Moni employed her usual tricks of fear and pain to shackle most of the field. Golden Arrow wouldn’t relent. The horse led Ezra’s Fire by three lengths entering the final stretch. Moni felt their long shot tiring, feeling it favor giving up and sparing itself from the agony burning its legs. Moni asked herself the same question. They already had an excellent haul, way more than she anticipated going in here. But why not nail the biggest upset yet?
She urged Ezra’s Fire on faster, ignoring his suffering, and then turned her mental focus to Golden Arrow. She thought of something all horses dread. Moni told the lead horse the finish line had a rattlesnake on it. The horse mistook the cheer of the crowd for its threatening rattle. Golden Arrow reared back in terror and whinnied. His hind legs skidded on the track, kicking up a spray of dirt. The momentum of his hind legs carried forward while his front legs sprang high, going up and up until he lost his balance. The horse toppled over, crushing its jockey underneath.
28
The tragedy unfolded so fast Moni’s brain could hardly process it. One-thousand pounds of horse going full speed had crashed onto the unforgiving dirt track, with all of that weight and momentum barreling down on the jockey. Moni reached out for his mind. She barely felt it. He had lost consciousness, faintly alive. The horse also survived. It would have been better if he had died on impact. The lucid agony in Golden Arrow’s mind as its broken legs were pinned at wrong angles underneath his body made her gasp.
She was responsible for all of this. Again.
“Your greed caused this,” the alien voice blared inside her head. “All you needed was a little push. Spare these people and give your mind to us.”
Moni had lured her abusive father on the bridge over the lagoon so the aliens could snatch him, then she realized they would destroy the whole overpass as well. She had wielded the gun that shot her fellow officers as she held the bleeding Mariella in her arms. How many times would she fall victim to their manipulation? Moni used to think she was the only one strong enough to resist them. Now she considered whether they chose her because of her weakness.
Moni scampered away from the grandstand towards the casino. Watching aghast as the paramedics rushed to the injured jockey, most of the crowd didn’t notice her. The white-haired woman sent her a dirty look with her cold blue eyes as she passed, almost as if she knew she’d caused this. Moni bracketed her eyes with her hands like blinders.
“Wait up!” Aaron hustled after her.
Her gait grew faster. She kept going, not making eye contact with anybody, ignoring the boisterous casino crowd and their one-armed bandits. She pushed through door after door until she came to a dead end, an empty conference room all decked out with white table cloths and carpet in a red and orange southwestern pattern. She whirled around and reached back for the door. Aaron burst through it. He caught her by the shoulders. Thrusting her hands upon his chest, Moni easily possessed the force to shove him aside and run out of sight before he recovered. She seized his shirt in her hands and buried her face into his sternum. Moni quickly disengaged, making her feel so empty as tears filled her eyes.
“I fucked up so bad.”
“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Of course it was. I went too far in scaring that horse. We already won so much money, why push the limits for more? That magnificent creature didn’t have to die so I could make a few thousand dollars. That jockey may never walk again. He won’t have a normal life because of me.”
“It’s not on you. It’s on me. This whole thing was my idea. I just thought…”
Before he finished the sentence out loud, she picked it out of his mind. He had thought she controlled her powers. Moni couldn’t predict the consequences every time she used them.
Moni reared her head back and looked him in the eyes. She wished she could pull him close, feel the warmth of his neck on her cheek. The tears on her face would melt his skin. “It would be reckless for me to continue using my abilities around people. I belong in the desert.”
Aaron glared at her, studying her face. She didn’t understand why until she tapped into his brain. He wondered why she had a ketchup stain on the corner of her lips.
“You didn’t finish your hamburger, did you?” he asked.
She silently gasped. “No. I left it out there.” And surely lathered with her saliva, teeming with alien nanobots seeking a more cooperative host.
“Shit, come on!”
