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“It’s become relevant again, sir,” said Reel.
“You don’t have to call me sir.”
“I do it out of respect. Purple, Bronze, Distinguished Flying Cross, Airman’s Medal? You more than earned it.”
Daniels blinked again and his eyes grew watery. “Everybody I served with is long since dead. My wife’s dead, so are my kids. Nobody left ’cept my grandkids and their kids, and they got their own lives. Sucks being old and alone. I just sit in here rotting away, waiting for the end.”
Reel glanced at Robie and said to Daniels, “You should be at a VA facility. You’d find a lot more in common with the folks there than you probably do here.”
Daniels looked excited. “You can make that happen?”
Robie said, “If that’s what you want, sir.”
They helped Daniels to sit up straighter.
“What do you want to know?”
“What exactly did you tell Ben Purdy?”
“I told him the truth. Everything.”
“Which was?” said Reel.
The power in the facility went out, every room, every inch.
Panicked cries were heard all over the nursing home.
Robie’s and Reel’s weapons came out. Reel covered the door and Robie closed the window curtains, after gently pressing Daniels flat onto the bed and whispering into his ear. “Stay right there and don’t move.”
Daniels gave one curt nod and then froze.
The sounds of footsteps could be heard rushing along the hall. Reel poked her head out and saw nurses and other personnel running around. The night supervisor raced up to the door and said, “We don’t know what happened. Everything just went black. And our backup generator didn’t kick on. And . . . and two big trucks just pulled up in front.”
“Call the cops, do it now. Tell them you have a mass shooting event going down.”
“We do?”
“You do. Go!”
He ran off, looking terrified.
Reel looked at Robie. “Two big trucks?”
“Who are they?” whispered Daniels from his bed.
“We got this, sir,” said Reel. She eyed the wheelchair and then looked at Robie. “This room is Ground Zero. They have to know.”
He nodded. They slipped over to the bed, gently lifted Daniels up, and placed him in the wheelchair. Robie pushed it while Reel led the way.
They reached the doorway; Reel poked her head out and gave the all clear. They turned and moved quickly to the left, away from the front doors.
Reel slipped another pistol out of her second holster. Both guns had laser scopes. She had already put on a pair of NV optics, as had Robie. The darkness to both of them was now represented as daylight. The problem was, their opponents would no doubt have the same technology.
Robie pushed the wheelchair with one hand and held his pistol in the other. They disappeared down the hallway.
* * *
Thirty seconds later the doors to the nursing home were forced open. A barrage of armed men did not storm in. There was a whizzing sound as the motorized stainless steel robot rolled along on tubeless tires. Its laser eye swept across the hall, comparing what it was seeing with the building layout stored in its database.
