Next, he unlocked several doors leading outside throughout the building. Including the roof. He left the main entrance and the side door they used locked.
The weapons Jack and Joe Carter had brought up lay conveniently on a large cart. Cole noticed several boxes of bullets, magazine refills and some grenades. He quickly opened the bullets and tossed them down to the floor below where they scattered like an exposed nest of roaches. Next, he stashed the grenades carefully inside his handbag, then pushed the cart to the stairway leading down to the lower level, and gave it a hearty shove.
That would slow them a bit.
This was when Jared appeared for the second time. The first time Cole wasn’t ready, so he remained hidden. Now, however, he saw the benefit of having the boy nearby. And saw the benefit of getting him riled up.
After all, Cole needed the crazies to show up.
* * *
Jared had never seen him before, but when he saw the man approach the observatory’s main entrance, he just knew. It was the ‘agent in black’ he’d heard the others talk about.
He pressed his face against the glass. Where the hell was Joe and Carla? The man’s cold smile made Jared’s skin crawl. He did something to them. To Anna!
“Motherfucker!” shouted Jared. He slammed the butt of his gun with renewed vigor, cracking one of the reinforced window panes.
Cole stood opposite Jared and chuckled. “Great job, kid. You’re making this easier for me by the minute. Keep it up.”
Jared reached through the broken pane to unlock the door. Then he remembered the deadbolt.
“You son of a bitch!” Jared pulled his arm back out—too quickly. A thick shard of glass cut deeply into his forearm. He barely noticed. “Where’s Anna? What are you doing?” He pounded on the door again, smearing blood from his wound.
“Even better,” Cole said, motioning to the wounded arm. “They can smell that, too, you know?”
Jared drew his gun. The Agent in Black remained calm. “If you hurt me, you’ll never see your Anna alive again.” It wasn’t necessarily true, but Jared couldn’t take that chance. He was terrified. The agent smiled again and opened the sack he carried. Jared watched as Cole removed a smoke alarm and set it at the foot of the door. He triggered the alarm’s ear-splitting scream.
* * *
Cole smiled, but realized he had to move quickly. The side doors, after all, were open. Wouldn’t take a smart kid long to figure that out.
He sprinted back to his prisoners. There, he covered Anna’s head and arms with a pillowcase he had brought with him. Anna fought him, but again, he was stronger. For the time being, the girl remained in the in-between phase of growing strength and gaining intelligence. A phase that didn’t last very long before the real nightmare set in.
He retrieved another smoke alarm from his bag of tricks. He approached Joe Carter. “When they get here—if they get here—tell them that if they want to see Anna again they’re going to have to come for her.”
“Where?” Joe asked, turning his eyes toward his adversary.
“We’ll be at the ball park,” Cole said. “Dodger Stadium.”
He needed space to implement his bigger plan, a plan that just might save the damned human race after all. Or not. He didn’t know. But, at least it could slow down the crazies in Los Angeles. And he also got to blow something up. Something damned big. And the best part was his agency had authority to use any force necessary to stop an outbreak such as this.
And Cole just happened to have the biggest “force” of them all. A thermonuclear warhead lay hidden among his prized possessions.
What a way to go, he thought, and I’m bringing all these fuckers with me. But not here. No. Here is not the place. I need somewhere big, somewhere to pack all the crazies in good and tight.
He looked again at Joe Carter. “We’re going to play a little game. The stadium’s a mighty big place. We’ll see if you can find us in time. And you’ll try if you care enough about this little girl. Or whatever the hell she is now.”
He didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he set the next smoke alarm off.
Holding Anna by the pillowcase, Cole next freed Carla from the door. No, she had not been part of his original plan. But he figured having a little fun before the Big Bang might be a good thing. And Carla looked like a lot of fun.
With her hands still bound behind her back he gave her a shove. “You’re coming with us, too. I could use some company.”
The trio descended down the stairs to the parking garage below, while the alarms blared.
Chapter Fifteen
The alarm was loud enough to wake the dead. Which is exactly what it did. Jack watched them stumble out from the surrounding trees. Panicked, he and Mike sprinted to reach the door.
Jared’s arm was bleeding heavily, and Jack was dismayed to see the broken window from which the piercing sound erupted. Obviously, Jared had broken the window, cutting himself badly in the process.
“He’s got her!” Jared shouted in anguish.
Jack didn’t have to ask who. Anna, of course. The agent in black was evening the score with Mike, Joe, and Jack.
He’s got my baby girl! thought Jack.
“Jack... behind us,” advised Mike.
Dozens of the undead, if not closer to a hundred.
Relying on the first instinctive thing that came to mind, Jack kicked in the last of the window. Then he ushered Jared and Mike inside. Doing their best to ignore the alarms, he and Mike shoved a heavy desk against the broken window. Mostly covered, it would hold the zombies back for a while.
“Jack, in here!” shouted Mike, after Jack had destroyed the last of the alarms with his boot heels.
Mike had run off to the adjoining Great Hallway. Expecting the worst, Jack found his brother bound and gagged.
“He took them, Jack! The fucking bastard took them, both!”
“Where? Where did he take them, Joe?” asked Jack, his heart feeling like it might come up through his throat.
“Downstairs... the parking garage. They’re going to Dodger Stadium.”
That’s all Jack heard before running for the stairs and flying down them. But he was too late. The SUV was gone, along with his infected daughter and the woman who had stolen his heart.
It was turning into one hell of a shitty day.
* * *
Jack returned to the main hallway. His head was swirling. But at least Joe was working off a similar blow to the head as Mike had suffered.
“They’re gone,” he announced. “But before we go after them, we’ll need a plan. First things first. Let’s take care of that cut, Jared.”