The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  “Dude, you should be in bed someplace, shouldn’t you?” Jiggly asked Keith as they sat in a corner of the ball court and waited in the semi-darkness. Dawn had just begun to peek above the brick walls and they had been napping on and off, waiting for the “guests” to arrive.

  “I’m okay,” Keith said. “As long as everything’s ready.”

  “Ready as it can be,” David said. “We can do this without you. Especially since those packages from the guardians finally arrived yesterday.”

  Keith picked up his phone. “Everybody got to the new site, and they’re all accounted for, right?”

  “Yep,” Drew’s voice replied. “Your wife says she can already tell the baby’s going to be as stubborn as you are. He wouldn’t go to sleep for the longest time. Hey, we got word that my guard’s body was found in the stairwell to the roof at the hotel. No sign of Angel. I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks.” Keith said, sighing. He switched the phone off and patted Jiggly on the back. “Y’all did such a great job on the restoration of this place. We could invite tourists and sell tickets.”

  “I was the foreman,” Jiggly said, puffing his chest out. He deflated and cast a nervous glance around at the torchlit scene. “I sure hope it doesn’t get messed up too bad.”

  Vehicle engines roared into earshot, still out of sight behind the brick and earth berm walls of the ball court.

  “This is Dr. Lydia Williams,” a voice called out through a bullhorn as the engine sounds died out. “I’m speaking to Mr. Keith Bradley. Please respond.”

  “See? I did have to be here,” Keith said. He picked up his cane and walked slowly, haltingly, to the ball court entrance alone. “I’m here, Dr. Williams. What can I do for you?”

  He took in the scene outside the walls. Dr. Williams, Carol Sheldon, and Jenny Kaine stood at the head of a group of about fifty people in riot gear, two troop transport trucks, and two jeeps. No markings of any kind identified the black uniforms and the vehicles were also solid black.

  “Huh. I thought you were bringing down the wrath of the whole US and Mexican governments on us,” Keith said. “Seems like you came up a little short.”

  “This is an olive branch – a last chance for you to surrender,” Dr. Williams said. “More troops are coming if you refuse to give up the children you kidnapped.”

  “Uh-huh,” Keith said. “It’s funny how a person’s perspective can change facts into hearsay. From our perspective, we rescued children we had a legal responsibility for from a burning building and transported them to a pre-arranged safe haven.”

  “The fire was almost immediately contained,” Mrs. Sheldon snapped. “Where are my children? What have you done with them?”

  “The kids are all safe,” Keith replied. “If they’ve got any brains at all, they’re still asleep. I wish I was, but I had to wait up to give you a proper welcome.”

  “Welcome? You mean you have thugs hiding in the shadows to attack us?” Dr. Williams demanded. “I hope you’re recording all of this, Jenny?”

  “Every word,” Jenny Kaine replied, pointing at her cameraman. Keith had missed her news van parked on the other side of the ball court.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen – Day of Reckoning

  “I want to see my children, now!” Mrs. Sheldon’s voice rose to a shriek.

  “They chose to get some rest instead of trying to reason with you anymore,” Keith said. “We planned a pretty busy day of visiting Olmec sites for them, which I hope you won’t ruin by keeping up this sham. You should all go home, or wherever, before something happens that you’ll regret.”

  “Are you threatening us?” Dr. Williams asked. “I have documents from the local Mexican authorities and the US Department of Education authorizing me to verify the safety of the members of your field trip. I can take into custody any children I find in unsafe conditions. Plus you are harboring fugitives – school administrators still under investigation for gross misconduct and suspected of child abuse.”

  “Go ahead and search,” Keith invited, waving one hand as he leaned on his cane with the other. “I’m not exactly in a position to stop you.”

  Dr. Williams stabbed a finger and the armed troops fanned out around the ball court. It didn’t take them long to regroup and stare at her blankly.

  “Where is the entrance to the underground facility?” Dr. Williams demanded. “We know you have been fortifying chambers under the ball court. You are required to show us the way in.”

