The Trade of Kings

by Mike Kraus

  “Because I had a good feeling about you. You were kind, helpful, self-sacrificing and you never once made me feel unsafe. You had a goal in mind to reach your wife and children but you never once made me feel like I was going to be jeopardized if I stuck with you. That’s the same feeling I had about Dr. Evans, when I met him before you popped up again. Out of everyone I’ve seen and met since all of this terrible stuff started, you two have been the only ones that haven’t given me a bad feeling when I first met you.”

  “Well, Dr. Evans is a nice guy.”

  “He is. He’s genuine and kind and all of those things I said about you; he’s like that too.”

  “So… you think the Russians aren’t?”

  “The two technicians? I don’t know. I don’t get a bad feeling about them.”

  “But the Spetsnaz. You get a bad feeling about them?”

  Jane shook her head, her voice dropping an octave as she answered. “More than that. I get a terrible feeling about them. They’re playing some kind of game here. I don’t think they’re out to stop Damocles, not like we are.”

  “But the technicians—”

  “Are just that. They’re engineers. They carry pistols and fawn over Dr. Evans like he’s a rock star and they’re a couple of groupies who can’t wait to get him backstage and strip him down.”

  Rick tried—and failed—to suppress a sharp laugh at the mental image, but the humor drained almost immediately from him upon seeing Jane’s face remain stoic and serious. He cleared his throat. “Okay, well, if you have a bad feeling about them then that’s good.”

  “How is that good?! We’re going to be working with them!”

  “We don’t have much of a choice right now. They slaughtered those gang members like they were three-legged puppies. We don’t stand anywhere near the same level of chance as they did.”

  “But we had them at gunpoint. We could do that again, if we had to.”

  Rick shook his head, growing more serious. “No. We never had them. They weren’t there to hurt us. They were protecting us from the gang. But, if you’re right about them… maybe Ostap and Carl have different orders from the technicians. Or maybe they’re in it together. They clearly want us to help them, though.”

  “So what do we do?”

  Rick squared his shoulders decisively. “We keep our eyes open, our fingers on our triggers and get the drop on them before they can get the drop on us.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a very solid plan.”

  “Nope.” Rick smiled at her. “But it’s the best we’ve got. And, I have to say, we’ve gotten pretty good at winging it so far, so I think we can do it here, too. Now come on, let’s not make them suspicious by taking too long up here.”

  Jane nodded, took a deep breath and followed Rick out and down the hall to the stairs, trying to put on a brave face in spite of the pit of nauseating fear that was roiling in her gut.

  Chapter 11

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Outside Ellisville, VA

  A series of cloudy, overcast mornings finally gave way to one that was both clear and frigid. The lake shimmered as the bright morning sun, unhindered by even the hint of a cloud, rose swiftly in the sky. A light breeze sent a shiver through the trees, disrupting the hint of warmth offered by the sunlight and reminding everyone that even with the occasional warm day, it was still autumn.

  Frost crunched lightly underfoot as three figures slowly made their way through the yard outside the Waters’ home. Dressed in thick coats, long pants, boots, hats and thin gloves, they each carried a rifle at the ready. They swept their weapons from side to side in slow, lazy arcs as they scanned the trees and buildings, searching for any signs of life or movement. They didn’t speak as they went along, relying upon mouthed instructions and hand signals to guide their steps. The silent search and patrol around the perimeter of the house, outbuildings and edge of the forest surrounding the property took about twenty minutes, and while tensions were high when it started, there was a relaxed atmosphere by the end.

  “Looks clear.”

  “Yep. No sign of anyone.”

  “Anyone alive, you mean.”

  Dianne shivered slightly, though not because of the cold. Tina’s morbid assessment reminded her that, while the property looked to be clear of any intruders, there were still multiple corpses lying between the trees and across the gravel driveway.

