Island Refuge EMP Box Set | Books 1-3

by Hamilton, Grace

  “Sir, can’t you just tell them,” Cat said. “I mean, it’s not exactly normal circumstances here, and they did join you on the last mission. Heck, they were under fire with you and everything. Led you right to Golf.”

  Prig blew his breath out then, but he was so close to one of the monitors that he briefly fogged up the screen. “Fair point, Cat. Tell you what, someone go close and seal the bunker doors and lock them tight. I’ll fill in the gaps.”

  Close and lock the bunker doors! Elna’s heart sank, though she knew it was the right thing to do. George and Selene were out there somewhere. All she could do was hope they were smart enough to hide.

  “We’ve got links to communication satellites here in the bunker,” Prig said. As he spoke, he kept his gaze on the screens. “But that’s not all we’ve got. I didn’t want to say it before, because I know how civvies respond to the word, but this is a warfare hub. We also have access to missile defense here, mostly anti-aircraft. We didn’t just need Golf to get in. We all had the code to the bunker memorized, but Golf has the missile codes.”

  “Is there anything not hidden on this island?” Elna asked.

  “Yeah, a place that serves good Carolina barbecue,” Prig said with a wry smile. “Point is, we’re here to get the communication system up and running so we can activate the missiles. That’s the real reason we’re here. These guys”—he tapped one of the screens, where four mercs were making their way up the back road, approaching the shed—“I know all about these guys. Mercenaries hired to find the bunker and the codes. Now, they don’t know for sure that they can find the missile codes on the island, but they do know that the bunker is underground here somewhere.”

  “What is this island I’ve lived on my whole life?” Elna said, sinking back in her chair.

  “All of these cameras,” Malin noted. He was standing in the corner, arms crossed as he scowled at the screens. “How did they survive the EMP? Everything else got blasted, but the government still has a thousand eyes watching everything on the island?”

  “You’ve heard of Faraday cages, right?” Prig replied. “You can shield electronics from electromagnetic interference. It’s not even that hard, really. Most people just don’t do it.”

  “Just like the clinic in Manchester,” Elna noted.

  “Not all of the cameras survived,” Prig noted, pointing to a blank screen on the bottom right. “Looks like this one got zapped. I guess all Faraday cages are not created equal. Guys, you can’t live on an island that’s an ex-military base and not expect a few cameras. If you had any idea how many cameras are hidden in unexpected places across this country, it would blow your mind. Most of them are fairly old, ever since they switched to using cellphone cameras.”

  Elna was drawn to a different screen. She’d accepted the presence of the cameras for the time being. She couldn’t do anything about it right now anyway. In the middle screen on the top row, she had a view of the broad yard behind the guesthouse, a familiar shed and the round edge of the water tank on one side, a low wooden fence in the distance.

  Two mercs approached the shed and opened the door. One went inside, while the other stood outside, keeping watch. After a moment, the first one emerged, tossing some of the tools from the shed onto the ground, as if he’d just violently searched through the shed. The two then turned and headed off camera in the direction of the house.

  On another screen, she watched the men approach the back door of the guesthouse. One of them began kicking at the door. On the third kick, the door splintered, broke away from the knob, and swung open. They shouldered their way inside. It made Elna furious seeing the careless way they treated her home.

  “God, I hope Selene and Pop are well-hidden,” Elna said. “Why did I let her go back to find him?”

  “Your dad is a lot safer with Selene than by himself,” Malin noted. “Selene is smart and resourceful, even though she lacks confidence in herself. She’ll find a good place to hide, I’m sure of it. Plus, I think your dad trusts her, so he’ll do what she says.”

  “Yeah, he’ll listen to Selene,” Elna agreed. “Maybe more than he would listen to me.”

