Barrel of Monkeys Read online

  They made quick time up the road, although Omega didn’t like being enclosed by hills on either side. It made him feel even more vulnerable.

  “Keep an eye out,” he warned Echo. “Stay frosty.”

  “Roger roger,” his partner said.

  “I don’t know about you boys,” Sparky said, “but I’m sitting on a pucker factor of about fifteen on a scale of one to ten.”

  Omega laughed, but only because his own pucker factor was quickly maxing out the charts, too.

  When they reached a split in the road, Sparky had him follow the main road where it curved to the northeast under 5 again. This took them into a residential neighborhood.

  “You sure this is the right way?” Echo asked from the backseat.

  “Yeah, hang a left here.”

  Now they were heading north and skirting a couple of neighborhoods. That’s when they came up on a makeshift roadblock, a couple of cars pushed across the road.

  “Back up, now!” Echo said, repeating it through the radio to the other car.

  “Not blind,” Omega shot back, already braking hard and whipping the wheel around. “Give me a plan, Sparky.”

  “Back the way we came,” he said, looking around. “I don’t see anyone around. They might have just been trying to keep people out.”

  “Can see enough,” Omega said. “And not liking what I’m seeing.”

  “Turn here,” Sparky said as they backtracked. “We’ll cut through this way.”

  Omega ignored his racing pulse as he made the turn and followed Sparky’s directions through the neighborhood. He didn’t know if this was better or worse than their drive into the area. Thick stands of old shade trees created deeper pockets of darkness in the murky gloom as they sped past houses and driveways.

  “I don’t like this,” Echo said. “Don’t like it one damn bit.”

  “Neither do I,” Sparky said “but we’re not far from getting out of this area and back to a main road.”

  Over the radio, Kilo said, “Bogeys on our tail. Let’s light some fires, gents. I doubt anyone’s handing out speeding tickets today.”

  “Shit,” Omega muttered. He was already pushing the solar hybrid car as fast as he could and didn’t dare switch it over to diesel mode. The fuel was low, and switching modes would likely slow it down even more.

  That’s when they rounded a turn and came upon another couple of trucks blocking the road

  This time, there were people manning the blockade.

  “Shit,” Echo said.

  He glanced in the mirror and saw armed men emerging from hiding spots, approaching them from behind and the sides. “Lock and load, gentlemen,” Omega said as he slid the car to a stop. “It’s party time.”

  * * * *

  “This is Gia. Where is everyone? And does anyone see anything?” she asked over the radio. She was done with official protocols. If anyone had a problem with that, they could file a complaint on the other side of the apocalypse.

  Various units responded with their location and status, no one yet coming across the two suspect vehicles. She was still heading south on The Old Road, nearly down to the junction at 5 herself, and hadn’t spotted anyone yet.

  If the two trucks full of people were simply passing through, sure she’d let them go on their merry way after turning them around.

  They could go south.

  If they weren’t up to any good, well, there were plenty of Dumpsters in Santa Clarita in which to hid the bodies.

  Not that any of them would ever be emptied again in the near future.

  “I think they’re down near Gavin Canyon south of Lyons,” Unit 18 reported. “I hear gunfire that way.”

  “Well then I’d say that’s a good clue. What’s your twenty?”

  He replied as she got turned around and headed north again, the other vehicles following her. In a few minutes, she cut under 5 and zipped north past the old aquatic center. That place hadn’t actually seen use in over twenty years, the pools long since empty and dry, but preservationists had continually fought to keep the decrepit building standing for historical reasons.

  It was a pain in their ass because they were called out a couple of times a month to run kids out who’d been skateboarding or partying in the old pool shells.

  She slowed as she approached a barricade of two cars across the road. She didn’t want to ram them, but the SUV she drove had more than enough power to push through them. She dropped it into a lower gear and nudged the SUV forward until she felt the thump of contact. Then she surged forward, the two cars easily moving out of her way as she continued.

  Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw the other vehicles keeping up, following her through the gap she’d made.

  She rolled down her window and heard the gunfire coming from the neighborhood to their east. Circling around, she found a way into it from the north, unbuckling her seat belt even before she rounded a corner and saw the firefight.

  Adrenaline spiked in her system, her vision sharpening to a fine, tight focus as time slowed. Two old pickup trucks had blocked the street, and three guys in one car were pinned down and fighting back. Nearly a block away, another car with two guys looked like they were firing on the people from the trucks, too, laying down cover fire for the three guys in the lead car.

  She didn’t like being a person of quick judgment, especially knowing she could be wrong, but based on the looks of the five men pinned down, and the ragged ones firing upon them from behind the pickup trucks and other hiding places, she made her call.

  She got on the radio to her people. “Shut down the gunfire, ASAP. I think the two cars are the victims here, but take no chances. Someone get over on the other side of this mess.” Three patrol offers peeled out, heading around. The remaining vehicles and personnel fanned out behind her and around the scene. She switched her radio to PA mode. “This is the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Cease fire immediately and drop your weapons. We will shoot to kill if you fail to comply.”

