It was time to take my medicine and see what John has in store for me. I told the captain, "I guess I've played long enough. Take me to shore so I can earn my keep."
At the station I spoke with the Chief and found out that they were in the midst of tracking several escapees that were suspected of coming to Alaska. He said Ben Marshal was on his way as he had a line on them.
I called John, "Hey John. I'm in the Anchorage station and have found that Ben is on his way with some possible locations."
"Yeah, but that's not where I need you. I need you in Fairbanks. The local militants up there decided to blow up a state police outpost. Happily, there was no one in it at the time as the trooper was out in the latrine when it blew. The Bureau is tracking the materials and has the locations where these militants are, plus they have found a training base full of nutcases wanting to blow up America. Go get them. Go bring them all in and collect all of the weapons, as well as explosives. I don't need to tell you to be careful. Don't worry about your armament budget. Just get them. Use the Bureau, our men, anyone you can get. There may be as many as three hundred in this training camp, so be prepared."
"Ah, this sounds like something for the Strike Force."
John said, "It is, but they are here and you are there. Try to get the National Guard. You'll need them, but you'll probably get some of them killed. See if they have any recently rotated troops. Go get them. Go to Fairbanks and resolve this problem quickly. You do not have a budget, just do it."
He sounded worried. If he was worried, this was a big deal. I asked the station clerk for the telephone number for Fairbanks and called. They were about as optimistic as John. They actually sounded scared.
Next door at the Bureau, I asked the Chief if he had any contacts at State level. He said, "Call the Governor's office. She's supposed to be easy to talk to. Tell them who you are and that you will talk to anyone who has power to activate the Guard."
I asked him about transportation and he said, "Charter a plane. That's the easiest and fastest way. When are you going?"
"Either tonight or in the morning. I'll need some clothes."
"Get them up there. They'll dress you for the cold and combat. They have the gear so use it."
I called the station back and asked the Chief to assign a team leader for a raid. Next I called the Governor's office in Juneau and spoke to the Lt. Governor. I explained what was happening and he was willing to activate a unit to catch the bombers. I told him that I needed at least two hundred combat troops, and four hundred would be better.
The station clerk found me a charter to take me to Fairbanks, so I had a duty man take me to the charter field.
I rode an ancient Cessna 185 up to Fairbanks and we landed in the water next to the airfield. A duty man picked me up and took me to the station. I was able to get the five Bureau men and the eight deputies together and discovered that the Station Chief was going to be the team leader. He already had several recon photos, with several high definition blow-ups. The men we were to capture were set up like a true fort. It didn't look like they had any heavy guns, but probably had fifties that would play hell with APCs.
My first contact with the Army was from a Colonel Wilson. He was the commander of the National Guard Division. He said he was assigning us two small companies of recently rotated infantry that wouldn't hesitate to fire. We were going to be supported by eight tanks from an armored group.
The plan was to present the armor by having two tanks at each wall. We would have a hundred infantry at each wall to attack if necessary. We would announce our intention and give them opportunity to give up and come out. If they did not come out, we would begin using mortar and tank fire for fifteen minutes, then attack by taking down the walls with the tanks. The infantry would follow and mop up. That was about the only way I could see it. Colonel Wilson agreed. We would do this at five tomorrow morning. We would begin setting up at three, so everyone going was sent home for an early day/night.
I made sure everyone going would have at least a hundred personnel tie-wraps as there was no way for us to get up a couple of hundred pairs of handcuffs. I checked out some clothes, vest, boots, and an MP5. The rifle was still in grease, so it took an hour to get it clean and ready to fire. I made sure that everyone had a clean rifle to use, and that they would have at least five magazines for it.
When I was ready, I had a duty man take me to a hotel with a restaurant, where I had a good meal along with a drink. In my room, complete with a spare toothbrush, I called Steve.
"Hey, Steve, I'm in Fairbanks and should be back by tomorrow night. They have a little problem they need my direction on. Tell everyone that I'll be fine. Have all the kids from the three boats pick out a guitar, use the tuner to tune it, and to practice their scales. There are additional instructions in the case. Any extra guitars will go on the market up here as this was a special deal Lisa got for me. The big box is an electric drum kit. Do you have a storeroom, as I don't know where to put something like that?"
