Chasing Ghosts (24 page)

“
I wouldn’t mind. These are fun, as
long as they don’t take total control.”

Dagger didn’t like the sound of that and the
logical side of his brain grasped for the significance of Sara’s
previous point: that he no sooner needed a vehicle and one was
provided. Maybe he should have tested whatever was controlling this
small town and asked for a medium rare steak. Perhaps if he said it
aloud the Hover would zip right over to a restaurant.

He steered the Hover down a tree lined street
of cookie cutter houses. Each house had the same type of fencing,
the same evergreens placed in identical spots, and identical front
windows.

He decelerated and said, “Stop.” The Hover
stopped, then settled down to street level. They climbed off.
Dagger took a step back and lowered his sunglasses, as if for the
first time assessing Sara’s legs, the firmness of her calves.
“Where did you get the clothes?” He popped the sunglasses back in
place. “I know you didn’t haul them all the way from Cedar
Point.”

“
If you had taken one of your many cars
instead of Skizzy’s, I would have had something of my own to wear
since I keep a change of clothes in each trunk. I had to settle for
what was in the outpost clothing store. Not much to choose from.
Had to do some of my own tailoring.”

Dagger glanced at the zipper that stopped a
hair’s breadth above her cleavage. “I like your method of
tailoring.” He turned his attention back to the houses and out of
force of habit, pulled his Kimber from its holster. “Are the houses
holograms?”

“
No,” Sara replied. “But they look more
like upgraded Army barracks. You would think they would have
ultra-modern housing.”

Dagger reached down and pulled a Kimber
sub-compact from an ankle holster. He handed it to Sara but she
refused. “We’re the only ones here. I’d probably end up shooting
you,” she said.

Dagger kept a gun in each hand as they
crossed the lawn to one of the houses. He stopped and ran his foot
across the grass. “Astroturf, or something like it.”

“
No need to cut the grass.”

They moved cautiously down the sidewalk with
Dagger watching the houses for movement while Sara scanned the
houses across the street.

“
You will let me know when you see
someone who isn’t a hologram, right?”

Sara smiled. “Thought you didn’t need my
help.”

A movement in one of the windows had them
running to opposite trees.

“
I’ll take that gun now,” Sara said.
Dagger tossed the sub- compact to her.

Sara caught the gun then waited several
seconds before stealing a glance at the house and the person
standing in the window. She called on her advanced sight and
studied the window closer, then the area around the window.
“Dagger, there isn’t any glass in those windows. They are empty.”
She stepped out from behind the tree. “Those pit marks around the
windows are bullet holes and the people are fake.”

“
What?” Dagger moved cautiously from
behind the tree and approached the house.

Sara turned and studied the houses across the
street. “This is like some type of military practice range. Look.”
Across the street another figure popped up behind the window. This
one was a child.

Dagger moved quickly up to the front door and
kicked it in. The wood frame splintered, spraying wood into an
empty room. It wasn’t even a completed house, just a front with one
room. Sara came up behind him so quietly he almost turned his gun
on her.

“
Little jumpy there.” She walked over
and kicked at the figure. It clanged and clattered against the
floor. “Seems to be made of metal.” Several other figures lay in a
corner, their metal frames melted and twisted.

Dagger knelt down in front of the remains.
“Something had to be pretty hot to melt these.”

Sara ran her hand over the window frame. “I
thought they were bullet holes but they aren’t. The house looks
like it’s made of stone or marble. A bullet would have shattered
it, right? Not made a clean hole through it.”

Dagger joined her at the window. Everything
about this place was a little too high tech and he expected any
moment to wake from a bad dream.

“
Come on. Let’s get out of
here.”

Sara was several steps ahead of Dagger. They
were a few feet from the Hover when Sara stopped dead in her
tracks. “Do you feel that?” she asked.

“
I don’t feel anything.”

“
Right. Something turned off. I don’t
hear the humming. Don’t feel the vibration.”

