In The Trenches: An OPS Protector Romance, page 13
I shuffled some things around on my desk, refusing to look at her immediately. Rafe was a touchy subject, and as I feared, she saw too much. “What about him?”
She cocked her head to the side, giving me a knowing look. “You didn’t ask about him.”
“I think you already know that I am aware of who Rafe is.”
“Yes, but you never said how close you really are with him.”
“And you think you know.”
A slight smile curved her lips. She was having fun with this, knowing she had me in a tight spot. “He’s important to you. You deferred to him, even when you didn’t mean to. And that either means that you have a personal relationship, or you owe him. You never back down to anyone, but you did to him.”
“It’s the government,” I countered. “They sort of outrank me.”
“Yes, but that’s never stopped you before. In the past, you would have complied to keep them happy, then turned around and stabbed them in the back.”
“Who says I’m not doing that now?”
“I do, and remember, I see everything. That’s part of the reason you hired me.”
“Very true,” I grinned.
“So?”
“So what?” I asked, refusing to give even an inch. My secrets were mine for a reason. I wouldn’t give them up to even her.
“Fine, be that way.” She stood from her chair and headed for the door. “I’ll get started on gathering intel on Grady. Let me know if our new friend gives you anything else.”
“You know he won’t.”
She pulled the door open, glancing back at me one last time. “Are you sure about that?”
Then she disappeared into the dark hallway.
18
BETH
I waited all night long for someone to show up at my door. Despite the fact that everything was normal on my way home, I was sure that it wouldn’t be the last time I ran into Seth. I sat in the corner of my studio apartment waiting for the door to be broken in. My muscles were strung so tight that I could hardly get up to use the bathroom.
When daylight finally broke, relief surged through me. I debated what to do with the knowledge I had. Something was definitely off about last night. Even though those men had badges to get in, I knew instinctually that they weren’t supposed to be there.
In a snap decision, I headed back to the research building. I was tired and needed to get some sleep, but I also had to figure out if I was supposed to show up to work tonight. The minute I stepped outside, I knew life was going to be very different for the foreseeable future. Cars were lined up on the streets, honking at the intersection for their chance to get past the non-functioning street lights. It was chaos.
Pulling my jacket closed, I hurried down the sidewalk. It was a half hour walk back to the building, and I was usually fine with making it, but today was different. Everyone was on edge. I watched as people across the street gathered, talking in hushed whispers. I could feel the growing panic in the air as people spread gossip about why there was a power outage and when it would be restored.
“I heard the entire west coast was affected,” one woman spoke as I passed.
I slowed my steps to try and hear more.
“My son said it was an earthquake.”
“That’s ridiculous. We would have felt an earthquake that strong.”
I kept walking, a million thoughts running through my mind. Up ahead, a traffic cop was doing his best to keep cars moving through the intersection. I felt terrible for him as people shouted at him, cursing him for not being able to control the odd vehicle that didn’t pay attention to his instructions.
I turned the corner and kept walking, quickening my steps. The sooner I got to my work, the better I would be. After what felt like hours, I finally arrived outside the main entrance to the research facility. When I tried to open the doors, a security guard came forward.
“The building is closed,” he said gruffly.
“I work here.”
“Like I said, the building is closed today.”
I almost turned and walked away, but found myself rooted to the spot. Whoever was in charge needed to know what happened last night. “I was working last night when the power went off. There are things I need to speak with the boss about.”
“Such as?”
“Some men showed up here.” I left it at that, hoping he understood that I wasn’t comfortable saying more than that at this time. He scrutinized me for another moment before nodding and allowing me to enter.
“Parker!” the man shouted to another guard. “Take this woman up to the main office. She has information for Mr. Hayes.”
The other security officer nodded and motioned for me to follow him. We walked over to the stairwell together, then climbed the stairs to the top floor. It felt odd to be following him, when any other day I would be going about my job.
“Right through here,” he said, opening a door for me. It led to a waiting room outside another office. He walked over and knocked on the door, opening it when someone on the other side answered. “I have a lady here who says she has information for you.”
“Send her in,” the deep voice answered.
I found myself suddenly terrified to go into the office. This guy sounded like a grouchy old man who didn’t like anyone. Still, I came this far, so I walked through the doors, surprised when I saw a man no more than thirty-five years old. He wore dark-rimmed glasses, and his short hair flopped just over his forehead giving him a haphazard look. He was dressed oddly, wearing a plaid shirt and dress pants with tennis shoes. I expected a man in a suit with white hair and a grouchy face. This man just looked tired.
“Yes?” he asked, his voice rough and gritty.
“Um…I work on the night crew,” I said slowly. “I came into work last night and was filling my cleaning cart when five men walked in through the basement.”
He sat up at the mention of these men, his attention laser-focused on me. “They walked in through the basement,” he repeated.
