The whole time I’d been working with the people involved in Operation Exodus, Mrs. Pierce and JoBell had been on my case, urging me to do something I really didn’t want to do. The night after we talked to Kemp and Crocker about the drone plan, I finally worked up the stomach to do it. I was going to lie to my buddy Cal and use him in our plan to escape.

“Hey, man,” I said, joining him on the deck that night. He was laying back on one of his reclining outdoor chairs, watching the stars or something. “Care if I join you?”

Cal didn’t even look at me. “Free country.”

I sat in the other chair and reclined, trying to act casual, like I didn’t feel like throwing up, knowing what I had to do. The stars were bright that night. “The sky has always been pretty awesome above this little town. But I think less lights are on all over. Looks even better now.” Cal didn’t say anything. “Listen, Cal. I’m sorry. You were right. Jumping your case about the Brotherhood was a dick move.” I waited for him to respond, but he just lay there. At least he didn’t walk away like he had the last few days. I had to hurry up with this, though, so I didn’t lose him. JoBell had drilled me over and over with what to say and how to say it, but I couldn’t remember any of that now.

“Cal, that stuff you said about us thinking you were dumb or something.”

Cal sighed. “Great. Here it comes.”

“No, just listen a second. Cal, you know I wasn’t no whiz kid in school. I basically only passed my classes so that I could stay eligible for football. If the girls hadn’t let us copy their homework so often, we’d have flunked out. Both of us. Together.” It felt good to be telling the truth. “That’s how it was always supposed to be. I’d take over the shop from Schmidty. You’d get yourself a construction business going or maybe get a solid gig working for the county. We were supposed to raise our kids here in Freedom Lake. You know, our boys would end up on the same football team and everything.”

“That can still happen.” Cal’s voice wasn’t very convincing.

Now for the bullshit. “The other day, I wasn’t so much mad at the Brotherhood as I was just tired of the war. I thought that once we’d ended the occupation, I could leave the fight behind and try to get to that future I used to imagine.”

Cal finally looked at me. “Yeah, but dude, did you really expect the US to roll over and quit? You gotta be realistic. We can still have the life you talked about, but we gotta win the war first. That’s what the Brotherhood is about.”

“You weren’t in that Fed torture cell, Cal. No sleep. Electric shocks. Waterboarding. Sitting there in my own piss and shit. I wanted to die. Anything to end it. So when Crow said they’d be making me a member of the Brotherhood on graduation day … I don’t know. I started thinking that joining the Brotherhood would drag me back into the fight, where I would be running good odds of ending up in a torture cell again. I panicked, I guess.” Never mind the fact that I’d wanted to get out of the war before the Fed had even captured me.

“I’m sorry you went through all that,” Cal said.

“Well, thanks for coming to get me.”

“Wouldn’t have left you there, man. Woulda died myself before I let that happen.” It was working like JoBell said it would. Playing on his sense of loyalty. Cal sat up in his chair and turned to face me. “But doesn’t what they done to you make you want to kill the US bastards?”

“Maybe.” I wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not. “But more than anything, I can’t go through that kind of hell again. I can’t be involved with anything like that. So I was mad at the Brotherhood for trying to pull me back into it all.”

“We look out for our own. You wouldn’t be captured again. No way.”

I remembered part of what JoBell had told me to say. “Thing is, I’ve been thinking about that. The US is coming for us, whether I want to be in the war or not, whether I’m in the Brotherhood or not. Every single one of us is going to have to fight for our very survival.”

A little of that murderous glint showed in Cal’s eyes. “We’ll be ready for them. We’re making our stand at Spokane. We’ll kick their asses.”

“Right,” I said. “So I’m all in with the Brotherhood. I’ll give it my best.”

Cal’s smile was huge. This was exactly what he’d been hoping to hear. “You won’t regret it, man. And I was thinking, you know, we find all kinds of tools and stuff on our patrols. We could get your shop all set up again so you’d be in business after the war. It could be as good as new.”

If I could ever get the bloodstains washed out of the cement. “I’m glad we’re putting this behind us, man,” I said.

“Me too.” Then Cal slumped a little. “But what about JoBell? Sweeney? They really don’t seem to like the Brotherhood.”

“They’ll come around,” I said. “Anyway, it’s like I said. The war is coming back. We’re all going to have to come together to win it.” He seemed to have bought it, because he smiled and nodded. “I’m actually kind of embarrassed to admit this, but when I joined the Army Guard, I went to basic training and the drill sergeants just yelled at me and told me what to do. With the Brotherhood, I’m worried I’ll make an ass of myself.”

