by C. J.
“So no big plan on our end? I was sort of hoping to get our hands dirty. Kind of looking forward to pushing the big red button, so to speak,” Boss said as he pushed an imaginary button on his desk.
“At this time, no. We don’t have to annihilate a large segment of the population, sir. For now, people are weaning themselves off the formula or are going cold turkey thanks to fear. Most likely the formula’s effects will cease, and users will start to age again and slowly return to their usual, average ugly selves again.”
“We still have a problem; the world is in a bad place now.” Boss leaned forward in his chair and pointed his tented fingers at Joe. “The world needs someone to blame. They certainly aren’t going to blame themselves for the mess they got into. No one ever takes responsibility for their own actions. People usually started blaming the government first.” He rose and paced back and forth, waving his arms in front of him as if deflecting the onslaught of the public’s outrage. “Big cover-up, secret testing, etc. they’ll moan. No, we need a scapegoat or several scapegoats. I did some digging and found some old friends of mine. Here are the names and faces of our scapegoats, he said, handing Joe a copy of his list.
“Yes sir, excellent sir.”
“Oh, and Joe, you will also need someone who can recognize the original formula. That may come in handy at some point. Do we have any intel on that?”
“Yes, sir, I believe I can entice someone to come with me.” On that note, Joe exited the office quickly before the Boss thought to make him one of the scapegoats.
Boston looked at the names on his copy of the list and thought, I had a sweet cushy job in the world of academia, and you took it all away from me. I was only setting aside some money for my retirement and you made it sound dirty and criminal. Yes, technically it was a felony, but damn it, I was never charged. I knew this chance would come. Just like the proverbial bad penny that you are. Oh dear, I’ve made a horrible pun. You and your chemist boyfriend will be publicly humiliated like I was and then bang! Gone!
Boston slammed his fist on top of his desk, which caused everything atop it to skip briefly across the desk’s surface to its edge, teeter there momentarily, and then tumble onto the floor.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
SUZANNE VERASSING IGNORED the muffled cries from an industrial sized dryer at the New Mexico Correctional Facility and nonchalantly walked out of the laundry and down the hall to the kitchen. That will teach that bitch to cut in front of me at the cafeteria. Now to whip up a batch of brownies for my dear friend, the Warden.
In the kitchen as Suzanne began to make, her get out of jail faster, brownies for the warden, an explosion rocked the building. The far wall suddenly had a massive opening the size of a one-car garage door, through which a masked man in black, toting an AR15 rifle, now entered. He ran toward Suzanne and told her, “Come with me if you want freedom.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Suzanne replied as she dropped her bowl of batter. Anything to get out of this hole.”
Amongst more explosions at different areas around the prison, Suzanne and the masked man ducked through a newly made hole in the fencing surrounding Suzanne’s latest home, and ran toward a minivan parked by an access road to the penitentiary. When Suzanne hopped in the van, she saw there was another passenger.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Suzanne asked, and then turned to the masked man now seated in the driver’s seat. “Who are you and why are you doing this?”
“You can call me Joe. You have inside knowledge of Lexi Corp, their formulas, and their employees, correct?”
“Yes, but...?”
“Yes, well, he’s a consultant like you. We need specialized people to recognize the formula in all forms written and physical. Need to cover all bases.”
“But, he’s a fucking...”
“Noo, noo ah aye thought we git alang famously. Ah aye admired ye fae afar 'n' now...”
“Shut it Conner, or I will throw you out of this van. God of all the idiots to be teamed up with and I get stuck with a second-rate chemist who thinks he’s a leprechaun.”
“What? That’s not. What do you mean, second- rate? You twisted Betty Crocker.” Conner shouted in his normal voice.
“Quiet. You two will play nice. When I stop, we are going to change vehicles and” looking at Susan, Joe said, “You need to change out of your prison clothes.”
He drove a few miles then turned down an alley and parked behind a black SUV (Audi Q7). Joe exited the van checked the area and then waved them over to the Audi. Inside the SUV he stripped out of his black BDUs and into a polo shirt and khakis. He handed a bag containing clothes and a wig to Suzanne and told her to change as well.
