Cursed Blessing (Trilogy of the Chosen Book 1)

by J. M. LeDuc

  “Man, give me a chance to answer, will you?”

  “Joan, hush. Did Chloe page you about forty minutes ago about going back to the pharmacy?”

  “No, this is the first time I heard from any of you since I left the hole.” Then she remembered, “But I did see her.”

  “You saw her? When?”

  “About that same time. I was talking to city officials about the historical status, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her leave the library.”

  “Leave? Are you sure?”

  “Positive. I was going to say something, but I didn’t want to interrupt the city officials. Is everything okay?”

  “No, everything’s not okay. Get back here now!”

  When she walked into Brent’s office, he was talking to Maddie. “It shouldn’t take more than twenty, thirty minutes tops, to get there and back. Something’s wrong, dead wrong.”

  “It’s Ferric’s men. They must have followed her.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “Yes, we do,” said a soft voice from behind them. They turned to see Lucille standing in the doorway, leaning on Susan for support. “Maddie’s right, Brent, it’s definitely Donavan and his men. You have to act fast. They’ll hurt her, and maybe—”

  “Stop, I don’t want you to say those words,” he said brusquely. Brent could feel emotion—unwanted and unneeded emotion—seep into his thoughts. “We’ll get her back, I promise.”

  Brent walked to the wall safe and removed two handguns and a box of shells. “Susan, take Lucille back to the other room where she can rest. Joan, go back up front. If anyone even looks at you funny, call 9-1-1 and tell them an officer has been shot.”

  “But there hasn’t been an—”

  “It’s the quickest response time. Do it!” he shouted. He looked her straight in the eye, trying to calm down. “Do it, please. Now, get back out front.”He loaded and locked the clips into the guns and then handed one to Maddie. He put the other in the waistband of his jeans.

  “Let’s go,” he said. The two left the office and went into the storeroom.

  “Hey, hold on. What’s the plan?”

  “I don’t have one. Let’s move!”

  Just as Brent was about to open the back door, Maddie yelled, “Captain!”

  He stopped and turned.

  “Captain,” she repeated in a quieter voice, “we need a plan. Ferric is almost as dangerous as the Omega Butcher. We can’t just barge in. We’ll be dead before the door opens…and so will Chloe.”

  Brent was so filled with anger and frustration he thought he’d explode. He looked to the heavens for guidance. Two deep breaths cleared his head of his dark emotions, and then he prayed, “Show me the way, Lord. Show us the way. I know you didn’t bring Chloe back into my life just to take her away again, so please, help us get to her. And Lord, please cover Chloe with the protection of the Holy Spirit until we get there. In Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.”

  “In Christ, we both pray. Amen,” Maddie added.

  Brent inhaled deeply and crouched low. Maddie watched as his eyes rolled back, and she could only see the whites as he fell into a trance-like state. Without moving and almost without breathing, he stayed in that position for almost ten minutes. He came out of the trance the same way he went into it. His eyes rolled forward and then he stood up. Maddie noticed a peace about him, in his movements and in the tone of his voice.

  “Maddie, you’re the only one who can get into the compound. You’re to contact Ferric and tell him you found me. Tell him you were able to get the formula from me. He still thinks I’m just a librarian, so he’ll believe you. Tell him that you told me if I go to the police, I’d be dead within twenty-four hours.” Then he grabbed Maddie by the shoulders and said, “I’m counting on you to do whatever it takes to keep yourself and Chloe alive until tomorrow morning. Understand?”

  “Loud and clear, Captain. What are you going to do?”

  His expression went from one of total peace to one that chilled her to the bone. “Finish this,” is all he said.

  He opened the back door to allow her to leave and then covered her while she made her way back to her car. Once he’d seen her drive away, he doubled back into the library. Safely inside the storeroom again, he pulled out his satellite phone and texted 27.1 80.0 1 and then sent it into cyberspace, hoping it would find its way. From there, he headed into the tunnel room.

  “How are you?” he asked Lucille.

