The Whisperer in the Woods
The Whisper in the Woods
“Sir, I know it’s our turn but higher didn’t say anything about additional attachments.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t told, either, Paul,” Lieutenant Taylor Lawrence said.
“He’s a weirdo.”
“Comes well recommended.”
“Frist sergeant didn’t say any—”
“No, the commander did.”
Sergeant first class Paul Stilton took a slow breath in and exhaled. “Sir, this isn’t a lab, this is combat.”
“I hear you, and a part of me agrees with you. But the commander outranks both of us, and this is coming from above him. No idea how high.”
“This could get us killed.”
“Thanks, Paul.” And that was it. Stilton knew he could push the lieutenant pretty far, and he felt comfortable having heated discussions, but the line was the line.
The mission tomorrow would be the same as all the others. Recon to gain and then maintain contact with the enemy lines. They’d spend a week tracking the enemy and gauging where their part of the front lines were so they could report it to higher.
They’d do more if ordered to.
***
The beginning of the war had been hard on a lot of them.
Foreign-owned social media weaponized Americans against each other, funding trends of sabotage.
Military spouses lost access to their bank accounts through cyber attacks. The military had to pull all personnel onto the military bases to keep them safe—including the spouses and kids.
Those were dark days.
But now they were here, doing something about it. Making an impact.
Stilton was a veteran of the last conflict. Lieutenant Lawrence was a good kid, and Stilton wanted to ensure they were a successful team.
“Alright,” Stilton began. “What’s your deal?” The weirdo was a psychological operations specialist. That’s as much as Stilton was told, but he’d heard of the type before and most of it was classified so the stories were either ridiculous or made up.
“I’m Danny, sergeant. Danny Thornbrook.”
“And?”
“And I like to read. Into fitness. Running isn’t really my—”
“Why are you here?”
“I guess to fight for my country and all that. You ever see that really old meme about doing our part and—”
“Why are you attached to us, weirdo?”
“Oh, sorry, sergeant. I’m your PSYOPer.”
“You going to drop a bunch of leaflets while we’re doing the recon mission tomorrow? That it?”
“No. Probably not.”
“You gotta give me some more, Thornbook. You’re not wearing a uniform with rank. What’s in that massive backpack you don’t put down? What are you planning? What’s higher think you can do? Why. Are. You. Here?”
***
Lieutenant Lawrence let Stilton take on the conversation with the PSYOP kid solo. Let the NCO do the NCO thing.
The whole platoon could hear Stilton getting heated with the PSYOP kid, but that was probably a good thing.
Lawrence watched the conversation end between them.
It was not clear if it went well.
A few minutes later the PSYOP kid walked up to Lawrence.
“The cicadas sure do sound beautiful,” the weirdo said.
“What’s your name?” Lawrence asked.
“Danny Thornbrook, sir. You mind if I record the cicadas for awhile?”
Lawrence cracked a smile. “Sure, Danny. Knock yourself out.”
Danny manifested what looked like a microphone and some sort of recording device from his massive backpack, then walked to the edge of the woods out of earshot of the others.
He stayed very still for quite a long time.
Danny sure was a weirdo; but he was their weirdo.
“Sir,” whispered Stacy, one of the nearby privates. “You’re telling me he’s a creative genius and higher thinks he’ll help in some way?”
“Yeah. We’ll give him one chance. If it doesn’t work, then he’s another rifleman and we could use the extra weapon system on the line.”
***
They moved at night.
The forest was dense, thick and crawling.
The platoon had experience entering it, but each time held an energy. The enemy was out there.
The plan was simple:
- Link up with the current recon element to relieve them.
- Let the weirdo be weird.
- See what happens.
- Report up to higher.
They were told the mission may impact the entire conflict. If the weirdo was right, and it all worked, then the allies may begin to make serious headway.
It took them a couple of days to reach the front.
Thornbrook was quiet most of the time. His equipment was all non-standard. He had a laptop connected to his chest that seemed waterproof and also appeared to be connected to some sort of satellite internet system. He wore a wild helmet that appeared to have a camera system connected to a set of goggles. His helmet had a microphone and a wire that ran to his backpack.
Thornbrook spent a lot of time near Lieutenant Lawrence, showing Lawrence concepts for operations. Lawrence would give thumbs up and it seemed Thornbrook was then sending the concepts up for approval.
When the other soldiers asked Thornbrook about all of the gizmos and gadgets the kid really lit up.
He talked about his drones and how his gear used the same tech that newscasters use to remote into live television, except his was encrypted.
It was a lot of information and no one asked Thornbrook questions after that.
“I’m excited to see the fireworks whenever they happen,” Lieutenant Lawrence said to Stilton.
“We’ll see,” Stilton replied.
