Dead Man Running (39 page)

The mail contained something more – notes from adoring women, some very explicitly describing their sexual encounters with Jan's man.  She opened a manila envelope and out tumbled
a
lock of hair.  It took Jan a moment to discern, based upon the coarseness of the hair, that she held someone's carefully harvested pubic hair in her hand.  She dropped the hair and its accompanying erotic picture in the trash.

Jan stood, walked into the kitchen.  She poured herself a glass of filtered water and took two Advil's, hoping to hold off a headache.  After yesterday's events she needed a calm day and the continuing remin
d
ers of her betrothed's infidelities were not helping matters.

She had been late.  She had been late before and at first it didn't bother her.  She couldn't possibly be pregnant – she hadn't had sex with anyone besides a dead man for months. 

To her surprise, a couple months back, during sex with Wiley, he climaxed and a familiar warm fluid filled her.  She bolted upright and asked him what just happened.  Zombies are dead – they can't produce sweat, spit, semen or anything else.

He had some new magicians from
Haiti
, he said, "
Who
are able to make me a complete man again
.
"  He had broken another barrier.

"Are you becoming human again?" she asked, not trying to hide the hope in her voice.

The question elicited a wicked laugh.  Once he quieted he said, "I never want to be human again.  I just want to be more of a man for you."

He was more than enough of a man for Jan Sugerfoot, her sore booty could testify to that.  Jan thought no more of it until she turned up late. 

The weeks went by and she began to get worried.  She finally made an appointment with her old primary physician back in
Harlem
.  She took the train up and a cab to her office.  She didn't tell Wiley anything because she didn't want to worry him.

They had to pick Jan off the floor after they told her
that
she was pregnant.  She hustled straight to her
husband
's office in the
Weaver
Federal
Building
in DC
.  His new assistant
d
irector, Rebecca Singler, was in his office. 

She was human, which Jan hated.  The fact that she was blonde, shapely and able to work closely with
Ben
every day, made her hate the woman even more.

Jan confronted Wiley after he reluctantly dismissed 'Becky Sings' from his office.  The woman's nickname was another thing she hated about her.

Wiley claimed that he did not know that his semen contained active sperm.  He claimed that the Haitian wizards didn't tell him.

He kissed her then wrapped his strong arms around her waist and pulled her close. 
He state
d
that he love
d
her and even more so as she
wa
s
now
"
the vessel, the world's second Mary
"
. 

He felt her stomach. "I can feel my child growing in you.  You are the mother of the new evolution of mankind." 

She cried and he wiped her tears with his kisses.  Her feelings poured out of her, especially about the other women he enjoyed.

"Quiet your complaints of my indiscretions.  I have much work to do and I need a release of my manly desires.  That doesn't mean I don't love you, Jan.  I do.
  It is
only
you that I love.  The others are merely used like tissues.
" 

"And Becky?" she asked.

"Our relationship is purely business," he said and she could tell that he was lying.  It was all a lie and on top of that she was pregnant. 
Damn.

She sat back at her desk in the home office.  She was calmer now and her head contained only the echo of a headache.

She had spent
the previous
night considering an abortion.  She realized that to take the baby's life would be like taking her own as Wiley would surely find her and kill her. 

No, she would not kill her child.  Jan Sugerfoot was a survivor and she would bring this child into the world.

To her surprise,
during the course of that
long night she began to think like a mother.  She had to make a way for herself and her child.  She needed a backup plan in the event that her relationship with Wiley goes down the drain. 

Sabotaged by Becky Sings, perhaps?
 

Or m
aybe the feds would catch up with him and gank his ass?

She
went back into her office and
opened all of Wiley's snail mail.  She organized the cash and checks and found in that one week
's
correspondence over forty thousand dollars worth of donations.  For the super PAC she documented about one fourth that amount.  For herself – to be deposited in an off shore bank account she would set up that afternoon – would go the remainder.

Jan Sugerfoot was a survivor and she would make
damn
sure she and her child ma
d
e it, no matter what.

TWENTY-T
HREE

WASHINGTON
DC – JUNE 2012

Manchester Lee opened his mouth, closed it again after catching flies for a few moments.  He had heard nothing like this before.  He uncrossed his long, slender legs
, planting both feet on Elias Turnbull's plush living room carpet.  He took a quick sip of red wine and stared at the person speaking gibberish across from him.

"Say that again,
if you'd
please."

"Wiley's entourage now includes a barber."  Elias said this with no amusement anywhere on his face.

"Why, pray tell, would a zombie need a barber?"

Elias kept his eyes on his visitor.  He had held back this nugget during their dinner – really bad Tai takeout.  He wanted to totally focus on the man's reaction.  He sensed that there were things about Wiley, and zombies in general, that
Manchester
and his buddies knew but perhaps
w
ere
not sharing with him
.  The hair growing may be one of those things.

"You tell
me
," Elias replied.

Manchester
took another sip of wine.  Elias took the bottle and refilled his guest's glass.

