2024

by H. Berkeley Rourke

  All my dad ever said about the entire thing was “Well, sometimes a fortress has a chance of survival. That chance comes if the enemy seeking to vanquish the fortress is so stupid that they attack it frontally. I'm sure that if there are any of them left now they won't make that mistake again. So let's find out how many of them are left.”

  I had made a small fire to heat my knife. It was good and hot, red steel in color when I showed it to my prisoner. I stood him up, stripped off his pants and took off his shorts with the knife itself, burning his legs just a little bit. I said to him at that point, “I am only going to ask this question one time and if I get a smartass answer or an 'I don't know', or anything other than a number, I will cut off your right testicle slowly. It will hurt like hell. Then I will ask again. Do you get the drift?”

  He nodded his head. I said to him, “How many are there left in your little army son?”

  He started to say “I don't…” then stopped and said “forty I think, maybe thirty-five but right around that number I think. Most of us came out here today.”

  “Good. Now let's move on to the next question. Where are you storing all your weapons or do you carry them around with you all the time?”

  Again he started to say “I don't…” and then he said “some of us carry them with us. Most do not. Most of the weapons are in the barracks all the time.”

  “Where is the barracks you are talking about Lad?”

  “It was the State Police Barracks before…”

  “You are doing great. Now where is your headquarters, where your leaders stay all the time unless they are with you in an attack?”

  “It's in the library. Mrs. Powers was kind of our leader before she got killed. Her son also got killed so her nephew took over. And he was with us today so he is dead also I guess.”

  “Who is your next leader in line?”

  “She is a teacher from our high school. And boy is she a tough one. She started to get higher in the group by, you know, by having sex with the leaders. Then she was a leader. Now she is the only one left. All the rest are dead. They were all with us on this attack.”

  “How did you find out where we were located?”

  “When the helicopter saw the women and kids outside it sent us messages back before you shot it down.”

  “Do you have any heavy weapons?”

  “I don't know what you mean by that, sir,” he responded. I cut off his right testicle. He screamed for a long time. Mom brought him an ice bag and put it on the wound and he calmed down a little. I asked him again. He said “We don't have any mortars or artillery, anything like that, no, and we used up the last of the RPG's we had just before we attacked your house. Goddamn, what the hell is that house made of?”

  I asked him “Where are your sentries located in the perimeter of the town, in spider holes or in the houses that are boarded up?”

  “They are in the houses that are boarded up. They have little spaces left that they can look out and shoot out.”

  “How long has that been true?”

  “Only for the last day or two.”

  “How many of them are there?”

  “I don't know.”

  “That is unfortunate” I said and I cut off his left testicle. Apparently that one hurt more than the other one. He screamed even louder and a little more in a soprano voice that time. (A joke, just a little joke). Again mom came out and put an ice bag on him. I said “How many sentries are there?”

  “Oh God,” he said.

  “No, just Will de Young, you little bastard. Now answer the question or I will cut off your little dick so you will have to squat to pee. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, sir. There are at least six of them. They rotate houses though. I cannot tell you which houses they are using. It depends on who is on sentry which house they want to use. Some of them are couples and I think they use those places to have sex since no one is threatening the town. I know that is what my girlfriend and I did when we served sentry duty.”

  “All right boy. Last question. What time do your people go to sleep?”

  “Usually the town closes down at around 9:00 p.m. and everyone's lights are out by ten. That is the curfew hour, ten o' clock.”

  “Okay, son.” I cut off the twist ties and told him to pull up his pants. Most of the blood flow had been staunched by the hot blade and the ice bags. But he was still bleeding a little. “You better head home now boy. And remember my face well for if ever you see it again that will be the day of your death. Do you understand me clearly?”

  “Yes, sir. I will get medical attention before I leave town and then I am gone, sir. Thank you for letting me live.”

  “Don't make me regret that boy. If I were to capture you again you would live for hours in the kind of pain you felt here today, you understand me?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said as he began to walk away.

  My dad yelled at the boy, “Don't go on the trail. Go through the forest the way you came. If you go on the trail you will die.”

  Allan and my dad had watched all this occurring. “Based on what the boy said I think it's time to go on the offensive, dad.”

  “I agree,” he said, “but with care and with direct objectives that are simple and easy to accomplish.”

  “Jesus that sounds just like a lecture I once received in the Recon school, sir,” Allan said to dad. All I could do was nod because I too had heard those very words in Recon school.

  “That is probably because your instructor was once one of my students. He probably picked that saying up from me exactly as I just said it. This is not the first time I have uttered those words to Recon Marines.”

  “All right then,” I said, “what should be our initial objectives? We have taken the initiative away from them today I think. And even though they know where we are they know they don't have enough people and enough experience to take us on out here.”

  Allan spoke up and said, “If I were in command I would want to continue to knock down their leadership structure and attack their core in their realm where they think they are safe.”

