Bug Out! Part 9: RV Ambush (22 page)

“How about the front gate?” Jerry asked. “I’m still seeing icons around there.”

“Let’s see,” Frank said. He selected that camera. It was pointing at the gate and the road into the park. “Looks the same to me. Hey, here comes an SUV.”

“Looks full,” Jerry said. “Look how low it’s riding.”

They all watched as it rolled through the gate. Nobody else was around. Frank went on to the other cameras, checking them all.

“A few of those cameras in the trail and camping area aren’t pointing where they were before,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, that’s what it looks like to me, too,” Jasmine said.

Frank rolled his chair over to the PC and looked at the close-in program. There were still icons on their way in, and still a cluster by the front gate. He zoomed in. They were in the storage building.

“Remember that building that the tank came out of?” Frank asked. “That’s where the icons are. They’ve set up shop in there.”

“Saladin in there?” Jerry asked.

“No, he’s in the back, under that outcropping. There’s mostly low level Islamist types in the front, along with a couple of Militia guys, and one level four person.”

“They’re checking people in, I suspect,” Jane said.

You hear that?” Jerry asked.

“What?” Frank asked, but then he heard it. A chopper, approaching. “General Hogan!”

They all got up and hurried out to the porch. They could see it now, approaching quickly.

“Chinook,” Jerry said. “Wonder who he’s got with him?”

“He said he’d be bringing his kids,” Frank said. “Look, there’s Dobie rounding up the dogs.”

They watched as Dobie called them all over and got their leashes on, Princess at his side. He walked them back by the trailers.

“Looks like everybody’s heard it,” Jane said. All the members of the group were walking up to the clubhouse now, slowly, some carrying cups of coffee.

The chopper set down on the large flat area in front of the clubhouse, sending a torrent of dust flying in every direction.

“Too bad we don’t have grass there anymore,” Jasmine said, covering her eyes.

“Seriously,” Jane said.

The chopper engines shut down, the rotors slowly spinning to a stop. The back door opened.

“Here he comes,” Frank said. “He’s limping.”

“Yeah, he’s not looking so good, is he?” Jane asked. “They probably beat him up.”

“Let’s go meet him,” Frank said. He walked off the porch, heading the chopper, with Jane by his side. Jerry and Jasmine followed, and then Charlie and Hilda. The rest of the people filed into the clubhouse.

“Hi, General Hogan,” Frank said as he walked up and shook his hand.

“Frank, great to see you,” he said. “Hello, Jane. You’re looking lovely.”

“Thanks,” she said. “We were so worried about you. I’m glad you made it out okay.”

“And this is Jerry and Jasmine,” the General said, smiling, shaking hands.

“Good to see you again, sir,” Jerry said.

“Likewise,” the General said. “Charlie and Hilda, right?”

“You’ve got a good memory, General. Nice to see you,” Charlie said, shaking his hand. Let’s go into the clubhouse. There’s some coffee in there. We could rustle up a snack too, if you’re hungry.”

“Coffee sounds great,” General Hogan said.

They started towards the clubhouse. Frank turned towards the privates and smiled. “Great to see you men,” he said.

“Same here,” Private Brown said. “Thanks so much for helping us get my dad back.”

“You’re welcome,” Frank said. “Glad things turned out alright.”

They got inside, and Hilda led the General Hogan and the Privates to the kitchen for some coffee. Then she joined Charlie at the front of the room. Everybody was there, sitting at the rows of tables facing the stage.

“How’s everybody doing?” Charlie asked.

“Glad to see the General,” Jeb said, smiling.

“Me too,” Kurt said. There was a murmur of agreement floating through the room.

General Hogan and the Privates sat down at one of the long tables, facing the group. Then the General stood up and smiled at the crowd.

“Good to see all of you,” he said. “I want to thank you for helping to free me.”

“Ah, Frank did the work on that,” Earl said.

“True, but your team kept him safe, and allowed the work to get done,” the General said. “You all had a part in this.”

“I agree with that 100%,” Frank said. “All of us have our talents, and our contributions.”

“This is a formidable team,” the General said. “And we’re going to have to call on you one more time.”

