by Sharon Sala
“And I told you why!” Aaron shouted back. “It’s a vacation rental. What else would you expect? People come and go.”
“You didn’t believe me,” the man persisted. “They were Feds. I know because two of the men who helped arrest us were the two men I kept seeing at the store in town.”
Aaron wouldn’t listen, because accepting that truth meant his psychic skills were flawed.
“It’s not about that! We were betrayed!” Aaron said. “Jud Bien did this.”
They were silent a moment, and then one man spoke up from the back of the bus.
“You shouldn’t have hit his girl. Everything was okay until you hit his daughter.”
Aaron dropped his head and closed his eyes. I should have killed them both and none of this would have happened. He didn’t say it aloud, but some of them heard it anyway, because that was how they rolled. It had been a wonderful dream, but their utopia had just come to a very unsettling end.
* * *
Once they began loading up prisoners, Charlie radioed Hank.
“How much longer until you move the girls out?” he asked.
“Thirty minutes, more or less,” Hank said. “Tell the girls to pack what they want to take with them.”
“Will do,” Charlie said. “Okay, girls, you heard him. Pack up what you want to take with you. They’ll be coming for us in about thirty minutes.”
Jordan went straight to the front of the room where she’d dropped her spear, and picked it up.
“You don’t need that now,” Charlie said. “You’re safe. I promise.”
She shook her head. “I don’t feel safe. I’m taking it with me. I might need it again.” She walked back to get her bag, then ran to the bathroom and grabbed a handful of tampons and stuffed them in her bag.
Charlie didn’t argue with her about anything. He’d seen soldiers mustering out with a look of panic on their faces as they handed over their weapons. He understood fear, and as he watched the girls disperse, he knew going home would be harder than they thought.
As soon as they were all out of earshot he shifted focus.
“Wyrick?”
“I’m here.”
“Hank said thirty minutes or so and they will start loading up the girls.”
“Then that will be my ETA, as well. Are we going to need to stop somewhere to see to Jordan’s injuries?”
“No. Nothing is critical. We’ll leave all that to her mother. Tara is going to need to do that for her own peace of mind, as well as for Jordan.”
“Be there shortly,” Wyrick said, then quickly changed clothes and began packing. She dropped the flash drive with the proof of Universal Theorem’s backing for the cult into her pocket, then carried her bags and the computer gear into the hall.
Charlie’s things were next, so she went into his room, got his duffel bag out of the closet and began gathering up his things. She found the car keys where he said they’d be and dropped them in her pocket, then carried his bag into the hall. She made one last trip back for the remote controls to the plane she’d burned, and began carrying things down to the Jeep.
It took four trips to get everything, and as soon she was finished, she ran back into the kitchen for some bottled water, before heading out the door.
The drive back through the trees wasn’t as creepy as it had been going in. But once she reached the blacktop, she was forced to wait for the convoy of prison buses to pass. They glanced at her there and then looked away, unaware of the part she’d played in taking them down.
Just as she was about to pull out onto the road, two large charter buses appeared on the way up. She guessed they’d been sent for the girls. One had a blue-and-purple sunset painted on it, and the other had a cowboy motif, complete with the silhouette of horses racing across a prairie. As ornate as they were on the outside, she could only imagine how nice they would be on the inside. They were the perfect vehicles to bring lost girls home.
As soon as they passed, she pulled out behind them and followed them up. Security was tight at the gate, and even though the SWAT team knew who she was, they still stopped her.
She rolled down the window as one agent approached. “I’m here to pick up Charlie Dodge and his missing girl,” she said.
The agent nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you for helping us pull this off, and just for the record, you were right.”
“About what?” Wyrick said.
“Some of them did know this was happening before we came into the compound. We had to run a few of them down, so thanks for the heads-up.”
As Wyrick looked up, she saw Hank Raines moving past the gate and thought of the flash drive.
“I have something Agent Raines needs. Would you ask him to wait a second?”
The guard radioed Hank, who turned and saw her, gave her a thumbs-up.
“Am I allowed to pass?” Wyrick asked.
“Yes, ma’am. Girls’ dormitory is to your left as you—” He stopped. “But I guess you already know that. Proceed.”
Wyrick put the Jeep in gear and drove to the entrance, then stopped.
“I have something for you,” she said and dropped the flash drive in Hank’s hand. “It’s proof of who was bankrolling the cult. Get it into the system fast, because once they find out about this raid, they’ll scrub every bit of evidence.”
“How on earth do you—”
“Get this to someone now or it’s useless later.”
Then she took her foot off the brake and drove into the compound as Hank dashed toward the SWAT team com center in their van. He came in running and handed the drive to one of their techs.
“Upload this info and send it to Agent Vickers. Tell him to upload this into the files on this case and begin immediate verification.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer said and plugged it into port in his computer as Hank left the van.
