If you had told him a week ago that he would be excited to see Ben Casey, Adam would have laughed out loud, but at that moment Ben was a beautiful sight.
Ben stood in the spot where Adam had last seen Kevin, Elianora, and his mom. But where were they now?
Two figures ran over to Adam, and he recognized them instantly by their movement. It was Jimmy and Mark.
“You’re one lucky man,” said Jimmy. “If you hadn’t come out of there when you did Ben was going to blow the whole thing up.
“I guess that does make me lucky,” said Adam, not realizing until that moment how hoarse his voice had gotten. The water breathing and running had taken a toll.
“I’m not the only lucky one. You two aren’t zombies, and you’re not dead. I want to hear what happened, but where are Kevin, Elianora and Mom?”
Jimmy stepped aside and pointed a few feet behind Ben. Adam saw Marius, Gurpreet, and Don hunched over three lumps on the ground.
“They’ll be ok. They’re just getting the antidote. It’ll take a few minutes for them to recover,” said Jimmy.
Adam noticed that the men who were guarding his mom, Elianora, and Kevin were lying on the ground a few feet from the group.
“As for those guys, I’ll tell you about that after Mark tells his story. It’s short and sweet – like him.” Jimmy joked.
Mark gave Jimmy an angry look, then sighed and began telling his story.
“Well, when you locked me in the tunnels, I started making my way to the junction nice and quiet. When I made it to ring tunnel, I went left because I though it would be a shortcut…and I sort-of got lost. Those tunnels get confusing,” said Mark.
“All you had to do was walk to the junction, go straight across and take the first one to the left,” said Adam, “or feel for the 9:00 marker.”
“I didn’t know that!” Mark replied, indignant.
“You saw the map. You followed us through the tunnels, how come you didn’t know?” asked Adam.
“I wasn’t watching. You were leading. I just followed.”
Adam put his face in his palm. “Go on,” he said.
“I was only a little bit lost, and after walking a long way down a tunnel, I knew I was in the wrong place, so I just turned around and walked straight for the junction. I heard a noise and started walking like one of the sleepers when a guard stepped into the junction. I made a groan to get his attention, and he pointed his gun at me. It really scared me and I nearly dropped the act and ran - ”
“- but that would involve running,” Jimmy interrupted.
“Ha ha ha,” said Mark, “anyway, my acting worked. He grabbed me by the arm and led me straight to the meeting room. He took me to the back and sat me down behind Jimmy’s parents then left, but there was another guard at the door watching over all of us. A little while later, the first guard came back and dragged me out of the meeting room. He knew I was still awake and asked me where Jimmy was. I told him we split up and I didn’t know. He tied me up at the front desk in Town Hall and said Larix would get answers out of me later. I was pretty worried, but Ben and Jimmy showed up a while later.”
“I guess it’s your turn,” Adam said to Jimmy.
“Now you get the interesting story,” said Jimmy, elbowing Mark lightly.
Mark elbowed him back hard, making Jimmy wince.
“When I left the school I knew I didn’t want to walk straight down the middle of the road. I ran across the street and behind the church hall. After that, I followed the back alleys all the way home, taking my time before I crossed every street - like a ninja, only better.”
Mark rolled his eyes at Jimmy.
“That coating on our shoes is amazing! I made no sound, even on the gravel. I was sure my breathing was going to give me away at some point because that was the only thing I could hear. Anyway, when I reached home, I had already figured out where Mom would have hidden her pin. She has a purse that she only takes to work, then hides it when she gets home. She thinks we don’t know where it is, but we do. I’m not telling you, though.”
Adam nodded, indicating that it was alright.
“Thankfully it’s Sunday and Mom didn’t have to work, or she would have had it with her when they put her in the tunnels. I dumped everything out on the bed, and when I couldn’t see it, I felt the purse. I found it, of course. It was in a hidden compartment. Where else would it be? But I figured it out.” Jimmy’s chest bulged during the last sentence.
“Please Jeff, go on…” said Mark, which made Adam break out in a hearty laugh. Jimmy’s chest fell. He looked as if he were going to refuse telling the rest of his story, but must have decided that it made him look good enough to continue.
“When I left my house, I knew they would have guards around Town Hall, so I didn’t want to go there. I was kind-of tired from running, so I decided to try going up the back alley to Ben’s house, and if I couldn’t get in the shed I would see if the bar was open. The only problem with that is I had to cross Main Street, straight up from Town Hall.
