Eden's Hammer (10 page)

Adrian replied, “I think I am very damned happy you’re on our side. I think it’s brilliant. Let me know how you’re progressing and if you need any help.”

“The only help I’ll need will be some extra hands turning out black powder for two days. The rest I can do myself fairly easily.”

Adrian said, “I’ll get some of the men and women who will be acting as stretcher bearers to your shop first thing in the morning.”

Later that morning, Adrian assembled all the troops, men and women alike. He announced, “As part of the training, Matthew had a brilliant idea. He went into town and came back with enough paintball guns, gas cylinders, and ammo to run several drills. At first, you may think it sounds a bit ridiculous, but after a moment, the brilliance of it shines through. It beats the hell out of running around shouting
bang, bang
! We’re going to divide into two groups: aggressors and defenders. The women will defend Fort Brazos against the men. This will give excellent practice with the added benefit of knowing who was wounded or killed. We’ll get practice in as near a live fire environment as we can without actually killing each other.

“On top of that, we’ll be able to practice battle field communications, medical treatment and evacuation, and how best to defend the fort. We won’t be trying to capture a flag as in the usual war games. We will be continuing the exercise until one side has no survivors. It’s to be a war to the death for each side. These old paint balls might or might not burst when they hit. They will sting either way. The only safety device will be eye shields, we don’t need to lose any eyeballs in this practice. If you are hit, even if the paint doesn’t explode on you, you are to lie down and wait for the medics to find you and carry out their mission. Medics are fair game to shoot, just like they will be shot at when we actually fight. Any questions? None? Okay, captains take your men east of the fort and prepare your invasion. Colonel Fremont, as soon as the men are out of sight, take your defensive positions. Men, in this first exercise, you will imitate the known tactics of our enemy as explained to you in the briefings. This will not only give the defenders a realistic view of how they would be attacked, but will also give you firsthand knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the tactics you’ll be fighting against. Subsequent exercises will use our tactics and strategies, the ones we’ll be using against them. Defenders, you’ll also be involved in all exercises to keep you from getting into one set way of thinking, because the attackers will have any number of ways of coming at you.”

March 11, afternoon

Linda’s advance sentries began filtering in from their observation posts, relaying the incoming attackers’ positions and movements. Using this intel, Linda made subtle but important adjustments to the defensive positions.

Linda watched through binoculars as the men moved in. “Shirley, notify the squad leaders they have ten minutes before they see the attackers. Remind them of the effective range of their paintball guns, to rely on the landmarks we identified for ranging information, and that they are not to fire until the attackers reach the optimum range and target density. Stay with them and move from position to position giving advice and confidence.”

Adrian stood by silently, also watching with binoculars. They had taken a position on a rooftop where they could watch without being seen. Linda would be actively moving her troops as needed and issuing commands by runner. Adrian would only observe, offering no advice or counsel. He would instead watch everything and make his observations known in the post-exercise briefing.

The attackers followed the known tactics of the raiders. First, they sent out scouts to observe. The information was relayed to the fighters and they gathered into three distinct groups. They came at the Fort on a dead run, firing as they came. It was a classic three-front strategy, hitting the fort from three directions, putting the defenders in a crossfire while minimizing the chances of friendly fire hitting their own.

The attack was fast, furious, and brutal, and the battle lasted less than five minutes. Many of the attackers were cut down in the initial surge with few losses to the defenders. However, the attackers still overran the defenders and quickly eliminated them. The attackers won, although with heavy losses.

At the follow-up briefing, Adrian said, “We learned a lot today. Thank you, Matthew—it was an excellent idea that will save us many lives before this is over. We learned that the defensive positions need to be fortified more than they are. We learned that the defenders have a chance to succeed if we do several things differently, and those ideas will be incorporated into the next exercise. We also learned that the attack force must be cut down in size considerably if the defenders are to have a chance of success—that will be on the men’s shoulders. Our goal is to eliminate them entirely, and I plan on achieving that goal, but as a fall back, we have to be realistic about how many raiders have to be killed in order to give the defenders at the village a solid chance to win.

