He shifted his cane to the briefcase hand, and put his free hand on the door knob.

It was locked.

What? He hadn’t locked it.

He reached into his jacket for his badge, but of course the badge wasn’t there. Rangan Shankari had it.

He slid open the backup authentication panel next to the door, swiped his thumb across the pad, held his eye steady where the retinal scanner could see him.

ACCESS DENIED flashed across the small screen.

Just a mistake, he told himself. A glitch from the lockdown. Or the storm.

Stay calm. Stay calm.

He turned back to his desk, limped to it on his cane.

He picked up the secure line on his desk. He’d call security, have them unlock his office.

Nothing. The line was dead.

He was trapped here.

Chapter 77: End of the Road

77

END OF THE ROAD

Saturday November 3rd

Rangan woke to minds in turmoil. There were people on the other side of this wall, talking quietly, intensely. Something was wrong.

Outside the storm sounded louder and angrier than ever, a raging maelstrom of wind and water pummeling them, trying to beat them down.

Rangan crept off the cot and out into the hallway. There he found Levi, an exhausted-looking Abigail, and someone he didn’t know – a boy, sixteen maybe, soaked to the bone, his long black hair plastered to his face, dripping water onto the tile floor.

“What’s going on?” Rangan asked.

Levi looked at him, unhappily.

“Police are out,” Levi said. “They’re going door to door. Jordan here says they came to his house. They have a picture of the van.” He shook his head. “We must have passed a camera I didn’t know about.”

“I ran here,” the boy said. “Phones are down. Our house is half a mile up the road.”

Abigail spoke up. “We have to get rid of the van. Hide it.”

Levi nodded. “I’ll go.”

“Wait!” Rangan said. “If they catch you in the van, that’ll lead them back here.”

They all stared at him. These people who’d saved him. This boy who’d run half a mile through a hurricane to warn them.

“I’ll go,” Rangan said.

“The van’s unregistered,” Levi said as he led them to the garage. “From a junkyard. Just get it a few miles from here, dump it, and come back.”

“What about prints?” Jordan asked. “DNA?”

They stared at him.

“Like in the movies!” Jordan said. “You have to sanitize it. Dump it in the river. Set it on fire. Somethin’.”

Levi cursed something not very preacher-like under his breath.

They siphoned gas into a can. Levi gave Rangan a box of roadside flares.

“Dump the gas in it,” Levi said. “Open the doors. Get far back, then toss the flare in. You understand?”

Rangan nodded. “Tell the boys…” He stopped.

Abigail put a hand on his. “They know.”