Wipeout | Book 5 | Foul Play

by Richards, E. S.

  “But that’s always the case, isn’t it,” Luc prompted. “If you look back through history, how many of the world’s catastrophic mistakes have happened just because one person took a wrong turn somewhere? That’s all it takes, choosing the red pill instead of the blue one, turning left instead of going right. It’s minor decisions that carve the path to a destination we’re not even aware of. It’s totally unpredictable; you can’t even say that what’s right today will be the right thing to do tomorrow.”

  “We just have to go with our gut,” Taggy nodded. “Keep doing what feels right, no matter what obstacles and push backs come our way. It’s all we can do.”

  “I suppose,” Walter agreed tentatively, wishing that there was more of a steadfast solution for what they were trying to do. But changing the world and restoring humanity to its former glory wasn’t exactly an easy task. They might all have the best intentions, but it was impossible to predict what curveballs life might throw at them next. Taggy was right, they just had to keep going and hope that eventually, things would turn out alright.

  “What now?”

  “Billy and the others should be here with the trucks soon,” Luc answered, leaning back against the abandoned vehicle and sliding down until he sat on the asphalt beside the two oil drums. They could debate the what if’s and how so’s until the sun went down, but all three of them knew the conversation would just go around in circles forever. Until the answer was in front of them, there was little point wasting energy trying to find it.

  “We might as well rest our legs until they arrive,” Luc sighed. “Then we’ll be on our way. The day’s far from over yet.”

  As Walter sat on the ground next to Luc, he nodded in agreement. There was so much work yet to be done, but for the first time in several days, he felt confident and hopeful for what they might achieve.

  Chapter 12

  It took all seven of them to hoist the two barrels of fuel into the back of their trucks when Billy and the others arrived. A lot of the truck beds were already taken up with various items from the houses they’d hit – Walter still not entirely comfortable with that phrase – but after some reshuffling and a lot of pushing and shoving, they were fully packed and ready to go.

  “You good just the three of you?” Billy asked as he climbed into the drivers’ seat of one of the trucks and rolled down the window, his arm resting casually on the frame.

  “Yeah,” Luc answered for them, “easier to keep a low profile. Can’t predict what we’ll find there.”

  “Make sure you keep your eyes open,” Billy warned them. “I’m sure Henry will want a full report when you’re back.”

  “Will do,” Billy nodded, bringing two fingers up to his forehead and saluting Billy in a friendly manner. “See you back at the cave.”

  Walter and Taggy stood by quietly during the exchange, standing back a few yards when the trucks rolled out, their precious cargo fastened down in the beds. In the now familiar quiet of New York City, the sound of the trucks could be heard for several blocks, their engines rumbling and their tires rolling over the debris-strewn streets. The stark contrast between the roads now and how they used to be was staggering. If one of the busiest cities in the world had come to this, Walter wondered what the smaller towns and villages across the country were like.

  There wasn’t time to sit and wonder though, no matter how certain Walter was that the trouble caused by Trident’s collapse had hit not only all of America, but all of the world, he was only concerned with the place in front of him. If they could get New York back on its feet, then he was sure other places would quickly follow. But sadly, if the city fell even further into darkness, he doubted whether it would take long for that tumble to spread, too.

  “Come on,” Luc led the three of them away from the gas station. “Let’s get moving.”

  Getting the city back on its feet went hand in hand with putting a stop to what Captain Banes and McManaman were trying to achieve. Walter knew they weren’t necessarily bad men, but they seemed to be going down a route that could only cause more harm than good. As they walked toward where the supposed border was for one of the zones, Walter found himself growing increasingly anxious for what they might find. He almost wished the walk was longer so he had more time to prepare, but once the border was in sight, he knew that no time of preparation could’ve primed him for what lay ahead.

  At a cross roads with a tall apartment building on one side and a bank on the other, the road had been completely cut off. Blockades covered the street and the sidewalks, stopping anyone from driving through or passing by on foot without scrambling over the obstacles. It would’ve been possible for pedestrians though, if it weren’t for one crucial factor that was being put into place at that very moment.

  “Are they? Surely they’re not doing what I think they’re doing?”

  “I think they are,” Luc replied to Taggy, shaking his head in disbelief. “They’re actually laying dynamite.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “They must be more serious than we thought about keeping people in their zones,” Luc replied as he watched on, his eyes not leaving the scene ahead where a couple of men were placing explosives across the street, unraveling a trip wire as they went. “That looks like a pretty thought-out set up.”

  “McManaman,” Walter murmured under his breath. This had to be his doing. Captain Banes had been committed to the plan, but Walter had known the captain for many years and Walter doubted whether he would’ve thought of something like this. It wasn’t helping the people of New York one bit. It was putting them in danger. Walter knew that no matter how waylaid Captain Banes had gotten, he wouldn’t do something this reckless without being seriously pushed toward the idea and there was only one man who Walter figured could do that now he’d left the precinct.

  “How could they get sign off on this?”

  “They don’t have to,” Luc sighed under his breath. “They’re the ones making all the decisions now.”

