"You will address me as 'sir,' ma'am," the major said and then turned back to me. "Better teach your wife some manners before it's too late, Mr. Jones. Now, come with us.”
"You can’t take Ethan away without telling us the reason - sir," Nanako asserted forcefully.
The major sighed and rolled his eyes. "Mind your place, ma’am - you are not to speak unless spoken to!"
"Well, you've spoken to me now, so you can answer my question - what do you want with my husband, sir?"
Aware that Nanako was about to land herself in deep trouble, I touched her shoulder and shook my head slightly. To my relief, she heeded the warning and fell silent, although begrudgingly.
"Outside now, Mr. Jones," the major repeated.
I gave Nanako a quick kiss on the top of her head. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
She nodded and remained in the doorway as the four Custodians marched me away, her eyes wide with apprehension.
A dozen fearful scenarios fled through my mind as the Custodians bundled me downstairs towards the Bushmaster. Why had they come for me? Did the Custodian I bribed rat me out? Did David or Shorty accidentally spill the beans? Did Consultant Singe tell them I was an echolocator?
We reached the Bushmaster and a Custodian opened the rear door and gestured for me to get inside.
"Can you please tell me what this is about, Major - am I under arrest?" I asked as I hesitated to enter the vehicle.
"Oh don't be so melodramatic, Mr. Jones. Just get in the vehicle, will you? You'll find out what this is about soon enough," the major said with exasperation.
I climbed into the boxlike armoured vehicle and sat in the seat behind the driver. The Custodians clambered in behind me, and we were off.
Thanks to the parade of fearful scenarios marching through my mind, I was a nervous wreck by the time we reached Custodian Headquarters ten minutes later. They took me to a bland room on the top floor that was longer than it was wide, with white walls, no windows, and a long table that seated eight.
A solidly built Custodian of Asian heritage -probably Korean - sat at the far end of the table. An older man, he had short, grey hair, and my heart missed a beat when I realised he was a general. Colonel Kim, who had interrogated me when we got back to Newhome, sat at the general's right, staring at me impassively.
And to my astonishment, the handsome, square-jawed Captain Smithson sat on his right. I hadn't seen nor heard from him since the night the Skel attacked Newhome around two weeks ago. He was a lot paler than when I last saw him, and though I couldn't see any obvious injuries, I recalled he had been wounded in the battle.
Two more captains sat at the table, and so did Consultant Singhe, who sat at the general's left.
"We meet again, Ethan Jones," Singhe whispered below the hearing level of the others present.
"Wish I knew what I was doing here," I whispered back.
"Sit," Major Harris said, pointing to the chair opposite the general.
I sat, and the major sat beside me.
A general, a colonel, a major, three captains, and Consultant Singhe, the living lie detector – whatever they’d brought me here for, it wasn’t gonna be good.
"Ethan Jones, I am General Lee," the general began in a deep voice. "I understand you have met Captain Smithson previously. Having just been discharged from hospital, he has submitted an after-battle report of the night the Skel attacked the submarine. A report, I might add, that conflicts in a number of places with the one submitted by the late Lieutenant King."
I gulped - where was the general going with this? Would I be arrested for using a gun while technically a civilian?
"On the night the submarine was attacked," the general continued, "Lieutenant King reported he lead the Custodian attack to save the sub and that he repulsed the initial Skel ambush by shooting over nearly a dozen of them. He went on to report that he single handedly saved the sub by killing the Skel attempting to cut into the sub and also threw their explosives into the river. Captain Smithson's report, however, paints quite a different picture. He claims it was you, Ethan Jones, and your wife – the translator from Hamamachi - who did these things, not Lieutenant King. Which report is correct?"
I glanced at Captain Smithson's handsome face and saw he was watching me intently with one eyebrow raised. He gave me a barely perceptible nod of encouragement.
"Tell the truth, Ethan, General Lee knows what happened, he is just testing you," Consultant Singhe whispered hurriedly.
