by Steven Smith
Jim went to a coffee pot staying warm on a grill over dying coals. "That's a good idea. You ought to take Naomi, Brin, Tracy and Becky with you, too. Make it a real girls’ day out. I bet she'd enjoy that."
Kelly poured herself a glass of sweet tea. "That would be fun. I'll ask them."
She watched as he sat down at the table, then sat down beside him. "Don't you want to be at the gate to meet the scouts?"
He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head. "That's Christian's job now. He and Mike will meet them, get an initial debriefing, then get them situated. Then he'll come fill me in. We'll have Alex and Aaron here for dinner tonight to give us the whole story."
She smiled. "So, what are you going to be doing this afternoon?"
He smiled back at her. "What are the kids doing?"
"Well, Aedan and Brody are training with the junior scouts and Morgan is going to be making cupcakes with Jasmine."
His smile grew bigger. "Then I think I'll hang around here and pester you."
She laughed. "Pester me?"
He nodded, still smiling. "Or something."
She reached over and put her hand on his. "Or something?"
His smile grew bigger. "Yep."
20
"Amen."
Christian and Mike had met the scouting party when they had returned, quickly debriefed the team leaders, then let them have the rest of the afternoon to see to their gear, clean up and relax. Now, the Stonemont core was gathered around the large table on the veranda to hear the full report from Alex, Aaron and Brandon while they ate dinner.
Jim unfolded his hands and picked up the large platter of grilled steaks, spearing one with the serving fork and putting it on his plate before passing it to Kelly.
"I can see our scouts down there salivating after several days of scout rations," he chuckled. "Better get this down to them quick."
The scouts smiled, nodding a bit self-consciously and looking around the table. They had never eaten at the house before and had been surprised when Mike had brought them the invitation. His simple advice to wear a clean shirt, wipe their boots and don't spit at the table had done little to guide them as to what to expect, but the whole group seemed friendly and laid back.
Jim looked at the scouts seated at the other end of the long table. "Mike tells me you boys have quite a story to tell, so load up and don't be shy about talking with your mouths full - the queen isn't here tonight. But don't spoil your appetite for dessert."
He looked at Kelly. "You want to tell them what you've whipped up?"
Kelly smiled and looked down at the brothers. "Blackberry brownies with walnuts topped with cream cheese icing and a raspberry drizzle."
Alex smiled. "It's been a while since we've had anything like that."
"Yeah, like never," said Aaron, taking the platter from his brother and sliding a steak onto his plate.
Kelly laughed. "Good. All the rest of this is from Jasmine, and before you fall in love with her and her cooking, I should warn you that she's on a year-long contract with us."
"Yeah,” said Jim, “so don't get any ideas."
He loaded a spoonful of yams with honey and shaved almonds onto his plate. "Mike briefed me on your trip up, but he said that what you found up there would take some time to cover so we'd better be eating. You ready to tell us all about it?"
The scouts looked at each other and Aaron nodded at Alex to start.
"Well, we made good time into the city," said Alex. "The bikes got us there a lot sooner than we'd planned."
"Whose idea was the bikes?" asked Tom.
Alex nodded at his brother. "Aaron remembered the story about how Mr. Wyatt got home, and he knew about a bike shop just east of our original drop-off point. That helped a lot."
"They brought a truck and bus load of bikes and accessories back with them," interjected Mike.
"That's a great idea," said Ann. "I don't know why we didn't think of that before."
Jim nodded. "I agree. You each get an extra brownie. Go ahead."
"We didn't check any houses until after the golf course, but we didn't see any people and only a couple of small dog packs on our way there. After the golf course, we checked about five houses before getting to the church. We found bodies in three of them, but the rest were empty."
"Could you tell the cause of death?" asked Christian.
"We figured one was a murder-suicide because we found a handgun on the floor and two bodies with bullet wounds in the head - one in the temple showing powder burns and the other with a large exit wound at the back of the skull, indicating he'd put the gun in his mouth. A second set looked like suicide, also by handgun, after a possible natural death. The third was two bodies we found at the bottom of some basement stairs. We couldn't make out a cause, but it was an older couple, so they might just have fallen and weren't able to make it back up."
"How horrible," said Ann quietly.
Everyone was silent for a moment in recognition of the latest evidence of tragedy in their new world.
"That brings up a thought we had," said Aaron, "and that's the number of guns we came across. We brought some back with us, but there are obviously a lot more out there in houses."
Jim looked at Christian. "We've thought about that. We took a bunch out of houses when we did the burn north of Church Crossing. Plus, there were a lot of safes we didn't crack open. Maybe we should assign a couple of teams to start going after them."
Christian nodded. "I agree. We have a lot, but you can never have too much."
He looked at Ann. "How hard would it be to open a safe, Ann?"
Ann thought for a moment. "I've never done it, but I'm sure we can."
"It's not hard," said Mike. "We did it in Iraq."
He looked at Jim apologetically. "I meant to mention that before, but we got busy."
