We Had Flags (Toxic World Book 3)

by Sean McLachlan

  Roy started protesting, motioning towards the bay, while Joe kept insisting on something. Roy paused then, looking at his feet as if deep in thought. Then he let out a big sigh and nodded. He and Joe passed a few more words together before shaking hands. Then Roy left.

  “Wonder what all that was about,” Yu-jin said.

  “Who knows? Maybe they’re planning on having babies together,” Randy snapped.

  Yu-jin watched as Lashonda started giving Joe a tongue lashing.

  “No, but they’re up to something, and I think it has to do with our visitors.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Doctor rubbed his temples and tried to concentrate as Clyde Devon went through the details of his strategy to repel the Chinese. The Head of the Watch stood over a conference table in what he called his Operations Center as Marcus and a few guard commanders listened.

  “…and then we could pick them off as they swam ashore,” Clyde said, pounding his fist on the table.

  “I’m sorry, what?” The Doctor asked. “Swim?”

  Clyde gave him a worried look and The Doctor immediately regretted zoning out. During the Righteous Horde’s attack he’d overexerted himself and gotten sick, literally falling down on the job at the crucial moment. His inner circle had been tiptoeing around the issue of his health ever since. They all knew he was old and Poz and surviving only because of that medical kit Radio Hope had given him. While this had always been an issue, he’d kept up appearances well enough that people forgot about it most of the time. Their confidence had been shaken by his collapse, though. They didn’t see him as immortal anymore.

  Clyde took a deep breath and said, “I was talking about getting a team to swim out and set a charge to burst their hull.”

  “That would certainly neutralize their cannon,” The Doctor agreed.

  “Neutralize them too,” Clyde said with a grin. “We can pick them off as they swim ashore, assuming anyone can survive in that gunk for more than five minutes.”

  “They haven’t attacked yet, you know. Maybe they don’t mean to,” he objected.

  Marcus rounded on him. “You forget your history, Doc?”

  “Yeah, you heard what they said,” Clyde cut in. “Give us your goods and we’ll leave.”

  “That guy could barely speak English. Perhaps they were talking about trade,” The Doctor said.

  Clyde laughed. “Yeah, right! They’re a wily bunch. They wanted to scare us with that cannon into giving up all our food and tech without a fight. And when we don’t, they’ll sail out of the bay and out to sea right here. They’ll stay out of range of our guns and shell us until we submit. I’m amazed they haven’t done it already.”

  “Probably don’t want to destroy anything valuable,” Marcus said.

  The Doctor rubbed his temples again. He felt a killer headache coming on. No chance of any green relief tonight, though.

  Clyde went on. “Once they figure we’re not going to cave, they’re going to sail out of Toxic Bay and do just that. We won’t be able to set a charge if they do.”

  Marcus turned to Clyde. “How can your men swim out there without getting poisoned by the water?”

  “They’re rigging up a small raft that will hold the charge and keep it dry. They’ll wear gas masks and swim behind it, pushing it along. Their skin will get irritated to shit and they’ll all probably lose a few years off their life, but I have more volunteers than I need. We have to sink that ship or lose everything. This is worse than the Righteous Horde, worse than Weissman’s treachery. This is the worst threat we’ve ever faced.”

  “I guess we have to do it then,” The Doctor sighed. “We can’t risk everything on the hope that they’ve suddenly turned peaceful. When can you be ready?”

  Clyde rubbed his jaw. “That’s a problem. We won’t be ready before daylight. It’s not the raft so much as the charge. We have to make a shaped charge with enough explosive to punch through that hull. We’re removing explosive from a bunch of old ordnance. That’s slow and tricky.”

  “What old ordnance?” Marcus asked.

  “Remember those artillery shells we scrounged about twenty years ago? We’re opening those up. Most are duds, but some still have good material left. It’s taking time, though, and we won’t be ready until tomorrow night.”

  “What if they sail away before then?” one of the guards asked.

  “We have to make sure they don’t,” Clyde replied. “Doc, you’re going to have to parley with them tomorrow. Buy some time.”