  “And what happens when this blows up,” Taggy questioned and paused. “Literally blows up,” she emphasized the words, “in their faces? If they set up something like that in a busy area, tripping the wire could kill hundreds of people. It takes what, twenty pounds of dynamite to bring down a building? And that’s a properly built one. I’m no mathematician, but it looked like they had about fifty sticks there. That’ll cause one hell of an explosion and then who knows how much of a domino effect it will have.”

  Walter and Luc both nodded. One thing that had come to light since the collapse was how fragile the infrastructure of a lot of New York was. As the city boomed and filled with people, buildings had shot up all over the place. There was always the demand for more: more houses, more offices, more places for people to live their new city lives. The demand far out-weighed the resource and buildings were erected at speed, safety precautions altered and shortened to allow for more and more work to be done. Back when things were being built, it hadn’t seemed like a problem; each building supported the one next door and so on, the final structures at the end of each street reinforced for protection. It had seemed a fairly small corner to cut, but that was back when the city wasn’t under threat.

  Since the collapse of Trident, the bank’s headquarters wasn’t the only building to come crumbling down to the ground. The lackluster groundwork across the city had become apparent, entire streets falling in on themselves as damage in one building spread and spread until it covered everything like a plague.

  If the dynamite that these men were setting up went off and toppled the two buildings on either side – on two corners of separate streets – then the ripple effect of that damage could be monumental.[MP9] Never mind hundreds of people dying, if the properties were occupied then that number would rise to thousands within minutes. This was no longer just a ploy to keep people inside their parts of the city, this was a threat to stop them moving at all. A warning that if they tried to leave, there would be very little to come back to.r />
  “Do you think they know?” Luc asked in a low voice, his train of thought working in the same way and reaching the same conclusion. “Do you think they’re doing this on purpose?”

  Walter could only nod.

  “But that’s madness,” Luc was stunned. “That’s unheard of, that’s…”

  “Murder.” Taggy finished his sentence for him, dumbfounded by the discovery they had just made. “And they say we’re the criminals.” She turned away and spat on the sidewalk, disgusted by what she had seen.

  “How could things have escalated this much?” Walter spoke in a low voice to himself, questioning what he was witnessing. “I’ve only been gone a couple of days, how are things already this far out of control?”

  “I’m guessing you were the last level head in that place,” Luc replied, placing a hand on Walter’s shoulder as a way of consoling him. “They were probably planning this behind closed doors long ago, there’s nothing you would’ve been able to do.”

  Walter sighed and dropped his gaze, chewing on his bottom lip in thought. Maybe he should’ve stayed behind; maybe there was something else he could’ve said to the captain, or even to McManaman, that would’ve got the men to change their mind. There were others at the precinct who were part of the team rebuilding the city, if Walter had tried harder, perhaps he could’ve got more of them on his side. His city was practically booby trapped now and Walter couldn’t help but feel like he had just walked away and let it all happen.

  “Luc’s right,” Taggy added, seeing the expression change on Walter’s face. “I doubt anyone would’ve been able to stop this happening. You can’t blame yourself, pal.”

  “I know,” Walter exhaled slowly, forcing himself to look back up and across the street to where it was all happening. “It’s just,” he paused, narrowing his eyes and squinting into the distance. “Hang on a minute,” he said in a surprised tone, “I recognize her. I wouldn’t expect to see her out here with all this.”

  “Who?”

  “Her,” Walter raised a hand and pointed toward a blond woman who had appeared carrying a clipboard. Samantha Rice. Walter recalled the conversation he’d shared with her on the last day he’d spent in the precinct, his attempts to get her on his side falling on deaf ears. Had Samantha always been a part of this more extreme plan? The two of them had shared countless hours talking and sharing stories since the collapse, Walter had softened around the woman, allowing himself to be vulnerable in a way which he hadn’t been since the separation from his ex-wife following the death of their little girl. He had started to feel something toward her and as he looked at her now, he couldn’t believe that this was something she was a part of.

  “I have to go and talk to her.”

  “Whoa there,” Luc stepped into Walter’s path, holding a hand out against his chest. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? What are you going to say to her?”

  “I’m not sure,” Walter shrugged. “But she’s got to have some answers. If nothing else she’ll know about all this and why it’s happening – I don’t think she would’ve signed off on this easily; I don’t think she’s that type of person.”

  “I’m not sure about this,” Luc shook his head, looking over to Taggy uncertainly. “I think it’s better if we remain out of sight.”

  “I’m telling you, she’s not a bad person,” Walter argued. “Look – I’ll move down a street and approach from a different angle, okay? I’ll pretend I’m alone; she won’t suspect anything.”

  “It might be a good way to get some more information,” Taggy mused eventually, looking over at Samantha once more and cocking her head to one side. “Were you two close?”

  “Close enough,” Walter answered, thinking in the back of his head that they could’ve become much closer if he’d stuck around, or if their situation had been somewhat different. “She’ll talk to me. I’m pretty sure about that.”

