Chapter 216

"Crash, stay in the house and lock the door, we will be there in 10 minutes or less. I will beat on the door and yell when we get there, so do not shoot me," I replied.

"LET'S GO, SECURITY CARS WITH LIGHTS, GRAB YOUR GUNS," I yelled as I headed to the door.

Tony, Kathy and Janet were behind me. Each of the girls was using an unmarked security car with the police package and since the covered parking area had been finished, an assigned parking spot to make everything easier. Jenny used her state car for everything.

The up-fitters were doing all kinds of things to the cars; heaver shocks, approved high-speed tires and other performance enhancements. By the time we got to the split, we were in a convoy running well over a hundred with the lights on. The girls had listened well; we were strung out with enough stopping distance between us.

Jenny had hired the same drivers training company that the state used to give emergency driving course to all the security employees. I had insisted that all the girls take it. It turned out to be fun, especially when he took all of us to the local dirt track. It was some kind of slippery clay when wet, and they watered the hell out of it. It was great for learning skid control.

Before we arrived at the turnoff for Morton Farm Lane, a county sheriff and a state police car had joined in. I could just imagine the conversation going on over the radio frequency. "Who are these people? What agency are they from?"

I was ½ a mile ahead of the others when I made the turn onto Morton lane. It ran a mile in a hedge row before it made a right turn into the open 1300 acre field and then a mile to the house and buildings.

When I made the turn into the open field a set of headlights came on near the farmhouse and started moving this way. They were in a big hurry by the way they were bouncing in the rough lane.

Ten seconds later the farm house erupted in a fire ball. "They killed Crash or they are going to burn him alive," I thought. I held it to the floor and steered as best as I could towards the house.

"Did you ever play chicken Tony?" I asked.

"NO NOT LIKE THIS," he replied.

The gap closed fast. When we were about fifty yards apart, the pickup turned right and took to the field to miss us. The pickup was the same white pickup with the bent driver's side body that the nephews had driven to the house today.

I keyed the mike on the radio to the cars that were just making the turn into the field. "STOP THAT TRUCK. SHOOT THE ENGINE OUT IF YOU HAVE TO. TRY NOT TO HIT THE PASSENGERS."

There were headlights in my mirror moving in all directions while they were trying to set up a road block, everyone yelling all kinds of instructions on the radio. The girls had never practiced that; I wondered how it would work out.

As I pulled to a stop in front of the house, fire was all around the outside. "Tony, there is a fire extinguisher by your leg," as I hit the button for the trunk.

On the advice of our EMT employees we had put 2 extinguishers in the cars; a 2 pound in the front and a 10 pound in the trunk.

"Tony, the door is the middle of the porch. Try to knock the fire down there," I said as I headed to the trunk.

Tony had never used a fire extinguisher in an emergency. He knocked a little down but basically it was a waste. He was too far away and had the discharge nozzle everywhere but where it needed to be.

I ran as close as I could because of the heat. I smelled gasoline. In a way that was good because it burnt off quickly and then the fire diminished, leaving only what it had ignited. Burning Jet A or diesel started slow and just kept growing more intense.

I flooded the floor of the porch in front of and beside the door with ansul, knocking the fire down. I guess me running into the fire had given Tony some balls. He was beside me emptying what was left in the 2 pounder.

I stopped spraying when I thought the extinguisher was ½ empty. I shoved the extinguisher at Tony, yelling to be louder than the fire, "I'M GOING IN. SAVE THIS UNTIL I YELL THAT I AM COMING OUT THEN HIT BOTH SIDES OF THE PORCH BY THE DOOR. DO NOT SPRAY ME IN THE FACE WITH THAT CRAP."