Blood Web: Caitlin Diggs Series #1

by Gary Starta

  Diggs’ eyes grew wide. Red liquid had begun to form at the top of Schenker’s forehead. In a few seconds, some toxic and very lethal drops of blood would introduce themselves to her skin. It was only a matter of time. Death was imminent. Was this how Geoffrey felt in his last minutes?

  The thought of McAllister gave her one last surge of energy. She used it to raise her left knee. It made contact weakly with Schenker’s inner thigh. Not enough to get this junk off of her. She began praying for a miracle. As she did, the light from the setting sun began to blind her, casting Schenker in a dark silhouette. He took one of his hands off her arm to inspect his injury. As he did, Diggs whipped her free arm against his temple. He yelled. A giant wave of static electricity followed. Diggs was perplexed. A blow to the head couldn’t have caused this reaction.

  It didn’t. Standing right behind Schenker’s fallen body was Rivers holding a tazer in her hand. She had just stunned Schenker. Caitlin knew what she must do next. She must move herself toward Lukas. A throbbing pain in her head accompanied her attempt to stand. As Diggs willed her body to assume a kneeling position, Schenker’s body violently convulsed on the ground.

  Rivers had indeed separated Shenk from the crystal. Diggs surmised the interruption might only last another second. She had no time to nurse her wounds. So she lunged for his neck. Rivers cried, “Keep away from him!”

  Caitlin ignored her. The threat of touching the blood that now flowed freely from his head had become a very real and dangerous possibility. Yet she could not stop. Rivers looked on, not believing what she was witnessing. Her partner was committing suicide right before her eyes! Diggs continued to ignore Rivers, realizing the lives of an entire planet might hang in the balance. She had to get the crystal away from Schenker, even if it was the last thing she would ever do.

  As soon as her hands made contact with the chain, she pulled it. She yanked the chain so hard she fell backwards. And when she did, she found herself staring at a very shiny crystal in her hands. Schenker’s body continued to convulse. He murmured to her. “Why did you take away my purpose?”

  Diggs quietly answered. “You never had a purpose. You were just a victim of paranormal identity theft.”

  Rivers helped Caitlin to her feet. She eyed the crystal dangling in her right hand with wide-eyed wonder. Rivers snapped at her. “Caitlin, you’ve got to drop the crystal.”

  “I can’t,” Diggs replied. “I’ve got to bring it somewhere.” She paused to reflect on the last few minutes. “Agent Rivers, it looks like you employed some very unconventional thinking to save the day.”

  Rivers smiled curiously. How could her partner be making jokes at a time like this? She wondered if the crystal had already taken her body as its next host.

  “Agent Rivers, you must follow my instructions to the letter. I want you to get Tara out of the house. Then I want you contact authorities. Only officers in Hazmat suits should be allowed to secure the area. The radiation emanating from our killer will be lethal. And most importantly, your field report will never mention I was at this residence today. We can’t let anyone know we ever found the crystal. Do I make myself clear?”

  Rivers paused. She wanted to rebel. But she knew odds were that the crystal would never be used to heal the sick or to stop violence. It would only be used a bargaining chip to keep a select few in power. She nodded. “Get out of here Caitlin. I hear sirens in the distance.”

  Lukas Schenker died as Caitlin retrieved her weapon and scurried toward the house.

  Chapter 38

  Diggs exited the house like a cyclone. Her desire to rid the world of the crystal outweighed her use of discretion, she left via the front door. She carried the crystal in her palm for the entire world to see. And right now, that world included Jonas Schumacher. The major saw a gleam coming from Diggs’ hand. He shouted, “She’s got it!”

  As Schumacher turned his engine over, Diggs hopped into the still running Pathfinder. She gunned the vehicle in reverse, nearly ramming it into the Hummer that had suddenly glued itself to her tail.

  She summoned all the adrenal glands in her body to give her strength. With renewed energy, Diggs floored the accelerator and set a course for the beach.

