Buried Flames (28 page)

“This wouldn’t have happened had the Yellowstone caldera not erupted,” Mason said truthfully, rubbing the side of his whiskers as he shared his opinions with Tank. The two of them would always be the first up to watch the sunrise during their annual get-togethers. They rarely spoke during the peaceful silence of the early morning, but Tank had a way about him that could get a priest to confess his sins. “I’d carved out a place for myself on that farm that had no room for anyone else but me.”

“You’re looking at it wrong.” Tank crossed his arms over one of his favorite plaid shirts, appearing to get comfortable to have this little talk. Mason looked down the corridor behind him as it dawned on him a woman was waiting for him. Brenna. His Brenna. “This natural disaster
did
happen and the aftermath is what we are left with…good or bad. Whatever decisions led you here brought her along with you. You are still you, but now you have her by your side to help alleviate the emotional turbulence you will face on a day-to-day basis. Treasure that, Mason. Treasure her.”

“And you?” Mason asked, somewhat relieved to be able to turn the tables and shine the spotlight on something other than him. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Mabel couldn’t hear him. “I saw you and Mabel exchanging glances tonight.”

Tank had shared with Mason his trials and tribulations regarding entering the civilian world back in the day. The two men weren’t so different, with the exception of age and the physical scars. Tank had bought this place as a refuge of his own, allowing people to come in and out of this peaceful place on his own terms. Mason’s old tank commander had mellowed with age and he yearned for the time to do the same.

“I’m old, my boy,” Tank said, starting another round of lectures when all Mason wanted was to join Brenna back in bed. Just because they didn’t have protection before didn’t mean there weren’t other means to enjoy each other’s company. He could have stayed with her and avoided this lecture. He thought of ways to dodge the upcoming sermon about women. “I like to take my time and not rush into anything. Now Mav, on the other hand…”

Mason sighed and resigned himself to hearing about Mav finally getting his ass in gear and claiming Henley. The two had gone round and round with their attraction for years before acting on it. As for Owen? Well, he’d had his sights set on Prue for quite a while if the way he spoke of her was any indication. What was the common dominator for all of these relationships? The eruption of the Yellowstone caldera. Mother Nature finally letting go…the ultimate sexual metaphor.

“Tank, do you have a few minutes?” Dean asked, coming from the doorway that led to the back of the lodge and out toward the bunker. Truman’s team member appeared to have his act together, although the way he stayed in the background caused Mason to pay a little more attention to him. “Ace is waking up and he’d like an introduction.”

“Is Truman with him?” Tank asked, turning enough to look at Dean. The man obviously had something more to say, turning to look at Mason.

“Yes.” Dean hesitated only a moment before continuing. “Ace would also like to speak with you, Mason.”

“He’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning.” Mason could guess a ton of reasons why Fairfax would want to speak with him, but Brenna was currently waiting for him and she came first. A week or two ago, that thought would have surprised him. Now? Not so much. “Tank, let me know if you need me. I’ll be with Brenna in my room.”

He got his point across to Tank that if the situation were dire, Mason would be at his side in an instant. The NSA wasn’t an agency that should be messed with and he’d already taken out two of their agents. Self-defense wouldn’t matter in their eyes. Right now, though, Brenna was waiting for him and he wanted to spend what time he could with her before heading out into the harsh elements of a new reality he wasn’t sure any of them would come back from.

B
renna stood in
the entryway of the main lodge, having already stowed away her mask and jacket in the coat check closet. It was early…too early for the majority of the residents here to be awake. It wasn’t even five o’clock in the morning, but she couldn’t stand lying in bed listening to the silence after Mason had left to join the others on this morning’s mission. She had gone looking for Henley or Prue, but neither one had been in their rooms.

“Going stir crazy?”

Brenna glanced down the hallway to find Henley standing in the doorway to her office. Her hair was pulled high on her head in some type of clip. Had Brenna tried to pull that off, she would have looked as if she’d just woken up after having a restless night’s sleep. Henley, on the other hand, appeared as if she’d had multiple elfin stylists working away in her sleep. The woman was downright beautiful and every bit the model Brenna remembered seeing on magazines.

“Yeah,” Brenna admitted with a sigh, running a hand over the braid she’d managed to pull together before leaving the bunker. She was a country girl at heart and took pride in that, but she couldn’t help the sliver of envy that ran through her at wondering just what Henley’s waist size was. “I don’t like it that they’re going off into unknown territory without any visibility.”

“Join the club,” Prue called out as she came around the corner of the registration desk, shoving a clip of ammo into an S&W SD.40 VE caliber handgun. Sam had already passed her, on his way to the kitchen for breakfast. “On the bright side, this does mean we get to help maintain a security perimeter around the lodge. I need a partner at the outpost station near the entrance gate, if you want to join me. Henley is going to man the security office in the bunker.”

“Mason didn’t mention anything to me.” Brenna had been looking at Henley’s hands with jealousy when she thought through her statement. Henley was holding a steaming cup of coffee and the aroma was getting stronger by the minute, but all Brenna could think about was the reason why Mason had not told her a thing about helping out those guarding the area. Had it been because she’d hesitated when Truman had pulled his weapon on her? “Are you talking about the area where Owen was stationed when we came up the road?”

“Yes,” Prue answered, turning around when she saw Mabel walk up behind her with a large thermos. Brenna almost hugged the woman. “Thanks, Mabel. It’s getting colder out there by the day.”

