Payload (27 page)

Bob held up his hands in a peace gesture. “Hey, man, I’m just a little cog in the machine. They told me the same thing, like taking candy off a baby. This is a surprise to me, too.”

Maddé spat something in Spanish too fast for Bob to follow, but seemed slightly mollified. “I find those bastards, they gonna pay, pay all the way.”

“I wish you all the success in the world-these guys have it coming. What are your guys digging?”

“Graves-we got two of them, and now I’m gonna dig them up and diss them back.”

“Graves….how do you know your guys got them?”

“Because they had markers, that YGAT stuff and…”

The explosion wasn’t loud, not like they showed in the movies, no ball of fire or things like that; Bob had been turning to look when there was a
whump
like a giant door slamming and dirt fountained up, bodies sailing into the air like soda cans when a firecracker goes off underneath them.

“Sonofa
bitch
,” Bob gasped, turning back to Maddé just as chunk of the gang leader’s forehead popped off and a jet of blood and brain matter slapped the recon leader across the face and chest like someone had thrown a bowl of stew at him. There was an odd noise a sort of
tak-tak-tak
that seemed high-pitched and yet dull at the same time to his right, a noise he couldn’t quite place.

He staggered back a step, absently wiping at the gore on his face, and saw steam curling up from the around the SUV’s  hood; it dawned on him that he had been deafened by the blast and that the strange noise was rifle fire aimed at the Lincoln’ radiator. 

He looked at the tree line to the west, the purpose in the positioning of the parked vehicles suddenly becoming painfully clear, just in time to see a single muzzle flash blossom deep within the trees. 

Sophia picked up the sat phone as it buzzed. “Prime.”

“Hello, Prime. How are you doing?”

She frowned at her screen. “Who the hell it this?”

“My friends call me Marv the Maniac, Prime. But you can call me Marvin.”

She jerked the phone away from her ear to check the number, but she did not recognize it. “How the hell did you get my number?”

The man chuckled. “Your organization is springing leaks, Prime.”

She shook her head. “Look, Marvin, I don’t know what the government told you, but what you are carrying could help a lot of people. We will pay you five million dollars in gold for that payload.”

“You forgot the inoculations.”

“There is no inoculation, Marvin. You know that.”

“Make it ten million.”

She hesitated. “I can go to eight on my own authority, but I can get ten cleared in five minutes.”

“So ten is a go.”

“Yes,” she tapped the mouse and Marvin’s file appeared on her screen.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Look, what is your pay compared to that kind of money? They have used you like an animal, Marvin, fighting their wars, carrying out their dirty jobs, but no matter how much you sacrifice, no matter how much you suffer, you’ll still just be an expendable piece on the game board to them. Isn’t it time you started thinking for yourself? Started building a future for yourself?”

“As a matter of fact, I have been thinking along that very line for these last couple days. You’re right, I do need to start creating my own future.”

“Then let’s make this happen. You tell me a time and a place, and your gold will be waiting.”

“I don’t think you’re getting the picture, Prime: I’m used to being on the winning side, and you bozos aren’t that.”

“Do you really see a victory around you, Marvin?” Sophia leaned forward. “Cities are
burning
.” She smiled up at the grainy picture of Hamburg.

“Oh, you guys are doing a lot of damage, but anyone can break things, Prime; the thing is, winners
build
. And besides, you guys are like the Keystone Cops-remember that helicopter on fire? How about that big trap at the RV park?”

“You can’t run forever, Marvin.”

“Heard from your ground team lately?” There was amusement in his voice, she realized. “We’ll talk about this later, Prime. See, I’m going to make you a hobby of mine. Once I deliver this payload to where it belongs I’m going to look you up. You won’t have to send them after me, Prime: I’m going to come for
you
.”

The line went dead.

Sophia stared at the silent phone. For the first time since she had set fire to that dumpster so long ago, one of her potential victims had reached out and made contact with her. It was unnerving on a very deep level.

“Any luck tracing it?” Marv asked as Addison disconnected the cell phone from the computer.

“Major blocking on the system. Good stuff,” The dark Gnome began packing up the laptop and his other gear. “Maybe Georgia, but I can’t be sure. I’ll play with the data, see what I can sort out.”

“Well, I rattled her cage at least,” Marv opened the passenger door to the sedan they had taken from the roadblock as Brick climbed in behind the wheel. “Let’s catch up to the others. You got all the numbers off this phone?”

“Yeah.”

The Ranger tossed the phone out the window as Brick pulled out onto the road.

Sophia knew the Doctor was irritated when she entered the room by the way he was using the mouse. “Sir.”

“In a moment.” He scrolled through more reports. “An engineering unit? Who could expect a Reservist engineering unit to put up such a fight? Do they even issue them weapons?”

“I believe it’s usual, sir.”

“Insane.”

“Yes, sir.”

“All right, report.”

“The payload…has slipped through my screen in Arkansas. I have a light plane looking for them, but we have lost them for the moment.” She hesitated.

“What is it?”

“They fought their way through one of my checkpoints, killing thirteen operatives. Then they set an explosive booby-trap and waited. They used sniper fire to kill the ground team’s leader and the leader of a response force, and to damage both groups’ vehicles. It turns out they had also disabled every vehicle left at that checkpoint, so further pursuit was significantly delayed.”

“Amazing.”

“There is more, sir. Sergeant Burleson called me, apparently he got the number from the checkpoint leader. I’m having the number changed and informing all my assets, but that is just a side point-I think we may have underestimated this man.”

“You think he is more intelligent that we have previously concluded?”

“Perhaps. He definitely has better help than I ever expected. Those people with him are just…nobodies, sir. As you said, dross. But they are proving most difficult.”

“Difficulties exist to be overcome. Get back onto the problem and get me that payload.”

