Alpha Male (22 page)

"So, what else?" Reedy asked.

"For now, that's it. You're gonna have to do some actual detective work at some point, you know?"

"I'm getting around to it," Reedy said, his mouth curling into a slight grin. "Look, I've gotta go. Wife's coming."

"Day off, huh?"

"Yeah, thank god," Reedy said. "Wife’s been begging me to leave all this at the office for just one day. I'll call you soon." He hung up the phone, and left the kitchen.

Reedy's wife was sitting on the chair near their bed with both hands on her growing belly. She rubbed it with a thick lotion that smelled of rich cocoa. He smiled, gazing at her exposed stomach. Knelling down beside her, he put his head down on the arm rest.

"This whole father thing really brings out a new side of you," she said, with a warm smile.

"I can't help it. I'm gonna be a daddy," he said, placing his arm on her leg.

"I don't know how much longer I can stay here," Hope said.

"I know," he said. "Hopefully things will be over soon.

“This city,” she said.

“I know, baby” he said. “But, you have to remember what it was like before. This was the safest place on earth to live. It’ll be that way again, soon.”

Her hand ran over his head, through his hair, and rested on his neck. “I hope so.”

*****

Ivy and Jon stood outside on a bridge, basking in the sun. They threw rocks into the moving water below and laughed when the fish would mistake the ripples for food.

"Watch this," Jon said and snorted hard, forming a nice wad of saliva in his mouth. He spit, and the white foamy thing hit the water. A large fish surfaced and sucked the loogie into its mouth. Ivy cried out in playful disgust as Jon started laughing.

"That's gross," she said, holding up her hand to block her face.  

"I know!" he said, between chuckles. "God, it feels so good to get out of that dark subway station."

"I know, the sun feels amazing," she replied. "I was starting to feel like a vampire." She threw her hands up and made a hissing sound while exposing her teeth. They both started laughing at the ridiculous face she was making.

Ivy exhaled the last bit of laughter, and turned away from the water. Leaning against the railing, she stared at the city buildings off in the distance. The skyscrapers stood tall over everything; giants above the smaller brick buildings below. They were vast towers of glass and metal, reaching up to sky like monuments in a cemetery.

"Do you think this will ever end?" he asked.

"I hope so," she said. "I just don't see it ending well for us."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Al's looking out for us."

"Yeah, but…Al's a hero to us, but everyone else thinks he's a bad guy. They want him dead. This is the government we're talking about. It's not like they are going to let him go, you know? So, what's all this amounting to?"

Jon's eyes went blank as he thought about it. "I always thought he'd just take care of us."

"Well, yeah, but he can't avoid Alpha Male forever," she said. "They will have to fight again, and eventually, one of those fights isn't going to end well for one of them."

"Al's powerful," Jon said. "He'll win, I'm sure of it."

"But then what?" she asked. "They aren't going to leave us alone, you know?"

"They aren't going to leave him alone," Jon said. "We're just people caught up in all this."

"No Jon, we're terrorists now," she said, her face sinking. "I don't think there's any winning for us."

"So, what should we do?" Jon asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "He's taking care of us, and keeping us from starving. He's our family now, you know?"

"Yeah," he said. "Let’s go get some food, I'm starving."

*****

Al skipped through the television channels with an irritable impatience until a news program came up on the screen. A female reporter stood there as a group of soldiers loaded a young man into the back of an armored truck. The camera zoomed out, showing the building, and a look of recognition came over Al's face.

"That's Rob's building," Ivy said, her eyes wide. In her hands, she held a large bowl of cereal that was so full, it threatened to slosh over the sides.

"It doesn't matter," Xavier said, lounging back on a dingy sofa. "His drugs won't sell in an empty city."

Ivy turned towards Xavier and said, "He's one of us now."

"No, he's not," Xavier said. "He's just a means to an end. With his money drying up, we don't really need him anyways. Sides, he's just poisoning the streets anyways. The fewer junkies the better."

"Watch your mouth!" she said. She rubbed her arm and looked down, her face awash in shame.

"Why don’t you make me?" he replied.

