Reckonings
While Sheppard and Delgado got the front door installed at Rincon’s office, a small piece of the overall damage, Gutierrez and Keel texted them about where things stood with Hull. A call with the governor was scheduled for five p.m. at the bureau office.
“What’s the official count now on the evacuation, Shep?” Delgado asked.
He glanced at his text messages. “The most recent figure is ten thousand, two hundred and twenty-two.”
“I think we’re pretty close to a complete evacuation. That’ll be a fucking tick-tock for Hull.”
And for us, Sheppard thought. And for Mira and Rincon.
Half an hour later, Rincon’s office had a front door again. It wouldn’t hold against a Crow and might not even hold against a strong wind. Chunks of concrete and wood were missing from the frame and wall. But it was a small piece of normalcy in a strange, chaotic time. They locked up and drove over to the bureau office.
At 4:50, they walked in and found Hull arguing with Gutierrez and Keel, and Eden standing there, clutching her iPad case, looking bored out of her mind.
“What’s going on?” Delgado asked.
Eden rolled her eyes like she just couldn’t be bothered. “Testosterone.”
Gutierrez glanced at Sheppard and pointed at Hull. “Este puto cabron…” This fucking asshole…
“Just the two men I wanted to see,” Hull snapped. “The DOD is in charge here and Mr. Gutierrez doesn’t seem to get that.” Hull pressed his fist to his chest. “I’m the DOD rep here. I didn’t order a canine search and there won’t be a search without my approval.”
You haughty little shit. Sheppard felt like wiping Hull’s smug smile off his face. “As long as residents of this island are hostages to these Crows, Mr. Hull, there definitely will be a search.”
“And you can take it up with the governor, Rudy,” Keel said, and held out his cell.
From where Sheppard stood, he could see the screen of Keel’s phone, the governor’s face filling it, gray hair perfectly coiffed, his dark eyes narrowed with anger. “Mr. Keel has kept me apprised of the situation on the island, Mr. Hull, and you are to back down immediately from your demands. As governor, I declared the state of emergency, I ordered the National Guard to be brought in, and I placed Detective Delgado, as chief of police, and FBI agents Sheppard and Gutierrez in charge. I don’t know why the Department of Defense is even there, Mr. Hull, except that Frank works as a biologist for the department when he’s not serving his country. You will stand down. Immediately.”
Hull looked shocked. “But…”
“Excuse me, Governor.” Eden moved closer to Hull, so she was visible on the screen of Keel’s phone, and introduced herself. “I have ample evidence that the Crows are AIs and present a national security threat.”
“I don’t give a damn if they’re aliens from Neptune, Ms. Curry. I ordered the evacuation to save lives. I’m ordering the canine search for the same reason. Once we’ve rescued the hostages, then I will make a decision about the next step. If you and Mr. Hull refuse to abide by that, then you’ll be taken into custody and removed from the island. Are we clear?”
The tendons in Hull’s neck tightened, blood rushed into his face, and then he exploded. Hull kicked Keel’s cell out of his hand and dived for Delgado’s weapon. Sheppard tackled him at the knees, they both crashed to the floor. Hull wasn’t a match for Sheppard, who was nearly a foot taller and outweighed him by at least sixty pounds. He quickly pinned Hull face down against the floor, yanked his arms behind his back, and Gutierrez restrained his wrists and jerked him to his feet.
“This is a goddamn illegal arrest,” Hull shouted. “I have the right to call my attorney, to…”
“Right now, amigo, you don’t have squat,” Gutierrez snapped. “Take it up with the governor. We’ve got the perfect holding cell for you here, Mr. Hull.” Then, shouting to the others: “Guys, Eden’s running”
Keel spun around and grabbed her by the back of her jacket before she reached the front door. He twisted one arm behind her, tightened his other arm around her neck. Sheppard hurried over, cuffed her, and said, “We’ve got another cell for you, Eden.”
She finally lost her cool. “I want to see my fucking attorney. That’s my right, my…”
“Nope.” Keel shook his head. “You don’t have any rights until the state of emergency is over.”
