First Shift - Legacy

Thurman browsing through the stacks at the far end.

“Ah. Thanks.” He assumed he was free to pass, that he wouldn’t get shot in the back or tased. He reluctantly tested the theory as he stepped between the towering shelves of old books, the light dimming and the smell of coffee replaced with the tang of mildew mixed with leather.

“What do you think of this one?”

Senator Thurman held out a book as Donald approached. No greeting, just a question. As if Donald had been standing there all along.

Donald checked the title embossed in gold on the thick leather cover. “Never heard of it,” he admitted.

Senator Thurman laughed. “Of course not. It’s over a hundred years old—and it’s French. I mean, what do you think of the binding?” He handed Donald the book.

Donald accepted it and was surprised by how heavy the volume was. He cracked it open and flipped through a few pages. It felt like a law book, had that same dense heft, but he could see by the whitespace between lines of dialog that it was a novel. As he turned a few pages, he admired how thin the individual sheets were, each one smooth as silk. Where the pages met at the spine, they had been stitched together with tiny ropes of blue and gold thread. He had friends who still swore by physical books—not to decorate with but to actually read. Studying the one in his hand, Donald caught a whiff of their affection, could understand what they were getting at.

“The binding looks great,” he said, brushing it with the pads of his fingers. It was like admiring an aesthetically pleasing and well-designed building. “It’s a beautiful book.” He handed the novel back to the Senator. “Is this how you shop for a good read? You mostly go by the cover?”

Thurman tucked the book under his arm and pulled another from the shelf. “It’s just a sample for another project I’m working on.” He turned and narrowed his eyes at Donald. It was an uncomfortable gaze to be at the wrong end of. He felt like prey, like a wounded beast leaving a glaring trail with every word and twitch. A clumsy sentence snapped a twig here, a bad joke dripped a spot of blood there. He was trying so hard to manage the man’s impression of him, and yet it felt as though the Senator could track him down with every utterance.

“How’s your sister doing?” Thurman asked.

The question caught Donald off guard. A lump formed in his throat at the mention of her.

“Charlotte? She’s… she’s fine, I guess. She redeployed. I’m sure you heard.”

“I did.” Thurman slotted the book in his hand back into a gap and weighed the one Donald had appraised. “I was proud of her for re-upping. She does her country proud.”

Donald thought about what it cost a family to do a country proud.

“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, I know my parents were really looking forward to having her home, but she was having trouble adjusting to the pace back here. It… I don’t think she’ll be able to really relax until the war’s over. You know?”

“I do. And she may not find peace even then.”

That wasn’t what Donald wanted to hear. He watched the Senator trace his finger down an ornate spine adorned with ridges, bumps, and recessed lettering. The old man’s eyes seemed to focus beyond the rows of books.

“I can drop her a line if you want. Sometimes a soldier just needs to hear that it’s okay to see someone.”

“If you mean a shrink, she won’t do it.” Donald remembered Charlotte before and after the sessions. “We already tried.”

Thurman’s lips pursed into a thin, wrinkled line, his worry revealed in hidden signs of age. “I’ll talk to her. I’m familiar enough with the hubris of youth, believe me. I used to have the same attitude when I was younger.” He touched another book. “I thought I didn’t need any help, that I could do everything on my own.” He turned to face Donald. “The profession’s come a long way. They have pills now that can help her with the battle fatigue.”

Donald shook his head. “No. She was on those for a while. They made her forget too much. And they caused a—” He hesitated, didn’t want to talk about it. “—a tic.”

He wanted to say tremors, but that sounded too severe. And while he appreciated the Senator’s concern— this feeling again like the man was family—he felt uncomfortable discussing his sister’s problems. He remembered the last time she was home, the disagreement they’d had while going through his and Helen’s photographs from Mexico. He had asked her if she remembered Cozumel from when they were kids, and Charlotte had insisted she’d never been. The disagreement had turned into an argument, and he had lied and said his eventual tears were ones of frustration. Parts of his sister’s life had been erased, and the only way the doctors could explain it was to say that it must’ve been something she wanted to forget, and what could be wrong with that?

Thurman rested a hand on Donald’s arm. “Trust me on this,” he said quietly. “I’ll talk to her. I know what she’s going through.”

Donald bobbed his head. “Yeah. Okay. I appreciate it.” He almost added that it wouldn’t do any good, could possibly cause harm, but the gesture was a nice one. And it would come from someone his sister looked up to rather than from family.

“And, hey, Donny, she’s piloting drones.” Thurman studied him, seemed to be picking up on his worry. “It’s not like she’s in any physical danger.”

Donald rubbed the spine of a shelved book. “Not physical, no.”

The conversation fell silent, and Donald let out a heavy breath. The wail of the espresso machine leaked through the wall of ancient books. He could hear the chatter from the cafe, the clink of a spoon stirring in some sugar, the clang of bells against the old wooden door, hinges squealing.

He had seen videos of what Charlotte did, camera feeds from the drones and then from the missiles as they were guided into their targets. The video quality was amazing. You could see people turning to look up toward the heavens in surprise, could see the last moments of their lives, could tick through the shots frame by frame and decide—after the fact—if this had been your man or not. He knew what his sister did, what she went through.

Bells rang and hinges squealed as an old door was closed again.

“I spoke with Mick earlier,” Thurman said, seeming to sense that he’d brought up a sore topic. “You two are going to head down to Atlanta and see how the excavation is going.”

Donald snapped to. “Of course. Yeah, it’ll be good to get the lay of the land. I got a nice head start on my plans last week, gradually filling in the dimensions you set out. You do realize how deep this thing goes, right?”

“That’s why they’re already digging the foundations. The outer walls should be getting a pour over the next few weeks.” Senator Thurman patted Donald’s shoulder and nodded toward the end of the aisle, signaling that they were done looking through books.

“Wait. They’re already digging?” Donald walked alongside Thurman. “I’ve really only got an outline of my structure. I hope they’re saving mine for last.”

“The entire complex is being worked on at the same time. And all they’re pouring are the outer walls and foundations, the dimensions of which have already been settled on in committee. We’ll fill each structure from the bottom up, the floors craned down completely furnished before we pour the slabs between. But look, this is why I need you boys to go check things out. It sounds like a damned nightmare down there with the staging. I’ve got a hundred crews from a dozen countries working on top of one another while materials pile up everywhere. I can’t be in ten places at once, so I need you to get a read on things and report back.”

When they reached the Secret Service agent at the end of the aisle, the Senator handed him the old book with the French embossing. The man in the dark shades nodded, reached inside his coat for the smaller of two bulges, and headed toward the counter. Donald watched as the agent stood in line behind customers gazing up at a chalkboard to prepare their orders. There was something comical about him waiting there with that French book, doing the Senator’s shopping for him.

“While you’re down there,” Thurman said, “I want you to meet up with Charlie Rhodes. He’s handling delivery of most of the building materials. See if he needs anything.”

“Charles Rhodes? As in the governor of Oklahoma?”

“That’s right. We served together. And hey, I’m working on transitioning you and Mick into some of the higher levels of this project. Our leadership team is still short a few dozen members. So keep up the good work. You’ve impressed some important people with what you’ve put together so far, and Anna seems confident you’ll be able to