“We know,” Jerry said. “Saladin.”

“Yes, Saladin,” General Hogan said. He scanned the room, and then got a huge grin on his face. “George!”

“Hi, General. How the hell are you?” he asked.

“I’ve been better, old friend. You’ve thrown in with these folks. Good.”

“Yeah, we have,” George said. “Good group of people. We’ve already seen action together, too.”

“Yes, I was briefed about that ambush, and the incident at the bridge. Nice work. We’ll catch up later, I hope.”

“Of course,” George said. “Oh, this is Heidi. You’ve probably heard of Malcolm Davis.”

“Yes, fascinating stories,” General Hogan said. “Glad you’re here.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Malcolm said. “Glad to be here.”

“Okay, let’s get started,” Charlie said. “Where do we stand, and what do you need us to do?”

“I’ll lay it out,” General Hogan said. “Things are still shifting a little, though.”

“Understand,” Charlie said. “Go ahead.”

“We know, thanks to Frank’s apps, that there’s a group of enemy fighters at Capitol Reef National Park,” the General said. “We also have the names file, and have put plans in place to nab all of the enemy operatives at the Pentagon, and in the Executive and Legislative branches of our government.”

“Good, Sam Hinton gave you the file,” George said.

“Yeah, but we’re afraid it’s only a partial list, after the incident with General Kincaid.”

“We are going to have a complex timing issue,” Jeb said. “Right?”

“Yes, Jeb, you hit the nail on the head,” General Hogan said. “We have a huge advantage at the moment, but it’s fragile.”

“The enemy thinks we can’t see them anymore,” Kurt said, chuckling. “Right?”

“Yep, from what we can tell, they think we’re in the dark,” General Hogan said. “It won’t take much to make them realize they’re in trouble, though. We’ve got a big event coming, too.”

“The auto-release of the apps,” Earl said.

“Precisely,” the General replied. “We need to load the bases before Frank hits the ball out of the park, folks. That’s what I want to plan. We have a team in DC that’s getting ready to nail the operatives there. We need a team here to hit Saladin, and we’ve got to be very careful about bringing in Army assets.”

“General, there’s been some upgrades to the apps,” Frank said. “I don’t know if you’ve been told about all of them yet.”

“I know you added the country codes and ranks,” he said. “I assume you’ve also added names by now.”

“Yes, the names are added, and you’ll all get upgraded mobile apps as soon as we’re done talking. What’s turned out to be most important, in some ways, is the new long range close-in view program.”

“What does that do?” the General asked.

“It’s like the original long range app, but it has much greater resolution. We can zero in on buildings or even rooms with this app. There’s only one problem with it.”

“What’s that?”

“It takes a lot of computing power, so I can’t put it on phones or other mobile devices. It runs best on a PC or a higher end lap top.”

“Interesting capability,” the General said. “We can probably find a use for that.”

“We already have,” Jerry said. “How do you think we found out what building you were in?”

“Oh, really?” the General asked.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you, dad,” Private Brown said. “I probably didn’t explain it very well.”

“I get it now,” the General said. “Sorry, son. I assume, Frank, that you’ve already used this thing to zero in on Capitol Reef?”

“Yes, General. In fact, it’s on the screen right now, if you’d like to step over here and take a look.”

“Why, yes,” the General said, getting up and following Frank over the PC. Frank sat down in front of it, and the General stood behind him, looking at the screen.

“The highest concentration of icons is in the back area of the park, under this huge outcropping of rock, and the surrounding ravines,” Frank said. He toggled on the names. “Look, there’s Saladin.”

“Well I’ll be damned,” he said.

Frank moved to the front gate. “There’s a new concentration, in this warehouse building behind the front office,” he said.

“There’s also a tank in that building,” Jerry said.

“You can’t tell that with this app, can you?” the General asked.

“No, we got onto the video camera system a while back, and were watching when it appeared. Remember that ambush that they tried to set up? We saw the enemy get chased in here by some of your guys, and the tank opened up on them. Not a pretty sight.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember,” the General said grimly. “You still have access to the cameras?”

“Yeah, but they moved a few of them, so they’re no longer pointing in an advantageous direction.” Frank zoomed out further. “Look at this.”

