Royal Hues of Blue: Book One Page 23

  John wasn’t sure what to make of all this. He looked at the faces around him, studying him intently as though they were waiting for him to say some crucial thing. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was sure of one thing.

  “I don’t know where you want me to go,” John said to Schwarz. “But I’m not going anywhere unless I know Maria is safe.”

  “Maria is in the same position over there as you are here,” Schwarz said. “They can’t have her turn up alive without a good reason. It would make it look like her father faked her death to gain a measure of sympathy for the election. They’ll never even let him know she was still alive. They’ll take her out and nobody will be any wiser.”

  John felt his pulse start to race.

  “I’m not going anywhere without Maria. She didn’t leave me for dead when she could have. I won’t leave her behind now.” John crossed his arms resolutely as Schwarz nodded a few times.

  “We wouldn’t ask you to, John. Nothing is ever going to be the same for any of us after today. We are all tired of being lied to. It doesn’t matter what country we are from or what we look like, we are all being played for fools. I’d rather die finding the truth than live in this lie one minute longer.”

  Joanna laid Juan in his bassinet. “Welcome to the resistance, John Wallace,” she said.

  “Let’s go get Maria,” Williams said with a smile.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Captain Diego Fuentes felt his blood burning in his veins like fire. The vehicles skid to a stop at the river. There was an iron footbridge, and it looked like someone had been here recently, but it could have been anyone. He had felt a mix of rage and desperation after discovering it was John Wallace they were after, but he found frustration now as they searched for the missing Soona.

  A young sergeant ran up and snapped to attention in front of him.

  “Sir, there is no sign of Colonel Martinez or anyone having moved laterally along the river. If anyone was here, they moved through the woods.”

  “Yes, I am sure they did, sergeant. Have your dogs picked up any scent yet?” Fuentes asked.

  “Nothing yet, sir,” the younger man said. “The trackers just hit ground with them, so we expect something shortly.”

  “Very well,” Fuentes said. “Report immediately when you have something.”

  The sergeant nodded and ran off. Fuentes sat on the hood of his jeep, one foot on the bumper while the other dangled, and let his mind work. It could not be coincidence that Martinez and Wallace had gone missing. Something had happened, but what? A sudden thought jarred him, and he turned to Heredia standing nearby.

  “Sergeant, who normally patrols this area?”

  “We have a patrol unit at the facility, sir. They run regular patrols throughout this area.”

  “Where are they now? Were they patrolling this area?”

  “We have two men out on patrol right now, Finkes and Perez, but they haven’t reported in yet. I’ll ask them as soon as they do.”

  Fuentes nodded. He understood it wasn’t their fault Martinez had fooled them all. He was up to something, and it had to be something big to have taken Wallace with him. Fuentes had hoped to find at least some sign of activity here, but there was nothing. He wondered if they had crossed the river. Had they defected? It seemed impossible, but that was a possibility they could not ignore. Something told him that wasn’t it. This was John Wallace, and Heredia had told him nobody outside Facility 4 had known he was there. Fuentes was torn between his hatred of Wallace and his sense of logic. Colonel Martinez would have had good reasons for keeping Wallace’s presence highly classified, but Heredia had said the RID director hadn’t been to the facility. That told him Martinez hadn’t reported it to him, for who could resist coming to see the villainous John Wallace in chains? Something very big was happening here.

  A sudden commotion off to his right jarred him from his thoughts. The bright moonlight and the brightening sky to the east allowed him to see a group of soldiers pulling someone up from the river. Fuentes jumped down from the jeep and strode determinedly towards them.

  “What’s going on here?” he demanded loudly.

  “Sir, we found them hiding down in the riverbank!”

  Fuentes reached them and examined the two figures being held by his men. They were Rista kids, no more than twelve years old. He knew the Federation was hurting for troops in the north and had begun allowing men to join at younger and younger ages, but these were entirely too young to be soldiers. They looked terrified as they stood surrounded by heavily armed men glaring at them.

  “What are you doing out here?” he demanded in a calm, but firm voice.

