Bringer of Fire (23 page)

“Or Volker,” Sanders said with a shrug. “Either way, we have nothing definitive to go on at this point.”

Once we finished eating, Sanders rose from the table.

“Going back to the office?” I asked.

“Nah, too tired,” she said.

She stretched her arms above her head, and I took a moment to appreciate her slender physique and the way that her fitted shirt clung to her. I found her to be a very attractive woman. Of particular interest, she had rather kissable-looking lips.

“What?” she asked.

“Me? Nothing,” I said evasively.

Uh-oh, dangerous territory, Bringer.

She briefly frowned at me as she slipped her suit jacket back on.

“Why don’t you take the day off tomorrow,” she suggested. “There’s no need to have you sitting around the office when there’s nothing for you to do. I’ll call you if something comes up.”

“Sure, thanks,” I said as I followed her to the front door.

To my surprise, the sun had already set. Time had definitely flown since that afternoon.

Sanders turned back to me as she stepped onto the front porch. Her hazel eyes glistened back at me in the glow of the porch light.

“I have to admit that, despite the dire circumstances surrounding this case, it’s been great working with you, Bringer,” she offered. “I feel bad that the bureau’s leveraging your abilities for free. And if you do choose to take the job with Nuclegene, maybe it can be a win-win situation for us both.”

I frowned, not really certain if there were multiple layers to her last statement. However, I had to admit the idea of spending more time around her was certainly appealing; not to mention the ability to secure an enviable level of income.

“Thanks,” I said. “I feel much the same way, Sanders.”

After she left, I contemplated the generous offer that Bernard had extended to me. It had to have been an indication of how badly Nuclegene wanted to secure my services, including assisting their research and development division in perfecting the formula that had given me my abilities.

Certainly, the idea that many more people might be cured of their cancer was a hopeful thought. However, I had to wonder if the world was better off with many more people wandering around with my level of abilities.

Worse yet, what if their treatments were able to manifest even greater abilities than my own? How might the world be shaped by the inclusion of scores of people like me, or more powerful than me?

I wasn’t sure that I liked those prospects very much. It seemed to me that the world was already more than volatile enough as it was.

* * *

I woke abruptly to the sound of my doorbell ringing. I staggered from the bed, glancing at the clock as I passed the dresser.

It was barely seven-thirty in the morning.

“Just great,” I muttered while looking through the peephole in my front door.

The image of Agent Sanders standing there made me groan. I slowly opened the front door.

“I thought you said I had the day off, Sanders,” I said sleepily.

Her brow arched as she regarded me standing before her wearing only army green sweatpants. I folded my arms before my bare chest and leaned against the front doorjamb.

Her expression was momentarily wistful, but quickly reverted back to her business-like demeanor as she cleared her throat. Having regained her composure, she squeezed past me to enter.

“Aren’t you up yet? I thought you were in the army?” she half-chastised, half-teased.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” I asked before issuing a wide-mouthed yawn.

She rolled her eyes at me in disgust.

“Do you happen to recall that I’m helping you with your daily whatever-it-is vitamin shot until I had time to show you how to do it?”

Oh, yeah.

I swept past her into the kitchen and retrieved a pre-measured syringe of vitamin solution from the refrigerator. She snatched it from my hand, and like an old pro, removed the cap by grasping it between her teeth as she rubbed my arm where the injection was to be made.

“You could always show me how to do this right now, you know,” I prompted.

“No time this morning,” she said. “Besides, if I don’t show you properly, you’ll just end up with air bubbles in your veins.”

She popped the needle into my arm and deftly injected the solution. The entire process took only a matter of seconds.

“Here,” she said, handing the empty syringe back to me.

Then she turned and headed straight for the front door.

“Same time tomorrow morning?” I asked. “Hey, maybe next time I’ll have coffee ready for you,” I teased.

“Shut up, Bringer,” she growled.

I watched her drive away with a grin.

Then it was just me and my somewhat of a mess house, which made me feel both helpless and irritable. I needed action, not hurry-up-and-wait.

But what else could I do at the moment?

I cast a withering look around the inside of my house. Despite my recent endeavors, it was still a wreck. But who the hell cared about housecleaning when there were thugs out there somewhere plotting who-knows-what?

“Here we go again. Situation normal, all fucked up.”

Then inspiration struck in the form of someone else’s home.

My sister’s.

I shaved, got dressed, and grabbed a pair of heavy gloves from the garage as I headed for my car.

* * *

By the time I arrived at my sister’s house, I realized it was a good thing I considered stopping by. She and Kevin were already onsite sifting through the rubble.

They both waved at me as I pulled in front of their wreck of a home. True to his word, my best friend, Travis, had seen to some of the cleanup and recovery. A couple of large portable storage containers were located on the property, one of which Kevin was sorting through.

Lexi met me at the car and gave me a big hug. In truth, I probably needed it as much as she did.

“Hey, Sis,” I said. “What’re you doing here?”

She parted from our hug and shrugged.

“Kevin and I just couldn’t stay at Mom and Dad’s for much longer,” she said. “It was driving us crazy! So, we left the kids with them and just arrived back in town last night. I planned to call you later today, once we had a chance to go through what’s left here.”

There were already signs of a teardown taking place. At least their insurance company was on top of things.

