Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (45 page)

“Yeah
,
Mike
,”
Tracy mimicked. “Is everything all right?”
H
er tone was marked with bitterness and barely controlled rage.

“Mike
,
is something going on here?” Beth spoke.

“You think?” Tracy answered, infusing as much sarcasm as the words could convey.

“Listen, I don’t even know you
.
W
hat could I have possibly done for you to look at me that way?” Beth asked and then it dawned on her,
'
the way she looked at
me
, the rage that was threatening to overwhelm
the woman
, the hatred she directed
toward
s her
. Only one thing could make somebody that crazy. Love was the answer.
'
“Is she the one?” Beth asked
me
.

“Oh
,
it was nice of you to bring me up while you two were getting reacquainted!” Tracy shot out before
I
had a chance to reply to Beth.

“It’s not…
it wasn’t like that
,”
I
stumbled across
my
words
,
doing
my
bes
t to diffuse what could only be considered a time bomb with no discernible way to shut
it
off. “I was in the process of telling her about you, when you were trying to get
my friend
shot.”

I
was only all t
o
o happy to see one of Paul’s aide-de-camps rapidly approaching from the far end of the hallway.
I
knew from experience that
I
was only summoned this way w
hen something big was happening
and usually
I
dreaded finding out what it was. But at this particular point the aide looked like Gabriel himself coming to rescue
me
from some far worse fate than whatever was going on in
the
HQ
.

“Does the general need me?”
I
asked pleadingly before the aide was more than halfway down the hall.

The aide-de-camp
was
an undersized man
who looked
more like a child in his father’s uniform but his quick mind and strategic skills made him a respected man when push came to shove.

Major Whittingly knew he was
called
Dr
.
Doom behind his back because he only showed up to summon people when the shit hit the fan, so for the most part people
,
especially the officers
,
avoided him like the plague
.
T
o see someone
willingly make eye contact and initiate conversation completely caught him off guard.

“Um
,
yes
,
C
aptain
.
The g
eneral is requesting your
presence
.”

I
cut him off in the fear that the meeting might be sometime in the future, anything less than ‘now’ was unacceptable
, I needed to extract myself from th
e
conversation (confrontation) as soon as possible
. “Let me get my boots.”

I left the two women to their own devices
.
Drababan stayed merely to watch the interaction,
for long moments
they could do nothing more than stare in the
direction
in which I
had so rapidly retreated.

***

“Man, I was never so happy to see Dr
.
Doom as I was just now
,” I said
with a smirk on
my
face. “He saved me from a huge
—
”
I
stopped talking when
I
saw the look on Paul’s face. “What’s
going on?”
I
said
, now
all business.

“Have a seat.” Paul motioned
with his hand
.

I
was about to sit when
I
noticed Dennis off to the side of the office,
t
he same grave expression written all over his face.
I
thought
,
This doesn’t look good
,
b
ut felt that to say the words would be lost on
my
audience.
I
sat silently.

“Dennis
,
could you please tell Mike what you
saw?” Paul said rotely, his attention now miles away.

Dennis stood up from his leaning position and walked solemnly over to the chair next to
mine
.
H
e sat down with a loud
‘
umph
’
.

“Holy
s
hit
,
bud. What’s going on?”
I
asked
,
an unsettling unease beginning to worm its way through
my
innards.

Dennis answered with one word. “Ratspindler.”

I
was thrown aback by the name, but couldn’t for the life of
me
get how the name could convey the attitude that was circulating around the room.

“What about
him
?”
I
asked.

“He’s here
,”
Dennis answered.

“Here
-
here, like this complex?” Yes
,
that would suck
,
but the man had no authority over
us
anymore.
S
ure he had tried to make
our
adolescen
t
years a living hell, but that was ancient history, something else was going on here. “Guys
,
I’m not seeing the big picture, unless he’s got a nuke strapped on his back
,
who gives a shit
.
He doesn’t have a backpack nuke
,
does he?”

