Reinke Faces Life

It happened in Church – October 19, 1962
Chapter Seventy Seven – Into the tunnel

Monday 19 Nov (begins)

June’s night

When she heard what John had in store for Roy. She immediately got to work; she gather some willing youngsters and they began slicing sheets to ribbons. There were three ideas.

One was in his haste to retreat in the tunnel Roy might become confused and miss “his stop” at Dyckman. June had a “rope” constructed that would be chest high and transverse the track area.

The other one was that in the tunnel under pressure, he might become disoriented and go the wrong way. For that, she planned to ‘armband’ every beam supporting the roof with the knot facing the way out.

Finally, he might need a ‘rope’ for some purpose.

And, he might need some help carrying supplies for his multiday holiday.

She had a lot of willing volunteers. More than she needed. She had the youngsters sort it out to ten. They came up with a one potato two as the preferred method. Although there was substantial support for rocks, paper, scissors.

In about two hours, the group had reduced stacks of sheets into rags. June sent the ten primary and five backup to sleep with the admonition to be back at 4am or lose their place in the ‘adventure team’.

Everyone would carry extra, mark the way going, accompany Roy to his spot, and use the marks to get home. There was some risk, but June thought it minimal.

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Patrol Out

0400 The best hour! Brother Kevin was up.

So were a host of other people. Roy and Jody. John and Marie. A slew of little people all carrying bundles.

Brother Kevin pulled the Lurp together and TomT. Someone had the explosives on the spare hunting cart lashed to a bike. Everyone was ‘mounted’. They’d pedal through the tunnels to 145th and then make their way back to 158th. Brother Kevin didn’t like the lay of the land at the Hospital. It was basically a ravine and could be a channel to a slaughter. At 145th, the terrain was a hillside. With parallel streets. Much more flexible. Besides the extra distance was nought. They had some ‘porters’ to carry the explosives once they had to abandon the bikes. And some spare ‘porters’ for relief. It shouldn’t explode if it was dropped, but Brother Kevin didn’t want to test that promise because some one was tired.

Roy had been planning to go by himself. Plans change. He had Jody, June and a bunch of munchkins, and a Short Leg security team to escort him to his ‘lair’. He kept thinking ‘final resting place’. June had her army already moving to the train station.

John was the most cheerfully morose. Cheerfully putting a happy face on what he had done. Morose because he knew how risky this was. Roy took him to the side and said quietly: “John, whatever happens, this makes sense. We’ve been lucky and lets not dwell on what happens if the luck starts to change. I take solace in the fact that the Bravo Golfs haven’t been very good soldiers to date. That and my faith that you’ll take us all to Vermont.” John shook his head: “I should be going not you.” “Don’t be silly. You have your stuff to do. This is mine. Don’t you dare waste a second worry about me. I’m a big boy. I know the risks. You tend to your knitting and let me tend to mine.” John gave Roy a quick male bonding hug. And walked away. John felt it was 80/20 he wouldn’t see him again. One alert Bravo Golf or one mistake with the ‘boom boxes’ and it could be all over.

Roy said to TomT: “I’ll see you are the subway grate. If I’m late, tape it off to the grate and get out of there.”

Brother Kevin lead his patrol off to the tunnel and Roy ran to catch up to June and Jody. They were already in the subway.

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Decorating Underground

The old sheets from the Library raid were still there and undisturbed. June had a small team rigging the ‘stop sign’ across the tracks. The lucky ten ‘armbanders ‘ were tying up every other stanchion. It was fast work. But there was two miles to do. June figured thirty minutes. She stayed with them.

Roy, Jody, the porters, and the security team move swiftly ahead. They really were not considering trouble given the hour and darkness. Roy was on point and at it was amazing how the human eye could adapt to the dark. The air ventilation grates cave off a ‘light’ in the sense that it wasn’t ‘cavern darkness’. Trips and stumbles were relatively rare as folks were really concentrating.

At the 158th station, (Roy was counting), flashlights confirmed the station identification. From Brother Kevin’s description, it was easy to identify that the market was in the plaza. Where in the plaza relative to the grates was another issue. Roy spent some times looking to find the right place. When he located it, he pushed an end of June’s rope up through the grate. He laid out the antenna wire and attached it to the great.

He coded: ‘ground hog in den’ ‘little goose’.

Jody and the security team were planning to wait until the explosive was set and the waiting began before they pulled out. If something bad was going to happen prematurely, Jody wanted to be with her man. If she didn’t have other duties that depended upon her, she’d have stayed.

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End of line

Brother Kevin and crew were down to the end of the second tunnel. Security was left at the end of each of the two legs. No sense allowing oneself to walk back into an ambush. Even though the Bravo Golfs had shown no interest or ability to do such, he wasn’t going to relax.

Everyone waited patiently for Roy to get into position. Brother Kevin heard the signal. He waved Lurp out in their two by two cover formation and they were moving briskly. Brother Kevin led the portage team out a few minutes later.

Across 145th, to Broadway. Left on Broadway to 159th street. Everyone went to ground in a looted storefront. There was no doubt they were deep into injun country.

Brother Kevin and TomT, each carrying an explosive, started for the 158th intersection. They were really hanging out all by themselves.

Brother Kevin paused by the corner. His sixth sense was holding him there. He signaled TomT to wait.

He smelled it before he could see it.

