Curse (Blur Trilogy Book 3)

by Steven James

  She lifts her right foot and steadies herself. Her balance is extraordinary and I’m not sure if it comes naturally or if it’s a result of compensating for being blind. Either way, it doesn’t matter, as long as she doesn’t slip.

  She steps across the loose bark, squeezing my shoulder to steady herself, then brings the other foot forward.

  “Are we good?” she asks breathlessly.

  “We’re good.”

  Even though the rest of the tree is narrower, it’s not as tricky to navigate and it doesn’t take us long to reach shore.

  Tane, who’s still on the other side of the river and has been waiting for us to get here before venturing onto the log, starts across.

  I point to that dicey section of bark and yell for him to be careful. He flags a couple fingers to me that he’s good.

  He’s moving smoothly, confidently, his boxing and martial arts training giving him poise and a steady sense of balance.

  When he reaches the rotten bark, he agilely steps over it.

  But then it happens.

  Abruptly.

  All in one terrible moment.

  When Alysha and I walked across, we must have loosened up a larger section of bark, because as Tane puts his weight on it, a strip nearly four feet long rips off.

  His foot shoots out from under him, throwing him backward. He smacks hard against the log and tries to grab it, but can’t manage, and drops sideways toward the river.

  As soon as he hits the surface, the water swallows him.

  And he’s gone.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  “What is it?” Alysha is holding my forearm. Her voice is urgent, and I realize that with the sound of the water rushing past, even with her acute hearing, she didn’t catch the sound of Tane splashing into the river. “You just tensed up, Daniel. What’s happening?”

  “He fell in.”

  “Oh my God.”

  I’m staring anxiously at the water, but he hasn’t come up.

  “Can you see him?”

  “No. Not yet.”

  I place her hand on the tree branch, then ease her leg forward to make sure she’s on solid ground. All the while, I’m scanning the surface for any sign of Tane.

  “Daniel, is he . . . ?”

  “He hasn’t come up yet.”

  Then, all at once his hand splashes out of the water halfway between where we are and the narrow chute that channels down fifteen feet deeper into the gorge.

  A second later, his head appears, but then immediately goes under again.

  It’s enough to give me hope, though.

  “I’m going to get him.”

  “Did he come up?”

  “Yeah. He’s alright.”

  “Don’t lie to me.” She’s an expert at reading people’s tone of voice. “Don’t lie to—”

  “Stay here. You’ll be safe. I’ll be right back.”

  Then I get moving, noting where I am so I can find her when I return.

  With Tane.

  When you return with Tane.

  Using the sinewy rhododendron branches for support, I make my way along the riverbank, being careful that I don’t slip in myself.

  As I come to the place where the water funnels down, I’m forced to grab handholds in the rock face and downclimb a few feet. To keep from dislocating my shoulder again, I do my best to let my weight hang on the other arm, but still, the pain is fierce every time I move that bad shoulder.

  Only then does it hit me that I left my sling back on the other side of the river, draped on a branch next to the log we walked across.

  Deal with that later.

  Just find Tane.

  Wet and moss-covered, the route is dicey, but the outcroppings give me just enough purchase to keep my feet on the rock.

  By the time I get to the bottom, I have no idea how far the current might have taken him.

  I figure I need to look, though, at least for a few minutes.

  I can’t just give up right away.

  Yes.

  With Tane.

  You’ll return with Tane.

  After taking Petra to the fourth floor, Sergei and Deedee had shoved her roughly into one of the rooms and locked the door behind her.

  She’d hollered out what she thought she should say. “Why are you doing this? Why did you bring me here!”

  They hadn’t replied.

  She’d listened to their receding footsteps, and when the two of them were gone, she removed that wire handle from under her shirt.

  And started looking for a way to get free.

  Whoever owned this place was remodeling it and the room wasn’t finished—but when she tried, she wasn’t able to break through the exposed drywall.

  An old metal radiator sat beside one wall, but she couldn’t budge it.

  She tried inserting the tip of the wire into the lock on the doorknob, but it didn’t fit.

  Her attention shifted to the window.

  She studied the clasp that held it shut. It was screwed securely in place: When she tried to twist the mechanism, she couldn’t get the latch to open by her grip-strength alone.

  But maybe if she had more leverage?

  There was a small hole at the top of it.

  She passed one end of the wire through the hole in the hasp, bent it over, and tried getting enough torque to twist the latch and unlock the window.

  I see something ahead of me near the shore in an eddy formed by a massive boulder.

  A lump in the water.

  Tane’s back.

  He’s floating facedown.

  No, no, no.

  I scramble down the bank.

  Though I don’t really have any way of knowing how deep the water is here, I need to get to him.

  If the boulder wasn’t this close, I’d be out of luck, but the current is curling back toward the rock. That’s what drew his body here. And that’s what’ll keep me from being swept downstream.

  At least I hope it will.

  I drop into the water.

  Knee-deep.

  With my first step, I almost lose my balance on the slick, rocky bottom.

