Читать книгу Uprising - Douglas L. Bland - Страница 11

DAY ONE

Sunday, August 29

Sunday, August 29, 2345 hours

On the Ottawa River, west of Petawawa

Alex cut the outboard motor and let his small boat drift into the dark, shallow bay of the island in the middle of the Ottawa River. One by one, the other five aluminum fishing boats of his makeshift raiding party pulled in near him. The boats were painted mud brown, their motors muffled by burlap covers. His party’s weapons, as yet unloaded, were also covered, to avoid clattering against the metal hulls.

The current, always strong in the upper reaches of the Ottawa, tugged at the boats, threatening to pull them back into midstream. Luckily the crews had learned enough from their numerous rehearsals to jockey the boats into the planned order and keep them there for the next dangerous leg across the broad river and onto the beach at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. Well, that’s already something, Alex thought.

Twice he flicked his red-shaded flashlight, signalling the helmsmen to shut down their outboard motors in unison – the better to camouflage their number from curious ears. Another instruction remembered and carried out properly, even with the adrenaline pumping. That was good, because things were about to get a lot more complicated.

The boats had all been loaded according to his careful instructions. Backpacks, carrying-boards for heavy loads, first-aid kits, and an assortment of straps, ropes, wires, and cutting tools – “a place for everything and everything in its place,” as his old Airborne platoon sergeant had never tired of reminding him. But the crews tonight – seven per boat, a helmsman and six carriers – though they styled themselves “warriors,” did not have the experience of his old sergeant. Their description of themselves was in fact a wild exaggeration, for his troop was in reality a motley, inexperienced, mostly young, gang of natives.

They certainly weren’t soldiers. Alex had shaped their enthusiasm as best he could over the past six weeks, and he figured if all went well they could at least keep some discipline on the march from the beach to the target and back again. Now he watched through the darkness as they unbundled their assorted rifles, shotguns, and the one automatic weapon picked up from “the merchant” at Akwesasne. The helmsmen checked the readiness of their boats and each then flashed two red signals back to Alex.

“So it begins,” he muttered to himself. He knew that other raids were under way across the country, although he knew none of the details of any of them. For Alex and his team, what they were about to do in Petawawa was the only mission that counted.

* * *

Across the river, on Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, Military Police Corporal Joan Newman tried not to spill a lukewarm cup of instant coffee on her way to her patrol car. Join the Armed Forces, she thought bitterly. See the world. Yeah, well, they didn’t mention the part about marrying a warrant officer who’d come back from Africa with a drinking problem. Or aiming for the paratroops and winding up a military policeman instead.

Now divorced, Joan was looking at spending the remaining four exciting years of her current enrolment patrolling half-empty bases on dark, lonely nights. And drinking too much while wondering what … Damn! She had spilled her coffee. No time to change her green military sweater either. Her boss was a real stickler for keeping to the regular patrol schedule, even though she, and no doubt other MPs, had pointed out it just made things more predictable for anybody up to anything worse than the occasional drunken fist fight. Not that anybody ever was. As she got into the car, Joan told herself for the hundredth time that this was not the life she’d planned for herself.

* * *

Alexander Gabriel, full-blood Algonquin (so his grandfather insisted), was born on the Golden Lake Reserve near Eganville, Ontario. Other kids on the reserve had made fun of him because he did well in school. When he turned eighteen, he enlisted in the army as an infantry officer cadet, partly for the adventure, partly to get away from the life the other reserve kids were heading for, and partly because he was in awe of his Uncle Simon’s heroic and much-honoured service in Korea. Alex was sent to Royal Military College at Kingston to serve Canada; however, he promised his grandfather he would remain true to his people’s traditions.

Unfortunately, he had quickly come to realize that there was little room for his native traditions in the army or anywhere else outside the reserve. When his classmates at “the zoo,” as cadets refer to RMC, called him “chief” or “moccasin,” they said they meant nothing by it. Yeah, right. They didn’t single out other guys with racially based kinds of nicknames.

Even so, Alex liked military life and found he was good at it. After graduation, he advanced quickly from lieutenant to captain. Captain Alex Gabriel was marked by his superiors and peers as “a bright star” and a “streamer,” a fast-rising infantry officer. His outstanding record won him a position in the new Special Service Regiment when it was established as part of the elite Canadian Special Operations Force Command.

