Trackers (Book 1)

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Across the table from him was Mayor Gail Andrews, a sixty-year-old woman with long white hair that she wore in a tidy braid. When she wasn’t trying to micromanage every aspect of the town, she ran a gallery that catered mostly to rich tourists. To her right was the town administrator, Tom Feagen, a thick-set man with silver hair and a nasal voice that Colton couldn’t stand. Tom was officially Colton’s supervisor, but most of the time he worked directly with Gail. There was also the city engineer, the town clerk, and several officers from Colton’s staff, all of whom were trying to talk at once.

  “What do we do?”

  “Who’s in charge?”

  “The government is really gone?”

  “The power can’t be out everywhere, can it?”

  “What about the murderer? If we’re stranded here, then so is he.”

  Colton decided he’d had enough. He raised a hand and said, “Listen up, everyone. What we discuss stays in this room for now.”

  For the next several minutes he reported everything he knew about the attack. By the time he had finished, the room was in chaos again. Feagen’s voice was the loudest of them all.

  “What are we going to do?” he kept repeating.

  “If you’d give me a chance to explain, I’ll tell you,” Colton snapped.

  Gail glared at Colton. He wasn’t normally one to lose his cool, not even with Feagen, who had a law degree from some school in the Midwest and thought he was smarter than everyone in the room. However, the administrator had been hired after the 2013 floods. This was his first disaster, and he was already falling apart.

  Well, if the municipal government couldn’t handle things, Colton would.

  “I’ve already put my people to work,” he said. “I’ve declared a state of emergency and activated the EOC. We still haven’t been able to reach anybody from the sheriff’s office, but we’re working on it. Now, what I need you to do is—”

  The mayor cleared her throat. “Marcus, you know I respect you, but I’m not going to just let you take over the town. There have to be checks and balances,” she said.

  “I know, Gail, which is why I need you folks to step up. I’ll take care of the policing, but I’ll need you and Tom to work with Jake on the administrative and recovery stuff. If we all work together, we can keep our people safe, fed, and warm this winter.”

  “What about the fallout?” Feagen asked. “How are you going to protect us from that?”

  “We haven’t seen a spike in radiation, but if that changes we have a plan in place to evacuate people to emergency shelters. They are already stocked with supplies. For now, we have to keep everyone calm. We can’t let them know what’s going on until we are prepared,” Colton said.

  A knock pounded the door, and Jake pushed it open without waiting for a response. He took off his cowboy hat and looked at Colton.

  “Sir, I need to talk to you,” he said firmly.

  “Give me a minute,” Colton replied. Then he noticed the blood on Jake’s uniform. “Actually, if you’ll all excuse me, I’ll be right back.”

  Feagen stood and waved a finger at him. “Whatever news Captain Englewood has, we all deserve to know.”

  “Tom is right,” Gail said.

  Colton scanned the frightened faces in the room and then looked back at Jake. Nathan was standing in the hallway, his arms folded across his chest. With a reluctant nod, Colton gave Jake the okay to speak.

  “It’s Bill Catcher, Chief.” Jake let out a breath and cradled the cowboy hat against his chest. “He was murdered. Looks like the same person that killed Melissa.”

  The room erupted into panicked, angry shouting again. Colton cursed under his breath. If things weren’t already bad enough.

  “What are you going to do, Marcus?” Gail glared at him over the top of her green-rimmed glasses. “And what do you expect us to do? The town needs to know what’s going on. We can’t keep people in the dark.”

  “I think we should hold a town meeting,” Feagen said. The other city officials began nodding and muttering their agreement.

  “Fine,” Colton said. “I’ll be there, but I have something to do first.”

  As he turned to leave the room, Gail called after him. “Where are you going? We haven’t adjourned yet!”

  “Sorry, Gail,” he said. “I’ve got a killer to track down.”

  Although he hated the thought of owing the man a favor, Colton knew he couldn’t do this alone. He was going to have to convince Raven Spears to help him again.

