Haliday looked at him and said, “We need to get some more sleep.” They spent a little more time camouflaging their area and setting up a couple booby trap simulators. Blake laid down a piece of plastic and then a wool blanket folded over. He laid out his sleeping bag on top of that and climbed in. Haliday boiled some hot water and made hot cocoa. He flipped back and forth from his freq. to the militia freq.
He flipped back to his freq. and heard the call from Kayla. “Go ahead kiddo.”
“How you guys doing?”
“We’re fine, just resting, but we have some minor problems to handle.”
“Ok, well we got here. We all made it just fine. We have the trucks and trailers parked in the pole barn. The horses are in the stalls. We got into the house and everything is ok. What do you want us to do?”
“Go ahead and set up a security watch. The rest of you guys can take a break or whatever you want to do. It’s very important you set a watch schedule and stick to it. Today you guys need to empty those trailers and trucks out into the cache. Don’t leave anything out there if you don’t have to.
“Make sure the vehicles are immobilized as well. Keep them out of sight in the pole barn. Make sure the pole barn is completely secured. The Jeep ok?”
“Ya, it’s fine. Uncle David started it and ran it for a few minutes.”
“Ok, great. Make sure that all gets done today.”
“You guys coming in soon?”
“No, we can’t.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“It’s hard to explain. We stirred up some crap and need to see it through. In a nutshell a couple people got caught up in our crap and may end up taking the blame for it. I need to see what they plan to do with them and Blake volunteered to stay and help.”
“Can’t you guys just leave them alone?”
“I wish we could, but burning down some old stores and abandoned cars is different than letting these people possibly die. I just can’t do that. I have to find out what’s going on with these militia guys. All we’re going to do is head in and take a peek. That’s all. I need you guys to set up two hams. One for us and one on the militia freq. If you can, set up a third and scan it for traffic. Find out what the hell the government is doing or if anyone else is in the area.”
“Ok, Dad, call us with any more info.”
Haliday woke up Blake and briefed him on what was going on with the group. He asked him if he was sure he wanted to stay and Blake said yes. Haliday inventoried their food and they had enough for two more days, three if they ate lightly. Water wasn’t an issue, they had purification tabs and filter straws.
They each took another turn sleeping. Haliday inventoried everything else now as well. He wouldn’t be setting up any diversions now; he had used everything he had. He didn’t expect this little problem to arise. He did a quick ammo check. That might play an important role sooner or later.
They each had 7 magazines for the rifles. Five 30 rounders and two 20 rounders. These were full. In addition to that they had some bandoliers filled with stripper clips. The 20 rounders made it easier for prone fighting positions. All in all they had roughly 500 rounds each. He had about 100 for his .40 left. No way could they launch an offensive with this. It would be suicide. He had to figure out a plan. He had to figure out where their HQ was.
Bad Axe was the biggest town in the Thumb and it made sense they would name themselves after it, but they had to have another reason. There had to be another tie somehow. He just had to figure out how. These guys would need a large area, one that would support their operation, give them ample storage, enough land to farm, water, central location now, where the hell were these guys staying?
They had responded pretty damn quick last night. They definitely had a good layout of the land. They also felt comfortable enough wherever they were to pull the extra manpower out of their camp for the hunt. It’d be too risky to approach the locals and ask. They might not even know and if they were afraid of these guys they would definitely be talking to them.
He poured over the map. He searched his memory. He kept picturing the vehicles and the people, listening to their transmissions over and over again in his head. He concentrated on the family near the tornado shelter and the two who had shown up there. He got his answer. The Huron County Memorial Airport.
The guy had been wearing wings and Haliday had thought the guy was reliving his airborne days but he was actually sporting aviator wings. At the distance he had seen him from, it was an acceptable mistake. If they had aircraft they would have used it by now. This was probably something they didn’t count on, losing electronics entirely. But being a pilot, he was proud to sport his wings.
“Oh man, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said aloud. Blake asked him what he was talking about. Haliday laid it all out there for him.
“So that makes it real hard huh?”
“Well, based on my last airport experience and I’m not talking about being groped by the TSA, I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“What are we going to do then?”
“Think about it carefully, that’s what.
“Blake, these railroad tracks will take us right through what I think is their HQ. The airport on the right and this land on the left with the big pond is probably theirs. The airport gives them a huge advantage on three sides as far as visibility, it’s all open. The front can be covered easily enough with manpower, especially if they are using the main building as their admin area.
“What I propose we do is take these tracks up as far as we can. We head into the woods to the east of the airport and then walk up as far as we can go. We’ll listen in to their traffic and watch for a while and take some notes. See what we can learn. We might have to stay a couple days. After that, we play it by ear. No rescues, no diversions, just recon.
“I’m going to call the group and let them know what’s going on. I want them to get a couple guys together and keep them on alert in case we need some help. It wouldn’t hurt to have some extra firepower in case it gets hairy and we need help getting out. If that happens we’ll shoot straight for the house and say our prayers along the way.”
Haliday and Blake took off. All of the radio traffic they had heard recently pointed to the militia patrols still concentrating on the northern areas. They used this advantage to creep up into position. They settled into the wooded area directly east of the airport. They covered up the bikes, grabbed their gear and started the short hike toward the airport.
Chapter 19
They were close to the perimeter, but still hidden in the woods. Haliday and Blake laid down their wool blankets on the cold ground. They concentrated on concealing themselves. This might have been a good time for a ghillie suit, he was thinking. But how much could he actually carry on the bikes. Blake’s didn’t have saddle bags. He had to use some extra canvas packs that Haliday had extra and with the rest of the gear it was tight. That was the main reason he left his M24 at camp.
He did take his spotting scope and would be using this. He had Blake cover himself up with a smaller blanket and use his flashlight to take notes. Haliday’s maps had aerial photos and he used this as a guide to jot down a rough sketch of the area and number the buildings. Blake and Haliday were ready.
“Ok Blake, I definitely see activity. I think this is the place.” He slowly worked the scope around. “Building one, definitely their HQ. They have stalled cars in place around the entire front and the sides of it for protection. Concertina wire inside the fence too. Looks like they also have some fighting positions fortified in a few locations amidst the cars. Everyone seems to be going in and out of this building.
“It looks like they pushed the planes out of the hangars and are using buildings 2 and 3 as some sort of motor pool. I can see the door open on one and see some vehicles inside, but the other one just has a vehicle parked in front of it.” They heard a small vehicle and Haliday covered the scope and ducked down again.