Stealing Second (The Amendments Book One 1) (23 page)

The attic was fi
lled with old packing crates and steamer trunks. There were dozens of them. The room was long and only half as wide as the second floor. An old Victrola phonograph stood on the edge of an upright trunk. Scattered next to it were dozens of little dusty records. A wire birdcage hung from a hook on a rafter and an ancient mannequin stood guard next to Ace. “Wow, look at all of this junk,” he said. “I can’t believe that nobody has been up here.”

“I can,” I said. “Can we go now?”

“Go ahead, I’m not stopping you.”

“What do you hope to find up here?”

“I’m killing time, Gary. I don’t want to sit downstairs and worry my ass off. The kids won’t be back for at least an hour. You can do whatever you want. I’m going to see what’s up here.”

“And what is up here?”

“What do you mean? Look around.”

“No, Ace. I meant that just as it sounded. You said that you felt something up here
. I felt it, too. Don’t feed me some line of bullshit. What do you hope to find?”

The smile left his face and he dropped his eyes. “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head, “but whatever it is, I’ll know it when I find it.”

“You can do more than read minds, can’t you?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know. Let’s just say that I have psychic abilities and call it good, okay? I don’t like to talk about it and you already know too much. Just promise me that you’ll keep my secret to yourself.”

“I haven’t told anyone.”

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“I don’t like it that you can read my mind.”

“Don’t you think I know that, too? Why do you think I keep it to myself? Nobody likes the idea of someone looking inside their head. That’s
why I moved here from Missouri. I had to get away. I needed to make a fresh start.”

I sighed.
What Ace said made sense in a strange sort of way. I didn’t think I’d like to have his psychic abilities, whatever they were.

“No, you wouldn’t,” said Ace.

“Knock it off.”

“Sorry, it is kind of fun sometimes. Give me a hand over here. Let’s take a look inside of these old trunks.”

I knew he didn’t need me to help him look inside the trunks. I imagined myself being alone up here with the rabid vampire bats, and I knew he really only wanted me for the company. I looked at Ace and he just chuckled and nodded his head knowingly. The attic was split by a narrow walkway that led to the window, divided by stacks of trunks and wooden crates. With nothing else to do, I walked over to join him. “What do you suppose happened here?” I asked. “Who would leave all of this stuff behind?”

“I can’t be sure, but I think the last member of the family was very old when they died.”

“But why hasn’t someone come along and cleaned this place out? Look at it up here, this place is every antique hunter’s dream come true.”

Ace popped the locks on one of the old steamer trunks and opened it. “You know why,” he said. “Something kept them from coming up here.
”

“That’s enough. I don’t want to know anymore.”

“Gary?” called Cathy from the second floor. “Are you guys up there?”

“We are,” I hollered back. “You can come on up if you want. There’s a lot of neat stuff up here.”

Ace rolled his eyes as he rummaged through a stack of beautiful moth-eaten dresses.

“No thanks. Hey, Jack thinks we should wait outside. He doesn’t like this house.”

“No!” shouted Ace, dropping a dress into the trunk. “Nobody goes outside, not for any reason!”

“You don’t have to bite my head off,” replied Cathy.

“I’m sorry. We can’t risk being seen, not with Neil and Violet out there. We’ve got to think about them. What would happen if we were all captured while they’re gone?”

“Oh shit,” said Cathy, “you’re right. I’ll go down and tell him. Thank God somebody has their head on straight.”

Ace stared at me and shook his head. “We can’t risk it, Gary. Not even to go to the bathroom.”

He had plucked
that thought out of thin air and I shook my head and stared at the ceiling.

“Sorry.”

“Just try to be careful, okay? Do I really think that loud?”

“Some people think louder thoughts than others. You’r
e one of them. I can’t read Lisa or Violet, but Jack is twice as easy to read as you are.”

I thought about that. “What about Cathy?”

“Yeah, I can read her.”

“And?”

“If you absolutely need to hear something, I’ll tell you. This isn’t some novelty trick to use for amusement purposes. I take it very seriously. I’ll tell you something—she wants to sleep with you. There. The rest you can figure out on your own.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured that.”

“And you’re worried that she’s been molested. Gary, you’ve got to let it go. You can’t go back and change the past. I know she was with your dead friend. You’ve got to forget about all of that. Live for today and tomorrow, nothing else matters.”

“Funny, I don’t remember telling you any of that.”

“You didn’t.”

“Then how did you know?”

“Cathy told me.”

I should have known. I rubbed my eyes and sighed. I then reached for the handle of another of the steamer trunks and slid it ov
er into the walkway. The first clasp opened easily, but the second seemed corroded and I fought with the buckle before it popped open.

Chapter16

A high-pitched scream sent my heart racing. I looked to Ace, but he was already running to the stairs. I dropped the lid to the trunk and ran after him. The scream was joined by a second, which was followed by the sound of Jack’s deep voice. “Shut up!” he bellowed. “Ace? Gary? Get down here!”

How I made it down those steep stairs without taking a tumble is beyond me.
By the time I reached the empty library, Ace was already out in the hallway. I caught sight of him turning for the second flight of stairs as I dashed out of the room. I tried to imagine what had happened, but my mind was blank. The only thing that mattered was getting down there and dealing with it, whatever it was. I took the stairs two at a time, bounded around the corner of the threshold and thundered down the remaining steps.

And I saw that we weren’t alone.

A giant of a man stood in the living room. He carried no weapons that I could see and his faded jeans and olive green t-shirt were caked with dried mud. He was young, perhaps in his early twenties, with shaggy brown hair and a scraggly beard. Sleeves of brightly colored tattoos covered his arms. I guessed him to stand close to seven feet tall. He was lanky, but solidly built. Ace stood in front of him, sizing him up.

