Paradise Hacked (First Circle Club Book 2) (36 page)

Kyle had similar clothing, but Cat had chosen a blend of western and sexy for herself. Her boot heels were a little too tall to be practical. Her red shirt featured an Indian rug pattern and was rolled up to show off her narrow waist. A sparkling headband held her long, blonde hair.

"Let me do the talking," she said.

Virgil nodded. "But you realize they don't sell tear gas or bombs here."

"I know."

The three of them were standing in front of Zelda's Gun Corral, the only gun store in Zelda. It was a surprisingly large shop considering the small size of the town. Apparently people liked guns around here.

Cat led the group inside. Guns of all types were hung on the walls and displayed in glass cases, but handguns were the most common. They ranged in size from single-shot .22 Derringers to .50 caliber hand cannons. The large number of hunting rifles puzzled Virgil. He hadn't seen any animals worth hunting in the barren landscape.

Cat walked to the counter and spoke to a clerk. "Hi. Nice store you have here." She had switched to a perfect Western accent.

"Thanks," the man behind the counter said. "We're proud of it."

He was in his twenties. He had a "high and tight" crew cut but an unshaven chin. A tattoo on his right arm read, "When they come for my guns..." A matching tattoo on his left arm read, "... they'll just get the bullets."

Cat looked around with wide, adorable eyes. "Is this all you got? I don't quite see what I came for."

"What do you want?"

"My friends and I are worried about all the foreigners moving into this great state. You know what I'm talking about? Guys with towels on their heads."

The clerk nodded. "I know
exactly
what you mean. I saw one of those sand monkeys the other day. We have some kick-ass personal defense weapons here. Perfect for sending those assholes to Allah."

"I want something
special
. You know who I can talk to about that?"

"How special?"

Cat leaned over the counter and whispered in his ear. His eyes widened.

After a moment of thought, the clerk said, "I know a guy who lives on a ranch near here. If he likes you, he might sell you a few things from his personal collection. He's a prepper."

"A what?"

"He's preparing for the end of the world. He's irritable though. Don't make him mad."

"Got it." Cat showed off a brilliant smile. "Thanks! Where does he live?"

* * *

Virgil parked the Humvee in front of a ranch house. The walls were made of rough stones held together with crumbling mortar. Wooden planks sealed with tar formed the roof.

He stepped out of the car. The air was cool, dry, and dusty. The only activity he saw was some sheep chewing cud in a pen.

He was holding his bag of cash and gold. He wasn't sure how much the bag was worth, but it was certainly enough to buy what he needed.

A window opened slightly. The muzzle of a double-barreled shotgun emerged.

"State your business," a man said from behind a heavy curtain, "and it better not be tax collection."

"The folks at Zelda's Gun Corral sent us," Cat said in her Western accent. "We're worried about all the trouble in the Middle East. We're thinking about setting up a private fortress, a little place where the trouble-makers can't get to us. They told us you might have some of the items we need."

The shotgun lowered slightly. "I do."

"I'm Clementine. My friends are Roy and Jim. What's your name?"

"Craig."

"We'd love to come inside and talk," Cat said enthusiastically.

Virgil fought down an urge to smile. She sounded amazingly sincere considering she was lying her ass off.

A moment later, the door opened. An old man dressed in gray camouflage peered out. His white beard hung down to the middle of his chest. He was wearing a helmet which looked like it dated from World War II.

Cat entered the house confidently. The sexy sway of her hips captured Craig's attention completely.

Virgil and Kyle followed. All the electric lights inside were turned off. Only sunlight sneaking past the window curtains provided any light.

A look around told Virgil the mindset of a prepper. Canned and dried food was stacked against the wall. Craig had enough distilled water to survive for several months. A portable electric generator sat next to 55 gallon drums of fuel. Craig had a disturbingly large collection of bear traps even though the nearest bear was hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

"You have a nice car," he muttered.

"The Hummer?" Cat said. "You like it? If you give us a ride back to town, you can have it."

He narrowed his eyes. "What's the catch?"

