Jesse's Starship (26 page)

Tilly slid down the rope and started throwing it to the overhang. It caught on the first throw. Janet sighed, “You’ve got to teach me how you do that.”

Tilly smiled, “It’s all in the wrists.”

“Yeah, right. I’ll go up first and you tie the rifles and ammo to the rope. I’ll pull them up and you can come up last.”

“I don’t know if I can pull myself up that high.”

“I’ll be pulling on my end as well. You’ll make it.”

“Do you think they’ll see us?”

“No, we have camouflage on. The overhang isn’t that much higher than the top of the wall. However, it should shield us from being seen. The front edge is several feet higher than the area behind it.”

Just as the sun touched the horizon, the two women were on the overhang. The view was greatly improved and they could see a wider field of vision. Janet moved to the back of the overhang and put her back on the wall. They could see the road from Phoenix much clearer from the higher position and Tilly said, “Aren’t you going to keep an eye on them?”

“No, they won’t come up here without help.” Janet nodded out toward the road, “If trouble comes, it will be coming down that road.”

Tilly nodded and leaned back against the wall and opened a beef jerky. She tore it in half and handed a piece to Janet. They were running low on food. Mike hadn’t brought enough for two people. She hoped that wouldn’t be an issue.

• • •

“No Sir, we’ve not seen anything.” The captain listened and said, “Sir, if they were out here and stuck their head out, we’d see it with our equipment.” He listened again, “I don’t know where the body is, Sir. If she was really dug in up in the hills, we wouldn’t have found it.” After a moment he said, “Yes Sir.”

“What’s going on?”

“Do you think anyone this close to a fuel bomb would survive?”

The Lieutenant looked out at the burned desert and said, “Nothing out there did. Even the plants on the sides of the mountain are gone.”

“Well, someone thinks they did. He’s sending a detachment.”

“Where are they getting the equipment?”

“The National Guard Armory.”

The Lieutenant sighed, “Sometimes I wonder why I did this.”

“Get in line; I think we all do. Coming out here to kill a soldier’s wife is not my idea of what being a soldier is all about.”

“Just be thankful it’s not your wife.”

“That’s the only reason I’m here.”

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

“They made such good sense when they sold us on it. Now…I just don’t know. I think I lost my zeal when they told me what would happen if I didn’t follow their orders.”

“That should have told us something. Now, we’re trapped.”

“If they can’t protect this woman, how could our families be safe?”

“When are they coming?”

“They’ll arrive within the next ninety minutes.”

The Lieutenant turned back to the desert and lifted the binoculars that were linked to a computer. He hoped she was dead. He didn’t relish being her killer.

• • •

Tilly had dozed off and woke when she heard, “Oh Jesus!”

Tilly sat up straight, “What?”

“There’s a wide load truck with two jeep escorts coming from Phoenix.” Tilly looked off in the distance and saw the flashing lights. “Whatever is on that truck is not going to be good news.”

“Do you think they’ll find us?”

“If they decide to move out into the rocks, they’ll go over the walls and see our cave. They’ll know we have to be close by.” Tilly stared at Janet and heard her say, “The only place they haven’t looked is up here.”

“This line of rocks runs for several miles.”

“I know; but the dead bodies were all directly in front of our current location. They’ll start here.”

Tilly looked back out at the road and saw death moving toward them with flashing lights getting brighter. It was midnight when the truck arrived at the road and a cover was taken off the vehicle on the flat bed.

Janet brought the binoculars up to the edge of the overhang and saw the cover pulled off. “Oh crap, it’s a Bradley.” Suddenly she saw the two soldiers that had been in the SUV. One of them had his binoculars pointed straight at her and the other was pointing his finger straight at them. Janet pushed back from the edge and said, “They have some very sophisticated equipment down there; I think they saw me.” Janet looked at Tilly and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it to her as she pulled the rifle out of the bag, “Call Mike.”

Tilly caught the phone and turned it on. She waited forty seconds as it sought and finally found a signal. She dialed Mike’s number and it went straight to his recorded message. She tried three more times with the same result. “Janet, he has it turned off.”

“Crap! Double crap!!”

