Jefferson Jericho had no choice but to lift his injured hand. “And here. Jeff Kushman…with a few broken fingers, I think. Going to be a little tough for me to do anything for awhile.” He cast a quick hard glance at Dave McKane, but inwardly he was thinking this had saved him from discovery…but how might it affect what he was supposed to do?
“We want to get the most severely wounded off first,” Hernandez said. “Clear the aisle as best you can, let’s get this done.” He gave a grimace as he saw the dead Gray Men. “No…first get this garbage out of here.”
The process continued. More soldiers were on hand to help with the wounded. Gary Roosa’s body was taken off, and the injured Lila Conti and Aaron Ramsey. Billy Bancroft cursed like a drunken sailor when he was picked up, but he sailed on into the mall where Dr. Hernandez told Olivia a hospital was set up, with plenty of medical supplies. Then the female soldier who’d been in the armored car came aboard the bus, and removing her helmet, she showed a tangle of auburn-colored hair, like the last of the leaves to catch flame in autumn. She was about thirty-five and had a haggard but strong-jawed face with high cheekbones and dark blue eyes. Her uniform bore the name Cpt. Walsh.
Ethan saw that she was standing about three feet from the Gorgon, who blandly stared at her and blinked his eyes a few times. Ethan felt the power in the creature, but no immediate threat. Tell Dave or not? he asked himself. The Gorgon then turned his head slightly to stare at Ethan, and the boy who realized he was something more than a boy thought he would be quiet for now, and let this play out as it would. He could defend his friends if he had to…that was enough to know for now.
“I’m Captain Ellen Walsh,” said the soldier. “I’m second-in-
command here. Beautiful place to hole up for a year or two, if you like malls.” There was no hint of a smile. “Or if you like safety. Relative safety,” she amended, with a quick glance at Dave. “We’ve got about three hundred civilians here and forty-two soldiers. First thing: everybody on this bus gives up their firearm when they hit the pavement. It’ll be numbered and tagged and it’ll go into a plastic bin. You can pick it up when we say so. Second thing: everybody goes to an area where you strip down and you’re inspected. We don’t worry much about privacy here. Everybody’s going to walk single-file to the entrance, and you’ll be escorted by soldiers with guns who know how to use them real well. Where’d you come from?” The question was directed at Dave.
“Fort Collins.”
“From the frying pan into the fire. We’ve got three infrared heat sensor cameras up on towers on the roof. We picked you up about a mile out. You people are lucky, Dave. Sometimes we don’t get there quick enough. Okay, let’s move.”
Ratcoff and Vope were first and second off the bus. “You!” The captain, standing on the pavement, reached out to put a hand against Vope’s chest. “Open the backpack and let’s see what you’ve got.”
Ratcoff stopped. He almost said Nothin’ special in there but he figured that would only antagonize the woman. Vope hesitated only a few seconds. He removed the backpack and opened it, showing Captain Walsh three dirty shirts and two pairs of jeans. She patted the backpack’s sides, feeling for a firearm this Silent Sam might be trying to sneak past, and found nothing. “Okay,” she said, “pass on.” Unconsciously, she wiped her hand on her fatigues.
Ethan was following Hannah out and wondered what was going to happen when the Gorgon was stripped down. He decided to stay away from Jeff Kushman, whose index and second finger of the right hand were discolored and swollen; he didn’t want to be touched by the man, he thought there was a danger in that, but exactly what it was he did not know. The blue sphere was keeping it from him. It was powerful energy he could not crack…or, maybe, he wasn’t strong enough yet to crack.
“Ethan?” Dave said when they were off the bus and he was giving up his Uzi to a couple of soldiers at a folding table to number, tag and then put into the plastic bin. “Hold up a minute. Captain, can I speak to you?”
“Speak.”
“Where we can have some privacy.”
“I said we don’t worry much about that here.”
Dave had one hand on Ethan’s shoulder. He took the receipt tag that was given to him, and he looked into Ellen Walsh’s eyes and said, “It’s important. Something you’ll want to know before we get inside.”
She looked from Dave to the boy and back again. Her face was hard and her eyes had seen sights that had left burn scars on her brain. She figured she’d better listen. “Over here,” she said, and motioned them both a few yards to the side.
“When this boy is stripped down,” Dave began, “you’re going to find something real different about him.” He caught sight of JayDee, limping on his rebar cane toward the entrance, and he called, “John! Come over here, will you? Olivia? You too, please.”
“What are we having?” Walsh asked. “A parking lot party?”
“Dr. Douglas can explain some things to you, maybe better than I can.” He waited for JayDee and Olivia to join them, and then he said, “You want to lift your shirt and show her, Ethan?”
“I guess,” Ethan answered, though he wasn’t too thrilled about it, and he realized if he was touched he would display the silver element, but he did it anyway.
“What the hell is that…?” The captain’s flashlight came on, directed at the area just above Ethan’s heart.
“Christ!” Dave eyes had widened. “I wanted you to see the bruises, but that’s new!”
“What is it?” Alarmed, Ethan looked down at the area touched by the captain’s light.
There were what appeared to be upraised silver tattoos above his heart. The tattoos were not large, but they stood out clearly against the black bruise.
There were four of them, and they read: GUAR.
JayDee dared to look closer. “Ethan, can I touch those?”
“Yes sir.” The same question Nikki had asked. “Go ahead.”
The doctor traced his finger over the symbols. They became slightly brighter with his touch. Ethan felt no pain, no sensation at all. A fifth symbol seemed to be coming up, a faint bit of silver rising from a dark pool, but it was impossible yet to make out its shape.
“We have a lot to tell you about this young man,” Olivia said. She offered him a faint smile and then gave it also to the captain. “Our hero,” she added.
Ethan dropped his shirt. He felt more like a freak than a hero. Now he could tell Nikki that he had tattoos too…but how they’d been delivered to him, he had no idea.
“Okay,” the captain said. And repeated it: “Okay.” She sounded shaken, which she was. “Let’s go see the doc. I’ll bring Major Fleming, and we’ll hear the story. I’ve seen a lot of freakies out here, but this one…okay.” She moved her flashlight to peer into Ethan’s eyes. She held his gaze for a few seconds, the flashlight roaming over his face, and then she switched it off. “Gotta be careful, folks,” she decided. “Juggy!” she called to one of the soldiers. “Come over here and bring your rifle. On the double!”
Dave nodded. He would’ve done the same. He gave a pat to Ethan’s back.
Under guard, Ethan walked across the parking lot with his companions. My protectors, he thought. Or was he the one protecting them? A light rain began to fall, oily to the skin. In the distance, there was a red flash: a streak of light, going somewhere. At the center of his friends, Captain Walsh and the guards, Ethan entered the lit-up section of the mall into a crowd of curious onlookers—survivors all, thin and weary from the constant war—and knew now he was on a journey into the unknown that he must at all cost complete.