Others had noted his rise also, and Alex could still remember the meeting when he had begun to see that the promising career the army seemed to be offering him might not be what he really wanted. It had happened a year or so after he had joined his unit. Alex arrived home on leave to find his grandfather waiting for him in his small cottage. To his surprise, three middle-aged men, all natives, were sitting quietly around the wooden table in his kitchen. Alex recognized one of them, a local chief from a nation across the Ottawa River.

“These elders would like to speak with you, Alex,” said his grandfather. “I’m going fishing, so you can talk and I’ll see you for supper. You’re a good boy, Alex. You do what you think is best for the people.” He turned and walked out the door before Alex could answer.

Without introduction, the chief beckoned Alex to a chair at the table. “Alex,” he began, “I’ll be brief. We represent a nation-wide first nations organization which I am sure you’ve never heard of before today. We’re not from those guys who sit around Ottawa talking and not acting. Alex, we believe that the aboriginal people in Canada are a nation, not many nations, but one nation. We’re not Canadians and we don’t want to be Canadians. We don’t want to be partners with people who stole our land and broke every treaty our ancestors made with them.

“If we want to be a nation, Alex, we have to start acting like a nation. That means we have to build the parts, the structure, of a real, modern nation. Otherwise, we’ll remain a simple gathering, an ineffective assembly of nations. One of the most important parts of this new nation is its army.

“I won’t go into detail this afternoon, Alex, but we wanted to let you know that we have been reaching out to our brothers and sisters in the Canadian army, and will continue to do so, to let them know that there is another way, a way to serve the people.” He pushed a small envelope across the table to Alex. “Inside the envelope you’ll find a contact number, and the address for a website. If you want to talk, just follow the signs.

“We don’t expect any commitment from you now or even soon, but we may be in touch someday in the future. You’re a proven leader, Alex, and a trained officer. The people are going to need you some day. Things can’t continue as they are – a disorganized leadership without any long-term aims and our young folk falling under the influence of gangs and criminals. Only independence, real independence, not BS rhetoric from the Ottawa Indians, will get the people their land and rightful inheritance. You think about it, Alex. Think hard about who you are and who you should be. Then, when the day comes, Alex, you’ll know what to do, and your choice will be clear and obvious.”

Without another word, the men stood up, walked out the door to their truck, and drove away. Alex did think about it. And though he tried to dismiss the chief and the meeting, he knew from that day on, from deep inside his spirit, that one day he would have to a make a choice between his attachment to his people and the army life he loved.

That day rushed at Alex after what the government called “an unfortunate incident,” a sloppily violent police reaction to the June Days of Protest across the country.

An incident involving pushing and shoving along some train tracks in southern Manitoba turned nasty, and caused a riot between enraged natives and an outnumbered, frightened, and poorly trained RCMP detachment. Constables Thomas Scott and Susan Lachapelle had panicked, and in a flash four native “warriors” and two teenagers they were using as shields were dead. When on-site CBC reports, inaccurately as it turned out, suggested government complicity in the police shooting, riots and violent incidents erupted elsewhere. In several locations in the East and West, informal native leaders, who elected officials of the aboriginal community described as “hot-headed radicals,” used the events as an excuse to attack transportation and infrastructure facilities across the country. Thus began the spontaneous, and now infamous, August Week of Protests, the worst civil unrest in Canadian history.

The escalating native protests that followed were brutally attacked by local police and army militia units. But when the Special Service Regiment was called up in mid-July, “in aid of the civil powers,” to maintain good order on the railway system between Toronto and Montreal, it was clear to Alex from his commanding officer’s orders that the army was “headed for a final showdown with native protesters and whether they were armed or unarmed didn’t matter.” Alex knew then that he had no choices left. Reluctantly, he searched through his letters and papers and dug out the envelope the chiefs had left him at the end of the meeting in his grandfather’s cabin. One day soon afterwards, he simply drove out the front gate at Base Petawawa and went home, taking his kit and weapons with him.

Now he was here. Returning to the base on a very different mission than the army had trained him for.

Sunday, August 29, 2345 hours

Canadian Forces Base Halifax

Inside the little guard’s hut at the Canadian Forces Base Halifax ammunition compound, Fred McTavish leafed eagerly through his sports fisherman’s catalogue. Page after page of sleek, shiny, aluminum boats, and on page twenty-two, the one he wanted: padded bow seats, whisper-quiet, four-stroke, fifteen-horsepower outboard motor, trailer, and everything. Oh sure, it would cost a bundle. But a man’s entitled. Hadn’t he worked hard all his life, done his tour of duty, worked in the shipyards, found other work when the yards shut down, paid his taxes, brought his paycheque home, and raised two honest kids?