The main body of the Gnomes had set up in a small roadside picnic area on the edge of the Ouachita National Forest which consisted of a few concrete picnic tables and graveled parking areas. The real reason for its choice was that it was beneath a tall stand of red oaks which shadowed the entire area.

The trio had abandoned the sedan in a stand of trees a quarter mile up the road and walked the rest of the way, arriving just as the sun was setting. Chip and Sylvia were sitting at the picnic table nearest the road entrance as the three Gnomes walked up.

“Hey guys,” Chip waved. “We’re on watch.”

“Good for you,” Marv waved at the bugs circling his head. “What did you do to the RV?”

“That was Sylvia’s idea: she spray-painted cling wrap we stuck to the sides. Now it sort of matches the color configuration of the brand with the sunroof. It only works while we’re parked, but it can’t hurt.”

“Good idea,” the Ranger admitted. The RV did look radically different.

“Sylvia, this is Marv, our leader, Brick, who I told you about, and Addison. Guys, this is Sylvia Santiago.”

Pleasantries were exchanged and Brick and Addison headed for Gnomehome. Marv paused to survey the area. “Any traffic go by?”

“None. How did it go? JD just said you guys were on your way back.”

“Good, I got the leader of the
Los Lobos
response force and the head of the FASA ground team, Brick and Addison killed the radiators, and the IED definitely took the shine off their day. They’re not on our trail at the moment.”

“Cool. Hey, check out my new rifle. Isn’t it awesome? It even has these canvas pouches on the stock holding two fifteen-round magazines for a last-ditch emergency, and I’ve got thirty-round magazines for regular use. It’s got a holographic sight.”

“Nice. That’s an M-1 carbine, the military used it a lot in World War Two and Korea. Only problem is that the ammo isn’t terribly common.”

“Yeah, but we picked up an unopened case of twelve hundred rounds, and about five hundred more in boxes.”

“Then you’re set for a long time; I see you’re hanging on to your cut-down shotgun. How did we do on supplies?”

“Enough to set up the van for the women we recued and still add a couple days’ worth of food and water to our supplies. Bear took a couple cases of beer along, and we got enough household goods to equip the trailer and make up some shortfalls in the RV.”

“What about weapons?”

“A lot of ammo. Most of what they had was flash junk, Tec-9s and that sort of thing, and JD gave some of the decent stuff to the women who left in the van, but we ended up with this carbine, pistols for Sylvia and Bambi, and a couple revolvers. The double-barreled shotgun is kept in the pickup.”

“Bambi?”

“Bear’s girlfriend, the tall blond? She’s OK.”

“Bambi,” Marv muttered and headed towards the RV.

“He seems a little strange,” Sylvia observed after the Ranger was out of earshot.

“He has a lot of responsibility,” Chip shrugged. “And he’s done a lot of combat tours overseas. I don’t think we would have gotten this far without him.”

“You seem to be a very good soldier, very brave.”

The husky Gnome blushed. “I…am learning. That’s the thing about Marv, he figures out how to bring out the best in us, and he isn’t threatened by people with good ideas, like your paint strips. You saw he stayed behind-he’s always where it’s toughest. You feel better following a guy like that. Motivated.”

“I think all of you are heroes. You, especially.”

Chip bobbed his head nervously. “Yeah…well…you do what you gotta do.” He fumbled for something to say. “Hey, did you know that this forest’s name means ‘good hunting grounds’? The Spanish came through in 1541.”

“Tell me more,” the girl smiled, scooting a little closer.

“All right,” Marv called the Gnomes together in the main area of the RV. He was freshly bathed, in a clean uniform, and had just polished off a large ham sandwich. “So. For those who haven’t heard, that roadblock was for us-FASA set up six of them in an arc across Arkansas to catch us, only we were moving a little faster than they expected.”

“They want us bad,” Dyson observed.

“Exactly. Which means that so far our mission is a success-FASA just sent seventy-odd hired guns to trap us, not to mention a team of their own people. Those are resources which could do a lot more damage than they did today.” The Ranger surveyed the somber faces around him. “I don’t expect any of you to be high-fiving over killing uninfected people-its not a great thing. But if we hadn’t dealt with those guys they would either be still robbing, raping, and murdering at that roadblock, or going about on some more of FASA’s dirty work. Like it or not, we are at war, and they were the enemy.”

“I prefer fighting zombies, myself,” Chip said, the image of a man’s face dissolving into a bloody ruin flashing across his mind.

“I do, too. Fact is, I would rather be doing a lot of things other than what we’ve got facing us right now. But FASA and the zeds aren’t going to back off, so its root hog, or die. You have to pick a side and live with it. Me, well, we are playing pretty rough, but we’re not flex-cuffing women to a bed and having our way with ‘em. You have to pick where you stand.”

“But back to the point, we’ve got them riled. I tagged the leader of the FASA ground team and the head punk of a bunch of gang bangers, and the IED killed or wounded three more bangers. They’ll follow us a lot more carefully in the future, which was the entire point of the exercise. I even called up their controller and messed with her mind a little. They still think we have the payload.”

“Speaking of which, did you call your boss?” JD asked.

“Yeah, and the real payload arrived safe and sound. By now they’re getting it sorted out to start work.”

“So, now what’s the plan?” Bear asked lazily, a sweating silver can of Coors in one big paw.

“We’re about a hundred miles of back roads from the Oklahoma border. Once across into Oklahoma the terrain will make aerial observation easier, but actually catching up to us will be tougher because there are more back roads. I figure they will stop chasing us and start trying to put forces into blocking positions between us and the destination. My plan is keep north and try to circle around to the west; maybe we can keep them convinced the payload is still in play for another couple days. Along the way we’ll do whatever good we can, and zing FASA as the opportunity presents itself. Unless anyone has any better ideas.”