“We’re aware of that, Dr. Kentigern. I mean, Mr. Kentigern. We still think it would be mutually beneficial,” Buckley Brent said, peering over his reading glasses. “You can finish both projects here. We’ll accelerate your progress.”
Dean Weiland slid a card across the table. “This is my private number. Please contact me to discuss things further, at your convenience.”
Trips slipped the card into his breast pocket and took Ami’s hand. “I can pick my research team, then?”
Ami felt her eyes go so mega-wide and she almost gagged glancing at the dean. Let go! Let go of me.
Trips met Buckley Brent’s disapproving gaze. “Well?”
Ami tried to retract her hand, again, but Trips held it fast. They won’t fund you! C’mon, Trips. Why are you being a dick? Public displays of affection are not tolerated. Let go!
The dean leaned back in her chair. “Of course, you can pick your team, and you’d receive a considerable startup budget to outfit your lab, until further grants can be obtained.” She paused, gaging Trips’ reaction. “Feel free to forward a requisitions list.”
“On spec?” Trips rubbed the scruff on his chin.
“I must protest; this is highly unusual,” Buckley blustered.
Trips cast a glance at the director, then zeroed back in on the dean. “Well?”
Ami closed her eyes. She couldn’t watch. God, you’re such an arrogant ass. Dissing the director? What are you doing?
Dean Katelyn Weiland smiled. “Written into the formal contract. The short answer is, yes. Of course, there would be a good faith determination of property rights, and a fixed percentage of income on any inventions which would follow you, should you choose to leave the Institute.”
Trips exhaled forcefully and nodded. “All right. I’ll get back to you. Thank you.”
Alexx raised a finger. “Ma’am, I have some ideas about the contagion. Are we going to have the opportunity to discuss our findings with the new team?”
Dean Weiland shook her head. “I don’t know Alexx. I can make a request, but I can’t give you lab access.”
Trips released Ami’s hand, his silver-blue eyes flashing from Alexx to the Dean. “Alexx put herself at considerable risk without the benefit of a proper lab facility to analyze that bug. Surely the new team would be interested in sharing data.”
Ami felt a zing of heat rise in her face. What are you doing? We need a lab!
He fished Katelyn’s card out of his pocket and placed it on the table. “I won’t even consider your offer without giving Ami and Alexx full lab access.”
No one said anything. Trips stood up. “Ami, they don’t deserve you. C’mon, Alexx, let’s go.”
“Please, sit down, Mr. Kentigern,” Katelyn said, sternly.
“Mr. Kentigern is my father. I’m Trips.”
Ami reached a hand across the table toward Dean Weiland. “Please forgive us, it’s been rough returning to Boston and adjusting to the situation.” She tugged Trips’ sleeve. Oh, my God, did I just say that? They’re going to call me on it. Here it comes.
Trips glared at her and wrenched his arm away as the Dean wrote a note and nodded. “All right, I’ll see what we can do. I can’t promise anything, but I might be able to get you a mobile lab.” Ami exchanged a glance with Alexx, then looked at Trips. He didn’t meet her eye but offered a small nod. Ami sighed. Her head was clearing; everything was going to be okay. The phone chirped, Dean Weiland took the call then rose turning toward Trips. “Yes, thank you, send him in please. There’s someone here to see you.”
“To see me?” Trips faced the door. “Dad?”
The door burst open and a small spry man in a heavily decorated US Army uniform strode into the room. “Good afternoon! Is everyone present and accounted for?” Colonel Dan Campbell tucked his hat under his arm, shaking hands with Katelyn Weiland and Buckley Brent.
Trips jumped to attention as Ami and Alexx exchanged a surprised glance and stood up. The Dean inclined a hand toward Ami. “Colonel Daniel Campbell, may I present Dr. Amelia Alpert, manager of the level three lab at Black Hall, and staff research associate Dr. Alexandra Spiros. I believe you know everyone else.”
The colonel shook hands with Alexx, and then came around to Ami. He smiled. She tried to keep her expression neutral as they shook hands. Why is Trips acting so weird?
“At ease son,” Colonel Campbell said in a Southern drawl as he slapped Trips on the back. “How’s your mother?”
