Veiled Eyes

by C. L. Bevill

  As Gabriel shouldered his way through the crowd, not bothering to be polite, his mind on one thing, on one single person, others turned to follow him, not hesitating as they moved. Camille cast a lingering look at the paramedics situating Sebastien in the ambulance and disappeared into the horde of people who were watching the unanticipated show with no little amount of interest.

  In a matter of minutes every person with a blue Unknown T-shirt had disappeared. Some who had simply come to the festival and were not concessionaires had gone as well. Not one soul with black hair and gold eyes remained.

  •

  Anna was watching the water rushing by her feet. A little trickle of dark water coursing over pure white salt had become a stream. It bubbled and pushed the pebbles of salt before it, insistent and resolute in its determination. The flashlight was about to be engulfed in it. She absently stuck her foot out and moved the MagLite back so that it wouldn’t be washed down the passage.

  Explosives in the ceiling of the mine. What do I know about explosives? Anna considered. Nothing. Nada. Zipola. Engines. I know engines. Explosives were not in my instruction.

  The water pushed by her, reaching out black tendrils to toy with the tips of her shoes. These were the same white Reeboks Gabriel had purchased to replace her worn tennies. She looked solemnly at the shoes, trying to divine the meaning of life from her footwear.

  Then she looked down at the bottom of the excavation. Many other shoes had trod this path. She thought about what she’d overheard from Aurore and Gaspard. Even those of geology students who wanted to look at sinkholes had come down one of these passageways. For sure, they hadn’t anticipated being killed for their scientific curiosity. They’d even brought their gear with them, expecting to find an amicable mine-owner who didn’t care what they did as long as they didn’t sue him. When he’d refused them entrance they had thought they’d go on in anyway, have a quick look-see, and found something more interesting and terrible than they’d ever dreamed of discovering. What’s the point in diving a silt-filled hole of water, anyway? You can’t see beyond the tip of your nose and…

  The vision of a nearly new Dodge truck appeared in Anna’s head. It sat near the ominous black Peterbilt, almost hiding a Mazda Miata. Not a particularly out of the ordinary truck to Anna, but its bed was full of scuba equipment. Masks, flippers, and air tanks. Everything a growing geologist and diving enthusiast needs to play in a deep, dark hole of sand and water.

  I went scuba diving once. Jane dragged me down to the Sea of Cortez and made me go through a whole day of training called Resort Scuba so I could watch her play with the fishes and outswim hammerheads. I didn’t like being attached to an air tank. It didn’t feel…right.

  Anna jumped to her feet. I said I’d die alone. But what if I don’t have to die?

  Whatever Aurore needed to do to collapse the ceiling of the graveyard, would have to be done with her safely out of the mine. She wouldn’t want to take the risk of trapping herself. Anna scooped up the flashlight and looked down the passage again. Lost she was, but she could find the graveyard again. She had to find it before Aurore reached what she considered to be a safe location to blow up the explosives.

  Anna began to run.

  •

  Gabriel didn’t stop for the gate. It was locked with the same rusting padlock that he’d seen on it before. He knew that Sebastien had deliberately placed an old lock on the gate to make it seem as though no one passed that way frequently. Gabriel shoved the gas pedal down with his foot and let the truck roar through the chain-link fence.

  The truck’s engine screamed with protest with the abrupt extra tension that was placed upon it. Cement plugs that had held the supporting poles of the fences were yanked up and thudded against the sides of the doors. One thundered down on the hood and broke the windshield open. A thousand spider web cracks appeared in front of him, obscuring his vision. One of his fists lashed out and violently shoved the glass away. It fell forward and then was dragged off the hood by the fence when it was yanked back.

  He didn’t look back to see it fall at the side of the narrow dirt track. Nor did he look back to see other vehicles following him, full of the family, all silent, their thoughts wordlessly condemning the actions of Sebastien and Aurore Benoit.

