As always, I have to thank those that have helped me with these stories, from my beta readers, those special friends that I've leaned on so many times for advice and my editors through the years that these three stories have been in existence. You have all been amazing, from Halo Two-Five, to Curtis and then JoJo taking the trilogy to its conclusion. I've had fun with this and you the reader have been kind enough to humor me. Many, many thanks.
Please note. This is a story.
It came from my head and not from any history books. It's a story.
*******
No sooner had he finished talking than Jackson was on his feet and headed up the path alongside the canal, his weapon up and pointing along the canal. The moon once again moved away from the small cloud that had momentarily covered it. Jackson took advantage of the extra light and stepped up his pace. After two hundred yards, Jackson came across a canal lock that lowered or raised the water level in the canal and crossed it. Freddy and Lewis joined him.
The two sticks of soldiers moved with the speed and skill drilled into them. Twice they paused, going to a knee as a foreign sound finally became familiar to them and they moved on again.
Suddenly, there was a 'plop' sound in the middle of the canal. They all froze.
*******
I gave it a second before I said only loud enough so that it could also be heard by the three across the canal. "You may want to take your fingers off triggers, folks."
Hearing the collective escape of breath from all of them, I slowly stood, so as not to get my ass shot off.
"If one of you across the canal is Two (Freddy), then you've got another hundred and fifty meters from that bend in the river before you get to visit a friend of mine.
All three moved as one. While we waited for them, I moved from my position to join the others. I motioned with my arm and we walked further along the canal. Only Freddy made it all the way back; he had posted Jackson and Lewis to guard the crossing and the canal bank. As a group we walked to the edge of the woods; the reeds were high here.
This is where I stopped everyone, the moon reappeared from behind another cloud and bought light to the darkness yet again. That's when I pushed my arm into the reeds and pulled them to one side before looking behind me. "Go see your wife, Freddy, she's missed you."
The Ortiz was berthed behind the reeds.
On one of my many cruises up and down the canals, I came across the Three Cherry Trees totally by accident. If you looked hard enough, you could just make out the name of the place on the dilapidated sign barely hanging onto one of the few remaining support posts. When I went back to the boat club, I asked Gil about the place. Just after the war, a boat owner bought the land and steadily built up a small boat yard, right on the edge of the canal. He offered fuel and a water point to begin with, then with the waterway's permission, he dug a slip just big enough for one boat to be removed from the canal and take up residence in the newly built workshop.
It offered things like painting canal boats, to engine services, even electrical work was offered as well, but that proved to be his undoing. One of the canal boats he was working on had an electrical fire in the middle of the night, destroying the boat and taking most of the boat yard with it by the time the fire was out. The owner of the boat threatened to take the boatyard owner to court, and although he settled out of court, it wiped him out financially.
What was left of the boat yard simply fell into ruin and nature reclaimed the yard. Within a month of Gil telling his story, a company in America had their English lawyers dig into the land registry and bought the yard from the only living relative left. Only two things happened, the slip was drained and rebuilt and the access to the canal was modernized, also with reeds that seemingly lasting all year round covering the access route. The rest of the yard looked just as abandoned as the day the original owner left it.
Freddy quickly looked into the gap, we managed to see him smile before he flew past JoJo and myself. I thought it best to ease the reeds back into position and give them some privacy.
With the added manpower, I rested a few and sent the rest to cover the canal route and positioned one at each end of the deserted boat yard. Freddy came back an hour later. We didn't mind, the smirk on his face said more than he could tell us anyway. JoJo, Freddy and I sat and whispered our plan of action for the next day. The priority was still Maggie; we had to get her to Kenton Barracks at all costs. It was what the prince and his goons planned to do to try and derail that effort that was going to be a problem.
Mind you, I had the best team in the world standing alongside me now.
"JoJo, I have a sat phone in the boat. Call the boss and get him to bring you up to date, we're going to need to know what he knows. Once Maggie is on the transport and on her way to America to join the rest of the wives and children, it's our turn."
JoJo nodded and left Freddy and I to make the rounds. She found us an hour later.
"The boss spoke to Colonel Franklyn, and he's sending transport for us all to get back the Kenton Barracks. The boss reckons ETA is 0720 at this grid reference."
I looked at the scribble that was JoJo handwriting and figured we had an hour and a half's walk. I also knew why it was so far, and mentally thanked my boss; even now he still wanted to keep my hideaway as secret as possible.
