by Gary Paulsen
“Yes, sir. Uh, sir?” Rico scratched his dimpled chin. “You want me to show him everything?”
Franklin nodded and walked toward the doors. “Cody is to be treated like one of us. I’d trust him with my life.”
CHAPTER 4
“Heel, Mike.” The dog fell in behind the young soldier. “So you know the boss, huh?” Rico slung the gun over his shoulder. It rested there naturally as if it were part of him.
Cody nodded. “I used to. It’s been a while, though.”
“He’s the best. He organized us. Probably saved most of us from being shot. Everybody here is about as loyal to him as you can get.”
Cody followed Rico and the heeler through the warehouse. None of this made any sense. He glanced at Rico’s back. The man was young, probably not over twenty, easygoing and friendly. How could he and Franklin be involved in something like this?
Rico told the dog to sit and proudly pointed out some of the more specialized weapons. “We took these babies off a transport a couple of days ago.” He threw back a tarp and pulled what looked like a rifle out of a crate. The barrel was huge and the sights weren’t like any Cody had ever seen.
Rico tossed it to him. “Grenade launcher. Feel how light it is? Only weighs five pounds and has a range of over four hundred yards.”
Cody’s thoughts immediately went to the kids back at the prison camp. He chewed his lip and looked sideways at Rico. “Could you show me how to use this thing?”
“Sure. If the boss okays it.” Rico smiled at him. “You got some private score to settle?”
Cody handed the gun back to him. “You could say that.”
The rest of the tour included what was stored in the warehouse and the compound. The men who were awake in the barracks looked at him curiously but didn’t ask any questions.
Outside, Cody glanced at the tall chain-link fence surrounding them. He noted the trucks and sand buggies parked near the gate. If he could get to one maybe he could hotwire it and … no, he needed some of those weapons stored in the warehouse, and more than that, he needed someone to teach him how to use them. He’d just have to stay here awhile and bide his time.
“There’s one other thing I still need to show you.” Rico’s voice broke into Cody’s thoughts. “It’s over here.”
Rico led him to a small blockhouse with no windows or doors. “Stay, Mike.” The dog stopped and sat. Rico unlocked the door and a blast of cold air hit them.
Cody walked inside. It was a freezer. Only instead of meat hanging from the ceiling, there were two bodies dressed in American military uniforms dangling from large metal hooks. A wave of nausea swept over Cody and he quickly stepped outside.
Rico followed. “You okay, kid?”
Cody whirled and glared at him. “How can you live with yourself? What kind of animals are you?”
The dog instantly jumped up, growling at Cody. Rico put his hand out. “It’s okay, Mike. Chill out.” He looked back at Cody. “The CCR pays good money for this scum. You wouldn’t want us to go hungry, now, would you? Of course, I can’t take any credit for it. It was all the boss’s idea. Pretty clever, if you ask me.”
Cody’s eyes narrowed into tight slits. “I’d starve before I’d turn on one of our guys.”
“Our guys?” Rico laughed. “Is that what you think? They weren’t ours, they were CCR.”
Cody looked confused. “I don’t understand. They’re wearing—”
“Of course they are, stupid. That’s the beauty of it. We shoot one of theirs, dress him up, change his papers and collect the bounty. Not only does it pay well, it keeps the boss on their good side. As long as they think we’re useful, they leave us alone.”
“And all the weapons?” Cody raised an eyebrow.
“That’s what we’re really all about. We sort of … borrow them from the CCR and then redistribute them to the right parties.”
CHAPTER 5
“Here he is, boss. I gave him the grand tour just like you told me.” Rico showed Cody into an office that doubled as Franklin Stubbs’ sleeping quarters.
Franklin was sitting at his desk, working on some papers. He put down his pencil and folded his arms. “Thanks, Rico. You can go get some rest now.” When the door was closed, the dark-skinned man appraised the boy. “Well, what do you think of our little operation?”