  “Physically, I’m fine,” she answered, “I’ve seen that look before, though. Come close, please.”

  Brent grabbed some last-minute supplies and put them into his backpack. He didn’t want anything Lucille had to say change his demeanor. “I need to go, Lucille, we’ll talk when I get back.”

  Sternly, authoritatively, like a parent, Lucille punctuated each word with a pause. “Come here, please.”

  Brent put his backpack on and reluctantly went to her, then knelt down. “I’ve already lost Joseph, I don’t plan on losing you, too. So please, be careful. Joseph used to say the only thing worse than doing nothing was doing something out of anger and desperation, so please…”

  Brent placed his finger gently over her lips. “Shh, my grandfather used to say the same thing. Don’t you worry. I’m not going anywhere. I promise to be careful. I’ll see you tomorrow…with Chloe.”

  “And men don’t break their promises, do they?”

  “No, ma’am.” Brent kissed the back of her hand, stood up and then headed for the tunnel entrance. Her last words played over and over in his head, like some sort of distant memory, just not one he could place. Brent wiped it from his mind and ran through the tunnel, back to his house.

  CHAPTER 47

  Brent ran as quickly as he could through the tunnel to his destination. When he came to the fork, he slowed down because he knew it was just a short distance to his home. Arriving at the tunnel entrance to his house, he was about to shut the lights off, thereby opening the door, when he spotted words etched in the stone wall beneath the breaker. He wiped the dirt and dust away from the wall and read:

  All that we have and love

  Is a gift from God

  Care for it and protect it

  As if he were watching

  Images of Chloe ran through his mind so fast that he couldn’t have stopped them even if he’d wanted to. Brent placed his hand over the words and prayed, God, please keep her safe. “Hang in there, babe,” he whispered, “I’m coming.”

  He flipped the breaker to douse the lights. He could hear the steel door disengage and slide open. Brent climbed the stairs and removed the filter and grate. Once inside his basement, he replaced them. He walked across the room to turn off the lights, in the process, shutting the entrance to the tunnel. He took his pistol from his waistband and opened the door into his foyer. He didn’t expect to encounter anyone, but one thing he’d learned in his training, and perhaps greater than all the rest, was to expect the unexpected. He made his way upstairs to find his apartment in slightly better shape than he’d expected. Until he saw his bedroom. The marauders had turned it upside down looking for the formula. They must have taken out their frustration by breaking everything when they didn’t find it. Even the Tiffany lamp had been smashed. Everything he saw and touched reminded him of Chloe. This is no good, he thought.

  “Too much emotion will get you killed,” was one of the most important tenets Seven taught him. It was the one thing above all his training and knowledge that kept him alive, where others didn’t fare as well. He’d had his team say those words aloud and together before every mission.

  Brent went over to his computer, which surprisingly still worked. He booted up the hard drive and went directly to the Web site Maddie had given him to get into the S.I.A. portal. He typed the password trust and entered the secured area. Within seconds of typing in Ferric’s address, a m
ap of his compound popped into view. Brent enlarged it and printed it, as well as a map of Palm Cove. He checked the weather, ocean currents and conditions before he turned the computer off.

  Brent placed all the freshly-printed documents into his backpack. It was Three thirty p.m., approximately three hours since Chloe had been snatched by Ferric’s men, and about an hour-and-a-half since Maddie should have arrived at the compound. Brent hoped and prayed she was as good at her job as he was at his. If so, Chloe would be safe…for a while. It was also a couple of hours before sunset. Brent could do nothing more until dark. He needed a shower to help him stay focused. It was going to be a long night.

  He caught a glimpse of the deep burn scars on his back before he climbed into the shower. They were constant reminders of his past and now his present life. The burns were a gift from Butcher.

  It was the one time he didn’t follow his own protocol. He had arrived earlier than expected at the killer’s hideout. Brent had planned to hide in waiting for the next twenty minutes until the rest of his squad was in place. But screams coming from Charlotte Dupree, the Vice-president’s daughter, were too much for him to ignore, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to wait.