As though someone had hit the dimmer switch,
the sun started to disappear, slowly fading on the horizon. Street
lights clicked on and a full moon rose in the sky as though pulled
by some invisible string. Sara slipped her hand into Dagger’s and
held on tight.

“
Did it rain while we were in there?”
she whispered. Water puddles glistened under the glare of the
lights.

Someone or something was messing with their
minds. Dagger shoved the sunglasses in his shirt pocket and checked
his watch. “It’s only six o’clock.” They walked trance-like into
the center of the street, keeping their backs to each other as
though waiting for something to jump at them from dark alleyways.
“I think now would be a good time to return to the courtyard.”

Sara slipped the gun into the pocket of her
jumpsuit. Dagger holstered his before climbing back onto the Hover.
One bright halogen beam lit up their route. “Courtyard,” Dagger
called out and the Hover took off.

“
Where does everyone live if these
houses are fake?” Sara asked.

“
Like you said. These streets are more
like a training camp. Maybe the sleeping quarters are another floor
below.” Dagger had a feeling they did more than just military
training here, he just wasn’t sure what. He hadn’t seen enough of
the compound to get a feel for what had been going on. Even the
office he had slept in didn’t have much in the way of office
equipment. Whatever prompted the evacuation was serious enough that
they dropped everything and ran.

“
Food,” Dagger yelled. The Hover took a
sudden turn at the courtyard and stopped several doors from the
bench where Dagger’s gym bag lay. They climbed off the Hover and
watched as it returned to the garage. Once inside, the garage door
slid shut. The building where the Hover deposited them was a bright
yellow which almost appeared to glow in the dark. A neon sign of a
glass and a platter of food flashed in the window. It looked like
any downtown eatery they might find at home.

“
I wish the sun would come out again,”
Sara said. Immediately the moon started a descent and the sun rose
above the three- story buildings. Street lights snapped off and
water puddles disappeared as quickly as they had
appeared.

“
This is just too weird.” There was an
intelligence here that made Dagger a little uneasy. The neon sign
in the restaurant’s window snapped off but suddenly music and
laugher spilled out along with the scent of grilled beef. Dagger
pulled open the door and halted. People were seated at tables,
standing at a stone bar. Waitresses were delivering platters to
tables. “Holograms?”

Sara sighed. She would even eat a steak about
now. “Yes, even the food.”

“
Damn.” Dagger released his hold on the
door and stepped back into the courtyard. “Well, my lady, I can
treat you to a power bar, a banana and a bottle of water.” Dagger
started across the courtyard.

Sara held him back. “Do you hear
something?”

Dagger didn’t hear the usual insect sounds
nor birds. He didn’t hear dogs barking or children playing. “No.
What do you hear?”

They wandered to the middle of the courtyard,
eyes scanning the buildings, bodies slowly turning in a circle yet
they kept close enough for their fabrics to touch. Like mirror
images, they each slowly pulled their weapons and held them down at
their sides.

“
Whining,” Sara whispered.

“
Kids?”

“
No, gears. It’s coming from something
small and it’s moving closer.”

“
Never a dull moment,” Dagger
whispered. “Home sweet home.”

From one of the entryways appeared an army
tank in camouflage paint. It was a replica, like a
remote-controlled toy a kid would own, chugging across the walkway
onto the courtyard and toward them.

Sara smiled and leaned down as though it were
an approaching puppy. “Isn’t it cute?”

A turret popped out of the top and turned
toward them. Dagger yelled, “NO, SARA,” and pulled her toward a
pillar. A blast exploded from the tank pulverizing the pillar just
as Dagger and Sara moved to the next one.

Another tank appeared from another entryway.
Dagger pulled the slide back on the Kimber and told Sara, “There’s
a red light on the underside. It’s a power pack. Aim for it.”

