ASYLUM: Chapter 25

Chapter 25

   Debra was unhappy.

   I just reread the previous statement and it, in no way, is representative of how Debra reacted when she returned from her field exercise that afternoon. She refused to believe what had transpired until she actually saw Stevens in confinement and had to listen to Stevens insult both her, me, and Danni. I was an evil White man who convinced a truly pure woman of color, Debra, to become a whore for the perpetuation of the White race. Danni had allowed herself to be sucked into a lifestyle of perpetual sexual servitude by the evil White man, me again, and was going to be used as a breeding machine, just like Debra, to once again over-populate the world. She went on and on, and finally, I noticed Debra was beginning to look pale and withdrawn because some of the things Stevens said was close to her actual experiences when she was young.

   “Babe, enough of this, let’s go home.”

   “No, I want to hear what she has to say.”

   “Babe, really, I want us to leave.”

   Danni who had come with us agreed, “Come on Debbie, let’s go and leave this crazy bitch to her ranting.”

   “No, I really need to hear this, to see this.” In an almost angry gesture, she pulled her arm free from where I had gripped her. “If you need to go, go. I need to hear what she is saying.”

   The expression on her face hurt me to see, so I raised both of my hands and nodded, “Okay, I’ll be in the Ready Room when you’ve had enough.”

   Danni sounded surprised when she said, “Debbie, come on, Daniel just doesn’t want you to…”

   “You too,” Debra snapped. “Go on, go! I don’t need to be protected!”

   Danni stepped back and then said to me, “Well, screw it. Let’s leave her to it then.” She turned and walked away; I waited a moment longer and then followed.

   We sat together for an extended time until finally, Danni said, “I’m going to go see what the hell is going on, I mean, shit, how long is she going to just stand there and listen to that crap!” I started to stand as well, but she placed her hand firmly on my shoulder, “No, why don’t you wait here, maybe I can talk her into going home.”

   I settled back down as Danni walked away. A few minutes later, she hurried back in, “She’s not there! She left already!”

   “What? But we told her we would wait here for her, why would she leave without us?”

   “Come on, let’s go home and see if that’s where she went.”

   We hurried back, but when we reached the door of the apartment I stopped before unlocking it and walking in. “Danni, some of the things Stevens said, she was hitting awfully close to things Debra has told me about her past, when she was a kid.”

   “I know, that’s why I’m concerned.”

   I looked at her quickly and asked, “Debra told you about…”

   “The titty bar? The private dances? Yeah, I know.”

   I was surprised; I guess I was also a little hurt Debra had shared that part of herself with someone other than me. “When?”

   “Over the whole time I’ve known her. A little here, a little there, more since she met you. A lot more since she decided she loved you. She’s always thought she wasn’t good enough for you, you know?”

   “It’s me that’s not good enough,” I said. “She’s priceless and I don’t know why she chose me.”

   Danni smiled and patted my arm, “That’s one of the reasons she loves you, Daniel, you’re not a little egotistical prick that could get away with being a little egotistical prick if he wanted to.”

   “Uh, thanks?”

   “Open the door, Daniel.”

   I did and it was mostly dark inside, but there was a dim light coming from the area of the dining table. I stepped in and saw Debra sitting at the table, apparently, she had showered and was wearing her bathrobe. The dim light was a flickering candle burning in an ashtray. Her elbows were resting on the table and she was leaning forward, the heels of her hands supporting her brow. There was a mostly empty beer bottle in front of her, and another that was empty. Two quarts of beer on an empty stomach, not good.

   “Debra?” I said.

   She sniffed and said without looking up, “Get tired of waiting for me?”

   “What’s going on, Babe?”

   “Just sitting here, wishing the two of you were here, so I could explain why, I’m sitting here, wishing the two of you were here.”

   “Well,” I said. “We’re here, so, I guess sometimes wishes come true.” I dragged a chair around the table so it was close to her and sat down, Danni did the same.

   “What is it, Debbie?”

   “You guys were there, you heard the things she said to me, about me.”

   “We also heard what she said about Daniel, and me,” Danni said. “Please don’t tell me you let that bitch get in your head.”

    “I really, really, cared for her, you know?” Debra said. “I was starting to think of her the way you think of a mother. She did a really good job of worming her way into our lives.”

   “She did a good job inserting herself wherever she needed to,” I said.

   Danni agreed, “I’m not going to argue the point.”

   “I hinted at things in my life to her; I guess I wanted her advice, her, god I don’t know, her approval?”

   I slipped my arm over her shoulders and pressed myself to her, “I know, I was starting to feel the same way.”

   “Don’t start feeling sorry for me, because I don’t need it. Do you know why I don’t need it?”

   Danni looked puzzled and I said, “No, I don’t.”

   “Because I realized, that all the nasty things she said to me? She was right, but she was right for the wrong reasons.”

   Danni stuttered and then said, “What do you mean, she was right? Debra, she called you a whore.”

   “She did, and I am, but…”

   “Babe, don’t say that, you are not a whore.”

    “I am a whore, Daniel, but the difference is, I’m your whore and only your whore.”

   “Debbie,” Danni said. “Doing things for your husband is not the same as doing it for dinner, or money, or…whatever. If it’s done for love, it’s not being a whore.”

   “Semantics, Danni, and I don’t mind the term, because I do what I do willingly for the man I love. Sometimes, when he calls me his whore…”

   “WHAT?!” Danni turned on me, “You call the woman that loves you, a WHORE!”

   I stared at the tabletop as I started to panic, but I answered truthfully, “No, I don’t, I…Debra, I know I promised you I would never give you to another man, but…”

   She presented me with a serving of that sexy contralto chuckle of hers as she turned and caressed my face, “Daniel, god, I love you so much.”

  Danni looked confused and said, “What the hell, guys?”

   Debra then said, “Did you think I couldn’t tell the difference between you and the other guy?”

   “Wait, what?” Danni was looking increasingly confused.

   Debra gathered my hand resting on her shoulder and kissed it before she said to Danni, “Remember when you were in the cart with Daniel, and you asked him if it was safe for me to be around the other guy, the other Daniel?”

   “Yes.”

   “And the other guy answered?”

   “Yes.”

   “You saw the difference right away, didn’t you?”

   “Yes.”

   I kept looking back and forth between them as they spoke.

   She looked at me and said, “If Danni could tell the difference between you and him, after meeting him only once, what makes you think you could hide him from me?”

   “You knew, the whole time?”

   “Of course, I knew.”

   “You’re not angry with me? That I did it?”

   She smiled and said softly, “Daniel, you are him, he is you, together, the two of you are, my Daniel.” She turned to Danni and touched her hand, “It turns me on, sometimes, when Daniel calls me his whore. The thing is, Daniel can’t do it and there’s other things I, sometimes, really like done to me; Daniel can’t do those things either.”

   Danni said quietly, “Debbie, do you think it’s safe to let someone…”

   Debra sighed and said, “He’s different than Daniel, yes, but he’s not dangerous. He doesn’t like to do it either, but he does the things I need because, like Daniel, he wants to please me.”

   “But what if he takes over and he’s not really what he seems to be?”

   “He can only come through when I let him,” I said. “And he would never force anything on Debra”.

   Debra shook her head, “He comes through a lot when you are stressed out.” She said. “Sometimes I don’t even think you are aware of it. In moments of inattention, I’ll see little pieces of him; and it seems to be coming on more often. At first, I was a little concerned, but not anymore because I figured something out.”

   “What?” I asked.

   “The two of you are integrating, you’re becoming one; one Daniel.”

   “Oh, my, god!” Danni exclaimed. “Of course!”

   I nervously said, “What?’

   “Debbie’s right! Sometimes you act suddenly different, more in control, more…sure of yourself. In the Central Office! After we arrived to reinforce you, you were handing out orders with authority you normally don’t express. Remember when you told me to compose myself?”

   I nodded.

   “That was totally not you, that was him. Then you sort of apologized? That was both of you, together!” She settled back in her chair and said, “Wow, Debbie is right.”