  “How are you at playing God, Allan?” my father asked.

  “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, don't tell me you have a fifty caliber sniper's rifle. But if you do I am very experienced with it. I acted as 'God' for a couple of different Seal activities, in fact. In answer to your question, sir, and I do mean sir. Major, what is it you need my son?”

  We all had to laugh at that one but it was wonderful for me. I hated that damn cannon. “Wow, that's great, that blunderbuss just shakes me up so badly that I cannot hit anything with it. Good. Then what we could do, dad, is eliminate the sentries out in the forest, if there are any, as we have been doing, eliminate the roadblock and have Allan come in behind us by an hour or so and set up to watch the barracks and shoot anyone that goes in or out. What do you think of that, dad? Allan?”

  “Sounds good to me” they both said. “Let's get some rest now. Tonight is going to be hell on wheels I expect. If they don't attack us we will definitely attack them. And I don't think they have the balls for a night attack.” And so we did. We were in bed about two o' clock in the afternoon and up at around eight thirty that evening. Nothing had disturbed the area of the house as far as we could tell. We had done a lot of repair work in the day before going to bed to make sure that the scars left by the RPG's were gone and the place looked as natural as it had before the attack.

  We geared up and left the house by about nine thirty. We moved slowly and quietly through the woods as usual. Allan stayed at the house and would leave there an hour after us unless we came hot footing it back as a result of a pending attack being formed. We did not find any attack coming. We did find a half dozen sentries that we eliminated. We eliminated the four on the roadblock as well, did our usual number with the trucks and waited to see if any of them would come out. They did not. Allan arrived just about the time we were going to slip back into the forest. We took him to a good sniper's locale for the barracks and
set him up. Dad stayed with him as a spotter. I wanted to do a little more recon.

  The lights around the perimeter of the town were on stands set up into the air some twenty five feet or so. I shot out three of them to create a dark spot. They wouldn't know the lights were out unless they were awake and alert. I went to one of the houses that was boarded up along the front street. I listened for a time and heard snoring. I slipped into the house through an opening that it was obvious the sentry was using. No one stopped me or yelled at me. I shot two sentries in that house.

  I went to the next house in the line of those in the dark spot, found two more sentries, heard a massive boom in the forest and heard the sound of a fifty caliber round striking home just at about the same time I was ridding the world of the two in the house I had entered. I ventured far enough into the inner ring of the town to see a body in front of the barracks. I also saw someone peeking out the door and the windows to see if anyone was around.

  He finally decided it was okay, came out to see about his buddy and died in the same spot from the massive impact of a fifty caliber bullet in the chest area. He was moved about two feet by the kinetic energy of the round. All the lights came on in the barracks. Someone came running out to see about their buddies while shooting was directed at the forest from a lot of the windows of the building. The third one died on the spot and I picked off two in the windows who were back lit and shooting in Allan's general direction. The shooting stopped. Another guy poked his head out the door far enough to look at the bodies. He died from a shot that struck him in the middle of his body after going through part of the wall. The shooting started again and I picked off another couple of them. Then I hauled it on out of town back to where my dad and Allan were located.

  As I ran out of town the rounds they were firing from the barracks were all going way high over my head and over the head of my dad and Allan. I got back to where they were and said “I got six and you got four and that leaves them with at most about twenty people considering those we took in the forest and at the roadblock. I bet they lose some to desertion tomorrow. I bet this war is just about over.” We stayed a little longer that evening because we were going to take Allan to the rendezvous point.

  We watched the people that were left come out in two pick-up trucks and look for their sentries in the houses. They brought them out and put them in the back of the truck. They sent two guys into the forest to look for the sentries. We killed them. The other two went to the roadblock. We killed them. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. We took out twenty-four of their people that night. Three of us had eliminated two entire companies of troops in numbers and most of those were killed by two of us.

  We went to the rendezvous site and met with the State Police. I thought if they had at least six people they could most likely take the barracks. They asked what time of day would be best and I said about ten o' clock at night. They left and Allan stayed with us. We snuck into town through the darkened area and went to the barracks to see if anyone was awake. We looked in through windows with our night vision devices and didn't see anyone. We did see a few weapons laying around. As usual we policed those up and headed out of town with all our latest installment of loot.

  We had a huge surprise at the house when we got home nearing dawn. Mom and Ruthie were sitting in the living room of the house. They were sipping coffee and waiting for us to get there. Mom didn't say a word, she got up, crooked her finger at us and went down the stairs to the cave. In the cave were two men. One was tied up and gagged, the other was tied up. They had used twist ties and they had tied them so tightly there was blood coming from the wrists and legs. “Who are they?” dad asked.

  “One of them said he was the son of the guy that said he was Eileen's nephew. He was the latest leader of the group according to him. He must be all of fifteen years old. The other one is the son of the school teacher that the other kid talked about. He is fifteen I think.”

