by Mark Kelly
“Goddamn it…I thought we had an agreement,” Leduc shouted at Langdon. “You were supposed to tell me if there were any issues here, anything at all.”
“I was going to, but it only just happened.”
“A man doesn’t become a killer overnight,” Leduc scoffed.
“James O’Neal did,” Langdon replied defensively. “He’s had his share of mental and emotional problems since the pandemic started, but never anything violent. I thought he was harmless.”
“None of that matters,” Mei said to the two of them. She exhaled hard and looked at Simmons and Lucia who both appeared a few seconds away from losing their tempers. “Saanvi is all that matters. She won’t last a day out there and if anything happens to her…”
Mei let her voice trail off. The thought was unimaginable.
“Sir, if I may,” Baker said, standing at attention and addressing Leduc. “I’m the one who took the girl from her home and brought her to the base. If I hadn’t done that, she wouldn’t have been there to be taken. I’d like permission to go after her.”
Leduc hesitated. Then he nodded. “Permission granted. Given your past experience and training, you might be the best person suited for it. Abrams is familiar with the area. I’ll assign him to you. How many more men do you want?”
“A small team is best. No more than five or six, sir.”
“I am going too,” Lucia said. When Mei stared at her, Lucia stiffened and thrust out her shoulders defiantly. “Saanvi is one of us.”
“I don’t think so, miss,” Leduc said, shaking his head. “It’s too dangerous, best to leave it to the professionals.”
“The professionals?” Disdain dripped from Lucia’s voice as she spoke. “You mean your soldiers? The men who allowed her to be taken? We kept Saanvi safe for many months. You couldn’t even keep her safe for one day.” She wagged a finger at Leduc and sneered. “Not for one day.”
Leduc clenched his jaw.
“It’s all right, sir,” Baker said in a conciliatory tone. “It would be fine with me if she joins us.” He had a slight smile on his face as he touched the scab on his temple where Lucia had scratched him. “She can take care of herself and when we find the girl, she might be put at ease by a familiar face.”
“Your mission, your call,” Leduc said coldly.
“Thank you, sir. Is there any information on where the girl might have been taken?”
“Robert? He’s your guy,” Leduc said to Langdon. “Any ideas on where he would have gone?”
Langdon frowned. “James kept to himself. I don’t know a lot about him other than he had family in town before the pandemic. They’re most likely all dead, but he was constantly bugging me to join the scavenging parties so he could look for them. That might be where he took her.”
“We should get going,” Baker said to Lucia, who nodded and walked over to where Mei stood.
“I will find the girl and I will bring her back,” Lucia said to her.
“You have to,” Mei replied as Simmons and Emma moved closer, one on each side. “We promised to take care of her. She’s not only our future, she’s our family.”
23
Back to Town
Lucia watched Baker stick his arm out the G-wagon’s window and motion at the vehicle following them to pull to the side of the road. She wondered what he was doing. Every minute counted. They were just outside the town where Robert Langdon thought James O’Neal might have taken Saanvi.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked impatiently.
“I want to do a quick briefing before we head in to town,” he answered. He turned to Abrams. “Gather the team.”
While Abrams jumped out and ran to the vehicle behind them, Baker turned in his seat to face her. He gave her a short smile, the kind you give someone when you’re not sure what else to do.
“If you’d like, you’re welcome to join us while we do the briefing.”
She could tell from the looks the other soldiers had given her before they left that they weren’t happy having her on the mission. She didn’t really care, but Baker, at least, was making an effort to include her. That surprised her. She watched him rub the scab on the side of his face where she had scratched him. When he noticed her looking, he self-consciously dropped his hand to his side.
“Coming?”
She nodded and followed him to the rear of the vehicle.
“Listen up,” he said to the soldiers who had gathered around him. “The guy who took the girl has already killed one person, and the people at the lab think he’s having some kind of mental breakdown. There’s no reason to believe the girl is in any direct danger from him, but if he feels threatened, he’ll probably react badly and all bets are off. Slow and easy on any approach. Got it?”
He waited for the soldiers to grunt their confirmation. Then he turned to Abrams. “The general said you know your way around town better than anyone, sergeant. How about you brief us on what to expect?”
“Sure thing,” Abrams said. “The town’s not very big. Before the pandemic, there might have been five thousand people living here, but now there’s no more than a few hundred. There’s a small business district down near the river, but the rest of the town is mostly residential—small bungalows on open lots, nothing over two-storeys high.”
“Do we need to worry about an ambush?”
“We need to be careful,” Abrams replied. “There is one main cluster of survivors left in town, about fifty in total, and a handful of loners who keep to themselves.”
“How well armed are they?” Baker asked.
“I’m not sure about the loners, but there are a few in the larger group with hunting rifles, maybe a pistol or two, nothing automatic. Last time I was in town, they took a run at me. They’re starting to get a little more desperate—food must be running low.”
“Where do they hang out?”
“All over. Most of them are barely better than animals,” Abrams muttered. “They move around a lot but they never go too far. When one house fills up with shit, they pick up and move to the next one. We’ll know they’re nearby when we smell them.”
