He was glad for the empty kitchen. He put everything back in place and sat down to go through in his mind everything he had seen.
Chapter Seven
Morning came, and with it the morning people, including Jennifer and Buddy. They immediately went outside so the dog could take care of business.
When they returned, Bessie put out a royal breakfast for Buddy. He probably did not taste the mix of meat and vegetables. Jennifer ate quickly. She was planning to soak in a hot bath. She had never had such a luxury in her life since the family cabin where she had been raised was austere. Bessie made sure she had soap and shampoo.
“You’re going to scrape your skin off,” Wolfe told her. She held her nose and pointed at him. “Fine. I’ll shower when you’re finished.”
He watched her disappear into the largest of the boardinghouse’s two bathrooms. Buddy ran in after her, almost knocking her over to get inside while she was trying to close the door. She shut it after him. A low thump indicated the dog finding a place to lie down. The water started to run.
Wolfe retreated to the kitchen, where Bessie was cooking bacon for him, along with making fry bread.
“I’m going to need your help,” Wolfe started.
“Anything,” Bessie replied before he could finish.
“The western compound was lit up like Washington DC on the Fourth of July. I couldn’t get close. Do any of your people know what’s in there? If so, could they maybe draw me a map and count heads? I need to know how many, where they are, and what they’re doing.”
“I’ll have all that for you by the end of the day. When are you thinking we can rid ourselves of that filth?”
“Hold your horses, ma’am. I am still looking at things. The western compound is going to be one tough nut to crack. We can tie the eastern facility up in knots in a minute or less. Not much going on there. Do you know anything about the two women who live on that compound?”
“Women?”
“Are there any prostitutes in this town?” Wolfe asked.
Bessie rocked back on her heels as if struck. “There most assuredly are no prostitutes in Ashland, Kansas!”
Wolfe quieted and returned to his thoughts. “I meant no disrespect. I only want to know the truth. I want innocent people out of the way for when the fires start.”
“You’re going to burn the compound? May God have mercy on their souls.”
“I don’t know yet. I would prefer to be on my way, staying out of FEDCOM’s sights. I never wanted to tangle with them, but those Alston brothers saw that didn’t happen. Here we are now, us or them. I don’t like it one bit. I just want to get home.”
“I just want our home to be free,” Bessie whispered.
“I look at it like driving my rig, my semi. I crossed bridges that might not have been the best, but I was willing to assume the risk if I thought they were safe. If the risk is too great, Jennifer and I will slip away under the cover of darkness. No one will ever know we were here.”
Bessie bit her lip, growing paler as hope faded.
The big dog ran into the kitchen first. Wolfe caught him before he explored the counter with his tongue and held him back until Jennifer came in and took an empty seat. The dog sat next to her so she could rub his neck and scratch behind his ears.
Bessie frowned deeply. She thought Wolfe had made up his mind. “Are you leaving tonight?”
“I need to know what’s in the western compound before I go anywhere. The risk. Is this a bridge we can drive across?”
Bessie perked up.
“That was the best bacon I’ve had in as long as I can remember,” he told her as she took his plate. “And that fry bread was a work of art, ma’am.”
“There’s more where that came from as long, as you stick around.”
“Are we leaving?” Jennifer asked innocently.
“Not if we keep feeding you,” Bessie said like a grandmother. She pushed an extra slice of bacon and a small piece of crustless fry bread toward her. Jennifer never knew her grandparents, but she believed that was how they would have been, giving her treats and making her feel like one of the princesses she had read about.
“Cookies?” she ventured.
“Miss Jennifer,” Wolfe cautioned. He was not good at asking strangers for gifts. For Bessie to make something that once would have been easy would now take a great deal of effort and sacrifice. Even sugar cookies. Wolfe’s mouth began to water. Lurleen’s specialty was snickerdoodles. He liked chocolate chip, but in Florida, it was too hot. The chocolate would melt. Before he could stop himself, he asked, “Do you know how to make snickerdoodles?”
Chapter Eight
The smell of baking cookies drifted through the house. Wolfe almost forgot where he was. Or when. It was a different time. It was the war after the war, and that was what Wolfe had finally accepted. He did not like fighting or killing other men, but he hated what the world had become. The kind and peaceful were the targets of those who weren’t.
To survive in this world, the kind and peaceful people needed a man like Jim Wolfe. He wanted to be one of them, living life with his family, putting food on the table, and pushing his son on a swing or playing ball.
Wolfe threw his legs over the edge of the top bunk and sat there to collect his thoughts. He wondered what time it was. Wolfe dragged a hand over his forever smooth face, which prevented him from gauging how long it had been since his last shower. He stepped onto the lower bunk and then to the floor. He left his pack and gear under the lower bed and made his way barefoot to the kitchen.
He stopped before he crossed the threshold. He had no boots. No weapons. No gear. He was already growing soft, and all it had taken was cookies.
And the sound of Jennifer giggling as she played with the dog to keep him from snatching a mouthful and running.
