“Ready when you are,” Sledge said, his rheumy eyes looking Mercy up and down.
His hands are shaking, I wonder if he needs a drink? Maybe he distils his own moonshine up here?
Barnes stood under a red oak tree and switched the tracker on. He waited while the device connected to the satellites above.
Mercy chewed her lip.
Come on, come on—
Flynn put his arm around her.
Not now Flynn, not—
“I’ve got her, I’ve got a signal. It’s them, they’re at… 38°25'28.4" North, 78°30'17.5" West,” Barnes said.
Sledge bent forwards to examine his map, “OK, OK, OK… give me those co-ordinates again.”
Barnes checked and repeated the location.
Sledge traced his finger across the map. “That’s just west of the Oaks Overview, near Naked Creek.” He paused and looked up, “It’s about twenty klicks from here.” He shook his head, and frowned.
“What is it?” Annalise asked.
“I don’t understand. Why would they go there?” Sledge muttered.
“What is it?” Mercy repeated, trying hard to keep the exasperation from her voice.
Sledge looked up, “It’s one of the old Titan II silos—”
Mercy shook her head, “Sorry, what? Titan II… what’s that?”
Barnes frowned, “Nukes. Nuclear missile silos. Uncle Sam has thousands of silos all over the country. Some decommissioned, some mothballed… some very much active. The Appalachians have their fair share—”
Mercy’s face was blank.
Nukes—?
Tawny looked at the map, “Christ. They’ve taken Rose to a nuke missile base? What the hell for?”
It’s Mitchell… it’s got to be him. His digital consciousness, the NSA Command AI… whatever you want to call it—
“It’s Mitchell, isn’t it?” Flynn blurted out. “He’s gonna nuke the Resistance—”
Jesus Christ—
They fell silent and stared at the map in disbelief. A skylark burst into song overhead and somewhere, deep in the forest, a woodpecker began tapping on a hollow tree.
Chapter 25
The Oaks Overlook
Sledge stood up and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. He wiped his neck then walked over to his horse. He produced a hipflask from his saddlebag and took a long swig and stared at the others. “My brother-in-law, Marty, he used to work there… back in the day. He was called in to repair the water filtration system… he used to talk about the place. Those silos were upgraded, all the old cold war gear was taken out and replaced with state of the art tech. He said there were four silos in these parts… all of them run by machines and a skeleton crew of humans. The machines were supposed to be better than people. The silo crew were just there as… insurance—”
“Machines?” Tawny asked, her voice taut.
Sledge looked up, “Yeah, machines and robots, he said those things could walk and talk. Just like us. He was freaked out by the whole thing. They made him sign all sorts of security documents to stop him from talking. We used to smoke the shit and shoot the breeze, it all came out… he told me about it. Now he’s dead, he didn’t survive the Baltimore riots—”
“Wait, what about power?” Jade said. “Surely those silos need power? The grid’s been down for over two years—”
“All these military installations have back-up power,” Barnes said.
Sledge nodded, “Yeah, they used power from the grid but they also had back-up power… fusion reactors, Marty said. Can you believe that shit? Fusion reactors—”
“Oh yeah, we can believe that shit,” Mercy said, the bitterness clear in her voice.
“So, the silos have been in standby mode, all this time?” Flynn said. “Ready to be reactivated—”
Barnes flinched, “Yeah, the American Military thinks of everything. These missiles were to be kept mission-ready, even after the apocalypse—”
“The human race is just so fucking—” Tawny hissed.
“Predictable,” Flynn finished for her.
“I was going to say stupid,” Tawny said, shaking her head.
They headed back to the campsite in silence. Sledge briefed Brody in the lodge. Mercy watched Brody’s reaction.
“God, we thought our predicament with the prison was pretty bad. You guys, your friend is holed up in a fully automated nuclear silo protected by robots… and now these alphas you mentioned. You sure got your work cut out. Annalise, Jade… you still want in on this shitshow?” Brody said, pacing the floor.
Annalise nodded, “Yeah, I do, if it means getting our people out of Charlottesville.”
Jade looked up, “Yeah, what she said—”
Brody stroked his chin and looked at Mercy, “Well then, if you still want to go ahead, you’ve got Annalise and Jade. Sledge will take you there. We can spare some ammo and guns if you need them but something tells me you’re going to need stealth not guns—”
Barnes spoke up, “These robots… they use thermal imaging to detect living things. We’ll need to use the same BoPET film or space blankets to hide our heat signatures.” He turned to Brody, “You don’t happen to have any of that stuff lying around, do you?”
Brody sat up, “Actually, we’ve got a silver weather balloon that we came across a few months back. We keep everything, you never know when something will come in useful. The balloon is reflective and light, like a space blanket—”
“That’ll do,” Barnes said. “That should give us enough material to make reflective suits for everyone. It’ll buy us some time… maybe.”
“OK, fine. I’ll get someone to bring it to you,” Brody said.
Jade put her palms face down on the table, “Mercy, you said you were pressed for time on this. When are you thinking of setting out?”
Mercy checked her watch; 11:37 am. “It’s still early, could we get to the silo by nightfall?”
Sledge rubbed his hands, “Sure, we can go along Skyline Drive for most of it. Then there’s a bit of hiking from the Oaks Overlook… about a klick or so. We could get there, on horseback, in four or five hours easy—”
Mercy stood up. “OK, let’s get a bite to eat and make us some of those thermal suits. Then we’re… Oscar Mike,” she looked at Barnes.
Barnes raised his chin and smiled.
They had a light meal and checked their weapons. Mercy found a
