Runaway. Part 9

"So what does she bring to the table?"

"First of all, malleability. Every community has to have worker bees, and that's what Kristi wants. To be part of something where her labor is valued. She'll be an exceptional worker bee, but that's all she'll ever be. And that's enough for her."

"How do you know that? She didn't come up to you and say, 'Dude, give me all the s.h.i.t jobs and I'll be happy as a clam.'" Maddy couldn't understand the lack of ambition in that.

"I've known Kristi a long time. Just think about it and it all makes sense."

"Okay. What about Diane? What's her story?"

"Diane? Diane's my girlfriend. I don't want to be entirely self-sufficient."

Maddy didn't like the big grin on his face. She generally found men to be quite pathetic when it came to s.e.x. She went downstairs to bed.

Sergeant Drecker handed off part of the group to a corporal. They were led away to start their scouting exercises while Maddy, Kristi, Tommy, and Diane stayed behind for weapons training. They marched behind Drecker as he took them to a large rifle range.

Drecker addressed them. "This morning we're going to train you on how to safely handle and clean your weapon. You will not be allowed to shoot it until you've mastered these skills."

Kristi was next to her again. While Drecker started handing out rifles, she leaned over to whisper, "How cool is this?"

Maddy saw the gleam in Kristi's eye. "Very cool?"

"d.a.m.n right."

Maddy thought about what David told her about Kristi. She was glad Kristi was excited and she was glad they were going through training together. Other than that, she felt like she'd been dropped into an alien nation.

"You two," Drecker barked, pointing at Maddy and Kristi. "Step forward."

Kristi did as she was told. Maddy followed a moment later.

"First rule of camp is that you do not speak while in formation or in the presence of a superior unless you are spoken to first. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Kristi said.

Drecker stared at Maddy.

"Yes, sir."

"Drop and give me ten."

"Ten what?" Maddy said. She heard Diane stifle a laugh behind her.

"Ten push-ups," Drecker said. "Didn't they teach you how to do a push-up in your fancy schools?"

Kristi had already dropped to the ground and was grinding out her first push-up. Maddy was wondering how Decker knew she went to "fancy schools."

"Wait a second," she said. "Shouldn't we be told the rules before we're punished for breaking them?"

Drecker moved to within an inch of Maddy's face. She stepped back and he followed her.

"That just earned you another ten, private. Now drop."

Maddy looked behind her. Tommy looked back at her nervously while the others avoided her eyes. She sighed and got down on the ground, doing her twenty push-ups in the time it took Kristi to finish her ten. Kristi lay face down, her body heaving as she caught her breath.

"Now get back in line so we can get some work done."

Maddy had read as much as she could about the militias. She knew they operated under a military chain of command. But who had made her a private? She was just here to learn to shoot, which she wanted to do. She wasn't here to join a militia. The last chain of command she ever wanted to be part of was the one she'd just fled: father/mother/Maddy.

Once everyone had a rifle, they got on their knees and learned how to disa.s.semble and load them. Their first cartridges were blanks. Two hours later, Maddy was shooting with real bullets, blasting the heads off of targets that looked like someone's version of an Arab terrorist. She tried to ignore the implications of that as she shot round after round. When she paused to reload, she looked over at Kristi. They beamed at each other and b.u.mped fists.

The afternoon was packed with instruction on how to operate covertly in the woods. Since it was hunting season in Michigan, they were issued bright orange hats and vests.

"You'll be in full uniform for tonight's maneuvers," Drecker said.

Maddy and Kristin were teamed up to learn about stealth movement and sensory awareness in the woods, which Maddy took to mean walking quietly with her headphones off. When Drecker started talking about identifying b.o.o.by traps, she paid more attention. They were operating under a different definition of survival training. This wasn't about building animal traps and picking berries. It was all about outsmarting people who were trying to kill them. They learned to build an Apache limp wire trip set. Maddy had a quick fantasy of her father being strung up by one as he walked in from the garage after another night out carousing. Other than that, she couldn't imagine a scenario where she'd need one.

During a break mid-afternoon, Maddy sat with Kristi and Tommy at the edge of the field. Diane had run off to find David, who'd disappeared during target practice. Tommy looked confused, as if he'd signed up for calculus and found himself in a pottery cla.s.s. He seemed much more naive than Maddy about what the training camp would be like. At least she knew these soldiers were preparing for one or more unlikely scenarios: the end of the world as we know it, government breakdown and anarchy, a terrorist attack.

