Kombat Kids - 40. Dead Men Walking

After slamming the door in the face of the Sheriff and his Deputy, Don Prince hurried to his home office. Moving to the wet bar, he poured about three ounces of Makers Mark blended whiskey in to a cut crystal glass. Prince didn't even taste the expensive whiskey as he slugged it back in one gulp; quickly he poured another glass and drank half of it before he was able to get himself under control. Setting the glass on his desk, he picked up his cell phone and hit speed dial, the phone rang several times until he got the message to leave his name and number and his call would be returned as soon as possible. At the sound of the beep he said;"You by God better call and soon or you’re both dead." Disconnecting, he speed dialed again, when the guy on the other end answered Prince said;"I got major problems here, hold the next shipment until I call for it . . . I don't give a fuck how inconvenient it is for you, I got the local cops climbing all over my ass right now and all I need is for them to connect me with ten keys of black tar. You just sit on it for the time being . . . . . . . . . . Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this is gonna cost me, right now I don't give a fuck. One last thing, I want you to get five or six of your boys who don't mind getting involved with some wet work . . . . . I understand that, I'll give them ten grand each if I do need them, and a grand for just being ready even if I don't have to use them. Okay, I'll get back to you as quick as I can." Disconnecting, he threw the phone down on his desk and finished the whiskey still in his glass, trying to figure out what to do next.

THE BATEMAN COMPOUND

While Don Prince was making phone calls, the Sheriff, Tommy, Matt and the three Marines were in the lounge talking with Shane, Mitch, Phil, David Jap and Justin. Matt seemed to be the most spun up of the group, followed closely by the Gunny, both seemed ready to strangle Jap and his lynch mob. After taking several deep breaths, Matt spoke softly but with great feeling to the three boys;"I understand where you guys are coming from, and if I was in the same frame of mind, I'd be going crazy about now myself. But you got to know that what you were going to do cannot be allowed to happen. If you guys had made it out of here with the gear you were putting in that vehicle, me and James, the Marine Corps, the Navy and Unit One would be in such deep shit we'd never be able see daylight again. What do you think would have happened if you went out and started servicing people at a thousand yards with Bert? You'd have the entire law enforcement community of the State of Washington down on your asses. They'd bury you in the deepest darkest hole in Walla Walla Federal Prison, throw away the key and probably brick up the entrance just to make sure no one would ever see or hear from you again. We're going to . . . . . . ."

The Sheriffs cell phone sounded just as Matt was going to continue his harangue. The sheriff pulled it off his belt and hit the 'accept' button;"Sheriff Martin . . . . Nothing huh? . . . . . Thank you Captain, if you are able, keep an eye on the river road stretch in both directions please . . . Okay sir, thank you again bye."

The Sheriff disconnected and sighed, then looking at Jap he said;"It's the old good news, bad news story, the good news is we got who we think stole Jacky bottled up. The bad news is, they’re bottled up in close to 2,500 square miles of the worst country in the state of Washington. Unless we can narrow their location down some, this could take awhile."

The assembled group tossed around several ideas, but even with the entire Unit One membership and their fathers and siblings (if any) it would still take them weeks to cover the area. Add to that the fact that whoever took Jacky would probably have lookouts posted and be able to move at the first sight of the searchers. Stephen Peterson entered the lounge, Steve's only comment was;"Nothing, not a fucking thing."

Jap placed his chin on his chest and started crying again, seeing this, both Keener Webb and Jap's dad moved to the sofa on each side of him and wrapped their arms around him, giving him what comfort they could. The Gunny sitting across from Jap never felt as impotent as he did right then. "Fuck," He thought;"2,500 square miles. How the hell do you cover that much area with the assets on hand?” Suddenly it came to him, he stood and without saying anything to anyone walked out of the lounge and in to the Computer Room. Picking up the house phone he dialed the number for Greg Bailey, after the phone rang twice it was picked up;"SEAL 7 Duty Office; this is Petty Officer Tremaine how may I help you sir?"

"Petty Officer Tremaine, this is Master Gunnery Sergeant Mcnaughten, I need to speak with Senior Chief Bailey please."

Tremaine didn't even hesitate;"Hold please."

Approximately two minutes after he was put on hold he heard;"Hey Stan, what's up?"

"I got a problem Greg, one of our kids was snatched today and I need some help. This is really time sensitive, we think the people who snatched him were the same ones involved in the rape of two of our boys last summer." The Gunny thought for a moment then continued;"We believe these assholes have him somewhere on the Yakima Indian Reservation near Toppenish Ridge, the trouble is, there's close to twenty five hundred square miles of forested and mountainous land they could be hiding in. What I need is some kind of aerial platform to check the area out for us and try and spot them. The local Sheriff put out an 'Amber Alert' on the kid and an APB on the vehicle they used for the snatch, I'd try and get some Marine air assets involved, but the closest with the capability is at MCAS Miramar. You guys got anything closer we might be able to use?"

