Jernigan's War (19 page)

WATER WAR

T
hey loaded up the gasoline in the fishing boat and tied it behind the catamaran. Ben and Frank had to be tied to keep them from following Dix. Tears were silently running down Dix’s face as he motored down the lake heading for the river. He let Dawson and Jacobs run the boat while he wiped down his rifles. He took the Springfield down and gave it a thorough cleaning. Lastly he took his Browning and cleaned it. He slept with the Browning in his hand every night; it was an important part of him.

Dix took over running the boat as they entered the narrow bayou that was the outlet from the lake into the river. He went dead slow out into the river. There was no boat traffic to be seen. They arrived at the location of the tug before dark. The tug was still on the sandbar, but it was visibly higher in the water. Only by firing it up and trying to use the wheel wash would they know if it could be floated free.

Dix ran the catamaran up on the sand bar downstream of the tug and dropped the anchor of the fishing boat. They climbed on
board the tug and found it just as Dix had left it. Dix cranked the generator and showed Sarge how he figured out how to crank it. “I think we need to have one of us sleep on the catamaran in case we can’t control the tug, that way we can evacuate to the catamaran.”

Dix slept on the catamaran that night, while the Sarge, Dawson and Jacobs stayed in the crew quarters on the tug. They took turns standing guard. This was one of the few nights Dix had slept alone since getting the pups; he dozed after a while but didn’t sleep well. He kept having the same nightmare over and over. Each time he would wake from it; but, as soon as he dozed off the nightmare resumed where it was. He finally gave up, got up and made a pot of coffee. If this had been any other time or circumstance, the early morning on the river would have been wonderful. Purple martins were swooping down and skimming their bills in the water to drink. The river current was producing whirlpools that seemed to pause in place before moving on. Whole trees could be seen out in the river, casualties from a storm somewhere up north.

He walked over to the tug and joined Sarge, Dawson and Jacobs. They all sat quiet and ate their MRE’s. Dix cranked the starter engines and got the big engines turning over. As before, the exhaust stacks started pouring black smoke before clearing up when the engines started firing on their own and getting hot. Dix found the water temperature gauges and watched as the temperature climbed. He disengaged the starter engines and turned them off. The big engines were running on their own. Dix had Dawson take the catamaran with the fishing boat behind it out into the current and upstream to wait. If for some reason they were unable to get the tug free of the sandbar or if they lost a crewmember overboard, it would his job to pick them up.

Dix and Sarge figured out how to engage the drive motors. This tug ran like a locomotive. The huge diesel engines ran
generators that, in turn, ran electric drive motors. This tug was operated by joy sticks and computer. Dix tilted the joy sticks back and they could feel the drive engage. The tug vibrated as the propellers sucked river water and blew it under the tug. Red lights blinked, Dix wasn’t sure but thought that this was an indication that the front thrusters were inoperable. Sarge kicked up the throttles a bit and the tug ever so slowly backed into the current. The red lights went out as the tug settled down into the water. When they were 100 yards or so out in the river, Dix gently bumped the joysticks forward and to the left. The tug slowly changed direction and pivoted in the river. Once he was pointing the tug in the right direction he pushed the sticks forward and the vessel headed down stream. Dawson dutifully followed in the catamaran keeping a respectable distance behind. Jacobs called up on the ship’s intercom and reported no fires or leaks.

Their goal was to once again block the river below New Orleans. With the river blocked below the Port of New Orleans, that would pretty much close the river for days or weeks. It would make the Chinese have to detour to other ports with less capacity or defenses. Every bump in the road or delay was a rock in the shoe to an invading army.

Dix told the Sarge, “You and Jacobs need to figure out how to sink this puppy, there has got to be a sea valve or a pump we can use to flood it.” Dix found that there was a cruise control of sorts on the console. He found a setting where he could freeze the speed and direction. He started pulling out manuals. First he turned on the radar and now knew what was beyond his eyesight ahead.

