Solar Reboot

by Matthew D. Hunt

  “Jesus, I miss you too, sweetie,” said Cameron. “Are you safe? Are you okay?”

  “We’re—we’re safe, Mom. I’m okay, but—”

  The line went silent.

  * * *

  “Don’t talk about Denny,” said Alex. “I’ll tell her, but right now she needs to know that you’re alive, and that neither one of us has been hurt. Let me tell her about … about that, in a minute, okay?”

  Cameron’s voice crackled from the speaker again. “Piper? Alex? Are you there?”

  Piper swallowed hard and nodded at Alex, swiping at her eyes. “I’m here. Sorry. We’re fine. Are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me, sweetie.”

  That sent alarm bells ringing in the back of Alex’s mind, and his hackles rose. Why hadn’t Cameron just said Yes, I’m okay?

  But Piper didn’t notice, and her smile broadened. “I can’t wait to see you. I think we’re getting close.” She looked quizzically at Alex, and he nodded. “Yeah, Dad says we are.”

  “I’m so glad, honey,” said Cameron. “Are you taking your meds?”

  Piper rolled her eyes. “I’m with Dad. Do you think he’d let me forget?”

  There was a moment of silence, and Alex guessed that Cameron was laughing. It was confirmed when she spoke again, and Alex could hear the smile in her voice. “I guess he wouldn’t.”

  Alex put a hand on Piper’s shoulder. “Okay, sweetie. I need you to wrap up so Mom and I can talk alone.”

  She nodded. “I’m gonna let you and Dad talk, Mom. We’ll see you soon. Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Cameron. “I love you. So much.”

  “I love you, too.” Piper handed the receiver to Alex and left the room.

  Alex rose to close the door behind her before sitting down and picking up the receiver again.

  “Cameron, what’s wrong?”

  * * *

  Cameron’s heart skipped a beat. She kept her tone carefully neutral as she pressed the button to talk. “What do you mean?”

  The line was silent for a while. When Alex spoke again, it wasn’t with an answer. “Come on. What’s happening?”

  She sighed. “What did I say?”

  “It was when Piper asked if you were okay. Did something happen?”

  Cameron pinched the bridge of her nose. “Nothing serious. I mean—no, it was serious. But it’s okay. I’ve got it under control.”

  “Well that’s reassuring.”

  “Do you remember Bill? The groundskeeper who worked here?”

  “Holy—why past tense? What happened?”

  She had to fight with two warring emotions—anxiousness at confessing that something bad had happened, and anger at Bill’s memory. “Short version? He died.”

  “The storm? Wild animal?”

  Gina flashed through Cameron’s mind. How the heck could she explain that over such a long distance?

  “Not exactly.”

  “Someone in the cabin community?” Alex’s voice had risen half an octave.

  “Look—I know how it sounds. But it’s complicated. It wasn’t self-defense, but it was close.”

  “Cameron—”

  “Please. Don’t … can you just trust me? It’s under control. Everyone here is safe, now. I’m more worried about you two.”

  The line was silent for a long, long time. Long enough that Cameron wondered if they’d somehow lost the connection. But eventually Alex spoke—and to her relief, it seemed he’d chosen to let the matter rest. At least for now.

  “The road’s been rough.”

  “Are either of you hurt?”

  “Not us.” He sighed. “We met someone on the road. A—well, a hobo, honestly. But he was decent, and he traveled with us for a while. Name of Denny.”

  Cameron stared incredulously at the receiver in her hand, as though it were her husband’s face. If she’d been asked to write a list of activities that were distinctly un-Alex, traveling cross-country with a homeless man would have been pretty close to the top of that list. But the way Alex was so reluctant to talk about the man … “What did he do?”

  Static. Then, “He died. Today. Or, yesterday? I can barely even tell when the days pass any more.”

  The tone of his voice was a curious thing: it threw Cameron right back into her days in the service. It was the low, hollow, shell-shocked sound of someone who’d watched a war buddy turned to red paste by an IED. One minute there, the next—not even a body to bury. She had no idea what had happened between Alex and Piper, and this Denny. But she could hear the weight of it in Alex’s words.

