Today’s excerpt is from Toboggan,
Book #4 of the nine-book Janitors Series.
C-130 crew introduced. Enjoy and
have a great day.
m.j.
The
buggies they drove off in were two of three they had. All were routinely stored—along with several
other pieces of equipment—aboard the C-130 permanently assigned to them at the
request of the President. The crew of
the C-130 were all Air Force, hand-picked by the plane’s pilot, Lt. Colonel Tim
Scalley. The co-pilot was Lt. Colonel
Wendy Austin, who, while a few months senior to Tim, was only too happy to sit
right seat to him for the Janitor missions.
She, like Tim, was stationed at the Pentagon and they only got a chance
to fly when the Janitors needed them.
Also stationed at the Pentagon was the navigator, Air Force Major Joe
Hrabosky. The remainder of the crew,
engineer Master Sergeant Brent Davidson and loadmasters Chief Master Sergeants
Chet Kovarik and Phil Eckstein, were all too senior for their jobs aboard the
C-130, but had eagerly agreed to join the crew.
They all were now stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, where the
Janitors think tank and berthing facility was located.
The
C-130 was waiting some fifty miles from the terrorist facility, now full of
dead terrorists. The plane had landed in
a short clearing, just long enough to allow landing and take off. The Janitors had driven the remaining
distance to their target.
The
crew had communication sets identical to those worn by the Janitors. When Jim knew they were well within range, he
requested, “Tim, stoke her up. We’re
about back.”
Tim
chuckled. “None too soon.”
Jim
asked, “Why’s that?”
“We
had guests—not very friendly ones.”
“Trouble?”
“You
might say. It’s a good thing you take us
out to the shooting range every so often.
And a damned good thing Wendy and Chet are good shots with your sniper
rifles…and Phil can handle that fifty so well.
He—Phil—pulled the spare dune buggy out to the end of the ramp and set
up shop. Chet drug one of your easy
chairs back to the top of the ramp and Wendy climbed out on the wing. They did most of the damage. I’ll fill you in on the rest when you get
back. For now, I’ll warm her up.”
“See
you in a few.”
On
missions with the Janitors, normal military procedures and protocol were
overlooked, hence the use of first names in Tim’s report to Jim. All the C-130 crewmembers wore special
insignias when working with the Janitors.
Their flight suits had a small embroidered broom attached to the
sleeve. About once a month, the crew and
Janitors got together for target practice, and a very expensive meal later…paid
for by Jim.
During
the Janitors’ absence this night, that training had paid dividends. While the crew waited for the Janitors to
return, Wendy, sitting on her wing, had been the first to spot trouble. Like the Janitors, she and the two
loadmasters were wearing night-vision goggles.
She had spotted a man near the clearing and alerted the others. Then she had quickly flipped up her goggles
and used the sniper rifle’s scope to sight in on the automatic weapon-wielding
visitor.
By
the time the man raised his weapon in the direction of Phil, Chet and Phil had
spotted other men. Wendy calmly squeezed
off a shot, as she had been instructed to do many times by Jim. As soon as she shot, she ordered, “They
aren’t friendly…fire at will.”
There
were six men in total. None lived long
enough to fire a shot. Phil cut loose
with the fifty-caliber machine gun, while Chet and Wendy each managed to hit
another target. By the time Tim, Joe,
and Brent showed up from the cockpit area to help out, they weren’t
needed. While Wendy and Phil covered
them, the other four went into the now well-shredded foliage to check on the
status of their adversaries. All were
dead. Tim shrugged and ordered, “Leave
‘em lay where they died,” and walked back to the plane.
Jim
and the others noticed the carnage to the surrounding jungle as they drove up
the ramp and into the plane. When the
plane was airborne, Jim and the Janitors got the story. Jim’s only comment was, “Well done.” Though he, and the other Janitors did tease Phil about the number of trees
he’d “killed” while using the fifty-caliber machine gun.
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