Buzz sprang to his feet.
“Please, be calm, Doctor. We’ve asked this person to be here as a witness to our conversation.”
Jo sat down beside Buzz and he felt her warm fingers wrap around his. For the first time, he didn’t welcome her obvious affection—it seemed to him that it gave him a vulnerability they might exploit.
“I am Agent Edward Pope, head of POTUS’s security team. Agent Delmont is my second in command.”
“You work for the president? He survived?”
Pope shook his head. “President Turner remained at his desk in DC.”
Remained at his desk? Couldn’t get away fast enough, if his past actions were any guide, thought Buzz.
“Vice President Buchanan, who was on Air Force One at the time, has been duly appointed according to Article Two of the Constitution.”
“So, we’ve got a female president at last,” Buzz said. “Pity it took the end of the world for it to happen.”
Pope merely looked back at him, expressionless. Then, after a few seconds, he continued. “The federal Government is now based in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.”
“Never heard of it.”
Pope shrugged. “It was the only choice. Most of the east is underwater, as I’m sure you know. We’re based at the regional airport.”
“And you’re managing to govern the country from there?”
He’d hit a nerve, he could tell.
“We are the official government of these United States,” Pope said. “Anything more, and you’d have to ask the president herself.”
“And what do you want with me?”
"The president and her advisors believe you have vital intelligence relating to the wave. But I’m not here to justify it, I’m merely following my instructions.”
Buzz sighed. He’d known something like this would happen, but it was still a shock. And when he’d just made a breakthrough. But perhaps, just perhaps, the arrival of Pope and his Amazonian colleague could turn out to be serendipitous. He didn’t want to leave this place, just as he’d begun to find a measure of happiness, but if he had to go, then the sooner the better. And, after all, he’d imagined that he was being sought by SaPIEnT, and—for reasons he wasn’t entirely sure were rational—he preferred the idea of being in the government’s keeping rather than in the paws of Lundberg.
“Now, we have a long flight ahead of us. How long do you need to prepare for the journey? Thirty minutes?”
Pope turned to Jo. “And you will come with us.”
“What?”
Buzz leaped to his feet, but Delmont drew her weapon and he was forced to sit again. “What has Jo got to do with this?”
“I’m sure you intend to be cooperative, Doctor Baxter, but, in my experience, the more incentive someone has to be helpful, the more helpful they turn out to be. I observed that this young lady is important to you, and so she will come along with us.”
“She’s not important to me!” Buzz said, ignoring the look of pain in Jo’s glance. Good grief, she’d be a pretty poor poker player.
Pope shook his head in mock sadness. “I’m sorry, Doctor, and I’m sure you are gifted in your own field, but then I have my own talents, and identifying leverage is one of them.”
At a knock on the door, Delmont opened it to admit a uniformed agent. And, dragged by the arm, Jodi.
“She was discovered hiding in an office out back, sir. She was downloading something onto a flash drive.”
Pope heard all of this, but kept his eyes fixed on Buzz. “Who is this?”
“I’m his niece, jackass,” Jodi snapped, finally freeing herself from her captor’s grip. “Since when was it a crime to work on your own computer?”
Pope now turned his head to look at her. “Your name?”
“Jodi Baxter.”
In other circumstances, Buzz would have found Jodi’s use of her father’s surname touching. She usually styled herself after her mother.
“You are the daughter of Joel Baxter, Doctor Baxter’s brother? How did you come to be here?”
Jodi shrugged unconcernedly. “I like spending time with my uncle.”
Pope looked from Jodi to Buzz to Jo. “Perhaps Miss Baxter would be the better choice to accompany us. I regret we cannot accommodate more than one…”
“Hostage,” Buzz interposed.
This provoked a thin smile. “I’m glad we understand each other.”
“No! Take me! I don’t want to be left here!” Jo said.
