Away From the Dark

by Aleatha Romig

  I blew out a puff of air as Benjamin shook his head. Well, that wasn’t informative. I slid his phone back into the pocket of my jacket.

  Raquel winced as Benjamin lifted her from the ground. As he did, her blouse rode up, revealing a large purple bruise. I opened my eyes wider. Her side wasn’t only black and blue as Sara’s had been, the skin was distended. I’d seen it before, not at The Light, but in Iraq. I swallowed.

  “Is that hard to the touch?”

  Benjamin nodded.

  “Brother, I think she has internal bleeding.”

  His eyes glazed over as his chin fell to his chest.

  If she didn’t get medical treatment soon, she wasn’t going to make it. I wasn’t a medic, but I transported enough injured soldiers in that C-12A and heard enough discussions. Images I’d hoped would remain buried came to the forefront of my mind.

  I closed my eyes and whispered, “I’m so sorry.” I was. My heart was breaking as my friend held his dying wife.

  Raquel turned toward me, her one blue eye staring directly at me. “It was me. My doing,” she said. “I agreed to help Sara. Don’t ever be sorry.” She looked up to Benjamin, whose cheeks now contained multiple tear paths through the grime, descending to his chin. “What happened to me,” she went on, “would’ve happened a lot sooner in my old life. I know that. I was destined to die this way.” She smiled. “I’m just thankful that before I did, I got to know love. I know there’s a lot of things wrong with The Light, but I don’t regret a day I spent as your wife.”

  I was suddenly an intruder in their private conversation, a voyeur watching as Raquel’s eyes closed and she leaned her good cheek against her husband’s chest.

  My temples throbbed as I contemplated Abraham’s phone. This had to end.

  “Oh,” Benjamin said, stopping and turning around. “My wife didn’t do as you told her.” He peered down at the crumpled woman in his arms. “However, as it’s at my discretion, I’ve chosen not to correct her.”

  What the hell is he talking about?

  Benjamin walked back to me and stopped. “In the inside pocket of my jacket. Can you reach it?”

  I carefully pulled at his jacket, trying not to disturb Raquel.

  “There’s the phone. She didn’t destroy it as you’d told her to do. She turned it off and hid it.”

  My heart raced. This was it. I needed to call. I couldn’t wait for two more days.

  I spoke with new purpose. “Benjamin, I was never told the plan, if there is one. What would happen if Father Gabriel believed his dreams were threatened? Is there a plan, a Kool-Aid plan?” I added the last part to emphasize my meaning.

  “There isn’t one for here. No one can find us up here, and there’s no place to run.”

  I inhaled. “OK, what about at the Eastern Light?”

  He shrugged. “Mandatory service. The followers know too much. If The Light is threatened, it would be time for communion.”

  Please, God, I prayed, don’t let Sara take communion.

  I flipped open the cheap burner phone and brought it to life. Undoubtedly the call would show up on the cell tower. I just didn’t know how long it would take for it to be discovered. After all, Abraham, who worked under Timothy, wasn’t exactly on the job right now. I dialed the number I’d memorized.

  Special Agent Adler answered after the first ring. “McAlister, where are you?”

  “Northern Light, sir.” I held Benjamin’s stare, and briefly wondered what he was thinking.

  “We’re forty minutes out, on all campuses.”

  My mind spun. “What? I didn’t authorize . . .”

  “That boy the marshals took?”

  “Thomas,” I said. “What about him?”

  “Someone fucked up. Over an hour ago he was allowed to make a phone call.”

  The world dropped out from under me and I fell to my knees. “Bloomfield Hills, sir. Eastern Light, they have Sara . . . Stella there. Go now, don’t wait. Please go get her. Please.”

  “She’s not with you?”

  My vision blurred. “No, you have to get her. Do it now! There’s no Kool-Aid here, but there is there.”

  “Agent, if you have any way to get out, do it. They don’t know everything, but I listened to the recording of Thomas Hutchinson speaking with someone named Xavier. Hutchinson told him about Sara and the marshals. We were able to trace Xavier’s next call to the cell tower up there at the Northern Light.” My thoughts overlapped while Agent Adler was still speaking, “. . . don’t know who he spoke to, but someone knows why you were really in Fairbanks.”