“You bet I’m entitled,” he told himself. “Three more months, just three more months, and I’ll be hitting the lake in that shiny beauty.”

His boys had moved away two years ago to go to university in Toronto and Calgary, but when Dennis was home last winter during reading week, he had told him, “Dad, you buy that boat. I’ll be back in the summer and we’ll go fishing every day for a week.” That’ll be nice, Fred thought.

The sudden roar of fast motors from two pickup trucks startled Fred. “What the hell are those jerks doing speeding up to the depot gate on a Sunday at this time of night? Must be lost.” He reached for his flashlight and stepped out the door. Peering into the darkness, he watched the two pickup trucks coming down the road towards the gate. They were driving way too fast. “Stupid bastards!” Fred told himself. He flicked on his flashlight to wave them down. The lead truck slowed, then veered toward him and suddenly accelerated again. The collision crushed Fred’s rib-cage and sent him flying backward into the doorway, rocking the table inside the guardhouse. The boat catalogue fluttered to the floor. Fred died, slumped sideways, half-sitting against the wall outside the little hut.

Sunday, August 29, 2359 hours

On the Ottawa River, west of Petawawa

Annie Connor, the helmsman and commander of the boats once the teams landed on the beach, nudged Alex Gabriel’s arm. “We’re ready,” she whispered. She wasn’t the chatty type and Alex liked that. She was twenty-three, quick-witted, and assertive; a natural leader. If the warriors hadn’t elected her third-in-command, he would have put her into that position himself.

Alex fumbled briefly, reached over the side, cupped his hands, and splashed cold water onto his face. He checked his watch, then turned towards the invisible faces he knew were waiting for his order to go.

One red flash, a pause, then another flash. The motors raced briefly then dropped together to idling speed. Alex nosed his boat into the current, setting a course that would carry his little fleet north and clear of the rocky island upriver from Indian Point on the west shore. He swung west into the open river, calm on this windless night, and, guided by the intermittent flash of the base airfield’s revolving beacon, headed towards “the officers’ beach.”

Petawawa, lit up against the dark southwestern sky, wasn’t hard to find. It was as quiet as one would expect in the very first hours of a Monday morning in late August. Alex and the Central Committee that had planned and authorized the raid knew that most of the base was in “stand-down” mode for a special weekend leave at the end of the militia training season. Duty units were on half strength. Best of all, the front-line 1st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, the top-notch regular infantry unit there, was far away, chasing terrorists in Zimbabwe as part of a Commonwealth “stabilization force” deployed in the wake of the chaos that had followed the January assassination of Robert Mugabe. As a result, the only combat troops in the region were the 390 paratroopers in the three “commandos” of the Special Service Regiment at CFB Trenton, four hours drive away.

Natives still in the army and stationed at Petawawa had assured the Central Committee, through the special network that had been set up, that no unit would be in the training area that weekend – a fact confirmed by others who were members of various militia regiments. At best, there would be half a dozen military police on routine patrol, rattling doors and breaking up fights outside the canteens. The base defence force, a gaggle of office and supply clerks – donkey-wallopers and jam-stealers, as the infantry called them – was a standing joke and would take hours to organize itself. By then, Alex was determined to be long gone, back across the river. Nevertheless, he prayed that surprise would work, for he knew that if even a half platoon of airborne infantry were waiting for them, his band of warriors would be mowed down before they could even cock their rifles.

* * *

Following the procedure Alex’s flotilla had practised night after night over the last few weeks, the crew chiefs manoeuvred their boats quickly into an “echeloned” line to his right rear, each boat keeping station just outside the wake of the one in front. They raced forward to cover the few kilometres from the island to the beach quickly. Alex hoped the noise, if anyone even heard it and wondered, would be taken for keen fishermen heading up the river seeking sturgeon and pickerel near the narrows at Point Mackey.

He watched nervously as the boats tossed over the bow waves of those in advance and fell in and out of line. Cold water splashed his warriors’ faces as they gripped the sides and seats or grabbed for equipment they hadn’t secured well enough. The crews watched the dark shore approach, more excited than anxious, too young and inexperienced to be afraid – unlike their chief.

