Chapter 14
I froze, even though the man would see me for sure if he actually looked inside. But if I moved, the sound would draw his attention, and he’d see me anyway. I was trying to come up with an excuse to explain why I was hanging out in the old house instead of standing guard duty for the rest of my shift, but everything I came up with would probably get me shot on the spot.
“Sir?” one of the new guards, either Trahan or Hopper, said. “Is something wrong?”
“I thought I saw…” the leader mumbled.
He took a few steps toward the doorway, but I could still see his head through the window. If he leaned forward and put his head through the doorway he would see me for sure, and I couldn’t move to a better hiding spot because he’d hear it. This was not good. I was well and truly stuck.
He took another step closer to the house, and I could see him scowling at the doorway.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I silently willed him to turn around, to leave, or, alternatively, for myself to turn invisible. I pressed myself as close as I could to the wall, for all the good that would do.
“Sir, Shaw just radioed,” one of the guards said.
Captain Mustache’s head snapped away from the house to his guard.
“What did he say, Hopper?” he asked. “Was there a breach? Who fired the shot?”
“No breach,” Hopper replied. “It was just the new guy, Hunter Peck. Apparently, he fired at a buck.”
“Jesus,” the man in charge groaned. “I’m surrounded by imbeciles.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Hopper said.
“Don’t give me attitude, Hopper,” Mustache said. “You might be my son, but while we’re at the base, you’re just another soldier. Got it?”
So, the two were father and son.
“Yes, sir,” I heard Hopper hiss.
“Good,” Hopper Senior replied. “Because if you two fuck this up, you’ll be spending the rest of the week cleaning the outhouse.”
“Understood,” Trahan replied.
Senior nodded, and for a brief moment, he glanced back at the house again. He hesitated, like he was remembering some sound he’d heard, but Junior’s report must have satisfied him, because he finally moved out of my field of vision.
I listened to the older man’s footsteps as he headed back to the camp, but I didn’t breathe again until I heard the two guards move away as well. When the last sounds faded, I let my head fall back against the wall while I waited for my heart rate to return to normal, which gave me time to study the room I was in.
It was a small space, maybe eight feet by eight feet, but there was still a couch in the middle of the room. There was no way to know what color the sofa was originally beneath the layers of dust and ash, and the daylight that snuck in from the holes in the ceiling didn’t provide enough light to see any more details. But the whole place felt shaky, and I realized I was lucky that my dive hadn’t brought down the last few beams.
I carefully moved onto my hands and knees, and then I crawled over toward the old doorframe. When I was close enough, I peered around the edge of the frame at the gate. I could make out Trahan and Hopper, who were standing close to the gate. Their backs were to me, presumably to keep a better eye on the woods.
“That was rough, dude,” one of them said.
“Well, he’s not gonna win father of the year,” the other, who I assumed was Hopper, sighed.
“Is he always like that?” Trahan asked.
“Yeah,” Hopper replied. “But I know it’s for a good reason. We wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for my dad. I’ve spent forty years of my life by his side while he built this group up from nothing. I’ve never met anyone more committed.”
“Amen to that,” Trahan said.
“That being said… he doesn’t always have to be such a dick,” Hopper chuckled.
“Yeah,” Trahan replied. “Also, that new guy, Peck. Why would he fire a shot when he’s on patrol? How stupid do you have to be?”
“Hell if I know,” Hopper replied with a shrug. “I haven’t met him. Have you?”
“Nope,” Trahan said. “I heard he’s pretty young, though.”
“That’s no excuse,” Hopper said. “He should know not to do that while he’s guarding the perimeter.”
“Now you sound like your dad,” Trahan said, and the two of them laughed.
I needed to work out how to get around the new and much more attentive guards. On the plus side, neither Hunter or Trahan had met Hunter Peck before, which was something I could use to my advantage.
It sounded like Peck was so new that almost no one knew him, which would make it easier for me to get where I wanted to go. But first, I had to get out of this house without anyone noticing, and the only way out was the same empty doorframe I’d come in through.
I looked around again, and this time, my gaze fell on the collapsed staircase. I spotted a few bricks in the rubble as well, and I could feel an idea start to take shape. It was the tired old bit about throwing something to create a distraction, but the neo-Nazis hadn’t given me any reason to believe they were secretly a bunch of geniuses who would guess that was the plan.
