MacArthur's Freehold

Chapter 48

Chapter 48 -- FDLCCTBHFKJUIAQOEFEZEAIFD

Daniel Hale sat at a computer, one of several on the long folding table they had set up in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The house, a modest middle-class house had been rented some months earlier when the operation plans were being finalized. It was never unattended, so even if the landlord or anyone else came in they would no be able to tamper with the computers.

While the computers would not arouse suspicion, the weapons might, if they were found. To this end the house, and several others scattered about the area, had been furnished with hiding places - large wardrobes, storage cabinets, and dressers and chests in the bedrooms - holding the selected weapons. Large supplies of ammunition as it would be a one-time affair, with the equipment spirited out of the area when it was over.

His platoon, as they called it, comprised forty-four men divided into squads of four to six. They were on the streets most days, unarmed, keeping a close watch on their quarry. He was confident in their chances of hitting them all with no problems.

Thomas Gibbs came into the room. He had been downstairs, waiting for a patrol to return. The men, divided among the rented houses, went out daily in pairs, surveilling the target areas and the neighborhoods where they were quartered, looking for any signs of trouble. Four of the men living in the house with them alternated patrol duties.

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Good as can be, so far." replied Daniel. "It looks like all we have to do is wait for the signal. Everything is really calm out there - they've done a good job of making the enemy think they're having an easy time of it."

"That's good." said Thomas. "It looks good outside as well. Since the orders to the freelancers to stand down, it looks like they all have. That affair out in Tennessee didn't involve any of our affiliates, as far as I can tell - looks like it was strictly a suppression operation by the feds."

"Yeah, it looks like the resistance was just one of those things that rarely happens when they do that - they picked the wrong target and got burned."

"And now they've got no telling how much manpower going after the handful that got away. This should be interesting to watch, if we can get any reports, on how much resources they're using."

"We should get something in the next day or two." said Daniel. "They've admitted there's a manhunt on. Of course they don't realize that's useful information to us, but our sources are probably better. There's hardly a group of any size that we don't have some contact with."

He spread a large sheet of paper, taken from a stack of old-fashioned computer paper with perforated edges. Daniel was an older man, working in a computer operations center when he was younger. The large pages with alternating horizontal bars of green and white had been used for printing reports on high-speed printers. There were always a few wasted pages at the end, and he saved them for drawing. The younger Thomas kidded him about it, suggesting they might be collector's items one day. Now he was drawing on the side with the bars, which facilitated drawing lines and boxes.

"OK" he said "here are our nine squads. The latest report is on you computer, by the way. It's no more than an hour old."

Thomas rolled his chair over to view his screen.

"Of the nine squads" Daniel said "seven have no reservations at all, even if we got the go signal today. The other two actually don't either, but I suspect if any of us are likely to have nerve issues, they might. Of course, once you go in, there's no time for that to affect you - either you go or you don't. And a few more days of what we've been seeing, there won't be any hesitation. Between the anger and the realization of what will happen if nothing is done, we're all committed beyond recall."