Twenty
For Wyrick, it was odd seeing everything in the compound from this angle, since she’d only seen it from satellite images and blueprints. But she knew where she was going, so she drove straight toward the building and got out of the Jeep.
The sun was shining. The sky was blue and cloudless, but the energy of this place was dark and ugly. She shuddered slightly as she walked up the steps. The door was ajar, so she entered without ceremony to a room full of metal beds set up in barracks-style rows.
She saw Charlie at the back of the room, surrounded by a ragtag bevy of young girls, and headed toward them, bracing herself to be the curiosity they needed.
Charlie had recognized the sound of his Jeep as she drove up, and knew she’d arrived, but when she stepped inside, she was but a tall, dark silhouette framed in the light of the doorway. He took a moment to appreciate her long legs and the sway of her body with her stride, but the girls were curious and already staring, and introductions were in order.
“Girls, this is Wyrick. She’s my assistant and a very important part of Dodge Security and Investigations. She helped me find Jordan, and was also the one who made this rescue possible.”
Wyrick had dressed for the road in a clean white T-shirt, skinny-leg blue jeans that made her long legs look even longer, and hot pink tennis shoes—her concession to the flash that was part of her public face.
She stopped near where they were sitting, and within seconds, one of the younger girls began quizzing her.
“Did you have to shave your head ’cause you had lice? Mama shaved my brother’s head once ’cause he got lice.”
“No. I had cancer. The medicine made my hair come out,” Jordan said.
“Will it grow back?” the little girl asked.
Wyrick smiled. “No. But I’ll never get head lice.”
The little girl nodded, satisfied with the logic.
The girls’ curiosity was obvious, but Wyrick felt Jordan checking her out, and stayed o
pen just enough to let her search, while she did a little searching of her own.
Once she was satisfied Jordan hadn’t been raped, she resurrected her walls. Seeing Jordan’s injuries close-up brought back too many bad memories of her own, so she shifted mental gears as Jordan suddenly stood up.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Wyrick said.
In three steps Jordan was in front of her, then wrapping her arms around Wyrick’s waist. When Jordan laid her cheek against the dragon tattoo and closed her eyes, Wyrick flinched. This was a familiarity allowed to none, but she knew Jordan had seen the tattoo, and her need to hug Wyrick was mixed up with a desire to be one with the dragon. That, Wyrick understood, and so she held her.
“Is he strong?” Jordan whispered.
“Very,” Wyrick.
“As strong as Wonder Woman?” Jordan asked.
“In his way,” Wyrick said.
“Thank you for helping Charlie find me,” Jordan whispered.
From Wyrick’s height, she could see a nasty, healing gash in the young girl’s head—one more wound to add to what had already happened to her face.
“You’re welcome, honey. But after we found out how many others were with you, we knew we had to help save you all.”
The girls gasped, and then looked up at Charlie.
“Did you really?” Randi asked. “You knew we were here and came for all of us?”
“We sure did,” Charlie said.
When the girls began pounding Charlie with questions, Jordan moved back, but kept staring at Wyrick.
“You’re like us, but more, aren’t you?”
Wyrick shrugged. “Everyone is different. Some have more of one thing. Some have more of another.”
“Except you have all,” Jordan said.
Wyrick shrugged. “I had what I needed to find you. And that’s all that matters.” Then she shifted into female mode and raised her voice. “Girls. Everybody go pee whether you need to or not. I think there will be bathrooms on your buses, but go anyway, just in case.”
Used to following orders, the girls got up together and headed to the bathrooms.
Still sitting, Charlie observed the changing expressions on Wyrick’s face as she watched them go, then was surprised by what she said after she caught him staring.
“We didn’t save Jordan. We just came to pick her up,” Wyrick said.
Charlie frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Wonder Woman saved her. She kept that image in her mind the whole time she’s been here...fighting against bad people. Staying strong even when she was scared.”
“Well, hell. That explains what I saw her doing, but I didn’t understand then,” Charlie said. He got up, grabbed the broken mop handle Jordan had on her bed and tested the jagged points with the tips of his fingers.
Wyrick saw the ragged shards. “What do you mean?”
“As I was coming in the door after Walters, I caught a brief glimpse of Jordan running toward him with this pulled back like a spear. She wasn’t running from a man with a gun. She was in attack mode, willing to fight to save herself and the girls.”
Wyrick glanced out the window over Charlie’s shoulder, then pointed.
“They’re loading up the married ones.”
Charlie turned to look. “Hey, girls, better hurry. They’ll be here any minute.”
The girls began coming back carrying garbage bags. Since they’d all been kidnapped, none of them had been given the opportunity to bring clothes of their own when they arrived. Jordan was the only one who’d arrived with a bag, because she’d been duped into thinking it was a sleepover and had packed accordingly.
“Does my mama know where I am?” Randi asked as she plopped down beside Charlie.
“Not yet, but she will,” he said.
Randi sighed. “I’m sad for Missy, though.”
Jordan had never heard that name. “Who’s Missy? One of the married ones?”
