by Connor Mccoy
Kovacs tapped the side of his face near his right eye. “It’s movement that catches the eye. Without it, you have to separate the man from the background environment. Some people don’t do that until it’s too late.”
“Kind of like a game of ‘Where’s Waldo?’” Nadia remarked.
The former policewoman was keeping watch while Lauren and Kovacs dug with their spades under the wire mesh. Their search for a place to dig under the fence stretched into the next day. The trio had made camp some distance away and then returned early this morning. They had picked out a spot where the mesh met a large tree and was partially separated from it and the ground. This made it the best spot to dig underneath to fully separate the mesh from the ground.
But that was only half of it. Nadia had dug through her pack and found she had brought along a pair of wire cutters she discovered in the fishing store. It was just enough to cut through parts of the mesh. If their plan worked as they hoped, they would be able to cut a big enough passage to let the prisoners file through quickly.
Kovacs let out a long breath. “Okay. We should get started on the fence.” Beside him, Lauren held up the wire cutters. “Be careful. If we break the wire cutters, we will have to dig a bigger hole to get under the fence. We don’t want to waste time.”
Lauren slid the wire cutters under the bottom wire. She pushed in. The first push wasn’t enough. She backed the tool out, then pushed up again. The second time did the job.
“I’m getting it, but this is going to take time,” Lauren said.
Nadia looked up. An owl’s hooting drew her attention. “I tell you, Kovacs, there must be an owl practicing your stealth techniques, because I keep hearing him, but I don’t see him.”
“He’s very high up in the trees.” Kovacs arose. “I need to visit the men’s room for a moment. When I come back, I will take over watch.” He stepped past Nadia, heading off into the woods.
Of course, Kovacs knew the real source of that hooting, and it wasn’t an owl. After a couple of minutes, he was standing in front of a much different animal—a man. Stark, to be precise.
“You don’t look like you were expecting me.” Stark cocked his head as he leaned against a slender tree.
“Could have been you or Garcia,” Kovacs said quietly, “Of course, your howling is much better than his. You would attract the female owls, no?” He laughed.
Stark frowned. “Stow the bad jokes, okay? I just want to know what your plans are.”
“We are digging our way into the camp, simple as that,” Kovacs replied.
“And then what? You’re going through with freeing the doctor’s friends?” Stark asked.
“I would hope to find Garcia as well and bring him out,” Kovacs said, “What about you? Why not join us?”
“I don’t want any part of them. They don’t trust us and they never will. I don’t know what you think is going to happen after this, but they’re not letting you stay in their town. We killed too many of their people. That’s not something they’ll ever forgive. We’re better off on our own.”
Kovacs looked away, to the tree over Stark’s shoulder. “You may be right. Truthfully, I don’t know what will happen to me.”
“You always did fly by the seat of your pants, Kovacs.” Stark took out a flask from his jacket, unscrewed it, and gulped down some liquid.
Kovacs grinned. “Whiskey?”
“No, water. You know I never drink on the battlefield. I got this back at the camp.” Stark put the flask up. “It was pretty weird, though. I found some wine there, too, quite a lot of it. It wasn’t packed up in branded bottles. It looked homemade.”
“So, you came here looking for a winery?” Kovacs asked with a laugh.
Suddenly, Stark pulled out his pistol and aimed at the trees beyond. “No. I’m going to collect Clark’s skull, and then I’m going to piss in it every day for the rest of my life.” He then lowered his gun. “You didn’t forget the hell he put us through?”
“No.” Kovacs’s jaw clenched. “No, I have not.”
“Then it’s simple. You get through the fence, I go in after you, and we both do what we have to do. If you feel like joining me afterward, that’s your call.” Then Stark turned around.
“I’ll keep an eye out for Clark’s men.” He then slipped behind a tree.
Kovacs heard nothing more. However, he knew he wasn’t alone. He chuckled. “You may come out now,” he said.
Nadia slipped into view from behind a thin tree. Kovacs glanced in her direction. “Like I said, I know stealth. You could use some practice.”
