Outer Banks (26 page)

“That's kind of creepy,” Corey remarked.

“It is.”

“Never seen it happen from the outside before.”

We continued on in silence, as if talking would disturb their sleep.

We had been asked to get to OBX before sunset Sunday so they could set up the barricades before the general public came out for the day.

According to what Corey told me, they were doing the press release in a studio at Nags Head where they used to broadcast BEACH 104. It would be transmitted to large screens set up around the island so everyone could watch at the same time it was broadcast on TV stations around the world.

We got to the first gate with plenty of time. The guard who checked my ID was one of the troublemakers as I recalled. He certainly didn't approve of the lax security I was showing on the passengers.

“Thought you'd retired, Dillon,” he said.

“Just one last job,” I replied.

“Always the case, huh? Do you have a protégé there?”

“Something like that. This is my little brother, Corey.”

“You sure those kids are secure?” he asked, spying the three in the back.

“More than enough.”

“If you say so. Have a good trip. Nice to meet you, kid,” he said to Corey as I pulled away.

“You already met me, asshole,” Corey hissed when we were out of earshot.

I almost called Corey on his language, but I was pretty sure his description was accurate, so I gave him a pass.

I stopped at the welcome center and we went in to find Tina waiting to process the new arrivals.

She smiled. “Hi, Dillon! Haven't seen you in a while.”

“Well, I'm kind of out of the business.”

“Rumor has it we're all going to be out of the business soon,” she said in disbelief. “Thank God.”

“Really?” I smiled. “What did you hear?”

“I heard you're part of it somehow. What did you do?” She tilted her head.

“Oh, you know, it's a can't-confirm-or-deny kind of thing,” I answered. I probably could, but wasn't in the mood.

“Uh, huh.” She said suspiciously.

“Hey Tina,” Corey greeted her. Tina had checked Corey in when he first arrived, and had checked in on him from time to time as a favor to me.

“Hey, Corey. How are—?” She stared at Corey where he stood by the doorway with a smirk, the afternoon sun shining in on his face.

I frowned. He was supposed to wait in the van. Lay low. We had discussed this before, but here he was, making a spectacle of himself.

“Corey! Oh, my God! You're…”

“Yep.”

“So it's true.”

“You won't want to miss the announcement tonight.” He winked at her. Yes, quite the showman.

“Try to keep it quiet for now,” I warned her. “I have three Haunts to unload. Their parents are here. Jason and Melissa Jacobis.” By this point other people in the center were coming to investigate what was going on.

Fortunately none of them recognized Corey, and Tina did her best to pretend it was all business as usual.

“Okay. Three Haunts,” she repeated. She sent two guards out to unload the boys under lightproof conditions.

After they were checked in we drove down to Nags Head. I pulled in next to a row of other vehicles. People were setting up some kind of perimeter around the station. Corey got out immediately, but I sat there for a moment to gather my thoughts.

Corey popped up by my window. “We goin' or what?”

I nodded and followed him over to the crowd.

There was a lot of hammering going on, and when we got closer I could see they were putting the finishing touches on a security fence.

I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared.

Emery was dressed in a stunning business suit. The evening sun glinted off her gold hair, full of more life than it had ever had before. The same could be said about her. My breath caught as I watched her direct some crates being unloaded off a truck. She looked lovely, and of course, completely professional.

“Oh, hell.”

Chapter Twenty

“What's wrong?” Corey asked.

“Look at her, Corey. She's…” I couldn't say anything more. There were too many ways to finish that sentence.

Beautiful, healthy, happy. Perfect. It was all there. Pain shot through my chest, knowing she wasn't mine.

I sighed and pushed everything down into the pit of my stomach. I would deal with that later. Right now we had to give hope back to three hundred thousand people, and that started with the announcement she would be making early the next day.

They were doing a photo shoot at the moment. She was posing for the camera with a big smile on her face. Of course she was happy. Who wouldn't be?

I tried not to look at her.

“Go talk to her,” Corey said.

“About what?”

“Tell her you love her and you want her to be with you instead of that loser.”

“What, and I'm not?” I sniffed with heavy sarcasm.

“You're not that kind of loser. Besides, you need closure either way.”

“What do you know about closure?” I scoffed.

“I heard about it on a talk show.”

“Uh huh. No thanks. I'm good. All closed up.”

“You got that right.”

“Don't twist my words around. I'm done talking about this, okay? Go see if she needs anything from you and leave me out of it.”

He frowned and walked away as I went to see the guard on duty. Couldn't hurt to see if they needed any help. Besides, I recognized the man in charge. Seemed like Mr. Mitchell had made sure his man on the inside was in charge of security here.

“Hey, Dillon. Haven't seen you for a while. You picked a hell of night for a visit. We're going to be having a riot once it's official.” Rick rolled his eyes.

“I'm sure you can keep that from happening.”

“You're with the Mitchell people now?” he inquired. “Officially?”

“Not officially. Just here to answer questions.”

“So have you seen the cure work?” he asked.

