I dismissed the General Council but held back my Council of War; that council consisted of Sheriff, Pete, Holder and myself. When Holder returned with Amos and Timmons in tow, we were ready to begin. I asked that the shutters be closed and the lamps lit, we needed to minimize the reach of curious ears.

Once everyone was settled at my end of the table I started in.

“OK Pete, give us the full story.” I was sure that there was more to it than he had initially offered, ‘ears everywhere’ my ass. I sat back and waited for his explanation.

“There is a band of people of half-tribes and half-white, accepted by neither.” Pete began.

I knew this, Cher sang a song about it; they were called half-breeds.

“They have no land to claim their own and are from many different tribes. Many lived here until Rulo came.”

Well I didn’t know we chased anyone out and I suffered a small twinge of guilt.

“They are hungry, but they are always hungry for there is no tribe to help them.” Pete continued on, “The Kansa lost many warriors attacking you and had a very bad hunt this summer, they ask the half-breeds to join them in stealing our herds and killing our warriors. They promise them food and slaves.”

“Some half-breeds join with the Kansa, the rest come here to bring this news in exchange for winter food.” Pete finished.

Story time over, time to consider and decide; nobody else was talking and it wasn’t a hard decision, I went with my gut. “If what they say is true then they may build lodges on my land for this winter, we will have food for them as well. We will know if an attack is coming soon.”

I turned to Amos, “Amos, we need the drone up, Pete will show you where to search. Take the extra batteries and the base, we will be tracking them constantly. We need eyes in the sky.”

“Pete if what they say is true they may come after the battle, only families who did not attack us. Please gather your scouts and warriors”

“Timmons, we need the boats to move north to safety. Take the children on them if possible. Please start preparations.”

“Sheriff, send out riders and call in the militia. We need any man who can fight to assemble with packs, weapons, ammunition and five days rations at 6 p.m. tonight. Have them assemble in the town square.”

“Holder, bring me your sharpshooters. We will all meet here again in three hours time. I’ll be at my house until then.”

With that, the meeting was adjourned and preparations begun to surprise the surprise attackers. Well I didn’t get to adjourn; I was waylaid by Timmons, Michelle and Sonya; back inside I went.

Timmons led off the charge, “I’ve got three boats here plus the skiff which we can load with supplies.” He stated. “There is a cove on the eastern bank about ten miles upstream which we can anchor in and everyone can sleep on the boats. The crew will be fully armed.”

It was a better plan than I had hoped for so I simply nodded and replied that we would send the drone to him with a message attached when it was safe again. That was all that he needed; he left to roust boatmen and move supplies.

Michelle was up next with a simple “What do I need to do?” request. That was simple, we needed to get the children and pregnant women on the boats and then triple the guard on the herds, as without a doubt they would attempt to stampede the herd at the very least. My last statement to Michelle was, “After you get all that rolling you will get your pregnant ass on the boat with the rest of the women and children, make sure you take enough chamber pots!”

Sonja was the more complex request, I needed maps printed out and brought to me. We needed to hide all of these records away and to organize communication during the fight. She was also to keep Kordi with her at all times until this was over; Mila, having pups to care for, would be locked away in the trailer.

Finally I was able to get away and go home. I wanted a shower and a change of clothes first of all, then it was time to gird up for war. As I rode down the surprisingly well-finished road the first bits of a plan were coming together in my mind. There were a lot of moving parts but we should be able to fully rout the enemy in one devasting ambush. We just had to know where they were. Particularly their scouts.

Holder and Amos were already at the trailer when I arrived, so was my big old truck. Part of me just wanted to fire up the truck and crash through their war party as soon as they crossed the Nemaha, it was a juvenile part of me but juvenile fantasies can be fun from time to time.

Amos was topping off all of the batteries for the drone and attaching the lowlight and IR lenses, the IR would be vital to finding and eliminating enemy scouts. Amos would do the spotting and Pete would send his scout teams to pick them off silently one by one. If they couldn’t pick them off…well, Holder was cleaning the AR-15 Match Grade and he had learned how to use the night vision scope. That young man had some scary level of shooting talent and when I had finally allowed him to use that AR he fell in love with it.

I gave Amos the pump shotgun, he also had his revolver but if someone stumbled across him, he need to simply make that person disappear and the shotgun was good at that. He also had Brin to guard him and one of my walkie talkies to help guide traffic; I had to laugh at myself as the radios were still new in the box. They came in an eight-pack and were designed to do way too much, but they had the range we needed and a whisper mode so we could keep the noise down. I needed to make sure Michelle took one on the boats.

As I broke my AR-15 down and started cleaning it I had to shake my head at the ridiculous technological advantage we had in the coming fight. But it bothered me that, had we returned from down south any later there might have been real trouble.