Calvin chuckled, “This is why I never could play poker.” He leaned in and whispered, “As our teams asked about the illness, they all found out something incredible.”
Cooper raised his eyebrows, “And?”
“All the neighborhoods had the same report: no one new has come down with the illness within the last twenty-four hours,” his words came rapidly now. “I couldn’t believe it. So, I had our internal team do another round-up through the neighborhood. We haven’t had anyone come down with it since…”
Cooper leaned back heavily, “Since Jake. It’s been about twenty-four hours since he came down with it.” A roil of emotions washed over him. “So, what does this mean?”
Calvin’s face was aglow with excitement, “It could mean this thing is over, Cooper. Think about it. We’ve been dropping like flies since the outbreak. Just in our neighborhood, we’ve had several people coming down with the symptoms every single day. I think it has to mean something that no one in a wider area has got it for a full day!”
Cooper knocked his head with his hands, trying to make sense of it, “OK. Let’s get Lisa and Angela in here. They are our best medical minds available to us.”
“I’ve already talked with Lisa. She’s cautiously optimistic like me. She said it is possible it is an anomaly. Since the outbreak, the radio and internet have been rife with rumors of ‘it’s ending’ every day. So, I wouldn’t trust much of that kind of news, anyway.”
“What does she recommend?”
“She said we should watch it closely. If we get another twenty-four hours without any more with symptoms, she said that would mean something else entirely.”
“I can’t believe it. I don’t know what to say,” Cooper said as he sank back again into the sofa, his hands clapping his forehead.
“I couldn’t either. It took me an hour of pacing about my living room to finally, remotely, start believing it.”
Cooper sat up with a start, “Oh, no! If this thing really is ending, Jake could be one of the last ones to have got it.”
Calvin’s smile disappeared instantly and he let out a loud exhale, “I’m sorry.”
Cooper waved his hand, “It’s not your fault. Don’t get me wrong, I will be happy if this thing is over. It just means I really have to get to Admonitus and do what needs to be done to save my boy.” Cooper paused for a moment and his face brightened, “It’s also possible that Jake may have a weaker strain in him. Usually, viruses become weaker as they go from person to person. So, if it is fading out, maybe he has a weaker variety!”
Calvin hesitated and then nodded emphatically, “Yes! That sounds like a possibility to me, too. Let’s hope for that.”
Cooper stood up and shuffled his feet as he collected his thoughts. Calvin stood as well, readying himself to leave.
“I have some information for you as well.”
Calvin’s face grew puzzled, “What’s that?”
“You know Joe Vang, the mailman, right?”
“Of course.”
“We visited his cousin, who leads the Vietnamese Protection Society.”
Calvin’s face grew hard, muscles bulging on his jawline, “You mean, he’s a gangster?”
“Sure, whatever it’s called, they have trained men with good weapons. They’ve offered us six men for a week to help protect our neighborhood.”
Calvin took a step back, “At what cost, Cooper?”
“Ten-thousand now. Fifteen thousand later, when the banks reopen.”
“I wasn’t asking about the cost in money,” he paused gathering himself. He began shaking his head, “No, no, no. We cannot do this. I lost a brother because he joined a Protection Society,” Calvin’s words dripped with scorn.
Cooper held up his hands, palms outward, “Look. We can’t get emotional about this. We need to be objective about how we protect our neighborhood.”
Calvin looked back at him steely-eyed, “It’s true Cooper. I’m emotional on this,” he said defiantly. “When I found my brother’s body lying face down in the street in a pool of blood when I was twelve-years old—it did make me emotional about steering clear of anything to do with gangs. But, there’s more to it than that. Once you let these guys in—you won’t ever get them out. Trust me.”
“I can handle that part. It won’t become permanent. Having that extra firepower could be a difference maker if we face a more serious threat. Everything is unstable right now.”
Calvin shook his head, “I’m not going to argue this. There is no way I’m going to agree to do this.”
