Savages by James Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

the Alliance is doing in Kentucky, they’ve gone to a great deal of trouble to make sure we don’t interrupt them. From this, we can garner a few logical assumptions. Take it away, Gabe.” I waved a hand at him.
    “There are any number of reasons for the Alliance to stage the guns and ghouls,” he said. “Maybe it was an insurance policy. Maybe they were planning to attack at a different time, but caught wind of the Union’s plans to defend the border. Either way, they chose to attack right as we were leaving. I can’t see that being a coincidence.”
    Harlow let out a long sigh. “No. I don’t think so either.”
    “Which means they knew what we were doing and when ,” I said. “Which means someone in either Echo Company or Central Command is talking.”
    At this, Harlow frowned, but did not argue.
    Jonas said, “But that still doesn’t explain why they attacked Hollow Rock and not our forces.”
    “I suppose you have a theory about that?” Harlow asked, looking at me.
    “I do, actually. I don’t think whoever sent those men expected them to destroy Hollow Rock. Think about it. Why attack us in daylight when we’re still close to town with tanks and air support? It would make much more sense to attack at night. Gabe said something about an insurance policy.”
    Harlow sat up straight in his chair. “Son of a bitch.”
    I waited.
    “That’s why they targeted the main gate, and why they attacked in broad daylight. If those rigged ghouls had blown the walls, we would be evacuating everyone in town to Fort McCray as we speak. And even if they had attacked Fort McCray directly, they knew we could fight them off. Call for reinforcements. That would be the opposite of what they want. They don’t want to take us on directly, not until they can attack in large numbers. They just want us to stay put. Crazy bastards sacrificed their own men to keep us here.”
    “We got lucky,” Gabe said, “if not for Eric’s sharp eyes, those hordes would have destroyed the wall. And if not for the Apache, those mortar crews would have blown the main gate down to rubble.”
    “And your men would be stuck here longer than they already will be,” I added.
    “It was all a smokescreen,” Harlow said, standing up and beginning to pace his small office. “The Alliance doesn’t want Hollow Rock. At least not yet. They just want to make sure Union forces near their territory stay occupied while they expand southward.”
    “And it’s working,” I said.
    Harlow stopped pacing. A slow smile spread across his face. “So we let them keep right on thinking that.”
    Jonas said, “Do you have an idea, sir?”
    Harlow unlocked a drawer in his desk and extracted a satellite phone. “Step outside for a minute, gentlemen. I need to make a call.”

 
SIX
     
     
    Night fell over Hollow Rock.
    I stared at my little corner of the world and had an oppressive feeling of things ending. It was a rotten emotion, like the time a very polite and appropriately subdued officer with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department called my cell phone and told me my parents had been involved in a car accident.
    Are they hurt? They’re at the hospital. Okay, but are they hurt? They’re at Presbyterian Main, uptown. Your mother is in surgery, I believe. How bad is it? I’m afraid I don’t know the extent of her injuries. Fine, what about my father? I’m sorry, Mr. Riordan. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
    That same hollow feeling. Like the ground under my feet moved and rippled and fell away. Like I had nothing inside me, no lungs, no heart, no organs of any kind. My blood was smoke. My breath was ashes. Something precious, something irreplaceable, was gone. Taken away from me.
    Allison is still alive, I told myself. And my baby. Okay. As long as I have that, I’ll be all right. But what about home? What about the sense of safety and belonging? If the Alliance really wanted to destroy Hollow Rock, they could. Maybe not all the way, but