I dragged Park’s body to Shark Channel; wrestled off his suit and put it on. The stealth suit was flexible like a spandex material. The inside was smooth and it fit me with no problem.
As I placed the cloth covered helmet over my head tiny LED lights appeared on heads up display. The helmet had a built in camera. There was Chinese writing, which I didn’t understand. Tommy was right the suit was heavy and hot as hell. I was being smothered and couldn’t breathe.
It was too restricting and my claustrophobia was kicking in. I ripped off the helmet. Looking down at Park I rolled his body into the dark water. I stood there for a minute, and watched it float away while wiping the blood from my nose. It didn’t take long for shark fins to appear.
Park could have easily killed me. I’ll never know why he didn’t, but maybe, just maybe, he did like his blood brother. Maybe my friendship did rub off on him.
Killing my so-called blood brother brought back memories from a long time ago. I was just 16 years old and had many blood brothers because we were all part of the same gang. Our gang was nicknamed ‘The Good Guys’ by the local neighborhood people because we stole from the bad guys and gave back what they had taken. We helped the needy and poor old people. It sounds stupid, but that’s what we did.
We didn’t permit pushers or drug dealers in our territory. None of us took drugs except some smoked a little pot or drank a beer every now and then. We were tough guys who protected our neighborhood from the evil-doers. Anyone who came to our neighborhood, to cause problems, do shake downs for protection money, or sell hard core drugs to kids, got a lesson from us. We called ourselves the Dirty Dozen, named after a movie, because there were 12 of us. The cops were our friends. They never bothered us much because we kept the neighborhood safe and crime free.
If a kid or neighbor told us that there was a pusher selling drugs we would all confront him. We’d take his drugs and throw them down the street sewer. We’d take his money and beat the shit out of him. One of our favorite methods to deal with them was to break their knee caps with a ball-peen hammer. That was very painful and it would put them out of action for months.
The Mob didn’t mind what we did either because a few of them lived around our hood and didn’t want their kids or family to be victims of the dirtbags. So we pretty much had a green light to do whatever was needed to make our hood safe. All the other local criminal gangs didn’t dare infringe into our space.
Members in our gang had known each other since grade school. We were real blood brothers. It was a closed society since we didn’t permit new members. One of my best friends was Mickey. I saved Mickey’s ass many times over the years, as he did mine.
I stopped at the local deli for a sandwich after school one day. Old Mr. Johnson, who owned the deli, told me that someone was shaking him down for money.
While we were talking Mickey walked in and said, “What’s going on, Jack?”
I replied, “Hi, Mickey. Mr. Johnson told me someone is shaking him down. The guy comes in with a hood on each week and takes a couple of hundred bucks.”
Mickey looked at Mr. Johnson and said, “Old man, you’re lucky this guy don’t kill you. If I were you I’d be real careful.” Then Mickey walked out of the store.
Old man Johnson whispered to me, “That’s him.”
I said, “What?”
“That’s him. I recognize his boots and voice.”
“Are you sure? Mickey is one of us.”
“Jack, I wouldn’t lie to you. I know it’s Mickey for sure. Come to think about it, he hasn’t been in my store to buy anything for weeks.”
“When does he usually come in for money?”
“He comes in right at closing, around midnight, usually on a Friday night. He always carries a gun.”
I said, “Ok, here’s the plan. It’s Thursday, so tomorrow we’ll set a trap. I’ll be here hiding in your store at 10 pm. We have to catch him in the act. I gotta see if it’s him with my own eyes. If Mickey comes in before Friday night call me.”
Friday came and two of us were sitting on the floor behind the store counter. It was just me and my brother, Ron. At this point Ron was the only one I could trust. The ringing little bell, on the door, signaled someone had just entered the store.
Mr. Johnson whispered, “It’s him.”
Not knowing what to expect we pulled our guns. I heard a voice say, “Give me 200 bucks old man.” That voice confirmed it was Mickey. Ron and I stood up from behind the counter and pointed our guns at him.
