by Angela White
5
“You all right here?”
Peggy shoved her hair out of her face and hefted the babbling baby higher onto her hip. “No. Only part A is done. Here’s part B: The drafts need to be sealed in the kid’s area, the entrance gets closed one hour after sunset, and yes, that means you’re staying here.”
She handed Doug an envelope before he could start arguing and walked away while he was reading, passing the baby to one of the other den mothers. She knew what his instructions were and he wouldn’t like it, but he was needed.
“Did you do this?!” he demanded, drawing attention.
“No.”
“Who did this?!” Doug roared.
Peggy rounded on him, furious. “You did, ya big lug! And you had the nerve to lecture me!”
Doug suspected the knowledge she had, but his pride wouldn’t let it go.
“Why?” he insisted.
“You’re sick! You lied!”
Peggy entered the bathing area and got busy again. “Set those buffalos more evenly, hang a thicker curtain, put down the adhesive mats…” Peggy made a sharp gesture. “Write!”
Doug fumbled his notebook and pen into hand as she repeated the current list and then kept going.
“After the mats, get guards in every area. Make sure only happy, loyal men are on shift tonight.”
“I know how to set up security, woman!” Doug snapped, face red.
“Then why do you have to write it down like a rookie?” Peggy grinned sarcastically.
Doug paused, mouth moving with thoughts he couldn’t voice.
She made that sharp gesture again. “Get moving, man!”
Doug stomped off and Peggy quickly went to the rear of the cave. She stopped to consult her notebook, but when everyone was out of sight or not paying attention, she ducked behind a pile of boulders that appeared to be a dead end. She lifted a rough cloth curtain and went under it before she was spotted.
The sentry she bumped into in the darkness put a steadying hand on her arm. “Careful there, sexy.”
Peggy snorted, but didn’t snap at the man. They were all tense and using whatever outlet they could find.
“Is everything ready?”
Tommy nodded. He loved being in the loop and as a member of Jeff’s team, he always was. “Right on schedule.”
“And the C4?”
“In place. When you call it, I’ll demolish it.”
6
“It needs to be deeper.”
Troy frowned, leaning on his shovel. “Don’t understand what we’re doing anyway.”
Zack sank his own spade into the pile of loose dirt and wiped at his neck. “Following orders.”
Troy waved at the envelope sticking from Zack’s shirt pocket. “None of this makes any sense.”
“What do you mean none of it?” Zack asked, controlling his tone. Since being named fifth in command, he was learning to control himself in many ways. This was one of those moments, where he acted cool even though he was furious that so many people couldn’t follow orders even now, when it mattered so much.
“Dig this, dump that, shoot here. None of it makes any sense is what I’m sayin’.”
“You opened all of them?”
Troy grinned. “Sure. Got curious.”
Zack blew out a resigned breath. Another one. Great. “Curiosity killed the cat, ya know?”
Troy snorted, starting to realize he was in trouble. “I’m a man. Takes more than that to kill me.”
“I can do it with two sentences.”
“Those envelopes,” Troy sputtered. “I didn’t tell anyone what was in ‘em.”
Zack motioned to the guard on the detail, not responding.
Troy knew what was coming next. He tossed the shovel into the hole they’d been digging. “Don’t do this. You need me and I didn’t tell anyone!”
Kevin, the team leader of their current guards, glared at Troy. He knew what the problem was without being told. “What’s the word? Did you break boss’s orders?”
Troy’s face and protests fell, and Zack jerked a thumb. “There are the two sentences from him. Here are mine: You’re off this mission and out of the Eagles, per Angela’s punishment. Wait thirty days please, before reapplying for a rookie position. Now, pack up and head out.”
Troy stormed away from the half-dug hole without fighting. Once those words were said, they weren’t allowed to be taken back.
Kevin waved one of his team over to take the angry man’s place, still glad Angela had given him this chore. He couldn’t stand another day of static on the radio and watching Cynthia prepare for war. Angela had known he needed a break of some kind and put him on this low security guard detail. “We’ll round him up at closing time tonight,” Kevin repeated what he’d been told to say.
