Avenging Home (9 page)

“Hell yeah I am!” Sarge shouted.

Trying to keep the conversation on track, I replied, “That’s what they said. I don’t know how they’d have that kind of info.”

“They’re probably being fed the info from the DOD,” Cecil said.

“They also gave out some kind of coded message. Something about a maple tree, followed by a bunch of numbers,” I said.

Again, Cecil leaned forward. “A maple tree? How many numbers?” Then he looked at Sarge. “I wanna switch seats.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. A bunch.”

“Pull yer skirt down and quit yer bellyaching. What sort of format were they in?” Sarge asked.

“I don’t know. There were a lot of them,” I said.

“You mean you fucking booger eaters didn’t write it down?” Sarge boomed.

I glanced sideways at him. “Calm down. No, we didn’t. We couldn’t decode it anyway.”

“Well, we can’t now for damn sure!” Sarge shot back.

“We may have been able to. I know who you’re talking about, and it sounds like they’re using one-time pads,” Cecil said.

Sarge spun around in his seat to face Cecil. “What do you know about one-time pads?”

Cecil smiled. “You an Elmer, Linus?”

“What the hell’s an Elmer?” I asked.

“It’s a HAM radio operator,” Cecil said.

I laughed and said, “Be vewy vewy qwiet. I’m hunting wadios. Uh uh uh uh.”

Sarge slapped me in the back of head. “Shut up and let the grownups talk.”

“Hey!” I shouted. But Sarge ignored me and spoke to Cecil.

“You think you got the pads, Cecil?”

“They used to run drills using one-time pads. I attended HAM Fest and picked up a stack of pads from a friend of mine there. Morgan, what frequency did you pick it up on?”

“Somewhere around 6800 megahertz, I think.”

“That’s about right for a pirate radio station,” Cecil replied.

“Pirate radio?” I asked.

“Not really pirate now; but back in the day they would have been a pirate station. They probably practiced on ten or fifteen watts. But when the shit hit the fan, they ramped up their output. No one to stop them now,” Cecil said.

“We need to keep people on the radios from now on, and write down any and all transmissions we hear,” Sarge said.

At the plant, we all dismounted, and the engineers introduced themselves.

“I’m Scott Westpfahl,” a man with a neat beard said, offering his hand.

I took it. “Morgan Carter. And this is First Sergeant Mitchell and this is Cecil.” Everyone shook hands, and Scott continued the introductions.

“This is Doc Baker.” He motioned to a very attractive red-headed woman with blue eyes.

Going to have to keep Mike away from her
, I thought.

“Doc? I thought you were an engineer?” Sarge said.

She smiled. “I have my doctorate.”

Using a Gomer Pyle style voice, Scott said, “It means she’s really smart.”

She smiled. “Watch it, Westpfahl.”

Scott continued. “This is Terry Lane.” Terry nodded and shook everyone’s hand. “And this is Eric Beach.”

Beach was a young guy. He offered his hand, saying “Beach, like the ocean.”

Shaking his hand, I asked. “What other kind is there?”

He offered a nervous smile. “Well, the tree. Ya know.”

Sarge snorted. “You ain’t from around here, are you?”

Beach looked a little nervous. I put my hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about him. Just don’t get your hands too close to his mouth.” I had to smile when he looked at his hands and pulled them in a little closer to his body.

“Well, you brainiacs think you can get this heap up and running?” Sarge asked.

“Let’s take a look at things. One thing we’re going to need for sure is a generator. We’re going to need power to even test much of this,” Terry said.

“You guys know anything about gas turbines?” Cecil asked.

“I’ve got some experience with them and Baker there worked in the utility industry, so she’s familiar with it,” Terry replied.

“I’m no stranger to them,” Scott said.

Sarge looked at Beach. ”What about you?”

“I’ve studied them,” he replied.

Sarge cocked his head. “What kind of engineer are you?”

Beach stuttered. “I’m a, a…….”

Sarge cut him off. “Huma, huma, huma. Spit it out!”

“I’m an engineering student.”

“Holy Mary, mother of God. Student! We need engineers!” Sarge barked.

Laughing, I put my hand on Sarge’s shoulder. “Leave him alone, grumpy.”

“What’s your plan to get power here?” Baker asked.

