The Horse Soldier: Beginnings Series Book 10
Page 25
“No, you shouldn’t. Anyhow, go on.”
“Oh yeah.” Frank snapped forward in his chair and grabbed his water. He gasped at the coolness, put down his glass, and looked disgusted. “He’s about four feet tall, I swear.”
“No way.”
“Yep. O.K. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but no bigger than you. Skinny like you too.”
“Yeah but you like me.”
“True. But Dean. Man.” Frank shook his head. “You know just when you think he’s a nice guy, bam, he jerks you off. Not literally.”
“I hate them type of guys, Frank. They make you think you can trust them and they stab you in the back.”
Frank held out his hand. “My point exactly. You’re a little man. But Dean, he’s a little man with attitude.”
“What does my sister see in him?”
“She says he’s well endowed, but I know she says that to bug me.”
“Women always do. So when did this all start?” Richie asked.
“Plague time.”
“O.K., just so we get this right, original plague time or post-time machine plague time.”
“Both. In the original plague, she wanted to have a baby so she asked him to get her pregnant. He knew her and I were close, but no. He had to pester her and bother her to make a relationship and you know your sister.”
“She can’t say no.”
“Exactly,” Frank said. “It was worse when time rippled.” Frank explained with seriousness. “Something happened with her and Pete because of a letter Robbie sent her. I don’t know. He was writing back and forth to her since he got my letter. Or something like that. So . . . Ellen arranges to go to Little Dean’s lecture. He sees how vulnerable she is and as soon as she tells him she’s in a bad marriage, he jumped on that.”
“Like a dog.”
“You know it. That’s when he knocked her up in that history.”
“See now here’s what I don’t understand,” Richie stated. “You and her were always close. She didn’t know this man from Adam, had a fling with him at some lecture . . .”
“After the lecture.”
“Of course. As I was saying, why didn’t you and her just raise the baby together?”
“I tried. She even said I tried in the history I don’t remember, but he made her feel guilty.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Frank shook his head. “He’s been playing with her ever since. Seven fuckin years I had to share Ellen with this man because he uses the kid thing against her. I can’t tell you how many times he’s taken her from me. That’s what caused the strain in our marriage, you know. He took advantage of her again. She was going through a rough time, he was Mr. Understanding, and they had an affair.”
“This Dean guy, Frank, he sounds like a real asshole.”
“Wait until you meet him. You’ll hate him.”
“I already do.”
“Thanks.” Frank leaned back and rocked in his chair. “You know it’s bad enough that there are no women left and we have to share with someone else, but it should be a three way partnership.”
“This guy won’t let it be, will he?” Richie asked.
“Nope. Takes advantage of the situation every single time. But he does have one thing going for him. He’s smart.”
“Well I’m sorry, Frank, but that’s not everything. You’re smart.”
“I am.” Frank nodded.
“Wait until I see my sister. I’ll talk to her.”
“Please.” Frank ran his hand down his face. “All right.” He looked at his watch. “Breaks over.” He stood up. “Did you do that math yet for me, Richie?”
“Oh yeah. Almost forgot.” Richie pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and read it. “Using your estimate of fifty miles a day, the UWA soldiers that you let go should arrive back at their base in Bowman on October 23rd.”
“What?” Frank was shocked. “It’s only September.”
“Yep.”
“Fuck.” Frank rubbed his head.
“Now that’s barring they don’t run into trouble. They may find horses or bikes. They aren’t gonna find anything motorized. You said that yourself. Gas is not an option. So even finding a horse, I figured it still would take them two weeks because of stopping and letting the animal rest, eat and such. And the bikes, with as much time that has passed, won’t make it. They won’t. The tires will die.”
Frank let out a long breath. “O.K., so we’re looking at minimal three more weeks here. Shit. My father better send down a fuckin helicopter to lift my ass out of here.”
“What about Ellen?”
“We have time. We’ll find where she is. George will be coming back. If I have to, I’ll wait the time out, then lock him in a room and beat the hell out of him until he tells me where she is.”
