The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  It graveled some, but it was boisterous, “Listen up. All you people that fucked with me when I couldn’t talk, watch out.” Frank smiled. “I’m back.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  October 22

  New Bowman, Montana

  Even though Hal did paper work, Elliott knew he not only eavesdropped, but peered up occasionally to watch as he spoke on the phone. He was scrutinized by the Captain as if a micro organism Dean looked at under a microscope. “Yes,” Elliott said with little emotion then cleared his throat trying to clear away his nervousness.

  “Thanks,” Ellen said on the other line. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s me.”

  “No.”

  “I didn’t say what it was yet.”

  “I’m sorry, go on.” Elliott felt the stares. He shifted his eyes down to Hal who sat behind the desk. Hal sifted through his papers.

  “Are we still on for Monday?” Ellen asked.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “I just got . . . I got a feeling . . . Elliott? Why wouldn’t you kiss me last night?”

  Elliott closed his eyes and brought the phone away from his ear. He covered the receiver, bit his lip, bobbed his head in thought, and then brought the phone back up.

  “Elliott?”

  “I’m still here.”

  “Why? Didn’t you want to?”

  Again, Elliott slid the phone away, only this time he turned his body in a nonverbal, whining sway. After a moment of dramatics, he lifted the receiver again. “It’s not a question of wanting to or not. It’s a matter of what is appropriate or not. Understand?”

  “Kissing me was not appropriate?”

  “At the . . .”

  “Did I come on too strong?” Ellen asked.

  “Yes. No. I mean . . .”

  “It was just a little kiss. It wasn’t like I was asking you to have sex with . . .”

  Hal quickly looked up when he heard the bang of the phone that fell from Elliott’s hand. He shook his head with a snicker at Elliott’s nervousness to regain the phone.

  “Elliott?” Ellen called out. “What happened?”

  “I . . . . Ellen, I must go. The Captain is summoning me.”

  “All right then,” Ellen stated calmly. “Just tell me something, O.K.? Am I looking at this ‘you and me’ thing all wrong?”

  “You and me?”

  Ellen let out a breath of understanding when she heard his words. “I get it. O.K., I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow then.”

  “Yes. Thank you. Tomorrow.” Briefly closing his eyes, Elliott hung up the phone and exhaled loudly.

  “What is the problem?” Hal asked with Slagel edge. “What is the matter with you? If you were riding out into battle right now, you’d die.”

  “I don’t know how to answer her.”

  “On?”

  “Why I wouldn’t kiss her goodnight.”

  Hal nodded and leaned back in the chair. “Why didn’t you?”

  “Captain, sir, aside from the fact that I don’t even know if I remember how, I really don’t even want to think about that.”

  Hal looked in curiosity at him. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m sure you do.” Elliott rattled out his thoughts. “We’ve lived so long without affection or touching that even entertaining the thought can be detrimental to the emotional walls we have built in protection of ourselves to live without it. They would start to crumble. What if I thought about it and started to want it and ended up not being able to get it. Imagine the insanity I . . .”

  “Elliott.” Hal leaned forward and folded his hands on his desk.

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Forget I asked.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Elliott regained his composure, sat down and, as if he were never interrupted with a phone call, returned to work.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  A quick glaring shift of his eyes was the warning from Dean to Robbie for Robbie to stop laughing. “Pay attention,” Dean told him just before the field perimeter as he handed him what looked like a remote control.

  “Yeah!” Frank yelled in the distance. “Be on fuckin top. My life depends on this.”

  Robbie looked at the contraption in his hand then at Frank who looked as if he were wearing a heavily padded fencing outfit. “Dean,” Robbie whispered. “This isn’t going to work.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Dean said assuredly. “Danny and Henry made it.”

  “Then maybe we should wait until Danny and Henry are here,” Robbie suggested in a low voice.

  “I need them now or at least one. You’ll do fine. Just pay attention and press the button.”

  “O.K.” Robbie shrugged and walked to the fence.

  Picking up the roll of duct tape and the sack from the ground, Dean walked to Frank. “O.K., now is as good a time as any.”

