Nathan didn’t want to pry any further than Jess was willing to share. He figured when she was ready to talk, she would talk. Nathan looked into her eyes and saw something different. He feared the worst, and that angered him exceedingly. Her face was still reddened, and gluey residue from the duct tape still adhered to her face in patches. Most of it was covered in grime from her trek home, through the dark.
“I’ve asked everyone to pack essentials to survival in case we have to leave in a hurry. We believe we’ve been compromised by this Scott fella,” Nathan informed her.
“You’re probably right. We should find another place before he comes back with a group next time.”
Nathan had a pretty good sixth sense. He couldn’t tell when someone was necessarily lying, but he could sense when something was off. He knew Jess was hiding something, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Did you happen to find out where the cache of weapons was taken? Or how many people are in Scott’s group?”
Jess didn’t want to talk about Scott, because she was nervous that if people found out she had killed him, she might have a tarnish on her reputation with the people in the camp. She was concerned with the way people perceived her. Her work as an oath taker carried over into her daily life. The way she was viewed by people was important. She wanted to be seen as someone that could both lead and be trusted, and those things are hard to find in one person.
“I’m sorry, I never saw the cache or the bus after I went black.”
“We found the bus,” Nathan said.
“What do you mean?”
“The morning after you were taken, we set out to recover you. We followed the tracks to the bus, but you weren’t with it anymore.”
“I’m not sure where it stopped,” she said, “but if you know where it’s at, we can go retrieve it, right?”
“I’m not real concerned with that bus. My concern was for you,” Nathan said.
“Well, as you can see, I’m just fine. I think that bus should be taken back. It’s armored, and if we’re planning on a move, we could use it.”
“That’s a valid point,” he said. “How do you feel about that prison reconnaissance mission I suggested before you took off?”
Jess thought for a second. “Well, I know that place well, but it’s full of people and we don’t know anything about them. Are they friendlies? Are they hostiles? We know nothing!” Jess said with authority and a hint of frustration.
“I’m not suggesting we walk in and ask them to leave. It’s a spy mission. You know, ‘black ops,’” Nathan said sarcastically, using his hands to sign quotes.
By the time he had finished that sentence, they had entered the camp and Denny met them first. He shook her hand and said, “Welcome home.”
“Thank you. It’s good to be back,” Jess replied.
Jess was being surrounded by people that had taken a liking to her. Nathan stepped away from the crowd and leaned over to Denny.
“Keep an eye on her. Something’s not right,” he whispered in Denny’s ear.
“Roger that,” he said.
Nathan put his hand on Denny’s shoulder and said, “I need to see the Posse ASAP,” and then walked away to the old firehouse. Denny looked back at Jess and wondered what Nathan could see that he couldn’t. He just saw a dirty Jess.
Denny rounded up all the Posse members and headed to the old firehouse. Nathan was standing at the front of the room when Jess walked in.
“Sorry I’m the last one,” she said.
Nathan looked at her and said, “I was going to let you rest for a while. You’ve been through a lot.”
“I’m good. I’ll get rest when sleep comes.”
“I insist,” Nathan rebutted.
“And I said I’m good,” she repeated.
Jess could already sense tension. Maybe not telling him the whole story is causing mistrust, she thought to herself. Jess was trying to weigh the cost of telling the whole story against the cost of discretion. She decided she was going to tell Nathan and his best friend Denny. But she would have to wait because Nathan was preparing a strategy that should be heeded carefully.
Ash was paying special attention. He knew his last blunder was ground zero. If he was going back to the place where Todd had died, he had better have an “A game.” Ash listened intently as Nathan spoke.
Nathan began drawing a map of the environment surrounding the prison on the blackboard. He understood the risks involved in reconning an armed maximum-security penitentiary. What he didn’t understand was why it was still operational and to what extent were the United Nations using the prison? In Nathan’s mind, if the prison was filled with innocent Americans, he could take out the UN soldiers and use the people to help build a free community in Chester. If it was filled with inmates, his conscience was torn.
Nathan’s map was complete with the Mississippi River, which flowed in a southeastwardly direction, a railroad track with stationary train cars that sat elevated off of the river, a seven-to-eight-foot wall that stood between the train track and Kaskaskia Street, and a drawing of some surrounding woodland.
“What I was thinking, if we can pull it off, is one man”—Nathan glanced back at Jess—“or woman”—then went back to the board—“proceeds along the riverfront, here.” He pointed to the blackboard as he gave instructions. “Using the elevation and foliage to conceal yourself, you can make your way to a cozy and concealed spot out of sight from the tower. The rest would traverse ahead of our lookout, through the woods, and stand by in case things go south, and there needs to be cover fire for him or her to jettison the reconnaissance. Essentially, we would be acting as an overwatch.”
Jess raised her hand.
Nathan looked at Jess and said, “Not now, Jess. I’ll speak with you alone, after the meeting.”
Nathan had confirmed Jess’s sense of tension and distrust by not letting her speak, as he had previously. She now knew that not being completely honest with Nathan was a mistake. Now she had to prove her loyalty to Nathan by telling him exactly what had happened in Murphysboro. That meant reliving what she had gone through in detail, especially the part about killing two men. She would have to make her case and prove to him that she wasn’t a murderer or a loose wingnut.
