“The only way,” Alvin nodded his head and, using extreme caution, began moving forward again. Two minutes later, the tunnel leveled off to form a flat path which lead into a wide, dark cavern. A ten-foot wide river was flowing dangerously fast at the back of the cavern, running in a southern direction.
Easy now,” Alvin warned Mandy, stepping into the cavern. Mandy dragged her lame leg forward, nearing the point of complete exhaustion and entered the cavern with Jessica directly behind her. Jacob appeared a few seconds later and began exploring the cavern with the pen light.
“Pretty big space,” Alvin whispered, as Jacob slowly waved the pen light around.
“Look up there,” Jacob said and shot the beam of the pen light up at the rock ceiling. Jessica raised her weary eyes and spotted a hole above her head that was just big enough for a person to climb through. Snow was falling through the hole. Jacob quickly studied the hole, and then focused on the river. “One way in, but no way out except through that hole up there or—”
“Going out the way we came in,” Alvin finished in a miserable voice.
Mandy followed the bright beam of light around. The cavern wasn’t massive, but it surely wasn’t small. The river, powerful and loud, surely wasn’t a body of water someone would take a leisurely swim in. No, the cavern was dark and creepy, lined with a spinal-type rock floor that matched the ceiling. One wrong step and a person could break an ankle, fall on a sharp rock, take a dip into the river...anything.
“We have to go back,” Mandy said in a worried voice. “I don’t want to be here.”
“I agree,” Jacob nodded his head. “We’re sitting ducks in this cavern.”
Jacob turned and studied the tunnel leading out of the cavern. “We couldn’t hold off a functioning strike team with the guns we have. A simple canister of tear gas would run us out of here. It’s no good.”
“If we go back above ground, it’ll be no good,” Alvin warned. “Man, I’d rather take my chances right here. And I’m going to do just that.” Alvin snatched a cigarette out of his coat pocket and lit up. “If I’m going to eat a bullet, I’m doing it my way. If by chance we’re still here when morning comes, then I’ll take my chances above ground. Until then...” Alvin walked over to a portion of the East wall and sat down to smoke his cigarette. “Until then, I’m staying put.”
“He’s right,” Jessica supported Alvin. She turned to Jacob and studied the man’s exhausted face. “It was wrong of me to suggest I surrender myself. I see that now,” she said in a low voice. “I have to locate the virus my husband created. If the CIA captures me, there’s no telling what they’ll use to extract information from me, and who will care? I’m now a wanted terrorist. People will cheer as I’m being tortured.”
“And that’s Roger Alden’s plan,” Jacob told Jessica, relieved that the woman had used her head to figure out the obvious. “Roger Alden has turned America against you in order to get what he needs from you, Jessica. He knows the truth. He knows you’re simply an innocent bystander—”
“The CIA believes I have information about the virus my husband created,” Jessica told Jacob and then lowered her eyes. “The CIA destroyed my life and, once the CIA extracts whatever information they need from me, they’ll kill me, just as they killed my husband. I’m not going to allow that to happen.”
Jacob drew in a cold, damp breath that smelled of wet earth. “Jessica, talk to me, please.”
“Not until you tell me who you are,” Jessica demanded. She raised her eyes and looked at Jacob’s handsome face. “I want the truth, and then you’ll receive the truth from me.”
“Tell her, man,” Alvin insisted. “You ain’t got nothing to lose.”
“I’ve got everything to lose if the truth is revealed,” Jacob warned Alvin.
“I’ve already lost everything,” Jessica reminded Jacob in a broken voice. “Is that fair?”
“No.”
“Then I want the truth,” Jessica demanded. “Please, tell me who you are.”
Jacob studied Jessica’s beautiful, tortured face. As he did, something stirred deep inside of his heart. Pity, maybe? Or something deeper? Whatever the ‘something’ was, Jacob knew it was time to be honest with Jessica Mayes.
