Patriot Smith, page 41
part #1 of Patriots Series
“Look… We all kind of got what was going on when we left here. Except Mel, I think. Chloe mentioned that she’d been brought because we could control her most easily. If we were traveling normally, for what we claimed, we would have left most of them and taken mainly guys with us. Hal and you at least. Paul… He’s a good guy but more like me. The kind to freeze in a fight.” There was a big breath then. It held a shuddering, emotive quality to it.
“We… All of us… We weren’t here to just make shows and try to tell stories. Not even just to make a living. We were hiding, waiting for our orders to come in. If Frank and Jan had just given us a target and sent some guns, we might have even done it. Maybe not. It’s kind of plain to me that what’s going on isn’t what we were thinking it would be. I mean, real people are struggling, suffering and dying right now. We, people like us, Chloe, Marc and the rest, we did this to them. To everyone else. It was supposed to be easier than this. Only, this is exactly what we were told to expect. We just didn’t. I didn’t. Now we’re all committed.”
It was probably what most of the terrorists were really thinking at about that point. They’d started their revolution almost as a game. Live action roleplaying. They were the glamourous rebels that bombed cars and punched Nazis on the street. Only, it was a game that no one else had been playing. The Nazis weren’t real and were, in the main, just regular people that even liked everyone else, more or less. Christians and white men who didn’t want anyone to be hurt, if they could help it.
By the time that occurred to most of the would-be rebel alliance of Black Masks, they were in too deep. That or they felt like they couldn’t get out. Gangs worked like that too. Even political parties did, at times. So did cults. Once they had you inside, and you did their bidding, you were snared by your own previous misdeeds into doing more.
“You aren’t trapped. Really, the ones here, maybe even the others in the cities and different locations, can just choose not do it anymore. It’s probably easier for you, since I’m all in on backing up a lack of terrorist actions. It would be harder if your food was coming from people that were insisting that you do illegal things for them. Did you get a specific plan as to what Frank and Jan had set up for you?”
The words weren’t spoken softly, being conversational, without seeming forced at all. He didn’t really need to know that kind of thing but if he could pass that data along, it might save lives.
For his part, Rick didn’t even seem to think his asking was strange or might mean anything in particular. It probably meant he wasn’t really cut out to be the revolutionary that he’d dreamed of being. Sebastian didn’t think he would have fallen for something that transparent. In fact, it was a thing that he knew for certain, from a previous life.
The taller man just looked away then, as if trying to find a ship off on the horizon. They only had walls there. For the time being at any rate.
“Not that I know of. Chloe probably had more that way. Like I said, she’s the cell leader. I always wondered how that was supposed to work. I mean, if someone had taken me, the feds, I’d try not to tell on anyone but might. We were all told that could happen, you know? Which is why we weren’t up on who was who here. What if they’d gotten her, though? She knew who the rest were and we all kind of have a link back to Frank and Jan. Even you do, through the studio.”
That one was clear enough to him. Chloe was supposed to make sure she wouldn’t be taken. Not alive. If she was that devoted, then it was a bit strange that she’d refused her orders. Or that the cult had felt like they had to get blackmail material on the others. They tried for coercion, as well.
“They threatened to kill Vina. How did that work?”
There was a long, slow and lanky shrug then. The dark-skinned man looked at Sebastian, his dark brown eyes angry, under the studio lights.
“Not that well. It was the wrong move. Chloe had been more or less willing to go along with them up until then, I think. She didn’t want a stupid mission and had been trying to get them to modify the plan. Hit a higher value target that would be safer for all of us. Frank got frustrated and…” There was a head shake then. A strange, almost bemused expression as well. “Really, Janice was the one that lost it first. Then she’d sort of forced Frank to take action. He was foaming at the mouth and red faced. Only after she’d kind of ordered him to make us obey what they wanted.”
They got back to work then, since he wanted at least a few hours sleep, if he could get it. No one liked a grumpy director after all. As it was he’d be forced to drink coffee in the morning, just to keep going. After they finished up and were walking back, using the light of the tiny flashlight Sebastian carried in his pocket most of the time anymore, the other man spoke again.
“I feel… Like we did the wrong thing. We’d signed up to take action, not sit back and whine about it being hard. This kind of means that we’re losers, doesn’t it?”
Not being ready for that particular line, Sebastian didn’t have anything witty to answer with. Rather than be mean, he shook his head.
“I’m pretty much always going to be on the side of life, if possible. Hurting people more right now is just throwing gas onto the fire. All you end up with after that is a pile of smoldering ruins. You did the right thing, saying no. Losers don’t really do things that are hard. They take the easy way.”
After that they didn’t speak again. Mainly because it was four in the morning by the time they approached the house and all the good, and sane, little girls and boys were fast asleep. Being loud would just ruin their rest and since he kind of wanted most of them to do his bidding that next morning, in a few hours, that wasn’t a great idea.
Instead of risking sleep, since there was no way he’d lay down and then get himself up in two hours, he moved to the kitchen and quietly made some coffee. He would have liked to savor it but it was the cheap canned kind. Gotten to use as a trade good, when he’d first noticed things going downhill. It had never been a substance that he’d really gotten a taste for, either. To him it was basically wake up medicine. A thing that you suffered through, in order to function in emergencies.
