Although Prime Minister Altero finally came to realize the protest movement wasn’t just a student fad, but a serious threat to his government, it was too late to stop it. Dozens of UT students had been arrested and interrogated, but so far, no BL members. Their security methods and secret communication strategies worked, and members quickly merged into crowds after a protest. Council members maintained their anonymity, but it was only a matter of time before a council member was arrested, tortured and forced to reveal all their identities.
Council decided it was time they laid low for a while, starting with Brogan and Bryan. Marriages had been outlawed several decades before, but some couples still chose bonding ceremonies. Women had the option to keep their birth name, adopt their mate’s name or hyphenate their name with their bonded mate. At 18 years of age, children decided for themselves their last name.
Brogan told her parents she and Bryan would use their bonding ceremony as the excuse they needed to leave Austin City for a while. Rather than wait until next year as originally planned, they decided to bond as soon as possible.
It was late May. Bryan graduated with his under-graduate degree in Political Science and Brogan’s senior year would begin after summer break. They would be traveling to Van Horn for the bonding ceremony then on their honeymoon to California Province to meet Bryan’s parents.
When the couple called Bryan’s parents on vid-phone and told them their plans, Brogan said they were disappointed they could not attend the ceremony on such short notice, but they acquiesced and said they looked forward to seeing them during their honeymoon.
The Douglass’s worked under the direction of MC Carlos Hernandez, tourism director for California Province, so they sent Bryan and Brogan unlimited access passes for travel within the province while on their honeymoon. Having never been to California Province, Brogan looked forward to not only meeting Bryan’s parents but seeing parks and national monuments she saw only in books and vids.
Bryan had accepted a legislative aide position with MC Joseph Carusco, a member of Texas House of Commons, but he did not start work until September, after graduation. He would be able to work on his on-line master’s degree while he worked. Because of her successes with her accelerated schedule and double majors, Brogan would begin fall semester at UTA as a senior. Both chose to not have I-chips implanted, which was still optional.
Brogan’s mother waited for the couple on the porch on the scheduled day of their arrival. As she stepped out of the rented robo-car, Brogan was shocked to see how much her mother had aged since she saw her at Christmas break. The green tunic and slacks she wore were too big on her thin frame. But her worry quickly turned to joy as she pulled a nervous Bryan forward to meet her.
“Mom, I want to officially introduce you to Bryan Douglass. Bryan, my mother, Emily.”
Bryan stepped up to shake Emily’s hand, but without hesitation she pulled him into a hug.
“We don’t stand on ceremony around here, Bryan,” she said, “And if you are even half as fantastic as Brogan says you are, I know you will fit right in to our family. It is wonderful to finally meet you in person and not just through vid-phone.”
She reached over to hug Brogan before pulling away to look at her. “Brogan, you cut all your beautiful hair off since we last talked on the phone. And it’s even dyed red!”
“Where’s Dad?” Brogan ask, “I can’t wait for him to meet Bryan,” deciding to ignore her mother’s question for the moment.
“He’ll be home in a few minutes, honey. He is dealing with a problem at one of the solar panel sites, so he said he’d be a bit late. Why don’t you get your suitcases and bring them in and I’ll get you settled?”
“I’ll get the backpacks,” Bryan said, “You go on in with your mother, honey.”
The couple packed light, preferring to buy anything else they might need along the way rather than wrestling with suitcases. Bryan looked around with interest as he walked into the small cabin, dropping two heavy backpacks near the front door. He didn’t need to duck his head as he walked through the door like he did in most places.
“I thought it would be more rustic,” he admitted sheepishly when Brogan asked him about the look on his face. “I’m surprised how modern the cabin is.”
The entire house was made from old solar panels. Large floor to ceiling windows covered north and west sides of the house, providing a panoramic view of acres of solar panels in the distance and making the living area look much larger.
Brogan laughed, “You figured us country bumpkins lived in cabins without running water, didn’t you?”
Bryan flushed and grinned. Emily laughed, and Brogan knew she already liked him because of his willingness to be teased.
