Invasion (27 page)

The pedestrians stood in front of the captain and pointed up to the lights in the fourth-floor windows. They told the captain that all the “unchanged” were up there. The captain nodded, then waved to the others to follow him. En masse they entered the building.

CASSY HAD FINISHED HER TYPING AND WAS WAITING BY THE
printer as it spewed out the pages. Jonathan moved over so he was standing next to her.

“I still don’t understand why Atlanta,” Jonathan said. “Why not just go to the the health authorities here?”

“Because we don’t know whose side the local health people are on,” Cassy said. “The problem is here in this city, and we can’t risk spilling all we know to somebody who might be one of them.”

“But how do you know it’s not happening in Atlanta?” Jonathan asked.

“We don’t know,” Cassy admitted. “At this stage we’re just hoping.”

“Besides,” Pitt said, overhearing, “the CDC is the best bet for handling this kind of problem. It’s a national organization. If need be they could quarantine this city or even the whole state. And perhaps most critical of all, they can get the word out. This whole affair has happened so fast here that the media haven’t even picked up on it.”

“Either that or the people who control the media are all infected,” Cassy said.

Cassy got her pages together and joined them with Pitt’s. As she was stapling them together the lights flickered.

“What the hell was that?” Jesse asked. He was tense like everyone else.

For a moment no one moved. Then the lights went out. The only illumination came from computer screens that had backup battery power sources.

“Don’t panic,” Nancy said. “The building has its own generators.”

Jonathan went to the window. He cranked it open and stuck his head out. Below he could see light coming from lower floors. He relayed this disturbing information to the others.

“I don’t like this,” Jesse said.

The faint but high-pitched whine of the elevator permeated the room. The elevator was coming up.

“Let’s get out of here!” Jesse yelled.

Frantically the group threw together all their papers and packed them into a leather briefcase before racing from the room. In the darkened hall they could see from the floor indicator that the elevator was almost there.

With Nancy silently beckoning to show the way, they ran the length of the corridor and burst through the door into the stairwell. They started down but almost immediately heard a door opening three floors below them on the ground level.

Jesse, who was now in the lead, made a snap decision and detoured into the corridor of the third floor. Everyone followed.

They dashed to the stairwell at the opposite end. Jesse held up until Sheila brought up the rear. As Jesse was about to open the door, he caught a glimpse through the
door’s window of someone coming up the stairs. Quickly he ducked down and motioned frantically for the others to do the same. They all heard the heavy footfalls of several people charging up the stairs, heading to the fourth floor.

The moment Jesse thought he heard the stairwell door above close, he pulled open the door in front of him. He looked up. Satisfied the stairwell was now empty, he motioned for the others to follow him down to the ground level.

They regrouped in front of a door that said it was armed and was restricted for emergency use only.

“Everybody here?” Jesse whispered.

“We’re all here,” Eugene said.

“We get in that van and we’re out of here,” Jesse said. “I’ll drive. Let me have the keys.”

Nancy gladly passed them to him.

“Okay, go!” Jesse said. He burst through the door, setting off the alarm. The others followed closely at his heels. They ran half bent over. Within a few seconds they were inside the car, and Jesse had the engine roaring.

“Hang on,” he warned. He gunned the engine. With a screech of tires they rocketed out of the parking lot. Jesse didn’t bother to stop at the security gate. The van hit the black-and-white wooden bar and snapped it cleanly off.

Jonathan turned and looked out the rear window. Glancing up at the darkened windows of the fourth floor, he saw several pairs of glowing eyes. They appeared like cats’ eyes reflecting the beam of a headlight.

Jesse drove rapidly but purposefully within the speed
limit. He’d passed a few squad cars and didn’t want to attract their attention.

At a traffic light everyone began to calm down enough to discuss who it could have been that had tried to corner them in the Serotec building. No one had any idea. Nor did anyone know who would have tipped them off. Nancy questioned whether the night security man might be one of “them.”

At the next light, Pitt happened to glance over at the car alongside them. When the driver turned to look at Pitt, his face immediately reflected recognition. Pitt saw him reach for his cellular phone.

