D. MacHale - SYLO

Laska stepped aside to reveal Captain Granger walking toward us from the sheriff’s office. The guy was as calm and cool as if he had just been sipping a lemonade on the porch, not gunning down a fleeing man.

“These kids seem to think they’ve found our culprit,” Laska said, pointing to the chunk of Ruby that I was still holding out.

Granger was more interested in the black plastic. He grabbed it out of Laska’s hand, examined it, then tossed it dismissively on a desk. He then held out his hand to me as if demanding to see the Ruby.

I gingerly held out the chunk. Granger snatched it with his bare hand—too tough to worry about something as trivial as being contaminated by a substance that might kill him. He examined the rock with a cold, appraising eye.

Laska said, “They said that some fella named—”

“I heard,” Granger said, cutting him off sharply.

It was obvious that Granger had no respect for the sheriff.

“Where can I find this fellow?” Granger asked.

“I…I have no idea,” I replied. “He’s not an islander. Said he was passing through but he keeps on popping up. He was at the football games. And Marty’s funeral too.”

Granger nodded thoughtfully.

“We’ll find him,” he said as though it was an absolute certainty. “It’s a tall tale but we can’t afford to discount anything. Thank you both for bringing this to my attention. I’ll dispatch a team to clean up the beach immediately.”

“What about that plastic?” I asked. “Do you know what that is?”

Granger gave me a smile that showed no warmth whatsoever. “My guess is that it’s a piece of a boat’s hull, but you would probably know better than me.”

Tori said, “That was no boat.”

Granger shot her a look. I was afraid that we had just put ourselves into his crosshairs.

“We’ll collect everything and determine its origin,” he said as if annoyed that he was being challenged.

“Great,” I said quickly.

Granger strode past us, headed for the door. He was about to exit when he pulled up short and turned back.

“You said there was something else?” he asked.

This was it. I looked at Tori. Her eyes were on the floor again. I looked to the sheriff with his belly hanging over his belt. Compared to the steely Granger, he was a joke. Granger was a professional soldier who looked as though he would ruthlessly impose his will on friend or foe. And why not? He had the power of an armed, occupational force at his disposal. All Sheriff Laska had was Deputy Donald. I trusted Laska, but there was no way he could protect us from Granger once we accused him of murder.

“Yeah,” I said before Tori could say another word. “I’m embarrassed to admit this but…I tried some of the Ruby. That’s how I know what it does. I only took a little but it was enough to feel the effect. It’s bad stuff.”

Tori shot me a surprised look, but didn’t say anything. She’d gotten the message.

Granger walked back to me, staring me down. His sharp gray eyes sent a chill up my spine. Did he know I wasn’t telling the whole truth? Worse, did he know we had seen him gun down that man? It was all I could do to keep my knees from knocking together.

“That’s it?” he asked, as if he knew there was a whole lot more.

“That’s it,” Tori said with conviction.

Granger shot her a look as if surprised she had dared to answer when he was addressing me.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s it.”

“All right, then,” he said. “I’m sure the CDC people will want to talk with you.”

“No problem,” I replied. “I live over on—”

“I know where you live,” Granger said.

That one statement chilled me more than anything else he’d said or done. It meant Granger knew a lot more about Pemberwick Island and the people who lived here than some military officer who just so happened to be assigned the oversight of a quarantine. It was a warning.

“I’d like to ask you all to keep the information about this “Ruby” stone to yourselves and let the CDC do their investigation. It wouldn’t serve anyone to start rumors.”

“Makes sense,” Laska said. “Right, kids?”

Neither of us replied.

Granger put on his red beret and said, “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again, Mr. Pierce. Miss Sleeper.”

He turned and strode toward the door.

“Captain Granger?” Tori called out.

My stomach twisted. What was she doing? Granger stopped, did an about-face, and looked at Tori with impatience.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“Going?” he repeated, puzzled.

“With the quarantine. It can’t be easy to keep people happy under the circumstances.”

Granger gave her an ironic smile. “It’s not my mission to keep people happy. I’m here to keep them safe.”

“Right, by keeping them on the island. What would happen if somebody tried to leave? Or should I ask, has anybody tried to leave?”

Granger stared at her, evidently trying to read her. My knees went weak. Tori was not only good at knots, she was pretty good at playing with fire. It would have been interesting to watch, if I wasn’t standing in the fire with her.

“No,” Granger finally stated. “Everyone has been very cooperative. Nobody has tried to leave.”

“But if they did, what would you do?” she asked. “I mean, what kind of force are you authorized to use?”

Granger gave a condescending smile that looked as painful as the time he tried to be charming on TV.

“That’s a situation I don’t anticipate having to deal with,” he said, trying to hide his obvious arrogance. “We’re all in this together, Miss Sleeper.”

“Yes, we are,” Tori said.

Granger gave her a nod and turned.

“Captain?” Tori called again.

I winced.

Granger stopped and looked back at her. Again.

Tori said, “How can you send a team to clean up the beach when you never asked us where it was?”

I wanted to scream at Tori for baiting the guy but couldn’t in front of the sheriff and the receptionist.

The smile dropped from Granger’s face. Tori had hit a nerve.

“You told the sheriff it was near your house,” he said. “And I know where you live as well, Miss Sleeper.”

With that he turned and left…and I started breathing again. Sort of.

Tori spun to the sheriff and said, “Who exactly is in charge here, sheriff?”

Laska sighed and shrugged. “Until this quarantine is lifted, it’s Uncle Sam. I’m stuck here just like everybody else.”

For a second I thought Tori might tell him about the shooting. I didn’t want that to happen and if she started I would have cut her off again. I didn’t want anyone to know what we knew, especially not somebody who was under Granger’s thumb.

“Let’s go,” she snapped and went for the door.

I could finally relax. At least we were on the same wavelength again.

“I hope you’re right,” Laska said to me.

“About what?” I asked.

“That red stone. Who knows? Maybe you two will be the heroes that end this nightmare.”

“Yeah, who knows?” I said and ran after Tori.

She hurried toward her scooter and I had to run to keep up.

“There’s more going on with this quarantine than we’re being told,” she said angrily. “This has to be far worse than they’re admitting or they wouldn’t be killing people who try to escape.”

“You keep saying escape, like we’re in prison.”

“It’s starting to feel that way,” Tori said with a slight quiver in her voice that told me she was as scared as she was angry.

“So what should we do?” I said. “We have to tell people what’s really happening.”

“Yeah, but not yet,” Tori said quickly. “At least until they figure out if the Ruby is causing the Pemberwick virus. If it is, then this nightmare will be over. When SYLO leaves, we’ll tell the authorities everything. We’ll tell anybody who’ll listen.”