by Sandy Holden
My eyes widened as he left the room.
My phone chimed. I saw I had a text message from Tucker. It read: “Sorry! Phone problem. Home soon. Love u!” I sighed with relief, but as my worry left, my anger at his earlier behavior came rushing back.
I stood up, thinking I’d go and pack while Cal and Meri were chatting, but as soon as they saw me in the living room, Cal shook his head. “Madde, we’re not done.”
I thought about his last comment. “Yes, actually, I think we are.” I smiled at Meri, although I wished she hadn’t blabbed about my resistance or Gabriel’s abilities. The look Meri returned was tense and worried.
“Meri? Are you all right?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. Sure,” she said lightly, but her eyes seemed to be trying to communicate something to me. Whatever it was, I wasn’t getting it.
Cal said, “Madde, I’m sorry, but we are having this talk now. So sit down and tell me what you know.”
I stared at him. This was beyond annoying and bordering on frightening. “No,” I said steadily, taking a few steps away from him.
He took a step towards me and Meri touched his arm. “Sweetheart, if you—”
“Take your hand off me,” he said in the most menacing voice I’d ever heard.
Meri and I both froze. Cal blinked a couple of times. “I’m sorry Mair. I guess I need some sleep. I just don’t feel right.”
Now I understood Meri’s visual warning. Cal was getting sick. Cal was losing it.
I swallowed, wondering why everyone had to be gone today of all days. Was there a reason Meri hadn’t mentioned to him he might be getting sick? Should I just run and try to get help? Where the hell was Luis? I hadn’t seen him all day. I tried not to sound scared as I said, “Okay, we can talk. Let me go to the bathroom and I’ll tell you whatever you want. Unless you want to catch some sleep first?”
Now Cal looked suspicious. He looked at me, then at Meri, who was shaking almost visibly. Not with fear of Cal, but most likely with fear for him. He said in a soft voice. “I’m getting it, aren’t I? That’s what you think. I’m getting sick.”
Neither of us said anything for a long moment. Finally Meri said softly, “You’re probably just tired. But if you are getting sick, well, we have doctors, and we’ll help you, I promise.”
Cal sat down as if he was stunned. “I never thought I’d get it. They kept warning me it was possible, even likely that I would, but I had so many shots that I never really believed …”
Meri sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. “Oh sweetie. It’s okay.”
I was backing out of Cal’s line of sight. Once I thought I was far enough, I quietly pulled out my cell phone and slowly tried to get it to silent without Cal hearing. As I pressed the button that would silence the phone, it beeped, and Cal’s head shot around. I immediately looked at the phone, smiling at him. “I have a text message from Tucker. Excuse me if I don’t read it aloud.” I let my voice drip with insinuation as if it was something mushy.
Meri gave me a little smile, but Cal said, “Let me see your phone.”
“No way!” I said in what I hoped was a light, teasing voice. “Private property.” Cal used to use that term as a joke when other guys showed an interest in Meri.
He looked less upset for a minute. Then suddenly he rose. “If I’m getting sick, we have just that much less time. Madde, sit down.”
“Bathroom, okay?” I said, heading off. He launched himself over the couch and was at my side before I’d taken two steps. He grabbed my upper arm with a grip so tight I gasped. He pulled me over to the couch and threw me into it.
Meri stood and went to him. “Cal, what are you do—” She got no further before Cal shoved her back into the couch too.
“Just answer the questions, Madde,” he said.
I nodded. If he was able to push Meri around, the woman he loved, I wasn’t going to mess with him.
“First question, can you contact Gabriel?”
I looked at Meri, wondering how much she’d told him. But then I realized Cal could easily look on my phone where Gabriel’s name was clearly listed. I looked back at him. “Yes.”
“Do it. Tell him to come here.”
“Uh, Cal? Please tell me why?” I sounded pathetic, even to my own ears. I kept thinking about Eddy, and how he’d been at the end.
Cal said, “He’s dangerous. My assignment was simply to gather information, but if he has this power over people, then I know what I need to do.” His words were fast near the end.
