“I’ve never been very good at having patience,” Keith said.
A text came through on his phone. 10 kids, three parents, and grandma loaded and on our way, Talia said.
“Ten kids?” Keith exclaimed. “And three parents? What did I miss?”
“I’m sure we’ll find out,” Drew said with a smile. He touched the phone in his hands-free cradle. “Contact God’s Straight Edge with revised restocking plan for new estimate of thirty.”
“Acknowledged,” a voice said.
“I’m pretty good at math,” Keith said, “but I’m not sure where that number thirty comes from.”
“You’ll see,” Brad replied, and pulled off onto an access road. A man hastily opened the gate into a county maintenance yard and they stopped behind a road salt storage building.
“Time to change clothes and cars again,” Drew said. He pointed to a folded pile of garments on the back seat, a gray uniform with a flack vest, billed flat-top cap, and boots. It looked a lot like the one Cara had worn at school. Drew skinned out of his blue down jacket and nylon overpants to reveal a similar outfit.
“What are we doing?” Keith asked as he struggled to change.
“The six school administrators are being transferred to a new facility for their protection,” Drew replied. “My firm was hired to execute the transfer. Here’s your ID. Welcome to Magnum Security, Trainee Calvin Hobbes. You can keep the shades. I think they make you look tough.”
“We’re breaking my father out?”
“Of course not. This is a legal transfer arranged by Brad Shannon. The prison system cannot guarantee the safety of these people, mostly because they were sent there to be beaten into submission. But the governor signed orders on the condition that they agree to go quietly to a secure location until Dr. Williams cracks her whip and demands that they be brought forth to the arena to face the lions.”
“What’s the secure location we have to take them to?”
“First understand that it’s not freedom. They are all being fitted with ankle-monitoring devices as we speak. They do have to appear if and when they are summoned. It’s called a reprieve. This is need to know … but I can tell you it’s not another prison, and they will have pretty liberal visitation rights with family.”
“You know I want to hug you right now, right? As manly and reserved as you want, but … man.”
Drew grinned. “Yeah. Your dad probably needs one more than I do, though, and Brad Shannon’s the guy who really deserves it. I can’t believe he pulled this off. Let’s go. When we get to the prison, keep quiet, look tough, and follow our lead. There’s still a chance Dr. Williams, being the hands-on type she is, will show up in person and object, but we’re hoping she’s busy activating parental and student units to compensate for their losses to the Bradley adoption agency.”
“Is there a chance they’ll chase Talia and the van?”
“Every chance in the world, but, like I said, I have units on them too.”
They climbed into a silver Chevy Express twelve-passenger van. Four other guards already sat inside. “You still ride shotgun,” Drew said to Keith. “I want to keep eyes on you to make sure nothing weird happens until everybody’s safe. I’m not forgetting your charge to me that everybody gets protected and everybody gets rescued, but right now you’re my personal responsibility.”
“I got no problem with that. Just one question. How do you sit down with this ... thing?” Keith wiggled the baton at his side. The whole crew in the van burst out laughing.
Chapter Eighty-one –Convoy
Talia pulled in behind the van as Cara parked it at Grandma Bradley’s senior apartments. She got out and said to the four students with her, “Keep the doors locked and the windows rolled up. Anybody comes to tap on that glass, remember what to do.”
“I feel like I’m in a James Bond movie,” Lisa said. She hovered a finger over a button on the console. “That one, right?”
Talia nodded and looked at Gail, Adam, and Stephen in the back seat. “Do not open the doors. Do not roll down a window. No matter who it is. No matter what they want. Lisa will push that button, and they will go away. I promise you.”
“Will it hurt them?” Stephen asked.
“No, baby,” Talia said. “They’ll just smell really bad for about a week, and be blue.”
