Danny led Bob through another labyrinth of hallways and down another flight of stairs. Only one Z with a yellow hardhat stood between them and their destination. Once inside, they spent the next couple of hours disconnecting wires and replacing industrial-sized fuses. Bob looked at this watch and saw that it was nearly midday.
“Danny, where would be a good place to radio back to Billings without Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and Tweedle-asshole hearing us?”
“Let’s head back up to the control room. There is an external antenna we should be able to tie into. It was for a more localized CB radio, but it should reach Billings on the ham frequency. We’re done here anyway and need to turn on the mainframe. If that antenna won’t work, we’re going to have to go outside and hope that dick cheese doesn’t find out.”
“Yea, what’s his deal lately? Totally different than when they first arrived. All smiles and ‘We’re here to help.’ Now he’s a fucking cocksucking asshole.”
“I think he is trying to egg one of us into starting a fight. He acts a lot like my ex-wife.”
“Oh, dude, I remember that shit. Yea, she would spout off the most random fucking weird things trying to piss you off to the point of violence.”
“Yup. And that is what Vinny is doing now. So, no matter what, like you said yesterday, we need to make sure we don’t start any shit. I think they are looking for an excuse to start something.”
“Yes. Yes, they are.”
“But why though? Over here, Bob. Will this fit into your ham radio?”
“Let me see. Dude, I don’t know why he’s trying to start shit, but I hope to God we can get the RV people to help us. That’s why I need to check in with Harv. Nope, that won’t fit. Now what?”
“Give me a minute to splice something together.”
Jim, Barbra, and Abe headed over to the jail. Harvey had called a meeting, but they had no idea what about.
“How’s it going with getting all the breakers turned off?” Harvey asked.
“Slow. Every house or business we go into, we have to kill several Z’s, so it’s not like we can just run in, flip off the main breaker, and go. We have to take at least three people to clear a house so we don’t get caught by surprise, and only then can we finish our job,” Abe replied.
“Ok, well, do the best you can. Give me a percentage of the city that’s done.”
“From Central up, about twenty-five percent.”
“Shit.” Harvey stood and was looking at his map on the wall. “Well, we have most of the south part done. As soon as they finish, I’ll send my crew up to help.”
GM walked into Harvey’s office, paused just inside the door, and looked around.
“What’s going on, guys?”
Harvey turned to face him quickly.
“GM! H-hello. How can we help you?”
The other three just looked at the mountain of a man who’d entered the room. They hadn’t seen him since the night he’d gotten off the plane.
“Well, I thought I would stop by and see how things are going on this side of my town. You know, check in and make sure everything was going according to our agreement.”
“Yes, sir. We were just discussing how the power shutoff project was going.”
“I heard. Seems like you guys are moving a little slowly. I haven’t heard from the guys that went to the dam. Have you?”
“No, sir. I don’t know how we would. No phone service and all.”
“Oh, I know. I just wanted to see what your response would be. You see, Harvey, being as how I’ve been so bored, I’ve read a few psychology books, and I wanted to test my new knowledge on you.”
“Oh, that’s good to hear, sir. No time like the present to better oneself.”
“True. Where is the library around here? I wanted to pick up something good worth reading. Any suggestions?”
“The library is on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Broadway. And may I suggest something in the classics. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy perhaps. I think you would enjoy it.”
“Very well, then. I’ll check It out. See ya later.” GM turned on his heel and strolled out of the office.
Harvey stood there for a second and listened to GM’s footsteps disappear down the stairwell.
“Fuck my life, I really hate that fucking guy,” Harvey said when he was sure GM was out of earshot.
“So, what happened between you two?” Abe asked.
Harvey lifted up his shirt and showed where GM had punched him.
“He was smart enough to not leave visible bruises, but he got me pretty good. I think I was pissing blood the next day. Shit still hurts. Seriously, don’t mess with that guy.”
“Holy shit, dude. Bob warned us, but damn.”