Alex checked his watch again, timing the run he had made on several reconnaissance visits in the weeks before. He and Sergeant Steve Christmas, a native from the Oka band near Montreal, and another airborne deserter, had landed alone at night two weeks earlier and recced the ground to the target. As regular soldiers stationed at Petawawa, both had marched and run through the area countless times. But things change and, besides, both had learned well the maxim, “time spent in recce is seldom wasted.” Both also knew that plans never work as well on the ground as they do on paper. For one thing, distances are difficult to judge in the dark, and sooner than he expected, Alex’s boat bumped over the first sandbar just off the gently sloped, sandy beach.

Alex flashed a quick red light in warning to the others – too late: the boats criss-crossed each other’s wakes, their motors whining in high revs as they bounced over the shallow approach to the beach before being shut down indiscriminately while oars and paddles clattered against the boats as the crews pushed and paddled to the shore. So much for the rehearsals, he thought, but at least they weren’t shouting and hitting out at each other as they had on their first training run in another location upriver six weeks ago.

The crews lurched noisily up the sloping shoreline. Steve Christmas, the disciplinarian, directed a few well-aimed curses at particular stumblers then settled into his quiet, assured manner, restoring silence and order.

As they had rehearsed time and again, whispered words from Alex sent his two scouts sprinting a hundred metres ahead of the patrol into the edge of the tall grass fringing the beach. The carriers unloaded the boats, everyone, Alex hoped, remembering the particular items for which they were responsible. The boats were then quickly pushed out into deeper water where, under Annie’s command, they would head back out into the river and hold about a kilometre offshore waiting for the recovery call from Alex.

As the scouts moved quietly and quickly forward, Alex waved the lead section of ten warriors off in single-file formation towards the road. He followed a couple of dozen metres behind with his radioman. The remaining fifteen warriors, divided into two sections, each forming a well-spaced though ragged, single-file line on opposite sides of the road, followed Alex. Steve Christmas brought up the rear. The patrol moved off the beach onto the bush-covered grassy field, crossed Passchendaele Road, then passed the empty tent grounds, angling west towards Brindle Road, always keeping careful watch for any lights on the horizon that might betray a vehicle approaching from the base.

Alex had drilled into his team the necessity of maintaining a high degree of alertness while on the march, with the prime directive to avoid detection and contacts on the way in and back out. He was pleased to see Helen Pendergast and the other two young section commanders, all selected by their peers, enforcing the order for quiet, vigilance, and proper spacing. After ten minutes, the patrol reached the end of the open fields and moved up onto Brindle Road, still heading southwest. As they hit the road, the sections closed up their open formation but held to their alternating pattern – one section on one side, the next on the opposite side. The scouts hurried forward to the top of the low escarpment to guard the Crest Road intersection two kilometres ahead. There they watched for oncoming vehicles or other signs of trouble as the patrol made its way up the hill. Once the lead section arrived, the scouts waited for Alex’s signal to move forward.

The scrubby, pine-filled bush along the roads was deep and silent. The only noise was the crunch, crunch of boots on gravel and the soft grunt of people adjusting their loads and weapons as they began the climb up and out of the Petawawa plain. Alex checked his watch: on time so far. Up the Brindle Road hill to Crest Road: three kilometres to the target. All easier than the pace in their training exercises. Training ought to be harder than the real thing, and over the past few weeks Alex and Steve had made sure that it was.

When the patrol reached the junction of Brindle and Crest roads, Helen Pendergast raised her arm, silently signalling a halt. As the signal was passed down the line, Alex came up beside her and checked his map and watch again. The sections were resting in formation, some resting on a knee, others taking a drink of water or a nervous pee. A light northerly wind kicked up, rustling the spirits of the forest. Encouragement, he thought … or perhaps a warning.

* * *

Canadian Forces Base Petawawa is, of course, native land. At least it was until the white settlers occupied the region without any thought of compensation for the inhabitants. Some people say its name is from an Algonquin word, petwewe, meaning “Where one hears noise like this,” referring to the fast water flowing over the rocks of the Petawawa River. But as a child, Alex preferred his grandfather’s explanation that the area was named after his distant ancestor, an Algonquin woman who lived alone on the banks until the age of 115 years. She would have lived forever because she was married to the spirit of the river. But she died the moment she reached out to steady the first canoe of the first French explorers who touched the river bank at her feet.

Many years later, German immigrants built a settlement on native land near the same spot and tried hard to farm the harsh, rocky ground. Alex’s people protested to the government, but in vain. “Why,” he had once asked his grandfather, “did we not fight the settlers for the land long ago?”

