Cursed Blessing (Trilogy of the Chosen Book 1)

by J. M. LeDuc

  They slowly let go of each other’s hands. When Chloe got up, she went over to Maddie and gave her a big hug.

  “All right, you two,” Brent said. “We all need to get some rest. Tomorrow is a big day.”

  “What big day?”

  “We still have to find the formula.”

  “Wait,” Maddie exclaimed, “I have to tell you two about my conversation with Ferric. It has to do with The Endowment.”

  “When did you speak to him last?” Brent asked.

  “He called me as soon as I got back to my car after the hit on Lucille. He said now that I have proven my loyalty, I have twenty-four hours to retrieve the formula or find you and Chloe.”

  “And if you don’t?”

  “If I don’t, he said, I would be dead by the morning of the next day. I told him I didn’t think either of you knew anything about any formula, but he said that was none of my concern. He said my job was only to find you and that he’d let Thomas do the interrogation, that way he’d know for sure if you knew anything or not.”

  “Before we continue, Maddie, I need to know one thing,” Brent said.

  “I was wondering when you’d ask.”

  “Ask what?” Chloe said.

  “Why did you choose to work with Ferric in the first place?”

  “I didn’t choose him, he chose me. When I was first approached, I agreed to meet with him because I knew that Joseph’s meeting with him and his ‘heart attack’ at the diner had to be connected. I wanted to see if he would let anything slip, if I could get any information. When Ferric and I met, he talked about some secret that Joseph supposedly had in his possession. I didn’t even know that it was a formula, at that point.

  “He said that I, being the closest to Joseph, would be able to help him track it down. I told him I wasn’t interested and got up to leave. As I was walking out, he said he would hate to see such a beautiful woman like myself die of an unexpected sudden heart attack, and wouldn’t I reconsider.

  “I had so much hate built up in me for him at that point I could have killed him. When I turned around to face him, he threw an envelope at my feet and told me to open it. It contained everything about my life—my childhood, my years in Atlanta and every assignment I was ever part of with S.I.A. He said if I didn’t help him, he would release the information to every major newspaper in the country. With one push of a button, he would distribute the fax at that very moment if I didn’t agree.

  “I don’t know if you can understand but, at that time, without Joseph and without Christ in my life, my reputation was the only thing I had. I couldn’t let him take that from me, too.”

  “What made you switch sides?”

  “Everything changed when he involved Lucille. My love and respect for her outweighed any I had for myself. I knew the moment we spoke on the phone, when you told me what had happened to her, that I had to help bring Ferric to justice, no matter what the personal consequences.”

  “Thank you for your honesty,” Brent said. “Now, let’s get to work.”

  Brent walked to the front of the room, picked up a dry erase marker and started writing on the board. “First things first,” he said. “Ferric doesn’t know about the tunnel system, or where to find us, so, until further notice, you two do not leave these rooms. The second thing is that we must find the formula before he does. Lucille said that the information contained in the letters from my grandfather and Joseph were all we needed to find the formula. So, in the morning, after we’ve all had some sleep, we’ll review the clues. For now, it’s lights out. Maddie, you take the couch in the suite with Lucille. I’ll move the couch from my office into the first room behind the wall. Chloe, you’ll sleep there.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “But you…”

  “No buts, that’s an order.”

  CHAPTER 45

  Chloe woke up at six thirty the next morning to find Maddie at Lucille’s bedside. They were deeply engrossed in conversation that brought tears and laughter to each of them. Chloe smiled as she walked past them. She headed to the kitchen where she smelled fresh coffee brewing. She yawned and wiped the sleepers from her eyes. Susan sat at the table, going through the medical supplies.

  Chloe raised her arms overhead, yawned and stretched to get the kinks out of her back from her night’s sleep on the couch. “Excuse me,” she said, “that was rude.”

  “Not at all. Good morning. How did you sleep?”

  “Like a rock. How about you?”

  “Not very well,” Susan said and motioned for Chloe to move closer. Susan didn’t want Lucille to overhear, so Chloe sat next to Susan. “Lucille had me worried last night. That seizure took a lot out of her. She told me she had adult-onset diabetes, but didn’t want me to say anything, so no one would worry. I took her blood this morning and her sugar is pretty high. I called in a prescription for glucophage, and that should help regulate her blood sugar without any insulin injections. I’m waiting on Brent to get back and then I’ll ask him how he wants to pick it up.”

  Chloe’s eyes opened wide. That last sentence was enough to fully wake her up. “Get back from where? Brent went out? Where did he go?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Susan said. “He said that when you woke up to tell you he went for breakfast and to do a little looking around. He said not to worry, he’d be right back.”

  “He did what? Oooh, I swear, one of these days he’s going to get it.”

  “Get what?” asked a voice behind them.

  Chloe turned to see Brent holding a bag of food. “Stop sneaking up on people,” she scolded. “I’m going to hang a bell around your neck so I’ll know when you’re around.”

  “Mmmm, something smells good,” Maddie said as she walked into the kitchen. “I like the bell idea, Chloe. He’s like a ghost. He nearly gave me a heart attack last night.”

