Storm of Lightning by Richard Paul Evans Page B

Cross. He’s above reproach.”
    â€œThen why did you just take his weapons?” Nichelle asked.
    Jack looked a little awkward. “Better safe than sorry,” he said.
    â€œTaylor, keep your hand on him. When he comes to, I want to interrogate him,” I said.
    Gervaso was out for only a couple of more minutes before he began to stir. As soon as he came to, he instinctively went for his gun, and froze when he saw Jack pointing it at him.
    â€œJust stay still,” Jack said. “Don’t try anything.”
    Gervaso looked back and forth between us, his eyes stopping on me. “Michael, it’s me, Gervaso.”
    â€œWe thought you were dead,” I said.
    â€œDo I look dead?” He stared at me. “What happened to your arms?”
    â€œJust answer the question,” Jack said. “Why are you still alive?”
    â€œBecause I didn’t die,” he said. Then he slightly grinned. “Well, at least not yet.” He said to Jack, “You can put my gun down. I came here to rescue you.”
    Jack looked over at me, and I nodded. He lowered the weapon.
    â€œWhere are Scott and the others?” Taylor asked.
    â€œThey’re safe. This town is crawling with Elgen informants. That’s why I came back alone. We need to get you out of here.” He sat up. “You don’t need to keep touching me, Taylor. You know I’m not lying.”
    Taylor looked a little embarrassed as she removed her hand. “He’s telling the truth,” she said to me.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” I asked.
    â€œAre my parents dead?” Ostin asked.
    Gervaso looked at him. “No,” he said.
    â€œBut we saw the ranch,” I said.
    â€œWe knew the Elgen were coming. We evacuated before they came.”
    â€œMy mother’s alive?” I asked.
    â€œEveryone is safe. Your mother”—he turned to Ostin—“your parents, the council.”
    I put my hand over my eyes, overcome with relief. “She’s okay.”
    Taylor took my hand. “I knew there was hope.”
    When I looked up, Ostin’s eyes were filled with tears. He furtively brushed them away. McKenna put her arms around him.
    â€œDude, it’s okay,” Jack said. “Even warriors cry.”
    Ostin just nodded.
    â€œI don’t get it,” Jack said to Gervaso. “If you knew the Elgen were coming, why didn’t you ambush them?”
    â€œThere’s brave courageous; then there’s brave stupid ,” Gervaso said, looking at Jack. “You know what I mean?”
    Jack nodded. “Yeah, I get it.”
    â€œEven with the intelligence we had, the Elgen still have a lot more firepower at their disposal than we do. They also have an army, which we don’t. But even if we had somehow defeated them, there would have been lives lost. And, as far as I’m concerned, we don’t have any to spare.” He looked at me. “Would you agree?”
    â€œYes, sir,” I said.
    â€œI thought so,” he said. “But that’s just one of the reasons we didn’t attack. The main reason was that fighting back wasn’t our strategy. We want them to think we’ve been destroyed.”
    â€œIf no one was at the ranch,” Ostin said, “how did we bring down one of their helicopters? We saw it.”
    Gervaso smiled. “That was pretty good, wasn’t it? Remember the robotic sentry system we used in Peru? Same thing. I also fired up our helicopter from here in Douglas. We gambled that they’d never put boots on the ground, so I created just enough action for them to believe we’d been caught unprepared.”
    â€œSmart,” Ostin said. “Very smart.”
    â€œSo what about the Elgen guard we found?” Jack said. “What do we do with him?”
    â€œScott briefed me about him,” Gervaso said. “He provides us with an interesting opportunity. And risk. The Elgen