"I don't really need to know how to set traps for humans," Maddy said.

Kristi was sitting against a tree, her rifle across her lap. "Oh, h.e.l.l yes, you do. What if we're invaded?"

"Invaded?" Tommy said. "Why would anyone invade us?"

"Exactly. One of the reasons we're going there is to be out of everyone's way. We don't bother them and they don't bother us," Maddy said.

"You two are living in a dream world," Kristi said. "There's always someone who wants what's not theirs. We have to know how to protect ourselves."

"It doesn't hurt to be ready, I suppose," Maddy said "And the training's a blast. I can't wait for maneuvers tonight."

Kristi was smiling again. "Right? We are going to kick some a.s.s."

Tommy was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, his head bent over his lap.

"Hey, Tommy boy. Are you going to puke or something?" Kristi prodded him with her rifle.

He raised his head and smiled grimly. "I hate this."

Drecker called them back into action before they could say anything to Tommy, and Maddy soon forgot it.

That night, under a full moon, Maddy edged toward a clearing in the woods. Ahead of her was another of the course instructors, a sergeant named Cooper. Behind her were Kristi, Tommy, and the other members of their squad. Cooper signaled for them to drop. Maddy had never spent so much time on the ground as she had that day. She was aching from carrying a heavy pack, and the last reserve of her energy had evaporated some time ago. It was nearly midnight and she'd been up since five that morning.

Cooper started a series of rapid hand gestures. He kept pointing at her with two fingers and then pointing to their right, very fast, over and over so it didn't make sense to her. Kristi urged her up by the arm and led her off toward the right, looking at Cooper for more direction. He waved them further on, until they were out of sight of the others. They turned toward the clearing, which was lit up by the moon like a softball field during a night game.

"What are we supposed to do?" Maddy whispered.

"h.e.l.l if I know," Kristi said. She looked as weary as Maddy felt. They weren't having much fun anymore.

"I'm going to pee," Maddy said.

"Can't you wait? We might have to move any second."

Maddy peered up at Kristi from under her helmet and handed over her rifle. "Can't wait."

She walked a few yards deeper in the woods and squatted behind a big oak. She'd emptied half her bladder when she heard someone approach. She looked up to see M-16s pointed at her by two guys from the opposing team. A third came toward them pushing Kristi forward with the point of his gun. She had her hands above her head. One of the soldiers hauled Maddy to her feet and pointed to her pants pooling around her ankles. She pulled them up while everyone stared at her.

Their rifles were pointed at them, but Maddy knew that the bullets were blanks. She couldn't see any point in pretending she could be shot or taken on a forced march to a POW camp, so she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Over here!"

Her voice was still ringing when one of the soldiers. .h.i.t her in the side of her helmet with the b.u.t.t of his rifle. She dropped into the puddle of her own urine. Kristi barreled toward him with her shoulders lowered, going for the tackle, but another soldier stuck his foot out and tripped her. She fell next to Maddy. The soldiers ran back into the woods when they heard Cooper and two others from their squad running toward them. Maddy lay still as Cooper ordered three team members to pursue. She wasn't badly hurt, but she was stunned. There's no preparing for a rifle b.u.t.t to the head. Even with a helmet on, it hurt like h.e.l.l. She saw Cooper's face over hers.

"You okay, soldier?"

She struggled to get up and Cooper gave her a hand.

"I'll live. I don't think they're supposed to hit us though, are they?"

He smiled. He didn't seem like a bad guy, none of them really did. But one of them had hit her. It was hard to tell out here what was right and wrong, who was good and bad. All she knew was she was done for the day.

Jan ran hard along the lakefront path. On Sat.u.r.day mornings it was crowded with office workers running, biking, and skating away whatever troubles the week had brought them. The week had delivered a couple of whoppers to Jan. A teenager who didn't want to be found and a woman who couldn't be caught. Jan had no doubt that Catherine's brusque behavior that morning was her way of saying the night before had been a mistake. That Jan was a mistake. Jan thought the night before told her only one thing, that she'd never been with a woman like Catherine and she wanted more. Maybe that was two things. She wanted more than she could have, at any rate, and everything about it felt brand new.

