MEPHITIS MEPHITIS

Part 2

Continued from part 1

      "Is the situation at the dam likely to change before daylight?"
      "No. We are working towards face to face negotiations with the terrorists, but nothing seems likely before light." The Montana Secretary of State looked for somebody that might have an easy question to end the briefing on. He saw a pleasant face in the crowd. "Yes, the redheaded lady in the back."
      "Sir, just what will happen downstream if the dam is blown up? That's been asked three times and you haven't answered it yet."
      So much for redheads.
      The Secretary cleared his throat.

      "I got one! I got one!" The youngest of the terrorists shouted.
      Red and Robert got to the excited man at the same time. Red had a spotlight in one hand and a rifle in the other. He scanned the area with both.
      "What? What've you got? A cop?" Mason asked repeatedly.
      Red shined his light on the water and looked for something, a frogman hopefully, to shoot. All he saw was a giant carp on a string, with the man pulling on a contrived fishing pole. The fish seemed to be winning the tug-of-war. It weighed at least thirty pounds.
      Mason seemed awed by the fish and started hauling on the line with the man. Red shook his head and shot the fish with the hunting rifle. It still fought. The second shot didn't seem to phase it either. The third stunned it and the men pulled it out.
      "That's a big fish Tim." Mason said as he mopped his sweaty forehead.
      "Sure is, I'll get another one so we can have fish for breakfast." He paused, "That way our supplies will hold out longer." Mason smiled back at him. Tim turned to Red. "What do you think?"
      Red looked at the fish, then back at the lake darkening in the distance. "Three shots." He switched off his light and went back to where he had been snoozing against the van.

      Far below the causeway three small figures in concrete colored outfits moved like spiders on the face of the dam. From the highway bridge downstream they looked like splotches of discolored cement, from above, they would look like a rock or a crack. Unless you stared at them, then you'd see them move ever so slowly.
      One of the spiders stopped near a huge column near a flood gate. Something flashed metallic for just a second. The figure was still for a minute, then it began moving again.
      A soft voice spoke on a clear radio frequency. "Two. One." It repeated the message, then silence. It moved slowly on.
      After the shooting the figures stayed still for a long time. A searchlight swept the spillway and access walks. It passed right over one of the spiders without pausing, then it went out.
      Slowly the figure moved on toward a bundle of explosive on a floodgate support. He sighed and wondered about his sanity in joining the Explosives Ordinance Disposal detail yet again.

      Don froze at the first sound of commotion on the dam. The shouting carried easily to their position just under the road. They hunkered down in the brush and waited. A spotlight pierced the darkness, then a shot, two, three rifle blasts shattered the air. They could see something heavy being dragged onto the bridge deck. Then the light scanned the lake, and went off.
      The men shrugged to each other and whispered, "Quiet, be careful" to each other. Then they crept the next cover between them and the dam.
      Another half-hour of crawling and slithering over rocks, under brush, and through puddles brought them within ten yards of the dam superstructure.
      Don's group gathered behind an outcropping of stone. The other group joined them in a few minutes.
      The Special Force Commander whispered to Loznik and Don, "OK, we'll take it from here. Give us a few minutes to get into the culvert for cover then make your way to Captain Jones, tell him to start the diversion on schedule, then we'll take the dam."
      Loznik nodded. The troops crawled into the twin culverts that ran to the lake from the road to drain the causeway, and the two naturalists started away. Don stopped and pointed to four sets of wet tracks the moonlight made glow. The tracks lead up the rocks to the dam.
      Don smiled and said under his breath, "Mephitis mephitis." Chuckling the two men crawled back to the cluster of trees where the other troops waited.
      On the far side of the dam, the second unit received the code message over their radio that, "The pizzas are ready to go as soon as the driver is ready." They readied their weapons and crouched tensely in anticipation.

      Scott was sure something had moved on the road. He decided against waking Frank who he had just relieved on watch. He walked onto the road a little way, his weapon at the ready. He thought he saw something move and switched on his flashlight.
      Much shouting and snarling erupted, shouting followed from here and there.
      Scott couldn't tell who was more frightened, him or the big male raccoon his light hit in the face. The animal was blinded and angry, it reared up on its back legs and growled at the man. Scott triggered his rifle and blasted away at the beast. Splattering raccoon all over the road.
      For the second time in three hours the dam came to life.

      Don and Loznik froze again. Had something gone wrong, had the troops been discovered? They decided to wait and then go back and see if something could be done.

      Captain Jones froze. He had to wait until he was signaled or the thing could backfire and the dam lost. His orders were to wait until the two civilian scouts returned, then fifteen minutes later signal for the cover fire that would signal the Commander to move in. And By God, he was sticking to orders.

