Chapter 9

Characters actually appearing in the story for the first time:

Mark Haskins

Self-proclaimed leader of the ‘Sons of Man’ group, 5’-9” tall, 140 pounds, 29 years old, brown hair

Harry

One of Mark’s Lieutenants, 5’-10” tall, 170 pounds, 40 years old, very dark brown hair, mustache, and goatee

Charlie

One of Mark’s Lieutenents, 6’-0” tall, 210 pounds, 42 years old, short black hair

Ed and Esther arrived early the next morning. Ashley was still making breakfast while I was trying to feed the twins. They had reached the point where they wanted to feed themselves. Of course they got more on themselves than they got in themselves. They both went ‘Da!” as soon as they spotted Ed entering the kitchen, and started giggling and clapping happily, throwing their breakfast in all directions. Of course, they wanted Ed to pick them up.

“No!” I told them shaking my head. “Eat first,” I told them. They weren’t happy about that and stuck their lower lips out in a pout. Ed joined me with another spoon, and we managed to get them to eat at least part of their breakfast. Esther had gone over to see what Ashley was preparing.

“Are you all right?” I heard her ask her daughter in a quiet voice.

“Yes, I’m all right now. I just wish this was all over and done with,” Ashley told her in a tired voice.

“Soon, Sweetie. They’ll finish it up soon,” Esther assured her daughter, as she patted her back.

A short time later, the twins had finished breakfast, and Ashley was putting ours on the table. Esther had brought over several wash cloths to clean up the girls.

“Have you had breakfast?” Ashley asked her mother and step-father.

“Yes!” both Esther and Ed answered.

“I would hardly call a cup of coffee and a piece of toast breakfast,” Esther told her husband in a no nonsense voice.

“Have breakfast with us,” Ashley invited them. “I’ve made plenty.”

“Well ... okay!” Ed finally agreed, as we moved to the table to eat while Esther still worked on cleaning up the twins. Naturally they began to fuss.

“Let’s just pull their highchairs over by the table,” Ashley suggested. Ed and I moved the highchairs before sitting down to eat. I had Carry near me, and she kept reaching out for some of what I was eating. I tore off a piece of buttered toast and mopped up some of the egg yolk on my plate with it, and gave it to her. From the smile on her face you would have thought that I had given her a great treasure. She took the piece of toast and immediately started nibbling on it after saying “Da!”. Both girls had a couple of teeth by now and could do fairly well on the toast. Her sister squalled until Ed gave her a piece of toast also.

“You’re going to spoil those girls rotten,” Esther told us, but she was smiling as she said it.

Following breakfast, Ed and I got ready to leave. He was already dressed in clothes similar to what he had seen Haskins’s neighbor wearing. I put on some camouflage fatigues that I had acquired. The parabolic mikes, radios, and cell phones were already in the SUV along with a ghillie blanket to cover me as well as the hood to hide my face. We said goodbye to our wives and kissed them before we left.

The drive to the north side this early on Sunday morning, the 4th of July, was very quick and uneventful, as there was little traffic on the road presently. We went to the park first. It was just after 9:30 when we arrived, and the park was still deserted.

“Are you going to head over to the neighbor’s house right away?” I asked Ed, as I parked in the far corner of the lot there.

“Yes, it’s best to be there before everyone starts to show up. I’ll get set up and take a break behind the house for a while,” he told me.

“You be careful!” he added. “There are going to be a lot of people and a lot of eyes out in that backyard today,” he reminded me.

“I’ll be careful,” I assured him. “I can stay under that ghillie cover for hours at a time. I did it in Recon and again as an assassin. Don’t worry about me,” I told him before adding, “You be careful too.” We got out of the vehicle then. I gathered up my equipment and headed off into the trees, while Ed changed my license plate for one that he had brought with him before getting back in and driving to the subdivision to park in the absent neighbor’s driveway.

I set up well back in the trees where I was sure that I wouldn’t be noticed. The parabolic mike could pick up conversations from much further away than the distance that I had selected. Since no one was in sight presently, I moved up and checked the recorder after I got set up. It appeared to be operating just fine. I checked the camouflage around it and rearranged some of it before returning to my selected position and got comfortable for what promised to be a long day of observation and listening.

I had gotten a good look at the layout of the large grill and the tables that now occupied much of the back yard while checking the recorder. I hadn’t been settled back in for long when a man came out of the basement and began preparing the large barbecue grill for the day. Even though it was a gas unit, he had difficulty getting it to work and cussed and fussed at it for several minutes before another somewhat older man emerged from the basement.

“It takes a light touch, Mark,” through the parabolic mike, I heard the second man say, as he adjusted the unit and used the lighter to start it. It appeared that the first man was Mark Haskins himself. I recognized the voice of the second man, as the one called Harry from our previous recording.

Haskins appeared to be about 5’-9” tall and was thin, maybe 140 pounds with brown hair and was clean shaven. He appeared to be about 29 years of age. Harry was older, maybe 40 years old, about 5’-10” tall and heavier at around 170 pounds. His hair was a very dark brown, as were his mustache and goatee. They were dark enough that I suspected that they were dyed. They watched the grill for a few minutes to be sure that it was working properly and then closed it and returned to the house.

