“I guess I want to know as much as possible,” Adam said, even though he wasn’t at all sure that was true. “Let’s start with what came first, the idea to weaponize the plant or the idea to declare independence for California.”
“To tell you the truth, both were happening at the same time,” Thompson said. “When we decided to settle here, our best R and D people went to work underground, trying to figure out what could be done with the nuclear materials that had been left behind.”
Adam took note of the way Thompson had described the settling of his forces at a nuclear site as incidental, as if it hadn’t been planned. He wasn’t fooled. He was nearly certain that Thompson had chosen this place on purpose, had brought his people here because he knew what was here and what could be done with it.
Thompson continued, unaware of Adam’s skepticism. “We had been batting around the idea of secession for a while,” he said. “I was thinking about it even before the lights went out.”
“Do you mean to say you wouldn’t have set the EMP off?” Adam asked.
“I don’t think so,” Thompson said. “Think about it. Our best weapons have been neutralized now. We can’t get anything airborne. We can’t even communicate with each other. We’ve basically been sent back to the stone age.”
That was putting things in hyperbolic terms, but Adam didn’t want to split hairs. “If the EMP hadn’t been set off, the virus would still be active,” he pointed out. “People would still be dying.”
“Well, we don’t know that,” Thompson said. “And if there had been better management from the beginning, the whole thing might have been avoided. Those who showed symptoms could have been quarantined, for instance. When it was discovered that MRI machines served as a cure, the national guard should have been posted around every machine in the country to expedite the process of moving people through them. I can think of a dozen places I would have done things differently.”
You don’t know that your way would have worked, though, Adam thought. Things might have turned out even worse.
Once again, he kept his thoughts to himself.
“So you’re using the bomb as a threat against the government,” Ella said. “Either they let the state secede from the Union or else you’ll set it off and kill everybody.”
“I can’t see them refusing my request,” Thompson said. “Can you?”
Adam couldn’t.
“How many people know about this plan?” he asked.
“Well, it’s classified,” Thompson said. “We haven’t informed the lower-ranking officers. It’s considered need to know.”
Adam glanced at Ella, but she wasn’t looking at him. He wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was. Need to know. That made sense on one hand—it explained why Julie had been so reluctant to talk about what she was doing here. She must be working on the bomb, and whoever gave her the assignment must have told her she wasn’t allowed to talk about it.
But from another perspective, it didn’t make sense at all.
Adam and Ella were new to the base. General Thompson had no reason to trust them yet, no reason to think they were on his side. He knew absolutely nothing about them.
And yet, the first thing he had done was to show them his top-secret weapons project.
What kind of logic was that?
Somehow, I don’t think it’s just because he wants me in his inner circle, Adam thought grimly. There’s something else going on here, and I very much doubt it’s going to be good for me or for Ella.
Still…whatever it was, it might mean opportunity. At the moment, he had leverage over Thompson. He knew something Thompson wanted kept secret. He was sure that that was leading somewhere he wasn’t going to like, but so far, Thompson hadn’t explained any plan he might have.
Maybe there’s a way I can use this to get us out of here safely.
He had to give Thompson a sense of security first, though, so he nodded and tried to project the impression that he appreciated being taken into the general’s confidence. “You can count on us,” he said. “We won’t tell anyone what you showed us today.”
“I appreciate that, son,” Thompson said. “You can understand why it’s not a good idea for people to know that they’re walking around on top of a bomb, right? It would cause a panic. People would be trying to get down there, to tamper with it…they might well end up setting the damn thing off by mistake.”
“Sure,” Adam said, even though he thought Thompson’s real fear had more to do with the idea that his subordinates might rise up against him and try to take power if they realized he was playing it fast and loose with their lives like this. He wondered how many of the soldiers on this base cared enough about the idea of Californian independence to lay their lives on the line for it.
He wondered how many of the soldiers on this base even knew that Californian independence was something their general was fighting for.
What difference does it make? he wondered. Thompson said himself that they aren’t in communication with anyone out of state. No one is challenging his authority. He can do whatever he wants anyway, right? So why go to such crazy, drastic lengths over it?
Ella spoke up. “How do you know they’re not going to get down there and mess with the bomb anyway?” she asked. “It’s not exactly hidden. Anyone with a brain could figure out where the nuclear equipment is.”
“We have some safeguards in place,” Thompson said. “For one thing, orders forbid any of the men and women here from going underground without express permission from a commanding officer. You two aren’t military, so you might not know, but servicemen and women take orders pretty seriously. It would come as a real shock to me to see any of them going against what they’d been told to do.”
“Okay,” Adam said. “But just hypothetically, an order could be violated.”
“And you saw that I have the doors that lead to the facility locked at all times,” Thompson said. “I’m the only one on base who has a copy of the key. So even if someone did decide to violate the orders they’d been given, they wouldn’t be able to make it in the door.”
“What if they stole the key?” Ella asked.