    “There’s one other thing,” Debra smiled at me as she said, “Remember, she said you were going to turn Danni and I into baby machines, so you could once again, over-populate the earth?”

   I gritted my teeth as I thought of the intended insult, “Yes, and I would never force either of you to do something like that against your will.”

   “I know,” Debra said. “But it got me thinking, why not? It’s what you and I want, we want to have a houseful of babies, so why are we waiting?”

   “Really?” I asked hopefully.

   “I want to be pregnant, Daniel. It’s been on my mind ever since Sara told me she was pregnant. I want to feel a baby growing inside of me.”

   I smiled as I stroked her cheek the way she had mine, “I really like the sound of that.”

   “Good, it’s settled.” Then she looked at Danni and said, “Danni, I’ve been in love with your name ever since I first heard it, if it’s a girl, can I name her Danni Lynn?”

   “Hell, yes! But Auntie Danni gets to spoil her!”

   “Lord,” I said. “Two Dannis? I wonder if the world is ready for that.”

   Danni gave an evil cackle and rubbed her hands together before finally saying, “Well, I’m hungry, how about I go to the cafeteria and get us some supper? While I’m gone, the two of you can get started on that baby.”

   Debra lifted her eyebrows at me as she smiled, and I happily nodded in agreement. Danni left and we got busy with baby making. Have you ever heard the expression ‘Fertile Myrtle’? Two weeks later, Debra was vomiting every morning and swearing she would never get pregnant again. I guess we’re going to have a smaller family than we planned on.

 

 Danni and Debra, both wanted in on the interrogation of Stevens and Parker, but the Major said absolutely not. I can understand why. He came upon Debra looking in the cage of Stevens on the loading dock and stood and watched for a few minutes. He told me Debra never said a word the whole time she was there, but just before she left, she pointed to herself, drew her thumb across her throat and then pointed at Stevens. “I’m going to cut your throat.” She’s banned from visiting Stevens now, oh well. As far as Danni goes? Pretty much the same, but she talked to Stevens. She reminded Stevens about her threat to kill me, Debra, and all of our off-spring; I don’t know where Stevens got the idea that Debra and Danni are both, my wives, but now it’s sort of making the rounds. You know how some people like to gossip, even here in the Hole. I mean, I guess it’s kind of a compliment though, that people believe two women of their quality would be willing to share me. I figure it’s because Danni lives with us; I don’t care what people think as long as the girls are okay with the rumors; Danni is part of the family. I just hope someday she’ll find another guy like Dan. Someone we can welcome to the family like Dan was.

   Separating Stevens and Parker was an intelligent move and has paid off handsomely in dividends. Without the ability to cross reference what they tell us while being interrogated, they constantly contradict one another. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell which one is lying, but we’re working on turning them against each other. Stevens refuses to even say Parker’s name anymore, she just calls her the bitch. Mike Spencer was picked up by one of our patrols down close to Silver City a week after the attack on the leadership of the Hole. He was in really bad condition and turned against Stevens and Parker immediately. Yeah, he was part of the covert mission carried out by Stevens’ group. Just not as reliable a part as they had hoped. Stevens and Parker don’t even know we have him. He loves to talk, to anyone that will listen to him and he’s been very valuable. It was Spencer that told us Parker had been responsible for gathering the information sent to Denver that resulted in the death of Daniel and the other five members of the Denver recon team. Though we believe there may still be at least one small cell left, the ZPGers are no longer a threat to the Hole.

   Julia Ortiz? After she saw Colada murdered in front of her eyes, she works harder than anyone in the Intelligence Office to make sure something similar never happens again. Frankly, there was a lot of suspicion concerning her presence in the Intel Office because she was recommended to me originally by Stevens and she admits that Stevens pumped her for information about what I was doing at the time. Fortunately for her, she had commented to several people at the time she didn’t like Stevens, or as she knew her from the Las Cruces group, Maria Estevan. Much of the information Stevens wanted from her, she withheld, simply from spite.

   Felicia Ortiz? She’s still recovering from the gunshot wound and it’s going to be a long road apparently. Dak has placed his membership in the Militia on hold and has taken on the role of interim governor until Felicia is fully recovered. He handles all the mundane everyday BS and leaves the important decisions to Felicia. I’ve been paying close attention and it looks to me like she might be prepping him to take over the reins completely. I know she wants to return to the labs full-time and she has never liked the political aspects of the governorship duties. She did a great job and could in the future, but why spend your life doing something you really don’t like?

 

   Debra’s morning sickness, well in her case, all day sickness, lasted for fifteen days; she kept count. The whole time, she said she was never going to get pregnant again, but after the initial two weeks, everything changed. She said she had never felt so good in her life, she was full of energy and stamina. After resuming her duties as an instructor, she seemed eager to take on additional duties, but I finally put my foot down and said enough was enough. She said she could easily put up with two weeks of vomiting, if it meant she would feel as good as she did for the remainder of the pregnancy. So, I guess a large family is back on the to do list. I was worried the whole time she was sick, but now, yeah, big family. I think Danni is really glad Debra is better, she had morning sickness along with Debra, every morning and I started wondering if she was seeing someone and had gotten caught the same time as Debra, but Dr. Horne says sympathetic morning sickness is actually fairly common and even some men get it. Thank god, I didn’t, even though there were times I thought I was going to help her along.

 

   We received a message from Holloman Air Base, there’s a traveling Judge, District Attorney and a Public Defender making the rounds in Sothern New Mexico and Holloman wanted to know if we would like to have them sent our way to deal with Stevens, Parker and Spencer. Felicia said yes, send them our way, looks like they are going to finally get a trial. A traveling judicial system; I never would have imagined it. Felicia and Packer have asked for their names and qualifications with the intent of seeing what I can find out about them before we engage their services. They don’t travel alone. They are part of a convoy that includes traders and, wait for it, a carnival with rides and everything. There is a palpable amount of anticipation building, especially among the younger members of our community, including the surrounding areas.

   The population of the Hole, well we don’t officially call it the Hole anymore, has outstripped our available housing. Currently, we are pushing six thousand and we are flat, out of room. Danni and Debra had some sort of a disagreement and Danni decided to move out and get her own place, but there was nowhere for her to go. Thankfully, they got over whatever they were angry over and made-up. I guess they are more like sisters than we imagined.

   Population growth, Sara was the first viable pregnancy in Asylum, yeah, that’s the name of the Hole now. Funny, a derogatory term used by the ZPGers has become our official name; Asylum, New Mexico. Anyway, Sara was first, then Debra, now? Holy crap! Doctor Horne says before the fall of everything, the pregnancy rate at any given time ran about 4.5% of the female population. That female population included all women, those who were of child-bearing age and not. Here in Asylum, the average age of the female population is twenty-eight because one of the criteria for becoming a permanent hire for women, was the ability to give birth. So, you have lots of young women and lots of young men mixing together. The end result? A lot of babies on the way. Before, with a pregnancy rate of 4.5%, Asylum might have close to 120 pregnancies, but with the youth of the population, Horne says we’re pushing 22% pregnancies, that’s almost 700 women pregnant! We are going to need more room.

   With the advent of needing more room, Dak and Felicia have created a Planning Committee. Their purpose is to design a surface community for the future expansion we all see coming, with the idea of the expansion being orderly, environmentally cognizant, and more importantly, materials stingy. Finished wood products for building are in short supply and no one wants to start stripping our region for lumber, so we have to be smart about how we go about it. I suggested earth banking and rammed earth construction because the end result would be greater energy efficiency in both winter and summer. John Cameron and I did a lot of planning on what we thought would be viable construction methods for the long-term and that was what we decided on. After a lot of study by the committee, it looks like they are in agreement and have started the actual process of designing an above ground town for the population to expand into.

