The Zombie Deception

by Marvin Wolf

  Will nodded. “Quick as we can, Colonel.”

  Moffett said, “Keep me informed.”

  Chapter 71

  Will pulled his truck off the narrow, unpaved road running along Four Mile Creek and backed between two big boulders and into the woods until the vehicle was hidden from any casual passerby.

  Ash parked at the nearby heliport and followed a footpath a quarter mile through the trees. She found Will sitting in his pickup.

  Will said, “I’m thinking that this might be a trap. We’d better be very careful.”

  Ash wrinkled her nose. “Is there cell service out here?”

  Will took out his phone. “One bar. But there’s a new cell tower just by the road.”

  They looked at each other. Ash moved first.

  “Let’s go look at this cell tower of yours.”

  Three minutes later, hidden from the road by several feet of brush and tree trunks, they stood at the base of what looked every bit a cell tower.

  Will said, “One of us has to climb this.”

  Ash said, “Right,” and took a coin from her pocket. “Heads I win, tails you lose.”

  Will giggled as she flipped the coin and glanced at it before returning it to her pocket.

  “You lose,” she announced. Get started.”

  “Afraid of heights?”

  She shook her head. “I could climb that in a heartbeat,” Ash said. “But all the way up, you’d be fondling my ass with your eyes.”

  Realizing that whatever he might say would be wrong, Will silently put his left foot on the lowest steel rod sticking out of the pole.

  Up he went, one step after another, and stopped a few feet from the top. He looked down,

  Ash said, “What?”

  “There’s a tripwire halfway to the next step. Do you see where it goes?”

  Ash took a step back and craned her head.”

  “Looks like fishing line. Goes about 150 feet across into that big pine,” she said, pointing.

  Will swiveled his head to peer at the tree.

  Then, returning his attention to the cell tower, he took out his phone, raised it as high as he could reach, and took a photo of the apparatus at the top.

  When he returned to the ground, he showed the image to Ash.

  “Looks like a cell phone relay setup,” she said. “Solar powered.”

  Will shook his head. “The solar cell is real, and I think it’s the point of the whole exercise,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The antennas are fake. Not connected to anything.”

  “But why?”

  “Got a hunch there’s a power cable leading from this pole to someplace that uses the juice. There’s a little shovel in my truck. Let me dig a trench around the pole. See if I’m right.”

  Ash nodded. “I’ll climb that tree and see where the line goes.”

  “Careful.”

  Chapter 72

  Sticking to the woods, Will followed the creek back toward his truck. When he entered the clearing where he’d left his truck, a man in camouflage fatigues, his face painted black and green, stepped from the trees on the other side and leveled a Glock at him.

  “On your knees,” said the man.

  Instead, Will hopped twice to his left. Before his right foot hit the ground, something hot crackled past him, very close to his right ear. A heartbeat later, something much bigger whooshed by the same ear but in the opposite direction. He staggered, then caught himself.

  A long, black spike grew out of the gunman’s chest. He toppled backward, clutching the Glock as blood spurted from the point where the bolt struck.

  Will turned to look over his right shoulder and saw Ash holding a black compound crossbow.

  Will pulled his own Glock and ran toward the fallen man.

  By the time he had crossed the clearing, the man in camouflage was dead.

  Behind him, Will heard a strange sound, He turned to find Ash on her hands and knees, vomiting.

  She climbed to her feet, shaking, reached for Will, and for several seconds they clung together.

  Ash murmured, “I thought…”

  Will said, “First time?”

  Ash began to sob.

  Will remained silent, holding her tightly.

  After several minutes she stopped crying and freed herself.

  “That could have been you,” she said, her voice breaking.

  “The crossbow was in the tree?”

  “Aimed at a point just below the solar cell.”

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “If you tell anyone I puked—I’ll kill you. Well, I’ll kick your ass, anyway.”

  “Nothing to be ashamed of, Ash. Taking a life is a big deal. Almost everyone with a conscience reacts this way.”

