Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (45 page)

“
Oh Charlie,” Sandy hugged
him tight. “You’ll be safe here. There’s a PlayStation, an X-box,
cable… You shouldn’t be too bored.”

“
What are you going to
do?” Noelle asked. She ran to Sandy. “Can’t I go with
you?”

“
I want to go with you,”
Sissy said.

“
No,” Aden said. “You need
to stay here. Sandy’s going to help Jill. I need to help Jake. We
need you kids to
stay
here
.”

He hugged Nash then Noelle. Sissy threw
herself at him. He held her and kissed the top of her head. He
hugged Teddy and mussed Charlie’s hair. The kids clutched at
Sandy.

“
Charlie is in charge,”
Aden said. “Do you know where food and money is?”

“
I helped Pete stock this
place,” Charlie nodded. “We got some good snacks too.”

“
Listen to Charlie,” Aden
said. Turning to Pete’s kids, he asked, “Is that all right with
you?”

Grim, the children nodded their heads. Aden
hugged them all one more time then went to leave. Standing at the
stairwell, he saw Sandy giving Rachel to Charlie. She set the
diaper bag she called “Rachel’s command center” at his feet.

“
You’ll take care of her?”
Sandy asked.

“
With my life,” Charlie
said.

“
I know you guys have been
playing Scooby and the Gang. According to Seth and Alex, you’ve
really helped solve this mystery,” Sandy said. “But you can’t help
tonight. This isn’t a cartoon with fake monsters. This is a very
real monster.”

“
Who will kill us,”
Charlie said.

“
Do not give him the
chance,” Sandy said. “Promise me. Nash?”

Nash nodded.

“
Noelle?”

She ran to Sandy for another hug.

“
You’ll come back to us,
right?” Noelle asked.

“
Of course,” Sandy said.
“Sissy?”

Sissy wrapped her long thin arms around
Noelle and Sandy.

“
Teddy?”

“
Yes ma’am,” Teddy said.
“I know what monsters are like and I… Don’t worry. I’ll do what I
can to keep everyone safe.”

“
Charlie?”

Charlie looked at Rachel and back at Sandy.
Nodding, he took Sissy’s arms off Sandy then pulled Noelle away.
The girls hugged each other.

“
I’ll come for you,” Sandy
said. “Do not open this door for anyone but me, Aden, Pete or
Molly. And make damned sure it’s us.”

The kids nodded.

“
Buster, stay with the
kids,” Aden ordered.

The ugly dog seemed to stand a little taller
with his responsibility. Sandy gave them one last worried look and
slid closed the door to the room. She heard the satisfying clunk of
the lock from inside. Aden followed her up the stairs and out to
their SUV.

“
Let’s hope they catch him
tonight,” Aden said.

“
If they don’t, the kids
will probably form their own society and take over the country,”
Sandy said.

Aden smiled at her joke. Even worried, she
still emanated strength. They drove in silence to the Castle. Once
there, he didn’t want to leave her side. She gave him her usual
Sandy smile and hopped out of the vehicle. He was almost downtown
before he realized she had left her phone in the SUV. Contemplating
whether to go back, he glanced at the time. She was going to spend
the night with Jill. She’d never miss her phone. Putting it out of
his mind, he went to meet Jacob.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday evening — 7:15 P.M.

“
There’s Aden Norsen,”
Troy said.

Captain Troy Olivas pointed to the video
image of Aden getting out of the SUV. Members of Alex Hargreaves’s
team, Denver Police and a variety of Homeland Security and FBI
agents were crammed into the van for a briefing.

“
We’re ready to move into
place,” Seth said. “I wanted to make sure we’re all on the same
page. Aden is joining Jacob in the tunnel.”

“
Jake just let him in,”
Troy said.

With video restored to the tunnel, they
watched Jacob and Aden pretend to review the Lipson construction
work.

“
We have people staked out
throughout the tunnels from here to the Castle,” the Denver Police
SWAT Commander said.

