by Pam Funke
How did they find us? “Katy? Katy! Let’s go right now!” he said urgently.
Katy appeared at the foot of the stairs with her bag. She had caught a glimpse of the woman approaching the house as she was packing. She motioned for them to be quiet and to follow her. As they passed the living room, she turned on the television and turned the volume all the way up. Serenity looked at her questioningly, but Katy kept walking down the hallway. She stopped in front of a closet and pushed the coat rack to one side. A second door opened up. She motioned for them to go through the doorway. Katy stepped into the closet closing the door quietly. She pushed the coat rack back in place and then closed the secret door behind her. She followed Ezekiel and Serenity down the dimly lit stairway. At the bottom of the stairway, a tunnel veered off to the right.
“Where are we?” asked Serenity.
“We are safe for now, dear,” replied Katy.
She ushered them down the tunnel and up another set of stairs. At the top of the stairs, Katy knocked four times and waited.
“Katy?” a voice called.
“It’s me. I have two others. Please hurry,” Katy replied.
The door opened a crack as a man peered to look at them. Then he stood back and opened the door all the way to allow them entry.
“Please come in,” he said kindly.
They walked into a large storage room filled with shelves of canned goods. Serenity jumped as he slid the deadbolt back in place on the door.
“Please follow me,” he said walking out of the room.
They followed him into a church sanctuary. He led them to a side door of the church which opened onto a private driveway hidden from public view by large hedges.
“Take the car. When you are away from here, open the envelop on the front seat. It will give you directions to a safe house. I’ve already let them know that you’re coming,” he said.
“Thank you, Ger…,” Katy said.
“No names!” he interrupted. “Just go. And be careful.”
He hugged Katy. May God watch over you, my friends. He stood there watching them for a few minutes before closing the door.
Katy, Serenity, and Ezekiel walked quickly to the car. Ezekiel was thankful for the dark tinted windows; no one would be able to see who was in the car. He pulled the car out of the driveway and headed north. A few minutes later he pulled into a gas station and opened the envelop. Inside were driving directions, a map, and code words. This is something out of spy movie.
Ezekiel looked around as he got out and walked over to the gas pump. He filled the car up with gas then went inside to pay for it. He also purchased a couple of candy bars, sodas, and some chips. They’d had to leave before getting to enjoy Katy’s wonderful dinner. Too bad. Katy is an excellent cook. He picked up his bag and stepped out of the store. He looked around as he walked to the car. There was no sign of that woman or the vehicle they’d seen back at Katy’s place. He put the bag in the car, hung the pump back up and leaned against the car.
“Come on, let’s go. We need to get out of here,” Serenity pleaded.
“Just a second. I have to call in,” Ezekiel replied. He took his cell phone out and called the hospital.
“James Dean. Leave a message after the tone,” the voice mail said.
“Mr. Dean this is Doctor White. I’m sorry but I am going to be out for a while for personal reasons. I will call you again to let you know when I will be back.”
Ezekiel placed his phone under the front tire and drove away. Now, what made me do that?
CHAPTER one hundred and two
The woman rang the doorbell of Katy’s house and waited. Something must have gone wrong in there. The doctor sure has been in the house a long time. She had a really bad feeling about this. She rang the doorbell again. No one answered the door. She could hear a television blaring inside. Perhaps they just could not hear the doorbell over the television. She motioned for the man to come.
Annoyed, he got out of the car and walked over to the house. “What is it?” he asked.
“Something isn’t right here. I rang the doorbell twice now and no one has answered the door. I can hear a television blaring inside, but no movement,” she replied.
The man stood peering into the windows. He could see the glow of the television, but he did not see anyone in the room. He peered into the other windows, the rooms were all empty. He quickly walked back to the car and grabbed a crowbar from the trunk.
****
Nicolaitanes walked into General Ludlow’s empty office. Where is the General? He walked back to the receptionist’s desk.
“Where is General Ludlow?” he asked.
“I believe the General is down in the lab, sir,” Maya replied.
“Thank you, Maya,” Nicolaitanes replied winking at her.
He turned and walked towards the lab. Maya blushed and turned back to her work. Mr. Balac sure is a handsome man.
Nicolaitanes walked down to the lab. He didn’t bother to put on the clean suit before entering the room.
“General Ludlow!” Nicolaitanes boomed.
No one had seen Nicolaitanes enter the lab. General Ludlow turned around startled.
“Nicolaitanes. What are you doing down here? I thought you were upstairs with everyone else,” General Ludlow replied shyly.
“How dare you question me! I have been waiting for an update on Phase Two.”
“Ummmm, Nicolaitanes, Sampson came down here a few minutes ago to get the update to give to you.”
Now General Ludlow was really confused and worried.
“General, have you lost it? I have not sent Sampson down here to obtain anything for me.”
General Ludlow looked down at the floor for a moment. What is Sampson up to? He took a deep breath before looking at Nicolaitanes.