“I’m sorry, there is no more room,” Pope said with grim finality. “It seems that you have enough to occupy yourself with here. Now, come. We leave in thirty minutes.”
#
Buzz looked down as gravel, straw and detritus scattered from the down-force of the lifting helicopter. The children had been taken inside, and Tom and Dom stood watching from beneath the porch roof, but Jo looked up from the heart of the storm, waving to him and—had he imagined it?—mouthing three words as she disappeared within the cloud of dust.
Buzz removed his ear defenders and wiped a tear from his eye as Jodi patted his knee. “She’s better off staying here. Tom and Dom will look after her.”
Buzz nodded although her words didn’t make him feel any better.
“Where are they taking us?” Jodi asked, and Buzz was glad of the distraction.
“Hazelton is over a thousand miles away, so we’re rendezvousing with a ship to refuel.”
He gazed out at the view and it took his breath away. They were heading east, so he knew that most land would be behind them and therefore invisible, but despite that, and the fact that he knew intellectually that what he was looking at was the reality, his animal mind could not comprehend it. It was the difference between knowing something and truly understanding and accepting it.
Where, a few weeks ago, he’d have seen rolling hills and wide fields of cereal with, here and there, cities such as Little Rock, he now saw only water interrupted occasionally by small islands rising out of the depths. The sun glinted off the surface and it was like flying over the Atlantic rather than the continental United States.
The only movement he could make out was the occasional ship, plowing through the sea at the head of an arrow-straight wake. Aside from these obvious manifestations of humanity, he could have been flying over a just-discovered virgin wilderness.
And it hit him like a sledgehammer.
“What have I done?” he muttered. “I could have stopped this. I should have stopped it.”
Jodi, who’d spent most of her time looking at the other people in the aircraft, turned at the sound of his voice over the staccato rumble of the rotors and engine. “What did you say?”
Buzz shook his head. This was his private nightmare. While he’d been living at the farmhouse in its valley surrounded by trees, he’d been protected from the true horror. He’d known the numbers from the beginning, but up here above a water-world, he could not escape from the horror. It was below him, running from horizon to horizon. A drowned country, a drowned world.
He sat there, dazed, for the hours it took them to cross what had been Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee and was now nothing more than a gray sky reflected in rippling waves with sprinkled specks where land emerged from the deep.
Someone brought him some food, but he only knew he’d eaten at all because of the ripped-open foil of the ration pack.
“We’re approaching Kip’s Bay.”
Buzz jerked his attention away from the vast destruction below and looked up at Agent Pope.
“Kip’s Bay,” he repeated, “the cruiser we’re refueling at.”
Buzz nodded dumbly, and looked out again, sensing that Pope was following his gaze. “Yeah. Takes your breath away, doesn’t it? I was like you the first time I flew over it.”
I doubt it, Buzz thought.
“Take a piece of advice, will you?”
No.
Without waiting for a response, Pope continued, “Focus on what you can do to help make the future
a little better for the survivors rather than what happened in the past. There’s no point looking back. We’ve all got plenty of regrets, but you can’t let them weigh you down too much or you’ll be no use to anybody.” He got up and patted Buzz on the shoulder.
As the helicopter swung around, Buzz caught sight of a gray diamond shape cutting through the water below, tiny specks of color marking out parts of the ship and becoming more visible and obvious as they descended. He knew nothing about naval vessels, but this one looked ready to go to war. The ridiculousness of this struck him and he stifled an exclamation. I mean, who were they going to fight? Unless Jodi’s map—and Max’s improved version—were entirely wrong, barely a country on the planet had survived the flood intact. Who were the joint chiefs going to attack? Assuming there even was such a structure now. If not, then each commander would become the king of his own small country, moving independently across the surface of the world.
The helicopter began to stabilize in position immediately above the helipad and then lowered, buffeted a little by the wind as it maneuvered itself and then, finally, dropped into place.