Zack watched Troy huff through the working people and women, hoping for someone to get in his way. No one was dumb enough to.
“He won’t go to camp.”
Kevin wasn’t sure on that. Angela had made it clear that any Eagle who opened their envelope early would be below camp members in rank, but Troy had a woman in Safe Haven.
Zack was thinking about that too. “She refuses to settle down, keeps screwing around. He won’t go back to camp without an intervention.”
“I’ll let the boss know,” Kevin stated, already drawing on his new mental ability to do so. This was one of those times where the things Angela was teaching them came in handy and he’d been honoring his vow to work hard at it.
“She said bring him in.”
Zack understood Kevin’s reluctance, but only nodded. Letting their unhappy shooters join the enemy wasn’t something they couldn’t allow and Zack wouldn’t, not even for a pal. That was the problem with secrecy done openly. Many people simply weren’t trustworthy on their own, even to follow simple directions, and curiosity was rearranging their ranks again. Zack thought it was for the best. The camps around theirs held people who were better for those positions anyway, and failure to follow orders was going to put them there. The funniest thing was that Zack didn’t think Angela had manipulated or looked into the future to determine cause and effect on this one, and set this all up. Fate was at work here and Zack took his comfort from that.
7
“Four hours are up,” Kenn called reluctantly. He’d seen that Adrian wasn’t going to do it.
Marc stretched and yawned, and then consulted his map. “Location?”
“Right where you said to be.”
“Good. Find that cabin I was holed up in. We’ll spend the night there.”
Neither man argued. The tension in the truck, even with Marc sleeping, had been thick. They were curious as to why Brady was calling it a day so early, but neither of them asked. If he wanted them to rest, they were fine with that.
Marc didn’t let out a laugh at their thoughts, but his grin let them know they were wrong. They didn’t realize how badly until they stepped into the decorated hunting cabin and found stack after stack of boxes and equipment. Most of the labels were military, but one pile along the wall said made in China. Another was marked for aid distribution, and yet another claimed to be fragile computer parts.
In a far corner, an Indian with a single braid and no feather was sitting against the wall with two guns aimed at them.
Kenn and Adrian waited for Marc, and let their eyes do the walking.
Brady pulled the truck to the rear of the building, where Grendin and Natoli covered it with netted camo tarps that blended perfectly with the dead and dying trees. He entered the cabin through the rear door and nodded at the rookie on duty.
The Indian holstered his guns and left through the rear door.
“Junit and his father will keep watch and run messages.”
Adrian moved toward the nearest box to read the instruction sheet taped to the top.
Kenn did the same with the box from China.
Marc went to the table where a small stack of envelopes and papers were laid out and weighed dow
n with rocks and heavy knickknacks. “Meeting in ten minutes. Try to find the box she had them label with a big biohazard symbol.”
Frowning, Adrian began searching in the front, while Kenn searched the rear.
“When you find it, leave it there. We need to keep track of that hot potato.”
“Over here,” Kenn called, motioning to a crate under a shelf. It was thick and wrapped in multiple layers of plastic.
“Good. These top sheets are arranged according to danger level. Not sure why, but I’d imagine we’ll find out as we go.” Marc shuffled through the stack of papers, heart clenching at the script. He missed Angie.
“So do I,” Adrian ground out. “Stop thinking about her.”
Marc glared angrily. He sometimes forgot that Adrian had a lot of the same gifts that he did. It was natural that the blond would be monitoring his thoughts, but Marc didn’t like it. “Let’s get started.”
The men came to the table and kept their protests to themselves when Natoli and Atolius joined them. Junit closed the door after they came in, AR now in hand, as he stood watch outside.
Marc handed each of them a single sheet of paper. “When you get that done, come grab the next one. She has five levels to this plan and all of them are deadly. As you can see, the outer ring starts with complete chaos. She isn’t giving them any merciful hits.”
