by Stasia Black
So Jonathan always kept a couple of big safety pins on him for that reason—a habit he still hadn’t broken even though he knew the General would be pissed if he found out about it. General Cruz was fastidious about uniform—even more after the Fall when other commanders had let standards lax.
Jonathan slipped inside the room and saw a volt meter. And he sat down and started working thru the laptops. He was there for three hours before someone found him—the slacker who was supposed to be testing them.
So Jonathan made him a deal. If the soldier would let Jonathan have the task, Jonathan would give up an entire week’s lunch rations. Getting out of what seemed like an endless, thankless task, plus extra rations? The soldier was gone with Jonathan’s weekly ration tickets before he’d finished his next breath.
Jonathan spent every spare minute of the next three days in that windowless room. Cracking laptops open, testing the component parts, tossing the useless laptop into the growing mountain in the far corner.
He was starting to give up hope, sure he’d given up his lunches over nothing when finally, the little arm in the volt meter jumped, letting out a slight buzz. It was two in the morning and Jonathan was half delirious from being crouched over and repeating the same motion over and over and over and over.
At the positive result, he jumped so violently, the laptop almost slid off his lap and crashed to the floor.
He threw himself and caught it right before it did, eyes wide.
And then he clutched it to his chest and walked slowly, carefully, to the command barracks where he knocked on General Cruz’s door.
The General was not happy to be woken in the middle of the night only to find a cadet at his doorstep.
But then he saw what Jonathan was cradling like precious treasure and his entire manner changed. He stood up straighter and his eyes focused.
“What do you have there, soldier?”
“I took over for Vernon in the laptop room, sir. I’ve been testing the machines for days. And tonight I found this one.”
The General’s eyes locked with Jonathan’s and his voice was a whisper. “It works?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Show me.”
They headed down to the General’s office and Jonathan showed him. The office was powered by a generator and they plugged the laptop right into a wall socket. Right then and there, the screen lit up.
Jonathan could have wept—both for seeing the screen, and for the way the General hovered behind his chair, one hand on his shoulder.
Jonathan immediately started typing in commands, his curiosity taking over. Did some version of the internet still exist? It was possible. Satellites stored back up images of big portions of the internet If it did exist, was there anyone else out there using it?
It did. And there was.
“What are you doing there?” the General asked.
“Look,” Jonathan said, shifting the screen so the General had a better view. “There’s a whole SOS network. All over Texas. People with working laptops and computers who are talking to each other.”
“Holy shit.”
Jonathan looked up sharply. He’d never heard the General curse before but the General was too busy staring at the screen.
“How did you find this?”
Jonathan shrugged. “I’ve done stuff like this my whole life.” In truth, he’d rather not get into his know-how of getting around the dark web—the internet under the internet.
Hacking was a hell of a lot easier than pick pocketing, and about a thousand times more lucrative if you were good at it. Which Jonathan was. While other people his age had wasted their high school years on social media, he’d been stealing people’s identities and emptying their bank accounts. Unlike great-grandpa though, he didn’t target sweet old ladies. Only rich corrupt corporate assholes. He’d had enough stowed away in offshore bank accounts to live comfortably by the time he’d graduated.
A lot of good it had done him when the EMPs wiped out all the bank balances.
And in the end, stealing was stealing. No matter how he justified it to himself, was he really that different from great-grandpa? Stealing was what trash did—taking a short-cut instead of earning a living the honest way.
“Jonathan, we’ve had three working computers and engineers trying to establish communication with the outside an have only had luck contacting a few people in Russia and China.”
The astonished and proud smile the General shot Jonathan’s direction made him feel warmer and more full than he ever had in his whole damn life.
This was what honest, good work felt like. It was work you didn’t have to do in the dark. Work you didn’t have to be ashamed of.
It was a feeling Jonathan had chased ever since. He’d chased it throughout all the years set up in the office beside the General’s as the Chief Communications Specialist. The General stopped being just his commanding officer and instead became David, his friend.
But still, Jonathan lived for that proud smile from David, whether over a cold beer or on the battlefield as his right-hand man.
Smiles of any kind had been absent for a long time from David’s face, though. Even before this latest catastrophe with the President’s assassination.
No, David’s face was always strained lately. He was prone to long silences and short monosyllabic responses. Jonathan knew it was because he was living in his head, trying to solve the multi-faceted problems facing all the people who relied on him. Jonathan knew that. But the small, petty part inside him couldn’t help but take it personally.
If only he could cheer David up. If only David would let him.
Because no matter how close they became, David still held him at an arm’s length. Even after all this time. After all they’d been through together. He still wouldn’t let Jonathan in.
Take right now, for instance. They shared a cavern with three other officers, but they were out in the common caverns, so it was just the two of them.
And David stood, hands behind his back at parade rest, facing the wall. He’d been standing in the same position for fifteen minutes even though Jonathan was there, ready and willing to talk out all the things that were obviously on David’s mind. When would he learn he didn’t have to take the entire world on his shoulders?
