by Brian Parker
“Yeah…” I mumbled as I turned the Jeep into a parking lot for the park.
Her assertion that no one knew about her wasn’t correct. The Paladin knew about her, which meant that Tommy Voodoo probably knew about her, too. Those two seemed to share the same information, further strengthening my belief that they worked together somehow.
“Here, can you help me put it on?” Teagan asked, once again holding up the bracelet.
I put the car in park and twisted in my seat to clasp the bracelet on her wrist. She gripped the sides of my face and pulled me into a kiss.
“Thank you, Zach. It’s beautiful.”
“Not half as much as you are,” I replied.
She pushed me back playfully. “Oh my God! That was so cheesy! You are such a goofball.”
Her grin made me smile, covering my shock. I thought I’d given her a nice compliment and she threw it back at me. I really sucked at this dating thing.
“Come on. I’m hungry,” she said.
We made our way across the wet grass to a semi-secluded area and I set up Teagan’s canopy while she laid out a waterproof blanket. In minutes, we had a nice little picnic set up underneath overhead cover.
We ate a light snack of olives, cheese, crackers and wine, all from the Pharaoh. It was perfect.
“Okay, maybe I was wrong,” I began.
“About what?” Teagan asked, leaning back on her elbows.
“Maybe I do like picnics.”
She laughed. “See, I told you. Maybe you hadn’t been with the right person before.”
I wanted to say something about her being the right person, but held off since that sounded lame—even to me. I settled instead for nodding my chin and smiling.
“This is perfect,” Teagan continued. “The sound of the rain on the canopy, the food, the wine…you.”
“Teagan, I—”
Her eyes went wide and she launched herself across the blanket, landing on top of me. She kissed me deeply, flattening her body along mine. She was insatiable, practically burying her face in mine.
“Good afternoon, miss,” a male voice echoed across the grass, probably from the pathway.
Teagan slid her hand under my neck and pressed my face into her shoulder as she looked up. “Good afternoon, officer.”
Through her hair, I could see a young cop on the path with his hand on his weapon.
“You two keep it clean, this is a family park.”
“Of course. We’re just kissing. There’s nothing illegal about that, is there?”
“No, there’s not. Don’t let it go any farther than that. Have a good day.”
“You too,” I shouted into her shirt.
“Bye,” Teagan added.
She watched the officer depart and then relaxed the pressure against my neck. “That was close.”
I nodded, kissing her once again when she dropped her face to mine.
“The fairy tale is over,” I stated when we separated. “We need to get back inside. I can’t risk anyone discovering that we’re together.”
“That’s fine by me,” she answered. “My Valentine’s Day isn’t over, though.”
“It isn’t?”
“Not by a long shot.”
“Teagan, I don’t—”
“Shut up, Zach,” she said as she covered my mouth with her hand. The bracelet sparkled in the light. “This is my Valentine’s Day and we’re going to do what I want.”
“And what is it that you want?”
She smiled deviously. “I hope you ate enough. You’re going to need your energy.”
TWENTY: SUNDAY
I’d done a fine job of ruining the “just friends” relationship that Teagan and I had. For months after I found out about her feelings for me, I’d been adamant that I wanted to keep her safe by keeping my distance from her. Now that had all changed.
“Good morning. You awake?” she asked as her finger twirled slowly in the hair on my chest.
“Yeah,” I replied softly.
“How’d you sleep?”
“As good as can be expected.” Teagan had a twin bed. It had been a tight squeeze, but more room than the recliner.
“You thinking about what we did?”
“Of course. I’ve known you for so long. To take that step, it’s just…”
“Amazing?” she offered.
“I was thinking more along the lines of problematic.”
She dropped her hand down flat on my chest and pushed herself up, giving me a full view down the length of her lithe, caramel body.
“What are you talking about, Zach?”
“We shouldn’t have done that,” I replied. “I feel like I took advantage of you.”
“Don’t you make this about you,” Teagan scolded. “This is about both of us. I was a willing participant.”
“You’re still in school. You don’t even know about the world yet and here I am, some creepy old dude inserting myself into your life.”
“What? You—” She stopped and started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“Your choice of words a second ago.”
I tried to remember what I’d said. Something about me being creepy and old while she was inexperienced.
“Oh, come on, Zach! Ha! See, I just did it.”
“What? Oh…”
She lay back down beside me and I jumped a little when her hand wrapped around my limp dick.
“You didn’t take advantage of me, Zach. I’ve wanted you for a long time.”
Her fingers tightened and she began to work new life into me. “I’m graduating in a few months and then I’ll be your definition of an adult. Until then, you can be the creepy old guy and I’ll be your little student.”
“Dammit, Teagan. I’m serious.”
“So am I,” she replied, sliding toward the end of the bed.
I flexed my stomach and watched the top of her head for a moment before lying back to enjoy what she was doing.
She stopped and looked up at me. “See. Isn’t this much nicer than talking about that other stuff? Let’s just live in the moment.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond before she slid up to my chest and guided me inside her once more.
