| |
Bruce slowly opened his heavy eyelids to the soft knock at his door. “It’s 0430 sir,” his orderly’s voice came from the other side of the door. A moment later the door opened a crack, allowing a spear of orange light from the soldier’s flashlight to invade the room. “Sir?”
“Yes, yes, I’m awake!” Bruce said gruffly. The light disappeared down the hall as Colonel Harris stretched his sore muscles on the noisy fabric of the military-issue cot he slept on. They had tried to bring him an actual bed from somewhere in town, but Bruce refused. If his men were sleeping on cots, then he would sleep on a cot as well. He slung his legs over the edge, knocking his boots over in the complete darkness of the room. His tired fingers felt their way over the cardboard box that acted as a nightstand next to his cot until they felt the base of the candlestick holder. Fumbling until he found his lighter, he gave it a couple flicks and his room was embraced with the soft flickering glow of the candle. He actually appreciated the soft light of a candle when waking up now. If the power ever did come back on, he would probably stick with a candle by his bed instead of the sudden jolting light from a lamp.
Bruce was exhausted both mentally and physically. He hadn’t gone to bed until well past midnight, and this would be almost a week now that he’d gotten very little sleep each night. It was weird to him how this current situation and assignment was more stressful on his body than when he was in the hot desert fighting terrorists. He quickly finished changing and made his way to his office. Captain Spears and Captain Whalen had been sitting on his window sill speaking softly. They both jumped up as he entered and he tiredly waved them back to their conversation. Sitting down in his chair, Bruce stretched full out before placing his feet up on his desk and leaning back. A moment later his orderly came in and placed a cup of hot black coffee on the desk in front of him. Colonel Harris suddenly felt bad being the only one with coffee, as he hadn’t figured on the other men beating him into his office this morning.
The other two didn’t say anything, but Bruce could tell the way their conversation abruptly ended for a moment and their heads snapped up at the smell that they were jealous. Coffee had mostly become a thing of the past unless you were to find an MRE or get lucky in someone’s pantry. Bruce had been saving a handful of instant MRE coffee mixes for big mornings such as this. “Private,” Bruce said, stopping his orderly in mid-stride as he turned to leave. “Please make three more cups for the men.”
“No, Sir!” the other two insisted in unison. “Sir, we’re okay,” Captain Whalen said, understanding how precious a hidden supply of coffee could be.
Bruce’s orderly leaned over and whispered, “Sir, you only have five packages left.”
“That’s alright, Private. Just bring the three cups. We’ve got a long day ahead of us...,” Bruce said with a wave towards the door. Bruce’s orderly closed the door behind him as Bruce took his first long sip from the hot mug. “So have you two thought of anything else to add from what we discussed last night?”
“Not really, Sir,” Captain Spears answered. “I was pondering bringing one of the bulldozers with us. I’m thinking it would be less likely to get hung up on the perimeter fencing than one of the MRAPs.”
“Yeah, I thought of that also, but I think it’ll be too slow,” Bruce nodded. “We’re gonna need to haul butt out of there once we free the prisoners, and I don’t want the dozer getting left behind. Also, the driver would be mostly unprotected from enemy fire. I think an MRAP should do the trick. If we get there and the CE guys think different once they get a look at the fence, then we follow plan B and blow a hole in it with C4.” The other two nodded in response as the door quietly opened and Sammy stepped inside with a yawn.
It didn’t take long for the rest of the coffee to arrive, and the four of them sat around chatting casually until their coffee was gone and then it was all business. At exactly 0500, the long convoy of trucks was speeding through the checkpoint at the edge of Warren. Not long after, the convoy split up with the entire Charlie and Delta companies turning down Route 59 towards Bradford. Their orders were to stop three miles short of the prison and rally at a location off the main highway, allowing all five sniper teams time to get positioned around the prison. Colonel Harris and a platoon from Bravo Company continued straight, speeding down Hwy 6 towards Kane.
It took less than an hour to arrive in Kane as Colonel Harris elected to take unarmored Humvees with all the travelling they would need to do that morning. Bruce ordered most of the Humvees to hang back a short distance and rolled forward with only two of the trucks. As they approached the school bus roadblock, the Humvee’s lights fell on Mayor Reese casually leaning against the front of the bus with a couple other men next to him. They didn’t act too concerned as the Humvees were expected. Bruce jumped down with Corporal Lopez and Sergeant Timms flanking him as he hurried forward.