  The Doctor nodded. “All right. But be ready by tomorrow night. I may not be able to hold them even that long.”

  The crackle of a radio from Clyde’s desk made them all look up.

  “Sentry Four to base, Sentry Four to base, come in please.”

  Clyde hurried over. The Doctor perked up. Sentry Four was stationed at an outlying walled farmstead at the northern edge of New City’s territory and close to the shoreline. A cold knot tightened in the pit of his stomach at the possibility of their spotting more ships.

  “Base to Sentry Four, Clyde here, over.”

  “Sentry Four to base, there’s a large group of scavengers passing through the area headed your direction. They number about two hundred and are led by The Giver.”

  The Doctor frowned. What the hell? The Giver was that strange scavenger who had made himself a leader among the wildlands riffraff by handing out a seemingly endless supply of gifts to those in need. He also distributed crystal radios that only picked up Radio Hope, radios his techies told him had been made recently with technology that hadn’t been around for half a century. Just before the Righteous Horde attacked, The Giver had organized the Burbs in a revolt to get them all allowed inside the gate. Then he’d left his daughter Jessica in the care of Marcus and Rosie and disappeared.

  “Base to Sentry Four,” Clyde said. “Did you stop and interrogate them?”

  “Sentry Four to base. I tried, sir, but they wouldn’t talk. Since they’re not breaking any laws by passing through, I didn’t stop them. I sent a unit with a mobile radio to follow them. Looks like they’re in a hurry to get to you.”

  “Base to Sentry Four. Keep on their tail and keep us informed. Over and out.”

  Clyde turned to the others and raised his hands in a confused, hopeless gesture.

  Marcus leaned back in his chair. The creak it made sounded loud in the silent room.

  “This can’t be a coincidence,” he said.

  The Doctor shook his head. “No, it can’t. They’re far enough away that even if the scavengers walk all night they won’t be here until midmorning. That gives us some time. Clyde, send a team and hold them off.”

  “We’re overstretched already!”

  “If the Chinese attack, they’ll beat us no matter how many guards we have here. Head off The Giver and keep him from whatever it is he’s planning. Arrest him if you have to. In the meantime I’ll go at the crack of dawn and parley with the ship. Buy some time until tonight when you can set the charge.”

  As Clyde started giving orders to a couple of his officers, The Doctor got in a huddle with Marcus. “I want you to bring Jessica to me. The Giver’s up to something, and maybe his kid can tell us what.”

  Marcus put on a sour face. “I was just going to tell you, Doc. Bill Parker’s outside waiting for this meeting to be over. He’s brought his boy Zach and Jessica too. They’re an item and there’s something Bill’s pretty angry about.”

  “Teenybopper romances are hardly my priority right now.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow. “With The Giver’s daughter, it better be.”

  Clyde turned to them and announced, “OK, I’m sending a team out within fifteen minutes. If the scavengers keep to the main trail we’ll be able to stop them in the early morning about ten miles north of town. The team will have a radio so they can liaise with Sentry Four’s detachment. Even if they veer off the trail and try something tricky, we’ll get them.”

  “Good job, Clyde.”


  The Head of the Watch got a worried look. “Did you hear what Sentry Four said? Two hundred scavengers. I didn’t think there were that many besides the ones that winter here.”

  The Doctor shook his head. “He’s pulling them in from all over. But why? He must know about the ship, but why is that important to him?”

  “My men will try to detain him, but with two hundred on his side…”

  “Don’t start an incident. Try to get him, but if push comes to shove, just keep them from the bay.”

  “Right,” Clyde nodded and left the room with his guards.

  The Doctor rubbed his temples again. He really needed to burn one right now. A good bit of sativa and something smooth on the stereo. Charlie Parker maybe.

  Oh, Parker. Bill Parker and that pimply faced kid of his who’s probably soiled The Giver’s precious little angel. Bloody hell.

  “Send the Parkers in, Marcus,” he sighed.

