Goon - 17. Chapter 17

“Thank god, where are you?” Mrs. Howard’s voice was both relieved and borderline frantic as she talked quickly. Micah and Corey were standing along the tree line bordering Highway 2. The phone’s battery was barely above twenty-percent so the conversation would have to be fairly quick.

“We’re somewhere along Highway 2, Mom.” Corey answered. They were holding the phone between them and had it turned on speaker so they both could talk. “It’s about three in the morning here and we’re back along the tree-line.

“Bill and I are in the car heading towards Huntsville now.” She spoke rapidly. “Whose phone are you using?”

“It’s a pay-as-you-go phone that one of the men had.” Micah answered.

“Which men?” She asked.

“The ones impersonating FBI agents.” Micah answered.

“Well, the real FBI is involved now since Sergeant Major Smith reported that the men were posing as FBI and they found the chopper.” She told him. “They said there were burned bodies in it, but only three, so we were hoping both of you were okay.”

“We are, but Mom, the identifications looked real.” Corey said. “They were real good.”

“They were.” Micah affirmed. “I don’t think a real agent would have been able to tell the difference. The guy who called himself Burke was really Simon Copperson, a former Army special forces soldier who retired a few years ago and now works for De.”

“The private contractor company?” She asked. Of course she’d be familiar with a large private mercenary force like that.

“Yes.” Micah stated. “We don’t know if he was working for them, or freelance, but I remember him. De gets dissolved in 2015 and he went to work with Lupo Services, the company I worked for there at the end. He was one of the trainers when I first was hired by them, before they sent me to the lab. I only went with him on one training mission, so that’s why I didn’t recognize him right off the bat. Mrs. Howard, ma’am, I am not sure who we can trust at the moment.”

“I don’t think you boys should be found just yet.” She said firmly after staying silent for about two minutes. “How much power does that phone have?”

“It’s going to be dead in a bit.” Corey answered. Both of them were tired after walking all day and night. They had found a small creek a few hours back and had drank enough to keep from being too dehydrated, but with winter here, they couldn’t find any berries to eat. Corey had balked at eating the insects Micah had found, but Micah had gotten him to down a few handfuls after they had found the creek. Around midnight when the phones had indicated they were less than half-way charged, they had shut them off and started turning them on once per hour. In the end they had walked out of the tree line to find the highway before they turned the phone on to find they did have a signal.

It was a principal that most people never realized that cell phone signals were most common near highways in rural areas. Go too far off the roadway in those rural areas and cell signal would be rare. Get closer to a road or a population center and you would find the signal again.

“Wait two hours and then start turning it on to call every half-hour.” Corey’s mother said after another pause. “Sit tight and get some sleep if you can. Bill says we should be on Highway 2 in a few hours and then we can zero in on your position. We will pick you up directly. You can stay hidden until morning, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Micah said. Mrs. Howard had a cool head on her shoulders and didn’t lose her calm in moments like this.

“I love you boys.” She said and then hung up.

“God I love my mother.” Corey said with a chuckle as he powered down the phone. They retreated further into the tree line and picked out a decent-looking spot to hunker down. It’d be morning before too much longer, and it was getting to be the coldest part of the night. Both of them were close to shivering.

“Let’s try to get as warm as we can.” Micah suggested and they lay as close as they could before piling leaves and dirt over themselves. A blanket would have been nice and more effective, but the cover of leaves and dirt would both make them harder to spot and provided a bit of insulation as their body heat warmed it up. They had to lay as still as possible, and were face-to-face, smiling at each other.

“I like your suggestions.” Corey whispered as they stared into each other’s eyes, blue looking into green. “It’s a nice way to stay warm.”

“It’s not as good as a warm bed and snuggling up under the covers, but it’s not the worst.” Micah replied with his own smile.

“We were saying we needed to get some time alone together soon.” Corey added, still smiling that little smile. “I had no idea you’d go through all this trouble.”

“Very funny.” Micah said as he fought a yawn. He couldn’t move his hand up to cover his mouth and didn’t want to yawn in Corey’s face. Fortunately his eyes started fluttering closed, as did Corey’s and he drifted off into sleep.

The light of early morning woke him a few hours later, and Micah stretched slightly, feeling the dirt and leaves they’d thrown over themselves shift ever so slightly. Corey’s stead breathing announced he was still asleep. Micah shifted in his spot again, spilling more debris before getting up. His dick was hard, but it was a piss hard. Covered in dirt, dried leaves, and freezing cold, sex was the last thing on his mind, or so he thought until he remembered the feeling of Corey’s hot mouth around his dick.

