“Sure, I understand.” I didn’t mention the unnecessary attack on Sonny, which I most definitely didn’t understand.
“So you seem to have a bit of a fan club amongst your group,” he said, smiling and gazing at me over the top of his glasses.
“Sorry?”
“Your group, they look up to you.”
I shrugged, “I don’t know, sir.”
“Well I know—based on what they’ve been telling me, you’ve gained the respect and trust of your people. All of them. I’ve heard enough to know that it was hard earned and deserved. Well done on getting them here safely.”
“Well, it wasn’t only me sir.” I felt my cheeks grow warm in embarrassment. “We wouldn’t have made it without Sonny or Luke either.”
“That may be the case, but you seem to be the glue that bound them together when things got rough.”
I shrugged. “By the way, no one has been able to tell us how Luke is…or Sonny, for that matter.”
“You’re friend Luke is recovering nicely, I spoke to him this morning before I began the interviews up here. I imagine he’ll be released from Medical in a few days. He asked about you all too. As for Sonny, the Professor has yet to interview him, he’ll need to remain isolated—a precaution, you understand—until that happens.”
I started to protest but he held up his hands.
“Not my call son, the Professor is in charge of this facility. I’m sure your friend will be back with you soon.”
“Okay, but just so you know, I couldn’t have done it without them, it was a team effort”
“I know that son, although you may be underestimating yourself. I think you still might have managed to get them here if things had been…different. That’s what leaders do. Anyway, we’re here to debrief. I think I have most of the story anyway, but I want to hear from you about how it went down after the infection, after the Flu had been released. Let’s start with where you were living…”
I spent the next hour telling him my story. He was a considerate listener and asked questions only to clarify a point or get more details about certain incidents. I found myself recalling my story enthusiastically. It felt strangely cathartic to tell my story and I became so lost in it that I almost mentioned Huian by accident when I got to the part about the gas station. It was only with some swift thinking and talking that I managed to brush over that.
Randall was particularly interested in the last part of our journey and commended me on the attack on the bar. It’s funny, but now that we were safe, well fed and rested, I had begun to second guess what I had done. I said as much to the Colonel.
“No, you did the right thing at the right time Isaac. The enemy isn’t just at the gates, he’s screwed our wife, and is now in the living room with his feet up, drinking our beer. You gave him a bloody nose and something to think about.”
“Aren’t you worried that they’ll track us back to the Lodge?”
“No. Even if they do, the chances of them working out that it’s a front for the facility is minimal, and even in the scenario that they did, this place is all but impregnable. It was designed to take everything but a direct nuclear strike.”
The Colonel wasn’t as forthcoming when I asked about the facility. He told me that I would learn more tonight when I met the Professor.
After our interview he saw me to the door. “After you’re settled into your permanent quarters, I’ll be having a conversation with each of you about what you want to do while you’re here. The Professor will tell you more about that tonight, but I want you to consider joining our ranks, we have a… vacancy we need filled.”
“A vacancy?”
“Yes,” he said, looking thoughtful, perhaps weighing up how much he could say to me. “We lost one of our men on patrol last week and the Professor has approved recruiting a replacement. If you want I will put your name forward, even though we wouldn’t normally recruit anyone younger than eighteen. Anyway, don’t answer now, just hear him out tonight and have a think about it.”
Williams took me back to the dorm and before he left addressed all of us. “It’s just after 1300. You’ll be joining the Professor for dinner at 1900 hours and after that you’ll be taken to your permanent dormitories. Make sure you have your gear packed up by 1900. It will be moved for you while you’re at dinner.”
“That’s shouldn’t be a problem Officer Williams, we don’t have a lot to pack.”
Even though Ben’s tone was friendly and not in the least sarcastic, Williams shot him a dirty look before he left us, the door clicking locked behind him.
24
The rest of that day dragged. We talked about the interviews of course, but it was clear that generally, we had all been asked the same questions and none of us had been able to milk any information of real value from Colonel Randall.
We were all looking forward to meeting the Professor. Not only to have all of our questions answered, but I wanted Sonny released and I was going to push for it to happen as soon as possible. It wasn’t fair for him to be locked up and kept from us just because of his heritage and genetic makeup. I was sure the Professor would be reasonable about it.
As Ben had told Williams, packing didn’t take long at all. Our belongings consisted only of what we had been given since we arrived. The backpacks the soldiers had confiscated from us when we were taken into custody at the lodge had not been given back to us. In any event, they had only contained a few items of clothing, some small weapons and a few scraps of food.
When Williams arrived with another Homeland guard to escort us back to Midlevel, we carried a small bag each that we had been given to stow our toiletries and a change of clothes. That was it. The sum of our existence right then. We followed Williams back to the elevators, all a little excited to be doing something different. As much fun as the past few days together had been, by the last day we were all a little stir crazy. Ben and Brooke had even had a spat over something really trivial while we had been waiting for Williams, the first time I had ever seen them argue.