  When Gabriel reached the main building of the mine, the huge double doors stood ajar. Aurore hadn’t worried about re-locking these. The Benoit’s seventies era Ford sat around the side of the building, out of sight of the gate. The engine of Gabriel’s truck blew up with a loud explosion and he was stepping away from it before it stopped moving. In the single floodlight of the mine, black smoke billowed up, pouring from the engine compartment and out of the vents. After moments, flames started to appear and the paint on the hood began to bubble and turn black.

  A dozen cars stopped behind his. People stepped out of their cars, ignoring the smoke of the burning truck. Gabriel could see that more lights were following them, up the little road that led to the cut off for the mine. At the edge of the bayou, two flat-bottomed boats were being pushed to shore, disregarding the dilapidated dock. Shapes moved along the edges of the fence.

  Gold eyes burned with fury in the darkness, a thousand angry animals intent on retribution.

  •

  Anna wanted to scream. The last two times she’d found her way to the graveyard as if it had pulled it toward her with the tractor beam out of a Star Wars movie. Now it seemed like the tunnels had begun to tangle their Gordian knot into a more twisted version of a ball of yarn well played with by a horde of hell-bent kittens. She’d run into three dead ends and was panting with exhaustion. Maze designers could learn a thing or two from this mine. She gritted her teeth. Not that they’ll be swimming through it anytime soon.

  Water was leaking down into the lower chambers and slowly beginning to fill up the tunnel she was wading in. Up to her knees, it pulled at her limbs as if it had a life of its own, slowing her down to a veritable crawl. Worse, the water seemed cold. Colder than the lake above, it sapped the strength from her limbs.

  Whatever had caused the cracks in the earth had succeeded. The mine was flooding out. But Aurore wouldn’t be satisfied with that. She wanted to collapse the graveyard to hide her sins. Not that she thinks of them as sins; she’s only ‘protecting’ the family.

  Anna forced her legs to continue working. Not only was the water hard to work against, it was moving, and threatening to pull her down with it. She came to a bend in a passage and put her arm up to steady herself, as the water poured down the manmade channel. The water pushed at her thighs, urging them to go with the flow. I don’t have much time here.

  She took another step and the water took her down.

  •

  Camille ran through the gate, dragging one of the elders with her. She had found him near the Zydeco band, already troubled because of the raging thoughts that were running wildly through the family’s minds. You see, she thought to him. See. See. See.

  His name was Lee Vildibill and he was visiting from Houma. He was just as angry with Sebastien and Aurore as the rest, but his anger was tinged with disbelief and sheer incredulity. He’d known the Benoits for thirty years. They’d stood side by side during many family crises. As one of the elders, he’d even asked Sebastien what he thought about Anna St. Thais and her tremendous display of power. Her fear when she had been kidnapped had been incapacitating to the family and her range had stunned the elders.

  Sebastien and Aurore had always been supportive members of the family, ones who cared about how the outside world affected them, ones who eschewed the entrance of chain stores and outside influences that would warp the family. Sebastien had told Lee to wait and see about Anna. She would grow to become part of the group. She was one of them. Sebastien’s words came back to haunt Lee in the current situation. “She’s with us or she’s an outsider, oui?”

  Lee shifted to the present, answering Camille’s thoughts with his own. I see nothing but many people listening to uncheck
ed thoughts. He looked around him slowly. Gold eyes glowed in the dark, reflecting the light of the moon and the state of the family’s fury. A man in his sixties, he had been an elder for ten years, and never had he been aware of such a dire circumstances. Sebastien and Aurore, my friends, murderers, how can this be?

  Camille gave up thoughts for spoken reason. Her voice was a heated snarl. “They teach us. Family does not hurt family. Le famille never harms its own. Anna is one of us, no matter where she was raised.”

  There were other voices, too many to listen to within Lee’s head, all jumbled in tense purpose to be heard. “Out loud!” he said stridently. “I cannot hear all of you at once!”

  Laurant Theriot spoke up, “Maman is dead. I can feel it now. It’s like a curse in my blood. She died without me knowing it. What kind of cruel trick is that?”

  “Anna knew Meg was in the mine,” insisted Camille. “Knew she was dying.”