  When one of the guys from the pickup trucks turned her way and fired, one of her deputies took him out, dropping him like a sack of wet cement.

  Now some of the people from the trucks, maybe twenty in all, from her guess, started turning to fire on them while the people in the cars focused their fire on the people from the trucks.

  Then one of the UNSUBS from the trucks shot and killed the older man from the pinned down car. One of his two buddies, a large black man, turned and immediately took out the assailant. Then it looked like he got on the radio and said something to the other car. She watched as one of the men seemed to be arguing with him for a moment before those two men jumped in and beat feet.

  She unlocked her assault rifle from where it stayed clamped to the dash on the center console and eased her door open. Grabbing her radio, she called out to her people. “Try not to shoot the two guys in the car, if you can. If they aim toward you, yes, but let’s see if we can take them without killing them.”

  The other guy from the car, a white guy, was a little shorter than the black guy and athletically muscled. But from their stance and bearing, their very auras screamed military.

  Unlike the disorganized, murderous gunmen from the pickup trucks, who were now firing on her and her people. Then the shorter guy from the car reached into the vehicle, retrieved something, and lobbed it toward one of the pickup trucks.

  Several of the gunmen scattered but not quickly enough to escape the explosion.

  Fuck! Okay, grenades definitely meant military. That the man had lobbed it toward one of the trucks, which was actually farther away than some of her people, told Gia they were on her side.

  They’d still get their asses hauled out of there in cuffs, just to be safe.

  Several of the gunmen from the pickups decided maybe they should surrender and tossed their guns down. Some didn’t, and continued firing on her and her people, even after shooting some of their own who’d surrendered.

  Nick Edison edged up next to her. “W
hat do we do now?”

  She grabbed her mic again and switched the radio to PA mode. “Last chance. Surrender now.”

  One of the gunmen charged at them, getting off a couple of shots from a handgun as he did. She ducked behind the safety of the SUV’s armor-plated door, but Nick didn’t. The kid caught one in the head and went down.

  She turned and fired, dumping at least six shots into the guy, who collapsed. She noticed the two men in the car had ducked down behind it and were watching, but no longer firing.

  Some of the gunmen were stupid enough to keep firing at them. Ten minutes later, the remaining gunmen were either dead or out of ammo, only five total left alive. They surrendered, following orders to lie facedown, hands behind their heads, as her people swooped in to arrest them.

  The two men at the car also laid down on the pavement, hands laced behind their heads.

  Kneeling, she took Nick’s pulse, even though from his injuries she knew he was dead.

  Slinging the assault rifle’s lanyard over her other shoulder, she drew her service sidearm and walked out and over to the five men now lying on the ground, her people all standing there with weapons drawn.

  She nudged the shoulder of first one with the toe of her tactical boot. “What the hell were you assholes doing?”

  “Hey, LA is gone, lady. We just wanted to get out and get what we could. Hole up somewhere.”

  “How many people you kill and rob to get here?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “How many?”

  “You haven’t read me my rights. I want a lawyer. I don’t have to tell you shi—”

  She put a single bullet through the back of his head and moved to the next gunman. “Okay, asshole, your turn. How many people you kill and rob to get here?”

  “Hey, we weren’t the only ones doing that shit, okay? Survival of the fit—”

  She put a bullet into his brain and moved to the third guy, who now cringed. “How many?”

  “I only killed one guy who was coming after me. He was a Kiter, I swear. I didn’t kill anybody else. Some of the others did but I didn’t.”

  “You rob people?”

  “Yeah, but only food. I didn’t shoot nobody innocent, okay?”

  “What do you do for a living?”

  “Maintenance at the Taimu plant until it closed. Been unemployed since then. Odd jobs here and there.”

  “Family?”

  “No.”

  “You guys robbing the people in this neighborhood?”

  “We hit several empty houses already, yeah, but we hadn’t hit any with people in them. We were trying for the ones people already left. We wanted a place to hide for now. Looking for supplies, or anyone with electricity and water.”

  She indicated for one of her guys to cuff him and stick him to check for Kite. Then she moved to contestant number four. “How many you kill? Keep in mind your friend there will be asked if you’re lying or not.”

  He hesitated just a second before answering. “I think four,” he said. “I don’t know. I wasn’t going to, but then those other assholes started and I got sucked in. A couple of Kiters, too.”

  “What’d you do for a living?”

  “Same as him. Taimu plant. I been working with a roofing crew past couple of weeks. Then the quake hit.”

  “How you two assholes know each other besides the Taimu plant?”

  “We stayed at the same flophouse. Quake flattened it.”

  “How many of the others were from there?”

  “I think four or five that you killed already.”

  “And the rest of you? How’d your merry band of fuckheads gather together?”

  “Some of us knew each other from work. Two of the guys were cousins or something. We sort of collected people. We had two other vehicles but they both died so we stole one of the trucks.”

  “Who was the leader?”

  “Al. He’s the first one you shot. He had the other truck already.”

  “None of you jokers have family? Women? Children?”

