“And I thought you knew him,” he said with a shake of his head.
He got up and moved away.
Katie sat immobilised. Aaron’s words shook Katie to her core.
24
The funeral shouldn’t be taking place there.
Soldiers dying in the field were meant to be buried at the military graveyard or one of their choosing, but circumstances were beyond their control. The bodies simply wouldn’t remain fresh long enough to be buried properly.
Overhead, the flag snapped at half-mast and Laurie saluted smartly.
Six men dead and they had nothing to show for it.
They didn’t need to die at all but the men around him didn’t know that. They only knew he had been the one to creep over in the middle of the night to talk with their enemy. None of them believed a word he said, just as Burgess didn’t.
They stared at him out the corner of their eyes, pretending they couldn’t see him, that he was invisible. He would have preferred that over the truth.
They held him responsible for the bodies they saluted.
In his old unit, his men trusted him completely. They knew he wasn’t a traitor. It was never even discussed.
The moment the ceremony was over, the music ended and the men dispersed.
“Lieutenant?” Finnegan said. “The captain wishes to speak with you.”
Could this day get any better?
Laurie ducked inside the tent. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
Captain Burgess stood at his drinks cabinet and filled a glass with what looked to be whiskey. If there was a time to seek solace in the bottom of a glass, it was after you’d lost good men in the field. Laurie wouldn’t condemn him for that.
“Take a seat.”
“Sir, if there’s any way I can help with the dead, the men, their families, please let me know.”
Burgess turned to face him. “That’s very kind of you, but I think we’ve got it under control.”
The ice cubes clinked against the glass as he took a seat in his leather chair. He got comfortable and peered across his large desk at Laurie. “I’ve come to a decision. It wasn’t easy, but I feel it’s the right course of action.” He took a sip of liquid courage. “I’m going to make every man in this camp know whose fault it was those men died. You conspired with the enemy and gave them valuable information about our plans.”
Burgess appeared to be labouring under the illusion that the men didn’t already blame Laurie for what happened. Still, the accusation stung.
“If you obeyed my order and stayed away from them, those men would still be alive,” Burgess said.
“More men would be dead if it wasn’t for me.”
“You gave me no details about mines or explosives on the property.”
“That’s because I didn’t know they were there. But I told you they were well-armed, well-trained, and ready for anything. I told you to be careful.”
“You told me there were half a dozen men and women inside that house–”
“And a girl, no older than nine or ten. And a cute little dog, as we’re busy counting.”
Burgess slammed his fist on his desk, spilling the alcohol over his hand. “I will not take responsibility for your mistakes.”
“I made no mistakes.”
“No?” Burgess stood and moved to the drinks cabinet.
Laurie was parched but he was damned if he was going to take anything from this man’s hand.
“How about insubordination? How about disobeying a direct order? How about you liaising with the enemy and telling them everything about us? Our numbers, our tactics–”
“I did no such thing.”
Burgess took a swig from his glass and hissed through his teeth. “Maybe, maybe not. But who knows? Not me. Not the colonel. And certainly not the men out there.”
Laurie gritted his teeth. “You wouldn’t listen to me and their blood is on your hands. I kept my men back, knowing the kind of men we were up against. They’re alive thanks to me, not you. And that’s the truth.”
“We’re speaking the truth now, are we? Very well. Here’s a slice of truth for you.” Burgess pressed his fists to the table and leaned forward. “I’m going to hang you with the truth, and the men out there, still raw and mourning their fallen brothers, will hang you for real once they discover that truth.”
“They’ll be court marshalled.”
The smile on Burgess’s face was hideous in the dim moonlight. “That’s a world away from where we now find ourselves, Lieutenant. A world of law and order. It’s every man for himself now. And the only thing keeping those men out there from tearing you to pieces is an oath they no longer believe in.”
The horror of Laurie’s situation began to sink in.
I’m a dead man.
“Even if you manage to escape this camp, the military won’t stop hounding you for the rest of your days. A deserter as well as a betrayer of his brothers.”
Laurie bolted to his feet and knocked the chair over in the process. Now was the time for him to say something smart, something witty and cutting, but Burgess already knew everything that could be said had been said. And the shit-eating grin on his face showed he knew that.
What was he supposed to do now? Attack the man, and he would only condemn himself further. A man driven insane.
He marched outside and was struck by the early morning breeze, a cold spell that snapped at his bare skin. He needed to get out of this camp as quickly as possible. With the EMP taking out the majority of their electronic equipment and the drones, at least he had a chance.
With the power out, every man, woman, and child felt free to take the law into their own hands. The military maintained its grip for now but he could sense it wouldn’t be long before the men took matters into their own hands.
He made it half a dozen yards before someone accosted him. He came from nowhere and made Laurie flinch. “Sir, you’re wanted in the mess.”
Laurie turned, coming face to face with a kindly-looking soldier. But even he could be harbouring a grudge and a sharp blade to go with it.
