Glimmer of Hope (Land of Tomorrow Book 1) (21 page)

Chapter 11 – The Coming Storm

General Clarence Anderson stared hard at the map spread out on the large table in front of him. Acetate plastic sheeting covered the map and there were red and blue magic marker sketches showing the locations and dispositions of their forces and those of the WTR’s.
At least as best we can guess
, he thought.

He swore in disgust as much at what he was looking at as at his own lack of planning.
What have I been thinking? Did I really think this day would never come? Actually, I thought it would, but not so soon. We've made great strides, but we're not ready.

One of the biggest problems was they didn’t know exactly what they were facing or where to focus. The JP had a general idea of the WTR’s forces which were forming along the border, but they didn’t know exact composition, disposition, or intentions. Anderson couldn’t risk sending patrols across the border and spark an actual conflict if Sampson’s intention was only intimidation. They should have been working earlier on an intelligence network similar to what the WTR obviously possessed in the JP.

The other major problem, stemming from the first, was that they did not know exactly where they needed to defend. The JP had to array its forces in order to respond to any incursion along the entire southern border. He had decided to pull all his guard troops back and keep them in reserve to respond using transport trucks when, and where, needed. Anderson hated the idea of using the precious fuel, but if there was ever a time for it, that time was now.

The Hickman, Graves, and Calloway County Regiments formed thin screens along the border and their mission was simply to harass, slow, and report on any attack until the guard forces could arrive. It would have to be an elastic defense in depth. Some key strongholds were ready, but not enough to hold up a general advance.

The electrical outage caused a number of unforeseen problems. One of the biggest was the lack of communications. They had relied upon the land lines and cell phone towers, which all required electricity. Now everything was communicated through runners and bicyclists, causing serious delays. They had a few satellite phones, but not enough. General Butch Matthews had thankfully brought back many old sets of TA-312 army crank telephones and bundles of wire from Fort Campbell, but you couldn’t just run a hundred miles of wire across the entire border. The phones helped, but mostly at the tactical, small-unit level.

Thinking of Butch made Anderson look at his watch and wonder when he would return. He had sent him to their consolidated supply warehouse in Paducah to bring back every single mine of any type they could find. If they were lucky, they would have time to lay them along the border and if they were even luckier they could use them to channel Sampson’s forces into narrow areas, possibly negating some of his numerical superiority.

The lack of information, and ability to communicate, was so damn frustrating. It made Anderson think of books he had read about the First World War, when they had carrier pigeons, and even in some cases trained messenger dogs. Too bad they didn’t have any of those, although it might not be a bad idea to try to train some if they ever got out of this spot, thought Anderson. Intel had been a problem back then too and the great need for it actually led to the birth of the air corps. Those little biplanes had initially been nothing more than platforms to view enemy dispositions, similar to hot air balloons during the Civil War.

Anderson caught his breath with a stunning idea.
Would it work? At least worth a try, why not?

He grabbed one of his staff officers at random. “Take my car and go to the nearest airfield you can find. Find a pilot from anywhere and get up there as fast as you can. I want a detailed report on what forces we face out there, and what they are doing from the Mississippi to the Cumberland River. But don’t cross the border, stay on our side. Do you understand? Any questions?”

Lieutenant Beau Myers looked a little overwhelmed by the instructions. “But sir, do we even have fuel left for planes?”

Anderson nodded. “Possibly, airplane fuel is different from regular gasoline. I think it still works in automobiles, but maybe someone at an airport saved it or forgot about it.”

“Sir, I don’t know where to find a pilot!” the man said with alarm, but then stopped, thinking. “Well, maybe I do at that,” he said as a thought came to him.

“Good,” said Anderson. “Get up there and get me information as fast as you can. I need the information to be accurate; but I also need it quickly, so don’t stay up there all day. Make one trip up and down and then back to me, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” said Beau.

“Then get after it!” yelled Anderson and then remembering something else, called him back. He scribbled an order on a piece of paper and gave it to him. “This is in case anyone gives you grief about using a plane or fuel. Better yet, take two armed soldiers with you, and if you get any trouble, take what you need by force. This is very important.”

Beau nodded again and took off at a run.

Anderson knew the odds were strongly against them, but there was always a chance. It was then that he noticed the grey menacing clouds along the horizon. That could be trouble for the plane he thought to himself. He hoped they could at least get some information before the weather turned bad.

He looked back into the sky and saw how the grey clouds swirled together, but there was almost no wind at ground level. Everything had also gone eerily silent. Anderson had seen this sort of weather before; as a kid it would have caused his family to go to the cellar.

There's a bad storm coming, for sure
, he thought.

Chapter 12 – Delay

Joshua thought he was in just about a perfect position. They were on a tall hill covered with thick trees overlooking the Cumberland River. What had drawn them to this location were numerous rumors and hints gathered from locals talking about activity along the major waterway. Joshua and his recon squad now saw the activity they were referring to.

Below them were what appeared to be several dozen small boats and six larger double-decker passenger ships typically used for tours along the river. Currently, the large ships were empty, but through the binoculars Joshua could see several hundred men, and their tents and cooking fires, in the wood line nearby. Meanwhile, men were working furiously to mount large machine guns, grenade launchers, and rockets in various configurations onto the smaller boats.

Joshua again checked the cell phone and saw there still wasn’t a signal. They had a hand crank generator to keep the phone charged, but the dam must still be down which meant the cell towers weren't functioning. Luke Carter called him nearly a week ago and told him the situation before the signal went dead, but neither really had a good answer for how to communicate the information the team gathered. Joshua hoped the power would come back up soon. Someone needed to know what they had discovered.

