911: The Complete Series

by Grace Hamilton

  “Truesdale raped me,” Sara ground out between clenched teeth, snapping her hand up to point at him. “And I wasn’t the only one. I was supposed to look up to Marr as an example, as a strong woman and leader, but she collected bastards like she did runaways.”

  “I did not!” Truesdale shouted. He looked over at Maggie, expression nervous, and then cut his gaze back to Sara. “She wanted it!” he shouted, staring at Maggie again whose face remained shockingly impassive. “It was a ploy so I wouldn’t notice her working for the Council.”

  “Have you shown my mom your trophy book?” Sara demanded, smirking when Truesdale went white.

  “I don’t know what you mean.” His voice sounded flustered, and Parker might have enjoyed his obvious discomfort if it wasn’t for the fact that he was looking at his daughter’s rapist.

  “He keeps pictures in there, Mom. Pictures of all the Church girls, and they are girls, that he raped.”

  Maggie pursed her lips, but any emotions she might have felt were masked behind an impenetrable wall on indifference. “We’ll discuss this later, Sara,” Maggie replied, holding out her hand again. “We’re in danger right now.”

  “Really?” Parker shouted. “Fucking, really? After what your daughter just told you, that’s your answer? You sick bitch.”

  Parker made a move toward Sara but stopped when one of the gunmen waved him back.

  “Don’t you judge me!” Maggie suddenly screamed. “Don’t you ever judge me!” She pressed her muzzle harder into the side of Ava’s head, her finger white on the trigger. “You gave up the right to judge anyone a long time ago.”

  “Maybe so, maybe not,” Finn said. “But I sure haven’t, and, lady, I gotta tell you, you’re a fucking bitch.”

  “He doesn’t get to rape Sara and walk away,” Parker said. “You shoot Ava, you’re the next to die.” He locked glares with his ex-wife.

  “What the fuck you mean next to d—” Truesdale shouted.

  Parker snapped his gun up and shot him in the forehead, before turning his muzzle toward Maggie and lined up the sights. Truesdale’s forehead cracked open like a gourd, making a blood halo mist behind his head, and he collapsed without finishing his thought, a look of incredulous stupidity stamped on his face. Blood poured out of his wound and made a red lake around the Church personnel’s feet. The two bodyguards tensed.

  The bodyguard standing closest to him looked stunned, blood and bits of brain having splattered his face.

  “Stand down! Stand down!” Maggie screamed. She swung her face back toward Parker. “You crazy sonofabitch!” she shouted. “I needed him alive!”

  “Kill the girl, you die next; either by me or by Finn. No way you get out alive,” Parker warned her. “He had it coming. So let’s file it in my ‘you fucking owe me, bitch’ column and call the matter closed. What do you say?”

  Sara suddenly stepped away from him putting distance between her and her parents and pivoted. She pointed her gun at Parker who, in turn, blinked in surprise.

  “Stop, Dad,” she said. “I can’t let my father kill my mother, not right in front of me. I’ll go with her before I let you do that.”

  “You’d shoot me?” Parker asked.

  “You’d shoot him?” Finn asked, shock evident in her voice.

  “All he did was kill the guy you said raped you,” Ava pointed out.

  “It was more complicated than that,” Sara admitted. “I was searching his office and I did need to distract him.” She scowled at the corpse. “I didn’t expect him to rape me.”

  “You are working with the Council?” Maggie asked. Her face looked almost comically shocked at the revelation.

  “Wow, I’m so glad to see our daughter flourishing so well under the moral and humanistic environment of the Church you think I never would have joined,” Parker spit at her, the sarcasm in his voice so sharp that it was nearly vile.

  “Fuck you, James!” Maggie shrieked. “You don’t know anything!”

  “I know you let our daughter get raped,” he shot back.

  “Shut up!” Sara screamed. “Shut up!”

  In the shocked, tense silence that followed Sara’s scream, Ava spoke up, Maggie’s gun still at her temple. “I thought my parents were fucked up.”

  Finn snorted with laughter, the sound unbidden, and more a result of tension than humor. “We’re all going to die when the Council shows up,” she pointed out, a half-panicked smirk on her face. “Seriously, they’ve got all the guns and all the men. And they’ll capture and hang us, or take us out in the woods and shoot us. If we keep this Steve-Wilkos-show shit up,” she went on. “We’re all dead, and soon.”

