by DeLeon, Jon
“Kurt is in Russia. He’s alive.”
“Oh wait, he was on semester abroad, that’s right. Wow. He’s alive?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve actually talked to him?”
“I missed the call, but he left me a message.” Joe looked at Jolie, making eye contact. “314.”
Jolie nodded. “What time do we leave?”
“The convoy leaves at 9:00 a.m.”
“Okay.”
Jolie stood up and started to walk downstairs. Joe looked up from the gun he was working on. He had been a little cold. He was starting to get into a focused zone. “Jolie.”
She stopped and turned. Joe sat with an open mouth, unable to find the words. She understood. “I know, do what you have to do.”
Joe finished his gun work and put on the rest of his gear, including the head wrap the girls had brought home. It was from the black market, giving instant credibility to his image of intimidation. Someone who had that rag must be someone unafraid of the drug dens.
Joe left the yacht and headed toward the lab facility.
New Miami Mayor’s Office:
Outbreak Day +69
Joe unwrapped his face before approaching the mayor’s building. The men took him inside, where Collin was waiting with the case.
“Thank you for doing this. This may be one of the most important missions in the future of mankind.”
“It gets me to my brother. That’s what I care about.”
“Joe, I know I won’t see you again, so I’d like to tell you while I have the chance. Thank you. Thank you for being such an example to my son. The life he had after he met you was full of happiness and goal setting. He was a different person after he got to know you. Thank you for that. I hope you find Kurt and somewhere you can call home, somewhere far away from here.”
Joe shook his hand, took the case and fixed the wrap around his face once again. He headed out for the harbor. Soon he would be sleeping in the arms of a woman he loved and then waking up and leaving to find his brother.
Key West Harbor: Outbreak Day +69
Joe walked down the stairs heading into the marina. This time, Raul’s man was nowhere to be found. Must be slacking, Joe thought.
Joe was about thirty feet away from La Vida Dulce when he noticed something wasn’t right. The back door was wide open. The interior lights were shining out against the black night. Joe stopped. He bent down, grabbed a rope that was tied to a mooring point and tied the case around it. He pushed the case under the floating dock and put his rifle to his shoulder. Moving slowly, Joe climbed the stairs of La Vida Dulce and assessed the situation. It was dead quiet. Then he heard a slurp. He moved in quickly, jerking his rifle to the figure sitting on the couch, sipping a glass of water. His head filled Joe’s sights. A waif of a man sat wearing a well-worn black suit. His face was gaunt and showed a five-o’clock shadow. This man looked at Joe in an upsettingly relaxed manner.
“Put the gun down.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Joe spat out at him.
“Put the gun down,” the man said, unfazed.
“Who are you?”
The man set the glass of water on the table in front of him. “If you want to see either of the girls again, put the gun down.” He was still a strange, confident calm.
The man had an honest threat to his words.
Joe lowered his sights from the man but did not let go of the rifle. “Who are you?”
“I’m Jones. I’m the voice of your new leader, or soon-to-be leader at least.”
Joe risked a glance toward the stairs.
The man understood his thoughts. “I’m not an animal. The kids are asleep and will be untouched.”
“Where are the girls?”
“Oh, they’re safe for now, but only if you do exactly as you’re told.”
“What do you want?”
“The boss has noticed that you can meet with the mayor anytime you wish, even with weapons. That’s never happened. Well the boss thinks you might be able to do something for him, something that would settle your debt.”
“Debt? I don’t owe him anything.”
“Oh, but you do. You see, your companion stole something from him. Being that she is yours to watch here, you are responsible for her actions.”
“How much?”
“I’m sorry.”
“How much to pay back the boss for Jolie to reimburse him?”
“It’s not that simple anymore.”
“Why not?”
“The boss has lost face because of your girl’s actions. Do you know what that means around here? Your reputation is everything. Now the only way to reclaim what his reputation has lost is to do something big. That’s where you come in. Your soon-to-be leader, the man you may have heard of as ‘the boss,’ wants what the mayor is hiding in that secret facility of his.”
