by Brandt Legg
He pulled the baggy from his pocket and scooped the soft sacred dirt into it, then quickly placed it into his pack. The small room had its own exit. On the way out, a wall of crutches, crucifixes, walkers, and images of Christ; seemed to advertise proof of miraculous cures. The dirt attracted hundreds of thousands of seekers each year, many desperate to be healed or saved. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but Rip felt stronger.
He ran back to the waiting car. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, breathlessly.
“Do you hear that?” Sean asked.
The three of them concentrated on the quiet and heard the distant hum of an approaching helicopter. “Go!” Rip yelled.
Chapter 26
Barbeau looked around, stared up at the three crosses on top of the simple adobe church, and shook his head. “This guy has Vatican agents chasing him; why the hell does he keep going to churches?” he asked himself.
The helicopter had landed in a nearby parking lot. Field agents would arrive soon in vehicles. Hall was already interviewing people, showing photos, taking names. That dreadful and familiar feeling of just having missed Gaines crept in leaving him unsure of everything. He looked around the odd collection of adobe buildings, his gaze resting on a stone archway that seemed out of place. It seemed like a metaphor of the entire investigation – nothing quite fit. There would be a more thorough search, as soon as backup arrived, but he could feel it – Gaines was gone again.
Barbeau wandered into the chapel. There were only seven “rooms” in the old building. Hall had already searched them all. The adobe walls were three feet thick. He appreciated the simplicity of these old churches; they all looked like they belonged right where they were, as if they’d always been there, formed of dirt, sun, and rain. Inside the sacristy, the hole in the floor seemed dug by a child; yet he knew what it was from a file prepared by a subordinate at Quantico. At least Barbeau knew what it was supposed to be. He squatted and dipped his hand into the powdery earth, let the grains run through his fingers, and caught himself saying a prayer. It wasn’t for the capture of Gaines, or the exposure of the Attorney General’s corruption. Special Agent Dixon Barbeau sat on the floor of this dusty little chapel in the middle of the high desert of New Mexico and silently prayed for his wife and daughter’s forgiveness. A moment later Hall called his name from the sanctuary. Barbeau dropped about a thimbleful of dirt into a small evidence bag and shoved it into his pocket. “In here,” he yelled, standing up.
“We’ve got a positive ID. Someone saw him here less than fifteen minutes ago.”
“Did they see what he was driving?”
“Blue sedan, North Carolina plates.”
“North Carolina? Interesting. Do we have a number?”
“Negative, but how many blue sedans with North Carolina plates could be within a fifteen-minute radius?”
“One is all we need; give it to state and local.”
“Already done.”
“Good man. Today just might be our day. Where’s our crew?”
“ETA eight minutes.”
“Okay, you wrap up here, leave two agents to work the vicinity, and get on the road with the others. I’m going back up in the air to see what I can see. I’ll pick you up somewhere; hopefully at an arrest.”
“Roger that.”
Barbeau was gone when Nanski and Leary showed up. A field agent spotted them and alerted Hall. He couldn’t resist the chance.
He snuck over to where they were parked. “Excuse me,” he said, appearing at the driver’s side window. “Either one of you know where I could find Ripley Gaines?”
“You might want to check with the FBI; I think they’re in charge of that investigation,” Leary said, coolly.
“That’s good to hear you say that, Mr. Leary, because it sure seems like some people think the Vatican is running this.”
“No sir, if the Vatican were leading the case, it would have been resolved in Virginia.”
“If the Vatican weren’t interfering, we might have settled things in West Memphis is what you probably meant to say.”
“Can we help you, Agent Hall?” Nanski leaned over and asked.
“You bet your ass you can help me, Nanski. How about you two let the Bureau do their job and stop interfering with a federal investigation.”
“Interfering? No sir,” Leary said. “We’re just a couple of private citizens out to see our beautiful country.”
“Really? Do you think you’re funny? Because I don’t. I ought to arrest you right now. I might do that. How’d you like to spend the next few days in federal lockup?”
“We’d be out in ten minutes.” Leary glared at him.
“Relax,” Nanski said to Leary. “We don’t want any trouble, Agent Hall. I’m sure you don’t either.”
“You clowns think you’re a couple of righteous Christians? Well, where I grew up, Christians act a little differently, and chumps like you were just considered thugs.”
“Were you gonna charge us with a crime?” Leary asked. “Or are you just wanting to preach a sermon?”
“No. I’m not going to arrest you today. But I promise I’ll find something soon. And until then, stay the hell out of my way!”
Nanski got out of the car. “We’ll do our best.”
“Where are you going?” Hall asked.
“Just having a look around,” Nanski replied.
“There’s nothing to see. Gaines is long gone.”
“No doubt. But we’d still like to check the place. I’m sure the Bureau is doing a fine job, and has everything under control; I just like to see for myself. I’m funny that way,” Leary said, getting out.
