Lightning Strikes

by Theresa Parker

  Chapter 13

  Kelli showed up a little before seven. She slumped into my kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee before sitting on a stool at the island. She yawned loudly and took a sip before glaring at me.

  “What?” I said, unsure why I was getting the hairy eyeball look.

  “You could have said nine,” she griped. “Why the hell do you want to go out this early?”

  “Cavanaugh and I usually leave at six,” I told her. “Besides, it isn’t as though you don’t get up this early every day for work.”

  “Yes, but Grant doesn’t usually keep me up all night because he won’t see me until tomorrow night,” she complained.

  “Oh my God,” I said, “cry me a river because your boyfriend kept you up all night with hot sex.” I gave her a disgusted look to let her know she had no business complaining.

  She grinned at me. “Sorry,” she said.

  We finished our coffee and headed out. It was nice to get away with Kelli for the day. We usually talk on the phone at least once a day, but we both like our face time together more. For some reason, conversations were livelier when we were together.

  “So you’re telling me that you don’t think Cavanaugh is romantically interested in you?” she asked incredulously.

  I shook my head. “I think he just wants to be friends,” I told her.

  “Nuh-uh,” she said. “I don’t see that. I know he’s interested in you being more than a friend. I’ll bet you twenty…no, one hundred bucks that he has the hots for you.”

  “I don’t want just sex,” I said while she laughed at me. “Okay, yeah I do, but I don’t want a one-night stand or a brief fling. I want a relationship.”

  I told her about the morning I saw him in the shower, and she laughed like a hyena when I told her what an idiot I’d been for yelling and babbling at him when he touched the shard pouch. When she finally got control over her laughter, she asked me to show her the shards. I pulled them out of my pockets.

  “Ohhh, pretty,” she said. “They really help?” Kelli, like me, loved shiny things, and these shards reminded me of our childhood games of dragons, knights, and damsels that kicked butt.

  “Yeah,” I told her. “Pamela was spot on about these crystals. I would have never thought to even try one.”

  We arrived at the park entrance and I directed her to the road we needed. As we passed the visitor center, I told her about the rangers: Dan, John, and Terrance.

  She shook her head at me. “You meet the most bizarre people,” she said. “Ranger Dan sounds like a pig, and that Terrance, what a creep.”

  I nodded my head in agreement. There was just something off about that guy Terrance. I still could not put my finger on it, though.

  We continued driving until we got to the road I’d had Cavanaugh turn down yesterday. Turning off, we followed the twists and turns, and when we passed the point where Cavanaugh turned around, I sat forward. Around the next two curves, the dirt parking area came into view. This is it, I thought to myself. I know the other entrance is here somewhere. Maybe not too close, but close enough. Kelli parked in the dirt, and we sat there, staring at the meadow.

  “Is that it?” Kelli asked, pointing over my shoulder.

  I turned to see what she was pointing at. Over my right shoulder, a road led off through the trees perpendicular to the meadow. A small hill blocked the road from view as you pulled into this dirt area. I would have missed it if Kelli hadn’t pointed it out. The road looked wide enough to drive a small vehicle through, easily. I took note of it, but it wasn’t my immediate goal.

  “No,” I told her. “We need to go up into the meadow.” I patted my jacket to make sure the shards were in my pockets.

  We got out of the car and walked up the slope into the short grass. It was exactly as I’d seen it in my vision. I turned to my right when we were farther up, and found the top of the horseshoe meadow where the stone chair sat. I picked up my pace and walked through the top of the horseshoe, and there it was on my right. The stone chair.

  “Wow,” Kelli said. “It really does look like a chair.”

  I nodded my head. We walked farther into the meadow. I was feeling antsy. Something was going to happen. I pulled one of the crystals out of my pocket and dropped down on one knee. Unlacing my boot, I slipped the shard into my sock and down into my boot, just behind my anklebone. It wasn’t very comfortable, but something told me to do it. The antsy feeling became stronger. Kelli was inspecting the chair. I grabbed her arm and turned her around.

