Dark Road (27 page)

“How was the garden coming, Marissa?” Joel asked as they arrived at the command post.

Marissa made a face. “The summer harvest was horrible. I’m convinced they poured a concrete slab for our entire lot, put down sod, and called it good.” Marissa said. “I don’t know how the original owners kept it green without breaking the bank on water!”

Joel laughed. “I’m not sure of that either. It’s something we’ve all been fighting with in that neighborhood ever since we all moved in.”

“Well, even where we dug down and replaced all the soil and fertilized it nine ways from Sunday, it was too dependent on daily watering, or some other magic touch that seemed to evaporate shortly after the end of June.” Marissa said. “We got a couple of zucchinis and beans out of it, but the radishes and carrots never did anything, and the peppers went crazy for a couple of weeks and then shriveled up all of the sudden.”

Marissa shook her head. “It was too hot for tomatoes and we hadn’t planted any corn because our little plot was too small. A couple of other people’s gardens were going well but everyone’s seed packets said right on them that they were hybrid seeds.” Marissa said. “They were one-shot wonders and they weren’t going to be able to let anything go to seed for next year. Some of them had some additional seeds in the packet, but not nearly enough.” Marissa hugged herself even though it was already over eighty degrees. “I really don’t want to think about what the neighborhood is going to be like next year—or even in another couple of months.”

Joel nodded. “Well, Specialist Cox here,” Joel motioned over their shoulders and Dan and Marissa realized that their guard had been following them, “is going to transition from being your guard to your guide for about the next hour or so. I just need to step inside for a minute to arrange that. I’m sure that Staff Sergeant Patterson will be glad to have him back soon instead of losing him to guard duty all day.”

…

“It’s not an actual hospital but it’s better than the doctor’s office that I used last time.” Dan said. “At least it has actual treatment rooms.”

“And it’s still stocked.” Marissa said.

“Yes it is, to a degree.” Dan said knowing full well what Marissa meant. At the very least, she would be able to get shots to take care of her neck and shoulders which, while not fixing the problem, or even relieving a majority of the pain she was experiencing, were taking enough of the edge off that she was able to function. He would be talking with both Dr. Novak and Joel about chronic pain patients and their care eventually, but didn’t want to bring it up on day one.

“Now I get to drop the kids off at school and take a look at the gardens.” Marissa said.

“Please don’t overdo it.” Dan said.

“I know,” Marissa said. “But I have to at least try and do my part, and there’s a lot to do. Plus, I feel good when I get at least some exercise.”

Dan nodded. “I know, but I don’t want you to get the vindictive pernicious inflamed intra-tendon-muscular thing…again.”

“Is that a medical term?” She asked.

“It beats ‘whatever the hell it is you have’ with a stick.” Dan said with a chuckle.

Marissa laughed back. “Ok, I’ll try not to overdo it and flame out on my first day. Okay?”

“Fair enough,” Dan said and kissed her on her way out.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

 “Ben,” Mallory said, once she was connected to her colleague at Fort Campbell. “I heard you authenticate before we did by a few minutes, but I don’t recall hearing much else out of you on the call a few days ago.”

Mallory was trying to be circumspect about the fact that she was locked out of transmitting during the conference call and wondering if the same had been true for him.

“While there may have been a few things that could have been brought up during the call,” Ben said, “I knew that discretion was the better part of valor. I think most everyone was in the same boat.”

So yes, he’d tried to transmit and found that he’d been locked out too. He’s also either aware that we’re being monitored or at least operating under the assumption that we are. I don’t want to make this any longer than necessary today, then.

“The timetable on this is really loose.” Mallory said. “How are you approaching it?”

“With great care,” Ben said. “I’m on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky, just in case that’s slipped your mind. Yes I have the 101
^st
Airborne, the 5
^th
Special Forces Group, the 160
^th
Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and an ass-load of ordinance, mechanized, infantry, and just about anything else you can think of.” Ben took a deep breath. “Mal, unless I want to
kill
anything and everything that isn’t military—and even some things that
are
—I’m going to have to roll this out very, very slowly.”

