At the end of the day, Reyes and Nino were American soldiers ordered to protect an important scientist while he retrieved samples of the dust. They didn’t have to be friends, they just needed to work well together and trust in each other’s ability to pull the trigger when necessary.
The ride was filled with small vibrations as they drove over the empty streets. It was almost as if Reyes could feel every dust flake underneath the tires. It was bright enough to be able to see, but the substance falling from the sky was too thick to see five feet outside the window. He leaned over to look up front, where Marshall drove through the same conditions.
“What happened here?” Reyes asked.
Marshall answered over the radio, “Years back, I spent time in Indonesia. On the southern coast, there’s a forest known as the Buta Forest. Buta means blind. Scariest place I've ever been. It was a five day manhunt searching for someone who could’ve been hiding three feet in front of us. You didn’t know if you were going to get attacked by a Komodo dragon or fall off a cliff. You ever see what one of those dragon’s can do to a man?”
“No, sir,” Reyes answered.
Marshall smiled. “Neither have I, but I’ve heard it. And that’s worse.”
“Reyes, did you track any dragons during Red Wave?”
He thought back to the drone exploding over Salt Lake City; Marshall’s golden child, Gathe directly ignored three signals of potential life. He looked at Marshall in the rear-view mirror and said, “No, sir. At least not that Gathe reported.”
Marshall cracked a smile.
“Speaking of which.” Reyes pressed, “I expected him to be here with us. He okay?”
“He had other plans.”
The Hummer slowed. Reyes adjusted himself and his grip on his rifle. They approached Site Delta. This was the first of three stops in the operation. Delta was two miles north of downtown.
Marshall reminded the crew. “Dr. Chatra estimates less than an inch of dust at Delta. The first sample should take no more than one minute. It’s fresh, it’s shallow. It better be quick.”
Before they stopped, Reyes ran over the rest of the operation details in his head: Site Beta was one mile outside of Alpha. Beta was the site to examine the changes over time since the dust would have been falling there since the beginning. Then they would finish at Site Alpha. The basketball arena should have roots, even if Reyes’s drone did most of its damage there.
He couldn’t see very far, but there was no sign of damage from the UAV. It was powerful enough to wipe out ten miles, yet there was only undisturbed dust.
They were entering a graveyard.
*******
Jenna Stansfield
Nighttime
Salt Lake City, UT
Early in Jenna and Robert’s relationship, his dad held a press conference to discuss the future of the New York Knicks. This was apparently a common practice for major sport team owners to address the media about the upcoming season. This was before Jenna learned how to pretend to care about basketball, so she was unable to mask her bratty behavior while Ned North rambled about their superstar point guard.
Sitting on the far left with the North family, behind Ned while he answered questions, Jenna fell asleep. In her defense, it was boring. Ned didn’t want Jenna sitting with them to begin with, but Robert begged his mom and, as always, got what he wanted. Fortunately, she was just off camera. The whole world didn’t get to see her eyes flutter and her chin drop to her chest. Instead, it was just the media members at the press conference.
They were sure to bring this up to Ned afterwards.
Jenna was mortified on how the North family reacted. For weeks, they scoffed and made cruel gestures at her. Everyone hated her and wanted to make her feel low. Jenna felt like she was the most hated person in the world, or at least in New York. Robert’s brothers acted like she was a servant girl or Robert’s assistant, barely acknowledging her presence.
While the North family were turning up their noses to the sleepy girl, Robert North was constantly defending her. She wasn’t a consistent enough presence to get anymore media attention, but Robert was sure to bring her to every event and flaunt her. He spent his dad’s hard earned money on taking her everywhere. His parents may never care for her, but they would know her. Jenna was Robert’s girlfriend, and she wasn’t going anywhere. If his brothers were rude, Robert would remind them that he was the oldest and was in charge. Any threat to their daddy’s money turned the youngest North boys into goops of jelly.
It would never sound like much, but Robert was the first person who loved her, and made her feel loved. Her parents were there, but not interested in being involved. She was always the black sheep in the rest of the family, Robert made her feel like she belonged somewhere.
Instead of embracing him, she continued her bratty, spoiled attitude throughout their relationship. He loved her, and he enabled her. It wasn’t his fault, though. Jenna took advantage of someone who worshipped the ground she walked on and loved the benefits.
Things have changed since then.
That was true. She was still spoiled, and clearly the weakest link. At least in the shelter, there was more than Robert. No one in this group would love her like Robert did, but it wasn’t need.
You just can’t get caught sleeping, anymore.
*******
Jake Oberhausen
8:45 p.m. (Mountain time)
Willard, UT
Jake wasn’t good at poker. He played because it was fun, but it was never about winning. He didn’t fully understand the rules, didn’t know which combinations were better, and didn’t care. He just enjoyed the game and the company. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Jake was relieved to see all five of Chef John’s friends were decent guys.
He couldn’t remember who was who, but he knew their names; Karl, Omar, Ron, Alton (or was it Dalton?) and Horace. The only way to remember this many people is to create alliterations based on their names; Husky and Happy Horace, Calm and Quiet Karl, Odd Omar, and etc. It was starting to help.
