Jackknife 12
Chapter 12 Cleveland to South Bend
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]The Cleveland itinerary repeated Boston’s. Briefing at dinner the night of arrival. Discussions resembling arguments over the relatively short distance. The gavel of contractual conditions falling and ending any dissent.
Cray also kept his established schedule. Rising at three a.m., working the panel screws, getting a peak at the inner workings of Rhea. Coffee and a sandwich with his walk down checks at four. Calling up his escort and departing before five.
Interstate 90 appeared unchanged but traffic’s character altered gradually, more trucks with agricultural connection, more pickups to passenger cars, Midwestern feel growing. The highway flanked by flat farmland, broken up with intervals of small towns and industrial areas.
Cray’s mind drifted through memories of his farm driving days, splotched with moments he wished he could forget but were hard and lasting lessons that shaped his skills. The old Master Sergeant was right about experience being a harsh teacher with schooling books couldn’t cover.
“How’re you going to learn to handle an emergency if you’ve never been in one?” he would ask repeatedly.
Cray fell into every trap and had to claw his way out. Fail first, taught after. Often berated, rarely praised. The quote from the movie Aliens, “A day in the Corps is like a day on the farm …” always gave him a chuckle.
Unpaved roads in winter a mix of frozen ground and spots of mud where a truck would just slide left or right no matter where one steered. Dumping loads in warehouses that were no more than wood frames with fiberglass sheeting where the lifted dumping bed of the truck could lift the roof off. Driving trucks overdue for repairs and replaced parts. Learning to operate a forklift to load and unload his own truck on uneven ground.
Driving a Cadillac of trucks down the longest interstate in the country was a cushy job by comparison.
Cray noticed a couple black Chevrolet SUVs with tinted windows and Massachusetts plates pass by in a hurry. He was confident there were two more trailing who were also late to the parade, but they didn’t have to show themselves.
Feeling rascally, Cray decided to poke at his escort to pass the time. He punched in Ken and Bill’s number and sent a call request.
“Escort One, go ahead.”
“Looks like security is late to the convoy again today. Are they not used to trucker schedules?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of a security detachment.”
“Oh come on now, this is twice I’ve spotted them myself. Why can’t I know about the convoy I’m leading?”
“Everyone is on a need-to-know basis. Don’t take it personally.”
“Anything I should be on the lookout for?”
“No, just drive the truck. We’ll take care of the rest.”
The conversation trailed off and the day wore on. They pushed through the morning traffic build up and took a break between 9 and 10 a.m. Four of the allowed eight hours spent on the road. They would be back on the road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the last four hours.
It seemed wasteful to Cray. There was a good three hour block of time where traffic was in a low that he could make good progress. If he were on his own, and not constrained by rules, he’d consider a night shift due to the double trailers and one-shot nature of the job.
Cray pulled into the first rest stop he found after 9 a.m. to take the morning break. His known escort joined him. He marveled that they were dressed in suit and tie for a road trip.
Not a socializer, Cray walked around to stretch his legs and used the restroom, ignoring his suited co-travelers. Ken and Bill knew enough about Cray from the background checks to leave him be.
Back on the road, it wasn’t long before Cray called Ken again.
“Escort One, go ahead.”
“Ken, I have one request about the security detail that you can’t tell me about. Can you tell them, particularly the Toyota team, not to ride in my blind spot?”
“What do you mean by the Toyota team?”
“Yesterday and this morning the group was all Chevys. Now I have a group of four in Toyotas.”
A long silence followed. Cray figured Ken was talking to the team.
“Cray, can you slow it down and let us get closer? We don’t have a good position on you.”
The urgency in Ken’s voice and odd request put Cray on edge.
“Yeah, I can do that.”
Cray turned on his warning signals, let up on the accelerator and touched the brake just enough to to activate the lights.
The Toyotas’ response was immediate, smooth. Peeling off and jockeying for passing positions. It had to to be coordinated.
Escort One was soon positioned directly behind him.
“O.K. Cray, you can resume normal speed.”
Cray cut the warning lights and slowly accelerated to the speed limit. In the rear view camera he could clearly see Ken gesturing angrily while talking to someone on his phone. Something big just happened. The evening briefing was going to be interesting.
They proceeded on the interstate in silence until they reached the target truck stop. Cray noted four black Chevy SUVs patrolling the lot as he was parking. He joined Ken and Bill for some early talks.
At the table Ken looked riled and Bill sheepish.
“I apologize for the incident today. Thank you for reporting the Toyotas. I’ve been authorized to tell you that we do have a security detail in tow and they all drive Chevrolets. We are investigating the Toyotas now.”
“Someone is after the load.”
“That is a possibility.”
“There’s more you’re not telling me.”
“Don’t push it.”
“O.K., I guess I’ll see you at dinner.”
The news was shared with all of Silver Label Teams.
INTERNAL NOTICE
TO: All Teams
SUBJECT: Threat Sighting
MESSAGE:
Operation Romeo Papa reports threat sighting. All escorts report to HQ.
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The Toyotas were a subtle way of introducing tension.