“My tabby cat. She’s petrified right now. So much shooting…” Haley’s words faded.
The woman looked inside for a moment, then popped up with a concerned look. “I’ve got a pair of calicos inside. Probably sleeping, of course. I know what you’re going through, being on the road.”
“Thanks,” Haley replied. “I love your hair, by the by. The white streaks make you look like royalty.”
The woman’s smile lit up the yard. “Aren’t you the nicest young thing? I really appreciate the pick-me-up. It’s been a long time since I’ve bothered to fix myself up, with the lockdown and all.”
“Lockdown?” Ezra interjected.
“Sure. Governor has everyone confined to their homes until the situation in Kansas City clears up. They’re saying the whole city is ash after being struck by an unidentified object from above. Of course, they aren’t telling us what it was. News has been no help, either.”
“You don’t know? It was a chunk of asteroid. Pieces of it came down around the country. One of them blew up our town” —he motioned to Butch—“of Paducah.”
“Seriously? It was one of the rumors we heard, but we couldn’t be sure. The Missouri governor didn’t say much, neither.” She said the state’s name as if it ended with an ah, rather than an ee. “In the absence of news, my neighbors and I have been trying to figure it all out on the internet, but even that’s been cut off out here. We’re the last to know everything.”
The homeowner waved them to follow her to a tiny shed directly behind her place. “I’m Josephine, by the way.”
They all rattled off their names.
“Nice to meet y’all,” she continued. “My husband is driving a truck OTR, so I do most of the chores ’round here. He’s why I know about this.” She opened the sliding door of the tin structure, revealing a riding mower and several familiar red containers.
“Whoa!” Ezra blurted. It was a gold mine, but he couldn’t ignore what she’d said. “Hey, where is your husband right now?”
She shrugged. “He don’t tell me. Sometimes he calls from Maine. Other times, he’s in Oregon. That man has seen more of the country than I ever will. We’ve talked about riding together once in a while, but we never got around to it. I guess I do enjoy time to myself…”
He didn’t want to ruin it for her. Truckers were probably sitting on the highways, like those he’d seen around the ruins of Paducah, waiting for cities to be opened and traffic to clear. If she hadn’t heard from the guy in a week, he also had to wonder if he’d survived at all. None of those were ideas he wanted to share with her.
The woman went on. “Why don’t you leave yours? Take one of mine. We’ll call it even.”
“No, we shouldn’t,” Ezra said in a wistful voice. He wanted to say yes. Her cans were the old style, without all the useless emissions garbage attached to the spout. They were a lot easier to use when in a hurry.
“Pshaw!” Josephine replied. “You think I’ll need all this gasoline for any other purpose? My lawn isn’t even very big. It’ll last me all summer. You’re doing me a favor by taking some of it.”
Haley cheerfully pulled out her phone. “Give me your number. When we get back to civilization, I want to send you a little token, okay?”
Josephine stepped closer to her, speaking quietly. “Haley, you do have a little token I might take as a temporary payment.”
Haley looked confused. “What? I’ll do whatever I can.”
The woman brushed back her hair, then pointed to the cat crate. “Let me help you take care of your little precious. Leave her here with me. When you come back through, she’ll be waiting for you.”
The pretty girl’s face folded up in horror. “I can’t!”
Denver, CO
Petteri was hip-deep in status reports and updates from Mr. Aarons and his counterparts at all the other dig sites. Each phone call brought him a mixture of good and bad news about how his workers had gained control and continued extraction of his precious ores, but the bad news seemed to edge out the good.
The situation in Denver had been going downhill for days. After the brief interlude of peace imposed by the barrels of TKM guns, the city was breaking down into anarchy. More men were required to travel with each dump truck both in and out of the city. He’d paid off thousands of men to work for him, but there were hundreds of thousands of residents and competing miners trying to stop him.