After they were newly outfitted, Joe turned to Suzanne. “How would you like to finish the job that you started at Lexi? That is, finding the people that started this formula mess and make them pay for this worldwide disaster?”
“You had me at finish the job, but go on. Where are our targets?”
Joe turned in his seat and pointed at a map of the state. “We are just leaving here,” and pointed to a spot on the map.”
“Yes, Grants, lovely little town, I may just come back and retire if I turn senile. So where are we headed?” She followed his finger to a spot on the map just south of Grants. “Mother...” and turned to Joe who nodded. “You mean I’ve been practically in sniping distance of those, those...” as Suzanne was searching for an appropriate word she had grabbed an edge of the map and was slowly squeezing it toward her.
“Hey watch it.” Joe snapped and snatched his slightly crumpled map away from Suzanne.
“What’s with the old school map? You stuck in the twentieth century?”
“It’s hard to clone a paper map. We’re a little over two hours from target house.”
Suzanne put her hand over her heart and sighed, “My Prince Charming has finally arrived.” She pushed a hovering Conner away from her and snapped, “What are we waiting for? Let’s get going.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
APPROXIMATELY 125 MILES south in a secluded house surrounded by sand and cacti, a voice echoed, “Kitchen, everyone, now!”
Over the intercom system, Melissa’s voice could be heard throughout the house,
Important meetings were held in the kitchen since Danny and Kevin tended to panic less when they were eating. When everyone had gathered in the kitchen, Melissa turned on a monitor under a cabinet that showed surveillance camera images for a road that led from a town near their property. Two dark-colored SUVs were headed down this desolate path.
“I just got a call from Gabe in town, and he told me several strangers had stopped to buy gas and supplies at his shop. The group seemed odd, and he thought we should know. I’ve been tracking them since they left town and the vehicles seem to be headed this way,” Melissa said.
“How many?” asked Maggie.
“Two large SUVs. Both of them have dark tinted windows. Gabe only saw two people exit the vehicles, but he was under the impression the SUVs were full. Maybe six people in each.”
“Maybe they’re tourists or mafia. That’s it, they have some guy they just whacked in one of the SUVs, and the other SUV is filled with lye and shovels and. What?” Danny asked as Maggie slapped him on the side of the head.
“No more gangster movie marathons for you. Anything else, Melissa?” asked Maggie
“Well, Gabe called because in addition to buying gas, water, and snacks at the gas station, they stopped at Gabe’s place and picked up all of his boxes of the premium heavy-duty rounds. Those are the ones with the elephant on the package, plus some of the souped-up .223, .308, and .45 rounds. They cleaned out everything Gabe had in the back room. They paid in cash. The name on the FOID card was Tom Hero Fugue.
Through a mouthful of sandwich, Kevin said, “Oh shit, someone is serious. That is some serious ammo, and at the new prices, I don’t think I can count that high. Hell, Gabe can buy his own island now.”
“To
m Hero Fugue, hmmm,” said Maggie. That’s an unusual and idiotic name.
“Quit humming, Maggie, and start getting worried like the rest of us,” wailed Danny who was stuffing BBQ chips into his mouth.
“Not quite yet, Danny, I don’t believe in panicking until absolutely necessary. Right now I don’t think it’s necessary.”
All eyes were on the progress of the SUVs as they traveled down the dusty road, and came to a T intersection. A right turn took would take the SUVs to Danny and Maggie’s house a left, back to the highway.
As everyone held their breath, eyes glued to the video monitor, the SUV’s stopped at the intersection and paused, and paused, and paused.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
SUZANNE EXPLODED FROM the passenger seat of the SUV, “Where the hell are we, a giant litter box!”
Joe who wasn’t used to rhetorical questions answered, “We are only a few miles to target.”
“Is all this equipment necessary? I’m used to going in quick, hitting the target, and getting out quick. Okay, maybe occasionally I have to play an extended charade, but only if the payoff is worth it. This last one was not,” she snarled as she racked the slide back on her .380 G42 Glock and stuck it into her vest.