  “I’m sorry, baby.”

  “It’s okay.” His voice gave lie to the words, even more emotional than it had been when they first got on the line together. “I don’t—we barely even knew him, you know? And then, bam.”

  “How’s Piper taking it?”

  “Harder than I am.”

  That wasn’t good. “Make sure you spend time with her. She might want to talk about it, or she might not. Give her the option.”

  “I know.” Static for a moment, or it might have been a sigh. “We’re close, but I’m worried. It seems like every mile is harder than the last.”

  “Maybe you two should stay there. Wait for this to blow over.”

  “Cameron. Come on. I haven’t seen anything that indicates any of this is going to blow over. Have you?”

  She stared at the receiver, trying to think of an answer. Nothing came.

  “Are you there?”

  “I’m here. I just … okay. Where are you, anyway? How close?”

  “A Flathead reservation in Montana. If things were normal, we wouldn’t even be talking because I’d already be driving. It’s only seven hours away from you on a clear day with no traffic. But right now …”

  She sighed. “So, what? Two days? Three?”

  “Should be.”

  Cameron frowned before realizing he couldn’t see it. “Don’t should me. You two need to get here.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  She fought the smile. “I’m serious. Get here.”

  “Yes ma’am. I will. I promise.”

  “Okay.” She leaned back in the chair, swiping the back of a hand across her forehead. “Okay. I can’t wait.”

  “Me either. And now I should go. We’ve got to get some rest so we can figure out how we’re getting the rest of the way here. I’m going to have to figure out a way to buy a car with no money.”

  “Give them an I.O.U. Tell them you’ll give them three times what the car’s worth when you can come back after the storm.”

  “Yeah … I’m not going to look a Native American in the face, on their own land, and promise them, “No, seriously, I’m definitely going to pay you later for something you give me today.’ I have a feeling we used up all our chances at that some couple of hundred years ago.”

  Cameron snorted. “Maybe steal a horse?”

  “That is the opposite of a better solution.”

  Finally she laughed, and heard him on the other end doing the same thing. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  The radio clicked off. But she listened to the static for a long time. She was supposed to be doing something, patrol, or hunting, she’d forgotten. But she didn’t make one move away from the radio.

  CHAPTER 25

  Cameron woke the next morning feeling better than she had since the first call she’d received from Alex, back when he was in New York. She was still in the cabin community. The sky still threatened a constant storm, still broke into rain every few hours, when it let up at all. But now she went about her day with an ear cocked, expecting at any minute to hear the thunder of a car’s engine approaching the cabin community gate—a car that would carry Alex and Piper, and bring an end to the waking nightmare she’d been living for weeks. It had begun to wear on her, a constant presence at the back of her mind even when she wasn’t thinking directly about it. It was only now that the ever-present fear had vanished that she knew it
had been there at all, and what a weight it had been.

  The mood lasted for a good couple of hours, until Wade approached her with a dark look on his face.

  “Got a minute?” he said.

  She’d been heading for the clubhouse. Scott was on watch there, and she was his morning relief. Raising an eyebrow, she motioned for Wade to follow.

  “With an expression like that, I guess I have to. What’s up?”

  He surveyed the cabins for a moment before he answered. It took a moment for Cameron to realize he was looking to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “Someone stole my camera.”

  A tremor passed through Cameron’s stomach—a feeling not of an immediate danger, but one approaching quick, and difficult to see. The same way she’d felt when she heard Bill’s screams, and knew this wasn’t just another false scare.

  “What makes you think it was stolen? Maybe you misplaced—”

  He shot her a look, and she fell silent. She respected him enough, at least, to not treat him like that much of an idiot.

  “Okay. So, what?”

  “What do you mean, what?”

  Cameron spread her hands. “What do you want to do? People are already worked up after what happened with Bill and Gina. I don’t want to go on a witch hunt for your camera.”

