New Birds

The Proposal Part 30

The gate stood open for over twenty-four hours. An agonizing amount of waiting. Tilly, Louis, and Keitin sat side-by-side on the kitchen chairs on the front veranda. The last few hours in silence. Hal slept a laboured sleep inside. His breathing, rattled and somewhat distorted through the screen door, adding a mix of forbearing to the silence they sat in.

"This is ridiculous. I need to get him to a medical facility," Keitin said.

Tilly stood and stretched. "I'm sure Jason will help you get your father to Calgary once he arrives."

Keitin snorted.

"He helped you when you were ill, didn't he?" She looked over her shoulder at him.

"When he was still trying to acquire the lease lawfully," Keitin said.

"So, we will allow him to keep up this pretence of legality, by negotiating. He will want that."

"You're delusional. It's obvious that Jason lost the oars here, Tilly," Louis said.

She raised a hand to silence him. There was a slow rumble now of vehicles approaching. It sounded like several. "Let's hope this nightmare is almost over," she said. "I'll do the talking. Everyone else just keep calm."

"I'm not sure this will go as you're hoping it does." Louis swiped at his pants but remained sitting.

"Neither do I. But they will have to get me to sign a release form. A contract. Something legal they can present to the administration. And I plan to do so without fuss. As long as no one else gets harmed. And starting with asking AG to provide Keitin and his father transport to a medical facility in Calgary."

Louis raised an eyebrow in question.

She turned away from him to look to her trees, where the vehicles would emerge from. "It's just a rather easy ask. A token negotiation so Jason can plausibly deny a complete takeover. At least to himself. It may even help him sleep at night. And it may keep us alive if we go along with this charade." She walked to the railing, readjusting the Luger that she now carried in a shoulder holster under her poncho. Its handle was mid ribcage.

"And Smoke Junction?" Louis said.

"We did what we were told. We opened our gates like they asked." She thought of Samantha. There was the possibility of still having to give her up if this Brice Davies threatened anymore lives. But it would do very little good to hand him and Jason everything on a silver platter all at once, without at least knowing the end plan. It was why she had decided in the last minute to hide them.

This bizarre series of events was hers in the making. Her stubbornness. Her pride. Her mandate. But all that was done now. What happened to Allison, could not happen again. Not for any reason. She swept her gaze over the beautiful, quiet pines and rigid spruce and felt such defeat pass through her. It hitched twice in her diaphragm as she tried breathing the feeling out. "Once they have what they want, they'll free them. A company like AG won't jeopardize itself further if they're allowed an easy way out of this. Don't we all just want an easy way out of this?"

Hal's rattled breathing diminished further under the steady sound of motors.

"Let your optimism commence," Keitin said, as he raised himself slowly from the chair and went inside.

"Coward," Louis said to the screen door.

"Louis, it's not like we're going down swinging either." She walked over to him and kissed him. "Promise me you'll grovel too if need be."

He gave her a wry smile.

"What?" she asked.

"I just don't know why you feel so beholden to him and his father. Free passage to Calgary, and you won't even let me criticize him. You still hot for him or something?"