  “Shit!” Now Abraham’s question about Thomas’s body made sense. From the time I’d been speaking to the Commission to the time I made it to the gate, they all knew I never killed him or dumped his body.

  “Agent, get out of The Light now. That’s an order.”

  “Sara?”

  “We’ll move.”

  CHAPTER 33

  Jacob

  “Benjamin, don’t take Raquel to the living quarters. Come with me.”

  His quizzical expression asked more than his words. Still Benjamin tried, his voice unsure: “What’s happening? Who did you just call?”

  “We need to move.” I pulled out Abraham’s phone. “Let’s pray this buys us some time.”

  Benjamin didn’t speak as I began to text.

  Abraham: HE JUST FOUND IT IN THE PLANE. I’LL BRING IT TO YOU, AFTER I TAKE CARE OF THINGS.

  “What if we were wrong and there wasn’t a plan to do anything to you?”

  I gritted my teeth. “If there wasn’t, after what they just learned, there is now. I’m sure of it.”

  “Are you sure enough to bet our lives?”

  I nodded and then inclined my head toward Raquel. “Benjamin, what you do is up to you. Take your chances with the dark up here, or come with me. I’m tugging the smaller plane out to the strip. It’s fueled and I’m getting out of here. Come with me and I’ll explain everything. First we can get Raquel in the plane, and then you can help me get the plane out.”

  Confusion came and went in Benjamin’s eyes. “I don’t know. We . . . I thought . . . weren’t we friends? I don’t know what’s happening.”

  I grabbed his arm. “Listen to me. Do. You. Want. To. Save. Her?” Before he could answer, I continued, “Because I sure as hell plan on saving Sara. I’m leaving now. Come with me or don’t. It’s up to you.”

  His chest inflated and deflated. “Let’s go.”

  Normal procedure was to return the tractor and tug to the hangar before taking off. I wasn’t worried about following normal procedure. Benjamin sat in the cargo section of the plane, strapped into one of the jump seats beside Raquel. She was now unconscious. It wasn’t the first time I’d transported an unconscious woman, but it was the first time I’d felt good about it. This was her only chance. Besides, Raquel’s state of unawareness was probably better. At least now she wasn’t in pain.

  Just before takeoff, I looked back and he was holding her hand.

  Benjamin and I had talked the entire time we strapped her in as well as while we got the plane ready. Our freedom of speech was no longer restricted. The black box that recorded all our words was within the plane. It didn’t broadcast. The physical box had to be removed to be analyzed. We’d be away from The Light before anyone learned what we’d said, and then it wouldn’t be The Light that learned it. It would be the FBI.

  As we spoke I told Benjamin everything. I told him the truth of who I was and what I was. I told him about Stella, that Sara had gotten her memory back, and that she had agreed to play along until the FBI could organize enough force to raid all three campuses simultaneously.

  Just as we were about to take off, Abraham’s phone buzzed. I looked back at Benjamin, our eyes met, and I tossed him the phone. It was my gesture of faith. He was letting me take Raquel and him out of The Light. With Abraham’s phone he could alert Father Gabriel, the Commission, and the Assembly to everything.

  Catching it,
he swiped the screen. As I flipped switches on the panel before me, he spoke through our headphones: “Father Gabriel told Abraham to wait at the hangar. He said Xavier’s on his way and should be here in less than ten minutes. He wants Abraham to drive him into the community.”

  “It’s going to be a crowded airspace and landing strip,” I said.

  If Agent Adler’s timeline was accurate, the FBI was twenty to twenty-three minutes out. I’d texted my handler the new code to the gates to enter the community, the one I’d gotten from Abraham’s phone.

  “What should I text back?” Benjamin asked.

  “That’s up to you.”

