by ES Richards
“He had the most badges,” Kitch replied simply. “Figured that put him higher up the list of command.”
“Excellent,” April smiled, knitting her fingers together and cracking her knuckles. “Leave it with me.”
Walking toward Jamie’s old office, April made sure to hold her head up high and compose herself. She wanted the soldier to see her as a potential threat, not just someone who was rebelling against their regime. It was important that she maintained the upper hand in the interrogation and at no point let her guard slip or let the soldier dictate where the conversation was going. She had been briefly trained on this sort of thing and quickly ran through the lessons in her head before she entered the room, once inside there was no going back and one wrong word could ruin the whole operation.
“Morning,” April greeted the soldier as she entered the office. “Lieutenant Wong, is that correct?” She knew his name already but used this technique to downplay herself to the Lieutenant, a tactic that was used to make the captive feel more at ease and more likely to disclose information. Lieutenant Wong however, had clearly had some similar training on this himself, meeting April’s eye but refusing to answer her question.
“My name is April Houghton,” she continued anyway, taking a seat opposite Lieutenant Wong and making herself comfortable. “I’m here to ask you a few questions. I’m confident that you speak English, having overheard plenty of it in the last week or so, are you good to begin?”
Again, Lieutenant Wong remained silent, locking eyes with April and challenging her, daring her to go on and see how she might react to his resistance. It was the most he could do in the current predicament, his arms and legs tied to the chair limited his movement completely. April addressed his position next.
“I’m sorry about all that,” she nodded to the zip-ties around Lieutenant Wong’s wrists. “If you’re happy to comply with my questions, we can get you into a much more comfortable position. Of course,” she continued without breaking her stride. “If you don’t want to comply then things can get a lot more uncomfortable, it’s entirely up to you.”
Although he tried to hide it, April saw the slight flicker of concern in Lieutenant Wong’s eyes at her calmly delivered threat. Unlike him, she didn’t show her emotions on her face and carried on talking, launching into the first of many questions.
“I suppose it’s best to start at the beginning,” April smiled. “What is it that you’re doing here, Lieutenant Wong? Why did you come to Kauai?”
***
Sitting in the little dinghy on his way back to the mainland, Dennis’ emotions were all over the place. His brother Jamie sat opposite him, wrapped in blankets to try and stop the man from shivering, although no matter how many layers they piled onto his weak frame it made very little difference. As soon as they set foot on the beach again, Dennis needed to make sure Jamie was taken somewhere safe and given a proper look over by a medical professional. Vanessa had been a part of their uprising group, Dennis hoped he could reach out to her quickly and leave his brother in her capable hands; she was one of Kauai’s best doctors and he knew he could trust her.
Though it might seem that way, Jamie wasn’t Dennis’ only concern. The words the Chinese boy had whispered in his ear as he was locked away on the ship echoed through Dennis’ head, taunting him as they drove closer to the shoreline. He needed to speak to April and the others and find out what they’d learned before he could repeat it, the words making Dennis tremble in a similar fashion to his brother.
“Kill the lights,” Jason ordered as the boat got closer to the beach, not wanting to raise any suspicion in case things on the island hadn’t been as successful as they were offshore. The lights went first, followed by the engine on the dinghy.
Some had stayed behind to watch over the Chinese men and women that were left on the larger vessel, tasked with taking care of the ship for the next couple of days until they could decide what to do on a larger scale. The rest of them – those that hadn’t been killed in the hours before – climbed aboard a single dinghy and made the short journey back to the mainland. As the hull of the boat began to crunch against the shore, Jason jumped out and dragged it in, Dennis remaining seated opposite his brother.
“Hey! How did you – oh my days, Jamie!”
To everyone’s surprise, as had not been the plan earlier that night, two figures emerged from the darkness, previously hidden amongst the sand dunes. They ran toward the boat, Dennis making out first Jessie and then Vanessa, the very face he wanted to see.
“What happened to him?” Vanessa questioned as she rushed up to the dinghy, leaning over the side and inspecting Jamie’s damaged face. “Are you alright?”
Jamie was only able to feebly nod his head up and down, Dennis jumping down onto the beach and answering for his brother. “Those animals did this to him. Do you think he’ll be okay, Vanessa? Is there anything you can do?”
“I’d like to get him back to the surgery and give him a proper check. Are you able to walk, Jamie? Does anywhere specific hurt?”
“What happened out there?” Jessie asked as Dennis stepped to one side and allowed Vanessa to jump into the dinghy to check Jamie out before they moved him again. She crouched next to him and spoke softly, placing a hand on his knee and immediately adopting her bedside manner – the woman was made for the job.
“Gunfight.” Dennis replied bluntly, one eye still on his brother. “It wasn’t pretty.”
“April thought you were maybe being coerced or something on the radio,” Jessie continued, explaining why she and Vanessa had been waiting for them. “She said you sounded – wait,” Jessie paused and looked around the beach, only just noticing how few of Dennis’ group had returned. “Where is everyone else? Why did so many stay behind?”
“They didn’t,” Dennis replied with a shake of his head, dropping his gaze to the beach and kicking at sand with his foot. “Not everyone made it.”