“Don’t go.” Corey mumbled as Micah got up.

“I just have to piss.” Micah assured his boyfriend, walking a short distance away so he wouldn’t piss anywhere near where they slept. A check of his watch showed they were only about ten minutes away from their check-in time and he sat down next to Corey, who was still mostly asleep.

Guilt was seeping into his consciousness, and he tried to push it aside. Part of him said he should distance himself from Corey because he didn’t want to endanger him. Another part knew that wouldn’t really work. Corey was in this as deep as he was, if not deeper. Sure, it was Micah with memories of five years of a future timeline and some connection with that future that was ongoing, but Corey’s father was also involved and that meant Corey would still be at risk one way or another.

Micah wasn’t sure if there had ever been a time when family wasn’t a pawn to be used against the powerful.

“I like being with you, even in a place like this.” Corey murmured as he scooted closer so he was lying along Micah’s legs and his head was in Micah’s lap. Micah idly picked some leaves and twigs out of Corey’s hair. It was getting oily from several days without a shower.

“I’d prefer a nice warm bed.” Micah said softly.

“A shower would be nice too.” Corey sighed. “Think mom will be here soon?”

“Most likely.” Micah said gently. Corey was a lot less accustomed to roughing it than him, although he had to admit this was a little extreme for him. At least before he’d had rations and plenty of water.

“I hope she has stuff to drink in the car.” Corey said as he sighed and got up. “I’ve got to piss now too.”

“I went over there.” Micah said as he pointed in the direction where he’d pissed. When Corey was done he stood up and they both stretched in relative silence. As cold as it had been they’re muscles were stiff as hell and Micah didn’t want to risk pulling them or a worse injury at this point.

“We should get closer to the tree line.” Corey suggested and Micah nodded. They headed towards the roadway at a gentle pace, and when Corey’s hand sought his, they finished their trek back to the tree line while holding hands. It felt good to do it out in the open again and Micah sighed. Under other circumstances this might have been a nice little vacation.

Holding up their relationship in the middle of school without making it too obvious had not been easy. If he had to guess, Micah would bet that most of their fellow cadets were certain the two of them were in a relationship, especially after Corey had turned a number of them down for sex. However, having people think they know, and confirming it openly were two totally different animals. Both Corey and Micah knew this, and so they kept their actions hidden enough to never openly declare their relationship among their fellow cadets.

“God my fingers are still stiff from the cold.” Corey complained as he fumbled with the phone and dialed his mother’s number. Micah smiled as he bent over and blew his warm air on Corey’s fingers. “Damn it, Micah, that feels good but the moment you stop it makes it worse.”

“Sorry.” Micah said just as Corey’s mother answered.

“We’re on the highway.” Mrs. Howard said without introduction. “Are you both doing okay?”

“We’re fine, Mom.” Corey said gently. “Just a little cold and thirsty. There’s a county marker that says ‘thirty-two’ near us and we’re on the north side of the road.”

“That’s good.” His mother said. “We should be there in about a half-hour. Stay out of sight until we get there. The FBI is going berserk and there’s a massive manhunt on for you both.”

“Why?” Corey asked.

“I’ll explain once I have you both with me.” She said and hung up the phone. Corey stared at the phone in his hand until Micah wrapped it in his hands, pushing the off button to power it down while covering Corey’s hands with his own.

“Let’s get back under cover.” Micah suggested.

“What do you think she meant?” Corey asked in a near-frantic voice.

“We’ll know when she gets here.” Micah said as Corey followed him back deeper into the trees.

“How can you be so damn fucking calm?” Corey growled at Micah as they stopped near a particularly large tree. Micah grunted when he saw the cell tower about two hundred yards away. Now that the sun was up he could see a lot more of their surroundings and was less than happy with the scant cover.

“Who said I’m calm?” Micah asked as he took a deep breath.

“You sound calm.” Corey said with a shake of his head as he leaned against the tree and sank to a squatting position. Micah stood tall and kept a wary eye out for anything moving around them. If they were going to be here longer, he’d have been tempted to snar the rabbit he saw peeking out of a hole.

“I’m not calm.” Micah said with a grunt as the rabbit decided it would burrow back into the warmer earth and not risk dying for whatever it wanted at the moment.

