Deep Freeze: Protocol One, Book 2 (Protocol One Saga) (10 page)

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Admittedly, I had the biggest room in the Protocol One Bunker. Tony and the others would sarcastically refer to it as the Queen’s chambers, and rightfully so. In comparison it was the Presidential Suite of the Wyndham and the others were in rooms at the Motel 6.

There was a lot of room and I had more furniture to make it seem more of an apartment. The adjoining door originally led to Tony’s room, but now, it was all Joie’s and we left that open.

After doing some coloring, I explained to Joie, she just had to go with the flow with Gwen and to tell me everything she does outside of teaching her when they are together.

Joie got it right away, “You want me to be your spy.”

“In a sense yes.” I said. “Plus you’ll learn good manners.”

We wound down the night with a story and I left to take my second three minute shower of the day. I needed it and Tony was driving me nuts. He decided after he ate, it was time to get out of bed and get moving. He started this pacing across the room. I figured after the shower and dressing, he’d be done.

That was not the case.

When I came back, he was still walking. Wall to wall, around the chair, lifting the chair.

“We have a fitness room,” I said, walking in.

“Craig said not to exercise.” Tony paced. “So I’m casually moving about until I get the all clear.”

“Look at you being the good obedient patient.” I opened my top drawer and pulled out the Gwen BlackBerry along with paper and a pencil.

“What are you doing?” Tony asked.

“Not pacing the floor, that’s for sure.” I straightened the covers on the bed and then sat on them; I hate a messy bed, even if I was getting into it for the night. “When are you going to stop?”

“When I feel I got some energy.”

“Oh that makes sense,” I said. “Wear down to feel energized.”

“If you exercised Anna, you’d know. Beside I feel like I gained flab.”

I bit my bottom lip. “You did. I didn’t want to say anything.”

Tony stopped walking.

“Yeah, not weight, but like I was shocked how fast that toned definition turned into kind of flab.”

He gasped.

“And I think five days of doing nothing slowed you down.”

“What do you mean?”

I tossed the pen at him and it smacked against his arm and fell to the floor. “That. You would have caught that two weeks ago. You never saw it coming.”

“You’re right.” He bent down for the pen, paused in what figured was pain, picked it up and handed it to me. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, making notes on what Gwen has in here as far as documents. I want to really see what she has and try to figure out what she is up to. I wanted to talk to you about it but then you went ahead and got hurt. Lost and hurt. Remind me when you’re better to yell at you for leaving me.”

“Yeah, right on that.”

“And I want to look at this again before I give it to Peter.”

“Why are you giving that to Peter?”

“So he can hack into it to see if there are messages we missed. Ones that were deleted.”

“You told him?” Tony groaned. “Anna, stop trusting people.”

“I trust Peter. It’s Gwen I don’t trust.”

“And Gil?”

I lowered the BlackBerry. “I don’t know Tony. Something is up with him. Like he’s being blackmailed. It’s not Gil.”

“And I’m telling you, it is. You’re just now seeing the real guy.”

“Did you ever trust anyone?”

“No.” He shook his head.

“Not even me?”

“Sometimes you have your questionable moments.”

I gasped.

“Especially when you just wave out your arm to strangers and say, ‘Hey, come on in, it’s cold out there, we have plenty.” He mocked me.

“Yeah, well, that me is gone.”

Tony scoffed and laughed. “Yeah, right. You still defend Gil.”

“That’s because I really feel it isn’t him, it’s Gwen.”

“Anna,” Tony walked over and sat on the bed next to me. “You don’t think it was a little psychotic all the things he did with that end of the world plan?”

“No, it was to save humanity.”

Tony stared at me, then shook his head.

“I’ll prove it’s Gwen.”

“I know you’re trying. You have my daughter hanging out with her starting tomorrow.”

“Everyone needs manners. Gwen brought up a good point. Some must emerge from the ashes with class.”

“In the apocalypse?”

“Especially in the apocalypse.”

He shook his head again. “So you are having Joie be a Peter and be the eyes and ears so you can find out more about her and what is going on?”

“Yes, and it fell into my lap. She asked Joie.”

“Uh huh,” Tony nodded. “And did it ever occur to you, that she asked Joie for the same reason?”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe she’s getting close to my daughter so she can find out about you?”

“Ha! Good thing Joie is smarter than that. It’s a win-win, Tony. I get info, your daughter gets manners. Do you know how much finishing school cost before all this? We’re saving a ton.”

Tony did a fake laugh at my bad joke, raised the BlackBerry to my view and told me, “Go back to your documents.”

“Go back to pacing.”

I returned to pulling up the documents, what few there were. I was certain, Gwen was up to something. It was easy to generalize what it was, but to find out specifically, was a puzzle.

