Cut to the Bone

by Ellison Cooper

  “Once we get there, should we split up?” Jake asked.

  Sayer pondered. The reptile house was basically a large loop and the snakes were along the back of the circle. If they didn’t split up, Miles could escape around the other way. “Yeah, inside I’ll head right and you head left. That way we trap him in the middle.”

  Another long silence stretched between them.

  “I really need you to trust me,” Jake eventually said. “There’s so many things happening right now … it’s just … I want you to truly trust me.”

  “I do.”

  “No, I mean, no matter what happens next. No matter how this all plays out.”

  “You mean when I find out all the horrible things you’ve done undercover?” Sayer asked. “Jake, I’ve always known what it meant to do that kind of work. You gave up everything to do what you thought was right.”

  “Okay, thank you.” His voice was heavy with emotion. He looked out the window and cleared his throat. “I never stopped loving you.”

  “Me too,” Sayer said, looking away.

  They rode the rest of the way listening to the rumbling engine.

  Now was not the time to say anything more.

  MCMILLAN SAND FILTRATION SITE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

  Ezra looked around the old tomb. Max and Kona were still doing the grid search above the manholes and Ezra didn’t want to mess with the scent so he hung back to look at the hieroglyphs covering the walls. They were beautifully done in black ink on the robin’s-egg blue walls. Each panel was split into the sections. At the bottom of each section were images of gods and animals, with the writing in vertical lines above the art.

  He paused at the fourth panel. They were, in theory, on the fourth night. He felt slightly sick at the snakes dominating the imagery. Some of them had wings while others reared back as though they were about to strike.

  “Be safe, Sayer,” he muttered to himself.

  “I’m sure she’s perfectly fine,” an unfamiliar voice came from the doorway.

  Ezra spun around to find a man standing with his gun pointed at him. He recognized the fake bus witness. Ezra’s heart began to beat slightly faster than usual, but he felt strangely calm looking directly into the dark void of the barrel.

  “Come to report another bus sighting?” Ezra asked.

  The man didn’t respond, eyes roving around the tomb. “Damn, Miles really did go batshit crazy, didn’t he?”

  “I believe the term you’re looking for is traumatic brain injury,” Ezra said.

  “Where’s Jake Pendleton?” he demanded.

  Ezra shrugged. “Who?”

  “You know who I mean.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone named Jake.” Ezra smiled innocently.

  The man’s nose flared with anger, but then he tilted his head as though he had figured something out. “I see. You think you’re protecting him?” He laughed. “Who do you think told us where to find you?”

  The bravado keeping Ezra calm drained away into gut-sinking horror. If Jake was still working with these men, Sayer was in terrible danger.

  “Ah, now you understand. Though I expected him to be waiting here for me. Where did they go?” He waved the gun back and forth slowly.

  “I still don’t know anyone named Jake. If he’s your friend, why don’t you ask him.” Ezra managed to keep his voice steady.

  “How about this. You tell me where Sayer and Jake are and I’ll spare you. In fact, we’ve been watching the work you do. You could come work for us if you wanted.”

  Ezra smiled, surprised that his calm returned. If this was how he went, he would go on his terms. “Listen, there is this amazing woman that I just started dating. She’s fucking brilliant and beautiful and has terrible taste in music and I sure would love the chance to get to know her better. So, yeah, I’d love to make it out of here. But there is nothing you could possibly say or do that would convince me to work with you.” He spat the word “you.”

  “Ah, well.” The man gave a half shrug. “I’m just here to wrap up loose ends. If Jake’s not here, I’m sure he will take care of Sayer and whoever else he needs to. Now for the next question, where are the girls?”

  “Are they just another loose end to you?” Ezra growled. “I won’t let you hurt them.”

  The man laughed again. “You think you’re going to stop me? How about this. Tell me where everyone is and I’ll make your end as painless as possible.”

  “Not in a million years.” Ezra’s eyes felt wet with emotion, but calm spread across his body.

