Before I left the kitchen, Little Bit wandered in. “What’s that smell?” She asked, craning her neck to see into the pan.
Mel smiled at her. “Scrambled eggs with cheese. You want some?”
She bounced up and down. “With cheese? Yes, I want some! Where did we get cheese? I love cheese!”
“Let me fix a plate for Taylor, and you take it to her; then come back and I’ll have a plate for you on the table.”
Little Bit held her hands out. With wide eyes, she licked her lips when Mel handed her the plate and she sniffed the yellow pile.
“Go on now. Take that to your sister. Here’s a fork too.”
I patted Mel on the ass and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you later, baby.”
She smiled and winked, then asked if I wanted a glass of tea.
“What kind of question is that?” I replied.
She took a red Solo cup and filled it with tea. The girls were still going through the houses in the neighborhood and bringing things home, and these came in pretty handy. As she handed me the cup, I smiled. “Thanks, babe.”
She smiled. “I gotta take care of you.”
“And you do a fine job of it,” I replied, and gave her a kiss before collecting my gear.
In the living room, I grabbed my Florida atlas. I’d gone through my topo maps, but didn’t have one that covered the area where the Elk’s Camp was located. Sarge asked for a map, and this was the best I could do. Tucking the book under my arm, I left the house. It was really warm out, even though the sun was barely up. Ugh, it’s going to be a hot one. Looking up, I could see the large puffy nimbus clouds that predicted rain at some point today.
Our location in Florida was interesting. We were almost equidistant from the east and west coasts. That meant that the sea breeze from either side collided right over us; and in the heat of the afternoon, usually brought some pretty strong thunderstorms. And today looked as though it would live up to it.
I sipped my tea on the short walk to the bunker and found Danny was already there when I arrived. We were to relieve Ted and Mike. Danny was leaning on the bunker talking to Ted, but I didn’t see Mike.
“Morning, boys.” I greeted them.
Ted looked over his shoulder. “What’s up, Morg?”
Looking around, I asked, “Where’s Mike?”
Ted jerked his head in the direction of the latrine. ”The king is on his throne.”
“Ah, should have known. How’s it going, Danny?”
Danny looked up towards the sky. “It’s going to be hot today.”
Swallowing a sip of tea, I replied, “Gotta love summer in the Sunshine State.”
“Looks like it’s going to be liquid sunshine today,” Ted added.
“It’ll cool things off,” I replied.
“That’ll make you feel like a new man!” Mike shouted. We all turned to see Mike standing beside the thatched hut, stretching. “Feel like I lost five pounds dropping some heat, boys!”
Ted was shaking his head. “Thanks for that. My day is complete.”
Mike smiled. “Well, that’s me!” He pounded his chest with his fists. “I’m a giver!”
“Cept no one wants it,” Ted replied.
Mike hoisted his plate carrier over his head and dropped it on his shoulders. “Now that’s just inconsiderate, Teddy.”
“You are a true knucklehead,” Ted replied.
I laid the atlas out on the roof of the bunker and flipped through it until I found the page with the area of the camp and pointed it out to Ted.
“Take this with you and give it to the old man,” I said.
“Yeah, he wants to get an idea of where it is. You coming over later?”
“When we’re relieved, we’ll be over. Thad’s bringing that guy back from town today, and we need to have a talk with him,” I replied.
Ted snorted. “Not like he’s going to tell us anything we don’t already know.”
I shrugged. “Well, there’s always his buddy.”
We’d caught another man the next day. Some residents of Eustis brought him to the armory. It was a two man team that set the bomb. The guy we caught immediately after the blast was the one that actually set it. This was the other half of that team.
“Someone willing to do something like that probably isn’t going to tell you anything.”
I nodded and looked at him. “Maybe. But I still need to have a talk with him.”
Ted picked up the book and looked at me. “Talk, huh? Is that what you’re going to do? Talk to him?” I didn’t reply as Ted called to Mike. “Come on, Mikey. I’m tired.”
“On my way, boss! On my way!” Mike shouted as he ran to catch up.
“That guy needs Ritalin,” Danny said with a smile.
“That, or he’s cooking meth someplace,” I said with a chuckle.
“Morning, lads!”
Danny and I both jumped and looked over to see Dalton coming out of the woods.
“Damn, man. You slink around like some kind of frickin cat or ninja.” Danny said.
I laughed. “Yeah, a ninja cat.”
Dalton pressed his hands to his thighs and bowed. “Watashi wa ninja nekodesu.”
“Watashi what?” Danny asked.
Dalton smiled. “Just what you said. I am the ninja cat.”
I was surprised. “You speak Japanese?”
“A little. Enough to get by.”
Danny looked up. “Man, it’s already getting hot.”
“Mmm, yes. I think it’s going to be a scorcher,” Dalton replied with a cockney accent.
“Yeah, we need some kind of shade out here,” I replied, then looked into the bunker opening. “And I don’t want to hang out in there all day.”
“We should put up a tarp here on the backside,” Danny said.
“I’ll go cut some poles if you guys want,” Dalton offered.