“Each of you as an individual has learned a lot. It isn’t a realistic live fire exercise in the important ways, of course, but it is as close as we’re going to get to the real thing. Some of you, due to age or physical condition, can’t keep up with the main group. That’s no slight, it’s just a fact, and we have to face facts. I’ve identified most of those individuals. In subsequent exercises, I’ll confirm those and probably add some more. Those men will be segregated out into a separate group to act as stretcher-bearers to assist the medics and take a load off their shoulders, allowing them more time to work on the wounded.

“Roman—you, Perry, Matt, and Tim’s mission will be to supplement the frontline fighting troops with actions that delay, harass, and kill the enemy in smaller micro-actions. Your primary mission will be to slow the attackers, buying the main group more time to get set up. You will be the first force to encounter the enemy in combat. Your final mission will be to engage any enemy flanks that you can reach during the battle. Be aware your mission is not only critical, but requires the utmost of bravery; you’ll be four men acting independently against almost two hundred enemy combatants. You’ll be outnumbered fifty to one. Do not for a moment think you are being relegated to a lesser mission.”

CHAPTER 9

January 27, dawn

R
ex selected two men and
had them brought to his tent. “Each of you has a mission coming up, a mission that requires strict obedience while acting entirely on your own. ‘Acting’ is a good word for this mission, because you will be actors. Pay close attention and I’ll go over it as many times as it takes for you to be comfortable with your role, and I’ll answer any questions you have. You have to get this exactly right. You will be dressed as farmers and will go into Fort Brazos pretending that you are fleeing ahead of us. You will pretend to be a refugee and will tell them that we appear to be heading straight for them. You’ll stay only a couple of hours, asking for food and water. Then you’ll leave, heading west as though continuing your flight. Your missions are secret. You will not say anything to anyone about what you are doing. You know what will happen if you do.”

“You”, he said pointing at the first man, startling him, “You will leave in the morning and get there as fast as you can. You’ll tell them you had a small farm just outside of Woodville, Texas that was burned to the ground. If you happen to run across anyone from that area that questions you, you can say something like, ‘Look, I came here to warn you, and I didn’t have to. I’m out of here, you ungrateful son of a bitch.’ Then leave—remember, heading west. When you are well away from the village, circle around and come back here.”

“And you,” Rex said, pointing to the second man, “You will do the same thing, except you’ll leave in three days and you’re from a small farm near Diboll, Texas. You will add one other piece of information to your story. You will say that while hiding, you overheard two of the raiders mention Fort Brazos. You didn’t hear anything else clearly, you don’t know their mission or why they even mentioned Fort Brazos, you just heard one of them say it to another one.

“Here’s the fascinating thing for both of you: you’ve been selected for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you have family in Baton Rouge. Fail in your mission, and I send word back to kill your families, and not in a nice way, either. Succeed, and after we take Fort Brazos, you can go home to your family right away if you want to. Now, is that clear enough?”

February 8, morning

Rex strode into his tent, impatiently telling the radio operator, “This had better be damn good, or you’ll regret sending for me!”

The operator, shaken, started to speak, then cleared his throat and tried again. “I just heard Roman talking to Adrian on the radio. Roman asked Adrian to come home as fast as possible, that he was needed badly because there’s trouble heading toward Fort Brazos. Adrian said he could be there in about three weeks. Roman didn’t specify what the trouble was, just told him to hurry and not talk to anyone on the way.”

Rex, smiling his big, nerve-wracking smile, asked, “Adrian said he would come? Are you completely sure?”

“Yes sir, he said he would leave today, as soon as he gathered up some gear. There’s no doubt about it, he’s heading home today.”

Rex said, “And you haven’t told anyone? This is still our little secret?”

“No sir, not a soul. I haven’t said anything to anyone, just as you ordered.”

Rex’s smile grew even larger and scarier. “Good work. Step outside a minute—I want to praise you in front of the men.”

When they were outside the tent, Rex called some of the men over. “Men, I want you to witness this.” Rex pulled his knife out and slit the radio operator’s throat so fast that his hand was a blur of motion. He watched as the operator’s blood jetted while his heels drummed the ground, until they slowly stopped. “This is what happens to men who fail in their mission. Remember it. Get this body out of here, and then throw his radio junk out of my tent.”

