“The reality, Conrad, is that any child caught attempting to turn is taken in by the Government. I’d mentioned this to you before. These children become our test subjects.”
Norman cleared his throat. “Just tell him.”
“Tell me what?”
“Only one time before,” Albert said, “has a child been taken in for psychiatric treatment after attempting to turn. And until about a half hour ago, I didn’t even know that.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your father covered all his bases, Conrad. He made sure to keep everything sealed up as tight as he could. And I don’t who did it, or how, but someone managed to unseal that secret.”
“Norman,” Conrad said, “what is going on here?”
“This close.” The scientist held up his hand, his thumb and forefinger barely touching. “You came this close to turning.”
Conrad only stared at him, his mouth open.
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You know
exactly
what I’m talking about.”
Little by little, Conrad’s gaze dropped toward the book.
“You tried to turn and your father stopped you and he took you to get help. And you got help, didn’t you? Of course you did. You got help and then you became a Hunter just like your old man.”
Those black and white words, staring back at him.
“Maybe that’s where it all started, the beginning of this … this Ripple Effect. Because you lied to yourself from the beginning. You lied to everyone.”
Those words meaning something he couldn’t understand, could never understand.
“The only thing that’s certain now,” Albert said, “is you never should have become a Hunter in the first place.”
Without another word
Albert turned his wheelchair around and rolled through the door. Norman nodded to him once as he passed, and then the scientist was gone and it was just Conrad and the old captain.
“Let’s go,” Norman said.
Conrad stayed seated, his head down.
“Damn it, Conrad, we don’t have time for this. We have to move.”
Conrad stood up. He took a step forward when he realized he still had the book in his hands. He stood there as he had before, in a state of abeyance, uncertain what to do now with the book.
Norman said, “Leave it,” and that was just what Conrad did, he placed the book on the chair where he’d first found it and followed the captain out of the room.
The door closed behind them. They were in a long brightly lit corridor. The walls were white and the linoleum was polished.
“We’re below ground,” Conrad said.
Norman nodded.
“I don’t even remember them bringing me here.”
Down the corridor, the low humming of Albert’s wheelchair grew fainter. It was impossible not to notice the heavy silence.
“Where is everybody?” Conrad asked, aware suddenly that, besides the scientist, they were alone in the facility.
“If Albert had his way, you would still be in that room.”
“Thank you.”
“No,” Norman said. “Don’t thank me.”
The captain turned and started down the corridor. He only stopped when he realized Conrad wasn’t following.
“Sir,” Conrad said, “what Albert said in there … it isn’t true.”
“We don’t have time for this. We need to move now.”
They walked through one corridor after another until they came to the elevator. They took the elevator to the ground level. They walked down the hallway, past the desk where Cynthia was now absent, through the glass doors, and out into the parking lot.
Only two cars were present here, Norman’s and what Conrad assumed was Albert’s. They got into Norman’s and headed away from Living Intelligence, down the road passing the tall pine trees. Neither of them spoke. Not even when they passed the Warehouse and Conrad stared after it, did either of them say anything.
They passed the spot where armed men usually checked identification. They got onto the main road and continued west, heading toward the Shakespeare.
“Where are we going?” Conrad asked.
Norman didn’t answer.
A half hour later they came to the Psyche Institute. It was a long, squat building perched on a hill overlooking Olympus. The majority of the building was made of glass, and in the glare of the midday sun the effect was blinding.
Norman parked in a visitor’s space near the front. Without looking at Conrad, he said, “You have ten minutes and then I’m leaving, either with or without you.”
He gave his
son’s name to the woman behind the desk and watched as she typed it into her computer, watched as she stared at the screen, then watched as she glanced up at him.
“What’s wrong?”
“One moment,” she told him, and picked up the phone.
A minute later a doctor came to greet him. He was a tall man with a heavy face and thick-framed glasses. He took Conrad aside, leading him away from the empty chairs and the unwatched televisions hanging from the walls showing morning talk shows, to a corner where they could talk in private.
“I’m afraid to be the one to tell you this,” the doctor said, “but you cannot see your son.”
“Why not?”
“Your wife has barred it.”
“She can’t do that.”
“Actually, she can.”
“Says who?”
“Her lawyer.”
The doctor gone, Conrad returned to the woman at the desk. He asked to use the phone. The woman pointed to a phone hanging on the wall by some potted plants.
He dialed his house and waited three rings before it was answered. Even before he heard someone say hello he started to speak, started to say his wife’s name, but then stopped.
“Hello?” Anthony Bruno said again.
Conrad was silent.
“Hello? Who is this?”
“Let me speak to Denise.”
“Well hello there, Conrad. What a nice surprise.”
“Cut the shit, Tony. Put Denise on the phone.”
“Sorry, I can’t do that. She doesn’t wish to speak to you.”
“This is important.”
“I’m sure it is.”
There was a silence, Conrad standing there with the phone to his ear, gritting his teeth, doing everything he possibly could not to punch the wall.
“Remember what I told you before?” Anthony said. “That when it comes down to it, Denise and Kyle are like family to me. I’m looking out for their best interest here. You can appreciate that, can’t you?”
Before he could respond, the phone was taken away—it sounded almost like it was being wrestled away—and he heard his wife’s voice.
“Conrad.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to be completely honest with me. Can you do that?”
On the TVs the talk shows shut off simultaneously, the Channel 1 logo materializing on the screens.
“Can you?”
“What’s your question?”
“Did you ever kiss my sister?”
Conrad closed his eyes. In the darkness there he saw that endless line of dominos, the very first domino having just been tipped over.
“Wow,” Denise said. “I didn’t want to believe it—I didn’t even believe it when Jess told me—but your silence says it all.”
