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Colonel Harris slumped down in his chair and tossed his cover into the corner next to his rifle. Sammy quietly closed the door to Bruce’s office behind him and made his way to the window, opening it wide to release the stuffiness in the room. After he took a seat, the two of them sat in silence for a few moments in the dim light produced by a single candle on Bruce’s desk. It had been a long day, culminating in a funeral service for Jenkins.
Sammy finally broke the silence. “Do you want me to get General Duncan on the Sat phone?”
Bruce sighed. “Not really. I’d like you to get my brother on the line,” he muttered. Bruce constantly worried about his sibling in Colorado and sadly wondered if he’d ever see him again.
“What’s that?” Sammy asked, not really sure what Bruce had said.
“Nothin'. Go ahead and dial it in,” Bruce instructed his XO. Sammy stood up, walked to the window with the large bulky phone and placed the call. Bruce could hear him speaking with General Duncan’s orderly, and a few minutes later Sammy turned and held the phone out: “He’s on the line.”
Bruce sighed once more and stood, walking over to the window taking the phone from Sammy. Before he held the phone up to his ear, Bruce closed his eyes for a few seconds and just stood there relishing the cool night breeze on his face. The chipmunk-like sound of “Hello? Hello?” coming from the bulky phone in his hand brought Bruce back to reality.
Bruce lifted the phone to his ear and answered, “Good evening, General Duncan. This is Colonel Harris.”
“Bruce? What’s going on? You’re not supposed to check in ‘til tomorrow,” General Duncan asked, concerned. Although they had never been very close, General Duncan had been Bruce’s commanding General for almost a decade now and Bruce had always respected him. The question was, could General Duncan be trusted? The top brass in the military were practically politicians by the time they wore the star and Colonel Harris was still disconcerted with how easily General Duncan had allowed General Oates to step in and basically give questionable orders to one of his own regiments.
“We’ve had our first KIA, Sir,” Bruce informed him.
“I’m sorry to hear that Bruce,” General Duncan said sincerely. There was a short pause before the general continued. “You’ve lost men in battle before.... Is there something more that I need to know?” the general asked, a little confused at the need for an emergency call over the loss of one man.
“It was Lieutenant Jenkins,” Bruce said bluntly, glancing over at Sammy who stood next to him, listening in on the call.
“That’s not good...you have no idea.... What the heck happened?” General Duncan asked, alarmed.
“It was an ambush...a freak thing really. He jumped out of the MRAP for one second to look at something and some good ol’ boy took his head off with a rifle from distance.”
“Holy hell! This doesn’t look good, Colonel,” the general said again, obviously worried for his subordinate.
“What doesn’t look good? Why is Lieutenant Jenkins so special? He was a loose cannon who nearly got some of my men killed the other day. One of my boys is probably going to lose his leg over the lieutenant’s ‘Wild West’ attitude. He’s been up my butt since we got here, questioning my every decision and he recently gave me a written order from General Oates, signed by the President no less, ordering me to practically hand over my Regiment at the lieutenant’s discretion!” Sammy grabbed Bruce’s arm and shook his head, trying to calm him down. “What’s going on here, General? What don’t I know?” Bruce winked back at Sammy, letting him know he knew what he was doing.
There was a pause on the other end of the line before General Duncan responded. “Bruce, this isn’t going to look good to General Oates. He contacted me the other day and told me you were being difficult with the lieutenant. You knew going into this that Lieutenant Jenkins had operational control over half the mission. If you had a problem with it, you should have brought it up at the briefing.”
“I still don’t have a problem with it,” Bruce responded defensively. “What I have a problem with is that they sent a Cowboy who was willing to take unnecessary risks with the lives of my men. You don’t understand, Sir. He thought he was invincible and his own overconfidence got him killed.”
“I understand your frustration, Bruce, but it’s out of my hands. I have to follow orders just like you. You have to realize that this looks really bad. Two days after I find out you two are arguing like school girls at recess, you tell me the LT’s been killed. It just looks bad,” General Duncan reiterated. “I’m going to have to brief General Oates on this and I’m going to need more from you than ‘he died in an ambush.’”
