Generation Dead Book 2: What You Fear (18 page)

At the
top, I was immediately surrounded, and one man went to take my gun.  I twisted his wrist into his chest, dropping him to the deck.  Suddenly, several of the guards sprouted guns and they were all pointing at me.

“Just an escort, huh?” I sneered, keeping a lock on the wrist of the man on the ground.  I wasn’t amused.

“Stand down, all of you.  Especially you.” The captain aimed this at me and I arched an eyebrow at him.

“Do tell.  I’m very interested in why I was supposed to be unarmed.” I pushed down on the man’s arm, bending his elbow and making him very uncomfortable.  With a sweep of my
hand, I could dislocate his shoulder. The man cried out and his comrades took a step forward.

“Mr. Talon!  Release that man!  I will not allow you to escalate a situation to violence!  Do it now!” The man was very agitated.

I let go of the man and stood up, towering over the small captain of the guard.  “I’m not the one pointing guns, asshole.  If there’s an escalation, it’s on you.”  I stared at the three men in front on me and I swear one of them broke out in a sweat.

“Stand down, all of you.”  The captain waved a hand around and the men
put the safety on their weapons.  “Mr. Talon, you are a very known and capable man.  Right now, the president needs to speak with you.  That’s all I know.  I was told to bring you to him.  Could we please get this over with before something happens?”

I shrugged, knowing he was right.  I didn’t need to be a dick myself, and I was acting like one.  Truth was, I was venting a bit, since I still hadn’t heard from Julia or Jake, or even Kayla, for that matter.  Something was wrong
; I could feel it.

Chapter 40

I walked with the escort, and no one tried to take my weapons away.  We wandered up the streets to the hills where the presidential home was, and I was brought up to the porch.  I nodded a hello to Roger, but he returned my nod with a blank stare.  Something was really up, now I knew for sure.

I waited while the captain went in, and a minute later, I was brought inside. President Jackson was seated in his office behind his antique desk, looking the most official I had ever seen.  In a chair in front of him sat a man whose face I couldn’t see.  I walked forward and sat down in the chair next to him, and managed to conceal my shock when it was none other than the sneering gent who asked my name the other day!  This was getting weirder and weirder.

The president go
t the ball rolling. “Aaron, this is Kevin Mastro.  He’s a trader in a community a little closer to the city and…”

“We’ve met
,” I said, interrupting Jackson.

President Jackson squinted a little at Mastro.  “I see.  And could you tell me the details of this meeting?”

I sighed like it was not big deal, but I was spinning my thoughts like crazy trying to figure out what angle this guy was playing.  Whatever it was, I was not going to make it easy.  “Not much to tell.  I took care of the breach problem on the highway corridor, and as I was making my way back, I ran into Mr. Mastro here.  Along with a few of his friends.  They were the ones pointing guns at me while we talked.”

President Jackson looked over at Mastro, who was no longer sneering.  “You neglected to mention that little tidbit in your desire to bring Mr. Talon up on charges of murder.”

I had to hand it to Ben.  When one thing didn’t work, he tried another.  I was really getting tired of these games, but I couldn’t do anything about it now.

Kevin tried another tack.  “I didn’t mention it because nothing happened.  We talked and parted ways. 
Later, he kills three of my associates and hangs them, setting their bodies on fire.  Who does that?”

President Jackson looked over at me and I had the presence of mind to look disturbed.  I had to play the game though.  “Not this guy.  I wish I knew what you’re talking about.  I hit the north side of the river and kept going.  My ride left me behind.”

Jackson looked at us both, and I started to get mad, like I was being called to my father’s presence to confirm or deny I had anything to do with whatever happened to break. I pushed the issue to make it easier.

“Look, if I had torched three bodies, it would have depleted my kerosene supply.” I pulled out the bottle, showing them that it was full.  “Talk to anyone in town who sells kerosene.  I haven’t been to any of them.  I just got here a little while ago.” I hoped like hell Mastro didn’t know about that trading post on the canal.  If he did, I was screwed.

President Jackson looked at Mastro, who looked like he had just eaten something fuzzy.  After a minute, he spoke.

“Looks like Aaron isn’t the one who killed your associates.  I’d say you need to get back to your area and start a search for whoever is stalking your men.  I’ll send a few men to help
out; hopefully they can root out this murderer.”

Mastro looked like he was going to give birth to kittens.  “Thanks, but no thanks.  We’ll handle it.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.  I’ll be going now.”

He stood up to leave but Jackson’s voice stopped him.  “Next time, get your facts straight before you come to accuse a man who has been working diligently with the government to eliminate new threats to our nation’s security.  Mr. Talon has my confidence and trust.  Good day.”

Once Mastro had left, Pres
ident Jackson looked me square in the eye.  “Okay, now talk to me.  Did you do what he says you did?”

I spent the next ten minutes outlining what had happened over the last two days.  I didn’t spare any details, and I openly admitted what I had done.  If it was going to get me arrested, so be it.

President Jackson listened, and then spoke.  “Well, I can’t condemn you for defending yourself, considering those men were clearly hunting you.  But I have to ask, why did you burn the bodies after you hung them?  Especially since they were clearly dead? That seems a little out of the ordinary, even for you.”

I shrugged.  “I wanted the men who work for Ben to start
wondering if working for him was worth it.  Especially if he had enemies who were willing to do that to just the corpses.”

Jackson laughed.  “That would make me think twice, certainly.  But why bother trying to get you arrested?  What purpose would that serve?”

“I don’t know.  That’s been troubling me since Mastro left.  Ben doesn’t seem to make a move without purpose, but this one has me stumped.  It’s almost like he wanted to keep me in one place for some reason.”

