Anchor Line (31 page)

             
In the opposite corner from where he was standing by the ladder was another hole with a ladder. He looked up and saw Schultz. Putting one finger to his lips, he motioned for Schultz and Kemp to come down quietly and tugged on the rope so that Schultz could hold it as they went down again. Once the other two Soldiers were with him, he did the same maneuver, flash the light. No noise. Put flashlight in mouth. Hold M9. Go down hole.

             
Continuing down on the next ladder at the opposite end of the room, it seemed to bottom out after about six feet and level off standing only again, five feet high, until they came to the end where it looked like several medium sized rocks had caved in the opening.  Hunched over, he flashed the light around the same space and motioned for the other two to come down and turn off their flashlights as he turned his off as well. It was then that he saw sunlight coming in. Just thin streams from the top of the rock wall.  Carefully, he moved a few of the rocks that blocked the way out and when he had enough of a view, he peeked outside to see what he could which wasn't much. It was the back side of the mountain, he was sure.  There was a makeshift little shelter about fifty yards away. Just four sticks holding up a striped blanket with a couple of chairs underneath in the shade but nobody sitting there.  He put the rocks back. He tried his radio which, not surprisingly had no signal. 

             
“Fuck.” He murmured turning around and spoke in a hushed tone. “Schultz, high tail your ass up those damn ladders and tell the LT to send someone to meet us around the back side of this mountain. I think that's where we're going to end up. There’s a shelter out there with two chairs under it. Tell them we'll be coming out to the east side of it.”

             
“Roger, Sergeant.” Schultz said, starting to climb the ladder.

             
Conrad grabbed the guy’s LBV. “Schultz...tell them to not fucking shoot us.”

             
  “Roger, Sergeant.”  Schultz said chuckling as he climbed the ladder.  “Don't shoot us.”  He laughed again.

             
Then Conrad grabbed Schultz’s boot as he started back up the ladder. “And don't come down until they are in position. We have no coms, so you coming down will tell us there isn't anything going on outside.”

             
  “Roger Sergeant.”  Schultz said as he quickly climbed up the ladder. 

             
  “Do you really think the bad guys will come through there sergeant?” Kemp asked.

             
Conrad knew he had to calm the young man down.  He motioned for him to untie the rope on his LBV, so he did so.

             
“We'll be fine Kemp. We're just gonna sit here until some of Muldoon and Raven Platoon gets back there. I may be fearless, but I'm not stupid.  I'm not gonna endanger anyone here, okay. Sit down and relax.” He answered as he re-bundled the rope.

             
Conrad pushed the button for his flashlight, pushing the safety on his M9, holstered it, then reached in one of the pockets on his LBV and pulled out a little baggie of beef jerky that his future brother in law, Roger, made and sent him in droves. He motioned for Kemp to sit down on the dirt floor. It was an offer to soothe the young private, and to reassure him that they were gonna cool their heels until Schultz got back down.

             
Looking around, there wasn’t anything but rocks and dirt and more rocks and dirt. Not seeing anything of interest, he sat down across from Kemp and chewed the jerky and thought of home. Not much longer now and he was on his way for his mid tour leave. This was the last big mission they had before he left for two weeks in the States, and he couldn’t wait. So far, except for some scrapes, bruises and some dead bad guys, the mission was a success.  They had opened up the wall to the fortressed Stronghold, took out the two bad guys, found a cache of weapons and the entrance and what appeared to be an exit to it. 

             
He made small talk with Kemp the forty minutes that they waited. Conrad could hear Schultz's boots crunching in the dirt and then his body scrape along the dirt as he came down the ladder through the tight opening and finally he was standing in from of Conrad with a smile on his face like always. Conrad just shook his head, that mother fucker was always smiling.

             
  “Why the hell are you smiling Schultz?” Conrad asked finally.

             
  “We are fucking lucky.  That's why I'm smiling. So everyone's in place, they are waiting for us to push through.  They got two sheep herders...”

             
  “Shepherds, you mean?”  Conrad corrected.

             
  “Yeah.  They were walking around out there without the benefit of sheep. So Sergeant Cale, from Ravens Platoon took them into custody and wouldn't you know, one has a cell phone.”

             
  “Fuck! We’re gonna die. Holy shit!”  Kemp stood up starting to panic.

             
  “Relax Kemp.” Conrad said putting out a hand to Kemp, then looked back at Schultz. “Are you fucking serious?” 

             
  “Apparently, we dodged a huge fucking bullet. Like fucking huge!” Schultz said. “Whatever they were dialing didn't blow up. Three calls to whatever and no one picked up. No kaboom. Nothing.”  Schultz took a deep breath.  “So, we push through, they are waiting for us. The LT said that he's gonna have you place some C4 as only you know how and tear this mother fucker apart.”

             
  “You tell him we have weapons?”

             
  “Yeah, they said to blow them up with the tunnel.” Shultz replied. “I took a few pictures and showed him.” Schultz put his small flashlight in his pocket and walked over to the large pile of rocks. “Sergeant Cale said to start digging out of this shit hole, the area is secure.”

 
                “Alright then. Let's get the hell out of here.” Conrad said as he started pushing the rocks aside to get outside.

             
As the hole got bigger, he saw parts of his and Raven Platoon looking around.

             
“Hey fucker. Over here.” Conrad yelled.

             
At the sound of his voice, a few came over to help dig him out. Dust and dirt covering his uniform and face as he crawled his way through the rocks when he saw the thin piece of wire that was running along the lower rocks out to the open space that was uncovered by the boots from the Soldiers that were helping them. He let the other soldiers help Kemp and Schultz out of the tunnel as Conrad followed the wire to the shaded area. The wire disappeared underneath one of the chairs where he found a cell phone buried in the sand under one of the chairs. Following the wire running back to the cave, he saw that it ran through the rocks along the top part.