When I got there, I peeked out from behind a building and saw a guard out front. He was pacing back and forth kind-of strange, so I decided to watch him for a minute and decide if I was going to run for it or not. Right away I found out why he was pacing. He ran to the side of the building and unzipped his pants. I guess he really had to go! The second I realized what he was doing, I ran for it. He didn’t see me and he sure wouldn’t have heard me.”
Mark was about to open his mouth to insult Jimmy, but Adam held up his hand to stop him.
“Thanks,” Jimmy said to Adam. “I got to the shed and it was closed, but I used the pin and got down to the jail cell. Ben was in the cell in a daze. They even tied his hands and feet and laid him down. I was lucky that the way they laid him down I could still reach his head, so I gave him some of the antidote. You know how they say not to wake an angry bear? I just witnessed it when he came around. You think he swears a lot normally, wait until you hear him when he’s mad!”
They all looked to Ben, who was in the middle of tying Larix’s hands. Ben heard the comments.
“If you don’t like it, don’t come to my house if the Roughriders are losing!”
“Have no fear, I’ll stay far away during football season,” said Jimmy. “Anyway, Ben told me how to open the cell and get him untied. After that, I just followed along. He had a jar of the stuff we had on our shoes, but he coated the insides of his pants and his arms with the stuff too. He literally made no sound when he moved. It was strange to see an overweight old bald guy moving like he did - no offence,” Jimmy added as he looked to Ben.
Ben grunted in response.
“From then on, it was the Ben show. Let me just say, you do not want to make him angry. I saw him do things to those guards that they’ve never even thought of in the movies. He didn’t kill them, but they’ll have a hard time walking from now on.”
Ben laughed loudly, “They’ll be fine. With a good chiropractor and a month of bed-rest they should be able to feed themselves again.”
It was the first time they heard Ben laugh, and they didn’t want to hear that ever again.
“So, these two took out the guards,” said Mark, pointing at Jimmy and Ben, “then Jimmy and I started by waking up Marius, Dad, and Don. We told them what happened after feeding more of the antidote to other Sentinel League members. The men discussed a plan, and we showed my mom and Karl how to wake everyone.”
“They tried to leave without us, but I convinced them that we might know something they needed, so they brought us along,” said Jimmy, proud of himself again.
Mark nodded, “Ben had snuck away without us noticing, so we followed the other men out to Elianora’s. You know the basement room where we hid all her books and stuff? It has a secret tunnel that comes out in the trees near here. By the time we got close enough, we could see Ben standing here with the guards on the ground.”
Adam was listening intently, taking it all in.
Mark continue
d. “Dad and the others started talking about their options while they laid the three down to give them the antidote. Ben said they had agreed to blow up the whole thing in this situation. Soon after, we heard Larix yelling at you. Ben already had a tranquilizer gun, but he gave a real one to my dad and told him to shoot Larix if he didn’t go down from whatever was in the dart. You popped out, Ben dropped Larix with two shots, and you know the rest.”
“Adam!” came a shout from behind Jimmy. Mary had woken up and ran toward Adam, grabbing him in a big hug as soon as she was close enough.
“Are you alright? Did he hurt you?” She examined him, full of concern. It felt strange, as Adam couldn’t remember Mary ever being concerned about him that much.
“I’m okay,” said Adam, fidgeting in her arms.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Mom. Are you?”
Mary felt her nose and winced. “I’ll be fine, thanks.”
The awkwardness was broken when they heard someone clear their throat. Kevin stood nearby looking tired and sheepish. Adam broke out of his mom’s grip.
“Sorry I told them about the pebble being in your pocket instead of the bag,” he said. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“That’s ok,” said Adam.
“No, it’s not. I feel terrible. All he asked was ‘where is the Keystone’ and I couldn’t stop. I pointed and said, ‘In Adam’s pocket. The one in the bag is just a piece of gravel.’” Kevin’s face showed genuine disappointment in himself.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. You heard what other people told him. No big deal. I’m safe, he’s caught and we’re all ok. Nobody died,” said Adam, although that wasn’t true. He thought of the two guards down below.
Kevin smiled a little. “Thanks,” he said, slightly louder than a whisper.
“You look terrible,” said Adam.
“You don’t look like you just came from the spa either,” said Kevin.
“I could go for some of Kevin’s coffee right now,” said Elianora, startling the boys.
They turned and looked at her. “How…” Kevin started.
She held up a hand to silence him. “Thank you. All four of you. Your quick thinking saved us all. But where is the Heartstone? I assume it is still hidden?”
“It was a fake,” said Adam.
“Are you sure?” asked Elianora, shocked at the news.
“As soon as I gave it to Larix, he knew it was fake too. He thought I had the real one and was trying to escape with it.”
Elianora looked concerned.