  “Yeah, thanks for that reminder.” Dianne glanced over at Mark as she replied to Tina, watching as he took a few steps toward one of the bodies. “Mark, don’t get too close, okay?”

  Mark didn’t turn, either ignoring her or too wrapped up in what he was seeing to have heard her.

  “Mark!” She shouted at him and he jumped, whirled around and took several quick breaths.

  “What, mom?!”

  “Don’t get too close, okay? We need to do one more sweep before we figure out what to do with them.”

  “There’s seven of them,” Mark replied as he stepped back from the corpse and walked back over to Dianne and Tina.

  “You been keeping count, eh?” Tina looked at him with a sharp eye.

  He nodded. “Yeah… three on the driveway and four more in the woods. They’re kind of spread out in the woods, though.”

  Dianne sighed and looked at Tina. “How about you two go get some shovels from the barn and check on the animals? I’ll start checking the bodies for anything we could use and get them rounded up so we can get them under the ground.”

  Tina nodded and pulled on Mark’s sleeve, guiding him away from the bodies in the driveway that he was staring at. Once they were a fair distance away, Dianne sighed and slowly walked over to the three bodies lying in the gravel. She used the tip of her rifle barrel to prod at the body, testing its stiffness both to verify that the man was deceased and to see how hard it was going to be to get him under the ground.

  Both his clothing and body were stiff, and his flesh was nearly frozen solid from the frigid overnight temperatures. The gravel around his chest and head was stained red for a couple of feet in every direction, and Dianne realized that he must have bled out on the gravel while his friends ran for their lives. As she looked closer, she saw that there were spatters of blood all across the driveway leading out to the gate, and based on their position most of them couldn’t have been made by any of the three who were dead.

  Dianne walked slowly across the drive, her eyes darting between scanning the trees for any signs of threats and following the trail of blood. One of the nail boards was askew and several of the nails near one end were slightly bent and there were small patches of black rubber and red stains on them, indicating that someone had put his full weight on the nails during his escape.

  “Ouch. That had to smart.” Dianne whirled at the voice only to breathe a sigh of relief and chastise the one who had spoken.

  “Jason! What are you doing out here? You scared the piss out of me!”

  Jason moved slowly, still feeling the effects from his injury and near-death infection, but while his body was lethargic his eyes were bright and quick. “Figured you could use some backup out here.” He hesitated, turning back toward the house for a moment. “Plus… there’s only so much oatmeal a man can eat before he has to escape.”

  In spite of their morbid surroundings, Dianne couldn’t help but chuckle. “I think Sarah’s plan to cure you by force-feeding you her version of it is working.”

  Jason smiled and laughed, then glanced down at the bodies. He prodded one of them with his rifle just as Dianne had done. “How many’ve we got to bury?”

  “Seven, according to Mark.”

  Jason watched Dianne intently as she looked down at the barns, thinking about her eldest son. “He’ll be okay, Dianne. He’s old and mature enough that I think he can handle all of this nastiness.”

  “No,” Dianne shook her head, “it’s not him I’m worried about.”

  “Ah.” Jason walked slowly along the driveway, kicking at the blood-stained rock
s. “You’re thinking about the rest of these punks, eh?”

  “There were way more than seven, Jason. There’s clear evidence all along here that they were wounded by that last blast, and there were probably several more who were wounded by the first blasts in the woods. They’ve pulled back for now, but I can’t imagine that they won’t try coming back again once they’ve licked their wounds.”

  “So we get ready for them. The traps worked like a charm so we set more of them out in the woods and all around the perimeter of the house. Once they come knocking, we’ll set ‘em straight.”

  All-out warfare had never been in Dianne’s blood. As she stood in the driveway of her home, looking at the bodies strewn on the gravel and off in the leaves amongst the trees, she realized that she wasn’t half-bad at it.

  “How long will it take you to make more traps? Enough to replace all the ones in the woods, add twice as many out there and plant plenty outside the house?”

