A New World [7] Takedown (32 page)

I call Robert aside as he is getting ‘reacquainted’ with Michelle and tell him to go see the doctor. The stare from Michelle is unmistakable. I know I’m not her favorite person for taking Robert all of the time. I’m quite sure she views me as some controlling dad who is constantly taking her boyfriend from her and trying to kill him. The reason for talking to Robert on the side is because I’m not sure if he’s told her about his bite as yet. That’s his story to tell and his time to tell it.

“I will, Dad,” Robert replies once we have some space to ourselves.

“I mean now,” I reply.

“What about the group meeting?”

“That can wait. I have a couple of things to do before we meet anyway so hustle yourself up there. I won’t ask you if you’re feeling okay because I know you’ll tell me if you aren’t. Did you tell Michelle yet?”

“No.”

“Are you planning to? I only ask because it’s bound to get out and she’ll eventually hear about it. Trust me on this one, It’s better if she hears it from you first…although that’s your call. Now get upstairs,” I say.

He sighs and walks over to Michelle. Motioning to Drescoll, I keep an eye on Robert and Michelle, seeing her eyes go wide after a moment. She shoots a glare in my direction. Yeah, I kind of thought that might happen.

“I want to see the video feeds for myself before we meet,” I tell Drescoll.

We stroll into the operation center filled with video monitors. Drescoll plugs in the tape. I watch with horror as night runners stream by the gate cameras and enter the compound. Thousands pour across the monitor.

“That’s Alan,” Drescoll says, pointing to a figure in the middle of the storm.

I watch as he gets torn apart and disappears under a torrent of night runners. The screen then empties as they streak farther into the compound leaving the mutilated body of Alan lying on the hard surface.

Drescoll reaches over and fast forwards the tape. Soon, night runners begin exiting. I feel hot tears of sorrow and frustration at the sight of Lynn being carried off, her body hanging listlessly. Watching them disappear from the screen, I feel a building rage and a desire to kill every last night runner. That feeling was there at losing Nic and has never left. Having Robert bitten made it worse and now with Lynn being carried off, it is pushed to a crescendo.

The last of the night runners vanish from the monitor and Drescoll reaches across to turn the recording off. I continue to stare at the blank screen – my anger being fueled by fear. I no longer see the screen but my mind is running through scenarios to wipe every night runner from the face of the earth.

The pressure becomes too much to keep within. I stand and kick the chair I was sitting on across the room. It slams against the far wall and tumbles to the floor with a clatter. The staff manning the video feeds and radios flinch, glance fearfully at me, and then return their attention to their screens. Several people poke their heads in the doors and then quickly leave. An uneasy and awkward silence fills the room.

“Feel better?” Drescoll asks after a moment.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I reply, “Yes…no…a little. Tell me again about what happened inside. I want to know every detail.”

Drescoll describes the fight inside and events following. I listen for any clue as to why Lynn would be taken – or where. Nothing in his story gives me the faintest clue.

“Okay. Let’s meet with the others,” I say. “And Drescoll.”

“Yeah, Jack.”

“Nice job with the defense and getting order restored.”

“Thanks,” he replies with a nod.

“I apologize for my losing control,” I tell the others manning the ops center as I leave.

They all turn and nod, relieving the awkward tension filling the room. Upstairs, I see Robert over with the doctor.

“Tell everyone I’ll be there in a moment,” I say to Drescoll. He nods and strolls over to where the others of the command group are seated.

“How is it, doc?” I ask, joining Robert and him.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sign of infection. As I was telling him, his temperature and vitals all appear normal as do his neural responses. The wound seems to be healing normally. I’m prescribing three weeks of antibiotics just as a precautionary. If I had facilities, I’d have blood workup done but, honestly, everything appears to be okay,” the doctor answers.

“Thanks, doc,” I say, feeling a little relief at his words.

The stress is still there but at least this is good news. I won’t, however, feel one hundred percent relieved until a few weeks have passed without any signs.

“Are you ready?” I ask.

Robert glances over at Michelle standing by the upper railing near their quarters. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“There will be plenty of time to get yelled at later,” I state.

He smiles. “I’m not really looking forward to that.”

The deep anger I felt before has diminished. Not that it’s gone by any stretch, it’s just that it’s contained. Although emotions continue to roil inside, I also feel rationality return. Taking a seat with the group, I note that Taylor is sitting in for Lynn.

“I know we probably all want to talk about the attack and Lynn, or maybe it’s just me that does, but we should catch up first,” I say, detailing our trip, culminating with Greg departing with the Stryker.

Bannerman then begins to brief. “As I’m sure you saw on arriving, the inner wall has been finished and we expect the towers to be completed within the next two days. We’ve focused efforts on that and clearing out the rubble and trees in the area. Additional cameras have been installed on the interior and exterior with additional people monitoring the video feeds. After the towers, we’ll then focus on housing. We have plans drawn up based on what we talked about before. The only changes are watch towers and security watches within each building based on…well, based on what happened.”

“Any word from Leonard?” I ask.

“We haven’t heard anything for a few days now. The last we heard from him was about the same time we last had a radio call from you,” Frank states.

“So, the satellites must have finally gone down?” I ask.

“It would appear so. At least, it would explain the outage,” Frank answers.

Something in his tone says that he’s entirely certain.

“Are you convinced of that?” I ask.

“I can’t think of any other reason,” Frank replies.

“We picked up this guy, Harold, who had some interesting ideas,” I say.

“What did he say?”

“He seems to think someone is blocking our satellite communication,” I answer.

“Did he elaborate?” Frank asks.

“Not really. I asked why not block all communications. He replied that frequencies radiate outward from the transmitter and thus are more difficult to block. If they were close, the frequencies could be jammed but the satellite is a central reception point that can be shut down from a base source. He then shrugged and wandered off. Let’s deal with that at a later time though. Right now, I want to talk about this holding other in house arrest,” I say.

“As I mentioned, we did it for the good of everyone. There was a lot of fear that the others, including Julie, might revert back as it appears Alan did,” Drescoll says.

The mention of their mom being held in house arrest causes Robert and Bri to sit upright.

“Wait, what do you mean my mom is being held?” Robert coldly asks.

“From what we know, and with some guesses, Alan was a night runner previously. Everyone knows or believes that to be true. He’s the one that opened the gates and allowed the night runners to gain entrance. We’re lucky,” Drescoll says, looking in my direction as I also sit more upright at his use of the word ‘lucky’,” well, we’re fortunate they didn’t kill us all. We decided that keeping them with a guard and confining them was in the best interest of everyone.”

“That’s not cool,” Robert states, rising. Bri joins him.

“Sit down,” I say to the both of them.

“Dad, this is not okay,” Robert firmly states.

“I know…and we’ll talk about it. Sit down,” I say more firmly this time.

The problem is that I can see why Drescoll and the others did what they did. I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have done the same, or at least thought about it.

“Okay. What about this? We keep a guard with them at all times for the time being, but they are allowed to go as they please as long as they don’t do anything that endangers the group. I see your point, Drescoll, and would have done the same for the short-term. As far as the curfew at night, we keep that for the time being,” I say.

“How long are you thinking we keep a guard with each of them?” Drescoll asks.

“Let’s just do it until we are all comfortable they aren’t a danger,” I state.

I see Robert and Bri relax a little with this suggestion, but I can tell they aren’t happy with their mom being under guard. I’ll have to have a word with them in private later. It may not make them any happier but I want for them to understand the thinking behind the decision. We may not ever achieve complete security but anything we can do to improve it is something we need to do.

“You know, I will say that it’s not just Alan’s fault. I carry some of the blame,” Watkins states.

“What do you mean? You were the one who notified us in advance of the night runner’s arrival which allowed us to get into position. Without your warning, we would all have been annihilated in our sleep,” Cressman says.

“It was my complacency that allowed Alan out in the first place. As I mentioned previously, I let him walk around at night. It happened so often that I dismissed it. I was complacent about watching the interior,” Watkins says.

“We didn’t know to watch our own people,” Horace comments.

“No one ever does,” Watkins replies.

“Alright. The blame, if we are to place one, is a shared one. I allowed the cameras to be moved and had us focus on other projects. We can’t trace this or put ‘blame’ on any one person. We’re a team and therefore share the good and bad together. What we need to do is move forward and see that it doesn’t happen again,” I say. “Speaking of moving on, what about training?”

“We’ll have another graduating class and both phases of training for the current group completed in a week. We should be able to form an additional two to three teams with the ones that have finished both phases of training,” Drescoll reports.

“Okay. That’s good news. Sergeant Reynolds and her group can form a team immediately. They are all airborne qualified. We’ll incorporate some of the phase two aspects into our morning training formations,” I state.

“Foxtrot team designation?” Drescoll asks.

“I believe that’s what we are up to for naming,” I answer.

“Okay. I’ll hold a quick class on procedures and expectations if that’s okay,” Drescoll says.

“Fine with me,” I reply. “We can put Harkins and the eleven soldiers with him into the next training class.”

“Sounds good, Jack.”

“As we’re talking about teams, what about a team leader for Black?” Taylor asks.

“What do you mean?” I respond.

“Well, do we need another…team leader?”

This creates an awkward moment. It’s the elephant sitting on the table that we’ve…well, not skirted, but held off. What he’s asking, besides the team leader situation, is what we are going to do about Lynn. Are we going to give her up as missing?

“No. Lynn will be back. I’ll see to that. There won’t be a replacement because one won’t be needed. However, you’ll command in the interim,” I say to Taylor, who nods his reply.

“So…what are we going to do? Do you have a plan, sir?” Horace asks.

I feel the emotions bubbling up again. With a deep sigh, I answer, “No. I don’t have a plan
per se
. We operate under the assumption that she’s still alive. That’s the only, and I mean only, one we can have with the night runners taking her – that they want her alive for some inexplicable reason. We don’t know where she was taken so that’s the first thing we need to do –find out where she is.”

“How are we going to do that? We lost her trail and haven’t had any sign of her,” Horace asks.

“I’ll drive with the broadcasting teams and open up to see if I can sense a gathering of night runners of the size we recorded. We also take the Spectre out at night and see if we can locate them on thermals,” I answer.

“What then? What do we do once we find where she’s been taken?” Drescoll asks.

His tone is excited at the prospect that we have tools on hand that may locate Lynn.

“Let’s just find her and then we’ll work out the details on how to get her out,” I state.

“What about Greg?” Robert asks. “We’re supposed to meet up with him and we don’t have any way of communicating with him.”

“Greg is just going to have to wait a few days more. I don’t see any way around that. He knows we don’t have an exact timetable and will proceed…” I begin my reply but am interrupted by an image that forms in my mind.

It’s clear and sharp. I’m taken aback by its sudden appearance. I hadn’t opened myself up consciously but, with the emotions swirling inside, I must have allowed it somehow. In my head is a strong picture of Lynn, alive and in the dark. I turn my head sharply to the source and am able to sense exactly where it is coming from – almost due south. It’s sent by a night runner, the presence a strong one. The image is gone just as quickly as it came. I search outward to regain it but it’s gone. Although it has vanished, the source remains firmly entrenched in my mind.