The Senior Chief thought about what he was just told for a minute and said;"We, and by we, I mean the Navy, hasn't anything handy this far north. Let me go and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can, maybe I can help, but I'm not going to promise you till I make a few calls."

The Gunny thanked his friend and hung up, he didn't know what, if anything the Senior Chief could do, but at least there was some hope that he'd be able to help. He left the office and had just entered the lounge when the Sheriffs cell phone rang, as Bill was answering it, the Gunny moved over and sat on a sofa next to George Babcock. Looking at George, he asked;"Anything happen while I was gone?"

As George was about to answer, Bill returned with his wife, Bev Hoffman and entered the lounge, both had tired, fearful expressions on the faces. Bev appeared to have been crying and Bill didn't look like it would take much to make him break down. Bill walked over to Matt and asked quietly;"Have you heard anything, it's close to 10:00 PM (22:00), he's been missing for close to five hours now." Matt shook his head no and pointed to the Sheriff who was having an animated conversation with someone, someone who appeared to be pissing him off rather badly

"Right, thanks for all your help; I'll get back to you." Disconnecting, the Sheriff said: "That crooked son of a bitch, I never did trust that . . . ." The Sheriff stopped his rant when he noticed Jacky's parents and then said;"Sorry about that, that was the head of the Yakima Indian Nation Tribal Police, he just called me to tell me that his patrolman who said he sighted the van on Tribal lands had been mistaken. According to him the van the Tribal Policeman saw was an older model white Chevy belonging to one of the people living on the reservation and that he was sorry about the mistake. To my way of thinking, that crooked son of a bitch got told to change the details of what his man told me on the phone so we'd look somewhere else. I think its time to call in the Feds, I know it's awful soon for them, but I'd feel better if we at least let them know we got us a problem.

DON PRINCE'S OFFICE

While the discussion on what needed to be done was going on in the lounge at the Bateman Compound, Don Prince was looking at the caller ID screen on his office phone before picking up the handset;"You and your stupid fucking brother are dead, do you hear me you brain dead cocksucker? You realize what kind of mess the two of you stirred up around here, not more than twenty minutes ago I had the fucking Sheriff knocking at my door wanting to see you and that dickheaded brother of yours. How in the fuck can a grown fucking man let any fucking situation get so fucking out of fucking control as you fucking did you fucking shithead?"

As the older Prince stopped to take a breath, Delbert was able to speak for the first time;"It wasn't my fault daddy, fucking Launy, Bill Jordan and Larry Alcorn jumped out of the van while I was stopped at a stop sign and started wailing on the fucking Unit One Pussy. Next thing I knew they threw his unconscious body in the back of the van and I took off before anyone saw what happened. I drove up here to the hunting cabin and we stuck the little cocksucker in the basement, last I saw he was still out."

Don Prince sighed, and thought to himself;"How could either one of these idiots be his?" Shaking his head, he made a silent promise to himself to slap the shit out of his wife for cheating on him with the village idiot. Still really pissed, but in better control of his emotions;"Listen to me very carefully, the cops know you’re somewhere on the res (res is short for reservation, usually used by people living on or near the reservation), or at least they did. I got a hold of Jackson Eagletooth, the head of the tribal police, he told me that you were seen driving one of my trucks on a dirt road heading west off of 97. That's the same information one of his dispatchers gave to Sheriff Martin. I told Eagletooth to call Martin and tell him his dispatcher made a mistake, I don't know if he'll believe him or not, so you and the rest of them idiots stay right where you're at until I tell you different. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT FUCKING THIS UP, OR YOU'RE DEAD MEN, ALL OF YOU."

Delbert started whining;"Listen daddy, it wasn't my fau . . . . . "

Before Delbert could continue his father broke in;"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! I don't give a fuck whose fault it is, I put you in charge of your brother, and you couldn't control that little pissant and his buddies. Which reminds me; how the fuck did them idiots get involved, he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near them?"

Delbert thought fast;"They were walking down the road towards Alcorn's house when they saw us heading home, Launy whined like a little bitch until I stopped to give them a ride. The next thing I knew they all jumped out of the van and were beating the fuck out of this kid, then they threw him in the back of the van. I took off and then found out he was one of the Unit One faggots. I figured the best thing to do was get the fuck away from town before anyone saw us."

