24.
TOMMY
The Sphere had long since drifted over the horizon behind them. The Architect appeared intent on traveling only at the speed his undead army allowed. Tommy checked with Hawk every two minutes about the direction the Architect was heading until Hawk finally snapped and said: “I’ll tell you if he’s heading in a different direction, all right?”
Tommy held up a hand. “Fair enough.”
The first barricade rushed up to meet them. The soldiers were already coming out and holding up a hand for him to slow down.
“Albert, do you think you can get us through these barricades?” Tommy said.
“I think so.”
The soldier stood there a moment and scratched his head as if he’d forgotten what he was there for.
Tommy hadn’t slowed down yet and swerved around a slower car in front. Its brake lights glowed as it slowed even further. Tommy swerved around it and immediately ducked back into his lane before a car zipped past in the opposite direction, honking its horn. Tommy focused on the barricade. If he didn’t slow down soon, he was going to smash headfirst into it.
“Albert?” he said.
“Working on it,” Albert said.
The barricade bar lifted. Tommy turned onto the other side of the road to squeeze beneath the valuable inches the barricade afforded him on that side. The aerial struck the crossbeam as they powered through.
Albert performed the same trick with each barricade they came to and got better at influencing the men to let them pass. Tommy never once tapped the brake pedal. Within minutes, they reached the city’s fringes and the outskirts of the military base, already abuzz with activity.
“Sam, Albert, come with me,” Tommy said. “Considering how we look, I think most of us should stay in the car. Guy, you take the wheel in case someone with a clipboard comes along and tries to move you on.”
“Will do.”
Emin with her smashed bones and body, and Hawk with his numerous wounds and blood leaking out of him—not to mention his dented metal parts—looked conspicuous enough. The very sight of them could turn the base violent.
Tommy, Albert, and Sam climbed from the truck and beat a hasty route through the crowds of people and toward the command tent. By how fast and frantic people were moving, he got the sense they’d already gotten word of an approaching army of zombies, though he doubted they knew all the ins and outs.
The command tent was as busy as it had been the last time Tommy was there. In fact, it was worse.
“Tommy,” Albert said. “I need to tell you something.”
“Not now, Albert. We need to work together to change the commander’s mind.”
“That’s what I need to talk with you about.”
Tommy pulled up sharp and turned on his heel. “What is it?”
“I can’t work against a man’s—or woman’s—free will.”
Tommy blinked at that. He smiled and shook his head. “This is for the fate of a city, and the world, so I’m sure you’ll do what needs to be done.”
“No, I won’t,” Albert said. “I have these powers, and they come with certain responsibilities. I cannot take away the commander’s free will.”
Tommy looked at Sam. Is he being serious?
“But you changed the minds of those at the barricades,” Tommy said.
“They were going to let us through anyway,” Albert said. “I only speeded up their decision.”
“How do you know the commander won’t help us?”
“He might. But he also might not.”
Tommy looked Albert dead in the eye. “Are you seriously telling me if the opportunity arises, you won’t save the lives of millions of people?”
“I’m telling you that when push comes to shove, I won’t take away a man’s free will.”
It was a complication Tommy hadn’t considered. He sighed and entered the tent. He’d have to deal with it when the time came.
He surveyed the crowd and identified the commander. He was, just as he’d seen last time, surrounded by assistants.
A buck-toothed kid was relaying pressing information. “The aircraft have been spotted at regular intervals above Texas airspace, sir.”
“Which nation?” the commander asked.
“Chinese and Russian, sir.”
“Prepare the anti-aircraft missiles,” the commander said. “Issue them a warning. If they breach our airspace once more, open fire.” He shook his head. “It never rains but it pours.”
Tommy bustled past the others. “Nice to see you again, Commander. Remember me?”
The commander’s lip curled. “Guards! Seize this man!”
“No! Wait!”
Half a dozen guards descended on Tommy, grabbing him by the arms and holding them stiffly behind his back.
Sam glared at Tommy. “I see you didn’t lose your wonderful way with people.”
“Sir, don’t do this,” Tommy said. “I need to speak with you.”
“I’m very busy and have no time for traitors.” The commander signed another document.
The word was the last thing he expected from the commander’s mouth. “Traitors? We’re not traitors.”
“Shortly after you gained entry into the city, I received a phone call informing me of your plans to break into the colonel’s safe using a stolen passcode, steal confidential files, all under the illusion of preventing the apocalypse.”
Tommy struggled against his captors. “Who called you?”
“Someone senior.”
Tommy was at a loss. “It’s not true. Colonel Maxwell gave me the mission and the access codes on his deathbed.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Sam said, taking a step forward. “But I’ve been with Tommy for the past five years and he’s not the traitorous type.”
“And who might you be?” the commander said.
Sam straightened her back. “Dr. Samantha DeCoveney. To say Tommy is a traitor is, frankly, ridiculous. He’s given his life to serving his country and given half a chance, would do so again.”
