Dead Man Running (54 page)

She spun away from the outreached hand of the good reverend, placing her within arm's reach of the shotgun.  She grabbed the gun, got to her feet and pulled a
nother
box of shells out of her pocket.  Like an experienced Western lawman, she calmly
loaded the weapon and
shot the fast approaching Hank, separating his head from his body.  The body spun around for a few moments before tripping over the crawling body of the former holy man.  She aimed the weapon once more and blew the head off of the immobile Portlow.

She said a prayer of thanks before placing the shotgun over her shoulder.  She had no idea who else Hank had invited to her wedding but she wouldn't be here when they arrived.

She went back into the house and put on her socks and sneakers
.  She found a plastic grocery bag and went back into the tack room.  She gathered as much ammo as possible and stuffed it into the plastic bag.  Finally she found a shovel and brought that with her.

Dawn was still several hours away when s
he stopped outside of her foster parents' home
.

She dug into the soft soil of the flower garden until she had created a large enough hole for the weapon and ammo.  She buried the objects under the soil and mulch until they were invisible.

Finally, she rang the doorbell.

It would be several hours before Tamesha fell asleep – there was the story of the kidnapping by the strange white man to tell to her foster parents, then
to
the police.  And how he just decided to bring her back home unharmed.

Finally, at midmorning of what could have been her wedding day, Tamesha Holloway fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

THIRTY
-ONE

Elias stood inches from
Mira
's face. 
"Seventy percent," he said.  He kept repeating the same thing at a high volume.

"You did something, I know you did."

"I need to work on the mixture," she said.

"All our models said the mixture was correct," said Rothmans, the lead scientist.  "I don't understand why it didn't work.  Unless it was sabotaged, of course."

"Did you sabotage our trial,
Mira
?"  Elias circled her.  He ran a long finger up one side of her body and down the other.  "Lover, what
did
you do?"

"I did nothing.  It's the mix."

"It's sabotage, Elias.  You need to call Wiley to get the authorization to dispose of her.  I won't take responsibility for failure
….."

Suddenly the man was flying across the room, the result of one powerful kick from Elias. 

He calmly walked over and crouched down next to the prone zombie.  "Don't you ever tell me what to do.  And I don't want to hear the name of our leader cross your lips again.  You are not worthy of speaking his name, you miserable failure.  If you were any type of scientist we wouldn't need her in the first place.  Now, get
the hell
out of here."

The zombie got to his feet and left the room. 
Mira
stood aghast, stunned at the physical strength Elias possessed, enough to manhandle a fellow undead. 

What has Wiley done to him?  Will her reverse zombie bomb work on him?
Clearly, like his boss, he has some extra mojo.

Elias
reclaimed
his position inches from her face. 
Mira
felt a stream of sweat flow down her back. 
She had shielded parts of the island with a spell to block the conversion spell, limiting the bomb's effectiveness.  It was a gamble. 
She had sabotag
ed
the trial to give her more time to
improve
the
reverse
zombie
bombs
.  She had an idea on the flight over – could her magic make the nanobots inhabiting her reverse bombs more aggressive and more effective?  Could she bewitch them to make them 'think' in an organic sense? 

Had she succeeded?  She did not know and would only know the answer when her life likely hung in the balance.
 

Would she live long enough to deploy any of
her bombs
?

"I will contact Wiley after our second trial
tomorrow
, on Levuka. 
Fortunately
for you, the C-130's second pass over Ovalau seems to have gotten us to one hundred percent.  But
I need to see one hundred percent tomorrow
, in a single pass over the island
.  If not, I guess there's no more need to have you around."  He smiled.  "Perhaps I'll feed you to Rothmans after I'm done with you.  He seems to be a fan of yours."

"I'll give you one hundred percent,"
Mira
said.  "After that, I want my freedom."

He laughed in her face.  "After that, darling, we
will
have some fun," he said.  "And after that, you won't want to be free from all this," he said with a grin.

She shook her head and walked out of the room.

The following is a transcript from 'The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams', broadcast August
2
6, 2012.

Brian Williams (voiceover):  We met
Ben Wiley,
the Democratic vice presidential candidate
,
at the White House.  He was here for discussions with the president and his political advisers.  He took a few moments to
speak
with us outside the South Portico.

Williams: (looks back at the White House, points to the balcony) That balcony leads to the president's living quarters.  Many people think you are destined to live there yourself.  Your critics, some in your
own
party, think that is your entire focus.

Secretary Benjamin Wiley:
Anyone who knows me knows that
I am a patriot.  As a man of the cloth I never served in the military but I have served my country by holding office and doing what the people ask.  The people want and need the current occupant of this magnificent home to continue in office.  Your own polls show that and I hear it every day on the campaign trail.  It's not about Ben Wiley, it's about re-electing Barack Obama and obeying the will of the American people.