Well, this is fucking awkward.
I glanced over to the passenger seat where the Paladin sat, softly tapping his fingers on his knees. He was in his full armor, including the facemask, sitting there like it was perfectly normal as I drove across the lake toward Slidell.
In my mind, elevator music played, giving the entire situation a ridiculousness that I couldn’t even begin to describe.
“Why are you wearing your mask?” I asked.
“Because I don’t want people to know who I am.”
“We’re going into a potential firefight together, don’t you think I should know who I’m going with? Like… Oh, I don’t know. What’s your name?”
“The vid feeds call me the Paladin. You know that, Forrest.”
“Uh, alright. Why do you wear a mask?”
“Because I don’t want people to know who I am,” he repeated more forcefully.
“And the voice?”
“The same reason. If I didn’t have my voice disguised, then I could be identified.”
This was getting me nowhere so I stopped talking and concentrated on the road, trying to ignore the stares of the people who passed us.
“Jesus. Could you at least recline the seat or something?” I asked. “People are staring.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
He reclined the passenger seat slowly until he was almost horizontal. If it wasn’t such an important and dangerous mission, I would have laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
I felt more apprehension about the place in Slidell than I had in Easytown. Maybe it was that I was totally outside of my jurisdiction—not that it mattered, since technically everywhere was outside of my jurisdiction now that I was suspended.
I think the real reason I was nervous was because the
night I found Sadie I had a police drone as backup. I’d felt entirely safe with one of those things guarding the perimeter. No one could have snuck up on me from outside the warehouse. In Slidell, I didn’t have that. Worse, I was going in with a man who’d I’d been actively hunting down a few days ago and I had no idea of his abilities, other than he had a penchant for beheading gangers and drug dealers.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” the Paladin mumbled.
“What’s that?”
“I almost forgot. Remember that I told you I had my ways of getting around the cameras in Easytown?”
“Yeah?”
“I found something for you.” He pointed at the Jeep’s computer system. “Mind if I?”
“No, go ahead. Just make sure you don’t turn on the GPS or we’ll light up like the Fourth of July on the police scanners.”
“Sure. No problem.”
He pulled a cable from the sleeve of his armor and plugged it into the dashboard. The car projected a holographic keyboard and he typed a few commands.
“You ready for this?”
“What am I supposed to see?”
“Just watch.”
“I’m driving.”
“Oh, right. Maybe you should pull off.”
“Is it that important?”
“For you it is. This is the piece of evidence that will clear your name in that cop shooting.”
I sped up to get off the bridge as soon as possible. Three minutes later, we made it off the bridge and I pulled off onto the shoulder.
“Okay, let’s see it.”
He pressed the playback button and the vid display on the dash began playing the footage from one of Easytown’s security cameras. I recognized the background as a stretch of businesses along The Lane. People milled about in the background, huddling under umbrellas and awnings as they went about their business.
Then I ran into the shot. I was on my phone and my face was clearly visible under my hat. The video switched to a second camera as they tracked my movement along the sidewalk toward my Jeep. From the perspective of another camera, I extended my hand for some reason, possibly to adjust my sleeve to keep the rain from getting inside. I slowed to a walk and then punched the air. It must have been when I was on the phone with Brubaker and he told me that I was wanted on nonexistent charges.
Even better, the Paladin found the same images used in the video of Karen Goldman’s shooting. When I extended my arm like that, they’d superimposed a pistol in my hand and fed that to the media.
“Good. We can take that and—”
“What do you take me for, Detective? I’m not some amateur. The show’s only just begun.”
“Huh?”
“Keep watching.”
The video showed me walking off the screen and switched to another shot and then another as the camera’s recorded my progress down Jubilee Lane. About halfway through the fifth video camera feed, I put my phone up to my ear, crammed my hat down further on my head and flipped up my coat collar as I passed Officer Goldman and then got in my Jeep. There was clear evidence that I passed her without shooting her.
“Here’s the best part,” my passenger stated.
The video showed me hitting the car in front of the Jeep and then backing into the one behind before finally pulling onto the street and driving away erratically.
Then the footage switched to Karen Goldman walking her beat, the area she was in strangely devoid of people. A large man, his face hidden from view, pulled out a pistol and shot her in the face. Then he disappeared down an alley.
“Notice the timestamp,” the Paladin directed.
I watched as the video continued and yet another camera’s footage flickered onto the screen as drones pushed the crowds of people away from a row of businesses. The timestamp showed it as happening two minutes prior to the video of Karen’s death.
“What am I—” My voice caught in my throat when I saw what happened. “The drones are pushing the crowds back to clear the area of witnesses.”
I squinted to see what their public message screen displayed, but I couldn’t see.
“That’s right,” he nodded. “The police secured the crime scene before it happened. There were no witnesses to Officer Goldman’s murder except for the security cameras.”
It wasn’t a smoking gun as far as who killed her, but it sure as hell showed that I didn’t do it.
