World of Ashes II (40 page)

Six Months Later

“Agent Sawyer.”

Daniel looked up from his book. This time he was reading the original version of
The Sum of All Fears
. “What can I do for you?” He asked the like-dressed agent who’d entered his desolate posting on the thirtieth floor down. Only the men and women of the USSS and some of the original White House staff were allowed on levels 30 through 35, which were considered the most likely furnished levels to withstand a 50 kiloton nuclear blast. Levels below this were mostly just vast caverns carved out of the solid rock mountain over almost six decades of Cold War paranoia, maybe two hundred thousand civilians now lived down there, separated from the military and governmental complex just above.

“Special Agent Goldsmith. Are you Agent Daniel Sawyer?”

“Yessir.” Daniel stood, showing the respect he felt a senior agent deserved.

“I’ll be taking over your post for the remainder of this shift. You are to report to Level Nineteen. You will then find and assist Special Agent Livery and Deputy Director Locodo in interrogations.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, Special Agent, but I haven’t received any-” The desk phone rang just then and Daniel almost felt like not answering it, but that was part of his duty rotation. “Level Thirty CQ, go ahead.” The voice on the other end, three levels down in the actual Presidential Bunker, informed him that he would soon be relieved by Special Agent Goldsmith. What marvelous timing, like warning the Pacific Fleet about Pearl Harbor on the afternoon of December 7
th
.

Packing his book and bagged lunch, Daniel made his way to the nearest elevator and piled in with a bunch of Marine MP’s heading to the same place. Apparently some of the people being questioned were not cooperative, but thankfully those were not the people Daniel was meant to speak with. He wasn’t sure why he’d even been selected for this interrogation, that was Shane’s specialty.

“Agent Sawyer, reporting as ordered.” He said to Deputy Director Locodo after finding her first. He had to resist the temptation to stand at attention and salute. It was just another habit he was trying to break these days. Kelly had been working hard to demilitarize her new husband, so this was practice.

“Good. I have some news for you, and an assignment if you decide you want it.”

Daniel felt like he was being messed with. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I thought all the agents already available were on the task of questioning Texan POWs.”

“You’re not here to question a Texan. I know you’re not their biggest fan, so I’m giving you one of our citizens, so there is no conflict of interest of course.” That was the new secret way of saying white people shouldn’t interrogate other whites. Of course there was no merit to the idea, it was just misguided social revenge. “There’s probably no need to be rough with this one, but she may know something you’ll want to know.” Locodo said, handing Daniel a touchscreen tablet. It had all the information on the woman Daniel was to speak with. “And as for the news, I’m not sure how you’ll take it, but your old commanding officer Colonel Jeffry Sharp, is dead.”

Daniel managed to stifle his smile, but worked hard to look like he cared. “So who got him, Ma’am? Car crash, alcohol poisoning, Vic, suicide, Pissing off one of his closest friends maybe? The list could literally go on forever.”

“Hardly.” Locodo scrolled down the page to where Daniel needed to pay attention. “This man, a Rebel who calls himself Sheriff, is the culprit. You’ll be interviewing his ex-girlfriend. He and his brother made a deal with Texas and kept our advanced forces in the dark about it. When the forward units of 3
rd
ID reached Springfield, Missouri they ran into elements of the Missouri Army National Guard supported by the entire fucking Texan 5
th
Army. A few weeks later, before the showdown at Kansas City, Colonel Sharp reported strong evidence of a small city holding out just south of St. Louis. Against orders he took a splinter of one company and liberated the town without a shot. But that was because the people he was there to save were planning an ambush. They attacked him and his men while the Texans simultaneously hit our encampments on the Kansas border.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, I’d rather sit at Post 13 for a week of twelve on, twelve off than ask one of our people about someone they
used
to know. It would be like the Texans interrogating my girlfriend from junior year of high school. There’s no chance we’re the same people. Hell, he may not even like the same color she remembers, ya know?”