Ben paused for a minute and then continued. He was willing to keep talking because what he was saying wasn’t disobeying orders. “Decimating the civilian population is
not
what the new orders said to do, they just said to back off on the integration and institute some very…strict…hmm,
rules
about the ownership of firearms; rules that won’t be very popular where this particular base is located.”

“You make some very good points, Ben.” Mallory said.

“Yes I do, Mal, and add to that the fact that I’m a Black man trying to take away a bunch of White men’s guns…please, for the love of God, tell me how that’s going to end well for me?” Ben said with a chuckle. “It’s a damned good thing I’m on military base surrounded by the 101
^st
Airborne!”

“I’m glad I don’t have your problems.” Mallory said.

“I’m sure you have your own.” Ben replied.

“Speaking of which,” Mallory said, “you remember Sparky?”

Mallory was counting on him remembering their previous conversation about putting Sparky on a project without her having to spell it out.

“Sure, how’s he doing?” Ben asked.

“Ok, just been working on something,” she said. “He wanted me to ask if Grounder was still stationed up there.”

“He sure is.” Ben said. “He’s an SFC now, got a wife and two kids. Runs one of the communications platoons, why?”

Mal paused for a few seconds and Ben was about to ask if she was still there when she finally spoke again. “Sparky’s going to call up there either later today or tomorrow.” She said. “Just give Grounder a heads up.”

Ben almost pushed it and then decided not to. He’d been the one to suggest setting Sparky to a task regarding backchannel communications and now would be a bad time to make an issue of it.

“Will do,” Ben said. “I need to get back to a couple of things. Take care, Mal.”

“You too, Ben,” Mallory said and closed the call.

…

 “Hey G-man,” Evan said, trying to keep his voice light

“Sparkimus-prime,” Spencer replied.

“You still have your geek block?” Evan asked, referring to his PGP email public-private key that had gained popularity among, well, geeks for “signing” their emails to both prove the authenticity of their emails and, also, to—in some cases—encrypt the contents of the email. You could encrypt an email with someone’s public key and only they could decrypt it.

“Um, duh,” Spencer said. “The world ended but I’m still a geek; I didn’t turn in my card.”

“Didn’t mean to question your manhood there dude,” he said. “I’ve got a technical problem down here that I’d like some help with if you’ve got some spare cycles.”

“Sure, but if you’re having trouble with it I don’t know how much help I’m going to be.” Spencer said. “You used to run rings around me in EE School.”

“Says the SFC to the newly-minted Sergeant,” Evan laughed. “You seem to be doing something right. Anyway, I’ve actually got it written up with a couple of diagrams. It’ll be easier if I send it, if that’s ok.” Evan hit the send key.

The upload took a little over three seconds for both the clear text and the encrypted file.

“How’s Holly and the baby? I haven’t talked to you since you found out you were going to be a dad again. I don’t even know if you had a boy or a girl.”

“Baby girl,” Spencer said, “Lourdes, named after Holly’s grandmother. She’s doing fine. Give me a couple of days and I’ll get back to you; say, day after tomorrow?”

“Day after tomorrow?” Evan mimicked.

“You can’t see me but I’m rolling my eyes, Sparky.” Spencer said.

“Which is why I did it, G-man.” Evan said. “I’ll talk to you then.”

…

Evan, who actually thought of himself as Sparky most of the time, had three HAM radios set up, one in each of the three locations he was most likely to be for the next couple of days. He wasn’t actually expecting the first call from Spencer to come in over the satellite radio—or at least
hoping
it wouldn’t come in over the satellite radio.

The last week and a half had been spent working non-stop on a way to encrypt radio communications without using the satellite links. His hope was that with the encrypted instructions he’d sent Spencer, and the /files/02/21/73/f022173/public/private key pair he’d created, along with the software he’d built and sent, Spencer would be able to use software that
he
should already have to make an encrypted HAM Radio contact.

