by Jeff Altabef
“We don’t like to say sell. Sounds negative. We call it marry, but in reality, it’s the same thing. The client can use the Angel for whatever purpose he wants. But don’t worry. Megan’s marriage will only be for a short time. I’ll recall her in a few months when I’m ready for Phase 2.”
“Phase 2?”
“Don’t worry about that, my dear. We have time for that later.”
“Some things don’t change. You’re still nuttier than a fruit bar. Unchain me and let me see Megan!”
She shakes her head. “I can’t do that. You’re useful right where you are.”
The truth dawns on Kate. “You knew I’d message Steven when you took Megan.”
“Know is a touch strong. I thought you might. Who else would you contact?”
“Kidnapping Megan was an elaborate ruse, so Steven would come, and you’d see him again.”
Ivy purses her lips together. “Not a total ruse. Megan is extraordinary. I want her as one of my Angels. So, if Steven didn’t come, I’d still be ahead. It’s the best form of capitalism—a win-win for me. And this way, he’ll think it’s fate that he found his mother again.”
“All for what?”
A flash of the old madness returns to Ivy’s eyes. “Steven can help me bring about His vision. He thinks Steven’s important! He wants Steven!” She pauses and composes herself. “That’s more than you need to know. I’ll give Steven your regards when I see him. He should be here soon, I’d expect.”
“God wants Steven?”
“God. Who said anything about God?” Ivy grins.
“Let me have Megan! You don’t need her. Please, you’re a mother. You must understand. She’s innocent.”
“I have good news and bad news about Megan. I’ll start with the bad news. One more session in a chapel and she’ll never be the same. Sadly, we’ve had to speed up her education, so we’ve increased the addictive nature of the visions. Later tonight, she’ll have another dose, and she’ll be fully addicted. Just like a heroin addict. Cut her off from chapel, and she’ll go crazy. The good news is you’ve been a great mother. She’s extraordinarily smart. Her mind grasps new ideas so easily. It’s what makes her so susceptible to the chapel visions. You’ve done a phenomenal job raising her. You should be very proud.”
Ivy turns and leaves the small hut, taking the only light with her.
Kate screams, a desperate cry from a mother facing only darkness. But the darkness doesn’t respond.
After undressing in my motel room, I wash the grime from my body. Father Paul said I had to listen to Gabriel and trust my instinct. He didn’t leave me much choice.
Ten minutes later, I knock on Gabriel’s door. Tina hears my knocking and joins me in the hallway, not wanting to be left out. Gabriel opens the door, and we both stroll inside.
He holds his tablet.
“Have you heard from the asset at The Farm yet?” I try unsuccessfully to keep the anxiety from my voice. We’re close now, Walden only a few miles away. I can almost feel Kate nearby, but we might as well be on different planets if I can’t figure out which farm they’re holding her. Guessing isn’t an option. Fifty-fifty odds don’t work for me.
“Not yet.” Gabriel projects the images from his tablet onto the wall. “I have the satellite surveillance photos Mary sent. They were taken earlier today. We know the cult operates both farms. They’re probably keeping Kate and Megan at one of them.”
I’ve studied photos like these hundreds of times. Things look different from space. It takes imagination to understand what’s in the photos and how they relate to each other. Gabriel is clever, but he doesn’t have training or experience in something like this, so the heavy lifting falls on me.
I study the larger farm first. A half dozen of those massive terrafarm greenhouses run alongside the nearest main road.
“They use the greenhouses as a camouflage for the other activities at the farm. Anyone driving by on the main road would think it’s nothing more than a typical foodstuff manufacturing plant. They can’t see beyond the greenhouses.” I point past the large glass structures. “If this were a true terrafarm, they’d have greenhouses on all the open space. Instead, after the greenhouses, they have what looks like a few organic crops. Probably wheat and corn that ring the outside portion of the property. Toward the center of the farm, they have these buildings. From the shape of them, they’re long bunkhouses. This one in the center is different. It looks like a gathering place, most likely a mess hall, and this one looks like a church of some sort.”
