John smiled as Gloria made promises to whatever was inside that she would come back.
“I have a hundred books in braille.” She listened. “They are books for the blind,” she said, answering the unheard question. “I can’t read regular books.” She stopped and listened with a small smile coming to her lips. “I can come on Sunday mornings, I promise. Since my mother died, Daddy doesn’t make us go to church anymore. He said I should, but he lets me skip it while he sleeps in because he works late on Saturday nights. That’s when I can come and visit. And maybe someday we can get you out of there.”
The lights dimmed momentarily, and John felt that Gloria’s new friend was pleased at her prospect of return to the outside world, or just excited for the chance at escape. The thing in the vault sought to get out. He looked around and realized that this structure was made to keep something inside.
“What are you doing in here?” came the loud voice that startled Gloria and Lonetree.
John turned to see the very same man who had left the ruin only fifteen minutes before with the two guards. Still wearing his white coat, he slammed a set of files down on one of the stainless steel tables. His glasses were askew, and he looked like he was fit to be tied. His graying beard was a mess as he came at Gloria.
“Was there a reaction from the containment area?” he asked as he angrily stepped past Gloria and eyed the vault.
“I … I … don’t know—” The man took Gloria by the shoulders and shook her. John became angry when he saw her glasses fly from her head.
“Who were you speaking with? Was there activity inside?” The man shook her again, this time even harder.
“Let go of her, you son of a bitch!” Lonetree shouted, and he was shocked when Gloria acted as if she had heard him.
This time, the vault shook as his words escaped his mouth. Then it quickly settled.
Suddenly, large hands grabbed the madman from behind. He was thrown to the floor where he sprawled. He grabbed a steel table leg and started to pull himself up, but a foot came down on his back with enough force to send him back down.
“If you even look at my daughter again, I’ll do to you what we should have done in Yugoslavia, you murdering son of a bitch!”
John saw Frank as he moved away from the German and then took his daughter into his arms. He bent down and picked up her glasses and wiped them on his blue chambray work shirt. He eased them onto her nose and pulled her close once more.
“What are you doing in here? I told you never to leave the truck.”
“She was interacting with the elements!” the smaller man said as he started to rise. Frank left Gloria’s side and then lashed out with his boot once more, sending the man back to the cold floor.
Lonetree smiled, thinking the man was getting off lightly.
“That young lady has my proof that they are still viable,” the man said as he felt at his chest where Perry’s boot had connected. “The orders from your government must be rescinded.”
“As far as I’m concerned, we can send your ass to Israel. Try explaining yourself to a tribunal there, you sick bastard. I think they may have a few tough questions about your life’s work.”
“That is one can of worms we and our associates would rather not have made public.”
Lonetree saw a man standing just at the bend of the room, and he had the MPs with him. The two enlisted army men moved to assist the German scientist to his feet.
“Colonel, that girl was interacting with the experiment. They must have been communicating!”
The well-dressed man stepped forward, and John recognized him immediately—Robert Hadley. He was tall, and his hair was silver, just like his son would be in the future. He wore an expensive suit and had the distinguished look of a man that had life by the short and curlies. Hadley stepped by the man that all of this was built for and handed him a handkerchief as he did so.
“Wipe your mouth, Doctor; you’re drooling all over your lab coat.”
Lonetree watched as Robert stepped up to Gloria as she hugged her father. Frank pulled her back as her father’s hand came up to her chin. The rich man raised his brows, and Perry relented. He touched her cheek, and she reflexively flinched as his fingers made contact.
“Don’t let this man frighten you, Gloria; his bark is far worse than his bite. He’s used to pushing around smaller people.”
John looked to his left and saw the German doctor was fuming. His hatred was directed at Hadley and no one else.
“Now, were you speaking with someone down here?” he asked.
Gloria shook her head and remained silent.
“Really? I know my own boy would lie to keep the truth from me, but you? No, I have watched you for a long time and find you far more intelligent and factful than Dean. Now were you speaking with someone down here?”
“No, I was just curious, and then I got lost,” she said as she buried her face in her father’s chest once more. Hadley looked at Perry. Frank shook his head in warning that Hadley had gone far enough, and it looked as if Gloria was one subject he would not push with his wartime buddy.
“Good enough for me.” Hadley turned to face the doctor. “Gloria, this is Dr. Jürgen Fromm; he works for me as a chemical engineer. He handles our most dangerous chemicals; that’s why we keep him ensconced in a secure place where his chemicals can cause no one in Moreno harm. He keeps monitoring our mercury containment, you know, to protect us all.” His head turned as he moved his eyes away from the angry Fromm.
By the look on Frank’s face, Lonetree could see that Hadley was lying. That was not this man’s job. He was here for a whole other purpose, and it surely wasn’t to protect the citizenry of Moreno.
“But his job here is at an end.”
“It is too soon! This girl can prove it!” Fromm cried from the arms of the two MPs.
Hadley turned back to face the German. “And this little blind girl did in moments what you could not do since 1952? An amazing feat.”
“Perhaps it has something to do with her handicap. I must be allowed to speak with this child and then study what happened here today. You must allow me to carry on my work!” Spittle again flew from the man’s bearded face.
