The sound was coming up faster now and he knew there was no way he could out run it. The siren now shrieked all around him, filling his head with a thousand knives. He put his hands to the side of his head. He felt his eardrums explode and warm blood started to flow through his hands and down his cheeks.
The siren was almost on him, about to hit him like a freight train. Just when it was about to collide, he turned around to face it head on and let out a scream when…
Pound, pound, pound.
The knocking was harder this time. Ancil got up and went over to the door, placing his hand on the bolt lock but not opening it yet.
“Who is it?” he asked through the door.
“Grandpa, it’s me.” Ancil recognized Harley’s voice and opened the door to let him in. Harley looked like he’d been crying. His eyes were red and his cheeks were puffy.
“Harley, what is it? What are you doing here?”
Harley wrapped his arms around Ancil and buried his face into his stomach. “I don’t want to go,” he cried. His voice was muffled against Ancil’s waist but he could tell Harley was crying again. “I don’t want to go to that place with them. I want to stay here with you.”
“It’s okay, you’re safe here. No one’s going to come for you.” Ancil closed the door, making sure to lock it as well. He brought Harley over to the couch and sat him down. The front of Ancil’s shirt was damp with tears. Harley wiped at his face and sniffed. “Just calm down and relax.”
Ancil went into the kitchen and got a Coke from the refrigerator. He popped the top and gave it to Harley who drank half of it in one gulp and belched his satisfaction. “Better?” Harley nodded his head. The cold drink helped to take the redness out of his face.
“Do your parents know you’re here?”
Harley shook his head. “I didn’t tell them where I was going. I didn’t say anything, I just ran out. They probably don’t even know that I’m gone yet.”
“What happened?”
“I heard Mom and Dad in the kitchen. They were fighting.”
“About what?”
“It was about the place. Mom said she didn’t think it was a good idea, but Dad was saying how it’s going to be important and a good thing for everyone. There are people who are supposed to be coming to the house to pick us up. Mom said she wasn’t ready to leave, that it was happening too fast. Dad started to yell and bang the table. He said his job could be at stake if we didn’t go. When I heard Mom crying I ran out the house. I don’t want to leave, Grandpa.”
Ancil put his arm around his grandson and held him close. “You’re not going anywhere. I promise you that. And your mom’s not going anywhere either. I’ll bring her here if I need to.”
“What about Dad?”
Ancil thought about how to answer him. “Your father has become blinded, Harley. I fear he’s too far along this path to come back now. He has his mind set and I don’t think he’s going to change it.”
He could see the sadness in Harley’s eyes when he said it. It was a look of hopelessness. Ancil knew what the boy was going through, but lying to him to spare his feelings wouldn’t do him any good. He needed to hear the truth of everything, both beautiful and ugly.
“Are you hungry?” Ancil asked.
“Yeah, a little.”
“Okay, sit tight. I’ll see if I have anything in the fridge.” He got up and went to the kitchen. He took out some containers from the refrigerator, leftovers from the past week and put them out on the table.
Ancil thought about what he should do. He knew when Daniel realized Harley was gone he would come looking for him here. He might even bring the cops with him. He had to get Harley to a safer place and he didn’t have much time.
He picked up the phone and dialed the only person he trusted. After two rings Lee picked up.
“Hello.”
“Lee, it’s Ancil. Are you busy?”
“Well, hello to you too.”
“I don’t have a lot of time, Lee. This is important.”
“What is it?” The levity left Lee’s voice and he was all business now.
“I have my grandson here. There may be people coming for him and I need him in a safe place.”
“Who might be coming?”
“His father for one. Probably the police too. They consider me a person of interest now.”
“This have to do with you know what?”
“Yes.”
“Then whatever you need from me you got. Tell me what you want me to do.” Ancil could always count on Lee, Ruth too for that matter. They’ve been through a lot together, Lee and him. They served together in the Mid-east conflict. That’s where they met. Lee was hit by mortar fire and Ancil dragged him to safety, himself wounded as well. They both earned purple hearts and merits of bravery for that fire fight.
“I need you to take Harley for a bit. They’ll be looking for him and it’s too obvious this would be the first place they’ll look,” Ancil said.
“Sure thing,” Lee said. “When are you coming over?”
“As soon as I can. I just need to get some things together for Harley. I could probably be by in a half hour.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
“Thanks again for this Lee. I appreciate everything you’re doing.”
“Are you kidding? You don’t have to ask twice and Ruth will be ecstatic to have Harley here. She absolutely adores him.”
Ancil paused for a moment, thinking of how to ask his next question.
“There is one more thing I may need you to do for me, Lee.”
“Sure, anything,” he said without hesitation.
“I have some personal documents stored away in a lock box under the floorboards of my room. Legal papers and a will. If anything should happen to me I’ll need you to come in and get that box and see to it that everything is processed. It concerns Harley. Can you do that?”
“Of course. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks, Lee. I’ll see you in a bit.” With that Ancil hung up the phone. He hovered over the counter for a moment then opened the drawer and pulled out a knife. He hid the knife in the side of his military combat boot and went back in the living room, forgetting all about the food out on the table.
