by Diana X Dunn
“Yes, of course, but get in the transport and we’ll talk there,” he replied.
Sara slid into the vacant passenger seat. Dr. Freeman was sitting in the rear of the vehicle, seemingly absorbed in something on his M-ped. “Hello,” she said.
“He can’t hear you,” Robert laughed. “I wanted to talk to you privately first, then I’ll switch on the sound to the rear of the transport.”
“What did you want to discuss with me?”
“How are things going? I know you’ve been working really hard. Candie has been singing your praises every day when I speak to her. She said you worked a lot of extra hours to get everyone ready for today.”
“Seeing as how today’s outing was sprung on me without warning, I didn’t have much choice.”
“But that’s often how things go in the world of espionage, isn’t it? You’re doing one job and suddenly something else happens that take priority and before you know it, you’re halfway around the world hunting down run away American politicians.”
Sara smiled at the reference to recent events. “You’re right, of course, but I do think it would have been better for the students to have had more training before we attempted anything this complicated.”
“This isn’t complicated. It’s two hours in a public place. Every one of them should be able to manage to stay out of your way for two hours. We’ll be carrying out much more complex practice missions as the months go by. This is a very simple trial run.”
“Most of them should be successful, yes, but there are a few students who are going to struggle, even with this task. That’s why we need to talk. There are students on this course who aren’t up to the challenge.”
“Let’s see how today goes before we start sending people home, shall we? Candie and Ethel have also been giving me updates on everyone’s progress. They’re both considerably more optimistic about the potential of every single man and woman here.”
Sara shrugged. “What about Jake? What did Dr. Freeman discover when he conducted his autopsy?”
“Let’s let him answer that question.” Robert tapped something on the transport’s control panel. “Slade? Sara would like to know what you found in your autopsy.”
“That’s highly irregular,” Dr. Freeman snapped. “My findings are confidential.”
Sara looked at Robert, who frowned.
“Maybe you could just give her an overview, similar to what you told me,” he suggested to the doctor.
“Mr. Brown had a heart attack. Considering the state of his arteries and his heart, I’m surprised it didn’t happen earlier. It was clear he hadn’t seen a doctor in many years. No doctor on the planet would have allowed him to get himself in that condition.”
Sara frowned as she sat back in the seat. After a moment’s thought, she decided that she didn’t believe Dr. Freeman. Before she could ask any questions, Robert spoke again.
“As much as I’d love to talk more, I’m days behind on my messages. Please excuse me while I play catch up.” He pulled out his M-ped and went to work.
“Dr. Freeman, what do you think…” she began.
“Oh, sorry,” Robert said. “I’ve reengaged the privacy screen. Dr. Freeman has a lot of work to catch up on, too, including reading through the reports you submitted pertaining to each of the students. I’m sure you’re eager for him to consider them before we have our meeting tomorrow.”
“We’re having a meeting tomorrow?”
“Candie was supposed to notify everyone. Perhaps she simply hasn’t found the time, yet. We’re all meeting in my office tomorrow at one o’clock to discuss the students in depth. Ethel has suggested that some of the men and women might benefit from a modified curriculum. That’s something we’re all going to have to agree on.”
Sara put the meeting into her calendar. When she looked back up, Robert seemed completely engrossed in whatever he was doing. A look back to Dr. Freeman showed her that he, too, was busy. While she was tempted to try to start another conversation, she decided it was too much effort for today. They were meeting tomorrow. That would be soon enough to talk about the students and also try to work out what had really happened to Jake. Studying the zoo map filled the rest of her half hour. By the time her wrist-con buzzed, she had a plan in place.
“Try not to find them too quickly,” Robert said as she climbed out of the transport. She pretended not to hear him.
There was a short line of people waiting to get in. Sara stood behind a family with two small children who were chasing one another around their mother’s legs.
“Ermitrude, Rathskellion, stop that this instant,” the woman said repeatedly as the line moved forward slowly.
When little Ermitrude fell over and cut her knee, Sara moved to a different line. Finally inside the zoo, Sara's first stop was the nearest bathroom. She changed her clothes, redid her makeup and slipped on a wig. Once she was done, she was fairly certain that none of the students would recognize her.
Back outside, she turned left and began a slow stroll through the park. The zoo’s walking path was a large circle that passed nearly every enclosure along the way. There were a few offshoot paths that led to specific exhibits, as well. Most guests turned right at the entrance, and the path was crowded with strollers and scooters. Things were much quieter going the other way.
Within minutes, Sara spotted Bill. He had done his best to look like Jeff, but he’d made more than one mistake. Regardless, he looked nervous. He was walking in circles around the lion exhibit, constantly looking backwards and then forwards again, presumably trying to spot Sara. She tapped his name into the application and then casually strolled past him.
“What the he…” he exclaimed as his wrist-con buzzed. He spun around and then angrily pulled out his M-ped. “She isn’t here,” he said a moment later. “I’m marked as tagged, but Sara isn’t here.”
Sara was just close enough to hear Candie’s reply. “We’re tracking her. She just walked right past you. The tag is good. You need to come back to the transport now.”
