The sun came up, and the room brightened.
Terrence stopped breathing and his heart finally stopped just as The light reflected off the snow outside turning the fields into a blinding blaze of white crystal tinged red and orange.
CHAPTER FIVE
Still barely awake, Marissa realized the floor was freezing when she stepped barefoot onto the wood floor. Her eyes opened completely, and in a strange dance she bounced back over to the rug that ran beside the bed.
Where is the damn heat? she wondered as she sat back down on the side of the bed, rubbing her feet to return the feeling back into them. I can’t remember a single winter when the floor was cold enough to cause pain.
She edged towards the foot of the bed and borrowed a pair of socks out of Derek’s bag, slipping the heavy woollen socks onto her feet. When she stepped gingerly onto the floor, it was still cold, but not so cold that she could not handle it for a few moments. I don’t want to know what the tile is going to be like in the bathroom, she thought with a cringe as she knelt down in front of the fireplace.
A few moments later, the cheery fire began to warm up the room.
The floor in front of it began to lose its chill, and through the double sided fireplace she could just barely see into the bathroom. The fireplace faced the bathtub, and with the heating vent open would warm up both that tub as well as the rest of the bathroom.
What puzzled her was why the normal heat seemed to be lagging behind.
The only real downside to building this far off the grid is the lack of a grid, she mused. It was rural enough out here that not only was there no city water—and the house required both well water and to be able to draw off the nearby river—but no sewer and no natural gas. While there was hydroelectricity, the cost was still prohibitive despite the advances in the technology.
This meant that Terrence and Sheridan had to find other ways to supply their home the basic necessities.
Oil heat had been immediately crossed off as an option. Not only was Sheridan dead set against it but the rising cost of it had eclipsed electricity, making it too expensive an option.
Oil also required large tanks, which also had the tendency to eventually leak.
True geo-thermal was the best option, but also too expensive. The only other option had been a trade-off between keeping the walls thick and solid to keep the wind out and the heat in, and using a passive geothermal which cost far less than the active, with a back-up being a hybrid of electricity and wood.
The fireplaces just added a homey touch.
It was not just the actual heat from them that kept the room warm, but the ambiance of a crackling fire while reading, a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other, was impossible to translate any other way.
Once she had a fire going, she sighed as the warmth worked its way through her toes.
She looked over at her sleeping husband, grinning as Derek continued to lightly snore. He’ll have a nice toasty surprise this morning, Marissa thought. I think perhaps I’ll finish that with bringing a coffee up.
Wandering her way into the chilly hallway and then to the grand-central stair, she overlooked the grand and open concept living space below.
She was surprised to see that her youngest goddaughter was up and awake. Sheridan was already poking life into the large central fireplace to warm up the house. Opting to not startle her, Marissa walked down the stairs and into the living room.
“Good morning, Sheri,” said Marissa as she walked into the kitchen to pull out the coffeemaker. “I’m surprised you didn’t already start this.”
Sheridan winced at her godmother’s statement.
“What is it?” asked Marissa, touching her on the shoulder.
“Terrence…” said Sheridan, sucking in a deep breath. “He’s dead.”
For a long moment, Marissa was silent and then she pulled her goddaughter to her feet.
“My God, you’re not joking,” realized Marissa. “What happened?”
“I thought he was sleeping when I woke up,” answered Sheridan, and she shook his head, wiping tears from her eyes. “But he wasn’t. He was still breathing, but just barely. He died at dawn… diabetic coma. I checked his blood myself. He was completely out of Metformin and he had one last strip… and I used it.”
“Give me a second, and I’ll make coffee,” Marissa said as she hugged her goddaughter. “You haven’t eaten yet, or had coffee. I know it won’t fix things, but he wouldn’t want you to stop living. Not now. How much of what was in that camp did you rescue before it was sold?”
“A few things,” answered Sheridan quietly, looking up at Marissa. “Why?”
Marissa tried not to be alarmed by how flat Sheridan’s eyes looked, or how red they were.
“Well, I guess until the power is back on, your grandmother and I will have to do this like at camp,” answered Marissa.
Sheridan nodded, and Marissa rubbed her arm one more time.
While Lorraine enjoyed modern conveniences, she was a closet pioneer woman type who enjoyed the simple things far more. Sheridan had rescued many objects from her grandparents’ camp and old house after her grandfather had died so that Lorraine could occasionally indulge in her pioneer whims.
Marissa had a suspicion that this would help a great deal for a few days without power.
“Good morning, I see the power still hasn’t been restored. Bit unusual…” Derek said as he wandered into the kitchen and poured his own cup of coffee, and then he got his first clear look at Sheridan. “What the hell is the matter?”
But Marissa answered, “Terrence died this morning.”
Derek’s mouth dropped open in shock and Marissa had the dubious honour of watching the blood drain from her husband’s face as he paled.
“What?” he asked, almost drawling it out.
“He ran out of Metformin,” answered Marissa. “No idea when but it had to be awhile ago. Sheridan used his last testing strip to check his blood.”
