Mirrored Man: The Rob Tyler Chronicles Book 1 (30 page)

* * * * *

THE DRIVER OF THE
truck noticed the
headlights in his mirrors approaching rapidly from behind and
wondered if it was the police. He hadn't been told of Benny’s plan
and didn't know that the major would be running blocker for him. He
continued to watch as the headlights of the fast approaching
vehicle grew in the mirror and then saw the SUV pull into the east
bound lane in order to pass. As it went by, he breathed a sigh of
relief and turned his attention back to the road ahead … and the
pair of deer directly in his path.

* * * * *

DEPUTY KELLY MUELLER
slowed to less
that forty miles per hour as he drove down the storm-swept highway.
He had nearly reached the Lightning Quik Mart and could see the
glow of its lights across the railroad tracks. The clock on the
dashboard read 2:07 a.m.

“Time fer some coffee.”

He was thankful that he hadn't been called
to assist with a multiple car pileup twenty miles away on
Interstate 75 as he pulled into the lot. He saw no cars at all, but
what he didn't notice was that there was no truck parked along the
building's eastern side. He snaked his way through the gas pumps
and pulled into the space nearest the door.

Donning his plastic-covered hat, he got out
of his cruiser and trotted toward the brightly lit entryway.

“Evening,” he called into the open doors as
he paused under the overhang to shake some of the rain off. Just
then, a bolt of lightning flashed behind him, followed almost
immediately by the loud
crack
of thunder. Nearly taken off
his feet, he didn't notice when he received no response from
inside. He saw Stan and Jackie, the two night shift employees,
standing together in the middle of the store staring at him in
shock.

“That one almost took my boots off,” Kelly
laughed as he made his way to the coffee machine.

The two said nothing, but simply
watched.

“Y'all been busy tonight?” he asked,
suspecting that they hadn't.

As he poured, he turned to face the two and
met their unblinking stare. They hadn't moved from the spot where
they had been standing when he came in. Even Jackie, who was always
happy to see everyone, was stone faced and silent.

“What's up with you two? Scared of a little
thunder?” Kelly joked as he took a sip.

“Yeah, that last flash … it was … pretty
close.” Stan didn’t care about the weather. He and Jackie were
still stunned at the sight of Greg tearing through the store a few
minutes before, offering no explanation, in a mad dash to follow
the transport truck.

“Yeah, I … just hate thunder storms,” Jackie
added, smiling uneasily.

Suddenly something didn't feel right to
Kelly. He was in the store at least twice a shift, and he knew
these two pretty well. As well, that is, as you can know
convenience store clerks. He had never seen them act this way. The
hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he began to suspect that
he might have interrupted something. “Is everything okay, y'all?”
He gripped the butt of his Glock and scanned the empty store.

Seeing the deputy’s reaction, Stan spoke up.
“Yeah, no problems,” he said, walking to the bait room in the
opposite corner of the store.

“Are you having a slow night, Officer
Mueller?” Jackie asked.

Her painted-on smile made Kelly even more
uneasy. “Yeah, nobody’s out on the roads in this mess.”

Thinking quickly, Jackie opened her cash
register, removed the bills, placed them in an envelope, and
dropped it in the safe.

Kelly turned and made a slow circuit around
the perimeter of the store. He watched Stan push a mop bucket out
of the bait room and start dry mopping the floor in front of the
door.

He completing his inspection, but he was
still not completely comfortable. “Are you sure everything's
alright?”

Looking up from the magazine that she was
pretending to read, Jackie smiled brightly. “Everything's cool.
Wow! That lightning was random, wasn't it?”

“Looks like it's letting up,” Stan said from
the front.

“I guess I better get back out there,” Kelly
stated as he headed for the door.

“See ya later,” Stan said as he left.

Back in his patrol car, Kelly reflexively
glanced over at the truck that was always there. Only this time,
for the first time ever, it wasn't there. Intrigued, he backed out
and rolled around to inspect the area. “Huh,” he said
incredulously. “First time for everything.”

