Carla’s eyes danced. The kind of look for a woman that knows how to use her charms to get what she wants. It seemed at odds with her having no rings on her fingers. Maybe that’s not what she wanted.
“Sure, I’ll help take stuff up to my apartment. Call me Brett.”
Her limp handshake was offset by a disarming smile. Her eyes matched her smile, dark and inviting. He averted his gaze.
Cox huffed, then picked up the cases.
“While we’re on introductions, just so you know, I don’t go for shortened names. Amanda by all means, but I don’t want to hear Mandy. Where do you want these?”
“My apartment’s up the stairs at the end of the corridor.”
Cox brushed past him
“Wait, I’ll need to unlock the door.”
Shaw turned and hurried past Cox and up the stairs. He unlocked the door and stood aside. Cox breezed past him and set down the cases. She looked around the room. Her nose twitched.
“You have a dog?”
“Yeah, but he’s on a sort of vacation, so he won’t be troubling you none.”
“He won’t be any trouble once we get rid of the smell,” Cox said, parting the blinds and she opened the window. “There that’s better. Do you have a guest bedroom?”
“No sorry, there’s only mine and Amy’s.”
She pressed her hand on a sofa cushion. Cox held her palm toward her and rubbed her fingers with her thumb. Her face scrunched as if someone had smeared cow dung on her top lip “This will do, once you’ve vacuumed the dog hairs.”
Cox walked into the kitchen area. She let out an ‘oh no’ sort of sigh, while staring at the pots piled high in the sink. At the same time, his cheeks flushed. Between Amy and him, they usually kept on top of chores. Cox’s demeanor reminded him of one of the reasons he’d stayed a widower.
“I think we’ll manage with our equipment. Best you keep busy to take your mind off things. If you could wash the pots and see to the sofa, we’ll get everything set up for the phone tap.”
If they weren’t what he expected when they arrived, Cox had dismissed any notion that this was going to be an easy ride. As she hurried out of the room, Shaw dropped his backside on the sofa, and buried his head in his hands. He had wanted to snap back, but her orders were double edged. In a way, she was right. The chores would take his mind off the situation. Regardless, it was his home, not hers. In his mind, she was acting unprofessional. He jumped to his feet, walked over to the utility closet and pulled out the Hoover.
He’d just finished cleaning the sofa, when Carla walked into the room. She carried more cases, with plastic bags held under each armpit.
“Sorry,” he said, and rushed over to help her.
“Don’t worry, Amanda told me she’d given you your cleaning orders. She’s not bad once you get to know her. More importantly for you, she knows how to get the job done. She’ll fill you in on the operation that’s going down in LA as soon as we’re set up.”
Shaw’s cell phone rang. He took it from his pocket. He glanced at Carla.
“You carry on. Make yourself at home. I’ll answer my call… Shaw.”
“Hi, it’s Jack, from over at W and F. I have something that may be of interest that could possibly be connected to the vet’s death.”
“Fire away.”
“Well, I don’t know what to make of it, but this is what I have. We interviewed Rigby over at the county jail, and he stuck to the cockamamie statement he gave you. I asked one our rangers to re-site some of our trail cameras around where Rigby says he shot the mountain lion. Anyways, before he reset them, he checked the footage. You’re not going to believe what he found.”
“Go on. Try me.”
“He found the usual suspects, and the black bears we’d been monitoring. And then, he came across this dog. Not just any old dog. It’s freakin’ huge, man.”
Shaw’s legs weakened, and he collapsed onto the sofa. It looked as though the feral dog the preppers were tracking that same morning wasn’t a figment of their imagination. He realized, it could be the dog he’d been searching for. An image flashed through his mind of Maria’s throat ripped to shreds.
“When was this?”
“According to the date and time stamp, it was two seventeen in the morning. The same morning as when Johno went missing. But that’s not all. Thirty minutes later, six panthers showed up sniffing the trail and headed in the direction the dog took. I mean, we just don’t have black panthers in the wilds in these parts, only mountain lions.”
Shaw knew he was right. But he also knew exactly where six black panthers were located, not too far from Breakers Pass.
