by Saul, Jonas
She stepped into the middle of the church and saw the front more clearly.
A large wooden crucifix hung on the wall at the front. What made her almost ruin her new underwear wasn’t the cross, but who it bore.
Parkman had been tied to the cross, bound there by his wrists and ankles, his head fallen and resting on his chest.
Chapter 16
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Why would they do that? Was this a group of human traffickers or some religious cult? How sick were these people?
She started for Parkman. Footsteps behind her sped up. She dodged to the right and slipped in between two pews at the exact moment one of the men in black who had been escorting her was about to shove her yet again. He lost his balance with the forward motion and fell to the stone floor.
Sarah hopped back out from the pew and kicked him in the stomach. She heard the air rush out of him as he fell over on to his back. In seconds she had the weapon out of his belt and up and aimed at the other man in black who was approaching fast.
“Back up!” Sarah shouted. “I’m going to untie my friend. I will be doing it whether or not you are still breathing.”
The man in black raised his hands and nodded. Other men were filing in through the front doors of the church.
Sarah stepped backwards as she headed for the crucifix at the front. She turned at the last pew and ran up a couple steps to get to the bottom of the crucifix.
A quick glance back showed her that no one was moving. There were about twenty people assembled by the entrance doors now. The two men who had escorted her were standing side by side halfway up the center aisle, the guy she hit holding his stomach, leaning against a pew.
A ladder sat on the right.
That must’ve been the one they used to tie him up. Bastards.
She tucked her new gun into the waistband of her jeans and grabbed the ladder, constantly looking over her shoulder at the people watching her.
Once the ladder was set up, she climbed until she was face to face with Parkman.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked.
He nodded, but it was almost imperceptible. Then he whispered something.
“What’s that?” she asked, leaning in closer.
“Don’t worry about me. Talk to these people. While you’re busy I will leave this place and bring help. Just leave me here. I have a way. Trust me.”
“How am I going to get you down?” she asked, loud enough for everyone in the church behind her to hear. “Oh Parkman, what have they done to you?” Then she turned to descend the ladder and whispered, “Good luck,” loud enough for Parkman to hear.
One last look up and again she saw the most imperceptible nod.
At the bottom of the ladder she turned to face everyone.
“You will all pay for this.”
Tony Soprano, the old man with the cane, stepped into the side area of the church. It looked like he had come up from underground somewhere.
“Bring her to me,” he said and then disappeared below ground again.
Almost everyone in the church advanced forward. Sarah raised her hands and said, “I’ll go willingly. Just point the fucking way.”
When she stepped back down into the main area of the church she counted almost ten guns pointed at her.
“Overkill isn’t it?” she asked. She knew what they wanted. A scan of their faces told her how serious they were. She knew none of them would risk her serious harm as their boss wanted to talk to her. But she also knew they couldn’t let her follow their boss armed and dangerous. The dangerous part they would have to live with but the armed part they could do something about.
She reached down slowly and lifted the weapon from the butt end. Once it was out of her waistband she handed it to the man she had taken it from. He grabbed it and motioned for her to move.
On the side of the church, where Tony had seemed to disappear into the floor, she saw a wooden door that opened sideways. It exposed a hole in the ground, with stairs that led down into darkness.
The crypt of the church.
Oh shit. Was this the crypt that Vivian had been talking about? But didn’t she say that I still had five or six days left? Could it be that I never leave this crypt and by the end of the week they kill me?
She had no choice though. She had to descend the steps and enter the first crypt of her life.
“Thanks, Vivian, for the warning. I could’ve used more help here,” she mumbled to herself.
Sarah took one step at a time, dropping below the stone floor of the church, her stomach dropping with her. A hallway turned to the right. She took it and walked four feet where she entered a vast room. The walls had large square stones that appeared to signify where people had been buried. On the side was another door that sat open. From where she stood she could see that it looked like an office of some kind. Soft amber light emitted from the room.
She took a deep breath, stepped across the crypt and entered the office. Tony sat behind a large metal desk that was littered with weapons and ammunition. She scanned the room, surprised that for this second they were alone. A red couch sat along the back wall. She stood on a huge red square carpet that had two chairs facing the desk. To the right of the desk a fire licked away at the new wood that had been added recently.
Okay good, Vivian said to use the fire. There’s fire now. So how do I use it?
“Do you like my office?” he asked.
“A fireplace in a crypt? How did you work that?”
“I chose this room as it sat directly below the leper’s hole. The smoke from the fire has been set to funnel through there and then outside.”