  “Ah well, we have other ways to find her. Out of curiosity, why such loyalty to that woman?”

  “To Sayer? Because, no matter the cost to herself, she protects those who need her help.” Ezra felt the simple truth of it.

  The man seemed to ponder this, but then shrugged again. “And I protect this country from people like you, weakening us from the inside.” He steadied the gun at Ezra.

  Ezra knew he would never make it across the room in time, but he decided to go out fighting. He lowered his head and charged.

  His metal legs clacked hard on the ground and carried him toward the man at surprising speed.

  But the bang of the gunshot rang out before he made it all the way there.

  He cried out, but he felt no pain.

  The man collapsed just as Ezra reached him and he tripped over the crumpled form. As Ezra crashed forward, he realized that blood poured from the front of the man’s throat, his eyes empty of life.

  “What the?” Ezra looked up to find Max standing twenty feet away, gun trained on the dead man. Kona crouched beside him, ready to attack.

  “Found the girls,” Max said cheerfully. “Came back to get you before I head down into the chamber.”

  Ezra rolled off the body onto the floor, sat up, and dry heaved so hard he toppled forward again.

  “Hey, it’s all good.” Max quickly checked for a pulse to confirm the man was dead, then holstered his gun. He reached out to help Ezra up.

  “That’s some good timing, man,” Ezra said.

  Max gave a flourishing bow. “I aim to have impeccable timing.”

  Recovering his wits, Ezra remembered what the man said. “We need to call Sayer! Jake is still working with them!”

  “Dammit,” Max said as Ezra tried to call Sayer on the radio.

  In response, he got nothing but static.

  SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOO, WASHINGTON, D.C.

  Sayer and Jake clambered up a low hill through heavy underbrush. Branches tore at Sayer’s face and clothes as she struggled upward. When they reached a tall fence, Jake boosted Sayer up and, at the top, she helped pull him up behind her.

  As she hit the ground on the other side, she let out a sharp grunt at the pain in her ribs. At the same moment, the radio crackled and she quickly fumbled to turn it off. She couldn’t let the sound give away their position as they crept toward the silhouetted building up ahead.

  The sounds of animals carried across the zoo grounds. The chittering of a monkey. A deep feline growl. The haunting call of an owl on the hunt.

  They reached the side of the reptile house and quickly skirted around toward the front. As they approached, a musty animal smell filled the air, damp and thick, triggering a deeply instinctual dread in Sayer’s gut.

  She held up a hand, gesturing for them to pause at the entrance. The glass on the front door was shattered making a hole large enough for them to pass through. A faint chanting song drifted from the opening.

  The voice sent an electric thrill coursing through Sayer’s body. She would get another chance to confront Miles Windsor. And this time she wasn’t alone.

  She glanced at Jake who gave her an all-set nod. She was about to slip through the front door when the first gunshot sounded.

  The sharp bang was followed by a crash.

  And a girl began to scream.

  MCMILLAN SAND FILTRATION SITE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

  Ezra watched Max cut the chain holding the
arched wooden doors together. They pulled open with an echoing creak, encouraging the sense that they were about to enter some kind of haunted subterranean nightmare.

  For a brief moment, Ezra wished he didn’t love horror movies quite so much because right now all he could imagine were clowns with sharpened teeth or ravenous zombies waiting below.

  Max clicked on his flashlight, illuminating the sandy floor which only added to Ezra’s hesitation.

  “This is why I’m not a field agent,” he muttered to himself as they descended the ramp.

  Kona enthusiastically led the way across the vast chamber punctuated by rows of identical square columns.

  They walked for what seemed like an impossibly long time. The sand made it difficult for Ezra to keep up and by the time the silver charter bus appeared in the circle of light ahead, Ezra was soaked with the sweat of exertion.

  The bus looked empty as they approached. Would the girls still be alive? Would they be frightened? Weak?

  Ezra pushed back his shoulders and tried to look reassuring.

