Deviant (12 page)

Does he always talk like this? Danny wanted to ask Tony, but instead he just smiled and looked modest.

“OK, down to business. Charlie attempted to acquire one of our communication devices, but of course I outgeneralled him. I changed the encryption software, and his device became useless. Still, the pagers don't grow on trees. Tony, did you tell him about dues?”

Tony shook her head.

“Danny,” Tom continued, “it's twenty bucks to join, and you owe me fifteen for the pager. We'll write off the one you lost.”

Danny was surprised by this, but not shocked; he'd seen plenty of rich people in Vegas and a lot of them acted very cheap.

“I don't have thirty bucks on me,” he said.

“Thirty-five,” Tom said briskly. “But no matter … end of the week will be fine. OK, down to business. Cooper, you were talking about architecture?”

“Yes, the plans for the expansion will be put on display at the public library. They won't be secret; neither the SSU nor anyone else has hidden their intentions. Anyone will be able to see them,” Cooper said.

Tony's cell phone rang. She let it ring.

“You better get it,” Tom said, irritated.

“Hello?” she said.

Someone spoke on the other end and Tony said, “I'm at Tom's house in the Springs.”

A pause and then she said, “Tonight? … Fine … Yeah, OK, I'll be there. Can you pick me up? … Thanks.”

She hung up and looked at Tom. “I'm sorry, I have to go. Grandpa and Grandma Morris drove down from Denver to see me. I think they're losing their minds. They came down last week.”

“We've only just started,” Tom protested.

“We haven't even started,” Cooper said.

“Dad won't be here for at least fifteen minutes … Can't we rush it?”

Tom sighed and shook his head. “All right, we'll do what we can.”

“Hey, you couldn't give me a ride back, could you? I'm not sure about these buses and I didn't bring my board,” Danny said, unwilling to be left alone with this lot.

“You're going too?” Tom muttered, exasperated.

“Sure, we can give you a ride,” Tony said breezily.

“This is a shambles,” Cooper complained. “No wonder the SSU is getting bigger and stronger every day and we're getting smaller and weaker.”

“
Au contraire
. We're select; they're not. They'll take anyone who'll jump to Charlie's orders,” Tom said. “We're exactly the right size for us.”

“Can I ask a question?” Danny interjected.

“Sure, we're an open forum here. Anyone can ask anything,” Tom said.

“What's the SSU and why are you watching them?”

Cooper laughed and Olivia sniffed. Tom gave them a black look.

“Good question, Danny. We should have explained. They're the Secret Scripture Union. It's actually just the SU—the Scripture Union—but they're in secret, so we call them the SSU.”

“Why are they in secret?” Danny asked.

“Another good question … Well, we're still a public school, you know. No religion is allowed to be taught or promoted on the premises. The SSU has a secret Bible study group, a secret prayer group, and possibly a covert religious agenda. I formed our team to probe that agenda and keep an eye on them. Hence the Watchers.”

“We got the name from
Buffy
,” Cooper said.

“They pray and read the Bible … That's the big secret?” Danny said, unimpressed.

“Well, no, there's also the covert religious agenda,” Tom said.

“Since we're rushing, can I bring up the cat story?” Tony queried.

“In a minute, yes,” Tom said. “But Coop, you had some information about Hector Watson?”

“Yeah, apparently he's trying to get a date with Jessica Pereillo,” Cooper said.

“I thought it was pertinent information,” Tom replied, irritated.

“Who told you he asked her out?” Tony wondered.

“I heard it from Billy Reynolds. Hector was all braggy about it,” Cooper said.

“Hector doesn't brag. He's actually an OK guy, if you want to know,” Tony said.

“You're friends with that skeevy Hector dude?” Danny asked.

“He's not skeevy, he's OK,” Tony said.

“He's the man behind the man,” Tom said. “But even so, we'll move on to the security breach. Olivia?”

Olivia cleared her throat and took a piece of paper from her pocket. “They're pretty clueless. They don't have the technology to make a radio descrambler, and they don't know how to do a wireless paging system run on a remote server,” Olivia said with satisfaction.