“Who?”
The soldier had already marched away.
Was this it? Was this the men taking matters into their own hands? If it was, they moved a lot faster than the military usually did.
He had two options.
Fight or flight.
When confronted with a problem, running was never his go-to method. There was always a solution to a problem, even if it didn’t appear that way at the outset.
Laurie entered the mess and was surprised at the number of men sitting inside it. Most ate, busy chatting and conversing with their brothers. Whoever beckoned for him to join them here couldn’t have picked a worse place to hold a conversation. He couldn’t even tell who he was meant to be meeting with.
There were worse things than being ostracised by your team, but not much. A blade in the back was one of them though. The word ‘mutiny’ might have had gone out of fashion with top hat and tails but it was the word that sprung to mind in his current situation.
A man in the centre of the mess raised a gloved hand. He wore a leather jacket and was the only man not eating.
Finnegan.
Laurie tried to ascertain what kind of mood the man was in by his expression. He bore no smile. If Laurie were to join him in the middle of that melee, a man on either side could lodge a knife in his ribs faster than he could blink.
But he was already there. There wasn’t much else he could do now.
Finnegan sat with his hands on the table. He, at least, wasn’t hiding a concealed weapon.
“You’re either a very brave man to come here or a very stupid one,” Finnegan said.
“Which do you think it is?”
“I haven’t made my mind up yet. There’s a rumour going around that you’re the one responsible for the death of our brothers. Is it true?”
Laurie glanced at the men on either side. They were loud and boisterous but he couldn’t sha
ke the feeling they were all ears at the same time. “No.”
“Good. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be sitting in that chair. We’ve also heard a rumour that you went over to the house in the middle of the night and spoke with the terrorists. Is that true?”
“It is.”
“What did you talk about?”
Laurie looked from Finnegan’s pale blue eyes to those at the other tables. “You were there when Burgess questioned me. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Because I’m asking you.”
A man at another table cut into a sausage and chewed with his mouth open. The knife glinted with grease.
“I pretended to be a lost traveller whose car broke down. They invited me into their home and fed me, watered me.”
“Doesn’t sound much like the acts of a terrorist.”
Laurie leaned forward. “What am I doing here?”
Finnegan smiled. “That’s the very question we ask ourselves each and every morning. And we hope we have an answer by the end of the day. Sometimes we do something that makes the world a better place, and sometimes we don’t. I think today might be one of the better days.”
Finnegan took a photograph from his pocket. “I think you’re telling the truth and I’m not the only one.”
Relief flooded Laurie’s system. “That’s good to hear.”
“And here’s why.” Finnegan placed the photo on the table. The photo was a little aged and showed a man holding a rifle in one hand and a woman in the other. Standing beside him was a young lad that bore a strong resemblance to the older man. “Do you know who that is?”
“No.”
“That is William Walker. That’s the old man you spoke to last night.”
“William Walker? It can’t be.”
And yet, when he took in those ruggedly handsome features and put them against the man he met the previous night, there was no denying it was him. A war hero.
“How did I not notice him?”
“You were focused on other things,” Finnegan said. “Not getting shot, for one.”
Finnegan got to his feet and extended a hand to Laurie. “I don’t know if you’re brave or an imbecile, but I believe you. In this day and age, that counts for a lot in my book. Take my hand and accept my help.”
Laurie got to his feet and shook the man’s hand. “We’re not going to achieve much if there’s only two of us.”
“Then it’s a good thing there’s not only two of us.”
The men at the other tables dropped their cutlery and stood up. The benches screeched back.
Laurie couldn’t keep the smile off his face. From one to twenty. Not bad for one night’s work.
Laurie and Finnegan strolled through the camp in the dead of night.
“I thought you were going to kill me,” Laurie said.
“We considered it.” Finnegan might have been considering plans he was making with his family for the summer. “You swore a duty to protect our nation from its enemies.”
“Yes.”
“But the nation we swore that vow to is no longer the nation we protect. It makes our vows obsolete.”
It was an argument Laurie had heard before and not one he found very convincing. “You can’t choose whether or not you want to follow your vows. A promise is a promise, no matter where or when it was made.”
Finnegan smiled. “Spoken like a true man of the people. Don’t worry. We have no intention of giving up protecting the country we love. Quite the opposite. We intend on protecting it well into the future. But–”
“I had a feeling there was a ‘but’ coming.”
“The world is so much more interesting with the word ‘but,’ don’t you think?”
“It’s definitely a lot more complicated.”
Finnegan nodded. “Aye. I’ll give you that. We don’t blindly follow orders. There’s a line each of us drew in the sand, a line none of us will cross. One of those lines is murdering an innocent man who did his best to protect us and keep us from harm.”
Laurie came to a stop. His mouth felt dry. “You’re not going to kill me?”