   Debra is almost seven months pregnant, but hardly shows at all. Doctor Horne says some women who are very physically fit, can, and do, get pretty far into their pregnancy before actually starting to show. However, they tend to carry the child higher than normal, which can cause problems. She’s been complaining of severe heartburn and shortness of breath when she runs to keep in shape. Horne wants her to slow down on the fitness training and even give it a rest until after she gives birth and I agree with him. I’ve seen her lips get a little blue while running and when I brought it to her attention, she immediately stopped. If she’s short of 02, so is the baby.

   Danni is spending a lot of time when she used to work with trainees to keep an eye on Debra, but she admits Debra is sticking with the restrictions on her physical training. It gladdens me to know Danni is looking out for Debra, but I have noticed that Debra has bouts of what appears to be depression. Sometimes she seems to be overcome with sadness and I don’t know what to do about it. Danni worries about me, worrying about Debra, as much as she worries about Debra, and she has suggested that maybe the sadness is caused by her body’s hormonal balance being off because of the pregnancy. I’ve never been around a pregnant woman, so I’m leaning on the expertise of others in the matter. One thing hasn’t changed though, her sexual desire is completely undiminished. In fact, it seems to be stronger than before she became pregnant.

   Another thing that hasn’t diminished is Debra’s and Danni’s desire to put an end to Stevens. They seem to think a trial for Stevens and Parker is ridiculous and they should just be executed and the whole situation be ended. On the one hand, I sort of agree, after all, I was there when Parker shot Colada and then shot me, but I also recognize the need to live by the Constitution, the Constitution we swore an oath to uphold. If we kill them without a trial, we are basically doing the same thing they did and we need to take the higher path. The problem with the higher path? It’s easily undermined.

 

   The phone was ringing as I unlocked the door to my office and entered. Picking up the phone, I said, “Intel, Captain Tarn.”

   “Captain, it’s Major Packer.” Okay, this was an official call, otherwise he would have said, ‘It’s me.’

   “Yes, Sir.”

   “I need you in my office, the Comms Room received a message they believe is important enough to bring straight to me this morning.”

   “Yes, Sir, I’m on my way.”

   “Don’t bother walking, I’ve already sent a cart for you.”

   “Yes, Sir, I’ll be waiting outside for its arrival.”

   He hung up and I walked into the data room, “Julia?” I said. “I have a meeting with the Major, I’m not sure when I’ll be back, so when everyone else shows up, keep them working on that information out of Castaic, okay?”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   I walked out of the Intel Office as a cart driven by a Cadet, pulled to a stop beside me, “Good morning, Captain Tarn, the Major requests your presence in his office.”

   “He already called, Cadet, I’m ready.”

   “Yes, Sir.” I slid into the passenger seat and the young man drove quickly away. In no time at all, we stopped in front of the Bunker and I slid out. I quickly entered the Ready Room and then stopped at the entrance to Packer’s office. I rapped my knuckles on the doorframe and waited for his invitation to enter.

   Looking up, he waved me in and indicated a chair to sit in. After I sat down, he waved a sheet of paper in the air and said, “We got this message earlier this morning from a group of people who have left Denver and are on their way to a small town outside Phoenix. They want to exchange information for fuel and food.”

   “Okay, and the information concerns…what?”

   “The Denver Enclave and plans they have developed for an attack on us.”

   “And they came by this information, how?”

   “The woman, who claims to be in charge, was the Assistant Director of General Operations. She was the person in charge of the department heads in the Denver Facility.”

   “In other words,” I said dubiously. “She was pretty high up on the food chain.”

   Packer nodded, “That’s her claim.”

   I started drumming my fingers on the chair’s armrest, “Swinging by here is a very round-about way to get to Phoenix; shouldn’t they have turned right in Albuquerque?”

   He nodded, and then said, “My guess? There might be a good deal of resentment aimed at the powers-that-be in Denver.”

   “How much fuel and how much food?”

   He smiled grimly, “One tanker of gasoline, one tanker of diesel, and a one-year supply of Long-Term Storage Food for 160 people.”

   “You’re kidding me?” Inside I was saying, absolutely not, no way.

   “She claims once we have the information, we’ll consider the price as cheap.”

   “Have you discussed this with Felicia and Dak?”

   “Yes, we talked about it earlier.”

   “And?”

   “They are interested in learning more, but are hesitant to commit to it; that’s a lot of food and fuel, and as CO of Intelligence, we all want your input.”

   I reached out and asked, “May I read the transcript?”

   He handed me the stapled sheets and I started giving them a cursory once over. “There’s a lot of vagueness here; how long before they want an answer?”

   “They want an answer by noon, if we don’t, they go bye-bye and we never hear from them again.”

   I shook my head, “No, that’s not enough time, so let’s stall a bit and see what they say. Tell them your person who would sign off on this is elsewhere and won’t be back in time to meet their deadline. In the meantime, I notice she withheld her name, let me see what I can find out.”

   “Good, I’ll see what I can do about delaying them. Take the CC cart and find out what you can from your side of the coin.”

   I stood up and saluted, “Yes, Sir.”

   I drove like a madman back to the Intel Office and rushed through the door, “Okay everyone, drop what you’re doing and listen up.” Colada, Parker, and Spencer had been replaced months before and the new people were much more dedicated than Parker and Spencer had been for obvious reasons. “We have a communique from the leader of a group of people who are supposedly leaving the Denver Enclave. They say they have info on a possible attack against us here and want to exchange that information for food and fuel, so they can continue on their trip to the Phoenix area. It sounds like BS to me, but we’re going to check it out if we can. We have until 11:15 to come up with whatever we can. Julia, the leader of our possible trade partners, claims she was the Assistant Director of General Operations, but we don’t have a name. Find out what you can, she’s a woman, so keep that in mind. Has there been a change in leadership recently? If so, who replaced who and why. I want abnormal fuel use, military movements, personnel reassignments, check out reports from Las Cruces, any odd activity, or lack of activity among the ANTIFA guys, intel on vehicle convoys passing through, how many, what type, we know the drill, so let’s get on it!”

   Julia was the first to bring me something, “Catherine Schwartz, was the Assistant Director of General Operations until two weeks ago. She had a public argument with the Director of GenOps, Andrew Canton and was replaced. Her daughter, Cynthia, has been extremely active in the chatrooms I monitor until three days ago when she stopped posting altogether. She went so far as to say goodbye to a boy that she had been visiting in a private area.”

   “How reliable would you call that report?”

   She shrugged and said, “On the surface, I’d go with it, but normally, I’d be double-checking everything.”

   “Do it, someone is going to have to meet these people and I want them ready for anything.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   Anthony Caballero was the next in, “Fuel consumption is above normal in the Hospitality Vehicle Park. An excess amount of gasoline was pumped three days ago and then consumption dropped below normal up until this morning. I’ve got an unsubstantiated report of vehicles that were removed from the General Services Parking Lot without authorization.”

   “What type of vehicles?”

   “Three buses, and three small box beds.”

   “Fuel types?”

   “We can safely assume the buses are diesel and I would hazard a guess the box beds were gasoline.”

   “Keep digging, we need enough vehicles to transport 160 people.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   A short time later, Kate Hightower paid me a visit, “I’ve got a little blurb I picked up in a message sent from the UN Peacekeeping HQ to Human Resources. Apparently, three days ago, sixteen members of the military contingent failed to show for roll call and are unaccounted for.”

   “Does that happen often?”

   “No, Sir, in the past, the UN troops have acted in a very professional manner. I believe they are a very well-trained and led force; this is definitely out of character.”

   “Write it up and have the others print out copies of their findings also.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   By 11:15, I had everyone’s printouts and started going over them. Over the months that I’ve been heading up Intel, I’ve developed a method of going over intelligence that works for me. I spread the sheets out in an orderly manner, and then, using colored markers, I start drawing connections from one report to other reports. With a little patience, I can reach conclusions fairly fast and usually the conclusions are accurate. Once I was done drawing the connecting lines, I stood back and stared at it for a few minutes as everyone else stood by in case I had questions.

   Finally, I looked up and asked, “Everyone stand by what we have here?” Everyone but Julia said yes. “Julia?”