"Are there any humans in his inner circle?"

"Only the woman we discussed."

"Rebecca Singler.
  She's been quite the busy one according to what you've shared with Mama Tenneday.
"

Elias nodded. 
"Yes,
she's
his new
a
ssistant
d
irector."

"Therefore he has no need for a barber to keep his team tidy."

"He doesn't, unless his hair needs to be trimmed periodically.  He doesn't, unless his beard is growing and needs to be shaved every day."

"It's the only viable conclusion.  He has found a way to be more than an undead.  He has found a way to be both alive and dead at the same time."

"But how?  Dead is dead, right?"

Manchester
said nothing.  He stood and slowly moved to Elias' picture window.  The view was spectacular – the White House and Capitol building, the
Potomac
beyond, a silver snake
gleaming in the moonlight.

"This changes everything.  Our plan ultimately was to 'out' the zombies after we destroy Wiley.  They are not like us – they don't breathe, they're not warm, their hearts don't beat.  In short, they would be easy to identify and eliminate.  With this, it will make it more difficult to find them all.  If he can grow hair then I have to assume that his blood is warm and flowing throughout his body.  He is something we have never seen on this planet – a zombie human hybrid."

Elias drained his own glass.  He stood next to
Manchester
.

"I think we need to take it one step at a time.  We have to assume that if we kill the alpha – Wiley – the others will become inert, far less threatening.
  We're assuming that Wiley is transforming all his people into these hybrids.  I think that's a false assumption – that level of ability, I
believe
, he would keep for himself
…a
t least initially."

Manchester
nodded.  "I agree.  His psychology – paranoid inspirational – would dictate that to be the case."

"Any thoughts on how he acquired these human traits?"

Manchester
met Elias' eyes.  "I know that he has subsumed more of the magic community in the South.  We have also heard rumors that he has reached into Eastern Europe, the Middle East and
Africa
for the best mystics.  There may be someone in a village in east Africa or a small suburb outside of
Budapest
who knows how to bring life back to a zombie."

"I told you that
Mira
is on our side.  We need to talk with her, coordinate our plans."

"Agreed.  However, I would like you to come with me.  There, perhaps, is someone who may be able to tell us about Wiley's condition and how it may impact us going forward."

"You think it might affect how we go about killing him?"

"It could.  For example, c
ould
we simply poison him?  Will a gunshot to the heart do the trick?"

"Who is it
?"

"His name is Winston McLaury.  He is a professor of Far Eastern studies at
Georgetown
.  He's been part of the resistance from the start."

Elias nodded.

"I'll call
him, tell him
we're on our way."
 
Manchester
removed his cell from his pocket.

"I think it better if we take separate cars," Elias said.

"Yes, give me five minutes and then follow.  Head west on the
inner
Beltway and I'll call you with directions from there."

The men shook hands. 
Manchester
brushed his long blonde hair out of his eyes as he stood in front of Elias' front door.  "I need a bloody barber myself," he said and the men laughed.

Manchester
's smile faded.  "Your bird, Miss
Mira
, do you think she realizes that we must kill her
grand
father?"

Elias shook her head.  "I think she wants to work out a way to save him, to repair his b
ody
, restore him to normal."

"Okay, tougher question.  Does she realize that she must be killed?  Do you understand that, my friend?"  He placed a comforting hand on Elias' shoulder.

Elias felt the cold finger of death trace a path up his spine.  "She doesn't.  I do."  The two looked in each other's eyes for a long moment.

Since
Brighton
Beach
he had shut that possibility out of his mind.

"When the time comes I won't ask you to do it.  But it has to be done – there are those zombies that she personally created
.   Killing her will assure their demise."

Elias nodded.  "Understood," he said.  He opened his door and let
Manchester
step out.

"Remember, five minutes,"
Manchester
said,
and then
he disappeared down the long dim hallway.

Elias delayed his departure as advised before heading for the elevator.  He hit the down button just as a car going up arrived on his floor.  Elias stood back to allow the passengers room to disembark. 

First off the elevator was Ben Wiley, followed by his lapdog Mookie Sills and two overstuffed security goons.

Wiley's smile was wide as he stepped in front of Elias.  "Mr. Congressman," he said and extended his hand.  Elias smiled back and shook the zombie's
paw
.  "This is a surprise, Ben," he managed.

"This is fairly urgent.  Were you going somewhere?"

"Just meeting a friend," he replied.  He grinned.  "A lady friend."

"
Mira
Hidar
should be in
Philadelphia
," Mookie said.  He placed two hard eyes onto Elias' face.

"She's not my only friend," Elias shot back.  "I
once
had a buddy by the name of Mookie who would know that I ain't a one woman man.
  He would know I don't roll that way.
"

Mookie thought for a moment and a smile bloomed on his face.  He slapped Elias on the back with enough force that the elected official almost lost his balance.  Elias quickly steadied himself and led the Wiley group down the hallway
and
into his apartment.