by Doug Ball
“I think I may have something for you. Meet me here an hour after noon tomorrow.”
“How am I gonna sleep outta the rain and snow till then?” Tank asked.
“Would two Benjamin’s make you happy? Just an advance you understand. There’s ten thousand on the other end. We can hit the range for a few shots and then move to the work site.”
“You done bought me. Let me see the green, my man.”
“Me, too. I love green.” Tank reached out with his palm up.
“You don’t show, I’ll hunt you down and give you a piece of me you don’t want. Dig?”
“Yeah. We be there, don’t you get to frettin’ now.”
Two hours later, after watching three more men collect their share of the green, they headed for Miracle Mile and a cheap motel. Sure enough a Toyota followed them.
“I don’ think that man trust us too much, partner.”
“I think you may be right, my friend. Call Tan.”
“Yes, sir.” Abdul liked talking with the boss.
Tank added, “Tell him the mine is paying off really well this week. Just got a text on that.”
“Gotcha.”
The Ambush
Brad held his men at the vehicles until all had visited the bushes, checked their weapons and loads, and stated they were in this all the way. Little did they all know, Brad had a suppressed weapon in his shoulder holster to take care of anyone backing out at this point. No one backed out, ten grand was a lot of money to out of work warriors. Brad took one line of ambushers to the left and the Corporal led the right hand column. Each column of 10 men moved south with fifty feet of separation between the two. One flanker from each column was sent to protect the exposed side, one man brought up the rear of each, and Brad served as point man for the whole shebang. He alone knew where they were going. The Corporal kept him in sight.
Hours later, twenty men crossed the downed wire moving north. All connected and informed through the heads-up display attached to their helmets. Each of them carried enough weaponry to start a war and win it. One was in the lead as a leader should be. These men he had picked from the experienced and the inexperienced in his group of orphans. None of them will be missed, much, if they do not return. If they do return they will be the kind of heroes someone will write a song about. In Mexico there are a lot of such songs.
An hour before another 20 men had crossed the wire, each with a task and a display on their helmets to assist them. These were also from One’s collection of orphans and led by Two. Each of them was combat experienced and had a specific job. The top priority job for all of them was, do not be detected. This group would screen One’s group on all sides looking for the ambush they knew would come. Five of them were way out in front looking for the ambushers. If they failed at that, a lot of good men they knew would die.
Tan and his three men, four Deputy Sheriffs, ten militiamen, and six volunteer National Guardsmen moved south toward the beepers Tank and Abdul had in their shoes. Each man in this group was connected by heads-up screens on their helmets that kept them updated with the positions of Tank and Abdul, each of the men in this group, One, and Two. A drone circled Tank and Abdul high in the sky relaying infrared video to the AzBP base in Sonoita. All in all, it was definitely interesting. Tan called AzBP and had them send tow trucks to pick up the vehicles the ambushers had left behind.
Tank and Abdul stopped.
Two reported contact an hour later.
Heat signatures, detected by the eye-in-the-sky balloon, from the warm bodies of the ambushers were transmitted to the displays, telling the combined groups of Tan’s, One’s, and Two’s troops exactly where the enemies were. Leaders set up coverage and drew in the attack plans on the displays letting each group know what their responsibility was in the upcoming battle.
Two directed a pair of his men to take out a forward position of a man fifty feet south of the rest of Brad’s men. Two more men were dispatched to take out the men in positions on each flank.
One and his men connected with Two and his men allowing the planned entrapment of the ambushers. Tank’s crew of 24 eased up to the rear guard set by One’s combined troops making a sixty-four man unit to take on Brad and his troops.
Two men from One’s group were sent forward like they were the point for the expected north moving group that had been advertised. Sixty-two men watched them moving toward the enemy with moods of anticipation and some slight tingles of excited fear. None would hold back.
Brad lay on the ground waiting for a click on his head set telling him the north bound border crossers he was looking for had arrived. He felt like everything was wrong. His body ached. The men were restless because they weren’t the best. One man had gotten up and moved to the rear three times to take a leak until Brad told him to pee his pants, but quit moving around. The only two new guys that stayed quiet in the holes they had found were the two that he figured would be trouble, the big red neck and the black giant.
Finally, a click.
Brad waited for the clicks indicating how many were moving north.
Further south, one of Two’s men moved silently to the position of the man that sent the click. They took him out with a stiletto slid upward into his heart as his head was pulled back. The two flank positions were terminated moments later. Within seconds Brad’s group lost all advantage, if it ever had any, and was blind.
Tan moved silently south until he was within ten yards of two of Brad’s positions. To his left and right were Deputies and others were moving in to find targets all around the ambushers. Nobody was in a hurry.
Brad saw movement off to his left where his flanker should have been. Instead of a man in camo, this man was in all black. He clicked his radio three times and then went voice. “Point report.”
No response.
“West flank, report.”
No response.
“East flank, report.”
No response.
Brad turned off his radio and tossed it down a hole and did his best effort at being one with the earth as he moved to the east as quietly as possible. Twenty feet later he found the East flanker. Off to his right he heard someone slowly moving toward where he had been. He slid his knife out of its home and prepared to take the man on, but the man kept moving until he was out of sight and hearing.
