Page 14 of Broken Wheels

“Okay. You’re not being serious, are you? About the government’s involvement in today’s shitshow? Tell me this is all your wild imagination.”

Gary sighed. “He can’t tell you that, because it isn’t, unfortunately.” He peered at Michael. “Why do you think there are so many restrictions on him working here? Years ago, he told me a story about a helicopter hovering over his house, guys in black suits all over the place….” He stared at Doc. “You weren’t embellishing, were you?”

Doc shook his head. “Not in the least.”

Michael’s gaze went from Doc to Gary, and back to Doc again. “You need to tell us what’s going on here. And I mean everything, Josh.”

Doc’s face tightened, and Dix hated that broken expression. More than that, he hated himself for the part he’d played in letting this mess happen.

Finally, Doc straightened, picked up his cup, and drank his coffee, not stopping until he’d emptied it.

“They recruited me when I was eighteen.” Another snort. “Recruited. I’m sure they saw it that way. I call it blackmail.”

“What could you have done that would get you onto the government’s radar?” Dix asked.

“When I was sixteen, I… I got caught hacking computers, okay?” He scowled. “They gave me a choice—work for them or go to prison. Some choice, huh? So that was what I told my parents, that they made me a deal to keep me from going to prison. They let me graduate—only they had me under strict watch the whole time—and at eighteen, I joined the ‘company,’” he air-quoted.

“That sounds like a good deal,” Dix commented.

Doc huffed. “Except it wasn’t the entire story.” He shivered. “Not going to forget the day one of the guys cornered me in my room and got right up in my face. He was so close, I gagged on his cigarette breath.” Doc swallowed. “He smiled at me as he said, ‘Do what we say, or else something bad might happen to your parents.’ Then he patted me on the cheek none too gently and growled at me. ‘Listen, you’re a smart kid, so we all know you’ll figure out what that might be, right?’” A shudder coursed through him. “Yeah, I knew, and it scared the crap out of me.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and Dix ached to grab him and hold him close.

Not an option.

“What had you so rattled?” Michael asked.

Doc opened his eyes, but he didn’t answer right away. Then he drew in a deep breath. “I’d seen things in files. Horrible, disgusting things that I’m certain the government would say were done with the good of the country in mind.” His face hardened. “No one deserved what they did to these people. Even our worst enemies shouldn’t have been treated like that.” He sighed. “I said I’d work with them, and I did. However, while I was doing that, I was looking for a way to bring them down.” He gave a rueful chuckle. “Sure, I was a kid, but I didn’t take kindly to being threatened. Anyway, one day I found the motherlode of files. Things that made what I’d discovered previously look like a Sunday picnic in the park.” He met their gazes. “And before you ask, no, I won’t tell you what it was.”

“Not good enough,” Michael insisted. “We need to know everything.”

Doc shook his head. “Uh-uh. Going to have to leave you in the dark, I’m afraid. Trust me, you’re better off not knowing. So there I was, with access to some really damaging shit, and I couldn’t let the world know what was going on.”

“Why not?” Dix demanded. “If it was as bad as you say.”

Doc stared at him. “Because there was still the threat to my parents.” He shrugged. “It’s a crappy answer, especially since we don’t get along, but….” Doc exhaled sharply. “If someone asked me to weigh the lives of two strangers versus… well, versus a hell of a lot of people, I would have no problem saying to let the two die. It would suck, but the lives that would be saved would far outweigh any loss. But we’re talking about my parents. So yeah, that might make me a hypocrite, but it’s how I feel. Plus, our agreement was they’d shelve the project.”

“The project you can’t tell us about,” Gary observed.

Doc raised his eyes heavenward. “Look, we might get to that part one day, but it’s not gonna be today, all right?” Another shudder rippled through him. “I thought they’d done what they promised, and I really believed they’d shelved it, but now?” Doc locked gazes with Gary. “Now I’m thinking they might be trying to start it up again, and the only way to do that would be to get rid of me.”

Michael let out a long breath. “And they didn’t care about taking out how many other innocent people?”

“The body count so far for the explosion in the mall is twelve,” Gary said, consulting his phone. “Might be more than that if some people don’t recover from their injuries.”

“But that’s what’s so stupid about all this,” Doc blurted. “I have things set up so if something happens to me or my parents, the files will all be released to the media. And they fucking know that.”

It was the second time in less than a day that Dix had heard Doc swear—a rare occurrence—and that only served to show the state he was in.

“Then what sense does it make to put you in the path of an explosion?”

Doc leaned back, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. “Cliff Tanner was one of the basement-dwellers. That’s what they called us, because they kept us in the bowels of the building, hidden away. I didn’t realize until a year after I left that it was because we weren’t supposed to be seen.”

“How long did you work for them?” Dix wanted to know.

“Two years. When I was twenty, I left, taking all the shit I’d found with me.”

“They let you leave? Just like that?”

Doc snorted. “They didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter.” He stared at the coffee table. “But maybe it wasn’t just the government. Look at what happened with Porter. Maybe someone else had a hand in the project.” That rueful smile was back. “Sadly, I was so confident in myself and what I could do that I never figured they’d find a way to outsmart me.”

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