“I never would have fingered Anna as a mole,” Collin said, scowling.
Koby giggled a little, but Collin ignored it.
After getting control of himself, Koby asked, “How could she have known about the mines? It’s not common knowledge that I have them.”
“Any number of ways, I suppose. Anna could have seen you and the soldiers, or she watched Alpha team and Raiford head out to the field,” Collin said. “Or worse, an Eagle tipped her off, although I doubt that.”
“And then she radioed Brady?” Koby sounded skeptical. “What a cluster fuck.”
Collin stared at the wall for a moment. Koby had trusted him with this major revelation, so Collin decided to share a secret in return.
“It’s weird because just yesterday, Anna and I were talking in the hallway, and she told me not to trust ‘them,’ whoever that is,” Collin said. “I got the distinct feeling she meant Logan and Pendell. She may have included her mother in that because she looked nervous when Julie walked in on us talking.”
Koby looked surprised by that.
“I think it’d be best if we kept this stuff to ourselves.” Collin knew that instinctively. He watched his friend closely.
Koby nodded without hesitation.
“Seriously, Koby. This is dangerous information for a lot of people.”
“I thought that too.” Koby laughed nervously, then swallowed hard and nodded. “We need to keep this quiet.”
“Good.”
“It was so uncomfortable running into Julie out there.” Koby jerked his thumb in the direction of the receptionist’s desk.
Collin nodded absently; he was busy thinking about what their next move should be.
“And uh, they also said some stuff about you,” Koby said.
“Me?” Collin looked up, curious.
“The guy on the radio asked Anna if you knew who you were. She told him that you didn’t know anything. Weird, huh? Because why would anyone other than you be concerned about that, right?” Koby shrugged and lounged in his chair. “What could they possibly know about you?”
Collin frowned again at this unexpected twist.
“Do you remember anything about your past?” Koby asked.
Collin met his friend’s gaze and slowly shook his head. “Not much. But the kid that stole the claymores, Hunter, looked exactly like a kid in my dreams. Just like my son.”
Koby’s eyebrows shot up.
“We have to talk with Anna,” Collin said. He slid his legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand up. His head seemed to float off his shoulders, unleashing a wave of nausea. His stomach clenched hard. “Oh man, it’ll be a while before I can walk out of here.”
Collin slumped back onto the bed and put a hand on his forehead. It was damp with fresh sweat.
“Can you hand me another juice box, please,” he said and pointed at the cupboard.
“They stock this place with drinks?” Koby said, slowly standing up and stretching.
“Yeah, the doctor knows how weak I get when she, or the nurses, drains me.” Collin took a few deep breaths and relaxed. “I told her they’re like vampires. It feels like they barely left with me any blood.” He smirked. “It’s okay though. I just hope the treatment works.”
“Jesus! Look at this,” Koby said, holding the cupboard door open and pointing at the dozen or so juice boxes. Koby pulled one out and smiled at the little cartoon orange on the front. “Kids all across Goshen will go thirsty if the doc keeps taking all your blood.”
Collin chuckled. He pulled the straw off of the box, tearing it out of the cellophane with a practiced move and poked it through the hole in the top of the box.
He took a long drink then asked Koby, “Were you here when Anna was kidnapped and tortured by the Vipers?”
Koby shook his head. “No. That was before I arrived in Goshen.” His face twisted in confusion. “How could she love someone that did that to her? Is it a victim syndrome thing?”
“Stockholm syndrome?” Collin grunted. “I doubt it. My theory is that she wasn’t kidnapped or tortured.”
“Really?”
“I’d bet money that she simply ran away to be with the Vipers and when Logan showed up at their camp she had no choice but to return.”
“The Vipers are thugs. How can she be one of them?” Koby said, exasperated.
“Everyone has their reasons. I’m sure she has hers.” Collin knew she was a smart woman. If she sided with the Vipers, then there had to be a compelling reason for it. He thought about his first encounter with her. “Why do you think she was in the hospital the night I woke up?”
