Missing (18 page)

     And he was in the middle of nowhere, following a blood trail to God-only knew where.

     It wasn’t a good situation.

     After several minutes, Lt Col Weiss walked over to join them. The look of anguish on his face was unmistakable.

     “I’m sorry. I just received confirmation that your Mr. Jacoby was among the deceased.”

     Frank said nothing, but stared off into space.

     Karen was more direct. She shouted, “Damn it!” and started to cry.

     Despite all the indications to the contrary, she never gave up hope that John was somehow still alive.

     Now that hope was dashed.

     “If you don’t mind,” Weiss said, “I’d like to be the one to notify his daughter.”

     Karen looked at him.

     Her tone was icy as she asked, “Why on earth would you presume to think you should be the one to notify her?”

     He backed off a bit.

     “I’m sorry. It’s not something I would enjoy doing, I assure you. But her father was a guest of the military at the time of the accident. As such, she is entitled to certain… benefits and services on behalf of the federal government. I want to make sure she is aware of those things.”

     “Like what, for example?”

     “Well, before the freeze, the Department of Defense would have offered her a monetary settlement for her pain and suffering. Since the collapse of the monetary system, the dollar no longer means anything. So that option no longer exists.

     “However, there are other ways we might be able to help. Like making all the funeral arrangements, providing the casket, providing transportation for the deceased and the family to wherever she wants to bury him. We can also provide grief counseling for her and anyone else who might have trouble dealing with Mr. Jacoby’s death.

     “And, we’ve verified that Mr. Jacoby was a United States Marine who was honorably discharged in 1980. We can therefore provide a color guard and a military funeral if she requests it.”

     Karen bit her tongue and tried her best to be civil.

     “With all due respect, sir… I appreciate your offers, and I know that you’re not the bad guy here. However, Sami just lost her father, who happened to be the only family member she had left.

     “I very seriously doubt she gives a damn about color guards or counseling, or anything else you have to offer.”

     Then she softened a bit.

     “However, after she gets over the initial shock of losing her dad, I will discuss your offers with her.”

     Weiss had apparently done this before, and he knew it might be coming.

     Cupped in his hand was a piece of paper with his name and a six digit number, punctuated in the center by a decimal.

    “I thought you might feel this way. This is the non-encrypted ham radio frequency for the Kelly Operations Center. The radio is manned twenty four seven, every day of the year. If Sami, or anyone else in your group, needs assistance, please feel free to call me.”

     “Thank you, Colonel. There are two more questions I’d like to ask you.”

     “Anything.”

     “The first one is, can you verify that our Hannah Snyder was the lone female survivor?”

     “Yes, she was. She just got out of surgery and she’s in critical condition.”

     Karen winced at the news, but pressed on.

     “The second question is, where exactly is she so we can send some people down to visit her?”

     “That part’s already taken care of. She’s in Room 808 at the Wilford Hall Regional Medical Center in south San Antonio. I’ve already had a fifteen passenger van dispatched to pick up some of your people.”

     He looked at his watch.

     “It should arrive here in about forty minutes or so.

     “We will operate the van as a shuttle, every six hours around the clock, until Hannah is released from the hospital and brought back home to you.”

     Karen stammered just a bit.

     “T…thank you for that, colonel. That will help a lot.”

     He nodded and walked away.

     Karen turned to Frank and said, “We need to find Mark and tell him to pack a bag and get ready.”

     “Yep. And then we need to talk to Sami. That’s going to be the hardest conversation I’ve had in a very long time.”

     Karen shook her head.

     “I’ll make a deal with you, Frank. No offense, but you’re still a newcomer here. I’ve known Sami a lot longer than you. Trust me, she’ll take it a lot better coming from me than from you.

     “You go find Mark and help him get ready. I’ll go out to the orchard and talk to Sami. Deal?”

     “Are you sure?”

     “Yes. Now go find Mark. He doesn’t have much time.”

     Frank watched Karen as she walked down the main hallway to the exit door.

     And he couldn’t help but think he got the much better end of the deal.

Chapter 37

     Mark was conflicted. He and his brother Bryan had always been extremely close. Almost inseparable. And always there for each other when times were tough.

     When they were kids they never fought constantly like most brothers did. Rather, they fought side by side, fighting anyone or anything that challenged either one of them.

     They liked to tell people that as long as the two of them stayed together, they could conquer the world.

     At any other time, Mark would have been in the forest, right alongside Bryan, searching desperately for Sarah.

     But this wasn’t any other time.

     This was when his own wife was in a hospital. And she needed him way more than Bryan did.

     Still, he felt bad.

     He even tried to call Bryan on the radio. To apologize to him. To explain why he had to go and be with Hannah, even with Sarah still missing and the rest of the compound still desperately searching for her.

     But Bryan didn’t answer his radio.

     Mark had even asked, just before he left the big house, “Did Bryan switch out his radio battery before he left?”

