The Horse Soldier: Beginnings Series Book 10

by Jacqueline Druga

  Frank didn’t see him when he walked into the lab, but that didn’t mean Frank didn’t know where Dean was. He remembered the special lab off of the freezer room. Frank deducted that was where they kept Dean, hidden away like a deformed child or something. And Frank was right. Walking into the freezer room, he could see Dean in the lab

  . . . on the phone?

  Frank opened the door, hearing Dean laugh.

  Dean’s back was to Frank and he was reclining in the chair. “O.K., just keep that in mind . . . I’ll try to call you later if I can get near a phone . . . I miss you too. I love you. Bye.”

  “No!” Frank cried out, running into the lab as Dean set down the receiver.

  Dean jumped at Frank’s scream. “God, Frank.”

  “That . . . that was El.” Frank pointed to the phone. “Wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Dean, you asshole! You can call Ellen?”

  “Yes.” Dean stood up. “It was part of the arrangement.”

  “Fuck.” Frank rushed to the phone and reached for it. “Where is she? I wanna talk to her.”

  “No, Frank.” Dean laid his hand on the receiver.

  “Dean.”

  “Frank.”

  “Get your hand off the phone. I’m calling El.”

  “And tell her what?” Dean asked.

  “Tell her I love her and miss her.”

  “And divulge that you have your memory.”

  “No!” Frank snapped. “I won’t say anything about that.”

  “Frank, you idiot. What the hell do you think telling her you love her would be doing? The lines are tapped.”

  “Oh.” Frank thought about it. “Why is George letting you call home?”

  “Because he thinks El is the only who know about it and it was part of my bargain. I have to have constant checkins with her. If she doesn’t hear from me, I told George she would go to Joe and they would drop a weapon she and I worked on that would wipe out everyone on the east coast, except me. I’m immune.”

  “Is that true? Do you have a weapon like that?”

  “Um . . . uh . . . no. What are you doing here, Frank?”

  “Bored I guess.” He sat on the edge of Dean’s desk. “You know, Dean, I heard the end of your conversation. In all seriousness, don’t get your hopes up on keeping this marriage thing once I get home.”

  Dean laughed, stopped laughing, looked at Frank, and laughed again.

  “What?”

  “You think you’re gonna steal her from me?”

  “Yes.”

  “You think?”

  “I know.”

  Dean laughed.

  “Don’t . . .” Frank imitated Dean’s laughing. “Wanna bet on it?”

  “I’ll bet you. What do you wanna bet.”

  “That I can’t steal her off of you and break up the marriage?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let me think about it. I need a time frame though. She’ll have a certain loyalty to you for a short time for coming after me. But after that . . .” Frank fluttered his lips. “You’re little man history.”

  “You think?”

  “I know.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “We will.” Frank nodded.

  “Why are you here, Frank?”

  “What? Are you working on something?” Frank asked sarcastically.

  “No.” Dean shook his head. “I wouldn’t work on anything for them except to screw things up.”

  “So you have nothing better to do than to argue with me?”

  Dean let out a long sigh. “I guess not.” Dean pointed to his desk and extra chair. “Wanna catch up some more.”

  “Yeah.” Frank sat down at the same time as Dean. “Hey Dean.”

  “What?”

  Frank leaned into the desk. “Guess what?”

  “What?”

  “I know something you don’t know.”

  Dean made a scoffing face, gasping in disgust. “What is this? Let’s play first grade?” Dean leaned back in his chair. “What do you know?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Does it have something to do with the Society?”

  “Nope.” Frank played with the pencil holder. “It’s more personal.”

  “Then in that case . . .” Dean took the pencil holder from him. “I know something you don’t know.”

  “No you don’t. You’re just saying that.”

  “Nope.” Dean shook his head.

  “What is it?” Frank asked.

  “I can’t tell you. Joe orders.” Dean smirked thinking of Hal. “Ah. Bet it’s better than yours.”

  “Doubt it. Give me a hint.”

  “You give me a hint.”