“Leary, is that a cross carved in your hair?” Hall asked.
“I’ll be happy to cut one into your hair. You want to look like me, Hall? Do you want to come to Jesus?” Leary turned back and reached inside the car.
Hall pulled his gun. “Hands where I can see them, Leary!”
Leary turned around, hands in the air, holding only a Bible. “Relax, Hall. I was just getting you a copy of the Holy Scripture. Jesus has a message for you.”
“No thanks,” Hall said, holstering his weapon.
“If you’re all done with us, Agent Hall, we’re going to head inside.”
“I’ll say a prayer for you,” Leary sneered. “When was your last confession?”
Hall spoke into his radio, as the Vatican agents headed toward the church. A minute later they were intercepted by two suits. At first Leary resisted, but Nanski cautioned him. The FBI agents handcuffed the two men and led them to the back of a Bureau car. Hall waved at Leary as he departed the scene with a couple of other agents, hoping to catch up with Barbeau.
The feds left Nanksi and Leary in the car for a couple of hours, asked them a few questions, and then released them. Nanski called Pisano, who in turned called the Attorney General, who promised, “Heads will roll.” Leary was furious, but drove carefully, because a state trooper had tailed them since they left the Church.
Chapter 27
Rip refused to talk, except to tell them he wanted to find a place to buy camping gear. He sat in the back, eating the rest of Teresa’s cookies. Gale and Sean weren’t interested in baked goods from “the crazy lady.” The helicopter flew over twice and soon they were in Española; a place of traffic and fast food confusion. Sean, by far the least recognizable, was elected to go into the outdoor shop for the gear. Rip handed him five hundred dollars of Grinley’s money and a list.
Once they were alone, Gale joined him in the back. “So are you going to tell me what you and Teresa talked about? And what was so important in the church that we practically had to wait around for the FBI to show up?” Gale asked.
“It’s extraordinary. I don’t know where to begin.”
“Sean’s probably going to be in there a while. Want to go for a quick walk along our river?” she asked.
“Our river?”
“The Rio Grande is right over there. The same river we rafte
d, so it’s ours. Once you raft a river, you own it.”
The NSA technician kept recording as Gale and Rip left the car. The listening devices could hear up to forty feet away, depending on background noises, most of which could be removed later if necessary. The tech was just doing his job and didn’t much care one way or another, but Busman and his bosses were frustrated. They had two chase vehicles and a chopper just out of earshot. They weren’t worried about them escaping, but they wanted to know everything Gaines knew; they needed every word recorded. Three more units were en route. Although patient, Busman knew the longer it took, the more likelihood that something could go wrong, and he wanted it over.
The way Busman saw it; the information Rip was sharing with Gale, as part of the sphere’s puzzle, belonged to the NSA. The organization had extensive experience in accumulating minute threads of data over long periods of time, often under foreign or hostile conditions. This was no different, except the stakes were much higher than anything in which the NSA had ever been involved. Busman had a Kindle filled with books on military history and strategy. He’d been up late the night before finishing a work about the genius of Attila the Hun, and he knew victory had many definitions, as long as you won.
“The strangest thing,” Rip began, as he and Gale stood on a low bluff over the Rio Grande, and unbeknownst to them, just out of range of the NSA mics. “Even as I walked into the courtyard at Chimayó, I felt as if I’d been there before.”
“Déjà vu?”
“Much stronger than that. I’d never been there, but the feeling was overpowering, and then when I went inside the church, it felt as if I’d travelled back in time and was entering it two hundred years earlier.”
“Like a past-life regression,” she said, seriously.
“Gale, I don’t believe in that stuff.”
“But it happened.”
“I’m a scientist. I’ve dug up enough of the past to know that the past doesn’t go anywhere. When people die, they stop existing. I know it’s no fun to think that when it’s over, it’s over; but we get one chance and then we become a relic.”
“One chance at what?”
“To get it right.”
“How do we know if we got it right? Why would we care? Do you really think we’re all here to just get as rich and comfortable as we can? All this . . . ” She swept her arm out to the Rio Grande, in the distance- its confluence with the Rio Chama, vast mesas and desolate mountains beyond. “All this is here for our one chance? Seems like an awful lot of trouble for visits to Walmart, reality TV shows, and weapons of mass destruction.”
“Your ‘airy-fairy’ world is a dream. I deal in facts.”
“Do you? What was that feeling in the church today? What about the shopkeeper recognizing you?”
“He didn’t recognize me. He thought I was some guy named Conway.”
“Conway who came for Clastier! Do you really need more proof?”
“Proof of what?”
“That you have lived before. That you’re caught up in a karmic web of immense proportions and consequence.”
“As if I have the whole universe in my hands.”
“As if you do,” she said staring. “You do,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to debate esoteric philosophy with you.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to get some place where I can study the Eysen and talk about Clastier. You were right about the deep connections between them.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Clastier’s letters.”
Her eyes widened.
