by G. R. Carter
Alex felt drawn to the two men almost instantly upon meeting them. They had a charisma, a swagger even, in the way they spoke. Their dress was a throwback to a different time. He felt himself longing to believe ARK was here to cooperate. The fledgling Republic needed allies, even if they were a hundred miles away.
Yet, dark shadows lurked in the corners of his mind. Phil Hamilton, Julia Ruff, Clark Olsen; all those people made tremendous sacrifices to help their communities through the darkest times. Even now, when starvation was just a yearly threat instead of a daily threat, no one lived in any sort of luxury.
But here, in this tent outfitted with a beautiful table, comfy chairs, beer and liquor, servants… Something simply didn’t add up.
Regardless of personal reservations, the Founder of the Republic aimed to strike the best deal possible for his people. If that meant working with those rather less than upright, he’d hold his nose and do it. “Let’s say, for the sake of argument, we had enough food to trade. What do you have to offer in return?”
Alex sensed Jack and Tony lean forward ever so slightly. “What do you need?” Tony asked.
Alex forced himself to be patient. The Diamante family were savvy businessmen; lawyers, executives, perhaps even mafia members if the files pulled from the Archives by Rebekah Ruff were accurate. Clark and Julia ran him through the ringer to prepare for this meeting, role playing every scenario they could think of, and what Alex might say in reply. He had to tread carefully now. Opportunity presented itself rarely and fled at the first misstep. Julia crafted a strategy to help him take the initiative.
“Friends,” Alex said simply as he sprung his surprise.
Tony and Jack looked to one another again, trying to hide what appeared to Alex as exasperation on both of their faces. Jack was the more experienced negotiator of the two and quickly recovered. “Not sure how to trade something like that, Founder Hamilton.”
“Sure you do, Jack,” Alex said with a confidence born of preparation. “I have no doubt you’re completely aware of our troubles to the north.”
Jack nodded slowly.
“Well, the last thing I need is a well-armed neighbor to my west that’s starving.”
Tony shifted in his seat. He looked at Jack, then at Alex. The friendly grin was gone. “We’re not beggars, and we’re not thieves,” he said, pointing a well-manicured finger.
Alex met Tony’s glare with his own. “Funny, that’s what everyone says these days. Right before they stick a gun in your face.
“In fact, that’s precisely what New America does. They offered to help you, right? Just do what they tell you, then hand over everything to them. In exchange you get fed.”
The young Founder waited a moment. “You contacted them before us, didn’t you?” he asked, not needing an answer - he didn’t receive one; both ARK leaders simply sat stone-faced.
“I fully expected as much. I’m not angry, I mean ARK’s always been a government contractor. You reached out to what appears to be the US Army, tried to make a deal. I’m guessing the negotiations didn’t go so well, or else you wouldn’t be here offering me a beer.” For effect, he lifted the stein and took a long drink. “Which is really quite good by the way. I think my brother would love to have the recipe, if you’d be willing to share.”
“Or trade,” Jack Diamante stated, more polite than pleasant.
Alex smiled and lifted the stein towards him.
“It was the smart play, Alex. You know that,” Tony said, calmer now, not bothering to deny the allegation.
Alex nodded while he watched the bubbles rise to the foam around the edge of mug. “Smart play. Yep. That’s what it was. I respect what you did, just looking out for your people.” He looked up now at the tent, down at the rug on the floor, then rapped his knuckle on the table. “I guess my question would be, if we help you, what happens when you get a better offer? I mean, after all, what could a backwater like mine possibly offer ARK that New America couldn’t double? Isn’t that your plan, to play the two of us off each other?”
“Come on, Alex,” Tony huffed. “What, are we going to sign a contract? There’s no guarantees about anything anymore.
“You think old lawyers never change their ways? We could all be dead tomorrow. Some sort of disease…hell, even cut our hand on something and be dead in a week from infection. We’ve seen it happen. I’m worried about the immediate future, what we can affect here and now. Not a guess on where we all might be in a few years.”
