He just hoped that, once they survived this crazy apocalypse and stopped it cold in its tracks, that she still wanted them as much as she appeared to right now.
He wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t, but he suspected it would break his heart and Omega’s. They’d talked about it while on the run for supplies.
They were in firm agreement that she was theirs for as long as she wanted to be. Sure it could work. It was working so far for four other triads.
Why not them?
Omega was his best friend in the world, the brother he never had. It felt right sharing her with him.
It felt like it would be wrong not to share her.
He closed his eyes, settling in to sleep. He wouldn’t allow himself to think in any other way except that they would all survive this and then go on to have a happy, calm life together somewhere, where the most dangerous decision they had to face was whether or not to risk double-teaming Gia after she’d eaten beans.
Chapter Thirty
The mood of everyone in the caravan was somber the next afternoon when they rolled into Redding. Nick Edison’s mother actually lived west of town, in the small community of Shasta. Papa had ridden with Gia, Omega, and Echo, now following the National Guard vehicles. Four other men from the Drunk Monkeys, Juju, Delta, Uncle, and Zed, had also followed in another SUV, while everyone else remained back on the main road with the rest of the caravan, parked in a grocery store lot and awaiting their return.
Papa led the group of Guardsmen up Marsha Edison’s front door and knocked.
Gia stood back, leaning against her unit with Omega and Echo flanking her.
“I feel like I should be the one doing that,” she said, low enough only they could hear her.
“He’s the ranking officer, babe,” Omega reminded her. “His call. You’re officially off duty.”
She’d actually told Papa she would make the notification, but he’d overruled her, citing that Nick had technically been military. If she really wanted to fight him on it, she could, but he felt she’d been through enough already.
Gia felt badly she didn’t have the emotional fight in her to argue, but let him do it.
As they watched, the woman began sobbing. Papa hugged the woman, holding her, as Gia tried not to break down into tears, too.
No, guess I’m not as cold and hard as I thought I was.
It was good to know some shred of humanity remained in her. She’d had serious doubts there for a while.
While in Sacramento, Omega had obtained an American flag. They’d draped Nick’s coffin with it while stopped in the parking lot, before they’d rolled up in front of Marsha Edison’s home.
Eventually, Papa led her down her front walk and to the truck, where eight of the Guardsmen gently unloaded the casket.
Gia came to attention, as did the others. Papa kept one arm around the woman’s waist, the other holding her hand as he quietly talked to her. She laid her hand on top of the casket and nodded at something he said, then pointed back to the house.
Papa nodded to one of the Guardsmen, and the rest of them broke formation, grabbed shovels from another truck, and followed them as they walked around the side of the house.
In somber silence, Gia, Echo, and Omega brought up the rear. The other four men helped the National Guardsmen dig where the woman indicated, and in less than an hour, they had the grave ready.
The pallbearers, who to their credit held the casket the entire time despite Nick’s mother telling them they could set it on the ground, carefully moved forward as everyone else stood at attention again. Papa, with Uncle’s help, carefully folded the flag and presented it to the grieving mother.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t give him the full military honors he deserves, ma’am,” he told her. “He died a soldier, trying to save lives. He did good. You have every reason to be proud of him.”
She nodded as she clutched the flag to her chest.
The men carefully eased the casket into the ground and then waited for Papa to give them the okay.
First, Marsha Edison grabbed a handful of dirt and tossed it in. Then Papa gently guided her away from the grave and gave an “at ease” order before leading the mother inside through the back door.
The rest of them watched as they filled in the grave, then carefully replaced the sod on top of it as best they could. When they finished, Gia, Omega, and Echo were turning to head back to their vehicle when Papa emerged from the back door of the house and called to them.
She took a deep breath. With her men following close behind, she ascended the steps and followed him into the house.
Marsha Edison sat on her sofa, clutching the flag to her chest. She looked up at Gia. “He said you were there when Nick died.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m really sorry.”
“Thank you.” She looked down at the flag in her arms. “He didn’t suffer?”
“No, ma’am. He didn’t know what happened. It was fast.”
Gia jammed her hands into her pockets and felt the dog tag there. While she’d planned on keeping it, she realized she couldn’t. She pulled it from her pocket and stepped over to the mother. “This was his,” she said, pressing it into the woman’s palm. “I’m so, so sorry. He was a good man. He was going to help me save the town.”
Marsha let out a sad laugh as she examined the dog tag. “He loved playing soldier as a kid. His dad was in the military. He was killed in action when Nick was four. I didn’t want him enlisting, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.” Her fingers closed around the dog tag. “He saved lives?”
“Yes, ma’am. He didn’t get to finish what he helped me start, but I know he would have if…” Gia took a breath. “He was there with us in spirit.”
“I was worried he might have been caught in Barstow in that explosion,” she said. “There were a lot of National Guardsmen killed. Horrible accident,” she said, anger encroaching her tone. “You’d think they would have been smart enough to move a tanker train out of the area! I can’t believe how stupid they were.”