“There’s nothing more to tell,” Bruce answered, frustrated. “There is a whole platoon of men who saw it unfold. Like I told you, Lieutenant Jenkins was a Cowboy. He was riding in the same MRAP as me when we got hung up on a tree trunk that was blocking the road. The driver was rocking it back and forth trying to get us free when the LT got impatient and decided to jump out on his own and look under the truck. I ordered at him to stay put as he opened the door, but he ignored me. He died because of his own arrogance. And to be honest, I’m kinda glad he’s gone.” Sammy pulled his sleeve once more and grimaced into his other hand. “I understand it looks bad, General, but it was outside of my control. I also understand that this puts you into a tight spot. I think it would be only fair if I informed General Oates directly about the situation.”
There was another long pause on the phone before General Duncan sighed again. “Normally I would disagree with you, but under the circumstances, I’m sure he’s going to want to talk to you about it anyways. I’ll have my orderly pull his number for you.” There was another pause before the general continued. “Bruce, when you speak to General Oates, you need to keep your feelings to yourself concerning the LT. The situation is bad enough as it is, and I can’t stop him if he decides to pull your Regiment.”
“What the hell, Sir?!” Bruce objected angrily. “I’ve done nothing wrong here! Who is this General Oates? I’ve never heard of him before in our chain of command. How can he order you to do anything? It’s your Brigade, Sir.”
“I know, I know,” General Duncan said, trying to calm him down. “There have been some changes in leadership, and I’ll be honest, I’m not too happy about them either. But you know how the military works, Bruce. Complaints go up the chain of command, not down. I’m not supposed to be talking to you about issues I’m having back here.”
“But who is he?” Bruce asked again. “I’ve never even heard of him.”
“Honestly, I’d never met him before the other day. I’d heard his name before but I’d never met him in person. I don’t even know who he was in charge of beforehand, but I believe it had something to do with working for the Department of Defense or the State Department. Right now he’s basically in charge of the whole East Coast and sits directly on the President’s national security advisory team. Bruce, he’s not someone you want to piss off. I’m telling you this as a friend; when you call him, you put your tail between your legs and keep your cool. Do you hear me?” General Duncan insisted.
“Loud and clear, Sir,” Bruce said, dejected.
“You’re one of my best commanders, Bruce. I don’t want to lose you.” General Duncan softened his tone.
“Thank you, Sir. I’m sorry I’ve gotten you into this mess,” Bruce offered.
“Don’t worry about me, Bruce. Just get that electricity flowing. While I’ve got you on the line, where do we stand?”
“Nothing has changed much since we spoke the other day. The only issue I’m having is that the Army Corps of Engineers can’t give me specific times for their deliveries. We were supposed to get our first delivery around noon tomorrow, but I had to cancel it. We’ve got a rather large army of raiders that has taken over the McKean Federal Prison less than a mile down the road from the airport. Until I get that prison cleaned out, I can’t really get resupplied. In the interim, I’ve sent scouts down to the Dubois Airport. There are other airports closer, but none of them are as secluded. The only problem is that it will be a two hour drive each way. So, until I can get some better intel on the Bradford airport, we’re probably going to have to use the Dubois Airport.”
“Roger that,” the general said understandably. “Just keep pressing forward with your mission. We need that oil refinery operational as soon as possible.”
“I know, Sir. We’re working on it.”
“Okay. It looks like he’s got General Oates’ number ready for you. I’m going to pass the phone over here in a minute, but Bruce, let me stress one more time: don’t get on General Oates’ bad side. Give him whatever answers he wants, okay?”
“I copy that, General,” Bruce said sincerely.
“Alright. Take care of yourself, Bruce. Here’s my orderly....”
Bruce handed the phone to Sammy, who grabbed a pencil off Bruce’s desk and proceeded to copy down General Oates’ number from Duncan’s orderly. Bruce paced the room anxiously, trying to coordinate his thoughts in regards to what he would tell General Oates about the Ranger platoon. Sammy hung up the call and turned back to Bruce. “You ready for me to call General Oates?”
“Yeah, let’s get it over with,” Bruce sighed. He continued his pacing while Sammy reached out to General Oates. Bruce could hear Sammy talking over the line but wasn’t paying attention as he was engrossed in his own thoughts.
“Colonel?” Sammy said, getting Bruce’s attention. Bruce walked over to the window to take the phone only to find that Sammy had already hung up. “General Oates is in a briefing. I told his orderly that it was an urgent call and he said that he would have the general call us back within the hour.”
“Okay,” Bruce groaned irritably. He was mentally prepared to deal with the general that minute, but now he’d have to wait. Bruce and Sammy sat back down and went over their narrative once more, and less than ten minutes later were interrupted by the Sat phone beeping.
