“You know that isn’t it,” Dante told him. “If they let trading open right now, do you think the prices would go up or down? I’m betting down, and when the stock market collapses the rest of the economy is going too.”
“You’re not wrong about that, but as a country? You think we’re that close to a whole breakdown?”
“I do,” Leah told him, and Dante nodded in agreement.
“So, will you get the word to Rob?” he asked, suddenly feeling that the group was ahead of everyone.
“We will, and hey, do you know anybody who wants some temporary work?”
“What kind of work?” a customer asked from behind Daniels.
“Putting up the harvest,” Leah told him. “I’m guessing we’re going to need between ten and a dozen extra sets of hands.”
“I can ask around,” Daniels assured them.
“Can I sign up?” the customer asked. “Things are getting tight, and I’m out of work for the rest of the fall with the lockdowns.”
“Sure thing!”
“If you’re looking for extra hands…”
It happened within a few moments. Leah’s question to Jeff had been overheard, and the farm now had a dozen or more wanting to sign up. Leah grinned to Dante, who backed off so he could watch things while she sold eggs and took down names. The group and Jeff Daniels knew that Rob would be leaving soon to go after Angel, but they would have needed the extra help to ensure the harvest all got put up. The feed bags and dozens of pallets had been just the start.
Rob and Anna were in her workshop, in the hidden rooms of the larger basement. She was assembling the lower receiver of an AR10 she’d milled out. Rob could have helped her, knowing the platform intimately, but she’d built more than he had, and he was focused on his task.
He was hand loading .308 subsonic ammunition with precision and care.
“I almost feel like I should be packing in something bigger,” Rob told her.
“I know that feeling. I love the big bores,” Anna agreed. “But I think with as much supplies as you’re taking…”
“I know. I just wish I knew where she was.”
Anna finished the lower and mated it up with the upper. She pulled the bolt back a few times, then took the upper receiver back off. Rob watched for a second as she pulled the bolt carrier group out, and started disassembling it.
“We will find her,” she said simply.
“I know, but I’m sort of running out of time. I just…”
“Listen Rob,” Anna said, putting the tools down and turning to him. “You’re going to get her back. Trust us. If we could all go, we all would.”
“And we have to keep things here as normal as possible in case they are watching. Do we have a plan in place yet, for when they think they are going to take things over here?”
“Not yet. We figured that might be a moot point if we find Angel sooner.”
Her hands worked quickly as she lubed the components and put the group back together. “I’m sending you spare BCGs and firing pins.”
“Thank you,” Rob said, using the press, another hand load carefully placed on the work bench in front of him.
“Leah and Dante are going to enlist some local help,” Anna said, hoping to distract him. “We’re going to finish the harvest in the next few days.”
“Dante can run the equipment for both the soybeans and corn now.”
“I know. This place might be more crowded when you and Angelica come back. Here,” she said, wiping her hands on a rag, and then handing the newly finished gun to him.
Rob took the gun and worked the bolt a few times. He adjusted the stock all the way out and then shouldered it. He grunted in surprise. He knew this was going to be heavy, but with the barrel and suppressor, it was a long gun.
“What goodies do you want on it?” Anna asked him, taking the hand loaded rounds, and starting to load magazines as Rob broke the upper receiver open, inspecting the lower.
“A bipod, some glass to go on top. I’ll have the rest on the one—”
“Slow down, remember, I get free stuff, or I make it. In this case, we don’t want any way for them to track you back if you have to leave equipment behind. In this case, I have scopes and bipods I got from some modeling work. It’s a perk of the job. We’re going to have to wipe everything back down for prints again before you leave.”
“Sure, but I kind of want to hit the range.”
“Ok, let me get the parts, we can put them on out there.”
“Thanks.” Rob was quiet, but having a plan had helped calm his nerves slightly.
Fourteen
Lyle was on his favorite horse, riding fence. He’d heard about the kids who had snuck onto the property next door, and wanted to make sure they hadn’t cut any of his fences. As far as he knew, there hadn’t been any escapees. It was part of his routine, one so old that he’d been doing it as a kid, growing up on the same ranch.
When Caitlyn had up and disappeared all those years ago, he had figured she’d finally left him. She’d begun to hate the ranching life when, about a year after they were married, they’d moved to the family ranch. She’d spent twenty years with him, and every year it had been more and more difficult. She’d just up and vanish on him if she weren’t screaming. Times had been tough, and there wasn’t always extra money to just drive into town - and she didn’t want to show up on horseback.
Sometimes after she’d disappeared for a day or so, she’d come back relaxed and ready to play the part of farm wife again. She was just so mysterious and angry, and he’d loved the woman so much that it had nearly killed him when she’d up and vanished for good. Everyone, his daughters, the townsfolk - even the sheriff - all thought she’d left him or run off with another man. Now he knew for a fact his wife had likely died right around the farm here, or at Dewey’s, where her remains had been found.
She hadn’t left, she’d been killed. He was sure of it. Reading the report on how the skull was set in a place different than the rest of the body made him sure it had been murder, deliberate at that. Who would want to kill her? Why?
