Chapter 14
After Sydney and Teddy escaped the gunman at the farm, she rode Chestnut out into the fields where they could regroup. The moment they stopped, Teddy slid down from the horse and started pacing nervously.
“What the heck is going on?” Teddy asked. “None of this makes any sense. The power’s not on, and those gunmen are shooting up the farm. Is the world ending?”
“No,” Sydney answered, much calmer than her friend, and she slid off the horse and tied Chestnut to a nearby tree. “It’s called an EMP.”
Sydney explained the situation to Teddy, and after she was finished, he looked at her with the most dumbfounded expression she’d ever seen anybody wear.
“There is no way that’s real,” Teddy said.
“It is,” Sydney answered.
Teddy opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words.
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Sydney said. “But we need to figure out a way to rescue our friends.”
“We need to call the police,” Teddy said.
“The police can’t help us, even if we could reach them, which we can’t,” Sydney said.
“Jesus, we’re really all alone, aren’t we?” Teddy said. “What are we going to do?”
Sydney had been grappling with that question since the moment she knew the EMP had donated. She wanted to regroup with her family, but she couldn’t leave these people at the farm to fend for themselves.
“The first step in assessing the situation is determining what kind of threats we’re dealing with,” Sydney said. “And we need to make sure we take stock of all of our resources as well. What do you have on you?”
Teddy patted down his pockets and removed a pair of house keys, his phone—which didn’t work just like everything else—a packet of gum, and a pocketknife.
“Okay, that’s not bad,” Sydney said.
“Are you serious?” Teddy asked, and he gestured to the knife. “You want us to take on those guys with a pocketknife?”
“We have more than just a pocketknife,” Sydney answered, and she reached around for her nine-millimeter pistol she carried whenever she was at the farm. When Teddy saw the weapon, he immediately stepped back and looked afraid.
“Where the hell did you get that?” Teddy asked.
“I always have it when I work here,” Sydney answered.
“You do?” Teddy asked, incredulous. “Wow. I didn’t know you were so… badass.”
Sydney rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but blush a little. “Yeah, well, it’s not like I want to use it.” She had plenty of target practice, but this was real life. “Even with the gun, we need to be smart. And our first step is to figure out who we’re dealing with.”
Sydney started to walk back to the farm, but Teddy intercepted her.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” Teddy asked.
“I told you we need to figure out who those guys are,” Sydney answered.
“We already know what we’re dealing with,” Teddy replied. “There is a big group of maniacs trying to kill us, and they have a bunch of hostages.”
“We don’t know what they want,” Sydney said.
“Who cares what they want?” Teddy replied. “Sydney, look, I get it. You want to help those people. But helping those people is only going to get us killed. We need reinforcements.”
Sydney liked Teddy, but she finally understood what her father had been telling her all of those years about people being unable to accept the reality of a situation.
“Teddy, I know this is hard for you to comprehend,” Sydney said.
“But you need to understand we are the only people standing between those guns and our friends on the farm. I’m not saying we’re going in guns blazing, but if we can figure out why they are here, we might be able to gain leverage against them. ”
Teddy fidgeted, clearly nervous, not that Sydney wasn’t. But she wasn’t going to allow her second family to become fodder for whatever those armed men had planned.
“This is crazy,” Teddy said under his breath. “This is absolutely insane.” He finally took a deep breath and then stared Sydney in the eye. “All right. I’m with you. But let’s just try to be quiet and not get caught. I really don’t want to die today.”
“That makes two of us,” Sydney said.
Even though it was going to take longer to get back to the farm on foot, Sydney knew the horse would be too noisy.
By the time they returned to the farm, the sun was at its highest peak, and both Sydney and Teddy were dripping with sweat, with dust and dirt clinging to their skin.
They remained quiet and found cover wherever they could. Eventually, they followed the voices toward the main house on the farm and discovered that was where the gunmen had gathered everyone.
But just before she got too close, Teddy called her back and tried to convince her one last time that they should try to find help elsewhere.
“I’ll be fine,” Sydney replied. “If you want to stay behind, you can, but I’m not leaving our friends behind.”
Sydney had always liked Teddy, but if he was this frightened about doing something in the face of danger, then perhaps she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did. But Teddy took a breath and summoned what courage remained to him.
“Okay, I’m with you,” Teddy said. “But you’re going to have to tell me what to do. I feel like I’m a liability out here.”
“You’re not a liability,” Sydney said. “Just follow my lead. And thanks for sticking around.”
This time, when Sydney smiled at him, it was Teddy’s turn to blush. He cleared his throat and then changed the subject.
“Okay, well, what’s next?” Teddy asked.
Sydney didn’t really have a foolproof plan other than watch and observe. She hoped that by getting closer to the action, she would be able to learn more about what these gunmen wanted. It was unusual for a farm to be attacked.
“Follow me,” Sydney answered. “Stay low and stay quiet. Move where I move, okay?”
Sydney and Teddy approached the barn first. From what she could tell, the bad guys had taken everyone into the main house, keeping them inside.
There were two guards at the front doors, and most likely more inside, keeping watch. But Sydney also found two more doing a sweep of the property at the farm’s entrance.
“What are they doing?” Teddy asked.
