“John, whatever it is, tell me exactly what is going on.”
“Why don’t you come up here yourself and explain it”—he paused—“sir?”
Another long pause.
“John, just tell me, will you?”
“Fine then, play innocent. I trusted you, and less than an hour ago, eight of your storm troopers hit my house. If my people had not spotted them first and reacted, they would have killed my wife and the baby within her, and then me. That’s what happened up here.”
“God in heaven,” Bob whispered.
“Yeah, God in heaven, Bob.”
“Where are you, John?”
“Do you honestly think I’d tell you? Just know that wherever Makala is now, she is safely stashed away.”
There was another tap at the door, the person out in the corridor identifying herself as Grace. Yet again, it was Kevin who answered. He cracked the door open and, recognizing her, let her in.
“Don’t hang up, General Scales. I’ll be back.”
He put the phone down and looked at Grace. Her once beautiful hair was badly scorched, the right side of her face blistered. She tried to talk and began to cough.
“Young lady.” It was Makala. “You get that burn treated right now.”
“In a moment,” Grace replied, and then she looked back at John. “Seven accounted for, sir. We think one slipped through and is heading up toward Lookout Mountain. We’ve got a full platoon tracking him. He’s wounded and trailing blood.”
“Our side?” John asked, suddenly nervous. “How bad?”
She hesitated and then looked over at Kevin, who nodded.
“Five dead, twelve wounded at last count.”
“Who?”
She began to rattle off names, and John sagged with a sudden weariness. One was the girl he had seen running with her lover in the snow just days ago, another Jim Southerland, a beloved art teacher who had decided to live on campus and wasn’t even part of the militia but apparently had turned out with the others.
“Let the last bastard go,” John said, shaking his head. “These people were well trained. I don’t want anyone else hurt in this affair. You got that, Grace?”
“Yes, sir.”
But as she turned, John saw the exchange of glances with Kevin. They were out for vengeance and knew as well that as long as one of the hit squad was still alive, their beloved leader and his wife were not safe—at least for the moment.
Grace closed the door, and John picked the phone back up. “Bob, you still there?”
“John, I’ve ordered a chopper to start running up. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“General, you come up on a chopper, and I promise you, my people will shoot it down. They’re in a killing mood. Five of my students and friends died rescuing my wife and me.”
The enormity of their sacrifice hit him. It was amazing it was not five, even ten times that number given whom they went against.
“I got at least another dozen wounded. You fly up here, and you and your crew will be added to the list. Now, if you want to bomb the place, just go ahead, but this entire campus will be evacuated before you get here.”
“John, please listen to me. I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Are you hearing me?”
“Yes, I’m listening.”
“Whoever it was, it was not me or anyone in my command.”
John sat down. Bob’s words were what he wanted to believe.
“Can we do this, John?”
“What, damn it?”
“I’ll come up alone, in a Humvee with just a driver—at dawn, so there is no confusion in the dark. Your people can stop and search me at the security gate you have out on the interstate.”
“Until you prove yourself different, Bob, it’s on your head. Okay, come on up.
“Stop at the security gate, but if my people see one additional vehicle or hear anything overhead, all bets are off.”
“All right. I’ll be at the gate come dawn.”
“And what’s to prevent you from having a few F-18s up at thirty thousand feet?”
“I have no reply other than my word.” He paused. “And memory of your Jennifer to guide me now.”
With that, John looked down at flame-scorched Rabs, whom he had placed on the desk.
“Dawn, then.”
General Bob Scales stood with arms extended straight out as two of the security guards at the Exit 59 barrier roughly patted him down and then none too gently pushed him forward.
Contrary to Kevin’s, Reverend Black’s, and his own wife’s appeal, he had decided to meet Bob at the gate. If anything was to go down, he’d rather it be here than down on the campus. He had forsaken Maury’s far too easily identifiable jeep and instead had Black drive him to the meeting in his old Volvo. Lee had shown up and insisted he go along as well. Kevin had already gone ahead with several carloads of the militia and a pickup truck with a “package” in the back for Bob.
The guards pointed to where John waited, standing under the roof of a makeshift shelter that had been erected to protect the interstate security team. Bob approached slowly, keeping his hands out and clearly visible.
There were no salutes, no friendly exchanges other than a warning from Kevin that if he made the wrong move, it would be the last gesture he would ever make.
“How is Makala?” Bob finally asked. “Are she and your baby okay?”
“They’re fine,” was all John could say, and then he looked past Bob to Kevin. “Go ahead and show him what we brought along.”
Kevin put his hand on Bob’s shoulder and guided him to the back of the pickup truck and pulled off the tarp covering the rear of the vehicle. Bob stared for a moment and then looked back to John.
“Upon all that I hold sacred, John, I swear to you they are not mine. I’ve never seen them before.”
“We stripped them of their gear,” Kevin said coldly. “High-quality stuff, regular army. The one Colonel Matherson shot in the face was roasted to a crisp when his house burned. His grave is the rubble that’s still smoldering. We’re still hunting the last one, but he won’t last long; he’s trailing blood. You want them back, sir?”
Bob looked over sharply at Kevin and shook his head. “Bury the bastards wherever you want. They’re not mine, and that’s final.”
“Kevin, take them to where we dumped the bodies of the dead Posse. That’s all they deserve.”
As he spoke, he watched Bob closely. Both he and Bob had been taught a code of honor when it came to their own dead. Not even a body was ever to be left behind, no matter what the cost of retrieving it.
Bob did not flinch or show the slightest emotion at John’s cold words of scorn.
“John, if there is nothing else, do I have your permission to leave?”
John could only nod.
Bob turned and started to walk back to his Humvee.
“General Scales?”
Bob turned and looked back.
“If not you, then who?”
Bob stopped and then slowly walked up to John, stopping almost within touching distance. Kevin was on one side of him, Lee on the other, and both were tense, ready to spring.
“Look me in the eyes, John.”
John did as requested.
“Upon the memory of Jennifer’s grave and wherever my Linda now rests, I swear to you I did not do this.”
“Then who?”
“I gave you a warning. There are more than a few who want you dead, John Matherson. I hate to think it is who I now suspect, but maybe it is.”
John took that in but did not reply.
“And if so, and if they tried for you in your home, they know more about you than even I do. It means you have someone in your community who has given information out.” He paused as if suddenly realizing something. “And it means they know that you and I have talked.”
He stood silent as if evaluating that thought.