Spencer was also an Amateur radio operator, so this hinged on him being willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that the rules were out the window at this point. Sparky was still having a hard time coming to grips with what he was doing, it was just so anathema to what Amateur radio was supposed to be all about.

Sparky’s biggest problem now was finding laptops to run the decryption software. He had plenty of solar charging capability to keep them running, but the Major wasn’t giving him more than a half dozen laptops to use—which meant he couldn’t run more than that many radios at one time.

Now it was a waiting game to see which radio Spencer would call on first.

…

“Sparky,” came Spencer’s voice at 2:30 in the morning. “You better hope this is working and just what the…what are you playing at?”

Evan wasn’t sure whether to be proud or ashamed or possibly a little of both. “Well, Grounder,” he said as he keyed his mic, “I can understand you so it’s working, and if you can understand me then your side is too.”

“You’ve got five nines, but what’s this really all about?” Spencer asked.

“Well, this is secured about as far as I can get it on single sideband and still have it be usable,” Evan said. “Have you seen the new orders?”

“Some, why,” Spencer said with some speculation in his voice.

“Well, Major Jensen wanted a way for us—not just you and me, but everyone—to be able to communicate long distance should the Sat-Com no longer be available.” Evan said.

There was silence on the radio for several seconds and Sparky was about to key his microphone when Spencer finally transmitted again.

“Yeah, I heard about the lockout during the con-call.” Spencer said. “Ben was livid. If they can do that during a conference call they could do it at any time. They could do it right now if they wanted to just by changing the access codes.”

Spencer paused for a few seconds without un-keying his microphone and then continued. “Why is your Major Jensen concerned?” He asked.

Sparky shook his head. “G-man,” he said, “how much of the new orders have you seen?”

“Actually seen,” Spencer said, “none. I’ve heard rumors about some of it, and they were vague. Basically all I know is that ARCLiTE wasn’t the resounding success everywhere that higher hoped it would be and we’re supposed to back off a little bit.”

“Are you alone?” Sparky asked.

“What?” Spencer said.

“I asked if you were alone.” Sparky said. “If not are you on a headset?”

“I’m alone enough, and I’m using a headset.” Spencer said. “What the hell is going on?” Spencer asked, shaken enough to swear for the first time ever on a HAM radio.

“Well, the orders were a bit less diplomatic than what you are hearing, from what I’ve seen.” Sparky said. “And yes, I’ve seen parts of them. According to the orders, ARCLiTE was an abysmal failure and we’re to regroup as the military; the civilians can fend for themselves. Once we’re secure, though, there are a number of things we’re supposed to do—including confiscation of firearms and ammunition.”

“That would actually make more sense and explain a lot of what’s going on.” Spencer said. “It would also explain why Ben, Major Franklin, took an interest in my call from you yesterday.”

“Your Major’s name is Ben Franklin?” Sparky said in surprise.

“Shut up, man, I do
not
have time for this right now.” Spencer said. “You just dropped a major bomb on me, I’m breaking the law by even talking to you like this, and my CO is most likely
supporting
me breaking the law to talk to you.”

Spencer sighed into the microphone. “You and I both know we aren’t supposed to encrypt or obfuscate the meaning of any HAM communications unless we’re controlling a space-station. No matter how much you want to be, you are
not
a space-station Sparky!” Spencer sighed again. “Man, I have a headache.”

“Well, on the plus side, we know it works,” Sparky said. “I have another radio next to me that isn’t hooked up to the laptop and all it’s getting on this frequency is garbled static.”

“Yeah, I did the same thing.” Spencer said with a slight grin obvious in his voice. “Ok, we’ve probably got a little more power here to play with than you guys do down there. Knowing that this is probably going to be important, do you want me to talk to Major Franklin and see if we can get some people working on it up here?”

“Now that you ask,” Evan said, trying not to let the relief come through in his voice. “I think we need to add some kind of spread spectrum frequency hopping, a dedicated data channel…”

…

“In short, it works,” Sergeant Lake said to Major Jensen and Captain Tripp after scheduling a brief meeting with both of them, and laying out, for once, just the basics.