by JL Terra
“What do we do with him?” Elaine’s voice held an acceptable amount of fear. Was she planning to finish the work she’d started the last time they were together? She should be scared. Ben wasn’t going to tolerate more experiments. Not again. And he wasn’t going to let her point a gun at him, either.
He felt the golem then. That will to destroy in the name of justice. It filled him, soaked through his muscles.
Black lines snaked across Ben’s vision. Images flashed through his mind. A man fell off a cliff to his death. Another slumped into a seat. One screamed in his face. Tried to run. Ben grabbed him, snapped his neck.
The Teacher and Elaine continued to speak. He couldn’t make out the words more than a blur of voices.
Ben shut his eyes as visions continued behind his eyelids. He couldn’t even open them. In a minute, would he lack the strength to breathe? Still the warmth flickered behind his breastbone.
The voices penetrated his thoughts.
“Look at him.” Fingers touched his cheek. Lifted his shirt. “It’s everywhere now. Spreads like a virus through the host. It’s really fascinating.”
“The will of the golem is not a virus,” the Teacher said. “It is a gift to the world. Now come, there isn’t much time to—”
Gunshots rang from outside.
A man screamed.
More gunshots.
“What if they can’t contain the golem?” Elaine asked.
“It does not matter. We have Mr. Mason. The golem will do whatever I ask it to.”
“Will it kill those men?”
“Hired guns? You shouldn’t care so much, Elaine. It will be your downfall.”
Someone lifted Ben’s legs and began to drag him across the floor.
“I was told it made me a better doctor.”
The Teacher sighed. “Our task requires complete commitment. Your feelings will guide you to make mistakes.”
“Like trying to kill him?”
“The heart is desperately wicked, Elaine. You cannot trust it. You must set aside your feelings and trust in God’s will. The golem was created to walk the earth, to bring justice for our people. For you. For your mother’s death. It was not the weapon that killed her, but the will that pointed the weapon and pulled the trigger. Your foe is stronger, as you have realized your frailty. Next you will face the ultimate test: it is up to you to bring us to our final goal.”
Ben poured every ounce of strength he had left into trying to move. It was useless. He was dragged down a hall. Bumped down a flight of stairs. Another examination room, like the one he’d been held in before. They had better not hook him up to that IV again.
But what could he do about it? There was nothing inside him but the golem and its need to kill. The will to act was useless without the strength to carry it out. What did it matter what happened to him? What they did to him. He shouldn’t care, so long as Taya might be alive.
To the end. To his last breath, he would protect them. Help them. Heal them. The golem could take everything he had. Ben pushed all his will toward the heat and prayed the golem knew what he wanted.
Would it even work, when so much of his strength had been used to heal the teacher?
He could suck Ben dry if it saved her.
Chapter 43
North of Charleston, WV. Monday, 20:47hrs EDT
“Right here.” Mei opened her eyes, leaning against the inside of the van between gun cases and a box that held plastic explosives. “Pull over, Remy.”
Remy pulled the van over to the side of the road.
Grant hung up the phone. “That was my brother, John. He said Mom checked herself out of the hospital and got in a cab. He said she wouldn’t even talk to him about what was going on.”
Mei’s stomach churned. First Daire, now Brenda Mason. What was going on?
In front of the van was the drive that led down to the Teacher’s house. The golem was there. Mei would put money down that Ben and her mother were both there as well.
She glanced at Remy. “You’re staying in the van, right?”
“Take Dauntless. He might not like Ben—actually I think that’s more about the golem than the man—but he can help you find him.”
“Okay.” Mei handed the woman a handgun. “It’s loaded. Ready to go.” If Remy didn’t have the dog, then she needed a different kind of weapon. “Stay safe.”
Remy nodded. She held the gun gingerly.
“Soon as this is done, we’re going to hit the range. Girl time.”
Remy smiled. “I’d like that.”
“Until then, if it isn’t one of us? Shoot it. No questions first, or later. It’s you or them. Don’t let it be you that’s left for dead.”
She didn’t wait for a response. Mei slid the van door open and hopped out. They’d have to hike down to the house, but they were finally close. Since she’d woken up in the car with Remy on speakerphone yelling and Ben nowhere to be found, Mei had been looking for him. Now she was actually here. She could find him. Find her mom. Help them.
Grant got out of the passenger seat.
“Get a move on.” She started walking to the road. Past the gate they could duck to the side and use the landscaping as cover. First they had to get onto the property. The only other alternative was a deep stream running parallel to the road, but she couldn’t jump that far. Gate it was.
Grant kept pace with her. Good. Otherwise she’d be on her own. “What are we walking into?”
“Nothing your fed friends can help with. We don’t have hours to wait for them to get here and assemble.” She paused. “Remy, you read me?”
“Loud and proud.”
Mei smiled.
Grant said, “Not big on backup, are you?”
“Of course I am.” She glanced over her shoulder. “When the backup is me.”
“So you waltz in there, guns blazing, and…what?”
“Shoot the bad guys. Rescue the good guys. Have you even done this before?”