"Captain Smithson's report is correct in all but one detail," I said, struggling to keep my voice from shaking.
"And that is?" the general prompted impatiently.
"King - sorry - Lieutenant King, was the one who threw the explosives off the sub. Captain Smithson may not have known this, though."
The general glanced at Consultant Singhe, and she nodded, confirming I spoke the truth.
"Captain Smithson has also informed us that you went to Hamamachi during the time you were absent from Newhome in 2120, and that you served in their elite Ranger force. He says you have had extensive experience against the Skel. Is this true?" the general asked, eyeing me keenly.
"I am afraid, sir, that due to amnesia, I have virtually no memories of the time I spent in Hamamachi. However, from what my wife has told me, that is correct." Virtually no memories, but the ones I did have chilled me to the core - a teenage girl staining a road red with her blood, and glimpses of my Ranger team, all dead.
A nod from the consultant confirmed I was telling the truth.
“I see. Just one more question, then, before I continue. Considering you’re married to a Japanese girl and have served in the Rangers, where do your loyalties lie?" the general asked.
"Sir, both my wife and I are loyal citizens of Newhome. Surely the fact that we volunteered to lead Captain Smithson and his men to save the sub is ample proof of that?"
Consultant Singhe confirmed I spoke the truth, and the general nodded. "Fair enough - and now that we’ve got that question out of the way, we can address the reason you were brought here today. The Custodians are going to launch an offensive to break the Skel siege and kill the sniper tomorrow."
"How are you planning to launch your attack?" I asked.
"That is confidential," the general snapped, offended I had the gall to even ask the question.
"Because if you're planning a frontal assault, it's gonna fail. The Skel will be expecting that and will be ready with booby traps and ambushes," I continued, refusing to be intimidated.
"The attack will not fail - we will be sending in four companies of Custodians!" the colonel interrupted
I was treading on thin ice, but I wasn't going to sit here without at least trying to get some sense into their heads. "So you are planning a frontal assault. General, please listen to me - you can't beat Skel that way. You need to..."
"Who do you think you are, Mr. Jones – do you question our ability?" one of the captains said, his face turning red with rage.
"But..."
"That's enough, Mr. Jones," Colonel Kim said, cutting me off. "Our Custodians are a highly trained force who will be facing nothing more than poorly armed, disorganised savages."
My gut reaction was to let these over confident, inexperienced Custodians get their butts handed to them by the Skel, but they were the only thing that kept Newhome safe from external threats. There was also the fact that we were also (theoretically) kinsfolk. So I turned to the general, and pleaded one more time, "Please, General Lee, hear me out. I know the Custodians are confident in their abilities, but they have had little experience with the Skel..."
"It's a good thing, then, that you'll be going in with them to offer advice," the general said without batting an eyelid.
"Excuse me?" I asked, balking at his words.
"That is why you were brought here today, to inform you that you will be accompanying the Custodian attack tomorrow morning as an advisor and provide tactical advice during the battle."
"I hav
e requested that you accompany my company," Captain Smithson added.
I shook my head, dumbfounded. I'd promised Nanako I wouldn't place myself at risk of being shot again, so there was no way I was going to join the Custodians ill fated attack. "I'm sorry, sirs, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline."
"This is not a request, Mr. Jones," General Lee snapped impatiently.
"With all due respect, General, I'm a forager, not a Custodian, and you can't force me to become one," I said, though my attempt to sound assertive was undermined by the fact that my voice was shaking.
"Your contract with the Recycling-Works was cancelled this morning. You have also been conscripted into the Custodian Force as a consultant, effective today," Colonel Kim said as he pushed a sheet of paper towards me.
I ignored it. "You can't do this without my consent."
"Draft evasion is a criminal offence and is punishable with a mandatory three year prison sentence and a five-thousand-dollar fine," the colonel said without emotion.
