I tensed. No, not all good. Kristi had been after my medical records, and Reno had failed her. She wouldn’t have given up. “Harlon Murtaugh was there. He’s—”
“I know who he is,” Sorsha interrupted. “Excuse me. I need to make a call.” She moved to the other side of the room and pulled out her phone. “Agent Garner,” she said quietly. “There was a system crash at the hospital on Tuesday, during Connor’s stay. Crawford said Murtaugh was there.”
“Likely not a coincidence,” Garner replied, his tone calm and easy-going despite the circumstances. No stupid door to block my zombie hearing this time—or that of the other zombies in the room.
“My thought as well. Another attempt at Crawford’s records.”
“Agreed. I’ll get the cyber people on it to confirm,” he said. “Charish made another call to Saberton ops five minutes ago. Gallagher’s on standby if you need backup, and I just dispatched a team from Baton Rouge. But Charish is feeling the pressure, so act at your own discretion. Keep it contained and a lid on the weirdness. The ball’s in your court.”
Dr. Nikas exchanged a worried look with Brian, while I tried to appear cool and collected. How much weirdness did she know about?
The barest hint of a smile touched one corner of Sorsha’s mouth. “Thank you, sir.”
Brian stepped out of the room, phone to ear. Calling Pierce, I was certain.
“How did you know Reno was going to steal my medical records?” I asked Sorsha after she hung up.
Sorsha folded her arms. “I didn’t. He was a person of interest, and I had eyes on him. When he gained access to the hospital admin building, I attempted to detain him, but he fled, leading to the pursuit.”
“What does—”
Sorsha cut me off with a brusque gesture and leveled her gaze at Dr. Nikas. “What connection does Dr. Charish have with the decapitation murders two years ago? The serial killings.”
Shiiiiiit! Kristi had coerced Ed Quinn into killing zombies and delivering their heads to her. If Sorsha was sniffing close to her about that particular fucked-up shitstorm, what else did she know? I was starting to regret that Pierce wasn’t here with his experience in talking his way out of sticky situations. This was flypaper, honey, and road tar all mixed up into one giant mess.
Dr. Nikas cleared his throat. “Connection? With the killings? I, er, wasn’t a suspect identified?”
“Yes, but that’s not what I asked.” Sorsha watched him, expression placid and intimidating at the same time. “How is Kristi Charish connected to the murders?”
This time I sent him some of my lie-through-your-teeth juju. I certainly had plenty to spare.
“I prefer not to answer that question.”
No one moved. Or breathed. The only sound was the hum of a printer and the tick-tick of the wall clock.
“Fair enough,” Sorsha finally said. “For now.”
I released my breath and tried to steady my voice. “Does Reno’s theft of my medical records somehow tie in to why you’re asking about Kristi and the serial killings?”
She swung her attention to me. “It’s funny how so many threads can weave into one big tapestry.”
I swallowed to work some moisture into my throat. “Sooooo have you figured out a link between Ed Quinn’s victims . . . and Kristi?”
Her eyes rested on each of us in turn before she spoke.
“I believe I have.”
Chapter 34
Everyone remained silent. No way would any of us come out and say, “You know about zombies then, right?” And sure, Sorsha clearly knew something about zombies, but I had no clue how much. I had an ugly feeling she suspected I was one, but what about the others?
Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Well?”
Sorsha leaned against the table behind her, a casual pose that looked more like a cat preparing to pounce. “I have reasons to believe Dr. Charish was conducting, or intending to conduct, experiments on the victims’ remains—namely their heads. Not long after Quinn was identified as the killer, Dr. Charish had contact with a Walter McKinney, a.k.a. William Rook, who is wanted on more charges than I can count, and who is believed to have committed murder and kidnapping at Dr. Charish’s behest.” She lowered her head, eyes on me.
“That’s right,” I said leaning against the table behind me in a doomed attempt to copy her stance. “Last year he kidnapped my dad to get to me.”
A tiny little mock frown puckered her forehead. “And why is that?”
“Why do you think?” I challenged and mock-frowned right back at her.