Cody slid into one of the hard-backed chairs near the window. “I guess I understand things a little better now. Sorry about jumping to the wrong conclusions.”
“No problem. It seems you and I have quite a few new and interesting things to discuss.” Franklin pulled a poster out from under the paperwork on his desk. “Recognize this?”
Cody looked at the face. It was a kid with long blond hair and a red bandanna tied around his forehead. Underneath the picture in the Republic language it said: Wanted for war crimes, dead or alive. The White Fox.
Cody chewed his lip. “He sort of looks familiar.”
Franklin laughed. “That’s what I said when I first saw it. What did you do to the CCR to make them want you so bad?”
Cody shrugged. “Nothing much. Just took one of their prisoners and escaped from their stupid prison camp.”
“Escaping was bad enough but the prisoner you took with you …” Franklin shook his head. “She wouldn’t have been a rebel pilot, a Major Toni McLaughlin, by any chance, would she?”
“Could be.”
Franklin laughed again. “You’ve changed, Cody. The kid I knew back in California was afraid of his own shadow. Now you’re wanted for war crimes.”
“The only crime I committed was making the CCR look like fools.”
“That’s enough, believe me. We get flyers on lots of people.” Franklin leaned back in his chair and studied the boy. “What are you going to do now, Cody? If you’re looking for a place to hide, you’re more than welcome to stay here with us.”
“Thanks. I might just take you up on that. But only for a while. I’ve got some business to take care of back at the camp.”
“What kind of business?” Franklin scoffed. “You can’t take on a whole prison camp by yourself. Stay with us. We can always use someone who’s an old hand at making the CCR look bad.”
Cody looked at the floor and thought, then raised his eyes. “I’ll make you a deal. You have your guys teach me everything there is to know about the weapons stored in your warehouse and I’ll do whatever you need me to do around here until it’s time for me to leave.”
Franklin stood up and extended his hand. “It’s a deal, Cody—or should I call you White Fox?”
CHAPTER 6
“Try this move. Spin, and when you come around bring that right foot up beside my head. Do it like you mean it.”
Cody took a deep breath. Without warning he spun around and brought his leg up hard. It caught Rico off balance and knocked him to the ground.
A wave of laughter rippled from the men behind them. Rico sat in the dirt and rubbed his cheek. “I think that’s enough karate for today.”
“What’s the matter, Rico?” one of the men yelled. “Is your student showing you up?”
“Don’t feel bad, son.” Franklin walked over from the shade of the building where he was watching and helped Rico to his feet. “Cody has a way of leaving all his teachers in the dust.”
Rico brushed the dirt off his pants. “In more ways than one, boss. Come on kid, let’s go out to the firing range and work on your aim. We just brought in a small shipment of assault rifles.”
“Sure thing, Rico. I’ll go get Mike.”
Franklin watched Cody walk across the grounds to the kennel. “Looks like the kid’s doing pretty good.”
“Good? That kid is a natural. Everything I show him he soaks up like a sponge. I never have to tell him anything twice. He’s got a memory like a steel trap. He already knows how to fire, clean and disassemble every weapon we have on the place. Thompson’s been teaching him hand-to-hand with a fighting knife, and as you can see, his progress in martial arts is flat amazing.”
>
“Yeah, I see.” Franklin pointed at the bright pink welt on Rico’s face.
The radio operator came running from the office. “They’re coming, boss. The scouts on the old I-10 highway just spotted them and called in. It’s two official vehicles.”
“Thanks, Walmer. Go ahead and sound the alarm.” Franklin turned to Rico. “Keep Cody out of sight until the CCR is gone.”
A loud siren went off and the men scrambled to get rid of contraband weapons and to busy themselves with innocent-looking tasks.
Rico ran across the grounds. “Come on, Cody. The big bad wolf is on his way and we don’t want him to gobble you up.”
Cody gave Mike a pat. “Stay here, boy. I’ll be back for you later.”
“That dog is getting to where he minds you better than he does me. I don’t get it. I trained him from a pup.”
