An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4) (13 page)

     “You don’t think I could just use my good looks and charm to sweet talk her into it?”

     Robbie and Scott looked at each other and started laughing hysterically.

     “No, seriously, John, how’d you get Sloan to go for it?”

     “Well, the truth is she pretty much hates my guts. And she said she can barely tolerate either of you. But she’s had the hots for Randy for a very long time. I know because I overheard her talking to one of the girls in dispatch about h
ow well he filled out his uniform. I’m not sure what that means, and I was afraid to ask. But from the sound of her voice I assumed it was a good thing.

    
“Anyway, I told her if she would do this for us, I’d start laying it on thick about how Sloan was a very good and very passionate woman, who’d lost her husband in a car accident two years ago, and hasn’t been with another man since. I said I’d tell him that she’s got all this womanly passion built up inside of her just bursting to get out, and that she could make him very happy.”

     “And is any of that true?”

     “Oh, sure. All of it. Well, most of it. Actually, some of it.”

     “Which part of it’s true?”

     “She once had a husband.”

     “And he died?”

     “No. He walked out on her six months ago. He said she was an evil witch.”

     “And that’s the kind of woman you
’re going to sick on our friend?”

     “Hey, evil witches need love too. And she did say she hasn’t dated anyone since her husband left. So for all I know she really does have a lot of pent-up womanly passion she wants to share with someone.”

     “And did you ask her that?”

     “Oh, no.”

     “Don’t you think you should have?”

     “I didn’t want to broach the subject. I mean, the thought of her and Randy in a passionate embrace makes my skin crawl. I wa
nted to shoot myself just to get the vision out of my head.”

     Scott pictured Sloan and Randy in the throes of passion and agreed.

     “Yeah… I see what you mean.”

     John pulled the squad car into the driveway of his home, and the three walked into his house.

     Randy, playing solitaire at the dining room table, looked up and asked, “What are you three loons laughing about?”

     “Oh, nothing.”

-23
-

     Scott went back to work the following day, and was on the streets for only a few hours when he got a call on the squad car’s radio.

     “Meet the chief on
tac three.”

     Uh oh.

     He switched radio channels and called in. “Chief, this is Charlie Four Six..”

     The chief was an excellent policeman, but a rather low key kind of guy.

     “Scott, what’s your present location?”

     Eastbound on
Marbach Road, between the loops.

     “Very well. Can you meet me at the abandoned H.E.B. on Marbach and
Loop 410?”

     “10-4, c
hief. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

     Scott had been on the force long enough now to be entrusted with a rookie. They’d just met four hours before. The rookie’s name was Rhett Butler.

     “Please don’t laugh,” the rookie had said as they shook hands. “My mother was a big
Gone With the Wind
fan.”

     Scott smiled but didn’t laugh. He liked the kid immediately, and they seemed to hit it off well.

     Butler wondered why the chief would meet with them personally.

     “I hope I haven’t screwed up already
. I’d like to get through the first day, at least, before I get fired.”

     This time Scott laughed.

     “Don’t worry. If you were in trouble, the chief would have asked to meet, and then said, “And bring that damn rookie with you.”

     Scott pulled into the parking lot of what used to be a bustling supermarket. The cars in the parking lot were covered with dust now, abandoned since the blackout. In all probability none of them would ever run again.

     Several of the car part manufacturers and battery manufacturers were making parts now to get some of the vehicles running again. But the plants were located up north, mostly in northern Ohio and southern Michigan.

     And they were taking care of their own first.

     Very few parts were making their way southwest into Texas.

     He fully expected these cars to sit in the parking lot until they slowly rotted away to rusty dust.

     He parked in the far end of the lot. It was the part of the lot the shoppers had avoided except on busy Fridays and the first day of the month, when there was no better place to park.

     He was there for only a couple of minutes when Chief Martinez pulled into the lot, spotted Scott’s unit, and pulled alongside him.

     “Good afternoon, Scott. How are you doing?”

     “Hi, c
hief. I’m doing okay. Thank you.”

     The old man nodded in
Butler’s direction.

     “How’s the rookie holding up?”

     “He’s doing good so far, but it’s been a slow day. He spent his morning getting the grand tour of the district and meeting some of the block leaders he’ll be dealing with. The real test will be this afternoon. We’re headed over to Green Plain Drive to sweep through it for bodies.”

     The chief looked at
Butler.

     “Did they warn you what you’re in for, son?”

     “Yes, sir. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’ll be okay.”

     “Good. If you have to step outside and vomit a couple of times at first, do it and don’t feel bad about it. Every one of my officers has lost their lunch a time or two, no matter how many lie and say they haven’t.”

     “Yes, sir.”

     He turned back to Scott.

     “Scott, the reason I wanted to meet with you was because John explained the situation up at your place. I wanted to express my condolences for your loss. If you need some more time off, or if there’s anything else I can do personally, you just say the word.”

