Omen Operation (12 page)

“Cambria told me the generator was set to go off at midnight,” Porter said.

“Oh.” Brooklyn glanced around the room. “Okay.”

“It’s late, and we should probably get some rest. There are a couple other rooms with beds that Cambria said would be fine for you to sleep in.”

Brooklyn sat stationary with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. Her tawny eyes that usually held such distrust and hostility were lost in the sheets of the bed. Thoughts flew by in her mind, building scenes and pictures that she could never see herself in but were created just for her. Thoughts of what it would be like to be an occupational murderer. How had they chosen her, Brooklyn Harper, of all people? How had a doctor looked at her when she was a toddler, decided her life would be riddled with violence, and had handed her a lollipop on the way out?

“Or you could always sleep in here if you want,” Porter offered.

Brooklyn didn’t answer. She slid down under the covers and felt the mattress dip comfortably around her. Her toes flexed. She rubbed her cheek into the squish of a feather pillow.

Porter set his glasses down on the nightstand and lay down on his side to face her. They stayed like that, looking at one another in the dark until Porter reached out and touched the line of her jaw with his thumb.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered.

She closed her eyes and waited for the brush of his lips against hers.

But it never came.

“I promise,” he added. His breath, warm, stained with the scent of berries, drifted across her cheek.

She didn’t remember falling asleep, but when sleep did come, it was peaceful.

Chapter Twenty

Birds sang in the trees outside, and the smell of fresh pine filled the air. They’d left the window open, letting the chill in overnight, but Brooklyn was burrowed underneath the covers, feeling impossibly warm. Her heavy eyes refused to open even as her good night’s sleep started to fade away. Lean legs stretched out, and her hips moved slightly until she felt the press of Porter’s torso against her back.

She stopped moving altogether and cracked her eyes open to look down at the large hand resting comfortably on the top of her stomach. His arm tightened around her—his breath ghosted along the back of her neck.

“Awake already?” Porter rasped.

Brooklyn melted back into his embrace. “Not really.”

Her shirt was rucked up and bundled at her ribs with his hand gripping bare skin just beneath. The press of something cold and small rubbed against her hairline. Brooklyn whined in protest.

“Your hair smells good,” Porter said.

She smiled and tried to twist around to face him, but a loud, shrill, very familiar voice startled her into pulling the comforter tighter around them.

“Okay, gross! I’m going to gag, and then I’m going to shoot both of you,” Gabriel hollered from her place in the doorway. She twirled a small silver gun in her hand, craning to look around the room. She stepped inside and gasped when the bathroom came into clear view.

“You guys have a shower! That’s not fair! How…?” Her words trailed off as she spotted Brooklyn’s dry under garments hanging from the top of the glass shower door.

“Gabriel! What the hell are you doing here? We were sleeping!” Brooklyn seethed.

“Holy shit,” Gabriel said, lips curled back. Her hair whipped over her shoulders as she spun to face the bed, gun high and pointed at Porter.

“Are you
naked
? Is she naked, Porter? If she’s naked, I’m going to shoot you in the throat.”

Brooklyn sat straight up, swatting Porter’s hand away so she could pull down her shirt. A hot blush tinged her cheeks, and her lips set in a tight line. Not only was she thoroughly humiliated, but she was fuming with anger.

“I’m not naked, Gabriel! You’re being ridiculous—put the gun down!”

Porter lifted his hands and showed his palms. “This is not how I saw this morning going.”

“Oh, yeah? And how
did
you see it going? Please, enlighten me, you vile piece of…”

“Gabriel!” Brooklyn interrupted with a loud shout. She walked in front of Gabriel’s outstretched arms, blocking the gun. “Give that to me. Now.”

Brooklyn held her hand out and waited. Her whole body quivered; adrenaline pumped fast through her veins, clouding the overwhelming amount of anxiety that constricted her lungs.

Gabriel stared at her for a long minute before she finally handed the gun over. Brooklyn manhandled her inside the bathroom, slamming the door behind them.