Joe knew from his training that telling a straightforward lie was easy to detect, but if you mix a sliver of the truth in with your lie, it can confound even the best lie detector. “I know what it is. He showed me.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
“No.”
“No?”
“I’m not going to tell you that or where is it.
“We know where the building is.”
“But you don’t know where in the building it is, and you’ll get caught with your pants down if you send men to find it. The mayor told me about the delicate balance your groups have.”
“Okay, so you will bring it to us. You bring us his secret weapon and you get to leave with your girls intact.”
“How do I know I can trust the boss?”
“You don’t, and I wouldn’t, but you don’t have a choice.”
The man led Joe outside on the back deck. He closed the door behind him and locked it. He handed the key to Joe with a crooked smile.
Joe turned to leave the yacht.
“Oh, and G.I. Joe, hurry before the boss gets hungry for breakfast. He loves to have dessert with his meals.”
Joe hurried out the door, heading for the mayor’s building at a double-time march. All he could think about were Kira and Jolie.
What the hell happened? Why did Kira open the door for anyone but him?
La Vida Dulce, a Few Hours Earlier: Outbreak Day +69
Kira came upstairs, joining Jolie.
“Are they sleeping?” Jolie asked.
“Yeah,” Kira answered. “They liked the idea of having a sleepover in their playroom, so you have a bedroom to yourself.”
“Thanks. Thanks again for everything. I can’t believe how much of a whirlwind this day has been.”
“Yeah, seriously. This morning we were in Key West. It’s amazing what can happen in a day. Did Joe leave already?”
“Yeah, he just did.”
Kira felt a tinge of sadness and disappointment that Joe had not said goodbye to her. He had never left without doing so. Maybe his head was so focused on the mission at hand that it had just slipped his train of thought. Still, she felt cheated.
A knock came at the door.
“Oh, he must have forgotten something,” Jolie said as she got up and unlocked the door.
Kira yelled, “Wait!”
It was too late. Jolie was already sliding the door open. On the other side stood a skinny man in a suit, and behind him on the back-deck couch sat the boss surrounded by three other men with guns. Jolie let out a small shriek, seeing the men. She covered her mouth with her hands as she took a step backward. The boss laughed a guttural bellow. His fat rolls squeezing out the side of his pants jiggled. The skinny man in the oily black suit who had knocked on the door leaned forward, showing a set of jagged teeth in an evil smile. “Good evening, ladies.”
New Miami Mayor’s Office:
Outbreak Day +69
Joe walked up to the stairs of the mayor’s building. The bodyguards escorted him inside, where he stood waiting in the lobby. Every second felt li
ke an hour. The elevator chimed, and Collin walked out of the elevator.
Before Joe had a chance to say anything, Collin asked, “What happened?”
“It’s safe, but we have a problem. Some man named ‘the boss’ has kidnapped the girl I have been traveling with and a friend I’ve had for a lifetime.” Joe was angry. “I need to get them back.”
“I told you I can’t go to war with him.”
“You’re going to. I have an idea, one that is going to solve this for you forever.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Well it goes like this.”
New Miami Market: Outbreak Day +69
Joe squeezed the handle of the case and released it. He could feel the sweat building in his palms. Everything needed to go as planned or none of them were getting out of this alive. He breathed deeply and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. There was no need to hide his nerves. He was walking into a gang lord’s den, most likely to his doom. Not being nervous would be a sure tell that something was going on, so Joe let his nerves show.
He walked down the ramp leading toward the loading-dock area for the arena. The entire area was lit by one powerful flood light. It turned everything a ghostly orange hue against the dark night.
When he was ten feet from the service garage door, four men opened it and filed out. Three of them pointed rifles at Joe. The fourth was the skinny man in the silky black suit from earlier, named Jones.