Williams:
If the election was held today you and the president would win every state except
Utah
and
Mississippi
.

Wiley:  Exactly, it’s the will of the people Brian.

Williams:
So, you have no ambition to be president?

Wiley: (smiles) Again, I want the best for the American people.

Williams:  And you’re the best?

Wiley:
Next t
o the current office holder, yes.

Williams: Perhaps out of desperation the campaign has turned ugly.  They bring up your past drug addiction, your philandering ways and your first wife, who w
as declared legally
dead after only a few months of being missing.  There is even talk that you're a spaceman or zombie.

Wiley:  As a preacher Brian, I first owe my life to the Lord God. 
He has held me tight through difficult times. 
I do not owe it to any of these misguided folks who are telling lies about me or seek to
trip me up with the past.

Williams:  Why entertain these wild claims?  You recently endured a medical exam on live TV
.

Wiley:  The Bible teaches us to love thy enemies.  It is an expression of that love to show them the error of their ways.  (Smiles)  Plus, my wife has been on me about getting to the doctor.  So it helped to remove one thing from her 'Honey Do' list.

Williams: 
As we discussed t
he poll numbers are outstanding but some Democrats are critical.  How do you respond when they accuse you of shifting Obama and the federal government to the right?  For example, they accuse you of forcibly removing residents from
federally
sponsored public housing building
s
.

Wiley:  And I'm yet to see any witnesses to that effect, Brian.  And, believe me, I've been searching for witnesses to what would be a heinous act by my department – if it was true.  But it's not true. 

Williams: Are you a conservative?

Wiley: I am a man of God.  I think by definition
that makes me
conservative.  But does that mean I don't love the American people
?  T
hat I don't want to care for and protect the most vulnerable?  Of course not.  I just want to do it in a responsible manner because the
United States of America
is broke and we need to get our financial house in order.

Williams: (smiles) You could always get a bailout from your zombie friends.

Wiley: (grins widely, the Sun reflects off his white teeth)
I'll speak with all my well heeled zombie friends and let you know what they can do.

Williams: Thank you for your time, Mr. Secretary.

Wiley: Thank you, Brian, it's been a pleasure.

Jan Wiley fought the urge to throw the remote at the sevent
y-two inch LCD screen.  She pressed a button and shut the device off.

'
Honey Do
'
list?
  Ben Wiley hadn't been a husband to her in weeks.  Since he started campaigning
with Obama
he simply hasn't been around. 

Yeah, His Most High's
security people
we
re around – in larger numbers than ever. 

She looked up from the couch in the family room.  One stood just outside the door while another was visible just outside the window.  She was a prisoner
, plain and simple
.  'For her own sake', she was no longer permitted to leave the property.  Her only fresh air came on strolls around
the
tiny
garden.

What prompted her husband to clamp down on her? 

Did he find out about the money she was siphoning away from his
Super PAC
?  Did he discover her real estate purchase?

She hadn't heard from Elias in weeks.  They were supposed to work together to destroy Ben.  Had he been converted?

She had thought about that for days, finally concluding that yes, he was one of them.  And he probably had told Wiley about their meeting, and her betrayal.

She needed a plan B, some way to escape this prison and have her baby while anonymous and free.  

A week ago she had reached out to some of h
er former associates in
Harlem
, the ones who had 'sponsored' her former career as a killer for hire.
She had arranged for her
Aunt Celia
to get her wedding dress laundered and boxed for storage as a memento.  She told her
aunt
,
a
former drug addict drawn back into her life by the promise of Wiley's riches,
the specific
Harlem
dry cleaner to which to take the gown.  There, her friends would enhance the box with some objects
that
would assist her when it came time to leave the
Georgetown
brownstone.

Of course, what would be cleaned was a duplicate of her actual gown.  The real gown, saturated in the blood of her closest female relatives, had been destroyed.

This evening her gown would be delivered by
Aunt Celia
, the unwitting mule.

Later, at the huge dinner table, being served her meal by yet another zombie, she had not heard the doorbell.  Her
aunt
simply appeared in the doorway to the dining room.

Celia
Sugerfoot stood wide eyed as she scanned the room.  Jan quickly got to her feet and went to her
aunt
's side
.
  "Hi,
Aunt Celia
," she said and hugged the woman fiercely.

Celia
Sugerfoot pulled away from her
relative
's hug and continued looking around.  "Your husband sure has a lot of money.  I just can't believe this house."

"It's really much more than we need."

"It's much more than anyone needs, child.  And him being a reverend too."  She sucked her tongue in disgust.  "This ain't nothing but the Devil's work, child.  He, more than anyone, should know that."

"Would you like some dinner?" Jan asked.

"Later, child.  Don't you want to see your dress?"

Jan nodded, straining not to be too eager.  "I can have Ben's people take it upstairs,
auntie
.  I'm going to store it in my closet."