“What code word?” Grant asked.
“The ‘green team,’” Chip said softly. “That’s what Linda ran out and told me. Our visitors used that code word. Chief picked them up and they told him to radio that term to his headquarters.”
What in the world was going on? Grant had no idea.
“C’mon, man, tell me,” Grant said.
Chip was quiet. Finally he said, “If it’s a false alarm, I don’t want to spill the beans. I have been sworn to secrecy about something and I can’t break that. All I will tell you is that this is not a threat to Pierce Point. It is probably a big plus, but I made an oath to not tell a soul and I will keep it. Sorry, man.” Grant respected that.
Pretty soon, they pulled into the cabin area. Gideon was at the guard shack with Manda’s AK-74. He had agreed to be the night guard for Over Road. He didn’t have to do any jobs out there given his donation of the semi load of food, but he wanted to do something. He was a night owl so he didn’t mind the guard duty. Besides, Gideon was a former military policeman and knew how to guard. He was thankful that the Team had saved his life from the FC thugs and felt indebted to them. Grant arranged for the cabin next to the Team’s place to be used for night shift people. They could sleep during the day in the “night cabin,” as it was being called.
Gideon must have just started his night shift. Chip waved at him, parked the truck, and looked around, checking to see if anyone was watching them. Satisfied that no one was watching, Chip motioned for Grant to come with him. They went to Grant’s cabin and started to walk down the steps to the water. Chip took the lead. As he headed down the stairs, Chip did a press check of his AR. Grant did the same.
Before starting down the stairs, Chip said in a loud voice, “Chief and Green Team: coming down the stairs.” It was like he wanted the people on the beach to know he was coming to avoid a friendly fire incident.
“Roger,” he heard in a familiar voice.
Was it? No way. It couldn’t be.
Chip and Grant walked down to the beach, and in the dusk, saw Chief and Paul holding guns up to two men.
Chip asked, “That you, Green Team?”
“Roger, Chip,” the familiar voice said. “How ya been, brother?”
Oh my God. It was him. Grant was simultaneously elated and horrified. The stakes of the game just jumped. This was serious; it meant they were no longer just surviving out there. Grant always thought he’d probably get killed out there and now, seeing the visitors, he knew exactly how. Even if he lived, Grant knew his marriage was probably over, given who the visitors on the beach were. The love of his life would be cold to him for the rest of their lives, if she didn’t just leave him. He remembered his Grandpa’s words: “Never go off to a war that you don’t have to.”
Chapter 162
Choice? What Choice?
(July 3)
“Chief, these are friendlies,” Chip said. “Very friendlies.” The Chief nodded and lowered his shotgun, which was pointed at the two men, both of whom looked like military contractors. They both had shemaghs, those Middle Eastern scarves, around their necks and over their mouths. There was an older one, a military looking man in his forties with black hair. There was a younger one, in his late twenties and blonde. One had an AR and the other had an AK.
Chip ran up and hugged the older one with black hair. The man took off his shemagh so his face was fully visible now.
Grant received confirmation. It was Special Forces Ted. Special Forces Ted!
In an instant, lots of things started to make sense to Grant. Why Ted was here, why the guns were in the basement, and what Grant would be doing for the next few months or years. Not that, Grant thought. He didn’t want to do what he knew Ted was there to do. But at the same time, Grant was elated that Ted was there.
Ted had a beard, but it was him. That was his familiar voice. A younger man, who also had a beard, was with him.
Grant knew what this meant. Pierce Point was going to transform from a peaceful Patriot mini-republic to a self-reliant base for guerilla fighters. Ted and his colleague were there to train fighters and launch them into a war. It was the only thing that made sense. Grant and the Team, and who knows who else, were going to be fighters, real fighters. Not a rigged-together group of guards and some amateur police. They would be real fighters with Ted reporting to a higher command and getting orders. A coordinated military force, albeit a guerilla one.
Grant didn’t mind the fighting part, in fact he kind of looked forward to it because he knew it needed to be done. However, he knew Lisa would go ballistic. Grant’s grandpa’s words flashed through his mind: “Never go off to a war that you don’t have to.” Grant remembered how mad his Grandma was at his Grandpa for going off to World War II and being a hero. She was mad for years; Grandpa said they never really were the same close couple they had been. Grant didn’t want that—the love of his life furious at him for years. Probably leaving him.
This is war, the outside thought said. I hate war, but sometimes it is necessary to stop the evil people do.
This is war, Grant repeated to himself. A real war, not some war 10,000 miles away that the professionals fight and everyone else gets to watch on TV. No, this war is a real one that affects everyone in America. Like World War II, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War.
A total war, Grant thought to himself. A “total war” is when the civilian population is engaged in a war, like the Revolutionary War. A total war was not pushing buttons and having drones blow things up in a Mideast country. Total war meant famine, disease, combat deaths, reprisal killings against civilians right here at home. Just like in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
War. That awful, awful thing you pray never happens during your lifetime. If one comes, you don’t get to choose what’s best for your family life. That’s something you get to do in normal times. In peacetime, you can avoid going to war and choose a job that’s best for your family because it’s possible to make choices. But now the choices had been taken away.
This didn’t feel like a war where the headlines screamed “Pearl Harbor Attacked!” No one on TV announced that this war had started. In fact, Grant didn’t know for sure that a war technically was even underway. But he knew the war was on. There was only one reason why two Special Forces soldiers were on his beach wanting to talk to him.
Before the Collapse, Ted had talked to the Team about what he saw was coming. He could see things from the inside, from the military preparations the government was making. Ted predicted, in great detail, a breakdown almost exactly like the one that had occurred. In particular, Ted predicted the military would mostly desert, but that some units would split into Patriot and Loyalist groups. Ted said he would bug out and try to meet up with the Team and do what Green Berets do: recruit, train, supply, coordinate and lead guerilla fighters. Ted made it clear that he hoped this wasn’t necessary.
Grant figured the war would be coming; he just hoped it could go on without him. That was stupid, when he thought about it. But wishful thinking can often take over a person’s thinking, especially in times like these.
Once Grant realized that his wishful, war-avoiding, thinking wouldn’t be happening, he started thinking clearly. He had some very powerful assets that could greatly help in a war, at least out here in this area. He was in a 500 person rural place out at Pierce Point. Thanks in some part to Grant’s organizational and political skills, Pierce Point was functioning smoothly, unlike almost everywhere else. They were feeding themselves and had security. Pierce Point was on a waterway with quick access to everywhere in the Puget Sound south of Seattle, which included Olympia. Access by sea meant going around checkpoints on land. It was a perfect staging area. Grant had figured out the strategic importance of Pierce Point the first time he saw it when he was looking for cabins before the Collapse. The strategic location of Pierce Point was one of the things that drew him to the place.