Chapter 28: It's All Geek to Me

4:45 p.m.

Somewhere outside Carbondale, PA

Flint pounded his fists against the rocks with no care as to the pain the action brought. "Damn!" He screamed. "Not now!" Flint slammed both fists down, connecting solidly with the wall of rubble separating him from Lady Jaye. If he could, he would punch a hole all the way to reach her. Now was a time when it would be really useful to have one of those superpowers portrayed in Ripcord and Mainframe's comic books. And Lady Jaye's. He leaned back against the rock and slid down to the ground. The three musketeers all thought that they were so clever. They thought Flint had no idea what they did on their Wednesday night "meetings." They forgot that Flint's job was to know exactly what his men were up to on the base, at all times. Well, scratch that, Flint thought. He wasn't that good if Hawk was betting on Jaye and him. Setting aside that small blemish on his record, Flint was quite proud of his ability to know his men. He knew about Ace's poker games in the junk room, Clutch's video library for the male motor pool workers, and the geek squad.

Yes, the geek squad. He happened upon it by chance one random Wednesday night. The communication center's servers were acting up. The greenshirt techie on duty wasn't cutting it. Dialtone and Mainframe were off duty, but still on the base. His footsteps echoed against the cold tile floors as he checked out every space where the two men could possibly be. The trail was cold and he was almost ready to call them up for leaving the base without permission when it hit him; the base was a little too empty overall. The cafeteria should be bursting with life. Instead, only a few lone souls, like Low Light, were indulging any late night cravings. The television room was deserted. Even Ace's poker game was shy a few hands. Flint's step picked up with a purpose as he made the executive decision to bug Lady Jaye. If anyone knew where Mainframe was holed up, it would be her. His knocks on her door, however, went unanswered. It struck him as very suspicious considering she had made a big show at dinner of not feeling quite well and wanting to retire early for the night. Since he was overnight command officer, he didn't protest. Better to have her rest up when he was working. But now? Now he knew he was on to something.

Flint hightailed it back to Command, where he knew the activity log resided. Acting on a hunch, Flint turned to the conference room reservation page, flipping to the day's meetings. Early in the afternoon, Dialtone was listed as organizer for a telecommunications training session in conference room C-7. The conference room was a decent size, but barely used because it was located on the utilities level, not the easiest location to access. There wasn't anything unusual about that; Dialtone probably needed the space for his equipment and the other good-sized rooms were usually reserved weeks in advance. What was unusual about the entry was its duration. This was no half-day training session. It was a marathon. Dialtone had the room checked out until 1 am. Flint flipped back through the book, noticing the pattern of Dialtone's Wednesday reservations every two weeks. Flint grinned, Gottcha!

Putting his stealth training to use, no one, not even the resident ninjas, could have heard his approach to conference room C-7. Nor would anyone have witnessed it because Flint crawled through the airshaft to get there. A glowing light illuminated the metal vent and Flint rubbed his hands together in anticipation of all the extra hands on deck he'd have to help this coming weekend. With the amount of chatter coming from the room, Flint knew the Joes involved were up to no good. Most likely some form of gambling was taking place. It was going to be a busting of epic proportions. And then Flint's jaw dropped.

It was gaming all right, but not the gaming playing out in Flint's mind. It was gaming, gaming, as in Dungeons and Dragons and that fantasy stuff from commercials. Flint rubbed his eyes. Nope, it was all still there. Spread out on the conference room table were various maps and blue prints. Each Joe had a dog-eared painted metal miniature figurine set out in front of them. At the top of the table was Chuckles. Chuckles! The man was narrating a story about ogres storming elven woods. Flint had to hand it to him, from the little he heard, Chuckles made a great narrator. Flint found himself getting into the story and propped his head up on his elbows to listen. Tripwire tossed some weird dice and then Flint heard it, he knew that voice. Edging closer to the opening, Flint contorted his body into a painful position to keep most of it out of sight while allowing the greatest vantage of the table. Just to the right, there she was, Lady Jaye, grumbling about the damage inflicted by the attack. Flint rubbed his eyes again. Nope, still the same result; she was at the table and throwing her own pair of dice. She muttered something and Mainframe, who was seated beside her, offered to rescue her and motioned for Tripwire to pass the dice.

