The Blood Bargain (13 page)

here though...”

“Tell them what you heard
Liv
.” Cole chimed in. “Tell them about the signal.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the words that would follow my story. “I was in my room and I picked up a distress call on the ham. I thought they had announced their position as stone creek mall, but from what Cole and I saw when we went up there...that was impossible.”

The big guy hissed. “Damn bastards.”

“What
’
s going on?” Nobody answered me, so I prodded the inviter. “Adam?”

“Caravan from Lake City was due to arrive a few days back. Never showed.”

“How do you know that?”

“Bookkeeping duty.” Ryan spoke up, pushing his glasses up on his nose. I knew his name from the bar; he rocked at the pool table. Which was deceptive, from looking at him you wouldn.t think he could lift a pool cue. My guess was it was all geometry in his head. “It
’
s where they put the wiry guys like me when we can.
t
be of use anywhere else. I was prepping the monthly inventories,

you know when we do caravan exchanges that shifts the numbers. So we typically do a recount after exchange, re-evaluate medical supplies and so forth.” He paused to clear
his cleared his throat.

“I had come in ready to go on the day marked on the wall. Torren was there. He said there

was no need to recount this month.”

The wall of red headed
manflesh
stood. “We did a routine sweep of the Honda lot and prepped for the cargo transfer, but nobody showed. Later Ellis came by and c
alled it a ‘gross miscalculation in dates’.
”

“I recounted it three times...spot on.” Ryan commented, his nasally voice almost drowned out by the rumbles in the room. Some were already accusing the vamps, others cursing the council for being as slimy a
s pre-
outbreak politicians.

I thought out loud. “So the council knew they didn.t make it...but why are they hiding it from everyone? Moreover...how did they know?”

“Million dollar questions
Liv
.” Cole looked over to me, his face deadpan of emotion. “Are you with us to find the answers?”

There was only one thing I could say.

Chapter
8

I had grown u
p learning to respect my father’
s
privacy. He was after all a government official and with that came all the security and red tape of his office. Men like that who lived at the office, brought the office home on the rare occasion they were there. Our home was no different. At the end of the hall across from the master bedroom was
‘t
he office
’
. My mother had lectured me at an e
arly age to not play in ‘
the office
’
. Then when she died, he reminded me often not to bother him while he was in
‘t
he office
’
. So I avoided it like the place had
influenza lined walls. After we had relocated, his bedroom became
‘
the office part 2
’
. A room I continued to avoid.

Until now.

There was no way I could have walked out of
Smittys
without a resounding yes.

After all, Junction was founded as the new hope for humanity. Simple ways, unity, new America, all that patriotic bullshit.

In reality, it seemed like folks were set in keeping bad habits alive.

Perception was a dangerous thing, it fueled violence, ignorance greed and all other sorts of nasty voodoo. From the way those guys were acting in that warehouse, they were on a collision course with the negative if their perception didn.t get smacked in the face with fact. There were too few of us left to fight among ourselves.

What scared me more though was what those facts could reveal.

When I got back to the house the aroma of boiling corn wafted out to me from atop the wood burning stove.

“I
’
m back, do you need any help?” I called from the front. I about tripped over one of Max
’
s hot wheels walking down the hall.

“We’
re good
Liv
, go wash up then come set the table?” Candice hollered over the boys squeals, they were fighting over THE RED TRUCK from what I heard.

“You bet.” Perfect window of time I needed to do a little digging. Okay it didn.t make me a super covert secret s
py to go rifling through my Dad’
s stuff while he was out. It just made me gain a few points in convenient sneaky acts.

I climbed the stairs two at a time, rather than taking a left into my room I flipped right into Dads.

Plaid sheets, plaid border, brown walls.

Hopefully no Scottish men were harmed in the implementation of this design.

Right.

I looked around for the desk. It was tucked in the back of the room behind the ugly bed.

Nothing on the table top but a clock and a hunting photo so I carefully opened the drawers. Nothing but pens and paper in the top two, bottom one was full of files organized by month.

This month was missing. Damn it.

I should have known better, he never left anything out, let alone anything incriminating. There was no giant pocket keeper labeled
‘
shady shit
’
sitting in this room.

With a sigh I shut the drawer, taking note that the desktop itself was a bit dusty. Dad never let anything get that evil film build up. Without thinking I ran my hand over it to wipe it clean.

Which left a big streak down the center.

What was wrong with me? The first rule of covert was NOT leaving a
‘
I
was here’ trail. Well I couldn’
t put dust back on the surface so the only choice I had was to quick clean the rest of the top to even it out.

Behind the picture frame in the left corner there was a dead beetle. I scooped up the little gross shell and threw it in the trash can under the desk. From the slightly crumpled piece of paper to the side, I noticed Dad had missed the bin. Man, he must really be frazzled. I felt a
tinge
of guilt knowing that his erratic behavior was obviously due to my actions as of late.

