M Sellars - The End Of Desire

“False alarm,” Constance’s voice suddenly blipped from the speaker. “Not her.”

“Dammit,” I muttered, as I allowed the oxygen-depleted air to sigh from my lungs.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was 8:04.

“The real adrenalin doesn’t kick in quite yet,” Ben offered. “Believe me.”

According to my watch, it was 8:15 before the radio crackled back to life.

“Male subject approaching Mandalay,” Frye announced. “Brown hair, blue over white jacket.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Probably some fuck gonna hit on ‘er,” Ben grumbled.

Three minutes later, the radio burped with Constance’s voice, “Subject handed me a note. He said a woman paid him fifty dollars to deliver it. He said she told him to look for someone who looked just like her waiting at the carousel at eight-fifteen and that her name would be Felicity. Sounds like our girl. I guess she wanted to size me up.”

“Did he give you a location for her?” a male voice asked over the air.

“He pointed toward the storyteller’s area back down the path, but he said that was about forty-five minutes ago. I’m looking but I can’t see her. Too many people. But, it’s a good bet she’s watching from somewhere nearby to make sure the note got delivered.”

“Frye?”

“Nothing. I’m moving that way now.”

“What does the note say?”

“It’s one of the map handouts,” she replied, her voice still muddied by the carousel music. “Display number eight has been circled.”

“Eight is the Glacier motion simulator. It’s closed for maintenance,” the male voice said.

“I guess she wants some privacy after all,” Constance replied.

“We’ll need time to move into position,” the voice came back.

“She’s sure to be watching,” Constance said. “I don’t want her to get cold feet, so I’m going to start that way now.”

The radio hissed for a moment, then the voice answered, “Don’t get in a hurry… We need to reposition. Book, you tail Mandalay.”

“Already moving,” he replied.

“Tamm, you fall in behind Book.”

“It’s not going to look right if we have too many people moving into a closed area,” Constance announced. “Keep some distance.”

“Acknowledged,” Tamm said. “Hanging back.”

A minute passed then Constance’s voice came across in a low tone, “There’s a huge crowd at the forest exhibit, and they’re blocking the path. It’s going to take me a minute to get through.”

Book’s voice burped in behind hers, but it was partially drowned out by the sound of the aforementioned crowd. All that really came through was, “Dam-t, -st Man-lay.”

“Say again?”

“The crowd,” he repeated, the transmission somewhat clearer. “I’ve lost Mandalay. She was…”

Before he finished the sentence, the muffled report of something that sounded far too much like gunshots popped loudly from the speaker followed immediately by panicked screaming.

“Shots fired!” his frantic voice fell in behind.

“Everybody move!” the other voice ordered. “Now!”

Seconds later Book’s voice was shouting across the radio again, devoid of all composure, “SHOTS FIRED! MANDALAY’S HIT! OFFICER DOWN!

OFFICER DOWN!”

If adrenalin hadn’t been dumping into Ben’s system before, it definitely was now. He came fully upright in his seat as the frantic chatter continued to burst from the radio.

The device hissed for a second, then we heard Book exclaim, “JESUS CHRIST… JESUS CHRIST… ONE GOT PAST HER VEST! SHE’S BLEEDING BAD! WE NEED PARAMEDICS RIGHT NOW!”

“GODFUCKINDAMMIT!” Ben yelped the curse as a single word before launching into, “GODDAMN FEEBS CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT! SONOFABITCH!”

I was so dumbstruck that I couldn’t make any words of my own come out of my mouth. I simply looked at him with a horrified expression as the radio continued to belch frantic chatter.

“Book! What is your exact location?!”

“Just outside the forest exhibit! Right before the path splits! Hurry!”

“Found the gun,” Frye’s voice blipped over the air. “But no shooter. The area is clear. She must have dispersed with the crowd.”

“Washburn, cover southeast,” a voice ordered. “If she didn’t go past Book and Frye, then she has to be heading that way. I’m on the main path coming in toward you.”

“Acknowledged.”

“We’re locking down the park,” another voice added. “SWAT will be here in two.”

The device continued to burp and hiss with various voices for a moment, all of them reporting that there was no sign of Annalise. There was a quick burst of silence, then one of the agents came across the speaker, “I’ve got something. Red wig in a trashcan outside the restrooms near the stuffed animal workshop… Be advised the subject may have changed her appearance.”

“WHERE ARE THOSE PARAMEDICS?!” Book’s frenzied words bled through on the heels of the announcement

“Mutherfuck,” Ben muttered, a jumbled mix of fear, anger, and desperation wrapped tightly into his voice. He was already half out of the van as he shouted at us, “Stay here!”

He didn’t waste time closing the door, and the alarm chime was dinging incessantly to warn of the keys in the ignition, adding its irritating insistence to the already chaotic swirl of voices issuing from the radio. The crash I had felt coming was now exploding around me, and the outcome was as bad as I feared, if not worse.

Sirens were filling the night air as they closed in on the park. Their urgent wails were bold punctuation for the overwhelming despair that was starting to tighten its grip around me.

My heart was clogging my throat as I watched my friend take off across the street at a dead run toward the zoo entrance. I still couldn’t manage to form anything resembling coherent sentences out of the distressed thoughts rushing through my already tortured grey matter. I turned in my seat and looked at my wife.

“Gods…” I whispered. “Felicity…”

Instead of finding a similar grief stricken expression on her face as I had expected, what greeted me was a thin smile as she slowly shook her head. She looked into my eyes, then cocked her head to the side and clucked her tongue.

“Chienne damnee,” she said with a fluid Southern accent. “I knew she was going to do that.”

A fresh dose of panic was injected into my veins as the haunting echo in her voice hit my ears. It dawned on me that I should have seen this coming, and that I now knew the reason Felicity had been keeping so quiet. Her body was here, but she wasn’t even present-and hadn’t been for several minutes. Miranda had seen to that. I can only imagine what my expression must have been as the realization washed over me, but whatever it was, it seemed to amuse her.

“Surprised, little man?” she asked.

Next to me the radio crackled. “This is Frye. I’ve got an open maintenance gate on the southeast corner. Washington drive, just north of Concourse.”

“Lawson, your team has the parking area. Did you copy that?”

“Ten-four. There are maybe twenty to thirty civilians on the lot. Parker, Bates, stay with the lot…”

The rest of the broadcast faded into the background as I made a grab for my wife. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when I got hold of her, but I knew if I didn’t, things could only get worse than they already were. As I twisted in her direction, she jumped back, shifting to the left and out of my reach. My seatbelt snapped tight as it achieved the end of its tether with a jarring stop, biting into the side of my neck and preventing me from moving any farther.

Whipping back around, I fumbled with the latch, trying to pop it loose so that I could pull free of the restraint. But, I wasn’t fast enough. My wife seized the opportunity to scramble to the right, moving directly behind me toward the side door. At the same moment the catch released and I started swinging around again, the sound of the sliding door wrenching open with a heavy thud added itself to the insane concert of noises.