It Ain't Paranoia if... Pt. 02 Ch. 10

Usual disclaimers: no sex involving persons under 18; I edit my own work, but have a beta reader; I do edit comments if they lack redeeming social value.

Unusual disclaimers: (1) I'm neither retired military nor an arms dealer; however I've read a lot of military fiction, I research a lot, and I'm addicted to battlefield accounts and videos from Ukraine's war with Russia. No doubt I got a lot wrong, but this is a fantasy set in 2019/2020, so you know it's purely fiction. (2) Politically and economically, I'm tethered in the middle. On some issues, I'm likely right of center, on others, I'm likely left. If you're far right, you'll see me and almost everyone else as a leftist; if you're far left, I'm a redneck from Texas, and most everyone else is a "conservative" (spoken with a frown). Note: both conservatives and liberals are centrists, to the right and left of moderates; extremists on the right are reactionaries, on the left radicals.

(3) Like me, Rob is a moderate who doesn't really care where your personal beliefs fall along the political spectrum, but when you consort with foreign powers and extremists to overthrow the government, you're a bad guy whether you're left or right. The 'bad guys' in this fantasy come from all over the world, and from every race, color, religion, and creed, as the story makes clear. The story also makes clear that they only have one thing in common: the desire to do away with our democratic republic and replace it with an autocratic government of their group's choosing. Rob doesn't want his kids raised in an autocracy, and neither do his allies, so they join the resistance. (4) Yeah, the government wouldn't arm a friendly paramilitary group as they do in this story, and the outcome - especially as related to North Korea - is wishful thinking, but it's my fantasy, so... I hope you enjoy it.

Knowing those things, if you choose to read this chapter it's on you, so don't rant and rage in the comments about politics,, or tell me you loved the story but rated it 1* due to the politics. It's not my manifesto or my autobiography; it's a FANTASY. Read it like you would Stephen King, or Tom Clancy.

****

On a personal note, I want to express my appreciation for the patience of my readers, with even greater appreciation for the kinds words expressed via comments and email.

I'm feeling better, and the first round of post-treatment tests look good, the physicians say.

The end of the world as they know it is nigh, yet Rob and Kaitlyn celebrate their love and devotion surrounded by family and friends. The optimism of their vows is in sharp contrast with the dangers and terrors of the world unfolding around them, yet even those with certain knowledge of the situation at hand are swept up in their bliss.

From 2.9 - Rob is expecting something spectacular from his sexy little wife on their wedding night, but she surprises him with her desire.

"My challenge to you, on our wedding night, is to let me experience the depth of your love for me. The words you spoke tonight touched my soul, but now I want to feel your emotion, your passion, your love - and I want you to feel mine!

"Can that be tonight's challenge, my most precious husband?" I kissed her in response, letting my love for her flow into her.

The 8' x 10' shower was wet but unoccupied, the bedroom door was closed, and we could hear their (Eva and Claude's) passion, though barely. After twelve minutes under the seven showerheads, we were clean and primed. We dried each other and walked to our rooms naked.

I redirected her away from the bed to the windows, where we looked out over the eerie landscape while I began my expression of love. My fingertips, my palms, my lips and tongue, all attempted to validate that my desire and need for her goes far beyond the sexual. Her body and mouth responded in kind, and soon we were engulfed in a fever I'd never experienced.

That fever would only magnify as we made love once, male dominant, and then again, female dominant.

After the infernos erupted, she rolled off, plastered herself against me, and murmured, "I do so love you..." "And I love you more," I whispered in reply, just before we drifted off to sleep.

The world might have other plans for us in the not-too-distant future, but tonight we slept peacefully, wrapped in each other's arms and loving devotion.

****

Berta, Rene, Rosa, and Nina arrived at 7:30 in the morning. Berta had a key, she knew the code, and they were well into preparations for our brunch when I followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen.

After greetings all around and some teasing about me looking 'poqito cansado' this morning, I admitted, "Yeah, I am more than a little tired this morning, but this coffee is strong enough to kick-start me. Give me time to drink a cup, and I'll help y'all."