  The two boys stood frozen in fear and Fuentes almost smiled. These were definitely civilians; probably part of the locals who didn’t want to move south to get away from the war and leave their lands unattended. He softened his tone and asked them again.

  “Boys, do you know there is a war on? The Arcangel River is the border between us and our enemies. Are you trying to get yourselves shot?”

  “We were just fishing,” one of them said.

  “Fishing? What were you doing out here fishing this early?”

  “The fish like to gather under the bridge where the channel is narrower,” the boy said. “We always come out early to catch breakfast.”

  Fuentes nodded. He understood. The war tore everything apart. Families did whatever they had to in order to scrape by. Each day was a struggle to find food and store up enough wood to get through the winter. The boys were just doing what was necessary to survive. He hated to see the people suffer like this. He found himself wondering if the war would ever end. It was moments like this where he questioned if it was worth it.

  “Let go of them,” he ordered. The soldiers released the boys and gave them reassuring pats on the shoulder as Fuentes took a piece of gum from his pocket and began unwrapping it.

  “So did you catch anything?” Fuentes popped the gum into his mouth and smiled.

  “Yes! We have caught three big ones already!” the boy said proudly.

  “People always say the fish they caught were big,” Fuentes said with a laugh.

  “They ARE big! Want to see them?” The boys gave him an indignant look, which only made him laugh more.

  “No, that won’t be necessary. I believe you. Good job. Your mother will be very happy. How long have you been out here? Three big fish is a good haul for breakfast.”

  “We came maybe two hours ago? We don’t have a watch. We caught one almost right away, but had to wait awhile before another one bit. It was right after those people left.”

  Fuentes almost choked on his gum.

  “People? What people?”

  “I don’t know who they were. They were on both sides of the bridge. We were scared to look. We were afraid they might see us.” The boy’s eyes grew wide as he saw Fuentes’s sudden rise in intensity.

  Fuentes felt his pulse racing, and he bent over so he could speak very softly to the boys. He didn’t want to scare them so much that they forgot things.

  “Listen to me,” he said. “It is very important that you tell me exactly what you remember. We are at war, and I need you to remember exactly what you heard and saw. You aren’t in any trouble. I just need your help.”

  “We hid under the bridge like we always do. We have a place up high where we made a little platform out of boards to sit on and dangle our lines to the water. Nobody can see us up there, even during the daytime. We couldn’t see anything, but we could hear them. They were on both sides at the same time, and then two of them went across the bridge.”

  “Which way did they come from?’ Fuentes asked hurriedly.

  “One from each side, I am sure. It was a man and a woman. I could hear them talking. They seemed upset. I don’t know; they weren’t happy for sure. Then other men started yelling that it was two minutes and they had to go. One of them went one way, and the other went the other way.”

  “You’re sure about tha
t?”

  “Very sure,” the boy said. “They were talking in another language, so I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The man’s name was John. She said his name a few times, so I am sure of it.”

  Fuentes smirked. So Wallace had come this way. Something had happened here after all. This was good. He smiled at the boy.

  “You’re doing a very good job. This helps a lot,” Fuentes said, and the boy’s face lit up. “Do you remember anything else?”

  “They each walked across the bridge and everyone left real fast. That was about it. It was just the two people on the bridge, and then it was over.”

  “Sergeant Heredia, tell the men to load up and head back to the facility. Keep the trackers here and take them through the woods to see if they can pick up a scent or a trail. Now that it is getting light out, we should be able to track visually.”

  Heredia nodded and hurried off barking orders as Fuentes gave the boys a smile and waved them off.

  “Go catch your fish, boys. You’ll need to get your catch home to your mother before too long. You did a good job.”

  “Are you going to catch the people from the bridge?” the boy asked.

  “We always do,” Fuentes said with a smile.

  “Which one are you after? John or Maria?”

  Fuentes whipped his head around so fast that the boys both took a step back in fright.

  “What did you say? Where did you hear that name?”