  “Did they come armed,” I asked.

  “No. They came walking up to the house with their hands in the air and begged us not to shoot them. We tied their hands behind them one at a time and then brought them down here and tied them up completely.”

  I said to the boy who was Eileen's nephew's son, “What is your name, son?”

  “Jimmy, sir, Jimmy Lyons. My father was married to Eileen's daughter for a while.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Fifteen, sir.”

  “How often did you work the roadblock son?”

  “Never, sir. Never. They wouldn't let us work out there. They said it was too dangerous. But we heard what they were doing and we didn't want to work out there anyway.”

  “What's your buddy's name here?”

  “Waylon.”

  “How old is Waylon?”

  “Fifteen also, sir. We worked together in the group.”

  “How did you get involved in all this shit kid?”

  “Waylon's mom was involved from the get-go, sir. That was how. I was living with them. My mom is dead and my dad ran off a couple of years ago. Waylon's mom and dad let me live with them.”

  “What was your job Jimmy, you and Waylon?”

  “We did two things every day, sir. We counted the money and we cleaned weapons.”

  “Now the critical questions young man. The answers you give now, and how you react to these questions as we all watch you, may well determine whether you live or die. I don't want to have to kill you. But lie to me, try to lure me into a trap, put my family in danger and you will die very quickly. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” He began to cry a little at that point. He said, “I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't contain myself.” A puddle formed at his feet, his pants were wet all the way to his crotch. He had definitely peed on himself he was so afraid.

  "Okay, Jimmy, who is left in the barracks?'

  “No one, sir. We were the last two to leave town. The rest of them took off this morning.”

  “How many were there that took off?”

  “Three I think, no maybe four. I think there were four, yes, sir.”

  “What did they drive when they left town?”

  “A blue pick-up truck, sir. It was full of weapons and money in the bed, sir. The money was all baled up. That was part of my job with Waylon here, to bale the money in large bales like hay.”

  “How many of the people that we have killed came from Arlee or Alberton?”

  “I'm not lying to you, sir, I really don't know for sure. But I think most of the guys that were fighting or got killed out at the roadblock were from Arlee. We only had maybe fifty guys from Frenchtown join the militia, sir. Most of the people from here ran off the first day of the war, sir. They headed for Portland and Seattle I think. Or maybe for somewhere else in Montana.”

  “So as far as you know there are no other militiamen waiting in Frenchtown for us?”

  “Not that I know of, sir.”

  “Fair enough. We will see tomorrow. Mom, why don't you feed these two lads something? And when you feed them you can cut them loose outside. If there are any stray militiamen out there the boys will be our early warning device. The militiamen will shoot them first before trying to get into the house.”

  Allan had a satellite phone that he used to communicate with the State Police if necessary. He had brought it with him when he joined us a couple of days earlier. A couple of days? Was that all that had passed since he came to help us? It seemed as though he had been there forever. He called and told them to come to the town the next morning. He said we would all be set up as sniper's to provide them with cover and if they did not need cover we would go on home and talk to them later.

  As we set up at three separate locations to act as snipers the blue pick-up truck that Jimmy had told us about returned from the direction of Arlee. It had six people in it. We didn't want to have the State Police run into an ambush. I squelched three times and we took them out. Dad and Allan took the three in the back of the truck. I took
the three in the front of the truck. The passengers went first and then the driver. The truck was stopped and he was trying to bail out when I shot him. We left them where they lay with their weapons so the Statie's could see what they would have had to deal with.

  Two of them had SAW's and the others all had M-16's and they had a lot of ammunition. We took most of that. We left a note for the State Police that there were no more militiamen and headed back to the house.

  We had confiscated three ATV's. When we got home Allan unloaded all his weapons, gave us all the ammo and money he had taken off the guys in town and said goodbye to mom, Ruthie and the kids and headed back for town. We all wished him well and knew that he was likely headed for Florida. Our war was over. Or at least so I thought. Or at least so we all thought, Allan included.

  We had defeated a militia. They were not real military men. They did not understand the realities of war.

  Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows. The soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe he is facing.

  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  BOOK II

  DEVASTATION,

  MONEY TALKS,

  WAR STARTS AGAIN

  In the Midst of Chaos there is also Opportunity

  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  Chapter 9

  We Assess, Reassess and Wait

  When the war with the Frenchtown militiamen, those who called themselves the Army of northwestern Montana, ended, we had an arsenal at our disposal. We had confiscated from those casualties we created over fifty pistols, mostly Beretta nine millimeter and about half of those were equipped with silencers. In addition we had taken over one hundred and fifty AR-15 and M-16 rifles, half a dozen SAW weapons, three light machine guns and one fifty caliber machine gun. We also had confiscated more than twenty RPG launchers and over fifty rifle grenades.