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  Sawyer expected to hear no response; the woman nodded, clicked off her headset, and pushed herself away from her desk. “The Chairman will see you now. Follow me, please.”

  Sawyer pulled off his sunglasses and prepared himself. He’d been through this song and dance before. The Chairman got a kick out of acting important. He loved to have people presented to him, as if they were supplicants. It didn’t matter. Every man was allowed a vice or two, in Sawyer’s opinion. His own personal favorite of the Seven Deadly Sins was Wrath, but if Pride was what got the Chairman off, then more power to him.

  The woman escorted Sawyer through a doorway and into the Chairman’s private office. It was simple and businesslike, speaking to the character of the man who sat behind the desk. A small table had been set off to one side with a coffee brewer and a pair of used, stained mugs. The one bookshelf was half-empty, but what papers were on display were all on the subject of government and health care. Sawyer’s naturally observant nature picked up an open volume on the Chairman’s desk. It was too far away to read, but from the two small black-and-white pictures he saw, Sawyer guessed it was a treatise on epidemics. The Chairman had been doing his homework.

  The man himself was almost sickeningly charming; a natural politician. Somehow his graying hair looked as though it were tended to by a full-time staff. How he managed that feat alone given the current state of things was a mystery to Sawyer. He didn’t get up from behind his desk, and addressed Sawyer with his hands folded in front of him.

  “Sawyer! It’s good to see you. I’ve heard you’ve been helping out quite a bit lately.”

  “I do my part.”

  “Organizing local reconnaissance, assisting patrols, taking up perimeter shifts—that’s a lot. And it’s very much appreciated. We need good men like you with us.”

  Sawyer waited until he heard the door behind click shut as the receptionist left. “Please, sir. You know I don’t like politics. Just tell me why I’m here.”

  The Chairman chuckled. “All right, then. Down to business. What can you tell me?”

  “Derrick missed his check-in. I ordered the OP to displace and put some eyes on the scene,” Sawyer said. He remained standing, feet shoulder-width apart and arms tucked behind his back, but as he spoke his eyes continually roved the room. He never seemed to inspect the Chairman himself, seemingly much more interested in his surroundings—but that was just how Sawyer functioned. His attention was very much centered on the man behind the desk; Sawyer just didn’t allow it to show.

  “And?”

  “Derrick failed. It seems Mason got some unexpected backup while our men were in the process of extracting Dr. Demilio. OP squad said it looked like they’d fortified the entrances. They also reported at least one friendly body on the roof. They didn’t risk getting close enough to learn more, but it’s reasonable to assume that Derrick and his squad are KIA,” Sawyer said. No inflection slipped through into his speech. He delivered the bad news with characteristic remote detachment.

  “Goddammit,” hissed the Chairman, leaning forward and frowning with his eyes at Sawyer. The change in the Chairman’s mood was like flipping a switch. “What is this? First you say you can’t cut them off because of this or that, bad luck, or the weather—but I was all right with that, because you had your precious little ace in the hole. You had them heading to Omaha.”

  “Granted,” Sawyer said, noting the Chairman’s thinly veiled insults and feeling his stomach twist in response. “I—”

  “Fuck your excuses,” scowled the Chairman. “I’m sick of them. I want Dr. Anna Demilio here, in this compound, working in this lab, finding us the goddamn cure we need to fix our fucking country!”

  “I’ve always been able to bring her back, sir,” said Sawyer, narrowing his eyes. “There have been obstacles.”

  “What obstacles? You have complete jurisdiction! You asked for the goddamn assignment! You said it meant something to you,” said the Chairman, stabbing a chubby finger into the top of his desk to punctuate each sentence.

  “I don’t have complete jurisdiction, sir,” said Sawyer.

  The Chairman looked puzzled a moment, then leaned back in his chair, an appreciative grin spreading across his face.

