Deep Freeze: Protocol One, Book 2 (Protocol One Saga) Page 9

  I leaned back. “It doesn’t make sense for him to get so mad he’d throw people out.”

  “It’s Gwen,” Peter said nonchalantly. “She has something on him.”

  “What?” I laughed out my response.

  “Seriously, it’s something. I mean, why is she here? She hates it here. I realize Gil’s her husband and all even though the divorce was a ruse, but there’s no love lost there. Why come up here?”

  “Because I think she is trying to find out where everything is. The fuel and other things he has hidden out there. I mean she knows about them, the location and Gil’s plan is what she needs to figure out.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “Whoever has the fuel has the power, maybe.”

  “Nah, that’s not it. Maybe they don’t want Gil having that much control,” Peter said. “I mean, he gets things up and running, the government is gonna have to bow to him. They don’t want that. And apparently, it’s Gil’s secret apocalypse fantasy to rule the world.”

  “I would have doubted that a year ago,” I said. “It just doesn’t make sense. I keep saying that. But this is really not Gil.”

  “How are we sure that she even knows all his secrets?”

  I actually debated on telling Peter about how Gwen knew, but then again, it was Peter and after telling him, I was glad I did.

  “When Tony and I took the Humvee, we found a bag she left behind.”

  “What kind of bag.”

  “What kind of bag? Like a gym bag, but small, soft leather.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  “Peter,” I snapped. “Oh my God, this has nothing to do with the bag. It has to do with what was in the bag. Aside from really nonsense items she had a BlackBerry.”

  “She had her phone? Why? Who uses their BlackBerry in the apocalypse?”

  “Apparently, Gwen, because she was communicating with someone at Damnation Alley, that’s how I got the message call for help. But other than that, is what she has all the documents. Everything about what Gil has. Stuff I didn’t know about. I haven’t even looked at it lately, but it’s all there.”

  “So if Gil knows she has this, then he is trying to keep her from letting it out. If he doesn’t, she’s here to get the rest of the info.”

  “I guess. But it’s hard to tell only the files are there and about four text messages to one person.”

  “No contacts?”

  I shook my head. “No other messages. She either had that as a dedicated device or she deleted stuff.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “Give me the BlackBerry, I’ll hack it.”

  “Can you?”

  “Uh, yeah, I can. May take a few days, but I will. If she deleted messages, they are there. Files, too.”

  “That is excellent. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”

  “That works.”

  Excited, I stood and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Ha, see, I knew you shut the door to put the moves on me.” Peter said

  That made me laugh, I shook my head, reminded him it was dinner, thanked him again and headed out.

  I wanted to have dinner with Joie and I knew she was in the dining area.

  Nelly had made chicken chili and the whole place smelled of its goodness. She said she was in a good mood because of her gift.

  I swore I became her new favorite person when I gave her that duffle bag full of cigarettes.

  “You just don’t know what it was like,” she said. “Staring at that half pack knowing that was it.”

  I told her they were a tad stale, but she didn’t care. I didn’t think she would.

  Nelly had a tray for Tony, and would heat up chili for that plate, after Joie and I had eaten. As a special thank you for the smokes, I got an extra piece of corn bread. Joie and I were seated at the first table, catty-corner to each other. I got a good view of the dining area and was amazed how many people were there. Survivors that happened upon us in the previous months, one Duke stumbled upon. Soldiers that Gil knew.

  Nelly fed them all, if we grew any more she wouldn’t be able to keep up. She already complained that she hated being the lunch lady. Although a part of me believed she enjoyed it.

  Joie only had a small helping. She wasn’t fond of the chili and stared at the cornbread with a sense of guilt.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “It’s like cake. Should I save this for Daddy?”

  “No, honey you eat it,” I said. “Nelly has put a piece on his tray, too. We’ll take it to him.”

  No sooner had I said that I caught through the corner of my eye, Gwen as she stopped by our table.

