Falling For Rome 2

by Edwina Fort

  Chapter 23

  Unexpected…

  “In that day יהוה shall shield the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. And the feeble among them in that day shall be like Dawiḏ, and the house of Dawiḏ like Alohim, like the Messenger of יהוה before them!

  --Zechariah 12:8

  Nakhti

  “How you doing out there, Nak?”

  I exhaled loudly and very ignorantly, Rome’s a** was driving me crazy.

  I could hear Jo and Albert chuckling on the line…hell, I even think I heard the rustic sounds of Judah’s very dry chuckle.

  “I’m doing just as I was ten minutes ago when you asked me and the time before that, and the time before that!” I hissed under my breath as I continued to pretend to read the book in front of me.

  I was already irritated because I’d had these damn six-inch heels on since we touched down in D.C. two hours ago.

  “So… does that mean you’re doing good? You’re not out there feeling impulsive or anything, are you?”

  I stood from the library table and crossed the floor to the bathroom, making sure to switch my hips in a way that said come hither.

  “You know what? Now that you mention it, I do feel impulsive. I have the sudden urge to pull you out of that damn cable truck and strangle you to death! Leave me the hell alone!”

  All this I said while barely moving my lips, smiling at the group of college girls that left out the bathroom as I entered it.

  I was past grouchy. We’d stopped in Virginia for supplies, one of which was the nice luxury cable van that his royal majesty was now reclined in. On the outside, it looked like your average everyday cable repair van.

  On the inside was a portable computer lab fit for a king. Judah told Rome to get used to it because that van will become his home away from home. And guess what. The bastard sounded like he was right at home.

  While the three of us have been stuck in our position to watch for the pervert, Rome’s a** has been munching away on fruit, catching up on his Chess game…hell, I think we even heard him blending himself up a damned smoothie.

  Yeah…the van was that nice.

  “Hey, woman! Don’t get mad at me for doing my job. I’m here to make sure you keep bat sh*t crazy locked up,” his deep voice came out of the little device hidden in my ear.

  I heard Jo chuckle over the line. Well…I was glad we could entertain everyone while we wait.

  Not!

  “Is that what you’re trying to do?” I asked as I washed my hands. “Sounds to me like you’re trying to wake bat sh*t crazy up.”

  “Heads up.” Judah’s voice cut in. “Our mark is heading toward you now…”

  “How long?”

  “Nine seconds…”

  I quickly dried my hands off and then counted to four before I opened the door, colliding into the little nervous fella nearly knocking his glasses off his face. I made sure to really sell it, collapsing in his arms.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry…” I cooed.

  His grey eyes took their time looking over my body as he straightened his glasses. "No apologies necessary. Paul Howard…” He said holding out his hand to me.

  “That’s him…” Rome’s voice came in my ear. I could hear him typing away on his computer. “Be careful, baye, he’s a real f*** boy. He has several sexual harassment cases that have all managed to be thrown out. He has friends in very high places.”

  “Candy Parker…” I told him shaking his hand with a very loose grip.

  His little weasel eyes brightened with interest. “Your name is Candy?”

  I blew a huge bubble with my gum before licking my lips. “My mama named me right because I sure do like to eat candy.” And then I giggled.

  UGGGH! Disgusting…

  So, I guess you guys are wondering why I’m here playing the bimbo.

  I’ll have to give you the quick version. Apparently, girls have been known to come up missing from this library. By this being one of the oldest libraries in D.C., their disappearances have been getting no media coverage and no real investigations.

  It just so happened the girls that have come up missing all came from broken homes where no one will press the issue with the police because they were probably involved in illegal activities themselves. Judah believed these kidnappers are linked to the people that kidnapped them when they were babies and are the ones now trying to kill us.

  Although Rome, who has set up a separate line for him and me to communicate without the others hearing, didn’t think so. He said it was something altogether strange about this mission. He’d been looking into the place we’d gone first in Virginia to get our supplies for this job. Apparently, it was Judah’s American headquarters. He found out that the same folks that found that place also found Judah’s land back in Canada.

  Rome has been telling me that something is not adding up with Judah and he is not to be trusted. He didn’t think these people we were looking into today had anything to do with the mad doctor.

  But hey…who was I to argue? The boss said this is where we are…so, this is where we are.

  “Well, even though I do love candy, I think the real reason my mama named me that is ‘cause she’s a stripper.” I laughed and patted his chest playfully, making sure to blow another ridiculously large bubble…when it popped some of it stuck to my lip.

  “Oh…” I giggled and pulled the wad of gum out using it to remove the stuck-on gum from my lips. The little perve’s eyes greedily watched. I saw when the fever fell over him; I'd seen it enough times to recognize the sign. He'd made his mind up…he had to have me.

  “Damn, shawty, that’s sexy as a mutha f***a…” Rome growled in my ear. I knew he’d switched the lines over and was talking to only me.

  “Would you like to see George Washington’s secret room?”

  I opened my mouth surprised. “Like thee George Washington…the actor?”

