Chapter 2

Things were winding down on the frontal assault side. It didn't mean the firing was over. I was doing a pretty good job on both cannons and crews by now. I had settled into a comfortable chair and was using one of the crenels in the wall as a base for the sandbags I was using to give my Barrett a steady rest. Mostly I gave my targets a big hole in the chest, but every now and then I only wounded one so I could make sure what they had for medical men down there had something to do.

I tried not to shoot the medics mostly, since I wanted them running around trying to save people. I did keep up the attacks on litter bearers though and several times when I hit one he dropped his share of the load causing the wounded man to be dumped onto the ground. They adapted and started using six men per litter and I tried to make sure I never shot any of those. Hell, I'd upped the ante by fifty percent on the number of men used per trip and the more men I could keep busy and out of the attacking action the better off we were. I doubted it was a big thing but after all, every little bit helped. Hell, I thought I was doing a good job until we noticed, just before sunset, a bunch of new arrivals. It looked to me like three thousand or more men rode up and started pitching tents well away from the action.

I had, or thought I could get the cure for that though so I left my "battle station" and went to find Colonel Travis. I told him I had to leave for more supplies but that I'd be back before sunrise.

He asked me if I was sure I could make good my escape since they had us completely surrounded and weren't shy about shooting anyone who left the Alamo.

"I'll call you to come watch me leave once I'm ready," I told him, promising he'd know more abouot it after he watched. He said he'd be sure to come and see me off.

It only took about an hour to find a nearly clear spot to park my wagon after I'd hitched the mules. I left the horses in the stalls and gathered one of the larger men who seemed fairly smart to sit on the wagon seat beside me.

Once I pushed the red button me, the wagon, mules, and my new companion disappeared from where we'd been parked. John, the man with me, was surprised when we appeared just out in front of my barn parked before the time machine that had sent me off in the first place.

John and I got down and went into the hourse. I managed to talk him into putting something on the stove after giving him a lesson in using it and while he got supper ready I got on the phone and called Fastwalker, an old log hauling buddy of mine, who happened to be a member of the national guard. I managed to get Fastwalker to come out to the house by promising him ten thoudans bucks for an evening's work. I might as well tell you now that nearly any log hauler will come running if you offer him that kind of money.

John and I sat down and ate the eggs and sausage he'd cooked and just as we finished Fastwalker came up and parked his pickup. I had already gathered up a stack of hundred dollar bills on the table and we all sat around it with a cup of coffee while I told Fastwalkerr what I wanted from the National Guard Armory.

He happened to know they had six M120 120mm mortars on their trailers and parked in a fenced in area. He also pointed out he had a key to said area.

"Now, I've got nothing against stealing from the government, but I'll have to know what you want this for so you'd better make up a good story right quick like," Fastwalker said.

"You still married, Fastwalker?" I asked him.

"Naw, the old lady got her dumb ass killed in a car wreck about four months ago. I've been thinking about moving on to the regular Army and getting in one of these wars we got going on," he said.

"What about your boys?" I asked.

"Hell, they're all twenty-one now. My folks kicked my ass out of the house when I turned eighteen. They can make it on their own now, or else they can't. It's time for me to let them sink or swim," he said.

"Get a refil on the coffee then since I've got a hell of a tale to tell you. It'll even let John in on what he's up to tonight," I said, and after we'd all refilled our coffee cups I told the tale to both of them even though John knew most of it on his own.

Fastwalker was spellbound and after I finished he stuck his left leg out and said," Pull the other one now."

"You can find out whether it's true or not by comming along with us when we leave tonight," I said.

"You mean you want to steal some mortars and help kick them Mexican asses at the Alamo? For real?" he asked.

"I'm serious as cancer. You can go and kick some yourself, and as you can plainly see you can come back here later on if you want to," I told him.

"Come back for what. We just got laid off yesterday. Big Jim has about run out of jobs for us," he said.

"That reminds me. I'm gonna call Big Jim and see if he wants to sell a truck," I said.

"I can tell you the answer to that already. He wants to sell one bad. Hell, he wants to sell six." he said.

We did call Big Jim and he got his ass to my house right quick like. He didn't want any coffee so I sat his ass down and told my tale again. He didn't believe a word of it until I counted out twenty thousand bucks into his big hand and told him I wanted to steal one of his trucks. It was right up his alley. He had them all insured and if one could disappear and leave twenty thoudand bucks behind it suited him fine. He even threw in a forty-eight foot flatbed trailer to go with it.

It was nearly midnight by the time we got everything lined out and then Fastwalker and I got into my pickup and his and headed to the National Guard Armory. Fastwalker knew the guard watching the place and it didn't take us ten minutes to disable him and tie him up with plastic ties. We latched onto an M120 trailer each and then spent an hour filling our pickup beds with the ammunition for them.

When we got back to my house we parked within range of the time machine, unhitched and unloaded, and went right back to the armory. There Fastwalker showed me something I didn't know had even been invented yet. The M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System. It fitted onto the underside of the barrel of an M16 or an M4 just like the M203 grenade launcher and consisted of a twelve gauge shotgun attachment with a five shot magazine

Fastwalker, since he already had a good idea of what we were going to do, convinced me we needed to take along several M4s with both the shotgun attachments and several M203s along with plenty of rounds for both. We piled both pickups high and headed right back. We loaded the mortar trailers onto the flatbed and took off for two more. When we returned we put those aboard the flatbed and then loaded all the ammunition onto it too. Our next trick was parking both pickups, the Mack tractor and the flatbed in range of the time machine. We fetched John from the house, and sent everything, including ourselves, back. I adjusted the time machine and sent us right back where I'd left from and five minutes after I'd left.

There were still several men who'd seen me leave standing around when we showed back up and one of them sprinted for Colonel Travis right away. The Colonel came out and asked me what this was all about. I told him I'd brought back some arms and he was happy to send some men to help us tote and carry. We detached one M120 from its trailer and set it up on the walkway around the inside of our walls up top.