“What are you stupid?” A bull horn distorted the man’s voice. “We will shoot you!”
“We just want to talk.” David’s heart galloped over a couple beats. “Ten minutes. That’s all.”
“Go back the way you came. We don’t need the military here.” The megaphone burped. “We don’t want the military here.”
“Is the Doc a mind reader or something?” Rogers asked out of the side of her mouth.
He gritted his teeth. Of course, Mavis would be spot on in knowing civilians’ mentality. She hadn’t been sequestered on a base for the last six months. The men on the A-Frame house and the church’s bell tower aimed their rifles at the sky. “Fossil Creek is flooded. We can’t go back, just forward.”
“And if we don’t get out of your way, you’ll just use those fancy weapons to blast your way through, is that it?”
Rogers momentarily dropped all her fingers but one index finger.
Yeah. He’d identified the speaker as coming from one o’clock. The rusted mobile home could be their command center. “We’re asking nicely for permission to pass. And we haven’t fired a single shot despite you shooting at us.”
“Why should we believe anything you say?”
Well, fuck. He didn’t want to offer a reason. Mavis could risk his life all she wanted. He was a trained soldier, used to combat.
Rogers didn’t have the same investment. “Doctor Mavis Spanner wants to talk to you.”
Megaphone man stepped out from behind the trailer. “The Surgeon General lady from the broadcasts?”
“Yes!” He’d have to talk with Rogers later. Hell, maybe he’d just sacrifice her to Lister. She was his jarhead after all. “She told you about the anthrax attack. She nearly got herself shot for acting in the best interests of the people rather than following government protocol.”
There. That should satisfy the paranoid assholes.
“We’ll take her and her alone to speak to our people.”
David’s hands clenched. Over his dead body. “She doesn’t go anywhere without us.”
He jerked his head toward Rogers. Taking the Marine along should appease Lister. Or not. This was Mavis’s idea.
“You two and no one else.”
“Agreed.” Dropping his hands, David backed up to the Humvee. Technically a wimpy little pistol wasn’t a person.
Truck engines roared to life and black smoke belched from the exhaust of the tractors. The air smelled faintly of French Fries as the vehicles shifted to the side, clearing the road.
Lister slammed his door. “If one hair on the Doc’s head is harmed, don’t set foot in Colorado.”
He stalked toward the convoy shouting orders into his mic.
“That went well.” Rogers lifted the rifle from the hood and climbed into the passenger seat.
David grabbed her pistol and slid behind the wheel. “Looks like you’ve won all around.”
Mavis snorted. “That’s what the Sioux thought after creaming Custer at the Little Big Horn. The last four trucks, with several dozen nearly healthy Marines, are staying behind to evacuate those who want to go.”
A man stood in the center of the road. He raised two pistols, aiming into the air.
David braked.
The back passenger’s side door opened. A man in a ski mask entered. He set the shot gun on his lap with the business end pointed at Mavis. “Are you Doctor Spanner?”
Son of a bitch! David reached for the pistol.
Rogers grabbed it first and targeted the guy through the seat.
“Yes, I am and that weapon is making my security detail twitchy.” With one finger, she moved the muzzle so it pointed at David’s back.
His lover might be a little too eager to sacrifice him. He frowned as two pistols waved him to the right. As soon as they passed, the two tractors blocked the road behind them.
“You have identification.” The man rolled the ski mask up his face. Long blond hair spiked out of the knit fabric.
“None that couldn’t be faked.” She lifted off her seat and dug two fingers into her pocket. A black wallet bounced on the seat between them. “My Arizona driver’s license, my United Nations ID, my Department of Defense ID, my Center for Disease Control Id, and my US AMRIID identification should be in there.”
The man arched a pale eyebrow. Picking up the wallet, he flipped it open and dealt out the colorful cards. “You have any id not issued by the government?”
Bastard. Like the government wasn’t good enough for him.
“Blood donor card. A positive.”
The ids sifted through his fingers. He caught a snapshot. “Who’s this?”
Mavis inhaled a shaky breath. “My husband and son.”
“And they are—”
“Dead.” She snatched the picture back and pressed it to her chest. “Within weeks of each other.”
But not of the Redaction and not within weeks of each other. She’d lied.
Mavis caught his eye in the rearview mirror; she looked out her window and sniffed.
The man stuffed the cards back into the wallet and shoved them at her. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
She cleared her throat. Her hands trembled when she tried to insert the picture back inside. How much was real and how much was fake, he couldn’t say. One thing was for sure, she hadn’t been kidding when she’d claimed that she could be both predator and defender depending on the needs of those around her. He just hoped he remained on her good side.
“Thank you. But we’ve all lost family. I just want to prevent any more senseless deaths.”
Armed men guided them along the main drag past boarded up store fronts and abandoned cars. They turned past a Mormon temple and that’s when he saw it. Kids running around a playground. Masks covered half their faces but they swung on swings, climbed monkey bars, and shot baskets like the world hadn’t ended.
“We’re safe here.” The man gestured out the window. “No need to go all the way to Colorado.”
An older couple guided them into the school parking lot then toward a handicapped spot near the double glass doors. Adults and teens jogged for the entrance. They really were coming to hear what the doc had to say.
Mavis shrugged. “If you still feel that way after I’ve said my piece, then I give you my word, we’ll leave you to die in peace.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mavis unzipped her jacket then zipped it back up. Voices swelled in the cafeteria around her. Except for the first row, full of elderly folks, everyone stood, filling the rectangular hall and spilling three deep out the door. Good Lord. The entire surrounding vicinities of Pine and Strawberry must be here. Twittering, chatting, nervously glancing at David and Sally.
A man in his fifties smoothed his salt and pepper comb-over and walked toward her. The minuscule stage creaked under his dress shoes. “As you’ve requested, Doctor Spanner, we’ve assembled everyone except the small children to hear your address.”
Mavis released her zipper and forced her hands to her sides. “Thank you. I appreciate your cooperation, Brother Bob.”
She addressed him by the name he’d been introduced to her in a show of respect but didn’t ask him to call her by her given name. Her title and education were her means of authority, her credentials for what she was about to tell them. Proof would come in three days, if her people kept the power plant running that long.
Bob’s pale blue eyes drifted to David and Sally then lingered on their weapons. “I hope your words were of peace not a warning of violence to come.”
From the corner of her eye, she checked her personal bodyguards. David’s rifle pointed to the ground and his fingers wrapped the clip. Sally’s pistol remained holstered although her hand rested on its grip. The ‘them versus us’ mentality was settling in. The military would have to be phased out then repackaged.