The Madness Below: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 20)

by R. L. King

  “If they’ve been planning it all along,” Dez said, “this would have been the best time to do it. There were fewer staff on hand, and they probably relaxed their guard a little because the kids have been so well-behaved up until now.”

  Verity’s eyes widened, and she caught up to Stone and gripped his hand. “Doc…”

  “Yes?”

  “You don’t think there’s any chance we might have…I don’t know…set them off somehow, by breaking in there and talking to Brittany? It seems like quite a coincidence that the night after we did that, suddenly they did this. Do you think she might have told them we were there?”

  A chill ran through Stone. It was a terrifying thought, but also a plausible one. Who knew what kind of thoughts the Lurker had planted in the students’ heads? If poking around in Brittany’s mind had set off some kind of trigger—

  Dez’s cell phone buzzed on the living-room table. She strode over and snatched it up. “Griffith.”

  As Stone and Verity watched her with growing tension, she listened for a while, nodding and rubbing her face. “Okay. Thanks, Boyd. I appreciate it. Are they gonna want me to come in?” Another pause, then: “Yeah. Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

  She hung up and turned back to Stone and Verity. “Another update.”

  “Have they found them yet?” Verity demanded.

  “Not yet. They think they’re trying to get out of state. There’s a lot of wooded land in Vermont where they can hide. The police are watching all the major roads and trying to hit the smaller ones, but it’ll take a while to get everyone mobilized. But that’s not what he called to say.” She slumped into a chair. “They managed to access some of the security footage from the day room. They were right: the attack was frighteningly coordinated. It was almost like those kids had some kind of mental bond with each other. One second they were sitting at the table eating, and the next they all got up and started shambling around like zombies. When they’d all gotten in proximity to a guard, a nurse, or an orderly, they attacked.”

  “What did they use for weapons?” Stone asked. “Surely they didn’t let them have sharp knives.”

  “No—they had plastic utensils, but a couple of them managed to kill with those. Boyd said it looked like they had more strength than they should—even the girls were tossing people around. And then when they finished killing all the facility personnel, they turned on the remaining patients—the four kids who weren’t part of their group.” She sighed and bowed her head. “He said they didn’t have a chance.”

  “And then they just…left?” Verity sat next to her on the sofa. “All of them?”

  “That’s the other strange thing he told me—one of them didn’t participate in the murders.”

  Stone halted his pacing. “One of the seven? Which one?”

  “Brittany Lyons—the one you two talked to last night. She didn’t fight them, but she didn’t participate. She sat in her chair at the table and stared straight ahead while everything went to hell around her.”

  Stone exchanged glances with Verity. “So they killed her too?”

  “No—that’s the oddest part. They took her with them.”

  “They took her with them?”

  “That’s what Boyd said. Once they finished killing everybody else, one of the boys—Boyd thinks it was Joe Buchanan—grabbed her by the arm and dragged her along. He said she didn’t look like she was fighting him, but she didn’t seem to be going along voluntarily, either. The security footage is too grainy to get facial expressions, but he said her body language suggested she was reluctant to go with them.”

  Stone sighed. “It sounds like you might have got through to her, Verity—at least enough that she didn’t kill anyone else. That’s something, I suppose. But why did they take her with them? Why did they leave? They’ve got to—” He stopped as a full-body clench of dread gripped him. “Oh, bloody hell…” he murmured.

  “What is it?” Verity demanded.

  “I think I know where they went.”

  “Where?” Dez leaped off the couch and pulled her phone back out. “Tell me, and I’ll get the police to—”

  “No. We can’t send the police.”

  “Why not?” Verity had stood too. “If they’re running away—”

  “They aren’t running away. If I’m right, they’re going right back to where this whole thing started. They’ve got to be. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “What? You mean back to the campground? Why would they do that?”

  “Remember what Eddie said? The part about the Lurker not doing the summoning itself, but infusing cultists to summon something else?”

