Sonny’s eyes left Ragg after a moment and looked back to me.
“Isaac!” he said, stepping up and grabbing me in a bear hug which I returned wholeheartedly.
“Hey Sonny,” I said, as he clapped me on the back. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” he said and grasped my wrist, leading me to his cot. We sat side by side and he nodded surreptitiously to a camera positioned in the top corner of the room. “Tell me, how are the others, Ben and Brooke? Allie, Indigo?”
“They’re all fine. Worried about you, of course. How have they been treating you?” I asked him earnestly. He glanced at Ragg who was still watching us, his reptilian eyes barely blinking.
“Well, it’s been okay for the last few days. I did actually have a run in with our friend there on the second day. But the Professor called him off.” He leaned in close to me and gestured to the bruise on his cheek. “You need to watch that one, he’s dangerous and…efficient.”
My uneasy feeling about Ragg was confirmed. I didn’t know the circumstances of course, but unless Sonny had been restrained, the fact that Ragg had managed to mark his face meant that he was clearly skilled in hand to hand combat. It wasn’t his potential prowess that bothered me so much though, it was his whole demeanor.
“What about you? What happened to you guys after we were brought in?” Sonny asked.
I spent the next ten minutes telling Sonny as much as I could remember about what had happened. He didn’t say too much, but I could tell he was as bothered by the segregation of the girls as I was.
“It doesn’t really ring true, this whole ‘for their own safety thing’,” he said. “Unless the bulk of the male population is a pack of women hungry rapists, I’m pretty sure that the mixing would be healthy and normal. It’s not as if they lack personnel to keep things under control. I think you’re right, it stinks.”
It was nice to have my view point validated by someone I respected and I promised that once Luke was back we would do a little more sniffing around and try to get to the bottom of it. While a little guarded with what he said, I could see that he approved of my acceptance of the role in the military detail. It was clear he knew I could perhaps use it to my advantage down the track.
I did ask Sonny what had happened since he had been separated from us, but he was unwilling to go into details. He did say that the Professor had seemed reasonable to him during the questioning that morning and the few other times that he had met him.
“If you can, you should keep your lines of communication open with him. Just watch it though, I couldn’t quite get a handle on …a certain person’s…role.” His eyes briefly went to Ragg and I nodded.
“What do you think of this whole ‘protective custody’ thing?” I asked. I jumped at a loud rapping on the glass behind me. Ragg was holding up one hand, with five fingers splayed. I nodded and turned back to Sonny.
“Jumpy?” he asked.
“I guess.”
“Good. Don’t get too complacent until we have this place worked out.”
“Okay.” With those few words, Sonny had dashed my idea of letting go of my leadership role and getting back to being a kid. Somehow, I didn’t mind... I had already started to feel that responsibility upon me again, anyway.
“About being kept out of the general population for my own protection, it seems to make sense. Although if the Professor has as much control over the place as I think he does, there are probably other ways it could be handled.”
“That’s what I think! I…”
He put a hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it Isaac, I’ll be fine. He can’t keep me up here for too much longer, surely? I’ll do my best to make myself so annoying he’ll be glad to send me down.” He smiled and stood up. “Looks like time is up.”
We gave each other a hug and I turned to the door as Ragg swiped his card and pulled it open.
“Look after everyone,” Sonny said. “Any means…”
“I will,” I nodded seriously and stepped out. I raised my hand to my friend as the door swung shut with a hiss. I never saw Sonny again.
12
Mr. Ragg handed me off without a word to Williams, who was waiting at the breakout area where the two men were still playing cards. As we went down the elevator this time, I attempted to make conversation.
“Not very chatty, is he?”
“Who?”
“Mr. Ragg.”
“No, I guess not.”
“What role does he hold exactly?”
Williams turned his head and looked at me expressionlessly. He must have been a hell of a poker player.
“Why don’t you ask him?”
I shrugged. Clearly Mr. Ragg wasn’t the only non-chatty member of the Professor’s crew and I gave up, not even bothering to say goodbye when he left me in the Square.
