by M. Lorrox
Katlyn leads a skipping Minnie through the hotel. As soon as she opens the doors to the room where she’s hosting the activity, Minnie explodes inside.
Kids! Lots of kids! She runs over to the closest group and beams at them.
One of them looks at her and waves. “Hi, I’m Tommy, and this is Herbert.” He twists his little eight-year-old torso and reveals a floppy, turquoise-blue stuffed dog under his arm.
“Ahhh!” Minnie leaps into the air.
Katlyn is right behind her. “Minnie, are you okay?”
“HI TOMMY AND HERBERT, I’M MINNIE AND THIS IS VALENTINE!” She shoves the stuffed unicorn outward with both her arms. The little ribbons she has for her mane and tail whip forward and snap with the violence of Minnie’s thrust. Valentine’s poor stuffed head slams against her back and then flops all the way forward to her belly.
The other kids laugh. “Nice to meet you!” “Yeah, nice to meet you!”
Katlyn laughs then claps her hands. “Alright everyone, I’m sorry I’m few minutes late, but now it’s time to start.” She turns and walks toward the middle of the room where some small craft stations are set up—each with its own hunk of clay and a tiny bowl of water.
“Children, if I can have your attention? If you have any stuffed friends or relatives with you, you may want to set them aside or leave them with a grown up. We’re going to get messy!”
“Yay!”
Herbert, Tommy’s stuffed friend, is shot through the air in Tommy’s mom’s direction. She barely notices and catches the little stuffed doggy before it hits her in the chest. Ha! Nice throw. She carries Herbert over to the wall and sits with some other adults.
Minnie watches Herbert’s caretaker, then she looks down at Valentine. She musters the courage and sprints over to the woman. “Hello, this is Valentine, can you watch her for me?”
Jennifer smiles. “I would love to get to know Ms. Valentine. But what is your name, dear?”
“I’m Minnie, and thank you!” She sets Valentine down slowly, but as soon as Minnie no longer touches the stuffed unicorn, she spins and runs back to the center of the room to take a station.
Jennifer sets Valentine beside Herbert, where they can both look out and watch.
Once all the children are settled, Katlyn plays a quick name game with them. Then, she works the crowd of children and gets them to make funny noises and faces while they squish and squash the clay.
The pieces are in place for one last attempt to make a positive identification of the subject and to follow him to the bomb. Agent Harding of the FBI, a harsh-looking man with a mustache who probably won the Heisman trophy in college, supervises the operation and watches the scene through binoculars from the HQ room on the fourth floor. Video surveillance teams record footage from all possible exits of the target hotel and pipe it into the HQ. Charlie watches the video streams along with another agent. Undercover FBI operatives are stationed at all the street corners of the hotel, and agents in cars circle the block. Off-site, a surveillance team has staked out Andrew’s home, and a SWAT team with a bomb squad hides inside a run-down looking taco truck parked nearby. Everyone awaits orders.
The hotel the subject works at is about a block north of the Pentagon City metro station. Skip, June, and Eddy sit near a bus stop beside the tunnel to access the underground station. Skip pretends to read a newspaper, while Eddy and June sip from a bottle. June wears her green-lensed sunglasses, but much to Eddy’s initial surprise, he wasn’t allowed his red-framed ones.
He does get a skateboard though.
June points to it. “You ever even ridden one of those?”
Eddy has it standing upright. He spins it in his fingers. “Not really, but don’t worry. I’ve been on one before, they sell ’em in department stores.”
June scowls. “You rode one around a store?”
“Well, just the aisle, but I know how to balance on them and steer. I’ll be fine.”
June looks off to the side and winces. “Charlie says it’s almost ten, so you need to be ready.”
Skip leans over. “Earpiece still too loud?”
She nods. “Yeah, even turned all the way down.” She elbows Eddy. “Your stupid awesome hearing has some drawbacks.”
He laughs. “You’ll get used to it.”