“Dogs are incredibly smart, Rico. He just knows a good thing when he sees it.”
Rico rolled his eyes. “Dognapper.” The young soldier punched Cody playfully in the arm. “Come on. I better get you stowed away or the boss will have my hide.”
He led Cody inside the warehouse and down some rickety steps into the unused dirt basement. “Be careful down here. There’s a hole back there in the corner that goes to China. It must be at least fifty feet deep.”
“Ooooohhhh.” Cody made his voice sound spooky. “Is that where you throw the bodies you can’t use to fool the CCR?”
“No, but that’s where you’re going to wind up if you don’t stay down here and out of trouble until I come for you. Got it?”
Cody saluted. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
“I’m not playing here, Cody. The boss doesn’t like it when we do stupid things that might endanger the outfit.”
“Quit worrying. I’m not going to do anything dumb.”
“See to it that you don’t.” Rico pulled the door shut behind him and left Cody standing in the darkness.
Cody waited for almost a full minute before he followed. He took the steps two at a time and bounded down the hall to Franklin’s office. Finding it empty, he closed the door and slowly pulled the window open a couple of inches so that he could hear what went on outside.
Two vehicles, an army truck and a long glossy black car, pulled through the gate and stopped in a cloud of dust. Several armed men got out of the truck and checked the area.
Then the driver of the first car jumped out and opened the back door. A man wearing a sharp black uniform with red trim on the collar stepped out.
Cody’s breath caught in his throat for a moment. The man resembled a walking skeleton. His round, deep-set eyes were almost transparent and the skin on his slick bald head was pulled tight over his bony skull. An old scar puckered one cheek and a black mustache drooped from his upper lip.
Franklin approached the man and bowed the way all inferiors of the CCR were taught to do. “Welcome to our humble abode, Comrade Gollgath. What is it we can do for you today?”
The man analyzed him with a lean and dangerous look, like a wolf among sheep. Then Cody saw the eyes travel to his window. Cody was well hidden behind a curtain but it still made his skin crawl.
Gollgath held a pair of thin leather gloves in his right hand, and he slapped them against his leg. “I understand that you have acquired four new specimens for inspection?”
“Yes, sir, we certainly have. Three are regular army but the fourth might interest you.”
“How so?”
“He matches perfectly the description of that double agent on one of the flyers you sent out last month.”
Gollgath seemed bored. “I’ll be the judge of that, Stubbs. Show them to me.”
Franklin and two of his men took the strange-looking officer and his driver to the blockhouse. The armed guards waited at the truck with their submachine guns in hand.
Cody watched Franklin show the skeleton man to the freezer. In a few moments they came out and the officer directed his driver to hand Franklin a small stack of money.
As they approached the car, Gollgath turned his grotesque face to Franklin. “Next time tell your men not to blow half the head off. If I can’t recognize them, you don’t get paid.”
Franklin bowed. “Yes, Excellency. We’ll work on that.”
The driver opened the door and Gollgath started to step in. He paused. “Oh, and Stubbs … we are watching you. Don’t get too greedy.”
CHAPTER 7
“So, what did you think of Comrade Gollgath, or the Skull, as he’s more commonly known?”
Cody frowned. “How did you know I was watching?”
Franklin pointed to his office window. “Pretty careless. You left it open.”
“Sorry, Franklin. I was just—”
“I suggest you be a lot more careful when you go out with the men tonight.”
“Me?” Cody’s face lit up. “You’re taking me with you on a raid?”
“You’ve got to learn sometime. I’ve been watching you these last few weeks and I think you’re ready. The CCR is moving a load of missiles across the country tonight. They discovered them in an underground storage facility over in Nevada and we’re going to intercept them.”
“Good. When do we leave?”
“Hold on. Right now I want you to get some rest. Rico will find you when it’s time.”
Sleep was impossible. In fact, rest of any kind totally eluded him as his mind chewed on what lay ahead. When Rico came for him he was just as wide awake as he had been when he climbed up on his bunk.