“Naw. Don’t worry about it,” Cal said. “The guys are cool. Plus, I’ll help you out.”

Now or never. “You think I could ride along with you sometime in the next few days? Like I could help you with simple Brotherhood duties, even, just to see how things go before they make me a member at graduation?”

“What?” Cal looked skeptical.

“Go ahead and make fun of me,” I said. “I’m nervous, okay? If you don’t want to help me, fine. Sorry for asking.”

“No, I wasn’t making fun of you. I was just surprised you were nervous. After all you’ve dealt with, I thought this would be cake for you. But yeah. No problem.” He laughed. “You can take over my position on the wall when I gotta go take a dump!”

I forced a laugh back, feeling terrible for using Cal like this. “Sure. Anything to get the hang of life in the Brotherhood.”

“Don’t worry it about, buddy,” Cal said. “I’ll try to get you in on some cool stuff too. This is going to be great. You’ll see.”

*  *  *

Several hours later, I had the guard shift at the house, so I sat in the dark living room, watching the street out the window. In another ten minutes, I’d have to do a patrol of the house. It was usually a lonely duty, but that night JoBell stayed up with me.

“I know it was tough, lying to Cal, but you had to do it,” JoBell said. “We have to find where they’re keeping the fuel.”

“I know. I know. But the thing is, I meant those things I said to Cal. I don’t have any real brothers. Him and Sweeney are it.”

JoBell squeezed my hand. “And TJ?”

“Eh. He’s a friend.”

“That’s an improvement,” she said.

“It made me feel dead inside, tricking him like that.”

JoBell’s soft fingers found my cheek in the dark, and she leaned in to kiss me. “Maybe we can still convince him to come with us.” We kissed again.

I held her close to me. “I couldn’t get through any of this without you,” I whispered. “I got nothing without you.”

The lights flipped on, and we spun around to find Cal standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

“I thought you were on guard duty tonight,” JoBell said.

Cal smiled. “Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds, but Danny, if you were serious about starting to get a feel for Brotherhood life, I could use your help.”

JoBell sneaked me a knowing look, and a few minutes later, I was riding shotgun in Cal’s truck.

“The place we’re going is Brotherhood only,” Cal said. “No outsiders are supposed to know where it is, but since graduation is this weekend and you’ll be one of us, I figured, what the hell?”

“Well, thanks for bringing me along,” I said.

“Yeah, no problem. Crow himself tapped me for this supply run. Why he wants the stuff on this list in the middle of the night, I have no idea, but orders is orders. And it’s good to have you here, because rule number one, you know?”

“Crow sent you on this mission alone?” I asked.

Cal shrugged. “Said he wanted it kept a secret, but I can trust you, right?”

“Right.” I sank down in my seat a little. Cal stopped the truck to talk to the guards on the north side of town. A moment later, we were driving off into the early morning dark.

*  *  *

About an hour later, I was still fighting to remember everything I could about the route we were on. Cal was driving us up a narrow gravel road, and he finally started to slow down as he rounded a curve and a gate came into view. The chain-link fence was at least twelve feet tall with a coil of concertina wire around the top. Floodlights popped on as we rolled to a stop, and in seconds, the truck was surrounded by four men with rifles drawn on us.

“Cal?” I asked.

“This is normal,” Cal said. “Every vehicle gets stopped like this.” He rolled his window down and held a paper out to the man pointing a shotgun at his face. “Nathan Crow sent me to pick up supplies.”

The man examined the paper, and then blasted a flashlight in my face. “Who’s this?”

“That’s Danny Wright.” Cal sounded like he couldn’t believe the guy didn’t know. “His induction ceremony is this weekend. I needed someone to cover me while I made the run.”

The man clicked off the light and lowered his weapon. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Wright,” he said. He offered the salute the Brotherhood had stolen from the day my mom died. “My name’s Alex. I got a brand-new baby boy that me and my wife just named Danny after you.”

I returned the salute and made myself smile. “The honor’s all mine.”

“Crow called us about this load,” Alex said. “It’s all ready for you on a pallet by the office trailer.”

The floodlights switched off and the gate rolled to the side. Cal saluted and drove ahead. The place was simple enough. To the right of a big open field were three giant aluminum machine sheds, probably where the Brotherhood kept all the stuff they’d stolen or salvaged. About a hundred yards to the left of the sheds was a trailer house with a tall radio antenna out front, just like Sergeant Crocker had said. I spotted a US Army HEMTT, a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, thirty yards beyond the sheds. “That the Brotherhood’s fuel truck?”

“That’s what keeps us running!” Cal parked the truck by the trailer. A chunky man came out onto the little wooden steps and saluted. We returned the salute. Cal dropped his truck’s tailgate. “Help me with this?”

