Off The Grid Page 8

  Chapter 15

  Mill Creek, California

  10 years ago

  Eighteen-year-old Luke used a flashlight to walk the dark streets of Mill Creek, passing one abandoned house after another. His hometown had been in the blackout for three months now. His parents had been gone for just as long.

  The walk home was familiar, but no less safe. He was counting down the days until he could leave this town. A soccer scholarship still awaited him at Stanford. Today was graduation day. He would finally be able to get out.

  Today was the first time in months that he and his remaining classmates had been able to celebrate. It seemed like the whole town was in the city park drinking and laughing until the early hours of the morning. They needed something to celebrate. They needed something good to happen. Cutting ties with this town was that thing for Luke.

  After saying goodbye to his friends, Luke started the dark walk home. The house was quiet when he stumbled through the door, a little hazy from the alcohol. He knew he shouldn’t be drinking, but it helped him forget his life, if for only a few brief hours. Gina had left the party early. He assumed she was asleep in her room.

  Still fully clothed, he flopped into bed to sleep it off. He didn’t know how much time had passed before he heard Gina scream.

  “No! Leave me alone!” she yelled. She said something else but her cries were muffled. She wasn’t talking in her sleep. Something was very wrong.

  Luke grabbed a baseball bat from underneath his bed and sprinted to his sister’s room. It was empty. He frantically searched the house, looking for her. Then he noticed the back door was open. Then he remembered, when the house was too hot she slept on the back porch in the cool air.

  When he reached the back porch he saw a massive man with his pants around his thighs perched on top of his sister. When the man turned toward him, Luke recognized him immediately. It was Elliot Cosgrove, their closest neighbor.

  “Get outta here kid,” he said, waving a meaty hand at Luke.

  Gina was pushing him away in what seemed like slow motion. There was blood on her lip. He must have hit her to shut her up. It only took her a moment to regain her senses and start fighting back. She shifted her weight to the side and Elliot, who was resting on his knees on the sofa swing, lost his balance and fell to the porch.

  He grabbed at his pants. Luke thought he was going to pull them up and leave, but instead he unsheathed a four-inch blade from his belt holster. He pointed it at Luke while holding Gina down on the swing with his other hand.

  “Kid, you go back inside that house,” his eyes were glossy and his words were slurred. “Your sister and I have a little catching up to do. Got it?”

  He grabbed at Gina’s cotton shorts, nearly ripping them off her with one pull.

  “No!” she yelled, shoving him away as best she could.

  Luke was not a violent person. In his entire life he’d never even been in a fight, but because of his athletic training he was fit and strong. But this was not a fight and he wasn’t calculating his odds against the bigger man. This was his sister and he was the only man of the house.

  He didn’t hesitate. Instinctively he jumped on Elliot’s back, completely forgetting that he’d carried a weapon with him to the porch. Elliot stumbled backwards smashing through the railing of the porch and into the garden several feet below. Luke absorbed Elliot’s fall, knocking the wind out of him and giving Elliot time to zip up his pants.

  Elliot’s rage was now set on Luke. He plunged at him with the knife, but Luke managed to roll under the porch and crawl out of the way. As Elliot leaned down to look under the porch, Luke kicked him in the face, dazing him momentarily. Luke crawled out the other side of the porch only to see Gina holding the bat above her head in a standoff with Elliot and his knife.

  Luke couldn’t think. He tripped over a piece of twine strung over two metal stakes used to mark the edge of the garden. He pulled one of the sharp stakes out of the ground as Elliot jabbed his knife wildly at Gina. Luke rushed at Elliot from the side and in one fluid motion, stabbed him in the neck. Elliot dropped the knife and grabbed at the stake with both hands, but it was wedged in too far. He fell to the ground, shook for a few seconds and then lay motionless.

  Luke stood like a statue in the moonlight and cool summer breeze. He had just killed their neighbor in the backyard.

  A look of calm came over Gina’s face as she took Luke’s hand and pulled him into the house. She covered herself up with a blanket and sat across from him at the kitchen table.

  “You need to leave tonight,” she said.

  “What do you mean? We have to call the police.”

  “There are no more police here Luke. Not since the blackout. You know that. If you get caught up in this, even though you did nothing wrong, they will revoke your scholarship and you’ll never get out of this town. I’ll take care of this.”

  In the darkness just before dawn, Luke packed everything he could carry and left Mill Creek.

  Chapter 16

  Present Day

  Luke’s stomach was churning, but the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him. The man Luke believed was ultimately responsible for his parents’ death was now blackmailing him for Elliot Cosgrove’s death. The circumstances of the two incidents could not have been more different.

  Evans’ had the upper hand. If Luke didn’t keep spying on MassEnergy, Evans would ensure he was prosecuted for killing the man who tried to rape his sister. Self-defense or not, Luke didn’t know how much of the story Evans actually knew or how he knew it. He wasn’t about to ask. But Evans didn’t just want administrative details at MassEnergy. He wanted to know everything.

  “Get me something good on MassEnergy, or you’re through,” Evans told him.

