"So, what do we do now?" Bella asked.
"We've got no choice," Skulls said. "You'll have to hand me in. I can't be responsible for the boy dyin'."
Al helped the priest to his feet. "Father … O'Rourke was it?"
"Just call me Brian."
"Father Brian, do you think she'll release the boy even if we do hand you both over?"
Again, he shrugged. "Who can say? She will do it if it suits her purpose. A young lad with many years of labor in front of him is worth something to her. So, maybe."
"There's a complication," Bella said. "Luke is the son of the president of the TLX. He escaped with us and they want him back."
"Does she know who he is?"
Bella nodded.
"Then we're lost. She won't let him go. She'll hold onto him and then hand him over to the TLX when she's good and ready."
"You're only saying that to save your own skin!" Maddie hissed. "We have to get him back."
O'Rourke turned to face her, ignoring the hostility in her face. "I will confess that I am not quite ready to meet my maker, but I would do it if I thought your friend would be delivered back to you."
"Sure you would. You're just a coward!"
"Perhaps, but I'm an honest one, I think."
Bella collapsed onto the couch and sat watching the candle flame flickering away. "So, what are we going to do?"
Skulls sat down beside her, and she felt a thrill at the warmth of his leg against hers. "I guess we'd better break Luke out of jail."
Chapter 13
"We're gonna head for Spokane first, have a little rest. Then we can decide what we're gonna do."
Marvin Tucker rolled up his sleeping bag and tied it to his pack. He watched Luna struggling with hers before moving across and helping her. They'd spent the night in an office a few blocks north of the Lee Building. The place had been broken into and looted, but they found an intact room on the second floor. He shut the smell out and opened the window briefly. He awoke to see Luna fast asleep, sharing her sleeping bag with the dog.
"But I want to go to New York. That's what it said on the helicopter. Lee Corporation, New York. In big white letters."
Tucker sighed. She was like a broken record. "I told you before, kid, that don't mean the bird was flyin' that way. Man, it'd take a long time and lots of refueling stops to get clear across America. New York's three thousand miles away."
"It was one of their helicopters, and it had my mom in it. They were taking her to New York. Isn't that where their headquarters is?"
She was a sharp one and no mistake. "How'd you know that?"
"I'm ten, not stupid," she snapped back. "And anyway, why should we go to Specci…"
"Spokane. I lived there. I know the place, so we can hunker down for a spell. Make our plans."
"You hope I'll just agree to stay there."
Yeah. She was sharp as a tack.
"Well, wherever we aim to end up, we have to get out of the city first. And we need supplies."
"Have we run out of chicken soup?"
"Yeah."
"Good."
It was a gloriously clear day as they made their way carefully eastwards. There were people here and Marvin kept his Glock in the pocket of his dark brown Sheriff's Department coat. He'd liberated it from the arms locker back in Arbroath as soon as the shooting began. Though he preferred a shotgun, he could draw and fire the Glock much more quickly and it was a whole lot less conspicuous.
He'd studied the tourist map and considered two routes. One would take them across the Evergreen Floating Bridge. It was around a mile and a half, most of which was over Lake Washington. This was the direct route but, once they were on it, they'd be committed. It would be an easy place to be ambushed and they'd have nowhere to escape to other than the icy depths of the lake.
The other option was to head south. No bridges that way, but it would mean walking back through territory held by the Lee Corporation or the militia, though Tucker was now convinced they were one and the same. After the incident with the 'copter, whatever it signified, he was reluctant to go that way—his gut told him the ants' nest had been kicked and they'd be on the alert.
"Can't we get a car? I'm tired of walking!"
"It's only been an hour," Tucker said. "And, anyway, you've got the dog to help you."
He patted Dany's head. She was exerting just enough pull on her lead to keep Luna walking. Clever dog.
"We're gonna go over a bridge, and it'll be blocked, I can guarantee it. We'll find a ride once we're on the other side. I don't like walking any more than you do. My legs are a lot older than yours."