I backed away from the frame as quietly as I could, picked up a couple of the bricks, and then moved into a crouch. I paused for a moment to see if either Trahan or Hopper would decide to investigate some strange sound in the house, but neither of the guards must have heard me.
There was another old window-frame behind the collapsed staircase, so I crawled toward that with my bricks. I took a quick peek as soon as I was near the frame, but there was no one nearby. There was, however, the remnants of the original wood fence just a couple of feet away, and I had to believe it would make some serious noise if I managed to hit it with one of the bricks.
I took a deep breath, and then I threw one of the bricks at the fence. There was a loud bang as the brick and the wood connected, but I was already crouched below the windowframe again, so I couldn’t tell how much damage I had done.
“Did you hear that?” Hopper asked.
“Yeah, I thought I heard something,” Trahan replied. “Should we check it out?”
“I don’t know,” Hopper replied. “We’re not supposed to leave the gate…”
Neither man moved toward the sound, and I silently cursed Hopper Senior for making my job so much harder. Fortunately, I still had my second brick, so I sat up for another quick peek and then aimed at another old section of fence. This time, I watched the brick sail through the air and smash into one of the boards. The wood cracked and split, and the brick landed in a cloud of dirt.
“I definitely heard something that time,” Trahan said.
“I’ll bet someone’s taking potshots at the old fence,” Hopper replied. “My dad’s told them to leave the shitty thing alone, but it’s like they can’t resist shooting at it.”
“I didn’t hear a rifle,” Trahan said. “Sounded like someone… I don’t know, hit it with something.”
“Assholes,” Hopper sighed. “It’s probably that fucking Hunter Peck again. He can’t use his rifle, so now he’s chucking stones.”
“Should we say something?” Trahan asked.
“Yeah,” Hopper said. “Let’s tell that moron what he can do with his fucking rocks.”
Both men laughed, and a moment later, I heard the gate squeak open and the snap of a twig on the other side of the fence. I was already halfway across the room by then, and a quick check of the area once I reached the old doorway revealed an empty guard post.
“This is it,” I muttered as I stepped out of the house.
I darted around the tumbledown structure and then slowed to a walk as I neared the crowd of people near the central part of the camp. My heart was racing, and I could feel my pulse in my ears.
“Will, are you sure this is wise?” Francine asked.
“I have the disguise and the suit on underneath it,” I whispered. “Besides, I don’t really have a choice. We need that plutonium.”
“There are a lot of people here,” it said.
“Yes, I can see that,” I replied as I skirted the edge of the crowd.
“Just be careful,” Francine said.
I found a spot in the shadows where I could stand still for a moment and look around. I spotted Hopper Senior by the tent locked in an embrace with a woman who looked to be about his age. She had her arms draped lazily around his shoulders, and if it weren’t for the intense expression they both wore as they talked, I would have sworn they were about to start slow dancing. I guessed she was Mrs. Hopper, though maybe she was just a girlfriend. Frankly, I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to be married to Hopper Senior, but stranger things had happened.
“Thanksgiving must be fun at the Hopper house,” I muttered.
I tore my eyes away from the Happy Hoppers and studied the barn, which was directly opposite me. Most of the activity I could see was centered around the tent, which was now on my right, while the left side of the camp remained mostly empty.
“Frankie, can you tell how many people are inside the barn?” I asked.
“I can detect ten devices inside the barn,” it replied. “But there could be others in there without a cellular device.”
“Alright,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Someone is approaching the gate behind you,” it said.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Hopper and Trahan reappear at the gate. They looked ticked off, but they didn’t signal for help, so they must not have found Peck or anyone who would admit to throwing rocks at the old fence. They checked the gate, scowled at the woods again, and then finally stomped back inside the perimeter.
It was definitely time to leave, so I slipped out of the shadows and moved toward my left. I made a point of walking like a man who had somewhere to be, but not so quickly that I would draw attention to myself. It seemed to work, because no one looked at me or demanded to know what I was doing.
I was only ten feet from the door and desperately trying to come up with an excuse that would get me past the two guards before I heard footsteps behind me.
“Hey,” someone called out.
“Shit,” I muttered but kept walking toward the barn.
“Hey, you!” the same voice shouted.
I glanced to my right and saw Hopper Senior stomping across the flattened grass. Anyone in his way quickly dodged out of his way, and I found myself looking around like maybe there was someone else he could have been talking to.
“Me?” I finally asked.
