The Serophim Breach (The Serophim Breach Series) (15 page)

The umber glow of streetlights lit the low clouds as Mike drove toward Pearl City. Sarah was wedged in the middle seat of Mike’s truck, pressing herself against Heather’s side and listening to the air whistling through the gap in the window. The scent of soil and compost, heavy at first, lifted as they approached the more urban landscape of Mililani. Streetlights appeared, and other headlights lit the road. To her right, Sarah could see the grid pattern of urban sprawl, the developed tracts of homes spread out in a great cluster. To her left, the less developed land stretched out into the dark toward the ocean.

Mike pulled the truck off the freeway as they neared Pearl City just as three police cars screamed past, headed in the direction of Honolulu. Two ambulances followed, and a fire truck. They watched, stopped at a red light, the cherry lights flashing across their faces. Finally, Heather spoke up.

“Must be a bad accident,” she murmured.

When the light turned green, the truck rumbled forward again, merging into the light traffic on the smaller highway. Sarah had the sensation that her brain had stalled, refusing to process information. She couldn’t think of a response to Heather, couldn’t guess where they were heading, couldn’t do anything but watch the street signs go by. Mike was making calls on his cell phone, first attempting to reach the police and then calling his wife and asking her to do the same.

“Hi, honey,” he said quietly when he finally got through to his wife. “I need you to do something for me. The Kavidas’ house was broken into, and Sarah was attacked.” He glanced down at her, lowering his voice even more. “No, I have her with me. Heather too. We’re all okay. But the guy was still at her house.” He paused briefly, listening to his wife’s reply. “I haven’t tried her brothers yet. Nine-one-one keeps giving me a busy signal. Can you try from the landline and conference me in if you get anyone? Yeah. Great; thank you. I’m taking her to the station now, but I’d like to get someone heading to the house before that guy gets too far away. Great. I love you too.” He hung up and chewed his lip, thinking.

The tears welled up in Sarah’s eyes as she considered what Mike had said. They had been on the road for at least half an hour . . . the jogger would be long gone by now, and when she tried to picture him, her mind clapped down tight over the images. All she could remember was the horrible yellow suit, covered in gore. There was no way she’d be of any help to the police. She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand. Heather pulled her closer into her side and squeezed her shoulder.

Mike had just hung up on another failed 911 call when the phone rang in his hand. He glanced at the screen, and relief washed over his face.

“Kai,” he answered. “Kai, I’ve got Sarah.” He paused for an answer. Sarah heard the tinny buzz of her brother’s voice answering. Mike cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, you want to talk to her?” Another buzzing response, and then he passed the phone to Sarah.

“It’s Paul,” he said softly.

She felt like an idiot, staring at Mike like she didn’t speak his language. Slowly, she took the phone from him and brought it to her ear.

“Paul?” Her voice was very nearly a whisper.

“Oh God, kid, I’m so glad you’re okay—” and the rest was lost, drowned out by the sudden explosion of sobs that welled up from her chest. She cried into the phone, listening to her brother’s attempts at comfort, wondering if she would ever forget the sound of Lani dying downstairs.

“I didn’t help,” she whimpered finally. “I left her down there and hid.”

“Listen to me, kiddo. You couldn’t have done anything. You’re alive because you did that, and so it was the right thing to do.” His voice took on a harder edge. “I had to leave Boomer, and Derrick, and . . . and Greg too. At the beach.”

Sarah tried to catch her breath as she asked, “Why?”

There was no immediate answer. Instead, she heard Kai’s hushed voice in the background, hissing something at his younger brother, then the crackling sound of a hand being placed over the phone, and a quick muffled exchange of heated words. Paul’s voice came over the line again.

“Listen, kiddo, we want you to have Mike take you to the police station in Pearl City, okay? Tell them what happened at the house. We’re leaving right now, and we’re going to come get you there,” Paul said. “Can you guys do that?”

“My brothers want to know if you can take me to the police station,” she asked, looking up at Mike. He nodded like it had been his plan all along.

Putting the phone back to her mouth, Sarah said, “I think that’s actually where we’re headed.”

Mike said, “Pearl City, right?”

