by Lowe, Tom
Dillon nodded, his penetrating eyes scanning the rapt faces of his followers. “She is a descendent of Caesar, an emissary.”
Courtney felt like she’d awakened in a nightmare. She screamed, “No! I’m not a descendent of Caesar and I’m not a prostitute. My grandmother was Dillon’s mother. He’s my uncle. Yes! It’s true. And he raped me. The first time when I was eleven. He stopped when I turned fourteen. And he’ll rape your children, too.”
“Blasphemy!” shouted Dillon. “You’re wicked. If she’s released, she will tell them about us, and they’ll come here. They will hang us from the cross.”
Courtney shook her head. “Can’t you see he’s insane? What did he do? Did he hypnotize everyone here? Can’t you see him for what he really is … a sick fake?”
***
I followed Dave’s directions, driving up a steep, unpaved road that was carved around the perimeter of a mountain. He said, “It looks like there’s an overlook—a cliff, maybe, about a half mile to the north of where I see Courtney’s location. The satellite images are pretty good. But they appear to have been shot in the fall when leaves are off most of the trees. So I don’t know exactly what you’ll be able to see, if anything.”
“How close am I to this place?”
“Maybe a quarter mile. Whatever Dillon is doing with Courtney, there is very little movement. They’ve stopped … looks like it’s in a clearing near a large expanse of woods. Unless Dillon tossed her phone, somehow she’s managed to keep it and to keep it turned on. I could lose the connection any second.”
“I’ll be at the overlook in less than a minute.”
“You can’t get there fast enough, Sean.”
When I came around a bend in the road, it looked like a door had opened to hell.
“Courtney!” I yelled.
Dave was saying something as I dropped my phone in the passenger seat.
A Toyota pickup truck was burning in a ditch on the side of the road. Flames roared from the open windows, tires belching black smoke, the sounds of metal popping, glass shattering.
The hungry and ugly sound of a ravenous fire devouring prey.
Was Courtney inside the truck? Could someone have stolen her phone?
I ran to the truck, the heat like a furnace from fifty feet away. I held my arm up to shield my face from the fire, trying to see if Courtney’s body was behind the melting steering wheel. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so helpless.
***
No one in the crowd said anything. They simply stared at Courtney, collective eyes shifting over to Dillon who shouted, “Dig a hole—a grave, back up in the field of clover, beyond the grove.” He turned to a tall, lanky, scarecrow of a man. “Brother William, my carpenter!”
“Yes, Prophet.”
“Make me a casket. Bore a one-inch hole near the head of the box.”
“Yes, Prophet.”
“Brother John, my blacksmith.”
“I’m here, Prophet,” said a man with the shoulders of an ox.
“Make me a pipe. Five feet in length. Fit it to the hole that William bores in the box.”
“Yes, Prophet.”
Dillon turned to the men at his side. “Bring her, and bring me the infiltrator you caught yesterday.”
Two men nodded and left. The third grabbed Courtney by her forearm and led her away, Dillon following. He paused, stopping next to pregnant young woman. He placed his wide, open hand on her dress over her belly, looked at her, his eyes piercing, and said, “I feel the blood and spirit of a Celt warrior. You are a chosen woman, Sister April.”
She lowered her eyes, a demure smile working in the corners of her small mouth. The residents drifted back to their routine tasks as Dillon caught up with Courtney and her sentry walking down the hard-packed dirt road, past a cornfield, and then coming to a small clearing bordered by a large strand of oaks. Two men brought a third, younger man, his feet and hands shackled in chains.
He was in his late twenties, wearing a University of Virginia T-shirt, red baseball cap, jeans and hiking boots. Courtney could see he was terrified, his breathing quick, eyes darting around, vein pounding in his neck.
Dillon said, “Remove the iron from the limbs of this dissident. And two of you hold his arms until I say to release them.”
The man said, “Let me go. I didn’t do anything. I was just up here scouting the area for a student film we’re shooting. I heard about these old buildings. I didn’t know anybody actually lived in this place. Please, just let me go, okay. I won’t say anything about you people living here.”
