“But you’re talking about a kamikaze run, John.”
“Certainly sounds that way, doesn’t it?”
“And who are you proposing will fly this Cessna?”
“I will,” John replied.
Chapter 33
John was about to head to the comms room to see if Henry had received any news from the front when Devon and three other men approached him on horseback. They were about to begin a patrol around the perimeter of town.
The military fatigue-style baseball cap covering Devon’s head did nothing to suppress his wild brown curls underneath. “Sir,” he said, pulling his chestnut mare to a stop. “Moss asked me to keep an eye out for you. Says he needs to have a word.”
Sometimes John felt like he was being pulled in a million different directions at once. “Sure thing, Devon. Where is he?”
“Last I saw, he was over by the high school, having some heated words with your wife.”
“All right, thanks for the heads up.”
John waved them on and headed toward what he could only imagine was about to become a full-blown shouting match.
When he arrived, a crowd had gathered in a circle around two figures. Even from a distance John could hear two distinct voices and he knew right away who they belonged to.
As he reached the throng it became clear that Moss’ men had come in to take the fertilizer and Diane’s workers had stepped in to stop them.
Pushing through the crowd, John was intent on putting a stop to this immediately. Not only was it unprofessional to have his wife openly arguing with his head of security, but it was also unproductive. This greenhouse needed to get built and start functioning as soon as possible.
“Listen,” John shouted through cupped hands. “I want all of you back to work right away.”
Slowly, reluctantly, the crowd broke apart and split in two groups. One headed back to the greenhouse while Moss’ people returned to filling sandbags and putting out barbed wire.
Between Diane and Moss was a stack of fertilizer bags, many torn, the precious fertilizer spilled on the grass.
John led both of them to the high-school gymnasium, which was being outfitted with beds and cots taken from homes no longer being occupied. If war, disease or some other unforeseen crisis gripped the community, Oneida needed a place to care for them.
Diane and Moss stood before him, refusing to look at one another.
“Frankly, I’m ashamed and embarrassed,” John said to both of them.
Moss shook his head. “I’m sorry, boss, but I was just following orders.”
“Whose orders?”
“Yours.”
Surprise registered on John’s face. “I never told you to grab the fertilizer.”
“No, but you did tell me to plant IEDs along the major choke points leading into town.”
“Which is why I sent you to the Birch coal mine to grab some dynamite.”
“Well, there wasn’t much there,” Moss replied.
Diane stood by without saying a word, perhaps intent on letting Moss dig his own hole.
“So I mentioned in passing to Diane that I was going to use some of the fertilizer I found at the Ace Hardware store and when I showed up, it was gone.”
“By the time we got there,” Diane said, “I thought you’d taken what you needed.”
Moss’ hands flew in the air. “Heck, I didn’t get a chance. You swooped in so fast.”
“Easy now,” John warned them both.
For a moment, neither said anything.
“I thought we could work this out on our own,” Diane said.
Moss motioned to Diane. “When I saw her people had taken every last bag, well, I sorta felt like they’d gone behind my back and stolen it.”
“First off,” John said, “something can’t be stolen if it doesn’t belong to you in the first place. Whatever’s in Oneida is a town resource. If one of our citizens is hoarding food or weapons, that hurts all of us. This isn’t every man for himself anymore.”
Moss looked away.
“And that goes for you as well, Diane.”
“If there was enough to share,” his wife said, “I would have been happy to. I also think we need to set our priorities straight, John. What’s more important right now, making sure we have food to last us through the winter or planting bombs?”
Diane had a good point about the importance of food production. What she wasn’t taking into consideration was that food was useless if there wasn’t anyone alive to eat it. “The ammonium nitrate required to make explosives,” he told her, “requires a purity of at least ninety-four percent. There are plenty of organic substitutes you can use for fertilizer in the meantime—dung, compost, low-grade plant food.”
Diane crossed her arms. She thought John was taking Moss’ side.
The truth was, this wasn’t an issue of mixed priorities or taking sides as much as it was about two leaders of the community behaving badly. “Given the threats we’re facing,” John said. “I think Moss’ entitled to as much of it as he needs. You can use whatever’s left over. More importantly, I don’t want lines drawn in the sand with one department fighting against another. We all have a common enemy and we need to remain united.”
With some reluctance, Moss and Diane agreed and sealed the compromise with a handshake.
“I need to get back to work,” his wife said, a touch of tension still in her voice.
Moss was about to leave as well when John asked him to stay. “Devon mentioned you wanted to see me,” John said. “Was it about the fertilizer?”
Moss shook his head. “No, sir. I wanted to let you know that the defensive perimeter around Oneida is basically in place. I’ve positioned men with Winchester scoped rifles on the buildings with the best fields of fire. The sandbags and gabions are set up. Foxholes have been dug with lines of sight over the major bridges leading toward town. As you instructed, the outer ring starts about two miles out with a second defensive ring a mile inside of it. The bridges have also been rigged to blow. As of now I have IEDs planted on the opposite sides, but it’d also be nice to have a few between each strong point.”
John nodded. “Good work. I’m sure when Diane hands over the fertilizer you asked for, you’ll have what you need. Also see to it that a team with a radio is positioned on Owens Ridge since it overlooks the town and the three major approaches.” John swallowed, wondering if he was missing anything. “How we doing on manpower?”
“I could also use more,” Moss admitted. “Won’t lie about that. Especially given that if the enemy breaks through each of our strong points, we’ll be left fighting them house to house.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” John said, knowing perfectly well they lacked any real anti-armor capability. If Chinese and Russian tanks made it through the outer defenses, they would be powerless to stop them.
Chapter 34
As morning wore on into afternoon, John’s thoughts returned time and time again to his interrogation with Huan and the news she had revealed about the concentration camps. His first inclination had been to keep the information a secret, since it might destabilize the delicate balance in the community he’d striven so hard to achieve. Blowouts like the one he’d seen between Diane and Moss were a rare blip in an otherwise harmonious community. John’s mother had always said that ‘idle hands were the devil’s workshop’ and with all the major projects going on around Oneida, it wasn’t a surprise that at the end of the day, people didn’t have the energy for bickering.
So in a rare move, John had asked the heads of each department to gather the citizens of Oneida before the mayor’s office. The speech John had prepared wouldn’t be long, but the impact would surely reverberate throughout the coming days and weeks.