The Long Night Box Set

by Kevin Partner

"Ah, I see that our civic leader has finally seen fit to grace us with her presence," Crowe said as he saw her approach. He was an average-looking man in a dark suit that was only remarkable in that it was spotlessly clean. He wore a black fedora and a thin mustache sat partially hidden beneath a bulbous nose. He looked like a gunslinger out of the classic Western movies.

  Bella nodded as he got down from the wooden box. Skulls, Sheriff Moretti and two deputies flanked her, hands on their weapons.

  "Why do you come among us with armed men?" Crowe called up from his position in the front row of the watching crowd. "You are perfectly safe in our presence. We are not violent."

  "I suggest you shut up and let the mayor speak," Skulls said, fixing the man with a stare that was returned with interest.

  Bella raised her hands and the crowd went quiet. "I'm here to answer your questions," she said, "but first, I have something to say."

  She scanned the townsfolk looking for familiar faces. There were, perhaps, fifty or so people here, and she reckoned pretty much all of them had arrived in Elizabeth since she'd been mayor. Clearly, it was the newcomers, the ones the people of the town had gone out of their way to accommodate, who were the main malcontents.

  "Some of you haven't been with us very long, and perhaps you don't know how very precious Elizabeth is. I traveled across Texas from east to west before heading north and ending up in this oasis. Do you know how rare it is to find a place where you know you will be fed tomorrow? Where you have protection without paying with your freedom?

  “And yet Elizabeth's future depends on us all coming together, rationing our resources so we survive until our crops can be harvested. What we eat today cannot feed us tomorrow. What one person eats, cannot feed another. It is our duty, as the administrators of the community, to ensure its long-term survival. If we were to oversee a feast followed by a famine, we would be betraying you all. We are doing our best to ensure equitable and sustainable distribution and I call on you all to help us achieve that."

  It wasn't a good speech, and she knew it. She'd said everything that she'd wanted to, but she was no politician so it fell on the watching crowd like a wet blanket. A couple of heads nodded and at least they didn't boo, but that was the best that could be said of it.

  She was determined not to lose momentum, so she immediately followed up with an invitation to ask questions.

  A hand went up. A heavyset man with a thick beard and wide-brimmed cotton hat waited for her to acknowledge him.

  "Jed Brown, Madam Mayor," he said, respectfully. "And I'm sure grateful for this place. We was pretty bad off when we got here. Ten days on the road from south of Houston, fixin' to keep them TLX recruiters off our tail. 'Lizabeth sure was a fine sight."

  Bella smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Brown, though I reckon there's a 'but' coming."

  He returned the smile with a grin that was more gaps than teeth. "Well, I been here two weeks now and I ain't been assigned no workin' party, so I ain't got no money to spend in that there market. Now, it ain't for my benefit, mind, but we got kids with us and they're sufferin'."

  "I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Brown. I can see what you're saying, so I'm going to appoint a liaison officer who will handle issues like this. You can take your grievance to him or her and they will decide."

  "Just what we need," Ezekiel Crowe said in his harsh, vulture-like voice. "Another government stooge to stand between the people and our masters."

  An angry murmur rippled through the crowd, but Bella noticed that Jed Brown wasn't joining in. He was simply looking up at her as if pondering what she had said to him.

  Another hand shot up. It was a woman this time, and she didn't wait to be acknowledged. "I'm Sue Flowers. I've been here a month and it just ain't fair that some people get more than others. There's a ton of food in that there warehouse and I want my share." She began chanting the words "I want my share" until the crowd had picked it up and Bella was forced to raise her hands and her voice.

  "We can't just open up the doors to the warehouse and let everyone help themselves," she said. "We'd be out of food in days. It must be handled carefully."

  "Handled by you?" Crowe called.

  Bella locked eyes with him. She could sense his delight in causing this chaos. "Do you have a better idea?" she asked.

  "Yes," he responded, and Bella knew she'd walked into a trap. "Let the people who brought in the supplies decide how they're handed out. They're impartial, so they won't favor long-term residents like you do. Everyone will get their share."