  “We have to leave now,” I said.

  “What’s your hurry?” A menacing voice came from behind the rocks that made up the stone chair. We both started at the sound. Terrance, stepped out from behind the rocks.

  “What are you doing here?” he said, walking slowly toward us.

  “We’re just looking around,” I said with a bright smile. Everything in me was screaming danger.

  “Where’s your husband?” he asked, stopping in front of us.

  He said this in a sarcastic tone. Kelli noticed the tone immediately, and I could tell it set her back up.

  “Can we help you with something?” she said. “We’re not trespassing, are we?”

  “As a matter of fact, you are,” he said, bringing the gun from behind his back. He pointed it at us. “Step away from each other.”

  “Look,” I told him, doing what he said. “My husband is meeting us here; he should be along any minute.”

  “I don’t think so, lady,” he said, jerking Kelli further away from me by her arm.

  She cried out, and I took a step forward to do—I don’t know what—and he brought the gun up and pointed it at me. I stopped in my tracks and raised my hands up in front of me.

  “Take it easy, Terrance,” I said soothingly. “What’s this all about?”

  He glared at me. “You don’t think I bought that bullshit about that cop looking for a parole violator did you?” he said, shaking his head. “I know what you’re looking for, and you can’t have them. They belong to me now.” He laughed gleefully. “They are my greatest creation.”

  Keeping the gun pointed at me, he gave Kelli a quick pat down. Her face was pale and her lips were set in a line as his hand roamed freely over her body. He swung the gun in her direction and stepped closer to me. I would like to say I suffered the same indignity that Kelli suffered during her pat down, but no, Terrance made my search an even worse experience by feeling me up instead of patting me down. His hand lingered between my legs and traveled up over my T-shirt, cupping and squeezing my breasts. I glared at him, and he squeezed my left breast hard enough to hurt it. Thank goodness I chose today to wear my extra-padded push-up bra; his squeeze didn’t hurt as bad as it should have. Only the top of my breast felt as though his fingers had left bruises.

  My reaction to his unwanted and unnecessary touching was stupid and could have gotten Kelli or me shot. I grabbed the front of his uniform shirt, pulled him to me, and grabbed for the gun. The shirt’s top four buttons popped off, revealing his bare chest and the very colorful tattoo of claws squeezing a winged heart. He swung the gun back on me and slapped my face. Pain exploded across my cheekbone and my eye. I cried out, cradling my face as Kelli rushed to my side. Terrance took a couple of steps back so he could cover both of us with the gun. We looked at him warily.

  “All right,” he said, waving the gun, “let’s go.”

  He directed us into the trees behind the stone chair. We walked with him right behind us, occasionally jabbing the gun into our backs. It was a short walk between the trees and then onto the dirt road that Kelli had spotted when we pulled up. We stumbled down the road for a long time. It veered off into the opposite direction of the small entrance to the mine I came out of yesterday. Terrance stopped us at a tree whose branches came out from the trunk in a straight line. The tree looked like a cross. It sat on the edge of a cliff lined with large boulders. He pushed us to the left of the tree, where there was a space between the boulders. Th
e rocks camouflaged a path that sloped back to the right. You had to step down a three-foot drop to get onto the path. The path, barely wide enough for an adult to walk down, had a rock wall on one side and an eight-foot drop to the next section of the path on the other. It doubled back in a zigzag pattern. When we reached the end of the trail, Terrance pushed us around a curve hidden by trees close up against the rock wall. The trees were thinner in this area and let us into a clearing right in front of a large entrance to the mine.

  He pushed us into the mouth. A man guarded the mine’s entrance. He sat in a folding camp chair, reading a paperback novel. I didn’t recognize this man from any of my visions. He stood up as we stumbled in.

  “What’s going on, Terrance?” he asked, looking nervous.

