The boy was safe. The mines were gone.
Now, all Collin was left with, was a furious Major Logan.
Chapter Twenty
Rock music boomed from a small stereo while Gary Kobyashi started to repair the broken handheld radio. Collin had seen it a while ago and asked him to repair it if he could, as if that was a serious question.
Of course he could fix it, Koby thought.
After a few quick spins of the Phillips screwdriver, the first of several screws that held together the plastic shell, slid out. The shell encased the damaged components. On the outside, the radio was in decent enough shape, just a few scrapes and scratches from normal use. Inside the radio, Koby wasn’t sure what he’d find wrong with it. All he knew was that it had gotten wet and stopped working.
Having radios in town, even it was only two of them would certainly help communication for the Eagles. Koby knew he should have worked on the radios before. Every time he thought about it, he was too busy just keeping the town running. It hadn’t seemed like such a pressing need. Given the recent circumstances, it felt like a critical project and he was happy to work on it.
At one point, Koby hoped to run an electronics and repair class for the young residents. Passing on his knowledge would help the town in the future and would give him a pool of trained technicians to pull from. Koby didn’t like feeling that he was the only one who could repair and maintain their systems. Again, things were always too crazy.
Between the hydroelectric dam and the gardening systems, Koby worked harder than a farm horse. Not to mention the greenhouses. Of course, he had help but it still wasn’t enough. Quite simply there were too many jobs around town and not enough people to do them all.
More so now that they’d lost so many Eagles.
With a heavy sigh at the thought, Koby continued his work examining the radio system.
Koby flexed his hand after unscrewing the case, then split the plastic shell open and looked over the components. Initial inspection just showed a lot of rust. That was to be expected. The radio hadn’t been touched in who knew how long, at least since it broke.
Overall, the radio wasn’t in bad shape. They were rugged little radios.
Koby took a drink of his coffee. Nursing the coffee trees to produce black gold had been one of his finest personal achievements. He smiled to himself. The satisfying, earthy taste warmed his body and fueled his mind while he bobbed his head to the music and began to remove rust, carefully brushing it away and wiping off the circuit board.
If he polished the contacts and re-soldered the board, it should make the frequency selector work. Even if it couldn’t send out signals, Koby was certain he could make it receive signals. On the other hand, the pickup was in poor shape and would require extra tender loving care to repair.
Even one-way communication was better than what they had right now, which wasn’t much. Their communication system was hardly better than two soup cans and a string. All they had were some colored flags in the church bell tower. Koby scoffed at the thought.
Using a cloth dampened with an alcohol-based cleaning solution, Koby wiped off the board, polishing the contacts. It was a small circuit board, so cleaning it was quick as a snap. He plugged in his soldering iron and while he waited for it to heat up, he grabbed the working handset.
The night before Koby had charged the radio batteries. So he turned on the other radio and set it on the workbench beside the stereo. Its red led light cast a cool glow on the side of the stereo. Then he went back to work on the busted handset.
When the soldering iron was ready, he touched up the board. Little curls of smoke rose up around Koby’s face as he hunched over his workbench. He felt a little like a mad scientist. A small part of him wished he had more time to experiment and invent things; Koby loved tinkering.
He sighed and sat back. He examined the circuit board with a critical eye and nodded with satisfaction.
Not bad, if I do say so myself, he thought.
Koby double-checked the rest of the radio - the battery case, the antennae, and the various switches and buttons. Everything looked fine, so he began to put the radio back together.
Once it on, he began manually switching frequencies, hoping to see the LED light on the working handset to turn green. That would let him know they were connected. He set the channel and frequency on the working radio, then worked on getting the damaged one to the same settings.
On the bad handset, he reached channel nineteen at five-point-five megahertz and glanced up at the other handset. To his amazement, the walkie talkie’s led turned from red to green, meaning that a connection had been made. Koby checked both radios to confirm the settings. He’d seen that the diode for the light and the wire was well insulated and working on the bad radio so if they’d matched frequencies then it should have turned green but it still glowed red.
Koby set the good radio on the workbench, turned off the music, and carried the repaired radio a few steps away. He pressed the button and spoke into the radio but nothing happened, instead of hearing his voice, all he heard was silence.
Back to the drawing board, Koby thought. He frowned at the radio in his hand.
He opened it back up and went back over the components. He quickly touched up a few connections with the soldiering iron. A big puff of smoke got into his eyes.
“Sonofabitch,” Koby said. He blinked his stinging, watering eyes and set the tool down.
He walked into the kitchen to rinse his eyes out.
Koby bumped into the corner of his counter top, jamming the corner into his hip bone. He grunted in pain and stumbled over to the sink. With practiced hands, he turned on cold water. He let it run until it was frigid and then he leaned into the sink and splashed his face with the cool water.
Koby sighed in relief as the water cleared his vision and eased the stinging sensation. He stood up and toweled off his face with the dishtowel. It wasn’t much better once he stopped using the water so he turned it back on and rinsed out his eyes again.
While Koby was rinsing his eyes, Anna’s voice called out to him. “Are you there?”
