The Soldier
Chapter 16

“It truly is beautiful,” Logan said as he walked with Mandy down a shaded forest path. “If it weren’t for the circumstances . . .”

“So, you don’t have forests in England?”

“Not like this,” Logan said. “Except for a few preserves, most land that can grow trees are designated tree farms used to produce wood for paper, construction and such. And London, where I live, has become an overgrown megalopolis. I would have to drive for a bloody near three hours to see more than one tree planted on the median. And that’s if I could save up enough petrol rations to make the trip.”

“Well at least you have cars,” Mandy said. “Cars – at least private ownership – was outlawed 50 years ago. More resources for The Wall.”

That was one bit of bad news Logan hadn’t counted upon hearing.

“So how do you get around – walk everywhere?”

“Mostly. Trucks are still around for cargo, and sometimes you can hitch a ride or hop a freight train.”

Logan filed the information for future consideration. He was sure that whatever they tried to do, it would require being able to move around the country somewhat undetected.

“So, back to the original question. How does our situation fit in with your unification movement?”

Mandy took her arm from Logan and turned to look him in the eye.

“For some time now we’ve had an idea, but no way to implement it.”

“And that would be?”

“Many members of our movement think that if open communication were re-established with the rest of the world, the current government would have to acknowledge that the wall was a bad idea and reopen all the U.S. Borders. That is if Americans knew things were better out there they would join the movement, work to get rid of that thing.”

“And if the rest of the world knew how bad things were in here, they might just come rushing to your aid and take down The Wall for you?”

“Well, yes something like that,” Mandy said.

“Not that I wouldn’t like to see that happen, but there probably wouldn’t be very much help coming from outside,” Logan said. “Without the U.S., the Cold War nearly became hot. The Soviet Union reformed and most of our military assets are spread pretty thin just keeping tabs on our enemies. And I wouldn’t surprise me if the USSR would try to block anything we tried to pull off.

“Besides, Jon said the Feds block international radio communications. Do your people have any ideas on how to get around the jamming systems?”

“We do, but it requires some computer skills beyond what our best people can muster,” Mandy said. “And from what I understand, two members of your team would make our computer types look like preschoolers playing a video game.”

“I’ll give you that,” Logan said. “If they put their heads together Willie and Caitlin could probably make a computer out of a coconut and some palm fronds.”

He stopped talking for a moment and let his mind turn Mandy’s idea over in his head. There was something there, something that would work for him, but his mind just wasn’t making the connection --at least not yet.

“Very well, I’ll consider it, but tell me, do you have anything specific in mind beyond restoring communications with the outside world?”

“Not really. We’ve pretty much focused on somehow destroying or deactivating their jamming system, but we’re open to suggestions.”

“Right,” Logan said. “Let me talk it over with my people and see what we can come up with.”

“Excellent,” Mandy said. “But for now, the evening’s still young. Let’s finish our walk.”

Logan couldn’t come with a reason not to spend some more time with the attractive freedom fighter.

“Why not?”

She stood, took the offered arm and the two walked off into the night.

Logan looked up at the moon, gauging the time to be approaching midnight.

“It’s getting late, you must be tired.”

“I don’t mind,” Mandy said, who had by now shifted her grip on Logan’s arm to something more familiar. “I’m enjoying the company.”

“As am I,” he said, “But aren’t you worried about running into a Fed patrol or some other difficulty.”

“Not a problem,” she said. “Unless we are actively causing them trouble, they pretty much leave us alone, especially at night. Besides, I know our area like the back of my hand. I would know if I were outside our territory at night even if I were blindfolded.”

“Really? Blindfolded?”

A mischievous grin spread across Logan’s face as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a bandanna. He then stepped behind Mandy and put it around her eyes.

“Hey!”

She started to reach behind her, but Logan intercepted her hands and whispered into her ear.

“I thought you said you knew this area blindfolded?”

“I did, but . . .”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Only somewhat.”

Logan laughed softly and finished tying the bandana. He then began to lead the blindfolded young woman along the trail. He walked backwards, leading her by both hands.

“This is silly,” she said, nearly giggling.

“So, where are we?” Logan asked.

Mandy stopped and listened, while Logan continued to hold her hands. Then she sniffed the breeze.

“We’re a little over a kilometer from the main village, on the southeast trail.”

“Fairly easy, you’ve only been blindfolded for 15 minutes.”

