The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  “Good thinking,” Joshua admitted.

  Chapter Forty-four – Flee to the Mountains

  They did not get anywhere near the school or Grandma Bradley’s apartment. Roadblocks cut them off a mile away. Clark Johnson stood directing traffic around the mess of emergency vehicles.

  “I can’t talk now, Mr. Bradley,” Clark shouted when Joshua tried to question him. “We are stretched to the breaking point. This is a disaster! A full-out disaster! Keep moving, please! Everybody keep moving!”

  “Dad! Look! It’s the black Sprinter!” Keith exclaimed.

  “No way!” Dan cried. “Dad, follow it!”

  “I can’t follow some strange van with your grandmother and everyone else in here!” Joshua turned back toward the house. “We don’t even know if that’s the same van you-all have been going on about. Mom, we’ll go buy you some clothes and things and put you up at the house until things calm down.”

  “But I want my own things,” Grandma Bradley fretted. “We can try to go to the apartment from the back way, can’t we, Joshua?”

  “All right,” Joshua sighed. He turned the van down a side street.

  “Mr. Bradley, that van is behind us,” Talia said in a low voice. “I think it’s following us. I’m afraid for Mrs. Bradley. What if you circle around and drop me off near the house? I’ll get my car and try to lead him away. He’s always followed the Tesla before.”

  “Talia, it’s too dangerous,” Sophie protested. “Please, let us stay together.”

  “Zanamu, I can’t stand the thought of you being in danger again. Let me lead them on a wild goose chase, and we’ll meet back at the house.”

  “Keith and I can go with you,” Dan said. “I wanna ride in that car again. With the two of us and Warrior Chick, we should be able to handle evil Sprinter guy.”

  “This is not a joke, Dan,” Joshua said.

  “I am not sure we have a choice, my friend,” Naddy said, glancing out the back. “Clearly that van is following us. We must think of your mother. Humor the young people. I believe they are right. They can protect each other and help ensure our safety as well.”

  Joshua turned the wheel again and circled around behind their house after taking a few random side-streets. Keith, Talia, and Dan bailed out quickly and the van rolled away. Dan led them on a zig-zag running course and they ducked into the house. Talia’s car sat in the garage beside Mr. Bradley’s car. Dan made it to the driver door first.

  “Not on your life,” Talia smiled.

  “Aww!” Dan switched gears with an innocent grin. “I was just gonna be a gentleman and hold the door. Can I ride shotgun?”

  “Back seat,” Keith ordered. They got in after Keith raised the garage door, and Talia zipped out and circled until they found Mr. Bradley still driving randomly, with the Sprinter one street over. Talia turned down a side street and came around right in front of the black van. The Sprinter jammed on its brakes. Dan turned around, wiggled his fingers in his ears and made a face out the back window as Talia sped up and veered down another street. The van turned to follow. They saw Joshua drive the white van cautiously down the back street toward Grandma Bradley’s apartments.

  “Come on, my big black buddy,” Talia muttered. “This way.”

  She turned again and the Sprinter closed the gap. She sped up and so did the van. “I see a parabolic mic in the passenger window, real faint, through that dark tinting,” Dan exclaimed. “They’re trying to listen in.”

  “Well, let’s give them an earful!” Keith started belting out “Amazing Grace.” Talia joined in. They sang a dozen hymns and choruses while they led their tail away from town. Even Dan joined in the singing.

  “Man, I wanna see who’s driving that thing, and what they’re after,” Dan growled.

  “Dan, we’re not trying to be stupid. We just want them to stay away from Dad and the other van.”

  “This is so crazy! Who blows up schools and chases people because they wanna destroy the Bible?”

  Keith’s phone rang. “It’s Dad,” he said. “Yeah, Dad, did you get to Grandma’s apartment? What? You can’t be serious!”

  “Keith, as soon as you started talking, that van sped up. It’s trying to listen in. Push pound six on your phone. Hurry.”

  Keith did as she said. The black van swerved suddenly and fell back.

  “They got a burst of static,” Talia laughed.