“What’s a leper’s hole?” Sarah asked.
“Years ago the church would feed the lepers through a hole in the wall so they wouldn’t catch the disease.”
“Sounds humane.”
“We’re not here to discuss that though are we? Have a seat and tell me everything.”
He pointed at one of the two chairs facing the desk. Sarah stepped forward and sat. Movement caught her eye from behind. She spun in her chair and saw her two escorts entering the office and moving to the couch along the back wall where they both sat, guns in their hands.
“I know about Drake Bellamy,” she started after turning back around. “He has the original documents now and he gave me a copy. The attempt on his life in two weeks at the baseball game will fail. If I don’t leave here alive, everything I have will go to the proper authorities and everything Drake has will follow. I came to tell you that it’s over.”
“You’re a fool. Do you think I actually believe you?”
“I don’t bluff.”
“Well then, you are a fool. We’re too big to bring us down. Too connected. We have employees in almost every government worldwide.”
“If I don’t have the goods on you then why didn’t I come in heavy handed? Why come to Montone un-armed and allow myself to be taken so easily. Ask yourself that?”
Tony looked down at one of the weapons on his desk. “I’m a collector of weapons and ammunition.”
“I can see that. You have enough to arm a small militia on one desk.”
“I love guns, but more importantly I love bullets. Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.”
“If you say so.”
She began going over in her head how possible an escape would be. She now knew how she was going to use the fire. She also knew what she would do next. It was all coming together fast. But getting upstairs and leaving a fortified town made of stone before any of the hundreds of Tony’s followers or supporters stopped her, could prove difficult.
Something crashed above them. In unison they all jumped.
“Vincenzo, go upstairs and see what happened.”
One of the men on the couch got up and ran from the room.
Parkman’s escaping. Everything is right with the world again. My turn now.
“Let me tell you a parable of how I live my life,” Tony said. “Maybe it’ll help yo
u understand how I am always one step ahead of you.”
He paused to set the gun in his hand down and pick up another. She watched as he dropped the magazine out of the handle and began loading bullets into it from an open carton on the corner of the desk. Sarah adjusted herself in her seat to be ready when she felt the moment was upon her.
“Two men are hiking through the African jungle. They can feel they’re being watched but they can’t tell who is stalking them. A few moments later, out of the bushes on their right, a lion emerges and snarls at them. He appears to be ready to charge, fangs bared and his breathing is aggressive. One of the men sits down on a nearby rock and begins to open his backpack. The other guy stands there in shock as he watches his friend pull out a pair of running shoes and start to put them on. The guy watching says to his friend, ’Hey, what are you doing? Are you crazy? You can’t outrun a lion.’ His friend finishes tying the last lace and stands up. ‘I don’t have to outrun the lion. I only have to outrun you.’” He stopped arming the weapon in his hand and looked directly at Sarah. “And that’s how I handle problems like you, Sarah.”
“If I’m following you correctly, I’m the lion but you’re going to be okay because even if someone goes down it’ll be other people. People that are not as elevated as you, or as quick. In other words, you’re wearing running shoes.”
“Precisely. You will die in this crypt and I may or may not have a problem with the authorities. But even if I do, after you and Drake are gone, I’m isolated enough that it won’t hurt me.”
Sarah shook her head. “You really do sound like Tony Soprano, but I will tell you, you’re not above the law. If I can’t take you down I will just have to kill you.”
He lifted his weapon and aimed it at her. “Big words for a captive girl. You’ve got some balls coming in here and threatening me. You still don’t get it, do you?”
Sarah stared at him, watching his eyes for movement, on edge, waiting for him to shoot.
“You are being held here as my captive. You will never leave Montone. You will die here, in this crypt. And yet you talk big, like you’re the one in charge. Can’t say I’ve ever met anyone like you before. But before I shoot you, tell me one more thing.”
“What’s that?” Sarah asked, happy that her voice didn’t crack. It really pissed her off to have a loaded weapon pointed at her.
The sound of gunfire came to them from upstairs.
Tony cocked his head. “What was that?”
“My backup,” Sarah joked.
“Bullshit.”
Sarah saw the gun waver a little. It moved to her left a notch and then the weapon erupted.
Tony fired a small caliber bullet from five feet away. The sound of the bullet cutting the air as it raced past her right ear, combined with her nerves, made Sarah dash sideways and fall from her chair. She hit the hard floor and spun around to see where the bullet hit. The guard dressed in black, the man she had taken the gun from upstairs, gasped for breath, his eyes wide. A neat hole had formed in the center of his neck, blood trickling from it.