“I’m guessing you need three-phase 480.” I said. Scott nodded. “I know where a thirty-five KV generator is. We’ll have to get it moved over here. It used to run the Eustis Police station.”

“That’s on the small side, but it would probably get the job done,” Terry said.

Sarge looked at Cecil. “Folks, Cecil here performed maintenance on this place when it was running, so he’s a wealth of info for you. Cecil, why don’t you show these guys around this thing and see if there is any kind of obvious defects.”

Cecil nodded. “Come on, and I’ll give the nickel tour.”

Cecil led them off into the plant while Sarge and I hung out at the truck. I had enough on my plate. These guys were going to have to get this done.

I was getting anxious and asked Sarge, “What are we going to do about those bastards who attacked us?”

He was leaning over the hood of the truck and motioned with his hands. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with these brainiacs.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Sarge nodded. “I know, Morgan. We’re going to have to talk to Sheffield. We’re going to need their help to do this all the way. And it IS going to be…. all the way.”

Nodding, I said, “No quarter. Kill them all.”

“I’m worried though,” Sarge said. “There’s no way to take these guys on without casualties.” He paused and fiddled with an oak leaf stuck behind the wiper blade on the windshield. After a moment, he looked back at me. “And I don’t want to lose any of you.”

“You’re not the only one. But how many more times are these guys going to hit us before someone dies? Taylor is still recovering, and now Jamie is in the clinic. I think we’ve used all our luck. We’ve at least got to take away their ability to drive up and start shooting,” I replied.

Sarge nodded. “I’ve been thinking on that. They’re far enough away that if they didn’t have wheels, it would be a lot harder for them to get here.”

“Not to mention they wouldn’t be able to bring in heavy weapons.”

Sarge flipped the leaf out onto the hood. “But now we may have a real problem from what you heard on the radio. If the UN is talking about sending in peacekeepers, you can bet your ass it’s because our turd-in-chief is asking for help. He’s probably getting desperate and is willing to take any help he can get.”

I thumped the hood. “But he’s got to know those clowns aren’t going to come over here and lose soldiers just to
help
out. They’re going to want something in return.”

“I’d like to talk to the General and see what the hell’s going on. How legit this threat is. If there is a real possibility of them coming, then we’ve really got to take those guys at the Elk’s Camp out before they show up, or we’ll damn sure have our hands full.” Sarge said.

Cecil and the engineers walked out of the plant talking.

“Well, what’s the verdict?” I asked.

“Nothing in there is obviously damaged.” Scott said.

Terry jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “The switches out in the substation are open on both sides, the lines coming from the plant as well as to the distribution. That means the transformers there are probably good too. We may actually have a chance at this.”

“You get us that generator and we can start testing,” Baker said.

Nodding, I replied, “I’ll get on that today.”

“Something else for your to-do list, Morgan,” Cecil said. “We need to get to work planting. I need Thad and some other bodies.”

“I know. We’ve just had our hands full the last couple of days. I’ll get Thad to come down tomorrow. See what you can find for bodies in town. Talk to Sheffield. He’s supposed to provide security for you. Then get with Shawn and tell him to get the prisoners ready to send out there as well. They can work off their sentences out there,” I said.

“You going to let the boy that killed that girl work it off?” Cecil asked.

Shaking my head, I said, “No. But he’s going to work until it’s time for him to be put in the dirt.”

Cecil nodded, “Good.”

“When do you think you’ll have the generator here?” Scott asked.

I shrugged. “Don’t know. We’ll have to figure out how to move it first. It’s sitting on the ground, and we’ll need to get it loaded on a trailer and drag it over. I’ll let you guys know when it’s here. Once it’s here though, there will need to be a constant presence to guard it. We won’t be able to leave it unattended.”

“That won’t be a problem. We’ll just move into the offices or something and set up house. I’ll ask Sheffield for a couple of bodies to help with security as well,” Scott replied.

“It’s settled then,” Sarge said and he looked at Cecil. “You gotta tower at your place?”

Cecil shook his head. “No. I run a dipole.”

“We should still be able to reach each other. How many watts are you pushing?”

“I can push a hundred watts. But I have to be careful because it takes a long time for me to recharge the batteries.”

While Sarge and Cecil talked radio stuff, I asked Scott’s crew what they thought of how we would get the power into town.