“Yeah, well, it’s still dangerous for you to be here,” I said, though I’d noticed a police car parked in front of a neighbor’s property across the street when I pulled up.

She sighed.

“About that,” she said sharply. “We’ve been watching the news reports, and we’re pretty sure you were in some of the footage. I tried texting you a couple of times, but you ignored them. What’s with all the mystery, and when are you planning to tell us what the hell’s going on?”

I nearly winced from her tone. Drill sergeants had nothing on my sister.

Still, she had a point.

I led her over to where Kevin stood in the driveway.

“All right. What I’m about to tell you stays between us, got it? Not even Mom and Dad can know about this yet.”

They both nodded.

I took a deep breath.

“Let’s walk over to a safer portion of your house,” I said. “I need to show you something.”

They followed me inside, and then I opened Pandora’s Box for them.

“Holy shit,” Lexi muttered wide-eyed as I handed her the small ruined picture that had formerly been hanging on the wall of their smoke-damaged study.

My skills with grabbing nearby objects had definitely improved over the past week or so.

“Where in hell did you learn to do that?” Kevin demanded, still sporting a shocked expression on his face.

Lexi stared at me expectantly.

“It all goes back to Nuclegene and those cancer treatments that I’d been taking,” I said.

After I’d gone over most everything in detail, both of them were rather speechless. However, I left out the part about the Nuclegene job offer for the time being.

“So, it’s true then,” Lexi finally said. “That guy they showed on the video clip in Chicago…you were the one who flung him into the air?”

I shrugged.

“It wasn’t my finest work to date, but yeah,” I said. “We’re still trying to find the guy. The sooner the better, in fact. He’s an assassin of some kind.”

A restless feeling coursed through me as I realized that I really needed to be out trying to find that bastard.

Still, I had to wait for Sanders before I could do much.

Kevin checked his watch.

“Aren’t you going to the memorial service, Logan?” he asked.

I frowned.

“Memorial service? What memorial service?”

Lexi gave me a hopeless-looking expression. “You really don’t watch as much TV as I thought, do you, dear brother?”

“Easy there. I’ve been a little preoccupied, if you hadn’t noticed,” I said.

“Hey, don’t get snippy,” she teased.

How she managed to maintain such good humor while standing in the middle of her burned house, I’ll never know.

“They’ve scheduled a public memorial service downtown for the Wallace Building victims for later this afternoon. The US President, senators, and congressmen are expected to be there, as well as a bunch of state officials. I’m kind of surprised nobody told you about it,” Kevin said.

It caught me a little off-guard, as well.

“Well, I guess I’d better go change clothes then,” I said. “You two stay close to those police officers and I’ll call you later.”

* * *

When I called Agent Sanders, she said she knew about the memorial service but hadn’t given it a thought as she’d been squarely focused on the investigation at hand. Naturally, I shared her focus.

However, she was unusually willing to meet me downtown when I told her my intention to be there for it.

“Why not watch it on TV?” she asked.

“I’m sort of curious to see who might show up, if you know what I mean.”

Her silence over the phone spoke volumes.

“I’ll meet you. Call me once you’re down there,” she said, and abruptly hung up.

Parking was a nightmare, and I had to walk nearly a mile just to get near the assemblage. To say the police presence was high was an understatement. I spotted no fewer than a dozen snipers on rooftops downtown.

The event was scheduled to take place at the downtown convention center, though seating was at a premium, so large screens had been set up around the city where people could gather and view the event live. Fortunately, it was a relatively nice day, so at least the weather was cooperating.

I met Sanders and Agent Denton, who looked appropriately dressed in business suits, standing outside of a small deli, not far from the convention center. Most of the downtown restaurants were filled with customers wanting to sit and watch the memorial service.

“Let’s go,” Denton quickly instructed, leading the way across the street toward the convention center.

“You can get us in there?” I asked.

“Right now, with this investigation in our lap, I can probably get you places you’ve never thought possible,” Denton said.

I had to admit I was impressed.

We practically whisked through security by comparison to the other invited guests and citizens who were fortunate enough to secure seating, though it still meant a number of pat-downs and verifications of our credentials.

Even then, we couldn’t get anywhere near the President’s reserved areas within the building.

Still, we managed to procure some metal foldout chairs that were hastily placed in a viewing area near a Secret Service gathering point on the second level.

Denton and Sanders both produced small pairs of binoculars they’d been carrying and started scanning the faces in the crowd.

“What are you two looking for?” I asked, feeling somewhat inadequate without my own form of vision enhancement.

“
We’re
looking for anything that looks suspicious,” Sanders said. “
You’re
supposed to be watching the event. But let us know if you happen to pick up on anything useful.”

I swallowed hard at the prospect of opening my mind to thousands of prospective voices in my head. I imagined my head exploding over the attempt.

Instead, I tried to concentrate on someone near me, hoping to exclude those close by.

An elderly woman seated a dozen feet from me appeared as a good likely test subject.

Almost immediately, I was assailed by a cacophony of voices, which forced my hands to the sides of my head as I reeled in my seat.

“You okay?” Sanders immediately asked.

“Yeah, just trying something here,” I said, recovering my wits.

I felt her breath against my ear as she whispered, “Logan, don’t kill yourself, okay? If you can’t, you can’t.”