"And a lot longer," Luna said, sulkily.
Three hours later, they were gathered around the camping stove waiting for a can of beans to heat up.
"Those beans smell mighty nice."
Tucker leaped to his feet, drawing his handgun in one motion. "Step right away, pal."
A man in rags threw his hands up in apparent terror. "I don't mean no harm. I'm just Victor."
Marvin lowered his weapon a little. "We don't have enough to share."
"Sure we do!" Luna said. "Come and sit by the fire, Santa."
"Stay where you are!" Tucker snapped as the man, who, with his white beard and red coat, did resemble a particularly moth-eaten Saint Nick, went to sit down.
"Honestly, I ain't even got no weapons. Not even a knife."
"How have you survived on the streets these three months unarmed?"
Santa shrugged. "I been on the streets twenty years, son. Never needed no protection other than …" He pointed skyward.
Marvin relaxed. His gut told him the man was a genuine hobo and harmless at that. But he kept a grip on his gun and reconciled himself to sharing the beans and being hungry again within the hour.
"Is this where you live when you're not making toys, Santa?"
The old man sat on the curb and looked from Luna to Tucker. "She yours?"
"He's not my daddy," Luna said. "My daddy's in Afghanistan. I let him come along with Dany and me so he's not lonely."
Again, Santa looked from one to the other. Tucker gave a shrug, poured the beans into two mugs and gave the warm can containing the remainder to Santa.
"Are you folks heading out of town?" he said, after noisily devouring the beans.
"We're going across the bridge," Luna replied.
"Evergreen?"
"Yep."
The old man licked the can and then threw it into the shadows beneath the overpass. "Well, you kids make sure you wrap up warm. It's a cold day and it'll be blowing pretty chill out in the middle of the lake."
He pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his coat and put one in his mouth before offering another to Tucker. After a moment's hesitation, Tucker took it.
"Didn't you know smoking is bad for your health?" Luna said, watching her guardian take a satisfying drag,
"My first one in fifteen years, but I reckon it won't be my last," Tucker responded as he relished the bitter taste in his mouth and the instant buzz.
"As for my health, kid," he waved around at the dead city. "I'm taking it one day at a time."
Santa chuckled. "I been smokin' for fifty years and it never did me no harm." He ruined the effect by dissolving into a fit of chesty coughing. "This cold air's no good for my lungs, though."
Luna rolled her eyes and went back to petting Dany, who was nuzzling into her. Dog food had been easier to find than human supplies, so she'd eaten better than her companions and was ready for another long walk.
"But look," Santa continued, "why not stay here? There's good pickins if you know where to look. I used to be hungry, but now I eat like a king."
"Are there any gangs around here?"
Santa nodded. "Oh yeah, but it's not hard to keep out of their way. I ain't got nothin' they wanna steal anyway. Or so they think. And there's plenty around just waitin' for someone to give it a new home."
"I reckon we'll keep on going," Tucker said. "We're heading to S
pokane."
"And then we're going to New York," Luna added.
The adults shared a meaningful look before Santa got to his feet and held out his hand. "As I said, my name's Victor. If you run into any trouble, mention my name. Thanks for sharing your beans." This last was directed at Luna who treated him to a cheery smile.
Tucker shook his hand and then watched as the old man shuffled off into the shadows before addressing Luna. "Well, when you get hungry, you just remember it's your fault. We don't invite strangers to share our food."
"He wasn't a stranger, he's Santa."
"There ain't no such thing as Santa Claus, kid."
She treated him to a withering stare. "I know that. Like I told you, I'm ten, not stupid. But he didn't feel dangerous."
"Can't trust your feelings. Rely on your senses, that's my advice. Now come on, I want to be well past the bridge by nightfall."
Trouble found them once they were out over the water.
"Hey you!" It was a woman's voice and she stood with a leveled shotgun blocking their way. Two male shapes emerged from a gap in the wall separating the walkway from the main highway.
