Sleeper Cell Super Boxset (141 page)

“Mike,” he answered, not accepting the handshake.

Paul withdrew his hand, a sad smile spreading across his face. He leaned forward on the desk, attempting to draw Mike in.

“I can imagine it’s been difficult out there. No power, no food, no water. But you don’t have to be afraid anymore. The power is coming back on. We already have most of the city on our side. It’s just a matter of time before we take all of it back,” Paul said.

“On your side?” Mike asked. “What does that mean?”

“I’m just going to ask you a few questions and we’ll see how it goes, okay? So, where are you from?”

“Pittsburgh.”

“Go Steelers!”

Paul’s attempted enthusiasm didn’t change Mike’s expression. Paul brought his fist down from the air and rested his hand back on the table, returning to his list of questions.

“What’s your birth date?”

“January 12, 1971.”

“Married?”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Twenty-five years.”

“Has your spouse survived the blackout?”

Mike paused before answering.

“Yes.”

Each time Mike responded Paul would jot down notes and mark little checks along the sheets in his hands. Mike tried getting a look at what Paul was writing, but the print was too small for him to see.

“What was your occupation before the blackout?” Paul asked.

“Welder.”

“And how long were you in that occupation?”

“Twenty-five years.”

“You chose the girl, huh?

“What?”

“You said you’ve been married for twenty-five years, and you’ve been a welder for the same amount of time. Based on your birthday it sounds like you met your wife either in college or right after and then decided to stick around. You’re from Pittsburgh, so you grabbed the first good-paying, steady job you could find to support you and your new wife.”

“How many of these questions do I have to answer?”

Paul glanced down at his sheets of paper. He flipped through them, mouthing the numbers to himself.

“Looks like we have quite a bit more to get through,” Paul said.

“What is this for?”

Paul set the pencil and clipboard on the desk. The pleasantry act dropped, and Mike saw the focus in Paul’s eyes drilling into him.

“Do you know what this place is, Mike?” Paul asked.

“No.”

“This is a chance for us to start over. A place for this country to rebuild, make us great again. You’ve seen what it’s like out there. People are losing their minds. They’re starving, dying, and killing each other over cans of food. We can bring them back from that.”

Paul picked the clipboard and pencil back up. He flipped back to the page where he left off and the smile returned to his face.

“So, what have you been doing since the blackout?” Paul asked.

***

The questions took over an hour. After they were done, Mike was shoved out the back door of the building and left in a fenced-in lot by himself.

One by one, the rest of his group joined him. Kalen was the next person out, followed by Nelson, Sam, Anne, Freddy, Claire, Jung Jr., Mary, Erin, Nancy, and Katie.

“That was different,” Nelson said.

Freddy ran up to Mike and wrapped his arms around his legs. Mike patted the top of his head.

“You okay, bud?” Mike asked.

“I didn’t like it,” Freddy answered.

“What happened in there?” Anne asked.

“They kept asking questions about you guys. Where we lived, my birthday, what I liked to do for fun.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Nelson said.

The rear door opened and a man they hadn’t seen before dressed in army fatigues entered. Judging by the way the men behind him were following, Mike guessed that he was someone important.

“Who’s in charge?” he asked.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Mike.

“You’re with me. The rest of you will stay here.”

The soldier’s men grabbed Mike and pulled him back into the building.

Mike was dragged through the winding hallways, deeper into the building. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to remember his way out. The journey finally ended outside a small office door.

One of the soldiers entered while the rest stayed with Mike in the hallway. Whoever was inside, Mike figured was important. The soldier stepped out and kept the door open.

“The colonel will see you now.”

“Colonel?” Mike asked.

The office was completely empty with the exception of a desk, one filing cabinet, and a folded American flag in a case that sat on top of it. The colonel, clean cut and shaven, sat behind the desk. Mike could see the finely-pressed creases of the uniform.

“Have a seat,” the colonel said, without looking up from his work on the desk. “I’ll be with you in a moment. You’re dismissed, Blake.”

“Yes, sir!”

Blake saluted, turned on his heel, and closed the door when he left. There was only one other chair in the room. Mike sat down and noticed the name “Col. Cadogan” embroidered on the front of his uniform. The colonel was scanning pages of a file.

“Those our answers?” Mike asked.

“Just yours.”

Cadogan waited a few more minutes before finally snapping the file shut and stacking the papers neatly on the corner of the desk.

“You’ve been through it, Mr. Grant,” Cadogan finally said.

“What do you want?”

“You know what all those questions told us?”

“What?”

“That you’re dangerous.”

Mike felt his body tense up. He caught himself reaching for the gun at his hip that he knew wasn’t there.

“Dangerous to who?” Mike asked.

“To whoever you don’t like, Mr. Grant.”

“No, I’m only dangerous to anyone that threatens my family, Colonel.”

“I can see that,” Cadogan said. “During your questioning you said you heard our radio broadcasts, and that’s how you knew where to find us.”

“Yes.”

“Other members of your group mentioned a similar statement. Tell me, how did the radio survive the EMP blast?”

“A Faraday cage.”

“And you came here on four motorcycles, and a Jeep, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Resourceful. Luckily for you there are two things I admire in a man: honesty and ingenuity. You have both.”