“Oh no,” Jessie put a hand to her mouth, finally understanding what Dennis was saying. She opened her mouth again to ask who, but the question never formulated. For some reason, Jessie didn’t want to know just then, aware the names would only serve to make the rest of the night more difficult. “I’m sorry,” she finished instead, the words having very little meaning but necessary anyway. Everyone had known there may be casualties throughout the night, it was just something most, including Jessie, had chosen not to think about for too long.
“What’s happened here?” Dennis asked, continuing the conversation in a different direction. “Did everything else go to plan?”
“Yes,” Jessie replied, straightening up and giving a curt nod. “Most of us are at the surf shack now, April has begun the questioning. Are you coming over, or do you need to…” Jessie trailed off as Jamie began to climb out of the dingy, Vanessa supporting his weight as he struggled to balance on his left leg.
“You can go, if you want,” Vanessa answered for Dennis as he helped his brother down, supporting the other side of him. “I can take care of this one.”
“No, I’ll come,” Dennis shook his head, unwilling to leave his brother alone again until he knew he was definitely safe. “It’s fine – I can catch up with everything else later.”
“Go.”
It was the first word Jamie had spoken, the one word making everyone turn and look at him. Using all the strength he had, Jamie lifted his head and looked at his brother, still half supported by the man himself.
“Go,” he repeated. “They need you more than I do.”
“Jamie, it’s fine,” Dennis began to argue, “I can stay with you.”
“Go,” Jamie said for the third time. “Please.”
Dennis looked at his brother a little longer before eventually nodding, sliding out from underneath his arm and allowing Bryce to step up and take his place to help support Jamie’s weight. Turning to Jessie, Dennis nodded at her and without any further words, the two of them took off up the beach in the direction of the surf shack, leaving
everyone else to take care of Jamie and carry out what else had been planned. His brother was right – the rest of the islanders needed him a lot more now. The night was still far from over and there were still many answers yet for them to discover.
Chapter 12
Luc and Taggy sat around the table in what had once been a company boardroom. In essence it was being used for the same purpose now, Henry Packham just waiting for the last couple of people to turn up before he began. The future of their city was always on his mind and something had been troubling Henry for some time now – ever since the first explosion at one of the zones. As such, he’d called those he trusted most to his side, hoping to come to an agreement that they could take to the wider population of the cave.
“Sorry we’re late,” the final couple of people apologized as they entered, closing the door behind them and taking a seat.
“No worries,” Henry smiled at them, finally pulling out his own chair at the head of the table and sitting down. “Thank you all for coming,” he greeted them. “I know things are hectic at present, so I’ll try not to keep you too long. But I need your help.”
Luc leaned forward in his seat and listened carefully. He was proud to have been selected by Henry, happy that he could be trusted to give advice and help steer those in the cave in the right direction. Taggy had known the old man for some time before Trident’s collapse and so her allegiance with him had helped to bring Luc into the fold. However, Luc knew that he played an important role on his own too, known and respected throughout the cave by almost everyone he passed. Whatever problem Henry had, Luc would do his utmost to try and solve it.
“Things with the Gov are getting more out of hand every day now,” Henry continued with a sigh. “The second explosion yesterday came as no surprise and I fear that more are going to ripple throughout our city and destroy what is left of it.”
News of the second zonal explosion was no secret. Just like they had been for the first one, Luc and Taggy had been out on the front line, saving who they could from the rubble. This one took place over the bridge in Lower Manhattan, so unfortunately by the time most of them from the cave arrived, the damage had already been done. Luc and Taggy managed no more than thirty minutes until they were forced to flee from the Gov, the armored forces flooding the scene and threatening arrests once more.
Irritatingly, they were no closer to finding those who had been arrested at the first explosion site. There were scouts from the cave working day and night in an attempt to track down their friends, but wherever the Gov were keeping them hadn’t yet been located. It may have only been a few days, but without knowing what was happening to the innocent victims, the need to rescue them and bring them home became more important with each passing day.
“We’re at a real disadvantage when it comes to fighting back,” Henry said, swiftly getting to the point of his meeting. “They out-gun us and without the proper weaponry, it would be a suicide mission trying to fight back.”
“Our team just doesn’t have the ammunition,” Alfred spoke up, shuffling forward in his seat as he spoke while Henry leaned back slightly to allow the older man the lead. Alfred, like Henry, had been one of the founding members of the cave. They’d traded in similar circles before Trident’s collapse. Alfred descended from a long line of blacksmiths, able to craft almost anything from a piece of metal, but even he required the right materials in order to do his work.
“Between the Gov and the Rikers, we’re running seriously low on bullets. Their raids and looting were a lot more calculated than ours in the beginning and, excuse the expression,” Alfred paused, “we’ve sort of shot ourselves in the foot through our trading earlier on.”
“What Alfred means,” Henry continued with a shake of his head, “is that we shouldn’t have sold as much ammunition as we did. Some of our earlier trades were a bit shortsighted. We had no way of knowing that things would end up like this, but now that they have, we’ve found ourselves on the backfoot from a defense perspective.”