Cigarette smoke.

They were not alone.

There was a fellow smoking in the doorway right by where they had to pass. Was he a sentry malingering? Or just poor soul. Brother Kevin said a quick ejaculation and crept ahead. It was dark. Hopefully dark enough. Another smell hit him. Body odor. Homeless? He was very close. Rifle butt like a club, Brother Kevin lashed out. Heel of rifle to chin. Just like in basic. The cigarette rolled from the unconscious man’s hand.

Now how to cover up? Brother Kevin searched in the man’s pockets — cigarettes, money, and keys. He took it all. Just like a mugging. And the fellow’s coat, he was using as a pillow.

He waved TomT forward and they proceeded to the rear corner of the bleachers. TomT slipped under and placed one explosive at each end. Attaching the wire, he coiled it around the frame and spooled it out to the grate. As quiet as he could, he tapped the the metal spool to the grate. Three times total.

Roy heard the noise and went to the grate. Silently he stuck a single finger up. TomT put the wire over it and held the spool loosely. In seconds, the wire began to pay out. Shortly in real time, forever in TomT’s time, the roll out stopped. A firm tug was felt on the wire. TomT envisioned Roy cutting it. There were then three tugs on the wire and TomT started rolloing it up. It rolled freely; there was nothing holding it. TomT headed for the exits.

Brother Kevin stopped him. Whispering “Take coat to cover wire and what about the safeties?”. TomT dropped the coat on the wire and hustled back to pull a tab out of each pack. Put them in his pocket. Now any attempt to cut the wire from the detonator or move them would explode them. This was the most dangerous time.TomT wasted no time “Getting out of Dodge”. Brother Kevin was close behind.

Lurp followed them to the bikes. And they pedalled for all they were worth. They were on their way “home”.

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Roy’s wired

TomT’s wire was pulled to the detonator. Roy cut the wire and stripped the wire ends. He waited five minutes for TomT to clear the area and then put the wire end through the connector and screwed the wire nuts down over it. It was ready to go boom!

He said to Jody: “It’s time. You need to get back and do your thing. I’m OK and will be OK. I’ll see you at the depot in a few days and we’ll be on our way to Vermont. I ran the wire an extra 100 feet. The first sign, that it or I am discovered, and up she goes. And, I’m headed out.” Jody was a strong girl. But this was her man. “OKAY, but don’t be late.” They hugged and she marched off like a trooper. June, whose armbanding crew had finished, was waiting to walk with her.

In the dark, no one could see Jody’s tears. But, June was an empathic, she didn’t need to see. She just held Jody’s hand, willing peace to flow thru their bond.

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Twin’s wake up

The twins awoke to find both parental replacement units waiting for their needs. The feeding unit was quickly pumping. The changing unit was quickly engaged. The twins felt concern, but not a threat. They attempted to ‘happy’ up the service units with gurgling and laughter. With some modest success.

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Bfast

Krats everywhere. Somber. One of their own was hanging out and a risk. No one was happy.

June sought out John. “John, us sitting here isn’t going to do much good. I suggest we move to the North Mobile site and begin recovery. If Thursday is your target, then we can’t afford to sit around and wait til tomorrow to move. I’d suggest leave Brother Kevin and team here and we move. Let’s not miss your target because we wasted time. We haven’t seen a Bravo Golf any time lately. We need to take a little more risk and stay on schedule.” John thought about it. He wanted Brother Kevin’s opinion. “Let’s find out if Brother Kevin will sign up for that risk?” “OK”

‘father goose needs head lurp’

Brother Kevin came in minutes. June explained the problem. John asked: “You feel OK hanging out here till tomorrow while we move on?” “Sure!” John was concerned that everyone was just blithely agreeing with him to be agreeable. “June, Brother Kevin, I feel like I am talking people into stuff. I can’t tell what you really think is good or bad. So, I need absolute honesty. I am perfectly prepared to stall here until tomorrow and rush the recovery people soLURP has the benefit of the cover. If you tell me it’s not needed, then I’ll move. But it is a risk. True we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the Bravo Golf, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t. So it’s your call.” Brother Kevin realizing that he was playing poker with other people’s chips, said: “Give me fifteen minutes to poll the group. Everyone has to agree.” “Good enough!”

He played with the twins while he was waiting.

Brother Kevin was back in less than 10. “Go ahead and move. We’ll be fine.”

“You heard the man, June, let’s get saddled up.”

“Since we are moving, I’d like to start by moving half folks out now to go by the school and get cleaned up. After we move, I’d like the other half to go back and get the same.”

John said “Fine.”

Marie chimed in: “And which group will his nibbs be joining. You’re getting a little ripe.”

Everyone laughed.

Funny how we can’t smell ourselves.

John was stunned. They had their assumptions all wrong. They had designed this plan for the staffing level they had originally. They never formally revised it when the Guests came. He was sick. Some leader he was.

“OK, we’ve made a big mistake. We are making this harder on ourselves than we have to. Back to the school and replan from scratch. Brother Kevin, you have to get some sleep. I still need you to place the explosives at Bravo Golf HQ. Little goose, call the base and tell them we’re stopping by for lunch. Nothing like uninvited guests.”

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In the dark

Roy moved up towards the grate. He could hear the noise. He was very tempted to sneak a peak. But, he stayed on mission.

(Good thing he did!)

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