Note: Thanks to all who read, comment, and give helpful ideas. You guys are the best.
For those of you who haven’t read any of the Journey Of St. Laurent before: You are now reading an online serial pulp novel. If you didn’t start at the beginning, you may want to do so. Chapter 1: Down By The Bay. This serial is the sequel to my first novel, Oasis.
Chapter 35 – In The Tent
Then tent smelled of dusty old canvas, like it hadn’t been put up in ten years. It was a pretty big, twelve feet by sixteen feet or so and probably eight feet tall at the peak. There was a plastic folding table in one corner with a microphone, a laptop, and several pieces of electronic equipment. Chords spilled over the back and wound out under the wall of the tent.
Placed a few feet away from the far wall was another small folding table. Jex sat behind it on a camp chair. He was drawing with a pencil on what looked like one of the maps I had seen through the window at the hotel’s café.
He made a point of ignoring us while he scribbled some kind of message on the map. He then rolled it up, set it on his lap and looked up at us. His eyes were shrouded in dark circles.
“Oh good, you’re here.”
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my temper in check. His intentions might have been honorable, but this man was a thief and a liar. He had thrown up a roadblock when all I wanted to hurt the aliens and hurt them bad. I knew deep down that’s what Jex wanted, too. Only he wanted to be in charge of everything and get the glory.
London stepped around me and folded her arms with a harumph. “Where’s the virus you stole?”
Jex looked from London to me and back again. He breathed in and opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it. He waited an uncomfortable moment then tossed up his hands. “I won’t lie to you. I took it, and for the reason I told you last night. I can’t trust you yet.”
Rhett shifted nervously from foot to foot. I don’t think he was really ready to hear Jex admit the theft like that.
Off in the distance wafted the drone of a helicopter.
I kicked the ground. “So you kick off the trust-building exercise by stealing my property in the middle of the night?”
“I didn’t invite you here to argue.”
“So why are we here?”
“Well, I’d like to give you two the chance to help out. And, if it comes to it and we do have to use the virus, I’d like you to be on the team-”
The tent door flew open and a purple haired woman popped in. “Sir, an Army Humvee just pulled up at the gate. The driver says he’s got a Captain Somebody-or-other that wants to speak with you. What should I tell the guards?”
Jex’s eyes widened for a moment. “Really? Escort him back here immediately.”
She’s too old to have purple hair.
The helicopter noise got so closer. It was apparent that there were at least two of them flying overhead. Within a few seconds they were so loud that we had to wait for them to pass by before we could here each other talk.
Jex turned his focus back to London and me. “So would you like to join us or not?”
London rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Now you want us to help?”
I folded my arms. “And we don’t exactly have any gear or food or anything. I mean, somewhere you’ve got her dirtbike, but it’s not terribly comfortable to sleep on.”
“I’ll make sure we can find stuff for you. We need every able bodied man we can get.”
London glared at him.
He nodded back. “And every angry redhead hottie.”
I guess the inflammatory radio host in him just couldn’t help himself.
London shook her head.
Jex ignored her.
“So, are you with us? And where do you think you’d be the most help?”
I wasn’t really interested in joining his little private army an more, but I wasn’t sure what other options we really had available at the time. “Well, I’m an emergency room nurse, and an EMT. She’s already proven herself to be a capable assistant.”
London spun and focused her glare on me.
“Perfect. Rhett, show them to where we’re setting up the medical tents and introduce them-”
A serious man in a crisp uniform swept into the tent. On his shoulder were two vertical bars. He ignored London, Rhett, and myself and walked right up to Jex.
“I’m Captain Dreyer of the United States Army. Let me just say I appreciate your fervor and zest in protecting our nation. However, I am here under orders to use my company of troops to assist in the disbanding of this militia that you’ve raised. Now I know you feel like you are acting as protectors, but your nation sees you as nothing more than a dangerous armed insurrection. I’ve come to make a personal appeal to you to disband without causing any more problems.”
Color flooded into Jex’s neck. “What makes you think we’ll just pack up and go?”
“Neither of us wants to be responsible for the spilling of American blood. Simple as that. And now the Army is here between you and the aliens.” Dreyer took a breath and his voice took a bitter edge. “And if the white house decides the aliens are a threat, we’ll be here and prepared to deal…”
Jex pounded a fist on the little table. “A threat? How many more terrorist strikes are they going to have to make before you can officially label them as enemy combatants? You’re not stupid, Captain. You know as well as I that they’re not here as friends or allies.”
“Things aren’t always as they seem, Mr. Jex. Don’t sell the U.S. Army short.”
London muttered something under her breath. I couldn’t understand it clearly, but it definitely involved a few words she couldn’t use if she were in her elementary school classroom.
“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to get moving.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper. “I’ll have someone listening to this frequency if you need any, well, if you need to speak with me.”
Twenty-four hours? Why not right now? What is he getting at?
Captain Dreyer turned back just before leaving the tent. “Oh, and I have to warn you. My entire company will be camped in front of the main entrance. It would be a really bad idea for you to try anything there.”
He put a hard emphasis on the word “there,” and then he was gone.
Everyone left in the tent was dumbfounded.
I scratched my head. “Did that sound to anyone else like he wanted us to attack, just somewhere other than the main entrance, and that he’s giving us twenty-four hours to do it?”
The massive Rhett nodded. “It kind of did.”
A smile crept across Jex’s lips.
The woman who was too old for bright purple hair came back in. “Sir, I just heard on the radio. Apparently the President and Senator Reynolds are holding a press conference. They’re due to go on within a couple of minutes on pretty much every TV and radio channel in existence.”
Keep Reading! Chapter 36 is here.
