Dissidence (30 page)

We stand there, no more than five feet apart, aims locked on each other. All the noise and action around us seems to fade
away until I’m pretty sure we’
re the last two people left on the planet. It’s so quiet that I can hear the sound of his bullet c
licking into place. Any moment,
he’ll pull that trigger
,
and I’ll die. I pull the trigger first. The sound of the bullet exploding out of the barrel shatters our private world. As the guard drops to the ground, the rest of cre
ation
comes
racing back to me.
All
the sounds, the people, the utter anarchy all around me.
My stomach clenches tight
,
and I have to fight back the urge to hurl. It was him or me. If
I didn’t shoot first he would’
ve killed me. He would have
killed
me. I had to do it. I had to.

Sucking in a deep breath, I force myself to remain calm, and examine what’s happening around me. The last tower is empty. I don’t know if the guard was shot or just surrendered. The sound of gunfire is quieting. From what I can see, it looks like only a few guards are still armed on the ground. They don’t stand a chance, but they’re refusing to surrender. They get off maybe five more rounds between them before all three of them are dropped. 

The quiet that follows is almost deafening. There are bodies strewn all over th
e ground. S
ome workers, some guards. I just hope none of them is Reynolds.  Lots of people are wandering around aimlessly, while others try to round
them up and direct them to
the train. Most of them look like they’re in shock.

“We found him.” Allan’s holding onto a short, balding man with a pot belly.

Not what I’
d imagined. The mental image I associated with Drew Reynolds had turned into a giant of a man, with pure muscle, and a scar across his face. I have absolutely no idea why. Jacob is helping Allan restrain the barely struggling man and looking like he’s enjoying it all a little too much.

“Where do you want him?”

I scan the immediate area. There’s a small structure, maybe registration, nearby. “In there.”

They manhandle him into the building where Connor orders them to secure him. Allan and Ja
cob force Reynolds into a chair
and tie his arms together with some rope they got from who knows where. He doesn’t even look scared.

“Drew Reynolds?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.

“Yes, and you are?”

“That’s not important
.
” Peter steps in
, and I’m relieved to see he’s still in one piece
. “We’re talking to you, not her.”

Beside me, Connor shifts the gun in his hand to punctuate the point. I think Reynolds gets
it,
I’m just not sure he cares.

“What do you want from me?”

“We want your help.” I figure it’s best to just lay it out there. “It’s pretty simple, you help us all go free without any strings attached
,
and we won’t kill you.”

I have t
o admit, the response I get isn’
t even close to anything I expected. He doesn’t cry or
beg or even flat out refuse us. H
e laughs. Connor presses the barrel of his gun to Reynolds’ forehead
,
and my entire body tenses. Inexplicably, Reynolds only laughs harder.

“You think I can help you? I can’t help you, no one can.”

“Don’t lie. We’ve seen your name on all of the reports. You run these camps. We know you do.” Making Connor angry right now is probably not in this guy’s best interest. “I swear, you will help us
,
or I
will
pull this trigger.”

“I only
manage
the camps. I don’t
own
them, and I’m far from irreplac
eable. No one will give a damn,
you threaten me.” Well, crap.

“So who does own these camps?” I feel like we’re going around in circles here.

“Well, that’s the million dollar question, now
,
isn’t it?”

I already know the damn question. It’s the answer I want, and if this guy doesn’t give it up soon, I won’t be held responsible for Connor’s actions. He’s growing irate the longer Reynolds stalls, and his trigger finger is starting to look a little itchy.

“Have you ever heard of William
Perman
?” Reynolds hedges.

Perman
, why does that
sound familiar?
“
Perman
. . . as in
Permatech
?”

“Exactly!”

Look at me, I can connect the dots.  Only I still have no idea what the picture is.

“William
Perman
ran one of the largest, most successful companies in the country back before the war. He had his fingers in just about everything. Mainly oil, but all sorts of other things
,
too.”

“
Okaaaay
. . . can we get to the point sometime today
,
maybe? We’re not here for a history lesson.”

“When the world went to hell and the rest of the country was panicking, William
Perman
was still thinking like the business man he was. He grabbed up all of the remaining land that still yielded any viable resources. And do you know what he built on that land?”

“Work camps.”
Things are starting to click into place.

“Two for two, sma
rt girl.”
Patronizing jackass.
H
e’s lucky I don’t have a gun in my hand at the moment. “When things finally settled back down,
Permatech
was
still
on top.
Perman
went into negotiations with the government. The President at the time agreed to supply
Perman
with a free labor force of prisoners in exchange for him sharing his resources with the rest of us, for a price
,
of course.”

I let this all sink in for a few silent moments. What kind of person do you have to be to do something like that? “So who runs
Permatech
now?”

“William’s heir.
His great, great
grandson,
or something like that . . .
Robert
Perman
.”

“Well, then that’s who we’re going to have to talk to,” Connor states plainly.

“Good luck with that,” Reynolds laughs. He actually
laughs
.
Unbelievable.

