The Blood Betrayal

by Don Donaldson

  What a great deal, Carl thought. I’ll take a quick death for a hundred. Shit. From the sound of it, they only had a few minutes left. And he could see no way to change that. They just had no options.

  Wondering if The Worm had heard him, Echols reached down and grabbed the hacker by the front of his turtleneck. “Did you understand what I just said?”

  The Worm’s eyes opened a crack. He nodded.

  Echols stood and checked to see if Lothian had figured out that he should have his gun out and trained on the three captives.

  “Yeah, I know what needs to be done,” Lothian said, his gun already in play.

  Echols took a step back, and with a couple of quick strokes, sliced through the plastic tie holding The Worm’s legs together. He did Carl next, then Beth.

  “Now on your feet.”

  It wasn’t easy getting up with their hands tied behind their back, and for Carl, his wounded leg made it impossible. So even after The Worm and Beth had managed to obey, Carl was still struggling on the floor, his face reddening with embarrassment at being so helpless.

  Seeing how Carl was flopping around on the floor like a beached haddock, Echols looked at Meggs. “Get him his crutch.”

  Meggs walked over to the truck and climbed in. A few seconds later, he reappeared with Carl’s crutch and jumped awkwardly down.

  “He can’t use it with his hands tied,” Meggs said, joining the group.

  Echols stepped closer to Carl. “Show me your hands.”

  “That’s not a good—” Meggs began. But a quick, angry look from Echols silenced him.

  “No one here wants to carry you any farther,” Echols said to Carl. “I’m going to free your hands so you can walk on your own. If you think that gives you some great advantage, you don’t understand the situation. And don’t reach for your gag. I don’t want to hear any conversation.” He leaned down and cut Carl’s wrists free. Standing, he looked at Meggs. “Give it to him.”

  Meggs moved in and slid the crutch across the floor to where Carl could grab it. Like it was some damned stage play, everyone then watched Carl struggle to his feet.

  Echols looked at Mead, who had returned with three big flashlights. He jerked his head toward Lothian, “Give him one of those.”

  Mead did that.

  “And I’ll take one.”

  Mead handed Echols one of the two remaining lights. “Now show us the way.” He turned to the three captives. “We go single file with him in the lead, you dressed in black next, then you, Doc, and the girl. The two of us will bring up the rear. And Doctor . . . I hope you haven’t always wanted to die making a heroic gamble in a hopeless situation. Because if I get someone else’s blood on me one more time this week, I’m just not going to be the easygoing Sankt Nikolaus you’ve always known.”

  Chapter 53

  THE ENFORCERS and their captives turned left at the main shaft that connected the parking area with the access steps to the hospital in the opposite direction. This put them in a part of the mine Carl and Beth had never been in.

  Even with his reliance on his crutch, Carl was not the slowest member of the group. The Worm was still having trouble adjusting to the light in the shaft, which actually wasn’t all that bright. So when urged to pick up the pace, he often wandered off to the side and had to have his course corrected.

  It had not yet occurred to The Worm to be angry at Carl for putting him in this situation. He had long believed his fascination with computer intrusion would someday get him in the worst trouble he’d ever seen. But he’d always expected his career would end with him locked up for a long time, not dead. That was not a fair penalty for anything he’d done. But it looked like fair or not, it was what he faced. He’d always thought that eventually he would find the courage to leave his dark world and return to the light, where the normals or “norms” as they were called in Geek Love, his favorite novel, ruled. Among the cruelty and intolerance there, he would find a rare woman who could see past his appearance, and he would feel the touch of her hand on his face and know what it was like to . . . Suddenly, he felt a touch, but it was not soft and it was not from a woman’s hand.

  “Get back in line, freak,” Lothian said, smacking him on the shoulder with the barrel of his gun.

  Beth was not yet ready to accept death, not now, not after learning she and Carl were more alike than she’d believed. And not while the lives of all her friends were at risk. In the last few days, she and Carl had been in many tough situations and they had always found a way out. So why should this be any different? Carl would think of something.

  Like Beth, Carl, too, still had hope. What he didn’t have was a plan. He could start swinging his crutch and hope to catch somebody in the head with it, but he couldn’t hit them all. And he had no doubt Echols would then carry out his threat and kill him where he stood, possibly do the same to Beth and The Worm. But at least that would create a couple of problems for Echols and his goons. They’d have to clean up his blood on the floor of the shaft, a nearly impossible task, and they’d have to carry his body to wherever they were going now.

  Clean up his blood . . . carry his body . . . Surely he could cause them more trouble than that. But how?

  Mead led them into a side shaft that had no lighting. From here on, The Worm had an easier time of it and no longer strayed from the course Mead laid out. Carl on the other hand, found the going slightly harder because of loose rocks he would often hit with the tip of his crutch as he moved it to a new position.

  With flashlight beams cutting their way through the black bowels of the mine, they followed Mead for about thirty yards, to a fork, where Mead chose the left shaft. Now, without even the dim light from the main tunnel visible behind them, Carl felt their chances of survival growing more and more remote. This new shaft had a distinct downward pitch to it, giving Carl a fresh walking challenge. But at least there were fewer loose rocks here.