  Maggie looked at Sara, tears forming in her eyes. “Why, baby, why?”

  Sara shook her head, giving her mom a sad look. “Because whatever you thought the Church was, it’s not. It rotted from within right under Marr’s nose. Dad’s right, Mom. It’s nothing more than a cult now, an organization that preys on its faithful.”

  “That’s not true,” Maggie started. “Yes, maybe Truesdale was bad, but—”

  “And Gruber,” Ava spoke up. “Don’t forget Gruber and his legion of buffoons. He worked right under Marr. She had a habit of putting unethical bastards in charge of the guns because they had no qualms using them.” Ava swallowed. “Lady, you don’t know me, but I saw you with Marr once. Please stop holding a gun to my head,” she pleaded. “Your daughter has her own gun and doesn’t know me. Your conflict is with her.”

  Maggie seemed to consider what Ava had said, the press of the barrel against Ava loosening. “If I do, James is going to open fire.”

  “No, I won’t,” Parker said.

  “I don’t trust you,” Maggie replied.

  “Quick test,” Parker said. He looked at the bodyguards. “Either of you cowboys rape my daughter?”

  “Don’t be stupid, James,” Maggie snapped. “Of course, they didn’t hurt Sara. They’re my bodyguards.”

  The men looked uncomfortable, unsure of whether they should be communicating directly with the man who’d murdered a Church leader, but then they traded glances as if to confer. Just as Parker was about to lose his patience, the men shook their heads.

  “In light of recent events,” Parker told her, furious all over again, “you’ll excuse my skepticism.”

  “Am I the only one here trying to get the gun away from my head?” Ava asked. “Seriously?”

  “Let her go, Mom,” Sara said. She lowered her pistol. “She’s a Church member, for crap’s sake. Or was, like me.”

  Maggie set her mouth in a hard, straight line and looked at Parker. Parker, making no move to lower his weapon, arched one eyebrow at her.

  “You know I always hated it when you did that Mr. Spock bullshit,” she said.

  Parker lowered his eyebrow, then arched it again. She smiled, slightly, and nodded. Then she lowered her handgun from Ava’s head and gently released the hammer on the double-action pistol.

  “Maggie,” Parker said. “There’s one thing I have to know; why did you pick a Sig Sauer?”

  “What?” she asked, clearly confused. “It’s a great handgun. I think the SEALs use it. Why?”

  “No reason.” He looked at Ava, who stepped closer to him and Finn. “You okay?”

  “Okay enough,” she answered, rubbing her head where the barrel had pressed against it. “Finn’s right, though; we don’t have time for dysfunction junction here. It’ll cost all of us, except maybe Sara, our lives.”

  “Eloisa wouldn’t murder you,” Sara protested.

  “Eloisa!” Maggie half-shouted in surprised recognition of the name. “She’s the informant?”

  “No,” Sara said. “I’m the informant, and she’s my handler. She’s been a member of the Council for years.”

  “I left you with her,” Maggie said. “I trusted her.”

  “Yeah,” Parker said. “It sucks when someone you trust takes it upon themselves to make decisions about your daughter’s future without considering you,
doesn’t it?”

  “Dad!”

  “Go to hell,” Maggie snapped, ignoring Sara. “I’m not apologizing to you, James.”

  “Mom!”

  “Hell?” Parker demanded, also ignoring Sara. “I put myself in hell for a lot of years because of you. Imagining what had happened to our daughter,” he said, his voice having broken a little on the last. He swallowed hard. “You let me believe she was kidnapped instead of telling the truth.”

  Maggie looked at him. “Sara is coming with me,” she said.

  “No,” Sara said simply. “I’m not.”

  Finn stepped forward. “You’re being stupid, lady.” Maggie opened her mouth to answer and Finn held up her hand. “No, listen to me; hear me. The Council, working through FEMA, controls everything; has taken over everything. You understand? Everything. They could have taken down the Vineyard anytime they wanted and executed everyone as hoarders. Clearly, they knew all about the place all along. They chose to use Sara because they needed something they worried they couldn’t get through a raid, right? Only now, Sara’s been exposed, ergo, they don’t have a reason not to squash the Church. There is no more Church, or there won’t be very shortly. The dream is dead. Let. It. Die.”