Brogan took him on a quick tour of the home, which included one large bedroom downstairs, a small old-fashioned bathroom with a claw-foot, porcelain tub, and a large living room with a small dining area next to the kitchen. A mixture of antiques and modern, hand-crafted furnishings conveyed eclectic and artistic tastes. Soft colors of a Texas sunset reflected muted earth tones of the furniture, set off by splashes of brilliant reds and oranges in throw pillows and artwork. Hand-made rag rugs scattered across gleaming floors.
“Are these floors made from solar panels, too?” Bryan asked. Emily nodded. Pieces of solar panels were perfectly cut and fit together in interesting patterns.
Up the ladder he and Brogan checked out the small alcove under the eaves which had been her bedroom. They both had to duck under the low ceiling, but it gave him a good excuse to grab her for a passionate kiss when Brogan stumbled, tripping on a rug.
“Hey, you two,” Emily called up the stairs. “Come on downstairs. I’m sure you are both tired and thirsty from the trip. How about an old-fashioned iced tea before dinner? You go sit on the porch swing and I’ll bring it to you.”
The young people refused to leave Emily in the kitchen alone and instead helped her put a tray of iced drinks together. While they sipped refreshing tea, rocking on an old porch swing, Bryan asked Emily questions about the school she ran for energy grunt children, while Brogan snuggled close to him.
At the sound of footsteps, Bryan nervously stood up and gulped as he saw a large, serious looking man walking around the back of the house and up the steps. Bryan was taller, but Frank was much, much bigger. Sleeves of the brown tunic and slacks he wore bulged from thick muscles. Black hair was edged with gray but still thick and wavy. He wore it long and pulled back into a pony tail. His firm, square jaw showed shadows of a late-day graying beard. Intelligent dark brown eyes bordered with thick brows seemed to look right through Bryan, obviously wanting to know if he was good enough for his daughter. Bryan talked to him on vid-phone, but those conversations in no way conveyed the intimidating size and presence of the man.
Suddenly Frank’s eyes lit up as he saw Brogan standing beside Bryan and a huge grin spread across his leathery face. “Brogan, my girl. How are you? It is so great to see you. Hey, you look different.” He held her back for a minute to look her over and then grabbed her in a huge bear hug, waltzing her around the tiny porch. Laughing, Brogan managed to escape long enough to steer his attention toward Bryan.
“Daddy, I want you to officially meet, Bryan. Bryan, my dad, Frank Finlay.”
Bryan winced at his steely grip.
“How do you do, sir.”
So, Bryan, what are your intentions with my daughter?” Frank asked with a frown on his face.
“Daddy!” Brogan laughed, “Give yourself time to get to know him, after all, he is going to be your son-in-law. And be nice. He’s not one of your prisoners!”
Frank started to laugh, a smile lighting up his face. “Okay, okay, I’ll go easy on him.”
Bryan let out a big breath and grinned. Brogan showed her parents her engagement ring and the evening was filled with many opportunities to get to know Bryan and for him to get to know her parents.
After a delicious dinner of Jack Rabbit stew (a first for Bryan) and the
best biscuits and apple pie he said he had ever eaten, Emily and her daughter spent the evening hours finalizing plans for the bonding ceremony, scheduled for the next day. Frank and Bryan went to the shed behind the cabin to tinker on one of Frank’s never-ending mysterious projects. Respectful of the faith and values of Brogan’s parents, Bryan spent the night on a large comfortable sofa in the living room, his feet hanging over the end. Brogan slept in her old bed in the attic.
Emily arranged for a simple ceremony at noon next day in the quaint old chapel on the edge of Van Horn. Built in the 20th Century from sagebrush, the wooden building was a breathtaking work of art. Because sagebrush was stubby, brittle and knotted, it took a lot of it to build anything. Interesting grains of the wood shown through pieced together chunks of wood, polished to a looking-glass shine.