Don Prince ran a hand across his face thinking it just gets worse every time Delbert opened his fool mouth. He couldn't listen to him any longer;"Just shut the fuck up, and listen carefully. You got enough supplies up their to last for a week or so, I want all of you to stay in the cabin, don't go outside at all during the day and close the shutters so no one cane see any light from the cabin at night. Now then, all I want ta hear out you is yes sir." After Delbert replied, he jammed the handset back in its cradle and cussed some more as he fixed another drink.

DAY TWO

Back at the Bateman House, Matt had sent the Hoffman's home with the promise that they would call if any news came in. As it was 02:10, everyone but the Gunny and Matt had gone to bed, Sheriff Martin and Tommy were in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee when the phone rang. The Gunny answered it on the first ring;"Yeah Greg, it's me . . . . Where? . . . . . Sure, the Moreland Airport was originally built for heavy cargo aircraft, it was resurfaced just a couple of years ago, why? . . . . . . . . . Out fucking standing, we'll be there. Greg I owe you a really big one for this, I won't forget. Okay I'll tell you how it works out next time I see you, bye for now." Turning to the other three, the Gunny said;"We need to get to the Moreland Airport with in the next twenty five minutes."

The other three didn't ask any questions, they all headed outside and piled into the Sheriffs Cruiser, as soon as the Sheriff was on the main road heading towards Moreland, he went Code 2 (all emergency lights and siren). They pulled into the parking area near the single maintenance hangar, de-assed the vehicle and moved to the end of the ramp near the start of the runway. Not being able to hold a conversation with the siren on, the Sheriff asked;"What's going on Gunny, I know you pulled some strings somewhere, so how about telling us what's going to happen now?"

Before the Gunny could say anything, the sound of a large multi-engine aircraft could be heard making its final approach to the small airport. All eyes turned in the direction of the growing manmade thunder of the aircraft that was in the process of landing. The men could hear it, but were unable to see anything but the vague outline of something really big hurtling towards them in the moonless night sky; suddenly they heard the screech of rubber on concrete as the wheels made contact with the runway. The sound of the four 5,000 shaft horsepower turboprop engines increased as the propellers were adjusted to give full military power to reverse thrust. Out of the dark appeared the ghostlike specter of sudden death, the Gunny and Matt recognized the ugly blunt features in its night camouflage colors of multiple shades of gray and black. The Sheriff and Tommy only saw a BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fucker), the Gunny and Matt saw pure unadulterated death. The aircraft slowed and turned towards them, finally coming to a stop with them facing the forward crew access door on the starboard side of the aircraft. As they watched, the door opened and a crewman jumped to the ground, when he turned to them he had the appearance of a large four limbed insect. He looked at the four men, pointed at them and motioned for them to move directly toward him.

Ushering them into the belly of the big aircraft, the crewman gestured for them to sit down on a nylon web bench seat attached to the forward bulkhead of the cargo compartment and for them to secure their seat belts. When they were secured, he handed them each a set of hearing protectors that also turned out to be a wireless headset for the aircraft’s intercom system. They heard the crewman say;"Aircraft Commander, Crew Chief, aircraft ready for launch."

The voice of the Aircraft Commander spoke in their headphones;"All stations, this is the Aircraft Commander, standby for launch." The Crew Chief strapped himself down in the last position on the web seating next to the Gunny just before the noise from the starboard side engines increased and the Herky (short for Hercules) started to pivot to the left. The aircraft turned until it was lined up facing south on the short runway, all four of the Allison T56-A-15 turboprop engines were run up to full military power causing the huge aircraft to shake and vibrate like a thoroughbred race horse just before the gates open at Churchill Downs. Once again the voice of the Aircraft Commander sounded in their headphones;"All stations . . . . Spooky is rolling." The giant aircraft seemed to leap forward down the runway, after a mere 200 feet, the nose lifted off, after another 50 or so feet, the rest of the 150,000 pound aircraft followed. The aircraft assumed a climb angle of 45 degrees, the four straining engines accelerating the aircraft to its cruising speed while at the same time pulling 'Spooky' higher and higher until a short time later they reached their cruising altitude and the speed of 250 knots(a knot is equal to one and one eighth mile per hour) was reached. The aircraft started banking to the right, not excessively, just enough to let everyone feel the turn. Shortly after the turn started, the Crew Chief asked the men to follow him and to be sure they didn't touch anything on the command deck. They followed him up a short vertical ladder and through a door at the top, once inside; the four men remained standing at the rear of the compartment while the Crew Chief moved forward and tapped one of the pilots on the shoulder. The pilot, a major, looked up and turned his head to see the men waiting near the rear bulkhead. Looking at the man in the right seat, he spoke into his chin mic, raised his hands clear of the control yoke than un-strapped himself. Standing up he moved to the rear of the compartment and stuck his hand out to the Gunny first;"Good morning Gunnery Sergeant, I'm Major Fred Hobson; Greg Bailey tells me you have a problem?"