“Do you see that boy talking to the blonde woman over there?” I pointed to Corey and Emery. Corey was pointing to me so I quickly turned away.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Both of them.”

“Get the hell out!”

“So what job will you go back to now that this will be over?” I asked as I helped him set up a boundary line with police tape.

He chuckled. “I'm thinking landscaping. Growth industry right now in the big cities.”

“Back to the sun.” I smiled.

“Can't wait!”

“So, how do you plan on keeping these people under control? You're not worried about them rushing the station, are you?”

“Not really, but we can't be too careful.” Rick pointed to some wires hanging over the newly erected fence. “We've got UV lights around the area, pointed straight down. Kind of like a cage of light. Very low levels, just enough to sting. If things get ugly we can turn it up.”

I nodded. Neither of us liked the idea, but desperate people sometimes did stupid things.

I helped Rick with the last of the lights. Not that his team needed my help, but I needed to do something.

Emery had gone into the radio station for a while but had returned to check on our progress. I kept out of sight, on the other side of the fence.

She had changed into something more casual now—a pair of jeans and a polo shirt with a
Mitchell Pharmaceuticals
logo on the sleeve. I could tell she was worried.

When she went inside again, I let out the breath I was holding.

I kept myself busy through the night. Curious residents had to be kept back, but it was clear rumors were running rampant and getting distorted like a game of telephone. About an hour before the big show, Corey tracked me down, now wearing jeans and a polo shirt like Emery's.

“Lookin' good, kid,” I teased him.

“They saved my life
and
gave me a free shirt. You can't beat that!”

I smiled at his enthusiasm, even if it was sarcastic. “No, I guess not.”

“So, I finally talked to your girlfriend. I like her.”

“She's not my girlfriend,” I reminded him.

He squinted from the light I'd accidentally shone in his face. “You sure about that?”

“Pretty sure. Look, can you stop goofing off and get me that cable over there?”

He gave up on talking to me about Emery. For a little while at least.

“So what do you need to do for this shindig?” I asked him when our task was completed.

“Tell the cameras how great it is to be me,” he kidded. He couldn't take anything seriously.

“How great is that?” I asked.

“Pretty damn great. You'll be asked about getting the doctor out. They've already got a cover story worked out with the facility that it was all on the up-and-up.”

“I'd wondered about that. There was no way they were going to admit I'd broken her out. That was a federal offence.”

“Yeah. They're sticking by their reasons why they revoked her clearance, but are saying they authorized an off-site research facility for her, guarded by highly trained security personnel.”

“Which would be me.”

“Yeah, they've got the whole thing ready for you to read when you have a chance.”

“Ugh,” The cable I was trying to hang refused to cooperate. I sighed and threw my hands in the air. “I give up.”

“Hey, look!” He pointed over my shoulder and I turned to see Melissa Jacobis and her three boys. Behind them was an older man, their father.

“Dillon!” Melissa waved from the other side of the gate. I went over to meet them. It was nice to see them as a family.

“Jason, this is the man who brought me in, and then brought the boys,” Melissa held out her hand to him.

“Thanks for bringing us all back together,” the man said. “Is it true what they boys are saying? A new treatment?”

I held my index finger to my lips “Don't tell anyone. Just stick around for the announcement.”

I stood to the side so she could see Corey behind me. She would have remembered him from the game room before I took him. She barely recognized him now. He'd filled out thanks to a growth spurt and a proper diet, though keeping him fed sometimes seemed like a full-time job.

“His eyes!” Melissa gasped.

“I told you, Mom!” Austin said.

I gave her a wink. “Be back here by two so you can get a good spot to see the screen.”

I took Corey to one of the few restaurants still open on OBX to get something to eat because—as he explained with a tortured expression—he was starving to death and was so hungry he could almost drink blood again. I highly doubted that.

He held up his hands in front of him as we sat down at the table with our tray of food. “I know you don't want to talk about this, and I know you're going to try to distract me until I let it go, but I just need to say this.”

“Corey.”

“Just listen for a minute, okay?” He picked up a handful of fries and shoved them in his mouth, then started unwrapping the first of three burgers on his tray. “She's not with him.”

“What?” The words had come out muffled through his fries.

He swallowed. “She's not with him. At least, I don't think so. I was with them almost all evening. There were no kisses, or hugs, or sweeties, or dears, it was all business,” he mumbled the last part around a mouthful of burger.

I rolled my eyes. “That doesn't prove anything. They are very serious people. They don't do that kind of stuff.”

“Okay. How about this? No ring. Also, she asked me where you were the minute she saw me. And once I pointed you out she kept looking for you.”

“She could have been looking at anything, Corey.”

“And the ring?”

“She's going to be on international TV. It's probably a PR move.”

“That's weak, man.”

“This is ridiculous. Why do we have to keep doing this? I just want to get over it. Why can't you let me do that?”

“Because it's not right!” he said angrily. “I tried helping you get over her, but that wasn't happening. Now I find out she's not over you and you're going to sit here like a chump? If you want her bad enough you can make it happen. Please just talk to her. Please?”

