Bitter Creek by Bowen Peter

Author:Bowen, Peter [Bowen, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul
Published: 2014-11-24T22:34:10+00:00

Chapter 23

DU PRÉ AND BART GAPED at the floodlit gate that led from the county road to the bloody ground of Bitter Creek. Du Pré pulled over.

Several television stations had trucks there.

Chappie and Patchen were standing by an upended trunk that held a square of plywood, and on that were some folders and papers. They were both in uniform.

A young blond woman was holding a microphone to her mouth and speaking to a camera held by a man balancing it on his shoulder.

A generator purred off in the darkness, a cable snaked to some arc lights on stands near where the two marines stood.

Patchen had taken off his artificial arm and his left sleeve was pinned up.

Chappie wore his leg but not his eye. The scarred red mess the shrapnel had left glowed in the harsh light.

Du Pré stopped in back of one of the TV trucks. The doors were open and lights played on the inside from monitors.

Another crew from another station went to the two soldiers and another reporter, this time a young man, asked questions.

“I’ll be damned,” said Bart. “Manipulating the media. …”

Du Pré laughed. He reached under the seat and he pulled out a flask. He had a drink. He put it back and he got out and rolled a smoke and sat on the hood of the cruiser.

Two of the three TV trucks were loading up and in moments they all were turned round and headed back toward the highway. Du Pré and Bart drove on into the lighted patch. Bart got out.

“Whose idea was this?” he said.

“Mine,” said Patchen. “I thought that if more people knew about what we were trying to do, there would be less trouble over doing it. …” Bart nodded.

Chappie was over by one of the SUVs, putting in his artificial eye. He took off his uniform and he put on jeans and a heavy cotton shirt and his boots.

The generator suddenly stopped running, the lights began to fade.

Patchen walked back from the dark, along the cable. He climbed into the SUV.

“Well,” said Bart, “I now own a massacre site.”

“Yes,” said Chappie, “one of the security people told us.”

“Where are they?” said Bart.

A dark-haired man in a dark windbreaker stepped out from behind one of the three SUVs.

“We’re here, Mister Fascelli,” he said. “I’m Knowles and there are four more people here. Mister Foote called. …”

Knowles had a thin white wire running from his collar to his left ear. He stopped and half turned.

“Right,” he said.

He motioned to Du Pré and Bart to go to the SUV.

The last of the lights failed and it was dark save for the interior light in the SUV Patchen was in. Then it went out.

Du Pré and Bart walked to the dark vehicle and stood.

Knowles took a pair of night-vision binoculars from his jacket. There was a faint green light radiating from the lenses. He put them to his eyes and he looked across the road. “Yes,” he said, “I see them, two of them.

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