Chapter 24

Once it began to get dark, I was to make sure I could be seen moving around in front of the cabin by anyone using a good pair of binoculars or a telescope. When I went back inside things were supposed to go rather smoothly. I would slip out the back door, using the natural cover and darkness to hide me, while my protectors set up to welcome any guests that might show up.

Once tonight was over, if they didn't come for me, we would do it again the next night and again until they showed up.

I was briefed fully, or as fully as the feds ever do, and they had intentionally allowed certain suspects to accidentally find out where I was being hidden. Should that knowledge be used, then the FBI would have clear sailing towards toward rolling up the leakers, and charging them with all sorts of crimes, including giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

For some reason, the highest levels of decision makers never imagined an enemy that didn't care to wait until dark to attack. It was barely three P.M. when I heard the shooting far down the valley, and then the loud engine noise. When I looked out, I could see them coming in three Humvees, shooting it out with my army of protection.

I knew that meant that I was likely going to have to go it alone, so I grabbed everything I could get my hands on and hid out under the log cabin porch, behind sandbags that I had dragged under there just in case. By the time I was all settled in they were on me.

At least some portion of the squad on our side was still in fighting shape. I could see them mounting an attack from the rear, and then I saw them blown to bits by a second round of ISIS fighters, who swooped in to crush the resistance between them.

That wasn't good.

I had one long gun, and used it to kill the driver of the lead vehicle. Everyone but the driver was concentrating their attention and fire behind them at the clutch of agents who still fought. I didn't think they had seen where the shot came from.

The lead vehicle swerved suddenly and crashed into a big cedar tree, launching the terrorists into the air in all directions. The second vehicle barely missed hitting the lead Humvee, and I got a good shot at the driver of it, causing another interruption in their plan.

With two-thirds of their army on foot, and many of them hurt, the third Hummer driver didn't seem as anxious to close the distance between them and the cabin. I guessed they still weren't sure where the killing shots came from and quickly put a couple of shots right into the front windshield of the last vehicle. From behind, the agents sprayed the terrorists on foot and in the Hummer with sporadic fire to keep them pinned down and give help a chance to respond.

The driver of the third Humvee suddenly found some courage and slammed the vehicle forward toward me and away from his adversaries. Whether I killed the driver, or he got spooked and hit the turn too hard is anybody's guess, The Hummer flipped so violently, I could count the individual bodies thrown high in the air above it and could almost hear them impact the ground at speed. Those eight were out of the fight, leaving however many were on foot to figure a way to survive and escape without their vehicles.

Patiently I waited to see who would emerge into the open to give me a shot. I was almost immediately rewarded when a single ISIS soldier separated himself from the ruined battle wagon and walked toward the cabin. His walk was unsteady, but his pace was deliberate. I could see a determination in his demeanor that far out distanced his brethren.

That one was not only a stone killer, but he wanted to die. He desired the release that only death will give him from the demons that enveloped his life and made him into the insane madman he became.

His steps brought him closer, and he shouldered his RPG launcher. When he tried to sight it on the cabin, I shot him in the chest – twice. He staggered and falling away, turned the launcher on his own brothers in arms. His final twitch fired the rocket, and it sailed straight into the clot of terrorists, blowing them to pieces and ending the lop-sided battle.

After the explosion, as silence reigned, I tried to decide if the emollition of his comrades was intentional or perverse fate. I couldn't decide and left it to the universe to choose.

In the aftermath of the battle FBI, CIA, DHS, and some other alphabet agencies identified thirty-one bodies among the enemy. Among our casualties was Ramon Jimenez who took a round in the back and chest while running away when the first shots were fired. The second wave of terrorists shot him coming at them, at the same time the first wave shot him running away.