The commander looked Tommy over. “I’m given orders and I’m expected to follow them. I must hold you until the authorities arrive.”
Tommy fought to release his arms. The men holding him were strong. “By the time the authorities arrive, your camp and this city will be leveled to the ground. The man responsible for all this is called the Architect. He developed the virus and caused its exposure. He was the one who planned for it to spread to other cities, and now he’s developed a new weapon to defeat us and spread it further. You’ve heard about a giant army of the undead heading this way, right? Well, he’s at the head of it.
“I was sent here on a mission from Colonel Maxwell. I got the information I needed from the safe and it took me to a secret base beneath the streets of Houston. A project called Failsafe. It gifted me with a weapon that stood to turn the tide of this war.”
“A little outlandish, don’t you think?” But the commander appeared intrigued. “And where is this weapon?”
“Standing next to me.”
The commander was slow to remove his eyes from Tommy. His attention drifted over to Sam. He looked her over for the powerful weapon she carried.
“Not her,” Tommy said. “She only has power over me. Albert has power over everyone.”
The commander approached Albert and stood over him. “He looks like a regular man to me.”
Albert beamed. “Thanks.” It was the greatest compliment anyone could give him.
The commander’s eyes narrowed. He thought he was being mocked.
“He’s capable of incredible things,” Tommy said. “If you only let him show you.”
The commander looked Albert over again. He looked so normal that he didn’t see any harm in it. “You have ten seconds.”
Albert focused on the commander. “You’re commander but you don’t feel in command. You’re in way over your head and think people are going to discover soon that you’re a fake and a phony.”
<
br /> The commander smiled. “I doubt there’s a man alive who doesn’t feel that way from time to time.”
“Try again,” Tommy said.
Albert focused. “You’re married and worried about your children back home.”
The commander blinked, momentarily confused before glancing down at the wedding band on his finger. “Very clever, and nice touch with the kids. Considering my age and the fact I’m married, I don’t think that’s much of a surprise. All right, you’ve had your fun, and I’ve run out of time.” He spoke to his guards. “Seize them all.”
“No, wait!” Tommy said as the guards latched onto Sam and Albert.
“No more waiting,” the commander said. “I assure you, the undead will not.”
He turned away as Tommy and Sam struggled against their captors. Albert obeyed the guards calmly. Then he began to speak:
“Your daughter has occasional bouts of asthma. She carries her inhaler but often leaves it in her bag when she plays with friends. She’s out of breath when she gets home most days. Her lips are blue and she looks like Marilyn Manson, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You want to swaddle her in cotton wool but she’s too stubborn and foolhardy—like you—to listen.”
The guards carried them halfway to the door, every eye on them.
“Stop.”
The guards turned the would-be prisoners around to face the commander who’d issued the order. The commander crossed the distance between them and looked Albert in the eye. “How did you know that?”
“I told you,” Tommy said. “He has special abilities. He’s the one Colonel Maxwell told us to bring. He’s the best hope we have to defeat the Architect.”
The commander pursed his lips. “I’ve heard of people capable of reading meaning into every flinch and flicker of the eyebrow, to know when you’re lying or telling the truth. You might have that skill.”
“I might,” Albert said. “But can you be sure? Can you take that risk?”
The commander looked concerned, on the edge of changing his mind and making the decision Tommy needed.
“Albert, please,” he said. “Show him what you can do—what you can really do. If you don’t, the people here and in the city are doomed.”
“I told you—”
“I know what you told me, Albert. Just do it!”
Albert looked at the floor. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—do it.
“Give up your free will,” Tommy said.
“What?”
“Tell Albert you renounce your own free will for a few minutes.”
Albert shook his head. “A man cannot give his free will to another man. That way lies slavery.”
“Slave masters took free will from others. He’s gifting you his for a few short minutes. Please. Surely if a man offers his free will, you’re not taking it from him, and he’s no longer a slave in your eyes.”
Albert ran the question over in his mind. It intrigued him. He looked at the commander. “Will you do this? I swear I won’t make you do anything dangerous.”
“Renounce my free will? My friend, I gave up my free will when I joined the military. We all did. We’re soldiers. We do what we’re told.”
“So be it.”
The commander’s body language immediately changed, a hand coming to his temple as if a pressing idea had just occurred to him. He turned to one of his assistants. “Order. . . the men to. . . open fire.” The words came with some difficulty, spasmodically as if he never really meant to say them at all and they were being forced from his throat.
“Open fire, sir?” a skinny buck-toothed lad said. “Open fire on what?”
“On. . . On. . .” The commander’s body shook and he would have dropped to his knees if Albert had allowed him to. “On our camp.”
“Sir?”
“Open fire on our camp and kill everyone in it.”
Those working in the command center stopped abruptly, freezing and looking up at their commander who’d lost his mind and casually ordered mass genocide with their lives.
“Are. . . Are you sure, sir?” the boy said. He was far too green and wet behind the ears to have to decide as to whether or not to follow the order.
