Free The Last of the Freemen by Carl Trotz Page B

Pennsylvania?”
    “Not in that immediate area,” Harm assured her.  “The Asesinos are farther east.  And they only attack towns where the National Guard has already disarmed everyone.  You know, for their own safety.”
    “I'm guessing, from what I've seen, that's not just a coincidence?”
    “You're figuring it out!” Bern chuckled.
    “Beyond our immediate escape” Harm began haltingly, “I don't want to get your hopes up, I'm still looking into it, but I think your brother-in-law might still be alive.”
    “What?  How do you know?”
    He stared at the floor and squeezed his hands together.  “He contacted me before the Cull riot where your husband was killed, anonymously, trying to buy a pistol.  Nearly got himself one, but I was surveilling before I made the drop and recognized your husband, he’d went along with him, so I had to bail out.”
    “Recognized him?” she asked.   “So you knew my husband?”
    “We met briefly, after Mangler ate your Guinea fowls, I went over to apologize and offer reimbursement.  He wouldn't have it.”
    “He did tell me he met a giant out there. He was a little frightened of you. But why couldn't you sell them the gun?”
    “It wouldn't do, to have him know what we were doing, and know where we live  Even good people talk when they get scared, or have their families threatened.”
    “How do you know he's alive?”
    “I don't, for certain.  But there have been phone calls, from the same phone number, starting a few weeks ago.  I never answered. I figured it’s the authorities calling with his phone, tracking down all of his contacts. So I never called back, until an hour ago.  He was thrown off that I knew who he was, or says he is.  That’s a good sign. He says he survived the Cull riot by playing dead, and went into hiding. He figured out for himself that survivors are killed. Supposedly he's holed up with a group of government resistors who aren't as well armed as they'd like to be.  He wouldn't say where.  But we’ll talk again.”
    Bern grinned. “It seems you’ll have a place to go, after all.”
    “My brother-in-law?” she said with her eyes wide.  “I'm happy if he's alive, but it's not as though we were ever very close.”
    “You belong with family,” Harm said.
    “I belong in some bunker with a bunch of anti-government nuts? And a brother-in-law who gets on my nerves?”
    “Mrs. Gordon,” Harm said, “what else can we do?”

Chapter 15
    “Do you have to go so fast?” Erin shouted from the rear seat of the red Jeep Cherokee as it bounced and hurtled along a dark woodland path.  “Hughie might spit up.”
    “And he might get shot if we don't stay ahead of whoever’s behind us.  He seems okay.  He's quiet.”
    “Someone's behind us?” she asked, turning to look out the rear window; a pair of headlights was visible far behind them.
    “Yeah.”
    “The police?”
    “Maybe. Or gangsters. Or they might be some of John's men, keeping an eye on us.  We're getting close.”
    “Oh my God,” she whispered tensely with another glance out the back.
    “If they're local cops, they'll turn back when we get to John Bear’s land,” he assured her.  “If they're Feds, or state police, well, then maybe not.”
    “We're almost there?”
    “Almost.  But it's been a few years.  It's hard to tell.”
    He braked hard and slid to a halt on dry leaves.  A heavy log set across the path at waist height barred their way; he rolled down the window, then lifted his hands above the steering wheel as a blinding light shone into the car.
    “This is it,” he said, squinting into the light.
    Two men with rifles approached the car from out of the darkness on either side; the one closer to Harm had a flashlight mounted atop the barrel. First training it on Harm, he shifted to Erin, then Hughie.
    “Don't point that at the baby,” Harm snapped.
    “Sorry, Wolf,” the man answered respectfully, “I just gotta, you know, I gotta check, I gotta