Shaken (30 page)

“Sir?”

Carl sat. “I was right here the whole time. I was the only one who could have pushed it.”

Dave frowned again. “I wasn't saying—”

Carl held up a hand. “I know. But be careful who you accuse around here. Why don't you take the rest of the day off? I'll lock the room and post a sign so no one disturbs the evidence.”

“Right. And I'm sorry if—”

“Don't worry about it,” Carl said.

When the boy left, Carl locked the door and put a Do Not Enter sign on the window. He knelt and wiped the button clean.

Mark drove slowly on the logging road. He kept his lights off and strained to see as the first patch of sunlight came over the hill. Mark went faster as he approached an incline, but his tires spun and the truck slid to the left toward the river. Janie squealed and grabbed the door handle, but Mark was able to find solid ground and make it over the hill.

“Where does this road lead?” Melinda said.

“Conrad scoped it out a few weeks ago. Another half mile of this and we hit a dirt road. We keep going away from town until we come to the main road.”

Melinda and Janie watched for GC vehicles as Mark tried to avoid deep ruts in the path. Judging from the trees, Mark guessed it had been twenty years or more since anyone had used the road.

Janie broke the silence with a question. “I'm new to this, but aren't we supposed to pray or something?”

Mark smiled. “Good idea.”

Vicki stood on Charlie's shoulders and helped Conrad dig. In a few minutes, they had opened the hole wide enough for Vicki to get her head through. She drank in the clean air and kept clawing.

“Are you sure they can't see you?” Vicki said.

Conrad pointed toward the schoolhouse. “See for yourself.”

The sun was nearly over the horizon as Vicki caught a glimpse of Morale Monitors scurrying around the schoolhouse. The truck kept the kids hidden from view. Radios squawked, and Peacekeepers yelled orders as they searched the grounds.

“Found the TV equipment,” a man said over the radio. “This is where that girl was sitting during the broadcast.”

“Find the satellite?” another man said.

“Still looking, sir.”

“Search the woods behind the house. They had to use a snake to get the signal to the truck.”

Vicki looked at Conrad. “What's a snake?”

“That's the cable we ran from the satellite truck into the room.”

A female reported rooms full of supplies, food, and medicine. Conrad winced. “I wish we could have gotten that stuff back to Zeke before this happened.”

“Hurry,” Vicki said. “If they find the secret entrance downstairs—”

Something scratched at the door to the tunnel and Charlie turned. Vicki lost her balance and slid down the mound of earth.

“Give me your hand,” Conrad whispered. “I think the hole's big enough.”

The tunnel door opened a few inches, and Phoenix whined and strained to get through. Charlie grabbed a rock and stepped behind the door. “Get out,” he whispered.

Conrad reached down the hole as far as he could. Vicki ran up the wall of dirt. She was inches from Conrad's hand when the rocks and mud gave way and she slid to the bottom.

Phoenix bounded in, jumping on Vicki and licking her face. Vicki stared at the door. In the shadows was a Morale Monitor.

27

VICKI
turned to Conrad. “Run!”

The Morale Monitor stepped into the tunnel and pulled Charlie from behind the door. “Stand by Vicki.”

Something seemed familiar about the girl's voice, but Vicki couldn't place her. Conrad didn't move.

“Get out of here as fast as you can,” the Morale Monitor said. “You still have the sat truck?”

“Don't tell her,” Conrad said.

“How did you know Vicki's name?” Charlie said.

“She's the most famous Judah-ite on the planet right now,” the girl said. “Plus, we've met.”

“What do you mean?” Vicki said.

The girl stepped into the light and took off her cap, revealing the mark of the true believer. “Don't you remember me? Natalie Bishop. I found you in the bathroom at the arena.”

Vicki sighed and hugged Natalie. “Of course. I gave you our Web site address, but you never contacted us.”

“I wanted to keep working from the inside. I got on the squad searching for you. Some people in the town nearby gave you up yesterday.”

“Probably those people we took in during the locust attack,” Conrad said.

“I wanted to send a message, but everything happened so fast, I couldn't. I saw your broadcast this morning. It was awesome.”

“Let's go,” Conrad said.

