Chapter 29

“Andy,” Jason replied, “I can’t promise anything at the moment, but I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you, Sir. It’d be an honor to be led by you. Your name is whispered reverently, even by us Marines.”

“Those days have long gone, and you should know not to believe most legends.”

“We do know, Sir. We discount it by ten, and still can’t believe some of the stories.”

“Then, if that’s the case, let’s plan on making a new one. Right now I need you to get that perimeter set up and show the civilians where you want them.”

The young Marine answered, “Oo-Rah!”

Andy and his men headed back toward the entrance to the draw. Jason wheeled around and headed for where the medical team was working. Here he found the young mother who’d kissed him earlier. “Ma’am, I’m sorry we didn’t get introduced earlier. My name’s Jason Magill.”

She smiled back and said, “Mister Magill, I’m Darlene Cannon. Did you come back for another kiss?”

“No, Ma’am. As nice as it was, I’m getting married next weekend. I don’t think White Dove would be in favor of the idea, nor would your husband. What I really wanted to talk about was the kids. You seem to have your head screwed on straight, and I wanted to suggest you organize some teams of nurturing mothers to help reinforce the ‘survivor’ concepts to these kids.

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Most of them seem to be handling it pretty good at the moment.”

“Unfortunately, Darlene, that’s just a combination of the emotional excitement of being released, the rush of adrenaline, and being kept busy. This will begin to wear off, and the effects of the trauma these kids have experienced are going to start to hit them within the hour. You’ll have some kids coming apart on you, while others will turn inward and withdraw. This will be especially hard on the runaways, but you can’t ignore the local kids, either. In fact, the local kids may have it harder, due to the added factor of feeling shame around their parents. For those you may also have to watch the parents, as the worst situation would be for their parents to treat them as if the child had brought shame and disgrace upon the family.”

“You’re right, and thanks for the insight and the warning. Mister Magill, we’re simple ranchers, shop owners, and schoolteachers. We can love and cuddle these kids, but we don’t really know how to deal with something like this. I’ll be honest in telling you if we hadn’t seen the horror here with our own eyes I’m not sure most of us could’ve had a clue this kind of evil could be unleashed upon innocent children. Also, without your warning we’d never have thought about those kind of problems. I just wish we had some rape councilors to help us with this.”

“Darlene, is there a rape crisis center in Bakersfield?”

“I would imagine so. What are you thinking?”

“We’ve got a chopper headed that way. Let’s see if we can get them to bring some help.” Jason rushed to one of the air hospitals that were in the landing area just to the east of the draw. He came up to the first uniform he could find, and asked to speak to one of the pilots. The corpsman acknowledged his request and returned a moment later with a man in his late twenties wearing a grayish-green flight suit. He had a gold wing patch in the left center of his chest and an unusual rank insignia on his shoulder.

The young pilot came to attention and said, “Chief Warrant Officer Sherman, Sir. You wanted to see me?”

Jason grinned, “Sherman, I’m retired. Your not supposed to treat me as an officer.”

“Sir, some people deserve the respect, no matter what the uniform.”

“Then thank you, and stand at ease.”

The pilot, moved into the ‘at ease’ position and asked, “How can I help you, Mister Magill?”

“Start by calling me Jason. Next weekend I’m getting married to a beautiful young lady who’s younger than my daughter. Right now I don’t need to be reminded of how old I am. Now, what I wanted to find out, was if we could contact the bird that’s headed for Bakersfield?”

“Yes, Sir; and congratulations. I might have to lift up a few hundred feet, but we should be able to make contact.”

“Good, then let’s find out if they’ve headed back yet. If they haven’t I’d like to see if we can get some more passengers on board.”

Warrant Officer Sherman attempted to reach the helicopter that had flown to Bakersfield, but received no response. He told Jason to climb into the copilot’s seat, and handed him a set of headphones. After checking with Sherman about what was happening several of the other crew members made sure everything around the Seahawk’s perimeter was clear. One of the men came back and gave him a ‘thumbs-up’ signal.

Now, certain everyone was safe Sherman checked the mufflers were still set, and started the helicopter’s twin General Electric turbines. After letting the oil pressure come up to normal, and checking the other gauges he slowly twisted the throttle to increase the engines’ RPM. When it reached the point where he was satisfied with the power level to the rotor he eased back on the collective without moving the cyclic. This caused the helicopter to climb vertically without any forward movement. Slowly climbing to five hundred feet he decreased the engines’ RPM, enabling them to hover. When things were stable Sherman tried again to raise the other helicopter. This time his call was immediately answered. They informed him they were at Lloyd’s Aviation on Meadows Field waiting for their guests to arrive. Through Sherman, Jason told them there would be some additional guests coming. These would be Dennis Connors and some rape crisis counselors. They acknowledged the additions, and said they could wait up to an hour, but no longer. Sherman, acknowledged them and landed the helicopter virtually in the same spot it had rested, earlier. Jason thanked Warrant Officer Sherman for his assistance, and climbed out. He walked off a short distance, and called 411 on his cell phone. He told the operator what he needed, and moments later she redirected his call to the hotel.

