“I guess I should say thank you.”
“For what?”
“For saving my life, of course.”
“You could have just run off. I doubt they would have hit you.”
“If that’s true, then why didn’t you run?”
He shrugged. “I had more than just me to worry about. Besides, if I’d have run, my dog would have lost all respect for me.” He reached down and scrubbed Bowie’s neck. “And I can’t have that.”
She studied him. “You’re an interesting man, Marshal Raines. I wonder though…”
“What?”
“Does it bother you to have shot these men?”
“I don’t know why it should. They brought the fight to me.”
“Even so, they were blind.”
Mason stepped down off the porch and moved to stand directly in front of her.
“Leila, I learned a long time ago that I don’t get to choose my enemies.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “That, Marshal, is very true.”
“Now,” he said, reaching out and carefully lifting her injured hand. “Let’s see what we can do about that hand of yours.”
Chapter 5
Rosalyn Glass tried to sit up, frantically pulling the oxygen mask away from her face. Firm hands pressed against her shoulders.
“Easy, Madam President. You’re safe.” General Carr’s voice was calm and reassuring.
She settled back against the hospital bed, sliding up to get a better look around. A sterile plastic bubble surrounded most of the room, puffing outward from the constant pressure of purged air. Dr. Tran stood at the foot of the bed, wearing scrubs and a white lab coat, and General Carr sat next to her.
President Glass tried to speak but managed only a garbled croaking sound. She brought her hands to the bandage covering her neck.
“The doctor says your voice may come back with time. For now, you’ll have to communicate through writing and with this thing.” Carr held up a device that looked like a fancy microphone.
Her eyes opened wide with horror.
“Ah, it’s not so bad.” He pressed the electrolarynx against the bottom of his mandible and began to speak. The voice coming from the device was very different than his own, but it remained clear and distinctively male. “I figured it out pretty quickly. The main thing is to speak slowly and clearly. Also, try not to force air through your throat. It works by vibrations in the jaw, not air flow.” He held it out to her. “Here, you try.”
Slightly less taken aback, she studied the device. When she was confident that she understood its operation, she mimicked what he had done. The words that came out were slurred and unrecognizable. She frowned and handed it back to him, shaking her head.
The general looked over his shoulder at Dr. Tran.
“Doc?”
“It takes a little practice,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Perhaps we should start with this.” He stepped forward and offered President Glass a pen and a pad of paper.
She snatched them from his hands and quickly scribbled a sentence.
Yumi stabbed me! She must be conspiring with Lincoln.
General Carr nodded. He had suspected as much, but it was good to have confirmation.
“Don’t worry, Madam President. I took care of Yumi Tanaka.”
You killed her?
“Yes.” He unconsciously touched the wound on his thigh, remembering their brief but bloody fight.
President Glass mouthed, “Thank you,” as she reached out and took his hand.
Carr lifted her hand to his mouth and gently kissed her fingers. As he did, he watched her face for any signs that the affection might be unwelcome. But she offered none. Instead, she squeezed his hand, smiled, and then went back to writing.
Where am I?
“You’re at The Greenbrier in West Virginia. After you were stabbed, Dr. Tran and I brought you here for medical care.”
Why am I not in a hospital?
“I feared for your safety.” He paused. “Madam President, I made a few decisions in your absence. Some of them, I fear, you may not agree with.”
She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue.
“Please understand that I was afraid that Pike might try to finish what Yumi had started.”
Her pen raced across the page.
You brought me here to protect me?
“Yes, but I went one step further. I had Dr. Tran tell everyone that you didn’t survive the attack.”
President Glass tried to speak, and when that failed, quickly turned back to the pen and paper.
Everyone thinks I’m dead? She underlined the word “dead” several times.
“Yes.”
Who’s running the country? Lincoln?
“Yes,” he repeated. “Pike was sworn in as president.”
That’s awful!
“You have no idea.”
She squinted, waiting for him to say more.
“Yesterday, he ordered a nuclear strike on Lexington, Kentucky. He claims it was to suppress a fresh outbreak of the virus, but I believe there was something else behind it.”
She grabbed the lapel of his uniform and pulled herself upright. Almost immediately, the world began to spin, and she flopped back onto the bed.
General Carr helped to gently position her head against the pillow.
“You’re not strong enough yet, Madam President.”
“He’s right,” said Dr. Tran. “Give it another day or two.”
She closed her eyes and waited for the dizziness to pass. When it did, she picked back up the pen and paper.
We need to tell everyone that I’m alive. It’s the only way to get Lincoln out of office before he kills any more people.
General Carr said nothing.
What? Tell me.
“I fear it may be too late for that.”
What do you mean? I’m the lawfully elected president.
“That’s true, but Pike doesn’t care about the rule of law. He’s already suspended the War Powers Act. If you try to remove him, he’ll have you killed. I’m sure of it.”
She patted the back of his hand.
You can protect me.
