It Ain't Paranoia if... Ch. 03

"I'm not her anymore. I know there are parts of her you loved, and I want to keep those alive and prospering. The selfish bitch though, I've been drowning bubble by bubble for the better part of five years! I don't hear her whispering anymore, so I'm sure she's dead and gone, but everyone around me needs to be alert and warn me if she somehow reappears."

"Sounds you have a pretty good handle on your... foibles, so congrats to you and your counselor. A couple of comments and observations: yes, you were spoiled, and yes, I only exacerbated it by trying so hard to give you whatever you wanted, and trying to make you happy. I actually knew those things from the start -- thus my nicknames for you - Princess Kait and Queen Kaitlyn.

"But you were so sweet, so kind, so loving, and so passionate about our love and our family that I never worried. That's on me; I should have reacted when I saw the first signs, not assumed you'd talk to me if you needed something

"Also on me is how I responded when you complained about me being gone so much. Instead of sitting down and telling you where I was going and why, I basically told you to suck it up because I was doing it so you would have the money to buy the things you wanted.

"Instead of warning you of my concern that Robert was getting the company into dangerous and illegal waters, I warned you that his attention to you had more to do with his jealousy of me than his attraction to you. Which was foolish: you're gorgeous, he wanted you, and you knew it.

"I not only handed you to the snake in the grass, I pushed you to him.

"There are other things I want to talk to you about, including what spurred you to come find me, but I'm afraid we're running out of time. So I'll just leave you with this thought: I'm not the man I was then, either. You've been here long enough to get a handle on the new me, and I think you probably already know, but I'll spell it out.

"If we get back together, and you pull something like that again, it won't be me that will disappear! Comprende?"

"Yes, I fully understand.

"Now, what do you want me to do to help prepare for the coming... what, battle?"

"We will all be in the bunker, at least for a while. Let's get an update and check on the kids."

***

"Good timing!" Claude said when he saw me. "I spoke with Sheriff Goodson a few minutes ago; he had an interesting phone call from someone who claimed to be a general in the Texas Air National Guard. The 'general' was calling to give him a heads up that the guard was going to be involved in live ammo maneuvers at a new range in the mountains northwest of town, so there might be some explosions and cannon fire, but not to worry. They would be on a bombing range that's not near any civilians or homes.

"He's got his new toys loaded into his armored personnel carrier, which has a.50 caliber Gatling gun mounted on top, and is on the way.

"Other than that, it's quiet... maybe too quiet. The drones haven't spotted anything, nor have the observers overlooking the roads leading here. Our people are all in place and ready, so it's still a waiting game. Do you want to activate the 'bird detection radar'?"

"Might as well, Claude. If they're coming, it will be soon. Is the dozer in place?"

"Yep. Right beside the bridge over the canyon. Carl parked it there using the remote, just to make sure it works right. It does."

"What about the Stinger teams?"

Carl answered, "They are deployed in a diamond around the house. I've already warned them that there is an air threat, per the sheriff."

"Y'all 'bout ready to move this to the bunker? If the threat isn't coming up the road, we need to be in there."

"I'll make sure everything is hot down there, then I'll call you down and we can transition" Carl told Claude, who nodded.

Claude keyed the comms and quietly told everyone in the field and house that we were moving downstairs, and then worked feverishly on the transition. Carl was already gone, so I followed.

Toro, Chap, Gato, and Coyote already had the kids and Kaitlyn in the kitchen, waiting for me. Carl had entered the other way, so I led everyone through the pantry to the basement game room, opened the HVAC panel, motioned them inside, and then closed the panel.

It was getting late and the kids should have been played out by now, but they were big eyed and alert. Kaitlyn and the others showed them around while I helped Carl in the command center. The biometric locks down here worked on pass cards and retinal scans, and five of us had been set up with the necessary credentials, including Carl/Saguaro and Claude.

When everything was ready in the command center, I opened the armory and distributed tactical shotguns and pistols to Gato, Toro, Chaparral, and Coyote. I also placed ARs at each "station", just in case the bunker was breached.

Carl was watching the radar screen; he suddenly looked up and reported, "Helicopter just took off from a ranch near Marfa. Looks like the heading is due north."

"And three black vans left the ranch about the time the helicopter lifted off," reported a spotter on the Marfa highway.

"Showtime!" Claude announced over the comms we were using, and then alerted the sheriff, who said he had set up in an opening in the Pinyon forest on our side of the bridge that had a good line of sight to the road approacing the bridge.

Carl turned to me; "Looks like a frontal ground assault timed with an air assault from the rear. We have two men with RPGs on the hills on either side of the road. Do you want to load up on Stingers to the rear, or keep them in place, just in case?"

"I think we're okay, as long as there is a single helo. The eastern point will have the first shot if it approaches from the rear, but the southern and northern points will also have shots. If it approaches from any other direction, three points of the diamond will still have shots.

"My only concern is what weaponry they're carrying and the range. I'd prefer not to have to rebuild this place, but 'que sera, sera'. The main thing is for everyone to stay safe.

"To that end, I want Raymundo to have that conversation with Reynaldo before the battle commences. Can we do that, Chap?"

"I'll call Tino." Chap replied. "How soon?"

"As soon as you can arrange it!

"After the call is made, we immediately transition from prey to hunter, so everyone needs to be ready. In the meantime, keep a close eye on the helo! If it's armed with missiles, we may already be too late to stop the attack!"