     “Thank you, chief. I appreciate it. Right now I just need to work and try to keep my mind busy. I’ll be okay.”

     “I understand your boys and grandson are still up there. I admire your decision to come back and help us out some more.”

     “To be honest, chief, I thought about staying up there and not coming back. But being close to them without being able to touch them was maddeningly painful. And besides, I promised you six months ago I’d stay until the plague dissipated.

     “And I always keep my promises.”

     “Good for you, Scott. And that’s the other reason I wanted to
talk to you one on one.

     “I attended a meeting the other day with the mayor and the city council. One of the topics of discussi
on was the plague.

     “The regional representative from the CDC was there and gave the mayor an update on the situation.

     “He said the numbers of new cases being reported in Bexar County are down considerably this month. The hospitals are reporting only three or four cases per day, as opposed to seven or eight cases per day just two months ago. If the trend continues, they say they’ll be able to switch from condition red back to orange within sixty to ninety days.”

     “What does that mean in non-CDC terms?”

     “Condition orange means they think they’ve eradicated the plague. They still won’t issue the all-clear, though, until we go thirty consecutive days without a new case being reported.”

     “So I could be going home in as little as ninety days?”

     “Don’t get your hopes up. That would be the best case scenario. But, yes.”

     Scott smiled broadly.

     “Thanks for the good news, chief. And I’m glad you came by for a chat. I’ve got something for you.”

     “Oh, really?”

     Scott reached over to the glove box and took out a zip lock bag, wrapped in aluminum foil. He handed it through the window to Martinez.

    
Martinez, puzzled, said, “I’m almost afraid to ask. But what is it?”

     “It’s a pound of beef jerky. John told me how you’re addicted to the stuff, and how you’ve been eating the stale stuff off the grocery store shelves that’s two years old. I told my friend Tom, and he made that for you. From a steer he slaughtered about two weeks ago.”

     “Well I’ll be damned. You can’t get jerky much fresher than that, can you?”

     “No, sir.”

     “Well, Scott, here’s the thing. Department policy expressly prohibits me from accepting any gifts from any of my officers. So it’s a good thing you didn’t give this to me, and that I just happened to find it in the parking lot after you drove off.”

     “Yes, sir. Good thing that happened. I guess today must be your lucky day.”

     Chief Martinez smiled broadly.

     “Yep. I guess so.”

     “Chief, one more question about the plague. Is there anything we can do to get that “all clear” any sooner?”

     “I asked the CDC guy specifically that. He said just continue to do what we’ve been doing, and finding and burning those bodies.

     “He said that now that the word is out, it’s not being spread so much by human to human contact anymore. All the people know about it now, and the ones who have been exposed are doing a pretty good job about staying clear of those who haven’t.

     “He said these days, most of the new cases are coming from mosquito bites. Mosquitoes feed off the
infected corpses and then carry the disease to whoever they bite after that.

     “So as soon as we can find and destroy the rest of the corpses, the sooner we can eradicate that problem.”

     “We’ll damn sure do our part.”

     “You better get your rookie over to start that collection detail. Wouldn’t want him to think you just sit around all day in the parking lot and shoot the bull with your chief.
”

     “No sir. Wouldn’t want that.”

     “Y’all be careful out there.”

     “Yes, sir.”

     Chief Martinez drove off, but wasn’t even out of the parking lot before he was breaking into the package and taking out a big chunk of jerky to gnaw on.

     Scott asked Rhett, “You ready for this?”

     “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

-24-

     The new partners drove to Green Plain Drive, where they parked in front of the first house which didn’t have a big green checkmark painted on the front.

     It was the SAPD’s method for keeping track of which houses had already been checked over the previous months. A green check meant that at some point, an officer had physically walked through every room in the house, the garage, and the back yard. And that either no bodies were found, or they had been removed and burned.

     House number 2405 had the mark. House 2407 didn’t. So this was where they’d start their systematic search on this day.

     Scott keyed the
microphone on his shoulder clipped radio.

     “Charlie
Four Six to dispatch.”

     “Go ahead, Charlie
Four Six.”

     “Show us out of the unit and performing a sweep.
2407 Green Plain Drive, moving west.”

     “10-4,
2407 Green Plain Drive, moving west.”

     Scott opened the trunk and handed the rookie a jar of Vick’s Vapor Rub.

     “Put some of this under your nose. It’ll burn a little at first, but it’ll cover up most of the smell.”

     He handed him a surgical mask, and a pair of latex gloves as well.

     “Why the mask? We’ve both been exposed and identified as possible carriers.”

     “I know. We’re not concerned so much about infection anymore. But the mask will help keep the vapor rub on your face, so you don’t sweat it away. It’s pretty hot in some of these houses. And whatever stench the rub doesn’t take care of, the mask will.