She grimaces again as a voice enters her ear. “Activity at exit two.”
June holds up a finger. Eddy and Skip hold their breath.
“Not the subject.”
She drops her hand and shakes her head. She fidgets with her hands in her lap.
Skip clears his throat. “Don’t worry, you’re perfectly safe.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Eddy leans over. “It’s gonna work.”
She sighs.
Minutes pass. More false alarms. Then, another alert comes over the channel and everyone responds.
“Activity at exit one. Subject confirmed.”
June nods to Eddy. “Exit one.”
Eddy plops down the skateboard and hops on. He pushes off and starts moving toward the hotel.
“Subject has a backpack. Walking south.”
South, okay, get up. June walks toward the bus schedule posted on a pole near the road. Skip stands up and pretends to stretch, but he stays beside the bench.
Eddy looks for the subject near the front of the hotel. There’s a bunch of people walking around, some toward him, some away. Alright, where are ya, ugly?
Charlie sees the subject on a monitor. Good, he’s walking toward us. Plan A.
“Johnson, pick him up at the corner.”
There you are. Eddy rolls the skateboard toward the man. He pulls out his phone as he skates along and looks down at it. He laughs and pushes hard against the ground, steering straight into him.
“Hey!” Andrew jumps mostly out of the way, but he shoots his elbow out to hit Eddy.
Eddy takes the hit and flies off the board onto the ground. “Ugh! What the?”
The man turns and snarls at Eddy. “Watch where you’re going!”
Eddy looks at him, acting startled. “Oh. Sorry dude, didn’t see ya.”
Schermer watches the scene as she smokes a cigarette nearby. She takes a small puff. Give me the signal.
Andrew looks into Eddy’s green eyes. God damn bloodsucker. “Ugh, Whatever.”
He turns and continues to walk toward June. He speaks under his breath, and might not truly make any sound, but while June watches him, he curls his lip and mouths the word FREAK, and she hears the word in his voice.
Freaks. The same voice. It’s him. She turns away from the bus schedule and pitches her bottle into a nearby trash can.
Skip smiles. Thank goodness. She did it.
Schermer lifts her wrist to her mouth. “Confirmed as target, I repeat, target confirmed.” She crushes out her cigarette and spins around the corner.
Eddy gets back on the skateboard and continues around the block. He turns and loses sight of June and Skip.
Andrew slants his walk toward the metro escalators near the corner of the street.
“He’s going to the metro. Connor, get in position on the platform.”
June listens to the information over the radio and relaxes. They’re on it, they’ll get him. She exhales and closes her eyes for a moment.
Andrew notices something on the street. Well, that’s lucky timing. He turns around and jogs back in the other direction.
“Johnson, get on him!”
June glances up. A bus stops in front of her. People from all around rush to get on. Andrew runs and steps in. June glances up the street to the corner and sees a man running toward the bus as well, but he’s over fifty feet away. That’s gotta be Johnson, and he’s not gonna make it. She glances back at her dad who smiles at her. He looks proud.
The doors to the bus start to close. She jumps inside without the doors touching her—faster than a normal person could—and they shut behind her. She looks at the surprised driver. “Whew, close o
ne!”
The driver pulls into traffic. “I’d say so. I’m behind schedule—pay the fare.”
June fishes out some cash, pays, and finds a seat toward the back of the bus, right behind Andrew. She looks out the side window. Her dad tries to run around a guy drinking a smoothie and carrying groceries, but Skip gets tripped up and crashes into the other man. The groceries spill across the sidewalk, the thirty-two-ounce mango smoothie splashes across Skip’s chest, and both men tumble to the ground.
June grimaces and faces forward. Sorry, Dad. I had to.
All Charlie can do, as he watches from the HQ room, is shake his head.
Agent Harding screams through the radio. “Where are the cars? Get them on it! What number’s the bus? Can we get an agent on the bus? Damn it!”