The pallet held a big coil of rope, some canned food and boxed pasta, and a couple duffel bags. It was light enough for us to carry the whole thing to the bed of Cal’s truck. We covered it with a tarp and used bungee cords to secure it all.

“You can sleep if you want to,” Cal said, issuing the Brotherhood salute as we left the compound.

I couldn’t, though. I had to stay awake to make sure I understood the route to the compound. Cal had just shown me how to get my people out of town and away from the Brotherhood.

Back in Freedom Lake, Cal parked in a garage the Brotherhood had built after they set up their headquarters in the old cop shop on Main Street. It was a proper dock, where we pulled up next to a high concrete platform. Stacks of pallets and a bunch of fifty-gallon drums cluttered the whole place. “Great.” Cal yawned as he shut off his engine. “Where the hell are the guys? We can’t just leave this stuff in here.” He flopped back in his seat and looked over at me. “Come on.”

“Maybe I should just stay here,” I said. “The less Brotherhood guys see me, the better.”

“Don’t worry about the guys. Everybody’s excited you’re joining us. It’s cool.”

I followed him out of the garage, squeezing my rifle and hoping Cal was right about the Brotherhood being cool with me being there. After a quick check of the yard inside the HESCO barrier wall got us nowhere, Cal turned back. “There must be someone inside.”

“This the stuff to fix the burned kid?” a man said, back in the garage.

Cal stopped around the corner, out of sight. He looked at me, confused. “Burned kid?” he whispered.

“No,” came another voice. “It’s for that Chinese teacher. Ex-teacher, I mean.”

Cal frowned and held his hands palm up in front of him like, What the hell?

“You’re both wrong.” Crow’s voice came from inside the garage. “This is for someone else. And I’ll knock you both out if I hear you talking about this stuff just anywhere. That’s inner circle only. Brotherhood captains and higher. Where’s Riccon?”

Cal started ahead, but I held him back for a moment. “Don’t go in yet,” I whispered. “Don’t let them think we were listening right out here.”

“It’s no big deal,” Cal whispered back. “Who knows what they were talking about? Probably nothing.”

He didn’t sound convinced. “Okay, let’s go,” I said. “Be cool.”

Cal nodded and led the way into the garage. “Hey, Nathan. We were looking for someone to check this load in.”

Nathan Crow stared down at us from the platform. Jake Rickingson and another man I didn’t know were with him. Crow smiled. “Danny Wright. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Cal’s kind of showing me the ropes before my induction this weekend,” I said. “Besides, someone’s got to keep him from falling asleep at the wheel.”

He laughed. “Well, thanks for the help. You all set for graduation?”

I’d felt bad lying to Cal earlier, but I had no problem playing this asshole. “You bet. I even found a tie, and I think I can fit into my old suit jacket.”

“Fantastic.” He motioned for the two men with him to get the load from the truck. “Well, thanks for making the supply run. Sorry about the late notice.”

“No problem,” Cal said flatly.

I snapped to attention and offered Crow my best Brotherhood salute, squeezing my left fist so tight over my head that my arm shook. Cal did the same, and Crow returned the salute.

Minutes later, we were safely outside the compound, driving back to Cal’s.

“What do you think that meant, ‘fix the burned kid’?” I asked.

Cal shrugged, refusing to look at me. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s medicine in the duffel bags for some patient? Maybe even for Sweeney.”

The guys hadn’t sounded all nice and helpful. “And the ‘Chinese teacher’?” There was only one Asian teacher in Freedom Lake, and he wasn’t Chinese.

“Dunno, man.” Cal gripped his steering wheel hard. “Could be anything. Something on that pallet that some teacher needs? You gotta remember that the Brotherhood are helping out a lot of people all over northern Idaho.”

Something was wrong, and Cal knew it. Still, I didn’t want to push him too hard, or he’d push back. “You don’t think they were talking about Sweeney and Shiratori, do you?”

“What?” Cal said. “No. I mean, maybe. I don’t know. It could be stuff they need in Spokane. Like I said, big territory.”

We’d reached his house, but he stopped in the driveway. “You’re not pulling in?”

“You go ahead,” Cal said. “I’m going to go for a little drive.”

“Alone? It’s after three in the morning.”

He slapped his armband. “I’ll be fine. Seriously, go get some sleep.”

“Rule number —”

“Enough with the rules!” Cal shouted. “This ain’t the occupation! The Brotherhood has things under control. I’m one of them. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, man.” I climbed down out of his truck. “Be care —”

He leaned across to shut my door and was backing out of the driveway a second later. Something bad was about to go down.