The White Warrior

by Marilyn Donnellan

  The men opened the door and moved into the kitchen where Brogan worked on lunch. As she puttered in the kitchen, Stephen told her what happened, and ask both to forgive him for the way he had been acting and his mistakes with Hernandez, “But especially for saying what I did to you, Bryan.” His eyes welled up in tears as he said it, turning away to go take a shower.

  After lunch they discussed his options.

  “I know,” Bryan said as he snapped his fingers, “I start work for MC Carusco in the fall. It is a different province, but he might have a suggestion on to deal with a corrupt MC in California Province.”

  He looked at his solar watch. Now is probably as good time a time as any to contact one of MC Carusco’s aides, Scotty Wilson, who Bryan already met. Bryan went to the den and made the vid-phone call to him. When he came back to the kitchen where Steve and Brogan were cleaning up after lunch, he gave them a thumbs-up.

  “Scotty said he will ask MC Carusco and call me back as soon as he had an answer.”

  Within an hour, MC Carusco himself called.

  “Bryan,” MC Carusco said, in his booming voice, “So sorry to hear about your mother’s death. My deepest condolences to you and your father. But I hear from Scotty you’ve another problem I might be able to help you with?”

  “Thank you, sir, for calling me back. Here is my father, Stephen Douglass. I’ll let him tell you himself what has been going on.”

  As Bryan moved away from in front of the vid-phone, making room for his Dad, he noticed how nervous he was. He put his hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze as he sat down with Brogan on the nearby leather sofa and listened to the conversation. Stephen insisted they stay. They agreed ahead of time they would say the reason for not going to local law enforcement was because they did not know how far Hernandez’s influence reached, rather than mentioning anything about Book Liberators.

  Taking a deep breath, Stephen told MC Carusco the whole story. When he finished, there was a deafening silence as MC Carusco considered possible solutions.

  “I can see how you got stuck in the situation and why you cannot go to local authorities. Let me contact someone I know at the empire’s judicial law enforcement bureau. You just sit tight. If I don’t get back to you it doesn’t mean I’m not working on it. They will probably contact you directly, Mr. Douglass. Bryan, I’ll see you in a couple of months. Again, my condolences.”

  And the connection broke. Stephen sat back in the chair, obvious relief on his face.

  “Thanks, son. I’m sure I can sleep now. I have no idea if I’ll go to prison, but I’ll be glad to if it will put Hernandez away.”

  He stood up. “Now, it is time the two of you get on with your honeymoon,” a smile on his face for the first time since Alice died.

  At first, they insisted on staying a few more days, but Stephen was adamant they continue their trip. He knew Janice probably waited for them in Salt Lake City, even though she had not returned any of their calls or responded to their text messages.

  “Knowing Janice, she is probably in a cave somewhere unable to call,” Brogan said with an understanding smile. “We did not set a definite date for our arrival and she said she would be there for several weeks.”

  Now Stephen was better, Bryan was more at ease leaving him. The couple started filling their backpacks, deciding to leave the next day. Stephen drove them to the train in the morning, after they visited Alice’s gravesite.

  “I’ll let you know what happens with Hernandez,” he told them as they said their goodbyes. “Thank you so much for helping me through everything. Bryan, your mother would be so proud of you. And, Brogan, even though she did not have much time to get to know you, she told me how pleased she was to finally have a daughter.”

  Everyone had tears in their eyes as they said goodbye. It was hard, especially for Bryan, to leave his Dad, knowing prison was a possibility in the future. But prison was a possibility for them, too, with their Book Liberator’s work. They had no choice but to move forward.

  The trip to Salt Lake City, about 435 miles, was only two hours by train, so they arrived at noon. They continued to attempt to reach Janice by phone but there was still no answer, so they decided to go out to the Granite Mountain Vault to see if she had arrived yet.