Flint paused, wanting to watch her as she played. She was so relaxed and carefree. And that laugh, he was really starting to crave her laugh. He knew she put on a bit of a show when around the others. He couldn't blame her. He didn't envy the female Joes for anything. With the exception of Scarlett, who could crack your neck in the pitch black of night and was one-half of a fearsome ninja duo, the other women on the team faced a tough road. If it wasn't Beach Head, it would be someone else. Sometimes the women had to be tough, too tough. He liked this Jaye he observed through the shadows. It was a Jaye he was starting to see. Slowly but surely, she was letting him in. Make no mistake about that; he would get in. So, it was with some reluctance that he thought she should have her privacy and Flint retreated back into the night. There would be no busting; let them have their fun. They were entitled. He dissected Shakespeare, they tossed dice. Who was to say that one way was better than the other? Actually, his way was clearly superior. As Flint lowered himself out of the vent shaft, something suddenly made sense. That conversation he overheard two weeks ago between Jaye and her other musketeers? Flint would bet a paycheck he knew what the geek squad was now and why Lady Jaye was so desperate to keep that stash of comic books hidden. Flint smiled, he was falling for a closet geek. The temptation to tease her was strong, but he would resist. He'd let her fill him in when she was ready. What a fun day that was going to be. And he would have that day, now more than ever, he was determined to make that day happen.

Flint looked up at Duncan as the man scrunched his face in thought. Flint could almost see the mental blueprints flipping through the old miner's brain. Duncan was searching for another way. There had to be another way.

Duncan had stood aside to let Flint work out his rage. He'd been there a few times himself and knew that sometimes a man had to do what a man needed to do, no matter how irrational. It wasn't rational to slam your fist against solid stone. But if that's what it took to get your wits back, then that's what a man needed to do. Duncan tried to think of another way in to where the Commander was holding Flint's friend. There were only three paths that would take you to that section. One path was taken out by the first explosion, and they had by-passed the second one because of the fire. This was the only route left. Duncan didn't want to tell Flint. Instead, he thought of being back home at the kitchen table listening to little Una babble away. Una. The thought of her was enough to bring a smile to his face, a rare occurrence these days. Una could always do that. She had a way of cutting into the darkness and giving everything a nice happy shine. Then that feeling began and Duncan bit into his bottom lip, crossing his arms across his chest to hide the twitch that was starting up on his left side. Blasted old age. Duncan kicked his brain into overdrive. There had to be another way.

Duncan eased his body down next to Flint's. "I'm sorry." He didn't have to say anything else. Flint nodded once, face grim.

Flint glanced out at the way they had come. "I know. I was just wishing I could be one of those superheroes Alison sometimes reads about." Flint turned to Duncan, "That's who we are going for, her name's Alison." Flint starred ahead. "What I wouldn't give to melt rock or smash through it. Or phasing, I suppose that would be useful. Just something to get around it."

Duncan's head perked up, "What did you say?"

Flint was only giving voice to random thoughts and struggled to remember what exactly he had said. "Um, I wish I had the ability to get around that rock, see what was on the other side."

"That's it!" Duncan jumped up, scanning the edge where the ceiling sloped down into the walls. "The vent system. Some of it might be on our side. Can you give me a boost?"

Flint's response was to crouch down and let Duncan scamper up his back. Pushing the man up to his shoulders, Flint locked his grip around Duncan's ankles, thinking that Duncan didn't weigh much at all.

"Now walk slowly toward the rocks."

Flint complied and didn't protest when Duncan unearthed a few loose stones that then bounced off his head.

"It's still here. Help me down."

Flint lowered the old miner to the floor, anticipation gnawing at his insides. Please have let the old man find something useful.

