Bug Out! Part 6: Motorhome Mayhem in the Rockies (16 page)

“Why would they leave pistols out there?” Jane asked. “I could see the heavy stuff.”

“Maybe there’s not a good place to wear a side arm when you’re in your pajamas,” Jerry said, laughing.

“No, Jane’s right,” Frank said. “Something odd there. Any other tracks around?”

“There are a lot of tracks, but they are consistent with the time and the size of that attack last night.”

“What kind of pistols?”

“El cheapo, again,” Jerry said. “Lousy imitation Glocks, 9mm. No extra ammo for those either. Only some ammo for AKs.”

“Maybe that tells us something about our enemy’s weapons, at least,” Jane said.

“If I had to guess, I’d say those pistols came from South America,” Jerry said.

“Venezuela?” Charlie asked.

“Maybe. I wouldn’t want to rely on those things.”

Earl and Jackson walked back in with the towels and glass cleaner.

“Take a look now,” Jackson said. “Should be getting a better picture. Oh, and we brought the enemy stuff over. It’s on the veranda next to the door.”

“Thanks, guys,” Charlie said.

Frank got up and opened the doors of the camera system cabinet. The exterior pictures were now crystal clear on the monitor. “Looks great, guys. Thanks!”

“By the way, there’s a deer blind out there in the trees next to the creek,” Earl said. “It would be a good forward post. The trees are really thick in there….it would be tough to see us in there.”

“Any booze or magazines?” Jerry asked, laughing.

“No, sorry,” Earl said sheepishly.

“Perhaps that would be a good place for the RPGs,” Frank said.

“Now that’s a hell of a good idea, Frank,” Jackson said. “You can see the road coming in right along there. You could take out a vehicle from there with no problem.”

“Good, then let’s do that,” Charlie said. Earl and Jackson nodded, and went back out, just as Gabe was walking back in. He came to the back.

“Our guests tucked in?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, they seem pretty nervous to me, though. I’d be surprised if they sleep much.”

“I’m glad they’re leaving,” Jasmine said. “I don’t feel as safe with them here.”

“Me neither,” Frank said.

Suddenly there was the sound of a distant explosion. Frank and Jerry looked at each other, and ran for the door. The others followed.

“Jeb, see anything?” Frank yelled.

“Yeah, something blew up north of town,” he shouted.

“The supply base,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, probably,” Jeb replied. “I can hear small arms fire now, but just barely.”

Private Brown came running over, followed by the other Privates.

“So much for your nap, I guess,” Jerry said as they got next to them.

“Where’s that coming from?” Private Brown asked.

“Looks like north of Eagle, where the supply base is,” Frank said.

“Shit. My dad was right, but it happened sooner than we expected. We need to get out of here now.”

“Need a vehicle?” Gabe asked.

“Sure, you got one?”

“I’ve got an old Delta 88. It runs, and it’s full of gas. Don’t look like much. It was my wife’s.”

“Thanks,” Private Peterson said. “We don’t have anything to pay you with.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Gabe said. “Let’s go. I’m probably going to have to jumpstart it for you, but the battery is pretty good….it’ll charge up fine after you drive it a little.”

The four men followed Gabe back to the area next to the barn.

“Jets!” Jeb said.

“Coming this way?” Frank asked.

“No, they’re coming from the east, heading towards the base. Shoot, they just took something out in midair. It was small, but it blew up big time when they hit it.”

“Drones,” Jerry said. “If the enemy took over that base, they might be able to use the drones to find us.”

“They just got two more,” Jeb said. “And you’re right, they were drones. Caught a glimpse of one of them with my binos.”

There was a louder jet sound now.

“What’s that?” Jerry yelled.

“Bigger plane,” Jeb shouted. “Heading for the base, from the looks of it. Dropping bombs! Get ready to hold your ears.”

There was a low rumble that seemed to go on and on.

“Wow, wish I could see more,” Jeb shouted. “Damn mountains in the way. I see smoke coming up, though.”

The rumble started to subside, and then there was silence.

“Jets just split back towards the east,” Jeb shouted.

“Keep your eyes peeled for drones,” Jerry shouted back.

The Delta 88 drove up in front of the veranda. Gabe got out of the driver’s seat, letting it idle.

