| |
AOS CAMP:
Judy kneels on the couch in Monroe’s trailer, looking through the front window. “Marcia’s coming!”
Christa goes to the door, lets her in, and sees her troubled expression. “What’s going on?”
“I just saw the guards bring Alex and David into the camp at gunpoint.”
Judy leaps off the couch. “How did they find us?”
“I don’t know. The guards locked them in jail until Major Everex and the Colonel get back.”
Judy grabs the doorknob. “We have to leave!”
Christa grabs her arm. “No! We have to get them out of jail!”
Judy yanks her arm away. “You don’t understand. If Alex and David tell them they are looking for the three women from the plane, they’ll tear this place apart to find us.”
Marcia turns to Christa. “She’s right. I’ll get word to them not to mention you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“What about the Colonel?” Christa asks. “Did you talk to him about us?”
“I haven’t had a chance.” With a reassuring smile, Marcia leaves the trailer.
***
Alex grabs the bars of his cell, frustrated is doesn’t know if the girls are here at this camp. The soldiers wouldn’t tell him anything, and the guard sitting at the desk sneered at him and said he’d learn soon enough.
Alex moves to the window and stares at the green pines behind the jailhouse through the bars of the window, and notices movement in the trees. A tall woman steps out, and he smiles at Marcia.
When she sees Alex, Marcia looks around nervously before hurrying to the jailhouse window, putting a finger to her lips.
Alex glances over his shoulder. The guard is sitting with his feet on the desk, engrossed in a paperback novel. He turns to Marcia and whispers. “Are the girls all right?”
“Yes, they’re hiding. Don’t mention us or the plane!” She suddenly looks away, then back at Alex. “There’s a car coming!” She hurries back into the trees.
Alex steps away from the window and sits on the cot next to David. “The girls are here.”
“Break it up!” the guard snarls, staring at them.
Alex hears a car stop outside the building and sees the guard suddenly sit up and put the book away. He gets up and moves to the wall across from David. A moment later, the door opens and a stocky man steps inside, followed by a tall man with a black patch over one eye.
When the short man approaches the cell, Alex sees the look of a cold-blooded killer in his eyes. The man’s muscles appear to be trying to rip through his shirt, and he knows an interrogation wouldn’t be pleasant. He also knows David could never take the punishment and would give in to the man’s brutality. The only way to save David and the women is to make himself the target of the man’s torture. Alex does his best to look intimidated and meek, as he scurries back from the bars like a frightened little animal.
Everex studies the prisoners. The young boy looks him straight in the eye, but the other man looks as if he’ll shit his pants if he says boo. “What were you doing to our trucks?” he growls.
Before David can answer or turn to him for help, Alex speaks, raising the pitch of his voice. “We don’t mean you any harm. Please don’t hurt me! We weren’t doing anything! Honest, Mr. I’ll tell you anything, but please don’t hurt me!”
David looks at Alex in stunned disbelief. What is he doing? He’s never considered Alex a coward, but now, seeing him like this, he wonders how he can be so wrong. He’s disgusted to see Alex cowering against the wall. Well, I’m not a coward. He turns to the man at the bars, and thrusts his chin out as he stares him in the eyes. “I’m not telling you anything!”
Everex stares at the boy and smirks. He has guts. It might take a while to break him, but he’ll give in, eventually. His men told him they were hiding by their supply trucks and thought they were there to sabotage them. If it’s true, he needs to know who sent them.
Essex looks at the sniveling man pressed against the wall. “Answer me!” he shouts and watches the man cover his face with his hands and squat in the corner. He loathes a coward and thinks about just shooting him. No. I’ll kill him after he answers some questions. He turns to the guard. “Bring that scared bastard to the showers.” He turns to look up at Blackwood and grins. “Now the fun begins. Care to watch?”
A cold chill runs up Blackwood’s spine. “Uh, no. I have to check on some things.” He turns and walks out the doorway.
Everex steps outside and watches Blackwood hurry up the road on foot. When he starts to get into his car, Davis hurries up to him. “What’s going on?”
“That amazon woman went to the Woolly’s trailer a little while ago.”
Everex thinks about it for a moment. Something about the teacher has bothered him from the start, and he doesn’t trust her. He also doesn’t like the influence she has on Blackwood. She gives him courage, and that’s bad. “Follow the Woolly woman to the trailer when she leaves and have someone keep an eye on the amazon woman. There’s something going on, and I want to know what it is.”