“Yes, you,” he barked as he stopped in front of me. “Are you just dumb, or am I speaking Spanish?”
“Sorry, sir,” I said.
He stared at me for a moment, and I held his gaze through the sunglasses I had on. I figured it was better to keep eye contact rather than look away, which Hopper might take as a sign of guilt… or weakness.
“What did you say your name was?” he asked.
“Hunter Peck,” I replied.
“Oh, you’re the genius that took a shot at a buck,” he growled. “What the hell is wrong with you? You know this is a military operation, right? We’re not out here for a weekend hunting trip.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry, sir,” I replied. “It was stupid. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not, or I’ll strap you to that bomb we’re building,” he said, and while he phrased it like a joke, I wouldn’t have put it past him to carry out his threat.
“Understood, sir,” I replied.
He stared at me for a while longer with a suspicious look in his eyes. Did he know what Hunter looked like? Had he figured out that I wasn’t him? Shit. If he blew my cover now, there was nowhere I could run. I knew I could probably fight most of them off, but the place was packed, and if everyone started to shoot at the same time, I was in for a world of pain the next morning. Sure, I’d be alive, but I knew I’d feel like I’d been hit by a train, and I still wouldn’t have the plutonium.
“Is there something else, sir?” I asked.
“Yes,” he eventually replied.
I tried to imagine what he was about to say. Would he announce I was an imposter in front of everyone?
“I need you to go and help them unload the Jeep,” he said and pointed at the Jeep that I had seen the scientist get out of.
“Oh,” I said. “Sure.”
I was so happy to get away from Hopper Senior that I almost sprinted to the Jeep where two guys were already unloading the back of the vehicle. I could feel Hopper Senior watching me, and I had to fight the temptation to turn around and look back at him. After all, I was supposed to be a cowering soldier in the man’s neo-Nazi army, not a strong, independent guy who could kick his ass.
“Here, take this inside,” one of the guys said as he handed me a heavy box.
“Sure,” I replied.
The two guards at the barn door opened it for me and stepped aside without so much as a glance at my face, and I stepped into the dimly lit structure without hesitation. I had managed to get in here without any confrontation whatsoever, and it was sort of underwhelming, honestly.
A nudge on the shoulder pulled me from my thoughts as another guy pushed past me with his box. I followed him into the main room, which was a large space with a high ceiling. We were the only two people in there, and he led the way inside dutifully. A few bulbs hung from the ceiling that provided all of the light for the barn, but as I looked around, I couldn’t see any signs of the scientist, the bomb, or the plutonium that I was after.
I followed the other member of the cell deeper into the dingy room and observed the rotted hay on the floor, the old, rusted tools hung up on the walls, and the two wagon wheels in the corner. In the center of the room was a pile of boxes similar to the one I had in my hands. I put my box down beside them slowly to allow myself enough time to work out where the hell the plutonium was being kept.
As I peered into the dark, I saw something that resembled the shape of a door in the corner. It was the only other door in the entire room, so I had to assume that was where the bomb was being created.
I left the pile of boxes and began to walk toward the door. As I got closer, I began to hear sounds coming from the other side of the wooden wall, and I could see light underneath the door. This was it.
“Hey, Hunter,” the other guy said from the middle of the room. “What’re you doing? The exit’s this way.”
“Oh… right,” I replied as I turned to him, but I didn’t move from where I stood. “I’ll be out in a moment.”
“Have you got a cold or something?” the other man asked. “Your voice sounds…”
There was a silence as the reality of the situation hit him. He clearly knew Hunter, and he had just worked out I wasn’t him.
“He knows,” Francine said. “Will, he knows.”
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. I watched him take a deep breath as he prepared to shout for help, and at the same time, he reached behind his back for his gun.
I did the same. I grabbed the gun the AI had made me, aimed, and fired in one smooth motion, and the man went down next to the pile of boxes. He was stunned, but he was alive, and he hadn’t had the chance to make a sound, which meant I was in the clear.
I ran over to him and dragged the man into a shadowy corner behind a pile of old wood. Once he was concealed, I crept back over to the door and listened for any movements beyond it. I could hear a voice, but it was far enough away to suggest that no one was right behind the door. I knew more people would be coming in with boxes within the next couple of minutes, so I had to go now. I pushed the door open just wide enough for me to fit through and slipped inside.