“
At the Castle, Mike Roper
and a few members of my team are waiting,” Alex said. “We have a
couple of people in the Detroit Street workshop and others all the
way up to the Natural History Museum.”

“
The hope is that if he
eludes one of us, he won’t elude all of us,” the SWAT Commander
said. “DPD patrols are ready to assist wherever he pops up. They’ve
been instructed to apprehend, not engage.”

“
There’s no way to know
how this night is going to end,” Seth said. “We have to stay alert,
stay alive. Where is he now?”

“
After making dinner,” Raz
said. “It looks like he’s settled down to watch a movie or some
television. He’s so sedentary. I wonder if he’s
injured.”

“
My men shot him at Sand
Creek,” the SWAT Commander said. “Amelie’s the last person to have
seen him. Did she say anything about him being injured?”

“
She doesn’t remember
anything,” Seth said. “Thank God.”

“
Why do you think he’s
injured?” Alex asked.

“
The way he moves,” Raz
said. “And how inactive he is.”

“
I think he knows we’re
watching,” Delphie said.

The professionals turned to look at her.
They glanced at each other before turning to look at the screens
again.

“
I bet she’s right,” Max
Hargreaves said.

“
He’d want us to think he
is impaired in some way,” Seth said. “What’s our plan?”

“
We’ve cut off all the
exits we know about,” Alex said. “We’ll attempt to lure him out of
his residence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go in and get
him.”

“
We have a variety of ways
to get him out of there,” the SWAT Commander said. “Flash bombs,
tear gas…”

“
Let’s hope it doesn’t
escalate to active warfare in the middle of downtown,” Seth
said.

“
Got to do what you’ve got
to do,” the SWAT Commander said. “This bastard’s not getting away.
Not on my shift.”

“
Let’s go over our plan to
lure him out,” Alex said.

“
We’ll start with Valerie
Lipson and Honey Scully,” Seth said. “He’s taken an interest in
them. We’ll see if they can draw him out.”

“
How long are we giving
this little charade?” the SWAT Commander asked.

“
Half hour, no more,” Alex
said.

“
Then we go in?” the SWAT
Commander asked.

“
Then we go in,” Seth
said. “Would you like to review your plan?”

“
To you?” the SWAT
Commander asked. “No. Trust me, Magic. We’ll do what’s necessary to
get the bastard out of there.”

“
We go in an hour,” Seth
said.

“
2030 hours,” Alex said.
“Before the party crowd arrives and after everyone is home from
work.”

“
If he moves before then?”
Raz asked.

“
We scoop him up,” Seth
said.

“
Right now, we wait,” Alex
said.

“
We wait,” Seth
said.

“
If you want to go take a
look, he can’t see you,” Troy said.

“
Any surveillance he had,
we broke with an electromagnetic disruptor,” Alex said. “Go ahead.
Stretch your legs.”

Seth got out of the van and walked down to
the river. Three plainclothes Denver Police Officers lingered
around the underpass and river. Seth was half way down the grass
embankment when he heard Delphie’s voice. Turning around, he heard
her yell something about his phone. Nodding, he looked at his
phone.

He’d been out of range most of the day
unearthing human remains. His phone must have shut itself off.
Turning the power on, he continued down the grass embankment. As if
by gravity, the Denver Police officers moved toward him. His phone
gave a little tune as it turned on. He nodded to the officer near
to him and the man walked over to chat.

As they walked toward the underpass, the
young man began a long and complicated joke. The air was filled
with the raunchy joke and the nervous expectation of catching Saint
Jude. Feeling his phone vibrate, Seth looked down to see that he’d
received a text message. Half listening to the young officer, he
looked at his phone.

“
Yes.” Ava had texted one
word to him.

The word echoed through his mind.

Yes! Yes! She said Yes!

Yes? What was she saying Yes to?

What did she mean? Did she mean yes or did
she mean YES!