“This sounds crazy,” Pitt said. “But I think the guy next to us recognizes us.”

Jesse responded by ignoring the red light. He surged forward between cars, then turned off the main street. They bumped down a back alley.

“Aren’t we going the opposite direction from the airport?” Sheila asked.

“Don’t worry,” Jesse said. “As the expression goes, I know this city like the back of my hand.”

They made a few more surprising turns down small, out-of-the-way streets. Then to everyone’s surprise they sped up an entrance to the freeway that no one in the car besides Jesse knew existed.

They drove the rest of the way to the airport in silence. It was becoming clear to everyone the extent of the conspiracy and that they could not let down their guard.

Jesse drove up to the departure level of the airport and pulled to a halt at terminal C. Everyone piled out of the van.

“We can take care of ourselves from here,” Sheila said, grabbing the briefcase containing the hastily assembled report. “Why don’t the rest of you get back home to safety?”

“We’re going to see you three off,” Jesse said. “I want to make sure there is no more trouble.”

“What about the van?” Pitt asked. “Do you want me to stay here with it?”

“No,” Jesse said. “I want all of us inside.”

The interior of the terminal at that hour was all but deserted. A cleaning crew was polishing the expansive terrazzo floor. The Delta counter was the only one occupied. The monitors said that the Atlanta flight was on time.

“All you people head out to the gate,” Jesse said. “I’ll get the tickets. Just be sure to have your picture IDs handy.”

The group hurried across the terminal and approached airport security. There were a few other passengers who were waiting their turn to put their carry-on baggage into the X-ray detector.

“Where are the black discs?” Cassy whispered to Pitt.

“Eugene has them in his knapsack,” Pitt answered.

At that moment Eugene dropped the knapsack on the conveyer, and it disappeared inside the machine. He stepped through the metal detector.

“What if they set off an alarm?” Cassy said.

“I’m more worried that the security personnel might be one of ‘them’ and recognize the image on X-ray,” Pitt said.

Both Pitt and Cassy held their breath as the woman
security guard halted the machine. Her eyes were glued to the X-ray image. It seemed like a full minute before the woman restarted the conveyer belt. Cassy sighed in relief. She and Pitt stepped through the metal detector and caught up with the others.

They all avoided locking eyes with any of the other passengers as they walked out the concourse. It was nerve-racking not knowing who was infected and who wasn’t. As if reading everybody’s mind, Jonathan said: “I think you can tell who they are by either their smiles or their eyes.”

“What do you mean?” Nancy asked.

“It’s either a fake smile or their eyes glow,” Jonathan said. “Of course you can only see the eyes in the dark.”

“I think you are right, Jonathan,” Cassy said. She’d witnessed both.

They arrived at the gate. The plane was already mostly boarded. They moved to the side to wait for Jesse.

“See that woman over there?” Jonathan said while pointing. “Look at that stupid grin. I bet five bucks she’s one of them.”

“Jonathan!” Nancy whispered forcibly. “Don’t be so obvious.”

VINCE GARBON PULLED THE UNMARKED POLICE CAR OVER
to the curb, directly behind the Sellerses’ minivan.

“Obviously they are here,” Captain Hernandez said as he got out of the car. A second car pulled up behind the first. Candee, her parents, and the other plainclothes officers emerged.

Like iron filings being drawn to a magnet, a number
of infected airport workers immediately drew around the captain and his group.

“Gate 5, terminal C,” one these people said to the captain. “Flight 917 for Atlanta.”

“Let’s go,” Captain Hernandez said. He stepped through the automatic door into the terminal and waved for the others to follow him.

NOW WHERE’S JESSE?” SHEILA ASKED. SHE LOOKED FOR
him back along the concourse toward the main terminal. “I don’t want to miss this flight.”

“Eugene,” Nancy whispered to her husband. “With all that’s going on, I’m having second thoughts about leaving Jonathan. Maybe one of us should stay here.”

“I’ll watch out for him,” Jesse said. He’d come up behind the group in time to hear Nancy’s comment. “You do your thing in Atlanta. He’ll be fine.”

“How did you get here?” Sheila asked.