“I want to strangle you,” Brooklyn whispered as she set the gun down on the edge of the sink. “Why would you do that? Why would you come storming in here? I can’t even…I can’t believe you! I was fine!”

“Did you sleep with him?” Gabriel laughed. Her eyes widened, and she wore a nasty grin.

She didn’t think her face could get any more red, but Brooklyn felt her cheeks beam with even more heat. “No! I did not sleep with him!”

“Did you want to?”

Gabriel’s whispered prying took Brooklyn off guard. She stuttered over an answer that she didn’t know how to give. She stared back at her friend, mouth open, fingertips twitching. It wasn’t that she couldn’t say “no;” she could have. But if she was lying, Gabriel would know—she always knew.

“I don’t know.” Brooklyn bit down on her lip hard.

Gabriel threw her head back and laughed, which in turn made Brooklyn extremely self-conscious.

Brooklyn shoved Gabriel aside, reaching for the clothes she’d left there. She stripped off the shirt and gym shorts so she could put her now clean underwear back on followed by the tight beige tank top and jeans.

“You can’t want to sleep with him—he’s Judas.” Gabriel rolled her eyes. She grabbed the shampoo bottle from inside the shower and popped open the top, inhaling the sweet scent.

“Can we please not talk about this right now?” Brooklyn groaned.

“I’m your best friend, Brookie! I’m supposed to be your voice of reason here, okay? Like, let me help you
and
him because if he touches you I’ll be forced to rip his tongue out.”

“Stop it.”

“Oh, come on. I’m joking, sort of.”

“I’m going to brush my teeth, and you’re going to apologize to Porter,” Brooklyn said sternly.

Gabriel arched a brow. “No.”

“Yes!” Brooklyn yelled, shoving the toothbrush in her mouth before she swung the door back open. “I don’t give a shit about what happened. I’m done wasting my time trying to hate him, so do this one stupid favor for me, and get along with him!”

Gabriel looked like a toddler who’d been sent to time out. Her plump pink lips folded down into a bitter frown, and she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. Brooklyn glared at her from the mirror until she finally gave up and stomped out into the bedroom.

Porter blinked wide, confused eyes at her as Gabriel sucked in one of her cheeks and chewed on it.

“I’m sorry,” she said coldly. “You’re still a dick, though.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me. That’s the last thing you should be doing,” Porter said.

“Whatever. Breakfast is ready, so get your asses out of the love shack, and meet us at the shed.”

Brooklyn tried to throw a boot at her, but Gabriel dodged it, laughing all the way down the hall.

Brooklyn stayed in the bathroom for as long as she could and chomped on her nails the whole time. She kept looking in the mirror, hoping the dark blush would fade from her cheeks, but it was still there, plaguing her with embarrassment.

The cushioned squeak of the bed alerted her to Porter’s movements. His bare feet padded toward the bathroom, but he stopped just outside and tapped on the open door.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Brooklyn brushed past him as she walked by. “Yeah,” she lied, “I’m good.”

Porter didn’t press her, which she thoroughly appreciated.

He slid in front of the sink and started brushing his teeth while Brooklyn sat down on the bed and laced up her boots. They avoided speaking to each other for the rest of the morning. It was easier that way, but it wasn’t hard to pick out the giant white elephant poised in the corner of the room. Once they were both fully dressed, they headed down into the woods. The walk back to the shed was tense and quiet. Brooklyn felt his gaze on her and the silent questions he asked, but she ignored it.

Plum spotted them approaching as she adjusted some clothes hanging on the line. She gave a toothy smile. “Well, good mornin’. You must be Porter, I’m guessin’?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Porter said and extended his hand.

She gave it a dainty shake. “Good to see you’re up and movin’. I’m Plum.”

“Nice to meet you, Plum.”

“Same to you, sweetie. Nicoli’s at the territory line, waitin’ for everybody to get back from the city.” She swept her hand toward the door of the shed. “Go on in, and get somethin’ to eat. I’m sure Cambria made some real nice breakfast.”

Brooklyn heard Julian laugh from the shed and walked inside with Porter at her heels.

