Premonitions: Book 2: War

by Diana E. Anderson

  “Oh, mercy, no, I would never yell at you. Truth is, you startled me when you happened to be in the hallway. I. . . er. . .I wasn’t expecting to see you. I figured it was one of the guys looking for me and knocking.”

  Rachel smiled, almost flirtatiously. “Well, if I knew you were in there, maybe I would have knocked.” Bear moved a little closer to her, leaning up against the fence, flirting right back. “I wish you had. I would have much preferred spending time talking to you than listening to those guys drone on about stuff.”

  While Rachel was focused on her flirting with Bear, Top and Mark stepped from behind a truck parked on the road. They took Mr. Macintyre by the elbows, lifted him up, and carried him behind the truck. Once he was behind the truck, they whispered to him to not make a sound. They sat him in a wheelchair and quickly pushed him into the school.

  Rachel, meanwhile, was busy trying to impress Bear. Suddenly, she realized her father was nowhere around. “Dad?” she called. “Dad, where are you?” She turned to Bear. “Did you see where my dad went?”

  Bear answered, “No, I was paying attention to you. I’m sure he is fine and is just taking a walk or something. Where were we?”

  Rachel looked agitated. “No, you don’t understand. He can’t be alone. I mean… um… he has dementia and is not safe by himself. I have to watch him.”

  Bear tried hard to look serious. “Well, let’s go look for him then.” He led her further down the street away from the school.

  Meanwhile, Mark and Top settled Mr. Macintyre into the principal’s office. Toad and Dinky were sitting at the desks in the anteroom, just in case Rachel tried to enter. Mark explained to Mr. Macintyre that they did not mean him any harm, but they were worried about him and needed to talk to him.

  “I can’t talk to you. I just can’t.” Suddenly, Mr. Macintyre began to cry.

  Mark was startled by the tears. “Mr. Macintyre, why can’t you talk to me? I just want to ask you a couple of questions, and then you’ll be free to go.”

  “No, no, they are going to kill her if they think I talked to you,” he said as he continued to cry.

  “Kill who?” Mark asked. “Who are they going to kill?”

  “It’s too late. They will know I was in here and they will think I talked. Oh, Sarah, I’m so sorry.”

  Top knelt down next to the elderly man. “Mr. Macintyre? Who is Sarah?” he asked gently.

  Mr. Macintyre looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “My wife. Sarah is my wife. We’ve been married fifty-two years. We never had any kids, it was always just the two of us. She is my whole world and now she is going to die because of me.”

  Top looked at Mark, then turned back to Mr. Macintyre. “Isn’t Rachel your daughter?”

  Mr. Macintyre shook his head violently. “No. She is one of them.”

  “One of who? Who is Rachel?”

  “She is not my daughter. She is a Homeland agent. They are holding my Sarah prisoner. The deal was if I acted like her father for a few weeks for her to complete her mission, they would let Sarah and I go. Now, I may as well be dead, because they will kill my Sarah when they find out I was with you without Rachel there to supervise us.” Mr. Macintyre began crying again.

  Mark squatted down next to Mr. Macintyre and put his hand on his shoulder. “Where are they holding your wife? I can send some soldiers to go rescue her if you tell us where she is.”

  Hope finally showed in Mr. Macintyre’s eyes. “They are holding her in what used to be our house.” Mark and Top continued to gently pry the information out of their guest. When they were finished, Mark took his radio and sent a message to Bear. “Bingo” is all he said.

  Bear and Rachel had been walking around the block, supposedly looking for her father. Rachel became more frantic the longer they looked. Bear suspected the fear was real but continued to play his role. They were several blocks away from the school when he heard the word “Bingo” on the radio. He waited a few minutes, then said, “Rachel, why don’t we go back to the school and get one of the hummers? We can make better time looking for him, and we’ll be able to give him a ride home when we find him.”

  “I don’t know about that,” she waffled. “Okay, let’s go.” They turned around and began to walk quickly back to the school. As they approached the front entrance, Bear said, “I need to go get the keys from Top.” They continued into the school. As they entered, two soldiers stepped from alongside the doors and took Rachel firmly by the arms.

