Invasion (21 page)

“It is four point six acres,” Ms. Bryer told Randy. “It is not a lot of land for the size of this house, but it is immediately adjacent to your own holdings at Cipher, so the effective land would be much more.”

Beau strolled over to the massive windows and let the sunlight cascade over him. The view was stupendous. With a reflecting pool in the foreground it reminded him of the view from the knoll on the Cipher property.

“I heard your announcement this morning,” Ms. Bryer said. “I must tell you, Mr. Nite, I think your Institute for a New Beginning sounds wonderful. Humankind will be grateful.”

“New humankind,” Randy said.

“Yes, right,” Ms. Bryer said. “A new humankind awakened to the needs of the environment. I think something like this has been a long, long time in coming.”

“You have no idea how long,” Beau called out from where he was standing at the window. Then he strolled over to Randy and Ms. Bryer. “This house is perfect for the institute. We’ll take it!”

“Excuse me?” Ms. Bryer said, even though she’d clearly heard Beau. She cleared her throat. She glanced at Randy for confirmation. Randy nodded. Beau smiled and wandered out of the room. King followed.

“Well, this’s wonderful!” Ms. Bryer said excitedly when
she’d found her voice. “It’s a gorgeous property. But don’t you want to know how much the seller is asking?”

“Call my lawyers,” Randy said. He handed Ms. Bryer a card. “Let them draw up the papers.” Randy then left the room looking for Beau.

“Of course, Mr. Nite,” Ms. Bryer said. She blinked. Her voice echoed in the now empty ballroom. She smiled to herself. It had been the strangest sale she’d ever made, but what a commission!

THE RAIN SOUNDED LIKE GRAINS OF SAND AS IT PUMMELED
the window off to the right of Jesse’s desk. Peals of thunder added to the atmosphere. Jesse liked lightning storms. It reminded him of summertime during his childhood back in Detroit.

It was late afternoon and under normal circumstances Jesse would have been ready to head home. Unfortunately Vince Garbon had called in sick that morning, and Jesse had to do work for two. With another hour of paperwork to, go, Jesse picked up his empty coffee mug and pushed back from his desk. From years of experience he knew that one more cup wouldn’t keep him up that night, and it would help him get through the rest of the day.

On his way to the communal pot, Jesse was struck by how many of his fellow officers were coughing, sneezing, or sniffling. On top of that were all the guys out sick, like Vince. Something was going around, and Jesse considered it a blessing that he’d not been stricken.

On his way back to his desk, Jesse happened to glance
through the glass divider into the captain’s office. To his surprise the captain was standing at the window facing into the squad room with his hands behind his back and a contented smile glued to his face. When he caught Jesse’s eye he waved and flashed a toothy grin.

Jesse waved back. But as he sat down, he wondered what was up with the captain. First of all, he rarely stayed this late unless there was some special ops, and second of all he was always in a bad mood by the afternoon. Jesse had never seen him smile after twelve.

After getting himself comfortable once again and with his pen in his hand poised above one of the innumberable forms, Jesse hazarded another glance into the captain’s office. To his surprise the captain was still in the same spot sporting the same smile. Like a voyeur, Jesse stared at the captain for a beat and tried to divine what on earth the captain was smiling about. It wasn’t a humorous smile. It was more a smile of satisfaction.

With a bewildered shake of his head, Jesse refocused his attention to the stack of forms in front of him. He detested paperwork, but it had to be done.

A half hour later, with several of the forms completed, Jesse again got up from his desk. This time it was nature calling. As usual the coffee had gone right through him.

Heading for the men’s room at the end of the hall, he glanced into the captain’s office and was relieved to see it was empty. Inside the lavatory Jesse didn’t dally. He did his thing and got the hell out because there were a half dozen guys in there coughing and sneezing and blowing their noses.

En route back to his desk Jesse passed by the drinking
fountain to wet his whistle. That took him by the property booking desk, where he was spotted by Sergeant Alfred Kinsella through the wire mesh of his cage.

“Hey, Jesse!” Alfred called out. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” Jesse answered. “How’s that blood problem of yours?”

“No change,” Alfred said. He cleared his throat. “I still have to go in for a transfusion now and then.”