  They rented a robo-car for the short trip. They saw only one other car in the parking lot of the visitor center at the vault. They left their backpacks in the car and walked up to the visitor center check-in. They asked about Janice. The young pimply-faced guide told them she arrived a week earlier. He pointed back to the parking lot.

  “That’s her robo-car there, but I haven’t seen her since I showed her to the office Supervisor Jackson assigned to her. She told me she expected somebody. ‘Guess that was you?”

  “Yes, we’re students at the university, here to help her with the research. Direct us to her office, please?” Brogan asked.

  “I’ll check with Supervisor Jackson first, who’ll give you security badges. You wait here.” He turned and opened the massive entrance door and disappeared inside. In about 15 minutes he reappeared with Jackson waddling behind him.

  “I’m Supervisor Jackson. I want you to know I haven’t seen Dr. Wu since the first day,” he said with a scowl. “She said she was going exploring. I told her to be careful. Who knows what happened to her. It’s not my fault if something did.”

  Brogan and Bryan looked at each other in shock at Jackson’s callous disregard for Janice’s fate.

  “Can we come in and look for her?”

  “Absolutely not!” Jackson said indignantly. “This is empire property. We don’t let people wander around. So, unless there is something else I can do for you, you need to leave this property before I call law enforcement.”

  The couple turned away and headed back to the car. Bryan spoke first.

  “What do we do now? You saw how impregnable the place is. We obviously can’t force our way in. And the supervisor’s lack of concern is not only puzzling but also suspicious.”

  “I’m stumped. But I did manage to grab one of the tourist vids out of the tourist guide’s stand while he went to get Jackson,” Brogan said, holding up the vid chip in triumph. “Maybe it has a map on it to give us some ideas on other ways inside.”

  “Honey,” Bryan said with a grin, “You are devious, and I love you for it! Now, before we look, let’s go somewhere a bit more private.”

  Brogan programmed the car to head back the way they had come. When she located a pull-off space, she directed the car to pull over. Bryan slipped the chip into his vid-phone and scrolled forward until a map appeared. He switched the phone to hologram mode and the map appeared in front of them. They saw the three front entrances to the vault.

  “What’s this?” Brogan asked, pointing to what appeared to be an outside exit on the north side of the Vault.

  They looked closer. The exit appeared to come out on Little Cottonwood Canyon Rd, northwest side of Granite Mountain, their only option, apparently. They drove almost all the way back to Salt Lake City before the car identified the crooked road they sought. As they headed east on the rough road, Bryan tried to find any evidence of where the vault exit might be. The map was useless, so they had to guess. They decided the exit must be hidden. The road came to a dead end after a couple of hours of driving east, so they decided to park the car and go hiking.

  They pulled out their back packs, checked to make sure they had enough water, protein bars and other supplies, left unnecessary items in the locked car, and headed up the north face of Granite Mountain moving east.

  Chapter Eight

  More Trouble in the Vault

  Janice stepped into chamber four. It quickly became pitch black inside as the door silently closed behind her. Apparently, sensor lights were not working. She stopped before going any further, fumbled around in her backpack for her headlamp and switched it on as she placed it on her head. An experienced caver, she knew better than to move from where she stood until she could see. Her stomac
h dropped as the light revealed a huge cave-in just a few feet in front of her. If she hadn’t halted she would have had a nasty fall.

  Light did not penetrate to the bottom, so she looked around for something to drop down the hole to get an idea of how deep it was. She picked up a large stone, leaned over and let it fall, counting seconds until she heard it hit the bottom with a splash. If she estimated one foot per second, it was at least a 30-foot drop, and apparently into an underground pool or river. It probably connected to an underground spring the vault used as their source of water.

  She carefully looked around. The width of the hole appeared to be only about ten feet, but it was too far for her to jump, even if she had enough space for a running start. The left side of the hole was totally blocked by a pile of rubble from filing cabinets and granite from the ceiling. From the looks of the blackened edges of the granite, the cave-in occurred from an explosion. To the right was a small ledge she might be able to navigate to the other side. Funny how the explosion looked like it had come from the far end of the chamber, opposite from where she stood.