  “Nag, nag, nag, you two better be nice to me or I won’t give you any of this food.”

  The girls looked at each other and smiled. “We’ll be nice,” Maddie said.

  “For now,” Chloe added.

  “I’ll take what I can get.” Brent handed the bag to Chloe. She opened it and looked inside.

  “Egg sandwiches, danishes and orange juice,” Brent said, as if reading her thoughts.

  Maddie brought a sandwich to Lucille and separated the bread from the egg, then cut up the egg and cheese, making it easier for her to eat. She noticed that Lucille was having a hard time focusing on the food on her plate, and, when Maddie spoke to her, staying in the moment. She was fading in and out of the conversation.

  “Susan,” Maddie called, “come here.”

  Susan quickly walked over to Lucille and knew instantly something was wrong. “It’s her blood sugar,” she said. “We need to bring it down.” To Brent, she said, “We need the medication.”

  Brent and Chloe joined Maddie and Susan.

  “I called in a prescription for her at the drugstore down the street. We need to send someone to pick it up.”

  “Send me, I’ll go,” Chloe said.

  “No, it’s too dangerous.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “Brent’s right, it’s too dangerous. I’ll go.”

  Brent looked at Maddie, “No one’s going anywhere.”

  “But we need the medication now, or Lucille might…” Susan urged.

  Brent held up his hand to stop Susan from ranting and reached for his cell phone. “Hi, Joan, sorry to wake you up so early. I need a favor. Will you go to the Coastal Pharmacy and pick up a prescription for…?”

  He looked at Susan.

  “Mary Collins.”

  “It’s for Mary Collins. Bring it to the library. I need you to rush, Joan.”

  Brent listened quietly to Joan. “Front door. I’ll shut off the alarm and unlock the g
ate.”

  “She’ll be here in twenty minutes,” Brent announced. “She only lives down the street. Who’s Mary Collins?” he asked Susan.

  “My mother. Since Lucille is supposed to be dead, I didn’t think using her name was too smart.”

  “You’re catching on quick,” Brent said, and winked.

  “In the meantime,” Susan said, “we need to keep her conscious. Keep talking to her.”

  “I need to unlock the front door. I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Chloe said and grabbed Brent’s hand. When they reached the main lobby, she said, “Brent, I feel useless, I feel like I’m more of a liability than an asset.”

  He stopped and faced her. “Miss Adler, you are many things, a liability is not one of them, and you are certainly not useless.”

  “It just seems that everyone here has a purpose, a job, but I’m just floundering.”

  “You’re not floundering. You’re the most valuable asset this team has right now, you’re pure.” Chloe looked at Brent with a confused look on her face. “I mean, unbiased. Every other member, including me, reads things and sees things through tainted vision. Whether it’s tainted because of a background in the military, the government or medicine, it doesn’t matter. It’s still tainted. What makes your perspective so important, so vital, is that it’s untainted, it’s pure. I need that perspective.”

  Chloe kissed him on the lips and squeezed him tight. “Thank you. I don’t know if that was a bunch of bull or the truth, but it makes me feel better. Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  “Just a little less than I love you, and it’s the truth. Now let’s unlock the door.”

  They walked to the front door and Brent disarmed the security system. He reached under the alarm keypad and pulled down a taped spare key he kept there in case of emergencies.

  “You’re such a Boy Scout,” Chloe said when Brent peeled the tape from the key. He turned the knob to release the dead bolt and then unlocked the front doors. He opened the doors just enough to reach the metal gate that protected the doors from the outside. Using the key, he unlocked the iron gate and quickly closed the doors. He had left the gate unlocked for Joan before. She would know to push the gates open.

  Across the street in the same café where Maddie had first spied on Brent were the two cops on Ferric’s payroll. They’d been there since they left the hospital the night before. Ferric thought that once Brent knew Lucille had been killed, he would go to a place where he was comfortable and felt safe.

  One of the cops was reading the morning paper to see if there was any mention of the old lady’s death. He was just taking a sip of coffee when his partner slapped him on the shoulder. His coffee spilled all over the paper and his shirt.

  “Hey! What did you do that for?”

  “Shut up and look. There’s that library guy. He’s been in there this whole time. Let’s go work him over and drag him to Mr. Ferric.”

  “No, Ferric was explicit. If we spot him, we are to call Thomas and let him take care of it. We’re just supposed to keep an eye on him. Give me your cell phone.” He dialed Thomas’ number while he dabbed his shirt with a napkin.

  When Thomas answered, the cop said, “It’s Banks. You were right. He’s in the library. The girl? We didn’t see her, but she’s probably in there with him. Do you want us to go and…Okay, it’s your show.”

  “What’d he say?”

  “Stay put and call him if they leave.”

  Thomas was still in bed, but now the call made him wide awake. He called James and told him to get ready. He would pick him up in thirty minutes.

