William Tyree: The Fellowship

He handed it to her. She took it and laid it on the photocopy machine, closed the lid and pressed the SCAN button. Her fingernails were two inches long. He hoped she didn’t touch any patients with those claws.

“Now what can I do for you?” She said as she handed his identification back to him.

Carver placed both photographs on the counter.

“Looking for a fugitive,” he said. “The man’s name is Adrian Zhu, but he could be going by another name. He may be with a woman. Her name is Mary Borst. And again, probably using an alias.”

The station nurse hovered over the two photographs, putting her finger on Mary Borst’s face. “When was she due?”

“Could be anytime. If the baby was premature, she could have been here weeks ago.”

The nurse shook her head. “I’ll tell you the same thing as I told the last guy. I haven’t seen them.”

Carver felt his face flush. “Last guy?”

“You’re the second person this week to ask about these two. The last guy showed me the same pictures, except he said nothing about the one guy being a fugitive. Said some bad people were looking for them. Said they were in danger.”

And those afraid of the Rule of Light will search the Earth for me. As it was in the time of Herod, it will be again. Many innocents will die.

Carver swallowed hard. His mind was tap dancing. “I’ll need to report this. What was the guy’s name?”

“If you don’t know already, maybe you’re not supposed to know.”

“Was he a fed, like me?”

She hedged, drumming her nails on the counter. Click-click-click-click-click.

“Please.” He glanced at her name tag. “Wanda? I have to find the scheduler who made this mistake. You don’t really want two or three more people like me coming in and wasting your time, do you?”

She shrugged. “I guess it’d be all right.” She went to the file cabinet and opened it. She was back in a minute with a folder full of photocopied identification cards. She flipped through the paper, talking to herself as she tried to remember the exact date.

“Ah-hah,” she finally said. “Here is your mystery man.”

She placed the paper flat and turned it so Carver could see. He bent down. The name on the ID was Sean O’Rourke. His badge was FBI.

Only he wasn’t O’Rourke. He wasn’t FBI. And he was no longer assigned to Operation Crossbow.

The man in the photo was Father Thomas Callahan.