John Gilstrap - Threat warning

“Please, I just want all of this to stop.”

“Listen to me,” Jonathan said. “Are you armed?”

She shook her head as her eyes brimmed with tears. “No, sir.”

“Big Guy?”

“I’ve got her covered,” he said.

Gail said, “House is clear.”

“Copy, the house is clear,” Jonathan said into the radio. He approached his captive. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Sis-” She stopped herself, and let out a little puff of breath as her head sagged. It was a look of resignation that could mean surrender or suicide bomb. He froze and watched her hands very carefully.

“Colleen,” she said. “Colleen Devlin.”

“Look at me, Colleen Devlin.”

Her eyes came up to meet his.

“This is your come-clean moment, understand? For all I know, you could be loaded with explosives. If you twitch, my friends will kill you. If you have weapons on you, this is absolutely your only chance to tell me without harm coming to you.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” Sam said.

Jonathan’s hand shot up for silence.

“No bombs,” Colleen said. “No weapons.” She started to cry.

Looking back to make sure that both Sam and Colleen were covered by Boxers, Jonathan let his M4 fall against its sling and he frisked the young lady thoroughly. She in fact was unarmed. He zip-tied her hands behind her back.

He looked to Boxers and Big Guy broke his aim. “I think we need to go inside,” Jonathan said. “There’s a lot of explaining to be done.”

It felt good to be warm. Once inside the house, Jonathan asked for and was given the shotgun he’d encountered the previous day, and when he asked if there were any other weapons in the house, Sam willingly showed him the S amp;W. 357 magnum revolver and Winchester. 30-30, both of them unloaded with trigger locks installed. He allowed himself to relax. A little.

Jonathan sat at the kitchen table with Gail and Sam and Colleen, while Boxers stood in the archway, blocking any means of escape. Colleen sat awkwardly to keep the pressure off her wrists.

“Did the repo man ever show up?” Jonathan asked Sam. It was a friendly place to start the conversation.

Sam gave a wan smile. “No, not yet.”

Colleen looked shocked. “You know these people?” Her tone was one of utter betrayal.

“It’s not like that,” Sam said. “I had no idea-”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Jonathan said, moving quickly to control the conversation. “Sam and I don’t know each other any better than you and I do, Colleen.” He let those words hang. “Do you remember me?”

“You killed my friends.”

Sam recoiled at the words.

Jonathan placed a calming hand on her arm. “Not before you killed a lot of people yourself,” he said. He tempered his words so they wouldn’t sound accusatory.

More shock from Sam.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Colleen said, but the truth was written all over her denial.

“Don’t you remember me shooting at you on the bridge that night?” he asked.

Her eyes grew huge.

“Yeah,” he said. “That was me. And I was about half a trigger pull away from killing you when I got interrupted by that overzealous cop.”

“Are you talking about the shootings in Washington the other night?” Sam said. From the look on her face, it was all bigger than she could process.

“Those are the ones,” Jonathan said. He shifted his gaze and softened his voice. “Tell me why, Colleen.”

“I was supposed to kill myself,” she said, her voice barely audible. “I shouldn’t have run.”

Sam leaned in closer. “Your job was to kill yourself?”

Colleen nodded. “Yes.” Then she shook her head. “No. Only if I was about to get caught.”

Jonathan thought he understood. “I think she’s saying she should have killed herself here. This morning. Is that right, Colleen?”

She bobbed her head yes but looked away again.

“But why?” Sam asked. “Why would you kill yourself?”

“Because it’s the honorable way. It’s the holy way.”

Sam brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God, what have they been teaching you?”

Jonathan looked to Sam. “Tell me about y’all’s relationship,” he said. “Why is she here tonight?”

“She came here terrified,” Sam explained. “I never found out why. It was still dark. She was only here for less than an hour when you showed up and she took off running.”

“But why here?” Gail asked. “You seem to know each other.”

“We do,” Sam said. “At least I thought we did. She came to visit me every week or so.”

Jonathan sat a little taller and adjusted his rifle so the magazine quit poking him in the thigh. “What does visit mean?”

Gail shot him an annoyed look, but he ignored it.

“She would just come by. You know, to talk. And to play with Jilly. We’d have coffee or hot chocolate in the winter, Cokes or iced tea in the summer.”

So this had been going on for a long time, Jonathan realized. “Colleen?”

She looked at her lap. “Why did you have to ruin everything?”

“Because you kidnapped my friend’s family,” he said.

Sam gasped again. “Oh, my God!”

“You forced my hand, Colleen. Why did you do it?”

She sighed and moaned. “What have I done?” she whispered.

“You killed a lot of people,” Jonathan said. “What’s done is done. Now tell me why you shot those people on the bridge.”

“They’re Users.” She said it as if it were really an explanation. “We’re at war with them.”

“And the mall shootings in Kansas City?”

She nodded.

“The school bombing in Detroit?”

“It’s war!” she yelled. “People die in war.”

“And more are coming, aren’t they?”

Colleen shut down and looked at the table.

“How many more, Colleen?”

“A lot,” she said. “Brother Michael didn’t trust me with all the details, but I know that there are many teams out there.”

“I don’t believe this!” Sam exclaimed.

Jonathan put his hand on her arm again. “Please,” he said. “Just let us talk.”

“I don’t want to say any more,” Colleen said.

“Why did you kidnap Ryan and Christyne Nasbe?” Jonathan pressed. “How did they figure in to your war?”

Colleen looked tired. “We needed symbols. We needed faces for the cameras.”

“But why them?”

“Because they were Users and they were there.” She clearly didn’t understand why people didn’t understand something so obvious. “I had orders to take prisoners and I followed them.”

Gail looked shocked. “Just anybody?” she asked. “Random selection?”

“Users are Users,” Colleen said. “This one or that one, it doesn’t matter.”

Sam stood, abruptly enough that Boxers moved to intervene. “I’m calling the police,” she said.

“They’re part of it,” Jonathan said. “Kendig Neen is a leader, isn’t he, Colleen?”

“ Sheriff Kendig Neen? Is a terrorist?”

“A soldier,” Colleen corrected reflexively.

Sam sat back down heavily. “Oh, my God. He comes by all the time, too. He’s a nice man.”

Jonathan turned his attention back to Colleen. “Where are the other attacks going to be?”

“I swear I don’t know. What’s going to happen to me?”

“This isn’t about you anymore, sweetheart,” Gail said. If anyone could pull off a nice tone under the circumstances, it was she. “This is about a lot of innocent people who are in danger.”

“They’re not innocent,” Colleen said, kicking the table. “They’re Users!”

Sam exploded, “That bomb at the school killed children, Colleen! Small, innocent children!”