AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The voice said, “Officer Fox, please hold the line.”
“Is this some kind of trick?” asked JT, but Dez didn’t reply.
Another voice spoke, one she hadn’t heard before. “Officer Fox?”
“This is Fox. Who’s this?”
“This is Major General Zetter.”
“Glad you remembered that we’re alive, General.”
“Is Mr. Trout with you?”
“No.”
“Can you put him on the line?”
“What is this about, General? If you’re thinking of trying to change our deal, then you can shove that right up your—”
“It’s my understanding that Mr. Trout is in possession of a set of flash drives belonging to Dr. Herman Volker. Are you aware of this?”
“Yes,” Dez said carefully, though she knew that Billy didn’t have the flash drives. Goat did. But Dez didn’t want to say so to Zetter, and definitely not without talking to Billy first.
“Are you aware of what’s on those drives?” asked the general.
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
“We would very much like to get our hands on that information, Officer Fox.”
“I bet you would. And I bet that one minute after you got them you’d shove a Hellfire missile up our asses. No thanks.”
“This isn’t a trick, Officer Fox.”
“Uh huh. And the check’s in the mail, I’ll call you in the morning, and I won’t come in your mouth.”
“Officer Fox—”
“Do you really expect us to believe anything you say?”
“You have been given assurance on behalf of the president of the United States that no further attacks would be made on the school as long as you followed the safety protocols.”
“Right. Tell that to the Sioux.”
“What?”
“As much as it causes me physical pain to say this out loud to another … what I assume is another Republican, our government doesn’t have a great track record for keeping its promises with people who have something they want.”
“Kennedy Democrat,” said Zetter.
“What?”
“I’m a Democrat. It may surprise you that there are plenty of us in the military, Miss Fox.”
“Whatever. You get what I’m saying? You know there’s not a lot of trust going on here.”
“I suppose that’s an unfortunate truth. But given that I was no more involved in making treaties with the Indians than I was behind the attack on the school, how about we avoid making assumptions that might confuse the situation? And it was I who ordered our troops to stop firing on the school.”
“Oh, blow me, Zetter. Billy Trout’s broadcast hit the news services and the president’s nuts crawled up inside his chest cavity. That’s what happened. He told you to stop trying to kill us only because it would look really fucking bad at the next elections. If you’re going to try and pretend otherwise then this conversation is over.”
