Chương 124

The gate opened wider. A heavy engine started behind the trailer. A truck came out with a cough of black smoke and rolled into view as the lead vehicle. It had once been a state highway truck. Road-department orange showed under grime, and a newer Authority mark covered part of the old lettering on the door. A broad snowplow blade hung from the front, dented and patched, its lower edge worn bright in places. Steel bars had been welded across the grille. Wire mesh covered the lower windshield.

Two radio antennas shook on the roof beside unlit yellow warning lights.

"Oh hell," Willa said from the back. Savannah watched it pull onto the road.

"That's what they use to clear the way." Louis looked at the plow blade.

"I think it will be more than clearing." The woman with the tablet stepped back from the gate. The plow truck passed first. The SUV moved after it. Savannah eased the pickup forward. Behind them, another pickup pulled out from the maintenance pull-off and took the rear of the convoy. Concrete barriers slid by on both sides. They passed through the open gate. Then they were through.

"Where are they taking us?" Donya asked.

"Charleston," Louis said.

"Or so they said." Savannah kept the truck on the road, leaving a short gap to the rear vehicle.

"And if they lie?"

"I don't think so," Louis said.

"They want my father's attention. They know what they can get from him. They need me alive and in good shape."

"I don't trust them," Donya said.

"You shouldn't," Willa said.

"Nobody in West Virginia is trustworthy."

"Even me?" Cherish asked. Willa looked at her.

"Except us."

"I hope so." Cherish's hands tightened on her backpack.

"We should send a message to my father," Louis said.

"Willa, can you tell him what happened?" Willa nodded.

"I can. I will keep it short."

"Do it," Louis said. Willa opened her bag, took out the phone, and started typing. Savannah said, "Maybe we should have shot them."

"Then we would be dead," Louis said.

"Or we would be free," Savannah said. Louis looked at her.

"For how long?" She shook her head.

"Better to die free than live as a prisoner."

"We will not be prisoners. We will be guests." He gave her a short smile.

"It's what rich people do." She looked at him, then back at the road.

"Maybe you're right." The highway climbed higher. Old repairs broke the asphalt, and steel drums marked places where the shoulder had collapsed. The plow truck led and took the worst parts first. Savannah drove with both hands on the wheel, watching the SUV and the broken road ahead.

"How's your wrist?" Donya asked from the back.

"Fine," Savannah said.

"It still hurts, doesn't it?"

"Everything hurts." Savannah kept her eyes on the road.

"I'll live." Willa looked up from her phone.

"I told him. He said, 'Copy.'""Good." Louis leaned back.

"At least he knows where we are going."

"I hope he sends a nuke if they try anything," Savannah said.

"We have submarines with ballistic missiles," Louis said.

"My father may have moved some of them into the Atlantic by now." Savannah gave a small smile.

"You rich boys got all the toys."

"We try to keep it interesting." He gave a small smile.

"It's ironic that we have to travel through all this to get back home when your father could just bomb a path for us." Willa sighed and put the phone away.

"I'm not sure he could bomb the exact roads we need without hitting us," Louis said. Savannah laughed once.

"That sound like a technical problem, not a moral one."

"I don't think my father cares about that." Louis shrugged.

"He would say it's acceptable collateral damage." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I bet," Savannah said.

"I'd love to see these goons' faces when a missile comes down on their heads."

"They would die before they could see it," Willa said.

"So would we," Donya added.

"Let's not die," Cherish whispered. Another checkpoint appeared at the top of a long grade. Concrete barriers narrowed the road. A shipping container served as the gatehouse, with an Authority flag on a pole beside it. Men watched the convoy approach. The plow truck did not slow until the last moment. The SUV stopped behind it. The gate opened before anyone spoke. The convoy rolled through without stopping. Louis saw a man raise a radio to his mouth as they passed.

Savannah watched the checkpoint fall behind in the mirror.

"They are serious about the road."

"Or about us," Willa said. Louis kept looking ahead.

"Maybe both." Another station came fifteen minutes later. This one was smaller: three men near a portable heater, a chained guard dog beside the gatehouse, and a camera fixed above the barrier. The dog stood and barked as the plow truck approached. One of the men pulled the chain short, and the dog backed down. The gate opened before the SUV reached it. Savannah said, "How many of these are there?"

"If I owned the highway," Louis said, "I'd want a lot."

"Especially if you're charging a thousand Euros to let people drive on it," Willa added.

"Did she actually charge us that?" Donya asked.

"No," Louis said.

"She took eight hundred fifty."

"Still a lot for nothing," Donya said.

"Control costs money," Louis said. Savannah glanced at him.

"And you know a lot about it."

"I grew up with it." He looked at the highway ahead.

"My father calls it the price of modernity." Savannah kept her eyes on the road.

"I call it robbery."

"Same thing," he said.

"Depends on who's writing the law." The road descended into a wider valley. Ahead, near the bend where the valley road crossed a narrow creek, a figure staggered into the lane. It was a woman in a faded dress and work boots, her hair loose, one hand pressed to her stomach. Blood darkened the side of her head. She limped into the road and waved at the lead truck with her free hand.