  Bill Parker was a lean, no-nonsense farmer whose honesty, work ethic, and moral uprightness were famous throughout New City for having skipped a generation. His only son Zach was a little shit. Even Rosie didn’t like him and Rosie liked everybody. As was often the case with teenagers who were unpopular with adults—and he was no more unpopular than with his own father—he was something of a leader among the teens in New City. So it came as a surprise that Bill strode through the door with a protective hand on his son’s shoulder and a sour glare at Jessica, who meekly followed them into the room.

  “Good evening, Doctor. My son has something to tell you.”

  The Doctor and Marcus turned to Zach. Usually the kid faced adults with an arrogant sneer, but tonight he looked unsure of himself, almost scared.

  “Come on, out with it,” Marcus grunted. The Doctor smiled. It was refreshing to hear Marcus be negative once in a while.

  “I…I went to Toxic Bay with Jessica,” the kid said, then paused.

  “Why?” The Doctor prompted.

  Zach slumped. “To see the ship come in.”

  The Doctor’s brow furrowed. “Wait, you knew it was coming? How?”

  “Zach…,” Jessica growled.

  “You keep out of this!” Bill Parker snapped.

  Zach sighed, not looking at his girlfriend, and said, “She called it. She has a radio hidden in the dunes and she gave it directions to come into Toxic Bay.”

  Marcus slapped his forehead. “Oh Jesus!”

  “I didn’t know they were Chinese!” Jessica cried.

  “Did your father make you do this? He’s on his way, you know, with a heap of his followers,” The Doctor said.

  Jessica went pale, her bottom lip trembling.

  “I don’t want to go back to the wildlands!” she wailed and buried her face in her hands.

  Zach moved over to her. “I’m sorry, babe, but—”

  Jessica slugged him. The boy staggered back, his lip bloody. Bill Parker took a step towards the girl and The Doctor raised his hand.

  “Easy, Bill.”

  “I can’t believe you told on me!” Jessica screamed at her boyfriend.

  Ex-boyfriend, The Doctor silently corrected, and that’s quite a right hook.

  “Hey, Jessica,” the Doctor waved to her. “I’m over here. Answer my questions and maybe I won’t boot your treacherous little ass over the wall tonight.”

  Jessica swallowed hard and looked for support from Marcus, who looked away. The Doctor shook his head. He knew it had been a mistake to let her stay with Marcus and Rosie. They were too soft, like somehow the last forty years hadn’t affected them. They’d let her run free and now look what had happened.

  Jessica looked beaten. “My father was going to contact the ship. When the Righteous Horde came and he had to leave me in New City to be safe, he left the radio in the dunes and told me where to find it. Once I wasn’t being watched too much I was supposed to signal for the ship myself.”

  “Why couldn’t he do it?”

  “Because it wouldn’t be in radio range for another month, and the radio is old and delicate, so he couldn’t risk carrying it around. He moves constantly. It was hell living with him. I never had any friends. I never got to stay in one place for more than—”

  The Doctor held up his hand. “Enough with the sob show. If the ship was out of range, how did he know when it was coming or that it was even out there?”

  Jessica gestured towards Zach and his father. “Make them leave.”

  The Doctor cocked his head. “Why?”

  The girl frowned at him. “Because I won’t tell you if they’re here.”

  Damn, the little bitch means it. Fucking scavengers.

  The Doctor flicked a hand, dismissing the other two. As Bill led his son out the door, Zach turned to Jessica with an apologetic look.

  Jessica cut him off at the first word. “Fuck off, asshole. Oh, Bill, your son’s got some pot plants stashed on your north forty!”

  A guard closing the door shut off the sounds of another family crisis.

  Marcus shook his head. “What’s going on, Jessie? This isn’t the girl I know.”

  “That’s because you don’t know her,” The Doctor grunted. “All right, Jessica, spill.”

  Jessica stood there, fingers interlocked and twisting them back and forth like a chastened schoolgirl, the confidence of a moment before disappeared. She took a deep breath.