“He says that
Violet and Neil were captured,” said Jack.

Lisa
held Cathy in her arms and she began to sob. I walked forward to stand next to Ace. “Who are you?” Ace asked.

“Leroy Jones, sir,” the man-child whispered. “I sure am sorry, I tried to stop them.”

“Who captured them, and where the hell were they taken?”

“The Blue Helmets captured them and they took them to the camp. I tried to warn them, but that red-headed kid wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Neil,” hissed Cathy, “that son of a bitch.”

“Hold on,” said Ace, “let the man talk. So, you followed them and actually saw them captured? Are you sure they were taken to the camp?”

Leroy nodded his head. “I really am sorry. Don’t you people think others have tried bribing the guards? It never works.”

“I knew it wouldn’t work,” spat Cathy. “Ace, this is your fault. My poor
Violet would still be here if it wasn’t for you.”

“Cathy!” I shouted, twisting to raise a finger at her. “That’s enough of that kind of talk.”

Cathy shot me an angry look, but she turned to Lisa and buried her head in her shoulder. I didn’t want her making a bad situation worse. Blaming Ace wasn’t going to help anything. I turned back to face the tall kid.

“This is going to sound like a stupid question,” continued Le
roy, “but can we assume that you still want to get your people out of there?”

“Hell yes,” said Ace. “My wife and kids are in there. That woman behind me, she’s right, I’m to blame for her daughter being captured. I’ll do whatever it takes to get our people out of there.”

Leroy nodded his head, uncomfortably. I began to suspect he was younger than I had originally guessed him to be. He nervously rubbed his huge hands against his thighs and one of his green eyes began to twitch. He reminded me of a high school student standing before the principal. “A bunch of us are going to attack the camp,” he said. “I’m supposed to ask if you want to join us.”

“
Hell yes,” Ace said again. “How many people are we talking about?”

“What do you mean? We figure there are about two hundred soldiers guarding the camp, but there’s at least five thousand people being held there. Rumor has it that they’re scheduled to be hauled down to Wyoming. They’ve got a huge camp down there at Hallberg Marine.”

Ace nodded his head, patiently. “How many people are joining the attack?”

“Gee, I don’t know,” Leroy said. He set his jaw and stared at the ceiling. He then returned his attention to Ace. “I’m guessing we’ve got a thousand people out here who are ready to fight.”

“Holy smokes,” whistled Ace, “seriously?”

Leroy nodded. “Maybe more than that, people like you keep showin’ up. The plan
is to hit them tonight at ten o’clock. We want to hit them hard. They’re not even American soldiers, they’re all Blue Helmets. My old man hopes to teach them a lesson.”

“Is your dad leading the attack?”

“Gosh no, Colonel Hawkins is leading the attack. He’s an Oath Keeper. Have you ever heard of them?”

“I’m an Oath Keeper,” said Cathy, proudly.

“You won’t be alone. Colonel Hawkins thinks we have about a hundred Oath Keepers. He’s going to want to meet you.”

“I’m ready whenever he is.”

“He’ll be happy to hear that.”

“How can you be sure they won’t start moving the prisoners tonight?”
asked Ace.

“The new camp isn’t ready. Colonel Hawkins says it won’t be ready for a few days.”

Ace nodded his head. “How can he be sure of that?”

Leroy smiled and confidently crossed his tattooed arms. “You’d be surprised at how much he knows. He knows you people spent last night at an old farm, over in Harris. I’ll bet you didn’t even know you were followed, did you?”

Ace turned and shot me a startled expression. “No, we had no idea,” he said.

“The revolution is a lot bigger than you probably think,” said Leroy, raising his chin. “And we’re getting more organized and better equipped every day. A lot of our own soldiers have come over to our side.
Colonel Hawkins thinks it’s only a matter of days before we have the whole army fighting next to us.”

“I don’t get it,” said Jack. “I thought we were fighting the army.”

Leroy shook his head. “We’re fighting the United Nations army, mostly. Hasn’t anyone told you? This is World War Three.”

“Holy shit,” muttered Ace.

“No,” said Lisa.

“I’m sorry,” said Leroy, “but it’s true. That’s what Colonel Hawkins says the army is calling it. I thought everyone knew that by now.”

“We didn’t,” said Ace, “but thanks for clearing that up for us.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“So, what are we supposed to do? Do you want us to follow you? Should we wait here?”

Leroy looked around the room, shuddered, and then nodded his head. “That’s what I’ve been told to tell you. I’ll be back to get you people sometime this evening, so don’t shoot me when I show up. The Colonel says we have to stay spread out, that way we won’t draw attention to ourselves,” he pointed up at the ceiling. “They’ve got drones up there that can see everything.”

“We know about the drones,” said Ace.

Leroy turned and started to walk into the kitchen.
“Colonel Hawkins says to try and sleep if you can. He thinks it’s going to be a long night.”

“Thanks,” said Ace. “We’ll try and catch some.”

Leroy stopped inside the dining room and turned to face us. “Why did you people come here, anyhow?”

“I told you,” said Ace, angrily. “We’ve got people in that camp.”

“No,” said Leroy, spreading his arms wide. “I meant, why did you choose this house? You know it’s supposed to be haunted, right?”

“Is that right?” asked Ace. “Well, we don’t believe in ghosts, but thanks for the tip.”

Leroy stared at Ace and raised his finger, but he must have thought better of it. He then smiled and shook his head and walked out of the house.

“Nice kid,” said Jack. “Think we should believe him? I don’t know. If you ask me, he looked like he was a few clowns short of a circus.”

“Will you quit judging people?” asked
Ace. “Why would he lie to us?” He then turned to Cathy. “I’m so sorry about what happened to Violet and Neil. I take full responsibility for what happened. This is all my fault and I pray to God that someday you can forgive me.”