It was maybe fifteen minutes later that Ed called me on the radio.

“Bill, are you in position?” he asked.

“Ed,” I whispered into the lip mike of the radio. “Yes, I’m in position. Haskins and Harry were out here a bit ago to start the grill heating. Haskins appears to be a total klutz and couldn’t get it to work,” I told him.

“There is a second vehicle in the driveway already. It was here when I arrived. It must belong to Harry. I’ve got the license plate number already,” Ed told me.

“This thing isn’t supposed to start until noon time, so we may have a little wait before more people start to show up. Are you set up in the driveway?” I asked him.

“Yes. I was out of the vehicle when a neighbor drove by and waved. I just waved back. Apparently he never noticed that I’m not the guy that lives here. I guess my disguise must be all right,” Ed told me with a chuckle.

“Okay, I guess that’s good. Be careful out there, and if it looks like they suspect anything get out of there -- fast!” I told him.

“I will definitely do that if it looks like things will get sticky,” he told me. We both went back to observing for a while after that. There wasn’t much going on.

“Bill, there are several cars pulling into the cul-de-sac now,” Ed told me a little after noon. “Women and a couple of kids are getting out of the cars as well as their husbands,” he added a few minutes later.

It was some time after that when several women came out of the basement with plastic containers, and were followed by a number of children. The women opened two of the plastic containers, and then the grill hood to begin putting hotdogs and hamburger patties on the grill to cook. The kids ran around the yard for a time looking at everything, but didn’t look as far out into the trees as where I was.

After a bit the women and kids were followed by several men carrying coolers. They sat them on the benches besides the tables before opening one. Through my binoculars, I could see that the cans they removed from the first cooler were beer cans. The kids soon ran up and opened the other cooler that held soda cans. It was shortly after this that Ed called again.

“There are more cars arriving,” Ed told me. “They have already filled up Haskins’s driveway, so they are going to be parking on the street,” he added over the radio which appeared to be working just fine so far.

Shortly more men and their wives and children came into the back yard. All of those that had arrived so far were obviously older married couples. Things changed shortly after that.

“Some more people just arrived,” Ed told me a short time later. “This bunch is different,” he added after a few seconds. He was right as the group that joined the others in the backyard after that were younger men and were not accompanied by any wives or girlfriends. They all had very short hair cuts and were wearing tighter clothes then the married men who were dressed in slacks and sports shirts mostly. I also noticed that most of the younger men wore boots and not the athletic type of shoes that the older men were wearing.

“Ed, did you notice the way the gang types that arrived a short time ago are dressed?” I asked over the radio.

“Yes, they gave the SUV some suspicious looks before going into the house. I used the parabolic mike to hear what was said. Someone told them not to worry about the vehicle. That it belonged to the neighbor who lived there,” he told me.

“If they start toward you, get out of there fast!” I told him.

“Can do, Bill!” he returned.

I had been using a parabolic mike also, but so far I had only picked up the conversations of the women and a couple of the guys bullshitting. The younger men had all gotten beers and then moved off in a group by themselves on the far side of the yard. All that I picked up from them now were some lewd remarks about the other men’s wives and some of their older daughters, none of whom appeared to be over ten years of age or so.

It was after 1:30 and most of the group had eaten, when Harry appeared and began ushering the other men into the house. Some of the wives looked at their husbands questioningly, but they had all soon gone inside. I had already alerted Ed on the radio.

“Ed, looks like the meeting is about to begin,” I told him.

“I can hear people arriving upstairs over the mike now. I was having a little trouble with it. Some of the skinhead types parked in front of the drive way, but someone already told one of them to move the vehicle. I’ll let you know what I hear shortly,” he told me.

Having fed the kids and their husbands, the wives were now busy doing some cleanup while the men were away. I had smelled the meat cooking on the grill all of this time, and it was enough to make my mouth water. I had brought along some ration bars to eat and some candy bars for a quick energy supply, but they were in no way comparable to the smell of that hot juicy meat cooking. I ate some of what I had and drank some water through the tube from the hydration pack on my back.

After about twenty-five minutes or so, the men returned. You could immediately tell that the atmosphere of the party had changed drastically when they reappeared. Most of them went directly to the beer cooler and downed a beer fairly quickly. No one was sipping their beer now. The younger, single men had moved off in a group again while most of the married men were now talking earnestly to their wives. I checked the conversations of a number of different people.

“We have to leave now,” one man was telling his wife, as I listened. “It was a mistake to come here.” I had switched to another married man before the first one’s wife could respond.

“I don’t care what you are cooking. We are leaving now. Get the kids!” he told his wife in an angry voice. She didn’t appear to be happy at this at all, but I had switched to the group of young single men before she replied.

“Cool, man!” one was saying, as I listened. “It’s about time that we started doing and got through with all of this talking that the old farts have been doing.”

“Yeah man, some lead and blood instead of all of this gum beating,” Another injected. It was about what I had expected. I switched to two men standing near the basement door.

“Are you going along with this?” the one asked.

“Not only no, but hell no! I don’t have time for this running around in the woods bullshit. The three that tried to take this guy out got wasted. I don’t need that!” the second man told him.