Childtime Institutions (continued)

“Brandt!” he called out, still trying to keep his voice low. When no response came after several seconds, he called out again, raising his voice a bit more. “Brandt?”

Brandt did not answer him, but a moment later something spanged against the rear of the vehicle again. The sound did not reverberate as much this time, giving Perez even less of an idea what it might be.

Rubber bullets?

That seemed unlikely, he decided, but had no better explanation as yet.

“Brandt!” He shouted this time, not caring if he might be heard by someone else.

He tried to peer past the vehicle again, but dared not rise above whatever little cover it seemed to provide for him at the moment. Taking a deep breath, he threw himself into a roll, silently hoping that he had judged the distance correctly.

He hit the side of the vehicle hard, slamming into it with his back. That was how he had planned to learn, but not with quite as much force. It stunned him for an instant, leaving him unable to breathe. He fought back against a surge of panic, fearing that he might not recover before someone took another shot at him.

Something slid along the gravel beneath the vehicle, but did not seem to make it all the through. At least, Perez did not see anything come out on his side. He had a sudden mental image of the car suddenly exploding into flames and wondered whether he might safer away from the vehicle after all.

Too many Tom Cruise movies . . .

He discovered that he was holding his breath and let it out when the vehicle did not ignite around him. As he was still unhurt, he guessed that whoever was aiming at the vehicle was still on the opposite side from him.

“Or reinforcements haven’t arrived yet,” he whispered almost under his breath.

Damn it, he cursed, wondering, Where is Brandt?

Unable to reach the radio inside the vehicle, he reached up and tapped the controls of the one mounted on his shoulder. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it when he all he heard was a wash of static.

Jammed? he wondered, glancing upward. Or those damned cell towers.

The signal towers were supposed to be encrypted and secure. Which meant, Perez knew, that it simply took an additional day or two for some hacker to penetrate them each time the security algorithms were changed. To convert them to scramble signals, rather than to enhance them and pass them on, was one of the first tricks that the hackers had learned.

Right after intercepting and broadcasting phantom calls, Perez remembered.

Unable to signal now for backup, Perez turned toward the edge of the vehicle, silently judging how many centimeters he would have to traverse to get there. It was a short distance, but one during which he would be noisy and vulnerable. There was no easy way to cross silently over the road’s crumbling surface.

Where was Brandt anyway?

Perez tried to shake off the hollow feeling that his partner was not going to be coming to his rescue.

I’m not even sure I can come to my own, he thought wryly.

Another spang, this time across the top of the vehicle, made up his mind for him. Perez gripped his weapons and shuffled, still kneeling, toward the corner of the vehicle. It turned out to be a wise decision, as something ricocheted off the glass of the window right above where his head had been.

He reached the edge of the vehicle safely and then turned and surveyed the area that faced his side of the vehicle. He saw no one out in the darkness.

Which is exactly how they want it.

Perez paused and then looked carefully around the edge of the vehicle.

He saw no one, which disappointed him. He had hoped to at least see Brandt’s body sprawled out on the ground. It was not there, which only made wonder more about where his partner for the evening might be.

Something spinged across the top of the vehicle directly above his head. It skittered across the rough roadway, but Perez could not see what it was or where is eventually landed. There were closing in on him, he recognized, which did not surprise him.

A sound came from behind him: the unmistakable sound of boots on loose gravel. Perez turned automatically toward the sound, expecting to find Brandt there. He barely had time to identify that it was not before the figure reached out and struck him. Darkness consumed Perez almost instantly, giving him a moment to regret that he had seen his girlfriend one more time before he died.

- 9 -

Sarena saw no one else as she passed down the hallway. She found it difficult to believe, for there appeared to be several rooms, that no one besides Kayla lived here. Her reticence at accepting Sarena did not seem to be driven by jealousy. Nor, Sarena considered, did it seem to come from the dissatisfaction of someone accustomed to living alone. The space had clearly been designed to house others.

“Where are they?” she whispered to herself aloud.

“Working,” Kayla answered flatly, with just a hint of diadain.

Sarena did not realize that she had spoken loud enough to be heard.