N8 followed his line of sight. “Is that a radio?” Going over to the box, he pulled out the antique, boxy lime green object. “Wow. I wonder if it works.”
“Well, the guy did say it was all secondhand stuff nobody wanted,” P8 noted. “I guess someone got a new radio and no longer wanted this one.”
“I assume all of this stuff still works,” T8 commented. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense to bring us useless junk.”
“Let’s see if it can pick up anything out here.” N8 strode over to the nearest wall socket and plugged it in. He found a collapsible antenna on the back and extended it. Turning it on, he slowly moved the large dial on its face until the thin strains of a twangy guitar came through the speakers. “Neat! It works!”
T8 walked over to K8 and bowed. “May I have this dance, m’lady?”
She smiled as she curtsied and took his hand. Together they proceeded around the table to the country-sounding tune. Not to be outdone, N8 approached F8, and they also took a turn on the dance floor.
Chuckling, G8 continued into the office. As he walked over to the phone sitting on the desk, he realized he wasn’t alone. He didn’t need three guesses to know who it was and turned around to face her.
Tears glittered in her eyes. Not with fear or worry. More like…pity. “Is this your life now?” she softly asked.
“What life? You mean bad guys showing up whenever they feel like it?”
“That. And this.” Ingrid held out her hands to indicate their surroundings. “G8, this place is?—”
“Home. It’s home,” he firmly told her. “We know it’s not the Ritz Hotel, but at least it’s four walls and a roof over our heads. We know the cabins aren’t weatherproof, but we’re working on them. We’re sleeping on air mattresses since the mattresses we found here were infested with bugs. But once we start bringing in some income, we’ll replace them. Until we were able to get the electricity on, we had to bathe in the lake. But now that we have hot water, we can shower like normal people. We can cook our food on a stove instead of over a pit fire outside, and we can keep stuff cold in the refrigerator.” He smiled at her. “Every day we’re able to make this place more habitable and comfortable but we also know it’ll take time. That’s okay with us, and do you know why?”
She mutely shook her head.
“Because we’re no longer at their mercy. We don’t have to worry about them coming up with new ways to torment and torture us, all in the name of ‘science.’ And we’re together. We’re family, and that’s our biggest strength.”
“I-I didn’t mean… I hope you don’t think I was insulting you.”
G8 shook his head. “You have no idea how far we’ve come, and we’re only getting started. Now, I need to make this call. Let’s hope it’s not an emergency.”
“I’m going to check on the babies. I’ll be right back.”
Sheriff Biggs must have been expecting his call. It was answered on the first ring.
“Sheriff’s Department. This is Biggs.”
“Thanks for being intuitive and sending MacDavis to the rescue,” G8 half-jested, then got serious. “No, really. It would have turned out vastly different if you hadn’t.”
“When I tried to call and couldn’t reach you, I had him swing over there since he was scheduled to be your watchdog today,” Biggs explained.
“Did he tell you how it went down?”
“I got the gist of it over the radio. I’ll get the full story once he arrives.”
“Any word yet on the man Sowels had to shoot to disarm?”
“Not yet, but I already got two nice cells waiting for them. Separated, of course. The reason I was calling in the first place was to let you know I’d heard back from Chief Adams. He tried to place a few calls to Docenti Labs, but got no answer. So he sent a crew over to check it out.” The sheriff took a deep breath. “The place is locked down tighter than Fort Knox.”
“Locked down, as in closed down?”
“Worse. Adams’ men did a little more investigating. There’s still power goingtothe labs, but none goingin.All the windows are barred and shuttered. The place is like a tomb. On top of that, I managed to get hold of Wallace Dazen. I know he works there. The guy said he was on vacation and knew nothing about it, but I could tell the guy was lying through his teeth.”
“Did you tell him what you suspected?” G8 asked. A movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Seeing it was Ingrid, he held up a hand for her to remain silent.
“Oh, hell, no. The guy may have really been on vacation, but I’m suspecting that’s what all of them were instructed to say in case they were questioned.”
“You know things are going to get pretty hairy after a while when none of the employees are able to return to work, right?’ G8 pointed out.
“And if anyone tries, I’m betting a dollar to a donut right now the people behind those labs will have disappeared permanently from sight,” Biggs surmised. There was a pause, and the man added, “All except for you five and those babies. You are the only remaining proof that those labs existed in the first place.”