I gave in. “All right! If I see her when it's over, and she's not too busy, and she wants to talk to me, I'll talk to her. Or try to.”

“Wow, way to put your foot down. Captain Assertive, on deck!” Corey snickered and took a large bite of his sandwich.

Of all the kids I could have ended up with, I had to get stuck with a snarky Cupid.

After he had consumed a day's worth of food in fifteen minutes, Corey was eager to get back to his duties, which at this point consisted of going to the makeup room and get made up like a star. It fed perfectly into his ego.

“Let's go. I don't want to be late.” He snatched the tray full of trash.

“We're not going to be late,” I assured him. Maybe he thought I was going to bail.

I drove Corey back and he went inside to meet up with Emery. I checked to see the fence was completed and talk to Rick and the other guards. They'd begun taking their places around the front of the platform, underneath the massive screens.

A large crowd had started to gather by the fence while Corey and I had been at dinner, or whatever you'd call the fifth of his seven daily meals.

There was a tap on my shoulder and I turned to see Colonel Arder behind me. Her dark skin glowed in the lights.

“Hello, Dillon.” She smiled at my shocked face.

“Colonel. How are you?”

“Good. Busy.” She nodded. “And yourself?”

“I haven't been busy with any of this lately, which has been really good.”

“So, I understand you've been a very naughty boy the last couple of months.”

That made me gulp. I had, after all, broken federal law.

“Uh…well…”

The colonel laughed. “Relax! Mr. Mitchell explained everything. He was even willing to shoulder any blame himself. And trust me, if this cure hadn't worked—we'd have been taking him up on that. You violated national security with your little stunt, you know.”

“Desperate times,” I said.

“They are, indeed. You have no idea how timely this is. You want desperate? The words ‘Final Solution' were actually being whispered in some of the upper echelons. They were getting that scared.”

That was terrifying to say the least.

“At least now we can focus on the only real problem the Bugs left us with.” Her eyes went heavenward.

I let out a breath. “So how are things going with the alarm clocks in the sky?”

“As soon as this is under control, we'll be able to take a more
aggressive
approach. Plans are on the table, we just need the funding.”

That was reassuring. I hated the idea of them still being up there, watching us. It was like they could come back at any moment.

“So, you're saying I can stop having nightmares?” I laughed.

“Feel free to stop at any time.” She smiled and then her grin turned almost catlike. “But I find the best way to get rid of nightmares is by having someone to share your bed.” A bit of the sexy but frustrated lady from the bar was still in the smile she gave me.

“Thanks, but…” I instinctively looked toward the building to see Emery standing by the door, talking to her father. “I'm still dealing with a few things.”

“Okay. Well, I've given you my card twice, so call me when you're ready to deal with something else.”

“I will. Thank you.”

The colonel left just as Corey came out and whistled to get my attention.

“What?”

“Mr. Mitchell wants you.”

I followed him inside the small radio station and through a maze of hallways until we got to the room with all the humming and activity. It was like they were going to put on a Hollywood production.

“Dillon!” Adam came over to greet me. “How are things?”

“Very good.”

“Yes. Very.” He winked and looked over at Emery who was standing in front of a huge pile of microphones with the names of different stations on them like an alphabet soup. She was getting instructions from a lanky looking man and would nod at him every few seconds. “PR's idea. She's nervous, but really she's the best person to do this. Whoever announces this will be the face history forever associates with the cure, and it's her discovery. Besides, they might as well use a better looking face than mine.” The two of us chuckled over that.

She had changed into another business suit, this one charcoal gray, and looked absolutely stunning. They had chosen a podium that would hide as little of her as possible, and already the press pool was looking for the best angles to shoot her from. Her toned legs looked nice in her high heels. Her healthy skin glowed in the lights. And the kid was right—no ring on her finger.

“Corey says you have the official account for me to read? I don't have a script to memorize, do I?”

Adam shook his head. “Not at all. Just remember that your extraction of Dr. Mitchell was wholly sanctioned by the US Government, but handled under a veil of secrecy. You can read the notes later if you want; however, I have a favor to ask first. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to stay nearby Emery, in case something happens. I want someone close to her who isn't in a uniform.”

“Of course,” I said.

When the room filled up with press, the cameras had finished setting up, and people gathered around outside the fence anxiously watched the giant monitors, the press conference began. I couldn't tear my eyes off Emery when she began to speak. I was standing just off the stage, I'd be lucky if any of the cameras caught more than my ear in the shot, while Trevor and Mr. Mitchell were standing higher up behind her.

“Good morning. For those of you watching from the detainment facility at the Outer Banks in North Carolina, I realize you will start to wind down in a few hours. I know how distressing it can be to feel the weight of sleep that is beyond your control. I know because, up until a month ago, I was like you. I was a Haunt. But now, thanks to a concerted effort by a number of research teams and an independent project headed up by Mitchell Pharmaceuticals, I am a healthy human being again.”