Jesse nodded. He had given blood just like most of the guys on the force for Alfred’s benefit. Jesse felt sorry for Alfred. He couldn’t comprehend what it would be like to have a serious illness the doctors couldn’t even diagnose.

“Want to see something bizarre?” Alfred asked. He cleared his throat again and then coughed forcibly several times. He put a hand to his chest.

“You okay?” Jesse asked.

“Yeah, I suppose,” Alfred said. “But I’ve been feeling a little punk over the last hour or so.”

“You and everyone else,” Jesse said. “What do you have that’s bizarre?”

“These little guys,” Alfred said.

Jesse moved over to the chest-height counter of the property lockup. He saw that Alfred had a row of black discs in front of him, each about an inch and a half in diameter.

“What are they?” Jesse asked.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Alfred said. “In fact I was hoping you might be able to tell me.”

“Where’d they come from?”

“You know the rash of first-time offenders being brought in the last couple of nights and booked for crazy
stuff like lewd behavior or having mass meetings in public spaces without permits.”

Jesse nodded. Everybody had been talking about it, and Jesse himself had seen some strange behavior lately.

“Every last one of those people had been carrying one of these black miniature frisbees.”

Jesse got his face close to the wire mesh so he could get a better look. The black discs appeared like container tops. There were about twenty of them.

“What are they made of?” Jesse asked.

“Damned if I know, but they are heavy for their size,” Alfred said. He sneezed several times and blew his nose.

“Let me see one,” Jesse said. He reached through the opening of the wire mesh cage with the intention of picking one of them up. Alfred grabbed his arm.

“Careful!” he warned. “They look perfectly smooth but they can sting. It’s kinda spooky because I’ve not been able to find a sharp edge. Yet I’ve been stuck several times already. Feels like a bee sting.”

Taking Alfred’s advice, Jesse took a ballpoint pen from his pocket and used it to push around one of the discs. To his surprise it was not easy. They were indeed heavy. It was particularly hard to get one of them to flip over. Jesse gave up.

“Well, you’re on your own,” Jesse said. “I don’t have any idea what they are.”

“Thanks for looking at them,” Alfred said in between coughs.

“You sound like you’ve gotten worse just while I’ve been standing here,” Jesse said. “Maybe you’d better go home.”

“I’ll stick it out,” Alfred said. “I just came on duty at five.”

Jesse headed for his desk planning on staying another half hour tops, but he didn’t get far. Behind him he heard a fit of coughing and then a crash.

Turning around Jesse saw that Alfred had disappeared from view. Running back to the counter he could hear thumps like someone kicking the cabinets. Pulling himself over the counter Jesse looked down. There on the floor was Alfred with his back arched and his body quivering. He was having a convulsion.

“Hey everybody!” Jesse shouted. “We got a man down in property booking.”

Jesse went over the top of the booking desk head first, knocking most of the clutter on its surface to the floor, including the twenty or so black discs. Intent on the convulsing figure of Alfred, Jesse didn’t notice that all of the discs landed lightly and right side up.

The first thing Jesse did was get Alfred’s keys and plop them on the counter so others could unlock the cage door. Although Jesse had a key, most people didn’t. Next he forced a pad of paper between Alfred’s tightly clenched jaws. He was about to unbutton the top button of his shirt when he saw something that startled him. A foam was oozing out of Alfred’s eyes!

Shocked by this spectacle, Jesse straightened up. He’d never seen anything like it. It was like bubble bath.

Within seconds Jesse was joined by other officers. All were equally amazed at the burgeoning froth.

“What the hell is that foam?” one of the officers asked.

“Who the hell cares,” Jesse said, breaking the trance. “Let’s get an ambulance. Now!”

THERE WAS A LOUD CLAP OF THUNDER SIMULTANEOUS
with the gurney as it slammed through the main ER doors of the University Medical Center. It was being pushed by two burly EMTs. A few steps behind was Jesse Kemper. On the gurney Alfred Kinsella was still convulsing. His face was blue, and foam was still bubbling from his eyes like two bottles of disturbed champagne.

Sheila, Pitt, and Cassy emerged from Sheila’s office where they’d been most of the day collating all the flu cases, including all the cases seen that day. Sheila had heard the commotion and had responded immediately. She’d been forewarned by the head nurse that a strange case was on its way. The EMTs had called ahead as they’d left the police headquarters.

