“Last night, the horse thing with Charlie really upset her. I found her, yeah, but she wouldn’t come back with me at first. I told her I was going to stay with her. Then, she suddenly changed her mind and said she’d come back. Like she’d never walked off.”

  Austin knew his daughter; he knew the turmoil she’d been in after Nash’s death. He should have been keeping a better eye on her. His eyes kept looking towards the tree line, and suddenly he realized… there was only one horse. “Where’s Raven?”

  Amanda came up beside them, and the look in her eyes was enough to tell him what had happened. “She took off on Raven,” he whispered. “Sometime during the night.”

  “I’ll go look for her,” Malachi said. “I can catch up with her if I take Charlie, and I’m the best of us at tracking. It’ll be okay.”

  Austin turned and looked behind him, seeing the group talking amongst themselves. “This changes everything.” He looked back to Malachi and nodded. “Pack up some supplies. You’ll go out in one direction on Charlie and I’ll go in the other. We’ll find her.”

  He moved back, staying just outside the circle of people, and caught his brother’s eyes, using his head to gesture for Ennis to join him. Ennis got up and walked over immediately. “What’s going on?”

  “Savannah’s gone,” Austin said, the words feeling like daggers in his gut. “Possibly on Raven.”

  Ennis’s mouth dropped open. “Gone? Gone where?”

  Austin shook his head. “I don’t know. I think she might have run away in the middle of the night.”

  Ennis’s eyes widened, and then he reached out and gripped his brother’s shoulder. “We’ll split up and start looking for her,” Ennis said immediately.

  “What about the mission?” Wendell asked, joining them.

  Austin glared at him. “My daughter is missing. I don’t care about the mission.”

  Wendell scoffed. “I thought our whole lives depended on the mission. Aren’t we supposed to be saving the world?”

  “Not when my daughter is missing!” he shouted, and silence descended around them, even the birds stopped chirping.

  “Missing!” Tonya repeated belatedly.

  Austin realized everyone was looking at them. There was no point in trying to keep it a secret. “She’s not here. I suspect she ran off at some point last night. Possibly on horseback.”

  “Who was on watch?” Amanda asked.

  Austin shook his head, not wanting to point fingers and cause tension. “It doesn’t matter—she was sleeping behind the lean-to and easily could have snuck off.” His daughter was headstrong. And she was smart enough to have used the lean-to to hide her escape, as well as quiet enough to do it without anyone noticing.

  “It doesn’t matter. I have to find her,” Austin announced.

  “The mission. You can’t abandon the mission!” Sarah said, practically panicking. “You said we’d stop the NWO and I’ve worked nonstop to make it possible. Don’t you dare give up because of a teenager’s temper tantrum!”

  Austin glared at her. “I can’t abandon my daughter. She comes first!”

  “I’ll find her and bring her back. We’ll catch up with you,” Malachi said, stepping in front of him. “I can do it. I know how to think like her, Austin. I’m the only one she’s going to talk to, too, and you know it. She feels horrible about Nash, still, and the thing with Charlie yesterday was just the icing on the cake,” Malachi said. “You need to let me do this while you focus on taking down the NWO—that can’t wait,” the boy pressed, holding his gaze.

  He stepped back, away from the group, fighting the urge to either sob or scream. When he spoke, it was as much to himself as anyone. “I’ve tried talking to her. I’ve tried giving her space and time to grieve,” Austin said, knowing it was no defense for his ignorance of how hard she’d been taking everything. He’d known she was upset, but to run away…

  “I’ll go. I can find her. I can track her,” Malachi insisted.

  “Austin. Let Malachi go, and we stick with the plan,” Ennis said.

  Austin stared at him with horror. “You can’t be serious! I’m not leaving her behind!”

  “I can do it, Austin. I promise you I can do this. I’ll find her and bring her back,” Malachi said again, putting up a hand to stop his mother from cutting in.

  “We need you to lead one of the teams,” Ennis said.