Plants hung from the ceiling in woven baskets. Their vines tickled Brooklyn’s cheek as she dipped her head around them. A small, round wooden table was in the middle of the room accompanied by three matching chairs. A long table was pushed against the left wall. Shelves filled with vials, books, plants, and flowers hung on all four walls, and an old metal radio sat on the ground under the table next to a space heater.

Gabriel drank tea and picked sliced fruit out of a large communal bowl in the center of the table.

Cambria pointed to a few pieces of seedy bread on the table and smiled to them. “Have some bread and fruit salad. Did you two sleep okay last night?”

Brooklyn nodded. “Yeah, thank you for everything.”

“You’re very welcome,” Cambria said, offering a quick wink.

“How are you feeling, man?” Julian walked over to Porter and gave his wrapped shoulder a once over.

Porter sighed. “Better now.”

“Good, we were worried.”

“I’m fine, really. I’d like to get to our medications though. There’s a serum that might…speed up my healing a bit.”

The distant crunch of the forest floor under several pairs of shuffling feet stole Brooklyn’s attention. She stopped chewing on a piece of ripe pineapple and listened closely. They weren’t far, walking from the direction of the river toward the camp site. She didn’t know if it was Nicoli or if it was someone else. Something else.

Gabriel kicked her foot. “You hear that too?”

Brooklyn’s nostrils flared. “Yeah.”

Plum’s voice rang out from the other side of the door. “Them boys are back! Y’all might wanna come outside and introduce yourselves.”

Brooklyn breathed a sigh of relief, looking from Gabriel to Julian and back again. The weariness of meeting new people wasn’t as prominent as she thought it might be. Maybe it was because they felt a little bit safe, maybe because they felt powerful enough to not care about safety. Either way, it didn’t matter; these people that they were about to meet had been in the city.

Maybe, just maybe, they’d seen Dawson and the others.

Chapter Twenty-One

Three men followed Nicoli into the camp. All but one seemed young, the youngest in his teens, but the man in the far back was old enough to be Brooklyn’s father.

Brooklyn prepared herself for an introduction, repeating what she’d say several times in her head. Nicoli walked right past them. His sheepskin coat brushed over her boots as he walked by, and his gaze flicked past them. The only words spoken were between Cambria and the short, slender one with a lengthy beard and bright red hair. He handed her a box filled to the brim with fresh food and muttered something under his breath that Brooklyn didn’t catch.

All four of them disappeared through the trees in the direction of the cabin.

Cambria looked taken aback. That alone was unsettling.

“What’s going on?” Julian asked.

Plum’s mouth twitched. “Don’t know, but whatever it is they found out there in that concrete jungle isn’t good.”

“Should we be worried at all?” Porter said.

“No.” Cambria was quick to answer. “Just let me get this haul into the shed, and then we can go down to the river for a bath. They’ll meet us there.”

Gabriel licked her lips. “I don’t like this.”

“I don’t either, but it’s none of our concern, so we should probably just go with it,” Julian said.

Brooklyn agreed with Julian. If anything, they would leave by mid-day, which was only a couple hours away, and get on the road toward the city. She knew that if it came to a sudden departure she could count on Cambria for directions to Seattle. The hope that perhaps one of those men had seen their lost friends loomed over her.

“C’mon, let’s head down to the water and get clean!” Plum said enthusiastically. She held a small basket with a couple towels, some oil, and a canister full of dry soap.

Porter walked close to Brooklyn, his shoulder brushing against hers every other step. Julian was just as close on her other side. Gabriel was busy jumping off large protruding tree roots and darting along the edges of boulders like they were gymnastic beams.

“These people have been really good to us, but I think it’s time to go,” Julian whispered.

“Porter needs more time to heal,” Brooklyn said under her breath. “We need at least one more night.”

“I’m fine,” Porter hissed.

“You’re not fine. Besides, I need to find out if they saw Dawson, Amber, or Rayce. Or any of our other friends that we abandoned, all right? Just keep it together. It’s one more day.”

“One more day with a group of violent eco-terrorists who live in the forest, Brooklyn!” Julian said.