“You idiots are making a big mistake,” she bellowed. “These crows are… the biggest threat this country has ever faced. They’re…”
“Get them outta here,” Sheppard snapped, and tapped a code into his phone to unlock the cell block door. “Take Eden’s iPad, their cell phones, car keys.”
Gutierrez did so, set everything on Sheppard’s desk, and he and Keel took Hull and Eden inside.
Delgado stared after them, then looked worriedly at Sheppard. “Okay, since we’re now officially in charge, what’s next?”
“The search. Are the dogs on the way?”
Delgado checked his phone. “They’re boarding the military transport now.”
“To the airport.”
“There’s no one here to check on Hull and Eden. To bring them food or water or anything else.”
“We can leave them food and water.” Sheppard said. “They’ll just have to forego showers and attorneys until this is over.” They went into the employee room, Sheppard opened the fridge, and brought out what was inside—a couple of sandwiches, a six-pack of water, a brick of cheese, four hard boiled eggs, a bottle of mango juice. “They won’t starve.”
“With them in custody, Jon should be here.”
“Texting him now. Okay, he and Annie can meet us at the airport.”
“Perfect.”
They loaded the food and drinks into a fabric shopping bag and Gutierrez headed into the cell block. Sheppard returned to the lobby and stood at the picture window, unsettled, worried. He looked out into the empty road out front, the lengthening shadows, the eerie stillness of a nearly evacuated island.
Please be alive, Mira. He felt sure that if she was dead, he would know it. He would feel it in his bones. His blood. His very cells.
And what do you feel?
That she was alive. He didn’t have any clue about the state of her “aliveness,” whether she was restrained or locked up or being tortured. But that she was alive was enough for now.
And you know that how, Shep? asked that habitual, inner skeptic.
Sheppard slapped masking tape over that skeptic’s mouth.
Delgado, Keel, and Gutierrez returned to the front room, pursued by a cascade of obscenities from Hull and Eden. We’ll sue your fucking asses….
“Yeah, yeah.” Sheppard locked the front door, engaged the multiple security cams in the cell block.
“Not happy campers,” Gutierrez snickered.
“They rarely are,” Keel said.
They left through the rear door, into the parking lot, where the only cars were their SUV and the Mini-Cooper Hull and Eden drove. Sheppard locked this door, too, fully aware that if the Crows wanted in, locked doors wouldn’t stop them.
2
Hal sat up suddenly, blinking hard to clear his vision, and was so disoriented he didn’t know where the hell he was, why his head ached, why the inside of his mouth tasted like shit. He swung his legs over the side of the couch—a new couch, a wooden floor, a huge living room with a large TV mounted on the wall. He definitely wasn’t in the Airbnb apartment.
He sat there, curling and uncurling his fingers against the cushions, and struggled to remember something. Anything. Then it came back to him, a flood of images that made his head pound, stoked his rage, and the table next to the couch started liquifying.
“Shit.” Hal leaped to his feet, but felt so unsteady he nearly fell forward. He grabbed onto the edge of a chair and his rubbery body slumped into it. He sat there, breathing hard, almost panting, and the couch stopped melting. Not much of it was left.
His feet and legs felt like they belonged to someone else, his lungs breathed for someone else, his heart beat for someone else. Hal leaned forward, clasping his knees, struggling to breathe, to feel the air flowing into his lungs, trying desperately to bring his own body under his control. Minutes ticked by. He remembered Wind’s story about when she’d been caught and drugged by Normals and how she’d moved beyond it.
The secret lies in your breathing, Hal. Deep, focused breaths, like you’re trying to breathe underwater.
I’ve never been in a body of water.
C’mon, you’ve been in a bathtub, right? It’s like that. You sink, you hold our breath, but instead of surfacing when your lungs are exploding, you sink deeper and count to ten.