“What are you going to do with him?” asked Adam.
“He’ll be shipped to a special prison made just for him. Hopefully he will be there for a long time. It is soundproof, so he won’t be able to talk his way out.”
“And the rest of the men that followed him?”
“First, we send them to our prison. We will interview all of them and find out which ones are genuine criminals and which are just under his influence. A committee will decide what happens to them from there.”
Adam was almost afraid to tell, “There are two guards down there.” He pointed down the stairs. “Will someone get their bodies?”
Ben laughed. “I doubt they’re dead, son. We don’t kill anyone, unless we absolutely have to.”
Elianora nodded. “They will be fine, although being in a dark soundproof echoless room can play with your mind a little.”
Adam felt a lot better at the news, but another question popped up.
“Larix said that his men had captured ‘the other two’, but Jimmy was never caught. I’m confused.”
“That is typical Larix. He found out about the other two while questioning me. He used that knowledge and a lie to make sure you felt helpless and out of options. That way, you would tell him everything you knew.”
Adam now understood and felt like he had been fooled, although in the end everything seemed to work out.
“I need to speak to Adam,” Elianora said as she pulled Adam aside, indicating she wanted privacy.
They walked to the other side of the shed and stopped.
“Tell me everything that happened, including all of the images you triggered along the way,” she said.
Adam told the story, step by step, shuddering when he thought about breathing underwater. Elianora listened and absorbed every word. Twice she made Adam tell her the instruction he triggered while grabbing the fake Heartstone, and twice more what he read from it. Her face looked concerned the entire time.
“You don’t know who took it, do you?” said Adam.
Elianora shook her head. “I thought it was here. It’s the first time in many years that I don’t know where it is, and I don’t even know how long it’s been gone.”
“What do we do now?” asked Adam after a long pause.
“Well, we continue living the way we have. Larix will be safely imprisoned for a long time, and you will be safe. We will keep teaching the ways of the Sentinel League because there are still many things Mankind isn’t ready to know.”
“But what about the Heartstone?” asked Adam.
“Larix will be locked away so it doesn’t matter where the Heartstone is. For me it’s almost a relief not to be worried about it constantly.” Her eyes showed that she spoke the truth.
Adam nodded in agreement.
With that, they rejoined the group.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Another sunny summer day shone on the town of Grayson.
It had been a week since the fog surrounded the town, and when it left it brought change.
The Sentinel League members were happy that their long-time foe was on his way to prison, never to be let out again. Special members came to transport Larix at the request of Elianora. Only she would know the status of the Elite Transport Team, and she would inform everyone once Larix was secure in his new home.
Since the incident, the whole community knew about the Sentinel League, and all residents were invited to join as initiates. The missing residents of Waldron were found, still in perfect health. The residents of Langenburg weren’t so lucky. A few of the sick and elderly passed away due to their extended time locked underground.
* * *
Adam sat in front of the store as he had done the day he had first heard about Langenburg.
Aggie and Martha walked past, deep in conversation, once again ignoring Adam. They discussed their gardens and talked about how the bugs were eating their potato plants. It made Adam remember how clueless he was those few weeks ago.
In mid-sentence, both ladies stopped. Aggie didn’t move a muscle for half a minute, followed by a strange full-body shake. After she recovered, she turned around and walked straight toward Adam.
“You need to stay safe,” she said, looking him in the eyes and pointing at his chest.
She caught Adam off guard. It didn’t seem like one of her usual stories that were so easily ignored. It felt the same as when she had warned Jimmy about his shoelaces long before he had tripped on them in the tunnels.
“Why? Larix is gone,” said Adam.
“No. Larix is about to escape. He thinks it was your fault he was captured and that you know where the real Heartstone is. He will come for you, but I can’t see when. You need to stay safe.”
She stopped speaking and her whole body shook again. When she stopped, Adam could tell she had changed somehow.
A confused look came over Aggie’s face. She turned and walked back to Martha. “Like I was saying, I’m sure those potato bugs were living in the potato sacks when we bought them.” They continued on with their prior conversation as if Aggie hadn't said a word to Adam.
How does she know that Larix is about to escape? he wondered.
The hair stood on the back of his neck.
About the Author
Scott Gelowitz grew up in Grayson, Saskatchewan,
and now lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his wife Jennifer and their four children.
Grayson is used as t
he setting for this novel, and most of the places are real. The people, however, are completely fictional.
The Book of Adam – Town Secrets is Scott’s first novel, as well as the first book in the series.
For contact information, or information on other books in The Book of Adam series, please visit:
www.scottgelowitz.com
Town Secrets - The Book of Adam 1 Page 40
