Escape The Dark (Book 4): Caught In The Crossfire

by Fawkes, K. M.

  “And the security around us isn’t going to go down once we get that assignment,” Adam hurried on, before she could protest. “It’s only going to get worse. Think about Julie. Think about how closely guarded she is. If they want us to do something that relates to that bomb, they’re going to be watching us like hawks. We’re never going to be able to get away. Tonight might literally be our last chance.”

  Adam’s words hung in the air.

  Ella didn’t answer. She didn’t move, not even to look at him.

  And in her silence, he heard her answer.

  “We have to go,” he tried one last time, his voice pleading and desperate now. “Ella, we can’t stay here. We have no idea what’s going to happen when the sun comes up, but you know it’s not going to be anything good. What if they ask us to do something we can’t live with?”

  “There aren’t a lot of things I can’t live with anymore,” Ella said, her throat rasping with emotion.

  Adam understood what she meant.

  “But I can’t leave my sister,” she said quietly. “I can’t leave Julie behind, Adam. I can’t do that.”

  “I thought you might say that,” Adam said. “And I understand, Ella, but listen—”

  “There’s nothing you can say. I’m not going to leave her, not when I just found her again.”

  “No, listen,” he insisted. “If we could get out of here, out from under the general’s thumb, we’d have the freedom we need to make a plan. We wouldn’t have to go far. We could lurk nearby, get a feel for what they’re doing and how they’re moving Julie and her son around, and then when the time was right—”

  “We’d what? Sneak past armed guards to get them out?”

  “We’re going to have to sneak past armed guards anyway, if we’re going to put together an escape,” he pointed out.

  “Right. But your plan has us sneaking out, then back in, and then back out again,” she said. “And you’re also not considering the fact that if we do things your way, Julie and Matty won’t have any idea what’s going on, because we won’t be able to communicate with them.”

  “Do you think we’re going to be able to communicate with them if we stay here?” Adam asked.

  “I think we’ll stand a hell of a lot better chance than we’ll have on the outside,” Ella said. “Besides, it’s obvious that Thompson wants us for something. You can’t possibly think he’s just going to let us go. If we disappear, there’s probably going to be a manhunt, and we’ll either have to go on the run or else be retaken. It’ll be ages before we’ll be free to refocus on getting Julie and Matty out.”

  “There are things I won’t do,” Adam said. “There are things Thompson might ask me to do, now that I know about his nuke, that I’d have to refuse. I’m not going to be responsible for any more deaths if I can help it, Ella.”

  She nodded. “I get that. I don’t want that either. And…” She took a deep breath, and he heard her shudder. “If you have to go, I understand that too. I want you here with me. I don’t want to do this alone. But she isn’t your sister, and if you need to go—if you can’t stay here—I’d respect that. I’m not expecting you to stay just because that’s what I have to do.”

  But Adam knew, as soon as she said the words, that he couldn’t leave her.

  Ella was the only person he trusted in the world. She was the only person left who really knew him. He wanted to get out of here—of course he did. But the idea of leaving her behind was too much. It was too high a price.

  That must be how she feels about Julie, he thought hopelessly. I can’t leave without her, and she can’t leave without Julie. And of course Julie can’t leave without her son. So the four of us are all tied to each other, for better or worse. There’s no getting out of it. Nobody leaves until we all leave.

  “I’m not going,” he said, rolling back onto his back and staring at the ceiling of the tent again.

  “You’re not?” Ella asked.

  “I know you didn’t really think I would,” Adam said. “Not without you. Not after everything we’ve been through together.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “I guess I hoped you wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But part of me also hoped you would. I want you with me. We’re a team. But in a way, I’d also feel better knowing you were away from here.”

  “I won’t leave,” Adam said. “I won’t go without you.”

  “I won’t go without you either,” Ella said.

  They lather in silence, side by side, and Adam contemplated the ties that bound him to this place. He was here because of the kidnapping of a little boy he’d never met in his life. As long as Thompson’s militia held Julie’s son, Adam would never be free.

  So that was the goal. To rescue the kid.

  It wouldn’t have felt right to leave him behind anyway. Adam had left people behind in his quest for safety before, but leaving a little kid another matter entirely. He wanted to do what was right here. He wanted to help Julie and her son.

  But what did General Thompson have in store for him in the meantime? What would tomorrow bring? Adam tried to think of something the general might ask him to do, but nothing came to mind. He wasn’t a scientific mind like Julie was. He wasn’t even a soldier. What did he have to offer the general?

  Unable to think of anything, exhausted from his journey and the stress of the day, he finally rolled over and fell into an uneasy sleep.

  Chapter 9

  “Adam. Adam.”

  Adam blinked his way out of sleep and looked up. Ella was kneeling over him and shaking him, looking alarmed and upset.

  Immediately, his body jerked into a state of alertness, adrenaline flooding his system. “What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s okay,” she said hurriedly. “It’s just that General Thompson is here for you.”

  So it’s starting.

  Adam understood immediately what was going on. This would be the explanation for the general’s willingness to show him the bomb last night. He was about to learn what his role in this militia was supposed to be.

  Wait a minute, though.

