Sifters

by Shane Scollins

  They reached the hull of the tall boat and began climbing up the ladder rungs one by one until they reached the deck. They squatted down behind some wooden boxes and surveyed the relative darkness. A few tall lights perched high on the masts, one of them swayed slowly in the breeze and flicked the shadows like a flame.

  The pungent smell of fish and rust combined to put a nasty taste on her tongue. She glanced up to her right. Somewhere in the dark, Jocelyn and Alex sat looking at the scene through night-vision sniper scopes.

  Tallon pointed to the farther of two cabins—where the flickering glow of a television cast light on the glass. “He’s in that rear cabin.”

  Dia slid her rifle off her back, into her hands.

  “Are you ready?” Tallon asked her.

  “Shoot to kill?”

  “Shoot to kill.”

  They slid on their night-vision goggles and shared a nod of readiness.

  Tallon rose up and took a few steps around the wooden containers, and she went around the opposite side. It was a little shocking that none of the several men standing on a soft patrol had seen them yet, and when the first one did, he was clearly surprised.

  Tallon fired two rounds, taking the man down. Several others opened fire in their general direction, and Dia took that cue to squeeze the trigger. In a flash, all three of the men directly in front of her were down.

  Having this kind of lethal firepower in her hands was a bit thrilling. She felt like a machine of unstoppable design. It was much easier to kill with a gun than it was with a club or knife. It took away all the personal attachment to the target. Killing up close took a whole other level of commitment.

  Tallon advanced toward the cabin. Dia followed, sweeping her rifle side to side looking for anyone. As she got closer, the horrid smell of the cooking drugs invaded her nasal cavity and burned her eyes. Tallon had warned her, but there was no way to describe the smell. It was pure nasty. He said it would be bad, but this was way worse than she suspected it would be.

  Another man popped up from a crouched position. Dia turned and fired quickly, missing with the first shot but hitting him with the second. His death-grip on the machine gun sent a festival of bullets into the night sky.

  A groan to her left, she turned to see a man falling. The silent round from a distant sniper had sliced through his chest. Dia blew out a breath in close-call relief. Someone had just saved her life with that precise shot.

  They snaked across the deck past the first dark cabin and headed toward the second one another fifty feet up. Dia heard some rustling below deck. A trap door near her feet started to push up, but she quickly stomped down on it sending whoever was trying to get out falling back down the ladder or steps they’d climbed with a clatter.

  She shouldered a pair of heavy boxes on top of the trapdoor and continued onward. Another wave of fumes from what was going on below deck wafted up and burned her eyes and nose. How anyone could be down there seemed impossible.

  They reached the second cabin. Tallon busted in and surprised a middle-aged man watching television and wearing large headphones. He had salt-and-pepper hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and a stained blue shirt stretched over his formidable belly.

  The man jumped up, got his hand on a revolver on the table, but Tallon was quick and drove a fist into the man’s face, knocking him backward. The gun flew out of his hand, and Tallon quickly took a handful of the man’s shirt, spun him, and tossed him to the ground at Dia’s feet.

  He reached for something in his pocket, but Tallon stepped on his fingers. Dia glanced up to the door, keeping watch as the man screamed in agony over his probably broken fingers.

  “All right—all right!” the man said.

  Tallon tossed some handcuffs. “Put these on and get to your feet.”

  He complied. Through heavy breath he said, “You’re making a huge mistake, friend. You have no idea who I am.”

  Tallon smiled. “I know exactly who you are.”

  “Then you know you just signed your death warrant.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  They forged back outside. Dia swept the deck from behind the sights of the rifle until they got to the rear of the boat where they’d boarded.

  Tallon said, “Watch him.”

  Dia slid the rifle to her shoulder with one arm and pulled out her pistol with the other, sticking it into the man’s back. “Not a move.”

  He glanced back at her. “You don’t want to go down with him. Let me go, and I can make it worth it to you.”

  “Sorry.” She watched Tallon hurry around the corner of some tall crates.

  “C’mon, don’t be stupid. I can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.”

  She pressed the gun into his ribs. “This isn’t about money.”

  “Ha-ha—yeah, right. It’s always about money. Money is the only thing that matters in this world. It’s the only thing that has ever mattered. It’s the only thing that will ever matter.”

  A series of explosions shook the deck, which set off another larger explosion. Tallon ran back over to them, took hold of the man, and shoved him over the railing and into the water. He and Dia followed, jumping overboard as another series of explosions rocked the vessel.

  Chapter 30

  Tallon stood over Martin Schumer. “How many drug cooking boats does your brother have floating around the city?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Do I look stupid?”

  Martin laughed. “No, you look like a dead man walking. My brother is going to ruin you, and I’m going to stand over you and laugh at your final breath.”

  Tallon pursed his lips. “That’s mighty optimistic of you considering the circumstances.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing. Some two-bit thug like you has no idea what he’s up against.”

  “Two bit thug?” Tallon smiled.

  “Yeah, I know who you are.”

  “You do?”

