Condemn (BUNKER 12 Book 2) (33 page)

A vehicle had pulled up to the gate
and was waiting to get into the compound. Someone had gotten out
and stood in the glare of the headlights shouting something.
Several men gathered inside the wire with their rifles trained on
the newcomer. They shouted back.

The standoff continued for another
minute or so before Colonel Wainwright appeared, jogging across the
quad and trying to button up his shirt.

Eddie watched as he spoke with the
people at the gate for a moment, then relayed instructions to the
men around him. Two guards exited the compound inspect the vehicle.
They ordered the man who'd gotten out to kneel down on the ground
with his hands on his head. A third ran toward the barracks.
Another remained where he was, his rifle trained on the
vehicle.

Captain Cheever arrived a couple
minutes later, marching straight up to the colonel. They conferred
with the driver, who was then allowed to get back onto his feet
again.

Eddie watched this play out with a
vague sense of dread. He'd first thought the vehicle was Bren
returning. But that didn't appear to be the case.

A guard who'd headed off toward the
barracks soon reappeared with several more men, all armed. They
surrounded a trio of women who appeared to have been roused from
their sleep and were still in their nightclothes.

Alarm filled Eddie when he recognized
Kari, Susan, and Hannah. His daughter broke away from the others,
burst through the guard, and ran for the gate.

"Stop!" one of the men shouted and
raised his rifle.

Without thinking, Eddie smashed the
window. Screaming for his daughter, he leapt from the office,
landing lightly on the tarmac ten feet below, his legs already
coiling to run.

The guards swiveled and fired toward
him. Eddie felt a sharp sting on his arm, but he ignored it and
kept running.

Hannah changed course, veering in his
direction. He yelled at her to stop, but she didn't. The guards
fired another round.

"Stop shooting!" Captain Cheever
screamed at the men. He ran at them, his hands raised. "Stop
shooting, goddamn it!"

Eddie swept Hannah up in his arms in
midstride. There was one more gunshot, followed by Cheever
screaming again at everyone to hold their fire.

By then, Susan and Kari had broken
from the group. They ran toward the gate.

"Eddie!" came a shout from the
vicinity of the new vehicle. Eddie stopped and turned. A figure
stepped out and into the light. The colonel ordered him to stay
put, but he didn't. "Eddie!"

"It's them, Daddy," Hannah said. She
pushed herself out of his arms. Numb with surprise, he set her down
as he stared. "It's Danny."

"Danny?"

"And he brought Finn and
Bix!"

"Open the gate!" Finn shouted.
"Goddamn it, open the fucking gate!"

Eddie's nostrils flared. He smelled
blood, and not just his own. He saw Finn rush over to the fence and
kneel down. Someone was lying on the ground.

"Open up!" Finn screamed. "Danny's
been shot! Oh my god, please! He's dying!"

"He's dead," Captain Cheever quietly said. "Your friend is
dead."

He shut the door, and gave Eddie and
Hannah a grim look. After a moment, he sat down on the stool with a
sigh.

Hannah lowered her face into her hands
and silently cried. Eddie glared at the man and didn't say
anything. He was shaking, too, though it was more in anger than
anguish.

He didn't feel the cuts he'd incurred
breaking through the window. In fact, they'd already started to
scab over. And while the shot he'd taken to the arm, now bandaged,
still hurt, the pain was a distant thing, faraway and
unimportant.

He had refused the medic's
painkillers, who seemed to think Eddie was mad for doing so. But he
didn't want to be impaired in any way. He wanted to be involved.
Except he'd been ordered to remain in the infirmary under armed
guard.

"I want to see Wainwright."

"The colonel's busy, as you can
imagine," Cheever said.

"I demand to speak to him
now!"

"I'm sorry, but that just isn't
possible." He shook his head and managed to look genuinely sorry.
"We think it was a stray bullet."

"It wasn't a stray, dammit! Bring
Wainwright," Eddie said, speaking through his teeth. "Those men,
the guards, they were shooting at me, not toward the gate. There's
no way in hell a stray bullet could've hit Danny."

Captain Cheever raised his hands.
"What do you want me to say? We're investigating."

Eddie wasn't absolutely certain that
Cheever was innocent, but he knew the man hadn't been the one to
shoot Danny. He'd been facing the other direction, trying to get
the guards to stop. Wainwright had been the closest. He had to have
been the one who fired the fatal shot. Nevertheless, Eddie had to
struggle to keep himself from reaching out and choking Cheever. He
needed to lash out at someone in his grief.

The captain turned to Hannah, concern
on his face. "Perhaps we should be having this conversation in
private."

Eddie shook his head.

"Listen," the captain said, lowering
his voice, "maybe you think you saw something. There was a lot of
chaos. Tensions were high. It was a surprise to us all when you
crashed out of that window, so of course people were going to
react. That's how they're trained. They thought you
were . . . infected."

"I was screaming my daughter's name.
And stop deflecting the issue."

"Your friend getting shot was an
accident. That's all it was."

"
This
was an accident," Eddie said,
lifting his bandaged arm. "What was done to our friend was not. He
was murdered in cold blood. Ask the two boys who arrived with him,
Finn and Bix. I'm sure they saw everything."