Time crawled to a standstill as the implications of what the colonel said struck home. My face grew hot and my stomach tied in knots as I thought of spending three years in prison. I wouldn't be able to see Nanako for three years, plus, we'd lose our flat and she'd have to move in with my parents.
All the same, I would not be bullied into submission. "Then go ahead and imprison me, sir, because I will not become a Custodian."
"We do not have time for this," General Lee growled angrily. "Major Harris, instruct your men to proceed immediately to Mr. Jones residence and arrest his wife on suspicion of being a Hamamachi spy."
Chapter Nineteen
"Be careful, Ethan," Consultant Singhe whispered, "They are not bluffing. Whether she is innocent or not, they will imprison her for life at the very least."
Major Harris stood, saluted the general, and strode purposefully for the door.
"Okay - I'll do it!" I said hastily, hoping I hadn't gone too far in my attempt to refuse their ridiculous commission.
Seeing I was going to play ball, the major paused at the door, clearly disappointed. The scumbag had been genuinely excited by the prospect of arresting Nanako.
"That’s more like it, Custodian Consultant Jones," the general said. “You will now go with Captain Smithson to be fitted out and briefed for tomorrow’s assault.”
The captain stood and headed for the door, indicating with an inclination of his head that I should join him.
"Ethan, you may be interested to know that since you returned from Hamamachi, the chancellor and councillors have held several closed doors meetings," Singhe whispered as I stood and grabbed the back of my chair to steady myself, for my legs were feeling somewhat unstable.
"Do you know what these meetings are about?"
"Only that it is to do with Hamamachi and a 'final solution.'"
"They’ve got another nuke, haven’t they?" I asked. The sound of a ‘final solution’ scared the daylights out of me.
"I do not know, but if I learn more, I will find a way to inform you," she assured me while maintaining her deadpan expression.
"Thanks."
I nodded in ‘respect’ to the general, and then hurried from the room and joined the captain while fighting back a powerful urge to throw up. Me, a Custodian? I could barely comprehend that I had become the very one thing in Newhome that disgusted me to the core of my being.
Captain Smithson took me downstairs to the cramped Custodian supply room, and the supply clerk picked out camo-fatigues that were my exact size from racks of fatigues that catered to all sizes. Then he provided me with a helmet and a black bulletproof jacket.
I didn't speak throughout this time, for inside, I was a quivering mess. I was enraged I'd been manoeuvred, no - blackmailed - into joining the Custodians in what surely would amount to a suicide attack; I was mortified I'd been forced to become the very thing I despised; and lastly, I was afraid of how Nanako would react to this news. She wouldn't be happy, and that was an understatement. I also didn't feel like speaking because the captain wasn't on my list of favourite persons. True, he stopped King executing Nanako and me in cold blood, but he'd been willing to oversee that same execution only moments before he stayed it.
But in the end, I pushed the writhing morass of angry and fearful thoughts and feelings aside and while the clerk handed me a pair of army boots to try on, I addressed the captain. "Captain Smithson, were you badly injured - you know, the night the Skel attacked the sub?"
"Took a blow to the head which caused swelling on the brain. They've given me a clean bill of health now, though," he replied as he stood back and watched me lacing up the boots.
"Clean enough to go into combat tomorrow? Surely two weeks isn't long enough to recover from an injury like that?"
"You're not exactly one to talk, are you?" he said.
"No, I guess not." My boots laced, I stood and paced up and down the aisle of shoe racks, and concluded the boots were a good fit. Not that it mattered, for I wouldn't be wearing them tomorrow. I'd replace them with my runners at the first opportunity.
The captain suddenly turned to the clerk. "Leave us."
The clerk quickly vacated the room.
The captain crossed his arms and appraised me, and I could tell he was distressed about something. "Ever since the night of the battle for the sub, Jones, I can't sleep without being tormented by vivid nightmares. And even when I'm awake, I'm tense, sweat profusely, and experience heart palpitations. And I'm always irritable and overreact to even the smallest provocations."