“Yes. As I told you before, we have to have scapegoats, and we have to broadcast them to the world. Sneaking in and offing them, as you have so delicately put it, does us no good.”
“Ah yes, shaming them before the world, I do like the sound of that, but they are going to have a messy end, right? You did promise me I get to finish what I started, and I started to annihilate them, so that’s what I plan on doing. You make them look foolish, which, from what I remember of them, that won’t be difficult. Then I get to tear them apart, little by little, tiny piece by tiny piece. The world will cheer as your scapegoats lives are ended one by one.” While painting this pretty picture, Suzanne broke a full box of ammo in half with her hands.
The IT personnel who were transfixed and horrified by Suzanne’s words recoiled in their seats when the box of ammo snapped in half. Jeremy, the newest IT member of the team, freaked out completely when the container gave way. He let out a high-pitched squeak and flung his iPad up into the air; it struck the SUV’s ceiling with a thud. Jeremy, Alex, and Cody had been recruited by Joe since he needed IT people who didn’t mind bending the law slightly, or altogether. In this case, all three IT recruits were on parole for hacking government systems and were not allowed to own or use any computers. When Joe asked them to join this expedition, they all jumped at the chance to use their skills again.
Suzanne, taping the ammo box back together, told Joe, “Please tell me these fearless he-men are staying in the vehicle. It was bad enough riding with that jabbering idiot Conner those few miles. Thank God he jumped into the second vehicle with your other buddies, but then we picked up these heroes.” She turned to look at the courageous twenty-somethings trembling in the backseat. The squeaky one, Jeremy, who had just tossed his iPad in the air, had a mass of curly dark hair atop a nearly perfectly round head attached to a toothpick body. He looks like a god damn lollipop, Suzanne thought to herself. Alex and Cody looked like they should still be in high school despite being in their mid-twenties. Alex was small and compact with shoulder length sandy hair that usually hung over his face, and wore round wire-rimmed glasses he was forever pushing up on his nose. Cody looked like a football player but dressed like a mixture of a rock, punk, and heavy metal aficionado. His jet black hair was cut into a Mohawk and he had multiple piercings on his face. He was dressed in black and dark purple clothing, which clung to his beefy six foot, 230 pound frame of quivering jelly.
“Yes, they can do everything remotely from the SUV. The other SUV has four highly trained personnel to assist in our mission and your “friend”, the chemist, you already met to assist in finding any relevant material.
“Thank God. Otherwise, I would’ve had to kill one of these nerds to keep the others in line.”
“Ha, that’s funny. She’s just kidding, right? You were just kidding,” Jeremy said to no one in particular.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
“I CAN’T TAKE THE SUSPENSE any longer. Why aren’t those things moving?” wailed Danny.
“Wait, something is happening. The passenger side door is opening on the second vehicle!” Kevin hollered, pointing at the screen.
Danny slapped Kevin’s hand away from the monitor, “We aren’t blind. Get your big fat finger out of the way. Shit, that’s Humberto! I recognize his L.L. Bean wardrobe.”
“I don’t know, that jacket looks more like your Eddie Bauer jacket than L.L. Bean” Danny muttered as he leaned in toward the monitor.
“Could be. Are you talking about that three- in- one jacket? That could be the lightweight liner he is wearing with the detachable hood. His looks like the hazelnut color I wanted, but you talked me out of. And that color’s not bland at all. It looks good in the desert, kind of blends. Damn it, I knew I should’ve gotten the hazelnut, but no, you talked me into the orange. I look like a fucking Popsicle in that thing. Hey, who’s that coming up behind Humberto?”
While Kevin and Danny had been discussing the finer points of menswear, Maggie and Melissa had decided to collect Humberto and his group, and Kevin and Danny now watched as Maggie and Melissa’s car lead Humberto’s group’s car down a dusty road, to a lone house surrounded by a large fence.
“So I guess we should start setting things up while the ladies bring in our guests,” Kevin said as he started propelling Danny toward the door.”