Steve said, "Mercy has already told me you were going to be in danger. She told me to tell you to be careful. Do that, Chuck, be careful and come back to us quick."
"I'll see you tomorrow night, Steve."
I tried to go to sleep and ended up calling room service for a beer and a piece of pie. After my snack, I was able to go to sleep.
The alarm went off at one thirty, so I got up, showered, didn't shave, as I didn't have a razor, and dressed in my borrowed clothes. Downstairs in the hotel, I discovered a little restaurant that was open twenty-four hours a day. I had a quick breakfast while waiting for my ride.
The duty guy came in to get me as I was drinking my coffee. He said, "I'm ready, the Chief said for me to drive you out to the site. I saw the Army go by a little while ago, so they are probably setting up right now."
Out at the site, I had my first look at what these extremists had built. This was a concrete walled building, complete with battlements and guardhouses on all four corners. This was really a fort.
I found the Colonel and asked him his opinion. He asked me, "How bad do you want these guys, and how far are we allowed to go to get them?"
I looked him in the eye and said, "We have no restrictions, no limitations, except that we have to ask them, actually beg them to leave their compound and come out with their hands up. After that, once we start, we neutralize all of them until there is no opposition. There will be no such thing as collateral damage on this. Everyone inside is considered a terrorist, or in other terms, the enemy."
These people had not only built a strong fortress, but had planned for an attack. There was a cleared area of five hundred yards in all directions so there would be no sneaking up on them. One fear I had was of mines. If there were mines, then a frontal assault would be difficult.
I asked one of his troops with field glasses if he had seen any movement in the corner guard houses. He replied that as far as he could see there were no guards.
"Colonel, have your tanks blast holes in those walls. I want a round in each of those guard shacks first while the other tanks blow the first holes in the walls."
He nodded and began giving orders over the phone. He turned and asked me, "How intense do you want the mortars."
My answer was, "I want as many as you have to fire continuously until our men breech the walls. Make sure they move the mortars around to blanket that place with shrapnel."
Again he nodded and got back on the phone.
At five AM, the four tanks aimed at the guardhouses and began announcing over their speakers, "You are surrounded by U.S. Government law enforcement officers and Army National Guard. Give up and live. Everyone come out with your hands on your head. This is the only warning you will get. Give up and live."
The message was repeated for several minutes, and when I nodded, the Colonel said in his phone, "Go."
Four tanks blew up the guard shacks and holes appeared in the sides of the compound. We could see muzzle flashes from the battlements, so we now knew we were being fired upon. All eight tanks were firing round after round, opening up the walls even more while about fifty mortars were dropping rounds into the compound at about four a minute. There were fires inside and there was now hardly any return fire from inside the battlements. Our snipers were helping themselves to targets that presented themselves.
As the return fire kept diminishing, I had an idea. These people were big on tunnels so I told the Colonel, "Have your men begin going out from here hunting for any people movement. Stop and tie-wrap anyone moving on the street. Make sure no one gets out of our perimeter. They might have a tunnel or two out there."
The four hundred men immediately began moving out, searching for any movement. I told the agents and deputies, "Let's go in through the front gate. There is less likelihood of mines being in the main road than surrounding the place. Let's get the tanks to blow open the gates if they are not down yet."
Thank goodness nearly all of the Bureau men and deputies had military experience and followed the tank up to and through the front entrance. I radioed the Colonel to tell him we were inside so that his tank and mortar crews would stop firing.
We busted up into twos, going through each structure still standing and putting a spray painted X on the outside of the ones we inspected. We found no one alive, but we did find a lot of bodies everywhere. We finally found the entrance to their escape tunnel. I radioed the Colonel to tell him we found the entrance and would be going in to see what we could see.
The lead guy had good eyes, because as he was sweeping his flashlight in front of him, he called a halt. "Booby trap. There's a trip wire set up. Let's get some demo guys in here to take them down."
I looked at the wire and agreed as I couldn't see where it went to.
When the demolition crew came, they were using crazy string to spray to see where the trip wires were. They would find the wire then follow it back to the explosive then disarm the trip mechanism. The process was slow but steady. When they were down in the main tunnel, they found rooms off to the side. One was full of explosives, another full of rifles and ammo. Still another was full of MRE's and several were built as bunk rooms.