Bill looked angry as he stomped away, still shaking his head. Sara continued on her way, taking a second to study each person in turn. There were seven more students to locate.
Lloyd was sitting by himself outside one of the restaurants. It would have been a better location if the restaurant had been open. He’d clearly done his best with his hair and makeup, but the results made him look overdone and Sara grinned as she watched parents doing their best to keep their children away from the strange man on his own. He was busy on his M-ped, pretending to be on a call.
It only took her a second to walk past him and tag him. He scowled at his wrist-con and then looked around. When he stood up, he headed straight to the restaurant and seemed to be trying to look inside. Sara grinned and kept walking. She was halfway around the zoo now, and had only found two students. A glance at her watch showed her that only twenty minutes had elapsed.
A side path led to the penguin house. Lacey was standing in a dark corner of the house, chatting with one of the keepers. She’d done an excellent job on her hair and makeup. Sara spotted her because Lacey kept glancing around and then looked down at her wrist. She tagged the girl and then headed back out to main path as Lacey sighed deeply.
When Sara arrived back at the main entrance, she turned and began to walk around the loop a second time, this time retracing her steps from right to left. A moment later, she recognized Tamara. The girl was pushing a stroller with a small child in it. Next to her, a man was walking and holding hands with a slightly older child. Sara hadn’t really been studying family groups too much. Tamara had been clever.
She didn’t really look like herself either, having donned a wig and used some clever makeup tricks. Sara wasn’t exactly sure why she’d recognized the girl, until the man said something and Tamara laughed. The laugh was distinctive and Sara realized she must have heard it as she’d approached the area.
“Oh, crap,” Tamara said when her wrist buzzed.
&
nbsp; “What’s wrong?” the man asked.
“I have to go.”
“Now? But we were having such a nice time, getting to know one another.”
“Yes, well, it’s an emergency, sorry,” Tamara told him.
As Tamara took a few steps away from the small family, Sara heard the man speak again. “Now remember, we aren’t going to mention Daddy’s new friend to Mommy, right?”
Shaking her head, Sara looked at her watch again. An hour had elapsed and she’d found half of the students. Unfortunately, she’d found the ones that would be easiest to find. The others were undoubtedly better at disappearing.
Now Sara turned up her focus, checking each person, from the oldest to the youngest. She studied family groups, older couples, and each member of the staff as she came across them. Donna looked so much like a man that Sara almost missed her. It was only her walk that gave her away. The woman had done such a wonderful job on her disguise that for a moment Sara was tempted to let her go. Then she tapped the woman’s name into her wrist-con and walked past her. Donna scowled and glanced around. When her eyes met Sara’s, Sara smiled at her.
With only men left to find, Sara’s job was easier. She doubted that any of the men would have attempted to disguise themselves as women. On her way to the monkey enclosure, she had a bit of luck.
“Hey, you aren’t supposed to be doing that,” someone shouted.
Sara spun around and watched as a large man in a zoo uniform approached a younger man with a broom. “You aren’t supposed to be sweeping here,” the older man said. “At least not with that broom. That’s an indoor broom.”
“I didn’t know,” the other man replied. “I didn’t realize. I was told to go and sweep, so here I am.”
“Why don’t you go and sweep the monkey house?” the older man suggested. “That always needs doing and that’s the right broom for that job.”
The younger man nodded and walked quickly away. Sara waited until he was out of sight before she tapped and then tagged Jeff.
He shook his head at her. “I thought I recognized you. I was hoping if I sounded like I knew what I was doing you’d go right past me.”
“Your voice gave you away,” she told him.
He shrugged. “Changing that was too much trouble.”
Sara nodded and then watched as Jeff walked back toward the front of the park. She had half an hour left to find Mark and Luke. If Luke was doing as he’d said and sticking close to Mark, she’d probably find them together. Twenty minutes later, she’d made another complete circuit of the entire zoo. If Mark was smart, he’d be walking slowly, keeping just in front of or behind her by lucky coincidence. Her wrist-con buzzed.
You have ten minutes left to find the last two students.
I’m well aware, she replied to Candie.
If she were the one doing the hiding, she’d want to be as far away from the front of the zoo as possible, she decided. Therefore Mark was probably somewhere near the entrance. She counted back from ten when she realized that she was getting anxious about finding the missing men. It’s only a practice exercise, she reminded herself as she began a slow stroll back into the zoo. The first short path away from the main one led to a small platform that jutted out into a pond that was full of alligators. Sara walked along the path for the third time, wondering how Mark might have disguised himself. Maybe he’s pretending to be alligator, she thought as she stopped and stared into the pond.
She could see six gators, three were sunning themselves on the sand near the back of their enclosure. The other three were half submerged in the water, seemingly watching her closely.
“Daddy, what’s that?” a small voice asked.
Sara looked over at the little boy and then followed his gaze.
“It looks like a man, but it can’t be. No one would be silly enough to climb into the gator pond,” the boy’s father replied.