I swallowed audibly. “Shouldn’t you ask someone’s opinion first? You know, report in?”
He looked unsure for a minute, but he shook his head. “It would take too long. I don’t have a lot of time.”
“But can’t you—” I froze as he pulled out his sidearm. I’d seen it there earlier and hadn’t really thought about it. So many people wore guns these days.
“Make the call, Madde,” he said, his voice oddly flat. The gun was not exactly trained on me, but I knew it could be in a second’s time.
Meri started to cry. “Please, Cal, please don’t do this.”
He looked at her, and the gun pointed briefly at her. “Meri, you don’t know how important this is. Just—you can’t keep talking—it’s—just stop!”
Meri just shook her head. I knew those words—they were so similar to what I’d heard as people went nuts. What had Eddy said? It’s just too much?
I slowly opened my phone. I tried to think what to do. No matter how mad I was at Gabriel, I did think he was helping the Hot Zone. And he was someone I knew, and at least partially respected. Could I set him up and get him killed? Even to save myself?
Cal released the safety on the gun. “Madde. If I have to, I’ll put a bullet in you. You won’t die. At least not right away.” Suddenly he looked at Meri, who was shaking her head, her face ravaged with tears. He frowned, turning back to me. “He’s dangerous. Who’s to stop him if I don’t? He could take over the entire world with the power he has. If you’d been able to kill Hitler in the early days, wouldn’t you have done it?” His voice was pleading now, pleading for understanding.
Gabriel as Hitler? I must have looked stunned, because he continued, “Think about it, Madde. You are the only one who can help me. You’re the only one who—Oh my God!” he said. “If you’re right, I won’t be able to do it. I won’t be able to pull the trigger.” He suddenly focused on me again. “Am I right?” He didn’t give me a chance to answer. “Just call him!” he yelled at me.
I was shaking as I found the contact number and pushed send. I heard Gabriel’s smooth voice on the other end of the line. “Madde? I’m glad you called.”
“Gabriel,” I said, and my voice must have tipped him off.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? In trouble?”
“Yes, thank you,” I said woodenly. I pressed the phone tightly to my ear so Cal wouldn’t hear Gabriel.
“Someone is there,” he said, almost to himself. “Where is Luis?”
“I was wondering, um, if you could come and see me, here at the house in Catfish,” I said. Cal nodded approvingly.
Silence. “Madde, you don’t want me there.”
“Right. So, could you come right away?” I hoped that he would understand not to come, that I was being forced to call.
“You want me to help you myself?” he said, completely misunderstanding me.
Cal was looking increasingly agitated. “No, I don’t think so,” I said a little desperately. Cal frowned, suddenly swiping the phone from my hands. He held it upside-down so that he could talk into it, but couldn’t hear anything. “Better come quickly, hotshot, or your girlfriend here will be nothing but a memory. Anyone comes with you, and she dies. I don’t want to hurt you, just talk to you. That’s it. Better hurry,” he snapped the phone shut.
I saw Hoover, her paws on the sill of the window, looking in. I wondered if she could hear and understand what was happening. I wondered if she’d go help us. I won
dered if I was going crazy. Cal saw me looking at the window, and looked over as well. He saw the dog there, and quickly moved the gun to point at her. Hoover’s paws disappeared from the sill.
I said in a soft voice to Cal. “I don’t know what Meri told you, but Gabriel and I aren’t really that close. We kind of had a fight, and—”
Cal nearly snarled at me, “You had better get on you knees and pray that he comes. If I have to go to him, there will be a whole lot of bloodshed.” He gave me an appraising look. “You are going to shoot him,” he said with a smile.
I shook my head automatically.
“Yes,” he affirmed. “You aren’t affected by him, so you’re maybe the only one who can.” I noticed Cal was sweating now. This was happening too fast. “You’re going to do it because if you don’t …” he hesitated, again looking lost.
After he took a deep breath, he said to me. “If you don’t, I’ll shoot Meri.”