  “Well,” she said snidely. “I see why there’s no more cornbread. Someone took two slices.” She nodded her head at my plate.

  “Nelly, gave it to me,” I replied cordially. “But you are welcome to have one.”

  “I wouldn’t take anything from you. Unlike you who just takes from others.”

  Ready to respond, I didn’t need to. Joie slammed down her spoon.

  “Why are you so mean to my new Mom?”

  I heard that and immediately gasped out emotionally with an ‘Aw’. My hand shot to my chest. ‘That is so sweet.”

  “You replaced your mother awfully fast,” Gwen quipped at the little girl.

  “I didn’t know my mother. So there I was a doorstep baby.”

  “How old are you?’

  “I’ll be six next week.”

  “You speak like your sixty. It’s not becoming.” She turned to walk away.

  “Neither is being rude,” Joie said.

  I reached over and laid my hand on Joie’s. “Let it go. Don’t say anything else. She is your elder.”

  “But she’s mean to you. And she has a poison.”

  “What?” I laughed.

  “I bed your pardon,” Gwen said. “What poison?’

  “Bot … bot …” Joie growled in frustration. “Botched something.”

  “Botulism?” I guessed.

  “That’s it.” Joie said.

  “Why would you say that?” I asked.

  “Peter told me,” she picked at her cornbread. “I asked why her forehead didn’t move and he said it was because she got something made out of that poison.”

  “Botox,” I said.

  Gwen cleared her throat harshly. “It is filler. It fills in the lines. If Peter is going to teach you things, he needs to teach you correctly. And I will take that cornbread now.” Before I could respond, she reached, grabbed one of my cornbread and started to storm away, but stopped and turned back.

  Joie held up her half eaten cornbread. “Did you come back for mine?”

  Gwen raised her eyebrows. “Thinking about Peter teaching you things. He is an extremely intelligent man but oftentimes intelligence leaves room for social blunder. So, I was thinking, you seem like a quaint little girl. Time here in this place is rather drudgingly slow, perhaps I can alleviate the boredom by taking you under my wing and teaching you some things, if that is fine with your …” She shifted her eyes with a snide expression. “New mother.”

  “Teach me what?” Joie asked. “Like math.”

  “No. I went to finishing school. And I...”

  “To finish what?” Joie asked.

  “To finish myself.”

  “Were you not done?”

  At that point, I decided to explain to Joie. “Finishing school is where they refine you and teach you manners and stuff.”

  “Did you go?” Joie asked me.

  Gwen laughed.

  I refrained from saying anything. I was curious why Gwen wanted to take special interest in Joie. Was she really that bored?

  “It’ll be fun,” Gwen said. “I’ll teach you how to be quite the little lady even in this Godforsaken world. People are going to need to emerge from the ashes with class and poise.”

  I saw it. Joie was ready to turn her down flat. But I had other plans. What better way to figure out
what was going on with Gwen then to pull an inside job. Joie was years ahead in intelligence and having been raised by Tony, she had a keen natural instinct to keep her eyes open and take in everything.

  “She would love it,” I said before Joie declined. “I would love it. It really would be a great thing. You don’t mind?”

  “Not at all. We’ll start tomorrow.” He eyes cased downward to Joie picking at her food. “With table manners.” She turned and then walked away.

  “Anna,” Joie whined.

  “No whining.”

  “I don’t want to do this. I’m finished. I have all my parts.”

  “No, you will like this.”

  “Why did you tell her ‘yes’?”

  “Eat your food. When we go to our room,” I winked. “Then we’ll talk.”

  <><><><>

  Admittedly, I had the biggest room in the Protocol One Bunker. Tony and the others would sarcastically refer to it as the Queen’s chambers, and rightfully so. In comparison it was the Presidential Suite of the Wyndham and the others were in rooms at the Motel 6.

  There was a lot of room and I had more furniture to make it seem more of an apartment. The adjoining door originally led to Tony’s room, but now, it was all Joie’s and we left that open.

