“Who?”
“Guess.”
Really not that hard to do, but it rankled to have to realize that, once again, I’d been in the dark about something. “My husband.”
None of the others reacted, although when I glanced his way, Cole gave me a look that spoke plainly that he’d expected me to be smarter. Oh well. Story of my life to keep disappointing people. I took a few seconds trying to remember how Nate had sprung the idea on me to disappear off the side of the earth, and how we’d gone about it. I vaguely remembered him letting me choose what to do and where to go for a long time—until he’d started making suggestions again that had, eventually, turned into him making the decisions. Ah. Smart move, outsmarting me by playing me against my ego. It didn’t even hurt. I even knew exactly what he would have said had I confronted him about it now: “What did you expect? For me not to have a backup plan?”
That explained parts of it, but not all the details—particularly those that still had my paranoia raging inside of me. “That explains why, maybe, you should be looking around northern Arkansas, or maybe the border to Alabama. Not here.”
Richards seemed a little surprised I took all this in stride, but not devastated by it. “We checked on your last two known locations and the nearest bug-out cache. I presume you know that your tree house is completely destroyed?”
I shook my head. “No, but I figured there was no use wasting time checking on it.” I was tempted to say more—wasn’t that one of my fatal flaws?—but didn’t. Two could play this game, and if Red wanted me to dish, he’d better go along himself as well.
He went on explaining after a curt nod. “After we’d confirmed that there were no other instructions left behind, all we could do was wait. I presume your gear is from the storm cellar?”
Now he was starting to freak me out. “Who says—”
He cut me off before I could get any further. “No offense, but you’re not looking your A-game right now. That makes me guess you had to fall back on what you could find on short notice and had to rely on an old cache. The only one between your last confirmed hideout and here is the storm cellar cache. Just continue to blink in irritation if I’m right.”
I forced my eyes to stop doing exactly that, going completely still. Sadly, that had no effect whatsoever on Richards, although Cole and Hill seemed a breath away from laughing in my face. Great. Exhaling slowly, I did my best to keep my vexation under tight control. “To sum this up, you know all this because, somehow, Nate managed to relay the information back to you. Coordinates, I presume?” I got a nod for my guess. “How did he get to you in the first place? Because I don’t remember leaving him alone for long enough to accost you, and I distinctly remember Hamilton scrutinizing him like a hawk all the damn time on the way back to the States.”
Red’s grin wasn’t a fond one. “That’s because he didn’t do it himself.”
“Burns.” It wasn’t a hard guess—and it also explained why Nate hadn’t considered it necessary to inform Burns of his plans. He’d already known. That made me feel vaguely stupid, and it didn’t take away from my own guilt of having disappeared without a word. That still didn’t change one fact: I was married to one deceptive asshole.
And, shit, I missed him.
Richards didn’t seem bored of this game yet, but Cole and Hill decidedly were. It fell to the latter to speak up. “Long story short, either you’re hitching a ride with us, or it’s going to be a long, lone walk for you. What’s it gonna be?”
It wasn’t that I was opposed to either idea, but there were too many questions left unanswered.
“To keep piling non-coincidences on top of each other, you’re already en route to New Angeles?”
Richards shrugged. “It wasn’t hard to guess that you’d want to head in that direction. And, who would have thought—we have actual tasks to complete besides babysitting you.”
“Like what?”
I knew what was coming at his bright, fake smile alone. “You know what I’m going to say, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s classified,” I grumbled, but the ire ran only skin-deep. “Aren’t you going to ask me how exactly I ended up here?”
“That’s rather obvious, wouldn’t you say?” When all he got from me was a blank stare, Red was only too happy to fill in the blanks. “I could be wrong, but going on what we know, you got some visitors you didn’t plan for and ended up in their camp. Since you’re on your own and in a hurry to get backup, my guess is that your husband is still there because with him, they knew what precautions to take. You, they underestimated, so you managed to get away, grabbed some provisions from your cache, and hit the next settlement you knew of in the area. Did I miss anything?”
It wasn’t that hard to guess right, but sounded too well informed for my likings.
“How would you know that they underestimated me?”
Cole chuckled—asshole—while Hill left it at a grin. Red jovially offered, “Because, isn’t that the story of your life?”
“Touché.” I had to give him that. “You know about the camp?”
Richards was good about cutting the visual clues of his reaction short but I’d spent enough time around him in the past to read him well to catch them nevertheless. He must have realized that; my glare was enough to get him talking.
“Yes, we know of them. We didn’t expect them to get so aggressive about their raiding this soon or else we would have warned you. Looks like they are recruiting again.”
That told me more than he’d probably intended.
“You have spies in that camp?”
I half expected to be shut down once more but after a moment’s hesitation, Richards inclined his head. “We do, which is why we know that there has been some sort of altercation around the time you missed your schedule. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to figure out that must have been you.”
“But you don’t know.”
Another shrug. “It’s taken us long enough to establish some moles in there that didn’t end up tortured and skinned alive. I’m not going to risk them just to get confirmation for something quintessentially unimportant.”
It rankled to hear my well-being described as such, but I got where he came from.
