Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2) (13 page)

Harvey and Sanders sat
in the back of Sanders’s tnak with a laptop set up on a fold out table. The
laptop belonged to Sanders and, of course, had a large screen enough screen
that it could’ve passed for a small television. On the screen was a GPS image
of the target compound. There was a road that led up the mountain to it, but
there were checkpoints every few miles from what they could see.

“This is going to be
tricky.” Harvey said.

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Well, we obviously
can’t just drive up the road.”

“Obviously. We’re
going to have to park our vehicles somewhere far off and then walk.”

Sanders played around
with the image and pointed out what, in his estimation, would be the best place
to park. Harvey noticed the distance involved from where his comrade finally
stopped. He could tell even from the smaller scale of the image that the two
teams would have to make it a long way by foot without detection.

“How long of a hike is
that?” Harvey wondered.

“We’re looking at
between ten to fifteen miles.” Sanders replied.

“That long, huh?”

“You gotta problem
with that? Don’t think you’ll make it?”

“It’s not me I’m
worried about.”

Sanders placed his
coffee on the table. “Who are you worried about? That girl?”

“She’s not in her best
condition right now.”

“Well, there’s no
other way. Either she goes or guards the vehicles, I don’t care. Just one person,
remember?”

Harvey’s jaws
clinched. “Yeah.”

“Good. So, the way I
figure it, we make the hike. Once we get closer, we can try and get a good look
on the security outside the building.”

“Makes sense.”

“You’re pretty good
with a sniper rifle, right?”

Harvey shrugged his
shoulders. “I’ve got some skill.”

“Don’t be so damned
humble all the time. We could use that skill to clear a path for ourselves.”

It took a bit longer
than he would care to admit, but Harvey began to realize that Sanders was
taking complete control over an Op that he was originally supposed to just be
helping out with. The old Marine had never been an in your face type of guy, it
just wasn’t in his nature. Now, he felt his grasp on this mission slipping just
a bit.

“Hey,” Harvey said,
puffing his chest. “This was my Op, remember?”

Sanders grew a scowl
on his face. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You know what I mean.
I asked you for help and all you’ve done is try to take over what we’ve been
trying to do.”

“Look, big guy, I
respect your military record. But, leave the strategy to me. You’re right, you
did ask for my help, and I’m giving it to you. If you want to make this all
about yourself, then me and my unit will just pack our things and go it alone.”

Harvey was stumped.
There was no comeback that came to mind, strategic or witty. He just sat there,
dumbfounded. Sanders could have just been playing him, but then again, he could
have been dead serious. There would be no way of knowing unless Sanders came
right out and said it. Even if he did say it, with a drop dead serious look,
the truth likely would have been hard to find. On the computer screen, and now
face to face, Harvey found his comrade to be nearly impossible to read. None of
that mattered, however, because this was likely the most
dangerous—important—mission that he and his team would undertake. He just had
to swallow his pride and take what he was given.

“All right,” Harvey
said. “We’ll play it your way, for now. But, if this thing gets fucked up, you
are the one to blame, not me.”

“The mark of a great
leader is not giving a shit about the critics. You’ll do well to learn that,
even in your old age.”

“Touché.”

The sight of the
factory where his targets worked at caused a wave of curiosity to pour through
Sullivan. The building was a plain gray, indistinguishable from the countless
other buildings in this damn city. It was shaped like a large rectangle, two
stories high, the gray concrete exterior was kept in pristine condition.

 On top of curiosity
was the anxiety. Once again, he had been forbidden from getting too close to
those he investigated, which got under his skin even more now than before.
Before, he would just take it all in stride, now his mind was more than a
little bit questioning of the powers that be.

His excuse for not
showing up to work today was that he was sick and just needed the day to rest.
That, of course, was utter bullshit. Sullivan’s actual reason for calling in
was so that he could get a closer look at what Reed and the other boys did for
a living with the USR. As he walked to the front door of the facility, one
final bit of emotion hit him right in the gut. It was guilt. He felt guilty for
not calling in sick and taking Davie out of school for a day of one on one time
with each other. All that would have to wait, he supposed, as he approached the
door.

After a deep breath,
he yanked down on the heavy metal door handle and into the lobby. Inside, there
was a desk in the far right hand corner which served as a check in area. The lanky
young man behind the counter didn’t show a shred of emotion as Sullivan
approached him. Sullivan stared at the man’s shoulder length hair full of
grease and decided not to use any either. Instead, he reached into his pocket
and pulled out his credentials.

“William Sullivan,
Detective, USR Agent.”

“How may I help you,
sir?” the man behind the counter asked.

“I need to talk with
one of the employees that works here. Travis Reed.”

“Oh, yes, Mr. Reed. On
what business?”

“Confidential, my man.
Just get him over here.”

“Just one minute.”

Sullivan took a seat
on one of the uncomfortable, pumpkin orange chairs to the left. His eyes went
down to the fresh shine of his shoes which rested on the white tile floor.
There was only one other citizen in the waiting room. He had on the same lime
green getup that Reed always wore. His right hand was bandaged up good,
droplets of blood leaked out at his right index finger. Sullivan hoped for that
man’s sake that this USR company provided good healthcare for him. That was
bullshit to even think about.

 Sullivan returned to
his task at hand and felt that maybe there was still some good to be done with
his current standing in the USR. It still provided him the chance of using his
title to get shit done. The man behind the counter was like any other man or
woman in the United Society of Reason…they didn’t say anything but yes to an
Agent. It occurred to him, as it did months before when his wife died, that he
had no clue what he would do after he either quit or was forced out of the
department. After he found the answers he was looking for, who knew, he might
even join the rebellion. But, where would that leave Davie?