I said, “Drop the gun, Mickey.” He pointed his gun at me and then at my brother.
Mickey pulled off his hood. He was waiving the gun around and said, “You guys aren’t gonna shoot me.”
I shouted, “Drop the gun Mickey and let’s talk! Why are you doing this?”
He replied, “I got a better idea. You guys just back off. Let me go or I’m gonna shoot the old man.” He pointed his gun at Mr. Johnson’s head.
When Mickey did that, Ron pulled the trigger and shot him right in the heart. As he was falling he fired a round and so did I. His round went wild, but mine hit home. Our blood brother was a traitor and died on the spot.
To sum up the story, Mr. Johnson called the police. The police asked where we got the guns from. Mr. Johnson lied a little and told them they were his guns. He had them for protection behind the counter. He told them that Ron and I were there helping him clean up the store when Mickey walked in to rob him. He also told the police that Mickey shot first and we were just protecting him. It was considered a justifiable, self-defense, shooting. Ron and I never spent one night in jail.
The rest of our gang was shocked by the news. We found out that Mickey liked to gamble and was in big debt with the bookies. Two years later the gang broke up and most of us joined the military when we got out of high school. The neighborhood went to shit after that.
I should have known better than to let Park get the jump on me. I can’t let Lee surprise me like that or I’ll be dead for sure. Now my mind was clear and I needed to find Lee.
I put the helmet back on and tried to make sense of all the tiny lights. I saw some of them moving and it showed how far away they were in meters. I assumed these were other invisibles I was detecting. Most of the little moving red lights were 300 or more meters away. All of them were moving north towards my men. I could hear men speaking in Chinese on the radio built into the helmet.
Then I saw one tiny light that showed a distance of 75 meters and closing. I picked up my Glock and laid on the ground face first. I held the gun in my right hand underneath me. I waited as the target slowly moved closer. This has to be Lee.
After what seemed like an hour, I heard the footsteps coming up next to me. Laying face down I put my finger on the trigger. The Invisible said, “Colonel, Gwaenchanh-a? (Are you ok?)” He poked me with something.
I laid there and didn’t move a muscle, but let out a little groan. I felt his hand grab my left arm to roll me over. As he rolled me over I exposed my gun and fired three rounds hitting the dork.
The soldier slowly dropped to the ground. I pulled my helmet off and hastily removed his revealing it was Lee. One of my bullets hit him in the throat. He was barely alive and gasping for air. Lee couldn’t speak as blood bubbled out of his wound.
I said, “You fucking asshole.” He just looked at me with his eyes wide open. I could see the hatred in his face. I put the 9 mm to his head and pulled the trigger … BAM.
I thought about what Park told me. ‘The only good commie is a dead commie.’ Park was right. It’s too bad he didn’t really believe it.
Laying next to Lee was an RPG with two rounds. There was no time to waste so I stripped off his invisible outfit and dragged him to the water to meet the same fate as Park.
I pulled out my radio and clicked the button. “Listen up! I just killed Park and Lee. They were the Commanders of Invisibles. I’m coming back with two stealth suits and an RPG.”
Tommy answered, “Roger that.”
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br /> I took off my stealth outfit, and picked both up, along with the RPG. I strapped the RPG rockets to my back and found my M4. The damn suits were about 35 pounds each. I was carrying about 100 pounds of gear as I humped down the road back to my men.
Arriving back at our defensive line I was dead tired. Sitting down to rest, I called Tommy over. “I got two suits. You put one on and I’ll use the other. Put this RPG in the truck. Maybe we can use it.”
Tommy replied, “These stealth suits could give us a big advantage.”
“How’s Jim Bo doing?” I asked.
“Amy took him to see the Doc. She thinks he’ll need about 100 stitches.”
As Tommy was putting on the stealth outfit he commented, “There’s blood all over this thing.”
“Sorry, I didn’t have time to clean it.”
“Dad, what happened out there?”
