I started a list in my head. A boat, would we need a boat? I hated boats. Thinking about geography, I realized marsh land spread south and east of the Ozarks to the coast. We needed to cover over six hundred miles to get there. On foot, that would be twelve days of running. I thought of Sadie. She couldn’t come with us. Tears sprung to my eyes. I wanted to scream.
Still, I forced myself to focus on the task. Counting stitches, making sure they were even, and making tiny, precise seams. Just like Mother… I stopped that thought. Hearing rustling sounds outside, we all froze. Turner whistled a low hollow tone like the coo of a dove. Outside someone repeated the sound. Letting out my breath, I crossed to the door and opened it.
The sight of Amelie and Sadie made tears form in my eyes again. I had to get my emotions under control. This wasn’t over, we still had work to do. After we’d transferred Dena to the EC, I could break down. Until then I had to be a soldier. Glancing at the sky, I realized I’d been wrong about the time.
“You let me sleep till after noon?”
“Zip it, Walker, and focus.” River glanced at me and then turned back to Chuck.
“So we’re on last name basis now? I’m done.” I tied a knot, sealing the last of the hole.
Following Amelie and Sadie outside, we prepared the six ducks they’d acquired for roasting and hung them over the stove to cook. Next, we began cleaning and sorting the weapons for each team.
“Are you okay?” I asked Amelie as we worked.
“As okay as I can be. I’m probably in shock still, not sure what we’re doing next.”
I told them as much as I knew about River’s plan. “You guys should go back, find your families. Your mom will be worried Amelie. Sadie, you should go find Daniel.”
“I won’t make it to the coast. I’m not strong enough. And I miss Daniel. Seeing him made me realize just how much. But I will miss you too.” Tears filled Sadie’s eyes.
Amelie shook her head. “Mace and I already talked about it. We’re going with you. You shouldn’t have to go alone.”
“We won’t be alone. We’ll have Muscles and Techie, maybe a few others. River, Chuck, Garrison, and Shooter won’t be far behind. You don’t need accessory to kidnapping added to your record.”
“Actually, I haven’t done anything anyone has proof of. We never fired a single shot save at the forest animals. The UNS has no clue I’m alive. Best to keep it that way, I say. Unless you don’t want us with you.” Amelie laid the gun she’d been cleaning on the ground.
I closed the barrel of the gun in my hand. “No, I want you with us. But for selfish reasons. I can’t ask you to stay in this for me.”
“I didn’t start this for you. I got in because Butler is wrong. We still have twenty-five days to do something about it. Believe me, Mace and I are in.”
The team finalized plans over dinner. Lovelock people would be an advantage in apprehending Dena. She would recognize them, and it might catch her off guard, leave her vulnerable. We decided time trumped stealth, and after a six-hour nap, Chuck, Garrison, Muscles, River, and Shooter prepared to load into one transport bound for Des Moines, and Sadie, Ben, and Carl settled into another bound for Utah. I hated saying goodbye to Sadie and made her promise to ping me when she made it back to Daniel.
“Thank you for honoring my daughter’s memory,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around me. “She will be watching over you.”
Thinking of her daughter reminded me of Nave, and tears sprung to my eyes. “That wasn’t fair, old lady.”
“Okay.” She released me. “You guys go be bad ass while I rock away on my front porch. I’ll be waiting for you with turkey and apple pie.”
“There better be sweet potatoes.” Amelie kissed her cheek.
“Can I order cornbread?” Mace leaned over to hug her.
“You betcha.” She winked at him.
Approaching Turner, she pointed a finger at him. “You guys take care of each other.”
“We will.” He bowed his head.
Sadie patted his shoulder and spun towards the vehicle. As she settled in the truck’s front seat, I heaved her pack to the back. “Be safe.”