Nadia’s boots crunched on the grass as she approached. “Great. So, I don’t have to beat around the bush asking what the hell that was about?” She stopped and glared at him.
“It is what you saw. Stark did the owl call, I heard it, I come, and we talk.”
Nadia curled her right hand into a ball. “So, you lied.”
“There was always the chance it wasn’t Stark or Garcia. I had to be sure. And besides…” Kovacs unzipped his fly. “I did not lie. I did have to use the restroom.”
“Whoa! Holy shit!” Quickly, Nadia walked around Kovacs until she couldn’t see him do his business.
Kovacs laughed. “I simply left out one piece of information.” The sound of pee hitting dirt followed. “Do not worry, I will tell Lauren all about it when I return.”
Nadia grimaced. “Great.”
“Karen, my God!” Cheryl was so eager to hug Karen that her hands grabbed Karen as she approached and pulled her in an embrace. “I heard what happened!”
“Me? What about you?” Karen held Cheryl tightly, nearly knocking them into one of the diner’s booths. “You’re better? You really beat the bug?”
“I did.” Cheryl rubbed Karen’s back. “A little touch and go, but I’m back. No more quarantine tent for me!”
The two ladies separated. Cheryl and Tom had arrived at the Barks’ diner to meet up with Karen, Jamie Cooper and the new arrivals. They all had gone through the screening procedures Lee had helped set up and each of them passed. However, as the immediate euphoria of the moment started to fade, fresh trouble filled Tom’s mind. He was shocked to see Cooper blinded. He had not heard about the horrible turn the disease had taken with Cooper, though Lauren speculated the blindness might be temporary. In any case, their friend was in good spirits, glad to be home again.
The worst part was hearing Karen, Cooper and Rosa tell their tale. The encounter with Kovacs and Stark visibly troubled Cheryl, although she said nothing after she asked a few initial questions about them. Then the story turned to the captivity of the Eagleton patients and their companions, and of the leader of the captor army, Josh Clark.
By the time Karen and Cooper wrapped up the part about Lauren and Nadia going with Kovacs to track down Tran and the remaining Eagleton patients, Tom Criver had a knot in his stomach. Finally, he rose out of his seat. Suspicions were boiling over. He had to ask one question.
“Rosa, did these goons make you wear a black armband with a red cross on it?”
She shook her head. “No. We just were gathered either in or near that boathouse. I just got the feeling we were being looked at to be taken elsewhere, their headquarters, wherever it is.”
Cheryl grabbed Tom’s arm. “You’re thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That camp we ran into?” Tom nodded. “I bet my balls that it’s Clark’s main headquarters.” Holy shit, he thought. They may have been far luckier than they had thought just to walk out of there.
“But you said the camp’s prisoners wore armbands. Are we sure it’s Clark’s main camp?” Cooper asked.
Tom snapped his fingers. “Cheryl, help me out here. The road we were headed down. It is parallel to the river Karen ran into, right?”
“I think it is. I remember looking at the map. I saw it,” she replied.
That was enough for Tom. Damn, he didn’t know how right he was in smelling a rat.
“Tom,” Cheryl said, her express
ion hardening. “Now we know I was right about Garcia. But for Karen and Lauren to run into Kovacs and Stark? There’s no way in hell that’s a coincidence.”
“But is Garcia helping them or is he a prisoner?” Tom asked, “They just told us that they roughed up all the NATO guys pretty bad. What if we have to rescue him, too?”
“Tom, if you could have seen it.” Karen held out her palm. “Those two men were messed up pretty bad. They were scared to death of Clark’s men.” She sighed.
“You know I’ve got some bad history with that bunch. For a while I thought they deserved what they got. But….” She sighed.
“You did great, Karen.” Tom formed a fist with his right hand. “Now it’s time we take it from here.”
“What will you do?” Cooper asked.