  -13-

  Raven had hardly slept since he got back to his house. He lay in his bed replaying everything he knew about the attack while Allie played in the other room. Just as he began to doze off, a knock pounded his door.

  Creek bolted away from his spot at the foot of the bed and raced down the stairs to the living room. His claws slid as he scrambled for traction on the wood floor. When he got to the door, he started barking.

  “Shit,” Raven said, rubbing his eyes. Akitas hardly ever barked unless there was something wrong. He jerked upright and reached for the crossbow next to his bed.

  “Allie, where are you?” he said.

  His niece poked her head around the door. Her hair was pulled back with one of Raven’s skull bandanas. He would have laughed if he wasn’t so worried.

  “Someone’s at the door, Uncle Raven,” she said.

  “Yes, I know.”

  Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, Raven crept up to the window. With the utmost care, he pulled the curtain back. There were two men on the front stoop. The taller of the pair wore a black suit. The other was in a gray sweatshirt. He was much shorter and heavier set, and he was looking around the property as if scanning for threats.

  “Shit,” he muttered. They were from Redford’s posse, the loan shark he had borrowed money from. He pulled the Glock from under his pillow and tucked it into his pants before Allie could see it. Then he grabbed the crossbow from the wall and said, “Allie, we’re going to play a game, okay?”

  Creek was scratching on the door now, barking even louder.

  “We know you’re in there, Raven!” one of the men shouted.

  Allie walked into his room, clutching her stuffed animal against her chest. “That man sounds mean. Why is he yelling?”

  Raven set his crossbow on the ground, put a finger to his lips, and took a knee in front of his niece. “Go hide in the closet, kiddo. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s okay. I promise you can feed the chickens later.”

  Allie tilted her head like she wasn’t sure if she could trust him. At last she seemed to make up her mind and climbed into his closet, settling cross-legged on the floor. Raven closed the sliding door and hurried back to his crossbow.

  “Open up! I’m not going to ask again!” the goon shouted.

  Redford apparently wasn’t going to let a little thing like the end of world stop him from collecting on his debts. Raven had planned on paying them with the money he made from finding Melissa, but without any cash in hand, they weren’t going to be happy. He couldn’t exactly run down to the ATM and get the money, either.

  “Creek, get back,” Raven said. The dog obeyed and moved out of the way. Raven propped his crossbow beside the door, unlocked the deadbolt, and took a step back.

  “Gentlemen,” Raven said with a grin.

  Neither of the two men returned the greeting. He recognized Redford’s enforcers now.

  “How’s it going, Theo?” Raven asked the taller of the two goons. “And Andy! You’re looking…short.”

  The smaller man growled. “It’s Alex,” he said. “Cut the shit and pay up.”

  “We’re here to collect what you owe Mr. Redford. And we’re not leaving until we do,” Theo added.

  “Figured that much,” Raven said, looking at his feet. He had forgotten to put on shoes, which would make leading these guys away from the house—and his niece—more difficult.

  “I’m a little short right now—no offense, Alex.”

 
“You’re not funny,” Theo said. He nodded to Alex, who punched Raven in the gut with surprising force.

  “For a little guy, you pack quite a punch,” Raven wheezed. Creek came barreling from his hiding spot, but Raven waved him back. The dog snarled at the two men.

  “Call off the dog or I’ll put a bullet in his head,” Theo said.

  Raven got his breathing under control and stood up straight. “You’d shoot a dog? That’s low, even for you.”

  “I said cut the shit,” Alex said. “Just give us the cash, and we’ll leave.”

  “Does Mr. Redford understand that cash is no longer going to be of value after last night?” Raven asked. He flexed his abs and waited for another gut punch, but it didn’t come. Instead, Alex and Theo exchanged a confused look.

  “You walked here, yes?” Raven said, jerking his chin toward the muddy cuffs of their pants. Both men nodded.

  “Your cars don’t work because an EMP fried everything with microcircuits in the whole state, maybe the whole country,” Raven continued. “The banks are closed. The ATMs are useless. And you can’t even call your boss because your cell phones have no signal.”