Stephen giggled. The others studied the button solemnly. Talia wondered if they were wishing someone would come by. She checked to be sure her coat was pulled down over her gun in her back waistband and walked by the van. Cara nodded to her from the driver seat. Talia gave one glance at Tim Holden in the passenger seat. He looked exhausted, filthy, and pale, but met her gaze.
Tim had showed up at the house just as they were preparing to leave. When he had arrived, stinking of smoke and bleeding from a neck injury, and collapsed on the front lawn, pandemonium had broken out among the kids. If he hadn’t lost consciousness, enabling them to drag him to the van and get him out of sight fast, Talia wasn’t sure what might have happened. She could only ask Cara to be sure that no one had followed him to the house while she hurriedly dressed his injury and cleaned up as much of the evidence of his arrival as she could. Cara had called in more of Drew’s security, warning them to watch for anyone tailing Tim.
“We need to hear your story soon,” Talia said to him. “In the meantime, I’m trusting you, that you are not putting these children or the rest of us in more danger. You do not want to betray that trust.”
“God is my witness, I want to help,” he said, wincing as he touched the bandage partly visible under his shirt collar. “Thank you for patching me up, and for what you’re doing for my children.”
Talia walked in the front door and started to buzz Grandmother Bradley’s apartment. Before she could, the hall door opened and the lady herself rolled out in her power chair with a suitcase on her lap.
“I told them you needed some calming down after that shooting incident, so I was going to stay with you a few days,” Grandma Bradley said, hugging Talia. “My friends said, ‘Don’t let anything happen to that precious great-grandchild.’ I said I wouldn’t, so you’re under my protection now.”
“You don’t know how safe that makes me feel,” Talia sighed, breathing in Grandma Bradley. “Let’s go.”
“Packages all safe. Delivery underway,” Cara’s voice said in a conference call to Drew Summers that came over Talia’s phone as the two vehicles headed out of town on the highway.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Stephen said from the back seat.
“You just went at the house,” Talia groaned.
“I have to go again,” Stephen insisted.
“Hold it,” Adam growled.
“There’s a rest area about a half an hour away,” Lisa said. “You can be a big boy and hold it that long, right, Stephen?”
“Okay,” Stephen muttered.
“Cara, we’ll need to make a stop at the first rest area on the interstate,” Talia said.
“Not that one,” Cara said. “It’s closed. State troopers are investigating reports of a red Econoline van that shot up the place and torched a car in the parking lot. Drew says they were looking for Keith.”
Lisa shot Talia a horrified look. “Is Mr. Bradley okay?” she whispered. Talia gripped the steering wheel and waited.
“He’s fine,” Cara reported, “thanks to Doomsday Duffelbag II. They arrived just as Drew got him out. He says police scanners report the Taurus is still burning.”
Talia swallowed hard and whispered, “Thank you, Drew.”
“I don’t have to go anymore,” Stephen announced. “I sucked it up.”
“Eww,” Gail said.
“He does that all the time,” Adam said. “But he means it. You won’t have to stop.”
“Thank you, Lord,” Talia said. “Cara, has Drew said where we’re going yet?”
“I’ll send you co-ordinates soon,” Cara said. “Drew is operating under another of his ‘all hell broke loose’ scenarios so
we won’t know for awhile. He says Keith will get to see his father, though, and he says pray that goes according to plan.”
“I’d give anything to see my Joshua one more time,” Grandma Bradley’s voice said softly in the background.
“Pray extra hard, then, ma’am,” Cara replied. “Miracles do happen.”
Talia’s phone chimed about two hours later. “Cherub Rider?” she said out loud. “That’s his secure satellite phone.”
“Who’s Cherub Rider?” Adam asked. “Is that an angel? Is God sending him to help us?”
“God already is helping us, baby,” Talia said. “This is a friend who flies, though. Go ahead, Cherub Rider. This is Evangel.”
