Alpha by Greg Rucka

Author:Greg Rucka [RUCKA, GREG]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Published: 2012-05-22T16:33:48+00:00

For a man trying to ride chaos, Ruiz thinks Matthew Marcelin is doing a damn fine job of not losing his head. He’s standing in his outer office, tie loosened and collar open, a Bluetooth in his left ear and a landline held to his right. When Ruiz and Wallford enter, he cuts off midsentence, staring at them.

“You I know,” Marcelin says to Wallford. “Him I don’t.”

“Colonel Daniel Ruiz. Master Sergeant Jonathan Bell belongs to me.”

There’s a heartbeat’s pause, and then Marcelin says the same thing to each of his phones, “Call you back.” The landline goes to one of the assistants standing in the room, the Bluetooth comes out of his ear, and Marcelin gestures to his office, moves to enter without waiting for them to follow.

Wallford shuts the door behind them once they’re inside.

“You bastards knew this would happen?” are the first words out of Marcelin’s mouth. “You knew this would happen to my park?”

“If we knew it was going to happen, we’d have stopped it before it could start,” Wallford says. “Believe me.”

“You placed your man in my organization.” Marcelin points at Ruiz. “You knew something was coming.”

“Sir,” Ruiz says. “What we suspect and what we know at any given time are often, regrettably, radically different things. We suspected some sort of incident, and our analysis showed that in such an event, WilsonVille would be a priority target. How seriously we took the threat is measured by the presence of two of my very best people in your park, not to mention one of Mr. Wallford’s.”

Marcelin’s jaw clenches, as if to literally keep himself silent, and this lasts for several seconds as he processes what they’ve just told him, what he already knows, what he must now conclude. Outside the office, phones are ringing, voices overlapping.

“Doesn’t matter, not now,” Marcelin says, finally. “What can you tell me?”

“Bell confirms that the botulinum alarm was faked, we don’t know how yet.”

“Thank God for that.”

“Yes, sir,” Ruiz agrees. “However, he further confirms the presence of hostiles in the park, and that they are taking hostages.”

Any relief Marcelin feels vanishes. “How many? Do we know?”

“We do not.”

“What do they want?”

“Unknown. What I require from you is an accounting of your personnel working in the park today, and some means of confirming if they’re out or not.”

“What about the guests?”

“Personnel is the priority.”

“You think someone’s on the inside?”

Before Ruiz can answer, Wallford snorts. “Something like this? At least one, maybe more.”

That gives Marcelin pause, forces him to look aside as he digests the implications. He draws a breath, again bringing himself back to point, asks Wallford, “And where’s Porter in all this? He in on this with you?”

“Eric Porter is not part of my operation,” Wallford says.

“Operation.” Marcelin echoes the word, displeased by it, then moves to his desk, where he lifts the handset to his phone. Dials with an index finger, then adjusts his glasses with his thumb. “I need someone in personnel.”

Wallford takes the moment, turns half away from Marcelin, leaning in to Ruiz, says in a lowered voice, “The hit on this is going to be massive.

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