“I’m the son of President Edwin Green,” he spoke in a steady voice, as his mind focused on a calm meeting room filled with powerful men. “My name is Jacob Isaiah Green. My mission is to ensure that President Green remains in office to defeat the grip our enemies have on America. We have to cancel destructive policies, create new policies, and alter the Supreme Court. The court system, as a whole, is a disaster. We need to put a cap on immigration, create new educational protocols, healthcare, social security, and defense. We have to change America back into a free Republic; a free Republic that outlaws abortion, immoral marriages, and stands on a Biblical foundation. Can you understand what I’m telling you, Jessica? Can you understand that we’re trying to defeat an evil, perverse, destructive, vile enemy that has turned the heart of America into a filthy disease? Can you understand?”
“Yes—”
“Can you understand,” Jacob continued, cutting Jessica off, “that social media platforms were created to alter the social behavior of an entire society? An entire country? An entire planet? Look at the social media platforms and how they’re being utilized now. Every social media platform has become a weapon used to attack every man and woman who stands on and for Biblical truth. Congress allows it because the rats in Congress are just as diseased as the rats sitting behind their little keyboards.”
Jacob paused for a second and took in a deep breath. “Jessica, can you understand that the Government has been brainwashing the minds of American people for decades? Television, movies, music, books, education, schools and colleges; slowly, like a drip of water that fills a bucket. The minds of children are attacked, family values are attacked, marriages are attacked, individuals are attacked…all using social warfare. The decay has been taking place for decades. Was it just by chance that back in 1973 a woman was told she could legally murder her unborn baby? No, Jessica. Everything is by design. The great evil is all around us and America, as a country, is being destroyed from the inside out. Her heart is being turned into a black hole.”
“Amen to that,” Alvin spoke up. “I couldn’t agree more, brother. I see kids as young as seven years old carrying guns on the streets and dishing out drugs, instead of being in school, while their welfare momma is at home with her drug pimp.” Alvin threw down his cigarette in disgust. “I see the media making it seem like the white man is a monster, and the black man is the victim. Shoot, the black man keeps his own self down. I ain’t saying slavery back in the day was right, but those days are long gone. The black man needs to stop complaining and get on with it. Of course, the white man ain’t making it easy,” Alvin added in a careful voice.
“The white man goes about making the black man feel like he’s a victim all the time. I ain’t no victim. Shoot, I don’t even know if my ancestors were slaves or not. Even if they were, so what? I got as much opportunity in this country as any white man. I can graduate from high school, go to college, join the military; it just takes dedication and want. Folks are too busy playing the victim, instead of applying for college grants, getting their butts off the couch and doing something besides selling drugs and shooting each other down like dogs. The days of old are gone, man. The black man has to move, man, and the white man has to move on. We gotta move on together, as brothers.” Alvin stopped, lowered his head, and sighed. “I’m just wasting my breath. Besides, I shouldn’t even be talking. You found me living in a tomb, man. There ain’t no life in me.”
“That’s not true,” Mandy vehemently objected. “Alvin, you’ve been a true hero. You been very brave.”
“My sister is right,” Jessica spoke, as her voice carried through the icy air and reached Alvin’s ears. “You’re family to us, now, Alvin.”
Alvin lifted his head and asked, “F
amily?”
“That’s right,” Mandy promised. “And family doesn’t desert each other, right?”
“No, ma’am.”
Mandy dragged her lame leg across the cavern floor, using the last of her strength to reach Alvin. “We may die, and we may live, but we’ll die or live together,” she promised. “Now, please help me sit down before I collapse.” Alvin quickly shot to his feet, helped Mandy find a suitable spot to sit down and then joined her. “Better,” Mandy said in a tired voice and began rubbing her lame leg. “Jessica, come and rest, honey.”
Jessica looked at Jacob. She searched his eyes with all her heart. “President Green can’t help us, can he?”
“You’re just figuring that out?” Alvin asked Jessica. “The President has his hands full.”
Jacob turned, checked the entry tunnel, and then focused back on Jessica. “President Green is battling a political nightmare. General Garcia and I both understand that if an extraction team is caught in a fight with Roger Alden’s people, or caught on tape snatching you, it would be all over for Dad.” Jacob reached out and handed Jessica the pen light. “President Green is under a great deal of stress right now. Under the circumstances, he’s being forced to play political chess with a very dangerous man. As it stands, we’re running solo even if that means dying.”
