by JL Terra
Ben opened his eyes and sat up. She helped him off the bed, and they made slow progress up the stairs. She glanced both ways down the hallway. “Looks clear.”
She still had the gun Mei gave her. Ben needed a weapon. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“Find Mei. We need to stop the Teacher before he can make a golem army.” Ben blew out a breath. “He used me to heal himself. If anyone can defy what we know, it’s this Teacher.”
The unknown was far more dangerous. Every time. Taya hated being in the dark about as much as she hated running into a situation without a plan. They needed help. Resources. She patted her pockets. “Lost my phone. Maybe we can steal one.” But no one was in the hallway.
Ben shook his head. “We have to do this.”
A man turned the corner at the end of the hall. Taya pointed her gun, finger on the trigger. The man did the same. She realized who it was.
Ben said, “Grant.”
His brother strode toward them, Dauntless at his side.. “You okay?”
The dog’s ears pricked, and he bared his teeth at Ben.
“No, he isn’t.”
Grant shot her a look. “It was just a—”
Gunshots burst from the end of the hall. Ben shoved her three steps to the wall, where he covered her with his body for a second before he said, “Go. Move.” He muscled her and Grant to the end of the hall. The shots kept coming.
She flipped around at the end and took cover against the wall. Peered out. Two men. She fired twice, put them down. Then turned back to Ben and Grant. “Clear.”
Grant’s eyebrows rose.
Ben leaned toward her and touched his lips to hers.
Taya blinked.
“Let’s go find the Teacher.” Ben turned away, like he hadn’t just done the equivalent of breaking decades of fasting with a cupcake covered in a mound of swirled frosting.
The two brothers walked down the hall. Grant glanced over his shoulder. “We should stick together. Mei and I split up, and it wasn’t good. I ended up going upstairs, and I ran into a bunch of crazy people in robes. They tried to maul me. One of them got me on the floor, and they took blood from me.” He lifted his arm to show them the needle mark inside his elbow. “I fought them off, but they seemed more concerned about the blood than me. It was super weird.”
“If they work for the Teacher,” Taya said, “then they know about Ben. He knows everything about you and your entire family. There’s no way they wouldn’t recognize you as his relative.”
Ben’s face was grim. Although it had been grim since he’d found her in Idaho at Roger’s house. Except for the second before he kissed her. He said, “Which means it won’t be long before the Teacher learns a blood relative of mine is in this house.” He stopped. “You should leave, Grant.”
“No way. I want to help.” He stood his ground when Taya probably would have caved. “I’m not leaving. Not now.”
Ben didn’t like it. She could see that much. He nodded. Started walking again.
“Are we just going to keep aimlessly walking around this house until we find Mei and the Teacher?”
Grant said, “Remy might be able to help.” He paused, a faraway look on his face. “She has the GPS from Mei’s comms, but she can’t pinpoint it precisely. Northwest corner of the house. She can’t narrow down the room. Or what floor she’s on.”
“That’s something, at least.”
They cleared the rooms on the ground floor.
“Upstairs then?”
“We should split up,” Grant said.
Ben shook his head again.
Taya said, “It isn’t a bad idea. We can all take care of ourselves.”
“No.” Ben strode to the wide, ornate staircase.
**
Ben glanced at his brother.
Grant said, “The people I saw were all at the other end of the house.”
Ben lifted his arms. “Well what are they waiting for? The Teacher is fighting Mei for his life.” Or she was helping him. They’d acted like an agreement existed between them. Ben refused to believe she’d betrayed them. If she had approached the Teacher prior to today, that meant she’d done so because she was convinced it would help them.
Grant said, “Where?”
Ben stopped. He shut his eyes and reached inside himself, to the mark on his chest. The flames licked at his approach, a warm welcome. Such as it was. He pushed inside. Invaded. The heat stole his breath, but Ben gained the knowledge he had been searching for.
He snapped his eyes open and raced down the hall. Took a right. At the end of the hall, Mei stood with the golem. All her attention was on a control panel.
