Chapter 25

Morning found everyone groggy. After John stood, he looked back at the bed and saw Mei and Mary had puppy piled Pixy in their sleep filling the gap where he had lain. As good looking as their naked bodies were, he couldn’t even think about sex at that moment, so he left them piled up and went for his coffee.

After retrieving his morning fix, he stepped outside to the picnic table and sat facing the rising sun enjoying the solitude for a change of pace.

That solitude was soon broken when he heard a familiar cadence down the road. It went like this;

I saw an old lady walkin’ down the street.

She had a chute on her back, and jump boots on her feet.

I said, “Hey, Old Lady, where you goin’ to?”

She said, “I’m goin’ to the Army Airborne School.”

I said, “Hey, Old Lady, I think you’re too old;

You’d better leave that stuff to the brave and the bold.”

She said, “Listen, Sonny, I’m talking to you;

I’m an instructor at the Airborne School.”

I saw the same old lady walkin’ down the street.

She had a pack on her back, jungle boots on her feet.

I said, “Hey, Old Lady, where you goin’ to?”

She said, “I’m goin’ to Marine Corps Recon School.”

I said, “Hey, Old Lady, I think you’re too old;

You’d better leave that stuff to the brave and the bold.”

She said, “Listen, Sonny, I’m talking to you;

I’m an instructor at the Recon School.”

I saw the old lady walkin’ down the street.

She had a tank on her back, and fins on her feet.

I said, “Hey, Old Lady, where you goin’ to?”

She said, “I’m goin to the Navy Diving School.”

I said, “Hey, Old Lady, I think you’re too old;

You’d better leave that stuff to the brave and the bold.”

She said, “Listen, Sonny, I’m talking to you;

I’m an instructor at the Diving School.”

I turned to leave, and she spun me around;

She kicked me in the head, and threw me to the ground.

I looked up through my tears, and with a voice full of fear,

I begged, “Please, Old Lady, don’t kill me right here.”

She said, “Listen Sonny, don’t you mess with me;

I’m Airborne, Recon, and UDT!”

At “UDT,” John saw Gunny and her girls come into view. The latter pair looked worse for the wear. There were a few people poking their heads out of their doors. Obviously not happy to have been woken at this hour.

John saw the old man that ran this park standing outside his office standing at attention. He barked “OORAH!”

When the cadence ended, John figured there wasn’t much of a chance of trouble after that.

Poor Cecile turned and puked on the side of road. Gunny turned and crowded her space looking down on her “You wanted to fight! You wanted to be strong! Get your asses in gear ladies, this is how it starts!”

John thought to himself ‘It’s been too long,’ then walked back in his camper, put on his running shoes and dropped his coffee mug in the sink. Going back outside, he caught up to the three and fell in line behind them.

Gunny looked back and smirked, “Ravenclaw! What the fuck are you doing?”

“PT Gunny, it’s been too long.”

“OORAH!” was her only reply.

After another mile, they were back to where they started.

John dropped for push ups, and began his old routine. As bad as he was hurting, he’d rather eat nails than have Gunny see him fail. By the time he was done, his girls were gathered on the bench spectating along side of what was apparently Pat’s girls now.

He was wondering to himself if it was a good idea or not for either Alba, or Cecile to be in the open like this.

With Gunny around, their safety wasn’t in doubt, except by sniper fire. At that thought, he assessed the area like he used to in the bad old days. Now that the sun was out, the street lamps had turned off. He saw something suspicious on top of the pole opposite his camper.

He got out his phone and called Jose.

On answer John said “Jose, you still have that linemen gear with you?”

Jose answered “Yeah boss, you need it? We were just heading out to go for breakfast. I’ll swing it by on the way” then hung up.

A few minutes later, Jose drove up and stopped. He got out, gawking at the crowd, then handed John a line man’s bag.

John said “Thanks, just want to check out a problem.”

Jose climbed back into his truck with Maria and left.

John looked at Gunny as he strapped on the climbing gear. “Likely surveillance camera on top of the pole.”

The park manager walked up to John and asked “Going climbing?”

John pointed up at the pole and answered “Not if that camera is yours, Bill.”

Bill looked at John with a puzzle written on his face “What camera?”

John immediately strapped the pole with the belt harness, then dug in the spikes ascending the pole.

When he finished the climb, he saw there was in fact a camera, and an expensive one at that. He took out a small drawstring bag, then put it over the device without touching it, and used the bag to wrestle the camera loose from its mounting.

Once he got down, he handed the bag to Bill and said “Since this property is yours, this camera should be too.”

Bill looked at the bag in his hands, feeling the object within, then dropped it on the ground and stomped on it replying “What camera?”

John leaned over picking the bag up and peeked inside. The camera was shattered.

John looked back at Bill and said, “Must have been mistaken, this is a bag of plastic trash, sorry to have bothered you, Bill.”

Bill nodded, “I’ll be keeping an eye out for the littering bastard who put it up there,” then walked off.

John went over to the picnic table, and poured the broken parts out on the table. Gunny sat opposite him and began sorting through the bits.

She looked at John holding up one particular bit saying “This is not government issued.”

He took the piece from her and looked at it closely. He then asked Mei to help, handing the piece to her.

He asked “Do you recognize the writing?”

Mei nodded her head, then starting looking through the rest of the junk.

She finally said, “This is 100% Chinese made, but it would have cost a lot of money. We found one like it on the last LNG tanker I worked on. Almost the same model. Solar powered, burst data transmission, definitely high end. Even when it was taken apart, it would still burst transmit a final report.”