Jonathan was his equal. Literally now, at least in practical terms. The men had voted him their spokesperson on the Council, with a vote equal to David’s.
“How do you think we should deal with the Valentine woman?” Jonathan asked, walking over to David and stepping between him and the wall. Maybe if he demanded attention, David would finally give him his due.
When David didn’t respond, Jonathan continued pressing. “Do you think this plan of hers will have any merit?”
“Perhaps,” was all David said, his eyes distant as he looked over Jonathan’s shoulder.
“If she did what they said she did at the Black Skulls compound, then she’s impressive.”
David nodded absently.
Jonathan clenched his fists. “Jesus, I’m standing right here. Do you think you could spare me the briefest bit of your attention? At least five minutes of just listening and looking at me?”
David blinked and stood up straight, arms dropping to his sides as he looked at Jonathan. Really looked at him, eyebrows drawing together. “I am listening.”
You never listen. Jonathan fought against huffing his breath out like a petulant teenager. As much as he admired and loved David, sometimes he worried he’d always feel like this—the boy that David had rescued. Never a true equal. No matter how many times he was voted Council spokesperson or that he had skills with a computer David could never dream of comprehending.
For once though, David was really looking at him. Now would he hear what Jonathan had to say, for fucking once?
“What?” David asked. “Jonathan, what is it?” He reached out and put a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. “I’m listening. I’m here.”
And just like that, Jonathan fel
t like the biggest jackass in the universe. How selfish and immature was he to be thinking so much about what he wanted at a time like this? The whole world had gone crazy and most of David’s men were hiding out in the hills, not knowing where their next meal was coming from—much less if Travis or the Black Skulls would discover them. Of course David’s mind was preoccupied with all the things Jonathan ought to be thinking about. Because David was honorable. Loyal. Selfless.
Quality.
Jonathan lifted his opposite arm to clap David on the shoulder. “Nothing. But it’s getting close to dinnertime. We should go eat.”
David frowned. “Are you sure? I know I’ve been distracted lately. I’m sorry. How have you been doing?”
Biggest. Jackass. Ever.
Jonathan attempted a smile. “Another time.”
David looked like he was about to say something else when a female voice called, “Hello? Can I come in?”
The crease between David’s frown grew deeper as he walked to the curtain closing off their small cavern they’d been given as a Command HQ and sleeping quarters and swept it back to reveal Drea Valentine.
What on earth could she want?
She strode into the room, right past David, not waiting for an invitation. “I’d like to talk with you. Both of you.”
“Okay,” David said, obviously just as confused about her sudden appearance as Jonathan was.
She walked to the middle of the room and stopped beside the lantern placed on a small shelf of stalagmites beside the far wall.
“Could this not have waited until the Council meeting?” David asked. Jonathan had been thinking the same thing. The Council meeting was scheduled for right after lunch, and lunch was only an hour away.
“No,” Drea said. Then she was quiet another long moment like she was gathering her thoughts. Trying to think how to best butter them up so things would go more favorably for her at the Council? She obviously underestimated David if she thought a little feminine flattery was going to—
“The problem with any kind of attack on the Black Skulls in San Antonio is that they’ll see us coming,” Drea opened. She looked from David to Jonathan, making sure to lock gazes with each of them.
Jonathan swallowed and fought the urge to look away. Good Lord she was pretty. She was so hardened and usually scowling, it wasn’t something you noticed right off the bat. But her features, those high cheekbones and bright, intelligent blue eyes—she really was uniquely beautiful.
“And that would be if we could mobilize my troops in the first place,” David said. Jonathan was impressed at his ability to focus. “Which we can’t—for the very same reason. They’ll see the troop movements on satellite.”
“Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean?” David asked. “Of course they would.” But he didn’t sound impatient. More curious.
“All we have to do is blind them.”
David looked disappointed in her answer. “Fort Worth might as well be Fort Knox at this point with all the military Travis has surrounded himself with. Even if we could get someone through to sneak in and destroy the computer they’re using to track satellite imagery, they’ll just find anoth—”
“Would you let me finish?” Drea cut him off, one eyebrow arched. She didn’t sound impatient though, or angry or superior—completely unlike how she’d been earlier in front of the crowd. Which was when Jonathan realized that her persona earlier had been a show.
For who, though? Even as he asked it, he thought he knew the answer.
The women. She’d been showing them that this really was a safe place. A place where they could stand up to men and not be punished. A place they really could have a voice.
Jonathan took a step closer, fascinated. “So what is your plan?”
“The problem isn’t Travis’s computers.” She looked Jonathan’s way, keeping eye contact as she continued. “It’s the satellites themselves.”
Jonathan felt his forehead scrunch. Surely she didn’t mean—
“We need to go to the NASA site in Houston and reprogram the satellites so they point away from Texas.”