  Carefully, I move forward.

  The water is up to the middle of my thighs now, but I’m almost to him.

  I lean farther out and reach for him.

  After a couple of unsuccessful tries, I’m finally able to snag his arm, but as I try to maneuver him to shore, the water tugs at him.

  I lean back, and at last the current gives up its grip on him and he drifts toward me.

  I’m not sure how I’ll get him out of the water, but before worrying about that, I need to get some air into his lungs.

  I’ve never been trained as a lifeguard so I’m not sure what I’m officially supposed to be doing, but I know that I need to get him breathing again as fast as possible. I know that much.

  With his size, it isn’t easy, but steadying myself as best I can, I roll him over so he’s face-up.

  His color has faded and his lips are blueish.

  Just like the blur in the attic when you saw that body lying there, dead.

  But then it came back to life—and he will too.

  He will too.

  Praying he’ll be alright, I cradle him in my arms and give him a rescue breath.

  Last winter you drowned in Lake Superior.

  You went through the ice and Kyle had to save you.

  Dead, then back to life.

  First you.

  Now Tane.

  The river tries to draw him away from me, but I manage to keep him in place long enough to give him another mouthful of air.

  I take a step closer to shore, pulling him with me, and I’m leaning down to offer him more air when I feel his body convulse.

  His eyes snap open. He jerks and then coughs, spewing out a gush of water as he rolls out of my arms and tries unsuccessfully to get to his feet.

  “It’s okay! You’re okay!” I almost fall over as I try to get him into the shallower water.

 
He manages to stand up, but can’t keep his footing and ends up grabbing my left arm for support.

  Pain thrashes through me.

  “No! Tane!”

  He immediately realizes what he did and lets go as I offer him my other arm.

  Dizzy.

  Control it.

  Easy, easy, easy.

  I’m just glad the shoulder didn’t pop out of its socket again. With that much pressure, it easily could have.

  We climb up the bank to where the ground is level.

  While I let my shoulder recover, he slumps to the forest floor to catch his breath. Finally he says, “Man, that was not fun.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “You’ve drowned?”

  “Once. Yeah.”

  “And obviously somebody brought you back.”

  “My friend did.”

  “So did mine.” He clasps my hand and I help him to his feet. “Thanks.”

  Thunder rolls through the gorge. “We should probably get moving.”

  As we start back toward Alysha, he suddenly pats his pockets and curses.

  “What is it?”

  “That radio the pilot gave me—it’s gone.”

  “Forget it.” I confirm that the flashlight is still jammed in my pocket, then I gesture upstream. “Let’s go. If we hurry we can still make it to the Estoria in time.”

  At his home in Beldon, Wisconsin, Sheriff Byers evaluated things.

  Although earlier in the day he’d looked into taking a flight down to Atlanta, it would’ve required a three-hour drive to the Twin Cities first, and right now it seemed like he was making more progress than he would’ve been able to while either driving or flying.

  So he’d changed his plans.

  Working discreetly through his law enforcement contacts, he’d been able to use the data that Daniel’s source had provided regarding the convergence of 911 calls and the passing trains in the South to search for white minivans with that plate number passing through nearby traffic cameras.

  Now, he received a call that a traffic cam in Knoxville had caught footage of the minivan in question, less than a quarter mile from a railroad crossing, not long before an ambulance was dispatched to the area.

  A quick search told him that one of the addresses in a nearby neighborhood was listed under the name “Sergei Gorshkov.”

  “Sergei” was one of the names Daniel had told him to keep an eye out for.

  Daniel had warned him about the deadline and about contacting the authorities, but if someone’s life really was in danger, they needed to find her—otherwise what was the point of the search?

  Time was running out.

  Just thirty-six minutes until nine o’clock.

  He called the Knoxville Police Department’s chief, filled him in as much as he could about Sergei’s possible involvement in a kidnapping.

  He wasn’t sure if it would be enough to convince him to send a car to check out the address.

  But it was.

  Sheriff Byers hung up.

  And waited to hear back from the chief.

  After we regroup with Alysha, the three of us find the trail that leads up to the old hotel.

  Alysha does an amazing job of navigating along the path and we make up for lost time.

  Around us, a heavy mist has started to form. Tendrils of fog wander among the trees, shifting and stirring in the breeze as if they were living creatures.

  The Smoky Mountains.

  Now I see why that name makes sense.

  The shaded line of gray from the rain along the storm’s front obscures the mountains that lie beyond it.

  As the wind picks up, I see our chopper rise from Spider Peak and shoot across the valley.

  “There he goes,” Tane says. “I guess the storm is almost here.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  8:30 P.M.

  30 MINUTES

  The general sat at Adrian’s desk studying the Telpatine analysis and data sheets.

  Adrian excused himself for a moment and, taking both the radio and the satellite phone with him, caught up with Sergei and Deedee in the hall.

  “Petra’s upstairs,” Sergei said. “She’s secure—but there is one thing.”