  “I can’t.”

  Dean shrugged. “Neither can I.”

  “O.K.” Frank tapped his fingers on Dean’s desk as he rested his chin on his hand. “Catch up time. How did this Neville Competition start?”

  Dean smiled and leaned closer to his desk. He enjoyed arguing with Frank. In fact, he missed it so much, fighting with Frank actually put him in a good mood. They sat in his little office and talked about Beginnings until the scientist returned.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  The buzzing of the cryo-lab door opening wouldn’t have caught Ellen’s attention because she didn’t lock it. The sweet smell of cologne made her lift her head from the far counter and sniff. It drew closer. There were only two men in Beginnings who regularly wore cologne. Joe, but that wasn’t a scent for him. He was more the ‘Old Spice’ or “Brute’ guy. And Danny Hoi. But Danny consistently wore the same thing and that definitely wasn’t what Ellen smelled.

  She turned around and smiled. “Robbie.”

  “Hey El.”

  Ellen’s head twitched, subtly looking at a clean shaven, hair combed Robbie. “What’s up with this?” She held her hand out to him and motioned it in a point.

  “Oh.” He ran his hand over the top of his hair. “I didn’t get cleaned up this morning before I flew John and Jess off so I thought I’d take a shower now.”

  “I see.”

  “Busy?”

  “Yes. Sorry.”

  “I’ll come back.” Robbie pointed to the door.

  “No, we can talk while I work. I’m just looking for abnormalities. Stay if you can take it.”

  “O.K.” Robbie smiled and moved closer.

  “Excuse my back.” She turned to the counter. “What’s up with the cologne?”

  “You like it?”

  “Yes.” Ellen pulled the large magnifying glass over the specimen tray she viewed. “There’s a clipboard over on the other counter. Can you hand it to me?”

  “Sure.” Robbie looked and saw it. He picked it up, walked right behind Ellen and handed it over her shoulder.

  Ellen felt how close he was. “Robbie.”

  “So uh . . .” He stepped even closer, peering over her shoulder. “What are we looking at?”

  “Marv.” She giggled when she felt Robbie lightly touch against her.

  “Marv? Why are you laughing?”

  “Why do I get this sneaky suspicion you’re being a little frisky right now.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Do you still feeling a little awkward about you manhood?”

  “El,” Robbie whined her name.

  “Are you?”

  “What if I’m only attractive to men now?”

  Ellen turned around and faced him. “Robbie, I will tell you this one time today. After that you have to wait until tomorrow. O.K.?”

  “O.K.”

  “You are incredibly sexy.” Her hand ran up his chest. “You are the best looking guy in Beginnings and you have awesome green eyes, a cute little butt, and a great body. O.K.?”

  “All right.”

  “Good. Now I have to get back to this before I go to the clinic.” She turned back to the counter.

  “So you’re working on Marv. I thought we buried him.”

  “Not
all of him.”

  “El?” Robbie looked in the specimen tray. “Those are little pieces.”

  “Yes.”

  “Of Marv?”

  “Yes.” Ellen nodded. Using tweezers, she lifted the pieces.

  “What exactly are you doing with those little pieces?”

  “Identifying them and documenting.”

  “What part of him was it?”

  “Oh. Look.” Ellen allowed Robbie to share the magnifying glass as she pointed. “This here is the . . . I wouldn’t expect you to know this off hand, but this is the duct of the epididymis. This here is a very small portion of the prepuce. And if you really look close you can see that this is indeed the external urethral orifice.”

  “Yeah. Sure. What?”

  “Let’s just say they are remains of Marv’s internal and external genitalia.”

  “Uh.” Robbie shuddered vocally. “Oh my God. That’s a mess.”

  “Yes.”

  “It doesn’t look anything like parts of the male anatomy.”

  “Sure it does, chewed up and spit out.”

  “Ouch.”

  Ellen giggled. “It wasn’t digested either. It never hit the stomach. Other parts . . .”

