by Billy Dering
“Anyone there?” Heidi said into the walkie-talkie but got no response. Her hand dropped to her lap as she sighed. “We can hear them, but they can’t hear us.”
“Get used to it.” Maria smirked.
Ten minutes later, Heidi was getting anxious. Someone better hear us! We’ve been gone too long and need to check in. She tried again. “Hello? Anyone there?”
The response was immediate, “Heidi! Get back here now! And be careful. They have found a way ashore!” Kid snapped.
The girls peered at each other with eyes wide, and Maria depressed the gas pedal further while saying, “Hold on.”
You bastards better keep your distance, Kid thought as he kept a lookout from the widow’s walk at the Good Luck Point Marina.
Jess ran up the spiral staircase. “Kid, what are you seeing?”
“Their rafts made it into the bay, but they ditched them after they took a couple of boats from a marina a few miles to the south. Then they drove out through the inlet and I guess went back to the ships. We are lucky to have such a good vantage point up here. We’ll see them well in advance if they come our way.”
Jess nodded and checked his watch. “The girls better get back soon.”
“I know. And from here on out, we need someone keeping watch at all times,” Kid noted.
“I’ll stay up here for now,” Drex said as he walked in. “You guys go do what you need to do.”
A short while later, the girls arrived at the marina. Kid turned as they walked in and dropped bags of clothes on the floor.
Jess, who had been pacing, ran over to Maria. “Where the hell have you guys been?”
“Sorry,” Heidi interjected. “When we went to go in some stores, I accidently left the walkie-talkie in the truck.”
“We need to keep them on us at all times,” Kid reminded.
“Do you need help bringing anything else in?” Jess asked.
Heidi shook her head and said, “Nope. That’s all of it.”
“Where’s the food? You were going to stop at a supermarket.”
“We never made it,” Maria answered.
“Then where the heck were you the whole time? You guys were gone a while.”
She went to answer and hesitated, long enough for Kid to glance over. He realized that Jess was right. They were gone a long time. Maria then turned, as if looking for Heidi to chime in, but she had stepped out. “Hey, shopping for clothes and shoes takes time,” she said, dismissing the question.
“Oh, that’s right. I know how you love to shop,” Jess muttered with thick sarcasm and shook his head. “I’m going out to the workshop to set up the hot water heater.”
Over the next few hours, Kid helped Jess set up the new shower. They were able to pipe in water from a well, and then used a surprisingly quiet generator to power the electric hot water heater. Everyone took a turn bathing, and then dressed in the clothes that Heidi and Maria had gathered that day.
Keeping a lookout all the while, they ate dinner in the conference room of the marina office building. Kid lit a large 3-wick candle in the center of the table, and the scent of evergreen forest wafted throughout the room. The space was warm enough from the two propane heaters that the group was able to sit in comfort without wearing coats.
After discussing how the soldiers were raised, Drex pointed to 801 and commented, “These poor soldiers are conditioned from birth? That’s the same thing they were trying to do with that CCP initiative way back in 2025.”
“You remember the CCP?” Kid asked.
“How could I forget?” Drex said. “It was headline news for weeks.”
The mention of the CCP reminded Kid of Sara, prompting him to reveal her connection to the project. They were all stunned to learn that in 2025 Sara was born in the same hospital, on the same floor, as the CCP’s Baby Doe, but only ten days after Anna Delilah had given birth.
“I wish we knew that,” Maria noted. “Now I feel bad that we kept talking about it that last night at the beach.”
“That is unbelievable. Any other Hyland revelations we should know about?” Jess quipped.
Heidi had taken the initiative to develop the lookout schedule for the night, paying careful attention to who would be on post from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. At 8:45 p.m., she closed the conference room door and ran up to the third-floor widow’s walk.
Maria saw her and then turned her eyes back toward the starry sky. “I was afraid you’d find your way up here.”