  Brent and Chloe went back into his office and waited for Joan. Exactly twenty minutes after Brent had called her, she walked up the steps of the library, pushed open the gate and walked inside. The library was still dark but the light coming from under Brent’s door guided her. It felt weird to her. She was used to coming in after Brent and having the place all lit up. I feel like I’m in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, she thought. She looked down at her arms and saw goose bumps. If I hear music from the Twilight Zone, I’m outta here.

  She followed the light back to Brent’s office and opened the door. Brent and Chloe were sitting in his office. Joan looked past them to the open bookcase and the rooms behind it. She dropped the bag and her purse and stared. “Oh, you’re really freaking me out now,” she said.

  Brent heard the fear in her voice. In a soft, gentle tone, he told her she wasn’t hallucinating and that everything was okay. Chloe picked up Joan’s purse and the bag from the pharmacy and hugged her. Joan looked at Chloe, then at Brent, and said, “You’ve been busy, I see. Is this what you’ve been doing after the library closes at night?”

  Brent chuckled and walked over to her. “It’s nice to see that waking you up early and scaring the stuffing out of you hasn’t dulled your sarcasm any.”

  “Whatever,” Joan said and took her purse from Chloe. She handed the bag to Brent. “What is this place? Some sort of secret club or something?”

  “You’ll never know how right you are on that one,” came a voice from behind the bookcase. Joan looked over to see Maddie walking into view. “I guess it’s about time we were introduced properly. I’m Maddie Smith, and you are?”

  “Freaked out. I think I’m Joan, but right now, if you told me otherwise, I’d probably agree with you.” She pointed to the rooms Maddie had just come from. “If Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs walk out next, there’d better be a diamond mine back there.” Everyone laughed as Brent waved them inside.

  “Joan…?” Maddie asked.

  “Just Joan.”

  Maddie looked over at Brent who shrugged and said, “It’s just Joan. She never gave me a last name when I hired her.”

  “What possessed you to hire her if she wouldn’t give you her last name?”

  “I would have given him one, but I don’t have one. That’s the truth,” Joan said.

  “I believed her,” Brent said, “besides, how could I say no to the eyebrow and nose piercings, not to mention the pink and green spiked hair?”

  “Flattery won’t get you any free overtime, mister. So, who is the medicine for?”

  “Come on, and I’ll introduce you to the lady of the hour.”

  They walked into the living quarters where Susan was trying to keep Lucille comfortable.

  “Thank God, she made it,” Susan said, looking at Joan and taking the bag out of Brent’s hand, all at the same time. “Darned childproof caps. You could be dead by the time you get these caps off.”

  “Here, let me,” Joan said. She took the bottle from Susan, turned it upside down and slammed it on the table. Everyone jumped. “Oops, sorry. It breaks the childproof part of the cap.” She handed the bottle back to Susan who was able to unscrew it easy as pie.

  “I’ll be darned,” she said and took two tablets out of the bottle, crushing them between two spoons. “Open your mouth, sweetie,” she said to Lucille. “This is going to make you feel much better.” A weak Lucille opened her mouth as wide as she could.

  “Good girl. Now lift up your tongue. That’s it, dear.”

  “Why under the tongue?” Chloe asked.

  “Because the capillaries are so close to the surface there, and the skin is thin so the medication gets into the bloodstream much faster.”

  Lucille closed her mouth and scrunched her face, showing by her expression how bitter it tasted.

  “Just another few seconds, sweetie, and then I’ll give you a drink.”

  Susan let Lucille sip some diet ginger ale through a straw while she took her blood sugar. “There, that’s much better. Almost normal.”

  “Susan, if you have everything under control in here, I need Maddie and Chloe to come with me. I need you, Joan, to go out front and resume your normal daily activities.”

  “Would tha
t be your normal,” she said, looking around, “or my normal? And could someone please tell me what this place is and why it’s here?”

  “First,” Brent said, “I’m not sure you have a normal, so just do what it is that you do. Second, when this is all over, I’ll tell you everything and give you the grand tour. But, until then, the less you know, the better off you are. Now, please, go back out front.” Joan looked at him and put her hands on her hips in one final gesture of defiance.

  Maddie put her hands on Joan’s shoulders and turned her around. “Listen to Brent. If there’s one person in this world you can trust, it’s him.”

  “How do you know?” Joan asked, feet planted, not ready to move.

  “Because I do. And he’s only the second man in my entire life that I’ve trusted. So, let’s go.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve got you beat. He’s the only man in my life I’ve ever trusted,” Joan said, and she started to walk away.

  “Joan,” Brent said.

  “What now?” she said.

  “Thank you…for everything.”

  “Err. I’ll be out front if you need me. Just buzz the intercom. I’ll make a new pot of coffee in case anyone wants it,” she yelled as she shut Brent’s office door.

  “Okay, you two,” Brent said, pointing to Maddie and Chloe. “Let’s leave Susan and Lucille alone. We have a lot of work to do in the map room.”

  The two followed Brent into the conference room and sat down near the dry erase board. Brent picked up the marker and wrote as he talked. He drew a line down the center of the board.

  “On one side, we have the clues left to us by my grandfather and Joseph, and on the other side, we have to decipher their meaning. So, let’s begin.”