“They know we’re not the bad guys, right?” Gorman turned to ask Curt.
“They don’t know yet. They haven’t had a good run with the folks who show up in suits or tactical gear. Many of them had their entire farms or food stores raided to feed the detainment centers,” Rob answered.
“But… listen, if we were here for anything else…” Korey started to say.
“I have a feeling you boys are about to go off the reservation,” Leah said. “You’re seeing now what folks have been calling ‘conspiracy theories’. A shadow government with a plan. Cabinet level appointees that are directing agencies. A controlled media that’s set against our current president and an election happening in what, three weeks?”
“Four,” Gorman answered. “I mailed my early ballot this morning.”
“But yes,” Korey interjected. “Neither of us believed any of it until you whipped out those orders. I don’t know if you know how classified documentation goes, but that was code worded—”
“Compartmentalized and code worded. We got them from one of the bigger sticks in the conspiracy, and he had a bigger picture than others.” This from Rob, who smiled suddenly. He let his rifle drop to his side as Angel ran the distance between the second gate and the egg table, and launched herself. Rob caught her, then held her sideways like a husband carrying his new bride across the threshold. He kissed her quickly on the lips before putting her down.
“Hurry up slowpoke,” Angel called over Rob’s shoulder.
“Big people weren’t meant for sprinting,” Bailey yelled back.
“So, I have to ask, how does everybody know everybody?” Gorman asked. “I’m curious is all.”
“Us three couples purchased the farm. We’ve been lifelong friends and wanted a place to retire to, or bug out if the shit hit the fan,” Andrea explained. “And along the way, we adopted the Littles, Luis and Bailey.”
“Don’t forget me.” Harry’s voice came out of the radio.
Roscoe picked that moment to sit up and bark. An answering bark came from the front of the market and Ranger came bursting out the back of the fence line, making a beeline for the group. He stopped next to Roscoe and then sat down, his tail wagging.
“We didn’t forget you,” Andrea said into his radio, “and we didn’t forget the dogs either.”
“Voice activated throat mikes, and earwigs mostly. Rob doesn’t appear to have his in… so you all can keep in constant contact, all the time?” Gorman asked.
“Yup,” Curt said. “We learned not to trust the government. There’s some good, there’s some bad. Heck, just like the cops. Some were stressed and pushed into positions that gave them no way out. We’ve even had groups of kids try to break in here to steal stuff and… creep.”
Anna laughed at that one. “But they were good for a security test. At least we didn’t have to shoot them.”
Gorman and Korey looked at each other uncomfortably. If they were actually following orders, they would have come with a team, all the state police and sheriffs they could get, with BATF and any others they could gather. Gorman realized that wouldn’t have been enough. The group itself had a technological advantage that most two-bit crooks couldn’t dream of, and apparently, the support of the community. They saw a local cop watching them from the sidelines, and had seen the big state police officer at the front gate. Two state police cars had been parked along the roadside, so they knew there were more there, how many they didn’t know.
Somehow these people, despite bringing craziness to the small region, had garnered the support of the area. The group surrounding them alone was at least a hundred strong. Both agents came to the same conclusion that any large group that came after the residents of the farm would be met with resistance from the moment word got out that they were on the road.
That’s when Gorman looked up and saw the ‘telephone poles’ that didn’t actually have lines strung to them.
He wasn’t surprised to see cameras mounted to them, forty feet in the air. The group had a pretty good field of view up and down their property lines along the roadway. Gorman recognized the radios as a good model that could easily be reprogrammed, and again marveled at their resources.
“These folks bugging you?” Ella May asked, putting her double barrel on the table next to her coolers of milk.
“Actually, we’re pretty sure these guys are the good ones,” Anna told her, “and you’re not wearing your good glasses today.”
Ella May fussed and put her shotgun back under her table.
“I believe you wanted to talk to us?” Angelica asked.