  The Butcher got off on seeing fear in his victim’s eyes. He’d tell them what he planned to do with them before he did it. From Brent’s vantage point, he heard the psycho tell Charlotte that he was Satan’s angel and he planned to drip boiling oil on her exposed flesh. He said he was feeling benevolent so he would start on the not-so-sensitive areas: arms and legs, before getting to the fun part. Brent could hear excitement in his voice as he said how he would love watching the skin of this Ivy League, snotty-nose princess burn.

  Charlotte cried so loud it was hard for Brent to hear. What he did manage to hear, after she begged for mercy, was that the Butcher intended to pour the oil on her genitals and then beat her to death with his bare hands. Her only chance to stay alive was to quit screaming as the oil hit her flesh and peeled the skin away from her body.

  Brent wasn’t about to let that happen. With Charlotte’s first scream as the first drop of oil fell, he made himself known and looked into what he would later say was the face of Satan. From his hiding place across the room, Brent put two bullets into the Butcher. The Omega Butcher was so stunned that he picked up the entire vat of boiling oil expecting to hurl it at the petrified girl. Before he could throw it, Brent ran across the room and covered her with his body, in the process, taking the entire pot of oil on his own back.

  The killer dropped the pot, looked down at his charred hands and laughed as he fell to the ground. Brent passed out at Charlotte Dupree’s feet. That’s the way they all stayed until the squad showed up. Seven had been amazed that both Brent and the Butcher were still alive. He’d wanted to put a bullet into the killer’s head, but knew that wasn’t the way Brent would want it to end. Instead, he called 9-1-1 and waited for help to arrive.

  Brent shook the memory from his mind and stepped under the hot shower. A short time later, cleaned and revitalized, he stood in front of his vanity mirror. With a pair of scissors, he cut his long hair as short as he could. With the clippers, he cut the rest off until it was nothing but stubble. You never want to give them anything to grab onto, he’d told his men, just in case you have to fight in close quarters. Then he thought, I hope Chloe likes the new look.

  He walked to the back wall of his closet and tapped on it until he found the hollow spot. He reached back and drove his fist straight through the drywall. With both hands, he tore out the rest, until he felt a full-sized military-issued duffel bag.

  The bag was heavy, weighing over a hundred pounds. With both hands, Brent lowered the bag to the ground and then dragged it into his bedroom. Unzipping the bag, he pulled the contents onto his bed. They included automatic and semi-automatic weapons, knives of different sizes and weights, and weapons of the martial arts, such as shuriken (Ninja stars). Then he removed climbing and diving equipment, including a wet suit, mask, fins and snorkel.

  Brent’s squad uniform lay at the bottom of the bag. It consisted of a long-sleeve, black t-shirt, lightweight cotton black pants with loops and buckles around the waist, black socks and solid black lightweight running shoes. He got dressed and then put his gear together. He removed each knife from its sheath, checked the blade for sharpness and then hooked them onto his pants. He clipped the stars onto a pant leg where they could be located and thrown with one continuous motion. Last, he packed his fins, snorkel, mask and four, stage-two emergency air cylinders into his waterproof backpack, along with his wetsuit and guns.

  He looked at the clock: 4:30. Brent went back into his bathroom and using shoe polish, blackened out his entire face. Brent grabbed his backpack and left his room to head back down to the basement. His eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. He stretched out, using his backpack as a pillow, resting until it was time to leave. He had to wait for darkness before he could make his next move.

  CHAPTER 48

  As soon as Maddie drove out of the parking lot of the apartment building where she’d left her car, she called Ferric. As the phone rang, she could feel the some of the old Maddie returning. She would need that attitude if she was going to pull this off.

  Coughing, he said, “Hello, Miss Smith.”

  “Good afternoon, sir. I hope your goons recovered the gift I left for them.”

  He hesitated before he spoke. “I don’t know what you’re referring to, Miss Smith.”