“True,” Mandy said. “But I can smell the night-blooming jasmine. And that’s only found in the clearing about 25 meters ahead.”

“Is there a path to this clearing?”

“Yes, why?” The laughter left her voice, replaced by a note of suspicion.

“Where?”

“Just up on the right.”

“Grand,” Logan said as he continued to lead. She tried to free one hand but he held her firmly, yet gently.

“No, not yet,” he said.

Several moments later they entered the clearing. It was about 50 meters across, and the ground was carpeted with a soft layer of grass. Logan stopped in the center.

“Is this it?”

She started to turn, feeling a soft breeze and smelling the jasmine’s pungent aroma.

“No doubt, now can I take this off?”

“Allow me,” Logan said.

He walked up to her and rested his arms on her shoulder so he could reach the knot behind her head. Mandy took a quick breath to be in such close proximity to this British man whom she had just met.

“Something wrong?” Logan asked softly, almost whispering in her ear.

“No, not exactly,” Mandy replied.

“Then what, exactly?” Logan asked, allowing his lips to brush up against her cheek. Another quick inhale gave Logan the encouragement he needed. Instead of untying the blindfold he allowed his hands to drift down to the small of her back.

“The blindfold?” Mandy barely whispered the words.

“All in good time, love, all in good time.”

He gently pressed his lips to Mandy’s and kissed her tenderly. The American’s arms found their way around Logan’s muscular body and pulled him closer as the two began to settle towards the grassy carpet.

When the two were sitting on the ground, Mandy pulled away and reached up to pull off the blindfold.

“So, is this how you plan to conquer America, one woman at a time?”

She smiled.

“Well, let’s just leave it at one particular woman for right now and see where it goes, shall we?” Logan asked as he took Mandy’s head in his hands and leaned forward to kiss her again.

“Yes, let’s.”

Suddenly, the moment was shattered by a burst of radio static. Logan immediately jumped into a crouching position, trying to ascertain where the noise came from.

“What’s the matter?”

“We’re not alone out here.”

Mandy sighed.

“Well, no of course not,” she said as she stood up and pulled Logan completely to his feet. “There’s a forward observation post just on the other side of those trees.”

Logan was more than a little stunned. He looked at Mandy then back where the two had been previously sitting.

“And you let me, you were going to . . .”

“Relax, this clearing is ‘off limits’ to the standard patrols. The younger couples come up here all the time. I think we would have been the oldest couple to use it this year.”

Logan glared at Mandy who was doing all she could to keep from laughing out loud at his obvious indignation at being led into the minutemen’s local make-out point.

“And I thought I was being original and clever.”

“Well, you didn’t know,” Mandy said, taking him by the hand. “And it’s the thought that counts. Besides, I’ve got some friends on duty tonight and they wouldn’t have bothered us even if they heard us, and we weren’t being very loud. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

She began to walk off. Logan stood still for a moment, then smiled, shook his head in disbelief and began to follow her.

Mandy and Logan walked into what amounted to a small, wooden shack a few hundred meters from the clearing. Mandy walked to the door and knocked -- twice in quick succession, a pause and then two more taps.

“Jon likes the code, though the fact is that if it were the Feds they wouldn’t knock at all, they’d just bash the door off its hinges.”

There was a soft click, followed by the door swinging open to reveal a tall, thin man of about 50 with a round face and a bright red beard. Inside were three other men and two women. The men were clustered around what was obviously a radio of some sort, the women were at table drinking coffee.

“Mandy my love, how are you?”

A bearded man swept Mandy up in a bear hug as Logan looked on suspiciously. Once she was back on her feet, she began the introductions.

“Logan this is Max Cornfeld, one of my dearest friends. He took me under his wing when I joined Jon’s unit five years ago. He’s like a father to me.”

“A father, huh,” Logan said as he extended his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Cornfeld.”

“It’s Max,” Cornfeld said as he took Logan’s hand and gave Mandy a sideways glance. “Methinks I see a bit of possessiveness in this one, Mandy.”

“Seriously, Max, Logan and I just met. We were walking along the path and he heard the static from that old radio you boys keep playing with. Anyway, the rest of the bunch are Larry, Chuck and Phil at the radio, with Christine and Erica drinking coffee that I hope they have some more of.”

“Of course we do,” Erica said as she got up to fetch two more mugs which she filled with coffee for Mandy and Logan.