“You mean during my twenty-five years with the US Marshals?” Sarcasm laced his tone. “Let me think about that…”
“Fine,” Mei shot back. “You’ve done this before.”
“Enough times to know the value of a team of feds who can clear a building quicker than the two of us.”
“Well, you’re all I’ve got.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Remy’s voice came through her earpiece. “And me.”
“Didn’t forget you.”
“The ‘me’ who has blueprints.” Remy sang the words.
Mei looked over at Grant. “This isn’t some mission, this is different. Your brother is in serious trouble, and he needs help. Shadrach is on a mission. Daire is AWOL. I’m banking on the fact my mother is in there as well. Which means the three of us are all they’ve got.”
He didn’t back down. “Nothing wrong with recon and time spent making a plan.”
“We don’t have time.”
“How do you know?”
Mei reached up and touched the medallion with her fingertips. Ouch. The thing was hot to the touch. So hot she had to wear it on the outside of her clothes. “I just know.”
They crossed through the wrought iron gates onto the Teacher’s property. No guards in sight. Were the cameras on? Someone might see them, but Mei would deal. It was what she did.
Grant said, “Does this have to do with the first time he was abducted?”
Remy said, “Same people.”
“And the fact there’s someone walking around that looks exactly like Ben and kills people?”
Mei didn’t say anything. Just kept walking. “Are you going to ask stupid questions all the way to the house?”
She might shoot him herself if he did. Yeah, he was her uncle by adoption. Didn’t mean he wasn’t a pain in everyone’s butt. Where was the Grant Mason who directed the entire US Marshals? That man had a presence. A command of his people that meant he safeguarded the innocent—and witnesses who were totally guilty, getting a free pass. Bu
t that wasn’t hers to judge.
This Grant doubted everything he said and did. His skill was shaking hands with the old boy network in Washington and getting them more contracts. Hardly something a girl like her was going to respect.
Mei sighed. “Let’s keep moving.”
Grant muttered under his breath as they walked.
Eventually Mei got sick of it. “There are plenty of things in this world beyond our comprehension. Medical miracles. People who can do things that are impossible. Mankind has tapped into powers beyond them and used those abilities.”
“Superpowers? Really?”
She shrugged. “Not like aliens, or a chemical spill. And I’ve never actually met a metahuman, or whatever those superhero shows call them. What I know is that I’ve seen things I couldn’t explain.”
“So have I,” Remy chimed in.
Grant sputtered. She almost felt sorry for him, which was a big point of growth for her. At least now she could see how empathy worked.
“It’s hard the first time, but you get used to it.” Mei resisted the urge to pat him on the shoulder. That would be going too far. She didn’t want to get soft. It would ruin this whole persona she had going.
“My mother knew about it.” He paused. “This…golem.” The word sounded as foreign coming from him as it likely did on his tongue. “It’s in Ben. Since he went missing, right?”
She nodded.
“I knew something was wrong. He was just so…dark when he came back. Like he didn’t care about anything. Everyone said it was just his reaction to the trauma.”
“He cares.” Ben cared enough to give her a mother. A life. She owed him everything she had.
The house on the far side of the expansive lawn was lit up. Anyone looking would see them race across the grass. But no one was out here other than the dead men.
Mei stepped in something. She crouched, put her hand over it.
“Gross. What is that?”
“It’s blood. And mud.” She shut her eyes. Touched the medallion. “My mother was here, and the golem.”
“So where are they now?”
“Good question. Let’s go.” Mei blew on her fingers and ran, not waiting to see if Grant followed her. He had to decide on his own whether he would help Ben. Last time he’d tried, her mom ended up back in CIA custody. Who knew what would’ve happened to her?
Not this time.
Two more men lay on the lawn, black fatigues. The grass needed cutting. The length meant she could see footsteps. A pattern that made her think a fight had taken place out here. Especially considering the wet stain. And the bodies.
Had someone been shot? Whoever it was, they weren’t here now.
They raced up the steps and crossed the patio. Mei stopped beside the open door and listened. Glanced in, looked both ways. “It’s clear.”
“Split up?”
“I’ll take left.”
Remy said, “That’ll take you to the entrance to the basement.”
Mei glanced at Grant. “You clear upstairs.”
He nodded. Slipped inside.
Mei went left and checked the rooms as she moved down the hall. Where was everyone? Her mother had been shot on the lawn. Where was she?
The next room she glanced in, Mei came face to face with a gun.
“Whoa.” Her mom lowered it, and they hugged.
“Where is Ben?”
Taya sucked in a sharp breath.
Mei let her go. “What?”
She touched her chest. “I’m alive.” She motioned over her shoulder. “He saved me.”
The golem stood two paces behind her.
“Where is Ben?”
“They took him downstairs. I can’t go without a weapon. What am I going to do?”
Mei handed her a gun. “How about now?”
“But…”
Already at the door, Mei turned back. “You aren’t coming?”
“I think I should get the golem as far from these people as I can.”
Mei shook her head. “It won’t help. If they have Ben. They can command it wherever they want.”