"You give us what we need. The Hummer is stock military with all the bells and whistles. It's worth fifty grand easily. That should fetch a lot of stuff in trade."

Virgil almost smiled again.
Leave it to Cat to swap a stolen car for illegal weapons.

Craig considered for a moment. "Let me have the keys."

Virgil tossed the car keys to Craig. He eagerly stuffed them into his pocket.

"What do you need?" he said.

"Let's see what you got," Cat said.

He took them into the kitchen. An iron pot on the stove was full of something brown, lumpy, and disgusting. There was no refrigerator, but bags of rice and bags of potatoes filled shelves. He had enough bottles of multivitamins to stock a pharmacy.

Craig pushed the kitchen table aside and lifted a hidden trap door. He grabbed a flashlight off a counter.

"Follow me," he said. "Watch your step."

Everybody went down a steep staircase into a dirt cellar. Craig handed out more flashlights taken from a shelf.

Virgil used his flashlight to look around. Weapons of all calibers and types were stacked neatly on racks. Craig had crates of grenades and boxes of flairs. He owned more ammunition than he could possibly ever use.

Kyle grabbed an M16. He worked the bolt and inspected the barrel.

"This weapon is in poor condition," he said.

"It works," Craig said.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't carry it into battle."

Craig raised his chin defiantly. "You think you know weapons?"

Kyle grabbed an Uzi and placed it on a table. "Count to forty."

"One... two..."

Kyle began to disassemble the gun at lightning speed. Virgil had never seen anything like it. The Uzi wasn't even a standard weapon in the United States. Once he finished taking the gun completely apart, he put it back together just as fast. He finished at "thirty-eight."

"Not my best time," he said, "but not bad."

Everybody else was too stunned to speak.

"Enough fooling around," Virgil finally said. "We're here to shop. I see a box of C-4 with my name on it. I hope it comes with electronic detonators. And that crate looks like it's full of tear gas. Are those night vision goggles? Wonderful. I'm in Heaven."

Chapter Twenty-one

Craig backed up the Humvee until the rear gate was close to the motel room door.

Virgil got out and looked around. He didn't see any witnesses.

He knocked on the door. "Lisa, come out and help."

Lisa opened the door. "Help with what?"

"We bought lots of goodies."

Kyle and Cat joined him. Working together, the team hurriedly transferred a pile of weapons and equipment from the car into the motel.

As soon as the Humvee was empty, Craig said, "Nice doing business with you." He drove off.

Lisa stared at the pile in the middle of the motel room. "Cool. How much did this cost?"

"We gave him the car," Virgil said.

"But that was stolen."

"Yeah. It was Cat's idea."

Lisa looked at Cat. "I thought you were trying to fly straight, uh, straighter."

"What's the problem?" Cat said. "Did I commit a sin?"

"Pretty sure you did."

Cat frowned. "Being good is so confusing."

Virgil walked over to Mei who was working on her laptop. "Are you ready?"

"I think so," she said. "There is a telephone exchange about twenty miles down the road. If you can get me in there, I can tap and trace any calls coming from the Air Force Base."

"Cat will work with you on that. She'll be your partner for this operation while Kyle, Lisa, and I attack the base. Now we just need another car."

"We still have the minivan."

"That's the car we'll use to drive back to Chicago," Virgil said. "We need one we can abandon at the base."

"I'll take care of it," Cat said. "Now where did I put those sleeping pills?"

* * *

What are they doing?
Alfred wondered.

He sensed Virgil and Lisa just a few miles away, but they weren't moving. Alfred wished they would hurry up and rescue him.

He and Sara were in a difficult situation. Soldiers had encased them in ropes and chains. The bindings were so tight, Alfred couldn't even wiggle his fingers. His face was smashed against his chest, and his legs were twisted around like pretzels. The extreme compression would've killed a normal person, but in his case, he was merely miserable.

"This was your plan?" Sara whispered. She couldn't fill her lungs with enough air to speak in a normal voice.

"My plan was to get caught," Alfred replied.

"And how does that help us?"

"You'll understand soon."
I hope.

