The helicopter began to descend. Houston finished taping off Lopez’s shoulder and slumped next to him on the chair, drenched in sweat.
“We’re not Air Force One, Ms. President,” said Houston. “Just another helicopter flying around on doomsday. Who’s to care?”
Lopez steeled himself and sat up as the craft neared the ground. “This is our drop off, Ms. York,” he said with difficulty. “The pilot is in our circle of friends. He’ll get you to the emergency operations center, assuming the little flying demons don’t pick you off.”
“Reassuring,” muttered York.
Lopez smiled. “Oh ye of little faith.”
The helicopter touched down and the pilot called out to them. Houston opened the door and prepared to jump. York grabbed her arm.
“Good luck,” said the president, holding Houston’s eyes in an intense stare.
She returned the gaze. “We’re all going to need a lot of that.”
47
They watched the helicopter disappear into the evening sky. Tall grasses spread over the remains of an abandoned farm and a dilapidated barn rose behind them, the property encircled with trees.
“Let’s get moving, Francisco.”
He nodded and they turned toward the barn, moving as quickly as the former priest’s fatiguing body would allow. There wasn’t a door to secure the building, the remains having fallen off and laying rotted to the side. Much of the ceiling had collapsed as well. The rank smell of rotting wood was overpowering.
In the center of the barn was a jeep, a canvas thrown over the vehicle hastily, barely covering the sides. Houston walked up to the driver’s side and yanked it off, tossing the fabric behind the truck. She helped Lopez remove his backpack and stripped his body armor.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said as he began to protest. “We should be done with commando activity for the night. You need to conserve energy.”
He acquiesced and entered the jeep, stowing the gear in the back. Keys were sitting in the ignition. “Savas has some connections,” said Lopez, staring ahead of them as Houston started the vehicle.
“I don’t think anyone is keeping score on favors right now,” said Houston, gunning the engine and racing out of the structure.
She felt conspicuous with the lights on, the clandestine and dangerous mission still locking her mind into a paranoid state. But it was too dark to drive without them, too dangerous on this poorly kept country road to risk ending their efforts for something so irrational. The jeep leapt and shuddered over holes and mounds in the dirt road. With each impact, Lopez gasped, his face a mask of pain.
Near the rusted gate to the field, Houston pulled the jeep to a stop. She removed a mobile phone from her shirt pocket and switched it on.
“No signal,” she said.
“Location bad?”
“No, this area was supposed to be blanketed, remember?”
“So the towers are dark. What’s even functioning, do you think?”
She shook her head. “Not much. Washington’s completely dark.” She released the belt and turned to the back, digging through one of the packs. She spun back in her seat holding a large handheld device. “At least we have this. Unless the damn worm fried the satellites, it should work.”
She switched on the device and let it power up. Within a minute she had punched in a call and was waiting for a response. A low click sounded as she put it on external speaker.
Savas’ voice burst into the crisp, Virginia air. “Gabriel? Where the hell are you two? What happened? It looks like an invasion in DC!”
“Mary here, John. Gabriel’s close, nursing a blasted shoulder.”
“Jesus! The president?”
“POTUS is secured. En route to the agreed upon location. She’s shook up, but okay. The lady can take care of herself.”
“You should see the footage on the city.”
“We were there, John. It’s worse. Look, I’m heading to the landing strip. We need immediate evac for Gabriel. I’m not going to wander into a local hospital, I hope you’ll understand. He needs stitches. Maybe some blood.”
“Roger that. We’ll get you two back here, however we can. It’ll be a bitch, though. You think the lockdown was serious before? Right now it’s not clear to anyone who’s running the damn country. The Guard is not ready for this. Folks are going to get killed.”
Lopez motioned to Houston for the phone and grabbed it with his good hand.
“John, Gabriel here. Look, we need to regroup. This is moving too fast. You need to circle the wagons and get that crazy idea of yours in motion. Something. Anything. I don’t think there’s much time left.”
“Agreed. Damn! We need to get her out of here to a different location, one where they’ll feel confident to make a move. FBI headquarters is likely not going to encourage them. We’re scouting some places, but it’s hard to imagine how to get around the way things are.”
Houston took the phone back.
“Look, John. We’ll figure that out soon enough. I’m closing this call and beelining to the strip. Please tell me something is waiting for us there and it has airfoils.”
“Fueled and ready. Go. There’s no way to say it right, but thanks to both of you. And I’m sorry. The worst is still coming.”
The line went silent. Houston flung the device into the bag behind her, released the break, and hammered the accelerator. The jeep jumped forward onto the main road, tires screaming as Houston veered sharply right. Within a minute the vehicle was lost from view, red tail lights winking like mad eyes in the dark, leaving the pastoral hills of Virginia to cricket song and the glow of distant fires.
48
A morning glow seeped through the filthy window and spilled onto two naked forms entwined on a bed. The woman lay with her head on the chest of the man, short-cropped hair like a sea-urchin next to his long, black strands. Both rested unmoving, eyes half-lidded. The man spoke.
“You know, Poison, it’s finally hit me.”
The woman frowned, her brow creasing, and sat upright in the bed, small breasts decorating the sculpted ribs of a thin body. She moved her hand down the man’s torso.
“What’s hitting you?”
The man grabbed her hand and sat up as well.
“I’m serious.”
“Yeah, that’s obvious.” She turned away, to stare out the window.
“I finally realized something about us.” Poison didn’t say anything, just watched the growing light. “You want to know what that is?”
“Fuck you, Fawkes,” she said rising from the bed and wrapping a tattered robe around her. “No games.”
“Not a game.” His eyes were intense. Almost wild. “I finally realized that something incredible has happened. Something I never, ever expected. Something that should be impossible for me. Really, man, if you knew. Should just be impossible now.”
“What, dammit?”
“I realize that sometime over the last month I’ve fucking fallen in love with you.”
Her face froze and then a smile crept outward, shyly.
“Yeah?”