  She pushed him away. “I mean it. Not a word.”

  “Of course not.”

  She moved forward and again wrapped her arms around him.

  “That was very foolish of me,” she said.

  “What was?”

  “I should have used my gun. But then I’d have had to put the bow down. No time! I could have hit you instead of…”

  “First time with a crossbow?”

  “I just pointed it and pulled the trigger.”

  Will said, “There might be more baddies around. Let’s get out of here and come back with some MPs.”

  Ash stepped back. “Right. Can you get him into the bed of your truck?”

  “Watch my back.”

  “Depend on it—but I’m still gonna kick your ass if you tell anyone that I puked.”

  §

  Will dropped Ash at her car in the heliport lot.

  Behind the Santa Fe’s wheel, Ash followed Will’s pickup, her mind spinning, trying to calm herself as she dealt with a river of conflicting thoughts. In the instant after she loosed the crossbow’s bolt, milliseconds before the gunman fired and while Will was moving into the path of the crossbow bolt, she was certain that she had just killed Will. It was the rush of relief that followed him recovering his footing to run forward, the knowledge that she had not killed the man that she loved, that had triggered her nausea and vomiting.

  The man that she loved. It was a strange and frightening realization. At the onset of puberty, Ash had been boy crazy, developing a crush on one classmate after another. She allowed a seventh-grade classmate, Michael Klein, to kiss her, then slapped him silly when she learned that he’d told half the boys in his class. In the tenth grade, she pined for tall, talented and handsome Gary Lorden, president of the senior class. He ignored her. At Georgetown, she gave her virginity to a varsity basketball star, and he gave her and at least thirty other girls and women a case of gonorrhea.

  From that hideously embarrassing day on, Ash kept it casual. She seldom dated, and when she did, it was rarely the same man twice. And now Will Spaulding. Who threatened to upset her carefully conceived career plans. She wanted him, and she didn’t know what to do: Tell him and risk painful rejection, maybe kiss a promotion goodbye? Show him, and let him take the lead? What if he never made that move?

  She had to think, but there was no time now.

  Chapter 73

  Will pushed the door to the Provost Marshall’s inner office open and stopped as Colonel Moffett looked up.

  “Got something, Spaulding?”

  “Yes, sir. My partner just shot it out with a guy in camouflage by the mine. He’s dead, and she’s briefing Mr. Chelmin. We also found a fake cell tower that’s a solar power source to whatever’s in that mine.”

  “What do you need?”

  “An MP squad in combat gear to secure the location while we explore that area.”

  “Ten minutes. We’ll go directly to the site, and CID follows.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  §

  Eight minutes later, Will parked in the clearing. With Alvie and Chelmin, the latter now packing a long-barreled .357 Smith & Wesson on his right hip, Ash arrived and pulled in next to his truck.<
br />
  “She shot him with a crossbow,” Chelmin said, clearly amused.

  “Part of a boobytrap that I found in a tree, cocked and ready,” she replied. “I went looking for Will and found a guy in jungle cammies who had the drop on him. It was easier to use the bow than to get my gun out.”

  “Good thing you did,” said Alvie. “He had a Kevlar vest under his shirt. That would have stopped a 9 mm.”

  Will said, “Hold on everyone. In a few minutes, we’re going into the mine. So far we’ve learned one thing about this bunch that we’re dealing with—things are never what they seem. So let’s assume that, and only that.”

  The mine was set back from the road at the foot of a low hill. Masked by bushes, the entrance was a dozen feet long and two feet high.

  An MP staff sergeant named Gibbons crawled out of the entrance and looked at Chelmin. “Whenever you’re ready, sir,” he said.

  “Let’s go,” Chelmin said, and the CID contingent headed for the cave.

  Except for Will, who took Gibbons aside.

  “Sergeant, about half an hour ago in this clearing, my partner shot a man wearing jungle camouflage and a vest. You might want to put a couple of your guys back in the woods to watch and listen.”