* * * * *

GREG THOUGHT HE
saw something out of
the corner of his eye as he pulled in front of the tractor-trailer,
but he couldn't hear anything over the sound of the driving torrent
and claps of thunder. So he didn't notice when the semi struck the
deer. With no sign of traffic ahead, he continued speeding down the
highway. Glancing in the mirror, the image seemed odd. He could
only see one of the truck’s headlights. “Great! If a cop sees one
of the headlights out, especially in this weather, he’ll get
stopped for sure.” But then he noticed something else. He was
steadily pulling away from it. He took his foot off of the gas and
the Toyota began to slow, but the headlight wasn’t getting any
closer. Rolling to a stop, he turned the SUV around and headed back
up the road.

As he approached, he could see that the
truck was no longer on the road, but looked like it had pulled over
onto the shoulder. When he was close enough to see in the darkness
of the rainy night, he realized that it was lying on its side in
the shallow ditch.

A steady stream of expletives issued forth
from the doctor’s mouth as he slammed on the brakes, sliding off
the road and nearly running into the overturned cab.

Grabbing a flashlight from under the seat,
he jumped out and ran to the cab. The windshield was all but gone
and the driver was nowhere to be seen. The interior was spotted and
streaked with an uneven coating of something dark. Blood? A single
hoofed appendage jutted through the steering wheel. Shining the
light at the back of the sleeper cab, he saw the antlers of a dead
buck, and underneath was the impaled driver.

“Oh my God!” he moaned as he turned his
attention to the trailer.

* * * * *

ROB WOKE TO THE
steady beat of his
throbbing head, his body riddled with a dozen other minor injuries.
He opened his eyes but was unable to see. There was something heavy
pinning him down. His nostrils were filled with exhaust fumes.
There were sounds of creaking metal, groans, an occasional cough,
and something else.
Was it raining?
It was nearly pitch
black. After allowing time for his eyes to adjust, they came to
rest on a row of jump seats lying on the deck.

I’m in the chopper.
That’s what I
get for trusting the Army to fly us outta here.

Using one of the seats for leverage, he
found it firmly attached to the bulkhead.
We rolled.

The pain inside his head was still intense,
but it was subsiding and his mind was clear. He remembered seeing
Sack go down. “Sack?” he called out weakly.

“Rob?” He heard a female speak, almost in
his ear.

“Where's Sack?” he asked in the darkness as
the bulk under him began to move. His body had been the only thing
that had kept June from crashing into the wall when the truck went
over.

“Rob, honey. Are you alright?”

Did she just call me honey?

“Rob, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I can hear,” he answered, scanning
the interior. He could make out other crumpled forms around them.
He spotted his Beretta lying next to him. His mind shifted into
combat mode as he retrieved the weapon. He was in danger and there
were people around him who were injured, possibly dying. Forcing
himself to push Sack’s situation aside, he started to concentrate
on more immediate concerns. He pushed himself up and found the
woman’s hand.

“C'mon, we gotta get outta here,” June said
urgently.

He spotted a rectangular opening, three feet
by ten feet, and started toward it. A heavy rain was falling
outside.

Raining? If anything it should be
snowing. It's January for Pete’s sake.
But that wasn't the only
thing that was wrong. It was
all
wrong. He wasn’t wearing
his ghillie suit. In fact, he couldn’t tell what it was he was
wearing. It was loose fitting and short-sleeved. His combat webbing
and gear were gone. Everything but his pistol.
Did the other
Blackhawk pick me up and then it went down, too? How long was I
unconscious?

He couldn’t see much of the woman who was
pulling him toward the exit, but he could tell she wasn’t wearing a
flight suit. Her hair was long, definitely not regulation, and she
wasn't carrying any equipment. None of it made any sense. He
watched the woman crawl through the low opening and followed. “I
need a sit rep, soldier. Where's Sack?”

