by C. L. Jones
Pops got to his knees and pointed for Roadside to follow Indy. With a couple more hand signals and a swiping gesture he told Roadside to stay under cover and use the woods as his camouflage.
When Roadside and Indy could no longer be seen, Pops motioned for the team to gather under a group of trees.
CHAPTER TEN:
THE CREW
The team sat in the dark shadows of a heavy group of trees. Some who’d had bad experiences with hidden cameras looked around and upward to confirm that no cameras were attached to the trees. Their location was perfect because it gave them cover as well as a good view of the surrounding area and the main path that Indy had used on his way back to the camp. From this location they should be able to see the blue team, Indy or Roadside if they came back along the main path.
Pops’ old platoon sergeant nature kicked in as he took a quick head count. Then with a casual assumption of his new position he spoke to the team in a low soft voice, “It isn’t going to hurt anything if we just wait here a while. After all we have all week.” Hearing that, some of the team still in camo laid down, some took positions sitting against the trees facing away from the trail, and others just sat watching the trail.
Cowboy leaned over to Pops and whispered, “Do you think Roadside is okay?”
Pops never looking at Cowboy kept his eyes on the course and abruptly answered, “Don’t know, gut ain’t talking right now.”
Cowboy waited a minute then leaned over again and asked, “How long are we going to wait?”
The only reply Pops gave was pointing his finger down the tree line. Cowboy looked down the same line and then slapped Pops on the back and smiled. It was Roadside coming back. Pops puckered his lips together, made a low whistle and motioned for Cowboy to signal Roadside their location. Cowboy moved close enough to the path so Roadside could see him but hopefully no one else. Roadside spotted Cowboy, smiled and winked but continued down the path well past the team’s position. Clearly Roadside’ deceptiveness was clicking on all cylinders as he used his head so he did not give away the team’s position.
Cowboy rejoined the team and they waited for Roadside who came slipping in from the complete opposite direction after a while.
The team gathered around Pops and Roadside and crouched low under the trees. Roadside said, “Pops, you have good instincts.” The team waited and finally Roadside continued after a couple of deep breaths, saying, “He’s one of them. Indy’s one of them. He was a spy all along, a plant.”
Pops smiled and said in a voice that was barely audible, “Bingo, I thought so. That dirty rat was in our group to make sure this whole thing comes out the way someone other than us wants.” Pops smiled and winked and he told them, “Well boys, someone is going to be paying us a lot of money and screw anyone or anybody who gets in our way. From this point on we need each person to decide if they are on the team or whether it’s every man for himself.” Pops looked around, “Well what’s it going to be? Let’s make a decision now.”
Tracker didn’t waste any time and jumped right in, “Well I’m sick and tired of doing this alone and being alone. I’m in, count me in.”
Then Cowboy added his simple response, “Me too.”
Then with his head looking down while peering up through his eyebrows Roadside joined in, “In all the way for a penny and a pound.”
And Surfer with his big old smile and carrying his rope gave an old grunt answer, “Fuckin’ ay, we are a team.”
Then Rocky reached in his fist, smiled and said, “Like in those old musketeer’s movies they would say, all for one and one for all.”
He may have been joking but in a split second the team all repeated it, “All for one and one for all, cover the other man, no matter what.”
Pops knew from his own past that a newly born brotherhood had just been established and it was for real. Though the team was only beginning he thought its formation would disrupt the whole competition idea. The organization was counting on each individual agent continuing to act like a lone wolf as they’d done on their solo missions. Now the newly formed team would cause the whole competition concept to blow up in someone’s face. The only downside for Pops was that he felt the old platoon sergeant’s responsibility of watching out for his men and not putting anyone in unnecessary danger.
Cowboy was rocking back and forth when he finally looked up. Everyone was looking at him as he announced, “No, we are no longer what those ass wipes called the red team. I think from now on we should call ourselves the Crew, a Crew. The new Crew will be Pops, Roadside, Rocky, Surfer, Tracker and me for life. Each man’s word is his life and each man’s life is his word.”
After the announcement of the formation of the Crew, Cowboy had another question, “Hey Pops, what do you think we should do now, wipe everybody out, go home and leave them all wondering what the hell happened or just screw with them for a while?”
Pops laid back in the grass, put his hands up under his head, laced his fingers together and closed his eyes, “Nothing.” The team looked momentarily puzzled until he opened his eyes, looked at them, smiled and said, “After dark we’ll slip back into the compound and get enough food and bedding and whatever else we may need. We’ll spend the week out here hiding and watching, you know like the old days. We will have people on guard and we’ll form into two man teams.”
He pointed his finger at two of the men at a time and told them, “The three teams are alpha team who will be Rocky and Roadside, bravo team who will be Surfer and Tracker, and Cowboy and me will be the charlie team. The teams will be interchangeable, everyone will at some time or another work with the others. Is this okay with everybody?” No one dissented so Surfer broke in and changed the direction of the conversation, quietly announcing, “I’m not tired, I’ll keep first watch.” The team rested but no one really went to sleep.
