Chapter 57

Flying from the right seat was not much different than from the left except for the perspective and reversing which hand did what. The plane handled the same and felt the same, just from across the cockpit.

On the way out west, John was right back to the quizzes on the G5. Man, I don't think I'll ever fly with him without him teaching the whole way. He was determined to teach me to be a good pilot and teacher. Dave was comfortable enough to make us coffee and fetch water for us. He said he was chatting with Sarah on the computer, so he was enjoying the ride.

As soon as we landed, Hal was waiting for us. He picked us up and drove to an old warehouse that was near the federal building. Inside was a large enclosed military command truck plus a bunch of Humvees. There were some Suburbans from the Marshal Service and the Bureau, so the troops were gathering.

Major Selby greeted me, "Hey, Johnson, good to see you again. You had it down my man. We've picked up three sets of snipers. They were surprised to be found since they thought they were well hidden and they weren't even watching their backsides. Of course, my men can walk up on a mouse. Your men and the Bureau are questioning them right now. They've been coming out every fifteen minutes or so and it's about time for them to take a break."

A radio began some chatter and the Major answered the call. He looked up and said, "Damn, a team closing in on a couple of snipers was made. They were fired on. They're fine, but they can't close in. They have the sniper team pinned down so they can't move. Think I should call in some air support?"

"Let me change and get Dave and me out there. I'll see if there's another way."

I changed into jeans and a heavy shirt with my vest on the outside, along with the combat vest. Dave and I hung our extra ammo on, patted ourselves down, jumped up and down to make sure we didn't jingle and turned to the Major.

"You two have done this before. Nice to know you learned something," he said with a laugh.

We were driven to the location in a Suburban as the Humvee was a little too obvious. We talked to the team that had made initial contact with the snipers, before we circled the snipers to see if we could get in close.

I told Dave, "Tell you what, if I go up the fire escape, as long as I stay low, they can't get a shot. You and another rifle get in opposing positions so if they stick their heads up, you can convince them to stay down. When I get into position, I'll offer them a chance to live and see what happens. Ah, if you have to shoot, make it count. Make sure the team guy knows how it works. Just tell him any rounds that find their mark will be ours."

Dave said, "I should do the climbing and you do the marksman shit. I have both legs."

"I have the rank and it's my job. Be a good backup sidekick. You know the score."

I only had to climb the ladder from the last floor to the roof. I slid over the edge of the building and went down prone on the roof. I had to crawl with my rifle to a steel air duct about thirty feet to the side, but it got me closer to the hidden snipers.

When I was in position, I flashed my light back at the command team and hollered. "Give yourself up. You're surrounded and will only live if you give yourself up. Toss your weapons out and put your hands on top of your head. Do it now before we begin killing you."

There was a lot of moving around noises coming from where the snipers were. I could hear them whispering, arguing about what to do. One of the snipers tossed his gun out butt first standing up with his hands on his head. He cautiously took a few steps toward me. I yelled, "Move forward two more steps and lay flat on the roof with your hands out in front of you."

The man was taking the second step when the other sniper rose and put a burst into the back of the man who was giving up and put two bursts into the metal vent in front of me. I felt a burning in my thigh. Fucking great, another fucking wound.

The sniper who killed his partner and fired at me didn't live two full seconds after firing his first burst. Dave and the Marine made direct hits on the guy. Bang, bang, just like that it was over. My thigh wasn't throbbing, so I knew I didn't have an arterial wound.

I kept looking around to make sure there wasn't anyone else up here with me. Something felt wrong, like I was being watched, so I flattened out and crawled closer to a wall where I could see in three directions, but not directly ahead. I was hoping Dave still had me in his sights and was searching around me.

I heard a movement on the other side of the wall where I was. I pulled my Glock as the MP5 was too hard to move around without making noise.

There was a slight scraping that was closer to the edge of the corner of the wall where I was. I moved back quickly and just as I went around the corner, a muzzle came around the corner and an automatic, something that sounded like an Uzi, fired blindly. Zing. A round hit my fake leg. Hope it didn't hurt it. I stayed perfectly still waiting. I heard a movement then a rapid movement. I came around the wall low and saw a man was standing, holding the small automatic rifle sideways, trying to pull the trigger. I fired three times to the body and three times to head as he was falling.

I lay flat on the ground waiting for something else.