Skip is quick to get back to his feet. The bus caught green lights, and it’s speeding off.
“What the hell’s your problem man?” The knocked over guy struggles to get up.
“Sorry, emergency.” Skip runs across the street, dodges honking cars headed in both directions, and bolts into the hotel. Need Charlie. He’s on the fourth floor.
Inside, Skip takes the stairs. When he reaches the fourth floor, he blasts down the hall to the HQ room.
Charlie saw Skip crossing the street, and he steps out of the room to meet his friend.
“You saw what happened?” Skip huffs a breath as he slows.
“Yeah, they’re…working on it.”
Skip points at Charlie. “You bring her back!”
He nods. “Buddy, I will. I promise.”
Skip closes his eyes and shakes his head. “AARRGH!”
“Skip, I’ll get her, okay? But I have to go back in there to do it.”
Skip twitches, makes his hands into fists, and slams them down at his sides. “FUCK!”
Charlie nods. “Yeah, I’m right there with ya. Keep your phone handy, I’ll text when I have something.”
Skip stomps away, dripping a mango-smoothie trail. “Going to the room. Gotta change.”
Eddy finishes his loop around the block and expects to find June waiting with Skip. When he doesn’t see either of them, he’s confused. He kicks the skateboard up and catches its end as he pulls out his phone. He had it on silent, and he notices he has a series of texts and missed calls. What?
He clicks over to his texts. He has some from his dad and some from June. On the screen where it shows his conversations, he can read just a bit of both.
June: Eddy, what should I do?!?
Dad: Get in the car with Schermer!
What happened? He looks around for a car but doesn’t see any stopped. He walks toward the street to be ready when one comes, and he calls June.
She sends it to voice mail.
Okay... He checks her text messages:
They were going to lose him on a bus, so I got on it with him...
He’s sitting right in front of me!
Eddy, what should I do?!?
As he finishes reading them, another comes in.
I can’t answer the phone you dummy, text me what to do!
Schermer pulls up and slams on the brakes near Eddy. Eddy jumps in the front and barely gets the door closed when Schermer peels out, cuts off a taxi, and gets a colorful response and gesture from the other driver.
Eddy buckles himself in.
“Okay, so he’s on a bus, and we know the route. We should be able to catch up, as long as he doesn’t get off before we can get to him.”
“He hasn’t gotten off yet.”
Schermer shoots Eddy a confused glance. “How do you know that?”
Eddy bites his lip while he considers what he should say, then he sighs and holds up his phone. “I’ve got a tail on the bus. What should I tell them to do?”
“Tell them NOT to be seen.”
Eddy texts June. “Done. What else though?”
“Ask where they are?”
Eddy texts June and waits for her response.
We just got on a highway.
Eddy tells Schermer, who gets stuck at a light. “Shit!” She shakes her head, then jolts and lifts her wrist to her mouth. “The bus just got on the highway. Over.”
The bus is quieter now that they’re underway, and June winces when she hears the update through her earpiece. Yikes! That’s loud. Andrew glances over his shoulder. Oh no! June closes her eyes and starts singing to herself quietly, pretending to be listening to music. He turns back and faces forward. June peeks her eyes open and breathes a silent sigh of relief. She texts Eddy:
No radio! I think he can hear my ear piece, he’s RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.
Eddy reads it and clears his throat. “Uh, Ma’am? The tail thinks the target can hear the earpiece.”
“Tell them to turn it off. Just call me Major right now. Ask if they’re still on the highway.”
Eddy relays the message and waits until he gets June’s reply.
Getting off now and passing by a cemetery.
“They’re off and passing a cemetery. Earpiece is off.”
Schermer gets on the highway and merges abruptly in front of a van. She lifts her wrist and speaks into the microphone. “The bus is passing Arlington National Cemetery. What exit do I take? Over.”
The car’s radio plays the response over the speakers. “Rosslyn, Major. This is pursuit vehicle one, we’re a couple miles in front of you. Bus not in sight. Over.”
