Desperado (Murphy's Lawless: Watch the Skies Book 2), Kevin Ikenberry [reading the story of the txt] 📗

But from whom? The arrangement made little sense unless the warlords had a history of squabbling over territory as resources became more scarce.

Gaining more intelligence on the cache site was going to be difficult. She considered asking some other women to follow her and see what they could discover on the far side of the tunnel. Yet Aliza realized they probably wouldn’t know what they were looking at. The collection of technologies and equipment was old and varied. Maybe some of the women had seen similar things before, but most of them likely had not.

But right now, coming up with more intelligence gathering strategies was of secondary importance. What mattered was reporting what she’d seen in as much detail as possible. And that meant remaining innocuous until her call-in to Bo.

* * * * *

Chapter Five

Assembly Area

Bo turned off the PRC-77 radio and sat rubbing his hands together for a long moment. He abruptly discovered his mood had changed now that the mission was about to launch. Since his time as a second lieutenant, he’d known that he focused almost solely on one or two aspects of his life during times of stress. As he’d experienced with Sharron, that was often a detriment as it turned his struggles to express his feelings into total paralysis.

But right now, he was glad for the benefits of that focus. During, and then after, the long ride back from top of the plateau, his mind had been purely on the impending attack. All he’d needed was the intelligence from Aliza to crystallize the various scenarios running through his head…and she’d certainly delivered.

Her account of the vast tunnel complex underneath the city, part of which stretched just over a klick to a hidden cache site on the north side of the plateau, shed new light on the overall situation.

During their week-long observation, his reconnaissance teams had seen and studied seventeen caravans that entered the outer town itself. By Bo’s estimate, that put the strength of the forces inside the town at roughly two thousand—a full ten percent of the town’s population—and it was growing. They had several types of heavier weapons systems, but their vehicles did not appear to have the same type of armaments or capabilities as the ones under Bo’s command. From what they could tell, the Outer City also contained locations where small teams of men casually parked and secured vehicles. There were openings and possibilities. For a maneuver commander, the situation in Imsurmik was ripe for the picking.

But it needed a coherent, finalized plan. To use Murphy’s baseball analogy, it was getting late in the game and the score was tied. All too soon, they would have the information they needed and could move forward. Much of that relied on Aliza’s ability to remain safe inside the town and find the persons of interest. Catching the enemy by surprise didn’t appear to be a major issue. With that factor tentatively under control, the more critical aspect of mission analysis and planning came down to what the enemy might do in response to an attack.

In their first engagement, the J’Stull reacted poorly when surprised by Bo’s makeshift cavalry. They’d crossed each other’s fields of fire, committed fratricide in considerable numbers, and pretty much surrendered the initiative upon contact. Undoubtedly, the J’Stull now knew there was someone out there, but because the enemy didn’t understand Bo’s forces or their intent, surprise was still within his grasp. However, if this batch of enemy forces were better disciplined and trained, they could hold a town the size of Imsurmik for an almost indefinite period.

However, Aliza’s intelligence had given him options and opportunities he hadn’t had before. While a full-frontal attack was less than optimal in this situation, the discovery of the hidden cache site was also the discovery of a weakness. A credible attack upon it might be a decisive diversion, provided what Aliza had found was valuable enough to the enemy that they would defend it in force. Given the vehicles, the guards, and the presence of heavy weapons on the wall, Bo believed they would.

Sitting atop his familiar perch looking over the valley, Bo drew in the dirt at his side with one finger, running through different scenarios in an attempt to play out what the enemy might do. The soft crunch of approaching boots caught his attention, and he looked over his shoulder.

“Just me, sir,” Lieutenant Stewart replied.

“Come on up,” Bo replied.

The two hadn’t had a chance to talk since the long reconnaissance ride. Bo dusted his hands off on his knees as Stewart sat down beside him.

“You look pretty deep in thought, sir. Everything all right?”

At that moment, Bo was glad he was sitting in the dark. Otherwise, the young officer would’ve seen him flush. He’d been told many times early in his career that he wore his emotions on his sleeve. He’d gotten better at hiding them, so much so that Sharron had occasionally called him a robot. With Aliza, though, the emotional response was much more evident. Try as he might, it was hard to conceal exactly how he felt for the young woman. He knew that came across to his troopers as clear as day.

“Everything’s fine,” Bo replied. “Just tryin’ to figure out what to do next.”

“The colonel changed our mission?” Stewart asked.

“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just a much bigger target than we thought. And if we don’t get the intelligence we need to attack soon, there could be more enemy forces than we can deal with, much less chase off. Fire and maneuver only go so far.”

Stewart said nothing for a couple of moments as the two of them stared across the valley at the glowing lights of the town. Finally, the young officer asked, “What did Lieutenant Turan find?”

Bo reviewed the key points of Aliza’s report with