“Evangel, get off at the next exit and go to the Highway Haven truckstop,” David’s voice said. “Before you ask, yes, your uncle’s tracking your GPS again. Only because he cares. We’ve been told someone is about to set off an EMP and if you don’t take precautions no one will be going anywhere. Estimated time is half an hour from now.”
“Exiting now,” Talia said. “Cara, take this exit. Hurry. We need to shut down at that truckstop at the top of the hill. I have a contact who says we’re due for an electromagnetic pulse in half an hour.”
“Got it.” The white van also took the exit. As they drove into the truckstop Talia saw the coppery and dark blue Freightliner belonging to Mike and Mary, their trucker friends. Mary waved at them out the window as the truck started moving toward the shop building.
“We’re driving the vehicles inside the repair bays,” she shouted to Talia. “Your uncle just hired these guys to make us something your husband calls a ‘Farady Box.’”
All the drivers steered inside the three repair bays. Men ran around with pieces of sheet metal and drills, covering the glass bay doors as fast as they could. Talia pulled up near the white van as people started to spill out.
“It’s getting dark,” Ruan said, and his breathing sped up.
Tim Holden dragged himself out of the van. “Calm down,” he said, hugging his son. “This will keep us safe. We should really get back inside the vehicles. The rubber tires will be added protection in case it’s a strong pulse that could hurt us.”
Those who had been exiting the vehicles turned around and got back in. “Disconnect your negative battery terminals,” Talia shouted. “Everybody! That way there’s no complete circuit, just in case.”
As they worked rapidly on the vehicle batteries, the shop mechanics and techs finished fastening the metal sheets over the windows. They dragged metal work benches together and sheltered testing equipment under them. Mike opened the refrigerated trailer doors.
“Get inside, guys,” he shouted. “Just promise you won’t look at anything or touch anything, okay? It’s top secret, and we don’t want to have to kill you.”
The techs hesitated, wide-eyed. Mike grinned and motioned them in. “Kidding,” he said. Some of them took him up on his offer, while others ducked under their benches. Talia and Cara made sure everyone was inside the other vehicles. Mike swung his bay doors shut and hurried back into his truck cab.
All of them crouched and waited. The ground shook slightly. No one moved. Finally Talia heard a small voice in the back seat say, “I really don’t have to go any more.”
While the older kids cleaned up the Tesla and its back-seat occupants, Talia tried to reach David Sharon. There was no response. Cara tried Drew and also got nothing. “How did anybody know ahead of time this was going to happen?” Cara asked. “And what do we do now, if we can’t contact Drew?”
“You still don’t know where we were going?” Talia asked.
“Drew had just said we were not too far from final when I got your message,” Cara said. “The state correctional facility is just over that hill. I’m guessing they had already arrived there. Once Keith had a chance to visit with his dad, Drew was going to tell us where the final destination was.”
“There’s another place that’s not far from here,” Talia said. “Precious Treasure campground.”
“I thought you folks closed that down?” Mike asked. “Something about a security leak?”
“It has been closed since December,” Talia said. “But we’re pretty certain now that the site wasn’t compromised. We can go there and wait until Drew finds a way to get back in touch.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Everyone reconnected their batteries. All three vehicles seemed unharmed. The techs and mechanics had been busy returning their garage to normal and checking their equipment. People trickled in from outside the garage, wondering why the windows were covered in sheet metal. A few truck drivers lined up at the service desk, complaining that their trucks wouldn’t start, or about some electronics failure. Several people said they had seen something bright in the sky over the hill and a few thought lightning had struck. Others pointed out that there were no clouds or thunder. Talia gathered her group together for a conference.
“It may have been a pretty low-level pulse,” Tim Holden said. “Or very targeted. This may sound very conspiracy-theorist, but do you suppose someone used an EMP weapon against the prison? Attempting a prison break? That would be a horrible coincidence, wouldn’t it?”
“But you said my uncle knew it was coming.” Talia addressed herself to Mike and Mary. “He paid these people here to protect us? They’re supposed to be in Mexico at an Olmec dig. They even got advice from Keith? None of this makes any sense.”
