Had Magnus Bracks won?
Even if the military stormed the place and killed him, Bracks would still win. He’d held true to his promise that if he was going down, then he was taking Russo with him. And he was. Bracks had been taunting him and Russo had fallen for the bait. He had, in his arrogance, ignored the man until it was too late, until the hole was dug too deep. All Russo could pray for now was that the hostages make it out alive.
The door to his office was flung open and Graeme Shother and Patty Duke stormed in. Eva came with them, trying to halt their advance.
“I’m sorry, mayor,” Eva said, looking harried. “They wouldn’t wait for me to announce their arrival.”
Russo motioned for Eva to leave the room as Graeme and Patty came to a stop on the other side of the desk.
“So you sent in the military without informing us,” Graeme said. “Anything else you’d like to share with us while we’re here?”
“I was going to call you,” Russo said.
“Really! When?” Graeme threw back. “Perhaps if you’d answered one of my calls we could’ve discussed it!”
“I wasn’t left with a choice. I had to make quick decisions regarding the safety of this town, so I did,” Russo said. “I was going to brief you all—”
“Well, we’re here now,” Patty said, her striped face less than impressed as she placed her hands on her broad hips.
“How did you make it into the Clean Zone?”
“Graeme let me in,” she told Russo, folding her arms and pinning him with a hard stare. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but we’re not contagious, so that wall should be taken down.”
“It stays as long as the Striped Ones threaten the Clean Skins.”
“Enough with the delay tactics,” Patty said. “Tell us what’s going on.”
“Not everyone is here,” Russo said. “You’d like me to update only half the Council?”
“Well, it’s better than none!” Graeme said.
“Bracks took the deputy hostage,” Russo said, trying to contain his anger. “The chief went to speak with Bracks, but he was threatened and forced to leave. Left with no other choice, the military moved in. However, Bracks managed to secure more hostages in the meantime. As you can see things have moved fast. Had I stopped to put things to a vote, then God knows how many hostages the man would have now!”
“We look like fools, Mike,” Graeme seethed. “Things never should’ve gotten this far!”
“It’s unacceptable!” Patty nodded firmly.
“Look, I understand you’re angry, but I had no other choice,” Russo told them. “I had to act. The military will take the building soon and clear this up.”
“At what cost? More lives?” Graeme said.
“It never should’ve been allowed to get this far,” Patty agreed. “You let your relationship with Bracks get in the way of things. You brought this on the town, and you need to pay for what you’ve done!”
“Pay?” Russo frowned at her.
“I’m sorry, Mike,” Graeme shook his head, “but you just lost your seat on the council. We’ve seen to that.”
“Graeme.” Russo stood from his chair, holding his hand out to placate the man. “Wait a minute, this was Bracks’ doing.”
“Enough!” Patty said. “The council has taken your lead and made a few decisions without your input. The first being to remove you from this office.”
“Excuse me?”
“This town has been damaged enough, Mike,” Graeme said. “We need to pull it together again before those things come back.”
“You can’t do this,” Russo told them. “The constituents voted me in.”
“You really want to go down that road?” Patty asked condescendingly. “You want us to put this to a vote after all that’s happened? After people find out you let your petty dispute with Bracks lead to this?”
Russo wanted to wipe the look off her peroxide-haired, overly made-up face.
“Don’t worry, Mike,” Graeme said, “we can make it look like your choice. You can keep that seat until the military sorts this mess out. And when it does, that’s when you resign from your position and take the stink away with you.”
“And that’s when Mayor Shother and myself, Deputy Mayor Duke, will take over the reins and give this town the leadership and support it deserves,” Patty said.
“May I remind you, you’re acting deputy mayor, Graeme. At my behest! You weren’t voted in.”
“Check your emails, Mike,” Patty said. “I’ve outlined the relevant clauses we will be using to remove you from your position if you do not go quietly.”
“You can’t do this,” Russo said, although his voice wasn’t quite as firm as he would’ve liked.
