by Jan Coffey
“An explosion and not just a fire,” Brian repeated.
“Right, no bonfires. I want to make sure there’s at least one solid bang. It has to accomplish two things. First, the distraction gives me a chance to get inside the camp. Second, the state police or the agencies Dan was working with should figure out that something must be wrong when the report goes in and they’ll come to find out what’s cooking.”
Vic and Brian continued to argue and Ian walked away from the two men, shutting them out. His shoulder and arm were throbbing. The bleeding had stopped, at least. He’d have to wait to get the wound sewn up.
He had to get to the camp fast. Somers was moving the schedule up, but Ian didn’t know by how much. The thought of Kelly and Jade being there made him queasy. He definitely couldn’t wait around here, counting on the FBI or the state police to arrive in time.
“I’m going,” Ian announced.
Both men stopped their argument and turned to him. Victor looked at Ian’s shoulder. “Are you sure you can manage with that wound?”
“I’ll be okay. One hour.”
“Fireworks.” Brian sent him a salute. “One hour.”
~~~~
It went against every impulse in her, but Kelly forced herself to put on the white robe over the dry clothes.
Rita’s patience didn’t last too long. This time, she knocked instead of barging in. From the voices outside, Kelly guessed there were others who had collected by the door, as well.
“No, Mommy,” Jade whispered, tears gathering in her eyes again. “I don’t want to go with them.”
“You’ll stay with me.” She lifted Jade in her arms and opened the door. The greeting committee made her want to cringe.
Ken Burke and Ryan were standing on one side of the door. On the other side, Ash and Cassy had joined Rita. The two gunmen were not far off. There were also a number of children watching from the area between the cabins and the benches.
The photographer lifted the camera and snapped some close ups of Jade and Kelly. The child immediately hid her face on the mother’s shoulder.
“We’ll take her now,” Ken announced, letting his camera dangle from his neck as he reached for Jade.
“No way in hell,” Kelly said quietly but emphatically, bringing him up short. She extended her hand toward Ryan, speaking much more gently. “Why don’t you come with me?”
The expression of awe in the boy’s face increased ten times over what Kelly had seen before. Cold, clammy fingers slid into her hand. She turned to Cassy. “You walk with me, too.”
The girl looked frightened, but she nodded.
The model was a tough one to figure. Still, she was a new recruit, which gave Kelly hope.
“And you, too,” she ordered Ash.
The tall woman looked as impressed with the proceedings as Ryan. She stepped forward, joining Kelly.
This is how it had to be, Kelly told herself. She had choices. She had the possibility of power. This was all about assuming a position of authority. This was the last thing that Somers would expect her to do, as long as he could control Jade.
Moving toward the open-air chapel, Kelly saw the older man on the stage. He seemed to be in the midst of a fiery sermon. Most of the benches were full. The red-robed congregation was responding to his calls of devotion.
Kelly started walking, circling around behind the back row of the benches. Ryan stayed with her. Only a step behind them, Ash and Cassy followed. The rest of the group only watched in obvious confusion.
Meditation. This was the way Michael Butler used to start his services. Before he’d go to the pulpit, he’d walk endlessly in the back of the congregation, meditating and praying, sometimes aloud and sometimes in silence. He made sure everyone could see him, as the “spirit” took possession of him.
Plus, he let the anticipation build.
Kelly waited until they’d gone the entire length of the benches before starting to talk to Ryan. She kept her voice at a level that Cassy and Ash could hear, as well.
“I was twelve, too.” She smiled down at the boy.
“I know,” Ryan answered. “I’ve been studying your life. I know everything about you…and your daughter.”
It was a creepy reminder that she’d been watched for all of these years. Kelly forced herself not to get distracted by this.
“Are the Sterns your real family?” she asked. “Is Craig your brother?”
“I…I think so.”
Jade tried to climb higher into her arms. Kelly had to let go of Ryan’s hand momentarily before adjusting her daughter. She immediately took the boy’s hand again.
“Do you know why you were picked?”
“My mother’s sister was Jill Frost. The Prophet Michael chose her, so that makes our family special.”
Rachel Stern was her aunt. The realization was not a pleasant one, and at this very moment it only meant that insanity definitely ran deep in her family. Kelly didn’t remember Rachel from the Mission. She guessed that Ryan’s mother had to be a younger sister, but none of this meant anything now.
“So do you play any sports, Ryan?”
The question seemed to throw the boy for a loop. He looked up, confused. “I…I like to…to play basketball.”
“Do you play on a team?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I have chores and studies that I have to do,” Ryan said in a quiet voice.
Suspicion, Kelly told herself. She had to plant seeds of suspicion. “Where do you go to school, Ryan?”
“I’m home schooled by my mother.”
“So do you and a group of other home schooled children get together every now and then and do fun stuff? Play basketball?”
“No.”
“That’s strange.”
“Craig and I have time to play together.”
Kelly let go of Ryan’s hand and gently touched his hair. “Do you have any neighbors? Any other children that you play with?”
“No, just Craig.”
“Ryan, do you have any other friends?”
The boy shook his head slowly.
“That’s wrong, honey.” Kelly said calmly. “I was the Prophet’s daughter, but I went to school with other kids.”
