Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [97]
“Trouble?”
“Don’t know yet,” Ford said. “Appears to be a roadblock of some sort.”
“Wasn’t the FPS supposed to set up checkpoints to keep guns out of Home?”
Ford nodded. “Yeah. Maybe that’s all it is.”
Earl pointed over his shoulder with a thumb. “John Wayne back there is sitting on a whole pile of guns.”
“He doesn’t look like John Wayne,” Ford said. “He looks like Lee Van Cleef. Can’t you get that right?”
“Whatever, dude. Hadn’t we better turn around? We don’t want them to find all that hardware, do we?”
Parker said, “Hang on a minute. There’s a police car and a couple of local officers up there, too. Maybe they’re not looking for guns. Let’s check it out, Fargo.”
“All right. Tell Mr. Callahan to make sure the tarp’s down good over those weapons. Maybe we can claim that it’s pipe for a windmill or something.”
“There you go, improvising again,” Earl said.
Ford slowed the pickup. There was a black RV parked off the side of the road that probably belonged to the FPS, but a Home police car was on the shoulder with its lights flashing. Two officers walked toward the pickup as Ford brought it to a stop.
“Trouble up ahead, fellas?” Ford asked through the open window. “A bad wreck, maybe?”
“No, it’s worse than that, sir,” one of the officers said. Both of them were Hispanic, but that wasn’t unusual out here in West Texas. “Some sort of epidemic. We’re trying to keep it contained until the CDC gets here.”
Ford’s heart slugged harder in his chest at the mention of the word “epidemic.” Had the bastards already field-tested their nerve gas by wiping out an entire town?
These two cops didn’t seem upset enough to be the sole survivors from Home, though. They looked somewhat tense, but at the same time, they were just doing their jobs.
“We’re just passing through on our way to El Paso,” Ford said. “If we roll up all the windows and drive straight through town without stopping, don’t you think it would be all right?”
The cop who had spoken before shook his head. “No, sir, I’m afraid our orders are clear. Nobody gets in or out of Home until further notice.” He pointed east. “But if you go back that way for a few miles, you’ll come to a county road that’ll take you up to the Interstate. That’ll get you to El Paso faster, anyway.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Thanks.” Ford put the truck in reverse. “Sorry to hear about folks being sick.”
“We’ll deal with it, don’t worry.”
“Well, so long.” Ford backed the truck around and headed back east.
“You believe him?” Parker asked.
“Hell, no,” Ford replied without hesitation. “Too many coincidences have piled up. Casa del Diablo being so close by, the citizens of Home being disarmed, now the town’s closed off…. Something is happening back there, and my hunch is that it’s happening today.”
“Now what?” Earl asked. “We can’t get into town to look around, the way you wanted.”
“Oh, we’re going to town,” Ford said. “We just have to find another way in, that’s all.”
CHAPTER 40
Alex and Delgado abandoned the police car behind the old abandoned cotton gin on the edge of town. The car would just draw attention, and they didn’t want that.
They took the two riot guns with them, though.
That wasn’t going to be enough firepower, Alex thought grimly as they made their way on foot, sticking to the outskirts of the community. They had heard all the gunfire from downtown, and it killed Alex not to be there protecting the people she had sworn to serve. Until they knew exactly what was going on, though, it was better for them to stay free to take whatever action they could.
Then they saw the helicopter get blown out of the air on the other side of town. “That was a SAM that took out that chopper,” Delgado muttered. “Where do those drug cartels get their hands on weapons like that?” He made a curt gesture. “Never mind. Everything’s available on the black market, and with the tons of money they make, they could afford to buy a nuke.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Alex said, knowing that one day it might come to that.