  “This sucks, Dean,” Frank complained. “Why do I have to do this?”

  “Because it has to be done.”

  “So.”

  “It was your idea to capture them and train them like dogs.”

  “But I never agreed to be walking bait.”

  “Frank,” Dean chuckled. “You’re not bait. Bait gets eaten. You’ll only be nibbled on. The moment they touch you, Robbie will zap them. The jolt will be enough to knock them out. You duct tape their mouths and put them in the sack.”

  “How many?” Frank asked, taking the sack and tape from Dean.

  “Whatever you can get. Tracking is picking them up out there.”

  Frank grumbled, “I still think we should have gotten one of the field workers to do this.”

  “They need . . . they need brains Frank.”

  Frank bobbed his head. He did have those.

  “And . . .” Dean continued, “you’re the only one who can do this. What is it you say? You’re Frank.”

  “True. O.K.” Frank reached for the gate. “Now are you sure I’m not gonna feel the charge.”

  “Positive,” Dean said. “Danny and Henry assured me the suit is insulated.”

  “They tested it.”

  “Um, yeah,” Dean nodded.

  “You’re sure? Cause we’re dealing not only with fuckin killer babies with fangs of death, but also with a two-twenty charge.”

  “You’ll be fine.” Dean gave Frank a pat on the back. “Now get my subjects. Thanks.”

  “Dean.” Frank started to walk through the gate. “I get to train them when you’re done.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Here we go.” Frank took a breath and moved straight out.

  First Dean looked at Robbie, waited for him to join him, and then they walked out of the gate as well, but staying close enough to be able to make a mad dash in if need be.

  They watched Frank, a giant, awkwardly moving, human, padded trap.

  “Mark,” Dean called in the radio, “Do you have Frank in the scope?”

  “I’ve got him on the screen,” Mark answered “The killer babies too. They’re really near.”

  “Good.” Dean put down the radio. “Robbie . . . Be ready.”

  Robbie nodded, remote in hand, and his finger on the button.

  “Hit them as soon as they get Frank. They could rip the suit.”

  “He won’t feel it?”

  “No.”

  “O.K.” Robbie waited. And then Frank, no more than twenty five feet away with the high weeds coming to his thighs, was hit.

  The gurgling was first, followed by the whipping rustling sound, and then six killer babies shot rapidly at Frank from the brush. They lunged, attacked, and covered him like locusts.

  “Now!” Dean ordered.

  Robbie pressed the button. A crackling surge of electricity was heard and the six killer babies ejected off of Frank. They flew back high and fast before dropping like flies to the ground. They squealed loudly from the charge, but not as loud as Frank who dropped to the ground right along with them.

  ^^^^

  Shocked, Henry put down the antenna to t
he phone with his chin as he stared forward through the windshield of the car. “They used the suit.” He shifted his eyes to Danny.

  “What!” Danny swerved the car.

  “Watch out!”

  Danny swerved back. “What do you mean they used the suit? It’s not fully insulated.”

  “Dean thought it was.”

  “Shit.” Danny shook his head. “Did it work on the babies though?”

  “Yeah.” Henry nodded.

  “What about, uh . . .”

  “Frank’s fine. He’s out and they said he’s sparking, but otherwise fine.”

  “Oh shit,” Danny laughed. “What if Frank died and the charge brought him back to life.”

  “But he was all weirded out,” Henry added.

  “And stronger.”

  “Deformed.”

  “Like Super Shredder in Ninja Turtles.” Danny chuckled then looked into the rearview mirror when he heard that click of annoyance come from Trish. “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re silly. You nearly kill a man . . .”

  “Oh, no.” Henry shook his head. “Dean did.”

  “Can we not discuss your inventions gone bad/” Trish said. “We’re supposed to use the car time to talk about this hearing.”

  Danny peered in the mirror to Trish who was reading in the back. “Should we though, you know, with Henry on the opposing side. Is that ethical?”

