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Colonel Harris and Major Samuelsson arrived back at the Warren State Hospital just as the sun was rising. After weeks of hot weather, the morning was surprisingly crisp with heavy dew covering the grass. As they walked inside, headed for Bruce’s office, his orderly caught sight of them down the hallway and rushed over. “Sir, I was instructed to inform you that the men you sent to Bradford just returned and the engineers are requesting an immediate meeting with you.”
“Okay, Private. Please let them know I am available. Send in the Scout team first,” Bruce instructed the young man.
“Yes, Sir. I believe they went over to the mess hall to get some food. I’ll run over and get them,” the private said eagerly.
“Tell them that they can finish eating first,” Bruce chuckled, “but that I want to see them immediately afterward.”
“Yessir!” the Private responded loudly to Bruce’s instructions before scurrying out the front door they had just entered.
“Is that your new orderly?” Sammy asked with a smile. “Is he always that energetic or just at the crack of dawn?” They both laughed. Bruce had replaced his orderly two days prior. The previous orderly had been with him for months but hated the job and wanted to be transferred out on patrol. He couldn’t stand being cooped up and wasn’t very good at the job anyway. Bruce always had to repeat things and the orderly always had to write everything down so he wouldn’t forget.
Bruce sighed. “Yes, the poor lad is really gung-ho about his job. At least he seems to enjoy it." They walked into his office and Sammy opened the windows to release some of the stale air that had built up the night before.
He turned back to Bruce expectantly and raised his eyebrow. Colonel Harris knew that he wanted to discuss Jenkins, but Bruce wasn't ready to discuss the particulars. "I'm going to have to make a call to HQ and let them know what happened to Lieutenant Jenkins. I think that I can reasonably stall until this evening and state that I was busy coordinating the funeral, but any later than that and it will look suspicious. We need to figure out what we are going to tell them about the Rangers and Mayor Reese. Otherwise, Gen. Oates is surely going to send a replacement to take Jenkins’ place and we can't keep killing off his agents."
Major Samuelsson shook his head in agreement. "Bruce, I think they are going to send someone regardless. We better have a pile of dead Rangers’ bodies when they get here or it's going to be a lot harder to protect them once we are being watched."
"I think I may have a plan for that," Bruce grinned slyly. "What if we were to send some boys back to Tionesta and retrieve the dead bodies they’re getting ready to bury? We would need to find the Rangers ASAP and get their uniforms from them. We could place the uniforms on the dead bodies and then have one of the Combat Controllers call in an airstrike on some empty farmhouse. That should produce some realistic dead bodies, I would think. We could then give the Rangers some of our uniforms and supplies before placing them down in Tionesta as a security force. No one would be the wiser. As long as they stay down there, none of our own troops would suspect anything, and neither would the local townspeople of Tionesta. I'm still at a loss, though, as to what to do with Mayor Reese."
"That sounds like a good plan as far as the Rangers are concerned," Sammy agreed. "The problem with sending Mayor Reese to Tionesta is that he is an outsider. If Gen. Oates sends someone to follow up on things...which I'm sure he will...then it wouldn't be hard for Jenkins’ replacement to find out about a newcomer to town when he starts interviewing townspeople."
"I don't know that we have any other choice, though. Mayor Reese has to leave Kane or he puts the whole town at risk. He mentioned in our previous conversation that he has sources in high places throughout the government and I would really like to keep him around if for no other reason than that. There is no way that we can bring him into Warren, though. It's just too risky."
"Yeah, that's not an option," Major Samuelsson agreed. Suddenly Sammy sat up eagerly in his chair. "Why don't we just give him a uniform too and place him with the Rangers?"
"No, that won't fly," Bruce chuckled. "You’ve never seen him. The man is carrying an extra fifty pounds around his waist. Not even the civilians in Tionesta would believe he's an actual soldier and that would only raise suspicions about the rest of the Rangers."
"Maybe we could pitch him as a radio technician sent to run the communications in town," Major Samuelsson offered. "You said they recently came across some ham radio equipment that they hadn't set up yet. I don't think it would be too farfetched to have a slightly overweight radio operator. We could still put him in uniform."
"I don't know, Sammy," Bruce said. "It's still really risky. If Jenkins’ replacement shows up down there and Mayor Reese doesn't talk the talk, we could all be in trouble. We would be connected since we are the ones who provided the uniform, and it would raise suspicions about everything else we've told them. I think the best bet for us would be to tell the mayor of Tionesta the truth about who Mayor Reese is. Maybe use keeping his identity a secret as a bargaining chip for giving them a detachment of soldiers."
