The Journal: Raging Tide: (The Journal Book 4) (16 page)

“I will make sure the generator doesn’t even
burp
today, Lieutenant, if it will get the internet back for
us.”

“Thank you, Major. When they’re done, would
you like to borrow my staff to get your office back online? After
the colonel, that is. Jim has already asked for them.”

Major Hogan stared at me, and then smiled.
“You’re an enigma, Lieutenant. I’m not sure what to make of you.
You look military, you act military, yet you don’t
feel
military. And yes, I’d like to be next on the list.”

“You already are. Oh, and I did want to run
something else by you. Billy says the matrix that is the brains of
the server is also the information storage. It is clogged up with
old legal and business files and is slowing us down. He can
download the information onto memory sticks without losing
anything. With your permission, of course.”

*

“You’re turning this base on its head, you
know,” Jim said, sitting at Billy’s console. “And thanks for
letting me use part of your office while Pvt. Toth and Cpl. Ki are
doing their magic in mine.”

I looked up and smiled. “It’s good to have
you close by, Jim. And the only thing I’ve done is to give two
smart kids a chance to prove themselves.” When the kids had
returned from their lunch break, I sent them down to Jim’s office,
after they had spent the morning repairing and rebooting the entire
system. It didn’t take as long as Billy had thought, and having Kim
do some of the work helped. They made a good team.

“You’ve done more than that, Allex. You
bounced back from a horrific experience without so much as a look
back. Then you come in here and start organizing what should have
been organized from the start. You’re putting things back in order
that should never have gotten
out
of order. This is the
military, and you’re not, yet what you’re doing is working. Not to
mention all the men are in love with you and the women admire you.
Except for Donna, she’s jealous.” He looked down at his keyboard
and let out a long breath. “And Dan is making noises about going
over my head to have you transferred here to him,” he said through
clenched teeth.

“He can’t do that!”

“Oh, he’s going to try.”

“Jim, I’m not even—”

“Shh, the walls have ears, Allex,” he
whispered and stood before me. “You’ve been cooped up inside for
two days now. I think you need some fresh air. Walk with me,
Lieutenant,” he said louder.

We took the elevator down and were outside
in less than five minutes.

“The fresh air does feel good, although I
don’t know how much walking I can do. My feet are still sore,” I
said, eying a park bench. “What would happen if Dan discovered our
charade?”

“I’m not sure. If he was by-the-book, you
could be thrown in jail and I could be court martialed. This isn’t
a by-the-book situation though, so I don’t think they would do
anything to you.”

“You could still be court-martialed though?
Jim, how do we get out of this?” I asked in alarm. I certainly
didn’t want anything to happen to him because of me!

I sat on the bench and he sat beside me,
arms stretched out along the back, his long legs extended with
ankles crossed, very relaxed.

“One of our biggest problems could be Donna.
She and Dan have had a thing going on for about a month and now she
sees you as a threat. She needs to be defused before she starts
digging into your non-existent records. Any ideas?”

“Well, you could always take me back to
Annie’s until you’re finished here.”

“Running never solves anything. Distraction
might be the way to go though.” Jim stood and then knelt down in
front of me and took my hands. “I’m sure we’re being watched; they
will think I’m proposing to you and the word will spread. That
should cool Donna’s jets for a while.” My eyes widened. “Just play
along, Allex. We’ll be out of here in a few days. And please try to
act happy about it, you look like you’re about to go in front of a
firing squad!”

Had I just giggled?

*

I spent most of the afternoon pulling up
inventory files from around the base and organizing the
information. Knowing what was on hand for supplies and where it was
located was vital to a smoothly operating command center. At 1630
hours, 4:30pm, Billy and Kim arrived back in the EOC, chattering
away like two fifth-graders.

“What’s all the excitement?” I asked,
enjoying their animation.

“Nothing really, it’s just good to do
something… real, ya know?” Kim said. “Colonel Andrews was very
pleased with our work. He said what we did was going to make his
work easier and he’d be finished in half the time.” A girlish grin
widened her mouth and she blushed. “And he’s so handsome.”

