B00C74WTKQ EBOK (24 page)

Linda grasped his hand tightly and pulled until he stood looking down at her. She looked up into his eyes, her vision blurred with tears. “Yes Adrian Hunter, I will marry you. If I had the pick of every man on earth there is no way I would choose any other, not ever, not for as long as I live.”

As soon as she stopped talking, a little girl’s war whoop broke out from the nearby brush. Startled they both turned to watch as Rita ran off whooping and shouting the news. “They’re getting married! They’re getting married!”

Before they got back to the camp the news had spread and a huge and wild welcome was waiting for them. As they approached the camp and saw the celebrating and waiting crowd, Adrian said, “Still the girls are charming?”

When they were within shouting distance the crowd started shouting approval. When they were close enough to be heard Adrian raised his hand asking for silence. “Let me be the
second
to inform you that Linda Fremont has graciously accepted my proposal of marriage. May I introduce to you the future First Lady of Texas, Linda Fremont!” Adrian turned and bowed to Linda with a huge smile. As the crowd shouted encouragingly over his announcement, he mouthed the words to her “Bet you didn’t think of that!”

Linda leaned close and shouted in Adrian’s ear “Of course I did silly, why do you think I accepted?” She then winked at him and kissed him again in front of God and the Republic of Texas Army.

Later that evening, Adrian and Linda were in the Headquarters tent talking to Jose and Ryan.

“No, we haven’t set the date yet,” said Adrian. “It’s not the right time for a honeymoon with a big battle coming up. On the other hand, either of us might not be alive afterwards, so we’re in something of a quandry here.”

Lind added, “Plus can you imagine us trying to have a honeymoon in this camp? My God, we’d be pestered to death and there’s no way I can take to a wedding bed knowing everyone out there is watching our tent. No way.”

“I have a suggestion.” Jose said. “Get married tomorrow and leave for two days, then come back and get back to work. Adrian, you owe it to Linda to go into that battle married, no matter the outcome. It would be tragic if you don’t. We’ll carry on with the training without you for that long. I promise if anything dire comes about I’ll come and get you right away. Just take one of the trucks and go far enough that you feel alone—let me know where you are—and have two days to yourselves. If you don’t I don’t know if these men and women will go nuts, but I think the tension just might drive them crazy. It will be the best thing for you two, and best for the camp, too. Just expect a large wedding party and a big send off. Oh, and probably a lot of winks and nods when you get back.” Jose finished with a smile.

Adrian turned to Linda and said, “I like it. What do you think?”

Her smile was answer enough.

To Adrian’s dismay, most of the training activity came to a halt in order to prepare for the wedding. Adrian barely caught site of Linda once that day. And he was busier than he’d had any thought of. Ryan had scoured the camp for a suit for him to wear, a tough challenge given the nature of the camp and Adrian’s size. But with the help of two seamstresses and a lot of standing for Adrian to be measured and fitted, the ladies turned the pieces Ryan had found into a tux that would be presentable almost anywhere.

Linda was in a whirl of activity. The ladies flocked to her to help her put a wedding dress together and to make dresses for Adrian’s Angels who would act as bride’s maids. A group of carpenters constructed a large arbor for them to stand under and other volunteers decorated it profusely, including the new Republic of Texas flags. All was ready an hour before dark.

Adrian stood in the arbor and watched as the girls came out of the bride’s tent. He was startled, having seen them only in rags and uniforms. The girls were washed and clean with shiny hair and bright faces, all wearing pretty dresses. He couldn’t help smiling broadly at them, and they smiled shyly back, not used to being dressed in such feminine attire and having the added distraction of a large crowd clapping and whistling at them.

Adrian had never seen their faces so pink, nor so happy.

As three guitars played the wedding march, Adrian waited nervously, it was all he could do not to fidget. But he forgot his nervousness when Linda appeared. Somehow the ladies had put together a modestly-cut wedding dress of white lace that still managed to show her figure to advantage.

As she came closer, Adrian’s nervousness returned. He lifted her veil and beamed back at the full smile she gave him. “You’re beyond beautiful,” he said. “You’re like an angel come to earth.”

Taking her hand they both turned to face Matt, the Fort Brazos Church Pastor and Adrian’s dear friend. Adrian held her hand and couldn’t tell which one of them was trembling the most.

“Dearly beloved…” Matt began. Matt’s deep baritone voice carried over the crowd effortlessly. Many of the women and even some of the men had tears.

When the ceremony was over and they were finally able to disengage from the party afterwards, Adrian and Linda slipped away in a truck and drove the few miles to their honeymoon location. Ryan and Jose had set up a tent for them, packed it with plenty of food that didn’t need to be cooked and even a bottle of wine they had scrounged. Inside the tent was a table holding the food and wine and a large bed, complete with frame, box springs and a new mattress that someone had found in a furniture store in Cotulla.

Upon inspection Adrian said “Maybe I ought to drag that bed outside. I’m afraid we might set the tent on fire.”

Linda laughed, “Maybe?” she replied, in a tone of voice that assured they would indeed.

They had two days alone before they returned to the war preparations, and they made the most of it.

Chapter 26

A
drian briefed the commanders. “It’s
time to take the show on the road, gentlemen. The Mexicans are four days from the river. Our train is ready, the fuel tankers, assault trucks, and transport trucks are all loaded, the tracks have been cleared of obstructions. Our troops are trained as well as they’re going to be given our timeline. I’m damned impressed at how fast they get into position from a standing start, and how well they execute their assignments. Spread the word to pack up, we leave at midnight.”