  “Okay,” Keith said. “All you had to do was ask.” He hobbled over to a recess and pressed a brick. A dark passageway opened. “Single file. Sorry. We didn’t build it for an invading force.”

  David stepped out of the shadows and flanked him, blocking Jenny Kaine from following the troops down.

  “If this is a search and rescue mission, you don’t need a camera,” Keith said. “Suppose they start breaking down doors and finding people in states of undress?”

  “Jenny Kaine is here to document the truth about you people for our legal challenges,” Mrs. Sheldon said. “She’s coming, and so is her cameraman. My lawyer said not to listen to your tricks or stalling tactics.”

  “Wow. Way to win your teenage daughters’ hearts back,” Keith said, waving David away. “Storm troopers in their bedrooms will sure get your point across.”

  The troops disappeared below with the three women. Keith didn’t bother to follow. An hour later, he said, “How are they doing down there, Jiggly?”

  “Monitors show them lost or bumping into each other,” Jiggly reported. “They’ve discovered about two and a half levels. Gonna have to fix a bunch of doors, but otherwise everything’s holding together.”

  “Open the watertight gates,” Keith said.

  Another half hour passed amid gurgling and sloshing sounds. People began to pour out of the narrow entrance Keith had directed them to, drenched, swearing, climbing over each other. Keith especially enjoyed seeing the three sisters claw their way out. Half of the troops climbed back into the trucks and Jeeps and left.

  “You did that on purpose!” Dr. Williams screamed.

  “It’s a 3000-plus-year-old archaeological site,” Keith said. “I can’t be responsible for damage you and your goons do down there. You start knocking down doors and stuff happens. Are you done now?”

  “We came here to find those missing children.” Jenny Kaine crossed her arms.

  “They aren’t missing,” Keith said. “We have been in contact with every one of their legal guardians and parents to reassure them of their safety. I have phone records and texts to verify that all parents are satisfied we took reasonable precautions to protect them from danger, harassment, and unwanted attention from people who have no legal authority over them.”

  “I received no such notice!” Mrs. Sheldon said.

  “You aren’t your daughters’ legal guardian,” Keith replied. “No reason to notify you. Dr. Williams, I’m waiting for a call back from our attorney, so you have a chance to get out of this the easy way. He’s preparing challenges that might get you suspended, kicked out of the state DOE, and, I can only hope, banned from working in education ever again. You’re not the only one documenting this night’s events.

  “Consider carefully what you do next. By the way, he’s already alerted your superiors of your misuse of your expense account by paying for tracking devices and bringing these mercenaries here against US citizens. Your funds have been frozen and you might have trouble paying the other fifty percent you no doubt owe the goon squad.”

  The other half of the people in riot gear climbed into their vehicles.

  “Stop!” Dr. Williams screamed. “He’s bluffing!”

  “I’m not,” Keith said. “Check your bank account.”

  Dr. Williams didn’t seem to be able to stop herself from grabbing her phone. She spent several minutes swiping and staring at it. By the times she had apparently confirmed Keith’s words, the last of her “army” was gone and only Jenny Kaine’s news van rem
ained.

  “You can’t stop me from finding my children,” Mrs. Sheldon raged. “They have to be somewhere close by. You couldn’t have walked that far, even if that brute carried you.” She pointed at David. “Just tell me where they are, and maybe your wife and baby won’t end up in a jail cell over this.”

  “Wow, threatening my family? That’s pretty low, Mrs. Sheldon. But, okay, it just so happens that we figured you had a right to say good-bye to your family, even though they said they didn’t want to see you. So you can see them one last time.” v

  A buzzing sound grew louder and the Tesla approached. “By the way,” Keith added, “our doctor tested Mr. Sheldon, and he’s got some kind of toxicity indicators in his system, like somebody’s been slipping him something for a long time. Not exactly sure what they are, but his hair and fingernails indicate daily doses, meaning only you could have been giving it to him. So he’s saying good-bye, too.”

  The Tesla stopped by the ball court entrance. Anne Summers sat behind the wheel. Mr. Sheldon sat in the driver’s seat, pale and haggard, and Lisa and Gail sat in the back.

