The guard nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Then Jack was gone. The door flapped shut and Chad was alone with the guards and the Order people. He felt abandoned. The strange people in black sat silent and unmoving. To Chad they looked like incredibly precise and lifelike sculptures of human beings. The unsettling impression lasted until the woman again sensed his scrutiny and turned her head to observe him.
And she smiled in that utterly humorless way again. “You must convince your superiors of the wisdom of our plan.”
Chad blinked in surprise. It was the first time any of them had spoken to him. “Um…ok ay, one, they’re not my superiors. Two, I’m not personally convinced of the wisdom of your plan. In fact, I think it’s pretty half-assed and want nothing to do with it.”
The woman shrugged. “Your comments are fueled by emotion and not informed by rational thought. Our proposal is your only true path to salvation. In the end, you will set emotion aside and do as we say.”
Chad sneered. The woman’s smug words rankled. “In the end, we’ll do whatever the hell we want, and if that turns out to be a choice you deem ‘irrational,’ well whoopty-fucking-do, too bad.”
A corner of the woman’s mouth turned slightly upward, indicating only mild amusement at Chad’s speech. It was a little thing, but it was just enough to send Chad over the edge. Offense shifted to anger. His hands curled into fists. But he couldn’t lose his cool in front of them.
That would lend the “emotion” comment more credence than it deserved. So he turned away from them and stalked out of the cabin, banging the door open with the base of a clenched fist.
The sharp chill of the early December evening made him shiver. Jim and Jack stood near a picnic table some twenty yards away. They stood close to each other, their heads bent as they spoke in muted tones. Wisps of fog drifted from their mouths. Chad zipped up his jacket and set off in their direction. The other men glanced his way as he neared them.
Jim smiled. “Chad.”
“Fuck this, I’m done with them.” Chad was shaking and he realized as he spoke it wasn’t solely from the cold temperature. “I say we reject their suicide mission and send those assholes packing. We’ve got a good thing going here and there’s no reason to throw it all away. Okay, so our location isn’t a secret anymore. Our supposed enemy knows where we are. Great. Let them bring the fight to us if there’s to be one. We’ll kick their fucking asses.”
Jack nodded throughout Chad’s speech. He struck a wooden match with his teeth and applied the flame to a hand-rolled cigarette. “Exactly what I’ve been saying.” He blew a stream of smoke at the dark sky and looked Jim in the eye. “Let’s say everything they’ve said about Giselle is the truth. So what? If there’s to be a fight, it should be on our own ground and our own terms. If she’s stupid enough to send a force after us, they’ll be in a universe of fucking hurt.”
Jim pursed his lips and slowly stroked the beard he’d been growing for the last few weeks. “I see the sense in what each of you says. I’ll admit I found the notion of eradicating the remaining threat against us a tempting one. And I might have been swayed if not for the passion you’ve displayed. So we will reject their proposal.”
A grim smile etched a tight curve across Chad’s face. “Good.”
But Jim’s expression remained thoughtful. “But we can’t be complacent. If we’re to believe the Order, Giselle has a formidable paramilitary unit at her disposal as well. We’ll need to beef up our own forces and rethink our defensive strategies.”
Jack grinned. “I’ll take care of that.”
Jim managed a small smile of his own. “I’m sure you’re up to the task.” He sighed and rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get back inside and break the news.”
Jack pinched the end of his cigarette and snuffed the flame. He dropped it in a pocket and said, “Yeah, let’s do it. Can’t wait to see the looks on their fucking faces.”
Chad shook his head. “Go without me. I don’t want to see any of them ever fucking again. If you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna head home and let you take care of it.”
Jack shrugged. “Cool with me.”
Jim nodded. “And with me. Evening, Chad.”
“Night, guys.”
Chad turned away from them and started up the hill toward the cabin he shared with Allyson. But an impulse carried him past the cabin, sparing it only a quick glance as he hurried by. The lights were out, so Allyson was probably asleep anyway. He still felt agitated and was not yet ready to join her in bed. The steep ground began to level out and he soon arrived at the site that functioned as an informal communal gathering place for the denizens of Camp Whiskey. He sat on the ground near the large campfire pit and crossed his legs beneath him. There was no fire tonight, but the pit contained a few blackened logs left over from earlier in the evening. Chad pushed his hands into his ja cket pockets and hunched his shoulders forward. He peered beyond the pit at the rows of cabins down the hill. A few soft lights still glowed in some of the windows.
He’d initially found it strange that the founders of Camp Whiskey had decided to establish their compound in the mountain country of east Tennessee, so near the Master’s former territory. But the feeling had diminished with time. Really, it was kind of perfect. Once they had been prisoners here. And now they had returned to the country of their nightmares, transforming it into something fresh and life-affirming. The Order had no right to be here. They were intruders. Interlopers. Their presence tainted the good things everyone here had worked so hard to accomplish.
He sat there thinking about these things for an indeterminate period of time. Perhaps a half hour. Perhaps only as long as ten or fifteen minutes. But it had been a long day. At some point physical exhaustion caused his eyes to close and he began to drowse. Then the crunch of a twig caused his eyes to snap open. He sensed movement to his left and turned his head in that direction. Then a hand seized him from behind, gripping the collar of his jacket and yanking him roughly to his feet. He let out a startled yelp as the same hand spun him around. He tottered for a moment on the edge of the pit. Then the Order woman grabbed the front of his jacket and pulled him away from the hole.
Chad let out a gasp. “Jesus fucking Christ! Where did you come from?”
“I am schooled in methods of stealth.”
“No kidding.” Chad’s heart was pounding. “What are you doing here? You pissed that we rejected your stupid-ass proposal?”
“The plan will go forward. Your master, Mr. Jim, has been made to see the wisdom of our intentions.”
Chad frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that at all. He noticed the Order woman had one hand tuc ked behind her back and realized she was concealing something.
“What are you-”
Her right hand curled into a fist and delivered a brutal jab to a spot just beneath his sternum. Chad cried out and bent over at the waist. He tried to say something, but could only manage a wheeze. Then the woman showed him the thing she’d been hiding behind her back and bile flooded his throat. Her fingers clutched the severed head of Jack Paradise by strands of blood-slickened hair.
Anger overwhelmed his fear. Chad forced himself up right and threw a wild punch the Order woman easily avoided. She jabbed him in the stomach again, harder, blasting the breath from him and driving him to his knees. Then she kicked him in the gut and he flopped over onto his back. A white-hot center of pain expanded and rendered further resistance at least temporarily impossible. The Order woman tossed Jack’s head into the pit and again seized handfuls of Chad’s jacket. She began to pull him away from the campsite toward the nearby line of trees. A part of Chad’s psyche marveled over the small woman’s strength, impressed despite the peril he was in.
The evening darkness deepened as they entered the woods. The woman yanked him to his feet and stood him against the thick base of a tall tree. The narrow slits of her eyes seemed darker and harder now, like the eyes of a demoness. She removed the scabbard containing her sword and set it carefully on the ground. Then she moved in close and peppered Chad’s midsection with a series of high-power jabs. Yet each was delivered with just enough force to maintain a steady level of pain. Chad tried to collapse several times, but the woman wouldn’t allow it, forcing him to remain upright as she continued to punish him. And he knew that was precisely what was happening. She’d judged him guilty of insolence and was putting him in his place. At some point a part of his mind became disconnected from the pain and the beating. He thought of Jack Paradise, how brave the man had been, and he weeped.