This moment represented what he was crossing the country for. He planned on walking the whole way, and it was worth it to have a normal life, with cookies.
He turned around and went back to their room, where he put on his gear, his knife, and his backpack. Wolfe returned to the kitchen and dropped the pack on the floor just inside the door, balancing the bow on top of it. Jennifer and Bessie stopped what they were doing and looked at the pack as if it were the darkest of omens.
“I have to think like I have not had to think before. I have to be ready. I cannot let myself get comfortable. Bad things happen when I take it easy. You two keep doing what you are doing. You don’t want any of what I have.”
Jennifer did the opposite of what he’d asked, running to him and hugging him tightly around his waist. Bessie slapped Buddy on the nose with her spatula. He yipped and backed away.
“I am with you all the way, Mister Wolfe. Where are we going?”
“We are going nowhere. I will go back out tonight and look the compounds over again to learn more.”
Gemini appeared in the doorway, licking his lips as he looked hungrily at the cookies on the counter. It was the same look Buddy had given them. Jennifer finally let go and took a seat at the table.
“What do you have for Mister Wolfe, Gemini?”
Wolfe wanted to get the information directly from those who had seen the compound, in case he had questions. But for their security, maybe Gemini did not know who the spies were. Wolfe decided it was best to do things Bessie’s way. She seemed to be a natural at the ways of the underground. He wondered how she had learned.
“Roughly one hundred twenty-five men and women. Half of those are the soldiers who perform security duties. The other half maintain the vehicles, equipment, and weapons. There are at least six officers. All of the soldiers live in the compound. The security at the gates is to protect the vehicles. Trucks and running equipment are getting rarer and rarer. That’s why all the garages have to tithe; give a portion of their work to FEDCOM in spare part repair and rework.”
Wolfe looked at the table as he thought about what he’d been told. Gemini dropped a piece of paper on it, a rough diagram of
the FEDCOM base, buildings, parking yard, and head counts. Getting caught with something like that was a death sentence.
He had thought the so-called underground was serious, but the drawing drove it home like a nail into a cheap two by four. Wolfe studied the map.
Someone pushed a pencil into his hand. He looked at it strangely. How long had it been? He had been a big reader before the bombs, but never a writer. He did not care for his penmanship. Neither had his second-grade teacher, Mrs. Lawson. God bless her soul. She’d tried, but Wolfe’s efforts looked more like voodoo symbols that a witch had etched with a crow’s foot.
He roughed in the ditch near the fencing and added what he remembered about the windows. He put the pencil down and found two cookies waiting for him. Snickerdoodles.
“For you, Mister Wolfe.” Bessie wiped her hands on her old apron, which was stained and faded. The kitchen was there to support a big house filled by a big family.
“Is this your home from the before time?” he asked.
“How did you know?”
He shrugged and slowly ate the first cookie, closing his eyes and thinking back to different times. A smaller kitchen in a smaller house, with a family of three. He could not remember if Lurleen’s baking was better. Maybe it was. But this was a different Jim Wolfe. Scarred. Colder.
No. Not colder. More determined. Committed to protecting his family. He hadn’t been there when the bombs fell. They needed money, so he had to work. He had to be all things. Fate lined up a bank shot and took him out of the picture. Lady Fate delivered her fury when he was as far away from home as he could have been.
It was time to take care of his new family and friends so he could move on. Sitting in a kitchen eating cookies wasn’t getting him any closer to Bradenton. He adjusted his welder’s goggles. Sometimes they still dug into his head. He wondered if he would ever be able to function without them.
“Sixty to seventy soldiers who need to know the errors of their ways,” Wolfe pondered. “Can you cut power to the compound late tonight, keep it off for maybe fifteen minutes?”
“Yes, but the compound has backup generators. We used to lose power all the time, but it’s probably been a year since we had any issues.” Bessie knocked on the table to reinforce their good luck. But it was not luck. It was hard work by the good people of Ashland.
“Can they cut the power?” Wolfe pressed.
“Yes. I have people inside.”
“What about radio or telephone? Is there any of that?”
“There is one line that connects to the west and one to the north,” Bessie replied. “We used to have a person on the switchboard in their headquarters, but one day she disappeared. No one has seen her since.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Sometime in the winter. Maybe six months.” Bessie slid another cookie toward Wolfe. He felt like a dog getting a treat each time he did something she liked. He ate the snickerdoodle anyway.
“Pass the word to cut the power at two in the morning, and then cut it again at five. Can you do that for me, ma’am?”
“If it means ridding ourselves of FEDCOM, we will do anything you ask.”
Chapter Nine
Jennifer refused to remain behind for the second night in a row. She had slept through the afternoon to prepare herself for it. Wolfe only had so much fight in him. Jennifer knew how to keep quiet, and she’d keep Buddy from getting out of control since she would not go anywhere without him.
Wolfe wanted it that way. If he was not there to protect her, the half-wolf would.
