Cursed Presence (Trilogy of the Chosen Book 2)

by J. M. LeDuc

  Brent turned to leave the room.

  “Excuse me, Colonel,” Charlotte said. “Earlier, you mentioned I was part of the squad. It sounded as though you meant it to be permanent. Did you?”

  Brent winked at her. “Don’t tell anybody yet. Let’s just keep it our little secret for now.” He looked at Joan. “That goes double for you!”

  “Hey, I can keep a secret. I am a woman,” she threw back sarcastically.

  As he walked out of the armory, both girls saw his head shaking from side to side.

  They burst into laughter.

  CHAPTER 44

  At 11:30 sharp, members of the Phantom Squad stood at the tunnel entrance inside the basement of the Inn. Brent eyed his squad. He barely glanced at Fitz and Jefferson. He stared at Charlotte, checking for signs of emotion. Regardless of which emotion she might feel, the signs would be the same. Eye dilation, shallow breathing, excessive blinking and shoulder tension were just some that he looked for. He saw none.

  Charlotte Dupree was ready for her first mission as a member of the Phantom Squad.

  Brent gave a quick, barely visible nod to his Sergeant.

  Malcolm removed the air-conditioning grate so the squad would enter the tunnel.

  Once inside, Fitz flipped the circuit breaker. The tunnel lit up while the steel entrance door slid shut. Those sounds made Charlotte jump and her heart beat quickened. In response, she closed her eyes, repeated what the Colonel had showed her and brought herself back to the here and now.

  Brent checked his watch. “This will be a six-minute clip for three and a half miles, which will put us at the airstrip at exactly 11:53. That will give us six minutes to secure the airstrip and box truck before Q lands the cargo plane. Questions?” As was his custom, Colonel Venturi didn’t give his squad a chance to answer. “Jefferson, take point, I’ll take the rear. Move out.”

  The only sounds from the squad were breathing and foot strikes. They ran as one for the next twenty-one minutes, arriving at the predetermined time. Before they left the tunnel, they put on night vision goggles. They allowed a clear view of the field without a need to shine light of any kind around their surroundings. Once they were in the field, the Colonel used tapping signals the members heard through their earpieces. He thus maneuvered his team around the airstrip for a quick search and lock down.

  After each member locked down their quadrant, they tapped their status, using the all-clear signal. Within a minute, Charlotte heard incoming aircraft. She looked up to survey the sky and saw nothing but black. She could hear the jet’s engines growing louder and louder, yet saw nothing. The noise grew to such amplitude that Charlotte was afraid to move.

  When the sound was loudest, Charlotte saw landing lights stripe the field. Simultaneously, the aircraft lit up. It was right on top of her. She looked up to see its hull pass directly overheard as it cruised in for a landing. The plane was too large and traveling at too fast a speed to land in the small airfield. She watched with such intent that blinking was out of the question. Charlotte then witnessed what she would swear was an illusion. The C-130 cargo plane touched down so smoothly and stopped so fast, it seemed unreal. If I hadn’t seen that with my own eyes, I would have never believed it was possible.

  When the plane came to a complete stop, Charlotte received Colonel Venturi’s signal to move in. She ran in from her position and saw Jefferson and Fitz doing the same from their quadrants, while a large box truck rolled in from the fourth quadrant. The Colonel hung off the side, holding onto nothing but a small handle attached to the rear upper corner of the truck. Watching him hold on effortlessly with one hand and balance his rifle in the other was like watching an adventure movie.

  “Don’t worry, recruit, you’ll get used to it.” Fitz, standing behind her must have read her mind. “He’s like a freaking ghost sometimes.”

  “Yeah, but thank God he’s our ghost.” Whipping her head to the other side, she saw that Jefferson stood on her right flank.

  “How did you two get next to me so fast?” an astonished Charlotte whispered to the pair.

  “If you three ladies are finished chit-chatting, we have business to attend to.”

  Standing inches away from the trio was Colonel Venturi. He startled her and caused her to jerk backwards and bump into her squad mates. Brent laughed at her reaction. “Let’s move,” is all he said.

  Quickly and silently the group walked to the aircraft to greet Q as he deplaned.

  When he saw Charlotte in full uniform, Q said, “Nice to see you again, Miss Dupree. Glad to see you’ve settled into your new home.” Charlotte nodded, then broke into a wide grin.

  For the next twenty minutes, the squad watched the Strategic Intelligence Alliance’s CSI team unload the plane, and carefully load the cargo into the truck.

  “All right, people, times-a-wastin’ and Seven is waiting for us in Boston. Let’s load up,” Q said when they’d finished.

  “One minute, Q. There’s an exercise I’d like Miss Dupree to take part in before you leave.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Charlotte looked confused.

  “Did you bring your bow, as instructed?”

  “Yes, sir, it’s in my backpack.”

  “Unload it and prepare it for use. I want you to do something for me.”

  Without question, Charlotte unloaded the fold-up bow.