“All those files are empty observations, Doctor. The government is pulling you off the federal tit, so to speak.” Hadley turned and faced Perry and his daughter. “And you, young lady, my guess is that you have learned your lesson as far as wandering into dangerous places?”
Gloria merely nodded and kept her face hidden.
“You don’t have to have guarantees from my daughter, Robert.” Perry hugged her even closer. “If she says she was lost, she was lost. She’s not like all the other kids; she tells the truth.”
“You mean like my boy?” Hadley asked with a smug smirk even though he had just offered the same observation on Dean Hadley himself.
“I mean kids in general, Colonel, and you know that.”
Hadley smiled for real this time and then faced the two MPs. “Allow the good doctor to collect his personal belongings from the lab. Nothing of company property is to leave here with him. Certain people will arrive soon to take custody of Dr. Fromm and escort him to another location, where he will be debriefed. Until said time, the man is to be under constant surveillance. Keep him in his motel room. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Gloria, please excuse this man for his bad behavior. He’s upset, but he should have known better than to harm a child.” He turned and looked at Fromm. “Any child.”
“You cannot do this. My work is too important.”
Hadley smiled as he started for the door and the long climb up into the real world.
“Doctor, I assure you, I can. And if you keep talking about wild things in front of strangers, you’ll find I can do far more. With President Eisenhower wrestling with the Reds in Europe and Berlin about to burn once again, the time for subterfuge with former enemies must come to an end. There are other, more important concerns. The Un
ited States Air Force may have saved your ass after the war, but your rhetoric about power from the mind has scared even them off. They will use the benefits of your altitude experiments, but your other theories, well, they are a little far-fetched, and your own failed experiments prove it.”
“Robert, that’s enough,” Frank said, nodding at Gloria, who was still holding onto him.
Hadley knew he was saying too much in front of Gloria, so he nodded.
“We’re finished here, Professor. Good day, sir. Captain Perry, will you and your daughter join me upstairs, please?” Hadley said and then vanished around the bend in the room.
“My name is Frank,” Perry called out to remind the man that he was no longer his subordinate. He was a partner, and he now wanted that partnership dissolved just as they had dissolved their connection with Fromm.
Franklin smiled down at Gloria, who had remained silent throughout the confrontation with Fromm. Fromm was being led away by the military police, still with a look of fury and hatred directed at Gloria.
“Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here and get you to that new school.”
Gloria nodded, and with a last look back at the enormous vault, they left.
John had learned a lot on this trip. He was starting to feel the fatigue that came with dreamwalking and knew he was close to waking. He started to follow the two toward the door when he felt the cold fingers around the back of his neck. He was lifted from his feet and turned in midair. He was facing the vault with his feet dangling four feet off the floor. He fought the grip that held him with frantic movement. He shouldn’t have been able to be physically touched by anything or anyone inside a dream, but here he was being treated like a rag doll in the grip of some horror he could not begin to fathom. Then he knew that the questions Gloria had been answering made sense to him. The thing inside knew John was there and didn’t like it.
The coldness of the hand, something he shouldn’t be able to feel, chilled his blood. He was shaken once, twice, and felt his neck being strained beyond endurance. Then, before Lonetree knew what was happening, he was flying through the dank air of the winery’s basement.
* * *
Everyone in the bedroom saw John’s body lifted out of the chair and watched as his large hands went to his throat as he was lifted free of the chair and the floor. He was shaken until they heard his joints pop, and then his six-foot-five-inch body was flying across the room until it hit the drywall at the opposite side, his limp frame sliding to the floor. Jennifer was the only one to scream as the others stared wide-eyed.
* * *
Gabriel sat at the long table inside their assigned meeting area. He was drinking whiskey and trying to decide how best to tell the team that they were now finished with this case. He took a long swallow of the burning liquid and stood to get a refill. Leonard, Julie, and Damian watched from their seats and exchanged looks of worry. As Gabriel poured his fourth drink, the study door opened, and Jennifer stepped inside.
“He’s awake and he’s fine. A little sore he said, but he’ll live. He’s changing clothes and will be here soon to present his report. George is drinking pretty heavily with some of the nurses in the kitchen. I think he’s more scared than even John.”
Gabriel turned as he capped the crystal decanter of bourbon. He nodded at Jennifer and then gestured for her to sit, draining the glass as he returned to his own seat. He placed the empty on the table and sat down.
Most of the group had only seen Kennedy drink on very special occasions, maybe a holiday or two. But this was different, and they saw it in his eyes.
“I want all of you to put your observations down on paper. Anything that you think is relevant. I’m putting an end to this. I have a feeling it’s too much for us. Hell, maybe it’s too much for any defense. Whatever this thing is, it wants confrontation. I’m not losing John or anyone else. Kelly was too much.”
The room was silent.
“John took a risk, and that is enough. I don’t care what he learned on the dreamwalk. Something threw him out of that dream with enough force to kill him. That’s enough. If we go into this without any advantage as to what we are dealing with, we could all end up like that torn soul upstairs.”
