more like a young child than an adult, but he was in his element.
2 Another Day at the Office
The old man grumped into the sheriff’s office Monday morning, flopped in a chair across from the sheriff and glared down at his coffee cup.
“Okay, John, what’s got your balls in an uproar?” the sheriff asked.
“I’m worried about Jesse. We’re seeing more and more drugs coming through here on I-ten and I-twenty, and I don’t want her ending up on a damn kill list for the cartel. One of us in this family is enough. We don’t need the crap they’ve got going over in Arizona, and I talked to Bucky last night and at least three or four troopers are getting protection since they got named.”
The sheriff leaned back. “Well, I can’t promise she won’t ever get caught up in that. Not honestly anyway. But you know I’ll do my damnest to keep her and all the other deputies off paperwork that gets sent anywhere out of the department. The troopers took credit for the stop she initiated the other night, and I didn’t fight it.”
The old man looked intently at the sheriff. “Why, especially when we would have gotten credit for a vehicle confiscation, and at least a few bucks back from the state?”
The sheriff shrugged. “It would be peanuts, it’s another damn Ford van, and the last one I think we got a hundred twenty dollars out of that one. Besides, it would cost us damn near that much to do the paperwork.”