“Fine, sir. Good to see you, sir,” Trips said, his voice cracking.
“She still making the best damn peach cobbler this side of the Mason-Dixon line?”
“Sir, yes, sir, and a mighty fine blackberry one, too,” Trips said, his accent and cadence changing to match the colonel’s.
Why are you talking like a cowboy? Ami wondered watching Trips morph into someone she’d never met.
“Your father has been trying to get a hold of you, son.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I lost track of my charger,” Trips mumbled in his first display of humility since entering the room. “We went home rather than to the compound.”
The colonel nodded. “I’ll let him know you’ll call when you can.”
“Sir. Permission to speak freely, sir?” The colonel nodded. “Um, begging your pardon, but what brings you to Boston, sir?”
He’s asking permission? What the hell, Trips? Ami eyes widened, watching her fiancé’s behavior.
The colonel explained his presence. “Deployed to Cambridge to fight this scourge, son. Your daddy and I discussed that you might well could help in this man’s army, in this dearth of capable troops.”
“Me, sir?”
“Seems you have your own small force that is far more nimble than we can ever hope to be.” Colonel Campbell paused.
As he smiled at Ami, she realized he was assessing everyone in the room. His smile made her uncomfortable, then he squinted at Trips. “Your father tells me you’re a bicycle courier, Ervin.”
Trips gulped. “Sir. Yes, sir.”
“So, it would be safe to assume that ya’ll know the city like the back of your hand?”
“Sir. Yes, sir.”
“I’ve seen those messengers in New York,” Campbell said, regarding Buckley, “You ever seen ‘em?” Buckley blinked. The colonel horse clucked twice. “I tell you what, they are fast, and they are fearless.” The colonel put an arm around Trips’ shoulders and led him to the end of the room. “Ervin, you can get in places that we can’t. Ya’ll’ll roust ‘em out of their nests and we’ll be there to catch ‘em.”
Ami tried to catch Trips’ eye. Damnit, look at me Trips. You’re not doing this. She tapped her toe to draw his attention, but he wasn’t seeing anything beyond the colonel.
“Your country needs you son.”
Trips looked straight ahead as his jaw twitched. “Yes, sir.”
“Real simple. You’ll be a freelance platoon. Combat pay and combat gear. You’ll be ranking officer, Ervin. We’d bounce you clear up to Captain. That’d give you a leg up with some of them career grunts and junior officers. I’m proud of you son, and so is your dad.” Colonel Campbell put his hand on Trips’ shoulder and walked him back to the center of the room.
Ami balled her hands into fists. Who the hell are you and what the hell is this?
“Begging your pardon, sir, but I don’t know anything about leading a combat mission.”
Combat mission? Oh, hell no! Ami clenched her jaw.
The colonel smiled. “We’ll be with you every step of the way, son. All the way.”
“When should I report in, sir?” Trips asked, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he gazed straight ahead.
“Oh-eight-hundred. We’ll discuss everything tomorrow. Find your charger, and call home. Now, that’s an order.” Colonel Campbell winked. “Dismissed.”
As Trips, Ami, and Alexx left, Ami took Trips’ hand in hers, “You’re not doing this.”
* * *
Night was falling
over empty streets cleared for curfew as they piled into the car. Trips twisted toward Alexx from the passenger’s seat, as she pointed them toward Harvard Square. “What are you doing? You’re going the wrong way.”
Alexx glanced at him while upshifting onto Massachusetts Avenue. “I want to go through the Square. Don’t you want to see what’s going on?”
Trips made a face. “They’ll just reroute us.”
Alexx shrugged. “Maybe not.”
Ami leaned into the front between the seats. “You going to tell us?”
“Hmm? Tell you what?” Trips asked turning to look at her.
“About the man.” Ami said, her voice trailing off as she looked ahead at the scene in Harvard Square.
“And the lab,” Alexx added. “Why are they suddenly offering you a lab?”
Trips glanced at Alexx and made a strangled noise in his throat, then turned to Ami in the back seat. “The lab offer and the reason you got to go to the conference is ‘cause my dad made a substantial donation to Black Hall.”
He glanced back at Alexx. She nodded unhappily.
Trips continued addressing Ami. “Like enough for a new wing.”