The face panel hung down, wires exposed.
Mei said, “Okay.” She cut a wire with her knife. “Now what?”
The golem turned at their approach. Dauntless barked until Ben told him, “Quiet.” The command actually worked. Mei spun around, gun up. The control panel swung down and hit the wall.
Ben lifted his hands.
Grant’s shoe caught on the carpet. “Whoa.”
She lowered her weapon and went back to the door lock. “He’s in here. Only I can’t get in.”
“He’s holed up?” People waiting. The Teacher hiding. What for? There was more going on here than Ben knew. Why did it seem like everyone expected something else, something coming? It wasn’t here yet.
Ben gritted his teeth. He hated not knowing. “What’s going on?”
He’d spoken more to himself, than anyone else, but Taya said, “There is something I need to tell you.”
When he glanced at her, she said, “I found a storage room downstairs.” She turned to Grant. “You’re probably right about them being more concerned with your blood. I found a records room downstairs. A computer. They were running a test of your blood and they likely know now you’re a match to Ben. And to your mom.”
“They don’t know about my kids, right?”
Ben had kept the rest of his family out of this so far, just by nature of his solitary lifestyle. He kept apprised of their lives from a distance. If that meant the difference between them being here or being safe, he would keep it that way.
He’d thought the same about Mei, and yet she’d been linked to him. Abducted. Shot by the Teacher’s men. The golem had healed her, but how many times would it take before he couldn’t save her?
He should set her out of his life now.
Taya shook her head. “No offspring listed on the file. They didn’t even know where John or Nate are. Though it looked like they tried to find them.”
Grant blew out a relieved breath.
Mei kept on trying to get through the locked door, but said, “Probably all they found is a DNA match to your mother.”
“That mark,” Grant said. Ben turned, and his brother motioned to Ben’s chest. “She has the same mark you have.”
“The golem was bonded to her?”
Grant said, “Actually, I think there might be a residual effect. A connection through the golem that stretches to you.” He motioned to Ben. “That was why she was in the hospital, right?”
“Because I killed those two men, and she felt it.” He’d thought about it while he’d been underwater.
About Charlota Katzova and who she was.
Silence filled the hallway until Mei turned. “But it’s out of her, and it didn’t kill her.” She glanced between them. “Which means there’s hope.”
Taya said, “Is that why you made a deal with the Teacher? Hope?”
Ben watched the question cut through Mei. “You really made a deal with him?”
She let go of the wire she’d cut and straightened from the panel. Motioned to the golem. “After he took me to Roger, I had to keep my sanity. I noted everything I could. Absorbed every piece of information about him. Before I left, I got into his computer. He transmitted everything he learned to a Hans Katzova. It wasn’t enough to find out who Roger was. It still took us years to figure that out. But along the way I contacte
d him in a fit of…I don’t know.” She paused. “Let’s call it self pity, as much as I hate it.”
Taya stepped toward her. “Katzova?” She glanced at Ben. “Charlota’s brother? But Roger—Karl—was his brother, too. His half-brother.”
“And this Hans is the man called the Teacher?” Grant asked.
Mei said, “I posted online about what had happened. One of the Teacher’s people contacted me. They tried to recruit me into the family, but I wasn’t interested in joining up for a life of service.”
She locked gazes with Ben. “Helping you was one thing. I didn’t want to be stuck back there, though. I wanted to move on. Then when they took you, and Mom and I realized Roger wasn’t behind it, I guessed it was these people. I couldn’t give Remy enough to find them, but I made contact again. It worked, didn’t it? It gave us leverage.”
Taya said, “You met with them?” Her voice flooded by grief.
Ben touched her shoulder. “It’s okay. She did what she thought she had to. For all of us.”
Mei studied him. “What is it?”
“I think Charlota Katzova is my mother.” Ben paused a second, and then said, “And I think a blood relative of hers has to be linked to the golem. It won’t work with anyone else.”