“He’s on his way.” the
man said.

“Good. Have him meet
me in the back.” Sullivan replied as he stood from his seated position.

“Of course, sir.”

Sullivan walked
towards the door on his right, which led to the back alleyway. A perfect spot
for him to have a little face time with Reed once again. He wondered if the
suspected rebel actually took his advice or not. Right now, it didn’t really
matter. He needed to have this talk with him to try and gain some trust with
his target. Sullivan couldn’t blame the guy for not immediately trusting him
for the same reason that he was able to quickly get the man behind the counter
to do what he wanted.

The sound of the door
creaking open behind him forced the Agent’s attention towards that direction.
There stood Reed, who threw his hands in the air, almost in defeat. His head
went straight down, and then pointed straight up at the sky. When this little
ritual was over, Reed finally approached the Agent.

“What the hell?” Reed
said aloud.

“Calm down,” Sullivan
replied. “I’m not here for anything but to talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“Have you cancelled
your card game?”

Reed thought for a
moment. “Yes.”

“Let’s go for a walk.”

“Fine.”

The two men walked
around the corner and down a mildly busy sidewalk. Sullivan, for the first time
that he could remember, grew weary when he saw an Agent in full riot gear. The
instincts inside him caused his head to move to the side so as to avoid all eye
contact. Reed, to his credit, just acted like everything was cool and even
nodded at the Agent. Sullivan turned left and led the two into a deserted alley
littered with trash. They walked about midway down before he stopped. Loose
pieces of paper blew around them along with the heavy wind.

“What the hell is
going on?” Reed asked.

Sullivan rested his
back against one of the walls. “I need you to trust me.”

“You know that that’s
a large request.”

“I realize that.
There’s not much else I can do other than ask for your trust.”

“How do you expect me,
us, to trust you, an Agent?”

“Remember when you
were brought in for questioning?”

“Yes, of course I
remember.”

“I’ve been holding
back the big guns ever since. We’ve been watching you. I volunteered for the
investigation, because I knew someone else would be too eager to get a gold
star by their name, if you catch my drift.”

Reed rubbed at his
chin then looked down either side of the alleyway. “Why us?”

The Agent pulled his
upper body off of the wall and approached the suspected rebel. He, too, now
looked from left to right down the alleyway to make sure nobody was listening
in. For the first time in his career, he was about to breach the oath of
secrecy that all Agents took when they were hired on to their respective
departments. There was no going back now, though, he told himself. It was time
to get some answers.

“For some reason, all
of your buddies have abandoned the streets of the major cities they used to
operate in. For the past six months, there has been little to no resistance
activity for me to investigate.”

“I’m aware of that,”
Reed replied with a smirk. “You think I’m going to tell you where they are?”

Sullivan shook his
head. “No. I don’t care what the resistance as a whole is up to.”

“So, you don’t care
about them blowing up your compounds that build that drug then?”

“No, I don’t. In fact,
I applaud them.”

Reed raised an
eyebrow. “I’m confused.”

“My wife…she was
infected by some kind of poison that our doctor had never seen before. Then, I
see something over the TV that the USR was responsible…”

“They were!” Reed
cried. He took a breath and calmed himself. “They created that drug to promote
their population control, killing off countless women in the process, unaware
of the side effects. Or, maybe they were aware, which is even scarier. I just
thank God that my wife hasn’t been infected, yet.”

“Yeah, well, the boys
in my department are all hush hush about it. They don’t even talk about it.
It’s like they don’t care or that it’s not really going on.”

“Okay, so what does
this have to do with us again?”

Sullivan folded his
arms across his chest. “I’ve tried searching every database in our network.
Every time I get close to the truth, my clearance gets blocked, almost like
someone is watching me.”

“Wait a minute,” Reed
said, holding his hand up. “You think that I’m going to provide you with some
type of answers to your wife’s death?”

“You do work in a top
secret USR facility and you resistance folk seem to know more about this poison
than anyone I work for.”

Reed paused before
speaking again. He tried to get a read on this Agent he was talking to. The
deep feeling within that he was being trapped started to take over. To tell this
man what he did in the factory could give this Sullivan a good enough reason to
arrest him. After the arrest, Reed knew what came next. However, it was obvious
to him that Sullivan had been hurt in some regard by his employers. He didn’t
even seem like he wanted revenge as much as just wanting answers. Either way,
he had to play this one right. Having a mole inside the USR couldn’t do
anything but help.

“Look, I don’t trust
you enough yet to tell you what I do.” Reed said.

“I understand that.”

“But, I can tell you
that it was in fact the USR that initiated your wife’s death with their
experiments and that it is the resistance who is trying to fight back against
them for it.”

“Okay,” Sullivan said.
He got the feeling they were being watched. At least he got something. “Time to
cut this short. Here, take this.”

Sullivan looked around
before he reached into his jacket pocket. When his hand came back out, the
fingers gripped a small black cell phone. Reed seemed to a bit apprehensive
about taking the phone.

“Relax, it’s not
bugged. I know that you guys can scan the thing anyway to make sure. I’m here
to help. If I wanted to bring you boys down, I would’ve called in a SWAT team
instead of barging in that warehouse myself.”

“Okay, what’s the
phone for?”

“Keep it on you. If I
hear of anything, I’ll call to warn you. My standing in the department isn’t
very high right now. I had to call in sick today just to meet with you. I don’t
know how much longer I’ll even be employed.”

“All right.”

“Stay low. I know this
is ironic, but don’t trust anyone in there. If you feel the heat or anything,
take your family, and book it the hell out of town.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to keep in
contact with you until you trust me enough to give me some answers.”