  If eyes could dance, they would look like his. “Yes…the famous actor.”

  “Will he be there; can I meet him?”

  My stupidity only made him hungrier. “He should be…he’s a really good friend of mine, I can call him to meet us there.”

  I clapped my hands together jumping up and down, his greedy eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, which is crazy because I was fully dressed. When Judah’s wardrobe person brought out my first outfit that was a little skirt and a halter top, Rome hit the roof.

  “Hell naw, she not wearing that sh*t. Next!”

  Of course, he made the little wardrobe guy extremely nervous. “But sir, she is supposed to lure our suspect out with sex appeal.”

  “Are you blind? She’s already sexy as a mutha f***a.” He stormed toward the clothes rack. “Are all these in her size?” He snapped at the guy.

  The little man nodded… “Ye—Yes sir. These have all been ordered especially for her.”

  “Damn shame…I have to do everything around here.” Rome muttered as he began to go through the clothing.

  “I’m not impressed at all with your selections.” He continued to berate the poor man. “You know what? I’ll be ordering her costumes from now on…if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

  Judah, Jo, the Oldman, and I stood back shaking our heads at him. It was clear Rome was definitely going to be the heartbeat of this budding team.

  When he was done, I stood dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, a loose-fitting sweater that hung off one shoulder, and these damned heels.

  Very proud of himself he held out his arms gesturing towards me. “What do y’all think?”

  Judah nodded his head. “Not bad…” And that was that…

  “Okay, fellas, heads up, they’re moving,” Rome told the crew.

  The crew consisted of Jo, who was wearing a baseball cap pulled down low over his face and a cable repairman uniform, pretending to work on the library’s Internet for the last two hours, but had only been installing what Rome call
s his burrowers, Albert, who had been sitting at the computer researching natural remedies for arthritis, and Judah, who sat in another vehicle outside because he was too big and fierce looking to pass as anything other than a threat. He’d left his other men in Virginia.

  The little fella led me down into the basement of the library. “Whe--where are we going?” I asked with a little quiver in my voice.

  Quite naturally, I should be a little nervous at this point because not to be would only raise his suspicion.

  “Did you know that there is a secret city built under this one?” he asked as he gently grabbed my arm, fearing that I may try to flee at this point.

  Nervously, I shook my head as we went down another flight of stairs going deeper into the belly of the city.

  “Do you still have eyes on her?” Judah’s voice came in my ear.

  “I do…” Rome told him.

  "May—maybe I should come back another time, Paul," I told him as I looked around the long hall he was leading me down with wide eyes. There were no doors, just the one we'd entered and another way down at the end.

  “But I thought you wanted to see George Washington. He’s waiting to meet you and sign an autograph for you.” His eyes brightened as a thought came to him.

  “Have you ever thought about acting?”

  “I sure have!” I told him, all the nervousness gone from my voice. “How did you know?”

  He tapped his head. “I can tell. A girl as beautiful as you should be in the movies. Why I bet George will take one look at you and think so too. He has a lot of friends in the industry, he can pull some strings.”

  I clapped my hands together again. “Wow! Do you really think so?!”

  This evil man’s eyes nearly glazed over. “I know so…”

  Once we exited the door at the end, the going got a little darker and a little rougher. We were now going deeper into the earth on steps that looked ancient. In fact, the walls were no longer walls, but stone. And I couldn’t help but wonder how many young girls and boys too had ended up walking this route, never again to see the light of day.

  “This tunnel was built in 1776…” He supplied as he continued to lead me deeper.

  "They were built way before that…numbnuts…" Rome muttered.

  Although I wasn’t afraid, it was comforting to have his voice in my ear. For the first time, I didn’t feel alone on a mission.

  He walked to one of the torches that had been lit and pulled it…the stone opened to reveal a hidden door. When we entered it, everything brightened as once again, we were surrounded by pristine white walls…

  "Wait a minute…something is wrong," Rome said in my ear…I could hear him typing away on his computer.

  “What is it?” Jo asked.

  “These codes…these codes aren’t right.”

  “What’s wrong with the codes?” Judah asked…

  “They’re not normal computer codes.”

  “Speak clearly, kid!” he barked at him. “What’s wrong with the codes?”

  “They’re not codes at all…it’s a spell! Get out of there, Nak, it's a setup!"

  I didn't need to hear anymore…I slid the blade down my sleeve into my palm. When Paul turned to investigate why I'd slowed down I embedded the knife in his throat.

  Before his body could even hit the ground, I was heading back towards the hidden door, but it was hard to tell exactly where it was because the bright white walls looked whole. Frantically I raked my hands over the smooth surface looking for some kind of latch.

  “Rome, I can’t find the latch.”

  “I’m working on it, baby! The space that you’re in is completely covered in spells. It’s preventing my burrowers from getting through! Give me a sec…”

  I could hear his fingers attacking his keyboard. “Can you see the spells?” Judah asked. He was moving now.

  “Yeah, I can see them…I’ve designed a program that can recognize them when it encounters them.”

  “Good kid…Hold on, Nak…we’re almost there.”

