Zombie Patrol (8 page)

She nodded slightly. “No shit.”

They appeared identical except for their hair. One blond, one dark. As they approached, the blond one nodded and said, “Good afternoon.”

“They’re both wearing black suits,” I said to Carla.

“I think it’s supposed to intimidate us,” said Carla.

“Do you feel intimidated?” I asked her.

“I might have just wet myself,” she said.

I grinned. The two men in black didn’t grin. The dark-haired one shifted slightly, opening his jacket a little so that I could see his weapon.

“We all have guns here,” I said. “You can close your jacket, cowboy.”

The tension was probably a little higher than the two guys had intended. The first guy, the blond guy, turned his head slightly to his friend and shook it once. The second guy relaxed a little, settling in next to him.

Blondie said, “You Jack Carter?”

“A helluva guess,” I said.

“Perhaps we could speak in private, Mr. Carter.”

“How about some ID, boys?” I said.

They both flashed their badges. Office of Naval Intelligence. I studied the badge closest to me, and said, “
What can I do for you, Agent Johnson?”

“We’re trying to locate your brother, Lieutenant Commander Joseph Carter. Have you seen him?”

“No,” I lied. “Is there a problem?”

“
He’s on leave, and we thought you might know his whereabouts.”

“If he
’s on leave, he could be anywhere. Sometimes he visits me, but not all the time. You don’t know his location? I mean, aren’t you supposed to keep tabs on that sort of thing?”

They hesitated. Then Johnson said, “Normally, we do. But your brother’s gone…missing, and we think he might be in trouble. He’s ill. He may not be thinking straight.”

Understatement of the year,
I thought.

“
Mr. Carter,” Johnson said from behind his cool black shades, “we understand you’re very close to your brother. He may have come in contact with a very rare virus. It tends to...alter the imagination. He may be delusional. Others have been infected, and have been cured.”

Lies mixed with truth,
I thought to myself. He was sick, but did they really have a cure?

The second agent said, “We’re certain you’d like your brother to be healthy? It’s very serious.
Without treatment, he could die.”

I was about to respond when Carla spoke up. “He’s already told you he doesn’t know where his brother is.”

They ignored her. Agent Johnson said, “Jack, we understand your need to protect your brother. Family and all that. We get it. But your brother is Navy property. We would hate to see him dishonorably discharged. You wouldn’t want that either, would you?”

“
We’re only here to help,” the second agent chimed in.

I was about to do it. Maybe they were right. It certainly made more sense for my brother and his friend to have contracted some rare infection than their story about the damn space rock. If my gut wasn’t screaming otherwise, I just might have.

Except…I always listen to my gut.

“
I wish I could help you, boys.” In a sense, this was true. But I couldn’t. Yes, Joe was my brother. And, no, I wasn’t going to sell him out, even if he was sick.

They’re not going to help,
I suddenly thought. And it wasn’t so much a thought as a knowing.
No, they’re going to make them disappear.

“
Well, that’s a shame, Mr. Carter,” Agent Johnson concluded. “If we don’t find your brother and his buddy, this will develop into a criminal investigation.” For the first time, he took off his sunglasses. He polished them and took in the magnificent view. “We’d hate to waste valuable government time and money watching your every move.”

“
I can’t stop you from that,” I said.

Johnson faced me. “That includes your family, including your daughter, Anna. She seems like a fine young lady.”

“
That’s harassment,” said Carla, stepping forward. “I’d like your badge numbers, please.”

Johnson chuckled. He took out a card and pushed it into my hand. “If you do see your brother, or hear from him, it would be much easier for everyone involved if you called.”

“Involved in what?” I asked.

He ignored my question, and they turned to go. I was about to call after them when Carla stopped me. “Let them go,” she said.

I looked down at the card. Nothing but a phone number. No name, no military insignia. I tried not to think of conspiracy theories. “Do you believe me now?” I asked her as they stepped into their Lincoln Town Car. Black, of course.

“
I believe something. One thing is certain, though, your brother is in some deep shit. You, too. And now, probably me. An accessory after the fact.”

“Welcome to the club,” I said.

“Thanks. We need to figure out what the hell is going on.”

“We?” I said.

“Hey, we’re in this together.”

“Sounds romantic.”

She snorted. “Mostly, we need to get your brother some help.”

I nodded, my grin faltering. My poor fucking brother. Jesus, what had he gotten himself into?
My crime investigations were often nature-related, or gang-related. But I still had what it took to solve mysteries. Maybe I needed Carla, maybe not. Either way, I had to look at my brother as a case. Take my emotions out of it. I also had to take care of Anna. That these clowns knew enough about me to know about her enraged me, but it didn’t surprise me. I had to be as tough as they were. And smarter.

I took a deep breath, centered myself. “Okay. First things first. I want to check on Anna. For what it’s worth, do you have time to do a little snooping around?”

Carla smiled, and for the first time she took my hand. “It would be a pleasure, Mr. Carter.”

“
I love you, too, Dad.”

Anna hit “end” on her iPhone, then shoved it into her jeans pocket.

Jared looked at her expectantly. “Well?”

“
I’m supposed to stay here, and later, I go home with Brice when he’s off work.”

“
What about your uncle?”

“
My dad and a lady cop friend are going to try to get more information about what’s going on. I think. Honestly, he didn’t say much.”

