Chapter 9

Oscar noticed a plume of dust on the horizon well outside of the training area. He watched it move and then stop. The medallion flared hot against his skin. His stomach clenched as the hairs on the back of his neck rose. As the dust started settling, he shouted, “Georgia, break radio silence. Get everyone back to camp right now.”

Without asking any questions, Georgia got on the radio and started broadcasting the message. Once she had told everyone his orders, she called back asking, “Why?”

“Tell them it’s an order from me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flare gun. He shot it into the sky to get everyone’s attention. He went back to the Hummer where Georgia was repeating the message to another group. He got into the drivers seat to check that it was fully operational and said, “We’ll wait here for an hour before heading back to camp. Anyone that gets here in time will have a ride.”

He opened the back of the Hummer. Under the normal bed of the Hummer was a hidden storage well. From that, he removed a number of rifles and clips of ammunition. After putting a clip into a rifle, he handed it to Georgia and said, “Get rid of the toys. We’re going live now.”

She stared at him in shock as she asked, “What do you mean?”

He answered, “We have the real thing six miles away from us. I want you to take a couple of these guns with you and hide up the side of the hill a little ways. When any of our guys show up, I want you to call them up to you and give them a gun. I’m going in the direction the terrorists are coming from. I’ll hold them off until it is time for us to leave.”

She looked at him and frowned, “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. You’re talking to Private Foo.”

She laughed softly as she turned to follow his directions. She knew that when it came time to do battle there were very few groups that could stand against him. That knowledge made it easy not to argue. Oscar went off in the direction of the dust plumes. He hadn’t even gone twenty meters away, when he disappeared into the surrounding landscape. Even though she understood how he did it, she watched amazed at how quickly he could hide himself.

With her extraordinary skill in hiding, she found a small depression and sat in it with her cloak around her. She blended into the rocks and sat still watching the horizon for signs of movement. One of their people slowly worked their way to the Hummer. She whistled softly and he turned in her direction. He climbed up the hill, correcting his course by ear until he was beside her.

She spoke softly, “There are terrorists in the area. Use this gun, it shoots real ammo. Hide yourself and watch for the enemy. Don’t shoot our guys by mistake. Oscar is out there searching for the terrorists and will be coming from that direction.”

The man answered in a whisper, “Will do.”

He moved thirty meters away to a rocky area and settled himself for the wait. Georgia studied his position and decided that he was hidden enough not to attract immediate attention. She moved her eyes to study the area around the Hummer, noticing the dust plume on the horizon. Concerned, she watched to see if it was coming closer. It wasn’t moving closer and it wasn’t moving further away. It looked like it was circling their position.

Another member of their party crept into the area. She smiled when she saw that it was Colonel Lettieri. She whistled softly and watched as the Colonel came straight to her position. She stopped about ten yards away and sat down hiding herself. Georgia called over to her in a soft voice, “We have real terrorists in the area. I’ve got a gun here with real ammo for you. Get it and then hide somewhere to cover a good area. Did you notice the Captain?”

The other woman called back just as softly, “Yes, I did. I didn’t see him until I was about on top of him.”

“Good. Oscar is on the other side of the Hummer looking for the terrorists.”

The Colonel climbed up the hill, pausing slightly to get a gun and continued up. An observer would have thought she just stopped to catch her breath. Her pass by Georgia was intended to keep her position carefully hidden. Georgia smiled at the knowledge that her friend had learned some lessons better than any of the others.

She noticed two dust plumes of trucks heading towards the camp from where the Hummers of the other groups had been parked. She nodded as she realized what that meant. As she processed the information around her, she realized how much she had learned from Oscar over the past five months. She sat there watching the environment, knowing well before anyone even showed themselves that they were coming. More of their people arrived at the Hummer. She did a count and confirmed that all six trainees had gathered there.

Oscar came around the hill and blew his whistle. Everyone stood and went to the Hummer. Oscar joined them there and opened the door. They all climbed into the Hummer. As soon as the doors were closed and a headcount performed, Oscar floored it and headed straight to the camp.

When he got to camp all of the other trainees were waiting for him outside the command center. Oscar stopped the Hummer outside the center and got out of it followed by the others. One of the men waiting called out, “What’s going on?”

Oscar stopped and turned to face everyone. He answered, “We have real terrorists coming into the training area. I’m going to hand out real guns with live ammo. We have five teams in training. Three regular army and two special forces teams. The least experienced team is regular army. You guys are going to guard the camp today and tomorrow. The second least experienced regular army team will also stay here to guard through the nights. Each of you will change guard positions every hour.”