“Didn’t even have to jump her,” he said. “I’m going to put some food and water in the trunk for them. The boys are back at the rental unit changing their clothes.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” Charlie said. Kurt followed them into the clubhouse.

“There’s quite a fire going on over there,” Jeb said. “Look at that smoke.”

“Wow, we can even see it from the ground,” Frank said. Jackson and Earl came back from the meadow.

“The RPGs are in the blind, ready to go,” Jackson said.

“What the hell just happened?” Earl asked.

“Looks like an attack on the supply base,” Frank said.

“Crap,” he replied. “There goes our early warning system.”

“Seriously,” Jerry said. “We’re going to have to keep alert.”

The privates walked up to the car with their backpacks as Gabe, Kurt, and Charlie carried boxes of supplies out and put them in the trunk.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” Private Brown said.

“I just wanted to help you guys out a little,” Gabe said. “It’s my pleasure.”

“Well, thanks,” Private Brown said. “We’ll be on our way, if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure, whenever you’re ready.”

“Good luck, men,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, take care of yourselves, and say hi to General Hogan for us,” Frank said.

The men nodded, put their backpacks in the trunk, and got into the car. They drove off slowly.

“Do we need to re-assess if we want to stay here or not?” Jane asked.

“We might want to talk about it,” Frank said.

“Yeah, I agree, as hard as it is to say,” Gabe said. “Being here without our eye in the sky is quite a bit more dangerous.”

“Let’s not get too hasty,” Charlie said. “If that base is destroyed, the enemy may decide this area isn’t worth fooling with, and if they don’t know where we are, we might be in good shape for a while.”

“True, and this place is pretty defendable,” Earl said. “I had one other thought, too. We could take steps to hide our coaches so drones won’t be able to see them as easily.”

“How?” Frank asked.

“Simple….we gather up tree branches and other debris and put it on the roofs,” Jackson said. “If a drone gets close, it’s going to see us, but if they are doing a high altitude search over a wide area, they might not.”

“Jackson has something there, Frank,” Jerry said. “If we could have some time to work those chips without being bothered, it might be worth the risk.”

“I’ve got a bunch of leaves and tree branches in the back, from the last time I did trimming and cleanup,” Gabe said. “That would be a good start, just remember that it’s flammable as all get out.”

“Alright, we need to talk more about this when everybody is in the clubhouse,” Charlie said. “Let’s get back to work.”

“Jeb, Sheriff, you guys alright up there for a little while?” asked Frank.

“Yeah,” Jeb said. “We’ll come in when it’s dusk.”

“Good, we’ll have something hot to eat for you when you’re done.”

“And a drink or two?” Jeb asked.

“Sure, why not,” he said, chuckling. “I’ll even join you.”

The group filed into the clubhouse. Frank and Jerry went back over to their workspace, and Gabe joined Charlie and Kurt on the other side of the room. Jackson and Earl planted themselves in front of the security system monitor and watched. Mary and Hilda went to talk to Gabe, and then walked into the kitchen.

Suddenly there was a buzzy static sound coming from the army radio. It was sitting amongst the equipment that Jerry brought over. Frank and Jerry looked at each other, and Jerry reached over to turn up the volume.

The group gathered around the radio
as Jerry turned it up. That created a loud hiss, with a scratchy voice trying to get through.

“The radio they’re calling from sounds like it’s damaged to me,” Jerry said.

“Frank? Come in please. Over.”

Jerry and Frank looked at each other and grinned.

“Interesting accent,” Frank whispered.

“Seriously,” Jerry said. He pushed the button on the handset.

“Sorry, no one here by that name. Over,”
he said.

There was a pause with just the hissing sound.

“Who is speaking please? Over.”

Jerry got a wicked grin on his face.

“This is Officer Simmons. Over,”
he said. Then he took his hand off the receiver and cracked up.

Now there was a little bit of chatter on the other end.

“
Please state your position. Over.”

“They don’t know where we are,” Charlie said.

“So it would appear,” Frank added.

“
Who is this speaking? Over.”
Jerry said.

“This is Lieutenant Bailey. What is your position? We need to schedule a meeting. Over.”

“We are currently three clicks west of the North Pole. Over.”
Jerry cracked up again.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be screwing with these folks,” Mary said.

“They can’t find our position from these radios, can they?” Jane asked.

