by Lynn Emery
“Okay, relax kids.” Cee-Cee held up both hands as a sign they’d come in peace. “We’re the good guys, well women. You know what I mean.”
“As if any adults are ‘good guys’,” Jonah said with perfect teenage disdain. He squinted at them. But still Ellie’s reaction seemed to blunt his fight response. He was still on guard with the gun pointed to the ground.
“You’ll soon be one. Let’s see how you do,” Cee-Cee retorted.
“Cee-Cee, we want to make friends,” Val muttered low. Then she looked at Jonah, arms held out wide. “We’re with the TEA.”
“We know who you are,” Jonah snapped, his fight ready stance unchanged.
LaShaun took a cautious step closer to Ellie. “Then you know I’m Ellie’s mother. Her father came as well to get her back.”
“He’s the cop,” Marissa said to Jonah. She wore a worried frown.
“Ellie’s daddy didn’t come to arrest you. We only want to take our little girl home.” LaShaun’s voice broke. She darted a glance at Ellie. The toddler pushed away from Grace’s attempts to hold her.
“Mama.”
Ellie gave Grace a frown as if scolding her. When the older child didn’t attempt to grab her again, Ellie ran to LaShaun. Her little legs pumped as she scampered across the pavement. LaShaun didn’t even try to hold back the tears as she scooped Ellie into her arms.
“Mama and daddy have been looking all over for you, sweet baby. We love you so very much.” LaShaun forgot about the others as she enjoyed the relief of having her child once more.
“I took good care of Ellie. We all did,” Grace said defensively. She stood, a picture of twelve-year-old wrath in a neon pink bathing suit. “You shouldn’t have let them take her. She’s just a baby. What kind of mother are you anyway?”
“The same kind all of us had,” Marissa said. She grimaced as she stared at LaShaun.
“Oh get a clue. Does she look like she willingly handed over her kid? Legion stole Ellie at gun point.” Cee-Cee lowered her voice and added, “Her father was shot the other night by some of their crew.”
“You won’t get your hands on the other kids,” Jonah said after a few moments.
“Paolo is a friend of ours, Jonah. He’s going to make sure they’re sent home.” Val kept her eyes on the gun in his hand.
“Another old guy sold us out. Figures.” Jonah’s eyes flashed fire.
“Slow down. We’re not going to use them the way Legion wanted to, I promise,” Val replied.
“Of course you won’t. Yeah right. You’ll use them in your way. Then you’ll tell us how that’s going to be so much better. Gee, thanks. How about we don’t want to be used by any of you. And don’t give me the we’re-the-good-guys speech.” Jonah gazed at Ellie and LaShaun.
“Do you know why Legion is so keen to have you?” Val’s abrupt shift seemed to throw the older teens off balance.
Marissa beckoned to Grace, who quickly moved to stand next to her with Jonah. “Doesn’t matter. We decided not to play.”
“Why don’t you tell us what they were up to, since you’re on our side,” Jonah countered.
“Okay” Val wore an impassive expression.
Cee-Cee glanced at Val then at Jonah “Val, I don’t think—”
Val raised a palm to cut her off. “They’re smart enough to have gotten this far, away from both Legion and us. I think they should know. Legion wants to use your paranormal abilities to conquer mankind. Not all at once. In stages. We also have good reason to believe Legion is after a powerful sacred relic. They believe it will enhance your powers.”
LaShaun stood still holding Ellie as Cee-Cee joined her. She whispered, “Cee-Cee?”
“I don’t think she’s making it up. The kid’s psychic, remember? He’d see right through any kind of lie. Frank must have filled her in on some top level intel he didn’t share with us. Damn,” Cee-Cee whispered back quickly.
“Yeah, Palcio del Obispado. I figured there was a good reason they brought us here instead of somewhere else. I looked up information about sacred places of Mexico. Internet cafés are the best.” Jonah wore a crooked grin. Then he grew serious again. “So tell us what exactly is worth them kidnapping us and shooting up police officers?”
Val glanced at Cee-Cee and LaShaun, then at Jonah. “One of the baskets given back to Jesus after he fed the five thousand.”
Jonah looked at Marissa. “Huh?”
