Finally, Jesse knew the feeling wasn’t going to go away. He stuck his head out the door. The daylight and twilight was gone, the moonlight was illuminating what it could.
“Zed, come on in. I think we have a problem.” He turned to Doug who was sitting on the porch. “Doug, collect your nuclear bunny and come in here. I think we have a problem.” Jesse realized as he said it, he was repeating himself. He knew he had a tendency to do that when he was stressed.
Once he had everyone around the table, Jesse laid out what he had determined.
“OK, guys, I’ve been listening to the radio and it sounds like something is going on, some sort of combat type action. I don’t know who is fighting who, if the guys we are after are involved, if it’s still going to be happening tomorrow, none of it. However, my gut tells me if we wait, the bad guys will be more alert the longer we wait. If they are getting hit, or are hitting someone, then they will be on the lookout for retaliation or another attack soon. I think we need to move into position tonight, and hit them first thing in the morning, just as it gets a little light so we can see.” After Jesse laid it out to them, he felt better, this felt right. He hoped they saw it that way as well.
The group looked around the room. They looked at each other. Emilia was scared, Jesse was amped up, Doug was worried, but committed, and Heidi, Heidi’s look was unreadable to all but Jesse. He had seen that look once before, long ago and far away. It was the look his Gunnery Sargent had just before they went into the Cartel’s village all those many years ago. It was a look that said volumes, if you could only read the language. It was sad, and fierce and despondent all at the same time. Heidi spoke. Her voice was quiet yet held everyone’s attention.
“Hit them before they are ready. What else do we need to get done before we move out? If we can get it all done, we can leave in about an hour, and catch a nap at the jump off points near the objectives. It beats screwing around and overthinking it for another day.” She looked at the faces of everyone. They were all in agreement.
“Zed, you got the stuff to make up a batch of your god awful energy drink? With the rest cut short, we might need it by the end of the morning.” Jesse’s voice cut the silence.
“Sure. Emilia, if you could give me a hand, we have some mixing to do. Jesse, my gear is already in the truck. We will mix up about oh…three quarts of the drink. One for me and you and the kids can take the other two.”
Doug, spoke up.
“This feels right. I’ll get the ATV out and finish loading my gear. Heidi, can you get yours and Emilia’s?”
Heidi’s reply was quick and to the point.
“Our gear is already prepped, I just have to grab it off the bed. I’ll give you a hand when I get outside.” As she walked past the table, she saw a pencil sketch Emilia had been working on. It was of Heidi, all kitted up as she was right now. Damn, she thought to herself. ‘If I look this fierce, they might just die from fright’. She looked a moment more, then on impulse, she grabbed a pencil and made a quick addition to the jacket on the picture on the right breast, where a name tag would be. Emilia saw her do it and shot a questioning glare at Heidi.
“What?”
“What did you add?”
“She needed a name tag”
“OK, but who is ‘Engel Van die Dood’”
“Someone my father told me to not be afraid to be.” Heidi strode out of the kitchen area to the bedroom for their gear.
Emilia turned back to where Zed was paused in pulling stuff from the cabinets and freezer. She saw he had a funny look on his face.
“What’s up, Zed? How can I help?”
“OK, we are making my secret recipe for an energy drink. Grab that big bowl over there. We are making a big batch.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just have a case of red monster or whatever?”
“This old school recipe has a bit more, and is much healthier for you and lasts longer.” Zed smiled, all the time telling himself he must have misheard what was written as a name tag on the drawing. He will look at it in a little while.
“OK, Zed. What are the ingredients so we can mix this up?”
“So, since we are making a large batch, we start with three cans of frozen juice concentrate.” He points to one can each of pineapple, orange and grapefruit concentrate on the table. “Dump those in the bowl. Next we take some water I have over here on the stove coming to a boil and dump in about 20 tea bags.”
"Isn’t that a lot? There’s only about two cups of water in the pot. Shouldn’t we add more?”
“Nope,” Zed shook his head “we want it to be very concentrated. We let that boil for about five to seven minutes, then take out the teabags and add two cups of sugar. While that dissolves, we come back over here.” Zed turns towards the bowl on the table. “We mash up six frozen bananas. Fresh ones would be better, but I didn’t have time to shop.” He smiles at Emilia. “To this, we add a sixteen ounce jar of fresh raw honey.” He starts stirring the gloppy mess. “Emilia, here, stir this. As it breaks up and thaws, we stir, and can start using the whisk.” He holds up a large whisk, “It will stir easier after I add the tea and sugar mix from the stove.” He pours the still steaming pot into the big bowl, melting the last of the frozen components. Emilia starts whisking away, trying to get everything smooth and combined. To this he added four scoops of Gatorade powder, fruit punch flavor and four scoops of egg based protein powder.
Zed grabs a small bottle from the spice cabinet. “The next thing we add is about ten drops of clove oil.” Finally, Emilia can’t take it anymore and has to ask.
“OK, Zed. Explain how this is an energy drink.”
“Sure. The fruit juice is short term and some medium burn sugar. The honey is longer burn. The bananas are for the potassium for the muscles. Tea is for the caffeine. Tea has more than coffee. The raw sugar I mixed in the tea was to boost the caloric content. Gatorade for the electrolytes, and protein powder for the protein.”
“And the clove oil?”
“Clove oil is a natural mild anesthetic to reduce feeling pain, like from burns, bruises and such. But more is not better in this case. If you put too much clove oil in, you will shit like a goose for a week.” Zed thought about what all they had put in, then remembered one more ingredient. He went to the pantry and pulled out a liter bottle of tonic water. Opening the lid, he poured it all in as Emilia stirred and whisked. “Quinine, for muscles.”
When Zed thought it was mixed enough, he pulled out six one liter water bottles. To these he added ice cubes from the fridge. The two of them proceeded to ladle the mixture into the bottles. The leftovers he placed in a pitcher in the fridge.
“When we get back, we can add a little Gin to it, and have a good post workout drink.” While he was telling Emilia this, he was looking at the drawing on the table.
“This is a great likeness. You have a real talent.” His finger traced the name on the jacket. “Where did you say your grandfather was from again?”
“Originally, somewhere in Africa. I don’t remember where.”
Zed was a bit puzzled. What kind of father tells his only daughter to not be afraid to be ‘Angel of Death’?