One I would solve.

Just like Gwen claimed to want to tutor Joie as a means to pass time. I was going to make my Gwen investigation, my means to pass the time as well.

One of the most annoying problems I have had all my life was the inept ability to dream of whatever occupied my mind.  To the point it was annoying, irritating, and caused me to wake up numerous times. And I always continued the dream.

I knew it was coming. I had been working a few days on hacking Gwen’s phone. Most of which was printing up the documents she had. I found some short stories she had started writing and deleted from her phone. Of all the things to find. I wanted to tell her to give up being a writer, but if I did that, she would know I had her phone.

I had spent so much time with that phone, even stopping to play a game of Battleship with Tony didn’t help. He was back to himself and he wasn’t sleeping because of all the rest he got during his injury. So I found myself hanging out with him at night.

Damned if Gwen didn’t invade my dreams.

I made the mistake of telling Tony that every time I closed my eyes to sleep I dreamt of her.

“Maybe you have a thing for Gwen,” Tony suggested.

“I liked you better when you had a head injury,” I told him. “You didn’t talk. J 4.”

“Hit,” Tony said. “I’m just saying. You’re dreaming about her. Are they dirty dreams? G 9.”

“Miss. No, asshole. I just wanted to have someone to talk to about it. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a couple of nights. H 4.”

“Sunk.” Tony grabbed the ship and tossed it. “Okay, I’m sorry. Are the dreams what you are reading or what? H 7.”

“Hit.”

“Yes.” Tony clenched his fist in excitement.

“They are to a point. She wrote a short story about an old man and a crippled pony.”

Tony peered his dark eyes over his Battleship board. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, it sucked, but damned if I didn’t dream about Gwen on a three legged horse.”

Tony laughed. Maybe if we play long enough tonight you’ll dream about ships.”

“Maybe.”

I won the game, but Tony was right in part. I did dream of big battleships, nonetheless, Gwen was on board, swinging on the flagpole like some sort of back room stripper.

I gave up.

After two hours of sleep, I figured I might as well work. My shift started at seven, and Walt, one of Gil’s guys was working the night. He probably would welcome the early relief.

After I stopped by the kitchen, grabbed some granola and unsuccessfully hunted out the hidden and rationed drink boxes, I hit the safe room.

Walt looked a little shocked. So much so, I wondered if he had fallen asleep on shift.

“What... what are you doing here? It’s only five-fifteen.” He asked.

“I couldn’t sleep. You might as well go on back to your room.” I opened my laptop.

His eyes shifted to the monitors. “Um, no, I’m good. You don’t have to be here.”

“What’s up?” I asked. “Did something happen?”

“No, it’s been pretty calm.”

“Uh huh.” I nodded. “Did you mess something up? You keep looking at monitor three.”

Walt exhaled. “I did. I accidently hit the wrong monitor. The feed was off for about ten minutes.”

“Oh,” I waved out my hand. “I did that last Tuesday. You’re fine. Of course, Tony wasn’t working then. I’ll speak to him if he gets mad.”

“Thanks.”

Walt stayed with me another fifteen minutes, nervously chatting about food and other things. It struck me as odd. Maybe I just wanted him to leave. I brought my folder of Gwen stuff, and needed the time without Tom to review it. Tom was coming on at eight.

Finally, Walt left. Not that he wasn’t a nice guy, but I wanted that room to myself. It gave me the chance to put on the camera outside Gwen’s room.

I switched that on, the hallway was empty and then I checked my satellite feed.

Oddly, there was nothing from the International Space Station. They usually sent me a few images of cloud coverage so I could try to predict the weather.

Slightly concerned, I lifted the radio and called out. “This is Protocol One, calling Damnation Alley. Are you there? Over.”

Mulligan, my favorite radio guy and soldier from Damnation Alley responded. “I’m here. Over.”

“Good to hear you,” I said. “Your voice is clearing up.”

Mulligan had been suffering from an ongoing bout with bronchitis. His voice thickened while he was sick. I envisioned a big red haired man on the radio. Perhaps the name gave me that vision.

“Mulligan, have you gotten anything from the ISS? My feed is empty today.”

“Nothing today. I can try to reach out. How are you, Pete?” he asked. “Over.”

“I’m good. You? Over.”

“I’m good. I mean with the exile. I know it was sudden and seemed like a bad move, but you hadn’t said anything at all. So I figured those guys did something really bad.”

What? My mind blasted. What was he talking about?

Exile? They were kicking someone out? It was warming up, yes, but it was still hovering at freezing level, and weather was unstable. It wasn’t safe to do.

Immediately, I started switching up the monitors. Looking for who left or any signs of an exile.

