by M. Lorrox
She lowers her hand. “Thank you, sir. I’m just curious as to why this is such an immediate issue.”
“Good question. Let me introduce General William Campbell. General, if you please.”
A slightly overweight and balding man stands up. “Hello.”
Señor Raúl Lucas smiles at the man. “Hello, sir.”
The room chuckles.
General Campbell walks with a slight limp out to the front of the room. “We haven’t had the resources or the need, frankly, to go and reclaim these assets. We can all agree that we’ve had bigger issues as a country to deal with. Enemies of the United States still exist, mind you, all of which, basically, would love to seize these assets. But they haven’t made any attempt to do so, for a few reasons.”
He coughs and holds up fingers as he speaks. “Number one: it’s dangerous. The region is filled with zombies. Enough said. And number two: any attempt to infiltrate and seize anything of value would require a large force, partly due to issue number one of there being millions of zombies in the area, and partly due to issue number one of there being millions of zombies in the area.”
Sadie smiles. Is this guy for real?
“Seriously though, any invading force would have to be substantial. We have geosynchronous satellites monitoring these sites, and the Navy still maintains a small fleet in the Pacific Ocean, so up until this point, a large invasion from a foreign power has been an impractical and, well, a suicidal task... That is, unless this foreign power had a temporary immunity to the infection.”
He smiles and raises a finger to the air. “Then the task is less dangerous and could be carried out with a small team that could avoid detection. We have let these assets lie fallow, taking a chance by leaving them, I’ll add, because we figured that we would be the first to find a solution to the zombie virus. And we have. And now that we have, we must assume that our enemies will develop the capability on their own. If they do—” He points to the projected image. “—they’ll want those assets.”
The vampires in the room nod.
“Any questions?”
“Yes. Hello, I am Vincent de Villablino, chair of our War and Defense Cabinet. This makes perfect sense, but why are we here?”
General Campbell looks away from Vincent. “Any other questions?”
Chuckles and head shakes spread across the room.
“Just kidding.” He motions back to General Riley. “General Riley will follow up on that one. Thank you, everyone.” He limps back to his chair and takes his seat as General Riley stands.
Sadie leans over to her newest friend, Dr. Aharon Fugleberg, and whispers, “I had to stop myself from clapping just then. He could do stand-up.”
Aharon smiles and nods, whispering back, “I know, right?”
Riley clears his throat. “You’re here because you are all experts or leaders in particular fields relevant to this mission and because we need your help.”
Mary raises her hand and speaks. “Hello, Mary Wollstone, High Councilor. What exactly do you need our help with? They are your assets, after all.”
“Ms. Wollstone, I believe our two groups can help each other.”
She turns to Hamid and raises her brow.
He looks up at the general. “General Riley, please elucidate.”
The WALK sign turns on, and June steps off the curb and onto the road with a few other people, including Andrew.
Think. What do I do next? She looks ahead.
For two blocks, there’s only one way to go: up the hill. On one side of the street is a large office building, and on the other is a high, stone retention wall. Past those though, it’s not clear where to go. To the right, June can see a busier metropolitan area with retail, office buildings, and restaurants. Straight ahead, office buildings and giant apartment complexes stretch into the sky. To the left, she can see smaller apartment buildings and some row-houses.
I have no idea which way. She grabs her phone and texts Eddy.
He gets the text and looks perplexed. “Sh…shit—they want me to call.”
Schermer takes a tight turn and cuts off a sportscar. “Then do it.”
Eddy was studying a map of the area, and he leaves it open. He calls her.
June’s phone rings when she’s ten feet from the intersection. That was close. She fumbles for a second while she pulls her phone out of her pocket and steps out of the way of the people behind her. She leans her back against the stone wall and answers Eddy’s call. “Katie! How are you?”
“Uh, fine. Everything okay?”
She smiles and looks around. Andrew is about to pass her. She makes sure her green glasses cover her eyes. “I just got off the bus actually. ...Uh-huh, yeah.”