“He might as well
,”
Paul answered. Noticing that Dennis was going to involuntarily draw this out longer than necessary, Paul interjected. “Dennis had a squad out scoping their new landing party
in Dedham
when he caught sight of
thirteen
prisoners being led into their
HQ
.”
I
was starting to grasp the situation, the worm in
my
innards
was beginning to expand
.
I
t felt more like a squirrel now. “One of them was Spindler.”

I
stood
.
I
didn’t know what else to do. “Are you sure?”
I
said looking over at Dennis.

“See for yourself
,” Dennis said
sliding a picture over on Paul’s desk that
I
had not noticed before. “I was
three
hundred
yards away and I didn’t even need the n
ocs to
recognize him from his portrait at school. That hook nose is difficult to forget.
”

He looked a little thinner than he had when he left Walpole High with his tail
tucked
between his legs
,
but the
re
was no denying who it was. Before
I
could ask any
more questions
,
Dennis continued.

“Thirteen prisoners went into the
HQ
only eleven came out. Of the two that didn’t come out
,
one was a woman
…
”

“And the other was Spindler
,”
I
finished. “Paul, Spindler knows about this place. I mean
,
not this place specifically but about the silo for sure.”

“I’m not wearing this expression because our old high school principal might be coming back to look for the
two
individuals who blew up his caddy.”

“You two did that?” Dennis asked
,
momentarily forgetting the weight of the news in the room.

Paul and I
both looked to Dennis. “We never told you
about
that?” Paul said.

“I always thought it was Lester from two grades ahead of us
,” Dennis said
.

L
aughter ensued for a full minute before the true business came back around.

“Alright
,”
Paul started as he wiped a tear from his eye. “Our options are limited at best. There is obviously an entire evacuation
to consider,
but with the Genogerians
so close our chance of doing so
successfully
is greatly diminished
.
A
nd even if we did escape
,
where would we go
?
W
e couldn’t take enough provisions with us to last a month.
Do w
e stay and do nothing hoping Spindler doesn’t give them any useful information
?
”

I
looked over at Paul, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah,
I feel the same way
,”
Paul answered.
“
That miserable little fuck would sell us all out in a hot minute if he thought it would buy him one more day. The last
idea
and probably least likely to pass a majority vote is we go all out on the offensive.”

“
L
ast I checked
,”
Dennis threw in,
“
t
his isn’t a democracy.”

“No,
you’re right
,” Paul answered
derisively. “But half of the Hill’s population is civilian, what I would be asking is
identical
to mass suicide.”

“Not so much suicide
,” I stated,
“
a
s Kamikaze. The Japanese used it with devastating effect in
World War Two
.”

“So you were actually paying attention in History class
,”
Paul quipped. “But you have to remember it still ended up in their deaths.”

“Paul
,
you know where I stand.
Every one
of those options ends in death, the only one that allows our deaths to have meaning is to make them pay dearly for their conquest
,” I said
vehemently.

“There’s
another
plan
,”
Dennis stated matter of factly.

We
both stopped and turned his way.

“Well,
it’s more like t
w
o of the previous plans combined.”

“We’re listening
,” Paul said
.

“Alright
,
we go all out on the offensive with our military and we cause a big enough diversion that the civilian populace can sneak out undetected. The chances that they can get out will be a lot better.”

“That’s brilliant
,” I said
as
I
clapped Dennis’ shoulder.
I
had really hoped there would be a way for Beth to escape. Tracy too, but
I
knew there was no way
I
would be able to not have her engage in this final battle. Unless…

“Paul
,
I think that you should send some troops with the civilians, they’ll need to have some sort of firepower. They would be ripe for any band of rogues unless they had some sort of
guard.”

“You have an idea on who you want to send?”
And b
efore
I
could answer
,
“And also do you have an idea how you’re going to keep her from coming
with us
?”