I stared at him, unable to believe what I’d just heard. Meri apparently felt the same way. He looked at her, and his voice was pleading. “You understand, right? This has to be done. And she loves you and doesn’t want you hurt. If Phil were here, I’d use her. I don’t want to hurt you. I just don’t have any one else that she feels that strongly about. Maybe Tucker will come and I can use him,” he mused.
He went and looked out the window. Meri moved very slowly until her hand was in mine. Any other movement was rewarded by an immediate and increasingly wild look by Cal. He was damp with sweat now. The minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly. He turned to me. “How long for him to get here?”
I jumped. “Hour and a half,” I lied. It didn’t take so long—closer to an hour. I wasn’t sure what time it was, and didn’t dare get my cell phone out to look. My only plan for the moment was to hope that Gabriel contacted someone who would help us, or that Cal would collapse before Gabriel got here, if he came at all.
I heard a car coming down the gravel drive. Cal swung away from the window and went to the front door, carefully looking out. He glared at me. “An hour and a half? You’re sure?”
I nodded.
“Blue car, a crossover.”
I tried to think. “Um, I don’t know.”
Cal shook his head and said to himself, “I’ll just have to kill them.” He sounded regretful but sure.
The person pulled in so that when she got out of the car, it was between her and the front door. As she peeked over the top of the car, I suddenly recognized who it was. Karen the toxic ex-girlfriend. Perfect.
Karen waved, calling, “I have a message from Gabriel. Can I come in?”
Cal shouted back, “He’d better get here soon.”
“Yes,” Karen called. “Can I come in?”
Meri and I looked at each other and our hands tightened. Cal finally called to her to enter, and allowed Karen to come around the car and just inside the front door.
Cal’s hair was dripping with sweat now. He weaved a little as he turned to check on us. He looked at Karen. “Go sit on the couch with them.”
Karen nodded but then seemed to stumble. She fell to one knee, looking terrified and embarrassed all at the same time.
There was a crashing noise from the other end of the room where the plate glass windows were located. In the same heartbeat, Cal reeled backwards, blood blossoming from his chest. In through the broken window ran Luis, followed closely by Tucker.
Cal was trying to get back up, and his hand was raising the gun. I yelled, and threw myself forward, but I knew I couldn’t reach him in time.
He was pulling the trigger when Karen pushed his hand out of the way. The bullet hit another of the plate glass windows, and the crash of glass filled the room. My ears were ringing from the two gunshots. Luis was subduing Cal, and Meri flew over to them both, shoving Luis away with amazing strength and screaming at me to call for a doctor. I couldn’t get my shaking hands to even find the right number, but then I heard Tucker’s voice on his phone. “We have an emergency at the Moreton house. Gunshot wound, chest.”
I turned to him. “And he’s sick—he’s got our illness.”
Tucker added, his eyes on mine, “And he’s got the illness we all got from the bioweapons.” Pause. “You are?” He walked over to the front door, where I could now see emergency lights flashing. Three medics, including our doctor and Carla Phillips, rushed in, immediately going to Cal, who was now motionless on the floor, a shocking amount of blood on him and pooling on the floor.
Tucker gathered me out of the sofa and pulled me some distance away. Hoover stepped in gingerly through the broken windows and over to me, jumping up to put her front paws on me. Luis was still watching Cal, but said to me, “That freaking dog about killed me until I told her I was here to help. I always thought you were nuts for talking to her like she understood, but now I’m a believer.”
I was staring at Tucker from the safety of his encircling arms. “How?”
But a buzzing on his phone interrupted Tucker. He looked at the message there, and then at me. “Can you talk to Gabriel? He’s worried.”
I nodded and reached for my phone, but Tucker shook his head. “He’s here.”
I looked wildly around, but Tucker gave me a gentle squeeze. “No, he’s in a car, probably in the drive now.”
I looked out the window, and sure enough, the strange limo-SUV was sitting in the drive. I said to Tucker, “Don’t go out there!”