Randi shook her head. “She was, but she died a week after she was married. They told us one morning at breakfast, and then we had oatmeal. Like it didn’t really matter. They didn’t have a funeral for her or anything.”
Charlie was immediately on alert.
“Is she the only one who died here?”
Randi shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve only been here two years. There were already girls here when I came.”
“What did they do with her body?” Charlie asked.
“They wrapped her up in a quilt and carried her out the front gate,” Katie said. “Some of the Archangels had shovels. We guessed they buried her in the woods.”
Randi nodded. “We watched them carry her out. We didn’t know what happened, and we were scared for a long time that we would die, too.”
“Jesus wept,” Charlie muttered. “Wyrick, stay with them. I need to talk to Hank.” He bolted out the door and radioed him again. Hank answered quickly.
“This is Raines. The men are on the way, Charlie.”
“Did you know that one of the married girls died?”
There was a moment of silence, and then Hank sighed.
“No. How did you find out?”
“The girls told us. The name of the girl who died was Missy. It was a week after her marriage. They announced her death at breakfast, then the girls saw them carrying a quilt-wrapped body out of the compound, and some of the men were carrying shovels.”
“Well, that complicates things,” he said. “Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll notify the proper people.”
Charlie came back into the building with a grim look on his face and sat back down beside Randi.
“Did you tell them?” she asked.
“Yes, I did,” Charlie said.
A single tear rolled down Randi’s face. “Missy was nice to me. I’m sad she doesn’t get to go home.”
Jordan thought about the dead girl. She’d wondered more than once if she would die here, too. If it hadn’t been for Mama sending Charlie and Wyrick, she might have. She shifted the bag between her feet and kept her spear across her lap.
A couple of minutes later, a half dozen officers entered the building.
“We’re ready to load up,” they said.
The girls started to get in line and then remembered Jordan wasn’t going with them. They looked back at her and started crying.
“We’ll never see you again, will we?” Randi asked.
“You’ll always be in my heart,” Jordan said and got up from the bed, and one by one began hugging each one goodbye.
“You saved us,” Katie said.
“You were the bravest of us all,” Barbie whispered.
Jordan shook her head. “No, not the bravest. You were all here far longer than me. You are all brave and strong. You just didn’t know it. We can’t lose each other. Not really. We have Snapchat and Instagram. Right?”
“What are those?” the girls asked.
Jordan was shocked, and then remembered how long they’d been here, and how young they were when they came.
“Uh, it’s social media. You’ll find out soon enough when you get home. You all know me. All you have to do is friend me or follow me. You’ll figure it out.”
“We love you, Jordan. You’re our hero. Don’t forget us. Don’t forget us,” they cried. “We’ll never forget you.”
And then, without being told, they lined up as they’d always done, and for the last time, followed a man out the door.
Jordan turned around, a stricken look in her eyes.
“I’ll carry your bag,” Charlie said, as Jordan picked up her spear. He headed for the exit, with Wyrick and Jordan following.
Just before they reached the doorway, Jordan stopped, then turned and looked at the empty room. The closet doors were standing open, bedspreads were rumpled on all of the beds, and she could see a couple
of wet towels on the floor in the room beyond.
“Charlie, wait!” she cried.
He stopped. “What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”
“I will never forget,” she muttered. “But will you take a picture of this for me?”
“Of the room?” Charlie asked.
“Yes.”
“Absolutely,” he said.
“Just wait a second,” Jordan said as she tightened her grip on her spear and ran back into the middle of the room.
When she turned to face the camera she was in a warrior’s stance of defense. The bruises and swelling only added to the fierceness of her expression. She stood with feet apart, head up, holding the spear upright beside her.
“Now take it,” she said.
The hair stood up on the back of Charlie’s neck as he raised the camera, centered her in the middle of the shot and started clicking. Even after she started walking toward him, now carrying the spear horizontal to her body, he was still taking pictures.
“Want me to send them to your mother?” he asked.
“No. Mama’s not ready to see this yet. Send them to my phone,” she said and gave him the number.
“You aren’t ready, either,” Wyrick said. “But you’ll know when you are.”
Charlie picked her bag up again. “Let’s get out of here,” he said.
Moments later, they were settling Jordan into the back seat of the Jeep. Wyrick dug a pillow and a blanket out of their camping gear, and handed them to her, along with a bottle of water.
“Sleep if you can. It will make the trip shorter.”
Jordan clutched it all in her lap like an unwrapped gift, staring out the windows as they drove past the girls getting on the buses. The girls waved and she waved back.
A car from the coroner’s office came through the gates, followed by an old hearse. They’d come to claim Archangel Larry’s body.
When Charlie stopped at the gate and got out, Wyrick wondered what he was doing until she saw him taking pictures of the empty compound, and then she understood. One more picture for Jordan.
This is how justice is supposed to work. All the good people get rescued. All the bad ones go to jail.
