War Girls (The Juniper Wars Book 5) by Aaron Ritchey (find a book to read TXT) 📗

thought I was Wren. It made her more compliant. And if she escaped, she wouldn’t tell people she met Cavatica Weller in the Juniper.

I followed her down the Heartbreaker which seemed to be circling what I could only hope was the police station. Could only hope it was Peeperz at the helm.

A little light filled me. I hadn’t killed Jen Baptista. Maybe my soul wasn’t as ragged as it seemed.

(ii)

Baptista and I found the door of the cockpit closed.

“That you in there, Peeperz?” I called out.

“Yeah, it’s me,” came the thin voice back.

“You alone in there?” I asked.

“Sure am.” The way he said it, I knew I could trust him. If he had been under duress, surrounded by soldiers, he wouldn’t have sounded so sure.

Baptista let out a long gasping breath. “So what does this mean for me?”

“We had a deal. You get your clothes back and you’re my prisoner-of-war. We’ll see what you know about President Jack Kanton’s visit to Denver. Then we’ll go from there.”

She put on her clothes. I motioned to the door.

Inside, four chairs faced a windshield showing lots of darkness and stars. Peeperz sat in the front left, and had the wheel in his hands, and he was adjusting dials and pulling on levers; everything was mechanical since electricity didn’t work.

“Sit down there,” I said.

She took the seat next to Peeperz.

I stayed back. “You see the police station, Peep?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you. Not like you waited for me.”

He said it to hurt me but that was turned off. Him being alive should’ve filled me with gratitude, but all I could think of was the mission.

If we don’t practice feeling, do we lose the ability to feel? Our fingers become calloused if we’re not careful, and it seems our hearts do as well.

“Couldn’t, Peep,” I said easily. “But you made it on, and we’re all here.”

“Not the Moby,” he whispered. “I went when she blew. Watched her sink and die. You killed her.”

“And I’d do it again,” I said. “We have the Heartbreaker now, and we’ll use her to rescue our people.”

I turned on the prisoner. “So, Baptista, you been in that police station down there?”

She cocked her head and squinted at me. “Yes, but you don’t think I’ll help you, do you? It would be treason.”

“What were your orders out here?” I asked.

“To ensure the U.S. military has access to the routes leading to Denver, so they can unseat the Outlaw Warlords, so we can bring democracy. It’s pretty clear that the territorial government should’ve—”

I cut her off and finished it for her. “Should’ve worked, but it didn’t. It became a bureaucracy without power, a puppet government with no one holding the strings. How come I saw U.S. troops escorting normal Juniper folk down I-70?”

“We’re relocating civilians for their own safety. We are here to help.”

“Maybe,” I smirked. “But y’all certainly aren’t here to help the Juniper. Your goddamn peacekeepers are here to clean up after the ARK and their goddamn research. They created monsters and don’t want the world to know. And Tibbs Hoyt has the cure to the Sterility Epidemic. He’s hiding it in the Juniper at a secret research facility. Did you sign up to work for the ARK?”

She laughed and showed me the smile in her eyes. “You’re crazy. Monsters? And how is the ARK involved?”

Peeperz handed our guest a piece of paper. “This zeppelin has papers saying it is an official piece of equipment which belongs to the American Reproduction Knowledge Initiative. You’re in an ARK blimp, ma’am.”

Then I laughed. “See? You are working for the ARK, not the United States. Answer me this...is Mavis Meetchum an Outlaw Warlord?”

Baptista’s smile was gone, and I saw the shades of doubt filling her eyes. “We heard she joined forces with June Mai Angel.”

Then I hit that poor woman with all I knew about June Mai Angel, how she was a war veteran who wanted the U.S. to do the right thing and take care of their Military Megs. That hadn’t happened. Vets were sent to the Juniper to live, the sick, the mentally ill, the poor, the immoral, anyone who couldn’t fit into polite American New Morality society.

“We heard rumors, about the Indian regiment for example, but we thought it was just the liberal media.” Baptista glanced away. “Regardless, I took an oath. I can’t help you.”

“No, you prolly can’t.”

“There’s rope in that cabinet,” Peeperz said.

I found it and tied up our prisoner, who didn’t struggle or go for my pistol. She stayed stock still and let me work my magic with knots. I’d spent my entire childhood tying up various things; she wasn’t going anywhere.

“You heard about President Jack’s visit to Denver?” I asked.

She kept silent.

“I’m going to fetch him. I’m going to make him tell me everything he knows about the Juniper and the ARK’s secret research facility. If there is one person on earth outside of the ARK who knows where it is, I’d reckon it would be him.” I changed topics. “Are you the only one who stayed behind?”

More tight-lipped defiance from the soldier girl.

“Do you think we’re alone, Peep?” I asked the boy.

“I think so. No one has come after me. I’ve not heard anything in the communication tubes. I think your plan worked.”

I nodded. Good. “Okay, now to rescue Sketchy and Tech. I’ll get in one of those forward machine-gun nests. I’ll call you once I see our people. Be ready to fly away and fast.”

Peeperz nodded but couldn’t look me in the eye. “And if there are more soldiers on board?”

“Let’s hope there’s not.” I was more worried about the helicopters or another ARK zeppelin finding us. We didn’t have the people to work all the guns, and if the U.S. sent their helicopters, we’d be in trouble.

I left the room and made it to the right front gun turret. I settled myself into the seat and buckled in. Not only did I have .50 caliber machine guns, but two savage-looking