The Oracle (Fargo Adventures 11)

He waited for quiet again before proceeding. “What if you don’t hear the bell but you know there’s an emergency?”

In unison, they shouted, “We come to the shed.”

“A fire?” Pete said.

“We come to the shed.”

“An earthquake?”

“We come to the shed.”

“A shooting?”

“We come to the shed.”

Pete raised his brows.

One of the older girls shouted, “We find cover.”

“Correct,” Pete said. “What’s cover?”

As one, they said, “A safe place to hide.”

Remi reached over, taking Sam’s hand in hers, saying nothing. She didn’t need to. He nodded as Wendy looked over at them, whispering, “Like I said, a sad but necessary reality.”

After the drill, the girls went back to lunch and then the classroom with Amal. The other adults returned to their framing of the new dorm, Sam and Pete on the roof, Hank and Remi down below.

“Pete,” Hank called out. “Any more nails? I’m running low.”

Pete, working next to Sam at the peak of the roof, looked down at Hank. “There’s some in the shed. Hold on a sec. I’ll go get them.”

“No trouble,” Hank said. “I can go.”

Pete glanced at Sam, who gave him a slight nod. Unless someone knew where to look, that tunnel was going to remain a secret. “Yeah, sure,” Pete said. “Should be a case of them on the shelf, right side as you enter.”

Hank headed toward the shed and returned a few minutes later. “You realize you only have a couple of boxes left. We’ll be out by the end of the day.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Pete said. “I thought we had an entire case.”

Sam surveyed the roof, where he and Pete had almost finished the installation of the plywood sheathing. Down below, Remi and Hank had made considerable progress on the siding. “Well, among the four of us, we’ve gone through quite a few.”

“I could’ve sworn we had more,” Pete said. “I’ll drive into the village tomorrow and pick up whatever they have, then put in a new order.”

“We could send Remi.”

“Send me where?” she called out. She moved away from the building, looking up at Sam.

“To Gembu, in the morning. Figured you could take Amal. Show her around the village.”

“I’m sure she’d love the trip.”

Around five the next morning, before any of the kids were up, Sam and Pete took their coffee and walked the grounds, trying to determine everything that needed to be accomplished before the start of the rainy season. They stopped in front of the shed but didn’t go in. The ground there, and in the courtyard around it, seemed fairly level. “What about flooding?” Sam asked. “Even though I know we’re on a plateau, I’d hate to see all that work ruined after the first big rainstorm drains into the shelter.”

“You can’t tell from here, but the buildings and courtyard are actually built on a slight mound. It’s why we picked the sight. Most of it should drain outward.”

“Just in case,” Sam said, “let’s make sure to order a couple of pumps.”

Out front, the chickens started clucking louder than usual for that early an hour. Sam glanced that direction yet couldn’t see anything between the two buildings.