Ted came out to him alone, leaving the girls on the road. He didn’t waste any breath on pleasantries or stupid questions. “Let’s each get one hand on the front wheel, and the other on the handlebars. We can pick it up and walk it out to the road backward,” he suggested.
Vic wasn’t sure if it would steer very straight that way, but decided to try it before arguing. As it turned out it was very much like dancing with a partner. Ted made little corrections by sidestepping and as long as he let him lead they didn’t stumble too badly. When they got to the road the wagon had a light load of soft dirt that Ted dumped by tilting the wagon. They lifted the naked front wheel onto the wagon.
“What was that for?” Vic asked.
“The empty steel bed will just rattle like a drum,” Ted said. “That makes it a lot quieter.”
Vic was impressed. Ted was young but far from an idiot.
Alice and Eileen both pulled on the wagon handle, and Ted and Vic both balanced the bike and pushed it forward with a hand on the handlebars and one on the gas tank. By the time they passed Ted’s house, there was a light visible inside but nobody came out or watched them pass. When they arrived at Mast’s he called out loudly, but Mast didn’t come out until they were behind the house almost to the shed door.
“Ah, you had a spot of bad luck,” was all he said, not visibly upset at all. Vic kept his mouth shut not sure he wanted to tell the story in front of Ted. Mast, however, invited them all in and gave them strong herbal tea of some sort and a squirrel stew that was welcome. “Have a bite,” Mast insisted when Vic started to talk. “It’ll be dead cold by the time you have it half told. Mast watched Alice shovel it down ravenously, not with any disapproval, but plain astonishment. He filled her bowl back up without her needing to ask so it was her turn to be surprised.
“I’m really sorry about the bike,” Vic said, when he finished his stew. He held his hand over his bowl when Mast pointed at it rather than interrupt him. “We’re going to have a satellite phone airdropped to us soon. That’s not something we want everybody to know,” he said, looking from Mast to Ted. He did it that way on purpose to not single Ted out. The young man gave him a nod that he could agree to that. “We can order other stuff within reason. The first time we do that I’ll get two tires for the bike and several tubes,” he promised.
“It’s going to be winter soon anyway,” Mast said. “I know some folks would ride it in the snow but it seems an unnecessary risk to me. I certainly would never ride anything with two wheels in snow. It’s not something I intend to use all the time anyway. I doubt we can get gasoline regularly. If you can arrange to get a tank full from O’Neil’s pilot friend that would be sufficient. Maybe drain it from his plane.”
“Yeah, it is noisy enough to attract unwanted attention,” Vic said. “We’d have been ambushed on the way back if not for Alice here,” and he told the whole story.
“Thank you,” Mast told Alice at the end, “not just for getting me my bike back but for my friends here. I owe you a favor when you need it.”
“You’re welcome,” Alice said, politely. “Thank you for the stew.”
“You haven’t lived here so you don’t know how things work yet,” Eileen told Alice. “Mr. Mast runs the Festivals, what you called the fair. That is what that big barn is for, not hay or anything. When he owes you a favor it’s nice because he has business with a lot of people.”
“Thank you,” Alice said again. “I understand. I figured out you are all rich.” She made an inclusive wave of her hand that was the house, the food, and everything that impressed her.
Vic was embarrassed, but Mast just grinned and didn’t deny it.
“Why don’t you take Alice and have a bath,” Mast told Eileen. “I’d like to talk to Vic about the Olsens and other political stuff. He can fill you in on it later.”
Eileen didn’t take offense. She figured out there were things he would worry Alice shouldn’t hear and she was being asked to keep her busy.
“Isn’t it kind of late to be going out for a bath?” Alice asked, worried.
“Honey, Mr. Mast has a tub in the other room,” Eileen explained. When Alice looked surprised, she added the kicker. “And hot water.”
“Oh… wow!” Alice said.
* * *
“Is it going to be ready?” April asked. “I’m not going to delay knocking the Memphis bridge down. If you fail to deliver once on a threat it emboldens the creeps. I’d rather wait to post it until tomorrow rather than post it too close to hitting the bridge.”
“I have every confidence in my guy,” Chen said. “I’m not going to interrupt him and pester him like I don’t trust him to deliver. It would be terribly counterproductive. You’re just nervous because you don’t know him. Relax, have some breakfast, and chill out.” That was as assertive as Chen had ever gotten with April. She took it pretty well.
“How are you going to release it?” she wondered, still fretting.
“You don’t call a news conference or send something like this to a network directly. It will get posted to a humor board in Europe, a political board in Australia, and to our own “What’s Happening” on Home. Then, a few very carefully chosen shills will ‘find’ it, and share it on other boards. If it doesn’t take hold like wildfire and go exponential from there we’ve misjudged badly and it simply will peter out. But I don’t think so,” Chen said.
“OK, I’m going to go out for breakfast, a big one, and eat it slowly,” April promised.
Chen just smiled and nodded.
* * *
“We have over fifty thousand hits on all three posts and who knows how many shares to other sites and private messages sent already. The click curve has gone vertical now. We’ve got a winner,” Chen declared ten minutes in. “The Italians just loved it.”