The sun was just coming up over the horizon and the sky was bright pink behind the bus as they approached, making it hard to see the men's expressions. Bruce quickly shook hands with the mayor and without even so much as a greeting asked, “So?”
“Good morning to you, too, Colonel,” Mayor Reese chuckled.
“I’m sorry, Mayor Reese,” Bruce said sincerely before quickly continuing. “I’ve got a very hectic day ahead of me and I’m very short on time. Did you get a chance to speak...”
Mayor Reese coughed loudly, interrupting the colonel. “Excuse me...sorry about that," he said as he recovered. "Yes, I did get a chance to talk to our friends last night.” He faintly glanced over his shoulder toward the other men next to the school bus. “Why don’t we step inside the tree line here and speak in private.”
“Lead the way,” Bruce responded as the stepped off the pavement and they wound their way into the woods. They went farther than usual this time and Bruce was starting to wonder what was going on. Suddenly, two men stepped out of some brush ten yards in front of them, startling Bruce in the dim light.
With lightning speed, Corporal Lopez pulled Colonel Harris behind himself while Sergeant Timms took a step forward, rifle raised. “Freeze!” he called out sternly, forcing the other two men to quickly move back behind the trees they had stepped out from. "Keep your hands where I can see them!" Corporal Lopez yelled.
“Relax, Sergeant!” Bruce said, gently reaching out for the soldier's tense arm. “We are here to meet some people.” Sergeant Timms slowly lowered his rifle but was still on alert as Bruce moved forward with his palms out.
“Come on out, men. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Mayor Reese didn’t tell me we would be meeting you out here,” he said the last with an angry sidelong glance at the mayor.
“Yeah, it’s my fault, guys. I didn’t think you were so close and I was just about to tell him...,” Mayor Reese spoke up. The two men both stepped out once more, this time a little slower and more cautiously.
Bruce walked up to the closest one with his hand outstretched. “Colonel Harris. It’s a pleasure to meet you finally,” he introduced himself.
The tall soldier shook his hand cautiously in response, “Lt. Antonio Aguilar, Sir.” He was an imposing figure, well over six feet tall. He wore Multicam ACU’s with a Shemagh scarf around his neck, covered by a long beard. His hat was pulled down tight and he wore glasses which prevented Bruce from reading the man’s expressions. He looked the poster boy for a Special Operations soldier.
“Wow, I don’t even know where to start,” Bruce smiled, still taken off guard by the two men’s sudden appearance.
“Reese tells me that Jenkins is dead. That true?” Lieutenant Aguilar asked bluntly.
“Yes, that’s true,” Bruce answered with a nod of his head. “They are sending his replacement, though, on the next flight. You wouldn’t be able to tell me what I’m up against here, would you? I’ve been receiving orders outside of my normal chain of command recently...from a Gen. Oates. Do you have any idea who he is?” Bruce figured he might as well not beat around the bush and come out with it.
The lieutenant just shook his head. “Not sure who that is, Colonel. I’ve never heard the name before.” Bruce sighed with disappointment as he was really hoping to get a few questions answered. “Mayor Reese here has filled me in a little on what’s been going on. I believe a solid thank you is in order.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Lieutenant. I’m going to need your help to cover some tracks. I assume that Mayor Reese explained to you my plan to get you and your men out of here?”
Lieutenant Aguilar kicked at a mossy stump next to his boot before looking up. “He has....”
Bruce waited a minute for him to continue before asking, concerned, “...And?”
“While we truly appreciate all you’ve done for us, Sir, I’ve discussed it with my men and we have decided to decline your offer.”
“What?” Bruce flinched, totally confused. He was absolutely shocked and hadn’t expected that answer. He turned to Mayor Reese who just shrugged his shoulders and looked away. “Do you realize the steps I have taken and the lies I have told to get us here? If Jenkins’ replacement shows up and I don’t have any dead bodies to present to him, I’m in big trouble!”
“Sir, you are assuming that whoever gets sent as a replacement will be dumb enough to fall for your bait and switch. I’m not saying that it won’t work, all I’m saying is that we don’t want to be part of it,” Lieutenant Aguilar said softly.
