by D. Gideon
“Oookay,” Todd said, giving me an apologetic glance.
“This is stupid,” I said. “It’s not about safety. You’re just doing this to punish us.”
Perkins shrugged. “Safety, punishment…either way it keeps you from slipping off.”
“Chill, Rip. I’ll take care of it,” Todd said. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
The meals-ready-to-eat that he brought back were edible, but just barely. I couldn’t help but wonder if Mel had anything to eat in that massive purse of hers. If she’d shown up at the door telling Perkins she was tired of hiding and he could stick his “mission” where the sun didn’t shine, it wouldn’t have surprised me a bit.
Perkins had been spending more and more time out of the room. Barnes stayed in there with us, wandering to the window to watch the people on the campus grounds and then wandering back to the door. It was too close to pacing, and it was getting on my nerves.
“It’s just friggin’ creepy,” he finally muttered while staring out the window. The sun had gone down, and the sky was lit with reds, blues, and greens again.
“The people outside, or the sky?” Corey asked.
“The sky,” Barnes said. “I’ve seen photographs of the Northern Lights and thought they were beautiful, but night after night like this? It’s starting to feel like the twilight zone.”
“It’s just going to get worse,” I said. “That feeling, not the sky. Wait until people start freaking out.”
Barnes gave a soft snort. “From what I hear, they’re already freaking out. Captain wouldn’t let any of us go home last night because he was worried about raids on the campus. I bunked up on a couch in our reception area.”
“Not good,” Marco said. He pointed to the piles on Mel’s bed. “You realize we need that stuff to get home, right? Someone cut open our gas tank. We’ve got to walk.”
Barnes looked at the piles for a moment and shook his head. “I hear you, man. I do. But Hinkley’s like a pit bull. He gets his jaws locked onto something and he doesn’t let go. He keeps trying for that promotion.”
“That’s not good enough,” Marco said. “We could be talking life or death here. If things out there are as bad as we think it will be, we could die without that stuff. If Hinkley puts us in a cage and society falls down, we could die. If we leave campus too late, we…could…die.”
He stood up and picked up Corey’s shovel. “This is the only thing close to a weapon that we’ve got, Officer. We’re not allowed to have anything to defend ourselves with on campus, and people out there have knives, bats, and guns. We need this.” He dropped the shovel and picked up the ICOE booklets. “These maps tell us how to get home, show us which backroads we can take when the highways are too dangerous. We need them.” He dropped the booklets and waved a hand over his things. “My components here? I might be able to get in touch with someone at Ripley’s home via radio. I might be able to call for help if we get into a bad situation. Those are computers that run on very little power. I can pull up thousands of manuals and books on anything and everything related to survival. Hell man, I’ve got the entire contents of Wikipedia downloaded on a USB drive. The entire site. If this power outage lasts as long as we think it will, we are going to need that information. And you’re the only person that can make sure we keep it.”
Corey and I stayed quiet, watching the exchange hopefully. I was surprised that Marco had such a grasp on the situation, and it made me re-think his choice to dump clothes in favor of his computer stuff. If Barnes could get Hinkley to drop this-
Barnes sighed. “I can’t help you, man. I’m sorry, but I can’t. I have to think about my career, too.”
“What career?” I said. “Haven’t you listened to anything we’ve said today? Your career is done. Life as you know it is done.”
Perkins stepped back into the room. “Don’t be melodramatic, Miss Miller,” he said, gesturing for Marco to take a seat again. “Let the Officer do his job.”
I opened my mouth to snap something at him, but a young man in a National Guardsman’s uniform knocked on the open door and spoke.
“Agent Perkins, sir? I have a message from Major Brooks.”
Perkins turned to face him. “Go on.”
“The Major says to tell you that his men will be finished securing their assets soon, and they’ll be pulling out at twenty-two-hundred hours. You should…uhh-“ he stumbled here, as if looking for the right words. “He said it would be prudent if you left by then.”
