-Are we beingwatched?-
Goodquestion.
“Okay Kevin. I’ll see what I can do,” I told him. “Hey, is the FBI still on our ass?” I addedcasually.
He was quiet a moment. “Not that I know of. But they’re looking for where you mine the rare mineral that creates the plasmashield.”
My heart beat faster, as if that waspossible.
“Why?”
His answer was immediate. “So they can blow itup.”
Two
We all satcross-legged on the roof of the old soap factory. After Kevin assured me that, to the best of his knowledge, our new phones weren’t bugged and our new hideout was well hidden, he had to go. He said to call from burner phones only, just in case, but that he really couldn’t help us any more thanthat.
My mind was absolutely reeling. “So the elites are going to wait until the population’s been culled and then what? The ghouls leave to terraform another planet, and the people left back on Earth create a newsociety?”
Nox was glaring at the ground. “Sounds about right. The new society will be full of white dominant males, and they’ll name it ‘New America’ or some shit. Take over the entire Earth and make sure all their plastic girlfriends make it there withthem.”
Nox was half Native American, half Japanese. He had every right to say that. I hoped it wasn’t true, but I couldn’t deny it at thispoint.
Damien had been silent the entire time, hands crossed in his lap. “A clean burning fuel that takes years to burn up is rarer than diamonds orgold.”
I side-eyed him. “You sound like you wantsome.”
He met my gaze. “I do. But not at the expense of human lives. This all makes so much sense now. Why the FBI raided us and took my intel. Why in their emails, they said they were going to give out the cuff only to the elites. They just want to protect a small number of people, until their deal with the sentries isdone.”
“So what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen?” I asked our small group. The rage was slowly building in me, and once it exploded, I wasn’t sure what I was going todo.
“I think first and foremost we need to think of our safety.” Ronnie spoke up. “If they’re looking to blow up themine….”
Ahh yes. Always the doctor thinking rationally.Probably isn’t smart to stay in Bisbee long-term anymore.My heart broke a little at thatthought.
“I agree,” Damien said. “At this rate, we’re fulfilling about a hundred thousand cuff orders a day. That’s with factories all around the country pumping them out. But the mine has to dig up the rare mineral, shape it into discs, and mail it to the factories. It’s going to start falling behind in production. I’ve been planning this for a while, had the mine pre-making the discs to fit into the cuffs for weeks now. But if they blow up the mine… no morecuffs.”
Anger whipped through me. “How can they do that! We’ll expose them, go to the news,” Ishouted.
Damien chuckled. “Kit, they’ll make it look like an accident. No one will believe us. President Buckley just did a one-hour special on how much she collaborated with Striker Industries on the cuffs. She looks like ahero.”
There was a tiny pebble next to my knee. I picked it up and chucked across the length of the rooftop in anger. “So what the hell do we do,then?”
It was going to take months for us to be able to get cuffs out to every citizen. And even though other countries were following Damien’s schematics online to make their own, they still needed the rare mineral to actually produce a plasma shield. If the government discovered and took out this mine, humanity wasscrewed.
Damien looked out on the sweet and sleepy town of Bisbee. “I think it’s time to say goodbye to Bisbee. The best way to keep the mine hidden is to leave. I’m going to call my real estate agent and have him buy another mine in my name in Texas to throw them off. Then I’ll have him grab us a new house, somewhere out of thecountry.”
My heart knocked in my chest. Leave the country? That was a bit scary, but it also feltnecessary.
“I have family in Japan, and I speak the language,” Ronnieoffered.
Damien nodded. “Which is why it’s a bad place to go. If shit really heats up, if this whole elite thing is real, we’re going to need to lie reallylow.”
“Mexico?” Nox offered, pointing in the direction of the border. We were only ten miles fromit.
Damien looked out toward the mountain ranges that nestled Bisbee in. “I was thinking Canada. Vancouver, actually. It’s close enough to the US that I can keep an eye on things, and with the borders open right now, we could easily slip in without leaving a papertrail.”
Ronnie nodded. “Their medical supplies are up to my standards, so I’m okay withthat.”