They assured me I would not help, as my job today was to take care of my bride and guests, and they were doing this out of love, not duty. I hugged each of them, offering personal thanks.

The brilliant morning sunshine was warming the south-facing patio. I took my second cup of coffee outside and coaxed Duke from the gilded cage in which he had insinuated himself when wedding guests arrived. Since it's both air-conditioned and heated, with a fresh water fountain and automatic feeder, and has a doggy door into the large fenced kennel to the north where he can exercise and do his business, he somewhat reluctantly came outside with me. After checking to ensure there weren't too many strangers around, he gave me some doggie love and trotted to the patio with me.

I sat on a padded love seat with my feet propped up on the wall, soaking up the rays, watching the creatures of the morning, and gazing across the high desert I had come to love so much. Duke lay beside me, the sun glinting on his shiny black coat, soaking up the rays and dozing off from time to time. I dropped my hand to his head and rubbed his ears; he grunted in contentment.

The sense of peace and tranquility I felt was perhaps the greatest of my life. I, or rather we, had been through some hard times over the past decade, but my family was intact once again, Kaitlyn's lifetime commitment was expressed beautifully in her vows, and our friends and relations had demonstrated their respect and devotion to us in words and deeds.

I took a deep breath, and slowly let it out, letting the sense of serenity fill me. My contentment knew no bounds.

Then the stealthy exchange of sentries on a mesa a half-mile to the southwest shattered my tranquility, awoke and reengaged my lucid mind. To exacerbate the sudden transformation, Rene picked that moment to bring me my phone. "It buzzed a couple of times, Jefe, but I wanted to give you a moment."

There were two messages, both encoded. The first stated, "S.A, my friend! I'm sorry I was unable to attend your wedding, but I found the gift you wanted and sent it to our common friend ES.

"I hope you will find it useful as you and your wife begin your new lives. S"

The second was from Esteban Salazar: "Secure line only."

I walked back inside, got another cup of coffee, went into the weapons room, grabbed a satellite phone with GMR-2 encryption, and called the secure room at the Crescent Moon from my secure office.

Esteban answered immediately, politely asked how the weddings went, and listened to my assurances that they went remarkably well. As soon as I shut up, he launched into his report. I let him talk without interruption, asked three questions, and told him we would be back at the Mountain Lair by mid-afternoon. He said that should be okay, but not to malinger.

After waking my very naked and very scrumptious bride to tell her our guests would be arriving soon and fending off her advances, I went back to the patio and had another cup of coffee with my drowsy canine companion. Not surprisingly, Los Compañeros arrived next, and Beverly was with them. I raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"I see you, Rob Roy," she said with a wicked grin, "but no! Unfortunately, all there is to this story is, I was up and ready to go early, so I rode with these gentlemen rather than waiting on my sleepy-head daughter."

I smiled and said, "No judgement, Bev, but I already knew that - they all look too fit and rested to have spent a night with you!"

She punched me, winked, and whispered, "For sure! You, on the other hand, look like my granddaughter wore you out!" "For sure!" I echoed with a wink, "But she's the one still in bed." She laughed, shook her head, and went to get coffee.

Brian, Ron, and Chris greeted me and followed her inside to get coffee, but Carlos raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's up?"

"After we eat, offer certain of our guests a tour of my weapons room. Tu sabes?"

He nodded and went for coffee. My gorgeous bride then came out of the bedroom and greeted me with a smoldering kiss. She looked blissfully happy and exceedingly scrumptious in a red jumpsuit she picked up back in Tennessee.

To say the least, I was equally happy about our marriage, but my joy was tempered by impinging circumstances and concern for family and friends.

By 9:30, everyone invited was here, and the coffee drinking and loud conversation fully commenced. Duke sought out the kids, and rode herd on them as they played around the outside of the house.

At 10, Berta announced that brunch was served, and we fell into the offerings of huevos rancheros, migas, jamon, tortillas de harina, salsas, and fruit. Duke's concern about all the strangers in our midsty faded with the smell of food, and the likelihood of offerings and scraps.