  Austin glared at him, wondering what he could be thinking. “You can lead the team. You’re the one who was just making a big play to be the leader—so, lead. I’ll catch up to you once I find my daughter,” Austin argued.

  Amanda stepped in beside Malachi, catching his eye. “I think Ennis makes a good point. Austin, you are the one who pushed for this. Malachi is a capable young man. He can take Charlie. He’s better on horseback than you are and can make better time,” she said. “Plus, he’s been the only one of us to have any real luck with tracking, and his eyesight will allow him to do it from horseback. He’s the smart choice here.”

  “Okay, but so what if he is?” Austin answered. “That doesn’t mean I can just walk away from this clearing. I should be here looking for her. Malachi can help me.”

  “Austin, think about this,” Amanda begged, stepping in closer and lowering her voice. “If she sees you, she might not even want to come back. What’ll you do, drag her back to the group? Malachi is right; he’s the better choice to get her to return. She’ll listen to him.” Amanda’s voice had gotten softer as she spoke, as if she knew she were telling him hard truths.

  In front of her, Austin cringed. It killed him that she was right. The idea of leaving Savannah tore him up; torn between saving his daughter or saving the world for his daughter. He looked at Malachi again, and then thought back to the journey to get Sarah, and the way Malachi had helped his daughter cross the country to get to Ennis’s house. It had been Savannah who’d directed them, but Malachi who’d made sure that his whole group didn’t abandon her. He’d not once stopped looking after her, and the trip to get Sarah had more than proven the teen was strong and capable. He’d shown how capable he was several times since then, in fact.

  “Malachi, are you sure you can do this?” Austin asked quietly. “And I mean absolutely, one-hundred percent positive?”

  Malachi held his gaze, and then looked over to his mom before facing Austin again. “I can do this. I can find her.” Tonya let out a sob, and Malachi looked over to her. “Mom, I’ll be fine. You know it. I need to go now, though,” he said, meeting Austin’s eyes. “Every minute we stand here arguing, it’s another minute she’s getting farther away.”

  Austin gulped down the lump in his throat. “Tonya, I understand if you don’t want him to go. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want my kid leaving alone, either. Don’t feel pressured to do something you’re not comfortable with. If you say he doesn’t go, he doesn’t go.”

  Tonya looked like she was in pain, but she only threw her arms around her son and squeezed him tight. “Don’t you dare do anything that will get you hurt or worse! You better come right back to me, got it?” she asked, tears in her eyes.

  Malachi nodded, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I got it, Mom. I don’t want to get hurt, either. I’ll be back with you in no time.”

  Amanda stepped in then, putting her hand on Austin’s shoulder. “It’s settled then. Let’s get Charlie ready to go. We need to give Malachi all the extra food and water we’ve collected so he can focus on finding Savannah and not have to scavenge. With any luck, he’ll bring most of it back to us,” Amanda said. “Meanwhile, let’s figure out where he needs to meet up with us.”

  Austin nodded, sick to his stomach as he thought about leaving. He felt like the worst father in the world. He knew he should be putting his daughter first, but he also knew that the mission was ultimately putting her first. He was doing it all for her. He was doing it because he wanted her to have a bright future.

  Sarah stood by anxiously, and he knew this was her cue. He could see she was just waiting for permission to set the plan in motion.

  “What’s the plan, Dr. Bastani?” he asked, forcing himself to switch gears and focus on the end game. He had to focus on something while Malachi got ready.

  “We need one group to head to Blackfoot, Idaho. That’s the first possible location of the computer center,” she explained.

  “We’re probably somewhere close to the southwest corner of Wyoming,” he guesstimated. “How far are we from Blackfoot?”

  “I’d guess it’s approximately two hundred miles, or just under. That’s why we need to move.”

  Austin winced. “We can move at twenty to thirty miles a day if we push hard. It’s going to take us at least a week to get there. Do we have that kind of time?”