  Mrs. Sheldon took a few tentative steps toward them. “Roy? You wouldn’t dare turn against me! I want my children. You can’t keep them from me.” She ran at the car and started pounding and scratching on it.

  “Don’t do that, Mrs. Sheldon,” Keith warned. “My wife hates people messing with her car. I’m warning you. I’d stop right –”

  Gail reached forward and punched a button on the console. A cloud of blue chalk-like substance shot out from under the car and enveloped Mrs. Sheldon. The air filled with a nauseating rotten-egg stench. David, Jiggly, and Keith all grabbed small jars of chest rub and painted their nostrils. The Tesla spun and buzzed away.

  Mrs. Sheldon, dyed a vibrant shade of blue, did not stop screaming for a full five minutes. Dr. Williams and Jenny Kaine tried to keep away from her but the smell was hard to avoid.

  “Last warning,” Keith said. “You can see we’re prepared to defend ourselves.”

  “By turning people blue? I’m so scared,” Jenny Kaine sneered. “You have one security guard here. He’s not even armed. I have my own backup – some friends who say you are trespassing on their property. You met their boss last night. I’m sorry he didn’t make a better impression on you. Let’s try again.”

  She stepped back into the road and waved her hands crazily in the air. People started to appear out of the forest. All of them were armed.

  “I met a man who shot me in the leg in a stairwell when I was carrying my grandmother,” Keith said. “Are you admitting he works for you? Remember you’re being recorded by your cameraman and mine. And you don’t know where mine is.”

  “My feed gets edited as I see fit.” Jenny Kaine smirked. “And I do see your skinny little cameraman back there hiding in the corner. Come on out, sweetie. My guys will take care of all three of you, and the news will proclaim them as heroes protecting their homeland’s priceless heritage from artifact thieves.”

  “She called me skinny, Keith,” Jiggly grumbled, sauntering forward with a long, slender object in his mechanical hand. “Can I take it for a spin now?”

  “Go for it,” Keith said. He and David quickly crouched in a niche in the side of the ball court wall and shoved earplugs into place.

  Jiggly slipped on earmuffs. He hefted the ax of Britomartis and started it spinning in the air. His mechanical arm became a blur of motion and a resonating, indescribable sound began to vibrate the whole atmosphere. All three women caught the first wave and were flung off their feet. The soundwave spread out, funneled by the ball court entrance, and mowed down wave upon wave of the Mexicans coming out of the forest. Some tried to fire their weapons at Jiggly but they ricocheted or the guns bent and exploded under the shockwave. People screamed and clamped hands over their ears. Jiggly kept the ax spinning for two full minutes, until every visible person lay on the ground, stunned or unconscious.

  “That was fun!” He exclaimed.

  Keith and David got shakily to their feet and joined him. “Dang,” Keith said as he got out his handkerchief. “You gave me a nosebleed.”

  “I told you to stay closer to me, gimpy,” Jiggly said.

  A beat-up pickup truck roared down the road and stopped in front of the ball court. The Mexican man who had shot Keith in the stairwell jumped out of the passenger side and he stared around at the prostrate people. He spat words in Spanish and six gun-toting men in the back of the pickup jumped out along with his driver.

  “They want to play some more, Keith,” David said. “I’ll go get the ball. Jiggly, rev it up again.”

  David ducked under the ax and out of sight as Jiggly raised the ax again. Keith crouched at his feet this time. The hail of bullets fired from the new arrivals ricocheted in every direction and the men ducked before they fell, overpowered by the next sonic blast. A rumbling sound accompanied the shockwave as a moderate-sized rubber ball bounced down the middle of the ball court and off the sides. Jiggly abruptly ceased spinning the ax.

  “Let’s play ball, amigos!” David shouted. He wore a weird kilt-like contraption of orichalcum, “dragon skin,” and corundum and guided his ball through stone rings set into the walls as two giant stone balls followed the path of the rubber one along both sides of the ball court. By butting the rubber ball against different parts of the kilt and blowing an ornate golden whistle, David stopped, started, and propelled the giant balls wherever he needed them to go, mowing down newcomers emerging from the forest.