  “On the bridge… ‘Maria’ was what he called her.”

  Fuentes forced himself to stay calm. Maria was one of the most common names in the Federation. It couldn’t be her; not his Maria. He dared not hope, but he felt something stir deep inside him. This all was crazy enough; Maria being here would fit right in. Wallace was supposed to be dead, but turned up very much alive. Maybe it was the case with her as well.

  “How long ago did they leave?”

  “Maybe an hour? It was before the sun started changing the sky.”

  “You are sure?”

  “Very sure,” he answered. The only light we could see was the reflection of the moonlight off the water.”

  Fuentes turned and ran to his jeep, leaving the boys exchanging wondering looks. They waited until the soldiers got far enough away before turning and running back down to the riverbank. Fuentes fired up his jeep and tore off down the road for Facility 4. The daybreak was quickly lighting up the eastern sky, changing the darkness to a royal shade of blue. Soon, the sun would rise on one of the most pivotal days in the history of the entire war. The stage was set; the players in position as the curtain prepared to fall.

  Martinez ran across the small stretch of open ground between the trees and the hill. He knew the lights shining down into the courtyard of Facility 4 actually worked against anyone trying to see into the darkness beyond them. He hadn’t let the others see it, but he was very concerned about seeing Fuentes here. He had planned for virtually every contingency, but he hadn’t planned for this. Special Forces would usually be about the last unit called to handle anything like this. Martinez wanted to know what exactly they had been told. He had not shared his plan with anyone outside of Perez and Finkes, and the only person who outranked him in the RID was the director himself. Rodriguez had to be involved for Special Forces to be here. He reached the safety of the hillside trees and quickly made his way to the cave they had departed from with Wallace a few hours earlier.

  Martinez was breathing hard as he entered the cave. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small light the size of a pen. He switched it on, and a soft, bluish glow illuminated the rocky wall before him. He took a moment to review his plan. The trade for Maria had gone off without complications, and she had brought him the medallion as directed. He pulled it from his neck, and slid its small door open to reveal a tiny computer chip, which he removed. He came to a doorway embedded in the rock. He punched in a code on a keypad and placed his hand on a scanner panel. The lock was released, and he pulled the door open and entered the tunnel he’d used to smuggle Wallace out.

  Things weren’t as bad as they could have been, but they were much more complicated than they would have been had his plan gone unnoticed. The presence of Special Forces and seeing so much of the Facility 4 personnel assembled outside made him confident Wallace’s absence had been discovered. He wasn’t sure what Fuentes’s orders were, but he was confident Heredia would go along with them. The man was an ambitious career climber; wanting nothing more than his next promotion. If he was the subject of a 111, Heredia would be happy to personally turn him over in handcuffs. He had no intention of giving him or anyone else the chance.

  He made a left and then a right. The tunnel was built between the rooms in the black level. He was the only person alive who knew they existed until tonight when they’d left. He found what he was looking for and stopped. He was directly behind the wall of the room containing the computer servers. He pulled a key from his pocket, inserted it into a small panel and turned it. The panel opened to reveal an access portal. He inserted the chip into the portal and typed in a command to download the contents of the servers. The download would take a few minutes, and he walked off as soon as he was sure it had started. He now had to carry out the most difficult part of his plan: He had to destroy Facility 4.

  He hurried to where a master panel of detonators was set up. He almost hated to destroy such an advanced, shiny-new facility, but its destruction would clear up a multitude of problems for him. All physical evidence that Wallace had ever been here would be gone, but that was not the main purpose of destroying Facility 4. The station had been built as a place for the RID to store its most sensitive intelligence. All of the information at the RID’s disposal was said to be stored on its servers. The director had visited after its completion to oversee the downloads, but he hadn’t returned since. Facility 4 had to be destroyed in order to hide the theft of its data. He had little choice but to join the resistance now; even if he’d wanted to reconsider. Rodriguez wanted him gone, and the man was going to be the next president. He had no future in the RID, and if he was going to be given a position of influence in the resistance, the data on the RID servers was the price of admission. He began to set the countdowns. First, there would be a security alarm saying the facility was under attack. That would send all personnel outside to set up a defense and guarantee everyone but the prisoners was outside when the explosives detonated a few minutes later. It made him feel bad to do it, but this was how it was with war. He finished setting the countdowns and returned to where the downloads had been completed. He removed the chip and closed the panel before heading back to the cave.

