Free Forest Park: A Zombie Novel by Jamie Marks

with live crosses to London about some A-rab asshole.” Tanya was Susan’s closest rival at Fox-5, and considered by Susan’s detractors to be just as gorgeous and intelligent, but definitely much less bitchier than she was, and more willing to put her leg over. “She’s going global, and I’m going fucking where? I don’t have time for this shit. I never get the chances I deserve, I certainly don’t get the breaks she gets,” she said as a little vein at her temple begun to pulse, as it occasionally did. “It’s just not fair. I deserve more than this.” Susan folded her arms and pouted.
    Charlie hated to see her upset. He wanted to say something to make her feel better, but he couldn’t think of what, if anything, he could say that would. He never could.
    Slowing again for another light change, he glanced over at a C-Trans Bus. Two teenagers jumped from the buses open doors and darted across the road, ignoring the oncoming traffic. An elderly woman wearing a broad straw hat, struggled to get down the same steps as she exited the bus.
    As Charlie continued trying to help Susan feel better, he saw a young Arab man reach out and gently clutch the old woman by her elbow, and help steady her as she struggled with the steps.
    The old woman smiled at the young man, while still clutching her bag tightly to her chest.
    I wonder what Bill O’Reilly would think of that, Charlie thought. Not every Arab was a terrorist.
     
     
    FBI HEADQUARTERS
     
    Special Agent Ambrose sat across from Harris.
    “I have some news for you about the person of interest MI-6 caught in London,” Ambrose said.
    “Really, I’m surprised,” Harris replied. “I thought MI-6 only leaked information to the Russians. It’s amazing how times change.”
    Ambrose smiled. “Indeed, times do change. Anyhow, he’s of Turkish origin...”
    Harris laughed. “The entire free world knows he’s from Turkey,” Harris said as he drummed a solitary finger on his desk. “Do you have any more amazing facts to dazzle the mind?”
    “Maybe. I called a friend of mine who works in data retrieval and Counter I-Defence strategies for the NSA,” Ambrose said. “I asked him if he knew anything about Batumi. He didn’t know too much, other than Batumi had been recently wiped off the face of the earth by a massive explosion. He told me that the base had been off the radar for years, but it did have a high level Bio-laboratory.”
    Harris settled back into his chair.
    “So I did a little more research,” Ambrose added. “Have you ever heard of a Doctor Josef Levy?”
    “He and Shapinkov used to work together.”
    “I’m not surprised to hear that,” Ambrose said, “because I think there may be a link to the heavy data traffic which came from the Tundra a while back, if you remember, and the data flows which started to come from Batumi soon after, just before the Georgian war. Both the Tundra and Batumi data packets contain links to Levy. And I think Shapinkov was in Batumi because of his friend, maybe they were---”
    “That’s enough,” Harris said. He was astonished at just how much Ambrose had learned. “A very good friend of mine is dead. So be very careful about where you’re taking this Ambrose.”
    “I believe Captain Bragin, the commander of Shapinkov’s OMON security detachment, is more involved in the explosion at Batumi than I first thought. I think he may have stolen something from the laboratory --- something Shapinkov was there to inspect --- and then sold it,” Ambrose said.
    “Are you saying all this has something to with the Turk they found in London?” asked Harris. God, he was like a dog with a bone.
    Ambrose smiled. “The NSA intercepted a photograph of Bragin’s decapitated head from an email account linked to a breakaway group of Al Qaeda, based in Anatolia Turkey.”
    “Once you’re done talking,” Harris said, “I want the name of your NSA friend.”
    “He’s a private contact.”
    “He’s a Federal employee