"That's a pretty typical reaction after encountering the Skel, sir - they still haunt my dreams," I shared.
"It's not the Skel who haunt my nightmares, Jones," the captain said, his blue eyes fixed on the floor beside me.
"No?"
"Oh, they're in the nightmares, but there's someone - or something - else. I dream of the Skel attacking my men and cutting them to pieces, but then this horrific, terrifying black-robed angel of death runs through the midst of the Skel, cutting them down with inhuman proficiency with great sweeps of his scythe. And at the end of this recurring nightmare, just before I wake screaming, I see the angel of death's face." The captain lifted his eyes to meet mine. "And it’s your face I see, Jones."
"I don't understand, sir," I said as tendrils of fear began to swirl in the depths of my stomach.
He took a step forward. "After I got released from hospital I checked the after battle reports and then went to the morgue to confirm the reports in person. Ten Skel had been killed by single pistol shots to the neck or throat. And all ten bullets came from the same pistol - the pistol I had given you to use."
"I'm a good shot, sir," the fear began to turn into dread as I realised where I had erred. In my eagerness to save the Custodians from the Skel that night, I may have gone and given myself away. How long before someone connected the dots and worked out what I was?
"I've seen Custodians who are good shots, Jones, you're practically inhuman."
"My wife said I was the Ranger colonel's protégé and that he was teaching me practically everything he knew."
"Did he teach you how to see in the dark? It was so dark that night that I could only just make out my own hand. And yet you took down ten Skel with precision shots."
"What are trying to say, sir?"
The colonel had that look in his eyes, the same one Lieutenant King had when he realised I was the biologically-engineered freak he had been searching for. But suddenly, inexplicably, the captain's shoulders slumped. "I'm not trying to say anything, Jones; I'm just saying it like it is. Now, come with me and we'll go through the specifics for tomorrow morning's attack."
"May I ask a question, sir?"
"Go ahead."
"In light of everything you just shared with me, why did you request that I be attached to your company tomorrow?"
"Because I don't want to die out there tomorrow."
* * *
It was late afternoon when I got home. I’d
rung Nanako earlier to tell her I was okay, and that I'd fill her in on what had happened when I got home.
"You’re back!" she exclaimed with a mixture of relief and delight when I walked through the door. She’d been preparing dinner but put down the knife and rushed over to take my hands in hers. "I've been so worried - what did the Custodians want with you?"
On the way over I'd run through a dozen different ways of breaking it to her gently, but seriously, what gentle way could there be to tell her I was a Custodian now?
My face must have been an open book, for she stepped back and frowned. "What’s wrong?"
I decided to just come out and say it. "I’ve been conscripted into the Custodians as a consultant."
"The Custodians? A consultant? Why, what do they want to consult you on?" she asked, alarmed.
"They’re launching an attack tomorrow morning to try to break the Skel siege and catch the sniper, and they’ve ordered me accompany them as a tactical advisor."
Nanako backed away, shaking her head in stunned disbelief. "No, no, no - absolutely out of the question - I asked you to quit being a forager so you wouldn't fight the Skel anymore, and now you want to go up against that sniper? And join the Custodians in taking on the whole Skel army?
"I don’t want to do this..."
"You promised me, Ethan, you promised you’d stop foraging and fighting – you promised you wouldn't put me through that again," she said, her voice rising in pitch as she freaked out even more.
"I know I did, but they didn't give me a choice."
"Did you try saying 'no'?"
"Well of course I did, but they wouldn't take no for an answer."
Nanako took another step back, pressing her hands to the sides of her head, "I can't believe this is happening again."
"What’s happening again?" I asked, taking a step towards her.
"You volunteered to join the Rangers without telling me, without asking what I thought - you just went ahead and did it - and regardless of what I said, you wouldn't pull out. And now you're doing it all over again!"
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 35