“General direction, yes, but they already know that,” Jerry said. “Beyond that is difficult, but not completely impossible.”

“Should we turn off all of the radios?” Frank asked.

“To be one hundred percent safe? Yes.”

“Shut them down.”

“Okay, Frank,” Jerry said. He switched off the power. “I’ll go out and get the other ones shut down, and bring them all back in here. We should either lock them up or destroy them.”

“Gabe, you have anywhere secure that we could lock these up?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good sized safe. There should be room in there.”

“Why don’t you go with me,” Jerry said to Gabe. “That way you can help me carry them, too.”

“Sure, no problem,” he said. Jerry picked the radio up off the table, and they left the room.

“This is good news,” Charlie said. “We know they don’t know where we are.”

“Well, maybe good news,” Frank said. “They might want us to think that so we don’t split. We have to assume that there might still be somebody around who does know where we are.”

“They also may have taken over that base, and that wouldn’t be good, “Jackson said. “What if they figured out how to fly the drones? If they don’t know where we are, they might be able to find us with those.”

“Jackson has a good point,” Earl said. “We should black out the park tonight, and then get our butts in gear tomorrow. Camouflage the RVs, for instance, and hide anything that makes it look like there’s a sizeable group of people here.”

“Let’s go ask everybody to put foil over the skylights in their rigs,” Jackson said. “That will cut down most of the light bleeding out tonight. Quick and easy.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Charlie said. “Let’s get on that now.”

“I’ll help,” Kurt said.

The four men got up and went out the door.

“Well, back to work,” Frank said.

“Anything I can help with?” Jasmine asked.

“Maybe,” Frank said. He surveyed the table full of equipment, and his eyes lit up. “Digital RF Detector! Perfect.”

“Oh, that’s what Jerry uses to detect bugs,” she said. “He was thinking about starting a side business consulting on surveillance detection.”

“Oh, really?” Frank asked. “There is…was good money to be made doing that.”

“What does that thing do?” Jane asked.

“It detects a variety of transmitted radio signals,” Frank said. “Very handy device. If the chips are active, this should pick up what they are transmitting.” He picked up the device and turned it on. It lit up right away.

“Everybody, turn off your cellphones for a minute, okay?”

The folks in the room nodded, and pulled out their phones. Frank watched the readout as the phones were being shut down. He turned his off as well. The readout went down to a very low level of signal.

“Shouldn’t that be zero now?” Jane asked.

“No, almost anything can generate some RF signal,” Frank said. “This is about normal for a place that has electronic devices around.” He put the antenna right next to the lead box. No change in the readout. Then he opened the box and pulled one of the chips out. He put the antenna right next to it. No change. He removed the device from its bag and put it on the table. No change.

“What does that mean?” Jane asked.

“That means that these aren’t actively transmitting. We’ll need to bombard them with a signal to get them to transmit.”

“Oh,” she said. “Do we have the equipment to do that?”

“I don’t see it here,” he replied. “We’ll have to sneak into town tomorrow. We need a couple of signal generators. An RF and Microwave Signal Generator, and a Vector Signal Generator. Then we can bombard the chips and see if they return a signal.”

“That will allow you to crack these things?” Jane asked.

“No, that will just open the door for us. Then we need to make sense of the message that these things send out. That’s going to be encrypted somehow. Finding the signal is the easy part.” He put the chip back into its bag and put it into the lead box.

Jerry and Gabe walked back into the room, carrying the radios. They made their way towards the office door, which was a few feet to the right of the kitchen door. Gabe switched on the light as they entered. Frank walked over. “Should we lock the chips up in there too?” he asked.

“I think so,” Jerry said.

“I’ll go get them.”

Frank went back to the table to pick up the lead box. He returned to see Gabe kneeling on the floor.

“Shut the door,” Gabe said. Frank nodded and closed it behind him. Then Gabe pulled a section of the wood floor up. Under it was a large safe, about three feet square. He turned the large dial back and forth a few times, and then moved the large handle. There was a click, and then he opened the door up. Money and coin bags sat in the bottom, but they only took up about a quarter of the space. Jerry handed the radios down to Gabe and he put them in. Then he turned to Frank, who handed over the lead box. He carefully put it in, then closed the door, spun the dial, and put the floor panel back in place.