Marks edged closer to the old man, looking him in the eye. “I’m not sure if you realize what you’re asking. There ain’t much out there for them; the camps aren’t ideal for children. As bad as it sounds, you have it better here than anyone in those camps do.”
Stone moved near James and sat on the plane’s wing. “What else can I do? They can’t stay here, not with all of them out there and more moving in,” he said, waving his arm toward the tall pines.
James reached out a hand for the Schnapps and took another long drink then paused; looking up like an idea just came to him. “What about the dioxin?” he said.
“What about it?” Marks asked suspiciously, frowning at James’s mention of it.
“We have plenty of it. Hell, over three gallons—way more than the sample that command asked for. There has to be a tributary feeding that lake; how much would it take to ruin that seed pond, maybe run some of them off?”
Jacob moved to James. “You want to poison the lake? That’s your answer?”
“News flash, hero. The lake is already poisoned. Take a swim in it if you don’t believe me. That oily shit has it all clogged up. I’m just saying, without the lake the Deltas have no reason to come here. It might open things up for Stone and his family. Hell, maybe I’ll even stick around and help him manage the place,” he said, shooting another sly wink at Jacob.
“What is this dioxin?” Stone asked.
James smiled, showing his teeth. “It’s like mustard gas, and it messes them up pretty damn bad. If they're coming here for the lake like Eve says, this might be enough to change their minds.”
“And you say you’ve got this stuff with you?” Stone asked.
Marks pursed his lips and dipped his chin. “We’ve got it, but like Jacob says, it’ll poison that lake, kill everything in it. We don’t know the half of what else it could hurt. For all we know, it’s death in a bottle.”
“Then do it, I don’t care,” Stone said. “We’ve got nothing to lose here. If it doesn’t work, I have to leave anyway. If it runs them off, then maybe we can move back above ground. I can get my water upstream; it’s worth the risk.”
James shrugged and slapped the old man on the back. “It’s worth a try, right?”
Marks stood up and stepped closer to the bombs, hesitating before looking back. “Okay— let’s do it.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Working in shifts, they prepared the ambush site. Stone knew the area well and hand-selected a spot just off the main trail, a well-traveled and very dangerous spot to be in. A place where traffic naturally funneled up from the East Bay then broke off onto several different trails. If they poisoned the stream leading into the East Bay, it might be enough to push the entire horde to them. They moved the bombs early in the morning—the time of day when the Deltas were least active.
Jacob was sent far out ahead of the group with James on security, using Duke for early warning. Stone seemed to pick up on James’s attraction to his daughter and sent the bearded Marine off as far from her as possible. From their observation post, they could just make out the faint sounds of the distant Bobcat as it moved and buried the bombs. Using two-way radios, they would call back to the group, ordering them to halt work whenever a Delta was spotted walking the main trail.
The weather had turned for the worse and the temperatures slowly dropped. The day had started with a light rain that gradually built into a heavy snowfall that soon covered the ground with fresh accumulation. Jacob watched a pair of Deltas moving into view. Through his scope, they almost appeared to be ordinary hikers, except the woman was dressed in jeans and long black boots. The man in a dark business suit. Not only did they not belong together as a couple, they didn’t belong in the woods in the late fall. The scene almost made him laugh.
“You think anything human is left in them?” Jacob whispered, watching the man walk along the trail.
“I used to think that, but not anymore; especially not after that black-eyed bastard back at the factory,” James said, keeping his hand on Duke’s head to calm him.
The dog’s lips were curled in the presence of the Deltas. “Duke sure does hate them. I wonder if he watched his family taken. Don’t you worry, boy; it’s almost time for us to get some payback,” James said, scratching Duke’s neck. Duke pushed his head against James like he understood what he was saying.
When the Deltas passed, Jacob gave the all clear over the handheld and the work started again. The Bobcat ran long into the afternoon until the word was finally passed for them to return to the cabin. Stone told them over the radio to avoid the ambush site. They didn’t want anything being led into the area until the day of the attack, and Stone was worried about them leaving tracks in the fresh snow.
As ordered, James made a wide cut through the woods, working his way back to the bunker. Duke shadowed beside him with Jacob just behind. “So, I heard you have a family back in Canada,” James said.
Jacob sighed. “Yeah, a wife and daughter.”
“That why you joined up, for the benefits?” James asked.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. If they’d offered us safety and shelter without it, I probably wouldn’t be here.”
James laughed. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Hell, men have been fighting for the benefits since the history of war. Sometimes the benefits aren’t as obvious, sometimes they are.”
“What’s your benefit?” Jacob asked.
“Me?” James said, “No, no benefit for me. I fight because it’s
