Ashen Winter a-2

by Mike Mullin

“I repeat, QLR. This block of frequencies is reserved for interagency coordination. Clear the frequency.”

  “Interagency-like, the government? That’s great, I need to speak to someone high up in FEMA.”

  “Under the Federal Emergency Recovery and Restoration of Order Act, I am authorized to confiscate your radio and place you in summary detention if you do not clear this frequency immediately. QLR.”

  I shot a worried look at Ken. He shook his head. “They’d need a sophisticated triangulation setup to even find you.”

  “This is life and death,” I said into the mic. “We’re in a refugee camp. The DWBs are kidnapping people. The guards know, but they aren’t doing anything-they’re getting paid off by the DWBs. We need help.”

  “What sector?”

  “Sector? We’re in the refugee camp in Maquoketa, Iowa.”

  “Hold.” I heard papers rustling for a moment. “Call 18,160 kilohertz in one hour. I’ll notify the coordinator for your sector. QLR.”

  “Thank you,” I said, but he was already reading another list.

  We shut off the radio to save the batteries. Ben went to find Dad and tell him about our success. I started counting off an hour, one boring Mississippi at a time.

  Dad joined us just as I hit 3,600 Mississippi. I turned on the radio and double-checked the frequency selector dial-it was still set to 18,160, where Ken had left it. I picked up the mic and offered it to Dad.

  “You go ahead,” he said. “I’ll just listen in.”

  I mashed the push-to-talk switch under my sweaty palm. “Alex at Camp Maquoketa, calling the sector coordinator.”

  “Say ‘CQ, CQ from KJOB,’” Ken said. “It’s proper radio etiquette.”

  I was tempted to say “Thank You, Miss Manners.” I mean, who cares about radio etiquette when people are getting killed? But it was easier just to do it his way. “CQ, CQ from KJOB.” Nothing but static answered my call. I repeated it, over and over, at about one-minute intervals for what seemed like an hour. Had they forgotten? Or worse, was the guy I’d talked to just trying to get me off the frequency by lying about connecting me with the sector coordinator? Dad drummed his fingers on his knee and shifted his weight incessantly.

  Finally someone responded. “KJOB here is N7OVF. This is George Mason with the CBO’s FERROA Oversight Committee.”

  “What’s the CBO?” I said.

  “Congressional Budget Office. I was told you wished to file a complaint?”

  “I thought I’d be speaking to the sector coordinator?”

  “She’s busy. And anyway, we control their appropriations. What’s your complaint?”

  “So what does that mean? That you control their appropriations?”

  “It means that if we don’t give the say-so, they don’t get paid. Well, next year, anyway.”

  Dad was making a rolling motion with his arm. “Get on with it,” he mouthed. So I launched into the story-how people had been disappearing from the camp, especially young women. How we’d captured some of the Dirty White Boys. I glossed over the way Dad had gotten Shawn to talk and didn’t explain what had ultimately happened to Shawn.

  Talking on a shortwave radio had a huge advantage. The CBO guy couldn’t interrupt me. So long as I kept the transmit lever depressed, there was no way he could break in.

  Finally though, I’d said everything I needed to and lifted the transmit lever.

  “Those are serious allegations. Can you substantiate them?”

  “There are dozens of witnesses.”

  “Physical evidence?”

  I looked at Dad, not sure what to say. “Blood stains,” he whispered, “captured knives and other gear. Black Lake buried the people who died in the attacks. They could be dug up.”

  I passed on that information to the CBO guy. “Very serious allegations,” he added. “Monitor this frequency for instructions. N7OVF.”

  I wiped my forehead. I was sweating despite the cold. Dad clapped his hand against my shoulder. “You did good, son.”

  “Thanks. So that guy was from Washington?”

  “The location code in his call sign was zero,” Ken said. “That’s the code for Iowa, Minnesota, and some of the states west of here. If he were out of Washington, his location code would be three.”

  “Hmm. Maybe he’s a field agent or something?”

  Ken shrugged.

  We had a long wait by the radio. More than an hour, I guessed. The light was starting to dim when the radio crackled back to life, “CQ, CQ, this is N7OVF to Maquoketa inmate station.”

