Invasion (5 page)

CHAPTER 11

Leah had turned off the main road and ran uphill towards a path that she knew ran along the top of the ridge and directly to Grace.  As an avid trail runner, she had done this particular trail during a race last year.  But this time it was different; she was wearing hiking shoes, a twenty-five pound pack, a pistol and a rifle.  She checked her watch; she thought she would be there in about twenty minutes. 
That might best my time!

Daisy was doing well.  They had stopped once they reached the top of the ridge to drink some water and eat a quick protein pack.  Leah didn’t worry about Daisy; the dog was in her element.

Leah did worry about her family, though.  She could hear everything that Bob and Ian were doing from her own radio connection, and she knew that they had started their assault on the oil pipeline.  This only served to make her press harder.  She felt that if the word got out about her husband’s assault, that the Chinese would send reinforcements or at minimum, put the soldiers that were setting up the radio relay tower on alert.  That, in turn could put her daughter and Joshua in danger.

Please God, be with them
, she prayed silently.

The trail race that she ran last year was called the Ridge Race to the Tank.  The ‘tank’ was a small early 1900’s water tower at the end of the ridge, and she felt that was exactly where she would find the kids.  As she came over a small rise in the trail, she caught sight of the light blue tank for the first time.  It was only a mile away.

“Come on Daisy,” she encouraged.

The dog looked up at the mention of her name, keeping pace with her master the entire time.

Grace was crouching behind a tree that was directly across the two-lane road from the two soldiers.

The two soldiers seemed to be finished with the physical assembly of the satellite dish and the small whip antenna.  They were now plugging several cables into an industrial laptop computer and erecting a solar panel.

One of the soldiers flipped a few switches and was rewarded with radio chatter that boomed through a speaker.  The soldier didn’t try to turn the volume down, obviously thinking that they were alone on the ridge. 

Grace closed her eyes for a minute listening to the chatter.  It was all in Chinese.  She had taken a year of Chinese and thanks to her natural ability for linguistics, understood more than the entry-level course had taught her.

She fought to piece together the words and inflections that she didn’t know to the words and phrases that she did.  Where she had holes in the translation, she passed over it in her head hoping that the entire conversation would reveal what they are doing.

“They’re going to invade the city,” she whispered quietly.  “Oil reserves?  We don’t have oil reserves.”  The translation didn’t make sense.  And then she heard something that made her break into a sweat. 

She keyed her microphone to speak to the team.  “This is Tardis Blue, the helicopter is coming back, over,” she whispered, and then looked up the hill to catch Joshua looking at her.

Joshua could see how exposed she was.  Even though she was hidden from the soldiers across the street, she was in the open from the air.  He motioned for her to retreat back to his position, but one of the soldiers stood up at the same time, grabbing his rifle and stretched as he walked up the road, stopping feet from the tree that hid Grace.

Joshua put the crosshairs of his scope on the soldier walking up the street and towards Grace. He increased the tension on the trigger of his AR-15 with every step closer the soldier took in Grace’s direction.

The Chinese soldier stretched and looked around as if he was bored.  The sound of the helicopter was just audible in the distance.

“Grace, move!” Joshua whispered harshly into his microphone.  His voice boomed in her earpiece.  She thought the soldier could her it.

Grace looked at him again, but Joshua never took his eye out of the scope.  She edged backwards and caught a glimpse of the soldier for the first time; she caught a gasp.

The soldier stopped on the road.  He looked around the ridge, paying extra attention to the area up the hill and towards the water tank.  Very slowly he pulled his rifle from around his shoulder and into his hands.  He had definitely heard something.

Leah heard the call from Joshua for Grace to move.  He had ignored any code and protocol. 

She must be in trouble
. 

Leah was approaching the tank; it was less than twenty yards away when the sound of the helicopter buzzed over her head at tree top level.  She kept running, using one of the legs of the old water tank to break the momentum of her run.  Daisy stopped next to her, she panted hard.

