Free A New World: Conspiracy by John O'Brien

away. The round hit her in the throat and tore a
large portion of it out. The only redeeming facet is that she
wouldn’t have known what hit her. Looking down at her, she seems
even smaller. I feel the deep pain of grief grab my heart, and the
first hot tears come. Barely hearing Drescoll call again, I have
him make his way to the hospital.
    With the others looking on with saddened
faces, Gonzalez and I clean Allie’s wound as best we can. Faint
screams of night runners drift out of the hospital and across the
area. I look up at the arrival of the Stryker and Humvees several
minutes later. I begin to rise to meet Drescoll when I feel Lynn’s
hand on my shoulder.
    “I’ll handle this,” she says, rising and
walking across the tall grass to meet the arriving teams.
    As Lynn heads over to meet Drescoll, Horace
and her team half support and half drag a man to where we are
gathered around Allie. Arriving, they release him and he drops to
his knees. His hands are tied behind his back and he appears
groggy. As his knees hit the ground, he raises his head and stares
at me expressionless.
    He appears only a little younger than me and
is clean cut with a few days stubble showing. It only takes one
look for me to know two things. This man is a professional and is
the type that puts his skills to use for someone else. That means
someone sent him. We need to figure out whom; but just as
importantly, why. The presence of the quad indicates he had to come
some distance, but that distance is also a limited one. We need to
find out how far away the camp is. I’m surprised to find that he is
alone; shooters usually work in teams. We could have missed his
partner or partners, but I have no doubt that there are others
nearby. That leaves two options – they either have an established
outpost somewhere close or that their major encampment is.
Regardless, there are others out there that we need to find.
    Looking down at the man, I know this guy
didn’t come from any ordinary group of marauders. If he did, he
would be leading them and more than likely not running missions.
Yes, there is a lot that can be gleaned from a three-second look.
The question running through my mind is how they tracked us and
found us at the hospital – that they knew to meet us
here.
    There is the possibility that we were a
target of opportunity but, in my mind, the scales tip toward a
planned operation judging from the skillset I am assuming the
shooter has and the fact that the quad was found camouflaged. I’ll
know more once I look through his gear, but if this was a planned
operation, then it has much larger ramifications. This camp or
outpost must be found almost as urgently as destroying the remnants
of the hospital night runner lair. We may be able to do both this
afternoon. If we can locate the camp/outpost, there is the chance
we can capture the others. However, I won’t risk more of our teams
in an all-out assault if it looks to be too difficult. More people
to interrogate would be nice because, looking at the man staring
defiantly at me, he won’t be talking anytime soon. He has the
appearance of knowing the game. We’ll have to make the call when we
see what we are dealing with. We may just have to use the Spooky
and take them out.
    With the distant shriek of night runners for
company, our eyes lock for a few seconds.
    “You missed,” I state.
    It pains me to say this because his miss is
why Allie is lying on the ground near my feet. However, the tone
with this man needs to be set. He won’t be showing any weakness and
neither can we.
    Breaking eye contact with him, I look to
where Lynn is talking with Drescoll. I watch with deep sorrow as
Lynn delivers the news. Drescoll’s head falls and Lynn puts her arm
around his shoulder. They stand that way for several moments before
slowly making their way to us.
    Gonzalez is kneeling by McCafferty’s side
with one hand on her shoulder, her head down and tears falling to
the ground. Drescoll arrives,