The rest of the afternoon’s ride to the house tiring but uneventful. The trails had opened up and they were able to make good time in some sections. They were still slower than a real trail bike would be, but real trail bikes couldn’t care the loads these did, or have the range. Everything is a tradeoff. When they were about twenty minutes out, they let Bekka know. Bekka was a little flat on the radio to them, but she DID just get up from a nap, they thought.
They rolled into the yard at the house about a half an hour before sundown. Before they could get the bikes in the garage, Bekka was beside them. Big hugs and kisses all around. Garen had a bit of a surreal moment holding Bekka where he wasn’t sure where or when he was. He realized it had been years since they had held each other all kitted up. Most of those times were at the end of long hard missions. After the group could breathe again, mission mode showed up.
Bekka was the first to start.
“So what’s the gig? Who are we getting, where are they and why me?”
Kara chimed in. ”Garen, I’ll go get the bike ready while you fill her in.”
Bekka quipped back before Garen could reply. “Kara, there’s no time for sex, especially with him. We have a mission to run”
Garen could just shake his head. This felt so right, the three of them together. This is what he sometimes missed. Sure, they all hung out together almost constantly, but without all three working a mission or a problem, it lost a little of its flavor. This was the environment that the bonds were forged, and when they were back in them, the bonds shown stronger and more pure. His inner geekdom flashed him a picture from Lord of the Rings where the One ring in the fireplace revealed the writing. The pressure of the situation brought out the threads that wove their lives together. He was snapped out of his reverie quite literally by Bekka snapping her fingers in front of his face.
“Kara, you mentioned sex, and his brain short circuited. Don’t do that, he distracts easily. Mission. Focus.”
“Gottcha.” Garen started pulling out map books as he started a bit of a briefing.
“Allyson, you remember her, the red headed instructor that came on board about six or eight months ago,”
“The long red haired one? Isn’t she the one that made Kara tingle all over to look at?” chimed in Bekka.
“Hey! I heard that!” came a shout from across the room.
“That’s the one. She was in the garage with us when the earthquake hit, she made it out as well. She’s made it up to the forest. She is just inside the forest right about here.” He gestured to a place on the national forest map. She’s backed into a stand of pines so she is concealed for now. We” pointing to Kara and himself “were figuring to bring her up Bluebird since the trail right here is so close you could cut over in this meadow right here, then your onto bluebird, and Katie bar the door.” Garen stood up.
“Oh, that it? Simple right? So sure! Just pop down and bring her in? Why does this have crapfest written all over it?” shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “So out with the details, like vehicle, how I’m getting there, who is doing what, etc.”
“She’s got one of those first generation Explorer Sports, 4X4, so ground clearance and maneuverability shouldn’t be an issue. It’s just her in the vehicle, she should have at least the 10mm training package with her so she has at least a basic kit. I don’t have a good picture of her on board fuel, but if she has at least half a tank, it should be enough with no real deviations in route. She is tactically sound as far as urban building ops, she is medically competent in abstract as a tactical paramedic but remote and austere medicine is still not in her skillset yet. Terrain navigation and survival, unknown. She is a highly skilled SWAT technician/Paramedic and has had a great attitude toward learning, but a lot of what she needs to learn, I don’t know if she knows what she doesn’t know” He looked at Bekka and shrugged his shoulders. “Kara thinks she will be good. I think she has potential, but cop to downrange is a big transition. I think she is worth trying.”
“Ok….you guys think it’s worth it, I’m game.” She paused, looked at her feet for what seemed like a lifetime and then said “So how am I getting there? What are we driving? What’s the plan?”
“Alright, it’s going to be you and Kara on one of the nuclear dirt bikes. A quick run down bluebird” he holds up his hand” yes, I know it’s not bright to use the same route for both out and back, but this gives you a good recce of what’s there, both terrain and people wise. If you see anything squirrelly, you can set up the dive over to Delta and I can head that way in the buggy loaded with fuel cans so we can sweep around another way. I figure I will be setting up the buggy for that while you guys start south. I’m pretty much your QRF, so any hard contact you can’t get past, break right and push out to the east. Between Kara and Allyson, you have two good short range subs for instant reaction, but any contact, and THIS is the reason I need rally girl, DRIVE your way out of trouble. Worst case, beacon on 3 and lead them to Thor’s footprints. That’s narrow enough I can stop them hard and cover your getaway. You are the best four wheel dirt driver here, especially on that trail. I trust Kara with your life, and you know how hard that is for me. And for long gun stopping power, its either you or I, and you are driving. Kara is like a pissed off badger up close, but long guns are not her forte.” He took her hands and stared in her eyes, ”We can do this, and afterward we crawl into our little rabbit hole here and pull it in after us until we can see which way this is going.”
With a squeeze, she then turns away from him and moves toward Kara. As she approaches her, she pulls an enormous energy drink out of her cargo pocket and hands it to Kara.
“You ready? A nice, moonlit ride through the dark forest with my other sweetie, what could be more romantic. Oh, wait, I know, machineguns! Let’s go get your girlfriend.”
“Bekka, she’s not my girlfriend! I’m not shopping! She IS nice eye candy, but that’s not why we are doing this and you know it. I….” Kara was kinda bristling at some of the implications. She stopped mid rant and looked at her friend, realizing she was just intending to pull her chain a little.
“I’m sorry Bekka, it’s just …Garen and I are still a bit wound up from the past three days. I took a round on day one” she holds up her arm to show the hole and bloodstains,” and yesterday Garen had to drop two guys that had shot and were going to rob and rape Mr Chenkof’s granddaughter. It just hit me wrong. I’m so sorry.” She moved forward to wrap Bekka up in an embrace, but it was already too late. Bekka stiffened at the mention of her wounding, and it only got worse from there. She held out a hand in the universal stop sign.
“You guys had what happen? I can’t let you two out of my sight for two ****ing minutes! Shit like this is why I never leave the house! You two have some ‘splaining to do when we get back!” she then pulled Kara into an embrace to defuse the angry tone to her voice.
Garen was cringing when he heard Kara spout off some of the things that were going on during their trip. He wanted to wait until everyone was back and do it in a more controlled way. He should have known Kara would blurt stuff out. The girl has no filter, for go or bad. He continued to set aside fuel cans to load into the dune buggy/ sand rail they had for running around in. It was fast and nimble so he could get to them if they needed his help. Meanwhile, in his head he started planning what else he needed from the house for such a mission. Before he finished with the fuel, Kara and Bekka rolled up on the Dirt Bike. A quick farewell, and they rolled out to the south. He looked at his watch and made a quick calculation or two, they should be there in a couple of hours, especially with Kara driving.