  “Never you mind, Roy,” Terrance said. “I got a couple of problems that I’m taking care of.”

  Roy shrugged, sat back in his chair, and picked up his book, acting as though he was never disturbed.

  “Keep going,” Terrance said.

  I couldn’t believe with all the time I’d spent in these mines that I never got to this area before. That just told me how vast these tunnels were. I tried to pay close attention to where he was herding us. I was hoping to spot something familiar.

  We walked farther down the main tunnel. Kelli had a death grip on my jacket. I put my hand over hers and squeezed gently. I tried with that gesture to let her know it would be all right. I would find a way to get us out of this mess. We passed through several caverns, some small and some large. I recognized the large cafeteria, now empty. He kept pushing us along.

  We eventually came to the exercise room. The children in their rows were practicing their katas. Terrance pushed us into the room, stopping us just inside the entrance. Perfect. I knew this room. I knew the small mine exit was just down the tunnel to my left.

  “Why did you take these children?” Kelli asked him.

  I thought she was very brave to ask any questions, let alone the question that had been on all of our minds.

  “They are my army,” Terrance said proudly, throwing his arms wide.

  “These children aren’t soldiers,” I hissed at him, “they’re just babies.”

  He turned to us, a maniacal grin plastered on his face, and then he looked back at the children.

  “On the contrary,” he said, delighted to explain. “These children are perfect soldiers. Trained by me, they can infiltrate any area of the government, even military installations. No one would suspect an innocent child of anything nefarious. Imagine one of my soldiers touring the White House with a group of schoolchildren. This soldier could go anywhere, and if they were caught, no one would suspect anything more than the child wandering off from their tour group. Moreover, military installations could also be accessed. Have you ever seen a child checked for weapons or bombs? No, they just take that child right into their offices, offer them something to drink, and question them so they can call their parents or the local authorities to come and pick them up. It’s too perfect.” He laughed again and turned to watch the children some more.

  “But why?” I asked. “Why would you need to go into these places?”

  He turned back and looked at me as though I was stupid.

  “I don’t expect a mere female to understand the extreme conditions our country has deteriorated to. The government is running this country into bankruptcy, and it is time we, the citizens, did something to stop them before we become a third world country. We need to stand up and let the powers that be realize that we will no longer put up with losing our homes to foreclosures and losing our jobs because of their greedy, grasping policies.”

  Oookay…this guy is bonkers, I thought.

  “You can’t tell me these children are your solution,” Kelli said, trying for reason. “These children are old enough to know this is wrong. You may be able to scare and intimidate them now, but put them out there to hurt or kill people and they won’t do it.”

  He rolled his eyes at Kelli as though she was a moron. Apparently, this guy didn’t think too highly of women.

  “The children will do whatever I tell them,” he said with pride. “I am following in the footsteps of some of the greatest minds there ever were. Jim Jones and Charles Manson, to name a few, all had developed a means of controlling their followers. I use a combination of all of their techniques. I have studied mind control extensively. When I am through training them, the children will willingly kill themselves if I ask.”

  I looked at the children in frustration, and I saw my three. The two adults who ran the training exercises in my visions were here, walking through the rows, occasionally looking at Kelli and me. I also spotted the boy who seemed more lucid than the other children did. He was performing his katas like the other kids, but he was taking quick peeks at us.

  Terrance pushed us back into the main tunnel to the left. We walked down to a small cavern next to the training area. Forcing us in, he made us sit against the wall. The blond Amazon from the exercise cavern came in behind him. He ordered her to tie us up and to check our jacket pockets. She patted down Kelli and then shook her head. The only thing Kelli had brought with her from the car was her keys, and they were in her back pocket, overlooked by the search because she was sitting on them. For mastermind criminals, they did not seem very thorough. I got the impression that they saw us as completely harmless people who couldn’t possibly outsmart them. She moved in front of me, tying my hands and feet like she did Kelli’s, and then checking my jacket pockets. She found the one shard in my pocket and pulled it out to show Terrance. He took it from her and examined it.

