Jacob followed as they stepped into a wide hallway that opened to an even wider room filled with desks. They were moving in from the rear of the space, the desks and counters oriented to face away from them. At the front was a reception desk and the double door they had seen from outside. Now, Jacob saw the inside destruction firsthand. Bodies lay in the lobby, killed in whatever last standoff must have occurred here. Duke moved into the room lit only by the light pouring in through the lobby glass. The dog paced through the space, sniffing at objects on the floor. Several men were handcuffed to a counter, piles of brass and police batons at their feet. The bodies were badly beaten and contorted.
“They cuffed themselves so they couldn’t be dragged off by the bastards,” James said, standing over the uniformed men.
A stairway with a sign pointing to dispatch was over the stairs. Rogers moved up behind them with Eve shadowing him. He pointed to the stairs and James led the way. The second floor, a large loft with more cubes, was clear. It was apparent people had lived in the space. Cots and sleeping bags covered the space between the cubes. There were also stacks of military meals ready to eat and cases of water, which told them the space was overrun or—optimistically—evacuated without time for the defenders to take their essential supplies with them.
At the end of the room was a long counter filled with computer monitors. Rogers edged around it and found the building’s radio base station. He looked it over and nodded. “High power. This should do. James, I saw a generator house out back. If you can get that running, we can try to get a hit on comms.”
“On it,” James said, leaving the room with Duke.
Eve watched James leave. She sighed and slumped her shoulders. “I’ll go cover him.”
Jacob wandered through the space, looking at the desks; some were covered with police reports, others with personal belongings—spare clothes, parts of police officer uniforms. Jacob continued through to the far end of the room. He saw an area broken off from the others, divided by colorful blankets and rugs. Children’s toys and books were on the floor. “They must have brought their families with them,” Jacob said.
“What’s that?” Rogers shouted from the back.
Jacob turned away and moved back to the radio console. “They had kids in here. Families stayed here; there are children’s things in the back.”
Rogers nodded as he opened his pack and removed small toolkits divided into nylon cases. He laid them out in front of him for easy access. “I would. Wouldn’t you if you had family and knew you couldn't abandon your post? Why not bring them here? They probably thought it was the safest place for them at the time.” Rogers looked down and shook his head, pushing away a dark thought. “We can’t fault them for trying.”
Jacob walked to a window overlooking the city below him. He reflected on Laura and Katy safe back at the base. “Do you have family?” Jacob asked over his shoulder.
Rogers stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. “What, like a wife? Kids and all of that good stuff? Or you mean a mom and dad?”
“Yeah, like a wife,” Jacob said.
“No, I was never married.”
“Girlfriend then?”
Rogers laughed. “Yeah, lots of ’em.”
Jacob turned away from the window and proceeded to the cases of MREs. Pulling back a cardboard flap from an already opened box, he dug through the contents until he found a sealed beef ravioli. Jacob moved to an empty cube and plopped into an office chair, tearing open the brown plastic package. “So why no wife then?” he asked.
Rogers took a deep breath and sat in a chair behind the computer screens, searching for the right words. “I don’t know… the travel, I guess. Maybe because I never wanted to give it a chance, always running off to someplace else before things got too serious.”
Jacob held up a pouch of toasted corn kernels. Rogers nodded and Jacob tossed them over. “So you were one of those guys, huh? A girl in every port,” Jacob said.
“I guess. Hell, even if they were willing to take a chance on me, I would become a big enough asshole until I scared them off. Yeah, I’m one of those guys.” Rogers laughed. “Guess I should be thankful, not having that extra weight to carry right now. I couldn’t imagine having a wife or even a kid right now.” Rogers stopped, seeing Jacob’s expression change.
“Sorry, bro. I didn’t mean nothing by it,” Rogers said.
Jacob shook it off. “It’s fine.”
Suddenly the lights flicked on, dimming low then coming on bright. Computers located in the office cubes clicked and buzzed, beeping as they booted up, as did the communications console. Rogers pressed buttons and raised an eyebrow. “It’s coming online,” he said.
Chapter Fifty
Rogers pulled cables tight, yanking them through tiny holes in the back of the countertop. He lifted large, flat-panel monitors, sliding them back and dropping them to the floor. He dragged out a long power strip, tugging cables away from a black radio console before dropping a tangled bundle of wires to the floor. Rogers slid his hand around the countertop, removing bits of equipment, and then reached under a cabinet. He knelt down then rose, holding a second radio console and set it on top of the first, routing wires through both devices and plugging everything into a long black power strip that snaked back to an outlet.
“Everything okay?” Jacob asked.
“This system was designed to run on an uninterrupted power supply—a kind of battery backup. It looks like it died when the generator came on