  Parker wanted to lower his weapon and help deescalate the situation, but he’d already killed Truesdale and he didn’t know how the bodyguards might yet react. Finn’s shotgun was a powerful deterrent at this point-blank range, but she was so small in stature that she looked ridiculous holding the weapon.

  Maggie took a long moment to consider where things stood. Finally, she lowered her weapon and then gestured at the bodyguards to point their muzzles to the floor. She looked at Parker.

  “Your turn,” she said.

  Slowly, Parker brought his muzzle down. “Finn, go ahead,” he told her.

  Seemingly reluctant, Finn lowered the shotgun.

  “I have to get to the Vineyard,” Sara said. “I have to get the women out. With Truesdale dead, my cover might not be blown now and there are still other predators there like Dexter was. These women need my help because there isn’t anyone else. I’m not going with anyone who isn’t ready to do that.”

  “We’re staying with Sara,” Parker said. “At least, I am.”

  “Any chance to hurt the Church, I’m in,” Ava said. She showed a grin that looked more like a dog snarl and looked at Maggie. “They’re as bad as the Council.”

  “Call your dog off, James,” Maggie said, as the bodyguards stiffened but Maggie waved them down.

  “Screw you, lady,” Ava snapped back. She turned to Parker. “I need a gun.”

  He indicated the stairs next to the bathroom door. “Over there, under the rug. There’s a trapdoor. Pull it open and go down. You’ll need a knife or a screwdriver to fit into the seam. I didn’t put an obvious handle on it.”

  “You remodeled the coal cellar?” Maggie asked.

  Parker nodded, eyeing the nervous-looking bodyguards. “I had a lot of time to myself. I had a friend, Eli, he helped.” He caught one bodyguard’s eye. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “I’m Jason; this is Eric,” the taller one said. No one offered to shake hands.

  “Sara will go down with the girls while I stay up here to make sure you don’t do anything foolish; you three aren’t invited.”

  “It’s a trick,” Maggie said. Jason and Eric scowled.

  “It’s not a trick,” Parker said. “But it is my cellar, and I don’t want anyone from the Church of fucking Humanity knowing what’s down there.”

  “Fuck you,” Jason said. “I work for Maggie.”

  “We’re not your enemy,” Eric added.

  “As of when?” Parker asked. “Fifteen seconds ago? Fuck you both. This is my house.” He turned toward Maggie, and added, “I seem to recall you not wanting it in the divorce.”

  “I thought I was doing you a favor,” she said. “You loved this cabin.”

  “I loved coming here with my family.”

  “Please stop,” Sara said. “I know what Mom did,” she told Parker. “There’s at least a dozen girls and ten women who need to be saved from under the thumb of the Church. No one, other than me, seems to care that their lives could be in danger. I’m going to help them, and if this doesn’t stop, I’m leaving right now.”

  “You need a plan,” Parker replied.

  “Guns blazing works for me,” Ava spoke up. “Seriously, if there’s that many women and children there, we need to save them, Parker. I’m with Sara on this.”

  “There are innocents there,” Maggie interjected. “They could be killed if you go in like that.”

  “If they aren’t dead already. Who’s to say the Council hasn’t already gone in and cleaned the place out? How do you fit into the Vineyard?” Finn asked Maggie.

  “Before the Event,” Maggie said, “Marr put together several floating management units to move between various sites and facilities. We were part quality control, and part couriers. We’d begun to suspect we were being monitored by the government, so Marr didn’t trust a lot of our communications to digital networks—thus our need for human couriers.”

  “And you simply left Sara in the hands of other people while you jetted all over the country?”

  Maggie didn’t answer.

  “I’m going down there because I want a gun,” Ava said. “You guys feel free to keep on arguing between yourselves.”

  “This isn’t going to work,” Maggie told Parker.

  “I killed Church members at the TV station,” Parker said. “In order to get Ava out. You and your kind aren’t welcome in my home. End of story.”

  Eric and Jason lifted the muzzles of their weapons—not pointing them, but obviously in a more aggressive posture. Maggie put her hand out, signaling them to stand down. She narrowed her eyes and frowned at Parker.