“He probably didn’t say much on purpose,” said Jared.

Anna nodded. That seemed about right.

They were quiet. Jared knew that Anna only put on the angelic facade for her father. He knew better than most that Anna was much more independent than her dad believed or imagined. Jared, for instance, could tell by the look on his friend’s face that the wheels were turning inside that pretty head of hers.

“
That gives us four hours,” she said.

“You mean before Brice is off?” he asked, catching up.

“
Right.”

“
You want to do a little research yourself?” he asked.

Anna smiled. She knew Jared was a whiz when it came to computers. “Yes, and I want you to help. How do you search the Internet without being tracked?”

“
It’s not that hard,” he replied confidently. “Easier if you have a large database, one that’s accessed by more than one person.”

“N
ot my laptop, then?”

“Right.” He had an idea. “
How busy are the observatory offices today?”

“
Tuesday afternoon? Should be fine.”

“
Can you get us in? Without seeming...obvious?”

“
Of course. I’ll just say I’m working on my astronomy project.”

“
Ah, the mysterious Dark Matter.
” His voice took a sinister tone.

“Oh, s
hut up. It’s
important
research. Did you know that there is ten times more dark matter out there than there is regular space? That—”

Jared held up his hand. “Save the lecture for later, Einstein. As long as we can get in there, uninterrupted.” Jared suddenly thought of other uninterrupted times he’d like to have with Anna and blushed mightily. Fortunately, she didn’t see. She was, to his frustration, thinking of something else. As always.

“
First, I want to go home,” she said.

“
But your dad told you not to.”

“No. He specifically said t
hat I shouldn’t come near my uncle. There’s a difference. Besides, how can we research anything if we don’t know what we’re looking for?”

“
Anna, he sounded pretty serious about that. This is no ordinary situation.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, and patted him on the face. “I’ll protect you.”

What could he say? The girl he loved was in the middle of a bona fide mystery. And she’d confided in him—and only him. Jared liked that. It made him feel good. He also decided that he didn’t want to let on that he was more than a little uneasy about the whole situation. At the very least, he had to act as bravely as her.

“Okay,” he said, hoping he sounded as calm as she did. “
We’ll just pop in for a few minutes.”

She smiled and nearly hugged him. “Maybe Uncle Joe and his friend won’t even know we’re there. You know, if they’re really that sick and all.”

“Remember,
we have to get back and to the observatory in time to get on the computer—”

“
We will. We can get down to the house within a half hour, and ten, fifteen minutes, tops, to see them. By the time we get back to the observatory we’ll still have about an hour and a half on the Net.”

“Glad to see that you have this worked out,” said Jared, rolling his eyes.

They gathered their books and made their way to the zoo’s exit, then along the small trail that led down the countryside to her home below.

Jared was getting a bad feeling about all of this.

He often got bad feelings about things—and more often than not, bad things happened. A friend of his at school thought Jared might be psychic. Jared thought his friend was nuts.

Still, a bad feeling was a bad feeling...and Jared’s stomach was practically turning somersaults.

At the moment, he said nothing and blindly followed Anna behind the spacious back yards of some of the wealthiest homes in Los Feliz. Like Anna, Jared had grown up unconventionally. Also like Anna, he’d been home-schooled by parents who worked with animals more than they did people. He thought his parents were crazy, but loved them. Both he and Anna knew Griffith Park—and the surrounding Los Feliz, for that matter—like the backs of their hands. Anna, in particular. In fact, she might have even known the area better than him—especially since she often worked with her dad. Jared was often amazed that Anna knew not only the little-known trails some hikers used, but could follow the paths of wild animals. She knew them inside and out.

Soon, they found themselves behind Anna’s own massive home—her part-time home, as she sometimes referred to it. Anna quietly unlatched the back gate and, once through, led the way quietly through the expansive back yard, past the koi pond she loved so much, and to the key hidden under the third potted plant from the door.

The house was dead quiet. Her father was off working with Carla, the cute cop that she knew her father had a crush on in kind of the same way that she knew Jared had a crush on her.

Two love birds, she thought, and nearly giggled.

That is, until she heard the moan from below.

“What was that?” whispered Jared. He was nearly on top of her.

She didn’t know, and only shook her head. They continued through the big house, moving quietly. Like mountain lions, thought Anna. She loved the local population of mountain lions, and wanted to do all she could to protect them.

Think about the cats later,
she admonished herself.
Good idea.

Anna assumed that her Uncle Joe and his friend were upstairs, resting in bed, which was where she led Jared now, climbing the stairs as quietly as possible. When they reached the second floor landing, she stopped, puzzled. The hall was in disarray. Pictures were crooked, rugs were askew.

A stone was covered with blood.

Jared stepped forward. “Jesus, is that blood?”

Anna didn’t know for sure. She didn’t know what to think, either.
She hurried down the hallway, and pushed open the door to the guest bedroom. Uncle Joe was gone, and Mike’s room was empty, too.

“
Where are they?” asked Jared.

Anna jumped at the sound of his voice.
“
I don’t know.”

“
Maybe your dad took them to the doctor.”

“Maybe,” she said.

Anna checked her own bedroom. Nothing had been touched. That gave her some comfort. Her father’s room seemed all right, too.