"Well, they are being interrogated
right now."

"By who?"

Captain Cheever pursed his lips. "The
colonel."

Eddie jumped up, but Cheever waved him
back. "He's not alone. There are others with him. Nothing will
happen to your boys."

"Has Harrison Blakeley been told that
his son is here?"

"We haven't told anyone yet, though
everyone on base probably knows by now what happened. Word travels
fast in this place. But the colonel needs to conduct his interview
without interference. Once he's done—"

Eddie grabbed the captain and raised
him up into the air. "The colonel is the problem! I'm telling you,
you can't trust him."

"I've known the man for years,"
Cheever cried. Panic and surprise filled his eyes. "He's an
honorable man!"

"Why would he order his men to get my
daughter out of bed? Why have heavily armed men escort her to the
gate? What kind of danger does a little girl pose?"

"Your man, Danny, he insisted on
seeing you. He refused to come inside until you came out. He asked
for you by name, but nobody knew where you were. You were missing,
and none of the guards said you had left. The colonel fetched your
daughter instead. Let me go!"

"That makes no sense! The next obvious
choice would have been one of the other adults in my group," Eddie
growled. He threw the man back onto the stool. "Not
her!"

Cheever shrugged. "I don't know what
to say. Maybe that's how you would've done—"

"Ever since we came here, you and the
colonel have evaded our questions. My people have been disappearing
and all you've done is give us lies! You told us that Danny left on
his own."

"He did."

"Did you actually see him
leave? Did he
tell
you he was leaving?"

"Private Ramsay was on duty that
night."

"Ramsay is mixed up in this,
too!"

Cheever's eyes widened. "Listen, maybe
your guy went out looking for those two boys. Maybe that's
why—"

"And he'll never be able to tell us
because your colonel killed him!"

"And I'm telling you Colonel
Wainwright would not have shot him! Please wait until our
investigation is completed before throwing around
accusations!"

"Who told you Jonathan and Nami died
in your infirmary?"

"What?" Cheever blinked in confusion.
"The medic. Why?"

"And who buried them?"

"Private Vinnie used to be on the
burial detail. Ramsay is pulling the extra duty until we find
someone else."

"Ramsay again! It sure seems like he's
at the center of everything, don't you think? Wasn't it Ramsay who
left Jonah and Vinnie behind in the desert?"

"So?"

"So what if I told you that I happen
to know Jonah is alive?"

The captain shrugged. "I don't know
how you would, but even if it were true, that doesn't mean anyone
lied. The search team never found any bodies, just a lot of blood
and a dead motorcycle. It isn't that great of a leap to conclude
that they were both dead."

"Did you know that Ramsay sabotaged
the bike intending for the men to die?"

Cheever opened his mouth, but nothing
came out.

"Did you know that more than half of
the graves in your cemetery are empty?" Eddie asked.

Cheever didn't answer. He stared at
Eddie as if the man had lost his mind. "Why would you even say a
thing like that?" he finally asked.

"Dig them up if you don't believe
me."

"This is ridic—"

"Tell me this, Captain: Why are there
so many? Since we've been here, I've seen five graves being
dug."

"This is a tough world. People die.
Only the strong survive for very long."

Whether Captain Cheever
intended to parrot the colonel's words from earlier in the day,
Eddie didn't know. "A lot of
apparent
deaths," he growled, "but
very few in reality."

Cheever shook his head. "I
don't—"

"Do you oversee the
burials?"

"Some of them, yes. But as base
commander, Wainwright is responsible for the census. Unless he
specifically asks me to, he manages those details."

"The body count. How
convenient."

"What are you implying?"

"I'd be willing to bet that Wainwright
and Ramsay are somehow mixed up in this together. What are they
doing with the missing people?"

"What missing people?" Cheever asked,
clearly at the end of his patience.

Eddie bent down over the captain. "You
listen to me. People here are mixed up in something crooked, and I
think your colonel is at the center of it. I think he executed
Danny at the gate because he knew something. And as long as those
boys, Finnian Bolles and Bixby Blakeley, are in that man's
presence, they're in danger, too."

For the first time, Captain Cheever
looked uncertain. He pushed himself off the stool, still warily
eying Eddie. "Sit tight," he said. "I'll be back."

"I'm coming with you."

"You're being held for trespassing and
destruction of property. Or did you forget about that?"

Eddie laughed. "Held?"

Cheever stepped over to him. "We still
have rules here. They're the only things that keep this place from
descending into anarchy."

"Rules," Eddie spat in
disgust.

"Look, Mister Mancuso, I give you my
word that I will check out your accusations. But I can't just go
barging in. This needs to be handled . . .
judiciously. Because if you're wrong—"

"I'm not."

Cheever sighed. "All right,
if you're
right
,
then your presence will only make my job that much harder, don't
you think?"

"At least let Bix's father know his
son has returned."

"Fine. Just give me some time to
investigate."

Cheever pulled the door open and
stepped out into the hallway. He instructed the guard to keep an
eye on them. "Make sure they stay put. I'm going to see the
colonel."