It was dark in the narrow corridor I found myself in. There was one light above the door I had entered through, which had been the source of the beam underneath the door, but the rest of the hall was unlit and only got darker as I walked further down it.
I realized that the walls were temporary. They were clearly built in a hurry and had been put up to divide up what I assumed was another large room at the rear of the barn.
When I reached the end of the hall, I peered around the corner and saw that there was just another room filled with boxes just like the one I had carried into the barn. There was another door on the far side of the room that was opened a crack, though, and I could hear the voices more clearly now. Even as I tiptoed across the second storage area, I heard a woman speak into a radio.
“How’s it going?” she asked. “Over.”
“Good,” the voice replied. “Over.”
“Anything on the perimeter?” she asked, and I realized she was on the radio to Shaw, the other guard I had met in the forest. “Over.”
“Nope,” he replied. “But Peck’s disappeared on me. Over.”
“Maybe he saw something and went to check it out?” she suggested.
“Maybe,” he replied. “Or maybe he’s just pissed that I chewed him out for taking that shot.”
“You didn’t let me say over,” she said. “Over.”
“Sorry,” he chuckled. “I’ll speak to you soon. Over.”
“If you’re lucky,” she sighed. “Over.”
I heard a rustle as she put her radio away, and then footsteps started to get closer to me. I quickly backed off into the shadows and stood stock-still. She walked straight past me, through the room, and out into the hall.
“That was lucky,” Francine said.
“Am I invisible, or something?” I whispered.
I stepped cautiously into the next room where the woman had just come from, and I found myself in a small space with a desk and a computer on it. The computer was off, but I could see a light on the side of it flashing. There was yet another door in the small office space, and I wondered for a moment if the designer behind this new space had borrowed his plans from the Titanic.
I couldn’t hear any noise in the next room, but I had to be near the back of the barn by now, so it was probably the last room or next to last room. I raised my gun as I tested the door handle, and then I stepped into the room.
“What the--” a guy who was standing right next to the doorway said.
I quickly stunned him before he could raise the alarm, and I caught his limp body before he hit the ground. Then I set him down at the back of the dark room and pushed on.
There was going to be a pile of unconscious bodies when I was done with this, and I would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious.
I looked up as I walked and saw that wires had been freshly attached to the wooden beams of the barn, and most of them led in the direction I was heading in.
“Lights so the scientist can work?” I whispered.
“I would assume so,” Francine replied.
There was a stack of wooden crates along one wall, and I noticed that the lids had been pried off. I slunk over and lifted the lid on the first crate, and I found a collection of AR type rifles, and the box next to that held what looked like a lifetime supply of NATO ammunition inside.
“This is bad,” I whispered.
“You can’t be in here,” a voice behind me said.
I spun around with my gun raised, but the man was ready. He swung his own gun at my arm and knocked my weapon onto the ground. Thanks to the MMA download, though, I was able to counter with a swift jab to his gut before he could do anything else.
He made a gagging sound as he bent over, and I slipped behind him to wrap my arm around his neck. I put the other arm across my first and behind his head in a rear naked choke and started to squeeze, and the man retaliated by driving his elbow into my lungs. But the suit made it feel like a gentle tap, so I was able to hold on until he made one last gurgling sound and then went limp. I let him slip to the ground, and once I’d found my weapon, I shot him with the stun setting just to be sure he wouldn’t alert anyone to my presence.
“Will, there are two more heading this way,” Francine said.
I pressed myself against the wall beside the next doorway and waited.
About ten seconds later, two people stepped into the room. I struck out with my fist as soon as the first person crossed the threshold and knocked them out cold, and then I brought my gun up and stunned the other, all within about two seconds. I moved like a machine, with precision and poise, and I laid them down to the side of the entrance.
“We should move quickly,” Francine suggested. “Someone is bound to notice when one of these people doesn’t return.”
The last section of the barn had been marked off by heavy tarps that hung down from the beams, but I could see the glow of light bulbs where the fabric wasn’t pinned together. One tarp was partially pulled back, so I assumed that was the one they were using as the entrance. I approached it quietly, then took a quick look at the workshop.
It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I’d expected. There was a workbench similar to mine, the usual collection of handyman tools, spools of wire, and a few odd bits of metal scattered around.