Just then, the ham radio let out three tones.
“Fuck, I’m so glad GM wasn’t here when that went off.”
Harvey opened the credenza behind his desk to reveal the hidden radio.
“Jim, will you shut the door? And make sure it’s locked, please. We don’t need any more unexpected guests.”
Harvey turned back to the radio and fine tuned the frequency to what he and Bob had agreed upon.
“This is Harvey. Go ahead with your transmission. Over.”
“This is Bob. We’re contacting you from the control room in the dam. Over.”
“Good to hear your voice, Bob. All is well here. Over.”
“Thanks, and good to hear. Any word from the RV people yet? Over.”
“No news from or about them. How is everything else going? Over.”
“Everything is going fine here. We have the generators back online. We will see you tonight, Harv. Signing off.”
“Be safe. See you tonight. Signing off.”
“Well, at least we know they’re good. Hopefully, we hear something else by tonight,” Jim said.
“Who the fuck were you just talking too?” Dave asked angrily as he walked into the control room.
“Dave! How long have you been standing there?” Bob asked in a slightly panicked voice.
“Long enough to know that you’re trying to contact the very people that Vinny wants dead. So that tells me that you don’t really like us being around, do you?”
“Well, now that the secret is out, no, we don’t, Dave. I mean, I think you’re an ok guy. But not the other three, and I don’t even know about the rest of your crew. So, what happens now, Dave? Are you with us?”
“Hell no. We’re going upstairs, and you’re going to confess to Vinny exactly what just happened.”
“The fuck we are,” Bob said, finding his confidence. “You’re going to keep your goddamned mouth shut if you want to live.”
Bob walked around a desk and took a couple of steps toward Dave. Unbeknownst to Dave, Danny slowly crept in the opposite direction to get behind Dave.
“The hell I am. I’ve known them guys my entire life. They are celebrities where we come from. They’re all the family I have left, and you don’t turn you back on family.”
“I know, Dave. I don’t have any left either besides Harv. But I’m telling you, you’re going to die if you don’t help us. You need to give me your word right the fuck now. So, what do you say?”
“Fuck off, Bob! I thought we could be friend—”
There was a hollow thunk, and Dave slumped to the ground. As he did, Danny filled Bob’s line of sight. He was standing there with a framing hammer that still had bits of hair suck between the fingers of the claw and a couple droplets of blood hanging off the tips.
“Thanks, Danny. That little motherfucker. How did he get in?”
“Uh, that’s my fault. I didn’t lock the door when we came in. I didn’t think they would follow us. They didn’t seem too keen on being confined down here with any Z’s.”
“Well, it’s all right. The look on their faces when you talked about all the water said they didn’t want any part of it. What do we do with his body?”
“Since the generators are back on, I have an idea. Good thing we only ne
ed two to power Billings, ’cause we are about to lose one. I can’t believe Dave was fucking around in the generator room like that.” Danny had a half-smile on his face.
“I told him to stop. But he was so happy the power was back on. He tripped and fell,” Bob replied.
Bob grabbed one arm, and Danny grabbed the other, and they dragged Dave down to the generator room. Danny quickly removed a panel covering high-voltage wiring from generator number three. They propped him up next to it with his right arm touching the metal frame. Bob grabbed a fiberglass pole designed to move live wires. He picked up Dave’s left arm with the pole and touched Dave’s hand to the exposed wires. There was a loud pop, and Dave’s whole body went stiff. The room began to fill with smoke, and the smell of burnt flesh and hair became nauseating. With Dave firmly in place, the two ran back up to the control room.
By the time they got there, generator three had had an internal meltdown, and the safety shaft had sheared. Bob grabbed some coveralls from one of the lockers in the adjoining breakroom to clean up the blood and cerebral fluid that had spilled from ol’ Dave’s extra hole.
Once the coveralls had been tossed back in a locker, Bob said, “We need to run up there so we are sweaty and out of breath when we tell Vinny that Dave died.”