Thompson raised his eyebrows. “I don’t leave it lying around.”
“We don’t mean to question your capability as a leader,” Adam said. “It’s just that I’m sure you can understand how it makes us nervous having such a powerful weapon right below our feet all the time. And you’re a smart man. I’m sure you thought about it too.”
Thompson inclined his head. “There’s a cage around the trigger to the bomb,” he said. “It’s protected by a combination lock, a heavy-duty one. And I’m the only one who knows the combination. So even if someone did manage to steal the key, which I always keep on my person, they still wouldn’t be able to get into the cage and detonate the bomb.”
Adam had to admit, it seemed pretty foolproof.
And it worried him.
Thompson wasn’t a man to overlook things. Adam could see that clearly. And when it came to his nuclear weapon, that was probably for the best, because even though Adam was horrified at the idea that this fanatic had such a tool at his disposal, he definitely didn’t want it falling into the hands of someone who might not even know what it was.
But if Thompson had taken such care with the nuke, it was likely that he was equally careful when it came to protecting the borders of his base.
It would probably be considerably difficult to get in or out.
This just keeps getting worse, Adam thought, misery rising up and overtaking him. Every time I think I might have spotted a way out of this disaster, something new springs up and traps me even tighter. We can’t leave without Julie, which means we can’t leave without her kid. The general is giving us special treatment, which means he’s probably going to be keeping a close watch on us.
The problem with Thompson, Adam realized—the problem with everyone who had any kind of command position here—was that they were crazy, but they weren’
t quite crazy enough.
They were crazy enough to throw their own lives away over something as stupid and inconsequential as independence for California—now, when California hardly even existed as a concept anymore. Weren’t they really just talking about independence for this specific base? It wasn’t as if they were in communication with the rest of the state. General Thompson wasn’t fighting for the people of Fresno or Stockton.
They were crazy enough to build a nuclear weapon. Crazy enough to arm it.
Adam thought they were probably crazy enough to use it.
But they weren’t so crazy that they’d allowed organization and structure to break down. Adam would almost have preferred them to be running around like full-blown lunatics. Then he would have had a better chance of outsmarting them.
Then again, they all have assault rifles, and I’m not even armed. They had taken away the stupid little pistol he had had, not that it would have done him any good against the calibers he was facing here. If they were the wild kind of crazy, I’d probably be dead already.
Come to think of it, that’s probably what happened to all those people we found by Julie’s house.
Christ.
Thompson was watching him carefully. Adam wished there was some way he could know what the general was thinking, whether the man had guessed at what Adam really thought of him and his organization. He thought he had done a decent job of keeping it together, all things considered, but he couldn’t be sure.
I guess if they come and murder us in our sleep, that’s how we’ll know they decided we couldn’t be trusted.
Adam felt half hysterical with nerves at the idea, but he schooled his expression into a careful mask. Thompson couldn’t be allowed to see what he was thinking.
But we might not be able to stick around here long enough to rescue Ella’s whole family, he thought. We might need to take the first opportunity, and run while we can.
Chapter 8
It felt like stepping into another world when Clay returned. When the young lieutenant had dropped them off at General Thompson’s tent, the world had been a simpler place. Adam had understood where he was and who the people around him were, and he had known what he needed to do.
Now, everything had changed. The presence of that terrible weapon made him look at everything differently.
As Clay led them out of the general’s tent and across the grounds, Adam imagined he could feel the generator thrumming dangerously beneath his feet. That’s stupid, he told himself firmly. The thing isn’t active. It might as well be a bunch of dead parts down there right now. Nothing to be nervous about.
Except that that wasn’t true. Because it had potential. Even if it wasn’t doing anything right now, it had the potential to kill everyone in this camp.
Ella walked along beside him in silence, not looking at him. She seemed to be caught up in her own world. He wondered what she was thinking about everything they had seen.
He hoped they’d have a chance to talk about it all soon.
Clay stopped outside the tent he’d pointed out to them earlier. “So this is where newbies sleep,” he said proudly, as if he were showing off something he’d built himself. “There are a few other people staying here, but you’ll have beds to yourselves, of course, and I think you’ll be able to get a private corner. We’re not too crowded at the moment.”
He led them inside.
Adam took in the rows and rows of military style cots lining the place. There was something creepy about it. It was so impersonal. A few of the cots were occupied, but no one even looked up as they came in.
“Take any free cots,” Clay said. “General Thompson wants you to make sure to get some sleep tonight. I think he’s going to want to see you again in the morning.” He smiled. “There are blankets on the cots, as you can see. Anything else you need, you’ll be able to get from the commissary in the morning. That includes toiletries, a change of clothes, and vitamins.”
“Really?” Adam asked. “Vitamins?”
“They’ll assess your need,” Clay said. “If they agree that you need them, you’ll be able to get them.”