  “You’re gunning for rights to the First Guard again, aren’t you? You should have been a politician, Sawyer. You know how to manipulate a situation until it seems like it’s the right choice to go your way—and then you twist it back to your advantage,” said the Chairman. The grin vanished. “You can forget about it.”

  Sawyer drew in a slow breath, preparing himself for the inevitable debate.

  When the government had fractured into its current state, one of the most chaotic splinterings had been among the military. Infighting was common and units found that the only way to maintain cohesion—and therefore, control over themselves and their bases—would be to make their ultimate responsibility to civilians. Either the individual units disbanded due to the infighting, or they began to disregard orders from higher up. The military units that did not disband soon became cohesive and functional but completely neutral entities, who spent their days acting as guards at refugee camps or in surviving towns. They answered to no one but themselves and refused to acknowledge the authority of either the Federal Government or the Reunited States of America.

  There was active fighting, although carried out mainly by civilians—or self-deputized paramilitary units. And even then, the fighting was usually over medical supplies or rumors about advances in research from one side or the other.

  There were, however, hard-core faction members with military experience. These were formed into fully functional units, and their main purpose remained to seek and destroy, not to act as police or to guard objectives. They were the marauders, the vanguard. The Chairman’s Reunited States of America had three such units, with nearly a hundred men apiece. Two were currently engaged in operations along the East Coast. The First Guard, however, was on station at Mount Weather, serving as the Chairman’s personal security force. They were well armed, well trained, and, thanks to the several nearby Army depots, well equipped. The Chairman maintained direct command over the First Guard. The Second and Third units took their orders from a democratic roundtable-style provisional government the Chairman had come up with. It was a strong political move on his part. It kept whispered accusations of dictatorship from floating around.

  Sawyer found the entire concept preposterous.

  “No, sir, I don’t want to take the First Guard from you,” he said. “That’s not my aim.”

  “You’re not getting a single man. Not a single rifle! You created this problem when you let Demilio go, and it was your own partner who helped her get out! You’ve been sitting in a pile of your own shit for months now, Sawyer. I recommend you start digging yourself out.”

  Sawyer frowned slightly. The man was beginning to annoy him. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could offer up a protest or defense the Chairman picked up his phone and stabbed a call button. “Guard!”

  The guard, a Marine in full webgear bearing a sidearm, was quick to enter. He came in noiselessly, using a second entrance in the rear of the office. The Chairman fixed Sawyer with a stare as the Marine came to parade rest behind him.

  “Mr. Sawyer is no longer welcome at the Mount Weather Facility. He is not to be allowed to return unless he has Dr. Anna Demilio with him, alive. Do you understand?”

  Sawyer and the Marine both knew the Chairman’s words were mostly grandstanding. The soldier nodded anyway. “Yes, sir.” The Marine stepped over toward Sawyer and placed a hand on his elbow. “Sir, if you will follow m—”

  The Marine’s next words came out as an inarticulate gasp of pain. Sawyer, moving like greased lightning, looped his arm around the Marine’s, putting pressure on the soldier’s wrist and sending him flipping to the floor. He hit heavily, the air whoofing out of his lungs. The Chairman, startled, reached for the telephone. Sawyer’s other hand was already at the Marine’s
holster, pulling the pistol free and whipping it about. A laser sight danced on the Chairman’s forehead.

  For a moment, the three occupants of the office did absolutely nothing.

  The Chairman sat motionless, phone dangling from his hand. The red-faced Marine gasped for breath on the floor, and Sawyer, his knee planted firmly on the Marine’s back, kept careful control of his aim.

  “Are you going to shoot me now? Is that the plan?” the Chairman finally asked, regaining his self-control. He was frightened, but he hid it well. “Take over this little operation for yourself?”

  “No, you idiot,” Sawyer growled. He was angry now. “You’re not Caesar, and I am not your Brutus. And you sure as hell don’t have a job I’m interested in. What you do have are the men and the gear I need to get Demilio and kill Mason. Let me ask you: have I ever been unclear on that point?”

  The Chairman licked his lips and thought for a moment.

