“Doc, can you tell how long ago this might have been?” Jeff asked, so clearly Melly wasn’t overwhelmed by the sight. But she was a doctor, Tamsyn reminded herself, used to handling death and gore.
“Ten days maybe? Without doing an exam I can’t be sure. And it appears animals may have…” She glanced at Mike and cut her comments off.
Gripped by a horrible notion, Tamsyn forced her eyes open and scanned the line of the dead, desperately hoping she wouldn’t recognize anyone as being from the two buses she’d sent off to supposed safety. She couldn’t be sure since the features of the deceased were in bad shape, but none of the clothing rang any bells for her and she closed her eyes again.
“I think I’ve found our perpetrator,” Cody said. “About ten miles outside the town.” You can look now, he said to her privately over the link.
After peeking first to be sure the view had changed, Tamsyn opened her eyes wide and studied the holo of a busy, armed camp, built around a complex of industrial buildings. Pickup trucks were coming and going, a few with heavy armament mounted in the back, armed men were everywhere and as she watched a string of chained prisoners were led into one of the side buildings. “What is this I’m seeing?” she exclaimed in revulsion.
“My best guess based on the available intel is some joker who’s set himself up as a local warlord and gang leader,” Jeff answered. “We don’t want to come up against him right now.”
“You said yourself we’re safe in the APC’s,” Tamsyn protested. “Why not roll in there and take him out, if he’s the murderer of those poor people in Verder’s Ford? And probably countless others.”
She could tell the captain was exercising considerable patience as he answered. “This isn’t our mission right now. Maybe in the distant future but right now I need to investigate the refugee camp at Glastine and then I need to get to our resources at our ranch site and make a few urgent interstellar calls.”
“Will they—will they send help?” Tamsyn held her breath. This was the first time Jeff had said anything so forceful about being able to talk to authorities offworld.
“Depends,” was the captain’s ambiguous answer. “For sure they won’t send any more troops. Not to a quarantined planet.”
“Situation isn’t much better at Millersville, captain,” Cody reported. The scene in the holo changed as he switched to his most forward flying drones. The town was clearly on a war footing, with barricades at each entry point into the city and armed men standing guard. There was quite a bit of destruction and damage to be seen as the drones flew overhead but portions of the town appeared well preserved and people could be seen on the streets.
“And the damn road leads right through there,” Zach said. “Orders, captain?”
“We can shoot and batter our way through those barricades,” Jeff said, “And reach the freeway on the other side again but I’m not too keen on killing innocent townspeople.”
“Negotiate for passage?” Cody suggested.
“Don’t know what leverage we’ve got, especially since we aren’t hanging around to help them with their would-be Genghis Khan over there in his armed camp.” Jeff rubbed his chin. “Damn, we need more intel on the whole situation.”
“Did you ever reach my friend Perry?” Tamsyn asked. “The rancher who lives in these parts?”
Zach shook his head. “Your friend ain’t talking if he’s still here. Tried the private link you gave me, left a message you were here, no reply. All we’re getting is the daily recorded messages from Glastine, inviting people in, and the occasional tight beam data feed going somewhere further north. The way the signal is being sent is designed to avoid capture or hacking. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
“Let me try calling him,” she said, leaving her seat and approaching the control panel. “He’s a stubborn old coot so I’m sure he’s sitting out there at his ranch and he can probably tell you all about the players involved here and what’s going on.”
Zach checked with Jeff who gave a curt nod. “Go for it.”
Tamsyn watched Zach key in the right frequency and then he handed her the tiny microphone. “Perry, this is Tamsyn Wendover, travelling through your part of the world with some new friends. They’d like to talk to you about the local gossip before we get ourselves into trouble we’d rather avoid. I know you’re there—you’re too damn stubborn to give up and die in an apocalypse—so call me back on this signal location and we can hash over old times. Tamsyn out.”
“Local gossip?” Jeff asked, eyebrow quirked and a grin on his face. “Never heard intel referred to in quite that way before.”
“This is a private link but you don’t know who might be listening,” she said. “Operation security, right? Isn’t that what you call it?”
“I think you’ve been watching too many thriller holos,” Cody called from the gunner’s turret.
She didn’t mind the gentle teasing. Jeff gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Well done. Now we’ll see if he’ll respond or not. Is his place on this side of Verder’s Ford or the far side?”
Tamsyn had to visualize the terrain. “I’ve only actually been to his spread a couple of times as a kid but yeah, it’d be on the other side of Verder’s.”
“All right since I want to get through this place as rapidly as possible, we’ll roll while we wait to hear from your friend or not. I would like local gossip to integrate into our other intel.”
Regaining her seat, Tamsyn was satisfied she’d done her best to help.
The APC’s moved forward at Jeff’s command and traveled through the ravaged small town as rapidly as possible, having to take a few detours to get past smashed cars and collapsed buildings.
“Must have been a firefight here,” Zach said at one point as he maneuvered the heavy vehicle through a tangle of fire engines, police groundcars and other vehicles, partially buried by a collapsed office building.
“Could have been our warlord,” Cody replied.