He flinched and bumped his forehead on the sink faucet. Cursing his bad luck, he reached for the towel to wipe his face off again. He hadn’t expected anyone to come over. “I’m in the kitchen,” he said. “I’ll be right there.”
My luck’s turned around, he thought. Now that he had a nurse in his house, Anna could check his eyes.
Through squinted eyes, he grabbed a tray, two glasses, and a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator, careful not to drop them or bump into anything else.
“Are you okay?” Anna said.
“Just some smoke in my eyes from soldering. Burns like hell,” Koby said. “Great timing though, I could use a break. I hope you’re thirsty. I mixed up some lemonade earlier. God, I’d kill for a real lemon, but the powdered stuff will have to make do.”
“Is Hunter okay?” Anna sounded concerned.
Koby frowned to himself. He didn’t know anyone named Hunter. With his hands full, Koby turned around and pushed open the door to the hall with his back. He turned around and smiled...to no one. The room was empty and the front door was closed.
She must have gone into the living room, Koby thought.
Watching the floor to make sure he didn’t trip, he entered the living room.
“Hey sorry, I-” Koby looked up only to find another empty room. Well, empty of visitors, and more specifically Anna. He looked around confused. “Anna?”
“Hunter is fine, baby,” a man’s voice said from beside Koby.
Koby squeaked and jumped, tripping on an old desktop computer case. The pitcher of lemonade toppled from the tray, hit an old flat screen TV, and smashed against the floor. The cups slid wildly off the tray and broke on the floor.
“He got the mines and made it back thanks to you.”
“Thank the Lord,” Anna said.
Koby cursed the broken dishes but left them, scrambling up, he rushed ov
er to the workbench. Then he understood, the green light on the good walkie talkie wasn’t because it’d synced with its partner. It had picked up on another conversation entirely, one between his friend Anna and a male voice that was completely unfamiliar to him.
“Does he know?” the man said.
“No.”
“Are you sure?” he said.
“Yes, Brady. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t know who he is,” Anna said, her voice firm but full of affection for this unknown man.
Koby leaned closer to the radio, enthralled. His heart thumped in his chest.
“Brady?” Koby whispered to himself. Whoever Brady was, he wasn’t a resident of Goshen, Koby thought.
“Good and Logan?” the man said.
“No, hun. As far as I can tell, Logan hasn’t told him anything. They don’t, uh, get along too well.” There was a smile in Anna’s voice, almost as if she was trying not to laugh. “Collin beat the hell out of him yesterday. I heard that Logan wanted to shoot him but Pastor Pendell stopped him.”
Anna sighed into the radio. “No telling how true that is. It’s just what’s going around the rumor mill.”
Hun? Koby thought. This wasn’t just an acquaintance. This man was a love interest.
Koby frowned again, his brow furrowed. He heard about the fight that morning directly from Collin, when they met for lunch. He knew that a boy had sneaked up and stolen the two land mines. Whoever this Hunter boy was, he was important to Brady and Anna. And if the boy was stealing weapons from the Eagles then he had to be a Viper, which meant that the man was a Viper too.
“Shit,” Koby said. His stomach clenched and he looked around the room nervously. “Shit.”
Anna was with them. She was a spy working for the enemy. How could she be? It didn’t make sense to Koby.
He thought back to his conversation with Collin at lunch. Koby vaguely remembered that Collin mentioned he was going to the hospital to give more blood to the doctor.
If he was at the med unit, that meant Dr. Horner, Anna’s mother, was there too. Did she know about her daughter? Was she with the Vipers as well?
Koby cursed again.
He had to tell Collin. For whatever reason, Koby knew he could trust the man. He had that way about him. Plus he’d been asleep since the beginning, which kept him removed for all the town politics and bullshit they’d gone through. He hadn’t been corrupted by the pain of loss and hard choices.
Survival did that to people, Koby thought. Survival was a strangling vine that wrung the humanity from people until they were cold, heartless shells of their former selves.
With a plan in mind, Koby carried the radios with him over to the closet and pulled out a light jacket. He slipped into the jacket, shouldered a small messenger bag where he placed the two radios and left the house.
He had to talk with Collin about what he heard.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kobyashi clenched his fist.
Damn it.
The very person Koby hoped to avoid sat behind the desk in the outpatient clinic. Dr. Julie Horner looked up from a stack of papers and smiled at him.
“Hi, how are you?”
“I’m fine, doctor. Actually, I’m looking for Collin,” he said. “He still here?”
“Are you feeling okay? It looks like you bumped your head,” Dr. Horner said, standing and pointing.
“Nothing major,” Koby said. He self-consciously rubbed the big, red welt that had formed after hitting his head on the sink faucet earlier. “Collin?”
“He’s in the back, room four. We took a rather large donation of blood, so he’s resting and drinking juice,” Dr. Horner said. She looked him up and down with suspicion in her eyes.
Koby didn’t want to expose Anna by having the “hey your daughter’s a traitor” conversation yet. Especially if Dr. Horner knew her daughter might be in love with a Viper named Brady. There was no telling what she might do to him to protect Anna.