   “You know me, Captain, I like corroboration and so far, I’m not seeing it.”

   “Why not?”

    “Some of this stuff was very easily found. What we did this morning seems too easy to me; I’m used to working harder, and longer, for what we get.”

   “I agree, but when we see it all together, it’s looking pretty solid.”

   “Yes, Sir, I agree.” She looked uncertain though. “But someone’s going to have to go have a sit down with this Catherine Schwartz, do you want to be responsible for their safety? Get us another twenty-four hours to double-check.”

   “I want all of you to continue working on this while I’m gone. In the meantime, I have a meeting with the Major.” I gathered all the papers together and stacked them so they could be spread out again quickly. Then I headed for the CC cart and home. At the apartment, I walked in and gathered my away gear from my equipment stand, double checked everything and carried it to the cart and then drove to the Bunker.

   When I walked into the Ready Room, I waved to Packer who was sitting in his office with Felicia and Dak. As they came out, I started spreading the sheets of paper on one of the tables and when I was done, I started explaining what they were looking at. “Each item on these sheets was gathered by my analysts, from either radio transcriptions or information gathered from the internet. Each item is then connected to others that support the previous item; that’s what the black arrows indicate, connections. The more connections, the more viable the information becomes.”

   “Okay,” Dak said. “But what do you think? Can we trust these people? Should we go through with the trade?”

   I nodded and said, “Can we trust them? I say no, we know who they are and what they’ve been a part of. All this information you see here? This was all gathered and correlated since the time I spoke with the Major this morning. It would normally take days, and maybe longer, to come up with a chart like this.”

   Felicia nodded her head and said, “Okay, we tell them to drop dead and we go about our business.”

   I shook my head, “No, we don’t. I need more time to cross reference, my people are doing that as we speak.”

   Dak said, “They said an agreement by noon, or the deal is off.”

   “If they are legitimate, they need food and fuel.” I said. “They wouldn’t be here talking if they didn’t. We need to negotiate a better deal, for us, and while I’m negotiating, I can feel them out, see if I can recognize something off with them while my people continue digging.”

   “Oh, no, no way am I sending the CO of my Intelligence Office to go have a sit down with people that hate us.” Packer shook his head, “No fricking way.”

   “Sir, I’m the one that should go,” I hurriedly said. “I know this chart,” I said as I swept my hand over the top of the papers. “I’m the only person who should go.”

   Felicia said, “But you already said…”

   “Yeah,” I answered. “I don’t trust them, but if there is a chance they actually know of an eminent attack, we have to take the risk. Let me go down there and talk to them face-to-face. With what I have here,” I pointed at the table. “They won’t get much past me.”

   Dak shook his head, “I say no, if they want food and fuel, make them come here, at least we’ll be able to control things and we won’t be giving them the upper hand.”

   “Look,” I said. “I’m willing to take the chance and my people will be working on the problem the whole time. If they come up with something that blows the deal out of the water while I’m on the way, then I’ll turn around and come home, if for no other reason, we should send someone to negotiate a better deal. A year supply of food? No way. Tankers of fuel? No way. They even want us to give them the trucks to haul the fuel, no way.” The three of them looked at each other and I looked at my watch, “Times almost up,” I said.

   Felicia looked at Packer and said, “Major, call the Comm Center and tell them to notify the people down there we are sending a negotiation team. If we can come to a reasonable and equitable arrangement then yes, if not? They can walk to Phoenix.”

   Packer made the call and then we waited. It didn’t take long to get a response.

   Packer spoke to the Comm Center and was informed the people from Denver were willing to talk, but they wanted someone of authority to negotiate with. They said they wanted Felicia to come down. Dak said, “Oh, Hell, no!”

   “They know we are not going to send the leader of our community,” I said. “They’re starting with unreasonable demands, so they can get what they really want or, need.” I thought about it and then said, “Now, tell them I’ll come down to negotiate the trade, but it has to be neutral ground. I’m not walking into an armed camp of people that hate us. Tell them I’ll bring ten cases of MREs as a good faith gesture.”

   “And I’ll go with him to cover his six.” I jerked around and looked straight into Debra’s eyes; she was not happy. “Really? Are you kidding me? I’m three weeks from giving birth to YOUR child and you want to walk into the camp of people that already tried to kill you?”

   “Babe, it’s not that way, really! These people are desperate for supplies; they’ve pulled away from the Denver Enclave to form their own community in Phoenix and they’re offering information about a planned attack on us here. I have to go.”

   “So, you believe they will negotiate in good faith and not jump at the chance to kill you?”

   “I do, I believe it.”

   “Good, then you don’t have to worry about my safety while I cover your back, when are we leaving?”

   “You’re not going, Debra, period. Like you said, you’re three weeks from giving birth to, OUR, baby and you know what Horne said about first pregnancies; they are not as predictable as later ones. Do you want to give birth in a bouncing truck on the way to god knows where?”

   “He’s right, Debbie.”

  I leaned over, so I could see past Debra and saw Danni leaning against the doorframe. “Thank you, Danni. See” I said to Debra. “Even Danni thinks it’s a bad idea.”

   “It is,” Danni said. “Debbie can’t go for obvious reasons, but there’s nothing stopping me from covering your six. I’ve got my gear and weapons loaded in the same cart you have yours; when do you want to leave?”

   Debra looked at the expression on my face and laughed before she turned to Felicia and said, “You’re not really considering this, are you?”

   Felicia swept her hand above the tabletop and said, “Daniel has provided an excellent argument for the meeting, but he’s also provided reasons not to do it. He says the information was easily gathered and in a short period of time.”

   “Then we don’t go. We tell them to enjoy their walk to Phoenix.” Debra replied.

   Felicia didn’t answer right away, but then said, “The last time we were attacked here at Asylum in force, we were lucky you managed to organize help from Holloman. How many of us would have died if the Air Force and Marines had not come to help us?” She shook her head and added, “I don’t want to find out the hard way because we ignored a warning.” She looked at Dak and finally said, “He still limps after all this time.”

   “Alright,” I said. “I’m going and I’m going alone,” I added as I looked at Debra and then Danni. “Where do we tell them to meet us?”

   Packer immediately said, “Lordsburg, at the rest stop on I-10 off of Motel Drive.”

   I looked at him in surprise as I said, “Why there?”

   “Because that’s where your security team will be set up when you arrive. Lieutenant Thomas has already notified his first squad and they are loading up now at the motor pool.”

   “Major,” Danni said. “I’d like to ride along with Captain Tarn.”

   “Negative, but I will allow you to join Thomas’ men. Another DMR with a 7-6-2 weapon might be beneficial. Have you got any AP rounds?”

   “I carry a full magazine, Sir.”

   “Good, get over to…”

   “In that case, I’ll ride with Daniel,” Debra said.

   “The hell you will!” I said.

   “The hell you will!” Gilly said, I didn’t even know she had joined the group. You could have heard a pin drop, until she nervously said, “Well, I’ve told you all before my language could get a bit salty.” Then she turned back to Debra, “You will not endanger that child, I will not stand for it! Look at your feet, Debbie, now tell me those boot laces are not loosened because your feet are swollen!”

   I said, “What?” As I looked down and then back up at Debra’s face as she started to turn red. “Your feet are swollen? What did Horne tell you! He said if your feet started swelling again, he was taking you off active duty! Well, you’re off! Get those boots off, now!”

   “Daniel…” She started to whine, but I cut her off.

   “Now!” That time, it wasn’t me, it was the other guy and Debra instantly started to comply as I kneeled down to untie her boots. He looked up at her and shook his head as I pulled off the first boot. “What are you thinking? You are this child’s vessel. If you are healthy, the child will be, start thinking about it instead of the fun you have when you go to war.”

   “I’m sorry.”

   I pulled off the second boot and then touched her face gently, “We’ll be home safe, before you know it.”

   Gilly bent down and hugged her, “Come on, Debbie, I’ll drive you home, get you comfortable and into a basin of cool water for your feet.”

   Debra nodded as she stood and walked to Danni, “Danni?”

