Close Enough

Chapter Five - Escalation

Klaus Schiller and Ludwig Ernst exchanged incredulous looks.  The two Associated Press journalists realized they were lucky to be alive, as they examined the relatively 'clean' hole in the passenger-side window just behind where Klaus's head had been.  The bullet had then transited the front seating area and embedded itself in the rear portion of the driver-side door post.  It hadn't been the only one, either.  There was a small hole approximately 1.5 meters up on the passenger side of the van's cargo area, and right behind the passenger area; it hadn't been there when they had departed the AP's Frankfurt am Main headquarters that morning.  Ludwig opened the rear doors and used the dome light to look for any further damage.  It only took a moment to determine that a handheld video camera  stored on the driver side had been struck and was no longer usable. 

It was also clear, however, that the bullet had expended almost all its energy penetrating the van's aluminum side panel; it had not pierced the camera.  Ludwig grabbed a flashlight from an equipment rack and slowly played the beam across the van's thin carpeting.  Something glinted and, with a cry  of discovery, Ludwig reached in and plucked a misshapen lump of metal from the floor.  It was the remains of a copper-jacketed round.

The distinctive ululation of an ambulance siren, dismissed at first as mere 'background noise', grew louder.  The sound ended just as the emergency vehicle cleared the small village of Wahrstedt, its blue and white emergency lights twinkling across the fields.  The lights drew closer and they thought the ambulance was enroute to the hamlet of Buestedt, until it turned south onto Highway 648 - the same road they were on.  It slowed as it approached the van, then rolled past.  As the men watched, two hooded flashlights came out of the woods just east of the road and waved, trying to attract the driver's attention.  The ambulance stopped, then turned onto a dirt track.  The flashlights swung back and forth as the soldiers - they had to be soldiers - led the ambulance into the trees.  A few minutes later, the ambulance came back down the trail with two American military vehicles following closely.  The little convoy turned north onto the pavement, made a left back onto Highway 188 and picked up speed.  When the ambulance entered Wahrstedt, the siren came back on and the vehicles accelerated.  In moments, the siren's sound faded away.

Klaus and Ludwig climbed back into the van and discussed the known facts.  One, they had bullet holes in their van; only Providence had prevented one or both of them from stopping those bullets.  Two, an ambulance had been escorted into an American field encampment - the very one they had just visited as part of a series on the current military maneuvers - and then escorted back out, accompanied by American military vehicles.  Three, there was a lot of activity in the encampment now, far more than one would expect at two-thirty in the morning.  For them, the conclusion was inescapable: at least one American soldier had been unlucky, perhaps fatally so.

This had to be called in, they agreed.  Following the ambulance's path, they drove through Wahrstedt looking for a phone booth.  They found one just outside the Post Office and parked.  Klaus lifted the receiver, shoved a couple of Two Mark coins in the slot and dialed from memory: 69-27230.  The phone rang twice.

"Associated Press, how may I direct your call?" the night operator asked.

"Extension 6, the International Desk," replied Klaus.

"Please hold."

After a moment's silence, a man's voice answered, "International Desk, Hammerschmidt."

"Franz!" exclaimed Klaus, "I'm glad it's you.  Listen - Ludwig and I are in Wahrstedt, just east of Wolfsburg.  We have two bullet holes in the van, and an ambulance just left the American encampment headed west, probably for the hospital in Wolfsburg.  I think a soldier got shot!"

"Bullet holes?  Shot!  What are you talking about?" Hammerschmidt sputtered.

Klaus explained the course of events.  "You've got to get this out on the wire, Franz," he demanded.  "It'll be the scoop of the year, maybe the decade!"

"I don't know..." began Hammerschmidt, but Klaus interrupted him.

"Franz, listen to me!  We were headed north, the bullets hit the passenger side of the van, and the Americans have nothing but training ammunition.  Franz - the bullets came from the East!  They're Soviet bullets, Franz!"

There was a long silence on the other end of the line; finally, Hammerschmidt relented.  "For something this big, I'll have to call the Chief Editor."

"Great!" enthused Klaus.  "Ludwig and I are headed back; there's no use following the ambulance.  Hospitals are notoriously tight-lipped at the best of times; for something like this, we'd be lucky if they'd even admit to having patients.  I'll work my US Army contacts with their V Corps.  See you at breakfast, Franz - and thanks!"  He hung up and got back into the van.

"Let's not keep History waiting, Ludwig.  Move it!"

***

Mark still couldn't believe the amount of blood Specialist Clanton had lost; the sticky red fluid had almost covered the front of his fatigue shirt.  After confirming Clanton was only unconscious, not dead, Mark had pulled Clanton's field dressing from its pouch and used it to stanch the flow of blood while he considered the situation.  Something had hit the tree above his head, and something had grazed the side of Clanton's helmet, driving it downward and breaking his nose; the helmet had fallen off of his head, when he had hit the ground.  The ambulance had taken him to the hospital to set his nose, and for observation; he had lost consciousness, after all.  No one was saying bullet, but what else could it be, especially after he'd heard that automatic weapons fire from far past the east side of the stream?  If not a bullet, then what had caused the dent in Clanton's steel helmet?  Surely not the sixty-eight inch drop from his head to the leaves on the floor of the little wood.  At least this hadn't been Clanton's "OK Corral", Mark thought to himself, as he finished writing up his Serious Incident Report.  Clanton was out of the exercise, but he'd live to train another day;  Mark was very thankful for that.

When dawn arrived, four new vehicles were parked just inside the tree line: two from the US 11^th Armored Cavalry Regiment's Headquarters in Fulda, and two from the Wolfsburg BGS - Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard) - office.  Although the East German field uniforms had a rain- or splinter-type camouflage pattern, it seemed to not blend in as well against the local terrain and vegetation as did the American's "splotch" pattern; the highly-trained Bundesgrenzschutz soldiers had little trouble spotting the other side's sentries through their powerful binoculars.

Not long after dawn arrived, Mark noticed that the BGS and Cav soldiers were getting excited about something, then he heard it, too.  The clanking of treads and the sound of large diesel engines drifted on the morning breeze across the fields and over the stream, telling anyone within earshot that a large mechanized force was approaching.  One of the BGS soldiers spoke into his radio; ten minutes later, two armed observation helicopters began patrolling the border.  Mark wondered about the sudden change of atmosphere he observed in the Command tent.  It looked and sounded like the situation was heating up.  Mark recalled one of the stories his dad had told him concerning a narrow escape during the Korean War, and hoped he'd get a chance to share this story.  He also hoped that this training exercise would remain just that: an exercise.

***

AP (Frankfurt/Main) - Two Associated Press journalists reporting on NATO maneuvers in Niedersachsen narrowly escaped injury when their van was apparently struck by rifle fire in the immediate vicinity of the training area.  There are also unconfirmed reports, that a soldier - possibly American - has been injured and taken to the hospital.  An investigation is underway.


Chapter 5 word count = 1343 words
Running total word count = 5209 words