  “I don’t know if some of the guys did. I didn’t. I’m divorced. No kids.”

  She motioned for him to be cuffed and tested and moved on to the last one. He apparently was a fast learner. “I only killed three people, and not robbing them, I swear. Self-defense. It was before I was with these guys. I think they were Kiters, the way they were acting. They were all together and I was outnumbered. I even fired a warning shot and they kept coming. I was in the Army until a year ago. I’ve been going to the community college.”

  “So why’d you join these assholes then?”

  “My roommate was friends with one of them. I didn’t have anyone else.”

  She motioned for them to cuff and test him, too.

  Then she walked over to the remaining two men from the car. Four of her guys stood over them, weapons trained on them. “I’m no idiot,” she said. “You guys obviously weren’t with them. What’s your story?”

  The black guy spoke first. “We’re not criminals. We were coming through and they jumped us. Killed our friend.”

  “Yeah, I got that part.” She walked over to the car and leaned in, looking. Then she returned to them. “Where’d you get military grade armaments?”

  “We didn’t steal them.”

  “You have a way of answering my questions without answering them, you know that?”

  He didn’t reply.

  “The two who left you behind. You ordered them gone?”

  No response.

  She didn’t know what their deal was, but she was going to find out. “Cuff and stick them. Bring their shit. Put them in a separate vehicle from the other three.”

  One of her deputies walked over. “Gia, what are we supposed to do with any of them?” He waved toward the bodies of the thugs from the pickup trucks. “And how do we deal with the prisoners?”

  She motioned for him to walk with her back to her vehicle, where several of the National Guard kids were gathered around their fallen leader. She knelt next to Nick’s body and chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment to maintain her composure. There’d be plenty of time for crying later. She barely knew the kid, but now her plan to blow the 5 was farked.

  “We scan prints at the station. If the three from the trucks come back with records, we take them, one at a time, and po-clo them out behind the station so the others can’t hear.”

  “If they’re clean?”

  She shrugged. “We transport them in the back of a squad car south to the juncture and let them take their chances hitchhiking. Without their weapons, of course.”

  “What about the other two? They had fucking grenades!”

  “I don’t know yet. I suspect their situation is complicated.” She reached down and detached one of the dog tags from around Nick’s neck and slipped it into her pocket. “Bring his body back with us. We’ll bury him at the station.”

  “Bury him?”

  Gia met her deputy’s gaze. “He deserves that much. The ground is relatively soft over in the back where they ran that new water pipe system last year. Should be able to dig him at least a shallow grave.”

  “What about the others?”

  She looked around. From one house, she spotted a terrified woman peeking through the curtains. “Bring the body of the guy from the car. As for the others, leave their bodies here. Let the coyotes have them. Search them for weapons and ammo and bring those back to the station for our people. If this area hasn’t been canvassed yet, get a couple of people going door to door and warn residents to leave while they still can. They won’t get another warning to get out.”

  “Anything else?”

  She nodded and finally met his gaze. “Get another six deputies down to the junction. I’ll let you know what to do in the next hour or so. I’ll meet the rest of you guys back there at the station.” She had a thought. “Hold off fingerprinting the other two guys yet. The ones from the car. I’ll deal with them personally. Just let them chill in a holding cell to
gether until I get back. But get the three processed. And have someone monitor the video and audio feeds for the cells. See if any of them say anything. You know what? Put the two in with the drunk.”

  She wanted a chance to talk to the other two men personally. She worried if her deputies dealt with them, the men might clam up.

  Some of her people weren’t former military and didn’t understand. And she was convinced the two were military.

  She damn sure wanted to know what the hell they were doing with grenades. Being an MP, she knew she had an advantage most of her deputies didn’t.

  Fuck, it wasn’t even lunchtime yet and her plan had both flown and fallen on its face. She’d need to check in with the system to see if there were any other updates yet.

  But first, she wanted to stop by her apartment and grab all her shit that she knew she’d need. The situation was unstable and rapidly deteriorating, even faster than she’d thought it would. No telling when they’d be overwhelmed. She’d make use of her time right now.

  Because there was a good chance she might not be able to go home later, if things kept unraveling at the current rate.

  And as young Nick had just taught her, there might not be a later.

  Chapter Ten

  The Reverend Hannibal Silo, head of the Church of the Rising Sunset, stared at his image in the mirror as he adjusted his tie.

  Not in bad shape for a man of fifty-nine.

  He didn’t use the private gym at his office as frequently as he should. He’d put on a couple of extra pounds around his middle. But at five ten and one-seventy, he wasn’t exactly obese. Yes, his black hair was going grey, not just at the temples anymore, either. He refused to dye it. That would have been hubris of the worst kind. Women could get away with that shit, but not men. Men just looked like desperate chasers of youth when they did that.

  The past couple of mornings, after stopping by the office for a little while first, his assistant, Jerald, drove him to a private church-run health clinic not far from their building in downtown Albuquerque.

  The Legacy Program would be one of his crowning achievements. Storing enough of his sperm to impregnate thousands of believers meant generations of his progeny would remember his name.