Koby’s head cocked to the side, tossing his black hair across his forehead. “It was her shift?”
“I mean why her? On that specific night? The Vipers were cutting up nurses left and right but when I came across her, she was unhurt and quite ready to help me escape both the Vipers and the Eagles, until we were stopped in the alleyway,” Collin said.
“Who knows? I guess it’s possible that she let them in the building or helped them somehow,” Koby said.
“They must have been after BT76. So, why swing into the room on ropes? If she was helping them that was totally unnecessary.” Collin chuckled. “And of all nights to break in they did it when I was awake to kick their ass. Who fucked up?”
“They fucked up,” Koby replied.
Collin tried to stand up again. He still wanted to talk to Anna and they needed to do it before anything bad happened. He got to his feet without feeling light headed but his legs felt wobbly. His muscle fibers twitched, making his whole body tremble. He put a hand on the nightstand to steady himself.
“You okay?” Koby said.
“Yeah, just give me a second,” Collin said. “Do you know where Anna is?”
“Not here. Dr. Horner said she was at home with a migraine,” Koby said.
“A migraine?”
“Yup.”
“Convenient cover, I guess,” Collin said as he stretched. He felt weak and slow, almost exactly how he felt when he woken up in the hospital all those weeks ago. Thankfully, he would be able to exit the hospital without a fight this time. “And now we know where to find her.”
“Only if you hurry up, grandpa.” Koby hopped out of his chair and smirked at him.
Collin playfully pushed Koby aside and reached into the cupboard for another juice box. “I’m taking one for the road.”
He shoved it in his pocket and slowly followed Koby’s lead out of the room.
Dr. Horner wasn’t at the reception desk and no one else was around. They left the hospital without a problem.
The air outside was crisp and smelled like sunshine and flowers. Collin couldn’t help smiling.
“Have you been to their house before?” Collin asked.
“Man, I’ve been in everyone’s house. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Gardening systems, electrical systems, et cetera.”
“No one else can do that stuff?”
“Sure, we have a few guys, but they’re assigned to other work duties so they don’t have much time. I’ve become the go-to guy for a lot of the odd jobs,” Koby said. “I started out working on the hydro dam by myself, which was insane. Then Pastor Pendell reassigned a couple of guys that worked there before the fever to help me keep it running. Easy work for them and it freed me up to take care of other stuff.”
Collin nodded while he prepped his juice box. If orange juice was addictive, he was on the brink of acquiring of a serious habit.
“Do you know what you’re going to say to Anna?” Koby asked.
Collin shrugged. “We’ll have to play it by ear. Let’s try our best to not make her defensive, there’s no telling what she might do if she feels cornered.”
Julie and Anna lived in a large white house, surrounded by a ranch-style fence, with a massive oak tree towering over the front yard. Without even seeing the inside, Collin guessed it was at least double the size of his house. He wasn’t interested in competing,
he was just shocked only two people lived in such a big space. It must feel so lonely in there.
When they reached the porch, Koby motioned for Collin to do the honors.
“Don’t be scared,” Collin said with a smirk.
He stepped up and knocked on the door. To their surprise, the door slowly swung open.
Collin put a hand out as Koby leaned forward to peer in, so he would stay back. Then Collin stepped closer and looked inside for any immediate threats. He leaned forward and turned his head, listening carefully for any sounds. After a few seconds of silence, he felt comfortable enough to step inside the house.
He couldn’t sense anyone.
Koby crept silently behind Collin.
Under different circumstances, Collin could have appreciated the beauty of the house. Large, elegant paintings adorned the walls and a wide staircase curved up to the second level, with a chandelier hanging down into the foyer.
The hall opened to the living room, which looked ransacked. Slashed couch cushions had their stuff flung everywhere. A vase of flowers was scattered on the floor. Near the coffee table, in front of the couch, was a pool of blood and streaks leading deeper into the house.