“But you’re not freaking out or anything.” Corey said grimly.

“What good does it do to freak out?” Micah asked. “It’s better to use the nervousness to keep more alert, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“You’re no fun sometimes.” Corey groused. “You could try acting like a teenager more.”

“I do act like a teenager.” Micah said indignantly and Corey chuckled quietly.

“Not really.” Corey laughed. “Then again, I don’t think anyone we know acts like a regular teenager.”

“We are in a military boarding school.” Micah reminded him. “Most kids don’t live in their school, wear uniforms, or go on two day hikes to go shoot guns.”

“True.” Corey laughed gently. He reached into his pockets and powered up the phone again. His mother answered the call almost immediately.

“You should be seeing us shortly.” She told them in a clipped tone. “Wait for me to call you before breaking cover.”

“Yes ma’am.” Micah said as Corey hung up. Both of them were a little more tense now, looking in the direction the car would be coming from, moving closer to the edge of the trees so they could both see better and break cover faster.

“Do you ever forget the smell?” Corey asked, causing Micah a moment of confusion before he took a deep sniff. Under the stale sweat, the smell of dirt and the whiff of really bad foot odor, there was a hint of that familiar metallic tang.

“The smell of blood will give me nightmares still.” Micah admitted in a very sad voice as Corey leaned against him again.

“It’s like I catch just a bit of the smell and I’m seeing the pilot’s blood spread all over, and then I remember Rocha’s head blowing off and I’m seeing that gun pointing at me again and I wonder if it’s the last second of my life.” Corey said in a hushed whisper. Micah should have expected it, but he’d hoped Corey would wait until after they were in Mrs. Howard’s car before starting to break down.

“In Afghanistan, the day it happened, I was almost killed.” Micah said in a quiet, subdued voice, hoping that Corey would get what he was talking about. “I squatted down to look at something that caught my attention, and the bullet went right over my head, hitting Polner in the throat. He bled out almost instantly and I remember the smell of blood. I think that’s what sent the guys in the squad over the top. They lost it and didn’t stop when they’d killed the sniper, but we knew I was the target and I kept on having nightmares about it. Until you came and got me out of that prison it was just about the only thing I ever saw in my dreams.”

“That must have been awful.” Corey said sympathetically. Micah sighed, glad that Corey’s attention was off his recent experiences. They both had to stay focused.

It was ten minutes later when the phone rang, and they both jumped. This was the first time the phone rang and Micah cursed when he saw that the phone number wasn’t Mrs. Howard’s cell. Corey’s look was a clear question, and Micah took the phone out of Corey’s hand before answering it, shifting it immediately into speaker mode.

“This is Micah Jericho.” Micah said, hoping his voice didn’t shake too much.

“Mr. Jericho, it appears you are a very resourceful young man.” A male voice, digitally altered so it was unrecognizable said through the phone. “Why don’t you save everyone a lot of trouble and put that gun you’re carrying to your head and pull the trigger?”

“Not likely.” Micah said, motioning with a finger over his lips for Corey to stay silent.

“I trust young Mr. Howard is safe with you?” The voice asked.

“What do you want besides me to commit suicide?” Micah asked.

“I hear you and young Mr. Howard have developed a rather touching relationship.” The voice stated and Micah frowned. It wasn’t a secret, but then again it wasn’t quite something the media was reporting either. Whatever some people believed, the private life of a U.S. Senator’s son wasn’t gossip fodder on the national stage. Then again, whoever this was had known enough to impersonate FBI agents in a kidnapping attempt.

“He’s a good cocksucker.” Micah said in a bored tone, ignoring the look of outrage on Corey’s face.

“I do hope he’s not able to hear you say that.” Whoever Micah was talking to had a warped sense of humor.

“He’s passed out.” Micah said. “Having someone try to kidnap and then kill you was a little much for him.”

“But not for you.” The voice countered.

“I’ve been through some scary shit before.” Micah said. “What do you want?”

“You are in an equation where you do not belong.” The voice said. “Remove yourself from the equation and your good little cocksucker will be able to find another cock to suck. Otherwise he might become collateral damage, if you get my meaning.”

“Thank you for the advice.” Micah said as he hung up, ignoring the look that Corey was giving him.

“I’m a good cocksucker?” Corey asked in a tone that warned of a lot of danger coming Micah’s way.

“The best.” Micah said with a smile. “Plus I love you so it makes it even better.”