After shaking hands, the gunny introduced the other three men with him and then told him about what had happened to two members of Unit One the previous year. The Major listened and his face clouded up, a look of pure disgust and anger caused his features to tighten up as he shook his head in disbelief. The gunny continued and told him how the boy had been grabbed while walking home the previous afternoon;"To top it all off, we think the bastards that took him were involved in the rape last summer, it looks like they're trying to get back at the Unit for making them pay for their crime."

The Sheriff took over from there;"I was contacted by the Yakima Indian Nation Tribal Police and told there was a mistake made about the identification of the suspect vehicle and that he was sorry for any problems he might have caused because of it. I don't trust that crooked son of a bitch as far as I could throw this aircraft, he's in cahoots with someone and he's lying his ass off. To top it off, when I asked him to allow some of my patrol units to cruise the back roads, he flatly refused, saying that wouldn't be legal." The Sheriff shook his head again before continuing;"I can't prove it, but I believe he and one of the locals from Moreland are responsible for the increase in illegal drug trafficking in the area. A few of the people we've arrested let it slip that there's a connection to the res. I know for a fact that nothing goes down on the res that he doesn't know about. Unfortunately, I can't get my people on the res legally without the Feds help, and so far my request has fallen on deaf ears at the main FBI Office in Spokane.
Matt spoke for the first time;"Jacky is one of my boys, I mean one of my Squadies and I'm afraid that if we don't find him, and fast, we'll never see him again. The people involved in this, the original ones aren't very smart, the problem is the head guy has been in the area for all my life and he's never been even accused of wrongdoing. Which makes him very lucky or very good; I have to go with the latter.

The Major looked at the men before saying;"Okay, I've got three hours worth of fuel for loitering, tell me what we're looking for."

The Sheriff nodded;"There were four males, either adults or large teenagers and adults, they were driving a full size high top Dodge van, white in color. That would make a minimum of five males we're looking for, I don't know if they're in the vehicle, made camp or in a pre-existing structure. If the person who I think is involved, there may be more people than the original five males, maybe less if things go south.

The Major thought about the situation for a minute or so and said;"Okay, here's what I can do, we'll do a low level fly by starting at the top of Toppenish Ridge and in a standard interdiction pattern. If there are vehicles within the search area that have been driven in the last twelve hours, they'll stick out like a sore thumb. The same holds true for people and occupied structures, empty buildings will be visible also but will have a different IR signature.

Tommy spoke for the first time;"You said you'd do a low level fly by, won't that warn them somebody's looking for something or someone?

The Major laughed;"Yeah probably, but our low level fly by's are at 4,500 meters, they may hear us, but it will sound like a large number of aircraft flying at great distance."

During the three hours the aircraft could loiter over the area, it covered and re-covered the suspect 2,500 square miles four times from four different directions. The last overflight was made from west to east at just over 3,100 meters, to check out five different possible locations. On the way back, the Major gave the Sheriff a DVD that was made from the readings obtained on the last run;"This may help, look at it on a high resolution monitor, the bigger the better. Maybe you can match it to a name that is associated with the structures we got the best 'reads' on. Oh by the way, I'll be doing several combat insertion landings and take offs at the Moreland Airport tonight and tomorrow night, you know, just in case you guys might want to wave at us or something."

The Sheriff looked the Major in the eyes as he shook hands with him;"Thank you sir, for all of us, you got a big favor coming from us. Thank you."

The aircraft made a standard combat insertion landing, one minute it was at 4,500 meters, 3 minutes later it was on the ground and reversing thrust on the four turboprops. By 05:30, the four men were moving to the Sheriffs Cruiser and the C130U code named Spooky 09 was grabbing sky and making its initial turn heading for McCord Air Force Base, located south of Seattle. The four got in the vehicle and joined the heavy morning rush hour traffic, better known as the 'Medford 500' heading towards the Medford Site and the Denton City turnoff.

THE ELECTRONIC WARFARE MODULE ONBOARD SNOOPY 09

While the four men were moving west on State 240, 'Spooky 09 was lining up for one really low level pass over the last search route they had flown before dropping their passengers at the Moreland Airport. The Major had told his team of Tech Wizards that they would be making a final pass on their way home. To get the best results, he took the aircraft down to 1,600 meters above AGL (Actual Ground Level). During this run, all surveillance and onboard sensors were active, it was the second structure they over flew that they hit pay dirt. At the altitude they were flying, the SLIR and FLIR were working at optimum; details that hadn't showed up at 3,100 meters were clear and sharp. In the second target, the shadowy outline of a fifth 'body' that didn't appear on the other scans was readily apparent on this run. What also was clear was the 'body' was laying on its side in the fetal position and appeared to have its hands behind its back.

