Monsters of the Apocalypse Read Free Page A

you’re the
President now and your duty is to the people of America and you risk not only
your life, but their life, by not moving back to the perimeter!”
    October
looked down at the beautiful woman, small, made smaller by the ever looming
presence of Flores, but deadly in her intensity and intelligence. Long
ago, when he'd first brought her up from the ranks of intern to Assistant
Secretary she must have been younger, but he had no recollection of her seeming
any different. Her confidence was as strong and unflappable as the day he
met her. The loyalty that had always been missing in her tone and
demeanor was always crystal clear in the efficiency, and the success rate, of
her actions and the soundness of her advice. Even now, October knew she
was right.
    "You're
right, there is danger here. But, I have to go, Miho. I have to show my
people. How can they trust me to protect them from the nightmare that is
coming if I hide from just one man?”
    Miho sighed
and looked at Flores who remained passive and unmoving.
    "Mr.
President, do you know who the most trusted president in the last three hundred
and fifty years of American history was?"
    "Of
course. Honest Abe. Abraham Lincoln."
    "Do you
know who the first president ever assassinated was?"
    October
smiled and tapped his gun against his own temple knowingly.
    "But
they loved him."

Chapter
5
***
    The whiskey
glass appeared on the screen again as Arian stopped flickering the camera
feed. Jacob stared at the screen, saying quietly under his breath,
“Come on, Nestor. Come on.”
    The camera
view moved up from the whiskey glass to the mirror behind the bar. The
face on the screen, Nestor’s face, glared with half closed almond eyes through
long dark hair that hung over his face. The eyes glared directly through
the screen. Nestor showed no recognition or thought, his face was a
silent, immovable mask.
    Nestor's
dark skin showed no lines of worry or wrinkles of question and, except for the
white scar that went from his temple to the corner of his mouth, Nestor seemed
unchanged by the years. Nestor looked exactly as he had in that smoky
Mombasa bar so many years ago, right before Jacob had opened his face with the
edge of his knife. Jacob remembered the sound of the knife while he
stared at Nestor.
    Jacob didn't
breathe.
    Finally
Nestor nodded his head and said, "Okay, Jacob. I’ll be there.
I might not kill you. I’ll have to think about that.”
    “Okay, turn
it off. We're done here,” Jacob ordered.
    “And the
other one? The President's feed?”
    Jacob looked
over at the other screen where he saw the reflection of October’s smiling face
in his own living room mirror.
    “As
planned. We’re leaving. Turn them off.”
    Just as Arian flipped the switch,
Jacob heard October laughing his name.

Chapter 6
***
    “Mr.
President, we’ve checked every inch of the mansion and he’s not here. We found
this...”
    October, now
rummaging through Jacob's pantry looked up at the tiny electronic devices that
the nervous computer specialist held in his hand.
    “What is
that?”
    “A camera
and mic set. The same one they… I mean you… you have. That you have
in you. The same transmitter.”
    October
grabbed a package of nuts and opened it with his teeth, then poured the
package's entirety into his mouth. The specialist watched and waited as
October chewed.
    “So he
removed his own camera," October said spraying a mist of nuts towards the
nervous man. "Then he blocked the feed well enough that you’d think he
was trying to hide it, but not so well that you wouldn’t find it and hack
it?"
    "Yes
sir, Mr. President."
    October
froze and stared with violence at the computer specialist.
    "Why
were you looking?"
    "What?
I'm sorry, sir," the specialist stuttered. "What do you
mean?"
    "The
thing about that is, he wouldn't do all that, without then tipping someone
off. Jacob leaves nothing to chance. He wanted me here. He
used that camera as the bait. He would make sure that the