Seth’s head jerked up when the chatting
officer coughed and fell to the ground. He heard a spitting sound
like a muffled snare drum or a low cough. Ptat, ptat, ptat. Turning
toward the sound, Seth felt a sharp object pierce the back of his
neck near the base of his skull. He yanked the wooden
toothpick-like shank from his neck.

Ptat. Another shank hit his neck at the same
spot.

He fell face forward on the grass.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FOURTY-NINE

Gone

Tuesday evening — 7:35 P.M.

“
Officer down,” the Denver
SWAT team Commander yelled into the communicator on his shoulder.
“We’re taking over.”

He jumped from the van at the same moment a
SWAT vehicle pulled up. The SWAT Captain jumped in and the vehicle
took off down the embankment. A SWAT team member rolled out of the
vehicle. He fired a grenade at the apparatus shooting the wooden
spikes. An explosion rocked the van.

“
Go!” Alex
yelled.

Homeland Security agents ran from the van to
Seth and the other officers. Before anyone could stop her, Delphie
ran to Seth. A Homeland Security agent tried to pull her away but
Max told him to leave her. Delphie and Max dropped to the ground
next to Seth. Alex’s full attention was on the surveillance of
Saint Jude.

“
He’s on the move!” Raz
said. “Ah shit.”

“
Ah shit?” Alex
asked.

“
We lost him,” Raz said.
“He moved behind something… metal… something that blocks the heat
sensor.”

“
He hasn’t entered the
tunnels,” Troy said. “You can see Jake and Aden here. They fell
during the explosion but…”

“
He’s gone?” Alex
asked.

“
Disappeared… Like a magic
trick into a puff of smoke,” Raz said.

“
What’s the radar show?”
Alex asked over the radio.

“
Vanished,” Denver Police
radar technician said. “Goddamn it!”

“
I never would have
believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” Raz
said.

“
See if you can find
him.”

Alex leaned over his shoulder to watch. The
tension rose in the van. Precious minutes ticked by.

“
Anything?” Alex asked
over the intercom.

“
Nothing,” the Denver
Police technician said.

“
He’s gone,” Raz
said.

~~~~~~~~
Tuesday evening — 7:35 P.M.

In the wake of the explosion, police and
Homeland Security agents ran down the embankment. Delphie escaped
the van and raced toward Seth. Colin and Max Hargreaves ran
directly to Seth. Denver Police Officers ran to the other
officers.

“
No pulse here,” one
officer yelled.

“
Commencing CPR!” the yell
went from officer to officer.

Colin yanked the wooden shard from Seth’s
neck and smelled it. While Max rolled Seth over, Colin’s entire
focus was on the wooden shard. He leaned down and put his face next
to Seth’s mouth.

“
He’s alive,” Delphie
said.

Colin’s intense blue eyes took in
Delphie.

“
He’s non-responsive,” Max
said. “Colin, this is…”

“
First Responder’s Toxin,”
Colin said.

Jumping to his feet and stretching to all of
his six feet, five inches, Colin yelled. “STOP!”

No one paid the slightest attention to him.
Max whistled but the police officers continued. The SWAT Commander
ran over to them.

“
Hargreaves! What’s going
on?” the SWAT Commander asked.

“
They’ve been shot with
something the Interpol is calling First Responder’s Toxin,” Max
said. “The idea is to incapacitate the first people who respond.
The next wave will fight to keep them alive giving the perpetrators
time to get away. Standard attempts to save them will kill those
affected by the toxin.”

“
What!?” the SWAT
Commander asked.

“
You have to get the men
to stop CPR,” Colin said.

“
We won’t just let these
men die!” the SWAT team leader said.

“
You are killing them!”
Max said.

“
Fuck!” the SWAT Commander
dispatched a man to each of the downed officers. “What do we
do?”

“
When the paramedics
arrive…” Max stopped talking as the sirens from three ambulances
wailed above. “We need to set them up with oxygen and saline
IVs.”

“
When the toxin starts to
wear off, they’ll be in incredible pain,” Colin said. “Prep IVs
with pain meds.”