Chapter 6

Special thanks to Phil Gorman 2015 for his expertise in editing and proofing.

She is wearing a black string bikini. It appears, from the back, that her bum is bare; but, the string is hiding in heaven. Her scent hits me. Charlize is beautiful in her own right, like all the girls; each is distinct and so appealing. She stops and her skirt settles on her hips. She looks into my eyes and flicks her finger for me to follow her to Jayden's bedroom. Following her is a visual delight. Her skirt sways with her hips, at the bed she turns, facing me; she makes a production out of removing her bikini thong. Charlize crumples it in her hand and throws it at me. Grabbing it out of the air, I bring it to my nose; John Thomas loves the scent, it is another trophy I would love to keep but not under the present circumstances.

The trip back to cabin is without too much stress for all of my girls are safe for the time being. I have great faith in Mckenzi, after seeing her calmly take out the bad guy. The incline to the cottage is filled with a line of vehicles; it appears all are here for the round table.

"Attention, Don has finally shown up. Please bow!"

"Skip, stick it! If your mother taught you to tell time, and tie your shoes without help, you would know it is six-twenty-five. Is everybody here?"

Peanut is nodding yes. The kitchen area is full of people. We might as well get this on the road.

"For the few of you who don't know, Riggs apparently has placed a sizable bounty on Skip's and my head, dead or alive. But, I don't think his goons are going to be kissy poo with you gentlemen. I would suggest we all assume that we have bounties on us, just in varying degrees of value; he knows I couldn't have managed all the carnage on my own. Before we get into the details of this campaign and yes, gentlemen, it is a campaign, I want each of you to think about this very carefully; within the next thirty days you may be dead if you continue to support myself and Skip! Think long and hard about that; if, for any reason, this is not for you, I will provide you with one-hundred thousand in cash, or more, for you to disappear. Don't answer just yet. Think about it and all the ramifications. I can guarantee everyone; you will be fighting for your life at some time in that time period. Now, I will shut up and get a coffee."

Someone had the forethought to purchase five boxes of coffee pods for my spiffy coffee machine. We are going to need them. Skip is looking at me questioningly. I haven't run my new ideas by anyone yet. Surveying the group I see that a few are whispering to each other, comrades in arms so to speak. Then it goes quiet.

"Gentlemen, have you made your decisions? And no one is going to question what you decide. Skip and I are the real targets of Riggs; you, gentlemen, are minor annoyances to Riggs. So, if you were to disappear from Abbotsville, I very much doubt anyone will be looking for you. Your decisions, please. Peanut will call your name and you will reply with yay or nay. Okay Peanut, start the roll call."

Skip and I are at the coffee machine.

"What are you up to, Don? What is happening?"

"We have been approaching this problem all wrong; we want to damage Riggs, not get anyone killed. I have a new approach, which I will explain to all who are still here. You are going to be a big part, as I need all of your suppliers for a number of unorthodox items."

"Such as?"

"Wait, I think Peanut is done."

"Don, counting you and Skip as yays, we have ten yays and nil nays. We are all in for the count."

"Gentlemen, I thank you! It isn't going to be easy, the odds, no doubt, will be stacked against us; it will be our job to create innovative ways to lower the odds. I am going to request a number of instructions to various people some of which may not make sense to you; but, once I get rolling with the explanation, hopefully, it will become clear what is going to happen. Is everybody in agreement?"

Silence!

"Okay, let's start: Skip, contact your suppliers, we need a large quantity of black powder, several smoke canisters, a dozen field flares, incendiary grenades and fifteen land mines; that will be a start. Contact your cleaners and make arrangements to have them on standby, on six hours' notice; there is no doubt we are going to need them. Also, make inquiries to determine if there is some way to get rid of blood and flesh splatter off rocks. I am hoping there is a spray foam that will at least disguise it or, better still, have microbes to ingest it leaving little or no evidence of the carnage that will certainly occur."

