Marcus woke the following morning after Mal left, weary and famished. When he inquired as to where Mal was, he was informed that she had left against the wishes of the medics. He was handed the arrow and message she'd given to Kurdy. Marcus seemed a bit upset by her leaving but he knew he had other things that needed his attention.
The Council had gotten the report from Kurdy and Lee on what they'd found and they acted upon that information, successfully capturing several of the attackers. They had been well organized and well protected from what could be seen. They had equipment that was meant to deal with heavy snow or sub-zero temperatures. They even had winter camouflage to make them less visible in the environment. The attackers had spent days setting up the perfect strike with a form of tree stand on both sides of the road and several bolt holes where they could aim a riffle out of.
The prisoners refused to speak but it seemed pretty obvious that a team that well equipped was from Daniel's troops or a third unknown party. Marcus was brought up to date on all of this as he slowly worked on his strength and health. Within another day, Marcus was back to his quarters and going over the reports and information of things he'd missed out on the past week and a half. He found it hard to focus but he managed to muddle through it. He woke some time during the night to find that he'd fallen asleep at his desk. He hauled himself into bed and slept until Kurdy woke him the next morning. He'd missed supper and breakfast and they were beginning to worry. Marcus let Kurdy bring him something to eat as Marcus went off to shower and start another day.
His mind kept traveling back to Mal. He sat and fiddled with the arrow for hours, not quite sure what her message meant. Finally he gave up and put the arrow up on a shelf near his desk. He looked again at the Free Spirit Press newsprint that now sat on his desk. It was a new copy but it was aimed at the slaves and those out east that feared the rule of Daniel. It was ingenious in a way, getting people to think without coming right out and reminding them that there were more of them then there was of Daniels troops. It gave hope but promised nothing that couldn't be obtained personally from each person. He admired the work and knew they had to start getting them filtered through to the east before spring.
He wanted to scream at times as work bogged him down. He dreamed of Mal at night but began to question whether what had been said or witnessed in fever dreams were real. He thought about what Kurdy said of her returning when winter broke but so far the New Year simply showed the weather continuing heavily with winds, snow and freezing temperatures. There was another team of horses that brought supplies from the mountain to the outlying towns but those that worked the routes had no idea where Mal had gone.
He worked tirelessly on trying to plot out where to attack or set up the field of battle with no luck. Arguments were constant in the board room between groups who thought better of where to have the advantage of attack to what they should attack with. Nothing seemed to be accomplished as the months stretched slowly into March. Marcus was wearing down and after one particular tough council meeting he went into his room and shut the door, locking the world out. He grabbed the nearest thing at hand and threw it in a fit of anger and desperation.
What happened next surprised even Marcus. The head of the arrow Mal gave him shattered as it struck the concrete wall. Marcus groaned, knowing it was the only thing that she'd left him and he'd just destroyed it. He went over to inspect what was left. When he picked up the shaft, he saw the piece of thin paper sticking out from the end. He pulled it out to discover it was a large piece of onion skin rolled up tightly to fit in the hollow metal shaft of the arrow. It was covered with strange markings.
He looked at the corner of it to see that it referenced the large Midwest map that he had hanging on one wall of his room. He went over to the map and gently held the paper up to the map and saw where she had marked it to fit perfectly. He dug in his desk for tape and gently put it up against the map. Then he pulled up a chair to sit while he began to inspect it. What unfolded in front of him made him grab paper and pen and begin to make notes. The map alone was the battle plan and showed the perfect place where to have an offensive chance in hell of surviving the battle to come.
He looked at the legend and saw that Mal had taken great care in marking out certain things on the states of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. Arrows showed how to bottleneck Daniels troops that had to come over the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. There were notes and ideas of blowing several bridges. The one at the Platte River in several areas was perfect. The map was noted where areas of quicksand resided on the Platte River and he knew for a fact that it was a slow moving, shallow looking river but it was also very dangerous.
She showed where one dam on a small river on the boarder between Nebraska and Kansas could be blown to flood an area further down in Kansas, making it into a marshy wetlands quite easily. That was where the offense was to take place, getting Daniels troops to travel across the fields, only to find that they would get stuck or sink into the fine silt mud that was underlying the old fields. She even made notes of using the large herds of cattle, buffalo and horses to distract, disrupt and even destroy some of the troops and their gear.
Her last note was to simply use most of the available weapons to bring down aircraft or to send scouts out to different areas along the way that Daniels aircraft would have to land and sabatoge them. She had planned it out some time ago when she'd been in his room and he never knew. She'd thought of many different angles and it'd been in his hands the whole time. He quickly got up and went to find Aaron, dragging her back to his room for her to look it over. Next, he found Lee, then Kurdy and finally Mister Smith to look things over before ever going to the council with this.
When he showed them the map and the notes Mal had made, the others simply sat there staring at the thin sheet of onion skin over the map, shocked that someone knew all of this and had planned ahead of time. Smith piped up then and brought everyone's attention back to him. "Kurdy, remember the six 'ghosts' we saw in South Dakota…the one with the Coyote skin on his head, he said 'The Great Spirit has sent us to give you warning of a great battle that will come soon upon the plains. You must be prepared or all will be lost. You will have some time to prepare but use it wisely. You will find one that knows of the old ways but lives in the now. This one will help you to defeat the demon from the east.'"
Kurdy nodded, "Yeah…and then they disappeared. That was two days before we came across the Horse Tribe."
Marcus looked between the two, "Six Indians?" he asked
Kurdy and Smith both nodded, "Yeah. Why?"
Marcus frowned. "I had a dream when I was in the infirmary with six Indians in it." He gave a quick description of them and explained what he'd been told they were doing.
Kurdy and Smith raised their eyebrows, then Kurdy spoke up. "That pretty much fits with the six we saw up in South Dakota..." The two men then slowly looked at Smith who had been staring at the map.
He looked at them when the quiet gave him a hint that something was up. He blinked as he realized the two men were staring at him, "What?!" he asked, sounding surprised. "Hey, just because something wishes to interfere or help in their own way doesn't always mean that God or the Great Spirit sent them. Don't look at me…I've got no news on any of this."
Marcus sighed and simply shook his head. He looked back at the map. This was one of the best plans he'd seen and he agreed to get the council together the next morning to start going over what needed to be done.