“Yes, we can, Mike,” Graeme said, “and if you’re smart, you’ll do this the easy way. You can walk or we can push. It’s up to you.”
With that, Michael Russo watched as Graeme and Patty stormed out of his soon-to-be ex-office.
Day Nine
Abbie sat on the couch beside Richard. Upon waking, Shonda-May had been taken by volunteer ambulance personnel to Dr. Chee’s clinic to have her head injury checked. Shonda-May had wanted to go after her son, but they had managed to convince her that it was too dangerous, that the chief and the military were working to get her boy back safely, that she would just get in the way. Abbie told her that Deputy Cann was also a hostage, and she was sure the deputy would look out for Cassius. The fact that Shonda-May had been so unsteady on her feet helped to convince her that she needed medical attention first.
It was all over the news now, that Clean Skin hostages were being held in the SZ. The military had pulled back to the interzone gate while negotiators worked to free them, but that could change at any moment. The dead body of the Striped One still lay outside the store in a pool of blood. Abbie wondered why the Striped Ones had just left him there like that. Was Magnus making some kind of statement by leaving the boy’s body on display. Or were they concerned about being shot if they retrieved him.
Abbie felt helpless, but taking the same advice she’d given Shonda-May, they had decided to stay at the house and let the chief and military try and retrieve the hostages.
She witnessed Josh sneaking out in the darkness with his parents in tow, placing something, perhaps a key, in a pot plant out front. It must’ve taken him some time to convince them to leave. She watched as their shadows bled into the night and couldn’t help feeling a tightening in her gut. She hoped they would be safe. She hoped they would make it.
Dr. Pellan retreated to the basement. Abbie wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be alone, or whether he was leaving her and Richard alone, but his mood was introspective. They’d watched the news coverage for a while, but then they turned it off, unable to stand waiting to see what was going to happen. They sat in the near darkness, listening to the quiet, wondering if Kaitlyn and Charlie were okay, whether the deputy and Cassius would be okay. Wondering whether someone would come for Abbie and the two Clean Skins she harbored.
But no one came.
Exhausted, she eventually lay down, her head resting beside where Richard sat. He told her to sleep, promising that he would stay awake. It took her a while to relax and let herself go, but fatigue eventually crept in, as Richard stroked her hair, soothing her. She kept replaying the scene of the young men taking Kaitlyn, Charlie and Cassius away, kept wondering what they were doing to them, kept wondering what would happen to baby Charlie if they did something to Kaitlyn that couldn’t be undone.
She awoke suddenly at the sound of voices in the street. It was early morning, around dawn. She looked up and saw Richard pulling back from the window.
“What is it?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Something’s going on. People are headed toward the gate.” He grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, but a commercial was playing.
Abbie regarded Richard and saw how tired he looked. “I’
m sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
He smiled, the dawn light casting his stubbled face in a peachy glow. “It’s okay. You needed it.”
The news came back on then and the reader announced a breaking story. Abbie and Richard sat to attention. According to the news anchor, apparently more hostages had been taken by the Victoryville SZ. The footage was shaky, but from what they could tell, there was a small mob dragging some people toward the parking lot at the back of the hardware store. It looked like it was again being recorded from the apartment block beside the interzone gate. Abbie squinted her eyes, scanning the crowd, desperate for a glimpse of Kaitlyn, wondering if they were moving her somewhere. Perhaps the chief had been successful in negotiating her release.
But then she saw someone else. Her jaw fell and her eyes flew wide open.
“Oh my God!” she breathed as her blood ran cold.
“What?” Richard asked.
Abbie stood, pointing at the screen. “That was Karen. That was Josh’s mom!”
“What? You’re sure?”
Abbie stood, shocked. She nodded, still pointing at the screen. “That was Karen. That was Karen. Go back and replay it!”
Richard fumbled with the remote as Dr. Pellan appeared at the doorway to the basement.