Figures ran toward the helicopter, and Buzz could hear voices calling through the now-open cockpit window as the rotors came to a stop, leaving a rushing sound in Buzz’s ears like a neverending echo.
Through the window on the other side of the aircraft, Buzz saw a man in a khaki uniform and peaked cap walking quickly toward the cabin door, before it slid open.
“Special Agent Hope,” the man said, ducking inside and tucking his cap under his arm.
Hope gave a brief salute. “Captain.”
“Your mission was a success?” the officer said, turning his dark brown eyes on Buzz and Jodi.
“Yes. Captain Hopper, commanding officer of the cruiser Kip’s Bay, this is Doctor Edwin Baxter, scientist. And his niece.” This last added as an afterthought that left Jodi glowering at Buzz’s side.
The captain nodded at Buzz. “I sure hope you’re worth all this effort, Doctor.”
Buzz shrugged. “Honestly, Captain, I have no idea what the president wants me to do.”
“Well, I guess things can’t get much worse. We spent the first days rescuing people and taking them to dry land, and the next weeks recovering dead bodies from the water. Now we’ve got an ocean where the eastern and southern states were. It’s hard to see how things could get any worse, until the Chinese turn up.”
“The Chinese? What do you mean?”
The captain gave a grim chuckle. “Well, maybe that’s not in your pay grade, so I’ll leave that to the president’s team. But it doesn’t take a genius, or a security clearance, to work out that he who has the biggest navy has a huge advantage during a global flood.”
“And that’s the Chinese? They’ve got more ships than us?”
The captain shrugged as if to suggest that this was the obvious conclusion and reversed out of the helicopter. “Good flying, Agent Pope. Take with you a tank of my finest aviation fuel and my respects to the president.”
It was only when they’d risen above the ship and continued their journey east, that Buzz considered what an odd form of words that was. Sure, a president wanted respect—though many had survived without it—but what he or she required was obedience to a chain of command with them at the head.
Was Buzz looking for hidden meaning when it wasn’t there, or was Marian Buchanan president in name only? Did her control extend beyond a few acres of Pennsylvania while the ocean surrounding it was now a law unto itself? Was she nothing more than a modern-day Romulus Augustus, issuing meaningless orders from a villa in Ravenna while the Western Roman Empire descended into lawlessness?
He sure hoped not, or he was swapping one level of hopelessness for an entirely more desperate one.
Chapter 10
Guilty
A squad car skidded to a halt as they were carrying the body of Officer Nelson Haynes toward the college. Patrick, Ellie, Hank and Officer Masterson each took one limb while Max walked behind in dazed confusion, carrying Haynes’s bloody jacket.
Two officers jumped out of the car and ran to where the sad party waited.
“Jen! What happened?” The speaker was a middle-aged man with dark mustache and silver hair.
“Nelson’s dead. I think we got the perp. We left him there—Adair.”
“I don’t think I killed him,” Ellie said. “I think I hit him in the leg.”
“Who are you?”
“We were escorting them to Rose State. Found them in the Methodist church. Ambushed.”
The newcomer looked at them one at a time and seemed to conclude that he wasn’t going to get a full account quickly, so he nodded to his colleague. “Call up control and get another car out here to help bring Officer Haynes back.” He turned to Masterson. “Lane, I need to go check on the attacker, make sure he’s out of action.”
“10-4,” she replied, lifelessly.
They watched as he got back in the car, and it sped back the way they came.
By the time the next squad car arrived, they were in sight of the college, and Masterson waved them away. A handful of officers ran out from the entrance and took Haynes’s body from them, bearing it gently inside.
A small crowd of police and civilians had gathered outside, but their questions went unanswered.
“You guys follow me,” the desk sergeant said after taking Masterson to one side for a moment.
“Where are you taking us?” Ellie asked.
“A secure room.”
“We’re under arrest?”
The sergeant—a big man in his late middle years with a gut that hung over his belt—adopted a weary smile.
