Adrian's Eagles: Book Four (Life After War) (22 page)

Adrian noticed Doug loitering nearby to break up any trouble between Marc and Kenn when the Marine returned. They were determined not to let him provoke Marc into any more fights.

“I’m sending the camp on. You’re driving my semi. We’ll cover our absence, but have every Eagle, Level Three and up, involved. Tell them to make excuses and fall behind.”

Doug and Kyle hurried off and Adrian lingered with Marc, finishing his cigarette. It would be the last he got for a while, maybe the last period… if things went badly.

“Are they that close?”

Adrian’s voice was hard. “Yes. They’ve left us no choice but to react. We’ll do the best we can to kill them all.”

Marc was for it. “I’m in,” he stated, seeing men come from every direction. They’d done this before and the watching camp immediately started getting set to leave.

“Good. I need you on this one, as tight to Kenn as it takes to get the job done.”

Marc’s voice was cool. “Mission first, all that other shit later.”

Adrian’s eyes held notes of caution. “All that other shit is in your mind.” The blond spun toward his watching people, voice now a sharp tone of command that garnered instant responses.

“Prepare for travel, people! Get it loaded up! This is a Bug-out!”

Chapter Six

April 10
^th
, 2013

Near Howes

South Dakota

1

“Eagle Two just rolled in.”

Adrian moved through the rain, following the headlights to get the report in person.

Kenn’s fearful face wasn’t a comfort as he spoke. “Hundreds of them. They’ll be here before dawn.” The Marine glanced around, a bit spooked. “Good thing you’ve got the herd ready to roll.”

He spotted Angela in a yellow slicker like the men, leaning against her blazer. Half a dozen Eagles were on guard in the shadows around her and he glared. “She should be with the sheep! What the hell is she doing here?”

Lightning flashed as Adrian pinned him with a hard look. “Her duty.”

Kenn flushed, trying to ignore the rage he hadn’t found an outlet for yet. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re working on that now. Come on.”

The parts of the camp they were taking had been loaded into trucks and they were set to go. Adrian waited until the check-in cleared every last one of them before keying his mic.

 
“Go slow and stay close. Keep the radio clear unless there’s a problem.”

They only traveled for a few minutes before the long convoy was light a dozen vehicles. Men slipped out of place, driving slowly without their lights as they used trucks to keep themselves hidden. They rolled alongside until they could pull behind homes and signs. After ten minutes, Adrian was the only man who hadn’t joined them.

Adrian grunted as he hit the dirt and rolled, swiftly taking himself out of view of the cars now rounding the curve in his blind spot. It bothered the Leader to hide as the convoy went by, but he held himself in place. This had to happen.

As the second half of the vehicles began to go by, Angela’s blazer came into view and Adrian forced himself not to move as she opened her door and rolled roughly down the embankment toward him. Only her driver, Kevin, had seen her exit, and Adrian glared at the man as he went by.
Door locks, rookie!

“What the hell are you doing?”

Angela had landed in a painful pile at his feet and she looked up at him with a muddy grimace. “You would have said no.”

Adrian watched her climb to her feet, aware of the last jeep circling back for him and he said nothing as the Eagle picked them up. There wasn’t time to argue. The men Kenn had left to watch the Slavers had just sent a clicked message telling them the whole camp of Guerillas was now headed their way. They would only have an hour to set their trap.

Thirty-five men were waiting for them inside a training canvas when they pulled back up to the campsite. Every one of their faces tightened when they saw Angela in the jeep.

“What’s she doing here?”

“Take her back.” Marc’s voice was as angry as Kenn’s and he moved toward her with fierce eyes. “Have one of them take you back.”

Angela had only said one thing to Adrian in the jeep, but it had been powerful to someone who had already asked so much of her.
“You’ll need me to be sure, but also to bargain with if it all goes bad.”

Now, faced with her two overprotective men, he found himself agreeing. The Slavers wouldn’t attack right away if they thought he would negotiate, and by his side or surrounded by these men, she was still safer here than miles away in camp.

Marc had turned to Neil. “Will you take her?”

“I’m going!”

Both of her Marines tried again to shut it down.

“No, you’re not.”

“We don’t need the distraction.”

Instead of arguing, Angela turned to meet the unreadable gaze of their Leader.

Adrian responded as if she were any other man in his army, but used the moment to help them see she felt the same way they did as well. “Tell me why.”

“It’s my duty, too. And you might need me.”

Now quietly glad she’d shown up, Adrian gestured toward the black rig he was set to drive. “You don’t leave that truck.”

“Unless needed?”

Adrian frowned, voice cold. “You won’t be.”

Satisfied, she ignored Kenn to handle Marc. Their words were silent but emotional, and after a moment, her firm denial of his demands.
“I’m going!”

She spun toward the truck to see Adrian holding the door open, and she took the vest from his hand with a roll of her eyes. “If I’m not getting out, why do I need a vest?”

Her mutter was only meant for his ears, but he didn’t lower his voice when he scolded her, “Because it’s a hard new world you’re so eager to be a part of, and what we’re about to do will ensure that the Slavers never stop, never give up, until we are dead and you are under their control.”

Chastened, Angela let out a tired sigh. “I need to go, too. I have to
see
them.”

Adrian waited for her to climb in before closing the door, and meeting the two angry faces in the darkness. His own expression told them it wasn’t their choice to make and he moved toward Kyle with an aloofness he didn’t feel. Getting her accepted as an Eagle had begun now, adding yet another layer of deceptions and manipulations that brought guilt, but also pride. He, too, was getting stronger.

Marc moved to the window and waited for her to roll it down. He tried to be careful, but already knew it wouldn’t matter. She’d made up her mind.