“What?”

“I left that piece of paper with the telephone number he gave me in the cave.”

“That’s alright, I remember it.” Janet rolled her eyes. Tilly dialed the number and after one ring heard, “This is Blackwell.”

“Do you know a Mike Sanders?”

“I do.”

“Can you get in touch with him?”

“Who’s asking?”

“My name is Tilly Sanders and…”

“I thought you were dead!”

“No, we survived the blast but there is some kind of armored vehicle being taken off a truck and we won’t be alive much longer if we don’t get help.”

“Where are you?”

“Near the site of the spaceship landing.”

“Hang on, I’m going to try and patch Mike in.” Eric began pressing buttons and after a moment he heard, “Mike Sanders.”

“Mike! I’ve missed you so much.”

“Tilly, are you ok?”

“No, Mike. They’re unloading some kind of armored vehicle and are going to come and kill us. Janet thinks they saw her and know where we are.”

Mike plugged in his head set and fired up the rotors, “Tilly, stay on the line and tell Janet to keep me informed of that vehicle’s exact location.”

“Mike, a squad of armed soldiers have just entered the Bradley.”

Which model is it, Janet?”

“M2A3.”

Do you see a tow missile launcher?”

“Mike, I know Bradleys; this one has the tow and not the ground-to-air missile launcher.”

Mike heard a loud noise and Tilly said, “That Bradley just fired a machine gun at us.”

Janet shouted, “They trying to force me to keep my head down.”

Mike said, “Tell her to do what they want.”

“Where are you Mike?”

“I’m too far away to do any good. Just do what they tell you and I’ll find you wherever they take you, Tilly.”

“I love you, Mike.” There was another loud noise and the call went dead.

“Mike.” Eric waited and said, “Mike, are you there?”

The Bradley was off the flatbed and was rolling up the hill toward the line of hills. They didn’t need to look for it; they could hear it getting closer. Janet shook her head and looked at Tilly, “I’m sorry, Tilly; I’ve let you and Mike down.”

Tilly ducked her head as another round of machine gun fire hit the rocks over them. She looked at Janet and said, “It’s….”

“It’s what?”

Tilly smiled, “It’s a helicopter.” Janet moved her head back and heard the helicopter just before the anti-tank Missile hit the Bradley dead center. The explosion deafened them. Janet shook her head and saw a helicopter hovering close to the SUV. The cell phone rang and Janet said, “Boy, are you a lifesaver.”

“Get down here. I need you to help capture these two.”

Janet said, “Grab your rifle and let’s go.”

• • •

Mike came roaring in at two hundred miles an hour. He was just above the tall cacti and moving fast. He arrived at the depression and lowered the copter to a foot off the blasted surface of the desert. His looked in his night targeting helmet showed the Bradley moving perpendicular to his approach and he placed the cross hairs on the center of the vehicle. He saw the turret turning and he launched the anti-tank missile. It flashed ahead of the fast moving helicopter and hit the Bradley. The huge explosion flipped it twice before it ending up on its roof. Mike swung the helicopter toward the road and arrived in front of the SUV as the two soldiers were trying to escape. Mike hit the outside speaker button and spoke into his headset, “If either of you lift a cell phone, You’re dead. Get out of the car and lay down on the shoulder of the road.”

The Captain and Lieutenant were staring down the barrel of a 30 mm chain gun. It was actually larger than the gun on the Bradley. They both knew they were in big trouble. They kept their hands where they could be seen and they exited the car. The Captain thought briefly about making a break for the desert but twenty rounds of 30 mm shells hit to his right. He ran around the SUV and fell down on the sand beside the Lieutenant. Twenty minutes later, Janet jogged up and chambered a round in her sniper rifle.

Tilly arrived right behind her and she covered the second one. Mike lowered the Alligator to the ground, got out, and went to Tilly and hugged her. He turned around and kicked the Lieutenant in the ribs. He grunted and doubled over. The Captain said, “I don’t blame you; you should just shoot us.”

Mike stared at the officer, “The Lieutenant wanted out of this from the beginning; it’s wrong to hunt a soldier’s wife.”

“Then he should have got out!”