“Come on, Jack.” Lyle used his booted foot to give the horse a nudge in the stirrup.
Jack had been slowing down, pulling to the side where Lyle knew he wanted to browse on some new growth. The horse would try once or twice, then give up, knowing his master would give him an apple or sugar cubes for ignoring the good stuff going on the side of the trail during their morning rides. Lyle wasn’t in a mood to let the horse wander, he was thinking hard, trying to figure out how this all tied in.
His sister had married his former best friend. Now, she was gone too. Suicide. What had driven her to that? Lyle didn’t know, and the letters and journals painted the picture of a happy marriage. Had she been murdered, and it had been covered up to look like a suicide? Lyle knew Dewayne hadn’t been involved in that. It had been the first time the two of them had really spoken civilly to each other for a long while at that point. He’d known his friend was hurting just as badly as he was.
Lyle ground his teeth. Dewayne had been older than Lyle by a good ten years, his sister younger than Lyle by four. Somehow, they had made it work, and there must have been a very long courtship that nobody else had noticed… Lyle growled again. These things were probably connected. The notes, the map, the bones of his wife and eldest daughter. The caves. The map.
Lyle realized he’d mentally said the map twice now. He pulled out his phone and brought up the picture. He didn’t want to carry the map around, and had taken a note from the group next door, and had taken a picture on his phone. He didn’t want to wear it out. If it meant nothing, it was still from his sister's belongings. With these new revelations about his wife and daughter, Lyle just prayed that the crime lab would come up with more of an explanation of what had happened.
Had his daughter gone looking for her mom and fallen? Had she been murdered as well? The dark introspective mood had been brought on by a message from the state police crime lab. The
y wanted to know his wishes for the remains. Three generations of the Owens clan had lived and been buried right on his property. He wanted them buried here with a small service. With the Wuhan Flu raging, he doubted he could have had a conventional one anyway.
“What’s this?” Lyle asked himself, stopping the horse and sliding off.
There was a snag of cloth underneath one of the strands of barbed wire. He pulled it loose and held it up to his eyes. It was blue with white stitching. He spent a moment trying to remember, and then it sort of struck him. His daughter Steff and Jennifer had matching coats in this kind of color and fabric. But what were they doing crawling under the fence?
Luis had taken the day after the market to work in the greenhouses. He always spent his first hours of the day checking everything and doing any maintenance in the first one. Getting the second one up was important, but losing Angelica had really hurt. Goldie had picked up on it and commented herself. Luis could see both the loss and anger that radiated off Rob, and thought it would take an absolute miracle for somebody to get out of this without the great loss of life.
So, he harvested the salad mix that had become the group’s staple, with extras almost ready to drop into the hydroponic system in seedling trays. Once he had all of that in a cooler, he’d eventually run it to the big basement for washing and storage. The fridge in the house had been getting more and more full. He wondered if his friends were going to start selling off some of the excess chickens, either live or processed.
“You’ve been avoiding me, old man.” Goldie’s voice rang out from the far side of the greenhouse.
“I have not,” he called back.
She could see him from across the buckets, and stormed over.
“A lady knows when she’s being ignored.” Her words came out in shout, and she put a hand to her mouth in surprise.
“I’m sorry you feel that way. With Angel being taken, I’m not sure being… romantic… with his mom in front of him would help things. As it is, I’ve grown fond of the girl myself. This is how I’m dealing with it, but I’m not deliberately avoiding you. I’m just trying to be… what is the word… respectful?”
“Well, I wish you’d be respectful and get your bony ass back to the way it used to be. Here I thought you were blaming me for Angelica being taken and—”
Luis hurried over to her as Goldie burst into tears. Her knees wobbled, and he eased her down gently, sitting her on his lap. She cried and cried. When she looked up, she was surprised to see tears running down his cheeks too.
Curt came up with the plan, while Anna and Rob worked on breaking in the new gun and getting everything sighted in. The hospital had been in contact with Andrea, feeling out where she was in her recovery. She was still technically employed by the hospital, even though she had sued the city and police department. Staffing levels were at an all-time low. Over-work, stress, health issues and the pandemic all had been impacting their employee numbers. Some people just quit showing up, her contact at the hospital claimed, and nobody could find them.
Andrea had an idea why they had quit showing up and where they had gone. The resettlement camp was her guess. They probably had a great need of staffing as well if they were stacking people on top of each other. Curt’s plan would capitalize on the hospital's want and need for her to get back to work as soon as possible. They knew they would get stopped in the five hours it took to drive across Arkansas, but they weren’t planning on going the whole way. Kelso was straight south of the hospital and their house.
They would spirit Rob out of the area where they were actively looking for him, swing through Little Rock, and get as close as they could to Kelso. Then they would make their appearance at the hospital, and check in at the house and be seen in that area for a few days. It would give them an opportunity to really work on their house and yard and Curt could go over paperwork at his main office. With the stock market down and the economy all but crashed, nothing was selling. He was going to just close it down.
