While he was waiting, he was thinking about what Agent Thomas had told him about Veronica. Greg had long suspected that she had been killed; it was simply hard to hold out hope that someone who had been abducted would still be living after years had passed. In a way, the news brought him closure. It had been dark days for him when she had gone missing, but he had survived the grief and the depression that followed. The news that she was most likely dead did not reopen old wounds; in his mind, it brought him the strength to move on, even if there was a part of him that would always miss Veronica, who had been his first love.
There was a knock on the door and Jared felt his heart leap in anticipation. He had been hoping that Ashley would come early so he could ask her out again. They had never gone on the lunch date he had asked her on; Greg had used the work of the Conspiracy as a useful excuse to cover the fact that he was conflicted about what role that Veronica played in all this. With the new feeling of closure he felt, he knew it was time to try again with Ashley.
Greg answered the door and it was indeed Ashley, who smiled broadly when she saw him. “Hi, Greg. I got here early on purpose.”
“I’m glad you did,” Greg said gently.
“Oh really? Why is that?” she asked.
“Look, I know I asked you out a while ago and I’ve been really busy so it never actually happened, but if you are still willing, I’d like to take you out to lunch this weekend,” Greg said.
Ashley did not even hesitate, “I want to go out with you, Greg,”
“Great,” he said, smiling. “What kind of food do you like?”
“I think Italian would be nice,” she replied.
“Okay,” Greg replied. “I’ll find us a nice Italian restaurant to go out to. I’ll pick you up too if you want.”
“I would like that,” Ashley replied.
“Great,” Greg said again. There was another knock on the door and as Greg went to answer it, he added, “I’m really glad you said yes,”
The rest of the leadership council had arrived. Once they were sitting in their usual spots, Greg started in, asking, “First of all before I say my piece, has there been any news on the Black Hand?”
Eric spoke up first, “We’re still decimated, Greg. It’ll be a miracle if it holds together by the end of May at the rate we are going.”
“Which would be good for us, right?” Bob asked. “We’ll have done what I started this Conspiracy for.”
“I’m not sold that they’ll fall apart,” Charles said. “Eric, no offense, but the way the Black Hand is regimented, it’s almost impossible to know what the leadership is up to. They could be planning the next attack as we speak and we would have no clue until it was too late.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Eric said. “But half of the Black Hand in the neighborhood I work out of was wiped out. They’ve got a long rebuilding process if they even get that far and so far no word of any attack has dripped down to the neighborhood level. Remember, they had the entire Black Hand engaged when they pulled off the robbery. If something was about to go down, I would have heard of it.”
“Still though, I don’t want to declare victory while Jared Bennett is still out there. Someone who would rob the Federal Reserve isn’t going to go down easily. Once we capture him and the rest of the leadership of the Black Hand, then we’ll be done,” Greg said.
“That could take a long ass time,” Christine said.
“Not as long as you might think,” Greg said. “I met the President earlier today.”
Just as Greg had been dumbfounded when he found out that he would be meeting the President, so too were his leadership council now. “You…what?” Bob asked.
“I had a meeting with the FBI to discuss their findings into the Task Force investigation,” Greg explained. “It turned out to be a cover for the President to meet with me to discuss taking down the Black Hand. He offered us some supplies to help with that. Surveillance, weapons, things of that sort.”
“Are we supposed to be the Fed’s stooges then?” Bob demanded angrily.
“No, but we are not going to get in trouble for being vigilantes,” Greg said. “Weren’t you the one trying to get us to get the government to help us anyway?”
“I wanted the local government!” Bob spat, irate. “I didn’t want to do the Fed’s bidding.”
“We aren’t doing the Fed’s bidding…” Greg started.
“Did the President want anything of us?” Bob demanded.
“Just to keep fighting the Black Hand,” Greg shot back, growing angry himself. “Which we were already doing anyway…”
“Not for ourselves, no, we are doing it for the goddamned Fed now!” Bob roared.
“What is your deal?!” Greg asked furiously.
“YOU ARE DESTROYING EVERYTHING I BUILT!!” Bob screamed. “I wanted to force change peacefully and without interference from the Fed, but you bring in that warmonger over there and started making deals with the most corrupt institution on God’s green earth!”
“I told you WEEKS ago that YOUR plan wasn’t going to work!” Greg shouted back. “There was no way in hell that getting people elected in local elections was going to stop the Black Hand! Thanks to my former employers, they had gotten too powerful and the only way they were going to be stopped was with fighting! Also, YOU were the one that recruited Zach, remember?!”
“Bob, there was no way your plan was going to work,” Christine said calmly, trying to deflate the tension. “I think we’ve done pretty well for ourselves as it is and we’ve only had the one fight.”
“Or does Bob here think that having some politician would have done any good when Ethan Rush went out to attack the Army to get that gold back,” Zach said, who was annoyed to have been called a warmonger. “I think what I did was a better idea.”
“Because that’s all you can think about is fighting,” Bob snapped. “Every single one of you. Well, I’m not going to be around such violence anymore.”
