Tipping Point (Book 2): Ground Zero
Page 24
“Both, I guess,” he said weakly.
“Chuck’s daughter Katherine. A fourteen-year-old girl who thinks she’s in love with a thief and a pervert. The rapist being Mike, of course. That’s assuming you’ve been around here enough to even know who Mike is,” she said angrily.
“Isn’t he the guy you had in the yard yesterday? I thought he was under guard. How the hell did he get his hands on Katherine?”
“She was meeting with him before we caught him, apparently. Or maybe I should say, ‘allegedly,’ since we’re trying to do this whole court thing right. It’s statutory rape, I guess, but no adult male has any business touching Katherine.”
“Disgusting fucker,” her dad said in agreement, which was a huge relief. She really didn’t want to have to kick him off the farm for saying Katherine deserved it.
“Dad, if you don’t stop seeing that woman, we’re going to have a very big problem on our hands,” she said finally, hoping like hell he listened.
17 ~ INFORMATION BLACKOUT
They managed a full fourteen hours’ travel toward home on the first day, each of them taking the helm for close to five hours. Ian took the first shift, since he had gone to bed relatively early. Mac woke up after about six hours’ sleep, feeling awake and refreshed, and took the second shift. Neil was awake an hour later, so he kept Ian company, while Mac kept her mind on what she was doing.
As soon as she was done her stint at the helm, however, she went through the steps to shut down the engine and dropped the anchor. She changed into her board shorts and a bikini top, and grabbed some goggles. She wasn’t diving at pressure, so she didn’t need a mask. She just needed to be able to see underwater. Neil followed her to the back of the boat and watched her jump off. When she was done checking the hull, he helped her climb back aboard. By then Ian was standing beside him, holding Bella’s leash while she did her business.
“So? We gonna sink?” Ian asked. He leaned over with a baggie to clean up after Bella.
“Doesn’t look like it so far. It doesn’t look any bigger than it did the first time I went down, and we’re travelling at our top speed, which is supposed to be up to seven or eight knots. I would think the additional stress on the hull would have shown if the crack went beyond the … what did you call it?” Mackenzie asked, looking at Ian for the answer.
“Gelcoat. Of course, the hull is painted, too. It’s not just fibreglass and gelcoat I don’t think, so maybe it’s just the paint that’s cracked. Like I said before, I always took my boat in to the people who actually knew what the hell they were doing, so I can’t really tell you much,” Ian replied. He handed Mac the leash so he could wipe up the rest of Bella’s mess.
“Well, whatever it is, it doesn’t look like we’re riding any lower in the water, and I’m not hearing any pumps going crazy, so it looks like we’ll be fine. Still, it’s always better to be sure. We have zero experience with boats like this, and it scares the crap out of me that something could go wrong. We wouldn’t know what the hell to do,” she said.
“Did you say seven or eight knots? I thought this thing seemed slow. Jesus. You could have taken a regular motorboat and been there and back in a damn day or two. Instead it’ll be more like two or three weeks.”
“Well, Neil and I figured we didn’t want to end up in the middle of one of the Great Lakes with a blown motor or something, and no way to keep going. If we got halfway there, and suddenly blew the motor because of an unknown mechanical issue, we’d have been fucked. We can’t call in the Coast Guard or any sort of rescue. A dinghy isn’t really adequate for a trip of around four or five hundred nautical miles, and swimming or walking weren’t options either. We could have converted a diesel car or truck, and easily done the trip in a day, but we didn’t know what was happening in the cities. We figured a boat would keep us away from any remaining population. What the hell do you want from me? I’m not perfect, ya know.”
“Why the hell not? I certainly am!” Ian’s comment had her laughing. He quite often said stuff like that about himself, but she knew he wasn’t being serious. He was a lot more of a softie than he let on, and his ego often appeared rather dented. Sometimes she felt sorry for men. Particularly those of his generation. He’d grown up in a confusing time where women were supposed to be equal, but men still had to act macho or be told they were women, as though womanhood was synonymous with weakness.