Brogan wore her grandmother’s sleeveless, long, off-white antique lace ceremony dress, her short hair woven with bluebells picked from the front yard of the Finlay home. Brogan’s breath caught in her throat when she saw Bryan waiting for her at the front of the aisle. He wore simple off-white tunic and slacks which could not hide his muscular frame and set off his tan skin. His black, curly hair was just long enough to brush the collar of his tunic. She could see his brilliant blue eyes widen at the sight of her.
Just about everyone from the tiny town of Van Horn crowded into the chapel for the ceremony, despite the short notice, attending the reception held at the Finlay’s home afterwards under a large white canopy, flapping in the west Texas breeze. A typical energy grunt potluck, tables made from old solar panels laid on top of saw horses groaned from weight of the ceremony feast: spare ribs cooked until falling off bones, smothered in a tangy barbeque sauce, baked beans, and an array of mouthwatering salads and desserts.
They thought they were stuffed, with no room to eat anything else, until Emily rolled out a four-tiered cake, topped with a miniature bride and groom surrounded by bluebells; the same decorations she used at her own ceremony. Brogan did not know about the cake, since the ceremony was a last-minute decision. Tears filled her eyes as she realized how hard her mother worked to make the day so memorable for her and Bryan. The cake was not only beautiful, but delicious.
After the first dances with her partner and her teary-eyed father, the rest of the afternoon was spent in a joy-filled romp of old fashioned square dancing, conversation and laughter with people she had known since a child. Bryan fit right in. Although he never square-danced before, he caught on quickly. Many people came up to Brogan and told her how much they liked him.
Frank and Emily arranged for the couple to spend the first three days of their bonded life in a tiny cabin with no running water, tucked into a beautiful sandstone canyon a few miles outside Van Horn. Before they left for the canyon, Brogan’s parents presented them with the old family Bible as a ceremony gift. Tears filled Brogan’s eyes as she realized the family history represented by the gift. She asked her parents to keep it safe for her until they could pick it up and figure out a permanent storage, away from the clutches of the empire’s soldiers.
“You know the shed out back where I do my tinkering?” Frank asked Brogan. “I built a storage area under the floor boards. We hide all our books there. That’s where it will be, located under the shelves where I built your toys.”
Brogan’s heart ached. She knew what it might cost her parents if their hidden storage area was found by empire soldiers. But now was not the time to focus on “what-ifs.” For the next few days she intended to focus her attention on Bryan. And he had no objections when she told him.
Her parents stocked their honeymoon cabin with everything they needed, including plenty of water and food. It was Bryan’s first camping experience, but the hardship was insignificant, he told Brogan, compared to the happiness he discovered exploring her body. She blushed, threw her arms around him and showed him how much she agreed with him.
At her parent’s home, on the fourth day after the ceremony and over breakfast, Frank asked them to explain what was going on.
“We know something is going on, Brogan. You’ve cut your hair and you are hiding something from us. What is it?” her father asked bluntly.
Brogan explained her change in hair style to hopefully make it more difficult for security officials to identify her as one of the leaders, since her long hair was hard to hide under a mask.
A moment of thick silence hung in the air at the seriousness of what the young people were trying to do. The parents looked at each other and nodded. They had discussed it earlier and agreed it was time they stated their willingness to help.
“Your mother and I will do everything we can to help,” Frank said. “You know how much we energy grunts depend on books for education and entertainment, especially since we don’t use much in the way of electronics. And we are adamantly opposed to banning books of any kind.”
He looked over at Emily. “Are the Caverns of Sonora a potential site for book storage, honey? The caves were abandoned as a tourist attraction about the same time oil fields dried up. It might be a great location to store books. I know the caves are about 250 miles away, but I think they might be ideal, especially with several energy grunt towns between here and there.”
Emily thought for a minute. “I know just the person to ask, but I’m sure they will be perfect locations. We’ll also see what we can do to establish a BL cell here and in more cells among other energy grunts all up and down the line. You focus your attention on the rest of the province and regard the whole west side of Texas Province taken care of, okay? We have contacts in the entire area.”