Papa exchanged a glance with Gia, over the grieving mother’s head.
“I wish I could tell you more,” Gia said, “but I only knew Nick less than a day. I know he seemed like a good guy. A nice guy. You can be proud of him.”
“And you killed the men who killed him?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A shuddering sigh escaped Marsha. “Good.”
Papa called in the National Guardsmen. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we have an urgent mission. We’re going to leave them here with you, and they’ll return to their post when they need to.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry we had to meet under such horrible circumstances, and I’m sorry we can’t stay longer.”
“It’s all right.” She stared up at him. “Wait a minute.” She looked at him, then at Omega and Echo. “You all aren’t part of that special ops group, are you?”
Gia gave Papa credit for quick thinking and an even better ability to lie. “Us? No ma’am. We’re just grunts.”
She looked a little disappointed. “I read about this unit called the Drunk Monkeys. They’re protecting the scientists who are working on a cure for that horrible virus. I hoped maybe you all were them.”
Papa smiled. “Not us, sorry.”
Gia hoped the National Guardsmen would honor their oath Papa had made them swear not to reveal anything about them or their mission or anything they’d seen.
That to do anything else would have been an insult to their friend.
It didn’t hurt that they’d all lied to the Guardsmen and told them their next stop was Salt Lake City.
Bubba already had a few safeguards in place. If Salt Lake City suddenly popped up anywhere in the echo chamber, he and General Arliss would know someone had talked, and that there was still a leak somewhere in his food chain.
If Salt Lake City was never mentioned, they could reasonably assume that, for the time being, they’d stopped all the leaks. Or that the Guardsmen
had kept their word.
It didn’t necessarily mean they would be able to come in from the cold, unfortunately. Not until Arliss knew he could secure a safe facility for the scientists to work from without fear of them being taken into custody by some other government entity beyond his realm of influence.
As they all stood around by Gia’s unit, Papa let out a deep breath. “Now let’s get the hell out of here,” he said. “No disrespect to our fallen man, but we’ve got three fragile, perishable packages we need to get into a secure safe house ASAP.”
Chapter Thirty-One
The Reverend Hannibal Silo never liked to be kept waiting.
Even by the President of the United States.
Especially not when he’d had to undergo the humiliating experience of being tested for Kite, quarantined for three hours, then tested again before being allowed to enter the White House.
He’d played a key role in getting Charlotte Kennedy elected. She’d do well to remember that.
Still, he bore all of that with calm grace and poise, knowing that not only was he being watched by people, but by a vast, sophisticated security system far more intricate than the one at the church headquarters. It wouldn’t do for him to be caught on video acting like an ass and then it having splashed everywhere.
Must remind myself to make sure Jerald installs cell phone jammers in my condos at the various strongholds.
He wouldn’t want any of his new wives able to make calls or send out video or audio once they were ensconced in their places.
As young as they were, and after all his years of experience dealing with Mary, he knew he’d have no trouble molding them into his ideal perfections of what a wife should be.
Still, a little insurance never hurt.
Finally, he was escorted into a small sitting room where the president welcomed him with a smile and a friendly handshake. “Reverend Silo, it’s so nice to see you.”
“Likewise, Madame President.” He waited for the Secret Service agents to retreat to the far sides of the room, far enough away they were out of earshot if Silo and the president kept their voices low. “I have come today to speak with you on an urgent matter.”
“There are lots of urgent matters in the world right now, Reverend.”
“I’m talking about Kite. And finding a vaccine. There are…certain agents in your government who are determined to keep the vaccine a secret from the world.”
She frowned. “And you know this how?”
“You have a General Joseph Arliss, who is in command of the SOTIF program. One of his teams has been locating scientists from The List. Their original orders were to bring those scientists in from the cold and turn them over.”
She dropped all pretenses, lowering her voice to a whisper. “What are you saying?”
“The only person with the authority to order Arliss to turn over those scientists is you. Now my church has scientists and lab facilities in secure locations throughout the country. We’ve been frantically searching for a vaccine, but have yet to be successful. If those scientists were put under our protection…”
He stared her down, letting her fill in the dots. “But what about the CDC?” she finally asked.
He smiled. “Well, of course they would keep the CDC informed of their progress. But let’s be honest. When has the government truly been able to ever efficiently deliver relief to the many? It’s usually faith-based operations who step in and perform the bulk of the work in disasters, is it not?”
He raised his voice to normal levels. “By the way, how is your daughter doing?”
He let those words hang in the air.
Charlotte Kennedy’s eyes widened as his meaning finally struck home.
He nodded ever so slightly. Then he nonchalantly examined his cuticles. “Isn’t she supposed to get married soon? My, I’m sure I’d love to meet her fiancé. He must be a charming man. I’m sure we’d have a lot to talk about.”