  “They started coming when I was eight. The first time they approached our camp there were five of them in white masks. The masks had these funny smiles on them and black eyebrows, moustaches, and thin little pointed beards. My father jumped up and grabbed his spear, of course, but I didn’t think they were dangerous. If they wanted to hurt us, they would have hit us before sunrise. We didn’t have much trouble anyway because everyone knew my father was deadly to his enemies and a lifesaver to everyone else. Even back then they called him The Giver.

  “None of them carried any weapons that I could see and they kept their hands away from their pockets. They came up to Father and told him he’d been doing a good job, that the wildlands needed someone like him. Then they gave him a sack of flour, enough for us to live on for months. ‘Share it,’ they said. ‘Not that we need to tell you that. When it’s all gone we’ll bring you more.’

  “And they did. The next time they showed up they brought two sacks of flour. They appeared every month or so after that. There were always five of them, but I could tell they were sometimes different people. They were different sizes and shapes and sometimes there would be more women than men. They always wore those masks, though.

  “Sometimes they brought things other than food—clothes or batteries or medicine. Anything people out in the wildlands might need. Father got a big reputation among the scavengers. He never told anyone where he got the stuff he gave away.”

  The Doctor leaned forward. “No one tried to make him tell? They must have thought he was sitting on a treasure trove.”

  Jessica nodded. “A couple of times bandits tried to grab him, or grab me to get to him. Father’s a damn good fighter, though, and the other scavengers always came to help. Soon word got around and everyone left us alone. No one wanted to ruin a good thing.”

  “Did these masked strangers say where they were from?” The Doctor asked, thinking he knew the answer.

  Jessica bit her lip. “I’m coming to that. When I was twelve I finally got up the courage to run after them after one of their visits. I told them how lonely I was, how I never got to hang out with other kids or stay anywhere long enough to get to know anyone. Even when father gave stuff away he did it from a distance. He’s obsessed about my safety. He would have never left me with Uncle Marcus and Aunt Rosie if the Righteous Horde hadn’t been taking everyone in the wildlands. Anyway, I asked to go with the people in the masks. They just shook their heads and told me that I’d soon have a job of my own.

  “So I stayed with Father. Then last year they started giving him those crystal radios. The ones that only pick up Radio Hope.”

  The Do
ctor started to tremble. The radios…the masks…when Annette Cruz and Jackson Andrews had found one of Radio Hope’s repeaters in the mountains, they’d met a group of people wearing masks that sounded just like the ones Jessica described. They’d told Annette they knew him and gave them a medical kit tailor-made for his condition. They said they had known Jackson’s father, Casey, too.

  “So that’s when you figured it out,” The Doctor said.

  Jessica nodded. “The strangers are from Radio Hope. And they gave my father a transmitter to contact the ship, and coordinates to bring it to a bay three days north of here.”

  The Doctor rubbed his temples. “And if you had done what you were told, your father would have picked you up and you would have gone north to meet it, you and the scavengers.”

  “That’s right. I didn’t know they were Chinese, though. I didn’t know anything beyond that, I swear.”

  Marcus gasped. “I bet Radio Hope did. But why would they bring them here?”

  The Doctor held his aching head. He needed a painkiller. Maybe some opiates from that medical kit. Yeah, some opiates and ten hours of sleep.

  “But you didn’t want to go north with your father. You wanted to stay here. So you brought the Chinese here. And you’ve pissed off your father, and you’ve pissed off the scavengers, and…”

  He didn’t have the strength to finish the sentence. Marcus did it for him.

  “And you’ve pissed off Radio Hope.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  The first thing the next morning, Pablo fidgeted at the gate waiting for it to open. He had to get out and see if Hong-gi was safe. He bounced from one foot to the other next to the big steel plates until at last the siren wailed and the heavy gate began to roll open.

  As he was about to bolt through the widening space, a hand grabbed him.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the guard asked.

  “I, um, I’m supposed to meet my mother, Sheriff Cruz.”

  The guard looked uncertain. “You should probably wait for her to pick you up.”