Dad

When I hobble into the Command Center on my crutch, Dante, the youngest Luciano brother, rakes me with one glance of gold-colored eyes. He gets up and rolls his chair over to me. Removing a hard-plastic stacker from the pile by the door to sit on himself, he returns to his computers without a word.

This magnetically beautiful and remote man is Melody’s husband. It’s hard to picture two such opposite people as a couple, but not when they’re together. Their passion seems to sizzle and musk the air, a heat that’s almost embarrassing to witness.

I wonder if I’ll ever experience that kind of love. What Susanna and I had was never that…and I’ve lived so long in the shadows.

I’m honored that JT has asked me to come to their “war council” as they plan an assault on the fortress where their enemy Dwight Kane is holding Lucy Luciano.

Ana comes in carrying a tray of sliced zucchini bread and a carafe of coffee. She sets them on the round table used for strategizing. Short and curvy, her long silver-streaked hair in a braid and dressed in a sweatshirt with Kiss the Cook on it over jeans, she carries herself with authority. “John, let me get a look at that foot before the kids come in.”

I almost lost part of my foot, but Dr. Nani debrided the infected tissue. I shudder, remembering that agony. “I think it’s fine, Ana.”

“Can you do that later or somewhere else?” JT has appeared at the door and the other brothers cluster in, including Roan Winters, a tall Native American with striking gray eyes. I haven’t yet met him, but apparently, he’s in love with Lucy, and tried to go after her without backup. All of the men look pale, sweaty and shaken.

Something’s happened, and it isn’t good.

Ana will be upset, and that can’t help anything going on down here.

She’s bending over, fussing with my foot. Maybe I can help by getting her out of the room and keeping her distracted. “You’re right, it’s bothering me a bit right now. Ana, perhaps you can help me out in the living room?”

I pretend to need help with my crutches and JT shoots me a grateful glance as Ana fusses over me, assisting me out the door.

The door to the Command Center closes and Ana helps me down the hall to the big communal living room with its open kitchen on one side. Each couple has their own apartment and then there is a shared common area with couches, a big TV and a kitchen. Ana gets me over to the couch, lifting my leg up onto it and turning on one of the lamps. The room is so nicely appointed it’s easy to forget we’re deep underground in a bomb shelter.

I lived in one in Washington too; there I learned to like the muffled dense quality of sound underground, and the sense of security.

“Tell me about Lucy,” I say, as she begins to unwrap the bandages. “It’s incredible that you raised seven children virtually alone.”

“I had Paulie for the first fourteen years…until Luca was a teenager and Lucy was born.” She shakes her head sadly. “He was a hands-on father when he was home. But I won’t deny it was hard.” Her mouth tightens with old pain. “Lucy never knew her father…she is my baby.”

“I don’t know how you did it. I couldn’t get it right with one child, let alone seven. I almost lost Elizabeth over what happened in Washington.”

Ana looks up, and her changeable hazel eyes are warm. “That girl is a gem. I knew it the moment I met her. I couldn’t have been happier when I realized JT had fallen in love. He needed someone like her after his first marriage ended so tragically.”

“Elizabeth told me about that.” I’ve had some precious times with my daughter, down in her lab, where I’ve tried to make myself useful sorting test tubes and prepping medium for growing cells.

But I arrived in the middle of a crisis, and there’s been no time to really talk about what’s going on in Washington and where things are going for the country. Not that any of it matters, or ever did, in the scope of what happened with Scorch Flu.

My life is over, already, everything but the funeral. Everything but Elizabeth.

Only Lizzie doesn’t need me anymore. I do love seeing her happy with JT, though, even if I’m a little jealous of being on the outside of the circle they make.

Ana might understand.

“Ana, you’re the heart of this family. It must be so satisfying to see your children married and happy, even in this terrible time.”

She is gentle but firm in the way she handles my foot, dabbing at the inflamed flesh on the sole with a Q-tip soaked in antibiotic, not flinching from the suppurating wound. “It’s all I dreamed of.” She looks up at me. She has good bones, and lovely eyes. If I were another man I might have been attracted to her. “But sometimes I wonder what…I should be doing. Besides gardening and cooking.”

“That’s not enough?” I can only dream of being half as useful as Ana. She brings everyone together, nurtures and sustains them both with her food and her presence.