“Okay, cowboy. It’s your turn to fly the bird. I probably didn’t need to purge the oil from the line since it was such a short stop, but I did, so you’ll have to switch it back,” she said, directing her comment at Neil.
“Aye-aye, Captain!” He saluted smartly and headed for the cabin.
“Jackass,” she called after him.
“You two have the strangest relationship,” Ian noted.
“Probably, but it works for us,” Mac said with a shrug. “For the most part anyway. We’re pretty blunt about everything, and yet we almost never argue or fight, so it’s probably best that we don’t rock the boat there.”
“I still can’t get over the fact that you married him after only five days,” Ian said in amazement.
“I know. Totally out of character for me. I mean, when I married Cam’s father I was really young, but we had still been going out for quite a while before we got married. I wasn’t surprised my parents gave permission either. I was only sixteen, but they couldn’t wait to get rid of me I don’t think. Probably thought we should be back in the old days, where girls married at fourteen and started popping out kids at fifteen. Well, my father thought that way anyway. My mother just went along. I was with Mitch for a few years before we got married. Guess it just goes to show,” she said.
“Goes to show what?”
“That it’s not about waiting. It’s about knowing who’s right and going with your gut. Most people ignore the red flags that say someone isn’t right for them for one reason or another. I know I used to. This time everything felt exactly right, even if it felt crazy. Of course, I thought Cam was gonna kill me at first. It was so reckless, and it was the worst possible timing. If I had been wrong about him, it would have been a complete disaster.”
Ian gave her a considering look, but didn’t say anything. They decided to take a look in the galley cabinets to see if there was anything interesting that they could nibble on. Food was kind of Ian’s thing, and they wouldn’t be having a real dinner until Neil stopped the boat for the night. Of course, Ian had to eat pretty frequently to keep his blood sugar as level as possible anyway, and to stretch out his insulin supply, he had to eat very small meals, at least five or six times a day.
There wasn’t a lot, which wasn’t surprising for a boat that might have been docked for a while. It was more surprising that nobody thought of checking out the boats to see if they had any food. There were some dry goods, like rice, pasta, and barley, which would have been a pretty great find, as well as some canned stuff to go with it, like tomato sauce. It was mostly healthy, and would have been very filling. They also found a tall jar of mixed nuts, which was perfect for Ian to snack on between meals. Hopefully it would keep him pretty steady.
“How are you with your insulin now?” she asked him.
“Well, I’m not dead. Without being able to check my sugar with a monitor, it’s not easy to know how much I need to inject myself with. The meal-time insulin is just about to expire, so I’ll be finding out how good your old-fashioned insulin is soon enough. I’ve got a few more months left on the long-acting stuff, which will keep me relatively stable, but once that goes I don’t know what it’ll be like.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry there wasn’t anything I could do about that. In order to make synthetic insulin, I would have needed some sort of reactor thingy, and the long-acting insulin wasn’t even made in North America, so none of the facilities are here, even if we found a way to power them and a person who knew how to operate them. The only way to do it would be to go overseas, and I’m pretty sure that’s beyond my very limited boating
skills. Flying a plane is completely out of the question, unless we find someone who’s a pilot. I don’t know anyone who is. Or was.”
“Well, it’s really too bad you can’t solve every damn problem in the world, Mac. We were all really relying on you for that,” Ian teased.
“I have a damn brain. I do my best to use it. Sorry,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“I’m just teasing you. You know that. You’ve done a hell of a lot as it is, and not just for me either. It seems as if you’ve helped a lot of people. You make a difference. You always have, but especially now.”
“Maybe, but it never feels like it’s enough. I had to watch as the whole world imploded from its own idiocy, knowing what was happening and what it would take to change it. But you can’t force people to do anything to help themselves. They all just wanted to sit in their comfortable homes and watch TV, and what I wanted was to smack the shit out of them for it.
