He rubbed his face and looked up. “The devices are individual so local areas can adjust the frequency and method of operation. Basically, when all devices go live, the head of each region inputs the activation codes to send out the required signal instructions.”
“Is Ron head of this region?” I said.
“He was… Monroe controlled a big area.”
“Do you know the codes?” Jack asked.
“No, I’ve haven’t got access to the activation codes and didn’t get near any devices until coming here a few weeks ago.”
Brett left the table and returned with two more bottles of water and a package of cookies. He dropped them in front of us. “Do you have any more questions? I need to get back to my post, and you need to get clear of here.”
Jack opened the package and stuffed two cookies in his mouth. I unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and had another drink. I think we both wanted to make the most of our free supplies.
“Why did you come to Monroe?” I said.
“It’s a key place to the strategy, apparently. It’s not like I could argue,” Brett said.
“What happened when you got here?” Jack said, spitting crumbs across the table. “Did you work with Jerry or Anthony?”
“Ron greeted me at the airport and told me I would be shortly reunited with my family. He said I should be grateful that I was a chosen one.”
“Chosen one? Some choice,” I said.
Brett grunted a sarcastic laugh. “Just before the first activation, we were all taken to a bunker close to Lake Michigan and stayed there for three days.”
“Why three days?” Jack asked.
“That was supposed to be the time span for the activation effects.”
“Supposed to be?” I asked.
“I’ll get to that in a minute. We were given training on survival techniques and procedures for the new world and a whole load of information that was impossible to remember. We were also issued personal weapons and radios.”
“So who’s behind it all?” Jack asked.
“The last morning, before being released, everyone gathered to watch a video presentation by an old guy I immediately recognized as Henry Fairfax.”
“Fairfax Industries? I thought that was renewable energy,” I said. “Is he the one running the show?”
“Yeah, he proclaimed a new world order and said we’d been chosen to rebuild humanity.”
“Why did he do it?” Jack said.
“He mentioned religion, politics, and fossil fuels. I can’t remember exactly, but it was all kinds of crazy shit. When we came out, the whole world was a complete fucking mess. Ron said he’d received orders that we were to stay here and assist with the cleanup operation in Monroe. He held daily meetings to reassure us that our families were okay, and said there was a lot of work to do in getting the rest of the surviving population back on its feet.”
“How many are left alive?” I asked.
He leaned back and puffed out his cheeks. “No idea. The plan for the second activation was to bring in survivors for processing. But you two torturing Jerry and Anthony sent Ron into a tailspin. The activation got delayed, procedures were thrown out, and we were all told to wait for you to get here so they could have revenge—”
Jack banged his fist on the table. “I knew he was full of shit.”
Brett paused, eying us both, as if waiting for one of us to speak. I didn’t know about Jack, but I was consumed by his story and wanted to know more. Brett continued, “Ron ordered us to report communications problems to Headquarters. They could tell we were hiding something. My team started to get nervous. We didn’t want to poke the hornet’s nest. Ron said if the local operation was shut down, our families would be butchered like pigs.”
“Does he have the authority to do that?” I said.
“I doubt it.” He leaned toward us and lowered his voice. “When you shot him, we heard Jerry screaming down the radio for the guards to stand down. They wanted to kill you themselves. Jerry and Anthony appeared in a Mustang and started blaming everyone for letting you take a weapon into the house. They shot up our last vehicle. Those were the guys who were supposed to frisk you outside.”
“I tucked the pistol down the front of my pants. People don’t tend to search there,” Jack said.
“I wondered where everyone went,” I said. “Where did those other GA goons come from?”
“Jerry’s order caused massive confusion over the radio. Nobody knew what the hell was going on. All of a sudden this guy turns up, barking orders, and rumors are flying around that Ron’s dead. My team isn’t trained for this. I’d already scouted this location as a fallback position. The way we see it, if local GA are going down, we didn’t want to be part of it.”
“We thought something weird was happening,” I said. “Couldn’t believe it when I looked out of Ron’s window.”
Brett cracked a smile. “We’re a techy team. The last thing we wanted to do was to come charging in. Jerry’s order was a relief. What did you do to those guys to get them so pissed?”
“We tortured information out of Jerry,” Jack said.
The voice from the gloomy corner of the room said, “You did us all a favor. Shame you didn’t kill the bastard.”
“What about Anthony?” Brett said. “He’s the one you really need to be worried about.”
“We sprayed mace in his face and put a plastic bag over his head,” Jack said. “After that, we burnt his house down and left him tied up in his vehicle with a dog bowl full of canned peaches.”
Brett appeared to take some pleasure from hearing about our run-ins. “I heard him say on the radio that he wanted your heads put on spikes. I can see why.”
“It’s not like we wanted to do any of it,” I said. “Jerry had our friend Bernie killed, and we found a device in his barn. He also led us to Anthony. What would you do in our shoes? They were partly responsible, and I suppose…”
I trailed off, not wanting to blame Brett. He was a victim of cruel circumstance, and I suspected most of the others in his team had suffered the same kind of treatment.
“Why’s Anthony more dangerous?” Jack asked. “Jerry seemed the more evil of the two.”
“Jerry’s a fool, not necessarily a harmless one, but he’s more dislikeable than dangerous. I got the impression that he was a loser in his previous life and is reveling in his newly found importance. Anthony is on a whole other level. He was fiercely loyal to Ron, is completely at ease with what’s happening, and the bastard had one of my team executed.”
“Bloody hell, what did he do?” I asked.
“One of our guys tried to argue with Ron in the bunker. Anthony lined us up for a parade and beat his brains out with a baseball bat. I told Ron I’d be reporting the incident to Headquarters. He gave me two options. First, he could send Anthony back to Hermitage in exchange for my silence. The second option was me reporting the incident. He said he couldn’t protect me from Anthony or the team. Basically, I was a dead man if I said anything.”
“Why didn’t you guys take them out?” Jack said. “If most were recruited like you, there must be a lot of pissed-off people.”
Brett shrugged. “You’d be surprised. Anyway, they’re all experienced with weapons. It’s not exactly my area of expertise, and I have my family to think about.”
I looked around the room again at the forlorn shapes in the shadows. An air of resignation and depression infested the place. It was bad enough to live through our own experiences, I would have hated being forced to take part.
“Can you stop us from getting activated?” Jack asked.
“The devices are activated, you are just signaled,” Brett said.