“It’s going to take a lot of work,” Baker said. “We’re going to have to open a lot of sidelines and hope the transformers are good.”

“The local power company has a lay-down yard on the west side of town. There are probably some stored there,” I said.

“Hopefully there are enough of them,” Terry said.

“Enough jawin’. We’ve got shit to do, so let’s all get to it,” Sarge barked. He always was delicate. “Cecil’s riding back with the engineers. Let’s get going so you can sort out moving this generator.”

Looking at Cecil, I said, “I’ll get Thad over tomorrow. He’ll enjoy the time working in the dirt.”

“I’ll be expecting him,” Cecil replied with a smile.

“Terry. I’ll let you guys know when the generator is headed your way,” I said.

“We’ll be ready. In the meantime, we’re going to check out that out that lay-down yard and see if there are any stored transformers, and whether they’re any good,” Terry replied.

As we got back in the Hummer, Ian slammed his fist on the roof. “Hurry up. That thing is starting to smell like hell!”

“Quit your whining! That’s no way to talk about your dinner,” Sarge replied.

As we rode, Sarge and I talked about the generator move for a while. Getting the beast on the trailer would be the hardest part, but I’m sure we would figure something out.

“What were you and Cecil talking about?” I asked.

“We were setting up a frequency to stay in touch on HF.”

“Good. Someone else we can stay in touch with up there.” I cocked my head and looked at him. “You know, I really like Cecil. He’s good people.”

Sarge chuckled. “He is. Like me, he calls it how he sees it. He’s also got a lot of experience in different things. Good man to know.”

As the Kangaroo in Altoona came into view, I was relieved to see Mario’s buggy. It would save me a trip out to his place.

“Mario’s there. I’m going to stop in and ask about the generator.”

Sarge looked sideways at me. “Ask? You promised something you don’t have?”

“He’ll let us use it. Besides, we need it and he’s not using it.”

Sarge let out a devilish laugh. “You’re starting to think too much like me.”

I wheeled up beside Mario’s table and stopped. Shelly smiled and waved as I got out.

“Hey guys! How are you doing?” She asked.

Mario was busy haggling over a deal. That was the way of things now. Bickering was back in style. A trader would offer a price and the customer would counter, usually fifty percent of the first asking price. The typical deal would come in somewhere in the middle of the two. But there were exceptions on both sides.

“We’re good, Shelly. How’s business?” I asked.

She looked down at the table stacked with jars, candles and blocks of wax. “Great. Everyone wants this stuff.”

Mario finished up with his customer and walked over. “But not everyone has things of worth to offer.”

“Oh stop it,” Shelly said, offering him a light slap on the shoulder.

“What brings you fellas down here?” Mario asked.

“We need a favor,” Sarge said.

“Always happy to help if we can. What is it?” Mario asked.

Ian hopped out of the truck. “I’m going to prowl around the market.” He wandered off to look over the offerings.

“That old generator from the Eustis PD. We need to borrow it for a while,” I said.

Mario shrugged. “It’s yours. What are you going to do with it?”

“We’ve got some engineers in town to see if we can get the power house at the old Golden Gem plant up and running.”

Mario’s eyebrows went up. “Really? Think you have a shot at it?”

“We won’t know until we try. Even if we get it running, there’s a ton of work that will still be needed.”

“To say the least,” Mario replied. I could see the wheels in his head turning.

“We got hit again last night. Keep your eyes open and let us know if you see any DHS folks around,” Sarge said.

“Did anyone get hurt?” Shelly asked.

Sarge nodded slightly. “Jamie was hit. She’s up at the clinic now.”

“How bad?” Mario asked.

“It’s not good. But it could have been worse,” Sarge replied.

“We also lost two people. You haven’t met them. Tyler and Brandy. They were quarantined because they had TB. The house was set on fire. They got the kids out, two little ones, but they didn’t make it,” I said.

Shelly covered her mouth. “Oh, that’s horrible.”

Mario was shaking his head. “Burned. I couldn’t imagine a worse thing.” He looked at me. “Sorry, I was just—“ I waved him off.

“It’s alright. Tough for everyone,” I said.

“We’re here to help. Whatever we can,” Shelly said.

Looking at Mario I asked, “You think we can get that generator on a trailer?”

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” Mario replied.

“How about tomorrow?”

“Alright. Say nine o’clock?”