Reaching into her coat pocket, Heidi pulled out General Hyland’s walkie-talkie. While Kid was busy in the marina workshop with Jess, she had been able to sneak the computer bag into the office building and hide it in the bottom drawer of a second-floor file cabinet.
“Well, Mr. Hyland did say to try and reach him between 8:00 and 9:00, and I don’t think they can hear us downstairs,” Heidi said. “They’re all in the conference room two floors down, and they’re keeping the door closed to keep in the heat.”
Holding the walkie-talkie in her hand, she massaged the buttons with trembling fingers. “Are you ready?” She hit the power button and turned it on.
“No,” Maria answered. “It still feels wrong side-stepping Kid. Not to mention, we get to be the bearer of the news about Sara? That’s going to crush Mr. Hyland. Absolutely crush him.”
“I know. That’s why I’m delaying pressing the button.”
They both sat in silence for a few more minutes.
“What will you even say to him?” Maria asked.
“I’m not really sure. I know what I need to say, but every time I think it through, the script in my mind changes. What time is it now?”
Maria checked her watch. “Almost 9:00.”
Heidi peered down the stairwell to ensure nobody was coming. “The window of time is closing. We have to do this. We have no choice,” she said with resolve and depressed the call button.
Despite the low-volume of the double-beep, both girls cringed.
On ship number one, General Hyland was sitting at a small desk in his room. Deep in thought, he tapped a stylus on his desktop. Hearing a faint double-beep, his eyes opened wide, and he stopped tapping. Pushing his chair back away from his desk, he stood up and went to the large flat screen in his room. He did not have time to jump into the program and insert a still-frame and silence to cover his monitor’s video and audio feed. That meant, based on security protocols, he had less than one full minute if he was to avoid being questioned. He nonchalantly turned the monitor off at 20:58:55, but then raced back to his desk. Dropping to a knee, he pulled out the bottom drawer. Wedged inside a leather portfolio case was a thin, black walkie-talkie in stand-by mode. He turned up the volume and depressed the call button. A double-beep sounded. “Hello? Who is this?”
“Mr. Hyland? This is Heidi Leer. I’m here with Maria Stefano, you know… Sara and Kid’s friends.”
Pressing the call button, he asked, “Heidi? Where are you guys?”
“We are at a marina on Barnegat Bay,” she radioed back.
“After all of this time, I’m surprised that you found the walkie-talkie, and I can’t believe you are still alive, but thank God.” He glanced at the clock. “Listen, I wasn’t expecting anyone to call at this point, so we only have a minute before I have to power down. Who else is with you?”
“Kid, Jess, and some others including one of your members who is being cooperative, but listen, Mr. Hyland, about Sara…” she paused.
The general cut in. “Heidi… I know. I’m sorry.” His voice was somber. “That will certainly require a very thorough explanation,” he added, laboring to get the words out.
He glanced at the clock, and was jolted. He was running out of time. “Listen close. I have to say this quickly. My mother in Vermont should still be alive in another area left untouched. She has a medication she needs to take every day to live. She was running out and will die without it.” Looking at the time, the general spoke even faster. “It’s a custom medication and is only produced in on
e place, but it’s in New Jersey. Go to the Merck facility in Rahway, Building 34. The medication is Levonesex 212. It’ll be hard to find, but it’s there. Take as much as you can to my parent’s house in Vermont. Kid and Jess know where they live. Merck. Building 34. Rahway. Levonesex 212. Get that medication to her right away! Her life depends on it and I hope you’re not too late. Powering down.”
He shut the walkie-talkie off, dropped it into the drawer and ran to turn the two-way monitor back on. The clock on the screen said, 20:59:50. When the general turned his back to the screen, he exhaled a breath of relief.
Powering down? Heidi felt a surge of panic. She depressed her call button and spoke fast. “Got it, but I need to explain what happened to Sara.” Silence. She depressed the button again. “Mr. Hyland?”
Getting no response, she voiced her frustration, “Damn! I didn’t get to explain anything!”