Oscar turned to the others and said, “You will join me in the field. We’ll leave tonight. The moon is new, so we can use a Hummer to get to the hills. Once there, you will each take a region of the training area and watch it. I’ll move across the whole area. When you encounter the terrorists, take your time. If you don’t get a chance for a good clean kill of all of them, then don’t attack.”

Georgia sat there listening to the instructions. She finally asked, “What about me?”

Oscar answered, “You are in charge here. Make sure that everyone is alert. Provide coffee and enforce the rules.”

One of the new men objected, “She’s a civilian sir.”

The Colonel turned to the man and said, “She’s also the best fighter here, with the exception of Oscar. Obey her and you’ll be safe.”

Oscar smiled and opened the door to the command center. He commanded, “Folks, get in line to get your guns and ammo.”

Georgia went in with him and helped hand out the rifles and ammo. It was a slow process but everyone was appropriately armed by the time they were done. Once the newest team had been armed, Georgia took them out to the perimeter. She put five people to watch, keeping the sixth in reserve. He was to replace the person in the first position in an hour. The person in the first position was to relieve the person in the second position. The person in the fifth position would get an hour break and return to replace the person in the first position.

Oscar was busy at the map with the other teams laying out a grid identifying the area that each person would be responsible for scouting. Oscar pointed out weapons caches that he had established throughout the area in case terrorists entered the training area. There were three weapons caches in each area.

A general plan for dispersing the people along their entry points was developed. Oscar would drive each team along the hills slowing down long enough to let individuals out of the Hummer at different points. Each individual was to move inward until they reached their area to watch.

He told the assembled group, “Everyone get some rest, because for the next few days you won’t get any.”

One of them asked, “How will we know that it is all over?”

Oscar answered, “I will fire three flares separated by ten minutes at sunset. Use the darkness to return to the points where you were dropped off. Be careful in how you move, because there may still be lots of bad guys in the area.”

The meeting broke up. Oscar went outside and joined Georgia as she watched the horizon. Several more dust plumes were appearing far to the east. She turned to him and said, “There’s a large amount of movement out there. What do you think it is?”

Oscar turned to her and answered, “I think that our first few graduates have really upset the terrorist organizations. They have come here to shut us down.”

She looked at him with a question in her eyes. He clarified, “They’ve been very busy taking out camps all along the border. They’ve accomplished more in the past few weeks, then the army has done the entire time that its been here in a peace keeping role.”

She said, “So they are doing well. That is good to know.”

Oscar laughed and pointed to the horizon where another dust plume had appeared. He said, “There’s another group. They must be doing very well. Of course, that makes us a logical target.”

He turned to Georgia and said, “After this is over, I might need to let loose some emotions.”

She smiled at him and replied, “You mean my warrior is liable to come home ready to ravage me?”

“Exactly.”

She cooed, “I’ll be waiting all ready to be ravaged.”

He laughed and said, “For now, we have to rest. It is going to be a long time before we can again rest properly.”

The two of them returned to the command center and took a nap. For a change, it was a rather tame time spent in bed and the hours passed all too quickly. The sun set and the soldiers met in front of the command center. Oscar came out of the center and went to the Hummer. He commanded, “First group, get in.”

The men climbed into the Hummer. When they had all entered, he pulled out of the camp. He drove without headlights and took a twisting path to the foothills. He occasionally stopped and then continued. When he reached the foothills, he paused about every half mile, not quite coming to a complete stop. At a few of those times, a man would exit the Hummer while it was still moving. Once the Hummer had been unloaded, Oscar turned around and headed back to camp.

He arrived at camp and stopped outside the command center. With an hour to kill, he went to the mess hall and got a cup of coffee. Georgia was there with the guard that was on relief. He sat down as he said, “The first group are off. I need to give them another hour to move into the next position.”

The soldier said, “I watched you out there using the night vision binoculars. I could see you slow down, but I couldn’t see anyone get out.”

“Did you see anything else?”

“There are very minor glows on four of the hills. They went out a little while ago.”

Oscar nodded and then said, “Four separate camps. There are probably more of them out there with better discipline.”

They sat there for a while enjoying the coffee. The soldier looked at his watch and stood up as he said, “My turn back on watch.”

Georgia replied, “Keep your eyes open.”

Oscar watched him go. He turned to Georgia and said, “I think you should consider joining the Druids. You are good at this.”

She laughed and answered, “I’ll become as randy as my sister. You wouldn’t like that, I’m sure.”

He smiled and remembered her sister with fondness. Every time that Georgia mentioned her sisters sexuality, Oscar thought back to his first time with Jennifer. He said, “There are worse things that can happen to you.”

“That’s true. Of course, you might like me to be a little more randy.” She smiled and hugged him. She knew that he was nervous about the students performing alright. The two captains had not made much progress in their training and still complained each time they were shot in the back.