  The MP nodded assent, “Right on that, sir.”

  “One more thing, Sarge, Does your detachment have dogs? Dogs that can sniff out human remains?”

  “We have dogs, sir, but for that, we’d need a cadaver dog. A specialist.”

  Will nodded. “I’ll speak with Colonel Moffett,” he said.

  §

  A tiny LED flashlight gripped between his teeth, Chelmin crawled past a pile of trash partially blocking the entrance. Inside, he awkwardly climbed to his feet and gestured to Alvie. “Bag this pile and we’ll sort through it later,” he said.

  Ash entered the dark space, got to her feet and looked around, waiting for Will.

  When he had crawled inside, Ash touched his shoulder. “Assume there are other chambers or more levels,” she said. “Where would you put an entrance?

  Will held his flashlight high over his head and slowly probed the chamber ceiling. Then he narrowed the beam and pointed it at a spot just below where the uneven, rocky wall met the uneven, rocky ceiling.

  “There,” Will said. “It’s faint, but that’s a long, straight line. Maybe a door.”

  Ash let out a little yip! like a surprised dog. “Got a ladder on that truck of yours?”

  Will shook his head. “But I have something that might work almost as well.”

  §

  Five minutes later, he was back with a hammer, three thick, six-inch-long nails, a small chisel, and a coil of thick rope.

  With the others holding flashlights, Will jammed the chisel into a tiny crevice in the wall about knee high and delivered several hard blows with the hammer. Then he removed the chisel and pounded a nail a half inch deep into the crevice. He took out another nail and drove that one into a crevice about two feet above the first one.

  He climbed to the second nail, placed his hand against the moss-covered area, and gently felt with his fingers.

  This should be cool, not warm, Will told himself

  A low, rumbling sound issued from behind the wall and above the ceiling. The chamber vibrated.

  Will jumped down and yelled, “Out! Everyone out!”

  All three agents stared at Will.

  The rumbling got louder. Will grabbed Ash and pushed her toward the exit.

  A boulder the size of a basketball shot out of the ceiling, narrowly missing Chelmin’s head before bouncing off the wall behind him and ricocheting back to smash his right leg with a blood-curdling crunch.

  Chelmin toppled backward onto the floor.

  Will sprang forward, dodging a smaller boulder, followed by a shower of fist-size rocks. One bounced off his shoulder. Another struck his hip and a third his lower thigh as he grabbed Chelmin’s good leg and pulled him toward the entrance.

  Ash seemed to find her senses and sprang forward to roll out through the entrance.

  Rooted to the floor, Alvie was hit by a rock the size of a small refrigerator and went down.

  Will low-crawled toward the narrow exit slit, dragging Chelmin behind him. Once outside, he and Ash each grabbed an arm and pulled Chelmin to safety just as the clatter and thump of rock on rock reached a crescendo.

  A half dozen MPs rushed up.

  “Help me up,” said Chelmin, and an MP pulled him up to teeter on his left leg.

  Will said, “Get on the radio and get us an ambulance.”

  Chelmin said, “Where’s Alvie?” and looked around.

  Will pointed to the mine. “In there,” he said, voice breaking,

  Chapter 74

  As Will moved to the side of the hill near the entrance, something caught his eye. He put his head against the rock above the entrance, then moved back along the hillside. Then he turned and looked at the MP sergeant.

  “Sergeant Gibbons!” he called, and when the MP looked at him, Will continued, “Give me your four strongest men. Over here.”

  “Yessir,” the MP replied, then pointed at four of his men.

  “Get over there and help Mr. Spaulding,” he yelled.

  When the MPs reached him, Will put the tallest with his head against the rocky hill about six feet above the ground.

  “Look carefully, Nuñez, and tell me what you see.”

  The MP squinted at the hillside. “Nothing, sir, it’s just flat rock.”

  “A flat rock, Specialist? On a curving slope?”

  “Oh shit! You’re right!”

