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cellar door.
    “Ah, err, just waiting on the all clear from Chuck,” Elliot answered.
    He and Cindy had practically shot through the ceiling when their romantic embrace was interrupted.
    “He doesn’t mind,” Elliot had whispered to Cindy. “He already knows.”
    “It just scared me, Elliot, after… well, y’know.”
    He did know. The situation with that police captain in Twin Falls the day of the outbreak still affected her, along with the horror that would go on forever. The end of the world as they knew it … and everywhere they went, overrun by undead abominations. Yes, he did know.
    The Tall Man opened the door that led from the cellar to the house seconds later. His sharp senses had picked up on Mulhaven’s impatience, and he informed Elliot that everything was “good to go.” Elliot could tell Mulhaven to bring everyone in.
    “But leave the luggage for later,” he said.
    The Tall Man had calmed some since their escape from the airport, but it wasn’t to last.
    The shit was about to hit the fan.
    The president, Tom, their wives, and the president’s children came into the cellar, followed by Secret Service agents who still stuck to their charges like glue. They were followed by three or four soldiers before Holmes stepped in, unaware of the presence of the president, Transky, or the Tall Man.

    “ W e’ll get your bags later. First let’s get you settled, then—” The Tall Man stopped when his attention was taken by the clomping boots of a camouflaged soldier down the oak stairs. The M4 carbine and sidearm he carried weren’t the Tall Man’s cause for concern, nor was the elderly man he forced in front of him. When the next man came in, the Tall Man was left speechless.
    Richard Holmes.
    “Well, well, well. They say it’s a small world, and I guess it just got smaller.” Tom Transky was the first to speak up after recognizing Richard Holmes.
    Like the Tall Man, the president was at a loss for words. He had no idea the Tall Man also had a connection to this man he considered a traitor not only to his own country but to the human race. To see Milton Etheridge in anything but fine form was just as much a shock, but there was an element of pleasure, too. It was a delight to see Etheridge fall from such stratospheric heights. And now it appeared he had lost support from Holmes, judging by the way he was dragged in.
    The Tall Man struggled to find words. Holmes eyeballed the man he knew, and had surreptitiously engaged, as Charles Black. Then he stared at the president. They were all here. Holmes was as stunned as they, but he was unaware that the Tall Man knew his identity.
    Holmes had always hired good people, but when he employed one Charles Black, he got the best. Holmes didn’t think anyone would be good enough or interested enough to track him down. But the Tall Man did. When the Tall Man, through intermediaries, was hired by Richard Holmes ostensibly to keep track of Phillip Baer and his operations for the “good of the country’s security,” the Tall Man had decided he’d better check on who it was he actually worked for.
    “Yes, it is a small world, is it not?” Holmes agreed. The air in Kath’s cellar was thick with tension.
    The president’s wife recognized Holmes as a key member of her husband’s administration, but that was all. She felt the bad blood too, but this wasn’t the time to ask.
    “Come on, you two, let’s see if we can get a bite to eat,” she said to her teenaged children and ushered them to the steps leading into the house.
    Elliot felt something as well. “Go and help my aunt Kath, will you, Cindy?”
    “But Elliot, there—”
    “ Please, Cindy.”
    “All right, all right,” she snapped at him. “I’m going!”
    An uneasy silence gripped the room as all eyes watched Cindy go up the stairs.
    “So, is this old man still pulling your strings?” the president asked Holmes. He was alluding to Etheridge, who hadn’t focused enough to realize his current