Tom rested a fist on the top of one of the diner’s booths. “That’s what I still have to figure out. The town won’t take any action. We have some sympathizers, but…”
“Hey, Tom!”
Tom turned around. Lee was standing there, along with Jake, Ricardo and a couple of other men. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Lee said.
“Just a happy reunion,” Tom said, “Coming in for a bite?”
“Actually, we came to see you.” Lee and the men stepped forward. More people, men and women, filed through the diner’s front door, until about twenty-four had gathered.
“We have a feeling that you’re about to do something, something pretty big.” Lee smiled. “And we want in.”
Tom swallowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Now come on, Tom. I know when those wheels are turning in your head. There’s no way you’re going to let this go. And personally, I think you’re right. We’re not willing to risk everyone in town, but we’re fine risking just ourselves.” Then he smiled.
“Also, some of us have been noticing two of your boys in trench coats spying on us. Seems they were curious about what we were thinking about your plan.”
“They talked?” Tom asked.
Jake stepped out of the crowd. “My wife had candy.”
Tom laughed. His kids may have done a better job than they knew if they helped whip up a little support. Apparently, he wouldn’t have to go this alone after all, whatever he decided to do.
Tom sat on Michael’s bed in the bedroom that Amir, Rinaldo and Michael shared. Amir finished explaining what he had heard today at the diner. His story was similar to what the other kids had told their father. Amir bounced a soccer ball up and down as he spoke.
“So, probably half and half, huh?” Tom asked.
Amir caught the ball and held it as he answered. “Yeah. I think so. I wrote it down on a piece of paper. Almost half wanted to free the people and the other half didn’t.”
Tom scratched the stubble on his chin. Eagleton was a town divided, no question about it. If it all was true, if the conversations and whispers of the people that the kids picked up on today were right, then many people did want to break those people out of that slave camp, but the trauma of the recent NATO war held them back. The deaths of so many of the town’s men still left voids in the community. Going out there to fight another war surely would invite more losses, and the recent epidemic that stole more lives only cemented the deal—if Tom Criver was going to liberate those people, he was going to have to do it independent of the town’s approval.
Tom held out his hands. “Good job, buddy.”
Amir tossed the ball to him. “You’re going to fight again, aren’t you?”
A pain hit Tom’s gut as he looked at his boy. Yes, he seriously was planning to leave home again so soon, and this time head into a possible war. “It looks like it. But I’m hoping this time we can resolve it without firing a shot.” Then he threw the ball back to Amir.
“Are you fighting more soldiers?” Amir spun the ball around in his hands.
“I don’t think so. I think these guys might just be more survivors, ordinary people like us. Maybe we can talk some sense into them.”
Amir tossed the ball back to his father. “Do you think one day you’ll ever stop fighting?”
The pain in Tom’s gut grew bigger. How could he answer that question? He had been in so many fights since society had collapsed, some of them almost too bizarre to believe, that he barely thought about it ending at all.
“I hope so,” he finally said, tipping the ball back and forth between his hands. “You remember what we talked about when the fighting in town stopped?”
Amir nodded. It was an important talk, and what was said had remained between father and son since. It took place after Amir had gunned down NATO soldiers who were assaulting Tom and his fellow Eagleton citizens. It was gut wrenching to see young Amir use such deadly force, and Tom had had a long, important conversation with his boy about it. That, and many other things. If the time since the war’s end was any indication, Amir had learned and matured from it. He showed very little of the scars from his traumatic past.
“Then you know there’s a time to fight and a time not to.” Tom tried to spin the soccer ball on the tip of his finger, but it fell off after a few seconds. It dropped on the floor and rolled to Amir’s feet.
“The problem is there’s no army, no police, nothing to make things right but us. If we let evil people have their way, sooner or later it’s going to make its way here. That’s the sad story of human history. Tyrants and thugs never are satisfied with just a little. They’ll want to branch out, steal more, and oppress more people.”
Amir picked up the ball. “I know. I saw that back home, back in my town in Syria.”