  Evans’ words were running through Luke’s mind as he rode the elevator down to the main floor of the hotel and walked through the lobby. As he turned the corner, he glanced into the bar. Steve Lunsford was leaning on the counter, waiting for him.

  “So you knew the whole time?” Luke asked. The veins in his neck were tight.

  “What, that Little Miss Hottie left you? Yeah, I knew.”

  “No, about Mill Creek.”

  “What about it?” Lunsford said, taking a gulp of some brown liquid with ice.

  He doesn’t know. Maybe Evans hadn’t told him. Interesting, Luke thought. He decided not to press him.

  “So, you couldn’t have clued me in that Rachel left me?” Luke said, quickly downing a shot that was intended for Lunsford.

  “That would have been a very foolish thing to do. For all the world knows you were already split up. Why would we upset that? Besides, you weren’t supposed to contact her, remember? Ignorance is bliss.”

  “I’m not feeling too blissful at the moment.”

  “It’ll pass.”

  Luke ordered a drink.

  “We need to talk about your progress, or lack there of.”

  “Not now.”

  “Yes, now,” Lunsford said. “At this stage I expected that you’d have something to show for our efforts. And I don’t care what deal you just swung with Evans, if you come up empty handed, you’re not getting paid.”

  Luke was surprised that Lunsford was so upfront about screwing him over, although he always suspected that it might happen.

  “You should see that place. It’s locked down tight like a prison.”

  “People escape from prisons,” Lunsford said.

  “Not this one. You’ve seen my reports. They’ve got me locked out in this candidate class doing busy work.”

  “You’ve got to do better than that.”

  “I need more time, that’s all. I can do it, but it won’t happen immediately. Whatever they’ve got, its big otherwise they wouldn’t have us plugging the holes in their research.”

  “How do you mean?”

  Luke explained his theory that they were being given pieces of a puzzle that the research team was having trouble with. They couldn’t see the whol
e problem, so they couldn’t aggregate it to make any sense.

  “There are still ways to provide us data without knowing exactly what it is. Why haven’t you delivered any of the data-plug watches to the dead drops?”

  “Because I haven’t used them. I can’t bring those things in. They scan everything going in and coming out. If it has a virtual memory in it – like a cell phone or pocket computer - they flag it and hold it in a safe room just off the main entrance while we’re on campus.”

  “I’ve got a solution for that. Give me your phone.”

  Lunsford plugged a small black device to the data port on the phone. He punched in a few numbers on the screen and removed the plug and gave Luke detailed instructions on how to use the new tool he just installed on the phone.

  “Luke, we’re not going to be infinitely patient with you. If you can’t produce, you’re a liability. And I can’t have liabilities dragging down my operations.”

  Luke stood up and gave Lunsford a mock soldier salute.

  “Yes, sir,” he said, then turned to the bartender, “This guy’s going to pick up my tab.”

  “Hey wait -”

  “Screw you, Steve. I’m off the clock tonight.”

  Luke left the bar without another word.

  ***

  The streets of downtown were filled with sports fans spilling out of bars, celebrating the local team’s victory and guaranteed spot in the playoffs. Luke wandered among them, in no particular rush to return to his tiny apartment in Portland. He bought a cup of coffee to sober up. No one paid him any attention. They were caught up in their own world, just as he was.

  He looked up at the skyscrapers and thought of the condo in Bellevue that he had once shared with Rachel. His ex-fiancée. Never thought he’d say that. They were supposed to be getting married. He’d given it all up. And for what? He had nothing to show for it. He was making a nice little salary with MassEnergy and StuTech was still funneling him funds every month, but did the money really matter all that much to him? It didn’t. Evans had just pulled the rug out from under him.

  He still didn’t have enough to help Gina. And she was content to live life with as little means as possible. She was happy and flat broke. Tilly was another story. She, like Luke, hadn’t asked for the life Gina wanted to live. She was born into it and couldn’t escape. Even her illness wasn’t enough to make them leave Mill Creek. And maybe it shouldn’t have to be. Why should people be uprooted from their homes because technology suddenly couldn’t reach them?

  That was really the whole game. If StuTech or MassEnergy or some other company could figure out how to make the wireless technology work longer distances, then Mill Creek and the thousands of towns like it all over the country could thrive again. It seemed so simple.

  And he had a chance to influence it, even if Evans was making it more difficult, yet again. He had the unique chance to make a difference even if he was being forced into it. He never intended to make StuTech his life, he didn’t apply with them for the benefits package. He had his own reasons. But he met a girl and fell in love. Now where did that leave him? Alone, again.

  If he wanted to help his family, his hometown and stay out of prison – he needed to play the game with Evans.

  And he needed to learn MassEnergy’s secrets, but first he needed to see Rachel. She owed him that much.

  ***

  “I’m sorry, Luke. She subleased the condo a few months back,” the Bellevue condo manager told him. “Said she was going to be doing some traveling and didn’t need it anymore.”

  “Did she leave a forwarding address, anything?”

  “No, sorry. I thought you two split up, anyway.”

  “I guess he was right.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Nothing.”