At the end of Nathan’s operation plan, he didn’t ask if there were any questions. Instead, he asked Jessica to step outside with him. Looking at Denny, he said, “Can you wrap things up here?”
“Sure thing, boss,” Denny replied.
Stepping outside with Jess, he afforded her a moment to say anything she wanted to say. She saw the opportunity and seized it by saying, “Look, I wasn’t completely honest with you before, and now I’m not blind to the fact that you think I’m shady.”
Nathan continued to look at her and to give her the time she needed to spill everything.
She continued, “Nothing I told you was a lie, although I omitted a few things that happened to me after I regained consciousness.”
Before Jess could finish her last sentence, the siren alarm went off from high in the water tower. Everybody in town stopped moving. Denny and the Posse exited the old firehouse. Nathan dropped his assault pack and fetched his binoculars. He held them up to his face and pointed them towards the tower. He saw one man cranking the siren and the other was pointing towards State Route 3. He held up one of his hands in what resembled an okay sign, but Nathan had trained the guard tower in hand and arm signals for fighting purposes. The hand signal the man was giving Nathan was the number nine. It was followed by a closed fist that rocked back and forth, signifying vehicles.
“GRAB YOUR WEAPONS AND HEAD FOR COVER NOW!” Nathan shouted. “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”
Since everybody had packed their belongings, Nathan felt they had been caught short; even with advance preparation, they had been too slow. His worries now shifted to his sister, Katie, who was last seen packing her belongings and helping others. He didn’t have time to run to her aid, and so chose to take more imm
ediate action, hoping to catch the raiders off guard.
Nathan looked at the Posse and said, “Let’s hit the tree line. We can snipe from the cover of the woods.”
Hearing what Nathan just said made her history of killing two men seem less grim. As they were heading to the tree line, Jess said, “So, what I was about to tell you—”
Nathan interrupted, “Save it, Jess. You can tell me later.”
Jess kept her silence until they hit the trees. Once they were snug into a sniping position, she began to speak. “I’ve saved it long enough. I need to tell you guys this. It can’t wait, because I don’t like the idea of you feeling you have to watch over your shoulder with me.”
Nathan and the others just sat quietly and let her softly talk.
“Nathan, I already told you about a guy named Scott that was coming onto me and acting weird. I thought he had got the picture and left me alone. I opened the bus door to put away the weapons and I don’t remember anything from the time I got on that bus until the time I woke up in some dreary and dank basement. My hands were bound behind my back and I was gagged with a sock and some duct tape. I managed to free myself and found a pen in the drawer of an antique desk. I heard a voice and recognized it as that weirdo Scott. I put two and two together and waited. He came downstairs into the basement and I shanked him to death.”
The Posse members just looked at each other. It wasn’t the response she was expecting.
“With a pen?” Denny asked.
“Yeah?” Jess inquisitively replied.
“That’s awesome,” Warren said.
Nathan and Denny looked back at each other one last time before returning their attention to the incoming assault. They still could not hear vehicles.
“Everybody stay alert. They may be on foot, so watch your six.” Nathan said.
“I killed another man after that,” Jess continued.
“With a bobby pin?” Warren bantered.
“No, with a kitchen towel,” she said.
Everybody that was looking at Jess couldn’t tell if she was serious or joking at this point.
“I took this after I killed Scott,” Jess held up her new acquisition, the M4 with an M203 grenade launcher.
“There was a man in Murphy that shot and killed a woman over a bag of goods. I killed him and tried to save her, but I was too late.”
“You did what you had to do,” Nathan interjected. “We’re all on the fringe of doing the same thing,” he continued. “There’s no judge but God now. There’s no phones ringing and calls to senators or sheriffs for something to be done.” Nathan looked into Jess’s eyes and continued, “There’s only tyrants and patriots. Those two men were tyrants and you are a patriot.”
Nathan and Jess seemed to be lost in the moment as they continued to look into each other’s eyes. No sooner than Nathan had lightened her spirit and they both had let their guard down, a single shot rang out. Everyone flinched at the sound of the rifle shot, no one more than Jessica. She felt a sharp, burning sensation in her back and saw blood splatter on Nathan’s face. He had been shot in the face. She had never lost eye contact with Nathan. The bullet that penetrated Jessica’s back had split Nathan’s cheek.
Chester, Illinois
When Buchanan arrived at the river bridge road, he noted two prisons that weren’t on his map. There was a medium-security prison right off Route 3, on the western side of town, and what appeared to be a larger, more sophisticated prison down in the valley behind the medium-security prison.
From there, he drove toward the bridge and was impressed by the view he had of the river. He cautiously took his Marines across it and was relatively surprised not to come across any opposition. Buchanan left one hundred fifty men on the Missouri side with communications and half of the combat engineers. He put Captain Riley on the Missouri side with Sergeant First Class Reynolds and his men. In all, they were set pretty good, and close enough to respond in a hurry.
Buchanan had set the combat outpost at the Chester Welcome Center on the Illinois end of the bridge.