It made sense. The life is in the blood. If Roger had needed a blood relative of Ben Mason, close as possible, it stood to reason that before Ben had come a close relative. Bonded to the golem.
What the significance was of their particular family, he didn’t know. They could all be descendants of the Rabbi who made the golem in the first place—which would mean the Teacher—if he was Hans—was also related to them. Their uncle. Or they could be a descendent of whoever the Rabbi had first bonded the golem to. Design, or nothing but bad luck. He didn’t want to speculate which it was.
Still, it didn’t matter who the golem was bonded to. So long as that person was a fighter.
Their strength would be gifted to the army until nothing but a husk was left. Then it would be too late.
“This is unbelievab—” Grant paused. “I don’t care if it makes sense to you, Remy. Its nuts. You’re not standing here looking at—” He frowned. “Remy?” Stepped away from their huddle. “Remy, can you hear me?”
Mei said, “If you can’t get her back, we can’t get in this room.” She touched her own comms piece in her ear. “Remy?”
The HVAC fan turned on. Ben glanced to a vent, low on the wall. Smoke poured out. “We have to go. Now.”
Taya and Grant headed for the stairs. Mei didn’t give up her work on the panel. Ben banded his arms around her and picked her up off her feet. “Let’s go.”
“I have to…” she coughed, “get in there.” Mei sucked in a breath and went limp in his arms.
Taya stumbled. Fell down the stairs, out of sight. Grant slumped to the floor.
Ben’s arms got heavy. He lowered Mei before he dropped her.
Down on one knee, his head swam. He tried to stand. Couldn’t. His knee collapsed.
His face hit the carpet.
The golem…
A low voice began to chant.
Chapter 45
North of Charleston, WV. Monday, 22:54hrs EDT
The first thing Ben noticed was that a warm, wet tongue licked his face. He shook his head and dislodged Dauntless. Opened his eyes. The dog leaned in to lick him again. “Nein.”
The German Shepherd stilled.
Ben shifted to sit. Both his hands were secured with plastic ties in front of him. Feet as well. He leaned against the wall and looked around. The dog lay down beside Ben’s leg. He reached out to touch his head…and stilled.
Dauntless didn’t like him.
And yet the dog laid down, his body pressing against Ben’s leg. The way he’d seen Dauntless do with Shadrach.
Taya lay on the other side of the dog. At the end of the row, beyond her, was Grant. Where was Mei? Ben was aware of more than just them in the room. It felt big, but he didn’t look around. Something was different. Maybe even wrong.
His hand.
He lifted it again and studied the veins on the back of his hand. Those feint blue lines. No black. He pulled down the collar of his shirt.
All the black veins had retreated back into the mark on his chest. A mark that was still there. The only thing. No heat, no flames. Nothing. Just Ben.
The golem was gone.
He looked up. In the center of what probably was a ballroom back in the day, the Teacher stood over a table. Two men in black fatigues and M4s flanked him. Mud covered the Teacher’s arms to his elbows. Spread out on a table in front of him were chunks of sliced-up mud.
A noise of surprise expelled from his throat. The remnants of the golem.
The Teacher spun around. “You’re awake.”
“You took it out.” Ben took a breath. Shivered. “It’s gone.”
That gas. The Teacher must have used its affects to subdue and capture not only his team, but also the golem. For this? The Teacher had given Ben what he wanted.
Only…now that he was disconnected from it, Ben wasn’t relieved. He’d had the life force of the golem inside him for decades. Now it was…just…
Gone.
“It’s right here.” The Teacher motioned to his table.
“I guess you won. Hans.”
“I think instead, you should call me Uncle. After all I’ve done for you.”
The doors opened, and two men in white robes carried a body into the room. Elaine. Ben tried to breathe while they lowered her to the carpet. He shifted to shake Taya with his bound hands. She didn’t wake
“Grant, wake up.” Neither of them even stirred.
