Dog Days of Summer (Damned of the 2/19th Book Four) - Finished

Daylight and Plans

Jameson Farm

Lewis County

11 August 1986

0546 Hours

The sun was rising when I walked out of the house and sat down on the porch of the secondary fallback location. The Jameson farm had been up for sale for over twenty years. Old Man Jameson's two sons had been killed Vietnam, and the old man had died of a heart attack in the late 60's. The farm had been up for sale since then, but nobody had bought it. The land wasn't very fertile compared to surrounding farms, there were several low hills, but fifteen hundred acres and buildings for a little under $40K was well worth it to me. My enlistment bonuses had covered down payments and my checks had covered the mortgage.

The dog, Herc, was barking as he raced around the overgrown front yard. He'd marked the rusting tractor as soon as he jumped out of the bed of the truck, then wandered around the house, sniffing at the foundation and marking it here and there as he did so. It was still misting rain, but the sun was starting to burn away the clouds and already steamy mist was rising up from the grass as the sun's heat evaporated away the wet the night before had left.

We'd moved everything into the house, and there were several things going on in the house. We'd separated out the chemicals from the used batteries, had worked over the mothballs, and now the last of the home-made plastique was setting in the casts.

We were making plastic explosive and pipe bombs.

My stomach was still cramping, but I'd eaten two MRE's and made sure everyone, even the girls, had eaten one to help absorb and burn away the toxins from the tea. The girls hadn't complained, McDaurn girls through and through.

The lizard was mostly asleep, and I was drowsy. I wanted to go into the house and curl up with everyone else, but it was my turn to pull guard duty.

The reason I was sitting on the steps of the front porch, watching the dog run around, with a 12 gauge Mossberg shotgun in my lap.

Matron Tauth de Aine would be expecting me to bring John and Nancy up to see her, and if John's injuries from the torture and beating were more than he could overcome with willpower, or put him in any kind of danger of being maimed then we'd go up there to see her. I wasn't looking forward to it.

Maybe I'd made a mistake in freeing her. She'd been bred into the family before the Fall of Rome, back during the days of Pax Britannica's settling. I'd needed to offset her, neutralize her, and while I had done that, I'd also set an ancient forest fey loose on the world.

Most people lived in the really real world, where there were no such things as fey, but Tauth De Aine was part of something more, something ancient and almost forgotten by the world. Ancient druids and witches had given her gifts to placate her, to seek her wisdom, and to earn her favor in those days gone by.

I had simply freed her to the forests and glades of the West Coast. There were plenty of places where mankind had barely touched, towns and areas where hardly anyone knew about, where the forest was old, dark, and silent.

But that was all right. That was a problem for another day, or other people, it served my interests to set her free. I knew my Little Aine would be happy that I'd managed to convince her mother to take her hand from around Little Aine's heart. It would be another favor owed to me, and out at Atlas, back in 2/19th, favors were a currency more valuable than money.

My Zippo was crisp sounding as I lit a cigarette, taking a long drag off it and closing my eyes while I held the breath. The nicotine eased off the pain of sore muscles from where Papa Doutree had managed to get in a few good punches.