The demo guys came back to me and said, "The tunnel is slanting up. Go check to see if they have found the other end of this thing. If we have them cornered, there's nothing to hide behind, and they may blow the thing just for spite."
I pulled them out, leaving a couple of guards in the dark so they could get their eyes used to the dark.
Outside, I called the Colonel and asked him about people moving around, and he said, "We haven't had any contact. Can you give me coordinates as to which direction the tunnel goes?
I walked outside the compound and found the Colonel then lined him up with the tunnel and pointed, "You are standing directly over it now. It starts up about a hundred yards out, so the other end is in one of those buildings right there."
He said to his men, "Let's go flush them out. Come on. We walked and rode to the cluster of buildings that were in line with the tunnel."
I gave the orders, "Let's take each building one at a time. If everything is as I suspect, we'll get resistance from the building where the tunnel terminates."
The first two buildings were empty, except that you could tell people used to live in them. The next building was fairly large, with several windows. I put men at each window, and on command, we broke out the windows and poked our rifles inside.
Immediately, AK fire came back at us. I yelled, "Give up, you are surrounded, if you want to live, put down your arms, and come out with your hands above your heads. Give up or you will die."
More AK fire, mostly on automatic. I had my men grab some hand grenades and together, we tossed them into the building and hid below the windows.
The blasts coming from the building were really strong. I had the men get ready to do it again and then follow the grenades into the building.
Again the blasts were devastating. I dove through the window and rolled to the side. I could see an opening with dead people piled on top of each other. I crawled to the opening and called out, "Give up, give up, now or die. Put down your arms and come out with your hands overhead."
There was more AK fire, and also a lot of yelling from people who were disagreeing. We were pulling bodies away from the opening, keeping out of the way so we wouldn't be hit by one of the rounds that kept flying out of the hole.
I took another hand grenade and tossed it into the hole and the blast rushed out of the opening. Several yells in Arabic were cursing the U.S. and the infidels of the Army. We couldn't go in to get them, so we waited. We could hear them continue to talk, but couldn't understand them. Finally a G-2 guy came and was listening.
The guy said, "They're going to blow themselves up. They hope to use enough explosives to blow up everyone."
I took four more grenades and threw them as hard as I could into the hole. The blasts roared back out of the hole.
If they were going to use more explosives, they would have to go back to the other end where the warehouse room that we saw was. I sent a runner to have the Colonel send some more men down to help the two already down there. They were to guard the explosives above all else.
There was firing coming out of the hole, getting closer to the opening. This was not one rifle, but several.
I had the men back up to get into firing positions and wait.
Men with AKs blazing came rushing out of the opening, shooting in all different directions. They were cut down as fast as they came through the door. Bodies were piling up again, making it difficult for the men behind to follow. Finally the remaining men were using their fallen comrades as barricades, firing out at us. I grabbed a grenade from one of the troops near me, pulled the pin, and tossed it inside the opening. As I rose to toss the grenade, a round hit me on my prosthesis, knocking me to the ground. I got up immediately and threw the grenade.
The blast toppled some of the dead that were lying in front of the opening, and also quieted the shooting. I jumped up and ran to the pile of bodies to shoot over the top of them, but there was no one moving.
One of the Bureau guys said, "You're hit, your leg is all twisted from the round."
I said, "I'll fix it in a minute. Let's get these bodies dragged out of here so we can check out the tunnel from this end."
Soon some Army types were in the tunnels working their way back toward the other end. They knew men were guarding the explosives so they were loud so they wouldn't be shot.
I sat on a chair and pulled up my pants. To the astonishment of men around me I unbuckled the leg, checked it out where it was hit then strapped it back on correctly. I had some metal fragment cuts on my thigh where some metal ricocheted off the leg. I was bleeding, but not bad. I had to drop my drawers and pick pieces of metal out of my thigh.
A corpsman came in and began helping me. When we had found all of the metal we could, he began putting disinfectant on each of the spots where the splinters had been. As he worked, he took off his helmet and shook out a lot of long black hair. The corpsman looked up and smiled at me as I was sitting on a desk with my pants down while the girl corpsman was treating my wounds. She said, "Your shorts aren't long enough, Stud. You need to find longer ones. She was giggling as she put some big band aids over the cuts. I looked down and sure enough, the way I was sitting had my little Johnson head sticking out a little on the bottom.
