“Cathy? Are you listening to me?”
“Oh, right. Okay, Mom.” zzz
The nine year old walked away turning around twice to study the blond woman with the pony tail and black beret before finally moving through the open main gates. Nina and Lori watched her go.
As Catherine left ear shot, Lori asked, “What brings you to the estate?”
“General Shepherd is on his way to the front so I’m hitching a ride with him. After the meeting tomorrow we’re both going to head west.”
Lori sensed that something weighed on Nina’s mind and she desperately wished she could share everything she knew. A promise made years ago kept her silent.
Nina said, “Listen, I never got a chance to tell you ‘thank you’. Sometimes I’m not so good with that.”
Lori felt a strong sense of déjà vu and stumbled, “Um—for what?”
“For a bunch of things. For helping me adopt my daughter way back when. You pulled the strings on that. You and Jim Brock, that is. And also for last year. Things move so fast and all that, well, look I’m just saying that you kind of came to the rescue.”
A car drove by. The two women turned and walked together toward the estate.
Lori said, “You were the one who did the rescuing. If it weren’t for you and Gordon, hell, we never would have found out.”
Nina asked, “How is he?”
Lori shook her head as she answered, “He still can’t use his legs. They don’t think he ever will. A few months ago he returned to work but he sort of stays in one of the houses here on the lake and refuses to go out. I don’t know. A guy like that—”
“You’re thinking maybe he would have been happier if that bullet had killed him.”
“Maybe,” Lori said.
“Tell me something,” Nina switched subjects as they passed two sentries and entered the grounds of the estate. “You and I were friends once, weren’t we?”
That stopped Lori in her tracks.
Nina went on, “It’s okay. I don’t remember everything from that year. Not at all. But there are pieces coming back to me. And I’ve seen some old photographs and stuff.”
“Oh, well, I guess—“
“And your daughter’s middle name is Nina.”
Lori stuck her lip out and threw her eyes to the sky contemplating her next move. She could nearly see her husband shaking his head and telling her to ‘keep your nose out of it!”
As usual, she ignored him.
“Oh, screw it. Yeah, we were friends. Good friends. After you lost your memories, well, after that the whole war thing was really picking up and you were moved away from the estate and out to fight battles and all that. We didn’t see each other much after that.”
“Thank you for being straight with me.”
“You deserve it.”
Nina gazed at the activity across the estate grounds: Dogs walking patrol routes, a courier with a box under his arm bounding through the front door, and a Humvee with a mounted machine gun creeping along the sloped driveway.
She asked, “What was it like around here, back in those days?”
Lori considered for a moment and then said, “Well, there were less people, of course, but still a lot always going on. There’s always been a feeling of excitement around here. Well, except for those few months last year when this place was empty because Evan moved everything down to DC Anyway, since the beginning the mansion and the lake have always felt like the center of it all. Lots of energy but without the bull. You were a big part of that in the early days.” Her eyes wavered as she admitted, “But back then that energy felt, well, optimistic. Nowadays it feels—it feels desperate.”
Lori saw Nina hesitate, perhaps summoning courage, before asking, “How is—how is The Emperor doing these days?”
Lori felt another powerful blast of déjà vu and quickly traced it to the conversations she had had with Nina during those first few months at the estate, a time when Lori had correctly guessed that Nina Forest was falling in love with Trevor Stone, even if she did not know it..
“Trevor? I’ll admit it he is a little different nowadays. I think he’s more…” and Lori chose her word carefully, “lonely. That’s because of how things are going out on the front. And how things went, well, after he got back last summer.”
Those things, Lori knew, included rooting out the conspirators, public hangings, and a brutal purge of the political system. As far as she knew, a dozen bodies still hung from the rotunda in the now-closed Capital building in DC For a while, things had been brutal. She saw first-hand the dark side of Trevor Stone.
Lori focused again and added, “You did a job bringing him back.”
“Oh, well, I—look—I just did what I had to do. I suppose.”
Lori wondered exactly how Nina had brought Trevor back. His mind had been a mess of nightmares and grief. In one of his few confessional moments since his return, Trevor had hinted to Lori about a supernatural bond formed between himself and Nina, one that had taken much of the weight of guilt and sorrow from his spirit and given it to Nina, a willing gesture on her part to lift a measure of his burden.
That, Lori thought, is what people in love do for one another.
Whatever she had done, it relieved Trevor enough to pull him from the madness, although his anger and determination returned more powerful than ever.
She wondered, as she watched Nina fidget nervously, how much Nina knew. Or how much did she feel?
Lori said, “You should go say hello to him.”
Nina did not reply, but her eyes wandered in a sure sign of increasing nerves. At that moment Lori realized she would need to try some of her old tricks again.
“Hey, look, this conference tomorrow is important. I’ve got to make some decisions on equipment transfers and personnel. I’d like your input on all that.”
“Me? I’m not really good at that sort of thing. I’m just a soldier.”
“That’s the type of input I need. Someone who has been on the front lines. Besides, you were in on all the big meetings back in the old days. I’d like you to be there.”