Tom got up. “But maybe this time, if we win the day and free those people, perhaps things finally will get quiet around here. I’d love to think we can put all this stuff behind us.”
Amir held up the ball, but Tom refused it. “Not this time.” He walked toward the door. “It’s time to get things rolling. We’ll talk later.”
Chapter Fourteen
Tom emerged into the living room, stopping close to Cheryl, who stood near the living room couch. All the kids had been moved out to their rooms. Tom was glad. For one thing, the living room was pretty packed with people. Second, he didn’t want his children to listen as they made their plans.
Many familiar faces were gathered, including Lee, Jake, Ricardo, Obadiah Stone, Karen, Jamie Cooper, and Rosa. In all, about thirty people, all adults, had decided to side with Tom and whatever he planned to do. Tom gave them all his heartfelt thanks for coming before launching into his strategy for dealing with the labor camp.
“I know I’ve got quite the rep around town. One of my daughters says the kids think I’m a superhero.” A few in the gathering chuckled.
“It’s cute stuff, but I hate to break it to everyone, I’m as normal as anybody else in this room.” Tom allowed himself a laugh before getting serious again.
“We live in a real world, and we have to make real world decisions. A lot of our friends and neighbors don’t want to take on this camp because of what we’ve lost already, and I understand that. I’m not planning to raze that place to the ground. We don’t even know for sure who’s behind it, although we think there’s a bad actor who runs it.”
Tom paced past the couch, toward the wall that separated the living room and the kitchen. Several people leaned against the wall. “Think of this as a three-step plan. First, we gather the intel. We learn all we can about it.” Then he stopped in front of Rosa. “I already talked this over with Rosa. She’ll be our eyes and ears.”
Rosa smiled. “As my kids would say, I’ll be the ‘Mama Ninja.’”
Tom laughed. “Well, ninjas did act as spies.”
He turned to everyone. “Once Rosa comes back, we’ll discuss how to approach the camp’s leaders. We’re going to bring along some supplies and goods to trade. We want to show that we don’t mean them any harm.” Slowly, he approached the center of the room, near the circle of couches and chairs. “If it goes to hell, there’s option number thr
ee. We go in, take them down, and free the captives by force.”
He made sure to look into the faces of everyone gathered. He was laying it all out, and he wanted them to know what they were getting into.
Nobody said a word against the plan.
The door to Tom and Cheryl’s bedroom was open a crack. Tom almost passed by it until he spied some movement within. Gently, he pushed open the door. His wife was fully dressed in a pair of camouflage pants and a black shirt with a camo jacket over it. This was all new gear she had picked up during their trading trip to Adelson. Knives of varying lengths were laid out on the bed. Right now, Cheryl was checking out a black pistol. Then she leaned over and picked up a clip. She then nodded and set both back down.
Tom strode in, stopping near the mirror of their dresser. “If you’re going shopping, you should bring the big knives. I hear Thursday’s the deadliest shopping day of the year.”
“Very funny, Tom.” Cheryl’s scowl told Tom that his wife was all business now. The Tom Criver sense of humor wasn’t welcome here.
“So, what’s the deal? You’re not just going to see me off, are you?” Tom asked.
“I’m coming along. Simple as that.” Cheryl picked up a black belt with holsters for her pistol and a few knives. She clasped it around her waist to try it on. Then she unhooked it and put it back on the bed.
Trying to dissuade Cheryl seemed like trying to convince a cougar not to eat you, but Tom had to try. “Cheryl, you’re still getting your strength back. That virus nearly killed you. You can’t be at one hundred percent already.”
Cheryl picked up one of her knives. She clutched it and got into a fighting stance. “Fit as a fiddle,” she said.
“Cheryl, this would be embarrassing even for me. Remember when I clubbed my big toe with that four by four? You know, when I tried running with it? Not exactly my finest moment when I fell over while running with the football.”
Cheryl slashed the air with her knife. At first she pretended not to hear Tom, but then she turned and looked at him. “You know why I have to go.”