  More mercs approached the house and moved inside. As minutes passed, it seemed to be the place where they were gradually congregating, as if they’d planned to meet there. Elna didn’t have a clear view inside the building, but she could see people moving around through the windows. They were looting cabinets and shelves, opening drawers, dumping things on the bar, on tables, on the floor, rooting through everything. There’d been no sign of George or Selene on any of the screens. Where would they have gone to hide? Inside the house somewhere, most likely. Maybe the wine cellar?

  “I can’t just sit here and keep watching this,” Elna said. “I have to do something.”

  She started to rise, but Prig reached out and put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you’re going?” he said.

  “I have to find my people before something happens to them,” she said. “We can take on a dozen armed men. We just took on an entire camp full of guards.”

  “That was a stealth mission, and we blended in,” Prig reminded her. “It only went south on the way out. These guys are in a whole different class from that militia.”

  “They’re way more dangerous,” Spence added. “You don’t just run and gun with these guys.”

  It took every ounce of willpower not to bat Prig’s hand aside and try to rush through the door. She knew it was dangerous. She knew it was a huge risk to leave the bunker, but she couldn’t sit idly by, staring at screens.

  “There has to be something we can do,” she said, settling back into her seat. Tears burned in her eyes, but she fought them. “We’re armed too. We’re not helpless against these guys.”

  “I hear you,” Prig said, lifting his hand from her shoulder. “We’re not just going to let these guys have run of the place, trust me. They didn’t send the Marines to the island just so we could hunker down here and do nothing. But we don’t rush out there and go wild, you follow me? We can’t afford to let the mercs find your people, because they might learn the location of the bunker, so we’re going to prevent that from happening. We need a plan first. Plan first, shoot later. That’s how it works.”

  She felt Malin’s hands on her shoulder, far gentler than Prig, but she didn’t feel comforted. She might never feel comforted again, but she wouldn’t let these mercenaries run amok on her island, and she wouldn’t let them harm her father. Whatever it took, whatever the risks, she would drive them all away, one way or another.

  “Okay, plan first, shoot later,” she said, “so let’s make a plan, because I’m not just going to sit here.”

  21

  They were forced to convene in the game room at the end of the long hall so they could bring a bunch of card tables together to create a space large enough to hold the bunker map. Fish had found the map in a drawer in an office behind the control room. Elna was truly impressed at how massive and detailed the thing was. Only after they’d unfolded it did she realize that the bunker was, in fact, an enormous complex that tunneled across much of the island.

  This island never really belonged to my father, she realized. We were like ants living on the surface. It was always all about this military complex.

  There was already so much to be angry about. This was just a little more fuel on the fire. Why had the government sold the island in the first place if they’d never intended to vacate the place? Her father could have located his vineyard elsewhere, and the government could have kept the place, since it clearly meant so much to them.

  Because selling it to a civilian helped to hide the bunker, she realized. It gave spy satellites something else to look at, something that wasn’t a secret government bunker for controlling missiles. They used Pasqualee Vineyard as cover.

  It made her really, really want to slap someone across the face just as hard as she could, but she didn’t know where to direct the ange
r. Not at the Marines who were here to fight for the country.

  At the mercs, then. That’ll do, she thought. They’ll make a suitable target.

  “Right here,” Prig said, pointing at a long passageway that cut across the island. “There are a few exits from the bunker down this corridor. Not sure if any of them are clear, so we’ll have to check it out.”

  Elna studied the map and realized that the long passageway started somewhere at the back of the game room. She looked around and spotted what she’d assumed was a closet door in the corner beside the board game shelf. That seemed to be the entrance. She might never have checked it if not for the map.

  “It’s over there, isn’t it?” she said, pointing at the door in the corner.

  “Seem so,” Prig replied.

  Daniel and Chloe were building a castle in the corner out of Legos as Miriam and Sniffy watched nearby. Almost everyone else had gathered around the table. Norman seemed particularly fascinated by the map, and he’d squeezed between Prig and Spence to bend low and study it. He pointed at a door marked on the map at the very end of the long passageway.

