Kingdom of the Seven

by Jon Land

  “Shock, mostly,” Jacob reported. “Her concussion is minor.”

  “She’ll be all right,” added Rachel as she finished bandaging the nasty gash that ran across Sister Barbara’s forehead.

  They drove to a motel they had passed not far from the North Carolina hills where the last remnants of the Oasis lay smoldering by now. McCracken felt strangely secure and at ease. At least a few of the Seven’s soldiers, after all, would surely have escaped to tell the tale of doing battle with his group. It was reasonable to think that these men would report that McCracken and those who had accompanied him had been caught in the massive explosion. Harlan Frye would thus conclude they were dead, providing Blaine the edge he needed once Sister Barbara pinpointed the location of the Kingdom of the Seven.

  Jacob and Rachel went out for food and additional medical supplies to tend Sister Barbara. By the time they returned to the room, she was already sitting up in a chair, her eyes regaining clarity and color. They clouded up with tears as the reality of what had occurred at the Oasis struck her hard and fast.

  “What have I done?” she muttered. “What have I done?”

  “You weren’t responsible for what happened today,” Rachel said, as Jacob began unpacking the supplies and McCracken looked on.

  Sister Barbara’s expression remained flat. “People who were loyal to me are dead. People who believed in me are dead. I let them down. They came to me for another chance at life, and today I brought death to them at the … Oasis.” Saying the final word drew a grimace of pain across her face.

  “The Reverend Harlan Frye’s doing,” Rachel persisted.

  “And was I not a part of his work and thus this? Was not your father?”

  “He has tried to atone, as you have.”

  “But we failed, both of us, I more than he since I refused to believe in Frye’s ability to bring on Judgment Day. I couldn’t let myself believe because believing meant accepting I had been party to it. And today happened because I couldn’t let myself believe he would go as far as he did or strike as quickly.”

  “Where is Frye, Sister?” McCracken asked. “Where is the Kingdom of the Seven?”

  “It’s too late to stop him, isn’t it?”

  “That depends on how much you’re able to help us,” Blaine told her.

  “What has he done? What is to be the instrument of his Judgment Day?”

  “We don’t know. We have pieces, clues, but how they fit together, well …”

  “It all starts with a vaccine for AIDS,” said Karen Raymond.

  Sister Barbara’s expression seemed to perk up at that. “Did you say vaccine?”

  Karen nodded. “Developed by a company called Van Dyne Pharmaceuticals, but—”

  “Of course,” Sister Barbara interrupted.

  “That means something to you,” McCracken realized.

  “Oh yes. Plenty. Because Harlan Frye owns Van Dyne Pharmaceuticals.”

  The four remaining members of the Seven had all taken their seats by the time Harlan Frye completed his report. Surprise and doubt had taken the place of triumph and celebration on their faces.

  “Can this truly be done?” asked Jessie Will.

  “Most certainly,” returned Reverend Frye, who alone had remained standing.

  “In spite of what happened in Beaver Falls?” challenged Arthur Burgeuron.

  “As I explained,” said Frye, “because of it.” He strode confidently closer to the table. “Can’t you see it, my brothers? What we first interpreted as disaster was actually a blessing—a final blessing God has bestowed on our works. He has shown us a better way, my friends. He has given us the means to accomplish His work in the manner He has chosen.”

  “Through a single city?” from a skeptical Tommy Lee Curtisan.

  “Not just any city, my brother. The visitors will come and they will go and they will take the end of the world with them.”

  “What of our followers?” asked Louis W. Kellog. “Our own chosen who were to survive?”

  The Reverend Harlan Frye laid his palms on the hard wood table and shrugged. “Some will have to be sacrificed for the greater good, but within six months we will be able to produce the means to save the majority of them.”

  “How?” asked Jessie Will.

  “Did I not tell you? We are fortunate enough to have in our possession a vaccine … .”

  It took a few moments for Sister Barbara’s revelation about the true ownership of Van Dyne to sink in.

