Adrian's Eagles: Book Four (Life After War) (8 page)

He made himself let that go, for now. “Just tell me when something’s coming so I can prepare for it.”

Sam had been expecting much more and she let out a tired breath. “I think I can do that.”

“And in return?”

She looked at him coolly. “That was the old world. I don’t want to be a prize rat anymore.”

His tone pulled at her. “Tell me what you do long for, Samantha. Maybe I can give it to you.”

Horrible pain flashed across her face and her voice choked. “Can you give me back my dignity?”

Adrian smiled, pushing his magic out. “Most of it, yes. You’ll earn the rest and then you’ll be able forgive yourself for surviving when so many didn’t.”

“How did you…”

“Angela.”

Sam frowned, eyes narrowing
.
“She knows a lot about me for someone I’ve never even had a real conversation with.”

Adrian chose his words carefully, hoping this would start bringing the two women together. “You’re not the only one here who is special.”

Samantha let that sink in, realizing things had changed for her again. Angie was different, too. And she was already on Adrian’s payroll.

 
“What would you want me to do exactly?” Her tone was leery, but hope lurked.

Adrian was careful not to show too much excitement. “Ride with me and we’ll talk. Later, that’s up to you.”

“Okay.”

Neil watched Sam climb up into Adrian’s rig with eyes that betrayed his interest, and his right-hand, Jeremy, took notice. Was there anything he could do to help that along? Sam was cute and she shared Neil’s feeling on taking out the Slavers. Maybe some match-making was needed.

“This is Safe Haven mobile refugee camp. Is anyone out there? Hello? Can
anyone
hear me?”

With Mitch’s cheerful voice ringing through the radios, Safe Haven pulled out only five minutes late, and with everyone accounted for. Adrian let his stomach ease. He was always afraid they’d be short people and the fear of hearing that over the radio allowed him to offer Samantha the honesty she obviously required.

“I need to know when it’s coming, Sam. I have to have time to get ready.” He saw her sigh.

“I can’t tell you the exact moment. I know it’s within a week, but probably less. I’m listening for it.”

Adrian felt the frustration rise up and forced it back. Beginnings were always hard and he wasn’t prepared for this conversation anymore than she was. Keeping that in mind, he softened his tone.

“Where should we be when it comes? Where would
you
take us?”

Her unease grew. “We need a basement area that’s underground and out of sight. Sometimes, storms seem to…hone in on things.”

“Things like lights or even the people?”

Sam wasn’t quite able to believe it was her mouth spilling these long held theories. “Happiness. The big ones are jealous of peace and happiness. It’s a calm state they achieve only when they die.”

Adrian took a minute to see if he could accept storms as living things with not only intelligence, but also emotions, and found it easier than he’d expected. How many times had he heard stories of survivors swearing the funnel cloud had come down just for them? Or that the storm had come out of nowhere?

“I’ll get you a list of places like that near us and you’ll circle the ones we’d be safest at. I’ll have Kenn give you a sheet each week.”

“I’d rather not know which ones you pick, if that’s okay,” she stated, shifting pressure off of the healing cigar burn on her hip.

“Why not?” He was sure he already knew by her nervous tone.

“I’m… I’m still keeping an eye on Rick even though you said I don’t have to, and if I know where we’ll be, it might get people hurt if he…catches me.”

Adrian’s anger grew with his certainty that the man was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but the sights out his window confirmed his choice. Everything they were passing right now was burned, charred. From houses and cars, to even the telephone poles, a sun dimmed by toxins couldn’t hide the danger. A battle had taken place here, one of only thousands still happening across their broken country, and most of his sheep wouldn’t last long on their own. If he spooked them and they ran, it would be a slaughter.

“Why haven’t you thrown him out?”

That was a question he’d been asked too many times already by his top men and Adrian gave her the rehearsed answer they’d all received.

“If there’s a rabid dog on your farm, you can see him - have an idea when and where he’ll attack. If you put him outside the fence, he’s hurting others, and sooner or later he’ll find a way to slip back in and rip out your throat.”

“And if you put a bullet between its eyes?”

Very surprised, Adrian’s tone demanded honesty. “Are you sure enough to pull the trigger yourself, Sam?”

That stopped her next words and he gave her pale face a brief glance. “Personally, I think you’re right, but until he makes a mistake, I can’t… remove him. For now, he’s under watch. Turning him loose out there is like condoning murder. At least here, he’s following the rules and that alone is a better alternative than to have him hurting others.”

Sam understood. “And that’s why these people will follow you anywhere. They know you give a damn.”

Adrian’s heart twisted with his secrets. “I give that and more.”

5

“It’s time. Switch to channel seven.”

Kyle consulted his glossy notebook again, getting settled as they followed Marc’s new black truck out of the parking area. They were seventh in a line of ninety. “Jump to seventeen after the check-in.”

Glad to have noise filling the tense silence between her and Neil, Angela listened in fascination as the two Eagles riding with her began what was clearly a lesson on a second radio that was cleverly hidden in the glove box.

“From where we left off last night,” Kyle instructed.

Neil relayed it over the mic. “A first instinct is to use the hostage for protection. Don’t give them the opportunity. Make contact with the enemy when he is as far from the victim as possible.”

Word for word, the Trooper repeated it into the radio from his front seat position and she could see he was also working on a drawing of the camp.

“Never direct attention to the hostage or depend on them to react the way you need them to. Assume they will either panic or freeze.”

This lesson was about her, she realized. Angela steered carefully around the charred frame of a school bus, purposely not looking at the small skeletons still inside. What awful, new landmarks the War had left!