  “Let go of me. What do you think you are doing? Get your hands off me,” she screamed. “Bear, help me.”

  “Oh, I’ve helped you enough Rachel, or whatever your name is. After all, I didn’t shoot you out there.”

  “What are you talking about? Has everyone gone crazy? Let me go!” She began to cry. “You have to let me go because I need to find my dad. He is old and confused and might get hurt if I don’t find him.” She looked up at Bear, crying and trying to flirt through her tears.

  “Rachel, you are a piece of work,” Bear said. He addressed the soldiers holding her arms. “Cuff her and bring her to Mark’s office.” The two soldiers cuffed her hands behind her back and then zip tied her feet together, with Rachel yelling, screaming, and fighting with them the whole time. Finally, one of the soldiers took his sweaty, dirty bandanna from around his neck and used it to gag her. He looked at Bear and said, “Sorry, but I’m tired of hearing her yell.” The two soldiers then picked her up and carried her into Mark’s office, where they unceremoniously dumped her into a chair.

  Mark was leaning against the front of his desk with his arms crossed. He looked first at Rachel, then at Bear. “I’m not sure which one of you is better at acting. Good job, Bear. Go see Top. He has some work for you to do.”

  “Roger, Mark,” Bear said as he left the room.

  Mark pulled a desk chair over next to Rachel and sat down. He crossed his legs and folded his arms across his chest as he watched her. She continued to try to talk through the bandanna, squirming around on the chair. Mark watched her silently for a few minutes, then reached over his desk to grab a piece of rope.

  “This is to be sure you don’t try to run away,” he explained as he tied her to the chair. “Now, if I take that nasty bandanna off, are you going to start yelling?” She looked at him and shook her head no. He reached over and started to pull the bandanna down. As soon as he got the bandanna away from her mouth, she started yelling at him. He reached over and slapped her across the cheek, and she immediately shut up. “That is much better. Start screaming again, and you’ll get the bandanna back.”

  She looked at him defiantly. “You do not know who you are dealing with. I am going to enjoy killing all of you.”

  Mark started laughing. “You think you’re pretty bad, don’t you? You won’t be killing anything, except maybe the grass over your grave, sweetheart. Now here is how it is going to work. I will ask questions, and you will answer.”

  Rachel looked at him with an expression of pure loathing. “I’m not answering any of your questions. You cannot make me talk.”

  Mark just relaxed, grinned, and got comfortable in his chair. “Okay, I have plenty of time. First question. What is your real name?” Rachel just stared at him. Mark smiled and continued to stare back. After a few minutes, Mark told her, “You may as well just answer. I did a lot of interrogations while I was in Afghanistan and Iraq. You may think I will be nice to you just because you are female, but you’ll be wrong.” He continued to sit there, smiling and watching her.

  After twenty minutes of silence, she spoke. “I need to use the bathroom.”

  Mark answered, “Okay,” but did not move.

  “Well, are you going to untie me so I can use the bathroom?” she demanded.

  “Nope.”

  “What do you mean? You have to untie me or else I will have an accident right here.”

  “Oh well. Until you answer my questions, I am not untying you. No food, no water, no bathroom, no goo-goo eyes at Bear, nothing. No
t until you talk.”

  An hour later, she still had not said anything. Mark got up and Top came into the room. He sat down in the chair Mark just vacated, got comfortable, and smirked at Rachel. Mark left the room while Top continued to look at Rachel. When Rachel was sure Mark was not coming right back, she tried her bathroom plea on Top, only to have Top tell her the same thing. “No talking, no bathroom, no food, no water, no sleep.” Throughout the rest of the day and long into the night, Top and Mark took turns sitting with a silent Rachel. Both ate their dinner in front of her and drank several bottles of water. When she looked like she was going to sleep, they would either make their radio squeal or else blow an air horn. Finally, about a half-hour before dawn, she finally caved.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked.