The TOW and heavy machine gun Marines that were positioned on the bridge were settling into their positions of control, when one of the TOW gunners began sighting out the environment. He could see, in great detail, people in the community that were still freely moving about, notwithstanding they were doing it cautiously. From the bridge, most of Chester appeared to be wooded, with occasional structures sticking out through the canopy. He scanned the hilly area and spotted the courthouse. A mile or two north from there, he spotted the maximum-security prison they had seen from Route 3 earlier.
The corporal behind the TOW sight was drawing a map, detailing anything he could identify through his sight, a tactic common amongst CAAT (Combined Anti-Armor Team) gunners. As the corporal was sketching his map, he peered backed through the sight of his TOW system and zoomed in on the riverfront adjacent the prison.
Grabbing his PRC-77 radio, the gunner said, “Bravo One, Bravo One, Echo Four Juliet. Over.”
Hearing the radio traffic, the lieutenant colonel walked toward his radio. “Echo Four Juliet, this is Bravo One. Over.”
“Bravo One, this is Echo Four Juliet. Several tangos heading southbound on Romeo. Stand by for SALUTE report. Over.”
SALUTE was an acronym for information being relayed. It stood for size, activity, location, unit, time, and equipment.
Buchanan grabbed a pencil and a paper and then returned to his HMMWV for a flat surface to write on.
“Echo Four Juliet, Echo Four Juliet, this is Bravo One. Ready to copy. Over.”
The gunner, now carefully looking through his sight, was cautiously studying several barges heading southbound down the Mississippi. They were winding around a curve in the river and appeared to be docking at the prison. Their freight consisted of several shipping containers, multiple vehicles, and UN troops.
The corporal pushed the button on the handle of the radio and said, “One hundred troops, two T90 tanks, four BTR90, five deuce and half, coordinates north 37.55.68, west minus 89.52.30, repeating, north 37.55.68, west minus 89.52.30. Over.” The gunner’s assistant was careful to write down everything that was being relayed to Buchanan.
Buchanan thought for just a second then returned to his radio. “Echo Company and Weapons Company return to COC. Over.”
Once all of Weapons Company had rallied at the command outpost, Buchanan called for all the platoon leaders, opened a map, spread it across the back of his HMMWV and began barking commands to the company.
“I want my 0341s right there and my TOWs here. What I don’t want is for us to get bottlenecked here.” Buchanan was pointing at the road that ran along the river. It had an elevated wooded area to the east side of it. The idea of storming through such a tight area with his light armor would be a death trap, especially with the two T90 Russian tanks and the three Russian APCs the corporal had spotted from the bridge. This area along the river was certainly a choke point that he was careful to avoid.
Buchanan had four HMMWV M1046A1s set up above the prison, where they had overwatch against the tanks and armored personnel carriers. He also sent the 0341 mortarmen with the 0352 TOW gunners. The heavy machine gunners took the train tracks with Company C, the Rangers, and Reconnaissance, all on foot. Buchanan wanted the helo to sit this one out, because it was their only aerial asset.
Once every assigned unit was in place, he listened closely to the intelligence briefs that were coming in over the radio. The barges, which had normally been traveling north on the river, were now carrying less freight containers than previously noted.
The barges were definitely docking near the prison. It took a while for the barges to come to a stop; in fact, they had partially passed their location when the motors went into reverse. That too, it took a while for the tugboat to push the weight of the barges and freight against the flow of the river. Once it had begun its push in the opposite direction, it was noted that the barges were backing into a man-made levee that protruded ou
t into the river. The current was weaker here, so once the barge was close enough to it, the workload was lessened.
Buchanan gave the command to all units that he wanted personnel to get off of the transport before they opened fire. His instructions were clear that he wanted prisoners.
Taking notes, the TOW gunners observed a UN brass disembark the tugboat and give orders to others still on the barges with the heavy armor. Another man in a UN uniform exited the prison and walked up to the officer. He saluted him and they began talking. The Marines could not hear what was being said from this distance, but they were following their body language. It appeared as though the officer was giving orders to the UN prison guard. The prison guard turned and returned to the prison.
The Marines were relaying information back to Buchanan on everything they had seen so far. The only question Buchanan asked was, “Have they begun disembarking the armor?” which they answered, “No.” Buchanan told the Marine units, “Maintain visual.”
With that being said, the Marines were chomping at the bit to kill UN invaders, but they continued to watch.
The ramp on the barge lowered and one hundred UN soldiers stepped off. All of them were wearing blue UN uniform hats, opposed to the usual blue helmets. They lined up in a row and stood there. About that time, the UN prison guard returned to the parking lot with about sixty others that were dressed similarly. The officer ordered the guards to stand in formation. He then stepped to the rear of the UN soldiers that had just disembarked the barge. He gave the order and they began firing at the guards that had just come out of the prison. They shot until every guard was lying dead.
This information was relayed back to Buchanan, who saw an opportunity to take the prison while it was emptied of guards. He gave the order and the Marine heavy gunners, Engineers, and Rangers all began their assault on the unsuspecting armed UN soldiers.
TYRANT: The Rise Page 10
