Sucka shook his head. “I looked off the roof, but didn’t see them. There are too many buildings — they could be in any one of them. Maybe they already left for the Mason Tunnel.”
“Maybe,” Rex said. “They should have been there by now. Missus Zou said she would take care of them if they didn’t show, but they could still be here.”
Pierre’s long tongue flicked up over his long nose. “Ith okay. If they’re here, I’ll kill them. Are you ready?”
Pierre knelt down on one knee. Rex needed to learn how to scale the buildings like the others, but that would come later. He crawled up onto Pierre’s warm, soft back.
Pierre stood. Suddenly, Rex was eight feet tall.
Rex pulled his blanket tight around his shoulders.
“It’s time for the bully to get what’s coming to him. Pierre, take me to the roof.”
Bryan Fights Sly, Rex, Pierre
Bryan stepped out of the elevator onto the mental health wing’s empty third floor. At 2:15 A.M. the hallway was empty.
He pressed the two-way button on his phone.
No answering tone came. What if Marie’s Children had come while he was at the car?
Bryan walked quickly down the hall. His hands drifted to the small of his back.
Bryan turned the corner and froze. Twenty feet away, in front of Erickson’s door, Pookie Chang lay facedown, hands cuffed behind his back. Standing over him with AR-15s in hand were Jeremy Ellis and Matt Hickman in full SWAT gear.
Jeremy raised the barrel of his assault rifle until it pointed halfway between him and Bryan. “Stay right there, Clauser,” he said. “Put your hands where I can see them.”
Bryan’s hands were behind his back, just a quick grab away from his guns. “Pooks, you okay?”
Pookie looked up. “I’m fine. Seems Chief Zou
Hickman gave Pookie a light kick in the shoulder. “Shut up, Chang.”
Bryan’s anger swelled. “You kick him again and I’ll rip that foot off your body.”
Jeremy took a step to his right, moving to the other side of the hall to create distance between himself and Hickman. “Hands, Clauser.” Jeremy raised his barrel farther — now it pointed to Bryan’s feet. Could Bryan draw faster than Jeremy could flick the AR-15 up and shoot? No, no way.
Bryan moved his hands out to his sides.
“That’s good,” Jeremy said. “I hate to do this, but I’m under orders from the chief to arrest you on sight.”
What had happened? These guys weren’t even supposed to be here. “Arrest me for what?”
“She didn’t call me to get my opinion,” Jeremy said. “She said if you guys came back, to take you into custody. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Bryan evaluated his position. Looking down the hall, Jeremy stood on the left side, Hickman on the right. Pookie was on the floor on the right, just in front of the door to Erickson’s room. Hickman took two slow steps forward, increasing the space between himself and his partner. Bryan knew the maneuver. That was basic positioning, but it seemed so surreal —
“Clauser, come on,” Jeremy said, “Make this easy and get on the ground. You know the drill.”
Bryan couldn’t let this happen. He had to get Pookie off the ground, get Hickman and Jeremy ready to fight whatever was coming. “Jeremy, listen to me. Zou’s turned bad. Just give me a chance to explain.”
Jeremy raised his weapon the rest of the way; the barrel pointed at Bryan’s chest. “Get on the ground, Clauser.
“I can’t.”
Now Hickman took a half-step forward, weapon also aimed at Bryan’s chest. “Put your
This was the how the game worked: start out calm, polite, then raise your cop-voice volume until the perp gets the picture.
These fuckers wanted to threaten him? Threaten
He shook his head. He couldn’t lose his temper, not now. “Guys, stop yelling. We—”
That scent, the one he’d smelled on the baby’s clothes, but weaker … he knew this smell
Bryan stepped back. That warmth in his chest …
Four figures stepped into the hall behind Hickman and Ellis — four figures draped in blankets. In that split second, Bryan saw their faces and knew that his dreams, the monsters in the basement, Rex’s drawings, that
The snake-man (Sly) the dog-face (
“Behind you!” Bryan started toward Erickson’s door but hadn’t made it half a step before two bellowing cop voices roared at him.
Four blankets flared open. Four gun barrels rose.
Bryan reached for his weapons and ran for Erickson’s door, knowing full well in that horrid, frozen moment of time that he couldn’t do anything to save Ellis and Hickman.
The
Jeremy’s head rocked forward. His helmet went flying, chin strap flapping as it spun. Hickman was moving his AR-15 to match Bryan’s run when a round caught him in the jaw, shredding flesh, splintering bone and teeth. He fell away to Bryan’s right.
Bryan felt the five-seven grips in his hands. He drew and fired without aiming as he lowered his shoulder and launched himself over Pookie. Bryan smashed through the door and landed on his right shoulder, big splinters of wood dropping around him.
More warmth in his chest, this time from Erickson.
Bryan caught a flash glance of Erickson: an old man in a hospital bed, tubes in his arms and under his nose.
Bryan rolled to his ass. He planted his feet and pushed, sliding on his left shoulder back out the door. Bullets ripped into the door frame above him as he slid between Pookie and the monsters, his fingers flash-flicking the five-seven triggers and sending ten rounds down the hallway.
The monsters ducked and turned. He saw Rex fall backward, spinning to the right, saw Sly stumble backward. Pierre was a blur, scooping Rex up and smashing through another door farther down the hall.
Bryan popped up on his feet and fired twice more. He felt a round hit him in the left shoulder as he put his right foot on Pookie, turned his partner so that his head pointed into Erickson’s room, then
He’d pulled each trigger twelve times, leaving eight rounds in each pistol.