  The other voices spoke up, their thoughts twisting into Lee’s, angry, virulent, determined to understand. She’s stronger than most. Anna discovered the secrets. People missing for years, decades. No secrets in the family. Outsiders. The lake is receding. No secrets. The lake is angry. Goujon is angry.

  Lee Vildibill glanced at the edge of the bayou, the black waters glistening with the light of the full moon. If he looked further he could see the lake stretching out into the night. Not so calm now, he knew the waters churned with chaotic emotions. Peace, he thought. Serenity. We are with the lake. Goujon is not angry with us. He only tests our world.

  Now, Lee continued when control started to seep through the uncontained thoughts of vengeance combined with earnest attempts to understand a situation gone so badly. Where is Aurore Benoit?

  Lee saw that Gabriel Bergeron was yanking at the huge double doors with all of his might, pulling the heavy metal back, thrusting it out of its tracks. Gabriel, wait.

  Gabriel twisted around. Wait? His thoughts failed him. A clutter of rage pooled with condensed threats rained upon all of the family within reach. Several flinched with the amount of vehemence there. “Anna’s in there. And she’s not dead, yet, so I can-”

  “It’s already too late,” said Aurore Benoit. She stood at the entrance of the mine, framed by the large double doors, and looked out at the crowd of people. Tall and proud, her white streaked hair glimmered in the night. Her gold eyes burned with the answer.

  Thoughts stilled. Voices silenced. There was only the sound of Gabriel’s truck burning with paint crackling and the whoosh of flames as it bit into combustible areas of the vehicle.

  A hundred pairs of gold eyes turned to Aurore. They shone in the darkness, reflecting the single floodlight back at her. Her calm façade did not change. “And Sebastien?” she said. “I felt his pain for a moment. I can’t feel him anymore?”

  Gabriel’s face smoldered with fury. “Sebastien’s not dead,” he grated.

  Not dead. Not dead. Not dead. The thoughts suddenly repeated in the family’s minds.

  Raoul Benoit appeared beside Gabriel, his face confusion and anguish. “Maman. C’est moi,” he said. “It isn’t too late. We can fetch Anna out and make things right. I don’t know what you were doing but please, merciful Dieu, don’t let her die in there. There’s something wrong with Gaspard. I felt the pain in my chest as if his heart was torn in two,” his voice cracked. “What have you done, Maman?”

  “Why can’t I reach Anna?” demanded Gabriel. “What are you doing, Aurore?”

  “At first, it was me that prevented you,” said Aurore. “Now it’s her. She won’t let you. You didn’t trust her. Now you can’t help her. Truly you can’t.” She smiled sadly at her son. “She could have been the strongest of all of us.”

  Gabriel lost what tatters of his temper he had remaining and went for Aurore. Three men pulled him back before he could reach the older woman. Aurore cried out, “I am sorry for nothing! I protected all of you from the outsiders! Even now you judge me. She would have betrayed us! She would have betrayed you!” She pointed a finger at Gabriel.

  Gabriel growled under his breath and lurched forward. Two men yanked him back.

  Aurore cast a sly look over her shoulder. “Judge me. But not Gaspard. Not Gautier and not Meg Theriot. And certainly not Anna. She doesn’t need any prayers now.”

  The ground began to shake as the explosives Sebastien had set began to go off. The earth shuddered in protest and the bluff above them began to shift.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Saturday, February 21st

  It is said that seeing a blind man is good luck. Helping that same blind man brings fortune to the obliging one. Ignore his needs and the devil will come calling at your door.

  Anna was helplessly sliding along a corridor. She struggled to get upright and find her footing on the slick floor as water roared ever downward. She clutched the flashlight with a death grip and the fingers of her other hand scraped powerlessly along the walls, searching for something to grasp. Her body crashed against an abandoned rail cart and she grabbed on for dear life. Water rushed around her body and the cart, flowing past to deeper regions. It was draining down the mine to the lowest levels and beginning to fill up.

