Book 3 The Show Down C42-43

(C-42)

The Sausage Machine

‘To make sausage you have to take meat and grind it up.

Lots of meat.’

‘The sight of wounded soldiers lay dying,

Tears of wives and children crying,

for that distant battle field of fighting,

call out the Militiamen.’

The Militia Men

‘There comes a time when the question is not whether you live or die,

but the size of the honor guard you send to hell! ‘
Robert Heinlein

Sun Tzu said: Whoever is first in the field and

awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight;

whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle

will arrive exhausted.

Lying quietly in the center command trench with his head level with the parapet, as he is scanning the bush to the west side in the quickly waning twilight Dan barely hears, “Sir do you think the Terrs will hit us again, just like yesterday?”

He whispers back, “Yes Corporal Tavinga I do.” Thinking for a quick second Dan then said, “well if not tonight then tomorrow night for sure. They have given us a rev the last three evenings just after sunset; they know we only have the one platoon at this out post. I think the second platoon will surprise them and catch the Terrs from behind just after they fire at us and then try to slip away in the dark.”

With a laugh the Corporal replied, “We chased them for three days, then we dug in and they came to us three nights. Now we go after them again, it’s like a deadly game of tag.”

Dan gave a weary smile as he started to say, “It’s not tag..” The radio static has stopped and instead of a voice the squelch is broken three times as someone depressed his talk button. Then they hear the static again for five or six seconds and then the squelch noise is broken again by the three clicks.

Dan turns and whispers to his runner, “Alert the third squad on the east side, the CT’s are on that side not the west…”

Suddenly all hell breaks loose when several machine-guns and RPG’s begin firing at them from the east. Tracers are flying overhead in the three to four feet area above the ground; good thing all of the troops are dung in and under cover. His four-man stick of soldiers that had tried to warn them then calls on the radio, “We have at least forty enemy all around us, do we open fire?”

“No, stay quiet hug the ground,” Dan radios them back. Then he calls to the second platoon to the west. “Rover one, this is Yankee base, circle the camp to the north, use the donga 100 meters out, try to get on the Terrs right flank, over.”

“Roger, moving now we will be in possy in three mikes, over”

“Shit,” Dan mutters, the Terrs will gap it in another minuet, or my men out there will be discovered. Yelling at his HQ section, “Get ready we have to attack, pass the word to three squad.” Taking a deep breath Dan stands up and yells, “Eat shit and die you bloody CT buggers,” as he opens fire. His bush hat is knocked from his head but he doesn’t stop advancing, as there isn’t any time, to stop and hunt for it in the dark. His troops advance with him everyone shooting at the flashes from the terrorists AK’s as he leads the twenty men across the sixty meters of open ground.

They aren’t half way there when the CT commander gives two long blasts on his whistle and shoots off a white flare, and the shooting from the terrorists stop.

Without any muzzle blast to shot at Dan orders his men to cease fire, and they can hear the Terrs running away. Dan’s one stick that had tried to warn them then opens fire and that quickly stops as their targets disappear into the dark thick bush.

Dan using the radio tells his second platoon, “Rover one stop in place, I say again stop in place. Do not open fire we have troops where the Terrs were, over.”

“Copied Yankee base, over.”

Dan tells the two squads with him, “No one is to fire we have a stick just ahead of us,” then he calls out to his men. “Corporal Davies, are you all OK?”

The answer came back, “Yes sir, we shot two of the Terrs, both are dead, what do we do now?”

“Collect the weapons and all of their equipment, search the pockets for info and…”

Dan thinks he hears his wife mutter, “The alarm went off ten minuets ago, are you…” Setting up on the cot Dan pushes the poncho liner towards his knees as he thinks another day of picking up trash, oh boy. Then comes the realization that he’s been dreaming about battles long ago as he hears the quiet chatter of his radiomen in the other half of his command tent. Looking at his watch 0445 hours, then smiling he thinks, ‘old habits are hard to break. If I was at home I’d be getting up now and heading into the kitchen to brew a pot of tea.’ but his mind won’t let him forget his dream and he hears a whispered radio message from long ago, “Yankee base, Rover One, we hear a lot of movement to the north and east, over.” Corporal Davies calls and says, “We hear them coming too, over.”