They had a lot of it, though it was clear that someone had been helping themselves to the grounds, since there was about a third of the can missing. That was a lot of pots of coffee. The maker was still out as well, on the counter, though the glass pot that went with it was washed and empty, being turned upside down.
As he settled into one of the chairs, he tried to think through what he needed to do. Most of it was about his new show, since it was a shooting day for that. The rest was about finding out that the people he lived with were terrorists. At least they’d come there to try and be that kind of monster. It didn’t make sense to him, at all.
So far, thankfully, it sounded like they’d mainly refused to do it, when the chips were down. Everyone had their own take on things but the stories were kind of starting to match up. Mainly. The more information he had, the easier it was to get the others to give him the rest of it. That probably meant he needed to talk to Vina next and finish up with Chloe. She would be the hardest nut to crack, he didn’t doubt.
Then he had to decide what to do about it all.
Turning them in directly would probably destroy everything that he’d worked for. It could, if they decided to lie about him as a punishment, end up with him being in prison himself. After all, an ex-military man who was running a commune of sorts was pretty much going to be a top-level suspect, when the rest of the things came out. Sure, he’d been a cook but anyone reading his official record would realize that he hadn’t only been that. He also had other skills, that honestly would have made a difference if he’d gone rogue. A lot of that would be things that the military would actively hide about him. How that helped or hurt him in the moment, he wasn’t certain.
It was, in a way, kind of scary. A thrill of fear and anxiety hit him then but he just admitted it was there and went on. Protecting himself too closely might well be the wrong move, after all. Hiding what everyone had been there for would make him look guilty as well.
In the end, he was going to have to decide if he was more important than doing the right thing. Which, when he considered it for a moment, he understood wasn’t the case. He was, in the end, a patriot. Sebastian was going to stand for his people, and his country, even if it meant losing everything. Doing anything less would be the wrong move, for him. Possibly for any good person.
On his third cup of coffee, almost an hour and a half later, he got himself showered and then started making food for everyone else. He’d gone down to the Coldwater, which was freezing inside and did it there, so that the others would have hot water for their own cleanup. Then he made breakfast, doing a reprise of the coffee cake from before, with eggs and some dried fruit on the side for Chloe.
Because she was his favorite.
That part hurt, more than a bit. He wanted to feel lied to over the whole thing. Tricked. Except that he’d never asked them if they were terrorists. No, he’d asked if they could act, and put them through their paces, then found out if they had any other useful skills. Camera or editing abilities. Sound set up or musical talent. No one had lied to him over the rest of it, because there had simply been no need to lead him astray on the matter.
Hal got up first, stumbling into the kitchen, clearly having scrubbed up for the day already. At least he looked like his face and beard had been washed. Not his hair, so he probably hadn’t showered. Most of them didn’t, in the morning. Only the main characters for that day and Sebastian. It wasn’t that there were dirty people, just the limits of the facilities.
The other man, looking a bit red faced, sniffed a bit, then helped himself to a cup of coffee. He had his black and unsweetened as well.
“I was up late. That thing in Texas. Do you think that it’s related to the New California situation?”
Sebastian had to shake his head.
“I haven’t heard that one. What’s going on?” He might have, since there had been some minor things going on there, nothing major enough to lose sleep over.
“There was a breach at one of the main CDC facilities. Houston, I think. Not the main one in Atlanta. They’re being closed lipped but it’s kind of clear that something really deadly was released. They won’t tell us what but like, half of Texas is under quarantine right now. I mean the real kind. If you leave your house for any reason, they don’t ask you to go back inside, men in hazmat suits just shoot you. That’s what they’re saying on television. The net as well. My sources are saying that it was an infiltrator.” He froze then, for a minute and then shrugged, smiling. “My secret sources being the hidden web-site I go to for news. It’s not listed but isn’t strictly deep web. I’m not using TOR for it or anything, I just have to manually put the address in.”
He looked at the coffee cakes, since they needed two of them for twelve people and sniffed a bit.
“That smells delicious. I really like that kind of topping, with the cinnamon and sugar in it? Anyway, that’s the Texas thing, so far. We don’t really know anything, except you know, scary and bad. Be afraid, be very afraid and all that?” The words were slightly run together, as if he were a little manic.
That and covering for something.
So, Sebastian sniffed the air too and smiled.
“It is pretty nice. The coffee cake. I love sweets. Anyway, that thing in Montana seems to be a bigger deal than anyone was letting on. I’ve been working on getting information from everyone. I still have to get with Vina, Mel and Chloe. Some kind of terror related thing, so nothing to laugh at. Plus, it seems like there might be an underage sex tape of an orgy that Frank and Janice held, to get blackmail material on the rest of them. What have you gotten on that?”
It was direct but he was getting paranoid. Instead of lying to him, Hal just looked back into the other room and whispered, as if they were keeping secrets from someone. As if they really could there, if they weren’t going to simply not speak about things.