After a while Pops moved next to Tracker and Cowboy and asked, “How hard is it to watch the compound if we move closer? How close do you think we could get without being seen?”
Tracker shrugged his shoulders and Cowboy held up his thumb and index finger with about an inch between them and asked Pops with a silly smile on his face, “Like a little food?” Pops looked at him and waited. “Easy as pie, a piece of cake,” Cowboy said enlarging his boyish smile. “Why? Do you want someone to watch the compound?”
“No,” Pops answered, “I’m trying to figure the best way to get to the food locker behind the mess hall.” Pops explained, “Usually inside the locker is a section that’s for dry goods.”
Seeing where Pops was going with this made things clearer. “Cool.” replied Cowboy.
“After dark, could you take half the guys in and see if you can get anything? If you can’t get in then don’t take any unnecessary chances. But if it’s clean in and clean out we’ll all go back a couple of times and get what we need, okay? This early on I don’t think the cadre will be expecting any of us to circle back to the compound.”
Cowboy wondered if Pops had already chosen the men who would go in, so he asked “Who do you want me to take in with me?”
Pops looked over at the guys napping and said, “You take Surfer and Tracker and I’ll keep Roadside and Rocky. We’ll wait until after dark, okay? We should have a good moon tonight, so we’ll have good shadows from the trees and the buildings inside the camp. Shadows can be a friend if used well or an alarm to the ones in camp if you mess up.”
Half way through the watch Rocky had taken on the sentry duties to give Surfer a break but none of the team had gotten much sleep during the day. As the sun set the much needed shadows were growing across the ground. The team started stirring sensing something was about to happen as the day cooled and turned into night. Pops called them around and briefed them on the compound in and out plan. He took his time to lay it all out and then asked for input from everyone. All agreed it was a workable plan.
Pops knew that the team would grow to appreciate that they were able to give input on any plans. This is wh
at Pops called teamwork.
The men divided into two groups and prepared to go on their first mission as the Crew. Cowboy and his team headed out and Pops and his team watched the course to make sure that the blue team did not come back toward the compound after dark. After all the deception he’d seen on this mission it wouldn’t surprise him if the blue team spent their night sleeping in the comfort of their hooches and then went out the next morning. Hell he thought, they probably had secret paths to each of the flags and everything else was just a ruse.
Pops and his team stayed in their position overlooking the path for three long hours and nothing happened. After hour two, Rocky and Roadside showed the first signs of being worried. It wasn’t that everyone had formed a close bond yet but when it was dark it just seemed like more things could go wrong. In this case it was the old nighttime worry of team members being caught.
Pops was also a little worried. He was about to slip down to the path for a look around when he heard a sputtered attempt of someone trying to whistle. He turned in the direction of the sound and saw it was coming from Rocky who was crawling over to Pops. Rocky asked, “Do you think something went wrong? Do you think they got caught?”
Letting that old worried pissed off feeling take over Pops answered, “Man I don’t know, what am I, their mother?” Then he caught himself and gave a little more responsive answer, “I’m starting to get worried myself, let’s give it a little more time.”
Just then he and Rocky heard a real low pss-pss, “Hey, I’m coming in you guys. Don’t fuck us up.” Then like legendary night ghosts of the foot soldier, out of the dark appeared Cowboy and his team. Pops felt a major sense of relief.
“Boy, are we glad to see you guys,” Pops said. Meanwhile Rocky and Roadside showed their relief by shaking their heads in a kind of worried disbelief.
Cowboy quietly explained, “Well it took a little longer then it should have.” Cowboy looked at Surfer and Tracker and they all were acting like kids who just pulled the biggest prank ever. Cowboy went on with his story, “We got into the food locker without any problem and grabbed enough food for three weeks. We made a couple trips to the trees and were headed for one more when Surfer went over to one of the windows of another building and peeked in.” Cowboy, Tracker and Surfer all looked at each other and then smiled at the team. After a little muffled laughing he went on, “Surfer spotted the cadre’s weapons in the office window and there was no one around. So Tracker, being a small weapons specialist, snuck in and took the firing pin out of the bolt of each weapon in nothing flat. The upshot is all the cadre’s weapons have been disarmed and most likely they will never know until after they try to fire them. They won’t think to check the firing pins so for all intents they are useless weapons.”
The guys who’d stayed behind gave high fives to the innovative team and whispered, “Way to go.”
Cowboy told Pops, “We need to go back and get the rest of the food. We left it hidden in the woods near the compound. Probably no one will miss it until the cooking staff goes there early in the morning.”
Pops agreed, “Then we need to find a secure place to hide it. Someplace we can get to quickly and someplace hard for them to find.”
Rocky slapped Pops on the arm to get his attention and said, “I saw the perfect place the other day when we were running the course.”
Cowboy, Surfer and Tracker led the others back through the trees toward the compound. While on the move, Pops noticed that the team had reverted back to a combat soldier mode in less than half a day. Everyone moved through the night as if they had never left the combat zones they’d experienced in the jungles, deserts or even urban clearings. Cowboy took point and the team kept a good, safe interval between them. Full alternated pattern was used by each man as they surveilled their area, first man right, the second man left; keeping an eye pealed every step of the way. All at once the team started to slow their pace and Cowboy pointed to the spot off the path. He gestured like he was eating then pointed to the same area again, and the entire team knew that it was clearly the area where the food was hidden. Without being told what to do two of the men peeled off to cover the rest as they moved through the woods toward what turned out to be a huge bundle of food.