“If you know about them, and they’ve killed some of your people, why do they still exist? Even the people here at the settlement know of them; why haven’t you smoked them out yet?”
“Good question,” Cole supplied, getting a harsh glare from Richards that went ignored.
“We missed our opportunity,” Richards admitted, surprisingly candid. “With everything else that’s been going on over the past two years, nobody paid attention to a group that wasn’t out there for blood but pretty much doing their own thing. And, whoops, suddenly they were too many people, too well equipped, to just send in a team and be done with them.”
“You didn’t even try?” That sounded ridiculously far-fetched.
Red smirked. “Oh, we did. Not just once, but three times, with some additional support from the less-well-adjusted elements of your former ranks. That’s how we sent their numbers into the four digits for the first time.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. It was a harsh sound. “What, just because they were scavengers, they must have been untrustworthy scum?”
Richards had the grace to look at least a little appalled. “No. From what we could figure out, they did a great job doing what they could, and holding out when they couldn’t, but there’s only so much any man can take. Around half of the force we sent in survived, and overall a third converted. All we accomplished was give them better vehicles and weapons. Command decided to cut the losses, set an embargo zone, and leave the problem to take care of itself.”
Why wasn’t I surprised? Actually, that wasn’t true. I did feel surprise, because I couldn’t quite see how they’d let a thorn in their side fester like that, considering how they’d come after us scavengers in the first year after the shit had hit the fan. Not even me drumming up supp
ort for my little crusade came close to the issue this must have turned into in the meantime.
“You do realize that the camp must have grown several times over since then?”
Red’s expression turned rather stony at my accusation.
“We know. That’s part of the reason why we were in the region in the first place.”
Ah. And just like that, something else occurred to me. “You’re going to use me to get another chance at eradicating them, aren’t you? That’s why you’re so damn happy to drive me across the country on a moment’s notice.”
The new guy was the only one who looked vaguely surprised at my guess. Damn it!
Richards went for a slight smile as he leaned back against the Humvee’s grill. “I wouldn’t call what happened a stroke of luck, but it has occurred to us that worse could have happened.”
The anger in the pit of my stomach was back, but I managed to keep a lid on it, at least trying to appear as calm as he was. “It really doesn’t paint a nice picture that you didn’t warn us, but now want me to clean up your mess. Again.”
Red sighed, and while not exactly exasperated, it held a certain note of… was that regret that I detected?
“Look, I understand where you’re coming from. And I get that there’s nothing I can say or do to convince you that we didn’t deliberately let you traipse into the lion’s den, so I’m not going to try.”
“You could tell me the details of what exactly the deal was between you and my husband,” I proposed. “That might help.”
I got a look of surprise, and after a few seconds’ consideration Richards inclined his head. “Very well. He didn’t deceive you, if that’s what you’re trying to get at. His plan was to disappear without a trace and by taking you both out of the equation, keep other forces from thinking they might get too interested in you.” I couldn’t help but smirk myself that even now he wouldn’t call the devil by his name—Decker—but didn’t interrupt him. “But I don’t need to tell you that your husband is a man who’s paranoid enough to always have a contingency plan. In the event of said forces changing their mind and making a grab at other people near and dear to your heart, he wanted my oath that I’d make sure that information got back to him so he could do something about it—or maybe even prevent it from happening if I learned anything early enough. In turn, he was ready to share your whereabouts with me that in the case of a true emergency, we could reactivate you both. I promised to run interference in the meantime, making sure no one got too interested in the areas you were squatting in, or warning you ahead of time so there would be not a trace to be found. That hasn’t happened, if you are curious. It seems that your plan has worked so far. In the official records, you’re both presumed dead.”
Now that was something you didn’t hear every day—and under different circumstances I would have very much applauded the fact. “Do my people believe that as well?”
“That’s anyone’s guess. You know them far better than any of us do. Do you think they believe it?”
It would explain why the radio had been silent although I hadn’t exactly been sneaky about the code name I’d used. Then again… “Not unless they see my half-rotted corpse.”
“There you have it,” Red agreed with me—and I didn’t miss the self-satisfied note in his voice.
“Wait. What am I missing?” I also didn’t miss how Cole and Hill traded glances, at least until they caught the warning look from Red. “Spill it. You want my cooperation, you better dish out the dirt—particularly if it might as well become an issue for me very soon. If I don’t get any support, I’m no use to you, remember?” Still not knowing what they had in mind didn’t help, but that much was a given. New Guy was so clueless he followed our back-and-forth with morbid interest.
“Presumably, a lot,” Richards admitted. “Too much to explain now. But there won’t be anyone else offering you a ride to the coast. Either you come with us, or you risk adding months to the tour—and that’s just one way. You should ask yourself—does Miller have that time for you to waste?”
And there it was—the stick I had been waiting for. It never was all carrot with these people. But I probably would have trusted Red less if he’d continued to be agreeable.
“I wonder about a lot of things these days,” I grumbled, mostly under my breath. “Like what the fuck you let happen to my country in our absence!” That was maybe a little overdone but no less true. What little hints I’d gotten didn’t paint a pretty picture. It also made me dread learning more as I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t make me feel terribly selfish and conceited for thinking about us hanging out in isolation while we could have done something to prevent what had happened… whatever the fuck that was—
But I knew that led nowhere, so before any of them could answer, I let out a loud sigh and straightened my shoulders.
