Carmen spoke, "I'm going along." She turned to Richard with defiance in her eyes. "I'm a nurse and you might need me." She turned back to me. "And I can shoot straight, too. When Richard was in the Marines, I was in the Army Reserves while I took my nurse's training. If you have an extra M16, I'll carry that."
"We'll be proud to have you along. I'll put you with my daughter." My look encompassed all of the adult Jones family members. "It's only fair that I tell you this ahead of time. We don't intend for there to be any survivors when we're done. Ridder and his bunch raped and murdered four of our people and three of your family members. They're going to pay with their lives. If any of that bunch escapes, they would more than likely join with another renegade group and commit the same atrocious crimes. We intend to kill them all. Do you have a problem with that?"
We witnessed serious soul searching as the family eyed each other. Willie turned to us. "If we'd had more bodies we would have already done the same thing. We're in."
Mable spoke, "Willie, that's murder and the Bible doesn't condone such behavior."
Willies shot back, "Forget the Bible woman. We gotta do what it takes to stay alive."
I stood. "We're going to fix supper now. You're welcome to eat with us because we brought plenty."
I yelled for Paige and introduced her to Carmen and told them to stay together in the morning. Ira had already given Carmen a radio and introduced her to Marcie. He was glad to have two nurses along on what could be a high-injury, extended firefight.
Ed motioned to the Jones going with us, "I have handguns for each of you and a couple of extra M16s for anyone who wants one."
Richard and Carmen nodded and said thanks.
At five-fifty the following morning, Willie announced we were close to our target. In the dark, we crested a hill as another vehicle coming toward us passed over the next hill. The new vehicle made a fast U-turn, hit the edge of the gravel road, backed up quickly and sped away, throwing loose gravel behind it. By then, all five of our trucks had crossed over the hill and my truck was near the bottom of the valley.
The radio burped to life as Ed said, "Looks like we've been spotted, boys and girls. Our surprise advantage just evaporated. Everyone stop where we are for a minute so we can talk."
Fifteen seconds later, we huddled around the middle truck. Nate asked, "Will we wait for daylight to go in now that they know we're coming?"
Ed said, "Definitely not. We've got to hit them fast and hard. The longer we wait the more time they have to prepare. Tom, Shane, I'll take Richard with me. He was in the Marines and has used diving equipment before. We're going to come in behind them from the lake while you keep them busy from the woods. We'll take the first lane toward the lake past Ridder's place. There's a rubber raft and electric motor in the trailer I'm pulling. We'll put those in the bed of a different truck with the suppressed Heckler and Koch MP5s and you take the truck pulling the equipment trailer. We're leaving now, be careful, but hit them as soon as it's light enough so we have cover when we come in. We need them watching you not the lake."
Ed and Richard scurried off as I spoke. "Okay folks, this is a complete change of plans. When we get there, park the trucks at the road and split into two groups. Eleven will go with me and the rest with Shane. Spread out eight or ten feet apart as we go through the woods. Willie says it's about a quarter mile to the clearing where the resort sits. We'll all pack lots of ammo. Shane and I need several strong people to carry the machine guns, ammo, and rockets for the RPGs. Stay low and look for cover around you because they know we're coming, and they'll definitely shoot at first sight. Watch out for each other, and if someone is hit pass the word to someone with a radio. Ira will send one of the medical staff to help the wounded. Let's go."
We got back in the trucks and drove another three miles before we pulled to the edge of the road and parked. Everyone knew what jobs to do and set about getting their equipment and extra ammo or heavy weapons. We all listened intently but no sounds came from the directions of Ridder's camp. They hadn't been alerted more than fifteen minutes earlier, so they hadn't had much time to prepare an elaborate ambush strategy. I hoped the bulk of their people were hunkered down with guns pointed in our direction and not at the lake.
My group quietly advanced on the right side of the lane to the resort. Shane took the left side. As stealthily as possible on the dry leaves and twigs, we slipped through the mix of pine and almost bare deciduous trees and bushes.
Twenty-seven of us advanced slowly until we could vaguely make out the unnatural silhouettes of the dark main building through the trees. I passed the word for half to take cover; the rest went back for more ammo. We lay prone to the cold ground waiting for dawn, or for Ed and Richard to attack first. From the little I could make out in the nearly dark morning sky, the building layout was close to what Willie remembered. The time was seven-thirty-four when Shane and I spoke on the radios.
Our ammo runners had returned and were in place. We'd staged our forces in a partial semi-circle and had the light and