They separated, Dagger moving to his left,
Sara to the right. Soon, four more tanks appeared. Another pillar
exploded showering Dagger with pieces of marble. He hit the ground
and rolled to his left, aiming for the underside and losing his
sunglasses in the process. He fired. One bullet bounced off. The
next one hit the power pack. The tank ground to a stop. Dagger ran
for the bench and dove for the gym bag. He grabbed it just as a
blast shattered the marble bench. He fumbled in the gym bag for a
clip and hoped he brought enough ammo. After shoving a clip in each
pocket, he slipped his arms through the straps of the gym bag and
carried it like a backpack. More blasts and gunshots echoed through
the compound.

“
What the hell? These are nothing more
than toys.” Dagger slipped behind one of the tanks and kicked it
against a wall. It bounced off and turned its turret on Dagger.
“Shit. Damn thing is armor-plated.” Dagger didn’t have a move that
wouldn’t put him in its crosshairs. He saw a movement to his right.
Sara leaped in front of him, rolled to her left and fired. The tank
ground to a halt. Sara flashed a look of sheer enjoyment at him.
For a brief moment he wondered if someone were testing their
capabilities.

Testing
. Why
did he pick that word?

Dagger ran for the next pillar with a tank in
pursuit. He saw another tank bite the dust as Sara succeeded in
hitting the power pack. He marveled at her accuracy enhanced by her
visual acuity. What was even more marvelous was how the jumpsuit
she wore hit every curve of her body. She couldn’t possibly be
wearing underwear.

A tank appeared to his right having somehow
snuck up on him as he was admiring Sara’s attributes. He dove to
his left, rolled several times and came up shooting, stopping
another tank. “The stairs.” He pointed to a short flight of stairs
and waited until she was safely down and into the building. Dagger
followed close behind, a blast showering him with stone fragments
before he pulled open a door and lunged to safety.

“
It can’t come down stairs, right?”
Sara asked as she tried to catch her breath.

“
I highly doubt it.”

A clanking sound came from the stairwell.

Dagger frowned. “Well, at least it can’t open
doors.” He studied the room they had entered. It was an elaborate
maze of cubicles. Lights from the ceilings were almost too bright.
“We should be safe now.”

A blast hit the door blowing a fifteen inch
hole making an opening for the tank to chug through.

“
Oh, shit.” Dagger tore off down the
hall and through an open doorway into the labyrinth. They wove
their way around cubicles, stopping a safe distance from where they
had left the tank. They sat on the floor behind one of the desks.
Dagger wiped rock dust and dirt from his skin and clothes. Sara
looked as though she had just stepped out of the shower and slipped
into clean, crisp clothes. Not a mark on her. How the hell did she
do that?

Sara reached up and touched the bare desk.
“That’s strange. No keyboard.”

“
Computer is probably voice-activated.”
Dagger unzipped the gym bag and handed Sara a bottle of water and
took the same for himself. “Why aren’t those tanks holograms?”
Dagger whispered. “And who sent them?”

“
I was going to ask you the same
question.”

“
Me?”

Sara stared at him as one perfectly arched
eyebrow crawled up her forehead. “How did you know it had a power
pack and where it was located?”

Dagger shrugged. “It’s mechanical. Everything
has a power pack.”

“
And the bright colors outside that
look too artificial? Certainly explains why you prefer boring black
and gray. You’ve been here before.”

He unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and
chugged half of the contents, ignoring her prodding. Truth was,
Dagger didn’t know why some things seemed familiar. Neurons must be
firing up in the back recesses of his brain. Worse yet, he had a
vague recollection of not only the tanks but also the residential
target range. They were fleeting memories, flashes that were there
and then disappeared. He shook it off, jammed the water bottle back
into the gym bag and moved quietly through the maze with Sara close
behind. Chairs were turned as though someone had just run out to
get a sandwich and would be returning soon. Dried sticks of what
must have once been flowers jutted from vases, remnants of dried
petals scattered on the desk, the water long evaporated from the
vases. Cubicle walls were free of posted notes, family pictures,
and schedules.

“
What’s that?” Sara pointed at a round
hole in the floor about the width of a coffee can.