One after another, all those dominos falling, nothing to stop them.
“Can’t you even be a man and admit to your mistakes?”
Before he could respond he heard the voice coming from the TVs, and he turned, looked up and saw Philip standing on a platform. The words NEW HUNTER GENERAL were at the bottom of the screen.
“Well? Can’t you?”
“Denise,” he said, but his voice failed him as he stared up at the TV, as he watched Philip and listened to what the man had to say. Addressing the camera the same way the Leader did, calling everyone citizens, and saying how he had been lied to, that we
all
had been lied to.
“Yes, Conrad? What do you have to say for yourself?”
The camera cut away to show a wider angle of the platform, set up in the courtyard just outside the Herculean. People were everywhere, men, women, children, all staring up at Philip on the platform. At Philip and the four figures beside him.
Conrad whispered, “Are you seeing this?”
“Seeing what?”
Philip had his broadsword out and pointed at the four figures: Scott, Garry, Brooks, and Ruth, all on their knees, their hands tied behind their backs.
“Denise, I can’t talk about this right now.”
“Of course you can’t.”
Traitors, Philip was saying. And the abomination, the monstrosity, the
zombie
kneeling beside them? These traitorous Government employees were
working
with this filthy and disgusting creature.
“I need to see Kyle, Denise.”
“No you don’t. The last time you saw him you had him arrested.”
Philip walked behind the three Trackers and zombie, assuring his citizens that the truth would come out. That he would now make it his goal to learn everything the Government was trying to hide. That he would do everything in his power not only to rid the world of the living, but anyone who associated themselves
with
the living.
“You had our son arrested, Conrad. Tony’s going to make sure you never see him again.”
“Denise,” Conrad said, “I’m sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about,” and he hung up the phone. He stepped closer to the television just as the picture cut to Ruth. She was the only one showing emotion, her face wet with tears, her shoulders jerking.
“Citizens!” Philip held his broadsword up even higher above his head, a slash of late-morning sunlight glinting off its edge. “This is for you!”
The crowd erupted, people shouting and clapping and stomping their feet, the scene reminding Conrad of what had taken place back in the plane hanger outside Tartarus City. Except this was taking place in downtown Olympus, right at the foot of the world’s largest building. And now here Philip turned and went down the line, first Scott, then Garry, then Brooks, then finally Ruth, swinging his broadsword just as he had been taught, severing their heads from the rest of their bodies.
The first thing
Conrad said to Norman when he got back in the car was, “
General
Philip Hager?”
Norman put the car in gear. They went down the hill, stopped at the bottom, pulled out onto the main road.
“It came on sooner than I’d expected,” he said. “I was hoping you’d be in the car with me. How did you know? Did you see it on TV?”
Leaning his head back on the headrest now, his eyes closed, Conrad nodded.
“All I had was the radio. I couldn’t see what was going on. He had all four of them there, didn’t he. He had them there and he killed each and every one of them.”
Again Conrad nodded.
“Things are moving much too fast now. There’s nothing we can do.”
Conrad opened his eyes. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know.” Norman pulled onto the Shakespeare, pressed down on the gas. “But we can’t stay here any longer.”
“I can’t leave my family behind. I can’t leave Kyle.”
“You stay and Philip will track you down. He will expire you.”
“But my family—he’ll come after them.”
“Do you know what happened this morning?” Norman asked. “It was a drunk driver. He went through a black light and hit the SUV, pushed it over on its side. The cops showed up right away. There was no time for them to get out of there, to try to hide Ruth. From what I understand, they made sure her mask was on, but none of it mattered. She had broken her leg and she was in pain. She couldn’t stop crying.”
“Slow down.”
“The cops saw this and called the Hunters. Philip was the first on the scene. They had Ruth tied up in the SUV and Philip … he tortured her.”
“Norman, slow down or we’ll be in the next accident.”
His hands tight around the wheel, passing the slower traffic in the right lane, heading farther and farther away from Olympus, Norman shook his head.
“He got her to tell him what was going on. But from what I understand, she played it strong. At least for a little. Then she broke, told him enough to know that something really wasn’t right, and he requested an immediate meeting with Thaddeus. And you know that after the Heaven invasion, after Philip’s talk, the general had a soft spot for him. So they met. Philip asked him pointblank if he had any knowledge of three ex-Hunters with a zombie. Thaddeus of course denied it, but Philip didn’t believe him. He expired Thaddeus right where he stood.”
Conrad touched the captain’s arm. Norman glanced at him.
“Do you want us to get pulled over?”
Norman shook his head.
“Then slow down.”
Norman eased his foot off the gas.
When they were at an even pace with the rest of the traffic, Conrad said, “How did Philip get away with it? Nobody tried to arrest him?”
“You were there in that plane hanger. You saw just how quickly the men reacted to him. Somehow Philip has become their leader. Now it’s just official.”
“You have to take me back.”
“You know I can’t.”
“But my family—”
“Your family,” Norman said, “is now as good as expired. You going back to try to save them is just going to get you expired too.”
Conrad was silent a moment, thinking. “What about everyone at Living Intelligence?”
“They’ve all fled. Everyone except Albert. He says that he’s the captain of the facility, and like every good captain, he’s going to go down with the ship.”
“You think Philip’s going to find out about it?”
“I’d be surprised if he hasn’t already.”
“Albert won’t tell him anything.”
“No,” Norman agreed, “but it shouldn’t take them long to figure it out. All the files have been deleted, most of the computers have been destroyed, but that won’t matter. Despite what you think of Philip, he’s very intelligent. I have no doubt he’s looking for me right now. That’s why I switched this car’s plates before I came to pick you up.”