  Maria hid within the cover of the trees as Martinez went to the cave. She was confused as to what was happening, but she had to believe all was going to be alright. Joanna had told her she was going with Martinez for just a short while, and she should not be afraid. But she was afraid. She was afraid all these men with guns would lose their bearings and shoot her and the others in their excitement. She was afraid she would not see her baby again; her precious Juan. She was afraid Martinez would be captured before he returned. She realized she was worrying about things she had no control over, and she forced herself to take a deep breath. She had been fine until they’d seen Fuentes. His presence had immediately taken away any feeling of safety she had possessed.

  Diego Fuentes had seemed like the perfect man when she’d met him. He was young and handsome, with the kind of perfectly chiseled features that gave his smile a dazzling quality. He was the most charming man she’d ever met; not that she’d met all that many men since she’d reached adulthood. He had begun seeking her attention shortly after her father had introduced them, and she had been immediately captivated by the charming young Rista captain. She had just come to live with her father for the winter, leaving her home in the care of some servants he had sent, but she had stayed for half a year because of the dashing Fuentes. He made her feel special and beautiful and a hundred other things she had never felt
before, and he dazzled her with gifts and special trips. Her father approved of their relationship, and she had been the envy of young women everywhere as she had held his arm as they walked into the fanciest parties in Hidalgo. He had bought her the most breathtaking gown she had ever seen. Diego Fuentes had seemed too good to be true.

  And he was.

  The first time he had screamed at her, she had thought he was playing a joke. They were at a fine party at the home of one of the territorial governors, and he was given a note by one of the servants; a message from one of his junior officers. His face had begun to turn red, and he was visibly upset. He had told her they needed to leave immediately and had hurried her out to the car. As the driver had pulled away with them in the backseat, she had touched his arm and asked if everything was alright. He had snapped at her; asking if she thought he looked alright. She had laughed, thinking he was joking with her, and made a cute remark about how she wasn’t with him for his looks. He had roared in her face; screaming she could go back to her little mountain with the goats where she belonged. She had shrunk back in her seat, remaining quiet until he had the driver drop her off at their hotel. He had left her standing there with the doorman as he went off to deal with whatever had come up. She managed to fight back the tears until she was alone in her room, and then she had lain awake for hours trying to process what had happened. Two days later, she had left Hidalgo for her father’s mountain home in the north.

  Fuentes had discovered where she had gone and came to smooth things over. He had half-apologized for that incident and tried to laugh it off as being passionate about keeping her and her countrymen safe, but Maria hadn’t thought it funny in the least. A pattern began to emerge over the next few months where Fuentes would talk down to her and blame her resulting displeasure on her being “difficult.” Her opinions didn’t matter if they differed from his own, and he became angry if she didn’t do whatever he told her without question. She had wanted to talk with her father about her concerns, but by that time, the Soona had begun a major offensive to the north, and she did not want to bother him with her love life at such a critical time. John Wallace had taken every inch of ground north of the Arcangel. Everyone was in a panic. The Soona were on their doorstep, and Fuentes had gone off to defend the Federation. She found herself relieved to have him gone; a feeling she had discovered she now felt each time he left. The man had managed to crush any feelings she’d once had for him, and she had decided to tell her father about it the next time she saw him. She dared not just end it with Fuentes on her own. He would have never allowed himself to be the subject of such humiliation. He obviously thought her beneath him and being dumped by a mountain girl would be unbearable to him. She had never been the type of girl to fear much of anything, but Diego Fuentes scared her in a way nothing else ever had. A short time later, she had found John Wallace himself unconscious and helpless on the side of her mountain, and everything she had ever known began to change.