“I gather that you’re still headed for Washington?”
Coach was the next to be swallowed by the Chairman’s icy glance, and he took this as a prompt to answer the General.
“Nightwatch is just passing over the coast of Brittany. Our ETA at Andrews is 0735 Zulu.”
Yet more turbulence shook TACAMO, and Spencer could be seen grabbing the edge of his padded command chair. Worry crossed his face, and Coach noted that the decorated veteran suddenly looked every one of his sixty-three years and then some.
Chapter 27
“Damn it, Ted. The way they’ve got us pinned down, we’ll never get out of this ditch alive.”
Yet another 7.62mm round whined overhead, and Ted Callahan dared to look up and meet Thomas’s glance.
“Hang in there, Kellogg. Sergeant Reed and his Sappers should be arriving on the scene any second now.”
From his prone position beside Callahan, Thomas expressed his number one fear.
“If these are indeed the guys who snatched the VP and my brother’s Secret Service team, I wonder what in hell they’re trying to pull off. They might be able to keep us temporarily at bay, but it’s only a matter of time until we bring down enough reinforcements to take them out.”
“I’m just concerned that these are the same skunks who’ve been stealing weapons from Leonard Wood. If they’re locals, they’ll have a thorough knowledge of these woods, making tracking them down difficult.”
A series of three closely grouped sniper rounds rained down on them. One of the rounds ricocheted off a boulder, embedding itself in a tree trunk only a few feet behind them. Thomas instinctively ducked, and as he pressed his head into the ground, he inadvertently swallowed a mouthful of wet dirt. He spat out the mud, and his companion laughed.
“We finally made a mud eater out of you, Kellogg.”
“I’ll never complain about an MRE again,” promised Thomas, who managed a nervous smile himself.
An intense outburst of automatic-weapons fire sounded in the distance.
It had a vastly different pitch from the fire previously directed upon them, and Callahan glanced at his watch and matter-of-factly commented:
“If I’m not mistaken, that should be Sergeant Reed and his boys completing their flanking maneuver.”
No sooner were these words spoken than Callahan’s two-way activated, and the sound of gunfire faded.
“Commander One, this is Commander Three. Over,” broke in a breathless voice from the speaker.
“Commander Three, this is Commander One. What did you find up there. Sapper leader?” asked Callahan.
“Commander One, the opposition has been neutralized. And, sir, you’ll never believe what these rascals were up to.”
“Have you located the Vice President?” Callahan asked hopefully.
“We’re still checking, sir. If you proceed about half a klick up the path, you can’t miss us.”
“Roger that. Commander Three. We’re on our way. Over.”
Callahan informed the MPs of the all-clear. They emerged from cover, and with Captain Christian leading the way to check for booby traps, they continued up the trail.
Thomas was last in line. He was relieved to be on the move once more. Ever hopeful that his brother would be found safe and sound close by, he easily kept up with the formation, which proceeded forward with a new sense of urgency.
It was as they neared a large open clearing that he smelled the distinctive odor of ammonia. A group of Sappers were in the process of examining a ramshackle Airstream trailer that was positioned at the clearing’s western edge. Two men with their hands restrained behind their backs were spread out on their stomachs nearby, with a Sapper keeping watch over them with an M-16. They were dressed in camouflage fatigues, and had their long hair tied in ponytails.
Sergeant Reed emerged from behind the trailer, carrying a pair of hunting rifles with scopes on them. Ranger Glickman accompanied him, and when she spotted Thomas, a wide grin lit up her face.
“Special Agent, I believe you’ll be especially interested in what we found back there.”
“I assume that it’s not the Vice President.”
“I’m afraid there’s no sign of him,” replied the Ranger.
“Though at long last we’ve managed to catch a pair of notorious methamphetamine bootleggers who have been plaguing the forest.
Their lab is right out there in the woods, and we caught them using stolen anhydrous ammonia fertilizer to convert ephedrine into meth.”
Thomas found it hard to hide his disappointment, and he looked at Ted Callahan and vented his frustration.
“Where the hell’s Vice President Chapman and Vince?”
“I believe the answer to that question lies further down the river, my friend,” offered Callahan stoically.
Chapter 28
They used an improvised field stretcher constructed out of salvaged canoe paddles and fishing line to carry Lewis Marvin from the crash site. Vince noted the severe burns that covered Marvin’s backside as they pulled him from the underbrush. The rear portion of his flight suit was burned away, revealing raw, burned skin, and when they initially moved him, he howled in pain and slipped into unconsciousness.
He remained unconscious for the entire hike into the hollow.
Vince suspected he was in shock and that, in addition to the burns, he had severe internal injuries as well. Marvin would need immediate medical attention. Yet because of their isolated location and the hostile nature of their escorts, getting him to a doctor was doubtful. All that Vince could do was keep him as comfortable as possible, and try to attend to his wounds once they were at the campsite.
Junior was particularly anxious to have his father question their new prisoner. Marvin was apparently the first solid evidence proving the existence of the dreaded UN-sponsored, One World/ Black Helicopter conspiracy. Vince’s previous acquaintance with Marvin only served to fuel Junior’s paranoia, and Vince could only hope that he’d get a chance to clarify their relationship. Of course, he was equally interested in learning all about Marvin’s involvement with the ambush.
One of Vince’s greatest fears was how Andrew Chapman had fared during their hike to the river. He was afraid that the VP might have further incurred the wrath of his captors and had been subsequently shot. He was thus pleasantly surprised when they entered the campsite and found Chapman alive and well, in the midst of a spirited game of checkers with Amos Stoddard.
The checker players were seated on the wooden porch of a small, ramshackle cabin. There was an open Mason jar filled with a clear liquid substance beside them, with Satan snuggled up alongside Andrew Chapman’s outstretched feet.
Just as Vince and his party emerged from the forest with Marvin in tow, Amos completed an eagerly anticipated triple jump, wiping the last of the VP’s checkers from the board.
“You might be a devious politician,” shouted Amos in triumph, “but you sure are a lousy checkers player.”
Satan began barking to announce the newcomers, prompting Tiny to exit the cabin. The tall, potbellied redhead with the inappropriate name carried a shotgun, and he called out to Junior in a deep, resonant voice.
“Who are ya carryin’ in that stretcher. Junior? Don’t tell me you went and snagged the President?”
Junior ignored this facetious remark, and instead excitedly addressed his father.
“Pa, it’s a United Nations storm trooper! We practically pulled him right out of his black helicopter on the banks of the Eleven Point.”