Sarah lifted the mouthpiece again just as the streetlights went out, followed immediately by the rest of the lights in town. Only the small pools of headlights remained. Before anyone said a word, a rolling crack of thunderous sound rumbled over the truck, echoing down the long streets and off the buildings around them.

Heather sat up and craned her neck to look at the sky. “What was that?” she murmured. The storm clouds would be far out over the ocean by now. They rarely had thunder this late without a massive tropical storm.

Mike drifted off toward the curb and slowed the truck to a stop. A few of the cars on the road with them did the same, while several others swerved around and continued on their route. He was peering out of the windshield into the inky darkness, down the road, then turning his head to look up at the sky.

“I think that might have been some kind of explosion,” he finally said.

The knot of panic returned in Sarah’s stomach full force as she pushed herself up straighter in the seat, trying to see what Mike was staring at. Then she remembered she was still holding the cell phone.

“Paul?” she said quietly. There was no answer, not even the quiet hiss of a connection. When she pulled the phone away to look at it, she saw the screen read “NO SERVICE.”

“Mike, the phone’s dead.” She held it up for him to see.

He didn’t answer or take the device from her. His eyes still on the sky, he opened his door and stepped out slowly onto the road. All around them, cars were rolling to a stop. The road was quickly blocked. Other drivers were stepping out too, some messing with their useless cell phones, others trying to figure out what was going on with whoever happened to be close to them. Sarah could see a small group of men forming toward the front of the gridlock, all of them staring off south toward Honolulu, pointing occasionally and glancing back at the growing line of stopped cars. One man finally peeled off from the group, got back in his car, and pulled onto the road, driving away slowly.

Heather watched her father for a while and nudged Sarah. “Come on; let’s go see what’s going on,” she said, opening her door. The younger girl pulled her knees up to her chest and shook her head.

“I’ll wait here,” she mumbled. “Can you close the door, though?”

Heather nodded and walked away to join her father. From the cab, Sarah heard them conversing in low voices. Mike said something about a fire, and Heather nodded. Looking around, Mike ran his hand over the top of his head. Drivers had stopped in every lane, forming a massive jam of cars. He was looking for a route through when the awful sound of metal colliding with metal came from somewhere down the block.

“We’re never going to get out of this mess,” he grumbled. “With all the traffic lights out, it’s too dangerous to try driving.” He turned toward the truck and motioned for Sarah to get out. “We’re going to have to walk to the station,” he said, extending his hand. “It’s only a few more blocks, and I want to get you there safely so I know your brothers can find you.”

Sarah understood she had to go but could not will herself to leave the safety of the cab. She still clutched the phone, hoping that her lifeline to her brothers would be restored. With them on the phone, it had seemed as if their reunion was imminent. Without that link, it seemed the distance between them was insurmountable. Mike waited with his arm outstretched to her. Tucking herself into an even smaller ball, she shook her head slightly. Finally, he stepped back over to the driver’s side door and held his hand out for her to take.

“Everything’s going to be okay, Sarah,” he said. “I promise. We’re just going to walk to the station so we can meet Kai and Paul there.” His smile was warm, and she wanted to find the strength to uncurl and walk with him. But her lip quivered, and tears ran down her cheeks; beyond Mike’s face and the driver’s side door lay the pitch-black streets and confused voices of too many people she didn’t know.

Heather appeared behind her father. “Dad, can you carry her?” she asked softly.

He watched Sarah’s face for a moment, then repeated, “Can I carry you there, kiddo? Would that be okay?”

The knot of panic spasmed in her belly; she wanted more than anything to wait in the truck cab for her brothers to appear and take her somewhere safe. Instead, she gave a tiny nod and scooted closer to the door. Mike wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up off the seat, carrying her out into the dark night.

~

Karen Lau couldn’t believe it. The power had gone out at exactly the wrong moment.
Not that there’s ever a good moment for power outages in the ER
, she thought. The mugging victim had barely been stabilized when the seizures began. As Dr. Lau had called out instructions to the nurses, the girl vomited violently and began struggling against her IV and the electrodes attached to her chest. Equipment went flying as she flailed, screaming and jabbering nonsense. Dr. Lau had caught her eyes and thought she saw them clear briefly. In that second, the girl had looked terrified. And then a violent convulsion had thrown her onto her back, where she lay gurgling and shivering.