I laughed. “Yes, he is an attractive man.
Back to business! Are you two ready to tackle Major Hogan’s office
tomorrow? Or is there enough time to do it today?”

“I’d rather do his and Donna’s computers
tomorrow, if that’s alright,” Billy said. “It will be easier to
link the computers all at once if those two can do something else
for the morning.”

“They are welcome to use these stations if
need be,” I said. “I’ve noticed you haven’t personalized them yet,
so it’s not a problem, right?”

“I was going to do that now,” Kim said. “I
guess I can wait though.”

“Well, then why don’t you two take off
early? You’ve done a great job today.” When they hesitated leaving,
I asked, “Is there something on your mind?”

“Um, we had to test things out on the
computers, ya know? Make sure the search engines could do what you
want, and we, um, had to t-test the hookup to the m-military site,”
Billy stammered.

“We did a simple search, ma’am, to test it,”
Kim picked up. “So we searched… you...”

“Oh?” I said. This could be trouble. “And
what did you find?”

“Nothing. Well, we did find that you really
are an emergency manager, which explains why you’re so good at
this, but you don’t have any military records,” Kim finished,
looking down at her feet.

“You do now,” Billy said proudly.

“What?”

“Well, we figured you had to have a really
good reason to be doing whatever it is you’re doing, and we like
you, so we created a file for you so you wouldn’t get into
trouble,” Billy said.

“What kind of a file?” I asked
cautiously.

“If anyone searches for you in the military
archives, they find an encoded file marked ‘Classified’ and won’t
be able to get into it,” Billy crowed. “If they have the clearance
though, they get to the next level, a file marked ‘Special
Assignment’, and then the next level is ‘Covert Operations’ with a
link to ‘Operation 87264’ which will take them to a room that
flashes ‘Security Breach!’. Backing out of that one takes them back
to the beginning. It’s a continuous loop, and all dated a year
ago.”

Billy and Kim laughed, delighted with the
scam.

“I don’t know what to say, except thank
you,” I said to them. “And yes, I have reasons to be doing this,
reasons I can’t share.”

“We understand, ma’am,” Kim said, “and we’re
having fun being part of it.”

“However, I do have to ask you to make a
change,” I said to Billy. “Operation 87264, I think should be
Operation… Boy Scout.”

“I can do that,” he replied. “But why?”

“That’s classified,” I said and both of them
grinned. “Oh, and if it ever comes up, I ordered you to do this,
okay?”

*

With them gone, I turned on my computer and
started surfing, trying to find some news. I was more than curious
about what was going on downstate. I hadn’t heard from my sister in
so long… The first thing I found was some maps of the flooding. It
was staggering. Michigan is shaped like a hand with the fingers
closed: a mitten with a thumb, and that’s where my sister was, in
the thumb. That area didn’t fare as badly as other parts, although
the tip was gone, from Bay City to Port Sanilac. Thankfully she was
further south, not by much though.

The tip of the mitten, Mackinaw City, I
already knew was flooded, and although the Mackinaw Bridge was
still standing, it wasn’t attached to dry land on either side now.
I wondered if sealing up the rift would help that water
subside.

Chicago was a holy mess. The entire
shoreline was under a couple of feet of water and mud, and because
of all the concrete there was no place for the water to go except
further inland. Highways 90, 94 and even 55 and 57 were flooded or
compromised.

It was interesting and frustrating to read
how the rest of the nation was reacting to our calamity. Simply
put, they weren’t. So what was a foot or two of water? It was that
attitude again, that if it didn’t affect them directly it wasn’t
real and couldn’t be bothered with. Of course, the rest of the
nation had its own problems. Half of Florida was lost, the
Yellowstone Volcano was still spewing lava, and the East Coast was
overwhelmed with all the refugees and no place to put them. The one
new thing I found out was that the San Andreas had let go. A 10.5
on the Richter Scale had ripped a big hole in California. Maybe up
here wasn’t so bad after all.