“When were you last in town?”
“About three weeks ago.”
“You all heard Sergeant Abrams,” Baker said to the squad of soldiers. “I want weapons hot and both flanks covered at all times—that means in the wagons and when we’re on foot. And keep an eye open. I told the general I’d bring you all back safe and sound—even the ugly ones.” He cracked a smile.
“Speaking of ugly, that would be you, Dines,” the gap-toothed soldier from the main gate said.
“Screw you, Chenney,” Dines shot back. “You’re so ugly, your mother had to get drunk before she breast-fed you.”
“At least I had one. Your mother killed herself when she saw that ugly face of yours pop out of her—”
“All right…that’s enough. There’s a lady present,” Baker said, glancing at Lucia. Then he shrugged apologetically at Dines. “Two, actually.”
Dines scowled at him and shot daggers at Lucia.
Lucia glared back. Screw you, puta.
Baker turned serious. “This is not a search and destroy mission. Let’s do this quickly. In and out. No fuss, no muss. Only shoot to defend yourself. If you see the girl, do not do anything that might jeopardize her safety. She is the mission. Is that clear?”
They all nodded.
“Do you have the address, sergeant?”
Abrams waved the piece of paper he held in his hand. “Right here.”
“Let’s go. You drive. I was never great at taking directions.”
“Me neither,” Abrams said, smiling. “Twenty years in the service and all I’ve got to show for it is these three stripes on my shoulder. Probably should have listened to the CO more often.”
Baker chuckled. “When we bring the girl back, I’m sure the general will swap those stripes for a crown.”
The squad made its way off the highway and into town, detouring around the br
oken-down vehicles and garbage littering the streets. Lucia sat in the back while Abrams drove with Baker beside him. Aside from the rattle of the engine, it was quiet. Every ounce of their attention was focused on the houses lining the streets as they searched for potential threats and looked for Saanvi.
Lucia realized Abrams wasn’t exaggerating when he said he knew his way around town like the back of his hand. He turned left at a stop sign and then doubled-back one street over to avoid the burned-out shell of a truck that would have blocked their passage. A few minutes later, he did it again. The streets were an obstacle course, and he seemed to know where all the problem spots lay.
Until now.
The barricade, a jumble of broken furniture and scrap metal piled waist-high in the street, appeared out of nowhere as they rounded a sharp corner.
Abrams slammed the brakes on.
Lucia threw her arms up and braced herself as the jeep lurched to a stop. She recovered and saw Baker gripping the stock of his rifle as he executed a quick sweep of the surrounding houses. She turned her head in time to catch a brief glimpse of something running into the trees. Unsure if it was a person or an animal, she said nothing.
“Goddam it!” Abrams cursed as he hit the steering wheel with his fist.
Dines’s voice crackled over the radio from the vehicle behind them. “Jesus, Abrams, where the hell did you learn to drive? We almost ran into you.”
“Then get off my ass and stop tailgating me,” he yelled back into the microphone dangling from the dash. He threw the transmission into reverse and glanced at Baker. “Sorry about that, chief. We’ll take a different route.”
“Know it like the back of your hand, eh?” Baker said sarcastically.
“That pile of crap wasn’t there a few weeks ago,” Abrams muttered under his breath. “I swear sometimes he does it to piss me off.”
“Who does it?”
“No one,” Abrams said, replying a little too quickly. He pulled his eyes away from Baker and stared straight ahead. “Just a guy I’ve seen a few times. He’s harmless. Nobody we have to be worried about.”
Baker’s face tightened as he frowned. He opened his mouth to speak and then stopped. “Does it have anything to do with this?” He reached over the seat for the small khaki colored knapsack on the floor beside Lucia.
Abrams grabbed for the bag. “Hey, that’s mine.”
Baker jerked it out of his reach. “I saw the general give this to you at the lab when he thought no one was looking. How about you cut the crap and tell me what’s going on?”
When Abrams didn’t answer quickly enough, Baker opened the bag. His brow furrowed as he rummaged through the contents, pulling out an assortment of freeze-dried military rations, a bottle of vitamins, iodine for purifying water, bandages, and an unopened package of D-cell batteries.
“What’s this all about?”
“N-N-nothing…just supplies.”
“Bullshit,” Baker said angrily. “I don’t care what you and the general have going on back at the base, but when we’re out in the field, your business is my business.” He returned the bag to where he had found it and gave Abrams a cold hard stare. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
“It’s for Leduc’s son,” Abrams blurted. “He’s a civvie. When everything went to hell, he was out west working. By the time he made it back, the base was under quarantine. The old man wouldn’t let him in so Dylan set himself up in town and found an abandoned house to squat in.”
“So Leduc sends you out with supplies to help his son? Is that how it works?”
Abrams nodded. “I help the general and he helps me.”
“Helps you how?”
“Looks the other way when I run my business.”
“What business?”
Abrams loosened up and grinned proudly. “I’m the guy the grunts on base come to when they need something; booze, food, toilet paper, stuff like that. I’ve got people in the camp who help me, and I make it worth their while.”