   “I’ve got this, you go and do what Gilly says.”

   She nodded and I walked her out to the CC cart where she sat and I removed mine and Danni’s gear, before kissing her and promising I’d be careful. “I’ll see you soon, okay?” She nodded her head again and Gilly drove her away.

   When I walked back in, Dak asked, “How do you do that? Fel would still be bitching me out.”

   “Dak!” Felicia punched him in the shoulder.

   “See?” He said.

   I just smiled and said to Packer, “Okay, what’s the plan?”

   “We delay until the team is in place and hidden. Then we agree to the meeting in order to negotiate an exchange of what we are willing to provide and what they have to offer in return.”

   “The MREs as a good faith gesture?” I asked.

   “If there’s really 160 people in their convoy, ten cases won’t even feed what they have, one meal. We’ll bump that to sixteen cases.” Packer looked at Felicia and she nodded in agreement.

   “Okay, that sounds good, how much fuel are you willing to part with?”

   “We’ll hook up a fuel trailer to the Unimog you drive down. That will provide them with 400 gallons of diesel, again, as a good faith gesture. If things pan out, okay, maybe more. It depends on what they have to offer.”

   “How much leeway will I have in what I can counter-offer?”

   Felicia said, “There is no way they need two tankers of fuel to get the vehicles for 160 people to Phoenix. I understand they will need fuel once they arrive, but they can get their fuel the same way we get ours, by salvage. As far as food, a two-week supply of non-LTS supplies as an offer up front, dangle three months as the max, but no more than that, period. If they will not accept the offer, come home. We’ll just have to be extra vigilant.”

   I nodded in agreement and then asked the Major, “Communication with Asylum while I negotiate?”

   “I’ll give you one of the satellite phones with a fully charged battery.”

   “Good, radio comms down below isn’t too bad, but getting a good signal all the way to here will be problematic.”

   “Agreed, the Sat Phone will take care of that.” He turned to a cadet standing nearby and asked, “Has my Cadet runner returned yet?”

   “Not yet, but she should be back soon.” She answered.

   “Send her out here as soon as she arrives.” He turned to Felicia and said, “Perhaps you should head to the Comms Center and tell our counterparts our negotiator will be leaving shortly?”

   She nodded and said, “I’ll delay them as much as I can, how much time will you need for Lieutenant Thomas to get in place?”

   “They should be ready to go any minute,” he said as he looked at his watch. “Get us three hours if possible, the problem is, we don’t know how close they are to Lordsburg, hell, they may be there as we speak.”

   “I’ll try to find out where they are, in the meantime, I suggest you hurry with your preparations.” She stepped forward and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before saying, “Be careful, Daniel, Debra can’t afford to lose you and I don’t want to lose another friend.”

   “I will,” I answered.

 

   Waiting is boring and scary at the same time. It gives you far too much time to imagine the worse that can happen, especially if you are a little on the pessimistic side anyway. The truck I would drive was loaded as we waited and then a fuel trailer was hooked on and filled. Finally, Packer gave me the go ahead and I left with a little gift to help me out if things went bad. Packer gave me a Kevlar vest to wear beneath my fighting load carrier. He warned me it wouldn’t stop high velocity rifle rounds, but would perform well against pistols or carbines chambered for pistol rounds. I hoped I wouldn’t find out the hard way if he was right.

   The rest stop in Lordsburg is at the western end of town as the I-10 passes through it. There’s lots of room around it that, to the casual observer, looks as though there is nowhere for the members of an ambush to hide, but well-trained people, both friendly and not, can and could, easily hide their selves. I pulled into the driveway and came to a halt as I looked over the empty parking lot. This was where they agreed to meet me. I moved the truck forward slowly and circled the buildings until I came to a stop in the main parking lot back in front where I shut down the motor and climbed down from the cab. More waiting.

   Ten minutes, twenty, and finally thirty minutes passed before I decided the meeting was a failure for some reason; I wondered if they had discovered our security team and decided not to participate. We had agreed I would come alone and Schwartz would bring two people to transfer the MREs into their vehicle and hitch the fuel trailer to their own. Looking at my watch one final time, I started climbing back into the truck.

   “Stand where you are, and do not reach for your weapons!”

   I froze as I was, and waited for further directions. Whoever had spoken, had a distinctive British accent. Behind me, I heard someone speaking in a conversational tone, but they were far enough away that I couldn’t make out what was said. Then the same voice as before said loudly, “With your left hand, remove your carbine and place it on the driver’s seat of the truck!”

   I didn’t like that idea at all, “I don’t think so, friend, there’s the possibility we can come to a mutual arrangement, but not while one of us is helpless and the other is armed.”

   “You are playing a dangerous game!”

   “Am I?” I responded. “The only interactions we’ve had with people like you have been violent and started by you and yours. Naw, I’m keeping my weapons.” More conversation undirected at me. “Great,” I said. “Your people demand someone with the authority to negotiate and they send a grunt. I’m done, fuck you, Shits!” I reached for the door of the cab.

   “Stop!” More low talking and then, “My superiors are on their way and will be here soon. All we are asking is that you disarm until they arrive, once the discussions are started, you can have your weapons returned to your possession.”

   I raised my hands as I slowly turned around and faced the direction the voice seemed to come from, “That’s a stupid requirement and you know it. If you’re giving my weapons back, why take them to begin with? Like I said before, I don’t trust you and I’m beginning to believe I am justified in that distrust.”

   There was a moment of silence and then, “We, me and my mates, had nothing to do with any attacks you have suffered from the Enclaves.” Now I knew exactly where he was and turned to face him fully, I hoped Danni, or one of the other DMRs, realized I was giving them his location the best I could.

   “Easy to say,” I said. “Not so easy to believe. Stand up and show yourself.”

   “How do I know you don’t have a sniper out there with me in the crosshairs as soon as I show myself.”

   “If I have a sniper out there somewhere, I guarantee, you are already in the crosshairs.”

   Another pause, and then I caught the first movement as he began to stand, “I’m not the only man out here; if I get shot, you die, understand?”

   “Perfectly.”

   After he stood, he glanced around while paying the most attention to a low hill less than 300 yards away. Then he started walking towards me, “My Commanding Officer and the civilian leader, Catherine Schwartz, will be here in a few minutes; they were twenty miles out at the state border.”

   I nodded in response, but said nothing as I studied his Ghillie suit, weapons and uniform. The Ghillie suit looked well-made with the burlap strips attached to the shoulders and backs of his blouse and pants. His weapon was a bullpup, like my own and I remembered the standard issue weapon of the British ground forces was a bullpup. Slung across his back was a long rifle that was ghillied also. Was he an actual, active duty, British soldier? “Your home government send you here?”

   “No, we were a mercenary company working in Africa. The UN hired us to provide increased security up in Denver.”

   “None of the forces we have fought wore Multicam or OCP camouflage; maybe you were telling the truth.”

   “He indicated his camo uniform and said, “It’s not Multicam or OCP, we call it Multi Terrain Pattern, MTP. Basically, it’s OCP, but a larger pattern than what you are wearing.”

   “I like it, it seems to blend better.” What the hell, it beat standing there staring at each other.

   “Just out of curiosity,” he said. “You lot wouldn’t be looking for recruits, would you?”

   “Why?”

   “Let’s just say, we’re looking for employment with someone more to our liking.”

   “Explain.”

   “Like I said, we were mercs working all over Africa. We had Brits, Yanks, Aussies, Canadians, you name it, but most were Yanks; ex-top tier operators, all of us.” He placed his finger in his ear and listened for a moment. “Copy.” He said and then to me, “They’re almost here.” He looked to his left and I looked the same direction, “Things started falling apart and we were stranded in Somalia. We went there with the hope of catching a freighter to the UK, Europe, or anywhere it might be easier to get home from. We weren’t having any luck and then a UN headhunter offered us a job working security at medical research facilities here in the States, Canada, or Laos. The Aussies got an offer for Downunder and the Canadians went North, we were offered Denver, or Laos.”