They’d been lying in his bedroom in the warehouse when she’d said this, her arms folded under her head, her svelte body naked and exposed in all its incredible beauty. He didn’t have any idea what she was talking about, so they’d gone into a bathroom with a tub. She’d filled it, climbed in, and gestured for him to join her and he had. She’d shown him exactly what she meant and for the next hour, he had practiced until he’d gotten it.
Hal now found that place within himself and in several minutes, could breathe normally again. He could move. His body belonged to him once more. He got up from the couch and stumbled past what was obviously the sick room, Squirt curled up under the sheet. Whiskers, in the windowsill, stared outside. Hal followed the whimpering noises to the patio. There, Nico, Red, and Liz lay like wet laundry near the pool.
No Cam. No Mira. No Rincon. He noted the gaping hole in the screen. “Fuck. What the hell happened here?”
Nico pushed up on his elbows. He looked like he’d been run over by a truck. Bruises stained his bone-white skin, one of his eyes was swollen shut, blood had dried in a corner of his mouth. “What happened? The power in Mira woke up, that’s what fucking happened. And then… then Cam camouflaged himself as her and took on that… ability himself. We never had a fucking chance against the two of them. Trix tried, but…” Nico shook his head. “Shit show, it was such a shit show.”
Trixie coughed violently and rolled onto her side. Her soaked clothes clung to her like a second skin. “I… I nearly drowned.”
“Me… too.” Red rocked back onto her heels, water dripping from her hair and clothes.
“I… never had a chance to shift,” Liz said. “That’s how fast it happened.”
“She and… Cam… so powerful,” Trixie said. “She…. she caught me by surprise. Us by surprise. No one said anything about her… being able to do what I do.”
“Where’s my cat?” Hal asked.
“He must’ve taken off when we moved,” Nico said.
He felt a stab of disappointment. Not a good sign. None of it was good. “How long was I out?”
“Hours,” Nico said. “You had a temper tantrum, Hal, and pretty much wrecked the apartment. We had to find another place.”
“Where are we? On the west side of the island?”
Trixie nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Shit. On a beach. A beach made it easier for them to escape.”
“Hey.” Red’s voice cut through his criticism. “We’re lucky we found anything.”
“Yeah.” Trixie wiped her hands over her damp face. “We coulda just left you back in that fucking ruined apartment, Hal.”
“Look, I get that. I’m grateful you moved me.” He patted the air with his hands, something Wind had done the few times they argued. “It’s just…”
Red opened her arms. “This is ideal, Hal. Secluded. Back from the road. We weren’t thinking no beach, no this or that when we fled the place you destroyed.”
He wished she’d stopped referring to that. His meltdown. “Whatever. We’re here. And they’re gone.”
“Once I dry off a little more, I can look for them.” Liz’s damp wings fluttered, then she got up and went over to the hot tub and picked up one of the folded towels. She rubbed it across her shoulders and over her face. Her wings fluttered again. “Just a little longer, Hal.”
“Even if you spot them, it won’t matter because by the time you get back here, they’ll be gone.”
“I can follow them to wherever they’re going and race back here.”
Could she? Hal felt worn down, low on energy despite his recharges and, worse, low on hope. Unless dozens of Crows arrived—and it would have to be many dozens—they weren’t going to be able to seize this island. And if they couldn’t take the island, they needed to get out of here and try to blend in elsewhere, just as Red had said. But right now, with the evacuation nearly completed, they might die trying to get out even if they were shrouded.
“We need them,” Hal said. “They’re our ticket to safety. I’m done with this goddamn island. You were right, Red. We should’ve gotten out when it was easy and tried to blend in.”
Red rolled her eyes. “Finally. The wannabe admits he isn’t always right.”
“A few hours ago, I would have used your own words, Hal, that the idea is treasonous,” Trixie said. “But now I agree with you and Red. What about Squirt?”
“He’s on the mend.” Hal hoped it was true but regardless, they would take Squirt with them. “He comes with us. No one is left behind.”
Liz fluttered her wings again. “I think I’m ready.”