“At least, let’s present it at tonight’s meeting. The neighborhood can decide,” Cooper offered.
“That’s fine with me, but you know which side I’ll be arguing.”
The two men stared at each other, “And you, mine.”
Calvin maintained the steady gaze for several more seconds before turning and walking out the front door. As he opened it, Cooper saw that people had already begun gathering on the sidewalk adjoining his yard.” Is it time already?
Cooper rubbed his temples, took a deep breath, and then stepped outside.
******
The group that gathered in the front yard was larger than it had ever been before. Almost a hundred people stood clustered tightly together to stay within earshot. The mood was better as well, with more people smiling. More people have overcome their fear of getting the illness and are now coming out.
Cooper began the meeting, but then turned it over to Calvin to give the report of the survey teams that had gone out. The group came alive with animation and side conversations when he talked of the neighborhood to the north and their grocery store.
“My kitchen’s almost empty; can we get some Spam from them?” Freddie shouted, but his joke fell flat. Cooper wondered if it struck too close to home for many.
“We know they need guns, so we are going to see if we can make a trade with them,” Calvin reported.
More smiles appeared in the crowd and murmurs of approval rippled through it.
Calvin continued, “We’d also like to supplement our daily survey about the illness. Please raise your hand if a member of your household has come down with it within the last twenty-four hours?”
Cooper watched as people shuffled their feet and looked around, but no one raised their hands.
“Raise your hand if you have heard of anyone else, a neighbor, a friend, who has come down with it in the last twenty-four hours.”
Again, no hands were raised. Smiles grew wider and several people clapped their hands together in joyous surprise.
“Does this mean it’s over?” Someone shouted.
Calvin waved his hands from side to side, “No, no, no. While its good news, we need to keep an eye on things. It could be a just a temporary blip, or it could mean something better than that.”
Calvin paused for other questions, but there were none. He then turned the meeting over to Cooper.
“What I want to talk about is very simple, really. The city is still very chaotic. The only order is what people are making for themselves. I’ve met with the Vietnamese Protection Society and they’ve offered to send six men, four with automatic weapons, to help us defend our neighborhood for the next week.”
The group erupted in whispers to one another and shouts directed at Cooper. The cacophony was impossible to discern.
Cooper outstretched his hands and yelled to gain everyone’s attention, “Please, one at a time!”
“Let me get this straight, you want to invite a gang into our neighborhood?” John asked.
“I don’t want anything. It is an option that I’m bringing to you for your consideration and decision. That’s all. Do I think it’s a good idea? Yes, I do. Money is a small price to pay for increasing my son’s safety.”
“Money? How much are they asking for?” Gus asked.
“I negotiated them down to $10,000 for the week up front. Fifteen thousand more after the banks reopen.” A barrage of whistles and exclamations rang out.
>
“Might as well be a million,” Freddie joked to a smattering of laughter. “Who has that kind of money?”
“We would have to take up a collection to raise the funds,” Cooper responded, tamping the frustration rising in his belly.
“I think we should do it!” yelled Mark Moretti, who was standing at the back of the crowd, leaning against a white birch tree. Silence fell on the crowd and all eyes turned towards him. Cooper waved him on to continue. Mark brushed back his black hair and stood up straight.
“It’s simple to me. We can take something that has very little value to all of us right now—money—and transform it into something that is very valuable at the current time—more security. Sure, when things get back to normal we might all complain about the money we spent, but we’ll have a better chance of being around to complain about it by spending the money now.”
Cooper watched a wave of nodding heads and whispered words wash over the crowd. Calvin stirred next to him.
“Wait a second, Mark. I’d agree with you if we were talking about spending money on a security company or some other group we could trust. We’re talking about gangbangers. Hardened criminals. We’ve fought to keep those kinds of people out of our neighborhood. Why would we not only invite them in now, but pay them for the privilege?”
Mark shouted back, “But, they’d be working for us, that’s the difference.”