“Thank you,” Logan said as he took the steaming mug. His eyebrows went up in surprise when he took his first sip.

“This is,” he paused as a warmth that came from more than just coffee moved through his body, “An interesting brew to say the least.”

Mandy giggled. “It’s Max’s ‘special brew,’ the still’s out back if you’d like to see it.”

“Maybe later,” Logan said as he wandered over to the men huddled around the radio. The scene reminded Logan of something he had seen in an old movie, of a time before television when old-fashioned radios were the sole source of news and entertainment. He looked over at Caitlin.

“I thought Jon said the Feds jammed all radio broadcasts?”

“For the most part they do,” Chuck said. “But they allow the old Hams to continue to operate, it creates the fascade of allowing personal freedom. Of course we’re limited to short-range frequencies for the most part.”

“Hams?”

Max nodded. “Hams. Amateur Radio. Used to be very big around the world, but basically fell apart with computers and the Internet, at least before the wall.

“This is an old Ham Radio rig. We operate in the 10-meter band, 28 megahertz at low power, less than 10 watts output which gives it range of less than 200 miles under ideal conditions. We can communicate with the rest of the country, but still not hit the outside world, or so they think.”

“You’ve communicated with folks outside the States? With England?”

“With England, probably not,” Max said. “But some of our northern units have contact with Canada and the southwestern boys have chatted with Mexico.”

Logan nodded. At least he knew how some information had leaked out.

“How does it work?”

“You mean you don’t know how radio works?”

Logan snorted. “Of course. I mean how do you connect with someone; do you have secret call signs and such like I’ve seen in the Vids?”

Max laughed.

“Sort of. A lot of us use our old Ham call signs, even though the FCC hasn’t existed for years. Let’s see who’s on the air.”

Max sat down at the radio and began tuning around. Crashes of static and background noise emanated from the speaker as he tuned to a specific frequency and keyed the microphone.

“CQ, CQ, CQ, This is KV7XY calling CQ and standing by.”

Max released the mic switch and tuned the radio. There was a nearly unintelligible squawking sound that resolved itself into a voice as Max adjusted the radio.

“KV7XY this is W3XR over.”

Max smiled.

“That’s Bill over in the Gulf district, he’s one of ours.”

Logan listened as Chuck had an apparently meaningless conversation with Bill, they talked about the weather, what kind of radio equipment they were using and their families. All the while Max was writing furiously. Finally, he signed off.

“Good talking to you Bill, hopefully we’ll talk again later. W3XR this is KV7XY clear.”

“Roger Max. KV7XY this is W3XR clear and QRT.”

“QRT?”

“Means he’s going off the air,” Max told Logan as he looked over his notes.

“What’s the scoop in the Gulf?”

Max looked up at Caitlin then back down at the notes he took during the conversation with Bill.

“Not much new. Bill says there’s a little more Fed activity along the Gulf around Biloxi. He says he’s heard some talk of adding a new docking bay to The Wall there.”

Logan’s mouth dropped.

“You got all of that from a conversation about radio and the weather? How?”

Max smiled. “It’s really quite simple. When Bill was talking he varied his delivery creating short and long pauses between his words.”

Logan was dumbfounded.

“Morse code! You’re kidding,” he said. “I can’t believe the Feds haven’t figured it out.”

“As far as we can tell, they haven’t,” Chuck said. “They aren’t the brightest bunch.”

“Are all the conversations coded?”

“Nah,” Chuck replied with a twinkle in his eye. “We’re still Hams, sometimes we really are just talking about our radios and the weather.”

Logan laughed. “Unbelievable. But it does explain a few things.”

“Such as?”

Logan looked at Chuck and Mandy.

“Such as how my contact in England knew that it was possible to get into the United States. How I was able to get the lead that the chip I’m looking for was stolen by American agents.”

“OK, so what do you do now?”

“I’m really not sure at this moment,” Logan said. “But what I do know is . .

He stopped in mid-sentence as more static issued from the radio speaker. He stared at the radio as Phil sat down and started turning the dial. Logan stared at the radio.

“Logan? Are you all right?”

Mandy walked over to Logan and placed a hand on his shoulder. Logan immediately brushed it off.

“Quiet, Johnson, I’m trying to hear command.”

“Command? Logan what are you talking about? Who the hell is Johnson?”

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