They arrived in the aisle with the bodies. As soon as he saw them Regan told Sirois to call somebody on the radio and collect the corpses.
“Those other guys were collecting them, too,” Adam said.
For chrissakes, is Adam going to tell them every freaking thing?
“What other guys?” Regan asked. “Where did you see them?”
And so of course Adam named the town and the date that he and Red saw those other men and how they seemed like a militia but not real military.
“They aren’t,” Regan said. His lips pressed tightly together. “What else did they do? Did you talk to them?”
“They can’t have, Lieutenant, otherwise they wouldn’t be here,” Sirois said.
“Are they kidnapping people?” Red asked, looking from one man to the other. “Why would they be doing that?”
Sirois seemed to realize he’d said too much, and neither of them answered her.
“Why would they take that guy’s body?” Red asked. “Are they doing some kind of tests?”
Sirois shook his head at her. “Sorry, that’s not something we can tell you.”
He did seem genuinely sorry, which made her more angry. How could their stupid orders be more important than people’s lives? Why was everyone so flipping secretive?
Uh, pot, meet kettle. You’re not exactly forthcoming yourself.
But it was different when Red didn’t tell them something. They were just being nosy, trying to herd her into a box. When she held back information she was just keeping herself and her (stupid) brother safe.
Of course, said stupid brother seemed willing to tell their life story to these guys.
“How are we supposed to protect ourselves from these people if you don’t give us any information?”
“You won’t have to worry about protecting yourself anymore,” Regan said. “We’ll be protecting you.”
“Like hell,” Red said. “I don’t trust me with anybody but me.”
“Show me the tracks,” Regan said to Adam.
And with that, Red was Dismissed. Their little game was over and Regan had determined that Adam would be cooperative, so she was out. Fine. She had more important things to think about. She was getting the hell away from them and all she needed was the right time to do it.
Adam went to one knee to show Regan the slithery tracks in the blood trail.
“Did you follow them?” Regan asked.
“Yes, into the back room,” Adam said. “And I found a hole in the concrete back there. Red said it was just a rat hole but I don’t think so.”
“Can you show me?” Regan asked. “Sirois, stay here with the girl.”
Now she was just The Girl, an annoying appendage without a name. Red tried to burn a hole in the back of Regan’s neck with her eyes. She caught Sirois giving her a sympathetic look.
Well, she didn’t want anyone’s damned sympathy. And she certainly didn’t want Sirois to remember that he had the magic staple gun in his hand and that Adam had submitted to his ministrations but she had not.
“So it’s something like a tapeworm,” Red said, as if the intervening conversation had never happened. “A parasite. But tapeworms don’t get inside people’s lungs. The digestive system and the respiratory system aren’t even connected in a way that would allow a tapeworm to get from your intestines to your lungs.”
Sirois gave her an admiring look. “You really do know a lot.”
“That’s grade school biology.” Red sniffed. “Don’t try to pretend you’re impressed. And anyway, I noticed you didn’t actually answer my question.”
“You didn’t actually ask a question,” he said.
Red drew her dignity around her and gave him her best glare. “I would think that the question was implied, but fine—if you want to be like that. If this . . . if whatever you’re talking about is like a tapeworm, then it wouldn’t be in the lungs, because biology doesn’t work that way. So how did it get there?”
“Who said it did?” Sirois said.
“My dumb brother,” Red said. “And you still didn’t answer the question.”