Locodo was prepared for this. “This man, Sheriff Ethan J. Cally, beat Colonel Sharp’s face in with a brick after the surrender had already been sounded.”

“Jesus.” Daniel swore, looking at the 8x10 color glossy autopsy photos Texas had sent back to the Federals through the neutral Red Cross. He was a little jealous it wasn’t him, but as always kept that special little thought-nugget to himself.

“I assumed, having read your files on the Lincoln incident, that you may not care one way or the other if Sharp is dead. What I will point out, is your friend, Specialist Hubert Tyrone Garner.” Daniel’s blood froze. “…was assigned to Colonel Sharp’s personal protection detail. Since the bulk of Sharp’s forces were either dead or surrendering at the time of his death, it is only logical to assume Sheriff Cally was responsible for Specialist Garner’s death too.”

“Hugh’s dead…” He tried very hard to compartmentalize this, to show no emotion to Locodo. He failed. “So who’s the person I’m talking to? If she was here the whole time, how could she know anything useful about our Johnny Reb?”

“She was Mr. Cally’s fiancé before the outbreaks. Just spend a few minutes with her, don’t pressure her, she works for the Cheyenne Times so she’ll be watching us right back. Just see if you can get a feel for what this country sheriff is all about. See if he’s truly unreasonable, or if like you’re already expecting, Colonel Jeffry Sharp just rubbed him the wrong way.”

“To what end, ma’am? Has this sheriff been mailing anthrax and glitter filled love letters to the President?” Daniel felt so alienated by what he was being asked to do he dared Locodo to fire him. “Christ. Did he tell the press The Witch is a raging lesbi-cunt from hell?”

Locodo ignored him with the same semi-medicated calm the Big Man exuded. “When we retake the Midwest we will pursue charges against Mr. Cally. Don’t share that with her, unless of course she brings it up first-”

“Then ask if she’d be willing to testify, I understand.” Daniel was eager to get in there, but mildly irritated Locodo was dodging the questions he really wanted answered. He was shown to an office and left alone just after that. Straightening his tie, Daniel braced for his first solo interrogation. Inside a small room with no blinds on the glass walls was a slightly darker haired version of Kelly sitting patiently with a book open on her lap. Her nose was shorter, and maybe her hair was the same color if she let it down, but best guess was darker.

When he opened the door, though, her demeanor of calm faded instantly. “Who the fuck are you, and why have I been in here for the last three hours? I have a life, you know. A husband at home, shit to do with my time. I am going to tell my editor about this.”

Daniel’s face remained impassive. “Sorry for the delay Miss Dougherty. Can I call you Nicole?”

“It’s Misses Bolton now. I got married four months ago. But yeah, you can call me Nicole.” She took a breath. “Sorry for snapping at you. It’s been a long day already.”

              “It’s fine, Miss Bolton. I agree that for what I’ve been sent to ask you, none of it really warrants wasting so much of anyone’s time. Congratulations seem to be in order, I tied the knot recently as well. However, I’m sorry this conversation will have little if anything to do with your current husband. Mr. Bolton is a bank teller at a local America’s Bank branch, no wants no warrants… the same goes for you.”

              “Well duh. We’re good people. Which precinct are you with again?” Nicole asked.

              “I’m not a cop. I work for the United States Secret Service. My name is Agent Daniel Sawyer, and I’m here to ask you a few questions that I will need answered at length.”

              Nicole’s eyes widened. “Look, I’m just an intern at the paper, I didn’t write that article.”

              “What article?”

              “Well, whatever article you’re investigating me for. I swear, I just file copies and do what the internet used to do around the office. They barely notice I work there.”

              Daniel actually let himself smile a little, which must have confused Nicole. “This has nothing to do with you, or your job, or any articles of any kind. This has to do with the death of a man I knew, and the circumstances to which he found himself… well, dead.”

              “Now I’m really confused.” Nicole admitted.

