Chapter 16 - THE WHOLE TOWN WENT DARK AT ONCE
The first thing that died was the power.
The second was cell service.
The third was the illusion that this was still a local problem.
We drove back toward Ash Creek under a red sunrise.
Traffic lights were black.
Storefront alarms wailed.
Smoke rose near the substation.
At the first intersection, two men in reflective utility jackets waved cars away from downtown.
Eli looked at them once.
“Mercer’s.”
“How can you tell?” Cole asked.
“Boots.”
Both men wore the same desert tactical boots our old unit had used.
Cole reached for his radio, then remembered it was useless.
“Police station.”
“No,” Eli said. “That’s where he wants you.”
A pickup turned behind us.
Then another.
Iron Vipers.
“Too late,” I said.
The first truck rammed Cole’s rear bumper.
We fishtailed.
Sarah grabbed the dash.
Rex braced between the seats.
Another truck pulled alongside.
A biker leaned out with a shotgun.
Eli shouted, “Right!”
I jerked the wheel down an alley.
The blast tore through a dumpster behind us.
We burst onto Main Street.
Chaos.
People running.
Two storefronts burning.
Men in plain clothes blocking roads.
Not looting.
Positioning.
Mia pointed toward the courthouse.
“They’re taking people inside.”
“Why?” Sarah asked.
Lauren answered.
“Leverage.”
Cole slammed his fist against the door.
“That’s my town.”
“Then help me keep it yours,” I said.
We split.
Cole, Mia, and Lauren went to gather the deputies he still trusted.
Sarah stayed with Eli in an abandoned pharmacy while I took Rex toward the courthouse through the alleys.
He found the first guard before I saw him.
Rex froze.
I pulled him into a doorway as footsteps passed.
Two men.
Professional spacing.
No Viper patches.
Eli had been right.
The bikers were noise.
These men were the real threat.
We reached the courthouse basement through a maintenance entrance.
Inside were twenty-three civilians guarded by four armed men.
Among them: the waitress from the diner’s mother, the wounded deputy, and three children.
I felt the old cold switch return.
But this time I didn’t let rage drive.
I used patience.
Lights.
Angles.
Sound.
Rex drew one guard toward a hallway with a single bark. I took him quietly. The second followed. The remaining two surrendered when Cole’s trusted deputies came through the front.
For one minute, it felt like we had won something.
Then Sarah ran down the courthouse steps.
“Jack!”
She held Eli’s black notebook.
“I figured out Phase One.”
“What is it?”
She opened to the map page.
“Taking the town isn’t the objective.”
Her finger landed on the rail line south of Ash Creek.
“It’s the distraction.”
A freight train horn sounded in the distance.
Eli appeared behind her, limping badly.
His face went white.
“That train,” he said. “Mercer needs that train.”
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