Robbery or murder? Or both? It was a mixed scene.
There wasn’t much of value in the house, that wasn’t provided for by the community so theft seemed unlikely. Stealing a TV or jewelry was pointless. Therefore, Collin decided it must have been a fight.
Collin glanced at Koby and saw the same type of questions running through his friend’s mind that had popped into his.
Did someone else know about her connection to the Vipers? Had Anna attacked someone? Or had she been attacked? Were there other Vipers in town?
“Anna?” Collin said loud enough to carry beyond the living room. No response. “Anna, it’s Collin. Are you okay?”
Still no response. No creaking floorboards, no footsteps, nothing. Other than Koby behind him, the house was completely silent.
Collin motioned for Koby to follow.
The blood trail led back toward the kitchen. Instead of following the trail into a possible trap, Collin led Koby back into the hallway and around the other way. Collin knew there had to be more than one way to enter the kitchen. There always was.
He was right.
Other than the blood on the floor, which continued toward the back door, the kitchen looked to be in order. Collin checked the hallway and stepped back into the room. The kitchen itself was large and clean looking with matching appliances, a bare table, and no dirty dishes. Nothing looked out of place on the counters.
“Hey,” Koby said, snapping his finger at Collin. When he looked over, Koby pointed at the wall.
Collin turned to see a message written on a chalkboard on a small section of the wall next to the refrigerator. A wonderful place to leave a message for the family.
On the chalkboard was a note that said, “Anna and the BT76 belong to the Vipers now.” Definitely not the type of message Collin had in mind.
He looked at Koby with his eyebrow cocked. “Thoughts?”
“Definitely not a woman’s handwriting.”
Collin smiled. “They want us to think she was taken against her will.”
“And you think otherwise?”
“How close did you look at the living room?”
“I saw the blood,” Koby said.
“We saw blood streaks. But where was the pool of blood from the victim? There wasn’t one,” Collin said as he looked around the room for more clues.
“Oh, right.” Koby looked around. “I don’t know. This looks pretty legit.”
“You just finished telling me how she was talking to a Viper about a Viper boy. Why would they actually attack her?”
“Who knows what she was actually doing? Think about what they did at the Eagle’s Bar - how many people they killed. If they felt she was a liability, they could have killed her.”
“Fair point. For all we know, Ann may have helped with the Eagle’s Bar attack. It could have been an inside job, especially if she helped,” Collin said. He felt confident the blood was staged. Collin chalked it up to Koby struggling to accept that his longtime friend was a double agent of sorts. “She wasn’t kidnapped before, and she wasn’t taken this time either.”
“You’re so quick to judge her,” Koby said, his face reddened and he scowled at Collin. “I think something else is going on. She was tricked or double-crossed by the Vipers. You know you can’t trust a snake in the grass.”
“It’s possible, but not probable.”
They heard a voice. Anna’s voice.
Collin looked at Koby, who looked down at his bag. The radio.
Pulling the radio out of the bag, Koby set it on the table in the breakfast nook and the two men sat, staring at the radio.
“I say again: I am at the meeting point. I have the BT76. Send your Vipers for me. I love you,” Anna’s voice said over the radio.
Koby groaned and slammed his fist on the table. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Shhh. Wait.”
A few seconds passed without a response.
Collin looked at the radio to see if the thing crapped out. The light was on, so it was still working. Then Collin heard breathing, followed by the voice of the Viper.
“I love you too, babe.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Oh, God! Not the BT76!” Koby snarled. A vein bulged out on his temple and Collin could see the carotid artery pulsing in his neck.
“C’mon, we have to go check for ourselves.” Collin stood up, taking the radio with him as he did.
The air stunk of blood and he was ready to leave Dr. Horner’s house. Anna was gone. Apparently so was the last of the medicine that Goshen needed to survive.
