by D. Gideon
“Three cops and a soldier at the cafeteria doors,” I said. I untwisted myself and rocked my head back from side to side, stretching my neck. “Soldier and two of the cops just went inside. The other guy’s looking out over the crowd.”
“Todd’s making motions for you to put your hair up in the ball cap, Mel,” Corey said. “Better do it fast.”
“How the hell am I supposed to get all of this up into this stupid little hat?” Mel said, trying to shove her long lengths of hair up into the cap.
“Can’t you just unclip the extensions or something?” Marco asked.
“I don’t have extensions,” she growled. “This is all my own hair. What the fuck is this for, anyway?”
Todd continued around the edge of the crowd of students, passing out of my line of vision.
“Todd’s got his attention,” Marco said, sitting up and grabbing Mel’s shoulder. “Quick, lean down here.”
Mel bent over in front of us, and Marco and I quickly worked to tuck as much of the wavy purple lengths of her hair up into the cap as we could. Many of her braids had purple ribbons woven into them; we stuffed those in, too.
“I’m gonna take the plain braids and try to hide the purple that’s showing,” I said.
I took the plain black braids and wrapped them around the base of her head and the section of hair that the hat didn’t cover, tucking the ends in by her temples.
“I swear to god if you make me look like some African beehive queen wanna-be I will cut you both,” Mel said. She made a huffing noise. “And I’ve got boobs all up in my pancakes.”
“Done. I think it’ll hold,” I said. “Sit up.”
She sat up slowly, touching the back of her head and pursing her lips. The baseball cap perched precariously on top of her head—I was sure it was going to burst off at any moment. Mel had a lot of belly-length hair.
“You guys are driving me crazy,” Corey said. “I can’t turn around and see what’s going on without looking obvious.”
“Todd’s pointing out towards The Stamp,” Marco said. “Looking at his watch. The cop’s pointing back towards Cumberland-“
“Okay Madden, never mind,” Corey said.
Marco sat up straighter, picking up his tray. “Cop number three just went inside, and Todd’s waving at us to go. C’mon!”
We scrambled up, hurrying over to the huge trash can sitting by the sidewalk and dumping our bowls and plates inside. We added our trays to a few stacks of them sitting next to the trash can, and casually walked away from the cafeteria until we rounded the corner of the building and were out of sight of the crowd.
And then, we ran.
CHAPTER 17
Sunday, September 2nd
College Park, Maryland
“They switched the security access on the side door key locks so only R.A.s and above can use them. Everyone else has to use the front doors,” Todd explained. He made air quotes with his fingers. “Security reasons. That’s why I had you come here, so no one else would see you.”
We were huddled by the North exit door to the Cumberland dorm. Todd had gotten here just a few minutes after us.
“You gonna tell us what the hell is this all about?” Melanie asked, one hand holding the baseball cap down onto her head.
“Those cops, at the cafeteria…they’re looking for you, Mel. They’ve got your picture,” Todd said.
“What?” Mel’s eyebrows shot straight up over her sunglasses.
“I’m supposed to be helping them find you, since I know you. I told them I was going to go check the Library.”
“Okay, no problem,” I said. “We thought this might happen. We’ll just go upstairs, get our bags, and slip out this door. You wait here to let us back out.”
Todd shook his head. “There’s at least two more guys waiting at your rooms,” he said. “If we saw any of you, our orders were to detain you until Mel was found. They know you’re planning on leaving together, so now they want to keep eyes on all of you to make sure you don’t help Mel slip out from under them. They’re dead serious about this, Ripley.”
“Who would’ve told them we’re leav-“ I stopped.
“Chloe,” Mel said. “I’ll kill that bitch.”
“So, hold on—they think they can keep the rest of us from leaving?” Corey said. “They can’t do that.”
“Tell that to the guys with the guns,” Todd said. “The only thing I can think of is to hide her until they go away. They can’t stay here forever with shit going crazy out there.” He waved a hand towards Campus Drive.