"Help!" she shouted. Louis heard the word faintly from ahead. The plow truck did not slow. Neither did the SUV.

"Savannah," Donya said.

"I see her," Savannah said. The plow truck hit its horn. The horn blasted through the valley. The woman tried to move back. She only got one step. The blade struck her legs and drove her under the front of the truck. The truck bumped once and kept moving. Her body disappeared under the front of the truck and came out behind it, leaving blood across the asphalt. The convoy did not slow. Donya made a sound and covered her mouth. Cherish shut her eyes and gripped her backpack in her lap.

Savannah held the wheel straight. Louis looked toward the bushes by the road. Something moved there, then disappeared. The SUV ahead kept moving. The plow blade left blood down the center of the lane. Their pickup passed over part of it before Savannah could steer clear. The tires hissed wetly against the asphalt. In the side mirror, the rear escort fired twice into the bushes without stopping. The shots fell behind them. The road bent north again. Donya lowered her hand slowly. Her face had gone gray.

"She was asking for help," she whispered.

"She was bait," Savannah said.

"How do you know?"

"Because that's what I'd do if I wanted to rob or ambush a convoy." Savannah kept her eyes forward. Cherish said, "That was murder."

"Probably," Savannah said. Donya wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"What if she was really hurt?"

"Then we saw how they treat the injured." Savannah's voice was flat.

"Keep that in mind." Willa watched the road ahead.

"What about the ones in the bushes?" Savannah shook her head.

"They ain't gonna try again after this."

"I hope Angi and Gladie are okay," Louis said.

"They saw it too."

"They're tougher than they look," Savannah said.

"I know," Louis said.

"But that doesn't make this easier."

"No." Savannah looked at him.

"It doesn't." The valley opened ahead. Before the next bend, a green highway sign pointed north toward Charleston. The plow truck passed beneath it. The SUV followed. The convoy moved on.

"Charleston is coming," Willa said.

"What do we do?" Louis said, "We will stay with them until we know their intentions."

"What if they lock us up?" Donya asked.

"My father already knows where we are. If they try something, he will act," Louis said.

"Will he bomb Charleston to get us out?" Cherish asked. Louis thought about it.

"He would do what he had to do. But he prefers to negotiate."

"Or he would send in commandos," Willa said.

"Yes," Louis said.

"He could do that."

"So many options for rich people," Savannah said, her face hard.

"We only had running and hiding." Louis looked at her.

"Not anymore. You're with me now." Savannah glanced at him.

"We'll see." Charleston appeared ahead. The convoy entered the outer traffic without slowing. Other vehicles moved aside for the plow truck. The road took them over a bridge across the Kanawha River. Louis saw the brown water below, then the city rising on the far side. After the bridge, Authority men in black-and-yellow armbands controlled the next intersection. People lined up beside a folding table to have papers stamped. A woman argued with one of them. He listened, then pointed her to another line.

Louis kept his hand on the dash as the pickup hit a broken patch of road. Savannah said, "This is the capital?"

"If they have one," Louis said. The road bent toward the river and into the Authority's center of Charleston. The pavement improved. Their black-and-yellow mark was everywhere now. A repaired office tower stood ahead. Bollards blocked the entrance, with reinforced glass and two uniformed guards behind them. The convoy turned into the approach lane. The plow truck pulled aside, and the SUV stopped first. Louis saw Angelique through the dark glass before the rear door opened. She stepped out with her face composed.

Her hair had come loose at one side. Gladice came out behind her and looked up at the building.

"Jesus," Savannah said.

"That's where they run the damn country."

"It's where they think they do," Louis said. They got out. The rear escort parked behind them. Two Authority men approached the pickup bed and looked at the covered machine gun without touching it. Savannah saw them and stepped closer.

"Hands off," she said. The men looked at her, then at Louis. One of them nodded to the building.

"Long guns and mounted weapons stay with the vehicle."

"You have a receipt or something?" Louis asked.

"Take it up with the desk." The man had already turned away. Louis joined Angelique and Gladice.

"You okay?" Angelique touched his arm.

"We are fine." Gladice winked.

"The seats are better than yours. And they have a minibar."

"Did they offer you one?" Willa asked. Gladice grinned.

"I stole a tiny bottle of rum. Want it?" Willa shook her head.

"I'd rather stay focused."

"Your loss," Gladice said. They were taken inside. The marble floor had been cleaned. The atrium rose through several levels above them. Old directory signs still listed insurance firms, investment offices, and legal services. Beneath them, newer boards listed Road Maintenance, Toll Services, Vehicle Hold, Fuel Allocation, and Escort Licensing. A line of people waited before a counter where clerks in rolled sleeves stamped forms without looking up.

Two armed guards stood beside a metal detector that looked like it had come from a courthouse. A man in a bloodstained jacket argued with a clerk behind reinforced glass. They crossed the lobby toward the elevator bank. At the security table, a guard lifted one hand.

"Weapons in the tray. Devices in the box." Louis stopped. The whole group stopped with him. The guard sighed through his nose and looked at Louis again.

"You heard me."

"No," Louis said.