“Whatever. It’s all water under the bridge. I’m coming with you. And I would be much obliged if you would bring me up to speed. It’s in your best interest, too, as I can’t very well work on making a plan to undo the damage if I don’t have a clue what said damage is. So, shall we?” I jerked my chin in the direction of the Humvee.
Red graciously inclined his head as if there’d never been a debate about the matter. There really hadn’t been. He’d known the outcome all along, as had I.
“After you,” he offered with a grand, sweeping gesture.
“I’m calling shotgun,” I quipped, then paused. “Actually, can I drive? It would show how non-threatening, non-coercing, and selfless your motives are.”
Red allowed himself a small laugh at my acerbic remark. “Be my guest. But have you even driven a car since you totaled the last two in quick succession?”
I was tempted to point out that there had been months between the incidents—and crumbling bridges were beyond my control—but offered a sweet smile when I realized that he knew far less than he thought he did.
“How do you think I got here?”
A hint of doubt cut through his gloating. “On foot, presumably. I know you can manage forty miles a day.” I hadn’t, not with my body still healing and necessary pauses. It kind of turned into a moot point as I had to admit the truth.
“On a mountain bike, actually. But you didn’t know about the buggies? Too bad. We built the engines up from scratch. Unlike what you probably did. Are those solar panels on the roof?”
“Makes crossing the country in a week feasible,” Red shot back, still a little annoyed. “And yes, we did liberate what electrical engines we could find. Not that it’s any of your business, but part of the reason for our visit to New Angeles is to continue to keep relations strong with the powers that sit on most of the available technology. Or did you really think that Gabriel Greene managed to stay neutral because he chose to go his own way? He’s got his hands in so many pots that I doubt anyone but him can keep track of it. That means he’s just as agreeable with us as he is with your lot. Surprised?”
“With him? Never.” It wasn’t hard to put an extra bit of derision into my voice—that did a good job hiding the actual relief flooding through me. No, Greene and I would never become friends, but good for him—and my people—if he’d managed to stay not just relevant but ahead of the game. Considering the alternatives, I’d much rather throw my lot in with him.
Pulling the driver’s side door of the Humvee open, I peeked inside, whistling softly. “Damn, that thing’s huge!” There wasn’t just room for my rifle in the middle compartment, but easily for my pack as well, wedged between whoever the other gear belonged to—and there was still room aplenty.
Richards cast a surprised look at me from the passenger side. “You’ve never actually been inside one?”
“Only to liberate some women your less-savory compatriots were about to drag off to do with what nobody wants to talk about,” I offered succinctly. “And another for maybe five minutes in the back, but I don’t remember too much of that day. Why should we have bothered with these huge gas guzzlers? Would have be
en a waste of fuel. We did well enough with our cars.”
“That you ended up trashing,” Cole supplied from behind my back. Clearly, he’d won the battle of who got to be demoted to the elevated jump seat crammed in between the packs. I figured it was still better than riding in the back—not that there was too much room there from what little I could see of it.
“And still I wasn’t the one who would have left all of his men to die in a fucking death trap of a laboratory,” I snapped back as I settled into the seat. Damn, but this thing really was huge and came with a lot to fiddle with. All it was lacking was a popcorn machine to make it a full entertainment center. I didn’t miss how Richards deliberately didn’t react, which made me smack my lips. “Speaking of which, I’m a little surprised not to see that asshole here. Where is Bucky Hamilton? You’d think he wouldn’t miss a chance to rub in my face that I need anyone’s help for anything.”
“He won’t be a problem for you,” Richards offered, still for the most part ignoring me.
“Why?” I asked with a hint of glee. “Is this shit important enough that someone put a leash and muzzle on him so he wouldn’t get in my way?”
Red hesitated, leaving the opportunity wide open for Cole to jump into the breach.
“He won’t become an issue for you because he’s dead.”
Now that was disappointing, and I couldn’t quite keep a frown off my face as I looked back over my shoulder. “Seriously? Who did he piss off more than me?”
“KIA,” Cole explained. “Killed in action, if you don’t—”
“Sheesh, I’m not an imbecile,” I snapped, facing forward again. “Whatever. So how do I start this thing?”
For the first time, Babyface spoke up after clearing his throat. “LT, do you really think it’s smart to let her drive?”
Richards cast an amused look back before he turned to me. “I’m sure she’ll figure it out since she’s such a know-it-all, right?”
He got a sweet smile back—and cursed when I managed to start the ignition, make the vehicle surge forward, and kill the engine, all within five seconds of each other. The collective cursing made me grin in earnest. “Oops, my bad,” I simpered, then went through the proper sequence with a few smooth moves. The Humvee came alive smoothly this time, and peeled back onto the road and away from the settlement without another hitch. Hill seemed to be the only one besides me to find that funny. Well, I wasn’t here to be entertaining.
Green Fields Series Box Set | Vol. 4 | Books 10-12 Page 11