“What if it’s all a trap, and I’m giving it to them? It’s like handing over a live nuke.”
“I’m going to get Dad. The golem is coming with me, Mom.”
Mei fingered the medallion, so hot now that it burned her skin like a pan just out of the oven. The golem followed her out of the room.
“Mei.”
Her mom could waver all she wanted. Mei knew what to do.
“Is this wise, Mei?”
She rolled her eyes. “You always say that. Make wise choices. What about my gut? Because it’s screaming at me to save Dad.”
“At what expense?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it does,” her mom said. “To me it matters a great deal. As it does to your father.”
“He won’t be my father if they kill him. Or change him so much he doesn’t even know me. I have to try.”
“I’m with you,” Remy said in her earpiece. “And the basement door is on your left.”
“Thanks, Rem.”
Mei could count her actual friends on one hand, though that was an overestimation. Friends made you vulnerable, and vulnerabilities were nothing but weaknesses that got you killed.
She held her gun loose and trotted down the stairs. The basement was a hall with four doors. She crossed to the one with light underneath and let herself in. “Honey, I’m home.”
Ben’s head whipped around. He was strapped to a bed. Beside him, Elaine fiddled with a needle that was headed for the inside of his elbow, determined despite Taya’s entrance. The Teacher stood behind Elaine. Seriously? Who could do good work with someone looking over their shoulder?
“Drop it.”
Taya entered the room behind her. Mei took a step to the left, put herself between these two crazies and the door. They weren’t getting away.
Her mom moved to the other side of the bed. Stared down the Teacher and Elaine, one hand on Ben’s shoulder.
The golem moved into the room.
The Teacher’s eyes widened.
Taya kicked the door shut and backed up, so no one could get out without going through her.
Mei said, “I brought it to you. Now you give me what I want.”
The Teacher gave her a tiny nod. “Thank you, child.”
Her mom’s head whipped around. “Mei. You didn’t.”
The Teacher spoke over her. “I knew years ago, when we first met, that one day you would see my path as the right way. That you would join me on this journey.”
“Mei.” That was Ben.
She couldn’t look at him.
“What are you doing? Get out of here, Mei.” Her mom.
She shook her head, her gaze still fixed on the Teacher. If she looked at either of them, she would cave. Her determination had to be unwavering.
“No, Mei.” She heard her mom move.
Mei held up one hand. “Don’t.” Grasped the medallion.
The Teacher touched his own, hanging from his neck.
Mei wasn’t going to beat him at that game. “I’ll join this ‘journey’ of yours. But Elaine isn’t coming.”
Mei shot her. Not in the eye, that was a shot only made by a skilled marksman or a beginner with serious luck. Elaine fell to the floor. Dead. This was all about justice, right?
She turned to the Teacher. His lips began to move.
Mei started the recitation Roger had taught her. The medallion turned to a disk of molten lava in her hand.
Ben cried out. Thrashed against his bindings.
“Hang on.” Her mom tugged at the straps holding him down. “Mei, stop this.”
The Teacher’s lips moved still. It was her or him. They couldn’t both command the golem to kill the other.
Mei’s words faltered.
The golem took a step toward her.
Taya freed Ben’s arms, and he clutched his chest. Black veins protruded from his skin, al
l over his body. Even across his lips and eyes. He roared in pain. This was going to kill him. The golem would overtake everything he was. All the goodness bled from him, leaving nothing but a monster in its place.
Mei made a choice.
She dropped the medallion. Her fingers unfolded, a mass of blisters. Pain flooded her eyes with tears as she turned to face the golem. His form swam before her.
The face of her father.
“It’s okay.”
The golem stepped toward her.
Ben continued to roar, her mom now freeing his legs.
The Teacher’s words grew louder.
The golem reached out its hand to Mei, ready to deal the death blow.
Chapter 44
North of Charleston, WV. Monday, 21:18hrs EDT
The hardest thing Taya had ever done, she did in that moment when she let go of Ben’s hand. Then it was considerably less difficult to rush at the golem like a Monday night linebacker. She barreled into his midsection. Shoved him sideways so he couldn’t touch Mei.
The resigned look on her daughter’s face was replaced with surprise.
Taya and the golem hit the floor. She rolled off him, out of the way. He wouldn’t touch her, kill her. She’d felt his desire for her to live when he’d poured his strength into her and healed the gunshot wound in her chest. The fact it had involved him cutting out a piece of himself and placing it inside her wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on.
The door flung open, and the Teacher ran out into the hall. Mei chased after him.
Taya yelled, “No!” They shouldn’t split up. But Mei didn’t stop, and the golem went as well. To help Mei? To fight the Teacher?
Taya got up and went to Ben’s side. He’d stopped thrashing. She pulled out the tubes Elaine had inserted and patted his cheek. “Wake up. Please, wake up.”
He inhaled through his nose and lifted a hand. He placed it against hers on his cheek. “Taya.” Her name was a low moan.
“I know.” She shifted, winced at the bruise on her hip. “As much as I’d love to let you rest, we have to get out of here.”
