False Prey: A Wildfire Novella (Wildfire Saga) by Marcus Richardson Read Free Book Online

nation when…”   His voice trailed off and Sang sighed after a moment.   “Well, I guess it was going to be the best…who knows now.   Might never get done.”
    “So…” said Danny, scribbling in his notebook.   “Why was the university trying to outsource that job?”
    Sang frowned.   “Do I look like an upper-level manager?   I work in IT, man.   My boss told me someone needed to be at that conference and I volunteered.   I always do extra stuff, you know?   Looks good on the resume.”   He sighed.   “That was the worst decision of my life.”
    “Okay, so you were at this conference…” prompted Danny.  
    “Yeah, so they wrapped it up early after the power started going out and President Denton’s speech—you know, the one where he told us to rise up against President Barron? Everything happened so fast after that.   One day, we were all sitting there taking notes, talking about where we’d meet for dinner after the meetings, then— wham— suddenly the Blue Flu might be back, there’s a war going on in California, and President Denton’s sick.   And then he’s telling the whole country to start a civil war.   It was all too much to take in, you know?   They ended up canceling the rest of the conference, and I can’t blame them—the students on campus were getting pretty worked up…”
    “What do you mean, ‘wound up’?”
    “Oh,” said Sang, casually flipping a hand in the air.   “They were demonstrating, lobbying the administration for more information—just before I left, I heard that one of the dorms was set on fire and people had broken into the school store.   It was like they were all penned up on campus and no one really had a way to get home and they just went…crazy.”   He shook his head.   “I was just happy I was able to get the hell out of there—a lot of my colleagues had flown in from other parts of the country.   They were stuck there after the airlines started shutting down.”
    “Yeah, it was a shock to everyone, I think.”   Danny’s fingers were absently tapping on the table while he thought.   “Hey, you mind if I smoke?” he asked.   “I can open the window here…”
    “Knock yourself out.”   Sang turned back to the ceiling and propped his good arm under his head.   “Anyway,” he said, still looking up, “I got in my rental and started north.   It was only a couple hours’ drive but the company insisted I get a rental.   They didn’t want any wear and tear on my personal vehicle.   They’re good about stuff like that, you know?   Company paid for a nice car, all the gas, eats, the works.   I love working at Syntronic.”   He sighed again.   “So there I was, about halfway back, listening to all the doom and gloom of those emergency news broadcasts—”
    “I hate the sound of those warnings now,” said Danny.
    “Yeah…every time I hear one I get all antsy.   Like, what city has it now?   What horrible thing just happened?”   He chuckled ruefully.   “Anyway, the last one I heard was warning people about North Korean sympathizers and how they were spreading the flu across rural America…I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”   Sang grew quiet.   After a moment, he turned his head and looked at Danny.   “Hey man, you lose anyone in the Blue Flu?”
    Danny looked down at the lit cigarette in his fingers and sighed.   He took a long drag and blew the smoke out of the side of his mouth toward the now-open window.   The outside air tickled his skin as he started to speak.   “Yeah,” he said quietly.   “I lost my daughter.”   He leaned back in his chair and ignored the creaking protest of the ancient furniture.   He brought the cigarette to his lips and inhaled deeply again, savoring the almost burning sensation in his chest.   He exhaled and immediately felt calmer, despite digging through his long-buried memories of that awful time in his life.  
    “Keisha.   She was sixteen.