Similar reports were rolling in from Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, and Kentucky. He still kept full control of the more remote dig sites in Wyoming, Nebraska, and western Oklahoma, but pinprick attacks were common, even in those places. To speed things up at the sites near rail lines, he’d tried to up the flow of ore by commandeering every coal hopper in America. There was no genuine need to have them all, but it was all about control. As long as TKM had contracts on them, none of the other companies could use them. Rail companies were more than happy to take his money.
He was interrupted by a knock at his door.
“Who is it?” He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
“Dorothy.”
Even she didn’t rise to his level at the moment. “I’m sorry, I’ve got—”
“Stricker called me on my phone. He wants to talk to you.” She sounded disgusted. It wasn’t tough to understand her reasons. She’d piqued his interest. He became intrigued as to why the government employee had called her.
“Come in,” he said tiredly.
She strode in and dumped her phone on his desk. “I do not want to talk to that man ever again. I’ve already paid my dues with him. He doesn’t get to keep tormenting me.”
He smiled, certain she was being dramatic in a passive-aggressive manner. Sure, he’d asked her to meet privately with the portly fellow, but they’d been in the conference room. Nothing untoward could have happened.
Petteri picked up the phone. “Mr. Stricker? This is Petteri Tikkanen. How can I be of service?” Though he saw the other man as working for him, he maintained the veneer of civility to keep things smooth between them.
“Ah, very good. She put me through to you. I was very pleased to hear your assistant’s voice, as you know.” The man sounded winded, even on the phone.
“Happy to hear it. What do you want?”
“Oh, my friend, I’ve been following what’s happening around the country with each of your impact sites. The ore is flowing out. Trucks, and now trains, are flowing in. Well, I guess that isn’t true everywhere, is it?”
He clamped his jaw tight. What was the man’s game?
“Anyway, there is one teensy-weensy clause in our contract I’d like to execute. Something Dorothy fought me on tooth and nail, but which I was surprised you left in there after the ink was dry.”
Petteri’s head spun. His usual army of lawyers hadn’t been around to inspect every line of the contract. He’d read it himself, but in the interest of time, he may have cut a few pages off the word count. It was all boring standard text. “Go on.”
“Right. The United States government is entitled to one of the ten biggest pieces of 586001 Tuonela as compensation for the damage done to the nation. I’m sure you would agree the nation has suffered from the accident caused by your asteroid, and I’m sure you would agree for the sake of publicity we can square up the costs involved with this minor inconvenience for TKM.”
He glared at Dorothy. At first, he was angry she’d given him the phone, then he was upset with himself for letting her come in, and finally he was mad at Stricker for getting him over a barrel.
There was also the issue of devaluation. One of the reasons he’d wanted to collect all his ore on the sly was to time its release on the markets. If a hundred companies collected a hundred different rocks worth billions of dollars in gold, it would make gold prices plummet. If he could parse out gold and other rare earth minerals in smaller doses, it would preserve the price point, and his fortune.
If there was one thing the government would fail at doing, it was conservation. Stricker
and his people would gobble the minerals and sell them as fast as possible, even if it meant they received pennies on the dollar.
“Mr. Stricker. Don’t you think this discussion would be better as part of further negotiations? Perhaps another visit to discuss how this might work to both our advantages? I’m sure my assistant Dorothy would—”
Dorothy turned and stormed out.
“—be able to help you.”
The man blew his nose on the phone. “As much as I would love to talk with her some more, I’m afraid the president himself has asked this of me. You and I have our, uh, arrangement, but there are some situations where I cannot meet you halfway. This is one of them.”
He had to press the guy to the max. It was uncouth to discuss the elements of blackmail with the participant, but a curt reminder was sometimes unavoidable. “Even if it means those untidy photographs were to get out?”
The line went silent for several seconds.
“Mr. Stricker?”
“Let me see what I can do.” He sounded deflated, which suited Petteri fine.
“That’s what I wanted to hear!”
He slammed the phone, sure he’d made his point.