I can feel the slow burn of anger beginning deep in my gut, and I can see it clear as day written all over Connor’s face. Reynolds must have some kind of serious death wish.

“And why is that?” barks Jacob.

I was so worried about Connor that I completely forgot about the psychopath in the room. I’m actually surprised this is the first we’ve heard from him. Peter takes a quick step toward
Jacob
. He’s as worried about
hi
s sanity as I am.

“Because you’ll never find him.
No one knows where he lives, or even where
Permatech
itself is located. I’ve run these camps for him for thirty years, and I’ve never met the guy.”

Reynolds is laughing again, and I’ve had enough. I really don’t want to stand here and watch while either Connor or Jacob loses it on him. I wrack my brain for
anything else important to ask
but come up blank. What I really want to do is wipe that smug grin off his face. Instead, I drag myself outside, away from his grating voice.

“You all right, Girlie?” Connor catches up with me near the fence.

“Fantastic.”

“It’s not exactly encouraging, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.” He always has to look on the bright side of things. I don’t know how he doesn’t get blinded by the sun. “Unfortunately, I think he’s telling the truth. I don’t think there’s anything else our friend Drew can do for us.”

“Just let him go . . . and don’t let Jacob get anywhere near him.”

Connor goes to deal with Reynolds, leaving me on my own. I wander around the quiet camp for a while. Almost everyone has boarded the train already, preparing for the trip back to L. Reynolds may have been a flop, but at least we’ve managed to free another camp’s worth of workers . . . for now
,
anyway. Without Reynolds’ help, who knows what kind of future we’ve signed them and ourselves up for
?
Connor thinks this is a step in the right direction, but what direction is that? Now what are we supposed to do? Once again we’re back to the endless freaking question of, now what?

Chapter 28

Now what? That question has plagued me all the way back to L
,
and I still don’t have an answer to it. We’re running seriously low on options here. Hiding? Fail.
Negotiations?
Fail. Fighting? Well, okay that one seems to be working for us so far, but to what end? I’m just not sure what larger numbers are going to do for us. I’m not even sure liberating workers is a good thing anymore. What’s going to happen to them once they’re liberated? They’ll share in whatever our fate is, and that’s not looking too promising at the moment.

The cold night air feels as though it’s piercing my lungs, but I take deep breaths anyway. The sensation reminds me that I’m alive, unlike some of the others. On the way back, I was informed of the crushing news that we lost Julie. It seems almost impossible that someone with so much life in them could just cease to live suddenly, and I can’t shake the lingering fear that it really could have been any one of us. All around me, the camp has grown quiet. Almost
everyone is settled in for the night.

A few people mill around the dormitories talking quietly, and a light shines in one of the towers. Each of the other towers is manned by a single occupant as well, but they’re keeping watch in the darkness. Unlike the guards, these sentries all look outward over the fields and woods that surround the camp, prepared to alert us at the first sign of trouble. Luckily, there hasn’t been any so far, but it’s only a matter of time. I don’t know what they’re waiting for, but our luck can’t hold out forever.

We need a plan, and it needs to be brilliant, and it needs to happen right now. No pressure or anything. I wrack my brain for so
me sort of epiphany. You know. O
ne of those ah-ha moments where everything just falls into plac
e. That’
s what’s supposed to happen in times like this, right? So
,
what do we have to work with? We have people and weapons, but nowhere to really use them. We have wheat . . . boat loads of wheat. That’s it!
Ah-ha!

I practically trip over my feet racing toward the dormitories. I’m looking for Peter or Connor or Lori. I don’t really care who, I just need to talk this over with someone to be sure it makes sense out loud. Connor’s the lucky winner. He’s just coming out of the bathroom as I plow into the building, and I drag him back outside with me.

“What’s wrong? What’s
goin
’
on, Girlie?” He glances around like he’s expecting to face trouble.

“Nothing.
Nothing’s wrong. I just need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” He visibly relaxes. “What’s up?”

“I think I might have come up with a plan, but it’s completely insane.”

“My favorite kind
.
So what is it?”

“All right.”
I settle down next to the building, and wave Connor down beside me. I’m not sure how convoluted this is all going to sound, and it may take a while to explain what I’m thinking. “I was thinking about negotiating. Obviously
,
Reynolds isn’t our man, and apparently that
Perman
guy is some kind of ghost.” Connor nods. I know he knows all of this already, but I’m getting to the good stuff. “Anyway, I was thinking, we planned to use force to get them to negotiate with us, but that’s not all we have.”

“I’m not sure I’m following.”

“We have resources. Technically, we ha
ve how many camps now?
Six?
And
it’s not just the camps we have control
of,
we control those resources
,
too. We’ve got a few different crops, fish, timber, and iron. The colonies must be getting low, or they will be soon.
Perman
used resources to negotiate once before, why can’t we do the same now?”

I know I was disgusted by
Perman
using resources as a ransom to get what he wanted, and now I’m basically
proposing the same exact thing. B
ut he wanted money
and power
, all we want is our lives back. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.