“We do, but… I really wish we could go somewhere more private. The crowd is kind of… intimidating,” Gorman answered.
“I’m good wherever,” Bailey said. “I figure the two of us could handle ourselves if these guys aren’t really on the up and up.”
Gorman looked at the big woman and thought she must be related to Rob somehow. She was tall and solid. She had feminine features, but her thick arms and haircut had him wondering. The scars on her fists were nearly as impressive as Rob’s. Sister? Cousin? Then he remembered she was a friend of Angelica’s. Gorman was a transplant who’d grown up near the PNW’s Canadian border. Maybe it was something in the water in Arkansas that grew some folks so large. Then there was his wife Angelica, who had reportedly beat one of the homeland agents half to death with her bare hands. Korey and Gorman had just shaken their heads.
Once they had started questioning their orders and the disinformation that had been given out, sometimes by the highest levels of their agency, they had questioned everything. Rob’s file had him listed as an infantry soldier, but the rumors had him as something else. The only official document they were able to find in a hurry was the after-action report, and that had included the German shepherd they figured had followed him back from the sandbox. He had instructed his K9, that he’d trained himself, to try to recover a wounded man. Then, pinned by sniper fire with mortars being rained down over them, he’d called in air support.
Rob himself had carried the body of the fallen radioman and a wounded soldier over each shoulder to the extraction point, where it was later discovered he himself had taken shrapnel in his lower legs, buttocks and back. Nothing terribly serious, but the big man had shrugged off the pain and told the medics to see to the worst wounded first, despite the blood that had darkened the back of his BDUs. For that, he’d gotten the Medal of Valor and a Purple Heart. Gorman figured nothing here was what it seemed, and if Bailey and Angelica felt they could take the agents if needed, he was going to believe it. If half the rumors were true, these were good folks to have on your side.
“Rob, we can handle this if you want to go with the ladies,” Curt said, then grinned. “Or you can tell us to fuck off, and we will.”
“You don’t think my little Angel can handle herself?” Goldie asked suddenly, smacking a wooden spoon on the table.
Everybody jumped. Everybody but the agents covered their backsides with one hand.
“Lord knows she can,” Curt said, “but if she goes off, it’s going to take both Rob and Bailey’s strength to pull her off them guys if they aren’t on the up and up.”
“Ohhhhh, good answer,” Andrea said, putting her arm around Curt’s waist. “You think it up that quick?”
“No, I’ve seen her fight, and what she taught Anna in a short period of time. Unless you can pick her up and hold her away from you, she’s the Tasmanian Devil, in Prada.”
The agents chuckled, wondering if this was a bit of theater for their benefit, or if Curt was being serious. Neither of them wanted to really find out.
Thirty-Three
“Where are we going?” agent Korey asked nervously as they headed past the medical center, the cabins, equipment barn and main house.
“We were working in the greenhouse. Since Bailey hasn’t had a chance to train with us much, she wanted to learn how to start seeds and how our hydroponics worked. I figure we can talk and work while you bo
ys ask your questions.”
“Hydroponics?” Gorman asked.
“We’re growing ‘maters, beans, peppers, more salad, and spinach you could shake a stick at, and we’re growing all that out too, but for seed in the second greenhouse. Eventually, the community, all of it, is going to have to become more self-sufficient,” Angel explained.
“And as soon as we get the FDA off our backs, we have plenty of sows and cows ready for slaughter, that we could be bartering to the community. As it is, we’re giving away home processed meats, chicken, eggs and produce to those in need who can’t barter or do some work for us,” Rob explained.
“As far as farms go, this isn’t large acreage,” Korey said. “How can you do all of that?”
“As long as the fuel holds out, we’re pretty self-sufficient here. We have enough grains for feed, and animals and fowl for food. Hell, we even have a catfish pond and goats for milk, but we have to have Miss Eva teach us how to milk them.”
“Is that the old lady with the shotgun selling the glass bottles of milk…?” Gorman asked.