I nodded, glancing at the security guard. “Yes, I found it odd. Four of them broke off in another direction, but one of them got on the elevator with me.”
“And you didn’t think to report this?” he snapped.
I swallowed hard, fighting the panic rising in me. This wasn’t my fault, I had to remind myself. “I was going to, but the power went out while we were in the elevator.”
“But why didn’t you call from downstairs?”
“Because five men were walking toward me,” I laughed incredulously. “I was alone in the basement with five men who were all twice my size. My only thought was getting away from them.”
“I’m sorry,” he immediately apologized. “You’re right. What happened after that?”
“Like I said, the power went out and the elevator stopped. We were stuck for…I don’t know how long. The man that came on the elevator with me was able to keep me calm. Then the other men showed up and got us out through the top of the elevator. We had stopped just shy of the third floor.”
“And they pried the doors open and got you out?”
“Yes.”
“What happened after that?”
I fidgeted as I considered how much to tell him. For some reason, I felt loyal to Seth, despite the fact that he was part of this gang of men. “I got the feeling that they were there to do something bad,” I said slowly. “I was going to go down the stairwell by myself to leave, but they insisted I go with them. I didn’t really feel I had a choice in the matter.”
“Where did they take you?”
“Outside one of the research labs. Um…5B, I think.”
Something darkened in his eyes for a moment before he nodded. “Anywhere else?”
“Yes, we went further down the hall to an office. There was no name on it, so I assumed it was empty.”
He shifted in his chair, staring out the window for a moment. I couldn’t tell if he was angry with me or not, but something in him had definitely changed. “Did they say anything about why they were here?”
“Yes, they said they were from the Chicago office to collect something. They had badges with them. They looked so real, but I had this bad feeling.”
His jaw clenched hard as he stared down at his desk. He looked like he was seriously trying to rein in his anger.
“I’m so sorry, but I didn’t know if what they were saying was real. I had no idea if there was even a Chicago branch.” I was silent for a minute, waiting for him to speak. When he didn’t, I continued. “I hope nothing bad happened.”
He finally looked up at me, a tight smile on his face. “It’s fine. I’m sure anyone would have thought it real given the situation you were in. I appreciate you coming forward with this information. Now we can do a security sweep and see if anything was taken.”
I nodded, not sure what else to do. “Would you like me to come into work tonight?”
He glanced up, lost in thought for a moment as he stared at me. “No, without the power on, there’s no point.”
“Do…do I still have a job?”
“Of course.” It sounded sincere, but I had the feeling he was very angry with me. Then again, maybe I just found it hard to trust anyone. “Did you drive?”
“No, I walked.”
“Let me have a driver take you home.”
“I think it would be faster to walk. Traffic is backed up outside.”
He gave a polite nod as he walked around his desk, gripping me lightly by the elbow. He steered me to the door, opening it for me. “I’m not sure how long it will take to get the power back on. Why don’t you assume that until the power’s on, it’s best just to stay home. Do we have your phone number on file?”
“I…I don’t have a phone,” I admitted weakly. I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t afford to just take off for an extended amount of time. That wasn’t his problem, and they were probably losing money every day the power was out, but I also couldn’t afford to be proud right now. “If anything comes up that I can help with, I’d be glad for the work.”
“Come by tomorrow. We’ll see what we can do.”
Relief filled me as my shoulders sagged. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome…” He trailed off, not knowing my name.
“Beth.”
“Beth. I’m Adam.” He held out his hand, gripping my small hand in his larger one. Warmth flooded me as he watched me intently. For the first time in years, I felt something when I looked at him, but that wasn’t really a good thing. I wouldn’t be sticking around long enough to be attached to anyone.
19
CASH
“Mayor Kinsley,” I said, shaking his hand as he walked into our offices. He had a team of five people with him, not enough in my opinion, but that wasn’t for me to decide.
“Mr. Owens, I was told you’re leading operational control on this disaster.”
His tone was friendly enough, but there was a hint of disgust or hate in his voice. Probably because we had been tasked with controlling the situation. “Sir, we’ll do everything we can to get the city up and running again.”
“I heard you were there, that you allowed it to happen.”
“No, we were there, but we weren’t aware of Grady’s plans. When we realized something was off, we did everything in our power to stop his plans. Unfortunately, it was too late.”
“Yes, well, let’s make sure the citizens can function as close to normal as soon as possible.”
“That’s our goal, sir.”
I nodded to Eli, who was waiting by the conference room. He opened the door and walked inside, waiting for the rest of the group to join. After we were all seated around the table, I made introductions.
“I’m Cash Owens, owner of this company. I have Eli Brant, Red Warren, and Bradford Kavanaugh with me today to help navigate this situation.”
“Is your father Senator Walter Kavanaugh?” the mayor asked, leaning forward curiously.