“I know, and then you headed uphill. Agents are on their way, but they need to know which direction he’s headed in. Is he still going up that hill?”
“Hmm, let me see.” June watches Andrew approach the intersection and turn left. When he’s out of sight past the stone wall, June walks to the intersection. “No, not anymore.” She checks the name of the road he turned to walk along. 16th Street the way he went, Oak Street in the other direction. Hmm... “Well I’ll have to get a ride... Ha-ha, NO—not even close to getting my learners permit, you fool.”
Eddy switches apps and checks the map. “Major, he turned south onto 16th Street!”
“Great work, keep it up.” She relays the information.
“Ha! Good one.” June holds the phone to her ear and glances around. Andrew is a dozen yards down 16th Street, which soon curves to the right and runs nearly parallel with the road she’s on. The block ahead of her, if she were to go straight, has an open area between some buildings on the left side. She walks straight and crosses the road, then picks up her pace to get to the open area.
“Listen, he’s on 16th Street, and I’m on...Clarendon? Yeah. What now?”
“Hold on.”
Eddy covers the mouthpiece. “Have the agents picked him up yet?”
Schermer talks into the radio. “Do we have him yet? Over.”
“Negative, target walked against traffic on a one-way, we had to drive around. Turning onto Clarendon Boulevard at the top of the hill.”
Eddy returns to the call. “They don’t have him yet. Do you still see him?”
June gets to an opening beside a sandwich shop and tries to spot him through the bushes. There are people moving, but they’re obscured by the foliage and a chain-link fence. “Hold on.” She lifts her shades and tries to focus as much as she can. A blur of a person catches her eye. “Yup, still walking.”
“On 16th?”
“Yup.” She looks ahead to see the next intersection. Ode Street. “I’m going to try and follow from a block away.”
“Be careful.”
June gets close to the corner and waits a few seconds before stepping out past the building and looking down Ode Street.
Now. She takes a step out and looks down at her phone, then glances quickly to the right, and to the left. Alright, he’s staying straight. “He didn’t turn on Ode.” June walks straight through the intersection, staying on Clarendon, and checks the name of the next street. Pierce.
“Hold on a sec... An agent is on foot and making their way to intercept him.”
She sighs in relief. “About time!” June reaches the intersection of Pierce and Clarendon, and she repeats her casual glance around. Where is he? Oh no. “I lost him, he didn’t get to Pierce.”
Eddy tells Schermer, and she informs the agents while she makes an abrupt turn and steps on the gas. “If the map in my head is right, he might be headed this way.”
Eddy looks out the window. And if it’s wrong?
June turns left and walks briskly down Pierce Street. When she can see past the building that was on the corner of Clarendon and Pierce, she notices a park with a walkway that cuts through it. “He might have cut through a park. Uh, he would have turned left.”
She continues down the road and looks for movement on the
other side of the park. Her view opens, and she sees a busy highway at the bottom of the hill. “I think he’s walking toward a highway.” She glances behind her to make sure Andrew isn’t sneaking up on her somehow.
He isn’t.
She keeps walking. There’s a high-rise apartment building to her left and a construction zone on her right. After a few more steps, she sees the far edge of a walking bridge that crosses the highway.
She jogs to the edge of the building and peaks around it. Got him! “There’s a bridge across the highway, and he’s climbing some steps to get on it.”
“Okay.” Eddy sets the phone down and tells Schermer. Schermer parks the car next to a pizza place and points out the windshield. Eddy looks. It’s him!
Schermer speaks into the radio. “Target crossing Route 50 on the walking bridge. Tell me you’ve got somebody on the other side. Over.”
“Working on it, but agent has visual on target from behind. Approaching bridge. Good job Major, we’ve got him. Over.”
Schermer laughs and slaps Eddy on the shoulder. Eddy picks up his phone. “Hey, you there? ...Hello?”