  “This has Foster Gray written all over it. He’s been trying to take that harbor’s product traffic for months. We’ve been down this road before. You play the game, I play the victim, and in the end my boys come in and bust me out. Forest gets some cash and all is forgiven. But you can tell him he’s not getting it this time. This time he’s gone too far. He can’t compete with my pull. I’ll have another boat there operating in a week.”

  “You might run a bang-up meth boat, but maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are. I don’t know Foster.”

  Martin huffed. “Yeah, nice try, muscle-man. You work for Foster and we both know it.”

  “I think my pile of paycheck stubs from Cortech would beg to differ.”

  Martin’s face changed. His eyes grew narrower and his lips parted. He studied Tallon’s face. “You never worked for Cortech.”

  “No? You sure about that?”

  “There’s no way you work at Cortech.”

  “Well you’re right about that last part. I don’t work for Cortech anymore. I was recently replaced with your brother’s new goon squad led by my former special-forces mate.”

  Martin’s face contorted, he turned his head and winced. “You’re not?”

  “I know, you’ve never seen me before, but I know you know who I am.”

  “What is this? Some sort of revenge against my brother? Gabe will never let you get away with this. He’s the mayor. You can’t just kidnap the mayor’s brother.”

  “I just did. And I wonder how many of his constituents would be okay with the fact the mayor’s brother has been running the illegal drug supply that the mayor himself was supposed to clean up. In fact if I’m not mistaken, it was the number one reason he was elected.”

  “You have no proof against me or my brother.”

  “I don’t need proof. I just need a clean shot.”

  Jocelyn came into the room. “Tal, we’re ready.”

  Tallon grabbed Martin’s arm. “C’mon, time for your close-up.”

  He pulled Mar
tin into the main room of the small cabin where a laptop sat on a ratty old folding table. Yanking Martin over to the chair, he slammed him down.

  Jocelyn stood behind the camera while Tallon stood next to Martin. She gave him the thumb up when the video call went through.

  Arlon answered the phone and looked into the camera. “Who is this?”

  Tallon leaned his face into the feed in front of Martin. “Hey, Arlon, how’s it going?”

  Arlon’s eyes grew wide. “Tallon, what’ve you done here? How’d you get this line?”

  “It’s nice to see you too, old friend.”

  “What have you done here? What have you done?”

  “You know me. I can’t really answer those questions accurately.”

  “Tallon, I don’t know what you’re doing, but this isn’t the way.”

  Tallon put his pistol to Martin’s head. “I just wanted you to give a message to the mayor for me. Make sure he sees this.” He pulled the trigger.

  Arlon’s face turned white as he gasped in shock at Martin’s body falling to the floor.

  Tallon twisted the laptop and leaned close to the camera. “You declared war on my family, you sonofabitch. Now I’m going to cut your fucking leg off, beat you to death with it, and then stick the bloody stump straight up Gabe Schumer’s ass. Send him this video or I will.”

  Tallon cut the transmission and looked up at Jocelyn. “I think that should rile them up.”

  She nodded. “I’d say that was a very effective demonstration.”

  “Short and to the point, and it should have the desired effect.” He looked down at Martin’s body. “Think we could donate that to science?”

  Jocelyn curled her lip. “I don’t think they study excrement with the same level of depth they once did.”

  “I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy doing that.”

  “You’re getting soft.”

  “Maybe so.”

  “You had to do it.”

  “If I knew it was him who was doing Arlon’s dirty work I would have done it sooner. Then maybe Chloe would’ve never gotten hurt.”

  Jocelyn started pouring the gasoline around the small shack. “You had no way of knowing any of this ahead of time.”

  They stepped outside into the night. Jocelyn turned, threw the lighter inside, and the place burst into flames.

  * * *

  Dia finished her handful of peanuts and offered Alex some as he typed on the computer. “Want some?”

  He shook his head. “No thanks. I’m allergic to peanuts.”

  “Was that you or Jocelyn who saved my ass on the boat?”

  Alex typed away. “It wasn’t me. I never pulled the trigger once.”

  “I figured.”

  Dia glanced back into the room where Chloe was sleeping. Tallon would be so happy to hear she’d woken up a couple hours ago. She’d gone back to sleep, but she was up and asking where she was and what happened. Dia didn’t see it, but Ebo filled in the details.

  On occasion she would roll over, and Dia felt a little happy each time she did, thinking she was going to wake up, but it hadn’t happened yet. But when Chloe simply opened her eyes and looked straight at her, Dia stepped into the room with surprise.

  She walked up to the bed. “Hey.” She didn’t know what to say, she didn’t know how lucid she’d be. Ebo had said she seemed normal, but Dia still wanted to see it for herself.

  Chloe blinked slowly, but didn’t say anything at first.

  Dia asked, “Do you need anything? Do you want some water?”

  Chloe nodded, and Dia stepped over to the small fridge and took out a bottle of water, twisted the cap, and tilted the bottle to Chloe’s lips. She was able to take a few sips.

  “Can you sit up?”

  Chloe didn’t try at first, but after a deep breath she held her arms up. Dia leaned down, and Chloe put her arms around her neck to pull herself up enough so Dia could arrange the pillows. She eased Chloe back down.