“Yes. Do it.”
The boy took off at a run. Albert relaxed, blinking with exhaustion as the commander stumbled a few steps and gathered himself. He ran a hand through his hair and peered at Albert, rapt, terrified and intrigued all at once. He shouted: “Belay that order!”
The messenger came to a stop, nodded, looking mightily relieved.
“Now do you believe me?” Tommy said.
“No,” the commander said. “But I believe your man.”
Tommy smiled. “That’ll do.”
“And a man like that can’t be allowed to use his power.”
Tommy’s face fell. “What?”
“I don’t know what he is, where he comes from, and I don’t care to know. But he won’t be allowed to affect our defenses. I thought we only had the undead to worry about, now we have unnatural forces such as him too?” He nodded to the guards. “Take them away.”
“No!” Tommy and Sam kicked and screamed, resisting their captors as they were dragged from the tent.
25.
TOMMY
Tommy leaned his head against the bars of his cell. “I can’t believe they’re doing this.”
“What did you expect?” Sam said in the neighboring cell. “You expected him to believe there’s a guy out there who can control the undead with his mind? Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
Yes, Tommy thought. But it’s the truth.
He had bet it all on the commander. Tommy had spent so long in the presence of craziness that he’d forgotten what it was to be on the outside, looking in. And now they had nothing. They were going to sit there in these cages while the undead tore through them. They had no weapons that could breach that Sphere, no method to wipe out vast swathes of the undead. They had no idea what they were dealing with.
The Architect would roll across the country, unimpeded, unstoppable, spreading the virus with him wherever he went. But that wouldn’t be the end of his ambition, only the start. Then it would be the world. One nation at a time would fall to him, and each time, he would grow stronger and more powerful, making resistance all but impossible.
“It does sound pretty crazy to me.”
The woman who spoke shared Sam’s cell. She had dirty blond hair and lay on the bed, head tilted back, knees facing the ceiling. She hadn’t looked over at them since they’d entered. Tommy assumed she was in her own little world, probably drunk or having taken some kind of substance.
Sam offered her hand to the woman. “Hi. My name’s Sam.”
“Lydia.” She didn’t take Sam’s hand. “Do you mind keeping your voices down? I’m trying to sleep.”
“How can you sleep in here?” Albert said. “The bed’s too hard, the pillows too flat.”
Lydia shrugged. “Just takes practice, I guess.”
“What are you here for?” Sam said.
“Trying to feed my family.”
There had to be more to it than that. With women like Lydia, there always was.
“My family’s a little bigger than most and needs more food than the piddly amount they gave us on rations. So, I had to find a little extra. The soldiers weren’t having any of it so now I find myself in here. People have gotten a lot stricter when it comes to borrowing these days.”
Tommy suspected the word “borrow” had a flexible meaning in Lydia’s mind.
“People will get a lot stricter in the days and weeks to come when the Architect rolls over each city, wiping them out one by one,” Tommy said. “Resources will become scarce and people will fight to the death for a packet of Doritos.”
Lydia shrugged. “That’s all right. I’ve always been a good fighter.”
“It could be worse,” Sam said, slipping her hand through the bars and rubbing Tommy’s arm. “At least we’re together.”
Tommy regist
ered her hand and tore himself from his depressed state of mind and focused on her face. He took her hand and kissed her fingers. The anguish of the moment seeped out of him. If he could be anywhere, he wanted to be wherever she was. He put her hand to his face. She must have felt his ice-cold skin but didn’t flinch. He wished he could feel the heat of her hand.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” he said. “I’m sorry for getting you involved in this. It’s not your problem.”
“It’s all our problem now. The Architect is responsible. He’s the one who started this whole mess. He’s the one who made us have to fight to survive. He’s the one I hold responsible. Not you.”
They hugged through the bars and rocked gently side to side. Losing the battle with the Architect meant losing their future. It was a lot to accept.
“When I heard the plane crash, I thought I lost you. Again.”
“I guess it was less emotional the second time.”
Sam rapped him on the chest. “It was the same. Only this time, I had better coping mechanisms.”
“I love you, Dr. Sam. I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you.”
“I know.”
A choking sound interrupted their intimate moment.
Albert watched, hands clasped together, tears running down his cheeks. “That was beautiful. Please don’t stop because of me.”
He’d already broken the mood and they parted.
“We need to get out of here,” Tommy said. “Figure out some way to escape.”
Sam checked each bar, looking for weakness. “This isn’t the first cell I’ve escaped from. There will be a way out, somehow.” She turned to Lydia. “Lydia, you’ve been in the cells many times before, I take it?”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “You can take that to the bank.”
“Do you know a way out of here?”
“Can’t say that I do.” Her tone was offhand, aloof. She hadn’t even thought about her response before saying it.
“If you did know a way out of here, I’m sure we could rustle up some extra food for you and your family.”
For the first time since they’d met her, Lydia opened her eyes. “How much food?”
Death Squad (Book 4): Zombie World Page 20