  The cry of "I want my share" went up again, rising in volume as it circulated. Jed Brown shook his head sadly and walked away. A couple of others followed him, but most of the crowd stayed in place while Bella tried to get them to quieten down enough for her to speak again.

  She failed. In the end, she was forced to get down from the wooden crate. As she walked away, head bowed, she heard Crowe calling after her, "We want our share! And we'll take it!"

  "I want you to get as many officers together as you can," Bella said to Sheriff Moretti once they'd returned to the town hall. "We're going over to the warehouse to take it back from the Lee Corporation. They're behind all of this, I'd swear."

  "What's their end game?" Moretti asked.

  She shrugged. "Well, at the moment it looks as though they're trying to cause chaos. Maybe even bring the local government down."

  "Why would they want to do that?"

  Skulls said, "Aren't they the ones who designed the BonesWare implants?" he tapped his wrist where the monitor had once sat for emphasis. "They want chaos, though I can't imagine why."

  "Whatever their motives, the longer we leave it to tackle them, the stronger they'll be. It may be too late already, but we're going to have to take that risk."

  Moretti nodded. "I'm with you, Madam Mayor. We'll get together as big a posse as we can manage. Can you give me an hour? We can meet at Page's Park. It's out of sight of the warehouse, but easy to walk in from there."

  When he'd gone, Bella turned to Skulls. "Steve, I want you to find Pop and Maddie, and I want you to get them out of harm's way."

  "No chance. I'm comin' with you to the warehouse!"

  "Sure you are. Once you've sent them packing. Tell them to wait for us at that campsite in Jericho. If they don't hear from us within a couple of days, they're to head north to D.C. like we originally planned. Got that? Send them on their way and come find me at Page's Park. You've got an hour."

  "And what if Al won't buy it?"

  Bella put her hand on his shoulder and leaned forward into a kiss. As she pulled away, she said, "Tell him he's got to mind Maddie. Her safety is in his hands. That should do the trick."

  "Devious," Skulls said with a smile.

  "Well, I am a politician now."

  She was relieved to see Skulls drive into the parking lot. Moretti had rustled up a dozen men and women. Fewer than Bella had hoped for; she'd wanted to face the guards with overwhelming numbers and was having to settle for no more than a slight numerical advantage. Surprise would be everything.

  There was no time to lose. Moretti led them across the park and she couldn't help noticing the yellows and whites of spring flowers pushing through, coming to life after a dormant winter.

  It was late afternoon by the time the warehouse came into view. She'd instructed Moretti that there was to be no bloodshed if it could be avoided, but she knew she was kidding herself and, perhaps, offloading the blame on him if it all went badly wrong.

  Two guards stood outside the entrance to the warehouse. The main shutter was down, and the only way in was a smaller door that was bathed in light from above. Skulls and one deputy snuck around the back of the neighboring unit and Bella watched, holding her breath, as they appeared suddenly from the darkness and overpowered the guards silently and efficiently.

  "Quick now," Moretti called as he led them across the parking lot, Bella struggling to keep up. She felt a hand grabbing her elbow and turned to see Officer Suggs running alongside
her.

  "We can't have you being left behind, Madam Mayor," he said, as he gently supported her.

  When she arrived, panting, at the glass and metal door, Moretti was peering inside.

  They gathered around him as he whispered. "I can't see nothing inside. We'll go in fast and hard, take control as fast as possible. If we're quick enough, they won't know what's hit them."

  Bella felt her stomach tighten. She gripped Skulls' arm and responded to his eager grin with a weak smile. Her bat-phone was ringing off the handle.

  Moretti yanked the door open and they ran inside, Bella near the back. Ridiculously, it reminded her of getting into a particularly popular concert more than a special ops mission. She was conscious of being bumped as they were funneled through the narrow corridor.

  A set of double doors led into the main warehouse. Without looking, Moretti pushed them open and ran inside.