“Good,” Natoli stated coldly. “They don’t deserve any.”
“Those are American’s we’re about to wipe out,” Kenn shot back. “Show some respect!”
Sebastian grinned, puffing on his cigar to get it lit. “Touchy soldier boy, eh?”
“Yeah,” Marc snickered. “We’re definitely that. Maybe I need to set some rules of conduct. First, shut up. Listen to the boss. Second, shut up.”
Instant waves of anger and challenge filled the room.
“Better. As I was saying, the first rings are bad. The second ring is a jungle of detcord and mines. From there, it gets ugly.”
“What are me and my boys doing?” Sebastian asked. Almost the entire Mexican army, under Sebastian, had fought alongside the ghost while coming over 40, and the easy-going leader did not intend to miss the final battle either.
“Same as the rest of this team. We’re handing out supplies, escorting people around, and keeping lines of communication open.”
Now all of them were scowling.
“Sounds like rookie work,” Kenn commented.
“Supposed to,” Marc answered cryptically. “As soon as the first sheet is finished, come to me for the next. We work in three man teams.”
Kenn was almost foaming with eagerness to rip it apart. “There’s no way six men can supply an entire battlefield.”
“Nope,” Marc agreed. “But those plans are above your pay grade.”
Kenn snapped his mouth shut, glowering instead.
“At dawn, the Safe Haven group will head out,” Marc resumed. “We’ll make it back here around dusk and then Natoli’s group will go. We’ll alternate shifts like that and cover all the areas in our zone twice a day. During those times, we will pick up and deliver supplies, messages, give advice and help, and anything else that’s needed.”
Now that they were getting solid details, Adrian and Kenn began fitting them into their own ideas of what Angela might have planned.
Marc pulled their attention. “First runs are crates A-D. No other letters.”
The men finished going over the small bits Marc was able (willing) to tell them, planning the best routes to the camps on the map he laid out. Seeing how many there were threw into doubt being able to reach them all, but this time, Kenn waited to see what the plan was.
Marc handed around a second sheet of paper. “That’s the allotted supplies for each location on the inner ring. Do not go over that.”
“Ten thousand rounds of ammunition, two week’s food and water, three hundred assorted handguns, one hundred machetes.” Kenn looked around at the room, the boxes. “We don’t have all that.”
“This is one of seven stockpiles we have in this area,” Marc answered. “As we empty each one, we’ll move to the next.”
“Ahead of incoming,” Adrian guessed.
Marc shrugged. “That’s what I assume, but we’ll find out together.”
“She sounds like a gem, this woman of yours,” Sebastian commented. “I am most anxious to meet my brother’s obsession in the flesh.”
Three cold glares swung his way.
The Mexican blanched, held up a consoling hand. “I’ve got it.”
Two of those heads dropped, accepting his word. The third glared at him for a moment longer.
When Marc finally looked down at the next stack of papers, Sebastian was relieved in a way that he didn’t feel the need to question. Marc was the boss and that was that.
“We’re using standard Eagle code until they jam us up,” Marc answered Adrian’s question before it rolled out.
“Then field phones?” Adrian asked.
“Yes. She already has the lines run.”
“When do we fall back to our camps?” Natoli wanted to know. “We have people to care for.”
“When she gives the call,” Adrian answered, reading the single sheet Marc was allowing to be passed around. “She’ll be contacting all of us at different times, getting updates.”
Natoli guessed from those words that Angela was also gifted, and felt a little better about a female in charge. Marc was one man Natoli wouldn’t ever want to cross and it was a comfort that the war was in the hands of someone who was like their ghost.
“She’s not like him!” Adrian growled. “He’s like us!”
Marc’s laughter was more salt in Adrian’s wounds and the blond stood up. “Are we done?”
“For now,” Marc responded, still chuckling. “You can have first shift, up high.”