Derek rubbed a hand down his face as this sank in. “Oh my God, Sheri… I have no idea what to say. I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Sheridan shook her head. “I couldn’t do anything. He’s too heavy for me to lift so I left him upstairs.”
“We’ll take care of it—I’ll get Jeremy to help me wrap him up and we’ll take him out to the garage. It’s cold in there like it is outside,” said Derek. “After this blows over, we’ll finish making arrangements. Lorraine, could you take her out to the barn with you? I’ll handle everything else from in here.”
Lorraine pulled her granddaughter from the couch and to the mudroom. She would be able to dress her warmly so that even the short walk outside to the barn would not make her sick.
“Time with the horses will do you good,” Marissa said as Sheridan walked by her.
“I know,” said Sheridan quietly, smiling slightly. “I don’t think I could handle being in here right now anyway.”
Derek rubbed a hand down his face. “I get the feeling there’s something else…” he began.
“The power being out isn’t the only thing ‘a bit unusual’,” answered Lorraine, stopping a moment.
Sheridan finished, looking from her grandmother to her godparents. “Road never was touched last night or this morning,” said Sheridan.
“What—at all?”
That’s surprising… Marissa felt a thin thread of worry work its way down his spine. Power or no power a snow plow should’ve gone by to at least clear the road.
“The phones are dead, too,” Lorraine pointed out in a serious tone, as she joined them. “I tried to call my sister and not even the dial tone.”
Oh, now that’s just fantastic, Marissa thought sourly. How much worse can it possibly get?
* * * * *
Harnet paced from one end of the Mayor’s office to the other and back again. A knock at the door caused him to stop pacing as Zoe came into the room. “Sir,” she began. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
“With ev
erything that has happened so far, Zoe, I wouldn’t be surprised if you just told me that the Mayor had managed to turn everything on its head,” he answered as he motioned to the maps on the desk. “Look at this. Martial law is declared and we still have to deal with those who not only chose to ignore it, but those who only followed the law of the land because the police were there. I used to think my former neighbours were better than this.”
Zoe stopped for a moment. Harnet knew she thought he was too young for his rank but the General had left him in charge of the area and so Zoe followed his orders.
“I keep forgetting that you’re from here,” she admitted hesitantly.
“Spit it out, Lieutenant, you’re never this nervous,” he snapped.
“The team you sent to Garson just came back,” she answered.
He whirled and faced her. “And?” he asked.
“Garson is gone, sir. There’s nothing left.”
“What do you mean ‘there’s nothing left’?” Harnet asked as he pointed at her.
“I mean it looked flattened,” she answered. “There’s an entire neighbourhood burning out of control. Their people, and our people, are doing what they can, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to do anything to slow it down.”
Feeling dizzy, with ice seeping into his veins at her words, he leaned back in his chair. Everything about the situation was slowly unravelling. Even his contacts—ones he had cultured over the course of years were suddenly going silent.
Taking the city should have been easy.
Well, taking the city had been easy. Keeping it was now a whole other matter. According to his ‘sources’, Mayor Victoria Piacentini was a woman of agreement. She thrived on all parties agreeing to a common goal and then working toward it.
The problem was the reality… and now he had lost Garson too.
If only I had been quicker… but he pushed this out of his mind.
He could not afford to split his attention between that and the situation here, especially since without the Mayor he could not simply consolidate command with any semblance of legality and she had already used his minor mistake of losing sight of her for a single second to her advantage.
Sudbury’s City Hall was not like its southern neighbours. The building could not hold that many deep dark corners for her and her few supporters to simply vanish.
But vanish she had.
Colonel Harnet turned as he cocked his head to one side. There was an ungodly ruckus breaking outside.
His best, and highest ranking officer came running into the office, gasping for air. “Sir, we found the mayor.”
“About damn time,” he grumbled. “Well? Where is she?”
“Here! With the police—and they're storming the second level.”
Harnet’s brow furrowed. “We have the tactical advantage. It’s a foolish move on their part,” he said.
“Sir, step away from the door now!” yelled someone, and his officer swirled in response.
Two things happened. First, the officer who had just reported to him went to pull his side arm. Seconds later he stiffened and then crumpled to the ground, still twitching. It was easy to see why.
The Taser wires were still embedded into his chest and arm. Harnet held up his hands as the officer that had ‘spirited’ away the Mayor and another one came into the room. This first officer held a Taser, while the other had his own side arm out.
“There’s a second stairwell I don’t know about, isn’t there?” asked Harnet. “Used in these very circumstances?”
Neither man answered him and for a moment none of them moved.
“Do you surrender?” asked the first one and Harnet froze for a moment but the officer did not appear to recognize him like he did the officer.
This was only a matter of time, so Harnet shrugged, his hands still held up. “I’m not exactly going for my side arm, officer… ah… I never did learn your name.”
He stepped across the gap while the second man still training his gun on Harnet. It never wavered while the first officer came up and lifted his hand to grasp Harnet’s wrist.
