“They used the buildings for storing things, but I don’t know what. I was never allowed in. They also had a couple big tents they used to hold meetings in, but I couldn’t go to those. Mostly they slept in their vehicles and lived outdoors.”
Kat wasn’t liking the sound of this. “About two hundred of them, you said. How many vehicles did they have? And what kind were they?”
“Several dozen, at least. A lot of those monster trucks and a few RVs and SUVs and a couple of huge buses.”
Kat shook her head. There hadn’t been nearly that many men or trucks camped outside the Cameron estate. “They can’t have enough gas to run all those vehicles.”
Lacey shook her head in unconscious imitation of Kat. “I don’t know where or how they got it. But they never seemed to lack for gas, or food either.”
It seemed to Kat as if there was more going on with these white supremacists than she’d imagined. She certainly got the impression there were more of them than she’d thought, and that Fiona’s surprise would still have left most of them alive. Since most hadn’t seemed to follow Bart and Lacey. But where are they now?
Kat would’ve liked to ask more questions, but she could tell Lacey’s information about them was limited. The woman had been treated like property, a virtual prisoner.
“But you and Bart had to leave? Escape?”
“He didn’t like the way they treated us. Thought we could do better ourselves. He wanted to go find an abandoned farm or something.”
Kat sighed. “Well, you are better off now, whatever happens. And I’ll be thinking about taking you back home with us. But for now, why don’t you get some rest.”
Lacey nodded and pulled herself up, clinging to the wall, then hugged that wall all the way around what used to be a living room. Step by step until she reached the door to the garage.
With her gone, Kat turned her thoughts back to the problem at hand. One of them, anyway. There were likely dozens of the Aryans left, and somehow, sometime, they’d likely find out from Bart what had happened at the Camerons’ and they’d be mad and have the resources to come looking for Kat and the rest. They could be out searching between here and the FURC right now.
Kat would have to take even more precautions. She was tempted to just wake everyone up and pile them in the jeeps and make a run for the FURC—it was what she really wanted to do. They’d probably only have to worry about being chased there, which was only a chance anyway. The more time she took to get everyone to the compound, the greater threat became running into Aryans already ahead of them. And yet. She felt sure she ought to slow down, even if it didn’t make sense to her. There was something more going on here, but she wasn’t going to figure it out now so she stopped dwelling on it.
Glancing over at the door to the garage to make sure she was still alone, Kat pulled her FURCS pad out and held it up close to the window. No connection, and no notification that her message had been sent. She had hoped that in the night they might’ve passed by a working cell tower, but now she worried they might be down across the state. It wasn’t likely anyone would be rushing to fix them, either.
Hopefully Tony wouldn’t be too concerned, not hearing from her and not being able to contact her. Assuming he’d tried to call. Maybe it would be better if he was worried. If things had gone according to plan, she should’ve been back by now.
Tony knew that nothing ever went according to plan, not really, but he couldn’t have any idea where she was or what was happening to delay her. What’s he thinking? She wondered how long it would take before he started pulling his precious hair out over her. Or would it ever come to that?
Aside from Tony, only Ken and her parents had any knowledge of this mission she’d undertaken. It felt awfully lonely when she thought about that.
She thought about cracking the window open a bit to let in some sorely needed fresh air. But before she did that, she gently lifted a corner of the curtain and peeked out at the empty subdivision in the early morning sunshine. Only it wasn’t empty. It’s like a scene from one of those old zombie movies.
Kat had twitched the curtains a little in surprise at what she’d seen, but after that she kept quite still. It didn’t seem as if anyone had noticed though. She watched dozens of people shuffling around, up and down paths from their front doors to the street and back again. Sometimes wandering onto their lawns and occasionally lifting their heads to look warily at their neighbors.
There were even a few children, venturing a bit farther than the adults before being called wordlessly back to their own small patch of property. Everyone appeared beaten down, lifeless. Suspicious and hostile, too, from the closer ones Kat could see from her vantage point.
They looked so pathetic—desperate in a lifeless way. Kat thought about leaving some of their extra food behind tonight when they left. Desperate people could be dangerous though. She recalled seeing the videos of downtown Miami and the Atlanta riots Lacey had mentioned. It was more important to get away from this place before they were discovered.
I can’t feed the world, and I can’t rescue everyone. Which thought brought her back to Lacey, and she left that for another time.
What she needed to do now was lower the edge of the curtain back without attracting attention and crawl back to the garage without making any noise. And warn the others not to betray their presence.
Making her way around that gaping hole in the ground, Kat calculated the best way to leave without incident. Rather than take off as soon as it got dark, they’d need to wait until the middle of the night and hope they could drive out of the subdivision before anyone was able to react.
If they could remain hidden until then. Surely those people knew about this house and avoided it. But Kat or someone would have to keep watch from the living room window, just in case someone headed their way. She could do that herself for a while, but eventually she’d need a nap. So would MacTierney. Kat would let Fiona decide who should relieve her as lookout.