“Doubletree Hotel, Bakersfield. How can I help you?”

“Do you have a guest there named Dennis Connors?”

“Yes, Sir. It’s early, but do you need me to connect you?”

“Yes, please. It’s an emergency.”

The night clerk replied, “Right away, Sir.”

The phone rang four or five times, and finally a sleepy voice said, “Hello?”

“Dennis, it’s Jason Magill.”

“Yes, Jason?” a suddenly wide-awake Dennis replied. “Earlier I got a call from Deke. Does this concern that?”

“Yes. I need you to immediately head to Lloyd’s Aviation at the airport. There’s a Navy chopper expecting you. One of your fellow passengers will be a judge from the LA area. Show him what you’ve got, and see if he can create some sort of legal wall we can throw around Tom’s sisters. I’d like to pull them out of their uncle’s control as early as possible this morning, as I don’t want them to become hostages, or to be further victimized.”

“I follow. You figure there’s going to be shooting?”

“As upset as these people are, I can pretty much guarantee it. Besides, once the uncle realizes his people are no longer in control I don’t expect him to surrender.”

“OK, I’ll do my best.”

“Dennis, for those girl’s sake, I hope your best is good enough. The sight here was bad enough to cause two veteran Recon Marines to throw up.”

“Deke said it was pretty bad. What’s the status now?”

“Two of the girls who were whipped and left hanging on the crosses are dead. The other girl, as well as the two boys who’d been staked out and whipped are holding their own, at the moment. If they do survive they’ll have to have months of skin grafts and other surgery. Of the ones who were locked in the building the two that were the worst cases are on IV’s and I don’t know what else. The others are doing better physically, but they’re getting close to an emotional crisis. That’s my next call, to see if I can get the Bakersfield Rape Crisis Center to assist us with some people to help the mom’s who are trying hard, but who’ve no training. Beth said something about trying to get Elizabeth to put together a psychological team to help, later, but these kid’s need some immediate help.”

“From the sound of things, I agree. This will also help me with my discussion with the judge. I need to let you go, so you can call the center; and I need to gather my things and get to the airport.”

“Thanks, Dennis. I should see you shortly.”

Jason hung up, and dialed 411 again. After a moment he was connected to the Bakersfield Rape Crisis Center. He identified himself and asked to speak to whoever was in charge. “Sara Alden, here. Can I help you?”

“Yes, Sara. This is Deputy US Marshal Jason Magill. I’m outside of a town within a hundred miles of you, and we’ve just found a group of teens and young adults that were being kept as slaves. All of them, male and female, have been repeatedly raped and sodomized. I wanted to see if you could help us with some trained counselors.”

“Oh, mercy me! Can you give me more specifics?”

“No, Ma’am. I can’t say anything other than there were fourteen victims, two of which have already died from their wounds. The problem is the local authorities seem to be part of the drug and slavery operation.”

“Marshal, I understand, but if you can’t tell us where it is, how can we get there?”

“There’s a Navy helicopter waiting at Lloyd’s Aviation on Meadow’s Field. Some DEA agents are flying to that location from Phoenix, and a judge is on his way from outside of LA. If you could send us four or five of your people it’d be appreciated.”

“Marshal. I’ll definitely be coming, and I’ll see how many more I can get to help. We should be leaving shortly for your helicopter.”

“That’s great, but please hurry. The pilot of the helicopter said he could only wait about an hour, and that was at least ten minutes ago.”

“We’ll do our best.”

“Thank you, Sara. We do appreciate it.”

Jason headed back to join the Marines. On the way there he passed Darlene, and advised her of the potential assistance from Bakersfield. She thanked him for his efforts, and went to tell the others. When he reached the young Marine leader, he asked, “How are things going, Andy?”

“Right now things are quiet. These men may be farmers and ranchers, but they’re very easy to work with.”

Jason replied, “That’s good. For me, it’s always a ‘gut check’ to work with people like these. They are the foundation of this country, and have been since Lexington and Concord.”

Note: These were the cities in Massachusetts where the opening shots of the American Revolution were fired.

“Longbow, do you mind me asking a personal question?”

“I don’t mind you asking, though I might choose not to answer.”

“You’re an Indian, am I correct?”

“Yes, I’m an Apache.”

“How do you reconcile things like you just mentioned about Lexington and Concord to the way your people have been treated?”

“Andy, my people, the White Mountain Apache, have served the US Army faithfully since eighteen seventy-one. Sometimes the government has been faithful, while other times it’s been less so. My people want to be good Americans, but our own government has made that hard. When I serve my country I’m also serving my people. Most of the people in this country are good people. Even many in Washington are good people. It’s the greedy and hateful assholes who use us for their own gain, or abuse us for their own pleasure, or prejudice, who make it hard.” After pausing a moment he added, “At the same time, it’s the appreciation I feel from people like these that makes it easy.”

“So, even when you have problems with the Federal Government, or our government leaders, you still consider yourself an American?”