We study the farm for the next thirty minutes. I call out structures like the depot for cars and trucks, a firing range, and a plain building in the center of the bunkhouses that’s probably administrative offices. The roof has satellite dishes for communication.
Gabriel whistles. “Looks like a big operation. They must have three hundred people on the compound.”
“Probably more,” I say. “They’ll use the residents to farm the greenhouses and the fields. They wouldn’t want strangers to come on property.”
“Why would a cult go through all that work to actually create foodstuff?” asks Tina.
“Two reasons. They’ll want a cover for the local population. And they probably use the physical labor to break down the inductees. Exhausted people are susceptible to brainwashing. It’s an old Army trick.” I touch the tab for the second farm and a new set of photos pop on the wall. “Let’s see what this one looks like.”
Half the size of the first farm, the second one sits a good distance from a highway, connected to the main street by a private road that dead-ends into a security hut and a roadblock. Guards patrol the roadblock and limit entrance. No greenhouses appear in the photos. It’s an old-fashioned farm with neat, well-maintain crops.
Tina points to a massive building in the northwestern portion of the property. “Is that another greenhouse?”
“No,” I say. “Those are solar panels on the roof. It looks like a giant warehouse.”
“That uses a lot of juice.” Gabriel hovers a thick finger over one side of the building. “Those are pretty big generators. It could fire up an entire city block. Why do they need all that electricity?”
The answer hits me like a ton of bricks. “Kirkland, the manager at Otherworldly, told me they use real people for the extreme experiences. That way the sex is real or the violence or whatever the rich pervert wants to experience. If that’s true, they’d need a place to store all those pod things. This could be the place.”
“Fuck me,” says Tina. “How many people are we talking about?”
“Should be room for a hundred or more?” Gabriel says.
I do the math in my head and say, “One hundred experiences at twenty thousand a pop would generate 2 million dollars. Assume they can turn that over three times a day and they’d make 6 million a day, easy.”
Tina adds, “They have private club locations all over the place now, including foreign cities, so that’s very doable. I’d be surprised if they don’t do twice that much business.”
I study the rest of the photos while Gabriel and Tina discuss economics. I look for small details and find a few. They have a dozen little huts in the eastern portion of the property with a utility road that connects the huts to the main administration buildings. I zoom in briefly and find a few armed guards, carrying M18 assault rifles.
When I zoom out, I notice the apple orchard, dozens of trees lined in neat rows and a juice press off to the side. That’s where they make the organic apple cider for the private club. I’ve seen enough and hand the tablet to Gabriel.
“You said you have an operational team nearby that can help?” I ask.
He nods, “It’s a four-member group. One helicopter and an armored SUV. That’s all I could commandeer in such a short notice. They’re at a Homeland base twenty minutes away.”
“Does Sheppard know you’ve commandeered them?”
Gabriel smiles. “He’s a busy man. He can’t be bothered with every operation.”
“I’ll take that as a no.” He’s taken a risk helping me out like this. Sheppard will protect him, but even that protection has limits. If this operation goes south, he’ll catch hell for it.
“Do you know the team?” I ask.
“I’ve never met them, but they look good on paper. Well trained. Successful.”
Tina tosses the tablet on the bed. “What are you thinking? I can almost see the rocks tumbling in your Neanderthal like brain.”
“I’m not certain yet. We need to know for sure which farm they’re holding Kate and Megan. They warned me about investigating. We have to assume they’ll follow through with that threat. If we choose the wrong one, they’ll kill them. We can’t guess.”
Gabriel checks his phone. “No word yet from our asset. We should hear something by the end of the night.”
I need an excuse to leave. “I saw some vending machines by the manager’s office. I’ll get us some water. It’s best if we stay hydrated.”
I don’t wait for them to reply and stalk out of the room. I run through the two sets of surveillance photos in my mind.
Where would I stash high-value assets or captives?