“They paid too high a price for their complacency, but then a lot of other people paid the price who were trying to change things. How many Mozarts did we lose? How many Einsteins? So many people who could have been a huge help rebuilding this world are gone, too. Our very best minds are either dead, or we have no way of finding them and talking to them.”
“It makes no difference now. It can’t be undone,” Ian said flatly. “All you can do is make a difference for the ones who are left. And then there’s me. Who says all the great minds are gone? I’m still here.”
Without thinking about it, they started munching on peanuts and cashews, continuing to talk until the sky began to darken. Only a day and a half, maybe, until they were home again, Mac realized, and she couldn’t wait. She was still going to demand to know what was going on when she got on the radio later on, but there were probably a lot of little details she wouldn’t find out about until she got there.
When it got to where they were turning on the lights, Mac decided it was time to start something for dinner. Spaghetti would be good, she figured. They didn’t eat a lot of pasta at home, since they only had what was in storage. She hadn’t learned to make it yet, so she’d been using what they had pretty sparingly. They had some goat cheese with them that she decided to use for protein. When the pasta was cooked and she’d poured on the sauce that she’d heated up, she crumbled the cheese over their plates. Aside from the goat cheese, it certainly couldn’t be considered anything fancy, but both men ate with flattering enthusiasm.
They had a couple of hours before it would be time to get on the radio, and played a few hands of poker to pass the time. When she saw that it was close to midnight, Mac squeezed out from behind the table.
“Is it that time?” Neil asked.
“Yup. And I’m really looking forward to hearing about what the hell was so important last night, that Cam couldn’t talk to us.”
“You’re not the only one. It’s been a few days since I talked to Billy, too. Hopefully he’s there this time.”
“Think we’d get more answers from him than we would from Cam?”
“I’m not sure, but there’s no sense trying to second-guess the situation. All we can do is talk to them and find out,” Neil said pragmatically.
It took ten minutes before anyone picked up at the radio, and by then Mac was starting to freak out a little bit.
“Hey Mac! How’s it going? John here.”
“John? Where is everyone that’s supposed to be operating this radio? Not that I don’t want to talk to you or anything, but it doesn’t sound like you had your licence to broadcast. Cam and Billy are supposed to be operating this thing, or even Chuck or Gilles. Over.”
“Over? Am I supposed to be saying that? Sorry. Yeah, I really don’t know what I’m doing with this thing. Cam just wanted me to keep an eye on the security monitors, so I’m the only one up here right now. Uh, over.”
Mac and Neil looked at one another, wondering what the hell was going on at the farm if not one of the people who were supposed to be using the radio was actually there to use it.
“John, what the hell is going on there? Over.”
“Not much right now. We’ve got some people out on patrol, keeping an eye out for Mike, but we don’t really expect him to show up until tomorrow. Oh yeah. Over.”
“Who the hell is Mike? Over.”
“Just some guy who showed up and started stealing things. We caught him, which is how we found out who he was, but he got away again. Over.”
“Maybe you’d better explain. From the beginning. Over.”
“I can’t. I don’t really know the whole story. I just know he was tripping the sensors and my dad finally found him. Gilles and Chuck were taking him somewhere to get him away from the farm, but he jumped out of the truck. The only people who know what happened really are Cam, Billy, Chuck, and Gilles, but they’re not here right now. Over.”
“Where are they then? Over.”
“Well, they’re still somewhere on the farm, but I’m not sure where. I’m not seeing them on the monitors. Over.”
“Aren’t they carrying the two-ways we picked up when Neil and I went into town? Over.”
“Yeah, but I’m not allowed to contact them unless it’s an emergency. They’re looking for Mike, and they said the radio might give away their position. You want me to try anyway? I mean, do you really need to talk to them? Over.”
“No. I don’t know what’s going on there, so I won’t put anyone at risk when there isn’t an absolute need for it. When you talk to Cam, you let her know I want her to radio back as soon as she gets in, though. Okay? Over.”
“Yes, ma’am. Over.”
