“It’s a lot of area to cover,” Fred said.
“Yes, it is,” Jeremiah said. “Ideally, we’d need at least a dozen patrols for each sector, but this is all we have.” He waved a hand around the room, which now held eleven people.
Fred recognized most of them. There was Joker, Flash, Hicks, Slim, one of the Redbank women, Kyra he believed, and a few others. There were a man and woman he’d never seen before. They gave him a respectful nod. He didn’t know if they’d witnessed the fight or heard about him. He returned the nod with one of his micros. He walked over to a chair by Sammy and sat. Fred then casually placed his hands under the table and furtively massaged them.
“Alright, let’s get started,” Jeremiah said. “Obviously, we are limited in manpower. You’d think we have more, but you all know how that goes. So, I’ll make it simple; your mission is to recon these sectors and determine if there are hostile forces in said areas.”
The first sergeant continued with his mission briefing using a modified version of the military’s five-paragraph format. There were a lot of gaps in the mission order. Paragraph two, the situation, consisted of Jeremiah saying, “There may be enemy troops out there.”
This segued into Jeremiah informing them of the possibility of foreign soldiers on American soil, hence the objective of the recon missions.
“If you happen to spot them, do not make contact and do not let them see you. Complete the standard SALUTE report and call it in as soon as it is safe to do so.”
A hand shot up. “What do we do then? Keep following them?”
“That decision will be made if and when you spot them.”
Jeremiah explained radio procedures and frequencies. The mission briefing lasted fifteen more minutes. When he was finished, he asked who wanted to pair up and what part of the countryside did they want to recon. Flash was the first to raise his hand and asked to recon the Virginia Beach area. The first sergeant, knowing Flash grew up in that area, immediately agreed. A couple of people volunteered to join Flash.
Joker then raised his hand. “What’s the latest on Melvin and True?”
“They are currently in Cincinnati where they are still actively looking for the alleged soldiers that Clay had originally reported. Unfortunately, they have missed their scheduled comms. I’m sure they’re okay and we’ll hear from them later.”
There were a few murmurs, but nobody was overly worried. After all, Melvin and True were a tough pair.
“Alright, we’ve got Virginia Beach covered,” Jeremiah said and pointed toward another sector. “Who wants to recon this area? Someone volunteer or I’ll decide.”
“How come we’re only looking east? What about the northern and southern areas?” one of them asked. Jeremiah shook his head.
“If we had more people, sure, but the cold makes it improbable that anyone would come from the north and the people at Oak Ridge are actively patrolling their own area. The coastal area is a lot of territory. We’ll recon what we can and then evaluate what we learn. Alright, let’s hear it. Volunteers or you’ll be voluntold.”
Fred cleared his throat. “If nobody has a problem with it, I’d like to take this area here.” He pointed toward a section on one of the maps. “I’ll start there and work my way toward Annapolis. It’ll take me a few days, but I believe I can cover the entire section.”
“Alright,” Jeremiah said and used a marker to put Fred’s name on the dry erase board for the appropriate sector. Jeremiah then gazed at the remaining people. “Alright, Fred needs a teammate and I’ll bet a dollar to a donut he’s going to be doing his recon work on horseback. So, which of you can ride a horse?”
A young woman immediately raised her hand. Fred glanced over and his brows furrowed slightly. She was in her twenties, about five and a half feet tall, brown hair braided down the back and stopping a couple of inches below her shoulders, the rest of her hair was hidden under a worn black Resistol cowboy hat. She was no prissy beauty queen, more of a hard riding cowgirl type. Her nose was slightly crooked from an old break, but otherwise she was a good-looking filly. Fred had seen her type before, back in his rodeo days. Fiery, independent. Her type was only interested in stallions. Both the four-legged and two-legged kind. If he were a younger man, and single…
“No need,” Fred said. “I work better alone. Nice hat though.”
She narrowed her eyes at Fred, like he’d insulted her. “You’re going to need someone to watch your back.”
Fred grunted and turned to Jeremiah. “I’ll go ahead and sign out the gear I need today and head out from my house in the morning.”
Fred didn’t wait for an acknowledgement. He stood and walked out with Sammy following. It took only a second for the woman to jump up and run after them.
Chapter 17 – Nikki
“Yo, dude!”
Sammy and Fred turned toward the voice. The woman had exited the building and was walking quickly toward them. They stopped and waited for her to catch up.
“His name is Fred, not dude,” Sammy scolded. “Most people call him Mister Fred. Maybe you should too.”
The woman narrowed her eyes at Sammy for a second before responding.
“Alright, Mister Fred, I want to talk to you,” she said.
She stood about three feet from Fred, staring at him like they were about to argue. Or fight. Fred noted she had smooth but taut features, a little bit of windburn to her cheeks, and hazel brown eyes that were smoldering now. Sammy fully expected Fred to turn his back on this woman and walk off. After all, Fred didn’t talk to anyone. But he didn’t do that.
“What’s your name?”