She snorted. “No more violent than us.”

They came upon the sleek river and helped Plum lay out the towels in a patch of sun that beamed down from between the tree branches.

Brooklyn decided to stay on shore with Porter while the rest of them waded into the water.

Julian was hesitant, laughing nervously when Cambria took off all her clothes and walked naked into the lake, followed by Plum. He made a strangled noise. “So like, they are completely naked, and I am guessing they expect me to be completely naked, and then when those guys get back they will also be…”

“Completely naked, yeah,” Gabriel said. She kicked her boots off, letting the heavy jacket she wore fall from her shoulders. “I figured you’d be a little excited to be naked in a body of water with Nicoli anyways.”

“That is—” Julian pointed a finger at her while she reached around and unclasped her bra “—completely inappropriate! Besides, I don’t think I’m available. So. No.”

Gabriel scoffed. “Oh, yeah? Who has your panties in a wad then? Because I was sure you were gonna jump all over tofu king.”

Porter gave a breathy laugh, averting his eyes when Gabriel finally kicked off her underwear and stood confidently in front of them. Her hands were on her hips, head held high, toes curling into the dark soil.

“Doesn’t matter,” Julian said.

“It really
does,
though. Who is it?” Gabriel prodded his chest with her finger.

Julian stared up at the sky.

“It’s Rayce, isn’t it?” Brooklyn asked.

“N-no! No, absolutely not. I mean, he’s not even into all this.” Julian’s voice cracked while he gestured down the expanse of his body.

“It’s Rayce,” Porter confirmed.

“Excuse me, but how would you know anyways?” Julian’s hands were on his hips, and his jaw was set tight.

Porter shrugged, still staring at the ground. “You guys slept in the tent with me, remember?”

Gabriel cackled and reached down to fish through her jacket. Julian didn’t have anything to say—he just rubbed his hand over his mouth, bashful and embarrassed.

Brooklyn wanted to laugh, to ask Julian all about his short-lived courting with Rayce, but all she could imagine was talking about it, making it real, acknowledging it, and then never having the opportunity to see it in real time.

Because they might not find their friends.

Her throat tightened. She shifted so that she could lie down on her back in the sun, shielding her sour expression with her arm.

“Well, anyways,” Julian sang, taking off his shirt. “Let’s just not bother with my non-existent love life and take a hippie bath.”

“Hippie bath?” Porter laughed.

Plum splashed the water toward them from far out in the river. “C’mon, y’all smell bad. Get in!”

Gabriel had the pink-handled razor clutched in her hand that she’d apparently borrowed from the cabin and made her way into the water.

Brooklyn and Porter could hear Julian yelp as he tried to tiptoe into the water, whining about how cold it was.

“Whatcha got there, Miss Gabriel?” Plum asked as she waded over toward her.

Gabriel had one of her legs stretched out and was shaving carefully around her knee. “I found it in the cabin. It’s okay that I use it right?”

“Course it is. We have the communications cabin set up mostly for us girls anyhow.”

“Why’s that?” Gabriel asked, eyeing Plum carefully as she scrubbed herself with some kind of strange powder soap from a jar.

“Well, we’re the only ones who bleed on a schedule ‘round here. Whenever we need time to ourselves or the freshness of a shower and a bed, we can go off into the cabin an’ have some peace.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Gabriel said. “I’ve never really had any need for all that. I had some issues when I was younger, and they took my uterus out when I was fourteen.”

Plum frowned. “I sure am sorry to hear that.”

“It’s not a big deal. It happens.”

“You’re so damn pretty, though…woulda been nice to pass that on to a little one, wouldn’t it?”

Gabriel laughed and shook her head. “My mom used to say that to me all the time, but I don’t want kids.”

“Really?” Plum gasped.

“Really. There’s too many of us on this planet anyways.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.” Plum waded closer. She reached out but stopped inches from the slope of Gabriel’s neck. “Oh, may I wash your back for you, sweetie?”

Gabriel was apprehensive, eyes searching Plum for any ulterior motive, but Plum was kind and genuine. She waited patiently while Gabriel considered it.