“No, Laurie. We’re not going to kill you.”
“Then what did you bring me here for?”
“We want to protect you. The man who leads us is a fool. Powerful, but still a fool. There are those in camp who do not share our code of ethics. Some blame you for what happened to our brothers and want to see you die.”
Laurie gulped.
“After the EMP struck, the military attempted to react the way it always does, by controlling the situation. It failed. Spectacularly.”
“I managed to control an LLRF camp outside London.”
“An isolated incident. The rest were overrun or disbanded within hours of being formed. Such attempts to protect those that need help will always fail so long as the peoples’ panic outweighs their sense of fairness. It’s human nature.”
“So what do you suggest we do instead?” He found that strange ancient word tickling his tongue once more. “Mutiny?”
“No. We need men like him in charge to hang the blame on. He’ll mutiny himself given enough time. We need men like you to lead us, to do what needs to be done to protect the people.” He leaned in close. “A new world order is coming. You need to position yourself on the right side. You could go far.”
“What sort of new world order?”
“That’s not for me to say. But it’s very exciting. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
Laurie wasn’t sure he wanted a new world order. He didn’t even really understand what that meant. But he did know he preferred being alive rather than dead and Finnegan with his men provided the best means of doing that.
“What do you want me to do?” Laurie said.
“The same thing you’ve been doing this whole time. Find the terrorists. The real terrorists. Capture them so we can extract whatever information we need to take down the whole terrorist cell. We can’t let the country slip into the terrorist’s hands.”
Laurie caught sight of movement out the corner of his eye. A man in the shadows.
“What about Burgess’s men in camp? The ones who don’t share your ethics?” And want to kill me?
Finnegan waved a gloved hand and a big man from the mess entered that dark recess of shadow. A few seconds of silence before Laurie heard half a dozen thumping noises. Then the big man stepped from the shadows and blew chilly night air across his red knuckles.
“Why me?” Laurie said.
“You’re the lieutenant and, frankly, you’re all we have. I’m told you have a nose for such things. Find the real terrorists and I’ll keep our mutinous brothers off your back.”
There was that weird and ancient world again. Only this time, it was pointedly directly at him.
25
THEY STARTED the fire, ate dinner, and bedded down for the night. They’d be up again early the next morning to cover more miles. Katie was exhausted and yet since Aaron shared his words about her grandfather mourning her father, she couldn’t sleep a wink.
“Trouble sleeping?” Tanya said.
She stood at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a tree. She took the first night watch duty and stifled a yawn.
“You ought to get some rest, even if you can’t sleep,” Tanya said.
Katie had a burning question she’d wanted to ask since she first met Tanya and her brother and now seemed as good a time as any. “How do you know my grandfather?”
Tanya grinned and sat beside Katie. “I doubt there’s anyone alive who hasn’t heard the name William Walker. Anyone who served in the military, at least.”
That was news to Katie. She knew he served in the military but had no idea what he did there. Even her father was tight-lipped about it.
“You really don’t know?” Tanya said. “I suppose your grandfather isn’t the most vocal man in the world when it comes to his military past, is he? I’m not surprised. None of the best are.”
“Best?”
“The
bravest soldiers. The stuff that gives you shivers up your spine when you think about it.”
“What did he do?”
Tanya glanced at Bill, then away again. “That’s not for me to say. Most people only know the general details. It’s not only you he doesn’t tell about this stuff. He’s the same with everybody. He doesn’t like to talk about it, I guess.”
Katie turned to look at her grandfather. Hard to imagine now, him serving in the military. He’d never been the type to follow instructions to the letter. He preferred to do his own thing.
“Thanks for telling me,” Katie said.
Tanya got to her feet and dusted off her hands. “I haven’t told you anything, child. Only what everyone already knows. Your grandfather’s a hero.” She pressed a hand to her mouth in mock shock. “But don’t tell him I said that. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Surprise after surprise.
What next? Was he a former recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize?
26
The camp was already being packed up when Laurie turned out of his tent. The men got to work breaking it down and folding it up for the next stage of their mission.
The hunt.
Burgess sat tall and proud upon a powerful horse on the other side of the camp. He looked a little surprised to see him standing there. As if I should be dead already.
Laurie nodded respectfully.
Burgess clucked out the corner of his mouth and led the horse away. A trio of men followed in his stead, including Finnegan, who was the only man to nod back at Laurie.
So, it hadn’t all been a dream, after all. He’d been in two minds as to whether or not it was. And now that it turned out to be real, he couldn’t say he was overly enthused about it.
Was he going to stick to the agreement he made with Finnegan? He could still run. The idea of undermining a commanding officer left a sour taste in his mouth but did he really want a bunch of dead civilians’ blood on his hands?
It wasn’t a decision he relished making. Unfortunately, unless he turned tail and ran, what other choice did he have?
Cut Off (Book 2): Cut Throat Page 9
