Renewal 8 - War Council Read Online Free PDF Page B

description he gave, you got a couple more around here, right? Is somebody pointing a gun at me?” Joe asked.
    “I should say yes, but no. They’re not here. They’re up at the Carroll’s trying to decide if it’s safe to get the hay.”
    “It ain’t.”
    “We have to get some hay somewhere, Mr. Miller.”
    “Well, ma’am. I think we may be able to figure that out, but it won’t matter as long as those boys are roaming around causing trouble.” Joe broke into a fit of coughing.
    The storm door slammed as Sally stepped off the porch, carrying a brown paper bag. She walked back out to the driveway and handed the bag to Joe. “Here, Joe. Make this into tea and drink it two or three times a day. It’ll help.”
    “Thank you, Sally. I’ve been feeling mighty rough,” Joe replied.
    “I’m sorry about that Joe. If I’d known I would have brought you some sooner.”
    “Don’t you worry about that. I got a few critters left over at my place. Had to eat more than I wanted. How about we work out a deal? You take my animals in, take care of them, and I’ll give to you all my hay to go with ‘em. Tell your men when they get back.” Joe was breathing hard, with a wet wheeze accompanying each exhalation.
    “Joe, you need your animals,” Sally said, dismissing his idea.
    “Can’t take care of ‘em right now. Besides, I’m afraid I won’t be around too much longer. Better they come over here than to have ‘em starve to death when I’m not there to feed ‘em.”
    “Oh, Joe, you silly old bastard. You’ll be fine. Try the tea.”
    “I will. I ain’t gave up yet, just saying... That’s all.” Joe turned to Mom. “Tell your men. It’s best that way.”
    “I’ll tell them, Joe. Thank you,” Mom said with a smile.
    Joe tipped his hat in an old fashioned way and said, “My pleasure. Ladies... Young fellers...” And with that, he turned and walked back down the long driveway, one slow step at a time.
    We stood for long minutes, watching him go. I noticed that Sally had red eyes, and Mom was even worse.
    “Joe’s not going to make it, is he?” Mom asked.
    “That’s up to Joe,” Sally replied. “I give it about fifty-fifty.”
     
    Chapter 8 – 5
    John Hall waved a complex series of hand signals into the deep twilight. His men moved out in several directions through the cover of undergrowth and darkness, leaving Terry clueless about what was going on. He had missed years of hand signal practice by growing up in Manchester, and relied on John to tell him what to do in plain English.
    “Ok, Terry. Jeffry’s group are our snipers. They are setting up to cover as much of the target as possible. If you get into trouble, run out in the open and they will clean it up for you. Seth’s group is going in close and quiet to take out as many men as possible before we light the place up. Nick’s group is in charge of demolition. Once the bad guys are neutralized, they get to play with the good toys. Once the demo goes off, everyone goes to cleanup mode. If anyone gets away, odds are we’ll have to fight again tomorrow.”
    “Ok. Stupid question, but what are we doing?” Terry asked.
    “You and I are on prisoner detail. We’re going to sneak in, and try to grab someone for Bill to question,” John replied.
    “Figures. And here I thought we were just going to watch the show.”
    John snorted with laughter and looked through his binoculars.
    The security here was completely lax. The first clue was the fact that they were within a hundred yards of the farmhouse and completely under cover in the trees. The second fact was that they had been here for over an hour and had only spotted two patrols. If there was a static watch post, John had not spotted it during his slow circuit around the Jenkins farm. And third was the fact that the Jenkins family had stuffed the majority of their men into a single large bunkhouse. The noise of men drinking and playing cards could be heard easily from their location. The