Sydney shook her head. “They’re not really doing anything.” And then she recalled when these fighters had first arrived. None of them asked for any money, so they clearly weren’t here to rob the place, not that the farm had any cash on hand, which meant they were here for something else.
Teddy peeked over Sydney’s shoulder to get a better look. “Almost looks like they’re waiting for something.”
Sydney nodded and noticed how the patrols were keeping watch near the front entrance of the farm. “Yeah, I think you might be right. C’mon, let’s take a closer look.”
“Closer than this?” Teddy asked.
Sydney and Teddy easily slipped through all the equipment, using the big machines as cover. Sydney kept her head on a swivel, making sure to pay close attention to her surroundings. And they finally moved close enough to hear the pair of men talking.
“How much longer are we going to stay out here?” one of them asked.
“I don’t know,” the other answered. “I don’t understand why we’re out here in the first place. How the hell did he get the money out here?”
“It was all part of his plan, apparently,” the first man answered.
“Do we even know what happened?” the other asked. “Like, he stole the money, we helped him, and then he turned himself in and shut down the whole city so he could escape?”
“Look, I don’t know,” he said. “All I know is that I’m going to be as far away from this dump as I can once I get my share of the cash.”
“Yeah, me too,” the other replied.
“Thank God, the stupid device only shut down the city,” the first man said.
“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine having the entire country without power,” the other replied. “At least we still got to keep our phones protected with the rest of our gear.”
“Those Faraday cages were a lifesaver,” the first one said.
Sydney might have been confused about the money, but she knew about Faraday cages. It was a device used to protect technology from an EMP blast.
But it was also good to know the effects of the EMP were limited to Cincinnati and the surrounding area. It would make recovery for the city easier, knowing they could receive resources from the rest of the country.
Teddy tapped Sydney on the shoulder, and when she looked at him, he looked like he was going to burst with a secret he couldn’t hold in any longer.
There was obviously something he wanted to tell her, so they left the two guards and moved to a more private area behind the barn where they could speak.
“What is it?” Sydney asked.
“You don’t know?” Teddy answered. “The bank robber, Dillon Elliot? I think those guys are working for him.”
“Bank robber? Seriously?” Sydney answered.
“It was the biggest bank robbery in American history,” Teddy answered. “It was all over the news. You really didn’t see it?”
“Just give me the highlights,” Sydney answered.
“Dillon Elliot robbed the Cincinnati Federal Reserve Bank of over one hundred million dollars,” Teddy replied.
“He was missing for a few days, and then authorities caught him outside of Cincinnati. They’ve been holding him in custody ever since as they await trial.
But so far, no one has been able to figure out where Dillon stashed the money.
” Teddy glanced out to the farm with a sense of wonder in his eyes.
“I can’t believe we’ve been sitting on top of one hundred million dollars for over a week! ”
But while Teddy was focused on the money, Sydney was more concerned with the armed men talking about the effects of the EMP.
“They know about the EMP,” Sydney said. “Did the news mention anything like that?”
“I don’t think so,” Teddy answered. “But I know Dillon Elliot is a genius sociopath. At least, that’s what all the news outlets are saying about him. If he’s smart enough to rob a bank, then I guess he’d be smart enough to detonate one of those EMP devices you were talking about.”
If those people were truly responsible for the EMP, then Sydney needed to be careful about engaging them. They were smarter than they looked and were obviously more prepared than anybody else since they knew the damaging effects the EMP would cause.
“We should find the money,” Teddy said.
“What?” Sydney asked.
“It’s like what you were talking about before, about finding out why they came here,” Teddy answered. “They stashed the money somewhere around here. If we can take the money, then we’ll have leverage to free everybody else inside the house.”
“If they don’t know where the money is stashed, how are we supposed to figure it out?” Sydney asked. “The farm is hundreds of acres. It could be anywhere.”
Teddy smiled. “Maybe, but you’re standing with a bank robber expert. I have been obsessed with this story ever since it came out last week. I think I can figure out where Dillon would have stashed the cash.”
Sydney was glad to see that Teddy was more engaged than before, but she didn’t want to turn this into a wild goose chase.
Before she could even answer, there was a commotion at the house that pulled both of their attention toward it.
One of the guards had pulled a woman out of the house and whisked her away toward the barn. Everyone inside the house was screaming and shouting, but a burst of gunfire quieted them.
“Oh my God,” Teddy said.
Sydney tightened her hands into fists as she watched the brute carry the woman against her will. It was clear to her what he wanted, and it was clear to her what she needed to do to stop it.
Sydney took a step toward the barn, but Teddy stopped her.
“Let me go,” Sydney said.
“It’s not safe,” Teddy replied. “Let me go.”
It was obvious to Sydney that he was trying to protect her, but between the two of them, she was the more skilled fighter. She also had the gun on her, and she knew they would be able to level the playing field.
“I can handle this,” Sydney said. “Just stay here, okay?”
Sydney hurried away before Teddy could intervene and set her sights on the barn to stop a horrible atrocity before it was committed.
But as she neared the bar, Sydney came to a reckoning of what that meant she would have to do.
She had never killed anyone. But this was a different world.
And it was more than just her own life that hung in the balance.