“That’s pretty much what I’ve worked out, too. Rene said that she saw Vina and Chloe doing some sex things but not the guys. Then there was a big fight, because our people refused to hurt anyone.”
Which was really what seemed to be the case.
“Most of them might have. Chloe was arguing for them to do something safer, not for doing nothing. At least if I have it right. I might not. So far, every story has been different. Then, I’m not Antifa or a terrorist.” He took a sip of coffee before going on. “I never have been and never would be. How about you?”
It was probably a bit much to ask, since the man had been nothing but a hard worker for most of the time they’d been there but if Sebastian didn’t try to find out he was an idiot. It was clear that there were things going on, right under his nose that Sebastian had simply missed. Worse, there had been signs and signals about it. Things that he’d chosen to ignore, since it seemed so unlikely. Except, of course, there had been troubles going on for years. The terrorists had infiltrated society, being generated from within. It wasn’t impossible at all, for that kind of thing to have caught up with him.
Rather than sputter or act innocent, the mid-twenties man just rubbed at his red hair. It needed to be combed again. That or trimmed.
“Nothing like that, thanks. My subversive activities begin and end at using secret web-sites in an attempt to get around censored news. Who else is… Are the rest of us here clear? What do we do about it? This… The stuff we found out?”
Whispering back, Sebastian leaned in. They were both sitting, not two feet from one another.
“Not much, for now. Find out what you can? I got word of what Frank and Janice have going on to the DHS. They might not do anything about it. We’re actors, which, you know, means drama queens, in general. Agent Brevet might just decide that having our people making pro-government material is enough for right now, too, if the others aren’t blowing things up or killing people. We might want to push that kind of thing a bit more.” It couldn’t hurt. Even if that really wouldn’t be enough to protect them from a swat raid, if it had to happen.
Hal looked over, as Sara walked into the room, it was kind of clear that he was planning to change the topic but Sebastian didn’t.
“Hey, um, Sara? Can I ask you something? It might seem a bit strange…”
She looked at them both and nodded.
“Quickie before work? With both of you? I’m in, if I can have some of that cake?” She was joking, it was clear, for all that she did eye the coffeecake pretty lovingly.
He nodded back.
“No to the sex part, at least for now. Yes, on the cake. You wouldn’t be Antifa or related to that kind of thing, would you? It turns out that like half the people here are, so it’s okay if you are, too but I want to be in the loop.” It might not have been okay, and she made a slightly angry face that turned into fear then.
“No. Who? Rene… The people on the trip?”
Picking up the conversation ball without missing a beat, Hal, only a little wide eyed, nodded.
“Yeah. Don’t mention that we know yet? Sebastian and I have both been trying to work out what’s really going on. We can’t have that kind of thing coming back to bite us. Then, if they’re more or less out of that kind of activity, we don’t want them being railroaded for it… It’s not illegal to be a liberal, after all. Not yet.”
The words got the woman to join them, after snagging her own cup of bitter brew. That finished the pot, so Sebastian got up and made more, as the others chatted.
Which was what they were doing when Chloe came in. The words were about terrorism and fear, so looking over at her, Sebastian waved.
“Big viral thing in Texas. It’s being quarantined in places. Linked to something at the CDC? We don’t have any clue what’s going to be the fallout from it. That’s a big oil refining area, so if people can’t go to work in the wrong place, we might be facing real gas shortages. I don’t know how many people are showing signs of it yet, or what those are. Hal? You were listening to that last night, right?”
The other man went a bit wide eyed again, as if worried that the woman might have overheard them talking about her. Except that they hadn’t been for a while and no one had been hovering outside the door, listening in. If she had been…
Well, then the woman probably would have simply confessed everything, or at least to what they already thought they knew. Doing anything else would be a lot more suspicious. Plus, they were already willing to trust that their friends weren’t evil. It would be best to play on that immediately, if she had the chance. At least if she could figure out that she should.
She went tight faced then and gasped.
“Fucking hell. I can’t believe they did that. They… Frank and Jan? They’d both told me that things were in the works like that. I… Honestly, I didn’t think it was real.” She slumped in one of the chairs then, next to Sara.
Then, quietly, she started to sob.
Chapter twenty-seven
Crying in the kitchen about the state of the world or not, they all had to get themselves together for the day. It was hard to act shocked when Chloe just flat out told them, the people there in the kitchen about the kind of things that Janice and Frank had been asking her to do. It wasn’t just about sex, though she didn’t actually tell them that there had been an orgy like there had been. Her focus was on the kinds of attacks that they were demanding.
“It was suicide. I mean, they wanted us to stick guns in our mouths at the end and if the rest of them couldn’t, I was supposed to do it for them. I couldn’t. These are my friends.” She sounded almost plaintive then, as if begging them to understand why she couldn’t have ever done what was being ordered.
Not because of the great wrong that terrorism would have been all on its own. No, it was down to the idea that hurting her people, the ones she knew, was too much for her. That sounded a bit selfish to Sebastian, which apparently had been one of the major points that sicko kid sex cult had used to try and get her back into the fold. That she was being selfish, trying to protect the few instead of the many.