“Is that more people coming in?” the General asked, with a grin on his face.

“Sure is,” Frank said. “They’re getting ready for a meeting or something.”

“Well, this confirms one thing,” the General said, chuckling. “We were right. They think we can’t see them anymore.”

Howard was driving down the dirt road, towards the barn. Nobody was around. He pulled his class C inside, doing a K-turn to get it pointed back towards the doors. He shut down the engine and rushed out, looking for Scott. He wasn’t there. The girl’s body was, though. It was already starting to smell a little ripe. He looked closely at the straw covered floor, and could see where Scott crawled towards the wall. Then he saw a few drops of blood, long the wall leading to the doors, and around the outside.
He got out of here. He’s probably still alive.
Howard followed the trail. It led out to the gravel road that continued past the barn.

“Tire tracks,” he said, looking down.
“Fresh.”
Then he noticed the old farm house, with its wrap-around porch. It was down the road about a hundred yards. The house looked deserted, so Howard approached, squinting to focus in. The door suddenly pushed open, and a young man stepped out onto the porch, scanning the area. Howard tried to get behind something, but he wasn’t fast enough; they made eye contact, and then the young man went back in the door. A second later he was back out, with another young man who looked just like him.
Twins?

“You really think this movement
of enemy fighters to Capitol Reef means they think we can’t see them anymore?” Earl asked.

“I do,” the General said. “They probably think we’ll crack it again, though. This rapid influx of fighters smacks of panic to me. They want to accomplish something before they’re exposed again. I can feel it.”

“We gonna hit ‘em?” Gabe asked.

“That’s going to be my suggestion, but you guys are going to need some help,” he replied.

“Perhaps we can do something similar to what we did to that away team,” Jeb said. “Set up an ambush, and slaughter them. They aren’t too bright.”

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We’ve got to assume that they are watching for that,” General Hogan said. “Judging by how many of them have infiltrated the Pentagon and other parts of the government, they might have access to all kinds of capability.”

“Let’s brainstorm this, step by step,” Frank said. “We know where the leadership is hiding. We can place them within yards. We can also see where the men protecting them are.

“Yes,” the General said.

“Let’s eliminate the obvious things first. We know we can’t drive in the front gate. They’re watching, and they’ve got men and a tank in place,” Frank said.

“I’m with you,” the General said.

“We also know that they can monitor the video cameras around the park,” Jerry said.

“How do we know that?” the General asked.

“Because they’ve turned the ones that were pointing to sensitive spots,” Jerry said. “We saw that today.”

“That’s good, though,” Frank said. “We know what they can see, and we can monitor it on the fly, too, even while we’re there. Looking at the video stream doesn’t take much bandwidth, so we can use phones or tablets to do it.”

“So basically what we’re saying here is that we need to avoid the park cameras, but they aren’t a big help or a big threat,” George said, walking to the front of the room.

“Precisely,” Frank said.

“Okay,” General Hogan said. “I’m following. Go on.”

“We know they are going to be watching for an assault, as you said,” Frank said. “There are several ways they can do that. First, they can do it the old fashioned way. They can have sentries placed in various positions.”

“True, but that might not be as old fashioned as you think,” George said, “because they might have night vision.”

“They probably do,” General Hogan said. “They’ve been surprisingly well supplied.”

“Okay, so sentries with night vision are the baseline capability that they have. We’ve also seen them use low-flying, short range drones,” Frank said. “We can hear those coming, but if we shoot one down, we’ll tip them off.”

“True, it would tip them off, but if we’re ready to hit them at that moment, it won’t make much difference,” Earl said. “Remember what happened behind Gabe’s park? We took out their drone, and hit them before they could re-group.”

“Okay, so we’ve highlighted two ways they can protect themselves…sentries and small drones,” Charlie said. “What about their own video camera system?”

“There’s a good chance they’ll have something like that,” Jake said. “That’s cheap hardware, and it’s simple to set up and monitor.”

“We’ve done that ourselves, at two of the parks we’ve been at,” the Sheriff said. “Didn’t help us that much, though, except after the fact.”

“After the fact?” General Hogan asked.