  Henry’s mouth dropped open. “Who cares? It’s not like I’m going full barreled after Andrea. I’m merely presenting the facts. Which I left a lot to my legal eagle assistant Stan in New Bowman.”

  “He’s not real bright,” Danny stated.

  “Yeah,” Henry grinned.

  “I’m getting car sick,” Trish said,

  “Quit reading,” Danny told her. “What are you reading?”

  “Obscure situations. I thought maybe we could all put our heads together.”

  Danny looked at Henry. “Sounds kinky. I like it.”

  Trish gasped in disgust. “I’m gonna pretend that didn’t come from your mouth, Danny ‘Rather’ Hoi. O.K. here, this is what I’ve been working on.”

  “See.” Danny nodded to Henry. “This is why she’s on my team. She does all the thinking.”

  ‘Not to mention all the work,” Henry added.

  “Can we? Thank you.” Trish held out the papers. “I took the original suspect list you gave us, Henry, and I used the theory of Andrea being a cover up for the real person working for George. So . . . Thinking that the real person working for George would be up to something, I started looking at events, minor ones, in Beginnings that are out of the norm.”

  “But you can’t limit yourself strictly to that suspect list,” Henry told her.

  “No, I’m not.” Trish flipped a page. “For example, Mark and Tracking. It is highly unusual for him to mess up like that. That’s a cake job. Everyone wants it so why screw up?”

  “Good point.” Henry nodded. “I’ll talk to him, maybe get him drunk and see what his subconscious mind has to say.”

  “I’ll help,” Danny said.

  “Cool.”

  Trish rolled her eyes. “John Matoose’s notes on suspects. Danny, you know what my thoughts are on that.”

  “Yeah, I do,” Danny stated. “Andrea said he was more alert today. I’ll drop by and talk to him.”

  “Who else?” Henry asked.

  “Bev,” Trish answered.

  “Oh, I hate her,” Henry said.

  Danny shook his head. “She’s a little girl. She has absolutely no connection to George.”

  “We’ve looked for one too,” Henry added. “If she has a connection, she has it hidden. Plus she didn’t come to Beginnings until two months before George escaped. She was in Containment most of that time. Believe me, we looked for it.”

  “O.K.” Danny held up his hand. “If she’s in it at all, she’s not the main man. She can’t be. She’s not intelligent enough. Besides, what has she done, aside from getting pregnant by Dean?”

  “I hate her,” Henry reiterated.

  “Exactly,” Trish said.

  Danny was confused. “O.K., Henry hates her. Does Henry’s hate meter also have a psychic link that indicates who is bad and who is good? No. It isn’t making sense.”

  “Yes, yes it does,” Trish argued. “I’m not saying she’s the main one. I agree she’s not smart enough, but . . . I’m telling you she knows something. Her getting pregnant by Dean proves that.”

  Even though Henry liked the direction Trish’s mind was going, he didn’t understand her logic. “Trish . . .”

  “Hear me out. First of all, Dean sleeps with Bev. O.K., mistakes happen and he wasn’t with Ellen at the time. But he wouldn’t repeat that mistake and he certainly wouldn’t keep doing it over and over.”

  Danny shook his head. “He was seen coming out of her house yesterday morning.”

  Henry tossed his hands up. “He claims he was knocked out and put there.”

  Danny snickered and rolled his eyes. “Dean’s a liar. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. It’s a classic case of a man his age. Not owning up, so he covers up and . . . ow.” Danny jerked away his arm when Trish smacked him. “Why did you hit me?”

  “Don’t pick on Dean.”

  “Why not? The man screwed up,” Danny stated. “I’m not gonna lie and say I haven’t lost respect for him. I have. There are no women and he has two. Fuck . . . ow! Stop.” Danny rubbed his arm after being hit again.

  “Listen to what I’m saying,” Trish spoke, “Moving away from Dean . . .”

  “Thank God,” Danny said.

