Brigands Key by Ken Pelham

Author:Ken Pelham [Pelham, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 143282578X
Published: 2013-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Julie Denton snugged her raincoat tight and stepped out into the street.

A squall line, precursor to the main event, lashed the island. Celeste’s eye, a beautiful cobalt blue circle in the photos of monitoring satellites, was still a hundred miles west, whipping the coast with long strands of wind and rain. Low-flying clouds raced overhead, hurrying toward that eye, slinging rain as they went.

Brigands Key was battening down. The thudding of hammers and the sounds of saws came from everywhere. Ignoring the rain, men, women, and children were in storefronts and yards, working feverishly, hanging storm shutters and boarding windows with plywood. Those that had missed out on plywood were tearing apart scrap wood and metal and nailing it over windows.

Nearly everyone wore a mask. A surgical mask, a dust mask, or just a bandana tied over the nose and mouth. Few spoke.

Once in a great while, the petty squabbles of the island were forgotten. No one cared whose dog crapped on their yard, whose kids were caught smoking pot on the dock, how much City Council wasted on fireworks, what immoral books the library was stocking. Once in a great while, even the dying fishing industry was forgotten. Once in a great while, fear ran rampant through Brigands Key.

This was one of those times, only a hundred times worse. This bordered on panic.

Brigands Key, forsaken.

The Powers That Be were going to pay dearly for what they were doing to this little town. Julie swore that she was going to live and carry out that promise.

Her excitement at being at the epicenter of the news universe had waned, replaced by frustration and growing anger.

Hemingway had unleashed his fury in print on an uncaring bureaucracy decades ago, after Matecumbe Key was devastated by a hurricane. That rage was in response to simple bungling and mismanagement. This time, an active war of egos and stupidity was consigning a whole town to death.

She stepped onto her porch, shook off the rain, and fumbled with the key in the door.

A hand gripped her shoulder.

She jumped and spun about, swinging a fist wildly.

Randy Sanborn dodged the blow. “Whoa, Julie,” he said. “I called out but you didn’t hear.”

“Christ, Randy,” she snapped. “I nearly pissed myself.”

“Can I come in?”

Her eyes flashed. “Let me subdue my cardiac arrest first. Damn, man.”

“Sorry,” Sanborn repeated. “I just need to talk.”

Julie stiffened, and relented. “Come on in.” She shoved the door open and stormed in.

She looked in the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of beer. “Drink up. Live for today. Tomorrow there won’t be any power, maybe for weeks.”

“Sorry, I’m still on duty,” Sanborn said, taking the beer, twisting the cap off, and taking a long drink.

Julie laughed. “Don’t worry. Your sudden dereliction has missed the deadline for my next paper.”

“Julie, things have spun out of control.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Anything you can do to help will be invaluable.”

“What do you think I can do?”

“I need you to stop reporting the news.”

Julie stared at him. “Randy, you’re out of line.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.