Recovering the food was a breeze. The team quietly packed it in their backpacks and backed away from the area and compound like it was an everyday thing.
To Pops it looked like these guys had been working together for a hell of a lot longer than the few short hours. On one hand he was pleasantly surprised by their quiet ghost-like movements, but on the other hand he maybe should have expected it when he thought about their background. This group of guys looked to be the best of the best. And if the red team was the best of the best then what the hell was the blue team? Pops didn’t have a high opinion of the blue team after he’d seen them stumbling in from their free day out in the field where they were likely hunting clay pigeons and paper pop-up targets. If his assessment of what was going on was right, how in the world would the organization ever get the real best of the best?
The Crew made their way back to what now had become the rallying point. There were enough MREs to get the team through the next three weeks and more if they rationed the food and only took in the calories they needed. Rocky then led them to the hiding place he’d found and they concealed the treasure trove of food. It turned out the hiding place was perfect, almost right at the half waypoint of the course and far enough away from the compound so it would not be accidentally discovered. It was high enough that the team could watch the surrounding area for a half-mile in any direction and the winding main path could be seen in several spots which would make it difficult for anyone to use it and not be seen.
Once the MRE’s were stashed the team settled in to rest during a well needed break. Everyone was pleased with the team’s accomplishments so far. While the MREs might not be five-star meals they were perfect for guys that were on patrol in the field. Pops looked around at the men while they were eating. Even if he had picked this place out himself he couldn’t have done any better. They could relax, eat and watch.
It was time to put a plan in place for the next day and for the coming week. The men gathered around in a tight group as Pops started laying out his plan, “Here’s what I think guys.” He paused, gave a seriously somber look at each man and then continued “And I want any input you can give. You may have made me Crew leader but we are a team and we can only win as long as we use our combined experiences and strengths. Remember this is not a contest between us guys. It’s now a matter of the Crew taking home the money. A little something for everybody is better than a lot of nothing for nobody.”
Pops took a second to look around the small circle and make eye contact with each of his new partners again. After receiving positive acknowledgement from each he continued, “Tomorrow morning I think we should do a little recon at the tree bridge. Besides figuring the best way from here to the tree bridge, we can see who and how many blue team people are at that position. It’s in the middle of the course and therefore should be the easiest for us to cut off the guys who are defending it from the rest of the blue team.” After a few seconds he added, “The tree bridge would be a good place for a trap so we’ll need concentrated recon around the area.”
He paused again then continued, “I think we’ll all agree the raging river in the valley of death will be the hardest to take.”
Looking puzzled Cowboy held up his hand as if to say stop and then asked, “When it comes time to take the valley, how are we going to do it, Pops?”
Pops used the first two fingers of his right hand to push his hat back on his head. Deviously, he grinned, looked at Cowboy and said, “Well, man to man? We’re going to do it by not staying on this damn pre-assigned course and we aren’t going to play by their damn rules.” Pops noticed out of the corner of his eye that Surfer was sliding his way in closer to the center of the circle. Pops pointed his finger at him and asked, “What’s up?”
&nbs
p; Wasting not a second, Surfer got straight to his point, “Correct me if you all think I’m crazy, but I think we should go straight at the valley and take it and then push back and make them hold the bridge. You know, give them hell. Why start in the center and take the chance of having the blue team close in on either side of us?”
Pops looked at the team and understood that the men were more than interested in what Surfer was saying. Pops’ open leadership style kicked in. He smiled and gave a nod and wink as he said, “Go on, you’re doing good, let’s hear it.”
Surfer drew his plan on the ground with a stick laying out his idea, “If we take the valley and then push back to the tree bridge we won’t have to leave any men there to hold it after we take it.”
Surfer looked up at Pops and again Pops said, “Go on.”
Surfer continued, “If we push them back from the valley, then we let them sit for a while and we don’t do anything. They will think that we are sitting there holding the valley and they will counter with some kind of plan to either recon us or try to take the valley back.” By this point Surfer’s voice was getting excited with his own plan and he started to talk a little faster, “It won’t make any difference when they either send someone out to check on us or send a team to take the over valley position. When it happens we take them down in the bush, then we take the bridge and move farther down the path to the compound. Depending on how it goes we make any adjustments as needed.”
Pops saw the circle of guys nod in agreement so he asked the Crew, “Sounds good to me, are we all in agreement with Surfer’s plan?”
Together the team said, “Affirmative.”
Pops said, “Good, it sounds like a plan, a damn good plan Surfer. So let’s do it.”
Holding his hand out again to stop everyone, Cowboy asked, “Pops, can I ask you something?”
Pops cocked his head to the side and looked at Cowboy. He smiled and said, “Hey, you don’t have to ask, just throw whatever it is into the mix that you think may help our mission.”