  “So, what? We just let whoever stole it, keep it?” He slammed his right fist into his other hand. “Not a goddamn chance.”

  Cameron looked away, her mind racing. She didn’t like the idea of a thief running loose any more than Wade did, but she didn’t know how to go about finding one. But Wade’s next words threw all such thoughts from her mind.

  “Besides, it’s not like we don’t know who took it.”

  She heard the words, and thought about them, and then she thought about them again. Each time, she tried not to hear the meaning she knew was behind them, but each time, she couldn’t hear anything else. So she met Wade’s gaze and narrowed her eyes.

  “Oh? Care to explain that?”

  If she was expecting him to back down, she was disappointed. He only folded his arms and scowled harder. “I don’t need to. You know who I’m talking about. There’s a suspect list of one.”

  “Spell it out for me.”

  “You want that? Fine. Hernando.”

  “The Mexican.”

  “The Mexican teenager who showed up looking like a gangster and talks like—”

  “Yeah, I’m gonna cut the racism off right about there. If that’s all you’ve got, this conversation is over.”

  “Tell me I’m wrong. Who else would do it?”

  Cameron rolled her eyes and turned away. But even as she did, and no matter how much she hated herself for thinking it, she found herself agreeing with him. Who else would have done it? Putting race aside, everyone else in the cabin community was upper-middle class, with no possible reason to steal a camera. Anyone who had a property here dropped enough in monthly bills to pay for five cameras like Wade’s. Everyone but Bettie, but that thought almost made Cameron laugh out loud.

  Except … She turned on the spot. “It easily could have been Bill. He was way more of a—”

  “I’ve used it since Bill died,” said Wade.

  “Shit.” She put her hands on her hips and turned away again. “Shit.”

  “See? Who else, Cam? There’s a reason neither one of us can put even one person on the list.”

  “Let’s entertain the notion for one second. Just one,” said Cameron. “You think he wouldn’t guess that we’d find out about it? The cabin community is tiny. There’s only so many people it could be. He’d know we’d suspect him.”

  “So what? Thieves always steal in their own communities, even when they’ve got a record. Even when they know the cops are gonna come ask them first.”

  “We’re not cops.”

  “And maybe that’s the problem. Maybe he thinks we wouldn’t go looking if something went missing.” Wade cracked his knuckles and looked towards Cameron’s house—where Bettie and Hernando, along with some others, were working even now. “Punk’s got another think coming.”

  Cameron wanted to send him away, to tell him she’d handle it on her own. But she couldn’t think of a good excuse to do so, and she knew that in his current mood, Wade wouldn’t agree no matter what. So she thrust a finger under his nose to draw his attention back to her.

  “We confront him, and we search his stuff for the camera. If we don’t find it immediately, we search everyone else’s stuff just the same. We don’t look for more secret hiding places. Everyone gets the same treatment.”

  “And if he has it, we—”

  “If he has it, you don’t touch him,” said Cameron. “Is that explicitly clear?”

  “I’m not gonna let him—”

  “You’re not letting anyone do anything. I get your word, right now, that you don’t touch him, or I don’t take one step towards the kid, and I’ll stop you if you try.”

  Wade’s nostrils flared. A deep red began creeping up his neck. “You want him to get—”

  “No. Nope. Stop. This is non-negotiable. If your answer is no, I make a public announcement to the whole community. I tell them the camera’s gone, and whoever stole it can leave it anonymously on my back porch, with no consequences. That’s your only other option.”

  He fumed, shoulders hunching forward, the color in his cheeks darkening further. She met his look with one of steel. For half a heartbeat, she thought it wouldn’t be enough. That it would come to a fight, turning all their months of sparring into mere rehearsal for the real deal.

  Wade slammed his fist into his hand again. Then he let loose a heavy whoosh of breath, all the contents of his lungs dumped at once.

  “Fine,” he growled. “I don’t touch him. But he doesn’t get off free, either.”

  Cameron nodded slowly. “Good enough. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  They entered the back yard together, Wade just half a step behind Cameron. Hernando was helping Bettie rig up a tarp roof over the garden. The rains were too heavy, and threatened to flood all the plants they were growing, so the roof was meant to help keep them at least somewhat dry.