Calvin’s words burned with contempt, “But what will happen on the third week when we can’t pay them anymore? And now they know everything about us—how many armed people we have, what our defenses look like, and on and on. What then?”
Mark fired back, “It will increase our odds of all making it to the third week. Haven’t you been following the news? Other cities are much worse off than we are, but we’re headed in that direction. The coming weeks are going to still being very chaotic and dangerous, maybe even more so.”
The crowd was clearly moving over to Mark’s position when Lily Stott stepped forward, her voice graveled by age, “You lie down with the dogs, you’ll come up with fleas.” Her eyes scanned back and forth across the crowd, intently looking at anyone she could make eye contact with. She said nothing more and then sat down once more on the lone bench in Cooper’s yard.
A terse silence passed as her words brought everyone to a dead stop.
Calvin broke the spell, “I couldn’t agree more, Miss Stott. We get involved with these guys, we won’t ever be free of them.”
“Lily, Calvin, you’re right. There are no easy discussions anymore. But, I’d prefer my boy gets bit by some fleas than watch his father catch a bullet, like the one that almost got me today.” Cooper turned his head so the crowd could see the bandages swathing his ear. He let it sink in before continuing, “Furthermore, I’ll be damned if I’ll watch my son get killed, or worse, by some attack that we could have stopped with a few more guns on our side. Five hundred bucks in my pocket would be cold comfort on that day.”
Cooper’s words had a dramatic effect on the crowd. More were murmuring support for the idea. However, the opposition continued. He listened as the debate dragged on. With each passing minute, Cooper grew anxious about the upcoming visit to Mitchell’s home. He wanted to end the meeting so he could rest again and then make a plan of attack with Dranko.
Like a balloon that wouldn’t inflate, the meeting meandered without resolution. An hour later the meeting ended with the group deciding to table any decision until tomorrow so everyone could “sleep on it.
Chapter 30
Twenty minutes later, Cooper was fast asleep, after asking Dranko to wake him in an hour. His exhaustion was complete, and he slept more soundly than he had in weeks. He dreamt of Jake. They were living in normal times, except for Elena’s absence. Cooper was dropping him off at school on his way to work. He watched his son walk into the school and immediately fall in line with friends. The children’s smiles were wide and the sound of laughter reached his ears. The sun shone brightly as Jake turned from his friends to wave to his father. Cooper’s heart overflowed with the dull warmth of tranquility. As that feeling took hold, his heart began to ache, like a muscle that hadn’t been used for a while, but feels good the next day from the exertion.
When Dranko woke him up, his eyes were moist and the pillow was damp where his head lay. I hope that’s the vision of his future, he thought as he dried his eyes, got up, and stretched. His alarm clock sat blank, the numbers dark. Electricity is still out, so it wasn’t a temporary problem. He looked at his watch; he’d been asleep for almost exactly one hour.
Five minutes later, he was dressed and downstairs. Dranko had a steaming cup of coffee ready for him. The table was spread with maps and photographs of Mitchell’s estate.
“How’d you do all this?” Cooper asked incredulously.
“The coffee is instant. I boiled the water on my camp stove. The maps and the rest are from the miracles of the Internet,” he paused as Cooper gave him a quizzical look. “Oh, I’ve got a generator so I can still run my computer. And, I have a network card so I’m not limited to the local net being up and running to get onto the Web.”
“You really did think of everything, didn’t you?”
Dranko only grinned in return.
“Where’s Angela?”
“Right here,” the voice came from behind Cooper and he swung his head to see her, “I was just checking in on Jake.”
“How is he?”
Her full face was alight with optimism, “Lisa was just here a half hour ago. She was surprised that he hasn’t degenerated like most everyone else. He still has a fever, but it hasn’t worsened. As you know, it usually does. She said to tell you to not get your hopes up, but that this was an unusual sign.”