  Methodically, Janice reviewed her options. To go back meant undoubtedly running into Jackson or his henchmen. If they did not know about chamber four she had a chance of getting away, especially if there were exits from any of the three unlisted chambers. She did not have much choice. She just hoped she had enough supplies to last for whatever confronted her. She had no way of letting Bryan, Brogan or anyone else know where she was or what had happened. She was too far under the mountain for any electronic communication.

  Although each chamber appeared to be less than 60-feet long, the piles of rubble she expected to find as she moved forward would significantly slow her progress. There seemed to be no way around the rubble on her left, so she hitched up her backpack and moved carefully along the narrow ledge to the right of the gaping hole, carefully looking for places to mark her progress every ten feet with her invisible-ink pen.

  She worked her way almost around the hole, until she saw a pile of rubble blocking the path. The pile appeared to go all the way to the granite ceiling, at least twenty-six feet up. Looking up, she saw a gap at the top of the pile. She pulled on her climbing gloves, confident she could wiggle through the gap. She started up, carefully testing each foot placement. She almost reached the top when her left foot slipped. She now hung by her hands to a pile of loose debris. Her heart pounding, slowly and carefully she lifted herself up until she could find a spot for both feet. Once her footing seemed secure, she carefully took the last step, pulling herself on top of the pile of rubble.

  Fortunately, she was small. Her 95 pounds and slender build just fit into the space at the top. Turning her head to see better, she looked down and noticed an opening at the end of the chamber, probably to chamber number five. The explosion had cut a hole through the door. At least she didn’t need to use her security badge on a door.

  Getting down the far side of the rubble turned out to be easier than going up. She pushed her backpack through the small space as far as it would go. When she heard it hit the floor on the other side of the debris, she started down. But Janice moved cautiously. It was a good thing. Just as she reached the bottom, she heard something shift and felt the rubble begin to tilt toward the hole in the floor. She quickly grabbed her backpack and ran through the massive hole where the door used to be. The pile of rubble fell with a crash into the hole. Anyone who came through the door behind her might have an easier trek to chamber five, but the remaining unstable rubble pile would give them second thoughts about moving forward. Plus, the shift of rubble probably helped to disguise her footprints. They might think she fell into the hole.

  Janice stopped at the entrance, coughing as she waited for dust to settle to see into the chamber ahead of her. Chamber five appeared to be still intact. Lights came on as she entered. Identical filing cabinets stood like sentinels in rows the entire 58 meters, same as in chambers one through three, only these filing cabinets showed no damage. She walked the chamber, touching sides and looking for security pads on brick walls.

  She had about given up, when the wall lit up with a security pad. Must be chamber number six. She saw no other exits in chamber five so chamber six was her last hope. She swiped her security badge and waited for the door to open. Instead of finding more filing cabinets on the other side, she was shocked to find shelves stacked with priceless works of art and thousands of books.

  The motion sensor lights which came on as she stepped into the room, reflecting off statues of what were sure to be artifacts from the Tabernacle and Temple destroyed during the war. Church leaders must have anticipated the purge and had the foresight to hide their most important and valuable items in chamber six. It might not have been terrorists who blocked the entrances to some of the chambers with explosives; maybe it was Mormons. She could also see thousands of containers of micro-chips in file cabinets. She wondered why in the digital age of the last century genealogy records had been on microfiche, but evidently, they were just a decoy. These were the real records.

  She felt a kinship with the Mormons as she thought about how they tried to preserve their heritage in the same way Book Liberators tried to save books. It suddenly hit her. If they sealed the entrances behind them, how did they get out after bringing everything into chamber six? There must be another exit.

