Cadet 3 by Commander James Bondage Page B

wearing and slipped into
the more rugged garments.
    Steph, Robin and Merry wordlessly copied her,
stuffing their civilian garb into the duffel bags. Merry dragged
out another metal suitcase from under the last row of seats, this
one containing four partially disassembled M-63 assault rifles. She
distributed parts for three rifles to the others, and the four
women rapidly put together barrel, stock and receiver to make
operable weapons. From another box, she took 20-round magazines of
5.56mm ammunition and handed them around.
    “There’s probably nothing to worry about,”
Merry said as she locked and loaded her weapon. “I mean, Murphy did
say this was an ultra-secret location.”
    “No, probably not, but it can’t hurt to be
prepared,” Jodie agreed. “So, why don’t we find some decent cover,
and set up a secure perimeter?” She pointed. “Steph, you go over
there. Robin, set up behind that fallen trunk on the left, Merry,
work your way through the woods to the right of the trail about
twenty yards, and try to find someplace to take the road under
observation. I’ll go up the other side.” Although she was supposed
to be under the orders of her security detail, Jodie was a born
leader who almost instinctively took command of situations, and the
others responded to her automatically.
    The women moved quickly into position, then
settled down to wait either for the return of their comrades… or a
fight for their lives. With the approach of sunset, the red light
reduced visibility and made the thick woods look as if they had
been bathed in blood. Jodie was on the verge of sending someone to
see what had happened to Murphy and Kate, when the two scouts
suddenly appeared, as if out of nowhere.
    Kate silently gestured for Jodie to go back
down the trail, and she signaled Merry to do the same. Robin and
Step joined the others as soon as they saw the others returning.
The team huddled together in the thicket of shrubs around the
vehicle.
    “Sorry we took so long,” Kate said. “It
looked OK, but something didn’t feel right, so we moved very slowly
and extra carefully.”
    “They had a beautiful set-up,” Murphy said.
“The cabin looks vacant, no cars in sight, no signs of anything, if
you came up the drive to the front door. They have infra-red
detectors, sound detectors, trip-wires and people in position to
pounce as soon as General Lawrence appeared.”
    “Luckily for us they didn’t know about this
back entrance,” Kate said. “All their stuff is pointing the wrong
way.”
    “This still seems like a poor choice as a
campsite,” Jodie said. “I suggest we hop back in the car and put
some distance between us and our friends up there.”
    “General, I think it would be a mistake to
try to go back out to the highway now,” Murphy said. “It’s very
likely they’ll have aerial surveillance covering all the roads
after dark, and the canopy will provide pretty good cover, as long
as we stay in the forest.”
    “OK. What do you suggest?” Jodie asked.
    “The National Forest is huge, and bordered by
more uninhabited woodland,” he said. “My advice would be head west
into the heart of the preserve, find a likely place and set up camp
down there somewhere. They probably don’t know that we came out
here after we left Washington, or the whole area would be swarming
with patrols, with ’copters everywhere. Even if they eventually
begin to suspect that we’re around here, we could make ourselves
almost impossible to find in that wilderness.”
    Jodie considered for a moment, and then said,
“All right. Let’s do it.”
    They eased the SUV out of the shrubs, and
then with the engine off pushed it until it started to roll
silently back down the logging road, starting the engine only after
they were well away from the cabin. They left the road a mile down,
plunging into the forest, navigating by using infrared night vision
goggles. Kate expertly maneuvered the big vehicle across rocks
whenever possible,