  “The rest of the day, if I’m quick and have help. Jacob and Josie can do a bit, but I’ll need more hands than that if you want to be able to set them all up by tomorrow.”

  Dianne nodded. “That should be fine. My guess is that they won’t be back for another couple days at the soonest. They’ll be coming back with a vengeance, though, so we need to be ready for them.”

  Jason slowly strode up next to Dianne and planted a firm hand on her shoulder. “Oh, we’ll be ready for them. We’ll be ready.”

  Chapter 12

  Washington, D.C.

  “Gentlemen!” Rick was in the lead as he, Jane and Dr. Evans walked out of the building with packs on their backs and bags in their hands. “Sorry that took so long. We have everything we need and we’re ready to assist.”

  Ostap nodded in the affirmative and turned to Oles. “Our two eggheads were just discussing the three possible locations for this facility where the command and control network is located. They conferred with your Dr. Evans who concluded that this facility is least likely to contain it, but is still necessary to explore.”

  “Oh yes, we must explore it thoroughly.” Dr. Evans nodded. “Since the most likely facility to the north was also empty, we just have two locations left, so the sooner we start, the better.”

  “Sounds great, Dr. Evans.” Rick nodded at him. “Where do we start?”

  In addition to the rectangular office-like buildings in the compound and the old observatory, a few smaller buildings sat here and there. Checking each and every one wouldn’t take a huge amount of time in the small compound, but every second they spent actually solving problems instead of hunting for them would be a boon.

  The two technicians looked at Dr. Evans expectantly after Rick posed his question, appearing like a pair of dogs who were waiting on their master to tell them to go “fetch.” He seemed to ignore or not notice them, though, and gave Rick an answer without hesitation.

  “These rectangular structures—one of which we were just in—were completely rebuilt from the inside-out after the State Department took over from the Navy. As part of the whole inter-bureau agreement, they decided to make the four basement floors of one of the buildings into a high-security location.”

  “Which building do we look in, then?”

  Dr. Evans pointed at the building opposite the one they had taken refuge in. “It should be in that one. The one we were in didn’t have a staircase that descended beyond the ground floor, so it’s more than likely not the right place.”

  “All right, then. How are we going to do this?” Rick looked at Ostap and Carl, studying them carefully as he sensed Jane was doing from beside him.

  “If he,” Ostap said, nodding toward Dr. Evans, “knows the building layout, then he should lead with Oles and Jacob. I’ll remain out here as a lookout and Carl can come with you to help provide protection should you run into trouble.”

  “Great idea. I’ll stay up here as well, though.” Rick smiled as he spoke, being overly cautious to keep his words and tone as even as possible. “Two is better than one and after that group came through I’d rather not risk having just one person alone—even one as well-armed as yourself.”

  For the briefest moment, Rick thought Ostap might argue, but the man merely nodded and gave a slight smile in return. “That would be most appreciated. Thank you.”

  “Fantastic. Dr. Evans? You take the lead and see if you can sniff out the hidden bunker or offices or whatever it ends up being. If you find it, send a runner back up and we’ll head down and join you. Jane, make sure you help Carl with watching everyone’s back. Somehow I doubt there’s anyone down in these buildings but you never know.”

  Rick felt bad for dividing the group up without having a chance to talk to Jane or fill Dr. Evans in on what was going on, but in the end things had to be like they were for a reason. Dr. Evans, as competent and clever as he was, wouldn’t be able to focus on his job if he knew about Jane’s feelings on the Russians. With Jane, though, Rick simply wasn’t able to talk to her ahead of time before dividing them all up, but his logic was sound enough that he hoped it made sense to her.

  With the Spetsnaz officers offering to split up, Rick wanted to make sure that he stuck with one of them, and with Jane being as sensitive and paranoid as she was about them, it only made sense to have her go with the other. Rick knew he could count on her to keep a close eye on Carl, and he hoped that—if things went south—Dr. Evans would be able to handle himself.