The old man answered the young Alex sadly. “We were mostly peaceful people, and we thought we were simply lending a little piece of our vast lands to these poor devils so they wouldn’t starve. In return, they gave us diseases that killed our bodies, and laws that confused our elders. Then they kept the land and tried to grow corn in rocks. They never understood that the land decides who lives and who dies. My forefathers,” he added, “should have listened to the old woman by the river.”

In 1904, the Department of Militia and Defence purchased 22,430 acres from the settlers, saving them from starvation but as usual ignoring the Algonquin people’s claims. The army has occupied the land ever since.

Alex smiled wryly. Here he was on his own ancestral lands with a mere handful of young natives attacking a modern military base that was home to 4,400 professional soldiers.

* * *

Joan Newman peered wearily into the darkness. Nothing but a two-lane gravel road, and at the sides, nothing but the bush: rocks, trees, road, rocks, trees, road. As she scanned the way ahead, the same irritating little rhythm beat in her brain as it did so often on such nights. Stay alert. Don’t hit a deer, please don’t hit a moose – rocks, trees, road. Oh God, she thought, if I did hit a moose, would anyone care? Yeah, actually. My boss would care. The car would be totalled. All that paperwork to get rid of my corpse. He’d be really mad. Rocks, trees, road. Rocks, trees, road.

* * *

A wave of his arm sent Alex’s scouts along Crest Road towards the target, this time with Sergeant Christmas in the lead. The patrol followed a few minutes later, the individual warriors in the surrounding darkness simply marching into the footsteps before them. They were confident in their leaders, especially Gabriel and Christmas, and they each knew what they were to do. Or rather, they’d been told what to do. “Follow the rehearsed plan; do your assigned part; don’t worry about anything else. If there is a surprise, follow the drills.” These rules had been hammered into their heads in training night after night for weeks. Weeks, Alex thought, not months. Five minutes of panic is all it would take to create total chaos. He took a deep breath. Too late to worry about that now. He had to focus on his own tasks.

The protective lights surrounding the Petawawa ammunition and weapons storage area, which was located on Menin Road on the outskirts of the base’s built-up areas, shone brightly through the vegetation, allowing them to see it well before Steve Christmas and his scouts reached the compound. As they approached the outer perimeter, Christmas quickly surveyed the roadways, the first storage bunkers, and the wire – everything was as he remembered it, including being unguarded, as usual. He listened for a few minutes then sent young Patty Roy back to bring up the patrol. He sent his other scout, Denny Villeneuve, 200 metres down the road towards the base to warn of approaching vehicles. Then he sat back for a more thorough look at the compound.

Alex slid into the ditch beside his second-in-command. “Ready, Steve?”

“Yeah, guard’s out. All quiet. Typical weekend night in Petawawa.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Alex waved the first section into action.

The warriors, crouching, sprinted to the front gate, a high wire barrier topped with razor wire, no obstacle really – except to honest people. Alex was pleased to see Pierre Léger, following the drill, step forward, quickly cut the padlock, and push open the gate. He was less pleased to hear it swing open with a loud squeal, perhaps protesting the unexpected disturbance. Léger’s section jogged through past the first bunker, down the lane to their assigned bunker. Up came his bolt cutters, snip snip, and the metal door was open. As the others wrestled off their backboards and packs, Léger scanned the interior with his flashlight, looking for the supplies on his list.

The other two sections moved into the compound, breaking into smaller squads as they too headed to their assigned bunkers. This raid was no random scavenger hunt. Each section and squad had received detailed orders to collect specific weapons and munitions. Though they had never been in the compound before, or even seen it up close, they recognized their targets from the maps and photos Alex had shown them over and over again, and from the scale model he and Christmas had built in the training camp.

The raiding party had a complete description of what was stored in each bunker, thanks to supply officers, military clerks, and civilian employees loyal to the Movement and the cause who were stationed in Petawawa and in the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. But they also had a carefully considered shopping list. The priority items were linked to the “grand strategy”: anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons; explosives (C4, plastic explosives, detonating cord, and primers and fuses); fragmentation and smoke grenades; small-calibre automatic weapons and ammunition; and, if the team had carrying space, a few anti-tank mines.

The ammo compound at Base Petawawa held supplies for most of Eastern Canada and for overseas deployments – everything the army needed: rifles, grenades, explosives, every calibre of ammunition, M72 and Carl Gustav anti-tank rocket launchers and ammo; and of special interest, Blowpipe anti-aircraft missiles. Many of the Canadian Forces’ best weapons were outdated by the fast-moving standards of modern warfare, but they would certainly provide the Movement with a vast edge over any police opponents.