“That’ll work.”
“Yeah” Frank walked to his office door. “Back to training.”
“Frank?” Richie called out. “Why . . . why are you training Society soldiers?”
Frank just grinned and walked out.
^^^^
Beginnings, Montana
Two trucks, one long and filled with food, the other a pickup, waited, engines running at the back gate. Hal and Ellen would ride in the pickup. Danny would drive Herb in the big truck, the one that would return with half the Bowman men who were going to Beginnings. Robbie was bringing down a truck for Ellen and the other half.
Ellen stood with Henry. He held Nick and they both watched Dean standing with Hal.
“Henry, what do you suppose they are discussing. Dean looks serious.”
“Probably medical stuff, El. You know Dean. He’s always trying to impress someone with it.”
Joe cleared his throat as he approached Ellen and Henry. “O.K., little lady, say your goodbyes. And listen to Hal, you hear me?”
“Yes.” Ellen smiled and embraced Henry and kissed Nick. “Help Dean with the kids, Henry. And watch Bev around him.”
“You mean watch Dean around Bev . . . ow.” Henry rubbed the back of his head. “Ow Joe, why’d you hit me?”
“Why are you starting shit? Go away.” Joe stepped between them, facing Ellen. “Stay low if there’s trouble,. You know how it follows you out there. And make . . .” Joe felt a tap on his shoulder, he looked to Henry behind him. “What Henry?”
“That wasn’t very nice, Joe, stepping between us.”
“Like I care.” Joe returned to Ellen. “As I was saying. Be careful.”
“Yeah, but I’m good. I have a Slagel watching me and you know they are the best protectors.”
“Without a doubt.” Joe laid his hand on her cheek. “Got a favor to ask you.”
“Sure.”
“Check on . . .check on the woman situation there. See if Hal’s right about the way they are. If they really are that way, we may have some problems when we all merge.”
“Got it, but I doubt they are as bad as Hal says. Come on Joe, you know how men get. I mean, all men but you.”
With a grumble, Joe kissed Ellen again, looked at his watch, and then at Hal and Dean. “What the hell are they so engrossed in talking about?”
The expression of seriousness and thinking, along with amazement on Dean’s face was what everyone seemed to notice as they watched him and Hal speaking. Dean looked up to Hal, folding his arms, and nodding his head slowly.
So poignant Hal appeared, explaining to Dean. “And I can assure you that in our community and on the trip, nothing what-so-ever will happen to Ellen. I will stake my life on it.”
“I believe that and I appreciate it.”
“O.K., so getting back to what brought me to that, I guess, Dean, as you can see, I guess it’s a matter of uh . . .”
“Pride? What? I’m lost. What exactly is it that you’re beating around the bush to ask me?”
“All right, well women are few, very few. And well, since Ellen will be staying with me, I’d like to sort of impress my men with a nice woman beside me.”
“Dean, please. Ellen is wonderful.”
“O.K.”
“I don’t think you’re quite getting what I’m asking you.”
“Hal, the Slagel is coming out in you. You’re not asking me anything. Ask.”
Hal took a moment to gain his composure. “Think about it. Ellen is staying with me. Staying with me I want . . .”
“You want to sleep with her?”
“Oh my God! No, that’s not where I was going. Dean, I apologize if you thought that. No. I just want to make it, well, seem that way?”
Dean looked over to Ellen. “You want to borrow my wife to impress your men by making it look like you not only have a woman, but one that isn’t like the ones in Bowman.”
“Exactly.”
“Hal, how are you going to explain the fact that she’s married to me?”
“I thought of that. See, once my men understand the understanding and share situations of Beginnings . . .”
Dean nodded. “You’ll say we had an understanding.”
“Does this sound stupid?”
“No, very Slagel like.”
“Can I?” Hal asked.