“I’m asking the questions here,” she replied evenly.
“Well, I just asked you a question, so apparently I’m asking them, too!”
Behind her, Kyle gave me a warning head shake. Yet I didn’t miss the ever-so-slight flicker of amusement in Sorsha’s expression. I allowed myself an instant of triumph then pressed what little advantage I had.
“Look,” I said. “I overheard you asking Kristi about zombies in the gator room. And back before Mardi Gras, you sure seemed fascinated by my zombie makeup.” Which had been my actual rotting flesh. “Not to mention, you were awfully interested in the Zombies Are Among Us!! documentary that supposedly showed real zombies.”
Satisfaction filled her eyes. “And what do you know of real zombies?”
I threw my hands up. “Are we seriously going to keep beating around the bush? I know you know!”
Brian eased back into the room, tucking his phone away. Sorsha took a step toward me, almost eagerly. “And what do I know?”
I bared my teeth. “That I’m a zombie. Woooooeeeeeooooo I’m a monster. Look at me!” I raised my hands like claws and widened my eyes comically. “Big scary brain-eating monster!”
Dr. Nikas sank onto a stool, looking a little pale. Brian made a pained grimace. “Jesus Christ, Angel,” he hissed.
Sorsha didn’t act the least bit surprised or disbelieving, confirming my hunch that she’d known all along. “I never said you were a monster,” she said mildly.
I dropped my hands and glared. “What am I to you, then? A menace? Do you think zombies need to be wiped out or detained—for the safety of others?”
“I don’t support genocide or unlawful incarceration.”
Man, she was good at evasive answers. Yet it sounded like she was fine with zombies—or anyone—as long as we didn’t break any laws. That looked great on the surface, except for one pesky detail: I’d broken a shit-ton of laws, both minor and major, from defiling a corpse all the way up to murder. So, yeah I was probably still fucked.
Except that she seemed to be focused on Kristi at the moment, and that was all right by me.
“Fine,” I said coming to a decision. “You want to know the truth about the serial killer?”
“Angel!” Brian took a step toward me.
“Can it, Brian,” I snarled. “Do you seriously think she won’t figure it out? Hell, she knows most of it already!”
Dr. Nikas nodded once. “It’s all right, Brian. Angel, go on.”
I gave him a grateful look then returned my attention to Sorsha.
“Yes, Ed Quinn murdered those people, and yes, they were all zombies, but he was manipulated and brainwashed by Kristi to think zombies had killed his parents and that all zombies were murderous monsters.” I went on to explain how Kristi had learned about zombies over a decade ago from Ed’s parents, and after they died, her lies convinced Ed that his parents had been zombie hunters, and that he needed to avenge them and honor their legacy by collecting zombie heads. “Kristi wanted those heads for her own research,” I said. “But she also wanted a real live zombie test subject. Me.”
Sorsha considered my words. “Interesting,” she said after a moment. “When you came out of the cooler earlier, you mentioned something about a double. Of whom were you speaking?”
 
; “Kristi Charish,” I said. “I think she’s been here since Monday. A jet came in to Tucker Point Airport that afternoon with one passenger—a brown-haired woman. Kristi is blonde. No obvious connection, right? Wednesday at midnight another jet arrived, with a blonde woman who looked like Kristi and a man who fit the description of her bodyguard Fritz. In fact it probably was Fritz. Soon after that, a brown-haired woman departed on the first jet. However, my source at the airport says that it wasn’t the same woman who arrived Monday. I believe Kristi came in on Monday, wearing a brown wig, then her double arrived Wednesday midnight, pretending to be Kristi, and then put on the brown wig and left on the first jet, her job done. Which means Kristi was here before the LZ-1 epidemic began.”
Brian shook his head, but I spoke before he could. “I know you had eyes on her, Brian, but how close were they?”
He hesitated. “Apparently, not close enough.”
“That matches my own intel,” Sorsha said, surprising me with the nugget of information—and annoying me that she’d known all along.