Bob stormed across the room and left, slamming the door behind him. Charles sighed, saying, “That was going to happen eventually.”
“Does anyone else have a problem with us getting supplies from the Fed?” Greg asked.
“It’s a slippery slope,” Christine said. “You need to be careful that it just stays as casual a relationship as you have it now. You don’t want to get us too tied up with the Fed.”
“She’s right,” Charles said. “Also if you don’t mind, I’m going to take over recruiting for Bob.”
“I was going to ask you if you would,” Greg asked, smirking.
“Don’t worry about Bob,” Charles added. “He’ll come around, I’m sure.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Greg asked.
“We’ll make do,” Charles replied.
Chapter Nineteen
The Fury of the Plains
As May began, storm systems continued to develop and eject over the Eastern United States. As temperatures warmed, more moisture was available to be drawn up from the Gulf of Mexico, allowing stronger and stronger instability to build up in the Plains region. In the last days of April, a particularly strong storm system had triggered a massive storm complex to develop over Oklahoma before moving eastwards. There had been a scattered number of tornadoes with the complex, but they were weak and not long-lived.
Far from getting a break though, another storm system developed further north over Kansas and Nebraska. On the morning of May 4th, it became apparent to forecasters that another severe weather outbreak was going to occur that day. The Storm Prediction Center issued a high risk for severe weather over Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri, noting the potential for intense tornadoes and giant hail. Local media picked up on the outlook and the news spread through social media to beware of the weather that day.
Rebecca, however, had other things on her mind than the weather. Despite Ed’s warnings, Rebecca, Anne, and Georgia had carried on fighting the gangs in the city. They were making steady progress, though Peter was content for
the time to spread out his attack and keep the gangs guessing as to where they would strike next. As for the neighborhoods that had been occupied by the gangs for so long, they were slowly starting the rebuild process as families moved back into their homes, though they were often damaged.
Though initially disappointed that she had been forced to give up her charity idea, she was pleased that progress was being made in getting the refugees back into their homes. The pressure on the city resources that the homeless crisis had started was beginning to ease as a result, which allowed the city to start repairing the damage to city infrastructure. For the first time since Rebecca had arrived in Kansas City, the area was beginning, slowly but surely, to recover.
That Friday morning found Rebecca with Anne and Georgia at the warehouse that Peter had taken over as his base of operations. They were going to launch a more serious raid into heavily occupied gang territory, north of the warehouse. As the three girls got into the warehouse, they could hear Spencer and Peter having a loud argument.
“We cannot run this operation today, we need to postpone it!” Spencer said loudly.
“You said that last week about the weather and it didn’t even fucking rain!” Peter said.
“I said it was possible, but I didn’t really think it would do anything because the cap was too strong! It’s not today! Once storms punch the cap, all hell will break loose!” Spencer protested.
“Can you guarantee that a, it will storm, and b, that it will have a tornado?” Peter demanded.
“No, I can’t know that until the storms start…” Spencer started.
“Then we go ahead as planned. If a storm were to occur and were it to become severe, then we’ll plan for that, until then, we move ahead as planned. I’m not going to stop our momentum just because of some vague threat!” Peter said with a tone of finality.
“It isn’t a vague threat!” Spencer roared furiously. “Did you even read the email I sent you?!”
Victoria, who was still working as their meteorologist, cut in, “Peter, listen to me. Every forecasting agency I’ve looked at says this is a dangerous situation, even more so than that time a couple of years ago when Oklahoma City got hit by a strong tornado. There is too much to risk today; this has to wait!”
“This is over, you two,” Peter said, ignoring her. “We move out in fifteen minutes!”
“Goddamn it!” Spencer shouted. He stormed over to Rebecca and said, “We’ve gotten my station set up in the warehouse so we’re staying here today.”
“Okay,” Rebecca said warily. She followed him over to the station, which had been upgraded from the van to include a 3D holographic map display and a better communications array.
“Let me show you how this works,” Spencer said. “You can use your hands, all you do is point and drag this circle to represent where are forces are. They’ll report in and we can use this triangle to report enemy locations. From there I can direct the movement of our people in a way that minimizes the danger. It also shows the weather radar, which we’ll need today, because there is going to be a tornado outbreak!”
Spencer shouted towards the end and made sure that Peter could hear it. “Just do your fucking job, Spencer!” he shouted back.
“You seem really interested in the weather,” Rebecca said.
“I have a functional knowledge of basic processes so I can do some amateur forecasting, but Victoria is way more knowledgeable about this than I am,” Spencer said. “She’s actually done some classes in atmospheric sciences over at KU.”
Rebecca remembered seeing the university on her way to Kansas City from Topeka. Anne and Rebecca had considered staying in Lawrence, but decided ultimately not to. “I wonder if I will go to college,” Rebecca said, more to herself.
“I’m sure you could if you wanted to. Have you been home schooling with the Smiths?” Spencer asked.
“Not yet. I just don’t know what I’d do there,” Rebecca said. “And I’ve got enough to worry about right now without worrying about college.”