One of Brad’s new warriors saw something moving and triggered a round. The night lit up like a Fourth of July shindig in Mississippi. Tank and Abdul hugged the ground in the holes they had prepared. A man in camo dropped into Abdul’s hole to join him only to be met by a sharp blade and darkness. A man in black was close behind and waved to Abdul as he went by moving to the center of the action.
Within thirty seconds the firing stopped as One spoke into his mic, “No images are returning fire. Light up and let’s check this place out.”
Tank saw the Corporal moving west past his position and tossed a rock at Abdul. Abdul saw the arm waving and moved to join him. Abdul asked, “What’s up, Bro?”
“One of our warriors just moved thataway. Can you imagine one of our highly paid warriors buggin’ out?” He pointed.
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“Sho can, bro. Let’s take him.”
The two moved out after him.
Tan watched his heads up display as most of the hot bodies either remained still or moved toward the center of the battlefield. One hot body moved and then the two bodies with beepers followed. As he continued to watch, men in black moved among the unmoving heat signatures until he saw another hot body moving in his direction that was not a friend. He froze.
In his ear bud he heard, “Tank, Abdul, is that you following the hot spot to the west? One click, yes. Two clicks, no.”
One click.
“Need help?”
Two clicks.
Not five yards away, but looking in all the wrong directions, Brad went by. Tan thought back and remembered that this hot spot had been moving among the ambushers early on. Maybe, just maybe, this guy was the
leader. If not, he was getting away and needed to be stopped. No one else was within fifty feet of him, so he took it on himself to go after the man and determined he would take him alive if at all possible. ‘I need someone with answers, and this is one of two that might do that,’ he thought.
Faintly in his ear bud, “Tan is that you moving eastward after that hot body?”
Tan clicked his radio once.
“Need help.”
Two clicks.
“Okay. We’ll clean up here.”
One click.
The man ahead of Tank was moving in a crawl using nothing to show him where to put his hands or knees. Consequentially, he stuck his hand on a ball of cholla cactus, commonly referred to as jumping cactus. A couple hundred spines entered the ball of his hand. Within moments, his knees were both covered with the puffy spine balls. The more he moved the worse it got until he stopped moving and moaned.
Tank said softly, “Toss the guns or die.”
“Man, am I glad you are here,” the Corporal said as he stood up.
Abdul stood to meet him.
An arm moved in the dark.
Tank heard the thud of something hitting Abdul. Abdul yelled, “Wanna play that a way, huh?” and followed it with a grunt.
Abdul turned his head light on to see the Corporal in the patch of jumping cactus with a knife sticking out of the neck right above the armor. Tank moved to Abdul and watched as Abdul pulled a knife from the fleshy underside of his left arm.
“You gonna live, big guy.”
“Yeah, pardner, I’m gonna live, but dat sucka ain’t.”
He reached down and removed his knife from the dead man. “Some warrior, huh?”
One was supervising the clean up on the ambush site when Two said in his ear, “Where’s Tan?”
One checked his head’s up display. “Matarese.”
“Yes.”
“Come to me.”
“On my way.”
One said, “Where is Tan?” when she got there.
“I don’t know. He went off to the east following a hot body from the ambush.”
“How far?”
“He was out about a half mile when he went off. Coming up on a road that will lead back to the spot where the enemy vehicles were.”
“All vehicles are gone?”
“Affirmative.” Control butted in.
“Control, send a car around that way, if there is one, to back up Tan.”
“Will do? Wait a minute.” Control paused, “Hot spots moving east and heading into the mountains. Tan in pursuit. Tan is about a hundred feet behind the bad guy. Hot flashes. Hot flashes returned. Got a shootout going on over there. They’re running again. Tan is moving slower as the hot spot moves into the foot hills up Beeker Draw.”
“Control. Stay on them. Send us a couple of ambulances and a meat wagon for the dead. I have one dead and two wounded. We got it under control here, I hope,” One said.
“Matarese, your voice is changing,” was control’s response. “Will do.”
The shots came from the man he was following, but had missed by small margins as Tan moved through the large rocks and sand at the base of the Draw. He heard the conversation on the radio, but was too close to speak for himself. If they were still tracking him, he was okay with that.
He returned fire when the closeness of the rounds coming at him told him he had been spotted by the man ahead of him. He moved to the right and climbed the bank of the draw halfway allowing him to look down on his target.
Brad saw that he had missed and kept moving after changing the magazine in his Bushmaster. He had been here once before hunting javalina and knew there was a pass to the right ahead that would lead him to an old ranch house with a spring and not more than two hundred yards off the main dirt road running north south. Hitch a ride with a cowboy and he was in the clear. The Colonel wasn’t going to be happy, but that was his problem and not Brad’s
Tan had no idea where they were going or where they were in relationship to anything. He called control, “GSI 1, control. Where am I?”