Leah whipped her rifle from around her shoulder and held it up so she could stare down the sights.  She immediately acquired Joshua, the soldier on the road, the soldier next to the equipment, but she couldn’t see Grace.  She struggled to steady her breathing as she frantically moved from target to target.

Where are you?

Grace had retreated behind the next tree down the road.  Thankfully, this tree was next to a large boulder, which provided shielding from the soldier in the road.  She took a chance and looked around the boulder.

Leah was looking down the sights of her rifle at the soldier sitting in front of the communications equipment when she heard the rounds strike from the helicopter.

Grace pressed herself further into the boulder as the rounds struck the boulder around her.  Concrete, tree bark and pieces of rock were propelled into the air all around her by the impact of the bullets.  She closed her eyes hoping the shooting would stop.

The Chinese soldier in the road retreated to the communications equipment and tried to focus his rifle at his enemy.  He couldn’t acquire a target and couldn’t see what the helicopter was shooting at.  The second soldier was yelling into a radio. 

The bullets continued to strike the road and the boulder that protected Grace.  She opened her eyes to look up the hill.  She needed support and was looking to Joshua.  What she saw, was her mother.

“Grace, when I start shooting, you need to make it back to Joshua.  Joshua, you need to concentrate on the soldiers.  Understand?” she ordered, over the radio. 

Joshua looked over his shoulder and saw a woman pointing a rifle down the hill.  He nodded at her and she responded with a curt nod.

Grace put a thumb up, so her mother could see.

The helicopter peeled away to circle around the top of the water tower, and strafe a new target.  Leah fired back at the helicopter and used the tank as cover. 

Once the noise of the bird passed up the hill, Grace could hear the blaring of the Chinese radio again.

“They’re sending more soldiers!” Grace said into her microphone.

CHAPTER 12

The sound of a large rifle was distinct and echoed around the valley.  Bob’s first shot glanced off of the chain-link fence and grazed the soldier he was aiming for.  The wounded soldier pivoted around to see who shot him and from where.  He fired randomly towards the woods behind the terminal and outside of the chain link fence.

Bob dropped him with a second clean shot to the chest.

That left two more.  Bob swept his rifle right to left; his eye on the scope.  There were dozens of smaller pipes as well as the five large pipes; so, there were plenty of places to hide.  Then, he saw movement.  He settled his breathing and put the crosshairs of the scope of the person moving.  They were at the entrance of the gate. 

Had they missed someone? 

Did one of the soldiers get out? 

There should be only five!  

He recognized the form.  “Adam!”

“Ian! Adam’s inbound.  Repeat, Adam’s at the gate!” he yelled into the microphone.

Ian had moved to his right the instant that he shot the soldier.  He had already planned a position to move to once the shooting started.  But, from his current position, he didn’t have a clear view of the gate.

“Roger that.  I don’t see him yet.  Do you have eyes on the last two?”

Bob swept the area again. 
There you are.
  He took his third shot.  The bullet hit the soldier, but he didn’t go down.  Instead, like the one before him, he turned and fired randomly towards the tree line where Bob was hiding.

Ian moved to his right and acquired a perfect view of the soldier firing into the woods.  Ian shot twice, dropping the fourth soldier.  He then swiveled in a slow circle looking for the final target.  “Oh, God!” he said, sprinting with his pistol towards the gate.

Mary was sweating and nervous.  She pulled the hammer back on the pistol once the shooting started, but had yet to look around the boulder.   She had not heard a shot in about a minute, so she felt it was a good a time as any to look.  So, she edged her head around to see someone coming towards her.

“Ms. Mary,” Adam said, fear tinged his voice.

Mary met the boy’s eyes, and then the eyes of the soldier that had his arm around Adam’s neck.  The soldier pressed a pistol to the boy’s temple; he looked more terrified than either Adam or Mary.  Mary stepped around the boulder to face the soldier and the boy hostage.

“Ms. Mary,” Adam said, again.  “I don’t want to die, Ms. Mary, please!”

The soldier yelled something to Mary in a language she didn’t understand.  He then stepped forward and pressed the gun more forcibly into Adam’s temple and repeated the phrase.