“I’m sorry, Madam President, but I don’t have the means to do that. Not yet, anyway. For now, secrecy is our best defense.”
Can’t you recruit other military leaders to overthrow him?
“That’s easier said than done. Our military has been taught to obey the civilian administration. Commanders will have a difficult time overcoming that paradigm.”
But they respect you. They’ll follow you.
“No, ma’am, but they might follow you.”
She nodded and mouthed, “Please try.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll reach out to a few trusted military officers to see if I can garner their support. But until we have allies, we need to keep your existence a closely guarded secret.”
Don’t you have soldiers here to keep us safe?
The general shook his head.
“I couldn’t trust anyone. For now, it’s the three of us and a handful of private contractors that I brought in to keep the facility running.”
What are you saying? That we’re completely defenseless?
General Carr pressed his lips together.
“For the moment, yes.”
President Lincoln Pike bent over his desk, studying the aerial photograph. General Hood stood on the opposite side, pointing out several blurry features on the picture. Yumi Tanaka, an apparition that only Pike could see or hear, pressed her way in next to him.
“As you can see,” said Hood, “there’s not much left of Lexington.”
Pike shook his head in awe.
“That must have been one hell of a missile.”
“The weapon had an explosive yield of roughly a million tons of TNT. Respectable, but certainly not the largest nuclear weapon in our arsenal.”
“And radiation?”
“Minimal. Detonation occurred two thousand fe
et above the city, creating a powerful shockwave without contaminating the area with radioactive particles.”
“What about Lenny?”
“The outskirts survived, as we knew they would, but the entire downtown area was obliterated. Between the blast and thermal damage, it’s very unlikely that he could have survived.”
“You’re assuming he was in the downtown area.”
“Our intelligence says that he was.”
Yumi nudged Pike. “You need to make sure Lenny’s dead and gone. He could ruin everything.”
“We obviously need confirmation of his death,” said Pike.
“Understood. I’ve already dispatched a team of soldiers.”
“And if they find him alive?”
“Sir, these men are specialists. If he’s alive, they’ll take care of it.”
Pike took a breath and slowly let it out, wondering how things had gotten so far out of hand.
“This was all Lenny’s doing,” Yumi said, rubbing his neck. “He was a fool to think he could threaten you and get away with it.”
Pike nodded. “I wouldn’t willingly kill all those people. He left me no choice.”
“Yes, sir,” General Hood said, thinking that he was talking to him.
Yumi reached down and gently squeezed Pike’s hand.
“Ask him about the other thing, lover.”
“I will.”
“This is important to me. Ask him!” She dug her fingernails into the back of his hand.
“Ouch!” he shouted, jerking his hand away.
“Sir? Are you all right?”
Pike rubbed his hand. “It’s nothing. I have a question for you, though. Where’s General Carr?”
“I’m not entirely sure. Ever since President Glass was killed, he’s been coming and going from Mount Weather.”
“Why?”
“I’m not exactly sure. If you’d like, I can look into it.”
Pike waved it away. “No, that’s unimportant. I need… something else.”
“Okay.”
Pike hesitated as he searched for the right delivery.
“Sir?”
“General Carr suspects our involvement in the attack on Glynco. You know that.” Pike touched the photos. “It won’t take much for him to figure out why we bombed Lexington.”
“I don’t want to misunderstand you, Mr. President. What exactly do you want me to do?”
Pike turned to Yumi, and she nodded for him to continue.
“I think we need to remove this threat once and for all. Just like we did with Lenny.”
“While I’d love to see that old bird get what’s coming to him, you should understand that such an action would not be without risk. General Carr has powerful friends in the military. Friends who would demand answers if he was murdered.”
“I understand that. So, rather than kill him outright, I want you to make him disappear. He no longer holds an official position, and people will naturally conclude that he simply retired to live out his last days in peace. You said he’d been leaving the center, anyway.”
General Hood thought about it for a moment.
“All right.”
Yumi stroked President Pike’s hair.
“Tell him what else I want.”
Pike cleared his throat. “I’ll need proof when it’s done.”
Hood seemed confused. “Proof, sir?”
“Yes, I have to be sure.”
“What kind of proof?”
Pike hesitated. Yumi’s request had been very specific, and he didn’t dare fail her. She was all that kept him sane.
“I’ll need to see his hands.”
“Sir?”
“These things,” he said, waving his hands in the air with a nervous smile. “Have the killers cut off his hands, and bring them to me.”
“Why?” Before Pike could answer, Hood had come up with his own answer. “You want to verify his fingerprints.”
Pike latched onto the reason.
“That’s right.”
“There are easier ways, sir. I could have them take prints. Even a photograph would suffice to—”
President Pike held up a hand indicating that the matter was not open to discussion.
“I realize this must sound rather incredibly barbaric, but I need to know for sure. This man killed a woman I cared about, and I don’t want to leave anything to chance. Surely, you understand?”