Dix had Jake’s AR15 with him and was still wearing the Browning. He noticed a blip on the radar coming fast up the river. Dix looked forward and realized that it was a helicopter traveling about 100 feet off the water. Dix saw that it was one of the Chinese army helicopters. He called down to Sarge and Jacobs, “We’ve got some company, a Chinese helicopter.” It
came over the tug and made a lazy circle around it. Dix took off his shoulder holster and stepped out of the door and waved. The helicopter stalled to a hover, Dix could see a camera in the hands of a passenger. At that moment Sarge and Jacobs opened up on the helicopter. Dix reached inside the door, grabbed Jake’s AR15, and concentrated his fire on the engine compartment.

They must have hit something important because the helicopter lost power and went into the river. Its blades chopped the water not 20 feet from the tug. Water splashed upwards by the helicopter drenched Dix at the wheelhouse. The huge propellers quickly distorted and then disintegrated as the momentum of them hitting the water tore them apart. Dix could see the surprised look on the cameraman’s face when he realized that they were going in. The helicopter disappeared under the water with its occupants still inside.

Dix got back to the controls and continued downstream. He hoped that the Chinese died before they could report or transmit a photo. Dix replaced the empty magazine with a full one from his magazine pouch. Sarge arrived shortly thereafter still on an adrenaline rush. Dix was munching on an MRE snack and drinking some coffee. Sarge looked at Dix, “How can you be so calm?”

“It’s easy, we haven’t seen anything yet. You guys still have a will to live. I, on the other hand, have a will to kill. I look at every one of them as just another roach in the kitchen.”

They continued on down the river the rest of the day, although they had the radar, it would have been difficult for the catamaran to follow in the dark. So, they found a barge canal off the main river below Baton Rouge. Dix pulled the tug into the channel and brought it to a stop. He set the controls to a hold position. The big engines idled and the generator ran on. The thrusters held the tug within a ten foot GPS determined spot in the middle
of the barge channel. Dawson pulled the catamaran around the front of the tug and they waited for the morning to come. Dix suggested they take the fishing boat down the river for a look see in the morning. It could travel light and fast.

The next morning Dix and Sarge left Jacobs and Dawson guarding the tug and the catamaran. They had 50 gallons of extra fuel on the boat. Dix took the Springfield with the bandoleer holding the 7 remaining armor piercing cartridges. He also had his usual full battle pack including Jake’s AR15. Sarge had an M4, a lighter pack, an assault vest with six 30 round mags, a Beretta 9mm and body armor. Dix had nixed body armor some time back, it was all he could do to pack the weight of what he carried now. Besides, he wasn’t worried about getting killed, he was living to kill and he figured today was as good as any to die. Death would simply end the endless nightmares and never ending agony of remembering his family.

The big fishing boat was 22 feet long and eight feet wide, Dix wished that it was some color other than white, but he had no way to paint it. The fishing poles and landing net sticking up around the center console may give someone enough pause for them to pass or delay their thought processes long enough for Dix to kill them.

They ran for about six hours and Dix stopped long enough to top off the main tank. He didn’t want to be in the middle of an escape and run out of gas. He topped off the oil in the engine oil reservoir and they continued downstream. As soon as they came to New Orleans, and were within sight of the ships in the river, they pulled to the side and looked through Dix’s binoculars and the scope on the Springfield. The ship was still sunk in the channel; but, a dredge had cut a channel on the other side of the river. A ship was slowly making its way through the new channel.

Dix told Sarge, “We need to sink the tug there or ram whatever is coming through there. If we open the sea valves and set the thrusters to hold position we should be able to position it in the new channel. We’ll sink it there first thing in the morning.”

They fired up and headed back the way they came. They ran flat out until it got too dark to safely see logs and debris in the river. They got back to the tug and catamaran around midnight.

“Let’s hit the sack and leave at daylight.” Dix didn’t sleep this night.

The next morning Dix laid out the plans, “We can leave the Catamaran downriver from here in a cut off the river that I stayed in when I came through before. At that point one of you will run the fishing boat and the other three will stay on the tug until we get it into the channel, the sea valves open and pumps turned off. I’ll set it on hover, we will hop on the fishing boat and haul ass. If there happens to be a ship in the channel, we will ram it full speed. We’ll have the sea valves open as a precaution anyway. Also, I think we should destroy the river dredge if we can work it into the raid.”