“Please don’t hurt him, too,” Mary said, her voice scarcely audible.  “Please don’t kill him like you killed Elizabeth.”

Ian was moving across the road quickly in a low crouch, his arms extended out in front of him; a single pistol was clasped in his hands.  He was fifteen feet away from the Chinese soldier holding Adam, and he could now see Mary.  He didn’t have a clean shot. 
Damn!

The soldier yelled the same phrase and then enforced the statement by pulling the trigger back on the pistol.

“He said we need to surrender or he will kill the boy,” Ian said from behind the soldier.

The soldier turned to his side so that he had Mary on his left and Ian on his right.  He tapped the pistol into Adam’s head a few times to prove to Ian that he meant what he said.

Ian had his pistol finely trained on the head of the soldier.  He was only going to get one shot, and the situation was going down hill fast…and that is when he saw the knife in Adam’s hand come down on the thigh of the soldier.

The soldier screamed and pushed Adam towards Ian and fired in their direction.  He reached for the knife, but never had the chance to pull it out as his chest exploded from the inside out and he hit the ground.

Mary smelled the smoke from the bullet she had just fired.  She was frozen with panic.  The soldier…the man that she had just shot…the man she had just killed, crumpled to the ground in front of her.  Ian was running towards her.

“Mary!  Mary,” Ian said, covering the ground between them quickly. “I’ve got it,” he said, gently forcing her arms down. 

Mary looked at him and her arms relaxed.  She dropped the gun into Ian’s hands.

“You did good, Mary,” Ian said.

Mary didn’t hear him; she pulled away from him and moved towards the body on the ground.

“He’s been shot!” she said, looking back at Ian.  “Ian, it’s Adam!  Adam’s been shot!”

CHAPTER 13

Grace ducked behind the next tree and hugged the trunk as bullets exploded around her.  The soldiers at the communications gear had seen her and were firing randomly in her direction.  She had only moved ten feet before they started shooting at her.  She was pinned down.

“Grace, when I start firing, you get to Joshua.  Got it?  Over.” Leah commanded.

“Got it!  Over,” she yelled into her microphone. 

She then looked up at her mother, and watched her unleash a series of shots at the two soldiers.  Joshua did the same, but the soldiers had the guardrail and several large stones that provided shelter.  As long as the soldiers stayed down, Joshua and Leah would never have the angle on them.

That didn’t matter to Grace; she scrambled up and ran, pumping her legs as hard as she could to get up the hill to Joshua.

“Come on!”
Joshua yelled, encouraging Grace to move faster.  He then fired two more rounds at the soldiers to keep them down. 

Grace ran and clawed with her hands at the ground to help her get to the boulders that protected Joshua.  She looked ahead and saw Joshua pause long enough to reload.  The pause allowed the soldiers to rise up and start firing at the girl running up the hill. 

“Shit!”
she said, dodging the bullets and diving beside Joshua.

“You okay?” Joshua asked, and then fired three rounds downhill.

The helicopter passed overhead, spewing bullets randomly into the tree cover.  They had lost sight of their targets in the cover of thick oaks.

Grace breathed in deeply.  The air was full of the smell of gunfire and dust, and it seemed hard to catch her breath.  She coughed a few times trying to calm herself down.

“Yeah,” she finally said, checking her weapon and readying herself to fire downhill.  “They called in more troops, we need to get out of here.”

“Adam’s been hit,” Joshua said, ignoring her statement about the inbound support troops.  “He’s with your Dad.”

It took Grace a second to register what Joshua was talking about.  “Adam?  Your brother, Adam?”

“Yeah!  Didn’t you hear it on the radio?”

Grace rounded on him.  “No!  I was kind of busy getting shot at by nerdy hacker Chinese guys and a whack job in the helicopter!”

“Grace!”  Leah spoke calmly through the radio.  “You two need to get up here.  Over.”

Grace and Joshua turned to look up at the woman under the protection of the water tower.  Grace gave another thumbs up that she understood.

“Sorry,” Grace said, looking at Joshua.  “I wasn’t concentrating on the radio when they were shooting at me.”