              Gaging her reactions as genuine, Daniel decided to reveal more. “When’s the last time you spoke to Ethan Cally?”

              There was utter silence in the room for a moment save a single box fan that poorly circulated the stale air. “Ethan’s alive?”

              “It would seem so.” Daniel let the confirmation sink in.

Nicole’s face was a myriad of changing emotions, first shock, then understanding, then finally a grim realization. She lowered her head just slightly and barely made eye contact now. “What did he do now? Is he a Texan or something?” It looked like she might actually cry. The first sign to Daniel that Ethan had a history of hurting the people around him.

“He’s wanted for the murder of Army Colonel Jeffry Sharp, 1
st
Viral Response Brigade, and for inciting rebellion, inciting riots, treason…” Daniel slid the tablet to Nicole, who perused the top layer of the file that had been gathered on her former betrothed. “And what do you mean, ‘
do now’
?” Daniel wished now he’d read the entire file before he came in, because Mrs. Bolton scrolled right up to Ethan’s DD201 file, the record of all of a serviceman’s exploits, awards and failures and on one poorly photocopied piece of paper you might as well sign in your own fucking blood.

“Right here.”

“Just tell me in your own words.”

“Ethan was a drunk, and a fuckup, and a drug addict… but before that he was a good man. When I met him, in high school, he was such a sweetheart. Polite, respectful to me, respectful to my father. He and his brother were… a different breed.” She smiled. “I was dating an upper classman back then, Bobby ‘Bildo’ Dav…”

“Look, I don’t really need a
How I Met Your Mother
story here. I just need to know about Ethan Cally.” Daniel interrupted, which was apparently one of Nicole’s pet peeves and she stared him down.

“…Davidson. Ethan and I were close back then, maybe even too close for a proper lady to be with a man she didn’t plan to marry at the time.” Nicole waited for Daniel to interrupt again, but he didn’t and so she went on. “We didn’t officially get together for another year after high school. I didn’t tell him how I felt before he went to boot camp, or whatever the Army calls it, and by the time I knew I wanted to be with Ethan, knew I couldn’t be with Bobby anymore, Ethan was already dating some psychotic cow he’d met at a party the day after he came home.” Nicole smiled, remembering something funny. She decided to share the secret, since why not make this as painfully boring for Daniel as the government had made it for her? “I had a lot to do with getting rid of that bitch, I’m not ashamed to say. She was a total lunatic. Stole his car the day his grandpa passed away because she thought Ethan’s cousin was some random girl he was flirting with. Like I said, bat-shit crazy. So Ethan finally gets up the irritation and courage to dump her and we live happily ever after, right?”

“Okay…”

“
Wrong
.” She interrupted Daniel this time, proving she was running this conversation. “It was great, though, at first I suppose. We couldn’t be more different on our views on politics, but that was what Ethan said made us so much fun together. We’d argue, not in a bad way, for hours and never get anywhere. One year for Christmas he gave me an embroidered patch of the Democratic Party’s ‘Official’ Seal,” She said with quotation marks in the air. “It was a crying baby’s face in the center of a blue and white circle like the Gerber Baby, only not as cute. He seriously had to have spent twenty dollars on something I lit on fire right in front of him.” Nicole smiled, letting her thoughts escape into memory land. “But one thing he didn’t change after he left his ex, was his decision to transfer from the Missouri National Guard to the Regular Army. He was adamant that it was the right decision and he even gave me a whole sales pitch when I told him to pull his transfer request… Ethan was strong headed, maybe not so much in body though. I worried about him. I loved him. I didn’t want him to go, I didn’t want him to be half a world away when I needed someone to be there. But the bonus money, twenty
thousand
dollars, tax free for three years of playing Army Wife? Yeah, that was a major factor for me letting him go.” A single tear rolled down Nicole’s cheek. It opened a flood gate of many more. “We were going to put a down payment on a house with it. Have a magnificent wedding, go to Hawaii for our honeymoon… And then
they
happened to him.”