“Have you checked with the animal park and the sanctuary?”
“Yeah, but they say they’ve not had any go missing. All I know is, it makes Rigby’s statement plausible, especially with the shadow. We may have to squash the charges.”
“Whoa there, roll it back. What shadow?”
“It’s hard to make out. It could be a bear standing and then walking some ways down the trail, but...”
“But what?”
“Here’s the rub. And don’t laugh. It’s like that Bigfoot film. The shadow seems to be sinewy and looks to have human proportions, but with either a bear’s or a dog’s head. We just can’t work it out. It’s too sketchy.”
“Can you get the film over to me?”
“I’d drive over, but what with the sickness an’ all, I may not get back out of Breakers Pass. Have they started the quarantine yet?”
“No, but they’re having a meeting around now, so I guess it’ll be any time soon. Can you send it in an e-mail?”
“Yeah, as soon as I get a connection. My internet is down just now.”
“Okay, send it as soon as you’ve got a connection.”
Shaw closed the call. He shuddered. Once the film got out to the public with the shadowy figure, he could picture the headlines. ‘Is this the Mine Monster?’ He reckoned some idiots would see it that way, even though the rumors of a mine monster started as a prank by the preppers.
“Brett, you okay?” Carla said, resting her hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, err, sure. Just work.”
He knew he wasn’t okay. He had a flashback to seeing the black panthers over at Cleo’s wildlife sanctuary. Six of them. He pictured the one lounging on the tree trunk with a gash on its foreleg. He recalled Rigby saying he’d seen a figure through the night vision. It had thrown one of the cats against a tree trunk, as if it weighed nothing. He covered his mouth and yawned. The cats at the sanctuary were radio monitored. Cleo would have known if they’d been outside the perimeter fence. But she’d said nothing.
“Listen,” said Carla, and squeezed his shoulder. “Why don’t you go and rest in your bedroom while we fix up the wiretap. I’ll see to the dishes and make a coffee. I’ll call you when we’re ready.”
Cox walked in front of him and stood with her hands on her waist.
“I’ve just come off of the phone with our LA office. Not sure if you heard about the operation that we mounted a month ago to take down a gang in LA, with fifteen hundred of our agents.
“Yeah, it was on the news.”
“Well, we’re doing the same in the morning. We’re going to take out the gang with a connection to Rigby’s son, and who we think could be involved in kidnapping Amy. So at least you know something is being done. Carla is right. You should get some rest, seeing how she is volunteering to wash the pots and to make a coffee. Besides, you’ll just be under our feet.”
Shaw levered his weight with his hands on the cushions to stand, and sauntered to his bedroom. He opened the drawer on his nightstand and took out his radio scanner. He took the note from his shirt pocket with the frequency numbers, then turned the dial. Picking up his laptop, he switched it on, and climbed onto his bed. He reached over, and picked up his notebook. Flicking the pages, he arrived at the notes he’d taken when searching Ted’s cabin. Shaw typed ‘CONOP 8888’ into the browser search and
pressed enter. The result came back with ‘27, 300’ mentions.
“Pentagon’s secret plan to counter zombies.” he read out from one of the headings. It had to be a joke. He wondered why it would be scribbled in the margin of the secret NSA report he had read at the cabin. Looking over at the window, it was dark outside. He entered the first web site and downloaded the PDF for the CONOP plan. Halfway through the report, he snickered, and closed the window. It was a joke all right, but it did exist, and had been buried in the Pentagon’s archives, but declassified.
The scanner speaker crackled.
“Taskforce one to, Blue Leader. The Fox is out of the hole and on the move.”
Damn, Ted's broken his curfew already.
Chapter 40
AMY opened her eyes. Her surroundings shimmered in a haze. The sound of a fluorescent starter buzzed above her and then sparked. The light in the room flashed intermittently and then faded to a dull gray. She looked up at the tube, glowing orange to white at each end. A thumping headache pounded in her skull. She rubbed at an itch on her arm. A flashback of some guy injecting her, then bundling her into the ambulance ran through her mind. She elbowed her way to sit upright.