Sammy quickly rushed over to the window and answered the call. Bruce watched as Sammy glanced over at him with a concerned look. “Sir.... Sir, please hold one moment, this is Major Samuelsson.... Yes sir, he’s right here.” Sammy held the phone up and whispered, “He’s pissed.”
Bruce rolled his eyes, taking the phone from Sammy and a deep breath before answering, “This is Colonel Harris.”
“What the hell is going on?” General Oates demanded in a loud voice. “I just reached out to Lieutenant Jenkins and his orderly answered his Sat phone telling me that Jenkins is dead!”
“That’s correct, Sir. Lieutenant Jenkins was killed in an ambush, which is why I am reaching out to you directly,” Bruce replied softly.
“Well, isn’t that convenient for you,” the general said sarcastically.
“No, Sir, it isn’t,” Bruce said defensively. “There is nothing convenient about watching a fellow soldier get shot in the head right in front of you, regardless of our disagreements in the past. But at the same time, Lieutenant Jenkins died as a result of his own arrogance.”
“Excuse me?” the general asked angrily.
“General, we were riding together in a convoy when we came across a large log across the road,” Bruce explained. “As we attempted to cross it, the MRAP temporarily got hung up on the log. Lieutenant Jenkins grew impatient with the driver and wanted to get out and visibly check what the MRAP was hung up on. I forbade him to get out of the vehicle, but he disobeyed my direct order and did it anyway. As soon as he exited the vehicle, he was shot in the head. Sir, I don’t like the fact that a fellow soldier was killed, but as I said earlier, he died because he thought he was invincible. He’s been trying to take my men into dangerous areas since we got here, without regard for anyone’s safety.”
“I don’t care about your excuses, Colonel! Your men are soldiers! Soldiers die in combat. That is the risk they took when they signed up. Lieutenant Jenkins was in charge of an important mission, which you seem to be trying to thwart at every....”
“Nothing could be farther from the truth, General,” Bruce interrupted him, causing Sammy to shake his head in frustration and cover his mouth in disbelief at his friend’s tone. “That’s part of the reason why I am calling you directly: to complete Lieutenant Jenkins’ mission. I may have a location where the Rangers are holed up for the night. Just before Lieutenant Jenkins was shot, he was telling me that he had intel on the Rangers’ location. I sent a two-man Scout Sniper team this afternoon to verify Lieutenant Jenkins’ intel and get coordinates for an airstrike. They are due back before noon tomorrow. Aside from speaking to you directly to inform you the details surrounding Lieutenant Jenkins’ death, I was calling to find out the parameters I need to follow to have an airstrike called in to take out these Ranger bastards..., Sir.” Bruce held his breath and clicked the pen in his hand, anxiously waiting for the general’s response and hoping that he was convincing enough.
“So you’ve found them then?” the general asked quietly, changing his tone.
“Not specifically, General. I have no idea where the LT got his intel, as he never kept me in the loop on his side of the mission here. However, he seemed pretty convinced that he knew where they are currently staying. It’s some farmhouse about ten miles east of here near the Bradford Airport. He also mentioned that the airstrike was needed immediately as he feels they may have become aware of our presence here in Warren and are in the process of relocating.”
“Where did he get this information? Who was he talking to?” the general demanded.
“Unfortunately, I can’t help you there, General. I tried to be civil with the LT and work with him, but he refused to reciprocate. Since we’ve been here he’s refused to give me any details about anything. I even asked the men who have been escorting him around and they don’t know anything, either. I never knew where he was or what he was up to. That is why I’ve been reluctant to give him any more of my men, General. Our first day in town, I gave him a platoon to try and convince some people living nearby to leave, and it turned into a bloodbath with innocent women and children being slaughtered. No offense, General, but he was a cowboy of the first order. In all my years of serving this country, I have never met another lieutenant who acted so unprofessionally. I have no idea where he got the intel.”
“Colonel, forget Lieutenant Jenkins for the time being. The only thing that matters is the mission. A squadron of A-10s has just arrived back from Afghanistan. I can have one on standby tomorrow, ready to go at a moment’s notice. All I’ll need from you is to have one of the Combat Controllers we sent with you accompany a team of your men back to the location and call it in as the aircraft approaches. Just call me back with a time and coordinates and we’ll take it from there.”