Fortunately, they were too stoned to care and were just happy to be playing.
Winning made it even more fun. Jake wasn’t good at poker, but tonight he was lucky. He already knocked Chef John out of the game on a straight flush. Or maybe, it was just a flush.
Either way, Jake was having a great time. It was a relief to be able to smile and mean it. He hadn’t felt this way in days, and couldn’t wait to talk to Elizabeth about it. If nothing else, Jake was able to make new friends and couldn’t wait for her to meet them, too. Even Chef John was a lot of fun to be around. Jake liked him before, but he was pretty convinced they were going to be friends for a long time. It was a breath of fresh air to meet people like him. He would even have to start calling Chef John just by his first name. People don’t call their friends by their job titles.
“All in,” Horace said. He was the only guy whose name Jake remembered, because his name was Horace. The idea of a parent giving their newborn son such an ugly name made Jake smile. How much did they hate him? Or was it just the dad got something stuck in his throat, which confused the nurses, who then wrote down the noise, believing it was the baby’s name. Horace. Poor Horace. Sounded like the noise people made before they spit a big goober.
He was all in, though. The smug smile beamed at the other players, showing his confidence in his hand. Jake thought it was probably a bluff. Horace seemed like a bluffer. Because his name was Horace, of course.
Jake wasn’t holding a good hand though. “I fold.” He turned and looked out the window behind him. The night sky was dark, as if the moon was hidden under a shade. Jake never saw the night this dark, yet the dull, gray clouds were still so pronounced. There were no stars, no moon, only the light from inside gave Jake a limited view of the south side of the house. In the middle of the yard was a square of light with a thin dark line in the middle. It was the opposite of a shadow, it was a glow.
*******
Tink Morris
Night
Salt Lake City, UT
“You look cranky big brother, what upppp?” Mona asked.
Tink shook his head and answered, “Can’t sleep, having a rough time with the floor.”
“As someone who can’t sleep, as well as someone whose big brother’s big head rested on her leg, I think you slept fine.”
She was right, Tink was able to sleep. He wasn’t restless. He wasn’t suffering from insomnia. This was different. “That’s not what I mean, I don’t want to go to sleep. Nightmares are killing me. That’s all.”
“Aw, big tough Tink had a bad dream?”
That voice of hers, the one she uses when she tries to be funny but sounds like a teenage girl. Tink loved and hated that voice, it was the sign of her developing sense of humor, but his nightmare wasn’t something to joke about.
“Yeah, I did. If you knew what I dreamt about, you wouldn’t be making fun.”
“How do you know that I don’t?”
“Do you?”
“No, but it’s easy to guess.” She exhaled. “Adam or Reba.”
“Good guess.” Reba’s face came into Tink’s mind. Her perfect pouty lips. Her ice cold eyes. Her horrible smile.
“…And?”
“I just see ‘em. I see her, she’s black—”
“Ha!“
“Not like black black, but like…” He thought about how to describe it. “Darkness black, Shadow black.”
“If the shoe fits.”
“Yeah, well, Black Reba tore my heart outta my chest. I can still feel her fingernails digging.”
“Gross.”
“That’s not the worse part,” Tink shook his head and sighed. He hated reliving the dream, but he kept going. It hurt to talk about it, but his kid sister would help put the dream to rest. “Adam is there, too.”
“Oh, good,” she said sarcastically.
“Not good. How am I able to see him, even though I’ve never actually seen him?”
“You seen him, just not with your eyes.”
“He’s scary, Mona. I ain’t trying to sound like a coward, but dang. I don’t want to see him. I keep thinking about what Reba said at the gas station.”
“About Adam dancing with my dead body? I’ll be okay, don’t worry.”
“Always do. Always will.”
“I get it, I get it. But hey, Reba is nothing more than a Shadow. That’s it. She ain’t a fortune teller, she ain’t a prophet. She ain’t even a good guesser. She’s a roadblock. She gets in the way. That’s it.”
Tink nodded, he loved when his sister got riled up. Mona was strong when she was strong. No one could affect him like her. She inspired Tink.
“She can’t decide my future. There’s no false prophets, because guess what? If it’s false, then it ain’t a prophet. She said a lot when she was seducing you, didn’t she? Any come true? Didn’t think so. Reba thinks she knows what she’s talking about, but the truth is, she knows less about the future than you do. She doesn’t even know who Adam really is, go figure. If she did, she would be as scared as you. He’ll eat her up the same way he wants to dance with me.”
“Okay, okay.”
“You let Reba impact your life. Reba got in your way and you’re gonna suffer for it. So will I,” she looked away from Tink and out towards the group. “… so have they.”
“What do you mean?”
“Reba slowed you down, right? You probably wasted twenty minutes or so with her.”
“Yeah.”
“If that didn’t happen, Edie and Lynn would still be alive.”
*******
Acacia Gold
8:08 p.m. (Western time)
Las Vegas, NV
Another night in paradise for Acacia Gold. She loved and hated Vegas for its honesty. This was the only place in the world where full disclosure of disgust and flashy lies came out. Here, people wore their ugliness like badges of honor. Acacia loved the truth. More than anything, she appreciated the realness of Vegas.