“Mulligan, who and when did the exile take place?”

“You don’t know?”

“Negative.”

“Just about twenty minutes ago. We received word our man arrived and yours was leaving.”

Bingo.

Monitor three.

Exterior. I saw the vehicle outside the bay doors. They were still there, they hadn’t left.

“I guess they were going to tell you,” Mulligan said. “I am surprised you didn’t know. After all, you arrived with them. Over.”

“Let me get back to you.” My eyes stayed transfixed on the screen. “Thank you for the info. And hey, uh, don’t tell anyone you told me in case you weren’t supposed to. Over.”

“Roger that. Out.”

“Out.” Radio down, eyes still on the monitor, I knew I had to do something. I was alone in the safe room, if I waited on Tom, whoever was leaving would be long gone, and I didn’t want that to happen.

I could only guess who was leaving. I was up and awake. Why didn’t I hear any commotion?

I had three options.

One, I could wait for Tom and then investigate.

Two, I could run to the bay doors and find out myself.

Or three, my best option. Get Anna, because I was certain she didn’t know and if anyone could stop it, she could.

Doing something I would never had done before, I left the safe room unattended and raced out. I didn’t really worry about the consequences, after all, I wasn’t even supposed to be on duty.

It was not unusual at all for Joie to wake me in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning to walk her to the bathroom. Nor was it uncommon for Tony to nudge me to tell me I was snoring. It was, however, highly unusual for Peter to wake me. In fact, it was the first time ever and I jolted awake.

He poked me three times with his bony finger, whispering my name. “Anna. Anna.”

I gasped as I sat up. “What?”

“Get dressed. Hurry. Meet me at the safe room.”

My mind was still spinning in a half sleep state, I barely muttered out, “Why?” when the door opened and closed. Peter was gone.

How did he even get in the room?

I glanced at the alarm clock and it was just after 5:30. If he was secretly coming in the room then it was more than just an information meeting.

Slipping from bed, I grabbed my clothes from the chair.

“Why was Peter in our room?” Tony asked groggily.

“He needs to talk to me about something in the safe room.” I began to get dressed.

“He’s not on duty yet.”

“Go back to sleep. I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said.

“If he’s grabbing you at this hour, it’s something. Peter is flakey but he doesn’t over react.”

“I know, and that worries me.” I pulled on my boots. “I’ll come back if there’s a problem.”

“It’s probably something weather related. You know he gets those images from the space station.”

“Probably.” I darted a kiss to Tony and hurried from the room.

Even though Peter needed me right away, I made a dash to the bathroom, and a quick brush of my teeth that would make any dentist cringe. It was a good thing I made that stop, because when I came out of the rest room, Gil was walking up the hallway, carrying a mug of what I could only assumed was coffee.

“Anna,” he said brightly as he approached. “You’re up early.”

“I … I couldn’t sleep.”

“Need company?” He asked.

“No. But …” I grabbed the mug from his hand and after a sniff, I took a couple healthy swallows of the coffee and handed it back to him. “Thanks.” I walked by him.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Um … to get coffee and see if ISS images are in.”

“Wanting to get a jump on them before Peter?”

“Yep.” I nodded. “See ya in a bit.” Not wanting to draw attention, as if being up that early wasn’t attention enough, I walked casually to the stairwell, but once through the door, I raced up the stairs and to the safe room.

“What’s going on?” I asked, closing the door.

“Took you long enough,” Peter said.

“I’m sorry I had to go to the bathroom and I ran into Gil.”

“Floor one.”

“Yeah, I guess going to this room. What’s going on?”

Peter exhaled and ran his hand through his hair. “They’re gone.”

“I’m sorry. Who?”

“My guess, Duke, Craig, Spencer and Skyler.”

“Wait. What do you mean, they’re gone?” I asked.

“Exiled. I found out when I spoke to Mulligan. I’ve been watching through the monitor.”

“On foot?”

“No, they were given a van. “

“I’m killing him. Gil just kicked them out without letting them say, ‘Goodbye’?”

“They were sly about it. Doing it before anyone woke up. My guess Gil had everything ready and they escorted them out.”

My eyes lifted to the monitor of outside. “How long?”

“They just pulled through the gates.”

I nodded quickly, trying to take everything in. Knowing what had to be done, I opened the left drawer next to where Peter sat and removed a set of keys. When I did, I noticed the folder on the desk. “Is that the Gwen info?”

“Yeah, why?”

I flipped open the folder, Peter had everything neatly tabbed, unlike my folder and I found the information I was looking for. “I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?”

“To try to catch them.” I opened the safe room door.

“What do I tell Gil or Tony if they ask?”

“The truth.” Keys in hand along with the Gwen information, I ran from the safe room and headed topside.