“That you do,” Spencer said. “Not just because of the weather, but because of this attack. This is going to be a serious fight.”
“Really?” Rebecca asked.
“Yeah, we’re going to advance into Bonner Springs today,” Spencer said. “The town has some of the thickest gang density.”
“Are they going to be okay?” Rebecca asked, worriedly.
“Peter knows what’s he’s doing as far as the fighting is concerned,” Spencer said darkly. “He’s a good tactician, but he refuses to see the whole picture.”
“Like the weather?” Rebecca asked.
“Especially the weather,” Spencer said.
There was a commotion as the fighters left the building, leaving Spencer, Rebecca, and the rest of the support staff he had demanded Peter to give him. As soon as they were gone, Spencer got up and said, “Okay everyone, we have multiple issues to cover today. Hanna, I need you on the coms. Valerie, you can help her. Victoria, I need you to pay close attention to the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. I want to know if…and by if, I mean when…a Tornado Watch is issued for us.”
The staff did as they were told. Rebecca turned to Spencer and asked, “What about me?”
“You’re with me,” he said. “I need somebody to help me with this map.”
Rebecca nodded. The map was empty at the moment, but Spencer drew a line across the map along the river and north through Edwardsville. “That’s the line I told Peter to start at and move west from there to Bonner,” he explained.
“How long until they get in position?” Rebecca asked.
“Depends on traffic,” Spencer said simply. “It’s broad daylight, it’s going to be a bit busy. We chose a daytime attack because we would at least be able to see our targets since we couldn’t use night time to surprise them anymore.”
“Spencer, we’ve got something from the Storm Prediction Center,” Victoria said suddenly.
“What is it?” Spencer asked urgently.
“A Mesoscale Discussion for this area…they’re going to issue a PDS watch by…19Z,” she said.
“What does that mean?” Rebecca asked.
“It means 2 o’ clock, they use UTC at the weather service,” Spencer said, looking at his watch. “We’ll be under a watch soon then,” he added, heavily.
“What does PDS mean?” Rebecca asked.
“Particularly Dangerous Situation. They post a watch like that very rarely because it is reserved for major tornado outbreaks or a special kind of wind storm called a derecho,” Victoria explained.
“The problem is that Peter probably won’t stop unless he sees a tornado coming down the street,” Spencer added darkly.
“Is that likely?” Rebecca asked.
“Depends on where the storms start,” Spencer said simply.
The staff remained silent for some time until Peter suddenly spoke, saying, “We’re in Edwardsville.”
Spencer sprang forward to the radio and said, “Okay, are you on the line?”
“Yes,” Peter said impatiently. “We are stretched out from the river to the railroad tracks just west of the mobile home park.”
“Okay, start advancing west and prepare for possible hostiles one mile west of you,” Spencer advised.
“Copy that,” Peter said. “Maintain silence unless it’s important.”
“Okay,” Spencer said.
Spencer put the radio down as Victoria came over and began to fiddle with the map, until the display suddenly changed to show a field of short arrows that were moving. Peter’s forces were still being tracked on the map, as Spencer had loaded their position and trajectory into it as well.
“What did you do?” Rebecca asked.
“This is the wind field. I’m looking for upward motion. It’s the area where a storm could develop,” Victoria explained. She made the map expand over a wider area so that it showed as far west as Topeka. “That’s what I’m looking for,” pointing at a s
et of arrows moving upward at a strong rate over Ottawa.
“That’s not far from here,” Spencer said.
“No and it isn’t in a good direction either. The storm motion is expected to be towards the northeast today which means if a storm developed over Ottawa, it would eventually track towards the metro area,” Victoria explained.
Victoria strode back over to her computer and sighed heavily. “Tornado Watch #178 in effect until 11 pm. It’s a Particularly Dangerous Situation, with long track and intense tornadoes likely and hail up to four inches in diameter.”
“Hanna, do we still have contact with the platoons?” Spencer asked.
“They have to check in periodically, so yeah. Who do you want to talk to?” she asked.
“Peter,” he replied.
Within seconds the connection was made. “What the hell do you want, Spencer, I said silence.”
“Peter, can you do me a favor and look to the southwest?” Spencer asked innocuously.
“Southwest? What am I looking for?” Peter asked.
“What’re the clouds doing?” Spencer pressed.
“There’s a tall cloud that’s growing pretty quickly and spreading out,” Peter said.
“Get everyone out of there now,” Spencer said immediately.
“What? We’re already here, we may as well finish what we came here to do,” Peter replied.
“Peter you listen to me goddamn it, that’s a supercell thunderstorm that’s building over Ottawa, which is only forty miles southwest of here. It’s going to move over the city as a mature thunderstorm and it’ll most likely produce gigantic hail and tornadoes. You cannot be out in that!”
“Contact!” someone shouted as the sound of gunfire suddenly sounded in the background.
“Peter pull back. PETER!” Spencer roared as the line went dead. “FUCK! Where are they at?”
“They would be at this tight bend in the river where it’s almost along the highway,” Rebecca said, pointing at the spot.
Autumn (Four Seasons Book 1) Page 19