“You people?” Dillon cocked his head, his eyes like laser beams. “You, sir, have no idea who these people are and why they’re here. This is the valley of the gods, a place of rebirth. To find a renaissance, to seek a better path to the future, death is often the key because the transference—the spirit leaving the body uses the limbs, even the blood of the body to point the way to the future.” He looked at one man without moving his head. “Brother Arthur, it is your turn.”
***
After the flames subsided somewhat, and I could see there wasn’t a body in the Toyota truck, I moved on quickly. The last two hundred yards were not accessible by car. I carried my rifle, put Dave on speaker-phone and ran, ran hard in the direction he pointed out. He said, “Another hundred feet and you should reach it. Be careful. The drop-off is damn steep, more than eleven hundred feet straight down. There’s a fast-moving river at the bottom.”
“Got it.” I arrived in a small clearing of ancient rock and cedar trees on the edge of a mountain. Ground water seeped between the boulders making their surface slick. I looked toward a small valley to my left, maybe a quarter mile away. There were a few ramshackle buildings, wood smoke curling from a chimney attached to a rickety cabin. A few people milling around the property.
“What do you see, Sean?”
“Hold on Dave.” I slipped my phone into my shirt pocket and then used an outcropping of rock to set up the bipod for my rifle, looking into the scope. I panned slowly to the right across the cleared property, spotting men, woman, and a few children. It was an agrarian, eighteenth century Appalachian farming community. I kept panning to the right, past a grist mill, past a whitewashed church.
And then I found Courtney.
And Dillon Flanagan.
It had to be him. Tall, thick black hair, cheekbones. A resemblance to the actor Daniel Day Lewis. He stood next to Courtney, her hands shackled behind her back. Standing there, next to five men, her head cutting from right to left as if she was looking for a place to run. But there was no escape, nowhere to run. One man, wearing a red baseball cap, was being held by two others. Even through the scope, I could see the man was pleading for his life.
I chambered a round, moving the cross-hair sight to the back of my brother’s head.
***
The man called Brother Arthur waddled like a grizzly bear walking on its hind legs. Courtney watched him, saw the vacancy in his eyes. She knew what was about to happen. He towered more than six-four, near three hundred pounds, ruddy face with a salt and pepper Van Dyke beard. He slid an ice pick from his overall pocket and slowly approached the frightened man who was held by two other men, each one gripping one of the man’s forearms, stretching his arms outward.
Courtney shouted, “Leave him alone! Uncle Dillon, please, don’t hurt him. Dear God, please.”
“God?” Dillon turned to her, his head cocking like a cat watching a goldfish in a glass bowl. “God can’t help you. Never could. Never will.”
“Please, let him go. Kill me instead.”
“Is that what you would desire, Courtney? Be careful what you wish for. This man before us was sent here on a mission. And now his mission is altered, he will help show us the future because the honesty of a real death cannot be false. The flailing of the limbs and blood flow speaks the truth and the future. It is the way of the Celts.” He looked at the large man and said, “Proceed.”
The large man gr
ipped the ice pick, slowly raising it in the air. Courtney bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes just as the bulky man’s head exploded.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
96
As the big man was collapsing, I sighted the cross-hairs on the chest of another man. He was one of two gripping the outstretched arms of the captive man. I squeezed the trigger, saw a cloud of red mist erupt through the scope, and then sighted on the chest of the man on the opposite side of the prisoner. The round hit him just below the neck.
Three down in less than five seconds.
And in that time, Dillon Flanagan was gone. He fled, pulling Courtney with him, vanishing in the thick woods. The younger man who had been held captive, ran the opposite direction and away from what he undoubtedly must think was the village of the damned.
“Sean, are you okay?” Dave’s voice sounded synthetic, like it came from inside a lead pipe.
I fished the phone out of my pocket. “Yeah, I’m okay. Three hostiles down. He’s got her, Dave. Dillon vanished with Courtney back up in the woods. He’s running an eighteenth century farm here. Looks like some kind of cult following. It’s definitely a compound. Don’t know how well they’re armed. But I’ve got to go in, and do it quickly.”