Hal walked out into the backyard with her, into the gathering dusk. A breeze kicked in off the Gulf, swollen with the scent of salt water, the fragrance of flowers, the lush greenness of the garden and trees. He let these smells seep through him and into memory. He hugged Liz, then watched her transform. As a condor, she hopped to the edge of the shallow rise, then flapped her wings and soared, a magnificent and humbling sight.
She would find them, he thought. She would follow Mira, Rincon, and Cam to their destination and would return here with the information. Then they—what? What’s my plan?
A car. Did they still have a car? Or had they left it at the Airbnb apartment?
He hurried back to the pool area. “Do we still have a car?”
“Yeah. We drove it over here from the apartment,” Nico said. “But it won’t be shrouded now. Once I got knocked out, shrouding ended.”
“When Liz locates them, we’ll need the car to go there. Then they’re going to get us off the island.”
“We’d better check the local news,” Nico said. “Find out what’s going on with the evacuation, when the ferries are running.”
“Thanks to the hostage bitch, our phones are waterlogged,” Trixie said.
“Mine’s in the living room,” Hal said.
“Mine, too,” Nico echoed.
The two of them went back inside the house, retrieved their phones, Googled. On the Gazette website, Hal read O’Hara’s latest entry, 1st Amendment Rights. Some asshole, Rudy Hull, who worked for the Department of Defense, had threatened to arrest O’Hara and his editor if they didn’t remove his previous article about how the DOD planned to annihilate the Crows once the island was evacuated.
Annihilate them how? Bombs? Drones? Ten thousand soldiers with tanks and guns? He definitely wanted updates, so he clicked on O’Hara’s email address at the end of the article and typed in the address Red had set up for him when they’d first gotten the phones—crow1@gmail.com. Short of emailing O’Hara directly, this seemed like the better choice right now. But judging from the number of comments under the article—more than a thousand—O’Hara might not even notice crow1. But maybe he would recognize the email as an opportunity for direct communication.
“This article is alarming, Hal.” Nico glanced up from his phone, his pale skin even whiter than usual, which made his swollen eye even more prominent.
“Yeah. And that’s why we need those hostages.”
“Sounds to me like this Hull idiot doesn’t give a shit if there’s collateral damage as long as he gets rid of us.”
“He may not give a shit, but others will,” Hal assured him. “These twenty-first-century people dislike despots.”
“They elected one,” Nico said.
“He was an aberration and was impeached.”
“Then how come he and his followers think he’s still president?”
“Twenty-firsters are easily brainwashed? Their legal system is really fucked up? Or they just don’t connect the dots? Shit, I don’t know.”
“Which brings us back to one of my earlier observations,” Red said, standing in the doorway, arms folded across her waist. “About wannabe dictators. Remember, Hal?”
“Hey, when we were out on the patio, I admitted that you were right about leaving and trying to blend in.”
“That’s true. It means there’s hope for you. But there’s probably no hope for this Hull guy. If we’re going for a vote, I vote for waiting for Liz to get back with her report.”
Nico nodded. “Me, too.”
Trixie hurried over to the doorway, her clothes still dripping water. “Me three, Hal.”
“That’s my vote also,” Hal said. “So it’s unanimous.”
3
Mira sensed it took considerable energy for Cam to hold the camouflage of the three of them as dolphins. So it didn’t surprise her when two miles into their swim, Cam emitted a series of sounds that meant move toward shore.
She and Rincon followed him into shallow water and the camouflage wore off. Mira, fully human again, trudged out of the ocean, her wet clothes sucking at her skin as she made her way to the beach. She struggled to breathe through her nose, then sucked hungrily at the air.
Hey, Shep. I was a dolphin. What’s your skepticism say about that?
The darkness, punctuated only by stars peeking out from between drifting clouds, disoriented her, and she sank to the sand, pulled her legs up against her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and rested her chin against her knees. I was a dolphin! Sort of. And yet, she’d been real enough as a dolphin to experience what that species felt in terms of connectivity with their environment and with their own. Real enough for Boss, Prissy and Rose to communicate with her. Real enough so that being human again made her feel diminished, small, incomplete.