Danny and Kevin had already started setting up the room in the lone house they had nicknamed the “Q” room. Danny made a pit stop as he had a nervous bladder. “Man, I’m glad we put a bathroom in here. I know we have had to scare off those roaming bands of scavengers in the past, but they were disorganized and relatively easy to scare off. This is a worst fear scenario we never thought would come, but at least we of over-prepared for it. I hope we don’t even have to use a fraction of this arsenal. I’m getting kind’ a nervous. Geez, I may have to make another trip to the john.”
A voice could be heard outside the door: “How prepared are you for an assault on this house?” The voice started out strong and confident, but ended with a slight quake and squeak.
Assuming it was Humberto, Kevin opened the door. “Hey, buddy, Humberto, this place was designed to withstand certain problems outside the realm of everyday suburban difficulties. You scared the crap out of us. We thought this was it.”
“Um, actually this is it. There are a couple of SUVs a few minutes behind us with unfriendlies. These people are ruthless. At least the guy I know as the Boss is, and his second in command is one of those quiet scary types. I hope this place is as secure as you say it is.”
“All the glass is bulletproof. Doors are all oak and lead-lined.”
Momentarily forgetting the caravan of baddies coming their way, Humberto caressed the intricate carving on the door. “Oak, I thought this was oak. Beautiful, especially the hand carving. What is that, a roadrunner?”
“Yes, Danny and I also wanted a coyote, but we were shot down. Sorry, bad choice of words. Maggie and Mellissa thought that’d be too much and just wanted a desert scene with the roadrunner. Anyway, this place is very secure, very high-tech. Come into our ‘Q’ room and look at what we have. As Humberto entered, Kevin hollered into an intercom next to the door, Maggie, Melissa, per Humberto, we are going to have company shortly!”
“I filled them in when they collected us at the gate,” Humberto told Kevin.
“Never mind!” Kevin shouted at the intercom.
As Humberto and his group entered the “Q” room, a collective gasp rippled through the group. Danny’s panicked bladder had recovered, and he had opened all the secret panels, which revealed the surprises the room had to offer
The 007-like room, before the opening of cabinets of doom and gloom, as Melissa liked to call them (since that was also the name of one of her favorite kick-ass Stone
s tunes), looked like a comfy library or study where one could settle down with a good book. A stone fireplace graced the far left corner of the room, and two overstuffed leather recliners and an L-shaped, toffee- colored sofa faced it. Mounted above the hearth was a 40-inch flat screen TV. The walls were lined with built-in cherrywood bookcases that would make a librarian swoon, and the floor was a swirl of gray, brown and tan slate Danny was known to say that the color and style of flooring took longer to decide on than the Hundred Years’ War.
However, right now what caught Humberto’s and his team’s attention was what Danny had just revealed by opening the secret panels. They opened into a walk-in armory that would have made the DOD jealous. On the left were handguns by Glock, Taurus Hecker, and Koch HK45. All were .45 calibers. Humberto had so far counted 14 Glocks when one of the agents of SFPGABIBOONATDAP, or Counting Division also called CD called out to him.
“Oh my God, sir you should see what’s over here!” Carl yelled.
Humberto scurried over to Carl who was usually very soft-spoken and mild-mannered like most of his team. “What? I know there are a lot of weapons; I was just counting all the Glocks... oh, my, look at all these rifles. Several AK 47s and an AS50 sniper rifle. Did you know this will shoot five rounds in 1.6 seconds? Just a lovely little weapon. We brought one along as well. They have five. Let’s see, they also have several HK416 assault rifles. Ooooh, I’ve read about these, the FN Fal rifle, which fires a 7.62 round. This sucker can be used as a machine gun, combat rifle, or sniper gun. How many of these do they have? My, oh my, they have six of these. It’s like Christmas in here.”
Humberto’s hand brushed against one of the rifles in a caressing motion, and the entire cabinet swiveled around, revealing another level of weapons.
“Yikes, what did I do?”
“Nothing, you just exposed another layer of weaponry,” said Danny who had heard all Humberto’s oohing and ahhing and came over to show off the cabinets. “You have just uncovered the shotgun layer.