“Do we take everything?”
“No, leave it. Why would we carry everything if there was an emergency?”
“True, let’s go.”
Danny took off in the lead. They ran back through the hallways and slammed the door open. By the time they got to the top of the steps, Bob was already feeling his age, but he kept up as best as he could.
At the other end of the dam, Danny started yelling, “Vinny! Charles! There was an accident, and Dave’s dead.”
“What the fuck are you hollering about? You want to attract every deadhead for twenty miles? Now, keep your fucking voice down. What do you mean Dave’s dead?”
Vinny grabbed Danny by the collar and pulled him in close. Bob was so shocked that Vinny had grabbed Danny like that, he just stood there. While Bob was distracted, Charles stepped around and grabbed Bob in a chokehold.
“He fell. Bob tried to stop him, but he was dancing around and fell into an opening in one of the generators. He grounded against the frame, and we couldn’t get him off in time. I swear. Go back with us so you can see for yourselves.”
Vinny looked over at a blue-faced Bob. Bob nodded as best as he could as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. Vinny watched him go limp in Charles’s arms. Charles let Bob drop like a rag doll, pulled his pistol out, and pointed it at Danny.
“Tie him up,” said Charles.
Danny was still in Vinny’s grip, and he just looked at Bob’s still frame.
“I said tie him up. NOW, motherfucker! Vinny, let him go.”
Danny backed up a step and looked around, franticly trying to remember. He jogged over to the APC and opened a compartment that he’d found some rope in the previous day. He walked over to Bob, keeping Charles in his peripheral vision. He checked for a pulse and felt a wave of relief wash over him. He then rolled Bob onto his stomach and tied his hands behind his back.
“His feet too. I don’t want that fucker running away if he comes to. And yes, we’re going to see if you’re fucking liars,” Vinny said.
Danny did as he was told and then led them across the dam. Passing the control room, they could already smell the aroma of scorched human flesh. Entering the generator room, Charles coughed and choked, and Vinny pulled his shirt up over his nose. The blackened remains of Dave were melted to the metal casing, and a large pool of fluids was slowly expanding outward.
“Fuck me sideways with football. He tripped, you said?” Vinny asked Danny.
“Yea, he started dancing a jig, did a pirouette, and lost his balance,” Danny explained.
“A pirouette? Are you fucking shitting me right now? And y’all call me gay.”
“Well, Vinny, you are the one that likes to have sex with men,” Charles interjected.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Vinny retorted.
“Nothing. I was just stating a fact in response to your statement.”
“Fuck off, Charles. What are we going to do about this? Do we let it go? Or are we going to tell GM that these fucking shit-for-brains got Dave electrocuted?”
“Well, you know GM wants to put on a show. So, I say we let him put on a show.”
Alex Nicolato walked into Harvey’s office to find him sitting there looking at a map of the United States and with the mic to his ham radio in hand. Harvey looked up immediately, fearing the worst, but he was relieved to see Alex.
“What’s up, Alex? It’s not like you to just stop by.”
“Hey, Harvey. Um, yea. Do you know where Olivia went? We haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Olivia?” Harvey asked with a furrowed brow and a scrunched-up nose.
“That’s right. I asked Abe since he was here earlier, but he hadn’t seen her either.”
“Huh, that’s weird. No, I have no idea. I’ll let the rest of the guys know to be on the lookout though.”
“Thanks. I’ll stop back by in a little while to see if you’ve heard anything.”
“Yea, sure. No problem.”
Alex turned to walked out, but Harvey stopped him.
“Hey, Alex.”
“Yea?”
“I’m not sure how to tell you this, so I’m just going to come right out and say it. GM was also here today. I don’t know if that has any bearing on Olivia’s disappearance, but it’s worth considering. I gotta tell you, man, now is not the time to start some shit with him though. It might be best if you let it go for a day.”
