by Lee Burvine
It was Rees's idea, and she thought it was brilliant.
The blond-haired guy really did look a lot like a young Gary Busey.
She grabbed a picture of the well-known actor off the internet. A couple minutes in Photoshop and she'd tweaked Busey's face to look even more like the image she had in her mind.
That freaky blond guy looking up at her in her kitchen.
It was pretty well burned in.
Then Danni spammed the message and picture to every Facebook account that "liked" the SFSU Facebook page. Also tweeted it through the nowisthetime666 account.
justice needs a killing hand today on the #SFSU campus I AM THAT HAND!!! die good and the master will welcome U!
Not five minutes passed before Danni thought she saw a reaction.
Morgan was looking around too. "They've all got their phones out," she said. "They're talking about it. I see the fear on their faces. I think it's working."
Louis looked unconvinced. "Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't mean-"
Danni cut him off. "Guys, look." She pointed to the library doors. "Over by the entrance."
Two Campus police in the doorway. Three students talking to them, making animated gestures. One of the students pointed into the library.
Louis jumped. "Did you just see that? Did you see that? She pointed right in here. He's in here. Holy shit, he's in here!"
"Keep it down, Louis." Morgan pulled her gun. She held it out of sight behind her back. "Get down, both of you. Behind the table. If he's in here, he's got to make a decision now."
Louis squatted on the floor as directed.
Danni didn't even consider it. "I'll help you spot him, Kerry. If he comes for us, then I'll duck."
Morgan seemed to know better than to argue with her right now. She just nodded and kept her eyes forward.
A moment later Danni heard a loud voice not far off. It came from around a corner, though. She couldn't make out the words. Then she heard a full shout.
"Hey! Hey! That's him!"
Heads turned.
A student was running around the corner, heading toward the library entrance.
He looked like he'd just witnessed a plane crash. "The guy is back there!" Pointing behind him now. "He's back there!"
Some students looked confused. Like they were just hearing about the threat. Others rushed right out of the library.
In moments, nearly everyone was up and moving en masse toward the exit.
The two campus cops raced inside, weapons drawn. They pushed through the stream of students, shouting for everyone to stay calm and leave the library.
Louis was still squatting at Danni's feet, behind the table. "What's going on up there?"
Morgan holstered her gun. "We're getting out of here. Now."
* * *
SABEL DIDN'T KNOW how the hell they did it, but they must have got his picture out there somehow.
He'd been burned.
He hit the nearest library exit at something between a walk and a run. A neat trick on his injured leg. The damn thing felt like it was gonna buckle on him any second now.
Once he got outside he slowed down some, and headed straight for a narrow band of trees that bordered the rear of the university grounds.
The first couple of students Sabel passed didn't react to him.
The next one he encountered looked up from his cell phone and stopped dead. "Don't. Don't, please." He took off running.
Jesus, someone really did a number on him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted a pair of campus cops racing after him. About forty yards back and closing.
When he reached the tree line, he side-stepped behind a tree trunk and pulled the .38 S&W snub-nose. Only firearm he had left in his travelling armory. The gun had shit accuracy.
He'd have to aim for center of mass.
He waited for the two cops to cover a little more ground, then stepped out and fired.
He shot without aiming. Something he trained at for thousands of hours. One round a piece. Took about half a second.
They both dropped.
He thought he got one of them in the shoulder. The other one fell down holding his leg. Nicked them both. Distance just too great for accurate aiming with the .38's little nub of a barrel.
Whatever. They weren't chasing him anymore.
Students were running everywhere now. Freaked out by the gunfire.
It reminded Sabel of when he was a kid, and poured lighter fluid into an ant mound.
They had boiled out in a frenzied cloud. Thousands of them. He had some matches, and he was gonna light up the mound.
He just didn't.
On a whim, he walked away.
Curious about how it'd be later, after sparing so many little lives. Would it give him a zing, being a sort of benevolent ant god? Would he feel some of these magical emotions that other people were always talking about?
No. He didn't feel a damn thing.
The next day he returned and burnt out the mound.
As he climbed the fence on the far side of the trees, Sabel thought about those ants again. What if they were just too small and insignificant? Maybe he'd get a charge out of sparing a human life.
He doubted it, though. He doubted it very much.
CHAPTER 54
THEY WEREN'T FAR outside the university library when Morgan heard two gunshots in rapid succession.
People around them dropped to the ground or started running in random directions. Morgan, Danni, and Louis reflexively crouched down in the walkway they were on.
It had just turned into an active shooter situation.
Morgan had a tough call to make now. She wanted to get them all the hell out of there. But they were responsible, at least in part, for what was going down.
It didn't take long for her to decide.
Morgan pulled her badge, which had a chain tucked in the leather holder. She hung it around her neck. Good chance she'd have a gun in hand soon and she didn't want to be mistaken for a threat.
"All right, guys," she said, "It sounds like they found him. They're going to evacuate the university campus now. Stay deep inside a group whenever you can, and head back for where the bus dropped us off. I'll meet you out there." She stood up and started to leave.