     No one had seen him do so.

     Frank added a new ugly fact into an already ugly situation.

     “No one has heard from him in quite awhile. No one knows exactly where he’s at. At this point, we have to consider him missing as well.”

     Mark very seldom lost his cool. But in the previous forty eight hours his wife and good friend John had gone missing. Then Sarah mysteriously vanished from a routine walk in the woods.

     John was now dead. Hannah might well be close to death herself. Sami had the weight of the world come crashing down upon her.

     And now this… his brother was missing also.

     It was almost too much for Mark to bear.

     In the middle of the lobby, halfway between the compound’s control center and that of the United States Army’s, all heads turned.

     Mark looked at the ceiling in anguish and bellowed, at the top of his lungs, “Why? Why in the hell is this happening?”

     Karen went to him and held him. So did Helen. And, despite her own pain, so did Sami.

     Helen told him, “Bryan will be fine. You know how he is. He’s so much in love with Sarah he wasn’t thinking straight. And he hasn’t had any sleep to speak of. He simply forgot to switch his battery, that’s all. He’ll be back when he finds her. They’ll both be back. He’ll be her knight in shining armor and rescue her from whatever has befallen her.

     “You just worry about Hannah. Go to her and stay with her, and bring her back too.

     “Now you better go. That van isn’t going to wait for you forever.”

     That was an hour before.

     Now Mark sat in an olive drab Ford Econoliner with several others from the compound, halfway between Junction and San Antonio.

     He’d monitored his own radio, desperately hoping to hear Bryan’s voice, or at least someone else’s voice saying they’d found him, and Sarah, and they were both okay.

     Then the radio went silent. They were out of range, and he turned it off to conserve the battery.

     Rachel, on the bench seat behind him, sensed how troubled he was. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he responded by reaching up and putting his own hand atop hers.

     He appreciated her gesture. One of the things the people at the compound had always been good at were supporting each other.

     And this situation was no different.

     Debbie, the camp medic, had organized everyone in the compound who wasn’t out in the woods searching for Sarah.

     “We need to show our support for Hannah. We need to surround her with love, and make sure someone is with her at all times until she comes back home.”

     Debbie asked for volunteers. People to travel to the hospital in shifts to sit with Hannah, to comfort her, to help her grieve for John and for Sami.

     And, although no one dared mention it, possibly Sarah as well.

     Every hand in the room went up.

     “Mark will surely stay there with her until she’s released and brought home. The rest of us will go for six hours at a time. Three of us, in addition to Mark, will always be there. Once we make the trip a few times and know it’s safe, we’ll let the kids who want to see her go along as well.

     “I’m passing around a sign-up sheet for the next week. Please write down when you’d like to go.

     “Each time we go, we’ll send food and fresh clothing for Mark, and something for the nursing staff and doctors who are taking care of her. Karen and Helen, can the kitchen staff handle cooking for a few extra people?”

     Karen nodded her head.

     “Sure. That’s no problem.”

     Helen, who doubled as the elementary school teacher, said, “I’ll help the kids make her some get well cards and draw some other things to help decorate her room.

     Helen was also taking care of little Markie in his parents’ absence. She’d escort him to the hospital as soon as Mark sent word back that Hannah was awake and could handle his hugs.

     Markie himself wasn’t privy to much of the information, as was the case with the rest of the children. They were told simply that Miss Hannah was hurt in an accident, was at a hospital in San Antonio getting better, and that she’d be home soon.

     Miss Sarah, they were told, went on a camping trip and would be back soon as well.

     As for Mister John, the children weren’t told anything. The adults decided to be honest with them when the time was right. After all, you can’t hide a death very long.

     Helen suggested, “Let’s wait until he comes home. When he’s back with the ones who loved him. Then we’ll get the kids together in the school house and tell them God called him home. And that we’re going to have a funeral for him. Not only to mourn him, but to pay tribute to the wonderful man he was.”

     No one was looking forward to that day. John was a kind and loving man, who always had time to spare for the children of the group.

     They all considered him more a grandfather than a friend.

Chapter 38

     Sami had wanted to go along on the first trip to Wilford Hall Medical Center, but had been overruled by Brad and Debbie.

     “But Hannah is one of my best friends. She needs to know that I love her. I need to be there for her.”

     “No, Sami. She’ll have Mark there, and some of the others. She’ll have all the love and support she can handle right now. Right now you’re hurting at least as much as she is, and you need just as much love and support. You can go after a few days, when you’re stronger and not such an emotional train wreck.

     “And besides, Hannah knows you love her. Your waiting a few days to visit her isn’t going to convince her otherwise.”

     Helen added her two cents.

     “And besides, honey, you’ve got another best friend, remember? When Sarah is found and brought home she’s going to be hungry and weak, and injured in some way. She’s going to need you just as much as Hannah does.”

     “Well, I suppose you’re right. Okay. I’ll hold off on going for now.”