The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (reading women .TXT) 📕

tap the trigger. I didn’t. I surrendered because I didn’t want to kill anyone.”

“But, your mission was to kill, and you accepted it.”

“By going, yes, I accepted it. It’s not like I had much choice in it, especially given my job.”

“Which was?”

“I was the local leader of the security branch. The leader going missing was exactly in my job description, especially since there was no one in Barrow to do it. Whether I wanted to do it or not, which I didn’t, I was just following orders.”

“I’d say that if I were in your shoes, too.”

“I’m saying it because it’s true. There are many people exactly like me in the Order. They were born into this. They, we, want a normal life, not soldiers in a grunt army. And like I said, I didn’t have to be here right now. I could be where you’re standing.”

“Do you know about Russian involvement?” I asked, ignoring her.

She sighed. “Just rumors.”

“What if I told you we got the phone we have from two dead Russians?”

“Can I ask you something?”

I nodded.

“How do you know they were Russian?”

“Because they spoke it.”

She nodded and then said, “Like I said, just rumors.”

“What about the radar device at the military base in Barrow?”

She looked puzzled. “Don’t know anything about it.”

“Well, what was written on it was in Russian. I can’t imagine an American military base having Russian equipment lying around.”

“I’m not saying we didn’t have their assistance. I’m not anybody. Just a grunt in all this. I really don’t know.”

“You guys really don’t know much about anything, do you?”

“It was our biggest strength, but now it’s destroying us from within.”

“Is that why you want to switch sides?”

“I never wanted any of this. I sure as heck didn’t want to kill anybody.”

I knew she was lying, but I wanted to ask her more questions. I was sure she would sprinkle in some truth with the lies to try to keep herself breathing. She was smart. I was damn sure of that. “The Grays… the ones that attacked us here were a lot different than we’ve seen. Why?”

“Grays? Oh… Byeongsa.”

Again, she looked nervous. “There are some who were as designed. Many others, for whatever reason, were not.”

“How did you round these up?”

“We used the sound devices. Those who came, we knew, could be used. The ones who didn’t, well--”

“You got these from Barrow?”

“No. Fairbanks.”

“So, the Grays there are mostly like the ones you brought?”

“No. Most of the Grays, as you call them, are not very smart. It took us a long time to round these up in Fairbanks.”

“Who controls Fairbanks?”

She hesitated. “Your army still controls Fort Wainwright and some of the city.”

“So, you’re losing the fight up there? But you somehow manage to put together enough resources to hunt down a single person, who happens to be in the middle of nowhere, and hurting no one?” I shook my head before finishing, “Your story is garbage.”

She brushed a stubborn strand of red hair out of her eyes as she said, “Whether it was stupid or not, I didn’t make that call. People above me did.” She sighed angrily.

I really think she initially thought that her words could sway me, make me change my mind about her. She was failing, and she knew it. “The people above me and those who still believe, place a very high value on loyalty. In my culture, if you break that oath, you risk death.”

“Just for the record, I believe very little of what you’re saying.”

I heard Duane rustling behind me. He had been reticent until that moment.

“In fact, I don’t even know why in the hell I’m even still talking to you.” I took a step towards her.

“My job was security. I know things not very many people in the Order know.”

“Okay. And?”

“Every one of us has tracking devices embedded in our skin.”

“Show me,” I said.

She held her right palm out. “I always put them in the palm or the inner-thigh, depending on how fleshy the palm was.”

She flinched ever so little as I moved in to have a look. “You can feel it if you press lightly on the skin.”

I did. She seemed to be telling the truth about that, anyway. “So, you can track anyone in the Order,” I said, moving back a few paces from her.

Her blue eyes grew large. “I can only track people in my small group, which was about twenty-five people. I have no means of tracking anyone outside of that group.”

I had had enough. She was lying. I knew it from the very moment she told me she had tracked the cell phone. Avery had known from very early on that the phone could be tracked. He also knew from Kelley and then later confirmed in the code that the phone had a self-destruct feature that could be either initiated by remote or locally. He was able to disable the tracking module due in part because it needed the GPS to function. The self-destruct worked differently. It was so embedded in the source code, that if he tried to remove it, the phone would be bricked because of the code that would have to be removed.

I pulled the other folding chair over to where I had been standing and had a seat. My leg was throbbing, and there was a pool of blood on the floor. I would need stitches to be sure. I needed a bath, too – a long one. I smelled literally like death.

“You’re lying.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The tracking was turned off on that phone.”

“Impossible.”

“You don’t know, Avery. He did that very early on,” I said, running my finger along the edge of the butcher knife.

She eyed the blade and then me. She closed her eyes and recomposed herself. She was about to say something when I stopped her. “You don’t have to hide the hate you feel towards me. We’re square.”

“I don’t hate anyone.”

I ignored her. “So, if you can’t track the phone, how did you find us?”

She thought so long, I