  “This is Alex. Inmate?”

  Ken was cringing, and I realized I’d messed up the radio etiquette again. But it didn’t seem to matter.

  “Sorry. Just jargon. Fortunately there’s an inspector not far from you. Congressional Liaison Orley. He’s in Rock Island. I’ve issued orders for him to move to Maquoketa tomorrow.”

  “Great. When will he be here?”

  “When the other inmates, um, refugees gather for dinner, Orley will meet you at the gate. Be sure to bring absolutely everyone who can provide a statement related to Black Lake’s corruption. We’ll need all the corroborating evidence we can get. Okay?”

  “Got it.”

  “Good. N7OVF.”

  We spent much of the next day debating who should meet with Congressional Liaison Orley. If the corrupt Black Lake personnel discovered that we were reporting them, anyone who came along might be at risk. Mom was adamant that we all go despite the danger. Any chance to stop the kidnappings was worth it, she argued. In the end, we decided to keep the group to a minimum. Dad and I, because we’d heard Shawn confess; Ben and Alyssa, because they both had firsthand experience with the flensers’ slave trade; and Mom, because she kept the lists and knew exactly who had disappeared.

  At dinnertime we gathered in a knot near the gate. The two guards on duty glared at us. Usually this part of the camp was deserted at dinnertime-everyone was in the food lines.

  We waited quietly for fifteen or twenty minutes. We were all tense-nobody seemed to feel like talking. A Black Lake guard in camo BDUs strode up to the gate guards and said something to them I couldn’t hear. They stepped away from the gate. The new guard called out, “You here to see Orley? He’s waiting for you in the vehicle depot.”

  I glanced at Mom and Dad. They were trying to keep their faces impassive, but I could tell they were worried. Maybe as worried as I was. But if there was any chance at all of keeping the DWBs out of the camp, we had to take it. If we solved that problem, maybe Mom and Dad would try to escape with me. I marched slowly through the gate with Alyssa, Ben, Mom, and Dad right behind me.

  The guard led us to a huge tent directly adjacent to the highway. Inside, the front part of the tent was clear; the back was packed with vehicles: bulldozers, snowplows, Humvees, and modern military trucks Ben said were FMTVs.

  As my eyes adjusted to the dim light coming through the open tent flaps behind us, a figure stepped out from among the parked trucks. “Orley?” I said.

  Then I saw his face. It was the bastard who had run Camp Galena when Darla and I were imprisoned there last year: Colonel Levitov.

  Chapter 70

  I stepped back and shouted. But a dozen more guys in camo were already emerging from amid the trucks. They carried jagged-looking black assault rifles.

  Dad sighed heavily, burying a word I’d never heard him use before under his breath. Five of the Black Lake guys detached from the rest, moving behind us. If we turned to run, they had clear shots. If we fought, some of us were going to get killed.

  A guy about a foot taller than me forced my arms behind my back. I knew resisting would only make it worse. I felt thin plastic bands brush my wrists between my gloves and coat, and then the ties bit into my flesh. He kicked the back of my knee, and I fell to the ground, landing with a painful thud.

  Within moments, all five of us were handcuffed and sitting on the unforgiving, frozen ground. Ben rocked back and forth, but he wasn’t moaning. Maybe gett
ing cuffed had become so common that it felt like part of his routine now.

  “Now,” Levitov said, “you’ll tell me everything you were going to report to Orley.”

  “Does Orley even exist?” I doubted it-what a sucker I’d been.

  “That’s immaterial. Talk,” Levitov ordered. An even worse thought occurred to me: What if Orley did exist and was working for Mason’s FERROA oversight committee but had reported me to Levitov instead of investigating? Had the U.S. government been completely co-opted by Black Lake?

  Dad shrugged, wincing as the cuffs cut into his wrists. “Might as well talk.”

  I was fuming. “This guy ran the camp outside Galena-the one where everyone was starving to death,” I said to Dad. “How’d you wind up here, anyway?” I shot an impaler’s glare at Levitov.

  “Promotion. For exemplary performance at Camp Galena.”

  “Very funny. Mass starvation and a breakout won you a promotion? Right.”