I found Ben playing pool by himself. There were two other men in the room now, making use of the exercise equipment. From the camouflage pants and vests they wore, I could see they were army.
I invited Ben to go to the quiet area so I could fill him in. We went through the door past the cafeteria and into the open carpeted space of the quiet area. I grabbed two well-worn magazines and handed one to him as we claimed a sofa.
“Well what happened?” he asked eagerly.
I told him all about the talk with the Professor and my visit with Sonny. Unsurprisingly, he was angry about Sonny’s treatment, but thought it wise we heed his warnings about Ragg. He was also keen to find out what was really behind the segregation of the women.
“So help me, if they hurt Brooke I will…”
“Well let’s not jump the gun. We need to be calm and measured in our approach. It will help that I’m on the security detail now. You just need to stay cool and find out what you can from the other boys… without being too obvious, of course. Oh and don’t talk to Paul about it, he seems a bit touchy about his sister. I’ll try and get that out of him.”
“Okay.”
Earlier that day, I had been keen for an encounter with Leroy, the redneck who had Tasered Sonny. I guess it’s true that you should be careful what you wish for. When we re-entered the Rec Room there were two men in Homeland Security uniforms playing pool. One of them was Leroy. He looked up after he finished his shot and true to type, he sneered at us and said something I couldn’t make out to his playing partner.
To our left, the two soldiers that had been there when I had first got back were still working out. One, a clean cut looking guy with a classic square jaw, was now doing bench presses while the other, a heavier black man, spotted him.
There was also someone else working out on the large, heavy punching bag in the back corner. I couldn’t make out who it was, the lighting was quite poor and the bag was between them and us, but I could see they were hitting it with tremendous force as the heavy bag shook violently on its chain to each blow.
I soon forgot about the three people working out though. The sneer on Leroy’s face told me all I needed to know. I had seen that same sneer on plenty of schoolyard bullies in my time.
As we approached I was distracted by a soft melody coming from behind them. My eyes immediately sought out the source of the sound. It was a music video playing on a large wall mounted TV. Both Ben and I stopped for a moment and watched it… mesmerized. It was an old music video, a song called Royals by a girl whose name I couldn’t even remember. I do know that I hadn’t particularly liked that song when it was a hit, but right then, when I hadn’t heard music or seen moving pictures in months, it seemed like the most amazing thing I had ever heard.
Again I was reminded of the beautiful things we had lost, the song seemed almost like an ode to the disaster. The whole country was a torn up town with no postcode envy now.
“Well, if it isn’t the chink lovers!”
The harsh voice of Leroy broke the spell we were under and, given the sadness that had begun to well in me, I wasn’t quite sure if I was resentful of the interruption or
not.
I felt Ben stiffen beside me.
“Just ignore him, Ben,” I said calmly.
We gave the pool table a wide berth as we walked to some bean bag chairs in the corner. I thought we could sit there and relax while we waited for our turn on the table. It wasn’t going to be that easy, of course.
Leroy stepped in front of me. Despite his big gut, I could see he was solid with muscle and his arm flexed as he planted his pool cue in front of me and grinned through his unkempt beard. The rhythmic pounding on the punching bag didn’t cease and I marveled at the stamina of the person behind it.
“What do you think you’re doing chink lover?”
“Please don’t call me that,” I said, evenly. “We’re just here for a game of pool, we don’t want any trouble.”
“Please don’t call me that!” he mocked. “What’s the matter chink lover? The truth hurt?”
From the corner of my eye I saw Ben tense and noted Leroy’s playing partner rounding the table to stand behind him. I weighed up my options as I stared Leroy in the eye without speaking. After a few seconds, I saw a flash of doubt in his eyes but he didn’t drop his gaze. The doubt was quickly followed by anger.
“WELL?” he yelled in my face. I stepped back and balanced on the balls of my feet as I raised my arms from my side.
“Leroy! Leave them alone.”