Eddy brushes his hair out of his face and turns to Schermer. “Major, what if he gets off and no one has caught up yet?”
Schermer speaks into her radio. “Is he headed toward his home? Over.”
“Negative. Swat pulled and headed to Arlington. Over.”
Schermer looks at Eddy. “If your tail can keep on him and not be caught, they should.”
Eddy looks out the window and thinks about June following a man who apparently hates vampires and wants to kill hundreds of people. A quiver shakes through him when he imagines the man snarling at June the way the man snarled at him. Who knows what he’d do. Eddy picks up his phone and texts his dad.
Dad, I’m texting with June. If Blackjack gets off the bus before FBI arrive, what should June do?
Eddy glances out the window at some other cars on the highway. There’s a dog with his head hanging out of the car next to him. The dog looks happy.
Eddy gets a response from his dad:
SHE STAYS ON THE BUS.
He switches conversations over to the one with June.
If he gets off the bus, YOU WILL NOT FOLLOW HIM. Stay on that bus!
Schermer glances over at Eddy and notices how tense he looks. “It’ll all be okay in the end. If we lose him, we’ll evacuate the hotel, and the FBI can track him down. He doesn’t know we’re on to him, remember? And if he blows up an empty hotel, so what? It can be rebuilt.”
Eddy nods. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Schermer exits the highway and drives toward the more metropolitan area. “I think I know where to go now, but hopefully the car has caught up to them.”
June is relieved when she reads Eddy’s text... At first. Then she feels sad. If it was Eddy on the bus instead of me, they’d have him follow the target. I just know it. She sighs and looks at Andrew. I bet I’m strong enough now to take him, I bet I’m way stronger than he is. I bet—WHOA! June shakes her head and looks at him again. There’s a color now. Yellow. What’s that mean...? He’s going to get off.
June looks out the windows and sees a bus stop coming up on the side. She stands and walks over to the door to get off. Others line up behind her. She waits patiently for the bus to stop and the doors to open. She steps off the bus, then walks in the direction the bus was headed—to a corner, to cross the street. When she turns and waits for the cross signal, she peeks out of the side of her shades and sees Andrew walking toward the same corner. He checks his watch and smiles.
She looks at the signs of the intersection and sends Eddy a text:
Off the bus with him, corner of 17th Street and Lynn
. Waiting to cross Lynn. Headed uphill.
Eddy receives the text and groans. “Corner of 17th Street and Lynn. Crossing Lynn. Headed uphill.” June, what are you doing?
Schermer slaps the steering wheel. “Great!” Then, she relays the message into the radio.
Sadie and the other select vampires from the House of Elders, the entire War and Defense Cabinet, and most of the High Council sit in a large room in the top level of the Pentagon. One table in the room is completely empty, and Hamid ibn al Zaman tries hard to not look at his watch. They’re late. In their own house. How typical. He looks at his watch, and the door opens.
A dozen military officials enter the room and sit down. General James Roland Riley remains standing. “Thank you all for coming. I’ll get straight to the point. Now that we have an immunity solution, however brief, it opens the possibility that the abandoned assets in the western states are vulnerable.”
Hamid studies the man’s face. Vulnerable to whom?
General Riley picks up a remote and presses a button. A map of the United States shows up on a screen with a red overlay covering the bulk of the country’s land area—the land abandoned due to the zombies. “Believe it or not gentlemen, but before the outbreak, the United States military had a significant presence in the areas shown in red here.”
The other military personnel chuckle. The vampires do not.
He clicks a button and an overlay of colored dots appears. “These are the locations of our abandoned assets. Now that we have a way to protect ourselves from the virus, we need to recover the most vital of them.”
Sadie glances around the room. She catches the eyes of a few other vampires, each of whom shrug back to her. She takes a deep breath and raises her hand.
General Riley smiles at the polite gesture. “Please, you are all specialists here, feel free to ask any questions.”