  “Alright,” Luc eventually gave in, removing his palm from Walter’s chest. “But do like you said and go around a different way, I don’t want her sniffing in our direction. And if you do get caught or roped into something, don’t lead her back to us. We’ll wait for you while we can, but if something goes wrong you need to find your own way back. And take that off your arm. Okay?”

  “It won’t,” Walter replied reassuringly, suddenly excited to go and speak to Samantha Rice again. “This will all be fine, you’ll see.”

  “I hope so,” Luc muttered as Walter turned and started walking away[MP10], stuffing the orange rag into his pocket to hide his new allegiance from the woman.

  When he came back into sight, Walter was walking with his head held high and one hand in his pocket. He made a beeline for Samantha, not disguising himself at all or acting like he was out of place in any way. The woman glanced up from her clipboard at just the right time and saw him heading toward her, the look of surprise impossible to hide from her face.

  “Walter?” She called out, holding a cupped hand over her eyes to block out the glare from the setting sun behind him. “Is that you?”

  “Hey!” Walter addressed her like an old friend, acting casual and even giving her a brief wave. “I thought that was you,” he smiled, “don’t tell me they’re actually going ahead with these zones then?”

  “Yep,” Samantha replied, still taken aback by seeing Walter and perplexed by his cheery attitude. “Where’ve you come from? Where did you go when you left?”

  “A friend of mine has an apartment down there,” Walter lied, pointing down the street in the direction away from where Luc and Taggy hid and watched. “I’ve been staying with him while I get my head sorted out, trying to help out where I can, you know?”

  “You should come back to the precinct,” Samantha replied softly. “We could use your help now that everything’s getting going properly.”

  “You’re not really behind all this zone stuff, are you? I thought you knew better than that.”

  Samantha flinched and straightened up slightly at the accusation, tugging down on her suit jacket and flicking a strand of her blond hair from her shoulder. “It’s the best thing for the city, Walter,” she replied curtly. “When everything is plotted out on paper, it all makes sense.”

  “Really, Samantha?” Walter replied, using her name in the same way that she had just used his. It was a technique they were taught to use in the police during interrogations, using the perp’s name repetitively in order to try and make them open up to you a bit more. As a journalist and news reporter, Samantha obviously had been taught something similar, the woman holding several tricks that she had likely used in interviews over the years. “Makes sense for who? This isn’t actually going to help the people who need it.”

  “Come back to the precinct with me, Walter,” Samantha repeated. “We can talk it over then, get you a hot drink and something to eat. You don’t look like you’ve been doing very well for yourself the last couple of days.”

  Walter ignored the slight and shook his head. “Come on,” he urged her, “you can talk to me. Who’s put you up to this? Why are they really doing it?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do,” Walter pushed further. “This isn’t you, Samantha. This is crazy. You know that this won’t help people – it’s just putting them in danger.” He took another step toward her, considering putting a hand on her arm and then deciding against it. “It’s McManaman isn’t it? He’s got to be behind this. That man is only going to cause more trouble than he’s worth. We need to –”

  “We don’t need to do anything,” Samantha interrupted, taking Walter by surprise and silencing him. “Look Walter, if you don’t want to come back then that’s your decision. You left and I’m not about to stand here and beg for your return. In fact, we’re doing just fine without you. But I’m not going to let you bad mouth the work that we’re doing – we’re trying, Walter. We’re trying to make a difference and we’re standing by our decisions. Not everyone has the option to just run away and hole
up in an apartment on the edge of the city. The rest of us are doing our bit and we’re not just throwing the towel in when things get difficult.”

  “Samantha…”

  “No, Walter,” Samantha shook her head and took a step backwards. “If you haven’t got the courage to keep fighting then that’s fine, but don’t try and bring the rest of us down with you. Just fall into line with the rest of them at the food banks and pick up what you can and move on. Leave the rest of it to those willing to make a difference.”

  Walter couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He could feel his temper start to burn. Samantha seemed like an entirely different woman to the one he had known before. Back in the precinct she was well-mannered and easy going, she was a delight to talk to and an understanding ear for when things didn’t go as you expected. Now she was nothing like that and Walter couldn’t help but wonder whether something had happened, or if the woman he had known before had been pretending. After all, Samantha Rice had spent all her adult life in front of a camera, she knew how to perform to make the audience believe what she wanted them to believe.

  “It was nice seeing you Walter,” Samantha announced, ending their conversation and turning on her heel to walk away from him. “Good luck to you.”

  With that, the woman was gone, leaving Walter standing in the middle of the road across from a rigged up road block that could blow up in his face at any minute. He couldn’t believe what had just happened, needing a few seconds just to process the conversation before he was able to get his legs moving and start to walk back the way he had come. As he retraced his steps, being careful not to just go directly back to Luc and Taggy, he replayed the conversation over again in his head and tried to understand it.

  Something had changed with Samantha and he didn’t like the woman he had just spoken to one bit. What concerned him more than that though, was the fact that if she could act so differently toward him now after just a couple of days, what else could flip on its head and surprise him? He felt like he didn’t know his right from his left anymore and it was causing a pain in the back of his head. New York City was changing and so, it seemed, were the people inside it.