  After doing some coloring, I explained to Joie, she just had to go with the flow with Gwen and to tell me everything she does outside of teaching her when they are together.

  Joie got it right away, “You want me to be your spy.”

  “In a sense yes.” I said. “Plus you’ll learn good manners.”

  We wound down the night with a story and I left to take my second three minute shower of the day. I needed it and Tony was driving me nuts. He decided after he ate, it was time to get out of bed and get moving. He started this pacing across the room. I figured after the shower and dressing, he’d be done.

  That was not the case.

  When I came back, he was still walking. Wall to wall, around the chair, lifting the chair.

  “We have a fitness room,” I said, walking in.

  “Craig said not to exercise.” Tony paced. “So I’m casually moving about until I get the all clear.”

  “Look at you being the good obedient patient.” I opened my top drawer and pulled out the Gwen BlackBerry along with paper and a pencil.

  “What are you doing?” Tony asked.

  “Not pacing the floor, that’s for sure.” I straightened the covers on the bed and then sat on them; I hate a messy bed, even if I was getting into it for the night. “When are you going to stop?”

  “When I feel I got some energy.”

  “Oh that makes sense,” I said. “Wear down to feel energized.”

  “If you exercised Anna, you’d know. Beside I feel like I gained flab.”

  I bit my bottom lip. “You did. I didn’t want to say anything.”

  Tony stopped walking.

  “Yeah, not weight, but like I was shocked how fast that toned definition turned into kind of flab.”

  He gasped.

  “And I think five days of doing nothing slowed you down.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I tossed the pen at him and it smacked against his arm and fell to the floor. “That. You would have caught that two weeks ago. You never saw it coming.”

  “You’re right.” He bent down for the pen, paused in what figured was pain, picked it up and handed it to me. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh, making notes on what Gwen has in here as far as documents. I want to really see what she has and try to figure out what she is up to. I wanted to talk to you about it but then you went ahead and got hurt. Lost and hurt. Remind me when you’re better to yell at you for leaving me.”

  “Yeah, right on that.”

  “And I want to look at this again before I give it to Peter.”

  “Why are you giving that to Peter?”

  “So he can hack into it to see if there are messages we missed. Ones that were deleted.”

  “You told him?” Tony groaned. “Anna, stop trusting people.”

  “I trust Peter. It’s Gwen I don’t trust.”

  “And Gil?”

  I lowered the BlackBerry. “I don’t know Tony. Something is up with him. Like he’s being blackmailed. It’s not Gil.”

  “And I’m telling you, it is. You’re just now seeing the real guy.”

  “Did you ever trust anyone?”

  “No.” He shook his head.

  “Not even me?”

  “Sometimes you have your questionable moments.”

  I gasped.

  “Especially when you just wave out your arm to strangers and say, ‘Hey, come on in, it’s cold out there, we have plenty.” He mocked me.

  “Yeah, well, that me is gone.”

  Tony scoffed and laughed. “Yeah, right. You still defend Gil.”

  “That’s because I really feel it isn’t him, it’s Gwen.”

  “Anna,” Tony walked over and sat on the bed next to me. “You don’t think it was a little psychotic all the things he did with that end of the world plan?”

  “No, it was to save humanity.”

  Tony stared at me, then shook his head.

  “I’ll prove it’s Gwen.”

  “I know you’re trying. You have my daughter hanging out with her starting tomorrow.”

  “Everyone needs manners. Gwen brought up a good point. Some must emerge from the ashes with class.”

  “In the apocalypse?”

  “Especially in the apocalypse.”

  He shook his head again. “So you are having Joie be a Peter and be the eyes and ears so you can find out more about her and what is going on?”

  “Yes, and it fell into my lap. She asked Joie.”

  “Uh huh,” Tony nodded. “And did it ever occur to you, that she asked Joie for the same reason?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe she’s getting close to my daughter so she can find out about you?”