“And John, when you finish a conversation, you say, ‘Over and out,’ alright? Before we sign off, though, is everyone alright? How are the animals doing? Over.”
“Everyone is fine, I think. Nobody’s been hurt, and I don’t think anyone even has a cold. Mitch is doing alright with the animals, but we’re still keeping an eye on him like Cam told us to. Over.”
“Mitch? Who’s Mitch? Over.” Mac had to ask, because she could not quite bring herself to believe it was who she thought it was.
“I thought Cam said you knew him. That he was your ex or whatever. Over.”
“I do have an ex named Mitch. I just didn’t think it could be him. He was still in Hamilton last I heard, so I figured he was dead. Over.” She was mouthing the words, ‘Holy crap,’ at Neil.
“Mighta been close to it from the looks of him when he got here, but he’s doing okay now. Over.”
“How long has he been there? Over.”
“A week maybe? Dunno. Been a while anyway. Slept outside the first night, but he’s got the tent now. Looks like he’s going to start work on his own cabin soon, because he was asking my dad for help. Doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about using tools, but Cam wants him to do most of the work himself. I guess he was kinda rude when he first got here. Dad heard Cam go off on him the first day, but from the sounds of it he’s been okay since then. Over.”
“Doesn’t surprise me in the least. Cam’s probably been waiting to have a go at him for years now, and it wouldn’t have taken much to set her off. I wonder what he said, though. Over.”
“Dunno. Not sure if my dad heard that part. If he did, he didn’t fill me in on the details. He just said something about him laughing right before Cam tore him a new one. Over.”
“Well, hell. Sounds like it’s been pretty interesting on the farm since we left. Anything else been going on? Over.”
“Cam and Chuck got some more building supplies, so we can finish the new girl’s cabin. Lisa, I think her name is. The one with the baby. And there should be plenty left over for the inside of your ex’s place if we use logs for the main structure. He’s got the plans for the one-room cabin. I guess Cam gave him a copy. Over.”
“Cam and Chuck went to get supplies? Over.” Mac had said it very slowly, just to be sure John heard the question right, and she got a full answer.
“Yeah. Carol gave her the keys
to the hardware store, so they filled up the horse trailer and truck box with all kinds of stuff. As soon as they got back, though, Cam went over to see her friends. We didn’t unload until later. She looked pissed, but I don’t think she was mad at Chuck. He didn’t look like there was anything wrong with him. Of course, he’s no longer on patrol, either. I just realized that. Cam’s got him doing other things, like helping Mitch with the animals, and building a jail cell. He doesn’t seem like he’s upset about it, though. In fact, I think he’s got it in for that Mike guy, because he’s seems pretty happy to be building the jail. Over.”
“Jesus Christ! A jail cell? What the hell do we need a jail cell for? Over.”
“Something to do with Mike. I think there’s more to it than just him stealing and escaping, but I haven’t been told what it is yet. There’s been a rumour going around that they’re going to have some sort of trial. Sam was talking to Kelly, who said something about resuming her old JP duties, but she wouldn’t say anything more than that. Over.”
“Alright John. I’ll let you get back to what you were doing. There’s no point in talking about rumour and conjecture. I’ll just get the story straight from Cam when she gets in touch. Over.”
“Sure, okay. I don’t think she’s gonna be back at the house tonight, though. She left about an hour ago, and wasn’t planning to be back until morning. She asked Billy to check on the ferrets while she was gone, but I’ll let her know you want to talk to her as soon as I see her. Over and out.”
Before Mac had a chance to say anything further, he was gone.
“So,” Neil began.
“Yeah,” Mac responded, shaking her head. She got up slowly from the tiny navigation desk, and the two of them were silent as they headed back into the galley and dining area.
“So, how’s it going at the old homestead?” Ian’s question had Mac shaking her head again, as though trying to activate some sort of coherent thought.
“Uh, they’re building a jail cell,” she finally said, still having difficulty taking it all in.