“You
might have the right of it.  But why would you need to be stopped, even for a short while?  What’s the advantage to that?  I’m actually nervous about finding the answer,” President Jackson said.

I nodded.  “So am I.  I’m going to head out and see if I can’t find my crew.  Then we’re going to pay Ben a personal visit.”

The president looked surprised.  “You know where they are?  Why don’t you let the army handle this?”  He hesitated at my look.  “Never mind. You’re your father’s son.”

“Thanks.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  I’ve had enough of Ben’s games, and his vendetta is annoying
,” I said, getting up to leave.

“Let me see you out.  The captain of the guard would like to know if he’s supposed to arrest you.” 

I nodded my thanks and as we stood, there was a commotion outside.  Stepping out, I saw Kayla pushing her way past the gate guard, and running up to the porch.

“Aaron!  Thank God! You’ve got to come with me!” She threw her arms around my waist and buried her head in my chest as a greeting.

I held her for a moment, but pulled her gently away to look her in the face.

“What’s happened?  What went wrong?”  I looked her over and she seemed okay, but there was the beginning of a bruise near her left cheek.

“I’m fine!  We got ambushed yesterday by a group of men after we had cleaned up the zombies.  I got away, but Jake and Julia were captured! We have to do something!”

Chapter 41

I led Kayla to a
chair, while President Jackson waved to a servant to bring water.

“Okay, tell me what happened.” I was raging inside, but kept it together on the outside.

Kayla took a few breaths, tucked her hair behind her ears and started her story.

“We were doing fine with the zombies, once you stopped the flow
. It was more of just tracking and finding the roamers that had wandered off.  We had help from the towns nearby, so it almost became kind of a family event.  Find-the-zombie and all that.” Kayla smiled slightly at her description. “But as we were cleaning up, a man came up and told us there was a situation in the next town.  We figured he was okay, didn’t seem like there’d be a problem.  So we drove in. There were a few zombies, and we took care of them pretty quickly.  But when we looked for the guy who led us there, he was gone.  Jake thought there was something wrong, so he told us to get in the truck and go.  I made it there first and started the truck.  Just as I did, about ten men came running around the buildings from all sides.  Jake was taken down first, and I thought they were going to kill him, when someone yelled out that we had to be taken alive.  Julia was grabbed by three men, but not before, she took one out.  She’s a fighter, that woman of yours.” Kayla gave me a half smile.

My heart jumped to my throat at the thought of Julia in the hands of
Ben, but I had to force it down to hear the rest.

“How did you get away?” I asked.

“I wasn’t going to, but Jake yelled out for me to get away and to find you.  That’s when a man jumped to the truck and tried to hit me, but I shot him in the face and drove off.”  Kayla put her head in her hands and started to cry.  “I should have stayed!  Jake needed me and I left!”

I put a hand on her back, then gently pulled her face up and looked into her reddening eyes.

“You did exactly the right thing.  If you had stayed and been captured, then it might have been days before I had found out what happened.  Right now, your escaping throws a problem Ben’s way.  He has Jake and Julia, but he knows you escaped and he will figure you found me.  That’s why he sent his idiot Mastro to try to get me into jail for a few days, so I wouldn’t be coming after him.  But he’s got it to worry about now.”

I stood up.  “Now he knows I’m coming for him, and he won’t do anything to Jake and Julia, because they’ll be his last bargaining chips if everything goes south.”

I started for the door, but President Jackson stopped me.

“Wait a minute. Where are you going?  If you know where they are, then just let me send in the troops
to get your brother and girlfriend back,” he said. 

I shook my head.  “This one’s on me. 
If Ben wants me, he’s going to get me. But by God, he sure as hell is going to wish he didn’t!”  I headed out the door with Kayla running up right behind me.  President Jackson shrugged and picked up a phone to make a call.

“I’m coming with you.”  She held up a hand to stop my protest. “I will not let you rescue Jake a
nd Julia without me.  You’re going for Julia, and I’m going for Jake.  And don’t act surprised.  I know what Julia told you.”  Kayla stepped ahead of me, as I stood there with my mouth open for a second. 

I closed it and remembered what I had to do.  I needed a quick plan and a few supplies before I headed out.  I figured to get going within the hour.  Jake and Julia were likely just getting back to Ben’s headquarters about now, and he was going to spend some time gloating and leering. 
However, he was not going to be happy with Kayla escaping, so I hoped he would spend time getting ready for my arrival.  If he didn’t, he was going to die even more slowly than what I already had planned for him.

I was already in most of my gear, so it took no time at all to get myself ready.  Kayla was in most of hers, so we just went to the hotel to get my rifle and we were on our way.  I stopped briefly at the armory to gather more ammo, and after
that, we were headed east.

“Are you sure of where we are going?” Kayla asked as I sped out of town. 

“Not yet, but I will in a few minutes,” I said as I kept my eyes on the road.  Sure enough, another vehicle was on the road, this one was a small truck.  It was the same one I had seen before when I was running from Ben’s men.  If I had a million gold coins, I’d bet them all that Kevin Mastro was at the wheel.

As it turned out, there
were two men in the truck.  They glanced over as I passed them, then their looks turned to shock as I slammed my much bigger truck into them, shoving them off the road and into the ditch.  I stopped the truck and got out, waving Kayla to get down.  I jacked a round into my rifle and waited by the rear corner of the bed.

The
driver tried to get the truck out of the ditch, but after a second, realized it was hopeless.  The passenger door opened, and a man I hadn’t seen before popped out with a gun in each hand.  He oriented himself and swung both in my direction.

About halfway through his
movement, I shot him square in the chest. The heavy bullet threw him backwards into the pickup, where he slammed into the door, slid down, and left a blood trail all the way.