Among Skip's acquaintances is a group I call the "cleaners," they remove dead bodies and body parts, for a fee, which are never found or heard of again. The cleaners come in handy with the shootouts.

"Peanut, use your drone to map out the mountain face so that we can determine the most proficient way to defend it with gun emplacements. I also want to have a well defended gun platform for the Barrett."

"Sil and Jake, can you think of any Vet who is Barrett qualified and would be crazy enough to join our suicide group? A spotter would be an asset, too!"

They both nod at me: they will look into it.

"I am sure there will be other requirements, but that will come later. Now, please listen to my plan."

Skip looks at me questioningly.

"Going forward, we are going to use different tactics. Riggs's treasures are no longer our prime motive and there are two reasons for that: one, we don't need them for we have more than enough of his assets to do want ever is required; but, what we do need is to have everything Riggs holds near and dear confiscated. Two, we don't need to risk life and limb to do it. Attacking strongholds is dangerous. We have been very fortunate that we have come out unscathed, but we would be pushing our luck to continue on that course. Going forward we are going to reveal to the authorities every storehouse of Riggs's we can locate. That is the reason for the black powder explosives; they make a helluva lot of noise, but with little or no damage. Flares will draw attention to the properties, smoke and explosions will have the emergency vehicles responding to each location. The first one we will expose is Cedar Street. We need to get a smoke bomb on the roof. Sil and Jake will take another look at the property lists and determine if any could be storage facilities for drugs and valuables. We will do recon work and, if they are suspect, we will draw them to the attention of the authorities; if they are legitimate, no harm done. Questions so far?"

Skip, of course, has a question.

"What do we need the land mines for? And why get in touch with the cleaners?"

"Skip, we are going to have to defend Everett Mountain again. Riggs can only take so many loses before he cracks and comes after us; we are going to choose the battleground, Everett Mountain. We have defended it before; we will have to do it again."

"And how are you going to make him crack?"

"Riggs has a personal Valhalla at 92 Palm Crescent; he has his personal art collection and other valuables on display there. We are going to remove them."

"And how are we going to do that? It will have state of the art security and, if it is shielded, Peanut won't be able to disable it."

"I believe the combination is available."

"You're shitting me! Riggs is going to say, hi Don; here is the combination to my personal space? Have fun!"

"No, but a former girlfriend, now a spurned girlfriend, may want to get some revenge."

"You have his former girlfriend? That's who the third captive was!"

"Yes, and I believe she will co-operate. The house is in her name; with Riggs out of the way, it is all hers. We will return the valuables to her, assuming we live through this. Those with tasks please complete them; all others, give me some time, I am sure there will be tasks for you."

Sil and Jake look to Peanut as the printer is spewing out paper, the lists of properties owned or controlled by Riggs. It has me wondering if Riggs may have other Palm Crescent properties that Teagan may not be aware of or, perhaps, she knows something but doesn't realize it. Another trip to the safe house is required. Skip is on his cell in a heated conversation. Now Sil and Jake are going over the property lists: Peanut grabs his drone and heads to the back of the cabin. In moments, it is overhead; Peanut is at his notebook, moving the drone back and forth over Everett Mountain. The view is majestic, looking straight down on the cabin.

If we can provoke Riggs to attack the mountain, it would be great if we had some notice of the impending ruckus. But how? We would need someone camped near the highway both east and west of the cabin to report the armada of vehicles carrying Riggs's soldiers. Can we dip into the Vets pool for more bodies? Rex is talking to his two friends: perhaps he can suggest someone.

"Rex, do you have a moment?"

"What can I do, Don?"

"I am going to run a scenario by you and you can tell me if you can help."

"Fire away."

"After we are done with Riggs's buildings, I am sure he is going pull out all stops. It would be great if we had some notice when his group is on Timber Road coming towards the cabin. It would give us time to get into position for its defence."

"Believe it or not, seven of the Vets approached me when they heard something was going down. Every one of them are bored as hell; they miss the action, even though they won't admit it. It sounds like minimal risk for them and great for us."