Mel let go of the hat to pull off her sunglasses. “Hide me…where?” She asked, wary.
Todd took a deep breath. “In the basement.”
“What?” I nearly shouted.
“It’s flooded down there,“ Marco added, but Todd held up his hands and made shushing noises.
“Which is exactly why they won’t look there. It’s been locked this whole time, and it’s flooded. No one would want to go down there. They’ve already started checking everywhere, Mel. They even sent someone over to the PK party.”
He slid his card through the key lock and it beeped. He pulled the door open a crack. “This is the only place we can guarantee they’re not going to look.”
“Fuck me running,” Mel said, closing her eyes and leaning her head back. Todd’s baseball cap gave up its valiant effort and dropped off of her head, causing all of her hair to tumble down.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “You could go up there and tell them you’re not going with them.”
“Uh, no,” Todd said. “That’s not going to work. Her Mom pulled strings. They’ve got orders direct from the President, and with the State of Emergency, they’ve pretty much got the power to do whatever they want.” He pointed to Mel’s hair. “You could cut off all of that and try running; Rip and the guys could catch up to you later-“
“Screw that. I ain’t cutting my hair on account of my mother. If I have to sit in a god damned sewer for a week to keep from going back to that bitch, I’ll do it.”
I dug my flashlight out of my pocket. “Take this,” I said. “And try not to get your boots wet. You don’t want to walk in wet leather boots. You got water?”
She lifted the strap of the big purse she kept slung across her chest. “Still have the one from lunch.”
“Well take mine, too,” Marco said, pulling her purse open and dropping his in. “Just in case.”
Mel took my flashlight and pointed it at me. “You’re already worrying. I can see you worrying. Quit it. So I’m gonna sit in the dark for a couple of hours. It’s black, I’m black. We’ll get along just fine.”
“You’ll need to go down into the laundry room, Mel. Don’t stay on the steps, in case they open the door to check,” Todd said. He grimaced. “Sorry. Really, it’s all I can think of.”
Mel took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she looked up and smiled.
“I’ll just pretend I’m at the pool party,” she said. “Hell, I might even go skinny-dipping.” She stepped through the door.
Todd looked back at us. “You guys circle back around and go in through the front, like you normally would. Figure out a reason why she’s not with you. I’ll come up when I can.” He slipped inside the door and quickly pulled it closed behind him.
We just stood there, looking at the closed door, still trying to process it all. Corey bent over and picked up the Terrapins hat, and put it on.
“So much for leaving after lunch,” he said.
I spun around, muttering curses, and stomped back the way we came.
“Excuse me, but what the hell do you think you’re doing?” I nearly barked.
A UMCP police officer—one of the men we always referred to as the campus cops—had dumped Marco’s backpack out onto Mel’s bed and was pawing through it. From the piles on my bed, it was obvious he’d already gone through mine, Corey’s, and Mel’s packs. Lined up on the floor in front of our shared desk were Mel’s three roll
ing suitcases, and leaning back onto the edge of the desk with his arms crossed was a dark-skinned man with a pepper-gray crew cut, dressed in a sharp black suit. He, at least, was frowning at what the UMCP cop was doing, but he hadn’t stopped it, so he automatically joined the first man on my shit list.
The UMCP cop straightened up, startled, and put his hand on a can of mace holstered in his belt.
“It’s about damn time. Get in here, all of you. Take a seat,” he said, pointing to my bed.
“Not until you tell me why you were going through our things, and what your name is so I can report your ass,” I said, blocking the doorway and crossing my arms over my chest. Behind the campus officer, I saw the black-suited man duck his head, but not fast enough to hide a smile.
“Get your ass in here or I’ll arrest you for disobeying a direct order!” The cop nearly shouted. “Barnes? Barnes! They’re here!”
He started towards me, reaching for my arm.
“Don’t you touch-“ I started, but he’d already yanked me into the room and shoved me roughly towards my bed. “Hey!”