“Can you send this to Chris Young?”
“I’ll do it right after we’re done in Slidell.”
I thought about the potential for the mission to go bad. I could get killed, never having cleared my name, or the Paladin could get killed, never having sent the videos. I didn’t like it.
“I need you to send them now, please.”
“Why the rush? If they air it, the vid feed won’t start until eight. We’ve got time.”
“No, I need this to get out as soon as possible. If something happens to either of us, the truth needs to be known.”
“Then I don’t have any leverage over you,” he reminded me.
“Leverage? Is that what this is about? I didn’t even know you had this footage and was still working with you.”
“I—”
“Please,” I said. “You won’t hear me say that often. That’s how much this means to me.”
He considered it for a moment before answering. “Alright. Do you have his contact info?”
I turned on my phone and found the reporter’s personal and work emails.
“Here’s where to send them to.”
The Paladin typed the information quickly. “Hold on,” I said. “Can you send it to this address as well?”
I typed in Teagan’s name and then thought better of it. As it stood right now, there wasn’t anything linking her with me in any way. I backspaced over her name and instead, typed Brubaker’s. Then I showed it to the Paladin so he could email the files.
TWENTY-ONE: SUNDAY
“What do you think we’re going to find in there?”
“I don’t know,” I replied as I surveyed the two-story community theater building through a small pair of binoculars. “Hopefully, a lot of live clones.”
“What if we don’t?”
I sighed in frustration. Paladin had been asking the same type of “what if” questions since we arrived at the address that Tommy Voodoo gave me ten minutes ago. My answer was the same now as it was every other time before this.
“I don’t know. We won’t know until we get in there and see what we’ve got.” I shifted to look at him, but his face was unreadable behind the mask. “Are you nervous?”
“My armor will keep me safe, but I don’t want to find a bunch of dead women. Not sure I can handle it.”
“Then why’d you come?”
“Because you needed backup.”
“No, I didn’t,” I countered. “I’m glad you’re here, but I don’t need your help.”
He was silent, so I thought about the way my words must have come across. I didn’t know the guy, so I had no way of telling how he’d interpret my statement. “You can stay here if you’d prefer,” I backpedaled slightly. “It’s always good to have a lookout watching over your shoulder.”
“No. I’m going in with you. I can do things that you can’t.”
“Like what?”
“See in the dark.”
I pulled the aftermarket night vision goggles out of my bag. “I’ve got that covered.”
“I have the ability to provide a smoke screen and the suit can produce both area lighting and strobe lighting. The strobes are set in intensity and frequency to cause nausea.”
I knew about the smoke based on our previous run-in, but I didn’t know about the other non-lethal defenses. I wondered what else he had up his sleeve.
“Alright, you’re in. Stick close to me. We’re leaving in a couple of minutes.”
I turned down an alley to piss and double-check my weapons. The SIG Sauer .45 had a round in the chamber and another twelve in the magazine. I also
had two more full magazines in my duster’s pocket that I’d wrapped in paper towels to keep them from rattling against one another when we were trying to sneak around. I was good to go on conventional weaponry.
The Aegis was another story. I’d been out on Jubilee Lane when I learned that Mayor Cantrell was calling for my arrest on nonexistent charges. That was three and a half days ago. I hadn’t thought to ask Sadie to grab the charger for it when she fled my apartment either. When I wrapped my palm around the pistol grip, the charge indicator came up as a yellow light. I had one, maybe two, shots left. Better make them count.
“You ready?” I asked, almost calling the Paladin a kid. In truth, I knew nothing about the guy. How old he was. Where he was from. What motivated him to stalk drug dealers and gangers in Easytown and murder them in cold blood. You know, the little things.
“Yeah. Let’s do this.”
It was three in the afternoon. The only concealment we had was the rain coming down in a fine mist. I would have preferred to go when it was dark, but I also wanted to get here before the gamblers showed up. That’s all I needed was some rich guy’s wife suing the police department because he got himself killed in the crossfire with a renegade cop.
We made our way down the street toward the target building. The only vehicle in the parking lot was a large box truck. No one had entered or left the theater while we watched. Voodoo thought the festivities were supposed to start once the afternoon football games ended. I had no idea what time the security and the torturers would show up.
Paladin jacked into the security system and disengaged the back door lock. It was much quieter than my plan to blast the locking mechanism.
We slipped inside to total darkness. I fumbled for my NVGs, pulling them out of the small case on my belt.
“It’s clear back here,” Paladin whispered before I could see.
I slipped the goggles over my eyes and turned them on. Green light illuminated everything. Freestanding racks of clothing held costumes of all shapes and sizes, boxes lined several rows of shelving along the wall and cleaning supplies occupied one corner, piled around a small washbasin set low to the floor. We were in a storeroom of some kind.
“You see a door?” I asked.
“Yeah, this way,” he replied, leading me to a doorway on the far side of the shelving units. Paladin’s night vision was obviously far better than what I had.