"I would appreciate it if you would approach them, they will be well paid for their efforts."

"Will do, anything else?"

"Yes, there is. If this all comes down, as we are predicting, the last thing I want is some unsuspecting driver to drive into a raging battle. Once we determine Riggs' group is on the move and passes the alerts, we need to set up road blocks and detours to divert the traffic away from the mountain until the battle is over, one way or the other. I would suggest, if possible, diverting them south, away from the action."

"Once I have a group committed to watch Timber Road, I am sure they will be all for the road blocks. we can borrow the signage from one of the road repair depots. When it is over, we can return it, no one the wiser!"

"If you can arrange that, it will be great."

"I and my friends are heading back to Abbotsville. When do you want us back?"

"We will have another round table tomorrow morning, say eleven."

I make the rounds among all the volunteers, thanking them for staying the course, and confirming that they will be at the round table in the morning with news of the various assignments. Skip is still on his cell. Finally, he is done.

"How did you make out?"

"Everything is ordered and, with luck, the supplies will be here tomorrow before noon. I talked to the cleaners and arranged for them to clean the mess on the mountain; for a fee, of course. I heard you with Rex, sounds promising."

"I wish this was over. We both know Riggs is turning over every rock trying to get a lead on us: it is just a matter of time when someone mentions the cabin. However, we need a few more days. Once we get the explosives and smoke bombs, we can target two or three places at the same time. We may have to forgo the others we are still not aware of, and hit his Palm Crescent residence. Once that is done, we can gather here and wait. We can arrange to have someone leak our location."

"Don, I feel like we are playing with fire. We have been lucky so far."

"Have you seen Mark?"

"He was talking to Peanut a while ago. I think he is still here."

I did find Mark, asleep on a lounge beside Peanut. He looks so peaceful.

"Mark!"

"Shit, I fell asleep. What's up?"

"One question: do any of the people we have recruited have Medical experience?"

"Yes, I believe one of Rex's buddies was a medic, why do you ask?"

"It pays to be prepared. Find out what he needs and pick it up in Abbotsville over your next couple of trips. I hope we don't need it but..."

"Count it as done."

Sil and Jake are still discussing Riggs's list of possible storage units. Rex and his crew are gone. That just leaves me, Skip and Peanut; the sound of Mark's engine is an indication that he is leaving as well. Hell, I hope we have everything covered and it goes with our timetable. Again, there are so many balls in the air. One bad move and all hell can break loose.

A quick trip to the safe house to visit Teagan had me realize why we are going through all this. Jayden, Rayne and Mckenzi were at the table enjoying soft drinks. The sun was shining; all was well at the safe house. Mckenzi had a bulge on her chest and it isn't a boob, it was one of the Glocks. The lanyard hanging from her neck was attached to an Uzi.

"All is well, Mckenzi?"

"Nothing to report Don. I check the perimeter every hour, everything is good. I did what you suggested about the vault, it has all the supplies that may be needed."

"I hope it doesn't come to that, but it pays to be prepared."

"Me too, I like this house the way it is."

"Is Teagan around?"

"She is upstairs washing her hair. She should be in her room drying it by now."

Leaving all in the kitchen, I head upstairs to Teagan's room, where I find that the door is open; she is standing in front of the mirror drying her hair with one of those noisy dryers and doesn't hear me. Her only covering for a top is a bra, a mauve lacy bra; her back is flawless, desirable skin. John Thomas raises his head for a better look. As she moves her body to direct the dryer, it provides an excellent view of her well-developed breasts. She is so desirable, but that isn't the reason I am here.

"Teagan, do you have a moment?"

I must have surprised her; she jumped and then looked at me.

The view of just her bra-covered breasts doesn't help to persuade John Thomas we are here for information, not celebration. The material of the bra, is shear, her nipples are visual points of interest.

"Sorry, Don, you startled me. What can I do for you?"