“Into the room, gentlemen,” a stern voice said from out in the hall. “Let’s not cause a scene, here.”
Corey and Marco came in, glaring at the cop that had pushed me. Marco let out a snort.
“Hinckley? Seriously? Officer Hinckley? They put a badge on you with that name?” Marco asked.
“Yeah, they put a badge on me,” Hinckley said. “You got a problem with that?”
Marco sat down next to me, smiling broadly. “No sir, I don’t.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Ronald Reagan’s relatives might, though,” Marco said.
Hinckley’s lip curled up, and he shook his head. “I hate you smart-ass punks. Always gotta run your mouth.”
“We seem to be missing one,” another UMCP officer said from the doorway, looking us over.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Hinckley said. “Keep an eye on them. I gotta finish going through this crap.”
“You’ve got no right to be going through our-“ Corey started, but Hinckley cut him off.
“Yes, I do. As a UMCP officer, my duty is to keep this campus safe. I’m allowed to search bags, students, and entire rooms for weapons and contraband any time I deem there’s a reasonable suspicion that they might be present. And believe me, with all this shit sitting around?” He waved an arm at the buckets of water on the desk. “I’ve got more than enough reasonable suspicion.”
He turned back to the task at hand, carelessly tossing Marco’s things to the side. There was already a small pile of our items falling off of Mel’s pillow, including Corey’s shovel, both of our I.C.O.E. Booklets, my old Leatherman tool that my Dad had given me years ago when he snapped the tip off of the blade, our headlamps, and our aluminum tent stakes. More was underneath those things, but I couldn’t see what it was.
Corey bumped my knee and pointed at Mel’s suitcases. The last time we’d seen them, they’d been safely locked in the back of her rental truck.
The suited man caught the motion, and shrugged. “Yeah, we cheated there,” he said, his voice smooth and deep. “Keeping track of personal credit card usage of spouses and kids of the Congressmen helps in situations where one of them goes missing—like this.”
“You realize that’s a breach of privacy, right?” I asked.
He nodded. “I do, and I agree with you. It’s automatic though, and we don’t look at it unless there’s an emergency. Part and parcel of having a family member who gets a dozen death threats a week. We don’t exactly advertise when a congressman’s kid gets grabbed, but it happens often enough that it’s worth it.”
He pushed aside his suit jacket, revealing a badge hooked to his belt. “Agent Perkins, Secret Service,” he said. “You’re Jennifer, Corey, and Marco.” He pointed to each of us in turn, naming us correctly.
“Intimidation techniques. Wonderful,” Marco said.
Perkins shook his head. “Not my style, young man. I’m simply illustrating that I’m not new to the party, and my knowledge of each of you goes much deeper, so trying to bullshit me will be a waste of everyone’s time. I am curious, though. I expected Joshua to be with you?” This last was a question, rather than a statement.
His manner was matter-of-fact, even borderline friendly, without being condescending. He was completely relaxed, although he kept glancing at Officer Hinckley and the other officer standing in the doorway. His eyes were constantly scanning us and the doorway. He just exuded a demeanor of competence—unlike Hinckley, who was still making random muttered outbursts to himself as he added more things to the pile on Mel’s pillow.
I looked over at Corey and Marco, then sighed. “He left already on foot. Last night, around 8:30.”
Perkins watched me for a moment, then nodded. “And where is Melanie?”
“She went to the library to check out something Professor Williams told us yesterday about Executive Orders,” I lied.
Perkins frowned. “And here I thought we were going to be honest with each other. Miss Miller, I’ve been working with Representative Rhodes for about six years, since she became the first black female Speaker of the House and started receiving credible death threats. I was there each time Melanie was expelled from one high school after another. I have watched her grow up, and I’m fully aware that the library is the last place she’d be today.”