Intercepting the gurney, Sheila glanced at Alfred. Seeing the foam, she directed the EMTs to take the patient into the bay reserved for contaminated cases. She’d never seen anything like it and wasn’t about to take any chances. As the gurney was quickly pushed away, Sheila got the head nurse’s attention and told her to page a neurologist stat.

Jesse grabbed Sheila’s arm. “Remember me? I’m Detective Lieutenant Jesse Kemper. What’s wrong with Officer Kinsella?”

Sheila pulled away. “That’s what we would like to find out. Pitt, come on with me; this will be a trial by fire. Cassy, take Lieutenant Kemper into my office. The waiting room is too crowded.”

Cassy and Jesse watched Sheila and Pitt run down the hall after the gurney.

“I’m glad I’m not a doctor,” Jesse said.

“You and me both,” Cassy said. Then she pointed toward Sheila’s office. “Come on! I’ll show you where you can wait.”

The wait was not long. Within a half hour Sheila and Pitt appeared at the door. Their expressions were funereal. It wasn’t hard to guess the outcome.

“No luck?” Cassy asked.

Pitt shook his head.

“He never regained consciousness,” Sheila said.

“Was it the same flu?” Cassy asked.

“Probably; his lymphokines were very high,” Pitt said.

“What the hell are lymphokines?” Jesse asked. “Is that what killed him?”

“Lymphokines are part of the body’s defense against invasion,” Sheila said. “They are a response, not a cause of disease. But tell me, did Mr. Kinsella have any chronic disease like diabetes?”

“He didn’t have diabetes,” Jesse said. “But he had a serious problem with his blood. He had to have transfusions every so often.”

“I have a question,” Cassy said suddenly. “Do you know if Sergeant Kinsella had ever mentioned anything about a black disc about this big?” Cassy made a circle about an inch and a half in diameter with her thumbs and forefingers.

“Cassy!” Pitt moaned.

“Quiet!” Cassy said to Pitt. “At this point we don’t have much to lose and a lot to gain.”

“What’s this about a black disc?” Sheila asked.

Pitt rolled his eyes. “Here we go,” he said to no one in particular.

“You mean a black disc that’s flat on the bottom but has a dome on the top and little nubbin-like bumps around the edge.”

“Exactly,” Cassy said.

“Yeah, he showed me a bunch of them just before he had his convulsion.”

Cassy cast a triumphant look at Pitt whose expression had gone from exasperation to intense interest in a matter of seconds.

“Did he say anything about being stung by one of these discs?” Pitt asked.

“Yeah, a number of times,” Jesse said. “He said it was kinda spooky since he couldn’t find a sharp edge. And you know something, now that I think about it, I remember the police chief, Captain Hernandez, getting stung by one.”

“Somebody better fill me in on these black discs,” Sheila said.

“We found one four days ago,” Cassy said. “Well, actually it was Beau who found it. He picked it up from the gravel in a parking lot.”

“I was there when he found it,” Pitt said. “We had no idea what it was. I thought it might have fallen out from beneath Beau’s car.”

“After just a few minutes Beau said it stung him,” Cassy said. “Then a number of hours later Beau came down with his flu.”

“We had really forgotten about the disc, to tell the
truth,” Pitt said. “But then here in the emergency room I was checking in a little girl with the flu who said that a black rock had bitten her.”

“But it was an episode just last night that really got us thinking,” Cassy said. She went on to describe the incident at the market. She even described the faint blue glow that she and Pitt thought they’d seen.

When Cassy was finished there was a silence.

Sheila finally blew out through pursed lips. “Well, this all sounds crazy, and as I said before, under normal circumstances I’d call in a psychiatry consult for you two. But at this point I’m willing to explore just about anything.”

“Tell me,” Jesse said. “Does Beau recognize that he’s acting differently?”

“He says he doesn’t,” Cassy said. “But I find it hard to believe. He’s doing things he’s never done before.”

“I agree,” Pitt said. “A week ago he was adamantly against large dogs in the city. Suddenly he gets one.”

“Yeah, and without discussing it with me,” Cassy said. “And we live together. But why do you ask?”

“It would be an important point if the people who are affected are purposefully dissembling,” Sheila said. “We’ll have to be discreet. But let’s get us one of these black discs.”