“Yeah, I’m here. He’s on the bridge, should I follow?”
“Negative, agents are in pursuit. Well done.” He smiles and imagines her face.
“Thank god.”
“Where are you? We’ll come and get you.”
“Umm, who’s we?”
Oh, right. Anonymous. “Stay where you are, text me your location, I’ll meet you.” Eddy hangs up and looks at Schermer. “It’s been fun, but I’ve got to go take care of...the tail. I need to go outside. Have any blood?”
Schermer reaches into the back seat and grabs a red sling bag like the one she gave Charlie. She opens it and takes out a nondescript bottle. “Here, and take the bag, there’s other stuff in there you might need. Good job Eddy, we almost lost him.”
“Thanks.” Eddy takes a sip.
“And tell the tail good job as well.”
Eddy nods. “If anyone asks, if you have to say anything, just say it was me. Alright?”
“You got it. If you need to get back to the hotel, Rosslyn metro station is nearby, or I could tell your Dad to come and get you.”
Eddy extends his hand and Schermer takes it in a handshake. “I’ll be fine. See you later.”
Eddy waits while Schermer drives off, then checks his phone. He has a text from June:
How about I just meet you, I see you, dumdum.
Eddy looks around and he sees a hand waving in the distance. He waves back and sends her a text:
Pizza? There’s a joint right here. Is that perfect or what?
DONEZO!
Sadie raises her hand and waits patiently to be addressed. General Riley looks at her and reads her nametag. “Yes, Mrs. Costanza?”
“Forgive me, but I still don’t understand why I’m here this afternoon. I understand your plan, and I think it’ll work. But everyone else in this room seems to have been selected for their expertise or due to their current position, except for me—”
“Well, you see—”
“I must assume that I’m here because you want my husband to take part in this mission.” She glares at him. “Is that correct?”
General Riley glares back. “Ma’am, I don’t give a damn who your husband is, and I didn’t request your presence. You’ll have to speak with your leadership after our meeting.”
Sadie’s eyes flash to Mary who glances away, dodging her. “Oh... Thank you, General.”
“Now where were we...” The general turns to Dr. Penelope Petters, a woman with long brown hair, who is expecting him. “Dr. Peeters, regarding the difficulty in extracting the control chips. How long would it take an expert to do the task?”
Penelope shrugs her thin shoulders. “One cannot tell, in a lab, it would take me twenty minutes. But inside a military facility with limited tools and under adverse conditions, it could take much, much longer. For example, in the lab, just rotating the outer housings to access the security latches is done by specially programmed hydraulic arms—in the field, it would require three men just to lift one of these things.”
“Imagine you had a manually-controlled hydraulic arm and a clean working area. Then how long?”
“Me, probably forty minutes, someone else...at least an hour. For each one.”
General Riley nods and looks to the table of other military personnel. “Alright, we’ll plan accordingly. That should take care of targets Alpha and Bravo. After these missions are successful, we’ll move on to targets Charlie and Delta.”
Sadie lifts her head. Oh… She glances in Mary’s direction. This time Mary holds her gaze and mouths the words FLIP IT OVER while holding up her own, identical notepad.
Sadie flips her pad over. On the back, Sadie sees a note in Mary’s handwriting:
We need to talk.
June takes a bite of a hot slice of veggie pizza. She closes her eyes. “Wow, this tastes amazing.”
Eddy smiles and takes a bite of his pepperoni and sausage pie. “Mmm-hmm, so good.”
She leans over and speaks with a fake, low voice. “Lets you and me take this outside.”
He smiles and motions for her to wait. He swallows. “Only if we can sit in the shade. Right? Remember that little detail?”
She glances out the window. There’s a big tree on the side of the parking lot. “I forget how sensitive you are, you little flower.”
Eddy rolls his eyes and tilts his head. “I ain’t no flower, I’m a thorn, bay-bay!”