“That won’t be a problem, General. I’ll give you a call tomorrow as soon as my team returns. Just so I can give the Combat Controllers a heads up, what kind of payload will the aircraft be carrying?”
“The A-10 will probably have two Maverick air-to-surface missiles on board as well as a full load on its 30mm cannon,” General Oates replied.
“That should be more than sufficient,” Bruce acknowledged. Colonel Harris decided to take the discussion in a different direction and away from the Rangers and the circumstances surrounding Jenkins death. “General, I also have a local problem that you may be able to help me with. The Bradford Airport, where we had planned to be resupplied from, is next to the McKean Federal Prison. We’ve discovered a large raiding force of ex-prisoners who have taken over the prison and are using it as a base to raid and loot the surrounding area. We estimate their number to be in the hundreds. Because taking an entrenched force of that size would mean serious casualties for my regiment, I am currently looking at other airports for resupply in the interim. Would it be possible to arrange an airstrike in the future once I get more intel on the prison?”
“Colonel, like I mentioned in the briefing, our country’s gas reserves are nearly depleted. What I can do is discuss this internally and see what other aircraft or payload we can arrange for tomorrow, but we need to make this happen in a single flight. I can’t scramble an aircraft for you every time you hit a bump in the road.”
“I understand that, Sir, but there is no way I can be prepared for that tomorrow. The prison has nearly fifty hostages, mostly local women, who I need to arrange a rescue for first. I don’t have time to plan that operation before tomorrow.”
“What did you say the name of that prison was?” General Oates asked, ignoring what Bruce had just told him.
“It’s the McKean Federal Penitentiary, Sir,” Bruce sighed.
“Okay, Colonel. I have to get back to my meeting. I’ll have an aircraft on standby tomorrow to take out both objectives....”
“But, Sir!” Bruce interjected.
“Colonel Harris!” the general practically yelled. “I don’t have the time or the inclination to discuss this any further with you. It’s unfortunate about those civilians, but we need to get the Bradford Airport secured immediately for your resupply and I’m limited in what I can do for air support. We’re bombing that prison tomorrow. We can’t have you risking your men for those prisoners. Your mission is to get that refinery operational; I’ll take care of the rest. I’ll await your call tomorrow.”
“Yes, Sir,” Bruce answered curtly.
“And Colonel....”
“Sir?” Bruce answered.
“I’ll be sending someone soon to do an inquiry on Lieutenant Jenkins’ death. You are to cooperate fully with his investigation. There better not be any more personality conflicts. Are we understood?” the general asked in a serious tone.
“Absolutely, General. I’ll accommodate his needs as best I can,” Bruce reassured him.
“Alright, Colonel. I’ll speak with you tomorrow.” Bruce didn’t get a chance to respond as General Oates immediately hung up.
“Son of a...,” Sammy exclaimed after he made certain he had hung up the phone. “He’s gonna take out that prison tomorrow.”
Bruce walked over to his chair and kicked it across the room. “I should have never said anything to him about the prison!” Bruce yelled to no one in particular. He ran his hand over his face and the scratchy stubble that was starting to grow. “I just issued their death warrant.”
“You couldn’t have known...,” Sammy began.
“No, I should have known. If General Oates was willing to kill an entire platoon of innocent soldiers, why would he care about a couple dozen of the locals?” Sammy could see Bruce’s face in the candlelight and he was obviously exhausted, mentally and physically.
“Colonel, why don’t you go get some sleep. I can coordinate tomorrow’s details with the men.” Major Samuelsson offered softly.
“That’s not going to happen, Major. Notify both Charlie and Delta Companies to be geared up and ready to roll tomorrow at daybreak. Tell my orderly to locate Captain Spears and Captain Whalen, as well as the scout team we sent to survey the Bradford Airport. I want them in my office in ten minutes. We have a long night of planning ahead of us.”
“Bruce, you can’t be serious. General Oates just told you not to get involved,” Sammy protested.
“Screw him, Sammy. How many times have I told you that I’m done watching innocent women and children get killed? I’m not going to stand by here. Now do what you’ve been told, Major.” Bruce said the last gruffly and instantly regretted it.
“Yes, Sir,” Sammy responded somberly as he stood.
Bruce smiled up at him in the dim candlelight and softened his tone. “Hurry back. I’m going to need your help planning this thing.” Sammy smiled back slightly and nodded his head before turning for the door.