“Fritz Colton has been working for Dr. Charish for the last month,” Brian said. “He’s a top notch freelance security pro who’s always with her public persona—whether Dr. Charish herself or her double—in Chicago. That consistency strengthened the deception.”
I wrinkled my nose. “And gave Kristi the freedom to do her LZ-1 lab work, with no one the wiser.”
Sorsha regarded me. “And how are you connected to this epidemic, Angel?”
The safe answer would’ve been that I was merely helping to find a way to save the victims. But I had a feeling Sorsha would know I wasn’t telling the whole truth.
“I’m the source,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “For the original strain, that is. Everyone who’s been infected after Deputy Connor has a mutated strain: LZ-1. The original strain happened when I . . .” I grimaced. No need to go into the whole bit about my addiction. “My zombie parasite got damaged.” Yeah, that was good enough. “Anyway, Judd Siler was hunting me because he knew I was a zombie. I bit him and got away, but he tracked me again the next day and got shot. I ran to the swamp because I thought Marla was on my trail. But then Judd came after me—dead. I mean like half his head was missing. So I, uh, dispatched him—total self-defense, y’know? And then I guess the alligators ate his remains and ended up infected.”
“Who is Marla?” Sorsha asked.
“A German Shepherd. She . . .” A thought was banging around inside my brain, evading my efforts to pin it down. “She’s a cadaver dog—wait. Dr. Nikas, what did Jacques tell you when he called?”
Dr. Nikas rubbed his face with both hands. “That upon close examination, the puncture point in the bite on Nick is larger and far more precise than that of a typical mosquito, and that it carries traces of both inert and activated LZ-1 as well as Aedes albopictus saliva. Damning enough on its own, but Jacques’s subsequent analysis of the water bottles revealed the presence of certain proteins that can stimulate LZ-1 into full activation. If Nick’s presumed bite is representative of those on the other victims, I cannot help but accept that these are, in truth, inoculation sites.”
Sorsha’s eyes widened. “You believe it’s being deliberately spread?”
Dr. Nikas dipped his head in a sober nod. She typed a text message.
Rachel muttered a curse. “So Dr. Charish and Saberton—”
I jerked a hand up. “Wait.” That damn thought was still bouncing around like a coke addict in a mosh pit. “Just, wait.”
Sorsha had been in town during Mardi Gras because of the Zombies Are Among Us!! short film. A film containing real zombie clips that Kristi had given Rosario—her then-lover and patsy—to pass on to the studio. Rosario, who’d nearly outed me with Marla at the Zombiefest, where the short film had premiered to promote the movie High School Zombie Apocalypse!!—the movie that starred Justine, who had an ex-girlfriend sneaky and paranoid enough to bug her apartment. Sneaky. Kristi could teach a masterclass in sneaky. She was the kind who would . . .
“Kristi bugged Marla!” I gasped.
“The dog?” Sorsha asked with disbelief.
Brian shook his head. “Angel, we scanned her along with everyone else.”
“But how thoroughly? I mean, Kristi is smart enough not to use something that would be found on a superficial search. And maybe it would show up on an x-ray or something, but Marla would probably have to be sedated for something like that, and who would even think a deeper scan would be necessary on a dog?”
Brian didn’t look convinced. “Dr. Charish had no way to know that Rosario and Marla would be brought into our fold.”
“Ah, Dante Rosario is with your lot?” Sorsha asked. “I’d wondered what happened to him. I thought he’d been disappeared permanently.”
“Yeah, he’s with us now,” I said then looked to Brian. “And you’re right, Kristi had no way to ever think that he and Marla could possibly end up with us. She’d have bugged the dog to keep tabs on Rosario.”
Rachel bristled. “Rosario told me how often he had to check in with her. That sounds exactly like something she would stoop to.”
Brian rubbed the back of his neck. “And then she got unbelievably lucky when Marla came into our lab.”
“It explains how Saberton beat us out to the swamp,” I said. “And how Kristi could have known about Douglas Horton and Deputy Connor. Marla stuck by Dr. Nikas a lot while—Oh shit.” I looked to Dr. Nikas in growing horror.