Dan recalls from memory the commands he gave so long ago, “All call signs fall back to base now, fall back now,” he then ordered the two squads with him, “every man lay down facing east. We’ll wait for the others to pass through us then we fall back.” Then he alerts the base, “Ready the mortars we are going to need them.”

Shacking his head Dan sets up, swing his legs over the edge of the cot then slips his boots on and ties the laces. Standing up he takes a step and pushing back the tent flap that separates the two sides, he steps into the operations side and gets a cup of coffee. When Major Hammond the J-2 Intel officer spies him and asks, “Your up early sir. I was going to wake you in a few minuets, something is going on up north..”

“What gives,” Dan asks as he walks over and peeks through the canvas door flap, it’s still dark out side. Looking at his watch again he sees that it will be over an hour before the morning twilight starts.

“The First Kansas reports that some of their remote listen post have gone off the air, a few others are being jammed with white noise, and that quiet a few of them seem to have a two minuet repeating cricket chirping the same tune over and over again.”

Dan doesn’t like the sounds of this as he asked, “What’s Red doing?”

“He’s gone to fifty percent alert, he’s holding off on full alert as he’s men are pretty well beat up and tired.”

Dan's six sense kicks in and with out any hesitation orders, “Call him now, have him make it a one hundred percent alert. Tell them stand too now. If I’m wrong he can go back to fifty percent after dawn. Does he have any eyes up overhead, or do we need to help him there?”

One of the radiomen sends the warning as the major answered, “He should have two UAV’s up now, but the last satellite thermal image showed the Chinese pulling back, except for a few outpost.”

“Satellites can be fooled, we’ve proved that.” Looking at the map with the artillery fire orders on it Dan orders, “Have the Corp MLRS use just one launcher and place an extended pattern on Fox 11, south to north, please. Also have some regular artillery pop a few flares in the same area.”

Dan listens as the Artillery radioman relays his orders over the field phone, he is quickly answered and tells the CO, “Sir, they will have them shooting in two minuets. Their commander wants to know if you want the rest of the battery to aim that way just in case?”

“Tell him that’s a good idea, also alert the 1st Kansas that we are placing a salvo two K’s to their front, just to see if we can stir up and surprise any Chinese that might be sneaking in. To get the jump on them, that’s if they are planning on making a surprise attack.”

The Division alerts one of the Kansas CAV’s over head to monitor the fire mission sector. The controller switches from wide angle thermal, where it wasn’t picking up any sign of advancing troops, to a more focused image. The operator does see several hot spots of smoldering trees and underbrush that were blasted and set on fire earlier from artillery fire, but he doesn’t see any man size images, instead sees thousands of faint heat blotches on the ground. The ones closer to the Chinese lines are fading into the background but the ones about a kilometer out front of the Militia’s lines are hot and new ones are being laid down, as they get closer.

Alerting his duty Sergeant he points out the heat smudges and say’s, “I could be wrong but these look a lot like the heat signature left from the boot prints of at least two Infantry Brigade's of approaching infantry?”

“Your not wrong,” the Sgt replied as he picks up the field phone to Division HQ, he tells the G-2 of the approaching danger. “Sir, I think they have some Mylar blankest or some such thing covering their bodies and hiding their main body heat core, but they forgot about their feet.”

“What are the coordinates?”

“Most of them are in Echo and Fox nine and ten, with a few stragglers still in eleven.”

“Sgt I’ll pass the word to extend the MLRS fire to where you see the most sign. Artillery from Division will be hitting there in a couple of minuets too. Let me know what they do.”

“Wilco, sir,” as he hangs up the phone he tells the CAV operator to watch his screen, and report what happens next.

(C-43)

Any plan is better then no plan, 10:45 Eastern Time Zone

Taking the offered seat Bruno told Tony, “We haven’t a lot of time where’s that FBI dick you said would be here?”

