Free The Devil's Assassin by Brian

Linus’ clothes are tossed on the easy chair in front of the
window.
    At the room’s
closed door, light leaks into the room through a space at the bottom of the
door. A shadow moves in that light. The doorknob slowly begins to move. Linus
remains undisturbed in his bed. Soon the knob stops turning and is followed
immediately by a hard knock. Slowly, Linus wakes, not recognizing where he is.
The knock comes again.
    He throws off the
covers and shuffles to the door in just his boxers. He stands next to it. There
is no peek hole.
    “Who is it?”
    There is silence
for a moment and then an answer. “Pizza delivery.”
    “I didn’t order
pizza.”
    “Government
agent,” says the female voice. Now he recognizes the voice and opens the door.
    He is just as
surprised as he can be when he sees June Dituro standing in the hallway.
Sitting next to her in the hallway is a small overnight bag. She notices his
disarray and lack of clothes with wide brown eyes, quickly looking away.
    “I’m sorry to
wake you. I had to knock five times before you heard.”
    “You’ve come a
long way to deliver me your government pizza, Agent Dituro. I hope it’s still
warm.”
    “I couldn’t help
myself and ate it hours ago.”
    “Then what are
you doing here?”
    June bends over
and picks up her bag and then squeezes past Linus to enter the room. Linus
follows her in and grabs his pants off the nearby chair, putting them on.
    “I’m here to help
you on your self-appointed quest,” says June. “I didn’t check in cause I wasn’t
sure you’d be staying another night.”
    “What about the
DNA test?” queries a still groggy Linus. “Any results?”
    “It’s done.
Ninety-eight percent of his DNA is the same as ours. He’s a close cousin of
Homo sapiens.”
    “Not a cousin I
want to be close to,” scoffs Linus. “At least you can go public now.”
    His pants are on
and he grabs a shirt, putting it on, though not buttoning it. “Speaking of
which, now that you’re here, can you send a couple of e-mails? Detective Chin
in China and Hanson in Canada need some official corroboration so they can
start hunts for these creatures. They’d get more support if a U.S. government
agency could back up my claims.”
    “Where am I going
to find a computer to send e-mails?”
    “Don’t you
government ‘agents’ ever go out prepared? I have a laptop over there.”
    June sets down
her bag and first walks over to the window to throw open the heavy drapes
letting the bright sunshine into the guest house’s dark room. The view is out
the rear of the guest house and a heavily treed backyard, though not so heavy
as to block the sun. She then walks over to the desk on which sits Linus’
laptop computer.
    “What about other
governments?” asks Linus. “What about the public?”
    She stops at the
desk, removing her orange cardigan sweater. She is wearing a long sleeve white
blouse and khaki pants.
    “I’m not in
charge of letting other governments know about this issue or any issue, though
I am sure that the lab is going to get calls in about 100 languages this
weekend. Same with the public. There are people in the
government who take care of these things.”
    Linus looks
doubtful.
    “The wheels are
turning full speed now, Linus. I promise.”
    He seems somewhat
mollified by her sincerity. She sits down and opens the laptop, pressing the On button.
    “How about the hunt for ‘our’ creature?” Linus asks. “The wheels turning
on that too?”
    “The police were
brought on board, fully, yesterday. Detective Maas got his all-points bulletin
and I imagine the press is all over the issue about now.”
    Linus smiles as
he digs in his duffle bag for the phone cord for the computer’s modem.
    “That’s good
news, June. Let’s hope there’s more good news to be found in Argentina.”
                    ›
    Fairmount Park is
a large outpost of nature in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with lots of trees,
grass, and ponds and