“Don’t say it.”
Innocently, Frank lifted his hand. “I wasn’t.” He opened the door and looked back. “But you know, Dean . . .”
“Bye.” Snickering, Dean shook his head. He got up to get more coffee and waited for Ellen. Things were off to a smooth start for the evening. It seemed calm and it had been a while since it felt like that in his home.
^^^^
“Frank.” Robbie spotted him as he came up from the cryo-tunnels. “Wait up.”
“Oh my God.” Frank skidded to a stop. “You grew back an arm.”
“It’s a temp. It’s dark, so you really can’t see it good.” Robbie shrugged. “We’re trying it out.”
“Does it work?” Frank questioned.
“Somewhat. Anyhow . . . I need to talk to you. In all seriousness.”
“Sure. I’m heading to the Hall. Wanna come?” Frank started to walk again.
“No, Frank. This is really serious.”
Frank took a few steps then stopped. “What’s going on?”
“It’s not the drug.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ellen,” Robbie explained, “she’s not taking that drug.”
“Robbie . . .”
“I know what’s wrong with her,” Robbie said. “Or at least I think I do. No, I do.”
Curiously, Frank looked at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I was really thinking about what could have caused the sudden change in attitude. You know she’s scared.”
“Of?”
Robbie hesitated. “What she knows. She’s hiding something, Frank, and that’s the whole reason for it.”
Frank started walking away.
“Frank, wait.” Robbie trotted up to him. “I know what it is.”
“She’s not hiding anything, Robbie,” Frank said firmly.
“Frank, yes she is and I think I know what it is. We can help her. I believe she’s hiding the fact that she knows who killed Bev.”
Frank swallowed. “Drop it.”
“What?” Robbie asked confused. “What do you mean, drop it? No.”
“Robbie.” Frank spun hard.
“Frank. I’m not turning her in. I’m not turning Dean . . .”
“Drop it.” Frank stared for a moment then grabbed the Social Hall door. “Drop . . . it now.” He raised his eyebrows, flung open the door, and stormed inside.
Robbie blinked in bewilderment and confusion on what it was he did that caused Frank to snap out on him.
Frank raged into the Hall and took a seat next to Johnny.
“Hey, Dad. What’s wrong?”
Frank shook his head, reached over the bar, grabbed a bottle, and poured a shot in a glass. Without hesitation, he downed it with a gasp. “You didn’t see me do that.”
“No.” Johnny innocently shook his head. “I didn’t see you do that at all.”
But in the doorway of the Social Hall . . . Robbie did.
^^^^
Clarity. With the passing hours, clarity returned to Ellen. She spent a lot of time thinking of ways to resolve things. She had to. She had been taking the wrong approach with the Johnny situation. She had been using an abrupt loud one when a peaceful quite way was needed.
She needed a chance to put it in motion and she needed that to happen before midnight. She didn’t want to slip the sleeping pill in Dean’s coffee but at the rate he was going, he would have been up all night and Ellen knew, despite what he said, he wouldn’t let her out of the house so easily.
Finding Johnny was easy. Hoping he wasn’t with Frank was the trick. She lucked out. He wasn’t. Ellen merely walked into the Social Hall, slipped up behind Johnny, whispered, ‘we have to talk’, and then she walked back out.
She waited outside on the street in the dark corner by Containment until she saw Johnny emerge from the Hall. He looked around for her and she made her approach.
He was smug as he barely looked at her. “What?”
“This is very serious, Johnny. Drop the attitude.”
“Go on,” Johnny said. “Make it quick.”
“I want to end this.”
“You’ve tried, El. I believe scissors were the route you were going to take today.”
“No.” She shook her head. “We need to end this for the sake of your father, Pap, and your whole family. I want this to end.”
“Just like that?” Johnny asked with disbelief. “What? You want a truce?”
“No, I want one of two things. Either you stop all connection with the Society . . .” She grew irritated at Johnny’s chuckle. “Fine. I guess that won’t be an option. Or . . . . you leave.”