Danni grabbed Morgan's sleeve and pulled her back down. "No. What are you doing?"
"I have to go help the campus police."
"Then I'm coming."
"You're not armed, Danni. If I'm watching out for you, I'm taking my attention off the threat. That makes it more dangerous for me out there."
Morgan could see Danni trying to fight the argument. But she was too smart not to agree.
She released Morgan's sleeve. "Okay. The bus stop, then. I'll see you there." Danni voiced the last part like it was an order. And knowing Danni, it probably was.
Morgan nodded and stood up.
Louis tugged at her pants leg like an insistent child. "Hey, be careful out there, all right?"
"I'll see you both at the bus stop," Morgan said. Then she headed out at a trot.
A minute later, in the grassy area behind the library, Morgan saw six or seven students lying down. She couldn't tell if any of them had been shot, or if they were all just lying low.
Keeping low herself, she worked her way out onto the grass. She had an eye on the trees up ahead of her. That seemed like the best route out. Also a good spot to shoot from while you covered your retreat.
Morgan heard someone moaning nearby. She spotted a campus cop down. Another one next to him.
She scuttled over. Held up her badge. "I'm a federal officer. Where's the shooter?"
One of the men was holding his leg with both hands. Blood seeped out between his fingers. He jerked his chin toward the tree line. "The trees. At your twelve."
Morgan drew her weapon and scanned the trees. If the shooter was still in there, she was a wide open target. But she couldn't
run for cover and leave two wounded officers out here.
She turned to the other campus cop. He'd taken one in the upper chest or shoulder. Lot of blood. He looked pretty shocky. Pale. Sweating.
"You're going to be all right," she told him. "We're gonna get you medical attention."
He managed a tight nod, but didn't try to speak.
Morgan scanned the tree line again. "Is anyone else out here injured?"
The cop with the leg wound answered her. "I don't think so. But it's possible. Sorry."
She sensed motion in the corner of her eye.
She turned quickly to see a man hurrying toward them, bent over at the waist. Not the blond man. Too well dressed for a student. Probably a teacher.
As the man got closer, he saw her gun and pulled up short, showing her his hands. "I teach physiology here. I know emergency medicine."
"We've got two injured here," Morgan told him.
The man came forward and steadied himself with a hand on Morgan's shoulder, then dropped down to one knee. He glanced back and forth between the two injured men. Seemed to be triaging them.
He started with the upper body wound. Morgan would have too. Copious blood flow there. The bullet might have hit the brachial artery.
"Keep your head down, if you can," Morgan told him.
The teacher nodded and sunk down a little more. "Yeah. Okay."
Morgan turned to the cop with the leg wound. "Can you point to exactly where the shooter entered the trees?"
"I think ..." he pointed a bloody, shaking finger, "see the two taller trees, close together?"
"Yes."
"Just left of that. There's a gap."
"I see it." She stood up. Multiple sirens now in the distance. She back turned to the two cops. "Hear that? Help's on the way guys."
If the blond man had taken off through those trees, he probably didn't look back. She could still ensure that the area was safe and clear now. She thought she owed them that much at least.
Morgan started toward the tree line, zig-zagging her way forward. Impossibly, given the situation, a line of dialog popped into her mind from an old comedy movie.
Serpentine, serpentine.
That had to be Danni's influence. Always quoting her own favorite lines. The thought almost made Morgan smile even then.
* * *
SINGLETON THOUGHT THE only bad thing about what just went down here was that Carl Truby had been right.
Coming to the SFSU campus and backing up Terry Sabel just in case? Not a move he ever would've made on his own. But Truby didn't trust Sabel. Understandable, since his only prior experience with the operative had been two failures in a row. Something that had never happened before. In fact Sabel had never once failed before this op.
But Carl Truby was calling all the shots now and he wanted Singleton to back the man up.
And he'd been right. The fat sonofabitch had been right.
Turned out that Sabel really did need the backup. These people they were after were sharp. Really damn sharp. The trick they'd just pulled with the internet and Twitter? It was brilliant. He'd underestimated them.
He wouldn't do that again.
"I've got a medical kit," Singleton told the two campus cops. "I'm going to run and get it and I'll be right back."
He stood up and hustled toward the university's entrance.
About twenty steps away from the injured cops he pulled out the pocket-sized receiver. Turned it on. It registered a strong signal coming from the tracking bug he just planted on DCIS Special Agent Kerry Morgan's coat.
Singleton knew from experience the range would be sufficient to tail her from an unseen distance.
At least part of the plan was going very well. Finally.
Now he had that business with Truby to deal with.
Singleton would not walk away from all this with the goddamn sword of Damocles hanging over him. He'd made some calls the second he and Truby parted company at the airport.
So Truby had a dead man's switch and he couldn't be taken out? Fine. Now Singleton had one too. If anything happened to him, everything about the Kafir Project and Truby's involvement would wind up in the offices of ten different Senators and four large media outlets.