“You were just trying to pretend like I wasn’t that big a deal.” Corey said. “They’re after you, not me, so you’re trying to minimize the danger to me. Have you even considered how I might feel about that?”

“Do you love me?” Micah asked and Corey frowned.

“Yes.” Corey said guardedly as the phone rang again. This time it was Mrs. Howard’s number.

“Then trust me that I’m not going to go all noble and self-sacrificy on you.” Micah said as he answered the phone, not bothering to put it on speaker. “We’re ready.”

“As soon as you see the car, break from cover.” Mrs. Howard told him and then hung up. Her voice said she was on edge, and Micah had a second to wonder what else was going on before they both saw the car at the same time. Corey slapped Micah’s arm to make sure he saw and they took off at a run together. They’d broken cover of the trees for about ten feet before Bill saw them and began to pull over.

“Thank you lord!” Mrs. Howard said as the boys piled in to the back seat, Corey in the lead and Micah slamming the door behind him. It was the big Lincoln Town Car with a spacious back seat, and Mrs. Howard was in the front seat, looking as though she hadn’t slept at all in the last twenty-four hours. Bill looked just as tired in the driver’s seat, but he had a satisfied grin on his face as he got back on the road.

“Our tail was too far back to spot us stopping.” Bill said to Mrs. Howard who nodded as she leaned back over the front seat to hug Corey, who now had tears leaking out of his eyes. Micah had to sniff as he leaned back in the comfortable seat and started to truly relax for the first time since the helicopter had landed at the firing range.

“Thank the lord you’re both safe.” Mrs. Howard said as she held out a hand for Micah to grasp before folding back into her seat and handing over two large bottled waters. They were chilled, but not cold and Micah opened his with a grateful sigh.

“Just sip it.” Micah warned Corey who looked as if he was going to down the entire bottle at once.

“I have plenty.” Mrs. Howard said with a frown as she began to hand over granola bars as well.

“It’s better for their health to rehydrate at a steady pace.” Bill said from the driver’s seat.

“Now tell me what happened.” Mrs. Howard ordered and Micah began their story, with only a few additions from Corey, mostly about how scary it was and how calm Micah had been throughout the whole experience.

“We didn’t want to risk that the first people to arrive might be associated with the kidnappers.” Micah finished. “We figured our general location by dead reckoning and headed south, hoping to hit the highway. When we did, we got a signal and called you on one of the kidnapper’s phones.”

“I saw Micah searching that one guy’s body so I searched Rocha’s and got a second phone, ID badge, and of course the guy’s gun.” Corey added.

“Micah, you were not the only one associated with recent events that has been attacked, although you faired the best.” Mrs. Howard said with a grim look as Bill took an exit.

“Where we are going?” Micah asked as he sipped slowly but surely on the water before tackling the granola bar.

“We will head back to Georgia and the house.” Corey’s mother said with a wrinkle of her nose. “Although maybe we can find a way to stop and get you boys some clean clothes as well as a shower before the back seat is permanently ruined. We brought some clothes for both of you in the trunk.”

“There was a truck stop about thirty miles back.” Bill suggested. “We should be able to get the boys showers there without taking too great a risk. Our tail is staying several miles behind and hasn’t stopped once when we stopped for a few minutes.”

“That may change if they see the boys.” Mrs. Howard said with a frown.

“There are ways to limit the opportunities for detection.” Bill said and Micah got the impression he might be more than just a driver and butler. At the very least he’d probably taken the basic protection courses offered by the State Department and US Marshall services. That would be good for all of them. “Are you boys armed?”

“We took the guns off of the kidnappers.” Micah stated. “I didn’t feel comfortable leaving them behind.”

“Keep them on you for now.” Bill suggested over Mrs. Howard attempt to protest. “If we can work out a shower at the truck stop, you’ll leave them in the car.”

“Yes sir.” Micah said. It was always easier to just take orders.

“What’s going on, Mom?” Corey said after swallowing the big bite of granola he’d taken. Micah took a bite while he waited for Mrs. Howard to collect herself. Meanwhile Bill was getting back on the highway going in the opposite direction. When Bill nodded significantly at a big, black Tahoe SUV, Micah figured that had been the tail that Bill had discussed earlier.

“They missed the exit.” Micah said before Mrs. Howard had answered her son.

“Then they don’t have tracking on this car.” Bill said with a little relief. “I haven’t dared try to lose them before now, especially since they stayed so far back.”