Alex struggled again to hold his tongue, to stay patient and measured. “But see, Tony, that’s precisely what I’m worried about. Maybe because I’ve got the truest luxury; enough to eat. Maybe because I’m already second-generation leadership… I don’t know, maybe because I’ve got a brother who’s a genius at farming. Or because I’ve got a mentor who’s a lifelong lawman and another who’s a former US Senator. And another who actually served New America before it went completely down the road to despotism.
“No, actually, it’s because of all those things and one more. I’ve got a dream, my dad’s dream, that people aren’t beholden to anyone but their Creator. They choose their leaders, they come and go as free people,” Alex concluded.
“Impossible. ARK’s never going to be a democracy, Alex. That’s just not going to happen.”
Alex shrugged. “Over time, perhaps, you’ll give your people more freedom. Or perhaps, they’ll rise up and take it.”
Tony leaned forward over the table and pointed the same finger. “Is that a threat?”
Alex grinned, then shook his head. “Of course not, Tony. There’s nothing we can do to cause you grief. Like I said, we’ve got troubles of our own.”
Jack stood up from the table. “Well then, Founder Hamilton, it appears we are at an impasse. I know you’re a very busy man, and I don’t want to take any more of your time.”
Alex caught a quick look from Tony, making him suspect their food situation was a bit more precarious than they’d let on.
Alex stood and reached his hand out to Jack. “Truly a pleasure to meet you, sir. Your career makes very interesting reading. You’ve certainly seen the world go through a lot of changes.”
Jack couldn’t hide his surprise. “Yes…well…none quite so big as the most recent.”
Alex laughed. “Very, very true.”
“Alex, may I walk you out?” Tony asked.
“Of course, I’d be honored.”
The two men stepped out of the tent and into the fading daylight. Tony waved back a Peacekeeper who began to follow as they walked out into the meadow. “I hope you won’t mind if we overnight here? Our nighttime navigation is still a bit sketchy.”
“Of course. I’ll leave some guards to help your men. There are still bandits out in the countryside. We call them ditchmen. Like cockroaches, you know? Stomp one and another appears,” Alex said.
“Thank you. I appreciate that. Truly, I do. I know every man hour is a big expense.” The two walked in silence for a moment.
Tony stopped and looked back at his tent, then at his airships. “I know you don’t care much for us. I don’t blame you, honestly, I don’t. We never possessed the same core ideals you were raised with. The Diamante family’s goal was always survival by any means necessary. Against rival families, government law enforcement, organized crime from Russia and Latin America… I guess when the Reset happened, I just reacted.”
Alex took off his hat and ran his fingers through his thick hair, longer now than it had ever been. He sat the hat back down and said, “Dad would say the same thing sometimes. Those first days, everything just happened so fast. There was no time to ponder what the consequences might be, good or bad.”
Tony rubbed his arms against a chilled breeze that kicked up. “I hate to say it now, but I never felt more alive than I did that week. A lifetime of preparation clicked in an instant. ARK destroyed all her enemies, and I felt like I secured our family’s future for generations to come.”
Clearly defined jaw m
uscles clenched against the chill. His suit coat wasn’t enough to compensate for the thin dress shirt he wore. Alex thought it was actually quite pleasant out today, but he had multiple layers on and seldom spent time indoors.
“Reality has been quite different since then,” Tony said quietly.
The Premier blew into his hands and rubbed them together. “Not sure why I’m telling you all this. I just don’t want you to think ARK is evil, no matter what you might think of Jack and I.”
“We’ve all done things our Sunday School teacher wouldn’t be very proud of.”
“I was taught by nuns, at a private academy,” Tony chuckled. “They’d probably give me a good whack, considering what I’ve done.”
Alex picked a long stem of grass and put it in his mouth. He chewed the end, still soft despite the rapidly approaching winter. “Past is past, my holy men tell me. What matters now is what we do next.”
“I think I’d like your holy men better than the ones I remember.”
