End Times by P A Duncan

Author:P A Duncan [Duncan, P A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1976272734
Publisher: Unexpected Paths
Published: 2018-04-18T22:00:00+00:00

26

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Her throat dry from the dust and raw from emotion, Mai sat on the steps of one of the RVs and nursed a bottle of water. Trickles of smoke rose from the ashes of Calvary Locus; lingering fires burned. A few had escaped, some walking through the holes punched in the building by the tanks. Others jumped from windows. The FBI had arrested them all, including an elderly woman, and charged them with murder.

The site itself was too hot for any forensic examination to begin, and the medical examiners stood by. A shift in the wind brought an odor toward the federal enclave. Sons and daughters of World War II veterans smelled what their fathers had when liberating concentration camps. For Mai, it was the smell of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

Alexei, looking perhaps pale but that had to be a trick of the light, emerged from the command center, looked around until he spotted her, and walked to her.

“I’m going over with the medical examiners,” he said. “I want to check some things out for myself.”

“Fitzgerald agreed to that?”

“He’s already on his way to D.C. to brief Vejar and Steedley. He’ll pay for this. Trust me.”

“What things do you want to see for yourself?”

“Shell casings at the spot where the FLIR showed someone shooting into the buildings.”

She suspected that brass had been policed or caught up in the fire that had spread to the surrounding brush. Only then had the Killeen Fire Department been called.

What the hell? If he wanted to conduct an exercise in futility, who was she to stop him?

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice soft, as intimate as when they were alone. “Maeve and her children were not among the survivors.”

Mai hadn’t expected them to be. Her world didn’t work that way.

“Will you be all right here?” Alexei asked her.

She wasn’t going with him?

“There’s no need for both of us to see it,” he continued, “and I need for you to do something for me, something no one should see you do.”

“What?”

“The snipers have packed up and left. Go up to their nest and see if they left any signs about. A piece of Ghillie suit to match what you found a while back.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice even more. “Shell casings of a specific manufacturer and caliber. Understand?”

Both of them, it seemed, would be conducting exercises in futility.

“And,” he added, “you need to be strong for both of us later.”

All right, enough emoting. She stood, staying on the bottom step so they would be eye to eye.

“This paternalistic need to protect me—”

Alexei put a finger on her lips. His hand shifted to cup her cheek. There’d been little intimacy between them the past few weeks with their different training schedules and sleeping in an RV on site. Before she wanted more than a cursory touch, she stepped down and away from him.

“Don’t worry about me, Alexei. Go pick among the ashes of the dead.”

His icy façade may have cracked a bit, but he turned on his heel and walked away.

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