Alpha

Chapter Fifteen

Compared to a nuclear device, even a pocket nuke, a dirty bomb is still heavy, and this means Gabriel Fuller is lugging serious weight into the heart of WilsonVille. He’s on coms from the command post, listening to the updates from Hendar, and when the call comes that one of his teams has met the deputy director of park safety, Jonathan Bell, with a group of three kids and one Friend, he’s almost relieved.

“Pick him up,” he tells Hendar. It’s not because the man’s management, though that may prove useful. It’s not because, apparently, Jonathan Bell killed Stripe with his bare hands and then got out of the building without them noticing, though that marks him as far more dangerous than Gabriel had any reason to believe WilsonVille security might be. It’s not even because Gabriel is angry at Jonathan Bell for bringing Dana into the park today, something he knows is irrational yet feels nonetheless.

It’s none of those things, and all of them, and the feeling he had when looking down at Stripe’s corpse. This is going to be trouble. This man, he’s going to make things hard.

When he hears the gunshots, then, he knows. As the echo fades in the park, before Hendar is squawking into his radio, Gabriel Fuller knows. He was right.

“Fuck!” Hendar says. “Fuck, that guy, he and another one, they just took down Bravo.”

“Where are they now?”

“They’re splitting up, he and another guy, some black guy, they’re heading west, north of the river. The rest of them are running for the gate, ten of them. I can pull from Charlie to intercept.”

“How many are we holding?”

“Alpha and Charlie have reported. Holding twenty-seven.”

“Negative.”

“Say again?”

“Negative. Charlie proceeds as ordered, let the ones heading for the gate go.” Gabriel hops down from the platform beside the parked roller-coaster cars. The shots came from the east, and where he’s standing, he can just catch a glimpse of the fleeing hostages before they vanish from sight. He turns northward, but rides and buildings are blocking his view, and even if they weren’t, the foliage bordering the Timeless River would prevent him from seeing anything more. He moves to the control booth for the ride. “Track the other two, I want to know where they go. Are they leaving?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“Track them. Keep me posted.”

“On it.”

Gabriel stows his radio, stares down at the control panel for the coaster. It’s idiotproof, a battery of meters and monitors reading the status of each train of cars, their speed and positions, a handful of switches and one lever to control release and pace and movement. One large red button, marked for emergency stop. He reaches for the lever, ready to release the first train, then pauses, goes for his phone instead.

The Uzbek is answering before the first ring has sounded. “Status?”

“We have a problem,” Gabriel says. “We have hostiles in the park, two of them.”

“Do you indeed?”

Something in the Uzbek’s tone makes Gabriel hesitate. “They just took down Bravo element.”

“You’ve placed the device?”

“I’m about to run it up.”

“How many hostages are you holding?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Break them up into smaller groups. Pick one, put a bullet in his head, and dump the body outside.”

“We separate the groups, I’ll have to break up the elements.”

“I am fully aware of what it means. Give the order, and then take who you need and solve your other problem.”

Gabriel doesn’t speak. Solving his other problem-he understands that, he has no problem with that. There’s no choice, and this Jonathan Bell and whoever is with him, they’ve got to be stopped before they can do more damage to the operation. But shooting a hostage, he can’t help it, he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want to do it.

“Matias? Is there a problem?”

“The hostages, they’re mostly women and children.”

“That is not a problem. That is a benefit.”

The Uzbek hangs up.