Chapter 31
October
Overall, the harvest this year was a lot better than the previous year. A couple of the local farmers were trying to buy up Texas gasoline for use in the following spring. If any of them succeeded, they would be able to produce multiple times more food, and become comparatively rich in the process.
Ethan Mentzer and his Scouts had become leaders in Delburg. Delburg was accepted into the Confederation and Mentzer was named the Constable. The new leadership brought economic freedom to the town.
But this new arrangement was not without its pains. The town had been used as slave labor. Some had been taken to Indiana to work in the Gofinn foundry. The slaves were supplemented by a token amount of canned good. This canned food supply was now cut off. Also, Mentzer had to deal with prosecution of some inhabitants who were the worst collaborators with the Gofinns. These atrocities were so blatant, they blurred the line between collaborator and Gofinn. Some people were executed by firing squad.
The Academy at Fort Wilcox had not yet technically produced any graduates, but the OC had pressed a couple of them into service early as they sought to build up the ranks of the Army.
Mitchell Raymond was growing, but not very fast.
All in all, things seemed to be going well in Ayanna's world. She had saved all of her money she earned as a spy. She was starting to accumulate quite a sum. Being extra hungry one day, she thought she would go over to Burkett's market and see if there was something special she could buy for the family's dinner table. Ayanna didn't spend much, but a little couldn't hurt.
She was looking at what was available. There was this faint. . . yet certain smell. No, she was not going to cause trouble by thinking she smelled Hexmen again. The smell came, then it went. It did it a couple of more times. But why would she be smelling it in the market.
Nothing in the baskets really grabbed her much. Maybe she would take a look in the counter at the more expensive stuff. Amy would be happy if she brought something nice home.
There was a young man in front of her at the counter buying some apples, eggs, and about a hundred rounds of assorted ammunition cartridges. He pulled out a handful of silver coins, which amounted to a lot of money. Whoa! The coat had the Hexman-ish smell as much as anything she had smelled.
Ayanna tried to get a good look at his face when he turned after completing the transaction. She knew she looked awkward when the mean looking guy looked at her. He didn't have any hex tattoos. Everyone pretty well knew to shoot anyone with a hex tattoo on sight anyways.
"I'll take a box of .223," she said to Mrs. Burkett. Wanting to make a quick purchase that was certain to be money well spent.
"That will be two dollars."
Ayanna hastily pulled two silver half-dollars out of her pocket and paid for the ammunition. Then she went outside to see where Hex-smell coat guy was going. He was going back toward the Fort. She watched to make sure he was going into the Fort, which he did.
Ayanna went to the Farm to report what she had seen. . .and smelled.
Elijah was there, as usual. "So this guy bought ammunition, smelled like a Hexman, and went back to the Fort; Correct?"
"Yes."
"And you can I.D. this guy if you saw him again?"
"No problem."
Elijah said, "Let's do some brainstorming here; The guy could have taken the coat off of a Hexman."
"Yes."
"The guy could be selling ammunition and/or information to the Hexmen."
"Yes."
"The smell could be from the same source of whatever it is, that makes a Hexman smell like a Hexman."
"Yes."
Elijah asked, "What do you think?"
Ayanna said, "He could have bought the coat third-hand off of another guy in the Fort who is helping the Hexmen."
"True. Nice thought."
"Thank you. Umm. . .The guy. . .bought a lot more types of ammo than a guy his age would normally have guns for."
"True, but maybe he's selling it second hand."
"True," Ayanna said. "Maybe."
Elijah said, "The guy is worth watching some more, maybe we should alert Captain Durand as to what is going on."
"Absolutely."
Elijah said, "I think I'll send Rata over to the Fort to request Frank Durand comes over."
Elijah went upstairs to get Rata.
Rata came downstairs, ran by Ayanna and said, "Hi Niña."
"Hi Rata," she said in return.
Rata went out the door toward the Fort.
Captain Durand came over and greeted Elijah and Ayanna, who were at the kitchen table. Durand took a seat at the table, along with Rata.
Elijah said, "We would like to send Ayanna over to the Fort."
"Why?
"We have reason to believe one of your people there may be helping the Hexmen."
"Really, Elijah? Why would you say that?"
"We have some evidence that suggests it."
"Like what?"
Elijah said, "Frank, just let us come over there and look over the men's personal items once, then we'll be out of your hair."
The Captain said, "I'm going to go out on a limb here, but at the risk of being wrong again, why Ayanna?"