“An invisible soldier came out of nowhere and whacked me in the face. He was beating me up pretty good until I shot him. When I pulled off his helmet I was shocked to see Park. He could have killed me but he didn’t. You were right. Park was a commie.”
“I told you not to trust him. You almost got killed. Maybe next time you’ll listen to me. You’re getting too old for this shit. I hate to say it, but you’re getting soft. You need to be more careful.
“The other guy was Lee, right?”
“Yeah, it was Lee.”
“How’d you kill him?” Tommy asked.
“I put on Park’s suit and laid on the ground pretending to be hurt. He thought I was Park and walked right up to me. I had my Glock hidden and when he rolled me over I shot him.”
“What did you do with the bodies?”
“They’re fish food.” Tommy nodded his head in approval.
I said, “Tell me how these things work.”
He put on the helmet and studied it for a while. Taking it off he told me, “The tiny red lights are the Invisibles. The heads-up display tells you their GPS location and distance.
“They also have radio communication which you can turn off with this button on the side of the helmet.” Tom pointed to the button. “We should turn the radio off so they don’t hear us talking. When you turn off the radio the GPS goes off.” We pushed the off buttons.
“How do we sight in on these guys to shoot them?” I asked.
Pointing at the front of the helmet he said, “This is a camera. You can turn it on and off with this switch. The picture will show on the heads-up display visor. Put it on and you can see a vertical and horizontal center line on the heads-up display. That’s the crosshairs.”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“Ok, all you do is line up the crosshairs on one of the red dots and you’re looking directly at them. Then just point your weapon in that direction and fire.”
I replied, “Shit that’s easy. Let’s go kill some dirtbags.”
“Wait not so fast. Remember they can see your red dot also. When you take off the helmet or turn off the radio it turns off the GPS so they can’t see you on their displays. On the other hand they can do the same thing.”
“What’s the plan then?”
Gunfire rang out from Mike’s position in the tree nearby. Mike shouted on the radio. “I got one of them bastards! How many more are out there?”
I replied, “There are 14 more.”
“I thought we were down to 12 or something. How do you figure 14?”
“Park and Lee made a total of 20. They’re both dead and earlier you guys shot three. You just shot one so that leaves 14,” I told him.
“Roger that 14 to go. I’m confused,” Mike stated.
“Park lied to us. They never killed anyone,” I told him.
I asked Tommy again, “Ok what’s your plan?”
“My plan is to snipe them. We’ll flank them on both sides and pick them off one by one. You take the westside and I’ll take the eastside. They’ll think we’re Park and Lee.”
The sun was just breaking the horizon and the sky was glowing red. It was a fitting sign for killing Red Chinese.
Tommy continued, “You see that big Banyan tree on the westside?”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“You make your way over there and use it for cover. Once there put on the helmet to locate the bad guys. I’ll go to the other side and use that big rock for cover. It’s about a 100 yards out.”
“Ok, got it.”
Tommy picked up his radio and clicked the button. “Heads up everyone! Jack and I are putting on stealth suits. We’re gonna snipe these guys. He’ll move to the big Banyan tree on the west and use it for cover. I’m going to the big boulder on the eastside. So don’t shoot us. Everyone copy that?” All our men replied that the message was understood.
Tommy responded again, “One more thing. No one fire their weapon while we’re out there. Hold your fire unless we radio you.” One at a time they all responded affirmative.
Tom looked at me and said, “Let’s see where these guys are at right now.” He put on the stealth helmet and drew a picture in the dirt. He counted 14 men and marked their positions in the dirt with an X. “You have eight coming on your side of the road and I got the rest of them.
We knew their general locations. After checking our guns and ammo supply Tom said, “Good hunting.”
“Be careful. It’s a jungle out there,” I told him, and we both laughed. Making a joke in times of peril is a good way to let out the tension.
“Dad, when this is over, I’m taking you to Disney World.” Once again we laughed and wished each other good luck.
Tommy reminded me, “Be sure to turn on the helmet radio.”