“That’d be great. If you go to my shed, the smaller one, there’s a blue ten by ten tarp in there. Grab it and some rope or something to tie it down,” Danny replied.
“Right O!” Dalton shouted and took off.
I laughed. “That dude just ain’t right.”
“Seems to be a common thread around here lately.”
While we waited for Dalton to come back, we wasted no time flipping a quarter and trying to call it. You could only spend so much time looking around. Dalton returned with an armload of poles, the tarp and some cordage.
Dropping the poles, “I tried to get long ones so they would be taller than the roof of the bunker so we could stand under it back here and see over the top.”
“Sounds good to me. Some shade will be nice,” Danny replied.
We got to work driving the poles and lashing the tarp. We staked out the poles to draw the tarp taught. We decided to make it flat so that when it rained it would pool some water that we could then direct off and collect. Not that we really needed the water, but why waste it?
Chapter 2
Morning couldn’t come soon enough for Thad. He just didn’t like being at the armory. So when he woke up, he was ready to go.
Thad went to the back of the truck and looked in. “Hey, you guys ready to go?”
Perez was lying on his back with his hat pulled down over his eyes. “It’s too early for this crap.”
Thad smiled and grabbed Perez’s boot. “Come on, grumpy. Get up. I’m ready to go home.”
Jamie got up and started packing her gear. “Shake a leg, old man. Let’s get the hell out of here before they try and rope us into some kind of BS.”
Perez groaned and sat up, the hat falling into his lap. He looked bleary-eyed at Thad and shook his head. Fumbling around in his pockets, he produced a cigarette, lit it and took a long drag. He
spent the next several minutes coughing.
“Them things gonna kill you, Perez,” Thad said.
Still coughing, Perez waved him off. Ian rolled out from under the truck and started putting his gear together. He looked up in the back of the truck and smiled.
Ian winked at Jamie. “You and you’re boyfriend have a good night?” While trying to catch his breath, Perez gave him the finger in reply.
Jamie was stuffing her poncho liner in her pack. “Keep it up, Ian.”
Grinning, Thad looked at Ian. “She gonna get you one of these days.”
Ian laughed. “She’s harmless.” Then Jamie’s pack hit him in the side of the head and knocked him on his ass.
When he looked up, Jamie was looking down at him from the back of the truck. “How’s that for harmless?”
Ian pushed the pack off his chest. As he was getting up, he said, “You’ve got anger issues, woman.”
Jamie let out a loud laugh and looked at Thad. “You think I’ve got anger issues?”
Thad shook his head. “No, ma’am.” Then he laughed as well.
“See, Ian? Thad doesn’t agree with you.”
Then Shane with the Eustis PD walked up. “Morning, guys.”
“Hey, Shane. How’s it going?” Thad asked.
“Good. It’ll be better when you guys take that prisoner with you. You’re taking him today, aren’t you?”
“I’m not. I’m riding a tractor home. They might though,” Thad said, nodding at Ian.
“Yeah. You get him trussed up and we’ll come get him shortly,” Ian said.
“Thank God. People around here are pretty pissed. We spend all our time trying to keep people away. They want to lynch his ass. They’re pissed at the other one too, but the guy that actually set it, they want his head on a pole.”
Ian snorted. “Just let them know there’s something far worse in store for him. When that old man gets ahold of him, he’ll wish he were dead.”
“I think Morgan wants a piece of him too,” Thad added.
Ian shouldered his pack. “I don’t think Morgan has same mean streak the old man does.”
Thad shook his head slightly. “Don’t underestimate the man.”
Shane ran a hand through his hair. “I just want this one gone. I’ve got another over there now, and some people want this guy’s scalp too. I just want one of them gone. Tell Morgan I need to talk to him about this guy when he gets a chance.”
“What’d he do?” Thad asked.
“It was a domestic thing with his girlfriend. He got drunk and thought she was talking to some dude. Shit got out of hand, and she’s dead,” Shane said.
“Damn, why?”
“He was drunk. Guess he got some booze from that old guy at the market before he was blasted all over the place.”
Shaking his head, Thad asked, “His excuse is he was drunk?”
Shane shrugged. “That’s what he’s saying. Says he didn’t mean to. His family brought him in to keep her family from killing him.”
“I’ll tell Morgan. He’ll get with you the next time he comes to town,” Thad said.
“Y’all get the hell out of the way so I can get out of here,” Perez grumbled.
Thad stepped back and Perez flopped out of the truck, dragging his pack on the ground behind him. “I’ll be at the truck when you’re ready.” He looked at Ian. “And I’m driving. You ride up there in that damn perch.”
Jamie hopped out beside him. “I’ll drive. Perez, you can sleep.”
Perez smiled. “I love you.”
Jamie laughed. “I love you too, Poppie. Give me a cigarette.” Perez shook one out of the pack and handed it over, then lit it for her.
Ian was shaking his head. “I think you’re gay for him.”
Jamie took a long drag as she walked towards Ian. Once close enough, she blew the smoke in his face. “In your dreams. I’m going to go find the engineers and see when they’re going to meet Morgan.”
