B00C74WTKQ EBOK (18 page)

The men were firing back now. Race didn’t know if they had actual targets or not, but none of the fire seemed to be coming anywhere near her. When they shot, she could see dirt and dust scattered by their muzzle blasts. Using those as cues she sighted behind where the dust flew up and fired three quick rounds each time. Now the firing from the girls had settled down, brief blasts followed by silence then more brief blasting.

Suddenly one of the men jumped to his feet with his hands in the air. Race and several others shot him immediately.
Bad move asshole, we were all on hair trigger. You should have shouted your surrender not jumped up with a bunch of adrenaline-charged shooters around you.

Now the question in her mind was whether the other two men were out of action or lying in wait. After the man had fallen, the firing had stopped. No firing was coming from the hill and the three teams were waiting to see if the men were dead or not. Race signaled her teammates back to her.

“We’re going up the hill. Advance and cover just like we drilled. Get ready.” Race then yelled out loudly “Team Alpha and Team Bravo! Maintain your positions and hold your fire, we’re coming up the hill. I repeat we’re coming up the hill.”

To her teammates she said in a normal tone of voice “I hate to let those men know we’re coming, but I’d hate it worse if an overexcited Ranger took a shot at us by mistake. I’ll dash to that spot there, while I do each of you fire one shot into their position to keep their heads down, don’t fire at the same time though. Then I’ll do the same as you come up to me. When you get up to me we’ll do it again. I’ll take the lead on each jump. Ready? Let’s go.”

When Race was finally in position, she saw that two of the men were clearly dead, but she wasn’t certain of the third one. He’d been hit at least twice from what she could see. The other two were riddled with bullet holes and were both lying face up. The third, the leader of the trio, was face down. Carefully and quietly she approached, keeping the man covered and her finger on the trigger ready to shoot.

When she was within two paces she could see that he was still breathing, a wheezing sound coming from his chest. His hands were in clear sight and his rifle had fallen out of reach. She considered shooting him in the head to finish this off, but she wanted him to see it coming if he was conscious, so she and two other girls rolled the man over onto his back.

He looked up at her and weakly spat out “Bitch!”

She looked into his eyes for a long moment, then said “Who’s the bitch here?” and shot him between the eyes with grim satisfaction.

None of the girls had been injured, they had maintained strict discipline and not exposed themselves to fire. The men had been firing wildly, having been given no targets.

“I’m proud of you beyond any words I have to express myself,” Race told the girls. “You were perfect, just beautifully perfect. Adrian would be proud of all of us, his training has made us what we are. We are Warriors by God! Adrian’s Rangers!” She shouted, lifting her rifle high over her head.

“
Race’s Rangers!
” the girls shouted back at her at the top of their lungs. Race started to object, but the girls overrode her with their shouting. They shouted it over and over in perfect unison, pumping their rifles up and down as they bled-off the intense adrenaline high from the combat.

If the girls had been solidly bonded before, now they were welded. They had become a well-honed fighting unit, tested and proven, and they were keenly aware of it. They were closer now than any sisters could ever be.

Race’s Rangers,
Race thought as they shouted.
Why not? Why the hell not?

With that battle action they became more than just a cult, they became a deadly fighting cult. One that in the future would spread across the country and grow larger with each passing year.

Chapter 20

R
yan completed his radio report
to the Admiral, repeating word for word Juan’s story and admonitions, even adding in the information about the Three Sisters and Moringa trees. “If the Three Sisters and Moringa tree check out it, would be a good thing to broadcast so other people can try it,” he said

The Admiral replied. “Excellent report men, we’re starting to get a much clearer picture now. The spies you sent in are also sending in reports, and they all tally with yours. Del Rio keeps coming up, and soon. I’m afraid they are more advanced in their movements than we had originally thought. The question now is what we do about it. Over.”

Adrian picked up the microphone. “I’ve been thinking about that, Admiral. We’re going to need a lot of men, and I have an idea about that. I think it’s time to broadcast over clear radio, on the ham-net, what’s going on and to ask for volunteers to rally in Cotulla, near Laredo. If you’d get your radio men to send out a distress signal to all of Texas that we need fighters down here as fast as possible, and ask each ham operator to repeat the call to arms, I’m hoping that we’ll get enough volunteers to put up a fight. Over.”

“Laredo? They’re coming at us at Del Rio, Adrian. What’s your thinking? Over.”

“A couple of things, Admiral. One, there’s no doubt the cartel coalition will hear the broadcast. We can’t help that, so we might as well misdirect them as much as we can. Let
them
think that
we
think the battle will be at Laredo so they keep heading for Del Rio. Secondly, it will give us time to organize the volunteers and get in some rudimentary training as we move to Del Rio. By the time we get there, our fighters will be at least somewhat organized and disciplined. Over.”

“Roger that. Good thinking. We have twelve of your riverboat trucks ready to go. I’m going to send every soldier we can spare down to you with them. They’ll be coming in transport trucks, loaded with as many arms and as much ammunition as I can find. They’ll be communicating their progress on this frequency so you’ll know when and where to expect them. My head count for this expeditionary force is three-hundred men. They’ll be under your command upon arrival. Make the best use of them you can. Over.”

