Tracking Blood: Episode 6
An apocalyptic serial
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Will got the call while he was on his daily run. It had been an odd morning. Everyone he’d run into seemed on edge, but he wasn’t sure why, like the tiniest push would tip them over.
“Hey, Donegan,” he answered the phone, breathing heavily.
“Red Flu’s in Denver,” Donegan said.
“Good morning to you, too.”
“Fuck the pleasantries. Did you hear what I just said? I was right about this thing coming to your doorstep.”
Will took a deep breath. People up and down the block were pulling out of their driveways and heading to work on a busy Monday morning. Tanya had left earlier than normal herself. “Denver is a long way from D.C.,” he said.
“China’s a long way from America, but that didn’t stop shit, did it?”
“Is that really what you’re calling for?”
“No. Good work on Weaver,” Donegan changed the subject.
“Thanks. I’ll stop by in a little while for payment.”
Donegan paused a second. “Will, my boy, I uh … I got something for you. It’s a right big job, but-”
“I’ll take it.”
“Well, hold on a second there ...” Doubt laced his voice, something Will didn’t think the man was capable of feeling.
“I don’t care if it’s tough, Donegan, I want it.”
“It’s not that, it’s … well, the thing is, I bought the job from Mikey over at Crown when I heard about it, but now that I say it, I’m thinking it’s not such a good idea.”
“Mafia?”
“No, no. Nothing like that.”
A cold feeling seized Will’s gut. “Who is it?” he asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer.
“It’s him,” Donegan said. “Little Stanley.”
Will sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but his mind was a thousand miles away.
He thought a lot about his little brother, even if he didn’t talk about him much. He’d tried so hard to keep Stan on the straight-and-narrow, but Stan acted like he was allergic to it. Bringing Stan to hockey practice every chance he could. Teaching him how to box. As a last-ditch effort, he bought the kid a full-sized drum set, figuring he could at least become a musician and channel his anger into something constructive.
Nothing worked. The first time Stanley got arrested, he was only thirteen- the same age Ryan was now.
“I have to think about this,” Will had said to Donegan on the phone.
“An hour is all I can give you, boyo. My cousin’s itching to take the job.”
“I understand,” Will said.
He’d never been in this situation before. Donegan had known about Stanley since the first day he and Will met. He ran a background check on all the guys he employed and, to Will’s embarrassment, his brother was one of the first things that came back. Luckily, their line of work accustomed them to dealing in gray areas, and Will had assured him that his brother’s issues were not his own.
But this. Going after Stanley, taking him in. It never would have flown if he’d been a police officer, too much conflict of interest. But Bond Enforcement didn’t go by those rules.
It should have been simple. It was either take the job or don’t take the job. Get the paycheck or don’t get the paycheck. But he needed someone else’s opinion before he answered, someone who mattered and who could see it from another angle.
“Damn traffic,” he grumbled to himself.
At the campaign headquarters of Steve Jensen, there was a buzz in the air. Election season was in full-swing, and the entire team was energized by how well he’d been doing in the polls. Jensen was a small-time State Senator looking for a shot at the big leagues, but everyone who worked at the campaign headquarters believed in him. They believed in the difference he could make in the lives of the regular people.
Tanya was one of his believers. She’d followed his career in the State Senate for three years before approaching him. They’d talked for close to four hours on everything from civil rights to football before she asked him if he ever considered running for U.S. Senate.
His response had been, “With you on my side, maybe.”
Bonnie came over to Tanya’s desk with a wide-eyed, panicked grin on her face. “What’s wrong with you?” Tanya asked.
“Did you hear?”
“What, is there cake?”
Bonnie shook her head. “Vanessa Newton is here.”
Tanya was taken aback. “As in the Secretary of State?”
Bonnie nodded vigorously. “The rumor is she’s supporting our campaign.”
Tanya jumped to her feet. “Holy shit, Bonnie.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t Sam tell me?”
“I don’t think even he knew.”
Tanya smiled. “It’s probably Sam’s work with the Human Rights Campaign that did it. She’s a powerful advocate of theirs.” Her mind reeled at the possibility. Even so, why hadn’t Sam told her about this? He told her everything, and this was huge for them. Beyond huge.
Just then, the Senator’s door swung open, giving both women a peek at Vanessa Newton. She was a fierce-looking woman, whose very demeanor commanded respect. “She’s amazing,” Tanya said. “She should be the one running for president next year.”
“I wish. This world isn’t ready for a woman in the Oval Office.”
“Then the world needs to change,” Tanya replied.
Someone had the ceiling-mounted TV a little too loud. Channel Two news was showing footage of some kind of attack that had taken place in Denver. The city was on lockdown, with reporters standing outside Denver International Airport talking about a connection to the Red Flu that had dominated the airwaves in the last few months. A few people crowded under the TV, and Tanya was about to shoo them off when something caught her eye.
A man stepped through the front door, seeming a bit lost. It took a few seconds for Tanya’s brain to click and recognize the face she knew so well.
“Will?” He looked over at her and half-smiled, making his way over. She met him halfway. “Is everything alright? Is it Ryan?”
He kissed her on the cheek. “He’s fine. I need to talk to you about something.” He glanced at Bonnie and the others. “In private.” His voice sounded strange. She rarely saw him like this, at least not in public. It worried her.
“Sure, of course.” They went into one of the small offices and closed the door. “Of all the days you decide to visit me, you show up on the day the Secretary of State drops by,” she said.
“Should I leave?”
“No, don’t worry about it. Talk to me.”
He told her about his conversation with Donegan. About Stanley. About the paycheck they needed so badly. She knew every detail about Will’s troublesome younger brother, how Will resented him yet felt somehow responsible for how he’d turned out. At the end, he looked at her with those eyes she knew so well and said, “So, what do you think?”
“I think it’s your decision.”
“I know that.”
“So why are you asking me?”
He sighed. “Because I want to know what you would do.”
“Who am I, Jesus?” She took his hands in hers. “I would do what I always do- trust your judgment.” Will’s features softened, but he still looked conflicted. “If you really want to know my opinion, I’ll give it to you. You know I’m always happy to put my two cents in. But to be honest, I think you already made your decision.”
“Which is?”
She tilted her head at him. Without another word, he took out his phone and dialed Donegan’s number.
“It’s Will,” he said. “I’ll do it.” He talked to Donegan briefly, then hung up. “He thinks Stan skipped town. I might have to leave D.C. for a few days.”
“I know what the job entails.”
“Thank you.”
She smiled. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before they think you stopped by for a quickie.”
They left the small office and rejoined the main room, where even more people crowded around the TV. Sam’s door was closed now. Maybe the conversation had steered a little more private.
“I just wish you didn’t have to leave with all this crazy stuff going on,” Tanya said, motioning to the TV.
“What crazy stuff?”
“Will. I know you don’t like watching the news, but sometimes you come across a little dense.” They watched some of the report. A female reporter explained that an unknown passenger had infected a Homeland Security Officer, who had been taken to the hospital. Details were hazy, but it appeared to be some kind of attack. At the bottom of the screen, a report of a second suspected case of Red Flu crawled by. “I really hope this stuff doesn’t like to travel,” Tanya said.
“Donegan was going on about this, too. Denver is how many hundreds of miles away?”
She did some quick math. “A lot.”
“With the amount of containment they’re throwing at this thing, there’s no way it can reach us here.”
“You know, there’s a thin line between being an optimist and just plain ignorant.”
“Hey. You said you trust my judgment.”
“I also called you dense.”
He kissed her on the cheek. “Like the mighty oak.”
Tune in next week for the next episode. For more Bleeders action check out the two books on Amazon, with the third on its way.