She smiled and nodded. Ben cranked the engine, and before I knew it, the vehicle disappeared into the brush. As soon as River and his team departed, we began packing and wiping the site. There could be no trace that we’d been there. With one more vehicle, we decided Techie would ride, and the three others—the guy I called Muscles Two and two others from the team—could switch off riding and running with Amelie, Mace, Turner, and me. I liked having a vehicle at our disposal. It made me feel safer even if Turner said it created a detection risk. To limit our exposure, the truck would travel fifty miles out from us at all times.
Needing a head start, the six of us checked our gear and started running. That I knew. That I could do.
We ran south. By the time we hit what used to be Louisiana, little vegetation grew and the landscape became desert. Before midnight on the twelfth day of travel, at T minus thirteen days, my nose tingled with the familiar smell of ocean air. Maybe spurred by the same scent, our group picked up speed, running the last three miles in under half an hour. We dropped our packs beside the wooden structure intended to be our destination and ran to the beach, flinging off our shoes, stripping our outer layers and diving into the water.
Collapsing on the sand under the light of the last quarter moon, I remembered how Nave and I would make sand angels and Dad telling us about snow angels. My side cramped with the anxious tick I’d picked up. I took a deep breath, exhaled through my mouth, and the muscle relaxed.
Techie approached, warning us we had fifteen minutes till the satellite hole ended. Grabbing our clothes, we ran to the stream, rinsed off, and filed inside.
“Any progress on the negotiations.” Turner stuck his head through his shirt.
“They still want us on the west coast and proof that we have someone who can replicate the cure.”
“How about River’s team?” Turner leaned over the laptop.
“Five hours out. You guys should get some sleep. Things could go fast once they get here with her.”
Seeing his logic, we spread our mats on the wood floor. At least I’d mastered sleep. With Avia on one side and Turner on my other, my mind relaxed, body following.
Hearing a low rumble of an engine, I jolted awake. I scanned the room, which was glowing a soft pink with the rising sun. Standing, I crossed to Techie. “Is it River?”
“Yep. He says to be ready. She’s a feisty one.”
I retrieved a jerky pack from my bag and ripped it open. “Should we wake everyone?”
“Probably.” He spun around and threw a twig at Turner.
Crossing to Amelie, I nudged her awake. We exited the cabin as River shut off the engine.
River jumped from the cab. “The sedatives wore off an hour or so ago. We figure you’d need her conscious, but she’s a major pain, I can tell you that.”
As the others piled out, Garrison opened the back door and a horrible smell accosted my nose. “What is that?”
“She refuses to use the ladies’ room. Been shitting in her pants for days. We made her get in a stream once. She tried to drown herself. Guess she figures if she causes a big enough problem, we’ll take her back.”
Chuck and Garrison approached Dena. Bound and gagged, she kicked her legs as they tried to lift her from the vehicle. Rounding to the other side, Shooter grabbed her shoulders and pushed her towards Chuck. She bucked against Shooter, hitting his chin with her head. Chuck grabbed her ankles and tucked them under his arm, and Garrison grabbed her shoulders. As he did, she flipped and contorted her hips. Under the gag, she moaned and let out a muffled scream. Setting her on the dirt, they jumped away as she rolled at them.
I bent down beside her. Her eyes grew wide as Turner squatted beside me. She reeked of urine and excrement, and I covered my nose. “We should dunk her in the ocean. We’re going to be miserable with her in the cabin smelling
like this.”
“Your wish is my command.” River leaned over and lifted her shoulders.
Turner stood back and let Chuck take her feet. They hiked over the sand, her body contorting back and forth. I couldn’t watch and walked into the cabin. At least she knew her captors. Maybe she believed I was the cold-blooded killer Butler made me out to be. But this wasn’t an extortion or torture mission. We were trading her for peace. With EC ships closing ranks on all our coasts, it couldn’t come soon enough.
Hearing cussing outside, I grabbed my blanket. As I approached, River waved me away saying they were headed for the pond to rinse the sea water off her. Thinking we’d sunk to a new low, I waited with Amelie till they brought her back. Was this plan any more ethical than removing Butler? It did harm to the fewest number of people. The coup attempt could have taken a hundred lives. This kidnapping interrupted only one.