  “What about you?” he asked her, sitting up and rubbing his hands over his face vigorously.

  Ella shook her head. “He doesn’t want me,” she said. “Just you.”

  That’s strange. He showed her the bomb too. But now he only wants me. The thought gave Adam goosebumps. Had something changed? Had Thompson changed his mind about Ella somewhere along the way?

  And if so, what was in store for her now?

  “You’d better go,” Ella hissed. “He’s right outside the tent, but he’ll come in and get you if you take too long.”

  “Right.” Adam shoved his feet into his shoes, which he’d kicked off before falling asleep the night before. “I guess…I guess I’ll find you later?”

  Ella nodded. Then, suddenly, she reached out, caught his hand in hers, and gripped it briefly. “Be careful,” she said.

  Adam nodded. “You too.”

  It felt wrong to walk away from her. From the day he had met Ella at the Santa Joaquina, the two of them had been working together. And ever since they’d fled the island, they hadn’t been apart. Even though Adam knew his chances of being attacked here on the base, right in plain sight, were slim, he felt vulnerable. He felt as if he had left something valuable unguarded.

  General Thompson was waiting for him outside the tent, just as Ella had said. He smiled when Adam emerged. “Good morning,” he said. “I hope you slept well.”

  “Pretty well,” Adam admitted. Restless though he might have been, it had still been a full night’s sleep. He had been warm and dry, and he’d had food in his belly. Those factors alone made it one of the best nights of sleep he’d had in a while.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Thompson said. “I thought you might like to join me for breakfast.”

  “Just me? Not Ella?”

  “Oh, you know,” Thompson said. “Some things are best discussed between men.”


  Adam didn’t answer, but he filed that nugget of information away. It occurred to him that he had yet to see any women serving as officers in Thompson’s militia. He knew there were women on the base, he had seen them, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was they did here.

  “Breakfast would be nice,” he said, turning toward the mess hall automatically.

  But Thompson shook his head. “I’ve taken the liberty of having it sent to my tent,” he said. “I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss a few things with you, Adam.”

  That sounded ominous. Filled with dread, Adam fell into step behind the general, allowing himself to be led back to the tent in which he had met the man the night before.

  Two plates sat on the desk. Each contained two fried eggs, a pile of beans, and diced potatoes. Thompson took a seat, pulled one plate toward himself, and nudged the other one Adam’s way. “Eat up,” he said. “No sense discussing business on an empty stomach.”

  “What business do we have to discuss?” Adam asked.

  “I didn’t want to tell you everything last night,” Thompson said. “Not in front of the woman. I’m sure you can understand.”

  “That wasn’t everything?” Adam asked.

  “Just tactics,” Thompson said. “I’m sure you must have wondered what the plan is.”

  “I guess I did wonder that,” Adam admitted.

  “To understand, first you need to know that the remains of the United States’ civilian government is currently camped out in a bunker in Omaha, Nebraska.”

  Adam nodded. “You said they were in a bunker. I didn’t realize you knew where it was.”

  “The truth is that we’ve actually been out there a couple of times, trying to talk to them,” Thompson said. “Trying to negotiate. We didn’t come to this place, to the idea of threatening the use of this bomb, lightly. It’s been a process.”

  “Okay,” Adam said dubiously.

  “When the virus was active, the president and vice president, along with a few other high-ranking officials, retreated to their bunker,” Thompson said. “We had power then, of course, so we were able to receive communications from them, and we knew about it when they left. The communiqué went out to all active military bases, including Edwards.”

  “That couldn’t have done much for morale,” Adam said.

  “No, it didn’t,” Thompson agreed. “It felt like the government was giving up. Admitting that there was no hope and leaving us to fend for ourselves.”

  “But then the EMP happened,” Adam said.

  Thompson’s expression darkened. “I’ll never forget the day we got that message,” he said. “I was the CO at Edwards by then, and I made the call myself, trying to get them to hold off on the EMP. I tried to explain that sometimes when a wildfire happens, the best strategy is to let it burn itself out.”

  “You thought of the virus as a wildfire?”

  “I thought that there were few enough of us left that it might have eaten through everything it could,” Thompson said. “If those of us still alive could stay secure and safe, protected from anyone out there who was still infected, the thing might die out in a few weeks. And then we would have been able to start rebuilding.”

  Adam nodded. On one hand, Thompson’s plan made a certain amount of sense. He himself had been at sea, on Cody’s yacht, when the EMP had been set off. The loss of power had left his boat without running lights or the ability to do more than drift. Dead in the water, Adam knew, he could have starved or drowned.

  And he had been safe from the virus out there. It was easy to imagine that other people had found their way into similar situations once they’d realized the danger the nanobots presented. Certainly the Birkins and the McTerrells, along with Ella, had done that at the Santa Joaquina. It sounded like Thompson and his men had been confident of their safety from the virus too. And of course, the president and his advisors had all been safe.

  How many would have lived? he wondered. How many humans were clean and secure, and could have stayed that way until the virus consumed everyone else?