“Matthew 14 in the Bible,” Marissa said. She huffed in annoyance. “Didn’t you pay attention to anything in Sunday school?”
“Get serious. My parents haven’t been in a church since they got married. They couldn’t have dragged me to Sunday school even if they wanted to, and they didn’t.” Jonah shrugged.
“Since we’re pulled into the war with God thing, you need to look up this stuff,” Marissa shot back.
“Yeah, yeah.” Jonah gave Marissa a scowl but looked abashed all the same.
“Jesus multiplied five loaves of bread and two fishes to feed thousands who had come to him for healing and to hear him speak. Twelve basketfuls, carried by each of the twelve disciples, held the leftovers,” Marissa explained. “That’s the short version.”
“Very good.” Cee-Cee grinned at the girl, who blushed and looked away.
“So at least one of these baskets used by Jesus to perform a miracle survived and is at the museum. Okay, so how did something made of straw survive for over two thousand years? Come on.” Jonah snorted.
“Duh, miracle from God.” Marissa glared at him.
When Ellie giggled and Grace rolled her eyes, LaShaun figured the two teens regularly bickered. LaShaun smiled at them. “She has a point.”
“I don’t buy the God bit. Every day science explains things people used to think were magic,” Jonah replied.
“We have the same debates at some TEA conferences. I say…” Cee-Cee stopped when Val held up her smartphone.
“I’m getting a message.” Val scrolled down a string of text. “Damn, the other team had an… incident.”
“Stop talking in code. We’re not idiots. You mean Legion knows you’re here, which also means they could be on their way.” Jonah held up the pistol pointing it at Val. “We’re leaving.”
“I won’t let you take Ellie.” LaShaun moved a few feet farther from him.
Marissa studied LaShaun. “She’s just a baby, Jonah. I don’t think her mother is like the others.”
“You sure?” Grace looked up at Marissa and then at LaShaun. When Marissa nodded, she seemed satisfied.
“Fine. You leave and we’ll take care of ourselves.” Jonah gestured with the pistol.
“Don’t talk crazy. We can protect you,” Val argued.
“We’ve got bigger and better weapons, too. I’ll bet you can’t do this,” Cee-Cee added before Val could go on. She gazed at a decorative stone garden statue of a woman holding a bowl. Seconds later, it toppled over. The right arm broke off.
“Whoa.” Grace did a double take between the statute and Cee-Cee.
When Val hissed and frowned at her, Cee-Cee cleared her throat. “I’ll send them a check later. Promise.”
“The point being you’re better off sticking with us,” LaShaun said.
Jonah raised the pistol. Marissa hefted the knife in her hand. Gracie ducked behind a hedge and emerged again holding a machete. LaShaun, Val, and Cee-Cee shouted at them. While the other two adults looked for cover, LaShaun raced behind a column as she shielded Ellie from harm. That’s when she heard the sound of running feet and the pop of gunfire. Val and Cee-Cee needed her help, but she couldn’t leave Ellie. Then silence. LaShaun risked a quick look from behind the stone column.
“Good shot,” Cee-Cee said. “LaShaun, you can come out. We need to leave, like now.”
“Yeah. Mexican prison is not where you want to be,” Val said to Jonah. She knelt down over a prone figure and turned the man over.
“Is he…” LaShaun tried to keep Ellie from looking. The toddler buried her face again
st LaShaun’s shoulder.
“He’s alive. Let’s let him deal with why he’s someplace he doesn’t live with a bullet wound.” Val gestured. “No arguments.”
Jonah glanced around at the two girls. “Yeah, right.”
A man wearing green shorts and a yellow polo shirt appeared on a second floor balcony. He spoke a rapid stream of Spanish, then switched to English. Sirens keened in the distance. “I took care of the other one. I’ll tell the policía that he tried to break in and I shot him. Now go!”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Cee-Cee huffed. She waved an arm at the teenagers, who hustled behind her.
Seconds later they all piled into the Range Rover. Val hit the gas pedal, taking them down the street. She hooked a right and drove as fast as she dared through a series of turns and twists. The sirens sounded more distant with each city block they traveled.
“Where exactly are we going?” Jonah eyed their surroundings.
“We have a temporary staging location to meet up with the others. First they had to get medical attention for Ernesto,” Val replied.