  “Actually,” she continued, “we all owned Van Dyne, a huge block of it anyway, thanks to a pool of our collective resources worth nearly a billion dollars. That list you have of Frye’s Key Society, check it again. You’ll find Van Dyne’s founder mentioned prominently.”

  McCracken began pacing the room, trying to put it all together. His gaze fell on Karen. “Assume Van Dyne’s vaccine, worked as advertised. Assume no complications sprang up in Beaver Falls.”

  “FDA approval within a year or two.”

  “And then?”

  “Worldwide distribution and inoculation. Vaccinating everyone would be the only way to be sure of stamping out the disease. Like polio.”

  Blaine stopped and ground his feet into the carpet, his point made for him. “So I figured.”

  “I don’t understand. What are you getting at?”

  “You just said it yourself: Frye’s vaccine would have been used to inoculate the entire world.”

  “Oh, my God,” Karen muttered through the chill rising through her.

  “That’s right.” Blaine nodded.

  “The vaccine Frye was testing in Beaver Falls …”

  “Not a vaccine at all,” McCracken said. “Quite the opposite, in fact: Everyone inoculated will become infected with the disease.”

  Karen Raymond leaped to her feet. She wrapped her arms about herself to try to still her shaking. “The pathological alterations in the vaccine would have to be very subtle. Van Dyne’s vaccine was based on the body’s ability to form a permanent, genetically based protein coating around invading HIV cells, after it recognized them. Only, Frye’s scientists must have designed this protein coating to erode over time, probably through some form of cellular encapsulation. And as the coating eroded, the virus would be freed to attack the immune system and turn it against itself at all levels—AIDS, as we know it today.” Her eyes flashed back to life, aimed McCracken’s way. “But something went wrong.”

  “Beaver Falls …”

  “Yes! It’s clear, everything’s clear! The disease must have begun to metastasize long before it was supposed to; the microencapsulated protein coating broke down years ahead of schedule.”

  “And Frye’s volunteers ended up coming down with AIDS.”

  Karen nodded. “Based on what Wayne Denbo told us he saw, that’s the explanation that fits. It also accounts for the procedures Frye employed to evacuate the town.”

  “But why evacuate the whole town, Dr. Raymond?”

  “My guess would be because evacuating only the test subjects would cause too much attention. In any case, this is reason for hope. The vaccine didn’t work like it was supposed to. Frye stands no chance of gaining approval, which means widespread inoculation isn’t going to happen. That explains why he so desperately needed my vaccine. Since his didn’t work, his only hope was to replace it with an altered version of Lot 35. And when I refused to hand over the formula, chances are the Reverend got stopped in his tracks, at least until he’s able to collate the computer disks he managed to steal.”

  McCracken shook his head, unconvinced. “You’re forgetting something, Dr. Raymond. When Beaver Falls went sour on him, Frye didn’t just empty the town; he filled it with new people. A short-term cover to buy himself the time he needed.”

  “Time he needed to what?”

  “Come up with a new means of unleashing Judgment Day, salvaged from the remnants of his work in Beaver Falls and not from Lot 35. He needs your vaccine, all right, but even if he had the formula, it couldn’t
do him any good in the time frame we’re looking at based on everything he’s done. And the only way we can find out what the Reverend is up to now is to find him.” McCracken turned to Sister Barbara. “And that’s where you come in, Sister. Where can we find Harlan Frye? Where is the Kingdom of the Seven?”

  Sister Barbara sighed. “An abandoned salt mine in the Texas Panhandle. Frye is in the process of building an entire underground community within it, his kingdom.”

  “Perfect,” said McCracken, sounding almost complimentary. “Isolated enough to keep such a massive construction project secret, but possessing the elevators, air shafts, and general framing to take years off the project.”

  “And security,” Sister Barbara reminded. “Don’t forget about security.”

  Blaine looked over at Johnny Wareagle. “Just tell us where to find it, Sister.”

