“He’s not taking the APC,” Deke said. Cole wasn’t sure if he was talking to him or Zoe over his shoulder.
“Damn straight,” George said. “No one’s taking—”
Cole wasn’t quite so sure anymore—
“What the fuck is going on here?” a voice said. Loud. Coming from somewhere above and behind Cole.
Cameron.
The eyes that were glued on Cole went up and behind him—toward the back of the warehouse where, Cole assumed, Cameron had reappeared and was trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Cole had been expecting the ex-soldier down here minutes ago after the first gunshot.
“Better late than never,” the Voice said.
“Well?” Cameron was saying. “Someone fill me in, goddammit. What the hell is going on?”
Cameron’s presence was a wild card Cole had anticipated, but at the same time, hoped he didn’t have to deal with. The question was, whose side would the ex-soldier take? Would it be Cole’s, or these people he’d known for less than a day?
Cole held up his hands and took a step back.
Deke’s eyes darted back to him. The Beretta was firmly gripped in his hand, pointed at Cole.
“Everything’s fine,” Cole said. “Everyone do what Dante says and stay calm.”
“The hell that’s gonna happen now,” Deke said. His fingers flexed around the grip of his handgun.
“Everything’s fine,” Cole said again anyway, even as he continued backing up, both hands raised in the air, the SIG Sauer turned so Deke could see it, the barrel pointed up in a nonthreatening manner toward the ceiling.
“No, it’s not,” Deke said. “Everything is not fine.”
“Let it go, Deke,” Dante said from above.
“Fuck no, Dante.”
“Put your gun away, Deke.” That was Cameron, shouting from the second floor in the back. “Do it now.”
“No.”
“Deke,” Annette said, turning to face Deke. “Let’s calm down. We can talk this out.”
“No way,” Deke said. “He—” And for just a fraction of a second, he took his eyes away from Cole. The gun in his hand didn’t exactly waver, but it did move just a little bit.
Cole darted quickly to his right.
Deke’s eyes widened.
Cole shot Deke first, striking him in the neck. That was an accident. He’d been aiming for the chest—for the easier center mass shot—but he was moving and shooting at the same time, and accuracy wasn’t in the cards. But he’d hit Deke anyway, and the man swayed even as he pulled his trigger and the bullet zipped over Cole’s head and pinged off one of the walls behind him.
“No!” George shouted, his own gun swiveling to retrain on Cole.
But before Cole could shoot him, or George could shoot Cole, there was the barrage of pop-pop-pop! from the back.
George pitched forward and landed face-first against the concrete, his gun clattering away from his outstretched arm.
Annette was shooting at Cole, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed red. But she’d fired in haste and with emotion, and her rounds went wide. Cole didn’t even feel them.
Cole ignored Deke, who looked like a drunk trying not to fall as he staggered from side to side, one hand clutching the side of his neck as blood poured out from between his fingers. Instead, Cole concentrated on Annette, and before she could get off a better—more aimed—shot, he put two rounds into her chest.
She crumpled to the concrete even as there was another pop! from behind Cole.
Deke stopped moving and also slumped to the floor next to Annette. Blood flooded out from his neck wound and ran like a jagged ravine across the hard floor. There was blood everywhere. Most of it was Deke’s. Cole didn’t know a man could bleed so much, so quickly.
Cole stared across the small space at Mark. The young man had never bothered to go for his gun and had both hands raised over his head. He looked back at Cole, his body shaking.
And just like that, it was over.
“Well done, chum,” the Voice said. “It couldn’t have gone any better if we’d actually planned it out.”
It was wrong. It could have gone better. A lot better.
“Everyone’s a critic,” the Voice said, laughing.
Chapter Nineteen
“Was this what you had in mind?”
“Not exactly.”
“Well, you got it regardless.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“So what now?”
“I’m going to take the APC and go look for my wife.”
Cameron stared at him. Clearly, the ex-soldier hadn’t thoroughly considered Cole’s responses and was caught by surprise. Then, “Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Cole said.
“We got three bodies to deal with.”
“No, we don’t.”
“We don’t?”
“We don’t. You do.”
Cameron squinted. “How you figure that?”
Cole didn’t answer right away. Instead, he turned around and continued inventorying what Deke and the others had loaded into the APC with them. More ammo, more weapons, and more food. Everything Cole needed to head back to Anton’s, look for Emily’s whereabouts, and find her.
…and find her.
It wasn’t just her, it was the baby inside her, too. They were, at this very moment, the two most important people to him. Not Deke. Not Annette. And certainly not George. It was admittedly a cold, soulless calculation of the situation, but it was necessary.
“You trying to convince yourself now?” the Voice asked.
I don’t have to. I know it.
“Really?”
Yeah.
The Voice laughed. “Okay, chum. Let’s go with that, then.”
Cole said out loud, “You can come with me or stay here. It’s up to you. Either way, I’m taking that armored car back to the warehouse.”