“Borrow my wife?” Dean shrugged. “Sure go on. Borrow away. But Hal . . .” Since Dean got a typical Slagel request, he wanted to see if he could get that typical Slagel reaction. Laughter. A snicker. Scoffing. So Dean took on a fake serious, bringing himself more on tip toes and looking Hal straight in the eye. “Hal, don’t touch her. I wouldn’t want to beat you up.” Setting himself back down on the soles of his feet, Dean waited.
It didn’t happen.
“I wouldn’t take advantage of your generosity that way, Dean. I would never place you in a position where you’ll have to get violent with me because I did.”
“What?” Dean was shocked.
“Hal!” Joe whistled loud and shrill. “Let’s go! Now!”
“Thanks Dean.” Hal shook a stunned Dean’s hand. “I’ll be in touch.” Hal darted off.
“Uh . . .” Dean tossed his hands up. “I was . . . where . . . God, is he a Slagel?” He scratched his head and walked over to Ellen.
Ellen felt Dean’s arms go around her from behind and his lips touch her neck. “It’s about time, Dean. I was beginning to think you were gonna miss Hal more.”
“I am.”
Ellen turned around face to face with Dean and she smiled. “See you in a couple days.”
“Yep. Be good. El? Did you know Hal wants to make everyone think you and he are well, you know, together?”
Ellen laughed. “That is so typically Slagel. The big leader of his community and now he wants to be the only man with a woman. Make all the men envious until they get to know me.”
“Yeah . . . I mean . . . I . . . you’re wonderful El.”
Ellen closed her eyes with a slight smile and swayed her head. “I have to go.” She kissed him quickly and stepped back. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” Dean winked, grabbed her hand then let it slide from his as she walked away to join Hal by the pickup truck.
Dean stepped closer to Henry and Joe to watch them leave. Hal was back in his uniform, looking so . . . cavalry, as Ellen correctly described, with the exception of the red bandana on his head. They got in the pickup truck. Ellen waved as she slid in then Hal shut the door for her. Dean still was teetering on whether Hal was actually a blood line relative of Frank’s and he stood there feeling a little lost, a little more empty as he watched them pull safely from the gate.
^^^^
“Combination.” Joe stated as he watched over Mark’s shoulder in the tracking room, watching the beep and flash of light. “Rabbits and trouble. You know we’re infested with the rabbits and squirrels in that area. Tracking probably isn’t picking them up completely. Got two or three in that little field and they’re confusing our electronics.”
“You’re probably right,” Mark said.
“We’ll find out soon.” Around Joe’s neck was the headset. He lifted it to his head. “Henry? You there?”
“Yep. Leaving the secure perimeter now.”
“How much longer until you get there?”
“I’m at the end of the road by the cliff.” Henry shut off the Jeep. “I’ll let you know what I see when I climb up there.”
“Check back.” Hating the feel of the headset in his ear, Joe lowered it again and waited.
“Danny’s job,” Henry complained to himself as he walked though the beginning of the woods that lined the cliff behind the underdeveloped section, the only section of Beginnings that had no perimeter fence. The cliff seemed to be nature’s safeguard. “Danny’s job.” Henry kept bitching, walking the fifty yards across the small grassy area and to the tree that he had to climb. “Danny’s job. Probably a wire lose or something.” He stopped at the tree and grabbed the rope ladder. As his foot stepped to the first rope rung, he heard a ripping sound and felt his foot hit the ground. “What?” Henry looked down. The rung was so frayed it broke the second Henry had stepped on it. “Swell. Looks like something chewed on this.” Hoping it was an animal and not poorly made rope, Henry began to climb.
He huffed, caught his breath and braced himself in the ‘V’ of the branch and looked at the tracking dish tightly secured to the tree. “Joe.”
“Yeah, Henry.”
“I’m up here. This is way too high. I can’t breathe.”
“How’s the dish look?”
“Good.” Henry visually examined the wire connection. “It doesn’t look like anything is wrong.”
“I think it’s a programming problem, Henry. The computer tracking is getting confused.”