Collin strode through the house with Koby, hot on his heels. His short friend was fired up. He’d just argued that maybe his long-time friend was a victim only to have that theory explode in his face.
Now, they had to go back to the hospital and see if any BT76 was left. As Collin walked down the front steps, the front door slammed shut.
Not ideal, Collin thought.
He looked up and down the street and quickly scanned the windows he could see. It didn’t look like anyone noticed. In a small town, you can never be too safe. Collin didn’t want someone else to get curious about what they were up to, find the blood, and then report seeing him and Koby exit the house.
“Who has access to the meds?” Collin said.
“Dr. Horner of course, Pastor Pendell, and apparently the nurses,” Koby said. “Or at least Anna. She’s the doctor’s daughter, after all.”
Walking between the house and the hospital took half the time it had earlier. Suddenly the building loomed before them.
Collin reached for Koby to slow him down. “Hey, wait.”
Koby stopped and turned.
“We need to keep the radios and everything we heard to ourselves.”
Koby looked surprised. “We have to let Julie know her daughter’s safe. I mean, I understand not talking about the rest. I have no problem with that. How can we let Julie think Anna’s been stabbed and kidnapped?”
“How could we possibly come to the conclusion that she’s safe if we don’t talk about everything we heard? Don’t worry, we’ll tell her in due time,” Collin said, reassuring his friend. “But right now, we need to keep that knowledge to ourselves. We don’t know who, if anyone, is also a mole. We can’t tip our hand to the Vipers or the rest of the council. There’s a reason Anna told me not to trust them.”
Koby’s surprise turned into something resembling a grimace, like he was forced to eat a whole bag of lemons. Pain was evident in Koby’s eyes, along with his internal struggle about Anna. They kept walking toward the hospital but Collin slowed the pace. Before Collin could say anything else he saw Koby’s posture shift, then he nodded.
“Okay, fine. For now, we keep the details to ourselves; the radio, the conversation, and the fake blood. As soon as we can, w
e have to tell Julie that Anna is okay. She’s going to be terrified until then and I don’t think I could live with not telling her. Worrying about her daughter, won’t bode well for her research either,” Koby said. “And that’s super important right now, especially if Anna really did take the BT76.”
“If she doesn’t already know about it. We don’t know where Julie stands in all this,” Collin said. Koby glared at him. He realized that if the Doc was also involved, Koby might just die from a broken heart. He held his hands up in defense. It was strange seeing his friend get angry. Koby was generally the funny guy, taking things in stride. “All I’m saying is that we don’t know. But I agree, we should tell the doctor as soon as we can.”
“I’m glad we agree,” Koby said. “Now, how do we explain being at the doctors house?”
“Dr. Horner told you Anna was home with a migraine right? So maybe you just wanted to check on her to make sure she was okay. I came along for the fresh air and exercise and we stumbled upon the smashed open door, which is true,” Collin said.
“To a point.”
“Close enough that it’s probable.” Collin sped back up as they covered the last hundred meters to the hospital.
They raced up the steps and rushed inside. They went directly to the outpatient clinic, where both of them had last seen Dr. Horner. To their relief, she sat behind the receptionist’s desk, sorting through paperwork. She looked calm as she worked.
Collin and Koby stepped up to the window and both started speaking. After a second of chaos where Dr. Horner stared at them in confusion, they both quieted down. Koby motioned for Collin to speak.
“Doc, can we please see the BT76 supply?” he asked, as he caught his breath. He was breathing harder than normal from rushing to the hospital. “We need to see that it’s all there.”
“What?” Dr. Horner said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Of course it’s all there.”
“Please, Julie. We need to see it. Just for a second,” Koby said. His voice was urgent.
She seemed to relent a little, mentally. “Okay but you guys are acting weird. And you sir...” She jabbed her finger in the air at Collin. “...did not have permission to get up and leave. You need to rest and it’s best if you do it here.”
Praying for War: The Collin War Chronicles Page 20
