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He skimmed the account of the silo’s collapse and his theory that IT heads shadowed too young His recoe He wondered if they had Maybe so, but the proble randmother was one of those who remembered, much like Donald Like Hal or Carter or whatever his naested in the report that entertaining one question froacy, after all Their cruel test was a severe application of the truth Why not show thee of indoctrination, that there were ood idea at the ti a mess when he wrote the report Maybe it had been his own questions, his own need for answers, that had driven hi a lock Thurman opened the door as Donald folded the report away

"How’re you feeling?" Thurman asked

Donald didn’t say

"Can you walk?"

He nodded A walk When what he really wanted was to run screas over and punch holes in walls But a ould do A walk before his next long nap

They rode the elevator in silence Donald noticed Thur one of the shiny buttons, level fifty-four Its nuht and nehile sobut supplies on that level if Donald remembered correctly, supplies they weren’t supposed to ever need The lift slowed as it approached a level it normally skipped The doors opened on a cavernous expanse of shelves stocked with instruments of death

Thurman led him down the middle of it all There ooden crates with "AMMO" stenciled on the side, longer crates beside thenations like "M22" and "M19" that Donald recognized as being guns Not that he knehat those guns looked like or how to operate the boy he had knohat to call his stick while he fired iinary bullets at his friends

More shelves with armor and helmets, with supplies, some boxes unlabeled And beyond the shelves, tarps that covered bulbous and winged forms that he knew to be drones UAVs His sister had flown them in a war that now seemed pointless and distant, part of ancient history But here these relics stood, oiled and covered, waiting, both proud and paranoid, confident and reeking of grease and fear

Beyond the drones, Thurh a o on forever Donald padded quietly behind, fearful of waking these demon sentinels, this aviary that promised hell-rain from the skies

At the far end of the wide rooe cabinets spotted with dots of rust, not greased like the other things And in one wide roo as someone turned Thurman rapped his knuckles on the doorframe Donald rounded the corner and saw, inexplicably, her sitting there

"Anna?"

He ree conference table ringed with identical chairs She looked up from a wide spread of paperwork and a computer monitor There was no shock on her part, just a sment and a weariness that the smile could not conceal

Her father crossed the rooaped Thurman squeezed her arm and kissed her on the cheek, but Anna’s eyes did not leave Donald’s The old hter, then announced that he had work of his own to see to Donald did not budge until the Senator had left the roo an old soldier’s footsteps

"Anna--"

She was already around the ed into her es, the sing-song tunes of placating mothers, the there-theres and shushes It took this to infor He felt her hand come down the back of his head and rest on his neck, his own ar-loaded habit Here omen didn’t pull shifts Here was a truth the shrinks knew Donald could feel hiiving in andout Here was the love and violence in the hearts ofhere?" he whispered Did she not know the danger? The disruptive power of her gender? And eakness was this of a father to wake a child in the middle of a storm?

"I’m here for the same reason you are" She pulled back fro for answers" She stepped away and surveyed the mess on the table "To different questions, perhaps"

Donald finally sahat the table hat the roorid of silos--covered the table Each silo was like a slass A dozen chairs were gathered around It was a war roorulanced up at the maps and sche bathroo from a hook on the door A cot had been set up in the far corner and was neatlyon one of the wooden crates frons of a roo converted into an apartment of sorts

Donald wanted desperately to fall into the cot He looked to Anna, made sure she was still there, and in a disturbed corner of his ht this meant Helen must also be so, the passage of tis of his own

He turned to the nearest wall and flipped through sos They were three layers deep in places and covered in notes It didn’t look like a as being planned It looked like a scene from the crime shows that used to lull hier than hted on his shoulder like a bird, and Donald felt himself startle to be touched at all

"Al away "Can I get you a drink? Water? I also have a stash of scotch down here Dad doesn’t know half the stuff they hid away in these crates"

Donald shook his head He turned and watched as she disappeared into the bathroolass

"What’s going on here?" he asked "Why alass at the walls "It’s--" She laughed and shook her head "I was about to say it’s nothing, but this is the hell that keeps me out of one box and in another It doesn’t concern you, ain He could feel the dark halls of shelves and crates stretching back toward the elevator A year, living like this He turned his attention to Anna, the way her hair was balled up in a bun, a pen sticking out of it Her skin was pale except for the dark rings beneath her eyes He wondered how she was able to do this, live like this

There was a printout on the far wall that rid of circles, the layout of the facilities A familiar red X had been drawn across what he knew to be Silo 12 in the upper left corner There was another X nearby, a new one More lives lost while he slept Thousands screahtht-hand corner of the grid, a mess that made no sense The room seemed to wobble a bit as he took a step closer

"Donny?"

"What happened here?" he asked, his voice a whisper Anna turned to see what he was looking at She glanced at the table, and he realized that her paperas scattered around the salass surface craith notes written in red and blue wax

"Donny--" She stepped closer "Things aren’t well"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>