The Teacher took a lump of the clay and pressed it to Elaine’s chest. To the wound Mei had given her. He clutched the medallion around his neck and whispered words Ben couldn’t hear.
What would that do to a dead—
Elaine’s body jerked. She sucked in a breath and sat up. Red eyes.
The Teacher stood. He said a series of Hebrew words Ben had never heard. Definitely not the words that would bind someone to the golem. That wasn’t what his intention was. Not now that he was creating an army.
Elaine launched to her feet.
One of the robed men breathed the words, “It worked,” full of wonder.
Roger, with all his experiments, had clearly only scratched the surface of what the golem could do. If he really had fed the Teacher information, it meant he’d given the man even more knowledge with which to enact his plan. Did he even care? Or had it all been about the science?
The Teacher barked, “Get everyone else.”
The man nodded. Left the room.
One of the gunmen stepped closer to Elaine. To the thing that used to be her. He leaned close to her face, peered at her like a specimen. “She looks almost normal.” He turned back to his friend. “That is freaky, man.”
The Teacher clasped his medallion. Whispered.
Elaine’s arm whipped up. She grasped the gunman by the neck and snapped it one handed. He dropped the gun and fell to the floor.
The Teacher turned to the other man, an evil smile on his face. “Any further questions?”
The second gunman shook his head.
“Just keep an eye on them.” He waved at Ben, where he sat with Taya and Grant. Mei, where are you? It didn’t bode well that she hadn’t been tied up with the rest of them. She’d made her own arrangement with the Teacher. Ben doubted that would go her way if she intended to follow through with it.
Ben sat silent while men and women in white robes filed into the room. Five. Ben recognized Peter Bayleigh. Ted Tiller with his limp. Between the five of them, they carried the dead men from the lawn. Mei entered last, followed by another guard, still in the clothes she’d been wearing earlier. The fly in the ointment. He doubted she’d object to the analogy. She’d probably only argue the point that these robed people would be any kind of help right now. More like an elixir peddled by a swindler—dangerous and unp
redictable results.
The Teacher spread his arms. “Come, my children. It is time.”
The first stepped up, white robe flowing. A woman, not much older than Mei. Her lip trembled.
Mei moved toward the woman. “What are you—?”
The gunman shifted his M4, pointed it at her. “Back up.”
Mei glanced around. Saw Ben was awake. “Dad.”
He didn’t know what to say. Ben hobbled to his feet. He couldn’t walk, he’d fall over. The gunman by the door pointed his weapon at Ben. He lifted his hands, palms out as much as he could, considering his wrists were tied tight enough the thin plastic cut into his skin. “Let her come over here. She’s not one of you.”
The Teacher said, “That doesn’t mean she can’t be useful to me.”
Ben didn’t like that tone. At all. His gaze locked with Mei’s, and a sadness that united the two passed between them. There was no answer for this.
“Are you ready?” the Teacher asked the girl.
She swallowed and said in a shaky voice, “I am.”
The Teacher pulled a dagger from the table and slammed it into the woman’s heart. Ben’s back hit the wall. He slid down until his butt landed on the carpet. He looked away from the carnage. Saw Grant shift. Playing like he was still unconscious—Ben would put money on the fact he was awake but pretending not to be.
Mei screamed. Two robed men grabbed her. Held her steady while she struggled to move to the woman. To stop the bleeding.
It was too late.
The Teacher turned to the table, fisted a lump of mud, and crouched before the now dead woman. Touched two fingers to her neck.
Then he smeared the lump into the wound in her chest.
Seconds later the woman sat up. Launched into a crouch. Red eyes.
The gunman herded the new golems to the corner of the room. Cowed, they appeared ready to pounce. Every muscle and sinew alive with the need to destroy as the golem had done. Ben’s mind still contained every detail of the golem’s history, though the being itself was now gone.
There was nothing in his head about this.
There was a restless quality to their movements. Restrained energy that needed a release. Sooner or later they were going to blow. Ben didn’t believe one man with an M4—however highly trained—would be able to contain them.