  Shortly after they’d entered this new shaft, Mead stopped abruptly.

  “What’s wrong?” Echols said from behind.

  “There’s a low spot just ahead that’s full of water from the rain we’ve had. It’s higher and dry on the other side, but this water is gonna be at least waist deep.”

  “I’m in no mood to get that wet. Why did you bring us to this place if we can’t pass?”

  “I forgot about the rain. What’s the problem? Let’s just do it right here.”

  “I don’t like it. It’s not far enough away from the main shaft.”

  “So what are we gonna do?”

  “How much farther does this shaft go on the other side?”

  “About sixty yards.”

  “Blind end?”

  “Yes.”

  Echols turned to those bound and gagged. “You three, get down on the ground.”

  Echols’s order sounded so ominous Carl decided this was the moment to act. But at that same instant, Echols pulled his crutch away, sending him tumbling to the hard scrabble underfoot.

  “Just keeping you from doing what you were thinking, Doctor.” He called for some light. When his accomplices responded, he secured Carl’s hands and feet with some extra plastic ties he’d brought. He bound Beth’s feet and then The Worm’s.

  To Carl’s amazement, Echols then stood and gestured in the direction they’d come. “Let’s go. We’ll finish the job when that water goes down.”

  Watching the receding lights, Carl could hardly believe he and the others were still alive. Moreover, they had just been given what would probably amount to at least a few hours to devise an escape. The departing trio reached the end of the tunnel and their lights disappeared. With those lights went much of the hope Carl felt when he saw the goons turn to leave. Sitting there now in that seamless void, death seemed closer now than it ever had.

  But sitting next to Carl, The Worm had
thought of something that lifted his spirits. It wasn’t anything he could do at the moment, but if he waited and let his mind take him away from this place and what might soon happen to him, there was a chance he could have some influence on events to come.

  Chapter 54

  ECHOLS STEPPED into the main shaft and turned to Mead. “We can’t just leave them in there without a guard.”

  “Why not? There’s nothing they can do.”

  “I didn’t bring it up to start a debate. They need a guard. End of discussion. Go find a chair and put it right here. Then sit in it.”

  “Why me?”

  Echols lowered his face and looked down his nose at Mead.

  “Okay, I get it. My fault we couldn’t finish. But if I do this, I don’t want to hear any more about it.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “How long do I have to stay?”

  “Until I say you can leave.” He turned to Lothian. “Let’s get Meggs started moving those things out of the truck. Then I need for you to show me the church.”

  CARL WORKED AT freeing himself for nearly an hour after Echols and his pinheads left. Because of his wounded leg, which hurt every time he moved it, his efforts were concentrated on his gag and the tie binding his wrists.

  From the noise Beth was making and the way she squirmed against him from time to time, he could tell she, too, was working on her restraints. Curiously, there was no noise and no movement on Carl’s other side, where The Worm sat. From his deep regular breathing, it sounded like he was asleep.

  For all their writhing and twisting, Carl and Beth accomplished nothing except to wear themselves out from the effort, and scrape the plastic ties against their skin until they bled. Exhausted and in pain, they eventually stopped resisting and closed their eyes to gather the strength for another attempt. Intending to merely rest for a couple of minutes, they were so tired they both slipped into a troubled and shallow sleep.

  WHEN HANSON left Echols and the others in the parking area, he went to his room, where he pointedly did not look again at his sermon.

  Why did they have to bring Corbin and Martin back here? Why couldn’t they have just disposed of them somewhere else and leave him alone? But at least the threat to Artisan was contained and when that ass Echols left, life could go back to normal.

  He still smarted from the way Echols had spoken to him, diminishing him in front of everyone. But tomorrow, he would once again stand in front of his flock and receive their adoration. And with that thought, he turned in a bit early, so he would be at his best in the morning and not let his disciples down.

  HANSON WAS awakened by someone in the hall pounding on his bedroom door. He rolled in that direction and glanced at the clock. Two a.m. What on earth could be happening?

  He got up and pulled on his robe. Where were those damned slippers? The pounding was now rattling his dresser mirror. Giving up on his slippers, he walked barefoot to the door and opened it.

  “Come down to my room and take a look at something out my window,” Lothian said.

  “What?”

  “Just take a look.”

  Obviously put out at being disturbed, Hanson pushed past Lothian and stalked down the hall to the next bedroom.

  AS SOON AS HANSON was out of sight, Echols darted into the hall from the back stairs and slipped into Hanson’s room, where he went to the dresser and picked up Hanson’s key ring.

  “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED to see?” Hanson asked, staring into the dark landscape outside.

  “Look long . . . down to the cemetery.”

  Hanson shifted his eyes to that more distant point. Still seeing nothing, he moved his head around seeking a better angle.

  “You don’t see any lights moving out there?” Lothian asked.

  “No. But you did?”

  “I thought so. But I might have been mistaken. Let me look again.”

  Hanson stepped back and Lothian took his place. Lothian spent a few seconds apparently trying to reacquire what he’d seen earlier. After some earnest effort, he turned to Hanson. “Apparently I was wrong. Want me to check it out anyway?”