  "Someone find a light!" Moretti yelled.

  This was odd. Why would it be dark? Unless there was no one in here. Perhaps it was all fake. Perhaps the Lee Corporation was stretched too thin to mount an effective guard and the two they'd already detained were the entire contingent.

  She heard the flicking of a bank of buttons and, one by one, the lights came on. There, in the center of the warehouse, taking up no more than a tenth of the available space, was a row of pallets containing supplies. She'd seen three times that amount being unloaded into here the previous week. Where was the rest of it?

  Bella followed Moretti and the others to the pallets and looked up and down them.

  "What's going on?" Skulls said. "This makes no sense."

  She froze as an amplified voice echoed around the warehouse. "Put down your weapons. All of you!"

  Bella turned around to see a group approaching them from the door they'd just entered. Many in black fatigues, others in the brown of the sheriff's department, yet more in police uniforms. Traitors! It had been a setup. They outnumbered her force by three to one.

  Bella didn't recognize the speaker, a woman in a black uniform with a megaphone. "I said drop your weapons!"

  "Do it," Moretti said.

  Bella let her handgun fall to the floor with the others, looking across at Skulls who looked confused and furious.

  Moretti stepped forward. He walked up to the woman and, to Bella's horror, took the megaphone from her.

  "Traitor!" Bella spat.

  Ignoring her, he brought the mic to his lips. "By the authority of the mayor, I am placing you all under arrest."

  "Mayor? And who, exactly, is that?" Bella called.

  Now he turned to her. "The true mayor of Elizabeth. Kaitlyn Kennedy."

  Chapter 14

  It was dark by the time Solly and Vivian made their way back to the Humvee and Ross was close to a meltdown until Solly told him to drive out of town.

  "Are you sure? I haven't driven it before."

  "Time you did, then," Solly said. "We're exhausted. Let's get out of here."

  Ross didn't need any more persuading. He turned on the engine and looked down at the transmission before sliding it into drive. He'd recovered enough strength and mobility in his right leg to be able to handle the gas and brake pedals, but his left leg was as useless as ever.

  "Don't forget the handbrake," Solly said as they went nowhere fast.

  With a lurch, the Humvee moved forward and Solly directed Ross towards I- 65 and their southward road.

  "Why were you so long?" Ross said as he began to relax. "I thought you'd be back hours ago."

  "We found somet'in up there," Vivian said from the back seat. "And Solly wanted to take a closer look."

  "It was a Lee Corporation transmitter. They've had the same idea as us—boosting short-range communication by siting them in high places."

  "Did you smash it up?"

  Solly pulled the pack onto his knees and extracted a dog-eared notebook and his smartphone. "If I'd done that, they'd have known we were up there. We moved our transmitter so it's better hidden and I took a look at theirs."

  He activated the smartphone and scrolled through the photos. "Good, they've come out okay. It was getting dark and I couldn't use the flash."

  Then he turned to his notebook and examined the diagram he'd scrawled there. "I hope this is going to be useful. I didn't know what to write down, so I copied everything—processor names, all the parts I could recognize, printed legends."

  "Why? What can you do with it?"

  "That's a good question, Ross," Viv said, before yawning and leaning back in her chair.

  "Truth is, I don't know," Solly said, "but if it's a relay, then there's a chance we could find a way to crack the encryption and listen in."

  "And what do you know about code breaking, Solly?" Vivian snarked.

  Solly looked around at her. "Well, I was an app developer. But, honestly, I just thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. The geeks at Wright-Patterson might be able to use it. It's just a pity Alison's gone. I'd be willing to bet she'd crack it in seconds."

  He reached beneath the seat of the Humvee and pulled out the cylinder that had once contained the artificial personality he'd come to…what was the word? Love? No. He wasn't deranged enough to become that attached to a machine. But he did feel sad about what had happened and he wished he could talk to her again.

