Chapter 5

"We were getting ready to enter Kuwait. We knew The Iraqis had a command post some way across the border. But the air boys couldn't locate it So they sent in a ground recon unit. Captain Walker was in charge. I was his lieutenant. We found the damned command post, and the damned Iraqis had one hundred or more Kuwaiti civilians held captive as a human shield. Headquarters kept telling the captain we had to knock it out and the captain kept telling them we couldn't without massacring the civilians. Finally the captain stripped all his gear, taking only a single pistol and knife, told me I was in charge, to give him twenty minutes. If something hadn't happened by then we were to blow the gate and destroy the center, being as careful of the civilians as we could. I objected but its pretty hard to argue with Thunder Walker when he's made up his mind.
The twenty minutes was almost up when suddenly we heard all hell break loose. A heavy machine gun started roaring away, the gates flew open, and the Kuwaitis came pouring out.One of them started screaming "Lieutenant Arrows! Lieutenant Arrows! Come here! Come here!" I didn't hesitate. I charged down the hill and got up to the old man, my men right behind me.
Suddenly the story was interrupted as two bullets blew out the back window and continued on to make two considerable holes in the windshield. "What to hell?!" Travis screamed. Twenty Arrows looked behind them. "Three men on motorcycles!" he screamed, "Some of the guys from the bar! I guess they're still unhappy." One of the bikers raised a pistol and squeezed off several rounds. Trivette made a corner and the bullets tore into the parked car, sending people on the sidewalk scurrying. A ways up the street the strangely dressed marshal from the warehouse emerged from a store, went to the curb, and as the truck approached made hand signals for it to make a left hand turn. Twenty Arrows turned and saw him. "Walks With Thunder!" he muttered. "Turn left!" he screamed, "Turn left!" Trivette quickly obeyed. The strangely clad marshal walked between two buildings and seemed to disappear. Trivette found himself in a construction site, half finished houses were everywhere. He zigged and zagged, and the bikers followed. The marshal walked out of an unfinished building to a stack of steel rods used to reinforce the concrete. He picked up three short rods and waited. Trivette flew by and the motorcycles came close behind.
One after another the marshal threw the steel rods into the front wheels of the motorcycles with incredible accuracy. The first biker hit a stack of bricks, flipped over and over, landed on his knees and drove his face into a stack of copper piping that was being cut for installation. The men working there stared in amazement. The second biker skidded sideways down a ban, and became air borne and landed in an unfinished swimming pool.
The third biker was flipped onto a stack of plywood. He slid along this onto another and yet another. Then he, too, became air borne. A cement truck was backing up to empty his load. The biker landed in its chute and disappeared into the mixer. A workman screamed for the driver to turn his mixer off and several men began to climb up. By the time Trivette and Twenty Arrows got back they were just pulling the body out. All three bikers were quite dead.
A police car arrived. The officer listened to what happened and scratched his head. "When you drove by," he finally muttered, "you must've knocked over a stack of rods then the bikers hit them as they came by. Hell! We can't call this a shooting incident! None of these guys got shot! We'll have to call it a traffic mishap. These three were riding recklessly and paid the price. Save us a lot of paperwork."
Trivette agreed as they were headed off a little girl came up to Twenty Arrows. "The rods didn't fall over," she said, "the cowboy threw them!"
"What?" Trivette asked. "The man dressed like a cowboy in the movies. He threw the bars into the men's wheels. I saw him. Then he walked into the building and didn't come out again. But when I went over he wasn't there!"
Twenty Arrows knelt down. "Now, it must've been one of the workers standing there," he said. "It wasn't a cowboy. There's no cowboys around here. Now, just run along!"
The girl looked at him and grinned, then hurried off. Trivette looked at his companion strangely.
"Children!" Twenty Arrows remarked, "Their imaginations. They see an Indian, there's got to be a cowboy!"
Trivette laughed. "Well, I'd better get to the garage," he cursed. "Need another new windshield. I think this makes SIX! They're gonna scream about another requisition, but it was definitely in the line of duty!"
As they got back in and started off Trivette said "Let's see, The Kuwatis had come out, the old man had called you to the gate. What happened then?"

Page 7

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