“Sir, we initiated Phase Two thirty minutes ago. Everything is going according to plan. In fact, we just finished watching the live video feed. Tel Aviv is no more, sir,” General Ludlow replied nervously.
“Follow me, General,” Nicolaitanes replied turning and storming out of the lab.
General Ludlow followed timidly into the empty office down the hallway. The very same room that he had killed Charlie in. How ironic?
“Wow! That man is incredible. I have never seen anyone reduce the General into a blubbering fool like that,” Martin beamed.
“I would suggest you keep your opinions to yourself,” Grant replied.
Poor General Ludlow. Grant wondered what say Nicolaitanes had in any of this anyway. He did not much like the General, but no one deserved to be treated like that. Why is Nicolaitanes Balac even here?
CHAPTER one hundred and three
“General Ludlow?” Nicolaitanes said.
“Yes, sir.”
“What were you doing out at the Hinesville Inne? Did you help Miss Serenity Lambert?”
Nicolaitanes paced back and forth across the hallway. He was making General Ludlow very nervous.
How does Nicolaitanes know that I gone to check up on Serenity? What else did he know? General Ludlow decided to play it calmly.
“I do not know what you are talking about sir. I have not left this building all day. Why would I help Miss Lambert with anything? I do not even know her,” General Ludlow replied his hands beginning to sweat.
Alexander needed to get out of there. He was afraid he had just become expendable to Nicolaitanes. Now, what was he going to do?
Nicolaitanes stopped and glared at the General. He does not know what happened at the hotel. I do not think that he helped Serenity escape, but he is definitely lying about something.
“I see,” Nicolaitanes replied.
“Let’s go back upstairs to the situation room and join the others,” Nicolaitanes commanded.
“I will be there in a moment. Let me just get the lab situated.”
Nicolaitanes glared at him. General Ludlow turned and walked back into the lab before Nicolaitanes could respond. Alexander knew that he was treading in dangerou
s waters. Nicolaitanes stared after General Ludlow then turned and walked back to the situation room.
General Ludlow leaned against the wall relieved. He was grateful to be away from Nicolaitanes for the moment. What was that all about? What is Sampson up to? I will have to confront that man. I need to know what he knows. How did Nicolaitanes find out that I went to the hotel? Why was he so worried about Serenity Lambert? I am going to have to be very careful from now on.
“Is everything alright, General?” Grant asked concerned.
General Ludlow’s face was extremely pale. Grant was afraid the man was going to pass out or something.
“Everything is fine, Grant. Let’s get ready for the next wave of Phase Two, ladies, and gentlemen. Grant set the countdown for 120 minutes,” General Ludlow said before turning and walking out of the room.
Grant put the countdown clock on screen, he watched as the minutes counted down. He felt kind of guilty. It was as though he was counting down the seconds left of someone’s life. In a way, he supposed that he was. Grant was a little afraid. People seemed to be disappearing and the higher ups more agitated. Things were beginning to get a little dangerous. I have to get out of here. I don’t like this, something is very wrong here. Did Charlie and Katy disappear? Why isn’t Charlie answering his phone? Grant decided that as soon as they were allowed to leave he would do just that. He would move his family someplace safe. For now, Grant would act like nothing had changed.
General Ludlow slowly walked to the situation room. Alexander was beginning to wish he had never taken the assignment. Nicolaitanes was not the man Alexander thought he was. There were serious doubts about what they were doing. He really wanted to know what had happened at the hotel—it suddenly seemed so important. Why does Nicolaitanes seem so angry about Serenity? What did Nicolaitanes mean by helping Serenity? Isn’t she dead? She had been in that hotel before the bombing, hadn’t she? There was no way she had survived that. Was there? And what exactly is Sampson up to? Who is he reporting to if he is not reporting to Nicolaitanes? He had so many questions. But more importantly, who had Serenity been talking to?
CHAPTER one hundred and four
The man walked back over to the house with the crowbar. He glanced around to see if they were being watched. Not seeing anyone, he used the crowbar to wrench open the front door. The woman entered the house drawing out her pistol. The man followed her into the house. He shut the door behind them. They searched each room on the ground floor carefully. Not finding anyone they quietly moved to the upstairs floor.
“I don’t like the looks of this,” the woman said.
“You worry too much. Let’s just focus on finding the old woman and the doctor,” he replied.
They continued to search the rest of the house. They could not find anyone. Not the old woman. Not the doctor. And no sign of Serenity, if there ever was anyone else there in the house. Just what was going on here? They had both seen the old woman in the house. They had seen the doctor go to the house. No one had left through the front door. Something weird was going on.
They went back downstairs. The woman turned the television off and sat down on the couch. Where did they go? How had they gotten out of the house without us seeing them? She was perplexed.
The man went into the kitchen. There were dishes drying on the counter, the tea kettle was still warm, and there were dishes set at the table. So they had not been gone long.
“The food in here is still hot. Seems as though she was expecting someone. There’s enough food here to feed a small army,” he called out before proceeding to fix himself a plate.