“Be ready to shoot the hostage, to kill the enemy. Minor leg and arm wounds are preferred in this situation, but at no point should the hostage ever be in mortal danger from a stray round. Be precise. If not sure on the angle or line of fire, do not take the shot. I repeat, an Eagle who accidentally kills a hostage, even if the enemy is eliminated, has committed murder.”

Angela wanted to protest that one, but caught Kyle’s head shake in the mirror, and clamped down on her words as Neil began repeating it over the secure channel.

“Break for discussion. Questions?”

The radio was silent and Angela opened her mouth hesitantly. “Are there exceptions to that rule?”

“Such as?” Kyle demanded, ready for her.

Angela flushed at being put on the spot like the rookies often were. “Well, like if the enemy throws or pushes the hostage into the line of fire, or if there’s a big fight.”

Kyle gave her an assessing once-over, thinking a lot of Adrian’s Eagles were likely discussing those options right now. “Yes. There are exceptions to every rule, but each situation has its own way of being handled. During a fight, we would ideally try to wait for an end to it or for a sure opening.”

“Rescue missions are chaos. Care has to be taken.” Neil added tonelessly.

She responded the same way. “And it has to be made a priority, thus the harsh rule. Got it.”

They exchanged a look at her casual acceptance, not sure she understood the gravity of what it meant.

Neil clarified. “An Eagle found guilty of murder, accident or otherwise, isn’t tossed out of Adrian’s army or banished. They’re executed, by Adrian himself.”

Shocked, Angela met Kyle’s eyes, trusting him not to lie. “It ever happen?”

“Not on my watch.”

“Would he?”

Kyle answered immediately. “Yes.”

Angela let that sink in, not sure their impressions were correct. That sense of life having great value to Adrian was hard to miss. Maybe he did these things anyway and dealt with the pain afterwards? That she could see.

Neil took a quick sip of water and when Kyle made a motion, the cop keyed the mic. “Discussion questions?”

There was silence and the lesson resumed.

“In a hostage situation, we do not negotiate. We will not meet demands or even talk about them honestly. We also do not allow the enemy time to think. Quick and hard plans work best.”

Angela listened to the rest of the lesson in rapt silence, absorbing as much as she could. She would have been just as interested in the conversation going on between the three Eagles in the black truck ahead of them.

“What if they come during the night?”

Marc’s voice was pointed. “I expect them to, or in the wake of a storm. Too many stories going around camp to ignore it and they’ve met no challenge so far doing it that way. They won’t change what they know works.”

“So how do we guide the sheep to the truck?”

“Red, white, and blue lights.”
 
Jeremy answered from the backseat. “Adrian will love that.”

Wrapped in a heavy blanket because of the windows being down to clear the smoke, Seth was busy writing it all down. “I can rig that up. Can you connect it to the wrist alarms?”

“Yeah, but it would be more dependable if Kenn did it,” Marc answered, slapping at a fat wasp hovering around the window as they slowed to make a turn.

“Only way that’ll happen is if Adrian tells him to. He won’t listen to anyone else,” Seth stated from the passenger seat.

Marc shrugged. “If Kenn won’t, I can. It just won’t be as solid. He’s better at that shit than I am.” He lit a smoke, hating it that some of these plans rested on Kenn being forced to cooperate.

“What about the maps?” Jeremy asked and Marc was glad for the reminder.

“Neil says he has that covered. Kyle and I will look them over when he’s done and adjust where we need to. Who gets to make her driving schedule?”

“Kenn does those.”

Marc motioned. “Add that to the list.” He sighed. “There’s no way we’ll be done by morning with all this.”

Seth’s tone was calming. “Adrian will distract them so we can keep working. Don’t sweat it.”

Marc allowed himself to be drawn back into the plans. They had to get these things set up before the Slavers or the remaining twin came for her. He wouldn’t rest until it was done. He eyed the dim sky above them. Not that there would be much of that if those clouds meant the storm Angela seemed to think was coming.

His gaze went to the lead rig, wondering what those two were talking about. Rick or the weather?

“Have you always been able to see the weather in your dreams?” Adrian had steered the conversation to a more personal level.

Samantha opened her mouth to lie and gave honesty instead. “Yes. Used to freak my parents out at first, but it helped them so they learned to accept it.”

“And the rest of your family?”

Sam’s head was turned toward the dusty window, seeing the burnt frames of buses, cars, and bodies. “My only cousin stopped coming around right about the time I told her a tornado was headed for them and then the roof blew off.”

“You saved her with a forbidden call?”

Sam closed her eyes as they rolled by a farmhouse with an obscenity on the porch that she didn’t want to see later. “She never came to our home after that. Ever.”

Adrian was quiet for a minute, letting her deal with the grief of the past. Sometimes those ghosts didn’t want to let go, no matter how hard you tried to escape.

“I learned to shut up or push my information off on data from my parent’s lab so I could keep friends, but none of them were close. I think they knew that deep down there was something… wrong with me.”

“Wrong? You see your gifts that way?”

Sam let it out slowly. “I saved Milton’s life so he could sneak back and sabotage us into the end of the world. I can’t feel any other way.”

She missed the reaction to his father’s name and Adrian was quick to move the conversation along. “You are not responsible for this new world, Sam. Surely you know that?”

She didn’t say anything and he frowned. “Sam?”

Her expression that said she was lost and searching for what way to go next. “If I’d left it alone, he would have died.”

“And some other president would have caused the end. This was in the works long before your warning.”