“And that's what you'd need, is it?” Cooper asked quietly.

“Or two cans and a very, very long piece of string,” Danny added.

Olivia chuckled with an adorable little laugh.

“Tommy, do you have any cups up there?” a voice yelled from downstairs.

“Dammit, I thought she was at Safeway,” Tom said.

“This is some meeting,” Cooper said sourly.

“We'll do it at your house, then. I'm sure that will be perfect,” Tom said.

“You know we can't with Aunt Lisa always around,” Cooper muttered.

“Tommy, do you have any cups?” Tom's mother yelled again.

“No peace at all in here, and we have to come all the way from Cobalt,” Cooper said.

“Do something about it, then,” Tom snapped.

“Why don't we meet at Starbucks, like I suggested?” Cooper said.

“Zero security at Starbucks. Zero.”

“Tom! Cups!”

“I'll take the cups down,” Tony said, getting up and grabbing the assorted cups, mugs, and glasses.

“I'll help you,” Olivia said.

When they had gone, the mood was even more strained.

Finally Cooper cleared his throat and asked Danny, “Listen, er, a couple of us have been wondering if you and Tony are going out?”

“What? Are you kidding? I only just met her.”

“Ah, good, good, because I was going to, I was thinking of, well …”

“Take it from me, you got no chance with that high-maintenance rich girl,” Tom said.

You're one to talk, Danny thought, but said, “She's not that rich. Her dad works at NORAD.”

“Everybody that lives in that part of Cobalt is rich,” Tom said.

I live in that part of Cobalt, Danny thought. The boys
sat in silence for a minute before Danny said, “Olivia seems nice.”

Tom nodded.

Finally Cooper said, “So last night I was on Gears and I was just drifting, chatting, killing people, getting experience—”

Tom began coughing and gasping for air.

“What's happening to you?” Cooper asked with no concern whatsoever.

“I'm feigning an asthma attack,” Tom said.

“Why?”

“So you won't tell me any more of your Gears of War story.”

Before either of them got really ticked off, the girls came back.

“Tom needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” Cooper said to Tony.

“What?” Tony asked.

Tom looked embarrassed. “I'm fine,” he said.

“Can I bring up the cat story now?” Tony said.

“What cat story?” Tom asked.

“You'll see,” Tony said, and began rummaging in her bag.

The door opened and Mrs. Sloane looked in. She was a striking forty-year-old redhead with green eyes and a pale, nervous face. But then again I'd be nervous too if my spouse was in Afghanistan, Danny thought.

“Hi, kids,” she said. “Hey, you're new. Who are you?”

“Danny,” Danny said.

“Mom, what is it now?” Tom said with a groan.

“It's about your clothes,” Mrs. Sloane said.

“What about them?”

“Your clothes are filthy. They're all wet and covered with mud.”

“I know. That's why I put them in the laundry basket.”

“What were you doing yesterday?” Mrs. Sloane asked.

“I walked home. Shortcut.”

“You know, it took us a year to lobby for a school bus to the Springs, and if you don't ride, they'll cancel it,” Mrs. Sloane said.

“Sorry,” Tom said, embarrassed.

Mrs. Sloane nodded and left.

“OK, now can I please bring up the cats?” Tony said.

“What about the cats?” Cooper wondered.

“Have a look at this,” Tony said, taking out the
Cobalt Daily News
.

It got passed around the circle and Danny finally read the story Tony had been pointing at that morning. It wasn't the one about sewage plants. It was in the bottom left-hand corner of the page, below an advertisement for a guttercleaning service:

Cobalt animal lovers were urged to keep their pets indoors at night as a second Cobalt-area cat was found eviscerated in the parking lot of the Manitou Road 7-Eleven late last
night. “This may be another coyote attack,” said animal welfare officer Kevin Hud. “Or maybe even a mountain lion. If at all possible, keep your pets indoors until spring when other food sources become more plentiful.”

Mrs. Marie Craven of 16 Beechfield Road was said to be devastated by the loss of her eight-year-old Persian “Tigerfeet.”

“That's the second cat they've found disemboweled. Beechfield Road is the street two over from my house. Something's going on,” Tony said when they had all digested the information.