They had walked through the night, listening to the cicadas. Watching Thornbrook record the sounds. Thornbrook even walked next to Stilton for a couple of hours, recording the sound of Stilton’s footsteps, which received a few quiet giggles from everyone except Stilton.
Stilton rolled his eyes, but he didn’t want an hour-long conversation about the nature of human populations and mass movements and all of the other weirdness Thornbrook liked to talk about, so Stilton let Thornbrook do his thing.
***
The link-up with the platoon they were replacing went well. Passage of lines is never easy, and Lawrence was able to breath better once they made it safely to the patrol base.
The lieutenant they replaced was a good friend from college, so they already had rapport established.
The enemy had a similar unit tasked with maintaining contact with them. The previous platoon had done a solid job of mapping out the light machine gun emplacements.
“Have you ever approached from their rear. Over there, to the north?” Thornton asked.
“Why is he here, Taylor?” The other lieutenant asked.
“He’s our secret weapon. He’s a good kid. Have you approached from the north?” Lieutenant Lawrence asked.
The other lieutenant made eye contact with his own platoon sergeant, then with Stilton, who nodded in approval.
“Um. No, but we think it would be possible. There’s an old animal trail over there from what we can tell. It’s how they receive their logistics.”
“Alright, I have something for that,” Thornton said.
***
The weirdness began right away the next night.
Thornton had removed the top flap on his backpack to reveal a powerful loudspeaker that could point in front of him.
He asked everyone to wear hearing protection and it played the ambient sounds of the cicadas that he had been recording, just louder.
“What the hell?” Stacy asked Lawrence.
“Can you hear your footsteps right now?” Lawrence responded.
Stacy briefly removed her hearing protection.
No. She couldn’t hear their footsteps.
She looked up at Lawrence, then to Stilton, surprised. Stilton shrugged as if to say, “Man, I’m just as surprised as you are.”
“Exactly,” Lawrence said, smiling. “If we can’t hear our footsteps, the enemy won’t hear us approach, either. Let the kid be weird.”
***
The tricks kept coming once they got to the edge of the enemy’s location.
When the map reader gave a signal to Lawrence the command was given to allow Thornbrook to drop his backpack.
The cicadas kept humming from the loudspeaker, but a compartment under the speaker held a drone with a device under it.
Thornton held the drone above his head and it launched itself. Then he clicked a button on the side of his helmet and his eyes disappeared as his goggles glossed over.
“That’s another speaker beneath the drone,” whispered Lawrence to the other soldiers. “Guess what sound it’s going to play?”
“More cicadas?”
“No, our footsteps. Except it won’t start playing until it reaches the enemy rear.”
“Really?”
“Thornbrook said it can play two audiofiles at the same time. And it’s going to sound like we’re opening fire from the north. Once that happens, we’re going to let the enemy engage the drone and orient themselves in the wrong direction. We will be south, and we’re going to attack and assault through.”
“Holy shit.”
***
Everyone was nervous to see if the drone would work.
Ruck sacks were quietly placed on the ground.
Everyone ensured their magazines were set.
Fingers edged to the toggles on their weapons to go from ‘safe’ to ‘semi’.
All heads were on a swivel, but eyes kept glancing over to Thornton.
It was dark, but Thornton seemed to smile and he raised up a single finger.
Lieutenant Lawrence gave Stilton a signal and Stilton took half of the platoon slightly left.
Lawrence took his half of the platoon and lined them up so they could assault through the enemy.
Everyone’s night vision was on.
They were ready.
The drone loudspeaker could be heard in the distance—getting louder and louder. It was just footsteps at first, but then it was more. It sounded like it was an entire platoon opening fire from the north.
Everyone held their breath.
Then it happened.
The enemy made contact and began returning fire.
Lawrence and Stilton had everyone keep their heads down and they waited a few minutes. They wanted to make sure the enemy was engaged.
Stilton and Lawrence looked at each other, then nodded.
Lawrence moved first with his half of the platoon.
They went through the motions. Just like training.
***
“Wow, it worked!” Thornton said once the all-clear had been given. He had just caught his drone as it returned to him from the north.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Stilton responded, half laughing, half serious.
“I mean. I knew it would, but also. You know, sergeant,” Thornton said as he quickly packed his drone back into his bag.
“Jesus, kid.” Stilton said.
“Alright,” Lawrence piped in. “We have three prisoners, and three minutes left before we need to start moving off this objective and transition to overwatch.”
“Sir, I have a second plan. You know the one,” Thornton quickly said.
“Well, that’s up to sergeant first class Stilton,” Lawrence said “Has the weirdo earned your trust, Stilton?”
“He has,” Stilton said, smiling at Thornton. “What you got, kid?”