  “Hello?” Max called out. “FBI.”

  “You’re FBI?” a young voice called back.

  “Special Agents Max Cho and Ezra Coen. And this is my K9, Kona,” Max said as he worked the metal bar from the door of the bus.

  Blinking in the beam of the flashlight, eight young women filed off the bus, exhausted but sharp-eyed. Rather than frightened or weak, the girls looked angry. None of them collapsed into Ezra’s arms. Instead, they held one another’s bruised hands, battered arms wrapped around one another’s shoulders. Some still clutched blood-covered metal bars in tight fists.

  “Kate did it. We did it.” They congratulated one another, hugging, squeezing shoulders, and clutching hands.

  One of the girls turned to Max. “Tell me that you caught him.”

  “They’re bringing him in now,” Max said confidently.

  Ezra was glad that Max answered, because he was too worried about Sayer to sound sure of anything.

  The girls all turned to stare at the bus.

  Max and Ezra stood back, giving them as much time as they needed.

  Finally, they turned away and one of the girls said softly, “We’re ready to go home now.”

  While Ezra followed them to the waiting ambulances, he tried to radio Sayer again.

  But no one answered.

  SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOO, WASHINGTON, D.C.

  All caution forgotten, Sayer flew into the reptile house.

  Another shot, and another, echoed from inside. The girl’s screaming reached a frantic pitch, spurring Sayer on.

  She swung right down the corridor and heard Jake’s feet pounding off in the opposite direction.

  A wash of water flowed over her boots as she rounded the bend to the snake section.

  Miles Windsor stood at the center of the hall, shooting the glass out of the exhibits. Dozens of hissing, rattling creatures slithered from the open enclosures, turning the ground into a tangle of snakes.

  Kate Brooks lay bound on the floor surrounded by the writhing mass of bodies. Her scream transformed into a keening wail of terror.

  Sayer wasn’t particularly afraid of snakes, but so many in one place made her involuntarily shudder. “Miles!” she called out. “FBI!”

  Miles’s head snapped up. His hair hung in filthy knots. The open cuts on his gaunt face still oozed blood. His eyes were sunken into deep hollows that burned with hatred.

  “They’ve sent you to test me again.” He turned the gun on Sayer.

  She dove back as he opened fire. The bullets thudded into the wall, sending puffs of tile dust into the air.

  “There’s no escape this time, Miles,” Sayer called back, hoping to keep his attention. She knew that Jake would already be freeing Kate while Miles’s back was turned.

  “I face the Unified Darkness,” Miles began chanting in English, shouting the words at Sayer. “I know what is done, the transfigurations for Re, the secret Ba-souls. I know their secret names.” His voice rose to a scream as he advanced toward her. “I know the gates and the ways upon which the great god passes. I know the flourishing and the annihilated. I will not be annihilated,” he howled as he rounded the end of the hall.

  His cry of rage faltered when he found no one there.

  Sayer waved to him from the doorway, then jumped back as Miles fired again, hoping to lure him outside. Jake would need room to help Kate escape.

  As she wheeled backward outside the reptile house, the hard metal of a gun connected with the back of her head.

  She froze.

  “Agent Altair.” The patrician drawl of Director Anderson sent a new shudder slithering through her body.

  Sayer didn’t dare breathe as Miles stumbled out. He stopped advancing.

  “You,” Miles said, staring at the FBI director. “I remember you…”

  For the first time, Sayer realized how truly far gone Miles Windsor was. Fear and confusion swept his face as he struggled to understand what was going on. “How do I know you?” he asked.

  “Hello, Miles,” Anderson said smoothly. “You used to work for me, but you’ve been gone for a while now. It’s time for you to come home.”

  “Home?” Miles asked.

  “Home,” Anderson said comfortingly as he swung the gun away from Sayer and shot Miles Windsor in the chest.

  Miles stood transfixed, staring down as blood began to seep out.

  He looked up at Sayer with wonder. “Is it finally over?”