“That’s the one. If we keep things rotated, the chickens, pigs and cattle can be rotated to past fields. Pigs glean missed grains and turn over the field. Chickens come behind them, eating insects and any missed grains, spreading the pig shit around in the process. When they’re done, we fatten up the meat birds in the barn with grain we harvested, with our laying birds giving us eggs and new birds for meat grow outs. We’re not doing all of that yet, but I’m about to get things fenced and ready so we can get the chickens rotating. Leave the field to mellow for a few months after that, and it’s ready for the plow. Three main fields we can do this with and one big one we keep cattle on. One of our three production fields is always planted in hay with the other two in grains.”
“And two humongous silos,” Korey said, realizing the scope of things, but having no idea what secrets the farm really held.
“Yup, so as long as the fuel is here, we’re in good shape. Now, if we were on friendly terms with the BATF, we’d make our own ethanol and convert our gas engines. Steven is working on a way to make biodiesel, so someday we’ll truly be able to flip deuces to the world and close the gates. If we needed to,” Angelica told them.
“But power…” Korey started to say, but as they climbed the hill behind the catfish pond headed to two greenhouses, he caught sight of the massive solar array by the poultry barn.
“Small acreage, but we’re efficient with what we use it for,” Rob finished.
“Here we are,” Bailey said, opening the door to the greenhouse. “Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”
“I don’t know if I want to go in there now,” Korey whispered to Gorman.
“Be a man. Oh, and by the way, you get to go first,” Gorman shot back.
Rob snickered and walked in. The first thing the agents noticed was that, despite it being a chilly October, it was close to mid-eighties or higher in temperatures on the inside. The humidity was through the roof. Gorman pulled his jacket off and hung it on a hook that Rob had pointed out. Korey followed suit a moment later. Neither agent felt exposed with their shoulder holsters on display, as everyone at the farm except the Bailey woman were armed as well.
“It smells… like a garden,” Gorman said.
Angelica’s laugh was musical. “Yes. We aren’t using any chemicals here. The water the plants are grown in comes from the catfish pond. We feed the catfish, and pump the water up here. The plants filter the water and take the nutrients they need. The whole system flows back to the pond, bringing less ammonia and a ton of added oxygen back into the process.”
“I was wondering how you got the pond so clean, but it looks to be full of fish,” Gorman said.
“It is, it might have too many fish, but we’re still dialing in the system.” Rob answered. “Luis, my mom’s boyfriend, built this. He wanted it to run all off solar with cheap and easy to source materials. Sort of a set it and forget it setup, until it needs maintenance. That way we can focus on replanting and harvesting.”
“I…holy shit,” Korey said softly. “No wonder the FDA and Homeland wanted your asses so bad. You can literally feed your area from this little holding.”
“I can’t speak for everyone,” Bailey spoke up, “because I’m new here and learning as I go, but I believe they want these guys badly, because they can teach others to be self-sufficient in a much, much smaller footprint. For some reason, I don’t think the shadow government wants folks to be self reliant. If the public were, they wouldn’t need them anymore.”
The agents just stared at her a while, mouths agape. Neither were farmers, but now that they had seen just a small scratch of the surface of what this farm could do, they became afraid. Not for their own safety, but afraid of the direction their country was facing… and the outcome of the general election in four short weeks. If a small farm in the middle of Western Arkansas could keep a community together and fed, why weren't the emergency management powers that be adopting a similar program instead of consolidating people with the increasingly limited resources?
The agents had literally rolled up their sleeves and joined in the process. It wasn’t difficult the way Luis had it set up. The root plugs had an opening on the top where you pushed a seed in. Then you put the plug in a small tray with a humidity dome and made sure everything was marked and watered down. The trays and humidity domes that had plants in them from a week ago and were ready to go into the system.
