There was one thing that John Snow had learned about privacy, a long time ago. The key was not to hide because that only drew the curiosity of others. If you wanted to keep a secret the best way to do so was to be just plain boring. The only other thing, that sent others scrambling away from you, like you had a disease, was to look like you were bringing work for them. When you put those two together, it was quite the winning combination. That was why he and Hoop were sitting out past the maintenance hangar and using the little covered table that normally the various crew chiefs did their paper work on.

Both John and Hoop were a common sight around Merlin so, there was no special noticed paid of them. Merlin had never converted over to a computer network so, people still used paper here. John kept a few clipboards in his bag and nothing repelled the average RAF airman faster. He kept one in his hand as he referred to the paper map that Hoop had laid out on the little table.

Hoop had just flown back down from their base and he was pointing out a few things on his map, which was an exact copy of the ones used by Horshen and his gnomes. They had been living in the central highlands for ages and knew the area better than anyone. They were also more meticulous than even an elf would be, so, their maps were probably better than anyone elses. That was information that no one on the team had bothered to share with anybody on the outside, including their respective militaries. It gave them an advantage that you might never know when you would need.

At the moment, Hoop was kind of wishing they were not so accurate because he knew what was coming next as he pointed out, “yeah them contacts is as accurate as I figure they can be.”

John ran his finger down the west side of the map, skirting the big mountains that blocked off the more habitable areas of the central highland plateau, from the huge desert on the other side. He connected the dots that had been placed on the map and he said, “that doesn’t make a lot of sense Hoop. We can survive in that desert longer than they can. Why would they get so close? That line is practically coming right out of the triangle and, we know, they never go in there.”

Hoop grumbled, “I ain’t trying to explain the fucking thing, I’m just telling you what I got from the hunting parties. It‘s not really all that good John. A lot of the damn gnomes won‘t go back out now.”

John was starting to think that it was far worse than that. He held that thought to himself as he asked, “how big were the contacts? Did we have any specials?”

“Horshen said,” Hoop replied with a shrug, “none of them were any bigger than your usual war party. Most of the time when they opened up with the claymores, the Orcs didn’t put up too much of a fight. They just scattered and backed off. You know, what they usually do when they get ambushed.”

“Except,” John pointed out, “usually they come back with more Orcs. I’m not seeing any secondary contacts on this map.”

“If what Horshen said was true,” Hoop told him, “there wasn’t none.”

John scratched at his chin. He was still trying to decide if he wanted to shave or grow his beard back. He thought about it and said, “we need to get up there and eyeball this one personally. We know the Orcs were probing way too far south, last year, back when they dropped that tree on the Americans. Then they went all out, stopped, and now they’re moving west? That doesn’t make a lot sense. What‘s out there?”

Hoop shrugged again, “just the fairy trails. Not much else.”

Again, that made no sense because as John pointed, “they almost never fuck with the Tylwythen Deg. Why would they start now?”

“They ain’t,” Hoop replied. “I think if they did we’d have heard about it. Cami talked with Falajhilha not long ago. She didn’t say nothing about no Orc attacks.”

Now, John was not so sure which was bothering him more. What Hoop was telling him or what he was seeing over by the hangars. He had noticed one of the crew chiefs run to a phone. The guy spent a few minutes there and when he ran back to his crews, they began to get really busy. Things like that happened but, when John saw the cart trains riding in from the ordinance bunkers, he got more than curious, he was actually starting to worry. The main reason for that was, the kind of ordinance those carts had on them.

“Hoop,” John told him as he got ready to walk over to the hangar, “pre flight the bird now.”

Hoop protested, “hell John, I just got back from Midgetville and now we’re going right back? I kind of had some stuff to do while I was down here.”

John kept right on walking, “I got a feeling you’re not going to be able too, unless I miss my guess.”

John had gotten far enough away to make Hoop yell, “Jamie’s not even here yet!”

Now jogging, John yelled back, “that’s his problem!”

Hoop started grumbling and walked out into the field next to the shelter, where he had landed the chopper. Doing the pre flight wouldn’t take very long but, he wished like hell he could top off his tanks before he got back up into the air. He had enough avgas to make it to Nordhalt but, you never wanted to push something like that with a bird. If you ran out of gas up in the sky, you couldn’t just pull over at the next exit.

John came back, faster than Hoop expected, and long before he could even really get started with the preflight. That was mainly because John was sprinting all out, all the way from the hangars. He was also out of breath when he stopped by the chopper. Hoop wanted to laugh and then said, “what’s done gone and crawled up your ass?”

While trying to catch his breath, John pointed across the field to the aircraft bunkers where the doors were opening up. Flight crews were pulling some birds out while ordinance carts were rolling into others. The general level of activity looked like somebody had just kicked over an ant hill. Hoop took his sun glasses off and cupped his hands over his eyes to get a better look, “never mind that question, what crawled up their ass?”

