~ * ~ * ~ * ~
I still hadn’t left the village when the chief’s call came in. “What can I do for you Chief?” I asked.
“I guess the fort’s commander never heard of the expression, don’t shoot the messenger. He’s lying in front of the fort deader than a door nail.”
“It looks like he still needs a little softening up,” I said. “I’ll send in Brady to take out the guard towers. That shouldn’t put Philippe Quentes at risk.”
I had Brady staying onboard the Sea Eagle. I didn’t want to take a chance of losing our helicopter by keeping it where the enemy had a chance of destroying it.
I got Brady on the radio and told him what I wanted him to do at the fortress.
“If Patch is around I’d like to take him on this run LT. This would be a good chance to put him at the controls during an attack.”
“I’ll find him for you and have him here at the village by the church when you get here,” I promised my pilot.
“I’m on my way. I’ll be at your location in a half hour,” Brady said, ending the radio transmission.
Patch had been on guard duty most of the night to make sure the perimeter around the fortress stayed alert. I found him just getting up and told him that Brady was stopping by for him.
Patch gave me his patented grin. “It’s nice of Brady to share the fun with me,” Patch said gratefully.
Brady landed the helicopter in the street in front of the church and shut down the engines. “Patch, do you feel like blowing something up today?” Brady asked exiting the helicopter.
“I was just telling LT that it was nice of you to share your fun with me Brady,” Patch said with a look of anticipation.
“Let’s go get her done Patch,” Brady said slapping his friend on the back. “You’re the pilot this morning, climb in.”
Patch settled into the right hand pilot’s seat and buckled himself in. The two put on their flight helmets and Patch started to throw the switches starting the engine. Pulling back on the cyclic the bird rose up off of the ground and did a slow turn as Patch aimed the helicopter towards the fortress.
“Are we going to use the Gatling gun or rockets to do this?” Patch asked Brady.
“With all of their defenses down it’s a good chance for you to play around a little bit. We’ll try them both out so you have a chance to get comfortable with them.”
They cleared the forest and circled around the fortress watching the men inside it scurry around hunting cover. Patch could see the readouts for the weapons displayed inside his flight helmet.
“I’m going to hit the north tower with the Gatling gun,” Patch said as he threw the switch arming the weapon. 4,000 rounds a minute flew from the rotating barrels of the weapon, shredding the tower.
“Go back around again Patch and aim at the supports for the tower this time. See if you can get the tower to topple.”
“Okay, I’m coming around for another run at it,” Patch said, pulling the joy stick over. The helicopter banked sharply as the bird fought to perform the maneuver it was being asked to do. A Bell Ranger helicopter isn’t designed for combat use. Because of its design it couldn’t perform some of the stunts that real combat helicopters could do. But it was surprisingly agile and quick.
Patch laced the supports under the tower with a rain of bullets. It took only a five second burst to bring the tower crashing down.
“Go to rockets now and take down the west tower,” Brady instructed his pupil.
Patch threw the switch on the joy stick to disarm the Gatling gun and threw on the switch arming the rocket pod. “Where do you want me to aim?”
“Let’s have a little fun. On the first one, blow the top right off of it. On the second one, hit the base of it to topple it over.”
“I’ll come across the top of the fortress when I go for the targets. That way if I miss I’ll only hit the wall around the fortress. LT would have our asses if we accidentally killed Philippe.”
“Good plan Patch it would have been a wasted month in Cuba if we killed Philippe now.”
“I wouldn’t call it totally wasted.” Patch said darkly thinking back to the attack on the village and his plans for El Diablo.
Small arms fire was coming up from inside the fortress. Patch had the bird flying at a speed that made it difficult to hit. “Fire one,” Patch said as he flashed over the top of the fortress. A ball of fire climbed into the sky as the tower disintegrated.
“Yahoo, nice shot Patch, you just blew that tower all to hell,” Brady crowed, looking down at the pile of match sticks that was left of the tower.
“I’m coming around for the last one,” Patch said as he banked the helicopter once again lining up the last tower. With a whoosh the rocket left the pod and the smoking contrail cut a path to its target. Once again a fireball climbed into the sky. The two watched as the third and last tower was destroyed.
“Patch, why you’re a natural, you went three for three on those towers,” Brady said slapping Patch’s shoulder.
“Thanks Brady, I got an idea. Call LT and see if we can’t put a rocket into their gate. It might make them a tad uncomfortable if their front door is missing.”
Brady gave Patch a slow grin. “Why Patch you do come up with a good idea once in a while,” Brady said as he called LT on his satellite phone.
“The towers have all been destroyed like you wanted. Patch is having so much fun he doesn’t want to stop. He wants to know if it’s okay to knock on their door. We think if we take out their front gate they may get a little uneasy about getting visitors.”
“Go ahead and do it,” I said. “I can see where they might get uncomfortable without a front gate.”
“Bring her around Patch, LT said to go ahead and knock on their door,” Brady said, grinning in anticipation.
“Roger that, coming around again,” Patch said as he lined up on the gate for his final shot. With a loud whoosh the rocket left the pod and exploded in the center of the closed gate blowing them clean off of their hinges.
“That’s a good days work, let’s head on home,” Brady said as he leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. “Some days I just love my job Patch,” Brady declared with a grin.
“Brady, look at the men surrounding the clearing. I think they liked the show too.” Looking down the two pilots could see hundreds of men jumping up and down with their rifles held over their heads. Patch waggled the bird back and forth as he passed over to let them know they had noticed them.
The rest of the day was uneventful but a change was coming.