Christian looked at him, then at Jim. "I say we make that a priority."
Jim nodded and looked at Mike. "Pick two teams and get started right away. Start in the burned-out section, then move into the city. There's no such thing as too many."
Mike nodded. "Will do."
Jim looked at Tom and Patty Murphy. "I don't know what kind of intelligence would be in them, but I'm sure there will be personal valuables in the safes as well as guns. Would you take care of securing and cataloguing all personal items in case owners show back up?"
"Sure," Patty nodded.
"How about cash?" asked Tom. "Do you want us to include that?"
Jim shrugged. "I don't know what good it is, but include it. It belonged to someone."
Tom nodded.
Jim looked back down at the scouts, who were busy attacking their steaks. "Okay guys, go ahead."
Aaron and Brandon looked at Alex while they kept eating.
"We can give you all the details as you want them," said Alex, "but the main thing is that there are several fairly large groups living in the city. We only met one, but they told us about others."
"You met them?" asked Jim.
Alex was silent for a moment, looking at Mike briefly then back at Jim. "I know our instructions were to avoid contact if possible, but it just seemed to be right. The decision was mine and I take responsibility."
"I went along with it," said Aaron.
Jim looked at the brothers, then at Mike, then back at Alex. "Sometimes a plan needs to be adjusted. We’ll talk about that later. Go ahead."
Alex nodded, not sure whether he should feel relieved. "There is a large community living in the central part of the city."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook which he opened, leafed through and referred to.
"The community is led by a central group called...," he looked at his notes, "the Ancient Order of Hiberns … or something."
"Hibernians?" asked Tom.
Alex looked at his notes more closely. "Yeah, that's it. Their main area is around a park called Loose Park. It's kind of their town square where they have their community garden and get-tog
ethers."
"They fly the American flag, the Irish flag and another one with AOH on it," said Aaron.
"How many are there?" asked Christian.
"I kind of hinted that question, but they didn't say and I didn't ask right out," said Alex. "I'd guess over a thousand."
Jim raised his eyebrows. "A thousand?"
Alex nodded. "Maybe more. Probably more. They run a pretty tight operation. A bunch of former cops and firefighters, plus a lot of the people who lived in the old Irish neighborhoods from what we understood."
"How have they survived?" asked Christian.
"The guy we talked to, Mahoney, said they started running patrols around their area the first night. The cops and firemen knew everything had gone down because of the collapse of their systems, so they pulled everybody in together and locked down their area."
"And they all live in that one area?" asked Tom.
Alex nodded. "They do now. They had been kind of spread out, but Mahoney says they had most of them in within the first week when everything really started going to hell. Now, they all live close around the park in some big houses that were vacated when the owners left or died."
"How have they been able to live?" asked Jim. "Where did they get enough food to feed a thousand people for over a year?"
"There was a food warehouse for the major grocery stores down by the rail yards,” said Aaron. “They busted it open and took the food."
Jim and Christian looked at each other. Both were familiar with Kansas City and knew the distance from Loose Park to the railyards where the warehouses were.
"That's got to be ten miles through the city," said Christian. "How did they do that?"
"Muscle cars," said Aaron around a mouthful of steak. "Some of the prettiest Chevelles, GTOs and Roadrunners you've ever seen."
Alex nodded. "A lot of them are car guys. They hooked trailers up to their cars and ran convoys till they ran out of places to store it."
"And they were able to get through the city okay?" asked Tom.
Alex shrugged. "They're cops and firefighters. They have plenty of firepower. Mahoney said they had a little trouble on their first few runs, but then they hung a few wolves on the fence, and they had clear sailing after that."
"They hung wolves on a fence?" asked Ann, obviously confused.
"It's a figure of speech," said Jim. "When the old ranchers had trouble with wolves, they killed some and hung them along their fence lines. They say it kept the others away."
He smiled. "I can imagine what the Kansas City boys did along those lines."
Alex nodded. "Mahoney told me the details. I can tell you if you want."
Jim and Christian looked at each other again. "Probably best not to at dinner," said Jim. "Go ahead."
Alex stuck a chunk of steak in his mouth and talked around it. "So, now they have a pretty stable and secure community with established food production, social events and Sunday drives in their hot rods. They say there are other groups that have secured their areas; one east of them in the city run by a guy called Force, another in Lee's Summit, another north of the river and more in small towns to the east."
"Plus, the travelers," said Brandon.
"Travelers?" asked Jim.
Brandon nodded. "A group of Irish Travelers. They're from some place in the Carolinas, and they say there are communities across the whole country."
"Did they say where in the Carolinas?" asked Mike.
"Murphy something, I think," said Brandon, shrugging. "I'm not sure."
"Murphyville," said Aaron.
Mike leaned forward. "Could it have been Murphy Village?"
"Yeah, that's it," said Aaron, taking another bite of steak. "Murphy Village."
Mike leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath.
"You know it?" asked Jim.
