“I just got off the radio with Jennifer,” Martie reported. “Actually, she relayed our conversation through Hill’s new radio. She said that both Tom and Jerry are coming in with a few others and a surprise. They have Will Smart on board with Maggie and the kids. Will has been completely sedated since Edwards, is sleeping like a baby, and doesn’t even know that he is flying across the country.”

“That will certainly screw up his internal time clock,” laughed Preston. “He’s going to suffer badly from jetlag, poor guy. It will be fun to see his reaction when he wakes up.”

“I’ll do up the beds before they get here, in case they need to let him sleep,” Martie answered. “Let’s go walk around and see what the soldiers have done.”

With Oliver and the happy puppy in tow, and with little Beth still asleep, they walked down the runway towards the guard tower.

“Good morning, sir,” came a voice from 30 feet up. “We have been working all night and I think we are about done.”

The walkers said good morning back and continued down the driveway and around the corner, their progress being forwarded by radio. The gate was now a mass of barbed wire, and nobody could get through it without armor.

“Good morning, sir. ma’am,” the tired sergeant in charge nodded to them as they walked up. “Those dogs never stop playing. I wish I had as much energy.”

“Good morning, Sergeant,” replied the walkers in unison. “It looks like we are now secure from the road. Is that true?”

“Yes, sir! We have put down over 300 yards of triple-lined wire, and the whole stretch can be seen from the fire tower. We wanted to put some trip wires down, but then thought that the dogs could walk into them, so we wanted to ask your permission first. Then, I had an idea last night about the possible attack we might be getting. If we lure the attack away from the perimeter—say on the dirt road just as you turn off the highway—and put up a barrier across the dirt road about 200 yards in from the asphalt—we can stop them before they reach the gate of the property.”

“Sounds good,” replied Preston. “A sort of ambush zone?”

“Correct, sir, basic military tactics,” replied the sergeant. “I was going to ask Mr. David if we could place his armored cars at the other end of the dirt road several yards into the forest on the other side of the road. They could be camouflaged under brush and cut off the escape route once the attackers realize it’s a trap.”

“It sounds good. I’m sure David would enjoy the action. Those machine guns will rip anything civilian to shreds in seconds. I’ve seen them in action,” replied Preston.

“There is enough brush along where your fence goes and we can position a dozen or so men down the road to ambush whoever arrives and help the guards at the barrier and the tower,” the sergeant added. “We currently have 32 fully-operational soldiers on site, and that should be enough.”

“Unfortunately, I need a couple of your soldiers to set up a guard post at RDU airport this morning,” added Preston. “There is a ton of stuff there—food, and gasoline in the large fuel tanks—and I think we are going to need everything we can get our hands on. I will ask General Allen to set up a permanent 24/7 guard at the main gates and I was even going to ask Joe for the use of one of his jeeps to patrol the airport’s perimeter.”

“Not a problem, sir,” the sergeant replied. “I’m sure a C-130 will fly into a base later today and they can always bring back more troops. The general said that there was little chance of an attack today. It will take at least a day for them to find us and ready themselves, but from midnight tonight we should be prepared for action. We are nearly done here The men are going to rest this morning, get six hours of sleep and then we will get back at it. I will forward my ideas about the ambush to the general when he arrives. It will only take a couple of hours to take fresh troops into RDU from Seymour Johnson, and I don’t need to send any men from here. They already know the layout of the land and that is real valuable right now.” Preston agreed, and he and Martie said their goodbyes and walked back to the house.

“It’s a pretty good plan,” Preston stated to Martie. “I think it is going to work. We don’t know how many are coming, but I’m sure it’s not thousands of fighters—probably less than 100, if any come at all, and they won’t be expecting our fancy armored reception.”

“I want to help,” replied Martie. “I think I could spend some time in the 210 cruising up the north/south or west/east highways looking for movement. These bad guys will have to drive from the north, wherever they are and I’m sure they will come south from Washington, I-95, or east along US 64 or possibly I-40. I can’t see why they would come north from Florida or Georgia. There isn’t any reason for them to be there. Also, I-40 must be closed around Asheville. I’m sure that winter weather is making for potentially dangerous driving over the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

“They could already be here, but I don’t think so,” added Preston, throwing a stick for Oliver. “It’s only been a day since our transponders could have been noticed, and since they are all now silent they can’t see any new activity from here. They might not even come at all. But I think you’re right. If they do come, I think the I-95 corridor is the best bet. We are short on pilots until everybody gets back, and I want to secure RDU as soon as possible today. So you might as well take your new toy up and cruise around. Don’t you want to take your Mustang?”

“I was thinking about that, but she’s far too fast and noisy. I was thinking about refueling one of the 172s, but then I realized that it would take me too long to get back in a 172 if I saw something. I can power down the 210 to minimum cruise altitude, say around 130 miles an hour, stay up for five hours with the fuel reduction, and then scream back to get help if I see something,” Martie explained. “Little Beth is falling in love with flying and I can take her with me. It’s keeping her mind off her mother. I know you miss me, but with Maggie’s kids coming in, they’ll be able to take her under their wing and keep her occupied.” She snuggled up to him as they reached the house, and he told her to make breakfast and he’d refuel the 210 for her.

Most of the troops slept in that morning and were only awakened by Lady Dandy coming in. Several minutes earlier, Buck had gotten on the radio to Preston to get landing details. Buck already knew that with the powerful tailwind they had enjoyed for the first several hours of the flight that he would need to come in from the south. The temperature had risen to 45 degrees and Buck told him that Tom and Jerry were now only 50 minutes behind him and were also planning to land at Preston’s airfield. Buck told Preston that he needed Lady Dandy to be well out of the way and that he would park her on the other side of the hangar next to Baby Huey.

That prompted a question, but Preston kept silent and just gave Lady Dandy the wind speed and temperature. “Why are you parking her so far away?” Preston finally asked as Buck and Barbara jumped out after landing and positioning Lady Dandy off the runway.

“A few surprises are coming in,” smiled Buck. “Carlos has some old gear with them. Can you order up some help to unload? Our cargo is a few antiquated computers and television sets. I need to freshen up because Barbara and I are heading straight out to Andrews in Baby Huey. Thank God it’s only an hour each way! Barbara flew most of the way and I slept for five hours to stay fresh for the next leg. I’ll be taking off before mid-day and hope to be back by dark, Preston.”

The DC-3 was unloaded and Martie fixed everybody a brunch of slightly old sandwiches and bagels full of ham and cream cheese, all commandeered from the deli at the airport the day before. “I hope we can get fresh stuff like this every day,” she smiled at Preston, knowing that it would all be gone soon. She had a couple of bread makers in the kitchen—one worked and one didn’t—but she would need bread-making ingredients pretty soon or she would run out. A couple of loaves of bread would certainly not go far with the increasing crowd at the Strong Ranch.