The elevator was so silent it was eerie, even the doors didn’t make a sound when they opened and closed. We didn’t talk on the way down, the presence of the armed men putting a dampener on our mood. I for one began to feel a little apprehensive about meeting the Professor.
The elevator doors opened onto the lobby and Williams ushered us out. I took more notice of it this time. The reception desk was still empty. I imagined there wasn’t much need for a receptionist these days.
Williams led us past the desk to the large double doors. This time there were two armed guards at the large doors as well as another patrolling the corridor just outside of the main door of the lobby. All of the guards wore Homeland uniforms. I wondered briefly why there were no military personnel. Perhaps they didn’t do simple guard work?
The presence of the guards and the lavish surroundings made the whole thing feel a bit surreal, almost like we were being admitted to the Oval Office to meet the President. The two unsmiling guards looked us over carefully before pulling open the heavy doors.
They opened silently onto a smaller but still large room dominated by a long oak table covered by an expansive white tablecloth and set for a meal. It was a board room that had been converted to a dining room.
At the head of the table sat a handsome man with salt and pepper hair. He was engaged in a quiet conversation with a smaller man to his left. The smaller man was neat and compact looking and wore wire-framed glasses. He was wearing a grey suit and blue bowtie. Given his nerdy appearance and poor dress sense, I immediately picked him as the Professor. The two men looked up at me, the handsome man smiling and the Professor regarding me expressionlessly.
I was walking towards him to introduce myself, when the handsome man got up from his seat and held out his hand. He was tall and well built, with a square jaw.
“You must be Isaac,” he said. “I’m Professor Leahy.”
I tried not to let my surprise show as I took his hand.
His hand gripped mine and I had to work hard not to wince as he crushed my hand in his, twisting it so that his palm was facing down as we shook. I knew about this particular approach, my grandfather had told me it was a way that executives and politicians tried to assert their dominance when meeting someone new. A handshake is normally supposed to be a welcoming gesture between people. But allowing your palm to face upward while the other guy’s is facing downward is basically allowing them to have the upper-hand…literally. I was having none of it. Without being obvious about it, I planted my left foot and as we continued to shake, slowly twisted my own hand back until it was level with his.
His brown eyes regarded me determinedly as he attempted to regain his dominant position and I looked right back at him, just as determined not to allow it. In the end his greater strength won out… just, and after shaking for what seemed like a ridiculously long time, he finally pulled out of our handshake and stepped past me to Ben, introducing himself and also shaking his hand. The man I had initially mistook for the Professor was watching me but didn’t get up to greet us.
“Please be seated,” said the Professor, after he had greeted and introduced himself to the girls.
He went back to his seat as we took ours but didn’t bother introducing the other man. A woman carrying a basket of bread rolls came in as we got settled and began placing one at each of our settings. The Professor waited until the woman finished and had left the room before addressing us.
“Thank you all for coming, I didn’t expect that we’d see any more new arrivals, so it’s a real privilege to have you here. In fact, the night you were brought in was the last night the retrieval team was going to be deployed. If you’d arrived a day later, I’m afraid that the Chinese would have captured you…or worse.”
“Have many responded to the signal?” I asked.
“Not as many as we had hoped. You were the fifth group…and the last. I can’t risk the retrieval team now that the Chinese have come as close as they have. In the first weeks after the Flu and invasion, we had teams scouting Lincoln and rescuing children from homes there. In addition to your group, we saved over a hundred souls. We still have teams going out to scout for food and supplies, but generally they are smaller and move quickly.”
The doors opened and the woman who had served us the bread rolls returned with a pretty girl of about sixteen. Both women were dressed in white shirts and black like us. Thinking back, I did notice the girl had a slight pot belly, but at the time I thought nothing of it. The older woman was wheeling a trolley with dishes of delicious smelling soup. I tried to catch her eye and say thank you as she served me but she kept her eyes deliberately lowered, as did the girl.
“I apologise for the meagerness of our meal,” said Professor Leahy, looking at me. “Given our limited capacity to produce food and the extra mouths, we have to ration quite carefully, although I did give special permission for a hearty lunch for your group after all of your…hardship.”
It appeared we would only be having one course this evening, and I couldn’t help feeling a little let down. At least the chicken soup looked as hearty as it smelled, loaded with chunks of chicken and vegetables. I inwardly chastised myself for being so ungrateful and was about to say something when Brooke beat me to it, “Believe me sir, we’re grateful for anything.”
Was that a flash of annoyance I saw cross his face as he turned to her? If so, it was gone as quickly as it came, replaced by a charitable smile.
“You’re welcome, young lady. Now, where was I. Oh yes, the food situation. I greet all of the new groups like this, with a meal and friendship. Here in the facility we welcome all, but we do ask that everyone contributes to our little society in some way. Does that seem fair to you all?” While it was a question for all of us, he was looking right at me. Obviously he had been told, probably by Colonel Randall, that I was the leader of our group.
“Yes sir, that seems perfectly reasonable.”
The others all nodded or said yes and he clapped his hands together before sweeping his hand around the table.