Even though Cam wasn’t a Lethal in the way Crows defined it, his ability struck her as the most valuable of what she’d seen so far among the Crows. He didn’t just assume someone else’s appearance. He took on the personality, mannerism, issues, talents, and characteristics that led to a deeper understanding of other people, other species, of reality itself. Immersion, as she’d told him earlier. She’d learned that when they had traded readings, but hadn’t realized until now just how profound his ability was. He was the oldest among them and had lived through the worst of the horrors perpetrated against the Crows.
“Mira?” Rincon leaned in closer to her. “You okay?”
“Just trying to get used to having been a dolphin, Ian.”
His laugh sounded choked up. “After this, regardless of how it all shakes out in the end, I’ll never be able to look at anything in the same way.”
He sounded overwhelmed and Mira slipped her arm around his shoulders. “I know.”
Cam came over to them, his tall, slender body silhouetted against the starlight, water dripping from his clothes. “So?”
“Just trying to, uh, recover from being dolphins,” Mira said.
“Me, too. There aren’t any dolphins in the dome. I studied them for months in the archives, so this was as exhilarating for me as it was for you two.”
“Is there anything you can’t camouflage?” Rincon asked.
“Rocks, shells, objects, the so-called inanimate. I mean, everything is energy, but the energy of living things is easier to replicate.”
“What about plants? Or trees?”
“If it’s living, I can assume its appearance. But it’s much harder to hold the camouflage for any length of time when it’s not human. How about if we get off the beach? I feel uneasy out here.”
Mira and Rincon rose shakily to their feet and moved toward the trees along the top of the shallow rise that bordered Old Post Road on the west side of the island. The distant songs of the dolphins prompted her to pause at the top and look back. The three dolphins leaped out of the water and the symphony of the sounds they made were identical to the one Annie had recorded and sent to her. Mira suddenly understood what this meant.
“I know where Annie and O’Hara are.” The words exploded from her. “At the dolphin center. That’s why those three dolphins came up to me. Annie took care of them after they were rescued as babies. I used to hang out there with her. They know me because of her. We’ll be safe there. Annie and O’Hara will have cell phones, they’ll be in touch with Shep and the others.”
“Where is it?” Cam asked.
“On the east side of the island. Shortest route is through the woods.”
“Let’s move,” Rincon said.
They got about two hundred feet into the trees when Cam suddenly hissed, “Go still.” He dropped his head back and peered up through the umbrella of branches. “Shit. Liz. She’s looking for us.” He kept watching, then whispered, “Drop slowly to the ground, flatten out on your stomachs, as close as possible to the trunks of trees.”
Mira and Rincon slowly lowered themselves to the ground. They moved up against the trunk of the same giant banyan tree, and Mira rolled into a ball, thighs up against her chest, forehead pressed to her knees, and hardly breathed.
A bug—ant, beetle, roach, she couldn’t tell—scampered down the back of her leg. She desperately wanted to slap at it but didn’t dare move. Rincon was close enough to her so she could hear his rapid breathing. But when she shifted her head slightly to see him, he wasn’t there. Neither was Cam. Tall grass, shrubs, weeds, and fallen leaves surrounded her and blocked her sight of Rincon and Cam.
Unless they’re camouflaged as the grass and shrubs and weeds.
“Ian,” she whispered.
He didn’t reply, but she could still hear him breathing.
Am I a weed? Shrub? A blade of grass?
The thought was weirder than the reality of being a dolphin. At least dolphins were mammals. But shrubs and weeds were what people stepped on, where dogs shit.
She squeezed her eyes shut and after what felt like hours, Cam whispered, “She flew on. We’d better keep moving. Her eyesight is incredible, so it’s possible she saw us.”