Tony chuckled, “You mean Major Hawk. Go ahead what’s your plan?”

Bruno looked over at the cleaning man; printed on his shirt in large blue letters above his right pocket was the name Billy. Looking back at Tony, “I know you’re in the cleaning business Tony but I don’t know Billy here, I’ll wait for the FBI I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”

Billy laughed and took off his ball cap and then pulled off the medium length dark brown wig, Bruno then recognized him as the Marine Major he had meet the other day, he was to be in charge of the entry team.

“That’s a good disguise Red, I thought you were Billy,” Bruno said using the mans first name.

“That’s why I was chosen, I’m close enough to the same height and build of Billy, with the same skin tone. Add the wig and a two days beard grown, even people who know Billy are fooled,” he retorted with a chuckle. “When the cleaning crew takes their lunch break I’ll head to the coffee shop where I’ll switch out with the real Billy, and then go and brief my people.”

“OK but first what’s going on out west, the Prince’s man said it was very hot.”

Red knew that Bruno would be told by the Prince later that the US Army was making a major move around Sacramento and it would be on the news tonight so he answered, “Our forces are making a big push just north and east of the SF Bay, and trying to draw out the Chinese and Jihad Armies. I think that's why he wants to see you, to move up the hit! What’s’ your plan?”

Bruno nodded his head as he handed across a couple of pages of hand written notes and two pages of diagrams with the layout of the room and the rest of the building at East 193rd street.

Major Hawk took the papers and quickly read them and looked over the floor plans. As he said, “Two trash trucks with crews of three men each, that’s six men and one of them has a break down blocking one lane of the west side street. Then a service truck arrives with another two men to repair the broken truck. Then the other truck pulls up behind to see what’s going on. That’s just eight men for making the entry through the dock side door, I’m still going to need at least another six more men, in close to secure the entry teams six.”

Looking back at the notes he continues, “Your having four of my men to jump their electronics van two blocks away, that’s good. I’ll have another twelve men to help secure the perimeter, plus we have to have a Paramedic team or two, and then the extraction swat team has to be close by, just in case things go bad and this develops into a full flown firefight. Any more clever ideas?”

Bruno listening to the FBI SWAT team commander’s voice knows that he’s not from New York, and definitely not familiar with the city’s garbage workers or their work habits. With a smile on his face he says, “Yeah, I got some more ideas. But don’t use a local Swat Team, they might be compromised, if not the men in the team then in the higher ups of the department. Have another platoon of your Marines close by to move in right after the action starts.”

“As I pointed out today is trash pickup day for that area, nominally the crews get in there around 3 to 3:30 in the afternoon, so you’re men will be a bit late today. That way you can have more men on other trucks all of them working this area, they have to be seen working, dumping the cans otherwise his people that are on lookout will catch on quick. Some of your other men can be delivery drivers from a dry cleaners or florists, and there are always a couple of street teams doing hoops, pick up games at the park, others can be dressed as parks department crew men and women repairing the benches,” he paused as the Major was busy taking notes.

When the Major looks up Bruno continues, “As I have noted in my plans, for the initial distraction, you will need to have a lady get there half an hour before I do, to visit one of the elderly across the street at the home. She can be watching and waiting to call 911 on her cell phone just after I arrive.

I should be up and through his inner security team in five minuets, by then the EMT’s and at least one patrol car should be there. You’ll know I’m in, that’s when my cell phone is turned off; and that will be at his first security detail.”

“When she makes the call her voice has to have a panic sound to it as she half screams that her relative is having a seizure. I’m sure the Prince’s electronic security team will hear the call go out, if not they will know when the police and ambulance crews get the radio message from their dispatcher sending them over there. As the Paramedics get the 911 call and respond across the street,” seeing the Majors frown Bruno explains. “There are quiet a few older men and women living in that apartment complex. As I’m sure you know a squad car or two of cops always show up just before the ambulance does, to help and to assist and to secure the Ambulance.”