“If he did, they would be hunting his wife; that’s how it works. I am glad you saved yours.”

Mike drew his foot back and Tilly said, “NO!” Mike and Janet looked at her and she said, “Why did you join this organization?”

“They came to us and said that members of the military were swearing an oath to never surrender to an enemy. We pledged our life to defend our country. It sounded honorable and what a true warrior would do. It was later that we learned the consequences of that oath. The very ones I pledged to defend were going to be killed if I didn’t toe the line. You can’t get out. All of us know about one who tried. The officer he went and told about what was happening, turned him over to them. He died after he watched his family die slowly. His youngest child was two years old. We’re trapped in this.”

Mike stared at the Captain and looked at the Lieutenant doubled over in pain. He shook his head and said, “You deserve to die….but….another soldier showed me that he was worth saving. Are you worth saving, Captain?”

“I can’t help you; my family will die if I do.”

“You don’t have to do anything but drop a device if you’re taken in.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know where the leader of your cell is located?”

“I know the unit the Major is in that sent the Bradley.”

“He’ll be gone momentarily; do you know where the next level is located?”

“No, I don’t.”

“I am going to give you a small plastic device. I want you to simply drop it and step on it if you are ever taken to one their upper level leaders. Will you do that?”

The Captain looked at the Lieutenant and saw him nod, “I will. How am I going to explain how I survived tonight when the Bradley didn’t?”

Mike went to the Alligator and came back to the two soldiers. He handed them two small plastic discs, “Put this on your key chain and take your friend and run into the desert on the other side of the road. Wait there for help to come.”

The Captain helped the Lieutenant stand as they hobbled across the road. Mike looked at Janet, “Take the second Seat; Tilly get in behind the seats.” The three ran and boarded the gunship. Mike lifted it and flew it fifty yards from the black SUV. He turned the chopper around and hit the car with the 30 mm chain gun. The large vehicle fell into pieces. The gas tank ignited and the car burned brightly. Mike flew the helicopter up the hill and waited for Janet to go in the cave and get the keys to her truck. She sprinted back to the gunship and Mike said as she climbed in, “That truck is going to do you in one day.”

Janet smiled sweetly, “Maybe…but not today.”

Mike started to lift the Alligator but flipped on the radar. He suddenly pushed the collective forward and the helicopter leaped forward. A missile slammed into the ground where he had just been idling. He swung the Alligator hard right as another missile hit behind him. Mike saw the two Eagles roar by and he launched two missiles. He kept his radar on and saw the jets do a one eighty turn for another run.

Every jet pilot knows that missiles can be avoided if you are patient enough to overcome your fear. The small steering tabs on a Missile can’t match the wings on a modern jet fighter. If the pilot will wait until the missile is right on him and sharply turns away, the missile will not be able to make the turn. That of course means you need to be able to see the missile; it usually comes at you from behind. The two Eagle’s threat radars went off and they looked at their radar to find the threat. They should have just turned away; the missiles Mike fired came at them head on at a closing speed of four thousand miles an hour. Both jets were blown out of the sky. Mike turned the Russian Attack Copter and headed east. By the time an Apache Gunship arrived to find the two soldiers covered in cactus spines and limping, the Alligator was three hundred miles away. Six officers were arrested and imprisoned for what happened. The Captain and Lieutenant weren’t one of them. They had been following their orders to keep the curious out of the crash site.

• • •

“Mike, where did you get this?”

“I traded an AH-6j for it.”

“You won that deal.”

“I know.”

“What happens now?”

“We find a place to go belly up and wait for Eric to find a place to hide Tilly.”

“What about me?”

“This thing has two seats, Janet.”

“As long as you can be sure she’s safe, I’ll get into this with you.”

Mike shook his head, “We’re responding to their attacks. We can’t get ahead of them.” Mike thought for a moment and looked at the desert moving quickly under them. He slowed the copter and found a clearing wide enough to land the gunship.

Tilly looked at Mike, “What are you doing?”

“Mike turned around and took his cell phone out of a bag.”

Janet put her hand on his, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Will the two of you relax?” Mike showed them the face of the phone, “I don’t have one bar out here.”