THE PRINCE HUNTING CABIN

At 06:45 Delbert stirred in his bunk, having slept poorly in a different bed than he was used to and the fact that his father had threatened to kill him, hadn't allowed him to get much sleep. Climbing out of bed he stretched, yawned and scratched his crotch before finally shambling into the cabin’s kitchen to make some coffee. After filling the Mr. Coffee, he looked through the cupboards for the grounds and filters. Slowly his anger built as it became clear that the last group of people to use the cabin had failed to replace the coffee they had used. Moving back to the bedroom he got dressed then went to the bunk room where Launy and his two buddies had slept. Delbert shook his younger brother's shoulder to wake him, when that didn't work; he grabbed his foot through the blankets and yanked him out of the bed to the bare wood floor.

"Jesus fuck Del" ... Was all Launy could get out before his older and much larger brother had him by the throat shaking him like a Terrier would shake a rat.

"You shut your fucking mouth asshole!!" Delbert shouted into Launy's face, spittle hit sprayed over the now terrified younger brother’s face. "You say one more word and I'm gonna reach down your throat and pull your asshole out through your mouth."

Typical of Launy when he was frightened, he pissed his boxers, unfortunately, some of the piss landed on Delbert's boots; his brand new $700.00 hand tooled Tony Lama boots with the two inch heals. To say Delbert was unhappy was like saying that a 9.3 Megaton Mk53 internal carriage nuclear weapon was just another bomb. Delbert picked the boy up and started bitch slapping him, that is until he split Launy's lower lip and started his nose bleeding. Delbert then punched him four or five times in the belly, his fist sinking deeply into his almost non-existing abdominal muscles. His rage finally diminished to the point where he was just disgusted with his younger brother. His anger under control for the time being, he tossed him back on the bed and then looked at the other two losers who had been awakened by the one sided fight. Pointing his finger at the two he yelled; “Get the fuck outta them beds, I'm going down to the general store back on 97 and get some provisions, get this piece of shit up and dressed then get everything ready to cook breakfast when I get back."

The two scrambled out of their beds and hurriedly dressed as Delbert left, then went over to Launy to see what kind of shape he was in. Bill Jordan sat down on the bed and helped Launy sit up and saw he was crying. Uncharacteristically, Bill pulled Launy into a hug and sat there holding him until he was able to settle down. When he could move without grimacing or crying, Bill got up and signaled Larry to follow him, giving Launy a chance to get his shit together and dress. Larry and Bill went to the kitchen and got the pots and pans out and set the table in the small alcove off the kitchen, now all they needed was something to cook.

THE BATEMAN COMPOUND

While Launy and his friends were setting up for breakfast, the Babcock Boys, Justin T. and Jap were making breakfast for all of the people at the Bateman's. Earlier, when Justin had gotten up, he was a little surprised that Matt hadn't already started the morning coffee. When he checked Matt's room he found it empty and the saw that his bed hadn't been slept in, starting to worry a little that maybe something else had gone bad, he picked up a house phone and punched in Matt's cell phone number. When Matt answered Justin's first words were;"Are you okay, did you find Jacky, James is Okay isn't he? I went to your room and you weren't there." Justin's voice was rising as he talked, the more he said the more agitated he became until he had to stop talking and take some deep breaths.

While he was breathing deeply, Matt was finally able to talk;"Calm down Jus, we're okay, I have the Gunny, Sheriff Martin and Tommy with me and we're stuck in a traffic jam on 240. The Sheriff and Tommy are out trying to get traffic moving and the Gunny and I are trying to help the emergency crews. Some idiot tried to force his way onto 240 and was hit by a pickup, but traffic is all screwed up and the fire/rescue people are having a hard time getting the driver of the car that was T-Boned by the pick up out of the wreckage. We're only about ten minutes from the house, but I doubt that we'll be there much before 07:30. We'll be there as quickly as we can, please let everyone know we're okay and we'll be back ASAP."

Justin sighed in relief;"Okay Matt, I'm sorry if I got up tight but I didn't know what was going on, I'll let everyone know and I'll start breakfast in a little while so it'll be ready when you guys get back." Matt thanked him and disconnected, after replacing the handset in the telephone cradle, Justin started the coffee. While he was doing that, Jap, Mitch and Shane walked into the kitchen, all were dressed in shorts and T-shirts, and all of them appeared to have combed their hair with cherry bombs. Mitch grabbed a gallon jug of orange juice from the refrigerator while Shane got four glasses from the cupboard. While the boys sat at the table, Justin explained what was going on with Matt and the Gunny.

Jap was the first to ask the question that was on their minds: "What were they doing coming back from Medford at 6:00 o'clock in the morning, did he say if they found anything out?"