Nina’s eyes widened and she gasped, “Me? In a meeting with the counsel? Listen, I don’t think I’m the right—“
“Nonsense,” Lori interrupted. “As the Chief Administrator I am requesting your presence. Tell Shep I suggested it and I’ll bet he’ll think it’s a good idea. Besides, there isn’t much of a council left. It’s sort of Trevor’s extended group of friends and advisers. You’re a part of that group, I think.”
“I—I don’t know what to say. Or, what to say at the meeting.”
“Just be there. At some point, I just know Trevor will want to talk to you.”
Trevor sat with Ashley in the soft glow of the living room fireplace. While one couch remained, much of the room had been transformed into makeshift workspace including a pair of desks against one wall, cabinets, and a long table under the front windows.
Still, with the lights down and the workers long-since departed, the room took on a cozy feel, especially with those desks, cabinets, and tables relegated to shadows.
The tears were the final stage, preceded by pleading and defiance. In the end, Trevor Stone saw that she realized he planned to take away the only thing in this miserable world that belonged to her. The only person Ashley loved who loved her back.
The time for argument passed, so did the time for protests; she lacked the energy to continue fighting.
Outside, the last rays of sunset faded like a dying fire. A vehicle motor revved as it traveled the driveway. The sound of scattered voices—handlers commanding K9s and sentries conversing—seeped through the front windows as muffled background noise.
“I’m sorry,” he said for what might have been the fiftieth time that evening, but this time the apology encompassed a greater wrong. “I’m sorry things turned out this way.”
“Me—me too,” she sobbed. “What happened? How come the old world seems like a faded dream? I don’t even know if
it’s real any more. Was it real? Any of it?”
For the first time in a long while he slipped an arm around Ashley’s shoulder and pulled her close.
“It was real. But I know what you mean about it seeming a dream. Sometimes I have trouble remembering what my folks looked like. That bothers me.”
“Do you remember—you remember making the plans for the wedding? I thought it was important.”
He chuckled and told her, “I remember. And it was important. Back then. I guess our definition of ‘important’ has changed a bit.”
“I kept moving those seating charts around. It must’ve drove you nuts.”
“No, no,” he did not sound convincing. “I was right there with you.”
“Oh, you liar.” She actually flashed a brief smile.
“Say, you remember that time we went on a picnic up to Francis Slocum State Park?”
Ashley nodded. “How could I forget? That was Memorial Day.”
“Perfect day, it seemed. Then that storm rolled in and we didn’t even notice. Next thing you know—”
She picked up, “We were too busy staring into each other’s eyes,” she used the right mix of melodrama in her tone, “to notice that everyone else at the park went running for their cars. By time we did the rain was coming down in sheets. Oh, geez, that was horrible!”
“Nah, it was fun. Something to remember, right?”
“Well you know me, I had to have everything perfect. Best plans, you know?”
“I know.”
“I changed,” she admitted. “I’ve gotten used to the idea that things don’t go as planned.”
He sighed and, after a silence of several seconds, spoke to Ashley in a whisper, “I’m sorry, Ashley. I’m sorry we didn’t get that wedding. I’m sorry we didn’t get that house and the picket fence your dad would’ve built for half-price.”
She snickered at that and cuddled a little closer.
He went on, “I never asked for any of this. Never wanted it.”
“I know. I mean, when I really think about all that has happened I don’t really blame you. You’ve done the best you could. Better than my dad ever would have thought, right?”
This time he snickered.
“You too,” he told her honestly. “You were dealt a bad hand, Ashley, but you rose up. I don’t say this a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever said it. But Ashley, I’m proud of you. I admire you, too. You deserve better. I’m sorry I was never able to give that to you.”
She quietly told him, “And now you’re going to take away the only thing that matters to me.” But no argument remained in her voice; she merely spoke the truth.
Ashley gently pulled free of his hug, sat straight on the couch, and studied him for several long seconds. He returned her gaze and for a moment he saw beautiful Ashley Trump of a decade ago whom he had somehow convinced to fall in love with him. She had been his dream. In return, he had put her through a nightmare.
She spoke without any acid in her tone, but with strength.
“I know you wouldn’t do this unless you thought it would work. Whether it does work or doesn’t, either way the end is coming soon, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
Ashley told him, “I won’t be here when you get back. It doesn’t matter, not really. The TV cameras are pretty much gone. I don’t think appearances are important anymore. So you don’t need me by your side. It’s all in your hands now, Trevor. You, your Generals, and I guess our son, too. If he’s not here, there’s no reason for me to be.”
Trevor bowed his head and accepted her words.
Ashley finished, “Point is, there’s a life out there somewhere; my life. I need to find it, in what little time I have left.”
6. Intelligence
Ashley stood at the bottom of what used to be the stairs to a small cottage on the rim of the lake. A wooden ramp covered those stairs now, offering a gentle slope from the quaint porch to the blacktop driveway alongside the small, one-story home.
In her hand she held a bound, blue booklet that bore the logo of an open hand with an eye at the center. The title printed below the symbol offered a cryptic clue as to the contents: Imperial Intelligence Summary Report: Voggoth Prime.
