“See, I knew my tacky watch would come in handy.”
“What?”
“A gift. Long story.”
He showed me his watch. A cheap, plastic monstrosity, but above the time dial it had the digital arrow of a compass. As he faced the tunnel, the arrow pointed towards his left ear. It took us a moment to figure it out.
“The other cabin!” Paul was the first to declare. I pressed the OFF button with a sigh of relief and followed him into the car.
Soon we sat on white benches facing each other across the aisle. The trip wouldn’t be long, I knew. It was about fifteen miles between Waukegan and Long Grove. The train glided on leisurely, but it couldn’t take more than twenty minutes.
Paul’s new helmet sat on the seat on his left, the submachine gun on his right. He had returned my gun to me, and I placed it on the floor between my boots, and sat staring at it and scratching my face with both hands.
“I was thinking,” Paul said, leaning forward.
“Hmm?”
“Some shit with that Antichrist on the same day, huh?” he said abruptly and chuckled.
“Yeah.”
“Right.” Here he leaned in even closer and lowered his voice. “We won’t be able to act our way through all of it, you know?”
I kept staring at the gun on the floor.
“I mean once we’re in there, we might actually have to shoot somebody. If it’s either us or them, I’d rather it were us.”
He said nothing more for a while. I didn’t either. I knew he was right. This gun on the floor would take someone’s life before the day was over. I would take someone’s life. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.
“Judging from your performance back there,” I said, lifting my face to meet Paul’s troubled gaze, “you’re a much better actor than a shooter.”
His face slowly regained its habitual grin. “So let’s at least try?”
“So let’s at least try.”
“Screw you, by the way,” he added after a pause. “Two bullets is too much? That was the first time I shot anything but breeze since that time we played BF. Be grateful I knew which way to point the thing.”
“I am grateful,” I said, holding his gaze for a long time.
“Don’t start with that.”
“Seriously, man.”
“What?”
“What? Last time we saw each other was six years ago. when I treated you like crap. And now you’re risking your life for me.”
“Remember our quartet?” he asked me. I didn’t suppose he really expected me to answer and I was right. He leaned back in his seat, shrugged, leaned forward again. “After you dumped me I landed in some unhappy shit. Wasn’t because I was heartbroken or anything. Just a bad stretch with no cash and a messed-up roommate. So I went to Brian to try and borrow some money. A lousy grand I needed for the rent. He’s still with his hot little wife, by the way; still up in Evanston. Look, I mighta showed up a little buzzed, but…”
“He turned you away?”
“He couldn’t even do that.” Paul shook his head. “He said he’d get the cash and call me the next day. When I called two days later, no one picked up on any of his numbers. Finally, after I called him for three straight days thereafter, his hot little wife picked up the phone and told me not to harass Brian anymore, or she would notify the police. I mean, what the hell do you make of that? If you don’t have the money, or you don’t feel like lending it to an old friend, just tell me straight up, right? Why waste my time, which I had none of, giving me false hopes. I mean, if I didn’t scramble to this prick I hate at the last minute, I’d be on the street. Shit, I’d probably be dead by now, you know?” Again, he didn’t wait for me to respond.
“So that’s the Jokester. What about Orlando? Last time I saw him, Old Lando called me an ungrateful commie, when I tried to tell him not to enlist, and very nearly kicked my ass, when I said that if I got a notice, I’d send it back with a note that the president and his draft can both suck the same cock.” He glanced at me. “He actually shoved me. Had that same look in his eyes like… I only hope the poor bastard is still alive.”
Paul fell silent, looked down at his hands and shrugged again. I spoke when it seemed like he was done.
“So why—”
“I didn’t make any new friends,” he cut me off. “In five years I haven’t made a single real friend. There were a couple of funny guys I hung out with when I worked for the network, but… Never learned to live like everyone else, without friends, either. Never married, maybe that’s why.
“College was the best time of my life. I mean, it was the only time I really enjoyed my life. Now you understand why?”
I did, because I remembered. I understood, but I doubted I would do the same thing if I were in his place and he in mine. I did learn to live without friends.
“I am glad you’re here,” I said.
“All right. Let’s not hug yet.”
As we grinned at each other, a stern voice began to speak. I hoped it was too loud to be inside my head, but no speakers were visible. I stared at Paul, relieved to see him staring back.
“This is White Command,” the voice said. “Identify yourself immediately.”
We didn’t.
“This is White Command. Your shuttle operation is unscheduled and unauthorized. You have one minute to identify yourself. I repeat. This is White Command. If you do not identify yourself in fifty seconds, the quarantine protocol will be engaged. I repeat…”
The voice went on and on. We didn’t know what exactly the quarantine protocol involved around these parts, but the words sent us scrambling. At fifteen seconds Paul located a suspicious-looking contraption on the back wall of the cabin. By the count of seven he figured how to make it work and panted into small microphone.
“WC, WC. Abort the quarantine. I repeat. Abort the quarantine.”
“Who is this? Identify yourself immediately.” Frantically, I snatched the helmed from the couch and thrust it at Paul, pointing at the code on the inside padding. Paul’s eyes demanded affirmation. I shrugged and motioned for him to go ahead.
“This is W-I-L-23 dash 1,” Paul said in a gruff voice.
“WIL23? What’s your status? What happened down there? You did not respond to our attempts to reach you.”
With a glance at me Paul continued. “There was a disturbance. I… managed to apprehend a suspected thief, who tried to escape through the shuttle system. The helmet radio must have been damaged in the tussle.”
“We saw some of it on camera. Who was the other one?”
“Some Dr. Colin Wright. He helped with the guy. His ID’s check out fine.”
“He wasn’t scheduled to be there. What did this supposed thief steal?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’s a case. I didn’t open the case. Since my radio was out, I figured I’d take them down to base myself.”
“That’s a negative,” the commander snapped. Paul looked over at me. I knew he was thinking the same thing. We could ignore the order and continue, but if the WC could remotely reverse the train… After a pause, the commander returned. “Not the base. Proceed to transfer them to the squad at the next stop. Then return to your post. Another squad will meet you there. And keep and eye on that doctor, too.”
“Affirmative, sir.”
“White Command, out.”
There was silence. Paul released the button and exhaled slowly. Ahead of us, the tunnel ran straight now and we saw a bright light no more than five hundred yards ahead. Our stop.
“You think he bought it?” Paul asked in a whisper as we slumped back to our couches.
“Even if he did—” I started, but again didn’t have the chance to respond properly.
We heard something like a rumble of an oncoming train. Only there was no train. The rumble must have been loud, considering no external sound had breached the car since we’d started moving.