“I’ll be over at the PD waiting for you guys. I’ll open the roll-up door so you can pull in. We bring that guy outside and someone’s liable to take a shot at him,” Shane said.
Jamie went into the armory and found Livingston. “Hey, Lt. When are those engineers going to meet Morgan at the plant? He asked me to find out.” Then she looked around. “How the hell did you guys get the lights on in here?”
Livingston smiled as he looked around. “Those clever engineers hooked us up to the generator running the clinic. They said they’d meet him tomorrow. But today we’re sending a couple of trucks with you guys so the doc can look at those people you think have TB.”
She nodded. “Ok, tell them to meet us over at the PD. We’re going to load that guy to take him with us today.”
“And what does the good Sheriff have in mind for him?” Livingston asked.
Jamie shrugged. “Probably best not to ask questions you don’t want answers to.”
“I’m assuming then we’ll probably never see him again.”
“What do you want me to say? I have no idea what they plan to do. If you guys need him for something, keep him here.”
Livingston looked towards the police station. “No, you guys take him. He’s causing us enough trouble just being here.”
“I’ll tell Morgan to meet the engineers tomorrow. What time?”
“Around noon I guess. Sure would be nice if they could get that plant on line,” Livingston added.
“I’m not holding my breath. We’ll be over there,” Jamie said, nodding towards the police station. And then she headed to the truck.
Perez was already asleep in the truck when she got there. Ian was up in the turret setting up the machinegun. Jamie climbed in behind the wheel and asked Ian if he was ready.
“I was born ready. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Ian replied.
Thad was sitting in the PD parking lot when she pulled in. Shane and Shawn were standing in the open roll-up door. It was pretty early, so there was no lynch mob. Jamie pulled the truck into the vehicle sally port. Shawn stayed by the door as Shane went in and returned with their prisoner. Per their request, he’d put a blindfold on the man, and he was both cuffed and shackled with a belly chain, preventing him use of his hands. He didn’t say anything as Shane stuffed him into the back of the truck.
Once he was in, Shane looked at Jamie. “He’s all yours.”
Jamie gave him a thumbs up. “Thanks. We’re out of here.”
She backed the truck out and stopped beside Thad. “We’re waiting on some medics.”
“That’s good. They need to check on Tyler and Brandy. Maybe we can get them kids out of that house.”
The two Hummers they were waiting on pulled up and Jamie pulled out in the lead. Thad started the tractor and pulled out behind the last truck.
I saw the Hummers round the corner with Thad behind them on the tractor. Jamie pulled up beside the bunker and stopped. Looking in, I saw the prisoner secured in the back.
“That him?” I asked. Though I knew who it was.
She nodded, “Yeah. Where do you want him?”
“Take him to Sarge’s.”
She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “They’re here to check out Tyler and Brandy.”
“Good, about time. I’ll call and get Doc over there.”
“And the engineers want to meet at the plant tomorrow around noon.”
“Ok, good. Maybe we can get that plant up and running. Tell Sarge I’ll be over as soon as this is taken care of,” I said.
She nodded and turned to head to Sarge’s house. The next truck pulled up and I told him where to go, pointing out Tyler and Brandy’s house.
“I’ll meet you over there in a few minutes. I want to get Doc over there too.”
<
br /> The driver nodded. “We’ll meet you there.”
I asked Dalton if he could hang out at the bunker. He gave me a thumbs up, and I nodded as I pulled the mic for my radio up.
“Hey, Doc. Can you meet me at Tyler and Brandy’s place? The medics from town are here to check them out.”
On my way.
“Later we need to get everyone together and talk,” Dalton said as I started to walk away. Stopping, I asked him what was up. “I found some more tracks, and I think another observation point. Haven’t found anyone in it yet, but there’s a lot of traffic on the trail. We’re being watched again.”
“They’re going to come eventually,” I replied.
“No doubt, but I’d like to be ready for them.”
“Alright. Soon as we handle this, we’ll go talk to the guys. Maybe we can get the girls to relieve you guys so we can all talk,” I said, and then headed for Tyler’s.
At Tyler’s, the folks from the clinic were hanging out around the truck. Shortly after I got there, Doc pulled up in Sarge’s Hummer. The driveway was crowded with the three big trucks.
One of the doctors walked up to Doc. “You think these folks are positive?”
Doc nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure. But without a test I can’t be a hundred percent.”
The doctor held up a box. “Well, I brought some so we can be.”
Surprised, Doc said, “I didn’t know you guys had any.”
“After hearing what was going on, I had some sent out with an evac helo. One of the people from town was in pretty bad shape, and I convinced Eglin to fly them out. They sent the skin tests on the bird.”
Doc examined the box. “This is great.”
“So this will tell us for certain if they have it?” I asked.
Doc nodded. “Oh yeah. It takes three days to determine the result, but we’ll know.”
The doctor looked at Doc. “Let’s get to it then.”
They went over to the Hummer and the doctor handed out Tyvek suits and booties. The three people going in suited up, the doctor, Doc and a nurse. They put on rubber gloves, tucking the sleeves into them, and pulled the booties over their boots. Lastly, they put large respirators on their faces before going in.
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