“I don’t see any sign of air surveillance.” Micah said, but given that he was using just his eyes out of a limited cross-section of the vehicle, he knew he’d be lucky to have spotted aerial surveillance, especially if it was from an unmanned drone. He couldn’t remember if law enforcement had started using them for monitoring the highways and ticketing speeder yet, or if it was next year, but he remembered the big stink it caused. Civilian applications of drones had brought in hundreds of millions in added speeding tickets over a one-year period that many states managed to pay off their debts from the recession in a single year.

“Your father is in intensive care.” Mrs. Howard said and Micah reached over to grab Corey’s hand as his boyfriend let out a cry of disbelief. “He was in a car with Henry Edgefield when they were hit just outside the Capitol. Micah, I don’t know if you recognize the name, but Judge Edgefield was the most recent nominee for the Supreme Court, replacing one of the more conservative judges.”

“I think I remember him.” Micah said with a frown. “There was a big fuss a couple years back, right before I joined the Army because of him.”

“What kind of a fuss?” Mrs. Howard asked.

“He was the deciding vote on some big Supreme Court decision.” Micah said with a shrug. “I didn’t really pay attention, but it was a big deal because it was about corporations. Something about no longer recognizing them as having the same rights as a person. It kind of made sense to me, but it was apparently a really big deal and a lot of big business types were threatening to close all their offices and manufacturing plants in the United States if Congress didn’t overrule the Courts.”

“What happened?” Corey sounded interested and Micah recalled a particularly long phone call when he’d done little more than just listen to the sound of Corey’s voice as Corey excitedly talked about the subject.

“Congress tried to pass something but the AM people stopped it in the Senate.” Micah said as he tried to recall what the hell Corey had said that day. It’d been mixed in with a whole bunch of other stuff, but it was also the thing that had gotten Senator Howard really into the race for President and gave him a real chance for election. “That was it. Edgefield was the guy who Senator Howard was given credit for getting on the Court. He really lobbied for him and Corey was so proud of what his father had done, and how crappy a lot of the high-society types were behaving to Mrs. Howard because they hated the decision and blamed Senator Howard for making it harder for them to control the political purse strings. At least, that’s the phrase Corey used.”

“It sounds like me.” Corey said with a little smile as he looked at his mother. “Wow, that really would make a difference.”

“Your father has quite a few radical ideas, some of which I don’t really agree with.” Mrs. Howard said with a frown. “As well-meaning as he is, he just doesn’t understand that without the privileged class, America would never have been built the way it was.”

“I seem to remember a whole lot of those arguments.” Micah said with a frown, surprised that Mrs. Howard disagreed with her husband on this.

“Judge Edgefield was killed in the accident, if that is what it was.” Bill said as Mrs. Howard slumped a bit in her seat.

“Right before you called the last time, Micah got another call on the phone.” Corey said pointedly and Micah sighed before relating the contents of the call.

“I hope you are not seriously considering their proposal.” Mrs. Howard said with a very direct look over the back of the seat. “You are part of the family now, Micah and I will not lose you.”

“Shouldn’t you be heading to Washington?” Micah asked to deflect the attention away from him.

“Answer the question, young man.” She ordered in a stern tone.

“I have no serious intention to follow their suggestions.” Micah said flatly. “I enjoy my life too much, and giving in to kidnappers, killers, and terrorists is a bad habit to start.”

“You need to tell her about the other part.” Corey said with a look very reminiscent of his mother’s. Micah sighed and then related the vision/dream or whatever it was of the future. Mrs. Howard looked shocked and bit her lip.

“I recognize that name, Kilgore.” Bill said slowly. “I’ve heard the Senator mention it a few times.”

“From where?” Mrs. Howard asked. “It sounds familiar but I cannot quite place it.”

“Linda Kilgore is a Senior Vice President of De Services.” Bill explained and Micah frowned.

“The same company that the kidnappers worked for.” Corey noted.

“They lost a lot of money when they were disbanded.” Micah said with a sigh and a frown. “I remember there were even criminal prosecutions of some of their officers because of laws they’d broken.”

“Well, we will have to take a very direct look at them in a short while.” Mrs. Howard said as she sat back down in her seat and faced forward. Micah sighed, taking a sip of his water, finishing it off and putting the cap on it before dropping it on the floorboard. Corey was already drifting off, and in the silence that followed her statement, he drifted off as well as the last twenty-four hours caught up with him, and he relaxed into a feeling of safety.