  “No,” Levitov replied, “after your stunt with the bulldozer, I convinced Washington to authorize us to reclaim the wheat you found on the stuck barges to feed the inmates. Conditions improved. I traded my leaf for a bird and was moved out here.”

  I wasn’t sure how to take the fact that he actually remembered me from among the thousands of prisoners at Camp Galena.

  “We’re barely getting enough food here,” Mom said.

  I snorted. “More than we got at Camp Galena.”

  “Enough,” Colonel Levitov said. “Talk.”

  I clamped my lips shut, but Dad started talking. Told Colonel Levitov the whole story: girls disappearing, his nighttime patrols, the battles with the DWBs.

  When he finished, a long silence ensued. “Not acceptable,” Levitov said finally.

  “What’s not acceptable?” I said. “That your guards are corrupt or that we had to do your job and protect the refugees ourselves!”

  “Both. And you do not understand our mission here. If I could write my own orders, protecting refugees might be my first priority. But what the politicians care about is preventing a flood of refugees from entering the yellow and green zones. People in areas that were less badly affected by the eruption, at least initially, are afraid of being overrun by refugees.”

  “You can’t keep people locked in camps forever,” Mom said.

  “True. Our strategic posture is unstable.”

  “Will civilian control order you to kill the refugees?” Ben asked.

  Mom gasped, but Colonel Levitov didn’t seem fazed. “A massacre? It could happen. I would not obey such an order.”

  “You would be within your rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which specifically protects-” Alyssa kicked Ben in the ankle, and surprisingly, he shut up.

  “So what happens to the other refugees? To my girls?” Mom asked.

  “I will see that those responsible for allowing the DWBs to enter the camp are reassigned.”

  “Reassigned?” I said. “They should be prosecuted.”

  Ben added, “Courts-martial would be the proper-”

  “I don’t have the manpower for that. But the kidnapping of inmates will end. You have my word on that.”

  I didn’t believe him, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

  “So what happens to us?” Alyssa asked, her voice low.

  “You’ll be transferred to Camp Aledo in Illinois tomorrow. I recommend you keep your heads down. If you continue to make trouble, things will not go well for you there.”

  “Better that than where I was,” Alyssa whispered.

  “Why not just let us go?” I asked. “Then we’d be out of your hair completely.”

  “My orders don’t allow for that.” Colonel Levitov strode past us, toward the exit.

  “And the DWBs?” I yelled after him. “The ones who actually did the killing and kidnapping? What happens to them?”

  “Not my concern,” Levitov yelled back. “I’ve got bandit gangs coming out my ass. It’s all I can do to hold off the Peckerwoods’ raids.” He left the tent.

  I slumped. I was further than ever from finding Darla. Tomorrow I’d get shipped to some other godforsaken camp. Something was in my eyes, making them water, but I couldn’t rub them with my hands cuffed behind my back.

  Ben’s voice cut through my morose thoughts. He yelled after Levitov, “I know how you can get rid of the Peckerwoods completely.”

  Chapter 71

  Levitov reappeared in the doorway to the maintenance tent. “How? You’ve got thirty seconds.”

  Ben replied, “They’re based in Anamosa-”

  “I know that.” Levitov sounded annoyed. I cranked my head around, straining to see him standing behind me.

  Ben didn’t pick up on it, just kept right on talking. “The Sister Unit and I were at the old prison.”

  “It’s a limestone fortress.”

  “It is vulnerable because it is set up like a prison,” Ben said. “The electronic systems are all offline, but the manual emergency lockdowns should still work. There are fewer than 150 of the original prisoners still there. The rest have left or been killed. A small force, attacking at the right time, could take control of the manual lockdowns. Then you could lock the Peckerwoods out of their own armory and split up the forces that bunk in each wing. Once they’re isolated, you can clear the area via force or leave them there to starve.”

  “Not the most humane plan,” Mom murmured.

  Alyssa glared at Mom. “Not half as bad as they deserve!”

  Colonel Levitov strode back into the tent and crouched in front of Ben, who was staring at his own shoes. “Do you know how to operate the emergency lockdowns? You know where they are? Can you draw us a map?”