“What do you mean?” Luc asked, anxious to make sure he was understanding things correctly. “Are you saying we don’t have enough guns? We’re lacking in firepower?”
“Oh, we’ve got plenty of guns,” Alfred corrected him. “It’s just we don’t have enough ammo to fill them with.”
“We need more bullets,” Henry said bluntly. “And right now, there are only two groups of people in the city – two places – where we can get them from.”
There was a silent pause in the room as everyone processed what Henry Packham had just announced. Alfred had said it already earlier, the Gov and the Rikers held the market on ammunition. If they wanted to go up against the Gov, then they needed help and there was only one place they were going to get it from.
“No way,” Hamish, who sat beside Luc, declared. “We can’t go to the Rikers, it’s suicide.”
“They’re crazy,” Taggy added, agreeing with Hamish. “They won’t reason with us. What makes you think they’ll strike a deal and agree to help?”
“Because they’ve got to be just about as desperate as we are right now,” Henry explained. “What the Gov are doing isn’t just affecting one part of the city, it’s happening everywhere. I’ll bet the Rikers are getting even more trouble from them than we are. If they’re given an option, I’m sure they’d rather team up and defeat them than stick things out as they are now.”
“What makes you so sure?” Taggy asked, leveling her voice and asking Henry carefully. “And what makes you think that – even if they do agree to help us – they won’t bite the hand that feeds them as soon as the job is done?”
“Well, I can’t comment on that for certain,” Henry replied with a shake of his head. He was well aware that the plan was risky. He didn’t trust a single one of the Rikers as far as he could throw them, the possibility of being double-crossed by them once the Gov were defeated was high and, sadly, rather likely. But it was a risk he was willing to take.
“The way I see it,” Henry continued, “it’s better the enemy you know. Yes, the Rikers are dangerous and deadly people, but so are the Gov. And,” he paused for a moment and looked around the room. “I’ll bet that the Gov are a darn sight more intelligent than any of those ex-cons. They have brains and brawn, the Rikers just have the latter. If I had to choose an enemy to fight on our own, that’s who I’d choose. Brute strength can only get you so far, but coupled with a well-thought-out plan and access to a city of resources, there’s very little that can’t be achieved.”
Luc hadn’t said anything yet, processing both sides of the argument and reaching a conclusion of his own. Taggy had already made her opinion very clear; she didn’t trust the Rikers and Luc doubted that she’d ever be willing to meet with them, if they went ahead with that plan. They’d spoken on a number of occasions about the criminals of Rikers Island that now ran riot around the Bronx. They didn’t care who they hurt – be it man, woman or child – so long as they walked away with a smile on their face and a victory in their pocket then that was all that mattered.
It was hard not to blame society for the men who had emerged from the prison. It was one of the most violent prisons in the country, a sort of east coast version of what Alcatraz had been back in its day. Rikers hadn’t always been like that, there had been plans some years ago to actually close the place down. But with the ever-increasing rate of crime across America, prisons were the one industry that just kept on booming.
With its location on the East Hudson River, the prison was near impossible to escape from and so countless criminals were shipped there if they had a track record of trying to break out. The methods that the state used to try and nullify the threat of the criminals sadly only served in creating an electric atmosphere inside the gates. Competition began amongst the inmates to try and rise to the top of the ladder and within a matter of years, Rikers had become a place where people didn’t come back from.
Now all those inmates were free and living their lives in the Bronx, only th
ey were not blessed with the lives they had dreamed about having. All those nights spent fantasizing about what life would be like on the outside to be released into a world where there was almost nothing could very well have pushed a lot of those men over the edge. They were angry, hungry and desperate – there was a reason why no one else went to the Bronx and yet, Luc couldn’t help but feel like they needed to.
Because, for everything bad he could think to say about the Rikers, he knew Henry Packham was right. You put a gun in one of their hands and they were deadly. Those in the Gov were equally as deadly and that was much more of a threat in a city with so little left to fight for.
The debate had continued around Luc while he’d thought, but now he was ready to say his piece. Clearing his throat and standing up from his chair, Luc spoke up.
“We don’t have another choice,” he started, turning to look at Taggy immediately after he had spoken and shaking his head softly at her. “Going to the Rikers is our only option. We sit here and wait, and we’ll run out of resources and lose the battle that way. We go head-to-head with the Gov as we are now, and they’ll blow us off the streets before it’s even dark.
“I don’t like them or trust them any more than any of you guys do, but I know it’s our only option. Hopefully they’ll see things as Henry said and agree to work with us in order to overthrow the Gov. Whether they then stick to their word after that job is done or not is another question, but we can’t base this decision on what might happen in the future. If we’ve learned one thing from everything that’s happened, it’s that you can’t live your life waiting for what ifs and maybes. We have to do this, and we have to do it sooner rather than later.”
Luc wasn’t normally one for speeches – when he did make them, they were short and to the point, more like inspiring one liners before heading into some ordeal. The fact he was making one now made everyone sit up and listen, Taggy especially. She could tell from the way Luc spoke, his words carefully chosen and articulate, that this wasn’t just a spur of the moment choice. He’d thought this through and come to a proper conclusion and if he was confident with it, then she trusted him enough to follow suit.