Jones spoke to Joe. “Welcome, I see your trip to the mayor has been fruitful,” he said while pointing at the case.
“I got what you want. Where are the girls?”
“You will get your friends back once you’ve delivered the case.”
“I’m delivering it. Bring the girls out now.”
Jones let out a cynical laugh. “Oh, you aren’t delivering it to me. You have to take it to the boss. He has your girls. Inside.”
Joe took a step toward the group of men. They all aimed their weapons a little more tightly toward Joe’s face. He stopped, holding up the hand not carrying the case, showing his palm, trying to calm them down.
Jones spoke again. “We aren’t as trusting as the mayor here. You will need to leave your guns outside. That trash can there, put your guns in the dumpster. All of them.”
Joe slid the rifle off his shoulder and walked to the dumpster. He used the butt of the gun to push the lid open and let the rifle slide inside. Joe turned and didn’t even get a chance to take a step.
“Stop!” Jones commanded. “I said all your weapons!”
Joe reached behind his back and pulled his pistol out of the rear holster. He put that inside dumpster as well. “Happy?”
“And the other weapon.”
Joe looked at Jones. Joe decided to gamble, to call this man’s bluff. There was no way Jones could see the knife hidden down his pants, holstered tightly to his inner thigh. “I don’t have any other guns. That’s all I carry.”
Jones stared at Joe.
Jones waved one of the men over. The man patted Joe down. However, the thug didn’t feel high enough on his inner thigh to feel the knife.
Always have a weapon, Joe thought. Maybe there is a chance this will work out.
The man finished his pat-down of Joe and nodded to Jones. “Follow me,” Jones said.
Joe walked past the man who had just patted him down. As Joe stepped inside the garage door, the man, who was trailing behind him, pushed him forward. There were two men standing next to Jones already inside. Another two stood on each side of the garage door. They pulled chains, lowering the door behind Joe. One last man in the room was leaning on a pillar just a few feet to Joe’s left. Joe continued to scan the room.
It was an open loading dock. A small entry door was next to the garage door the men were still working on lowering. A metal folding chair was positioned next to the door. Must be a guard post, Joe thought. Joe next focused on a pair of generators that were running a power supply to the security office, two overhead flood lights and a service elevator, its doors standing open to the right of the bay. There was another man inside watching camera feeds, which Joe had missed on his first glance. The garage door finished closing with a loud bang. “Let’s go,” Jones said.
Joe looked back at the entry door. One of the men who had been pulling on the chains to close the garage sat down in the chair. The other walked past Joe, heading for the security office. Joe was once again prodded to move forward.
The small group stepped into the elevator: Jones, Joe and two men. A third man, the one who had been trailing the group and giving Joe motivation to move forward, pulled a key out of his pocket. He inserted it in the club-level button and turned it, and the button lit up. The man then stepped back out of the elevator. The doors closed, and a soft hum could be heard as the elevator began to ascend. Joe stood on one side of the elevator lobby, holding his case tight, expecting the men to turn on him at any moment. He had oriented himself so his back was toward a wall. The others all stood on the opposite side, watching Joe intently. The ride up was painfully slow. The elevator was meant for cargo, not quickness. While waiting for the elevator to reach the luxury floors, Joe ran the plan over again in his mind. Inside the case were twenty syringes. Sixteen of them contained Enerjax, and four contained a simple IV solution dyed the same color. The safe needles were the one on the far left, the two in the middle and the second from the right. Joe had to make sure he remembered that fact. If the boss wanted to test the liquid, Joe had built in a plan to trick him.
The elevator reached the luxury floor with a ding. The doors opened at suite level. Two men with guns were waiting as the doors opened. Jones confidently strode past the men. “This way,” he said. The two men with guns, who rode up with Joe, walked behind Joe as they made their way down the ornate hallway. After about a minute, the group all reached a double-doored room. Joe recognized the name placard. This was previously the owner’s box.