They had never heard Kennedy speak like this before. His guilt over Kelly’s death was evident, but he was showing fear where there had never been any before. It was the fear of the unknown power at work here. Nothing they had experienced in the past two days fell into any category of haunting ever documented.
Damian pulled a cigar out of his coat pocket and lit it.
“I thought you quit those disgusting things,” Leonard said, waving away the smoke cloud that gathered around him and Jackson.
“And so did I until I saw a man that weighs two hundred and fifty pounds and stands six foot five fly through the air like fucking Peter Pan.” He puffed until the cigar flared to full life and then gave Leonard a dirty look. His fixed Kennedy with his dark and intense eyes as he puffed away on the smelly cigar. “I say we finish this thing. Then, if you want to quit, we’ll quit this bullshit altogether. But I say we see this thing through.”
“No. It’s too damn expensive,” Gabriel said as he looked around the table. “And that man upstairs is not likable enough to risk the people I love and respect.”
“Professor Gabe, I’m sure we are on the right track with this thing. We need to know how this entity works in our world. To have the power to cross over decades to affect the time frames of two completely different worlds and eras? Man, oh, man, we can’t ignore and just walk away from that. The boy in me tells me to run like hell, that the beast inside the closet is real and coming for my ass, but the analyst in me says to stay and finish this. I agree with Sergeant Friday here; let’s do what we do.”
“This isn’t up for voting. Once we complete some semblance of a report and hand it to the First Lady and the Secret Service, we leave.”
“And let that dragon lady claim her spoils? I dislike her as much as the rest of the world hates Hadley,” Julie said. “Vote nothing; it’s what we do, Gabe. We can’t run from that after we claimed that hauntings are so rare that they are practically nonexistent. Kelly would hate us for quitting over her death. She was a lot of things, but a quitter she wasn’t.”
Jennifer remained silent, listening. She knew that if she threw her weight behind leaving, there would be no talking Gabriel out of walking out on Hadley. She would remain noncommittal until she had John’s feelings on the situation.
Kennedy was about to speak again when the door opened and George came barging in. Breathing heavily, he closed the door like he was holding back Frankenstein’s monster. It was so startling that Damian rose from his chair and, with cigar clamped in his mouth, reached for his gun in its shoulder holster.
“With as much crap as we’ve seen around here, it’s not wise to scare the already scared!” Damian said angrily, sitting back down.
George tried to get his actions and breathing under control.
“They’re getting ready to move the president,” he said as he finally removed his weight from the door and John Lonetree pushed his way inside.
“Hey, they’re moving Hadley to another location,” Lonetree said as he closed the door and then assisted a still heavily breathing Cordero to a chair. Lonetree looked none the worse for wear after his flight through the bedroom. He was dressed in a white shirt and black slacks, and his shortened black hair was still wet from the hot shower he had taken.
“I was having a drink with the nurses in the kitchen when they were called upstairs to prepare the president for travel,” George said as Leonard slid a drink down to him.
“That is no longer Gabe’s concern,” Jennifer said as she placed a hand over Lonetree’s when he sat down next to her. “He said the investigation is over.”
“The hell you say,” John said as Jenny stopped him from rising from his chair. “You decide this before I file my report on the dreamwalk? Being dictatorial is not your strong suit, Gab
riel.”
“Am I supposed to allow another friend—or friends,” he said, looking around the table, “to die for this?”
“After almost seven years of nothing, we come on a case that exhibits actions that have never once been documented in a haunting, and we just quit?” Julie Reilly said, reaching out and removing the drink from George’s hand and downing it in one gulp before slamming the empty back into his suspended hand. “I say bullshit,” she said, hissing out her breath as the burning liquid slid down her throat.
“Wasn’t Kelly enough?” Kennedy asked. “People dying for a science that is only good for entertainment? The world doesn’t want to know the truth; it would shatter too much delusional thinking about the afterlife. Why do you think we were being sued? It wasn’t because we outed the television networks about the hoaxes they perpetrated on the public. It was for shattering people’s belief in what-if and pointing to the other person and saying, ‘I’m glad that’s not me,’ while not thinking about the real problems of the world, and that’s just the way the controllers of this country want it.” Gabriel lowered his head. “The chance John took was the line we won’t cross again. I cannot handle the thought of losing another friend for a science that will never be proven, just speculated upon at cocktail parties and in spook novels.”
“Perhaps we should hear from John about the chance he took.”
All eyes went to Jennifer, who was looking at Lonetree. She smiled. “Is Gloria as much of a charmer as you thought?” she asked, squeezing his hand.
Lonetree surprised them all by smiling, but he also rubbed at the sore spot on his neck that was bruised and discolored. “Charmed? You bet,” he said as he fixed Gabriel with his brown eyes. “Hell, she even charmed the thing that used me as a lawn dart. Yes, we made a connection.” John released Jennifer’s hand and then leaned forward in his chair until he knew he had Kennedy’s attention. “She needs our help, Gabe; we have to help her and that town if we can. Kelly would agree. We all agree; we need to see this thing through. I know now that this thing is not just about Dean Hadley.”
In the Still of the Night--The Supernaturals II Page 25