  “I repeat,” said Sawyer, finger tightening on the trigger, “have I ever been unclear about wanting to kill Mason and bring Demilio back here?”

  “No, not once,” said the Chairman. “You’ve been clear.”

  “I’m doing this to make a point,” said Sawyer, still pinning the Marine to the floor with his knee and a twisted wrist. “Do you see this man on the floor here? He could probably kill you ten times a day without breaking a sweat. Me? Hell, I could kill you before I realized I’d decided to. But neither one of us does it. We’ve got better things to do. But in order for me to do what I need to, I need some of your precious ‘First Guard.’ I need fighters. I can’t take on Mason and all of his friends out there in Omaha by myself, but I know for damn sure I can take care of you right here.”

  “So,” said the Chairman, taking a slow breath. They were into the bargaining phase now, and he was beginning to realize he wasn’t going to be shot. “What kind of . . . concessions are you asking for this time, specifically?”

  Sawyer knew his answer. He’d given it careful consideration well before he’d even been summoned to the Chairman’s office.

  “Fifty men. Rifles, pistols, ammunition, grenades, and provisions for said personnel. Access to ammo cache eight.”

  “Stop,” said the Chairman, holding up a hand. “Cache eight is—”

  “Heavy weapons and explosives, I know. Are we back to questioning my methods?” Sawyer asked, twisting the Marine’s wrist enough to elicit an audible gasp of pain.

  “All right, all right, you’ve got access to number eight. What else?”

  “Access to the motor pool. And two Huey gunships.”

  “What?” gaped the Chairman. “The risk aside, the limited amount of fuel we have right now just can’t be used in those flying boulders—”

  “Do you want the job done right or don’t you? It’s a hostile world out there, and they have adapted to it. They’ll be dug in. It’s an urban environment. We must have air support. It just won’t work otherwise. Stop thinking like a bean counter and try to think like me for half a second. Besides, when we’ve wiped them out and have Demilio in custody, the Hueys will make the ride back that much shorter.”

  The Chairman finally, reluctantly nodded. “Done.”

  “Good. Glad that we’re able to come to an understanding here. You give me those things, I’ll give you the Doctor.”

  “And she’ll give us our cure,” said the Chairman. “We’ll go down in history for this. We’ll be immortal.”

  “Until then, sir, we’re just meat,” said Sawyer, finally releasing the Marine, who collapsed, tenderly nursing his wrist and fixing Sawyer with a hateful glare. “I’m going to go get my men ready. We’ll move out tomorrow. I’ll bring you your Doctor. And I’ll leave all the important things”—Sawyer gestured to the papers, treatises, and books—“to you. I’ll be back soon.”

  He put on his sunglasses and walked out.

  Abraham, KS

  25 June 2007

  0823 hrs_

  A BLACK PLUME OF smoke rose up from what had once been Abraham’s modest medical clinic. The fire that had started it had begun in the early hours, when the skeleton crew staffing the place was on rounds and the half-dozen patients were asleep.

  Gunshots had alerted the townsfolk to the danger, and, like the survivors they were, they quickly banded together. There were two sources of water in Abraham: a modest water tower that stood in the center of town, and various hand pumps scattered here and there, mostly on private property. Bucket brigades were formed, and the townsfolk ran as fast as they could from pump to pump, tower to blaze. Bit by bit, they were containing the fire, limiting damage to only the clinic.

  Sheriff Keaton Wallace paused in his mad dash for a fresh bucket of water, unable to continue. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d made the run back and forth, and now he hunched over on his knees, gasping for breath.

  One of his deputies, a man named Wes, paused by the Sheriff’s side. “You all right, Keaton?”

  Keaton waved him off. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me! Keep going! Keep going!”

  With a last, pained look, Wes took off in the direction of the nearest hand pump, an empty bucket dangling from each hand.

  Keaton glanced up at the smoldering ruins of the clinic and gritted his teeth.