Bruce shook his head in disbelief. “Why?” he asked in serious tone...one that demanded an answer.
Lieutenant Aguilar sighed, “Sir, we don’t feel comfortable turning over our uniforms. These uniforms represent who we are. Respectfully...we don’t want to hide or be a fake unit, sir. We have done nothing wrong, and my men look at this as giving up and surrendering our cause and our fight. Let whoever they send come after us and we’ll be glad to meet them face-to-face and go down wearing our uniforms along with our honor.”
“You don’t understand!” Bruce said angrily. “It’s my men you are going to be fighting! Jenkins had operational control over tracking you down and I have orders signed by the President himself that I am supposed to give Jenkins, or his replacement, any resource they request. You are asking me to send my own men after you when I know you’re innocent. And unless you plan to fall on your own swords, you are also asking me to send some of my men to their death over this. I won’t do it!” Bruce practically yelled the last.
“I wouldn’t want you to do that either, Sir,” the lieutenant responded respectfully, keeping his cool. "For that reason alone, we’ve also decided to leave town tonight with Mayor Reese. We plan to escort him to Tionesta and from there we are going to move out of state. You and your men will never have to see us again. We assume that should also remove Jenkins’ replacement from hanging around your Regiment.”
“You know you’re not the only target. Jenkins’ replacement isn’t going to just leave. He is going to stick around until he finds Captain America here,” Bruce observed, pointing at Mayor Reese.
"Ahhh..., that's Freedom America, Colonel...," Mayor Reese corrected him meekly, but he instantly fell silent when Bruce glared over at him.
“Nahhh,” the lieutenant disagreed, taking Bruce off guard yet again. “We’ve got a contingency plan.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out two sealed letters: one addressed to Lieutenant Jenkins and one addressed to Colonel Harris. “This should get Jenkins’ replacement’s blood boiling. You just let him know you found that letter taped to the front door of the farmhouse we’d been staying at. The coordinates are on the back of the letter I wrote to you. You can give the coordinates to Jenkins’ replacement in case he wants to go have a look; we left enough soft evidence behind to convince him we’d been staying there a while. On top of that, Mayor Reese is going to make a few recordings tonight that we are going to take with us and play along our travels as we come across other ham radios. It should be enough to convince whoever is chasing us that we are nowhere near here. The letter I wrote to you is a full explanation of the events leading up to today. In case you ever get backed into a corner with HQ, my hope is that it could keep you out of the brig.”
Bruce stood rubbing his chin for a few minutes, running the scenarios through his head and trying to figure out if there was anything in this plan that could come back to haunt him. He couldn’t think of anything negative and he realized that it was probably a better plan than his own. There were less moving parts and less chances of getting caught fabricating the farmhouse scene with dead bodies. Bruce finally relented. “Well, Lieutenant, it looks like you’ve come up with a better plan than I had put together.” The LT smiled and nodded uncomfortably. “And you get to keep your uniforms,” Bruce smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, lightening the mood.
“Yes, Sir. We do,” Lieutenant Aguilar smiled back.
Bruce grew serious once more. “I need to give you a heads up for your travels though. There is a C130 gunship and an A10 Warthog out of Andrews AFB that have your names on them,” he warned. “If Jenkins’ replacement ever does catch up to you, I wouldn’t stand and fight for very long."
“Thank you for the information. That’s good advice, Sir, but I don’t expect they’ll be catching up to us anytime soon. We plan to stay moving for the most part.”
"Any idea on where you’re heading?" Bruce asked curiously.
"Yeah, we've got a couple destinations in mind," answered the LT. "However, I feel it's best that we not discuss them."
“That’s understandable,” Colonel Harris agreed.
"We'll check in with Mayor Reese here from time to time, so if you ever need to reach us, just let him know."
Bruce nodded his head in agreement of the fact that the Rangers wanted to stay under the radar. “With that said, Mayor Reese told me you’ve been tracking this army of looters out of the federal prison up near Bradford. I have two entire Companies headed there today to rescue those women they have in captivity before HQ bombs the place back to the Stone Age. If you have any intel on that location you can help me out with, it’d sure be appreciated.”
“That I can help you with!” Lieutenant Aguilar smiled menacingly. “Bradley!” The LT waved the other soldier over. “Bring me the map!”