“What is it?” he asked.
Richard replayed the footage and the three of them stared at the screen. Abbie moved right up to it. As soon as she saw Karen again she blurted, “Pause it!”
Richard did.
“There!” Abbie pointed to Karen, then she suddenly gasped in horror. “Oh my God, they got Peter too! Where’s Josh?”
Richard stood from the couch and Dr. Pellan moved closer. Richard let the footage roll.
“They got them,” Abbie said breathlessly. “They didn’t make it! They’ve got them! What are they going to do? We have to help them!”
“This is shocking news,” the news anchor said, as the telecast jumped back to the studio. “Reports from the scene indicate that a crowd is gathering at the back of the hardware store. It is unknown what is about to take place, however we’ve been told the military on the gate are on alert . . .”
“Oh my God! We have to go! We have to do something!” Abbie was panicking.
Richard and Dr. Pellan looked at each other.
“We can’t just sit here!” Abbie pleaded. “Josh and Peter are striped. Magnus doesn’t need them. Who knows what he’ll do!”
“Abbie,” Richard said, “do you have some makeup we could use?”
She looked at him in confusion.
“If we give ourselves fake stripes, maybe we can move around unnoticed?”
Dr. Pellan’s eyes lit up at the idea and he looked at her eagerly.
She hurried upstairs to her bathroom. She raced back with some lipstick and blush and they swiftly set about turning themselves into Striped Ones. She grabbed her father’s Little League baseball cap and handed it to Richard to wear low over his face, while Dr. Pellan wrapped his neck in his scarf and donned his hat.
Within minutes they were ready and they began to jog down the street toward the warehouse. The closer they got the more people they saw. As the report had suggested, the small crowd was gathered around the back of the warehouse, in the small parking lot and loading bay. She looked for the source of the shaky camera footage on the news and saw someone standing on one of the balconies of the apartment block by the gate, but the camera couldn’t capture what was going on behind the warehouse. She noticed that the number of soldiers at the gate had increased and they were on alert, dressed in full combat gear, but not yet making any attempt to enter the SZ. She saw the chief standing with another man who was talking on a phone.
She and her two companions walked to the back of the gathered crowd. Whatever was happening, it was happening right outside the back doors of the hardware store’s warehouse. Abbie found a spot where she could see, and there, in the center of it all, were Peter, Karen and Josh on their knees. Josh’s face was bruised and bloody. He’d been beaten, as had Peter. Karen was crying profusely, begging for their lives. Magnus sat in his chair to the side, eyeing the three captives contemptuously.
“Is the front of the warehouse secure?” Magnus asked.
“Sure is!” Roy said, pacing in front of the Chalmer family, eyeing them accusingly. He paused briefly to spit on the ground in front of Peter.
“Magnus.” Justin, Abbie’s swimming student, came jogging out holding up a phone. “They want to talk to you. They want to know what’s going on.”
“Tell them to hold,” Magnus’ phlegmy voice said, as he motioned for Justin to head back inside.
“What are we going to do with them?” Langdon asked, motioning to the Chalmer family.
Austin put his face right in Josh’s and glared. “I say we teach them a lesson!”
*
Gavin Taylor, data technician for NASA, groaned as part of his sandwich fell onto his AC/DC shirt. Munching away, he reached for a napkin and tried to mop up the sauce that had smeared across the shirt.
The screen before him beeped and data flashed up on his screen. He looked at it, seeing fresh environmental readings of what they’d been tracking.
He tossed the napkin and what was left of his sandwich aside and moved closer to his screen to review what it was telling him. He studied the new readings carefully, swallowing his mouthful as a realization hit him. The mercury level was showing in a much higher concentration than the previous readings.
He quickly wiped his hands on his jeans and pulled up another screen to check the source of the readings. It was from a weather station located in Richmond.
“Shit,” he whispered to himself. This was the first reading back in the state of Virginia since the initial Occurrence. He checked the mercury level again. Definitely higher than those previously recorded in the other states.