  “God damn you, Lutz,” he muttered. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

  The moment the words left Keaton’s mouth, he regretted them. Murder was the mark of the raiders. He was better than that. So were the good people of Abraham. He couldn’t allow himself to sink to the level of the Lutz brothers and their marauders.

  “Hey!” came a voice. Keaton looked up at the face of one of Abraham’s newest residents.

  “Ron,” said Keaton, still resting on his knees. “Where’s your girl?”

  “Katie’s looking after the burn victims,” Ron said. “The fire’s burned itself out, though. Shouldn’t be much longer. Love to talk more, Sheriff, but I’ve gotta get some more water!”

  Ron turned and ran off in the same direction as Wes, buckets clanging together as he ran.

  Abraham had been through a lot since Morningstar had visited their town months before. When the first infected had appeared, the present-minded among them had risen up and contained the outbreak, then set themselves to fortifying their town. They’d put up chain-link fencing, constructed guard towers, and patrolled along the city’s edge. At first, the battles had been intense, with infected coming at them a dozen at a time. As time went on, their numbers had begun to dwindle, and the citizens of Abraham had begun to feel safer. Areas had been fenced off and crops planted.

  That was when the Lutzes made their appearance.

  Recruiting followers from the dregs of society—many of whom Keaton had had previous run-ins with—Herman and George had set themselves up as the uncontested warlords of the area, taking over a nearby distribution center that held enough resources to keep their murderous rampages well supplied for the time being.

  Their first raids were meant to do little more than shock and awe the townsfolk into acquiescing to their demands of food and supplies.

  When Abraham had taken a stand and refused to surrender, the raiders had stepped things up a notch, burning the crops outside the protective fences and depriving the town of their most abundant sources of food. Then they had taken to lying in ambush outside the town, waiting for citizens to venture forth in hunting and scavenging parties.

  The men they encountered were killed, and stripped of their gear.

  The women were taken away, back to the raider’s base, and Keaton shuddered as he thought of what they had been put through at the hands of the criminals who held them as slaves.

  Then, right when Keaton had begun to despair that the raiders were there to stay, Abraham had received some unexpected visitors. Their leader, who called himself Francis Sherman, was in dire need of repairs, saying he and his companions needed to get to Omaha and couldn’t very well do so with broken-down vehicles. Abraham
’s mechanic, Jose Arctura, had volunteered to fix up their vehicles, on one condition: rescue his daughter from the ravages of the raiders, or kill as many of them as possible.

  The soldiers had not only managed to rescue most of the captured women, including Jose’s young daughter, but had also set fire to the distribution center. George Lutz had been killed in the action. The other had lain wounded after a firefight with Abraham’s ardent defenders, and had been taken to the clinic to recover before being hauled off to a jail cell.

  Unfortunately, as Keaton remembered a touch too late, Lutz was possessed of a canny intelligence. Over the days he’d spent in the clinic, he must have slowly cobbled together a makeshift bomb, and had used it to great effect in the still morning air before the town was up and about. From the damage to the structure, it looked to Keaton that Lutz had blown out a window and part of a wall, setting the building aflame.

  Herman Lutz had escaped in the confusion.

  “Next time,” promised Sheriff Keaton. “Next time, you’re a dead man.”

  A low rumble and the sudden storm cloud of billowing black smoke rising above the trees did not bode well for the group of men taking a hard trail east. It smelled of oil, burning rubber, and death—and it was right in their path.

  Hal Dorne, a man with graying hair and a slight paunch, the eldest of the group and the one most prone to a good session of griping, was the first to notice the plume of smoke, and he pointed it out to the rest of the group. It was yet another obstacle in what had become a veritable gauntlet of challenges and battles for them. Their attrition rate was staggering. Out of the nearly thirty seamen from the USS Ramage that had started the trek, just under a dozen now remained. One crippled Army private named Mark Stiles limped along beside Hal, using his rifle as a crutch. He had a badly wounded leg that was refusing to heal properly, and he cringed in pain with each step he took.