Mike nodded slowly. "It's just down the Savannah river from our place."
Jim took a sip of sweat tea. "If it's true that they came out from there, it means that it can be done now. It also means that they could give you a good briefing on how to make the trip."
Mike continued to nod slowly, thinking, then looked at Jim. "Would you mind if I ran up there in a couple of days and talked to them?"
Jim shook his head. "Go tomorrow. You don't know how long they'll be there."
He looked at Christian. "You go with him and meet their leaders.”
He looked around the table. "Enough business. Let's enjoy the night. And Alex," he looked down the table at the young scout leader, "hang around after dinner. I want to talk to you."
21
Jim poured two fingers of Wild Turkey 86 into the last Old Fashioned glass and handed it to Alex. "Go ahead and have a seat, son."
Alex turned toward the horseshoe of couches formed around a large low table in front of the massive fireplace. The room itself was impressive, the wall of bookshelves opposite the fireplace, the side walls of windows and the dark woodwork giving it an expansive yet heavy look. He took a seat on a couch next to Mike and looked across at Christian and Tom seated on the one opposite them.
"To freedom," said Jim, stepping in front of the third couch and holding up his glass.
"To freedom," said the others quietly, before taking sips from their glasses and setting them on the table in front of them.
Not having expected it, Alex missed the response but took his own sip with the others.
Jim sat down and looked at the young scout. "Tell us why you made contact with that group when your directions were to avoid contact if possible."
Alex felt his head get hot and his chest tighten. The question had been quick and direct, allowing him no time to think or room to quibble, and he focused his thoughts to explain his actions.
"I understood the directions,” he answered. “When we saw the parade of cars and then saw evidence of such normalcy in the neighborhood by the park, we were surprised. I was surprised. It was outside every expectation we had or possibility we had discussed."
He took a breath. "When I saw the evidence of an obviously organized but not apparently militarized community, I felt that it might be important to find out who they were. I knew that coming back, re-grouping and going back would take time - time that I could save by attempting to meet them while we were there and making an assessment that I could bring back to you."
"What if the group had been unfriendly?" asked Jim.
"I considered that, sir."
"What if you had become involved in a fight?"
"We would have fought like hell and gotten back, sir."
"And what if you weren't able to and your teams were killed or captured?"
Alex sat silently, looking at the men looking at him and wanting to take a drink but knowing he shouldn't.
He sat up straighter. "It would have been on me, sir."
Jim nodded. "Yes, it would have been."
Alex held Jim's gaze, not knowing what to expect but determined to conduct himself properly.
"Would it have been worth it if your teammates had been killed?" asked Jim.
Alex found his thoughts starting to become confused. "I never thought of it that way, sir. It just seemed right."
"And what do you think now?"
Alex looked at his drink and thought for a moment, then looked back up at Jim. "It still seems right, sir."
Jim nodded slowly. "Yep. Whether something is worth it is extremely subjective and is often used to defend actions of questionable value or intent. Sometimes, however, it reflects the truth of a matter."
He looked at the young scout. "Alex, have you ever heard the saying that in order to be a good leader you must first be a good follower?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do you think of that?"
Alex shrugged. "I never really understood it. It didn’t make sense to me."
Jim smiled. "Me neither. I think it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard, probably made up by some insecure, ineffective manager trying to get those under him to stay in l
ine and parroted by all of the other insecure, ineffective managers in the world."
He raised his glass. "Show me a good follower and I'll show you a good follower. Leaders are different. Leaders know what to do, do it, and take responsibility for it."
He took a sip. "You made a good decision and you took responsibility for it."
He looked around the table, indicating that all should raise their glasses, then turned back to Alex. "Good job."
The men held their glasses up to Alex, who held up his own.
"Good job," the men nodded in unison, draining their glasses.
Alex drained his own, trying not to choke on the fiery whisky.
Jim stood up. "Alex, if you can see yourself out, we have a few things to go over. Then, Mike will want to talk with you in a bit."
Alex stood up. "Yes, sir." He looked at the other men and nodded. "Goodnight."
Jim watched as Alex left the room, then turned to Mike. "There's the leader of your first special unit."
Mike nodded. "I agree."
Jim walked to the service bar and picked up the bottle of Turkey, then returned to the table where he refilled the glasses. "That's a lot of information we got tonight. Anybody have any thoughts?"
"The big take away for me is that there are positively functioning communities in the city," said Christian. "I never expected that."
"Neither did I," said Jim, putting the bottle on the table and sitting down.
"And there are other groups around them with whom they're in some kind of contact," observed Tom.
Jim nodded, looking at Christian. "This is a group we want to establish communication with. We need to get to know the leaders. Plus, it's a major intelligence opportunity if they're in touch with other groups."
He looked at Tom. "I know you'd like to go, but you need to stay here. We can't have all of our operational leaders hanging out there in one basket. Christian and Mike will try to get whatever information you want them to, and, if it makes sense, we'll arrange for you to go back up later."