             
“Where’s Sergeant Cale?” Holy shit, Conrad's heart sank a little. That was one hell of a close call.

             
There was a detonating devise set to the C4 that was remote controlled. This was supposed to blow.  The wire led inside the tunnel.  There was probably more in there as well.  A last ditch safety measure to insure that the Coalition Forces didn't find it the tunnel more than likely.

             
Conrad grabbed the radio guy and let the LT know what he'd found and that he was going back in to see what happened as to why it didn't detonate.  But he was going to lay his own C4 and it was guaranteed to blow half that mountain off the map so that the cartographers were going to one, have to re-map that bitch and two, name it Renner Ridge after him when he was done with it.  Clearly the two 'shepherds' couldn't do the job they were supposed to. So he was going to make sure it was done right. 

             
Pissed off at almost being blown up on a mission in a stupid mountain tunnel where a small arsenal was kept, or just pissed off in general, Conrad moved with a more determined purpose collecting what he needed. He saw the break in the flimsy cord that was broken by the sharp rocks that were placed to cover the wires, he continued to follow it up to where the weapons were.

             
“Renner. Where you at man?” Cale called coming in the crude room.

             
“Up here where the weapons are, looking for the explosive.” Conrad answered.

             
“Alright, I’ll get set up down here. While you are up there you want to wire that shit up?”

             
“Roger.” He answered.

             
Finding the wire actually had practically pulled apart where it was wrapped together, he just shook his head. The actual explosive was buried underneath the ammunition pile. As Cale wired the bottom of the tunnel and set the charge, Conrad set the explosives in the piles of weapons and ran his cord down for all the cords to be connected into Cale’s setup. He waited for the two soldiers to finish setting charges in the structure on top and dropped their cord down to Conrad who did his magic and told them to clear out.  The Soldiers on the East side of the mountain were cleared by Sergeant Cale. Conrad radioed to clear everyone off the top of the jutting precipice and waited for the all clear from the LT. 

             
  “Try and blow me up. You mother fuckers.” After getting the all clear about a half hour later, Conrad hit the button and the C4 ignited with a flash and the resulting explosion and secondary’s from the inside and on top in the house, were sending rocks and sand all over the mountainside.  The explosion was enough to rival the greatest of sandstorms.  Small pieces of rocks and earth were sent flying in the air, only to land in a big pile in the ravine where the larger mountain range and the jutting precipice met. 

             
Although blowing up a part of the mountainside wasn't in the original plan, the strategy was one that Conrad and LT Jacobs put together the week before; Blow up the structure and surrounding walls so that ‘Stronghold’ was no longer a problem. The whole platoon stayed out at the objective for the week to see who, if anyone, would come back to inspect the damage. When the bad guys only returned once, and not enough of them to even meet Muldoon and Raven Platoons with a challenge, another coalition unit moved in to watch the village. With the original objective complete and the choke point in the road that Stronghold presented was cleared, the Commander called Muldoon and Raven in. They packed their gear and were preparing to hump it back the two and a half mile long hike to the FOB, when three MRAPs rolled up to drop off some more guys that were replacing them and in turn they all crammed in and went back.

             
Now forty-five minutes later, none worse for the wear, but in need of a shower, Conrad and his Soldiers rolled in and stopped in front of the TOC, where CPT Stratorski was standing to welcome the platoon. Shaking their hands when they came out of the vehicles like he always did when his Soldiers came in from missions. No matter how great or small, he was out there to meet them. 

             
  “Stand fast guys.”  CPT Stratorski called out as the men were handing gear out of the back of the vehicles.  “Pull in a horseshoe formation around me.” The Soldiers stood around waiting to hear what the Commander had to say. 

             
  “We're all here sir.” LT Jacobs said.

             
  “Okay guys, our time line has shifted to the left about two weeks.  So, get ready to pull out in a week, give or take a day or two. So, let's adjust to let the new guys that are coming in daily. Most of the Hundred and First Division has been oriented to the area, so it's time for us to go to another FOB and do what we do best. The Commander with one-oh-one said that we have been rode hard and put away wet. So, they are fully prepared to take this and run with it.  That lets us out of here early.” He paused, looking around at the soldiers around him.  “Great job guys. Go get showered up and start getting ready to pack it in for the next move. Those of you that are going on R and R, we'll stage you at Bagram Air Base right after we move into the new FOB. You’ll sit tight there until you catch your flight back. Which should only be a day or two. I wanted to tell you guys first. Kind of a welcome home present of sorts. Only five more months. The new FOB isn’t in a hotbed but we still need to keep vigilant. So spread the word!”

             
Jeers at going to another FOB went up from Conrad's platoon. He smiled recalling the seven month long deployment to Afghanistan already.  All the missions, the weather, the loses, the chow hall, or lack thereof, the MRE's, sleep deprivation. Yeah, it would be great to get out of Afghanistan in five months and be in a safer FOB.  The Soldiers had a renewed sense of energy as they picked up their gear and made their way to the tents.

             
  “Bout’ fuckin’ time we get a break and get to do something early besides the next mission.” LT Jacobs said making conversation as he fell in step with Conrad.

             
  “Yeah. What I need right now is a nice shower.”  Conrad responded.

 
                “You’re up for R and R right Renner?”

             
  “Yes sir. My sister is getting married. So I’m jumping straight into that shit when I get home in the Burgh.”