“I think you may be . . .” Henry stopped talking when he heard a loud rustling sound in the grass below.
“Henry?” Joe called him.
“Wait a second.” Henry heard it again. “Joe, did you just get a beep there?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
“What?”
Henry heard the movement but couldn’t see. Safely he shifted his body to get another view. He looked to his left at the larger field with an abundance of brush and high weeds. He was well above it. “Shit!”
“Christ, Henry, What?”
Henry’s eyes widened. What it was he didn’t know. He watched the grass move, a fast parting zipping across the field. It was if God himself took his huge finger, reached down, and drew a line quickly from one end of the field to the other. But what made the movement, Henry didn’t know. “Joe.” Another line,, then another, it was like watching an Etch-a-Sketch in the grass. “Joe.”
“Henry, what’s going on up there? I’m getting like ten little flashes and beeps.”
“Something is in the grass, Joe.”
“Rabbits? What?”
“I don’t know.” Henry had a frightened tone to him. He watched the grass stop moving. “I’m getting down. I don’t like this.” He fumbled as he reached for the ladder and kept his vision peered to the area. Nearly falling, Henry climbed down, missed a rung and swung on the rope ladder. He didn’t like the feeling he was getting.
“Henry, you O.K.?”
Henry’s feet planted firmly on the ground and as soon as they did his body filled with horror when he heard a long, high-pitched animal squeal in the distance. To him it sounded like a warning cry. His head swayed to it and as it did, the loud rustling of grass and weeds began. Henry could see the tops of the stocks moving and moving toward him. Then Henry took off running. He flew as fast as he could the fifty yards to the Jeep. The moving foliage sound grew closer but Henry focused on his Jeep, his heart racing, pounding hard. He stretched his lanky legs to the limits, leaping over whatever got in his way. Something or some things were following him and he didn’t know what. He dove into the Jeep, not even taking time to toss his tool bag in the passenger’s seat. His shaking hands reached for the keys in the igniti
on as he heard the noise drawing near. Finally, he started the Jeep.
BANG!
Henry shrieked when he heard the crash against the rear side of the Jeep. He pressed his foot to the peddle, shifted the gears, and screeched off as fast as the Jeep would move on the rough road. He kept on driving through the secure perimeter, ordered it back up and never looked back to see what it was that chased him.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Beginnings, Montana
There was something very red about Joe’s face as he sat in his desk looking up to a very frazzled Henry. But the red disappeared as soon as Joe released the laughter he contained. Loud and roaring it was. Joe slapped his hand hard to the desk, leaned to the side of his chair, laughed harder, and rubbed his eyes.
“It’s not funny, Joe.”
“Sorry.” Joe blurted out more laughter. “You were running from bunnies?”
“Killer bunnies, Joe.”
“They chased you, Henry?”
“Yes, fast too. That’s what’s on the screen, Joe. Killer rabbits.”
“Like Night of the Lepus?”
Henry was so frustrated, he stomped like a child. “Listen to me, Joe.”
“No Henry, listen to yourself. Do you hear how ridiculous you sound? You tell me you were in the tree. You saw the grass move but you couldn’t see what it was. And then you tell me it chased you, or rather they chased you. These rabbits. And you believe yourself. Just like you believed Frank.”
“What?”
“Remember that one Easter he was telling the kids about how Peter Rabbit forgot to take his Prozac and went hay wire Easter Eve attacking Robbie in his bed. You believed him.”
“He sounded believable, Joe. And this is true. I’m not exaggerating here. They squealed.”
“They squealed?” Joe asked with ridicule.
“Squealed like . . . like . . .” Henry slapped himself in the head. “Dean!”
“Dean squeals? Is there something you aren’t telling me, Henry?”
“Huh?” The light bulb went off in Henry’s head. “Oh Joe no.” He shook his head. “When you were in the cryo lab the last time, did you see those six rabbits on the counter, or rather hear them? Danny and I did.”