  “If I’m reading this right, it looks like this door opens up right in the middle of the vineyard somewhere,” he said, scratching his big, wooly beard. “Boy, Elna, all these years while you were growing your grapes, you had no idea this was right under you.”

  “That has occurred to me,” Elna said, trying not to speak sharply to Norman. She decided to try to turn it into a joke. “It’s a shame. We could’ve used all the extra storage space.”

  For some reason, this made Norman laugh far more than was warranted. Maybe he was more stressed out than he let on and needed to vent.

  “I’ll check out the corridor,” Spence said, tapping the long hall on the map, “make sure the other exits are accessible.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Elna said. “I think I at least deserve to see the place.”

  “Fine with me, ma’am,” Spence replied, tipping the brim of his hat at her. “We’ve been in combat together. I could never say no to a fellow soldier.”

  “Be careful down there,” Prig said. “We’ll check out the other places on the map. If there’s any trouble, anything weird at all, retreat and call for help immediately. Do not engage!”

  Spence headed for the door in the corner. As Elna followed, Malin started to go with her, but she motioned for him to stay with the others. She was in such a foul mood, she didn’t want to inadvertently snap at him. Of all people, he didn’t deserve that.

  The door beside the shelves was entirely unremarkable—a narrow metal door that was rusting at the corners. A couple of board games were hanging over the end of the shelves, and Spence shoved them out of the way. This caused a Monopoly box to fall off the other end, but Elna managed to reach over and catch it.

  “Good reaction time,” Spence said. “You should’ve been a Marine.”

  “Maybe I should have,” Elna replied, shoving the board game back onto the shelf.

  As Spence unbolted and opened the door, she noted that he had a scrap of Mentos wrapped between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, and he was endlessly rubbing it. He’d practically rubbed the logo off. When he pulled the door open, stale air whooshed out, and a few lights in the ceiling flickered to life. It was a nondescript hall with metal walls flecked in rust, a dusty floor, and a few doors far in the distance. It was so long, the end of the hall disappeared in the dim light. It creeped her out, like finding out that monsters had been digging tunnels under her house.

  Spence drew his sidearm from its holster and stepped through the door. As Elna followed him, she moved to one side, brushing the wall, so she could see past him. Spence was a big guy, so broad and muscled that he almost blocked the entire narrow corridor. Many of the lights in the hall were burned out, which created big wells of shadow. Near the end of the hall, perpendicular passages split off in either direction. However, the one on the right was full of what appeared to be junk machinery, and the one on the left was blocked by an enormous metal box.

  “Some of the exits are not accessible,” Spence said.

  At first, Elna thought he was talking to her, and she started to respond. Then she realized he was speaking into his two-way radio.

  “Got it,” came the staticky reply from Prig.

  It took almost ten minutes to walk to the very end of the hall, and Elna began to feel mounting claustrophobia. She could barely make out the light shining through the open door into the game room behind her. At the end of the hall, they found more debris, mostly empty crates and some rotting cardboard. Elna and Spence spent a minute moving them aside, creating just enough space to squeeze through.

  On the other side, they found a set of stairs leading up, but this section was utterly dark. Elna pulled out a small flashlight and shone it up the stairs, revealing another metal door about thirty feet above them. It had a heavy L-shaped latch in the center.

  “That’s the one that leads to the vineyard,” she said. “We should have a straight shot to the guesthouse from there.”

  “And then what?” Spence said, giving her a wry smile. “Let’s assume we get inside the guesthouse. What’s the next step, according to you?”

  “Well, if they don’t see us coming, that gives us combat advantage, doesn’t it?” she said.

  Spence blew his breath out and said, “Wow, you’re ready to kill some mercs, aren’t you? You may get that chance, but we’d better check the door first.”