I tugged the shorts down to cover me up and she complained, "Ah, that was my reward for this job."
She said, "You're done, our only casualty. I saw you get hit and thought you were shot in the leg. You were, except the leg wasn't real. I think we were all watching you because you had a live grenade in your hand. I'm sure happy you were able to keep hold of it."
"Me too," I said, as I pulled my pants up and buckled them.
The Bureau Chief found me and said, "Thanks for being up front with the men. They would have probably been all right, but we didn't lose anyone. I heard you had some cuts from a ricochet, but they were minor. I also heard you finished the last of them with a grenade after getting your prosthesis hit."
"It's great that we didn't have any problems, Chief. You have a hell of a clean up problem here now. The Army will probably help with the junk in the tunnels, but you have to take a body count. I'll dictate an incident report to describe what we did."
"Don't worry about it. I have everything on video and a step by step analysis written down on the whole operation. I've had men with you the whole way, so I know exactly what you saw and what you did. I'll take care of the reports. Good job, Johnson. We could have probably done it, but not without your help, and not without the National Guard's help. That Colonel has his shit together."
"Tell him that, and make sure his unit gets a Homeland Citation for their efforts."
The Chief said, "You know, I'm worried about what the other radicals will do now. We don't know where the other training centers are, but there has to be more. We're looking for them and hope to find them. This is getting to be a terrible way to fight the enemy."
"You're doing a good job. Just keep bringing in anyone who is supposed to be brought in. That will be your best defense."
I went to find the Colonel and shook his hand. He smiled at me and gave me a salute. I gave him one in return and went to look for a duty guy to get me back to the station to change clothes and then go to the airport.
Back at the station, I dropped the magazine and popped the round from the chamber and slid it into the magazine. I checked the gun and it was still clean. All that commotion, and I never fired a round. Not bad. I did throw a hell of lot of hand grenades though.
Back in my regular clothes, I had the duty man take me to the airport where the air taxi I had come over in was parked in the water. I went to the little shack and asked who wanted to give me a ride to Anchorage. The pilot recognized me and got up smiling. He said, "Fuel is too expensive to fly back unless there's a fare, so I waited to pick up a fare from here, and there you are. Thanks for the return fare, Buddy."
We flew back quickly and I caught a taxi out to the dock where the big sea taxi was moored. The Captain asked, "Mind going out in a skiff? It makes a lot more sense than firing up this big boat again. Most of your group is on shore sightseeing, but I think there are a few still on board."
One of the Captain's crewmen took me out to the boat in a skiff and I climbed up the ladder from the boarding platform at the stern of the boat. It was a sunny afternoon, and as I walked forward, I could see there were people sunbathing on the bow. I kept walking until I was up to them. The two ladies grinned real big as I said, "Nice to see you, Sue, Mercy. Getting a little sun, I see."
Both ladies giggled a little and held up their arms. Sue said, "Give us a hug. We're both happy you're back. Mercy said you had been in danger but you were fine and I can see that you are." Hugging Sue is a treat. At least the squashing of the mammoth breasts against me is a treat.
When I hugged Mercy, she asked, "So where did you get cut? It was like splinters or something. But you told me not to worry, as it was nothing, so I didn't worry. See, I'm listening."
"I'm going to make me a big tall drink, find something to eat, and get a shower. I should probably lay down a few minutes since I didn't get much sleep last night. I'll see you guys later."
They both said, "Bye" as I went inside the lounge to make a drink. I noticed the guitar cases that had been in the lounge were now gone. I carried the drink downstairs and raided the fridge. I found some grilled fish that had not been eaten yet and made a sandwich. Anything would have been good at this point.
After a shower, I inspected my leg to see how bad it was damaged. The round had hit the upper cross brace, but only nicked it. The round was still buried in the metal and was probably giving the brace more support. I would just leave it. I pulled on some shorts and opened the case that had the Blues King in it. After putting the batteries in the tuner, I tuned the guitar and picked up one of the handful of picks scattered in the case. The tones from the guitar were pure gold. Sweet!
I crawled up and put a bunch of pillows behind my head and continued to play.
"Wake up, Honey, it's time to get ready to go in to eat. We're going to a great restaurant tonight."