Justin shook his head no;"That's all I know Jap, he didn't say anything about Jacky or why they went to town. He did say they'd be back around 07:30 and I told him we'd have breakfast ready for them." Looking around the table at the three boys he asked;"How bout you guys giving me a hand and we'll fix them a big one, you know what the Gunny says about calories replacing sleep, so let's make them a bunch of calories."

When the four men walked into the kitchen, they found the table loaded down with plates of bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, sliced fruit, three carafes of coffee, containers of milk and juice. The boys had already eaten and were standing around to get whatever else the men wanted or requested. While the four ate, George and Keener joined them and they explained where they had been and what they had done; finishing their breakfast, they told the boys to leave the cleanup until after they viewed the DVD the Major had given them. Walking into the lounge, Matt turned on the big screen high definition TV and inserted the DVD into the player. The first image they say was a clear picture of a house or cabin in the woods, the fourth generation light gathering camera caused the color to be off, everything looked like an old-time Kinescope recording of a 1950's era TV show. Considering the pictures were taken from 4,000 meters, they were extremely clear. The views were slowed down by the computer-processing unit on the Hercules, so instead of flashing by their eyes at 250 knots, they were able to view the picture for a good three minutes. After they had viewed the three most probable sites, the pictures changed, now the coloring was blues, yellows and reds, once again they started with the far western 'possible' and worked east. The first one had what appeared to be four people two large and two small in beds located in the two-room building. They discounted this because of the description of the kidnappers provided by Caleb Johnson. That plus the vehicle parked in front of the cabin looked like a family size car rather than a van. The second structure was larger, they were able to count five separate rooms and the vehicle parked close to the outside of the building looked to be about the right size and the men could tell by the small heat bloom from the engine compartment that it had been driven during the twelve hour time frame. The limiting factor was that they only saw four people in the cabin, three in one room and one by himself in another. The third structure was smaller that the other two, but it had five people in it, however, there was no car or van present. They did see five RV's parked out front, two motorbikes and 3 four wheelers. This was a possible, but the second cabin seemed to be their best bet with the four adult size bodies displayed on the screen.

Keener stared at the TV, and asked;"Hey Bill, can't we just get a bunch of police together and raid both those places; I mean we should be able to hit them both at the same time?"

“I thought about that when we got it down to those two cabins, but Jackson Eagletooth would stop us as soon as we crossed onto reservation land. If they're in one of those places, as soon as he knew we were coming, he'd let them know a convoy of police vehicles was heading their way and by the time we got there they'd be gone God only knows where." The Sheriff replied.

They talked about several ideas and schemes for the next half hour or so before they all sat back and stared at the monitor. After about five minutes, the Gunny spoke;"We need to get someone in there on the ground to check out both of those cabins, what we need is to eyeball them both up close and personal."

The Sheriff agreed;"The only problem with that, is that Eagletooth would stop us as soon as we tried moving on the reservation. He may be a crooked son of a bitch, but no one’s ever called him dumb."

The Gunny nodded his head in agreement before asking;"Does Jeff Morton still own that H-13 Heller he restored and was always bragging about." Matt nodded his head yes, but didn't say anything, as he watched the Gunny think about what he was going to say next, he could almost see the gears and wheels turning in his mind, using his twenty five years of Corps experience to come up with a viable plan. The Gunny turned to Keener and asked;"You feel like going on a night time hike this evening?"

Keener looked at the Gunny for a few seconds before replying, knowing what he was going to say next;"Yeah, I haven't had much exercise lately, so a nice easy hike in the hills would probably be good for me."

The Gunny went over to the computer keyboard on the other wall and punched in several commands, after looking at the USGS Map, he turned to Matt: "Why don't you get on the phone and call Jeff up and see if he wants to go flying in his Heller tonight, hell, he could drop Keener off in the hills so he didn't have to drive in and worry about someone breaking in to his car while he was out hiking."

THE PRINCE CABIN

While the planning and preparations for Keeners walk in the woods were taking place, Delbert and the three teenagers had finished eating breakfast. Delbert got up and said;"I’m going back to bed for a couple hours, you guys clean this up and be quiet." After thinking for a second or so he said;"When you get that done, take that Unit One kid something to eat and drink, just make sure he don't make any noise." Saying that, he turned and went into the bedroom he was using and closed the door.

"Fuck!" Launy whined. "I'm getting awful tired of him bossing us around." His two buddies noticed that his complaint was made in almost a whisper, definitely low enough so his brother wouldn't hear him. The three boys scrapped the remains of their breakfast onto a paper plate and cleaned the pots and pans, making sure they were quiet so as not to bother Delbert. Larry grabbed a used coffee cup and filled it with water and Launy grabbed the plate with the remains of breakfast on it and all three went to the basement where Jacky was tied up and being held at. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they found that he had scrunched his way across the dirt floor and was in the process of trying to cut through the ropes binding his wrists by rubbing them against the metal leg of a shelving unit.

