Duane’s eyes grew large, followed by Avery’s, and of course, Quill’s, as I limped past. I knew I looked like death. I didn’t need to see my image reflected in their looks.
Two people, a man and a woman, stood next to one of the horticulture trailers, a flicker of fear showing on their faces as I came closer. Both wore military-like garb, much like the white uniforms the Russians wore back in Barrow. “Who is the leader?”
The man looked towards the woman. “She i—”
Without a word, I stabbed him. He fell to his knees, his hands grasping at his throat, trying feudally to slow the tide of blood flowing from his body. I then faced the women, her eyes meeting mine. She didn’t try to shrink away from her impending death. She was going to take it head-on. I admired her bravery. I was curious about how long it would last. Sam grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around to face him before I could find out. “What did you do, son. Why the Sam Hill did you do ’at?”
“Look at me, Sam.” He shook his head. “No, fucking look at me.” I pointed the knife at the woman while never averting my eyes from Sam’s. “Do you fucking see me, Sam? Do you not see what they did to me?”
Sam’s face showed a complex mix of feelings somewhere between sadness and anger. “I done know, son. We ain’t been in no party, neither, ’ough.”
“I was afraid they would kill us,” the woman pleaded.
I turned my head towards her. “I don’t care.”
“You can’t just kill ’em, ’ough ’Ey gave ’emselfs up.”
The man’s gurgling had stopped.
“The only difference between the ones you killed and the ones standing here is, these two were smart enough to live to fight another day. They weren’t giving up because they had a change of heart – not these fucking people. No way.”
“Maybe so… but how we ’posed ta know ’at for sure?”
“I don’t fucking care.” I thought for a second, trying to mitigate my callous attitude. “How about if they don’t attack, we don’t kill them. That’ll work, won’t it?”
Sam twisted his mustache, spat, wheeled on his heels, and walked away from me. I suppose he was absolving himself from whatever I was getting ready to do.
The woman sobbed. “My family… I never wanted to kill anybody. I had no control over what happened. I’m a nobody.”
“I don’t fucking care.”
Duane had come to stand next to Sam at this point. He barely was able to take his eyes off the man on the ground. Good, I thought, he needed to see what had to be done to keep us safe.
Duane, clearly upset, said, “You’re going to interrogate her?”
I didn’t bother to look at him. I did, however, give him a curt, “Whatever you want to call it.”
“Now, I done know you been through a lot—”
“I’m not fucking crazy.” I looked down at my bloodied self. “I might look it, but I assure you I’m good.”
I heard Avery mumbling something in the background. Quill was sobbing. I wasn’t sure if he was tending to her or referencing what I had said. It didn’t matter. I knew what had to be done. The Order had proved it over and over.
“Tie her hands, Duane,” I said.
Duane eyed Sam. Sam sighed and nodded his half-ass approval.
“I don’t really have anything to tie her with,” he said, still stealing glances at the dead man on the ground.
“Let’s just take her to the maintenance shed. They’ll be something in there.”
Duane’s face told the story. He didn’t want to be part of taking her to be questioned, but the way he sympathetically dealt with her, I think he wanted to be there to talk me down if I tried to do something too horrible. Like I would listen to him.
“This way, please,” he said.
I turned to Sam. “There’s a chance they’ll send reinforcements. We need to be ready to bugout.”
“No one else is coming,” the woman said as she walked away.
“Please, Sam,” I told him, ignoring her.
“I thank I should be with you when you talk ta her.”
Pointing at the dead man, I said, “That was to make a point, Sam—”
Duane, still within earshot, said, “Murdering someone who just surrendered is a pretty serious point.”
I wanted to tell Duane what a fucking pussy he was, but instead, I significantly moderated my reply. “Just take her to the fucking shed.”
“Just get the stuff ready to go. This isn’t going to take long.”
An amalgamation of different feelings bled through Sam’s rough exterior as his eyes lingered on mine. “Alright.”
I nodded and quickly caught up with Duane and the woman.
Whispering voices ceased as I neared the maintenance shed. I opened the door and flicked on the light. I knew there were some folding chairs somewhere inside. The room was a wreck, but I managed to find two. Duane wasn’t any help whatsoever. He didn’t even bother to tie her hands. Instead, he stood behind me and watched everything I did.
I plunked the woman down in the chair. “What’s your name?”
“Janna Th—”
“Don’t care. First name is good enough.”
“I surrendered—”
“How did you find us?” I interrupted.
“We… we were able to track the phone. We thought you were the lideo – leader, I mean—in Barrow. It didn’t make sense for you to be here, so we assumed the worst.”
“Track the phone, huh?”
“She nodded.”
I paused for a moment before I asked another question. “Why would you attack without asking questions if you were worried about the leader?”
“I never said we were worried. We got word that Barrow was a disaster. The only reason he’d be here if it were against his will, in which he’d be compromised. That or he had disserted. Either way, it was unacceptable.”
“So, you don’t even try to talk to him?”
“There was no talking. He had to be taken out.”
“Why did you surrender?”
“I watched your friends enter the building they hid in. All I would’ve had to do is tap the trigger. I didn’t. I surrendered because I didn’t want to kill anyone.”
“But, your mission was to kill, and you accepted it.”
“By going, yes, I accepted it. It’s not like I had much choice in it, especially given my job.”
“Which was?”
“I was the local leader of the security branch. The leader going missing was exactly in my job description, especially since there was no one in Barrow to do it. Whether I wanted to do it or not, which I didn’t, I was just following orders.”
“I’d say that if I were in your shoes, too.”
“I’m saying it because it’s true. There are many people exactly like me in the Order. They were born into this. They, we, want a normal life, not soldiers in a grunt army. And like I said, I didn’t have to be here right now. I could be where you’re standing.”
“Do you know about Russian involvement?” I asked, ignoring her.
She sighed. “Just rumors.”
“What if I told you we got the phone we have from two dead Russians?”
“Can I ask you something?”
I nodded.
“How do you know they were Russian?”
“Because they spoke it.”
She nodded and then said, “Like I said, just rumors.”
“What about the radar device at the military base in Barrow?”
She looked puzzled. “Don’t know anything about it.”
“Well, what was written on it was in Russian. I can’t imagine an American military base having Russian equipment lying around.”
“I’m not saying we didn’t have their assistance. I’m not anybody. Just a grunt in all this. I really don’t know.”
“You guys really don’t know much about anything, do you?”
“It was our biggest strength, but now it’s destroying us from within.”