Dave was at the edge of the roof. "You okay? I didn't see the other guy."

"There may be more. I can't tell. We should have a radio so we know when the team is sweeping the place."

"They are coming up the stairs. Let me get in position, so we can sweep the place without exposing ourselves."

"Careful, if they work in pairs, we're missing one. If he's here, he's waiting for us."

"Johnson," a voice called from where the stairs were.

I yelled back. "Stay down. We're missing a man out here somewhere. No chances. Stay down and we'll sweep toward you from both sides."

I rolled across the roof to lie next to Dave. "Listen, we have to get past each obstruction, so watch carefully. There is just enough light for us to see, so that means they can see too. Let's go, one at a time. One of us covers, the other kicks them out."

I said, "I'll bird dog, my rifle is under the dead guy." I remembered I had shot six rounds, so I exchanged magazines so I had fifteen in the magazine and one in the chamber.

Dave was up on one knee with his rifle ready to sweep in either direction as I threw gravel on one side of a large vent and dove around the other side. As I was on the roof, I heard a scraping sound in front of me, about twenty feet away. I waved at Dave and pointed. I gave hand motions to move around to the side. With practiced skill, he moved silently toward the area where he would have a good view of anyone moving. I crept in a quiet duck walk to keep low around the edge of a small wall barrier. Doing a duck walk with a lower leg prosthesis is a practiced art. The military rehab people made me do a lot of duck walking. I picked up a handful of gravel and tossed it into the air so it would come down on whoever was behind the metal vent. The noise of the gravel hitting the vent was enough to make the guy break. He rose, firing his rifle right at me. I fired four rounds at the guy while Dave hit him with a quick burst. The guy was down, but I was hit again. Damn, this one hurt. It was then I realized I was hit in the vest, thank God. It sure did hurt though.

Dave hollered for the Marines on the stairs and they stormed the roof, looking everywhere. One of the Marines had a radio, so Dave asked him to advise his command we had four down and a wounded friendly. I went to Dave. "Where're you hit. Let me see, where, Dave? Jesus, I didn't mean to get you hurt."

"Not me, you jerk, you. You're bleeding on your arm and I can see a stain on your pants. Look at your vest. You have a round buried in it, you lucky fucker. You're alive so let's get you taped up."

I walked downstairs on my own and was hustled back to the command center where a corpsman patched my leg by removing a small piece of metal of the vent from the wound and bandaged me. I told the corpsman I would take off my shirt since I didn't want to rip it up because I needed it for a while. As soon as it was off, he said, "Looks like you have a hole where your other hole was and you have another scrape on the other arm that is still bandaged. You, my friend, should get out of the field. This is getting close."

I pulled up my pants leg to check my stalk and heard the corpsman, "Oh fuck. Hey, Major, this guys got a metal leg. What's he doing in combat?"

"This isn't combat. This is civilian law enforcement."

"Hell if isn't combat. There are rounds going off, people getting wounded and people dying. That's combat."

The Major came over and looked at the nick on my stalk and said, "This is what happens to Special Ops guys when they get sent home. Is he fit for duty?"

The corpsman was finished patching me and said, "He'll need some stitches, but he'll be alright for now. I'm waiting for him to come down and go into shock."

Dave said, "You'll wait till hell freezes over. Once you've been through it several times, you don't get the rush too bad until it's all over. There is still more to be done, so he's still ready."

The Bureau Chief came out of the command van and said, "We know where and about how many there are. It's close to the border so we're setting men up between the border and the suspect building. I have a backhoe heading out there to dig up a possible tunnel. If we can dig up the tunnel, we can trap all of them in the building. They should give up."

I said to Hal, "Get us there." I turned to the Major. "Want to join the party, or are you stretching the leash too far?"

"Hell no, let me get the men together and we'll head that way. We'll bring the command van along and use it to stash captives. Let's roll."

Hal took Dave and me south until we were within sight of the border. To the west of the highway was a small cluster of old farm buildings. Between there and the fence was a bulldozer and two big backhoes. They were digging rapidly while the bulldozer was making pass after pass closer to the border digging a trench, trying to intersect a possible tunnel. Just about the time one of backhoe guys yelled he found something, the bulldozer broke through. He backed out and moved around to shine his head lights into the tunnel.

When the Major arrived, I asked, "Do you have any C4 with some short delay fuses?"

"How much do you need?"