Every available surface had someone sitting on it, with the six kids clustered around the picnic table by the west wall. Though some of us were longtime friends and others new acquaintances, we meshed nicely, and conversations among mixed groups broke out during and after the meal.

A little after eleven I nodded at Carlos, who was listening to cartel kingpin Raymundo describe his new business model to a smiling, nodding US Attorney General Lee. At a break in their conversation, Carlos interjected, "Have you seen Rob's weapons cache? It's pretty impressive."

Claude's head came up, Clay turned to look at me, and Tom stopped his conversation with Brian in mid-stream. Edward Lee enthusiastically replied, "I haven't, but I certainly want to!"

I made eye contact with Clay and then with Jacki, who was eyeing us judiciously.

Rene gave me a questioning look; I gestured for him to join us, and opened the biometric lock. Ten of us crowded inside the vault full of weapons, some of which might press the boundaries of legality, but no one gave them more than a passing glance.

"We can decide how to inform the others after I finish, but this is time sensitive," I began. "The original informants are three double agents and two members of the Davis Mountains Freedom Force, but what I'm going to tell you has been checked and confirmed through additional sources, and confidence is high.

"The attacks on our democratic republic will begin just before sunup on Christmas Day, not, as we believed, on New Year's Day. The attacks are being staged on that day to spread maximum terror and confusion among the citizenry, anticipating coverage from all the major news outlets flooding morning television while families are opening presents.

"As best we can tell at this time, our defensive positions in West Texas are appropriately arrayed; however, we now know that our enemies have more aircraft and missiles, as well as better tanks and personnel carriers, then we believed. They also claim to have artillery entrenched along the border in Mexico, which presents a new challenge."

The faces in the vault were somber but unfazed, so I continued. "We also know that twenty-three sicarios flew out of Mexico yesterday, skimmed under the radar, and landed somewhere west of Langtry; we have good reason to believe they are headed for Fort Davis.

"Forty-two more sicarios took a boat to the Florida panhandle. Those landing in Florida will set explosives at my in-laws house in Tennessee, and then proceed to the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland. General Yonkers, General Lee, I assume Camp David is prepared?"

****

That short briefing spurred dozens of questions for which I had no answer, so I called Esteban back. He listened, checked his notes and the information he had received, gave answers and/or explanations when he could, disclosed the sources, gave detail when he had them, and demurred when he did not.

The sense of urgency so obviously displayed by those leaving the vault broke up the ongoing conversations; the conversationalists turned to us and waited.

Since many were looking at me, I stated, "It appears we've lost a week of preparations for the upcoming troubles. We have confirmed that the attacks will begin early Christmas morning, not New Year's Day."

Within minutes, the crowd was dispersed. Those staying at Terlingua Ranch headed for their rented rooms and then their airplanes or back to their assigned Suburbans. The rest of us put the leftovers into transportable containers and cleaned up. While we did that, Claude alerted those guarding the Terlingua Ranch lodging and those dispersed across the Dagger Flats that plans had changed and they should be ready to travel within the hour.

Quickly, but without undue haste, we gathered and loaded our stuff into the armored Suburbans, waited a few minutes for Paul to give us the 'all's clear' from his helicopter, and then began our return to the Mountain Lair through Alpine.

There were no complications along the 110-mile high-speed journey, and we arrived before two pm.

Things looked normal when we got home, yet everything felt different. We had a sense of urgency beyond that we had experienced to date, although only the timeline had changed... but it changed by a full week! Suddenly, the reality of American Armageddon was very real and very disconcerting.

****

The Monday meeting with the base commanders and other key personnel was reset from eight-thirty to noon, giving them more time to consider the new information, rethink, reconsider, communicate with allies, and plan. When the greetings were concluded, Esteban, Claude, or Clay presented each item on the agenda for the review and consideration of those in command, or acting as liaisons.

Attendees from the Crescent Moon base were Colonel Adams (land forces), Major Rogers (air forces), and Master Sargent Juan Obregon (logistics). On behalf of the Rough Riders not quartered at Crescent Moon, Captain Paul Peveto and Sheriff Goodson. On behalf of the Big Bend Militia, Border Patrol Section Chief Ruben Zamora and Militia Captain Rene Obregon; and, on behalf of the West Texas Rangers, a burly man they called Grizzly, who was acting as liaison for Colonel Jim Savage.