  As they drove through the half-lit streets of Louisville, Solly turned the cylinder over in his hands and repeatedly prodded the activation switch with exactly the same result he'd achieved the other hundred times he'd done it. No sign of the cyan eye, no hint of sentience. He'd thought about replacing the power cells, in case it was as simple as a drained battery, but Scott Lee had said Alison used kinetic energy to recharge and, in any case, where would he get replacements?

  "It's 8 p.m.," Vivian said from the back seat. "Don't you have a call to make?"

  Jerked from his thoughts, Solly reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a walkie-talkie before tuning it to the agreed frequency.

  "This is Traveling Wilbury to General Clark. Are you clear for reception, over."

  After a few moments, the handset crackled and the voice of Administrator Weinstein emerged. "Traveling Wilbury, this is General Clark. We are clear. Congratulations on the success of your mission. Am I to assume that what we discussed is now possible?"

  Solly had explained to Weinstein that, by changing channels, he could communicate directly with Wright-Patterson. The current channel was for local traffic. They had agreed to a form of wording that wouldn't trigger suspicion if the conversation were to be intercepted and decoded. Making his communication secure would be a job for Weinstein, but the means was now at his disposal.

  "General Clark, yes, all is as agreed. Good luck."

  "Thank you. I wish you safe travel. General Clark out."

  They headed south out of Louisville and then onto 62. They had three more transmitters to install before Solly would be free of his obligation to McBride at Wright-Patterson and the last was in Memphis, a little over three hundred miles away.

  Mercifully, the following days passed without incident. As part of their deal with Weinstein, the Humvee's fuel tank and gas cans had been refilled, so they had enough to get them past Memphis and well on their way to southern Texas where their search would begin.

  That first night, they camped in the parking lot of a Taco Bell fifty miles southeast of Louisville in a place called Leitchfield. Ross was exhausted by the drive, but he was also happier than he'd been since the accident that had left him unable to walk.

  Solly knew the boy had regretted insisting he come on this journey almost as soon as they'd hit the road. He was obviously feeling insecure and grief stricken after the death of Janice and didn't want to remain at the farmhouse while Solly went on a mission to find his children by birth. But the grim realities of traveling across the country had hit home pretty quickly and his sense of uselessness had suppressed his naturally sunny nature until, by some miracle, he'd felt that first tingling in
his right leg.

  And now he'd driven them out of the city and fifty miles southeast so Solly and Vivian could sleep.

  "Well done, son," Solly said as he helped Ross down from the driver's seat. Vivian had already jumped out and headed into the bushes that lined the parking lot, bright green shoots springing up from within as the seasons turned.

  "I can stand. Well, I can hop," Ross said with a rueful smile.

  Once they'd dealt with the biological necessities, Solly built a small fire in the lee of the Humvee and they each picked a random foil-wrapped pack of military rations to open and cook.

  Despite eating, no one had the energy to put up the tent they'd been provided with, so they climbed back into Humvee and spent an uncomfortable night sleeping upright in the seats.

  They got moving as soon as the sun came up the next day. To the disappointment of Ross, Solly took the first shift driving and they headed southeast through a green landscape of red soil and white rocks. On the first morning, they found the road blocked twice by vehicles that had been arranged to slow cars down. But there was no sign of the bandits who'd constructed these chicanes and, in any case, they would be unlikely to try to take on a Humvee containing an unknown number of armed occupants.

  There were still many abandoned vehicles on the stretches of highway between settlements. Almost all had been broken into—doors flung wide, windows broken, debris scattered across the road—and, once or twice, they spotted the decayed remains of the former occupant left for the birds to peck at. Dust, leaves and detritus covered the cars and Solly tried hard not to look too closely at them. He didn't have the imagination to pretend the Long Night hadn't happened as he drove along the interstate, but, equally, he didn't like being reminded of the toll it had taken.

  "What's that?" Ross asked, pointing into the distance. They'd been traveling for several hours and Solly's eyes had gotten heavy, but the urgency in Ross' voice brought him instantly to attention.

  Vivian's head appeared between the two front seats. "Roadblock," she said before reaching back and pulling out her weapon.