The blood drained from his face. “If so . . . she knows everything.”
Everything we’d ever talked about. Including mature zombies. And the fact that Pierce was actually Pietro. “That’s why she wanted you-know-who’s blood.” No wonder she’d cajoled Pierce into giving her a sample. “Oh, fuck. The switched blood tubes! She knew about you-know-who being you-know-what, so she watched closely enough to spot Jacques switch you-know-who’s blood for mine—then she had Hairy Tech switch it back so Jacques ended up with my blood instead of you-know-who’s.”
Dr. Nikas sighed. “And that recently acquired knowledge explains why she wanted your medical records.” He paused and flicked a glance at Sorsha, clearly unwilling to say more in her presence.
I turned to Sorsha. “Hey, Agent Aberdeen, would you possibly consider yourself an ally to our kind?”
Her brow lowered. “As an FBI agent, I’m an ally to anyone who’s been victimized.”
I waved my hands. “No no no. I mean you, personally. I know the feds have all sorts of restrictions and guidelines.”
One side of her mouth tilted up slightly. “Actually, the task force I’m operating under allows its agents a good deal more leeway in dealing with special circumstances. However, speaking for myself. . . at this time . . . yes, you can consider me to be on your side. An ally.”
I glanced at Dr. Nikas and got a micro-nod, which I interpreted to mean his nose told him Sorsha was telling the truth.
“Awesome. Right back at you,” I said to Sorsha, then pivoted to face Dr. Nikas. “Why the hell did Kristi want my medical records?”
“Because you have certain mature zombie factors, such as your ability to use a control bite, that might have been caused by your, ah, unique blood chemistry at the time of your turning.”
I made a face. “Drugs. The many many drugs I was on. But why would she care about that?”
He rubbed his mouth. “She hates us, but she envies us. And now I believe I know what her true purpose has been all along. I recently came across considerable research she had done on telomeres. I thought little of it until now, but I believe she is seeking a way to gain the benefits of being a mature zombie without having to, well, be a zombie first.”
I stared at him. “She wants to be immortal.” And Dr. Nikas probably “came across” that research by snooping in her files. Good for him.
“Is that possible?” Sorsha asked, surprised.
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“Whether or not it is,” Dr. Nikas said, “if Dr. Charish is attempting it, she must believe so.”
“Jesus,” I breathed. “She’s a fucking psycho lunatic. She released this epidemic . . . but that means she has a cure, right?”
He met my eyes. “I would be shocked if she did not.”
“Then whatever she was testing at the gym had nothing to do with a cure. But it could have been part of her immortality research.” My stomach clenched as another thought occurred to me. “She started the epidemic to have an unlimited supply of test subjects. She won’t miraculously come up with the cure—and bask in the glory—until she’s done with them.” I gritted my teeth. “And immortal.”
“Indeed,” Dr. Nikas said, eyes distant. “With this new insight, I believe I know her process now. I had been assuming a . . .” He trailed off then strode to the whiteboard and began scribbling notes. Portia went to the computer near him and pulled up the latest cell culture data.
The lab phone rang, but Dr. Nikas was already too absorbed to pay it any mind.
Brian picked it up. “This is Archer.” He fell silent. “I see. Thanks.” He replaced the phone in its cradle. “Jacques says that Nick has begun moaning for brains.”
My gut dropped to my toes. How much longer did he have before his body simply gave out? I turned to the others. “We have to stop her. Confront her. Get the cure now. If she figures out we know what she’s up to, she’ll make sure we never get it.”
“I agree,” Sorsha said. “She’s already spooked by my presence, and I’ve been in here with you long enough to make her worry. Last thing any of us need is for her to destroy data.” She began to text another message. “I’m informing my supervisor of the new development. I’ll also let my partner know what’s going down, but he’s at least twenty minutes away.”
“What about the backup team Agent Garner sent from Baton Rouge?” I asked. “Are they driving or coming by helicopter?”
She gave me a long look. I gave an innocent shrug. “I have really good hearing.”