I met with the grand commander alone. I seem to have stumbled into a position of power and am unsure how I feel about my current circumstances. He has asked for my complete trust and confidence. I reluctantly accepted his offer, if only to discover what he has planned for his future America.
—The journal of Isaac Ryland
Andrew drove. He didn’t know where he was heading and had nobody to guide him. Carter was asleep in the backseat with the agent, who was still passed out. Zack joined the other travelers in slumber, but Andrew didn’t have that luxury. He wanted to ask Zack a million questions, but the doctor Affinity had located for Zack had deposited the man in the car already asleep and had said few words to Andrew when he loaded him in.
“He’ll wake up in a few hours,” the doctor said. “Tell him to take his medicine every four hours for five days.”
“Where am I supposed to take him?”
The man gave a shrug. “Anywhere but here.”
Those were his final words before slamming the car door.
That had put a damper on Andrew’s plans. He knew they needed to dump the RAG SUV; however much time their group had before the higher-ups realized their French trip was a disaster was dwindling. Andrew was certain they would search for the missing vehicles right away. Zack’s sleep was a medicated one though and Andrew couldn’t steal a car with two unconscious men.
“Water,” a voice said.
Andrew glanced in the rearview mirror. Agent Quillian was coming to. Andrew grabbed the bottle he had up front, unscrewed the cap, and passed it back.
“My hands are behind my back,” he said.
“I know,” Andrew said. “That’s why there’s no cap. Figure it out or I’ll drop the bottle all over the floor.”
Andrew glanced back as the man leaned forward and put his mouth on the opening. Andrew did his best to tilt the bottle backward. Some liquid made it into the agent’s mouth and he gulped it down.
“Where are we?”
“Headed to the Southwest Area,” Andrew said. “We might be there already.”
“If you don’t kill me you’ll have to let me go,” he said.
“Eventually.”
“Why are you doing this?” Agent Quillian asked.
“Because I made a promise not to kill you,” Andrew said.
“No,” Agent Quillian said. “Why are you betraying your country?”
“Who said anything about betrayal?”
“You came home with a foreign dignitary, only to have them die along with good American men who didn’t deserve it,” Agent Quillian said. “I call that treason.”
“I was protecting myself,” Andrew said.
“The French are not our allies,” Agent Quillian said. Andrew couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement, but he responded either way.
“Not your allies.”
Andrew returned his eyes to the road. They were entering more mountainous terrain. It was stunning, but Andrew knew mountains meant fewer people, which meant the chances that they’d be able to switch cars were growing slimmer and slimmer. The road he was traveling on was not well cared for. He swerved to avoid a pothole.
“So what’s your story?”
“It doesn’t concern you,” Andrew said.
“I’ve been knocked out three times,” he said. “I think it concerns me quite a bit.”
Andrew didn’t respond.
“Are you mad about mandatory service?” Agent Quillian asked. “Avoided your duty and came back to exact revenge?”
Andrew still didn’t give a reply.
“Maybe you got too comfortable living abroad, think you can change the future for the young men here?”
Another pothole appeared and Andrew couldn’t avoid it completely. The car bumped over it.
“You don’t have to tell me the details,” Agent Quillian said. “Just your endgame.”
“Why would I do that?”
“You’re dead anyway,” Agent Quillian said. “We’re all going to die, so don’t make me leave this world without answering some of my questions.”
The young agent was probably right. Andrew had accepted that before they reentered America.
“Maybe it was about the girl? She was pretty. Is she really French? What did you guys call her, Mia?”
Hearing him say her name boiled Andrew’s blood. He tried to block out the agent, but he kept on talking.
“I see I hit a nerve,” he said. “Did you want to drag her back here so you could enroll her in the Registry? Then buy her? She would be way out of your price range.”
Mia was not and never would be for sale. Andrew felt his skin crawl and didn’t want the man to speak anymore.
“We want to stop everything,” Andrew said. “Mandatory service and the Registry.”
Quillian let out a laugh.
“It’s not a joke,” Andrew said.
“It’s a pipe dream,” Agent Quillian said. “Not a goal.”
“What?”
“Who doesn’t want to stop the Registry and mandatory service?”
Andrew hadn’t, not until he met Mia at least.
“You think I liked giving up four years of my life? Being raised in a dump? Now I can’t even touch a woman unless I save up enough money to buy a wife. That’s the way my country repays me.”
“You don’t like the Registry?”
“Nobody does,” Agent Quillian said.
Andrew was confused.
“It’s the way things are,” Quillian said. “Nobody can change that. By the time men are powerful enough to have a say they have a pretty little wife and a pretty little life and don’t care anymore.”
“You think women should have a say in who they marry?”
“I don’t care about women,” Quillian said. “I enjoyed my time overseas sampling some. Now I come home and there’s nothing, not until I get married.”
This man did not see the plight of the people. He only saw the inability to have his needs satisfied.
“Every man hates it, until he gets married,” he said. “If you complain about it someone will hush you up. But it’s a fact. You would know that if you ever served your time like a real man.”
“What about throwing out sons?” Andrew said. “Does everyone hate that too?”
“Lots of guys in service pledge they’ll keep theirs, but we all know we’re lying,” Agent Quillian said. “If you ever meet a boy raised by a father, you know that’s all he’ll ever be: a boy. They’re given the worst assignments; I met one once and it was like talking to a dead man. The government places them in the worst countries on the front lines. If any of them survive their four years, they’ve seen way too much carnage to have any type of normal life. I hated my father every day of my life until the day I was discharged.”
“Why don’t you band together and do something about it?”
“What? Like you’re doing? Look how far it’s gotten you. Some of your team is dead, your girl is gone, and you’re driving through the Rocky Mountains.”
Andrew’s head was so filled with worry for Mia and their future plans, he had forgotten his knowledge of America. He debated hitting the brakes and heading back, but then he remembered everything he’d heard about the Rockies might be a myth. Instead he pushed the accelerator down harder.
“So what?”
“The next major metropolitan area isn’t for hundreds of miles,” Agent Quillian said.
“Then we won’t run into anyone,” Andrew said. “You left us with plenty of gasoline.”
“As a government employee I have to tell you that there is next to no law out here,” he said. “If anyone gets their hands on you it will be personal justice.”
The man was trying to get inside Andrew’s head. He knew the statistics; the vast majority of the population lived within a hundred-mile radius of one of the major cities. People avoided this stretch of the country, even tourists. Andrew shook his head; Mr. Morrissey’s farm wasn’t close to a big city and it had been safe there. Then Andrew remembered leaving the farm and the man who gave them a ride. The truck driver had tried to attack Mia and Andrew had killed him. That was the type of person who settled in places like this.
There was still a road. Andrew focused on that fact. Even if it was greatly in need of repair, it existed. They would fly through this section of the country and continue on toward the capital. Mia would meet them there. Andrew was sure of that fact. Knowing he would see her again was enough motivation to risk any danger.