Just as suddenly as they had begun, the seizures stopped, and the girl lay on the gurney unmoving. A resident put two fingers to her neck and reported, “No pulse.” Karen shouted for the defibrillator, ordered a charge, and yanked the girl’s gown down to bare her skin. Just as the nurse cried, “Charge ready,” the lights had gone off. In the ten seconds it took for the backup generators to come alive, the defibrillator had lost its charge, and Dr. Lau had lost valuable time. It took another twenty seconds to restart the device and reset the charge level, and another fifteen seconds to charge it. Karen Lau had watched helplessly as the girl’s body lay lifeless on the gurney.

Then, a miracle: the girl’s hand twitched and grasped at the nurse, swatting away the pocket mask. She gasped for air. Everyone in the room stepped back, shocked. The girl’s eyes rolled in their sockets as she squirmed and groaned. Finally Dr. Lau said, with as much control as she could muster, “Get those electrodes back on her. I want her vitals, now.” The nurses rushed forward, struggling to untangle the cords and reattach them to the patient, who writhed and jabbered, swiped at them as they approached, and snapped her teeth. It took two orderlies to hold her down, shrieking and working her jaw as she glared up at them with bloodshot eyes.

“Hold her still,” Dr. Lau shouted over the din. The nurses managed to attach the first electrodes to the girl’s chest, and Karen Lau frowned. The monitor registered no pulse. But when they slid another instrument on her finger, the thin green line leaped to life, cutting a jagged line across the black screen.

One of the orderlies looked back at Dr. Lau and said, “We’re going to need to restrain her.” She nodded, and the restraints were quickly brought to the room and applied. All the while, she stood at the back of the room watching the girl growl and fight against the orderlies’ strong grip. She had been pretty, probably in her early twenties, with a thin frame and a beautiful tan. Now there was a strange pallor on her skin. Her face contorted horribly as she howled and shrieked, lips working haphazardly to form nonsense words that she hurled furiously out into the room, her eyes unfocused, unseeing.

Once she was restrained, Dr. Lau approached her and placed two fingers on the vein in the girl’s left wrist. The fluttering pulse matched the beeps emanating from the monitor. Carefully, the doctor laid the same two fingers on the girl’s neck. Again, she felt a steady, rapid pulse. Suddenly Karen Lau felt very foolish, standing here in front of nurses and orderlies, feeling for a pulse on someone who was clearly very much alive. She stepped away, barking orders at the waiting nurses, who leaped into action, clearing out of the room. When she was finally alone, Dr. Lau turned back to face the girl on the gurney, studying her carefully. Something was wrong; her instinct told her she was missing something, but try as she might, she couldn’t pin it down. She was just about to leave the room when she noticed the girl’s right wrist. Where the IV had been inserted, tiny blisters were beginning to form on her skin.

She mentally shrugged off the feeling of idiocy and placed a hand on the girl’s chest. Dr. Lau could feel the rise and fall of her lungs as she panted, the vibration of her throaty growl, the ticking of muscles as they spasmed and fought the restraints. But she could not feel a heartbeat.

Josie tapped the steering wheel nervously as they sat in a long line of cars waiting to exit the parking lot. Five of the seven booths had their lights turned to red, meaning all traffic was condensed into two lines. The driver of the vehicle in front had apparently lost a ticket and was having difficulty scrounging up enough cash to pay the penalty.

“Really? We can’t have
three
booths open?” she grumbled under her breath as another car pulled smoothly behind them in line. Josie glanced automatically in the rearview mirror, and Gary saw her stiffen in her seat. He squinted at the passenger side mirror, trying to get a glimpse of whatever had Josie nervous. Her car was a nondescript silver Honda that looked like it had been well used and well maintained. “Perfectly suited to blend in,” she had said in response to his look of hesitation. It sat low to the ground, making it impossible for them to see who sat behind them in a large black SUV. Whoever was driving had pulled up so close they couldn’t even see the headlights in the mirror.

“Shit,” Josie whispered. The car at the front of the line was finally allowed to go, and they crept forward as the line moved.