I shut down the web and pulled up the word
processor. I still had a report to file on the convicts we’d
encountered. It would be deeply sanitized before any other eyes
read it.

“Earth to Allex!” Jim said. I hadn’t even
heard him come in. “Ready for a pre-dinner cocktail?”

“More than ready,” I said, shutting down my
station for the night.

*

I sipped my spiced rum, doubly enjoying the
tinkle of ice cubes in my glass. “I need to think of an appropriate
gift for Wilkes before we leave.”

“Speaking of which, how does the day after
tomorrow sound? With a working computer and being online, my
reports are filed ten times faster. I’m about done. How about
you?”

“The supply inventories are complete and
there’s just a little polishing on the convict-situation report and
I’m done too. Could we leave tomorrow?” I asked hopefully.

“An extra day is called for here, Allex. I
think we should host a small cocktail party tomorrow night to say
goodbye. We certainly have enough booze to donate and we can
restock on the way home.”

*

“I’m glad Hogan agreed to the party so
quickly,” Jim said as we stepped out of the elevator after dinner.
“Tomorrow morning we can discuss a menu with the kitchen staff.” We
were standing at my door when the elevator dinged again.

“The major and Donna just got out on this
floor, Jim,” I said in a whisper, catching the movement from my
peripheral vision.

He looked down at me and smiled, sliding his
arm around my waist and pulling me closer. I gazed into his dark,
smoky gray eyes and I felt a heat that spread from the inside out.
His cheek grazed mine and my heart started thudding in my chest
when his other hand reached behind me, opened the door, and he
seductively backed me into the room. Jim closed the door and turned
the light on. I thought my heart was going pound right out of my
cracked ribs.

He turned to me with his lips set in a sly
grin and with a touch of mock innocence said, “Cribbage?”

JOURNAL ENTRY: April 29

I’m trying very hard to act like nothing happened
last night, which is easy because nothing did. My reaction to what
could
have happened has me flustered and on edge.

~~~

“Good morning, Kim, you’re here early,” I
said looking at the clock reading fifteen minutes before nine.

“Is it true?” she blurted out.

“Is what true?”

“That the colonel asked you to marry him!
Everyone is talking about it but no one knows who saw what so they
want me to find out since I work for you,” she said, barely pausing
for a breath.

“Why would anyone think that, Kim?” I said
with feigned innocence.

“Well, someone saw you two outside yesterday
and said the colonel went on ‘bended knee’ in front of you and that
can only mean one thing, ya know!”

“It could also mean he was tying my shoe. I
suffered some nasty injuries not that long ago, and my feet are
still pretty damaged.” I wasn’t sure which line of thought I should
encourage. Jim started and has perpetuated this charade, and it’s
only for another day so maybe I should play along with the way he
started it. She looked crestfallen. “What if he
did
propose?” I said with a secret smile.

“I knew it!!” Kim jumped up and clapped.
“He’s such a great person and so are you and you’re perfect for
each other!” She threw her arms around me for a hug. “Oh, I’m
sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to get so familiar, I was just
excited.”

“That’s okay, Kim, just try to curb your
enthusiasm in front of others. And let’s keep this between you and
me, alright?” I hadn’t admitted to anything; Kim had jumped to her
own conclusions. “So others asked you to find out? I gather your
fellow soldiers are treating you better?”

“Oh, yes, they are much nicer to Billy and
me now that we’re working for
you
,” she said. “It’s made
life here a lot easier.”

Kim was still grinning ear to ear when Billy
came in.

“Now that both of you are here I have a
special assignment for you before starting on the major’s office.”
I sat on the edge of my desk facing them. “Can you sweep this
office and my quarters for bugs?”

“Sure,” Billy said dumbfounded. “You think
someone has bugged you?” Funny how he immediately knew I meant an
electronic-bug not a critter-bug.

“I think it’s very likely anything is left
over from the last tenants,
if
you find anything that is,” I
put my finger to my lips, drawing them into a conspiracy. “And
since this is now a government installation we want to be sure
nothing is leaking out.” Both kids got a big, big smile at being
trusted with this project.