Alex shrugged. “Careful what you wish for. They sure ain’t afraid to tell me when I’m wrong. But that’s what I need, otherwise the Founder’s Chair will swallow me up.”
“I can relate to that,” Tony sighed.
This was the opportunity Julia instructed Alex to wait for. A chance to connect on a personal level, to share what only those burdened with leadership can understand. It was like she knew exactly what was going to happen.
Alex tried to respond precisely as she suggested. “Yeah, I know you can,” he said. “Which is why you and I are going to shake hands and agree to work together. I know there’s good in you, I can sense it.”
“And you need friends.”
Alex smiled softly and agreed. “And I need friends.”
A little ray of sunlight peaked out from behind the clouds. “So, how’s it going to work?” Tony asked, hope restored in his voice.
Alex kept his voice calm to deliver the terms. “Interstate 70 will become a pipeline between us. Start working east from your territory, setting up checkpoints, securing bridges, clearing debris. We’ll do the same thing going west. In the future, we’ll repair the rail lines and use that to ship products. Until then, armored convoys.”
“We don’t have the extra fuel, or trucks for that matter.”
“Find the trucks, they’re sitting around if you look hard enough. We’ll get you fuel.”
Tony was smart enough to see the hook in the bait. He was desperate enough to bite anyway. “And in return?”
“When you get back to St. Louis, there are several huge grain storage facilities sitting along the river. I want what’s in them.”
“You mean the corn and soybeans? Not sure what good that will do you. From the smell, everything’s probably rotted by now.” Tony’s face flushed with embarrassment. “None of my people knew how to use the grain. We tried cooking it, grinding it… we haven’t had a lot of luck.”
“Just leave that to us. It’s what our expertise is. You ship us the grain, we’ll ship you back food you can eat and fuel you can use to heat your buildings.”
“You knew about that, too?” Tony asked, perturbed Alex’s intelligence was better than his own. ARK was facing a crisis of warmth in the coming winter. Burning wood wasn’t exactly feasible in their high-rise homes. Most of their handpicked survivors were business types, with very few mechanically handy people in the mix. Solutions were in short supply.
“More like a guess,” Alex replied. “My dad was absolutely convinced if we had fuel to power equipment and keep people warm, the rest would fall into place. Most people didn’t think that way.”
Tony kicked at the dirt below his feet. “I always thought Jack and I were strategic thinkers. Able to see past the day to day and figure out several steps ahead. 3-D chess the Ivy League types called it.”
“This is a whole new game.”
The Premier smiled. “I guess the younger you are, the more adept you are at change.”
“Maybe,” Alex said as he tossed his chewed stem to the ground. “Or maybe my people have been down so long that the present days don’t seem too bad to us. Frankly, ain’t a whole lot different around here than before the Reset hit. Few more bandits I guess. That’s kinda new.”
Tony looked confused. “You didn’t have anyone like New America threatening to invade your land.”
“No,” Alex replied. “That is surely true. That’s a new and unpleasant twist.”
“You think you can really stop them if they come after you?”
“You worried if they take us down, you’re next?” Alex asked.
“Maybe, yeah,” Tony replied.
Alex looked over at his men and the machines they stood beside. “We can take ‘em. Every day we get a little stronger. Every day we get a little closer to achieving our goal.”
“Which is?” Tony asked.
The hardened mafioso felt a chill at the look in the young Founder’s piercing blue eyes as he replied. “Killing the men who killed my father.”
RED HAWK RISING
Book Three
Fortress Farm Series
Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
Prologue
A Few Years After the Great Reset
Hungry, bloodshot eyes peered out from under dense bush, tracking a small group of farmers pass through the gate of their fortress farm. Each was armed with a rifle or shotgun. Their heads scanned back and forth for any sign of trouble. A herd of young sheep tried to scatter out in front of them, but two large dogs bounded back and forth, keeping the wooly convoy on the path ahead.