“You can’t cross the ravine, at least not fast. Walk back to your car. I see what looks like an old logging road. According to my data, International Timber logged some of the mountain before World War Two. Some of the loggers probably stayed in whatever homes or buildings that were left standing from the ghost town of Mount Gilead.”
“From what I can see, there are about a dozen cabins and assorted buildings including a working grist mill. Residents may be heavily armed.”
“Only one road leads into that place. You can bet it’s being watched.”
***
One man held a pistol on Courtney. Two others carried a wooden box as they followed Dillon Flanagan deeper into the forest, down winding logging trails. Soon they came to a low-lying area, a gorge or a large washed out gulley that had been cut at the base of the cliffs by fast moving water. Dillon pointed to a spot in the sand, turned to his men and said, “Dig.”
They used two shovels to remove the soil, and within a few minutes had dug a hole—a grave. Dillon said, “Brother John … fit the pipe onto the box. We’ll sink it to allow for three inches of pipe to rise up out of the soil.”
The man called Brother John nodded, worked the pipe into the hole that had been cut to receive it.
Courtney bolted.
She ran hard through the gorge, her shoes slipping in the mud. Dillon watched for a moment and said, “Retrieve the runaway. Bring her back alive and put her in the box.”
The men took off, running like hounds chasing a fox. With hands tied behind her back, Courtney’s speed was diminished. In less than a minute, the men had caught and tackled her in the mud. They lifted her up and brought her back to Dillon, dropping her at his feet. He kicked her in the mouth, squatted down and said, “Little niece, you’re gonna die, but not ‘till I say how and when. Now lie down in your coffin.”
She spat mud and saliva in his face. He grinned, wiped if off with one hand, wiping it on her shirt, across her left breast. He leaned in her ear and whispered. “I remember what they felt like when they were growing.” The he rose up and said, “You will cross the threshold tonight. You’ll do it with my brother. A full moon is rising across the abyss.” He paused and inhaled deeply through his nostrils. “Smell that? That’s the promise. Lots of rain. A big nor’easter is due to arrive about midnight. You know how fast the water from the rains come down this canyon? It’ll be a flashflood. Won’t take long to cover up that pipe. Drowning is a bad way to go ‘cause it takes so long to die. Lungs burn, you cough, spit up water, trying so hard to catch a breath of sweet air. Then you’ll have nothing but water to breathe, and you’ll finally begin to surrender … sort of dreamlike because in the casket you’ll plainly hear your own heart beat its last thump-thump.” He grinned, a rising moon trapped in his black eyes. “And you have asthma.”
“You will burn in hell! You bastard!”
“Pack the witch in, brothers. Remove the rope from her wrists. I like to hear vermin scratch the wood.”
The men grabbed Courtney. She kicked. “No! Don’t listen to him! He’s the worst kind of evil. Dillon Flanagan is no prophet. He is the devil himself.” They used a sharp knife to slice the ropes from her wrist, shoving her in the coffin, quickly slamming the lid on, two men sitting on it, one man nailing it shut. Courtney screamed as the last nail was driven into the wood. The men set the coffin in the grave and began shoveling dirt and mud into the hole.
She kicked at the lid. Pounded with her fists. She took short breaths through her nostrils, the odor inside the coffin smelled of sawdust and mud. She lay there and listened to the sound of dirt falling against the top of the tomb. She prayed silently. Thought about her grandmother. “Sean, where are you?” Then she felt as if the walls to the tomb were closing in, her breathing labored, asthma coming on strong. She pursed her lips into the pipe that protruded inside the casket. She fought for her breath, her lungs burning.
Dillon stood over the grave and smiled, the full moon rising in the sky far beyond his shoulders. He bellowed, “I smell the promise of rain!”
Courtney screamed, used her fingernails to claw at the lid of the coffin, her mournful cry sounding as if it came from the center of the earth.
