The confusing part was he knew why she wasn’t there.
“They killed you in the white fire,” he said to himself.
A man spoke up. “You’ve been cured of all that ails you.”
“I hear you but don’t see you,” he replied.
“I’m over here,” the guy said in monotone, sounding like he was outside the door.
Dwight got up and strode to the front of the sparse office. The cage door allowed him to see into the hall, where he vaguely remembered the girl in the blue costume residing, but a man held out his arm from a diagonal office. He then got a good look at his face.
“Hey! I know you!” It was Jacob, from the warehouse in San Francisco. He was of Asian descent, for sure, though he didn’t have a buzz cut the last time they’d met. For a moment, Dwight was ecstatic. Until he remembered where he was. “Wait. Why are you here?”
“I have you to thank. You killed the team in Folsom, didn’t you? David’s intelligence people traced your path back to my welcome center, and they figured out I was the one who let you infiltrate our ranks.”
“Infiltrate? I was a penniless drunk who only wanted one of your spiffy outfits. I never meant for any of this to happen.” His memory of days ago was picture-perfect, free of the fog of alcohol that normally hung over his brain. However, his memories of the last day or two were scrambled. If he’d started out in San Francisco like he thought, he drew a blank on what had gotten him into the jail cell. Something about a fake bird and a disease. It made no sense.
“They think you’re an agent of the old United States. They’ll keep making you sick and healing you until you tell them every detail of your mission. It’s what David does here in his pit, apparently.”
Dwight leaned against the door, looking to the sides and wondering if he could make Poppy reappear. When she didn’t, he continued speaking to Jacob. “What have they done to you? I can’t recall if I’ve seen you here before now.”
“Stunted memories are a side effect of the healing process. It does it to a lesser degree when they infect you, but they like you to remember the pain. Those of us who were once part of the Legion know exactly what to expect. It’s in our long-term memory. I was in the same line as you this morning. You just don’t remember me.”
He sighed. Jacob was nice to him back at the beginning. “I’m sorry, man. I never meant for you to get hurt. This has all been a terrible misunderstanding. That’s what I’ll tell them when they get me the next time.”
“Good luck with that.” Jacob left his door.
The woman in blue wasn’t in her entry opposite his. In fact, of all the cage doors visible to him in the hallway, no one held their arms out where he could see them. And Poppy, imaginary or not, wasn’t around anymore either. Somehow, her absence hurt him the most.
“I want to go home.”
CHAPTER 15
Fort Collins, CO
The pile of guns and food containers in the rear of the SUV shifted like waves as he took corners at high speeds. They’d left the scene of the explosion, but Ted was ninety-nine percent sure Todd had filmed their departure. At best, they were security personnel who’d totally face-planted on protecting Darla and her news crew. At worst, he and Emily would be seen as accomplices to the suicidal hero who’d blown that depot into next year.
They did have some advantages. The unfolding convoy attack would distract what was left of the enemy security services in Fort Collins. They were also driving straight out of town. And, finally, it would be dark soon. He figured if they could avoid contact for another thirty minutes, they’d be okay.
Emily laughed with a nervous energy. “Well, you did say you wanted to cause a diversion for the enemy troops. If I hadn’t spent every waking second by your side, I would have said you were the one who planned the truck attack. That was like swinging a baseball bat, using a flamethrower, and grinding a chainsaw into the jaws of the hornet’s nest, all at the same time.”
“We’re going to make it,” he said dryly as the houses of Fort Collins thinned out. “You keep watch in the skies back there.”
As she often did, Emily pulled her legs onto the seat, so she could more easily look behind them. It was a child-like pose he found charming in a US president. However, he didn’t have time to savor it. The road curved and went down a gentle slope.
“They’re going to send those drones after us, aren’t they?” she asked.
“Count on it.” The convoy’s unloading would be interrupted, for sure, but there were already rows of multicolored drones parked on those receiving lots. At least a few of them were probably the airborne kind.
They drove a couple of minutes before the road rose out of the low ground, giving Emily a better view of the surrounding countryside. He sincerely wished they were in the middle of Colorado, where the forests were thick and the hills were steep, rather than the wide-open grasslands so common to the high plains.
“I do see lights,” Emily finally said. “But they’re pretty far back.”
“Shit. If they’re already up there, they’ll be spreading out. We can’t count on luck.” He knew their lives depended on his next moves, so he took some deep, calming breaths to clear his head.
They were going a hundred