  Anyone who could still stand or walk fled from them. One crushed the pickup, the other rolled over the news van, and both came to a stop. Keith noted with grim satisfaction that the man who had abused Angel had been trying to climb into the driver’s seat of the pickup when the ball arrived.

  “Go, now, while you still can,” Keith shouted. “Tell them in Spanish, David.”

  “Amigo is the only Spanish word I know,” David laughed. “I could tell them in Hebrew, but I don’t think anybody can hear again yet. Anyway, I think they get the message.”

  People fled into the forest, staggering, dragging companions, throwing aside useless weapons. Keith approached the three women lying on the ground, trying to get up and glaring at him with murder in their eyes. Blood trickled out of Dr. Williams’s ears and she could not get on her feet.

  “Long walk back,” Keith shouted. “Best get started.” He waved his arms, indicating the road.

  “This isn’t over,” Jenny Kaine said in an unnatural pitch. She staggered over and picked up the camera abandoned when her assistant had vanished into the forest. “I’ll bury you permanently this time. When I get my footage on the air, you and your wife and your father will be committed to an asylum, if you live long enough!”

  Keith pulled a small golden object out of his pocket. It looked like a tiny rocket ship. “This is lead-lined,” he said. “Right now, it’s safe. If you open it, you’ll expose a tiny, radioactive, omnidirectional pulse device that will destroy your camera’s workings and corrupt the chip. It might irradiate you, too. A little gift from Pakistan and Pipali from me to you.” He tossed it into the air. David grabbed him and the three men vanished into the ball court’s underground passage.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen – Loose Ends

  They stood inside the door, listening.

  “What?” Jenny Kaine’s voice shrilled. Scrabbling sounds ensued. A faint glow bathed the narrow crack in the passage door.

  “Jenny!” shrieked Carol Sheldon’s voice. Apparently she had been farther away from the direct line of the ax pulse and could still hear a little. “You just exposed yourself to radiation! We have to get you to a hospital!”

  More scrabbling and sounds of staggering feet ensued, along with incoherent words that gradually faded out of earshot. Keith, David, and Jiggly bailed out of the narrow entryway and Keith limped over to the tiny rocket ship.

  “Snapped right shut again, just like you said it would,” Jiggly said. “Wow! I alm
ost hope some more bad guys show up. That was a blast!”

  “Do you really think Jenny Kaine will be harmed by that exposure?” David asked.

  “God be the judge of our righteous cause,” Keith said. “C’mon. The water should have drained out of the passageways by now. We gotta open the vents before we get mold, though.”

  “We should check these people lying around,” Jiggly said. “Maybe they need medical attention. I don’t think any of them are actually dead, are they?”

  David got on his phone. “Drew, please send backup and medical assistance. We have a few casualties lying about.” He patted Jiggly on the back. “You are a noble soul, Jiggly. I will sleep just fine knowing I crushed a cartel drug lord under a giant rock. You two stay put until the others get here.”

  He pulled his Uzi out of a wall niche and started walking around the roadside, prodding sprawled bodies with his foot. He turned one over and swiftly knelt down.

  “This is Angel!” He exclaimed. “He’s tied up – must have been in the back of the pickup. How could he have gotten clear?”

  “God’s looking out for him. Is he alive?” Keith limped forward. Jiggly followed.

  “Yes,” David said. “He doesn’t look good, though. Papa may have had a celebration and an interrogation.”

  Jiggly said several bad words under his breath. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Man, I’m with you on the crushed under a rock thing, David.”

  “Me too,” Keith said.

  People started to emerge from the ball court’s access door. Drew’s guards fanned out and Dr. Cornell and his assistants appeared.

  “Over here,” Keith called out to him. “Dr. Cornell, this guy is in bad shape, and he’s a friend.”

  Dr. Cornell quickly examined him. “His injuries are not life-threatening,” he said. “Outrageous, the cruelty of some people. It will take him some time, but I’m sure he’ll recover.”