  The engine of her car whined in protest. Her speedometer said she was traveling nearly 95 miles per hour. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep her vehicle on the road. Purgatory Road unfolded quickly before her at sharp, steep, and sloping angles. Constantly negotiating half turns, Diggs somehow managed to keep the Pathfinder on path. But that was until shots rang out behind her.

  Two bullets carpooled with Diggs as the SUV protested. The bullets had entered through the rear window, shattering it. Diggs had no clue as to where they settled, but at least they weren’t in her. But the blast caused her to lose entire control of her vehicle for a second, just enough time to send her car swerving to the extreme right. Two cars approaching from the opposite direction vacated the road entirely to avoid her. The squeal of a dozen tires joined the auditory assault on her eardrums. Her head rang. Her mouth was dry. But she drove on.

  Caitlin never realized she had wrapped the pendant around her neck until its reflection played off her rear view mirror. The Pathfinder and the Hummer were now navigating an S-shaped loop of road. She toyed with the idea of asking the crystal for help, for protection. She needed to get out of this jam. If she didn’t, the men who sought the crystal would win.

  She began to reflect on thoughts of safety. But as she did, another shot rang out. It pinged against the driver’s side rear door. One more blast like that might result in an explosion. She realized how crazy her pursuer was. Did he really believe the crystal was powerful enough to withstand a gasoline explosion?

  The Pathfinder now veered to an extreme left, barely remaining on the roadway. She spied the Hummer in her side view mirror. She peered a second too long at her pursuer, nearly losing what little control she had left of her vehicle. She fought to straighten the wheel as the Nissan scraped against an aluminum guardrail. Sparks went off like the Fourth of July. She hoped Rivers took the optional insurance on the rental. She realized the joke signaled hope, that through all this she would come out all right in the end. But the man behind her wasn’t exactly about to send her a Hallmark. He began blaring his horn. Possible attempts to further rattle her nerves? She had to admit his plan was succeeding.

  A sign whizzed by her on the right. She thought it said she was coming to an intersection of Purgatory, Paradise, and Hanging Rocks Road. There a rocky ledge was the only thing separating the road from Sachuest Bay. It was where her mind’s eye wanted to take the crystal. To send it over the cliff, plummeting into the water below. She also realized the same plan might work quite nicely on Hummer Man. Again, Agent Diggs would have to bait her enemy.

  She would have to play it very carefully. Everything would have to be timed right down to the second. Her pursuer should accelerate his vehicle to maximum velocity at just the right moment for the plan to work. Everything would coalesce at the upcoming fork in the road. Once there, Diggs would exit stage left.

  Schumacher throttled the Hummer. Images of his dead parents flashed before him. They were all depending on him. Their life’s work would all go for naught if he didn’t get the crystal. Not to mention what Col. Wolvington would do with his ass. And if he survived all that, Jake Campbell would taunt him for the rest of his days. These thoughts merged, forcing Schumacher to tread dangerously close to Diggs’ bumper. Rage fueled his quest. He could not yield.

  ***

  Schumacher was caught off guard, because he allowed rage to consume him. The driver’s side door of the vehicle before him flew open. Diggs parted ways with her vehicle in the blink of an eye. There was little time for Schumacher to apply his brakes. His vehicle’s antilocking brake system engaged. But it would not help. He could no more stop his car than he could his anger. He could not live with this failure. So humanity collectively willed Jonas Schumacher not to live.

  The crystal l
ent a hand in his decimation. It witnessed his futility from the Pathfinder’s driver’s seat. Now he would pay dearly. He plowed into the rear end of the Nissan. Both vehicles traveled together like train cars. The major’s eyes bulged. He could make out a wooden fence just beyond the vehicles’ destination. The Pathfinder tore through the barrier and then bounced about two feet into the air like a beach ball. The collision turned it sideways. The Hummer had no choice but to merge with it. In seconds, both vehicles were sent careening over the cliff to their watery graves.

  ***

  Diggs rolled like a ball over black pavement toward some gravel. Finally, settling on a patch of grass, she lapsed into a few minutes of unconsciousness. When she came to, she lifted her head to peer at a sign before her. It read: Intersection of Purgatory & Paradise. She tried to laugh but coughed instead. A cloud of dust had settled in her throat. Her hands stung from a myriad of cuts. Her limbs ached as if she had fallen from a plane without a parachute. But somewhere deep inside her, a part of her managed a smile. She had beaten the odds. She was alive.