Holy shit, she did mean.
“You can’t be serious,” David scoffed. “NASA was in Houston. Houston. It’ll have been destroyed along with the rest of the city on D-Day when it was nuked.”
Drea was shaking her head and she pulled out a map from where it was rolled up and shoved in the back pocket of her jeans.
She unfurled it and pointed. “Johnson Space center was on the southernmost part of Houston. Barely in the city at all. And look. My colony was here by Galveston, just thirty miles south. I had women coming to me from all the surrounding areas. At least two came from right by where NASA was—one from League City and another from Friendswood. And they were both healthy as could be.”
“At least that you could see,” David murmured, studying the map.
Drea ignored him. “And it’s common knowledge that the fallout cloud headed northwest after the bombs dropped. There’s a very good chance that the NASA buildings are not only intact, but radiation free.”
David was starting to look thoughtful so Jonathan spoke up. “It wouldn’t just be blinding them without the satellites. It’d be blinding all of us.” He looked to David. He couldn’t really be considering this, could he?
“That’s only if there’s an us still standing when all of this is said and done,” she shot back, moving her attention back to David. “And it wouldn’t be forever. After we take San Antonio and deal with Travis once and for all, we can always retask the satellites and bring them back over Texas later. Just think about it,” Drea said, lowering her voice. “They’re depending on their eyes in the sky. Especially the nighttime IR satellite cameras. If we took those out and then took advantage of the element of surprise—”
“We could actually attack without them seeing us coming,” David finished, eyes wide. Jonathan saw David’s excitement in his eyes—this was the answer he’d been looking for. All his staring, his brooding silences, it was because he’d been killing himself trying to solve the problem that this woman just pranced in and offered the solution to on a platter.
But wait, they were all forgetting one very important sticking point.
“What about the EMPs?” Jonathan asked. “Even if it is still there and the site isn’t poisoned by radiation, it doesn’t matter. All the equipment will be fried.” It would take months, years maybe even to try to figure out how to restablish connection to the satellites, even if he did have the broken equipment from the Space Center. He’d have to—
“It’s not fried,” Drea said. “Eric Wolford’s father used to work there in Mission Control. He told me a story about his dad took him down there once. Down three stories into the underground bunker where the real Mission Control was built.”
Holy shit. With every word she said, the ludicrous sounded more and more… plausible. Possible even. Jonathan exchanged a glance with David and could tell his friend was thinking something similar.
“Now,” Drea went on. “I don’t know computers. But there’s a man in Clan Hale who’s good with them, we’ll have to see if he’s willing to—”
“That won’t be necessary.” Jonathan took the last few steps until he stood right beside Drea. “I can do it.”
“Jonathan,” David said but Jonathan cut him off.
“No, David, you know I’m the best man for the job. You can’t sideline me this time or try to keep me back where it’s safe.”
That was what David always did. Jonathan was his right-hand man… right up until the action hit, then it was always, stay back, stay back. You need to watch over the coms, Jonathan, or, Stay back here with the valuable equipment, Jonathan.
Jonathan hadn’t been sure about Drea at all when she’d come barging in here but she’d made her case and made it well. They had to try. And he was only telling the truth—no one was better with computers or advanced systems than him.
But could David see past the role he’d p
igeonholed for Jonathan? Jonathan looked at David, really looked at him, pleading with him to hear him. “Nowhere is safe. Not unless we make it that way.” And then quieter, “I can do this. You need to let me do this.”
It wasn’t something he really needed to ask permission for, but out of respect for all that David was to him, he did anyway.
David let out a deep breath and then gave a single nod. “Okay. But I’m coming with you.”
Jonathan was both happy and scared at the same time. It would be dangerous. But they’d be together. And maybe finally, finally, David would let Jonathan share some of that heavy burden he always carried around.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Drea said. “But it’s not all I came here to talk about.”
Jonathan looked over at Drea, surprised. What else could she have to say?
“My clan and I have a proposal for you. The both of you,” she clarified.
Neither Jonathan nor David said anything, waiting for her to go on.
“We’d like to invite you to join our clan. To marry me.”
Wha—? Jonathan all but choked on his tongue as he started coughing.
Good Lord, don’t be an idiot. She didn’t say what you think you heard. She must have said carry me? Or to bury weed?
But then she started talking in the same cool tones as she’d discussed her plans for the proposed mission to NASA. About how such an alliance would be good for all of them. How they could present a strong, united front. How the intimacy would help shape them an unbreakable team.
Jonathan blinked on in astonishment.
Holy shit.
She actually meant it.
Jonathan had heard of the whole Marriage Raffle thing they were doing down in Central Texas South. A couple guys Jonathan knew had even gone down there to become Territory citizens so they could get their name in for the lottos. It was better than in Fort Worth, they figured, where the only way you got a wife was by being a rich SOB or saving up enough script to pay for a whore every now and then.