  PART FIVE

  JUDGMENT DAY

  THE TEXAS PANHANDLE:

  SATURDAY; 10:00 A.M.

  CHAPTER 32

  The convoy of supply trucks rolled through the Texas Panhandle on sleepy roads that had begun to buckle under the strain. This one had lagged several hours behind the two that preceded it toward Palo Duro Canyon, because of a delay en route caused by a stubborn bridge stuck in the up position over the Colorado River.

  That incident, though, was anything but random. Blaine McCracken and Johnny Wareagle had arranged a subtle bit of sabotage in order to create the opportunity to hide themselves within the covered cargo compartment of the third convoy’s rearmost truck. They climbed in after the twins and Karen Raymond. All five tucked themselves into gaps amidst the cargo, a tight squeeze made even more discomforting by the darkness that dominated once Wareagle got the canvas flap back into place.

  McCracken found a seat on the cargo bed floor next to Karen. He had resisted letting her join in this trip only as long as it took to realize that he still needed her. She was, after all, the only one capable of understanding and interpreting whatever they found within the Kingdom of the Seven. In the wake of Beaver Falls, Harlan Frye had come up with a new means to bring on Judgment Day, a means they were committed to uncovering.

  Of course, knowing the kingdom’s location didn’t necessarily make gaining access to it any easier. Toward this end, McCracken put in a call to an antsy Sal Belamo, who was champing at the bit to get back into action. Sal was able to uncover the precise route taken by a number of large supply convoys that had been departing Amarillo almost daily over the past few months for destinations unknown. That route took them over a bridge spanning the Texas leg of the Colorado River, a revelation that allowed the rest of McCracken’s plan to fall into place. The same private jet that had brought his small group to Knoxville served as transport into Texas. McCracken had a list of needed supplies he would have passed on to Belamo if the twins didn’t have virtually everything available already.

  Sister Barbara had wanted to accompany them as well, but here McCracken refused to bend. One of them had to stay back, and she was the most obvious choice.

  “This small group of ours is composed of the only people in the world who know everything the Reverend Frye is up to,” he had explained when they were alone. “That means we need insurance, Sister, and you’re our best bet, because you’ve got credibility. You can reach people, powerful people. If the rest of us don’t make it out of that kingdom, contacting them will be the only chance left to stop Frye.”

  Sister Barbara didn’t disagree, but looked at Blaine long and hard. “You like this. You enjoy it.”

  “Are you asking me?”

  “Telling you.”

  “Am I supposed to deny it?”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  McCracken returned her gaze with apparent indifference. “You good at what you do, Sister, saving souls and all that?”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Yes, you would. You’d know by your followers’ faces as they left your tent or whatever. You’d be able to tell if you touched some part of them that forgot it still could feel. You’d get an idea whether they were better people, at least more content, than when they walked in.”

  Sister Barbara said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

  “Oh, you’re good, all right, Sister. But you can’t be good unless you like it. Doesn’t mean you totally understand why you’re doing what you do; some things you just accept. You serve a purpose and you know it.” Blaine paused. “See, we’ve got more in common than you realized.”

  Sister Barbara sighed somberly. “I did realize. That’s why I brought it up.”

  “The likeness bother you?”

  “Only because I wonder how different my methods are from yours. I’m worried that I want so badly to succeed that I don’t care how I do it anymore.”

  “Why bother?” McCracken challenged her. “You and me, Sister, we both help people. That’s our business. Maybe they’re better people because you stepped into their lives. Maybe they’re still alive because I did. You fight the one devil; I fight a lot of his surrogates.”

  Her stare knifed through him. “Who’s the real devil, Mr. McCracken?”

  “Hey, if it helps me get closer to them …”

  “I was talking about how you see yourself, not how others see you. Can you accomplish good if you do not perceive yourself as good?”

  “I don’t view what I do as good or bad, Sister, only that it’s necessary.”