"How about a couple of pounds and two five second fuses."

He asked, "Tunnels?"

"Yeah, I want to blow them in both directions. They probably know we're here, I just want both sides of the border to know that it's game over."

The Major had an ordnance sergeant come to me with two blocks of C4 and a couple of fuses. I had the machinery moved away and went to the edge of the border side of the tunnel. I pushed the detonator into the C4, looked around, hollered, "Fire in the hole." I pulled the timer up and pitched the block into the tunnel and laid on the ground to the side of the opening.

Four, three, two, one, "BOOM." Dust rushed out of the tunnel opening.

The ground above the tunnel raised then settled where the tunnel had collapsed for about fifteen feet.

I went the U.S. side and repeated the process, but on this one, I rolled the C4 into a ball and pushed the detonator all the way in. When I pulled the pin up, I rolled it hard into the tunnel.

Three, two, one, "BOOM." Dust exploded from the opening and the ground collapsed all the way to a barn like structure now surrounded by Border patrol vehicles, Marshal Service vehicles, Bureau vehicles, and in an outer ring, about two hundred Marines. I was impressed.

Using bull horns, the Border guys began announcing for them to give up, as they were surrounded. If they didn't give up, they would die.

We were getting a lot of attention, as several hundred Mexicans were up against their side of the fence, watching as the law enforcement officers began forcing the men out. The captives were searched, cuffed, and tagged with the information of who they were and what they were being charged with.

The Bureau Chief said, "The local cells are bare. This will fill them up again, and I bet we'll have to house a bunch of these guys for a long time."

I gave instructions to the local Station Chief and the Bureau Chief as to how to handle the commendations for the Marines. I shook the Major's hand and said, "You'll see that silver on your collar as soon as I can get it arranged."

I said to Dave, "Let's get out of here."

"Not until you get stitched. The corpsman just gave you a field patch to get you back out, you know that. Let's get it stitched and get you a shot of antibiotic, then we'll get out of here."

The same corpsman, now accompanied by a field surgeon, cleaned the arm wound again and stitched it. After they bandaged me, they checked the thigh wound again. It was fine and didn't need anything else. The right arm had a deeper scrape than the recent one. The surgeon insisted on stitches. They gave me a shot and a bottle of pain pills and some more antibiotics. The doc said, "Stay off your feet for a day or so to let the leg heal. Keep your head down, and away from trouble for a while."

When Hal began driving us back toward the city he said, "Why don't you two go to the hotel for a nap. When you wake up, I'll take you to get something to eat, then you can go back. You do need some rest."

Dave looked at me questioningly.

"Okay, I wouldn't be able to stay awake anyway. Let's get some rest and check on everyone when we wake up."

This had been an all night operation. We had arrived here about four thirty local time and been involved with the activity right through about eleven in the morning. We checked in the same hotel I had been in before. Again I tipped a bellhop to get Dave and me a sandwich and a beer. Dave was surprised that I got us a double room instead of two singles. I said, "This is a maneuver, we bunk up when it's like this."

I crashed and didn't wake up until eight that night. I stretched and went in to clean up. With the fresh bandages and stitches, I couldn't shower yet, so I just washed off good, shaved, and brushed my teeth. I checked the gouge on my leg again and decided I should have it repaired instead of taking a chance on it. I did have a spare now.

Dave was coming out of his stupor and said, "Ah, to be young again. We old guys need more sleep."

He was quickly up and dressed. I called our pilot, John, to see how he was. He said, "I've slept all day, so I'm ready." I told him to get the plane ready as we would be at the airport within an hour.

I called Hal to tell him we were taking a cab to the airport.

"Like hell you are. I'll pick you up in ten minutes, be downstairs. Too bad you won't have a chance to woo your west coast wife. Maria will be disappointed."

When he picked me up, he was accompanied by Juanita. She got out of the car and hugged me saying, "You were the one who made my Hal make me his bride. I love you for it and my Maria is in love with you forever as well. She will make someone a fine wife and mother of their children. I'm sorry it isn't you, Senor."

Hal drove us to the airport where John had sandwiches and coffee ready. He and I did the preflight and start up quickly, with me jumping in the left seat. In minutes, we were cued up in line for takeoff. We were in the air and on the way home by eleven.