“I…I guess so,” Gabriel mumbled.

“I ain’t gonna bite ya, just wanna help.”

Gabriel gave another slow nod. “Go ahead.”

Plum rambled on about how beautiful the weather was and how she wasn’t expecting September to go by as fast as it was. Her hands rubbed up over Gabriel’s shoulders, scrubbing off the sweat, dirt, and blood. Gabriel smiled contently. When Plum finally went quiet, she turned and glanced over her shoulder. “You keep calling that cabin the communications cabin. Do you guys have meetings there or something? Why do you call it that?”

“There are some computers and such in the cellar that we use from time to time. I’m guessin’ that’s what them boys are up to right now.”

“I see.” Gabriel’s gaze drifted around the river.

“Speak of the devil, there they are,” Plum said and waved.

The four men walked out of the woods, bumping into each other casually and talking amongst themselves. They set their towels down on the ground next to Brooklyn and Porter.

“Sorry about earlier. We had to transfer some files over,” Nicoli said.

Brooklyn sat up. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s okay. We were just going over some information that they gathered in Seattle.”

“Did they…?” Brooklyn paused and shifted her gaze to the three men stripping off their clothes. “Did they happen to see a group of people in a bus just outside the city?”

“There’s a lot of buses out there.” One of them spoke up. It was the same guy that had spoken to Cambria. His bushy red beard shined in the sunlight, and his hair was tied back into a small bun. He sighed, tossing his shirt aside. “Can’t really say we saw anything out of the ordinary.”

“They have to be here somewhere…they wouldn’t have gone on without us, would they?” Brooklyn asked, looking beside her where Porter sat.

Porter cleaned his glasses with the bottom of his shirt and took a deep breath. “I don’t know, but we’ll find them.”

The red-haired man paused before he stepped out of his jeans and extended his hand. “I’m Freddie.”

Brooklyn shook his hand. “Brooklyn.”

“It’s nice to meet you. You are?”

“Porter.”

He walked away after that and followed Nicoli into the water.

Porter tried to roll his shoulder but winced and gritted his teeth. He sat back and rested his arms over the top of his knees, watching Brooklyn pick grass out of the ground at her feet.

“We’ll find them,” Porter said.

His tenderness was appreciated, but Brooklyn wasn’t in the mood for coddling.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that. We’re gonna find them, or they’re gonna find us—there’s no other options.”

“We have to get to Seattle. That’s exactly where Dawson would have taken them, and he probably thought that’s where we would have gone too,” Brooklyn said.

“Who are you two after?” A thick, raspy voice came from just behind them.

It was the older man that Brooklyn had seen with Nicoli before they came down to the river. His eyes were creased with fine lines, and he had a large red birthmark that spanned the left side of his face. It was raised like a scar, the edges dark and spotted. Large calloused hands rubbed together, and a towel was draped over his shoulders.

“Our friends,” Brooklyn said. “We lost them yesterday.”

“How’d you lose them?” he asked. He was still wet from the river. The jeans he’d put back on were damp against his freshly washed skin. He plopped down in front of them and reached over to grab a water bottle from Plum’s basket.

“We had to run,” Brooklyn said. She chose not to go into much detail. “But we had a plan on getting to Seattle together, so Porter thinks that’s where they probably are.”

“Had to run, huh?” The stranger laughed, taking a long drink off the water bottle. “I have a feeling you don’t want to tell me what you’re running from, and to be honest, I don’t really care. I do care that you’ve brought your problems here, though. We have a job to do, and if whatever it is you’re running from catches up to you, you best know you’re on your own.”

Brooklyn narrowed her eyes, head tilting to the side. She wanted to breach the small distance between them and smash his face into the damp soil they were sitting on.

Porter’s hand moved to sit gently on the top of Brooklyn’s knee.

“We don’t have any intention on staying longer than we need to. You don’t have to worry about that.” Porter’s voice was cold and defensive.

“I’m not worried, kid.”

He was gone after that, carrying his shirt and towel back to camp.