“I still cannot believe you ate that man’s sandwich.” Wolfe crouched to look the big dog in the face. “You are growing on me, but don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t,” Jennifer assured him. She did not say anything further. Wolfe wondered what was running through her mind, but those were her thoughts. She would share them if she wanted to. She would probably share them if he asked, and maybe one day, he would. But that day was not today. They needed to go, make sure they were in place when the lights went out. He skipped going back to the eastern compound.
He had asked Bessie to look into the two women who had partnered up to make sure they were there voluntarily. Still, that didn’t mean they were bad. They might have been victims of circumstance. He wanted to know for sure before treating them like he would FEDCOM. Even then, he was not sure he could.
Treat women with respect. That was what his father had taught him, along with the ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill pounded in his head. Since he’d emerged from that mine shaft a year ago, the commandments had taken on a different light.
Wolfe rested his hand on Jennifer’s shoulder. The new world was kill or be killed. He did not want the young girl to fall into the latter category. That meant he had to do the former. It was a sucker’s choice. One or the other, and he had had enough of people he cared about being on the wrong end of violence.
“Miss Jennifer. We are going to take a look at that compound. You will do the looking for me when the lights are on, but when it goes dark, I will need to go inside their fence. You and Buddy will wait for me outside and make sure I have a way out in case they get their lights on while I’m still in there.”
“Agreed, Mister Wolfe,” Jennifer replied softly, as if it were a negotiation. He’d never had a daughter before and was not sure if she was acting like one was supposed to, or if she considered herself his business partner. He remained unsure, but decided that it did not matter. He hoped Lurleen liked her. And little JoJo—wherever they were.
Wolfe and Jennifer disappeared into the shadows. He held her hand and guided her. She went where he led with blind faith. Complete trust.
He tightened his grip on his AR-15. He had extra ammunition in a pouch on his belt, along with his knife; otherwise, they were traveling light.
This night, there were no houses with lights on. He kept his goggles around his neck, ready to put them on when they reached the compound. He wondered if the power had already gone out. They hurried. When they reached the outskirts of Ashland, they found the compound was already dark, but it wasn’t two yet. Maybe whoever worked at the power station didn’t have a reliable watch.
“Stay here!” Wolfe whispered harshly. The clock was running, and he had no idea when the alarm would ring. He reached the fence and started running along it, looking for a break or a weak spot. The guards were still at the front gate, lounging as if nothing were happening. They smoked casually and talked about nothing specific.
Cigarettes were expensive. The average soldier should not have been able to afford them, but there they were, puffing away.
Wolfe retreated. He decided to scale the fence, taking care at the top with the razor wire stretched above the top support of the chain link since he could see that the concertina had been put in place by amateurs. It was stretched too thin, and would be easy to defeat. It had to be loose, so it collapsed on itself if someone tried to step through. The barbs were designed to catch skin and clothing alike, tangling the victim in a painful embrace.
Stepping on the wire between the barbs, it stayed in place. He jumped to the other side. As soon as he hit the ground, the lights came on.
Chapter Ten
Wolfe flattened himself on the ground, fumbling for his goggles. He was blind until he got them into place. He hoped that becoming a dark spot in the grass would make him invisible. He faced the sentries at the main gate. They gave the thumbs up to someone inside the building.
“Looks good, Nugget,” one of the two called.
They continued leaning, smoking, and talking.
Wolf started to worm his way toward the nearest shadow, moving at a snail’s pace so he didn’t draw anyone’s eye. He hoped Jennifer and the dog stayed down, but that depended on the roving patrol. How often did they check the ditch?
I should not have brought her, he thought.
Fifteen minutes later, Wolfe found himself in the shadow of a truck. He got to his knees and crawled the last few yards
until he was secure under the truck. He took the time to catch his breath and gather his wits. Keeping the truck between him and the guards, as well as him and the buildings, he waved an arm in broad strokes back into the darkness. He hoped Jennifer could see that he was okay.
He thought she might try something to save him since Wolfe had told her to make sure he could get out. He dropped to his belly and crawled under the truck. There was a great deal of room, but there was also grease. Their mechanics apparently didn’t know what they were doing and used extra grease to cover up their inability to fix things in the right way, or they didn’t have the right parts, greasing the wrong ones to make them work even though they did not fit.
He maneuvered between the grease mounds to get to the other side. Three more trucks, and he found himself next to the door in the main building. If the map was correct, the communications room was inside, along with the armory, kitchen, and officers’ quarters. Everything important in one place. The next building was the barracks where the soldiers slept.
A plan had taken shape in his mind, but he needed to confirm a few things before he could press forward. The door had a card reader for access, a fancy security system from the before time, but the door was propped open by a rock. The security system had probably failed to open one too many times and been turned off.
He pulled the door open and slipped inside, then waited for a second as he scanned the corridor. His heart threatened to pound through his ribs. This was not something he ever wanted to get used to. He stepped lightly down the hallway, making almost no sound as he worked his way past each of the six doors, behind which were the armory, storage, and an administrative office on one side, kitchen and dining area on the other. The elevator had an out of order sign on it. A modern convenience in a small building in a small town. Wolfe never would have used it, even though he knew some people had to.
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