They paused long enough to hide the catamaran and to top off the fuel and oil tanks in the fishing boat. They put the fishing boat on a long bow line behind the tug so as not to waste its fuel. This was all the gas they had or may ever have until the oil refineries were put back on line. When they were within sight of the port Dawson transferred to the fishing boat and stayed a safe distance away.

Luck was in their favor this day. The river dredge was working on the channel around the sunken Chinese ship. Dix increased the speed of the tug and headed for the dredge. He was within a quarter of a mile of the dredge before they realized
he was bearing down on them. He called down to the Sarge, “Open the sea valves and get out of there.” Red lights came on as Dix killed the circuits feeding the bilge pumps. Sirens sounded as water reached warning sensors in the bowels of the vessel. Dix noticed that the big engines were revving in an effort to maintain speed as the boat filled with water. The dredge operators were frantically waving and sounding their horn. Dix continued to bear down on them.

Suddenly the glass on the bridge started shattering as bullets tore through the tug. They were being fired upon by someone at the Port. Dix stayed at the controls. He glanced around and saw that Jacobs had taken a round through his shoulder. He was down and the Sarge was stuffing a rag under his body armor. Dawson was alongside now, and Dix ordered, “Get him in the boat; I’ll get in as soon as I’m finished here.” Dix turned his attention from Sarge and Jacobs back to the tug and dredge. Bullets were still spattering around the wheelhouse but to no effect. Dix braced himself as the tug caught the dredge amidships. The tug rode up on the side of the dredge, shoving it under the water as the far side tipped up. Water was pouring through the open doors. Nothing on this Earth would stop its inevitable plunge to the bottom of the channel.

Dix put the tug in hover mode and ran down to the waiting fishing boat. Jacobs looked pale but gave Dix the thumbs up as they raced up the river. He and Sarge opened up on the Port where they suspected the gunfire was coming from. They stopped the boat once they were out of the range of the small arms fire and looked back on the damage they had dished out. The dredge was out of sight and the top third of the wheel house of the tug was sitting in the middle of the channel where the tug sat firmly on the bottom. The river was closed at that point to all traffic for the indefinite future. It would take a team of maritime engineers and crews to open up the river. There would be no
more ships unloading men and equipment at the Port of New Orleans.

Sarge reported to Captain Miller over the satellite phone that they had completed a successful mission and would be returning to base. Other than it raining, the trip back to the catamaran went smoothly. They saw several Chinese helicopters in the distance; but, none came towards them or even indicated that they were spotted.

When they got back on the catamaran they took a closer look at Jacobs wound. The bullet had gone all the way through his shoulder, and the wound had stopped pouring blood. Sarge and Dawson put a pressure bandage on him just in case and put him in a spare bunk. He could still feel his fingers in that arm; so apparently, he would get by with some scars to show his friends.

When it started getting dark they found another cut off the river and again spent the night. Dix slept pretty good, no nightmares haunted him this night. Exhaustion had taken its toll.

The next morning they topped off the fuel in the catamaran and proceeded back up the river. They were just entering the bayou that led into Old River where Old Man Beagle lived when the satellite phone rang. Captain Miller called Sarge and told him to get back ASAP. The Chinese were making a run northeast out of Houston, TX. They were apparently planning on capturing the Constitution forces operating out of Fort Polk. Forces out of Fort Hood in Texas had defeated the pro communist forces under command of the President. They were in a good defensive position; but would be unable to mount an offensive for several days. Constitution troops from Fort Polk were to intercept the Chinese
and bottle them up until troops and tanks from Fort Hood could re-enforce them.

They pulled up at the old man’s camp and offloaded. The soldiers hopped in the Mayor’s Cadillac and raced to rejoin their unit. Ben and Frank gave Dix the greeting of his life. Dix watched the Cadillac disappear over the levee. Old Man Beagle couldn’t wait to be filled in on the action.