  “El.” Robbie shook his head. “That’s enough.” Just as he started to step back, he heard the clearing of a throat. He looked over his shoulder to see a snickering Henry. “What?”

  “Sorry.” Henry held up his hand as he took a step in the lab. “I was just wondering to myself if you are standing behind El to get a good look at what she’s looking at or maybe you just miss Jess.”

  “Huh?” The it hit Robbie. His eyes widened and horror splattered across his face as if someone threw it at him. “El.”

  Ellen laughed.

  Henry stepped in. Only when he walked in, he walked over to El with his hands behind his back and his backside always facing away from Robbie.

  “Henry,” Robbie scolded. “Why are you walking like that.”

  “Don’t want to excite you. I got those jeans on that El says make my butt look good.”

  Robbie bit his lip and whispered to Ellen. “I’m killing you.”

  Ellen kept giggling and working.

  Henry made his way to Robbie who still stood close to Ellen. “So Robbie, I heard you tried homosexuality last night.”

  “Henry!”

  “Kidding.” Henry laughed. “I’m sorry. So, what are you guys doing?”

  Ellen looked at Henry from the magnifying glass. “I was just showing Robbie the remains of Marv’s genitalia.”

  Henry snickered. “Man Robbie, you have to see it anyway you can, don’t you?”

  Robbie held up one finger and readied himself to snap at Henry. But as his mouth opened, Robbie’s name was called out over his radio. Robbie opened and closed his mouth as if the voice mysteriously came from him. He chuckled and grabbed the radio from his waist. “What’s up, Dan?”

  “None of us will do it, Robbie. You’re head of security. You have to go to sector thirty-two. Hank failed to come back from Neville rounds.”

  “Shit.” Hooking the radio onto his belt and, without even saying goodbye, Robbie ran from the cryo-lab.

  Henry took a look at Ellen then followed behind Robbie, never seeing Ellen plop her elbows on the counter and cover her face.

  ^^^^

  Binghamton, Alabama

  “So then I said to my brother . . .” Jess told a story as he and John tromped through the thick woods nearer to the base than they thought. “ . . . he was on. I bet I was the one who could get out of the service before my tour was up.”

  “And he won didn’t he?”

  Jess laughed. “Yeah. I never left the service. I loved it. He hated it.”

  “Hey, what’s that?” John trotted ahead of Jess.

  “Be careful.” Jess hurried to catch him.

  John bent down to the large mound of dirt, branches, and brush. “Someone’s been hiding and digging.”

  Jess had his hand over his nose. “And by the smell of it . . .”

  John lifted a large branch. “Oh man.” He stood up. “Bodies.” He sniffed outward and cleared his throat.

  “How many?” Jess looked into the hole when John removed a few more branches. “I’m counting ten.”

  “Eleven. Look.” John pointed.

  “Oh, he’s just missing a leg. I missed that. They’re not hidden very well.”

  “Not at all. I’d say this hole was dug with no intentions of hiding them.”

  “And whoever it was covered them quickly.”

  “Frank,” John said.

  “How do you know?” Jess asked.

  “All head shots . . .in the forehead. That’s a Frank trademark.” John replaced the branches and kicked his foot to cover the bodies again.

  “He’s taking them out.”

  “But hasn’t for a while. There are no fresh bodies.”

  “Do you ever wonder if Frank worries about burning in hell?” Jess asked John.

  “Frank. Nah.” John shook his head. “I think Frank has this idea that he’s already in hell and he might as well make the best of it.”

  Jess snickered. “We’d better get moving. By the map, that base isn’t too far ahead and we’re gonna have to get out of sight.”

  John agreed and moved onward with Jess only after taking one more look at the mass grave and shaking his head with a snicker.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  Joe finally had his first opportunity. Distribution was closed for an hour and he was going to use the break to start his investigation. He deducted there were six typewriters in Beginnings. He decided to start with the typewriter closest to distribution. History’s.

  He stepped inside the empty office of history and was immediately pelted with this sweet smell. He sniffed and sniffed again. It was warm and fruity. “What in Christ name . . .” He sniffed again.

