Page 47 of Legacy's Call

The man blinked, and a bright smile flashed across his face. “Adil, actually, but yes, I answer to Al sometimes.”

“Jacob suggested I should talk to you about some events around the camp.” Ronan sat down.

Adil smiled and glanced around. “A good man. We shouldn’t talk here. Tonight, two in the morning, a half mile outside the fence due west, there’s a path to the south. Follow it. I’ll meet you when I’m sure you aren’t followed.”

“I won’t be alone.” He wasn’t born yesterday.

“I wouldn’t expect you would be. I’ll know if it is your man or someone else.” Adil smiled and glanced at the flap then whispered, “You should go. It isn’t safe for me to have you here.”

Ronan stood and shouldered his M-4 just as a man he didn’t recognize entered the tent. “Adil, I need … Oh, hello. I’m sorry, were you busy?”

“No, I’m just making my rounds and introducing myself to the camp. Ronan Alexander, team lead for your new security.”

“Oh. Good to meet you. Miller said you’d be around. I’m Mathias Gentry.” The man extended his hand, and Ronan shook it then nodded at Adil. “Good to meet you and thank you for giving medirections.” He looked at Mathias. “Looking for the structures tent.”

“Oh, that’s my team. Give me a second to finish with Adil, and I’ll take you to our area.”

“Sure.” Ronan crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Mathias to give Adil the message he needed to be transmitted for required supplies.

“Rumor has it the convoys may start soon, so I want the supplies waiting for us if they do,” Mathias said to Ronan as they left, and he motioned in the direction of his tent. “I know you talked to a couple of my guys yesterday. Frankly, we’ve always repaired the cuts in the fence without thinking about notifying people first. Then last night …” Mathias shook his head. “Miller pulled me aside and talked to me. Hopefully, we haven’t been aiding those bastards by trying to keep the fence line secure.” The man stopped. “You don’t think we have, do you? I have daughters and granddaughters. I couldn’t live with myself if something I told these guys to do was helping those people.”

Ronan stopped and considered the question. “Probably not. You didn’t have anyone to investigate the process.”

“We had some government people here for security oversight. Let me tell you, they were the laziestpeople on the face of the earth. Getting them out of their tent took an earthquake or someone getting a bottle of booze into the country illegally.” Mathias shook his head. “Don’t like to talk bad about people. I’m sure they did the best they could.” He looked at Ronan. “Did you buy that?”

Ronan chuckled. “Not in the slightest.”

Mathias gave an exaggerated sigh. “I told my late wife Monique before she died that I’d try to see the good in people. I’m trying. Haven’t quite obtained the knack.”

“You’re probably better at it than I am,” Ronan said as they continued to walk through the camp.

“Doubtful.” Mathias laughed. “Here we are. This is our corner of heaven.” He lifted the flap of a large tent. Tools were lying on shelves, along with several cutters that could have been used to make the hole last night.

“You have some good equipment.” Ronan walked past the shelves as he followed Mathias.

“We take good care of them, too. We have a maintenance schedule. I sold a successful construction company before I started to work with this organization and know that tools are the lifeblood of keeping something like this going.”

“Do you inventory the equipment?”

“Sure do, every night before I turn in.” Mathias opened the back flap. “Guys, this is Ronan Alexander. He’s in charge of security now. Everyone has heard about what happened last night by now.” All the heads moved up and down.

“As I told some of you yesterday, you need to inform us of any breach in the fence and don’t fix it until we’ve examined it.”

“Why’s that?” one of the men asked. His British accent reminded Ronan that the camp was staffed by a multi-national workforce of good people trying to do good things for the less fortunate.

“We hope to obtain a direction of travel to track and stop them. Footprints in the area, minus yours, of course, would help us determine what direction they traveled out of the camp.” They could also tell if the hole was made from the inside or outside of the fence line, but that was something he’d keep to himself. The fact that the bend of the wire and the direction of the cuts on the metal last night proved it was cut from inside the camp was something he revealed to very few people. Mathias knew because Miller told him.

“I’ll let the night shift know when they come in. We’re just getting our assignments for this morning. We have to move the latrines on the west side, sowe’ll need to dig. Collin, we’ll use the power auger to break ground. You’ve got experience running that temperamental fucking tractor, so make sure we don’t waste even an ounce of fuel, and if we hit shale again, for all that’s sane, another place for the latrines, we don’t want to hit another natural gas pocket.”

“You got it,” the man said, standing up.

“Natural gas?”

Mathias nodded. “Yeah, that caused a royal mess. The local government sent geologists and all kinds of survey teams. They told us where to dig from now on. We have a map. Make sure you take that with you, Hank.”

The man he spoke to stood and said, “You got it. Red team, you’re with me.”

“Shit,” one man said.

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