Perkins smiled. “Nice try, son. Give me his exact words. No need to sugar-coat it.”
The Guardsman swallowed and cast his eyes around the room. “He uhh…his exact words were tell that fucking suit that if he wants that pretty bird of his to stay intact, he’ll get his prissy ass in the air before we let the zombies in. Sir.” The soldier blushed and stared at a point on the wall somewhere over Perkins’ head.
Perkins nodded. “Tell Major Brooks that his message was received, and that I appreciate the heads-up.”
“Yes sir,” the soldier said, spinning around.
“Oh, and soldier-“ Perkins said. The soldier spun again. “Tell Major Brooks that I’ll be seeing him at our secure location, so anytime he wants to meet my prissy ass on the indoor range so I can show him what real marksmanship looks like, just let me know.”
The soldier’s eyes bugged. He swallowed hard, and nodded. “I’ll tell him, sir.” He was out the door before Perkins could add anything else.
I did a quick mental calculation; twenty-two-hundred hours was ten o’ clock. Less than an hour away.
“What does he mean, intact?” Corey asked.
Perkins cast a look towards the window. “When they pull out, the guards at the entrance to campus won’t be holding back the local population anymore. This peaceful campus won’t be so peaceful.”
Motioning for Barnes to come with him, Perkins walked out into the hall. They talked in low voices for a moment, and Barnes nodded, came back in and took two of Mel’s suitcases, and left. Then Perkins turned and looked at me.
“Miss Miller, a word with you, please?” Without waiting for a reply, he stepped further into the hall and disappeared from view.
I stood and glanced around. Corey pointed to our things on Mel’s pillow and made the motions of stuffing them into a bag. I nodded and started for the door. Marco grabbed my wrist.
“Careful, Rip. Watch what you say,” he said in nearly a whisper. “He’s trained to get information, and he’s short on time. He’s dangerous right now.”
I nodded again, and went to see what the Secret Service agent’s last-ditch effort would be.
“Please sit, Miss Miller.”
I had followed Perkins down the hall to the floor’s study room. On two of the tables, large flashlights were standing on their ends, beaming light at the ceiling. It had the effect of casting soft light around the room. Perkins pulled out a chair and motioned for me to do the same.
“No thanks, I’ll stand. You’ve had me sitting all day like some criminal,” I said. I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms.
Perkins shook his head and sighed. “I’m not your enemy, Miss Miller. I’ve had the exact same day that you have, for the exact same reasons. Please, at least step inside and shut the door. This conversation needs to be private.”
Confused, I did as he asked. He pushed the chair out of the way and sat on the table, one leg touching the floor. He shocked me then, reaching into his jacket and taking out a pack of cigarettes. He lit one, took a long drag, and then sighed in obvious pleasure.
“Not my brand, but after this day, it’ll do,” he said.
“There’s no smoking on campus,” I started, but he chuckled.
“And who’s going to stop me, Miss Miller?” He waved a hand at the sprinklers set into the ceiling. “Those aren’t working anymore. Most of the campus staff is gone. Hell, most of the campus police force is gone. Didn’t show up for work yesterday or today. Did Barnes tell you that?”
Perkins took another drag and set the cigarette pack down onto the table. “Do you know what Melanie said to me when she called from your home on Christmas Day?”
“I thought she talked to her parents,” I said.
Perkins snorted. “Her parents were too busy having a dinner party to take her call. So she talked to me,” he said. “She told me that she had finally found her real family, and that if she had her way, she would never come home.”
I blinked. I knew that Mel was very comfortable around my parents, and had absolutely fallen in love with Grams. I knew she had been sending Grams little gifts each month. One time it was short, vibrant red hair extensions that Grams now wore any time she wanted to “put her face on”, as she called getting made-up. Another time it was classy sparkling earrings that I suspected were diamonds, but they’d been in a small blue velvet bag with no markings. There had been a beautiful hand-painted scarf from India, and another time it was three pairs of brand-new jeans in Grams’ size.