It was the soldier who had been doing the bench presses. He was now sitting up, his pumped muscles glistening under the fluorescent lights. He glared at Leroy.
“Mind your own fuckin’ business Spence,” snapped Leroy, without looking at him. He didn’t look quite as confident as he had tried to sound though and I could see that he was intimidated by Spence.
The rhythmic pounding suddenly stopped. Of course, it was Ragg who stepped out from behind it. The effect on Leroy was instantaneous. I saw real fear in his eyes, but it was coupled with a strange infusion of confidence.
The spectacled, compact man looked just as I had seen him a while ago while visiting Sonny. The only concession he had made to his heavy exercise had been to remove his jacket. He wore shiny, black business shoes and his shirt was still buttoned up and tucked neatly into his grey pants, with bowtie in place. I saw a faint sheen of perspiration on his brow but apart from that, he might have just returned from a leisurely walk in a park. Jacketless, I couldn’t fail to notice the sinewy, lean muscle beneath his shirt that had only been hinted at when I had measured him up earlier.
“Leave him.”
At first I thought Mr. Ragg had addressed Leroy, then I realised he was looking at Spence when he said it. The spectacled man looked back over at us with an interested expression on his face, as though he was settling in to watch some sort of entertainment.
It was as though the words had given Leroy a green light. I saw him nod at his playing partner who grabbed Ben from behind and held him immobile as Leroy himself reached out one hand to grab me. He was too slow and I stepped lightly back out of his reach and raised my fists.
Leroy laughed and raised the pool cue, wielding it by the thin end as he began to stalk me. I heard Spence curse and glanced across the room to see him rising from the bench and stomping towards my antagonist. He only made it two steps.
There was a burst of movement and suddenly Spence was face down on the floor, one arm viciously pulled up behind him and Mr. Ragg’s knee hard in his back. Spence groaned in agony, completely helpless. Ragg regarded me as he calmly pushed his glasses further up his nose with the index finger of his free hand.
Time seemed to slow and I noticed two things. One, Leroy was distracted by Ragg… and two, Spence’s big friend was preparing to make a move. I needed to make my move. I stepped up quickly to the distracted Leroy and rabbit punched him hard in the solar plexus. As he doubled up I snatched the pool cue out of his hand and brought it down hard on the back of his shoulders. It snapped in half and breath whooshed out of him as he fell heavily on his face.
I looked back at Ragg and saw Spence’s buddy looming up behind him. As fast as I had been, Mr. Ragg seemed twice as quick. In a blur he twisted, still holding Spence’s arm, to face the bigger man. I heard a nasty, fleshy crack and Spence screamed as Ragg dropped his lifeless arm in time to deliver two lightning fast blows to the stomach of the well-built soldier who was about to grab him. The big man groaned but managed to encircle Ragg with his strong arms, only to find Ragg, almost magically, slip out of his grasp and chop him on the neck with the heel of his hand. The black soldier went limp and fell onto Spence who was quietly groaning. It was clear that neither of the soldiers would be any further help. Ragg turned to us.
He paused a moment and adjusted his bow tie and glasses. His grey eyes made me feel like an insect stuck on the end of a pin. Ignoring Leroy’s groans, he glanced at the other Homeland Security guard and said, “Let him go.”
Leroy’s playing partner released Ben immediately, the fear in his eyes undisguised. Ragg walked over to us, not dropping his gaze from mine. I tensed and raised the thick, jagged end of the pool cue I had used to incapacitate Leroy.
“You fucker!” panted Leroy, from his position on the floor. “When I finish with you, you’re gonna wish you and your chink…” He didn’t finish.
Ragg fluidly bent over and pinched Leroy’s neck where it met his shoulder. The big man’s eyes widened momentarily before he slumped unconscious to the floor. Ragg then stood up again and his eyes came to rest on Ben and me.
“You two may go now,” he said simply. “You can play pool another day. Officer Bradley, have medical send some stretchers up here immediately.”