  “What are you two talking about?” Dez’s gaze darted between the two of them as if she thought they’d both gone crazy. “What’s a Lurker? What cultists?”

  Verity went pale. “Oh, God…you think they—”

  “I think they’ve gone back out there to finish what they started. And we need to get out there and stop them before they do, or we may end up with more than we can handle.”

  Dez glared at Stone. “What the hell are you talking about? Do you know what this thing out there is? When did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Stone was pacing again. “We found out this morning. Our friends got back to us with the results of their research. And we don’t know—or at least we didn’t until now. But with this new information, I think we can be reasonably certain our fears were correct.” He spun on her. “We’ve got to go, Dez. I’m serious—if you send police out there without knowing what they’re getting into, there’ll be a bloodbath. I don’t know if Verity and I can handle this on our own, but I do know it will take magic.” He strode over to the window and tweaked the curtain aside. “Good—at least it looks like the rain’s died down some, so our car won’t get stuck in the mud on the way up.”

  “Wait,” Dez said. “If you’re going, I’m coming with you.”

  “I don’t think you should—”

  “No argument. I feel like I’ve been in this from the beginning, back when I found those kids in the classroom. I want to finish it. The Jeep is four-wheel-drive—it’ll get us a lot farther than that rental thing of yours. I can be ready to go in ten minutes.”

  Stone started to argue with her, but gave up. He recognized the same level of stubborn insistence that Verity used when she wouldn’t change her mind, and it was pointless to resist it. “All right,” he said at last. “Have you got some rain gear we can borrow, in case the weather gets bad again?”

  “Yeah, I’ll see what I can find. Like I said, give me ten minutes to get stuff together and let Walt know.”

  “You can’t tell him where we’re going.”

  “I won’t. But I still don’t see why we can’t bring the police in. They’re well-armed, and well trained in dealing with dangerous situations. If they surround the place—”

  Stone gripped her shoulders. “Dez…listen to me. You’ve got to trust me on this one. This isn’t something the mundane police can handle—especially without having any idea what they’re getting into. I can do something to shield your mind—make it less likely that the Lurker or whatever it might summon can get through to you. But I can’t do that for many others, not if I want to be effective against it. Without shielding, it’s entirely possible the Lurker might take control of the officers’ minds the same way it did with the students. Do you want to fight them and whatever this thing might summon?” His heart pounded hard as he forced calm into his voice. He had to make her see. If she insisted on bringing in anyone else, this whole thing could end in disaster.

  More disaster, anyway.

  Something changed in Dez’s eyes—went from hard resolve to fear. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

  “Never been more serious. I’ll be honest—I’m not certain we can deal with this on our own. But we’ve got a much better chance of it than if we have to contend with any more mundanes being affected.”

  She held his gaze for s
everal seconds. Stone could almost see the wheels turning behind her eyes. “Okay,” she said at last. “But—”

  “But what?”

  She bowed her head. “Tell me straight, Dr. Stone—what do you plan to do? Will you have to kill those kids to stop this? Because I don’t think I can—”

  “I don’t know,” he said gently. “I hope not. That’s certainly not my plan. If we can incapacitate them, Verity and I might be able to block their minds long enough to deal with the fundamental problem.” He sighed, wishing he didn’t have to say his next words, but he owed her the truth. “But Dez—it’s imperative I make you understand something. I know your mum has a little magic and you’ve seen some of it in effect when you were a child. But this isn’t that kind of magic. You mentioned Lovecraft before—the kinds of threats he wrote about in his stories. This is potentially on that level. If we don’t stop this now, thousands of people—perhaps more—could be in danger. Do you understand that?”

  Dez had gone as pale as Verity. “No,” she said in a shaky voice. “I don’t. I don’t think I can.” Before Stone could interrupt her, she added quickly and firmly: “But I think you do. And I believe you. I trust you. So let’s do this. What else do you need?”