  “Move.” Anderson shoved the gun forward, forcing Sayer back toward the reptile house.

  They approached Miles, who toppled over, landing on his back. His eyes roved in erratic circles, his breath short and sharp. He made a gurgling sound and tried to raise a hand as they stepped over him.

  Anderson stomped down on his hand with a crunch and then continued to push Sayer inside. He shoved her through the door and turned the corner of the reptile house to find Jake kneeling over Kate. Jake had his pocketknife out, but hadn’t freed Kate.

  “Jake!” Sayer shouted.

  Jake looked up and realized they weren’t alone. “Director.” He nodded casually at Anderson. “Good timing as usual.”

  “Jake,” Anderson answered cheerfully, “thanks for letting me know where you’d be. Miles has already been taken care of.”

  “Very good, I couldn’t delay much longer,” Jake said as he stood, leaving Kate still bound on the ground. He wiped his hands on his pants and put away the knife.

  Sayer felt the world begin to tilt. “Jake?”

  He looked at her with a pinched face. “I’m sorry, Sayer.” His eyes bored into her, but she wasn’t sure of the message. Was he truly working with Anderson, or was this all part of the ruse? She had no idea what to think.

  “Have you taken care of the rest?” Jake asked casually.

  “I sent someone to take care of the girls on the bus. Sounds like Ezra Coen and Maxwell Cho were there as well. Tonight will be a veritable spring cleaning of pesky thorns in my side.” Anderson chuckled. He shoved Sayer forward until she was against the wall. He trained the gun on her, clearly taking pleasure in her shock.

  “You sure it’s such a good idea to kill so many agents at once?” Jake asked with concern. “Won’t it be hard to cover up? And that many dead kids?”

  Anderson’s eyes burned with triumph. “You always worry too much. The American public will buy anything we tell them to. I’ll have one of my reporters spin the story. We’re going to blame everything on Miles, the rogue soldier turned serial killer. You,” he spat at Sayer, “have been the biggest thorn of all. I thought we could get rid of you along with Holt, but it turns out you’ve got unexpected friends in high places.”

  Sayer just stared back at Anderson, defiant.

  Jake cleared his throat. “Um, Director, I thought we agreed that you would at least keep Sayer alive. It’s my only request.”

  Anderson’s mouth pressed into a firm line. “You know we can’t do that. You
r … feelings for this woman have always made you vulnerable. Weak. It’s time to end that now.”

  Jake’s face slowly transformed into a feral smile. “And your inability to imagine that someone could turn on you has always made you vulnerable. When I called you to tell you I had Miles and Sayer in one place, I knew you couldn’t resist coming in person, and that arrogance is finally your downfall.”

  Anderson’s eyes shifted to Jake. His confidence faltered at the sight of Jake’s shaking anger.

  “I gave up everything to destroy you,” Jake continued. “But you were untouchable. Until now.”

  “What are you rambling about?” Anderson growled.

  “I’m bugged and everything you just said is now in the hands of the Department of Justice. We’ve got it all on tape,” Jake said.

  Anderson’s face flushed red with fury. “You idiot. You think some recording is going to touch me? You’ll find out soon enough just how many people I’ve got in my pocket.”

  “A recording might not be enough. But that combined with the massive paper trail I’ve spent four years building will. We’re going to play this tape on every TV station in the country. When the public hears that you were willing to murder children and federal agents to clean up your own mess, your lackeys will flee right into the arms of a plea bargain. They will turn on you so fast your head will spin. It’s over, Anderson. You’ve lost.”

  Screaming with rage, Anderson swung the gun around.

  Seeing what was about to happen, Jake dove on top of Kate just as Anderson pulled the trigger.

  Not caring what he hit, Anderson fired wildly toward Jake.

  Ignoring her ribs, Sayer flung herself at him and knocked him aside as he managed to get off one last shot. She turned to watch Jake wrap Kate in an embrace, covering her with his body at the same moment the bullet struck home.