***
Alex allows the guards to shove him into a large room with rows of gray metal lockers and benches. He smells sweaty clothes and mentholated muscle rubbing ointments as they continue to the end of the room. One guard sets two chairs in the shower room and the other shoves him into one of them.
Everex walks in and sits in front of Alex. “What’s your name?”
“Look, we were hunting and got lost. We heard your trucks and were going to ask directions.”
Everex leaps from the chair, wrapping both hands around Alex’s throat and shoving him against the wall. “Don’t give me that crap! I saw your government ID, Mr. Alex Cave. What are you doing here?”
“I’m not an agent. I’m a teacher.”
Everex drives his fist into Alex’s stomach. When he bends over in pain, Everex grabs Alex’s throat and sets him up straight in the chair. “What were you doing to the tankers?”
“We got lost in the woods.”
Everex drives his fist into Alex’s the face. “This is your last chance!”
Alex realizes the being lost story isn’t going to work. He watches Everex raise his hand for another blow and throws his arms up to ward it off.
“All right! All right!”
“Okay, who sent you?”
“I’m working with Menno Simons.”
“Who the hell is Menno Simons?”
“He’s a minister.”
“What does he know about us?”
“He knows you have supplies. He sent us to find out how big an army you have.”
“Why?”
“We think he can help us with this oil crisis, but his army is running out of food and gas. We want him to take your supplies.”
“How many soldiers does he have?”
“About seven-hundred, maybe more.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re seventy miles from here in Osborn, Idaho, ready to attack your camp.”
Everex hurries out of the shower and looks at the guards. “Throw him back in jail.”
Alex is handcuffed and taken back to the cell. The cuffs are removed, and he sits on the cot and sees David glaring at him.”
“You told them, didn’t you?”
“I told him we’re spies, and that Menno has an army nearby coming to attack them. That should buy us some time to escape.”
***
Everex bursts through the door into Blackwood’s cabin. “There’s another army out there! Some fanatic named Menno Simons is bringing troops here to steal our supplies!”
Blackwood frowns for a moment as he stares at Everex, and then grins. “So? Our army is well trained, and we have plenty of ammunition.”
“Our army ain’t shit, Colonel! We have about one-hundred combat soldiers. The rest are just a bunch of scared men and women forced to learn how to shoot and do what we tell them to do. This Menno person has seven-hundred troops. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Seven-hundred soldiers? Everex is right. They’ll be overrun in no time. “Maybe we could make a deal. Offer to let them join us and share our supplies.”
“No! We have enough supplies to keep us going for maybe a year. Seven-hundred more mouths would wipe us out in a week! No. We have to attack them first, before they get here. I want you to take most of our troops and hit them with a surprise attack.”
Blackwood’s jaw drops. “Me?”
“You’re the big hero combat veteran.”
“That was a long time ago.”
Everex draws his nickel-plated Colt 45 automatic pistol and points it at Blackwood’s chest. “Then I don’t need you anymore.”
Blackwood sees the look in Everex’s eyes and knows he’ll pull the trigger. “Wait! I mean, it’s just that I’ll need time to get organized. Lay out a battle plan. I can’t just charge in like the Lone Ranger!”
Everex slowly puts the Colt back in his holster. “I figure it will take the rest of the day to get ready to move out. That’s all the time you have, Colonel. If you’re not prepared by then, you’ll have to figure it out as you go. My men will be your first officers. I’ll have them get started with the organizing. We’ll modify some of the truck trailers as troop carriers and use a motor home for a command center.”
“All right. I’d better get started.”
Blackwood stands and pretends to be going through the maps. He hears the cabin door slam shut, looks over his shoulder, then collapses into the chair. “Oh, damn!” he moans. I’m no war hero. Shit! I was a Major for a week before they sent me out with a squad of men.
His thoughts go back to that fatal day. When the shooting started, he panicked when his men started shouting at him for orders. While they were being butchered, he’d hidden in a hole. The rest of his time, he spent in the POW camp. Sure, he received a purple heart for his eye, but he’d lost it while being rescued, when he tripped getting into the helicopter and shoved his face into a rifle barrel. Now Everex wants him to lead a bunch of civilians against trained soldiers? He shudders and buries his face in his hands. This can’t be happening.
***
Judy and Christa are sitting at a table in Monroe’s trailer, eating food out of plastic bags. Judy drains the last bit of gravy and zips the empty bag closed, tossing it onto the table. “I’m getting a strange vibe, likes something is wrong. Let’s get out of here for a while.”
Christa follows her toward the trees, then Judy suddenly stops. “No, wait. I saw the woman leave her motorhome. Let’s go hide in there.”
