Page 164 of Red Rooster

38

Topeka, Kansas

“But you cut grass,” Rooster said, stubbornly disbelieving.

They’d stopped to refuel, at a small landing pad with attached maintenance shed, small barracks, and fuel station.

Deshawn folded his arms and leaned against the brick side of the shed, shaking his head, small, rueful smile on his lips. “On paper I do, yeah.”

“But…you got out.”

“I did. And then I got pulled into something else. Here.” He thrust a bottle of blue Gatorade into Rooster’s lax hand. “Drink that before you fall over.”

Rooster made a face, but took a dutiful sip. He’d spotted a bench before, when he’d first put his back to the wall, and he sank down until it caught him now. His left knee flickered a moment, an echo of the pain that would eventually flare to life and cripple him if he didn’t get back to Red soon. If he didn’t–

“Okay, start talking,” he said. He needed a distraction. A mission.

“Alright,” Deshawn said, with a deep breath and the air of a man who’d practiced having this conversation. A few times. “So. It happened like this. After you up and took off, before I came home, Ash started digging into the Institute.”

The ideaterrifiedRooster. Ashley didn’t let things go, as a general rule, and she could have been silenced for her meddling. “She shouldn’t,” he started, and Deshawn waved him to silence.

“You gonna let me tell this, or not?”

Rooster grumbled, but motioned for him to go on.

“We talked about it on the phone every time we talked. It became her damn crusade: get the guys who tried to get you. And, well, her and Des, too. But. She went to the facility – the place in Queens – stood outside and tried to talk to the people who came out.”

“Oh my God,” Rooster groaned.

“I know, right? But she was on to something. By the time I got out, she hadfifteenmalpractice lawsuits all lined up. People who’d taken some kinda experimental drug from this place and had really, really bad reactions to it. Three were dead, and their families were suing on their behalf.”

“Jesus. But–”

“Oh, yeah, they’d all signed the waivers, but that didn’t stop Ash. And you know what? Turns out there weren’t any medical boards that had signed off on this trial. The whole thing was shady as shit. Ash knew it, and the Institute knew it. So when I got home, I started making some phone calls, seeing what I could learn about the place through military contacts. All the plaintiffs in her cases? Vets. That’s all the Institute works on: vets with medical discharges.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. And, apparently, some high-up suits somewhere didn’t like me digging. Homeland showed up at the house.”

“Deshawn.”

“Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t careful early on. I know that, and it’s on me. But then.” His voice changed, lightened in a way that drew Rooster’s nerves tight. “I was approached by someone else.”

Rooster waited.

Deshawn drew something from his back pocket – a business card – and handed it over.

Matte black. A phone number on one side, and a logo on the other. An elegant embossed lion done in a few minimalist lines.

“What is this?”

“The defense contractor I work for.”

“Defense contractor,” Rooster said levelly. “You went Blackwater?”

“No,” Deshawn said, firmly. “It’s not like that. A guy reached out, said he had some of the answers I wanted, and a job if I was interested.”

“And youtook it?”