Ashley knew from her tear-filled discussions with Trevor that the report detailed the location of The Order’s primary base of operations on Earth, half a world away.
She took her eyes from the report and looked at the cottage entrance again. Behind her a car drove around the lake perimeter road causing a small breeze of wind to offer slight relief from the humid morning air.
Ashley grunted with resolve and climbed the ramp. She knocked on the metal-framed screen door. A few seconds later the heavier white-wood interior door opened and an older gentleman in casual dress greeted her. She noticed that one of the man’s hands had been replaced by a plastic prosthetic, no doubt a wound suffered while in service to Intelligence.
“I’m here to see Gordon.”
“He is not taking any visitors,” the man answered in a voice lacking any emotion, any concern. He could have been a robot.
She held the booklet up and said, “It’s about the report he sent over. Tell him there is a big problem with it.”
The man’s eyes widened as if Ashley had just insulted his mother.
“Wait here,” the man closed the door.
If any other servant in The Empire had tried to dismiss Ashley so casually, she probably would have exploded. But she knew that the man served Gordon Knox.
The door opened again, this time all the way. Ashley walked in.
A hallway ran the length of the cottage from the front to a rear kitchen. Wide archways to either side of the hall opened to other rooms, all coated with hardwood floors. She saw very little furniture and no mirrors. The air smelled stale.
“He’s in his study,” the servant directed and Ashley found her way.
She came upon Gordon in one of the rooms at the back of the house. A big, sliding glass door offered access to a wood deck overlooking a yard surrounded by tall pine trees. Inside, computers and printers, video screens and a HAM radio with a glitzy LCD display, formed a ring around the center of the room. A simple ceiling fan revolved slowly above it all.
Gordon Knox sat in his wheelchair near the sliding glass door his eyes staring outside.
Ashley paused.
“May I come in?”
Without turning Gordon replied, “Yes. Of course. What will we be reading today?”
Ashley said, “Tomorrow is our reading day, remember? And besides,” she walked to his side, “you know we haven’t finished Heart of Darkness yet.”
“Ah, yes, we haven’t even met Kurtz, yet, have we?”
“So you have read it before,” she smiled as if she had won a bet.
He finally turned. “I admit it, yes. But it sounds different when you read it. It sounds—better. Of course you don’t have to, you know. I’m more than capable of reading. The eyes, at least, still work just fine.”
“I enjoy our time together.”
“Yes,” he mused. “I suppose this monster isn’t quite so scary anymore.”
She swallowed hard and insisted, “You are not—you never were—a monster.”
“Yes, I was,” he corrected with no malice. “That’s why you were always afraid of me. That’s why you turned to me last summer. You needed a monster.”
“I was never afraid of you.”
He ignored her. “I suppose that is one good thing to come out of this,” he patted his hands on the wheelchair rails. “You’re not afraid anymore. Thank you for visiting with me and reading to me each week. It’s a bright spot in what has been a very bad year.”
“I enjoy it too.”
“So why are you here, if not to read to me? It’s not the report. There’s nothing wrong with it.” His voice suggested he found it amusing she would say as much.
She looked at the booklet in her hand then at him again.
“It’s missing something.”
“What?” He took the book and paged through. “It’s all here. Everything we know about Voggoth’s position. The temple, the Urals—years of strength estimates. Do you know how many agents we lost? Do you know how many of our European friends we lost? No, it’s all here. It’s—”
“It’s missing you.”
Her statement puzzled Gordon.
She did not wait. She pushed, “I’m not letting you send couriers over with your intelligence reports. That’s not enough. There’s a meeting today and you need to be there.”
His faced glowed red. His hands pulled into fists.
“I told you before, I can do my job from here. Besides—besides I don’t think—I don’t want people to see me—it’s better if I stay in the shadows.”
“That was good enough for a while. But it’s not good enough anymore. The end is coming, Gordon. This meeting may be the last one we ever have. Trevor needs more than your reports, he needs your insights. He needs your thoughts. He needs that more than ever.”
Gordon shot, “Well that’s not what I do anymore.” He pushed the joystick on his motorized chair and wheeled into the center of his ring of equipment. “I work from here. This is my nerve center. From here I can communicate with the field offices, with agents, with ships and military posts. I analyze the data as it comes in. My reports are the best they have ever been. And they will have to be enough.”
“Who is afraid now, Gordon?”
He turned to her, still red-faced.
“Don’t try that reverse psychology bullshit on me. Do you really think I’m that stupid? You think you can guilt me into something?”
“Okay, fine,” she returned his stare and, surprisingly, he blinked. She was, after all, the one person who could give him pause.
“You have a job to do Gordon, just like Trevor has a job. You think he wanted all this? No. But he’s done it, because it’s been his responsibility.”
“Ashley, I serve Trevor from here.”
“And I could have served him as nanny to his son. But what have I done for the past decade, Gordon? I’ve been his figurehead wife. The smiling face for all The Empire to see. I’ve been on his arm for every official reception, for every press conference. Look! There is Ashley Stone. How beautiful a first lady she is! How devoted to her family!”
Beyond Armageddon: Book 05 - Fusion Page 10