“Hey babe,” Andrea called from the other room, “I have a fax coming in.”
In their cabin, they had set up a small desk area. Although they didn’t have a hard landline in the building, they did have internet and a fax service. Curt walked to the computer and jiggled the mouse as the printer fired up.
“I think it’s coming in right now,” he called back.
“Good. It’s a travel letter for us.”
Curt grunted. “The news isn’t saying anything about travel letters. Even Alex Jones isn’t—”
“Hospital staff, first responders, UPS, Fed Ex… all of them get travel letters during an emergency in case they’re stopped. It’s not a new thing. I just wanted something recent, and I wanted it to come from work, so our alibi is even more solid.”
“How long do you think the trip will take us?” Curt asked as she walked into the small living room, toweling off her hair.
“You were planning on a few days to a week.”
“No, I meant the actual drive. I’m seeing gas shortages all over the place, and I want to avoid the bigger cities. I saw you were looking at that last night as I was falling asleep,” Curt said.
“I’ve got basic routes down. As long as there aren’t any protests stopping traffic and we can drive normal speeds, we can get Rob near Kelso in five or six hours.”
Curt nodded. He saw the fax had been what Andrea had been waiting for. He handed it over, then logged on online. There had been a few YouTubers who had been following the protests and riots. It had become so popular, that they had branched out and included others. He wanted to see if and when any protests would be around them. Right away he saw that Little Rock was an absolute mess. They had planned on avoiding that anyway.
“Don’t forget to check the gasbuddy app,” Andrea told him.
“But we’re not looking for cheap gas, we’re looking for any gas along the route.”
“Silly husband of mine,” she kissed the top of his head. “If a gas station is out of gas, the app will let you know.”
“Oh,” Curt said, feeling a little silly.
In truth, they had been more than a little bit spoiled since moving to the farm more or less full time. The farm had their own fuel tanks that had just been topped off a month ago. They had used a bit of diesel to get the harvest going and would need to fill it before the end, when they replanted things. But they also had treated gasoline. With the pandemic and now growing their own food, they really didn’t need to travel much. Goldie was even experimenting with making her own butter and cheeses from the milk she was trading the gal down the road for.
“You can’t come up with all the ideas, all the time. Now, are you ready to go help Dante and Leah?”
“Yeah, but I think we need to—”
Andrea sat down on his lap and kissed him. “I know you’re worried and scared, hun. I am too. The thought of going back to that city…” Andrea shivered. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t have to.”
“You don’t have to,” Curt told her. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. You’ve paid your dues.”
“If it was Leah or Anna who was kidnapped, I’d go.”
“I know you would, I’m just saying… you’re going right back to the place of the attack and your—”
She kissed him again, putting a hand on his chest. She could feel his heart rate speed up and grinned. They would go help with the harvest and the mess of volunteers who were supposed to be showing up in an hour, but that gave her about thirty minutes of alone time to help them both unwind.
“Dante, we have cars coming in,” Leah called to him over the radio.
“Got it,” he replied. He knew Leah was watching things from their setup in the medical center. “Go ahead and open the gates wide enough for one to come in at a time. I’m going to have them park where you’re at, and we’ll walk them to the workshop from there.”
“Ok, that sounds good.” Leah hit the gate switch.
“We have incoming?”
Anna asked in the radio.
“Yes, looks like five cars at this point. We asked them to carpool as much as possible.”
“What’s the final count on how many are showing up?” Dante asked, seeing the cars mostly had two to three people in each.
“Fifteen,” Leah replied.
“I’m going to stow my gear and I’ll be there too.” Rob's voice came over their shared channel.
“I’m already there. I have pallets and supplies laid out,” Steven’s voice came from the radio as well.
“Like a well-oiled machine,” Dante muttered to himself.
“I heard that, turn off your voice activated mic if you don’t want me to hear you,” Leah said with a chuckle.
“Cindy Crawford is so hot,” Dante mumbled.
A mishmash of muttering, laughs, and grumbles all tripped over each other as the first car pulled in and stopped in front of Dante, who was armed for war.
“Mister Weaver,” the driver said. “We talked the other day about some work?”
Dante looked in the vehicle, and recognized three of them. He nodded and told him to drive to the medical center, the big square building straight ahead, and park there and go inside. They said they would and waved as they got moving.
Fifteen
“What our goal is today, is to get several truckloads worth of corn and soybean put up in the feed bags. Now we can do this a few different ways, but in testing, we’ve figured out that we can get about seventy pounds in each bag if we have one person holding the bag, the other shoveling. We’ve power washed the concrete in here already. I’ve got coal shovels, gloves and about four thousand feed sacks to use up. Any questions?” Rob finished his opening speech.
“Why not fill the bags from the grain silos, then refill the silos as needed?”
“That’s a great question,” Steven told him, “We talked about that, but right now all of the grain that’s up there is already mixed. Either for the cows, goats, and pigs. After this year? We will probably do it exactly as you suggested.”
The Farm Book 3: Behind The Curve Page 8