CHAPTER 7
Sidney, NE
Grace wasn’t sure what to think about her recent choices. Misha’s sudden arrival was fortunate, but their group decision to travel west, rather than toward her dad, caused hours of uncertainty for her. They’d crossed into Wyoming before Misha joined her and Asher on the back end of the rolling flatcar. He sat down and hung his legs off the deck, as they were doing.
“Thank you for giving gun back.” Misha patted his pistol. After much discussion about it, she’d decided it made no sense to keep him weaponless. They’d already established he’d had ample opportunity to kill them. She had to take him at his word he was helping them. He couldn’t do it without a gun.
“We also have the rifles we stole from other TKM security goons. You’re welcome to use one. Giving you the guns was Asher’s idea and I supported him a hundred percent.” She talked up Asher so Misha would know they were in it together.
“Harasho, uh, okay,” the Russian man responded. “All very good.”
Grace watched the track roll out from under the flatbed car for a short time. “Misha, I’m sorry it didn’t work out for your family, but, honestly, I don’t know how to feel. If they were still alive, it would mean I was dead. That’s why Petteri killed them, right? Because you didn’t get to us in time.”
He clicked his teeth. “Da. I mean, yes. I understand your confusion. I do. However, you must know I was not always like this. Petteri was good boss for the time I worked for him. I was bodyguard, not paid assassin. I went to gym twice a day. Had nice apartment in city. Made honest living for my family. It was only when asteroid was inbound—” He flexed his arm, drawing a downward path on the horizon, “that he ask too much of me.”
She let him think for a few seconds before he went on.
“I knew I went too far when I accidentally killed traffic officer. But by then, I was committed to protecting my mother as well as my darling Valentina. Problems arrived when you saved my life.”
“Twice,” Grace reminded him on the spot.
He smiled. “Twice. I know. Two times you prove to me you were better person than man I worked for. Two times you reminded me I was working hard to protect bad man. The problem, I realized too late, was I was only one link in long chain of operatives working for him. Some were compromised, like me, but some were in it for power.”
“Like Nero,” Asher added.
“Nerio,” Misha corrected.
“Right. Her. She’s one who likes what she does, isn’t she?”
Grace gave him a curious glance.
Asher acknowledged her concern. “I figure any husband and wife hit team has to be fully committed to the cause. Either way, she didn’t seem too concerned about collateral damage. She sprayed the entire train yard. If we’d been around a lot of people, they’d all be dead.”
“He is right,” Misha continued. “Nerio and her husband are having fun. It would not surprise me if she is in tank the next time we see her. Anything is possible now that Tikkanen mining is in charge of large areas of your country.”
She glanced over her shoulder, around her Chevy truck and beyond the train. The flat grasslands of boring Wyoming were back. If the woman had a tank, they’d see it from miles away.
When she turned back, Asher put his hand on her leg, prompting her to place her hand over his. He smiled broadly at her. “We’re in this together,” he said. Her curly-haired friend spoke to Misha. “We both thank you for what you’re doing, but if you try to hurt Grace, you’ll have to go through me.”
Misha laughed, then slapped him on the back. He was taller and huskier than Asher. If he’d wanted, he could have probably slapped him right off the back of the train. “I like you better as park ranger. Is much better look than in your cheap business suit.”
“Hey!” Asher replied, sounding a little hurt.
Grace stifled a laugh, not wanting to give anything to the ex-hitman. But he was right. Asher had been a fish out of water when she’d first met him. He wore his business suit and stylish dress shoes as if he’d come off the last subway stop from the big city. Now, with his crumpled and worn park ranger uniform, and the rifle slung over his shoulder, she bought into the image of him as a partner.
At the same time, Asher was correct. She couldn’t really trust Misha, no matter how sincere he seemed about finding his purpose.
She squeezed Asher’s hand, glad to have him by her side.
“I like you, too, Ash. Thank you for being here.”