“OK, I can see it as a distraction for his men to be watching the Police.”

“Good, now if you noticed on page two when I mentioned the twelve painters that are working in the apartment building next door, and they are all working on the fourth floor?”

“Yes,” Red replied with a smile, seeing the plan in his minds eye.

“You catch on quick Red. With our meeting next door we will be on the third floor, on the west side of the building. The painters are in the building to the east on the fifth floor, they take three of the 4 x 8 inch planks that are sixteen foot long and already nailed together; that makes a twenty-four inch wide bridge. If they push that across the six foot wide gap between the buildings from one window to another, then your other entry team is two floors above us. In and unobserved primed for action.”

The Major again smiles and nods his head yes, as he continues taking notes. Clearing a building from the top down is the best and fastest way.

“The Prince will have close to twenty people guarding him maybe more. Most will be on the ground floor and a few others on the second. I know he will have five in the room with us and at least two or three outside the door. When the shooting starts downstairs and it will, have that lower entry team do a lot of flash bangs, that will cover any noise the team upstairs makes, as your men come down the stairs and surprises the guards outside the door, they will be dead in seconds.”

“You make this sound like it's a day to day routine here,” Tony said with a chuckle.

“All of your people will blend in and just seem a part of the normal daily routine of the city, if you have groups of people setting in parked cars at all of the surrounding intersections that ain’t close to normal. They would be spotted in no time.” Bruno said as he leaned forward to make his point.

“How will I know when you have the evidence and when to make the entry?

“That’s easy as you can see,” Bruno stands up and shows the shoes he’s wearing, “I’ve got those fancy shoes on your people gave me last time. Each one has a digital recorder in the heel, I will switch them on when I sit down and we will get him in stereo.”

Strolling over to the window he continued, “When I get him in his own words talking about the hit, I’ll take a look out of the window at the Cop cars and Ambulance down on the street. You have a man watching that window from across the road at the building next to where the Ambulance is parked. Crazy Dave runs a AM pirate radio station from the third floor, Tony knows him, he’ll call him after our meeting and he will let your man in. So when your man spots me he can have Dave play ‘Hammer Time’. Your teams can be listening the whole time to Crazy Dave, and the Prince’s security will never suspect a thing.”

Tony and Red both smile when they hear Bruno say, ‘Hammer Time’, that’s fitting.

“If something happens to Bruno or me I want some type of recognition or medal,” Tony blurted out!

Red said, “OK both of you raise your right hand state you names and then repeat after me.”

Both men raised their right hand, said their names and repeated, “ I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the State of New York, and the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, both foreign and domestic’ and I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me, for conscience sake; so help me God.”

As the two men finished, Red said smiling again, “Congratulations, the both of you have now joined the New York Militia, but it’s only for today. I don’t know if your aware of the irony here, but General Marion the husband of the women you’re suppose to kill, he’ has a lot to do in the recent revival of all of the States Militia’s.”

Bruno said, “That is an irony.”

“What’s the pay like and any fancy uniforms,” Tony said as a wisecrack.

“Tony don’t be an ass,” Bruno shot back, “what we get from the Prince is enough, and I like what I’m wearing right now.” Looking at his friends face he snickered thinking, humor is good, Tony will do OK, I can count on him to watch my back.

Red smiled as he added, “One last thing don’t open the door until you know that my teams have secured the rest of the building, OK?”

“How will we know it’s your guys that wins?”

“I’ll say the words, Tea Party, if I make it, if not my men will also know the code too.”

“Tea Party got it,” Bruno said and Tony nodded his head in agreement too.”

“OK, I need to get to my men and give them a quick briefing, good luck guys we will see you later, “ Red said as he put the wig and cap back on his head and headed out the door.

Bruno looked at Tony and said, “Piece of cake, he’s a professional, this ought to be fun.”

Tony didn’t say a thing, as he grimaced and shrugged his shoulders, he wasn’t so sure, he was in but he is starting to have second thoughts. Things can and do go wrong at of best time and with the best plans.