  “Got it!” Rome cried as the hidden door slid open.

  But I gasped…standing outside of it preventing me from going anywhere were several tall figures that were covered from head to toe in dark robes that hid their faces. They were way too tall to be humans and as if to confirm my thoughts, bright angry red eyes suddenly burned from the shadow of one of their hoods.

  “What the f***?! Turn around and run, baby, I’m coming!” Rome called before the sound of him snatching off his headset and exiting the van could be heard.

  He didn’t have to tell me twice, I turned and hauled a** in the opposite direction.

  Rome

  What the f*** is going on?!

  My heart was racing out of control as I forced myself to walk through the library so that I didn’t draw any attention.

  What the f*** were those things standing outside of the door?!

  Once I got to the stairs that led down to the basement I was running again. I’d already looped the camera feed so the library’s little security booth didn’t see us. When I made it to the long hall that led to the tunnels, it was to see Jo, Albert, and Judah disappearing through the door.

  By the time I made it to the secret door that led to the space that was covered by the spells, they were all gone.

  “Dear Heavenly Father, be with your servant!” I prayed out loud as I ran in, but I didn’t make it far before the Politician’s arm shot out snatching me back. He put his finger on his lips signaling for me to be quiet.

  He, Judah, and Albert stood with their backs pressed against the wall behind a tall stack of wooden crates. It looked as if we were in a factory, which was confusing as hell because I didn't pick any of this up on my signal intel.

  Instantly, I searched for Nak. The Oldman held up a finger, getting my attention before pointing to a pile of crates across the huge space. Nak was there hunched down behind it. I exhaled when I saw that she was safe. When our gazes connected, she mouthed…

  “What the f***?!” before she tilted her head toward what was taking place farther inside the factory.

  Hell, I’d been so desperate to get to her that I hadn’t even taken the time to look ins—

  What the f***?!

  I blinked, not believing what the f*** I was seeing.

  There was a big rotating metal rack set up that had hundreds of human bodies hanging from it, like some sh*t you would see in a meat factory. Off to the side, two big ugly giants snatched one of the bodies down and threw it on the table. One of them lifted a huge meat cleaver and hacked off the leg at the thigh junction. It looked as if all the blood had already been drained.

  He then proceeded to cut the leg into bloody chunks. The other giant carried a chunk of the leg and sat it on the desk next to a fat doctor in a dirty lab coat whose back was toward us. He stood typing something on a computer in front of him.

  Without looking away from the computer screen, he picked up the chunk of flesh and scarfed it down like he was a dog.

  A noise of surprise escaped the Oldman next to me. Nak’s mouth opened as her frightened gaze shot across the room meeting mine. When the doctor turned in the direction facing us to type something on another computer behind him, we were able to see that he wasn’t a human at all. He was something that looked as if he was part human, part animal…maybe a dog, or a wolf.

  I turned my head and my stunned gaze met the Oldman’s. Like me, this was blowing his mind. However, the Politician stood next to him with no expression at all, just a general frown that said he was ready to kill anything that threatened him. Obviously, he was no help.

  Albert and I turned to look at Judah…desperately needing some answers. Nothing in his expression said that this was the first time he’d seen something like this. When he saw that we were looking at him and that we were f***ing tripping out…he stepped out from behind the box. The both of us reached out to grab him back before the beast man and his t
wo ugly giants saw him, but he dodged our hands.

  “End simulation…” He called and right before our eyes, everything just f***ing disappeared. But not really…it all seemed to be sucked up into a huge ball that turned into a bright light before becoming an older white gentleman in a suit.

  This was some next level artificial intelligence. And trust me, I’ve seen some sick virtual reality, but nothing like this. The old man moved towards us…well, at least, I think he was old. His skin appeared young, but his hair was white as snow. I knew for certain that he wasn’t really here with us, but he didn’t appear to be a hologram, so he must be a part of the simulation.

  We were no longer in the warehouse but in an underground cave. Standing surrounding us in a big circle were those tall hooded beings that had prevented Nak from leaving this space.

  “What the f***?!” The words escaped my mouth as I turned taking them in. This is some straight Eyes Wide Shut kind of sh*t.

  “You can say that again, kid.” The Oldman said, his expression resembling mine as he too took in the strange beings surrounding us.

  Nakhti

  I stood on legs that felt numb and hurried to Rome making sure to give the man in the suit and the strange hooded things a lot of space. Rome wrapped his arm around pulling me close. I clung to him. I’m not going to lie, I was freaking out.

  I’d never in my life seen anything like what I had just seen, and I’ve seen some horrible things in my life. I couldn’t tell what was real or what was fake. I felt like Neo from The Matrix when Morpheus first brought him back into the simulation.

  Judah went to stand next to the man in the suit as he studied us. He was taking in our response to what we’d just seen.

  “Politician, bring back Joseph.”

  The Politician studied Judah for a moment. I knew him well and he didn’t take too kindly to being ordered around, which was why I was surprised like hell when he nodded before his eyes started blinking rapidly as Jo came back to us.