“That’s okay.  It’s just that the same bastards that are down there, also shot my brother,” Joshua said, he sat back against the rock even though bullets kept striking the ground around them.

“Is he okay?” Grace asked, and then looked back up at her mother. 

Leah was waving frantically for them to get up there.  The helicopter had disappeared and she wanted them to move, now!

“I don’t know,” Joshua said, and then turned around the rock and fired four or five rounds at the soldiers.  
“Go, I’ve got you covered!”
he yelled.

Grace didn’t hesitate; she took off running straight up the hill.  She could hear Joshua firing continuously as she ran into the arms of her mother.

Leah wrapped her arms around her only child and fell backwards behind the safety of the steel leg of the water tank.  “Oh baby, my baby,” she said, over and over.

“Mom, I’m okay!  It’s okay!  I’m fine,” Grace said, letting her mother hug her.

“I thought I lost you,” Leah said, the tears falling freely.

Daisy was excited and wanted to be part of the action.  She tried to jump up and lick Grace’s face.

“Mom, I’m right here.  You didn’t lose me.  You trained me well, I’m right here.”  She absorbed the hug for a few more seconds and put her hand on Daisy’s head before snapping back to the situation at hand.  “Mom, Mom!  We have to get Joshua up here, they’ve called in more troops!”

Leah let go of her daughter, holding her at arms length and blessing her with a wide motherly smile.  “Okay.  Okay, we did train you well…I’m so glad you’re all right,” she said in only the way that a mother can talk to her child.

“Okay, Mom,” Grace said, feeling the pressure of her own tears press against her eyes.  “Let’s end this!”

Leah nodded, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt.  “Let’s end it,” she said, agreeing.

Grace looked around and down from the tank leg to see Joshua still in his defensive position.  The soldiers had stopped firing; if anything, they looked like they were getting ready to bug out.

“Mom, they’re stuffing things in a bag, it looks like they’re retreating,” Grace observed.

“No, they’re hiding.  That gear is in a strategic position for a reason.  Those two aren’t soldiers, their technicians or engineers or something,” Leah supposed. 

“So, what does that mean?”

“Let’s get Joshua up here first, and then we’ll figure it out.”  Leah keyed her microphone.  “Joshua, we’re going to give you some cover, run up here when we start.  Understood?  Over.”

Joshua gave thumbs up and bounced a few times on the balls of his feet, ready to sprint.

“Now!” Leah ordered. 

Both women took shots at the two soldiers, sending them diving to their place of cover.  Joshua took off, never looking back.  He closed the distance quickly and didn’t let up until after he rounded the leg of the water tank.

“Thanks,” he said, catching his breath.  His hands pressed into his knees as he gulped large amounts of air. 

“I’m Leah,” she said, extending her hand.

He took the hand.  “Joshua Tiller, nice to meet you, ma’am.  Glad you’re safe, and thanks for the cover,” he added. She nodded curtly.

“Okay, now that we know each other, what about those guys, the communications equipment, the incoming troops and…” they all ducked under the main part of the water tower as the helicopter buzzed them, unleashing bullets.  Most of the bullets hit the ground behind them or bounced off the top of the tank.  “About that!” Grace finished.  She pointed up with her finger.

“Are you sure they called in more troops?” Leah asked.

“Yes, that’s what it sounded like.  But,” she shrugged, “I’ve only been speaking the language for a year.”

Leah nodded while talking.  “Sure, but you’re really good.  If you heard they had reinforcements coming in, then, they’re probably on the way. 

The helicopter fired a few more rounds and then peeled off, but there was another noise taking its place.

“What’s that?” Grace asked.

“That’s a car,” Leah said.

“No ma’am,” Joshua disagreed.  “I think that’s a heavy truck.” Joshua ran around to second of the three-legged tank, where he could get a better view of the road coming up the ridge.  He then ran back to the others.

“What is it?” Leah asked.

“It’s a military troop transport, but I don’t think it’s one of ours,” he said.

“Mom, what should we do?” Grace asked her mother.