“That isn’t the easiest question to answer. You are two miles east and a few hundred yards north of the ambush in a wash called Beeker Draw. There is an abandoned ranch building through the pass ahead and to your right. I have troops headed in that direction. There is also a jeep trying to catch up with you, but I don’t think he will make it. Bail out for you is due south, you’ll meet the jeep.”
“I am not bailing out. Something tells me this guy is the leader of those wannabe heroes behind me.”
“You could be right. For your info. One dead on our side. Two wounded. All dead on the other side except for your man.”
“What about the guy Tank and Abdul were after?”
“Dead. Tried to knife Abdul. Abdul has a knife wound. No problem, he says.”
“Roger that. Okay, I’m gonna get this guy, but you keep your men on the other side of the pass so I don’t shoot them by mistake. I want this guy alive, but I will not be dying to make that happen. Mama wouldn’t like that.”
“10-4, GSI 1. Control out.”
“GSI 1, out.”
Tan watched his target start walking again, lined up the sights on the M-16 he was carrying, and let fly with a copper clad bullet.
The man stumbled.
Tan had aimed for his leg and saw the man reached down for his calf.
Brad felt the sting and pressure on his calf as the round slid across the outside of his left leg. The blood began flowing toward his boot. He struggled to retain his balance and move toward a cut in the side of the draw where he broke out a combat bandage and wrapped his wound as best as he could without cutting off the circulation.
When he finished with his first aid, he looked up to the other side of the draw to see Tan crouched behind a large barrel cactus with his rifle aimed directly at him.
Tan said, “Surrender and I’ll see you get a fair trial. Answer my questions and cooperate with us and you might get off with 25 to life.”
Brad let fly with a couple of shots that hit the dirt within two feet of Tan. “I will not. We are going to keep up the cleansing of Arizona until it’s people demand a change of government. Then we will build the fence and keep the riff raff from down south out. No more drugs. No more paying for them to live in our country without earning it or working for it. Don’t you understand? They are killing our state and the country.”
“You can’t end that with violence,” Tan replied as he noticed that he could see the man in the beginning light of dawn. He took off the night glasses and shoved them in his jacket pocket.
“We been doing it. The number of intruders has almost stopped. Don’t you see that?”
“I see it, but rape and murder don’t scare people like us. They just make us want vengeance and a way to vent our abuse. We are men, not wimps.” Tan was getting angry, the one thing he had been taught over and over again that should never happen. Anger takes away control, and the man in control wins.
“We are warriors. Warriors that our country sent to war and then refuses to take care of wounded brothers and sisters as they should be taken care of. I have hired nothing but veterans because they are an already an army of well-trained citizens. They are 7% of the population that could take over the whole country and return America to its glory.”
“Who has been feeding you all this? Why would they want that to happen?”
“The Colonel knows whereof he speaks. He, too, has been wounded by this nation and refused his pension and the medical care he needs. He has an army waiting to be called to regain what is rightfully his.”
“Sounds like a lunatic to me.”
Brad shouted, “He is not crazy. He is a great man. He has forgiven me when I made grave mistakes.”
“You’re making a grave mistake right now, a mistake that will take you to the grave.” Tan shouted back. “Will you die for this man?”
“No.” Brad triggered three rounds at Tan.
Tan fire
d back, but did not intend to hit him. He wanted him alive more than ever after hearing all Brad had to say.
Tan yelled, “What’s his name? Maybe I could meet him and understand all this. I, too, would like to see our country regain it’s greatness. I am a Marine and fought for this country.”
“I was Army. Many of my friends died. Many need care.” Brad stopped and lifted his gun. “No, I cannot let you know the Colonel’s name. He would not like that. I am his warrior. He was a warrior until this nation would no longer use him because of his heritage.”
“You will die if we don’t get that wound taken care of.”
“It is nothing. Just a flesh wound.” He fired two more rounds.
Tan fired back.
Brad headed up the hill toward the pass. His jump and run caught Tan off guard a bit which allowed Brad to get behind a bend in the draw and over the bank on the same side that Tan was on.
Tan climbed to the top and saw the man running with a limp toward the pass. He took careful aim and dropped the man by hitting him in the right arm between elbow and shoulder. Brad dropped to the ground, rifle tumbling free.
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Tan ran up toward him watching carefully every inch of the man on the ground for motion.
The man was still breathing when Tan reached him. With a toe of his left boot he rolled the man over only to see him come up with a suppressed automatic that flashed fire.
The round took Tan alongside his ribcage spinning him around. Tan was able to kick the gun out of Brad’s hand as he spun and fell to the dirt. Rolling, he came up with his M-16 aimed at Brad as the wounded man slumped to the dirt.
Tan got up, pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and cuffed the man’s left arm to his belt at the lower back and then rolled him over so the cuffed arm was under him. Brad was unconscious.
Two hours later, Brad and Tan were in the back of an ambulance headed for Tucson Medical Center. A medic and a deputy were also in the boxy red and white truck as the siren covered much of their talking and the deputy wound gauze over the pad the medic had slapped on Tan’s rib. The medic was working hard to keep Brad alive and knock down the effects of the shock his body had taken.