“I won’t.” Tucker sighed. “But he wants you out there. It’s your choice, but I think if you don’t go out, he’s coming in.”
I nodded, still feeling dazed. Tucker stayed with me until we were halfway to the car, then I turned to him. “Just stay here. Don’t listen and don’t look.”
Tucker nodded, but I could see he thought I was overdoing it. Maybe I was, but I wanted Tucker unchanged. I went to the back door and it opened. I got inside. The interior was dim compared to outside, but I could see Gabriel there. He took me by the arms and gave me a thorough look. “You’re unhurt?” he said tensely.
“I’m fine,” I said, although I was still shaking.
He let out a breath, sagging a little. “You don’t know how hard it was to let them handle this while I hid in the car like a—” He closed his eyes. “Madde, what happened?”
I told him about Cal and his illness and his demands. “I’m sorry I called, I suppose I shouldn’t have risked your life like that, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
“No, you did the right thing.”
“So how did you know? You contacted Karen?”
“Luis first, then Karen. I told them what was happening. I was already in the car on the way here. I didn’t know if he would try to kill me, but that’s what I guessed. We had some intelligence that the U.S. was sending someone in. Your boyfriend,” there was an annoyed emphasis on the word boyfriend, “helped out as well. We had Karen come in the front, so she could be a diversion, while Luis came around up on the deck from the back.” He gave a rueful laugh. “Your boyfriend wanted to be the diversion, but I was afraid of what you would say if I let him get killed. After I heard what Karen did last night, well, I figured she owed you.” He looked at me carefully. “Madde, I’m sorry about Raine and, well, the others. I don’t really have an excuse, but I am sorry.”
I nodded.
“You’re happy with him?”
“Yes,” I said, although a scary part of me wanted to beg Gabriel to kiss me.
“I’m a selfish person, because in spite of that, I want you for myself.” His voice was self-mocking.
I didn’t know what to say. “Gabriel,” I started, but he interrupted.
“I’d give them up, if you would come and live with me,” he said suddenly. “I just want you to know that.”
I looked at him, and then I looked out of the tinted windows at Tucker, who was waiting for me, probably knowing this very thing might happen. Yet he hadn’t tried to get me to stay with him. I turned back to Gabriel, “We’d have the same problems. Always pulled
together, but not able to do a thing about it. You having to be careful not to topple me, and me being careful not to do the same to you. We’d both be miserable.”
He sighed. “I see your point. But that doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying to change your mind.”
I said, “I’d better go. Thank you for saving me.”
He snorted. “I could say the same. To be honest, as mad as you were the last time I saw you, I am surprised you didn’t just lure me here and let him kill me.”
“I thought about it,” I said with a little grin.
He sucked in a quick breath and suddenly kissed me softly. “Damn,” he said. “I didn’t intend to do that.” He pulled his hands away from me resolutely. “Good-bye for now, Madde.”
“Good-bye, Gabriel,” I said, and quickly left the car before my libido could get the better of me. It was just his ability to make everyone love him—that had to be all it was.
I went back to Tucker and led him safely back into the house. We passed the medics loading Cal into the ambulance. Carla Phillips paused to say to us, “He’s alive. Not sure he’ll stay that way for long. Prayers might be as good as medicine on this one.” Meri, still looking shocked, went with him in the ambulance. We watched it leave, followed by Gabriel’s car.
Luis was full of apologies for not guarding me adequately. I gave him a hug and thanked him for rescuing us. “I suppose you could have killed him, so thanks for just wounding him instead.” I said.
“Tucker said he was a friend. We figured there must be a reason why he was acting like this, so I tried to give him a chance.”
I led Tucker into the master bedroom and closed the door. I couldn’t believe it was only now dinnertime. It seemed like this day had lasted a week. Tucker looked at me warily. “Is this bad news?” he asked.
“What?” I had no idea what he meant.
“You love him, and in spite of what you think, he loves you as well,” Tucker said resignedly.
“Cal?”
“Gabriel,” Tucker said as if that should have been obvious.