  “Who are you, why are you here, what was your mission, who are you working for, you know, the usual questions good guys ask spies,” answered Mark.

  “My name is Cheryl Bates and I am General Bates’ daughter.”

  “General Bates, THE General Bates that hates General McPherson? That General Bates?”

  “Yes, that is my father. He found out that McPherson escaped from Bragg and that his nuke did not get him. That really made him angry. He sent me to get as much information as I could about McPherson’s operation here. He plans to kill all of you.”

  “What do you mean, HIS nuke?”

  “My father set up that little operation to get rid of General McPherson. He used a smaller nuke because it was just supposed to take out the Special Warfare Center and McPherson with it.”

  Mark shifted in his chair to get more comfortable. “So, why are you here in this subdivision?”

  Cheryl took a moment to sigh and roll her eyes. “Because it is close to McPherson’s new base. I tried to get onto the base, but they wouldn’t let us in and sent us here instead. I figured if I hung out here, one of you would eventually slip and let me know where to find McPherson.”

  “How did your father know to come here to find General McPherson?”

  “Satellite images – he saw the convoys leaving Bragg before the nuke dropped and followed the images here.”

  “Who were the men back at Mr. Macintyre’s house?” Cheryl caught on to Mark’s use of the past tense and sighed. “They were some of Daddy’s men. I guess you found them?”

  “Yes, we found them, and we rescued Sarah, too. And before you tell me it was their idea and you were just doing what you were told, they told us it was you that captured her and got her husband to agree to act as your father. Oh, and while we are talking about failed spy tactics, you should not have left all of your codes and frequencies on the table in your house next to the radio. We’ve been having a grand time listening to Daddy calling you and your henchmen. We let Daddy know you are safe with us, just in case he was planning on dropping another nuke. My, my, my, your daddy has quite a temper, did you know that? Of course, he did say that you being here will not stop his plans. He said if anything happened to you it would just be collateral damage from his plan of revenge against General McPherson.” Cheryl began to cry, harder this time.

  “Just take me outside and shoot me, then.”

  “As long as you are answering my questions, you are alive. Stop answering them or try to lie to me, and I may just do that.”

  Eight hours later, a very tired Mark walked out of the office. He got all the information he could and now needed to go report that information to General McPherson. Cheryl’s tribunal would be held later that evening.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  As summer approached, our gardens were growing well. We spent a lot of time weeding, and bug-picking, and watching our fruits and vegetables grow. The herb gardens were growing like crazy. We had already started cutting them back and drying the cuttings for use this winter. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Anita was an excellent gardener, and she spent most of every day working in the gardens. She was also working with a few of the younger kids, teaching them how to tell the weeds from the plants. Apparently, her medications were working well, because she seemed to be quite happy out in the garden. I never did talk to Mark about her, and now I am glad that I didn’t.

  We had fallen into new routines centering around maintaining the farm as a safe and nurturing place for all of the people living here. We were busy maintaining the gardens, tending the fields of corn, hay, oats, and wheat, and keeping all of the animals healthy. In between such mundane tasks, we also drilled the farm militia for a couple of hours at least every other day. Top was very complimentary about the progress we made and how quickly everyone had learned the various techniques. He felt that if necessary, we would be able to integrate well with the soldiers already on the farm and would be able to defend ourselves quite well. He also reported that the Riverdale Militia was also doing well, and he was almost comfortable that they, too, would be able to defend themselves.

  Several days after Mark exposed ‘Rachel’ as a spy, Tom and I took a trip to Whispering Willows to meet with Mark and Top at Mark’s request. Mark welcomed us into his office and after a few minutes of chatting, Mark said, “Let me cut to the chase and tell you why I wanted you to come here instead of meeting at the farm.”

  Tom interjected, “I was wondering about that. I figured you had an ulterior motive.”