She knew better than to send me some fancy dress, Grams had chuckled.
I knew Mel called my parents now and again, and called Grams at least once a week.
But I had no idea that she’d called us her family the first time she’d come home with me.
“By your silence, I’ll assume you didn’t know that,” Perkins said. “And I’ll guess that when I told you today that I’ve seen Melanie grow up, you didn’t know that, either. I know how she feels about her parents, Jennifer, and I don’t blame her for it one bit. They don’t deserve her.”
I walked across the room to the table next to his and leaned against it.
“But, it’s my job to keep the Speaker of the House and her family safe, and when the Speaker of the House gives me a direct order from the President to go get her daughter and bring her to safety, no matter how much she’ll hate it, that’s what I have to do.”
“I don’t know where Melanie is,” I said. “I expected her back hours ago. Maybe she found a ride to the airport with someone else. Have you checked there?”
Perkins shook his head and looked down to his lap. When he looked back up, he was smiling.
“You’re stubborn, I’ll give you that,” he said. “And loyal. Loyalty’s good.”
I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. “Can’t tell you what I don’t know,” I said.
Perkins took another drag off of his cigarette and stood up. “I brought you here to let you in on a few things, Miss Miller. Not to make you lie some more.”
“I’m not-“ I started, but he held up a hand to silence me.
“I know where you live. My entire team knows where you live,” he said. “I’ve got copies of everything you printed out at the library in file folders in my office, which my staff already packed up and transferred to our secure location. So I know the route you’re planning on taking home, and with those papers in my hand, I can make educated guesses about which alternate routes you’re likely to take when you run into trouble. From our secure location, I can be anywhere you are within a matter of hours, if the Speaker orders me to do that.” He had paced away, but turned now and gave me a serious look.
“Are you hearing me?” He asked.
I thought about it for a minute, brows furrowed. I thought he had brought me in here to threaten me, but this didn’t seem like posturing, or threats. This seemed like-
“You’re warning me,” I said, realization dawning.
Perkins pointed at me with the two fingers that were holding his cigarette.
“It’s possible that the Speaker will be far too busy to make a second attempt to secure her daughter. It’s possible the President won’t allow it. It’s possible the Speaker will think Melanie is just rebelling again and she needs some time to learn that her mother is always right.”
He leaned one hand on the wall, lifted his foot, and stubbed out his cigarette on the sole of his shoe. He tested the burnt end of the stub with his finger and then tucked it into his pants pocket.
“But it’s also possible that the Speaker will immediately demand that I get back on that helicopter and find her daughter, no matter how long it takes,” he said. “And then I’ll be at your house a few hours later, I’ll have a lot of men with guns with me, and I won’t be able to leave until she’s found. No making excuses that I had to leave because the Guard was pulling out and we weren’t prepared to hold off rioters.”
The way he stressed the word was unmistakable. “You mean to tell me we’ve been sitting in this oven all day, instead of getting the hell out of dodge, because of a ruse? That you were just pretending to look for Mel?”
Perkins held up a finger. “I didn’t say that.”
“But you said-“
“Miss Miller, I am short on patience, and even shorter on time. Answer me honestly: do you have any weapons?”
I shook my head. “No weapons allowed on campus.”
“Get some as soon as you can. Give them to Mr. Vicente. He’ll know what to do with them. I know you know how to shoot a rifle,” he said, seeing my mouth open and hurrying to cut me off. “I know your father has taken you to Appleseed shoots, and I know you’ve got your Rifleman patch from them. I also know you’ve never had to shoot at a living person.”
“And Marco has?” I said, disbelief in my voice.
“That’s not my story to tell. Just trust me on this. If you find a weapon, give it to Vicente.”