“Leave? You mean leave Beginnings?”
“Yes. You said you can’t wait to get out of here so leave. Just leave,” Ellen told him.
“It’s not that easy, El,” Johnny said snidely. “I wish I could but where I want to go is three thousand miles away. What do you suggest I do? Walk?”
“Take a helicopter.”
Johnny fluttered his lips. “It won’t last in gas. Neither will a Jeep. Sorry.” He started to leave.
“What will it take?” Ellen reached out and grabbed his arm.
“I have to call them. George will arrange for me to leave.”
“Then call them.” Ellen let go of his arm.
“I was,” Johnny snapped. “You stopped that. Now the code is changed and I’m stuck. I also want to finish my drink.”
“What if I help you?”
“You can’t.” Johnny continued walking.
“I know how you can call.”
Johnny stopped and turned around. “You know Pap’s code?’
“No.” Ellen shook her head.
“Uncle Hal’s?”
“No.”
Johnny laughed. “Then you know nothing.”
“I know . . .” Ellen spoke up. “How to make a phone call.”
“How?” Johnny scoffed. “How can you know and no one else does?”
“Dean knows. I suppose Danny Hoi does as well, but he won’t admit it.”
Slowly, Johnny walked back to her. “You know how I can make a call.”
“Yes, without a doubt and I know where, too.”
After a nod, Johnny moved to her. “Where?”
“If I take you there, you have to promise no more shit. Nothing. Once you make your arrangements, you go. Just leave. Deal?”
Johnny stared at her. “Deal. Take me to the phone.”
“Well, we have to go now. They start keeping track of people coming in there in an hour.”
“Excuse me?” Johnny asked.
“Get a truck. Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“New Bowman,” Ellen stated.
^^^^
“It’s simple.” Ellen explained as they drove on the dark road that connected Beginnings and New Bowman. “All the computers are connected. They dial into each other but in order for it to work, they have to be connected by a viable phone line.”
“How does that help me?”
“Every single Danny Dollar computer is programmed to dial only the main terminal but they work through the phone lines. You go to the basement of one of the buildings, pull out the line, plug a phone line in, and bingo.”
“I start dialing the phone and I’ll get George?”
“Right.”
“Wrong.” Johnny stopped the truck. “I can’t believe I fell for this.” He laughed in disbelief. “With the phones down, my grandfather wouldn’t let that Danny Dollar system run if he knew there was a chance of that.”
“Pap doesn’t know. Danny won’t admit it.”
“But you and Dean know?” Johnny asked.
“Yes. If the phone lines aren’t down, then they are viable phone lines.”
“It’s a network, El. What do you take me for? An idiot.” Johnny shook his head. “Here, I almost fell for it. I can see it. Me dialing the phone, trying to make a call, and you probably have it rigged that Uncle Hal or someone is gonna answer
.”
“What? No.” Ellen defended. “You’ll see.”
“No. You’ll see.” Johnny stared at her.
“Johnny, I just want this over.”
Johnny smiled. “So do I.”
^^^^
Johnny always thought the one really cool thing about his father being Head of Security was the fact that Johnny was privileged to information that he shouldn’t have been. Frank had no reason not to tell him. After all, what would Johnny do with the knowledge that starting at midnight, all perimeter beams and tracking were routinely and briefly shut down one at a time to check their operations and status?
Prior to that moment, Johnny didn’t care but standing on the road, outside of th3 truck, Johnny listened to the sound of the perimeter areas shutting down and going back on. They went down the line of the road in sequence and perfect timing. It was a usual occurrence that worked in Johnny’s favor. While he stood there waiting, Johnny smiled at the semi-lit perimeter beams before him. It wouldn’t be long before they were down. Even if only for a few seconds, that was all the time Johnny needed.