His body went into convulsions and slid off the couch he sat on.
Sarah could barely hear, but she got enough from Tony that he was asking her to get up. She looked over at him and slowly got to her feet.
“None of my men ever get disarmed by their captives. The punishment for such ineptness is death. They all know it.” He motioned with his gun for Sarah to take a seat.
She looked back one more time and saw the vacant stare on the man’s face. He was gone. Saddened by being around death so often, she was somewhat relieved that now it was only Tony and herself in the room. Noise overhead would conceal what she was about to do.
“Sit,” Tony said.
The only other chair was too far away from the fire so she turned and righted the chair she had just knocked over when she fell. By righting the chair she could place it in the most opportune location.
Her heart was racing, everything inside was aflame.
She was ready.
“So for this last order of business. Tell me about Vivian.”
She waited for a moment, calming herself, preparing. “My sister comes to me and tells me how to kill people. Ever since Armond murdered her, she has been haunting him through me.” She leaned forward and took a deep breath. Any second now, she thought. “Since real ghosts don’t have a strong physical presence here on earth and they can’t hurt or maim someone, Vivian decided to tell me what to do so we can get back at Armond and people like you.”
“Oh really,” Tony said.
She could swear she saw a twitch in his face under his left eye. Was that worry or fear? Did he believe her?
“What did Vivian say about me?”
“She was the one who told me about Drake Bellamy. She also told me how to bring you down and how to kill you.”
Sarah put her hands on her knees and smiled at him.
“You’re kidding right? I’m the one holding the fucking gun. If I pull this trigger, you’re dead. How does that fit into your ghostly plans, you little bitch?”
“It doesn’t,” Sarah said as she lunged forward and with one big swoop of her arm, knocked at least three full boxes of bullets into the crackling fire and then dove behind the desk on her side.
Nothing happened. The fire continued to burn.
She heard Tony’s chair slam back.
“Get up you fucking piece of shit!” he roared.
Fuck. What now? I used the fire. The door is too far away to make a dash for it. He’s armed. I’m not. Fuck!
He stepped around and looked down her. She looked up at him and smiled.
She did what she was told. She used the fire. Now she had to believe. Trust the process. Vivian wouldn’t have her killed so easily.
Tony Soprano raised his gun two handed. He looked like he was auditioning for a police movie.
“Funny how I’m the last one you see before you die,” he said.
Sarah could see his finger leave the trigger guard and rest against the trigger.
“Wait,” she said.
“Too late.”
“No, that line you just said. That’s my line.”
“What?” Tony shook his head.
In that moment the bullets in the fire had heated enough and the minute amount of gunpowder in each individual unit began firing.
He spun around and ducked a little at the sound of bullets randomly discharging in the fire and ricocheting around the room.
Sarah ducked her head and curled into a ball behind the metal desk. Bullets continued to discharge. The desk vibrated a couple times as some lodged into its front or sides.
After a moment she opened her eyes and saw Tony on the floor beside her, blood coming from a wound in his eye. His other eye stared into space. He wasn’t moving.
Vivian, you are a genius. I owe you.
The frequency of the popping sounds slowed. She reached out and took the gun from Tony’s hand.
“Funny how I’m the last one you see before you die,” she said. “Told you that was my line.”
The intervals between popping bullets had gone to over twenty seconds apart. She risked leaning up and looking at the fire. Everything appeared normal. The cardboard boxes the bullets had been in were ash now. There were random spots around the walls where bullets had hit and scuffed. With all the ricochets Sarah was surprised she didn’t get hit.
On the desk sat three other guns and six more boxes of ammunition. She loaded as many bullets she could, stored a couple guns in her waistband and one in each hand with bullets in her pockets and then moved to the door.
It was time to get Parkman.
She kissed her hand and touched the wall beside her as a gesture of respect to Vivian and then left Tony Soprano’s office in the crypt, intent on murder.
Chapter 17
No one was in the hallway as she eased out. A couple of quick steps and she glanced around the corner that led to the stairs and out of the crypt. It was cool below
the church, yet Sarah had broken out in a sweat. She couldn’t count how many times she had someone point a gun at her with the intent of shooting and yet each time it was just as frightening as the first. Exposed to something routinely can often desensitize people, but for some reason she couldn’t get used to having guns aimed at her with murderous intent.
More noise came from above. Someone was running. She heard a distant cry from outside somewhere. It sounded like a small war was taking place. She wondered how Parkman was involved and how he could have possibly gotten down from the cross.