  “Assuming the date on the messenger is correct, we have about twenty-five days to do this. So, we don’t stop for anything. We push ourselves until our feet are blistered,” she said vehemently.

  Austin grimaced, not looking forward to that or to walking two hundred miles. He hoped his leg was up for it. “The other group? Where do we send them?” he asked.

  Sarah had her answer ready, at least. “I think we have the first group search Blackfoot, then move on to Twin Falls, Idaho, and if there’s no luck there, on to Boise. These are somewhat close together, so one group can go for all three and deal with whichever one works out, wherever they find the computer center. The missile silos are much farther away. As much as I want to find the computer center first and put our focus there, it makes more sense to have someone at the missile silo, ready to activate the codes. There should be military personnel there to help with the activation itself as long as everything else is in place. Someone with military background might make things go more smoothly,” Sarah added, looking pointedly at Amanda.

  Austin nodded. “Where are the missiles?”

  At this, Sarah looked down at her feet. “Warren Air Force base.”

  “Where’s that?” Tonya asked.

  Amanda’s face twisted. “About four hundred miles east, near Cheyenne.”

  Austin exchanged a look with the vet. It had been their original plan to try and get to the base. If only they could have known then what they knew now.

  “Okay, so we’re up for a long walk,” Amanda muttered. “But it should be me headed that way. I’m former Air Force and have a little more working knowledge on how things work on the base, and maybe my background will hold sway with whoever’s there if there’s still U.S. military installed. We thought there would be then, and I haven’t changed my mind. And even if there aren’t… well, I can’t say I’ve ever launched a real missile, but I do know my way around computers.”

  Austin agreed with the logic in play here, but hated the idea of sending her out on such a long journey, especially when he’d be heading in the opposite direction. He turned to Malachi, seeing that the kid was fidgeting, shifting from one foot to the other as he waited to get going.

  “Malachi, you’ll come to me when you get Savannah,” he said simply, and then he set about giving him a general set of directions to follow. “Head for Blackfoot—that’s where we’ll go first. If you get delayed…” he choked off at the thought, and then forced himself to keep going. “If you get delayed, assume we’re far enough ahead that you should bypass us. In that case, go to Boise. Use your best judgement. I hope to see you by tonight, but that’ll be the plan if not. We’ll stick to the highway. If it’s close to dark, I’ll leave some kind of signal to let you know where to look for our camp, alright? And we’ll keep our eyes open. I’m trusting you to do this. Be safe, Malachi, and please bring her back to me.”

  “I will.” Malachi nodded once, and then just to be safe, Austin went over the plan with Malachi again, outlining the course of their journey for the next few weeks. They’d plan on doing this in three weeks. It was hard to imagine they could have everything resolved in twenty-one days, but that was the plan. Twenty-one days for Amanda to get to Cheyenne, with a couple extra days for padding. And, on his side, they had three weeks to find the computer center and disable the satellite controls before she got there. With the messengers both charged from the laptop’s solar charger, Austin could let her know once the satellite controls had been disabled from the computer center, and then she’d be free to figure out the missile launch. Sarah even thought they could send a message to the base from the computer center, but one way or another, they’d find a way to get her word that things were good on his end if they got that far.

  That was a big if, he knew, but worse came to worst, she knew the countdown as well as he did, and could launch the missiles just before they hit it if need be. At that point… well, at that point, there’d be nothing to lose.

  Malachi loaded onto Charlie and rode off, giving one final promise to stick to the directions Austin had given him—with the understanding that, worst case scenario, he’d head to Boise if they got delayed. Austin watched as he rode away. His heart felt like it was being ripped out, but he reminded himself he’d probably see Savannah that evening. She wouldn’t be far—she couldn’t be—and with them on horseback, they’d catch up to Austin and the others in no time.

  He hoped.

  A part of him also realized that it might be awhile before he saw his daughter again. He made a silent prayer to any deity listening that Malachi found her and they both returned safely.

  “Let’s get a fire going and get the bottles filled,” Ennis said, taking charge while Austin grappled with his decision. “Mike, you and Gretchen go gather up the last of those berries. We leave this afternoon.”