   “Why did you pick here?”

   “None of us spoke Laotian. At least here we can talk to the locals.”

   We heard the sound of vehicles decelerating and looked as two trucks coasted off the freeway and came down the off-ramp. “That’s them,” he said. I nodded and continued to watch as the trucks turned onto Motel Drive and then into the parking lot where we waited. “See the woman sitting in the center? That’s her, Schwartz; careful with her, she’s a mental bitch.”

   I wasn’t sure what he meant by ‘mental’. But it was easy to figure it out once she got out of her truck and walked up to me. “So, you’re Daniel Tarn, you’re the man responsible for the deaths of so many good people.”

   “What?” I asked. Instead of answering, she raised a small semiautomatic pistol, aimed at my chest, and shot me three times before anyone could grab her and seize her weapon. I staggered backwards, bounced off the side of my truck and then dropped to my knees as my hands pressed against my chest. It didn’t hurt so much at first, but then, holy shit! Imagine someone walking up and hitting you in the chest with a hammer as hard as they can. I couldn’t catch my breath as I leaned forward and dropped my hands to the pavement to support my weight. As I saw the first droplets of blood hit the pavement and spatter, I realized I should have listened to Debra, I should have stayed home with her.

   Someone was shouting commands and several people were running around and finally it started getting quiet as another person I didn’t recognize helped me to turn and lean against the front tire of my truck.

   “Everyone! Drop your weapons and get down on your knees! Hands on your heads! Do not resist!” I didn’t recognize that British voice either. My ears were ringing fiercely from the repeated close-range muzzle blasts and I still couldn’t catch my breath. I raised my hand back up and touched the muscle above my collar bone and it came away stained and wet with blood. I realized the man working on me was one of the guys from the truck, the ones that shot me; I started trying to force him away with one hand as I drew the Air Crewman’s knife to stab and slash him.

   “Whoa, Captain, stop! I’m trying to get a bandage on your wound!”

   Someone grabbed my wrist and twisted the knife out of my hand, “Daniel! Stop! He’s trying to help you!”

   “Danni?” In a panic, it was all I could do to gasp her name.

   “Yes! It’s me! Now hold still and let the medic work on you!”

   “Hard…to…breathe.”

   “Off course, it is! You just took two rounds to the chest and one through the scalene muscle above your collar bone! Thank god the vest stopped the two shots to your chest. Just concentrate on your breathing, you’re going to be okay, I promise.”

   Gradually, I was able to regain my breath, but I couldn’t draw a big one like I needed. They got my shirt off and then the vest and I could see two bruises developing. I kept hearing Danni’s voice rising in anger and eventually I was able to start making sense of what she was saying.

   “I don’t care who she is, I don’t care if she’s a mother, she’s a murderous bitch and needs to be put down!”

   Then I heard Thomas, “We’ll be the same as her if we do it, Danni, you know it!”

   “The same as her? No, we won’t! We came here to help, even though we knew they were the same people who have tried time after time to kill us all! Daniel came to help them get away from the Enclave and she shoots him pointblank! No! We are not the same!”

   Then another voice spoke up, “Look, Lieutenant,” a British accent. “I understand your feelings, we came here with good intentions in order to trade information, for food and fuel. Schwartz thought she could handle dealing with your Captain, but I guess the death of her husband and son were too much for her.”

   “Then they shouldn’t have come to Asylum with the intent to murder everyone there, and frankly, Higgins, you speaking in her behalf is not helping the final disposition of you and your men.”

   “What do you mean? We surrendered in good faith after she shot your Captain, I ordered our medic to commence immediate emergency treatment for him; now you threaten our lives?”

   I looked in their direction as Danni walked away and headed for me. Thomas immediately started talking to the Brit who was in command, I think he was trying to relieve him of any fear Danni may have created.

   She knelt next to me and softly said, “I want to shoot the bitch, Thomas says ‘no’, but you are ranking officer. Let me kill that bitch, Daniel, she deserves it.”

   “They say she came to negotiate, why did she change her mind?”

   “She holds you personally responsible for the deaths of her husband and son. You discovered the planned attack on Asylum and her husband was one of the men killed in the attack. Her son was killed when we ambushed that supply train for the ANTIFA asshats in Las Cruces. He was one of the security guards on the train. According to Higgins, it was a fairly safe assignment until we proved it wasn’t.”

   “Higgins? Who is that?”

   “Major Ronald Higgins of the Royal Marines, retired. He is in charge of these guys.”

   “Was he in on this shit?”

   “Apparently not. We separated all the prisoners and we’ve been talking to them. They all seem to agree they wanted away from the shit the ZPGers were doing.”

   “The 160 people in their convoy, are they all Higgins’ men?”

   “No, only sixteen, including Higgins, they came along to provide security until a settlement could be established in Phoenix.”

   “The ones left behind, are they with the ZPGers, or Higgins?”

   She shrugged, “According to Higgins, a Lt. Colonel Ricket commands the battalion and there is an underlying plot to escape and rejoin in Phoenix once the community is established.”

   I nodded as she stood up and then reached up with my left hand, “Hand up, please?”

   “Why?”

   “So, I can interview this Major Higgins.”

   The medic working on me said, “Hold on, Captain, let me put a sling on your arm, so the weight isn’t pulling on that wound.”

   “Keep your ass where it is,” Danni said. “I’ll bring his over here.” Then she walked away.

   The medic watched her walk away and then said, “Discipline must be a little less formal in your unit.”

   “Sometimes,” I agreed.

   He watched a little longer as he unfolded the sling and then said, “I’m surprised you would allow your girlfriend to come on a mission with you. We’ve taken in some women also, but we don’t allow them to serve alongside their men.”

   I looked at him and said, “I’m married, and the Lieutenant is my wife’s best friend; she’s not my girlfriend.”

   “Oh, I’m sorry, the way she reacted when you went down, I thought surely…”

   “We’re very close,” I said. “My wife and her are almost like sisters, hell, they may as well be sisters.”

   “I see…”

   I looked back at Danni and she was coming back with the Brit in tow. When they arrived, she said, “Major Higgins, Captain Tarn of the Grant County Rangers. Captain Tarn, Major Higgins of the Royal Marines, retired.”

   “I hope you’ll forgive me for not standing, Major.”

   “Under the circumstances, quite understandable.”

   “Thank you. May I inquire as to the location of the rest of your people?”

   He looked at me for a moment and I could see the wheels turning, before he said, “Will they be safe from reprisals, Captain? I assure you the attack on you came as a complete surprise and none of the other people under my care were involved in Mrs. Schwartz inability to control her emotions.”

   “No reprisals against those who are innocent, Major.”

   “I have your word as an officer and a gentleman?”

   “You have it.”

   “They are currently bivouacked at another rest stop named Texas Canyon along this same interstate highway.”

   I nodded, “I’m familiar with it. Do you have enough fuel for them to return here?”

   “Yes, what do you have in mind.” He looked genuinely curious.

   “You lead your people to Asylum, they get fed, I try to convince the powers-that-be to consider allowing you to stay and we work up a nefarious plot to overthrow the leadership of the Denver Enclave with you and yours installed as leadership and allied with us.”

   “My understanding is, that when you overturned the New Mexico Enclave, Asylum, as you now call it, you had quite a bit of problems with the previous leadership resulting in several failed attempts to regain control.”

   “That’s true.”

   He stood there a moment longer and nodded, “Alright, it’s worth the study if nothing else.”

   “Are your people in need of food right this moment?”

   “Some of us, including myself and the men with me, we last ate yesterday.”

   “Sounds like you left at the spur of the moment.”

   “We did; an opportunity presented itself and we seized it.”

   “Do you really have information concerning an eminent attack of Asylum?”

   “Possibly, but it’s mostly conjecture.”

   “Alright, the offer still stands. I’m going to head back now, and begin making arrangements for your arrival. If the people under your charge decide to continue on to Phoenix, we won’t stop you.”

   “Does that include Mrs. Schwartz?”