June turned, looking back at the opening as
Rob crawled through. The rain quickly soaked her scrubs.
Did he
just call me soldier?
“You want a what? Who's Sack?”

“My observer, big guy, mustache, poor
attitude. He was shot.”

As he finished the sentence, he felt as if
someone stabbed him in the back of the head with a white-hot poker.
He went to his knees, dropped the Beretta in the mud, and nearly
passed out as he screamed in agony.

When June saw the pistol, her first instinct
was to grab it. “Where did that come from?” But then she realized
that it must be the sergeant’s.
He must have lost it during the
crash.
Ignoring the weapon, she grabbed Rob by the shoulders
instead. “Rob? What happened? Did you hit your head?”

The pain was unbelievable. He had never
experienced anything like it. His stomach turned and his vision
blurred again as he fought through it.
I
can't pass out
again. People need help.
With all of his strength, he struggled
to open his eyes but found that he still couldn't see.

June saw Benny’s head peek through the
opening in the trailer. He had a jagged gash on his temple that was
bleeding profusely, but his eyes were clear when they came to rest
on her. “Doctor Phillips? Is that Rob?”

“Yes. He’s hurt.”

Benny climbed out of the trailer and knelt
beside his friend. The rain stung his wound as it washed the blood
away from his face, quickly staining his khaki uniform red. “Rob?
Commander Tyler?”

If Rob heard him, he made no indication of
it. He was still clutching at his head, fighting through the
pain.

* * * * *

COVINGTON OPENED
his eyes. He felt
some pain in his shoulder but ignored it. Sitting up, he assessed
the situation. The truck had overturned and the trailer was dark.
There were people around him resting in grotesque and somewhat
comical positions. He felt for his sidearm and found it still
holstered on his hip. But when he checked for his backup weapon at
the small of his back, it was gone. Next to him he found a female
form underneath another motionless body. He checked for a pulse and
found none. The lifeless woman wasn't clothed in hospital scrubs,
so he quickly deduced that it was Jo Turner. He smiled at his good
fortune, reached into the fallen woman's jacket, and withdrew her
Sig Sauer along with the two spare clips that she carried. Outside
the hatch in the floor of the trailer, he could hear voices over
the sound of the rain. He chambered a round in the Sig and started
crawling toward the opening. He could take care of the others
inside the truck later.

* * * * *

BENNY SURVEYED
THE
area. To
his right, he saw Greg’s SUV parked near the cab, its headlights
illuminating the area around him. The driver’s door was open wide.
There were no lights up the road in either direction. He stood up
and turned back toward the truck just in time to see the grimace on
Covington's hooded face, his eyes fixed on Benny's chest.

Benny heard the deafening sound and felt the
pain of the first two shots, but not the third, as Covington
squeezed off a round in between the captain’s eyes.

June fell away from the sound of the shots,
landing on her backside. She felt the warmth on her face but it
failed to immediately register that she had been showered with the
captain’s blood. Confusion set in as she watched Benny crumple in a
heap. “Captain?”

* * * * *

THROUGH HIS STUPOR,
Rob heard the
shots too and then felt the weight of Benny’s body fall against his
back. He glimpsed the Beretta on the ground in front of him. Acting
on instinct, he reached for it. And then there was only pain and
confusion.

* * * * *

JUNE WATCHED IN
stunned amazement as
Rob reacted to the shots. In one smooth motion he somersaulted
forward and came up kneeling between her and where the shots had
come from. With one hand still clutching his head, he fired two
shots and then two more so quickly that she only heard him fire
twice.

And then, he fell.

* * * * *

DANGER! RUN! GO!
ROB
felt something familiar, comforting, but nothing he
could focus on. His body was moving on instinct, reflexively. Not
of his own volition, but with a purpose. There was a deafening
sound before him and then another. His hands went numb momentarily
and he felt himself gripping something tightly. He was vaguely
aware that he was lying on his back when he heard a different
voice, a female voice.