I opened my eyes and saw Kathy and Juanita standing there, with a half a dozen kids behind them. I must have looked funny laying there in my shorts, with the guitar still cradled in my arms. Kathy held up a camera and said, "I have a picture of you just like that. I'll bet your friends at home would love to see that. You'll have to send them the picture."
Juanita asked, "What happened to your leg? You have bandages all over."
"Splinters, Juanita, no big deal. I'll get dressed right away. Are you guys dressing up?"
With a smile, Kathy said, "Yes, clean jeans, come on, get going. Bonita is dying to play your new keyboard and everyone wants to hear you play those electric guitars out there."
I dressed quickly and went up to the lounge. Steve put a tall Beefeaters in my hand and said, "Glad to have you back. I guess you did your own kind of sightseeing."
Dewey asked, "What possessed you to buy all those guitars. We had plenty already. Aren't those Gibson guitars expensive?"
"The girl that I play music with got a special deal on a bunch of things. Actually, I can't believe she was able to get those guitars for the kind of money she did. Now all the kids will have a quality guitar that will last them the rest of their lives. We can sell the other guitars and probably get some decent money back for them. I know I can sell any of the kits left over for a real good price."
Sue asked, "Why did Lisa send so much stuff? She even sent you an electronic drum set. She's really nuts, isn't she?"
"She thinks I need all these instruments to mess around with. She bought a cheap electric guitar and a couple basses. One is a six string bass that I've never played before. The other is a fretless that I'll have to find out how good it is. Those instruments are cheap. The guitar that I have downstairs is something special. It's a Gibson Blues King. It's a limited edition guitar that has a special feel, a special sound, and is just special. I think it's something personal from Lisa. I'll have to practice to be worthy of an instrument of that quality."
Soon, we loaded up into the big taxi and went ashore to go to the restaurant. As promised, it was a great place to eat. The food was wonderful and they put up with all the kids as we ate and drank all evening. When we had made it back to the boats, we gathered, as usual, in the Mercy Mercy's big lounge on the main deck. While the kids settled down downstairs to watch a movie for a while, we sat back and chatted and drank some more.
The topic came up about when to leave. The girls were anxious to get to Hawaii, while the guys thought it might be fun to take an excursion into the mountains to pan for gold or go fishing in the streams farther inland. When asked my opinion, I answered, "If I'm not near land, they can't call me to go help out somewhere. I think I'm going to have to help the Anchorage station with a capture. One of my men who is tracking a group came in here today, but I haven't heard from him. I'll call in the morning to find out, but if the truth be known, I'd rather be sailing."
Steve said, "Okay, one more day to gather supplies and produce. Let's get the kids into the park another day so they can run their legs off on dry land. If Chuck has to stay an extra day, we'll stay. If he isn't called to duty, we'll split."
Steve looked around for everyone's approval, including the Captain of the crew for the Irish Bell. He then said, "Well, since we've all agreed on that, how about a little entertainment from our resident entertainer."
Kathy said, "Play us something on the new guitar that you fell asleep with."
I went below and brought back the Blues King. I explained to everyone what I knew about the history of the Blues King. This model had been used by lots of blues, jazz, and blue grass pickers for years and years. The quality of the tone, the mellowness, is what makes it special. I did say, "To many, the differences between one guitar and another are masked by the ability of the person playing. Hopefully, I can do this instrument justice.
I began playing some acoustic blues that had a lot of string pulling and sustain. How it happened is just coincidence, but I landed on the chord progression of "Summertime." I began picking and strumming, then singing. I didn't notice that no one joined me, and continued through the verses, playing about eight bars of some free form between each verse. When I was done, everyone began clapping.
Dewey said, "I'll bet you do that with an electric totally different. I'll bet it is captivating. I can't wait to hear you."
I played ballads for the rest of the evening that had the folks drinking and singing along with me.
The moms put the kids to bed, then the adults began shifting to their boats. I took the guitar back downstairs and put it in its case, thinking about sending a special note to Lisa with the picture of me with the guitar.
Back up top, we had one last drink and said good night. I had my teeth brushed and was in bed quickly. I was just about to doze off when Kathy snuggled up to me and said, "It's either me or Barb. I think she's watching to see if I stay. I'm planning on staying, so give me a kiss and let me hold you while I go to sleep.
Instead of going to sleep, our holding each other caused other thoughts to prevail, and it was a long while before we fell asleep.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious