Chapter 44 – Guardian Angels
Saturday, July 25, 2308
The next morning brother and sister woke early. They crawled out from under the jungle gym, stretched and wiped the dew from their clothes. Ashley looked at her brother and thought he looked as if he'd been through a war. She realized she must look the same and took a deep breath.
"Can we go home now?" Geoff asked.
Ashley stared at the tree line for a long time, debating whether they should head home or out to forage in the city. She pointed to the nearby park bathroom, "I gotta go.”
"Me too," Geoff agreed.
A few minutes later, standing in the morning sunlight, face and hands washed, Ash felt better than she thought possible, having spent the night beneath a slide.
"We can't go home, Geoff," Ashley said. "We need to find out what happened. We need a library. There's got to be something in the news.”
Ashley thought Geoff seemed to be handling everything rather well. "You okay?” she asked.
Geoff nodded. "I miss Mom and Dad. I want to go home.”
Ashley said nothing.
She held his hand as they made their way down the canyon to find a public library.
Finding a local library branch wasn't difficult. Shortly after opening, Ash and Geoff settled into a wired carol where they scanned the latest news reports. There was nothing about her father being shot or their home being raided.
The most recent stories involving their father were about the Epsilon explosion out in the desert. He was mentioned in a piece about Pierce's suicide, but nothing recent, nothing from yesterday.
Twenty minutes later, Ash had some idea of what her father's latest projects had been. Anything compelling she read aloud for Geoff. She was amazed that he hadn't complained about being hungry, tired or bored.
Ash had assigned him the task of lookout, and he dutifully nudged her whenever someone wandered too close. They remained undisturbed, free to peruse the public terminal to their heart's content.
Ashley’s Journal, Saturday, July 25, 2308
We’re at the library. I don’t know what to do. Dad said we should go to Mexico. That’s insane. I’m not doing that.
First, I want to know what happened. I want to know who killed him and why. I know I should be sad, but I’m not. I’m just angry.
There’s nothing in the news about him, nothing recent, anyhow.
I’m reading about how his first invention, the blue goo - now mass-produced for less than seventeen cents a liter, revolutionized medicine. He shot to the top ranks of several fields overnight. He didn’t seem to have much trouble staying there, either.
There’s lots of online controversy about the Centaur war tanks too. I was alive when that happened, and I remember it, even though I was only four. That was when Uncle Geoffrey was killed.
Ash tried to piece together the news reports she was reading now, with snippets of conversation she’d overheard back then. Names came back to her, Tasha Vangen and Major General Cruthers.
She remembered that the people who’d taken over the project had gone crazy, not following the proper procedures. She remembered the controversy, the threat her father could have been held accountable for the massacre and imprisoned. Almost a million people had been killed.
In the end, he wasn’t even arrested, but it had been a tense time.
The war was over, and everyone agreed that her father was responsible for that. He hadn’t been charged with treason, but the inevitability of betrayal at the highest levels hung over him like a black cloud.
Ashley could tell, even then, losing his brother had changed her father in a profound way. She looked over at Geoffrey. He’d abandoned up his post as team lookout and had activated the terminal but was now snoozing.
It didn’t matter, even with both of them looking, there was still nothing about the murder of their parents.
Something drew Ashley’s attention from the screen. Several adults were looking in her direction.
A Chinese man across the room caught and held her gaze. He was wearing traditional silk clothes, a hat and small round sunglasses. His long white hair was pulled into a loose braid behind him. He looked as though he was trying to communicate something to her, but a movement to her right distracted her.
Four men approached the carol. Ash shook Geoffrey, rousing him, but in his drowsy condition, he was in no shape to run.
The four men were dressed in street clothes, but it was obvious they were law enforcement agents of some sort. Ash noticed they were wearing their sunglasses inside. She wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn’t dare look away from them.
"Ashley and Geoffrey Fox, I need to ask you to come with me.”
"We're not going anywhere with you,” Ashley said.
"You don't have a choice about it,” he replied.
"I can scream. I can call the police.”
"Knock yourself out," he said, stepping into arm's reach.
As the agent grabbed her shoulder, Ashley leapt from the booth, kicking him in the crotch. He went down with a grunt, obstructing the other men's path to the children.
Ashley pulled Geoff from the carol, and they slipped into the rows of books. The library wasn't huge, but it was large enough. Ash and Geoff sprinted down the narrow aisles, moving faster than adults could in such confined spaces. They zigged and zagged, slipped around assistants and stayed quiet in their flight.
Then, as they neared the front door, with one wrong turn it was over. They came out into the central lobby. The four-man squad stood right ahead of them. The agent she'd kicked stepped up and backhanded her across the face, knocking Ashley from her feet.
The other civilians in the lobby all stopped what they were doing. There was one grey-haired man who looked as large and as dangerous as the agents. He'd been sitting near Ash and Geoff all morning.
Ashley recalled that he'd arrived at the same time as she and Geoff. He'd even held the door open for them. Now he stood with the other civilians, watching.
One of the soldiers grabbed Geoff's arm. Ashley scrambled to her feet. The agent who'd hit her stepped in and restrained her before she could reach her brother. He held her arms back and leaned down to her ear.
"You're quite a brat, aren't you?" He looked up to the other plainclothesmen, "Let's get this garbage out of here.”
As the soldiers turned toward the main doors with their charges in tow, the grey haired man stepped forward, in front of the doors, obstructing their progress. He held up a badge and asked, "Is there a problem here?”
One of the soldiers reached for his gun, but the man with the badge stepped forward and struck him in the jaw. The agent went down, unconscious. The men holding Ashley and Geoff couldn't draw their weapons in a reasonable amount of time.
The grey haired man was already holding his, pointing it at the only agent with free hands. "Anyone else wants to play; I open fire. Now, let the children go while we wait here for the police.”
The soldiers hesitated.
The grey haired man cocked his pistol and switched his aim to the forehead of the man holding Ashley.
He released her and his partner released Geoff.
The grey haired man gestured for Ash and Geoff to get behind him, and out of the building. "Get out of here.”
Ashley opened the door and pulled Geoff out with her.
As she stepped out of the library, she realized she'd seen that man before. He was more than familiar.
She'd seen him at her home, last summer for a barbecue. He was a friend for their father's. She was sure of it.
Ashley heard the lead agent threaten her father's friend. "Look, the kids are gone, fine. But we're not sticking around for the cops.”
"You see this badge," the grey haired man answered. "That's the Defense Security Service. You're not cleared to know anything about this project, not even those children's names. The knowledge alone can put you in Leavenworth for twenty years. You're waiting here, or you're getting shot. It's up to
you.”
As they reached the sidewalk, Ashley and Geoff heard the gunfire erupt behind them.
Then the grey-haired man, Ashley remembered his name, Ross. He was a soldier, Major Ross. Now he was out of the building and moving down the steps.
"Run!" Ross said. "Run!”
Ashley grabbed Geoff's hand and sprinted from down the block. Behind her, the library doors burst open again. She didn't look back, but heard Ross and the agents firing behind her. Bullets whizzed by her head and then she and Geoff made a turn, carrying them out of the line of fire.
Back at the library, Ross had ducked behind a car, pinning the agents to the library doorway and preventing their pursuit.