“You seemed to be awfully sure there’s going to be an attack.”
“You saw it yourself. The staging area with the soldiers.”
“But that’s not all. You have inside information.”
That’s one way to put it, she thought, and said, “I know it’s coming, yes.”
“Okay.” He seemed to think about her question for a moment. Then, “It’s been a whole day, so by now they would have gotten reinforcements. Men to replace the ones I took out yesterday. You’re looking at a dozen assaulters at least. Two, maybe three dozen, if you’re really SOL.”
“What else?”
“The fact that they’re willing to commit to assaulting the island at all, given how isolated you people are, tells me you’ve pissed either them or their ghoul masters off. I’m guessing that radio broadcast of yours had a little something to do with it.”
She smiled. After Carrie and Lorelei mentioned he knew of her broadcast, she had been waiting for him to put two and two together. “Finally figured it out, huh?”
He chuckled. “I know I look it, but I’m not that dense. But yeah, it took a while.”
“What finally gave me away?”
“Your voice sounds more echoey on the radio.”
“I recorded it in the Tower. It’s an enclosed space.”
“How’d you find out about the silver?”
“Trial and error.”
She sneaked a look at him. He was watching the girls frolicking against the waves. She couldn’t quite read his reaction. Maybe he was marveling at the sight…or was it complete indifference?
I can’t read this man. I’m about to put the lives of everyone on this island into the hands of a stranger whose face I can’t read with any certainty.
“Will you help us, Keo?”
He looked over at the boats docked along the pier. One of them was a sailboat — small enough to be handled by one person, with a powerful outboard motor that would have had no problems taking him south and to the coast of Texas. The boat Carrie and Lorelei had come in sat among them, looking almost quaint next to the more travel-ready vessels.
This is it. This is where he proves me right or wrong.
She didn’t realize it, but her hand had moved closer toward her sidearm. She shifted her eyes slightly to the right and saw Blaine watching them closely, his rifle gripped in front of him at the ready.
“And you’ll give me one of those boats, plus fuel and supplies?” he asked. “Everything I need to make it to the Texas coast?”
“Yes,” she said, and hoped her voice wasn’t nearly as anxious as it had sounded to her own ears.
She waited for his answer, but he surprised her by chuckling softly to himself.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“A year ago, you wouldn’t have liked me.” He was watching Elise and Vera building castles in the sand while Jenny, Sarah’s daughter, did backstrokes nearby. “In fact, you would have hated me, and justifiably so. I’ve done things you couldn’t imagine.”
“I’m sure you had good reasons.”
“No,” he said, and laughed, though it was devoid of humor. “Not really.”
“You’ve changed. We all have. Adapt or perish.”
“I’ve gone soft is really what’s happened.” He sighed. “The organization would have put me out of my misery months ago.”
“‘Organization’?”
“The people I used to work for.”
“They don’t sound like very nice people.”
“Nope. They were most definitely not.” He looked over at her. “I’m not promising anything, you understand? I’ll do what I can, but it might still not be enough. But maybe it’ll buy your boyfriend time to get back here and put up a proper defense.”
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
“First things first,” he said. “I’ll need guns, ammo, explosives, and at least one person to lend a hand. So, I asked you the question before, and I’ll ask it again: Are you really willing to put your life, and the lives of everyone on this island, into the hands of a stranger with a gun?”
Over the months, Danny had organized the subterranean space under the Tower into a makeshift armory. Lara had been surprised when she first saw it, but Danny had single-handedly done a magnificent job. He had halved the basement, with emergency supplies like rations, crates of MREs, cases of small bottled water and five-gallon coolers — half of them unopened, the other half refilled with tap water — and equipment up front. The back contained the weapons, ammo, and silver that hadn’t been melted down yet. There were green ammo cans filled with silver rounds stacked high in one corner and even more housed in regular moving boxes. The rest of the non-essentials, like clothes and personal items, had been transferred over to the hotel and put in a “lost and found room” in the back where anyone could take what they needed.
As a result, the basement looked bigger than when she was last down here two months ago. The room was longer than it was wide, extending away from the northeast cliff. Lara had never measured the space, but she guessed it was ten yards at its widest and at least twenty at its longest. LED lights, powered by the solar cells around the island, lined the ceiling, with battery backups hanging from wall hooks.
“When do you expect your boyfriend back?” Keo asked. He was standing in front of the racks of rifles. She couldn’t tell if he was impressed or indifferent by the selection Will and Danny had collected over the months.
“Best-case scenario is later tonight,” Lara said. “Worst-case scenario is…God knows.”
“So I’m a stopgap, is that it?”
“You said it, not me.”
His laugh echoed slightly in the contained room. “At least you’re honest about it.” He pulled an M16 from the rack. “You got rounds for the M203?”
The M203 was the grenade launcher attached under the barrel of the rifle. It was the same type of weapon that had almost ended her life when Kate’s people last assaulted the island.
She gestured at the crates around them. “Be my guest.”
“I’ll also need my guns back.”
“They’re in the hotel.”
He nodded. “So. Where are my volunteers?”
Blaine and Bonnie had joined her and Keo on the third floor of the Tower. She expected to see Blaine there. He had volunteered almost as soon as she brought it up earlier, but Bonnie’s presence was a surprise.
“How’s this going to work?” Blaine asked.
Keo leaned against one of the windows, looking over his submachine gun. He looked overly well-armed with the addition of the M16. “I just need you to do the driving.”
“What about me?” Bonnie asked.
He shrugged. “I guess you’ll be there in case he gets shot.”
Bonnie and Blaine exchanged a worried look.
“Just you against that army out there?” Blaine said.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Keo said. “Even with reinforcements, it’s still a makeshift group of assholes in homemade uniforms. And besides, numbers isn’t going to play a part in this.”
That didn’t seem to really reassure either Blaine or Bonnie, and Keo didn’t look like he cared too much about their reactions.
“You guys don’t have to go,” Lara said. “I can ask for other volunteers.”
“I’m good,” Blaine said without hesitation.
“Me too,” Bonnie said, though not nearly as quickly. She scrutinized Keo across the room. “Tell me one thing: You’re not going there just to get yourself killed, right? You want to come back here?”
“That’s a dumb question,” Keo said, looking almost offended by the mere suggestion. “I don’t have a death wish. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I could walk away from it. I just wanted to make sure you know what you’re getting into, that’s all. People are going to die. Maybe the two of you will be among them. You need to understand the risks. But trust me when I tell you, I’m not going there to get killed. I got places to go and people to see.”