  “Hi Joe!” Trish spoke upbeat, walking from the back room and pulling the door closed as she held a stack of papers.

  “Trish, what is that smell?”

  “Oh, blueberry scented candles. You like?” She sat down at her desk and laid the stack in front of her.

  “No. Where in the hell are you getting blueberry scented candles?”

  “Danny Hoi. It cost a small favor slip but it was worth it.” Trish loudly whiffed inwardly with a satisfying moan. “Doesn’t it smell bakery fresh in here?”

  “Whatever. Trish I need . . .” He saw her open her appointment book. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t ask me if I have an appointment.”

  Trish quickly shut the book. “Oh never, Joe. I was just checking. What can I do for you?”

  “Does your typewriter work?”

  “Yes. Oh! Do you need me to type something for you?”

  “As a matter of fact . . .” Joe smiled. “Can you?”

  “Sure Joe. Are you going to dictate it to me?”

  “Um, yeah. Just a line. I’m checking on something. Can you do it now.”

  “Most definitely. Let me get some paper.”

  Joe reached into his pocket for the note and watched Trish slowly open her bottom drawer. She fumbled then licked her finger and pulled out a sheet of paper. She swirled her chair to her typewriter and placed the paper inside. “Trish.”

  She ignored Joe as she hummed a tune, turned the knob, and pulled the paper up. “Whoops.” She took out the paper and reinserted it. “Not lined up.”

  “Trish!”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. Are you done?”

  “Let me see.” Trish looked at the paper. “I’m ready. It’s lined up. Dictate.”

  “O.K. ready . . .”

  “I type very fast, Joe, so don’t worry about leaving me behind.”

  “Good. Now type . . . This is a warning.” Joe saw Trish didn’t type. “What’s wrong?”

  “Why am I threatening someone?”

  “You’re not.�
��

  “But you just said type a warning to someone.”

  “Just type those words.”

  “Who am I threatening?” Trish asked.

  “No one.”

  “Who are you threatening?”

  “No one.”

  “Then why am I typing, ‘this is a warning’?”

  “Trish!” Joe yelled.

  “Yes.”

  “Just type the goddamn words.”

  “O.K.” Trish’s fingers clicked on the typewrite. In seconds she was done. “Anything else?”

  “No. Just let me see that.”

  “Here.” Trish started to hand Joe the paper. As soon as he grabbed it, she yanked it back.

  “Ow.” Joe brought his freshly paper cut finger to his mouth. “Give it back.”

  “Wait. No one sees this but you..”

  “Give it.” Joe snatched the paper from Trish’s hand.

  “Ow!” Trish shrieked and brought her finger to her mouth also.

  “Doesn’t feel good, does it?” Joe grabbed his glasses and put them on. He compared the notes and handed Trish hers back. “Here I don’t need this. Thank you anyhow.”

  “No problem.” Trish began to rip the paper up in tiny little pieces.

  “What are you doing that for?”

  Trish spoke as she kept herself engrossed in the ripping. “Because I don’t want anyone to see the note. They’ll know I typed it and they’ll think I’m typing threatening letters.”

  “How the hell is anyone gonna know you typed that?” Joe asked her with sarcasm and annoyance, cringing at every little rip she made.

  “Because I have the only typewriter in Beginnings that Henry’s ribbons actually work good on. Everyone else’s clashes in some way or another. So if they see perfect type, they know it’s my typewriter.”

  “How do you know this?” Joe asked.

  Trish tsked. “Joe.” She rolled her eyes. “Duh. I get all the history reports, Mr. Ex-leader. I know everybody’s typewriter faults and glitches.”

  Joe’s eyes lit up. “You do, don’t you. Trish.” Joe smiled. “How would you like to help me out?”

  “With what?”

  “Tell me about distinguishing characteristics faults of each typewriter.”

  Trish gasped. “My God, Joe, that could take a while. I’m a busy women.”

  Joe looked around. “Doing what?”