Adrian left without slamming the door like he wanted to.
Marc glanced over to see Kenn wearing a confused expression and found he didn’t mind explaining this time.
“Adrian thought he was the only gifted male in our camp, other than Charlie. A teenager isn’t a threat, but me, well...” Marc chuckled again.
Kenn thought about it. Weren’t there any other gifted males in Safe Haven? There was... Conner, though a son wouldn’t be viewed that way. And there was… “Damn.”
Marc nodded, no longer smiling. “Kids, he can handle. Eagles and camp members, he’s great with. Our kind? He’s on the bottom rungs with very little power and a whole lot of mistakes to keep him there. It allowed him to overlook Seth, Jeff, and me.”
Kenn wasn’t sure if that was true, but the fact that he had to consider it sucked. The information coming from Brady made it worse.
Marc shrugged. “Sorry about that, but you’ve earned it the same as he has.”
“What about you?” Kenn sneered. “You’ve done the same shit we have, just at different times.”
Marc wasn’t going to be drawn into that. “I’m not on trial here, Marine. You and your idol are. Time to pay for your choices, your lies, the deaths and mistakes that came from it.”
Kenn was shaking his head. “Name one person I killed who didn’t deserve to die!”
“Your unborn son.”
“You piece of…”
Kenn came over the table and Marc met him with a head butt that knocked Kenn out. He slid to the floor in a quick movement.
Natoli and Sebastian got out of the way as quickly as they could and Marc rubbed his head gingerly. “That’s gonna hurt tomorrow, right?”
Natoli chuckled, while Sebastian grinned weakly,
“Yes, my friend, but it is much quieter in here.”
Marc sighed, now wishing he’d chosen to punch. The throbbing headache was already starting.
Take from one of them and it will heal you, the demon reminded.
Marc closed his lids, concentrating, and managed to bring the pain down to a level he could stand, without any help. Controlling pain was a skill that soldiers developed qu
ickly.
Nice, the demon praised.
Marc didn’t respond as a punishment for almost being tricked into drawing when didn’t need to. The demon didn’t realize Marc was also monitoring him.
The demon withdrew and Marc looked over with the others as the rear door to the cabin opened. They’d left the jingle bells up, but Marc was already tired of that sound.
Adrian spotted Kenn and then the ugly welt coming up on Marc’s forehead.
“Figures,” he grunted, stepping inside to pull Kenn’s big body onto one of the three pallets along the wall. Once finished, he returned to his post outside, breathing heavily.
Marc leaned back, head resting against the wall. “You two should get some sleep while you can.”
Sebastian and Natoli were honored to be on Marc’s war council and had no problem taking his orders. They crashed in their bedrolls at opposite ends of the building and were soon snoring.
Chapter Eight
1
Samantha stood up as the van came to a halt. They’d been traveling for hours, all watching Heather for signs of aggression. And they’d been grilling her, of course. It was still going on.
“Tell us when they’re coming! That’s all we need.”
“I don’t know.”
“Marc won’t go easy on you. Save yourself. Tell us when they’re coming.”
“I wouldn’t even if I knew!”
Slap!
Samantha did a fast check of her gear; made sure she had her two kits and pack, and then moved toward the door.
“Hey! Where is she going?”
Samantha flashed her instruction card to their driver, who frowned but opened the door.
As she stepped out, alone, Kyle couldn’t stay quiet. “You’ll be okay?”
Samantha didn’t answer. She’d spent the ride getting set for her mission. She’d known something like this was coming from the remarks Angela had made to her when they were alone. Samantha had been longing for it, as if it were the very air she needed to keep breathing. No one else existed for her now. Not Neil and his macho attitude, nor Jeremy and his whining charm. Not even the twin sons she was carrying. Her duty, her mission, would come first. It was the one thing she’d been denied her entire life because of her gender, but no one could take it from her now. She would either succeed or die, and she vanished into the shadows with her head up and feet carefully moving through the tangle of underbrush.