  “Tell me.”

  “We saw a car parked by the gate, down at the base of the road.”

  “A car?”

  “Yeah. A sedan. I didn’t recognize it, but I did see that it had Wisconsin plates.”

  “What? Wisconsin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was anyone there?”

  “No. We wanted to get Petra up here first before checking it out. I think one of us should go back and take a look, though.”

  “I agree. Deedee, why don’t you stay here. I want you stationed outside Petra’s room. Sergei, drive down, see what you can find. Get the license plate number and we’ll run it when you get back.”

  Through the woods, Nicole caught sight of the Estoria Inn about two hundred feet ahead of them.

  They crouched low and studied it.

  “What does the book say?” Mia asked her.

  Nicole flipped to the chapter. “Four floors. We definitely want to avoid room 113—that’s the haunted one. There’s also an old maintenance shed out back.”

  A burst of lightning slashed through the sky and thunder followed right on its heels, booming above them.

  “Okay, that was close,” Kyle said. “I say we try that shed, get some shelter and then figure out what to do next. Is it big enough?”

  Nicole consulted the diagram. “Looks like it. But I don’t think we should just walk up the road, even with our cover story.”

  “We’ll cut through the woods. C’mon.”

  As they did, Nicole noticed the white minivan driving off again, away from the hotel.

  Adrian tracked Henrik down.

  “What is it, Doctor?”

  “Where’s Zacharias?”

  “I moved him to the tattoo room so we could leave Petra upstairs. I was going to do the other eye.”

  “Is he secure?”

  “Yes. Strapped in the chair.”

  “Leave him there for now. Sergei saw a car down by the gate. He’s on it, but I want you to check the motion sensors. I sent Deedee to guard Petra’s room. Garrett’s manning the security center.”

  “And the general?”

  “In my office. I need to get back in there.”

  “I’ll radio you.”

  “Good.”

  As we reach the top of the hill, the old hotel, imposing and formidable, comes into view through the trees.

  Just like the facility in Wisconsin, this one has a metal mesh fence running around the property.

  Lightning spiderwebs across the sky.

  Even the thunderstorms I’ve watched roll in across Lake Superior weren’t like this.

  Those were slower moving, with steady cloud banks powering in across the water, but here, there’s a primal ferocity to the storm. The sky boils with layers of clouds all somehow moving at different speeds, the lower ones skirting ahead of the storm as if they’re trying to get out of the path of the dark thunderclouds right behind them.

  As the thunder explodes, it startles Alysha, and I realize it’s because she can’t see the lightning preceding it.

  As we hurry toward the fence, I warn her every time the sky flashes.

  Adrian was nearly back to his office when Henrik radioed him.

  “The motion detectors have picked up something over on the west perimeter.”

  “What? Deer? Bear?”

  “No. We have three blips and the way they’re moving isn’t like any deer or bear I’ve ever seen.”

  “Are all the subjects accounted for?”

  “Yes. I believe we have some uninvited guests.”

  “Go check it out.”

  “Taser?”

  “Take it with you, but if necessary, use something a little less ambiguous.”

  “Right.”

  When Adrian entered the of
fice, he found the general studying the camel figurines on his desk.

  “You like camels, I see,” she said.

  “It has to do with an old riddle my brother told me years ago. Look, I’m—”

  “How does it go?”

  “Um—”

  “Adrian, I’m not driving down the mountain with the storm this close. You’re stuck with me for now. Tell me the riddle.”

  He didn’t like the idea that she would be around when the deadline arrived, but decided he would deal with that, if necessary, when the time came.

  Outside the box.

  Always be ready to think outside the box.

  He explained the riddle to her. “It’s a Sufi story. A teacher knew he was dying and he wanted his three students to find a worthy master after he was gone.”

  “Okay.”

  “He owned seventeen camels.”

  Adrian separated seventeen of the figurines from the rest.

  “In his will, he dictated that, upon his death, the oldest of his students would receive one-half of the camels, the middle student would get one-third, the youngest would get one-ninth.”

  “One-half. One-third. One-ninth. Got it.”

  “After the master died, the three students tried to discern what to do with the camels. But no one could figure out how to divide them up.”

  “Do they cut up the camels?”

  “Even then it wouldn’t work.”

  She thought about it. “No, I suppose not.”

  “So, finally a caravan owner who was passing by heard about it and offered them the solution.”

  “And that was?”

  “I—” A text came in from Deedee asking if he wanted her to confirm that Senator Amundsen sent his email at nine. They had a means set up to monitor his outgoing messages, but one of them needed to verify things.

  “I’m sorry, General. There’s a small matter that requires my attention. I’m afraid I need to step out again.”

  “What’s going on, here, Adrian?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “These texts, carrying your radio around—is there something I need to know about?”

  “Just some added security precautions in case the power goes out,” he lied. “I’ll be back shortly.”

  Mia and Kyle got to the shed first. As Nicole dashed across the road to join them, the rain began.