Her curiosity came out as well when she said, "He also told me to tell you Ireland rules."
I just nodded and left it at that. Just as I was about to leave, she pulled at my sleeve. "Oh no you don't, the boss hung up after telling me that. You just nodded and acted like it was nothing. It clearly means something."
I heard Freddy trying damn hard not to laugh. In the end he got up and walked away, leaving me to tell JoJo that when we were all in regiments and before we were called to the Unit, we did tours in Northern Ireland. Those who had to sit in advance observation posts around the boarders between Northern and Southern Ireland had a system for when they got picked up. We would sit a can of Coca-Cola on the side of the road. When the pick-up vehicles spotted it, they came to a stop and we would then come out of hiding, get on and leave as quickly as possible.
JoJo just glared at me, wondering if I was making it up. She would find out soon enough of course. Dead on 0720, four army vehicles came to a screeching halt no more than two feet from the can of cola sitting on the side of the road. We all emerged from the wooded area where we were waiting, and climbed into the truck. The rest of the vehicles were manned by troops from Kenton, all armed and looking for a fight.
*******
The convoy of vehicles stopped outside our building. The Unit got out of the truck and stopped to look at the carnage that an all-out battle had caused. Those who weren't working on moving the debris were all armed. I watched Colonel Franklyn heading towards me and sent my people into our building to get showered and changed, but JoJo and Freddy refused to move, other than take a half step back. Maggie was still by my side.
His demeanor wasn't threatening; I was relieved that he wasn't blaming us for all that had happened. "I heard you made a guest appearance earlier. I'm sorry I couldn't stop to chat, but I had friends over."
His arm made a wide arc showing the parade ground and destroyed helicopters.
"What were the casualties, Sir?"
His smile lightened the mood. "Thankfully, General Brownlow, on your recommendation I hear, gave us a heads up. We have two still going to need surgery further down the line, but other than a few broken limbs and scratches we fared better than they did. I don't even want to think about what would have been the score if you hadn't flagged that message to the General"
His attention then went to Maggie. The Colonel smiled and he even took her hand and gently shook it. "So, you're the late arrival?"
Maggie went red and nodded her head. The Colonel's smile slowly put her at ease.
"Well, your transport is due in an hour, we have the camp on lockdown while you are here and I'm told the Air Force has supplied another two Apaches to escort you away."
Colonel Franklyn looked past her and directly at Freddy. "Would you be so kind as to take your wife inside please? I need to talk to these two."
Not waiting for even a nod, Colonel Franklyn turned and slowly walked towards the admin block. JoJo looked at me and I nodded; we both walked alongside him.
"We're not expecting anything, but you can never tell with that lunatic. I have to say, Major, even for a camp this far from civilization, there is never a dull moment around here."
I thought it best not to interrupt him. More so when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, almost causing JoJo to bump into me.
"Listen to me, both of you. What happened here wasn't your fault." His stare turned to JoJo. "You did your job and nothing else. My report at the end of the day will reflect that. Chalk all this down to a man who is mentally unstable."
His gaze then fell on me. "I figure you're here to finish this?"
At first, I nodded, then added, "Yes Sir, we're here to make sure that Maggie gets away and my people have fresh clothes, a hot meal and a restock of ammunition and other things that we can pull from the armory. We know where he is now; it's time for a little chat."
Colonel Franklyn nodded his head, then dismissed us. We didn't see him again until the helicopter landed to take Maggie away. The two Apaches stayed close by, but didn't report any activity. We all got a hug from Maggie; she then ducked and ran towards the helicopter. Freddy watched as it lifted off and left. I scanned the surrounding area out of habit; there were an awful lot of solders with fingers on triggers right about then.
*******
We raided the armory and stocked up on even more ammunition, then left Kenton Barracks in our own vehicles, all within two hours after Maggie left to start her own journey to meet up again with the rest of the wives.
We slowed and came to a stop at the police car blocking us from going any further; these guys were well armed. I wound down the window and we could all hear gunfire in the distance. I showed him ID, and after talking into his radio, he waved us on. The gunfire getting louder as we got closer to the abandoned country estate.
When we stopped at the next check point, I recognized one of the solders standing at the barrier and a dread followed. It was JoJo who spotted someone she also recognized. Major Finnegan walked up to us as we stood in a loose group, watching and waiting.
