Winter World (The Long Winter #1)(78)

There are four men with the last name Sinclair, and only one living in the barracks James showed me: Alex Sinclair. Wife, Abigail. Son, Jack. Daughter, Sarah. They live in Room 54.

I shower quickly and dress, and when I emerge into the living room, Oscar is sitting on the couch, reading a tablet.

“Oscar, I need to run another errand.”

“Of course.”

“And I need you to keep it secret. Just like the meeting with Fowler.”

“Very well.”





I’ve never been inside one of the barracks. It’s not what I expected.

The overall vibe is similar to a nursing home. There’s a long corridor down the middle, with people sitting outside their rooms, mostly those too young or too old to work. The children play, talk, or stare at tablets, watching the few videos freely available on AtlanticNet.

There has been talk of setting up schools, but I suspect it isn’t high on the priority list. Survival is the order of the day. Every able-bodied person is working on sustaining the camp and supporting NASA’s next mission. That’s what I would be doing if I were physically able.

The door to Room 54 is closed. It’s white, made of a synthetic, thick material that echoes like fiberglass when I knock.

The door cracks open, revealing a woman with blond hair and dark bruises under her eyes, as though she hasn’t had a good night of sleep in a long time. I’m leaning on the cane, Oscar beside me, not sure exactly how to begin.

“Can I help you?” she asks, suspiciously.

“Hi. My name is Emma Matthews.”

“I’m Abby Sinclair. What’s this about?”

“I’m a friend of your brother-in-law.”

Her expression turns hard. “James?”

“Yes.”

“What do you want?”

Okay, didn’t see that coming. “I’d like to talk.”

“About James?”

The words are like a bear trap she’s tossed on the floor. She stares at me, expecting me to step forward. I decide to step around it.

“I’d like to talk about moving you and your family out of here and into a habitat.”

She squints, studying my face. Finally she lets the door swing open, silently inviting me in.

It’s clear to me why they call them rooms and not suites. The Sinclair family is living in what amounts to a twenty-by-thirty-foot space with two beds along the wall, a small table, one enclosed bathroom, and a sitting area. Their son, Jack, looks to be early elementary school age, maybe seven or eight. The daughter is a toddler, maybe two years old, maybe a little less. They’re both sitting at the table tapping away on tablets, the older child helping the younger with something. It’s adorable. And a sad sight that this is how these kids, and so many others, are spending their days now.

“Jack,” Abby calls out, “take your sister to the living room and continue your lessons. No games or video.”

The kids move to chairs ten feet away. That’s the living room, I guess.

Abby motions me to the table and we sit, Oscar standing placidly by the door, clearly out of place. Abby scowls at him, as if she knows him and hates him.

I try to make my tone friendly. “The AtlanticNet has school lessons?”

Abby nods curtly. “There’s a shared curriculum.”

“Is it any good?”

“It’s all we have.”

So much for small talk.

“We’re all getting by with what we have,” I say quietly. “Which is why family is more important than ever.”

“That sort of depends on how family treats you, doesn’t it?”

This isn’t going well.

“It does,” I say. “And it’s important when you do something for family, for them to know about it. So they can know how much you care.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying the only reason you and your family are here is James.”

She falls silent.

“Let me guess,” I say. “Some men from the government came to your house and told you that you were to be resettled into one of the last habitable zones on this planet. Saved from the war, taken to safety. Did you ask why?”

She shakes her head. “No. I didn’t.”

“Do you want to know why?”

“That’s what you came here to tell me, isn’t it?”

“That’s only part of why I’m here. The rest, I need you to keep a secret—for your own safety. What I’m going to share with you is classified government information. I’m not supposed to be telling you.”

That gets her attention. She glances over at the children. “Kids, put your headphones on, right now.”

I put my hands on the table and interlace my fingers. “James means a great deal to me. I don’t know what happened between you and him or his brother and him, or even why he was sent to prison. But I’ve gotten to know him very well, and I know he’s a very good person.”

Abby simply stares at me, making no reaction.

“This is what hasn’t been released to the public: the Long Winter is not a natural phenomenon. The Earth is getting colder because there are alien objects out there that are deliberately blocking the solar output that should be making its way to Earth. James was recruited for a mission to go investigate these objects. His expertise in robotics was essential to building drones that discovered exactly what they are and why they’re here. I was on that mission with him.” I pause. “Yesterday the mission director told me that in return for joining that mission, James only asked for one thing: that you all be taken to safety.”