“What if she comes back?”
“We’ll deal with it.”
They check for anyone watching and make a dash into the Road Master motorhome.
***
Marcia knocks lightly on the trailer door, but no one answers. She tries the handle, and it opens, so she steps inside and closes it behind her.
***
Davis sees Everex walking across the parade ground and drives up beside him. “The amazon woman is in the trailer again.”
Everex climbs into the vehicle. “Let’s go.”
***
Marcia is looking at Cally on the bed when the door is yanked open behind her. She spins around, and her eyes go wide with fear as she stares down at the pistol and the cold dark eyes of Major Everex, standing at the bottom of the steps.
Everex waves the pistol at Marcia. “Out!”
Marcia holds her head up, climbs down the steps, and sees Davis pointing a rifle at her.
Everex stares up at the big woman. “Who else is in there?”
“Just Mrs. Woolly, but she’s asleep. I just stopped by to talk to her.”
“Just shut up,” Everex snaps and leaps into the trailer. He sees the woman on the bed, but ignores her and dashes into the living room. It’s empty, but there’s a blanket and pillow on the couch. He turns back to the kitchen and sees the remaining food in the zip-lock bags on the table. He stomps across the floor to the bedroom and yanks roughly on Cally’s leg, dragging her off the bed. “Get up, bitch!”
Cally thumps onto the floor and stares up into Everex’s eyes. It takes her a second to come fully awake and realizes with sickening dread she’s in deep trouble.
Everex yanks Cally to her feet and shoves her toward the door. “Get Out!”
Cally stumbles down the steps and sees Marcia staring at her, then sees Davis with a rifle.
Everex grabs Cally’s arm and spins her around. “Where are the others?”
At that moment, her first thought is that she’s going to become a whore after all. She smiles to herself. Well, it beats sweating over a hot stove all day.
Everex can’t believe the woman is smiling, and his rage doubles. He shoves the pistol against Cally’s forehead. “What’s so damn funny?”
Cally sees the savagery in Everex’s eyes and knows she’ll be dead in a second. She tries to step back, but his fingers dig painfully into her arm. “I don’t know,” she moans. His grip tightens even more, and tears blur her eyes.
“For the last time, who was in the trailer with you?”
“I don’t know. I was asleep.”
Marcia can’t stand to see Cally in such pain. “I’ll tell you everything, just let her go!”
Everex glares at Marcia. “Start talking!”
Marcia looks at Cally, and when Everex shoves her away, she tells him about Christa, Judy, and the plane wreck. “We were just trying to get out of Bozeman.”
Everex stares at her. She’s lied from the beginning, and she’s probably lying now. “Menno sent you to spy on us, didn’t he?”
Marcia blinks in surprise. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She’s a good actor, too. Well, I’ll get it out of her soon enough. “Lock them up. Search the camp and the woods. Find these other women. They’re spies.”
Christa and Judy are staring out the window, watching Marcia and Cally being forced into a vehicle. Judy leans back as the car drives away. “That was close.”
“Yes. Now Marcia’s cover is blown. We have to get them out of that jail.”
***
Alex is dozing on his cot and doesn’t look up when the jailhouse door opens, but what he hears next makes him leap to his feet.
“Marcia?” David asks.
None of them speaks as Marcia and Cally are shoved into the other cell. Alex looks at Marcia, his eyes asking about Christa and Judy. He sighs with relief when Marcia indicates they’re okay.
Cally stands at the cell door, looking at the guard. “Hey! I was blackmailed. I don’t even know these people.”
The guard stares at Cally. “Just sit down and shut up!”
***
Everex bursts through the door of Blackwood’s cabin. “Your amazon lady is a spy, and the Woolly’s have been hiding two more spies! Shit! The whole damn camp could be full of spies!”
Blackwood feels a sinking feeling in his heart. “I think you’re wrong.”
“Who gives a shit what you think! Right now, you have to get moving and stop this Menno bastard.” Everex looks at the desk which appears just as it had when he left. “Have you worked out your plan?”
Blackwood didn’t expect Everex to be back this soon and hasn’t done a thing, but knows he’d better say something. “He stands and holds up a map of Idaho. “Damn right. I’ve got it all laid out in my head.”
Everex looks at Blackwood suspiciously. “Good. You’ll leave at dusk.”
“What about Ms. Story?”
“She’s in jail with the others. You know what happens to spies, Colonel. Only now, there’s no Geneva Convention, just my rules. Now the fun begins.”