Storm Tide Rising: Blackout Volume 2 (38 page)

"When?"  Marcus asked.

"First light, I suppose," Commander Price answered. "Let him see one last sunrise in the open. This is Justice, Marcus, not cruelty."

Marcus was already on the way to the door before Commander Price finished speaking. "I know. And it's mercy now, after everything else we’ve done to him, that's for sure," he said.

"Where are you going, Marcus?"  Commander Price asked.

"To learn everything I can from him before sunrise," Marcus called back, but he was already out the door, the Chief close behind him.

Ch.62

Change the Watch

Eric didn't hear his father walk up through the gloom and darkness that seemed to be settling quicker tonight than it should. He never heard his father when he approached, even when he knew to be on his guard and listening. He was simply not there one moment and there the next. The surprise and shock of it had become almost routine now.

"Seen anything odd, son?" Joe asked softly, and Eric blinked a few time before recognition dawned on his face.

"Not a thing," Eric answered once he'd recovered. "I heard a few deer walking about an hour ago, but I never did see them. Of course, in this kind of light they could have been right under my nose and I wouldn't have known it except for the smell."

Joe scanned the area as best he could in the darkness, but there wasn't much to see without some help from a flashlight or a lantern of some kind. After a moment, he turned back to his son. "How are you doing with things?" 

Eric shrugged slightly, looking at his boots. "Well enough. Glad to get that deer today. Things have been quiet for a few days, and that's nice. That going to change?"

Joe frowned and glanced down at his own boot toes. "I wish I could say no, son," he replied, "but it probably will before too long. Danny came to work out a few deals that I think will be real good for us if I can get Brant to agree to them. He brought some pretty unpleasant news about town, though, and how the people there are starting to turn on one another. Seems to think it's going to spill out of town before too much longer."

"You think he's right?"  Eric asked, and Joe nodded with very little hesitation. "Well, why don't we go and take care of this threat first?"  Eric asked with another shrug.

Joe snorted. "You just got done talking about how much you liked it quiet, and now you want to go and find trouble with some army of thieves and brigands you have never seen or heard from before? What happened to quiet?"

Eric gave another half shrug. "Well, I guess I meant that I like it quiet here," he answered after a moment. "And if it's going to get loud and dangerous, I'd rather it was loud and dangerous away from Christina. And Mom and Nanny and all the others too."

Joe's eyes narrowed and he fixed his son with one of his unmistakable looks that said he knew more was beneath the words than the words themselves. "What's been going on with you two lately?"  Joe asked bluntly. The silence between them stretched. "Look, it's pretty obvious that something is going on, we're just not sure what. You might as well tell us," Joe continued, nudging Eric with his elbow. "You suck at lying, son, and in a group this tight you won't be able to keep anything secret for long anyway."

Finally, Eric raised his eyes to meet his fathers. "Look, Dad, I want you to marry us," he said in a rush. "Christina and I have talked about it, and we just don't want to wait anymore. We were going to get married in the spring, but lately it's seemed like that is getting farther and farther away rather than closer to us. We just don't want to wait anymore with everything else that is happening around us all the time."

Joe nodded, his eyebrows drawn down in thought. "And what brought this on tonight? Why is this all of a sudden weighing heavily on your mind, son? It seems to me that there's something you're not telling me, something you're holding back."

Eric gave his half shrug and went back to studying the wet ground beneath his boots. "Well, Christina wanted to be able to talk to you guys together," he answered evasively.

"Talk to us about what?"  Joe asked, but immediately raised his hand and shook his head. "No, on second thought, don't tell me," he said. "If you don't tell me, I don't have to pretend I don't know yet."

"Okay, so will you do it?"  Eric asked. "Marry us, I mean."

Joe chuckled. "Yes, son, I'll do the service for you, if that's what you both want. I'd be honored to, son."

Eric let out a long, slow breath that he'd been holding subconsciously.