Bailey only had a couple of days under her belt, but the setup was so easy; the hardest part was explaining the planting schedule, so they always had something ready to go. The old media, expanded clay pellets, were dumped into a framed screen that had small but heavy gauge wire. Organic material was picked out by hand, and the media was sprayed with a hose and left to dry in the sun. It wasn’t perfect, but it was as low tech as Luis could make it. Even the root plugs were cleaned up and reused.
“The lettuce seems to be what you guys plant the most of?” Korey asked, already finishing up a flat of fifty plugs.
“Yes,” Angelica said. “We harvest it every day. Luis has a salad spinner thing and another rack like you saw for the clay pellets where he can air dry the lettuce. Most of the time though, we’re able to just cut and bag it. It never touches the soil, so it’s pretty clean. We can get two cuttings off the lettuce in the greenhouse before it tries to bolt because of the heat in here. Luis figures in the wintertime he may be able to get more cuttings on the plants.”
“So, getting back to your story,” Gorman said, all business. “You said the man who abducted you was named Khamenei, a doctor?”
“That’s what they called him, but he wasn’t working with the regular doctors at the compound. He had his own team with him.”
“Had,” Bailey snickered.
“Had?” Korey was curious.
“I hurt a few of his boys before he shot me with a tranquilizer dart. I thought he’d shot me for real, it hurt so bad, but he wasn’t kicking my ass either. I put a monkey stomping on those boys and for once, I didn’t feel bad about hurting somebody.”
“I’d like to monkey stomp all of their asses,” Rob said loudly, reminding everyone he was still there, but hanging back, quiet.
“So, Rob, do you mind telling us your role in the escape of the governor and the ladies?” Korey asked him.
“I watched the place for a few days, getting to know the layout of the camp, and the timing. I worked out a way to sneak inside the camp. I was about to wreak some havoc and make a diversion when I quite literally ran into my wife, who was making her own escape with the governor and Bailey.”
“So, your only criminal liability in this situation is unlawful entry,” Gorman added hopefully.
“No comment,” Rob said, grinning at the men. There was no way he was going to tell them about the transformers he’d blown, or the men he’d shot in the plates to cause confusion. He wouldn’t have minded if he had missed and killed them instead, b
ut that would have probably pushed the government a little too far. So, he remained silent.
“We’re not here to arrest you,” Agent Korey said. “We’re just trying to understand.”
“It’s simple,” Rob said. “A large mob formed up on the last day, the day I was going to sneak in. During the chaos, the ladies and the governor made their escape. The detention facility staff didn’t have enough people to guard everyone inside from escaping, and deal with the mob outside. I’m sure there were a lot of folks hurt on both sides of the wire, but we didn’t kill anyone there.” Yet Rob added mentally.
“And do you have any idea how the mob formed up?” Gorman asked.
“I heard it was something to do with suckbook or some other social media stuff. I think it’s on my tweeter thing,” Rob said, pulling his phone out and trying to hand it to the agent.
He chuckled and put his hands up, so Rob put his phone back in his pocket.
“Bailey, you were there the longest. What was your take on the center?”
“Jail. Not like you see on TV, but you weren’t free to leave. You had assigned rooms. Families were split apart, living in separate locations. When they had a problem person there, the guards would offer me extra clothing, better bedding or better food to ‘bump into’ the problem child they couldn’t deal with openly.”
“That’s how I met her,” Angelica told the agents. “She was sent to bust me up.”
“Instead, I got my ass monkey stomped,” Bailey said, “I tried one more time before I learned my lesson. She visited me in the hospital, and after that, I threw in with her. She told me that if I came after her one more time, she’d make me her bitch. Well, I’m her bitch by choice, and her friend, because she’s got a kind heart and I’m trying to be a better person than I used to be. I want to learn from my past mistakes.”
“And what was the reason you were there at the detention center?” Agent Gorman asked.
“I was at a protest that turned into a riot. I was scooped up with a dozen others. A couple of them were sent near Fort Smith.”
The Farm Book 3: Behind The Curve Page 21