"Enough!" Al said, raising his voice. "We've got enough problems right now. We don't need to fight each other."

The room grew silent, so Al returned to flipping through the channels. Ivy sat at the bottom of the dais and Xavier laid his head back down. After a few minutes, Al dropped the remote and sighed.

"The people up there, they hate us, and it doesn't seem like anything is going to change that. All I want is to feed and take care of the people down here, but they fight us at every turn."

"Eddy made sure of that," Xavier said, chuckling. "His plan was to bring it all down around Alpha Male’s ears. To make him feel what we felt. What's your plan?"

"I don't know," Al said, lowering his head. "Sometimes I think I shouldn't stay with you. That you'd be safer if I wasn't around."

"Maybe you're right," Xavier said, contempt running in his words like ice water.

“Don’t say that,” Ivy said. “You take care of us; we need you.” Her words said it, but Al could see the doubt on her face.

“I just don’t know what to do,” Al replied. “This city hates me for something I can’t control. It’s not going to stop until I figure out the connection I have with…him.”

“Then that’s your plan,” Xavier said. “We go after him until this is finished.”

Al slumped back into his seat, and sighed.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Alpha stood tall as a barrage of bullets pounded against his chest. Taking a few steps forward, he grabbed the gun and pulled, yanking the man with it. His body lifted up like a ragdoll and he screamed as his feet left the ground. He hit the pavement, scraping the skin off his elbows and hands.

Alpha didn't look back as he moved to the next target; a teenaged boy with an Uzi in his hand and large aviator glasses on his face. The boy’s teeth were gritted as he pulled the trigger and sprayed the hero with bullets. The boy on the ground screamed as the projectiles ricocheted off Alpha and pelted the ground near him.

With only a foot between them, Alpha grinned and pushed the boy to the ground with one finger. The third member of the Omega gang stood there, silent, with a knife held tight in her fist. She was a hard faced girl, but her eyes betrayed the fear she felt. Dropping the knife, she ran. Alpha watched as she collided with a trash can and toppled to the ground. He picked up the boy that had the Uzi by the pants and held him until they were eye to eye.

"Where is he?" Alpha asked, his voice gruff.

"I don't know whachu talkin’ about," the boy said.

"Your leader, Omega Man. Where is he?"

"Man, they don't tell us nothin," The boy said, grunting as his pants dug into his waist." A couple guys asked us to join, and we thought it'd be fun. A chance to get back at you fucks for keeping us scared for so long. That's it."

"You realize you're considered terrorists now, right?" Alpha asked. "The same rules don't apply anymore."

"We don't care," the boy behind him said. "What can they do to us this city hasn't already done?"

*****

Reedy and Irene stepped onto the deserted Yancy Street campus. Where students once walked the grassy area in front of the buildings, there was only the cool wind blowing leaves and a few abandoned fliers.

"It's this building over here," Reedy said, pointing towards Richards Hall. The old colonial style structure had a large stone staircase leading between white columns.

"I guess the university's been closed for a while," she said, as he held the oak door for her.

"Yeah, I'm surprised she agreed to meet with us at all.”

They walked the empty halls until they came to a door marked "Dean's Office". Under that was a name plate that read, "Mary Lee".

Reedy gave the door a small knock, and pushed it open, careful not to make a sound. Inside was a secretary’s desk and a few chairs.

"I'm in here," came a voice from the adjoining room. The door to her office was open, so they walked in.

Sitting behind the desk, rummaging through some paper work, was an Asian woman in her late forties. She had dark, near black hair, and her face was absent any make up. She looked tired and worn down, but she still offered up a smile when she saw them.

"Sorry, I'm just gathering up a few things before I leave. I don't know when I'm going to be back, so I'm just making sure I've got everything."

"It's OK," Reedy said. "Seems a lot of people are heading for the hills."

"Can you blame them?" She asked, with a sudden seriousness.

"We really appreciate you meeting with us," Irene said, taking a seat.

"It's no problem," Mary said, gesturing for Reedy to take a seat as well. Surprised, he sat down as if he hadn't thought to do so. "So, this is about Jacob…ah, Mr Jones." A cautious smile crept over her face.