Maria kept repeating the general’s instructions. “Get some paper, quick. We need to write this down.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t think I’ll ever forget a single syllable of that conversation.” She turned the walkie-talkie off.
“Levonesex 212. Building 34, Rahway,” Maria repeated twice. “I can’t believe he already knew about Sara. Saved you from breaking that news.”
“I don’t know how he knew,” she said with a furrowed brow.
“Maybe he saw her get shot. Maybe he was with the soldiers standing on the deck or the bridges between the ships when we were escaping?”
“How else could he know?” Heidi asked. “I guess what matters is that he does. I just hope he doesn’t already hold Kid responsible for it.”
Maria walked over. “Speaking of responsible, Mr. Hyland now just put his mother’s life in our hands. The gig is up. It would’ve been eating away at me anyway, but now we definitely need to go downstairs and tell Kid.”
“I know,” Heidi huffed, her voice a high-pitched whine.
Putting her arm around her, Maria said, “You meant well. Come on. We’ll go talk to him together.”
“No, I’ll tell him. I’m the one who got us into this mess. When I bring him up here, step out so I can speak to him one on one.” She tried to gather herself. As she went down the spiral staircase to the second floor, Heidi peered up. “Kid’s really going to be angry, isn’t he?”
Leaning over the banister and looking down, Maria just exhaled. “Does that matter now?” Without waiting for an answer, she waved her hands, indicating that Heidi should move along.
The nervous tension emanating from Heidi was palpable as she stepped into the conference room. She did not even say a word, yet everyone jumped to their feet. “What’s wrong? Are they coming?” Kid asked.
“No.” She waved her hand in a nervous gesture. “It’s not that. Kid, can I talk to you for a minute in private.”
“Come on.” He led her out the door.
“Let’s go up, and we can send Maria down,” she said as they climbed the stairs. Stepping into the widow’s walk, she asked Maria, “Do you mind if Kid and I talk up here… alone?”
“Not at all,” she said and stood up, avoiding Kid’s eyes. Walking past him, she rubbed his back. “The penthouse is all yours.”
He stopped and touched his back, seeming surprised at Maria’s gesture. Once she was out of earshot, he asked, “What the heck is going on?”
Without saying a word, Heidi pulled General Hyland’s diary out of her coat pocket. Kid froze. Bending down in front of the dim light emanating from the propane heater, she flipped through and stopped at the entry written for Sara. She stared at the page for a minute and then held the diary out with her finger on a specific paragraph. Then she stood up and turned away. Holding the diary close to his face, Kid read the words.
Heidi stood facing Barnegat Inlet, but her head was down. She rubbed her eyes and was anxious for him to finish.
Kid closed the book and stood upright. “Alright, I read it… again. What about it?”
“He wanted her to call him on the ship.”
“I know. Even though we were just there I guess I’ll have to go by his house again and get that laptop bag with the walkie-talkie. I am really dreading that call, but I guess it’s time I told him about Sara.”
“Any one of us could call,” Heidi said sheepishly. “Wouldn’t it be easier if someone else told him?”
“Easier maybe, but I need to do it.”
“Why you?” She was concerned by the definitiveness of his answer. This is not going well, she realized.
“Because I promised him I would take care of his little girl.”
“But it wasn’t your fault…” she tried to start.
“Heidi, even if it wasn’t 100 percent my fault, it was my responsibility, so I have to make the call.”
At that, she turned and walked over to him. She grabbed his hand and gently caressed it. Her eyes were full of tears. “Please, sit down.”
His breath stopping for a split second as he seemed to have a realization. “There’s something you are trying to tell me, isn’t there?”
She froze, and then squeaked out, “Yes.”
Chapter 39
January 3, 2045
Tuesday, Evening
Bayville, New Jersey
Eight days after the event
Kid sat in a chair in the widow’s walk. What now? He was afraid to know.