“Jesus,” Ami said, considering him. “He can do that?”
Trips nodded. “And the only reason I’d accept is because of you.” He glanced from Ami to Alexx. “Both of you.”
Conversation stopped as they approached the first tent-city area and Trips turned back around in his seat. Troops were organizing gear and reporters were clamoring to speak to them outside the barricades of protestors. Farther along, fenced in areas held zombies mashing against their cages, as soldiers set-up border controls, bivouacs, and more fencing. It was slow moving.
A zombie broke free from its handlers, slobbering and bumping against Alexx’s car. Alexx batted her hand at it behind the glass as Trips and Ami shrunk away. “Ew! Quit humping my car!”
Ami pointed at the man directing traffic. “ Don’t look. It’s just trying to stay in a straight line. Just go.” She touched Trips’ shoulder. “Trips, who was that guy?”
“What?” Trips jumped, his focus on the zombie getting wrangled back into the enclosure. “Chicken-wire? That won’t hold. They need chain-link. Go Ally, cross the yellow line. Left lane, now.”
The enclosure collapsed just as Trips had predicted, and the zombie horde stumbled out into the street. A cackle of gunfire had Alexx, Trips, and Ami ducking for cover in the oncoming lane of traffic.
Ami peeked out the window witnessing military might take down the undead humans. She gasped. “Jesus, so if they break free they just shoot ‘em dead? No warning shot? Can’t they feed ‘em rats or something?”
“Oh, my god, Ami! Ew!” Alexx swerved into an empty slot in the lane for oncoming traffic as five soldiers fired in unison downing another zombie pod pushing out of an enclosure behind them. She swerved through as far as she could, then held the car at an odd angle waiting for the next pass-through.
“I mean, they’re still human beings.” Ami watched out the hatchback then turned back around as the car lurched forward.
“They’re already dead, Ami,” Trips said.
One unlucky soldier was getting devoured as Alexx swerved over the pavement and down JFK the wrong way. “Oh, my fucking god!”
“I told you, we shouldn’t have come here!” Trips pointed at the sidewalk. “Around the pole, cut down Mount Auburn, dimwit.”
Alexx did as instructed then rounded onto Dunster Street the wrong way. “Shut up, asshole!”
Ruddy chilled complexions peered into their windows blocking them. Breath billowed from chants and shouts as raised fists pummeled the air for zombie and vampire rights. A protester’s sign pressed against the passenger window reading, Zombies Are People, Too.
A slap against the back glass made Ami turn around. She vaguely knew the woman who pressed her sign against the back window, Find A Cure, Not Censure!
Men in uniform flooded the street, sending the protestors back and waving Alexx back onto Massachusetts Avenue.
“Nasty. No vampires, at least. I mean, I guess,” Trips squinted at Alexx. “Actually, were there?”
“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “I think they’re rarer and stuff.” She accelerated, getting waved through the checkpoint as she entered the unprotected zone of Central Square. “I’m sorry. You were right, we shouldn’t have.”
“Look out!” Trips braced for a crash, his arm slamming Ami across the chest knocking her back in her seat as zombies surrounded the car.
Alexx stopped short. “Where’d they come from? Oh, my god, I’m sorry, you guys. But they’re just so gross!” Globs of goo splattered the windshield. The wipers smearing the glop, as she piloted the car through the zombie-pod, passing gawkers, vehicles on fire, people running, a man being eaten, and a stalled-out SUV with frightened passengers looking on.
A band of armed pedestrians forced Alexx to stop the car. They tapped on the windows with baseball bats, peering into the cab. One yelled at Trips. “Citizen band! Unite and fight!”
“Why don’t they help those people back there?” Trips tightened his grip on his sword.
“Cause they’re assholes.” Alexx made a lane down the center-line.
“I thought there was a curfew...” Ami trailed off as she witnessed the shocking brutality of a man holding a zombie while another one broke its legs with a crowbar.
Trips curled his lip in response to the vulgar spectacle as the crowd cheered. “Get us out of here, Alexx. Now!”
“I can’t, Trips!” Alexx said, as the angry mob blocked the way. The car began rocking, then rolling forward, as the mob used the car like advancing soldiers used Sherman Tanks in the field. Alexx put the car into neutral as they were forced along the slow grotesque parade toward the river. At the MIT dome, dark figures swarmed across the street toward the battleground on the green.