“Dad... ” She whimpered. “Where are you, dad? Oh, please, I... I want my dad.”
The starter on the fluorescent unit clicked and glowed. The tube powered up with a series of tinkles. She looked around. Her vision cleared. The room was only big enough for the single bed and enough walking space at the side, leading to a rusting steel door with a small inspection hatch. The door didn’t have a handle. There was no window. The air was musty, reminding her of the smell of freshly peeled, boiled eggs. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood. Her legs weakened and she collapsed back on to the mattress. She glanced to the floor and noticed her clothes and sneakers in a neat pile. Amy looked at the surgical gown she was wearing. Her groin area throbbed.
“Oh no, they haven’t? Dear, God, no.”
She rocked back and forth, clutching at her belly. A fleeting vision ran through her mind of a woman with a surgical mask, and the woman’s dark eyes, staring at her. Recollection of a voice in the background troubled her. A familiar voice. She couldn’t place a name to the voice, she could remember that much. Her mind wouldn’t take her any further, with alternate visions of them taking her from the bus stop, and those eyes. It was the eyes that haunted. She wanted a shower to wash away the essence of those who had mauled her, but there wasn’t one. Not even a toilet. She shook her head and reached down, picked up her clothes, and placed the pile at her side. Cell phone. Teasing her jeans from the pile, she slipped her fingers into each pocket. They were empty. She lifted her T-shirt and underwear, but her purse was missing.
The nape of her neck stung. She wondered if she’d been struck there with a blow from her assailant. Amy stroked the area with her fingers. It was sore to the touch. She felt vulnerable in her gown and reached to unfasten the ties, wondering what they wanted of her. It’s not as though I’m from a rich family. She dressed. Footsteps outside the door caught her attention, faint at first and then grew louder. She stood, walked over to the door, and pounded it with the side of her clenched fist.
“Let me outta here. I need the bathroom.”
The footsteps stopped. She heard a bolt sliding. The inspection hatch opened. Amy stepped back. Her heart pounded.
“We saw you were awake. I’ll get you out of here and take you to the bathroom.”
There wasn’t a face at the hatch, as if the words had drifted into the cell from nowhere. The voice was pleasant. A young woman’s voice. She wondered how they’d seen her awake. Amy looked up and around the ceiling. She was horrified to see a camera dome in one corner. Heat rose in her cheeks at the thought someone had watched her undress.
“Where are we?” Amy said, as she heard scraping in the door lock and then a clunk.
The door opened to the creak of hinges. A young woman in her mid-twenties, with shorn, blonde hair, and a pale complexion, stood before her.
“You’re home. It’s an honor to meet you, Amy. My name is Abayomi, but everyone calls me Abi around here.”
“Home!”
“It’s not for me to explain, I’m just here to see to you enjoying your stay. Follow me.”
Amy stayed put; she wasn’t buying her friendly attitude. Abi wasn’t armed. Slight built. Easily overpowered, if she wished, with the extra six inches of height she had over her. No wonder she hadn’t seen her through the hatch. Her name suggested she was foreign, but she talked with an American accent. Amy hesitated, poked her head through the open cell door and looked either way down a corridor. To the left, it came to a dead end. To the right, she could see a door some distance away. They were alone.
“Why are you holding me here?”
“I’m not holding you.”
“Yeah. So, like, I’m free to go... right?”
The woman smiled.
“You won’t want to leave once it’s all explained. Besides, there’ll be nothing on the outside to leave for. I was the same when I first arrived. You’ll soon settle in.”
Nothing on the outside? Settle in?
“Okay, so you don’t want to tell me where we are. Well it doesn’t look like a hospital, and it sure ain’t a hotel. Wait I get it. Is this some sort of cult hideaway? If it is, I’m not buying into any of that crap. Now tell me why I’m here, and what I have to do to get outta here, ’cause I’m not following you or anyone anywhere.”
“Please yourself. Stay in the cell if you like. It’ll be more comfortable in the hall and you’ll have company. No one wants to hurt you here.”