Charlotte Kennedy blanched as he met her gaze again.
She slowly nodded. “I’ll see what I can do,” she softly said.
“You do that, ma’am.” He stood, offering her his hand. “I’m sure you have plenty of things to be doing, so I’ll get out of your way.”
She stared up at him for a moment before standing and nodding, eventually taking his hand. “Yes, sorry I can’t talk longer.”
He almost giggled. No, actually she looked like she wanted to run out of the room and puke on her shoes. He wasn’t worried about her taking retribution against him.
He had fail-safes in place to prevent that. Like the warning that if he ever did mysteriously die, that there were people who would immediately unleash all the information he had to the media.
And that would make the blast at Barstow look like a dry fart by comparison.
A Secret Service agent led him out to the entrance and passed him off to yet another who escorted him down to the main entrance where his rented car and driver were waiting. Jerald was back at the plane and working on finalizing more of the logistics of taping his sermons at the next compound.
“Where to now, Reverend?” the man asked.
He smiled. “To the airport, please. My plane is waiting to take me to my next stop.”
He settled back in his seat, fighting the urge to break out into excited giggles.
He couldn’t help it. The look of utter fear and hopelessness on a woman’s face turned his crank. Always had.
Hey, if she didn’t want to be in that position, she should have made sure her whorish daughter had been implanted with a five-year before sending her off to college. The girl wasn’t forced to sleep with that boy. In fact, he’d given the young man explicit instructions not to force her, and to take as much time as necessary to seduce her. That it must be completely voluntary on her part.
And it had been.
Had taken less than two weeks, as a matter of fact, and had been her idea, not his.
Even better.
If word of the president’s daughter’s abortion went public, her party and her conservative base would drop her like a dirty diaper.
He felt more than a little pride to know his brides would be special, pure girls who had never sullied themselves before they lost their virginity to him.
I wonder how many of them I can get pregnant on their first night?
Dr. Isley would be carefully tracking all their monthly cycles as part of their health care program once they’d been selected and the girls had agreed to become his brides. Hannibal would make sure their first nights were undertaken in their most fertile time of the month, and then scrump like bunnies with them for the next couple of days just to make sure he had the best chance of it taking.
Oh, they’d know pleasure. They would beg for more from him. Just like he’d trained fear and loathing into Mary regarding sex, his girls would know nothing but soothing, loving pleasure when in bed with him.
After they received their discipline, of course.
But not as harshly as Mary had received it over the years. They were already trained to obey him as a messenger of God. And to obey their own fathers.
It would take very little to train them to be obedient wives for him, the mothers of his blessed children.
Closing his eyes, he let out a content sigh.
Yes, it will be a whole new world.
Chapter Thirty-Two
They took their time going north, spending four days camping out south of Portland and waiting to hear back from Bubba to make sure no one was onto them.
Either the National Guardsmen hadn’t said anything, or Arliss’ food chain was once again secure, or maybe both.
It was after Bubba gave them the go-ahead to proceed north again that they returned to the road. And before they’d even crossed from Portland, Oregon, into Vancouver, Washington, he’d rented them a building in Lower Queen Anne, just northwest of where the remnants of the old Space Needle still lay in Seattle from its collapse fifty years earlier following an earthquake.
Papa and Uni scouted ahead before the rest of the convoy moved into town. They arrived just before dark, close to nine o’clock that night, and all of their vehicles easily fit inside the enclosed parking garage at the base of the building. It was an older office building four stories high if you counted the garage level, forty years old, and vacant nearly a year. No furniture, but it had running water and lights, courtesy of Bubba, and was rented in the name of a guy from New York who didn’t exist outside of a computer.
It also had a small kitchen area, and two full bathrooms with showers, in addition to wash rooms on every floor.
By midnight, Gia and her men had showers and were collapsing on their bedrolls in the empty office they’d claimed on what was technically the second floor.
After kissing them good night, she closed her eyes and wondered if she’d finally be able to relax enough to get a full night’s sleep. On the road, she’d taken her fair share of nighttime watches, and it felt like she’d never again have a regular sleep pattern.
Gia was glad to be proven wrong when she opened her eyes to grey dawn light the next morning, and the sounds of Omega and Echo softly snoring on either side of her.
Her mind raced, freewheeling for a moment, before she realized, no, there wasn’t a damn thing she had to do that morning.
The night before, Papa had told her and Annie, and their men, that they had the next two days off for recharging. He’d give the others all their own version of two-day leave after that.
She appreciated it, even if it felt very strange not to have any responsibilities.
That hadn’t happened in…years.
Especially not in the six months following her divorce, where even on her days off she’d usually stopped by the station to check on things, or even went in to work other shifts for people.
It also felt good not to be on the road anymore. Real good. And if they were right, they might have a couple of months in the area before needing to pull up stakes and leaving. Papa didn’t want them stranded there with winter storms that would block the high passes along the roads heading west.