  There was always the chance that Jane’s feelings about the two Spetsnaz officers were wrong, but despite having known Jane and Dr. Evans for such a short period of time, he was completely comfortable with entrusting his life to them. If one of them had a bad feeling, no matter how crazy it sounded, he was going to listen. The fate of his family—and the world—were at stake.

  Chapter 13

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Outside Ellisville, VA

  “Mom?”

  Dianne’s eyelids fluttered and she took in a short, swift breath and let out a slight groan as she woke. The bedroom was dark, she was fully clothed—including her shoes—and lying on top of the covers with a light blanket draped over her. She glanced to her side to find Mark standing next to her bed, pushing on her shoulder with a concerned expression on his face.

  It had taken hours to bury the men from the woods and the driveway, and in the end she was fairly certain that anyone still living on the property would have to deal with scavengers come the springtime thaw. The work was miserable, the soil was hard and full of roots and even though the bodies were frozen near-solid she could swear the scent of death was overpowering. After finishing the burials in a shallow mass grave in the woods between the house and the road out in front, Dianne spent far too long in the shower, using up nearly all of the hot water in the heater tank as she tried to wash the dirt and filth off of her—both literal and metaphorical.

  Tina and Mark’s reactions to the activity had been substantially more muted, though none of the trio spoke much to each other for the rest of the day. Even though normal life had only been gone for a short period of time, Dianne could scarcely remember anything about it. The smell of a fresh-brewed cup of coffee, the warmth of her husband’s embrace, the ploddingly slow life of the residents of the town and the security of not knowing what it was like to kill and bury multiple people were all foreign to her. The worst part of it all, she had started to realize, wasn’t that she couldn’t remember what those things were like. It was that she was growing numb to not knowing what they were like.

  “What’s up, kiddo?” She rolled over in the bed and swung her feet over the side, feeling sick from having slept for less than an hour. Mark and Tina were on watch while everyone else tried to rest, but as Dianne woke up and recognized the stress in Mark’s voice, she grew more and more concerned.

  “The cameras have gone dark.”

  “…what?” Dianne rubbed one eye and yawned, certain that she misheard her son.

  “The cameras have gone dark!” His voice was st
ill at a whisper, but the way in which he said it sent chills down her spine.

  “What do you mean, gone dark?” She was fully awake, moving into a standing position and grabbing her rifle.

  “The only ones that are working are on that side of the house.” He pointed to the east.

  “Where’s the tablet?”

  “I’ve got it here, Dianne.” Tina came walking into the room, the concern on her face a mirror of Mark’s. She handed the tablet to Dianne and Dianne tapped on the images. Of the several cameras that had been set up on the house, only two of them were working while the rest displayed “No Signal” messages.

  “When did this start?” Dianne asked as she fiddled with the settings on the tablet.

  “Less than five minutes ago,” Tina replied. “We thought it was a glitch at first but we couldn’t get it fixed.”

  “Not good.” Dianne shook her head. “Have you spotted anything outside?”

  “Nothing.” Tina shook her head. “No sight or sound of anyone or anything. Couldn’t it just be a problem in the wiring or something?”

  “On all these cameras on just these sides of the house? No way.” Dianne passed the tablet back to Mark. “Keep an eye on the cameras and radio me the second you see anything. Tina, get everyone else awake. I want everyone getting ready for another attack. Jacob and Josie need to get into the basement with someone.”

  Tina nodded in confirmation and hurried off to wake the others. Once she was gone, Dianne turned to Mark. “Get to the windows overlooking the driveway. Don’t expose yourself, though. The curtains should still be drawn so crawl in and peek through a crack. If they come from any direction, it’s probably going to be from that one. If you see that it’s clear, give me three clicks on the radio, okay?”

  “Where are you going, mom?”

  “I need to get outside and get an eye on the dead cameras to see what’s going on with them.”