Lucia’s stomach knotted as she remembered the girl in the camp in the mini-skirt. She leaned forward in the seat, her body tense and glared at Abrams.
“Women? Do you get them women…or girls?”
He glared back at her. “Jesus, no…of course not. I’m no pimp.”
She locked her eyes on him and stared deep into his soul. When he didn’t flinch or look away, she decided to believe him. She could see it in his face. He wasn’t a chulo, not like the cabróns in New York who had beaten her and made her theirs to do what they wanted.
Baker shifted in his seat to stare at her, but she looked away. No one knew about her time with the Calle 18 gang, not even Mei. No one ever would.
After a moment, Baker turned his attention back to Abrams and said, “You think Leduc’s son blocked the road? Why would he do that?”
“I missed a delivery last week. He’s probably pissed at me. He’s a bit of an odd bird. Screwing around helps him keep his mind off the shitty hand he’s been dealt.”
“Shitty hand?”
Abrams shrugged. “You know…stuck out here while a few miles away his old man is living a comfortable life behind a fence with soldiers to protect him.”
“Shitty hand, my ass,” Baker scoffed. “He has you bringing him rations. The others out here don’t. I’d say they’re the ones with a shitty hand.”
“True enough,” Abrams agreed with a reluctant nod.
The radio crackled and Dines’s voice came over it again. “Abrams, what the fuck are you three yakking about? All I can see is your mouths opening and closing like a bunch of squawking chickens. Maybe you could drive a little faster so we could get this out of the way and get back to the base.”
“Shut up, Dines,” Abrams shot back. “Maybe, if you’d quick nagging me, I’d be able to drive a little faster. Besides, we’re almost there.”
He threw the transmission into gear and drove up the street, coming to a stop at an intersection.
“The dude from the lab’s house is down there. It’s one-sixty-one. Want me to park here?” he asked Baker.
Baker shook his head. “There’s no point. You’d have to be deaf to not hear us coming from a mile away.”
Abrams keyed the mic and spoke to Dines and the other soldiers. “We’re going straight in. The house is about ten down on the left-hand side.”
Lucia watched as Baker checked his weapon one final time and took that as a sign she should do the same. She pulled the heavy Colt 1911 from her shoulder holster and ran through the checklist she had memorized from a book she’d found back at the farmhouse. Round in the chamber, hammer cocked and safety on—cocked and locked is what the book had called it.
She debated flicking the safety off, but decided to leave it alone just in case she shot someone by accident. She grinned mischievously at the dark thought. Baker was a nice guy. Accidentally shooting him would be bad.
He turned and gave her an odd look when he saw her smiling.
“Ready?”
Blood rushed to her cheeks. “Of course, I am ready. Are you?”
He smiled. “Always.”
The G-wagon had barely come to a stop when he threw his door open and jumped out. He crouched down with the armored door providing cover and raised his rifle.
Lucia mimicked his actions. Now it was time. She flipped the thumb safety on her 1911 to the off position.
Baker took a quick glimpse to his left and called the soldiers from the other vehicle to his position. Then he pointed to the group closest to him. “Like we discussed, you two come with me through the front. Sergeant Abrams will take the rest of you around the back.”
As Abrams and his team left, Baker gave Lucia a worried look. “You should stay here.”
She shook her head.
“Then at the very least try not to get killed.”
“You too,” she said, surprising herself as the words tumbled out of her mouth on their own.
He smiled and nodded.
“L
et’s go!”
She hung back as Baker moved towards the front door with a pair of soldiers covering his flank. He stopped by the side of the door, his body tight against the brick, and reached down to wiggle the door handle. It was unlocked. He gave the men a thumbs-up and pushed the door open.
The three soldiers moved like a well-oiled machine. The soldier in front crouched and advanced into the house, disappearing to the left. Baker followed and went right. The third man entered and stopped, his back to Lucia as he covered the other two. Moments later, they motioned her in.
She found Baker and Abrams standing in the living room in front of a plate-glass window overlooking the street. The stale air in the house, uncirculated in months, smelled of dust and mold. A flat screen television sat on a stand against a wall. Beside it was a pair of ceramic pots, each held the dried remains of a long-dead plant.
The house was empty.
“What next?” Abrams asked.
Lucia watched Baker shrug, the frustration on his face obvious. The house was their only link to the man who had kidnapped Saanvi.
“He might still show up,” Abrams offered lamely. “Or, maybe we could do a sweep. Start on the north side of town and zig-zag back and forth between the highway and the river. We might get lucky, but with only two vehicles, it’ll be like playing a game of whack-a-mole.”
Lucia half-listened as the two men debated their options. She heard Abrams tell Baker getting additional help from the base would take hours.
Saanvi could be dead by then, she thought as she looked past them out the plate-glass window. She watched in astonishment as a man’s head popped through the branches in the cedar hedge across the street. His eyes darted furtively left and right. Using his arms, he thrust the branches aside and stepped out of the shrubs. Then he ran to Abrams’s G-wagon and opened the door.
“There is a man outside,” Lucia yelled to Abrams and Baker. She pointed at the figure who was now hanging over the front seat, fishing around in the back of the vehicle.