^^^^
How long had Robbie been up there? Hours? Flashlight in hand, he had encircled the whole area, looking and searching for what, he didn’t know. His gut told him there was something up there. It had been a long time since that early morning when he saw Dean in that region and since he passed the incident off, recalling the exact details of it were difficult.
He decided to give it one more try and walked all the way back to the gate of the fence. He imagined what had happened. He got the call from Tony that night and had to leave Bev’s house with Frank. Tony swore a killer baby broke in because he heard . . . digging.
Digging.
Robbie spun around quickly from where he stood. There was only one path he would have taken that morning into the shallow wooded area and from where he stood, he took that thin path in what he believed was the same pace he did that morning. In a whisper, he spoke the same words he had that morning. He imagined Frank calling back and then Robbie stopped.
Where?
Shining his flashlight, Robbie slowly turned to where he recalled he saw Dean, or at least he thought. He walked over to the spot and he knew he’d feel pretty silly if all he found was rabbit food.
There was a fallen tree and a small dip in the landscape. A small break in the woods was seen and so were lights from down in the town. Stepping over the tree, Robbie lost his footing just a little. “This is really stupid of me,” he spoke out loud. “What am I doing? What were you doing, Dean? It couldn’t have been anything. This is so out in the open.”
Or was it?
Pretending he was Dean, Robbie hunched down some. He turned to look behind him. “Oh, wow.” What happened to the break in the trees and the lights from town? From that height, everything seemed masked behind the short brush. He turned around again and peered up the hill. Nothing. He couldn’t even see the perimeter fence where he himself was standing when he spotted Dean.
Was there really an experimental rabbit amuck or did Dean think he had found a spot of seclusion to do what Tony heard . . . dig?
There was only one way to find out so Robbie dropped down to his knees. His positioned the flashlight in the prosthetic arm and he used his left hand to feel the surface of the ground around the tree. The leaves were loose and so was the dirt. His hand moved slow and easy, feeling for a difference and he found it.
A slight indentation in the even ground brought suspicion to Robbie’s mind. With his fingers extended, he began to dig into the dirt that moved with ease just under the slightly lifted bark of the fallen tree.
Robbie scooped and moved the dirt while shining the flashlight. Just at the point he thought it to be useless, his finger felt it. Robbie’s heart sunk. “Oh, my God,” he whispered and his hand removed more dirt. So afraid, and hoping he was wrong, Robbie felt in the hole. He wasn’t wrong.
Dusting off his hand, Robbie reached into his pocket. He pulled out a folded sheet of paper, a report he was supposed to have dropped off at his dad’s office. After fanning it open, Robbie laid it in the hole. He placed his hand over the paper and gripped. All the wishful thinking in the world didn’t help when he retracted his hand, bought it into the beam of the flashlight, and saw within his grip, a bloody revolver.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
December 3rd
Making love. How long had it been since Dean had made love to Ellen? There he was. He had her right where he wanted her. Her body was buried beneath his, his arms were wrapped tightly around her, and his lips brushing, touching, moving as sensually as his body did. He could hear her slight moans and he fed from that. It was the only sound he wanted to hear, that and her breathing. Unfortunately, there was another.
“Dean,” Frank’s voice called. “Dean! Come on!”
Dean blinked. ‘No, no, not now. Maybe if I pretend . . .’
“Dean!”
Dean’s mouth lifted from its buried spot on Ellen’s neck.
“Dean!”
“Goddamn it, Fran, Can’t you see I’m . . .” Dean lifted his head. The moment he did, the crowd roared. “What the hell?” He took in the sight around him. Ropes? Three of them? Where was he? The semi-soft white surface wasn’t a bed or a floor, but a mat. There they were, stark naked, making love in the middle of a wrestling ring. In a glance, he looked down at Ellen. She still held the same enjoyable expression on her face. Didn’t she know what was going on? “El?”
“Don’t stop,” Ellen whispered.
“But, El . . .”
“Dean!” Frank called out again.