  But he couldn’t overlook the fact that the EMP had deactivated the bots in the bloodstream of those who had already been infected. There was no way of knowing how many people might have been carrying the virus, might have been only hours away from death, before the EMP had been set off.

  It’s not an easy decision, Adam thought. There’s no clear right answer. Thompson isn’t wrong, but he isn’t completely right, either. I wonder if he knows that?

  “They didn’t listen to me,” Thompson said. “Obviously. They ended the call. I knew what was coming, and I gathered everything I could into the bunker on our base. I had no idea whether or not it would stand up to the EMP. I had no idea what we would be left with. But I had to try to save as much as I could.”

  “It’s good that you had some warning, then,” Adam said. “You were able to save the vehicles, at least.”

  “The ground vehicles, yes,” Thompson agreed. “I didn’t tell you this last night, but after we left Edwards, we didn’t come here right away. First we drove out to Omaha.”

  “You did? Why?”

  “Martial law was in effect, but the president was acting with impunity,” Thompson said. “He wasn’t taking counsel, maybe not from anyone. And that worried me. I didn’t want to live under a dictator.”

  “So you drove this whole group out to Omaha? You said yesterday that that kind of long-distance travel wouldn’t be practical.”

  “We were a smaller group then,” Thompson said. “It was just those of us from the Air Force, although we picked up our Navy and Marine personnel along the way, because we knew where to look for them. By the time we reached Omaha, we thought we had a pretty solid group in place. Of course, it was nothing compared with what we have now. But it was enough that we felt comfortable walking up to that bunker and knocking on the door.”

  “And?” Adam was spellbound, despite himself. “Did you get to see the president?”

  “No,” Thompson said. “It was almost like they were expecting us. There were Secret Service agents outside the bunker with guns to match the ones we had. Nobody wanted it to turn into a shootout, and the Secret Service is trained to lay down their lives if anyone makes a move on the president. We weren’t going to get past them without losing too many of our own people to make it worthwhile. So we turned around and came back.”

  “And that’s when you came here.”

  Thompson nodded. “I realized I needed a weapon that could stand up to anything they had,” he said. “Guns weren’t going to get the job done. The president was never even going to take a meeting with me unless I could convince him that he had no other choice.”

  “Oh,” said Adam quietly.

  “Now that I have the nuke, the power is back in my hands,” Thompson said. “Now he has to hear me out. I’m the one calling the shots. There’s nothing the Secret Service can do to defend against a weapon of this magnitude.”

  “You think the fact that you have this weapon is really going to make them listen to your demands?” Adam asked.

  “I don’t see what choice they have,” Thompson said.

  “They could let you set it off.”

  “That would kill them as much as it would me. There’s nothing to be gained for them in that play.”

  Play. As if this were all one big game. Adam felt sick. Maybe it was a game to Thompson. Maybe the man really couldn’t appreciate how huge the stakes were. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself when he talked about how he had brought the situation under his control. It was terrifying.

  “They might think you’re bluffing,” Adam said.

  Thompson raised his eyebrows. “Do you think I’m bluffing, Adam?”

  “No,” Adam said, and meant it. After just a few hours spent with Thompson, he was sure the man would do exactly what he was threatening to do. Adam had seen enough people pushed to the brink by dire circumstances to understand that times like these could bring out the worst in a man.
Maybe General Thompson had once been a decent and understanding person. Maybe, before the virus had spread, he had eschewed unnecessary violence.

  But that wasn’t who he was now. That much was clear.

  He would set off that bomb if he didn’t get his way. Adam was sure of it.

  “Good,” Thompson said. “I’m glad you appreciate the seriousness of the situation, Adam. I would hate to think that you underestimated my willingness to do what’s necessary for the protection of my people and the advancement of our society.”

  “No,” Adam said. “No, I don’t think that.”

  “You haven’t touched your breakfast.”

  “What? Oh.” Adam had completely forgotten there was food in front of him. Now he forked up a couple of potatoes and forced himself to eat them. They tasted like sawdust in his mouth.

  “Have you spotted the problem?” Thompson asked.

  “The what?” Adam felt like he was swimming through molasses, trying to keep up with this conversation.

  “The flaw in the plan,” Thompson said. “We have everything we need in place, but there’s still one big problem holding us back.”

  “What is it?” Adam asked.

  “The president would see me if he knew about the nuke,” Thompson said. “But he doesn’t know. And I can’t just run up to the Secret Service agents shouting that I have a bomb and I want to see the president. That scenario definitely doesn’t end the way I want it to. So I’m left with the same problem, do you see? How do I get myself in the front door? How do I get into the room with the president so I can explain how the situation has changed and tell him what my demands are?”

  “I don’t know,” Adam admitted. “They know who you are now. They’re probably not going to trust you no matter what. They might even shoot you on sight.”

  “Exactly,” Thompson said, and a smile crossed his face. “You see the solution, then. I need to send someone else in my place.”

  “You have a lot of people,” Adam said. He could see where this conversation was going, and he didn’t like it.

  “I can’t send anybody military,” Thompson said. “They’d be recognized for what they are, and they’d probably be shot on sight too. Nor can I send anyone who looks too well fed. It would be obvious that they’d been here at the base for a long time.”