  “Is that better?”

  “Tha…” Chloe cleared her throat. “Thank you.”

  “Do you feel okay? Do you want me to call the doctor? She just went outside to make some calls.”

  Chloe shook her head. “I think…” Her voice broke but she cleared it up with a cough. “I feel tired.”

  “Well, that’s bound to happen.”

  Chloe reached up and put her hand to the side of her head. “My head is killing me. What happened?”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Chloe closed her eyes in thought. “I remember… I remember you, we were at the apartment and I nuked your card. That’s the last thing I remember.”

  “You were beaten up, and they put some sort of thing in your head.”

  Chloe nodded. “Why?”

  “I’m sure your brother can tell you more. But apparently you’ve been a naughty girl and someone found out.”

  Chloe’s lip started to quiver and tears built in her eyes. “Is he mad at me?”

  Dia shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “I should have told him.”

  “What were you trying to do?”

  Chloe shook her head slowly. “I just wanted to make a difference. I learned about the undiagnosed kids a while ago and wanted to know what was really going on with them. Then I discovered the pathogen. I’ve been digging for months, and it just got worse and worse and I got in deeper and deeper.”

  Dia smirked. “You knew when you met me why I was here.”

  Chloe bit her lip and looked away. “Not at first. But I started to put clues together. When you started hinting that you were trying to find your brother, I had a hunch that maybe you knew something.”

  Dia heard footsteps and Tallon appeared in the doorway. She stepped back and allowed him to bend over and hug his sister.

  With her voice muffled by his shoulder, Chloe said, “I’m so sorry.”

  Tallon stood upright. “You should be. What were you thinking?”

  Chloe raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “I guess I wasn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you come to me?”

  “I thought you wouldn’t care.”

  Tallon raised his chin. “That truth hurts.”

  “I’m sorry, Tallon. But I know you were all consumed with getting out of here, and I didn’t want you to lecture me on how stupid I was for wanting to do the right thing.”

  He shook his head slowly. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have cared. I’m the one who should be saying sorry.”

  “You’ve just changed so much over the last couple years.” Chloe smiled. “I miss my big brother. I miss what we used to have.”

  Tallon bent and hugged her. “I’m sorry. I’ve let you down.” He stood. “I’ve been so consumed with work that I forgot you needed me too. It’s just, you’re so grown up now. Sometimes I guess I forget.” He glanced over at Dia. “I forget in many ways you’re still just a kid.”

  Dia was missing her brother a great deal right now, seeing Tallon and Chloe together. She was happy for them, but somewhere Ray was out there, and she had to find him.

  Chapter 31

  Jocelyn walked into the room holding up a memory stick. “I’ve got it.”

  Tallon jumped up from the chair and headed over to the laptop where Alex was working. Jocelyn handed Alex the silver stick, and he quickly clicked it into the port and pulled up the images.

  Jocelyn pointed to the screen. “These are the best shots we have.”

  Tallon called out, “Chloe, come in here.”

  He turned to see Chloe walking in, slowly, with Dia at her side acting as a touchstone. Her legs were still slow, but at least she was vertical and walking. Other than being tired, Ebo said she saw no lingering effects. Tallon was beyond thankful for that.

  Chloe peered at the screen. “Yeah, that’s them, those three buildings right there. They’re making the pathogen in one of them, the small one with the carport, I think, and housing for the kids is in that far one. The executive offices are
in the big one with the radio tower.”

  “How many Cortech employees are at that location?” Jocelyn asked.

  Chloe shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not sure.”

  “There’re probably about two hundred at any given location. But seeing as how this one is under their black budget, I have no idea,” Tallon offered.

  Alex pointed to the screen. “We still don’t know what they planned on doing with these kids?”

  Chloe sighed. “Unfortunately, I think we do.” She looked at Dia. “I think they’re using the kids to incubate an antidote.”

  Tallon said, “I was afraid of that.”

  Jocelyn said, “It’s the best way if you’re doing that sort of thing. Expose them to it and see which ones can develop antibodies.” She glanced over at Dia. “I’m sure a lot of them make it.”

  Dia frowned angrily.

  Tallon put a strong hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’re going to get him out.”

  Dia rolled her eyes dismissively. “If he’s even alive.” She spun away from them and made a hurried path to the front door.

  Tallon waited a beat and followed her outside where she leaned her back against the brick wall.

  He asked, “Are you mad?”

  Dia slammed her palm into the wall at her side. “Hell yes, I’m mad.”

  “Good. I need you mad.” Tallon leaned his back against the wall next to her. “You’re like a soldier I served with. He did some of his best work mad.”

  Dia smiled a bit. “Thanks, I think.”

  “Thanks for helping Chloe. She really responds to you.”

  Dia shrugged with no reply.

  “I know you felt guilty for what happened to her at first. So now that you know it’s not your fault, I appreciate you still caring.”

  Dia glanced at the ground near his feet. “It’s no big deal. I’m just glad she’s okay.”

  “She doesn’t have a lot of friends. I think part of that is my fault. I maybe made her a little too hard edged. She tends to scare off people.”