  As soon as Hernando saw Cameron and Wade together, he stopped moving. Slowly his hands lowered from where they were holding up the tarp, and an expression of quiet resolution slid over his features.

  Shit, thought Cameron.

  But she kept the thought well contained as they crossed the garden. Bettie saw them halfway across, and she must have seen something in Cameron’s face—or maybe Wade’s—because she stopped moving, too. Naomi and Kira were there, too, and they picked up on the mood, so that by the time Cameron and Wade stood in front of Hernando, the whole back yard had gone graveyard-still.

  “Hernando,” said Cameron.

  “What’s up?” Hernando didn’t look afraid, or angry. Just calm. Way too calm.

  “That’s our question,” said Cameron. “Anything you want to tell us? If so, I’d much rather you volunteer it.”

  “Before we have to beat it out of you,” snarled Wade.

  “Wade.”

  “Whoah, what is going on?” said Bettie. She stepped in front of Hernando, putting her hands on her hips to match Cameron’s.

  “He stole my camera.” Wade thrust forth a finger, pointing right under Hernando’s nose. The kid didn’t even flinch.

  Cameron seized the hand and pushed it down. “Hernando, I’m asking you. Anything you want to say?”

  “Do I gotta say anything?”

  Wade took half a step forward. “No one’s reading you any Miranda rights.”

  “Did you take Wade’s camera?” said Cameron.

  Bettie looked at her, horrorstruck. “You can’t be serious. You believe this?”

  Cameron shook her head. “I’m asking.”

  “Oh yeah?” said Hernando. “Why you asking me? Why not her?” He pointed over Cameron’s shoulder, where Naomi and Kira were standing mute and frozen.

  “Get real
,” snarled Wade.

  “What, I look like someone who’d steal a camera? Is that it?”

  “If you’d show us your stuff,” said Cameron. “Your backpack, whatever.”

  Wade looked past Hernando, and his eyes narrowed. “Hey, there’s your backpack right now. Maybe it’s in there. Why don’t we—”

  He tried to step past the group, but Bettie scooted over and put herself in front of him, both hands up in front of his chest.

  “You hold up!” she shouted. “Nobody’s searching anybody’s things. You ain’t the cops.”

  “There are no cops,” said Wade. “Just us. And this punk—”

  “I think a lot higher of this punk than I think of you right now.”

  Cameron wanted to agree with Bettie. Wade wasn’t helping anything, the way he was acting. But she couldn’t shake one persistent thought that nagged at the back of her mind: every time Hernando had lied since he arrived, it was easy to tell. The kid was a terrible bluff. And he still hadn’t denied stealing the camera.

  She caught his look and forced him to look her in the eye. “Hernando. If you didn’t take the camera, just say so.”

  His nostrils flared in anger. But before he could speak, Wade interjected. “Who cares what he says? Let’s just look in his backpack. It’s right there.”

  Cameron shook her head. “Hernando—”

  “Dammit, Cam!” said Wade, rounding on her. “Even if he says no, what then? We’re gonna search everyone’s stuff, right? Right?”

  “We’ll find your camera,” said Cameron.

  “Then look!”

  Cameron met Bettie’s eyes. The old woman looked doubtful now. Unsure. She glanced briefly at Hernando, and the corners of her mouth turned down.

  “Hernando,” said Cameron. “Open your backpack. Please.”

  Hernando’s mouth twitched. Then he looked skyward and shook his head slightly. Turning, he went to the backpack and unzipped it. Then he reached inside and pulled out Wade’s camera.

  “Motherf—” Wade lunged for him.

  “Wade!”

  Cameron caught the back of his shirt and dragged him around. But he slapped away her hand, forcing her to catch his wrist to restrain him. He flipped his arm around hers, and her grip loosened. But she’d managed to place herself in between him and Hernando. He stopped dead, shoulders heaving, chest rising and falling with furious pants.