That was stunning. Vitamins were a luxury. For what felt like the hundredth time, Adam felt a pang of understanding. It made sense that people would want to stay here, under General Thompson’s rule. There was a good life here. Far better than any life he’d seen anywhere else.
If you can ignore the crazy man at the helm of it all and the threat of imminent death.
Clay bid them good night and left the tent, and Adam and Ella were on their own.
Adam looked around at the others sharing the tent with them. “Do you think everyone’s asleep?” he murmured to Ella.
She shrugged. “Let’s get some beds.”
They made their way over to an unoccupied corner and claimed two empty cots. Adam sat down on the side of his and shook out his blanket. He wrapped it around his shoulders like a cape. There was something comforting about that—it was a little like a warm embrace.
Ella sat cross-legged on her own cot. “What do you think?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
Adam grimaced. “I kind of don’t know what to think.”
“I know what you mean.” She shook her head and combed her fingers slowly through her hair. “I never would have guessed it.”
“Me either.”
“I mean any of it. Not just the…” she hesitated, glancing around. “The you know what.”
“Right,” Adam said. “I mean, it’s bizarre, knowing that that…thing…is down there…”
“It’s terrifying, is what it is.”
“Agreed. But this whole place is like something out of one of my dreams,” Adam said. “How do they have all the things they have? Chickens? Vitamins? I feel like this can’t be real life.”
Ella laughed darkly. “It’s the kind of thing where you look around and say to yourself, what’s the catch? Except that we completely already know what the catch is.”
“Yeah,” Adam said heavily. “I guess we do.”
“So what do we do?” she asked.
That was the million-dollar question, of course, and Adam was no closer to having an answer than Ella seemed to be. He felt a sudden urge to push their cots both closer together and farther into the corner, to create their own little protected and isolated world. He wanted to do whatever he could to put distance between himself and the militia he had found himself in the midst of.
He also wanted to put Ella between him and the wall of the tent they were in, to shield her physically. Of course, his body would be no good as a means of defense if a nuclear weapon went off. That bomb would tear through him like tissue paper.
The thought made him feel slightly hysterical, but he couldn’t afford to go to pieces right now. He lay down on his back and stared at the ceiling, trying to clear his head. Trying to think.
“It’s weird that he told us about it,” Ella said after a moment.
“I was thinking that too,” Adam agreed. “If it’s supposed to be need-to-know information, why tell us? Why do we need to know? I wish I didn’t know.”
“We don’t need to know,” Ella said. “He needs us to know. That’s what’s worrying me. There’s something he needs from you or me—or both of us—that’s going to require us knowing what he told us today.”
She was right, Adam knew. It was the same thought that had been plaguing him since Thompson had told them that his weapon was a secret.
Julie wasn’t allowed to tell us. And based on the way he was acting, I get the feeling Clay doesn’t know about it either. Adam swallowed hard. How many people do know? How small is this club that Ella and I have joined?
And why in God’s name were we allowed into it?
Thompson shouldn’t have told them about the bomb. Based on what Adam knew of the situation, it wasn’t a wise decision. Because Adam was against Thompson and everything he stood for.
And he didn’t even take the time to vet us, Adam realized. He might have gotte
n a feeling about us from the few minutes he spent talking to us in his tent, but he couldn’t have been sure of our loyalties. He couldn’t have even thought he could be sure of our loyalties, not on such a short assessment. Not unless he was an idiot.
Adam knew that the worst mistake he could make would be to assume that General Thompson was stupid.
The man might be morally and ethically bankrupt, and his ideology was irreconcilable with Adam’s own. But he wasn’t stupid. He had seen an abandoned nuclear facility, one that by all accounts was dead and didn’t work, and he had found potential in it. He had figured out how to weaponize it and use it for his own ends.
“We need to get out of here,” Adam said quietly.
Ella slumped down on her own cot, pulling her blanket up to her shoulders. “That’s easier said than done.”
“Yeah, I know,” Adam said. “But we’re going to have to go as soon as we can, Ella. It’s not just the bomb. I think these are the people who’ve been committing all those gruesome murders we saw.”
She made a scoffing noise. “Finally there, are you?”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I wanted to trust them.”
“I know you did,” she said, more gently now. “I did too. It would be nice to trust somebody for once.”
“You can trust me,” Adam told her.
There was silence for a long moment from Ella’s cot. Then she spoke again. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m almost completely sure you’re right about that.”
Adam rolled over on his side to face her. “I think we should go now,” he said. “No one’s watching. They’re not expecting it. They think we’re just so relieved to be here that we wouldn’t even think of leaving.”
“You want to leave right now? Tonight?”
“I honestly think we might never get a chance like this again,” Adam said. “Look, you already know that we’re on Thompson’s radar. He told us about his weapon. That means he’s going to want us to do something. He’s going to have a job for us that’s going to require us to know about the bomb. You said that yourself.”
“Yeah, but—”
Escape The Dark (Book 4): Caught In The Crossfire Page 6