They’d also have to be prepared to move out at a moment’s notice, which meant two people awake in the garage to drive and everyone else staying inside the vehicles. As if there were room outside them.
They wouldn’t have much time tonight to make headway toward the FURC, and they’d have to find someplace to stay through the day tomorrow. It was taking longer and longer to get home the closer they got. Tony would be getting worried about her.
She hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash, but it might be nice if he did.
Chapter 9
Lightning Strikes
11:35 p.m. Sunday, March 2nd
DAVID rapped his knuckles against the metal door and the hollow sound echoed down the empty halls. He’d hoped to get a midnight snack from the evening’s leftovers. More than that he needed to talk to Crystal. She was scheduled to work until midnight, and from eleven to midnight all alone. He tried the doorknob, but the door was locked.
He looked up and down the deserted corridors, not blaming her for locking herself in under the circumstances. She probably hadn’t wanted to work at night on her own in the first place. Perhaps she’d already gone home. They had cancelled the late supper service, assuming no one would come.
David himself had been the lone diner at the so-called early supper. He’d forced himself to go to the ‘Officers’ Mess’ because it was his job to keep an eye on things. He’d been surprised to actually enjoy his meal despite the lingering suspicion that something might’ve been poisoned again.
The food was that good, but it had been a lonely meal. The first opportunity to eat with his new coworkers and they’d all avoided the cafeteria. Word had somehow gotten around that someone had poisoned the other guards on purpose—and it seemed everyone assumed the blame belonged to one of the women who worked there. So the girls hadn’t been in a talkative mood.
David had tried chatting with them, but apparently they’d been subjected to another round of interrogation and they hadn’t forgotten that he was a security officer. Or that he
’d been right there when they’d been questioned the first time.
Crystal had tried to catch his eye, as if she might want to talk but only if no one else was around. Now he’d come back for that private word. Perhaps he’d been mistaken about what she wanted. Or since he hadn’t been able to come until the mid-shift break, maybe she’d given up waiting and left when she had an opportunity.
Word having spread about the poisoning, Chief Cameron had put the building on lockdown. Entering and exiting the Guard HQ or the barracks would now require someone with security access to open a door. Sgt. Carruthers must’ve been the one who let the other second-shift workers out. Crystal could’ve left at the same time for all David knew.
He knocked on the door again. If she had wanted to talk to him, it might’ve been related to the poisoning. Knowing now that it had not been an accident, maybe she’d realized something she’d seen or heard was important. He needed to talk to her before she changed her mind about telling him.
If she did know something, it would explain her strange manner this evening in the cafeteria—being seen talking openly with a security officer would be dangerous. And she could also be afraid to open the door to a stranger. Like an idiot, David had banged on the door without identifying himself.
He pounded on the door again, this time calling out. “Crystal, it’s David. Open up.”
He waited a minute and tried the knob again. It was still locked, of course. He knocked a third time. “Are you in there?”
Still no response. David supposed she must’ve gone home after all. If she did have something important to tell him, she could approach him at the house when she came there tomorrow. Maybe that was what she’d expected. She’d have had no way of knowing that he might come here on his break.
He sighed. He didn’t hold out much hope of his finding a clue for Chief Nelson and this might be his best chance. And the sooner this case was resolved, the sooner David would be back at his proper job at Security. Which was why he’d rushed back here as soon as his break had started.
Now he only hoped Crystal would still feel like talking tomorrow. If she had something to share.
Feeling a fool, he turned and walked back along the dim corridors to the guards’ break room. It was larger than the one they had at Security but utilitarian. And much messier.
Two of the guards whose habits were responsible for that were sitting across from each other with an assortment of snacks spread over the metal table between them. David supposed they needed all that fuel, since when they weren’t sealed inside with him and Sgt. Carruthers they had to be out patrolling the buffer zone. And relieving the guards on the north and south gates for short breaks of their own.
At least with the east and west gates now permanently sealed, they had enough guards to cover the other two adequately. These men thought that Ken was taking security precautions to an extreme, locking down the HQ and the barracks and sealing two of the gates. But David thought it made sense. I’ve got to remember to call him Chief Cameron now though. His old boss had become his new. Sort of.
Clearly Chief Cameron didn’t want any more of his men getting poisoned or otherwise got at by any potential saboteur. The eight off-duty guards were locked inside the barracks now, and the three each at the gates were even more effectively sealed out of both the barracks and the HQ. After all, Carruthers had the access key and he was here on the inside.
Or is he? The sergeant wasn’t here in the break room, and the man did have the ability to leave this building whenever he wanted. I’m just being paranoid. There would be a digital signal whenever the sergeant, or anyone else, used their security access to override a locked door. A trail of evidence to lead back to the culprit if he struck again. Ken was definitely being smart.
David stopped standing in the doorway staring at his new colleagues as they ate and walked over to the cupboard where he’d stashed some supplies for himself. He grabbed a plastic container of trail mix and sat it down on the table. As he did, he looked at Neilson and Wagner. “Either of you two happen to know where our sergeant is?”