Harley was asleep on the couch. Ancil didn’t want to disturb him but he had to.
“Harley, wake up,” he said, nudging him lightly. Harley responded with a low groan a child makes in the morning when he doesn’t want to get up for school. “Harley, you have to get up. We’re going to Lee and Ruth’s.”
Harley turned over. “Why?”
“It will be safer there.”
“You’re coming too?”
“I’ll take you there but then I’ll have to come back.”
Harley’s lip began to quiver. “No, I don’t want to go there.”
“Harley, you have to do this. It’s the only way. If you stay here, they’ll find you. It won’t be for long.”
“No, please.” Harley’s whining angered Ancil more than anything. He taught him better than that.
“Enough,” he ordered. The tone of Ancil’s voice made Harley flinch back. “I didn’t teach you to be a whiner, did I?” Harley shook his head. “All our outings together and hunting trips and lessons were so you would be prepared for this day. Now are you going to act like a child and whimper or will you be the man I taught you to be?”
Harley straightened up on the couch and looked Ancil in the eyes. “I’ll be the man.”
“Good boy. Now, I need you to listen to me very carefully. If anything happens and you need to get to Lee’s on your own all you have to do is go east until you reach to the Black Rock stream, then you turn right. He’s right down that road. Do you understand?” Harley nodded. “Good. Come on, we don’t have much time. I suspect right now there could be people coming here.”
“I need to go to the bathroom first.”
“Make it fast.”
Harley ran off to the bathroom. When Ancil heard the door shu
t he hurried to his room and took his shotgun from the closet. He checked the barrel and grabbed an extra box of shot from a drawer. He wanted to get the car started and ready to leave once Harley got out. That’s when he heard the sirens in the distance.
He went to the window and stuck his head out. The sirens were low but unmistakable. There was a slight rumble under the sirens, like a fleet of cars moving along with it. It was growing with intensity every second and it was heading right toward him.
Chapter 14
The men sat with their gear on as the truck rode along on its predetermined course. They were silent, their eyes cast down looking at their feet, thinking private thoughts.
The truck was guided by GPS and powered by the road it was riding on, much like a trolley car. The road was made of hundreds of individual segments that locked together, which allowed for easy replacement and repair. It moved the truck through magnetic force, each segment pushing it one after the other. This was possible only in the City Centre and the immediate surrounding areas. The outskirts hadn’t been upgraded yet. When the truck reached those areas it would switch over to the reserve battery power instead.
Bruce was sitting next to Maxon in the front of the control cab, watching as the illuminated road moved past them. The control cab is where the first and second in command sit. Despite Maxon’s protests, Bruce was still the second most senior member of the crew, so he warranted a spot next to him in the cab and Bruce made sure he sat there.
Bruce had been suspiciously cooperative with Maxon since the incident in the common room. He didn’t answer back when given orders and even accepted Maxon’s request that he stay outside the house and act as watch during the proceedings, a position that Bruce would normally never take on. A watch post meant no storming into the house with weapons out, no man-handling occupants, no door or window breaking. Essentially, for Bruce, it meant no fun. Sure, there were occasional instances of civil disturbances outside that needed to be taken care of, sometimes with force, but those hardly happened anymore and the odds of Bruce seeing any outside action in that part of town tonight was slim to none anyway. Maxon was fairly confident of that.
They sat in silence for a bit and then Bruce spoke up. “Nice night, isn’t it?”
Maxon wasn’t in the mood for small talk, but he went along, if only to keep Bruce on his good side. “It is.”
“Good night to be out,” Bruce mused. He had a far off dreamy look in his eyes, like he was remembering some luxurious memory. “Not like my first night on a wreck. Did I ever tell you about that?”
Maxon shook his head. Their conversations together never got deep into past histories and Maxon never was inclined to inquire. Everything he needed to know about Bruce was from reviewing his performance record and that was enough.
Bruce continued: “I remember it was freezing, middle of winter. My suit’s heating device malfunctioned and I was shaking the whole ride there. I was only eighteen, and scared out of my mind. You know all the things they tell you in training, what to expect, all the worst case scenarios. I didn’t know if we were going to get there and a group of angry people would attack us, you know?”
Maxon nodded his head to indicate he did. He stared ahead into the night.
“So the whole time I’m just thinking to myself there’s a good chance I may not make it back. When we got there though it was quiet. Dead quiet. No mob, no angry homeowners, not even a barking dog. It was eerie. When we went in the house the couple, a man and woman, was just sitting there on the couch watching TV, like nothing was happening. They didn’t even turn their heads to look at us.” He scratched at the stubble on his chin. It sounded like sandpaper under his nails. “The Lead on that wreck was Vacasco I think. When he told them to stand up and leave the house, they didn’t move, just continued to sit there, like they were deaf. Finally, Vacasco had enough. He said if they weren’t going to cooperate we were going to drag them out by their necks. He was always a little hotheaded.”
Maxon saw a smile creep across Bruce’s face, no doubt at the thought of a wild Vacasco dragging an old couple out by the hair and throwing them on the curb like discarded trash. They had never worked together, but Maxon knew of Vacasco’s ways. He was sanctioned several times and eventually had to be removed as Lead Wreck after too many incidents occurred on his watch. What Vacasco never admitted was that he was the cause of all those incidents. He’s been on special assignment ever since.
