Phantoms

During the past twenty-some hours, Jenny had learned to read those hooded eyes quite well. Now they were expressing tension and icy, needle-sharp dread.
    “It’s much too soon to be worried,” he said.
    But they all knew.
    They didn’t want to believe it, but they knew .
    The terror had begun again.
     
    Bryce chose Tal, Frank, and Gordy to accompany him to the lab.
    Jenny said, “I’m going, too.”
    Bryce didn’t want her to come. He was more afraid for her than he was for Lisa or for his own men or even for himself.
    An unexpected and rare connection had taken place between them. He felt right with her, and he believed she felt the same. He didn’t want to lose her.
    And so he said, “I’d rather you didn’t go.”
    “I’m a doctor,” Jenny said, as if that were not only a calling but an armor that would shield her from all harm.
    “It’s a regular fortress here,” he said. “It’s safer here.”
    “It’s not safe anywhere.”
    “I didn’t say safe. I said safer .”
    “They might need a doctor.”
    “If they’ve been attacked, they’re either dead or missing. We haven’t found anyone just wounded, have we?”
    “There’s always a first time.” Jenny turned to Lisa and said, “Get my medical bag, honey.”
    The girl ran toward the makeshift infirmary.
    “ She stays here for sure,” Bryce said.
    “No,” Jenny said. “She stays with me.”
    Exasperated, Bryce said, “Listen, Jenny, this is virtually a martial law situation. I can order you to stay here.”
    “And enforce the order—how? At gunpoint?” she asked, but with no antagonism.
    Lisa returned with the black leather bag.
    Standing by the front doors of the inn, Sara Yamaguchi called to Bryce: “Hurry. Please hurry.”
    If it had struck at the field lab, there was probably no use hurrying.
    Looking at Jenny, Bryce thought: I can’t protect you, Doc. Don’t you see? Stay here where the windows are locked and the doors are guarded. Don’t rely on me to protect you because, sure as hell, I’ll fail. Like I failed Ellen… and Timmy.
    “Let’s go,” Jenny said.
    Agonizingly aware of his limitations, Bryce led them out of the inn and up the street toward the corner—beyond which it might very well be waiting for them. Tal walked at the head of the procession, beside Bryce. Frank and Gordy brought up the rear. Lisa, Sara Yamaguchi, and Jenny were in the middle.
    The warm day was beginning to turn cool.
    In the valley below Snowfield, a mist had begun to form.
    Less than three-quarters of an hour remained before nightfall. The sun spilled a final flood of bloody light through the town. Shadows were extremely long, distorted. Windows blazed with reflected solar fire, reminding Bryce of eyeholes in Halloween jack-o’-lanterns.
    The street seemed even more ominously silent than it had been last night. Their footsteps echoed as if they were crossing the floor of a vast, abandoned cathedral.
    They rounded the corner cautiously.
    Three decontamination suits lay tangled and untenanted in the middle of the street. Another empty suit lay half in the gutter and half on the sidewalk. Two of the helmets were cracked.
    Submachine guns were scattered around, and unused Molotov cocktails were lined up along the curb.
    The back of the truck was open. More empty decontamination suits and submachine guns were piled in there. No people.
    Bryce shouted: “General? General Copperfield?”
    Graveyard silence.
    Surface-of-the-moon silence.
    “Seth!” Sara Yamaguchi cried. “Will? Will Bettenby? Galen? Somebody, please answer me.”
    Nothing. No one.
    Jenny said, “They didn’t even manage to fire one shot.”
    Tal said, “Or scream. The guards at the front door of the inn would’ve heard them even if they’d just screamed.”
    Gordy said, “Oh, shit.”
    The rear doors on both labs were ajar.
    Bryce had the feeling that something was waiting for them inside.
    He wanted to turn and walk away. Couldn’t. He was the leader here. If he panicked, they would all panic. Panic was an invitation to death.
    Sara started toward the rear of the first lab.
    Bryce stopped her.
    “They’re my friends, damn it,” she said.
    “I know. But let me look first,” he said.
    For a moment, however, he couldn’t move.
    He was immobilized by fear.
    Couldn’t move an inch.
    But then at last, of course, he did.
     

Chapter 31
    Computer Games
     
    Bryce’s service revolver was drawn and cocked. He seized the door with his other hand and threw it