      The Commander froze, not knowing whether his men were being killed just above him, or the signal had been given. It was too soon. But the firing was within feet of the end of the culvert they were climbing. He would have to wait and see what developed. As he whispered to the man in front of him he clicked off the safety on his rifle.
      Don and Loznik moved closer to the dam. They could see two of the terrorists, Mason and Red, arguing about the security on the bridge. Red was winning the argument, saying the cops and soldiers in the area had to be kept off balance and away from the dam by stray bullets and shrapnel. To make his point he fired away down the road blindly, causing the two naturalists to duck for cover. Mason gave up, his wanting to save ammo would do them no good at all if the State Police retook the dam.

      Below the confusion one of the figures clung to the side of a ladder as the light swept across again. It was as still as the manmade stone it hung from. The light came back then went down towards the fishing area. The figure shifted slightly and became still again.
      One of the other EOD figures far under the structure moved ever so carefully away from the charge it had been working on.

      Don and Loznik realized that now was the time to start an attack on the dam. Using their confusion and random shots as cover for their advance.
      Loznik went to warn the Commander. Don ran down the hill through the undergrowth to tell the Captain to attack now.
      "Sounds like a good plan Doctor. Let's hope your friend can convince the Captain to do it." They became silent, listening to the argument above, and waiting for more shooting signaling the start of the diversion.
      It came.
      Don told the Captain there was new orders and he had to start now, why else would Don run down the road in front of God and everybody if it wasn't orders?
      The shooting started.

      Far down the roads leading away from the dam two groups of special forces began firing at targets on the dam. Several of the terrorists were taken completely by surprise and fell dead or panic stricken.
      Red shouted orders and attempted to organize his defenses

      Blasting their way up the bank to the total surprise of the terrorists the Special Forces people gained the west end of the dam. Two bomb technicians crawled alone the causeway over the dam and started cutting wires to the charges there hoping that the terrorists would be too busy to blow up the dam before allowing them the courtesy of disarming it.
      Red was having the time of his life, a wholesale turkey shoot on cops, soldiers, and other enemies. But he slowly realized they were heavier armed than he was.
      Red ducked into the gatehouse to blow the dam.
      A blood-curdling scream erupted seconds later.

      The skunks had followed the scent of reheated ham and other goodies to the control building kitchen. Nobody was there, all on the dam yelling at each other. Mama skunk gave the all clear to the youngsters and they started eating.
      When the shooting started Mama decided that the kitchen alcove was as safe as anywhere, so she walked out onto the counter to keep an eye out for trouble. Her family came first.
      The big man that ran in seemed headed for her babies who didn't notice him as they ate.
      Mama skunk used the only means of defense she had at her disposal.

      Red screamed louder than the shooting on the dam, but he was so intent on the detonator he kept moving toward it.
      Mama gave him another dose. That was too much for him.

      He couldn't breath, his eyes were clenched shut and his whole body seemed on fire.

      The Commander saw Red run into the Gatehouse, but he couldn't get to it to stop him. It seemed they had failed. Red screamed. The officer waited for the noise and convulsions from the dam indicating it was going.
      Seconds later Red ran out, screaming wildly, firing into the air. The Commander shot at him, but Red was over the side of the dam, splashing wildly in the water. Before anybody got another shot at him he was out of sight.
      "Caught in the undertow." The Commander said out loud.

      In another minute the skunk odor was starting to cover the dam.
      Mason's eyes burned and he found it hard to breathe.
      "SKUNK!!! SKUNK!!!" Somebody shouted, both cops and terrorists backed away from the gatehouse. Still firing at each other.

      Loznik sat on the rocks just out of the light and watched the battle like a TV show. Then he heard the shouts of "Skunk!" and started laughing. He picked up his gun and started walking down the road to pick up Don. "Mephitis Mephitis, hero of the day." He chuckled.

      The demolition crew working under the dam had gotten to most of the charges and defused them, others they had grabbed with a long pole if they couldn't get the wires, these dangled on the face like deadly broken spider eggs. But there were a few charges they hadn't gotten to yet. They didn't know if these could still destroy the dam or not. Now they conversed openly on the radio with the bomb team above, laying out who was to do what next. One of the original spiders on the wall crawled along the spillway toward another charge.
      The fighting above was a sign that the charges could be detonated at any time. The remaining two started to repel down to a set that stood on either side of a floodgate.

      One level under the control buildings main floor one of the terrorists woke up to the racket outside. He sat up and gasped at the horrible smell in the room.
      Steve suddenly realized that his eyes were burning. He didn't want to be caught in the fighting. Maybe he could hide somewhere, he opened a door by the window and found himself on a service catwalk that ran along under the roadway over the floodgates. Dazed and gasping against the tightness in his lungs he strolled along, wondering at the waterfall that fell from the spillway to the rocks hundreds of feet below. If he could just dive over that he wouldn't have to worry about it any more. But he didn't want it to hurt, he felt that the rocks would hurt.