When Maxon became Lead, a few of Vacasco’s guys were assigned under him and he heard all the stories. He wasn’t surprised to hear that Bruce was Vacasco’s protégé, someone he wanted to groom in his image.
“So they still didn’t move,” Bruce said. “Vacasco then grabs the guy by his shirt and hauls him up off the chair and down on the floor. The woman, now we have her attention mind you, gets up and starts screaming. One of the others grabbed her. Vacasco then gives the wife a choice; should he break her husband’s arm or leg. If she doesn’t choose, he’s going to break his neck.”
Bruce held up his forefinger to Maxon to emphasize his next point. “Now remember, this is my very first wreck and I never got any training on what to do when your lead tells a wife to decide which appendage he should break on her husband. So this is all new to me and I’m just trying not to look like a dumb rook, but you know what the funny part was. No one seemed to care that this was going on. They all acted like this was normal procedure. You see I was the only rookie on Vacasco’s crew that day, so for all of them it was normal. And you know what?”
“What?” Maxon said. Bruce looked him in the eyes before answering.
“For me, it felt normal too. That’s when I knew I was born to do this.”
That sent a chill down Maxon’s spine. He always knew Bruce was a trouble maker and bully, but he never thought that he could be borderline psychopathic. How was this not picked up during the mental examination or did his connections help cover up the results of the exam, if there was even an exam at all? It made Maxon question the entire system if someone like this could get through the ranks.
He didn’t want to engage Bruce anymore in this, but he went ahead and asked his question anyway. “What happened to the husband?”
Bruce began to chuckle to himself. “The woman just pleaded with Vacasco to stop. He must have felt pity on her because he just ended up dislocating the man’s shoulder and we dragged them both out and went to work. He always said to make sure they knew you were in charge. It’s not wrong, is it? It’s just that some people need a little more pushing than others. But in the end, they all comply, don’t they?”
Maxon knew that to be true. Compliance wasn’t an option, it was compulsory and sometimes they did have to get physical, but it wasn’t something he enjoyed. It was his job and an aspect of his job he hated. The Director position was something he desired, even though he never admitted as much to Erica. It meant he wouldn’t have to go out anymore and could make decisions sitting behind a desk instead of covered in gear.
It also meant his position within the department would be solidified. He would be deemed essential to all operations, something that would make Erica very happy. His conversation with her earlier in the night was still on his mind. It worried him how the Council would react to the unplanned pregnancy and how it could affect his standing with them. A part of him hoped that a complication would be discovered early on. It was heartless, he knew, and Erica would be crushed, but he didn’t see any other way.
The truck was making its way through the outskirts now. The roads weren’t new here and there was meager illumination to see their way, so the truck’s high beams were turned on. Bruce had lowered himself into his seat and appeared to be drowsing.
The onboard navigation system showed that they were five minutes from their destination. It was 11:55. They would be right on time, as always. He nudged Bruce awake on the shoulder. Bruce looked up and out the window into near darkness.
“We there?”
“Nearly. Another few minutes.�
� Maxon got on the intercom and spoke to the crew in back. “We’ll be commencing in exactly four minutes. Begin to prepare yourselves.”
There was stirring from behind them as the crew began to fix up their suits and arrange their gear. Bruce was also getting himself ready. He was fully alert now and seemed to be anxious with anticipation.
“I always get excited right before we’re ready to disembark,” he said. “It’s like a rush of adrenaline. You get that?”
“No, not really.” In fact, Maxon would describe what he felt to be more like trepidation. Right before he disembarked a knot would form in his stomach and he felt like he had to evacuate his bowels. One time the pain was so strong he almost did.
“That’s too bad,” Lennox said. “A good shot of adrenaline keeps us on our toes, ready for anything. It must be like how a lion feels right before it makes its kill.”
The image of a den of lions tearing into the flesh of an antelope popped into Maxon’s head. It wasn’t one that put him at ease.
The navigation system beeped twice and began to flash on the mapped screen, indicating their destination was approaching. They were a block away from it. Maxon had never been this far out before at night. During the day it seemed desolate and quiet, but at night it took on an even eerier feeling, like you were alone in the world. Most of the houses in this sector were either already abandoned or earmarked for wrecking, so there were very few people inhabiting this sector. The heavy knot in the pit of Maxon’s stomach began to say hello.
They were now only a few yards away and Maxon could see the house they needed to wreck. It was darkened but he still recognized it from the report photos and specs he had studied earlier.
“That’s it?” Bruce said with a tone of disappointment, clearly hoping for a larger house for him to destroy. “It doesn’t even look like anyone lives there.”
The house was what can be described by current standards as dilapidated. Maxon was surprised it was able to stand this long. Seeing the place dark gave him a swell of encouragement. Maybe the owners decided to up and leave before the truck arrived. Perhaps this was going to be a quick and easy night after all. This hopeful notion was just starting to lay seeds in his head when he saw something move on the porch. No, not something, someone.
The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) Page 8