“Look, honey, we got a situation here and I’m sure y’all understand we need to keep witnesses somewhere safe until we can question them. Now, Chester here’ll show you into this room and he’ll keep an eye on you. Just make yerselves comfortable, you hear me?”
“I need to use the rest room,” Ellie said, too tired to be subtle.
The sergeant rolled his eyes, then nodded to Chester who led Ellie away. “Anyone else needs a leak, they’re gonna have to tie a knot in it for now.”
When Ellie returned, she found the others sitting around a table—except for Patrick who was looking through the blinds like an extra on NYPD Blue. He turned when he saw her, the relief obvious on his face.
“Masterson popped in,” he said. “She got someone to bring us coffee and doughnuts.”
Ellie sat down beside Hank as Patrick joined them, took a doughnut and sunk her teeth in. “Civilization is restored.”
“Are you serious? We just got shot at by a German, and Haynes was shot dead. This isn’t the time for jokes.”
“Oh, get your finger out of your b—”
The door swung open and Masterson was there with another, slightly older, woman.
“This is Detective Valdez.”
The woman nodded, but before she could speak, Ellie had performed a verbal handbrake turn. “Did you find the attacker?”
Valdez shook her head and took a seat at the head of the table, indicating Masterson to sit beside her. “No. Our officers found blood on the road and beside it—consistent with Officer Masterson’s report—but no sign of the assailant. So, what can you tell me about him?”
“Nothing more than the officer,” Ellie said. “He was a big German guy in a long black coat.”
“But you knew him?”
“No,” Ellie said, looking around at the others and receiving shakes of the head.
“Seriously? Masterson says he seemed to identify you,” she said, pointing at Patrick.
The actor shook his head. “It was by process of elimination, but he was wrong.”
“So, you were just randomly attacked?”
Again, Patrick shook his head. “No. I know the man he’s looking for, though not why or, indeed, how he found us.”
“Go on.”
“He said he was looking for Doctor Baxter—I know him.”
Patrick shrugged. “A scientist.”
“And why would this man be looking for him?”
“I’ve got no idea.”
Quite suddenly, the detective smacked her hand on the desk. “Not good enough! One of my officers is right now being taken to the morgue, and another was attacked. You four claim to have sailed across Arkansas and into the state on a mission to find your daughter.” She pointed at Ellie.
“Yes, that’s true. She was in LA.”
Patrick shifted in his seat. “Did Officer Masterson mention that I attacked the man and that Ellie shot at him?”
Valdez glanced across at Officer Masterson who nodded. “It’s true. I was with Nelson, trying to stem the bleeding. I’m sorry, I should have disabled the assailant first.”
Shrugging, Valdez turned back to the others. “I’ve been in this game for long enough to know when I’m not hearing the full truth. There’s more to this than you’re revealing, but I’m prepared to accept that you might not be doing it deliberately. From your description, and Masterson’s, it seems that this man is a professional. He’s been assigned the task of finding this Doctor Baxter and apprehending or eliminating him.
“Maybe this agent is right now bleeding out on a sidewalk. If so, I expect my officers to find him sooner or later. Maybe he’s escaped and will go searching for Baxter. Or, maybe, he’ll come after you. In which case, you’re probably safer here.”
Unbidden, a memory from a movie theater popped into Ellie’s mind as Valdez said this. It was of a German-speaking robot assassin with an assault rifle making mincemeat of a police department that was supposed to be protecting his target.
“No, we’d prefer to continue our journey,” Ellie said.
Valdez leaned back in her chair imperiously. “Well, that’ll depend on what the chief says. And that’ll depend on the city administrator. For now, you’ll stay here. We’ve got pretty good accommodations. Only build a couple of years ago.”
Ellie went to protest, but couldn’t find the energy. The last thing they needed was to be trying to escape across the city with the police on their tail.
Survivors: Deluge Book 3: (A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story) Page 8