“What the fuck, man? Just let it go? You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“Unfortunately, I’m not. You don’t understand how dangerous GM can be. Hopefully, the RV people will be here tomorrow, and then we will find her.”
“Whatever you say, man,” Alex said as he walked out. He was done with that conversation. He immediately drove back over to where Abe was last seen.
“He said to just let it go?” Abe asked incredulously.
“Yea. Can you fucking believe that shit, man?”
“No fucking way. I say we go over to GM’s and ask him. He can’t get pissed if we just ask him if he has seen her, right?”
“I agree, but what if she is there? Then what?”
“Then we do what we have to do.”
“You mean, like, kill him?” Alex got a real serious look on his face. “I was amazed at how fast everyone who wasn’t prepared died. It’s like the wrath of God struck them down. It was totally banana pants. So, that means this GM fella has some fight in him. We need to be prepared for a fight ourselves.”
“True, so what do you propose?”
“I don’t know. Fuck it. Let’s go find out.”
“I’m game. Let me make sure the rest of my crew knows where we’re going.”
After a short chitchat with his team, Abe got in Alex’s car. Alex got his newly acquired Audi A7 up to 120 miles per hour down Rimrock Road. He was wide-eyed and smiling like a kid in a candy store.
“Dude, this is so awesome! No cops, no people, no red lights.”
“I get it, man, but I still want to get there alive. After we talk to GM, let’s get on the freeway and see what this thing can really do.”
“It’s a deal. I’ll even let you drive a little.”
A few minutes later, they arrived at the house on Masters Boulevard. Alex parked the car facing away from the house so they could make a quick getaway if needed.
Alex knocked on the door, and Abe stood a few feet back, holding his AR-15. He was ready to use it if he needed to. The same young blonde girl who’d had door duties in Campbellsville opened the door for Alex.
“GM is busy right now and is not seeing visitors.” She closed the door abruptly.
“What the fuck?” Alex said over his shoulder to Abe.
“Fuck if
I know.”
Alex knocked again, and when the door opened, he started talking immediately.
“Listen, we just need to ask him a quick question. It will literally take less than a minute of his time.”
The girl looked up from her feet for the first time. Her eyes locked with Alex’s. There was a pause as Alex saw the dark circles under her eyes. They were filled with fear, and behind them, he could sense that she had very little will to live left.
“If you want to live, you will leave right now. Trust me, he will kill you and rape your corpse if I bring him down here. Then he will do the same to me for interrupting him. Now, leave.”
The door closed again.
“Jesus Christ, that is the creepiest shit I’ve ever heard.”
“Yea, I say we go, dude. Let’s talk about this in the car. The hair on the back of my neck just stood up. This is a bad place.”
“Fuck. I need to know if Olivia is the reason he’s ‘busy,’” Alex said, using finger quotes.
“I get it, dude. Let’s talk in the car.”
“Fucking shit. Assholes. Goddamnit, dude, fine. Let’s go.”
As they pulled away from the curb, a truck came flying down a side street, and it stopped in front of them, blocking the road. Alex and Abe sat there, trying to be calm. Alex saw movement in the rearview, and his eyes flashed up to see what it was. Another truck had them boxed in. Two guys got out of the truck in front of them and walked to either side of the car. Alex rolled down his window to talk to the guy on his side.
“What are you doing here? You don’t belong here.”
“We were just going to ask GM a question. No biggie. We were just leaving.”
“I don’t think so,” said the man at Alex’s window. “Nobody interrupts GM during his personal time. So, now you’re going to come with us until he has time to talk to you.”
Three guys came walking up from the truck behind them with M4s pointed at the men in the car. Alex looked over at Abe, and Abe just shrugged.
“Fuck, man, I’m not going to let these assholes drive my car.”
“Dude, I don’t think you have a choice. It’s that or we die now.”
Chapter 5. Denver.
Beginning of the New Beginning Vol 3 Page 6