J. Curtis - Calexit - The Anthology

Damn mud was making me sick, anyway , he thought sourly.

Jen shivered as they rode through the storm. Wet snow stuck to her hair, and it dripped down her neck when it melted. The wind cut into her legs and made her hands numb from the cold. She could see nothing in the pitch black, but Luke seemed to know where they were going. They changed direction often, but she felt gravity pulling her back against his chest, so they must have been going up.

The horse lost its footing every so often, and she could hear hooves on rocks behind them when they were behind something that blocked the storm, but other than that, the only sound was the wind moaning around them.

Finally, they slowed to a stop and she felt Luke climb down from the horse. He took her hand and helped her down, then supported her when her legs started to give out from underneath her. “Easy now,” he said gently. “We’re almost there.”

Mark appeared next to her, and she put her arms around him and shivered.

“We’ll give the horses a rest here for a bit. The lake’s just over that ridge.”

“Lake?” Mark whispered.

“Tahoe. Nevada’s on the other side.”

Andrews pulled to the side of the road and got out of his cruiser. Juan pulled the van in next to him.

“That cabin you showed me is about half a mile further on,” Andrews said through the window after Jackson lowered it. “We can block the road from here.”

“Can’t they drive out the other side?”

“It dead ends about two miles past the cabin, and they’re not going off road in this.” Andrews gestured to the thick snow falling from the dark sky.

Jackson nodded, then opened his door. His men opened the back of the van and stepped out onto the slick gravel.

“All right, leave one of your people here with your truck,” he said to Andrews. “You and the rest of your crew can keep the perimeter while we take down the house.”

“Yep,” Andrews said, then turned to relay the order to the men in the cruiser. One of his deputies got in the driver’s seat, while the other two, bundled up in heavy coats and boots, joined him on the side of the road.

“No radios after this,” Jackson said sternly, “and no lights. We don’t want to warn them.”

“You got it,” the deputy in the SUV replied. “I’ll just make sure nobody comes down the road.”

Jackson and his men followed Andrews and the other two deputies up the snow-covered gravel road. Soon, the night swallowed them up. The deputy in the truck swung his vehicle around to block the road, then tipped his seat back and relaxed.

“They’re leaving the vehicle and getting set up on Target Two,” Schmidt reported as he pointed to the screen at the front of the room.

“Tell Jackson I want prisoners, not bodies. And make sure they bag any computers or phones they find.”

“Yep,” Schmidt replied as he typed the order out on his computer.

After a moment, he turned back to his boss. “No answer from Jackson. Probably no coverage to his phone out there in the boonies.”

Jiminez shrugged. “He can do it without us holding his hand.”

Jackson pulled his night vision goggles down over his eyes once again, then eased up to the small cabin. He heard his men’s feet crunching in the snow to either side of him, then almost fell when his foot caught on a rock the snow and darkness had hidden.

When he reached the building, he pointed to Juan, who placed the muzzle of his shotgun against the lock on the front door. A moment later, the door flew back with a roar, then the man next to Jackson threw in a couple flash bang grenades. When their explosions met the echoes of shotgun’s report, Jackson and his men ran in through the doorway.

Inside, they found a room with a desk, couch, and a pile of clothes. He heard glass breaking as other men came in through the rear entrance, then shouts of “Clear!” rang through the house as his men checked each room.

“Barn’s empty, too!” someone shouted through the shattered back door.

Jackson kicked the couch in frustration. “Call Central and tell them that Target Two is secure, but nobody’s home!” he snarled. Juan pulled a phone from his vest and punched a button.

“No signal,” he said flatly. “We’re too far out.”

“Fuck!” Jackson roared. He thought for a moment, then pointed to Juan. “Get your ass down to the van! We had signal there.”

Juan nodded and trotted out into the storm. Jackson looked around at his men. “Tear this fucking place apart!” he shouted. “Where’s that dickhead from Placerville?”

Andrews and one of his deputies were walking up a fresh trail they had found behind the barn. When he heard explosions and shouting from the house, the sheriff figured it was okay to turn his flashlight on and move in closer. He nodded to his deputy, who turned and shuffled back down the trail.

“Who’s that?” A voice called from the outbuilding.

“It’s Andrews,” he replied. He had to shuffle his feet in the snow to make sure he didn’t trip.

“I’ve got the sheriff out here in the barn,” the man said into the microphone at his throat. “Want me to send him in?” He listened for a moment, then jerked the muzzle of his gun toward the house.

“Boss wants t’see you,” he said. He shined the bright light slung under his weapon out into the woods. “You see anything out there?”

“Nope,” Andrews replied as he walked across the barn. “I’ve got my guys checking to see if they can see anything now.”

“ Chenga !” Jiminez shouted at the ceiling. “How the fuck did they get away?”

“Jackson says that one of the outbuildings is a barn, so they might have gotten out on horses,” Schmidt replied. He tried hard to not cringe at his boss’s tone.

“Get the goddamn Chinese on the line,” Jiminez snapped, pointing to Sadana. “I want that drone back.”

Sadana chatted back and forth with the Chinese operator at the air base in Fairfield, then set her jaw before swiveling back toward Jiminez. “They say they can’t do it. The drone we had before is out for service and we don’t have enough credit in our account to get another one.”

Jiminez considered throwing his coffee cup at the woman, but instead turned to Schmidt. “Get some helicopters up there and find them!” he shouted. “They can’t have gotten far!”

Jen and Mark were huddled together under a rough blanket while Luke and Ted took care of the horses. Mark had tried to help, but after a few fumbled attempts at getting a saddle off in the dim, red light of a flashlight, Ted had gently suggested he take care of his wife.

“Almost there, sweetheart,” Mark said quietly. “Just gotta get across the lake.”

Ted watched grimly as his father set the horses loose. They had fed them as much as they would take and rubbed them down so they wouldn’t get cold from the sweat under their saddles, but that was all they could do for them.

“Hope somebody takes them in.”

Luke nodded. “There’re folks who’ll be on the lookout for them,” he replied. “If they find them, they’ll take care of ’em.”

He turned to their charges. “Time to get going again if we want to be across the lake by dawn.” They loaded their things on their backs and trudged into the snow. It was slow going, but the lights of the border crossing to their right kept getting brighter as they climbed the last ridge. Finally, just when Jen’s legs threatened to go out from underneath her, they crested a hill and saw the lake below them.