  “Dad said it’s true. The school was bombed, and the force of the explosion took out some of the front windows of Grandma’s apartment building too. Thankfully that was just the dining and community area. It was Patio Day and everyone was doing a picnic lunch on the back porch. No serious injuries, but they are still evacuating people and no one is getting in. Dad’s headed back toward the house.”

  The black van sped up suddenly and surprised Talia by blowing past them an inch from the Tesla’s bumper.

  “Where’s he going? Did he figure out Dad will be headed back to the house?” Dan twisted around. Talia sped up and tried to spot the van.

  “Yes! It’s headed toward the house.” She jammed her tablet into the hands-free cradle. “Dial Amu,” she said. “Amu. Don’t go to the house. The black van is headed for it. Can we go to the cabin in the mountains?” She sent out another burst of static just in case.

  They heard several voices in the background. “Yes, Talia, I’m sure that’s best. We must try to shake this pursuer. Please be careful, and we will meet at the cabin whenever we can safely do so.”

  “What cabin in the woods?” Keith asked.

  “When I was in college Amu and Zanamu let me buy a place about a hundred miles from here,” Talia replied. “It’s … it’s more than a cabin …”

  “What’s that mean, more than a cabin?” Dan asked.

  “I can’t tell you about that,” Talia said finally, after chewing her lip and glancing at Keith several times, her expression very conflicted.

  “Hey, you know what, I get it,” Dan snorted. “You people got stuff goin’ on that I ain’t part of, and you can’t tell me about. So I’m gonna save you the trouble of keepin’ secrets and pussyfootin’ around me. Let me out. I’ll get to the house, get my stuff, and get out. I need to get back to my unit anyway.”

  “Dan, it might not be safe to go to the house,” Keith said.

  “They ain’t after me. They after you. Let me out.”

  “Dan …” Talia hesitated before continuing. “When you get a chance, tell Cherub-rider Evangel says hello, will you?”

  “What?” Dan demanded. “Wait, you’re Evangel? You serious? You are … Okay. Okay. I see now.”

  “Thank you for understanding.” Talia pulled the car over.

  “Yeah, well, ain’t sayin’ I do understand,” Dan scowled as he climbed out. “Just sayin’ I know better than to ask any more questions. Cherub-rider be givin’ me more than a thumb-tap and a toe in the ribs if I mess up whatever you into, Evangel. Yeah, I’ll tell him you said hi.” Dan jabbed a finger at his brother. “Keith, remember what I told you. You need me, I will come. No matter what else is goin’ on with us, we are brothers. Understand?”

  “Yeah, Dan, I understand.” Dan slid away and was gone. “Who’s Cherub-rider?”

  “His real name is David Sharon,” Talia said. “He’s an Israeli pilot. We play wargames online. I got started as part of training when I was in Israel before college and that’s how I met him. Kind of a legendary hot-dogger. Uncle Remmy got him out of some kind of trouble in Israel that they won’t talk about.

  “He works for Magnum overseas as a contractor and owns his own aircraft business. He has dual Israeli-American citizenship. Dan plays in the same forum, though I didn’t realize he was your brother until recently. I called Cherub-rider because I knew he was in Turkey as a backup to our security force in case they needed air cover. He was able to get Uncle Naddy and Aunt Sophie out of Syria when the kidnappers released them.”

  “Wow.” Keith looked at her. “Good to know you know good people.”r />
  “Do you know how much I thank God for you, Keith?” Talia asked, reaching across and rubbing his hand. “I can’t believe how, every time I punch you in the gut with a new crazy wrinkle in my life-plot, you just roll with it and say it’s okay.”

  “Gotta be okay, right?” Keith grinned. “Not like I’m gonna give you up.”

  “All right,” Talia said, “there’s the black van! Time to harass the enemy a little. We cannot let them follow the others.”

  She floored the Tesla and headed after the Sprinter. Keith clung to the armrests. All the police were dealing with the bombing, plus most drivers were jammed up trying to get around roadblocks or rubberneck the bombing site, so they had a clear field to play tag with the black van.

  It circled the block around the Bradley house, clearly waiting for the other van to show up. Talia cut in front of it and it gave chase. She pushed the Tesla up to the point where Keith stopped looking at the gauges. They left town and headed south. The van followed but it seemed to be hesitating, losing ground.