Chuck and River held her wet and flailing body between them. Asking Amelie to help, I lay the blanket atop Dena, and we wrapped it around her body like a cocoon. The sun peeked over the trees, shining on the porch, and I told them to set her there so she could dry off and warm up. Plus, not knowing how long we’d be there, I didn’t want her peeing or worse in the cabin.
I bent down in front of her. “Are you hungry? Do you need anything?”
She threw her torso forward, and I hopped back. Dena seemed worse than a rabid dog. River brought a wooden chair outside, and they secured her ankles to the legs and arms behind the back. She rocked back and forth until the chair tipped to the floor.
River squatted down. “There’s nowhere to go, missy, so you might as well save your energy.”
“I think we have to tranquilize her again.” Chuck opened his pack and held up a syringe.
Shooter paced the porch deck. “You’re going to have to tie her up outside like a dog. She’s going to shit all over the cabin.”
“Did you tell her what’s going on?”
“We need her lucid.” Techie brought the laptop. “We can use this camera to record her. But we have to be ready to move. If the video feed gets picked up by the UNS, we’re toast.”
Turner motioned for us to move farther from the cabin. “She’s not going to say anything, and they’re not going to believe us. They have no clue who we are, who she is, or what kind of stunt we could be pulling. We could be Butler staging this whole thing for all they know.”
“They want us on the west coast, right? What if we start heading southwest, down the Mexican peninsula? Can we transmit a video from a vehicle? We’ll show them who we are, that we’re credible. If they see me or Troy—I switched back to his real name in my head, there was no use in keeping up the ruse any longer—they’ll know we’re legit. We’re the faces of the rebellion.”
Techie’s face contorted. “It’s risky. I can encrypt voices and reroute messages, but video is a bigger file. If the UNS detects our transmission, then—like I said before—we’re in trouble.”
I scanned the faces of the others, ending with Troy’s. “So, we transmit the video and move, right? Are you sure? They have no prove that you’re alive yet.”
“I don’t need to be in the video. You’ll be proof enough.” Troy took my hand.
Garrison shifted his weight between his feet. “Guys, I hate to do this, but I really don’t want anything to do with the EC. I got her here, but I’m out.”
“That’s fine.” Troy offered his hand, and Garrison shook it.
Chuck, both the muscle guys, and Techie bowed out as well, leaving us with Amelie, Mace, River, Shooter, Troy, and me. A smaller team offered many advantages, and I surveyed the vehicles. We could take the smaller, faster one, giving us better flexibility and speed. Techie offered to train Mace and Shooter on his comm technology, systems, and programs, and they headed inside the building.
Shooter volunteered to guard Dena, and the rest of us started packing. Traveling light, our task went fast. Chuck, Garrison, and the rest of the team leaving us agreed to head east and cut north through the Appalachian Mountains to avoid crossing any prior routes. They also donated all their weapons and food rations save a day’s requirements. Running a net they’d mended through the pond, we cooked fish and waited for the satellite hole.
Amelie and I coaxed Dena into eating and using a bush to pee like a semi-civilized person, and I began to feel hopeful about her level of cooperation. But when I went to remove the gag from her mouth, she snapped at me, almost catching my finger in her teeth.
“He won’t give them the formula, even to get me back. Someone will engineer a new—”
Having heard enough, I snapped the bandana tight again. Tugging at the ropes tied around her wrists, I dragged her back to the cabin porch. At noon we folded up the solar panels, loaded them and Dena in the truck, and started out with Mace and Troy in the front, Amelie and me in the second row, and Shooter and River in the back with Dena. With unknown road conditions, we calculated a forty-six-hour drive to Mazatlán, Mexico, a city on the mainland just south of the edge of the former Baja Peninsula, which with the rising waters became a string of small islands.