John now said between breaths, “they just got a call from operations. They were told to load up the Tornado’s with a full strike package.”

“Huh?” Hoop winced in confusion, “why the hell would they do that? What the fuck they going to bomb? There ain’t nothing around here.”

Now John was controlling his breathing, “there’s one thing and, if that’s the target then there’s only one reason I can think of that they’d hit it.”

An RAF land rover came speeding up to the chopper and Jamie jumped out of it. He looked even more nervous than John did. He was walking pretty briskly towards the chopper and sounded quite alarmed as he said, “forget the chopper. We’ll take the rover. No way in hell we’re flying out of here, guys.”

Hoop protested again, “have both you guys lost your cotton picking minds?”

John now stood back up straight and was mostly recovered, “don’t tell me. The Americans are invading home?”

Hoop blinked in astonishment. Jamie just shrugged as he replied, “maybe? I don’t know that for sure. I do know something’s wrong though.”

Hoop was still unconvinced, “yeah, do tell.”

“Oh,” Jamie acted sarcastically like it was nothing, “maybe because their’s a flight of F-16’s on their way here right now.”

Still unconvinced, Hoop followed up with, “to do what?”

“Gee,” Jamie started out acting like it was funny but, was a bit angry when he finished saying, “I don’t know Hoop. Maybe to blow the ever living crap out of this place?”

“That’s fucking stupid Jamie,” Hoop was now getting angry. “This is an RAF base. Why the hell would we bomb a base that might as well be one of our own?” The sirens went off and the first sound of jets could be heard roaring over head. All eyes went up just in time to see three more aircraft that popped up low over the tree’s and make a strafing pass. They flew right over the flight line and set several of the Tornado’s on fire. Hoop slapped Jamie on the arm, “like I said, let’s get the fuck out of here.”

John sounded very concerned as he told them, “guys! I don’t think they’re done yet, COVER!”

Anti aircraft guns began spitting out long lines of tracers, high in the air, as heat seeking missiles flew from their launchers and chased the low flying aircraft. The F-16’s wasted no time dropping flares, banking hard, and climbing. One of the F-16’s was not so lucky and didn’t make it far off the deck. It broke up shortly after a missile detonated it’s main engine. It was a hollow victory because while the base defenses were preoccupied, three more aircraft came in from the opposite direction. The pilots had now seen where most of the anti-aircraft defenses were and they began destroying them, one by one, before the crews could even react to the new threat.

Yet another flight came in low and began shooting up the runway and tarmac with it’s cannons. One Tornado was attempting an emergency take off and blew up just as it’s wheels left the ground. The F-16, that had destroyed it, then banked right and pumped out rounds that ripped across the field. It struck the helicopter, that Hoop had been pre-flighting, and turned it into a fireball that, in turn, struck Jamie’s Land rover, setting off another explosion when the gas tank ignited.

Jamie pushed himself up out of the drainage ditch he had sheltered in. He stomped around in anger about his Rover, “I signed for that! I didn’t even steal this one!”

Hoop was equally displeased as he came out of cover, “while you’re crying about your car, take a look at my bird! Is this what I pay my taxes for, to get bombed by my own goddamn air force?”

John joined them, only he was too busy to complain. John was scoping out the damage. A total of seven Tornado, fighter bombers, were burning on the ground. The ammunition trains were either blown all over the tarmac or had detonated right where they were hit. Two big hangers were on fire along with several other buildings. There were clouds of smoke rising from even more distant targets which, John assumed to be anti-aircraft positions. That wasn’t what was so important though.

Quickly, John noticed that the American Falcons had done all this damage with their cannons only. There wasn’t a single bomb dropped. The run way was still in tact and hardened bunkers looked to be completely untouched. Even now, the ground crews were rushing to get the remaining Tornado’s back into their bunkers and the blast doors closed.

That’s why John corrected Hoop, “you didn’t get bombed. This was a strafing run.”

“What difference does it make,” Hoop complained. “I still paid my share to the IRS, for all that damn ammo!”

Jamie shrugged and took it lightly, “well they are only one letter away from the IRA, maybe you guys should put them on the terrorist watch list.”

Hoop grunted, “damn straight.”

“Guys,” John told them, still extremely concerned, “we need another vehicle now. If they left that runway in tact it can only mean one thing. It mean‘s there‘s at least a battalion worth of air assault infantry coming in right behind this, maybe even more.”

“John,” Jamie replied, “they’re not that insane. You know why those Tornado’s were being loaded. That’s why they hit us. Look at the bright side, there won’t be any bombing attack on the Temple now.”

Hoop’s jaw dropped, “what? What kind of fucking moron would blow up the Temple? You can’t destroy the Dell anyway. Why would anybody even try?”

“No,” John sounded depressed, “you can’t destroy the Dell but you can burry it. It would take months to clear the rubble, then you’d have to find the exact spot again. With all the reference point’s gone, and no way to make it bigger, that could take years, maybe even decades or centuries.”