Even though he couldn’t see Cameron back there, Cole thought he could feel the other man tensing noticeably at his terse answer. A part of him also imagined the man’s hand moving instinctively closer toward his holstered sidearm. If they had a shootout inside the vehicle, it would probably cause a lot of damage. And he really didn’t want to clean out the blood…
“Take him out before he takes us out,” the Voice said.
Not yet.
“Why not? You gonna let him make the first move?”
Yes.
“That’s stupid.”
I might need him.
“For what?”
A second gun.
“If he doesn’t shoot you in the back first.”
He won’t.
“How do you know that?”
Because he needs me as much as I need him.
Cole straightened up from his kneeling position and turned around. Cameron was looking at him, his right hand just a bit too close to his Glock for Cole’s liking. But he hadn’t drawn the pistol yet.
“For now,” the Voice said.
Now is good enough.
“What’s your next move?” Cole asked the man.
“What?” Cameron said.
“What’s your next move?”
“My next move?”
“It’s an easy question, Cameron. What’s your next move?”
Cameron shook his head. It was very obvious to Cole that the soldier hadn’t considered that, either.
“Not the sharpest tool in the shed, is he?”
Maybe he wasn’t, but Cameron had something else Cole needed—military training.
After a few seconds, the younger man said, “I don’t know.”
“Exactly. You don’t know. So come with me.”
“Back to that warehouse,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
And then I go wherever the clues lead me, he thought, but Cole said, “And then we figure it out from there.”
It was probably not what Cameron was hoping to hear, and it was only a
half-lie.
“Sounds like someone’s in denial,” the Voice said.
Cole ignored it, as Cameron said, “That doesn’t sound like much of a plan to me.”
“I guess he’s not as dumb as he looks after all.”
“It’s not,” Cole said, “but it’s a plan. What do you have at the moment?”
Cameron smirked, but Cole could tell it was only a half-hearted effort. “Let me think about it.”
“You do that. But I’m leaving in one hour.”
“Why an hour?”
“Because I’ve already wasted days here. And I’m not going to waste more time if I can help it.”
“You have it all plotted out? The route?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Cole tapped his temple. Then, with finality in his voice, “One hour.”
Again, Cameron squinted back at him, the annoyance fully on display. “One hour.” Then he turned and stepped through the open APC door.
“Wow, that worked better than I thought.”
Yeah, it did, didn’t it?
“You sound surprised.”
A little.
“Or a lot?”
Cole grinned, then went back to cataloguing. He should have felt like a piece of shit going through a dead man’s things, but he didn’t. There were other lives at stake that made all of this easier. Not easy, of course, but easier.
He heard footsteps behind him and thought Cameron might have returned to finish the job, having decided Cole’s plan was shit after all and wanted the APC for himself, but the sounds were too light to be a man.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Zoe said.
Cole glanced over his shoulder at her. She stood just outside the door looking in at them. He’d seen that look on her face before: disappointment.
“I had no choice,” Cole said. He went back to the work at hand.
As far as he could tell, Deke and his friends had been very good at bringing just the vital things with them. The weapons and food would come in handy, and the armored walls of the truck would keep Cole safe on the trip. The fact that there wasn’t any heavy damage on the outside told him that the crazies saw just how foolish it was to attack the moving behemoth. That was good. Best-case scenario had him driving all the way back to his target, unmolested.
“Didn’t you?” Zoe was asking him.
“No,” he said.
Cole wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to hear from him. He’d done what he had to. That was it. End of story.
“I think you did,” she said.
“I didn’t.”
“You could have asked them.”
“I tried, remember?”
“You could have tried to convince them.”
“I tried, Zoe.”
That shut her up. For a bit, anyway. “You killed them because you wanted what they had.”
“To be fair, I technically only killed Annette. Cameron’s bullet finished off Deke after he shot George.”
“You know what I mean, Cole.”
He sighed. He didn’t want to have this talk. Not only was it pointless—what’s done was done and there was no going back now—but it was justified. Zoe might not believe it, and probably neither did Cameron, but Cole did. And that was all that mattered.
Cole waited for the Voice to challenge that notion, but it didn’t. Instead, there was a strange quietness inside his head. He wasn’t sure if that was more disturbing than if the Voice had piped up with something useless.
“You didn’t have to do it,” Zoe said.
“Let it go, Zoe.”
“Let it go? How am I supposed to just let what happened go?”
“It’s done. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Just like that? It’s done? Because you said so?”
“Yeah, just like that. Go get Ashley ready. We leave in one hour. You can be on the APC with us or not. It’s up to you.”
“‘Us?’”
“Me and Cameron.”
“He’s going, too? After what you did?”
“He has no choice. He knows it’s safer with me. Our two guns are better than his one.”
“He didn’t say he was going with you.” She sounded a lot quieter that time. Cole imagined her still digesting the news.
It wasn’t a total lie. He was pretty sure Cameron would tag along.
Pretty sure.