  “Yes, I can map most of the prison. I did not see it all.”

  “Cut him loose,” Levitov ordered.

  “Um, Ben?” Alyssa said.

  “Cut the Sister Unit free, too,” Ben said.

  “Ben!” Alyssa whispered. “All of them.”

  “Yes,” Ben said, “Ben will help you if you let all of Ben’s friends go free.”

  “That’s almost as good as transferring us to another camp,” I said. “You can report that we escaped.”

  “I’m not allowing any of you to go anywhere until I’ve verified the intelligence you’re supplying.”

  I had to go on the raid. Darla was in Anamosa. Or she had been a few days ago when Alyssa last saw her. “Fine. Take us all when you attack the Peckerwoods. That way if anything comes up, Ben’ll be handy. When you’re done kicking the Peckerwoods’ butts, you let us go.”

  “Five noncombatants in the middle of a firefight? Forget it.”

  “Ben can’t go by himself,” Alyssa said.

  “I could, in fact, go by myself, Sister Unit.”

  “Take us all. You can leave us outside or locked in a truck or something while you fight. We won’t be in the way.”

  Colonel Levitov nodded slowly. “Deal. Captain Billson!” he yelled. “Escort these five to the infirmary. Put them in the empty bunks with a twenty-four-hour guard, three-man detail.”

  One of the camo-clad guards yelled “Sir!” as Colonel Levitov pivoted and disappeared. They cut the cuffs off our wrists and marched us into the abandoned WalMart. It was subdivided into hallways and rooms with canvas walls. After a couple of twists and turns, we arrived at a small room into which a dozen cots had been packed.

  It was easily the most luxurious sleeping arrangement I’d seen since I left Worthington. One of the grunts even brought us two pails of water-one to wash up in and one to drink from. We huddled together and talked over what we’d learned from Colonel Levitov, trying to keep our voices low enough that the three guards just outside the doorway couldn’t hear us.

  We were stuck. We had to help Colonel Levitov no matter how much we distrusted him and hope he kept his promise to release us. Then maybe we could find Darla and hightail it back to Warren.

  “I promised to let you take the truck so you could drive t
o Worthington,” I said to Alyssa.

  “Well, I. . do you think your Uncle Paul would take in a couple more people?” she asked.

  “I think he’d be glad of the extra help,” I said.

  “I don’t know,” Dad said. “They were running awfully low on food when your mom and I left.”

  “Things got better. We were doing okay when Darla and I left,” I said. “And Alyssa and Ben would pull their weight.”

  “Yeah,” Alyssa said, “I’d like to go to Warren with you. . if that’s okay.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and she leaned closer to me. “You’re the only decent guy I know in this shitball world.”

  “Alyssa, I’m not-”

  She blushed. “I know you’re not interested in me that way. But we’re friends, right? I’d rather stay close to you. I don’t know why, okay?”

  “Okay.” Alyssa had seemed different-less confident-since that morning in the tent. But I’d be glad to have both her and Ben around. I put my hand over hers and squeezed.

  Mom and Dad were looking at me. “What?” I said as I released Alyssa’s hand.

  “Nothing.” Mom shook her head.

  “I’m going to try to get some sleep,” I said.

  I picked out a cot at random, lay down on my side, and rested my head on my forearm. We had missed dinner-my stomach was gnawing on a hard knot of nothing. I was exhausted and weak, but sleep refused to come.

  My thoughts spun, revolving through the same worry over and over: Darla. I knew she was alive. She had to be. I’d know it if she were dead, right? Or was that total crap made up by movie writers and believed by overly optimistic morons like me? Was she still in Anamosa? When Black Lake attacked the prison, how could I be sure she wouldn’t be hurt?

  Amid all these worries, a tiny but fierce flame burned: hope. Tomorrow I might find Darla. Finally.

  Chapter 72

  It didn’t happen. The next day we were trapped in the infirmary. Black Lake employees came and went all day, setting up kerosene lanterns, bringing paper and pencils to Ben, and quizzing all of us about Anamosa and the Peckerwoods. They even brought food-some kind of wheat porridge-and more water.