This group followed the same pattern every day. He’d been watching them for three sunrises now. He watched the gate swing shut as the last lamb straggled through. For a moment he considered jumping the farmers. Their animals would make him a wealthy man among his tribe.
But the Men of the Circle forbade it. He was here to scout, to report back to them the location and strength of the Red Hawks frontier farms. He hadn’t thought to ask why he couldn’t attack. They gave him an order, he would of course obey it.
Earl he thought to himself. My name was Earl.
The Circle people reminded him of that. They reminded him he was once a police officer. They reminded him he once had a family, a home, a life. The collapse of civilization presented him with an opportunity to assume power always denied to him before. The power of life and death was now granted to the ruthless, to control the future of others, especially women.
My name was Earl.
He once struck a deal with an Army Colonel wishing him to cause chaos for enemies. That arrangement ended, along with the lives of some of his family and friends, at the hands of the hated Red Hawks, who ruined his deal and made him run for his life.
He stopped running in the wild lands outside the ruins of Springfield. Once there, he carved out his own territory, with plenty of servants and bountiful prey. Most living in the bush were unable to think for themselves, and a few strategic kills established him as alpha. He was master of his domain, unchallenged in ruthlessness.
Out here on the frontier, where the fields were overrun with bush and saplings and the drainage ditches turned to meandering streams, men willing to kill could raid and hide. Survival required some honest hunting and foraging, but taking was easier. Any survivor with an honest bone could work for their food; there was still way more tasks then able hands in the rebuilt areas. Off of their pre-Reset medications, or simply free to pursue their animal spirits, his pack chose to live off the toil of others.
His pack hunted the weak. Like the wolf packs now back and roaming forest and ruins in the absence of man. Or tigers, escaped from zoos and wildlife parks, thriving in the midwestern climate amongst abundant two legged and four legged prey.
My name was Earl.
He had new masters now. Strong men who possessed the ability to see things others couldn’t.
They possessed an unlimited amount of Syn, the substance able to numb any pain. Ever since he was introduced to the blue pills, he felt a clearer purpose. He fought against these men at first, resisting their black flags with the white circles. His band was one of the last hold outs, but the Men of the Circle people were better armed and supplied. When he laid down his weapons, he expected death or enslavement. Instead he received a new mission – and an unlimited supply of Syn for him and all of his surviving tribe.
“Just watch,” they told him. “No attack, just watch.” His masters didn’t want the Red Hawks to know about the trouble brewing just beyond their borders. He hated the Red Hawks, he yearned to rip their hearts out, but he would do as the masters asked.
My name was Earl.
The Men of the Circle united the tribes of the wild lands. He felt a loyalty to them he had never felt before. His newest tattoo reflected it; a simple circle across his forehead, joining the bluish ink vines already spreading across his entire body.
The Circle people promised him they would do the one thing he could never accomplish on his own: destroy the Red Hawks. So for now he would watch groups like these young shepherds, who remained blissfully unaware of the death that lurked just a few yards away in the bush. Let them toil in their back breaking work. Let them try to push back Mother Nature’s march to retake what was originally hers.
My name was Earl.
There was a storm coming for these farmers. In the aftermath, he’d feast on them all. His masters promised vengeance would be his reward, when the Circle crushed the Hawk.
Jacksonville
“Look Malik. You told me you value my honesty, right? That you always get fair meaning from what I say. Well I say partnering with these blokes is bad business.”
“Yes, you’ve said that twice now, but you haven’t told me why, exactly.”
Darwin King rubbed his head in frustration. Getting Malik to see the bigger picture was becoming more difficult every time they met. Which was becoming less and less. He could see the isolation brought by absolute power creeping in on the Masens. Their dreams of empire clouded their judgment, he recognized the sickness, one he’d suffered himself as a young and wildly successful entrepreneur. Except Darwin’s early lessons came at the expense of dollars, only later did those tough lessons cost lives. “These Red Hawks your New America friends got a jones for, they barely know we exist. Why provoke them?”
