“So everyone’s agreed?” Mike asked at last.
“I think it will work,” Jacob said. The others nodded.
Mike looked at Erin. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’m positive,” Erin replied.
Mike looked at a Council that was both supportive and apprehensive. He made his decision. “Then we’ll get ready. Until I get back, Howard will be in charge.”
A day later, Hector gassed up his pickup. They laid Hector’s motorcycle on a mattress in the back of the truck and tied it down. Rasul and Jacob climbed in beside it. Mike and Erin squeezed into the cab with Hector. Lily and Kathy had a dozen last minute instructions for Jacob and Hector. They all boiled down to, “Be careful.”
The rest of the Council watched anxiously as the pickup left. The truck stopped at the Brown farm to pick up Nathan and Kevin who were working that month at the farm. The group waited until noon, and then they left. Hector drove carefully along the firebreak road. The day was very windy, and the road was steep in a few spots. Several hours after leaving the Brown farm, they passed a lake on their right. At the lake and at a few other places, they stopped to make a food cache.
In the dead of night, they slowly passed by the bikers’ hill with the truck lights off. When they came to the road leading to the bikers’ camp, they stopped and let off Jacob and Erin. It was the night before the full moon, and it was bright just as Mike had hoped. There were only a few thin clouds in the sky. They wished each other well, and then Jacob and Erin set off, hiking up the paved road. The others in the truck continued onward.
A few miles from the Army post, just before they left the cover of the trees, they stopped. Hector found a spot off the road to hide the truck, and they took the motorcycle out of the truck bed. Then amid the blue sky pilots and the gray sage, they threw their sleeping bags on the ground, and they slept. By this time, Jacob and Erin were safely hidden, not too far from the bikers’ camp.
In the afternoon of the following day, Mike and Nathan started walking toward the Army post. Mike timed their arrival, so the guard on the palisade parapet spotted them just as the sun was setting. The Ranger standing guard was astonished to see two young teenage boys walking toward his post. Quickly, he called for the gates to be opened, and the boys were allowed into the camp.
Inside the wooden wall, they were met by a man in uniform with a single silver bar on each of his shoulders. The man, who identified himself as Lieutenant Kennedy, was African-American. He had a thin cut of hair on the top of his head, and the sides of his head were shaven. He promptly escorted them into a small log building, where they were taken to see another man who was sitting behind a desk. He was a sandy haired man with a sprinkling of freckles across his face, and who also had his hair closely cropped.
“Here they are, Major Collins,” the Lieutenant said.
The Major stood and walked around his desk, so that he could get a good look at the two boys. Their clothes were filthy and torn, and their faces were streaked with grime. Their shoes have seen better days, he noted. One of the boys acted as if he were half asleep. He kept rubbing his eyes. The Major pointed to an old sofa and told the sleepy boy to sit down. Soon after the boy sat down, he curled up on the sofa and fell asleep.
“I’m Major Collins. This is Lieutenant Kennedy. Who are you, and where have you come from?”
“I’m, Mike,” said the boy. “His name is Nathan. We came from the bad men’s place.”
The Lieutenant sucked in an audible breath, as Major Collins examined Mike intently.
“The bad men’s place?” Collins asked. “Do you mean that you’ve been living at a place with bad men? What makes them bad?”
“They have motorcycles and guns. They kill people, and they treat kids real bad,” the boy said sadly.
Major Collins tensed, and his eyes narrowed. “Mike, tell me about these bad men.”
Carefully, Mike told the story that he had rehearsed at the Lodge. When he was asked questions he could not answer with reasonable accuracy, he pleaded ignorance.
“It’s them!” the Lieutenant exclaimed at last. His excitement had increased as he had listened to Mike’s tale.
“Sounds like them,” the Major agreed. “How many kids are living at that place?” he asked the boy.
“Eleven,” Mike answered. “Those bad guys killed some of the kids.”
The Lieutenant blanched, and the Major’s jaw worked as he clinched his teeth.
“Mike, do you know how many men are there?” he asked in a clipped voice.
“Six,” was the reply. “They sleep in their dugout at night. They make us sleep in an RV. They have a chain on our door. But sometimes we sneak out at night and walk around. We always go back, or else they won’t feed us.”
“Are you hungry?” the Major asked.
The boy’s eyes shifted nervously, and Collins had the momentary feeling that the boy looked guilty, but then he answered, “Yes, because they didn’t feed us today. They got mad, because one of the kids stole some food. They said that all of us were going to get beat up tomorrow, so they could teach us a lesson. That’s why Nathan and I ran away.”
Major Collins looked at the Lieutenant. “Let’s get something to eat in here,” he ordered.
The Lieutenant left the room, and the Major paused his questioning until the officer returned with a plate of sandwiches and a glass of water. Mike took a sandwich and bit into it. Peanut butter and jelly, he noted.
“Mike, this is very important,” the Major said after Mike had finished the sandwich. “Do you think you could find your way back there tonight?”
“Sure,” the boy answered. He yawned widely. “Could I take a nap first?”
“Of course.”
Collins woke Nathan, and had a soldier lead the two boys to beds, and then he turned to the Lieutenant.
“Get your Rangers ready, LT. I‘m not going to let those children be abused for another single day. We’ll do it tonight, but we’ll give that kid a few hours to rest first. Hopefully, we can catch them when they’re sound asleep.”
“I’ll get Jenkins to muffle the truck with rags,” Kennedy said. “One muffled truck might be quieter than two jeeps.”
“Do it,” the Major replied.
Mike and Nathan were taken to beds in a roughly made barracks. Nathan fell into bed and slept, but Mike stayed awake. From time to time, he took his watch out of his pocket and checked it. When it was time, he rose and made his way to Major Collins’ office. It was about ten o’clock, and already the moon was bright.
“Do you want me to show you how to find the bad men’s place?” he asked in a sleepy voice.
“We certainly do, young man,” replied the Major. “Are you sure you can find it in the dark?”
“Yes,” replied Mike. “I know where it’s at. But they’re on a hill. They might hear you coming. If you want to sneak up on them, then you should park your truck at the bottom of the hill, and then you should walk up.”
“That’s a good idea,” said the Lieutenant. “Lucky for us it’s a full moon tonight.”
It’s not luck, thought Mike. But it’s lucky that there’s no clouds.
About eleven o’clock the gates opened, and a single canvas covered truck left the compound and motored down the road. Watching from the rise above the saddle, Hector used Star’s walkie-talkie to alert Rasul who was standing by the motorcycle with Comet’s walkie-talkie.
Rasul started the bike and gunned it away. When he got to the road under the bikers camp, he flashed the lights. Moments later, he saw the quick blink of Jacob’s flashlight coming from a place on the hill below the dugout. Rasul pulled the bike off the road, hid it in the trees, and waited. Shortly after that the truck arrived, the driver coasting the last quarter mile.