Within a week, they had observation posts set up all around the enemy camp, and were gathering large amounts of intel about the place. They knew which buildings were barracks, where the motor pool was, which ones were used as storage of one sort or another, and where the mess hall was. The base Commander's quarters was in, roughly, the center of the compound, with his Lieutenant's quarters right next door.
Still, there was one building whose function eluded them, for more than a week; most of the officers seemed to visit it at least once or twice a day, never at the same time, nor for more than thirty or forty minutes, and usually for not more than fifteen.
Ron Willis was in the camoflaged tent that was facing this building when it revealed it's secret.
Half a dozen Chinese walked up to the building, two of them carrying a large covered basket of sorts. As they entered, Ron heard muffled, unintelligible shouts coming from inside.
Outside, another pair of soldiers were hooking up a pump of some sort with a firehose attached, connecting an intake hose to what appeared to be a water tower.
He watched in growing anger as a line of women, seventeen in all, were led out of the building. They were chained together with leg shackles and completely nude. They ranged in age, from what Ron could tell, from about twenty to perhaps thirty five years, and all appeared to be American.
When the women were all lined up in front of the building, the pump was started up and water began jetting from the nozzle, hosing the women down, most of whom began scrubbing at themselves with their bare hands. After about five minutes of this, they were led back inside, and as they turned their backs to him, Ron could see plainly that several of them had bedsores on their backs and buttocks. He surmised that they were likely chained to their beds most of the time and were there for the soldier's 'use'.
He eyed the silenced .270 sniper's rifle for a moment, but the words of his CO came back to him.... 'No contact'. He growled in frustration while taking careful note of the faces of the officers.
'Oh, yes' he thought, 'There WILL be a reckoning.'
Ron gave his report to the council, seeing all of them growing angrier by the minute. When he mentioned that he'd wanted to shoot the Chinese on the spot, Jim Archer nodded.
"I'm glad you didn't, but I know what you mean... not sure I'd have been able to control myself that well."
He took a long, slow sip of coffee and rubbed his forehead with one hand. He hadn't been sleeping too well lately, given the reports he'd been reading and hearing. He knew they would have to act soon; it was late summer, and soon the fall rains would be upon them. He didn't want his teams slogging through the mud; that would mean leaving a trail that a blind man could follow.
"Ok, folks.... We're going to need a full scale assault, here.... the first thing we need to do is take out these guys in the towers and anyone who's out and about inside the compound. Silenced rifles only, and we need to be a good distance away, just in case. A five minute wait, then, to see if anyone is awake to raise an alarm. If there's anyone in that women's building, we need to know about it before we move."
"Good thing these little yellow bastards don't seem to have much stamina." Ron quipped, to chuckles all around.
Jim favored him with a wry grin. "Indeed. After we take out the guards, we want to shoot out the lights... all of them at once, so we're going to need headset radios, I think. How many people do you think we'll need, for each side of the fence?"
Tom Davidson spoke up.
"I'd say, for each length of the fence, maybe fifteen people. Two shooters for each guard tower, two for each light, and the rest to take out foot patrols, if there are any. Two people armed with wirecutters to take down sections of the fence, then we invade the three barracks, silenced pistols and knives, we kill every soldier in the place, go in to the woman's building, at least five sets of bolt cutters there, meanwhile, have a team setting charges on all of their rolling stock and those choppers, another team rigging the comm shack, the mess hall, and the officer's quarters. We lead all of the women out, get to a safe distance, and push the button, sit back and watch the light show."
Sarah Mitchell was nodding but then frowned. "How do we get the women back here, though? I mean, it's obvious we're going to have to bring them back here for treatment---and clothing. The thing is, can we really expect them to walk six miles in the dark, completely nude, in the shape they're likely in?"
Jim nodded. "Good point. we'll have to take at least four of the pick ups.... and we have to keep them back away from that base far enough that the Chinese don't hear them, too. Maybe some of our people could carry backpacks full of clothes?"
Tom grinned at this.... "We can just call the trucks after the fireworks. Leave them about three miles away, walk our people in the last three miles or so, and once the operation's over, call for retrieval." He concluded, though he was stroking his thin beard.
This, more than anything, told Jim that he had something else on his mind.
"Y'know, we could always double up on the mufflers on the trucks, while we're still planning and getting ready for this op. Anything that makes them quieter will increase our advantage."
Jim nodded, grinning. Leave it to Tom to point out what he himself should have thought of in the first place. Then a thought occurred to him.
"I'm thinking of something else, too.... There's a ton of supplies there we could use. Rifles and ammunition, explosives, grenades, field rations and other food... why should we blow it all up, when we could use it to equip the locals?"
Tom looked, for a brief moment, as if he were about to slap himself hard on the forehead.
"You're right, Jim... and we wouldn't need our own trucks.... we can just load up a few of their big trucks and those Hummers and haul everything, including the women, out in those. What the hell, it looks like they stole 'em from our own military bases anyway." He grinned. "We'll just steal 'em back. We should be able to get away with five or six truckloads of stuff, if their quartermaster has been keeping their inventory up to snuff."
They continued, long into the night, hashing out details for hours until they'd planned the entire operation, down to the finest point.
The next day, Leeanne walked into the communal great hall and got a cup of coffee and a chocolate muffin, then scanned the room, smiling as she spotted Gar Davidson sitting off in a corner by himself, studying what appeared to be copies of the surveillance photos of the enemy base. She headed that way, and he didn't notice until she was standing by his small table.
"Mind if I join you?"
He looked up, startled, and nodded a bit nervously. "Please. I could do with some company."
She nodded towards the pictures as she set down her coffee mug and muffin, taking a seat across from him.
"Anything new?"
"No.... just looking for anything we might have missed. I know there's something here we're missing, just can't quite put my finger on it."
She took a sip of coffee and nodded. "Jim Archer was saying the same thing. Personally, I think it's something They're missing."