      The EOD men saw the figure on the catwalk above. If he looked down they would be discovered. One of them brought out a pistol, but he couldn't get a clear shot. They made themselves part of the shadow and waited.

      Mason stood his ground behind the van. Inside was an unlimited supply of ammo, and several leftover sticks of dynamite. Frank readied a stick, lit it, and threw it at the advancing enemy.
      The explosion knocked one of the troops over the edge, he fell two hundred feet to the cliff below, then tumbled down the face to the river.
      At the explosion the people sheltered on the interstate bridge over the river thought the whole dam was going. They became more confused when it didn't, some were disappointed. There were conflicting reports from the radio. From the binoculars they could make out figures moving here and there on and below the causeway. As is normal in any battle, once battle is engaged, the commanders are in the dark waiting for those in the field to decide the issue.
      On the roof of the high school the Governor lowered his binoculars and sighed.
      The demolitions men heard, then felt the explosion, unsure, they looked at the charges just feet away. When they didn't explode they moved to finish disconnect the charges.
      Steve heard the explosion, and thought the dam was going. Not wanting to go with it, he jumped over the rail. His jump caught the ropes of one of the demolition men and he ended up dangling over the precipice disoriented, confused, and terrified.
      Steve grabbed for the pistol still in his belt and started shooting.
      The other demolition man tried to get to Steve to finish him before he endangered them. Steve shot at him, and missed. He fired blindly at the man below him who was swinging wildly as Steve fought to get free of the ropes.
      A shot ricocheted into the half-disconnected charge the man had been working on.
      The explosion killed the EOD man instantly, smashing his body into the ironwork of the floodgate. Then the limp corpse tumbled to the whitewater below.
      Steve saw the explosion and felt something instantly jab into his stomach, then he started falling. The long drop ended on the rocks he had saw before. His last thought was that the rocks did hurt.
      The other demolition man was shaken and bruised, and he felt something was wrong with his right arm but he was still functional. He looked at the floodgate. The steel was badly dented, several of the angled braces were missing, the concrete had been cracked, and some of the reinforcing showed through, but it held. He knew it would never stand the detonation of the other charge on his side. So he started back to it, wire cutters in hand.

      The explosion underneath had shocked them all. Mason hoped the dam would go, when it didn't he wondered what was going on. The troops looked at each other, then started shooting at the van again. Both the terrorists and the troops saw the armored troop carrier coming down the causeway at the same time.
      Mason knew it was then or never.
      He started covering the far end with fire then rushed the detonator on the ledge. He turned the key and kept firing.
      He never felt the bullets that were ripping into his body. He only had eyes for the bridge over the spillway as one side of it erupted in concrete dust and flame, but nothing else went.
      He fell to the sidewalk thinking the whole structure was doomed.
      As the EOD man cut the second wire he felt the shock of current in his cutter. A second more and he, the dam, and everything downstream would have been history. He felt so relieved he almost didn't notice the concrete falling over the spillway twenty yards away, his relief ran down his leg, and started filling his boot.

      The explosion cut the armored car off, but the troops were being reinforced from the other side as well. It was over in another minute. Only a handful of the terrorists were taken alive.

      "I know my rights. I want my lawyer and you have to have a female officer search me!" Lady was shouting as the troops put her in a police car.

      Twenty minutes later the governor was announcing the securing of the dam and the death toll; nine terrorists, with one them missing, presumed dead, and five officers, with ten wounded. Damage to the dam was moderate, to be accessed at first light. The water level is being lowered to take the strain off the damaged floodgate. The skunk smell discussion ended the conference on a light note, with a suggestion that the Lewis and Clark Dam be renamed, Damn Skunk Dam.
      Loznik corrected the reporter to himself, "Damn Mephitis Mephitis Dam."

      The visitors center for Miles City and the Lewis and Clark Reservoir has a new addition, a memorial to the unknown skunk that saved the dam and the city, if you ask the curator about a certain animal he'll tell you quite a tale. Dr. Don Cooke is the world's leading authority on skunks, Mama made sure of that when they tried to enter the gatehouse to liberate them the next day.

End Mephitis

Original Manuscript Copyright 1983, Levite
HTML presentation Copyright 2002, Levite, The Media Desk

All rights reserved, including rights to publication. Distributed copies to proofreaders and editors remain property of the author. Original manuscript in possession of author as of the date of this rewrite and edit. All persons and events are fictitious. This is not intended nor is it to be taken as a terroristic threat against any persons or facilities. No small mammals were harmed in the writing of this story. Mephitis Mephitis is the scientific name for the garden-variety striped skunk common to most of North America.
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