  “Ha! Good thing Joie is smarter than that. It’s a win-win, Tony. I get info, your daughter gets manners. Do you know how much finishing school cost before all this? We’re saving a ton.”

  Tony did a fake laugh at my bad joke, raised the BlackBerry to my view and told me, “Go back to your documents.”

  “Go back to pacing.”

  I returned to pulling up the documents, what few there were. I was certain, Gwen was up to something. It was easy to generalize what it was, but to find out specifically, was a puzzle.

  One I would solve.

  Just like Gwen claimed to want to tutor Joie as a means to pass time. I was going to make my Gwen investigation, my means to pass the time as well.

  At the Bunker – Peter

  March 9

  One of the most annoying problems I have had all my life was the inept ability to dream of whatever occupied my mind. To the point it was annoying, irritating, and caused me to wake up numerous times. And I always continued the dream.

  I knew it was coming. I had been working a few days on hacking Gwen’s phone. Most of which was printing up the documents she had. I found some short stories she had started writing and deleted from her phone. Of all the things to find. I wanted to tell her to give up being a writer, but if I did that, she would know I had her phone.

  I had spent so much time with that phone, even stopping to play a game of Battleship with Tony didn’t help. He was back to himself and he wasn’t sleeping because of all the rest he got during his injury. So I found myself hanging out with him at night.

  Damned if Gwen didn’t invade my dreams.

  I made the mistake of telling Tony that every time I closed my eyes to sleep I dreamt of her.

  “Maybe you have a thing for Gwen,” Tony suggested.

  “I liked you better when you had a head injury,” I told him. “You didn’t talk. J 4.”

  “Hit,” Tony said. “I’m just saying. You’re dreaming about her. Are they dirty dreams? G 9.”

  “Miss.
No, asshole. I just wanted to have someone to talk to about it. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a couple of nights. H 4.”

  “Sunk.” Tony grabbed the ship and tossed it. “Okay, I’m sorry. Are the dreams what you are reading or what? H 7.”

  “Hit.”

  “Yes.” Tony clenched his fist in excitement.

  “They are to a point. She wrote a short story about an old man and a crippled pony.”

  Tony peered his dark eyes over his Battleship board. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, it sucked, but damned if I didn’t dream about Gwen on a three legged horse.”

  Tony laughed. Maybe if we play long enough tonight you’ll dream about ships.”

  “Maybe.”

  I won the game, but Tony was right in part. I did dream of big battleships, nonetheless, Gwen was on board, swinging on the flagpole like some sort of back room stripper.

  I gave up.

  After two hours of sleep, I figured I might as well work. My shift started at seven, and Walt, one of Gil’s guys was working the night. He probably would welcome the early relief.

  After I stopped by the kitchen, grabbed some granola and unsuccessfully hunted out the hidden and rationed drink boxes, I hit the safe room.

  Walt looked a little shocked. So much so, I wondered if he had fallen asleep on shift.

  “What... what are you doing here? It’s only five-fifteen.” He asked.

  “I couldn’t sleep. You might as well go on back to your room.” I opened my laptop.

  His eyes shifted to the monitors. “Um, no, I’m good. You don’t have to be here.”

  “What’s up?” I asked. “Did something happen?”

  “No, it’s been pretty calm.”

  “Uh huh.” I nodded. “Did you mess something up? You keep looking at monitor three.”

  Walt exhaled. “I did. I accidently hit the wrong monitor. The feed was off for about ten minutes.”

  “Oh,” I waved out my hand. “I did that last Tuesday. You’re fine. Of course, Tony wasn’t working then. I’ll speak to him if he gets mad.”

  “Thanks.”

  Walt stayed with me another fifteen minutes, nervously chatting about food and other things. It struck me as odd. Maybe I just wanted him to leave. I brought my folder of Gwen stuff, and needed the time without Tom to review it. Tom was coming on at eight.