  “Bullshit. You’re lying,” Alex said, licking his lips. He inched forward, but Raven held his ground.

  “You guys can’t be that stupid,” Raven said. “Look around. The lights are out, and nothing works. Trust me, I was over in Loveland last night, and it’s the same deal there.”

  Theo was still shaking his head. “What’s an EMP?”

  “Hey, how were you in Loveland last night? You couldn’t have walked there and back,” Alex said.

  Raven’s grin faltered. Shit, I should not have said that. Sandra always told me my big mouth would get me in trouble.

  “Um,” Raven said, his mind racing. If they drew their guns, would he be able to take them both down before Creek got hurt? And what if he couldn’t stop them? What would they do to Allie?

  “You got a working car, huh?” Alex said. “Tell you what, we’ll take that old hunk of junk as a down-payment now. Give me the keys.”

  “Okay, okay.” Raven held up his hands like a magician revealing a trick. “Keys are inside, I’ll be right back.”

  He turned, but the click of a hammer being pulled back on a revolver made him freeze. His eyes flitted to Creek. The dog was quivering, anxious to leap at the bastards. All Raven needed to do was blink, and Creek would be on whoever was pointing the gun at Raven’s head. There was just one problem: If he started a fight, he couldn’t be sure of the outcome. If Raven got himself killed, he wouldn’t be able to protect Allie. And there was also the risk of a stray bullet punching through the floor of his closet.

  Raven couldn’t break his promise to Sandra—but he couldn’t lose his Jeep, either.

  “We’ll come inside with you,” Alex said.

  “Don’t make any sudden moves,” Theo added.

  Time slowed to an agonizing halt as he heard a round being chambered in a second gun. Raven used the stolen moment to plan his next move.

  “What’s going on?” asked a high-pitched, innocent voice.

  Raven’s eyes flicked to Allie. She was standing on the stairs, her stuffed pony still tucked in the crook of her arm.

  “Didn’t know you had a daughter,” Theo said.

  Raven gritted his teeth. “She’s my niece.” He slowly turned to see both men aiming guns at his head. Theo had a Glock, and Alex held a revolver that looked massive in his small hand.

  “Come on guys, let’s put the guns down. There’s a kid here.”

  “Give us the keys,” Alex said, holding out his other hand.

  Raven slowly nodded and looked at Allie. “Go back upstairs, kiddo.”

  Squawking chickens broke the momentary silence that followed. Allie’s eyes tracked the birds from the stairs. Then another sound came from the road. A sound Raven wasn’t expecting.

  Tires were crunching over the driveway.

  Theo and Alex both looked away as a red pickup truck rumbled up to the house. In the passenger seat was Raven’s least favorite police chief, looking like even more of a hard-ass than usual.

  Raven used the opportunity to whisper a command to Creek. Of the hundred or so commands the Akita knew, about a dozen involved tearing out throats. The dog was on Theo before the man could react. As Alex turned back to the door, Raven knocked the gun from his hand and punched him in the temple. The smaller man crashed to the dirt like a felled tree, and Raven plucked the gun from his fingers.

  “Get him off me!” Theo yelled as Creek ripped the sleeve of his jacket with a vicious snarl.

  “No can do,” Raven said, grinning again. Colton was here to arrest someone else for a change, and it felt great. He kicked Theo’s Glock away and had just turned around to deal with Alex when the little debt collector yanked a second gun from an ankle holster and pulled the trigger.

  Charlize stood in the waiting room of the Saint Luke’s Hospital emergency room, trembling uncontrollably as she waited for her husband and son to get out of surgery. She never lost it like this. At least there weren’t many people around to see her. Just Clint, her right-hand man, and her mother. Both of them were crying, so it didn’t seem as shameful for her to fall apart.

  Wait, that wasn’t right. Clint hadn’t been there that night, and her mom had been dead for fifteen years.

