Starting the Slowpocalypse (Books 1-3 Omnibus)

by James Litherland

  “Boss, you worry too much.” Kat grinned even wider. “I’ll do what needs to be done.”

  Chapter 9

  Clear as Mud

  7:10 p.m. Friday, December 13th

  DAVID drained the last drop of lemonade from his glass and gazed down at the empty plate. He would never have thought fish that hadn’t been fried could taste that good. Especially tilapia. Whatever else Crystal might or might not be, she was an incredible cook. It had to be the Scandinavian blood.

  Though David was no longer sure he could believe anything of what Crystal had said about who she was. All their little chats had become suspect. It’d been awkward enough talking to her when she was an attractive woman who lived and worked in his own home. For the past several days whenever they’d conversed, he’d tried to think of little ways to trip her up, find something inconsistent in her life story. But once again, David was unsure how to go about it. He just felt his way along slow and careful, and discovered nothing.

  He sat alone in the dining room. His mom had come home for dinner, eaten with rapid precision, then retreated to her study to work. Crystal would be in the kitchen still. David wiped his mouth and picked up his dishes and carried them in to her.

  Crystal took the dishes, smiled at him, and added them to the pile she was already washing. “You enjoyed the fish, yes?”

  David smiled at the back of her head. “Indeed I did. Good thing, too, since we’ll likely be eating a lot more of it. I suppose you learned how to cook that way back in Michigan.”

  “Minnesota.” She frowned over her shoulder at him. “I swear you don’t listen to a thing I say.”

  David sighed. He feared he wasn’t being subtle enough. Crystal wasn’t stupid, and if she was some kind of mole, he needed to watch his step.

  “What I don’t understand is where you get the lemons to make lemonade.”

  Crystal focused on the dishes and didn’t bother to look at him as she responded. “Silly David, who uses real lemons anymore?”

  He was still trying to think of something else to say when she finished drying the last of the dishes and put it away in the drainer. Crystal smiled at him again as she left the kitchen.

  David checked the clock on the wall and knew she wouldn’t be wasting any time, and he’d best not either. He heard her rapid ascent up the stairs, in a rush to get to her aerobics class. Supposedly.

  David went straight into the hall and rapped on the study door. He waited only a moment, entering as his mother turned off her workpad and set it on the top of her desk. She swiveled around to face him and give him her undivided attention.

  “Mom, Crystal’s finished cleaning up and about to head out for her exercise. I thought I’d go out and have a little walk myself. See if I can find anyone I know.” That was the truth, just not the way it might sound to his mother. “Who knows, I might crash at my dorm room, if I’m out late. So don’t worry. You don’t mind if I abandon you here?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll be fine. I’ve got plenty of work to do, anyway, so I don’t need any company. Stay out as long as you like.” She looked at him for a long minute, frowning. “I hope you get a chance to relax some. You look tired. I know you’re working hard, David, but make sure you get plenty of rest.”

  He thought that ironic coming from her as she sat in her study on a Friday evening, no doubt planning to work late into the night. As was he. Well, neither of them was likely getting enough sleep. If she worried about him, though, he worried as much about her.

  David nodded at his mom. “Make sure you get plenty of rest yourself.”

  He closed the study door behind him as he left and then stood silent in the hall, listening. After a minute he heard Crystal run down the stairs and out the front door. Now to work. He walked to the back door, slipping out without turning on the light, just as Rossiter had.

  He circled around toward the front of the house and saw Crystal power-walking up the street in the direction of the Community Hall. He trailed behind her at a discreet distance, needing to be extra careful since she would recognize him without difficulty, but he was still able to follow her with ease. In addition to her striking blonde hair, she wore a shocking pink exercise outfit—she certainly wasn’t trying to avoid attracting attention to herself.

  Unlike the sergeant. Rossiter had raised David’s suspicions with his behavior, but so far nothing that Crystal said or did had sounded the slightest alarm.

  The key had to be those duffel bags the sergeant kept dropping off at the Rec Center. The only thing that made sense to David was some kind of handoff. If he could only find out what was being passed between the two, or if he could actually witness something being transferred, he’d have enough for his mom to take to someone. Hopefully tonight he’d get the evidence he’d been looking for.

  Then David would talk to his mother. He’d refrained from approaching her about what he’d seen Sunday night. For all he knew, or could prove, Rossiter and Crystal were engaged in a secret romance. Difficult as that was to imagine. And if his mom did share his suspicions, she’d likely not countenance keeping Crystal around. He didn’t imagine that his mother would go along with playing a part so he could continue his amateur investigation, and then this promising lead might be lost.

  David hoped to follow that lead somewhere tonight. He didn’t know where at the Rec Center the sergeant might be leaving that bag, and his efforts to follow the man had proved fruitless. But if he could trail Crystal and she led him to the duffel, perhaps even its contents would be revealed. He still hadn’t been able to think what might be inside the bag.

