“I joined the Navy because my father was branded a coward. I thought it was my duty to join and restore what pride I had to my family’s name,” Jim responded.
Coyle looked confused. “That’s why you got in, but why’d you leave?”
Jim paused a moment before he answered. “The same reason,” he answered.
Jim and Brett found a spot in between two dunes and dug out three trenches about six feet in length and three feet wide. They piled the sand on three sides of each of the trenches a foot and a half high. Brett and Twink had some ponchos in their packs and Jim used them to cover each of the trenches for protection from the sun. Brett, Twink, and Jim would sleep there while Coyle, Annie, and Samantha slept in the truck.
It was early morning when Jim finally awoke. One glance at the smoke blackened sky told him that the firemen weren’t able to stop the blaze. Twilight from the morning daybreak sparkled on the desert sand as bits of light struggled to shine through the thick smoke in the sky. Jim brushed the sand out of his hair and it fell to his lap and onto his shoulders. Brett and Twink were still snoring in their sand beds. Samantha and Annie were still and asleep in the backseat of the truck. Coyle was propped up in the passenger seat with his mouth hanging open and drooling.
Suddenly, he felt the hard iron of a pistol to the back of his skull. “You’re getting easier to sneak up on, Farr.” Hult had his 9mm pistol with his finger on the trigger. Four more of his men tore the ponchos off Brett and Twink’s shelter before they could wake and disarmed them with rifles pointed at their heads.
Jim’s head tilted forward as Hult pressed the barrel harder into his skull. “For your sake I hope you found what you were looking for.” Hult grabbed the firearm at Jim’s side and backed off slightly.
“Do you have it?” Hult asked.
“Have what?” Jim replied. Hult kept his pistol pointed at him while Jim’s hung in his other hand. “Turn around,” Hult ordered.
Jim kept his hands in the air and slowly turned his body to face him. Hult’s men pulled Twink and Brett out of the truck bed and dislodged Coyle, Annie, and Samantha from inside the cab. Hult had his men line them up to where Jim could see them. All the while keeping the pistol steadily aimed at him.
“You really are a fucking pain in my ass you know that?” Hult said.
Twink and Brett’s eyes went from Jim to Hult as the two stared each other down. Annie started to cry and Samantha held her close. Coyle sat dry mouthed as Hult’s men hovered behind them. Then, without any explanation or warning Hult clicked the safety on. He lowered his pistol and holstered it. He took Jim’s gun dropped the magazine out, cleared the chamber, and tossed it back to him, though he kept the magazine.
“We need to talk,” Hult said. “Boys?” He motioned over to his men who lowered their weapons. Coyle kept his hands over his head even after the men walked in front of him.
“Is this a trap?” Coyle asked. “Cuz it feels like a trap.”
Jim looked as confused as Coyle did. “What is this?” he asked.
“This?” Hult looked around at the group in front of him. “This is my mission,” he said.
“Locke told me to keep an eye on you and make sure you and the girls where safe. He thought there was a high level leak,” said Hult, “How do you think you got to speak to Matt by yourself without any guards listening in?” he continued, “Who do you think the guard called when you were leaving the camp?”
Coyle’s hands dropped from his head to his sides. “You were helping us all this time? Jesus,” Coyle looked over at Jim, “You tried to kill him.” Which reminds me.” Hult threw a huge right cross into Jim’s face that knocked him on the ground. Jim wiped the blood from his lip and Hult extended his hand to help him up. Jim grabbed it and he stood up. “Now, we’re even,” Hult said. He looked at him as if nothing happened. “So, what’s next?” he asked.
Jim told him what Matt had said about the drive and how he could trace it. They all agreed that trying to get Matt out of the camp wasn’t going to happen, especially now that Hult had told him about Locke’s fear of a mole. And with Phoenix burning behind them they wouldn’t be able to get him back to his office to run the program anyway. Matt would have to do it from the camp.
“One of the guards is Locke’s man. We can sneak Matt out when it’s his shift and get him over to a station to do what he needs to do and find the bastards that did all of this,” Hult said. Jim looked to Twink and Brett who both agreed. Jim looked back over to Hult whose ash smeared face squinted in the sunlight that was fighting through the smoky sky above them.
“How do we get back in?” Jim asked.
“They think I’m out looking for you. Give me the drive and I’ll keep two of my men here with you. I’ll tell them that I couldn’t find you and get the drive to Matt tonight,” Hult replied.
Jim shook his head. “No, we don’t know who’s involved with this and if you get caught you’ll need all of the support you can get,” Jim said.
“You lost three men when the looters attacked,” Jim’s voice became a little softer once the words left his mouth. “Brett, Twink, and I will come in with you.”
It was settled. Coyle would stay back with Samantha and Annie while the rest of them went back to the camp to get Matt the drive and find the source of the orders. Jim himself would come back to get the girls and Coyle once it was safe. If he didn’t return before tomorrow, or he was killed, then one of Hult’s men or Twink or Brett would come back with a safe word that only the group knew. They would then take the truck and head back to the refugee camp immediately to let Locke know what happened.
Hult and his men had hotwired two sedans from the garage after they had lost the armored trucks they had when they were in the city. Jim opened the doors of the sedan and brushed empty coffee cups off the back seat and onto the sand. Brett sat in the passenger seat, while Twink joined Jim in the back. Hult drove while the rest of his men piled in the other car. “Jesus,” Brett said as he picked up a fistful of paper wrappers. “How many Starbucks breakfast sandwiches can one man eat?”
As the cars got back onto the main road they headed for the expressway that would take them around the outskirts of the city. It was here Jim saw just how huge the fire had become. When he was in school, Jim remembered hearing about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and how it wreaked havoc on the districts of the city, killing hundreds and causing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage.
He wondered if this is what people saw on the outskirts of Chicago that day. Fires rising into the sky as flames engulfed buildings, cars, and people. How could an entire city just burn like that? Then again, just a few weeks ago Jim thought a Naval base could never be leveled on American soil. He was experiencing a lot of things he thought could never happen.
It only took them about twenty minutes to get back to the base from where they were at in the dunes. Jim was right about them not checking who they were, although the guards at the gate did a thorough inspection of the vehicles. Hult brought Jim, Twink, and Brett back to his tent along with his men. Hult left to check on Locke’s man to see when his shift would start.
Jim’s leg bounced up and down nervously as he waited for him to come back. Twink and Brett scarfed down some MREs Hult’s men had tossed them, but Jim wasn’t hungry.
Coyle leaned on the front driver side of the truck while Samantha and Annie sat inside.
“When will I get to see daddy again?” Annie asked.
“Uncle Jim is getting him right now,” Samantha replied.
Annie jumped from her mother’s lap and gasped. Samantha grabbed her shoulders. “What’s wrong, baby?” Annie looked at her mother with fear in her eyes. “We forgot to tell Uncle Jim to get Tigs!”