A hiss from Christmas’s radio broke the silence. “Headlights approaching,” whispered Villeneuve.

“How many … what speed?”

“Looks like a single, a car, I think. Not very fast – slow actually. Hey, it just pulled in front of the old building down the road, shining a light around.”

Steve turned to Alex. “Company coming, single car. An MP, I think …checking buildings. Not too alert by the looks of it … just the routine meathead patrol.”

“Right! Close the gate. Put the lock and chain back on. Pass the word – lights out. They know the drill.” At least I hope they do, he thought.

Alex watched the nearest patrol anxiously as it stopped collecting its load and scattered into the shadows of the bunkers. Christmas, crouching, dashed outside the gate and dropped into the shallow ditch beside his leader. “Set.”

Alex watched the approaching car. “Okay. We can’t take a chance that the MPs might see something and then, after we let the car go, raise an alarm. We’ll take them down. Okay, as we rehearsed the other night – once the car halts at the gate, I’ll take the driver’s side … you take the partner.”

“Got it.” Christmas crossed the lane and dropped into the ditch. Just like the ambush outside the camp in eastern Afghanistan, he thought as he struggled to flatten his large frame into the low grass. But this time, no inquiry.

Villeneuve warned, “Passing me now.” He dropped into his backup position, hoping that the car would not try to reverse towards him if something went wrong.

The car pulled into the entrance lane as expected. Joan Newman shone a spotlight across the gate then casually over the compound as she had done on too many night shifts. “Boring, boring, boring,” she told herself, “the usual Sunday night bullshit. I’ve got to get myself a life – maybe even that jerk, Jack.”

The door flew open. Joan felt someone grab her collar and lift her sideways and backwards out of the car. She fell hard on the road, the impact taking her breath away. A dark shape loomed over her, pistol in hand, and stepped hard on her right arm. “Be quiet, don’t do anything stupid, and you’ll be okay.”

The other front door was already open. She heard someone switch off the engine. Feet ran towards her. Joan caught her breath and growled, “If you guys are frigg’n’ militia on an exercise, you’re in big trouble. Let me up.” She moved to sit up but was knocked roughly back down.

“Shut up, stay down. This is no exercise,” Alex barked. He turned to the warriors. “You two, stay with me. The rest get back to the job. Sergeant, any commotion on the radio?”

“No.” He glanced at the body on the ground. “Nice job, sir.”

He meant it. One reason people followed Alex, in the army and now on this raid, was that he always led from the front. A simple concept, and not exactly stamped Top Secret, but a lot of officers never seemed to get it: leading means being in front. How else can you know what’s going on? Call it “operational problem solving” or “dealing with the unexpected 101,” just like bloody “Foxhole U,” army staff college. You will have problems, like this one. Stay on top of them.

Alex hadn’t wanted to get stuck with any prisoners, but of course he’d considered that it might happen. So what to do? Taking her along was out of the question. But he had a more immediate worry. The dispatcher would get suspicious and raise an alarm if she didn’t report in soon. Buy some time and get things moving, he ordered himself.

And sure enough, the car radio crackled. “Three-two, this is three, what’s your location?” the dispatcher droned over the MP radio net. “Three two, come on, Newman. If you stopped for a leak, wipe it and call in. Out.”

Alex grabbed Newman. “Listen,” he said, jamming his face into hers, “you get on that radio and tell them you’re on your way, nothing to report, and if it’s okay, you’re stopping for coffee at the base coffee shop. I’ll make a deal: you play the game and you go free – screw up and you’re coming with us … at least part way. It won’t make any difference to the base commander if you’re a hero, prisoner, or corpse. You decide.”

Newman looked into his eyes briefly, then reached into the car for the radio. “Three, this is three-two. Addy, I ought to report you to the CO, but he’s worse than you are. I’m done for now and going for a coffee. Over.”

“Three, yeah. You scare the crap out of me, Newman. Call in after your doughnut. Out.”

“Good choice,” said Alex. “Sounds like a swell unit.”

He turned to Christmas. “Take the car into the back of the compound and hide it. Put her in it, tie her up, gently, and leave off the mouth tape.”

