by Tracy Lawson
“For heaven’s sake, Eduardo! It’s Grace and David.”
Eduardo stood aside for the professors as they hurried inside, and turned on the flashlight.
“Oh my, what an adventure!” The beam reflected off David’s thick glasses. “I haven’t driven like that in twenty years.”
“He lost those officers who were tailing us in the MG quadrants.” Grace looked at her ex-husband with admiration, and they both giggled.
Eduardo led them down the hall into the office. “What are you two doing here?”
They sobered and seemed to remember the reason for their flight. David lowered his voice. “We came to warn you that the plan could be in danger.”
“Grace, what about Trina?”
“Trina thought it best we come to you while she manages Mitch. By now, they should be on their way to the capital for her part in the plan.”
David added, “We told Mitch we’d decided we were too old for the actual revolution, and that we were heading home to Virginia. Then we beat a path to you. Mitch wouldn’t give us access to any means of communication with the outside world.”
Tom looked at Lara, and she shook her head. “He hasn’t responded to the messages I’ve sent over the past two days.”
“Then we’d better leave for the capital right away and make sure Atari has the video ready in time.”
“Can you find the safe house?”
“Possibly, but it will be difficult without assistance. I hesitate to call the car service that brought me here. They might warn Atari of our approach.”
“Don’t call the car service. Danni can tell us how to get there. I’ll get directions from her and be back soon.” Eduardo pulled out his phone as he headed for the door.
11:21 PM
En route to DC-005
Lara huddled under a blanket with Tom in the back of the stolen mail truck as Eduardo piloted them into the endless darkness. Jaycee was asleep, curled up on a pile of mailbags.
Tom glanced at the girl before he spoke in a hushed tone. “You know I’ve had my reservations about Mitch for some time, since before we left Resistance headquarters for the bunker. President Wright, Chief QM Garrick, and Senator Renald stand ready to facilitate and work with us. I hope Mitch will still be willing to see through our original plan and make it impossible for Madalyn Davies to retain any influence or credibility.”
“I hope he will, but I’m also disillusioned with Mitch. I don’t approve of the direction he’s taken with the Resistance. You’re right, Tom. We can’t trust him.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that.” Tom looked out the window. “Lara, don’t you think it’s time we were completely honest with each other? You’ve been keeping things from me, when we should be each other’s strongest allies and confidantes. In the past few years, maybe I was too absent from our relationship. I wasn’t seeing you the way I should.
“But I had a lot of time to think while we were held captive at the OCSD. I was more alone than I’d ever been, because you couldn’t remember the bulk of our life together. You were so vulnerable, and I started to wonder what else might be hidden inside of you. The brain is capable of remarkable things—including self-defense. I began to fear you possessed information that would be useful to Stratford.
“I refused to tell him anything, because I wanted him to think I was the only one of us with secrets and that you were ignorant and therefore of no use to him. When he began torturing you, it nearly broke me, but I feared something even worse for you if he had any inkling that you were the one who possessed information that would be valuable.”
“I’m sorry, Tom. For a long time, I’ve had to keep some things to myself. You and I couldn’t be part of the same Resistance cell. Those were the rules. We weren’t supposed to know who else was involved.”
“But you knew of my involvement.”
“Our roles were different. Mitch convinced me you didn’t need to know. Then everything went haywire, and we all ended up at Resistance headquarters.”
“I was certain you’d done sensitive work before, and I was afraid you might be involved in counterintelligence or even be some kind of double agent. I didn’t know what Lowell Stratford would do if he suspected you were a threat to him in your own right, and not just my wife who could be used as a pawn.
“You know, Tommy seems to think you do all the heavy lifting in our relationship.” He brushed back a strand of her hair. “But I stand ready to defend and protect you. Before the accident, I suspected you were keeping secrets from me. I was going to confront you and tell you it didn’t matter what had happened to cause the chasm between us. I wanted to repair whatever damage I’d caused. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you.
“When Tommy was a child, I had no idea that you were involved in anything behind my back, but when they never took our car away, it gave me pause. I was no friend of the government, and, in fact, they probably would have been glad to invoke the Restriction and deny me the freedom that comes with being able to travel at will. I realized it when you taught Tommy to drive. You weren’t afraid. We kept our driving privileges because of you.
“Maybe I made the wrong decision by not telling Lowell what he wanted to know when we were being held at the OCSD, but I was afraid I might implicate you and make things worse.”
Lara nodded. “The agency where I worked was absorbed by the OCSD many years ago. Somehow—probably because I went on maternity leave in the middle of the agency transition—my security clearance was never revoked. I was tantamount to a professional Watcher when we met, and I was good at my job. I was on the list of those approved to keep their cars. I wasn’t about to bring the oversight to anyone’s attention.”
“But how did you meet Mitch?”
“Through Beth. I believe she made some comment to Mitch about how she was torn between two extremes—a best friend who had been a professional Watcher and a fiancé who was a revolutionary.”