We picked up our invisible helmets and started sneaking towards our sniper locations. It was hard to carry the damn helmet and also have my M4 at the ready. The suit was heavy and I couldn’t move very fast. After a few minutes I was drenched in sweat and needed a drink of water. It was impossible to take a drink since my water supply was under the invisible clothes.
I thought what’s the enemy doing for water? If they don’t have a water supply that could work to our advantage. When the sun comes out in full force they’ll slowly cook in these hot suits.
Reaching the Banyan tree I hid behind it, and put on the helmet. I noticed that one invisible was only 40 meters away. He was walking towards me. I stepped out from behind the tree, lined up the crosshairs on the display visor, and took aim. I fired five rapid rounds.
The tricky part was I didn’t know if I shot him or not since I couldn’t see him and the red dot was still on my screen. The only way to tell if he was still alive was to see if he moved. I waited five minutes and there was no movement so I assumed he was dead.
This whole thing was pissing me off. I could hear the soldiers speaking on the radio. I didn’t know what they were saying in Chinese. I looked at the display again and this time another man was moving in the direction of the guy I had just shot. He was 15 meters away from him.
I decided to let him approach closer to the body and then shoot him. He was within five meters of the body and automatic fire pelleted the tree I was standing behind. The guy was shooting at me. My cover was already blown.
I laid down on the ground and crawled out just enough from behind the tree to get a bead on the dot. This time I sprayed the whole area with half a magazine. I waited five minutes and neither red dot showed movement so I moved forward.
I wanted to remove their helmets, which would turn off their units, and expose their heads. Then I could confirm that they were really dead. I saw there was another dot 50 meters away from the bodies. I knelt down and watched it for five minutes. It wasn’t moving at all.
I stood up, creped forward, and saw a rifle flash come from the red dot that I was just watching. I heard AK47 bullets whiz by my head, so I hit the deck, and fired at the flashes. My mag ran dry, so I reloaded. I kept firing until his gun was silenced.
I could hear rifle fire coming from Tom’s direction. I heard his M4 and the distinct sound of the Chine
se AKs. I pushed the radio button on the side of the helmet and told Tommy, “I got three dorks.” If they heard our voices, perhaps that would shake them up a little.
Tommy didn’t reply for a minute. I repeated, “I got three dorks.”
Tom answered, “I got three dorks too.” We both laughed out loud. I figured they didn’t know what the word dork meant and maybe they thought we were crazy laughing out loud over the radio.
Anyhow something worked because the red dots starting to move back towards the beach. They were swarming to the road to make faster time.
I reached the two bodies nearest me and just about fell over them. Removing the helmets I shot them in the head just to make sure they weren’t faking it. I moved over to the third man and removed his hood.
His eyes were open and he looked at me and said, “Water.” I gave him a bullet in the head instead of water. He would have died anyway from his wounds.
I was right, these guys the so called best of the best, didn’t have any water. They were getting heat stroke which impairs your thinking and drains your physical strength. I counted the number of red dots moving quickly down the road. There were only eight of them left.
The dots started to disappear one by one. They had to be taking off the oven like clothes to move faster. I guessed they were heading for the beach to make an escape back to the gunboat.
I wanted them all dead. I took off my head gear and stripped off the suit. I was out of the hot box and could breathe again. I pulled out my camel back water hose and gulped at least a pint of warm water. Warm or not, my body needed the life-giving fluid. I looked over at the rock where Tommy was and saw he had removed his suit also.
He jogged over to me and we both sat down. Out of breath we just looked at each other trying to gain our strength and senses back by taking small sips of water. Finally he said, “Let’s get them before they reach the beach.” I nodded my head in agreement while sipping more water.
Tommy got on the radio. “Mike, get everyone and bring up the Hummer. The Invisibles aren’t invisible anymore and they’re making a run for it.”
THE TOCABAGA CHRONICELS: (BOX SET PART II - BOOKS #6-8) Page 21