He took a quick glance at his captive’s name tag. “Have a good night, Corporal Newman, and just relax. They’ll find you by morning.” He nodded to Sergeant Christmas, who pushed the MP onto the floor in the back of the car. Alex left to check the section leaders. Best to move things along.

The sections returned to work, a bit more subdued. This minor incident drove home that this was no game. Leroy mumbled to no one in particular as he struggled to hoist a backboard loaded with M72s onto his shoulders. “That bitch had a gun and if she’d panicked or seen something, well … shit, it’s a long way to the beach.”

Alex was considering the return trip as well. Was there a code in that MP’s message? Not likely. Security at Petawawa was generally as lax as it seemed. But still … And besides, how long would they wait for her to have a coffee and call in? Fifteen, twenty minutes? Likely a bit more. Unless some other incident came up, or another meathead decided he needed a doughnut too or they wanted some at the desk. Too many scenarios. Hope for luck but don’t count on it. It’s about thirty-five to forty minutes to the beach carrying all this stuff, fifteen minutes to load and get off the shore – at least an hour to comfortably break contact from here. No time for pissing around.

The section commanders reported loaded and ready. Christmas checked in. “The guest’s resting well, although it looks like she may have wet her pants in the excitement. She seems tough and cocky enough, but Christ, sir, I still can’t get used to women in the army …”

Alex laughed. “Give it time, sarge.”

“Yeah, sure. Who’s got that much time?”

“Okay, call in Villeneuve at the double.” Alex watched the sections fall into formation, then waved the first one out the gate. He grabbed the two scouts and sent them on a jog back the way they had come, down Crest Road to the first intersection. Leaning close, he whispered into Jock Tremblay’s ear to impart urgency, not panic: “Double your section down the road for four telephone poles, then walk them fast another four and double again. No bunching up and keep them quiet. You know the drill: if a vehicle approaches, slip into the bush and stay still; if we get separated, go to the beach and get across the river. Move out.”

He passed the same instructions to each leader in turn. Only Helen Pendergast hesitated. “These loads are heavy and running with them …”

Alex grabbed her lapel and got very close to her. “Do as you’re told! You move them along. I’m counting on you. Now’s the time to lead.” She swallowed hard and nodded. He let go of her jacket and his frown relaxed. “Go!” he said.

Turning to watch her section clear out, he glimpsed Steve Christmas, cool as usual, gathering up Villeneuve and fading into the darkness fifty metres behind the last section. Rearguard and follow-up. Then, out loud: “Everybody gets to the beach.”

The plan had been to take a different route back to the beach, through a trail Alex and Steve had discovered in the bush. It was the classic patrol tactic – one way in, another way out. But good commanders change plans when they need changing. So far his warriors had done just fine, but time was short and he sensed them getting jittery. The first priority now was to get away from the compound, off the high road, and down onto the plain as quickly as possible, keeping the patrol together and under control, with no stragglers and no panic. The road was the fastest way.

If the MPs came looking for Newman, he assumed they would come from the main base, headlights on, worried about an accident, not an incident. If, for whatever reason, an MP happened to come from the other direction, from lower down, they’d be lit up and scanning the edges of the road for the missing car, and be most unlikely to see his patrol before his scouts saw the approaching lights. Yes, speed mattered more than stealth at this point. Alex jogged up the line of huffing warriors to his position behind the first patrol.

Run, walk. Run, walk. Measured steps. Get them into a rhythm. Encourage the leaders. “Good show. Keep it up, not too fast. Steady pace now. You all did well. Everybody remember to breathe.” The comment brought snickers down the puffing line.

One hundred metres from the compound. Now two hundred. No lights, no sirens. Nothing but dogs barking in the distant married quarters and, close by, heavy footsteps, bouncing loads, and laboured breathing.

Clang! Bang! A couple of loads came undone and crashed to the ground. Some warriors kept moving, others stopped to help comrades rebuild their treasures. Soon the patrol looked like a Santa Claus parade – scattered individuals jammed up here, small groups bobbing up and down there. Only three hundred metres down the road. The wind picked up, rattling the trees, or were they guards moved by the spirits? Those who hadn’t stopped picked up their pace.

Things were unravelling.

Alex fumed. I’ve got to stop this! He hustled forward to the first section leader. “When you reach the intersection and the scouts, move on down the road twenty metres, then stop and get your section together. You check personally that you have all your people – touch each one. Then let me know you’re ready, wait till I give the word, then move out at a steady walk. Got it?”

“Got it. Are we okay?”