“What the hell, Val. You didn’t say a word. How bad is he?” Cee-Cee pressed a palm to her forehead.
“Wasn’t the time back there, okay?” Val took in a deep breath and exhaled. “They were ambushed in a little town outside Monterrey. Ernesto was shot, in the chest. He’s in critical condition. Two of the attackers were neutralized. One got away.”
“You mean your dudes killed two people. Golly, what good guys.” Jonah squinted at the adults in turn.
“They were attacked and defended themselves you little moron,” Cee-Cee yelled. She twisted around in the front passenger seat to face him. “Our friend got shot protecting your ungrateful—”
“Cee-Cee, don’t.” LaShaun put a hand on her shoulder. Cee-Cee glared at him, her eyes shiny with unshed tears, but she finally faced forward again. “I don’t have time to rundown a list of Legion’s dirty rap sheet to convince you. Point blank, TEA has known about you and the other kids for some years now. They didn’t mess with you. Legion kidnapped the younger kids, including my baby. You and Marissa realized they’d lied to you after joining, right?”
Jonah’s jaw muscles clenched. He wore a stony expression, but when Marissa hooked an arm through his, Jonah nodded. “Yeah, so now what?”
Val darted a quick glance of gratitude at LaShaun in the rearview mirror, then looked at the street ahead. “We have to push on. Legion can’t get their hands on the basket, or any sacred object for that matter. And they still need you, all of you.”
“Ellie most of all,” Grace blurted out. She turned bright pink when Jonah and Marissa scowled at her. “Well, her mom needs to know.”
“Gracie,” Jonah hissed at her and rolled his eyes. “Kids.”
“I’m not that much younger than Marissa,” Grace snapped. She tossed her hair. Arms crossed, she turned to LaShaun. “They can’t use the sacred items because they’re all like dirty.”
“They’ve pledged to serve the cause of evil, so they have the mark of Satan on their souls,” Marissa added. She glanced at her boyfriend. “Ellie’s mom is right, Jonah. Pick a side. At least for now.”
“Which means simply getting a sacred object is pointless. They need the faithful to make them powerful,” Cee-Cee frowned. “Wait a minute, something’s missing.”
“As in Jonah doesn’t believe in God. Still, I’m guessing the other children have been baptized.” LaShaun looked at the two older teens.
Marissa nodded. “Donnie, the thirteen-year-old from Indiana, is Pentecostal. His preacher father used to beat him up. Said Donnie had a demon in him because he could predict things, mostly bad.”
“He’ll get a choice whether or not to go home,” Val replied. “TEA will work with child welfare authorities in Indiana. Hopefully, he’ll tell them about his treatment.”
“His folks handed him over to Legion. Donnie says two Legion women pretended to be from Pentecostal headquarters. They told his folks they were going to cleanse Donnie. His parents were happy to get him out of their house,” Marissa said.
“Geez, Marissa. Tell them our life story while you’re at it,” Jonah muttered.
“They need to know so they can protect Donnie. Him and the other three kids will be okay, won’t they?” Marissa looked at LaShaun.
“Okay, Mari,” Ellie burbled before LaShaun could answer. She grabbed a lock of the teenager’s blonde hair and tugged on it.
Marissa tickled Ellie’s cheek. “You little scamp. That’s what my grandmother used to call me when I was little.”
“What did Grace mean about Ellie being most important to Legion?” LaShaun’s arms tingled. Ellie wiggled as if she felt it, too.
Jonah and Marissa exchanged a glance. After heaving a sigh, Jonah spoke up. “Ellie is still young, but her powers of perception and knowing are strong. They figure as she grows up, she’ll be among the most powerful gifted in the world.”
“If not the most powerful. Something about her ancestry, repentance or something. We didn’t get the whole story.” Marissa looked at Grace.
“I listened in on some conversations. They let me wander a bit since I’m Kris’s daughter. I pretended to like them.” Grace’s hazel eyes sparkled with triumph.
“Damn. They formed a mini-rebel team inside Legion.” Cee-Cee looked at Val.
“No way, Cee-Cee,” Val said and cocked an eyebrow at her.
“I haven’t even laid out a complete strategy yet,” Cee-Cee protested.