"We think he might be this ‘Omega Man’ everyone is looking for. So, we need any information you can give us," Reedy said, pulling out a small flip top notepad from his pocket. Mary sat back, looking stunned by the news.

"I…I haven't seen him in a very long time," she said, with a distant look in her eye. "I wasn't even Dean back then. Just a professor. We had a thing; a…I'm not sure what you'd call it. I guess, you'd say we dated." She looked up again, making eye contact with Reedy. "Yeah, we dated."

"Did he ever do anything suspicious? Join any radical groups? Talk about his time in Russia?" Irene asked.

"No, he said that was all in his past," Mary said. "And no, he was a pretty straight laced guy. Nice, polite, all that. He was sort of perfect, honestly. The only suspicious thing he did was disappear."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Reedy asked.

"Ten years ago, maybe more," she said, thinking for a second. “Holy shit.” Her eyes lit up as something came to mind. “I remember something. He had this weird box of stuff he used to keep hidden in the closet. It was full of old photographs and a few letters. I remember it being so weird because I couldn’t read most of them, but there was this one; a post card. It was from…I don’t know remember where it was from. Some Russian city, I think. But I do remember what it said. ‘Emil, I’m sorry. You’re father and I had to leave. We love you’. it was signed, Alla. I wanted to question him about, and I was going to, but he left before I could muster up the courage.”

“Are you sure that’s what it said?” Reedy asked, on the edge of his seat.

“Yeah, I’m positive,” she said. “I must have read the thing a hundred times.”

“Why didn’t you ever ask him about it?” Irene asked. “I mean, he sounded like a good guy from what you’ve told us.”

“He was closed, and often quiet,” she said. “I don’t know, I don’t feel like our relationship ever got to the point where I could be honest about snooping.”

“Thank you,” Reedy said, and got up.

“We’ll be in touch if we need anything else,” Irene said.

“Wait,” she said, raising her voice. “So, that’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s all we needed, thank you,” Reedy said.

“All the name changes just don’t add up,” Reedy said, as they walked towards the car.

“Not if he’s legit,” she said. “But, if he’s got something to hide, then it makes perfect sense.”

“Yeah,” Reedy said. “But what’s he hiding from?”

“I don’t know, but I guarantee it has something to do with Russia,” she replied.

*****

Rose shuddered a bit as she watched Blake and one of his men standing over the boy they had captured. They were both screaming as he sobbed, tied to the wooden chair. Snot ran from his nose in thick globs, making it hard for him to catch a good breath. His chest heaved, up and down, and tears poured from his red swollen eyes. His hair and shirt were soaked with water.

"Please," he said, muttering the words with desperate hope. "Please stop."

"Then tell us what we want to know!" Blake said.

"I don't know anything!" he said. "I worked through Rob. He's the one you want."

"Well, where can we find Rob?" Blake said, getting so close their faces were an inch apart. "Tell us what you know, and this will all be over."

"I don’t…” the boy started to say, but the words sprung Blake into action. He turned the chair over with one motion, leaving the boy on his back with both knees in the air. Blake grabbed a wet towel and placed it over the boy’s face. The boy twisted his head away, trying to keep the cloth away, but it was no use. Blake grabbed the large bucket while the other guy held the cloth down.

Rose turned away when the water began to pour. Each time the boy gurgled up a scream, she winced with her arms across her chest.

*****

"That was…amazing," Al said as him and Ivy laid in his bed. They were both naked with the sheets draped over them. Her hair was frazzled and sprawled out across his chest.

"Yeah, it really was," she said.

"I wish things could be like this all the time," he said, staring up at the ceiling.

"They can be." She turned and looked up at him. "We just have to leave here. Get away from all this. We have some money, let’s just go."

"What do you mean? It's not that simple," he said. "These people need us. You said so yourself."

"No, they don't," she said, sitting up. "I’ve been thinking about this a lot. They were here a long time before any of us were. They know how to survive. At least they did before we started doing everything for them."

"How can you say that?" he asked. "These are your people."

"Yeah, but I'm with you now," she said. "You need me more than they need me."