“Because our deaths would save President Green, right?” Jessica asked.
“In a sense, yes,” Jacob nodded his head. “In another, no”
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.
“Jessica, even if Roger Alden fails to grab you, he’s generating enough hate against President Green to prompt an assassination,” Jacob explained. “Right now, according to what General Garcia told me, there are over fourteen million people openly calling for the assassination of President Green. Most of those people are using social media outlets to proclaim their desires. If President Green is killed by the CIA, this country doesn’t have enough manpower to investigate every single person who posed an open threat. Roger Alden, the man behind the scenes, will hide behind each person.” Jacob nodded his head toward Jessica. “You were the perfect weapon of choice to destroy President Green, Jessica.”
“This is so crazy,” Mandy exclaimed. “I feel like I’m trapped in some government thriller novel.” Mandy stopped rubbing her lame leg. “My sister is innocent, but now she’s the most wanted woman in the world. Where is the fairness in that, huh? I mean, why should we sit here and worry about President Green when the life of an innocent woman has been completely shattered and destroyed? Is the life of one man more important than the life of my sister?”
“In terms of operational victory, yes,” Jacob confessed. “We’re trying to reestablish a free Republic—”
“You’re going to fail!” Mandy nearly screamed at Jacob. “Haven’t you read your Bible? Jesus said that, in the last days, the world was going to be like this; like in the days of Noah and Lot. People have become far too evil. They’re calling evil good and good, evil; light for darkness and darkness for light to forever change the world. I mean, let me tell you, the book of Revelation wasn’t written for a society that’s filled with holiness. This world is ripe for the book of Revelation.” Mandy pointed her finger at Jacob. “You can’t change what has already been ordained by God. All we can do is lead lost souls to Jesus before destruction comes.”
“I would like to believe that good can still win over evil,” Jacob told Mandy, feeling anger touch his cheeks. “I would like to believe that the actions of good men are not carried out in vain.”
“Only God is good,” Mandy said to Jacob. “The heart of man is wicked above all things, and we’re seeing that truth with our own eyes.”
“That’s the truth,” Alvin nodded his head and then grew very silent. Was the book of Revelation written for him? Where was his faith?
Jessica, feeling far too exhausted to talk anymore, walked over to Mandy and sat down. She pressed her back up against a hard, spiny, rock wall and placed her head down onto her knees to wait. What else was there to do except wait? By morning she would either be dead or alive. Dying, of course, would have been the preferred choice. Living was going to become a true nightmare.
Oh, Jack, Jessica thought, as her mind drifted off into a troubled sleep, what am I going to do? I have to locate your journal, but how?
Find the journal a warm, stern voice whispered in Jessica’s ear, as she slipped away into a dream filled with open, dark graves consumed with ripped American flags that were bleeding. Each flag represented a man or woman who had sacrificed his life for a country that had become the enemy. They had once fought to defeat that enemy.
Chapter 8
River Escape
Dr. Ellison was surprised to see Wendy Cratterson’s eyes open. According to all the tests and x-rays, the woman should have remained in an unconscious state for a longer period of time. How long? Dr. Ellison didn’t know.
“Welcome back,” he told Wendy in a cold voice, standing beside her bed holding a medical chart. “I was just about to administer more pain medicine into your IV.”
A sleeping patient was a patient who offered no problems, and Dr. Placks didn’t want any problems. He was tired and ready for a nap.
Wendy looked in the direction of the cold voice, but was only able to see a thick, blurry, whiteness. To make matters worse, her head felt as if it were about to split open.
“Who...” she attempted to speak but failed. Who was she? Where was she? Why couldn’t she see? Wendy had no idea how to answer any of the questions rolling through her mind. “Pain...hurts...”
“Of course,” Dr. Ellison said, and nodded to a lovely woman standing near Wendy’s IV. “Administer the pain medication.”