97
A rising full moon was my only light source driving the twisting logging road around the edge of a mountain. Tree limbs and branches raked down the side of the rental car. I set my phone on the center console and listened to Dave give me random directions from satellite GPS signals that could definitely see the forests, but not the trees. “Sean, looks like you’re within maybe three or four hundred yards from what appears to be the perimeter of Dillon’s compound.”
“What are you getting from Courtney’s phone signal?”
“It’s stationary, and it’s weak. Hasn’t moved in more than an hour. I’m worried.”
“How far do you think it is from where I am right now?”
“Mile, maybe a little more.”
“I’m running out of what’s left of this logging trail. Got to go the rest of the way on foot.”
“I’m following you. Stay off any obvious paths into the compound. You don’t know if they’re booby-trapped. He could even have buried a few landmines.”
I saw a text message pop up on my phone. Reading it, my blood ran cold. Dillon Flanagan wrote: I know you’re here little brother - during the great flood, God murdered everyone on earth except Noah’s family - He set an example for me to follow – bury your heart because Courtney will perish in the flood waters - and you’re next, as was Abel-
I sat in the car and re-read the text, my thoughts racing. I shut off the engine, grabbed a flashlight from the glove box, extra rifle cartridges, and stepped out into the light of the moon. The tall cedars cast shadows across the trail. I could smell pine needles and rain in the air. I glanced up in the sky, the full moon bright, but clouds in the distance, the dark guts of the clouds streaking with veins of heat lighting.
Dave said, “What’s happening? I can tell you’re not moving.”
“I just received a text from Dillon. I’ll read it to you. He said: ‘I know you’re here little brother - during the great flood, God murdered everyone on earth except Noah’s family - He set an example for me to follow – bury your heart because Courtney will perish in the floodwaters - and you’re next, as was Abel.’ ”
“Is that all he wrote?”
“Yes, but it’s enough. It looks like a hell of a storm is brewing over the mountains. Look on your satellite topography chart and find a low-lying area.”
“There aren’t many in the Blue Ridge Mountains.”
“Find someplace that might be prone to flooding. A valley or gorge, maybe. Someplace that could be susceptible to flash flooding, and somewhere clo
se to Dillon’s compound.”
“Give me a minute. You think he stuck her in a ravine somewhere?”
“Yes. He said to bury my heart because Courtney will perish in the floodwaters. I think he buried her somewhere, and the rain is coming.”
“Sean, he’s laying a trap for you.”
***
Courtney tried to control her breathing. The coffin was almost airless, muggy and hot. Perspiration soaked her blouse. Her left cheek was throbbing and swollen from Dillon’s kick, lower lip puffed-up, dried blood crusted in one corner of her mouth. Soft light from the moon came in through the pipe, illuminating her face damp from sweat. She forced herself to stay calm. It was the only way an asthma attack wouldn’t return.
She thought about Boots, his smile and his kind encouraging words. She remembered the long talks she used to have with Isaac, and how much his dog meant to him. She remembered Sean’s dachshund, Max—her big brown eyes, the way she could catch a piece of food in mid-air. Courtney smiled. She thought about her grandmother. A single tear spilled from her eye and rolled down her cheek, falling onto the wood beneath her head.
She looked through the pipe, watching the moon, watching a wisp of dark cloud floating in front of the moon. The interior of the coffin darkened for a moment, and then the cloud passed, the light returning. She lay there, staring through the pipe, the light coming from so far away. And then a large cloud seemed to devour the moon.
And the interior of the casket was the darkest black Courtney had ever seen and felt.
98
Lightning popped in the sky above the Blue Ridge Mountains, each burst of light giving the mountains the look of dark purple dinosaurs slumbering since the ice ages. I used the light from the cracks of lightning to help me see through the woods, trying to stay off worn paths and heading in the direction of Dillon’s compound.
The rain began falling in large, heavy drops coming through the gaps in the tree limbs.
I plugged an earphone into my phone and said, “Dave, I’m close to the village. I can smell wood smoke. It’s raining. Can you hear me?”
