LAW#13 - Walking a thin line between Leader and Killer –An interview with Adrian Mitchel

Cynthia Quest ReportingApril 24th, 2013
 
Reclined in a folding chair, this hardened man has steel blue eyes and a method of leadership that needs to be questioned. What dark secrets lurking in the control-minded façade? Let’s see what we can find out…
 “Thank you for the interview.”
“Sure.”
“Are you ready?”
Adrian’s face seemed to glow as he grinned. “Born that way.”
The heat wave was sharp and ignored.
“Let’s get started then.”
Cynthia looked down to verify the first question. “What did you do before the War?”
Prepared for the attack, Adrian grunted. “A little of this…”
“I thought you said I could have a real interview?”
Adrian blinked at the sharp tone, not expecting it so soon. “This is a…”
Disappointed, Cynthia let out a snarl. “Get out of here, Mr. Mitchel. Send in someone else to play games.”
Adrian grinned despite himself, and moved into a more comfortable position. “I mostly worked with the military.”
Cynthia stared at the answer, mind sorting out how far to push. She took the sharpness out of her tone, but knew he still read it in her words. “Training men, testing weapons?”
Adrian nodded, wondering if Jeremy had found something inside the reporter that he himself had missed. “Yes.”
He flashed a grin. “I’m good with people. You may have noticed…”
The reporter squirmed under the emotion, ignoring his pull as best she could. She gave a weak smile in return at the joke. “Obviously.”
Cynthia looked down at her notes, tone digging again. “Have you spent much time in Washington… at the White House?”
“I’ve been there.”
Cynthia heard the edge of warning and backed off, not wanting him to stop talking yet. “Why do you run the camp and the Eagles separately?”
“What do you mean by separately?”
“The rules mostly. The camp has freedoms the Eagles don’t, and it’s all done out of view.”
Adrian delivered his rehearsed line, and then gave her a bit more. “It’s so they can concentrate, really learn to defend us. And also because the camp might not agree with my training methods.”
Cynthia honed in on the truth, fired back a glancing blow. “Will you provide an example of that or is it all too top secret for them?”
Adrian followed his set script. There was little she could ask that he didn’t have an answer for. “You’ve seen the bruises the Eagles wear. We train hard.”
Slightly disappointed with the boring response, Cynthia went to shoving.
“How many people have you ordered killed since the War?”
“As many as I needed to.”
“So you don’t deny it?”
“No. Some people have no right to be among us or any other population.”
“Who are you to judge that?”
“The Guardian.”
It rang in the tent, and drew a guard to the flap to verify everything was okay.
Adrian made a motion, got one in return, then turned back to Cynthia. His eyes bore into hers, searching, sending out waves of insistence. His voice switched into that impossible to ignore tone.
“There’s nothing I won’t do to keep these people alive.”
Cynthia didn’t hesitate to fire the conversation back up. “Do you believe killing to be a useful tool of the Eagles?”
Neither did Adrian. “Yes.”
“And what about the moral line…”
Adrian snorted, cutting her off. “Survival, Ms. Quest. It’s all that matters now. I’ll make those hard choices. It’s why theychose me.”
Cynthia flushed, quickly went back to her notes. “What do you think our odds are on surviving the next year?”
“Good, as long as the first winter isn’t more than we can handle.”
“Some of the refugees here seem to think that even nature is against us. Do you agree?”
Adrian nodded, tone growing unreadable. “Yes. Wouldn’t you be after all mankind’s done?”
Sensing his rapidly shifting mood, Cynthia fired one last bullet, hoping to catch him in a lie.
“Did you know the War was coming?”
Adrian’s face darkened ominously. “Those we put in power were unworthy. How could they do anything else but cause the end? We all knew it was coming.”
“But you are worthy, where past leaders weren’t?”
Adrian shrugged, standing up. “My goals and dreams are not the same as theirs. I only care about my people, my country. As long as I walk that line, yes.”
He moved toward the flap without looking back.
Cynthia watched him go, wishing she could have dug harder. She’d been shocked to see the time with him marked on her schedule. She had mercilessly grilled many of the Eagles, on his approval, and even a few of the camp members for her new paper, but Adrian’s agreement had come as a surprise.
The reporter’s eyes narrowed. What would he gain by it? There was no way he had done it out of kindness. What was he planning around her?
Her mind went to his careful, harsh merging of women into his army, and Cynthia’s heart thumped with a longing so strong that it actually hurt. What she wanted most, he’d never give her.
Bitterness settled into her stomach, and her pen went to write the title…






"This is Safe Haven Refugee Camp. Can anyone hear me?Hello? Is anyone out there?"
The Survivors*Free on all retailersAuthor’s Website    Diesel  iTunes   Kindle   Kobo   Nook   Smashwords   Sony