Ms. Chavanne nodded her head and placed a large dose of morphine into Wendy’s IV. Seconds later, Wendy stopped mumbling and dropped off into a deep sleep. Dr. Ellison recorded the dosage in her medical chart and then checked his watch. “I’ll be in my room taking a two-hour nap. Wake me—”
Lionel opened the door leading into Wendy’s room before Dr. Ellison could finish.
“How is she?” he asked, now dressed in a crisp gray suit. A decent nap, a hot shower, and a healthy meal had made a world of difference. Lionel now felt refreshed and energized.
“She woke up momentarily, but she was in a lot of pain. I just administered a dose of morphine,” Dr. Ellison explained in an annoyed voice. “I’m sorry to inform you that Ms. Cratterson will be asleep for quite some time, Agent Brown.”
Ms. Chavanne offered Lionel a polite smile and left the room. She knew better than to stick around when Lionel began to frown.
“I told you if she woke up to summon me immediately,” he barked at Dr. Ellison. “Events in America are erupting at a rapid pace! I need Wendy...Agent Cratterson...” Lionel shook his head in anger. “Get out!” he roared. “You’re officially dismissed!”
“I shall expect payment in full for my services,” Dr. Ellison fired back at Lionel.
Lionel narrowed his eyes as he approached Dr. Ellison. He grabbed the man by his neck and threw him across the room.
“Your life is your payment. Now get out!” he roared.
Dr. Ellison, shocked at being treated in such a harsh manner, got to his feet.
“Boris will not be pleased, you...pathetic virus!” he screamed and began rubbing his neck.
Lionel’s eyes grew viciously dark. He reached into his jacket and whipped out a deadly Glock 19, aimed the gun at Dr. Ellison and pulled the trigger. A single bullet burst into the air with an ear deafening explosion and struck Dr. Ellison in his right shoulder. Dr. Ellison screamed out in pain and fear, as the force of the bullet threw his back against the wall. Mic and Steve, who were still standing guard, bust through the door.
“Mate?” Mic yelled out.
“Get him out of here, Mic,” he ordered, nodding down at the floor where Dr. Ellison lay bleeding as he calmly put his gun away.
“He...shot...me,” Dr. Ellison attempted to explain in a trembling voice. He was on the verge of absolute shock. “He...I need medical attention...immediately….”
“Get that bag of filth out of my sight,” Lionel ordered Mic and angrily pointed a finger at Steve. “Let this be a warning,” he said, revealing dangerous fangs, "if you ever betray the trust of our organization, you’ll end up with much worse.”
Steve could barely believe his eyes. Had Lionel really shot Dr. Ellison? And if so, why? What crime had Dr. Ellison done to receive such a harsh penalty? Oh, man, had he ever decided to play for the wrong side.
“Yes, Sir. I understand, Sir,” he said attempting to play dumb and then thought I can’t wait to call Mr. Alden. Surely, the guy will offer me a better deal.
Lionel turned his back to Dr. Ellison and Steve and checked on Wendy.
“Mic, take the trash out and erase his memory,” he ordered.
“Mate?” Mic dared to ask.
Lionel swung around.
“Erase the memory, Mic. Is that clear?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, sure, mate,” Mic nodded his head. “It’s just that, the serum is still controversial, mate. I could kill the guy. The side effects are—”
“I’m aware of the side effects, Mic.” Lionel pointed an accusing finger at Dr. Ellison. “No outside contractor can be allowed to leave with the knowledge that Agent Cratterson is in our care. Is that clear? That includes Ms. Chavanne.”
“I... clear as a bell, mate,” Mic said, and looked at Steve. “You stand back and guard the door.”
“No, please.” Dr. Ellison began to plead for his life. “Agent Brown, please….”
“Did you really believe I was going to let you walk out of here?” Lionel asked. “Mic, take out the trash.”
Mic nodded his head, walked over to Dr. Ellison, and issued a severe kick to the man’s head. Dr. Ellison’s head jerked back on his shoulders and then dropped down onto the hard floor with a loud thud. Steve could barely believe his eyes. The amount of aggressive violence sent a chill down his spine.
Green File Crime Thrillers Box Set Page 24