   Before I could answer, Danni said, “Most definitely, not. She attempted to murder a resident of Asylum, she is coming with us, and staying with us, one way or another.”

   “A case could be made for diplomatic immunity,” he replied.

   “We have not established diplomatic relations with the Denver Enclave nor have we done the same with your splinter group.” Danni replied.

   Higgins looked at me and I shrugged, “What she said, I consider Catherine Schwartz too dangerous to let her run loose.”

   “Will I be able to speak with your superiors about the arrangement?”

   “Of course, but don’t expect them to be lenient or particularly forgiving. We frown on attempted murder, but we do follow the Constitution.”

   “How will she receive a fair trial in your town?”

   “There’s a traveling court that makes the rounds, they are scheduled back by here in about another two weeks; she’ll be held incarcerated until then.”

   “Then I agree, but only the people who come willingly; no one will be forced to come?”

   “Agreed.”

   I talked briefly with Thomas and he agreed to take the truck and trailer I drove down and deliver the fuel to Texas Canyon. I returned to Asylum with most of his squad and Danni. By the time we reached the Bunker I was well past feeling uncomfortable and literally gritting my teeth at every bump in the road. If you’ve ever ridden in any military transport, no matter the country of origin, they automatically hit every bump in the road. I’m absolutely convinced it is designed into them from the get go. The medic had given me some pain pills to take if it got too bad and finally, I pulled them from my pocket and dry swallowed them. Danni gave me a canteen and I washed down at least one that hung up.

   After we stopped in front of the Bunker, Danni and several of the men from Thomas’ squad helped me down from the cab of the truck. Packer met us and told me there was a crash cart on the way to transport me to the clinic. I sat down on a bench outside and tried to ignore the nausea I was starting to suffer from.

   Packer pulled a chair over and sat down facing me, “Are you up for a partial debriefing?”

   “Sir.”

   “Major, he’s in a great amount of pain; he refused morphine just like he always does.” Danni was pulling a Debra and hovering around me.

   “I’ll answer as long as I can, Sir.”

   “We really should transport him to the clinic, Major.”

   Packer glanced at Danni and then back to me, “How bad is the pain?”

   “Not good, Sir, but we may as well do something that might take my mind off of it while we wait.”

   “These troops you encountered, weapons?”

   “All, but one, were equipped with that Bullpup rifle the Brits use, the other had a bullpup, but also had some sort of long rifle that…”

   “Accuracy International, Sir,” Danni said. “Chambered in .338 La Pua. Much more capable than any 7-6-2 NATO weapon like my M1a.”

   He nodded, “Yeah I’ve seen it in action in the Middle-East. Get an adequately trained sniper behind it and you want it on your side. Any other weapons? Automatics? Grenade launchers? Anything else?”

   Again, Danni answered, “If I remember correctly, the British bullpup is full auto capable, they also use the same STANAG mags we do.”

   “Okay, I thought so, what with Great Britain being one of the founders of NATO. Uniforms? Body armor? Talk to me.”

   I just closed my eyes and let Danni continue, “Same uniforms as the Brits used; sort of a larger patterned OCP, I like it better than ours. We were already in position when they dropped off the guy with the .338 and I saw where he concealed himself with a ghillie type suit. Even knowing where he was, I kept having trouble relocating him. Body armor is standard for British ground pounders; Osprey vest with ballistic plates and PALs, and that odd-looking round Kevlar helmet they use. I was a little surprised to find out that one of their team was definitely from the American South.”

   “They were mercenaries working for the British military,” I said. “All spec ops before joining up and being sent to Africa. One of their guys, the sniper, told me they were in Africa when the pandemics started and stuff started breaking down. They moved into Somalia to reach the coast and try for a freighter to sail into the sunset on, but no joy there. Then they were offered a job by the UN as security forces and here they are.” I cleared my throat and swallowed, it seemed to be getting harder to do. “They were a battalion size force when they left Africa…” I started wheezing as I breathed. “Their Aussies and Canadians went to work in their home countries, Brits and Americans came here.” I struggled to get a breath in and then started choking…

   “Daniel? Daniel, can’t you breathe? Daniel!”

 

   That was all I remembered until I woke up in the clinic. There was a tube down my throat, at least I thought there was, because my teeth kept closing on something. My hands were secured and a machine next to me was making a beeping and sighing sound. I was on a ventilator and I panicked. I started struggling and trying to rip out the tubes, but I couldn’t reach them, memories of Becker came flooding back and I fought harder to escape.

   “Daniel! Stop!” It was Danni, where was Debra! “Daniel! Hey! Cho! A little help here!” She leaned over me and tried to hold me down, but I was lifting her off the floor. “Cho! Damn it! Get in here, NOW!”

   “Oh, shit, hold him down, I’m going to inject a sedative into his IV!” She left the room and I continued to struggle against the straps that held me down and then Danni was astride me, her hands holding the sides of my face and her lips almost touching mine as she spoke calmly.

   “Daniel, listen to me, come on, calm down, come on now, calm down, that’s it, that’s it, calm down,” her voice began to settle me down. “There we go, okay, relax, just relax, you’re going to be okay, I promise you, okay? I’ll never lie to you, never, you are going to be okay. Relax, relax,” Her lips began to brush against corner of my mouth as she talked to me. “There you go, that’s it, let the machine breathe for you, that’s it…” Her voice became lower and slower as she spoke, “Good, that’s it, the medic, the one that gave you the pain pills you took when we reached the gate? You had an allergic reaction to them, but you’re going to be okay now. Do you understand?” Mary Cho rushed in with a syringe and started to insert the needle into the aperture of the IV line, “No, Mary, he’s okay now, don’t give him the sedative.”

   “Are you sure?” Then she spoke directly to me, “Daniel, just shake, or nod your head, are you okay?” I nodded. “I can give a you the sedative and you can sleep through a lot of this, do you want it?” I shook my head, ‘no,’ and she released her hold on the IV line and added, “I’ll keep this handy in case you change your mind, okay?” I nodded again and she busied herself checking the IV needle in my hand, the tube down my throat, and then she listened to my heart with her stethoscope. She followed that with an O2 monitor she once again attached to my index finger, “Good, excellent! I’m going to do an EKG, but I think you’re going to be good to go. Just relax and go with the flow, okay?”

   I popped my wrists against the binders holding them and tried to say, ‘off,’ but she shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, but no. If you’re still calm an hour from now? Maybe, okay?” I snapped my wrists against the restraints in frustration. “I’m sorry, Daniel, but Doctor Horne was adamant; just another hour and we’ll see how you are doing, please?”

   I nodded and she walked out the door, Danni straightened up and then slid off my hips and placed her feet on the floor. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” I shook my head. “I didn’t know what else to do; I guess it worked though.” I nodded as she took my hand and squeezed it; I squeezed hers in return. “Try and sleep, I’ll be right here with you, okay?” I nodded again and then just stared at her, where was Debra? “Daniel, it’s two in the morning, she was totally wiped out from worrying about you and Doctor Horne sent her home. It’s okay, Gilly is with her tonight and will bring her back in the morning, try and sleep.” She leaned over me and began to gently massage my temples. “I promised Debbie I’d be here for you, so go to sleep, all is well. Go to sleep.”

 

I woke up as Mary released the strap on my right wrist and I immediately reached for the tube in my mouth, “Oh, no, don’t do that!” She said as she grabbed my wrist and dropped her body weight on it, “I promise you won’t like it. Okay?” Frustrated, I closed my eyes and nodded. “Good, Doctor Horne and Doctor Lopez will be here shortly and remove the tube, okay? Normally I would do it, but they’re a little concerned about the residual swelling in your throat.” I nodded again as Danni walked in with the scent of soap around her. Her hair was wet and laid limply on her head instead of all spiked out the way she normally had it. She was wearing a hospital gown and I frowned.

   “No, no, I’m fine, I just needed a shower really badly and Mary invited me to use the shower for the patients.” She did a little pirouette to show me she was wearing two gowns and all the vital bits were covered, “I don’t know for sure, but I think I make hospital gowns rock.” I tried to smile around the tube but then I realized my jaw was aching, a lot.