Dismissed, I quickly grabbed Ben’s arm before Ragg could change his mind and guided him out through the door as three middle-aged women in what looked like cleaning uniforms came walking down the corridor in the direction of the cafeteria. I have to admit, given what I’d witnessed, I was happy to be walking out of there undamaged. Ragg looked to be an efficient and effective fighting machine. I don’t know if he had planned to attack me before Leroy distracted him, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.
Behind us I heard the women gasping and gossiping about the carnage in the rec room as I guided Ben into the cafeteria. We went to a water cooler and I poured us both a liberal cup each before sitting down at one of the tables. I wanted a minute in peace to think over the events of the last ten minutes.
“Are you okay?” Ben asked.
“Yes. No one actually got near me, what about you?”
“Same, that beef head was only holding me. Although I imagine that would have changed if they’d gotten the upper hand…what do you make of that Ragg character now?”
“He’s extremely dangerous. We need to watch out for him.”
“Was that karate?”
“No. It looked like Krav Maga,” I said distractedly.
“What?”
“It’s a martial art developed by the Israeli army. It has elements from all of the arts, but it’s probably more brutal than any of them. It’s not a sport, it was deliberately designed to maim or incapacitate an opponent quickly.”
“Great!” Ben said sarcastically. “This just gets better and better.”
We saw uniforms, both army and Homeland security, rushing past the cafeteria. I wondered how this incident would affect the relationship between them, it had already seemed to be a little tense. We quietly watched the comings and goings and I saw Ragg walking by after a few minutes. He looked preoccupied as he walked purposefully towards the corridor that would lead back to the lobby. I prepared to stand up, a half formed plan in my head, when he came to a dead stop and turned to look right at me. We locked eyes for just a moment before he turned and continued his journey.
“I’m not too proud to say that Mr. Ragg scares the shit out of me…” said Ben, mirroring my own feelings.
“Yeah, me too. Stay here. I’m going to see what’s happening.”
I stopped at the door and waited till I saw Ragg turn the corner before darting out and foll
owing him. I was lucky that the corridors were empty, although I imagined that they’d soon be crawling with Randall’s men, and possibly the Professor’s too. I followed just long enough to confirm that he’d gone into the lobby and then turned back and headed for the Square. I wanted to be there when Randall arrived.
I got there just as Dr Radisson and a handful of soldiers arrived with two stretchers and medical kits. They went straight to work treating the two soldiers that Ragg had downed, as well as Leroy, who was still out.
About three minutes after I had arrived, I heard a commotion down the hall and sure enough, a few seconds later, a stony faced Colonel Randall rounded the corner with John, Tony Gould and another soldier I remembered, Bowman.
Randall didn’t spare me a second look as he brushed past and burst through the doors to the Rec room.
“What the Hell happened here!”
I heard quiet talking and Randall leaned over the black soldier who had tried to help his comrade. I saw Randall’s face transform from stony into something more like white lipped fury as he listened to his soldier. Leroy’s friend Bradley made the mistake of approaching Randall.
“Get him out of my face,” growled the older man, pointing at him.
Bradley looked at Randall’s finger like it was a loaded weapon as John and Bowman quickly grabbed him and propelled him back to where he had been standing near Leroy. They slammed him up against the pool table and Randall ordered Bowman to watch the two troublemakers.
“If they make a move to impede the medics, you shoot them.”
“Yes Sir!” Bowman saluted, and shot a shark like grin at Bradley who had gone white.
“I was just playin’ pool man.”
“Come with me,” snapped the colonel to John and Gould. As they filed past, I noticed Randall undo the button on his sidearm holster. I fell in behind them, shrugging at Ben’s enquiring look as we passed the cafeteria.
The men were too preoccupied to notice that I was tagging along. I followed them at a safe distance all the way to the lobby. I didn’t want to get involved but I certainly wanted to hear what transpired. I didn’t have to wait long. As soon as the group of soldiers entered the lobby I heard raised voices.
The After Days Trilogy Page 33