"Ayanna and I will team up on this one."
"Okay. Let's go do it," Captain Durand said.
"Now?" Elijah asked.
"Sure, I'll just send everyone out on a drill. I'm the Commander, you know. They'll cry bloody murder, but I haven't made them do anything for quite awhile. I don't want them to get too soft, you know."
"Good," Elijah said.
"Just come over in twenty minutes and you can have the run of the place."
Elijah and Ayanna arrived at the Fort. The Captain escorted them to the barracks. The barracks had a thick matted down bed of straw on top of a dirt floor. But there was an assortment of actual beds that were recovered from abandoned houses in the area. Some were still quite nice.
Ayanna was putting her nose on to the beds sniffing them out.
The Captain said, "What the heck is she looking for?"
Elijah said, "She's not looking. She smelling."
"Huh?"
"Yea, she's smelling."
Captain Durand said, "Come on, Elijah. Really?"
Ayanna looked at Durand with a measure of exasperation.
Durand held out his hand toward her, "Okay, sorry Ayanna, but this is a lot weirder than a little girls who is a military analyst. . ."
Elijah said, "Frank you are getting into it deeper with her. You'd be better off stopping. I thought you were going to give us the run of the place?"
"No. That's right, you just go ahead with what you are doing."
Ayanna went to several of the beds. On a couple of the beds, which were all made, she waved the blankets around in the air trying to make detection of the smell easier.
Then she got to one and said, "Ugh! She lifted the pillow and smelled it. She rolled her eyes. Right here. That's the guy."
Captain Durand went over to the bed . He read the name, "Private Jim Oliver". Not to be negative, but that guy. . .It doesn't make a lot of sense."
Elijah was going through Jim's box. Each soldier had a box at the foot of their bed. Elijah picked up a book from the box. "Here's a big Fort Wayne Indiana Telephone directory. Not real practical." He flipped the book onto the bed and it made a metallic noise. They all looked at it.
"I never heard of a book that clanked" the Captain said. He picked up the pulpy book and opened it. It was hollowed out. They stared in amazement at the loot inside; all sorts of jewelry, coins, some of them gold.
"Hey, nice watch. . ." Elijah looked at the back of the watch and saw an inscription, "Bob Timmons - Ten Years Service -Shanesville Volunteer Fire Dept."
The Captain said, "Oliver sure has a lot of money here. I can't really see how he has the money for this kind of stuff."
Elijah said, "Let's put everything back to the way it was."
They all started trying to remember how everything was stored and rearranging it until it was as close as they could remember.
Elijah asked , "When is Oliver's next day off?"
"When do you want it to be?"
"Two days. I want him to be able to make plans. Also, tell everyone the Fort will be entirely empty a week from today. In three days, change the plan."
Durand said, "Am I going to have to write this down? Today I have the Lieutenant tell Oliver he is off on the next day, and also tell the entire Fort that we will be going to Delburg in five days from today for a celebration."
Elijah said, "Oh! I like that."
"But then, three days from today I get to be the asshole and tell everyone at the Fort they can't go to the celebration."
"Tell them I said it was cancelled because of a flu epidemic, but then make sure they are all on high alert. We will actually be very busy that day."
"All right," Durand said, "I can live with this, if it helps you out."
"Thank you," Elijah said, "Ayanna. Back to the kitchen, there is work to be done.
Elijah gathered his team around the table for a meeting. "Patrick; the day after tomorrow, you and Ayanna will watch the Fort. Ayanna will show you who Private Jim Oliver is. I want you to follow him unseen without Ayanna. I suspect he will go to one of the Hex Tribes."
"Okay," Patrick said.
"Rata; First thing tomorrow as early as possible, I want you to walk to Shanesville and find out who . . .umm. . .Bob. . ."
"Timmons," Ayanna said.
"Yes, Bob Timmons. I want you to go to Shanesville and find out if he is alive and if not, what happened to him, and his wrist watch. Then get back here as fast as possible."
"Hell!" Rata said, "This job is more damn walking."
Elijah said, "Hey! What else do you have to do? There's nothing on TV."
"All right. Bob Timmons. I'll set my DVR before I go. I don't want to miss Sons of Anarchy." He chuckled.
Elijah said, "I have things to do here."
Rata said, "Like what? Holding down the couch?"
Elijah said, "No, this is going to be a lot bigger than you think. That's why we need complete intel and for you to get back as quickly as possible."