“How do you know these things? Were you there?” Agent Korey demanded.
“No,” Bailey said pushing open the door, “I was. I escaped yesterday when the riot got out of control, and made my way to my friend’s farm here. They do have medical professionals in those camps; they have doctors, nurses, technicians, pharmacists, and all others you could think of. That’s just that one camp. Like I said, I know, I was there.” She pointed at her stitches.
Gorman let out a big breath. “Is this your wife?” he asked, looking skeptically at Bailey.
“No, this is Bailey White, a friend of my wife’s,” Rob answered truthfully.
“We still need the help, we still have our orders,” Korey said, “but my head is spinning from all of this… Everything I’ve read on Kelso said it was a vaccination facility.”
“Folks weren’t getting vaccinated there. They were put to work. You work a full shift, you get three meals a day, a shitty mattress in a dorm room you share with a bunch of others, and the choices in fashion were just fantastic for us ladies.”
“We can’t even open an investigation without proof. If true, you’re a criminal who was a part of the riot and escaped, at worst, you’re making up some wild story. Why? I have no idea.”
“I’ll be right back,” Bailey said and went outside, where she took off at a dead run for the house.
“Is Bailey ok?” Goldie asked over the radio.
“She’s coming in the house to get something,” Rob replied on the radio for Luis’s benefit.
“Her outfit from the camp,” Angel answered into their earwigs.
“Oh!” Luis said over the base radio. “Excuse me.”
Like that, he was gone too, hustling towards his cabin once leaving the main structure.
“What is going on?” Korey asked.
“You wanted proof?” Anna asked, having been silent a while. “You’re about to get it.”
They waited. Bailey made it back first, tossing her outfit at the agents. Korey grabbed it out of the air, letting the pants hit the ground. He looked at the smock, then looked inside where the tag was.
“Kelso Detainment Facility. Bailey White. So that means you were there, and you escaped, breaking numerous laws,” Korey said crossly.
“Here,” Luis said coming back in, panting hard.
Rob took the smock and then tossed it to Gorman. He looked at the tag on the inside of the top and read it aloud. “Kelso Detainment Facility. Tom Christian.”
As he said that, Korey’s eyes got wide.
“You weren’t lying to us to get out of coming,” Korey said, his voice quavering.
“No, we weren’t. And my wife was kidnapped by you folks. We really don’t know who we can listen to. We have trust issues when it comes to you boys and girls,” Rob said softly.
“He’s really not dead,” Gorman said, equally flummoxed. “He’s been alive all this time?”
“I’m sure y'all have his DNA on file somewhere. Your fancy labs can test his clothing and match it up. I’m sure the doctors might know of a way to fake this whole thing, but why? It’s too far out there, and all we want to do as a group here, is live our lives. We want to be left alone.” Steven had had enough.
“It could have easily been done,” Korey said, “but I see no reason why you would do it. Why would they have faked his death though?”
“To put a man in charge who was working on the bigger picture. Their vision of the future,” Anna replied.
“Whose bigger picture? And you mean the Lt. Governor who’s acting governor, until elections can be held safely?”
“My guess,” Dante said, “he’s just a small cog in the bigger machine. Group question: do you think these boys would like to see a copy of the plan?”
It was unanimous. Leah went into the small room in the back that hid the staircase going to the basement. Behind a picture was a rather simple wall safe, more of a deterrent than hard security. In it, they kept a copy of the orders of redistribution that Agent Sullivan had been carrying. She closed everything up, then walked out and held out the stapled sheaf of papers between the two agents.
Gorman took the garments from Korey and set them on a stainless-steel examination table, and then took the stack of papers and started reading. Korey started reading over his shoulder. After a moment, they both stood up, looking at the group again, the blood having drained from their faces.
“How did you get this, and can this be verified?” Korey asked, his voice small and quiet for once.
“It came from Homeland Agent Sullivan, the man who tangled with a bull the night our farm was raided by the feds. We held onto a copy. You can have that one, we have more, as do our lawyers. If anything happens to us, our lawyers have instructions to make a very big, very public spectacle. We’re not sure if the president even knows about this,” Leah told them.
“It should be easy for you boys to verify, you’re the FBI,” Anna said.
“If this…” Gorman’s words trailed off and he looked up at Rob. “I understand now.”
Rob nodded, then patted the smaller man on the shoulder.
“Now what?” Curt asked.
“You need to tell her,” Angelica told Bailey, who was done sobbing.
“I will. I just… I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t do it,” Angelica told her.
“I was there in the crowd when it happened,” Bailey said. “I was cheering them on, not knowing all the details.”
“If you want my advice, you tell her. She’s a reasonable woman.”
“I’m scared,” Bailey said simply.
“You’re scared?” Angelica said with a snicker, earning herself a middle finger from Bailey.
“I finally feel like I fit in somewhere, even if I’m the odd woman out in more ways than one. I…”
“I’ll go with you,” Angelica offered.
“Ok.” Bailey stood up.
They had been talking in the spare bedroom that Bailey had spent the night
