“I’ve filled the SUV with survival gear. There’s fresh water and game there. We’re heading there tomorrow.”
“Keep in touch with us,” Bob said.
“I will for as long as I can,” Tim said.
“You better talk to your mom now,” Bob said. “You don’t have to repeat all this. I’ll fill her in on it later.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Bob handed the phone over to Ellen. “He wants to talk to you,” he said.
Because Ellen had been listening to one side of the conversation, she knew that whatever it was wasn’t pleasant, and her voice broke when she took the phone. “Hello?”
“My God,” Jake said. “Do you know what you have here?” He was holding the McAuliffe note Karin had given him.
“Yes, it’s the note General McAuliffe sent to the German commander,” Karin said.
“It is a piece of American history,” Jake said. “All the more important now that our history is being taken from us.”
“It’s amazing that Colonel Chambers held on to it all these years,” Karin said. “It had to be worth a lot of money.”
“I would say, conservatively, it was worth more than a million dollars back when a million dollars actually meant something. But I’m not surprised that he held on to it. He was there, so I’m sure that, to him, this note was worth more than any amount of money.”
Karin nodded. “I didn’t know him that long,” she said. “But, from what I did know of him, I would say yes, he was that kind of a man.”
“For someone who didn’t know him all that long, you certainly made an impression on him,” Jake said.
“Not nearly as much as the impression he made on me,” Karin replied.
There was a light knock on the door and Sergeant Major Matthews stuck his head in.
“Excuse the intrusion, ma’am,” Clay said. Then to Jake, “Major, I thought you might like to know that Sergeants Dagan, McMurtry, Jenkins, Pounders, and Vivian are gone.”
“I’m surprised they stayed around as long as they did,” Jake said. “Did you check with Staff and Faculty Company? Are they being reported missing on the morning report?”
“There is no morning report, Major. There is no first sergeant, there is no company commander. Nobody knows where Captain Poppell is. No one has seen him since the announcement of the RIF.”
“I hope Dagan and the others get home all right,” Jake said. “If that is where they are going. How many people do we have still reporting for work every day?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I would say about twenty, sir.”
“Twenty out of an authorized strength of seventy-two. Actually, that’s better than I thought it would be.”
“Yes, sir, well, I reckon they are pretty much like me, they don’t have any place else to go.”
“Are the mess halls still feeding?”
“A couple of them are. The consolidated mess is still serving meals.”
“That’s good. If the men are going to stay around, they should at least have someplace to eat.”
“Yes, sir, that’s pretty much what I think as well. When do you think they are going to start sending the RIF orders down?” Clay asked.
“From the looks of things, they aren’t going to need to send any orders down. Looks to me like the reduction in force is taking care of itself.”
“Yes, sir, I would say that as well,” Clay answered. “It almost makes you wonder if this isn’t the way they planned it in the first place.”
“Sergeant, in order to plan something, one must have enough sense to anticipate the outcome. It is clear to me that nobody in Washington, in or out of uniform, has that kind of sense.”
Clay laughed out loud.
“I didn’t say that for a joke, Clay, I said it as a matter of grave concern.”
“Yes, sir, I know that, Major. But I figure that about the only way we are going to get through all this is if we learn to laugh at the stupidity.”
Jake chuckled, and nodded his head. “You may have a point there, Sergeant Major. You may indeed have a point.”
“Ma’am,” Clay said before he withdrew.
“Sergeant Major, wait a moment,” Jake said. “You come from an old Army family, don’t you?”
“My Dad was in Korea and Vietnam, my grandpa was in World War Two, my great-grandpa was in World War One, and my great-great-grandpa was with Custer. Actually, he was with Benteen during the fight, or else I wouldn’t be here.”
“Then with that kind of background, you might appreciate this,” Jake said. He handed the browned piece of paper to Clay.
Clay looked at it, then glanced up at Jake and Karin. “Is this real?” he asked.
“As far as we know, it is,” Jake said.
“This is the note that McAuliffe sent to General Freiherr von Luttwitz,” Clay said. “I thought Colonel Chambers had it.”
“You knew Colonel Chambers?” Karin asked, surprised by Clay’s comment.
“Knew? You mean he has died?”
“Yes, this morning.”
“I didn’t know that,” Clay said. “But yes, I knew him. My dad and my grandpa both served with him. He retired before I came into the Army, almost thirty years ago, but I remember him well. He was a fine old gentleman.”
Karin showed Clay the letter Chambers had written before he died.
“Good for you, Captain,” Clay said after he read the letter. “I can’t think of anyone who would deserve it more.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bob wasn’t able to get very much with the money that was transferred to his account. It wasn’t that he didn’t have enough money, though certainly what he did buy cost more than he could have possible imagined just one month ago. One pound of dry beans cost one thousand dollars; a five-pound bag of flour was fifteen hundred dollars.
Bob had more than a million dollars to work with, and he didn’t mind spending it because he was sure it would be worth half as much the next day. What limited his purchases was not money, but availability. Most of the stores in Gulf Shores, and in Foley, had closed, and the few that remained open had less than ten percent of their normal items on the shelves.
When they returned to their house they loaded everything into the elevator to take it up to the kitchen.
“Look at that,” Bob said, pointing to the groceries. “What we bought today cost more than the total amount of my last contract, and it doesn’t even cover the whole floor of the elevator.”
“At this rate, we are going to run out of money within a month,” Ellen said.
“It won’t matter.”
“Of course it will matter. What do you mean it won’t matter?”
“Ellen, one month from now we’ll be using hundred-dollar bills as toilet paper.”
Bob helped Ellen put away the groceries; then he sat on the couch and picked up the remote. Charley jumped up beside him.
When the TV screen came up there was a huge letter