Dave managed to figure out how to enter his incident report. I took a thirty minute break from the cockpit and did mine while eating a sandwich and having some coffee. I called home to tell them I would be there in the morning, so they could sleep well. Brandy said, "I'm so glad you called, I've been so afraid. I'll tell you more when you get here."

John began his questions on pilot training and continued until we were on approach to the air park. We radioed and turned on the lights to the runway. They were a welcome sight. The Lear handles so smoothly that you can be on the ground and taxiing to the hangar without even feeling a bump. As the plane is so light on its wheels, the landing gear locking in place provides a bigger bump than touching down.

I helped John get the plane in the hangar and we all took off. I dropped Dave off at his house, waited until the inside light came on before driving home. It was time to go to work and everyone was up and ready. I was wearing my short sleeved knit shirt because I didn't have another long sleeve shirt with me. My two arm wounds were immediately seen and they were all critical of my not telling them about them. Brandy looked at me, and in front of everyone said, "Where else?"

I frowned and she repeated her demand. I pointed to my thigh and said it was only a scratch. She said it again, "Where else?"

I said, "Nowhere else. Just three wounds."

She said, "I know you were hit more than that. I felt it and Mercy felt it." She was holding her hand over her stomach where the round had hit my vest.

"A round lodged in the vest, but that just bruised me," I said, thinking that was it.

"One more, where?"

"Christ, Brandy, that's all. A round hit my fake leg but it didn't hurt anything."

"Let me see your thigh and your leg."

I dropped my drawers as I was getting aggravated. I showed her the big bandage covering the gouge made by the exploding metal and the gouge to my fake leg."

"Seen enough? That's all. None are serious. I went back to finish the job after all of these. I'm fine."

Brandy hugged me.

"So how do you know how many times I was hit? Who told you? Did someone call the house? Did Wanda already hear?"

Wanda quietly said to me, "I would never divulge what you've done. You and only you can tell others."

Brandy said, "Mercy called me. She called here yesterday evening. She said you were hurt and wanted to know where you were. She scared me to death. I told her you were in San Diego and she said she would be near there in a day or so, and wanted to talk to you as soon as possible. She was talking on a satellite phone. She gave me some cell numbers and instructions on how to call her on the sat phone. Chuck, when she called, she scared me to death. I could hear the fear in her voice. She said she knew you were alive, but not your condition."

"That's a little strange, isn't it? I wonder what kind of ESP, or whatever you call it, that she has. She's always looking at me as if she is inside my head."

Brandy said, "She said she has special mental connections with some people and you're one of them. Here are the numbers and the instructions, call her."

Nancy came and hugged me. "We missed last night, and by tonight I may not be as receptive as I am now. Please, can you take me back to bed?" She kissed me very softly with a lot of feeling. The other girls said, "We'll tell Metarie that Nancy had to take off this morning. You bring her to work later. Love her, Chuck, make her a mommy."

The other four girls gave me kisses and Wanda gave me a full body hug. She said, "I'll call you if something important comes up, but you're on leave for a while. See you tonight."

This place is amazing. One second it's teeming with activity and the next, peaceful, quiet.

Nancy was being self conscious and bashful. When I took her hand to lead her to the bedroom, she was having a tough time looking at me. I rained kisses on her until she began relaxing. As she felt more relaxed, more comfortable, I began to slowly remove her clothes. I took my time and it was over five minutes before we were stretched out next to each other, face to face.

Nancy seemed to enjoy hugging me, feeling all of my body against hers. We hugged and kissed, touching each other gently, intimately, until our fever was rising fast. While we were kissing, Nancy pulled me on top of her and whispered, "Put more of yourself in me. Give me your baby, our baby."

We made love slowly, gently, with lots and lots of feeling. If I was going to join with a woman to create life, I wanted our coupling to be as memorable as possible. I wanted us both to remember how special it was.

After filling Nancy twice with half the makings of the beginning of life, we lay peacefully, still kissing, still gazing into each other's eyes. Nancy asked, "You don't have a problem with me being black do you?"

I asked a little aggravated, "Are you?"

She asked in return, "Am I what?"

"Are you black?"

"You know I am, and you know what I mean."

I hugged and said, "Why do I only see a woman who wants me to join with her to create a new life? It is totally unimportant in our lives right now that we are two different races. I would rather us just be lovers. I can't believe how fortunate I am to have a woman who wants me to be the father of her child. Did your Mom question you about this? Is she worried about a mixed baby?"