Rebel Heart

The way Charlie's gaze glowed at the mention of the reward made Brady uneasy. He suspected General Greene had issued one lookout and Tim the other.

"We haven't found her yet," Charlie added. "But then again, there are so many refugees trickling into the cities along the river, it's hard to say she's not here. We've been rather cut off from the rest of the world. We formed our own networks along the river and joined forces with the Twelfth Army. They took up camp about a day south of here in Arkansas."

"I heard they were headed back from Europe," Elise said with a frown. "How did they end up here?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if Tim re-routed them," Brady said. "Greenie could've done a lot of damage with the Twelfth Army at his command."

"We could've used some help."

Brady glanced up at Elise's hard tone, sensing she'd not yet absorbed the fact the government she served had splintered.

"What's done is done," he said. "We gotta move forward."

"This is forward?" Charlie asked, tapping the screen of Elise's micro before handing it back. "Seems an odd mission for someone of your rank, Brade, unless you lost that integrity of yours and are just after the money like I am."

"I still got it and you still don't. I think that's why they stuck you in Arkansas," Brady said. His gaze lingered on the picture of Lana. It was a recent picture, and she was smiling, her dark eyes dancing. "It's an important mission."

"Ah, I see," Charlie said. "A little toy for you, I take it."

Brady looked up. Charlie's gaze was amused, though he said nothing of Brady's long look at the picture. Brady began to recall why he never liked Charlie that much in the first place. It had nothing to do with Charlie illicitly selling PMF weapons overseas. It was Charlie's seedy character that disturbed Brady. The thought of his Angel in Charlie's reach infuriated Brady.

"Rest assured we haven't seen her. I'm assuming she's a fed. She's not going to know about the underground railroad. You came from Texarkana?" Charlie asked.

"We did," Dan answered. "She can locate and open the federal emergency supply depots. We're trying to figure out which path she took. We thought she would be in one of them or at least, would've left some sign she was."

"The supply depots we found open this morning?"