Rex went back into his tent and sat in his camp chair. He didn’t need the radio or the operator any longer; Adrian was heading for Fort Brazos, and it had been confirmed. He thought briefly of the radio operator. Just that much less junk to haul around, and another opportunity to instill fear in his men while also letting off a little steam.
A good day,
he thought to himself,
a very good day indeed.

After the radio equipment had been removed and Rex was alone, he once again pulled out his “Adrian bag” and began fondling its contents. That night as he lay in bed waiting for sleep, he went through his plan for Adrian step by step. He looked for any weakness, any hole, but found none. He slept a deep, contented sleep.

CHAPTER 10

March 12, afternoon

T
he training exercise that day
followed a different plan. The number of attackers had been reduced by half to get an idea of the maximum number the defenders could handle. The defenders had also utilized every lesson they had learned from the first exercise, while the attackers utilized the enemies’ tactics again. It was still a close battle, but this time the defenders won, although with still heavy losses.

After the conclusion of the exercise, Adrian said to Linda, “Your troops are learning and adapting quickly, I’m very impressed with them. I feel vindicated in asking you to lead them.” While Adrian was talking to her, he was growing uncomfortably aware of feelings he had never expected again, and those feelings, in turn, caused him to feel guilt. He felt like he was betraying Alice, but didn’t have control over it. This conflict caused Adrian to speak more harshly than he wanted to, though he knew that these feelings weren’t Linda’s fault, she wasn’t coming on to him in any way.

Linda immediately noticed the undue harshness of his tone, not understanding why he was giving praise in that rough way. Adrian asked stiffly, “You’ve had time to consider relegating leadership to someone else. Have you arrived at a conclusion?”

Linda was worried by the enormity of the role she was playing and her extensive self-doubts of her ability to perform under fire. These should have been enough for anyone to deal with, she thought, yet on top of that, she also had to deal with her involuntary but undeniable growing attraction to Adrian. Not only was he attractive, but she sensed an undercurrent of emotional vulnerability, and that started a chain reaction of feelings that were moving rapidly out of her control. Whenever she was near him, she found herself acting almost mean, suppressing feelings she was uncomfortable with and didn’t want him to know about.

Linda sighed, then responded, “Yes, I’ll continue to lead them, it wouldn’t be fair to them to make a change now, and I think you knew this would happen the night you talked me into it. You manipulated me and I still resent it. These women are not only brave, but they are fighting for their loved ones—their children, mostly. There isn’t any stronger motivation in the world than that. Women can be as effective fighters as men are, and I’ve been thinking that maybe you should utilize the best of them, and me, in the direct fighting.”

Adrian was surprised at this suggestion, but hid it and replied, “I know women can be excellent fighters. I’ve spent a lot of time overseas where women fight alongside men. I have no doubts of their capabilities, having faced some and also fought alongside some of them. But in those cultures, they’ve had generations to adapt to the idea. Here, it’s different. Women have been placed on pedestals since the beginnings of the country, and men here have false ideas about women’s fighting abilities. What I’m afraid of is that our men will be less effective if they are fighting alongside women, especially women they have relationships with.

“In the foreign armies the women are not from the men’s families, or even neighbors. It’s a big difference and one I can’t risk, these men and women all know each other. Many intimately. It’s not the ability of the women I am concerned about, but the men’s effectiveness if they become over-protective of the women next to them when the bullets are flying. I do not want the men distracted in any way, and that kind of distraction could be fatal.”

Linda was listening, but couldn’t stop thinking his scars accentuated his attractiveness. He was virile and had undeniable presence and charisma. She tried hard to suppress her rebellious feelings as dishonorable to her husband’s memory and completely inappropriate for the time and circumstances. She was also surprised by Adrian’s matter of fact respect for women’s abilities; she hadn’t seen that coming.

Linda wasn’t aware of her scowl in response to her feelings, and the scowl had no relation to Adrian’s statement when she replied, “That’s something I can understand. My husband would get like that sometimes, and I always hated it. I’m fully aware that I can’t fight a man hand to hand and expect to win, but with a gun it’s—as you say—a matter of keeping a clear head. Bullets are equal. I have to say I disagree with your decision, but I can’t find fault with your reasoning.”

They looked at each other for a long moment with a tension that caused irritation between them.