  “We need to talk about groups,” Amanda said.

  Austin nodded, taking her to the side as the others began prepping to leave. “I’ll take Wendell with me. I want him where I can see him,” he said, still not trusting the guy.

  “Ennis?”

  “I’m sure Wendell will insist he goes where Ennis goes at this point, so I’d say they both come with me. Are you okay with that?” he asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Sarah?” he asked.

  Amanda cringed. “She seems to trust you, and she’ll be better with the computers. It’s probably best she goes with you.”

  He nodded. “The rest can go with you. I want you to have plenty of backup.”

  “No, I’ll feel better if one more guy stays with you since we don’t know if Wendell will take off or not—I wouldn’t put it past him. Ezra?” she suggested.

  Austin agreed now that he considered the point, but wanted Ezra with Amanda. “You take him. I trust him. He can handle himself pretty well.”

  “Jordan?”

  Austin thought about it. He wanted to set Amanda up for success. “Take him, as well. I’ll take Harlen; he’s better with Wendell than Jordan. And Gretchen can shoot, remember. She goes with you, as well.”

  With the groups established, things were soon prepared and there was nothing left to deal with but the goodbyes. There were some tears as everyone wished each other well. Finally packing up the charger and electronics, Sarah came over and handed Amanda one of the messengers.

  “Amanda, leave it off till you need to. Then, when you make it to the base, turn it on and wait for the signal from Austin. If you fire the missiles before I can enter the coordinates, it will all be for nothing,” she said. “Unless we hit the countdown date… if you haven’t heard from us then, you might as well try.”

  “Will do.”

  Tucking away the other messenger, Sarah added, “It took me a while to get them both charged and I’ve no idea how long the charges will hold, as I think there’s a problem with them. So, seriously, don’t turn it on until the last possible minute.”

  The last chore done, Austin pulled Amanda away from the group. They didn’t usually need to say much to communicate, but he wanted at least a moment with her. “I will see you in a few weeks,” he told her. “You wait for me at that base.”

  She smiled. “I bet I see you first.”

  He forced a smile. “Watch your back, Amanda. Don’t let those guys push you into something you don’t think is right. You have excellent instincts.”

  “Thank you. And you watch your back. You have Wendell with you. I still don’t trust him,” she whispered.

  “I know. I will.”

  They stared at each other for several seconds.

  “Take care of yourself,” he said finally.

  With that, he leaned in and gave her a quick hug. He refused to let himself think it would be the last time he saw her. He had to believe Malachi would bring Savannah to him within a couple of hours, and by next month, the world would be back on track, and he’d once again be with his daughter as well as Amanda.

  13

  Zander stomped into the old-school military-style tent they’d set up about five miles north of the burnt-out house Austin and his cohorts had been living in. He was still stewing over the fact that Austin had escaped again. The guy was proving to be a real pain, and Zander swore he’d be putting a bullet in Austin’s head the next time he saw him. He wouldn’t give him the chance to escape. Not again. Austin’s continued freedom made Zander look bad in front of his bosses, and that wasn’t acceptable.

  He’d been forced to report back to them about the man, admitting he’d screwed up again. And a gun had been put to his head. He’d thought he was going to be killed in that instant. It was nothing short of a miracle that he still breathed. He wanted to believe it was because they trusted him, but he knew otherwise; it was only because they knew he was ruthless. There were few men on the planet that were as ruthless as he was.

  This was his last chance, however. They would not hesitate to kill him if he failed again—that had been made clear. He had a feeling the death they would wield on him would be slow and painful, too, so he’d take care of the matter himself if Austin escaped again.

  He’d been so hopeful that he would one day be at the top in the organization. Cream always rose to the top, and he knew he was smarter, better, and more efficient than most of the people he worked with. He deserved a seat at the big table… and he was going to get it one way or another. Austin and his little brat weren’t going to get in the way again.

 

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