“Nice, I’m going to watch it again,” April said.
Irwin appeared in their video exactly like the official North American release showed him, except he had on a heavy neck collar attached to a waist chain and another long heavy chain hanging to ankle shackles. A separate long chain connected wrist to wrist. There were two black-clad figures standing behind him, pointing submachine guns at his head. He recited the same message exactly as before. When he naturally paused a little in his recital one of the figures nudged him with a muzzle.
At the end of the video take somebody off-camera called: “Cut!”
The black-clad figures lowered their guns and swept black balaclavas up and off of their faces revealing the President of the USNA and the Secretary of State.
The Secretary smiled and reached in his pocket. “Good boy!” he said, and tossed a treat.
Irwin stretched a little to catch it in his mouth and looked stupidly happy.
“It’s ridiculous,” April said, shaking her head.
“Good, that’s exactly what we were aiming for,” Chen assured her. “The thing is documentary length by news standards, but it made them look ridiculous, not us. If we claimed their video was fake that would be easy to ignore but we just demonstrated how easily it could be faked. That has much more power than the unsupported claim.”
“What?” Chen asked at the flash of consternation that showed on April’s face.
“It just occurred to me. Somebody down there will believe our fake video with the added chains and officials just like they did North America’s video.”
“Well sure. I could have put them in clown suits and somebody would believe it.”
* * *
Alice reluctantly got out of the tub when the water got cold enough. Eileen had already dried off and dressed. Following Mr. Mast’s suggestion, she tossed their clothing from the day in the tub and worked it with a plunger in the tepid water. It wasn’t as good as a boiling laundry kettle but neither was their clothing especially dirty this time.
Alice, having no other clothing, was given one of Vic’s t-shirts as a nightgown to wear until her things were dry in the morning. It came below her knees and past her elbows. Eileen h
ated to see her put back in the ragged stuff in the morning, but they had nothing else. The shoes, in particular, were so bad Eileen was afraid to wash them at all. They might just disintegrate into tape and pieces if she tried. It was going to be a long time until the spring festival and any chance to buy new – or used and new to her at least. That raised the question where Alice was going to go and if in the act of being saved from ambush they had acquired a ward they were now obligated to keep.
They added fuel to the small fire heating water for Vic’s bath and joined the men. If they weren’t done with their private discussion they didn’t object. Mr. Mast had a jug of moonshine altered with the addition of honey and a long seeping in crushed mint. It made a cordial that wasn’t half bad. Eileen was offered a small glass and Alice surprised them by asking to just taste it. They all looked at her expectantly after she sipped from Eileen’s.
“Tastes like medicine,” she decided after blinking furiously.
Eileen presented the problem of Alice’s clothing to the men.
“I’m sure you are aware I keep items in storage for people who don’t want to lug them home after the festivals,” Mast said. “I know at least two of them have girl’s clothing in their things, but I wasn’t given agency to make sales for them. If I let you take anything it puts you in an awkward position. When you see them at the festival you’ll have to pay whatever they demand after the fact. So it depends on how reasonable you trust them to be, and how far you want to obligate yourself.”
“As Alice observed, we’re not poor, by the way things are viewed now,” Vic said. “It’s late in the season and we can’t have her running around in rags with holes in them. I don’t know if she’ll want to leave us or stay with us and for how long, but we owe her our lives. I’ll get her some things and if the owners take advantage I’ll just smile and pay it. But we’ll make sure to do our business with them right out in public at the festival. If they get greedy word will get around.”
Mast nodded. “Then let’s go down to the barn tomorrow morning. It’s easier and safer to do it when it’s light and I can see you folks are tired from the day. Go get your bath and turn in before you fall on your face. We’ll refill the water tank and have breakfast in the morning, then we can go down to the barn and find Alice some things. Does that work for you?”
“That works just fine,” Vic said, nodding his thanks.
Chapter 11
The only thing April did differently in destroying the Memphis bridge was to request Chen cut her a segment of video to post online showing it happening. Not to show she really did it, but rather to show the bridge was empty and the approaches sealed off to refute any USNA claims that April conducted a massacre of civilian innocents after the fact. That video could have been faked as easily as the others, so it seemed sort of silly to bother, but some people still believed what they saw. April had no idea why. The advantage seemed to favor whoever posted their version first. Chen suggested she make this her last bridge.
“Why?” April asked. It surprised her. Chen wasn’t big on making such suggestions.
“Because if you drop another bridge the Feds will try to block your announcement to the locals and set you up to bombard a bridge with active traffic on it,” Chen replied. April was horrified, but didn’t dispute it or ask if that was speculation or hard intelligence.
April set the hour of the day the same each time she bombarded a bridge and made a formal announcement exactly an hour ahead each time. Chen called her twenty minutes early before the next anticipated warning.
“The Texans are moving,” he said, just a little excited. “We wondered if they would go east or west? Well, there are boats leaving port, but there are also aircraft in the air and more taking off. They are headed for Mobile and other points east. I suspect some will divert to New Orleans, ending their patience with that city. They are going to take another bite out of North America, and from what I can see from above there’s nothing they can do in time to stop them. I’m giving you a feed if you want to watch it.”