Cadogan rose from his chair and grabbed the case with the American flag folded tightly inside its triangular box. The colonel carried it gently.

“I received this flag when my youngest was brought back in a box from Iraq,” Cadogan said.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. I wasn’t going to get my son back, but I knew what he died for, and the way he died was honorable.”

Cadogan set the flag down gingerly on his desk. His hands lingered on it for a moment before finally letting it be.

“People don’t have that anymore, Mr. Grant,” Cadogan said. “I’m hoping we can bring that back.”

“And you think it can happen here?”

“Yes.”

Mike shifted in his seat. He could still feel the pain in his ribs, the broken bones trying to mend, the punctured lung trying to heal. This place was uncomfortable to him, but then again everything seemed uncomfortable these days.

“So what does that mean for my family?” Mike asked.

Cadogan gave a smile. He walked back behind his desk to the filing cabinet.

“You’ll each have your own quarters, and will be assigned to a specific job that you will report to each day,” Cadogan said.

“What are these jobs going to have us doing?”

“Each assignment for the members of your group is based on the evaluation of our interviewers and the answers to the questions that were asked of you. Sergeant Blake?”

The door to Cadogan’s office opened and Blake stepped back inside.

“Yes, sir?”

“Escort Mr. Grant back to his group and have them all report to their quarters for the evening. They’ll begin their training in the morning.”

Cadogan handed Blake the orders. When Mike turned to leave Cadogan called out to him.

“Mr. Grant,” Cadogan said. “Don’t make me regret keeping you here.”

***

When Mike made it back to his group, everyone had questions, but there wasn’t much time for him to answer. The soldiers led them out of the fenced lot and back around to the front of the building.

They were brought to a hotel high-rise a few blocks from where they were interrogated. On the way there Mike noticed that not all of the buildings had guards, only the ones that looked occupied.

The guard at the hotel’s entrance reviewed the papers, nodded, and then opened the doors for them.

The collective sigh of everyone that entered the building was followed by laughter and giggles from the kids.

“Air conditioning!” Freddy yelled.

“Here are your room keys and numbers,” Blake said.

Kalen snatched the card out of Blake’s hand and made a beeline toward the stairs.

“I call first shower!” Kalen said.

Kalen ended up stopping herself before she got to the door and looked over at the elevator. She glanced back at Blake who nodded.

“Those work, too,” he said.

Freddy and Sean ran after her as the elevator doors opened, and the three of them disappeared behind closed doors with smiles still on their faces.

“Well, hopefully she’ll leave enough hot water for the rest of us,” Anne said.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Mike replied.

“We’ll be back here at zero six hundred to begin training. Meet me in the lobby,” Blake said.

The hallways of the apartment complex were mostly empty. There was only one other individual Mike saw when walking to their room, and it was a guard.

Mike slid the key card in the door and pushed it open. It was a simple single bed hotel room. He walked over to the window and looked outside. He could see a fire escape on the side of the building, but the stairs below the fourth floor were destroyed.

There was a light switch on the wall next to the entrance. Mike sat there for a moment, looking at it. He reached his hand out slowly and flipped the switch on. The lights from the lamps instantly brightened the room. Anne started laughing.

“Weren’t sure if they’d work?” Anne asked.

“I’m still not sure if I believe it.”

Anne grabbed his hand and started pulling him toward the bathroom.

“C’mon. Let’s test the shower,” she said.

***

It took a second for Mike to realize the buzzing was the alarm. That first moment when he turned it off he thought he was back in Pittsburgh. Then reality set in as he rested his feet on the carpet of the hotel floor. He wasn’t in Pittsburgh. He was in Cincinnati, and the stiffness in his hands brought back the wall he’d been keeping up for the last three weeks.

He gave Anne a kiss before waking her and she climbed out of bed and opened the curtains. The sun had yet to join them.

Mike walked down the hall to Freddy and Kalen’s room. He was given a key to their room, so he cracked the door open, checking to see if they were awake.

Kalen was up, already dressed, lacing her shoes.

“Hey, Dad,” Kalen said.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Not as well as him.”

She gave a half smile and nodded back to Freddy.

“Good luck getting him out of bed today,” Kalen said.

“Thanks.”

“I’ll see you downstairs.”

It took Mike twenty minutes just to get Freddy to sit upright, and another twenty minutes to finally remove him from the bed. By the time he made it downstairs he was ten minutes late. There wasn’t anyone else left except Blake, tapping his boot.

“I’m sorry. My son, he—”

“Save it,” Blake said.

He pulled the two of them outside and they headed deeper into the city. They stopped at a smaller building with a playground on the side.

“The boy will stay here. You can pick him up after your training is over,” Blake said.

“What is this?” Mike asked.

Freddy hid behind Mike’s legs.

“This is our school,” Blake said.

“I want to go inside before I leave my son anywhere.”

“We’re already late.”

“Then it won’t make much of a difference if I take a few more minutes.”

Mike grabbed Freddy’s hand and the two of them headed inside. It was a simple one-story building, a little older, but kept in good condition.

The “School of Young Minds” sign out front suggested it was some kind of gifted school before the blackout. Judging by the brick walls, and intricate garden beds, Mike imagined it wouldn’t have been something he could have afforded to send his son to.