Reboot

William and Dutch were sitting quietly around a table with Rourke looking at a map of Veneta with the walls drawn on it in red crayon.

“Crayon?” asked Rourke.

“Helps me think. What do you have against crayon?” He was cranky. Robert was in jail.

“Not a thing. It’s a very nice drawing. Keep going please.” He patted William’s back.

Dutch smiled. William was unfazed and focused. “They’ll be expecting us. We’ll need a pretty good diversion.”

“I have an idea,” said Dutch.

And William and Dutch both blurted out together: “The Helicopter.”

“Scuse me?” went Rourke. Dutch smiled. “What, don’t you also have a helicopter?”

It was Rourke’s time to laugh. “Boy, you guys are fun to be around. Where is this bird?”

“Just a couple of miles outside of town,” said William.

“How do we use it?”

“Well they won’t be expecting it, so we use it for shock and awe, a distraction, blow something up, then you two can go get our boy. Simple,” said Dutch.

“Ah,” added Rourke. “Well if it’s going to be simple, I might as well bring a date.”

“Please.” William was in no mood.

“Don’t worry William, we’ll get him out, and you know it.” Rourke tried to comfort him.

“Yeah. Well, you know, much can and often does go wrong on these things. So let’s get it right,” said William wringing his hands. “That boy is our responsibility.”

“Ok, let’s just make sure it all goes well then. We’ll have to be careful. Don’t want a firefight. Too many people. So a quiet in n out,” said Dutch. “After blowing everything up.”

Rourke debated with himself whether a joke at this point might be overdoing it, and he ended up staying quiet, biting his lip. He liked these guys, and their loyalty to Robert was refreshing. Not something you see very often.

“What do we blow up? There will be civilians everywhere,” he continued.

“The guard towers,” said William seriously as he pointed on his drawing. “Here, here and here. Agreed?”

The others nodded.

_________________

They had to move fast to maximise the element of surprise. After a short night’s sleep in the car, they got out just near the helo before dawn. The sun was coming up as they walked toward the aircraft. They’d need to whole day to prep. Rourke left without a word to get in position and Dutch and William began servicing the helo to make sure it was in tip top flying condition. That meant a serious mechanical check up which would take a large part of the day. So the rescue was scheduled for 6am the next day. Three days into the five-day limit.

Dutch asked William, “What do you think of this guy, Rourke? He didn’t have to help us, but he didn’t even hesitate.”

“He’s good. I like him. I also think it says something about Robert, doesn’t it.”

“Yes. It does.” William and Dutch smiled, and they went to work uncovering the helo from the camouflage. When they were done with that, Dutch tested the engine and it started at the very first try. But just to make sure it would start when it was needed, they set about giving the machine a complete tune up.

Meanwhile, Rourke surveyed Veneta. He knew the layout. It was basically a big circle with a ten-kilometer wall around it, with towers every two hundred meters. He walked around it making drawings and taking notes, pausing at each tower, studying the wall. Where were the blind spots, who was sleeping on duty. Etc. When he was finished, he sat down and rested. The remainder of the work would have to be done under cover of darkness. He fell asleep.

Rourke woke up two hours later at dusk. A bug was crawling down his neck. He squished it against a tree without taking away his binoculars from his eyes as he was looking at the nearest tower. The guards had been changed. These were no longer just citizens, these new men were professionals. He could tell not only by the way they were dressed, but by how straight they stood. It didn’t change anything, however. The job was the same, but it made him twitch a bit. He’d be doubly careful. There was a blind spot right in the middle in between each tower and also underneath each of them. So his approach would be at a point equidistant from two towers manned by soldiers he judged to be more careless than the others, and he’d then hug the wall until he was underneath the first tower. He was completely camouflaged. You could walk right next to him and not see him. Rourke was an uninteresting bush.

He figured that the guards must have night vision goggles so he was very careful. It took him sixty minutes to crawl a hundred meters. Another twenty minutes of hugging the wall until finally he was in position. Now he could move freely. No one could see him. He positioned his first bomb efficiently before moving slowly on to the next tower. He set three bombs like this and when he was done, he crawled back to the woods, where he fell asleep again. He had three hours before the fun began.