“Andy, for most of us all we’ve wanted, almost from the beginning, was to be given the rights of full citizens. This includes the right to vote, to have our lands and property treated with respect; and to have the basic freedoms that are given to other Americans whether natural-born, or naturalized from another country.” Overhearing what was being discussed some of the others gathered around to listen as Jason continued, “It wasn’t until nineteen twenty-four congress proclaimed all American Indians were citizens. At the same time they left the voting question up to the individual states. So, in many states, we weren’t given the right to vote until years after the Second World War was over.”

One of the ranchers remarked, “I never knew that!”

Jason continued, “It was less than twenty years ago when the Federal Government finally stopped its ‘relocation programs’ whose goals were to move the Indians off the reservations and into urban areas. They believed by doing so they could separate us from our culture and make us into model ‘white’ citizens. The suppression of our culture was so great that even twenty years ago it was illegal to have some of the festivals and dances that are so important to our people. This even included the Sunrise Dance which is the key element of our young women’s right of passage into adulthood. If officials found the girls in costume, dancing in the early morn, and going through the other parts of the ceremony they were arrested, taken from their parents, and put into foster homes. The way they acted you’d think the women were doing a war dance.”

Another of the men looked rather upset as he remarked, “I find that hard to believe. Are you certain?”

“Sir, I’m very certain. Among other things I’m the Diiyan of my tribe. This title is often referred to by whites as ‘Medicine Man’ or ‘Shaman.’ It’s really a combination of ‘wise counselor’ and ‘tribal historian.’ I don’t do strange dances to drive off evil spirits, and though I do know some plants with healing properties I’ll be the first one to call a Doctor if someone is seriously injured or ill. I don’t do magic, either, other than to meditate to seek guidance. Since I’m a Christian I consider guidance that comes from the Great Spirit to be the same as coming from the God of the Bible. Having said all that, even today, we’re watched by various groups, especially some who are supposedly Christian missionaries, hoping to disrupt our ceremonies. They play gospel music tapes at a very loud volume trying to drown out our singers and disturb our dancers. They pull young kids aside and scream at them about going to hell and even try to get them to turn against their parents.” Jason paused a moment and then continued, “I think the worst thing they do is to team up with some extreme environmentalists and agents of the Interior Department to try to catch some unauthorized person of having an eagle feather. The stupidity of applying that law to the Indian, and especially the Apache, is the eagle has been a protected species by my people since before Columbus landed in America.”

One of the ranchers spit out tobacco juice, and asked, “Is it really that bad?”

Jason replied, “Recently a young man was arrested for wearing a ceremonial headdress that had been passed down in his family for generations. He’s now facing a ten year prison sentence, because he didn’t have the proper paper work, even though his father did.”

Darlene’s husband stepped forward, and said, “Mister Magill, I know we’ve pulled you far from the task at hand, but I, for one, would like you to come back in the future and tell us more. Here we’ve a reservation right next to us, and we know very little of what these people go though. At the same time, it was your people who first risked their lives for our children. I think we’ve been fat, dumb, and blind for far too long.”

Another stepped forward, and said, “I agree. This isn’t right, and it goes against everything we’ve fought for over the years. It’s like telling us that we can’t baptize our infants, or the Jews can’t have their son go through a Bar Mitzvah. I also want to hear more, and I want to know what I can do to help.”

Jason smiled for a brief moment, and said, “I’ll be happy to come back in the future.”

Before Jason could say anything further, Juan’s voice came over the small hand-held VHF radio. “Jason, we’ve got a problem. A deputy’s car came by a moment ago. He slowed to almost a stop, looking at all the cars and trucks here. Then he scooted.”

“Do you think he could see anything going on here?”

“There are some lights over that way, so it’s very possible he figured the two situations were related. He was moving awfully fast when he left the area.”

“Well, I guess that says it’s time to ‘fish or cut bait.’ Do you have enough men there to protect the vehicles?”

“We’ve eight here. I think that should be sufficient.”

“Good.”

Turning to the Marine leader Jason asked, “Did you follow that?”

“Yes, Sir. What do you want me to do?”

“Get your men ready to go. I’m headed to talk to Warrant Officer Sherman.”

With a grin the young marine responded, “Oo-Rah!”

Jason ran to Sherman’s Seahawk, who was ordering his crew to secure everything. Seeing Jason he said, “Sir. I just heard from the other chopper. It’s on its way with everyone aboard; ETA is fifteen minutes. The Judge has declared this a hostile hostage situation, and has ordered you to proceed to free the hostages with whatever force is required. I’m getting ready to drop you in the vicinity of the ranch house. The other chopper will replace me to bring you back.”

Jason pulled the VHF radio from its holder, and said, “Juan, I need the GPS points and the pictures of the ranch house. I need them here, as well as my Glock and spare clips, in five minutes.”

“They’ll be there.”

Turning back to the pilot Jason said, “I’ll have aerial photos and GPS positions here in five minutes.”

“Good, then we won’t go in blind.”

“We shouldn’t need to,” Jason agreed. “I want to come in behind the barn and some of the taller shrubs. There are also a few trees we can use for cover. It’ll start getting light in thirty minutes. My guess is the sheriff and his men will be there before then. They’ll probably try to move cross-country to take this place from the rear. Either that, or the sheriff’s people will distract the people across the road while Jackson attacks from the back side.”

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