“Great, just, great!” Alexx craned her neck around as she threw the car in reverse. “We are not the creamy filling! I’m pullin’ a u-ee!” She jammed the gearshift into second and screeched a U-turn.
“Good thing the car’s not yellow,” Ami said, cracking wise.
Alexx muffled a screech as she plowed through two disfigured zombies, smearing necrotic flesh and fluid on the windshield. “Oh, shit, now, I really can’t see!”
Trips braced his foot against the glove compartment as Alexx swung the car onto the sidewalk careening through newspaper boxes. “We’re gonna crash!”
Alexx sideswiped the brick wall then swerved into the oncoming lane, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a Mini Cooper. Ami caught a glimpse of the terror-stricken face of the driver before Alexx wrenched the Fit back into its own lane.
“Jesus,” Trips breathed, his hand over his heart.
Ami sighed. “I’m glad they don’t seem to know how to smash windows.”
Trips shot her a disdainful look.
Alexx pounded her fists on the steering wheel. “Now, I’m really going to have to wash the frickin’ car! Ooh, I hate them! I hate them!”
Ami reached into the front and turned on the radio as they crossed the Smoot’s Bridge over the Charles River. The local broadcast announced that thanks to FEMA and Armed Forces intervention, everything was under control.
Trips rolled his eyes and turned off the newscast.
They pulled over at the Marlboro Street checkpoint into Boston. Each of them had their ID’s ready, but the MPs only examined their teeth and hands.
Alexx put her registration back into the glove box. “Were they looking for vampires? ‘Cause zombies don’t drive. Do they?”
“Yeah, but you can. So, go.” Trips slumped down in his seat, pocketing his ID.
Alexx glanced over at Trips. “So, what are you going to do?”
He pulled on his long nose. “That was disgusting, completely foul. We’re staying at my house.”
“No, stupid, the guy. He wants you in that.”
Ami leaned forward. “Yeah, who th
e hell was that?”
“What? What guy?” Trips shot a confused glance at Alexx then Ami.
Ami saluted, and Trips buckled. “Oh, god, I forgot all about the Colonel. He’s a friend of my dad’s. Ami, where the hell is my charger? I’ve got to call Dad. I hope I can get through.”
“Yeah, phone reception is dodgy all the time now.” Alexx slowed the car on Commonwealth Avenue looking for parking. “I don’t know why they do that. Why jam reception like that?”
“Wait, who is he again?” Ami touched Trips’ shoulder.
Trips turned around in his seat to face Ami. “During the summer, my father shipped me off to military school and the Colonel kept an eye on me. He wanted me to go all the way through West Point, but I left as soon as I could.”
“Military school? That explains a lot,” Alexx scoffed, considering Trips.
Trips rolled his eyes. “Yeah, shut up.”
“You can say no, Trips. Don’t do this. You don’t have to do this.” Ami clutched her throat, then rubbed her chest.
Trips pointed at a parking spot on the right. “Sweetie, I don’t think I have a choice.”
“Yeah, it did kind of seem that way.” Alexx glanced at Trips as she backed into the space. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”
“Yeah, no worries. I hope they really give you a lab.”
“Not enough room.” Alexx hopped out of the car.
Ami surrounded Trips with her arms from the backseat. “Trips don’t do this.”
Trips stroked Ami’s arm, watching Alexx bump a car forward. “She’s just crazy strong.”
“I want to go to my house,” Ami said, glancing towards his apartment.
“Wha’? Back to Cambridge?” Trips turned to face her. “Why?”
Ami huffed. “‘Cause I hate your room, and Ichiro is going to give me shit about God knows what, and I can’t deal.”
Trips huffed and got out of the car. “Fucking fine, easier commute for oh-eight-hundred.”
Alexx flicked an ear off the hatchback. “Ooh, I hate them!”
Chapter 6: Safari To Cambridge
They could hear movement inside the dark apartment as Ami flipped the light switch. It stayed dark. She turned to Trips. "Your lights are out. Now, can we go to my place?"
Boston Under Siege (Book 1): Virus: Page 4