Endless Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Four) (15 page)

“You touch that weapon on your hip and the next shot I fire will be straight through your forehead,” Maxie warned, a lethal hiss to each and every word she spoke. If Berke had ever questioned her ability to survive in this type of setting—not that he ever had—he sure as hell would never conceive of doing so now. He also didn’t question the reason she shot Fairfax. She wouldn’t have done so without good reason. He slowly walked forward while keeping Jacob to the side and out of potential line of fire. Fairfax was lying on the ground with his back against the garage door. One of his hands was in the air and the other was clutching the wound he’d sustained to the leg. It wouldn’t be long before he went for his sidearm. “Who are you?”

“I already told you—”

“Ace Fairfax weighs fifty pounds less than you, has black hair, and carries a Sig P229 SAS,” Maxie called out over Jacob’s cries, her eyes never once leaving her target. Berke understood how much that cost her when she most likely wanted nothing more than to set eyes on her son to ensure his safety. What they needed to do now was disarm this man immediately, but having Jacob complicated things. “His location has also been confirmed, so I want your name and the reason you’re here possessing information that you shouldn’t have.”

“Fine,” the man clipped out around his clenched teeth, gripping his injury while most likely figuring out the odds of this turn of events. The main question that needed answering was if he was on his own, or did he have reinforcements waiting for them outside. Berke didn’t like their odds at the moment. “I’m a friend of Fairfax’s and need to reach him. My name is—”

“You must think we traveled from store to store inhaling paint fumes or some shit like that if you believe we’d buy that steaming pile of shit,” Berke offered up, finally managing to place Jacob in a shopping cart that had been against the side wall. His cries only became louder as he gripped the plastic side and hoisted himself onto his feet, reaching out one hand to be picked back up and held. The sight was heart wrenching, but Berke’s priority was ensuring the boy lived to see another day. “I don’t give a shit what your fucking name is.”

Berke was on top of the man in less than ten seconds, disarming him and using zip ties around the man’s wrists. Zip ties were essential in almost every mission and Berke always made sure he had some heavy duty ties readily available. The ease of the disarmament didn’t go unnoticed, but it most likely had to do with the fact that Maxie had shot the guy’s kneecap through and through. The loss of color in their captive’s face spoke of the pain he was enduring, but it was about to get a hell of a lot worse.

“Maxie, do we have reinforcements?” Berke asked as he knelt in front of the man who didn’t believe he was about to give up vital intel. He was going to tell them everything. He just didn’t know it yet. “How long before they arrive?”

“They’ll be here in twenty-five minutes,” Maxie replied, her voice coming from the other side of the Mule. She’d already moved to be by Jacob’s side, but he needed her to do something first.

“Barricade the double doors in the back to ensure we’re not taken unaware by any tangos coming through the store,” Berke ordered as he stared into the eyes of a killer. His soulless black eyes were all but daring him to figure out what was coming next. Berke didn’t need to, because he would obtain the information one way or another. This man had done his best to con them into believing he was someone else and had every intention of killing them after he’d made his way into their sanctuary. Berke might have handled this situation differently had Jacob not been here, but that wasn’t the case. One thing was certain…this man was full of information and there was only one way to get it. This was a side of him that he’d rather Maxie or Jacob didn’t see. It was best if they were out of sight. “And Maxie? Grab one of the M4s, take Jacob with you, and stay back there covering that avenue of approach until I tell you the coast is clear.”

M
axie wasn’t inexperienced
when it came to interrogations, although her familiarity with the process had more to do with telling a teenager she was going to talk with his or her parents if they didn’t come clean regarding who egged Mr. Haddock’s house on Halloween. This situation was beyond anything she could imagine. This was different to the extreme and she became nauseous as lurid images flashed in her mind at the lengths Berke would go to get the information he needed.

Maxie had seen the incensed look in Berke’s eyes when she’d confirmed the man wasn’t who he said he was. It was another attempt by the dark forces arrayed against them to steal what wasn’t theirs to take. He’d initially been holding and protecting Jacob during the confrontation. This only seemed to infuriate him further when his subterfuge was uncovered.

Being in that particular position, acting to defend a helpless child, wasn’t conducive to the amount of danger they’d been placed in and she could only imagine the pent-up rage he had experienced at the vulnerability. She was suffering from it herself.

“Come here, sweetheart,” Maxie whispered, doing her best not to let Jacob hear the fear in her voice. His cries subsided the moment her hands slipped underneath his arms, pulling him up and out of the shopping cart. She held him close to her, never once looking back over her shoulder to see what was taking place behind her. “I know that loud sound was scary, but you were so brave. Let’s take a walk and you can help me make sure the doors leading from the store are secure.”

Jacob’s subsiding hiccups were the only noise making it through the annoying ringing in Maxie’s ears, which would most likely stay awhile. She picked up his teething ring out of the cart and handed it to him as she walked away from a scene she didn’t even want to think about. What extremes would Berke have to resort to in order to obtain information that might very well save the lives of everyone up at the lodge, as well as theirs? She took comfort in the ball of heat coming from Jacob’s small body. He was warm and dry. That was what counted.

“See?” Maxie pointed out the broomstick that wouldn’t even come close to barricading the double swinging doors. It was pointless of her to try and explain these things to a one-year-old, but some of these experiences would subconsciously be with Jacob forever. Wasn’t that what she was here for? To prepare him for the future? “We need something sturdier. Something made of metal to put through the two handles to keep it shut.”

Jacob looked up at her with his red, swollen eyes before glancing around, seemingly understanding what she was saying. Maxie wasn’t quite so sure that was the case, but she kept talking. She didn’t want him to hear anything that might be coming from the opposite side of the docking area. Why was it so quiet? Had Berke changed his mind? She didn’t expect so, especially considering the importance of finding out why this man was feigning to be someone else. What did he hope to gain by doing so?