“We’re not sending kids undercover into that nest of snakes. The council would never agree to such a plan, and I don’t blame them. Forget it.” Val’s tone of finality boomed like a bell tolling.
“Yeah, yeah.” Cee-Cee huffed back to silence.
“Here’s the address Abril sent me.” Val parked in the lot of a strip mall.
Jonah gripped Marissa’s hand in his as he looked around. “A lot of people. Any of them could be after us.”
“TEA has cleared the area. Look, you can either sit in the SUV and wait for us or come in and hear every detail of what our local action team plans to do.” Val cut the engine. She patted her vest to make sure all her weapons and tools were in her pockets.
Cee-Cee did the same, and then checked for updates on her smart phone. “Your move kid.”
Jonah scowled at her. “Stop calling me ‘kid’.”
“Whatever,” Cee-Cee retorted.
She brushed fingers through her short curly red hair. She swung the door open and hopped onto the pavement. When Marissa caught Jonah staring at Cee-Cee’s khaki covered rear end, she jabbed him in the side with an elbow. He winced. Then scrambled out of the Range Rover after her.
“Hey, cut it out,” Jonah called after Marissa as she marched ahead of him.
LaShaun and Val exchanged a look of amusement. LaShaun leaned forward to whisper, “I think Marissa’s got some competition. Notice the way Jonah has been looking at Cee-Cee?”
“Lord help us. All we need, teenage love triangle drama.”
Ten minutes later, the mood was anything but playful. They gathered with the rest of the original Matamoros team in the back of a spacious upscale beauty shop. A table, chairs, small refrigerator, and microwave oven filled the break room. The owner wasn’t a member, but one of many sympathizers to the goals of TEA. She came in with one of her employees to hand out snacks, then she was gone. Ellie greedily slurped up applesauce, even though Grace declared they’d eaten that morning. LaShaun suppressed a grin when Ellie stuck her tongue out at her surrogate big sister. Then LaShaun grew somber when she glanced at the team. Frank, Abril, and Jennifer looked tired and stressed. Jennifer’s eyes were red as if from crying heavily, her cheeks red. Cee-Cee pulled LaShaun aside.
“She and Ernesto have been a couple for almost a year,” she whispered.
“I know how she feels,” LaShaun said, thinking of Chase. She was about to ask about him when the door opened, and the twins came in. She blinked at them in sh
ock. “Is Chase…”
“He’s doing fine and dandy, cher. Strong one.” Justine nodded.
Pauline smiled. “Oui. We had to practically sit on him to keep him from leaving the hospital to come with us. Stubborn.”
“Speaking of which, before I forget,” Justine pulled out a case from her cross-body bag, “TEA gave me this fabulous smart phone. And baby, is it smart!”
“Secure connections,” Pauline put in. Then she looked at Ellie and held out her arms. “Hello, my sweet baby. Come say hello to Auntie Pauline.” She continued to murmur to her once Ellie grabbed onto her.
Justine handed the phone to LaShaun. The sound of Chase’s voice brought joy to her heart. His deep rumble complained of being left behind. Yet his irritation vanished when Ellie babbled into the phone. She seemed to be filling her daddy in on all her adventures. LaShaun laughed with Chase because her baby talk was totally undecipherable.
“Yes, we—” LaShaun glanced at the twins and shrugged. “I’ll definitely update you as soon as I can. Right, I’ll remember. Got my weapons. The twins are here and… yes, okay. Bye. I love you, too.” She ended the connection.
“You got your instructions?” Pauline said.
“Oh yes. Makes him feel better, like he’s part of the action. Though I’m sure he’ll keep trying to join us.” LaShaun gazed at the cell phone with interest. Ellie pawed at it with childish curiosity as well.
“Hmm, hand it back please. You can ask TEA to get you one.” Justine held out a hand.
LaShaun reluctantly gave it back. “Yes, ma’am. So touchy.”
“Sister’s new toy,” Pauline teased.
Frank, Abril and Jennifer broke apart from the separate conversation they were having at the other end of the room. Two other men LaShaun hadn’t seen before were seated at the table.
“This is Manuel and Naldo. They’re from here, so they know the area well.” Frank nodded to the two men, who both nodded to everyone as a greeting.