The flashing lights of the slot machines zipped by in a blur as she sprinted to the grandstand. Aaron cried for her to slow down. She realized she shouldn’t go too fast, unless she could convince the patrons she was a cheetah. Moni settled for a frenzied jog. She zoomed past the ticket booth and reached her old seat well before Aaron. She didn’t see it. Moni ducked under the seat, figuring she must have knocked the wrapper down. Nothing but a few crumbs. She mashed them with her fingers. When she popped up, Aaron had reached her.
“It’s not here.”
She gazed onto the track, where the jockey had been loaded onto a stretcher as the ambulance rode slowly onto the dirt. He managed a small wave, eliciting cheers from the few left in the crowd. Conversely, a black curtain engulfed the fallen horse.
If the little terrors she carelessly let loose found a host, that wouldn’t be the only fatality today, Moni thought. She closed her eyes and spread out her mental reach. She didn’t feel an infected mind, not yet.
“Who would want my half-eaten burger?”
“Maybe the cleaning crew took it,” Aaron said. “Let’s go ask the charming guy in the ticket booth.”
“I don’t even want the money after all this.”
Aaron pointed to his forehead, signaling she should read his thoughts. “You can’t survive in the desert without the right supplies. This is the fastest way to get them, unless you want to try another get rich scheme in the city.”
She led the way toward the ticket window. Aaron quickly cut ahead of her and posted the three winning tickets on the window. Gary shook his head.
“I’ll be damned. I’ve worked this track 31 years and I ain’t never seen somebody hit on two dead-last long shots in one day. Beginners luck. Too bad Juan Manuel Tavares wasn’t so lucky.”
“Who’s that?” Aaron asked.
“He’s the jockey, or he was a jockey. Nice guy. Must have run 100 races here. Usually has his wife and kids are in the stands on weekends. I’m glad they weren’t here to see that.”
Her face turning emotional, Moni nudged Aaron in the ribs.
“I’m real sorry about that. Listen, my friend left her hamburger on the stands when we went to the bathroom and now it’s gone. What do you think happened to it?”
“You worried about a hamburger thief?” Gary chuckled as he counted out stacks of cash. He gave Aaron and Moni each one of the largest tickets so they wouldn’t have to fill out tax forms for winning more than $10,000. “Son, you got $13,100 here so I wouldn’t give a shit about no $5 burger. You can buy her a whole truck full of them.”
“Ugh, well, it’s not just about a burger.” Aaron glanced at Moni, who raised her eyebrows in worry. “It’s a ring. She takes off her family’s antique ring when she eats because she doesn’t want to dirty it. She left it in the wrapper.”
“She left the ring in the wrapper instead of her pocket? A real Brainiac this one is.”
Moni would have punched the glass in if they didn’t need this man’s help, not to mention the cameras watching.
“That ring’s been in her family for four generations. Her mother would be devastated if she lost it.”
“Mmm hmm, so it has sentimental value.” Gary slid Aaron a paper bag full of cash. “How much cash value you think it has?”
Moni seethed and clenched her fist. Aaron raised his hand in a calming motion. She searched the man’s mind. He didn’t think about a place where the burger would be, only that he’d relieve them of their money.
“I’ll give you $100 if you show me where they emptied the tras
h,” Aaron said.
“That’s it? Look at all you won today. Think about how disappointed her momma’s gonna be if she comes home with bare fingers.”
“Fine. Two-hundred.”
“A thousand,” he countered.
“Asshole. Just agree to it. We’ve already wasted too much time.”
Aaron dug $1,000 out of the bag and handed it over. His pink lips curled into a smile beneath his bushy mustache. Gary flipped the closed sign on his booth. “The races are over today anyway,” he declared, making Moni cringe. “Let me show you the most luxurious stable in this fine establishment.”
The man sauntered unevenly on a bum hip. Moni wished she could carry him, only so he’d hurry the hell up. They took the roundabout way to a dumpster on the side of the building. They were in view of several rows of parked cars, making Moni all the more uncomfortable about sticking her nose into a hot box of garbage. She flipped open one of the lids. A rotten stench wafted through the air.