He looked at his watch and said, “I have to go now. I’ve got another run to make.”

She kissed him before he left the kitchen. The latest relieved soldier came into the mess hall to get some coffee and stretch his legs. They passed at the mess hall door. The man coming in asked, “Is the situation that bad?”

Oscar was about to make light of it and then realized that wouldn’t be a good idea. He stopped and told the man, “We have a lot of bad guys out there that will kill us the first chance they get. Just remember, you have to pull the trigger first.”

Oscar went out into the night to ferry more people to the hills. He made four trips total before parking the Hummer and entering the hills himself. While the students were covering the training area, he was to explore the region surrounding the training area. It was only an hour before sunrise and it was necessary for him to get some distance away from the Hummer and find a spot to spend the day.

The sun rose as Oscar watched his surroundings. He was in a good location to see any traffic moving into the training area. He started when he heard explosions behind him. The explosions were followed by gunfire and then quiet returned. After fifteen minutes, one more shot rang out. From the pace of firing, he knew that one of his people had already found a camp and taken it out.

He looked in the direction of the camp. After half an hour, there was no flare. The instructions were that if a person was wounded, they would call into the camp and a flare would be fired. That would let him know that he was to move in and rescue the person. He relaxed and watched his environment.

A few birds that he recognized as rock doves flew away from an area not too far from him. He took note of the location and watched it. The lack of further movement suggested that it was a natural event. There was an off chance that a guard had moved into position and was now waiting and watching. He would know if there was a guard change by further disturbances in the area.

Hours passed and he took a short nap. He was startled awake by a series of explosions. They were followed by short bursts of gunfire. The exchange seemed to last a long time and he frowned. It suggested that the initial attack had not been very successful. He listened and waited. Movement caught his eyes as a person came over the hill in front of him to look around. There was a final huge explosion and Oscar smiled. They had hit the ammo.

He watched the person on the hill turn and leave. He knew that he wasn’t far from a camp. He heard the sound of an engine starting up and smiled to himself. They still hadn’t gotten fusion powered trucks. The engine sound traveled for miles in the quiet desert. The truck came into view and headed in the direction of the last explosion. He watched it go, not wanting to attack it and give away his own position so close to the camp. Thirty minutes later, he heard a single explosion.

He smiled to himself. His people were halting all movement of trucks through the area. Throughout the day, there were random explosions throughout the training area. He listened to each one, pleased at the lack of return fire. He knew that meant that most of his trainees had learned their lessons, but he still worried about the two captains.

Sunset seemed to take a long time to arrive. After sunset, he took a half an hour to eat. He was eating two meals a day now and conserving his water. He watched and listened before moving from his location. He took his time and moved slowly. It took him four hours to cover eight hundred meters. As he moved closer to the terrorist camp, the wider his eyes became. It was huge with over two hundred men there and very disciplined. There were no lights of any kind, but men watched the surroundings carefully. He definitely wasn’t going to be able to sneak into this camp and scout around.

He moved away to go to one of his weapons caches, realizing that he was going to need a lot more firepower than he was carrying with him. He went to the weapons cache and retrieved a number of explosives and grenade launchers. He made several trips setting out explosives with trip wires along routes that the terrorists would take to get out of the camp. He set out stores of grenades and launchers at four different sites.

He made one last trip to the weapons cache and retrieved four mortars and eight shells. He worked until well after sunrise setting up the mortars, taking great care to set up the mortars outside of the sight of the lookouts.

After his preparations were completed, he stopped and assessed his situation. It was not good. He was definitely outnumbered by the terrorists and he wondered if he should get a couple of more people to help him. He swallowed as butterflies took flight in his stomach, but the medallion around his neck gave forth a reassuring sense of warmth. He dropped the mortars into the launchers, one at a time. It took two minutes for him to fire all eight rounds. The sound of explosions hurt his ears.

He stood up and ran around the hill to the first site where he had set out the grenade launchers. Men set off the tripwires as they left camp to search him out. He fired the grenade launchers into the camp as best he could. Once that was finished, he moved further around the camp to the next site where he had set up a store of grenades. He fired all of the ones at that site, listening as gunfire went off in every direction.

He left that area and moved to the far side of the camp. There were continued explosions around the camp as more men tripped the booby traps. He settled down behind the camp and watched the activities within it. There was a lot of activity around one of the tents. Several men came out of the tent and got into a truck. They looked like they were very important judging by the number of people that surrounded them. Several other trucks were loaded up and the whole group pulled out of the camp in his direction. He picked up the grenade launcher and took out the first truck and the one containing the important people.