The man I’d pegged as the scientist had his back to me. He wore a faded blue sweatshirt and jeans, and if I had seen him on the street, I would have just thought he was some soccer dad on the way to his kid’s match, not a man capable of constructing a bomb that would kill hundreds, or even thousands, of people. He sighed occasionally as he fiddled with some wiring, and he was so consumed with his job that he didn’t notice me as I stepped into the room.
I looked around, and my eyes fell on the prize. On one of the benches at the back of the room, I saw a heavy looking metal case with a latch on the front of it. It was black, but on the front of it, beside the handle, was a neon yellow sign with the radiation symbol and a skull and crossbones. Just below that was a fluorescent pink sticker with the letters Pu, the chemical symbol for Plutonium.
Jackpot.
“Who are you?” the scientist suddenly said.
I hadn’t noticed him turn around. I looked over at him and watched as his eyes went from my concealed face to the gun in my hands, and then his eyes widened.
“He--” he began to shout, but I shot him with the stun gun, and he went down like a ton of bricks.
“Shit,” I hissed as I ran over to the plutonium case. “Someone had to have heard that.”
“It might be fine,” Francine said. “There are not many people in here that are conscious anymore, thanks to you.”
“Good point,” I replied as I reached the case.
I quickly opened the lid and checked that the plutonium was in there. Inside the case were nine circles surrounded by thick felt, and inside the circles were nine rod-shaped containers.
“Is it inside?” I asked as I started to reach for one of the containers.
“Yes,” Francine said sharply. “I am detecting the plutonium. There is no need to open the containers and risk contaminating this entire area.”
“Then let’s get out of here,” I replied as I closed the case and picked it up. “Jeez, this weighs a ton.” Even with the extra help from my suit, the case of plutonium was heavy.
“Plutonium is incredibly dense,” Francine explained.
“You don’t say,” I huffed as I put the case into my large rucksack and hoisted it onto my back.
With the plutonium safely stowed, I started to make my way back to the exit. I had my gun in my hand, but everyone I’d already zapped was still out cold. I didn’t see another conscious human until I reached the room where I was supposed to be stacking boxes.
A woman added a box to the stack and then looked at me. I’d managed to slip the gun out of sight, and I gave her a quick nod as I crossed the room.
“Hey,” she said as she stepped in front of me.
“Hi,” I replied and started to ease the gun from my waistband.
“Have you seen Andy?” she asked. “I saw him come in here with you.”
Andy. The guy who had realized I wasn’t Hunter, and who was currently laying unconscious in the corner of the very room we were in.
“He said he was going to the tent,” I replied.
“Cool,” she said. “Thanks.”
She turned around and stepped outside, and I followed along behind her. I watched her trot over to the tent, and then I started a reverse version of the circuit that had brought me to the barn. Once again, no one seemed to realize that I wasn’t supposed to be there, and I let out a sigh of relief as the small gate by the house came into view.
“Help!” a voice I recognized said from another entrance.
I turned to see what the commotion was about, and I saw Shaw, the guard on the perimeter, at the main gate. Only, he wasn’t alone. He was carrying the real and still unconscious Hunter Peck over one shoulder, still clad in only his shirt and underwear.
“What the hell is going on?” Hopper Senior bellowed as he pushed through the crowd. “Who is that, Shaw?”
“This is Hunter,” he said. “Hunter Peck, the new guy.”
“That’s impossible,” the leader said. “I just spoke to Hunter Peck five minutes ago.”
“Not likely,” Shaw insisted. “I found him unconscious in the woods. He won’t wake up. But this is Hunter, I’m sure of it”
“But if that’s Hunter, then who…” the leader trailed off as what had happened hit him. “There’s been a breach! Close the goddamn gates!”
It took a moment, but several people began to close and lock the gates into the compound while others started to look around for the imposter. More people poured out of the tent, drawn by the sound of something happening outside.
“Sir!” a woman said as she burst out of the barn. “I just found Andy unconscious in the barn.”
“No, no, no!” he screeched. “Check the plutonium. Someone, check the plutonium. Now!”
“Sir, what did he look like?” another person asked the leader.
“He had a helmet on, and basically all of Peck’s uniform,” he replied as he looked around at his neo-Nazis running around like headless chickens.
“Anything else?” the guy asked.
“He was…” the leader said, but before he could finish, his eyes landed on me across the courtyard. “You!”
“Oh, crap,” I said.
“There!” Hopper Senior bellowed. “That’s him.”
“Run,” Francine said. “Will. Run!”