“You did?”
She nodded. “And I went to college later, too. I had friends and jobs, and I celebrated Christmas and traveled, and lots of other fun stuff.”
“That’s not what I learned about you.”
Kelly frowned. “I don’t know what they told you, but don’t you think I’d know about my own life?”
Ryan stared up at her, clearly perplexed. She could see his mind racing. Kelly looked over her shoulder at Cassy.
“You went to school with other kids, didn’t you?”
Cassy blushed but nodded.
“How did you hear about the Prophet?”
The teenager continued to follow, but Kelly saw her looking down at her hands. “From Caleb.”
Kelly looked around the camp in search of the young man that she’d met for the first time two nights ago. He was on the stage with Somers.
“Do your parents know about it?”
Cassy gave a quick shake of her head.
“Where do they think you are now? This weekend?” Kelly asked, slowing down so the four of them were walking together.
“They think I’m babysitting at the inn.”
Kelly forced back her inclination to scold the young woman. Positive, she told herself. “Do you remember Christmas when you were Ryan’s age, Cassy? Or Thanksgiving? Or playing with other kids?”
“Sure,” she replied. “Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday.”
“I can smell that turkey right now,” Kelly said, leaving the thought hanging. She turned to Ash. “You’re not much older than Cassy, are you?”
“I’m twenty-two.”
“Why are you here?” Kelly asked gently, already guessing the answer. Ash would be the big headline for the Divinity Mission. A coup
le hundred people committing mass suicide would get plenty of media coverage, but the public could obsess on it for decades if there was a beautiful celebrity mixed in with them.
“Ken asked me to come.”
“Do you know what’s going to take place tonight?”
She nodded. “We’re all going to meet the Prophet.”
“We’re all going to die,” Kelly said plainly.
“But death is only a curtain to a dimension that we can’t see. You will be the guide past the curtain. You’ll lead us to a far more beautiful world waiting for us on the other side. There, it won’t matter what we look like.”
“Who told you this?”
“Ken did,” Ash said, smiling at her boyfriend. Ken was continuing to take pictures of them as they made a turn at the end of the benches and started back again. She turned her attention back to Kelly. “I’ve gone through the Prophet Michael’s writings, the ones that I have been given the blessing to read. These were his beliefs.”
Kelly squeezed Ryan’s hand gently, making sure the boy was paying attention to what was being said. “The Prophet Michael was my father. He spoke the absolute truth to me…before his death and after.”
“He’s talked to you?” Ash asked in awe.
“He visits me often in my dreams. He also appears to me at every full moon.” Kelly looked at each individual face, making sure she had their undivided attention. She did.
“He must be proud that a new Mission of followers is going to join him,” Ash said excitedly.
“Does he really talk to you?” Cassy asked.
Kelly nodded to both women. “He talks to me all the time. But what he shares with me is far different from what that man up there has been babbling about. I’ll tell you this…the Prophet Michael does not recognize Tyler Somers or any of these so-called ministers.”
“What do you mean?” Ash asked, stunned.
“The Prophet Michael’s message, when he was alive, was about kindness and charity. About leading a good life of service. He lived his life as an example for all of us. That was why we all lived in a Mission in New Mexico. We didn’t have cars or houses or even clothes that we called our own. We worked hard all the time, giving to the community, to people who needed help. We lived through years of suffering before the right time came.” She paused and let her gaze sweep over the crowd. “This group is very different. The leaders who have assumed power by using my father’s name are very different.”
Kelly noticed that quite few of those sitting in the benches were being distracted by her continuous movement behind them.
“The only thing these people know is comfort,” she continued softly. “This gibberish that Tyler Somers has been preaching about the stars and ‘our’ time is false. My father, the Prophet Michael, has told me that these believers have not yet paid their dues. They have not served others. And they’re being duped.”
Everyone around her was looking at her wide-eyed.
“What does the Prophet say about what’s going to happen to us…to them?” Ash asked, a quiver of nervousness in her voice.
“He says, let them kill themselves. But that’s the extent of it. This is not the time of Rapture, and taking one’s life prematurely is a sin. Those who die today will all descend into the fiery lake. The bodies of those who die today will be eaten by worms. Dust to dust. But no curtain shall lift, Ash. No doors will open. No divine world will be revealed to those who die today.” Kelly spoke as passionately as she could. “The Prophet says that there is no one in this group, not even me, worthy to cross the same threshold that he and his disciples passed over, twenty-two years ago.”
Ash stopped, looking at her in a daze, as if she’d just been awakened from a deep sleep. “You know this, but you’re here.”
Kelly stopped, as did the others with them. “Cassy can explain it to you better than I can. But I will tell you this…I wasn’t given any choice about being here.”
The teenager’s face was crimson now. She didn’t look anywhere but at the tips of her sneakers. Even Ryan had lost some of that star-struck look. He was glancing over the robed congregation at the stage with a healthy look of fear on his face.
Kelly saw Ken lower his camera and look with concern at their group. He knew something wasn’t right. The others staring back at them from the benches saw the same thing.