Jones pushed both doors open, making a grand, announced entrance. Joe followed closely behind. As Joe entered the room, the pall of cigar smoke and the smell of drug use almost made him gag.
He scanned the room from left to right. The box was huge, expansive and richly decorated. This was a true suite. There was a kitchenette to the left. A man standing there squinted at Joe as he rested against the countertop. Straight across the room from the double doors were rows of seats, facing the arena. It was hard to see how many seats there were because of a mass of solid obstruction. Against the back of the seats was positioned a love seat that served as a large chair for the man known as ‘the boss.’ This giant, grotesque human sat watching Joe. Jones had walked to the boss’s right-hand side. Joe spotted two other men in the room, ahead of him. One massive, strong man stood on the other side of the boss. He was easily six five and looked to be three hundred pounds of pure muscle. The other man stood off to Joe’s right.
“Joe!” a voice shouted.
As Joe had shifted his glances to the right to get a better look at that man, Kira and Jolie had recognized his face. They were sitting on a small couch, with that man standing over them, watching the two prisoners. Kira tried to stand at the sight of Joe, but the man pushed her back down.
A flushing noise sounded, and another man stepped out of a bathroom. He took a place next to the girls, joining the other watchman.
The two men following Joe closed the doors behind him, one giving Joe a forceful shove, urging him forward.
Joe walked forward. Soon he was standing just feet in front of the fattest man he had ever seen. His fat wiggled with each breath the man took. Skin lesions lined his elbows and knees. Blue bruises and swollen blood vessels spidered everywhere along his folds. Slobber dripped down his chin as he held a cigar between his lips. An oily sheen covered the half-naked man. Only a pair of basketball shorts, stretched to their limit, covered his privates. While the shorts spared the eyes, the nose was not so lucky. This man smelled like rotting flesh. Joe imagined that under the rolls and folds were spot
s on his body that hadn’t been washed in some time.
“Welcome, Jossseph, welcome to myyy home.” The man’s drunken slur added more disgust to his appearance. “Do yooou have what I askked you for?”
“Yes. I have the immunization,” Joe answered.
The answer clearly upset the boss. Jones, who had moved to the boss’s right side and was eyeing a neglected bottle of beer, reacted similarly. “Immunization?” he asked with a slight mixture of anger and fear.
“Yeah, the mayor’s secret. His immunization to the zombie plague. It’s why his men never turn.”
The boss reached out and grabbed Jones’s suit coat, pulling him close. The body-odor stench emanating from the boss made Jones pull his nose away.
“You said it was a weapon!” the boss said, the last syllable spat at Jones.
“But . . . but, boss, this is better.”
“Hoow?” he yelled at the man in his grasp.
“Uh, uh,” Jones stammered. He was trying to think fast but was failing.
Joe spoke up, helping Jones, but helping his own cause more. “Sir. If you will allow me to speak.”
The boss looked at him, still holding Jones. “Well? Whhhat?”
“You can use this. Use it as a way to get the people on your side. The mayor has been hoarding this cure, keeping it away. You can be a savior to the people. The man of the people who helped the poor. You’re the man who saved the ones who are really in danger if a zombie makes it through the blockades, not some elitist.”
The boss let go of Jones, leaning forward on the love seat, placing his hand on his chin, thinking.
Joe continued. “All you have to do is give a few of the twenty needles I have in this case to some of the citizens, for free.”
“Ffffor free?” the boss spat out in an angry confusion.
Joe held his hand up, palm out. “Only a couple, not the whole case. Just a few leftover after immunizing yourself and your men. Then you tell the people that the vials you gave away were the only ones you could get your hands on, but if they help you and join your gang, you can overthrow the mayor and will be able to make more. It’s at his medical clinic next to the tower. Once you’re mayor, you can reward those who are loyal and helped you. Or set the price for the cure and have ultimate power.” Joe finished the last part of his sales pitch by clenching his fist.