  But before she looked for it, she methodically went through the artifacts, taking pictures with her augmented eye implant. Toward the end of her exploration she discovered a small, exquisitely decorated copy of The Pearl of Great Price. She recalled from her research prior to coming to the vault, the book was written by the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith. She had never seen a copy before and couldn’t resist putting it in her backpack. Maybe before she left the vault she would get a chance to read some of it. Right now, however, she needed to focus on finding an exit.

  Janice began to methodically examine the walls around the chamber. After three circuits and finding nothing, she stopped to rest, drink some water and eat a protein bar. She sat with her back against a wall and read a couple of chapters from the book. It wasn’t exactly modern in its style of writing, but rather archaic, so she forced herself to carefully decipher meaning behind the words. It had the same feel as reading fantasy literature.

  It seemed amazing to her millions of Mormon followers regarded it as truth. That must be what faith is all about. After about an hour, she knew she had to keep going, looking for the elusive exit, so she reluctantly stopped reading and stood to her feet.

  Think, Janice. It is doubtful the exit is any higher than my height and I’ve checked every section of the walls from five feet down to the floor. What’s left?

  She looked up. Nah, the ceiling wouldn’t work because a ladder would be left when they exited on the way out. Which leaves only the floor.

  She stood up, left her backpack on the floor and began a step by step examination of every section of the floor she could reach. Nothing. She was exhausted. She leaned her hand against one of the two, seven-foot tall gold statues of the Angel Moroni standing against the wall. A sudden click and the angel began to swivel. Excited, Janice ran back to grab her backpack and just made it through the entrance before it closed. If the exit was blocked at the other end, she would be in big trouble. But for now, she could still move forward. She would worry about a blocked exit if she discovered one.

  Before she started moving down the dark, narrow tunnel, she turned on her head lamp and pulled out the archive map again to see where the tunnel might come out. The exit tunnel for chamber two turned out to be only a half a mile long, but this one had to be a lot longer. From the location of chamber six on the old map, it meandered further east and deeper into the mountain, so logic indicated this exit would, too. She traced her finger along several possible routes.

  It did not seem likely the tunnel came out anywhere near the main entrance to the Vault. The more reasonable expectation would be for them to cut the tunnel north and east through the
mountain. It might be only a half a mile long, if straight. If it wasn’t and turned east, it could go on for several miles. She looked at her watch and decided to walk for a couple of hours. If she hadn’t reached the end of the tunnel by then, she would need to rest. An exhausted caver just set herself up for deadly errors.

  As Janice moved down the narrow tunnel, marking her progress with the pen, she thought about places where books were being hidden across the empire and the various roles council members and BL cells played in the saving of thousands of books. Thanks to the energy grunts, under the direction of Brogan’s parents, Frank and Emily, they sent the word out to people across the huge Texas Province about the need to hide books. Cells sprang up among the solar and wind farms. Books had been transported, often hand to hand, to the closest hiding place.

  With her geological knowledge and connections, Janice established multiple secret book vaults in all four provinces. Cell members often hid books among luggage as they went on holidays in their own provinces. Although California Province was riddled with caves, tightly controlled security at its borders made shipping books into the province difficult. Cell members focused on moving books within their own provinces to designated hiding spots.

  Juan was responsible for the expansion of BL cells in Texas Province, with Janice overseeing books secreted away in many different locations: Strataca, an abandoned salt museum in Kansas; Inner Space Cavern, south of Austin, and dozens of other caves; Chiquibul in Belize, Central America; Purificacion Cave System and Cheve Cave System in Mexico; and Medicine Hole and Bear Cave in North Dakota. Council believed the more books they hid in more locations; the better off future generations would be.

  She frequently moved from province to province, checking to make sure the best caves were used, and books were stored properly. She used sabbatical assignments for course research as reasons for her travels. Her research showed it important to store books in cooler, less humid caves. A specialist in document preservation told her books were best preserved in wax-coated boxes. Since many produce boxes used for shipping from Chicago Province had wax-coating inside, communications to BL cells included instructions on how to get hold of boxes as produce arrived in their province.