Neilson gave him a hard look. “What would you want with him?”
David shrugged as he took himself a handful of nuts. “Just curious, that’s all. He’s not here.”
Wagner, who was older, just shook his head. “I doubt he’d come in here while we’re on our break—he might have to talk to us like normal people. You may be different though. Or not. We’ll see.”
David considered that cryptic remark while going to the coffee maker and pouring himself a mug. Or a paper cup, rather. He put as much of the powdered concoction they called creamer here into his brew as he thought he could stomach. Then taking his cup with him, he sat down at his spot at the table and munched on a few nuts and sipped his coffee.
Bored with just sitting there, he caught Neilson and Wagner’s eyes and nodded at the pack of cards sitting on a counter. “Maybe we could have a game of pinochle to pass the time.”
Wagner just shook his head again, but Neilson snorted. “Our sergeant wouldn’t approve.”
“What wouldn’t I approve of?”
David had seen the sergeant coming, but hadn’t thought to warn the others. “I was just suggesting a friendly game of cards to pass the time. Until we go back on duty.”
Sgt. Carruthers stood there in the doorway and frowned around at them. But what he said was, “It’s not my business how you amuse yourselves on your breaks. I have better things to do.”
David grabbed a handful of nuts and munched on them while he considered the sergeant. The man had an admirable work ethic, but he was difficult to like. That didn’t make him a poisoner.
Carruthers returned the look. “Where have you been? You took off as soon as your break started.”
David took a long sip of coffee before responding. “I hurried down to the cafeteria to see if they’d any leftovers I could grab for a snack.”
Neilson interjected. “You wanted food from the cafeteria?!”
Wagner’s eyes goggled, and he looked in danger of choking on his sandwich.
David shook his head and waggled his cup. “If someone wants to poison us, they could as easily do it by putting something in the creamer we use, or in the snacks we keep here, or even the food we bring ourselves.”
He returned his gaze to the sergeant. “Unfortunately the door was locked and no one answered. I thought Crystal would’ve still been working, sir, but I guess you must’ve let her out with the others?”
Wagner raised his head from staring at the half-eaten sandwich in his hand with suspicion to grin at David.
Around a mouthful of popcorn, Neilson uttered something which might’ve been a laugh. “You got a thing for that blonde, boy?”
Sgt. Carruthers frowned around at the three of them before focusing on David. “I only let out those two who were getting off work. If she wasn’t letting you into the cafeteria, it is supposed to be closed.”
David munched on another handful of nuts and thought about that. If the sergeant was telling him the truth and Crystal was still here, then she hadn’t opened the door for him. He didn’t care for any of the reasons he could think of to explain that.
Carruthers looked down at his watch and spoke to the other two. “Less than ten minutes left to the break, and then I want you two to go back on patrol in the buffer zone. Belue here can help me keep the HQ secure.”
Neither Neilson nor Wagner seemed to be very enthusiastic, and David sympathized. He would not have appreciated spending the next hour and a half out in the cold and dark any more than they would. Thankfully he would be staying inside.
He used a swig of the coffee to wash down what remained of his last mouthful of nuts and nodded at the empty chair. “Why not sit down, sir, and tell me more about my duties here?”
Carruthers’ expression was carefully neutral as he stood there thinking. The man probably thought David different from the rest of the men he supervised, with good reason. He might be unsure of how to
handle this situation. David doubted Carruthers would sit down with the other two guards.
The sergeant had just started to slide the chair out from the table when a loud crack split the air—the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.
Neilson and Wagner jerked to their feet so fast David didn’t actually see them stand. The sergeant was already out the door and into the corridor, but he hadn’t gone any further than that. There was no way to tell where the shot had come from.
David rose slowly. He saw the other three men all had their hands resting on the sidearms in their holsters at their hips. His hand drifted to check on the presence of his own. He’d not gotten around to switching to a shoulder holster yet.
Carruthers had been looking down the hallway, but now he glanced back into the break room. “Any of you tell where that came from?”
Wagner shook his head. Neilson didn’t bother to answer. David sighed. “With the echo, all we can know for sure is that it was inside the building.”
The sergeant frowned. “Yes, but…”
David nodded. “Aside from the four of us, only one other person is supposed to be in the building. Crystal in the cafeteria.”
At that moment the lights went out.
There was a brief silence, the only noise a slight rustle of fabric as someone shifted their feet. Carruthers was the first to speak. “Another blackout.”
In the dark, David looked toward where he had heard the sergeant’s voice. “The lights should come back soon. It takes thirty-nine seconds for the system to reboot.”
David could swear he heard the sergeant’s teeth grinding. Then Carruthers spoke. “If Belue is right then all we have to do is wait a few more—”
And the lights came back on.
The other three men relaxed—a fraction. They might now be able to see to shoot a threat, should a threat appear, but that hardly put them at ease.
Carruthers took command of the situation. “I’ll take Belue and go check the cafeteria. Wagner and Neilson, I want you two to search the building back to front. Nobody else is supposed to be in here with us, but we can’t take that for granted.”
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