“Really, son? You’re gonna let your lady here dumpster dive while you hang back scratching your balls?”
“I’d do it, but she just insisted,” Aaron said.
“She wouldn’t insist if she knew what was in there. You have no idea the kind of crap we find in our bathrooms. Gamblers aren’t the only addicts we see round here.”
Aaron took a step toward the dumpster. Moni held him off with a stern hand. “You’ve been brave enough. Don’t be stupid. This is much less risky for me than for you.”
Waiting until Aaron backed off, Moni hoisted herself up and into the dumpster. The putrid stench made her eyes water. She wished for some gasoline air freshener. A soft trash bag crumbled beneath her feet. She ripped it open and rummaged through it but found only ticket stubs and paper cups. Moni peered into the darkness shrouding the other half of the dumpster, with a lid still covering it. A pair of purple eyes blazed back at her.
29
A thump from inside the dumpster made Aaron jolt. The black hair from Moni’s wig flopped against the metal wall. Moni didn’t scream. She couldn’t. Her feet scraped against its sides as she thrashed around with something. Aaron guessed it wasn’t a hamburger.
Moni kicked her leg over the side of the dumpster and tumbled to the pavement, landing on her hip. Her glasses had been shattered. Thin claw marks framed her cheeks, leaving purple scratches.
“What the hell’s in there?” asked Aaron, afraid to step closer. He had no business messing with anything that ran her off.
“They’ve possessed it.”
She slammed the second lid shut. Something wedged the other lid open from the inside. A pair of furry paws slinked across the lid, followed by a lanky body, that of a black cat. Aaron always thought yellow eyes were creepy, but this feline’s purple-rimmed stare stole a beat from his heart. It perched itself atop the dumpster, moving unsteadily as if unfamiliar with its body. It barred its teeth in a hissing expression minus the vocalizing.
“Did ya’ll drop acid or something? That’s just a scrawny cat come to scavenge off our leftovers,” ticket booth Gary said. “Serves you right to get scratched for interrupting his meal. Hey, what’s that purple stuff on your face?”
Aaron didn’t have an explanation this time. He had bigger problems than an inquisitive old man. The infected cat had 20 claws and two rows of sharp teeth and, like most cats, they could carry infectious bacteria. With its heightened senses and speed, it could inject the alien-mutated bacteria into the bloodstream of a dozen people a minute. Once spread, they would be nearly impossible to reign in.
“Make the infection leave like you did by the lagoon,” Aaron pleaded with Moni.
“I’ll try. But I’m not sure they’re listening to me anymore. I don’t know why.”
“What do you mean infection? Is that the same alien shit they got in Florida?” Gary eyed the cat again, this time not dismissively, rather with alarm. “Don’t tell me the fucking cat!”
The cat leapt off the dumpster towards him. Moni grabbed the tail and yanked it. By then it had sunk its claws into Gary’s chest. The cat’s hind legs lashed out, slicing Moni’s forearms. She lost her grip on its tail. Spitting out curses, Gary grabbed the cat’s neck and hurled it off him, hollering as its claws ripped free of his flesh.
Aaron’s eyes were torn between the infected cat bounding across the parking lot headed for the main road and the man falling to one knee searching for his breath. Gary began gurgling. His face turned deep red. His eyes bulged as if he were suffocating. That’s exactly what was happening as the alien nanotech blitzed his body cell by cell.
Moni tackled Gary and pinned him down. She gazed upon Aaron with streaks of purple blood pooling over her mouth, like a cannibalistic warrior.
“Kill the cat,” she beamed into his head. “I’ll do everything I can for him before they reach his brain. If the infection takes hold in another human, it’ll be a hell of a lot worse.”
Aaron whirled into a sprint across the parking lot. Moments later, he began questioning his sanity. Aaron must have been cat scratched dozens of times, but one swipe of this feline’s claws would for all purposes end his life.