Kavanaugh bit back the sarcastic retort that I knew was waiting on the tip of his tongue. This wasn’t the time or place to say what he thought of his old man. “Yes, sir.”
“Good man,” the mayor grinned.
Kavanaugh nodded, but said nothing further. It was clear the mayor was going to try and use Kavanaugh to further his own career. Little did he know that Brad didn’t even speak to his father.
“Mayor, let’s get this meeting started,” I said, trying to push the meeting along.
He stood, buttoning his jacket as he pointed around the room. “I’ve brought the city engineer, Mark Sampson with me, along with the police and fire chief, the medical director at the local hospital, and my public relations liaison.”
I nodded to them, taking my own seat. “Mark, tell us what you can.”
Mark cleared his throat, pulling out paper maps and unrolling them on the table. It was like we’d gone back forty years in time. “For those of you that don’t know, a graphite bomb is basically a metal canister filled with spools of graphite filament and an explosive device. When the explosive detonates, it breaks the filament into very fine pieces which are ejected from the canister in a gas-like plume. If the bomb had gone off over a power line, there would have been outages, but power would have been restored more quickly. However, because a substation was attacked, the power was instantly transferred to a brother substation,” he said, pointing to another substation on the map, “but it couldn’t take the overload of power and also failed. The power stations started falling like dominos, each one unable to hold the surge in transfer of power, which is why there’s a power outage on the entire west coast.”
“What time frame are we looking at to get power restored?” I asked.
Mark glanced at the mayor, blowing out a harsh breath. “Best guess is six weeks. It could be more or less. It’s hard to tell right now.”
I leaned back in my seat, shocked by how long it would take to get everything up and running again. “What can we do in the meantime to help people out?”
“What I’d like to do is go around the city to larger buildings that have backup generators. We can reverse the flow of power back into the city.”
“Will the city be fully functioning?” the mayor asked.
“No, it’ll power bare essentials. However, if we can start reversing the flow by grid, most sections of the city will have at least a little power. It’s all we can do at this point.”
“That means having fuel trucks designated just for driving around and refilling generators,” the fire chief stated.
“We’ll have to block off roads to keep a path clear for them.”
“How are the hospitals doing?” I asked the medical director.
“I’ve been in contact with the two hospitals in the area. They’re doing okay for the time being, but as you would expect, things are strained. There are blocked roads, preventing staff from reaching the hospital. And the conditions aren’t ideal for running a hospital. If we can, we need to get more power to the hospitals so they can function at full capacity.”
“We also have the issue of getting people clean water,” Mark spoke up.
“Not to mention food,” the police chief spoke up. “We live in a society where cash is used less and less. Everyone swipes a card now. But you can’t use a bank card if the entire system is down. There’ll be a run on the banks.”
“People won’t have cash for long if they don’t have jobs to go to. What are people supposed to do when the money runs out?”
I stood from my seat, needing to put an end to the endless stream of problems. “Alright, these are all valid points. I’ve already had my team working on some solutions. The governor has ordered the national guard to come in, but they’ll be stretched thin as they aid the entire west coast. Let’s put together our best solutions for the most urgent problems. Red, I want you to contact other cities. Find out what they’re doing. Let’s make sure we share information. Eli, go with Mark and give him whatever help he needs to start reversing the power into the city. The National Guard should be arriving in the next six to twelve hours. Kavanaugh, let’s make sure we’re ready for them. Work with the mayor’s office to find mobile locations to set up.”
“I’ll have my office set up a news conference to set the public’s mind at ease,” the mayor spoke up.
“How are we going to do that with no power?”
The mayor sighed. “I guess we’ll send people around to news outlets and have them gather in front of city hall. I’ll just have to talk really loud.”
“It’s going to be like going back to the 1800’s,” I muttered. Running my hand through my hair, I gave a funny look. “Anyone know where we can find an old printing press?”
* * *
After hours of meetings, I broke away for five minutes to check in with Rae. I despised the fact that Rafe put me in charge of operational controls. The last thing I wanted to do was deal with the Mayor, the Governor, and everyone underneath. Not to mention that because of the lack of power, we were practically living in the stone age. I had to find satellite phones so we could stay in communication with members of the city, but even those would eventually lose power.
“What have you found out?” I asked Rae.
“Well, considering I’m having to go through dark channels, and try to communicate with people halfway around the country when we have no power, and—”
“Yeah, I got it, Rae. The situation sucks. Do you have anything,” I said slowly, emphasizing each word. I was already running low on patience.
“Not a lot yet. Grady works for a company called VTS—Vogt Technological Solutions. My gun did a deep dive on the company, but so far, he can’t find a single thing they actually produce.”
“Grady made it sound like they were a research company.”
She shook her head, keeping her voice low as she looked to the IT door to make sure no one was listening. “There was nothing on research either. Whatever they’re doing, they’re hiding it well. They don’t want anyone to know what they’re really doing.”