"There's a series of auxiliary shafts that pop up around the mines. They were used for ventilation, equipment movement, escape routes. It's probably what you all used to get in without being detected. This tunnel has an auxiliary that runs out and then curves back. I can't know for certain until we get in there, but it should get us past these rocks and into the main corridor. Your friend, Alison, was being held in a room off of that." Duncan looked back up at the opening, which Flint could now faintly detect. "If you boost me up again, I can pull myself in. I don't think I could . . ."

"Don't you worry; I'll get myself up there." Flint set his jaw and went back to work, boosting Duncan up and into the opening. Now it was his turn. On second look, it was pretty high up. Upper arm strength don't fail me now. Flint inhaled deep and then jumped straight up, fingertips barely scraping the rocks just underneath where he needed to be. Backing up a few inches, Flint tried a running start and his fingers only went a little higher; it was a tease really. Flexing his arms, he intertwined his fingers, relishing in the smooth crack of knuckles. Rolling his shoulders back, he decided the best approach was to scale the wall and the pile of rocks. Hoisting himself up, he straddled the two surfaces, careful to avoid getting swept up in the mini-avalanche he was creating. Deep down, he wanted it to be loud; he wanted Jaye to know he was coming. At last, he was able to jab an elbow in the narrow confines of the opening, and he used every bit of the strength he could muster to pull himself in. Panting, Flint pushed through his exhaustion to keep going. Duncan had already started to crawl away from him. Once again, all Flint could do was follow.

Duncan inched along, and, as he had predicted, came to a branch in the tunnel, where he estimated that the one fork would swing back and join up with the main corridor inside the fortress of rocks. Then his body rebelled. It started as a minor twitch in his right leg, and then suddenly his leg went numb. Duncan's heart started to race and he feared the worst. He felt beads of perspiration pop up across his forehead. He pulled his body to the side, trying to reclaim his mastery over it.

Flint caught up. "Duncan, what's wrong? Are you ok?"

"Aye, I'm fine. I think my age is catching up with me. I need a moment." Duncan pointed straight ahead. "That tunnel up there will lead you straight back to the main corridor. I'll wait here, get my breath. Once you get your friend, meet me back here. I think this tunnel's going to be our best bet out."

Flint studied the man for a moment before responding. He wasn't buying it; something was wrong with the old miner. He could feel it in his bones. Yet, if the miner wasn't going to let him in, he had no good reason to press. Duncan had made it clear, the miner's business was his own and he wouldn't stand for anyone prying. Flint would respect that. "I'll be right back."

Duncan winked. "Aye. I'm not going anywhere." Duncan meant that statement at more than face value. The old miner sighed and settled back against the wall, willing his limbs to be able to move.

Flint crawled ahead, his worries and fears keeping pace. What if Duncan was wrong? What if this tunnel was yet another dead end? The space narrowed and Flint had to shimmy on his stomach to squeeze through. He thought Jaye would probably have liked to have seen that one. He felt like he was back in the air shaft on base. And there it was—all he needed—the memory of Jaye's laughter. Jaye would see him act like a goof as she followed him back to pick up Duncan. She would laugh a great big belly laugh as Flint would work every silly angle possible to get it. He would be on fire. Picking up his pace, he could see the end of the tunnel illuminated by the glow from the emergency lights in the main corridor. He was almost there.

The end of the tunnel came sooner than he estimated and Flint tumbled out, landing with a hard thump on the rocky floor beneath. He rubbed the back of his head, determined that not only was he getting this coming weekend off, but the next week as well. Scrambling to his feet, Flint checked out the space. He was definitely inside the perimeter of the wall. It was there, just to his right. Straight ahead was another pile of rubble, which didn't seem right. Flint turned to his left and his confidence deflated. Jaye was there; her body slumped over to the side, her face buried under her hair. Her right arm hung lifeless against her side, while her left was clutching something close to her chest. She wasn't moving. After all of the noise he just made? Oh god, he rushed toward her, she wasn't moving.