  Trish tsked. “Anyhow, Bev would haven’t have slept with him a second time. I know her likes from the Moon Lodge meetings. Dean may be cute but, to Bev, he’s old. Second, she chased Henry. Henry was power. Dean has no power. Why does she want to be with someone in a powerful position? Not for the prestige. If that was her game, she certainly wouldn’t be making everyone hate her. This community is too small to be a hated person. Yet, she keeps doing things that make people hate her. No, she wants to be with someone in power so she can be where George’s person can get the most access. I say find out who Bev is being the stooge for . . . and we’ll find George’s other person.” Trish sat back with a release of a long argumentative breath. “There.”

  So impressed, Danny nodded. “That’s actually not a bad route to look into.”

  Trish smiled. “Thanks.”

  “We tried,” Henry said.

  “We’ll try again.” Determination laced Danny’s words. “She’s the most hated person in Beginnings. Well, then little Bevie needs a friend. A pal.”

  Henry grinned. “A confidant.”

  “Someone . . .” Danny sang his words, “She can look up to.”

  “Confide in,” Henry added.

  “Trust.” Danny looked in the mirror. “Do you agree, Trish?”

  “Oh absolutely. Good plan.”

  “Good. Then I expect for you to start working on being Bev’s best friend ASAP.” In the mirror, Danny saw Trish’s mouth drop open in argument. “Henry, where’s that old Garth Brooks tape? Let’s listen to that bar song.”

  “Yeah.” Henry dug up the tape from the box. “Here. It can get us in the mood to interrogate a drunk Mark.”

  Danny put the tape in the player and even though the speaker system was really bad in the car, he turned up the music loud to drown out Trish’s complaining.

  ^^^^

  A loud hiss emerged with the steam from the sterilizer Ellen unlocked. Standing by it in the cryo-lab, she waited a safety margin of time, then opened the hatch and pulled out a plastic bag. Happily she walked from the main lab and into the back room.

  “Is it done?” Jenny asked as she sat on the floor by the freezer case. A small crate was set up like a table with plates and all.

  “All warm.” Ellen held up the plastic bag containing noodles. “Sesame noodles. They’re Henry’s specialty. You’ll love it.” She joined her on the
floor.

  “How clever of you to use the sterilizer.”

  “Dean and I always do.” Ellen snipped open the bag,. “The bags Plastics makes are great. They seal the flavor right in. These sandwiches look good.”

  “Fresh apple jam.” Jenny smiled.

  “I love jam sandwiches.”

  “Me too.” Jenny situated herself for lunch. “So how was the date with Elliott?”

  “He hates me.”

  “What?” Jenny laughed.

  “Well, he has no interest in me romantically, that’s for sure. He made that clear today, which is why it strikes me as odd that he still wants to do dinner on Monday.”

  “The company. He likes the company.”

  “True.” Ellen took a bite of her sandwich. “But he’s a man.” She dropped her voice. “I tried to kiss him and he backed up.”

  “Oh my God!” Jenny gasped. “Even if he isn’t interested in something romantic, my God, he turned down affection?”

  “Yep.”

  Closing her eyes, Jenny peacefully basked. “What a gentlemen.”

  “Yes he is. He’s from New Bowman.”

  “And I get my shot at Hal on Saturday.”

  “Isn’t that exciting?” Ellen said. “Jenny . . . aside from having our weekly Brian and Caroline lunch, I have a favor to ask you.”

  Jenny noticed the seriousness in Ellen’s voice. “Sure.”

  “I want you to get one of the women to have . . . to have an understanding or some sort of relationship with Elliott. They’d have to be able to make it steady, stable, and want to commute to New Bowman to do it.”

  “I’m not understanding this.” Jenny tucked her hair behind her ears. “Did Elliott ask you to find . . .”

  “No.” Ellen shook her head. “I want someone to be in Elliott’s life. I want him to come home, at least a couple days a week, and not walk into an empty house. I really, really can’t stress enough how much I don’t want him to be alone, ever. He needs that.” Ellen exhaled.

  “What’s going on?”

  At first Ellen peered up at Jenny, then after taking a bite of her sandwich, she spoke softly. “I’m gonna tell Elliott I broke his trust again and told you, but I need you to swear on the life of Caroline that nothing I say will leave this room.”