  “I was referring to who you are, not what you do.”

  “Same thing.”

  “Are they, Mr. McCracken?”

  “For me they are. That’s what keeps me going. That’s what keeps me from asking myself the kind of questions you’re asking me. I believe in what I do, Sister. That means I believe in who I am.”

  Sister Barbara realized what had been bothering her so much in that instant. Blaine McCracken might be guilty of many things, but he had never strayed from the truth of his ideals, never let them consume him. Her years spent with the Seven made her weak by comparison. She had wanted something so badly, she had let it change her, and now she was doomed forever to strive to find the person she had been. It hadn’t happened on the road. It hadn’t happened when she returned to the Oasis to face Harlan Frye’s wrath. It had happened only in the midst of the rage roused in her by the massacre of her people yesterday. Violence had tapped the well or her true emotions and commitment. Only in the world of Blaine McCracken had she found herself again.

  After the bridge was finally operable again, the convoy continued on through the Panhandle. The supplies forming the group’s camouflage were made up entirely of the component parts of high-tech solar displacement units. Once fully assembled, these would be capable of providing a huge measure of the Kingdom of the Seven’s energy needs by storing energy channeled from huge solar receptors upon the surface.

  “Once we’re inside the kingdom, Johnny will help you find the laboratory,” Blaine reiterated softly to Karen.

  “While you …”

  “Do a little exploring. Find out exactly what Frye’s got in store for the world. You may uncover the how in that lab, Dr. Raymond, but not the where and the when.”

  “You won’t have much time,” Karen said, recalling the roles of Rachel and Jacob in the operation. “Neither will I.”

  “Two hours from the time we disperse. We’ll have to make do.”

  “Do we have to be so firm in that deadline? Can’t the explosives be set off once we’re safely out of the kingdom, instead of by timer?”

  “That assumes one of us with a detonator will be alive to set them off, Doctor,” McCracken pointed out. “We can’t take the chance of that not being the case. If all else fails, the Kingdom of the Seven and everything inside it has to be destroyed. And if we fail there as well, then it’s up to Sister Barbara to convince the world about Judgment Day.”

  The convoy took Route 287 into the heart of the Panhandle, heading toward Palo Duro Canyon. Along the way the broad, flat plains, formed of limeston
e caprock, were interrupted occasionally by low, rolling hills. Brown grasses, cacti, and tumbleweeds owned the land that was also known as Llano Estacado, or the Staked Plain. When a peek through the canvas flap showed the deep canyons beginning to dot the landscape around them, McCracken knew they were drawing very close to the site of the Kingdom of the Seven.

  Twenty minutes later, McCracken felt the truck shimmy slightly as the brakes were applied. Its pace slowed to a crawl and then stopped altogether. Blaine didn’t dare risk peering outside again, but he guessed the convoy was approaching its destination. They had probably come to a security fence closing off the area on the false pretext of some government-connected project. Way out here, who was going to challenge or question?

  Their truck began to inch its way along, progress choked off by maddening stops and starts. Several more minutes passed before it slid at last through a security gate and approached the entrance to the salt mine. McCracken glimpsed the guards fronting the gate after the truck was waved through, rattling and clanging atop the uneven ground.

  “What now?” Karen whispered.

  “The supply trucks and construction equipment must be ferried down into the mine by hydraulic platforms, kind of like large-scale elevators. They don’t move too fast. This could take a while.”

  In fact, it took thirty additional minutes before their truck slid inside a garagelike bay and thumped onto one of three enclosed platforms. A huge door slid closed behind it and the platform jolted into a slow, steady, and whining drop. Once the platform finished its descent, Blaine guessed they would drive to a central unloading depot. At that point he, Johnny, and Karen would head for the main building Sister Barbara had designated on her detailed map of the kingdom as it existed two years ago. In all likelihood that building would be the only one fully operational at this point. That meant the laboratory Karen sought would be contained within it, as well as what McCracken had come in search of.