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STRATAGEM Chapter 28

BLAKE STRUCK AN ADJACENT PARKED CAR as he pulled out of the carport. He spun the steering wheel, let out a pained grunt.

That was when Sabine saw the blood. “You’ve been hit!”

“It just grazed me,” Blake said and raced out of the parking lot, wheels screeching.

The Camry lurched, throwing her shoulder into the passenger side window.

Another set of gunshots rang out behind them.

A loud metallic pop rapped against the trunk.

Sabine winced and ducked.

Once Blake turned the car onto the open street, he sped off pushing the speedometer past 60 MPH. “Are they following us?”

Sabine looked back.

Nothing but the empty street, overhead lamps casting an amber mist over the entire area. “I don’t see anyone. We’ve got a  decent lead.”

Blake’s window opened. “Pass me my laptop bag?”

 

“What?” She reached over the put its carrying strap in his free hand, which also held his phone.

Without hesitation, he took it and tossed it and the phone out the window.

“Wait—what are you doing?” Sabine said, turning her head to watch the bag and phone fall flat on the asphalt like roadkill.

He held out his hand. “Phone, electronics?”

She shook her head. “I wasn't expecting a prison break.”

“Good. Can’t have anything electronic on us. They’ll use it to track us.”

“I can’t believe they’d shoot at us—they’re just base security.”

“Not necessarily.”

Sabine gave him an incredulous look. “Them too?”

“We have to assume they’re like Lucy and Jon.”

“At the very least, they’re under their orders.” Blake turned away from the freeway ramp and drove toward a residential neighborhood.

Sabine pointed back. “You missed the freeway entrance.”

The post STRATAGEM Chapter 28 first appeared on JOSHUA GRAHAM.

STRATAGEM Chapter 27

TWO DAYS EARLIER

HOW LONG HAD IT BEEN? Connor sat dazed on the edge of his cot. The cell in which he’d been detained felt antisceptic—no discernible scents, not a hint of dust or grim, just white wall, smooth surfaces and white LED lights above him. Nothing remarkable. So why did his head ache as though gripped in a vice, the hollow sound of his breathing bouncing inside his ears?

A painful mental fog.

Somewhere between a dream and a hangover.

Thoughts, memories…of speaking to people over Zoom—jetsam and flotsam floating about his torpedoed mind. He blinked, swallowed, nearly choked on the dry itch.

An empty glass stood on the small table. Felt like days since he’d had anything to drink.

At the edge of his cot…the laptop.

The one from the conference call dreams…or memories?

Memories, yes!

So many conference calls, faint images of which fought their way to the forefront.

Screens with increasing numbers of participants: ICOMM brass, the Secretary of Defense, President Mercer?

A sharp pain pierced Connor's eyes directly into the center of his skull.

He winced.

Reached for the laptop.

Another agonizing internal blow to the head stopped him.

Gasping, he steadied himself and looked away from the laptop. Somewhere in the recesses of his brain, he understood what was happening. He just couldn’t articulate it.

More images burrowed through the razor wire of his mind. But each time they came close to materializing that same cranial assault forced them away.

“Dammit!”

The pain backed off, as though startled.

Made no difference, no one around to hear him shout. But it did feel good to get aggressive and fight whatever it was that didn’t want him to remember.

The post STRATAGEM Chapter 27 first appeared on JOSHUA GRAHAM.

STRATAGEM Chapter 26

DEREK’S BACK SLAMMED AGAINST THE SEAT. The Accord made a startling leap when Mom downshifted and the tachometer’s needle reached the red zone. Instantly, a flash of high beams flooded through the rear window.

He looked back.

Within the cabin of the car chasing the two people from back at the gas station sat, their features obscured by the dark of night except for the intermittent flicker of blue light from their eyes.

Who are these people? ‘What’ they were was the more appropriate question, but no answer would make sense.

“Mom?”

“Hold on,” she kept her eyes on the road.

Paige sat up, rubbed her eyes with one hand while cradling Hulk with the other. “Huh?”

“It’s all right, sweetie,” Mom said. “Make sure you’ve got your seatbelt on.”