Abi, turned and set off walking. Amy took two steps out of the cell. She looked over her shoulder. She realized that if she stayed put and they locked the door, she’d never find a way out. She hurried after Abi and grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Wait. You’re talking crap. Just explain. Are you saying that you’re held captive here?”
“Calm down. I’m happy to be here. So are the rest of us. Come on and meet them all. All will be explained at your naming.”
Naming?
Abi lifted Amy’s hand from her shoulder, turned on her heels, and set off down the corridor. Amy followed her. Cold air permeated, blasting through grills spaced out along the ceiling in the aluminum ducting. Her skin crawled at the cold and she shivered. There were no windows or side doors for an escape route. Glancing over her shoulder, there wasn’t anyone following them. Amy glanced up at the rows of fluorescent lights and had a déjà vu moment. A vision of bare legs in the air parted by stirrups in an operating room flashed through her mind. Then the dark eyes. She stopped. They were her legs. Amy winced at a recollection of her feeling the pain of something penetrating her below. What the hell were they doing?
“Come on, we’re nearly there. You can use the bathroom in the hall. The kids will be pleased to see you.”
Kids?
Amy walked on in a trance, the visions replaying in her mind like an endless looped film. The door loomed large. Amy’s footsteps faltered. Abi held a fire door open and beckoned her through. Amy stopped and peeked through the door. Her jaw slackened, and as she looked around, her eyes popped wide open. The sound of children chattering filled the huge chamber and then stopped. All eyes turned in her direction. There were too many to count. The children down to babies outnumbered the young women. The women were around the same age as Abi, some of them pregnant. All of them had their hair shorn close to their scalps. Some of the chamber sectioned off with low partitions. One area appeared to be a classroom. None of the children’s hair was shorn. None of them boys.
“Jeez. What the hell is all this?”
“This is you new family. Let’s meet them.”
Amy knew that with no escape route in the corridor, she needed an alternative plan. She hoped to find a way out from the hall. There had to be an exit somewhere. Her vision danced around her surroundings.
Abi took Amy by the hand and led her t
o the center of the chamber. Amy let go of her hand, and twirled around in a three-sixty-degree turn. There were no men. No guards. No windows. The only exit she noticed was the door of an elevator.
“Listen up everyone, this is our new guest. We can call her Amy for now.”
All the women stood, nodded their heads in the fashion of bowing and then sat. The chatter resumed. Two girls ran toward Amy. They each took a hold of one of her hands.
“Will you come and play with us?” said the older one of the two, tugging at Amy’s hand. She was maybe five years old and the other looked to be a year younger.
“Not now, I need to show her around.”
“Awe, Mom.”
“Later.” She turned to Amy. “These are my children.”
The girls scurried away to a sandpit area. “I have a newborn over there in the crèche.” She pointed to a screened area.
“Look, this is all your family, not mine. I'm sure your kids are great. Now, how do I get out of here?”
“There is no way out. Once you’ve met our leader, you won’t want to leave.”
Leader!
From the first moment they met, Abi had sported a supercilious smile. More of an aloof all-knowing grin really. Amy wanted to slap it from her face and to get some real answers and not riddles.
“I don’t get it. Where are you from? How long have you been here?”
“It doesn’t matter where I’m from and how long I’ve been here. It’s where I’m going, and a future for my children that counts.”
Her words confirmed what she already figured. Abi was a few cents short of a dollar in the mind department. Either that, or she’d been brainwashed.
“How come there are no boys?”
“None that you can see. There are boys. I have two. But not here.”
She detected a hint of sadness as her voice had trailed off at mention of her boys. Amy wondered if deep down, Abi had regrets at being there. The boys could be a weakness to explore in Abi’s psyche. Her mind honed in on thoughts of escaping. She hoped that Abi could be her way out.. She would need to befriend her. Abi could be her ticket to freedom if she played her right. Amy studied Abi. There was something familiar about the structure of her features. She wondered if maybe their paths had crossed sometime in the past.
The Killers Amongst Us: Chimera Dawn Chronicles Page 26