Within a second Dean caught glimpse of the legs. Clothed in black pants, they scooted around him and Ellen. Peering up further, he saw the black stripes of the referee shirt that Hal wore.
Hal dropped down, slapped his hand twice to the matt, held up two fingers, stood up, and shook his head. “No pin,” Hal called out.
“Of course I’m not pinning her,” Dean argued. “I’m making love.”
“Dean!”
Enough was enough. Where was Frank? Dean looked to his left and screamed. Standing in the corner of the ring, entirely naked, was Frank.
Leaning further against the ropes, Frank extended his hand out. “Come on, Dean. Tag me in. Tag me in.”
“Tag you in?” Dean was confused and then Dean . . . woke up.
With a grunt from a pain that shot up his back, Dean barely opened his eyes and grumbled. “Frank. God. See what you and your double teaming reference did to my dream . . . El?” Half out of it, Dean rolled over to face Ellen. “El, you have to . . .”
Bam! Dean hit the space of the living room floor between the sofa and the coffee table.
If the dream hadn’t thrown him through enough a loop, the scene before him did. The lights were still on and notes were scattered about. Even his coffee cup was right where he left it. “Swell. She didn’t even wake me up to go to bed.” Entirely too sore for his liking, Dean stood as best as he could. His knees wouldn’t straighten and lurching like an old man, he made his way to the bedroom. Aside from the fact that every step he took hurt, Dean knew something was wrong before he arrived at the bedroom and he was right. There was no sign of Ellen.
^^^^
With a cigarette chomping between his lips, Frank flung open the door to Tracking with an abundance of zealousness. “Is it a beautiful fuckin morning or what?” He grinned. “What do we have?”
Sitting next to Mark, Robbie looked up from the screen he monitored. “They’re moving slow and steady. We definitely have three SUTs.”
“How far away are they?” Frank asked.
“They’re still far,” Robbie replied. “About two miles. How long are you going to wait?”
“Well, I could go out now but I don’t feel like chasing them. I’ll hang out. Are they heading in the direction of the back gate this time?”
“You got it.” Robbie didn’t sound as upbeat as Frank.
“You look tired,” Frank
commented.
“I didn’t sleep.” Robbie slouched down in the chair.
“Hey, about last night. I’m . . . I’m sorry I snapped at you. I had a bad day.”
“Yeah,” Robbie nodded. “I understood.”
“Good.” Frank gave him a pat to the back. “I see you still have your temporary arm.”
“Unfortunately.” Robbie looked at it.
“It kind of looks . . .” Frank stared at the rubber of it. “Fucked up.”
Mark’s mouth dropped open. “Frank, that’s rude. It looks . . . it looks good.”
Robbie shook his head. “It looks like a rubber arm.”
“Maybe if you wore one of those UWA gloves,” Frank suggested, “and painted the nails. That might work.”
“It might.”
The slight crackle of the radio brought Dean’s voice into Tracking. “Frank.”
Frank rolled his eyes and lifted his radio “Dean, it’s fuckin six thirty in the morning. What?”
“I have a problem,” Dean said.
“It better be good.”
“It is . . . .” There was a pause from Dean. “I can’t find Ellen.”
^^^^
Had Ellen not been cold enough to reach for her covers, she wouldn’t have realized she wasn’t in bed.
Her head lifted slightly in confusion as she lay on her stomach surrounded by trees. She grumbled and dropped her head. “Great.”
^^^^
“Say it, Dean.” Frank released the button and waited. Nothing. He spoke into the radio. “Dean, say it.”
“All right!” Dean snapped. “Our wife. Our wife. Now will you find her?”
“Absolutely.” Frank hung up the radio. “All right. I guess it’s time to chase those SUTs.” Peering once more to the monitor, Frank turned to leave and stopped when he heard the single beep. “What was that?”
“Shit.” Robbie looked at the screen. “We have a problem. It’s fifteen feet from the road and it’s heading towards the SUTs.”
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