She walked down the sidewalk, a few blocks from her house and a few feet away from her favorite bar, Barbies. She loved this place. It was her bar. This was where she went for protection when johns got a little overzealous or if she just needed a drink. She was taking the night off, but she wanted to stop in and grab a quick drink.
The neon-pink Barbie silhouette form danced around the purple and yellow square. Every time Acacia walked underneath the sign, she expected it to fall over and kill her.
Smoke escaped the bar as she opened the door. Already, the regulars were there drinking, playing pool, and basking in the cigarette (or joint) smoke. Barbies always kept it classy, Vegas style.
The owner, Pam, was working behind the bar, as usual, while her husband drank and played the role of bouncer. Big Bo didn’t speak much to working girls anymore, not unless they needed his help with a john. For a guy who started out as a john, Big Bo was hard on men who didn’t respect a hooker’s right to turn away business.
The faces were blurred through the hazy smoke and dust of the early-night crowd. In another hour it would be packed. Acacia liked it this way though, it was nice to walk through the bar without fanfare and not have to worry about someone making a proposition on her day off.
She wasn’t like other working girls, she didn’t do it to feed an addiction, she did it because she was made for it. She started later than most girls, it wasn’t normal to get into the business when you were on the wrong side of thirty. But she was good at it. Everything about Acacia was irresistible. If money was this easy, and fun, Acacia didn’t need to live the same rat race as her brother and sister. She was her own boss.
“Same as usual?” Pam asked, moving slow around the bar. They had owned this bar for three years, right about the same time Acacia moved to Vegas. Even with years under her belt, Pam wasn’t a good bartender. She didn’t need to be, her best customer was her husband.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Acacia replied. Pam made great cosmos. “Speaking of which, when is Big Bo fixing the Barbie sign? It’s due for a recall, ain’t it?”
Big Bo made a gruff noise leaning back into the terribly placed pillar beside the bar. He drank down his beer while his wife played with her fake pearl necklace. He needed to shave and lose about fifty pounds. His floppy belly hung outside the bottom of his black t-shirt.
Pam glanced at him before answering, “This isn’t the place where things get fixed, honey. You know that. This is the place where broke things come to drown. That light ain’t no different than you or the detective playing pool back there.” She nodded into the direction of the loud group of men.
“Besides, it makes a good bug zapper,” Big Bo added.
Acacia squinted over Pam’s shoulders and looked to the dimly lit area. She recognized most of the men, but one large figure stood out from the rest. He stood a foot taller than the others. She sat back and took a sip of her drink. “Why did you let police in here? Is he a john?”
“Not unless he’s your john.” Pam laughed so hard it made her cough.
Acacia took another sip of her sweet drink. She could go all over Vegas and never have a cosmo that tasted this good. “Not a chance.”
Pam and Big Bo shared a smile. “Well, if he ain’t your john,” she said, “then why’s he looking for you?”
As the words settled into Acacia’s ears, the detective walked through the haze and stood beside her. She recognized him, the ugly detective from last night. He smelled like cheap cigars and stale coffee.
“Miss Gold, a minute of your time, please.”
Acacia looked to Big Bo, the detective was a lot bigger than any john he’s kicked out before, but it was his job. So what if he was a foot shorter with half as much muscle as the detective?
Except, his reaction was opposite of what he should have done. “Oh! Hey! I know you,” Big Bo lurched off his stool and stood beside the detective. “You’re Roy Hadley. All-American D-Tackle. All-Conference four years in a row. Shoulda b
een a first rounder in 2009.” The detective smiled with a fake humility. Big Bo continued, “I knew I recognized you earlier, by gol’, your pictures on the wall over there.”
“It’s always nice to meet a fan. Those days are long gone.”
“Yeah? Yeah, how’s the knee?”
“Five surgeries down, still locks up when it rains.” The detective’s body heat radiated onto Acacia’s arm. She could feel his massive power without even touching him. “Do you mind if Acacia and I have a chat?”
“Sure thing!” Big Bo reached out to shake the detective’s hand. “Want ‘nother drink?”
“Why, thank you,” the detective’s hand engulfed Big Bo’s. They held on for too long sharing ridiculous grins. It was men like this that made Acacia consider getting out of the business. It was only a matter of time before a working girl ended up meeting a man with enough power to use her as he pleased. It was worse when the john was police.
She avoided looking at him, not wanting to make eye contact. Acacia reminded herself, she was a big girl, she could handle herself. She didn’t wait for Hadley as she walked back to a booth and sat down.
Hadley smiled. “There is a limit to how polite I’m going to be. But drinks are on the house tonight.”
Acacia didn’t say anything, she took her drink and folded her arms.
The detective’s eyebrows were still thick and gross. As he lumbered into the booth, his musk hit her nose and she didn’t know if she could even enjoy her drink.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, all the discount whores on the west end go to Barbies,” he said with a straight face. Acacia noticed his powerful arms and thick stomach sway as he relaxed in his seat. Small sweat trickles worked down the side of his cheeks. Someone like this should die from a heart attack before forty and never reproduce.
Shadow and Shine (Book 2): Dark Divide Page 8