“Dr. Wattowski!” he called out. “You better come take a look at this!”
*
Richard saw Abbie begin to move forward through the crowd, but he caught her arm and pulled her back.
“Wait!” he whispered. “Let’s find out what they’re going to do first.”
She stared back at him confused and frightened. He kept a firm hold of her, not wanting her to do anything stupid. Surely Magnus wouldn’t harm them, he thought. Not here in front of all these people. Josh and Peter were Striped Ones, for God’s sake.
“Just wait,” he begged Abbie in a whisper. “They’re probably just going to use them as more leverage to stop the military.”
The tension of her arm pulling against his hand eased off and she stood still beside him. Richard exchanged an anxious look with Dr. Pellan who stood on the other side of her. Their chins had fake stripes running down them, but if anyone looked closely enough they would see they were a ruse. Neither man had shaved in days, so the stubble had made it difficult. Their hats were pulled low, and Dr. Pellan had his red scarf, but whether it was disguise enough for two of the most well-known Clean Skins, Richard wasn’t sure. In fact he was downright worried about it—standing there, surrounded by aggressive Striped Ones.
“I knew you were up to something!” Austin spat at Josh. “You were supposed to follow us back to the warehouse last night and you didn’t. So I checked up on you. Saw you sneaking out your Clean Skin mother!”
“One of our own!” Roy shook his head, leaning over Josh, then turned to face the crowd. “Running around behind our backs! Making out like he was with us, and the whole time he was harboring a Clean Skin!”
“Fuck, Roy,” Josh pleaded with him, “she’s my mother!”
Richard looked at Magnus and saw his mind ticking over as he contemplated Josh.
“Please!” Peter begged. “We didn’t want the military to take her when they first came. That’s all!”
“What if we were contagious?” Magnus questioned. “You would risk your wife?”
Peter looked at Magnus. “We
didn’t know. We just panicked. All this talk of aliens . . . we just wanted her to stay with us. I swear, that’s all.”
“That’s why you’ve been hiding in that house!” Roy pointed accusingly. “That’s why you never came out to support us.”
“At least he was honest,” Magnus said, eyeing Josh.
“Yeah,” Trent stepped in front of Josh. “And while we were fighting the soldiers and Lewis was killed, you were sneaking away like a goddamn coward!”
Austin grabbed Josh by the hair, pulling his head back. “You been spying on us? Huh? Feeding them information?”
“He’s smart,” Magnus nodded, the seven stripes running over his fat chin stretching and contracting as he did. “He was keeping an eye on his enemy.”
“Enemy?” Roy looked at Josh again. “Is that what you think we are?”
“You betrayed us, man!” Langdon spoke up. “You betrayed us and then you ran like a fucking coward!”
“Why, Josh?” Wendy moved beside Langdon. Her voice sounded teary, regretful. “How could you?”
“How could I what?” Josh yelled at her angrily. “Protect my family?”
“Josh!” Peter said, looking at his son, eyes pleading for steadiness. Peter turned back to Magnus. “Look, we don’t mean any harm to anyone. Just let us go and we won’t be any trouble, Magnus. I swear. Josh hasn’t been reporting on you to anyone.”
“The Victoryville SZ is mine,” Magnus wheezed. “This here,” he circled his pale pudgy arm about, “is mine. That Clean Skin,” he pointed to Karen, “is trespassing.”
“Jesus Christ, Magnus, she’s my wife!” Peter’s voice raised an octave. “She’s not a trespasser! She lives here!”
“You hid her from us, and then you tried to run!” Roy pointed at him. “That’s deceitful, Peter. That’s what that is!” He began to pace again.
“What about that Clean Skin girl?” Peter argued. “The one that had the striped kid!”
Josh looked at his father.
“We got that Clean Skin bitch inside,” Austin said.
The Time of the Stripes Page 34