“I will, but I don’t see this as any reason to spare the Memphis Bridge,” April said.
“That’s not anything I was suggesting,” Chen assured her.
April made her expected warning and watched the rods take down the bridge. They didn’t waste any missiles trying to deflect the rods. Maybe they thought they had better save them for the Texans now. She watched the complex movements on half her screen with Chen in a tiny corner window, but he never had anything further to say about the bridge or the invasion, letting the video speak for itself.
It was much later in the evening before it was certain what the Texans intended. They repeated their strategy of dropping new border control posts on their intended new frontier. Each was fortified to face the North Americans and guarded to the rear too, in case any surrounded forces decided to try them from behind. With air superiority that seemed like a very bad idea to try and nobody was that foolish. Texas let anyone who wanted to leave pass the border with their goods and weapons. A surprising number stayed.
Texas now extended east to the Apalachicola River and took a chunk of the Florida panhandle to approximately the former northern boundary. April questioned the wisdom of taking such a narrow extension that might be cut off again, but Chen explained the geographic features that made it work, in conjunction with their ability to resupply and support from the Gulf of Mexico.
Whether the Texans intended to stop at the Apalachicola River, or not, the North Americans dropped the Trammel Bridge across it themselves before the Texans got too close. That was to protect Tallahassee. April wondered if they’d try to blame it on her, but it apparently didn’t fit the narrative since it didn’t help the Texans. Somebody in the North American administration finally woke up to the fact they could accuse her of colluding with the Texans dropping the other bridges. Truth was, she never even got a thank you.
* * *
Alice seemed to slow down a little for breakfast. Either she wasn’t as starved or she was starting to believe there would be another meal soon and she didn’t have to pack in every bite she could fit while she had the chance.
Neither did she object when the men refilled the bath tank and exempted her and Eileen from hauling water. The fact that Mast had a well instead of needing to hike to a stream was still surprising to her. The Olsens lugged water a couple of hundred meters from a stream.
They found clothing to fit her, none of which was new, but was a vast improvement from what she was wearing. Some of the clothing was clearly boy’s things but she didn’t object. In fact, she was rather passive about the whole thing. She didn’t reject a single choice that fit her. She did object to the idea of her old things going on the rag pile. Eileen guessed correctly that those were the only things she regarded as her own, and that she viewed her new clothing as belonging to Eileen and Vic.
Aware of that, Eileen asked her: “Honey, is there anything else you want? Speak up while you are here. We won’t have anything for you at home.”
Alice looked distressed. “I bet they are expensive, but if you can, get me another pair of shoes. I missed them more than anything when they wore out. What I actually want isn’t clothes. I want a .22. We had one my dad let me shoot, but of course, the Olsens took that like anything that was any good.
“That is really expensive,” Vic said, “and the ammunition is even more precious. Also, I’d have to teach you gun safety to my own satisfaction before I let you handle firearms. Even if your dad let you shoot it’s too important to me to trust he taught you up to my standards.”
“I can show you what dad taught me and I’m willing to work to earn it,” Alice said. “If living with the Olsens taught me anything it is that property isn’t allowed to own guns. Mr. Olsen kept the key to the gun closet around his neck on a chain and slept with it. It was obvious they worried about me getting in there more than running away.”
A significant look passed between Eileen and Vic, but they both left the story of Ei
leen leaving home to tell Alice another day.
Mast looked upset. “I said I owe you one. I have a little .22 in the safe back at the house. If Vic doesn’t object to your owning it I’ll give you that when we go back. What you have to do to satisfy him to keep it and use it at his house is between you two. Can you be satisfied on those conditions?”
Alice looked at Vic like she was sizing him up for the first time. “Yeah, that’s good.”
When they went back to the house Alice put on some of her new things. Mast came back downstairs with the littlest rifle Eileen had ever seen.
“This little rifle is called a Cricket. The metal is stainless so you don’t have to worry about it rusting, and the stock is plastic. Unless you bust it, that should last a long time too. It’s just a single shot but that’s safer for a less experienced shooter and will make you think and not waste ammo like a semi-auto might tempt you to do. You get fifty cartridges too,” Mast said, displaying a small box in his hand. “Deal?” he asked.
Alice looked at Vic and then Eileen to see if they would object. She still felt she had to ask conditions. “You’ll let me own this after you feel I’m safe to handle it? If I need to leave and live with somebody else I can take it with me?”
“Yes, it’s yours to keep as long as you don’t act stupid with it. Even then, it’s yours if you leave. You don’t ever have to sneak to run away like with the Olsens. We don’t own you.”
Alice nodded, satisfied. She didn’t reach to take it until then, even though it was obvious she wanted to. “It’s more my size than my dad’s was. Thank you. I think that makes us even,” she told Mast.
“That’s good,” he said. “I hate carrying a debt on the books.” He looked at Vic. “We’ve used up a chunk of the morning. If you want to take Alice over behind the outbuilding and give her your safety lesson, you are welcome to stay another night and get an early start in the morning.”
“That seems like a good idea. Come on, Alice,” Vic said. They headed out the door.
All in Good Time Page 17