“He wrote letters to Teresa’s great-, great-, great-grandmother. He found another Eysen.”
“Jee. Sus. Christ.”
“Yeah.”
“Where is it?”
“Vatican. Or they destroyed it. Hard to know.”
“So he may not have been telling you to look for the one you found in Virginia? His papers may have been talking about the one he found.”
“Yes.”
“And that means there may be more Eysens,” Gale said. “What if the Vatican has been collecting them? What if they’ve been part of our history all along? Where did they come from?”
“We have to find out, before they find us.”
“Maybe they won’t.”
“No, Gale. The raid at Grinley’s house tells us . . . they can find us, anywhere, and they will. It’s only a matter of time.”
Sean returned and as they drove west, Gale wrote in her journal. “I’m convinced Rip is close to recognizing who Conway really was. His admission that I’ve been right about the deep connections between Clastier and the Eysen is huge! But the biggest news of the day – we don’t have the first Eysen. That means the world could have changed before, but it was intentionally stopped. What if that turns out to have been the right thing? What if there is something about the Eysen that is horrible?”
Chapter 28
Harmer and Kruse had watched with amusement, as Hall harassed and arrested the “Vatican boys.” They’d pulled up just as it unfolded and stayed parked behind a low-rider with a dazzling paint job. Kruse decided not even to get out of the car. Instead they followed Hall and phoned Booker.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Booker said in a clipped tone. “I was hoping you would have good news.”
“Well, at least Gaines is still eluding the competitors.”
“Stay with the Bureau, guys. I’ll call when I hear something.”
The helicopter landed in the parking lot of an abandoned hardware store. Barbeau spoke with the Director while he waited for Hall to arrive.
“Yes, sir, we just got a lead that a state trooper has spotted the car near Santa Fe. They confirmed it was the same North Carolina plate. We got a match from a traffic camera in Ranchos de Taos, where someone picked up Gaines and Asher this morning. Odd thing though, the plate doesn’t come up in NC’s DMV. The resolution on the camera isn’t great and a tech could have made a mistake, but it’s strange and I don’t like strange. More importantly, we couldn’t make out who was driving.”
“Attorney General Dover is meeting with the President as we speak. He’s not happy about how the investigation’s going. Actually accused me of not being forthcoming with facts and leads.”
“What are they meeting about? Firing you again?”
“I’ll find out soon. I’m meeting the two of them in an hour. And somehow I don’t think they’re finished with me yet. If they wanted me out, they wouldn’t do it at Camp David,” the Director said.
“I can’t wait to hear.”
“What’s going on with the car now?”
“Hall will be here in about three minutes, and then we’ll fly to the arrest. Troopers are tailing the car now. We might finally have him.”
“Let me know, I’d love to have that information before I meet with the President.”
Barbeau, anxious to get to the blue sedan and finally look Gaines in the eye, called Hall.
“Where the hell are you?”
“Two red lights away. I can see the chopper. I’ll be there in a minute but, something you should know, I detained Nanski and Leary.”
“Wish you hadn’t done that. What’d you charge them with?”
“Nothing. Just holding them for questioning.”
“The Director has a meeting with Dover and the President in an hour. Make sure they’re cut loose by then.”
“Will do, just wanted to make sure they didn’t trip us up when we’re so close. Hey, I’m pulling in now.”
“Let’s go finish this.”
As Hall was running to the chopper, Barbeau confirmed the state police still had the car.
“We’re two cars back, in a plain wrapper. We have three other units shadowing on a nearby route and our bird is ready,” the officer in charge told him. Barbeau was smiling as they rose off the pavement and headed toward Santa Fe. He held up his hands to Hall, indicating ten minutes.
Hall nodded and thought
, “Then what? We capture Gaines, then we need to keep the investigation going to the Attorney General’s office, the Vatican, the President?” Arresting Gaines was only the beginning of something so big, Hall could not imagine not being consumed by it. He’d always known how big cases could destroy a marriage, so he avoided them. But he had a beautiful girlfriend he hadn’t seen in too long. And there was something about this case, something so dark that at times, only the faintest light could shine through, and the light wasn’t from where it should have been; everything was upside down. The Justice Department and the Church usually representing “right” were shrouded in darkness, and the only light came from the two fugitives. Hall’s head pounded with the spinning rotors of the helicopter. He’d never had a premonition before, didn’t even know if he believed in them, but something was telling him he wasn’t going to live to see the resolution of this crushing case.
Barbeau pointed down, smiling. Hall saw the blue car. Barbeau gave an order in his headset, and the state police moved in and pulled the car over without incident. The pilot put them down in the blocked roadway fifty feet in front of the car. Barbeau and Hall jumped out. Barbeau yelled, “We got ’em!”
As they got closer, Hall saw two men and a woman being handcuffed, and his heart sank. “It’s not them!”
“What?” Barbeau said, cupping his ear.
“That’s not Gaines and Asher!”