“Oh, yeah,” Frank continued enthusiastically, “And don’t worry about confidentiality among energy grunts. We’ll be very cautious about who we tell among the prison population, but we can almost guarantee the rest of the population will be 100% behind what you are doing.”
The young couple sat with their mouths open. They came to be bonded, not to recruit hundreds or even thousands of new members for BL, but it seemed that was exactly what happened. Brogan’s eyes filled with tears as she realized how much danger her parents would be in, but she also knew she could not dissuade them. The fight needed everyone’s help.
“I don’t know what to say. Thanks, Mom and Dad.”
“What you offer will make a huge difference,” Bryan said quietly. “Thank you.”
The next two days, they spent laughing, playing cards, with her parents getting to know Bryan. While Brogan and her father dried the dinner dishes on their last evening together, he said quietly to her, “I guess Bryan will do for my little girl.”
Brogan turned to her father and gave him a hug while dripping soap suds down his neck.
“Hey,” he yelped, “that’s wet!”
They laughed as Emily and Bryan came back into the kitchen to see what the fuss was about. They had been looking at family vids in the living room. Brogan went to Bryan’s side and turned to her dad.
“Okay, Dad, tell him what you just told me.”
Clearing his throat, Frank walked up to Bryan and gave him another bone-crushing hand shake. “I just told my daughter, you’ll do. But take good care of her, hear me?” trying hard to scowl threateningly.
Emily and Brogan started laughing and Bryan grinned as he shook Frank’s hand.
“It means a lot to me, sir.”
“And for heaven’s sake,” Frank roared, “Quit calling me ‘sir!’ Makes me sound like an old geezer.” Both women cracked up laughing again, with the men joining in.
As they said their goodbyes next morning, the couple promised to send more information to them about BL strategies for establishing cells and storing books. Frank gave them a connection to a solar panel supplier who made regular trips to Van Horn from Austin via the rail spur.
“He’ll deliver messages or packages from you, or he can ship them unobtrusively on one of the rails. It is probably the best way to send us information to avoid using electronics which might be hacked by the empire.”
They decided to use the trip west to connect with possible cell leaders along the way, look at some book storage sites Janice identified, and well as see incredible sights in California Province if they had time. They planned on connecting with Janice in Salt Lake City, too. She was there hoping to find another possible book storage site.
“We’ll be in touch. We can’t say anything on vid-phone, but you can use BL code to communicate,” Brogan said. She had already gone over the code with her parents. She showed them how to subtly use the code in the background and conversation when having innocent conversations over vid-phone.
For some reason, Brogan was unaccountably apprehensive about leaving her parents. Because of their involvement now with BL, or something else? After chalking it up to just not wanting to say, “good-bye,” the couple tucked their backpacks into the robo-car early Thursday morning to drive to the train station for the trip to Las Vegas. They expected to meet Bryan’s parents in a couple of days.
Bryan gave Frank a hearty handshake and a gentle hug to Emily as they said their goodbyes, after Frank said a brief prayer for their safety, both on the road and with their work with Book Liberators. As she turned for one last look at her parents, Brogan experienced another unexplained shiver of foreboding.
Chapter Five
The Vault
“Hi, I’m Dr. Janice Wu, from University of Texas,” Janice said as she introduced herself to the tour guide at Granite Mountain Records Vault, near Salt Lake City. “I have an appointment with your supervisor for 10 am.”
Taking the train from Austin City to Salt Lake City two days earlier, Janice spent the night in a small hotel on the south side. The hotel wasn’t much. Just a tiny room with a bed more of a cot than anything, and a wash basin and toilet. But it was enough for her needs. It was cash only, which she preferred. The less she used her T-chip the better; fewer records of her travels for tracking.
She rented a robo-car and programmed it to drive her the short fifteen miles south to the vault, tucked in the Granite Mountain range. As the car traveled over the bumpy road, she admired the scenery; a far cry from the rolling hill country of Austin City. Although it was already late May, morning sun reflected off the snow cresting the Wasatch Mountains east of Salt Lake City.
The White Warrior Page 6