“You’re going to get hurt if you don’t slow down.”

“I’ve survived so far,” she stated tonelessly.

His face twisted and she turned on him. “You have to stop now, Brady. It’s different.”

“Because you think you’re
gonna
be an Eagle and you can do it all.”

Marc wanted to pull it back, but it was much too late for that as her chin flattened into that familiar, unarguable line.

“I will be an Eagle.” She leaned closer, tone full of warning. “And I don’t answer to you. I’ve made no promises I won’t keep, but don’t make me choose between you and the new life I’m trying to build here, Brady. You won’t like the decision I’ll make if you can’t wait for me.”

She rolled up the window so she didn’t have to see the pain in his eyes, and he was out of sight when she looked back up. She’d hurt him, but he had to understand that he had no more right to control her than Kenn did. She was her own!

Adrian started the truck, with the cool shield of battle settling over his nerves. They would do this and do it right.

The small convoy didn’t go far. Once out of sight of their old camp, Adrian took them through Howes, proper, and then up a back road that ran directly behind the small South Dakota town that had bodies hanging from the windows, porches, and abandoned cars.

Adrian used his hands against the howl of the storm to direct their vehicles into a three sided box, with only a small gap not protected from the rain. They hovered in the middle of the area, and after Kyle and his team got a tarp over it, had a dry place to plan from as the storm drummed against the trucks and thunder rolled angrily over their heads.

The sudden sound of running feet had men reaching for their weapons.

“Battlefields of gold.”

Cleared by the password, Zack burst into their area and went straight to Adrian, spraying cold drops. “The lookouts spotted a second group with heavy hardware headed for Howes from the east. They have a big carrier with a fucking tank!”

The men went silent, stunned.

“Coming through here?”

“Yes. The camp is already out of range, but we’ll be trapped if we stay too long.”

Adrian thought fast. They had nothing to stand against a tank, did they?
Only Angela
. It was her metal monster, he realized.

“There’s only two ways to get a transport carrier close enough to hit our site,” Kenn commented, subtly directing Lee and Zack toward Angela. His look said to keep her from doing anything stupid, like being a hero.

“Everyone says they surrounded the towns,” Neil pointed out.

“They’ll come in from at least two sides and try to squeeze us.” Marc was sure. That’s what he would do.

“Rolling or carrying?” Adrian asked, clearly putting stock in the Wolfman’s opinion.

“Carrying.”

Adrian turned to peer at the devastated town below them, standing pat against the wind gusts. Where was the best place to hit them?

“No time for a pit,” Kenn stated

Adrian waved a hand. “Someone get me a channel so I can listen to them.”

Angela was aware of Kenn’s allies staying close, but unless she was needed, she had every intention of doing what she was told. If Adrian’s plan failed, then she would try to save them all.

Marc helped Kenn with the radio, their time together before the War making it smooth, but his eyes swung continuously to verify her safety. When this was over, if they weren’t dead, he would have some things to say to her.

“Channel 83.” Adrian instructed, waving at Kenn to stay in control of the portable CB. Marc moved over to flank Angela.

They only listened to the static for a moment before the radio lit up with evil.

“
Nos
va a venir
a través
Howes
en una hora.
..”

“They’ll be coming through Howes in an hour.” Kenn translated.

“
Excelente
.”

“
Cuándo
vamos
a
atacar
?”

“When do we attack?”

“En el
trazo
de dos.”

Kenn held up his digital watch that showed it as 1:05 am. “At the stroke of two.”

Now holding a very slim advantage, Adrian turned off the Mexican voices and knelt down before his army, K-Bar flashing through the damp dirt.

“They’ll come through the main road of Howes. We cleared it yesterday, took 6 hours. The other streets were worse. They can’t roll over it because of all the noise, so when they come to the main intersection, they’ll take the cleared path.”

Adrian was busy mapping out the small town and Kenn joined him, working on the outline of their dead camp.

“We assume the main group will wait over the hill, out of sight, so they’ll come in here.”

Neil bent down to draw a very realistic Mexican flag where Adrian had pointed.

“They can’t see without coming over the hill so they’ll wait for the tank crew to call and say they’re in position.”

Kenn added a tank to their most vulnerable side.

“When the call comes, he’ll tell them to open fire. As soon as the first hit lands, they’ll be able to see enough to know we’ve moved and start chasing. They’ll catch up to Safe Haven right about the time they settle down from the storm.”

“He’s dangerous.”

“No shit!” Kenn snapped, hating it that Brady was here. “How about one of the ass-savers you used to come up with? Got anything now?”

The men around them frowned, but Marc ignored the tone, busy studying the map. Adrian had said they’d spent all day yesterday clearing the roads. He looked at their Leader with only a touch of bitterness. “What do you think the weight limit is on that bridge we crossed to get up here?”

Adrian saw it right away. That bridge was the only cleared way across the Cheyenne River within a hundred or more miles. If they took it out, there wouldn’t be a single shot fired and the Slavers would be trapped on the opposite side of that churning mass.

“Won’t matter if we help it along.”

“And it’ll take them more than a week to go around. None of the other bridges we checked around here were intact,” Kyle told them.

That heavy sense of doom was lightening and Adrian stood up, wiping the dust from his hands. “We have about forty minutes. Let’s get it set up.”

2

It took them a while to get the bridge rigged.

Adrian wasn’t taking any chances it would hold, and that meant climbing down the sides with ropes attached to keep the brave men from being lost in the dangerously strong winds battering them. The Eagles on those ropes were chopping and sawing through the support beams and it was slow, noisy work that had all of them on edge. They were trapped between the two groups now, in plain sight by anyone.