“Ken is not drinking from the font tonight, but I’m supposed to.” Ash’s voice was very tense. “I’m going to get out of here.”
“They won’t let you,” Cassy said under her breath. “They have guns. The security guys have orders to kill anyone who changes his or her mind during these last hours of devotions. I heard Caleb tell the others.”
Ryan moved close to Kelly’s side. She put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. Ash twisted her fingers together.
“What can we do?” the model asked, looking wary as her boyfriend approached.
“Stay with me. Do what I say,” Kelly told them, turning away from the photographer. She started moving along the backs of the benches again.
She’d succeeded in partially clearing three people’s heads. Only a couple hundred more to go.
Chapter 23
Ian decided to take a quick walk through the cellar before leaving the inn. It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. The red robe was about six inches too short, but he didn’t think it would matter.
Now Ian moved as quickly as he could through the woods. The dense undergrowth offered the best cover. He had to get to the camp unseen. Reaching the outskirts, he donned his robe.
The traffic of red-robed believers going in and out of the portable toilets was light. Two younger men, standing at one end of the row, appeared to be the watchdogs.
No guns were evident, though they could have easily been armed beneath their red robes. Ian crawled as close as he could and waited until the opening and closing of the doors gave him his best chance. Pushing to his feet, he walked around the far end of the line and inside one of the toilets.
Looking out through the slatted air vents, he waited to make his next move. He certainly couldn’t see much of the camp from here.
The doors of one of the adjacent toilets banged closed as a man walked out, and Ian opened the door and followed him toward the camp’s center. He could hear a preacher, now haranguing the congregation through the public address system.
As Ian came within sight of the stage, he saw a white-robed man at the microphone. The pale, older speaker was the source of the fire-and-brimstone sermon. Perhaps it was illness that had aged him, but he looked far older than the pictures Ian had seen of him. Still, he had no doubt he was looking at Tyler Somers.
Ian’s gaze swept across everyone else on stage. There was no sign of Kelly. When he reached the end of the back benches, he saw her. She was dressed in a white robe…like Somers. Jade was in her arms. He looked at the people who were walking with her. There were others watching her, too, from the area between the benches and the long cabins beyond, and from the congregation itself. She was certainly a fine distraction, he thought.
Glancing up at the stage, Ian saw that some of the ministers were looking at her with annoyance. Somers himself was engrossed in the theatrics of his delivery—he was obviously winding up for a big finish—and didn’t seem to be aware of her. Caleb was on the stage, as well. Ian moved toward the cluster of cabins near where Kelly was. There were small groups of people, some of them families, who were sitting at picnic benches with untouched food in front of them.
Just as Ian looked back toward the stage, someone took hold of his arm and began to steer him toward the first cabin. Ian looked into the wrinkled face of the old man at his elbow.
“Hello, Bill.”
“You don’t want to be running into him right now.”
Ian glanced in the direction that Bill was looking and saw Wilson Blade. The cook stood up from the last row of benches and turned toward them.
“I don’t think he’s seen you, yet. Let’s just keep wa
lking, Mr. Campbell,” Bill said, using his body to shield Ian as much as possible. He nodded to a cabin away from the center. “That’s an empty one, right there.”
“Whatever you say.” Ian moved along, hunching his shoulders and keeping his head down.
Behind them, Somers wound up his sermon to some “Amens” and murmuring in the crowd. A keyboard started in on some country folk-type tune, but Ian wasn’t interested. They moved together, like two old friends, past the front cabins and went directly to the empty one.
Bill opened the door, poked his head in first before motioning to Ian to go in.
“Did he see me?”
“He’s looking this way. But I don’t think he recognized you.” Bill walked in behind him.
The room was small and appeared to be used only for storage, as there were piles of boxes stacked in one corner.
“Not a good day to be hanging around the camp.” Bill said casually, peering out the single window in the direction they’d come.
“We don’t have much time. Can you get me close to Kelly?”
“Do you work with Dan?”
Ian considered the question. Bill could have blown the whistle on him as soon as he spotted him, but he hadn’t. Now that he thought about it, it only made sense for Dan to have a mole in Somers’s organization.
“Dan’s dead. They cut his throat and left him on his cot back at the inn. I found him there this morning.”
Bill looked down, visibly shaken.
“I…he was supposed to meet me here last night. He never showed up.” The old man shook his head. “He was little more than a kid. I can’t believe they killed him.”
“He’s not the first, though I’m glad to hear you say that.”
Ian looked into the man’s wrinkled face. “How long have you two been working together?”
“Only since Dan came up this spring. But I’ve been passing information to his people since before Kelly moved here.”
“So you were never a member of Butler’s Mission?”
“I wish I could say that.” He turned toward the window again. “All that religious mumbo-jumbo has never meant much to me, but for more years than I care to admit, I just did whatever Janice wanted me to. She believes in that stuff—hook, line and sinker—so I just went along, for better or for worse. But all that changed when this Somers fella decided to get rid of Frank…and then Rose. Frank and I had become pretty good friends. He never knew that Rose was one of them. She was the reason they got Kelly to begin with and also the reason they bought the inn from Josh Sharpe. It was all part of the plan, but there’s not a shred of loyalty among these people.”