Free Reckoning ~ Indian Hill 2 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure by Mark Tufo

does seem to be the case.”
    “Where do they have you going after your visit here?”
    “Well, that’s just it, buddy, I’m staying here.”
    “Are you another one of Burkhalter’s plants?”
    “No, I think he already has that avenue covered.”
    “Yeah, I know. I’ve been feeding one of my newer captains disinformation since he got here. So what gives? Why is the good general allowing you to attach to my ‘militia’?”
    “Well, I think he was telling it to me straight, Paul. He doesn’t think that the entire combined military force has a chance of stopping the Progerians. We are his back-up plan and he wants the best on the bench, at least for now.”
    “Interesting, I was always under the impression that we were just some sort of plaything for the general and when he got tired of playing with us, he would discard us to the wings and the waiting arms of the FBI.”
    “So that’s the whole reason behind the Indian Hill project?”
    “How much do you know about that and who else knows?” Paul asked as the color drained out of his face.
    “Relax, my friend, Dennis came up to Maine while I was visiting my father and sister.” Paul was relieved but still not happy that Dennis had talked.
    “Paul, come on, man, he told me, nobody else, just me. I sure didn’t tell Burkhalter. I trusted enough in you for you to have your reasons to keep it secret. Now, trust in Dennis to do his part.” Paul relaxed a little more, but I knew the next time he talked to Dennis, a decent tongue lashing was going to be attached. “Paul, he’s got that place locked down better than the security here. I even tried the Stop and Shop roof to get a look with some binoculars and almost got my head bashed in for my efforts.”
    “Well, not to change the subject too radically, but how is your family doing? I’m sorry about your mom. I wanted to go to the services, but I had some things here that I had to take care of.”
    “Lyndsey’s great; she goes up to Maine every other weekend to spend some time with my dad. Ronny’s the same old Ronny, working his ass off. My dad has slipped a bit, my mom’s passing took him hard. I don’t know, I guess you just get so used to one way of living that when it’s taken away from you, you become lost. To be honest, Paul, that’s how I feel about the whole planet. We’re a few months away from possibly losing everything we know.”
    “That’s why we’re here, bud,” he replied as he placed an arm over my shoulder. It was going to take more than that to wring the chill from my bones.
    “When are you planning on moving these people to the new station?”
    “Well, we already started, we want it to look more like attrition than total abandonment. We were going to take our time and possibly have it done in six months and just make it look like nobody believed in the ‘cause’ and it fizzled out. That way, no suspicion would be aroused. But your story kind of puts a wrench in that scenario. We’ll have to do some mass moving in the next week or two. I definitely don’t want to be caught out here in the middle of nowhere with our pants down.”
    “Is the Hill going to be able to house that many people?”
    “This times two is the design, plus two year’s worth of rations.”
    “That had to have taken some serious green.”
    “I think the project is somewhere up in the billion range.”
    “How is the general allocating that kind of money?”
    “Beats me how he’s doing it, he’s pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing. I would imagine it has something to do with plausible deniability. Frank, could you see about finding Captain Talbot here some suitable quarters?” Paul turned back to me. “Hey Mike, why don’t you go get a few hours of shut eye and then I’ll show you around the place. You might be more than a little surprised.”
    I was attempting to stifle a yawn before I answered. “That sounds good to me, but don’t let me sleep past noon or I’ll never get to sleep