  “What if they realize we’re leading them on a wild goose chase?” Keith asked. “Looks like they’re thinking about ditching us.”

  Talia slowed but the van suddenly made a U-turn, screeching tires, and headed back toward town. Talia did the same and tore after it. She cut it off and, to their astonishment, the van careened into a tree on the deserted road.

  Chapter Forty-five – Need a Jump-start

  “Crap!” Keith shouted as they pulled over and bailed out.

  “Stop, Keith,” Talia warned. “They could be armed, or planning to take us by surprise and kidnap us.”

  “Or they could be hurt, or dead.” Keith swung around as Talia grabbed something from the Tesla. “What is that? Is that a gun?”

  “Yes,” Talia answered, pushed in front of him, and approached the van’s driver side, shielding herself with the tree.

  It was hard to see into the dark-tinted windows but Keith suddenly exclaimed, “There’s nobody in the driver’s seat.” He forced the door open and they stared inside.

  “There is no one in here at all!” Talia gasped. “Look! This van is remotely-controlled.”

  They studied the complex machinery that drove and steered the Sprinter. “Who’s controlling it? Are they watching us right now? Could somebody else be chasing Dad and the others?” The questions boiled out of Keith and he ran some distance from the van before calling his father, pressing the keys to make static as he did so.

  “Dad, please be careful. The black van ran off the road and we found out there’s no driver – nobody inside at all. It’s remote-controlled. So I dunno what to think, but somebody could easily still be following you. I guess it was dumb to think this van was all we have to worry about.”

  “Thanks for the warning, son. You two are all right? I would get away from there, before whoever was controlling the van decides to show up.”

  “Yeah, Dad, we will, but I want to see if there’s still an active signal that we can trace back to the controller. We’ll make it quick, I promise.”

  Keith ended the call and ran back to where Talia stood outside, searching the area for anyone approaching the wreck. “Any way these multi-featured phones of ours can capture a signal?” he asked.

  “Oh, I didn’t even think of tracing them. Yes. Maybe.” She pulled out her tablet and pressed keys. “Searching for the signal. Wait. There’s some interference, maybe from the van’s remote equipment. Thank goodness the remote’s still powered on, though. We can’t hang around here long.”

  “Don’t I know it. Maybe we can figure out the frequency, or signature, and look into the origin later.”

  Keith stepped inside to study the switches and the console. He saw Talia retreat farther and farther from the van, her back to him, stretching her tablet out and around her.

  The Sprinter’s engine roared to life and it lurched wildly. Keith somersaulted in the stripped cargo area. He grabbed for something but could get no stability. The van backed up, wobbling on the damaged right front wheel but it kept moving, faster and faster. The van had no windows except up front and they were heavily shaded. It reversed gears and Keith tumbled again. He couldn’t get a foothold, a handhold – anything, for several minutes, until he latched onto the passenger seat and crawled into it. He threw the retractable arm supporting the parabolic mic assembly aside and fastened the seatbelt to keep from becoming airborne. The accident damage made the van wobble, pitch, and thump crazily but the speed kept climbing. He pounded on the robotic console but nothing happened.

  The Tesla came alongside and he saw Talia’s frantic expression. He had loved those movie moments where a someone jumped out of the bad guy’s car into the rescuer’s but there were no door handles or window controls. The speedometer said almost 120 as the Sprinter screamed south and the Tesla screamed after it.

  “Welcome to my parlor, Mr. Bradley,” a voice said.

  “Jenny Kaine,” he said around his dried-out tongue.

  “You remembered. I’m touched. Now we’ll finally get to have that little chat. I’m not too far away now, and I have people waiting to take care of Talia Ramin so she stops interfering once and for all.”

  “What are you doing this for?” Keith asked. He saw something register on the robotic control and an idea came to him. “Why do a bunch of Bibles matter to you?”

  “Secularists say all the time that the Holy Scriptures don’t matter,” Kaine’s voice responded. “They’re fools. Of course they matter. They’re the drug that keeps you hoping, praying, believing. We have to take that drug away, to put you into withdrawal, to leave you jittering and sniveling and lying in a gutter like any junkie who’s lost his fix. Then we can work in peace.”

