Things are Not Always the Way they Seem
Mount MacDonald Tunnel always looked more spooky at night, for some reason. Moondust always reckoned it was the lack of light surrounding the tunnel portal, with only a single powerful light illuminating the area. This left long shadows that snaked across the region like ghostly fingers that seemed intent on grabbing those caught sitting underneath them.
"Tunnels," Harrison grumbled. "Why do ghosts always frequent tunnels? Why can't they be on sidings or in stations?"
"There is a theory," John said, "that ghosts are manifestations of things the human mind wants to see. That is, the human mind is very easily tricked into seeing what it wants to see. This may have happend here."
"I definitely saw something," Miranda countered, as her eyes focused closely on the tunnel entrance that sat before them, illuminated like a dangerous portal to something dangerous, with the single light above it serving almost as a light drawing in unsespecting moths to a deadly flame."
"Right," Moondust said. "As little noise as possible. Keep it dark. Harrison, cycle your engine as low as it can go. If that train appears, Marie should follow it."
"Sacre Bleu!" Marie replied. "Of course I get the trailing job. Predictable."
There then fell almost total silence, before the wind took over the noise role and the odd howling of a wolf here and there. And a caribou, for some reason. Nobody was quite sure why there was a caribou there, but it was there and producing noise, which only added to the very confusing atmosphere within the team as they watched and waited.
And waited. And waited. And waited.
Nothing seemed to happen for quite a long time before them at that tunnel entrance in darkest British Columbia, which nearly led to some of them falling asleep before the scene presented in front of them, which would have been a shame.
As suddenly there was a change. The fog rolled in, and soon place became very spooky. There was, however, a distinct lack of skeletons, which reduced the chance of shivers being sent down your spine by quite some margin.
They watched as they heard noise starting up, and suddenly a train emerged from the tunnel portal and roared into the distance, rattling down a side track and into a narrow valley.
"Well, there's our ghost train," John said, looking over the scene as quickly as he could. "Marie, you're up?"
"Why me?" she complained.
"Because you have the shortest wheelbase of any of us," Harrison replied.
The GP9 moved off from the siding and reversed a short way to access the turning wye, and then proceeded forward to where the signal change would occur. Once the signal had changed and the switches were all in the correct position for her to proceed, then proceed she did up the line towards her destination.
She was nervous about what she would find. But she knew she and her friends would need this information so that they could put an end to whatever was going on.
She arrived in a clearing and stopped in a siding, monitoring what was going on before her. And what she saw was surprising, to say the least.
Doors were sliding open on the passenger cars with the doors still attached, and men were getting off. They were carrying large crates and boxes off the train and placing them into large storage pens below, which had many more of the same boxes in them. These piles of boxes stretched well into the distance with many many piles of them.
"Be careful with the merchandise!" shouted a man. "We wouldn't want it all to go bang, would we?"
What does he mean by that? Marie thought to herself. Whatever this train was transporting, it was clearly dangerous.
Just then, she saw a familiar face walking through the crowd. The man in leather and a biker's helmet was there, and was walking closer to the boxes. More kit had been unloaded in the meantime, and was being placed into storage pens further down the line.
Rumbling started up as a flatbed was unloaded, and a large military vehicle rolled off and into a vehicle pool.
"What have you got for me today?" said the man in the helmet.
"Good news, sir," said one man. "The fresh shipment is genuine. New equipment as well. M16s, all the way from the United States." He popped open the box to show a box full of rifles, and another full of all sorts of tactical equipment. Marie wasn't sure what all of them were, but there seemed to be scopes and even a few grenade launchers.
Suddenly, the remark about things going bang made sense to Marie. Some of these boxes were loaded with ammunition. Of course they didn't want to risk an explosion.
The man in the helmet glanced back and saw all the equipment stockpiled. "Good work, all of you," he said. "The revolution draws closer with every passing day. With this level of firepower, not even the Canadian Army will be able to stop us!"
Just then, a device rang, and he pulled it out. "Yes, this is Boomer. Fresh shipment has just arrived and checked out as indicated. Military grade firepower, and even some of those Humvees with rocket launchers. With all this firepower, the revolution is guaranteed to succeed. "Of course. I will post update reports when we are ready to launch the attack."