Tom scratched his head. “So Beth … and Mitch? He was her fiancé? So that makes Jaycee her daughter? You obviously remembered all this. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Beth kept a lot of the details from me. She was remarried to Art by the time I started doing work for Mitch.”
“Does Jaycee know who her mother is?”
“Yes. I facilitated a meeting between them, at Jaycee’s request. Mitch would have a fit if he knew, and, honestly, I don’t think it went well. Jaycee doesn’t seem to want to talk about it. Anyway, this all happened a long time ago. I was used to being at home with Tommy all day, and when he started school, I was bored. Mitch contacted me and asked if I could do a little work for him on the side, and I admit I jumped at the chance.”
He looked wary, and she hastened to add, “At first, it was just background checks and arrest records. Later, I helped Mitch locate potential new members. The first time I logged in, I was a nervous wreck, waiting for someone from the OCSD to send an email or call and ask why I was accessing the database. But no one seemed to notice.
“It never occurred to me that you might want me to quit because you feared for my safety as much as I worried about yours.” She smiled in the dark. “Silly me. I worried you’d shoot your mouth off and get into trouble.”
“A realistic fear, so it would seem.”
“I stood by you.” She laid her head against his shoulder.
“Lara?”
“Yes?”
“Was your amnesia genuine?”
“Yes, it was. But I never forgot I was in love with you.”
He lifted her chin and kissed her. She responded with the kind of enthusiasm that sent him back twenty years, to when their infatuation with each other had been at its peak. Her revelation about herself added a new, mysterious dimension to this woman he’d loved for so long and fanned the flames of his desire. His hands wandered, and she giggled like a teenager. They had hours ahead of them before they reached the capital.
He heard Eduardo chuckle. “You Baileys get more action in the back
of mail trucks than anyone I ever knew.”
Chapter 24
12:04 AM
Sunday, December 31, 2034
Quadrant BG-098
“Mitch, we’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon.” Trina sat at the counter, a to-go box and a picnic basket beside her, watching him as he wandered through the diner like a cat patrolling his territory.
“We’ve got time.” He ran his hand over the worn Formica as he went behind the counter and began rummaging on the shelves.
She glanced at the clock. “No, we don’t. It’s going to take forever to get to the capital.”
“We’ll make better time at night when the roads are empty.”
“You haven’t seen the condition of the roads in the MG quadrants. Nothing’s been repaired there in ages, and to be honest, it’s not much better in BG. We’ll be lucky to make it in eighteen hours.”
“I haven’t cleaned the kitchen.” He started for the swinging door, and she grabbed his arm.
“I did it while you were packing. The only thing left to do is get in the truck and go.” She released him. “We don’t have to take him with us, you know.”
“And have him blow the whistle on us? No chance. I had everything under control. Why’d you have to mess it up by leaving the bunker too soon?”
“Don’t change the subject. It’s still time to go.”
He looked at the floor. “It’s been a long time since I left here for more than a few hours at a time.”
“I know.”
He came out from behind the counter and went down the hall, and his footsteps sounded heavy on the stairs. As Trina heard him moving around in the rooms above, she envisioned him taking one last look in both Jaycee’s and Wes’s rooms. He returned with the young marshal, whom he’d locked in one of the upstairs closets.
He dragged the boy outside to his truck and shoved him inside, then went back to lock the diner’s front door.
Trina brought the food with her, and shot the boy a sympathetic look as she scooted in beside him. “What’s your name?”
“Seamus. Seamus Owens, ma’am.”
“I’m Trina Jacobs.” She set the picnic basket on the floor at her feet and held out her hand.
“I know.”
Mitch climbed in the driver’s side and started the engine.
She handed Seamus the to-go box. “Here. I made you a hamburger and fries. Should still be warm.” He opened the container and dug in with such relief that her heart went out to him. It couldn’t hurt to be friendly. “So, how do you know Jaycee?”
He swallowed before he answered. “I met her when we notified her of her uncle’s death.”
“I see.”
“Where’ve you been all this time? Seems like all we do is search this quadrant for you.”
Mitch broke in. “Oh, for the love of Mike. Am I going to have to listen to small talk all the way to the capital?”
Seamus glanced his way. “No disrespect, sir, but do you have a travel pass?”
Mitch turned a threatening look on the boy. “Of course I’ve got a travel pass. I’m not stupid.”
“I only ask because, well, QMs are everywhere these days. Even though I’m along for the ride, I might not be much help if you get pulled over and you don’t have a pass. Why are we going to the capital?”
Trina spoke up. “I’ll be glad to tell you the whole story.”
10:38 AM
Quadrant DC-005
After breakfast, Careen followed Tommy into the stairwell. “Where are we going now?”
“We never finished the tour of Atari Land.” He pushed through a fire door to the basement and flipped on the lights in the target range.
Careen looked around in amazement. “How big is this place anyway?”
“Now you’ve been everywhere that I know about. Look, I’ve come to respect a nonviolent approach to problem solving, but we both need to know as much as we can about everything, right? So are you up for learning how to use a gun?”