He had seen her mad before, which was scary. He preferred to avoid seeing her direct that aggressive mother bear attitude toward him.
“Thanks, doc.” Koby was glad he had the information he needed. Cue exit, he thought as he walked toward the door to the back rooms.
Dr. Horner pulled the door open before he could get to it. He flinched a little with wide eyes before he regained his composure. Koby missed seeing her walk away from her desk. Now she was right in front of him looking suspicious as hell.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she said, glowering at him.
Koby stuttered for a moment. “Um, room four?”
Dr. Horner continued looking at him.
Koby put his hands on his hips and copied her pose.
“I’m going back to see Collin,” he said, after a moment of silent mockery. “It’s important.”
“This is a hospital, not a cafe for your idle chit chat.” Dr. Horner held her serious pose for a moment then lowered her hands from her hips and grinned at Koby. “You should have seen your face. Hilarious.”
She laughed at him and stepped aside, waving him in.
Koby let out a breath of relief.
“Good one, doc,” he said. He wiped his forehead, wincing at the welt, beyond ready for this encounter to be over. The information he was withholding wanted to burn its way out but he swallowed the words down and politely edged past the doctor.
She laughed again and patted his shoulder as he passed by. “You two behave. Collin’s weak right now.”
After a few steps, Koby slowed. He looked back at the doctor.
“Yes?” She smiled at him.
“Where are all the nurses?” Koby said. What if Julie had thrown in with the Vipers? Nervous chills ran down his spine. He heard what happened the last time the Vipers were in the hospital.
“Katya is out on a break and Anna is home with a migraine.” Dr. Horner closed the door and started back around to her desk. “Did you need help?”
“No, no, I’m fine. Just curious is all. It seems so quiet here,” he said before continuing down the hall. When Koby reached room four, he looked up and down the hall. No one was around.
“Migraine, huh?” he muttered to himself. “Likely story.”
He knew he wasn’t imagining things. Anna was definitely speaking with a Viper and she didn’t sound like she was uncomfortable or in pain. He imagined such an excuse was effective cover for secret rendezvous with this Brady guy.
As he pushed open the door, he briefly wondered where they found their radios.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Collin rested on the hospital bed with his head propped up by several pillows, sipping orange juice from a juice box like a little kid.
The door clicked as the handle turned. Collin looked away from the zombie novel he was reading to see his friend Koby enter the room, looking nervous.
“Hey buddy,” Collin said with a grin. He was a little surprised to see Koby again since they just had lunch together. “Just couldn’t stay away from me, huh? Too bad I like women.”
“Bitch please. Don’t flatter yourself big guy.” Koby dug through his messenger bag. He tossed it to Collin who caught it one-handed.
“Does it work?” Collin looked at him hopefully.
Koby pulled up the rolling chair meant for the doctor and sat down. He looked at Collin with a serious look in his dark brown eyes.
Collin put his juice down and sat up a little straighter.
“I was at home working on these things,” Koby said. He pulled another walkie talkie out and held it up. “It required a little soldering work so I was doing that when some smoke got in my eyes.”
Collin wasn’t sure if Koby was leading into a joke or what, but he wasn’t acting quite normal. Collin sat still and waited patiently for him to get to the point.
“I went into the kitchen to wash the smoke out of my eyes because it stung like a bitch,” Koby said. He paused and licked his lips, his eyes went to the door and he lowered his voice. “Then Anna started ta
lking to me. At least that’s what I thought. But she wasn’t, man. She was really talking on that radio to some guy named Brady.”
When Collin didn’t say anything, Koby continued. “This Brady guy is definitely not from Goshen. It was a brief conversation, mostly about a kid named Hunter.”
Collin wasn’t sure what to make of Koby’s story.
“Are you sure it was Anna,” he said.
Koby nodded. “Without a doubt, man. She was asking if Hunter was okay. Apparently he was the kid you described that stole those claymores from us.”
“No shit?” Collin straightened up on the bed.
“No shit, man. The thing is, she wasn’t just checking in on the kid. The Brady guy called her babe and she called him hun, so they must be romantically involved. I don’t know if it’s possible, but what if Anna is that kid’s mother?” Koby asked, wide-eyed. “She must have been feeding them information, because Brady told her that Hunter only recovered the mines safely because of her.”
Collin grunted.
“That explains why they didn’t even bother with the case. Why send a kid to get the mines though? Hell, why send anyone at all? They don’t use modern weapons.” Collin frowned and reached for his juice. He drank until the straw made a slurping noise. He still felt slightly lightheaded from the blood loss, so he fell back against the pillows stacked behind him to contemplate the situation.
Risking a young boy for a couple of mines seemed like a poor trade if it went bad. Did they care that little for Hunter? What was Anna thinking?
What did they plan to do now that they had two claymores? They could do serious damage if used properly.
Frustrated, he gave a little shrug. Anna was working with the Vipers to subvert Goshen. Collin had a hard time wrapping his mind around that one.
Praying for War: The Collin War Chronicles Page 19