These cult people have plenty of resources, and the layouts are well designed. They’d organize their compounds in a logical way. The larger farm holds the majority of the members of the cult, but it’s less secure. To keep up their cover, they’d have to load trucks and send them out on a daily basis. Plus, it’s closer to the main road and there’s more property, which means more borders for people to escape.
The smaller farm is hidden away. The entrance to the only road in and out is manned. More armed guards patrol the place. And that’s where they have the main operation. The bunkhouses are cheap to build, but that warehouse with those experience chambers probably cost a bundle.
If it were me, I’d keep the new members at the small farm and any captives I want to keep secure. Still, my analysis is flimsy. Normally, good reconnaissance relies upon patience, detail, and time. A three-legged stool. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to make furniture. Each minute might be hell for Kate and Megan.
I reach the vending machine, use cash to buy three large bottles of water, and remember what Father Paul said. I have to trust my instinct. When I saw the apple orchard, my heart jumped. Normally, I’m not a superstitious guy, but I can’t deny the obvious. Demons and angels are involved somehow in this, so I can’t rule out signs or my gut.
My mind calculates the odds at 80 percent that the cult is holding Kate and Megan at the smaller farm, but my heart is absolutely sure. Those odds, I can’t ignore.
Caesar’s reflection, off the vending machine, stares at me. “You’re not dumb enough to go in alone. Call in Gabriel’s team. I taught you to use every resource to your advantage.”
“I can’t ask Gabriel and Tina to risk their lives on my intuition. Besides, you also taught me never to trust someone else if I don’t know them. I’m not trusting Kate and Megan’s lives to a Homeland team I’ve never met.”
Caesar smirks. “It’s the broad then. You’re pussy whipped. She shacked up with some other guy the moment you left, and you’ll still do anything, risk anything to save her. Even us?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing cowboy, or this is our last rodeo.” Caesar frowns and disappears.
I remove the bottle of sleeping pills from my jacket pocket, pop it open and crush eight of them in my hand. I slip the powder inside two bottles. More for the bottle I’ll give to Gabriel, and less for Tina.
I’m going tonight and I’m not coming back without Kate and Megan.
Ivy sits behind her desk; Lily, the doctor, stands beside her. Luke, the Reaper who abducted Kate, leans against the door. Lily just finished updating her on Spring’s and Petal’s conditions. Apparently, both fell in a drainage ditch on the way back from the burning. Lily can’t be certain, but both might have suffered concussions. She cautions against subjecting them to the chapel for a few days. The visions might be dangerous for them.
Ivy smiles blandly at her, but her heart rate ticks up. This is not good news, not the sort of thing she wants to hear tonight.
Buck knocks, and she calls for him to enter.
“You found Frankie?” Ivy asks.
“Yep. I found his body at the edge of the apple orchard, near the press. He must have tried to pry off the pendant because his head is gone. Either that, or it went off in some type of freak accident.”
“Why would he take off the pendant?” asks Ivy. “He wasn’t the brightest bulb, but he knew what would have happened if he broke the chain.”
Buck shrugs. “He didn’t seem happy the last few days. Maybe he missed his wife and daughter.”
“Maybe. Or maybe there’s another reason.” Ivy removes a .38 caliber semi-automatic Berretta from a drawer and places it on her desk.
All eyes in the room focus on the gun.
Buck shifts uneasily at the sight of the weapon.
“What we do here is based upon trust,” says Ivy. “Without trust we can’t implement His plans. If we fail, we lose our rightful place. We won’t be chosen anymore. I can’t let that happen. You understand, right? I need to protect the interests of everyone. All the Angels we’ve married, and the ones who work on both farms. Not to mention you and the Reapers.”
Buck stands taller. “Of course. You can trust me.”
“Can I? I have some bad news. We have a traitor among us. I found this phone hidden on the edge of the cow pasture by the fence.” She places a satellite phone next to the handgun. Regular cellular phones don’t work on The Farm. Their frequencies have all been jammed, but a satellite one would work.