“I wouldn’t—” He froze mid-sentence.
She saw it, too. Far in the distance, roughly above the train tracks they’d already traveled, a black speck coasted through the air.
A helicopter.
Arrow Rock, MO
“I can’t leave her with you. I just can’t!” Haley had taken a few steps back, as if the woman was going to steal the cat.
“She doesn’t have to be alone. You could leave the puppy, too. He and Jabba the Mutt are having a blast.”
Haley stood there for several moments, but abruptly stepped away from the group, almost on the verge of tears. Ezra guessed she might have been rethinking jumping on the boat with her pets in the first place. He might offer for her to stay in Arrow Rock to keep an eye on her pet friends, but he didn’t want to push her away. And there was no denying TKM had their sights on the three of them. If they tracked her down, and he and Butch weren’t there…
Butch sidled up next to him. “What do you think she’s going to do? I have to admit I was scared to death her pets were going to eat a bullet. Almost as much as I was worried about myself. But we can’t protect them. Not unless we have a bulletproof bunker on the boat.”
Ezra was thinking along the same wavelength. “Yeah, you and I need to figure out a way to stop having men shoot at us. I don’t want to lead all these dangerous men right to Grace. Then I’ll have put her in danger, too.”
“But it’s fine for me?” Butch chuckled, hitting Ezra on the shoulder.
Sobering, Ezra glanced toward Haley. “It’s not fair to any of us. Law and order has broken down a lot faster than I ever imagined before this started. It sounds like it isn’t going to get better in Kansas City. It might be a while before our journey becomes safe again.”
“You mean like that one ten-minute stretch we had on the water two days ago?”
He turned to his friend. “You can stay in this yard too, mister.”
“What? Are you going to turn the boat around if I don’t behave?”
Butch cracked up, as did he, at least until Haley returned.
She wiped away a lone tear. “I heard what you two said. Do you really think it’s going to get more dangerous than it already has?”
He and Butch shared a world-weary look. Ezra answered. “Those men on the bridge are looking for the three of u
s. We’re probably in some federal database they’ve tapped into. I’m afraid we’ll be pursued by this group until one side is totally gone.” Ezra didn’t need to spell it out any further.
He continued. “You and Butch are welcome to disembark. Hide out in a forest. There’s no way they can search the whole state. However, my daughter is counting on me to get to her in Denver. I can’t stop now.”
Josephine spoke up. “Maybe those men won’t be able to catch up to you. No one is supposed to be on the highways right now. They might be stuck in Boonville.”
Ezra doubted the TKM trucks would be stopped by anything for very long. The company had become the law in St. Charles. They probably had a similar arrangement with other cities. Maybe the whole state. “We have to assume they’re coming. We can’t let our guard down.”
“So, totally dangerous?” Haley asked, as if seeing the light.
He nodded grimly.
Haley turned to Josephine. “Would you really take care of them both for me? It’s an awful lot to ask for a few gallons of gas.”
The older lady scoffed. “This isn’t about gasoline. This is about helping a fellow woman in her time of need.”
Butch snickered. “You aren’t going to eat them, are you?”
Josephine and Haley glared at him with double-barreled power.
He put up his hands. “Sorry. It was only a joke.”
Haley eased up. “Don’t mind him. I’ll slap him later.”
The woman softened. “You know it’s the right thing to do for your furry pals. They shouldn’t be out on a boat for days on end. They shouldn’t go to Kansas City, either. None of you should. But most of all, they shouldn’t be put in danger. I promise I’ll take care of them.” She scowled at Butch. “And I promise not to eat them.”
Butch wore a sheepish grin.
Liam chose that moment to run in a circle around Haley. She choked up as she scooped him in her arms. Her puppy voice was almost hoarse. “Would you like to spend some more time here at this lovely place? This nice woman wants you to visit with her boy. Victoria would be here, too.”
Impact (Book 5): Black Page 6