Mira rolled forward onto the balls of her feet, and both Cam and Rincon emerged from behind the greenery. Rincon glanced quickly around, as if to orient himself, then darted ahead through the trees and Mira and Cam moved alongside him. Their shoes crunched through fallen leaves, they moved around protruding roots, the darkness slowed them down. Mira desperately wanted to turn on her cell’s flashlight. But if Liz was still in the vicinity, she might spot it.
“Was I just a shrub?” Rincon asked. “Or tall weeds? What the hell happened back there, Cam?”
“Not a camouflage. I need to recharge before I can do that again so soon. It was just a trick of perception.”
Like they were supposed to know what that meant, Mira thought. “Recharge. I heard Hal say that too. Like you’re cell phones or iPads.”
“Crows aren’t AIs, Mira. But our abilities do come with a price. If we don’t have downtime, it can kill us.”
“Downtime like sleep?”
“Sleep, yes, But the deepest sleep, delta.”
“How long can Hal sustain his ability without downtime?”
“Not long enough to kill an army. His entire idiotic scheme about seizing the island might have worked if hundreds of Crows had made it. That way, when the front line of Crows was exhausted, others could step in. But with just four Lethals—Hal, Red, Trixie, and an injured Squirt—no way they can take on an army. My plan all along was that if I made it here, I would get away from them as soon as possible.”
Mira felt he had provided them with an essential key to defeating the Crows. Wear them out.
4
While they waited at the airport for the transport plane to arrive, Sheppard’s sense of urgency deepened. He had hoped to begin this search while it was still light out, but the plane was running late and now it was dark. The delay, though, had given them time to get a dozen Jeeps to the tarmac that would take the dogs and their handlers to various neighborhoods around the island to search door to door for stragglers—and for the Crows. Each group would have a backup of soldiers.
The plan was to dispatch two teams apiece to the three main areas on the island—in and around Pirate’s Cove, the hills, and in and around the town of Tango. Each of them—he, Gutierrez, Keel, and Delgado—would ride with a team. O’Hara and Annie would be with one of the teams to cover the story for the Gazette and his thousands of subscribers.
They might find a few diehard holdouts who had stayed behind, but none of this guaranteed they would find Mira and Rincon or even the Crows. Right now, though, it was the best plan they had.
Sheppard worried that while they focused on this canine search the Crows might be preparing to leave the island. Or had left already. If the albino Crow shrouded a stolen car and everyone in the group, escaping wouldn’t be a problem unless it started raining, and the water exposed them. Or, if they were on a crowded ferry and no other drivers could see their car and someone backed into it. This fact caused Sheppard to consider the possibility that they hadn’t left yet and might be waiting for the last evacuation ferry that would depart two hours from now, at eight-thirty. Fewer cars. Fewer soldiers. Less of a chance that something would go south.
He went over to Keel, who was talking to the driver of one of the Jeeps. “How many soldiers are at the ferry dock? The marina?”
“Eight apiece. And there’re only two ferries left at the dock—ours and the one for the last evacuation. Why?”
Sheppard explained.
“Good point, Shep. We know one of them is hurt, so that may have slowed them down. But do you think more soldiers at the docks and the marina is the answer? They might freak and go ballistic.”
“Or they might kill everyone and hijack a ferry or steal a boat. We need to be prepared to move regardless.”
“Agreed. I’ll assign more soldiers but instruct them to stay out of sight and contact us if they notice any irregularities.”
“Explain the types of irregularities—the sound of a car when no engines are running or there’s no car in sight. Evidence of a collision with something no one can see. That kind of thing.”
“Done.” Keel started texting. “How’re Hull and Eden doing?”
On his phone, Sheppard brought up images and sound from the security cams in the cell block. One of them showed Hull body-slamming the cell door. Another captured Eden gripping the bars that separated her cell from Hull’s, her angst visible in her facial expression, in her emotional outburst. “What the fuck, Rudy. How’d this happen?”
Keel laughed. “Assholes. Both of them.” He paused. “Okay, ferry dock will be covered.”
Twenty minutes later, the dozen Jeeps fanned out across the tarmac and away from the airport, headed toward their designated areas of the island.