A wad of black clothing hit him in the face. Rico laughed. “Heads up, Cody. The boss wants you to wear dark colors like the rest of us. It helps keep you from being spotted so easily.”
Cody untied the bundle. The black suit resembled a pair of pajamas with a cord that tied around the waist. He looked at Rico, puzzled.
“It’s another of the boss’s strategies. The CCR thinks a group of partisans are hitting their weapons shipments. They’ve started calling us the Black Death after the suicide fighters that fought the CCR back in the early days.” Rico shrugged. “So far it’s kept them off our trail.”
“Whatever works.” Cody wriggled into the black clothes and waited for Rico’s next instructions.
“Go on over to the warehouse and wait for me. We’ll need to outfit you with a weapon and paint that shiny white face of yours. I’ll be along just as soon as I take care of something for the boss.”
Cody felt lighter in his new clothes. He trotted across the compound to Franklin’s office. The big man wasn’t there so he decided to try the radio room.
A few feet from the closed door he stopped in his tracks. Walmer, the radio operator, was on the air speaking to someone in the Republic language.
Cody edged closer to the door.
“No, Comrade. I don’t have access to that.… I’m telling you it’s something big. No, I can’t talk now.… When I know for sure … Yes … I better go now before anyone …”
Cody slid down the hall a few yards and then walked casually toward the radio room. He knocked on the door and heard Walmer drop something.
“Just a minute.… Come in.”
“Hi, Walmer.” Cody’s eyes measured the short, round-bodied man. His skin was pasty and his cotton-white hair stuck out under his cap. He fidgeted nervously with some papers while Cody walked around him. “I was looking for Franklin. You seen him?”
“Ah … no. He hasn’t been here all morning. If I see him, though, I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”
“Thanks.” Cody started to leave but turned at the door. “That was some strange jabbering you were doing just now on the radio, Walmer. What was it?”
“That? Oh, it was just routine. I was reporting in to the CCR. They require us to do that every so often so they can keep tabs on us.”
“Really?” Cody faked a smile. “Well, you’re pretty good at it. In fact, you sound just like one of them.”
CHAPTER 8
“How long has Walmer been with the organ
ization?”
Cody had asked to speak to Franklin in private a few minutes before the team was scheduled to leave. Standing across from the big man in a corner of the warehouse, the boy was hardly recognizable. His face was covered with camouflage paint, a snub-nose submachine gun loaded with thirty-two rounds of ammunition hung from his shoulder and a Special Forces combat knife was strapped on his belt.
“He came in a few days before we found you. Of course, we’ve been careful not to let him in on everything. He doesn’t know any of our sources or about changing the uniforms of the CCR. I assume you have a good reason for asking?”
“Did you know he speaks fluent Republic?”
“That’s what got him one of the radio operator jobs. We needed somebody who could talk to them. What’s your point, Cody?”
“I heard him talking to the CCR today. It didn’t sound right. I think you should watch him.”
Franklin raised his hand and summoned Rico.
“You need something, boss?”
Franklin spoke softly near his ear. “Walmer is a plant. Tell Gunner to get rid of him.”
“Wait.” Cody grabbed Franklin’s sleeve. “Aren’t you going to make sure?”
Franklin’s eyes turned hard. “This is reality, Cody. We’re in a war here and I don’t have the luxury of waiting. By the time we find out, it could be too late for all of us. Understand?”
Cody looked at the floor. A few minutes before, he had been positive that Walmer was a spy working for the other side. So positive that he had turned him in. But now, what if he was wrong … the thought trailed off.
Franklin wished them luck and ordered the team to the trucks. Cody moved mechanically. He fell in behind the men and somehow made his way outside.
Thompson gave him a hand up into the back of the truck. “Stick with me, kid. I’ll make sure you don’t get your rump shot off.”
Rico was the last one in. He sat down across from Thompson. “Don’t worry about Cody. The boss wouldn’t have chosen him to go on this run if he couldn’t hold up his end of it.”