  He headed up the steps. Elna followed, keeping the small flashlight trained on the door. When they got there, Spence struggled with the door latch. Finally, he had to holster his gun and use both hands on the latch, putting his full strength into it. Suddenly, with an ear-straining squeal, it turned, and the door swung outward on creaking hinges. Elna expected sunlight to shine down. Instead, she saw more steps leading to a small landing and then a second door. When they reached the second door, they found that it slid to the side, disappearing into the wall. Spence opened it. Again, there was no sunlight. Indeed, the space beyond was utterly dark, but a sudden, familiar smell swept over her. The smell of stone, wood, cork—yes, she knew it well.

  She trained her light into the room and saw stone walls in a broad, low-ceilinged room with numerous wooden racks on all sides. Most of the racks were bare, but she spotted a few stray bottles of wine here and there—apparently, they’d been overlooked in previous lootings.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Elna muttered. “This is the wine cellar beneath the guesthouse. How the hell can this tunnel lead to our very own house? What the hell, Spence?”

  “What the hell, indeed?” Spence replied. “You figure they dug this out after your family moved in? That’d be some trick, wouldn’t it?”

  “My whole life was a lie,” Elna muttered. “My business, my home, my family, it was all just cover for a covert government facility. I’m so pissed off, I can’t see straight.”

  Spence slid the door back into place. “Well, hold on to that anger. Take it out on the mercenaries. Anger helps you do things that common sense or conscience might otherwise resist.” He nodded at her. “Trust me on this. Now, let’s go back and tell the staff sergeant what we found.”

  They were crowded around the tables in the game room again. Elna could scarcely stand still, so she found herself walking a circle around the people, endlessly wringing her hands in a vain attempt to quell the rage boiling inside of her. Spence and Prig were discussing the various exits out of the bunker, but Elna had the sound of blood rushing in her ears. Malin finally started to walk the circle with her. She felt him try to take her hands, but she pulled away.

  “Sorry, just…lost in thought right now, okay?” she said. “Just trying to get a handle on my feelings.”

  “I understand,” Malin replied. “I wish I could make it better.”

  “Nothing can make it better,” Elna said. “I just want to rescue Pop and Selene. That’s it.”

  She heard Prig speaking then
, and his words caught her attention. She finally came to a stop behind Norman and Cat, peering through the narrow gap between them at the staff sergeant.

  “I think the best approach is going to be from above ground,” Prig said, tapping the unfolded map on the table. “I don’t like the idea of being funneled into that narrow corridor.”

  “No,” Elna said, surprised at herself for speaking so forcefully. Prig lifted his gaze from the map. “We have a door that leads right inside the guesthouse. It’s the perfect approach. They’ll never expect us to come from that direction.”

  “I realize that, Elna,” Prig said, tightly, “but we’ll also expose the mercenaries to the bunker. If we don’t manage to take them out during the initial raid, they could get in here, and then it’s all over. The risk is huge. Under no circumstances can we allow them to find an entrance into the bunker. In fact, I say we blow up that corridor, bring it all down, and close the way.”

  “This is our best chance to rescue my people,” Elna said. “You can blow up the tunnel afterward.”

  Prig stared at her for a second, then shook his head and looked away. “I’m sorry about your people. I promise we’ll try to find them, but nothing is more important than keeping this place safe. Nothing.”

  Elna almost shouted at him. She could feel a profanity-laced tirade welling up inside of her, but she shoved it down with a violent act of willpower. Instead, though still speaking through clenched teeth, she said, “Malin and I risked our lives to help you rescue one of your people. Now, I want to rescue two of ours. I think that’s fair.”

  An uncomfortable quiet settled over the room. Except for Malin, no one looked at Elna, but her words lingered in the air. She saw Norman studying the faces of the Marines one by one. Prig leaned on a corner of the table for a few seconds, furiously gnawing on his lip. Finally, he rose and looked at Elna again.

  “You make a fair point,” he said. “Yes, you came with us and put your lives on the line. I’m grateful for that. But Golf is on this mission because he has the missile codes. We need him to complete the mission, and the mission is why I’m here. A lot more than our lives are at stake here, Elna. The future of the nation is on the line.”