It Sometimes Snows In May: A B.E.A.N. Police Novella by Tope Oluwole Read Free Book Online Page B

begins to observe Brown. The inner door slides shut, separating them.
     
    Ryles watches a thinner but healthier Zota walk towards her. He cracks a half-smile and shuffles his feet. At about a foot from the table, he puts out a hand on the chair opposite Ryles. Immediately Ryles rises from her seat and runs around the table, reaching for Zota. She places her hands on each sides of his face and then hesitates before slipping them around his neck. Her eyes water as she pulls him into a fierce hug.
     
    From the inner room Morefishco and Patel watch the embrace, and then at each other. “That don’t mean frack, Patel. Get a cyberdog and track them.” Before Patel could protest, Morefishco waved him down. “Got a warrant, and had him chipped and coded while he was still under. I’m not taking any chance.”
     
    “You do not believe Misses Brown is his sister?” Patel asked.
     
    “Your sister ever hug you like that?” Morefishco asked. Patel shook his head. “She’s no body bandit, but by the look of her, she’s been around the block more than a few times, and I’m sure she knows how to handle trouble.”
     
    “Really? What if the people those...body bandits come after him?” Patel asked.
     
    “That’s what I’m counting on?”
     
     
    Zota and Ryles walk out of the headquarters building. The sun low in the sky makes Ryles shield her eyes, until her sunglasses can auto-adjust. She moves briskly, slightly ahead of Zota.
     
                  “Are you sure you’re not my sister?”
     
                  “Damn. The guardie wasn’t kidding when he said you lost your memory.” Ryles glances behind her as they cross the street towards her ground vehicle.
     
    Three figures dressed like excretas, after a long day at the plant, join two others on the side of the street Ryles crossed to.
     
                  “I thought you were dead Zota. I didn’t know different until the guardies did a broadcast about a John Doe from the hover-shuttle crash at the DMZ,” Ryles says.
     
    “I remembered your face. You were driving a car. I was in the car with you… Then an explosion. The car was spinning,” Zota says. Ryles nodded. “I don’t remember anything before or after that. Morefishco told me he found me in a body bandit fridge, or something.”
     
    “Body bandits? Damn. No wonder Morefishco wasn’t too crazy to see me. How many people did you see before I showed up?”
     
    The excretas close in on Ryles and Zota.
     
    “About a two dozen.” Zota grinned.
     
    Ryles unlocks her ground vehicle with a swipe of her hand against a reader embedded in the door panel. Once there are both in the vehicle, Ryles eases the vehicle into the street. “Cloud plate.” Ryles commands. The vehicle registration, external placard image becomes obscure for a few second before its characters morph into a different registration alphanumeric. A block, and two turns later, Ryles glances in the rear view display, and notices the same car has been pursuing them since they got into the vehicle.
     
    “What?” Zota asks.
     
    “That black van has been following us since we left guardie HQ.” Ryles says, cutting her eyes to the rear view display.
     
    The van slips in and out of traffic until it catches up with Ryles’ vehicle. Ryles takes a sharp swerve into a narrow side street, scaring few citizens senseless.
     
    “You think they’re after us?” Zota asks
     
    “I know they’re after you. I just happen to be tagging along.” Ryles says.
     
    Ryles’ vehicle makes another sharp turn into what appears to be a dead-end road, but leads into an industrial park. Zota looks into the passenger's side rear display, and sees a figure lean out of the window of the van, with a shoulder-mounted something.
     
    “Now would be a good time to lose the guys behind us. I’m not in
    any hurrying to be in another ice box.
     
                  Ryles looks in the rearview display embedded in