"Your mother will want to make a big fuss about it, of course," Joe said with a smile. "But you let me know where and when. We'll get it done."

Joe pulled Eric to him in a tight hug. It was a brief, but heartfelt expression of the bond between them that had grown stronger over the days and weeks. Still, when they separated after the embrace, there was a moment of awkward silence.

"I need you to help me with something big, son," Joe said, his tone turning serious. "I need you to take the horses and ride out to Chris at the big road. Get him, and the two of you ride out to the herd. Make sure everything is secure there, and keep the horses on our side of the pastures in case someone needs to make out of there in a hurry. I'll be by tomorrow midday with our visitor to work out a deal with Brant."

"You want me to tell any of the guys what's going on?"  Eric asked hesitantly.

Joe shook his head. "Just tell them I'm bringing a potential customer out tomorrow. Brant will probably have a lot of questions, but you just tell him nothing's been done yet, and he gets the final say over what's agreed to or not. That should put him a little bit at ease, I hope."

"What about his guns?"  Eric asked, looking over Joe's shoulder at the farm house.

"Keep 'em for now," Joe replied, "He'll be coming with me in the morning, so he can get them then."

There was a long pause between them, and after a moment, Joe broke the silence. "Eric, there's something you need to consider, son, and it ain't easy to bring up. But you know the way things are now," Joe's eyes fell to the leather thong around Eric's neck with four bottle caps on it. "Are you sure you want to run the risk of leaving Christina as a widow if something goes badly?"

Eric thought about the question for a moment and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I know it's a possibility, Dad, but hasn't it always been? I mean, you never know what's going to happen from one day to the next, but the way I remember it that was pretty much how life was before this whole mess. But the one thing I do know for sure is that if things do go badly and I die tomorrow, I would really like to know what it was like to call her my wife once before I died."

Joe nodded silently and gripped his son's shoulder. "Good enough for me, son. You be careful out there tonight. Keep your eyes open and your head down. If anything happens or if you get contact with any hostiles, send someone back immediately. Even if it's only one random poacher, got it?"

Eric nodded. "I'll pass the word. See you in the daylight."

He gave Joe a solid handshake and went to saddle the horses. It was going to be a long, cold night, but he was getting used to those, and there would be many more ahead as fall and then winter took full hold. When Eric got to the small corral on the back side of the grape vineyard, though, he found that the horses had already been saddled. Tom and Bill were waiting there and gave him a firm handshake each.

"We'll keep an eye on things here, Eric," Bill said while Tom tried not to cough. "I know he didn't exactly make a great first impression, but I think this Danny guy is a straight shooter."

"Okay," Eric said, slightly confused, "why are you going out of the way to tell me?" 

"You looked worried is all," Bill answered. "I've seen you look worried before, and you're worried about something. If it isn't the visitor, then what is it?"

Eric avoided the older man's eyes as he climbed onto the first horse. "You must be right," he said hurriedly. "It's probably just the strange face being behind the fence line that's got me spooked is all."

Before either man could make a response, Eric took the reins of his horse and tapped his heels into its ribs. He trotted through the darkness, the reins in one hand, and the leader for the other horse looped over the horn of his saddle. As he passed, Eric touched the first two fingers of his right hand to the corner of his right eyebrow in a form of salute.

His father nodded back, and then Eric was through the open gate and trotting into the deep darkness of the cloud-choked night.

Ch.63

What’s Coming

Marcus stood and clicked the stop button on the digital recorder. He paused for a moment and stared at the small device in his hand. The room seemed almost quiet enough to hear his own heart beating, or maybe the heartbeat of the man sitting chained to the chair across from him.

“Is there anything you’d like to say?”  Marcus asked. “Or any message you want taken down and delivered to family?”

The man shook his head. “No family left, and anyone who knows I’m out here knows enough to deny I’m out here.”