It did look like a man, Sara realized. She pulled her M-ped out of her bag and used its camera to zoom in on the object at the back of the enclosure. As she took a closer look, she realized that she recognized the man’s shirt. She zoomed in on Luke’s face and then screamed as a large gator clamped its jaws around the man’s legs. As Sara watched, horrified, a second gator snapped his teeth into the man’s chest and the pair began a gruesome tug of war.
Chapter 12
“Everyone needs to leave,” Sara said. She counted back from ten as she began to guide men, women, and children off the platform. Focus on the job, she told herself sternly. She tapped on her wrist-con.
“We have a problem,” she said. “Send zoo security to the alligator pond and call the local police, as well. If Robert is still here, he should probably come, too.”
“Is this just a sneaky way for you to find the others?” Candie asked.
“I wish,” Sara sighed.
She blinked back tears, trying not to think about Luke, as she kept trying to get everyone away from the scene.
“What’s going on?” someone demanded.
“A man climbed into the gator pond and got eaten,” someone else shouted.
While Sara wasn’t happy that the news was out, at least the man’s words had some effect on the crowd. About three-quarters of the people began to rush away from the pond. The remaining quarter suddenly seemed even more eager to reach it.
“Go back,” Sara said sternly. “We need to keep the area clear for police and rescue workers.”
“Ain’t no one going to rescue that guy,” a man muttered as he pushed past her.
Sara swallowed hard and then waved as she spotted Robert in the crowd. He crossed to her quickly.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
“There’s a body in the pond with the alligators. I think it might be Luke.”
Robert frowned and then shook his head. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“We need to get someone from the zoo up here quickly to intervene. There were two gators fighting over the body,” Sara said, tears threatening again.
Robert swore softly and then headed toward the pond, his M-ped in hand.
He hadn’t gone far when someone touched Sara’s arm. She looked at the stranger. “The alligator pond is closed,” she told him, pulling her arm away.
“I’m sure you’ll make an exception for me,” he replied.
For a moment Sara could only stare. “Luke?” she said eventually.
“Is my disguise that good?” he asked.
She began to nod and then shake her head. Before she could stop herself, she pulled him into a kiss. For a wonderful minute, everything around her vanished and she was lost in Luke’s arms. When she released him, she took a few deep breaths and then regained control.
“There’s a body in the pond with the alligators,” she said. “I thought it was you. It must be Mark.”
“He did his makeup to look like me and he borrowed some of my clothes. He thought he could trick you into tagging him as me, which would have given him ten minutes to get away and would also have given him a chance to see your disguise.”
Sara nodded. “It was a clever idea, I suppose.”
“No chance it was just a dummy or something?”
“If it was, it was a dummy wearing your clothes and with your face.” She pulled out her M-ped and replayed the video it had taken of the scene. Luke grimaced as the gators began to fight over the body.
Zoo personnel were arriving in droves now, and they’d clearly blocked access to the pond. Sara and Luke turned around and made their way to see what was happening.
Robert was standing on the platform, talking into his M-ped. He nodded at them as they approached. “Sara and Luke are here now. We’ll be back at the transport in a few minutes.”
“We aren’t leaving!” Sara exclaimed.
“The alligator keeper is here now. He has to try to convince all of the gators to make their way to their holding pens before anyone can do anything else,” Robert explained.
“Why can’t they just be
sedated?” Sara demanded.
“Apparently, it isn’t that easy. And they can’t be destroyed either because they’re severely endangered,” Robert replied.
“But what about Mark?” Luke asked.
“It’s obvious that he’s beyond help. They’ll get the gators moved and then remove the body,” Robert told them.
“If there’s anything left of it,” Sara said.
“From what I’ve been told, the gators have done some damage, but they prefer chicken. He hasn’t been eaten at all,” Robert replied.
“Hey Robert, this wasn’t what we were expecting when we said that you could hold a training session here,” a voice interrupted.
Robert flushed. “Jacob, clearly this wasn’t what I was expecting, either.”
The tall man in the black security uniform nodded at Sara and Luke as Robert introduced them. “Jacob is head of security for the zoo. We used to work together, back in the day.”
“We saw a lot of horrible shit, but this tops it all,” Jacob said. “I don’t know why the man was in the gator enclosure, but it was his last bad decision.”
“Was he alive when he went in?” Sara demanded.
Jacob looked surprised. “Obviously, there will have to be an autopsy. I was simply assuming that he climbed into the enclosure and found himself at the mercy of the gators.”
“He wasn’t moving when I first saw him,” Sara said.
“Maybe he climbed one of the trees and then fell into the enclosure from above,” Robert said, gesturing toward several large trees that shaded the pond.
Sara studied them. Robert’s suggestion was just possible.
“Oh, Hades, I hope not,” Jacob said. “The board has been nagging to get those trees removed for years. One of the men on the board keeps telling everyone that they’re a safety hazard, but the gators need the shade. If the dead man fell in from one of the trees, they’ll have to go. I can’t imagine what it will cost the zoo to replace those trees with artificial shading.”
“We should get out of your way,” Robert said. “Let me know when you’ve removed the body. I have my own team who can perform the autopsy.”