“Like what?” Tom said with a slight eye roll.

“Like a serial cat killer, that's what,” Tony insisted.

Tom shook his head. “A serial cat killer? Didn't you read the paper? It was a coyote.”

“Or a mountain lion,” Cooper said.

“It was a coyote,” Olivia insisted.

“It's not a coyote. It's not a mountain lion. A coyote doesn't eat a cat in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven,” Tony said.

Tom was clearly bored with this line of inquiry and began drumming his fingers on the coffee table in a fidgety, passive-aggressive kind of way. “Sure it does,” he said. “A coyote killed a dog on my granddad's farm. Came right up to the house. Those things are vicious.”

“Can we move on to important stuff?” Cooper asked.

“Yes,” Tom said. “Now, we need to know where the SSU
is meeting at lunchtime. We know they're meeting inside the school somewhere and—”

“I don't think it was a coyote. A coyote would have killed it and took it deep into the forest,” Danny interrupted.

“Thank you,” Tony said, feeling validated.

“Maybe it was startled,” Tom said. “Come on, people, let's get with the program here.”

Tony's phone rang. “Darn it. We have to go,” she said.

Danny got up with her. “I should go, too.”

“Another productive meeting. And I came all the way in from Manitou,” Cooper groaned.

“So you keep telling us,” Tom said, irritated.

“Nice meeting you all,” Danny said, and went downstairs with Tony.

They waited outside the house where it was dark and cold. Tony had a coat, but Danny was just in his school uniform.

“It's a nice night,” Danny said.

It was. The stars were out and there were a dozen planes on big counterclockwise elliptical holding patterns above Denver International.

“Remember what Bob said?” Tony asked.

“What? No.”

“About the UFOs? I saw a UFO once, for real,” Tony said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. A big delta shape, going north along the Front Range. Like a big V with lights on it.”

“What do you think that was?”

“I don't know. There's a lot of government stuff going on in Colorado Springs. Probably just a secret plane they haven't told us about yet.”

Danny nodded. He liked Tony's sensible attitude about things. Most kids would have said aliens.

A car flashed its lights.

“That's my dad. Come on. God, you're shivering. Are you OK?”

“Yeah, fine. Hey, can I ask you something? What's your second name?”

“Meadows, why?”

“Because you're going to say something like, ‘Danny, this is my dad' and then I'll say, ‘Hello, Mister uhhh.'”

Tony grinned at him in the dark.

They walked to the car.

“Who's this?” Mr. Meadows asked from the driver's seat.

“Dad, this is Danny Lopez from the family that moved in opposite us. Danny, this is my dad.”

Danny stuck his hand through the window. Tony's dad shook it. “Hello, Mr. Meadows,” Danny said.

Tony laughed.

“You get in the front, Danny; Antonia, you get in back,” Mr. Meadows said.

He was younger than Danny had been expecting—about forty, square-jawed, dark hair, dark eyes. His voice was raspy, as if he yelled a lot in his job.

They drove through Colorado Springs, but when they got
to Manitou, Tony said, “Oh, wait, can we stop at Safeway for a second? Speaking of cats, I need to get some food for Snowflake.”

“Just the cat food, nothing else,” Mr. Meadows said as they parked in the Safeway lot.

“I have a cat, too,” Danny said to make conversation while Tony ran inside.

Mr. Meadows shook his head. “Cats. Who needs 'em? Not anymore. Not since we invented mousetraps. Selfish, dangerous things. The Egyptians worshipped them, thought they were demons from hell. I wanted a dog. Julia said that dogs are for ego cripples. Who even knows what that means?”

Danny gave himself a “foot in the mouth” eye roll, nodded, and said, “Yeah, I guess so …”

Tony ran to the car and jumped in. They drove back to Cobalt listening to Christian rock on Q102.7, which Danny knew the demons would be constantly playing for him if he ever got to hell.

When they reached Johnson Close, Mr. Meadows parked and everyone got out.

“Nice meeting you, Danny. Come on in, Tony,” Mr. Meadows announced in a voice loud enough to inform the entire cul-de-sac.