  “I suppose. Let me know if you find anything. If you don’t, keep it to yourself. I can’t be up all night before a sermon.”

  BY NOW, ECHOLS had reached the bottom of the back stairs. In his pocket was Hanson’s master key that opened all the doors in the church. In its place, he had left an apparent replica, except the one now in Hanson’s possession opened nothing. Because it was one of Lothian’s jobs to unlock all the doors before church the next day, Hanson wouldn’t know about the substitution until it was much too late.

  THE RAIN CONTINUED through the night and into the morning. It was still pouring as the first worshipers walked up the front steps of the church and paused under the portico to shake the water from their umbrellas so they wouldn’t get the carpets inside wet.

  In the church basement, his hands encased in rubber gloves, Echols removed the last screw from the access panel to the furnace that served the north half of the sanctuary. He leaned the panel against a section of ductwork and reached into the wooden box beside him for one of the two square glass containers that had been made to fit into the space below the blower.

  DEEP UNDER THE church, the water that kept Echols from taking Carl, Beth, and The Worm as far into the shaft as he wanted, was now lapping at the floor where the three spent the night. Carl and Beth had alternately slept and struggled in shifts since being dumped down there, but had made no progress in freeing themselves.

  Having lost all sense of time, they didn’t know the entire night had passed. Presently, Beth was asleep and Carl was in that netherworld between sleep and wakefulness, his mind drifting.

  Suddenly, Carl thought he felt a light pressure running along the band of duct tape sealing his mouth. He imagined a great centipede, about to crawl across his face. Enveloped in a convulsive shudder at the thought, he groaned and twisted where he sat, throwing his head to the side to dislodge the loathsome insect. At the same instant, there was a tearing noise and his hair and skin were pulled hard as the duct tape was yanked from his mouth.

  Next to his left ear, a soft voice said, “I got loose.”

  Chapter 55

  CARL WAS STUNNED to learn that The Worm was free. “How did you . . . ?”

  Hearing voices, Beth woke. The Worm brushed past Carl and removed her gag. “Don’t worry it’s just me,” he said to Beth. “Hope I didn’t hurt you taking that off.”

  “I barely felt it. Thank you.”

  Carl heard the rustle of clothing, but could see nothing in the dark as The Worm came back to him.

  “How’d I get loose? When that guy came to my door, he said he was a detective and wanted to talk to me about you. I got really scared. I was sure I was going to jail. I didn’t open up right away but went back to my computers and started erasing files. When I get frightened or excited, I have this condition where I dump a lot of histamine into my system giving me the symptoms of an allergic reaction. I never have any trouble breathing, but my face swells, and my ankles, and my wrists. So when he tied me up, I was sort of inflated. By staying quiet and keeping my mind off the trouble we’re in . . .”

  “I get it,” Carl said. “You aren’t carrying a knife are you?”

  “They emptied my pockets. But even if they hadn’t, we still wouldn’t have a knife.”

  “Let me turn around, and you get hold of the tie at my wrists. Maybe with you giving me some leverage I can get loose.”

  Carl shifted his position so his back faced The Worm. “Okay, I’m turned.”

  “I know. I can see you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s not like I was in my computer room, but there are minerals in the wall that are giving off tiny amounts of light. I guess they absorbed some energy from
the flashlights that were in here.”

  “That’s pretty damned incredible eyesight.”

  The Worm got a firm grip on Carl’s wrist tie. “Okay, pull.”

  Carl strained at the plastic, ignoring the pain as the edges dug into his already raw skin. Even with The Worm providing traction in the opposite direction, there was not the slightest hint this would get Carl free. “No good,” Carl said.

  “Try it on me,” Beth said.

  The Worm moved into position and they repeated the attempt on her wrists.

  With the added leverage, Beth was able to pull her right hand out of the plastic yolk a little farther than she’d been able to on her own, but then it caught on the bony protuberance at the base of her thumb. Unwilling to accept that this wasn’t going to work, she pulled so hard The Worm lost his grip on the restraint.

  “Again,” Beth said.

  This time, The Worm got a better hold. With the yolk again pressed against the same bony place as before, she folded her thumb across her palm to make her hand as narrow as possible. Wiggling her hand back and forth and pulling at the same time, all she managed to do was saw another raw place on her skin.

  “I need to rest a minute,” she said.

  “Does it seem like you’re close to getting free?” Carl asked.

  “Honestly, no.”

  “I think cops carry cutters to remove them,” The Worm said. “That’s what we need.”

  “Cutters . . .” Beth said. “I may know where we can find some. When Carl and I were here a few days ago, I saw a small toolbox containing a pair of wire nippers. It was sitting on the steps leading the catwalk back at the mine entrance.”

  The Worm exhaled hard. “You’re not suggesting . . .”

  “It’s the only way,” Carl said.

  “There are probably some of those guys still out there. And I can’t see a thing in the main shaft where it’s well lit. So other than those two problems and the possibility the toolbox isn’t even there any more, it’s a great plan.”