"That's still risky, though, if the ‘the reverend mayor’ runs his mouth around town. Do you think we can trust him?" Sammy asked.
Bruce shook his head, unsure. "He seems like good man, but you never truly know. I would like to believe that the head pastor of one of the main churches in Tionesta would be trustworthy.... No matter what we decide to do, Sammy, we've got to get these chess pieces moving quickly. We have to move the mayor and the Rangers away from Kane ASAP and we need to call in an airstrike on an empty farmhouse before Jenkins’ replacement shows up. There is no time to waste. I'm thinking we should grab the boys and head straight down to Kane right now to talk with Mayor Reese. He told me that he doesn't know where the Rangers are, but I need to press him on it. We need to meet with them and get the ball rolling on this plan today. By rights, we need to get down to Tionesta at some point today as well, meet with the other mayor and get those bodies."
"That's fine, Bruce, but don't forget about our appointment at noon today. That's only five hours from now. We need a body for the funeral tonight," Sammy mentioned, trying to verify that his friend was still planning to execute Lieutenant Jenkins.
"How could I possibly forget about our appointment at noon today?" Bruce snapped crossly. "I'm going to be there." Bruce knew what his friend was doing. He took a deep breath and continued, more composed but still irritated. "Go get Shifty and his men ready to leave. I have to meet with the Scout Sniper team and the engineers briefly and then we can go."
"Yes, Sir," Sammy responded respectfully.
Major Samuelsson stood and headed for the door, but Bruce stopped him. "Oh...and Sammy? I also need you to swing by the armory and see if you can get a half-dozen 5.56 blanks...discretely," Bruce said softly.
"I understand, Bruce. I'll see what I can dig up," Sammy promised, fully understanding the colonel's directive.
Bruce sat quietly, pondering his recent decisions and trying to decide upon the best path forward when a knock came at the door. His orderly stepped in and announced that the two Scout Snipers had arrived.
"Thank you, Private. Please show them in and round up the engineers so they are ready for a meeting in fifteen minutes. I've got a busy morning ahead of me."
"Yes, Sir," the young man saluted enthusiastically before signaling to the two men outside to enter. The men entered and saluted. Bruce motioned for them to have a seat.
"So what did you find?" Bruce asked, getting straight to the point.
Sgt. Roberto Garza was the highest ranking and began, "Well, Sir, it isn't a good scenario all the way around but the trip out there was uneventful. We parked our Humvee behind a farmhouse a few miles down the road and travelled the rest of the way on foot. We first located and surveyed the airport itself. We spent about four hours watching it from a distance and four hours slowly making our way through the terminal area. It has been completely deserted and looted. Even so, there seems to be quite a bit of activity in the area. While we were there, we heard three different convoys of vehicles pass by on the main road but because of some trees obstructing our view of the road, we really weren't able to get a good look at any of them.
“That evening we left the airport and travelled by foot through the woods to get within binocular range of the McKean Federal Penitentiary. There was too much vehicle traffic on the roads in the immediate area to use them for travelling, even by foot. We found a good location around 3 am yesterday and spent about twelve hours surveying the prison. It was difficult to get an accurate headcount as various groups came and went all morning and afternoon. We made some drawings of the facility here." The sergeant stood up and reached in his cargo pocket, pulling out a tablet of paper. He ripped a few sheets out and handed them over to Bruce before continuing. "They seem to be fairly well armed. Most of the people coming and going had some sort of weapon on them with nearly half carrying some sort of battle rifle. All six watchtowers were consistently manned with two guards each and there was a large sandbag bunker just inside the front gate that looked to house a light machine gun mounted in the window, but it was hard to tell for certain what type due to our distance. We also estimate around fifty women of varying ages are being held in the east yard. Guards will retrieve a few women at a time and then return others. It looks pretty bad, Sir," the sergeant said uncomfortably.
"Okay, so how many men do you estimate are living there?" Bruce asked, concerned.
Sergeant Garza looked over at his spotter for help but the other soldier just shrugged. "We can't even provide you with a rough estimate, Sir. It would be a guess at best. We have no idea what's going on inside. Even if we were to stay there for a week, unless they ran a schoolhouse fire drill, it would be hard to tell how many reside inside the prison. All we know is how many patrols came and went and how many men were in each group." He ripped a few more pages out of his notebook and handed them over to Bruce. "Here is the activity log, Sir. I tried to be as descriptive as possible about each group entering and leaving. I have provided head counts, weapon descriptions, vehicle types, as well as anything else that might have stood out."