  The moment of tranquility subsided. Her head rushed. Her mission was still not complete. Did she still have the crystal? She grabbed desperately for the feel of a chain. She sighed deeply. She still had it. She grasped it in her right hand, allowing itself to roll in her palm.

  She became tempted to understand its power firsthand. The arrowhead pendant was just too mesmerizing to simply throw over a cliff. It radiated soft rose-colored warmth in the palm of her hand, as if it was trying to communicate peace. She wondered to herself how it could be responsible for such evil.

  But then she remembered Tara. The killings. How she nearly lost her life several times. She had to dispose of it. It offered duality. With it you could live both as God and Satan. Diggs scrambled to her feet, fighting to retain enough balance to walk nearer to the cliff’s edge. She removed the chain from her neck and palmed it in her right hand. She then let her arm dangle like a baseball pitcher limbering up for his next delivery. She needed to muster all her strength. A high-velocity fastball would be required to send the crystal far enough over the water. To ensure it would drop to a depth no diver, police salvage team, or treasure hunter would ever find.

  She rocked on her heels. Digging them into the ground for traction. Her arm reared back for the wind up. And here’s the pitch...

  But then a voice intervened, interrupting the great national pastime. It was the crystal’s last futile attempt to attach itself to a new host. Like the apple in the Garden of Eden, the crystal would rely upon temptation to get the job done. Diggs was now Eve. She stopped. She listened with curiosity. The voice coyly said:

  “Agent Diggs, here’s your second chance...”

  ***

  She and Dudek were standing just outside a delivery door. It was a very warm day in Miami. It felt an awful lot like the day Diggs found out her partner had been beaten to death. There was no more time to prepare or rethink their plan. Dudek nodded to her. Using his fingers, he gave a silent three count.

  In an instant, Dudek kicked down the door. They were standing about twenty yards away from two dark skinned men. Each was flanking someone she knew quite well. “Geoff...Geoffrey is that you?” she called out foolishly, tipping the men to her presence.

  This wasn’t like her previous dreams. This time the terrorists were well aware of her presence. What came next she never saw in any of her dreams. The man on the left pulled a pistol from his blue windbreaker. He fired two shots. Both hit Dudek square in the chest. He went down.

  But as he fell, he shouted at Caitlin, warning her to get down. Another bullet was on its way. She had come to save her partner. Now, to her horror, she was about to witness the death of Dudek as well. She turned as he shouted. Her change in direction meant everything in a deadly game of inches. The shot grazed her right arm. She didn’t feel it at first. She was too busy watching Dudek fall. By the time he did, his chest was a sea of blood.

  She looked toward McAllister. The man who had fired at her had Geoffrey pinned. He had one hand wrapped around Geoffrey’s waist and the other hand had a knife pressed against his throat.

  The two men began to laugh at their good fortune. “Wait ’til we tell Hainsworth,” one mocked. “We’re getting three-for-one.” The men set about finishing their task, to effectively wipe out a whole FBI unit in the span of five minutes. Diggs could only yell, “No!”

  The man with the knife jerkily moved his arm as if he was bowing a cello. Geoffrey’s blank eyes stared back at Diggs. His neck had been sliced. He fell to his knees. Diggs didn’t know what to do.

  Instead of firing her weapon, she instinctively grabbed the crystal charm, which had somehow managed its way around her neck. The walls of the building began to shimmer. This other dimension was closing in on itself.

  This was the second chance Diggs dreamed for. She now had the answer to “what if?” If she had intervened, Assistant Director Andrew Dudek would also have been killed.

  The crystal was less than pleased. It hoped this little lesson would crush Agent Diggs’ resolve and reduce her to a pile of mush. It began to devise another way for Caitlin Diggs to become its new host. All it needed was a little more time to wrap itself around Caitlin’s central nervous system, giving itself a chance to connect to the worldwide blood web. Yes, just a few more minutes. Once the hookup was complete, Diggs would never be able to refuse. Because if she did, terminating the connection would be as fatal as it was to Lukas Schenker...