He walked towards the door, looking at his watch. “I’ll make sure Officer Hinkley’s busy right up until the moment my helicopter takes off. That should give you some time. It looks like you’re good on everything but weapons. I was surprised I didn’t have to sneak anything into your packs.” He gave me that smile again. “Oh, and the next time you’re hiding things, don’t be so obvious about it. Every time I walked into the room, that pile had gotten smaller. I can’t tell if Barnes noticed or not, but it was sloppy.”
I goggled at him, too afraid to say anything. We thought we were getting one over on him, and he’d noticed every bit of it. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious, or if he was playing some kind of game to get me to admit I knew where Mel was.
“I love that girl. You tell her that. She’s like the daughter my job never let me have. You tell her I’d do anything to keep her safe and happy, but if I had to pick one, it would be happy every time.” He pointed at me again. “You tell her that.”
I nodded slowly. He studied me for a minute, then gave his own short nod. He motioned to the cigarette pack, still sitting on the table across from me. I leaned over and picked them up.
They were Mel’s brand. Tucked into the cellophane was one of Perkins’ business cards stating his office and cellphone numbers. Across the bottom, written in ink, was a strange combination of letters and numbers, like the address Josh had left on my arm. In the corner there was a doodle of a little smiling creature that he’d drawn.
He opened the door and scanned the hall, then turned back to me.
“One last thing, Miss Miller,” he said. I looked up.
“Make sure you have a towel handy. It would be a shame to go through all of this trouble just to have Melanie come down with pneumonia from sitting in that water.”
He gave me a wink, stepped into the hall, and left me standing there with my mouth hanging open.
CHAPTER 19
Sunday, September 2nd
College Park, Maryland
When I gathered my wits enough to go back to my room, the chair Hinkley had been sitting in was empty and Mel’s third suitcase was gone. There were no officers or guards outside of the door. I stepped in to find Corey and Marco sitting on Mel’s bed with stunned looks, our bags stuffed full and zipped tight.
“What the hell just happened?” Corey asked.
“What do you mean?” I said, walking over to the window and looking out onto the campus. There was Perkins, eating distance with his long stride. Both Barnes and Hinkley were with him, hurrying to kee
p up while dragging the suitcases. Behind them, two more men in dark suits walked quickly, their heads turning as they scanned the campus. The group was headed towards the football stadium.
“Agent Perkins just stuck his head in and said you make sure you keep those girls safe, and then he left,” Marco said.
I walked to my closet and opened it, pulling out a thick towel from one of the shelves. “He said that to you guys?”
“It was more like he said it to Marco,” Corey said. “It seemed like he was pointing at Marco, at least.”
I looked at Marco, who was frowning.
“How’d you know what my ICOE booklets were?” I asked him.
“You were looking at one when I walked in earlier. I saw a map,” Marco said. When I didn’t respond, he cocked his head. “I haven’t been going through your stuff, Ripley. I’ve joked about it, but you know I wouldn’t do that.”
I walked back to the desk and stuffed the towel into one of the five-gallon buckets we’d emptied. I turned and pulled the wool blanket off of my bed, and stuffed that into the bucket as well. Then I hefted my pack and started slinging it over my shoulders. Taking my cue, the guys stood and started putting on their own packs.
“Perkins said he’d keep Hinkley busy right up to the minute his helicopter took off, and that it would give us some time,” I said. “He also told me to make sure to take a towel when I go get Mel. He knew where she was the entire time.”
“You’re kidding me,” Corey said, buckling his strap around his waist and picking up Mel’s pack. He lifted her laptop bag by the strap and passed it to Marco. “Then why the hell were we sitting here all day?”
“To make his story believable,” I said. “Turns out he wants Mel to come with us, because he knows that with us, at least she’ll be happy.” I picked up the collapsible bucket, not even half-full with water now. I could dump it in a bathroom on the way out. In my other hand, I grabbed the five-gallon bucket with the towel and blanket. Perkins’ cigarette pack was in my back pocket.