Bill Jordan ran over and grabbed his bound feet and jerked him away from the shelving and then yelled at him;"What the fuck you think you're doing faggot?" He then kicked the boy in his left thigh, just to get his attention. He was rewarded with a groan that made its way past Jacky’s gag. Looking down at Jacky he said;"Looky here guys this cunt pissed his pants." The three captors laughed at him, then laughed harder when they saw him turn red and start to cry. "Aww poor baby, did you have an accident and go piddle in your panties?"

The assholes thought that Jacky was blushing because he was embarrassed, that was the farthest thing from the truth. Jacky was for the lack of a better word 'pissed', so pissed in fact that if he wasn't bound and gagged, he'd be trying to kill each one of these assholes with his bare hands.

Larry and Bill grabbed the boy by his feet and dragged him to the center of the room and propped him against the eight by ten inch floor support beam. Launy got a roll of duct tape and ran it around him and the beam four times;"There, that ought to keep him from getting in trouble." Looking Jacky in the eyes, and not liking what he saw he kicked him in the abdomen before saying;"Listen up cocksucker, we're going to take your gag off to feed you, if you yell, or for that matter even talk loud it goes back on, got it?"

Jacky nodded his head, he realized that even if he wasn't tied up and being kept God only knows where, yelling wouldn't accomplish anything but getting him beat on. When they removed the duct tape, he opened and closed his mouth several times for the first time in close to fifteen hours. He tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was a low croaking sound. Trying again he was able to ask;"Water." It came out in a low raspy whisper.

Larry knelt down alongside Jacky and held the cup to his lips, Jacky drank half of the water before Alcorn pulled it away. The next thing Jacky knew, Bill Jordan was stuffing the leftovers from their breakfast in to his mouth, Jacky tried to chew as fast as he could and swallow, but Jordan kept forcing more of the food in to him. Finally when Jacky couldn’t take anymore he started to choke and spit the garbage out onto himself and Bill.

Bill backed off cursing;"You stupid cocksucker, fucking asshole." Dropping the plate, he started backhanding Jacky, soon Jacky's lips were split in several places and his nose was bleeding. Jacky was starting to hurt; worse, Jacky was starting to get scared. These assholes had him at their mercy and he was defenseless, unable to even try to shield his face and body from these half crazed cowardly bullies. The assault on Jacky continued for another couple of minutes until Larry Alcorn pulled Jordan off him saying: "Back off Bill, we want him alive, for now.

Standing at Jacky's feet staring down at the bound teenager, Bill Jordan was breathing hard and sweating, the rage slowly dissipating, Jordan gave a nervous laugh and said;"Yeah you're right, maybe Del will let me beat him some more before we snuff him. Hey let's clean him up a bit, some of that good food we gave him seems to be on his face, we can't have our friend here looking mussed up now can we?"

Larry and Launy looked at him as if he had lost his mind, that is until he lowered the zipper on his jeans and pulled out his cock and started pissing in Jacky's face. The other two boys started laughing and quickly joined Bill in pissing on Jacky. Jacky unable to move, other than to turn his head closed his eyes and cried to himself at this latest humiliation, making a vow to himself that if he got the chance, he would kill as many as he could. When his three captors ran out of piss, they laughed somemore at him and left him tied to the beam as they climbed the stairs to the man floor of the cabin. Once more sitting in the darkness, his MarCams drenched in piss, Jacky prayed for himself, for his friends to hurry and find him . . . . . and for the chance to hurt his captors.

BATEMAN COMPOUD 16:00

The men had spent close to six hours planning Keener's insertion into the Reservation; Jeff Morton quickly agreed to fly Kee to the top of Toppenish Ridge. Keener was now preparing for his insertion, dressed in Woodland Patterned MarCams; he had just completed applying black, brown and green camouflage paint to his face and neck, grabbing his LBE Harness, his Gilley suit and a rucksack he headed to the arms room. Entering the room, he removed one of the M60's from its storage rack, checked to make sure the chamber was clear, he selected six half moon shaped Australian ammo boxes and stuffed them into his ruck. Each ammo box contained fifty rounds of 7.62 millimeter belted cartridges, the box would be clipped to the side of his 60 so he could fire without worrying about the belt kinking and causing a jam. He got his personal side arm, a Glock G21 in .45 ACP caliber and donned his shoulder holster, inserting a pre-ban thirteen round magazine in the magazine well, he chambered a round. Dropping the magazine, he thumbed another round into it and inserted it back into the Glock. Holstering the handgun, he left the arms room and secured the vault door. When he entered the lounge, he found the others and Jeff Morton sitting around talking about the upcoming covert insertion. Jeff had been looking at a topographical map of the Toppenish Ridge area for a suitable insertion point, shaking his head he tapped the map and said; I can't see anything here that's big enough for me to set down in. There is a probable four miles further west, but that means you'll have to hoof it to your objective. I don't think that'll give you enough time to check out the two most probable locations. Keener looked over his shoulder and pointed at a place on the map;"What about there, it looks like a meadow?"