  She found herself standing on the rocky cliff once again.

  “Okay, this time it goes in the water.” She hung her head as if in prayer. She rocked back and let the crystal fly. It arced perfectly, creating the most vibrant rainbow Sachuest Bay had ever known. When the light show subsided, she looked down at her right arm. It was bleeding.

  “Wait a minute. Something is terribly wrong. I’m not out of the other dimension yet.”

  If Diggs had escaped back to her reality, there should have been no trace of a gunshot wound, yet she was bleeding.

  Diggs began to hyperventilate. If she became trapped in this world, she would have to live with both McAllister’s and Dudek’s deaths. Plus who knows what happened to Tara in this altered dimension. Caitlin had bit the apple, and now she was paying the price.

  Out of the blue, she began to see Detective Stanford Carter in her mind’s eye. He was reminding her about the Zen breathing techniques. Was Carter really here? Or was this just a replay of this morning? She believed this was her only chance to get back to reality. She also realized her reality wasn’t so bad after you had had a bad taste of another.

  She fell to the ground. Arranging her legs in a crossed position, she focused her breathing. She began to think of severing the tie. She pictured herself throwing the crystal into the water. She did this over and over and over again, until she heard a growl. She opened her eyes. Right before her stood a rainbow-colored bobcat. It was the same animal Lukas Schenker had freed from the Central Park Zoo.

  The crystal had formulated a backup plan—just in case Schenker had failed. The cat bared its fangs. Its ears were pinned to its head. It pounced and landed on top of Caitlin. It sank its teeth into her thigh. The pain was excruciating. The cat shook its head, sending its fangs deeper and deeper into Diggs’ flesh. The agent realized now was the time to restore her faith, to become whole and save herself. So over and over again....she chanted.

  The sky overhead shimmered once again. Running out of time, the crystal raced to connect its blood web with Caitlin, but weary and in need of seratonin, it fell short.

  Diggs woke up on the ground. Her arms and legs spread out like a snow angel. She lay there for just a few more seconds until she realized the bobcat was gone along with any indication of injury on her thighs. Again she frantically felt for the crystal. It wasn’t around her neck! Oh no!

  She then remembered where it was when she left her reality. It was in her hand. She clenched it. The rock hard quartz was indeed
still there, proving she had returned to her reality. Using her last ounce of energy, she got up and flung the crystal over the edge. It landed far, far away. Farther than Agent Diggs could have humanly thrown it. She had been “touched” by the crystal, ironically turning its own power against itself.

  Consequently, that contact with the crystal would soon produce other after effects. But for right now, Caitlin Diggs lay slumped on the ground, collapsed into unconsciousness while police sirens wailed in the background.

  Epilogue

  And the men who hold high places

  Must be the ones to start

  To mould a new reality

  Closer to the Heart

  The blacksmith and the artist

  Reflect it in their art

  Forge the creativity

  Closer to the Heart

  Philosophers and ploughmen

  Each must know his part

  To sow a new mentality

  Closer to the Heart—

  “Closer to the Heart”—Rush

  Dudek sat smugly in his leather armchair before Hainsworth’s desk. He had the best seat in the house to watch the head of the FBI squirm. Connah Hainsworth must have posed the question to Dudek at least three times. What did Agent Diggs know concerning the current whereabouts of the crystal?

  When Hainsworth didn’t get the answer he wanted, he began pacing his office like a caged rat. Dudek revelled in Hainsworth’s angst, seated front and center. Dudek paused before delivering his answer. He spoke slowly and deliberately. “I repeat, sir, as indicated on Agent Rivers’ preliminary field report, Lukas Schenker was found dying on the ground, without the necklace about his person. Diggs was en route to this house, but on her way, an unidentified assailant began threatening her life, taking shots, and running his vehicle dangerously close to her bumper. As a result, Diggs never made it to the house. I believe Agent Rivers, Director. She was there to watch Schenker die, and she said there was no crystal. I take the word of my agents as truth.”