“Good, please eat before it gets cold, we’ll continue our discussion as we enjoy our meal.” He looked at the two women who had just finished filling his bowl and that of his nerdy friend. “Thank you ladies, that will be all.”
Dismissed, the two (serving?) women left the room and the doors were closed behind them. Was that their contribution? To wait a table for the Professor and his cronies? I let go of the uncomfortable feeling, after all I didn’t know enough of anything to be making judgments…not yet, anyway.
“Is it only children who have been arriving Professor? Or have there been other adults?” I asked as everyone began eating.
“Alas, only children young Isaac. The virus engineered by the Chinese was very effective, almost 100% effective in fact. Every adult you see in this complex was here before the attack. We had a regular population of 178, from janitorial and clerical staff right up to military and scientific personnel.”
I mulled over this as we began eating. The soup was delicious, as was the fresh bread roll, and the big helping meant that it would do just fine as a main meal. Again my mind returned to the young girl and the woman who had served us. I wondered if the woman had been employed as catering staff prior to the attack. I assumed she must have been, but the girl was definitely too young and must have been one of the hundred or so saved ‘souls’ that the Professor had mentioned. Had she volunteered or been forced to take up the role? I gave myself another mental kick for being so negative and looking for motives behind everything that I saw; it was hard to let go of my natural cynicism.
Of course, we were all full of questions and didn’t really hold back during our meal with the Professor. Allie was first to raise the subject of the President. “We heard that President Riley might be here?”
Even though the Professor laughed good-naturedly, it was a fair enough question, the news reports near the end had been vague and contradictory. Several had said that the President and his family had been evacuated on Air Force One. Communications from the Whitehouse had ceased the day after Christmas and press, or what was left of the press, had only been able to speculate whether he was formulating a response to the Chinese attack.
“No, he’s not here. One of the last communications we had was that President Riley was airborne, but of course communications shut down when the Pentagon was attacked.”
“Attacked?” I asked.
“Yes, you probably didn’t hear because by that time, the Flu had decimated the population and the media was all but gone. The Chinese launched several strategic nuclear strikes. One of them was against the Washington. I imagine the enemy was ensuring that any remaining organized resistance was destroyed. Since then, we’ve been unable to contact any other arms of the U.S government.
“While there is always a chance the President survived and found refuge overseas, we have to assume the worst and that this facility is possibly the last remnant of the United States government in mainland America.”
We were all silent as we digested this information. While Luke and I had assumed the worst, having it confirmed as true was almost like a kick in the guts.
“So we didn’t even have a chance to fight back?” asked Ben. I was interested in the English boy’s use of the term ‘we’. I guess he meant we as in the good side rather than the just the United States.
“Well, one of Randall’s men heard some chatter before we went dark. It appears the Chinese didn’t have it all their own way—two Pacific aircraft carrier strike groups and another out of Virginia engaged the enemy naval forces and inflicted much damage before they were finally subdued. There were also reports that the USS George Washington had launched a nuclear strike against selected Chinese targets from its base in Japan before it was also destroyed. We weren’t able to confirm that before communications went down though.”
“I hope they gave it to the bastards�
�” said Ben.
I had the feeling that if Luke was here he would have echoed Ben’s sentiment and let out a ‘yee-haa’ at the possibility that we had been able to strike back at the Chinese in such a devastating way. Perhaps I would have too, but I was mindful of Indigo and her feelings after our own attack on the unsuspecting soldiers in the bar. If anything, celebrating the fact that thousands, perhaps millions of innocent civilians may have died as punishment for their government’s actions would upset her even more. It didn’t seem like something worth celebrating anyway.
“How many aircraft carriers do we have? There are more than four, right?” I asked.
“Yes, there are…were… ten that are active. We assume all of the others were destroyed by strategic strikes while in port. If any were at sea or had managed to elude the Chinese, we wouldn’t have heard. It’s possible they sailed to Australia or Europe once it became clear that things were hopeless.”
“How did the facility survive the infection?” asked Indigo, changing the subject slightly.
“Good question,” said the Professor. “Because of the nature of the research we were conducting here, the Drake Mountain Facility has a very sophisticated filtration system and quarantining protocols.”
“Weren’t you afraid of infection when you started letting people in though? Or sending your own people out?”
I saw the Professor reluctantly impressed by the veracity of her questions.
“No. I had already studied the pathogen and knew it had a built in obsolescence…a use by date if you like…luckily we were able to map the genetics of the virus before it degraded, something I bet they weren’t counting on.” I heard an unmistakable tone of satisfaction in his voice.
“Why would they build in a use by date?” Ben asked.
“It was probably twofold. Insurance that when their invasion began there would be no question of the virus killing any of their own people of mixed heritage, but more importantly, I imagine that they were ensuring that our American scientists would not be able to study the virus. I’m sure they knew from their North Korean experiment that there would be no time for a vaccine to come into play, but there are other things they would have been concerned about...”
Fight Like Hell [America Falls Series | Books 1-6] Page 31