I can think of many things, none helping the cause.

"Other than 92 Palm Crescent, does Riggs have any other private properties that you know of?"

"No, as far as I know of on Palm Crescent, we never went anywhere else."

"Great! I would like the combination for the 92 Palm Crescent address please."

"Why?"

"You really don't want to know."

She moves to a bedside table, removes a memo pad, writes for a moment and hands it to me.

"Please don't wreck the place."

"That is not our intention; we just want to get Riggs exited and pissed at me."

Then she surprises me, walking towards me, her arms encircle my neck and she kisses me, a soft, warm, wet kiss, including a bit of tongue. John Thomas is at full attention pushing against Teagan's pubes. She realizes my excitement and pushes back against John Thomas. Oh, I wish there was time, lots of time. I am looking a bit surprized.

"That is a little token for saving me from Riggs's goons. Just letting you know, I'd love to do more."

Time for me to exit left. Her scent is prevalent, I relive the kiss.

The trip back to the cabin allows me to run the scenarios through my mind. One thing that comes to mind is we are going to have to park the vehicles away from the cottage. If we mine the trail, the bad guys are going to need access, and I really don't want the Suburban and our other vehicles shot up. There is a large area off Timber Road, where I left the 'Crispy Critters' before, we can use for parking.

Morning comes with the enticing odor of bacon: Sil and Jake must be here. In the eating area there are bodies moving everywhere, trying to get a place to sit and enjoy breaky. Doing a quick head count I see that everybody is present. Most have had breakfast, and are sitting with fresh coffee in hand. It is ten to eleven.

"Rex, how did you make out?"

"Not a problem. All seven quickly volunteered; they are gathering items they will need, as we speak. All would like to get involved with the defence of the cabin. Every one of them has been involved is serious action."

"Thanks Rex, and thank the volunteers for their offer. It's my hope they will not be required until sometime next week. I really don't want to have more lives at risk, but you can arm them from the extra's we have in the rafters. Make sure there is ammunition to match the armaments. There is quite a variety of rifles."

"Skip, how did you make out?"

"As I mentioned yesterday, the ordnances should be here shortly; which reminds me, I need thirty-three thousand in cash. The cleaners are arranged and will be here on six hours' notice."

Another trip to the back, with a grocery bag, I place thirty-three thousand dollars, of unbanned bills, in the bag. Even with all of the withdrawals I have made so far, the bag is still three-quarters full. I am going to have to count all of it, one of these days; but, the more spent is the less to count.

"Mark, who is the medic?"

"Ron Brash, the handsome guy next to the ugly one."

He is referring to Rex, who gives him the international sign of an index finger, pointing up.

"Hello Ron, did you give Mark your list?"

"We picked everything up today. It is in the Sprinter."

"Find somewhere in the cabin to stash it, preferably behind one of the granite barriers, along the floor of the cabin."

"Peanut, how did you make out with a position for the Barrett?"

"To the left of the cottage, about forty feet from the cottage wall, is a flat plateau about ten feet deep; we can build a wall of granite, which we have plenty of. Its killing zone is nearly ninety percent of the incline to the highway. There are a few blind spots from the granite slabs, sticking out of the mountain face, and I doubt anyone will climb to the top of one of those during a firefight."

"Any other suggestions where to place a rifleman?"

"I have a blueprint of the mountain with notations. You can look at it."

"Thanks Peanut, Skip and I will take a look at it."

"Sil, Jake ... any luck on a Barrett operator?"

"Would a retired ordnance instructor be of interest? He has Barrett experience, as well as most of the ordnance we have. He is more than willing to help. I mentioned it could be dangerous and his comment was, 'If I have to go out, what would be better than firing a Barrett at the bad guy?' He is in."

"When can I meet him?"

"If we can pick him up, I would say later this afternoon; I'll call him now."

"Do that; but, before you leave, check with the guys to see if they need anything."

"Will do."

