The Uvalde Raider by Ben English (great books for teens TXT) 📕

EMT Jude Thomas made his way over, telling Micah to take off what was left of his shirt as the trooper briefed the two deputies on what had occurred. He warned them of the two Hezbollah terrorists still alive at the airstrip, as well as the dead ones and where to find them.

“There is also a body inside the flight shack. He’s a German national and was murdered by that terrorist handcuffed to the rail.” Micah paused for a moment, lowering his head as an aura of deep sadness weighed upon him. “Fellas, that man saved my life. Please give him the care he deserves. He was my friend, and he died because of me.”

Micah looked up at them again, setting his grief aside to be dealt with later.  “Remember those two terrorists still alive are muy malvados, no matter how bad off they may look. Be real careful.” The highway patrolman grunted under his breath as the EMT probed his right side.

“Hurts?” asked Thomas.

“Oh yeah.”

“It ought to, I think you got a couple of busted ribs there.” The EMT continued to examine Micah.

The highway patrolman turned his attention back to the deputies. “That’s about all I can tell you. There should be several troopers in the county within the hour, as well as the rangers. I imagine the feds will show up soon enough, too,” he paused again. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate you.”

“We’ll get it done, Micah,” replied Pablo. “You just take it easy.” A.J. nodded in agreement.

The two deputies left quickly, headed for their patrol units. Jude Thomas had finished his poking and prodding, and now stood studying Templar with his arms folded on his chest.

“Well?” Micah asked, taking another long swig of the iced sweet tea.

“You need to see the doc ASAP,” replied the EMT. “I’ve already told you about the ribs and that gash in the head is going to need stitching up. You’ll also need x-rays of both areas because there’s no telling what’s going on inside.” He produced a roll of gauze from his crash kit. “I’ll wrap those ribs for now, but only if you get yourself over to the ER first chance you get.”

“Done,” replied Micah.

The EMT worked rapidly with the gauze and white medical tape. Jude Thomas had been an Army medic at one time and knew his business. Within a few minutes he had wrapped and taped the ribs, and was gathering his gear together to leave.

“You going out to the Bar JA, Army?” asked Micah.

“Yep,” responded the EMT. “After working on you, I just can’t wait to see the other guy.” Thomas stood up, bag in hand. “Remember, Jarhead. You get to the ER pronto. Don’t make me come looking for you.”

Jude lingered for a moment, obviously troubled about what he had heard.  “Micah, about these terrorists and their plan. Do you really think?” his voice trailed off.

“That they can pull it off?” Micah finished the question. “I don’t know, Jude. As of right now we are beyond out of time and even further out of options. All I know is that if anybody can stop them, it’ll be my Uncle Zeke.”

The presence of Bob Sharpe drew their attention. He stood in the doorway, looking at some written notes in his left hand.

“Micah,” he said. “I just got word from the sheriff over in Kendall County. He says they’ve been getting reports of a crash involving a large aircraft over the past few minutes. Best location they can give at present is southeast of Kendalia and a bit north of the Guadalupe River.”

“Several units from different agencies are responding,” he continued. “The area is very near the edge of his territory with Blanco and Comal County. I told him to tell everybody to treat this as an extremely dangerous HAZMAT incident, and to stay the hell away until DPS gets there.”

“Roy, if it’s The Uvalde Raider, they need to evacuate out to a couple of miles from the crash. That VX is supposed to be really bad stuff.”

“Yeah, I know,” the sheriff shook his head in agreement. “I listened long enough while you talked with your captain to realize that. Look, I met the Kendall County Sheriff during our last association convention. He’s a new man, but smart and with an excellent reputation. He’ll handle this fine until they can get help to him.”

Micah Templar reached for his phone, intent on updating Captain Burton. There was a DPS district office in San Antonio and DPS Austin was not much farther away. The Kendall County Sheriff would get plenty of help out there quickly enough. The main challenge now was to isolate both the area as well as the aircraft’s nightmarish cargo. He had no exact idea of how Tio Zeke managed to bring the old bomber down, but he had.

Roy Sharpe’s next words made him stop. “Micah,” he spoke slowly. “There is something else you should know. Some of these reports are saying the crash was caused by a mid-air collision with a smaller aircraft. One report in particular described it as a smaller gray aircraft with German crosses on the wings.” The sheriff added, “Like you see in old World War Two movies.”

At that moment Micah knew exactly how Tio Zeke had managed to stop The Uvalde Raider. But this was no time for mourning and barely enough for a short, silent prayer. The trooper only nodded, picked up the receiver and began dialing again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Two weeks later, a black and white Dodge Diplomat turned off Lamar Boulevard and into the parking area for the DPS Headquarters Building in Austin. At the wheel was Trooper Micah Templar, dressed in the Texas Highway Patrol winter uniform with tie and long-sleeved shirt. The brass officially referred to the uniform’s color as desert tan, but it looked suspiciously like Confederate