She nodded. “I had a lot of time to think about it too, and you were right. I need to know how to defend myself.”
He opened a cabinet and selected a .22. “Let’s start with this one.” He released the magazine with a flick of his thumb, pulled it out, and handed the weapon to her. Her hand was shaking, but she accepted the gun with a look of determination on her face.
“I’ll show you what to do.” He gathered safety glasses, ear protection, and a box of ammunition from one of several metal lockers along the wall.
“Are there guns in all of these?” The thought of so much firepower made her nervous.
“In these three, yes. That one over there”—he pointed to a locker set apart from the others—“has explosives and some of his bomb-making stuff.”
Tommy laid the .22 and the rest of the items on the shelf in one of the bulletproof booths. Careen peered out at the paper target of a man’s torso hanging about ten paces away.
She slipped on her safety gear and watched while Tommy loaded the magazine, inserted it into the grip, and chambered a round. He motioned her into place. She picked up the gun and folded her hands over the grip. He stood behind her, one hand on her shoulder, and when he spoke, his voice sounded far away. She concentrated on every word.
“Feet apart; easy stance. Extend your arms. Line up the front and rear sights. Tip it forward a little, see? Breathe in and hold it before you pull the trigger.”
He stepped back out of the booth. Careen locked her elbows, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. The force of the explosion was greater than she’d expected. An orange flame shot up from the rear of the gun’s barrel, and a brass shell casing popped out, singeing her forearm before it fell to the floor. Even with the ear protection, it was loud enough to evoke flashbacks of the explosion at OP-439.
She laid the gun on the shelf in front of her and backed away, overwhelmed by the desire to curl up in a corner and cry. Tommy touched her on the shoulder and she jumped.
“Hey! Take it easy. That was a good shot. Look!” He pushed a red button on the wall and the target trundled toward them. She’d pierced it in the upper right torso.
“It was … I wasn’t expecting it to be so … I can’t believe I ever pointed a loaded gun at you. What if I’d—”
“Yeah, and this one’s just a .22. A caliber that small barely leaves a dent.” She looked up at him, wild-eyed. “I’m kidding! Don’t think about what might have gone wrong. Concentrate on learning to use the weapon properly.”
Her heart thudded in her chest. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before she nodded.
He sent the paper target back out and she stepped back into the booth, lined up the sights, and fired, hitting just outside the torso. She adjusted her position and tried again. A gut shot. Who knew it could make her smile? Okay, I get why Jaycee hangs her targets on her bedroom walls.
She worked her way through the first ten rounds, taking time to evaluate after each shot. When the magazine was empty, she laid the gun down again and stepped out of the booth.
Tommy had retreated behind the bulletproof glass window. She called to him, “Why don’t you take a turn? Show me how it’s done?”
“Nah, not right now. I’ll help you reload though.”
He supervised as she fed bullets into the magazine and inserted it into the grip. When she was ready, he hurried out again. She grew increasingly confident and obliterated six targets before she’d had enough. Her hands shook as she took off the eye and ear protection and fluffed up her hair, but she grinned, eager for his approval. He gazed down at her as he handed her a broom. “How about you sweep up all the shells while I put everything away?”
She watched him return the gun to the cabinet and take out a box of shells for the 9 mm. He filled his pockets as she swept the last of the spent casings into the dustpan and deposited them in the trash. Empowered by the experience, she threw her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
“You were great. But w
e have to go. Right. Now.”
“Why? What’s the matter?”
He didn’t answer, but instead pushed through the fire door and took the stairs two at a time, as though he couldn’t get away fast enough. She followed him, perplexed, all the way to his room. As soon as they were inside, he locked the door.
“Tommy, did I do something wrong?”
“No.” He was still breathing hard from the pace he’d set on the stairs. “Watching you face something that frightened you and master it was the hottest thing…ever. It was like I couldn’t go another minute without—”
When their lips met, she was already sliding her hands down his stomach, and they tugged at each other’s waistbands and belts as though there was no established system for their removal.
She pushed his hands away, and like magic she was out of her jeans and he was on top of her and there was no need to think.
She saved the thinking for much later, when she rolled onto one elbow and pressed close to his side to gaze down at him. Since they’d resumed their relationship their intimacies had been all about hello, but this time the intensity suggested a prelude to goodbye.
Had admitting she loved him been a mistake? No amount of love given or received could alleviate the threat of the Link. Tommy’s optimism and sense of humor kept her from taking herself too seriously, but would shouldering the weight of her problems end up crushing the qualities she most valued in him? He was half asleep, sated. She nudged him, and he opened one eye.
“Wow. I think you made me forget my name.”
She didn’t even try to look embarrassed. “My first night here, you said you’d wait until I was ready to go back to the way we were. Now we’re together again, but Tommy, we can’t ever go back. The Link will always be a part of my life. It doesn’t have to be part of yours.”
His eye closed. “Sounds like you’re trying to get rid of me.”
She knew she was making the moment too serious. “No. I just won’t hold you to any promises. The Link complicates everything.”