  “Wait one second, please, Charlotte.” Brent waited for the truck to leave the airstrip and head back to HQ. The field was, once again, black as coal. “Now, everyone, take off your night vision goggles, please.” They weren’t able to see their hands in front of their faces. “Continue, Charlotte.”

  In complete darkness, Charlotte assembled her bow, adjusted the tension and screwed a head and tail onto the body of an arrow. “Ready, sir.”

  “Not bad. Shave thirty seconds off that exercise. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” Thinking the exercise was finished, Charlotte unscrewed the tail from the shaft.

  “I’m going to release an object from my hands,” the Colonel said. “It’ll make a faint sound but there will be no other signs of where it’ll fly. Your job is to shoot it down. You’ve got five seconds.”

  Charlotte tightened the tail on the arrow and loaded it onto the bowstring. Closing her eyes to block out everything and visualize nothing, she thought back to the previous ‘training exercise’. She took a deep breath, allowed herself to relax in the deep recesses of her mind and waited to pick up on the slightest sound. It was not overhead where she expected it, but scurrying on the ground at a fast rate of speed about twelve degrees to her left.

  Opening her eyes, her vision suddenly became crystal-clear. She could see the target as clear as day and she was able to focus in on it until she had complete tunnel vision for the target only. Slowly, she let go of the breath she’d held, relaxed her grip on the arrow and let it fly towards the target. She heard nothing. But knew she hit it.

  Brent signaled to Q to switch on the C-130’s lights. They all searched the ground in great anticipation.

  One hundred or so yards away from where they originally stood, the squad spotted a mechanical ferret, with an arrow piercing its head.

  “Well, I’ll be,” Jefferson said. “She wasn’t wearing night goggles either. I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself.”

  “You didn’t see it, big boy, and neither did the rest of us. That was incredible, Charlotte,” Fitz said as he slapped her on the back.

  Charlotte smiled and turned toward Colonel Venturi, expecting more accolades.

  “Exercise complete,” he said. “Do you two have any doubts whether Miss Dupree needs further basic squad training?”

  “No, sir,” Jefferson said.

  “Ditto.”

  “As of right now, Charlotte Dupree is a member of the Phantom Squad, with all the rights and respons
ibilities that entails.” He paused. “Charlotte?”

  “Yes, Colonel?”

  “That was quite amazing, but I wasn’t surprised. I knew you had it in you after I watched you at the armory.”

  “Thank you, sir.” His words increased her self-esteem.

  “But,” Brent said, “always remember, and believe me, it will be repeated so often it’ll become part of your subconscious.” The other squad members joined Colonel in saying, “Emotion will get you killed.”

  “Yes, sir, I’ll remember, sir,” she said, not quite as full of herself as she’d been a moment earlier.

  “Now, I suggest the three of you get on that plane before Q leaves without you. I’ll text Seven about your new status. Charlotte, Seven will be your greatest ally in the field, but until you prove yourself, don’t expect a warm reception from him. Don’t take it personally. That’s just how he is.

  “Move out.”

  CHAPTER 45

  Brent took his time getting back to the Inn. While he walked through the tunnel, he read some of the etchings on the walls, put there by his predecessors. Did all of them know about the Enlightenment, and did all their writings have something to do with it? If that’s the case, it might take months to find the Cave of Enlightenment! I hope the spot Chloe mentioned sheds light on this puzzle.

  While some of the etchings he read were familiar to him and to all Christians—

  “Through Christ all things are possible—,” others seemed to be private thoughts or messages, such as, “Adversity will either cause you breakdown or breakthrough.” Brent re-read that etching a second time. It caught his eye not just because of its timeliness, but because very small markings had been etched in below the message. He tried blowing the dust and sediment out of the markings, but he didn’t succeed.

  He slid his knife from its sheath, the blade so sharp he could shave with it or slice a layer of skin from his arm so fine that it didn’t bleed. Just as he was about to place the tip into the tiny crack in the coral wall, he heard Chloe’s command play in his head.

  “Stop!” she’d yelled when he had tried this maneuver before. “If I ever see you put a knife or anything else into these walls, I’ll be sending you to the emergency room to have it removed from a bodily orifice I don’t care to mention.”

  A smile crossed Brent’s face as he recalled the expression on her face.

  He slowly returned the knife to its sheath. “This will just have to wait until tomorrow,” he said softly.

  He broke into a full run, arriving back at the Inn in record time.

  CHAPTER 46

  Brent crossed the dark hallway trying not to make a sound. Before he made it to the stairs, the den became illuminated in light. He walked to the doorway and saw Lucille, looking very matriarchal, sitting in an overstuffed chair.

  Her face lit up with a love only a son could understand. Kissing his mother on the cheek, he said, “You didn’t have to wait up.”

  “I always have. Now I can do it in the open,” she said.

  He held his hand out to her. “It’s been a long day. What do you say we call it a night?”

  “I had another idea,” she lifted an envelope off her lap. “This is the letter Joseph left with the Ark of the Enlightenment. I’d like you to open it.”

  “Mom, it’s so late, and I…”

  “Please. It would mean a lot to me.”