General Hood nodded, but his eyes suggested that something was off. It wasn’t so much the request that bothered him. Dismembering was done from time to time—bloody, yes, but sometimes necessary. It was the fact that such a request was more fitting of Hannibal Lecter than it was the leader of the free world.
Chapter 6
Tanner awoke with the sun, his back aching and his bladder full. Samantha lay sprawled across the rear seat of the Range Rover. He didn’t remember her crawling back there, but she seemed comfortable enough, and he saw no reason to wake her.
He slid over to the driver’s side and stepped out with his shotgun in hand. The morning was warm and muggy, not quite unpleasant, but not comfortable either. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The air smelled clean, without the faintest hint of car exhaust, sewage, cigarette smoke, or garbage. Even the stink of dead bodies was fading. The planet was cleaning itself.
He wandered down the street a couple of hundred feet and relieved himself behind a tree. When he was finished, he stepped onto the hood of a nearby sedan and studied the area. To the east, he could barely make out the Naval Observatory. The fire had burned out, thankfully limiting itself to the vice president’s residence. To the west stood a thick grove of trees, and beyond that lay the Potomac River—a river they would eventually have to cross to get out of the city.
The streets were impossible to navigate by car, a lesson Samantha had learned the previous evening. She was right when she had said they’d have to walk out, and that likely meant dealing with all sorts of trouble. Nothing was easy anymore, and the chances of navigating across D.C. and Arlington without stumbling into something dangerous seemed remote at best.
Tanner moseyed back to the Range Rover, whistling as he went. Despite Samantha’s grumpy demeanor, life really was pretty good. Sure, they’d had to burn the vice president’s home to the ground, but that was par for the course. As he got back to the car, he saw Samantha returning from the opposite direction. He thought about hassling her for going off alone but hated to discover if her vocabulary included the word “hypocrite.”
“Feeling better?”
She yawned. “I guess.”
“Good. I figured you’d come around.”
She glanced back at the observatory.
“I’m just glad you didn’t accidentally burn down the whole city.”
“Not yet, I haven’t.”
She cracked a smile. “Maybe next time, right?”
Tanner opened the tailgate and started rummaging through his pack.
“You hungry?”
“Starving.”
He pulled out a box of Cracker Jacks and a Payday candy bar. He held them out for her to choose.
“You do realize that kids need more than sugar for breakfast.”
“I’ve got a can of spinach in here if you’d prefer.”
She made a disgusted face and took the Cracker Jacks. They were past their expiration date but only by a month. She didn’t complain any further as she tore open the box and started eating the candy-coated popcorn. Tanner set out a couple of bottles of water, drinking one while he ate the candy bar.
“I was thinking we’d cut through the forest up ahead. That might help to keep us off the roads a little.”
Samantha rose up on her tiptoes and strained to see what was at the end of the street.
“There’s a forest in the city?”
“A park, probably.”
“Shouldn’t we know where it goes before we blindly walk into it? You have gotten us lost before.”
“Good point.”
/> Tanner leaned into the Range Rover and popped open the glove box. The only things inside were the user’s manual and a small emergency seatbelt cutter.
“No maps.” He turned and studied the GPS screen built into the dashboard. “You know how to work one of these gizmos?”
“I’m sure I can figure it out.”
She climbed in the driver’s side and turned the key until the GPS unit flashed on. A map appeared, but it was zoomed in so tight that she couldn’t see more than a single city block. At the bottom of the unit was a large control knob. She pushed it left and right, and the map zoomed in and out. When she had the map adjusted to the right magnification, she stopped and placed her finger over a small triangle.
“We’re here on Davis Place, maybe a half mile from the Naval Observatory.”
“Which was but a waypoint on our ongoing journey,” Tanner said, trying to sound scholarly.
She smiled. “I like that… our ongoing journey.”
Tanner tapped the screen with his finger.
“The forested area at the end of the road is Glover Archbold Park. And look here,” he said, pointing to a small dashed line. “There’s a trail that cuts right through the middle.”
She shooed his hand away and followed the line with her finger.
“It comes out on Canal Road, next to the river. We could get all the way through the city without ever having to walk the streets.”
“It’ll be a good couple of miles of hiking, but at least we won’t be dodging criminals with bats and machetes.”
“Like Lars and Yo-yo,” she said, referring to two violent convicts Tanner had killed outside the White House.
“Exactly.”
“Okay, but one thing before we go.”
“What’s that?”
Samantha tipped the box of Cracker Jacks up and dumped the final morsels into her mouth. Small pieces of dried popcorn and peanuts stuck to her lips as she held the box out to him.
“Got any more of these?”
By the time they reached the edge of Glover Archbold Park, Tanner and Samantha had agreed on a plan. They would hike through the park, cross the Potomac, acquire a car, and make their way westward toward his cabin in North Carolina. The total distance was about three hundred and fifty miles, not something they could do in a single day.
Battle Lines (The Survivalist Book 5) Page 5