Jesse pointed toward an unmarked, locked door just behind them. “I’ve been to the airport so many times investigating various crimes that I know the place better than my own basement.”

He handed tickets to Nancy, Eugene, and Sheila. Nancy gave her son one last hug. Jonathan remained stiff with his arms at his side.

“You be careful, hear me?” Nancy said, trying vainly to look Jonathan in the eye.

“Mom!” Jonathan complained.

“Let’s go,” Sheila said. “It’s last call.”

With Sheila in the lead and Nancy bringing up the rear to give her son a final wave, the three checked in at the
gate, showed their picture ID’s then disappeared down the jetway. A few minutes later the jetway pulled back from the plane and the plane taxied out into the night.

Jesse turned from the window with a sigh of relief. “They’re off, thank God,” he said. “But now we…”

Jesse didn’t get to finish his sentence because he saw Captain Hernandez and Vince Garbon leading a large pack of people. They were walking quickly down the center of the concourse, heading directly toward gate 5.

Cassy saw the cloud descend over Jesse’s face and started to ask what was wrong. But Jesse didn’t give her a chance. Roughly he herded the group back against the unmarked door.

“What’s going on?” Pitt demanded.

Jesse ignored him and quickly punched in the combination on the keypad next to the doorknob. The door opened. “Go!” he commanded.

Cassy was first through the door followed by Jonathan and then Pitt. Jesse pulled the door shut behind himself.

“Come on!” he whispered harshly. He rapidly descended a flight of metal stairs, and ran along a corridor until he came to a door to the outside. On a series of pegs next to the door were yellow rain ponchos with hoods. Quickly he tossed one to each of the others and told them to put them on, including the hoods.

Everyone complied. Cassy asked who he’d seen.

“The chief of police,” Jesse said. “And I know for sure he’s one of them.”

Once again typing the combination onto a keypad, Jesse opened the door to the outside. The group stepped
out onto the tarmac. They were directly below the jetway for gate 5.

“See that luggage train over there?” Jesse said as he pointed. It was a tractor-like vehicle hitched to a string of five baggage carts. It was parked about fifty feet away. “We are going to walk over there real casual like. The problem is we’ll be visible from the windows above. Once there you all are going to climb into one of the baggage cars. Then, God willing, we’ll ride back to terminal A, not C.”

“But our car is at terminal C,” Pitt said.

“We’re leaving the car,” Jesse said.

“We are?” Jonathan asked. He was shocked. It was his parents’ car.

“Damn right we are,” Jesse said. “Let’s go!”

They got to the baggage cart without incident. Everyone was tempted to look up into the windows, but no one did.

Jesse started the engine while the others climbed aboard. They were thankful for Jesse’s decisive authority. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the baggage train twisted around like a snake and then headed for terminal A.

They passed a few airline workers, but no one challenged Jesse’s performance. They arrived at terminal A baggage claim without incident. There, they again benefited from Jesse’s knowledge of the airport layout and procedure. Within minutes they were outside on the arrival level waiting for the airport bus.

“We’ll take the bus back to the city center,” Jesse said. “I can get my car from there.”

“What about my parents’ van?” Jonathan asked.

“I’ll take care of it tomorrow,” Jesse said.

The sound of a huge jet thundered overhead, making conversation momentarily impossible.

“That must have been them,” Jonathan said as soon as he could be heard above the din.

“Now if they can only find receptive people at the CDC,” Pitt said.

“They have to,” Cassy said. “It could be our only chance.”

BEAU WAS OCCUPYING THE MASTER SUITE AT THE CHÂTEAU.
There were French doors over a balcony that looked down on the terrace and the swimming pool. The doors were ajar and a soft night breeze rustled the papers on the desk. Randy Nite and a few of his more senior people were there, going over the work that had been accomplished that day.

“I’m really pleased,” Randy said.

“So am I,” Beau said. “Things couldn’t be going better.” He ran his hand through his hair and his fingers touched the area of altered skin behind his right ear. He scratched it, and it felt good.

The phone rang and one of Randy’s assistants answered. After a quick conversation he handed the phone to Beau.

“Captain Hernandez,” Beau said happily. “Good of you to call.”