“Three-hundred?” said Adrian, shaking his head. “I hope we get a good turnout of volunteers, then, Admiral. This isn’t Thermopylae; we need a lot more than that, but I’m not complaining. Every fighter we get, we’ll be lucky to have, and the arms and ammo too. I look forward to seeing the river boat trucks and how we can use them. Looks like we have maybe six weeks to get our army together, train them, and be in Del Rio to welcome our unfriendly neighbors; lots to do and not nearly enough time. Please start those broadcasts for volunteers tonight if you would. Over. Oh wait, I have another request. Would it be possible to send one of your planes over Fort Brazos to drop off an encrypted radio? I need to talk to our militia there. Over. ”

“Will do. I’ll have a jet over Fort Brazos in two hours drop a chute with the radio and instructions. We’ll start the volunteer request broadcast tonight and repeat every four hours until further notice. Over.”

“Thank you Admiral. How are the girls doing? Any more bridge invasions? Over.” Adrian grinned as he asked the question.

“You may think that was funny. It wasn’t. There have been some developments with them. They came back from their latest training excursion this week and they seemed different. They were much more self-contained, and of all things, were quiet for a change. No idle chatter, no goofing around. It worried me, so I had the ship’s psychologist have another talk with them. He said that it was almost like trying to talk to POW’s. They answered his questions, but didn’t elaborate on anything. He said that he believed they experienced some kind of difficulty, but wasn’t at all clear what it was. Other than that he gave them a clean bill.”

The Admiral paused, very briefly, before continuing, but long enough for Adrian to notice.

“There’s something else you should know,” the Admiral said. “One of the sailors caught Rylie alone and tried to force himself on her. Over.”

“Is she alright? Did he hurt her? I’ll kill the son-of-a-bitch when I get back!” Adrian was so angry that he forgot radio protocol.

“No she’s fine, not a scratch or bruise on her. We’ll court martial the sailor when he gets out of the hospital. Over.”

“Some of the men roughed him up did they? Good, very good. Over.”

“No Adrian, it wasn’t the men. It was Rylie. She cut him up pretty badly...well, very badly actually. Let’s just say that he’ll have trouble fathering children in the future. Those girls are changing Adrian, they’re more…feral…yes,
feral
is the best word I can use to describe them. They look at you and it’s like a predator looking at you. It’s a creepy feeling Adrian, almost as though they are looking for a weakness just before an attack. That sailor didn’t stand a chance Adrian, not a chance. Doc said that the girls are also talking about you differently, as though you had become more of an abstraction now than a reality. Over.”

“An abstraction? I don’t understand. Over.”

“He said that they almost worshipped you when you were with them, but it was the kind of admiration where they saw all of your warts but still admired you anyway. Now he says that with your being out of sight they have forgotten you have warts. It’s a form of hero worship based not on reality, but more on idealization. Kind of makes sense I guess. Over.”

“Good Lord. All I wanted to do was to see them safe and healthy and settled down someplace decent. I’ll have to deal with that when this war is over and I can get back. Tell them I’m thinking of them…hell, go ahead and tell them I love them and miss them. Damned if it isn’t the truth anyway. But tell them I also said to mind themselves until I can get back. And tell them to stick together in groups, don’t be getting caught alone like that. Might not work out so well next time. Over.”

After Adrian shut off the radio he shook his head over the news of the girls. He mulled over what the Admiral told him, but realized there wasn’t a thing in the world he could do about it right now.
Time enough for that later. Assuming there is a later.

That evening Adrian heard the first of the call-to-arms broadcasts. The Admiral had crafted a good solid message, one that would stir the hearts of the men who heard it, a rousing message that played on a Texan’s love of his state.
He all but called Texans back to the Alamo for one last good fight. But he could have left my name out of it.

His best guess was that any nearby volunteers would start trickling in within a few days. Others would come in for over a month, with six weeks probably being the sweet spot, and by then it would be fighting time. Organizing them would be difficult.

Adrian looked at Ryan and Jose. They were sitting around their campfire after dinner. It was getting late and they would soon be going to sleep. “Gentlemen, I’d say that our mission is complete. I’ll be going back to Cotulla to start up the war engine. Once there you two can go on back to the ship. It’s been a damned interesting time, and I’ll hate to see you go. But we’ve accomplished our mission and it’s time to move on.”

Ryan quickly replied, “Are you trying to order us back? Because if you are then you’ll have to court martial me for refusing orders. I’m staying. Hell, Adrian, this is a historian’s dream. Wars have caused more changes to history than any other type of event. This one…this one has the potential to change the future of our world for centuries to come. It has all the components of a major watershed moment in history. You’ll have to shoot me to keep me away, damnit. Even then I’ll haunt you.”

Adrian opened his mouth to reply, but before he could utter a word Jose jumped into the conversation. “Me too, Adrian, I’m not going back either. A large component of your volunteers will be Mexican Americans, many of whom will not be fluent in English. You’ll need me on your staff to translate. Besides, the Admiral didn’t order us back—he
did
order us to accompany you. Sorry, but we’re following orders passed down through the chain of command. Fact is we can’t go back, we’d be disobeying orders if we did.”

“Alright you stay,” said Adrian, holding up his hands in surrender. Then he grew more serious. “But as ordered by the Admiral, once we rendezvous with the troops he’s sending, I’ll be your commanding officer per military regulation. I appreciate the fact you want to stay; frankly, I really wanted you to stay, but I had to give you the option of not fighting a Texan’s war if you didn’t want to.”

Adrian gave them a big smile and added, almost jokingly, “Just remember that when I’m your commanding officer, I will absolutely not brook any further attempted mutinies of this sort. Now, I think it’s time to break out that bottle of tequila that Reynaldo gave us and toast to the upcoming victory of Texas over the Mexican Cartels.”