Nightfall Protocol

Chapter 12:The Police Station

They moved as a tight group through the remaining two blocks, Andrew on the outside with the M4 up, the Crews parents tucked close to the building fronts on his instruction. The mother had steadied herself with remarkable speed once the news about her sons had landed properly — grief and relief occupying the same body at the same time, the relief just barely winning. Her husband moved with one hand on her back and his eyes scanning the street ahead with a focused alertness that told Andrew he'd spent the last several hours doing exactly the same thing from behind a locked door.

They encountered nothing on the way back. The street was still and the fog had thickened again, swallowing the middle distance in all directions. Andrew wasn't sure whether the absence of movement was good news or simply an intermission.

The precinct came into view and Andrew registered two immediate changes from when he'd left.

The blue exterior light was burning steadily instead of flickering. And the front doors were open, warm interior light spilling down the steps onto the pavement, the red emergency glow from earlier replaced by at least partial main power. Someone had gotten the building operational.

Danny saw them first.

He came off the station steps at a dead run the moment his parents cleared the corner, covering the distance in seconds and hitting his mother with enough force that she nearly lost her footing. She grabbed him back just as hard, both hands fisted in his jacket, and the sound she made was something Andrew turned away from on instinct — not from discomfort but because it belonged entirely to them and to no one else.

Marcus and Joel were a half step behind their brother. The father reached his sons and said nothing, just wrapped one arm around Marcus and one around Joel and stood there in the middle of the pavement with his eyes shut and his jaw tight, holding on with the quiet ferocity of a man who had spent several hours preparing himself to never do exactly this again.

Andrew stood apart from it and watched the street.

A uniformed officer he didn't recognise appeared at the top of the steps, young, efficient-looking, and gestured toward the family with a quiet authority that suggested someone inside had already been briefed on the situation. "Sir, ma'am. If you'll come with me, we have a secure area set up on the ground floor. There's water and we're working on getting some food sorted." He looked at the brothers. "All of you. Come on inside."

Danny looked back at Andrew as they were ushered up the steps. Something in his expression tried to communicate the inadequacy of whatever words he was reaching for.

Andrew gave him a short nod.

Danny nodded back and went inside.

Andrew exhaled slowly through his nose, standing alone on the pavement for a moment with the M4 across his chest and the plastic bag still hanging from his left hand, now significantly lighter than when he'd packed it. The city beyond the pool of precinct light was dark and quiet and full of things that had no business being alive.

He was about to take the steps when he heard boots behind him, quick and purposeful.

"Officer Callahan."

He turned. The man approaching was broad-shouldered, mid forties, close-cropped hair going silver at the sides, collar insignia marking him as senior staff. His expression carried the specific tension of someone sitting on information they weren't sure how to deliver.

"Jack Mercer," the man said, extending a hand briefly before apparently deciding the handshake could wait. "Sir, I need to — there's something you need to be aware of immediately." He pulled out his phone, thumb already moving to pull something up. "The news broadcast that went out approximately two hours ago — they've been running it on a loop on every major network and it's all over online. Your name, your badge number, your photograph." He looked up from the screen. "They're saying you're one of the people responsible for the —"

"I know."

Jack stopped.

Andrew looked at him evenly. "I already know. Someone told me an hour ago in the middle of a street while I was pulling them out of an alley." He glanced past Jack at the open precinct doors, at the light and the relative safety beyond them, and then back at the city sprawling dark and infected in every other direction. "Is the captain inside?"

"Yes sir. Along with whoever we've managed to get back to the building."

"Good." Andrew moved past him and took the steps. "Close that door behind you Mercer. There's a lot to talk about and I'd rather do it with walls around us."

Jack fell into step immediately. "Yes sir."

Andrew walked through the precinct doors and into the light.