  Chapter 17

  The mountains near Tarija, Bolivia

  The tall, dense jungle blocked out the sweeping mountain views from the old Jesuit mission. Dark clouds were threatening a downpour. Rachel Evans pulled on her waterproof jacket and headed down the street for her daily rounds. She had been living in the isolated outpost for weeks. Her canvas tent was a luxury that the other residents of the area didn’t have. Living amongst the people was a treat, despite the deplorable conditions. They were welcoming and curious about her. A local Spanish-speaking translator helped her stay connected through long ceremonial meals and conferences with tribal elders. She strolled the streets like a glad-handing politician – kissing babies and smiling at everyone. Her smile and compassion were genuine and she was glad to be there.

  The people of the area had no access to clean water or electricity. People lived off the land and fished in the rivers. Just 15 miles away, several small cities thrived – oblivious to the plight of those isolated in the nearby mountains.

  Her father asked her to provide him a first-hand account of several villages. StuTech was expanding its global reach, but instead of hitting the largest international population centers and grabbing market share, it was working in reverse. By setting up StuTech towers in the most remote and poor regions of the world, it was bringing attention to its product and providing a valuable service to the local people, or so they claimed. The media had criticized the plan as a publicity stunt and in Rachel’s opinion they weren’t entirely wrong. The towers would bring wanted attention certainly, but the simple fact that they would bring energy to those who had forever been without it – that was enough for her.

  The network of towers was currently under construction, but the company had already moved in and set up a medical aid center to serve anyone who wished to visit them. Nurses, educated from the larger cities in Bolivia, staffed the center. It was a goodwill gesture to show the locals that the company wanted what was best for them. The old Jesuit Mission was a perfect place for StuTech to set up camp while a permanent medical center was built. There were rumors that the company might even build a factory here. American surveyors had been seen combing the countryside, presumably for the right location.

  Rachel had every right to refuse her father’s request to go on this observation and humanitarian mission. But they both knew she wouldn’t turn him down. Ever since she was a little girl, she wanted to help those who weren’t able to help themselves. She’d never been forced to go without food, water or shelter for a day in her life. In fact she’d always had the best clothes, fancy jewelry – she even got a new Mercedes when she turned 16. She didn’t have to help others, but she felt it was her duty because she could.

  Visiting and cataloging StuTech outposts was a no-brainer. The communications department asked her to write about her experiences. Her journal was purposefully understated, but that was intentional. She talked about the people she met and the progress of the StuTech towers being built. The plan was to either publish the journal or make it a blog. It was genius marketing, really.

  The company was already in the Fortune 100 category, with plenty of room to grow. She played along and wrote her journal entries in hopes that it would benefit the people she wrote about. It was also therapeutic.

  Her father had already sent away Luke for some unknown amount of time. If she couldn’t be with him, why not take the time before he returned and they got married to accomplish some good deeds? Made perfect sense. Almost. But the oddities of her efforts were mounting. She was an accountant, now living in a jungle tent. She’d done what her father asked, when that was the last thing she’d ever wanted to do. She was engaged, but pretending to be single. She should be here with Luke, not forced to ignore that he existed.

  Luke was a real man who wouldn’t manipulate a situation like her father. He was really the best man she’d had ever met. He was caring and intelligent. Unfortunately the drive and passion she wanted in Luke was currently keeping them worlds apart. She knew he needed to prove himself and she was willing to give him the space to do it for some period of time, but not forever.

  It was funny really. They never talked about work, even after they moved in together. They t
oiled in different areas of the company and never saw each other during business hours. Engineers and accountants only had meetings when something was amiss.

  They met through a chance encounter on the company campus. StuTech had taken over a large campus just outside of Seattle when a software company moved its operations to China. Dozens and dozens of buildings were scattered all over the campus, connected by a series of private roads.

  Rachel was steadfast in her commitment to take 60 minutes for herself in the middle of each workday. Her colleagues who worked through lunch got fat and burned out. She didn’t want that. She was sitting in an over-stuffed chair, with her legs tucked under her in the employee learning center one afternoon, reading a murder-mystery novel. The learning center was a library where employees could come and study for compliance exams, read the newspaper or just take a quiet break.

  Rachel had nearly dropped her e-reader when, from a nearby study room a man yelled, “Son of a bitch!” He came bursting out of the room with a large brown coffee stain down his white shirt and khaki pants. He was carrying a thick text book that was dripping with coffee. It ran off his fingers too. Rachel knew immediately that the coffee stain wasn’t his biggest concern. He wore a red badge clipped to his belt, signifying his status as a network engineer. The network engineers were taking compliance exams that week. She guessed he was taking his final test, which was timed. The clock was ticking.

  He took off for the nearest bathroom to clean up.

  “Wait,” she called after him. “You probably don’t have time for that.”

  She pulled out a clean towel from her gym bag, intended for her after-work run and handed it to him. He didn’t look her in the eye until after he mopped up the spill from his clothes, hands and tried to dry the text book. Luke would say later that she looked like an angel who saved him. Rachel would always counter by asking, “Why didn’t you say ‘thank you’ then?”