  He assumed there were cameras inside the van so he tried to operate his phone by feel in his pocket. He saw that Talia’s head bobbed and hoped that meant she got his text. She slowed the Tesla, fell back, and swung down a side road out of sight.

  “Or she could just abandon you, which would be smart,” Kaine’s voice sneered. “Do you think she ever cared about you? She saw what you could do for the cause. You’ve put on a great show so far, from what I hear. Seems you somehow even helped her find her aunt and uncle. I wonder how you did that?”

  “Yeah, well, keep on wondering about all the stuff a small-town science geek can do.” Keith’s phone vibrated in his pocket, meaning Talia had sent him data on the signal that ran the robotic controls of the van. He pressed more buttons on the phone and moved slightly closer to the console. Did the distance even matter? This will work or it won’t. Please, God, make it work.

  “I can’t wait to find out what you know,” Kaine said. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you are one cute case of brains, little boy. It’ll be just you and me.”

  Keith watched the speedometer as the van almost imperceptibly began to decelerate. “Thanks, but I’m spoken for,” he grunted.

  “I’ll make you pay for all the trouble you’ve caused me. You’ll understand it’s all been for nothing.”

  The van slowed some more. “What are you doing?” Jenny’s voice snapped. “You can’t be overriding the van’s controls. How are you doing that?”

  Still flying down the highway at sixty, Keith leaned back against his seat, forcing himself to stay relaxed in case …

  “Whoa!” The van’s brakes jammed on. It spun almost 360 degrees as a helicopter rose over the steep hill the van was currently climbing. It hovered over the road and Keith prayed thanks thanks thanks that the van had stopped, though he didn’t know why, since the code had only controlled the accelerator and had done nothing when he had experimented with the brakes and gearbox a few moments earlier. He clicked the seatbelt open and vaulted out the driver side, the only real, working door in the vehicle.

  The Tesla shot out of a side road as the helicopter set down right on the highway. Static burst out of the speakers from which Jenny Kaine had been communicating.

  “Who is that? Where did that helicopter
come from?” Talia screamed as she leaped out of the Tesla and fiercely hugged Keith. They stood together as two geared-up, helmeted men climbed out of the chopper and approached.

  “I came in as hot as I could, on stormclouds, blinding and deafening the enemy as I went,” the pilot said as he ripped off his helmet. He was almost as tall as Keith, with dark almond skin, thick black hair and beard, and laughing brown eyes. “The honor is to serve, Evangel. And greetings to you, Keith Bradley. I’m Cherub-rider, AKA David Sharon.”

  “And you know who I am,” Dan grinned as his helmet came off.

  “How in the world … ?” Keith managed to start the question, but ended up hugging his brother.

  “I told you I had a buddy who flies. We both happened to come to the States at the same time – when I flew in for Joana’s funeral.”

  “I used a jammer signal, which, like I hoped, cut the remote signal controlling the van completely. Standard procedure for robotic vehicles is that they shut down as safely as possible when they lose input,” David said.

  “How did you know it was remote-operated?” Keith asked.

  “Just figured it out after we separated and I stopped being mad at not being in on all the secrets,” Dan answered. “I called up my buddy here and I told him I thought you were gonna have more trouble and did he want to help out. He said anything for Evangel and her heart-holder.

  “He’s big on that mush-talk, and also knew he’d get to see you, Talia, and check out the competition. But anyway, I GPS’d your phone locations, Dave got you on his tracker, and we figured out what was happening with the crazy car and robot chase. Seemed like shutting you down was a good call.”

  “Very, very good call.” Keith breathed. “Thanks, Dan. Thanks, David.”

  “Where are you going?” David asked. “Need a lift? I have room if we make Dan walk. Just kidding. Plenty of room.”

  “I need the Tesla,” Talia said reluctantly.

  “It’s not safe,” Keith exclaimed. “Jenny Kaine was talking to me in the van. She was taking me to wherever she is and it isn’t far from here, from what she said. We should get far away, and fast.”