Caitlin looked at him and saw he was being serious, “I’ve heard of her, but not much. I guess she got the whole white wash treatment so nobody knows if it’s disinformation, fact or fiction.”
“My point is nobody expects her to be a badass like you. Not when she looks like one of the elf women in Lord of the Rings.”
“She’s really that tiny?” Caitlin asked.
“Petit, well, except the belly. She’s preggers.”
“When this is over, me and Tex…”
The door dinged open, and they walked out. They got a few curious looks from the black shirts, but there were so many people coming and going, they weren’t stopped or questioned.
“So what did you do?” Michael asked Caitlin as they started walking toward C Block where they were bunked down.
“Set up our escape plan and got the info needed out.”
“What about the Caliphate men?” Michael asked.
She held up three glass vials. They almost looked like perfume sample vials, but all were empty.
“What’s that?” Michael asked quietly.
“What I did with the food. I was the cook, remember?”
“Poison?” Michael asked, a grin tugging the corner of his mouth.
“Botulinum toxin,” Caitlin whispered back, “comes from eating bad food. If we’re lucky, our getaway plan will take place long before the bodies are found.”
Michael was smiling. By the sound of it, they could be out of this anthill in hours. Yes, they hadn’t taken the base, but they had completed the mission. If the information was what Michael had hoped, it would force the federal government into action. He was about to say so when he turned a corner and saw Shannon sitting on his bunk. She was talking to somebody and, as he came all the way around, he saw that she was talking to King and John.
“Oh, there he is,” Shannon said bouncing up to her feet. “I came by to see if you wanted to go for a walk outside with me, see the sunset?”
Caitlin, John, and King were giving Michael an unreadable look, but King had a smile that was trying to break out of his permanent scowl. Still, he didn’t look fully at ease.
“I’d love to. I have to talk to my boss, King here, real quick. Can I meet you somewhere?”
“Oh... Uh… sure!” she said her look going from confusion to a smile with a flush on her cheeks. “How about meet me by the sign for B block in the central corridor?”
“Sounds good!” Michael said, meaning it.
He watched as she bounded off and finally turned to see his three friends all grinning at him.
“Your cover must be pretty good, kid,” John told him, pushing his shoulder.
“Yeah, at the end she hesitated, though.”
“Here, kid,” King said and pressed something into his hand.
He looked down to see a foil wrapper. When he realized what it was, he turned red himself.
“You pulled this out of your pocket to make her go away?” Michael chuckled, holding up the condom.
“Yup.”
“You expecting to, uh…”
“Nope. Use those to waterproof detonation sticks for C4,” King replied.
“Oh,” Michael said, feeling dumb.
He had some in his personal pack for the same reason, but King had used the situation and what he had on hand to give them space to talk.
“So go take your walk in the twilight,” Caitlin said pushing him on the shoulder. “And get to the APC when the alarms go off, and they start the evacuation.”
Michael grinned and walked away, barely remembering to pocket the condom. He knew he wasn’t going to use it. He didn’t think they had long. They couldn’t, because Michael remembered hearing about botulinum in school. It killed almost immediately. Maybe it would be better if he could get Shannon outside before the alarm went off. Caitlin, John, and King watched him leave, knowing that, good or bad, Cupid had shot his arrow. They all remembered their first and how helpless it was to go against the heart's demands.
“What did you do?” King asked Caitlin finally.
Caitlin laughed loudly. Loud enough that a sleeping Tex woke up three bunks down and swung his legs off the bed.
“What’s going on, hun?” Tex asked.
“Nothing much, sugar, but we need to shuck and jive. I figure we have about an hour left in this lovely place.”
=-The End-=
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About the Author
Boyd Craven III was born and raised in Michigan, an avid outdoorsman who’s always loved to read and write from a young age. When he isn’t working outside on the farm, or chasing a household of kids, he’s sitting in his Lazy Boy, typing away.
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The World Counters: A Post-Apocalyptic Story (The World Burns Book 10) Page 9