“Hey, John.” JT sticks his head into the living room. “Can you come in? We have some questions about the Great Nation America movement. And Ma, we ate all the zucchini bread and we’re out of coffee. Any chance we could get more? Pretty please?”

Ana meets my eyes and we both smile. “Sure,” we say at the same time.

JT comes and helps me into the Command Center as Ana hurries off. Maybe I do still have a purpose.

Once inside, JT parks me back on Dante’s chair. “Tell us everything you know about the Great Nation America.”

I clear my throat and set my crutch aside, looking at each face in turn. “This is classified information I’m sharing with you…but there’s no purpose in keeping state secrets any longer when there’s no functioning federal government to protect.” JT nods, encouraging me, and I go on. “An internal investigation conducted by the FBI and the Secret Service working together confirmed that Vice President Pigeon used his access to leak the Scorch Flu from its secure location in Virginia to the Great Nation America leader Tanner Hillish.”

Luca and Nani look at each other and Nani frowns. “I suspected he might be involved.”

“Yes. Pigeon was a part of a secret cabal that wanted to overturn the government and install an ultra-right wing regime with him as President. He personally infected President Harrison and key members of the chain of command with the first strain of Scorch Flu.” My throat is scratchy, and it’s Dante who hands me a glass of water to sip. “I was a part of stockpiling the first vaccine, a sin I almost lost my daughter over. But in the end, it didn’t matter because the virus was so virulent and morphed so quickly into the second strain…” I sip the water to hide the tremble of my mouth as I remember Susanna’s lingering death from the secondary infection. I couldn’t protect her, not with money, position, or power. “By then, everyone was dying in our bunker. Whatever initial plot Pigeon had spawned turned on him when he was taken down by the secondary virus. I left after Elizabeth’s mother died.” I look around at the Lucianos. “What else can I tell you?”

“Who is taking Tanner Hillish’s place?”

“Great Nation America took a serious blow when Hillish was assassinated, and I understand we have you and your wife to thank for that.” I make eye contact with Luca. The warrior nods graciously, squeezing his very pregnant wife close. “I thank you both on behalf of the nation, for what it’s worth.”

Nani smiles. “We’re just glad to have been able to fulfill our mission, Senator.” I feel the gift of her use of my old title.

“Well, you two did an incredible thing in taking him out and destabilizing the cult. Under Hillish, the Great Nation movement was centralized, with well-connected cells communicating with each other and clear goals. Once Hillish went down, infighting began and the momentum of the movement was lost. Thank God.” I shake my head. “I was still getting FBI reports at that time, such as they were, but soon even those ceased. Amazing how quickly it all fell apart.”

“Did you ever hear the name Dwight Kane?” JT asks.

“I heard of him just before I left Washington. He is one of the contenders trying to take Hillish’s place. There’s a council of elders in the movement that supposedly guides Great Nation America and chooses leadership. I know he made a play for the position, but after I left the capital, I dropped out of the loop of all that.”

“This does fill in some holes in our knowledge base,” Luca says. “We know Kane because Cash tangled with him in Grimesville. Jolene is his sister.”

I nod. Elizabeth confided in me about the demand note they received. “Elizabeth told me Cash is the hero of Grimesville. I heard about you on my journey here.”

Cash shakes his head. “I’m no hero. I just wanted to get my girl and my dog back. I did what anyone would do in that situation.”

“You’re too modest, brother.” JT whacks him on the back. “Grimesville was the first group to get organized and go on the offensive against Great Nation America, and it was because of you.”

I assess the good-looking blond man afresh. All of the Lucianos are handsome, but Cash has an extra charisma that makes me want to look at him longer and hear what he has to say. Star power, my Susanna used to call it. I still remember how she’d touch my cheek and look into my eyes as she did so. Charisma is a quality that can’t be bottled or faked, and Cash has it in spades.

Cash turns to Dante. “Right now we need to concentrate on getting Lucy back, then we can fight over who’s a hero around here.”

“You’re right,” JT frowns. “We’ve got to take Kane down and get Lucy back alive. Here’s my idea for an attack on the mine, based on the intel Roan brought back.”

The attention of the group shifts to active planning. I sit and listen. What the Resistance needs is a central figure to rally around. Someone people can look to for inspiration. If we find that person, we can gain momentum toward rebuilding a system of government.

I watch the family discussing possible routes into the mine, and a spark of hope ignites. We may just win, after all.