She turned around at Monroe Harbor and headed back north. It was another glorious fall day and the lake sparkled under the blue sky. Across Lake Sh.o.r.e Drive, the Chicago skyline spread along the lakefront. Powerful, beautiful, and in some ways more mesmerizing than the lake itself. When Jan arrived in Chicago at age twenty, she had no feeling about the city other than it was where her new girlfriend wanted to live. Now, almost twenty years later, she couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

She and Josie had come to the city when Josie's brother Dan said he could get her a job at an advertising agency. Josie was twenty-two and had an art degree. Jan had managed to get her GED in LA and hoped to go to college, but she had no money or any real notion of how that was going to happen. By the time Josie had put enough money together for them to move out of Dan's c.r.a.ppy apartment in Uptown, she had fallen in love with an account executive at the agency and moved into her Gold Coast high-rise. Jan was homeless. Again. She took a room at the downtown Y and started selling speed and cocaine for one of Dan's friends. She had applications in for a dozen jobs, but very little money in her pocket. One hour of peddling drugs on the streets near the Board of Trade gave her a week's rent. The rest went to her college fund and a steady diet of hot dogs and ramen noodles.

She operated in the haze of surviving from one day to the next, which she was quite used to. The future was an opaque window. She could keep moving toward the light, but she had no idea what was behind the gla.s.s. When she'd saved enough to enroll in one of the city colleges, she took a part-time job as a security guard at TSI and gave up anything to do with drugs. She'd seen enough to know where a life of that would lead her.

She continued running north, past the chess players at Fullerton, the driving range at Diversey, the harbor at Belmont that was now empty of boats. She turned her thoughts to finding Maddy Harrington. It seemed there was no choice but to go to Michigan and try to produce some leads, but she would need her files to plot a course of action. That meant going into the office and possibly seeing Catherine. She picked up her pace.

Jan picked up a file from Vivian's chair. She'd left a report on Maddy for LJ to sign prior to the first billing going out. She didn't need to see the report, but it provided cover. It was Catherine she wanted to see. She could hear her voice in the conference room, but all she could tell was that it was growing more angry by the moment. The blinds had been drawn and she couldn't see into the room.

When Catherine opened the door suddenly and looked out, Jan dropped the file as if she'd been caught doing something naughty.

"What are you doing here?" Catherine asked. She didn't sound very friendly and Jan's heart sank.

"Just grabbing a report from the Harrington file. I work most Sat.u.r.days. Sorry if I bothered you."

Jan picked up the file and turned to leave.

"You didn't bother me. I was just startled to see you."

"Okay." She started to walk away.

"Wait." Catherine came closer to her, reaching out a hand. "Will you come in for a moment?"

Jan hesitated and then let herself be led into the conference room. Catherine closed the door.

"I'm sorry the morning was so rushed," Catherine said. She stood in front of Jan, shorter by an inch or more despite her high heels. She took Jan's hands in her own. "The day's not gotten any better."

Jan looked down at their hands. Maybe she'd misunderstood?

"Are you all right? It sounded like you were arguing with someone in here."

"Did it?" Catherine stepped away and picked up a thermos from the table. "Coffee?"

"Sure." She watched her pour. Catherine handed her a cup and sat at the head of the table, pointing to the chair next to her for Jan.

"If you're worried about last night, you don't need to be," Jan said. "I understand it was a one-time thing."

Jan said a quick foxhole prayer that it hadn't been a one-time thing.

"Is that what you think I'm worried about? Apparently, everyone here thinks I have a cold heart."

"What are you talking about? You've only been here one day. How many TSI women have you had s.e.x with?"

Catherine laughed, a sound that produced all kinds of rumblings in Jan. Cello, bow, thrum.

"Clearly, we're on a dangerous course of miscommunication. Believe me, I've not had s.e.x with any other TSI women. I can't stop thinking about the s.e.x I had with you."

Catherine drank her coffee and studied Jan's face.

"I only meant that the managers I met with this morning all seemed to think I was sent here to eviscerate them and their staffs."

"Who were they?"

"Let's see. Davis from Security Operations."

"Paranoid. Forget him."

"And Monroe from IT."

"He's a moron. Practically all the troubles we have here are technology related. He's right to be worried," Jan said.

"Zimmerman from Accounting."

"He should be worried too. It's unlikely your central office won't be handling most of the financial functions, right?"

Catherine stared at her. "That's true. But I'd never take lightly the elimination of someone's job. It's a horrible thing to have to do."

"Is the job situation what you were freaking out about this morning?" she asked.

"I'm sorry. I was a little rude this morning. I was mad at myself for being late to talk with these gentlemen. They were already against me before we even started, and then I made them cool their heels. But that's no excuse for being rude to you."