   Outside the curtain, I heard two voices and then Horne and Lopez entered.

   “Good,” Lopez said. “You’re awake, are you ready for that tube to come out?” I nodded, vigorously. “Good, Lieutenant Monroe, you might want to step outside, this can get a little unpleasant sometimes.”

   “No, Doctor Lopez, what’s unpleasant is watching one of the best friends you ever had choking and unable to breathe.”

   “Yes, I imagine so, alright then, Captain, we’re going to give you a light sedative that will make you feel almost asleep, but not quite, we call it twilight.”

   I shook my head. “He’s not going to like it, Doctor Lopez,” Danni said. “He doesn’t like not being in control of his faculties.”

   “Really,” he said as he looked at me. “A real tough hombre huh?” I just stared at him until he blinked. He shrugged and said, “Suit yourself, but Mary isn’t going to like cleaning up all the vomit, so that’s on you.” He looked at Horne and said, “Let’s get this done.”

   Uh, yeah, I didn’t vomit, but next time? I’m taking the injection and twilight myself through the whole thing, guaranteed.

   At seven AM on the money, Debra walked through the curtain and stood there staring at me until Gilly said, “Debbie, you know what Doc Horne said…”

  Debra released a heavy sigh and then walked up on the right side of the bed, leaned over and gave me a kiss, “Hi, Honey, I really missed you.”

   She straightened back up and it hit me, she looked like a pregnant woman! She actually had a big belly! Well, you couldn’t actually say big belly, but yeah, she looked like she might be close to six months pregnant. “What the hell?” I said. “What happened!”

   She smiled and ran the palms of her hands over her belly, “The baby dropped, I can officially breathe again, but now I have to pee about every ten minutes, I’ll be right back.” She rushed out as Gilly chuckled.

   “Wow.” I said.

   “I know,” Gilly said.

   Danni laughed and said, “Be glad you were unconscious when it started, everyone thought she was in labor.”

   “You should have seen her last night after the doctors sent her home, Sara came by with little Teddy and visited for at least three hours and they talked the whole time. Sara was amazed how her whole physical appearance and emotional demeanor changed from two days ago when she last saw her.”

   I nodded, “Yeah, she was really getting, uh…”

   “Bitchy?” Danni asked.

    Debra came walking back in and said, “Watch it, Danni, your day is coming.”

   The room got quiet as Danni said, “Is it?”

   “God, Danni, I’m sorry.” Debra stopped in the process of walking past and gave her a hug instead.

   “Don’t worry about it. It’s been months and I think people tip-toeing around isn’t helping any. I think what I need is normalcy, you know? I’m actually kind of looking forward to meeting that little thing inside of you. We’re still on for Danni Lynn if it’s a girl, right?”

   “Of course.”

   “Okay,” I said. “When can I leave?”

   Debra turned and looked at me as she said, “You’re staying here for at least another day, remember you were shot again. Speaking of which, what the hell were you thinking letting that…that…woman, walk right up to you like that?”

   “Babe…”

   “Don’t you Babe me! First you make me stay home, and…and thank god the Major gave you that Kevlar vest! She would have never have gotten close to you if I would have been there beside you,” She turned to Danni and said, “No offense Danni.”

   “None taken, I would have taken her out, but she was lined up with Daniel and I was afraid of a through and through.” Then she said, “Daniel, did Henderson ever perfect that silenced rifle he was working on?”

   “The one chambered for .45 acp?”

   “Yeah, I could have taken her out with that and not been worried about the bullet passing through and hitting you.”

   “Why don’t you stop by and ask him?” I said. “He would love to have someone new show interest in one of his projects.”

   “You don’t think he’d mind?” She asked.

   “Oh, hell no, everyone loves it when someone new asks them what they’re working on. He probably has one sitting around you could take to the range.”

   “I’ll look into it.” She started gathering things and added, “Look, I’m out of here. I didn’t get very much sleep last night, so I’m heading home and to bed. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

   “Thanks for filling in Danni, you did a really excellent job calming me down last night when I woke up.”

   Debra looked at me and said, “What happened?”

   Danni walked around her, bent over me and kissed my forehead as I said, “I woke up completely disoriented and strapped down, I panicked, I thought Becker had me again.”

   “I should have been here, I should have…”

   Danni told her, “Stop it, you had other things going on, so relax, no one thinks you did anything wrong.”

   “Still…”

   “Babe, you had someone here to watch over me, someone you trusted and rightfully so.” I reached out and ran my hand over her belly as I added, “You know, if you were to let me come home…”

   She immediately turned beet red and said, “Daniel! Gilly’s right here for goodness sake!”

   “What?” I said. “I was just going to say I could rub your feet for you and get the circulation going.”

   Gilly started laughing and then said, “Men, they all use the same lines, it must be the testosterone or something.” She turned to Danni who was at the door smiling at my protests of innocence, “I’m going to walk with you, Danni, so I can leave the cart for Debra.”

   “Okay,” and then to us. “I’ll see you two later.”

   They left and I turned back to Debra, “Okay, come on, show it to me!”

   “Hon, I’m all fat now and…”

   “Show it to me, now.” She glanced at the curtain and then walked over and pulled them closed. Then she came back to the bedside, lifted the oversized blouse she was wearing, exposing her bare stomach. I was mesmerized by the sight of her swollen belly and ran my hand over it, “Debra, you’re not fat, you’re beautiful and I want to see it all; I want to go home.”

   She shivered and said, “I want you home, but…”

   “Please? Go talk to Horne and see if he’ll sign me out.”

   “Are you sure? I mean, you still have a hole in you.”

   “Absolutely certain,” I said as I lightly dragged my fingernails across her stomach causing her to shiver again.

   “Okay,” she hurriedly said. “But first, I have to pee again.” She quickly left the enclosure and I used the remote control of the bed to raise it fully upright before swinging my legs over the side. I sat there waiting until I heard her coming back while talking and laughing.

   She pulled the curtain aside and walked in with Mary Cho. “So,” Mary said. “You’re all eager to get home for some quality rest, huh?”

   I smiled and nodded.

   “Well, believe it, or not, Doctors Horne and Lopez both said if you wanted to leave, I could release you barring any abnormal readings. So, let’s take some and see if you’re good to go.”

   A few minutes later, I was dressing with Debra’s help and a few more minutes later she was helping me undress in our bedroom. When she was done with me, she started removing her own clothing. She was so beautiful it took my breath away. She ended up doing most of the work because she said it was too uncomfortable for her because of her belly and I couldn’t hold myself up off of her because of the gunshot wound, so yeah, she did most of the work, but she enjoyed it immensely. Well, until she achieved her orgasm, did you know an orgasm could start labor?

   She was in the throes of her orgasm when the contraction hit her and she literally folded over on top of me. When I realized something wasn’t quite right and asked her, she released her breath and said, “Wow, Doctor Horne was right.”

   “About what?”

   “He said to start expecting false labor contractions.”

   “Why? Are you alright?”

   She straightened up and smiled at me while she caressed her belly, “Yeah, it’s okay. He said it was my body gearing up for the big one; kind of like running a bunch of ten-kilometer races before taking on the marathon.”

   “Well if you say so.”

   She slipped off of me and leaned against the wall and she looked so spectacular, I grabbed my cell phone and snapped a picture of her in the all-together. She laughed and said I was being silly.

   Ten minutes later, she had another contraction. Then another nine minutes later. When they were happening every five minutes like clockwork, I told her, false labor my ass, and drove her back to the clinic. Two hours later, Danni Lynn Tarn made her debut. Initially, there was some concern that she was three weeks premature, but Horne now thinks that Debra was pregnant before we made the decision for her to get pregnant. It doesn’t matter, she’s beautiful and has a thick mass of curly hair, just like her mother.

   I was out of the loop for a few days and then Packer pulled me back in. I met with him in his office and he filled me in on what was going on.