  Dripping with water, Anna pulled herself upright. She panned the flashlight around, coughing water, clearing her lungs. She wasn’t sure how far she had traveled in the flow of water, but she’d swallowed more than she’d wanted and some of it had gone down wrong. She glanced down at the MagLite. It was still working and she nodded in mute admiration. If I get out of here, I’ve got to write a letter to the manufacturer. She considered that. Fat chance.

  Anna grasped the edge of the cart and pushed forward, lurching with the leading force of the water’s current. She was near the bottom of the mine, where the water from above was converging. After shoving herself through a tunnel with water waist deep, she found herself at the entrance to the graveyard once more. She waded through the opening and immediately realized more than a few things.

  The strong beam of the flashlight showed the cap at the top of the cavernous area was leaking heavily. Black liquid spilled continuously in an arching waterfall. The water was beginning to fill the room, the vehicles floated like weird bumper cars, some of them tapping against each other and against the walls, making odd clanking noises that echoed above the spill of the water. Gaspard’s flashlight had vanished, washed away or gone dead because of water and the only light was hers. Finally, Anna could smell the strong stench of what seemed like sulfur. It was as if someone had fired a gun near her but she hadn’t heard the retort.

  Anna pointed the flashlight upward and saw nothing. She remembered that Aurore said that they had planted explosives in the ceiling. Something gently tapped her on the shoulder and startled, she spun about, nearly ducking herself again in the process.

  A little round tube was hanging from the side of the opening. It swung gently back and forth where the air pressure was pushing it. It had a little pull ring on one side and was connected to a narrow rope-like material that led upward, attached to the walls with what looked like long staples that bit into the salt. Anna reached up and grabbed it, bringing it close to her nose. It was this thing that smelt of sulfur. She dropped it and followed the line of rope with her flashlight. It led to a central spot on the ceiling near the draining cap where it attached to several other cords, which all spread outward in a wagon wheel shape to various parts of the top of the mine hollow. Each went to little holes drilled into the salt, disappearing inside, and covered with putty that held it in place. A line of little rope led to dozens of holes. One was almost directly above her head where she could examine it in detail. It looked small and insignificant, as if no harm could come from it.

  Anna’s mouth opened. She looked at the little tube with its pull ring. This was a fuse igniter that had been already activated. It was connected by safety cord to the detonation cord in the rough center of the ceiling. There the det cord splintered off to the explosives that had been strategically placed
in the ceiling by Sebastien. The holes could hold sticks of dynamite or bars of C4; it was difficult to tell which and Anna had no idea what a salt mine would use to break great chunks of salt from the earth. Aurore hadn’t been making light when she said she wanted to collapse the room and leave no evidence. When the roof went here, the salt would bury this place and everything in the room at the time would be thusly buried as well.

  All this time she had assumed Aurore would go to the surface and push some imaginary button that would bring the mine in on itself, like something out of a movie. A laughing villain would stand outside and say something vile as he detonated the explosives and the audience would flinch in reactive pain. The truth was she’d set a specific amount of safety cord that was burning away to the detonation cord; so much cord would burn in so many seconds. When it reached the det cord, the explosives would blow. She had already set it in motion before she had gone to the elevator.

  Anna couldn’t reach it to yank it away from whatever explosives were set into the ceilings. Even if she could, she wouldn’t have time to remove the two dozen or so cords that were attached to the safety cord. She glanced around her, seeking out the equipment that the Benoits must have used. A cherry picker was the only thing that could have gotten them up to the vaulted ceiling and Anna knew that if she could get her hands on something that had an engine in it, then she might have a fighting chance.

  But whatever they had used to place the multitude of explosives was long gone. Ladder or mechanized vehicle, perhaps it had been returned to wherever he’d gotten it. Anna dismissed her idea and went wading for the Dodge, intent on the scuba gear. At the very least she could extend her life, perhaps finding a way to swim out of this place. Threading her way through a current that wanted to rip her away and through floating debris that bobbed and swirled, it felt like it took her forever to cross the chamber. She reached the Dodge truck, watching as its lighter bed bumped into the Peterbilt, ripping away the metal jaws that had been attached to the grill. The front end of the Dodge was weighed down by the engine and sat in place, while its lighter back end pivoted around, pushed by the water.