It was easy for Joshua to see what was planned below. Everyone was expecting an attack from the south, but no one was looking for an attack along the Cumberland River up through Barkley Lake. They could land anywhere along the park. Hell, they could land right at the dam.

Joshua’s mind raced quickly and he thought back over his conclusion again. It made sense. The dam was the key. They were conducting a sneak attack on the dam either to take it or possibly even destroy it.

He wondered,
Could they really be crazy enough to want to destroy the one source of electricity? Maybe…people did crazy things when they couldn’t get what they wanted. If it was a surprise attack, they would want to maintain secrecy as long as possible which means they would probably only travel at night
.

Joshua wasn’t familiar with the lakes or boating, but figured that it would take them several days at least to travel that far north.

Joshua made up his mind and called his two team leaders together. His recon squad was made up of two four man teams each with a team leader, sniper, medic, and automatic rifleman. He now addressed Billy, the better of his two team leaders, a teenager only a few months younger than himself.

“Leave me your sniper, but take the rest of your team back as fast as you can and warn them of what is going on here,” said Joshua quickly. “If you can get to Captain Green in time, maybe he can try to stop them from getting too far north. At a minimum, we have to do what we can to warn everyone, I think they’re going to try to take or destroy the dam.”

“Holy crap!” said Billy with his eyes a little wide.

Joshua grabbed his arm the way his father did to focus his attention. “You’re going to have to move as fast as you can. Steal the first car, bikes, horses, or whatever you come across. I know we’re not supposed to do that, but we have no choice. Be very careful. Only rest when you have to and never for very long. And for God’s sake, don’t get caught!”

“I understand,” said Billy while pulling out his map to study the return route.

“You’re also going to have to get a boat at some point to cross over to warn Captain Green,” said Joshua. “You won’t have time to get up to the Route 68 bridge and then come back down. As a matter of fact you might make better time on the water overall if you can get a boat early enough.”

“Won’t those motor boats catch up with them?” asked Henry, his second team chief, who had come near them.

“That’s going to be our job,” said Joshua. “We’re going to delay them as long as we can. With any luck, they’re not going to try to depart for another day, maybe two.” Another thought came to Joshua. “Also warn them that another such group could be coming up the Tennessee River into Kentucky Lake, they might be trying to attack the dam from two sides.”

“Got it,” said Billy putting away his map and looking around for his team members.

Joshua was nervous, “And Billy, be careful.”

The team leader smiled back. “You already said that. See you in a few days.” He took off down the hill at a run to gather his remaining two men and get going.

*******

Joshua lay on the top of the hill with his binoculars, looking at the boats. He figured the best time to slow them down was right before they loaded the transports to depart. If the men were already loaded, they might just push ahead despite what Joshua and his team were doing. He also didn’t want to start messing with them too soon and cause them to speed up their own timeline. He sensed it would be soon though. The men had stopped working on the small boats and there was a flurry of activity in the camp.

A sniper lay to each side of Joshua. Each shouldered the large, and somehow beautiful, Barrett M83 .50 caliber sniper rifle. Joshua was in love with the rifles and wanted to fire one, but the ammo was too scarce. As a matter of fact, none of them had fired the weapons since they were taken from Fort Campbell. They had been checked for functionality and cleaned, but not yet zeroed to the individual shooters who had trained with other, more plentiful, calibers. Joshua decided to use this opportunity to do exactly that. Accuracy was not necessarily important to accomplish what he had in mind, anyway.

He looked back down the hill to his rear, but could not see Henry and the other two men who were providing them security. They had laid out claymore mines and prepared an escape route. There wasn’t much more they could do to prepare and were as ready as they would probably ever be.

Joshua looked back though the binoculars and saw men lining up in front of the boats in formations. “Alright boys, get ready. On my command, right gun first, then left, then alternate so we can adjust fire. Aim for the nearest two gangplanks to start off. Understood?”

Both men answered that they did.

“Okay then,” said Joshua slowly. “Make sure you have earplugs in. I bet these babies are wicked loud.” He looked again and decided the time had come. He had a moment’s hesitation wondering if he was doing the right thing. Was he doing what his father wanted him to do? He didn’t have any way to talk to anyone, but this seemed best. He would roll with it.

“Right gun,” said Joshua, “fire, when ready.”

A second later the Barrett to Joshua’s right boomed and he saw a splash of water near the gangplank. “Three feet to the right and two feet down,” Joshua said and the sniper began making the adjustments on his scope. Joshua looked down at the men along the shore and surprisingly nothing seemed to have happened. He imagined it from their point of view and they likely only heard a splash like someone throwing a rock into the water followed several seconds later by a boom in the distance.

“Left gunner, fire when ready,” said Joshua.

The second gun boomed and Joshua called out adjustments. He now saw several men yelling and seeking cover as understanding dawned, but the vast majority still stood dumbly in formation. They took several more shots until they were zeroed and then Joshua decided to bring it home to them.

“Target any leaders. Fire when ready, fire at will,” said Joshua.

He looked through the binoculars as the guns boomed repeatedly beside him and saw officers and NCO’s falling to the ground with horrific wounds. Chaos ensued as the soldiers scrambled into the cover of the wood line.

“That’s enough for now, save the ammo,” said Joshua, stopping them for the moment. “Let’s wait and see what they do.” Joshua again looked through his binoculars and smiled.

It appears to be working for now
, he thought.
Will it be enough?