Jeff looked at where he was pointing;"I might be able to get in there, but I'd still be worried about the clearance, all it would take would be me hitting one branch and rotor blade would come apart."

Keener thought for a moment; “Does your bird have a hard point (a hard point on an aircraft is a reinforced section of the outer skin used for attaching external stores or equipment) I could attach a rope to?" Jeff said it did. "We have a fast line one of the recon teams left us for the boys to practice on out at the confidence tower, I can attach it to the hard point and fast line in."

While Keener and Jeff discussed the means of his insertion, the doorbell rang and Matt went to answer it. When he opened the door, he found one of the newest members of the Unit and his father;"Jesse, Mr. Stevens please come in." After shaking hands with Mr. Stevens, he looked at the boy, Jesse was about 5' 10" tall and a 135 pounds, slim, but well toned. Jesse and his father had moved to the Moreland area two months ago, his father had been medically retired from a government organization that had its headquarters in Langley, Virginia. No one had asked, nor had he volunteered any information pertaining to his job or what ailment had caused him to retire at age 37. Jesse had joined shortly after they arrived in town, he had quickly become well liked by the other members of Unit One, and he always lent a hand and helped anyone who needed it. The Matt and the Gunny were especially glad he was a member because he'd completed the NOLS wilderness first aid course near Anchorage Alaska and was a certified First Aid Responder and was in the process of completing the Wilderness EMT course on line. He had also qualified in High Altitude Low Opening Parachuting (HALO), which made him a very valuable asset for the Unit… Especially that night.

Matt spoke to Jesse first; “Jess, how about going into the lounge, I need to talk to your dad?"

Jesse nodded and moved off in the direction of the lounge, Matt turned to Jesse’s father;"Drew, I need your son to help us tonight, one of our boys was kidnapped yesterday and we're going in either tonight or early tomorrow morning. This is strictly a voluntary mission and I'll understand if either you or Jesse doesn't want to be involved."

Drew Stevens looked at Matt and asked;"First off, I don't have a problem with Jesse helping you out, but, it has to be his decision and his alone. Why don't we go in and talk with him and see how he feels about it?"

Matt led the way to the lounge, Drew took in the scene as if he entered a room everyday to find a Marine dressed out in MarCams, face camouflaged, wearing an LBE harness and a shoulder holster. The fact that there were two other Marines, a Sheriff, a Sheriff's Deputy, five teenagers and a man in regular street clothes didn't seem to faze him in the least. Drew sat on a sofa next to his son and waited, after the Sheriff and Tommy were introduced to Drew and Jesse Stevens, Matt started talking, he told how they were first informed Jacky was missing right through the latest intelligence that had came in over the land line about the fifth person they identified in Target Two. By the time they were finished explaining about the Prince Clan and their almost certain involvement in the situation, both Jesse and his Dad were visibly angry.

Drew Stevens was the first one to speak when the story and the proposed plan had been laid out;"I'd like to say if I was physically able to jump in with you, I'd be the first one out the door, unfortunately, my recent injuries prevent me from doing so."

Jesse looked at his dad, he knew how his father had been injured and knew that he meant what he had said. Turning to Matt, Jesse said;"I've never made a night HALO before, but count me in, I'll do what ever I have to do to help."

Jeff Morton spoke for the first time since the Stevens’ had arrived;"Matt, I need a set of night vision goggles, with night coming on, especially in the mountains; it's going to get dark quickly."

Matt nodded;"No problem, we got enough for everyone going in. I bought twenty pairs after the last exercise with the Force Recon Team that got close to the front door, they attach to our Kevlar or can be worn bare headed."

At 20:00, Matt and the Gunny helped Keener set up the fast line on the H-13's hard point so all he had to do was kick it out the door. Keener had already checked out the infrared beacon he would set up for the jump team to home on. At 20:15, Jeff Morton pulled power on the small helicopter and he and Keener were en-route to the small alpine meadow that they had selected. The men and boys in the jump crew returned to the house to make final preparations for their own insertion later on that night or early tomorrow morning. Both groups prayed for success, there was no other option, they knew that either they'd get Jacky back in the next twelve hours or they would ever see him again . . . . alive.