I picked up the post it, reading the scribbles.

Tommen
- Cresol Solution, Phenobarbital, Sulfadiazine, Hemostatic Forceps

             
The address scrawled on the note was not the clinic.

Oh my. A smile spread on my face as I shoved the trash in my pocket. This wasn.t what I wanted, but it was sure as hell something.

“Come on
Liv
, we
’
re waiting for you slow poke! Dinner Time!” Candice hollered up the stairs.

“I
’
m on my way.” Scrambling to my feet I hurried out of the room shutting the door behind me.

I woofed down my potatoes and veggies without pausing to breathe. Thankfully my hurry up and get this over with routine wasn.t really noticed, Mark was cracking jokes that succeeded in eliciting giggles from the kids while Zoe pretended to be offended by his table manners. Candice tacked on her own level of silliness.

Dad came home right as I was heading to the kitchen with my empty plate, graciously apologizing to Zoe for being late.

Rather than return to the table I lurked in the kitchen to h
elp with cleanup. I really wasn’
t in the mood to see the drill sergeant at the moment.

The twins sang their ABC
’
s for us after dinner while we cleaned plates. With every note they reaffirmed my choices, they deserved a solid future. One built on truth.

“Headed out again?”

“Yeah I ah, wanted to check out some of the flowers around Junction. You know...wedding ideas?”

My Dad pra
ctically beamed. “I’
m glad you
’
re coming around.”

Before I felt the need to puke, I hurried out the door.

Lying had never been my strong point, I felt like a total ass doing it. Still when I added up our tallies on the ass-o-meter, I decided I still had to make up a good fifty points before I hit the level of ass he was for forcing me to marry brainless Zack Graham.

Still, because I knew I was a terrible liar I checked out the little blooms along the sidewalk as I went to my real destination. Purple, round, sneeze inducing. Flower investigation complete.

Unlike ours, my destination wasn.t a turn of the century home. It was a nineteen eighties mass construction two story. There were no fancy architectural features, just a simple walkway and a double attached garage. I knew the inside would be all linoleum, carpet and particle board doors. Not that my destination was inside. Around back was a man chopping wood, the axe rising and falling with a familiar force.

I approached him slowly, especially since he had a weapon and I knew where I sat on the invited list.

“Cole.”

His shoulders sagged and he didn.t turn around.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was hoping we could talk?” Cole laughed, a dark sarcastic sound.

“Don.t have shit to say to you.” He pivoted to face me. “Didn.t I make that clear?” I
kinda
wished he hadn
’
t turned around. His face didn
’
t carry the all American good looks I was used to. It was twisted by frown lines around his mouth and his brow dipped into a deep V. His eyes carried the hatred as though I had fed his cat to a deadhead. I still couldn
’
t believe he was that upset with me. But he was. After my talk with Candice I knew I had to do something to make things right between
us. Something I didn’
t think was one hundred percent right to do.

“I
’
m sorry. I didn.t realize...” You felt that way.

I planned to find a way to spit out the words but he cut me off.

“Whatever. That all?”

“Damn you are such a bastard sometimes. Look...I found something.” I pulled the yellow paper out of my pocket. “Dad had a note about a bunch of medical type shit going to
Tommen
.”

“Shocking for a doctor to get medical supplies.”

“Delivered to the meat locker?” Now that got his attention. I handed him the evidence. His brow furrowed as he looked at the list. Without a word he handed it back to me.

“I
wanna
check it out and I was kind of hoping
you’
d go with me?” He didn.t answer. Just placed another log atop the stump and swung the axe.

The loud crack echoed in the evening.

“I didn.t want them to involve you in this. When Ryan came into the
G
arage bitching about the shipment...I knew you weren
’
t crazy.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You were right. It was
crazy. Crazy and Stupid. Now I’
m going to pay for the rest of my life.” Cole cursed.

“You really didn.t know?”

“What the hell do you think?”

“I think we see what
’
s doing in a butcher shop
that hasn’
t seen a pig or a cow in a decade.”

I clapped my hands and turned on my feet. Three paces later I noticed he wasn
’
t on my heels. He was still right where he was. The crack of the axe hitting the block resonated again.

“Are you coming?”

“Give me a minute, I have to finish this for tonight.”

“Cole this is important...”

“And chopping wood for the fire
’
s isn.t? We have a responsibility the wellness of the colony first
Liv
. Unlike some I don
’
t like to chuck my responsibilities to fulfill my own whims.”

What a jerk! I
’
m sure I look like a fish, opening and closing my mouth at that statement. The nerve to go flapping his gums like that. I wanted to argue, but we had just started to
kinda
sorta
patch things up so if I actually put words to my feelings that was going to go downhill

really fast. Plus, as much as I didn.t want to tell him, he was approximately thirty percent right. Maybe I did have a tendency to ignore the short term
but..I
never lost sight of the end game.