“Ask around,” Corey said, shrugging. “Professor Williams made a big deal of telling everyone the power wasn’t coming back on for years because this was just like the Carrington Event. Told us to look in the Law Library about some Executive Order saying the President could seize all kinds of resources. Mel didn’t believe him.”
Perkins rubbed a hand over his face, blowing out a deep breath. He looked up at the ceiling and seemed to address it when he spoke.
“Roughly how many students did the good Professor reveal this to?”
The three of us looked at each other and shrugged.
“About twenty-five? Thirty?” I guessed.
“More like fifty,” Marco said. “At least.”
Perkins leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Idiot,” he muttered.
I bristled. “What, you think we don’t have a right to know what’s going on?”
The agent brought his chin back down and gave me a disappointed look. “Of course you have a right to know what’s going on. But that information should be presented to you in an official capacity; in a way that doesn’t result in a mass panic.”
“There was no mass panic,” Marco said. “Most of the students didn’t even believe him.”
Perkins pointed a finger at Marco. “Count yourself lucky for that. You, at least, know how dangerous that would have been.”
Marco straightened as if a rod had been shoved into his spine and glared at the older man. Perkins shrugged apologetically.
“It’s my job to keep the Speaker safe. When her daughter forms a meaningful relationship with-“ he glanced at Corey and me, “-someone like yourself, well, let’s just say you’re too close for comfort. I personally oversaw the investigation into your history.”
Marco turned his head and stared towards my doorway, fists clenched.
Hinckley stopped and straightened, turning to look at Marco and then at Perkins.
“What do you mean ‘someone like yourself’? He a terrorist or something?”
Perkins leveled a look of disgust at Hinckley. “Does he look like a terrorist to you, Officer Hinckley?”
“Shit if I know,” Hinckley said. “He’s got three different computers here, all kinds of components I’ve never seen and these little circuit boards…this could be bomb-making shit. And he looks kinda like an A-rab.” He said this with a long A, like in the word stay.
Marco turned his glare to Officer Hinckley. “You wouldn’t know an Arab if he spit in your face,” he said.
Hinckley, amazingly enough, ignored Marco. “I mean, look at this.” He held up a small circuit bo
ard with little silver boxes and what looked like a metal comb on it. “This could be a trigger for a bomb. You’re Secret Service. You recognize this?” He handed the board to Agent Perkins.
“It’s obvious these kids knew this was gonna happen. All this water they’ve got in here? All this gear? I’m thinking they blew up the campus transformers,” Hinckley added.
Agent Perkins flipped the board over, then shook his head. “This is not a bomb, Officer Hinckley.”
“How can you be sure? A little circuit board like that, hooked to some explosives-“
“It’s a programming computer,” Perkins said. “Third-generation Raspberry Pi, I believe?” He looked to Marco, who stared at Perkins for a moment, then nodded.
“Well who’s to say they didn’t use one of these the other night? Hook something up to those silver things?” He pointed at the connector pins on the board, then grabbed one of our I.C.O.E. booklets off of the pillow and shook it. “There’s maps here of all the food you can find on campus. Water, too. They’ve got stores marked off all the way across Maryland, like they were planning a robbing spree after they blew up the campus.”
“Is this idiot for real?” Corey said to Barnes, still standing in the doorway. “We’re prepared for a hurricane or something, so now we’re terrorists?” Barnes looked at Hinckley and down to the gear on the bed, but said nothing.
“Just a moment,” Perkins said, holding up one hand. “Do you mean to tell me that you think a bomb was set off here on campus, small enough that only a few buildings were damaged, but large enough to cause the entire country to lose power?”
Hinckley blinked, obviously confused. “What do you mean, the whole country? I thought it just took out the campus and College Park,” he said.
Perkins set the small computer board onto the desk beside him and wrapped his hands around the edge of the desk’s top, leaning forward.
“It’s not just the localized area that is without power, Officer Hinckley. This was not caused by an explosion here on campus. The entire country, actually the entire world, has gone dark. Your Governor was supposed to have alerted you to this fact already through hardened channels.”