  “You don’t? I practically gift-wrapped the girlfriend and deposited her in the pharmacy for them. They didn’t screw up again, did they?”

  He gurgled and wheezed into her ear. “No, they did not foul up again. The gift is here, sitting across from me now. I was just going to have Thomas start the interrogation process.”

  “That won’t be necessary, sir.”

  “Excuse me, Miss Smith?”

  “I have recovered the formula and it’s in my possession. It’s quite a find, I must say.”

  “You know what the formula is capable of, Miss Smith?”

  “It came with a note from Joseph to Mr. Venturi. I know everything.”

  “I’ll expect you shortly then, Miss Smith.”

  “Under one stipulation, Mr. Ferric.”

  “You’re calling the shots now? Do you think that’s wise?”

  “Under the circumstances, I’m feeling rather cocky, sir. Excuse the expression. The stipulation is that your sadistic goon Thomas, or anyone else, is not to touch the young lady. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that she is now, how you say, a liability. But she is not to be played with by your dogs. Understand?”

  “I’ll see you shortly, Miss Smith.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear your answer.”

  “You’re trying my patience, Miss Smith. You don’t want to do that.”

  “How about this then? You can let that SOB have his way with her and I’ll keep the formula and put it on the open market. Is that a fair deal?”

  The other end of the line was silent except for Ferric’s labored breathing. Have I pushed him too far? she wondered.

  Finally, the silence was broken when she heard him speak to someone in the room with him. “She’s not to be touched. You will hand her over to Miss Smith when she delivers the formula. Unless she is lying, and in that case, you can have both of them.” He said the last part louder, making sure Maddie heard him and Thomas’ affirmative answer.

  “You have my word, Miss Smith,” Ferric said, speaking into the phone again.

  “I’ll be there in twenty minutes, sir. I’ll need the assistance of one or more of your men if you want this formula turned into a chemical compound usable for ingestion.”

  “You’ll have all the cooperation you need,” he answered and then hung up.

  Maddie closed her phone and prayed as she drove the rest of the way to the estate for protection and strength. S
he didn’t have to buzz in. The security cameras identified her car and the gates opened. A man waiting for her at the front door, walked to her car and pulled open the door as soon as she shut off the car engine.

  “It’s nice to see you again, Miss Smith,” the butler said. “I’ve been sent to escort you to the master. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “I always enjoyed being on the arm of a handsome man. Shall we?” Maddie said as the butler led her up the stairs and into the grand foyer. “Please stay right by my side, Miss Smith. If you don’t, I’m afraid I won’t be responsible for the outcome.”

  “I appreciate the heads up. I’ll be stuck to you like glue until you tell me otherwise.”

  They walked to the end of the hall and entered the elevator. The butler pushed the button for the third floor. The ornate glass doors closed. As the elevator slowly rose to the top floor of the home, Maddie took mental pictures of all she surveyed, including the security cameras and where the guards were posted. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. She immediately noticed that this floor was more heavily guarded than the others. It must be Ferric’s living quarters, she thought. The butler stopped at the first door on the left.

  “I’m afraid our time together is finished, Miss Smith,” he said.

  “It’s been a pleasure,” Maddie replied as he knocked on the door.

  Maddie heard footsteps approach the door and watched as the doorknob turned to open the door.

  “It’s nice to see you again, Thomas,” she said. “I hope I didn’t rain on your parade too much.”

  He gave her a look that could have burned a hole through her. Hearing Maddie’s words, his faced changed from a reddish hue to a deep purple. It was as if his face was a giant mood ring. Maddie could see his anger build as he looked at her. She realized she’d better be careful in what she said because he could snap at any moment. She watched his nostrils flair with each angry breath, but he kept his composure and moved aside to let Maddie enter the room. She felt violated by his look, his evil permeating the air wherever he happened to be. Shivers ran up and down her spine as Maddie scanned the room. Chloe wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Knowing that she had to keep her cool, and the upper hand, she didn’t mention it. Seeing Ferric’s weakened condition, she went and stood directly in front of him.