I've always liked the Fall. I like the sharpness of the morning air. I like the way the leaves go out in a blaze of glory. I like having the window open and needing a light blanket at night. Unfortunately, the last few days have been humid, and now we're in for a string of rainy days. It reminds me of when I was a kid and school would start. It always seemed rainy to me.
Doyle called yesterday. We agreed to meet for lunch today at a deli in Raritan Center.
I got up early. Earlier then usual. There was a strange feel to things, and I hadn't slept well. I didn't know what it was, but it was like an itch you can't scratch. Anyone who's spent any time in a hospital bed hooked up to monitors knows what I mean.
Rain was predicted for today, but so far it was only gray out. A humid day with a winter sky. I thought to clear my head by picking up something to eat and driving to Merrill Park. I took some bottled water, and picked up some apple strudel at ShopRite.
There was no one around as I pulled into the park. I thought there'd at least be a jogger or two, but I didn't see any. I pulled into one of the parking areas. I turned off the engine and started to open the strudel package when I noticed this guy. He was lying on one of the picnic tables, doing leg exercises.
Now, I'm all in favor of letting people do what they want, but this guy was lying on a picnic table. Where people eat. That didn't seem right to me.
I looked around. For all I could tell, we were the only 2 people in the park. I got out of my car. I held the Flasher down by my leg. I walked towards this clown.
"Excuse me." I called. He ignored me.
"You know, people eat on those tables." He still ignored me.
"Don't you think you should do that somewhere else." He stopped ignoring me.
"Fuck you.", he said, and went back to what he was doing.
I looked around. No one else.
Point, press, Flash.
I walked back to my car, got in, and drove away. He was still on the table, but I was hopeful that someone would clean it off once they found him.
I drove to Roosevelt Park. I still needed to finish my breakfast.
......................................................................................................................................................................
I met Doyle at the deli. I hadn't been there in a while, and they had changed a lot. They'd rebuilt, and were now an open-room cafeteria-style place, with a side room full of tables. You bought your food at one of three counters - depending on what you wanted- then took it in to the side room. I could see Doyle sitting at one of the tables, so I got myself a Philly Cheese Steak and an unsweetened iced tea and joined him.
"Hey, Denny. Thanks for coming. Good to see you." He was eating some kind of salad, and had a large cup of coffee on the table.
"Good to see you, too, Doyle. How're things?"
"Everything's good, Denny." He ate some salad, then wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Just thought you'd like to know how things turned out."
"How what turned out?" I said around a mouthful of steak and onions.
He smiled and drank some of his coffee.
"It's been almost 2 weeks since The Anniversary. Everything went well in New York. Yes, we had that "3 suspects" scare, but that was for controlled panic."
"Controlled panic? What're you talking about?"
"Look, Denny. We get a lot of threat chatter all the time, but when we were getting close to 9-11, it picked up. We expected that, and we wanted to add extra security, but the Mayor baulked at it. So Mr. Smith suggested that we "specify" a threat and Mr. Jones agreed. So there was a "possible threat" from 3 unknown individuals who may or may nor be coming in to the country. Whatever....it worked."
He went back to his salad.
"You mean that was all made up?"
"No...Not entirely. Believe me, there were threats. Viable threats. We stopped two of them, in fact. But we couldn't broadcast them. The media has given our enemies way too much information about our activities. We decided to give them something they could run with."
"Something that would give you what you want, and yet would still be partly true?"
"Exactly." He pushed his plate away, and had some more coffee. " And it did what we hoped. Mr. Jones got the credit and has been put in charge of the entire East Coast."
"So, now Smith will do, what..?"
He grinned. "Mr. Smith stays with the People Upstairs, only now there are only 5 members so they have to wait until a sixth can be appointed."
"And that means..what?"
"Nothing new can be started. In fact, the only thing we have to do now is wrap up some loose ends."
"Does that include me?"
"No. Although, to be honest, I don't know what Mr. Smith wants to do with The Project. But I do know that he likes you and what you've done."
He paused, finished his coffee, then looked right at me.
"The only loose end we have, Denny, is the guy you call Del. Our Delaware subject. We need to find him, and contain him."
"What do you mean by 'contain' him?"
"Look, Denny...we made a mistake with Del. He's...crazy. We have Events of his that stretch from Delaware to South Jersey. Fifteen. All within the six month."
"I didn't read anything about those."
He laughed. "Come on, Denny. Have you ever seen anything about your Events in the paper? Of course not. We make sure of that."
"Well..I thought you couldn't track him, that he slipped off your radar some how. How do you know he's involved at all?"
"True. Some how or other, he's made himself invisible to us. But he can't mask the signal the Flasher gives off when it's used. Believe me, he's involved."
I had to agree.
"OK. So..what happens now?"
He put his leftovers on his tray. "You wait. And you continue to do whatever you want. We track down and control Del. They add a member to the People Upstairs. We go from there."
He stood up, with his tray in his hands.
"Enjoy your lunch, Denny."
He left.
I pushed my sandwich aside. It was cold.