“Someone has been communicating with Homeland for months. I suspected as much, but we couldn’t gather proof. We intercepted a quick signal now and then. But, it could have been a fault in the system. A ghost in the machine as they say. But today, Homeland has been very active. Apparently, they want some information desperately. They’ve left three different messages. Enough for me to track the signal and find the phone. I’m very disappointed that a Judas resides among my flock. And usually, I feel so good after a burning.”
“Whose phone is it?” asks Lily.
Ivy ignores her and lifts the device from the table so everyone can see it. “Luckily, one of the techs hacked into it. We could only retrieve today’s messages. The ones that haven’t been answered yet. They really want to know where we’re keeping Spring and her mother. I’ve given them a location on the bigger farm, our sister property. It will make for an easy trap. Most of the Reapers are already on the way there to spring it when Homeland shows up.”
Ivy sighs. “Oh, well. He has a way of delivering for us. No doubt He led me to the phone for that very purpose.”
Luke snickers as he levels his assault rifle at Buck’s chest. He’s always so eager to kill. He feeds on it.
Buck’s face remains stoic, except for the eyes. They flicker between the phone and the gun. “Surely you don’t suspect me?”
“Oh, I know the identity of the traitor. How could I not?” Ivy smiles. “Only two people are possibilities. Both started here about three months ago and both would have the freedom to hide a phone. I can safely rule out any of my Angels, so that leaves me with only two people.”
Ivy lifts the Beretta and points it at Buck’s chest. “When did you start working for me?”
“Three months ago. But I have nothing to do with this phone. You can trust me.”
Ivy flips the safety off. “I know who I can trust.” She swings the gun from Buck and points it at Lily’s head.
“No! I—”
She pulls the trigger and blasts a hole in Lily’s forehead. Blood splatters on the desk as Lily topples to the floor.
“It’s a shame, really. Doctors are hard to find.”
“What about Homeland?” asks Buck. “Are you worried they’re about to crack down on us?”
“No. According to Trevor, they’re not plan
ning anything big against us. He’d know. I suspect someone is calling in a favor for our Spring. We can deal with it and not worry about a larger response from Homeland. They’ll write it off as a rogue agent. Trevor will make sure of it.”
She cocks her head toward Buck. “Bury this traitor in the mass grave next to Frankie. That will really piss her off. She hated Frankie. Diagnosed him as a psychopathic pedophile. She was a traitor, but she knew her medicine. When you’re done, bring me Spring and Petal. I’m personally going to supervise their visions in the chapel tonight. I think it’s time they both see His full glory.”
If Lily hadn’t tried to get me to keep them away from the sanctuary, I might not have realized she was the Judas. Such a small tell, but in the end, the details are always what trip people up.
“Some good news, at least,” says Ivy. “Blood mixes well with the purple on Lily’s jumpsuit. It makes a nice combination.”
Gabriel and Tina would have puzzled out the truth between the two farms if I had not drugged them. They started asking the right questions and saw the two compounds the right way. They’re too smart not to get it. I tried to play it cool and gave them half answers to their questions, but I was just delaying the inevitable.
Luckily, the drug in the water kicked in hard before I had to start lying. Tina slurs her words and can’t keep her eyes open. I practically carry her to her room and drop her on the bed. She looks oddly beautiful sprawled out on the comforter, her face unlined by stress. One thing I’ll say about her, she’s devoted to Kate and Megan. That type of devotion can’t be faked.
By the time I get back to Gabriel’s room, he’s drained his water bottle and sits dazed in a chair. I’m not sure he suspects the water was drugged before he passes out. He probably does, and he’ll make me pay for it when he gets his hands on me.
It’s a risk I’ll take. I need to do this on my own. Gabriel’s Homeland team would make things safer for me, but they’d increase the risk that Kate and Megan wouldn’t make it out alive. That’s unacceptable, so I steal Gabriel’s thumbprint with sticky tape and swab his cheek for DNA with a Q-Tip. I slide out of the motel room, plod down the staircase, and head for the Homeland SUV.