Two can play that game, Mr. Truby.
Nothing left to do now but to inform Truby about what had been done. Then watch the look on his chubby face when Singleton took control of the operation back.
As he neared the main entrance to the universitygrounds, the thought of all that made him smile. Despite the dark clouds movingin, the day seemed brighter already.
CHAPTER 55
REES EXITED THE cab in the Embarcadero a few blocks short of the Ferry Building.
He wanted to approach on foot and scout the area before meeting up with Kazemi, but first he had to address the potential problem of someone here recognizing him.
He ducked into one of the dozens of souvenir shops that dotted the waterfront. Only one hat in there big enough for him. Not particularly stylish. Robin's egg blue with a grinning cartoon crustacean above the words-I got crabs at Fisherman's Wharf! At least it had a wide brim he could pull down low.
He bought the hat along with some dark sunglasses, and walked out grateful that the shopkeeper didn't seem to recognize him.
Rees donned the hat and glasses as he started up the waterfront. Not much in the way of a disguise, but he hoped it would get the job done.
And just as that thought went through his head, he passed a row of newspaper vending machines. Three different papers, one of them national, had his smiling face splashed all over the front page.
Okay. So, that's not going to help.
It was funny, really. Rees's talent agent constantly pushed him to increase his exposure. Do more radio talk shows, TV game shows, even commercials. Well, he'd definitely increased his exposure this time. His agent was probably working on a book deal already.
At least dusk had arrived early. Cloud cover was blowing in from what looked like another storm front. The growing gloom would further hide his features. That was good.
He wondered if he should have the gun tucked into his waistband under his jacket, instead of zipped up in the gym bag. He'd tried it back in the motel room. It just felt like the gun wanted to fall out every time he took a step. So into the bag it went.
Rees stopped just short of the Ferry Building to reconnoiter. Vaillancourt fountain was just across the street. Rees didn't see anyone hanging around there. The clock tower on Pier One showed four-thirty on the dot. Still a half-hour before the meet. If the blond man was here-
"Don't turn around."
The voice had come from behind him.
The gun.
Rees tore at the zipper on the gym bag. It didn't budge.
Screw it.
He whirled around and swung the bag at his attacker. It struck the man in the side of his head with a loud thonk, knocking off his hat and sending him sprawling to the sidewalk.
Rees drew back his foot to deliver a swift kick to his face.
The man brought his arms up. He said something behind his hands that Rees couldn't make out. But he thought it might be...
Rees set his foot back down. "What did you say?"
The man lowered his hands. He pulled down a scarf that half-covered his face. "Herodotus. I said Herodotus."
Rees got his first good look. He immediately recognized Kazemi's round face and fringe of graying hair from a dust jacket on his bookshelf in New York. He reached down and offered his hand. "I'm so sorry, Professor Kazemi. Are you all right?"
Kazemi scooped up his hat. He grasped Rees's hand and labored up to his feet. Then threw his arms around Rees in a huge bear hug. He spoke into Rees's ear. "For the folks over there watching us."
Rees saw them now too. A handful of people walking nearby had stopped to observe the fracas he'd just made.
Kazemi released Rees from the hug and let out a raucous lau
gh. Then he hooked an arm around Rees's shoulder and started them walking. "Smile, Dr. Rees, smile. We're just a couple of feisty drunks who had a fight and made up."
Rees forced a smile as they continued to walk up the waterfront. Two old friends who maybe had a little too much to drink, that's all. Kazemi even staggered a bit for effect.
The people watching them turned and continued along their way.
"I'm so sorry," Rees said. "I wasn't expecting to meet you before I got to the Ferry Building."
Kazemi rubbed the side of his head. "Yes, well I thought it would be wise to lurk out around the perimeter. See who else might show up. Then I spotted your hat."
"My hat?"
"Even tourists don't wear that awful stuff. They buy them for souvenirs. And the sunglasses, with it being so dark out? I assumed it was supposed to be a disguise. So of course it had to be you. I was going to ask you to follow me quietly, but..."
"I'm an idiot, sorry." Rees took off the hat and tossed it onto a bench they were passing.
"No, you're just understandably a little edgy. Here..." Kazemi removed his scarf. "You can cover up a lot of your face with this. No one will think anything of it. And take my hat too. It's not quite as humorous as yours, but it will attract a little less attention, I think."
Rees donned Kazemi's Tilley hat and wrapped the wool scarf around his lower face. All the while apologizing profusely.
"I'm sorry as well," Kazemi said in return. "That I wasn't at the library for you. I waited a while and ... it just seemed too risky. What with everything last night." A worried expression pulled down the bulbs of his heavy cheeks. "Have you met with Fischer yet? Yesterday he instructed me to contact you at the Mark Hopkins, in the evening time. That's the latest communication we had. He and I were to meet last night at the Exploratorium, but he never showed up."
"I ... have bad news there," Rees said.
As they continued along the waterfront, Rees recounted the events of the past two days. Kazemi nearly broke down on hearing of Fischer's violent death.
