Afraid

“NO! THE CHARGE!”

Josh held up the capsules, and Bernie nodded rapidly, blood and drool running down his fat lips.

“Where’s Fran and Duncan?” Josh asked.

“GIVE ME THE CHARGE! THE CHARGE!”

“Answer my questions, I’ll give you the pills. Where’s Fran and Duncan?”

“Don’t know.”

“Where’s Sheriff Streng?”

Bernie clenched the bars and shook them.

“DON’T KNOW DON’T KNOW DON’T KNOW!”

“Then you’re no help to me.”

Josh turned to leave.

“NOOOOOO!” Bernie cried. “Check the MMDSC!”

Josh paused. “What’s that?”

“The communicator! Check the communicator!”

Josh palmed the electronic thing, showing it to Bernie. “This?”

“YESSSSS!”

“How does it work?”

“Hold the bottom, hold the bottom, pull up on the sides to open the cover.”

Josh tried, but that accomplished nothing. He rubbed the large dent in the center and figured the cover might be jammed. He needed some tools.

While Bernie screamed after him, Josh returned to the hallway and went to the janitor’s closet. The last time he’d been to the Water Department he’d helped the mayor fix a leak in the sink. The toolbox sat on the closet shelf where he’d left it. He set the Maglite on its base and used two pairs of pliers to open the communicator cover.

It exposed a small green screen. Words began to flash across it.

Head bird acquired. Stand by for directions to the nest.

The message disappeared and was replaced by:

Is the doctor nearby? I noticed we just turned onto Old Mason Road.

He lives off of Old Mason, at the end of Duck Bill. Are you familiar with the area?

Josh recognized the new messages as his exchange with Stubin in the car. How did that get on there? Had their car been bugged? Had Josh accidentally recorded it somehow?

Or did Stubin do it?

A few more lines scrolled by, then the monitor blinked and read:

Location 1.6 kilometers east on Deer Tick Road. Attempting to locate nest.

That must be where the sheriff’s brother lived. And probably where they took Fran and Duncan.

“CHARGE!” Bernie called from his cell.

Josh pocketed the device and picked up the Maglite, heading back to the drunk tank.

“YOU PROMISED ME, PROMISED!”

“I have more questions,” Josh told him. “Then you’ll get the Charge.”

“Can’t think … can’t think … need Charge …” Bernie banged his forehead against the bars in cadence to his words. “Can’t think … can’t think …”

“How many soldiers are in your Red-ops unit?”

“Need Charge … need Charge …”

Josh opened up the metal container, showing Bernie the Charge capsules.

“How many soldiers?”

Bernie twitched, then blinked several times. “Five. Five soldiers. There are five.”

“Name them.”

“Santiago, Taylor, Ajax, Logan, and Bernie.”

Josh took a shot. “Is Dr. Stubin the one who put the chip in your head? Is he the reason you’re here?”

“Yessssss,” Bernie hissed.

That asshole. Josh should have never left Fran and Duncan alone in the car with him.

“What is your mission?”

“Need Charge … need Charge …”

Josh removed a pill from the container and tossed it out of the room, into the darkness.

“NOOOOOOOOO!”

“What’s your mission?”

Bernie shook his head. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”

Josh threw another pill away.

“I DON’T KNOW! I NEED CHARGE! I CAN TELL YOU IF I HAVE CHARGE!”

Josh considered it, then tossed a capsule into the cell. Bernie hobbled after the pill, snatching it from the floor and holding it under his nose. He squeezed and sniffed.

Josh detected a cloying chemical odor. It took him a moment to place it. Freshman year at UW, he had a roommate named Carlos who was gay. Carlos used poppers—butyl nitrite that came in small bottles labeled “Room Deodorizer” and “Video Head Cleaner”—to enhance sex. From his paramedic classes, Josh knew butyl nitrite was a vasodilator, similar chemically to the amyl nitrite used to treat various heart conditions.

Bernie continued to sniff, and his demeanor went from Hyde to Jekyll. One moment frothing at the mouth, the next a picture of serenity.

“What’s your mission?” Josh asked again.

Bernie’s eyes became slits.

“Your sheriff shot me in the knee. It’s shattered. You can’t imagine the pain.”

“Tell me your mission and I’ll help you.”

“How?”

“I have lidocaine.”

“Show me.”

“Tell me first.”

Bernie cocked his head to the side, as if considering it. Then he said, “Our mission. Interrogate townspeople. Find Warren Streng.”

“Why do you want Warren Streng?”

Bernie smiled. His missing teeth made Josh wince.

“Let me have the lidocaine.”

Josh walked back into the hall, Woof at his heels. He picked up the pillowcase he’d left by the door and found the lidocaine vial. Back in the cell room, Josh filled a syringe with two milliliters of the fluid while Bernie stared. He slid the needle across the floor to Bernie, and it came to a stop outside the bars.

In his eagerness, Bernie went for it too fast and knocked it away. He stuck his hand through the cell bars and strained for the needle.

“Please …” Bernie whimpered. “The pain …”

Josh walked over and bent down, reaching for it.

Fast as a whip Bernie had him by the wrist and pulled him up against the bars.

Woof went crazy, jumping and growling and barking. Josh pulled with all he had, but Bernie had arms like anacondas, coiled muscle grabbing him everywhere at once. The killer finally settled on a choke hold, forcing Josh’s back against the bars, locking a forearm around his neck.

“Let me out of this cage,” he whispered in Josh’s ear.

Josh struggled to get a breath in.

“Don’t … have … key …” he managed.

“That’s a shame. Hehehe. Such a shame.” Bernie’s other hand appeared before Josh’s face, inches from his nose.

It held a lighter.

“Then you buuuuuurn.”