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He veered toward the shoulder. Rumble strips shook the car.
“Goddamn it. Goddam….” Napkin, he had to have a napkin. Empty cupholder, blank dash, nothing in the passenger seat.
There was always a paper towel in the damn thing because he ate breakfast on his way to work.
But now he worked at home, and yesterday he’d cleaned out the goddamn car.
Reese bit back another curse.
The phone rang.
He startled, and it flipped into his lap. Blood almost blocked out the light of the screen. He retrieved the phone and answered.
“Where are you?” Harrington.
“In my car on Bedalem road. There was an Anubis. It came through my window….” Reese barely held back the rest.I sliced its head off with a meat cleaver. But before that, I outran the damn thing. I outran it, Colonel. How is that even possible?
“How far are you from I-85,” Harrington said.
I-85. I-85. What was I—
“Dr. Dante?”
“Interstate.” I-85 was an interstate. “It’s three… no wait. Five miles. It’s five miles. Used to be three, then they cut a new road and you have to go around—”
“I want you to take it north.”
“North?”
“Dr. Dante…” Harrington’s tone lowered into a dead calm. “I need you to breathe.”
“I am breathing. If I weren’t breathing, I wouldn’t be able to—”
“Dr. Dante…”
Reese inhaled, he exhaled. Again. Again. Again.
“I want you to take I-85 north to the Macedonia exit, turn right and stop at the first gas station on your left. I’ll have some men waiting there to pick you up.”
“What’s going on, Colonel?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you called me. You wanted to know where I was. Like you knew I wasn’t at home.” Reese wasn’t sure why he asked. The US government had already proven they could find out any and everything about him.
“An hour ago, a 911 phone call reported a pony-sized dog. They alerted the Forrest City PD, who blew it off until one of their own called it in. Then they alerted FBI, who was inundated with calls from other counties at the same time live streams were popping up on the Internet.”
“They, you saidthey. How many isthey?” How many of them were now in Reese’s neighborhood? How many people would they kill? How many families would they tear apart? When would the sins he committed in the name of science stop taking innocent lives?
“It’s not important.”
Reese’s throat tightened. “Yes… yes, it is. I need to know.”
Harrington sighed. “We estimate at least eight, maybe twelve. Satellite imaging showed them moving north to south in a wall formation. Then one broke from the group changing its trajectory to practically your front yard.”
“Where did they come from?”
“We don’t know. But I’ve got some men backtracking from the first report in case earlier reports were dismissed or too scattered in rural areas to be noticed.”