Comandante Juan Sosa of the Escamilla Ejército (private army) sat in via secure teleconference from a secure site somewhere near Ojinaga, Mexico.

The addition of artillery was a serious consideration for those within 14 miles of the batteries, which Comandante Sosa and Major Rogers confirmed were entrenched on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande between Lajitas and Redford. We had HIMARS on Dagger Flats Ranch that would quickly silence them, but only after they fired a deadly volley. We agreed that was unacceptable, and a committee of Sosa, Rogers, Obregon, and Peveto was assigned to derive a better solution.

That artillery was staged across the river north of Lajitas was a strong indication that infantry would be crossing near there, which made sense. The river is narrow, shallow, and slow moving along that stretch, and could be easily spanned by a pontoon bridge able to carry men and light vehicles.

We paused to call Jesus (Hasus), a border patrol officer native to that area, to discuss their best options for crossing and our best options for an ambush. He had been issued a secure SAT phone by his section chief and was in a remote area at the time we called, so we felt safe discussing sensitive information with him.

His knowledge of the geography and topography of the target area is first hand, having roamed both sides of the border at will as a youth. After reviewing electronic topographical mapping and Google Earth, his rationale for the most likely crossing sites, artillery sites, and proposed ambush sites was readily accepted.

The Colonel and the Msgt would reconnect with members of the committee after our meeting to determine logistical needs and support for what would likely be the first land battle of the invasion. That the Militia needed reinforcements to stand against the surge was a given, so arrangements were made for personnel, missiles, and aircraft stationed at Crescent Moon to be repositioned.

That decided, Esteban led us through other findings and critical information gleaned from the captured enemy forces. Ironically, just as he was laying out the information gained from the three turncoats, General Lee called. He made certain we were secure before informing us that the disappearances of David, Dan, and Tomas Robles had smoked out a couple of new rats, and proved the culpability of three rats already under suspicion.

We didn't ask about their fate, but he offered that the President had charged them with seditious conspiracy and named them as enemy combatants, allowing them to be arrested and secreted away until after the expected invasion / insurrection, without immediate access to due process (and the ability to warn their confederates).

General Lee informed us that three of the five had 'been disappeared' last night, and the two traveling abroad had been taken and questioned in safe houses this morning. In two cases, the family or spouse had been present; they too were taken, and were being held in protective custody at undisclosed family-friendly sites.

We thanked him for the information, briefly described the suspected spearhead of the invasion, and of our ambush plans. He thanked us, and then hung up to go meet with the POTUS and Secretary of Defense.

Major Rogers suggested we break for a cold drink and snacks, which gave me a few minutes to gather my wits. I felt like an Algebra 1 student in a research-level mathematics seminar at MIT, but my job was to listen, apply common sense and cynicism, and ask questions that challenge assumptions.

Those things I could do, but the military tactics themselves were laden with terms having great meaning to the professionals, but which were gibberish to me.

After the break, Esteban faced me directly, smiled, and said, "Thank you for letting us hire the consultant. The eavesdropping device we finally found at your home was brilliantly designed and is very concerning. It is highly advanced, meaning it most likely had government sponsorship during development, but not American. We believe it is Chinese, but we aren't certain; in fact, some believe it is Russian, others Indian.

"During our review of the security tapes, going back to before the kidnapping of your family, we uncovered a puzzling event. We discussed it with our consultant, who gave us further direction. The puzzling event was Miroslav Popović changing the light bulbs in the living and dining room chandeliers about a month before the kidnapping. Changing light bulbs was certainly not one of his duties, but we had no idea what had been accomplished because we couldn't find any devices hidden in the chandeliers or among the light bulbs.

"Our consultant directed us to go outside and look for miniature telescope-like instruments that could focus through the windows on the two chandeliers. We found nothing on our first, cursory examination, but a more thorough examination using electronics revealed tiny devices attached to the decorative iron work atop the wall running along the front and east sides of the house.