  The emergency room vanished, replaced by darkness so black it was like her eyes had been plucked from their sockets. At first Charlize thought she was dead, but as the pain swept over her skin like burning acid, she found herself wishing she were dead.

  There was so much pain.

  She tried to scream, but all that came out was a strangled noise. She tried to move, but just blinking her eyelids required a monumental effort.

  Where am I? What happened? Why does everything hurt?

  It was difficult to focus on anything but the pain. Her skin was tight on her arms and face, and even the slightest movement resulted in another wave of searing agony. She drew in a breath of hot air that filled her nostrils with the unmistakable scent of burned hair.

  She reached up to touch her face. It felt…wrong. Blisters popped as her nails grazed her cheeks. Every inch of exposed skin was burned.

  “Hello,” she choked, her voice a low rasp. “Hello?”

  The only reply was the drip of water and the groan of structural supports in the bunker walls.

  The bunker. Charlize remembered now. She was in the PEOC, deep beneath the White House, along with what remained of the federal government.

  She sucked in another hot breath. Exhaling, she steadied her shallow breathing and focused on Ty. Her son was still out there, halfway across the country. He had to be. She refused to consider any other possibility. Ty was okay. He would be scared and lonely, but he was okay.

  The pain and the terror faded, replaced by determination. She had to get to her son.

  Digging her fingernails into the debris-strewn carpet, she began dragging herself across the room, stopping when she bumped into a body. She groped blindly and felt an arm, then a chest, and as she reached for a face her hand brushed the jagged piece of concrete that had crushed Leon Crosby’s skull.

  She continued on, frantic now to find another survivor. Clint and Albert had been in the other room, and Charlize considered calling out to them. If they’d survived, she knew her loyal team would be helping anyone they could while searching for her. But she couldn’t hear anything besides the sporadic crack of concrete or a snapping pipe. If they were still alive, they were on their own for now. She would just have to rescue herself.

  A steady flow of water dripped onto her exposed skin as she crawled out from under the broken table. The cool liquid felt good on her burns, but she quickly shivered from the cold. Stars rolled across her vision.

  Teeth chattering, she called out a second time. “C-can—anyone—hear—me?”

  “Help,” someone answered. “God, it hurts. Please, someone help me.”

  Charlize rec
ognized the voice. It was Acting President Diego.

  “Sir, hang on. I’m coming,” Charlize said.

  She fumbled across the floor on all fours like a blind dog, pulling herself over debris.

  “Trapped,” Diego groaned. “Please, I can’t move.”

  “I’m coming,” Charlize said. As she moved toward the voice, she tried to think of a plan. Even if she could free him, they were stuck down here. And even if they could somehow escape, the surface above would be hell. If the fire and ash didn’t kill them, the radiation would.

  You have to try, she thought. She pushed herself to her feet and fell, landing on a body. Charlize scrambled to her feet. This time she made it all the way up, bumping her head on something hanging from the partially-collapsed ceiling.

  A jolt of pain rushed down her back, but she pushed on, groping the air with her hands. She stumbled over a chunk of debris and then blundered into a curtain of cold water falling from a broken pipe.

  “Sir, where are you?” Charlize said. “This is Senator Montgomery.”

  “Over here.” Gasp. “Stuck.”

  She turned in the direction of his voice. He sounded like he was having trouble breathing.

  “I’m almost there,” Charlize said. “Just hang on.”

  The room replied with a tremor that shook the walls. Charlize froze, closing her eyes and waiting again to be crushed. These walls were built to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear weapon, and yet they were falling down around her. What the hell had the North Koreans hit them with?

  Charlize carefully waded through the darkness, hands moving through the air in front of her in wide arcs, desperate to save a man she didn’t even like.

  The walls continued to creak as she moved. With every step, she wondered if it would be her last.

  An agonized groan reverberated through the room.

  “Hang on, sir. I’m almost there,” Charlize said.

  She froze as something began pounding against the walls or ceiling—she couldn’t tell where exactly it was coming from. Whatever was causing the noise sounded deliberate, like someone was hitting a drum over and over.