Chapter 33

I sat and watched the Colonel deep in thought and had a sudden urge for some coffee. I got up and headed into the cabin to make a pot turning, on the small two fans above the door as I went in. They were twelve volt ones out of an old computer I had salvaged, so they could run for days without using hardly any power at all. I got the coffee brewing and went back out to the rear of the cabin to check to see how much propane had been used out of the first RV tank that the generator was running on. Even this close to it I could hardly hear it running and the gauge on the tank was still showing full although I could see it had used some. Damn, I thought, I would be good for a long time at this rate. I checked the oil in it and it was full, so I kicked it back on and went back inside to see if my shutting it down had affected the coffee pot. Nope, it was still going strong and was finishing up even as I watched it. I poured two mugs full and went back outside handing one to Kittrick.

"Thanks, Marshal, I think maybe I shouldn't have had so much booze all at once. Ok, I think I know what I can do. I am going to get a hold of the commander at Bragg and do some switching around of a couple of teams. I am going to ask for two who haven't trained or lived out here, if at all possible. I will have them bring their gear to the Fort and immediately have them flown to you under your orders. That way they don't have a chance to interact with anyone at the Fort. You can do the briefing and get them set up in place. I want them in place at least a week, observing and taking pictures of everyone that comes in or out of that place. I want every face they can get on camera. And for your information, I will have a military tribunal. If their faces are on the pictures, they will be shot by firing squad. Damn, I just wonder how many of my staff are in on this and why the hell hasn't the gossip about it been brought to my attention before this? According to what you have said, this has been going on a while, so you would think someone would have talked about it. So what do you think about that solution and do you think it will work in the short term?"

"That's almost word for word what I was going to suggest except for the fact that I will be in charge. Are you sure that's a good idea, Colonel?"

"Yes, and I know you won't let the word get out about what we are planning. Marshal, the less the personnel at the Fort know, the more of a chance we have at putting a stop to this abuse. My God, I can't believe that McGuire is part of this. I mean, he is a superintendent, for God's sake. He has been assigned to this area for several years and I never had a hint he would do something like this. I do know that if he is, I will shoot his ass myself for failing all these people who depend on him. Oh, and in case you're wondering, we have several units cleaning up Lordsburg and they say it is a treasure trove of supplies of all types. Besides what's in the train cars, those semis are all loaded with materials that will keep us going here for several years. We are in the process of refueling them and getting a convoy together to transport it all back to the Fort. I got word about that little RV you wrote the notice on and I will make sure it is brought to you as soon as I can. That was a damned fool stunt on your part, but I hear that the little girl you rescued is a sweetheart. I have decided to follow your suggestion about the prisons and we will be sending your little surprises to them in the next 24 hours. It seem that all of them in Safford have all gathered all around there for some reason, so we can pretty much wipe them all out in one fell swoop. We have already destroyed the one north of Willcox and the reports say that it was almost 99% success in burning them to ashes. That will give us another town to draw supplies from as well as fuel and propane."

"I know you didn't want to do it that way, but until we can control our own territory we need to destroy as many of those things as we can. They seem to be migrating out of the larger cities. We need to get control of this whole area while we have the supplies to do so. It is gonna get a helluva lot rougher as we move west and we still have all those things in Mexico that probably will be moving in this direction when they run out of food. What I can't figure out is why they even bother to eat since it just seems to go straight through them. I mean it doesn't seem to help them in any way, so why do they kill and eat any living being they find? We also need to think about raiding some of the other forts for supplies before the scavenger groups start breaking into them, supplying themselves with ammo and other things they do not need, making our jobs harder. I have a feeling in the next few months we will be seeing some scavenging groups that will kill first, just because they think they can get away with it. Right now we are the power for good in this area and I sure as hell don't want that to change anytime soon, Colonel."