  Brent saw the anxious look she wore, presumably because of the envelope’s contents. “Okay,” he said. He sat next to her. “How about I read it aloud so we both know what he had to say?”

  “I’d like that very much.” She placed the envelope in his hand.

  Opening it, the familiar scent of Shittim wood, handmade paper and glue forced a flashback to the time when he and Chloe, and later Maddie, opened the envelopes secreted in what he now knew to be the Ark of the Endowment.

  “Where have you been keeping this envelope?”

  “Joseph left me a note asking that I take this letter and the Ark of the Enlightenment out of the Ark of the Endowment and hide them until the time of the Enlightenment. I kept them in my home safe and later in the one you built for me in our home. Why?”

  “It smells just like the other envelopes in the vault. I wondered if it had been in there, as well, that’s all.”

  “It had been since your twelfth birthday. You and Jacob, your grandfather, had just gotten back from the beach where you tried out your new birthday present…”

  “My surfboard,” Brent said.

  She nodded and continued. “When Joseph and I received a phone call from Jacob that he had to meet with us on urgent Endowment business, he put you to bed that night and came through the tunnel to meet us at my old place. That was the night Jacob told us that Joseph was to name you his successor as the next Ambassador.”

  “It’s always been my assumption that the current Ambassador names his successor.”

  “True, and Joseph would have vetoed your grandfather’s request had he not watched you grow and develop into the man you’ve become. He had no doubt that Jacob’s decision was the right one. Believe me, I tried to convince him otherwise.”

  “Oh?”

  “Not because you didn’t deserve it, but because of what’s happening right now. Remember, your father and I were visited by the Archangel Gabriel before you were born and were told of your destiny. I also knew that the Enlightened One had to come from the line of Noah’s chosen, so…”

  “So you figured that if I wasn’t the Ambassador I couldn’t be the Enlightened One.”

  “Yes.” Lucille’s lips formed a meek smile. “I knew it was foolish to think I could outmaneuver God, but as your mother, I had to at least try.”

  Holding the envelope, Brent looked at his mother. “Are you ready to hear what this says?”

  “Please.”

  Brent carefully removed the wax seal from the flap, pulled the letter from the envelope and read aloud:

  “Dear Brent,

  “Most likely, a great deal has occurred since you learned you are the keeper of the keys, the Ambassador of the Endowment.

  “Since you are reading this letter, you also know Lucille’s true identity. Knowing you as I do, I’m quite certain that your emotions run true. I still feel it necessary to say this, however: Hold neither resentments towards her nor judge her actions. She did what few, if any, women would have done. Only through a strong and selfless love could she have taken the steps she did to ensure your safety. Although she wasn’t always by your side, she was always in your life. You, my son, were always in her heart.

  “I removed the Ark of the Enlightenment from the vault because I was afraid it would be too much sensory overload. The purpose of this letter, Brent, is twofold. First, it will prepare you for what lies ahead of you. If you haven’t already, you will meet the one who comes before you. The word of God says He sent one before you to prepare your way. That person will have information you’ll need.

  “No doubt many have told you, including God’s messenger, that your chance of defeating Satan is slight at best. This is true if you meet him on the battlefield described through the ages. To tilt the odds in your favor, you must employ all that you have learned as the leader of the Phantom Squad.

  “Everything you have endured and all that you have become have been preparation for the events of the Enlightenment. Listen to your heart but think with your head. Those two things will level the playing field. I have personally seen you perform what seemed humanly impossible feats. You have succeeded where even I thought you could not.

  “You must block out the world, if you are to save it!

  “The second reason for this letter is to advise that you will be given a series of clues that will lead to the Cave of the Enlightenment. They are to be read as is. Take nothing from them and add nothing to them. Apply the clues literally. Read Revelation 22
:18-19 for a full understanding.”

  Brent looked to Lucille to ask her to hand him the Bible sitting on the side table. She had it open to the scripture. “Revelation 22:18-19 says, ‘I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.’”

  “And from that I’m supposed to understand what?” he asked.

  “That whatever the clues say, take them exactly for what they are. Do not read into them or take anything away from them. If you do, you’ll lose.” Lucille watched a smile spread across Brent’s face. “But you already knew that, so why did you ask?”

  Brent shrugged. “There’s just something special about having your mother give you advice. This way, I’ll never forget it.”

  Lucille blushed a mother’s smile. “Did Joseph have anything else to say?”

  Looking at the letter, Brent continued,

  “You are allowed to take no one but the one who came before you into the Cave of the Enlightenment. If you do, it will mean instant death for anyone trying to enter. Once you enter, stay until you are certain it is time to leave. As soon as you leave the protection of the cave, the Enlightened One will be fully revealed.

  “We will speak again, my son, so until then, God bless and always stay true to yourself and to your faith.

  “To my dear Lucille…”

  Brent asked his mother if she wanted to read the rest of the letter privately but she shook her head. “I have no secrets from my son. Please, continue.”

  “To my dear Lucille,

  “I cannot express how happy I am that you could finally tell Brent the full truth. I love and watch over you always.