  Will took the chisel out of his pocket and jammed it into a narrow crack, half-hidden by moss and foliage.

  “Listen up,” Will said. “I think this is a sliding door. And several tons of rock are pressing against it from the inside. Special Agent Landon is under some of that rock. He might still be alive. I want you four to push on this door, break the inner lock, and let those boulders come out so we can get to Landon.”

  The four men took up positions from top to bottom along the edge.

  They pushed hard, their necks corded with strain,

  The door slid two feet and stopped.

  “Push harder,” Will said,

  The MPs strained against the door. It slid a few more inches and stopped.

  Will turned his head to look at Gibbons.

  “I need some men on the other side to pull.”

  Gibbons and three MPs ran to the far side of the door.

  “On three,” said Will. “One, two, THREE!”

  Four men pushed. Four pulled.

  The door slid a few inches. Then a few more.

  With a tearing and moaning sound, the door flew several feet into the air as a dozen huge rocks burst from the mine.

  When the last rock had fallen, Will and Ash, followed by the MPs, cautiously entered the chamber. It was filled with boulders and rocks, one the size of a small automobile, the smallest fist-sized. Alvie Landon lay on his right side between two big boulders.

  Ash was the first to reach him, She squeezed between the rocks and knelt, put a hand on his neck, and waited.

  “He’s alive!” she said, blinking away tears.

  Will said, “Let’s clear a path for the paramedics.”

  “Work in pairs,” Ash called to the MPs.

  An approaching siren echoed around the chamber.

  Chapter 75

  Will left his car in the hospital lot and found the ER entrance.

  “Hey!” shouted a uniformed security guard, barring his way. “Ambulance crews and patients only,” he said.

  Never breaking stride, Will pulled the badge off his belt and waved it at the guard.

  The guard opened the door and Will cruised through. Six feet inside and to his left, through a gap in the curtain of a treatment cubicle, he glimpsed the full-length profile of a beautiful, nude, olive-skinned woman—Ash, he realized, feeling himself getting aroused as he continued down the hallway. He put th
e thought and the sight away and held up his badge for the nurse behind the counter.

  “Mister Chelmin, a leg amputee, our Special Agent in charge?”

  “Straight ahead, first cubicle to your left,” said the nurse.

  Chelmin perched on a stool wearing only his shorts while a young ER doctor probed his stump with an LED flashlight and a pair of forceps.

  “You okay?” Chelmin said.

  “Some bruises. You?”

  “Concussion, they think. Did you bring my leg?”

  “Smashed up pretty bad. It’s in my truck.”

  “What about my…”

  Will said, “Your piece is fine. The stock, not so much.”

  The doctor turned to look at Will, and then at Chelmin. “You carry a gun in your prosthesis?”

  Chelmin said, “When I’m on a case. As a backup.”

  The doctor returned his attention to Chelmin’s stump.

  Will said, “Did you bring your backup leg?”

  Chelmin shook his head. “I dread calling Cheryl to ask her to send it. She’ll freak out.”

  Will said, “Do you still keep a spare house key in your office?”

  Chelmin grinned. “That’s it. I’ll call my secretary, tell her to go by the house while my wife is at work, and have her overnight the leg.”

  The doctor shook his head. “That boulder crushed the prosthesis and left splinters in your stump. I’m still picking pieces out. You need to wait 72 hours before you re-attach a prosthesis.”

  “Or else?” said Chelmin.

  “Possible infection. Let those small wounds heal,”

  Will said, “What about Agent Landon, Doctor?”

  “Who?”

  Chelmin said, “The man who was all busted up. Agent Ash and I came in with him.”

  The doctor said, “If he’s still alive, check with the ICU.”

  Chelmin said, “Hang on a second Will—what about my Smith?”

  “In my truck.”

  “No weapons in the hospital,” said the doctor.

  “I’m a CID agent on duty, Doctor.”

  “Yes, but he’s a patient.”

  Will said, “I’ll stop by later, Rudy.”