  The roar of the engine grew louder as we rolled forward. I didn’t concentrate on Benjamin’s movements. I couldn’t be sure how long it took him to text back or what he texted. It wasn’t until we’d reached about twelve hundred feet that I had visual confirmation of Xavier’s descent. If we’d been in the dark season, I might not have seen his white plane with the blue letters and numbers, but it was the light season and I did.

  For only a second, I thought I saw the nose of Xavier’s plane move upward, changing course toward me, but it was too late. In order to crash into me or send me off course, he’d need to be proficient in maneuvers most often seen at air shows. I was above and passed him. At that realization I closed my eyes and let out a long breath.

  The Northern Light was behind me. With Xavier there, Father Gabriel would have two pilots; he could get away. Hell, he could get away in Xavier’s plane and leave Micah behind. I couldn’t worry about it. The drive to the hangar was over twenty minutes from the community. By my calculations the FBI would land before Xavier’s plane could be refueled and back in the air. My cheeks rose as I realized that with the emergency meeting and everything that had happened, we hadn’t refueled the Cessna Citation X. Assuming Father Gabriel would want to leave The Light and go into seclusion somewhere unknown via the luxury of the Cessna Citation X, the FBI had more than enough time to arrive first.

  Now my only concern was Sara. I prayed that the FBI had already conducted the raid on the Eastern Light, and that agents had found her. With the increased altitude my phone was useless. I wouldn’t learn anything until we landed.

  I rolled my neck, trying to relieve the tension that wouldn’t lessen. As I did, my eyes veiled and I looked down. Beside my seat, wedged next to the controls, was something white. Fumbling for the corner, I squeezed my fingers into the tight space and pulled.

  Whatever Father Gabriel had been so desperate to find was in my hand. I read the front of the plain white envelope: Father. Instead of opening it, I folded it in half and slid it into the inside pocket of my jacket.

  Father Gabriel’s teachings came back to me with new understanding. I suspected that after three years, it would be a long time before all the doctrine I’d learned didn’t come to mind. However, the one I was thinking about wasn’t necessarily perverse. It was one of the ones I’d recited to Sara and made her recite to me. It was about a wife giving everything to her husband, releasing it and being free. I’d seen the relief in her beautiful face more times than I could count—times when she was upset or sad, times when she was scared or guilty. Even when she knew that sharing her concerns or confessing her transgressions would result in correction, the process of giving it over to me had given her peace. Whatever was bothering her was no longer her concern, but had become mine.

  That same overwhelming rush of relief that I’d seen on her face filled me as I pocketed Brother Reuben’s envelope. I was no longer responsible for deciding whether its contents were important. I was no longer alone in this fight. As soon as we landed in Anchorage, I’d pass the envelope and all my information on to my team at the bureau. What they did with it was at their discretion and no longer my concern.

  I planned to leave Benjamin and Raquel in Anchorage. I’d gladly debrief for the entire flight to Detroit, but getting to Sara was now my main concern. The FBI could handle The Light. I now fully understood the gift that lesson had been to Sara. For a moment, as I flew above the white rolling clouds, my neck lost its tension.

  “How long until we get to Anchorage?” Benjamin’s voice reminded me where we were. In my mind I was already beyond Anchorage and on my way to Sara.

  “It’s about an hour and a half. Agent Adler will have teams waiting for us. They’ll have an ambulance ready for Raquel. How’s she doing?”

  “I’m scared. She’s cold, but I feel a pulse.”

  “I’m praying for her, and doing my best.”

  “Are you?” Benjamin asked.

  “Am I what?”

  “I’m just confused. What was real?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I know I had a mission. I know there were parts of The Light I recognized as wrong. I also know there were parts that I understood and made sense. I know what I feel for Sara, or Stella, isn’t fake. We spent a lot of time talking after I confessed who I was and knowing who she was. I don’t know if she’s pregnant or not, but either way, just because this is over, I don’t want to give her up.”

  “Pregnant? Really?” he asked.

  Shit!

  He and Raquel had been trying for a few years to get pregnant.

  “We don’t know. She’s been sick and, as you know, she quit taking her birth control, but we don’t know if she’s pregnant. There’s been a lot happening. She might just be ill and throwing up because of nerves.”

