Free What Lies Below by Glynn James Page B

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spare quarters or buildings that were secure enough to keep you in one place,”
FirstMan said. “You seem to be quite good at slipping by people, and getting
out of places undetected, and I couldn’t have that until I was happy to let you
go.”
    “That’s okay,” Jack replied. “I understand.”
    “You do?” asked FirstMan, surprised. “I thought you’d be
angry. I have the security of all these people to consider, and few resources
to achieve that goal, but now Ryan and Haggerty, and RightHand, have convinced
me that you’re not a spy, I don’t feel I have the right to hold you any longer.”
    “It’s fine,” said Jack, thinking that he’d been kept in worse
places. Maybe not much worse. Where was this going, though? He wondered.
Freedom wasn’t coming without a price. He could sense that already.
    “I have a proposition for you, Jack,” said FirstMan.
    There it was.
    Keep it calm and friendly, he thought. Play the game how he
wants to play it. Just be yourself.
    Jack frowned.
    “I know it seems strange to keep you prisoner and then offer
you a job,” FirstMan said. “But after your little escape trick, back in the
swamp, and after everything that Ryan has told me you are good at…well, I find
you to be quite a talented individual. If you would be interested in working
with us, maybe helping us locate certain things, I think we could make it worth
your time.”
    Jack thought in silence for a moment, and could sense that
First Man was about speak again. “Okay,” he replied. They had kept Ryan alive
all this time, and they were probably both his and the boy’s best option for
survival at that moment.
    FirstMan grinned. “Oh,” he said. “That was easier than I
expected. I was anticipating having to haggle and persuade.” He stepped
forward, unlocked the cage door and pulled it open, gesturing that Jack could
leave.
    Jack stepped out of the cage and stood up straight,
stretching. “You’ve kept my boy safe all this time, and more importantly, he’s
alive.”
    FirstMan tilted his head to one side. “Well, not just me. You
can thank the rest of the folks in the towns for that,” he said. “He was brought
in with a large group, a couple of hundred kids and women, quite a while ago.
They became part of the community, so it wasn’t done as a favour to you.”
    “I know,” said Jack. “But he’s alive, and that’s all that
matters to me.”
    “He’s not actually your son, is he?” asked FirstMan. “He has
always claimed he was, but I sense not.”
    “No, he’s not by blood,” said Jack. “But we kind of adopted
each another when he was much younger. He may as well be. Always has been, I
think.”
    “Good,” said FirstMan. “A kid needs a father, I always say. I
lost mine when I was young, so I know the hole it leaves.”
    They were silent for a few minutes, both considering their own
thoughts and what they had just learnt of each other. Jack thought that maybe
the man wasn’t so bad after all. He could put his faith in worse.
    “So you’ll take my offer then?” asked FirstMan.
    Jack nodded, his lips pursed. “Sure. What am I looking for?”
    FirstMan paced the floor next to the cage and then closed the
door and flipped the lock shut, as though putting that part of history to rest,
locking it away for good.
    “I need you to find me some old tech,” he said.

Follow Your Orders
    A year before
    They moved through the mountains of trash like ants,
scurrying between dirt mounds, navigating the pathways swiftly, even in the
dark. There were no spotlights or torches. These figures moving rapidly towards
the hidden settlement wore grey armour, with full face visors that showed no
view of the people underneath, and gave no indication that built into the
helmets were full spectrum enhancements that meant to them it may as well have
been the middle of a bright, sunny day.
    There were guards at the entrance to the Junktown. Three of
them huddled against the inside of a wall made of