Glen Tate - 299 Days - The 17th Irregulars

“Affirmative,” Ted said. “When I say that Pierce Point needs to be secure, I mean it.”

Rich and Dan weren’t sure that their people wouldn’t get poached, but all they could do was lay down the rules and hope Ted and Sap would follow them.

“How are you going to train a hundred fighters in secret?” Rich asked.

“A very fair question,” Ted said. “Before I answer that, I want to remind everyone that these kinds of issues—locals retaining control over their people, training in secret—are exactly what Special Forces does. My people have done this for decades all over the world. We’ve come up with some methods of making this work and spend a lot of time sharing what we have learned with each other, because if it doesn’t work, we die. You guys will benefit from what we’ve learned.”

“The precise answer to your question,” Ted continued, “depends on the facilities we have here and whether the people out here are down with the program. If we have secluded facilities and the local population supports us, we can keep this secret.”

“Hey, wait,” Rich interrupted. “I almost forgot something.”

“What?” Sap asked.

“The Marines,” Rich said. That got everyone’s attention.

“I told the cops in town,” Rich continued, “that we had about fifty Marines and some ex-military contractors living out here. I told them that so they wouldn’t try to mess with us. When we go into town to get FCard food, we keep up the appearance of having the Marines. I have some military-looking guards go into town and make vague references to the ‘Corps’ around the Blue Ribbon Boys. I’m sure that rumor has gotten out by now.”

“So,” Rich went on, “we say to our residents, if they notice a secret group of people living out here, that they are the Marines and ex-contractors. We can tell our people that we’re just keeping up the appearance of having the Marines.”

Chip wasn’t so sure the fifty Marines thing would work. He said, “There will be some people here who see the irregulars, who are all strangers, and will ask, ‘I thought the fifty Marines were made up.’ We need a second explanation.”

“I got it,” Grant said and clapped his hand. “How about we tell the residents that we are training a few people out here? As undercover cops to go fight corruption and the gangs, and that they are some special government police force.”

It sounded hokey, really hokey. There was no real government, and what little government existed was corrupt and working with the gangs. And no one would think Grant would be working the government.

“Well,” Chip said, “I’m not sure anyone would believe the undercover cops story, but all we need is a counter rumor to throw out there. Just to get people saying, ‘No, I heard it was a special undercover police force. Maybe the FBI.’ As long as the rumor isn’t ‘Some Special Forces guys are training guerillas,’ then that’s good enough.”

Marines and contractors, Grant thought.

“Hey,” Grant said enthusiastically. “I’ve got an idea.”

“What about a ‘rental team’?” Grant said.

“A ‘rental team,’” He repeated, letting that sink in. “We’ll say that we, the Team, are training up a second team.” People looked puzzled.

Grant smiled and continued. “Pierce Point will rent out the second team to a neighboring community in exchange for food and gas. They’ll be a rental team.”

Grant looked at Ted and grinned. “This will explain all the increasingly large food and other supplies the Patriots will be sending out here, right?”

Ted chuckled. Already, Grant was leveraging Ted for more supplies. That was what a good leader does for his men, and Ted respected that.

“Here’s what we’ll tell need-to-know people in Pierce Point,” Grant said. “The rental team will be working to guard some neighboring community’s crops and livestock, stored food, and their people, of course. We have to keep the training secret, we’ll tell people, because the community hiring the rental team doesn’t want people to know they have food worthy of guarding. Also, the Loyalists might get uptight about a second group of well-armed men out here. And we can say that we are keeping the ‘rental team’ secret because we don’t want the gangs in Frederickson or anywhere else to know we got guys with valuable guns out here. Whaddya think?”

Ted had been smiling as Grant first started describing the idea. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to have a lawyer out there. He never thought he’d say that. But then again, lawyers were trained in deception. Ted’s ex-wife’s lawyer was a good example of that.

“Fabulous idea,” Ted said before anyone else could.

“Very nice,” Sap said. He was kicking himself that he hadn’t thought of it.

Ted, wanting to give Rich the respect he deserved as the de facto leader out at Pierce Point, said to him, “Sound good to you, Rich?”

Rich nodded and said with a grin, “It’ll work just fine. It covers all the bases: a reason for the secrecy, an explanation for why strangers are here, and an incentive for Pierce Point to have them out here and to keep quiet about it. I love it.”

“Oh yeah,” Rich said. Not wanting to leave Dan out, he said, “Whaddya think, Dan?”

“Works for me,” Dan answered. Dan was understating himself. It more than worked for him; he thought it was brilliant.

“OK, then, we have a cover story for Pierce Point’s guerilla unit,” Ted said. “By the way, I’m going to bring that cover story back to HQ and suggest we use it elsewhere. I’d like you to come with me, Grant, and meet some people.”

Grant felt a rush of enthusiasm and pride. Ted wants me to come to HQ?

“Hell, yes,” Grant blurted out, just like the excited little boy he was at that moment.

Ted smiled and said, “That way you can correct me if I start to take credit for this idea.” Of course, Ted really wanted to get Grant out to Boston Harbor, have all the brass tell Grant how wonderful he was, and then have Grant commit to the unique mission they were planning to ask Grant to undertake.

“I’ll keep you honest,” Grant said. He knew he was being wooed to get him even more firmly committed, and to get Pierce Point’s support. He didn’t care. He wanted to do it. He knew this was part of the plan for what he was supposed to do. He was getting that weird feeling again where he could see the pathway of what the future held. Not all the details, just the basic pathway. He knew he was supposed to do this.

With the cover story taken care of, they moved onto the next big topic.

“What kind of facilities have you got out here that we could use?” Sap asked. A long discussion ensued between Rich and Dan about some of the local properties. They settled on the Marion Farm. Grant laughed out loud when he heard the name. He thought of Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox” in the Revolutionary War who led rebels against the British and hoped to replicate that.

The Marion Farm was a recently abandoned farm in one of the most remote parts of Pierce Point. It was near the very end of Peterson Inlet so there was a beach landing about a quarter mile from the property. The farm had been foreclosed on about two years earlier, but Ken Dolphson, the realtor, told Rich that he was still trying to sell it and that it still had electrical and water service. The utility companies weren’t even trying to shut off service anymore, which was a blessing. All the livestock and crops were gone, but the farmhouse and a big barn remained. There was a large machine shop and several outbuildings. It didn’t look very pretty after two years of abandonment, but that was actually good. No one would think anyone would be living there.