Chapter 17

It was one hour 57 minutes when Henry called to tell me he was pulling up to the main office. I just laughed and said I acquired all the rooms in the building I was currently occupying and if he needed more than three double bedrooms to get that sorted in the office.

I told him what building we had and said I would start some coffee. Henry and I hugged, a more than friends, more than brothers, type of hug. Then he asked what the hell was I mixed up in?

Henry Quinatah 6’6” 370lbs is not fat, he is just big, 52” chest and 40” waist, he is thick but not fat looking. We met on a mission that had gone to shit from the start. He was part of an alphabet group and my team were assigned as additional support (extra shooters).

He carried a M249 SAW like the rest of us carried the M4 carbine. Two .45 APC on his thighs and his great-great-great-grandfathers’ Bowie knife across the small of his back along his belt just below his vest (this saved his life).

On a previous mission he was shot just below his vest low in the back and his bowie stopped the bullet leaving a slight divot on the knife. It is almost 18” long with a 5” handle, 12.5” blade, and ½ inch guard, just slightly over ¼” inch thick.

I saw him almost decapitate a man using his bowie like a machete, and then throw it so more than 4” sunk into the chest of the guy. It is more like a hatchet than a knife.

I poured both of us a mug of coffee and added my sweetener and cream which Henry laughed at, calling it anything but coffee as he took his straight black and hot.

I introduced all of my people to Henry, then he introduced his team.

Trudi MacGrand, surgeon/ER doctor, 5’10”, 145lbs, hazel eyes, brunette, 36B-30-36 build, was left-handed and could shoot any pistol better than most with her right; don’t mess with her left, he advised. She just smiled and looked a little embarrassed.

Linda Alberts FLT RN with ICU &Trauma specialties; 5’9”, 135lbs, blue eyes, white-blonde hair, 38C-30-36 build, combat experienced as in medevac action; shot down in the middle of a shit storm and she and her flight crew got everyone including wounded out and has a purple heart and silver star to prove it. She just gave Henry a cold hard stare as he introduced her, then smiled.

Deke Ross, 5’8”, 165lbs, green eyes, light brown hair still in a military cut, 18D and licensed PA, very proficient in all the 18 skills.

Ignasio Garcia, 5’8”, 145lbs, brown eyes, brown hair in a ponytail, scout/sniper; might be more deadly with a knife than Henry. Ignasio carries a 15” tanto style knife. Earned a Bronze Star for killing seven men with his knife after exhausting all his ammo when his patrol was ambushed an almost over run.

Pete Oakland, 5’9”, 135lbs, green eyes, yellow-blonde hair in a business cut, sapper, expert in all explosives, probably could make a bomb out of just about anything. Typical geek.

Milton Justice, 6’2”, 230lbs, brown eyes, bald, Delta operator with communications specialties, expert in all forms of communications. Sometimes get mistaken for ‘the Rock’.

Jason Karr, 6’ nothing, 190lbs, hazel eyes, short brown hair, neat look, intel, and linguist, speaking English, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.

Kyle Brohanon, 5’10”, 175lbs, blue eyes, dirty blonde hair long to shoulders, mechanical whiz with everything: electronics, machines, and motors.

Jason and Deke would take one room and set it up as the Command and Control. The girls took the other two rooms, setting the middle room up as a medical center and the other as their bedroom. This put all the medical people here, with intel too.

Henry had a room in the building across from ours and Milton would be bunking with him and helping with communications in the C&C area.

Pete and Ignasio would be staying off site as backup forces.

We got down to planning our defense by starting with the layout of the lodge.

There were only two entrance/exit roads and the whole lodge was fenced in, with an eight-foot-high security/privacy fence that had a climb resistant spiked top. That really would not stop someone from climbing over, but it would make it more

difficult and slow the process down.

Yun would have three drones covering the entire area, rotating them out every 15 minutes, which would only take a minute or less and would ensure there were two drones covering the entire area at all times. She would have them doing a figure