Bruce scanned through the various pages of maps and notes before responding. "There is definitely a lot of activity there. They must have a lot of mouths to keep fed."
"That was our conclusion as well," the sergeant agreed.
"Let's get back to the airport. Would it be reasonable to land a cargo plane there, unload it and depart without being discovered?"
"It’s highly unlikely, Sir," Sergeant Garza shook his head. "While we could direct air traffic to land from the north, I would imagine that you could still hear a plane landing from the prison."
"The question is, how long would it take them to mobilize? And would they even attack once they realized what they were up against?" Bruce pondered out loud. After a minute in deep thought, he turned his attention back to the scouts. "If we were to attack the prison directly, how precise of an airstrike could you guys arrange that would minimize civilian casualties?
This time the other soldier spoke up to answer Bruce’s question. "That depends on the delivery aircraft and the payload they are carrying, Sir. We would need more details. Regardless though, it would still be very risky for those women on the ground. Any small ordinance would only cause superficial damage to the prison. But if you used something larger, you risk injury and casualties in the yard."
"Understood," Bruce acknowledged thoughtfully. "Anything else?"
"Nothing of consequence, Sir. Everything should be in our notes there."
Bruce smiled half-heartedly at the two men. "This is good work, men. Thank you for providing me with this detailed information. I'll get back to you with more specifics if headquarters feels an airstrike is warranted."
"You’re welcome, Sir!" the men said in unison before leaving Bruce sitting in silence once more. He clicked his pen repeatedly as he mulled over the notes and maps. The presence of the prisoners really complicated his options. It would be easiest to just call in an airstrike and level the place. But even assuming they could storm the fence line and rescue the women in the yard beforehand, there would still be civilian casualties inside. How many was the question. Attacking the entire compound with his men would certainly lead to a significant amount of casualties to his own men and was something he absolutely wanted to avoid. The pen-clicking stopped suddenly. ‘Maybe the Rangers could provide some insight,’ he thought with a glimmer of hope. Mayor Reese had told Bruce that the Rangers had been surveying the group for months.
Another knock at the door meant that Colonel Harris's very efficient orderly was showing the ranking officer from the Army Corps of Engineers inside. It was a brief meeting but a stressful one after the intel Bruce had just been given. The man informed him that their first shipment of vital parts and supplies for the grid would arrive in only two days. Bruce explained to him the situation on the ground near the airport and insisted that he be given an exact ETA on the flight’s arrival, down to the minute. The man didn't seem too sure that he would be given that specific of a time, but Bruce insisted. Bruce even offered to speak directly with the man's superiors at HQ. The officer was uncomfortable with that and said he would explain the situation on the ground and try to get an exact timeframe first before getting Colonel Harris involved. Bruce shrugged his shoulders and stood to signal that the meeting was over. "Just tell them that it would be a shame to have the plane land at an unsecure airport or in the midst of a fire fight." The man smiled awkwardly, uncomfortable at Bruce's advice, and just nodded as he turned and walked out the door.
Shifty was waiting in the hallway when the man left and just showed himself in, not waiting for the orderly who stumbled in at Captain Whalen's heels. Bruce just waived the orderly away. "Are we ready to go, Captain?" Bruce asked.
"The men are ready, Sir," Shifty answered as he approached Bruce's desk. He reached into his cargo pocket and fished around, pulling out a handful of orange-tipped rifle rounds and placed them on Bruce’s desk. He looked Colonel Harris directly in the eye before speaking. "Sammy asked me to give you these." Apparently, it was obvious what they were to be used for.
Bruce quickly grabbed them off his desk and handed them back as if they were white hot embers, forcing Shifty to scramble so he wouldn't drop them. "You hang on to them for now," Bruce insisted.
"No problem, Colonel," Shifty answered before dropping them back into his cargo pocket.
Bruce donned his gear once more and followed Shifty out to the awaiting trucks.
"Where to, Sir?" Shifty inquired as they approached the trucks. "Major Samuelsson wasn't sure if we were heading to Kane or Tionesta first."
"We are heading to Kane," Bruce said as he climbed into the passenger seat of the middle MRAP.