Tucker cursed himself for being too slow. He'd been nervous about stepping out over the water and had been trying to keep his mind focused when what he'd thought was simply some abandoned luggage had leaped up and leveled a gun on him.
"Put your weapons down," the woman said. She was young and heavy set with mousy brown hair and wore what looked like a ski suit crowned by a bobble hat.
The two men approached Marvin and watched as he slowly withdrew the gun from his pocket and dropped it to the ground. "We just wanna pass the bridge," he said, angry at himself for being so simply ambushed when he'd anticipated exactly that happening.
"Oh, you can pass sure enough, once you've paid the toll."
Tucker sighed. "We've only got what we're carrying on our backs!"
"Down girl!" Luna said as Dany bared her teeth and growled at the approaching men.
"Yeah, that's right, little girl, keep that thing under control or I'll put a bullet in its head."
"She's not a thing, she's my friend."
Tucker felt the pack being pulled from his shoulders.
"Where are you folks going?" the big woman asked.
"Across the bridge," Tucker said, biting back his anger.
The woman's eyes narrowed. "And where then, big man?"
"We're heading to Spokane," Tucker responded.
"And then New York," Luna added.
The woman regarded the girl. "And is he your daddy?"
"Why does everyone ask that? No, same as I told Santa, we let him come along, Dany and me."
"Santa?"
"He said his name was Victor," Tucker said.
The woman's eyes widened. "You met Victor?"
"Yeah, and he said if we ran into any trouble, we was to say his name," Luna added.
Tucker sensed the men who'd been rifling through his pack tense up and, as quietly as possible, refill and zip it up.
"What happened?" the woman asked.
Luna recapped the story.
"He asked for food, and you gave him some?" the woman said.
"Yeah, he looked hungry. Marvin didn't want to give him any of our beans, but I said we should."
One of the men handed him his pack, picked up his weapon and gave it to him.
The woman looked Marvin in the eye. "You've had a narrow escape."
"What do you mean?"
She was now scanning the shoreline as if checking to see if they were being watched. "He is much more dangerous than he looks. I guess he took a liking to you. And you gave him food—he is a perverted monster, but he has his own moral code."
"Monster?"
The woman was waving them on with exaggerated gestures. "Let's just put it like this," she said as Tucker walked past her. "He got very fat after that night in November. Since then, he's been haunting Montlake. Not many walk away from an encounter with Victor and I'll be glad if I never see him again."
Tucker lengthened his stride as Luna jogged along beside him. She'd not heard what the woman had said. "See, I told you we should give Victor some food," the girl said, relieved. "All we had to do was use his name and they let us go! What a nice old man."
"Yeah," Tucker said. He turned his attention to the end of the bridge, took her hand, and powered on.
The sun was going down when they found what they were looking for. They'd kept up the pace as they walked along the 520 as Tucker had felt hemmed in by the high concrete walls that lined the road—they were almost as vulnerable there as they had been on the bridge.
They had threaded their way between the abandoned vehicles blocking the road. Most had been broken open, but all were covered in a layer of dust that obscured their contents. They were low on supplies, but Tucker wanted to get as far out of Seattle as possible before they went scavenging. The encounter with Victor had creeped him out and he doubted he'd sleep well tonight.
He'd seen a tunnel ahead and had decided to scramble up the embankment and walk along the top when he noticed that he could see through to the end. So, they jogged through and found, on the other side, that the road became clearer.
"Will this one do?" Luna said with that whining tone unique to children of her age. She was almost entirely out of energy and they'd need to stop soon in any case.
"Let me go first," Tucker said. It was a white Ford Explorer and looked intact. That usually meant that its former occupant was still inside, so Tucker held his breath as he yanked on the handle and opened the driver's door. The seat was empty, and an experimental sniff proved that there were no nasty surprises inside.
"Well, I'll be," he said as he found a key in the ignition. "Must have run off somewhere. Unless it was out of gas."