The sound of a horn gets everybody's attention as handguns appear from nowhere. They are prepared! There is an older Ford cargo van slowly lumbering up the incline. The driver never spun the wheels. I hope Skip noticed that! It is Skip's supplier. I have yet to figure out how he explains to the suppliers how to reach this paradise. Skip is out the door, grocery bag in hand. There is the usual hand off, a delay while the driver checks the bag, then the doors open and two men are quickly unloading the boxes on the side of the trail; the exchange has taken less than fifteen minutes. The doors slam and the van slowly backs down the incline. Once on the road, it accelerates and disappears.

With all the manpower available, it takes only a few trips to have everything in the back of the cabin. Skip goes through the inventory.

I notice grenades, two different types. Skip looks at me and smiles.

"I got a few grenades; never know what your enemy will attack you with. The blue ones are incendiary grenades."

"As long as you know what you are doing with them. They can cause a helluva lot of damage."

"Everything is here. Where do you want the land mines? They are big enough to blow up a tank."

"Put them on the shelf outside the back door; they are weatherproof, so nothing should bother them."

Grabbing a copy of Peanuts' map of the mountain face, I slowly walk down the incline towards the road, picking out spots where there appears to be pockets of gravel deep enough to bury a mine. I managed to find six possible sites. The rest will be dispersed in the mountain face; they are going to make a helluva mess of anyone standing on one of them. Things are coming together. I return to the cottage, map in hand.

The eating area is full of bodies; most have steaming cups of coffee in their hands.

"Peanut, can you bring up the video of the Cedar Street building. What I am looking for is a means to place the smoke bombs on the roof. We can draw attention to the building with the flares, but billowing smoke will get everybody's attention."

We all watch the video as Peanut stops it, reverses it, then lets it play on. Mark speaks.

"Can we get access to the building next door? It has one more floor then Riggs's building and there is an access door. We could just drop the explosives on Riggs's building, I am sure Peanut can place timers in the smoke bombs."

"We can do a recon on the building, early this afternoon, and set up the flares. Then when we are ready, we can first set off the black powder explosives in the demolition area; then fire the flares; then the smoke bombs. In the confusion, the mindset will imagine everything is originating from Riggs's building. The emergency services will do the rest."

"When do you plan to do this?"

"No later than tomorrow night. I still have to talk to Jake's friend about the Barrett; once we pull something like this off, Riggs's will be really pissed. Riggs has his men looking for us now. There is nothing like a diversion of another one of his warehouses being hit; hopefully, it will keep him off balance. He has a temper and this will help him loose it!"

There is a murmur of agreement; the majority of the men are getting antsy for action.

"Peanut, can you bring up the property we inspected, the one with all the security but no captives?"

The screen goes blank, a couple of flashes appear, some beautiful black and white lines, then the image from the drone flying over the house in question. When we first watched the infrared images, we were looking for a holding room with two heat signatures and never looked any further. Now, looking at the complete picture, we can see what looks like a collapsed barn in the right hand corner. The roof has caved in, rafters and logs are sticking out in an irregular pattern, it is something burnable.

"Skip, what would you think about hitting two of Riggs's storage houses in one night? That will really send him over the edge."

"As long as it can be done, go for it."

"It now depends on access to the next door building on Cedar Street. If you look at the image on the screen, we have access to the collapsed barn from the fence. We can throw an incendiary over the fence and, once the fire spreads, we can set off a couple of flares, toss in a couple of smoke bombs for effect and leave a couple of timed black powder bombs for some noise. That should get the neighbors calling 911."

A car is coming up the hill, it is Sil and Jake; they have a passenger in the back seat, the Barrett operator, I hope. He is a large man, greying hair, walks with a military gait. All three come in together. Jake waves at me.

"Don, meet Brian Oliver, he has volunteered to operate the Barrett. He happens to have a bit of experience with them."

"Hello Brian, I am Don Johnson, and this is John 'Skip' Watson. He prefers Skip. What has Jake told you about our little adventure?"

