Free The Dishonored Dead by Robert Swartwood Page A

were open and staring back at the scientist he was seeing the dead child standing by the freshly dug hole, the shovel in his hands, the square rock on the ground, “the zombie never infected him with any parasites, did it?”
    “No,” Albert said. “But as far as the parents and everyone else is concerned, it did. We couldn’t take the risk of letting the boy tell his parents what Lewis had told him. His dead mind had already been tainted by living thoughts, so we had no choice.”
    Conrad realized this was the second time the name Lewis had been mentioned. He asked who this was.
    “He was the living you … well, hesitated in killing. He was a good, kind zombie, but it’s not surprising that he managed to escape our Trackers. He had attempted it before. And when it was clear our Trackers weren’t going to recapture him, they had no choice but to make an anonymous call into you. You see, normally we have two Trackers go out with one of the living each night, though after this most recent mishap we have decided to step it up. That’s why you’re here now, Conrad. We are going to start putting together teams of four Trackers every evening, to ensure that what happened the other night never happens again.”
    “Let’s backtrack,” Conrad said. “You still haven’t explained what you meant by ‘a major threat.’ ”
    Albert stiff face quickly became somber. He stared hard at Conrad and in a low voice said, “By a major threat I mean a force we have come to call the Ripple Effect.”
    “What’s the Ripple Effect?”
      “I can’t very well show you, at least not in person, but we do have videos documenting the event. We brought in … well, test subjects—”
    The phone on the desk buzzed. Albert, clearly annoyed, sighed and signaled for them to wait. He answered the phone, saying, “Yes?” and listened for a moment, and in that moment something strange happened: his stiff face fell, his body slumped, and the emptiness in his black eyes appeared to be magnified.
    When he hung up the phone a few seconds later, Norman asked what was wrong.  
    “It’s your headquarters,” the scientist said, and even in his words there was the sense of rapid decay. “Apparently it has just been bombed.”

 

     

     

     
    Chapter 10

     

     

     
    At the same moment Conrad and Norman merged onto the Shakespeare Expressway, headed toward the city, Denise opened the basement door at 58 Orchid Lane, reached inside and turned on the light.
    The steps weren’t dangerous, were actually quite sturdy, but she took her time regardless, thinking of the twins. She even placed her hand on her belly, for extra protection in case she fell.
    The basement was unfinished—something she and Conrad had been meaning to take care of ever since they moved in but which they never got around to doing—and she wondered why she never came down here to change things around. It was always on the first and second floors, always rearranging the furniture at least every other week because it was something to do, something to break up the boring monotony of her existence.
    She walked toward the washer and dryer, her hand still on her belly, finding herself walking in an almost waddle. She didn’t know why. She was less than a month along, which meant she wouldn’t be showing for at least another two months, but she remembered how hard it was being pregnant with Kyle, and she wanted to be ready.
    When she reached the washer and dryer, her hand dropped away from her belly.
    Denise looked around the basement, as if someone might be watching her—a ridiculous thought, yes, but one she couldn’t help—and then she stepped close to the wall, right at the corner of the washer.
    She reached into the tiny space between the utility and the concrete.
    At first she couldn’t find what she was looking for and panicked, thinking someone had found it, taken it away, notified the police. That right this moment cops were on their way. They would break down