Outside in the shade, they sit on the grass and eat their pizza. June checks the time. “When’s your dad getting here anyway?”
“Should be pretty soon.”
“Did he say why he didn’t want us taking the metro? I think that’d be fun.”
Eddy swallows another bite. “No, but he insisted. I don’t think he’s furious or anything, but expect to get lectured some.”
Ugh! I knew this would happen.
Just then, Charlie pulls the Jeep into the lot and parks in front of Eddy and June. He kills the engine and gets out. “Hey guys, I’m starving. What’s good?”
“Hey dad. The meat-za is good.”
“Alright, maybe I’ll grab a slice of that. Need anything?”
They shake their heads.
“Be back in a minute. Watch the Jeep; I left Rusty inside.”
When Skip read the text that June was safe and Charlie was going to get her, he decided to take a shower. He had changed out of his mango-smoothie covered clothes, but he still felt gross. He’s getting dressed and is slipping his pants on when he hears a knock at the door to the suite.
Although he thought he had calmed down and regained a clear head, he sprints to the door and rips it open.
Katlyn Bergström and Minnie stand outside with their hands full. Katlyn smiles. “Oh, I hope this isn’t a bad time.”
Skip blushes. “Oh, no, sorry, I, uh, just got out of the shower.”
She looks at the water still clinging to his chest. “I see that.”
Minnie points. “Mr. Skip, you’re strong!”
He can’t help but chuckle. Only a six-year-old would think that. He looks at Katlyn, who is still smiling. “Uh, come in, come in. Let me grab a shirt.”
Katlyn leads Minnie into the suite while Skip dashes to his bedroom. Katlyn speaks loudly so that he can hear her. “We finished the clay-making activity, and we wanted to drop off some things. Eddy wasn’t very specific about how long Minnie would need someone to look after her, just that it was an emergency.”
Skip is back with a shirt over his shoulders, and he begins to button it, starting at the collar. “Yes, there was. Thank you for looking after her.”
Minnie bounds over to the couch and sets Valentine on the cushion.
Katlyn dips her head in a bow and allows herself to watch Skip secure the button just above his pants before she stands back upright. “I can still watch her if you need. I have some cleanup and preparation to do though, so
it might not be as exciting for her.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I can watch her now, and it won’t be long until her dad comes back.”
“Okay, well, I’m happy I could help.” She takes a step to Skip’s side, toward Minnie. “I had a lot of fun playing with you, Minnie, thank you for hanging out with me.”
“You’re welcome.”
Katlyn turns to Skip, who is very close to her now. “It was a pleasure seeing you too, Mr. Skip.”
He blushes again, then glances into her sparkling eyes, and he briefly loses himself in them. He clears his throat. “Katlyn, right?”
She nods.
He lays on as much charm as he can muster. “The pleasure is mine.”
She smiles then steps back. “I have to clean the room, but I do hope to see you later. Will you be at the reception this evening?”
Skip remembers the bomb plot, the possibility that the hotel will be evacuated, the operation out front earlier, and June ditching him to get on the bus with a hopeful murderer. His smile crashes, and so does his charm. “I’m not sure it’s, uh… I’m not sure I’ll be attending. But thanks again for watching Minnie.”
Was I too forward? Shows me for trying. “Okay. Well, umm, I’ll see you later. Bye, Minnie.”
“Bye, Ms. Katlyn.”
She turns and lets herself out while Skip realizes he blew it. Whatever that was… He watches as the door closes behind her, the long skirt that hugs her hips and flows beside her ankles just sneaks into the hall and avoids getting caught between the door and the frame.
Charlie drives Eddy and June back to the hotel. Rusty sits next to June in the back, and Eddy rides up front. Charlie finishes the last bit of his pizza and takes a sip from a bottle. “That pizza was good, might have to go back there.”
June sticks her head into the front of the Jeep. “Listen, Mr. Costanza, I—”
“Charlie.”
“Uh—”
“Call me Charlie, June.”