*****
Police parked beside the concrete barriers placed around the breezeway of the pay-by-week motel. Isolation tents sealed the area from curious onlookers. A few people in jumpsuits, face masks, and gloves stood along the sidewalk. Empty gurneys waited beside large white vans.
Colonel Harrington nodded at the circus boiling in the parking lot. “The CDC sealed off the area, any biologicals outside the shield have been sterilized.
“I thought we established this isn’t a pathogen.”
“No, we simply established that you weren’t contaminated.” The colonel stopped at the patrol cars blocking people from getting too close. He rolled down his window and showed his ID. The cops stepped aside. The driver found an open spot next to one of the vans. Reese climbed out. He shivered and exhaled a breath of steam. It trickled away on a cold kiss of air. A few steps away from the shadow of the SUV warmth tangled with the weave of Reese’s dark sweater.
One of the police officers walked over and offered his hand to Colonel Harrington.
He shook it. “You interview those people?”
“Yes, sir.” The officer nodded once.
“I want copies of everything.”
A cluster of army personnel divided the space between the colonel and Reese. When they were gone, more people filled the gap. Reese made his way over to the tents.
The plastic sides rippled with the wind. A camera flashed somewhere in the crowd. More people held up cellphones, angling them in an obvious attempt to record the action.
“Excuse me.” A man in an environmental suit glared at Reese. He stepped out his way, almost backing into a woman kneeling beside a yellow cone. Black stained the end of the Q-Tip she held. The color so dark it made the asphalt appear gray.
“Sorry.” Reese moved around her.
Chips of glass edged another group of cones beside a car. Black and red painted the remains of the windshield and traced the holes punched into the hood. Splatters drew a path in the direction of the isolation tents.
Light escaped a gap. People moved past the opening. A pool of red surrounded a clump of flesh. Reese leaned to the left. A sheet of plastic partially covered the severed head of an Anubis.
The only way a body remained in Phase after death was if the ichor didn’t purge. If it didn’t purge, it meant anything human had been lost.
Reese needed to find the colonel. He walked past the bumper of the car, back in the direction of the SUV.
“You.” A hand landed on Reese’s shoulder. The cop couldn’t have been far past twenty and practically preened in his uniform. “Get back behind the line.”
“My name is Dr. Reese Dante, I’m with—”
“I don’t give a fuck who you’re with, get behind that barrier, or I’ll have you arrested.”
Where was the colonel? Another government vehicle pulled in. Cops worked to push back civilians. A TV van entered the parking lot.
The cop shoved Reese by his shoulder. “Did you hear me?”
Reese held up his hands. “Okay, okay, I’m going.” He crouched and moved under the sawhorse-style barrier with its white and orange stripes. An elbow caught him in the ribs, and another body shoved him deeper into the mix of onlookers.
Reese didn’t fight the tide and wound up on the outskirts of the thickening crowd. Still no sign of the colonel, but there wasn’t much of anything Reese could see past the mess of people in front of him.
The army men over by the military vehicles blocking off part of the parking lot might listen to him. He turned.
A thin dark-haired guy stood at the far corner of the motel building. There was a bruise on his cheek, and he watched the crowd with a pinched expression.
Reese headed over. He was halfway there when the man lifted his gaze and darted around the corner. Reese picked up a jog.
The guy had one foot through an open door of a room by the time Reese made it to the other side. “Hey.”
He glanced over his shoulder.
“Wait. I just want to—”