How did he know so much about them? How had he discovered so much about the lodge, who was staying there, and what had just transpired with Mason’s journey? Mason was the team member to have come across Ace Fairfax in some rest area a couple of hundred miles to the east of here in Montana, but how could anyone else have known that?

The answer was obvious, but Maxie couldn’t imagine what that meant for all of them. Someone was not only listening in on their radio transmissions, but they must be watching the lodge somehow. They’d all tried to keep certain facts out of the conversations, but some of the events that had transpired had to be shared over the open transmission frequencies for the safety of their fellow brothers.

Maxie finally spotted a two-foot long heavy steel rod, three-quarters of an inch thick with a rubber handle on one end. She couldn’t think of what it might have been used for in the docking area, but it didn’t matter. She was able to lift it up with her available arm and then wedge it through the handles of the double door. Should someone decide to come at them from this direction, they wouldn’t have much luck gaining access through the door now. There were no windows, which meant they would have to shoot through what space they could manage to make between the double doors. They’d have no idea where to aim to hit their targets, which was an advantage that Maxie would take. She made sure that she and Jacob were out of a potential line of fire by walking to the side, all the while debating on what she could do to help.

Should she secure Jacob in his car seat inside the Mule and then join Berke up front, doing whatever she could to help him obtain the needed information? What would happen if their captive had reinforcements and they were about to enter the front? She should be there, but she couldn’t bring herself to leaving Jacob by himself for even a moment. What if those reinforcements happened to get through the metal rod she’d put into place? There were too many scenarios and none of them seemed too appealing at the moment.

Maxie had retrieved the M4 and then made sure to pick an area behind the produce prep area above the loading dock where neither she nor Jacob could see what was taking place behind the Mule below them, but giving them a good advantage point of the door she’d just secured. She settled them in and prepared herself for a long waiting period.

Berke had done what he’d needed to in ten.

“It’s a rogue section of the NRO.” Berke restated the intelligence he’d gathered in a monotone voice as if his emotions had been turned off. They most likely had, considering what he’d had to resort to in order to gain the truth. His left hand was still dripping with blood, and it didn’t take a scientist to figure out where it came from. “One of the section chiefs who’d been in charge of supporting key operational preparations for the government’s research teams is leading it, which was in part made up of Paige’s group. He changed his plans after she explained what was in Lost Summit.”

“And he told you this willingly?” Maxie asked warily, standing up and adjusting Jacob’s weight on her hip. She wasn’t close enough to the corner of the Mule to see if the man was still living. Berke wouldn’t go that far, would he? “An NRO agent wouldn’t just give you—”

“You don’t get it.” Berke reached behind her for the towel he’d hung to dry after cleaning up earlier. He started methodically wiping the blood away a finger at a time, causing Maxie’s stomach to roll steadily with waves of revulsion. She’d known the dynamics of humanity would change…but this? “He’s already turned once when he and his group decided to act for themselves and throw the rule of law out the window. He’s a traitor to his country and the people he’d sworn to protect. He and his boss are only out for themselves because they fully understand what we’re all facing. This disaster will be an extinction level event for eighty percent of the world’s populace over the next ten years.”

Maxie didn’t have to be told in detail what Berke was referring to regarding their future. Ten years of enduring a harsh winter with no direct sunlight…that alone sparked unspeakable images of what human beings would do to survive. The collapse of civilization as they’d known it wasn’t easy to face, but that’s what they were left with unless they worked together to prepare.

“Book!”

The drastic visual change in Berke’s face upon hearing a little boy call out to him while holding his arms out for solace was unlike anything Maxie had ever witnessed. Her eyes welled with tears at the bleakness shining in his dark eyes before he met her gaze imploringly.

“The man’s name is Joseph Webb and I didn’t have to resort to anything that would have been too far over the line.” Berke found the need to reassure Maxie of this and she was grateful, also knowing that he would have done what was necessary to save their lives. “Let your mama hold you, champ. I’ve got to get us ready to leave when Mav arrives with the rest of the team. It’ll be nice to be in a relatively secure place rather than all these hit ’n run stops where you don’t know what to expect next. Why don’t you and Mama go look for that kitty cat?”

Maxie had honestly forgotten all about the black and white cat she’d been searching for earlier. She quickly wiped her eyes and pulled herself together as she looked around locating several places the cat could be holed up, hiding from all the noise. The skittish feline was most likely scared to death after hearing Maxie’s gunfire and sought some immediate cover.

“Do we have to worry about anyone else showing up?” Maxie asked, wondering if this Joseph Webb had reinforcements waiting for them outside. She also didn’t want to think of what kind of ambush Mav and the others could be walking into without fully understanding the immediate threat. “Are his friends nearby?”

“What’s left of his unit is north of us near the Canadian border. They’re holed up in an old Cold War bomb shelter. It was originally designated as one of the USGS research team’s deployment and storage locations. A lot of what would have been established up there never made it to the site. Much of their supplies and fuel that were due to be delivered were diverted to the military bases at the last minute. They’ve been monitoring our frequencies and saw a way in with our approach. He’s their recon element.” Berke wasn’t about to be able to adequately clean his hands without soap and water, but he’d gotten the majority of the mess off of his fingers. Maxie had no choice but to follow him around the side of the Mule, where he opened the driver’s side door and reached underneath the seat where they kept one of the first aid kits for emergency use. “I need to suture up Webb’s wound and you’ve got around ten to fifteen minutes before the calvary arrives. You better locate Spot real quick if you want to take him with us.”