He sat down and ate, wondering where they had gone. When he had finished he decided to take a second look around. He opened the back door and stepped out onto the porch. It looked like no one had been out there for quite some time; there were tons cobwebs with creepy spiders everywhere. He cringed as one of the spiders dropped down onto his shoulder. He swept the spider off with the back of his hand. I hate spiders! Well, they definitely did not come this way. He walked back into the kitchen and sat back down at the table. Things did not add up.
“If they did not come out of the front door and they had not gone out of the back door, where were they?” he mumbled sitting back down at the table.
****
The woman got up and searched the house top to bottom again. No one was hiding in the house anywhere. There had to be a logical explanation for this. She walked into the kitchen.
“Just what are you doing?” she asked staring at him incredulously.
“Eating desert,” the man said as a matter of fact, slicing himself a piece of pie.
“Perhaps we were watching the wrong house in the first place. Or maybe we just did not see them leave,” he suggested.
“No! I never took my eyes off the front door. Not even for a second!” the woman yelled smacking the plate out of the man’s hand and across the kitchen table. “Let’s go!” She stormed out of the house.
The man grabbed another slice of pie and followed her outside. He licked the crumbs off the ends of his fingers as he walked back to the car. The woman glared at him as she stood on the porch looking around. As he sat in the car waiting for her, he stared at the cell phone on the front seat. I should probably tell him. He’s not going to like this—not one little bit. Why do I always have to be the bearer of bad news? He picked it up and dialed the number.
“What is it?” the voice answered.
“We went into the house. No one is there. The strange thing is, we did not see anyone leave the house and we did not take our eyes of the house for one second,” the man reported.
“Well, I would suggest that you go out and look for them. You better find Katy and Serenity soon!” the voice yelled before hanging up.
The man sat in the car staring at the phone in his hand. He waved for the woman to come back to the car. She ignored him. She walked over to the doctor’s car, smashed the driver’s side window with her fist and unlocked the door. Luckily the doctor had forgotten to set the car alarm. She started searching the car. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for—something. She looked all through the car; but didn’t find anything useful. No registration, no bills, not even so much as a notepad. The doctor sure kept his car very neat and clean. She looked through the glove compartment, under the seats, behind the visors— nothing. Frustrated she slammed the car door. She walked to the trunk and opened it. Nothing out of the ordinary—a spare tire, oil, transmission fluid, first aid kit, brake fluid, gas can and tool kit. The doc was certainly prepared. She was getting ready to close the trunk when she saw a piece of paper sticking out from behind the gas can.
“Well what do you know?” she said as she picked the paper up.
She turned and walked back to the car. This will certainly help us. We definitely need to go check it out. They silently drove away from the house.
CHAPTER one hundred and five
Ezekiel looked again at the directions inside the envelope. He handed the envelope to Katy as he pulled away from the gas station. If we are lucky, we will get there within a few hours. Ezekiel was worried about Serenity. She had not spoken a single word since they had left the church. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else. Katy glanced over at Serenity sitting in the backseat.
“Everything is going to turn out alright, dear,” she said trying to comfort Serenity.
“Zeke? What is this all about? Who were those people?” Katy asked shakily.
“I don’t know, Katy. Serenity, do you know what’s going on?” Ezekiel replied.
Serenity stared at Ezekiel and Katy in the front seat. She turned and looked out of the window. Although Serenity was extremely quiet, her mind was at work. Those people were at the hotel before the bombing. Why? They came to Katy’s home. Why? Some people came looking for me at the hospital. Who were they? Why were they looking for me? She turned and looked out of the back window. She was afraid that somehow they were following them. Serenity wished that she had all of her memory back.
She wondered when she would get it back. Serenity had a feeling she had forgotten something really important. What was it?
“I am not sure exactly what is going on. All I know is that this has something to do with the bombing at the hotel. Those people are connected somehow, but I do not know how just yet. I still do not know why people are after me. I wish that I knew,” Serenity said quietly.
Katy looked at Ezekiel. She was not sure why exactly, but she still did not trust Serenity. Katy wondered if all of this had anything to do with the reason why Serenity had been on the base. Is it possible they were after Serenity because of the top secret project? Is it possible that all of this has something to do with Operation Dark Angel? This can’t all be connected. She glanced back at Serenity. Something about her just didn’t set well with her. Katy was starting to regret taking her to one of the safe houses; maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. She decided to pray about the situation and to let God give her the answer.
Ezekiel glanced at Katy and Serenity in the rearview mirror. Katy was acting oddly. I wonder what’s going on with Katy. This is not like her. I will have to have a little chat with her soon. Ezekiel continued to drive towards the safe house.
Katy glanced around behind them. Is my mind playing tricks on me or has that third car been behind us an awfully long time? Are we being followed? She stared at the car, but then it turned off at the next exit. She turned back around in her seat. She fiddled with the radio, she couldn’t find a single gospel channel so she turned the radio back off.
“Is something wrong Katy?” Ezekiel whispered. Katy looked at him.