* * *

Cat was driving the minivan through a part of Kansas which defined the word "boring." Yellow grass covered the land from horizon to horizon. She didn't even see any farmhouses. Poles for power lines were the tallest thing in sight. She didn't understand how anybody could live in this dull wasteland.

"Has Virgil ever mentioned Purgatory?" Cat said.

"I don't think so," Mei said.

The Chinese girl was riding up front. She was wearing a generic blue uniform suitable for a maintenance worker. Cat had dressed the same even though the outfit wasn't flattering.

"I thought some souls went to Purgatory for a while. I think it's like a half-way house for Hell."

Mei shrugged. "I don't know."

"Has Virgil ever talked about Hell with you?"

"He told me they had him filing paperwork."

"Sounds tedious," Cat said.

"He was a mildly bad person, so he was sentenced to a mild punishment."

"Oh. So it's more complicated than just getting into Heaven or Hell. There are different levels."

"I believe so," Mei said, "and the first circle of Heaven isn't that great. Alfred and Sara like Earth better. I really shouldn't talk about this. Just watch the road. The telephone exchange should be coming up."

Cat saw a sign for Apollyon, Kansas. Then small, widely separated buildings came into view. Many were made of sheet metal and looked like big sheds.

"There it is," Mei said.

She pointed to a red, wooden building near the road. It was the size of a garage.

Cat turned off the road and parked in a tiny lot. No other cars were around. She got out, walked over to the building, and peeked through a dusty window. The interior was dark.

"I don't think anybody is home," she said.

"These small rural exchanges are automated," Mei said. "They usually don't have an on-site staff."

Cat walked around the building, looking for a way in. A window in back was promising. After checking for witnesses, she picked up a rock and quietly broke the window. She smashed all the sharp corners so she wouldn't cut herself, and then she climbed inside.

Racks full of electronic equipment filled most of the interior. The fan noise annoyed her, and the air inside was quite a bit warmer. Bundles of wires as thick as her leg snaked across the walls and ceiling.

Cat opened the front door from the inside. Mei entered holding a laptop and a plastic toolbox.

"Is this what you wanted?"

Mei looked at the computers and smiled. "Yes. It's perfect."

"Perfect for a geek."

"Exactly. Keep an eye out for trouble while I work."

* * *

"Do you get nervous?" Kyle asked.

Virgil glanced at him. "Why do you ask?"

"You don't have a heart, right? Or adrenalin. You must be cold as ice all the time."

"Battle excites me. My Hellish nature comes out when I'm fighting."

Virgil was driving towards Burr Air Force Base on a little-used back road. The sun had set, but a hint of red remained on the horizon. The car's headlights provided the only illumination.

"I've seen that nature," Kyle said.

"I try to control it. My essence is still human."

After a few more minutes, Virgil saw a tall fence ahead. He turned onto a maintenance road which ran along the perimeter of the base. He picked an arbitrary place to stop and pulled over.

Virgil, Kyle, and Lisa got out of the car, dressed for a night battle. Black fatigues, body armor, and helmets made them look like moving shadows. Weapons hung from carrying harnesses, but black cloth covered anything shiny. They had night vision goggles but weren't using them at the moment. Virgil also had a heavy backpack full of useful stuff.

They had arrived in a brown Corolla which Cat had stolen. Virgil left the keys on the car seat. The owner would appreciate the small gesture.

The team ran towards the fence. This part of the Air Force base was just empty space, so no guards were in the vicinity. Virgil used wire cutters to quickly snip a hole, and everybody crawled through.

He checked a GPS unit on his wrist. The small display showed distance and direction to his destination. It would be a fun ten-mile run for him and Lisa.

"Ready?" Virgil said.

Lisa and Kyle nodded.

"Then start running."

Kyle took off in one direction while Virgil and Lisa went in another.

Virgil set a fast pace, but Lisa had no trouble keeping up. The only sound was their footsteps and the soft clink of equipment. It was dark, but Virgil didn't feel the goggles were necessary yet. His eyes were good enough to make use of the little light available.

"Feeling good?" he asked Lisa.

"Feeling great," she replied. "Let's go faster."

* * *