  Stone thought about it for a moment, trying to calm his racing thoughts sufficiently to make a plan. They couldn’t afford to forget anything now, since they’d be an hour away from anywhere they could go back to retrieve it. “Rain gear. Weapons—guns, if you’ve got them, and something for close quarters. Knives, baseball bats—”

  “Baseball bats?” Verity asked.

  “Remember what Eddie said. I’m hoping if we hurry, we can get there before they complete the summoning, but they’ve got an hour’s head start on us. If we don’t—”

  She shuddered. “Yeah.”

  He held up his hand, mentally going through the morning’s conversation, and then his head snapped up. “Is that boat I saw on the side of your house functional?”

  “Boat?” Dez looked more confused than ever. “Why do you want a boat? The weather’s too rough to go out on the water.”

  “We might not have a choice. According to our friends’ research, the thing we might be dealing with is summoned from bodies of water. If it gets that far, we might need to go out on the lake. I hope not, but best to be prepared. Is it functional?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Do you know how to manage it?”

  “Of course. We take it up to Onota Lake every summer. But—”

  “Please, Dez—no time to waste. Let’s get it hitched up to your Jeep. We’ve got to get going.”

  Dez gave him a look that suggested her suspicions that she’d thrown her lot in with a couple of crazy people were growing. Finally, though, she sighed. “Okay. You’re right. I’m wasting time arguing.” She hurried to the kitchen and returned with a set of keys, which she tossed to Stone. “The Jeep’s in the garage. Pull it out and back it up as close to the boat as you can get it. I’ll go tell Walt and the kids we’ve got to go. Don’t worry, I won’t tell them where.” She gave a wry grin. “‘Cop stuff’ goes a long way with the kids, and Walt trusts me.” She hurried out of the room.

  Verity had to jog to keep up with Stone as he headed for the garage. “Are you sure we need to move this fast?” she asked. “If we could wait just a couple of hours, we could call in more magical help. Ian, Eddie, Ward, Reverend Blodgett—maybe even Sharra. She’s not far from this area.”

  “We haven’t got a couple of hours.” Stone flipped the light next to the door, revealing a cluttered space full of tools, sporting equipment, jumbled bikes, and boxes. He got into the Jeep and hit the button to open the garage door.

  It was fully dark outside now, but in the garage lights’ illumination, Stone saw to his relief that the rain had finally slowed to barely more than a drizzle. If that held, it would make things at least somewhat easier.

  Verity jogged out to the driveway and directed Stone as he pulled forward, then backed up at an angle until the Jeep was positioned only a foot from the tongue of the trailer holding the covered boat. He didn’t know much about boats, but he estimated it to be around fifteen feet long, with a small cabin poking up under a heavy canvas cover tied down to cleats along the sides and a pair of outboard motors in the back.

  He rolled down the window and leaned out. “You don’t know anything about hitching up a trailer, do you?” he asked Verity, fighting to keep his impatience under control. Every minute they wasted here was another minute those kids would have to complete their summoning.

  “Nope, sorry.” She had retreated to stand under the garage’s overhang. “Jason and Dad always took care of that stuff. And before you ask, I can’t drive one, either. I was too young when we used to go out on Lake Casitas.”

  “It’s all right.” He hopped out and slammed the door shut, joining Verity in the garage and shifting from foot to foot. Where was Dez?

  She came out five minutes later, wearing a heavy down jacket and carrying a shotgun and a pair of backpacks. She tossed the latter in the Jeep’s cargo compartment and secured the former in a locked box on the back-seat floor. Then she got in, backed the vehicle up until it was in position under the trailer’s tongue, and set about making all the connections necessary to hitch it securely.

  Stone watched with growing impatience. He knew it would be useless to ask her to hurry—she was obviously moving as fast as safely possible—but that didn’t mean he wasn’t tempted to do just that. He couldn’t stop picturing what must have been a bloodbath in the day room at Maple Ridge; even though he was reasonably sure his and Verity’s mission there last night hadn’t touched this whole thing off, he couldn’t be certain, and that disturbed him more than he cared to admit.

