It took us about fifteen minutes to get thecamera positioned properly so we had a good view of the back deckand the approach to it. Finally Sara was satisfied and started backtoward the office, motioning for me to follow.
“Gimme Sid’s number,” Mark asked as wereturned. “Maybe I can make him see reason.”
Sara tossed Mark her phone and turned toCarl. “Since you’re just lounging around, why don’t you come withme and help with surveillance. I’ll fix you up a comfy little nestin the corner by Linda’s laptop where you’ll be safe butuseful.”
“I’ll help him,” I volunteered. “You stayhere so you can keep watch with Mark’s rig and to help planthings.”
Nodding assent, she settled down next to thewindow and began scanning for any sign of her husband. I went tothe linen closet and grabbed up spare pillow and blankets, pilingthem up next to my laptop for Carl. Satisfied that it would be goodenough, I went back and helped him up. I settled him down in thepile, and then got him the glass of water that he asked forearlier.
“Hon, can you bring me the house phoneplease?” Mark shouted to me.
I grabbed the handset and brought it to him.He hit the button to dial, and held it up to his ear for only amoment before pulling it away in disgust.
“No dial tone. The bastard must have cut theline before he attacked us,” Mark growled.
“The cell-phone didn’t work either?” Iinquired.
“Nope, no signal,” he replied.
“That’s weird; I’ve always gottensurprisingly good reception, considering that we’re a bitremote.”
“He has help with him,” Sara said boltingupright. “Someone took over or knocked out the damn celltowers.”
I felt a chill wash over me. If he had help,then this was far more serious than we initially thought. “What doyou think he’s going to do next?” I asked.
“That depends,” Sara said, frowning. “If Iwere in his shoes, I would let us stew for a few hours and let ourimaginations work against us. Then another show of force and ademand for surrender.”
“Let him come and make his demands,” Marksaid angrily. “I’ll give him a good taste of what he wants and sendhim on a free trip to visit the international space station.”
“He may be an idiot, but he’s not thatstupid. If he shows his face directly, you can guarantee he’ll havesomeone watching for anything like that. At the first sign oftrouble, whatever backup he has in place will go on theattack.”
“So we’re screwed?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.We’ll have to play his game for a while, but sooner or later he’llmake a mistake. Once he does, I might even take him out myself.Nobody shoots at me and gets away with it.”
“So what do we do in the mean time?” Iasked.
“We keep busy and don’t let him get under ourskins. At a glance, I would say that y’all did a pretty decent jobwith your barricades, but it’s getting darker, and we’ll want toavoid casting shadows on a window. A shadow in front of a window isan open invitation to a sniper. Hang up any spare blankets that youhave over each window and place a lamp or something right up nextto it. That will help foul his placement of us. Just make sure thatyou stay out of the way while doing it.”
“Right,” Mark and I said together.
“You get blankets and sheets, I’ll gatherup lamps and stuff,” Mark sent.
I sent him my affirmation and got on with mypart of the job. For once I was happy with my pack rat tendencies,as I had piles of old linens in storage. We were working on thelast one when I heard a sudden sharp crack come from the livingroom.
“Fire at the living room window,” Markwarned. “The shield held.”
I heard several more cracks, then the soundof shattering glass.
“More fire,” he reported. “Shield is down,rebuilding.”
As we lay on the floor, I sent a probe out tothe window and felt the beginning of his replacement field. Sendingmy mind out farther, I tried to pick up any sign of the shooter,but couldn’t find anything.
“You ok?” I asked.
“Yeah, the bullets busted up my shield, butthat was minor compared to the one that put me out of action in themountains. Just a quick stab of pain and that’s it.”
Sara crawled out into the hallway, gun at theready and asked “You guys ok out here?”
“Just peachy,” I replied. “Nobody was hurt,but one shield went down. Mark’s rebuilding it as we speak.”
Nodding, she crawled back to the officesaying “I need to check the cam. You two stay down for a coupleminutes until we know things are clear.”
I crawled over to Mark and wrapped my armsaround him, taking comfort in his presence.
“I’m ok over here, thanks for asking,” Carlshouted at us.
“Sorry bud,” Mark replied. “I did look overand see that you were fine, but up until now I was busy rebuildingthe shield that they took out.”
“Mark,” Sara shouted out from the office.“The phones are up! I just got another text message. Get on thehorn and call the cops.”
I quickly disengaged from Mark so he couldget to his phone, but he thought faster than me and brought it towhere he lay.
Before he could dial he said “Crap, no signalagain. Let’s go see what message Sara has from the bugger thistime.”
“Nothing good from the sound of things” Ireplied, inclining my head to indicate the swearing coming from theoffice.
Sara was back at the laptop when we roundedthe corner into the office. She kept changing the angle of thecamera slightly every few seconds, trying to spot anyone.
“What did he say this time?” I asked her.
“See for yourself,” she replied shortly.
Picking her phone up off of the floor, I heldit up so Mark could see it too.
BRING OUT A WHITE FLAG WHEN YOU SEEREASON
“He’s insane,” I said in disbelief.
“Welcome to my world,” Sara growled.
Chapter 17
Mark: Evening the Odds
Linda and I hunkered down in the hallway sowe could keep in contact with both Carl and Sara. About every fourhours we had to endure another attack at