“He’s a soldier,” the Voice said, finally piping up. “He understands force multipliers. He knows where the better chance of survival lies. I wouldn’t worry about it, chum.”
I hope you’re right.
“I’m always right.”
Since when?
“Since forever,” the Voice said, with that characteristic laugh that annoyed Cole so much.
“What about Dante?” Zoe asked.
“He’ll come, too.”
“You already asked him?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know he’ll go with you?”
Cole sighed. He stopped what he was doing and turned around again. He met Zoe’s accusing gaze one more time and locked in. He really didn’t want to have this talk. He was tired of having this talk.
“What choice does he have?” Cole said.
Zoe’s eyes widened slightly. Not a lot, but enough for Cole to notice. He might as well have punched her in the gut.
“The truth hurts,” the Voice said.
Yes, it does.
“So hurt her some more.”
“What choice do you have?” Cole asked.
Zoe’s face paled. “You’re a sonofabitch, you know that?”
“Yeah, I know.” Then, turning his back to her, “One hour. Be here, or we’ll leave without you.”
He heard footsteps as she walked away, the soft patter of her shoes’ rubber soles against the hard concrete floor like firecrackers for some reason.
“That went well,” the Voice said.
Well enough.
“You gotta do what you gotta do, chum.”
Yeah, I know. I know.
It hadn’t really gone well, but it’d gone how he’d expected. Not everyone liked hearing the truth, but right now Cole didn’t have time to be gentle. As far as he was concerned, they could all come with him or none at all. Either way, he’d keep the APC.
After all, he’d spilled blood for it, and he had to make that count for something. He just hoped that Emily could forgive him. He’d made a promise to her to leave all of this behind. He’d meant it at the time, too.
“That was before the world went to shit,” the Voice said. “I’m sure she’ll understand?”
Will she?
“Of course,” the Voice said, but Cole couldn’t completely make himself believe it.
Chapter Twenty
Gunshots.
Followed by two seconds of silence.
Then more gunshots.
Dammit! Cole thought even as he darted out of the APC, barely having the presence of mind to snap up the AR he’d leaned against the open door. The SIG Sauer was safely tucked away inside his hip holster, so at least he didn’t have to worry about that.
As soon as he was outside, he heard a familiar voice calling out, “Cole! I think that was Cameron!”
Dante, rolling along the second-floor catwalk in his chair, the wheels scraping loudly against the metal frame for some reason.
“He’s still on the roof!” the kid shouted.
Cole didn’t reply. He was too busy running full speed across the warehouse floor, making a beeline for the stairs, where he jumped up it two, three steps at a time. He hadn’t needed for Dante to tell him where the shots had come from and what it meant.
Cameron was up there, standing guard. And if he was shooting…
“Not good,” the Voice said.
I thought I was the Master of Understatement.
“Hey, two can play this game!”
“What are we gonna do?” Dante was asking him, even as the kid continued to
roll along the catwalk in the same direction.
“Nothing! You stay down here.”
“Roger that.”
“What’s happening?” Zoe, running out from one of the rooms behind Dante. “I thought I heard gunshots.”
“Stay inside!” Cole shouted to her.
“What—” she started, but he didn’t hear the rest. The bang-bang-bang of gunshots from the rooftop cut her off, followed by the clang-clang-clang as Cole jumped up the second set of stairs, this one to reach the access door above.
The SIG Sauer was already in his hand as he burst out onto the rooftop, just in time to hear a piercing scream.
Male.
Cameron!
Cole swept the open air, looking for a target. He saw nothing that he could shoot. The wind, noticeably stronger than the last time he was up here, whipped at his face. He blinked through strands of wild hair and pushed forward, the gun never lowering, forefinger next to the trigger.
It was still bright outside, with at least three hours to go before sundown. That made things easier. At least there wouldn’t be a bogeyman to jump out of the shadows at him.
He took a quick right turn, in the direction of Bolton’s parked chopper, and noticed the blood on the gravel immediately.
Fresh, wet blood.
Clink! as he kicked a spent shell casing with his boot—
A body. Not Cameron’s. A crazy. Streaks of blood dripped from the man’s eyes. Twenties, but it was hard to tell with the gashes along his cheeks and—
Bang-bang! coming from somewhere behind him.
The fact that it was a handgun was worrisome. Why would Cameron switch from his rifle to his pistol after only firing a few rounds with the AR?
He wouldn’t, was the answer. Not unless he had no choice.
Cole didn’t have to go very far to find a second body. It lay spread out on the ground, one nice round hole in its forehead and another one just under the right eye. Blood sprayed the gravel behind and underneath it. The man was barefoot, wearing Hawaiian shorts and a T-shirt. The only thing missing was a surfboard; there was a crowbar on the rooftop, just out of reach of his outstretched fingers.
Cole moved quickly past the man, the thoughts Where’d they come from? How’d they get up here without Cameron noticing? racing through his head. He had no time to answer them, or even look for answers. He was too busy moving, moving, moving.
Fall of Man | Book 4 | The Tide Page 15