  “Yeah, I remember when Raquel got her memory back. It was a rough time, but at the same time, it was good. It felt liberating to finally be honest with her.”

  I sighed. “It did, but we haven’t had much of a chance to discuss it.” I looked at my watch; it was only ten after nine. “She left Friday morning. Monday isn’t even done. Our whole damn lives have changed in less than four days.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  I looked back. He was still holding Raquel’s hand with his head back against the seat, and his eyes were closed.

  “Tell me about Raquel. What did she mean when she said she was destined to die that way?”

  “I don’t like to think about it, but”—his voice hitched—“I suppose it’s easier than seeing how she is now.”

  “Hey, you don’t need to say—”

  He interrupted me. “No, talking keeps my mind off the future.” He paused. “Before she was brought to The Light she was a prostitute in Highland Heights, a runaway. Her parents died and she ended up in the foster care system. When she was seventeen she hitched a ride with a trucker. It was her first time, and she said he wasn’t terrible. Afterward he gave her cash, and she’d found her new profession. She doesn’t exactly remember how she ended up in Highland Heights, but if you were to ask her, she’d tell you it was divine intervention. She’d also tell you that despite the indoctrination, she was thankful she did.

  “I can’t imagine her living that life. Even the thought of it breaks my heart. When Brother Raphael released us, I knew we’d die out there, in the dark. I just wasn’t willing to let her die alone. That’s why I took her to the hangar. I honestly thought someone would find us and just kill us. It would’ve been easier than starvation, exposure, or animal attack. I knew about banishments, but I’d always suspected that we would . . . I really didn’t even consider.”

  “I’m sorry . . .”

  “Don’t be. You heard Raquel. She wanted to help Sara. I should have figured. I mean, I guess banishment is a very viable option when you accept a seat on the Assembly. It’s not like seats become vacant because the previous Assemblyman resigns. The thing was, I was proud to be part of the chosen, and after the life Raquel had suffered when she was younger, I was proud that through me she could be part of the chosen too.”

  The airwaves fell silent as I thought about his honesty. No doubt the stress and turmoil, as well as holding his dying wife’s hand, had fueled his words.

  “Who else?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “I know about some of the follo
wers, but I wasn’t privy to any of the chosen who were banished. Who else on the Assembly or Commission has been banished?”

  “Well,” he said, “I’ve never known of anyone on the Commission. The first Assemblyman I know of, after I was on the Assembly, was Brother Joel and his wife, Sister Chloe. You can imagine how difficult that was.”

  I shook my head. “Was I there? When did that happen? I don’t recognize their names.”

  “Oh, you’re right. It was right before you came, and you probably don’t recognize their names because no one is supposed to talk about it. Probably your coming was one of the reasons it was able to happen.”

  “I don’t understand. Who were they?”

  “Brother Joel was a pilot. It’s a job with a lot of scrutiny, as you know. The thing was, no one ever suspected Joel of anything. After all, he’d been raised in The Light, not actually in The Light itself. Before The Light even existed, he followed Father Gabriel as he preached around the country. Timothy and Lilith were some of his first devoted followers. They took Joel everywhere with them. He’d known Father Gabriel most of his life.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Joel was Timothy and Lilith’s son? He was the pilot who was banished just before my arrival?”

  No wonder they hate me.

  “Yes, and Chloe was the daughter of Brother Raphael and Sister Rebecca.”

  “Holy shit! What happened?”

  “The Commission was given evidence that Joel was in contact with people outside The Light. I never heard the particulars. It went over the Assembly straight to the Commission—”

  “Which contained two of their fathers,” I added in amazement.

  “Yes.”

  “And Timothy and Raphael went along with it?”

  “They believe that Father Gabriel’s word is divine.”

  This news definitely shed new light. Timothy and Lilith disliked me because I’d replaced their banished son. If I hadn’t been available, Joel might have been forgiven or found innocent.

  “We’re making our approach in Anchorage,” I said. “I need to talk to the tower. Soon we’ll learn more.”