Cooper closed his eyes and breathed a deep sigh, “Well, that makes our visit with Mitchell more urgent. Jake may have just a little more time. If we can find some kind of cure,” he stumbled trying to find the right words, then gave up. “There’s more time, that’s all.”
Dranko nodded sympathetically, “What’s the plan?”
Cooper reviewed the photographs, which were top-shot satellite images from Google Maps of Mitchell’s home. He showed Dranko their likely line of approach and two backup approaches if those were compromised. They each pointed out potential concealment points for any guards that might be there. They discussed how they would operate once inside the home.
“I think we’ll be OK once we get to his home. I’m confident that we can handle any rent-a-cops that he has employed there,” Cooper concluded.
“We don’t know the quality of who he has. I wouldn’t be surprised that a guy like him has top-notch security,” Dranko said.
“What you need is a distraction. You should let me help. I can snipe from here,” Angela said, indicating a hill that overlooked Mitchell’s estate. “Given how rusty I am, even if I don’t hit anything, they will be forced to send someone, or more, to investigate.”
Cooper’s hand went to his chin as he contemplated her suggestion, “But, what will they do if they catch you?”
“They won’t. I’ll be gone long before they get close enough. They will be coming up that steep hill if they come on foot. And, it’s across the road, so I’ll hear any vehicle and can cut back on the reverse slope well before they reach me. It’s really low risk.”
Cooper looked intently at her, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Dranko filled me in. I’m not going to lie to you, I’m going to shoot to wound, not kill. But, that I can do to help you. And, I want to do that for Jake. The only real question is, does Dranko have a good sniping rifle for me to use?”
Cooper and Dranko laughed for a moment before Dranko responded, “My larder has been depleted for sure, but there are still a couple of choices left. I have a nice Remington, scoped, medium caliber. It has more than enough range, is accurate, with low recoil. The smaller cartridge will increase your odds of wounding versus killing too.”
Angela nodded, “Sound
s perfect. What time are we leaving? I should go find Lisa and make sure she can be here with Jake.”
“We should leave soon, by nine. I don’t want to be driving into the West Hills too late. We might get stopped. So, we’ll go out there early. Stay out of sight and then hit Mitchell’s estate at three fifteen in the dark and early,” Cooper suggested.
Angela and Dranko nodded. Angela left to find Lisa while Dranko went to retrieve the rifle for Angela and other needed supplies. Cooper gathered up a shotgun and pistol, and soon was methodically cleaning and oiling them.
Dranko was back first, after only being gone for ten minutes. “You rolling with the shotgun?” he asked.
“Yes. I figured you’d have the full-auto M16 so you can deal with anything on our way in. I’ll take point once we’re close-in and inside. The shotgun will be ideal for that. The old maxim of war is that the louder side wins. This will give us that advantage on the inside, without question.”
“I never understood the absurdity of bagpipes going into battle until I read about that very fact. So, I’m guessing you’d like one of these?” Dranko said as he held up a pair of fragmentation grenades.
Cooper sat halfway up in astonishment, “Where’d you get those for Chrissakes?”
“It pays to be forward thinking, and have friends in the right places. You want one? I only have two.”
“Damn straight,” Cooper answered. Dranko tossed him one and Cooper caught it, giving him a reproachful look. “A pessimist should never toss a live grenade to a friend in a living room.”
“Maybe I don’t think you’re such a great friend. Have you seen all the trouble you’re getting me into lately?”
“Trouble? Hell, you used to worry about falling over and breaking your leg when you’d put your pants on in the morning. At least now I’m giving you something real to worry about.”
Dranko chuckled and then Angela’s voice caught them both by surprise, “Are you old women ready to stop flirting with each other?”
Cooper and Dranko looked at her, then each other, and shrugged their shoulders in exaggerated fashion. Dranko handed Angela the rifle, solid and made for hunting deer. “I only have one box of shells for it, which is why we hadn’t already distributed this one. But, for tonight’s work, it will be plenty. I brought this for you too, just in case. He held up a small pistol with an extra magazine.
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