“Will you keep me posted on any news?” Mabel asked, wiping her hands on the front of her apron. The concern in her eyes was unmistakable and the coiled ball of unease tightened even more in Brenna’s chest. “Ernie came by here before they headed out. I know that Jason and Kirk are down at the checkpoint, Dylan is up near the natural springs keeping an eye on things, and Missy will be staying here at the lodge. Jeremy and some of the others are scattered around the area as well. That means Ernie, Mav, Owen, and Mason are with Kellen, Dean, and Ann. That doesn’t sit too well with me.”

“You’ll be the first to know once we hear anything, Mabel,” Henley said softly and supportively, walking over and giving the older woman a reassuring embrace. “I think I’ll follow you back to the kitchen and take a thermos of coffee for myself.”

“I don’t mind going to the outpost by myself if you’d rather stay here,” Prue suggested after Henley had wrapped an arm around Mabel’s shoulders and led her back into the kitchen. Brenna was already reaching for her jacket, having no intention of taking Prue up on her latest offer. “You can—”

“I’m going with you, Prue.” Brenna pulled the gloves Henley had given her yesterday out of her pocket. She wasn’t about to let Prue go out there alone and she highly doubted Owen would have wanted that either. A wave of determination swept over her. She’d run a ranch, mended fences, managed cattle, and ran heavy equipment. She wasn’t afraid of a little work. She could handle her own and there was no room for self-doubt. Not now. “Do you have a radio?”

“Right here,” Prue confirmed, patting one of the large pockets on what appeared to be a pair of oversized cammies. Brenna would have to ask where she got them, because her jeans just weren’t cutting it in this cold weather. At least she now had changed out Mason’s borrowed .45 for a .40 caliber S&W like Prue’s, which Mason had retrieved from the armory. “And don’t worry. We’ll also be able to hear any communication between the men when they are in range, although they won’t use it much. There’s too much of a chance that these NSA spooks or their sentry they most likely left behind are listening in.”

“Which is where I come in.”

Brenna turned to see Derek, who happened to be Mabel’s son. He and his wife Amy, along with their two sons, had left Wyoming the moment Mabel had phoned him before the eruption. They hadn’t packed much, throwing in only what was needed for the road trip.

“Derek, I thought you were helping Jason down at the entrance checkpoint,” Prue said, pulling her mask over her face as she prepared to go for their hike into the woods that would lead to the outpost they would be manning.

“I’m heading down there now, but I was a technician with General Dynamics before we moved to Wyoming. I was able to load a hop set into our handheld radios before the team departed for the mission this morning. It will make anyone without the proper frequency changes unable to intercept the message. It’s what we call low probability of intercept. Unfortunately, the NSA has the most advanced encryption cracking computers in the world, bar none. If they have reliable communications with their people back in Fort Meade, Maryland, it will take them about a half a second to determine exactly what our radios have loaded. They could have been listening to our comms before the team left, so stay off the radios unless you need them. Do not discuss sensitive information over the radio and do not mention the mission in any way.”

Derek held out his hand for Prue’s radio, his eyes somewhat bloodshot and his hair practically standing on end. Brenna realized he must have been up all night working on a way to help the mission the guys were undertaking. He connected a small green box to Prue’s radio and twisted the function switch to load the hop set. He selected the key set and initiated the transfer. The red LED on the box flashed.

“You’ll be able to monitor their communications, that is if they have any, until they are out of range.”

“You need sleep,” Prue declared after having taken the radio back from Derek. Her mask had muffled her words somewhat, but Henley had still caught them as she was walking toward the front foyer. “Can you ask Kirk Parson to join Jason down at the gate?”

“Yes, I’ll handle it,” Henley said, joining the other women as she started to prepare for her walk to the bunker. “Derek, you’re a lifesaver with all your skills. We all appreciate it.”

“I’m just glad to be able to contribute somehow,” Derek said, running a hand through his dark brown hair. He made it even more messed up, if that was possible. “I’ll catch an hour or two of sleep and then relieve Kirk. I know he’s been monitoring the natural spring water to make sure the ash isn’t contaminating it.”

“I thought the springs were protected?” Brenna asked, concern washing over her suddenly at the thought their safe haven might not be sufficient enough. She was truly in awe of what Tank and his team had built here, but Mother Nature still had a way of making herself be heard. “Is there something we can do?”

“Kirk is monitoring the acidity and we’re not sure the two springs are actually connected. We monitor the levels of both as a safety precaution,” Henley said, getting ready to put on her gasmask. “He gives Tank daily updates and the levels are good on both. Is it something we need to keep a close eye on? Absolutely, but we can’t let the stress get to us. The water we use is run through a huge Reverse Osmosis system and filtered through an ozone tank to ensure its purity. It’s better than the well water you probably had on the ranch.”

Brenna inhaled a nice, deep, long breath before slipping her own mask over her face. Stress? She hadn’t realized how much of an emotional and mental strain it was to worry about survival twenty-four seven. That wasn’t technically true. There was a time she didn’t feel stress. It was when she and Mason were locked away in their room, leaving everything outside of their door.

“Well then, at least manning the outpost will keep our minds off of our worries.”

Brenna picked up her weapon, the MP5K-N that Mason had taken off one of the NSA agents who had attacked them, and inserted a thirty-round clip. She attached the pouch containing the six extra magazines to her belt before reaching for the ear bud Henley was holding out to her.

Mason had shown her how to use this sophisticated weapon and she liked that it was suppressed. She could also select between semi-automatic fire, three-round bursts, or full automatic as needed. If anyone tried to pull something on them today, they would certainly end up regretting it. Brenna grabbed the thermos Prue had set on the registration desk and then walked to the door, her confidence building every step of the way. She wouldn’t hesitate to guard this place like she had before.

“Let’s do this.”

*