Marcus turned toward the door, but as he was about to step through it, the prisoner called out, “Wait!  There is one thing. When they bury me, I want
my
name on the marker, not Morgan Edwards. Jason Alexander Soudeikin,
that
is my real name. You can try to look that up in your system, but they blacked out everything when I was recruited to the program—school records, medical files, tax records, even my social security card. As far as I know there isn’t anything left that still has my real name on it, just a numbered bank account for paychecks that I’ll never get to spend.”

The man laughed, and for the first time in days it sounded sane. Marcus watched him as he moved, and though the manacles and shackles were clearly uncomfortable, he didn't have the same desperate and pained expression that Marcus had come to expect. There was no furtive fear in his eyes, only a calm and relaxed sadness.

"Do you know what's coming?"  Marcus asked, and the prisoner blinked at him in confusion. "I mean, do you understand what I told you? You understand that this isn't some idle threat; they're actually going to kill you when the sun rises tomorrow."

"Believe me, I know," the prisoner answered, fixing Marcus with a cold, hard stare. "And if there was even a second where I thought I could get the better of you and chew my way out of my handcuffs and this little box you've got me stuffed into, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I'd rip out your throat with my teeth, if I thought it would get me out of here and living one more day."

The man sat back as much as he was able. "Nothing I can do about it, though," he continued. "These chains got me tighter than a nut in a squirrel's mouth. I'm done, and I know it. Better than another two months with you in that room."

For a brief moment, a look of stark terror crossed the prisoner's face as the memories of what Marcus had put him through danced across his mind. He shuddered and shook his head hard. When he raised his eyes again, he was back in that strange blank calm.

"I'm sorry for what I put you through," Marcus mumbled.

The prisoner snorted hard. "If that's what it takes for you to sleep at night," he growled, turned his head, and spat. "I told you the truth, and I mean all of it. Every word. You know they say dead men tell no secrets. Why don't you tell me some of yours? Give me something to take to the grave with me."

Marcus turned and headed for the door again, but the prisoner's voice caught him and held him like irons.

"You took everything else from me, Lt. Commander," the prisoner said softly, quietly. "You owe me something, and you know it."

Marcus turned back to him and regarded him for a long moment before answering. "You may be right," Marcus said. He walked across the room, bent, and put his face next to the prisoner's ear to whisper. "If Commander Price ever orders me to do this again, I'll shoot him."

Marcus straightened and fixed the prisoner with a hard look. "I don't regret the fact you're going to your death. You've earned that and more; you're a traitor to the nation, to the people, and to the Constitution. You've earned your death. I just regret my part in your treatment leading up to it."

The prisoner grunted. "You want some unsolicited advice? Run. Get as far away from this place as you can. I know you think this cause you're fighting for is worth it, that you'll be able to put the country back together when you're done, but you're wrong. It's already gone, and you just don't realize it yet. Well it's not worth throwing away the rest of your life. If you stay here, if you stay wrapped up in the middle of all of this, you'll end up laying dead in a pool of your own blood one day if you're lucky."

"And if I'm not?"  Marcus asked.

The prisoner stared at him dead in the eyes without flinching. "You'll end up chained to a chair. Waiting."

Marcus couldn't bear the weight of the man's eyes, so he turned and left the room, the Chief close behind him. The prisoner's haunting laughter followed them up the empty hallway.

Ch.64

Unexpected Guests

Mike woke up slowly, and he fought it every step of the way. Someone was pulling hard on his right arm, and he could dimly hear his name being whispered over and over again with a sense of urgency.

"Mike, Jesus, wake up," Alyssa growled in an angry whisper. "Someone's beating on the doors. We need to go, now!"

Mike sat up as quickly as he could and groaned at the pain in his legs and his lower back. "What do you mean someone?"

"I don't know. There's a couple we saw walking down the road toward us. It's dark outside, and we think they saw a light in the window," Alyssa whispered. "Maria's on the third floor by a window to try and get a better look at them now, but we need to get to a hiding place in case they make it inside."