The Scarlet Plan

by Rick W. Warren

  Suddenly Aaron realized something. “Wait a minute,” Aaron said confused. “I didn’t see any tire as we were driving into town. Did I miss it?”

  “Nope,” Convert replied. “It’s not there anymore. About a year ago, I had noticed that Jack was a little down and I asked him what was wrong. He grinned at me sheepishly and said it was stupid, but I could genuinely see hurt in his eyes. I told him I wouldn’t think it was dumb and he finally told me that he had driven route 150 that day and saw that the old fence had been replaced and the tire was gone. He was embarrassed to be missing a tire, but I knew it was more than a tire to him. It was a connection to his son.”

  “As a consolation I asked him if he wanted to have a glass of lemonade on the deck with me as I grilled up some steaks. He was happy to get up and go outside. It was a really nice summer day. So as we walked outside we saw Marie standing in front of something in the backyard. Jack asked her what she was doing and when she moved he was utterly shocked. There in the middle of the yard was Ralph’s tire hanging on a fence post.”

  “‘What is this, James?’ Jack said with tears down his cheeks. He never called me Convert. ‘Is this for real? How did you get this?’”

  “I told him that I had happened to drive by right as they were getting ready to tear it out for the new fence and I asked them if I could buy the tire and the fence post from them. The farmer looked at me in bewilderment wondering why I would want an old tire and post saying they weren’t worth anything to him so I could just have them. He didn’t realize how much I would have paid for them if he made me. Anyway, I had hid it for about a week and it just so happened that the day I had set it all up in the backyard was the day he had driven on 150 and saw it was gone. Jack laughed as he hugged Marie and I. The best gifts are unexpected ones.”

  “That day was a good day and it was a day I will remember fondly. To the world, it was an ugly worthless tire, but to Jack and Marie it was a valuable object of joy. It was a daily reminder of their son and a daily reminder of God’s grace and healing in the midst of tragedy. In the end, Jack truly did see that tire until the day he died. He was reminded of Ralph daily until he finally got to see him again.”

  Aaron looked back outside of his door window as they entered the city limits. Things seemed better than they did before. “Thanks for sharing this, Convert, it means a lot to me.”

  “I needed to hear it again myself,” Convert replied. “I’ve let my sadness overshadow all the great things I’ve learned from him.”

  “We’re going to find out who did this to Jack,” Aaron said. “We owe him that justice.”

  Convert looked over at Aaron. “You better believe we’ll find them. We need to stop them from harming anyone ever again. They picked the wrong town to do this in and the wrong people to do this to.”

  “I’m with you on that.”

  “By the way,” Convert said grinning. “How are things going with Emma?”

  Third Quarter

  Lightning Strikes

  Wednesday, October 21st - Friday, October 22nd

  1

  The Cleaner glared at the bag of ice that he had resting on top of his knee. It had been four days now since he had hurt it chasing the guys through the woods and while it was slowly getting better, it was not back to normal. If his hatred could have produced real heat, the bag of ice would have melted already. As a matter of fact, the barn probably would have caught on fire. He still could not believe that they got away. Even more upsetting than that was that he had lost his focus. He should never have fallen. He knew better than that. He was always aware of his surroundings. The evil ones always gave him a supernatural awareness of what was going on around him. Did they fail him this time? No. It was his fault alone. His rage blinded him.

  The truth was that he hated Galesburg and the people who lived in it. When he saw those kids all he could see was his disdain for the entire town personified in them. That’s what made him lose his focus. When the Scarlet told him of their intentions for the city, he immediately wanted in. He jumped at the notion to do damage to the city he hated most. Even he didn’t realize how deep the rage went.

  He thought about Jack and the joy he felt plunging his knife straight into his heart. He remembered springing at him like a caged animal finally being released. He thought about how Jack didn’t even flinch. Instead, he simply accepted his fate. The Cleaner liked that. He loved being such a force of nature that those who stood in his path simply accepted their fate instead of fighting it. That was the respect he demanded now. The kids at the barn denied him that and even worse they got away. They had made one big mistake, though; they left evidence of who they were.

  When the Cleaner found Josh’s phone it was all he had needed to know everything about them. There was no passcode set on the phone so he was able to go through everything. He immediately began to go through Facebook since Josh was still signed in and, in a short amount of time, he was able to discover all of their names and even the general area where they lived. None of their profiles had an exact address for their homes, but, through their comments and pictures, he was able to deduce that they lived near the vicinity of Rotary Park, which was very close to their homes.

  The battery on the phone was low and eventually died. That meant that he was going to have to get a phone charger since the cell phone he had wasn’t the same. On the Saturday, when he had found the phone, he was going to head into town, but the pain of his knee was too much. It took all his might to climb back up the stairs to the loft of the barn, but he made it. It was up there that he stayed until Wednesday. He had everything he needed: Food, water, bed, electricity, refrigerator, and even a TV. He knew, though, that it wasn’t the time to let the Thinker know about his injury. He would wait until Wednesday and see how he felt.