  “What’s this?” he asked, slapping the shard in the palm of his hand.

  “A crystal I bought for my mother,” I lied.

  He stuck it into his back pocket and nodded to the blonde to continue searching me. She found my phone in an inside pocket of my jacket and handed it to Terrance. He looked at the display.

  “Tsk, tsk,” he said. “It seems Detective Cavanaugh has left several messages for you. I wonder why you haven’t called him back. Don’t tell me the honeymoon is over?”

  He laughed at his own humor. His blond accomplice indicated she’d found everything there was to find. Terrance jerked his head to the exit, and we watched her walk out.

  “Now, ladies,” he said, grinning, “I’ve some business to attend to. I’m sure you can find something to entertain yourselves while I’m away. I’ll be back later and we can have a little chat.”

  He walked out. We could hear him talking to the blond woman just outside the cavern.

  “Go back to your duties,” he snapped at her.

  “Somebody should watch them,” she said.

  We heard the loud crack of an open hand hitting flesh. “Don’t question me,” he yelled. “Get back to the kids. You have another hour of training before lunch, and then I want them in the projection room.”

  Kelli and I heard them move off down the tunnel. We immediately struggled with our bonds.

  “God, I’m sorry, Kelli,” I told her. “If we can get untied, I know another way out from here.”

  “It’s not your fault, Rommy,” she said, grabbing me and trying to get to the knot that was underneath my hands. “This guy’s psycho. You didn’t even suspect him, did you?”

  I shook my head. She gave up working on my hands and I grabbed hers to see if I could get her loose. I had to give the blond Amazon credit—she tied a mean knot.

  “Kelli, did you see the tattoo on Terrance’s chest?”

  She nodded, now trying the knot at my feet. “He’s the devil-man, isn’t he?” she asked.

  I nodded. “I didn’t know,” I told her. “I don’t understand why I couldn’t see his face before in my visions. Especially the vision I had in the park on my first day here.”

  We switched off, and I tried the knot at her feet.

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” she told me. “Grant and I think that because the kids are being drugged, depending on
what they are being given, they could be hallucinating. Grant suspects that it’s one of the kids, possibly the little girl, whose emotions you’re picking up on. She is drugged and terrified and she sees this guy, Terrance, as a monster. I think that’s why you were seeing him that way, too. Couple that with the effects of the silver and iron, and your visions are all screwed up.”

  “Yeah, I can see that happening. I don’t often see through the victims’ eyes, but everything about this situation is different. I suspect the iron and silver have really messed everything up for me.”

  Having no luck getting our knots loose with our hands, we both tried to get at them with our teeth. This also didn’t work, but it was worth a shot. We looked around our cavern to see if there was anything to cut the ropes—a sharp rock, anything.

  “What about the shard in your boot?” she said, getting excited. “She missed that, didn’t she?”

  “The shard has no sharp edges to cut,” I told her, shaking my head. “The ends come to a point, but I don’t think it could be of any use. Besides, she tied my feet too tight together; I can’t get to the shard.”

  Kelli sat back in frustration, and I leaned back next to her.

  “If you go out of this little room and turn left, five cavern rooms down on your left side is a room with a crawlspace behind some stacked boxes,” I told her. “It’s a way out. If you get a chance, I want you to go.”

  She shook her head. “I won’t go without you,” she said vehemently.

  I looked her in the eye. “I want you to promise me, Kelli,” I told her. “If you have a chance, take it. You could call Cavanaugh and rally the troops to rescue me.”

  I proceeded to tell her, in detail, how to get to the little exit. I told her which way to turn on the path in the trees, and how to get back to the stone chair. I also told her about a truck stop on the highway that always has a lot of people. That would be a safe place for her to wait for the police. Then I made her repeat my instructions back to me. She gave me a squinty-eyed look but did it anyway. She might not blame me for getting us into this mess, but I did.