“It does make sense to follow your idea about going to the campground,” Mike replied. “We’ve got to get these people you’re trying to rescue to safety or we wasted a lot of energy to hand them over to whoever’s behind all this. Let’s pray for just a minute, though, first.”
“Yes,” Talia agreed. Everyone joined hands. She peeked at them while Mike prayed, seeing the fear and uncertainty, especially on the faces of the latest arrivals. It had been scary enough when Tim Holden arrived just as they were departing to pick up Grandmother Bradley. She still didn’t know what had happened to him or how he had made it to their house. She had just noticed him regaining consciousness when they stopped to pick up Grandmother Bradley.
Jayna’s whole family had shown up next, begging for help. Two of her brothers had tried to burn their house down and one had almost stabbed their mother with a kitchen knife. Their father had dropped all the tablets into their recycling bins and fled the house.
“Amen,” Tim Holden said when Mike finished his prayer. Talia stared at him, chewing her lip and fingering her gun. He flushed deeply, understanding her look. There was no time to grill him about his experiences.
“Let’s go,” she finally said. “Cara, you know what we talked about.
Cara’s eyes burned into Tim Holden’s. “I do,” she said.
Chapter Eighty-two –Araña Speaks
They arrived safely at Precious Treasure Campground half an hour later. Some of Drew’s security team came to the gate right after them, explaining that they had been shadowing the convoy. No one’s phone seemed to work and the later arrivals reported evidence of minor trouble from the EMP. Talia quickly got everyone working on firing up generators, bringing in firewood, and making the main building habitable. Some unloaded Mike’s refrigerated trailer of its cargo of foodstuffs.
While the others were busy she pulled Mike aside. “I need to go to the prison and find out what happened. If they are trapped there they need our help. Can you take me in your truck?”
“Why my truck?” Mike asked. “Not that I mind helping but that little red fireball of yours makes more sense as a rescue vehicle.”
“There was something more going on than just taking Keith to see his father,” Talia said. “I found a text on my phone from Brad Shannon, the attorney who’s been helping us, but I can only pull up a word here and there. It says ‘transfer’ and ‘secure’ and ‘safety’ and a couple of other words … I’m trying to be realistic about this, but I think Drew Summers may have been taking a team to move my father-in-law to a safe place. We might need
a big vehicle to get them safely out of there, if the prison was attacked to stop whatever plan Brad was trying to tell me about.”
“Take that other van, then,” Mike said.
“We might not get close in an ordinary vehicle,” his wife said. “But nobody would bother about a semi making a delivery …”
“We?” Mike repeated.
“We said we were going to help these people,” Mary said.
“You said we needed to,” Mike said. “And I have helped them. But, most beautiful of women, and I am not taking you anywhere near something that might be really dangerous.”
“You’ll take this little mother-to-be but you won’t take me?” Mary pouted.
“I didn’t say I was taking anybody!” Mike exploded.
“Talia.” Talia’s phone crackled and broke up, but everyone within earshot dropped what they were doing and stared. The voice kept repeating her name.
“That’s Eva!” Talia cried. “Eva, where are you? Are you okay?”
“Just listen.” The message was weak, and continued to break up. “I’m with your aunt and uncle inside the mirror pyramid mound. I’m in Araña’s chair. They’re helping me explain this, because I don’t really understand it myself. Remember how the corundum shielded Keith, and how Britomartis’s ax worked to create a force field and maybe sound waves?”
“Yes,” Talia answered.
“The corundum – umm – this dome on top of the throne – they’re saying it can make another kind of energy field, and there are other corundum objects – we’re still figuring out where – but we can relay messages this way. Your phones are being jammed by the same people who sent out the EMP, but we can communicate through yours because of that corundum chip Keith gave you – the one you wear on a chain around your neck.”
The Great Thirst Boxed Set Page 50