  He thought it was smart of them not to hand off whatever it was directly to each other, but he didn’t understand why Rossiter had taken the risk of visiting Crystal at the house, if she were supposed to pick up something he left at the Rec Center. He thought he did understand one thing, though. The only use he could see Crystal being, as some kind of agent, was for spying on David’s mother—who was, after all, the deputy director.

  David had considered searching Crystal’s room at their house, but the idea had made him severely uncomfortable. He still only had suspicions and no idea what he would be looking for. It seemed a weak thread upon which to justify invading someone’s privacy, no matter how serious the matter might be.

  Besides, he doubted she’d be foolish enough to leave anything incriminating in her own room. If she’d hidden something elsewhere in the house, he didn’t think he could find it no matter how much he searched. Though with so few avenues of investigation open to him, David had looked through all the common areas of the house. To no avail.

  Crystal still had her room at the dorms where she could’ve stashed something. In fact, she could have hid almost anything anywhere, and since he didn’t yet have any idea what it was he was actually hoping to find, he’d finally given up.

  He’d thought long and hard before he decided what he’d do next—if he couldn’t trust what she’d revealed in their talks, he’d have to independently verify all that he could of everything she’d told him. Which wasn’t much.

  He’d started by taking a long break on Monday morning and traveling back across the compound so he could follow Crystal when she went to her second job. He’d been there at a quarter ‘til ten when she left the house and power-walked over to the Media Centre. David couldn’t get too close to her, but he had managed to see her enter the staff area.

  Without an excuse for loitering around inside the building, he’d circled the exterior long enough to make sure she hadn’t turned around and left again right away, pulling the same trick as Rossiter. He would’ve been surprised if she’d lied about something so easily checked. But he’d checked anyway.

  Now he was following her again, but hoping for more of a result. Although he could keep the bright pink in sight without a problem, he wished Crystal had taken the tram. His feet could’ve used the rest. He’d been wearing himself thin between working all day and then trailing people after dark. But if Crystal chose t
o start her exercise early, then he had little choice if he wanted to make sure she was actually headed where she’d claimed.

  David thought she would be. She was being too obvious and too careful to not at least appear to do exactly what she’d said. He watched her walk right past the back of the Community Hall and continue on toward the Rec Center. As expected.

  Soon she was making a beeline across the grass and up to the main entrance. He stepped up his own pace. He needed to close the distance between them if he didn’t want to lose track of her, even in those bright clothes she was wearing, which wouldn’t look as out of place on the inside.

  One of the things David didn’t know was if there were anyone else involved. If there were, then that person might be around, discreetly watching Crystal or the bag or the drop location. David would need to appear to be about his own business.

  He’d act normal. At the same time he also needed to keep a keen eye on Crystal, since he suspected she’d be subtle however she managed the pick-up, that she wouldn’t appear to be doing anything out of the ordinary.

  He stayed close enough to follow her progress through the building with ease. She did stand out from the crowd, even in here. He was able to follow her to the second floor and a mirrored studio where a posted schedule announced aerobics classes and dance lessons. He drifted close to the door and saw her set her water bottle down against a far wall and start doing some light stretches. He blushed and moved on in a hurry.

  David hadn’t considered the potential for embarrassment, but then he hadn’t planned to watch the class anyway. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself, and he felt confident Crystal wouldn’t be drawing attention to herself by walking out in the middle of the class.

  He’d accomplished what he’d intended, though. As he’d gone past, he’d seen the schedule and confirmed that she’d be occupied until almost nine.

  Another thing David had failed to consider was the question of what he would do with himself from now until the class finished. He needed to blend in with the rest, but he was far too tired to participate in any of the activities. What he needed was rest. But he wasn’t going to get that here, and he had an entire hour to kill.

  He wandered back outside. At least the air was cool and crisp and fresh, and it was quiet enough to be restful. He needed sleep, and if he tried propping up a nearby structure, like he had when he’d followed Rossiter the other evening, he’d likely nod off standing up and not wake until morning.

  David scratched the underside of his wrist, and the time softly glowed. On Wednesday, he’d taken a long lunch break and went to the FURC clinic and paid a considerable chunk of his meager savings to get the subdermally implanted watch. And it still itched. A trendy gadget he’d realized could come in handy if he continued skulking about in the dark.

  He stared at the illuminated numbers for a minute. The tram would soon arrive at the Rec Center station, and he decided to hurry over. He met it as it snaked up to the stop, then clambered on board and let himself relax while the thing whisked him home for a quick nap. As long as he remembered to set an alarm he could catch thirty winks and return for the end of Crystal’s class refreshed and ready.

  David hoped and prayed that he would find out something tonight. Anything that would allow him to turn this responsibility over to others and get it out of his own hands. He really wasn’t any good at this, and he was getting tired of it.

  Even though he’d hesitated at sharing his recent discovery with his mother, he’d needed to inform someone. He’d tried to tell Ken, once again finding his boss uninterested. Lt. Henson had listened as always, but he still didn’t think it was enough to take official action. So for now, David still acted alone.