  As Tuesday came, he saw that his knee was still pretty bruised and swollen, but was getting better. It was likely to be a sprain as opposed to a tear. It was tender to walk on but he forced himself to do it anyway. His own self-therapy seemed to be slightly working. He decided to rest one more day before going into town. He was going to need to get some supplies like more ice, a knee brace, and a charger cord. Each time he felt a bolt of pain from his knee, though, it sent new waves of hate through him.

  He had also noticed that over the weekend the voices of the evil ones had died down to a murmur. They were still there, but it was as if they were dormant like he was. On Wednesday morning, however, everything changed. The Cleaner woke up to a frenzy of voices. It was time to move.

  He looked at his watch and saw that it was 10:23 a.m. He normally never slept that late, but being injured was far from normal for him. He sat up and began to get out of bed when suddenly his phone rang. He grabbed it and looked at the caller ID. It said Thinker. “I guess break time is done,” he said to himself.

  The Cleaner hit answer on his phone and held it to his ear. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Cleaner,” The Thinker replied. “How are things going?”

  The Cleaner hated everyone, but the Thinker was the closest to being someone he liked. They were friends by no means, but the Cleaner respected him and respected his mind for chaos. The Actor was someone he found annoying, but at the minimum tolerable. The Thinker, however, was someone he was at least willing to talk to. “They could be better.”

  “How so?” Thinker asked with a genuine air of curiosity. This was not a usual response from the Cleaner.

  “I fell into a sink hole walking through the woods out here and I twisted my knee pretty good,” Cleaner replied. There was no need to mention the intruders. That was his own problem to solve and not for anyone else to know.

  “Are you ok? How bad is the injury?”

  “Not good, but not terrible either. I’ve stayed off it for the last four days and the pain and swelling has gone down. It won’t be a problem.”

  “I can have a Scarlet doctor see you. We have some here in tow
n. You should have reached out to me sooner.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Cleaner replied a little annoyed. He hated having to tell this to anyone, but he knew it was better to tell the Thinker than for him to find out later when they met up again. “I’m going in town to get a knee brace today.”

  “Jack’s funeral was yesterday.”

  “I know.”

  “He was our biggest obstacle, but there are others who are proving to be more trouble than we originally thought.”

  “His wife?”

  “Not in particular. She’s weak. I’m not worried about her.”

  “Martin Weller?”

  “He’s clueless. He’s as dumb as his old man was.”

  The Cleaner was getting impatient. He didn’t like these guessing games. “Who then?”

  “James Madsen. He goes by the name ‘Convert’ now.”

  “I know. He’s a fool.”

  “He may be a fool, but he is a challenge to us as well.”

  “How? He’s a blithering idiot who has been a waste his whole life and now thinks he has turned things around because he met God. He was simply a charity case for the McKenzies and he will spend the rest of his short life crying about the loss of Jack.”

  “Did you see him in the news?”

  “No. Should I have?”

  “I’m going to send you a YouTube link when we get off of the phone. Watch it. We need to meet this afternoon. I’ll see you at the hotel. Watch the video. Goodbye.”

  The Cleaner pulled the phone away from his face. Almost instantly he received a text message with the link in it. He clicked on the link and watched something that disturbed him greatly.

  It was footage of the car wreck rescue from a few days ago. He watched in alarm as he saw Convert rip the side door off the van and toss it behind him like it was nothing. This wasn’t normal strength. It was real power and that power was a real threat. Cleaner put the phone down so that he wouldn’t crush it. Convert was on his list, but he wasn’t expecting this. He saw that this might be a bigger challenge than he thought. In some way he welcomed the challenge and yet because of his own injury he cursed those kids even more. Failure was never an option, but the difficulty of the task had been greatly increased.

  The Cleaner grabbed his stuff, hobbled down the stairs, and got on his motorcycle. No more lying around. Time was short and he had a lot to do. The hunt was on.

  2

  Convert pulled up to the job site that he hadn’t been to since Jack died. He had been working on a deck and had finished laying down the planks that made the floor, but there was still railing to be finished. Thankfully, the owners had completely understood everything that had been going on, especially since they all attended the same church, and they had told Convert to take all the time he needed. By the time Wednesday had come, even though he didn’t fully feel like it, he knew he needed to get the job done. In the end, he felt that it would be good for him to get back to work instead of staying home. Marie had encouraged him to do the same. It was good for them to get things back to normal.

  Normal. Things would never be normal again. Life moved on, but that meant moving on without Jack. It hurt every time he thought about it and he thought about it a lot. He pulled into the driveway of Chuck and Ellie Hamill’s at 9:00. They were a retired couple that had been very active in the community. Chuck had retired from a local factory as a plant engineer before it had shut down over twenty years ago and Ellie had stayed home raising their four children who now had grown up with families of their own.

  Convert got out of his truck and started unloading his tools when Chuck came walking out of the front door with a couple cups of coffee. “Hi Convert,” he said as he extended the extra mug towards him. “I’m glad to see you, but you know you didn’t have to come back so soon.”

  Convert took the cup. The coffee was black. Just the way he liked it. “Thanks Chuck,” Convert replied. “I hope I’m not imposing. I just really felt it was time to get up and get on with living. To be honest with you, I think this is what Jack would want me to do too.”