  Verity gripped his hand and squeezed. “It’ll be okay, Doc,” she whispered. “We got this. We’ve always done it before.”

  He gave a bitter chuckle. “That doesn’t mean anything, you know. Past performance is no indication of future results.”

  “Hey, I’m trying to be encouraging here. Work with me.”

  Finally, after what seemed like at least a week and a half, Dez finished making the connections and checked to make sure the boat’s brake lights were functioning properly. “There,” she said, hopping out again. “That should do it. Let’s go back in and grab the rain gear and other stuff and we’ll get on the road. It looks like the wind’s not bad—that’s good, at least. Don’t want to have this thing blowing all over the road.”

  Stone and Verity followed her back in the house, where they found Walt in the family room gathering coats and rain gear into a neat pile. Stone looked with regret at the remains of the Thanksgiving meal, still spread out over the table. They hadn’t even had a chance to try the pies Dez had worked so hard over. He hoped they’d be back here to do it later on, and refused to let himself think about what he might say to Walt if he allowed anything to happen to his wife.

  “Where are the kids?” Dez asked Walt, looking around.

  “Sent ’em to their rooms with some pie.”

  “They didn’t argue? I’m amazed.” But then she smiled, and so did he. They both said, “Cop stuff,” at the same time, and chuckled.

  Walt pulled her into a hug. “You be careful out there. I don’t know why the hell you’re takin’ the boat out in this weather, but just—be careful.”

  “We will. Tell the boys we’ll be back before tomorrow.” She kissed him and pulled back. “Come on—let’s gather this stuff up and get it in the Jeep. We’ve got a long drive.”

  Stone gathered an armful from the stack. “We’ll take this out,” he told Dez. “Meet us when you’re ready.”

  She picked up on his unspoken words—We’ll give you a moment to say goodbye in private—and shot him a grateful look.

  Verity picked up another armful and followed Stone outside, where they stowed it in the Jeep’s cargo area.

  As they closed the door and walked back into the garage to wait, Stone noticed one of t
he secured points near the rear of the boat’s cover had come loose. He paused to reconnect it before joining Verity.

  Dez came hurrying out a few minutes later, carrying another small backpack. “Let’s go. Give me the keys—I’m a lot more familiar with driving in this weather than you are, I’ll bet—especially towing a boat.”

  Stone handed them over and climbed into the shotgun seat. Verity got in the back, and Dez guided the Jeep carefully out into the street.

  Nobody said anything until they were out of Treadley and heading up the road toward the campground, the light rain beating down on them and the windshield wipers making faint whick-whick noises. They passed a few other vehicles, but once they got outside town the road was nearly deserted.

  “You’d better tell me the whole story,” Dez said evenly. “I think you know a lot more than you’re telling me, and I want to be prepared for what I’m getting myself into.”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible,” Stone admitted. “I don’t think we’re even prepared for what we’ll find out there. But I’ll do the best I can.”

  He sat back in his seat and watched the dark road unfold under the Jeep’s powerful headlights as he recounted the conversation he’d had with Eddie, Ward, and Blodgett that morning. The only thing he left out, as before, was the exact nature of the Ordo, especially since he had no idea if, despite the notes he’d found, they were even involved at this point.

  Dez’s only obvious reaction was to tighten her grip on the steering wheel, but her aura belied her tension. “So you’re telling me that this thing, this…Lurker out in the forest has been sleeping in some abandoned, buried building for hundreds of years, waiting for…cultists to wake it up when the time was right to summon its master?” She tossed a sideways glance at Stone. “You realize that sounds like the plot of a cheesy horror movie, right?”

  “Cheesy horror movies had to get their plots from somewhere,” Stone pointed out. “I agree that it sounds fairly farfetched—at least to someone who’s never dealt with magical threats before. But I have, and believe me, this one is bad. But if we can get out there in time, we should be able to stop it.”