“Yes, right on schedule, just as we planned it,” he fibbed. “I’m going to call the boats in to shore as soon as we close up, sort ourselves out, and get moving again. You just worry about your people. Remember: make sure you have everyone and that they’ve all got their loads.” Alex repeated the word to each section leader, while encouraging individuals as they passed him in the road.

Sergeant Christmas came out of the darkness. “Fine night, sir. A guy should be getting home to the old lady, don’t you think?”

Alex smiled. Who’s encouraging who now? “Yeah, piece of cake.”

“Reorg?”

“Yeah, Steve, I told the section leaders to pull their people together just past the intersection and then we’ll force march them down the hill and across the plain. I’ll call Annie in a few minutes and get the boats moving. I think we can trust Villeneuve and Patty to bring up the rear after we pass the intersection. You get ahead and mark the beach. Give us a quick light if necessary and guide us to the boats. Let’s make it a smooth move into the boats and off the beach.”

“Got it. See you on the beach, sir.”

After stopping and sorting themselves out, the patrol was looser. Alex was relieved to find that they hadn’t lost anyone or apparently any gear. But this was no time to relax. He’d seen this a hundred times, even with trained soldiers: once you got past the critical point, a little rest, a bit of adrenaline come-down, and the giggles and joking start. It’s a dangerous mood. Alex had to use their confidence to cover the next few kilometres quickly, without letting it cause carelessness. He knew Christmas had picked up on the mood too and could hear the sergeant encouraging and admonishing the troops in the same sentence as he moved down the line to get forward.

“Morrison,” Christmas stage-whispered for everyone to hear, “if I see you drop Her Majesty’s ammunition again, I’ll call your mom to come and carry it for you. You’re an idle crow, Morrison.”

“Actually, I’m Cree, sergeant.”

“You’re a no good smart ass! Get your gear sorted out!”

The others snickered at the exchange, partly glad not to be the butt of the sergeant’s feigned wrath, but partly disappointed too. Thank God, Alex thought to himself, I have Steve Christmas as my second-in-command.

Alex saw the mood improve as if high morale were wafting through the air from one warrior to the next. Without any direction from him, they picked up the pace, improved their spacing, and started encouraging one another. Comments like, “Okay, let do it”; “Let’s go, guys”; and “Beat you to the boats” replaced the furtive “Let’s get away” of only minutes before.

And there was still no response from the base. Alex got a familiar sweet feeling of a mission coming to a successful close as he joined the dog-trotting warriors moving in good order down the hill towards the river. Pulling out his cellphone, he called Annie and gave her the code phrase to bring in the boats. “Hi, sweetheart, we will be home in about fifteen minutes. Can you open the doors to the barn?”

“Sure thing, I was getting worried, it’s late. So you drive carefully. Bye.”

As the patrol crossed Passchendaele Road, Alex saw Steve Christmas’s light flashes marking the place on the beach, about a hundred metres to the west of the original landing point, where the boats were waiting for them. Christmas waited, counting his charges through to the beach. The rear guard came in a bit off course, but in good order.

Alex joined his sergeant, just as young Villeneuve came up. “Everyone clear from the road, Villeneuve? Anything left behind?”

“No, sergeant. Nobody we could see, but somebody dropped this ammo belt on the road.”

“Okay. Good job both of you – get to the boats.”

Alex watched as the warriors loaded the little craft. Quiet more from fatigue and ebbing excitement than self-discipline. It didn’t matter. It was not a perfect patrol; he was sure that small bits of kit were back on the road and would eventually lead investigators to piece the plan together. But as he walked to the last boat, he wasn’t worried; he felt sure he would never come this way again. His kids had done well and would have stories to tell. He walked proudly with Christmas to the water’s edge.

Annie was all business and ordered Alex into the boat. Everyone else had done their job and could relax; she’d been waiting and biting her nails the whole time, and now it was her turn to get it done. She rallied the other helmsmen into line, the engines revved in unison, and they headed at full throttle towards the far shore and safety.

Alex glanced across the river to Quebec and the red dawn rising up from behind the eastern hills. “Red sky in the morning,” he thought to himself. “Now there’s a menacing sign.”

“Everything okay, Alex?” Annie asked.

His face lit up. “Sure, Annie. Almost perfect.”

Annie smiled broadly and couldn’t resist a sudden impulse to reach out and squeeze his hand. She felt so proud to be with him, and proud also to be one of the warriors who’d really struck a blow for their long-suffering people.