  He’d spent some time in the evenings at the student dormitories partly so that he could be truthful with his mother when he said he sometimes crashed there. So she wouldn’t be worrying about his activities at night. But while he was around there and at the Student Center, he tried to introduce the subject of Crystal and see if he could hear any gossip about her. Anything concerning her public life that might be at odds with how she represented herself. If he could uncover anything of the sort, it might present him with another lead to follow, but he’d come up empty. As far as he could tell, Crystal was no more or less than who and what she seemed. Clearly this was a job for an expert.

  With no success finding out more about Crystal, he’d applied himself to the question of what exactly she might be trying to accomplish by spying on his mother. Despite his mom’s position, she was hardly a vital cog in the running of things. It set his mind somewhat at ease to realize that no one would try to sabotage the compound by harming his mother. He kept repeating to himself that they couldn’t think to achieve anything by that.

  David knew his mom did have access to all sorts of confidential information, but he wasn’t sure what all that entailed. But he did know she had the codes for the FURCSnet communications system. If Gray or Rossiter could get ahold of those, they’d be able to contact the governor or his people on the outside to coordinate an attack. There might be other things they could want from his mother, but David doubted there was anything else as potentially valuable from their point of view.

  He didn’t know how Crystal might be expected to acquire the codes, but she was certainly in a position to try. Or maybe her only job was to report on his mom’s schedule. Perhaps she had even come to work for his mother in the first place in order to spy on her. Or maybe they’d found a way to get to her somehow. Regardless, if David determined exactly what they had her doing, he’d stand a better chance of figuring out what he could do to stop them.

  His eyes snapped open as the tram lurched forward. Startled out of his troubled thoughts, he saw his stop falling away behind him and his street with it. He jumped off the moving car and fell onto the sidewalk. So much for not attracting attention.

  David picked himself up, dusted himself off and began walking home—to lie down and get the rest he needed. He was looking forward to his comfortable bed and some real sleep.

  He just had to remember to set his alarm. As much as he might need the rest, he couldn’t afford missing out on the opportunity tonight presented—but he worried that his lack of sleep was affecting his judgment. He had to be sharp. Which was why he had to take the time for a short nap.

  He saw his home ahead in the dark and stopped dead where he stood, knowing now that he had to be suffering from severe sleep deprivation—for he was witnessing a furtive figure dressed in a trench coat and sunglasses with a scarf wrapped around their head knocking on the front door. Illuminated by the light of his own front porch. It’s absurd.

  He knew he was losing it when the door opened and the strange shadow slipped inside. David stood there for several minutes as he wondered if he was already asleep in his bed and dreaming all of this. Or maybe he hadn’t really woken on the tram, and the thing was still chugging around the compound with his slumbering form aboard.

  Then the breeze picked up, and he felt the cool, crisp night air blowing against his skin and through his hair. He began to feel more alert. He took a few deep breaths and then tried to pull his mind out of the quagmire into which it had been sinking.

  He wasn’t imagining things. Crystal was at the Rec Center doing her aerobics, and David’s mother was the only person in their house—except for the mysterious character who’d just entered. Who was definitely not Sgt. Rossiter.

  David knew he’d been half out of it when he’d witnessed the unknown person going into his home, but he recalled the height and shape of the person well enough. Taller than the sergeant, they hadn’t been as broad as the man, even in the trench coat. He’d gotten a definite impression it was a woman. One who could learn something about stealth from David, as unlikely as that seemed.

  Perhaps it was simply a friend of his mother’s. However, he knew she discouraged company, especially when she was working, which was most of the time. And he doubted a friend of his mom’s would go around exh
ibiting such bizarre behavior.

  As if from habit, he moved into the shadow of the back wall of a neighbor’s house and staked out his own front door.

  His brain tried to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. He saw an absurd picture of his house as the center of some screwball spy comedy, with Crystal and Sgt. Rossiter engaging in one conspiracy, while his mother and some other woman snuck around in a separate skullduggery.

  David wanted to laugh at the thought, but it was just too insane, and he was too tired. He wondered if his mother had encouraged him to stay out so she could have her ridiculous rendezvous. Maybe it was a man after all, and this was a romantic encounter.

  David tried to stop speculating. His immediate concern should be that he couldn’t go in and take a nap, unless he wanted to risk interrupting whatever was going on. If it was an assignation, he would be deeply embarrassed. If it was a meeting of conspirators—his mind shied away from that idea.

  He sighed. He couldn’t think of any way he’d be able to get his rest now. He could turn around and head back to the Rec Center and wait there for Crystal’s class to finish and continue following her—and he likely should. But he’d been investigating for what felt like ages with few leads and little success, and here was a discovery to be made. Even though he had no clue what this new piece of the puzzle was or how it might relate to anything, he felt compelled to stay and find out.

  David’s goal now was to identify this unidentified visitor. His mother had admitted the person to the house, so he wasn’t worried about her safety. Once he knew who the person was, maybe then he’d understand why they had visited in such a curious manner and what he did need to worry about. He’d find out, if the individual didn’t slip quietly out the back in a manner becoming increasingly popular of late.