At dawn two days later, Adrian was looking over the battle zone. The cartel’s army would be planning to cross the Rio Grande at Hwy 277, the only bridge for miles in either direction. Once they realized the bridge was denied to them, they would look for another place to cross. Adrian looked to his right at the big canal on the US side. Crossing there would present the enemy with two water crossings. To his left, and across the river on the Mexican side, was a large sports complex, an open area of soccer and football fields that begged to be used to mass the troops for a surge across the river
. That’s where they’ll cross, and that’s where we’ll be waiting.

Adrian turned and walked back and then along the river’s edge opposite the sports compound. The river was narrow here and the water was low, affording a relatively easy crossing. Their command trucks wouldn’t make it across, but Adrian knew the Mexicans would simply abandon them, expecting to get more trucks on the US side.

On his own side, there were scattered trees on this side, enough to keep his troops out of sight, not enough to give the enemy troops much cover. It was about as good as he could have hoped for; his scouts had reported the area accurately. His planned tactics had taken all of this into account.

Returning to the command post half a mile from the river Adrian began issuing orders. “Take Company D across the river after dark. They’ll then move east along the river’s frontage road four miles and hide. We blow the middle section of the bridge as soon as they cross. Did you find enough ammonium nitrate fertilizer to blow it, Frank?”

“Yes sir, more than enough. It’s loaded onto a trailer already. We’ll just tow the trailer out there and put the diesel fuel into it, then four sticks of dynamite as an igniter. We’ll also place ANFO charges at the base of the support columns beneath the charge, they’ll be wired together and all go off at the same time.”

“Excellent, but just in case it doesn’t do enough damage what’s your plan B”?

“Do it again. We brought up reserve supplies of material and can set off a second blast within a half hour sir.”

“Good. Groups A, B and C, will take position just after dark and wait. No fires, no movement of any kind. I expect them to send scouts across the river as soon as they see the blown bridge. I’m not sure how far their scouts will go. They may get close enough to spot us; if, and only if, they do spot us, the Seals will take them out with silent weapons. Otherwise we want them to go back and give an all clear, to report that that this is the best place to cross.”

“Even if they do spot us, I think they’ll still come across here. They don’t know what our tactics will be, they’ll probably expect a simple heads-on clash, one they can win by sheer numbers. Moving up or down the river to cross somewhere else won’t appeal to them, knowing that we’ll simply move along with them. My guess is that they’ll cross about noon tomorrow, they’ll find the blown bridge shortly after daylight, then they’ll need time to send scouts, make their decision and get their men into position.”

He looked at his men. “You’ve trained for this. You know what you’re supposed to do and when. I have complete, no, I have
absolute
faith that you’ll do your jobs, and complete your missions with total success. By sundown tomorrow this will be over, and I am fully confident we will win. Take your positions as soon as it’s dark and don’t forget to have your Chaplains’ move among your troops giving prayers in small groups. Wait for my signal tomorrow. I’ll radio it to you. The word to move out is ‘execute.’ Any questions?”

Adrian didn’t expect any questions, they had gone over this a hundred times, practiced it until the only challenge became one of beating their previous best time.

There were no questions.

“Dismissed, and God be with you.”

Adrian watched as the cartel’s forward scouts approached the bridge and spotted the missing segment in the middle. The first round of explosives had dropped the section straight down into the river. The scouts stared at it for a few minutes, talking to each other and waving their hands. They turned and double-timed back the way they had come.

He turned to Linda who was standing next to him. As a full Colonel, Linda was commanding the Fort Brazos Militia. Adrian knew and trusted these men and women and wanted them in Group B.

“It’s a shame we had to give them this forewarning, but letting them across the bridge would have strung them out in too long of a line, and it would be a line that kept moving.”

“I can’t think of any flaws in your plan Adrian. But as you said, the best plan can go out the window with the first hit.”

“I’ve seen that time and again, that’s why we have two backup plans. Both can work but have some iffy points in them. Either of them depends entirely on timing, and we didn’t have a lot of time to practice them as much as I would have liked. Still, we have some nasty surprises for those bastards.”

“I know you really hate having to stay behind the lines and direct troop movements. My hunch is that you’d far rather be leading one of the front line companies.”

Adrian waited a minute before replying as he scanned the bridge again through the binoculars. “Yes, I would much rather be out front. I’ve never had to stay back and direct the overall battle, and it’s frustrating as hell to send troops into battle instead of leading them in myself.”

“You know as well as I do it has to be this way. No one out there would trust anyone but you to call the shots, directing them to be where the need is greatest. They admire you, Adrian, flat out love you in fact. If you went down in the battle they would lose heart and possibly lose because of it. They all know you would rather be in front of them—they know that, Adrian. The fact is that you have to force yourself to stay back…they know you have to and not only want it that way but love you for doing it. They are well aware that you are doing it for their sakes. Look! The main body is coming down the road now. Jesus Christ! Would you look at how many there are.”

Adrian watched as the much larger than expected column of men paused short of the bridge, then moved towards the sports complex. He saw eight scouts cross the river on each side of the bridge to check the terrain. It was a tense two hours, listening for any shouts or gunfire from the scouts, hoping against hope they were too lazy to go far enough to spot the Texas troops. Four scouts returned from the right side, the side Adrian didn’t want the Mexicans to cross. It was another hour before the scouts on the left side returned.

Adrian picked up the radio and called his forward observers. “Did they spot anyone? Over.”

“No sir.” Came the quiet reply. “They crossed over, came in about three hundred yards and sat down to eat. Then they crossed back. Over.”