"Not much, just that you need someone who knows about the Barrett and how to operate it. I qualify for both. I was an ordnance instructor for most of my military life; the Barrett is one of the better killing machines. How can I help?"

"Follow me, I will show you where we hope you will be able to set up."

Brian follows me to the ledge Peanut suggested would be the best for the Barrett. All that is actually needed is a barricade of some granite slabs to protect the gunner and the gun.

"We were hoping to set the Barrett up here. As you can see, you have a great killing zone, nearly the complete mountain face. The primary function of the Barrett is to make sure the bad guys can't set up one of their own. I don't think the cabin could handle the .50 calibres for any length of time."

"You're correct; the A. P. rounds would make short work of the rock barricade. It would keep chipping away until there is nothing but gravel."

"I don't want to lose my cabin again, it has been rebuilt twice."

Brian looks at me like he has a question, but thinks the better of it and doesn't ask.

"I believe it is doable. Can I see the ordnance?"

"Certainly, you can set it up and the guys will help you with the barricade."

Back in the cabin, I ask Mark, Jake and Sil to assist Brian in setting up the Barrett. I watch as they manhandle it from its nest in the rafters. Jake grabs a case of ammo and follows the group to the ledge. That should keep them busy. After that is completed, the other placements, according to Peanut's suggestions, will need barricades built and made ready. I really don't relish the prospects of another shoot out on Everett Mountain. But, it gives us an edge in making them come to us. We have to be ready for anything Riggs throws at us. I can only assume there could be a couple of surprises; my hope is that we will be ready for them.

Looking around, everybody seems to be caught up in their own thoughts. Every minute that passes gets us closer to the final event, the shootout at Everett. My mountain has protected me, and mine, and I hope it does the same this time. The next two events should make Riggs realize that everything he holds near and dear is threatened. There is one more thing that needs to be arranged. Mark can help me. He is chatting with Peanut.

"Mark, you have a minute?"

"Yep."

"Out of the seven volunteers you have, is there one you could suggest for some surveillance work?"

"Explain."

"Riggs has a residence at 92 Palm Crescent, what I need is someone watching the place 24/7. I need to know when he is there and when he leaves. Especially when we take out Riggs' two secured facilities, he will be madder than a hatter. I have another little surprise for him that really should push him over the edge and, hopefully, make him prone to make a few mistakes."

"Actually, I know they will happily volunteer; we can create two teams of two and rotate them."

"Please get it started. Give them my cell number and have them call me every time he arrives or leaves."

"What are you up to Don?"

"I have the password for that residence. I plan to move some of artifacts and art, giving him the impression that they have been stolen. The information I have is he holds everything in the building very personal; I will be invading his personal space. Once he discovers the theft, it won't be long after that that we will be getting a visit from every hood Riggs can round up. Once I have done my dirty work, your teams can set up surveillance on Timber Road."

Mark nods.

"Mark, before returning, will you pick up eight cases of bottled water, twenty boxes of energy bars and once you are back, make sure there is a good supply at every gun emplacement. I don't want anyone getting fatigued because of a lack of water or an energy lift."

"I will take care of that as soon as I return."

"One more thing: do you know the 'mole, ' Rick?"

"I know of him, why?"

"Once we have completed tonight's mayhem, it would be nice for Rick to call Riggs's friend and leak our location to him, make sure he asks for more than a hundred; I am sure he can get five hundred for my location. Give Rick directions to Timber Road."

"I will drop by the Vets Help Centre after our deeds are completed and if I can't talk to him, I will ask Barry White to help; I may have to give him a few details."

"Not a problem, I can't see Barry calling the local police."

Hell, I hope I have everything covered. The girls are safe; Mckenzi will make sure of that. At this point, I really don't think Riggs has any interest in them. They have served their purpose. Riggs is after Skip and will gladly take out me for good measure. It is my goal in life to make sure he fails, and fails miserably; with his life. Hell, I wish it was over!