This time Aaron followed the cat through the people-less parking lot into the road. Without a weapon, he had no idea what he’d do should he catch it. He hoped the cat wouldn’t notice him following it. If he didn’t catch this telepathic, ultra-fast feline by surprise, he’d end up writhing on the ground like ticket booth man. No worries.
When he looked out ahead where the cat was headed, Aaron cursed and ramped up the pace. A red roller coaster loomed on the other side of the road, with other whirling rides in the background. The infected critter aimed for a children’s amusement park.
Concentrating her focus upon Gary, Moni tried quelling the war raging within his cells. His body trembled from his skin, through his muscles and deep within his bones. The invaders fanned out from the wounds on his chest, scalding his arteries as his blood turned acidic. They seized upon his nervous system and followed it up his spinal column toward his brain. Moni still felt his consciousness there, terrified, panicked, wishing he could see his grandchildren one more time.
She couldn’t let another man die because of her.
“Abandon this body,” Moni ordered the intelligent nanobots settling into their new host. “Do you hear me? Get out of there now!”
Her cranium reverberated like a great bell. The invaders slowed, and then paused just before reaching his brain. They had already intoxicated his blood, but they had left his mind intact so far. If they departed immediately, he might survive after a blood transfusion and perhaps a few organ transplants. Moni held her hand over his chest wounds, which widened into blackened gashes.
“Return to me. I’m your only host.”
A massive stirring arose within his body, alerting her that tens of thousands of them had reproduced many times over. They gathered as one, and then shot into his brain like a pike. His eyes gleamed purple. Moni recoiled, her head spinning as the host body rejected her. As Gary’s consciousness was sucked into the recesses of his mind, she heard a new voice inside his head.
“Don’t listen to her. Her foul body isn’t worthy of us. Kill the bitch.”
The possessed man seized Moni’s neck and yanked her down into a choke hold with his biceps behind her head and his forearm across her throat.
A seven-foot fence separated the children’s amusement park from Futurity Drive. The possessed cat cleared it with room to spare and landed without breaking stride. Aaron cut off a speeding car, taking a calculated gamble the driver wasn’t texting and would tap the brakes. The driver slowed just enough and Aaron cleared the road. He grabbed the links of the fence and yelped. The sun heated the metal wires hot as oven coils. Aaron dug his boots in, gritted his teeth and scaled it.
He plopped down in a prickly bush. Aaron kicked his way free. He didn’t see the cat among the dozens of people, more than half of them kids. Fo
rtunately, it had been a slow day at the park under the afternoon heat with hardly any lines. Soon he heard screams.
Aaron ran towards the commotion at a tilt-a-whirl ride, where kids rode in egg-like compartments that spun around on a wobbly table. The cat had scampered in the middle of the ride. It chased after the riders, but the slippery platform threw off its balance. They were getting acclimated to its body. Coordination wouldn’t be a problem much longer.
“I saw you jump the fence. Stop your running!” a Mexican-accented voice yelled after him. Aaron glanced over his shoulder and saw a portly man in a security guard polo shirt lumbering after him. He didn’t appear armed, but getting caught by a guy who had 100 pounds on him wouldn’t be a picnic.
“My cat ran away,” Aaron shouted back. “He has rabies. Keep everybody away from him. I got this.”
The families on line for the ride started freaking out. One woman told the attendant to halt it.
“No! No! Keep it moving!” Aaron yelled as he hurtled over the gate and bounded onto the wobbly platform. The cat lunged at one of the spinning eggs and caught hold of the metal lap bar. A young girl with straight black hair sat inches away. She smiled and reached for the animal. Moni would flip out if they infected another child, especially one who resembled Mariella.
“Don’t touch it!” Aaron crashed into the side of her egg. The girl wailed and the cat dashed off. As the ride slowed to a stop, Aaron knelt down and checked on the girl. She covered her face. He had a flashback to Mariella, so quiet and innocent looking yet capable of killing a grown man.
Silence the Living (Mute Book 2) Page 15