Researching Dena’s bio as we traveled, I realized we needed more information. What had her role at the mega drug company Biosism been before she fell off the grid? All the conspiracy theories about the release of the vaccine referred to Biosism as the origin. Were these true? What were her motivations for joining Butler at Lovelock? At our next satellite break, I questioned her, but she refused to answer.
“I have narcotics. They may loosen her up a bit,” Shooter suggested as I paced in front of Dena.
“Drugs won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.” Troy typed on the laptop, searching for more on Dena.
“Drugs and sleep deprivation can be an excellent combo,” River chimed in.
I put my hands on my hips. “We’re not torturing her.”
River laughed. “You think Zhou’s going to go easy on her if she doesn’t produce the info he wants?”
Dena’s eyes grew wide at that comment, and I deduced she hadn’t realized the full extent of our plan. Still, I wasn’t ready to resort to drugging her, and as our travel window opened, we set off again. Troy negotiated with the WHO and EC, but they were still unwilling to meet us, noting a lack of confidence in our group and intel that would be helpful to them. As the night passed and we hit the T-eleven-day mark, my patience grew thin.
Finding a concrete building to hide in, we lugged Dena inside, tying her to a metal chair. Shooter filled a syringe, and she bucked away from him as he approached. River and Turner held her still, and Shooter injected the drug into the vein in her arm. Mace and Amelie set up the monitoring equipment, and we waited. She hummed through her gag, taunting us until her breathing slowed and she gasped for breaths.
Seeing her eyelids growing heavy, I removed the bandana from her mouth. “We have some questions we need answered.”
“What’s the point? Owen won’t give in for anything, not even me.” Her words slurred into each other.
“We need to know about your work with Biosism.”
Her head bobbed, and I wondered if Shooter had given her too much of the drug. Shooter instructed us to wait, and within a few minutes, a smile spread across her face. Troy started asking questions. What did she study in school? When did she first begin work at Biosism? Some of these we knew the answers to, but they were a lead up. She sat there, saying nothing. She could not speak for days. What would compel her to give us any information? Would threatening Owen work? I doubted she would believe we could get to him.
We grilled her for hours, recording every word, giving her water, food, and more hallucinogens at regular intervals. Still by midnight, she’d said nothing we didn’t already know. Troy slammed his stool against the wall, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
“She’ll talk eventually. We have time.”
“Time? Time for Butler to nuke us all or devise a new viral strain? Look at how many people have already died.”
>
“Owen wouldn’t do that. He created Lovelock to stop the virus, to keep people from dying.”
“What went wrong?” Troy ran his hands through his hair and crossed to Dena. “Why did he change course?”
“Why do you think?” A thin smile formed on her face. “Because we solved it, the virus, found proof that it couldn’t have evolved on its own. It had to have been created.”
“By who?”
“No one knows for sure. Well, I’m sure whoever did it knows. But…” Her words garbled, and she moved her head, first to look at one side of the room and then the next. “Do you know what I did at Biosism? My work saved our race. Made you who you are.”
I crossed to her chair. “Wait, you couldn’t have worked on that project. It was years before—”
“Aye, you think you know how old I am, but you don’t. If I could make Troy, I could make myself stop aging. All of us did it back then. I’ll probably live to be three hundred.”
Lowering my head to her face, I studied her skin. She didn’t look a day past thirty. “How old are you?”
“Sixty-seven. I’ve seen it all. More people die than you can count.” She chuckled. “You’re so worried about them dying. It’s them living that you should be worried about. Why do you think we focused on disseminating the vaccine over the cure?”
“What do you mean?” My shoulders shook as I pictured Owen with a woman twice his age.
“Sure, you can cure someone, get their titer levels to nearly zero. But the virus implants itself in their DNA, waiting to be reactivated, or worse passed to the next generation. There’s no predicting what will happen. Why do you think we’ve had the second wave? A new virus? No. It’s one that’s mutated from the first. Mutated by someone, on purpose.”
Torch Page 21