He put the device down. "Victory is at hand, men!" he called. "One more shipment and we'll be ready to go!"
Marie didn't know how much longer she could afford to wait much longer, and as such began her retreat whilst the men were distracted by their considerable collection of weapons and ammunition. She had no clue what this meant for safety, but whatever this was it had to be reported to the authorities as it seemed they had serious intent of either taking over the country or causing serious damage in the process.
Once she had returned to the mainline, Marie explained to the others all the things that she had seen. "So," she said. "It seems as though the ghost train wasn't real after all. It was an actual, tangible train. And not only that, it seems they were using it as a cover to smuggle guns."
"Rifles," John corrected.
"Alright, mister pedantic," Miranda replied. "Either way, they were moving firearms. Gun runners, huh? This is like something out of a John le Carre novel."
"Indeed," Harrison noted. "Did they have any particular plans for the weapons?"
"Some talk of a revolution," Marie said. "Their leader was the biker man I saw a few days ago. He seems to be in league with somebody else, though- I don't know who, though."
Harrison sighed. "Revolution, gun running, equipment being moved, tensions, master plans- it's like 1812 all over again!"
There was a moment of silence as the engines reflected on this information. Never in their lives had they imagined that out here in rural Canada, which had always seemed like such a quiet and peaceful place, that weapons smuggling was going on, and not only that it was putting the very future of the country at risk for all concerned.
Moondust was the first to speak after the several moments of silence had elapsed. "I would suggest," he said finally, "that we need to inform the authorities of what is happening."
"That's rather obvious," Miranda replied. "Of course they need to know! Gun running's a crime!"
The engines all knew how serious that was, as after all this could cause trouble. "To this end," Moondust said quietly, "that we all make our way towards Revelstoke and inform the local dispatcher. That way the local dispatcher can inform police and they can assemble all the equipment and teams they need to bring down the smugglers. After all, they seemed to be packing a fair bit of firepower based on what Marie said."
With that, the formation prepared to move off for the other end of the line, the environment around them not as warm and friendly as normal, but a dark and inhospitable region characterised by harsh lights and unfriendly objects which seemed to want to hurt them. And knowing that was there, who felt safe anymore with the threat of a revolution before them and under them and all around them?
It was well past midnight when the formation pulled into Revelstoke, battered and pretty exhausted from the long run. Moondust temporarily secured the engines in position and then left the cab, proceeding across the yard towards the dispatcher's office. He was certainly gone- gone for a very long time, as he had a lot of information to reveal on the other end, which was proving to be a bit of a toll on the circumstances.
He emerged from the office a while later, certainly showing the strain of a long working day. "We should all get some rest so we're fresh in the morning," he said. "Then we make our move."
Well, the big reveal-no ghosts at all! This plot element is taken directly from the Arnold Ridley play The Ghost Train, where (as above) the ghost train is a cover for smugglers.
And they do have access to some very heavy kit, including plenty of American made weapons (the Canadians do use a version of the M16, but in some parts of the country they instead use bolt action rifles as C7s are known to jam in extreme weather). Humvees can actually mount rocket launchers; apart from the TOW missile which was used to devastating effect in Iraq in 2003, they are also capable of carrying the SLAMRAAM mount, though modified here to work more like the BM-13 launcher from WW2.
Next time; the big battle!
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awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter the danish resistance had to rely on smuggling and blackmarket goods for most of the war untill the allied drop weapons and supplies to them
:
flame.*
Be brave Maria.
Welp, this is no ghost alright!!
https://m.I'm guessing something similar happened that year and ties with Canadian history?
11714096
That they did. Tough times indeed.
11714144
1. Oops.
2. Like a toaster.
3. Not at all.
4. Safe to say this is bad.
5. The United States invaded Canada as part of the War of 1812. It produced mixed results for the United States; one of their more notable acts was setting the Canadian capital of York (now called Toronto) on fire in 1813. A year later, British troops returned the favour.
11714161
Got it, thx on the history.
11714162
No problem.
Not that this matters much, but which M16 variate were these individuals smuggling?
11715292
M16A2 (the M16A4 would not be introduced until more than a decade after this story is set).