“There is something I need to tell you,” she said as she walked over to a window and stared out. “Kid, you’re going to be angry. I thought you might be, but I didn’t realize how much until this moment. I swear, I meant well…”
He left the diary on his lap as he put his face in his hands. “Heidi, please just tell me.”
“Just wait here, one second.” She went down the stairs. She returned and put the general’s laptop bag on the floor in front of him. “I asked Maria to stop by Mr. Hyland’s house when we were running errands today, and I picked this up.”
His mouth was frozen open. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He started to rise to his feet.
She grabbed his arm and pleaded with him, “Can you stay in the chair here, please, just for a minute? I need to finish.”
He moved to the very edge of the chair and looked incredulous. “Finish?”
She faced the window again and exhaled a deep breath. She seemed to be steeling herself for what she had to say. Turning back around, Heidi got down on one knee in front of him. “I already called him, Kid.”
Strong waves of disbelief and anger collided within him and he bolted upright to his feet, knocking his chair over backward. “You what?”
The air in the widow’s walk turned deathly still.
Heidi crouched lower, and seemed to be shrinking. She dropped a second knee on the floor and sat back on her heels. She seemed resigned to accept whatever was coming to her. Looking up with desperate eyes, she said, “I’m sorry…”
Pacing in the small space, Kid stopped and felt like he was going to explode. “You called him? How could you do that? You know that was my call to make, or you should have known.”
“I was afraid you would lay the blame for Sara on yourself, and that Mr. Hyland would accept it as fact when that’s not what happened.”
“What gives you the right to speak on my behalf and with something that important?”
“I only wanted to save you from falling on a sword you shouldn’t be falling on!” she yelled through tears.
“Save me? I didn’t ask to be saved!” he yelled as he threw the diary on the ground. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I needed to make that call because it might help me cope, as painful as it would be?”
Heidi sat in silence with her head down for a minute. “I didn’t think of it that way. I’m sorry, Kid. I over-stepped my bounds, and I shouldn’t have.”
He headed for the stairwell. Even his legs felt like they were trembling and he stopped after a few steps. “You sure as hell did.” He continued downstairs two steps at a time.
Kid’s face was
hot and his teeth were grinding as he reached the first floor. He stomped up the hall, too furious to soften his heavy footsteps.
Maria rushed out of the conference room and closed the door behind her. As she met him in the hall, she reached out. “Stop.”
He tried to walk past, but she grabbed his arm.
He swung around to face her, pulling his arm away. He went to blurt something out, but stopped to compose himself for a second. “How could you go along with that? Did you know she was planning to call Mr. Hyland?”
“Yes, I did. Blame me, too,” she said as she crossed her arms.
He shook his head and went to turn away.
She again grabbed his arm. “Listen, I know you miss Sara and probably do every minute of the day. But we didn’t want to see you take the fall with Mr. Hyland so we called him. We didn’t get to say much, but the important thing is that he knows about Sara.”
“I have to face him sometime. He entrusted me with his daughter’s life, and I let him down!” he yelled. He stood rigid as he stared at her.
“I’m sure you will face him, but hopefully after you’ve faced the facts and come to terms with what we already know, and that you know somewhere deep inside.”
He gazed at her expectantly, his anger now coupled with curiosity. It was also a quick reminder that despite her wild and carefree persona, in those rare moments when she was serious, Maria was usually dead on. He had learned that when they were growing up, and knew she was far more observant and astute then she let on.
“And what is it you think you already know?” His challenge lacked conviction, and he again braced himself for a moment of realization.
She pounced before he even finished asking the question. “You didn’t let Mr. Hyland down! He let Sara down!” Maria said with unusual force as she stepped toward him until she was just an inch from his face. “The monsters Mr. Hyland associates with did this to her, not you. They’re the ones who aimed at her and pulled the trigger, not you. They’re the ones who took the life of his daughter, and….” she hesitated.
Her words sank in and jolted his core. His eyes scanned the hall around him for something he would never find in his external visual field. Her words had flipped the version of the truth he had accepted on its side, forcing him to see it from a different angle.