Natalie nodded. “I'll tell you more later. The other Morale Monitors think I'm keeping the dog quiet, but I figured he might lead me to you guys.”

“His name is Phoenix,” Charlie said.

Natalie inspected the tunnel and the cave-in. “Does this lead to the river?”

“Used to,” Vicki said.

“I think you can get through this hole now,” Conrad said. “Give it a try.”

“Wait,” Natalie said. “I'll lock Phoenix up and create some kind of diversion.”

“No,” Vicki said. “Come with us.”

Natalie ran a hand through her hair. “Not now. Are there others with you?”

“They took the satellite truck, and we're meeting them downriver.”

“Good,” Natalie said, closing her eyes. “Okay, let me have a piece of your clothing.”

Charlie took off a shoe and gave it to her.

“Perfect. When you hear a shot, take off.”

“Promise me you'll get in touch,” Vicki said.

Natalie smiled. “I still remember what you told me at the arena. I look at your Web site almost every day.” She grabbed the dog by the collar and hurried through the door.

“What's going to happen to Phoenix?” Charlie said.

“He'll be okay,” Vicki said. “Help me up.”

Charlie put Vicki on his shoulders. Conrad leaned into the hole and grabbed her hand. It was a tight squeeze, but Conrad pulled her through. Next, Charlie handed Conrad the laptop. Charlie was bigger than Vicki, and it took two tries to get his shoulders through the small hole. Finally, Vicki grabbed one hand and Conrad grabbed the other, and Charlie squeezed through.

The three lay flat on the ground, inches from the bottom of the truck. Steam rose from the nearby river. Morale Monitors and Peacekeepers brought equipment and supplies from the schoolhouse and stacked them outside.

“What are they doing?” Charlie said.

“They're going to torch the place,” Conrad said. “Darrion and Shelly are bringing a boat I stashed upriver. When we see them—”

“Not good,” Charlie interrupted. “There's a bunch of those Morale guys down there.”

Vicki craned her neck to see. She counted five uniformed people scanning the riverbank.

Phoenix barked inside the schoolhouse. Vicki thought of Ryan Daley. He had asked her to care for Phoenix before he died.
Ryan will understand,
Vicki thought.

Someone yelled from the back of the schoolhouse, and Morale Monitors along the river headed up the hill. Vicki watched the group walk directly toward their hiding place.

A radio squawked. “I think we've found a grave up here,” someone said. Vicki recognized Natalie's voice on the radio. “I have a tennis shoe here, directly behind the schoolhouse, right at the tree line. I'm going to follow their trail.”

A shot rang out. Natalie came back on the radio, excited and out of breath. “They're headed into the woods back toward the driveway! I need backup!”

Morale Monitors sprinted past the truck. Conrad grabbed the laptop computer and crawled from under the vehicle. When the GC group was far enough away, the kids headed down the hill as quietly and as fast as they could.

The logging road ended, and Mark stuck his head out the window to inspect the satellite truck. Mud was caked all over, and there were dents where the truck had scraped trees.

Mark headed west on the partially graveled road. “We'll hit a paved road not too far up and then it's off to the bridge.”

Melinda fiddled with the GC radio in the truck and tuned to the frequency the Morale Monitors were using. Suddenly, a female voice said she had located the kids and needed backup.

“They've caught them!” Janie said.

“Stay calm,” Mark said.

“We should have gone back to help,” Melinda said.

Mark slammed on the brakes and slid in the mud.

A tree too big to drive over lay in the middle of the road.

“We'll have to turn back now,” Janie said.

Carl quickly typed an incident report and gave it to his boss's secretary. “Tell him I'm going over every inch of the wiring, and I'll have a full report this afternoon.”

The secretary glanced at the man's office. “He's been talking about you with someone in there,” she whispered.

Carl tried not to show emotion. “I'm sure there's plenty to talk about after the past couple of days. I'll be in the control room if he needs me.”

Carl hurried outside to the back of the building. He knelt and tried to peek into his boss's office. The blinds were slightly open, but all he could see was the back of the man's head. Carl heard two voices but couldn't make out anything they were saying. He crawled on all fours a few more feet and popped his head up for a second. Sitting on the other side of the desk was the techie, Dave Kostek.