“Okay.”

The engine of the car behind them roared as it raced right up to the Accord’s rear bumpers.

Mom swung the Accord abruptly to the left.

“Holy—!” Derek nearly choked on his breath.

The black car sped ahead.

Before Derek realized what had happened, Mom had already driven the Accord at full speed back into the lane behind the black car.

She kicked the gas pedal, thrusting the Accord on a diagonal collision course with the black car’s tail.

The post STRATAGEM Chapter 26 first appeared on JOSHUA GRAHAM.

STRATAGEM Chapter 25

LYNDA STORM NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD ACTUALLY COME. But with everything Roger had prepared her for, what was happening with Derek must be the kind of situation her late husband had anticipated.

Roger had concealed his life and career as a covert operative from the children and the rest of the civilian and much of the intelligence world. Perhaps had Sabine suspected, but Derek? Well, he had always been trusting with his dad and most likely had no clue.

It had been more difficult for Lynda to conceal her knowledge and training from the kids, though. Maintaining the guise of a highly educated artist who’d given it all up for the domestic life, while secretly learning how to handle firearms, emergency protocols, and contingencies such as her husband’s death (sudden or otherwise) had been harder than anyone (including Roger) could appreciate.

The fuel pump gurgled as she walked toward the Quick Stop’s mini-mart, reminiscent of an old country store. Hopefully, she’d be able to buy some supplies there before going off the grid.

She opened the screen door and it protested with a rusty groan. Fighting the corroded hinges, she pulled it fully opened and glanced back at the car where Derek remained with Paige and Hulk, the entire setting evoking scenes from a late-night horror movie. The flickering fluorescent lights above did little to counteract that impression. Situated in the middle of nowhere on a tiny rural road to the same, it was a wonder this alleged gas station was even open for business.

“Hey!” a gruff voice inside the store said. “Come in or get out. You’re lettin’ the flies out.”

STRATAGEM Chapter 24

HOLDING HER BREATH, Sabine struggled to hold completely still. With the guard below standing alert, the last thing she needed was for him to look up and find her sneaking out the bathroom window behind her apartment.
This is ridiculous!
But the guy wasn’t moving. Any moment now, he’d discern the direction of the noise.
A glance back to the open window revealed a Yankee candle sitting by the sill. She reached up and grabbed it with one hand. Then with all the stealth she could muster, Sabine threw it over to the courtyard’s far end.
It clattered onto the ground somewhere in the shadows.
The guard double-timed over.
Sabine slid down the sheet as quickly as she could, grabbing each knot on the way down to steady her descent. As soon as she got to the end, she leaped down, absorbed the impact by bending her knees before her feet hit, and sprung back up. As light-footed as she could, she ducked around the corner and rushed down to the laundry room.
The guard didn’t seem to notice.
Good.
Before she even opened the door, Blake showed up, a satchel slung over his shoulder. His eyes were sunken, his skin dry and pale. Before Sabine could say a word, he put a finger up against his lips and motioned for her to follow him away from the laundry room. He wanted to go elsewhere. But why? Was there a more secure location to meet?
Blake led her through the concrete hallway to a short flight of steps down to a basement storage room. He opened the door, reached in and flipped a light switch on, then went inside.
“Come on,” he whispered.
Sabine followed.
He shut the door and locked it. Then he sat at a dusty old dining room set that someone had put there in storage. From the satchel, he pulled out an iPad and set it down on the table.
“What happened to the laundry room?” Sabine said.

STRATAGEM Chapter 23

HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS could she endure? It had been two days since she spoke with Blake, and one entire day of not speaking or texting with anyone at all. Sabine’s margin of sanity wore thinner with each passing moment.
Endless hours of Netflix binging, surfing the web and watching the news did absolutely nothing for the mounting tension and monotony. Mindlessly clicking to the next episode of “The Good Place”, she picked up her phone to send Blake a text.
Come on, it’s already been an entire day of radio silence.
But Blake had been clear. With all the suspicious things going on around them, she had to assume they were all being surveilled. They had to act “normal”, whatever that looked like under a post-return-from-the-dead quarantine.
And her one reasonable text to Mom and Derek would have to suffice for now. Orders from the ICOMM brass were not flexible. Breaching those protocols would only put her further under scrutiny.