  Mark grinned and continued, “As you know, we were able to rescue Sarah McIntyre and reunite her with her husband. They are staying here at the school, but this is not really a great place for an elderly couple. I was wondering if you would be willing to let them come live at the farm. Top and Lynn’s apartment is still vacant, and we thought it would be a better environment for them there than here at the school.” Mark paused for a moment, and I looked at Tom. Tom shrugged his shoulders, so I looked back at Mark.

  “Can we meet them?” I asked.

  “Of course! Come on and I’ll introduce you.” We found Simon and Sarah McIntyre in the day care area playing with several small children. Mark called them over to us and introduced us. Simon looked to be in his late seventies. He was not very tall and was almost bald but had intense light blue eyes. Those eyes don’t miss a thing, I thought. Sarah was short and a bit on the pudgy side, a little younger-looking than her husband with neatly braided grey hair. When she smiled, her whole face lit up. She reminded me a bit of my grandmother. Mark explained to Simon and Sarah what we had in mind.

  “I’m not sure I would fit in with your group,” Simon said sadly.

  “Why not,” I asked, surprised at his response.

  “Well, for one thing, I’m Jewish. I know you run a Christian farm over there and even have a church.”

  “You are right that we have a church, and we do try to live by Christian values. But we would never turn you away because of your religion, and we would never interfere with your practice of your religion. After all, Jesus was Jewish, too.” Sarah smiled and looked relieved until Simon continued.

  “I also am a registered Democrat. I didn’t vote for our current president. I know that makes us the bad guys in this whole nasty event, but I’ve been a Democrat all my life.”

  I smiled and heard the echo of General McPherson’s speech in the back of my head.

  “I do believe our nation was founded on the principles of respectful discourse. Did you have anything to do with what those radicals in Washington did?”

  Simon looked startled. “No, of course not. What they did was reprehensible.”

  “Well, then, it seems to me that having someone with a different political point of view will be good for us. Maybe we can teach each other a few things. I actually look forward to us having some good interesting political discussions.” I paused and looked intently at Simon. “Now, are you willing to come back to the farm with us? We have a lot of kids who could really use another set of grandparents around.”

  Sarah was smiling widely. “Come on, Simon. Stop making excuses.”

  Simon smiled at Sarah. “You are good with this? Will living there make yo
u happy?” Sarah’s big smile was all the answer he needed. He stood and reached out to shake my hand. “We accept your gracious offer.”

  Sarah was not so formal. She jumped up and gave first me and then Tom a big hug. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Living here has been good, but it is hard to feel at home when you go to sleep in a classroom.”

  I asked Sarah, “Do you have things at your old home that you want to get to make your new home feel comfortable?”

  “No, when I was rescued, we packed up everything worth keeping and brought it here.”

  “Well, then,” I said. “That’s settled. When do you want to move?”

  Sarah looked timidly at Simon. “Can we go back with you today? It won’t take me very long to get our things together.”

  “Of course!” I answered. “Let me radio the farm and tell them to get your place ready.”

  Tom cut in. “I’ll take care of that. Why don’t you go help Sarah and Simon pack their things?” I thanked Tom and the three of us headed down the hall to the room Sarah and Simon had been using.

  Early summer was almost idyllic. The weather was great, the gardens were growing, and people were healthy and reasonably happy. Our frantic preparations of last fall had paid off in that we now knew we would make it until the garden came in. My two grandbabies were growing like weeds, and John Henry was even starting to crawl and babble. We were still really busy each day just keeping the farm going, but it seemed the high stress level of the last few months had dropped a bit. Tom and I were able to spend a lot more time together and our relationship was growing closer and stronger. My sons kept hinting that perhaps we needed to have another wedding soon on the farm (neither one of the boys ever really learned to be subtle) and Tom and I kept trying to ignore them.

  Simon and Sarah fit in perfectly at the farm. Within days, all of the kids were calling Sarah “Bubby Sarah” and Simon became “Gramps.” Sarah was the stereotypical Jewish grandmother. She spoiled the kids rotten, reading them stories, sneaking them little treats, and playing with them. She worried over them and fussed over them all. The kids loved being with Bubby and Gramps, especially the little ones.