He got up into the driver's seat, made sure all the electronics were off and tentatively turned the key, fearing that the battery was dead. The starter motor whined pathetically, but at the second attempt the engine sputtered into life.
"Get in, pumpkin," he called. "We're in luck. And there's enough in the tank to get us to Spokane!"
Luna opened the passenger door and followed Dany inside, too tired to argue about their destination. She pulled her seatbelt on, curled up, and was almost instantly asleep.
Tucker drove the car with the lights off for as long as he dared before pulling off the interstate into Bellevue. He picked his way through small suburban lanes and finally rolled into a parking lot in front of a row of workshops he could barely see in the near darkness.
He nudged Luna and Dany awake, then went around and opened the trunk. "Well would you look at that?" he said, as a yawning Luna joined him.
In the trunk were several cardboard boxes containing cans, dry food, and cartons of sterilized milk. Behind those sat a pair of suitcases. "Now what in the world made them run off and leave all this, I wonder?" Marvin said to himself.
He took the flashlight from his pack and swung it along the row of buildings. "How about this one? It's a carpet shop. Ought to be able to make ourselves comfortable in there."
Tucker found a toolkit in the trunk and took out the largest screwdriver. Using this, he was able to lever apart the door and its frame until, with a crack, it swung open.
"You're good at that," Luna said.
"Misspent youth," Marvin responded. "Let Dany go in first, she'll check the coast is clear. I doubt there was anyone in here that night, but it pays to be careful.
No smell emerged through the open door and Marvin watched as the dog went in, sniffed around the main showroom for a minute or two, and then returned. "I reckon she's given it the all-clear. Follow me in."
They made up a couple of beds using rolls of carpet piled on top of each other. Tucker heated some of the milk and they settled down to sleep.
"Hopefully we'll get to Spokane tomorrow," he said as he wished Luna goodnight.
"And then New York," she responded.
Tucker shook his head in the
darkness, rolled over and fell instantly asleep.
Chapter 14
Nathan Woods wiped his forehead and took a swig of water. What did they say about going out in the noonday sun? He wasn't a mad dog and he was Texas born and bred, but this relentless pace in strength sapping heat was taking its toll. He cursed his luck—what should have been a walk in the park was proving an unexpected trial. It must have been more than 80 degrees and they were dressed for winter.
He took a surreptitious look at his squad. McKenzie and Pavlov had held up fairly well, though both looked as though they were nearing their limits. Jake, on the other hand, despite having youth on his side, was running on empty.
"We're going to take a thirty minute chow break," Woods said, to sighs of relief from his subordinates.
"Sergeant, we need to reach our target in time to be able to return here before nightfall. There's no time for a lunch break."
He'd expected this. Wozniak was their guide on this scouting mission. A likable enough man, but nervous and pedantic.
"Relax, Jan. If we take five now, we'll get there all the quicker. You don't want to go out in this heat do you?"
Wozniak was fit enough, but older than any of the others, and he nodded, though it was obvious he wasn't happy. "No more than thirty minutes, then."
Woods shrugged. He was in charge of this mission, and it was his responsibility to see it through.
He sat on the dusty floor of a house whose front windows had been smashed and rummaged for a ration pack. He was worried about Jake. He knew he shouldn't have brought him along, but he'd made a promise to Bella to keep an eye on the boy and this mission was taking him a long way from the rest of his unit.
He'd been part of the guard assigned to a representative of the TLX on a diplomatic mission to Phoenix. Nathan hadn't been privy to the details, but it seemed that the president's aim was to unite all the southern states against the rumors of a recovering federal government in the north.
The center of Phoenix had been secured by the city authorities, led by their mayor, Paulo Baptista, who'd survived the Long Night. Just as with the president of the TLX, he was an autocrat offering a chance of security to those who would follow him without question. So, Phoenix had a small army, a police force, and a civil population of tens of thousands—some in the central area, others in satellite communities. It had become, effectively, a city state controlling an expanding area that would soon reach the border with New Mexico and the TLX.
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