Jamie agreed, “yeah, there is no way to do that on this side. Blowing up this side just means, we’d be stuck here till it opens up, big enough, naturally. Who knows when that’ll be.”

John pointed towards some service vehicles that had escaped the fire. “One of them trucks might do us.” He started running for it and Jamie and Hoop didn’t wait around either. When John hit the starter button he actually breathed again. The vehicle cranked right up and he nodded for his team to jump in. Before he hit the accelerator he looked around for the best way to go. He knew the air was probably going to be filled with choppers any second. He also knew that there were probably helicopter gunships, already, patrolling the perimeter and trying to keep people like him inside.

Still, despite the problems of a lethal nature, John was an optimist, “look at the bright side. At least the Americans can’t use their JDAM guided munitions over here.”

One of the bunkers, that held the RAF Tornado’s, was still trying to get it’s blast doors closed. The crack had gotten very small but, was not quite closed just yet. Then a fireball erupted out of the hole, from the inside, and obviously fried everything in the bunker. A few seconds later an F-16 flew low overhead, climbed, and then did a victory roll before speeding off.

Hoop snarled, “don’t appear they need ‘em. Any other helpful observations, John?”

John did not bother to answer. He drove for the administration buildings and planned on crossing over the hard top road there, before heading down into the gulley’s around the firing range. After that, he figured on breaching the perimeter in the marsh land. The truck he was driving was nowhere near as good, as the rover, at getting over broken terrain but, he figured it was the one place that nobody would be looking for a high speed escape. It was their only shot.

The first sounds of whopping blades from an armada of helicopters could be detected as John was driving down the sidewalks between the administrative buildings. He was too busy to look since he was dodging people and other solid objects that could put is truck out of action. Hoop was not so encumbered on the passenger side of the cab. He was watching the horizon and he called out, “shit, I think that’s the Five Oh Duce, they’re on reserve at NIKA, or they were.”

Jamie, in the middle, leaned over so he could see, and wished he had remained ignorant, “John, they got apache gunships and little birds in support.”

“Don’t forget the Blackhawk gunships too,” Hoop reminded him. John did not have time to answer. He drove right across the paved double lane road along with the drainage ditches around them and in between. The truck managed it but, the passengers were a different story. Hoop grabbed his jaw. He had bitten his tongue on the last jolt and the cushion beneath him was not thick enough to keep his boney butt from slamming on the metal beneath that. “Damn it John! I know you people in England can’t never stay on the right side of the road but, this is ridiculous!”

The cross arm to the firing range was lowered and John drove right through it. As it broke, Hoop noticed the choppers coming in over the nearby parade field. They had slowed but, were still moving pretty fast as they skimmed over the grass. The troopers inside were rolling out the doors, across the dirt, and stopping in a kneeling position with their weapons ready. Then a second later they were moving out in formation as fast as they could run.

Jamie saw it too and said, “they got boots on the ground guys! John, get us out of here.”

The truck smashed between a pair of wooden bleachers, collapsing it’s overhead cover, and then slid down a hill to where the firing pits were for the shooting range. As the truck made it over the holes and onto the flat ground of the firing range, a large hole appeared in the sheet metal hood. Oil, steam, and water began spraying all over the windshield and the truck ground to a halt. It was still rolling when John bailed out. He got to his feet and began running back for the firing pits. He saw Jamie and Hoop not too far behind him. John dove in the shooting pit and took cover. A helicopter gunship flew over just then and turned the truck into a pile of scrap metal. It loitered for a few more seconds and then sped off.

When the three men crawled out of the holes, they could hear the ever constant rattle of small arms fire coming from just over the hill. John knew the score board here and he said, “no way they’re going to stop this guys. We still got to keep moving.”

Jamie lifted his weapon and said, “least we got these.”

John sarcastically laughed as he caught his breath, “we don’t have enough ammo to shoot it out with the hundred and first.”

Hoop protested, “shoot it out? I wouldn’t do that no way John. Them’s still our guys up there.”

“Our?” John started walking towards Hoop who bowed up his chest and waited. John had not stopped venting, “what do you mean our? There is no our Hoop!”

Jamie ran in between them and said, “enough! All right? Can we please just fight two wars at a time here? As I recall, the last time that something like this happened, half the team got wiped, by the other half!”

Hoop turned around and started stomping off towards the swamps, “leave it to a fucking Canadian!” He looked back and yelled, “and what the hell are you doing with a gun anyway, Jamie. I thought that was illegal for you guys to touch guns.”

John was about ready to run after him but, Jamie stopped him and said, “let it go, John. Let it go. We need to get out of here.”

John was still hot, “he’s had an attitude for a while now.”

“I know but,” Jamie told him and then started dragging him along, “I don’t feel like getting shot or detained. We got bigger fish to fry. This,” Jamie pointed back to the shooting, “is not our fight.”