  “I think you’re right,” Chuck said as he took another sip. “Jack was one of a kind and it was a privilege to know him. Ellie and I miss him a lot and we haven’t stopped praying for you and Marie.”

  “I really appreciate that and thanks for the coffee too.”

  “No problem. If you don’t have any lunch plans, I hope you could join us. Ellie wanted to make something for you if that’s ok.”

  “Sure thing. Thank you.”

  “By the way, did your helper get everything he needed from here yesterday?”

  “Helper?” Convert said alarmed. “What do you mean?”

  Chuck took a slight pause. He wasn’t expecting this reaction. “Yesterday, a young man stopped by and asked if he could get something you had forgotten from the back yard. He said he had been helping you with the deck and I just figured he had since Ellie and I were out of the house most the time you had been building it.”

  A feeling of dread came over Convert. “I don’t have a helper, Chuck. Did you let him in your house?”

  “No, he just went though the gate to the back yard.”

  “How long was he here?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe five or ten minutes. I didn’t see when he actually left because I had gone back in the house. What’s going on?”

  “Have you been in the back yard since then or have you been on the deck?”

  “No. He came by right before suppertime last night and the first time I came back outside of the house was this morning. Is something wrong?”

  “I know this sounds weird but I need you to calmly go in and get Ellie, come quickly out the front door, and call the police.”

  A look of fear came across Chuck’s face. “Are we in danger?”

  “I think we are. You need to get Ellie right now and get her out of the house.”

  Chuck saw the urgency in Convert’s eyes and it was all he could do to not run inside the house in a panic. He quickly went to the front door while Convert made his way to the gate leading to the back yard. Almost immediately Chuck and Ellie came out of the front door. Ellie was clutching on to her Boston terrier, Zipper, while Chuck was getting out his flip-phone to call the police.

  Convert looked over with his hand on the gate and said, “I’m sorry for the trouble Ellie, but I don’t have a helper and I don’t think you’re safe. I’m going to check it out.”

  “What about you? Are you really going back there?” Ellie said in a slight panic.

  “I’ll be ok. Just please get the police.”

  Convert could picture the grinning kid and just knew he had to have been the one to come here. If he was a betting man, he would have bet everything that either him or his buddy was responsible for the car wreck too. They had known who he was and had probably been following him. This was getting serious and he knew that things were getting worse. He had no idea what grinning kid would want to do here, but he knew it was now time to get the cops involved.

  Convert slowly opened the gate and cautiously walked through. The back yard was mostly grass with some mulch landscaping surrounding the house. The deck that Convert had installed was built in the place of the old one he had to tear down. As far as he could see, everything looked normal. A wind chime was hanging from a hook attached to the side of the house. A gentle breeze made the chimes move slightly giving off the mysterious melody that wind chimes uniquely give. Other than the chimes, everything else seemed silent. Convert realized that he had even been holding his breath. He knew in the bottom of his heart that something was wrong here.

  The deck itself stood about two and a half feet off of the ground. He had built the few stairs needed to get onto the deck from the grass, but the railing still needed to be finished. Slowly, he crept his way toward the deck while looking in every direction. Convert had always
had a good sense of his surroundings and could tell when something was off. That’s why his initial meeting with grinning kid threw him off. He never heard him coming and that wasn’t usual. Now he found himself in a position where he could be surprised again and it bothered him greatly.

  The wind chimes continued their melody as he approached the deck. As far as he could see, everything looked normal. There was no damage done to the structure and nothing seemed to be missing from the yard. Convert about went up the steps, but suddenly stopped. It seemed crazy, but he just inherently knew that he shouldn’t touch anything. Convert noticed that in front of the sliding glass doors leading into the house there was a floor mat. Ellie must have put that out there so that nothing would get tracked into the house. Other than that, though, everything looked normal.

  Convert stepped back for a moment to think. What would that kid have possibly been up to by coming back here? Was there a secret camera set up somewhere? Was he going to vandalize it and then decide against it? Nothing made sense. There was one more place to look, however, before he went back to the front. He needed to see under the deck. Slowly, partly from caution and partly from age, he laid on his stomach and looked underneath. At first he saw nothing, but as he looked closer where the deck was connected to the house, he gasped as he saw something he had only seen in the movies. Attached to the deck, underneath the spot where the floor mat was laying, was a device that looked exactly like a bomb.

  Convert froze as he saw it out of both fear and amazement. “This can’t be happening,” he said to himself out of disbelief. Was he really seeing what he thought he saw? Quickly he scanned around the area to make sure there were no wires or secret triggers. He couldn’t see anything so he decided to scoot a little closer just to verify what he was actually seeing. Scooting forward on his knees and elbows, his fear was confirmed. It was a bomb.

  With his hand shaking slightly, he took out his cell phone to take a picture of it. He didn’t now why, but he knew he needed to have evidence of what he saw. Convert zoomed in and took a couple of good pictures. It dawned on him that he needed to get away from it as soon as possible. Where was the trigger? Was it a timer? Was it a remote? Pressure sensor? It dawned on him that a pressure sensor was probably what it was. That’s why it was under the floor mat. The bomb was meant for who ever stepped out of that door first.