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Nick was in his office with Jean when the alarm went off. It was the horn-blast, calling all the soldiers to report to their stations.
Jean scurried around her desk to look out the window. Nick was right behind her, but he knew that there wouldn’t be anything to see. There was no way for an enemy incursion to come this far inside the Alliance without being sighted further out.
“What does it mean?” Jean asked with a tremor in her voice.
Nick put his arm around her. “Battle stations,” he said. “Something is happening somewhere.”
“That was helpful,” she said poking him in the ribs.
“I’ll go check in with Martin,” Nick said. It gave him the excuse for what he wanted to do anyway.
“Go,” Jean said waving him off. “If we’re about to start a battle, Tillie and Eunice will be here about supplies soon enough.”
Nick knew that Martin would be in the new Strategy Room over at the community center. They had set it up after the Great Fire with the next catastrophe in mind. There were ether links to all the train stations and phone lines that had been run out to the Rover’s Stations and Sentinel’s Posts. Setting it up had kept them busy most of the winter. Now they would see how well it was working.
The street was crowded with people rushing this way and that. The alarm wailed two more times before going silent. A murmur of voices kept echoing the same question: what’s happening? A crowd was forming outside the doors to the community center by the time that he got there. A couple of Watchmen were keeping people out. Nick went around to the back entrance. Clay was on guard duty at the door, staring down a group of Ted’s kids.
“No one in until Martin calls for you,” Clay said with the heat of a much repeated answer.
“Problem?” Nick asked.
“We’re the runners,” William said indignantly. “We’re supposed to report to Martin when the Red Alert goes off.”
“”Right,” Nick said. He wasn’t sure if that was true, but it wouldn’t help to have another six bodies crammed into what was bound to be a full room anyway. “I’ll tell him you’re here.”
Clay frowned as Nick reached for the door. Nick raised an eyebrow in question. He doubted that he was on the list of the uninvited. Clay shrugged and stood aside to let him enter.
The Strategy Room wasn’t as crowded as Nick had expected. Martin and Angus were at the big map on the back wall. Banks of phones were manned, and the chatter was a low hum. At first glance, it looked like everything was in hand. “What is it?” Nick asked as he joined them at the map.
“Incursion on the east perimeter,” Martin said. “Trying to get more info now.”
“Ready team is at the station. A train is due in any minute,” Young Joe, head of the Rovers, announced from across the room. He and Toby, head of the Sentinels, each had a big table set up with several monitors and phones.
“We just need to figure out where to send them,” Martin grumbled.
Dunham came into the room with his own entourage. He was overseeing the collaboration and communication between the Watch, Rovers and Sentinels with Martin now acting as liaison to Angus and the various committees.
“SOS beacon was tripped at Creamery,” Dunham said, tapping a spot on the map. “Back up was sent from Post Cowtown and Ranger Stations Yellow and Green.” Having given his report, he went to his worktable where several runners waited.
“Hmm, Creamery,” Angus mumbled.
“The house guards there should be able to handle a few raiders,” Martin said with a frown toward the map.
“The runners want to come in,” Nick told Martin. “Do you need them?”
“Can’t hurt,” he said with a half-hearted shrug.
Nick started to go get them but turned back to stare at both men. They seemed a little too subdued for the situation. A chill hit him as he realized what that probably meant. “What aren’t you saying?” he asked quietly.
Martin glanced at Angus who gave him a vague wave of assent without meeting their eyes. He leaned toward Nick to speak quietly. “Tillie’s our first case of flu.”
“Oh.” The word came out more as a grunt. He felt as though someone had belted him in the gut. “Oh.” He looked at Angus, who ignored him, then back to Martin who shrugged. “Um, should we...”
“Do what needs to be done,” Angus said tonelessly.
“Right. I’ll let Clay know the runners can come in.” Nick strode out of the room feeling like he was going to burst. They couldn’t spare anyone to the flu, but especially not Tillie. And if she wasn’t available, that meant someone needed to be coordinating supplies for the men. He spoke to Clay about the runners, and then went back to talk to Martin.
The noise level had increased. Both Toby and Young Joe had aides who were speaking on phones. There was more information on the map, and it didn’t look good. There were at least three possible incursion points around Creamery. And two fires had been started in the woods. They would need to pull in men from elsewhere which always made him worry about a double bluff.