  “If this is a trick,” she said, “There will be bullets in the air, bullets that could hit our daughter. If you have some kind of bullshit batcave escape tunnel down there, we’ll know you’re going back to the Vineyard; we’ll be there, too, and we’ll be pissed.”

  Sara pulled the gun from her pocket lifting it up, stepped forward and fired twice.

  The echoing bangs boomed loud in the cabin, and Parker blinked in surprise at the muzzle flash going off so close to his face. Two shell casings erupted from the weapon’s ejection port. The rounds struck Eric first, and then Jason, in the head, painting the wood paneling of the walls behind them with syrup-like blood splatter.

  The men crumpled.

  Parker turned his gun on Maggie, yelling, “Freeze!” even as Finn brought her shotgun up and pointed it at her. Maggie paused, her pistol half-raised at her daughter, a look of horror on her face. Sara turned her muzzle toward her mother.

  “Holy shit,” Ava said. “Like father like daughter.”

  Parker swallowed, then lowered his weapon. “Let’s all of us relax.”

  Sara still held her gun on Maggie. Face drained of blood, she stared on, wide-eyed. Parker caught Finn’s gaze, indicating she should cover Maggie. She nodded, and Parker turned to his daughter. He spoke slow, keeping his voice low and calm.

  “Sara,” he said. “Sara, are you okay? Are we good here?”

  Sara released a pent-up breath and slowly lowered her pistol. When she spoke, her voice was monotone, drone-like. “There, problem solved. Now, would you stop making demands, Mom? We don’t have time for this.”

  “We had an agreement!” Maggie shouted at her. She was pale now, almost visibly trembling as she looked at her two dead bodyguards. When she spoke again, her voice was dull, the cadence slow. “You were only able to surprise them because they had their attention on these three.”

  “I know,” Sara said. “And, I killed Dexter. It doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Not when I hate the Church this much.”

  Maggie’s eyes abruptly filled with tears that welled up and then spilled over her eyelids, making her cheeks wet. She slowly thrust the muzzle of
her handgun into the front of her jeans. Her voice cracked when she spoke, but the vehemence, the utter certitude of her belief, was clear as a bell. “Genesis 22,” Maggie said. “Abraham tied up Isaac and put him on the altar. He held the knife over Isaac. Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son. But an angel spoke to Abraham. He told Abraham not to sacrifice his son. Abraham had obeyed God. God loved Abraham.” She wiped the tears from her face. “I knew things weren’t perfect, Sara, but I had to show I was ready to obey in order to earn love, and that love would have protected you.”

  “I was not protected!” Sara yelled at her.

  Maggie looked at her. “Yes, you were. Nothing happened to you until you chose to serve the Beast. When you did, the protection of the love I earned by being willing to sacrifice you was lifted, and you were punished.”

  Parker and Sara stared at the woman across from them in shock, both left speechless in the face of her naked zealotry.

  “Jesus Christ, she’s cuckoo for Coco-Puffs,” Finn said.

  “So that’s a green light to go on killing her, yeah?” Ava asked. “Seriously, I’m here to kill Church nutjobs, and she’s one. We all heard that, right? It wasn’t just me?”

  Parker held up his hand. When he spoke, his voice was dull, almost listless—the voice of a man who’d given up on any last fragments of a dream he might have held onto. “Marr,” he said. “Marr did the psych profiling for the Council. She was an expert at it. She saw something in you, Maggie, something already there that she could bring out and polish for her own use. It’s nothing quite so crude as brainwashing—”

  “Seems like fucking brainwashing to me,” Ava said, her tone droll.

  Parker went on, ignoring Ava. “But it might as well have been a fucking lobotomy for what it did to your sense of objectivism.”

  “For those who believe,” Maggie quoted. “No explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation will suffice.”

  Sara stood silently crying. She let her gun hand drop until the gun dangled, almost forgotten, by her side.

  For Parker, however, that show of defeat was all he needed. His anger and hatred at the woman who’d betrayed him was still there, but it was a cold thing, a distant feeling, not of hot rage and indignation. His Maggie was gone; whoever this was now, it wasn’t the woman he’d married.