Harnet was familiar with policing and had suspected that the local police would try to arrest him if they did not follow him. He knew they would fall back on arresting him for later processing and prosecution.
They did not have his knowledge or if they did, they had not accepted it yet.
He waited for that moment when the angle was wrong for the officer holding the gun while his partner attempted the arrest
Harnet waited and the minute came. Knowing that the other man would never let go, he let the first officer grasp his wrist and then pulled him toward him.
While it did not work as planned, the officer did in fact let go of him and stepped back, hand already on his own side arm—the momentary confusion allowed him to pull his gun. The second officer did not even have time to duck out of the way before he fell. When Harnet turned his attention to the first one, the Taser had been replaced by his own colleague’s military issue side arm.
“You’re quick, I’ll grant you that,” admitted Harnet as they aimed at each other. “You may as well surrender. My people will invariably squash your little rebellion and will be up those stairs to back me up.”
“You really think that?” he asked.
“I know that,” Harnet spat the words out. “You’re outmanned and under provisioned. We have the advantage.”
“When Ottawa hears about this—advantage or no—they’ll come for you if we do fail,” he answered calmly.
Harnet laughed, “You really think there’s still an Ottawa to back you? Wake up, officer. There’s no Canada, no USA, no European Union. Nothing. It all fell. Think about the signs for the past couple of months.”
He saw the uncertainty in the other’s eyes, although the gun never dipped and never dropped. Harnet continued. “It’s too bad—you could have been part of this. All the others had no idea what this city could offer and rejected it. Only I had the vision to make it happen. We build history on the men who make it happen. I’m that kind of man. You could have been part of that but now you’re just a footnote.”
Harnet waited a few more moments, wondering what had happened to his own people. The sound of fighting had slowly wound down.
Finally, they both heard running come to a stop outside the door. “About time…” started Harnet, but when he looked straight at those in the door, he was shocked.
The newcomers were not all soldiers and they were aiming their weapons at him.
Harnet ground his teeth when he saw his other ‘most trusted’ lieutenant among them.
“Not who you’re expecting, is it?” asked the officer.
“You are goddamn traitors, all of you.”
“It’s over, Colonel,” came the voice of the mayor from outside of the door. “Put down your weapon…”
Harnet knew when to surrender. They had the advantage and nothing could possibly be gained by trying anything stupid or melodramatic. He sighed heavily as he flipped the safety on his side arm and handed it over to the other man. “Still didn’t catch your name.”
“Daniel Wither,” he finally answered.
Harnet held his expression neutral. The last time he had seen Daniel Wither he had been in high school and dating Daniel’s daughter, Sheridan. They say service changed a man and twenty years had done much to change his appearance. Time had a way of blurring memories, too. The chances of finding Daniel Wither here and now had been so slim that even a gambler wouldn’t have bet on the meeting.
Mayor Piacentini followed another officer in as they picked cautiously around the overturned furniture in her office. Harnet watched her carefully.
Daniel swore as the Colonel jumped across the short span between him and the Mayor. Victoria gasped in pain as the Colonel dug his back up weapon into her ribs. “The mayor and I are going to take a walk—and you can come with us, Mr. Wither, if you like.”
“For the love of Christ, Colonel, it’s over!” s
houted the soldier that had helped him.
“I don’t think so.”
He backed through the door and through the officers and soldiers that had weapons trained on him. “Let my men go, Mr. Wither.”
Daniel ground his teeth and Victoria shook her head. “I’m not that important.”
“She’s wrong about that,” drawled Harnet. “If I kill her, the highest ranking authority—by law—in this situation falls to the next ranking official. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any of her council about. Christmas holidays and all that, no one’s home. If you want any semblance or claim more ‘right’ than my own then she’s very, very important.”
“So kill her,” said the soldier that betrayed him. “And, once word gets around, the closest thing to government is dead we’ll have anarchy. You’ll have your excuse.”
“Don’t tempt me, Gavin,” snarled Harnet. “My people. Now.”
Daniel looked over at Lescelle, the duty officer for the Sudbury Police Service. “Dammit… do what he says,” he ordered.
The police let those who supported Harnet back up and, again, two sides faced off. “Fall back to the mall,” ordered Harnet. “Through the provincial building.”
“Yes sir,” came an answer as his soldiers fell back through the breezeway connecting the third tower.
Harnet pushed the mayor forward and into Daniel’s arms and as he moved her behind him, the Colonel took advantage of the distraction and turned tail and fled. “Lescelle, seal off the towers from those access points,” ordered the Mayor. “If he’s right…”
Lescelle nodded and he, with a few others, followed the tunnel and disappeared out of sight.
* * * * *
Shiloh made her way through the snow and over to the barn, noticing that there was light in the house but not from actual power. The glow appeared to be from the fireplaces and candles.
Great, just what I need, she mused. Another day without power.
She walked into the tack room and the sudden wall of warmth surprised her as the delicious food smell wafted past. She could hear someone humming and it immediately lifted her spirits.
After Oil Page 5