STRATAGEM Chapter 22

BLURRED VISION, nausea, extreme fatigue…if Connor Walken ever experienced a hangover like this, he couldn’t remember. Indistinct voices murmured in the background somewhere in the vicinity of the fuzzy circle of light before him. Was it a dream? Was he even awake?
He blinked several times, trying to get his eyesight to cooperate. Only after squeezing them shut for several seconds did things finally start to come into focus.
“…you finally awake?” a callous-sounding male voice said.
“What?”
“Can you sit up?”
Which way was up? Was he lying down? The moment he tried to sit up, the entire world started to swing around. He had to shut his eyes again just to keep from seeing it. He’d never experienced vertigo before but from what he’d read, this had to be it.
“Whoa.” He put his hand down to steady himself. “Spinning.”
Someone grabbed his arm.
A quick jab—felt like a needle—pricked his shoulder.
Within seconds, the spinning stopped.
“Where…?”
“Mr. Walken,” the voice said. “You need to answer a few questions.”

STRATAGEM Chapter 21

THE FACETIME RINGTONE STARTLED HER. It wasn’t that Sabine thought no one would contact her, despite the quarantine rules to keep outside contact restricted to essential calls. It was that she had been dreading any calls, period.
She glanced over to her phone on the end table.
Connor’s name showed on the screen.
“Take nothing for granted,” Blake had said. “And don’t automatically trust anyone, not even me.”
Act normal.
Don’t let on that you suspect anything.
Sabine drew a deep breath, picked up the phone, and answered.

STRATAGEM Chapter 20

“WE’VE GOT TO GO,” Derek said to Paige. As soon as Mom’s friend drove away, he went back to the living room.
“It’s all right, Derek,” Mom said, “That was just—"
“Is Dad’s car still in the garage?”
“It’s not registered. Derek, what’s going on?”
"There’s something about your friend Maggie. Something in her eyes I think I saw back in New York with all the bizarre events. Can’t explain right now, please just trust me. Is there room to park the Ford I drove here in the third garage space?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, can you open it so I can park it inside?”
“Why?”
“I’m pretty sure all the toll both cameras and facial recognition software will have connected me to that car. We have to keep it out of sight.”
“Paige,” Mom said, already heading for the garage, “You stay here with Hulk. I’ll be right back, okay?”
She nodded and sat on the couch.
“Hurry,” Derek said as he and Mom both went their respective ways. He stepped outside and looked around to make sure no one was watching. The garage door went up just as he got into the Fusion and powered it up.

STRATAGEM Chapter 19

'TERRORIST' WAS ONLY THE FIRST WORD in the CNN list of suspected crimes under Derek’s name on the television. He blinked in disbelief as the scrolling marquis spewed out the terms biological agent, murder, Federal Authorities, abduction...
“Derek,” Mom said, her jaw fallen open. “That’s not your driver’s license on TV, is it?”
“It is. But I swear, I didn’t do anything like that.”
Next came the picture of the kidnapping victim.
“That’s me!” Paige said, pointing to a photo provided by the NYPD. “I’m on TV!”
Everything Mom and Paige said from that point faded into the background as he tried his best to take in what the reporter said about him. They were connecting him to the plane crash, the deaths and infection of hundreds in Manhattan by use of a biological agent, the abduction of Paige, and the murder of police officers and hospital staff.
“…even listening to me, Derek?” Mom said, her voice uncharacteristically intense.
“What? Oh, sorry. I just—I can’t believe what they’re accusing me of.”
“How could any of that be possible?” She said, trying to keep Paige busy with the puzzle they were working on by handing her another piece and pointing to the place it belonged.
“I wish I knew why they’re blaming me. All I know is that I woke up, a plane crashed in Central Park, I found Paige barely alive and brought her to the hospital where everyone was dead—”
“Dead? Everyone?”